AH

The heroes don't come out of the final showdown completely and unrealistically unscathed, but the sacrifices they made were not frustrating or in vain and they do get some happiness. The villains get what they deserve.

I personally consider it one of the most satisfying drama endings I've ever encountered. It is bittersweet in a satisfying way that wraps up the storyline really well, with lots of closure. Definitely not an open ending.

Eugene is 39 (Hui Seong is 30 and Eugene was 9 when HS was born) and when Wan Ik learns of Ae Sin's birth year he concludes that she must be 28 or 29. So the characters have a ten year gap even though the actors have a 20 year gap.

There's also very little skinship.

In case anyone else was curious, in episode 9 he says it took a month!

Question 483: what is the deeper meaning behind the blackbird / blue sky observation? In that saying, does the blackbird represent a bad omen? Something that doesn't belong?

I'll let you know if I find a good source :)

I think the focus on the tea cups might have been a reference to the old potter's famous white porcelain. Yoo Jin also mentioned following "the bowl" to the potter. I'm not sure exactly which bowl he was referring to, unless it was a mistranslation and should have said tea cup, but again it presumably was a bowl or cup made in the potter's unique and coveted white porcelain style.

Is there a good place to read recaps / analysis / meta for this show? Every episode I have a million questions. Like Yoo Jin's comment about the style of the tea cups and all the shots focusing on them - is that meant to be significant in some way? And butchers being a low position in society... I read the wiki page on Baekjeong but I'd like to know more. Please let me know if you know of any good sources!

I'm watching episode one now (I've been trying to hold off watching until it was finished airing) and I'm really curious about the route Yoo Jin's ship took? The journey he took as a child would have been in the late 1800s. The Panama Canal wasn't used until 1914. Does the show ever say what route the ship took or how long the journey was?

Also when the narrator (Ae Sin I assume?) says that "The Joseon that many died to protect was destroyed by the landing of the Japanese naval forces. The number of their troops was only 14." Does she mean 14 ships? 14 battalions? Only 14 Joseon soldiers put up a defence? Surely she doesn't mean only 14 Japanese soldiers attacked?

Although I didn't enjoy the show as a whole, I feel like I should mention that I've been listening to Gaho's song (https://youtu.be/joVCpK5ZXF4) almost non-stop for the past three days. So even though I escaped the heartbreak I haven't moved on completely!

Thank you for writing this. I did end up watching it and I didn't enjoy it. Even before the point in the drama where they had to re-write the script to accommodate KJH leaving I still only enjoyed a small handful of scenes. I agree that the FL was quite disappointing. Which was almost a good thing because I didn't find the drama as heart-wrenching and depressing as I thought I would because I wasn't invested in the characters or the story. Even with Soo Ho's story line, despite KJH's performance (which was definitely the best part of the drama), I just ended up tired. His death was almost a relief because the writer just would not give him a break.

I'm so glad you posted this. So good to know in advance to avoid becoming frustrated while watching!

No that makes me want to watch it more >.<

Can someone talk me out of watching this? I don't want to get sucked into 16 episodes of soul-crushing depression, but I keep seeing gifsets from this drama on tumblr and they're really tempting me to watch this despite all the warnings.

:D I'm glad I can start it sooner then! Thanks for pointing that out!

So it sounds like there will be 6 more 1 hour episodes / 12 more 35-minute episodes over the next 3 weeks for a total of 20 1-hour episodes / 40 35-minute episodes. I guess dramafever made a mistake with the episode total then. Thanks for replying :)

I'm confused. This page says 40 episodes (35 minutes each) and the drama will finish airing October 1, but on dramafever it says the drama will be 16 episodes, and 14 episodes (1 hour each) are already available. So are there just two more episodes that will air next week, or are there a bunch more episodes?

I tried so hard to wait to start watching this drama until it finished airing but I caved yesterday and now I've watched all 14 episodes and have to wait until the weekend for the last two episodes TT.TT

I have to agree with everything KaiaLynn said. The first eight episodes were amazing. A solid 10 for me. And then it was like the next eight episodes were written by an entirely different person.

Links to the first four episodes are posted at the bottom of this page: https://www.facebook.com/notes/lazy-subber/240818-love-by-chance-ep4-subbed/663337274033727/

As much as I love well-executed drama cliches, I'm really enjoying all the little ways this drama /doesn't/ follow the usual script.