DramaHeroine

I dropped this before the last two eps, because I had lost all desire to finish it. Then I remembered it over the weekend this weekend and felt a craving to go ahead and finish it. And now I'm reading all of the comments talking about how terrible the ending is, and I don't think I want to finish it anymore.

Sometimes life, or a drama, takes you on a journey, lol.

This. Exactly this. I haven't watched the last two eps, but I couldn't stand the whole part with Gyeom's accident. It was an unrequited, disappointed Crush. A Crush! But the writers turned it this heartbreaking, life-altering event that it did not deserve to be, and I didn't understand that at all. I just kept thinking 'Why isn't the tenant coming back? Wasn't that important? Why are we over-dramatizing this young mans feelings instead?'

I haven't watched the last two episodes, but I would agree with this assessment. There's nothing all that compelling here, but if you enjoy the tropes it employs, then you'll enjoy this drama.

I love this movie. It portrays that awkwardness and insecurity of being young so incredibly well, which I credit most of to the actors. Their portrayals are pretty spot on. Obviously, the story isn't realistic in places, but the characters really make it work. And I'm saying this as someone who watched it for the first time as an adult. It's one of my favorite youth-centered films.

I love this movie, but the ending really doesn't work, in my opinion.

Further thoughts: If I make it into the hall of fate, get to pick up my own book, Write In It, and no one's stopping me? I'm writing my happy ending and looking up at the ceiling at the same time like 'This is your own fault for not locking the door.'

I would say ep. 8 is definitely the strongest ep. of the series. I enjoyed the series as a whole, but 8 does some really great things writing-wise.

Gonna write a full review later, but I just finished the drama and wanted to verbal-diarrhea my thoughts somewhere while they are fresh. Overall, this was a really enjoyable watch. It stayed very light-hearted and fluffy and not particularly heavy or deep most of it's run, which worked really well because the story does each of those things really well without feeling like it lacks substance. But then the drama surprises you in the last few eps with some genuine depth and amazing plot development and a very good talent at making you feel all the feels. And booooy did I feel all the feels. I particularly love the twist in the stories magic system/fate logic that the one who is fated is able to change the fate in their book, as it creates a very interesting dichotomy between the role of the gods of destiny (and who/whatever is behind them), and the people whose fates are being written. I thought this was fascinating and very well-executed. My one quibble would be the ending. Chae Kyung could have written in her book that they got to be together and let that be that. There's no specified rule that says she Can't do this, especially if Ba Reum can decide he doesn't need a god of destiny anymore at all, so why wouldn't she do this? It begs the question. Why you would choose to have the same heartbreak repeated endlessly throughout your life ultimately causing yourself endless pain when you have the option to simply...not do that? That's not romantic. That's self-mutilation. But I'm creative enough to make up my own head cannon, and I enjoyed the rest of this drama more than enough to not let the ending ruin it for me, so I'm choosing my own fate and saying they end up together and happy and creating lots and lots of ridiculous (and ridiculously entertaining) soapy dramas till their dying days. The end.

Well, everyone else seems to be happy about the trajectory of this drama, but it's turned into somewhat of a mixed bag for me. After Ja Sung was so incredibly mean ep 4, I was somewhat anxious to go into ep 5 and 6. But then I saw all the happy reactions to the episodes and thought 'his behavior must have improved.' Sadly, it both improved and didn't improve. I know it was supposed to come off as him slowly recognizing his feelings/fighting them off, but it just felt like wild mood swings to me. One minute he liked her and was being genuinely nice to her, the next minute he couldn't stand her and was being unnecessarily mean. Granted, his behavior wasn't as bad as it was in ep 4, but it wasn't entirely innocuous either. I'm not giving up on this drama, but here's hoping next week Young Won tells him off a little bit, and it knocks some sense into him.

So I'm a little confused. I've never watched a Xianxia or Wuxia before this drama, so I don't know much about the rules of each genre, but I assumed the storyline of Ashes was taking place over a semi-quick timeframe. I'm on ep 15, and the female lead just mentioned something about training with the male lead for one hundred years (when she was disguised as a man)? Am I supposed to be watching this with the understanding that the events are taking place over a long span of time, or was my original assumption right?

I mean, I should have expected it considering how many Kdramas I've watched over the last ten years, but it still made my heart sad, lol.

I really liked the male lead in the first three eps. His behavior was benign enough that I could enjoy him as a character and be excited for his eventual pairing with the female lead. But he was downright mean and petty in ep 4, and I really don't want that behavior to continue. (I mean, imagine being so Conceited! and Incensed! that someone would commit the Cardinal Sin of 'mistakenly' thinking you might like them.) I'm not bothered by male leads who start off jerks but grow over the course of the story. I know a lot of people hate that trope, but I enjoy it when it's well-done. But knowing Kdramas the way I do, his intensified attitude/behavior does make me cautious. The story probably won't get too bad since this is a newer drama, but I do hope ep 4 is the worst of it and we see some growth from the male lead starting soon.

The kiss wasn't real! NOOOOOOO!!!!! What are you doing to me, drama gods????????

So I sat down this evening to start ep 15 and realized I don't feel like finishing this drama, so I may have to eat my words a bit from my last comment. Ep. 15 started kind of the way you predicted, and I found myself uninterested in watching it. Like I had zero interest in the story or characters whatsoever. I still think this drama is enjoyable enough if you turn off the critical side of your brain and just let the story do what it wants, but I can't muster up the will or desire to do so anymore. I don't know if it's because I've gotten all of the enjoyment out of the drama that I can and I'm ready to move on to something else, or maybe because ep 14 has finally set in and I feel a lot more aware of the dramas flaws now, and that's ruining my viewing experience. (My currently watching-list has also gotten a lot longer than I really like it to be, so I think my brain is screaming 'PLEASE DROP SOMETHING FOR THE SAKE OF MY SANITY!', and this drama isn't exactly at the top of my list of favorite/best things I'm watching right now, so it's the one my brain has decided has to go.) But I think I do agree with your critiques more after pondering over them. I don't think this drama is good enough to really be bothered over any of it, but it's also not good enough to force myself to keep watching if I'm not getting anything out of the experience either. I know enough about the last two episodes to know how the drama ends, and I think that's good enough for me.

Ugh, I want more episodes of this NAOW, lol.

They are surprisingly pretty good together. I wasn't sure how good their chemistry would be before starting, but I'm really liking their dynamic so far.

I don't think it's her imagination, because it seems like he's going to start falling first, but I think it's possible it's not going to happen in the next episode. It might be a bait and switch by the production team to keep people watching, cause they're waiting for the kiss, lol.

This....is too cute. Guess I'm adding another drama to my currently watching list, lol.

Sorry for the book, lol.

Oh, I'm in full agreement that the drama mishandled his character. They did very little to make us feel sympathy for him, and now they're having to scramble to create it in the final hour. That's poor writing. I'm just saying that him possibly deciding that he needs to get help would actually be a form of redemption (at least in my eyes), because it means he recognizes there is a problem that needs to be addressed, and he's taking the steps to do so. It's not an all-encompassing, now he is fully redeemed, redemption, but more of a gradual kind of redemption. I actually just finished ep 14, and my feelings on it are mixed. I don't think his moment with Hoo Joon was at all earned, and I don't think it served the story. With In Hyung, I'm leaning both ways. The accident might not have been necessary, but it still hit me in the gut when it happened. I also liked the moment leading up to it. It felt like In Hyung was finally saying the things that Jae Joon needed to hear to finally get it. And I don't agree with the general sentiment that her walking out into traffic like she did was just undoing everything that came before with her character. Sometimes you work hard to pull yourself out of something only for everything to fall apart again, and it feels like it doesn't matter what you do or how much progress you make, because something's always going to be there waiting to pull you back down. That's kind of the impression I got from that choice, and I think it made sense for her character. I think the problem is that, again, Jae Joon hadn't earned the moment of clarity the accident has most likely given him, so it makes the entire moment feel off. Jae Joon's convo's with Guenyoung though are something I think he actually earned. For me, Jaejoon was an actual character when he was with Geunyoung and a caricature the rest of the time. He had an obvious dislike for Hoo Joon, but it wasn't all there was to his character, and you saw that when he and Geunyoung were together. He had an actual personality and could actually be (gasp!) likable, lol. (Or maybe that was just for me.) Both of their conversations in ep 14 felt authentic to me, because their interactions leading up to them had felt authentic. I do agree with you that his character hasn't earned the traditional drama redemption arc. But I don't know if it would really bother me if he were to get it. I started this drama with the attitude of I know this isn't going to be some stunning piece of cinema, and I'm just going to let it take me wherever it chooses to go. And if that's where it wants to go, then I guess I'll go there, lol.