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[baekodo123]

There are so many parallels, with the bread with stickers, girl imagining manhwa scenario, story set in late 90s

oh to be young....

[baekodo123]

Alchemy of souls theory #1

I kind of wonder what if Mudeok was very weak and kind of like in coma so they sealed the stone into her but someone alchemied the soul of Bu-yeon into Mudeok to trouble the Jin clan thinking Mudeok is a weak blind girl who's gonna die. But instead two souls were captured into one body and Naksu magiked her soul too.

Maybe that's why the body is so weak, yet so strong, cause it hosts three souls.

[baekodo123]

It's been one month and I still can't get over baekdo.

But on the positive note, the sad ending is all hazy in my brain replaced with multiple happy endings from Ao3. I can't wait for the day when I am mentally okay to rewatch the series again.

[baekodo123]

This is top-tier! I hate how everyone is calling their breakup realistic but tell me was their relationship realistic in any way? A lot of people break up due to long distance but how many people are in the kind of love that baekdo are? Their relationship was rare. The comparison of Yijin not contacting Heedo when he was in Pohang and Newyork doesn't make sense at all. Yijin didn't contact Heedo in Pohang because he thought he'd never see her again and they were just friends who didn't even exchange their pager numbers! But after Yijin realised his true feelings for Heedo, he left her a voice mail and tried to contact her but her pager was out of service.

It angered me when they tried to label it as a passionate love as if it was some kind of whirlwind romance between the leads. It was a love based on friendship and mutual understanding. They were each other's family, the only ones on each other's sides. There is nothing realistic about a rookie local news reporter being sent to NY for months, their luggage getting exchanged when they were not even on the same flight (?), Heedo running from NTC to Yijin's home on foot when it was shown that she was supposed to take a train before??

Also the worst part was showing us that Yijin broke his promise on being back in NY. He would never do something like that.

2521 ending crimes

hello again! unsurprisingly, the anger hasn’t left my body after almost a month, so i wanted to make another post pointing out all the inconsistencies and failures of the ending when it comes to character and story, for those who need it. if you accept the ending, great! but here’s why i won’t be able to make peace with it, both as someone who fell in love with this show and as a literature and creative writing graduate who’s spent years understanding what makes stories great.

failure to stick to one relationship narrative throughout the story: it’s obvious that this drama was written with the intention of portraying a first love relationship that ultimately doesn’t last, but this is not the love that ends up on screen. instead of a superficial and casual relationship that falls apart under pressure, we witness a relationship that starts when both characters are at their lowest points and survives through a complete communication blackout and a conflict of interest within their careers. in order to portray a relationship that starts as a positive one but turns into a negative one, a writer has to spend more time exploring the relationship while it happens, instead of spending 80% of her drama into getting this relationship to start in the first place. both characters have to be shown to be compatible in some aspects and completely at odds in others, to have an inherent power imbalance or difference in worldview that gets more and more pronounced until it deals a killing blow. instead, we were offered a healthy and supportive relationship that defies ordinary perceptions of love, where both parties are shown to be physically and emotionally incapable of staying away from the other, and where they constantly put effort to meet the other halfway and see the world through their eyes. it’s a relationship that was built on sharing hardships (yijin telling heedo about the bankruptcy, her telling him about her fencing struggles), on mutual respect (yijin admiring heedo for her spirit, her admiring him for his work ethic), and on the ability to create happiness together in spite of the hardships the world puts them through (yijin defending heedo when her gold medal was disputed, her consoling him when he had to report against yurim). it’s extremely disrespectful and out of character to purport that such a relationship that went on for four entire years wouldn’t be strong enough to withstand another external tragedy, especially since people are naturally more mature in their mid-twenties than they are in their late teens, and your ability to understand and communicate with a person grows as you spend more time with them.

robbing the characters of agency to achieve a narrative end: the very need to introduce an external conflict like 9/11 to force the couple to misunderstand each other already demonstrates how artificial such a situation is. the narrative is biased against heedo and yijin’s dating life from the start: instead of showing us an equal balance of good and bad moments, we’re fed a montage of yijin being late to dates, as if heedo herself isn’t extremely busy as a fencer (in ep.10 she says that she was never able to have friendships or experiences outside of fencing because her entire life revolves around it), or yijin is so caught up in a job that he doesn’t have a real passion for besides the need to financially support his family and his natural empathy for people. there’s no inherent need to portray 9/11 or send yijin as a correspondent there than to depress him and stage an unraveling of the relationship that in itself is a threadbare narrative. would someone as emotionally mature as heedo (“it’s okay that he left, i’m sure he did the right thing”, “i’m glad my mom inspires you even though she caused me pain”) not understand the emotional toll this position takes on him and how it brings out his weakest self? would someone as intelligent as yijin voluntarily sign up to continue an internship at a place he calls “hell on earth”? would he completely abandon his personal life to help strangers, given that every major life decision he’s taken in the series was with the future of his family in mind? the characters are rendered chess pieces in a story they’re no longer allowed to drive forward. the only agency heedo is granted is the agency to initiate a break-up, but she’s never granted the agency to process her feelings of hurt and attempt to mend her relationship with yijin when she clearly wants to. yijin is shown to oppose the break-up, but he’s never given the agency to translate his feelings into actions. when before yijin was allowed to confront heedo about avoiding him and heedo was allowed to wait in front of yijin’s house every evening until he showed his true feelings, now they’re rendered voiceless and powerless by a narrative that doesn’t want them to have power, because if they did, they would turn this story on its head.

using yijin as an emotional punching bag without giving him the space to heal: while yijin’s depression is a logical emotional response to what he witnessed, there’s no point in making him go through this traumatizing experience besides presenting a precedent for the break-up. yijin’s melancholy comes out only as a natural reaction to hardships, such as having to scrape by in pohang for months to escape creditors or being told that he can’t date heedo because of conflict of interest. so his depression wasn’t “always going to happen someday anyway”, it’s created by a narrative that relentlessly puts him from one traumatizing situation to the next. instead of using the 9/11 plotline to show him break down and get back up again with the help of colleagues and loved ones, the story keeps grinding him down without giving him the chance to get back up. it renders him passive and powerless, which in itself is a narrative fault, while its claim to realism is undermined by its failure to account for the intervention of family and friends who would never let a loved one suffer without offering them their entire support.

making heedo the villain in her own story: this is the cruelest element of the ending, the way it ignores the willpower and emotional maturity of its own protagonist for the sake of following a pre-determined narrative. the heedo who drives the story forward from the very start, the girl we fell in love with for her ability to find the comedy in a tragedy and offer a hand to her own bully over and over again, would never watch her emotional life fall apart at the seams while doing nothing. it’s true that heedo has a childhood trauma of being abandoned, but part of growing up is learning how to process and heal from our traumas as we gain a better understanding of ourselves and the people around us. if heedo was willing to forgive her mother for years of mistreatment and not hold a grudge against yurim for months of coldness and then lack of communication prior to madrid, why wouldn’t she find it in her heart to understand yijin and meet him halfway? why wouldn’t she see that she was speaking from the weakest place in her heart, and take back the words she doesn’t mean? what makes it so hard for both of them to say, “i won’t be the person who only hurts you, here’s how i’ll make you happy again”? i’ll tell you what: the writer.

missed opportunities to deliver a satisfying and logical resolution to angst: presenting your characters with one last hurdle before perfect happiness is a classic and highly effective story beat known as the “darkest hour”. at the last moment before the resolution, the protagonists lose everything they care about and the audience can’t imagine how they would get it back… until the protagonists prove the audience wrong, cementing their agency and earning their happy ending with a bang. the last episode presents countless opportunities to do this: them meeting at the airport when the suitcases get mixed up, one of them showing up at the others’ house after processing their fight, their friends setting them up on a drunk date that becomes the first step to bring them closer again (the comedy! the drama!)… if the narrative wasn’t biased against heedo and yijin, it would use a last external conflict to help them progress both as individuals and as a couple, to show them getting closer again with a newfound understanding of themselves and their relationship, to help them understand how to never make such mistakes again and build the future they both want with the other. the fact that they learn nothing from this experience and are not shown to have improved their emotional lives because of it renders it a meaningless narrative and a wasted opportunity for god-tier sexual tension, comedy, drama, heart-to-hearts, and falling in love with the other all over again—all things that would inevitably happen if the characters were allowed to grow and act towards the person they very much don’t want to lose.

failure to wrap up plot threads at the end: a guessing game with no revelation, a photo album and a workshop that contradict the apparent narrative, the ridiculous notion that heedo and yijin would never speak again despite having the same friend group and living in the same neighbourhood, heedo’s marriage and pregnancy being completely swept under the rug as if they’re not a major aspect of her life, yijin and heedo being shown as very much still in love but not taking a single step towards each other, as if that longing would not eat them alive until they ran to each other… the narrative has failed to listen to its characters, and so has lost its hold on them. they grow rebellious as abandoned garden roses, growing wild and strong and bigger than the people who planted them.

[baekodo123]

You drive me crazy. Fine. Let’s try this kind of love, Hee-do. I’m going to do everything I can with you. So prepare yourself. TWENTY-FIVE TWENTY-ONE (2022)

[baekodo123]

can’t stop thinking about THEM!!!

[baekodo123]

episode 13 summed up

[baekodo123]

dear tvn and all you assholes at studio dragon, hear me out. i am willing to forgive everything and put all this behind us, if you just. produce. another. wellmade romcom that has A HAPPY ENDING with Kim Taeri and Nam Joohyuk as its leads.

[baekodo123]

NAM JOO HYUK as Hong In Pyo The School Nurse Files (2020) dir. Lee Kyung Mi

[baekodo123]

This thought keeps coming to me. What if it's like extraordinary you, and Baekdo were forced to break up on stage but off stage they still very much wanted to be together. Like maybe them running towards each other in the bus stop scene was them trying to defy the script but they were forced to separate again in the next scene. Maybe Yijin's comment about Heedo being a burden was forced by the writer because he was questioning their breakup.

What if Heedo's and Yijin's message of rooting for each other was them going off script again, but the writer forced a wedding congratulations.

What if Heedo's comment about divorce was her going off script again and maybe that's why she was forced to miss Yijin by a couple of minutes.

I'd like to hope that Heedo and Yijin are still together and those items of Yijin's in Heedo's room was their way of assuring us that off stage, they are still together.

It was extras doing their thing. Maybe it was Mr. Kim. He was making his presence known. Infact Heedo named him. Kim do hee.

I kinda feel Yijin's dad also veered off the script a bit, because he was being treated harshly. The consolation for 10 years must be him doing his thing. Imagine how bad he must be feeling to go bankrupt and be away from his family. After that we never got a scene from him till episode 16. It's like his silence was bought in exchange for him getting to be with his wife.

[baekodo123]

The Heedo we know worked things out with Yijin. Met up with him whenever she had competitions. He came to visit her during Christmas. They facetimed.Called eo everyday. Yijin went to therapy and Heedo went for counselling too. They both tried to make things work. Yijin comes back in 2009 and they continue their relationship . With his job secure as an anchor, Yijin prioritizes his family. Spends time with his eomma appa, goes on hiking trips with Yihyun over the weekend. They all watch Heedo's match on TV. Heedo retires finally and her reason isn't because she is bored of fencing, but because her dreams are fulfilled and now she wants to fulfil her other dreams and be with her boyfriend. She moves in with Yijin and gets engaged to him. She is Yurim's maid of honor. Yijin asks Yurim to do him a favour and throw the bouquet in Heedo's direction. The gang gets together at a bar on new years eve. Yurim is not drinking as she is pregnant. Everyone fawns over her. It's going to be new year 2010 soon. The gang plan on to go see the new year bells. At exactly 5 seconds to new year, Yijin turns around and kisses Heedo. The kiss which started at 29, continued till she was 30. Yijin gets down on one knee and asks her to marry him. You see, he also wanted a change. Change in their relationship status. Heedo says yes. They get married and Heedo opens her woodworking shop. She fixes chairs and names her shop 2521 as 2521 is symbolic to fixing things which are broken. Seungwan, Yurim and Heedo have girls night out once in a while. Heedo spends time at Yurim's fencing club on Wednesdays. You could say that she is a guest lecturer, and Yurim's paying her by buying her drinks. Yurim comes by her shop one day and tells her that she is expecting a boy. Heedo is elated but Yurim's news brought her own realisation that she might be pregnant too. Heedo spends the afternoon , after her appointment, making a small chair. She keeps the small chair next to the two chairs she made for Yijin and herself. Purple chair between a blue and a red chair. Yijin walks in does the face covering gasp that she has seen him doing multiple times but it's 100 times more funnier. Yijin wants a girl and Heedo wants a boy. Yijin gets those prenatal spelling and maths book. Heedo watches kdramas. Yijin is worried that their kid would go around proposing to internet strangers after being exposed to romantic kdramas. They find out they are having twins. Yijin is shocked again, but he should have expected that surprises are common with Heedo around.

Heedo makes a scrap book with her pictures of sonogram, writes stuff about how she feels. Yijin is worried about Heedo being alone and always nags and fusses around her. She keeps reminding him that she is a former athlete and she can be as active as she wants. Yijin comes home one day to see Heedo all teary eyed. She takes his hand and puts it over her belly. He feels a tiny lil kick. He didn't think he could ever be so happy as he was now. Yurim and Heedo go baby shopping together. Their kids will be best friends ofc, they have to be.

Ff to 5 years, they go with their kids, Yurim's family, Seungwan and Yihyun to Pohang. The kids are playing around and Heedo asks them to warm up before going inside the water. Yijin is recording this in his camera. Heedo and Yijin lock eyes and Yijin gestures her to sit next to him. She asks him why he is recording and he whispers to her that Yihyun is going to propose to Seungwan later. He leans in again to say something and this time Heedo kisses him. She tells him she always wanted to do this.

The gang takes a picture together, with Seungwan showing off her ring.

This time Heedo doesn't want the moment to last forever because she knows that there are much more sweeter moments in store for her.

[baekodo123]

Yeah i gave too much credit to the writers 😂

TRUST NO ONE

Hello guys, I'm awake now and have come to tell you the same points which 2521 optimist have been telling us for the past few days.

This show never wastes a scene or a dialogue. Every parallel scene had a foreshadowing to the coming episodes. The telephone scene started with Yihyun and Heedo. With Yihyun calling to wish his brother luck and Yijin immediately thinking about Heedo and wishing her luck. The story of Pohang ended with Yihyun making Yijin realise that he was running away and Heedo giving him strength to get back up. Yihyun's role ended when Yijin stopped running away. But Heedo's wasn't. When Jiwoong stole the coins, I thought it was for comedic element but no, he called Yijin because he needed strength to get back up again. With Yijin helping him, the incidents lead to him doing the reading in broadcasting club, the same thing which gave strength to Heedo,which finally made Heedo realise that the Yijin in tape is the same Yijin she hangs out with thus coming full circle and closing the telephone booth arc.

We all though Yijin being injelomi was a red herring and we brushed it away after injelomi reveal but he was entangled in this too! Heedo mistook him to be Injeolmi too. The comic book scene was foreshadowing how Yijin would somehow always be entangled between Heedo and Yurim. Infact, in a way he was the one who cut the time short between Heedo and Yurim.

The white truck of doom and Yurim's father made us think that he was going to die in that episode.When he didn't, we breathed a sigh of relief. Then we see her recording his voice and we were sure he was going to die. We were all ready for the accident to happen and for Yurim to lose her dad. He didn't die ofc, but she did lose him in one way. She was physically separated from him.

The athlete reporter relationship was mentioned multiple times and when nothing happened with the documentary we started wondering when it'd happen and if it'd actually happen. Then it did, with Yurim. It wasn't false foreshadowing but was twisted a bit.

Episode 8 starts with Heedo and Yjin standing next to the lockers with rainbow painted on it. This leads to both of them defining their relationship in that week's episodes ending with them standing under a real one with a proper definition of their relationship.

None of the foreshadowing is in vain. Everything in this show, every dialogue, every scene happens for a reason. Even the sticker collecting played such a vital role in defining their relationship. Same goes for full house which started a relationship between Yijin, heedo and Yurim and the publication ended with all three of them setting their relationship straight.

The plot points which sad ending won't be able to address is parallels between Minchae and Yijin. Yihyun talking about taking care of Yijin's kid. Yijin's dad talking about him being a consolation 10 years ago.

Whatever happens guys, Minchae and Yijin WILL have some kind of connection. We don't know what it'd be. But future Yijin will be connected to Minchae.

[baekodo123]

You know, to console myself, I'm just going to believe that Hee Do and Yi Jin did end up together. There are enough things that hint at them reconciling - Hee Do's red car, the picture that she has in her album, Yi Jin remembering that she doesn't like questions about her personal life (what was that question?), Hee Do making sure to highlight her left side (I don't think she would have married someone if she still thought about Yi Jin. And if she remembers that bit, she definitely still thinks about him). Also that scene where Seungwan asks if he wants news about his ex-girlfriend? I'm going to think of that as sarcasm - her asking that knowing he already knows.

I watched Our Beloved Summer - as long as they still love each other, they will get back together.

[baekodo123]

With how the show is going,i think they'd definitely end up together. The whole message of the show is brushing yourself off and getting back up again.

The ominous foreshadowing of nothing lasts forever made us feel that their relationship wouldn't last forever. But episode 15 showed us that the happy, carefree moments won't last forever in their relationship. That they'd have both sadness and happiness, and how that's a good thing. You can't have day without the night. This show started Yijin's growth arc . We see Heedo talking about growth, then the pre release showing Yijin in green and him finally finding his calling.

The times have taken everything from them but our protagonist fought hard to protect their dreams. Seungwan didn't let times take away her morals, pride and sense of justice. Jiwoong didn't let the times take away his beloved from him. Yurim didn't let times take away her family's happiness. Heedo didn't let times take away her dream. Now both Heedo and Yijin have to fight together for their love.

[baekodo123]

Guys am I the only one who feels that I'm watching a different show altogether. Like I don't recognize the characters anymore and there is so much disconnect from the first 12 episodes. Is it only me? Only the match felt like twenty five twenty one. While I didn't hate the episode and felt they described a ldr perfectly, I just feel like the show changed genres after episode 12.

[baekodo123]

Guys let's be happy for them, albeit temporarily. After 14 episodes of buildup we are finally getting to see them date. We have all been wondering about their explosive chemistry, let's not let the ending or the future taint this. Let's enjoy the magic and see the union of their souls! ❤

[baekodo123]

Are you being snarky for talking to another guy? I don’t know what you’re talking about. TWENTY-FIVE TWENTY-ONE (2022)

bonus Yi-jin regretting his life decisions