natyok9378

I do hope the tone doesn't completely change next week when we're dealing with the main villain and we still get to see some fun shenanigans. And it seems like next week might be fully original and not based on a case from the jdrama, so I'm curious to see what they make of it.

It's clear where the writer put the most effort in, and it certainly ain't the main romance, but it's the friendship. The friendship has everything the romance (or love triangle) does not: actual plot, substance, and depth, and it doesn't just rely on empty cliches to cover up a severe lack of on-screen development. I feel actual emotion with the friendship, but the romance just leaves me cold. They look cute, and they have chemistry, I'll admit that, but it's all visuals and no substance. Whenever the drama focuses on the friendship, it shines. But when it focuses on the friendship, or love triangle, the cracks really start to show. It all seems to be headed for the obvious ending, but I feel like the best thing right now would be to not go for that obvious ending.

That's why I don't want her to end up with any of those guys because none of it is convincing.

"They look good together."
"They have a very strong spark."

If those are really the only things you can say about them, then you're kinda just proving my point. You want to explain to me why they have a strong bond, but the only reasons you're given me is that they have chemistry and look good together, and I'm sorry, those are not very convincing reasons. Chemistry and looking cute together alone do not build a meaningful strong connection. Those things alone are as empty as the cliches the drama is using if there is no proper development or story to back it up. The things you said are a basic necessity for a romance, but that alone is just not enough for anything meaningful, it's just empty.

Yeah, I'm sorry, but a bunch of empty cliches do nothing to show me how two people got close. And you can say it's not in a romantic way, but those cliches are clearly pushing them towards it, which happened immediately, giving the viewers no time to actually adapt to how close they got, especially if it wasn't necessarily supposed to be romantic. And what strong bond? A bunch of cliches do not convince me of a strong bond, especially when the drama has never taken the time to build anything meaningful there, because guess what, all of it happened off-screen. Story-wise, none of this is convincing, primarily because the drama took the easy way out by skipping over all the development. And now the drama wants us to believe they have a strong bond, but they have nothing to show for it except for empty cliches.

I just knew Kim Tae-hoon was the big bad the second I heard his voice in episode 6. He just has one of those voices you recognize immediately.

Yup, and I think that's been a problem for the whole drama. All they've gotten are cliches and tropes, but the drama has never actually taken the time to build anything meaningful there. At least in the first half you could argue that it was intentional and they'll develop it later, but now I'm just thinking that it's lazy writing. Like, tropes and cliches alone do not build a romance, but that's literally all we're getting with these two.

I just... don't care about Young-rye and Jae-pil romance they're trying to push. I've seen people saying that the Jong-hee and Jae-pil pairing was surface level, but honestly, this is worse? Like, now they're suddenly besties, and it's not like we actually get any time to get on board with that, because the drama immediately starts to put them into situations that are clearly pushing them towards romance. Their dynamic might as well be the definition of surface level, because all the depth and substance happened off-screen. Their whole dynamic did a 180 in 7 years, but we literally saw none of it, because instead of actually properly developing this dynamic and potential romance, the drama seems to have taken the easy way out. They have chemistry I'll give you that, but that's about all they have.

Like, maybe I wouldn't find this such a big problem if the 3 leads weren't so entangled with each other and the romance was a seperate thing alltogether, but here we are.

Also, logically speaking, considering everything, I'm not sure it'd be possible to have both this "big romantic" ending and have the "Min-ju runs for president" ending. I feel like these things conflict, and the writer had to make a choice, and at least in my opinion, I think this was the right choice.

Please don't tell me people actually think San-ho is dead? Like, come on, if they wanted you to think he was dead, they would've quite literally killed him on screen. He's clearly still watching over her from the shadows, and I don't even need to see that to believe it. I actually like the ending, and I think it suits the drama. Though I might be slightly biased because I actually wanted her to run for president, so I'm happy that actually happened.

Isn't Retry just one game, with Usagi not even entering the Borderlands? Are you really going to tell me that people would suddenly call that meaningful? Like, directly adapting Retry would be just as unnecessary as this season. Also, pretty sure they actually kept some elements from Retry, so clearly the source material was still taken into account. I'm not sure your point really holds up honestly.

"This season is unnecessary"

Well, yeah, what do you think people have been saying for almost 3 years now? And let's not pretend that there wasn't a demand for S3 after S2 ended, even though the story was clearly over. It was pretty obvious this was gonna be an unnecessary bonus season, so I'm not sure why people seem surprised? Heck, I went into this expecting exactly that, and I had a blast with it.

You know, I get they needed a time jump and all, but the way they went about it felt so random? It's like the writer suddenly decided that the time jump had to happen in this episode. Also not a fan of how they immediately made it about the romance again, but that's mostly because I feel like the main romance they're trying to push here is the least interesting element of this drama.

Well, yes and no. The stories of the characters are wrapped up, and while answers are offered regarding the Borderlands, certain aspects of it are still very much a mystery.

The drama definitely teases that things could continue with new characters, but the plot itself doesn't suddenly take a big turn just so they could justify that. It's just that the very nature of the Borderlands will always allow for more stories to be told. This was confirmed to be the final season though.

That was literally always the message though? Why do you think everybody refused to stay in the Borderlands at the end of S2, despite the constant struggles they faced in the real world? They all chose life. This is connected to the whole metaphor you brought up: it's always been about life.

The Borderlands is still very much like that metaphor. The Borderlands is a place you go to when you're in a near-death state, so obviously, if you willingly put yourself in that position (like Arisu & Usagi), you're going to the Borderlands. Their survival still depended on everything you mentioned: if they didn't have the will to live, they would've died.

Usagi's father wasn't in the Borderlands, but she didn't know that (remember, they had no memories of that place until they actually returned to it). So pair the obvious trauma she has of what happened to her father with some sneaky manipulation, and I think her going to the Borderlands is fairly understandable.

This was the final season. It's really just to show that it's a global thing, and it will never end, because that's how it works. Much like the Joker card at the end of S2 is just a card, this is just to show that more disasters & games are inevitable. It doesn't have to mean anything more than that.

That's not a loophole, that's the exact solution. But as always, ideal solutions quickly go out the window when you're dealing with human nature in stressful situations. The games always bring out the best and worst of it, and it's always been a big part of this drama. There are multiple games where nobody actually had to die if people would just stop and think for a second.

Yes, but also no. You don't have to clear all the cards. Somebody has to clear the cards, but it doesn't necessarily have to be you, since you're fine as long as your visa doesn't run out. Some won the game with their skillset, while others just got lucky.

Yeah, I get some of the criticisms, but this one is just weird. Like, the writers knew they had to give Arisu & Usagi some kind of reason (and it had to be based on something previously established to make sense), but they can't just do that for everyone. Let's be real: nobody here would've actually wanted to see all these characters get send back to the Borderlands for no real reason after we already watched 2 seasons of them fighting to survive. It works with the new characters because we didn't know them before, so we don't really think of how incredibly unfair all of this actually is.