pomegranate

Exactly. The silly infuriating part is that the majority of folks kicking up a fuss since before the drama even released have not heard of the webtoon/novel before this. The author has not shared any complaints and not insisted for their live adaptation to be prominently BL. Those people that continue to complain also don’t appear to care about a possible problematic nature of the BL content in the source material and romanticising predatory relationships. And they haven’t watched the final product either.

But sure, rage and boycott blindly. I mean go ahead & don’t watch if it’s not your cup of tea, but messing with ratings and reviews without full context is irresponsible.

They don’t care about they what appear to state to care about. If they did, the age gap + a highschool minor factor would shut all argument. Regardless of who ends up with who at the endgame, the core journey of the plot would still be followed through a borderline inappropriate relationship as the main character would be old as fuck.

That’s not even going into the relationship between the original two teens before possession. One of them literally contributed to the suicide of the other by turning his back on the victim’s suffering. To then be intimately involved in a romantic relationship with each other…. just doesn’t sit right.

I’ve posted this multiple times sorry, but the blind date meeting isn’t what you guys are thinking.

Deuk Pal wants to experience the student life he missed out on before, and part of that includes going to social gatherings like group blind dates, which don’t necessarily have everyone present interested in actually finding a romantic opportunity at the table. As can be seen from DP nagging on Se Kyung to not miss out on his youth, and Se Kyung complaining he sounds too much like an old man, he appears to be more interested in trying to get Se Kyung to loosen up and date.

I reckon college would still be too soon for him start seeing Se Kyung in a different light. During the highschool era he saw the kids around him- as his responsibility to take care of and guide as an adult. He was building those friendships less for himself and more for the og kid he thought would return.

But anyway, we don’t get to see how their life goes after highschool. The title was about of gangster returning to highschool, the plot was set in their late teens, it’s obvious we don’t have time to explore how their futures and relationships panned out years into the future. All we get is that yes, they graduated peacefully and are now finally in college.

No problem 👍

Seems a lot of people here aren’t very familiar with Korean college life culture or how casually those blind date meetings are set up in most Kdramas. We have plenty of kdrama characters in a committed relationship turning up to those blind dates things with no intention of cheating on their S.O.

It was one of the pair of girls that always giggled at the ML when he came to study in that library/cafe/study hall thing with Se Kyung. The one that gave him free drinks and left cheering post it notes.

We can assume she was awkwardly rejected off screen 2 days later, with Deuk Pal internally freaking out, “look, you’d be my hypothetical daughter’s age if I had one, so theres no way we can happen. I thought that the real kid was returning, that’s why I asked for time and accidentally misled you!”

He asked for legal….

Not a “double date”.

group blind date meeting- the kind you often see in Kdramas with college aged characters

It’s a social gathering for kids to get to know each other and for possible singles to find matches. But not everyone that turns up on it is looking to date anyone. Many just join for the drinks or to play as wingmen for their solo friends.

Yeah 😞 I couldn’t take him seriously when he was lecturing Yi Heon’s mom on parenting. Wanted him so far away from the younger cast, but then we have him hugging one. 😒

That old villain dude from Vagabond, Stranger S1, etc.

He only turns up in the 1st and last episode in this drama and his role was totally negligible, we didn’t really need his character or for him to be the one playing it. Deuk Pal’s boss guy. We’re talking about the emotional moment between him and Deuk Pal in his teenager body, getting a pat on the back for his old life as Deuk Pal.

That actor has been convicted of prostitution/sexual relations with a borderline minor some 2 decades back.

Deuk Pal’s actor is fine though. He’s long given up on marriage/dating apparently after some failed relationships.

I only accidentally replied to this comment thread, so kindly don’t take my words out of context.

They left plenty of subtext for BL fans to imagine a distant future romantic ending for the two.

But for them to have established confirmed, undenied feelings for each other at THIS age and only to promise that they’ll officially date when Se Kyung hits a certain legal age… would bring up the some of the same problems as them going ahead & dating right now.

Because it would imply that DEUK PAL is actually capable of seeing the teens around him in a borderline predatory romantic light. When through the whole season we’ve only seen him behave like a parent to all the kids around him and him be totally oblivious to any romantic attraction from teens around him, because he simply views them as kids to take care of.

We have not seen Kim Deuk Pal have any sort of interest in romance even when he was in his original body. After possession, he’s just gone left and right parenting children around him. For him to suddenly see a teen as a viable option for a future romantic partner for himself just to satisfy a BL fantasy Right Now would be an insult to his character.

A romance between the two MLs can surely bloom a decade or so later, the drama ends open on their romantic choices, but it is just not going to be explored right now when the mentally 47 year old is still seeing the people around him as kids.

Oh I’m so sorry. Mdl drama pages tend to lag a lot on my phone. It must’ve scrolled away to some other comment thread. I didn’t mean to reply to you!

And I agree with you, it would take a certain type of person and situation for him to be able to view the person in front of him as not a younger one he has take to care of. Which is why I thought it’d be atleast in his second 30s for that to happen, because people would start looking physically less like kids and more like the adults around his mental age.

Oh yeah that’s a pretty depressing way of ending things when you say it like that.

I do wish we could’ve kept them both, but short of rebuilding a magical new second body for Deuk Pal, he couldn’t come back to life.

And for us to be sure that the previously suicidal teen kid really will be able to return to a happy life with the changes someone else made for him, we’d have had to see him participate in those changes and grow as a person through the season the way we saw Se Kyung and the bully Jae Min slowly change.

Though Deuk Pal wasn’t any less deserving of life either.

I’m not arguing against your judgement, just pointing out that the actor is only a month younger than her

Rumours say that girl is still crying angry jilted tears 😅

Yeah I don’t think Kim Deuk Pal would’ve been comfortable with dating a high-schooler when he’d been Dad-ing them all, all season. He just left the option open because he thought the original kid was coming back and might want to try dating the girl.

As we didn’t see blind date scene there’s nothing to condemn yet.

Also they are atleast now in college so all legal adults and no minors involved.

The group blind dates don’t always have everyone on the table actually going on a real date. We have had even straight kdrama established couples going on a group blind date in college without it being considered as the end of that relationship- most recently -> the unreleased scene stills of Twinkling Watermelon that show Yi Chan, devoted boyfriend and future husband on a college group blind date meeting where a jealous angry Cheong Ah turns up.

There’s also plenty of times loyally taken kdrama characters turn up to such a place only to play as wingman for their single friends. Which is entirely possible in Deuk Pal’s case as he was heard encouraging Se Kyung to enjoy his own youth like a typical elder man/father figure advice.

So no, unless we see otherwise, there’s no reason to condemn Deuk Pal yet as he has not been shown or implied to be taking advantage of young people.

He might just wait for his 30s to hit again to consider real dating. If he’s even interested in romance at all that is.

Okay but what was he supposed to do? Force a guy that’s all but moved on to the afterlife to keep living? He already tried everything he could to convince the kid. The entire show he was working towards making a happier environment for the kid to return to. But you can’t help someone that doesn’t want help or doesn’t want to help themselves. Or rather force someone to live according to your own rules. He succeeded in bringing closure and peace to the suicidal kid, and that was enough for the original kid. He just didn’t want to live. He was happy where he was and happy to see his someone using his body to live brightly and to see his own physical smiling face.

You don’t have to be satisfied with this conclusion. But it really is NOT Kim Deuk Pal’s fault. He was nothing but selfless throughout the drama. There just wasn’t any more he could’ve done for the kid.

Jae Min probably got recruited at Dong Soo’s new eel restaurant on recommendation of Deuk Pal. The “dream job” him and his previous friends were always lurking around the gangmen hoping to score😂

#While Deuk Pal helps Dong Soo and Jong Cheol study for their own GEDs, Jae Min joins this study group with the older two ex-gang members for his own GED. All of them ultimately getting tutored by Se Kyung, the head supervisor of the study group, who can’t help himself from correcting their obvious mistakes.

I was highly worried about his impending return too. I didn’t mind the idea of Deuk Pal finishing his promises and getting that student experience again that he craved and then moving on to the afterlife… but I worried about how Yi Heon would survive without him in the future.

He may continue the exercises and self defence training Deuk Pal got started on in his body so he doesn’t fear future bullies. But what about all the new friendships ? His classmates would have to adjust to a vastly different personality again and he’d lose the popularity Deuk Pal gained for him because he just wouldn’t be as outgoing as him. He hadn’t interacted with either of girls who had crushes on him and so even if he dared to accept one of their confessions, the relationship may not pan out because he’s just not the guy the girl had a crush on. What about when those bullies came back for revenge after serving time? He’s not a natural fighter or got years of experience and confidence like Deuk Pal so he may lose against those guys and be beat up again.

I so wanted him to give life a second try and get to experience the happiness he was owed but it would literally take another season to explore all that because we haven’t spend any time with his character here to see it develop and be strong enough to live life to the fullest.

Even if I didn’t consider his real life criminal record, it’s just that I am SO used to seeing him play a backstabbing villain and he doesn’t look very convincing as a good guy that it kills some of the vibe of the emotional scene, though he does pass just fine as the head of a gang mob.

I’m not a fan of LMH, but I have been actually waiting for this project of his, especially because I really wanted to see another space based kdrama after Silent Sea.

I saw that still shot of him and Gong Hyo Jin way before even Pachinko released. Seriously it’s been more than 84 years. The filming is long over. At this point they’re going have an audience that will only distantly vaguely have heard of these leads as some previously hotshot actors from their parents generation.

I’ve even started to miss seeing the guy onscreen despite how much I’ve critiqued his acting and choice of characters and unearned stardom.

Can this new trend of Kdramas taking a minimum of half a decade to release for no good reason please stop. ✋🛑 Someone tell the Kdrama industry they got to stop slaving after American standards and looking at everything from the Western world with starry eyes.

Let me take a guess, Vincenzo?

Because that page was a hot mess of barbs and insults in its years of glory, don’t know if that’s how it still is