I'm glad you're enjoying it. Truly. I don't wish my experience on anyone. Once you've watched episode 13 it'll…
Ah yes, watching NDS being the knight in shining armour was always difficult for me to swallow due to my bias. I'm sure you will like this drama to the end. I think Dodal benefited a lot from the time jump. Sometimes dramas get a bit draggy, but the time jump meant that they could hit the restart button and retain some liveliness.
I'm glad you're enjoying it. Truly. I don't wish my experience on anyone. Once you've watched episode 13 it'll be safe for you to read my summary of why I believe there was a plot change. It's spoiler tagged below. I'd be interested to know what you make of it.
I’ve written an updated version of my argument that there was a plot change. I'll start with the plot, but then I'll move on to production although the two overlap.
Let’s start at the beginning: the backstory. As anyone familiar with K-dramas knows, the female lead and the male lead often knew each other in the past. The nature of their connection varies, but it’s very common that they have a backstory. In Startup, the backstory is between Halmoni, HJP, and SDM. NDS makes a very fleeting appearance in the past, but it’s HJP who encounters him; not SDM.
In addition to that, PHR made HJP a very strong character. It's been said by Jidal fans, neutral fans, and even a few Dodal fans, that HJP was way too strong a second lead. It’s generally assumed that this was a mistake on her part, but what if it was intentional? If this drama was supposed to be a bait and switch then PHR had to make sure that the “second lead” would be able to carry the twist. So maybe it was an accident, or maybe she was planning for HJP to end up with SDM.
That’s not all I have to say about the plot, but the rest overlaps with production, so let’s move on to that. The first production detail I’d like to point out is the kiss scene in episode 7. The kiss scene appears to have been shot later than the rest of the episode. We can tell by comparing scenes in that episode to behind the scenes footage of the kiss scene. While most of the episode was shot in the summer, the kiss scene was shot in the autumn. In the following episodes there’s no mention of the kiss scene. It was as though it didn’t happen. Probably because it didn’t until they added it later. Furthermore, the dialogue at the end of the same episode felt a bit off to me although I couldn't put my finger on it at the time (when SDM says NDS is making her heart flutter). I now think it was added later along with the kiss scene. With the kiss scene and the dialogue at the end, it’s obvious what the writer was going for. SDM was getting over her feelings for HJP and moving on to NDS. But if we take out those two details, the first half of the drama paints a very different picture. SDM is still in love with the NDS from the letters (HJP), and there’s no reason to think that she has developed separate feelings for NDS.
The next point is the revenge storyline. In my opinion, the revenge storyline felt surprisingly rushed and slapdash. I suspect that’s because it was shortened in order to bring the time jump forward and make way for the new plot. There’s a production detail that provides evidence for that. The scene in episode 13 in which Yeong Sil advises HJP to make a move was filmed out of order around the same time that episode 4 was airing. We know this from a photo posted by KSH. The point of interest is that HJP’s hair is clearly pre time jump even though the episode was supposed to be post time jump. I believe that the time jump wasn’t meant to happen until later, and we’re missing a chunk of the original plot.
Another detail is that KSH teased once that his character had a twist, but we’re all still very confused about what that twist was.
But now I come to the biggest production giveaway in my opinion: the BGM. It was noted by a twitter user, who I will mention again, that NDS doesn’t have his own theme music. HJP has his own theme music. SDM has her own theme music. But NDS’ is suspiciously missing. Both SDM’s theme and HJP’s theme sound quite romantic. There’s also a piece of music from the drama that no one can seem to find on the OST/BGM. Sometimes people mistakenly think it’s HJP’s theme, but it’s actually different. I’m referring to the music that plays during HJP’s confession. Furthermore, the BGM has many tracks that are strongly associated with HJP’s scenes, and all of them have a romantic feel to them. I can’t find anything of that nature that is either unique or common to NDS’ scenes.
Now on to my final point: the strong symbolism of fate surrounding HJP. For this I will just direct you to @jeonggal_ on twitter. She’s the twitter user who I mentioned above. Her threads are pinned. The most interesting one is titled ‘Rain, Thunder, Fate, and Karma’. I find this theory too convincing to dismiss even now that we know the ending. Ah it made me so happy at the time. Now when I look back it’s just painful.
So that ends my summary of why I believe there was a plot change. It doesn’t change anything, if anything it makes it worse, but there it is.
I feel that NJH's portrayal of a ML is an archaic one. As Kdrama audience continually mature, so does their taste…
It's interesting that you think writers changing ships midway is mostly bad. I personally believe this drama was meant to be a bait and switch, but that a plot change made the bait the real thing. You've already mentioned one of my reasons (the backstory), but I'll go into more detail once you've finished. Only if you're interested though.
I miss HJP's humour. At the beginning of the drama he was portrayed as witty, but by the end his sense of humour had disappeared. I suppose that's understandable, considering. The only scene I can think of is the one with Ji-Seok in which he jokes about liking his voice. It didn't have the same punch as some of his earlier scenes though.
I like this quote:"I find the character of Do-san negative sometimes. However, the script suggests that he is…
This article has helped me make up my mind about the letters. I've been saying that the NDS from the letters was just a fantasy, but now I can't understand why I've been saying that. I think I was dismissing the letters because they were a bit of a headache. They were slightly inconsistently portrayed, and we didn't get a lot of detail about them. I preferred to argue that regardless of how legitimate the letters were, Jidal made more sense. I’ve finally realised that one of the main reasons I shipped Jidal over Dodal is because I always considered the letters legitimate.
We saw HJP going from looking mildly inconvenienced by the letters, to looking like he was happy to receive them. At first he didn't want to be SDM’s pen-pal, but then he started to enjoy it. In episode 2, HJP reminds Halmoni that they wrote the letters together. We have to assume he was exaggerating as that's inconsistent with what we're shown. We see from the scene in which he's writing his birthday wish that he's writing the letter on his own. He appears to have only written the first letter with Halmoni. In the first letter he makes stuff up, but in the birthday scene he's no longer making stuff up. That's consistent with the first episode in which we see him changing his attitude towards the letters. If the writer wanted us to see the letters as illegitimate, she should've shown that everything HJP wrote in them was just stuff he made up with Halmoni. It's taken me this long to map it out. I know everyone else is way ahead of me on this.
"I find the character of Do-san negative sometimes. However, the script suggests that he is a shy, selfless guy with soft emotions, but whenever he comes across with Ji-pyeong, he is somewhat aggressive, disrespectful, and with a villainous look in his eyes."
I put this one off because of the bad reviews and the comment section was giving me bad vibes. But since I had…
I'm relieved for you. I think watching it as it came out was a different experience. There were so many compelling fan theories and analyses that made us get our hopes up and set our expectations high. I'm not saying this applies to you, but I hope our negativity here has saved some people from disappointment.
Most of the people who liked the show do so, by vilifying HJP. They call him a jerk, who is too harsh, and just…
Sorry I'm completely spamming your inbox right now, but I often re-read your comments as they're quite detailed, and I keep thinking of more things to say. I think the main thing that will attract viewers is a good story. I don't think NJH and Suzy put anyone off, and they probably did give the drama higher ratings than it otherwise would've got, but their characters and their storylines were not the drama's strongest points. Had HJP been the main character, had his story been the writer's priority, and had it been promoted as such, I think this drama would've attracted a great deal more viewers. It wouldn't have hurt in the least that KSH isn't a Hallyu star.
Most of the people who liked the show do so, by vilifying HJP. They call him a jerk, who is too harsh, and just…
I don't know if you've ever had that experience when something bothers you but you don't know what it is, and then when you figure it out you realise it's no big deal. I realised recently what has been getting to me the most. The fact that some people vilified the character, and the ending seems to validate them. Since I realised that though (literally yesterday), it doesn't bother me so much. I mean a) HJP is fictional, and b) there are bound to be different interpretations out there, it can't be helped. If I'm right, the show makers betrayed the viewers by abandoning their original plan, and decided to cater to the viewers who were totally misinterpreting everything. But as betrayals go, it's a pretty trivial one.
Apparently this drama is on a list of feel good TV shows. This is the least feel good TV show I've ever watched. I can only assume that the people who make those lists don't actually watch the dramas they put on them, or pay any attention to the viewer response.
Let’s start at the beginning: the backstory. As anyone familiar with K-dramas knows, the female lead and the male lead often knew each other in the past. The nature of their connection varies, but it’s very common that they have a backstory. In Startup, the backstory is between Halmoni, HJP, and SDM. NDS makes a very fleeting appearance in the past, but it’s HJP who encounters him; not SDM.
In addition to that, PHR made HJP a very strong character. It's been said by Jidal fans, neutral fans, and even a few Dodal fans, that HJP was way too strong a second lead. It’s generally assumed that this was a mistake on her part, but what if it was intentional? If this drama was supposed to be a bait and switch then PHR had to make sure that the “second lead” would be able to carry the twist. So maybe it was an accident, or maybe she was planning for HJP to end up with SDM.
That’s not all I have to say about the plot, but the rest overlaps with production, so let’s move on to that. The first production detail I’d like to point out is the kiss scene in episode 7. The kiss scene appears to have been shot later than the rest of the episode. We can tell by comparing scenes in that episode to behind the scenes footage of the kiss scene. While most of the episode was shot in the summer, the kiss scene was shot in the autumn. In the following episodes there’s no mention of the kiss scene. It was as though it didn’t happen. Probably because it didn’t until they added it later. Furthermore, the dialogue at the end of the same episode felt a bit off to me although I couldn't put my finger on it at the time (when SDM says NDS is making her heart flutter). I now think it was added later along with the kiss scene. With the kiss scene and the dialogue at the end, it’s obvious what the writer was going for. SDM was getting over her feelings for HJP and moving on to NDS. But if we take out those two details, the first half of the drama paints a very different picture. SDM is still in love with the NDS from the letters (HJP), and there’s no reason to think that she has developed separate feelings for NDS.
The next point is the revenge storyline. In my opinion, the revenge storyline felt surprisingly rushed and slapdash. I suspect that’s because it was shortened in order to bring the time jump forward and make way for the new plot. There’s a production detail that provides evidence for that. The scene in episode 13 in which Yeong Sil advises HJP to make a move was filmed out of order around the same time that episode 4 was airing. We know this from a photo posted by KSH. The point of interest is that HJP’s hair is clearly pre time jump even though the episode was supposed to be post time jump. I believe that the time jump wasn’t meant to happen until later, and we’re missing a chunk of the original plot.
Another detail is that KSH teased once that his character had a twist, but we’re all still very confused about what that twist was.
But now I come to the biggest production giveaway in my opinion: the BGM. It was noted by a twitter user, who I will mention again, that NDS doesn’t have his own theme music. HJP has his own theme music. SDM has her own theme music. But NDS’ is suspiciously missing. Both SDM’s theme and HJP’s theme sound quite romantic. There’s also a piece of music from the drama that no one can seem to find on the OST/BGM. Sometimes people mistakenly think it’s HJP’s theme, but it’s actually different. I’m referring to the music that plays during HJP’s confession. Furthermore, the BGM has many tracks that are strongly associated with HJP’s scenes, and all of them have a romantic feel to them. I can’t find anything of that nature that is either unique or common to NDS’ scenes.
Now on to my final point: the strong symbolism of fate surrounding HJP. For this I will just direct you to @jeonggal_ on twitter. She’s the twitter user who I mentioned above. Her threads are pinned. The most interesting one is titled ‘Rain, Thunder, Fate, and Karma’. I find this theory too convincing to dismiss even now that we know the ending. Ah it made me so happy at the time. Now when I look back it’s just painful.
So that ends my summary of why I believe there was a plot change. It doesn’t change anything, if anything it makes it worse, but there it is.
Here are some links:
https://twitter.com/Jeonggal_/status/1328583037769101315 - the fate theory
https://twitter.com/Jeonggal_/status/1329818268622843904 - about the music themes
https://twitter.com/dramabud/status/1352406137493053441 - KSH episode 13 photo
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8I2Yb8KHhuw - BGM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFNUSM5NFwI - BTS kiss scene footage
Bonus link:
https://kisskh.at/discussions/sandbox/57149-short-episode-analysis
The bonus link isn't referenced in my comment, but it's interesting, so I've added it.
We saw HJP going from looking mildly inconvenienced by the letters, to looking like he was happy to receive them. At first he didn't want to be SDM’s pen-pal, but then he started to enjoy it. In episode 2, HJP reminds Halmoni that they wrote the letters together. We have to assume he was exaggerating as that's inconsistent with what we're shown. We see from the scene in which he's writing his birthday wish that he's writing the letter on his own. He appears to have only written the first letter with Halmoni. In the first letter he makes stuff up, but in the birthday scene he's no longer making stuff up. That's consistent with the first episode in which we see him changing his attitude towards the letters. If the writer wanted us to see the letters as illegitimate, she should've shown that everything HJP wrote in them was just stuff he made up with Halmoni. It's taken me this long to map it out. I know everyone else is way ahead of me on this.
"I find the character of Do-san negative sometimes. However, the script suggests that he is a shy, selfless guy with soft emotions, but whenever he comes across with Ji-pyeong, he is somewhat aggressive, disrespectful, and with a villainous look in his eyes."
https://www.womenspodium.com/k-drama-start-up.html