Thought on finales (HIMYM, TBBT, Supernatural, Being Human, Giant)
I know some of the finales have finished a while ago and some just in May but I only have time to put my thoughts now. These posts contain spoilers for all the shows mentioned above. Giant is a K-drama show but I found that it's really good, not only for K-drama standard but as a show by itself.
1. Being Human (UK)
I think Season 3 storyline is better than Season 2.
I think because of Season 2 I didn't think much of this show. I think the presence of Henrick helps to make the show more interesting. Or perhaps just the plot of Season 2 is bad (well, it's my opinion but others could think of differently).
I didn't expect the ending with Mitchell dying. I thought they would be stopped by the elder vampire so he won't die. I didn't expect George to really kill him but as he said that's for Mitchell's own good. I'd be interesting to see what they are going to do with Season 4.
I think it's the first time in any show that my favourite character is not killed. In other shows, it's always my favourites who are dying so I sometime get tired of watching any shows.
2. Supernatural
I'm not sure what to think of Season 6. It seems that the plotline is all over the place.
I think the only saving grace is Crowley. Without him, the show won't be as interesting. I think he is one of the few demons/guest stars who appears often and haven't been killed off. I kind of expected him to be dead by the end of the season but I'm pleasantly surprised.
I don't like what they did with Castiel. It seems that he is out of character. Yes, sure, power can corrupt people but it seems he has been corrupted for a while. It's also easy for him to kill other angels. Balthazar is not my favourite but I'm not happy that he is killed by Castiel.
My favourite angel remains Gabriel. He was the only one hadn't been shown to kill any other angels (well, he tried to kill Lucifer but he seemed to mind it a lot and IMO would rather die than actually succeeded). Not to mention his sense of humour is wicked. And of course because he is my (also a lot others') favourite, he got killed off. I really hope he will somehow come back as it's supernatural after all, no one stays dead long enough.
I also get annoyed that Rufus got killed. I didn't really like Gwen Campbell but I was not happy that the Winchesters didn't really think much of her death although she was the most decent Campbell and Dean freaking shot her.
Will Castiel become the big bad next season? I don't think a lot of people would be happy about that.
3. The Big Bang Theory
This is another show which I keep watching because of tradition. And with a lot of death with other shows, it's good to balance it out with some comedies.
I like Season 1 and 2 a lot. I don't really like Season 3 and not sure what to think of Season 4.
I'm happy that Bernadette got her PhD and still enjoy the joke that Howard is the only who doesn't. Don't care much whoever Leonard is dating and I just don't care much about Priya. Not sure what to think of Penny and Raj.
LOL at Raj being the brown Martha Stewart, although it's unlikely, it would be fun to see Sheldon and Raj become housemates as they already share the same office space. LOL at the illuminating emergency exit of the apartment. I know they definitely had the light but it's always fun to be proven right.
Also fun to see Sheldon made comment to Amy about massaging which sounded like dirty joke.
4. How I Met Your Mother
I watch Season 1 to 5 continuously then I watch Season 6 as the usual viewers who waited every week. This is one of the sitcoms that I'm still happily waiting and enjoying.
I know a lot of people don't like Season 5. I don't have much opinion about Season 5 but I really enjoy Season 6.
Well, except the fact that Barney randomly got smitten by Nora and the whole Zoey's business. I don't like manipulative Zoey from the beginning and it's obvious she is not the mother.
The additional of Jerry Lithgow as a guest star is a gem. I always like his acting. Barney has matured more this season, he always helps his friends but he let Ted push the button is quite a big thing for Barney.
I also like the fact that he bonded a lot with Robin this season especially the last episode even though there is no moment of out right BrOTP but for their relationship to grow I think it's important to have friendship first. As people have guessed, it seems that Barney is going to get married first and at that wedding Ted is going to meet his wife. It seems that people have guessed right.
It must be quite a big challenge for Barney to commit like that as the title suggested. Well, I hope it's with Robin although they could do double bluff or triple bluff.
Something good also finally happens with Marshall and Lily although I'm never fully excited with their storyline especially involving the baby but it's good to see someone happy.
The next season may show both Barney and Robin dating other people but we will see how long their relationship last.
5. Giant (Korean)
I haven't cried for any fictional character for weeks (even until now) ever until I watched Giant. I mean crying as really crying, not only feeling sad and wanting to cry as sometime happens, but even in that case not for weeks, perhaps only for a few minutes.
I know that K-drama is very popular in Asian countries and some Asian communities in Western countries but
I'm always hesitant to start watching. There are a lot of Kdrama over-used plots like the hero falls in love with the daughter of the enemy or heroine with the son of the enemy, the rivalry between the main characters for the love and business/career, the raising of the hero by the enemy without his knowing.
The other reason is because sometime I know the ending can be really sad and my mood can easily be affected hence I watch mostly comedies, actions, and thrillers. (People would comment if I have known the ending can be sad, why did I still watch in the first place? The reason is I got hooked as my family kept watching and they said it was really good, and I don't know the ending can be that level of sad. Perhaps because it was my favourite character, if it wasn't, I wouldn't be an emotional wreck). Actually the show has a lot of humours in it, so it's not all doomed and gloomed as I make out to be. Sometime when the audience was tense, they would burst out laughing because of some unexpected things happened or said.
At the surface, Giant also uses the afore mentioned plots, and even double with the hero was in love with the daughter of the enemy and his sister with the son of the other enemy. The poor eldest brother has to see both his younger siblings fall for the children of the enemies.
However, if we look deeper, the plots are better written with a lot of intrigues and plot twists unrelated to the love stories and the actors are all top notches in acting.
The premise of Giant is the story of the love and survival between three siblings from the 70s to the 90s, which is
the heart of the show. However, there was the plots for revenge, with a lot of political and business intrigues, corruption, high interest money lending business, and spy thrillers. I'm not sure about the spy thrillers but the apparently the rest of the elements indeed happened in Korea, of course the story is fictional but it's based on what truly happened from the 70 to 90 when people fought for the lands in Gangnam, a valuable district in Korea. How could I resist with a lot of these elements thrown in? Of course, the siblings' love and the friendship between characters makes the show characters based rather than plot based. Having said that, there are a lot of plot twists and cliff hangers which make people anticipating the next episode. It's a show best watched by marathoning.
Funnily, I only started watching from the middle of episode 16 of the original show length (the TV cut down episodes length to around 40 minutes so there were 90 episodes shown on TV instead of 60) and I still skipped some episodes because I wasn't hooked yet. Once I got hooked, I would anticipate the shows every weekdays and wouldn't miss one episode. Even if I missed, I would wait until 12.30 am to watch the rerun. I only wished I could marathon them rather than watching 40 minutes episode every weekday.
I would recommend Giant to anybody who likes the elements I mentioned above, I usually wouldn't recommend any K-drama to anyone so it can be said how good it was. If people want to just watch the show without buying the DVD, they can find the AVI files with English subtitles at Treasure Trove (Part 3) - thundie's prattle
In fact, I'm downloading it now.
The 7 paragraphs below contains spoiler so unless you're a spoiler junkie and got spoiled accidentally like me (I am also a spoiler junkie but I really didn't want the fate of Seong Mo shown to me so early and caused my sadness), you could skip them and just read the end. I would focus only on my favourite character in this journal and not the plots of the series, that will be gigantic as the title Giant suggested.
Back to my favourite character, it was the eldest brother I mentioned earlier, Lee Seung Mo. He wasn't the central character, the central character would be Lee Gang Mo, the second brother. But as some people said, he was the soul of the show, most people symphatise with him, even most characters in the show (even the bad guys) like him. This was from me who hasn't watched the childhood portion of the show but I was told the summary of their stories by my Mum (I would definitely find the earlier episodes to watch).
Seung Mo (SM witnessed the murder of his father by 2 men, Jo Pil Yeon (JPY) and Hwang Tae Sub (HTS, an unwilling participant and the father's best friend). After some complicated plots, he lured the killers by jumping off the train so his family (his Mum and three siblings, the youngest baby was sent away early in the series, so the story was only about Seong Mo and the other 2 siblings) would be safe with head injury as the result.
By some plot twists, he ended up working as a KCIA agent under JPY, the main villain of the series, and by gaining JPY's trust by endangering his own life throughout the series. JPY even treated him as a son although he also kept testing his loyalty through out the series. JPY was a really evil (he was nominated as the best villain in 2010 K-dramas and won it) but a very smart man so SM had to be really careful all this time.
It was really hard on Sm's soul as he hurt the innocent (mostly in the beginning which later on didn't happen or wasn't shown on screen) in order to gain JPY's trust, in the meantime he kept planning on revenge on the people responsible of his father's death (he even said it himself that it's really hard to really hate someone throughout his life but he was a filial son so he had to avenge his father) and he felt guilty he couldn't find and take care the rest of his family after his train jump (it's a really complicated plot which I also haven't watched why they got separated and hadn't been reunited until they were adults).
When he finally found his siblings, he had a mini breakdown because he nearly killed his brother who he thought was HTS's right hand man and felt guilty because his brother was framed for jail. He helped his brother's escape although in the end under complex circumstances the brother asked SM to arrest him so they wouldn't be suspicious SM was involved with the escape in the first place. Later, he kept helping his siblings throughout the series, in term of money, intel, some actions including stealing from the bad guys who stole from someone else. He literally live to help and protect his siblings and plan his revenge, which later on also helped by his brother. He witnessed his siblings fell in love with the enemies' children, even his sister bore the child of JPY's son. He of course didn't support their relationship in the beginning but in the end his heart is big enough to accept them if they really loved each other that much. He secretly doted on his nephew and didn't tell his siblings (his sister told him that she aborted the son, he didn't say anything although he knew she was lying). He even forgave HTS after HTS redeemed himself.
Near the end of the series, he was actually given a love interest (more one sided since the girl had the feeling for him but not vice versa, it seems he was too focused on his siblings and revenge to think about love for himself) but I would say their love story was really tragic. He also lost his colleague and best friend because of JPY and the love interest (who was used to spy on him and his best friend because she was too naive and didn't realise she was being used) and he went full throttle on revenge hence the reason JPY found out his treachery.
When he went missing for 5 years (it was quite tragic and I found out I use this word a lot in this journal, I guess that's the element of Kdrama, that the siblings took turn to go "missing" even after they found each other during adulthood, first was his brother went to jail for 2 years, then his sister hid for 4 years because of her pregnancy then himself) after taking the proofs that could incriminate and bring down JPY, I literally cried from that point onwards when he appeared on screen and even mentioned (it was even worse as I have spoiled myself with some pictures about his fate around 7 weeks before the final episodes were shown).
His sibling went to his apartment when trying to find him, they just realised that he lived very poorly in a very bad apartment all this time and he used all his savings to support his brother's business in the beginning and to support his sister with apartments and furnitures. The siblings and I guess some of the audience (I) broke down because of that.
He got mentally disabled because of a bullet lodged in his brain and the love interest was the one taking care of him during all this time (despite all this, I must say his love interest is indeed a very patient woman to take care of him even though he never realised her feeling for him hence the tragedy).
When his brother found him, they really brought down JPY down from the height of candidate of Prime Minister to become a criminal(actually SM has brought down JPY numerous times in the series so he didn't win only at the end of the series, but JPY was too strong and only came back stronger). I was proud of SM since he was really scared of JPY after he got mentally disabled (he was really scared of JPY when he was a teenager but he got braver and became a cool agent) but he still managed to show his hatred (without showing the fear) to JPY in the end. It was really sad that he barely recognised anyone after getting shot (even the girl taking care of him) although he managed to recognise his siblings. After all, he lived for his siblings and whenever he was in trouble or got hurt (even when he wast shot in the head), his first thought would be who would take care of his siblings, not about his own well being. He asked his siblings to promise to live well if he passed away (before he got shot, well a few episodes earlier, not a few minutes, the show was not that literal).(I just read the subtitle for the first episode and apparently it was his father who asked him to be responsible for his siblings when he was a teenager and must protect them at all cost, he really took his father's advice to heart)
Before his operation to remove the bullet, he even showed his full support by action (before only by words) about his agreement that his brother married the woman he loved, who was the daughter of HTS (the ex enemy) even though he was mentally disabled which was amazing. It seemed that he knew he was not going to make it through the operation (the writers had the audacity to kill him off after all he had gone through).
Hence the tragedy of his life, he never knew about his love interest's feeling.
His siblings and some people who cared for him, including HTS, really missed him in the end. In fact, the main character, his brother, kept thinking about him and the amazing 3 way sibling hug of their reunion which was one of the best reunion scene in any show I've seen. He died in 1992 and his brother still missed him in 2010, which was the end of the series.
At least, he managed to fulfill all of his promises to his siblings and brought down JPY, which was his life goal since he witnessed the murder when he was a teenager. He protected his siblings and managed to help them until they were successful. He didn't have much ambition and wanted to become a grape farmer after JPY's being brought down because his sister liked grapes. Even he didn't manage to get that simple thing for his own because of his death.
Some people said it's best for him to die because he felt bad about all the innocent blood spilled, his best friend's death and his guilt of not taking care of his siblings when they were kids (although he did an excellent job afterward but he still felt guilty). I still felt that he could redeem himself (some of the bad guys never got caught and some evil people were shown to redeem themselves in the end) and he really had suffered enough throughout his life (not only the 5 years time) to pay his debt.
How could anyone wouldn't cry for such a character? I know some people don't because they don't over think too much (unlike me) as it's a work of fiction or SM was not their favourite and they only cared about his siblings' love stories or invest their emotion on some other characters.
I am still trying to get over the fact that he is a fictional character but it's indeed really hard so any suggestion is welcome. This writing is kind of a therapy for me as well. I'll see whether it works.
Despite the ending and my sadness, I plan to get the official DVD of Giant when it's released as I think it's an excellent show (not only in term of K-drama but as a TV show in general) and I want to see the special features and interviews with the cast. Even if you didn't really like the plot, the acting by Park Sang Min and Kim Song Hyeon as Seong Mo and young Seong Mo plus Jung Bu Seok as JPY is really worth it. I haven't written anything long enough for any show but I started writing essay because of Giant *sigh*. I know I repeated some points or sentences but it's the first time for me to express my thoughts in an essay.
Now I'm looking forward for Dexter, not sure about True Blood as Season 3 was not good.
1. Being Human (UK)
I think Season 3 storyline is better than Season 2.
I think because of Season 2 I didn't think much of this show. I think the presence of Henrick helps to make the show more interesting. Or perhaps just the plot of Season 2 is bad (well, it's my opinion but others could think of differently).
I didn't expect the ending with Mitchell dying. I thought they would be stopped by the elder vampire so he won't die. I didn't expect George to really kill him but as he said that's for Mitchell's own good. I'd be interesting to see what they are going to do with Season 4.
I think it's the first time in any show that my favourite character is not killed. In other shows, it's always my favourites who are dying so I sometime get tired of watching any shows.
2. Supernatural
I'm not sure what to think of Season 6. It seems that the plotline is all over the place.
I think the only saving grace is Crowley. Without him, the show won't be as interesting. I think he is one of the few demons/guest stars who appears often and haven't been killed off. I kind of expected him to be dead by the end of the season but I'm pleasantly surprised.
I don't like what they did with Castiel. It seems that he is out of character. Yes, sure, power can corrupt people but it seems he has been corrupted for a while. It's also easy for him to kill other angels. Balthazar is not my favourite but I'm not happy that he is killed by Castiel.
My favourite angel remains Gabriel. He was the only one hadn't been shown to kill any other angels (well, he tried to kill Lucifer but he seemed to mind it a lot and IMO would rather die than actually succeeded). Not to mention his sense of humour is wicked. And of course because he is my (also a lot others') favourite, he got killed off. I really hope he will somehow come back as it's supernatural after all, no one stays dead long enough.
I also get annoyed that Rufus got killed. I didn't really like Gwen Campbell but I was not happy that the Winchesters didn't really think much of her death although she was the most decent Campbell and Dean freaking shot her.
Will Castiel become the big bad next season? I don't think a lot of people would be happy about that.
3. The Big Bang Theory
This is another show which I keep watching because of tradition. And with a lot of death with other shows, it's good to balance it out with some comedies.
I like Season 1 and 2 a lot. I don't really like Season 3 and not sure what to think of Season 4.
I'm happy that Bernadette got her PhD and still enjoy the joke that Howard is the only who doesn't. Don't care much whoever Leonard is dating and I just don't care much about Priya. Not sure what to think of Penny and Raj.
LOL at Raj being the brown Martha Stewart, although it's unlikely, it would be fun to see Sheldon and Raj become housemates as they already share the same office space. LOL at the illuminating emergency exit of the apartment. I know they definitely had the light but it's always fun to be proven right.
Also fun to see Sheldon made comment to Amy about massaging which sounded like dirty joke.
4. How I Met Your Mother
I watch Season 1 to 5 continuously then I watch Season 6 as the usual viewers who waited every week. This is one of the sitcoms that I'm still happily waiting and enjoying.
I know a lot of people don't like Season 5. I don't have much opinion about Season 5 but I really enjoy Season 6.
Well, except the fact that Barney randomly got smitten by Nora and the whole Zoey's business. I don't like manipulative Zoey from the beginning and it's obvious she is not the mother.
The additional of Jerry Lithgow as a guest star is a gem. I always like his acting. Barney has matured more this season, he always helps his friends but he let Ted push the button is quite a big thing for Barney.
I also like the fact that he bonded a lot with Robin this season especially the last episode even though there is no moment of out right BrOTP but for their relationship to grow I think it's important to have friendship first. As people have guessed, it seems that Barney is going to get married first and at that wedding Ted is going to meet his wife. It seems that people have guessed right.
It must be quite a big challenge for Barney to commit like that as the title suggested. Well, I hope it's with Robin although they could do double bluff or triple bluff.
Something good also finally happens with Marshall and Lily although I'm never fully excited with their storyline especially involving the baby but it's good to see someone happy.
The next season may show both Barney and Robin dating other people but we will see how long their relationship last.
5. Giant (Korean)
I haven't cried for any fictional character for weeks (even until now) ever until I watched Giant. I mean crying as really crying, not only feeling sad and wanting to cry as sometime happens, but even in that case not for weeks, perhaps only for a few minutes.
I know that K-drama is very popular in Asian countries and some Asian communities in Western countries but
I'm always hesitant to start watching. There are a lot of Kdrama over-used plots like the hero falls in love with the daughter of the enemy or heroine with the son of the enemy, the rivalry between the main characters for the love and business/career, the raising of the hero by the enemy without his knowing.
The other reason is because sometime I know the ending can be really sad and my mood can easily be affected hence I watch mostly comedies, actions, and thrillers. (People would comment if I have known the ending can be sad, why did I still watch in the first place? The reason is I got hooked as my family kept watching and they said it was really good, and I don't know the ending can be that level of sad. Perhaps because it was my favourite character, if it wasn't, I wouldn't be an emotional wreck). Actually the show has a lot of humours in it, so it's not all doomed and gloomed as I make out to be. Sometime when the audience was tense, they would burst out laughing because of some unexpected things happened or said.
At the surface, Giant also uses the afore mentioned plots, and even double with the hero was in love with the daughter of the enemy and his sister with the son of the other enemy. The poor eldest brother has to see both his younger siblings fall for the children of the enemies.
However, if we look deeper, the plots are better written with a lot of intrigues and plot twists unrelated to the love stories and the actors are all top notches in acting.
The premise of Giant is the story of the love and survival between three siblings from the 70s to the 90s, which is
the heart of the show. However, there was the plots for revenge, with a lot of political and business intrigues, corruption, high interest money lending business, and spy thrillers. I'm not sure about the spy thrillers but the apparently the rest of the elements indeed happened in Korea, of course the story is fictional but it's based on what truly happened from the 70 to 90 when people fought for the lands in Gangnam, a valuable district in Korea. How could I resist with a lot of these elements thrown in? Of course, the siblings' love and the friendship between characters makes the show characters based rather than plot based. Having said that, there are a lot of plot twists and cliff hangers which make people anticipating the next episode. It's a show best watched by marathoning.
Funnily, I only started watching from the middle of episode 16 of the original show length (the TV cut down episodes length to around 40 minutes so there were 90 episodes shown on TV instead of 60) and I still skipped some episodes because I wasn't hooked yet. Once I got hooked, I would anticipate the shows every weekdays and wouldn't miss one episode. Even if I missed, I would wait until 12.30 am to watch the rerun. I only wished I could marathon them rather than watching 40 minutes episode every weekday.
I would recommend Giant to anybody who likes the elements I mentioned above, I usually wouldn't recommend any K-drama to anyone so it can be said how good it was. If people want to just watch the show without buying the DVD, they can find the AVI files with English subtitles at Treasure Trove (Part 3) - thundie's prattle
In fact, I'm downloading it now.
The 7 paragraphs below contains spoiler so unless you're a spoiler junkie and got spoiled accidentally like me (I am also a spoiler junkie but I really didn't want the fate of Seong Mo shown to me so early and caused my sadness), you could skip them and just read the end. I would focus only on my favourite character in this journal and not the plots of the series, that will be gigantic as the title Giant suggested.
Back to my favourite character, it was the eldest brother I mentioned earlier, Lee Seung Mo. He wasn't the central character, the central character would be Lee Gang Mo, the second brother. But as some people said, he was the soul of the show, most people symphatise with him, even most characters in the show (even the bad guys) like him. This was from me who hasn't watched the childhood portion of the show but I was told the summary of their stories by my Mum (I would definitely find the earlier episodes to watch).
Seung Mo (SM witnessed the murder of his father by 2 men, Jo Pil Yeon (JPY) and Hwang Tae Sub (HTS, an unwilling participant and the father's best friend). After some complicated plots, he lured the killers by jumping off the train so his family (his Mum and three siblings, the youngest baby was sent away early in the series, so the story was only about Seong Mo and the other 2 siblings) would be safe with head injury as the result.
By some plot twists, he ended up working as a KCIA agent under JPY, the main villain of the series, and by gaining JPY's trust by endangering his own life throughout the series. JPY even treated him as a son although he also kept testing his loyalty through out the series. JPY was a really evil (he was nominated as the best villain in 2010 K-dramas and won it) but a very smart man so SM had to be really careful all this time.
It was really hard on Sm's soul as he hurt the innocent (mostly in the beginning which later on didn't happen or wasn't shown on screen) in order to gain JPY's trust, in the meantime he kept planning on revenge on the people responsible of his father's death (he even said it himself that it's really hard to really hate someone throughout his life but he was a filial son so he had to avenge his father) and he felt guilty he couldn't find and take care the rest of his family after his train jump (it's a really complicated plot which I also haven't watched why they got separated and hadn't been reunited until they were adults).
When he finally found his siblings, he had a mini breakdown because he nearly killed his brother who he thought was HTS's right hand man and felt guilty because his brother was framed for jail. He helped his brother's escape although in the end under complex circumstances the brother asked SM to arrest him so they wouldn't be suspicious SM was involved with the escape in the first place. Later, he kept helping his siblings throughout the series, in term of money, intel, some actions including stealing from the bad guys who stole from someone else. He literally live to help and protect his siblings and plan his revenge, which later on also helped by his brother. He witnessed his siblings fell in love with the enemies' children, even his sister bore the child of JPY's son. He of course didn't support their relationship in the beginning but in the end his heart is big enough to accept them if they really loved each other that much. He secretly doted on his nephew and didn't tell his siblings (his sister told him that she aborted the son, he didn't say anything although he knew she was lying). He even forgave HTS after HTS redeemed himself.
Near the end of the series, he was actually given a love interest (more one sided since the girl had the feeling for him but not vice versa, it seems he was too focused on his siblings and revenge to think about love for himself) but I would say their love story was really tragic. He also lost his colleague and best friend because of JPY and the love interest (who was used to spy on him and his best friend because she was too naive and didn't realise she was being used) and he went full throttle on revenge hence the reason JPY found out his treachery.
When he went missing for 5 years (it was quite tragic and I found out I use this word a lot in this journal, I guess that's the element of Kdrama, that the siblings took turn to go "missing" even after they found each other during adulthood, first was his brother went to jail for 2 years, then his sister hid for 4 years because of her pregnancy then himself) after taking the proofs that could incriminate and bring down JPY, I literally cried from that point onwards when he appeared on screen and even mentioned (it was even worse as I have spoiled myself with some pictures about his fate around 7 weeks before the final episodes were shown).
His sibling went to his apartment when trying to find him, they just realised that he lived very poorly in a very bad apartment all this time and he used all his savings to support his brother's business in the beginning and to support his sister with apartments and furnitures. The siblings and I guess some of the audience (I) broke down because of that.
He got mentally disabled because of a bullet lodged in his brain and the love interest was the one taking care of him during all this time (despite all this, I must say his love interest is indeed a very patient woman to take care of him even though he never realised her feeling for him hence the tragedy).
When his brother found him, they really brought down JPY down from the height of candidate of Prime Minister to become a criminal(actually SM has brought down JPY numerous times in the series so he didn't win only at the end of the series, but JPY was too strong and only came back stronger). I was proud of SM since he was really scared of JPY after he got mentally disabled (he was really scared of JPY when he was a teenager but he got braver and became a cool agent) but he still managed to show his hatred (without showing the fear) to JPY in the end. It was really sad that he barely recognised anyone after getting shot (even the girl taking care of him) although he managed to recognise his siblings. After all, he lived for his siblings and whenever he was in trouble or got hurt (even when he wast shot in the head), his first thought would be who would take care of his siblings, not about his own well being. He asked his siblings to promise to live well if he passed away (before he got shot, well a few episodes earlier, not a few minutes, the show was not that literal).(I just read the subtitle for the first episode and apparently it was his father who asked him to be responsible for his siblings when he was a teenager and must protect them at all cost, he really took his father's advice to heart)
Before his operation to remove the bullet, he even showed his full support by action (before only by words) about his agreement that his brother married the woman he loved, who was the daughter of HTS (the ex enemy) even though he was mentally disabled which was amazing. It seemed that he knew he was not going to make it through the operation (the writers had the audacity to kill him off after all he had gone through).
Hence the tragedy of his life, he never knew about his love interest's feeling.
His siblings and some people who cared for him, including HTS, really missed him in the end. In fact, the main character, his brother, kept thinking about him and the amazing 3 way sibling hug of their reunion which was one of the best reunion scene in any show I've seen. He died in 1992 and his brother still missed him in 2010, which was the end of the series.
At least, he managed to fulfill all of his promises to his siblings and brought down JPY, which was his life goal since he witnessed the murder when he was a teenager. He protected his siblings and managed to help them until they were successful. He didn't have much ambition and wanted to become a grape farmer after JPY's being brought down because his sister liked grapes. Even he didn't manage to get that simple thing for his own because of his death.
Some people said it's best for him to die because he felt bad about all the innocent blood spilled, his best friend's death and his guilt of not taking care of his siblings when they were kids (although he did an excellent job afterward but he still felt guilty). I still felt that he could redeem himself (some of the bad guys never got caught and some evil people were shown to redeem themselves in the end) and he really had suffered enough throughout his life (not only the 5 years time) to pay his debt.
How could anyone wouldn't cry for such a character? I know some people don't because they don't over think too much (unlike me) as it's a work of fiction or SM was not their favourite and they only cared about his siblings' love stories or invest their emotion on some other characters.
I am still trying to get over the fact that he is a fictional character but it's indeed really hard so any suggestion is welcome. This writing is kind of a therapy for me as well. I'll see whether it works.
Despite the ending and my sadness, I plan to get the official DVD of Giant when it's released as I think it's an excellent show (not only in term of K-drama but as a TV show in general) and I want to see the special features and interviews with the cast. Even if you didn't really like the plot, the acting by Park Sang Min and Kim Song Hyeon as Seong Mo and young Seong Mo plus Jung Bu Seok as JPY is really worth it. I haven't written anything long enough for any show but I started writing essay because of Giant *sigh*. I know I repeated some points or sentences but it's the first time for me to express my thoughts in an essay.
Now I'm looking forward for Dexter, not sure about True Blood as Season 3 was not good.