nini

omg my pleasure! and youre right this audience really isnt ready to accept the fact that they hold puritanical values and that while it may only be projected onto boston here, it absolutely extends to their view of sex and relationships irl.

its just irking that so many people have internalized it to this point... justice for nonconforming characters!! theyre loved!!!

boston doesnt end up single he ends up alone.. completely. he is the only character that ends up completely alone with no friends no family and the only thing thats substantially different between him and the rest of the characters is that he doesnt want a strictly monogamous physical relationship.

the director of this show literally said in an intervieq 'sometimes bad people dont needs backstories, theyre just sluts', it’s completely disingenuous to believe that thought wasn’t bled into their core theme and message .

the issue isnt that the show wants to portray toxicity its that in every single turn it goes out of its way to condemn the toxicity of boston specifically, throughout the entire run.

since episode 3 hes used as the symbol of being a bad person, despite all of the other characters ratcheting it up on the nastiness scale to obscene levels.

atom literally accuses him of sexual assault and gets told oh its okay and a pat on the back, boston sleeps with his best friends boyfriend and he has to end the show grovelling alone and miserable because...??

its really not even about nick, the narrative mistreatment of boston comes from nothing else but the fact hes not monogamous like the rest of them. and that might not change anything for you but thats not something everybody has to accept.

only friends does literally everything in its power to come off progressive and understanding of its characters but in the end it fails all of them in several ays, but none more than boston, who the writers seem to dislike at every level for nothing but his promiscuity.

this is almost evasive of the issue, literally every single person on this show gets a shalala happily ever after but boston, almost all of them gain nothing but happiness but him

hes punished not just because nick leaves him, and tells him to just live solo completely, but because everyone does, his friends his loved and its not like he could ever be himself at home regardless. shows do not exist in a bubble, people are allowed to feel disappointed that a show apparently based around lgbt dynamics has fallen into a trap of punishing its only non conforming character.

he couldve broken up with nick and it would've been fine,, but the breakup and entire episode consisted of boston being berated to death while the rest of them got to live it up

to me boston isnt punished because nick is breaking up with him, hes punished completely by the narrative in every way. he loses every single friend he had. he loses the one person he thought understood him. he is condemned constantly and told he is nasty and filthy as if the rest of them are some moral beacons.

they say to boston youre running away, and he says he wants to be different in a different place, after having stood so firmly and confidently in his queerness and his openness. they quite literally have shamed him to the point of 'rehabilitation' and change.

none of these characters around him, outside of nick, have ever been real friends to him. they dont validate him, they only think hes running and never once consider his art as meaningful, they spend the entire run of only friends calling him all kinds of names for his behavior and by the end they all get rewarded by getting the ending they want and boston has literally nobody. no friends no family no lover and hes told to stay forever alone because nobody can love him... its just sad and speaks to underlying biases the creators have against anybody not interested in a traditional HEA. i love having these discussions and i as so invested in this show because there are so few that bring it up despite it being common irl, i just really dont think they handled it right. :(

so its just... accepted that boston is an ultimate villain? that he gets told to stay alone forever despite literally telling nick he loves him, not because nick cant be what he needs, but because the narrative is trying to convince the audience that nobody can love him as he is and he might as well save them the hassle? we are supposed to believe boston, who slept with his bestfriends boyfriend sure, is substantially worse than the rest of the characters that not only recorded revenge porn of him but spread it around for blackmail over petty drama? hes the worst when he cant even get an apology after being taunted through false sexual assault allegations and treated like dirt every episode? they cant even do a breakup correctly because the narrative and writers have no sympathy or understanding for boston as a character and hes slut shamed by the audience, characters and the very theming of the show itself.

cant even tell if the show dumbed itself down for an audience that cant handle non monogamy or if the writers room really believe boston is the ultimate evil for… *checks notes* being a guy that doesnt hold emotional and physical relationships to the same weight.

its honestly stupid messaging in general to have the one character in the show who doesnt fall under the umbrella of strict monogamy be punished for it this severely but its even stupider because this is a QUEER show. using heteronormative values like this directly undermines everything this show pretends to stand for.

Whatever. boston was a good, fun, compelling character and this show had zero clue how to handle him or half of his storylines. He deserved better!

I genuinely have zero clue how or why i finished this... seo joonyoung was too good to be in it

terrible plot twist like are writers ever gonna stop using lgbt characters as add in villains... lets at least try and be creative instead of using one of the most obvious and repeated homophobic cliches of all time lmao

hes already finished filming for king of saju as a main lead! other than that youth is scheduled to finally air soon so hes going to be in more dramas consistently! hopefully he finally gets more long form drama main leads soon

In some ways i understand what you mean but we never really saw their relationship. In my opinion if anyone had the upper hand its solhee, she kept a large part of herself hidden even as they got engaged to be married and only admitted it once theyd broken up and everything was over. She could never be truly honest bc of her insecurity and all her mother had drilled into her, even till the very end shes the one that ended things. He just stayed away from her out of his own fear that his situation could hurt her more, I wouldn't say thats not respecting her choices because he essentially just used the circumstances she had set up to make sure he couldnt hurt her anymore. Even in the latest episode i feel his joke about her coming back to him was just a way to let her know hes waiting for her even if she doesnt love him anymore, not a manipulation tactic or something.

seo jihoon is just a really good actor lol. character-wise there's not much to root for in their relationship but i really cant help but feel for him more than anyone else, even though their circumstances are decidedly worse.

I have rewatched this drama at least seven times at this point its one of my favorite romances and the best example of a fusion sageuk imo. wish we could get something this lively and cute again...

I genuinely cant believe this is coming out i thought they were lying to us

The first enjoyable action drama in such a long time... Im excited for Part 2 !!

Yeah I understand that, I think the pacing of the ending was very different to the rest of the show which caused a huge disconnect. I can understand it slightly considering they were separated for years and had to readjust from a story perspective, but for the audience it's kinda jarring to go from them being linked at the hip to almost awkward around each other. My real issue is that most of the comments I've seen don't have real criticisms of the script itself but instead feel like a kiss is owed to the audience and a lack of it makes the romance invalid, i completely disagree with that.

I really really hope this is good... Everythings been so bland in the dramasphere lately

Being upset over the censorship of gay media is one thing, and i fully understand and agree on that aspect, but lots of these comments are erasing the fact this is a romance because they didn't kiss... Disappointment is fine but there is intimacy in feeling and connection in this drama that isn't present in most other recent dramas outside of to my star. Ending was rushed and could've been written better but i still thoroughly enjoyed it!

Youre actually just projecting... my original comment was saying that saying this isnt a romance is disingenuous and erases the fact the drama focuses heavily on them as a romantic relationship. There's actually more of a lack in actual storylines and character development in dramas about gay men than there is a lack of kiss scenes. I literally said i understand the disappointment you're fighting over something i never even said lol

Youre very very weird for this reply... I liked this show and didnt think it sucked at all. I dont even think the lack of kissing took anything away from it because I signed up to watch a story not a speedrun until they kissed.

'born to procreate' this is a drama about gay men.... nothing about what youre saying makes sense

Lots of these comments are so odd... this is very obviously still a romance. They confess to each other almost constantly in the last three episodes, they are textually in a relationship with each other and do all the cute things a couple does outside of kiss. You can be disappointed in it as a move on the studios or actors part, and think that the ending is rushed but to completely discount the fact there's a love story at all or that these characters are LGBT is ridiculous. Intimacy is not dependent on them kissing and this drama has afforded us a great story focusing on the emotional depth of the characters, something that's pretty uncommon for shows with gay leads. If someone came into this looking for a love story, then they got what they asked for.