#kalenameta

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Our male lead intentionally renouncing his very powerful 'adopted' identity and giving no name for himself—except that of Hong Heejoo's husband—has HUGE implications in Korean culture.

Due to their deep-seated Confucian beliefs throughout their history, women were rarely known by their actual names both in public and in private. They were know only by names of the men in their lives (this man's daughter, this man's wife, this man's mother) or by the title of their status or occupation. That still exists today to a certain extent. Also, women were very restricted on when and where they could go places publicly and had to hide their faces when they went out. The individual identity of women was therefore hidden from the world since they were not allowed to be truly seen or spoken about in a way where their unique defining personal attributes could be known.

So when our male lead denies his adopted name and powerful family status and then proceeds to publicly proclaim all his wife's personal attributes that uniquely define her—including a large picture of her face—while only defining himself as her husband, he flipped the traditional Confucian gender roles on their head.

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I love that we're all going feral over the wrist kiss but I had to ask myself why he kissed it first. Is it because that it's the hand the reached out for him? Or maybe something else I missed cause there were too many things to focus on in the moment. So I did a little rewatch and it gets better.

When Segye finds Seori in the woods, after he hugs her in relief, he checks to see if she's hurt and finds her right hand is wounded. That's when he rants at her about safety while insisting his concern is only professional, not personal. Throughout the rest of the episode Segye silently gets visibly upset every time he looks down at Seori's bandaged hand. Their relationship has always been very push-pull as they alternatively pursue and reject each other through various professional and personal goals. He's also seen this incredible strong resilient woman crying her eyes out, a glimpse into her pain that mirrors his own. At the beach, she tells him not to feel sorry about his rant in the woods as she pats his arm with her bandaged hand which he then grabs to hold in his. This triggers his confession that he would act like a madman all over again to make sure she's okay.

They've both fought their feelings for each other, with many things said in denial or outright lies to try to keep the other at arm's length. He's done playing games. He gives her an out at the count of three which she takes at the last second. They've both been fighting an internal battle. His has been decided. Hers was still raging, until he started to leave and she couldn't let him go. "You grabbed me first."

He then lifts up the bandaged hand she grabbed him with and kisses the inside of her wrist. By kissing her where she's wounded first, he's symbolically kissing her physical and emotional pain away before he can fully pull her into his love with a direct kiss.

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Truck-kun doing its job perfectly by sending Danshim to another world. Classic. The way that it went down at the restaurant along with the father-figure of the person she loves which was likely instigated by an insane power-hungry chaebol screams Vincenzo to me (iykyk). This show has been doing shoutouts to many other dramas.

I'm hoping they do this right because the puzzle pieces have been sprinkled throughout and now they need to piece them together. Segye's therapist (and #1 Segye/Seori shipper) has been dropping hints: time isn't linear, past lives can run parallel to present lives. We think we know everything that happened in the past but more reveals seem to be on the horizon. Like why is the Grand Prince's love poem/portrait torn in two? Is there more to Kang Danshim's name being erased from history than just being labeled a criminal?

The drama has made it clear that Seori, Segye, Mundo and Gwangnam are reincarnations of Danshim, the Grand Prince, the King and the dog. This means they are same people/beings but with new memories. Though it's pretty obvious from many things that Segye has said and done that his subconscious is aware of his past life, even before the dreams started surfacing.

If their past and present lives are running parallel, then there may be things in the past that Danshim has to do to move sideways to the future. From what I remember, at the time of her "death", the Grand Prince was in exile but not dead. The Grand Prince only put up with this to save Danshim. Once he learns of her death, he has no reason not to take action. Now that Danshim is revived, she is no longer confined to the palace and could seek out the Grand Prince. She can tell him about their future lives and send a message back to Segye that he will see in his dreams. They can't stay in the past because the king has too much power and hates them so much he won't let them stay alive for long if they are together. He would hunt them down like he hunted the dog.

There is also the odd events around Seori's brief moment as a celebrated child actor. After that role she was never able to channel that talent into another good role. Her grandmother has talked about her temporary personality change as a child. Was this around the same time? When Danshim first came to the present, she inexplicably shed tears watching Seori's younger self in her iconic role. As if her soul was linked through space and time to another version of herself.

After some probably tragic adventures with the Grand Prince in the past where they both actually die while promising to meet again, Danshim's soul memories will try traveling to the present. I agree with the theory out there that Danshim will get stuck in Seori's body as a child for a time. Danshim doesn't know if she will make it to our present day which gives her the angst needed to play the drama role perfectly. Then she will wake up one day with both Seori and Danshim's memories blended together and help Segye (with his fully integrated memories of being the Grand Prince) set everything right in the Wonderful New World they create.

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Can This Love Be Translated? is a masterclass in communication. The three main types are interpreting what someone's non-verbal actions meant, trying to understand the actual words someone spoke or wrote, and inferring what those spoken or written words meant. Throughout the drama there are varying levels of understanding between characters but that scene in ep6 is the climax of miscommunication. They can't read each other's non-verbals, they are almost having completely different conversations as they talk past each other, and they are clueless to what the other truly meant by what was said. It's as confusing and frustrating for them as it is for us as viewers. The big question mark (that's in the very title of this drama) is how will they overcome this?

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I like the obstacles that Dynamite Kiss has put in front of the second lead’s potential romance. 

As a chaebol heiress, Hayeong is used to getting her way in most areas. While this makes her bold and entitled, she is not arrogant. Instead, she is insecure about not being taken seriously by her parents or her long-time family friend and betrothed, Jihyeok. While pursing her own vision at work, she runs into Seonu, immediately falling in love with his good looks and way with children. Honestly, who can blame her. Her act-of-kindness to pick up his kid from school is motivated half by her crush and half by trying to snag an artist for work. Understandably, he only sees this as a reason to work with her, not fall for her. Her bold confession, leaves him unmoved. This is partially due to his feelings for Darim but Hayeong hasn’t shown her real self to him yet. She wants so much to really be seen and loved for who she is yet she’s only shown him her superficial exterior. Hayeong needs to truly reveal her heart to be loved. 

Seonu has been through dark times through his divorce but is saved by Darim and her mom. After recovering from his heartbreak, he sees Darim in a new light but doesn’t want to disturb his and his son’s new equilibrium with their two families supporting each other by pursuing a romance with her. When he sees Darim with Jihyeok, his jealously and protectiveness emerges as he watches ripples of this disturbing new presence threaten their peaceful life. He’s also been a step behind in trying to take care of Darim’s problems since she’s reluctant to share certain things with him and he doesn’t have the luxury of time to be able to keep tabs on her, like Jihyeok. Then his new client confesses to him out of the blue and his son wants him to date her. He’s fallen hard in love before and was left with scorch marks on his heart that have taken years to heal. The idea of a comfortable love with Darim is hard to let go of for a scary, uncertain love with a beautiful new stranger who could hurt him and his son. 

Hayeong needs to cultivate a real relationship with Seonu built on mutual trust and responsibility to raise a family together. They also need to be united in standing up to her parents who want an advantageous business marriage instead of a loving one for her. 

Seonu will either need to quietly let go of a potential relationship with Darim or go through a painful rejection of his feelings to be able to move on. With the comfortable option gone, maybe a new love won’t be as scary to consider as he truly gets to know Hayeong. 

These trials will bring them together in a way that is grounded and heartfelt creating a hard-won, long-lasting love. 

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I gasped when Sun Chaek cheekily called Beon "Obsessive Tyrant" (the manhwa title named after him) because it made me think Beon might be the author of the manhwa who was going to stop writing after losing inspiration. I noticed that Beon looked back twice at Sun Chaek. Once after she called him "Obsessive Tyrant" and a second time right after he seemed to realize something. What if the dokkaebi (goblin trickster) we've seen helping our leads brought both the author and the reader into the novel to fall in love?

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I got behind this week but I caught up to episode 24 last night.

I don’t think Han Mingxi has a romantic crush on Ye Li. He seems more like a younger brother who adores his older sister but can’t help annoying the heck out of her while he tries to get her approval. Instead, I would say he has a competency crush. From his perspective, she successfully evaded his kidnapping efforts, survived a cliff fall, cut snakes in two with a stick, survived a snake bite, sleuthed her way to find the secret passage to prove someone faked their death, broke out her top tier martial arts skills and then paid everyone back all the life-debts of Li Mountain. Even his insistence on his life-debt to her seems more like a student looking for a master to train under. I would love for him to become her protege.

So I don’t think the first time we saw them “consummate their marriage” was the first time they had done it. When she stopped his advances to scold him that he needed to wait at least 6 hours before strenuous activity, it seemed more like she was putting her doctor hat on than trying to avoid sex. From his response, I got the impression he was like “okay, doctor. I will wait exactly 6 hours and no longer before we continue”. lol This show has been very selective about what we are shown and when we are shown it. We were meant to wonder if she really liked him and if they had consummated their marriage after he declared that they should. It’s only after we saw her initiate intimacy with a kiss that we were shown that her childhood crush led her find out where his army was camped and spend an entire day trekking out of the city to ask him if he liked her. Now that she’s feeling confident in their love, she is once again brave enough to ask him what he thought of her when they first met. Now is not the time for “passion”. Right now is the time for subtle domestic bliss. After many trials (and possibly being torn apart as lovers often are), then they will desperately seek each other out and burn brightly in their well-earned passion.

Please Guard Qin, don’t be dead! I like him. I was rooting for his romance with Lady Lin and hoping he would side with our protagonists. He is also an interesting foil to Prince Li since they are both from the Eastern Palace (a royal versus a noble bastard), both were abused pawns of Marquis Muyang, and both “died”(?). Will both be alive to come back for vengeance and who will succeed?

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Our Universe (ep6) This week settled down in exactly the way I wanted with the leads openly acknowledging what they mean to each other at this point. Taehyung is clearly the heart of this show. He represents the worst that can happen to you when your all your family connections are unwillingly severed. His isolated prickly exterior is a defense for his true fiercely loyal and nurturing nature which has in very little time emerged with Woojoo and Hyunjin. At the slightest hint of rejection, he puts his walls up, but when he realizes he's truly wanted, the split second it takes for him to tear those walls back down feels too long as he races back to the people he's come to love.

The SML is the perfect foil for our leads to help them discover what they truly want. He has seemingly excellent noonchi (aka the ability to accurately read the room and act accordingly without being asked). He drives her home, gives her an umbrella, obtains a car seat and buys a new stuffed animal for Woojoo, treats her and Woojoo to a fancy restaurant that also caters to kids. But like his secret gesture for her when they were in college, this is all surface level stuff that doesn't make her feel loved and cared for. Instead, for Hyunjin, it highlights the divide between them. Whereas the acts of service and emotional support from Taehyung have created the safe space that both Hyunjin and Woojoo need to thrive.

Thank you to @k-odyssey for pointing out that the word Taehyung uses for "waiting" 기대하다 (gidaehada) has multiple meanings in Korean: "expect, count on, trust, hope, look forward to." It gives a deeper understanding of what he feels for Hyunjin. He didn't want to have any expectations from her, count on her, trust her, get hope from her or look forward to her presence. However, he can't help but do all those things as he falls for her. These are the kind of gems I love in a story.

How Dare You!? (ep22) This sagged a little in the middle for me but as soon as the action and romance fully kicked in I'm happily racing towards the end.

Can't wait to start In Your Radiant Season which stars two of my faves Lee Sung Kyung (Call It Love, Dr. Romantic, Sh**ting Stars) and Chae Jong Hyeop (Love All Play, Castaway Diva, Unlock My Boss, Hot Stove League, Nevertheless [Team Potato Boy!], The Witch's Diner, Sisyphus: The Myth [my first kdrama, loved him as sunny Sun])! It's also the same screenwriter as 30 but 17/Still 17 which is one of my rare 10/10 rated dramas. Please be good.

I'm looking forward to new episodes of No Tail To Tell this weekend now that the romance is on.