porridge

Regardless of whether or not the ending makes sense I find it extremely unsatisfying because it leaves us with way too many questions and uncertainties. I'm not saying the questions are impossible to answer, but I've read the theories, and it seems to me that fans have had to use A LOT of imagination to explain the possibilities which I don't think they should have to do. This open ending feels more like a cliffhanger setting up a second season. When I think about open endings that work they do so because it's only one detail or one question that's left hanging. There are usually two clear possibilities about what the ending means, so it doesn't require a ridiculous amount of theorising to explain it. If someone smarter than me can explain how the ending is as simple as A or B then I'll take back what I said, but if A and B require a lot of filling in the gaps, or if there are multiple possibilities and sub possibilities then this is just WAY too open. That's why I'm feeling unsatisfied with it.

I wouldn’t engage with that account. It actually freaks me out how manipulative that person is. Notice how she twisted my comment about NDS. I think it’s obvious that my point was when we the viewers compare NDS to young HJP it’s easy to see NDS as taking a lot for granted (NDS seems to believe he doesn't have much going for him), but that person twisted my comment in a subtle and yet infuriating way to suggest that I had said NDS had compared himself to young HJP. I was in the process of writing a response to explain the difference, but then it dawned on me that she'd probably done that deliberately. Also, I highly doubt she thinks that this drama has a good bromance. She's just saying it because she knows full well how outrageously untrue it is, and it'll annoy people if she says it. I suppose it's possible that she's just not very bright, but considering how rude she was to me I’m betting she's trolling.

I decided to give you a chance in case you wanted to apologise, but your latest comment has made me realise you're trolling. Interestingly, you're using a similar tactic that another account here used recently (spewing obvious nonsense to get a rise). I was about to point out that you're imagining what I said in my original response to you, but that's when it hit me that not only are you lying about the drama, but you're also lying about what I said. Thank you for making that clear. Good day.

I was thinking of the scene when NDS said to HJP that SDM was all he had. It was when they stayed the night at Grandma's. The 'bromance' happened very close to the end and nothing like what I was hoping for at the beginning. I think it's a big stretch to call those scenes at the end a bromance. You started your comment with 'Thank you for the reply', but then you proceeded to accuse me of imagining things and rudely ask me 'What are you talking about?'. I think I'm done with you. Just know that I had no bad opinion of you when I replied to your initial comment, and I had no intention of arguing. I'm not sure why you replied in such a bad tone.

I like your analysis, but I would argue there are a few important differences between NDS and young HJP.

Firstly, young HJP had close to nothing while NDS just believed he had nothing. The contrast really made NDS look bad because he came across as self pitying and lacking in gratitude for what he had.

Secondly, young HJP was quite a bit younger than NDS. NDS' age made his attitude towards HJP a lot less tolerable than HJP's attitude towards Grandma.

Thirdly, HJP may have given Grandma lip, but he also had a good connection with her which NDS obviously did not have with HJP. Some people find NDS the more sympathetic character and don't mind that he never shows any appreciation towards HJP while others find HJP the more sympathetic one and are indignant (to say the least) about NDS' lack of gratitude. I really don't want to argue about who is more sympathetic, so I'll just say that it was a strategic error on the writer's part to not have NDS and HJP find some common ground early on. The fact that she gave the viewers so much of HJP's perspective while never letting NDS in on it really backfired.

NDS starts out totally different to HJP (awkward, shy, etc.), but then in some ways he becomes more like young HJP except without any of the things that made HJP sympathetic (his social status, his young age, his connection with Grandma). I think NDS' character was shockingly inconsistent. He had many scenes that just didn't fit his shy insecure personality (scenes of violence, scenes in which he challenged HJP, etc). Personally I preferred shy, insecure, probably autistic NDS. What you described may have been what the writer was going for, but overall I don't think NDS (either versions of him) and young HJP are that similar.

I really wish the drama had gone in the bromance direction. At the beginning they had the potential to become a really good contrasting comedic pair. It would've been great seeing NDS grow on HJP, seeing HJP help NDS because he wanted to, and seeing the two form an unlikely friendship.

I can't tell if you're trolling me or if you actually think that, but I can't be bothered to get into an argument about it so whatever. Even if what you say is true, my opinion is still the same. By potential romantic plot I was talking about the plot we would've got if the male leads had switched status. I personally would've preferred that one. If you liked the drama the way it is that's fine with me. Just accept that some people felt it would've been better if it had gone in a different direction. As I said, it comes down to personal taste.

This is a romance drama. If you find the main couple lacklustre or unappealing then it makes sense to rate it low. If you also think the drama has lost potential it makes sense to rate it even lower. There's no pettiness in that necessarily.

There's always someone who gets SLS, but if the SLS is particularly strong and widespread then the writer probably made the SL too strong and the potential romance too appealing. The potential romantic plot between SDM and HJP was strong enough that it would've made a good drama in its own right.

The dislike for the main couple was probably accentuated by the SLS, but I don't think it was the root cause. People have different tastes. Even without SLS, I've dropped many a drama because I disliked the main couple/romantic plot.

I can't say I'm excited about this pairing. I'll watch a light fluffy drama with NJH, but in a more serious drama with none other than KTR I'd rather see a better actor in the lead role.

Honestly the romance isn't even that subtle. I don't get the reluctance to call it a romance.
Having said that, I've been thinking about possible twists where the romance is concerned. TS obviously has feelings for her, and she went back because she asked herself to save him, but I don't think it's clear that she wants to save him for his sake. She asks herself to save the person she loves, and it's implied that she means HTS, but I wouldn't say it's confirmed. They did get married, but we don't know much about that at the moment. There may be a detail coming that'll put it all in a different light, but I can't actually think what that would be. At least I can't think of something that would fit with everything we've been shown. At the moment I'm just going to trust what we've been shown, and it's looking more and more as though the romance is the whole reason there's a story in the first place. She married him, they died, she left herself the diary to save him, and that's how we've got our plot. We also keep hearing, "the girl or the world". It sounds like the romance might even have something to do with the war. Maybe it's good to leave the romance tag off at the moment to see how it plays out, but I'm expecting it to have quite an impact.

Yes! I'm surprised there still isn't a romance tag.

Let me go into some more detail about Sun. There was a brief time at the beginning when his character really worked. He was basically our eyes. Through him we got to know SH's goal. He was also SH's starting point as he got her to Busan. He was relatable because he was clueless, and he was sympathetic because he was working a dead end job and was burdened by his family.

Now enter the bureau. His encounter with the bureau changed his status and pulled him deeper into the main plot, but then he suddenly disappeared from it. He disappeared because he was no longer needed, and with that in mind I don't think his status should've been raised so soon. The way he's reintroduced to the plot would justify his early elevated status except that I don't think the reintroduction works.

There are two possibilities. Either Sun's journey after he and SH separated was exactly like we've been told, or there's an upcoming twist. Let's start with the first possibility. Since being reintroduced Sun has done two things. Firstly, he helped SH escape the situation he found her in. Secondly, he helped TS access the hospital. I don't think either of those things would've been impossible without him. SH could've escaped on her own (she'd been warned that there was a sniper outside), and TS could've handled the hospital situation on his own (or he could've got help from the girl PP hired since he knew the bureau had PP as well). In Sun we now have a character who's of an elevated status but who really doesn't offer anything to the plot except in a pretend sense (he has a role, but it's unnecessary). Not only that, but he's a lot less sympathetic and relatable now.

The second possibility is that he's connected to the bureau, but if there's a twist coming of that nature then it would've worked better if we thought he didn't know about the bureau. I think it was a mistake to show him anywhere near them. Furthermore, although it's fair to hide his true relevance to the plot, he shouldn't seem irrelevant in the mean time. Perhaps he has a relevance that has nothing to do with a twist or with the bureau, in which case his screen time should be saved for when we reach that point. If he hadn't been reintroduced, and if he'd been kept in the dark that would solve the problem with his family, but that's by no means the only justification. I'll have to wait and see what happens before I offer an opinion on how and when he should've been reintroduced.

I find your thoughts on writing very interesting, and I'll take your word for it, but there are plots out there that don't suffer from the same problems that I've mentioned in this analysis on Sun. I think if a writer has written themselves into a corner and are faced with a dilemma like the one with Sun's family then they've probably gone very wrong somewhere. I suspect that many small but stubborn plot holes/inconsistencies can be traced back to a bigger problem.

Wow! Thanks for the long response. You've summed up TV's biggest flaw, and I think it's the reason why some of the best TV dramas are adaptations of books. It's a shame that TV writers don't have the luxury of time. They can't just run with whatever they've got, and then backtrack if it leads the story nowhere.

Nice summary, but I have to disagree with you about there being no useless characters. I'm not yet convinced that the drama wouldn't have been better without the bureau. I'm sure they've got a role to play, but I'm finding them very lacklustre so far. I don't know how they'll fit in overall, so I'm partly reserving judgement on this, but I'm probably going to be left feeling that the drama would've been better if the bureau had been cut out and the plot adapted accordingly. I also don't see the point of the two boys PP hires, or the point of the second lead, but again I'll have to reserve judgement. At the very least I'll think that all of the above could've been executed/characterised better.

Just to balance things out with something positive, I really love the pacing so far. I don't think I've watched a K-drama with better pacing.

Noted. I just find it a little odd that there's been no confirmation that the 2nd (or 3rd) skeleton is HTS, or anyone for that matter. She didn't tell herself that she was looking at herself and...whoever. She only mentioned herself. I'm probably overthinking things, but I'm really loving theorising. It's the only reason I don't regret not waiting to binge watch.

The merging is the main reason I'm doubting it, but when TS demonstrated with the necklaces they didn't merge until they touched, so there's a chance that both skeletons are hers. I've elaborated a little in my response to W two worlds.

The theory I'm going with at the moment is that the timelines are different. I don't think it's a perfect loop. Each time she goes back it's a continuation of the last time, rather than a repeat. She went back in time, married TS, left herself the diary, went back in time again, got the wedding photo from TS, scribbled on the wedding photo, left herself the diary and the now scribbled on wedding photo. Hold on. We saw in the future that SH had a photo that hadn't been scribbled on (nice catch by the way, I didn't notice that until you pointed it out). If SH didn't leave herself the wedding photo the first time, how did she end up with a version not scribbled on? Didn't she get the wedding photo from TS, and not from her diary? Maybe I've forgotten something. Anyway, the point is that the photo exists from a timeline that's been overrun by a new timeline, so a second skeleton of hers could also exist if it somehow escaped its timeline. The main reason I'm doubting it is the merging.

I've been assuming that the second skeleton was probably HTS, but is it possible that both skeletons were hers?

Someone also needs to tell the music director that there's romance. So far there doesn't seem to be a romantic theme. It leaves a lot of their more romantic scenes feeling a bit bare and incomplete.

Yeah, unfortunately I can't see how else this could end. As I said, I don't think it's a bad ending per say, but I was hoping our main leads would end up together. I'll appreciate it for its bitter sweetness though, and it's better than an ending that makes no sense (I suppose).

I have a theory about the end that I don't like. There's a scene in the first episode in which TS jokes about being too old for a young girl who wrote to him wanting to marry him. I'm wondering if that was foreshadowing. I feel like SH will win, but I think something will happen to the time travel technology. I suspect that even if SH changes things, one or both of them will somehow remember everything (at least eventually), but the age gap between them will be too much. It wouldn't be a bad ending, but it wouldn't be happy. I'm still hoping for a happy ending, but that scene in episode 1 is bothering me. I hope I'm reading too much into it.