is not that strange?

Lack of chemistry? they're traumatized people obsessed with revenge.

Go watch the series again, look at their dynamics. Why does he fall for her? It's simply because he sees a lot of his own pain in her and that goes for her, too.

When I read people think every love story has to burn or start with a fire, I laugh. There is little appreciation these days for quiet and slow, patient and even a little distant. Not to mention these are often the love stories of deeply hurt, traumatized people. They are dismissing just how badly her emotional injuries are apart from the physical.

I don’t know if it’s a new thing, but this whole “it lacks any chemistry” if they’re not fucking immediately is a criticism I’m seeing way too often as if everything needs to start fast and exceedingly sensual to be a worthwhile love story.

(Not to mention so many have seemingly dismissed that she was purposefully trying to unsettle/quietly seduce Do Yeong, much like the game of Go plays out.)

The consideration, devotion, and resolve that Yeo Jeong had for Dong Eun by letting her set the rules and pace is something beautiful. He was willing to set himself and his feelings aside (but being human enough to still hope she could choose a happy life with him at the end of her long revenge) while still going through his personal hell. This is something we don’t often see, particularly from a man to a woman. This was one of the better fictional pairs in awhile.

In Much Ado About Nothing, it is clear that Benedick and Beatrice have a history. I’ve seen many people quote and cite many reasons as to why. I’m always puzzled that no one ever brings up these lines from Beatrice…

“Indeed, my lord, he lent it me awhile, and I gave him use for it, a double heart for his single one…” – Act 2, Scene 1

“It” is Benedick’s heart. This line literally means that Benedick loaned Beatrice his heart and she paid the interest (use) with a twice as loving heart. Beatrice literally admits, before either gulling scene, that she gave Benedick her heart.

Now, the fact that he “loaned” it to her suggests that it was not hers for the keeping, something she may not have known at the time seeing as she paid the love back overflowingly.

Benedick is a self-pronounced “tyrant to their sex” and a (former) “carpet-monger” (ladies’ man). Put two and two together, I think their history is quite clear. Most likely: they were romantic for a while, Beatrice fell hard, maybe (probably) Benedick too. Either way, Benedick couldn’t handle it and broke it off. Beatrice, being Beatrice, did not react like a victim, tried to downplay her own feelings, and has publically spurned him ever since. He has done the same.

think about the way Beatrice loves Hero: as an extension of herself. everything she swears about her cousin's innocence, she swears on herself: "on my soul my cousin is belied", "as sure as i have a thought or a soul". now think about how she tests whether Benedick loves her: will he defend Hero on her behalf? when she thinks he won't, she's ready to give up on him, because failing Hero is the same as failing Beatrice herself.

this is how she knows Benedick really does love her. when he's ready to give up his past life and the two best friends he has, she knows that he loves her as a part of himself. he's willing to sacrifice what's important to him because he shares her beliefs, and it hurts her, and that hurts him. that's exactly what Beatrice was prepared to do for Hero.