Kate

long ass comment, be careful.

Since we are getting close to the end of the show, here I am sharing my biased views.

This could have been so much more, and I feel like the pulled "cheese in the trap" v.2 on me. Is it really that hard to pick a rom-com slice of life webtoon to adapt, if you want to make a rom-com slice of life drama? Why pick a source material that does not fit into this box, to change it so much?

On the characters:
Yeo Joon is for sure the star of the show, the most interesting one (even if he is not my favorite). They did a good job with his introduction and character development. It was gradual and realistic. He did not just changed completely one day, he still at times tries to fight his demons alone, still learning how to open to others. Nice. What I needed more tho: his interactions with the brother. We had like 3 scenes... that's not enough for me to be invested in what is going on there. His relationship with his family defined who he was and how he acted for the majority of his life... so for it to not have more important in the healing aspect is a bit... weird?

Nam Soo Hyun, ma favorite boi. Damn they did him dirty with the lack of screen time. He is the main character, but he barely showed in some episodes. With that, his character development is nowhere near as well written as Yeo Joon's. It was not as organic and natural. And then there is the issue of him being straight in the show, when he is gay in the webtoon - truly hate it. I would not be mad if they did not state he is gay in the show, but also kept him away from love lines overall, disappointing but not infuriating. Some people say that he was in a love triangle with these girls in a webtoon so they do follow the source material - well, you are wrong. There is a huge difference between being in a love triangle where you like one of the girls, and just being liked by 2 girls when you have no romantic feelings to either of them.

Kim So Bin... honestly, it would be so easy to write her into the story as the main, with good arc and character development, if the writers and director have a shit... but it feels like they did not. They started so many plot lines that could have been developed better for her, if majority of her existence did not revolve around Yeo Joon. She should have been more of an individual, and less of a love interested. Make her struggle between liking Chan Ki and Yeo Joon bigger deal - make it represent how it's hard for her to move on from the familiar aspects even if they might hurt her, how taking chances is scary etc. Make her conflict with professor Song her motive for a change. You can't just make that professor insult her left and right, and then they are on a trip together like ain't no problem. make So Bin learn how to protect her hard work through her interactions with professor Song. Just.... damn conclude at least ONE of her story lines 😂 She had enough screen time for an amazing development, it was just not given to her. Even the live stream scene in episode 9... she is there to be saved by Yeo Joon after making stupid decisions and not being able to say no... by now she should be more than that.

Young Ran and Mi Joo - love them together. I truly appreciate how they show a realistic portray of "love rivalry" between friends. Like damn, girls don't just drop their friends coz a boy shows up. It's far more on: we will both try, whoever will get a happy ending, the other will be happy for them. So that aspect I truly appreciate. That said, I wish they showed us more of their building friendship. As individual characters... I find it sad most of their arc is focused on the unrequited love as if they don't have anything else going on in their lives... Especially with Mi Joo... damn girl needs a hobby or something.

Not much to say about Chan Ki... he is there. Funny at times, but does not bring much to the table.

The problematic seniors... oof. Okay, listen I get there is trash in every university, but the lack of consequences is annoying as fuck and unrealistic. No way, after assault like that they would not face any problems from the university 😂 Young Ran drinking with the guys after Soo Bin's accident also is just wrong. It's not like they saw their friend do this and made everything they could to stop it. One of them knew about the plan and did nothing, and at the end, the only reason they told Yeo Joon where it happens was being scared about legal problems. So when I saw Young Ran be like "drinks on me" with them, I was like "bish... why?🙃".

There are 3 episodes left but... I feel like the drama leads to nowhere. They spend so much time on the romance, everything else in underdeveloped. And instead of moving on from he romance now that Yeo Joon and So Bin are together, and trying to save other plot lines, they add more romance just for the rest of the characters, COZ NO ONE CAN STAY SINGLE IN K-DRAMAS 😂

The synopsis just ain't right. There is little to no campus life, not enough friendship shown, not only between Yeo Joon and Soo Hyun, but all the rest of the characters, and everything boils down to romance. If they were honest, said: listen, this another rom-com with some slice of life, but romance focused. You will get some bromance, BUT remember romance focused - less people would be annoyed.

Also, as I said at the beginning - you want romance driven drama, adapt romance driven webtoon 🙃
god bless anyone who actually read it whole hahahaha

you dropped your 👑

Well, they were inside the campus when the dudes beat the crap out of Yeo Joon 😂
If she was not stupid, but smart, she would never in a million years go anywhere alone with any of these guys.

I think what it meant is: the truth does not matter, as long as you can make people emotionally engaged with what you are saying. Sad and tragic stories of good heros sell.

It does not necessarily mean Yo Han's story is a lie, but rather how quickly Ga On apologized and changed his mind after just hearing Yo Han, without seeing any real proof. Like, this is exactly what Yo Han does during the court sessions: he frames the stories with as much emotional attachment as possible coz he knows this will get a justice verdict from society, if he just stated the truth emotionless, it would not work.

well... being objective it's closer to 2, but I did have a lot of fun as a hate watch at the beginning hence I gave it some bonus points hahaha

Yeah, but my point is you said "there is a time to voice your opinion and there is a time to listen. Please, listen." listen to whom? Author of the article? What exactly makes them more trustworthy to speak on the issue compared to others who commented. If we go by the logic of "anyone can say anything on the internet" the author of the article can be wrong too. So who do you say others should listen to?

And it is true you were selective in naming the people who disagreed with the article.

The problem I have with the article is the fact the drama does accurately represent someone far on the spectrum, when there are many dramas which did poor job portraying that. So "calling out" one that did it fairly well is a bit weird for me. Rather than calling out the drama that did well with representation for the people far on the spectrum, it would be better to criticize the ones that did poorly with portraying it. There are plenty.

A full on article focusing on overall lack of representation of autism in media would be amazing. Showing that most representation deals with either people far on spectrum or high functioning ones that almost always have Savant Syndrome. Comparing good and bad examples in these areas, and how there is no representation for the people who are somewhere around the "middle" of the spectrum is the way to go. Not criticizing a show that does well with representing part of the community, coz they did not represented it whole (which would be impossible in the first place).

Also, there are people who have autistic kids who commented saying it's accurate, there are psychologist and psychiatrists who said the same. Sadly you did not mention these people when talking about people who disagree with the article.

The one having problems with sympathizing was Dan Oh, if anything, having problems with social interactions and empathy. She literally did not get how calling someone peasant might be offensive". How she treated that gay friend, she herself admitted it was wrong, but at the time of doing it, she saw no problem. She slowly learned how to see things from perspective of others, but at first it was all about her.

I am not saying he is just an introvert and has no issues, I'm saying he had issues, but the core of them was most likely his abusive father and not autism. Chances of someone on the spectrum living in such a abusive home and growing up so well to be so high functioning without getting any therapy etc. are rather low. If we take into consideration his whole history, it makes more sense that his problems were rooted in something else and not autism.

The whole difference between Seon Gyeom and someone on the spectrum was, it's not like he had problems with these aspects, he just did not care most of the times. I remember people were pointing out he had problems with abstract thinking, but it was not true. He just preferred logical one, but did not have problems understanding the abstract. And this was the case for more situations. He understood social cues more often than not, but often he just did not bother to act accordingly.

Ig someone claims he is on spectrum this would be one of the worst representations, why? Coz it makes no sense. It would mean his symptoms turn on and off depending on the situations. He can understand some delicate social situations and act accordingly, but did not with some obvious ones. He can get better with "power of love" and I guess abuse has no negative impact on him in terms of his disorder...

Run On because the ML was just so obviously dysfunctional < yes, but he clearly did not have autism. He had low social skills because of his upbringing. Not everyone who struggles with social interactions and would rather keep themselves isolated is autistic. Some problems are the results of upbringing and can be improved with training and proper socialization (like it happened with Seon Gyeom). Dan Ah was also "dysfunctional" as you put it, for exactly the same reasons as Seon Gyeom - lack of proper socialization and bad upbringing.

And seeing how non of them got "cured" by the end, but they slightly improved (and I mean really slightly) was a good take. Not everything has to be fixed.

Me casually writing 3rd comment coz after reading some other people's thoughts I wanted to share mine on one more aspect 🙃

About Gang Tae and Sang Tae's relationship, I think it was meant to show the shortcomings and flaws of Gang Tae, and not Sang Tae. It was Gang Tae that was limiting Sang Tae, and not Sang Tae being burden and limiting Gang Tae. Even tho I dropped the show, from the episodes I have seen, Gang Tae was unhealthily and unnecessarily protective of Sang Tae in many occasions - it represented Gang Tae's psychological struggles and problems, rather than Sang Tae being a burden for him.

Rather than showing Sang Tae as a burden, it showed the mistakes people can make when growing up/taking care/parenting someone with ASD. Their mother put too much responsibility on Gang Tae and paid not enough attention to him as a younger child, hence he started to have this unhealthy protector/healer view on himself, his identity was "I am sacrificing myself for others", his identity was taking care of Sang Tae, even when he did not ask for it nor needed it. It was his problem, not Sang Tae's.

At least that's how I saw it from the few episodes I have watched before dropping. That said, I still disliked the drama itself 🤣

For Ko Moon Young being romanticization of ASPD, I would rather said... it's just lazy writing. The writers want a "unique, quirky female lead that defines the status quo" so they give her some kind of disorder, but they don't take into consideration that it will set limits to some aspects to the story itself. They want to wow the audience with representation without putting the work to make sure the character they write makes sense. And we end up with stuff like healing disorders with the power of love, forgetting about certain symptoms the character displayed, coz they stopped fitting the plot etc.

She does have ASPD. People who say she does not, write it to explain the lazy writing and her love for ML, also the fact her symptoms got better after she fell in love.

I think the problem is not that his character represented stereotypical portray of ASD, but rather that the only representation this group gets in media are autistic people further on the spectrum. While the representation is correct for that small part of the community, it does not represent the community as a whole.

That said, in IOTNBO Sang Tae not being so far on the spectrum would make no sense story wise. The whole show would have to be completely rewitten, including ML, his behavior, motivation and thr whole arc.

During majority of interviews Seo Ye Ji said she is playing Moon Young a character with either antisocial personality or ASPD. She used both phrases interchangeably. And again, the character fits the diagnostic criteria extremely well.

"a lot more dangerous people without any mental health issue in regard to people with ASPD" realistically speaking, everyone who is a true threat to society or themselves has some kind of mental problems, WHILE not everyone who has a mental problem is a threat to society. I did not check any statistics on how dangerous are people with ASPD as a group compared to general society, but taking into consideration the characteristics of this disorder, it would make sense they would be more prone to criminal acts. But that's "logically" and not scientifically speaking, since I did not check any research on it.

About Sang Tae, his portray was rather realistic. The further someone is on the spectrum the more "stereotypical" they would seem - more obssessions, deficits in social communication, repetitive patterns of behavior (repetitive motor movements, inflexible adherence to routines). It's realistic. The problem is, this is usually the representation presented coz it's the easiest to write. It goes for all disorders - it's easier to write "extreme" cases coz you can just incorporate all the symptoms without thinking about all the nuances like which symptoms usually group together, in what situations they show up more etc., since you use them all. It's simply way eaier to write someone who is far on the spectrum compared with someone who would in the past be described as someone with asperger syndrome. The "lower" on the spectrum, the more diversity in behavior, the further on the spectrum, the more similiarities...

For Moon Young, Seo Ye Ji literally introduced her character as one suffering with ASPD, so saying she does not have it is not true. Moon Young fits almost all diagnostic criteria easily. One can survive a trauma, have ptsd AND aspd.

"I'm very sure that a lot more they don't have any mental health issue" < having ASPD is a mental health issue. It's a personality disorder (as it states in the name).

I don't fully agree with the article myself, but your comment is not exactly correct either.

I watched it this year, but some time ago. But I wrote the review only now 🤣

Yeah I don't mean drama with the actress as the main, I mean La Ri Ma as the character being the main :)

So when can we get a spin off with La Ri Ma as the main character?
Coz I would pay some $$ to see it.