This review may contain spoilers
Another Hate to Love Trope
I almost could not watch the first two episodes of this series. I'm not okay with bullying and the fact that the writers had the audacity to have the victim of bullying fall in love with the person who bullied him and purposefully without even caring about the other person, attempted to ruin his life. I mean, later he was like, "I didn't know it was that important to you," but is that supposed to make it okay? That's the lamest excuse I've ever heard and still not an actual apology. In real life, hate to love does not exist because people don't fall in love with people who are cruel, thoughtless, and selfish from the very beginning. Yes, you might find out they are that way later, but if they treat you like crap from the get go, you don't value that relationship or that person. That just isn't reality. Someone will definitely say, "it's fiction" but the reason we write stories, read stories, make movies and view movies is because we want to relate to those characters. If you can't relate to the characters, you won't care what happens to them and won't care about their story. You can't believe in a love that is built on this kind of stupidity.
I was finally able to start watching it without skipping over half the scenes by episode 3. The actors were fairly believable and the music was okay. Korean BLs tend to be very hands off and that's okay, but despite their decent chemistry, I had a hard time finding many reasons to like the bully ML. From the beginning to the end, he wasn't someone I liked. I had sympathy for him for about 2 minutes, but he was such a jerk and often hateful, so my sympathy didn't extend far. The other ML was much more likable, but since I didn't like his romantic partner, it was kind of wasted. To be honest, he had just as much on screen chemistry with his rival archer as he did with the bully. That would have been a relationship I would prefer for them to develop. Two people who are supposed to be rivals but respect each other and fall in love while still having to compete against each other would be a much better story than the hate to love trope that is way too predicatible and unbelieveable. The story of them actually falling in love and getting together got kind of thrown in at the end. Like, two years later we meet again and decide to wait for each other to be ready, then two years later we're sort of in a relationship, but it's more like best friends. Why ask a bunch of questions about your boyfriend at the end? Haven't they been supposedly trying to work things out to be together for the past two years and just now they decide to ask what the other likes? Why not spend some time on those two years rather than just skipping it and leaving us wondering why they stayed around for two years when neither of them seems to have developed closer feelings to the other over all that time?
Despite all the negativity that I feel towards the actual couple, there were some good moments. Mostly the themes of coming to terms with your sexuality, learning how to love and forgive yourself, and finding your way in the world. I don't want to ruin the actualy good messages, because they are pretty much the only redeeming quality of this series. I wouldn't watch it again, but it wasn't a complete waste of time.
I was finally able to start watching it without skipping over half the scenes by episode 3. The actors were fairly believable and the music was okay. Korean BLs tend to be very hands off and that's okay, but despite their decent chemistry, I had a hard time finding many reasons to like the bully ML. From the beginning to the end, he wasn't someone I liked. I had sympathy for him for about 2 minutes, but he was such a jerk and often hateful, so my sympathy didn't extend far. The other ML was much more likable, but since I didn't like his romantic partner, it was kind of wasted. To be honest, he had just as much on screen chemistry with his rival archer as he did with the bully. That would have been a relationship I would prefer for them to develop. Two people who are supposed to be rivals but respect each other and fall in love while still having to compete against each other would be a much better story than the hate to love trope that is way too predicatible and unbelieveable. The story of them actually falling in love and getting together got kind of thrown in at the end. Like, two years later we meet again and decide to wait for each other to be ready, then two years later we're sort of in a relationship, but it's more like best friends. Why ask a bunch of questions about your boyfriend at the end? Haven't they been supposedly trying to work things out to be together for the past two years and just now they decide to ask what the other likes? Why not spend some time on those two years rather than just skipping it and leaving us wondering why they stayed around for two years when neither of them seems to have developed closer feelings to the other over all that time?
Despite all the negativity that I feel towards the actual couple, there were some good moments. Mostly the themes of coming to terms with your sexuality, learning how to love and forgive yourself, and finding your way in the world. I don't want to ruin the actualy good messages, because they are pretty much the only redeeming quality of this series. I wouldn't watch it again, but it wasn't a complete waste of time.
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