thismonday

Yeah, that exactly what people said about this drama, 9 years old and 18 years old is when she proposed to Seo Ha in ep 2, that's not just a big gap but she was a child, proposed to someone she just know because she remember their relationship when he is 8 years old. The difference is her emotional maturity is not 9 nor 12, she had already matured based on the drama own narration. She had developed mentally and she even said "wait until I grow up", she knows it.

The leads on this drama are not meeting from the beginning as mid 20s and early 30s, she started to be fixated marrying him on 9 years old. There's a difference in developmental levels with child and teenagers and the teens doesn't even like her. Had she doesn't want to marry him when she was 9, people wouldn't talk much about it. The episode 2 is what creeps people.

I am bringing Goblin because I also don't think goblin is okay but the comment above me saying that no one talk or criticize goblin and everyone loves goblin when the truth is, people criticize goblin age difference, it was when it just aired and still is being talked even now. Idk why people makes this false narrative that Goblin was never get heated by its own premise.

"FL is an adult trapped in the body of a kid "
this is her though, all the stuff she talked as 12 years old (18th life) and 9 years old (19th life) is about how she is not a child and she draws parallel from her earlier life. She said it, the reason she is into Seo Ha is because he makes her feel different emotion since her emotion has numb from the memories of previous life. 12 years old don't have numbing emotion without prior trauma, she grows up suddenly, her mother said that.

"She is herself and acting her age."
She is herself but she didn't act her age though, she went to tv with her previous life skill and previous life memories, she knows how to make investment , business and she conduct herself like an adult.
Look at her reaction when she saw her drunk father swarmed into the house in the 19th life, she didn't flinch out, don't even help her mother (just realized this), look at her expression when she saw her mother leave the house from the window, no 9 years old do this.
The mother that raised her for 9 years just left, a 9 years old will wallow on her mother decision, asking her to come back, even in this drama universe as we see Seo Ha felt devastated by his mother passed away. What makes you think she act her age?

" She lives each of her lives as a different person, different body, different background, different upbringing, education, philosophy, dreams, ambitions."
You said this and then the next line "She is herself and acting her age",
You contradicted yourself, is it different person or herself?
She didn't restart herself, her understanding of the world didn't changes when she remember her past life, she chose different route of life because she knows better than a 9 years old and it because she is her self and her past life. She indeed changes based on the environment but all of us does that, it's a natural , what's not natural is that she remembers all her past life. The drama shows that this memories makes her different in the present life and makes her intrigues by this 8 years old boy (who isn't even interesting enough in the drama).

This is the disconnect, as other have mentioned below. When she was 9th on the 19th life, she went to find the 17-18 years old guy and propose to marry him.
They didn't have prior interaction beside the previous life, the only interaction before that is when he was 8 years old.

Why did she propose and fixated on that? What makes the 8 years old a husband candidate for her and make the 24 years old self still agree with this assessment? She could've changes her mind.
She even said to wait until she grows up and this is a 9 years old?
She planned this since she is 9, what 9 years old do this?
From all the above, we can sufficiently said that she isn't exactly 9 years old, her emotional maturity has always been matured, even in the office, people are praising her because she never acted her age.
why would you suddenly not taking account the actual scenes in the drama?

You aren't the only one who felt uncomfortable, you can find the same sentiment from different user in the comment section below

I am Asian and maybe I should start with that but in my experience it's not common, I've seen kindergartener talk about being couple but "marry me" is still a big jump.
I've watched Asian drama growing up and we even joke about this trope at school cause we don't witness that and we always think this is only happen in drama,
Other Asian can helps me to explain, truthfully, for me this is more of asian drama plot since manga era.

I am Asian and maybe I should start with that but in my experience it's not common, I've seen kindergartener talk about being couple but "marry me" is still a big jump.
I've watched Asian drama growing up and we even joke about this trope at school cause we don't witness that and we always think this is only happen in drama,
Other Asian can helps me to explain, truthfully, for me this is more of asian drama plot since manga era.

yeah, I think it shouldn't be called scandal because the original news has different interpretation/usage of the word.

oooooh, that would make an interesting turn around. What if he doesn't turn out nice and kind, how would people reacted to the pairing. I lowkey things they should do this instead of him being nice and shy since this is changing their dynamic from the 18th life.

I feel the same with "great concept-poor execution". I don't get why people shouldn't hold the drama accountable for their own world building and story.
Drama with less stake will have the viewer suspend their belief easier. It's drama that build viewer expectation and not the viewer who has to adjust their expectation so the drama is good in their mind.
The more the drama give the viewer plot thought, theory and world building, the more viewer will spend time thinking about it .
And just because it has good initial premise and world building doesn't mean it's automatically good.

this exact scene makes me rethinking the whole things again, like I thought about it before but seeing it on the screen makes you feel like it's illegal. they really should cast someone younger, the male lead is huge.

For my whole life years, it's not common for kids to said marry me to their adult crushes, I don't think if they even have adult crushes, for <10 years old, even 15 is like 40 years old, they can't comprehend how old is 20 years old.
They do the pretend couple or some is being a couple as young as in kindergarten but they usually do it by mimicking what they see in tv show and with their peers.
I think it's a drama trope.

I remember the gumiho drama, she is like in her college years and the man in that drama actually interacted with her as adult before thinking about romance, even then he still questioned himself.
This drama should add that scene since she was mature and then immature for no reason, it's the writing and the obsession that makes you feel uncomfortable, like sudden flashback when they talk and the drama scene kind of reinforce you to think that
"she is mature and had life 19th life and he was that child" with their frame.

Stop the flashback to their childhood years after telling us how many lifes she had, it didn't help people who already thought about their age difference.

I also found it a bit weird how she was so mature and grown-up-like in her 18th life, but suddenly she acts immature and like a child in her 19th life?

Yes, the transition is jarring, I think this is writing problem, the drama doesn't have a good writing.
It has an excellent premise/plot but the execution falls flat. This drama reminds me with a lot of Kdrama in recent years, it sounds good in paper and the beginning has massive plot but the expalnation and execution doesn't good, It makes you rated it low on rewatch.

I haven't watch nine tale and bulgasal but I remember how Goblin has a lot of controversy when it aired. MDL wasn't big and even now, there are people who think it's problematic, you can even see it in MDL Goblin page.
Correlation does not imply causation, not everyone watch bulgasal and nine taled but this one is the buzz drama right now and Goblin was like this, back then on the discuss comment section.
Please be aware that not everyone watch all drama and suddenly being hypocrite to this drama on purpose. Goblin, as much as it's praised, it was a heated debate and there is also middle ground opinion where in Goblin, the FL has the power to control the dynamic and was well aware of the Goblin story from the beginning, she was getting the information just like the viewer about his myth, his power, his age and she is like 16 or 18. There is nuance in stuff and the criticism here is not because it's an older female, have you heard about the 100 years old anime loli debate?

I hope so, maybe it will explain better later
So far, the 2 episode didn't have a good writing imho

hostile much?
I plan to watch it to see how it developed later but the idea that viewer shouldn't watch problematic show or show they criticize is bizarre.
We watch drama for the story and who knows that it will turn out like this and if it gets worse? Who will even show other that the drama isn't good if only people who made up their mind that this is good is left to review.
It's like you discourage a fair observation or even any different idea than "this drama is good and totally unproblematic"
Did other people opinion really don't count?

The man over 100 years old still getting a lot of criticism though, it's the viewer that let it passed that makes it this kind of story keep going, people who criticize it always there and keep commenting about it, you can see how there will be "list of uncomfortable romance we didn't aware before" every single years. You even see in this comment section that people remember Goblin has this discussion too.
Also I read below and the problem is not the age gap, it's that she likes him when he is like 8, it's like he is 8 and she is like "yes, I'll marry him"
come on, he's basically a child and she isn't a child

yk, I thought people are become more sensitive with hints of romance depiction with minor but apparently, we shouldn't think in fantasy or we shouldn't say anything is uncomfortable if there was another drama that was popular with the same genre a long time ago. smh

omg not the misogyny,
people mind in Goblin, I believe a lot of people make fuss about it and still until this day.
I don't like goblin but at least in that , she is high school student and if I remember it right, she already know that she is a goblin bride by the ghost around her and it was her that jump into him since she can call him based on her will, that means she got the upper hand.
Your comparison doesn't make sense because from what I read, people mind that the young boy is like <10 years old, not that he is younger.

Came here because I just can't shake the uncomfortable feeling about the way she like the young boy and find out that it's a disagreement. I thought it's clearly kinda creepy, especially after episode 2.
I don't think being fiction and fantasy can justify the creepy vibe it has.
Also the age things is not something that can be glossed over since it's in the premise, it's emphasized by the drama several times with flashback and also conversation dialogues. Every 15 minutes in the drama is a reference about how she has a lot of life and how she remember being grown up in war, in a circus or how she understood history.
It's so noticeable that I thought everyone see it. People can still watch what they want, doesn't mean the drama vibe become less creepy.
I even make account because I want to say that this doesn't feel right.