^_^

DO NOT watch it with the 'English[cc]' subtitles. Watch it with 'English' only. You might be thinking that the [cc] is simply closed captions, right? Wrong. Yes they are closed captioned, but the subtitles itself are completely different and not only different the translations are COMPLETELY WRONG.

I remember I was rewatching Vincenzo and the subtitles were different from what I remembered. Netflix had by default set the subtitles on [cc].

I've seen this happening since the past few years. While English and English[cc] subtitles have always been different, for all non-english media, but earlier, there were only slight grammatical differences. But since 2 yrs the quality of the [cc] subtitles are deteriorating, especially for Korean media. The last time I saw actual good [cc] subtitles in a korean show, it was for The Glory.

So in conclusion, if you can, avoid English[cc] subtitles for Korean media on Netflix. This is especially true for Dear Hongrang, because the [cc] subtitles are actually, really, very bad. Sometimes they are unnecessarily long, sometimes entirely different than the original meaning. And most importantly the subtitle creator never seems to be able to decide which vibe they want to keep for the subtitles.

he doesn’t actively fight hyoman because his objective was not to defeat the guy but to stop him from irreversibly damaging juntae. he advises baku about the unbreakable cycle of violence and how they HAD to end it. he refuses to back out of their search for baku because come hell or highwater, he wasn’t going to let a friend of his fall off that cliff edge and we know baku was hovering a little too close for comfort after joining the union. it was sieun who approached and mended things with hyoman and seongje despite both of them having wronged him and his friends because again, sieun isn’t trying to seek revenge at all. not even in their fight with baekjin. his goal was sketched out to us, plain and clear: sieun is trying to catch all these students wrapped up in the casual and cruel violence of the union and give them as safe a landing as possible.

(even the purposeful shot of sieun stopping gotak and walking into the final fight himself shows this; gotak’s knees would probably not have survived the intense fight).

i think what’s really important about sieun’s arc this season is that it is not just his guilt over suho that haunts him but he also blames himself for beomseok going over the cliff edge and him not being able to help him. he forgives himself twice this season. first is obvious: juntae’s words rid him of his guilt over suho and it’s the decisive moment that we know he will now not consider himself at fault for suho being comatose. the second instance of sieun forgiving himself, imo, is during his imaginary talk with beomseok while he himself in a coma. the boxing ring earlier held memories of both suho and beomseok and now only beomseok remains there, holding him down. but now, sieun is finally able to unburden himself of beomseok’s presence and his guilt over him. i think it’s very telling that his dream version of beomseok asks him whether his new friends are more important to sieun than him because that is exactly what beomseok himself would have dwelled over, given his insecurities. it just reiterates how well sieun understood beomseok but at the end of day, sieun realises that he needs to reconcile his past with his present and overcome the guilt so he can act on the philosophies he wants to follow. sieun forgives himself once more and accepts that beomseok is now out of his life and he has other friends he needs to worry about, friends he holds dear.

You didn't try to avoid or forget about me. Didn't it hurt? Yes, it hurt.

Why are you still here? Sorry, I just had to give something back to you.