When the body undergoes intense stress due to some perceived external threat, the body’s sympathetic nervous system is triggered by an abrupt release of hormones. This is a mechanism designed to prioritize survival and to put everything else that’s not necessary immediately is put on hold. Most know this as the fight or flight response.
As always, I love, love your insights! You definitely put it better that it's more fight and flight rather than avoidance. Thank you for that insight!
Gyeo-ul's characterization has always been relatable to me. While she's innocent in a lot of ways, her determination is really admirable.
The snow crab party was a riot. Seok-Hyeong smacking Jeong-won was gold! It also parallels S1E1 when Jeong-Won was the first to say that Song-Hwa can sing (the employment contract signing scene) and here, it's also Jeong-Won who said she can sing (albeit with conditions).
I've already said too much about episode 5 so this will be short. Hahahaha! Once again, thank you!
I love your wording choice as always. One thing that came to my mind regarding Minha and Seokhyeong. I've read this somewhere on twitter. Someone said that it's amusing about how opposite Minha and Sinhye's personality is. While Sinhye is extremely quiet, Minha is really vocal and not afraid to speak up her mind.
Perhaps, in the future regardless of how makjang Seokhyeong's mom is, after Minha and Seokhyeong are already in a relationship (fingers crossed for it to happen quickly), there will be a huge chance that Minha will win the fight, or the conflict (?) with her soon-to-be MIL.
One korean fan even tweeted this: If Minha finding 30 missed called from Seokhyeong's mother, instead of staying quiet, she would just directly call her back and tell her to say everything at once, instead of calling her so many times" (of course, she will speak like how she usually speaks to her professor). I'm getting excited already just by imagining the situation.
Reading your take is as interesting as watching the episode! Dowry is a complex issue in this part of the world for lack of a better word. Wish the practice goes away but sadly it does exist as of today. From where I come from (India) the bride’s family goes into life long debt, even female infanticide is prevalent in poor population because they can’t give dowry when the girl grows up. Why I am mentioning this is, we don’t know what made Sinhye take the ring. May be it was a family heirloom they were forced to part with because they were already in debt, who knows and she wants it back before ending the relationship.
I like Gyeoul is wise enough to want affection from her partner and vocalises the same. If your parents weren’t affectionate or were always fighting, there is a risk of you normalising that and not expecting your partner to be compassionate. I personally know people in marriages like that. But it can also propel you to want the opposite which is what our smart Gyeoul is doing.
Thank you again for such wonderful insight. When I think of Iksun, the Chinese phrase "同甘苦, 共患難" (For better or for worse) continues to surface in my mind. In a secure and mature relationship, both parties would know that they are better off together, whether celebrating sweet and happy moments, or shouldering challenges as a team. Believing that your partner loves you enough to want to be in the hardship with you vs. being left alone (or at least be informed so they could be given a choice) may seem to be a simple enough concept, but the contrary continues to be seen in many dramas, especially the Asian ones. And very often, these dramas sympathize with the side that lets the other side go to "protect" them, with dramatic reveals and emotional reunion / confessions, and those scenes don't usually sit well with me.
However, this is not to say that I do not "understand" (while I definitely do not agree with) why Iksun did what Iksun did, or that I do not feel for her (because I do, I cried with her - how can you not with such moving performance by KSY!); and I think Junwan has his share of responsibility to bear as well.
And I have hope that ShinLee will address what led to their current conundrum and help them grow from the experience, even if not together. I say this because I really appreciated what Sunwoo said to Bora in R1988 when he gave her the second condition for them to be back together, "I want to be the priority in your life, not the first person you give up when things get hard". I hope in the near future, Iksun and Junwan will get to have a similar open conversation as well.
Side note and back to the Chinese phrase I mentioned, there was a recent C drama where the FL said the following after realizing the noble idiocy done by the ML, "原來我在你的心裡不是那個可以一起共患難的人啊, 當你有困難的時候, 第一個放棄的就是我". ("So it turns out in your mind I am not a person that could bear difficulty with, since when you faced difficulties, the first thing you gave up is me / our relationship") As much as I rooted for that couple, I was so thrilled when she rebutted his "justification" that way, as it was the first time I saw a C drama clearly emphasizes the "idiocy" of the act!
And for WG, as much as I love their interaction, this could become their challenge as well since GU is so used to believe that she is all alone and needs to take on all the challenges by herself, so not that she would purposely kick JW to the side, but she will need some unlearning and mindset change to know that she is not alone anymore, and JW should be part of her considerations / support network going forward. But I also have faith they will get there. I really love how this couple's interaction and how they continue to impact each other!
So sorry for my long comment again; as always, your writing always provokes my thoughts :)!
Im constantly checking in just to read your insights to the episodes. I love being here with all of you chingus! Yes, this 'fight or flight' theme is so apparent in Ep 5. Iksun and Seokhyung are both flighters. It's that 'it's ok, I'll suck it up' mentality at the expense of their own happiness. Learned condition, unfortunately, and both have to unlearn it - for Iksun, working through her (self-induced) heartbreak; for Seokhyung, it'll be Minha chipping away at his wall.
Gyeoul and Jeongwon - I think what made Jeongwon love her so much is that he saw her tenacity and fighter side. She's not afraid of maggots, goes all out to nab the abusive dad, works hard and doesn't complain. And yes he is sensitive to her feelings, never nagging and always inviting her to say what she needs. I love that ER scene where he asks her: is there something you wanna tell me? He knows there is more to things but just slowly letting her share what's on her mind. These 2 are too cute... And really, do they make anymore of this Jeongwon model of boyfriends?? Haha.
So elegantly and eloquently put! Thank you sooo much! (Loved the "bidulgi web" especially ~.~)
As always, I love, love your insights! You definitely put it better that it's more fight and flight rather than avoidance. Thank you for that insight!
Gyeo-ul's characterization has always been relatable to me. While she's innocent in a lot of ways, her determination is really admirable.
The snow crab party was a riot. Seok-Hyeong smacking Jeong-won was gold! It also parallels S1E1 when Jeong-Won was the first to say that Song-Hwa can sing (the employment contract signing scene) and here, it's also Jeong-Won who said she can sing (albeit with conditions).
I've already said too much about episode 5 so this will be short. Hahahaha! Once again, thank you!
I love your wording choice as always. One thing that came to my mind regarding Minha and Seokhyeong. I've read this somewhere on twitter. Someone said that it's amusing about how opposite Minha and Sinhye's personality is. While Sinhye is extremely quiet, Minha is really vocal and not afraid to speak up her mind.
Perhaps, in the future regardless of how makjang Seokhyeong's mom is, after Minha and Seokhyeong are already in a relationship (fingers crossed for it to happen quickly), there will be a huge chance that Minha will win the fight, or the conflict (?) with her soon-to-be MIL.
One korean fan even tweeted this: If Minha finding 30 missed called from Seokhyeong's mother, instead of staying quiet, she would just directly call her back and tell her to say everything at once, instead of calling her so many times" (of course, she will speak like how she usually speaks to her professor). I'm getting excited already just by imagining the situation.
I'll just lowkey wish for it to happen :))
Reading your take is as interesting as watching the episode! Dowry is a complex issue in this part of the world for lack of a better word. Wish the practice goes away but sadly it does exist as of today. From where I come from (India) the bride’s family goes into life long debt, even female infanticide is prevalent in poor population because they can’t give dowry when the girl grows up. Why I am mentioning this is, we don’t know what made Sinhye take the ring. May be it was a family heirloom they were forced to part with because they were already in debt, who knows and she wants it back before ending the relationship.
I like Gyeoul is wise enough to want affection from her partner and vocalises the same. If your parents weren’t affectionate or were always fighting, there is a risk of you normalising that and not expecting your partner to be compassionate. I personally know people in marriages like that. But it can also propel you to want the opposite which is what our smart Gyeoul is doing.
Thank you again for such wonderful insight. When I think of Iksun, the Chinese phrase "同甘苦, 共患難" (For better or for worse) continues to surface in my mind. In a secure and mature relationship, both parties would know that they are better off together, whether celebrating sweet and happy moments, or shouldering challenges as a team. Believing that your partner loves you enough to want to be in the hardship with you vs. being left alone (or at least be informed so they could be given a choice) may seem to be a simple enough concept, but the contrary continues to be seen in many dramas, especially the Asian ones. And very often, these dramas sympathize with the side that lets the other side go to "protect" them, with dramatic reveals and emotional reunion / confessions, and those scenes don't usually sit well with me.
However, this is not to say that I do not "understand" (while I definitely do not agree with) why Iksun did what Iksun did, or that I do not feel for her (because I do, I cried with her - how can you not with such moving performance by KSY!); and I think Junwan has his share of responsibility to bear as well.
And I have hope that ShinLee will address what led to their current conundrum and help them grow from the experience, even if not together. I say this because I really appreciated what Sunwoo said to Bora in R1988 when he gave her the second condition for them to be back together, "I want to be the priority in your life, not the first person you give up when things get hard". I hope in the near future, Iksun and Junwan will get to have a similar open conversation as well.
Side note and back to the Chinese phrase I mentioned, there was a recent C drama where the FL said the following after realizing the noble idiocy done by the ML, "原來我在你的心裡不是那個可以一起共患難的人啊, 當你有困難的時候, 第一個放棄的就是我". ("So it turns out in your mind I am not a person that could bear difficulty with, since when you faced difficulties, the first thing you gave up is me / our relationship") As much as I rooted for that couple, I was so thrilled when she rebutted his "justification" that way, as it was the first time I saw a C drama clearly emphasizes the "idiocy" of the act!
And for WG, as much as I love their interaction, this could become their challenge as well since GU is so used to believe that she is all alone and needs to take on all the challenges by herself, so not that she would purposely kick JW to the side, but she will need some unlearning and mindset change to know that she is not alone anymore, and JW should be part of her considerations / support network going forward. But I also have faith they will get there. I really love how this couple's interaction and how they continue to impact each other!
So sorry for my long comment again; as always, your writing always provokes my thoughts :)!
Im constantly checking in just to read your insights to the episodes. I love being here with all of you chingus! Yes, this 'fight or flight' theme is so apparent in Ep 5. Iksun and Seokhyung are both flighters. It's that 'it's ok, I'll suck it up' mentality at the expense of their own happiness. Learned condition, unfortunately, and both have to unlearn it - for Iksun, working through her (self-induced) heartbreak; for Seokhyung, it'll be Minha chipping away at his wall.
Gyeoul and Jeongwon - I think what made Jeongwon love her so much is that he saw her tenacity and fighter side. She's not afraid of maggots, goes all out to nab the abusive dad, works hard and doesn't complain. And yes he is sensitive to her feelings, never nagging and always inviting her to say what she needs. I love that ER scene where he asks her: is there something you wanna tell me? He knows there is more to things but just slowly letting her share what's on her mind. These 2 are too cute... And really, do they make anymore of this Jeongwon model of boyfriends?? Haha.