This review may contain spoilers
Hibernating King Claims His Crown
This is a super fluffy, cutesy (at times cringey), easy watch for when you’re not in the mood for something heavy or that requires a lot of brainpower. I liked what I read in the synopsis for it as I find snowboarding enjoyable to watch, plus I enjoy both the lead actors so I was excited to watch this as it aired. And while it didn’t quite meet my expectations, I still found it entertaining & liked it for the most part. {{And let me say right away that I know nothing about the validity of the snowboarding aspect. I don’t participate in the sport myself nor have any knowledge of its different “styles” or whatnot.}}
I found our Leads to be really cute together. Their relationship progressed much faster than I expected but I heard the drama got like 10-15eps cut off so it then made sense to me why things moved at the rate they did. And it’s not that they became a couple right away, I was just surprised at how early they claimed one another without making it official. It didn’t at all bother me, though, since I actually prefer when they get together early on so we get lots of eps with them as a couple. 😉
The ML was once a top competitor in professional snowboarding, but an injury caused his early retirement. He could’ve continued competing, but his parents were terrified of another tragedy happening to him like it did to his younger sister, so to ease their worries he chose to retire. He can’t fully let go of his passion, though, so he travels between different cities as a local coach with his fellow boarders & friends. His experience & talents make him almost god-like on the slopes, earning him a well deserved reputation as the best. He appears content & adjusted to his new life, but he secretly still dreams of participating in the Olympics one day.
And while he’s going through the motions from day-to-day, a girl crashes into his world, lighting up his life & reigniting his passion…
There’s an incident that causes the ML to be a bit “cold” towards the FL initially, but he’s still extremely protective of her, which I really enjoyed. His words were saying one thing, but his actions were saying another. Rest assured, he’s never cruel to her, he just picks on her & teases her a lot, but never maliciously. He has a crush on her from moment one, so despite his plans to make things a bit rough on her, he never fully follows through since he cares about her.
For the FL’s part, she has no idea that her new snowboarding coach is her idol & the inspiration for her latest comic idea, so there’s a little bit of that hidden identity trope if you’re a a fan of that. I don’t usually like it, but this one got cleared up fairly quickly so I didn’t mind. She’s a very optimistic, bubbly, friendly girl who just wants to be allowed to chase her dream & live her life how she wants. Only her best friend knows the pain her smile hides. Despite her parents’ disapproval & lack of support, she remains dedicated to following her own path. When a scandal breaks out & she’s framed, resulting in the loss of her pen name & job, she’s disheartened & unsure what to do next. Then she sees a clip of a snowboarder performing incredible tricks & she’s encouraged to keep moving forward. To do that, she books a trip to the slopes to gather material for her new comic. Unknowingly putting herself on a path to meet a man who’s going to change her life in so many ways…
Like I said, I think this duo is super cute together. Their interactions were both comical & endearing. I smiled a lot at their antics, from their initial trading of sarcastic comments to their mutual attraction & flirtations. They have a lot of funny & memorable scenes throughout the whole drama. Some of my favs are:
- The switch from the green turtle to pink. IYKYK. 🐢
- Him being her “uber” down the slopes. Their positions, her sheer joy, his continued glances to check on her… 🫠
- The whole hospital scene: her expressions, him cradling her head, the adorable piggyback ride 🫶🏻
- Unexpectedly meeting at his home. The surprise that quickly turns to delight. 💖
- The landslide & all that followed. Her frantic search, their relieved hug, their mutual care & support. ✅
- The confession. Their happiness was so believable & I couldn’t stop grinning. And the kiss!! 💋
- Their first meeting after the breakup. I was so happy to finally have them back on the screen together again! 🙌🏻
- The make up scene. The apologies. Choosing to face the obstacles together. Him trusting that who he was, right then, was already good enough for her. ❤️🩹
-Their mutual successes. Their hard work being recognized & rewarded. Their efforts paying off & their pure joy at accomplishing their dreams. 🏆
- The whole proposal fiasco. Oh my goodness, the poor man was trying so hard & it was not going well!! But then it finally happened & wow - it was beautiful & so perfect for them! 💕
Since I mentioned their breakup in that list let me just say that those episodes are where the show took a drop for me. Not simply because of the breakup, though I always prefer my couples to not do that, but because it felt so out of character for the ML to make that choice. And while I do sorta understand where he was coming from, I don’t understand why they had to officially break up. They weren’t talking about marriage right then anyways, so why couldn’t he continue to prove himself to her parents while staying by her side, ya know? The breakup just didn’t make sense.
And speaking of her parents - ick. I did NOT like her mother. What a controlling & judgmental woman. The dad was initially fine, but once he decided to confront the ML alone he was on my “dislike” list. Yes, their actions are all explained later & “reasoned away” but, for me personally, they never redeemed themselves enough after the way they initially looked down on the ML. Just… no.
As for the support cast:
- the ML’s fellow snowboarders are aces. I liked all of them. I appreciated that there were no love rivals in the bunch, just supportive friends who always had the ML’s (& FL’s by association) back.
- the FL’s colleagues. I liked the ones who were loyal, but I do not at all understand the welcoming back of the one who betrayed them. I understand she was in a difficult position, but guess what - so were the others. She’s the only one who made horrible choices. I’m okay with them forgiving her, but for them to trust her so fully & quickly again? Seemed a bit unrealistic to me.
- The FL’s bestie. I had mixed feelings about her. I liked her relationship with the FL, but her personality outside of that was a bit off putting. Especially the way she treated the ML’s friend. She was very dismissive of his feelings after their fling (that he didn’t realize was just a fling) which was very unattractive to me.
- The male love rival. Whoa was he super annoying at first. I’ve said it before & I know I’ll say it again, but seriously - are people really that delulu?? FL was so obviously not interested in him & he was so incredibly obtuse to her rejections. BUT he totally endeared himself to me in the way he handled finding out about the FL & ML. He didn’t rant or try to sabotage them, but rather went off by himself to grieve. When he returned, he was kind & supportive, accepting the ML’s position as her boyfriend & vowing that he’d only see the FL as a little sister from then on. So while I initially found him completely dislikable, in the end he was a welcome member to the friends group.
- The ML’s sister. Utterly adorable & inspiring. Despite the tragedy she endured, she remained an optimistic & happy girl. And her relationship with the ML’s old teammate was so cute. On the one hand that guy was irritating because of his constant attempts to beat the ML, but on the other hand he was absolutely precious in his interactions with his girlfriend.
So my enjoyment dropped due to the breakup drama, overall I did really enjoy this drama. I know I’ll rewatch it again & simply skip those painful episodes.
I’ll finish my review with this since I know there’s been a lot of haters - if you don’t like the FL actresses voice or when she acts cutesy/“babyish”, then just skip this drama. Don’t watch it just to hate on her. 1) she’s doing her job. 2) it’s not our place to call her fake since we only know her virtually. And 3) most importantly, she’s a human with feelings so hearing/reading malicious comments must hurt her just like it does the rest of us.
While I’m saying this specifically about Esther Yu right now, it applies to all celebrities. Why do we build these stars up just to watch them burn out? Must we raise them so high just to tear them down? One would think, aafter all the tragic suic!des, we’d learn to stop being so cruel…
Sorry, but I find it sad when viewers share harsh opinions with no care as to how it affects the actors/actresses. 😔
_________\\__________//________
-⬇️ S P O I L E R S 🚫 B E L O W ⬇️-
.
…
….
……
The things I always want to know 😏😉…
- First(real)Kiss : ep.13💋
- Together : ep.13 👩🏻❤️👨🏻
- BreakUp : ep.17 💔
- BackTogether : ep.22❤️🩹
I found our Leads to be really cute together. Their relationship progressed much faster than I expected but I heard the drama got like 10-15eps cut off so it then made sense to me why things moved at the rate they did. And it’s not that they became a couple right away, I was just surprised at how early they claimed one another without making it official. It didn’t at all bother me, though, since I actually prefer when they get together early on so we get lots of eps with them as a couple. 😉
The ML was once a top competitor in professional snowboarding, but an injury caused his early retirement. He could’ve continued competing, but his parents were terrified of another tragedy happening to him like it did to his younger sister, so to ease their worries he chose to retire. He can’t fully let go of his passion, though, so he travels between different cities as a local coach with his fellow boarders & friends. His experience & talents make him almost god-like on the slopes, earning him a well deserved reputation as the best. He appears content & adjusted to his new life, but he secretly still dreams of participating in the Olympics one day.
And while he’s going through the motions from day-to-day, a girl crashes into his world, lighting up his life & reigniting his passion…
There’s an incident that causes the ML to be a bit “cold” towards the FL initially, but he’s still extremely protective of her, which I really enjoyed. His words were saying one thing, but his actions were saying another. Rest assured, he’s never cruel to her, he just picks on her & teases her a lot, but never maliciously. He has a crush on her from moment one, so despite his plans to make things a bit rough on her, he never fully follows through since he cares about her.
For the FL’s part, she has no idea that her new snowboarding coach is her idol & the inspiration for her latest comic idea, so there’s a little bit of that hidden identity trope if you’re a a fan of that. I don’t usually like it, but this one got cleared up fairly quickly so I didn’t mind. She’s a very optimistic, bubbly, friendly girl who just wants to be allowed to chase her dream & live her life how she wants. Only her best friend knows the pain her smile hides. Despite her parents’ disapproval & lack of support, she remains dedicated to following her own path. When a scandal breaks out & she’s framed, resulting in the loss of her pen name & job, she’s disheartened & unsure what to do next. Then she sees a clip of a snowboarder performing incredible tricks & she’s encouraged to keep moving forward. To do that, she books a trip to the slopes to gather material for her new comic. Unknowingly putting herself on a path to meet a man who’s going to change her life in so many ways…
Like I said, I think this duo is super cute together. Their interactions were both comical & endearing. I smiled a lot at their antics, from their initial trading of sarcastic comments to their mutual attraction & flirtations. They have a lot of funny & memorable scenes throughout the whole drama. Some of my favs are:
- The switch from the green turtle to pink. IYKYK. 🐢
- Him being her “uber” down the slopes. Their positions, her sheer joy, his continued glances to check on her… 🫠
- The whole hospital scene: her expressions, him cradling her head, the adorable piggyback ride 🫶🏻
- Unexpectedly meeting at his home. The surprise that quickly turns to delight. 💖
- The landslide & all that followed. Her frantic search, their relieved hug, their mutual care & support. ✅
- The confession. Their happiness was so believable & I couldn’t stop grinning. And the kiss!! 💋
- Their first meeting after the breakup. I was so happy to finally have them back on the screen together again! 🙌🏻
- The make up scene. The apologies. Choosing to face the obstacles together. Him trusting that who he was, right then, was already good enough for her. ❤️🩹
-Their mutual successes. Their hard work being recognized & rewarded. Their efforts paying off & their pure joy at accomplishing their dreams. 🏆
- The whole proposal fiasco. Oh my goodness, the poor man was trying so hard & it was not going well!! But then it finally happened & wow - it was beautiful & so perfect for them! 💕
Since I mentioned their breakup in that list let me just say that those episodes are where the show took a drop for me. Not simply because of the breakup, though I always prefer my couples to not do that, but because it felt so out of character for the ML to make that choice. And while I do sorta understand where he was coming from, I don’t understand why they had to officially break up. They weren’t talking about marriage right then anyways, so why couldn’t he continue to prove himself to her parents while staying by her side, ya know? The breakup just didn’t make sense.
And speaking of her parents - ick. I did NOT like her mother. What a controlling & judgmental woman. The dad was initially fine, but once he decided to confront the ML alone he was on my “dislike” list. Yes, their actions are all explained later & “reasoned away” but, for me personally, they never redeemed themselves enough after the way they initially looked down on the ML. Just… no.
As for the support cast:
- the ML’s fellow snowboarders are aces. I liked all of them. I appreciated that there were no love rivals in the bunch, just supportive friends who always had the ML’s (& FL’s by association) back.
- the FL’s colleagues. I liked the ones who were loyal, but I do not at all understand the welcoming back of the one who betrayed them. I understand she was in a difficult position, but guess what - so were the others. She’s the only one who made horrible choices. I’m okay with them forgiving her, but for them to trust her so fully & quickly again? Seemed a bit unrealistic to me.
- The FL’s bestie. I had mixed feelings about her. I liked her relationship with the FL, but her personality outside of that was a bit off putting. Especially the way she treated the ML’s friend. She was very dismissive of his feelings after their fling (that he didn’t realize was just a fling) which was very unattractive to me.
- The male love rival. Whoa was he super annoying at first. I’ve said it before & I know I’ll say it again, but seriously - are people really that delulu?? FL was so obviously not interested in him & he was so incredibly obtuse to her rejections. BUT he totally endeared himself to me in the way he handled finding out about the FL & ML. He didn’t rant or try to sabotage them, but rather went off by himself to grieve. When he returned, he was kind & supportive, accepting the ML’s position as her boyfriend & vowing that he’d only see the FL as a little sister from then on. So while I initially found him completely dislikable, in the end he was a welcome member to the friends group.
- The ML’s sister. Utterly adorable & inspiring. Despite the tragedy she endured, she remained an optimistic & happy girl. And her relationship with the ML’s old teammate was so cute. On the one hand that guy was irritating because of his constant attempts to beat the ML, but on the other hand he was absolutely precious in his interactions with his girlfriend.
So my enjoyment dropped due to the breakup drama, overall I did really enjoy this drama. I know I’ll rewatch it again & simply skip those painful episodes.
I’ll finish my review with this since I know there’s been a lot of haters - if you don’t like the FL actresses voice or when she acts cutesy/“babyish”, then just skip this drama. Don’t watch it just to hate on her. 1) she’s doing her job. 2) it’s not our place to call her fake since we only know her virtually. And 3) most importantly, she’s a human with feelings so hearing/reading malicious comments must hurt her just like it does the rest of us.
While I’m saying this specifically about Esther Yu right now, it applies to all celebrities. Why do we build these stars up just to watch them burn out? Must we raise them so high just to tear them down? One would think, aafter all the tragic suic!des, we’d learn to stop being so cruel…
Sorry, but I find it sad when viewers share harsh opinions with no care as to how it affects the actors/actresses. 😔
_________\\__________//________
-⬇️ S P O I L E R S 🚫 B E L O W ⬇️-
.
…
….
……
The things I always want to know 😏😉…
- First(real)Kiss : ep.13💋
- Together : ep.13 👩🏻❤️👨🏻
- BreakUp : ep.17 💔
- BackTogether : ep.22❤️🩹
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