8- common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about
The idea that "Shimok and Yeojin are the main characters in the narrative and everyone just lives in it", because yes, they are the main characters but Lee Sooyeon has set it up that EVERY single character they interact with (yes, even the side characters that only appear for 1 season) touch and shape them in different ways.
Heck, Shimok GRINS seeing Hosub again in S2 at the end! He remembers Hosub and feels comforted being posted there to someone he's perceived as a friend! You can't have them alone in their own universes, because both their characters are designed as vehicles that are molded by circumstances - yes, even Shimok, who slowly gets coaxed out of his shell by Yeojin and Jungbon, yes, the same Shimok who watched his beloved mentor he shared a complex push-and-pull and then his legacy with fall to his death, the same Shimok whose nemesis (Yeonjae) he then inherited as a pseudo-mother figure due to his mentor's death.
Both Shimok and Yeojin are shaped by the people around them - they drive the narrative and are passengers alike. This to me is why the character-driven writing is so intriguing to me, and why I love Lee Sooyeon's character design so deeply.
13 - worst blorbofication
I feel like by far is the woobification of Dongjae's actions begging for a redemption arc especially with the new Dongjae-centric drama coming up, which no. The whole point is that he plays all sides, gets away relatively scot-free, and keeps doing it until he hurtles into self-destruction. It's also why despite my adoration for Lee Sooyeon's characters and a 13 year obsession with the actor, I cannot see this being anything more than a closed loop.
I don't want him to be redeemed, because there isn't anything to redeem - he's an abusive, self-absorbed and opportunistic man designed to show the extremes people will go to for their own needs (in his, it's family, working in the bureau that primarily serves minors), and he can eat Yeojin's shoes for her breaking her ass to save him but I don't want him miraculously good after S2, I want him broken and questioning and very, very afraid.
16- you can't understand why so many people like this thing
Both Shimok and Yeojin are victims of this and I'll say this first, especially as a pair. People like to play amnesiacs about their orientation and how they function as a pair, and it's utterly irritating to me to see people write Yeojin as some sex-crazed horndog and Shimok as a brickwall or some sort of slow-burn friends-to-lovers thing when she actively fixes Shimok's "needs" - if you want romance, sure, but at some point you're removing so much of what the characters are that we're no longer watching the same show.
I know, shipping is a part of everyone's culture, etc, and I don't know. Asexual voices keep getting erased in this when people ask you to not try to write "fix-it" fics of a disabled man who has openly professed a lack of interest and his bisexual partner who had an entire season being visibly attracted to her female superior, and at some point it's less "I can't understand" than "you're literally just ignoring us". You can't be like "we're not being phobic :/" and then actively choke out queer voices when they're one of the most PROMINENT voices in your fandom.
Not to mention people (ace writers in the fandom) HAVE written them as platonic partners. We're not ignoring that because it's true! Not everything needs to be exaggerated romance-to-sex
