TofueToffee

Agreed. I think we can also make conjectures based on his choice of career. To me it was unexpected but imagining all he went through, the guilt and as the only man of the family left despite his age, his ailing grandmother and heartbroken mother; he also suffered like HT and many others following the tragedy.

No, I get it. It all depends on how much I like a drama that I'm willing to look deeper at it. Otherwise I have done my share of shallow ranting. 😄 This drama does have its writing flaws too.

Death was always in the writer's plan and important to the message the writer wanted to send. Otherwise, writing a romance during this tragedy is just another romance. In fact, showing the skeleton found after 41 years of searching at the start of episode 1 and then following it to the conclusion of Myung Hee's mundane abrupt lonely death and Hee Tae surviving finding the strength to live on is made very clear, and the writer didn't stray from making that point. Here's what I grabbed from twitter: " According to Lee Kang writernim, the main message of #YouthOfMay are the prayer of Myunghee + Heetae's letter. We will sincerely support and pray for many Heetae(s) out there who are still living against the tide to always continue to swim." cr. @blueskypallete

It was stated in an earlier episode in a scene with the father in Naju before he made the trip, couldn't be reached by phone. Media and information was basically not getting through, not only a physical blockade.

I thought the brother's actions are pretty consistent with his personality and age. He jumps in without thinking. Very naive even after his first hand experience with soldiers shooting civilians. Even when MH asked to walk him to his base camp in earlier episodes be declined believing himself to be old enough. With the added trauma and lack of sleep and without MH to give advice at that moment, the brother's recklessness is pretty much set in place.

The drama explain his actions, but no redemption. This isn't a typical romance drama and romantic Male Lead. Easier to go into this drama with the perspective, What if a villain falls in love with the heroine? The conclusion writes itself.

A drama where a large section of the plot pretends to center around the female lead, but upon closer inspection everything that happens centers around the male lead. The repetition to drive home the point of his suffering yet superior quality becomes excessive. Male lead falls into the ideal perfect category so I found him an utterly uninteresting character as everyone else was very flawed in one way or another - the imbalance becomes ridiculous. However, this can be appealing to many and a plus. As a viewer who watched on for the female lead and her power, it was disappointing.

A good drama, but writing could have been better. Superb acting by both leads, great costumes and CGI elevated the story.

He was pretty big, a 'legend' as the reporter and anyone who actually knew him stated. Also, I think he played abroad (Lu Xia grew up abroad, part of it was during his father's professional career) so there's much more $ there to earn too. If I remember correctly, the father was regarded as a brilliant player during his career but instead of keeping the momentum he retired during his heyday and went silent, that's why people were surprised. In Ep 8 when Lu Xia accompanied the fl to the shop to get the strings of her racket fixed, the uncle was playing one of the father's games and spoke a little about his peak career and setting an unbreakable record of a winning streak.

Edit: My personal take whenever someone mentions that the father retired "early" wasn't that he was early in his career, but that he still had more left in him to show, but he retired at his peak.

He's a former famous professional tennis player so there must be a lot of $ left from his glory days. Different from the anime, in the drama when the reporter followed Lu Xia home in Ep 4 and found the father, he mentioned something about running a homestay in their current residence (although we don't ever see patrons so we don't know if the business is good).

Yes. It follows the anime and got the vibe of it right. I would suggest just having fun with viewing and don't take it too seriously as a sports/slice of life show.

Take this with a grain of salt and I will delete if necessary. Yes, they are similar and Chinese netizens noticed as well, pinning it on the writer Yu Zheng copying from GMP and other sources (he's plagiarized before). Apparently he overhauled the original UL novel. Fans of both novels were not happy. And from some reviews, it seems he didn't do a good job of throwing in a plot and smoothing it over.

My take

1) Protecting XF. Throwing the Empress and Gao Clan off XF's back. (He also tried with Sese so she wouldn't target XF with jealousy, but she saw through him.) LCY knew his mother and her uncle had spies in his palace and around, thus he always made sure when he berated or argued with XF it was loud and clear in the open and could get the gossips talking -- portraying that XF did not have his favor and wasn't much use as a pawn. Thus the Empress latched onto bullying Sese, who LCY deliberately made everyone believe was his weakness. Also using the spies and gossip to his advantage, when rumors of XF and General Pei went around, he went to sleep in XF's quarters and made sure it was known.

2) Butting heads with XF. Prior to XF finding out about his involvement in the war against the Danchi and then refusing to marry LCY, he wasn't so harsh with XF. They innocently and ignorantly were friends and falling for each other. When he became crown prince, he even approached her and stated that he'd take care of the complicated matters in their marriage, asking for her to stay despite both of them knowing it was a political marriage and she had no say in the matter but he wanted her approval. Once she learned about his actions against the Danchi and "hated" him, his attitude towards their marriage had to be changed because she no longer reciprocated. He encouraged her anger towards him to fuel the rumors because honestly, he couldn't change her mind about him anyway.

Ruined by inconsistency and protagonist plot armor.

The leads learned absolutely nothing and are the epitome of frustrating to the very end.

I think there's a concept that ML's (especially in dramas that are tagged romance among other tags) can only be "heroes". Rather, this drama would best be marketed as Female Lead falls for the "villain". Male Lead is essentially a dark character in this story. His story arc is one of revenge, and not the good kind. I view him more of an anti-hero than outright evil.

That's why the ending, while deemed a tragedy, is also deemed very fitting by many fans.

If you're interested in watching a story of a pure individual's heartbreaking bond with an anti-hero, and the appropriate end for that, this is that kind of story. It's different from most romances.

The King's Woman
https://kisskh.at/22292-the-kings-woman

Scarlet Heart
https://kisskh.at/2969-scarlet-heart

Honestly I do cringe at some of the director's choices, like the spinning part. Although it did not come across well, the directional choice may be an interpretation of ML's brash actions (whether it can be viewed as romantic or not); that despite coming thus far for his betrayal and ambition, ML was reckless and contradictory, willing to potentially throw his life away with FL. (Jumping into the forgetful river didn't guarantee amnesia, and the highest probability was death.) ML was calculating but when he isn't given the ample time to plan ahead, his reactions regarding FL were often contrary to his goals.

Thanks for your input as well.

Because its not purely a romance. Its a story about revenge, betrayal, politics which of course did not mix well with love, as shown. In fact, you got it right - the relationship was toxic, it was supposed to be toxic, thus the consequences and ending. Not only the set and the costumes, the acting from every actor especially the main leads were fantastic. I understand if someone watched this drama expecting a focus on romance and was shocked at there being actual plot, but everyone's rating has a different criteria that sometimes isn't just based on the loveline or a happy ending.

A lot of things happen to her character. She doesn't necessarily "grow up" in a way, but changes somewhat.

I'll send you a link.

It's available on viki.

Major spoiler - not canon, but there is a back to the future "reunion" scene unlike the korean version and also a modern world sequel.