lilili

And he never really changed. Aside from not drinking (but he's a perfect candidate for a relapse) he was still toxic and manipulative all the way to the end (that business in the pool was awful, like he couldn't just have a conversation with Sand about Boeing?)

TBH I liked them better than the adults so far

Park Eun Bin did her own singing

Nobody's talking about Kiho's father still being out there stalking him. I'm waiting for daddy to pop up like Freddy Krueger and it's giving me anxiety 😨 those abuse scenes were effing intense and we're getting more in the future for sure.

💯💯💯 especially on the imbalance between the characters and Ray being the main character.

You make a good point about the writing giving Ray more of a backstory which creates more empathy.

Just one thing I want to make clear, I absolutely do not let Sand or Boeing off the hook for behaving poorly. Sand in particular, breaking his phone so that he could steal the recording off of Nick's phone is literally criminal behavior. it Every character on the show displayed toxicity, even the softer ones like Mew and Nick.

He was also excellent in Midnight Motel

Even Sand was icky, breaking his own phone so he could get the audio off Nick's phone was messed up.

Because he had his fingers crossed on the poster I was waiting for that to happen, that he'd had a one night experience with Ray.

Regarding Boston, healthy polyamorous relationships require a lot of open communication and a clear discussion of boundaries. For example, I've known couples who will only have threesomes. They've agreed not to go off on their own to have sex with another person. There's nothing shameful about being in a poly relationship but a healthy relationship does not consist of one person having sex with whoever they want before reaching an agreement with their partner and without regard for their feelings. That was Boston's big fuckup. Not that he hooked up with Boeing. It was that he did it unilaterally without talking to Nick about what their agreement was going to be for the duration of their relationship. And until Boston learns to be more considerate of his partners, no, he shouldn't be in a serious relationship.

Thank for sharing your perspective. I have had some similar life experiences and I understand what you're saying. The problem I had with Ray is that he was never held accountable for his behavior, not within the universe of the drama and not by the fans.

Ray's behavior in the pool scene was incredibly toxic and manipulative. He never thought about how it might hurt Sand or even Boeing who honestly did nothing wrong except try to get back together with his ex. Ray also didn't change much over the course of the drama. He stopped drinking but as I unfortunately know from experience. there's something called being a dry drunk, where you're not using but your behavior is still selfish and harmful. His behavior toward Sand stayed emotionally manipulative and borderline abusive to the end but it was framed as romantic by the drama.

The fans kept making excuses for Ray's character because they love Khaotung (valid because he's a fantastic actor), they love the ship (valid because First & Khao have amazing chemistry) or they romanticize trauma (😬). Having a trauma history doesn't let you off the hook for your treatment of other people. In fact, holding people accountable is an act of love for the person who is using/acting out because it's only when they suffer consequences that they have the incentive to change their behavior. Tbh I was kind of freaked out seeing clearly very young people describe Ray's behavior as romantic when irl that kind of controlling/manipulative behavior is a huge red flag and a danger to anyone who's in a relationship with that kind of person.

Almost everyone deserves love. But they don't deserve endless chances with no consequences. It bothered me that Jojo didn't make that clearer in the drama because (imo) Khao is a fan favorite and he didn't want to piss people off.

They needed an excuse for Mond to go from never kissing a man to kissing all of the men

I hated what Ray did in the pool. It was toxic and manipulative and I don't really feel like he changed much except he stopped drinking in the end.

She wasn't toxic or mean, she was lonely, traumatized, burned out and depressed. Not a red flag but a fragile person who needed a lot of love and care.

He's an awkward dork who's clearly already crushing on the FL, I'm not sure why people are saying he's playing a cold jerk.

I think there may be some significance to what happened because we're seeing flashbacks of everyone in the Joseon era, like maybe it wasn't just a drunken accident that she kissed the second male lead

Wow, they really screwed both actors with those cuts. That's a shame.

I didn't realize they cut his scenes. I saw the interview JoJo said he didn't expect people to hate Top so much. He really did Force dirty.

The only reason people hate Top and love Ray is because Khaotung is a much better actor than Force. Because objectively speaking Ray has treated Sand far worse than Top has treated Mew.

Having said that, I hope Ray's breakthrough with the therapist translates into real changes in how he treats Sand. We only have two episodes left so I feel like it's going to be rushed and Ray's problems are so serious that it doesn't feel like enough time to deal with them properly.

I kind of hate that Boeing was introduced so late because he feels like a plot contrivance to keep Top and Mew apart longer and I'm reaching the point of being like just go your separate ways, you guys are too immature to be together.