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Again, all that aside, though, there is the rather pertinent fact that the age gap is spelled out very, very clearly in the Drama description, in the tags, the actors that are going the main leads and the fact that this is going to be a romance is clear from the beginning, so if someone has a problem with this due to some irrational hang up, and is still going to watch all the drama and complain about that, we are essentially talking about someone that was looking, and going out of their way, to be offended. It's like someone that hated flowers going to a flower shop and complaining they are selling flowers, or someone buying a car and complaining it has four wheels rather than two... If someone did that, they would be immediately disqualifying themselves.

I mean, I completely agree that the drama clearly indicated it was going to be an age gap romance. Apart from the fact that it's the plot of the original novel, "He Stands in the Gorgeous Summer Flowers", it was not only clearly indicated in the relevant tags (at most, one could say that the tags for the secondary couple's Noona romance were omitted), but one just needs to look at the list of the actors. So to watch it and complain about the age gap makes about as much sense to me as someone going to the middle of the Alps and complaining the chalet is not a beach front house. That said, to be clear, without even bringing up actors such as Clooney or Portia and Ellen, and looking at the "older but absolutely attractive" specimens which certainly ML's actor belongs to, even for regular people, if we look even at the actual statistics, half of Americans have been in a 10+ age gap relationship, and there are millions of married couples in the US alone with a 20+ age gap... to criminalize and shame the consenting adults in such couples/marriages and make them feel wrong over the prejudices of busybodies wanting to discriminate against them seems repulsive to me.

I do acknowledge that there are some cultural differences, such as Americans apparently being very much against workplace relationships, which is not the case in other countries such as Germany, where there was a famous case where Walmart tried to interfere and lost in court, as can be confirmed via a Reddit search. This is probably the time where I will point out that a lot, and I mean a lot, of Chinese/Korean, etc. dramas have a setting where the female lead dates the company's CEO. That would be a cultural difference, I suppose. Again, at this point I think that it would be worth to come back to the statistics I mentioned above and to distinguish between reality and the irrational and incoherent screeds of some "terminally online" people: half of Americans have been in a 10+ age gap relationships, and there are millions of married couples in the US alone with a 20+ age gap. It would be outrageous to discriminate against them, harass them, try to shame them and criminalize the behavior of such consenting adults, nor is any of those delusional busybodies' place to dictate to consenting adults which other consenting adults they should or shouldn't find attractive and want to sleep with, or date, or marry.

And yes, of course this is just common sense: we are talking about a relationship between two consenting adults (and I find the infantilization by busybodies absolutely offensive and patronizing, denying the character's agency). Furthermore, no brainwashing or anything of the sort had been going on, and any complaint in that regard is a ChatGPT worthy hallucination: surely for someone to legitimately complain about brainwashing, etc., actual brainwashing should have occurred in the first place, otherwise what are we even talking about. Here, factually speaking, ML did not brainwash FL, full stop. It just didn't happen. Also the age gap is acknowledged in the drama and is actually instrumental to the plot. Not that I would have found it objectionable as if they had just brushed it off as "relationship between consenting adults, nothing to see here": I have seen other age gap dramas do that (I am a fan of Noona dramas myself - which I got a bit of in this drama in the form of the secondary couple).

In that respect, coherently, I had absolutely no problem either with ML's and FL's relationship, or with the secondary couple, in terms of their age difference. Here I'll point out that a differential treatment would indeed be incoherent and contradictory, but it does matter in "which direction" you resolve the contradiction, and to be prejudiced/discriminate against both does not seem like an improvement to me: you are going from denying the agency of one consenting adult to denying the agency of two consenting adults. That said, I must admit that I saw essentially no complaint about the age gap in this drama (either for the main couple or secondary couple): on the contrary, I saw in various mainstream articles that the drama is beloved, particularly by female viewers, and I must admit that it has a much more mature take on female desire, etc., as the writer/director said she wanted to portray.

Apart from that, this is all the more absurd because the age gap is spelled out very, very clearly in the Drama description, in the tags, the actors that are going the main leads and the fact that this is going to be a romance is clear from the beginning, so if someone has a problem with this due to some irrational hang up, and is still going to watch all the drama and complain about that, we are essentially talking about someone that was looking, and going out of their way, to be offended. It's like someone that hated flowers going to a flower shop and complaining they are selling flowers, or someone buying a car and complaining it has four wheels rather than two, or going to the middle of the Swiss Alps, and complaining the chalet is not a beach front house... If someone did that, they would be immediately disqualifying themselves.

Agreed, it's just common sense: we are talking about a relationship between two consenting adults (and I find the infantilization by busybodies absolutely offensive and patronizing, denying the character's agency). Furthermore, no brainwashing or anything of the sort had been going on, and any complaint in that respect is a ChatGPT worthy hallucination: surely for someone to legitimately complain about brainwashing, actual brainwashing should have occurred in the first place, otherwise what are we even talking about. Here, ML did not brainwash FL, full stop. It just didn't happen.

I mean, to be clear, without even bringing up actors such as Clooney or Portia and Ellen, and looking at the "older but absolutely attractive" specimens which certainly ML's actor belongs to (I mean, hot is hot ;)), even for regular people, if we look even at the actual statistics, half of Americans have been in a 10+ age gap relationship, and there are millions of married couples in the US alone with a 20+ age gap... to criminalize and shame the consenting adults in such couples/marriages and make them feel wrong over the prejudices of busybodies wanting to discriminate against them seem repulsive to me. Nor would it be said delusional, pear clutching busybodies' place to dictate to consenting adults which other consenting adults they should or shouldn't find attractive and want to sleep with, or date, or marry.

Also, the age gap is acknowledged in the drama and is actually instrumental to the plot. Not that I would have found it objectionable as if they had just brushed it off as "relationship between consenting adults, nothing to see here": I have seen other age gap dramas do that (I am a fan of Noona dramas myself - which I got a bit of in this drama in the form of the secondary couple).

That said, I must admit that I saw essentially no complaint about the age gap in this drama (either for the main couple or secondary couple): on the contrary, I saw in various mainstream articles that the drama is beloved, particularly by female viewers, and I must admit that it has a much more mature take on female desire, etc., as the writer/director said she wanted to portray.