Can anyone tell me, why in the world this drama made everyone disappointed?
They break up at the end and it ws very frustrating show
Lastly they show them at the end and they have still feelings for eachother đ«€get a life bro .,. Life goes on ⊠I donât even know why they had to break up
The first episode was good, but I'm not sure I can handle all the melodrama that's coming. I also came across…
No not all melodramas have sad ending like secret love ⊠her father died but she was with ml lead at the end ⊠probably sth like this .. bittersweet
Kdrama treats breakup as plot while irl it's very rare to get second chance ..most couples I have seen who breakup…
But I know a couple who broke up and 3 yrs later they meet again and they are now married ⊠but ofc 18 year waiting is ridiculousâŠ. I donât think he was waiting though ⊠he just didnât fall in love again as he was in unhealthy obsession with her as she was a celebrity, he could follow her news ⊠but still itâs absurd ⊠guys never do that
The story of drama is based on junseo view of point not a real truth⊠he told and believed she is psychopathâŠ.. she is for sure an antihero
But in the drama the real psycho is junseo unlike the webtonâŠ
Webton and drama have very different storylines
In drama junseo made the documentary so that he can control ajin bcs he wanted ajin for himself but in webtoon he made the documentary bcs he was very angry with ajin using him to get pregnant to marry sb else âŠ.
can someone spoile the ending of the webtoon please. I guess from the comment section that in this drama they…
the show isnât simply deviating from the manhwa; itâs actively reframing it by making jun-seo the central interpretive filterâand an unreliable one at that.
in the original webtoon, jun-seoâs real âtriggerâ isnât moral outrage or any concern for public safety. itâs her pregnancy. when he learns that ah-jin used him to get pregnant and then passed his child off as someone elseâs, thatâs the moment he unravels. the drama translates this motivation differently but preserves the core psychology: jun-seo is a coward in the sense that he cannot tolerate losing ownership of the narrativeâor of ah-jin. he doesnât want justice, and he doesnât want accountability. he wants exclusivity. he wants her to need him, and he frames this desire as âsavingâ her because that is the only way he can justify his own obsession to himself.
so when she begins to slip beyond his controlâwhen she starts to build relationships he cannot access or replicate, when she reacts in ways he cannot predictâhe panics. the documentary becomes his attempt not just to expose her but to define her, to impose an identity on her that ensures he remains the one person who truly âunderstandsâ her. the irony, as you pointed out, is that he never understood her at all.
another point your interpretation brings into focusâand one that the webtoon makes especially clearâis that ah-jin understands jun-seo far better than we as readers or viewers initially do. when she speaks of enacting the âperfect revenge,â it isnât bluster or emotional exaggeration. she identifies precisely the wound that would break him: isolation from the very people he believes he is entitled to.
in the webtoon, this is taken to its sharpest form. their child grows up never knowing who jun-seo is, or even that he exists. ah-jin removes him entirely from the narrative of their lives, and that erasure is devastating precisely because jun-seoâs core pathology is possessionâof stories, of identities, of the people he fixates on. his greatest fear is not punishment; it is irrelevance.
the cruel elegance of her revenge is that jun-seo eventually encounters their daughter without realizing who she is until it is far too late. the moment of recognition comes only after any possibility of connection has vanished. he is left grasping at the edges of a life he cannot enter, watching the shape of what could have been while knowing it will never be his. he is barred not only from ah-jin but from the one relationship that might have anchored him to something genuine.
ultimately, dear x functions as a broader commentary on narrative authorityâspecifically, on how men attempt to author womenâs stories, womenâs identities, and even womenâs bodies. jun-seoâs fixation is not just personal but symbolic: he believes he is entitled to define ah-jin, to interpret her motives, to claim her body, and to determine the moral framework through which others perceive her. the drama systematically exposes and dismantles that entitlement. ah-jin is unquestionably an antihero, but she is one whose actions reveal the underlying power structures that enabled jun-seoâs control in the first place. in both the webtoon and the adaptation, her resistanceâhowever destructiveâbecomes a rejection of the very idea that her story can be authored by anyone but herself.
Right?? I totally thought the same thing! I was bracing myself for Moon Dohyeok to completely lose it, and then…
the show isnât simply deviating from the manhwa; itâs actively reframing it by making jun-seo the central interpretive filterâand an unreliable one at that.
in the original webtoon, jun-seoâs real âtriggerâ isnât moral outrage or any concern for public safety. itâs her pregnancy. when he learns that ah-jin used him to get pregnant and then passed his child off as someone elseâs, thatâs the moment he unravels. the drama translates this motivation differently but preserves the core psychology: jun-seo is a coward in the sense that he cannot tolerate losing ownership of the narrativeâor of ah-jin. he doesnât want justice, and he doesnât want accountability. he wants exclusivity. he wants her to need him, and he frames this desire as âsavingâ her because that is the only way he can justify his own obsession to himself.
so when she begins to slip beyond his controlâwhen she starts to build relationships he cannot access or replicate, when she reacts in ways he cannot predictâhe panics. the documentary becomes his attempt not just to expose her but to define her, to impose an identity on her that ensures he remains the one person who truly âunderstandsâ her. the irony, as you pointed out, is that he never understood her at all.
another point your interpretation brings into focusâand one that the webtoon makes especially clearâis that ah-jin understands jun-seo far better than we as readers or viewers initially do. when she speaks of enacting the âperfect revenge,â it isnât bluster or emotional exaggeration. she identifies precisely the wound that would break him: isolation from the very people he believes he is entitled to.
in the webtoon, this is taken to its sharpest form. their child grows up never knowing who jun-seo is, or even that he exists. ah-jin removes him entirely from the narrative of their lives, and that erasure is devastating precisely because jun-seoâs core pathology is possessionâof stories, of identities, of the people he fixates on. his greatest fear is not punishment; it is irrelevance.
the cruel elegance of her revenge is that jun-seo eventually encounters their daughter without realizing who she is until it is far too late. the moment of recognition comes only after any possibility of connection has vanished. he is left grasping at the edges of a life he cannot enter, watching the shape of what could have been while knowing it will never be his. he is barred not only from ah-jin but from the one relationship that might have anchored him to something genuine.
ultimately, dear x functions as a broader commentary on narrative authorityâspecifically, on how men attempt to author womenâs stories, womenâs identities, and even womenâs bodies. jun-seoâs fixation is not just personal but symbolic: he believes he is entitled to define ah-jin, to interpret her motives, to claim her body, and to determine the moral framework through which others perceive her. the drama systematically exposes and dismantles that entitlement. ah-jin is unquestionably an antihero, but she is one whose actions reveal the underlying power structures that enabled jun-seoâs control in the first place. in both the webtoon and the adaptation, her resistanceâhowever destructiveâbecomes a rejection of the very idea that her story can be authored by anyone but herself.
In drama junseo is actually the monster !!! I honestly think this show was fundamentally telling a different story…
so as I said junseo is actually the monster of the story in drama !
in the original webtoon, jun-seoâs real âtriggerâ isnât moral outrage or any concern for public safety. itâs her pregnancy. when he learns that ah-jin used him to get pregnant and then passed his child off as someone elseâs, thatâs the moment he unravels. the drama translates this motivation differently but preserves the core psychology: jun-seo is a coward in the sense that he cannot tolerate losing ownership of the narrativeâor of ah-jin. he doesnât want justice, and he doesnât want accountability. he wants exclusivity. he wants her to need him, and he frames this desire as âsavingâ her because that is the only way he can justify his own obsession to himself.
so when she begins to slip beyond his controlâwhen she starts to build relationships he cannot access or replicate, when she reacts in ways he cannot predictâhe panics. the documentary becomes his attempt not just to expose her but to define her, to impose an identity on her that ensures he remains the one person who truly âunderstandsâ her. the irony, as you pointed out, is that he never understood her at all.
another point your interpretation brings into focusâand one that the webtoon makes especially clearâis that ah-jin understands jun-seo far better than we as readers or viewers initially do. when she speaks of enacting the âperfect revenge,â it isnât bluster or emotional exaggeration. she identifies precisely the wound that would break him: isolation from the very people he believes he is entitled to.
in the webtoon, this is taken to its sharpest form. their child grows up never knowing who jun-seo is, or even that he exists. ah-jin removes him entirely from the narrative of their lives, and that erasure is devastating precisely because jun-seoâs core pathology is possessionâof stories, of identities, of the people he fixates on. his greatest fear is not punishment; it is irrelevance.
the cruel elegance of her revenge is that jun-seo eventually encounters their daughter without realizing who she is until it is far too late. the moment of recognition comes only after any possibility of connection has vanished. he is left grasping at the edges of a life he cannot enter, watching the shape of what could have been while knowing it will never be his. he is barred not only from ah-jin but from the one relationship that might have anchored him to something genuine.
ultimately, dear x functions as a broader commentary on narrative authorityâspecifically, on how men attempt to author womenâs stories, womenâs identities, and even womenâs bodies. jun-seoâs fixation is not just personal but symbolic: he believes he is entitled to define ah-jin, to interpret her motives, to claim her body, and to determine the moral framework through which others perceive her. the drama systematically exposes and dismantles that entitlement. ah-jin is unquestionably an antihero, but she is one whose actions reveal the underlying power structures that enabled jun-seoâs control in the first place. in both the webtoon and the adaptation, her resistanceâhowever destructiveâbecomes a rejection of the very idea that her story can be authored by anyone but herself.
I honestly think this show was fundamentally telling a different story from what we expected in episode 1 and whatâs in the manhwa. Jun-seo never really saw or understood Ah-jin. That âdocumentaryâ misrepresented her completely and was clearly designed to ruin her.. but not so she couldnât hurt people anymore. Thatâs just what he claimed. Because if that was his interest, he could go to the cops so she could face justice for her actual crimes. But he didnât do that. Instead, he wanted to make her dependent on him so he could be the one to control her, which is what he explicitly said in the car. He viewed it as him saving her but that was him lying to himself.
And also, does it even make any sense that he decided to go that far because of what Jae-ho did? He knew it was Jae-hoâs conscious decision and the show goes out of its way to make it clear he wasnât coerced. And after being married, what did Ah-jin actually do wrong that wasnât her trying to protect herself from someone who was determined to break her? Jun-seo didnât do it for any noble reason; he did that because he wanted to be the one to control Ah-jin, as he himself admitted.
And when you think about it- isnât he the true sociopath of the story? And I mean that just in terms of the clinical definition and not their actions. But isnât he the one who couldnât genuinely engage with Ah-Jin and make her laugh like Jae-oh did? Who couldnât connect with Re-na (versus Ah-jin who actually did connect with In-gang)? When did you ever see him genuinely smile? Over the course of the show, Ah-jin showed more emotions than he did for sure.
And then thereâs the part where we as the audience realize that this whole framing of Ah-jin as a sociopath is something that Jun-seo himself created from the documentary that was shown at the beginning of the series. Itâs not actually based in fact or from any actual direct evaluation by a psychologist.
Now did Ah-jin do many terrible things that she should be held accountable for? Yes without a doubt. But I think any inconsistencies in the story or characters were very much intentional because Jun-seo, who was the source of much of our understanding of her, is an unreliable narrator who never truly saw her. so with that in mind, the ending blew me away and I thought this show was excellent. but I think if Iâd read the manhwa first, I would have had a hard time because it seems the stories are very very different.
I honestly think this show was fundamentally telling a different story from what we expected in episode 1 and…
in the original webtoon, jun-seoâs real âtriggerâ isnât moral outrage or any concern for public safety. itâs her pregnancy. when he learns that ah-jin used him to get pregnant and then passed his child off as someone elseâs, thatâs the moment he unravels. the drama translates this motivation differently but preserves the core psychology: jun-seo is a coward in the sense that he cannot tolerate losing ownership of the narrativeâor of ah-jin. he doesnât want justice, and he doesnât want accountability. he wants exclusivity. he wants her to need him, and he frames this desire as âsavingâ her because that is the only way he can justify his own obsession to himself.
ultimately, dear x functions as a broader commentary on narrative authorityâspecifically, on how men attempt to author womenâs stories, womenâs identities, and even womenâs bodies. jun-seoâs fixation is not just personal but symbolic: he believes he is entitled to define ah-jin, to interpret her motives, to claim her body, and to determine the moral framework through which others perceive her. the drama systematically exposes and dismantles that entitlement. ah-jin is unquestionably an antihero, but she is one whose actions reveal the underlying power structures that enabled jun-seoâs control in the first place. in both the webtoon and the adaptation, her resistanceâhowever destructiveâbecomes a rejection of the very idea that her story can be authored by anyone but herself.
I honestly think this show was fundamentally telling a different story from what we expected in episode 1 and whatâs in the manhwa. Jun-seo never really saw or understood Ah-jin. That âdocumentaryâ misrepresented her completely and was clearly designed to ruin her.. but not so she couldnât hurt people anymore. Thatâs just what he claimed. Because if that was his interest, he could go to the cops so she could face justice for her actual crimes. But he didnât do that. Instead, he wanted to make her dependent on him so he could be the one to control her, which is what he explicitly said in the car. He viewed it as him saving her but that was him lying to himself.
And also, does it even make any sense that he decided to go that far because of what Jae-ho did? He knew it was Jae-hoâs conscious decision and the show goes out of its way to make it clear he wasnât coerced. And after being married, what did Ah-jin actually do wrong that wasnât her trying to protect herself from someone who was determined to break her? Jun-seo didnât do it for any noble reason; he did that because he wanted to be the one to control Ah-jin, as he himself admitted.
And when you think about it- isnât he the true sociopath of the story? And I mean that just in terms of the clinical definition and not their actions. But isnât he the one who couldnât genuinely engage with Ah-Jin and make her laugh like Jae-oh did? Who couldnât connect with Re-na (versus Ah-jin who actually did connect with In-gang)? When did you ever see him genuinely smile? Over the course of the show, Ah-jin showed more emotions than he did for sure.
And then thereâs the part where we as the audience realize that this whole framing of Ah-jin as a sociopath is something that Jun-seo himself created from the documentary that was shown at the beginning of the series. Itâs not actually based in fact or from any actual direct evaluation by a psychologist.
Now did Ah-jin do many terrible things that she should be held accountable for? Yes without a doubt. But I think any inconsistencies in the story or characters were very much intentional because Jun-seo, who was the source of much of our understanding of her, is an unreliable narrator who never truly saw her. so with that in mind, the ending blew me away and I thought this show was excellent. but I think if Iâd read the manhwa first, I would have had a hard time because it seems the stories are very very different.
While he was quite rude to other girls , specially in his interviewâŠ..
I literally hate him after rp 7 âŠ. Saying date at that place was good with anybody
He talks as if he is specialâŠ. A grumpy dudeđđđđđ
Lastly they show them at the end and they have still feelings for eachother đ«€get a life bro .,. Life goes on ⊠I donât even know why they had to break up
Probably no logical reason behind it honestly đ«€
But in the drama the real psycho is junseo unlike the webtonâŠ
Webton and drama have very different storylines
In drama junseo made the documentary so that he can control ajin bcs he wanted ajin for himself but in webtoon he made the documentary bcs he was very angry with ajin using him to get pregnant to marry sb else âŠ.
You can check my review!
in the original webtoon, jun-seoâs real âtriggerâ isnât moral outrage or any concern for public safety. itâs her pregnancy. when he learns that ah-jin used him to get pregnant and then passed his child off as someone elseâs, thatâs the moment he unravels. the drama translates this motivation differently but preserves the core psychology: jun-seo is a coward in the sense that he cannot tolerate losing ownership of the narrativeâor of ah-jin. he doesnât want justice, and he doesnât want accountability. he wants exclusivity. he wants her to need him, and he frames this desire as âsavingâ her because that is the only way he can justify his own obsession to himself.
so when she begins to slip beyond his controlâwhen she starts to build relationships he cannot access or replicate, when she reacts in ways he cannot predictâhe panics. the documentary becomes his attempt not just to expose her but to define her, to impose an identity on her that ensures he remains the one person who truly âunderstandsâ her. the irony, as you pointed out, is that he never understood her at all.
another point your interpretation brings into focusâand one that the webtoon makes especially clearâis that ah-jin understands jun-seo far better than we as readers or viewers initially do. when she speaks of enacting the âperfect revenge,â it isnât bluster or emotional exaggeration. she identifies precisely the wound that would break him: isolation from the very people he believes he is entitled to.
in the webtoon, this is taken to its sharpest form. their child grows up never knowing who jun-seo is, or even that he exists. ah-jin removes him entirely from the narrative of their lives, and that erasure is devastating precisely because jun-seoâs core pathology is possessionâof stories, of identities, of the people he fixates on. his greatest fear is not punishment; it is irrelevance.
the cruel elegance of her revenge is that jun-seo eventually encounters their daughter without realizing who she is until it is far too late. the moment of recognition comes only after any possibility of connection has vanished. he is left grasping at the edges of a life he cannot enter, watching the shape of what could have been while knowing it will never be his. he is barred not only from ah-jin but from the one relationship that might have anchored him to something genuine.
ultimately, dear x functions as a broader commentary on narrative authorityâspecifically, on how men attempt to author womenâs stories, womenâs identities, and even womenâs bodies. jun-seoâs fixation is not just personal but symbolic: he believes he is entitled to define ah-jin, to interpret her motives, to claim her body, and to determine the moral framework through which others perceive her. the drama systematically exposes and dismantles that entitlement. ah-jin is unquestionably an antihero, but she is one whose actions reveal the underlying power structures that enabled jun-seoâs control in the first place. in both the webtoon and the adaptation, her resistanceâhowever destructiveâbecomes a rejection of the very idea that her story can be authored by anyone but herself.
in the original webtoon, jun-seoâs real âtriggerâ isnât moral outrage or any concern for public safety. itâs her pregnancy. when he learns that ah-jin used him to get pregnant and then passed his child off as someone elseâs, thatâs the moment he unravels. the drama translates this motivation differently but preserves the core psychology: jun-seo is a coward in the sense that he cannot tolerate losing ownership of the narrativeâor of ah-jin. he doesnât want justice, and he doesnât want accountability. he wants exclusivity. he wants her to need him, and he frames this desire as âsavingâ her because that is the only way he can justify his own obsession to himself.
so when she begins to slip beyond his controlâwhen she starts to build relationships he cannot access or replicate, when she reacts in ways he cannot predictâhe panics. the documentary becomes his attempt not just to expose her but to define her, to impose an identity on her that ensures he remains the one person who truly âunderstandsâ her. the irony, as you pointed out, is that he never understood her at all.
another point your interpretation brings into focusâand one that the webtoon makes especially clearâis that ah-jin understands jun-seo far better than we as readers or viewers initially do. when she speaks of enacting the âperfect revenge,â it isnât bluster or emotional exaggeration. she identifies precisely the wound that would break him: isolation from the very people he believes he is entitled to.
in the webtoon, this is taken to its sharpest form. their child grows up never knowing who jun-seo is, or even that he exists. ah-jin removes him entirely from the narrative of their lives, and that erasure is devastating precisely because jun-seoâs core pathology is possessionâof stories, of identities, of the people he fixates on. his greatest fear is not punishment; it is irrelevance.
the cruel elegance of her revenge is that jun-seo eventually encounters their daughter without realizing who she is until it is far too late. the moment of recognition comes only after any possibility of connection has vanished. he is left grasping at the edges of a life he cannot enter, watching the shape of what could have been while knowing it will never be his. he is barred not only from ah-jin but from the one relationship that might have anchored him to something genuine.
ultimately, dear x functions as a broader commentary on narrative authorityâspecifically, on how men attempt to author womenâs stories, womenâs identities, and even womenâs bodies. jun-seoâs fixation is not just personal but symbolic: he believes he is entitled to define ah-jin, to interpret her motives, to claim her body, and to determine the moral framework through which others perceive her. the drama systematically exposes and dismantles that entitlement. ah-jin is unquestionably an antihero, but she is one whose actions reveal the underlying power structures that enabled jun-seoâs control in the first place. in both the webtoon and the adaptation, her resistanceâhowever destructiveâbecomes a rejection of the very idea that her story can be authored by anyone but herself.
in the original webtoon, jun-seoâs real âtriggerâ isnât moral outrage or any concern for public safety. itâs her pregnancy. when he learns that ah-jin used him to get pregnant and then passed his child off as someone elseâs, thatâs the moment he unravels. the drama translates this motivation differently but preserves the core psychology: jun-seo is a coward in the sense that he cannot tolerate losing ownership of the narrativeâor of ah-jin. he doesnât want justice, and he doesnât want accountability. he wants exclusivity. he wants her to need him, and he frames this desire as âsavingâ her because that is the only way he can justify his own obsession to himself.
so when she begins to slip beyond his controlâwhen she starts to build relationships he cannot access or replicate, when she reacts in ways he cannot predictâhe panics. the documentary becomes his attempt not just to expose her but to define her, to impose an identity on her that ensures he remains the one person who truly âunderstandsâ her. the irony, as you pointed out, is that he never understood her at all.
another point your interpretation brings into focusâand one that the webtoon makes especially clearâis that ah-jin understands jun-seo far better than we as readers or viewers initially do. when she speaks of enacting the âperfect revenge,â it isnât bluster or emotional exaggeration. she identifies precisely the wound that would break him: isolation from the very people he believes he is entitled to.
in the webtoon, this is taken to its sharpest form. their child grows up never knowing who jun-seo is, or even that he exists. ah-jin removes him entirely from the narrative of their lives, and that erasure is devastating precisely because jun-seoâs core pathology is possessionâof stories, of identities, of the people he fixates on. his greatest fear is not punishment; it is irrelevance.
the cruel elegance of her revenge is that jun-seo eventually encounters their daughter without realizing who she is until it is far too late. the moment of recognition comes only after any possibility of connection has vanished. he is left grasping at the edges of a life he cannot enter, watching the shape of what could have been while knowing it will never be his. he is barred not only from ah-jin but from the one relationship that might have anchored him to something genuine.
ultimately, dear x functions as a broader commentary on narrative authorityâspecifically, on how men attempt to author womenâs stories, womenâs identities, and even womenâs bodies. jun-seoâs fixation is not just personal but symbolic: he believes he is entitled to define ah-jin, to interpret her motives, to claim her body, and to determine the moral framework through which others perceive her. the drama systematically exposes and dismantles that entitlement. ah-jin is unquestionably an antihero, but she is one whose actions reveal the underlying power structures that enabled jun-seoâs control in the first place. in both the webtoon and the adaptation, her resistanceâhowever destructiveâbecomes a rejection of the very idea that her story can be authored by anyone but herself.
I honestly think this show was fundamentally telling a different story from what we expected in episode 1 and whatâs in the manhwa. Jun-seo never really saw or understood Ah-jin. That âdocumentaryâ misrepresented her completely and was clearly designed to ruin her.. but not so she couldnât hurt people anymore. Thatâs just what he claimed. Because if that was his interest, he could go to the cops so she could face justice for her actual crimes. But he didnât do that. Instead, he wanted to make her dependent on him so he could be the one to control her, which is what he explicitly said in the car. He viewed it as him saving her but that was him lying to himself.
And also, does it even make any sense that he decided to go that far because of what Jae-ho did? He knew it was Jae-hoâs conscious decision and the show goes out of its way to make it clear he wasnât coerced. And after being married, what did Ah-jin actually do wrong that wasnât her trying to protect herself from someone who was determined to break her? Jun-seo didnât do it for any noble reason; he did that because he wanted to be the one to control Ah-jin, as he himself admitted.
And when you think about it- isnât he the true sociopath of the story? And I mean that just in terms of the clinical definition and not their actions. But isnât he the one who couldnât genuinely engage with Ah-Jin and make her laugh like Jae-oh did? Who couldnât connect with Re-na (versus Ah-jin who actually did connect with In-gang)? When did you ever see him genuinely smile? Over the course of the show, Ah-jin showed more emotions than he did for sure.
And then thereâs the part where we as the audience realize that this whole framing of Ah-jin as a sociopath is something that Jun-seo himself created from the documentary that was shown at the beginning of the series. Itâs not actually based in fact or from any actual direct evaluation by a psychologist.
Now did Ah-jin do many terrible things that she should be held accountable for? Yes without a doubt. But I think any inconsistencies in the story or characters were very much intentional because Jun-seo, who was the source of much of our understanding of her, is an unreliable narrator who never truly saw her. so with that in mind, the ending blew me away and I thought this show was excellent. but I think if Iâd read the manhwa first, I would have had a hard time because it seems the stories are very very different.
ultimately, dear x functions as a broader commentary on narrative authorityâspecifically, on how men attempt to author womenâs stories, womenâs identities, and even womenâs bodies. jun-seoâs fixation is not just personal but symbolic: he believes he is entitled to define ah-jin, to interpret her motives, to claim her body, and to determine the moral framework through which others perceive her. the drama systematically exposes and dismantles that entitlement. ah-jin is unquestionably an antihero, but she is one whose actions reveal the underlying power structures that enabled jun-seoâs control in the first place. in both the webtoon and the adaptation, her resistanceâhowever destructiveâbecomes a rejection of the very idea that her story can be authored by anyone but herself.
And also, does it even make any sense that he decided to go that far because of what Jae-ho did? He knew it was Jae-hoâs conscious decision and the show goes out of its way to make it clear he wasnât coerced. And after being married, what did Ah-jin actually do wrong that wasnât her trying to protect herself from someone who was determined to break her? Jun-seo didnât do it for any noble reason; he did that because he wanted to be the one to control Ah-jin, as he himself admitted.
And when you think about it- isnât he the true sociopath of the story? And I mean that just in terms of the clinical definition and not their actions. But isnât he the one who couldnât genuinely engage with Ah-Jin and make her laugh like Jae-oh did? Who couldnât connect with Re-na (versus Ah-jin who actually did connect with In-gang)? When did you ever see him genuinely smile? Over the course of the show, Ah-jin showed more emotions than he did for sure.
And then thereâs the part where we as the audience realize that this whole framing of Ah-jin as a sociopath is something that Jun-seo himself created from the documentary that was shown at the beginning of the series. Itâs not actually based in fact or from any actual direct evaluation by a psychologist.
Now did Ah-jin do many terrible things that she should be held accountable for? Yes without a doubt. But I think any inconsistencies in the story or characters were very much intentional because Jun-seo, who was the source of much of our understanding of her, is an unreliable narrator who never truly saw her. so with that in mind, the ending blew me away and I thought this show was excellent. but I think if Iâd read the manhwa first, I would have had a hard time because it seems the stories are very very different.