A lowkey follow up on my last post on s2:
I also don't buy the justification of her personality change is attributed to her amnesic years or the choice of letting go of her revenge (she already did that, it was a very big plot point in s1). Its true to the story, but in terms of writing, it doesn't make sense.
Like YES i GET IT, she had amnesia and lived as a different person but when characters get amnesia in dramas, (bc we have to remember these were conscious choices made by writers) they always retain some traits and hallmarks of they're original personalities. The point of that is to make the character familiar but different.
In the first three episodes of s2 we definitely had that with JBY; she schemes, can never not be doing something, even is a bit manipulative, most of all she does not ever take things lying down. Constantly breaking out, trying to find a new groom, the wraith attack, and even the events at the Unanimous Assembly are good examples of this (and there are definitely more).
Unfortunately, these traits almost entirely disappear from episode 4 forward. I can still see a few, like her keeping busy with Songrim and her tendency to glare and threaten. But these traits are so significantly played down that they are barely even there whereas her new personality is front and centre. She doesn't really do much either, while she was reasonable for 80% of the plot in s1 (but honestly nothing much actually happens in terms of plot so i'll let this slide.)
Now this is where people are going to tell me I don't understand the show. I GENUINELY believe that Mudeok/Naksu are not the same character as JBY. It's the same soul and the same person, I'm not disagreeing with that. What I mean is narratively, contextually, these are separate characters.
What is leading me to this conclusion? Episode 4. The entire episode is about Mudeok's/Nasku's ghost, ends with her figuratively dying and Jang Uk stating that Naksu is gone from the world.
The audience and Jang Uk are in the same place, missing Mudeok/Naksu, unable to let go of her and focus her new character bc we (Uk and the audience) are waiting for her to comeback. So when Uk "kills" her, the narrative is telling us that the character we had in s1 is dead and won't be coming back.
I also think this is reinforced by Jang Uk stating that the reason he like her was not bc of the memories confusing them (i.e. it was never about who she was in past) it's simply that he likes her so much. Of course I know about the whole thing with the jade, but like i said it’s the same person/soul as a brand new character.
A good explicit example of this is Mudeok and Yul's goodbye in episode 19, where she states that she is not who he met all those years ago, that girl no longer exists in this world, only in his memories now. Even Yul says in episode 20 that the person he like was not Mudeok. It is the same soul but a different person.
Just like JBY is the same person but a different character. These are not mutually exclusive things in fiction.
I also want to add that she doesn’t actually get her og body back, she’s still much shorter. So if this is the same character, then the “natural progression of the story�� would have resulted in a body more similar to her og one rather than Naksu and Mudeok Frankensteined together. And while I understand that part of the reason they kept her short is bc of GYJ height, but a throwaway line saying something like as time goes on the body would look more and more like her og one. That takes into account the height problem and a decent enough explanation as to why her physique is different.
But we don’t get that. We get a character that has a polar opposite personality, few recognizable traits, and a body that’s neither here nor there. Everything about this is screaming that we are meant to take her as a different character altogether.
(I don’t want to hear jack about she’s happy/gave up revenge/without Jin mu’s damage. That’s not a good enough explanation for the major changes in her character. And again I want to emphasize this that this is fiction and these are conscious choices the writers made. There is a reason why her body, personality, and story is like this.)
All media has emotional and informational cues. Things that are not directly stated but are used as a subtle way of conveying information, directing the audiences emotions, and foreshadowing plot points. Cues can be explicit, (are relatively obvious and direct no room to doubt, the audience is told/shown something) or implicit (suggested or hinted at; mostly through camera angles, music, and dialogue). Implicit cues are all about reading in between the lines, used to convey deeper meanings and themes; implying but never stating.
So when we apply that to when Jang Uk "kills her", mourns her, and moves on to JBY it is a cue for the audience to do the same and a narrative statement that this is different story from what we are used to, that we will not be getting the same things from her as we did is S1.
There is no more Naksu or Mudeok, that character died at the bottom of the lake. Not even her memories turn her back to the character from s1. She’s dead and Jin Buyeon/Cho Yeong is the new FL)
(Side note: I think part of the reason they did this was bc of the change in actress. GYJ trying to emulate JSM as Mudeok/Naksu would constantly be compared and probably hated on. The solution: make a new character with a completely different personality and figuratively kill off the original one therefore there are different expectations, in terms of acting. This is not at all a dig at GYJ, she’s the only reason I watched to the end even, it’s simply that the showrunners & actors were in a difficult position and this lessened the flame war & allowed a rookie to transition into/take over a veteran actress’ character.)
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