Who Are You: School 2015 Thoughts & Feelings (with spoilers!)

Whew, I haven't written a post on a current drama in a long time. I'm actually watching a ton of Kdramas this season and I really wanted to write about them but I just had no time. Anyways, I finally have a little bit of time and I just finished Who Are You: School 2015 with a lot of thoughts I want to share.

First of all, because of the crazy shipping war, I'd like to make it clear that I ship Eunbi and Yi An (YiBi). Honestly, I like both Yi An and Taekwang for Eunbi but I would say I like Yi An a little bit more because he is more of my style in real life and I would choose him if I ever had the change (T.T). On top of that, I like YiBi because they like each other and I think that's all that really matters. But there are a lot of things that went wrong with this drama in terms of the romance and I wanna address some of those issues. Even though I have my own ship, I'm going to try to be as unbiased as possible in this post.

Now I don't like to participate in shipping wars but I do love to read drama forums, especially the ones on Soompi. I've been following the forums since the beginning of the drama and I've seen a lot of comments that kinda irked me. It seems that there are a lot of crazy shippers from both ships that seemed to have lost the ability to think logically. 

There are a lot of people who ship Taebi only because they like Taekwang. Taekwang is a very sweet guy who has always known Eunbi for her and supported her throughout the whole drama. But Eunbi doesn't owe Taekwang her feelings just because of everything that he's done for her. She never showed any romantic feelings towards him or gave him false hope--she rejected him 3 times. I've seen comments calling Eunbi a bitch right after her long awaited confession to Yi An and even ones telling her to go die. I really don't understand how anyone with a right mind can tell a fictional character to go die just because a drama didn't play out the way they wanted to. Its both absurd and ridiculous. Eunbi isn't a bitch just because she doesn't like your oppa back. It's her feelings and she gets to choose. Of course I know these comments don't represent the majority of shippers but only the really crazy and illogical ones. 

Although it was unreal that Yi An, who liked Eunbyul for 10 years, suddenly fell for Eunbi, it was still believable and not all that surprising. First, he has said to Eunbi (who he thought was Eunbyul at the time) that he likes the her after her memory loss more. Second, its very possible that his feelings for Eunbyul stemmed majorly from when they were younger. They have grown up and changed a lot, just as Eunbyul said, and feelings can change without knowing. When you've liked someone for so long, it kind of turns into a habit and you don't really stop to think about your feelings. Eunbi is what made Yi An stop and think about his true feelings.

I've also seen people call Taekwang abusive and forceful which is also very absurd. Just because he confessed more than once? Just because he kissed Eunbi on the cheek? Honestly, there is no rule that says you have to stop chasing a girl just because she rejected you. And it wasn't like Taekwang kept telling Eunbi that he liked her. Taekwang has always supported Eunbi from behind and Eunbi knows that as well. He even knew that Eunbi was feeling sorry and stepped back himself. Thats definitely not abusive or forceful. It's wrong to hate someone just because he is the rival of your favourite. Same for both sides.

One last thing I'd like to address is the ending. Some people think that ending was an open ending in terms of romance when it really wasn't. Eunbi rejected Taekwang. Eunbi confessed to Yi An. She told him that although she likes him she isn't ready to accept his feelings and has to find herself first. Yi An gave Eunbi the medal and told her to give it back to him when she is ready to accept his feelings. After six months, Eunbi comes back to Sekang High and gives Yi An the medal on the bus, meaning that she accepted his feelings and they are together. There weren't a lot of lovey dovey scenes for them in the end but its obvious that they ended up together.

Honestly, all these problems stem from the writers. The writers are the ones who gave TaeBi shippers false hope. Because Taekwang was more popular, they used him for ratings and milked the TaeBi couple up until the very end. Why would you do that if you weren't going to make TaeBi endgame? What they should've done was reduce the scenes between Eunbi and Taekwang after the first rejection and get more give more time for Yi An and Eunbi to develop their feelings further. School 2015 is pretty much the worst drama in terms of playing with the viewers. It even tops Doctor Stranger. I shipped Lee Jong Suk's and Kang Sora's characters so hard and I felt so frustrated because the writers would keep giving us more of their scenes week after week. But at least there it was made obvious that Jong Suk's character had no romantic feelings for Sora's and that they wouldn't be endgame early on. I'm really disappointed that the writers for School 2015 went for ratings over quality.

Forgetting about all the dumb ship wars, lets talk about how amazing Kim So Hyun is. For such a young actress, she is well beyond ready for more leading lady roles. Her portrayal of the twins was simply magic. I could tell straight away when it was Eunbi or Eunbyul even if they were pretending to be each other. Aside from the obvious makeup and hair differences, Kim So Hyun even spoke differently for each role. From her gaze to her subtle actions, I really can't imagine anyone else other than Kim So Hyun who can pull this off. She's always been one of my favourite actresses but this makes me beyond excited for her future works.

Nam Joo Hyuk was pretty good but there weren't enough chances for me to even judge. His character was very poorly developed beyond the romance part and I blame it all on the writers. Because of Taekwang's popularity, Yi An pretty much had almost no scenes for the last few episodes. I would've liked to see more on his dreams for swimming and his relationship with his father. Yook Sungjae did a great job and he really shined in his role as Taekwang. He seriously made my heart flutter and had some of the best lines of the whole drama. Raise your hand if you squealed when he said that time can only go faster when he's with Eunbi *raises hand* Taekwang really grew throughout the drama and I almost cried when he finally shared a meal with his father after all that time.

Jo Soo Hyang, who played Kang So Young, also shined a lot in this drama. It actually takes some talent to make people hate you and she did just that. I literally wanted to rip So Young's face off every time I saw her and I was hella glad when Eunbyul came back and finally gave her a taste of her own medicine. I felt that Lee Pil Mo was largely underused until the end which was pretty unfortunate because he had so much potential. Plus, where do you find such a cute teacher in real life?

As compared to the previous School instalments, this one definitely sticks out. It's definitely not as realistic as the previous dramas and it had a lot of plot holes. It also focused a lot on romance, which I personally don't mind. Despite all this, it still took me on a very emotional ride with how it depicted bullying and parental issues from both sides. 

All in all, I really enjoyed this drama. It had some plot holes and some untied loose ends but it still managed to keep me entertained and moved every week. I'll end it here with my favourite OST. All the songs from the OST are amazing but this one is my personal favourite!