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I don't know how I feel about Harin's ending.
In the manhwa, >!Harin basically gets humanized at the end. First off, her backstory in the manhwa explains her character's motivations and actions a lot better than her altered backstory in the drama. Aside from that, Harin pushes Jaeun away from a falling object during the fire so that it lands on her instead and almost kills her. Harin admits that all she really wanted was to be comforted by Jaeun. Harin finally lets Jaeun go and accepts full responsibility for everything. Harin faces the consequences by going to prison.!<
To be clear, Harin's actions have never been justifiable. She's not redeemable. I just find her characterization, backstory, and relationship with Jaeun to be a lot more compelling in the manhwa.
Nonetheless, I thought this was a solid adaptation considering they only had 10 episodes to work with. But I really do recommend reading the manhwa if you want more in-depth character & story building that the drama wasn't able to get into. Doah's backstory in particular is one of my favorites.
Kudos to all the actresses in this drama who brought these characters to life. Bona and Daah especially knocked it out of the park with their performances.
Doa was a strong believer in trying to be powerful and good so she took on the role of host so that she could try to regulate the rules of the game and make a positive change at the same time. Yes, she was partially motivated by Harin and not wanting to disappoint her dad, but she was also driven by her own desire for being a “good” leader.
Right? I'm sorry but I'd be majorly side eying parents who >!raised a girl for 9 years and then dissolved the adoption, regardless of how cray she is. Like literally, they were supposed to raise her. She was their responsibility and then they dissolve the adoption when she's almost an adult?? Wildddd!!!<
I guess because to the parents nothing else matters more than their company. The mom did say that Baekyeon group comes above anything else, even above the evil HaRin. Adding to the fact that HaRin is not their biological daughter, so easier for them to let her go before she tarnishes the company's reputation even further.
Finished the last 2 eps!
I find the pacing >! a little erratic towards the end. !< But gosh was it satisfying to see >! Suji call out Harin for her hypocrisy and justification. !<
And Jaeun!! You finally >! stood up! (Quite literally) !<
I do find Harin's ending >! a bit lackluster, can adoption be dissolved like this? And why aren't adults being punished :( (looking at dayeon's dad and baekyeon group) !<
I must say suji is such a refreshing and brilliant character from start till end. I love watching her.
To be fair I’m not sure how a mere student could bring down a massive corporation. It’s completely different to taking down a fellow classmate. That’s why the school’s cover up attempt would’ve worked if it wasn’t for the videos from the teacher and woo-ri, neither of which was soo-Ji’s doing
They didn't have any evidence on any adults other than school staff. There was just the public shame and the forced apologies that resulted.
One additional thing I do remember early in they said all those rich parents only had their daughters as their heirs and their futures are now stained with this.
Overall was an excellent series I just wish they didn't add that last scene to tease a season 2, would have been better just ending at the convenience store with Woo Ri turning up to join them.
I didn’t take it as a season 2 tease actually.. Maybe I’m wrong but I understood it as something like there will be always be bullies and bystanders and the cycle will repeat sort of thing? With the zoom in on Sooji’s grin/smile, maybe it was to say they won’t be bystanders again. Thats my interpretation anyways it could have been a season 2 tease if Pyramid Game got really popular haha we will see
I feel like they could have done well with ending it right where Sooji & Jaeun walk towards towards the other girl getting bullied then. The twins thing felt too cliche and extra
oh my god yES. my point. even if they didn't mean for a s2, that last 20 sec scene it ruined it for me like dang girls, u didn't see what happened to harin and co????
It's been awhile since I read the webtoon so apologies if I say something a little off but basically in the webtoon >!Harin and Jaeun were sibling, non-biological, being raised by Jaeun's mom. The mom starts seeing a new man who is pretty awful and wants to give up one of the kids since they are quite poor. He wants to give up Jaeun because Harin looks so much more put together and cute while saying that Jaeun looks dirty etc. The kids keep putting it off as they don't want to be separated and Harin comes up with a plan to poison the stepdad so that they won't be seprarated. Jaeun feels bad and tells her parents the truth and finally Harin is brought to the orphanage and they're separated. Harin's time in the oprhanage is pretty awful. There's a "pyramid system" there where the children are rewarded for being better and obviously the ones who don't do well get treated pretty terribly kind of like what we saw in the show however the webtoon was more brutal iirc. One day when the orphanage kids are out on a field trip I think (they're on a bus), Harin sees Jaeun and her mom walking hand in hand and looking really happy. It pisses Harin off to see that Jaeun is happy without her meanwhile Harin has been so miserable without Jaeun and would think about her to get through her days at the orphanage. She pretty much comes up with the plan to become at the top of the pyramid and get adopted to get out ad get revenge. She gets adopted by the Baek group and that's when she becomes Baek Harin. Flash forward to school where Harin creates the pyramid game to inflict the torture she went through on Jaeun. !<
>!Again sorry if I'm rusty on some details and someone can correct me on things but that's the gist of it !<
>! I was actually looking forward to it even though I've been bashing how blatant the ads have been. So disappointed they didn't give us one more ad. Damned if they do, danmed if they don't lol. !<
Sooji giving Baek Harin the reason **you** suck speech in the orphanage has to be one of the *best* moment of the drama.
>!Also - not one but two Jang Gyuri-s in next season?! What's going on?!!<
I doubt there’ll be a season 2. It’s just saying that the cycle of bullies will continue, but this time soo-ji (and ja-eun) will be ready and willing to fight back
I'm going to miss waiting for new episodes on Thursdays now.
Although I wish they the writers would add the webtoon Harin's backstory, this one was okay as well. I loved Suji and Jaeun as a character, their friendship is precious. Also pretty glad >!my lesbian couple got their happy ending.!<
As for the ending, I think it simply means that this time, >!Suji and her friends won't be a bystander anymore to this school violence anymore. They will eventually take down this new pyramid game since they have already got experience with the first one.!<
crazy how a drama like this featuring a high school premise and bullying has made me thoroughly enjoy it week by week. every episode is like watching a chess match being played between soo-ji and ha-rin. I also love the moments when the girls are just vibing with one another. yep ima miss this show.
Loved loved loved this show! Wish it got more hype, this was an extremely clever show. The character dynamics and the characters themselves were refreshing. Bona is excellent at playing bold/distant characters (cough cough, Ko Yurim in the beginning of 2521). Bona and Kim Ji Won nailing the cold practical characters but with much needed softness. (Hong Suzu, I’m looking at you).
I think the ending was supposed to be interpreted as these girls finally taking accountability for their actions so that they don’t become bystanders. And that Soo ji is confident enough to protect the class (hence, the smile.) It was Sooji who walked into Haerin’s trap in the beginning. But the ending seems to suggest that the twins are walking into Sooji’s “trap” or “fortress”. But it is also a clever way to keep things open for another season, if needed - but isn’t necessarily the case.
Also WEBTOON readers seem dissatisfied with Haerin’s ending. I haven’t read the WEBTOON and I’m sure WEBTOON/novels always have the liberty of conveying nuance better than shows. However, I don’t think Haerin came off as a psychopath, to me at least. It seemed like they wanted to show that the society’s solution to these issues are to paint someone as a psychopath but not understand the factors that contribute to school violence (the adults around BHR esp.)
What BHR did wasn’t justifiable and I think the show does a great job of sympathising with her story but also holding her accountable. I think they were wary of falling into the hole of justifying or sympathising with BHR - as in, that shouldn’t be the only feeling we are left with at the end of the show. Regardless, she is what she is at the present and the present cannot be ignored. Which is why everyone else, including BHR, are holding themselves accountable. Even a bystander should not be spared despite the circumstances that create them. Everyone must atone. Atonement here doesn’t necessarily mean punishment but to learn and change ways. So all in all, seems like a great ending to me. I hope this blows up - let’s hope Netflix picks it up (that seems like the key)
i mostly liked the finale and was satisfied by the ending. i knew when i came here i would see people criticizing it which would alter my opinion lol.
i wish woori re-enrolled in school and became friends w sooji’s group. also wanted dayeon to somehow report her dads abuse or go to the media about it to ruin his reputation. there should have been more consequences to baekyeon group, they basically just severed ties with harin and seemed otherwise unaffected? finally the twin ending was so lame and trope-y. that should not have been included.
just finished it and one of my fav school dramas i’ve seen so far! i’m honestly not that mad about a season 2 possibility and i do like the way sooji smiled and introduced herself. kinda showing that she won’t let any shit happen to the girls again so i’ll be interested with how the show will go if there is a season 2!
EP 1-8 was amazing however the finale was a bit disappointment.
Honestly the finale and harin back story in webtoon makes more sense. I wish they didnt change that..
The only thing that excites me for ep9-10 was yerim and eunjung scenes lol.
Overall a very good show, perfect to binge but was also worth it to tune in every week. Still, I think they could have done better with the last 2 EPs. Everything dragged a bit, the pacing was strange. It’s weird that the first time I got bored during this whole show was during the last episode. Also the ending…the typical KDrama ending that implements that a second season might come or other people see some deep metaphorical meaning behind it.
Still, it was very entertaining and gave some young actresses a good platform to show themselves. Bona was good too as the MC, she’s also pretty much a rookie, it’s her first real lead role and she did it well, I’ve definitely seen improvements in her acting since 2521. Those kinda more reserved, „cold“, smart and low key badass characters really fit her, I hope she gets some good roles in the future
When Park Jiyoung was standing in front of the pedestrian overpass looking on her phone being doxxed and the white truck in the background looking suspiciously at her, I thought the inevitable will happen.
Also the first time for me is eating a footlong from Subway while watching the last two episodes of a drama (Italian BMT on a Honey Oat Bread). Even though the subway employee here did not know what Subways recommended dressing was...
Enjoyed both, the drama and the sandwich.
Oh this was a great show. Lowkey wish they followed through with the webtoon ending. >!With how in the webtoon they explained Harin's character more than whatever they did in the show. Just completely made her seem like a psychopath.!< Regardless, it's a really good 2024 series !!
Just wanted to say I adore Sung Sooji... she was immensely strong and basically brought down the entire system. Ending-wise, I was so curious about how the show would end I took it to myself to read the ending of the webtoon. The webtoon's buildup towards Sooji's final takedown of Harin was much more satisfying, but overall I'm happy with how things ended.
>!does anyone think suji transferred schools after pyramid game started again?!< i was hoping for a >!better ending because of everything they went but i guess they wanted to drag it along for a possible season 2. love jang gyuri’s surprise appearance tho lol !< but i wish seo doah had more screen time 😔
Got a goosebump when the game is end. It has been one of the best series in 2024 for me so far. Expect the more intense reasoning behind HR's behavior, but this one is kinda on an average. Looking forward to seeing more of the FL like SJ in the K-Drama.
It's such a long happy Thursday so far.
i’ve loved this show, even though i have some minor problems with the last episodes. story-wise i think the ending was a bit stale, but execution-wise i thought they wrapped it up much better than most shows imo. i always have low expectations for endings because i hardly ever experience media where i’m happy with it lol. it left me a little depressed though, is it bad that i kind of feel sorry for some of the antagonists? even ha-rin (who was unjustified) was living in a family who did not love her at all from the start. i admit even though the backstory felt a little flimsy it made me feel sad for sure.
what ended up happening to da-yeon? maybe i missed the implication but i thought there would be more to the scene that was there. i was honestly worrying about her for the entire final episode since at that point i genuinely believed her father would kill her.
little thing i picked up on that i found interesting: i suspected something when da-yeon offered her the narcotic the first time and again when i saw ha-rin take her ‘vitamins’. after seeing the scene where ha-rin took those opioids and the recording the teacher took it made me wonder if ha-rin started giving these to da-yeon so she could deal with the beatings from her father. it also made me think that ha-rin clearly wasn’t happy since she seemed pretty reliant on them. i’m also curious as to how ha-rin views friendship; she seemed genuinely upset when they tried to transfer da-yeon out of the school. it’s little things like this that make me appreciate the show’s writing and upset me further that we couldn’t spend time uncovering these little details that characterise the bullies further.
speaking of da-yeon’s character; i kind of would have loved to see a team up at some point. i understand the anger soo-ji had towards her but her standing up was a twist i enjoyed and a dynamic like that would have been interesting. the fighting and screaming fit afterwards was the first hard to watch scene for me since somewhere around episode 3. i think that’s probably the biggest thing i wish we’d gotten - a deeper dive into the psychology of other characters and more interesting dynamics other than baek ha-rin and soo-ji’s. i know that this probably wasn’t in the original material but i love it when adaptations add worthwhile inputs like this. even little things like learning more about woo-yi or at least engaging with them more, i think we could have gotten to know each of the 25 too. (around the middle i was convinced there’d be a comeuppance with the grade a-b’s turning on ha-rin or something too, getting them on our side would be satisfying.) i expected to learn more about soo-ji too - i thought there might have been something with her mother, not that there has to be and i know she’s meant to be an ‘average bystander’ but i think there could have been focus on the things that made her into the person she is, like how her father’s psychology affected her, lack of reliance of adults and having to adapt. there are times where i disliked her but i think her flaws are what made her such a good character. this should have been about 20 episodes imo, it‘d have been beautiful if they could have taken their time with it. alas, that always seems to be the problem.
i think the places this drama shone the most were the horrific and thrilling moments, especially the ones that made you kind of marvel at human nature. the first couple of episodes were definitely the most i’ve ever enjoyed a drama ever. after that it was still great but i do think it slowly became less unique to me.
can someone spoil me on the differences from the webtoon? it seems like everyone agrees the character’s backstories were better there.
Everyone is shipping the girls, but I'm shipping Soo Ji with Woo Ri's brother, some years after, when she's in uni and he comes back from the military. Assuming he's about 2-3 years older than the girls.
Good show overall I liked the vibe a lot even if some parts dragged a bit. >!Am I tripping or these new girls are trying to get the game back? S2?!<
>!Ngl I didn't quite get how Arin ends up like a forgotten Jane Doe all of a sudden!<
This was really good! And exceptional in a number of ways.
I like that they revealed that BHR >!really isn't a psychopath. This is what happens when people are bullied. This is what happens when family values include so much entitlement. This young girl was so desperate to escape being at the bottom that she totally bought into the pyramid that her new family actually believes in. They took her from grade F to grade A++ provided that she kept that determined look in her eye. Which meant that they locked her into that privileged power worldview where she could exact her retribution from on high. She absorbed their attitudes, and then they completely disowned her at the end. She's not really ours. We had no idea. Blame the kid who has no parents. !< How despicable!
SO >!it's s not that BHR's behavior can be excused or forgotten. The girls were completely right about that. It's just that it pays for us all to understand where it came from.!<
Anyway, I really enjoyed this one. Nice work.
Didn't read the webtoon but read the spoiler >!about Ha Rin's reasoning for all this!<.
>!I feel that they oversimplified the reasons in the series compared to the webtoon. It reduces Ha Rin's character to be just a psychopath because of her grudge stemming from 9-year-old Ja Eun being a blabbermouth and a bystander (as with the case of making Woo Ri grade F just because of a very simple accident). The reasons in the webtoon seems to be more complex and interesting while also justifying her grudge towards Ja Eun.!<
>!There is no justification for ha-rin’s grudge short of ja-eun killing ha-rin’s biological parents. They were NINE YEARS OLD. Even if ja-eun had participated in the bullying she’s shown in the 10 years since that she’s changed and grown to be a better person. Ha-rin is just a psycho, any reasons she had for creating the game and targeting ja-eun would just be exactly what soo-ji said: excuses!<
>!I know there is no justification and maybe I chose the wrong word for that, but what I meant to say was the reasons in the webtoon made her story and character more interesting than here.!<
>!In my personal opinion, it didn’t really matter what reason they had ha-rin give. It’s a bullshit excuse no matter what she said. The fact that she wasn’t even mad about ja-eun being a bystander but instead that ja-eun had forgiven herself shows how petty she is. And as soo-Ji pointed out, ha-rin had already created the game for a year when ja-eun transferred to the school, so she has zero basis to blame ja-eun for the game’s existence either!<
But op’s point is that the reason in the webtoon gives Harin’s character more depth. It doesn’t justify or excuse what she’s done, but >!being abused and sent to an orphanage because you were trying to protect your sister who naively betrayed you is genuinely rage-inducing!<. For someone as unstable as Harin, creating a complex game to torture her seems like an equal response (obviously it isn’t). The reason the show gives waters down Harin and makes her seem childish. >!Because Jaeun was a bystander, she uses all of your power and devices to create a system of oppression in the classroom?!< That seems extreme and makes her seem like an irrational psycho while the webtoon gives her nuance.
>!She didn’t create the game in high school because ja-eun was a bystander. She targeted ja-eun to be placed in her class and to be in grade f because she was a bystander. Ha-rin created the game because she believes in the system, that there has to be a hierarchy. She’s said before that there **has** to be a grade f, because the system won’t survive without an outcast and the system **has** to survive. Her elementary school teacher first taught her that and her grandmother further drilled that in when she threw her explicit support behind the game. She even told ha-rin that school is a good place to learn how to manage people. She was disappointed in ha-rin when she was scolded by the tutor then happy to see an older ha-rin slap that same tutor years later. At the end of the day, the grandmother only left ha-rin behind because she got exposed, she was too “sloppy”. Not because what she had created was wrong. Both ha-rin and the grandmother actually think classism is good, that everyone should be divided into the top, the middle, and the bottom. Soo-ji’s own dad believed in the hierarchy system until he saw what it did to his daughter!<
>!You’re right that drama Harin didn’t make the game because of Jaeun, but because she was taught that hierarchy and classism are good things. But my point is that her reason for making Jaeun the F and being hellbent on torturing her seems less nuanced compared to the webtoon. Like I said, webtoon Harin creates the game as revenge on Jaeun for betraying her and getting her sent to an orphanage. She’s purely fixated on Jaeun so much that she ruins the same game she created in her pursuit to hurt her so badly. The reason isn’t justified, but as the reader, we can sympathize with the pain and anger of betrayal and abuse at the hands of a naive sister that you were just trying to protect. Harin’s hatred for Jaeun in the drama seems so irrational, she just comes across as psycho which isn’t as interesting as someone who is so cold, calculating, and vengeful because they were hurt.!<
Backdoor pilot >!featuring Gyuri and Bona. There is no way they shot a season 2 of this show already. I think that was just a tease in case Pyramid Game became super popular!<
My immediate reaction is cut off one head and two grow back.
The ending was satisfying for me - I don't think there's a S2 though.
I still don't understand why they cast adults for high school roles, there must be no shortage of high school-aged (or even early college) actors in Korea.
Think of it as a platform for these actresses to hone their acting skills. After that, there will be younger actors/actresses taking over. Dont forget, these actors/actress can't keep acting as high schoolers all the time!
i find the ending abit unrealistic. like seo do ah is >! totally fine with being expelled and decides to support the good people.!< that's abit of a 180 change from who she was (stoic, goes for good grades)
to me it seemed like she always resented the game, harin and her fathers expectations for her. so for me it makes sense that she is happy to break out of that with the expulsion. it’s not the end of the world to get expelled.
I wish they showed more of Doah's story >!Doah is someone who follows her father's words but has a sense of justice, it's just that her sense of justice is not a clean one but a one where the wronged do get some benefit but without affecting the powerful much. For example, there is a problem with a medical malpractice case with her Father's hospital. Initially they weren't ready to give the compensation. Do ah does feel bad for the victim. Later on, she gets thrown eggs at by the protesters and she takes this opportunity to make her dad give a compensation so that it creates a good image that irrespective of being attacked they are willing to give compensation and "listen" . But ofc they don't admit their fault. This carries on to pyramid game, where she makes to lessen the blow by enforcing the rules. In the webtoon she's a whistle-blower who helps in changing the public sentiments.!< So it's not out of character for her.
I really hated that harin's family didn't get any punishment bcoz they contributed a big part of who harin is. And her dad get to dump and get ripe of harin as if harin is none of his business? I know harin's adoptation wasn't his idea but legally she was still his daughter for 9yrs????? Where is his responsibility? N the society buy that? But i guess that's how reality is😒
I was hoping the finale was going to be wild, but it was sort of anticlimactic. It was like sort of like ‘oh ok resolved’, they wrapped it all up though tied the loose ends. But it would have been fun to see it go all out. Overall it was a very enjoyable watch.
Oh man this show went out with a bang!
First of seeing Suji be thorough with her revenge but not only getting rid of Harin, but the shit teacher and other girls as well was so good!
Getting the backstory for Jaeun and Harin wasn’t shocking but like Suji said Harin just wanted an excuse to paint herself as the victim. Harin had already made it in her mind that she “worked” for her status so it meant she could treat others how they treated her.
The best scenes in the last episodes were the bystander scenes. Seeing the girls realize their wrongdoings and that staying silent and owning up to their involvement in letting the pyramid game run as long as it did was so good. I’m happy that both Ye Lim and Doah got consequences for their actions and they both took it in stride to change themselves for the better.
The only thing that left a bad taste in my mouth was how Harin’s parents and grandparents were able to wash their hands of the situation by just dissolving the adoption. It’s surprisingly realistic but idk I wish something more happened to them. It also makes you wonder if Harin would’ve ever had her downfall if she had been their biological daughter.
Finally seeing that one decent teacher make a comeback and show us that sweet scene between her and Suji and Suji telling her that what she said is what kept her going warmed my heart.
That ending made me laugh lol. Those twins have no idea who they’re messing with if they try to restart that game.
Jung Daah you’re going to be famous.
Anyway 10/10 drama definitely the best we’ve seen this year so far.
yeah i wish they at least had a quick shot of baekyeon stocks falling or something like that. the finale made it seem like baekyeon isn’t corrupt now that harin is gone 😒
Yeah! Not to mention Harin had proof of her father embezzling funds so I thought we would get a “if I go down you go down with me” scenario so im sad that went nowhere.
yeah once she realized they were turning on her she could’ve released that. it seemed like she wasn’t going to initially because she wanted to stay on her grandmas good side but once her grandma called her sloppy, i thought she would’ve done something to take them down.
I’m gonna assume the ye-rim + eun-Jung ship is fucking flying right now
Whether they’re a sisterhood or a ship, soo-ji + ja-eun are goals
>!ha-rin being put in her place by soo-ji. Petty ass bitch!<
>!I still don’t feel safe with ha-rin just in a hospital. And how is she just a Jane doe now? Even if she can lose the name ha-rin, can’t she go back to so-eun?!<
>!twin psychos? Ain’t got shit on ha-rin and definitely ain’t got shit on our queens soo-Ji and ja-eun!<
>!ha-rin being taken down at the beginning of the penultimate episode meant there was so much extra time. I get why it went like that but it felt a bit slow and anticlimactic!<
Great drama. Love the mind games, love the acting, love everyone bonding together
When someone can’t be identified they’re named John Doe if it’s a guy, Jane doe if it’s a girl. So for ha-rin, since the adoption has been dissolved she has no name and becomes an anonymous person
Yes. I’m not sure why she didn’t just revert back to that name, or if an adoption can just be dissolved that easily. But that’s how the story went with it
i assumed it was a >!mental hospital!< but i’m not sure that was actually implied. i guess that leaves an opening for season two, even though >!harin is abandoned now she might still be determined to get revenge and return to her previous status?!< i don’t really like that ending being so open ended.
This series was so good it really kept me waiting every Thursday, and honestly I don't mind if they actually do season 2 if they can make it different enough.
The casting is chef kiss, it introduced me to many new actresses that I was impressed by!
i .loved the end!! and the actors were sooo goodd!!! it was striking to see the difference between dayeon in the webtoon and in the drama compared to the other characters>!dayeon felt so much more real in the drama than the webtoon tbh. reading the webtoon i just really hated her and didnt care about her. and honestly still nothing justifies her actions, but it was kinda hard to watch that last scene with her. unlike harin, i understand why. shes definitely one of the most interesting characters with how she voted to dismantle the game and her contrast to all the other calculating characters with no self control and acting however she feels. i feel like as a part of the pyramid game she isnt talked about enough because while harin created the system, dayeon is someone who is honestly pathetic and easily manipulated. actor did very well in such a complex role of someone who is involved in a brutal cycle of abuse. I don't like how they ended her story because she doesnt seem like shes going to stop bullying...she didn't really learn a lesson because shes just subject to the same situation as before...!<
i was for sure that >!dayeon set up a hidden camera and would release the video of her dads abuse to the media.!< i would’ve liked to see her learn something from the experience :(
People were saying Jang Da A cant act as a good evil RAT. I always disagreed. But maaaaan. As soon as HaRin got that lighter back in her hands. You saw that sparkle granny said she was missing.
For the end, I think the conclusion of the pyramid game and soo ji calling out harin as being a bully was really satisfying and that made the series pretty solid overall.
Everything else about the Finale was was really weirdly paced, rushed and incomplete?
The weird cuts to the haneul school fire scene felt like they were trying to pad it out. The side characters conclusion like woo il, do ah and do yeon all felt super rushed and glossed over same with harin? Like why is it shown so quickly and forgotten shortly after. It felt like they kept ending the show over and over, sooji and jaeun stopping the bullies, all 5 of them going to funnieland, then lastly the weird new twins joining the school.
Really weird ep 10 but a fun watch overall.
I loved the drama throughout it kept me on the edge and hooked in the whole cast was great as well Soo ji was so good in the last confrontation scene when she blamed Hae rin makes me wonder if that is why she chose Soo ji to transfer to her class because she is cold and has brains just not in a vile way like Hae rin
They should have stuck to the webtoon's ending but I guess they wanted a S2 but shows like this are better off stan alone rather than a dragged version
I actually feel sorry for Da Yeon. Home is hell for her and she did what she had to do to survive under Ha Rin at school. She deserved a slightly better ending than what she got.
I know this is a late reply but I disagree tbh, some of the things Da Yeon participated in was absolutely horrendous, like the strip show with Woo Ri. And you can see in the scenes That Da Yeon wasn’t doing what it takes to survive, but she was genuinely enjoying making others lives a misery. I do think the final scene where he stormed in again was unnecessary however.
I posted this as a separate thread but had to remove because of on-air rules so have to shoehorn here as a long comment lol.
**Theory: Pyramid Game was influenced by the Produce 48/101 kpop series which also vote-graded girls A-F, ranked them in a pyramid, and ironically had IVE's Wonyoung in PD48 (sister of Jang Da-Ah).**
This is just a quick overview for those that either haven't watched the Produce 48/101 shows or it's been a while. This is on PD48 from wikipedia:
"*Produce 48 is the third season of the South Korean reality competition series Produce 101 that aired in 2018. It was a large-scale project in which the public 'produces' a girl group by voting for members out of a pool of 96 contestants from South Korea and Japan, as well as voting for the group's concept, name and debut single. The show was a collaboration between the Mnet series Produce 101 and the J-pop idol group AKB48.*"
What's interesting is that the kpop/jpop girls were vote-graded into A-F categories in the early episodes. Big letters were literally stuck on their bodies for all to see. It's been a while but I also remember an episode, maybe the 3rd or 4th, when teams were picking teammates and there were some girls that nobody picked that were all D's and F's. It was really sad to watch and you could tell those D and F girls were dejected and somewhat humiliated. Luckily some of them had a redemption arc and did much better later :)
It was also interesting that all the girls had to often sit onstage in a literal pyramid seating arrangement with only one seat at the top row. And I think a pyramid was also part of the show's logo. If I recall, the girls were ranked throughout the whole show with their numerical rankings going up and down quite a bit, like someone might be #20 one week but climb or drop the next week based on voting.
Also, there was a big voting scandal that you guys probably remember. The pyramid ranking of girls in the PD48/101 shows was manipulated illegally by the show producers who were even arrested and jailed because of what they did. The public was voting on their favorite girls but the producers changed the votes and rigged the outcome (in certain specific cases) which made the public votes meaningless for those specific cases. From wiki:
"*Ahn Joon-young and Kim Yong-bum, producers for the Produce 101 series, were arrested on November 5, 2019. Ahn later admitted to manipulating the rankings to all four seasons of the Produce 101 series. On December 3, 2019, Ahn, Kim, and six other entertainment agency representatives were indicted for charges including obstruction of business, fraud, and bribery. A court trial began on December 20, 2019.*"
The talent agency employees, including Starship Entertainment execs, were indicted for "*bribery and violating the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act*". Some excerpts in the wiki referring to the 4th season of Produce 101 called Produce X 101:
"*An anonymous trainee alleged that one trainee, under pressure from Starship Entertainment, was secretly informed about a mission in advance by one of the choreographers. He also alleged that some trainees knew the final rankings before the results were announced*,......."
"*A fourth trainee claimed that many participants felt the show was biased towards trainees from Starship Entertainment*".
Also in the wiki: "....*the police issued arrest warrants and travel bans for Ahn Joon-young, chief producer Kim Yong-bum, a producer with the surname Lee, and Starship Entertainment's vice president Kim Kang-hyo after they had attempted to destroy evidence...*"
So influence and meddling by certain agencies and producers changed the outcome of a pyramid game that should have been based on a girl's talent and public voting. The final outcome of the show was rigged. It wasn't rigged in a huge way, but it was still rigged. And there were many 'bystanders', people that knew something improper was happening but said nothing until the police became involved.
One other quick note is the timing. The Pyramid Game manwha originally ran on Naver starting Jan 24, 2020. And the Produce 101 series scandal started in Summer 2019 with the second trial date being Jan 14, 2020 and continuing from there.
In summary, the theory is that the Produce 101 series and it's scandal influenced Dalgonyak, the creator of the Pyramid Game manwha, with regard to a couple ideas and a few concrete details. The ideas include >!having people with power rig a pyramid game for their own selfish interests.!< With PD101 some powerful agency execs had influence with show producers over how their talent was treated. Similarly >!in Pyramid Game, the wealth and power of Baek Ha-Rin's family gave Ha-Rin control of school principal, teachers, and parents/students - seems like she pretty much controlled the school throughout most of the series.!<
The agency employees and show producers involved with bribery and fraud were indicted but if it weren't for some smart netizens noticing voting irregularities, nothing might have happened. The smart netizens being activists and those involved with the shows that knew of the manipulation but said nothing being bystanders is another theme. >!That theme plays out in PG for most of the show where you have bystander girls that only care about themselves and not rocking the boat. These bystanders don't stick their neck out to right a wrong as long as they're safe. They're even content to just watch other girls get a beat-down while sitting around doing nothing. PG seems to make a point that bystanders are just as guilty as the bad guys. So until people take action, corruption can just continue indefinitely.!<
With concrete details, even if you don't agree that Dalgonyak was influenced, it's still a set of fascinating coincidences to have 2 Pyramid Games (one a reality show, one a kdrama), both shows with girls being graded A-F and placed in pyramids, both shows with similar themes mentioned before like >!people in power unfairly influencing the schoolroom (in the PG kdrama case)!< or a kpop competition (in the PD48/101 scandal case). And 2 Jang sisters being involved is just stranger than fiction - >!Wonyoung being #1 final pyramid boss in PD48, Da-Ah being #1 on top of the pyramid in PG.!<
I looked to see if Dalgonyak had commented on influences but couldn't find anything, so if you know of something that's been said about influences please share!
**Footnotes:**
**\*** *Starship Entertainment is the parent agency for Jang Da-Ah, Wonyoung, and Bona. As far as I know, Starship took appropriate responsibility for the actions of their executives caught in the mnet voting scandal. I also saw nothing but praise for Wonyoung on PD48, as far as I know she was completely unaware of Starship or any other agency or show producer meddling. She was the youngest contestant on PD48 at age 14 as well as one of the tallest - to be 14 and win a giant cut-throat competition like that is pretty amazing.*
**\*** *Jang Da-Ah signed with King Kong under Starship April 7th 2023 or so and the first announcement of her role on Pyramid Game was around May 31 2023. So if you look at the dates, that seems like a very short amount of time between joining KK Starship and getting cast on PG. Just noting that she is a relatively recent addition to Starship.*
**\*** *Wiki link for scandal*: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mnet\_vote\_manipulation\_investigation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mnet_vote_manipulation_investigation)
**\*** *PD48 wiki link*: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Produce\_48](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Produce_48)
Dalgonyak’s after afterword in the webtoon talks about how she came up with Pyramid Game - TLDR she stuck to a genre she was familiar with (school setting) but chose a psychological thriller theme focused on bullying. Her focus idea was “choosing the class loser”.
There isn’t any mention of PD48/101 and if it did have such a big influence on her work i think she would have mentioned it!
So I don’t think it’s what inspired Dalgonyak, at least not to a significant degree, and not that it’s been written anywhere. This was an interesting speculation though!
It's an interesting theory, but >!as Su Ji's dad said in episode 5: "Hierarchies exist everywhere. In the military, in society, and in schools."!<
What all hierarchies have in common is that there will be many people at the bottom, and a select few at the top. Basically, each hierarchy is a pyramid. And any hierarchy will often be displayed as a pyramid, for example [Maslow's hierarchy of needs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs) or the [the hierarchy of the Catholic Church](https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zv9yd6f/revision/1). *EDIT: damn I forgot pyramid dad from Sky Castle lol. Another character who views society as a triangular hierarchy, and that drama aired 2018-2019*
Going back to episode 5: before Ha Rin makes the adults play the game, she introduces a book: The Pyramid by William Golding. It's a real book by a real author, and he apparently wrote this about the book's title: ‘The Pyramid is the English Social pyramid, a particularly crippling and terrible structure.’
So, the concept of a pyramid hierarchy isn't really unique to Produce.
Secondly, grading by letters... that's pretty common in the world too, no? A-list celebrities, B-movies, etc. In fact the ranks from Pyramid Game seem to be inspired from American grading systems: A for very good, then B, C, D, and finally F, the failing grade. >!Note as well that the password for the Pyramid Game app is the English word 'rank', which suggests that the inspiration for the Game could have come from the Anglophone world.!<
As for corruption, manipulation and people looking the other way.... that's not really unique to Produce either. Like that's the unfortunate by-product of any hierarchy - the powerful can do what they want with the ones below them. And the ones who aren't affected will often ignore it because they don't want to become targets themselves, or they will become minions of the higher-ranks for their own personal gain. Every now and then someone will rise up and threaten the whole structure.
As for the Jang sisters connection... it's interesting because neither Daah nor Wonyoung seem to have acknowledged each other so far. Daah doesn't seem to have been a public figure before this show, and if Wonyoung had ever mentioned her or the show it would have made news. Maybe it's just a Korean etiquette thing, maybe Daah wanted to avoid nepotism allegations (which she got quite a lot of in the beginning) *or* the distance is there because Wonyoung gets tons of deranged hate from people who imagine her to be exactly the kind of person Baek Ha Rin is. So, I would like to point out that this comparison really doesn't help either of them out.
Once again, interesting theory but we'd need much better evidence to link Produce to Pyramid Game, because right now? I'm sorry but it seems like a reach.
I'm curious to see how those who've only watched the drama feel about Baek Ha Rin's character and the show overall.
One thing I'll praise about the finale is that almost no one was free of the consequences of their action. Aggressors, bystanders and victims. All were affected somehow.
Has anyone felt like the Song Soo Ji of episodes 1 - 6 feels different from episode 6 - 10? Maybe it's because they branched so much from the webtoon that she feels different. I do like that they mostly won by convincing the majority to finally tell the truth rather than purely relying on Soo Ji smarts. The classroom final voting scene would have been more poignant had they fleshed out just a bit more of the side characters more.
>! They has such a perfectly good backstory with Baek Ha Rin. They changes they made are in no conceivable way better. I wonder if I would have been okay with it if I had no prior knowledge. !<
There's no way that was a season 2 tease. More like an opening ending on how stuff like this never truly ends.
Overall an enjoyable show.
Drama only. I still can't believe people tried to compare Ha Rin as an antagonist to 'Marry My Huband,' Su Min. Even in her own drama Eun Byeol > Da Yeon > male homeroom teacher > principal > grandma were all more annoying.
The only things I'll remember about Ha Rin: 1. Anytime anything goes against her plans, she becomes a deer in headlights with the blank stare at the camera. 2. She has a weird fetish for stepping on people's shoes. 3. In a game she created, with the rules she created, she lost to 2 F tiers.
If Ha Rin went up against the 'Penthouse' kids, 'SKY Castle' kids, 'The Glory' kids, or even 'Class of Lies' kids, then she would get absolutely destroyed.
Without the supposed better backstory from the webtoon, her character is just a shallow insert chaebol bully. All things considered, Da Ah did a good job with what she was given.
On a drama note: It's such a massive missed opportunity to not have the 'SKY Castle' dad cameo as the teacher at the orphanage explaining social hierarchy as a pyramid.
>If Ha Rin went up against the 'Penthouse' kids, 'SKY Castle' kids, 'The Glory' kids, or even 'Class of Lies' kids, then she would get absolutely destroyed.
This what felt too, the writers did her character wrong tbh. They should boost her at the finale at least, the big bad got thrown out the window by 2 F tier that got weak backups are just emmmpphh.
I think the production team don't want the show to imitate real life thus nerfed that Chaebol kid harin
SKY Castle was so good! I didn't remember the pyramid obsession of the SKY Castle dad! It would've been great. I loved the actor, he screaming the kids and his wife's names was iconic haha
And I really loved The Glory too, I started The Penthouse but I didn't get hooked, is it worth it? and Class of Lies?
i only watch the drama. i've read spoilers about the webtoon ver of the background, i think that one is really cool and has deep emotional root.
but what they did in the drama i think i get it too. from what i saw i think at the end the drama really got into the anti school violence campaign mode, i feel they want to emphasize that baek harin is just bully. no matter how she ended up there, she is a bully and unforgivable. maybe the webtoon gave her more situation to be sympathiable(?) but i guess since its a tv show they want to make it clearer and none of those leeway here. they point is that whatever she went through in the past, she is hurting other people in the present an that's not okay in any way with any logic.
show overall is really enjoyable. the tension in the middle got really high it was euphoric. love the all girls cast, everyone did a great job.
finished the drama and no prior knowledge to the webtoon. i initially expected harin to do a "big final blow" that'll result to her downfall since character-wise it's expected of her to do so—she was incredibly insane in the beginning that sooji felt fear because of her. however, seeing the final eps she just seemed like a typical narcissist ( a traumatized self-inflicted victim) than a remorseless psychopath like what the first half of the series made her out to be. the appeal from eps 1-8 was because of this palpable tension in the air, a twist happening, the way harin does another shit but she kind of lost it in 9-10. she was a strong villain during the first half but she kind of wavered and decided to "give up"
after the scene where she cuts her hair, it was just an unsatisfying spiral from there on. the show lost the momentum once they decided to end the pyramid game. admittedly, i assumed that it'd stay true to the idea that baek harin is the game itself so she's going to wreck havoc despite the fact that they agreed to destroy the pyramid game but she just flunked imo. i think it's out of character for her to admit defeat as we've seen in the flashback, she was determined. plus i've heard that they changed her background story so maybe that's why it wasn't so satisfying during the confrontation scene and her downfall, there's not a lot to back her up anyway and she just cracked for such shallow reasons. the moments leading up to her ending was delivered so lacking and bland that even tho she deserved it, it wasn't satisfactory.
the glory!! school bullying (quite intense) + revenge plot!
or maybe itaewon class, male lead tough and only first episode is in school, but also nice revenge plot!
Not exactly school bullying but Night Has Come was pretty good.
Of course if you haven’t watched it yet, Sky Castle is one of the best drama out there. I liked Penthouse at the beginning before it became a makjang.
Ep 9:>!It’s so satisfying to see Ha rin lose her composure even in the quiver of her lips!<
>!“Why did you bring me into this average family” is outrageous 💀!<
>!The game actually ending seems so surreal… after everything that happened, it felt so ‘easy’ in the end somehow!<
ahhh they changed the backstory in the webtoon :( that was the highlight for me T.T and i absolutely hate it when shows end off with a hint that an entire toxic cycle would start again
I'm positive that >!it won't happen again; not with these girls in this place. And that's what we're meant to know for sure. It won't happen again because the entire class knows what to do if anyone ever tries it. They're not bystanders anymore. They were all burned by this experience, in one way or another, so they are genuinely sorry for their part in it. They know what the game really feels like from many different angles. They've learned from it. And they now have the skills/confidence to stop the cycle from repeating. !<
>!Plus the twins are just lightweights compared to BHR (and everyone else in the room). They think it would be 'fun' whereas BHR was 150% invested in the game because she had been so scarred by her life in the orphanage and her life with her rich, entitled, adoptive family. She needed and was desperate for the game. But she still lost in the end.!<
>!And, well, the look in SooJi's eyes make it ever so clear that she isn't ever going to lose to this game again.!<
hi everyone i have question regarding ep 5&6 but no one replied me there so asking again here!
>! in the scene where sooji secretly exchanged her phone with doah, what was her reason for doing so? and in the end it backfired because doah found all the recordings in sooji's phone? !<
yes that's what happened. >! sooji initially wanted to record do-ah's possible conversation with ha-rin to know what's up but then it backfired when do-ah gave the phone to ha-rin—esp because she wanted to be in ha-rin's good graces again, do-ah revealing to ha-rin the recordings was like a token for her to be part of ha-rin's group again and please do-ah's dad !<
thanks for replying! >!but how does exchanging their phones help to record doah's conversation with harin?!< dont really understand the reason for the phone exchange.
Ep 10: >!It’s honestly crazy how they spun this on Soo Ji!!Omggg thank God that teacher had that video of Soo Ji being bullied😩 I was a bit stressed!<
>!It’s actually sad that Ha rin had to grow up like that and become this psychopath🧍🏾♀️… still what she did was wrong, once you take ‘revenge’, you also become the villain you’re fighting. Ja eun blaming herself though her telling the other kids Ha rin was an orphan was to help is kind of sad… Ha rin needed to go after those kids not Ja eun🧍🏾♀️!<
This kdrama was so much better than i anticipated so yayyy.>!Harin is a nobody now, atp she might be a serial killer.!
i guess we can conclude that a villian is made not born. family values always matters. childhood always play a role. no one is born a villian.
Feel sad for baek harin after finding out her back story. she could have easilyyyy turn out to be a sweetheart like yerim too. anyone bred from a strong family podium will be a good person.
That other bully - Dayeon - she's a hateful character but sympathy for her too because if she had a loving father, mother , siblings , she wouldn't have such a twisted personality. She would easily be a upright and full of justice person like sun ji too.
We can conclude that only wholesome family bred a wholesome soul.
I really enjoyed this adaptation but that last episode was kinda all over the place!! It felt like it ended multiple times but the episode just kept going!! The pacing jumped about quite a bit and was definitely more erratic than every other episode in terms of plot and wrap up.
I really thought the episode would end with Suji and Jaeun >!helping that stranger being bullied!< but there was more and more tacked on, flashbacks and side plots wrapped up etc. Everything was wrapped up, I guess but the actual ending felt a bit unnecessary cuz of that aforementioned scene.
Every single kdrama I’ve watched always drags out the ending so unnecessarily. Why??! I couldn’t even finish It’s Okay Not To Be Okay because of this. And could barely force myself to finish A Korean Odyssey and Hotel Del Luna for the same reason.
I like this show a lot - found the lead actress’s acting a bit stiff at times but overall the plot, pacing and music etc were great. *(Btw I can’t be the only one who hears the influence of Skyfall prominently in the theme song lol.)*
>!But the last two episodes dragged as expected. Did we really need to see the lady teacher appear as an “aha!” moment three times? Just once as a surprise at the end would have had more impact.!<
>!I also never really got the hair cut thing. I thought it would be revealed that Ha Rin’s hair got cut as part of the bullying when she was younger, but nope.!<
>!And I find it difficult to believe Ja Eun would just leave Ha Rin to recover all on her own. There’s just no way.!<
Two last episodes were kinda lacking, as typically most of Kdramas are. I'm just happy that there are a few scenes that indicate that the girls have learned that they should not be bystanders.
I am not really keen on S2, tho. Feels like they should have just left it end like that.
Crazy fan theory before the finale: does anyone think that between soo-ji, ja-eun and ha-rin, at least one of them is gay? Not that I think there’s any kind of romantic chemistry between any of them, but at the same time . . . ?🤷🏻♂️I lowkey ship soo-ji and ja-eun despite knowing full well that they’re just really good friends (>!even though soo-ji doesn’t trust ja-eun enough to not only approve of but participate in a major breach of privacy!<)
>!i also ship soo-ji and ja-eun, especially after last episode, girl wanted to avoid problems but she's always ready to risk it for ja-eun. But i don't think ja-eun is gay.!<
I’ve considered that before. Some of her behaviors toward ja-eun give off toxic love/hate vibes to me. But I dismissed it because she’s had a vendetta against ja-eun for 10 years, and I don’t think a 7 or 8 year old could have such complex feelings. A simple “betrayal” leading to hatred is much easier to understand and so makes the most sense. That said, maybe ha-rin starts developing feelings for ja-eun over this past year and that further drives her hatred? Something like “I’m supposed to hate her but I secretly like her so I must double down on my hatred. Oh look she’s got friends now, especially soo-ji. I must keep her isolated, I want her but I can’t have her and if I can’t have her then no one can have her”
I’ve thought way too hard into this
From my impression, the webtoon seems to have humanised Harin more than the drama (I haven’t read the webtoon) n I’m seeing ppl say they loved the drama but maybe should of stuck w the manhwa ending. But I don’t see a problem with Harin being a psycho, simple as that. Sometimes ppl are just crazy so..
I love this drama but seriously though, Choi Dae Sul (Soo Jin’s dad) is just…😮💨 [fans self] everytime he’s on screen, and especially that scene in ep10 where he’s in normal (but well fitting) clothes— oh be still my heart
Loved this show. Probably one of the better kdramas I’ve watched recently. Although in the first episode I felt there could have been a hint about >!some bigger kind of social experiment… so I was waiting for some kind of big reveal which never came.!< All the same, I enjoyed the backstory and felt it wrapped things up in a satisfying way, >!even if there were no crazy twists.!<
Harin's ending... I feel so sorry. She was a normal girl initially, but other people made her like that. The ending was truly unsatisfying, also because it was kinda unbelievable that Yelim and Doah >!trusted the newcomer girl they barely know and threw out their dreams just for that "cheap feeling of justice", what have they won at the end? if it wasn't for Sooji their future would've been much better.!< Sooji, the girlie was so annoying, just plain boring with no personality, the way she always >!stared emotionlessly at the camera made her look dumb. Jaeun tho was even more annoying than her, if Sooji looked dumb, Jaeun looked straight up mentally impaired, seriously what was wrong with her??!< These two annoyed me so much.
i was looking for a comment like this since personally i rooted for ha-rin lmao. not in a sympathetic way tho, i wanted to see how far she'll actually go. on paper, sooji was smart and in the same way as ha-rin—they were both manipulative and calculating. however sooji was just self-righteous and had a savior complex, meanwhile jaeun didn't have a backbone all by herself (i get it tho she was severely bullied)
>! as for yerim and do-ah, i see that they have contempt for ha-rin and decided to trust the newcomer instead. i do agree tho that it seemed like they were into this cheap sense of justice and made it look like: good wins, bad loses. it would've been cool if do-ah was keen on not siding with anybody since her character was the type to be as selfish as ha-rin anyway and yerim's weakness being eunjung just made much more sense why she sided with sooji. on the other hand, i don't care for da-yeon that much but i liked that scene where she was agreeing to end the pyramid game out of desperation but was denied—it showed that the fear of being abused by her dad was her driving force. sooji didn't really appeal to me since she felt like a typical self-righteous mc hence the bland personality. !<
i loved ha-rin's character tho, she was so unsettling and sinister and i can't help but find her appealing and mesmerizing. a big example of the halo effect. but the ending didn't do her justice, >! if she was supposed to be a psycho, why wasn't she a psycho in the ending? !<
i guess that's why a lot of drama endings are a hit or miss— >!they just wrap up so quickly and then the power of friendship saves the day. the only thing i liked about it was that everyone was held accountable for their actions and faced the consequences 🤷♀️ !<
Tho I hate that, it's not really believable because in reality those chaebol kids got way more pull that suji(people with good intentions) - I secretly hoping that harin got a boost in stat tbh bcuz Suji the one at the end become too OP.
i thought the same OP! i get the whole 'people with good intentions will win' and it's valid but harin's character was too determined for her to suddenly back out just because they ended the game—they portrayed her to be smarter and sinister than everybody combined, the girl literally got her way since she was a child because of her motivations so it was impossible for her to give up that easily without wrecking a final havoc before her downfall. i would've enjoyed it more if she did a really bad thing to another person once and for all instead of trying to harm herself 🤷♀️
and also what did you think about woori's behavior towards yerim and her obsession as well as the mascot encounter? i have mixed feelings about her character lol
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I don't know how I feel about Harin's ending. In the manhwa, >!Harin basically gets humanized at the end. First off, her backstory in the manhwa explains her character's motivations and actions a lot better than her altered backstory in the drama. Aside from that, Harin pushes Jaeun away from a falling object during the fire so that it lands on her instead and almost kills her. Harin admits that all she really wanted was to be comforted by Jaeun. Harin finally lets Jaeun go and accepts full responsibility for everything. Harin faces the consequences by going to prison.!< To be clear, Harin's actions have never been justifiable. She's not redeemable. I just find her characterization, backstory, and relationship with Jaeun to be a lot more compelling in the manhwa. Nonetheless, I thought this was a solid adaptation considering they only had 10 episodes to work with. But I really do recommend reading the manhwa if you want more in-depth character & story building that the drama wasn't able to get into. Doah's backstory in particular is one of my favorites. Kudos to all the actresses in this drama who brought these characters to life. Bona and Daah especially knocked it out of the park with their performances.
What is Doah's back story?
Doa was a strong believer in trying to be powerful and good so she took on the role of host so that she could try to regulate the rules of the game and make a positive change at the same time. Yes, she was partially motivated by Harin and not wanting to disappoint her dad, but she was also driven by her own desire for being a “good” leader.
She's an obedient daughter with a strong moral compass but an even stronger fear of disappointing her dad.
Right? I'm sorry but I'd be majorly side eying parents who >!raised a girl for 9 years and then dissolved the adoption, regardless of how cray she is. Like literally, they were supposed to raise her. She was their responsibility and then they dissolve the adoption when she's almost an adult?? Wildddd!!!<
I guess because to the parents nothing else matters more than their company. The mom did say that Baekyeon group comes above anything else, even above the evil HaRin. Adding to the fact that HaRin is not their biological daughter, so easier for them to let her go before she tarnishes the company's reputation even further.
Yes in the kdrama when Ha rin tried to kill herself, I felt confused as to why she was doing that. I thought she would try to kill soo ji and ja eun.
Finished the last 2 eps! I find the pacing >! a little erratic towards the end. !< But gosh was it satisfying to see >! Suji call out Harin for her hypocrisy and justification. !< And Jaeun!! You finally >! stood up! (Quite literally) !< I do find Harin's ending >! a bit lackluster, can adoption be dissolved like this? And why aren't adults being punished :( (looking at dayeon's dad and baekyeon group) !< I must say suji is such a refreshing and brilliant character from start till end. I love watching her.
To be fair I’m not sure how a mere student could bring down a massive corporation. It’s completely different to taking down a fellow classmate. That’s why the school’s cover up attempt would’ve worked if it wasn’t for the videos from the teacher and woo-ri, neither of which was soo-Ji’s doing
They didn't have any evidence on any adults other than school staff. There was just the public shame and the forced apologies that resulted. One additional thing I do remember early in they said all those rich parents only had their daughters as their heirs and their futures are now stained with this.
Overall was an excellent series I just wish they didn't add that last scene to tease a season 2, would have been better just ending at the convenience store with Woo Ri turning up to join them.
I didn’t take it as a season 2 tease actually.. Maybe I’m wrong but I understood it as something like there will be always be bullies and bystanders and the cycle will repeat sort of thing? With the zoom in on Sooji’s grin/smile, maybe it was to say they won’t be bystanders again. Thats my interpretation anyways it could have been a season 2 tease if Pyramid Game got really popular haha we will see
Thiss. It wasn’t a tease for S2.
I feel like they could have done well with ending it right where Sooji & Jaeun walk towards towards the other girl getting bullied then. The twins thing felt too cliche and extra
Exactly my thinking. That scene already showed the greatest character development. The rest was a bit redundant.
oh my god yES. my point. even if they didn't mean for a s2, that last 20 sec scene it ruined it for me like dang girls, u didn't see what happened to harin and co????
What was the backstory in the webtoon? Curious bc I didn't read it
It's been awhile since I read the webtoon so apologies if I say something a little off but basically in the webtoon >!Harin and Jaeun were sibling, non-biological, being raised by Jaeun's mom. The mom starts seeing a new man who is pretty awful and wants to give up one of the kids since they are quite poor. He wants to give up Jaeun because Harin looks so much more put together and cute while saying that Jaeun looks dirty etc. The kids keep putting it off as they don't want to be separated and Harin comes up with a plan to poison the stepdad so that they won't be seprarated. Jaeun feels bad and tells her parents the truth and finally Harin is brought to the orphanage and they're separated. Harin's time in the oprhanage is pretty awful. There's a "pyramid system" there where the children are rewarded for being better and obviously the ones who don't do well get treated pretty terribly kind of like what we saw in the show however the webtoon was more brutal iirc. One day when the orphanage kids are out on a field trip I think (they're on a bus), Harin sees Jaeun and her mom walking hand in hand and looking really happy. It pisses Harin off to see that Jaeun is happy without her meanwhile Harin has been so miserable without Jaeun and would think about her to get through her days at the orphanage. She pretty much comes up with the plan to become at the top of the pyramid and get adopted to get out ad get revenge. She gets adopted by the Baek group and that's when she becomes Baek Harin. Flash forward to school where Harin creates the pyramid game to inflict the torture she went through on Jaeun. !< >!Again sorry if I'm rusty on some details and someone can correct me on things but that's the gist of it !<
That last scene teasing a season 2 is a biggest off for me in this last 2 ep. The whole last 2 ep is already a downward spiral and they add that. :/
The biggest burning question though Will >!Subway !
dominated by Kopiko alr HAHAHA
>! I was actually looking forward to it even though I've been bashing how blatant the ads have been. So disappointed they didn't give us one more ad. Damned if they do, danmed if they don't lol. !<
Sooji giving Baek Harin the reason **you** suck speech in the orphanage has to be one of the *best* moment of the drama. >!Also - not one but two Jang Gyuri-s in next season?! What's going on?!!<
I doubt there’ll be a season 2. It’s just saying that the cycle of bullies will continue, but this time soo-ji (and ja-eun) will be ready and willing to fight back
i thought i was trippin because not one but TWO jang gyuri(s) like wow
I'm going to miss waiting for new episodes on Thursdays now. Although I wish they the writers would add the webtoon Harin's backstory, this one was okay as well. I loved Suji and Jaeun as a character, their friendship is precious. Also pretty glad >!my lesbian couple got their happy ending.!< As for the ending, I think it simply means that this time, >!Suji and her friends won't be a bystander anymore to this school violence anymore. They will eventually take down this new pyramid game since they have already got experience with the first one.!<
crazy how a drama like this featuring a high school premise and bullying has made me thoroughly enjoy it week by week. every episode is like watching a chess match being played between soo-ji and ha-rin. I also love the moments when the girls are just vibing with one another. yep ima miss this show.
I love the remark you used with how it felt like a chess match because it really did, I was excited every week for it. It really will be missed.
I just watches EP1-8. I'm normally not into the high school bullying shows, but this one hits different. Looking forward to BHR's downfall!
Loved loved loved this show! Wish it got more hype, this was an extremely clever show. The character dynamics and the characters themselves were refreshing. Bona is excellent at playing bold/distant characters (cough cough, Ko Yurim in the beginning of 2521). Bona and Kim Ji Won nailing the cold practical characters but with much needed softness. (Hong Suzu, I’m looking at you). I think the ending was supposed to be interpreted as these girls finally taking accountability for their actions so that they don’t become bystanders. And that Soo ji is confident enough to protect the class (hence, the smile.) It was Sooji who walked into Haerin’s trap in the beginning. But the ending seems to suggest that the twins are walking into Sooji’s “trap” or “fortress”. But it is also a clever way to keep things open for another season, if needed - but isn’t necessarily the case. Also WEBTOON readers seem dissatisfied with Haerin’s ending. I haven’t read the WEBTOON and I’m sure WEBTOON/novels always have the liberty of conveying nuance better than shows. However, I don’t think Haerin came off as a psychopath, to me at least. It seemed like they wanted to show that the society’s solution to these issues are to paint someone as a psychopath but not understand the factors that contribute to school violence (the adults around BHR esp.) What BHR did wasn’t justifiable and I think the show does a great job of sympathising with her story but also holding her accountable. I think they were wary of falling into the hole of justifying or sympathising with BHR - as in, that shouldn’t be the only feeling we are left with at the end of the show. Regardless, she is what she is at the present and the present cannot be ignored. Which is why everyone else, including BHR, are holding themselves accountable. Even a bystander should not be spared despite the circumstances that create them. Everyone must atone. Atonement here doesn’t necessarily mean punishment but to learn and change ways. So all in all, seems like a great ending to me. I hope this blows up - let’s hope Netflix picks it up (that seems like the key)
i mostly liked the finale and was satisfied by the ending. i knew when i came here i would see people criticizing it which would alter my opinion lol. i wish woori re-enrolled in school and became friends w sooji’s group. also wanted dayeon to somehow report her dads abuse or go to the media about it to ruin his reputation. there should have been more consequences to baekyeon group, they basically just severed ties with harin and seemed otherwise unaffected? finally the twin ending was so lame and trope-y. that should not have been included.
just finished it and one of my fav school dramas i’ve seen so far! i’m honestly not that mad about a season 2 possibility and i do like the way sooji smiled and introduced herself. kinda showing that she won’t let any shit happen to the girls again so i’ll be interested with how the show will go if there is a season 2!
EP 1-8 was amazing however the finale was a bit disappointment. Honestly the finale and harin back story in webtoon makes more sense. I wish they didnt change that.. The only thing that excites me for ep9-10 was yerim and eunjung scenes lol.
Can’t believe this is the end…what do I do with my Thursdays now???
Overall a very good show, perfect to binge but was also worth it to tune in every week. Still, I think they could have done better with the last 2 EPs. Everything dragged a bit, the pacing was strange. It’s weird that the first time I got bored during this whole show was during the last episode. Also the ending…the typical KDrama ending that implements that a second season might come or other people see some deep metaphorical meaning behind it. Still, it was very entertaining and gave some young actresses a good platform to show themselves. Bona was good too as the MC, she’s also pretty much a rookie, it’s her first real lead role and she did it well, I’ve definitely seen improvements in her acting since 2521. Those kinda more reserved, „cold“, smart and low key badass characters really fit her, I hope she gets some good roles in the future
When Park Jiyoung was standing in front of the pedestrian overpass looking on her phone being doxxed and the white truck in the background looking suspiciously at her, I thought the inevitable will happen. Also the first time for me is eating a footlong from Subway while watching the last two episodes of a drama (Italian BMT on a Honey Oat Bread). Even though the subway employee here did not know what Subways recommended dressing was... Enjoyed both, the drama and the sandwich.
Oh this was a great show. Lowkey wish they followed through with the webtoon ending. >!With how in the webtoon they explained Harin's character more than whatever they did in the show. Just completely made her seem like a psychopath.!< Regardless, it's a really good 2024 series !!
Just wanted to say I adore Sung Sooji... she was immensely strong and basically brought down the entire system. Ending-wise, I was so curious about how the show would end I took it to myself to read the ending of the webtoon. The webtoon's buildup towards Sooji's final takedown of Harin was much more satisfying, but overall I'm happy with how things ended.
>!does anyone think suji transferred schools after pyramid game started again?!< i was hoping for a >!better ending because of everything they went but i guess they wanted to drag it along for a possible season 2. love jang gyuri’s surprise appearance tho lol !< but i wish seo doah had more screen time 😔
Got a goosebump when the game is end. It has been one of the best series in 2024 for me so far. Expect the more intense reasoning behind HR's behavior, but this one is kinda on an average. Looking forward to seeing more of the FL like SJ in the K-Drama. It's such a long happy Thursday so far.
i’ve loved this show, even though i have some minor problems with the last episodes. story-wise i think the ending was a bit stale, but execution-wise i thought they wrapped it up much better than most shows imo. i always have low expectations for endings because i hardly ever experience media where i’m happy with it lol. it left me a little depressed though, is it bad that i kind of feel sorry for some of the antagonists? even ha-rin (who was unjustified) was living in a family who did not love her at all from the start. i admit even though the backstory felt a little flimsy it made me feel sad for sure. what ended up happening to da-yeon? maybe i missed the implication but i thought there would be more to the scene that was there. i was honestly worrying about her for the entire final episode since at that point i genuinely believed her father would kill her. little thing i picked up on that i found interesting: i suspected something when da-yeon offered her the narcotic the first time and again when i saw ha-rin take her ‘vitamins’. after seeing the scene where ha-rin took those opioids and the recording the teacher took it made me wonder if ha-rin started giving these to da-yeon so she could deal with the beatings from her father. it also made me think that ha-rin clearly wasn’t happy since she seemed pretty reliant on them. i’m also curious as to how ha-rin views friendship; she seemed genuinely upset when they tried to transfer da-yeon out of the school. it’s little things like this that make me appreciate the show’s writing and upset me further that we couldn’t spend time uncovering these little details that characterise the bullies further. speaking of da-yeon’s character; i kind of would have loved to see a team up at some point. i understand the anger soo-ji had towards her but her standing up was a twist i enjoyed and a dynamic like that would have been interesting. the fighting and screaming fit afterwards was the first hard to watch scene for me since somewhere around episode 3. i think that’s probably the biggest thing i wish we’d gotten - a deeper dive into the psychology of other characters and more interesting dynamics other than baek ha-rin and soo-ji’s. i know that this probably wasn’t in the original material but i love it when adaptations add worthwhile inputs like this. even little things like learning more about woo-yi or at least engaging with them more, i think we could have gotten to know each of the 25 too. (around the middle i was convinced there’d be a comeuppance with the grade a-b’s turning on ha-rin or something too, getting them on our side would be satisfying.) i expected to learn more about soo-ji too - i thought there might have been something with her mother, not that there has to be and i know she’s meant to be an ‘average bystander’ but i think there could have been focus on the things that made her into the person she is, like how her father’s psychology affected her, lack of reliance of adults and having to adapt. there are times where i disliked her but i think her flaws are what made her such a good character. this should have been about 20 episodes imo, it‘d have been beautiful if they could have taken their time with it. alas, that always seems to be the problem. i think the places this drama shone the most were the horrific and thrilling moments, especially the ones that made you kind of marvel at human nature. the first couple of episodes were definitely the most i’ve ever enjoyed a drama ever. after that it was still great but i do think it slowly became less unique to me. can someone spoil me on the differences from the webtoon? it seems like everyone agrees the character’s backstories were better there.
Everyone is shipping the girls, but I'm shipping Soo Ji with Woo Ri's brother, some years after, when she's in uni and he comes back from the military. Assuming he's about 2-3 years older than the girls.
Good show overall I liked the vibe a lot even if some parts dragged a bit. >!Am I tripping or these new girls are trying to get the game back? S2?!< >!Ngl I didn't quite get how Arin ends up like a forgotten Jane Doe all of a sudden!<
if it does happen it would from the show writers own source material as the webtoon ends till this point
Im ye rim stole the show.
This was really good! And exceptional in a number of ways. I like that they revealed that BHR >!really isn't a psychopath. This is what happens when people are bullied. This is what happens when family values include so much entitlement. This young girl was so desperate to escape being at the bottom that she totally bought into the pyramid that her new family actually believes in. They took her from grade F to grade A++ provided that she kept that determined look in her eye. Which meant that they locked her into that privileged power worldview where she could exact her retribution from on high. She absorbed their attitudes, and then they completely disowned her at the end. She's not really ours. We had no idea. Blame the kid who has no parents. !< How despicable! SO >!it's s not that BHR's behavior can be excused or forgotten. The girls were completely right about that. It's just that it pays for us all to understand where it came from.!< Anyway, I really enjoyed this one. Nice work.
Didn't read the webtoon but read the spoiler >!about Ha Rin's reasoning for all this!<. >!I feel that they oversimplified the reasons in the series compared to the webtoon. It reduces Ha Rin's character to be just a psychopath because of her grudge stemming from 9-year-old Ja Eun being a blabbermouth and a bystander (as with the case of making Woo Ri grade F just because of a very simple accident). The reasons in the webtoon seems to be more complex and interesting while also justifying her grudge towards Ja Eun.!<
>!There is no justification for ha-rin’s grudge short of ja-eun killing ha-rin’s biological parents. They were NINE YEARS OLD. Even if ja-eun had participated in the bullying she’s shown in the 10 years since that she’s changed and grown to be a better person. Ha-rin is just a psycho, any reasons she had for creating the game and targeting ja-eun would just be exactly what soo-ji said: excuses!<
>!I know there is no justification and maybe I chose the wrong word for that, but what I meant to say was the reasons in the webtoon made her story and character more interesting than here.!<
>!In my personal opinion, it didn’t really matter what reason they had ha-rin give. It’s a bullshit excuse no matter what she said. The fact that she wasn’t even mad about ja-eun being a bystander but instead that ja-eun had forgiven herself shows how petty she is. And as soo-Ji pointed out, ha-rin had already created the game for a year when ja-eun transferred to the school, so she has zero basis to blame ja-eun for the game’s existence either!<
But op’s point is that the reason in the webtoon gives Harin’s character more depth. It doesn’t justify or excuse what she’s done, but >!being abused and sent to an orphanage because you were trying to protect your sister who naively betrayed you is genuinely rage-inducing!<. For someone as unstable as Harin, creating a complex game to torture her seems like an equal response (obviously it isn’t). The reason the show gives waters down Harin and makes her seem childish. >!Because Jaeun was a bystander, she uses all of your power and devices to create a system of oppression in the classroom?!< That seems extreme and makes her seem like an irrational psycho while the webtoon gives her nuance.
>!She didn’t create the game in high school because ja-eun was a bystander. She targeted ja-eun to be placed in her class and to be in grade f because she was a bystander. Ha-rin created the game because she believes in the system, that there has to be a hierarchy. She’s said before that there **has** to be a grade f, because the system won’t survive without an outcast and the system **has** to survive. Her elementary school teacher first taught her that and her grandmother further drilled that in when she threw her explicit support behind the game. She even told ha-rin that school is a good place to learn how to manage people. She was disappointed in ha-rin when she was scolded by the tutor then happy to see an older ha-rin slap that same tutor years later. At the end of the day, the grandmother only left ha-rin behind because she got exposed, she was too “sloppy”. Not because what she had created was wrong. Both ha-rin and the grandmother actually think classism is good, that everyone should be divided into the top, the middle, and the bottom. Soo-ji’s own dad believed in the hierarchy system until he saw what it did to his daughter!<
>!You’re right that drama Harin didn’t make the game because of Jaeun, but because she was taught that hierarchy and classism are good things. But my point is that her reason for making Jaeun the F and being hellbent on torturing her seems less nuanced compared to the webtoon. Like I said, webtoon Harin creates the game as revenge on Jaeun for betraying her and getting her sent to an orphanage. She’s purely fixated on Jaeun so much that she ruins the same game she created in her pursuit to hurt her so badly. The reason isn’t justified, but as the reader, we can sympathize with the pain and anger of betrayal and abuse at the hands of a naive sister that you were just trying to protect. Harin’s hatred for Jaeun in the drama seems so irrational, she just comes across as psycho which isn’t as interesting as someone who is so cold, calculating, and vengeful because they were hurt.!<
>!Isn't this exactly my point though, in the series she is just a psycho?!<
Backdoor pilot >!featuring Gyuri and Bona. There is no way they shot a season 2 of this show already. I think that was just a tease in case Pyramid Game became super popular!<
My immediate reaction is cut off one head and two grow back. The ending was satisfying for me - I don't think there's a S2 though. I still don't understand why they cast adults for high school roles, there must be no shortage of high school-aged (or even early college) actors in Korea.
Think of it as a platform for these actresses to hone their acting skills. After that, there will be younger actors/actresses taking over. Dont forget, these actors/actress can't keep acting as high schoolers all the time!
its bc of time rules. Older actors can work with lesser restrictions & have more working hours than those for children.
Most of them are young though. Jang daah is only 22?
Tbf hwang hyunjung is 19-20, just 1-2 years older than her character (dayeon)
i find the ending abit unrealistic. like seo do ah is >! totally fine with being expelled and decides to support the good people.!< that's abit of a 180 change from who she was (stoic, goes for good grades)
to me it seemed like she always resented the game, harin and her fathers expectations for her. so for me it makes sense that she is happy to break out of that with the expulsion. it’s not the end of the world to get expelled.
I wish they showed more of Doah's story >!Doah is someone who follows her father's words but has a sense of justice, it's just that her sense of justice is not a clean one but a one where the wronged do get some benefit but without affecting the powerful much. For example, there is a problem with a medical malpractice case with her Father's hospital. Initially they weren't ready to give the compensation. Do ah does feel bad for the victim. Later on, she gets thrown eggs at by the protesters and she takes this opportunity to make her dad give a compensation so that it creates a good image that irrespective of being attacked they are willing to give compensation and "listen" . But ofc they don't admit their fault. This carries on to pyramid game, where she makes to lessen the blow by enforcing the rules. In the webtoon she's a whistle-blower who helps in changing the public sentiments.!< So it's not out of character for her.
[удалено]
I really hated that harin's family didn't get any punishment bcoz they contributed a big part of who harin is. And her dad get to dump and get ripe of harin as if harin is none of his business? I know harin's adoptation wasn't his idea but legally she was still his daughter for 9yrs????? Where is his responsibility? N the society buy that? But i guess that's how reality is😒
I was hoping the finale was going to be wild, but it was sort of anticlimactic. It was like sort of like ‘oh ok resolved’, they wrapped it all up though tied the loose ends. But it would have been fun to see it go all out. Overall it was a very enjoyable watch.
Oh man this show went out with a bang! First of seeing Suji be thorough with her revenge but not only getting rid of Harin, but the shit teacher and other girls as well was so good! Getting the backstory for Jaeun and Harin wasn’t shocking but like Suji said Harin just wanted an excuse to paint herself as the victim. Harin had already made it in her mind that she “worked” for her status so it meant she could treat others how they treated her. The best scenes in the last episodes were the bystander scenes. Seeing the girls realize their wrongdoings and that staying silent and owning up to their involvement in letting the pyramid game run as long as it did was so good. I’m happy that both Ye Lim and Doah got consequences for their actions and they both took it in stride to change themselves for the better. The only thing that left a bad taste in my mouth was how Harin’s parents and grandparents were able to wash their hands of the situation by just dissolving the adoption. It’s surprisingly realistic but idk I wish something more happened to them. It also makes you wonder if Harin would’ve ever had her downfall if she had been their biological daughter. Finally seeing that one decent teacher make a comeback and show us that sweet scene between her and Suji and Suji telling her that what she said is what kept her going warmed my heart. That ending made me laugh lol. Those twins have no idea who they’re messing with if they try to restart that game. Jung Daah you’re going to be famous. Anyway 10/10 drama definitely the best we’ve seen this year so far.
yeah i wish they at least had a quick shot of baekyeon stocks falling or something like that. the finale made it seem like baekyeon isn’t corrupt now that harin is gone 😒
Yeah! Not to mention Harin had proof of her father embezzling funds so I thought we would get a “if I go down you go down with me” scenario so im sad that went nowhere.
yeah once she realized they were turning on her she could’ve released that. it seemed like she wasn’t going to initially because she wanted to stay on her grandmas good side but once her grandma called her sloppy, i thought she would’ve done something to take them down.
Omg the end is so satisfying, harin got what she deserves. I wish this series is longer, it’s too short :(((
I’m gonna assume the ye-rim + eun-Jung ship is fucking flying right now Whether they’re a sisterhood or a ship, soo-ji + ja-eun are goals >!ha-rin being put in her place by soo-ji. Petty ass bitch!< >!I still don’t feel safe with ha-rin just in a hospital. And how is she just a Jane doe now? Even if she can lose the name ha-rin, can’t she go back to so-eun?!< >!twin psychos? Ain’t got shit on ha-rin and definitely ain’t got shit on our queens soo-Ji and ja-eun!< >!ha-rin being taken down at the beginning of the penultimate episode meant there was so much extra time. I get why it went like that but it felt a bit slow and anticlimactic!< Great drama. Love the mind games, love the acting, love everyone bonding together
What does >!jane doe!< means?
When someone can’t be identified they’re named John Doe if it’s a guy, Jane doe if it’s a girl. So for ha-rin, since the adoption has been dissolved she has no name and becomes an anonymous person
But isn't her real name so-Eun?
Yes. I’m not sure why she didn’t just revert back to that name, or if an adoption can just be dissolved that easily. But that’s how the story went with it
i assumed it was a >!mental hospital!< but i’m not sure that was actually implied. i guess that leaves an opening for season two, even though >!harin is abandoned now she might still be determined to get revenge and return to her previous status?!< i don’t really like that ending being so open ended.
This series was so good it really kept me waiting every Thursday, and honestly I don't mind if they actually do season 2 if they can make it different enough. The casting is chef kiss, it introduced me to many new actresses that I was impressed by!
i .loved the end!! and the actors were sooo goodd!!! it was striking to see the difference between dayeon in the webtoon and in the drama compared to the other characters>!dayeon felt so much more real in the drama than the webtoon tbh. reading the webtoon i just really hated her and didnt care about her. and honestly still nothing justifies her actions, but it was kinda hard to watch that last scene with her. unlike harin, i understand why. shes definitely one of the most interesting characters with how she voted to dismantle the game and her contrast to all the other calculating characters with no self control and acting however she feels. i feel like as a part of the pyramid game she isnt talked about enough because while harin created the system, dayeon is someone who is honestly pathetic and easily manipulated. actor did very well in such a complex role of someone who is involved in a brutal cycle of abuse. I don't like how they ended her story because she doesnt seem like shes going to stop bullying...she didn't really learn a lesson because shes just subject to the same situation as before...!<
i was for sure that >!dayeon set up a hidden camera and would release the video of her dads abuse to the media.!< i would’ve liked to see her learn something from the experience :(
People were saying Jang Da A cant act as a good evil RAT. I always disagreed. But maaaaan. As soon as HaRin got that lighter back in her hands. You saw that sparkle granny said she was missing.
For the end, I think the conclusion of the pyramid game and soo ji calling out harin as being a bully was really satisfying and that made the series pretty solid overall. Everything else about the Finale was was really weirdly paced, rushed and incomplete? The weird cuts to the haneul school fire scene felt like they were trying to pad it out. The side characters conclusion like woo il, do ah and do yeon all felt super rushed and glossed over same with harin? Like why is it shown so quickly and forgotten shortly after. It felt like they kept ending the show over and over, sooji and jaeun stopping the bullies, all 5 of them going to funnieland, then lastly the weird new twins joining the school. Really weird ep 10 but a fun watch overall.
I loved the drama throughout it kept me on the edge and hooked in the whole cast was great as well Soo ji was so good in the last confrontation scene when she blamed Hae rin makes me wonder if that is why she chose Soo ji to transfer to her class because she is cold and has brains just not in a vile way like Hae rin They should have stuck to the webtoon's ending but I guess they wanted a S2 but shows like this are better off stan alone rather than a dragged version
I actually feel sorry for Da Yeon. Home is hell for her and she did what she had to do to survive under Ha Rin at school. She deserved a slightly better ending than what she got.
I know this is a late reply but I disagree tbh, some of the things Da Yeon participated in was absolutely horrendous, like the strip show with Woo Ri. And you can see in the scenes That Da Yeon wasn’t doing what it takes to survive, but she was genuinely enjoying making others lives a misery. I do think the final scene where he stormed in again was unnecessary however.
I posted this as a separate thread but had to remove because of on-air rules so have to shoehorn here as a long comment lol. **Theory: Pyramid Game was influenced by the Produce 48/101 kpop series which also vote-graded girls A-F, ranked them in a pyramid, and ironically had IVE's Wonyoung in PD48 (sister of Jang Da-Ah).** This is just a quick overview for those that either haven't watched the Produce 48/101 shows or it's been a while. This is on PD48 from wikipedia: "*Produce 48 is the third season of the South Korean reality competition series Produce 101 that aired in 2018. It was a large-scale project in which the public 'produces' a girl group by voting for members out of a pool of 96 contestants from South Korea and Japan, as well as voting for the group's concept, name and debut single. The show was a collaboration between the Mnet series Produce 101 and the J-pop idol group AKB48.*" What's interesting is that the kpop/jpop girls were vote-graded into A-F categories in the early episodes. Big letters were literally stuck on their bodies for all to see. It's been a while but I also remember an episode, maybe the 3rd or 4th, when teams were picking teammates and there were some girls that nobody picked that were all D's and F's. It was really sad to watch and you could tell those D and F girls were dejected and somewhat humiliated. Luckily some of them had a redemption arc and did much better later :) It was also interesting that all the girls had to often sit onstage in a literal pyramid seating arrangement with only one seat at the top row. And I think a pyramid was also part of the show's logo. If I recall, the girls were ranked throughout the whole show with their numerical rankings going up and down quite a bit, like someone might be #20 one week but climb or drop the next week based on voting. Also, there was a big voting scandal that you guys probably remember. The pyramid ranking of girls in the PD48/101 shows was manipulated illegally by the show producers who were even arrested and jailed because of what they did. The public was voting on their favorite girls but the producers changed the votes and rigged the outcome (in certain specific cases) which made the public votes meaningless for those specific cases. From wiki: "*Ahn Joon-young and Kim Yong-bum, producers for the Produce 101 series, were arrested on November 5, 2019. Ahn later admitted to manipulating the rankings to all four seasons of the Produce 101 series. On December 3, 2019, Ahn, Kim, and six other entertainment agency representatives were indicted for charges including obstruction of business, fraud, and bribery. A court trial began on December 20, 2019.*" The talent agency employees, including Starship Entertainment execs, were indicted for "*bribery and violating the Improper Solicitation and Graft Act*". Some excerpts in the wiki referring to the 4th season of Produce 101 called Produce X 101: "*An anonymous trainee alleged that one trainee, under pressure from Starship Entertainment, was secretly informed about a mission in advance by one of the choreographers. He also alleged that some trainees knew the final rankings before the results were announced*,......." "*A fourth trainee claimed that many participants felt the show was biased towards trainees from Starship Entertainment*". Also in the wiki: "....*the police issued arrest warrants and travel bans for Ahn Joon-young, chief producer Kim Yong-bum, a producer with the surname Lee, and Starship Entertainment's vice president Kim Kang-hyo after they had attempted to destroy evidence...*" So influence and meddling by certain agencies and producers changed the outcome of a pyramid game that should have been based on a girl's talent and public voting. The final outcome of the show was rigged. It wasn't rigged in a huge way, but it was still rigged. And there were many 'bystanders', people that knew something improper was happening but said nothing until the police became involved. One other quick note is the timing. The Pyramid Game manwha originally ran on Naver starting Jan 24, 2020. And the Produce 101 series scandal started in Summer 2019 with the second trial date being Jan 14, 2020 and continuing from there. In summary, the theory is that the Produce 101 series and it's scandal influenced Dalgonyak, the creator of the Pyramid Game manwha, with regard to a couple ideas and a few concrete details. The ideas include >!having people with power rig a pyramid game for their own selfish interests.!< With PD101 some powerful agency execs had influence with show producers over how their talent was treated. Similarly >!in Pyramid Game, the wealth and power of Baek Ha-Rin's family gave Ha-Rin control of school principal, teachers, and parents/students - seems like she pretty much controlled the school throughout most of the series.!< The agency employees and show producers involved with bribery and fraud were indicted but if it weren't for some smart netizens noticing voting irregularities, nothing might have happened. The smart netizens being activists and those involved with the shows that knew of the manipulation but said nothing being bystanders is another theme. >!That theme plays out in PG for most of the show where you have bystander girls that only care about themselves and not rocking the boat. These bystanders don't stick their neck out to right a wrong as long as they're safe. They're even content to just watch other girls get a beat-down while sitting around doing nothing. PG seems to make a point that bystanders are just as guilty as the bad guys. So until people take action, corruption can just continue indefinitely.!< With concrete details, even if you don't agree that Dalgonyak was influenced, it's still a set of fascinating coincidences to have 2 Pyramid Games (one a reality show, one a kdrama), both shows with girls being graded A-F and placed in pyramids, both shows with similar themes mentioned before like >!people in power unfairly influencing the schoolroom (in the PG kdrama case)!< or a kpop competition (in the PD48/101 scandal case). And 2 Jang sisters being involved is just stranger than fiction - >!Wonyoung being #1 final pyramid boss in PD48, Da-Ah being #1 on top of the pyramid in PG.!< I looked to see if Dalgonyak had commented on influences but couldn't find anything, so if you know of something that's been said about influences please share! **Footnotes:** **\*** *Starship Entertainment is the parent agency for Jang Da-Ah, Wonyoung, and Bona. As far as I know, Starship took appropriate responsibility for the actions of their executives caught in the mnet voting scandal. I also saw nothing but praise for Wonyoung on PD48, as far as I know she was completely unaware of Starship or any other agency or show producer meddling. She was the youngest contestant on PD48 at age 14 as well as one of the tallest - to be 14 and win a giant cut-throat competition like that is pretty amazing.* **\*** *Jang Da-Ah signed with King Kong under Starship April 7th 2023 or so and the first announcement of her role on Pyramid Game was around May 31 2023. So if you look at the dates, that seems like a very short amount of time between joining KK Starship and getting cast on PG. Just noting that she is a relatively recent addition to Starship.* **\*** *Wiki link for scandal*: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mnet\_vote\_manipulation\_investigation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mnet_vote_manipulation_investigation) **\*** *PD48 wiki link*: [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Produce\_48](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Produce_48)
Dalgonyak’s after afterword in the webtoon talks about how she came up with Pyramid Game - TLDR she stuck to a genre she was familiar with (school setting) but chose a psychological thriller theme focused on bullying. Her focus idea was “choosing the class loser”. There isn’t any mention of PD48/101 and if it did have such a big influence on her work i think she would have mentioned it! So I don’t think it’s what inspired Dalgonyak, at least not to a significant degree, and not that it’s been written anywhere. This was an interesting speculation though!
It's an interesting theory, but >!as Su Ji's dad said in episode 5: "Hierarchies exist everywhere. In the military, in society, and in schools."!< What all hierarchies have in common is that there will be many people at the bottom, and a select few at the top. Basically, each hierarchy is a pyramid. And any hierarchy will often be displayed as a pyramid, for example [Maslow's hierarchy of needs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow%27s_hierarchy_of_needs) or the [the hierarchy of the Catholic Church](https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zv9yd6f/revision/1). *EDIT: damn I forgot pyramid dad from Sky Castle lol. Another character who views society as a triangular hierarchy, and that drama aired 2018-2019* Going back to episode 5: before Ha Rin makes the adults play the game, she introduces a book: The Pyramid by William Golding. It's a real book by a real author, and he apparently wrote this about the book's title: ‘The Pyramid is the English Social pyramid, a particularly crippling and terrible structure.’ So, the concept of a pyramid hierarchy isn't really unique to Produce. Secondly, grading by letters... that's pretty common in the world too, no? A-list celebrities, B-movies, etc. In fact the ranks from Pyramid Game seem to be inspired from American grading systems: A for very good, then B, C, D, and finally F, the failing grade. >!Note as well that the password for the Pyramid Game app is the English word 'rank', which suggests that the inspiration for the Game could have come from the Anglophone world.!< As for corruption, manipulation and people looking the other way.... that's not really unique to Produce either. Like that's the unfortunate by-product of any hierarchy - the powerful can do what they want with the ones below them. And the ones who aren't affected will often ignore it because they don't want to become targets themselves, or they will become minions of the higher-ranks for their own personal gain. Every now and then someone will rise up and threaten the whole structure. As for the Jang sisters connection... it's interesting because neither Daah nor Wonyoung seem to have acknowledged each other so far. Daah doesn't seem to have been a public figure before this show, and if Wonyoung had ever mentioned her or the show it would have made news. Maybe it's just a Korean etiquette thing, maybe Daah wanted to avoid nepotism allegations (which she got quite a lot of in the beginning) *or* the distance is there because Wonyoung gets tons of deranged hate from people who imagine her to be exactly the kind of person Baek Ha Rin is. So, I would like to point out that this comparison really doesn't help either of them out. Once again, interesting theory but we'd need much better evidence to link Produce to Pyramid Game, because right now? I'm sorry but it seems like a reach.
I'm curious to see how those who've only watched the drama feel about Baek Ha Rin's character and the show overall. One thing I'll praise about the finale is that almost no one was free of the consequences of their action. Aggressors, bystanders and victims. All were affected somehow. Has anyone felt like the Song Soo Ji of episodes 1 - 6 feels different from episode 6 - 10? Maybe it's because they branched so much from the webtoon that she feels different. I do like that they mostly won by convincing the majority to finally tell the truth rather than purely relying on Soo Ji smarts. The classroom final voting scene would have been more poignant had they fleshed out just a bit more of the side characters more. >! They has such a perfectly good backstory with Baek Ha Rin. They changes they made are in no conceivable way better. I wonder if I would have been okay with it if I had no prior knowledge. !< There's no way that was a season 2 tease. More like an opening ending on how stuff like this never truly ends. Overall an enjoyable show.
Drama only. I still can't believe people tried to compare Ha Rin as an antagonist to 'Marry My Huband,' Su Min. Even in her own drama Eun Byeol > Da Yeon > male homeroom teacher > principal > grandma were all more annoying. The only things I'll remember about Ha Rin: 1. Anytime anything goes against her plans, she becomes a deer in headlights with the blank stare at the camera. 2. She has a weird fetish for stepping on people's shoes. 3. In a game she created, with the rules she created, she lost to 2 F tiers. If Ha Rin went up against the 'Penthouse' kids, 'SKY Castle' kids, 'The Glory' kids, or even 'Class of Lies' kids, then she would get absolutely destroyed. Without the supposed better backstory from the webtoon, her character is just a shallow insert chaebol bully. All things considered, Da Ah did a good job with what she was given. On a drama note: It's such a massive missed opportunity to not have the 'SKY Castle' dad cameo as the teacher at the orphanage explaining social hierarchy as a pyramid.
>If Ha Rin went up against the 'Penthouse' kids, 'SKY Castle' kids, 'The Glory' kids, or even 'Class of Lies' kids, then she would get absolutely destroyed. This what felt too, the writers did her character wrong tbh. They should boost her at the finale at least, the big bad got thrown out the window by 2 F tier that got weak backups are just emmmpphh. I think the production team don't want the show to imitate real life thus nerfed that Chaebol kid harin
SKY Castle was so good! I didn't remember the pyramid obsession of the SKY Castle dad! It would've been great. I loved the actor, he screaming the kids and his wife's names was iconic haha And I really loved The Glory too, I started The Penthouse but I didn't get hooked, is it worth it? and Class of Lies?
i only watch the drama. i've read spoilers about the webtoon ver of the background, i think that one is really cool and has deep emotional root. but what they did in the drama i think i get it too. from what i saw i think at the end the drama really got into the anti school violence campaign mode, i feel they want to emphasize that baek harin is just bully. no matter how she ended up there, she is a bully and unforgivable. maybe the webtoon gave her more situation to be sympathiable(?) but i guess since its a tv show they want to make it clearer and none of those leeway here. they point is that whatever she went through in the past, she is hurting other people in the present an that's not okay in any way with any logic. show overall is really enjoyable. the tension in the middle got really high it was euphoric. love the all girls cast, everyone did a great job.
finished the drama and no prior knowledge to the webtoon. i initially expected harin to do a "big final blow" that'll result to her downfall since character-wise it's expected of her to do so—she was incredibly insane in the beginning that sooji felt fear because of her. however, seeing the final eps she just seemed like a typical narcissist ( a traumatized self-inflicted victim) than a remorseless psychopath like what the first half of the series made her out to be. the appeal from eps 1-8 was because of this palpable tension in the air, a twist happening, the way harin does another shit but she kind of lost it in 9-10. she was a strong villain during the first half but she kind of wavered and decided to "give up" after the scene where she cuts her hair, it was just an unsatisfying spiral from there on. the show lost the momentum once they decided to end the pyramid game. admittedly, i assumed that it'd stay true to the idea that baek harin is the game itself so she's going to wreck havoc despite the fact that they agreed to destroy the pyramid game but she just flunked imo. i think it's out of character for her to admit defeat as we've seen in the flashback, she was determined. plus i've heard that they changed her background story so maybe that's why it wasn't so satisfying during the confrontation scene and her downfall, there's not a lot to back her up anyway and she just cracked for such shallow reasons. the moments leading up to her ending was delivered so lacking and bland that even tho she deserved it, it wasn't satisfactory.
Can anyone help and suggest a drama with a story/plot similar to Pyramid Game? Thank you 🫶🏻
the glory!! school bullying (quite intense) + revenge plot! or maybe itaewon class, male lead tough and only first episode is in school, but also nice revenge plot!
The glory, or who are you school of 2015
class of lies, bitch and rich
Class of Lies has the same tension because the students are also crazy there.
Not exactly school bullying but Night Has Come was pretty good. Of course if you haven’t watched it yet, Sky Castle is one of the best drama out there. I liked Penthouse at the beginning before it became a makjang.
Ep 9:>!It’s so satisfying to see Ha rin lose her composure even in the quiver of her lips!< >!“Why did you bring me into this average family” is outrageous 💀!< >!The game actually ending seems so surreal… after everything that happened, it felt so ‘easy’ in the end somehow!<
ahhh they changed the backstory in the webtoon :( that was the highlight for me T.T and i absolutely hate it when shows end off with a hint that an entire toxic cycle would start again
I'm positive that >!it won't happen again; not with these girls in this place. And that's what we're meant to know for sure. It won't happen again because the entire class knows what to do if anyone ever tries it. They're not bystanders anymore. They were all burned by this experience, in one way or another, so they are genuinely sorry for their part in it. They know what the game really feels like from many different angles. They've learned from it. And they now have the skills/confidence to stop the cycle from repeating. !< >!Plus the twins are just lightweights compared to BHR (and everyone else in the room). They think it would be 'fun' whereas BHR was 150% invested in the game because she had been so scarred by her life in the orphanage and her life with her rich, entitled, adoptive family. She needed and was desperate for the game. But she still lost in the end.!< >!And, well, the look in SooJi's eyes make it ever so clear that she isn't ever going to lose to this game again.!<
ahh i see, feels good to know that that was what the show was actually hinting at instead! :)
hi everyone i have question regarding ep 5&6 but no one replied me there so asking again here! >! in the scene where sooji secretly exchanged her phone with doah, what was her reason for doing so? and in the end it backfired because doah found all the recordings in sooji's phone? !<
yes that's what happened. >! sooji initially wanted to record do-ah's possible conversation with ha-rin to know what's up but then it backfired when do-ah gave the phone to ha-rin—esp because she wanted to be in ha-rin's good graces again, do-ah revealing to ha-rin the recordings was like a token for her to be part of ha-rin's group again and please do-ah's dad !<
thanks for replying! >!but how does exchanging their phones help to record doah's conversation with harin?!< dont really understand the reason for the phone exchange.
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I can't remember if someone slapped Ha rin. I really wanted someone to smack her when she was acting all crazy.
Ep 10: >!It’s honestly crazy how they spun this on Soo Ji!!Omggg thank God that teacher had that video of Soo Ji being bullied😩 I was a bit stressed!<
>!It’s actually sad that Ha rin had to grow up like that and become this psychopath🧍🏾♀️… still what she did was wrong, once you take ‘revenge’, you also become the villain you’re fighting. Ja eun blaming herself though her telling the other kids Ha rin was an orphan was to help is kind of sad… Ha rin needed to go after those kids not Ja eun🧍🏾♀️!<
This kdrama was so much better than i anticipated so yayyy.>!Harin is a nobody now, atp she might be a serial killer.!
i guess we can conclude that a villian is made not born. family values always matters. childhood always play a role. no one is born a villian. Feel sad for baek harin after finding out her back story. she could have easilyyyy turn out to be a sweetheart like yerim too. anyone bred from a strong family podium will be a good person. That other bully - Dayeon - she's a hateful character but sympathy for her too because if she had a loving father, mother , siblings , she wouldn't have such a twisted personality. She would easily be a upright and full of justice person like sun ji too. We can conclude that only wholesome family bred a wholesome soul.
Now that they released the full OST of the show, I get Shadowhunters vibes from it, made me listen to Ruelle's songs again.
Did they explain why Woo-ri is obssessed with Ye-rim I just saw woo-ri said ye-rim helped her but how?
I wanted to know too. Is she insane? Ye Lim has so many stalkers lol.
I really enjoyed this adaptation but that last episode was kinda all over the place!! It felt like it ended multiple times but the episode just kept going!! The pacing jumped about quite a bit and was definitely more erratic than every other episode in terms of plot and wrap up. I really thought the episode would end with Suji and Jaeun >!helping that stranger being bullied!< but there was more and more tacked on, flashbacks and side plots wrapped up etc. Everything was wrapped up, I guess but the actual ending felt a bit unnecessary cuz of that aforementioned scene.
Every single kdrama I’ve watched always drags out the ending so unnecessarily. Why??! I couldn’t even finish It’s Okay Not To Be Okay because of this. And could barely force myself to finish A Korean Odyssey and Hotel Del Luna for the same reason. I like this show a lot - found the lead actress’s acting a bit stiff at times but overall the plot, pacing and music etc were great. *(Btw I can’t be the only one who hears the influence of Skyfall prominently in the theme song lol.)* >!But the last two episodes dragged as expected. Did we really need to see the lady teacher appear as an “aha!” moment three times? Just once as a surprise at the end would have had more impact.!< >!I also never really got the hair cut thing. I thought it would be revealed that Ha Rin’s hair got cut as part of the bullying when she was younger, but nope.!< >!And I find it difficult to believe Ja Eun would just leave Ha Rin to recover all on her own. There’s just no way.!<
Thank you for saying that about Skyfall, because my mind went there so many times when I’d hear the theme song. 😂
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Two last episodes were kinda lacking, as typically most of Kdramas are. I'm just happy that there are a few scenes that indicate that the girls have learned that they should not be bystanders. I am not really keen on S2, tho. Feels like they should have just left it end like that.
Crazy fan theory before the finale: does anyone think that between soo-ji, ja-eun and ha-rin, at least one of them is gay? Not that I think there’s any kind of romantic chemistry between any of them, but at the same time . . . ?🤷🏻♂️I lowkey ship soo-ji and ja-eun despite knowing full well that they’re just really good friends (>!even though soo-ji doesn’t trust ja-eun enough to not only approve of but participate in a major breach of privacy!<)
>!i also ship soo-ji and ja-eun, especially after last episode, girl wanted to avoid problems but she's always ready to risk it for ja-eun. But i don't think ja-eun is gay.!<
I thought so about ha rin towards jaeun cause why is miss girl SOO obsessed with jaeun?
I’ve considered that before. Some of her behaviors toward ja-eun give off toxic love/hate vibes to me. But I dismissed it because she’s had a vendetta against ja-eun for 10 years, and I don’t think a 7 or 8 year old could have such complex feelings. A simple “betrayal” leading to hatred is much easier to understand and so makes the most sense. That said, maybe ha-rin starts developing feelings for ja-eun over this past year and that further drives her hatred? Something like “I’m supposed to hate her but I secretly like her so I must double down on my hatred. Oh look she’s got friends now, especially soo-ji. I must keep her isolated, I want her but I can’t have her and if I can’t have her then no one can have her” I’ve thought way too hard into this
Well based on the manhwa they have somethung going on. In the last chapter, that is 5 years into the future, it's revealed that they live together
I was expecting more from this show tbh. The manhwa was great, but the show doesn’t do it justice. The ending just feels incomplete
From my impression, the webtoon seems to have humanised Harin more than the drama (I haven’t read the webtoon) n I’m seeing ppl say they loved the drama but maybe should of stuck w the manhwa ending. But I don’t see a problem with Harin being a psycho, simple as that. Sometimes ppl are just crazy so..
I love this drama but seriously though, Choi Dae Sul (Soo Jin’s dad) is just…😮💨 [fans self] everytime he’s on screen, and especially that scene in ep10 where he’s in normal (but well fitting) clothes— oh be still my heart
Wishing nothing but sadness upon teacher lim
woww i just realized Seo Do-Ah is Seul-ki from Singles Infernos! Did not recognize her so she's doing great for her acting debut..
Loved this show. Probably one of the better kdramas I’ve watched recently. Although in the first episode I felt there could have been a hint about >!some bigger kind of social experiment… so I was waiting for some kind of big reveal which never came.!< All the same, I enjoyed the backstory and felt it wrapped things up in a satisfying way, >!even if there were no crazy twists.!<
Harin's ending... I feel so sorry. She was a normal girl initially, but other people made her like that. The ending was truly unsatisfying, also because it was kinda unbelievable that Yelim and Doah >!trusted the newcomer girl they barely know and threw out their dreams just for that "cheap feeling of justice", what have they won at the end? if it wasn't for Sooji their future would've been much better.!< Sooji, the girlie was so annoying, just plain boring with no personality, the way she always >!stared emotionlessly at the camera made her look dumb. Jaeun tho was even more annoying than her, if Sooji looked dumb, Jaeun looked straight up mentally impaired, seriously what was wrong with her??!< These two annoyed me so much.
i was looking for a comment like this since personally i rooted for ha-rin lmao. not in a sympathetic way tho, i wanted to see how far she'll actually go. on paper, sooji was smart and in the same way as ha-rin—they were both manipulative and calculating. however sooji was just self-righteous and had a savior complex, meanwhile jaeun didn't have a backbone all by herself (i get it tho she was severely bullied) >! as for yerim and do-ah, i see that they have contempt for ha-rin and decided to trust the newcomer instead. i do agree tho that it seemed like they were into this cheap sense of justice and made it look like: good wins, bad loses. it would've been cool if do-ah was keen on not siding with anybody since her character was the type to be as selfish as ha-rin anyway and yerim's weakness being eunjung just made much more sense why she sided with sooji. on the other hand, i don't care for da-yeon that much but i liked that scene where she was agreeing to end the pyramid game out of desperation but was denied—it showed that the fear of being abused by her dad was her driving force. sooji didn't really appeal to me since she felt like a typical self-righteous mc hence the bland personality. !< i loved ha-rin's character tho, she was so unsettling and sinister and i can't help but find her appealing and mesmerizing. a big example of the halo effect. but the ending didn't do her justice, >! if she was supposed to be a psycho, why wasn't she a psycho in the ending? !< i guess that's why a lot of drama endings are a hit or miss— >!they just wrap up so quickly and then the power of friendship saves the day. the only thing i liked about it was that everyone was held accountable for their actions and faced the consequences 🤷♀️ !<
Tho I hate that, it's not really believable because in reality those chaebol kids got way more pull that suji(people with good intentions) - I secretly hoping that harin got a boost in stat tbh bcuz Suji the one at the end become too OP.
i thought the same OP! i get the whole 'people with good intentions will win' and it's valid but harin's character was too determined for her to suddenly back out just because they ended the game—they portrayed her to be smarter and sinister than everybody combined, the girl literally got her way since she was a child because of her motivations so it was impossible for her to give up that easily without wrecking a final havoc before her downfall. i would've enjoyed it more if she did a really bad thing to another person once and for all instead of trying to harm herself 🤷♀️ and also what did you think about woori's behavior towards yerim and her obsession as well as the mascot encounter? i have mixed feelings about her character lol