DramaHeroine

Ah! I said Su Mi when I meant Seon Yeong, lol.

To me, it looks like Min Woo is going to be faced with a decision in the coming eps, to drive Young Woo out or finally come to his senses and realize just how terrible of a person he's been to her. I think it's a turning point for his character, because whatever he does after this, he won't just come back from it. We'll have to see what he decides.

I don't think Seon Young is a bad person at all. I think people watched Young Woo's father confront her, and she didn't tell him he had the wrong end of the stick, so everyone ran with it and decided it meant that his accusation was right. But she was clearly offended he would think her willing to do something like that, probably hurt enough to throw the accusation back at him like 'how could you think that of me?' A lot of people respond that way when they've been hurt by another person's accusation. It's a common response to shock.

Edit: I said Su Mi instead of Seon Young by mistake. Fixed it, lol.

I'm not sure that this drama choosing to write a male love interest who is already supportive and understanding of the female leads autism is the same thing as the drama saying that an 'average' guy couldn't date someone with autism.

Personally, I think it's always helpful for those of us who don't have disabilities to see examples of how to best support someone who does. Of course, we want to be truthful and show that some people aren't willing to do so and others make a lot of mistakes in trying to do so, but stories that lift up characters that are doing it right set an example for others, and I think that's a good thing.

I also think that if Jun Ho hadn't been so supportive from the get-go, we would probably be getting opposite criticisms of his character, that he's not caring enough about her needs, that he isn't making enough effort, etc.

I hadn't thought about that, but I bet mixed in with his shock might be some hurt that his daughter would let someone else be affectionate with her but not let her dad. Two different kinds of affection, obviously, but romantic affection tends to be more intense than familial, so that could add to the hurt as well.

I commented this above, but I think Min Woo's character is officially at the crossroads of his character arc. That means there's still a chance he could pull back, but it also means that if he decides to go for it and play this game, he probably can't come back from it.

Looks like Min Woo is going to be faced with the decision to drive Young Woo out or finally come to his senses and realize just how terrible of a person he's been to her.

Definitely don't think he expected that response from Young Woo's mom.

This is definitely going to be the turning point for his character. Whatever choice he makes after this won't be one he can just come back from.

I'm just tired of the narrative that nice is bad. I want to be nice. I want other people to be nice. What's so wrong with being nice?

I'm not sure if he will initially, but I think he's definitely going to get there.

I think it's so easy to hate the mean characters, because duh! They're mean. But this isn't like an old-school drama where the second female lead is just pure evil and fun to hate. We're supposed to be engaging with Tae Su Mi character on a more human level than we would have those evil second female leads. And yeah, we don't have even close to the full story of what happened back then, so we have no way of knowing her true feelings or motivations. But again, I think we all like hating the bad guys. There's a sort of satisfaction in it. 'I would never act that way. I would never be like that. What an awful human.' It's a very knee jerk reaction that most of us have never even noticed that we do. I'm personally open to her being a more complex character, and I think that's probably what's going to happen, but I think a lot of other viewers are probably not ready for that, because they've made their determinations about her already.

I have a problem with the argument that calling someone cute is infantilizing, because cute is a broad word and can mean a lot of different things to different people. It can mean cute like a baby or like a puppy or cute because of innocence, but it can also mean physically attractive or appealing (I've often referred to guys I find attractive as cute, and I'm not thinking of them as children when I do), and it can mean something that gives you a happy, good feeling. It's very common for people to describe romantic gestures and romantic moments and romantic couples in dramas as cute. Some dramas I've seen described this way are Weightlifting Fairy, Shopping King Louie, We Married as a Job, Oh My Ghost, Boku Unmei no Hito desu. All of these romances are sweet and innocent and give you a warm, fuzzy feeling, and some people, including me, enjoy romances like that. Extraordinary Attorney Woo definitely fits with these dramas in the sweetness of its romance.

Furthermore, all of the different uses of cute are specific to the context they've been used in, and they're even more specific based on the person whose saying it, because each person brings their own feelings with them when talking about dramas. I, myself, think Jun Ho and Young Woo's kiss was the epitome of cute down to the tiniest detail. Their interactions, the way the scene was framed, the way they used the hall light to great effect, and yes, because of her innocence and awkwardness plus his gentleness with her because he wants to respect her boundaries and her lack of experience. (But he's also not totally passive either because he really wants to kiss her, lol. And even that, his desire to kiss her, is cute.) I get gigglies watching them interact with each other, those warm, fuzzy pleasant feelings when you're watching a couple's romance begin to blossom. When it comes to romance, that's my definition of cute, and that's generally what I mean when using the word. So I think their romance is a very good example of cute, and I totally get why other people are using that word to describe it.

Interesting. I'm not sure we can call that confirmation that she had no feelings for Young Woo's father. Seon Yeong said it was a time when Tae Su Mi 'wasn't being Tae Su Mi.' To me, that still leaves the possibility that she really did like Young Woo's father but didn't love him enough to stay or maybe she was under intense pressure from her family to live a certain kind of life and didn't have the strength to say no. We're not getting enough information about what actually happened back then to know for sure.

What deleted scene? Can you link to it? I'd like to see.

I think it's possible, more than anything, that she might be running from her own shame. I don't think she would have cried like she did after finding out who Young Woo is if there weren't some level of guilt or pain associated with her decision to leave her child. If it really were just fear at people finding out and everything falling apart, she would have been stunned in that moment, for sure, probably even angry, but I doubt she would have cried. The tears suggest regret. Without regret, the tears don't make sense.

So I agree that since finding out who Young Woo is, mom has made conscious choices to put herself in contact with them when she didn't have to, and if she doesn't want anyone to know their connection to each other, she should just not come in contact with them again. But I don't think we can count any of their interactions before she knew who Young Woo was as a conscious choice to interact with her daughter. She thought Young Woo was just an attorney from a rival firm, not her own child. She can't very well go back in time and not talk to Young Woo, and it was perfectly normal for her to do so in the context of those interactions.

The problem is everything she's done since finding out.

He started making jokes, and I knew that date was done, lol. Poor thing. He seems like a great guy, but puns were probably not the way to go. It's fine though, cause now I'm forecasting him and the FL's best friend ending up together.

I have neither. So I have nothing to distract me from the fact that I have 5 days to wait for next weeks eps, lol.

This is too accurate, lol.

Someone actually commented down below a quote from the scriptwriter in an interview that makes everything make sense. I'll copy it here:

https://www.tatlerasia.com/culture/entertainment/korean-screenwriter-chung-seo-kyung-interview

"You mentioned you’re working on a new TV project. Can you tell us more about that?

Yes, I’m working with the director of Vincenzo for a Korean adaptation of Little Women. The leading actresses are Kim Go-eun and Nam Ji-hyun while the male lead is Hwi Ha-joon from Squid Game. I actually read the book, Little Women when I was young and I really loved it.

Recently, I had the chance to read it again when working on this drama and I find that it’s a bit boring and not interesting anymore. The sisters are too nice in the books and I don’t think young people are really like that these days. The Korean adaptation isn’t going to be exactly like the book, some things will remain the same like of course, there will three sisters and their personalities will remain more or else the same."

It hasn't been obvious to me. Aside from the synopsis being different, I hadn't been seeing much else out there about this drama that signaled to potential viewers whether it would or would not be a true adaptation, but it says below the synopsis that it is an adaptation, and that inherently comes with expectations. Personally, I think if you're going to say that a story is based on or adapted from something else, it should actually be based on or adapted from that thing, not just take bits and pieces the writer likes and throw out everything else, so I think my point stands that they can just create their own story. That may not be how others feel about it, but it is how I feel.

I think it's hard to decide based on the information we were given. Sometimes it's difficult to parse through people's feelings and perceptions and get to the truth of a situation, even without the complication of disabilities like Autism being involved, and I think this is one of those types of situations. The young woman's relationship with her mother is obviously complicated, and her mother is almost certainly using her fear as an excuse for directing her daughter's life to some extent. But there's also a strong possibility that the young man really was taking advantage of the young woman and didn't truly love her. And then we have to factor in how the young woman feels and wants, and maybe she is allowed to make bad decisions, no matter how much any of us might wish we could stop her from doing so. It's just a complicated problem that doesn't have a simple answer.

I think presenting the case in this way was probably an intentional decision on the part of the writers, using it as a way of making the viewer think more critically about this sort of thing as well as to draw a parallel to Young Woo and her own difficulties with being seen as a fully-fledged human being with her own legitimate thoughts and desires and agency.

For me, this episode made me want to be more careful in how I analyze other people and their choices. Even if I believe their choices are wrong.