Endings...and joy

I was looking back over my list of things I've watched (and otome games I've played) and thinking about how I am often so dissatisfied with the endings. Like, the whole rest of it could have been absolutely lovely and perfect (not that generally anything is perfect...that's a high bar and I know I can be a harsh critic). Is it me? I don't know.

I re-watched (with a little bit of forwarding) the last episode of What's Wrong with Secretary Kim. It was the first Kdrama (or, really, Asian drama of any type) that I actually liked, even though the plot was often more convoluted and overdramatic than it needed to be...and some of those middle episodes did drag a bit. But, I'd really enjoyed it. So...the last episode, watching it again...yeah...it's lovely.

After having watched a (boatload) more dramas, What's Wrong with Secretary Kim, even with it's faults, is still one of my favourites. The ending is perhaps a bit fan service-y (but in a sweet way) but there's no unnecessary angst or plot wrenches thrown in at the last second. It's just adorable and provides closure for the secondary relationships as well. The characters stay true to their natures. And the leads have such good chemistry with each other.

And...the whole thing...while there's the chaebol stuff, there's no evil plots related to inheritance or leading the company or evil parents -- no envelopes of money being passed out, no glasses of water to the face. And there's no forced separation shoehorned into the plot just to provide dramatic tension whether or not it makes sense for the characters.

It is me, I suppose. Ultimately, I like to watch these kinds of things and play otome because I want to be entertained BUT I also want happy endings. Yes, I'm in it for the story, but I'm also in it because I want to have some moments of unmitigated happiness. I don't want to watch or play something where everyone dies in the end. Ok, sure, I do sometimes if the story is there or I love the characters BUT in general, that's not the thing I'm looking for. That's one of the things that drew me to What's Wrong with Secretary Kim -- even though there's some dark bits related to their kidnapping when they were young, etc. and the mental baggage all related to that with the two brothers, there was never a sense that it wasn't going to work out. Some people might call that a bad thing, that the stakes weren't high enough, that there was never any real danger that the leads wouldn't wind up together or the family wouldn't reconcile. Maybe that's true. But I'd suggest that there was enough -- the story did move and the plot (mostly) made sense (even if it was ridiculous in many ways). But the light far outweighed the dark in that one and that's why I personally enjoyed it so much.

I've seen some clips recently off different shows that look interesting and then I look them up and think, nah... life is too short to spend on things that I know aren't going to make me happy. It's ok to quit shows or books or games or whatever. When you hold it to you, does it bring you joy? If it doesn't, can you let it go?

There's a parallel there to life, but I'm not going to think about it overly much.