#justice4daon

[accidentalrabbit]

LIGHT ON ME

(series + bonus content)

Korea 2021

RANK: S

A-pairing: Taekyung x Shinwoo

Other character(s) i enjoyed: Daon, Shiwoon, Sohee

Overall review:

Light On Me is a gorgeous show, just visually stunning, from the intro graphics to the lived-in but immaculate costume and set design to the cinematography. But more than its production, the series is a hard reboot for staple genre tropes with an achingly sentimental blend of sweetness and sturm und drang pervading its plot.

The pilot episode opens with a flashforward of all our main characters having a good time on the beach. This is, in my opinion, one of very few narratively satisfying ways to set up a multi-year timeskip, and it's a scene we'll return to in the finale.

After this quick teaser for the ending, Light On Me sends us back to the main timeline, starting with the inciting incident: High school student Woo Taekyung, who has heretofore scorned interpersonal relationships, suddenly decides one day that he wants to see what the fuss over friendship is all about. Soon, Taekyung finds himself trying to join the student council of his all boys high school. His sudden desire and character transformation is hardly explained, but it's a fun concept that, to its credit, the series explores with sincerity.

Taekyung is a fun character. He is guarded and unassuming, has difficulty understanding the relationships of his peers at first, and is not always completely aware when he is the target of a joke. But as he decides to try making friends, he puts forth an earnest effort and eventually leans into his naturally dry sense of humor. Taekyung reads as generically neurodivergent when it comes to interpersonal communication, which is not necessarily intentional or positive representation, but it does inform his story arc as the social cues he receives from other students become more and more complicated. I admire that while he tries to understand others' feelings, he is also an active participant in shaping his own ideas of what friendships and other relationships should be. He doesn't simply capitulate to others' expectations when he finds them unfair, and while Taekyung learns to express appreciation for his new friends, he ultimately refuses to change himself or his own desires to please others.

The introduction of the blunt and forward Taekyung to the student council board shakes things up, eventually leading to one of the two main conflicts of the series, The Love Triangle™. While love triangles are usually sad, boring, and predictable, this one gets points for giving us two options that each have genuine appeal and pathos, unlike any other love triangle i've seen before or since. The Love Triangle™ is an example of how even the most uninspired tropes can be brought back to life with compelling writing, acting, and directing.

The first leg of the triangle to receive real development is Taekyung x Daon, and they are adorable together. Daon is the very outgoing, warm-hearted, self-sacrificial council president who knows everything and everyone. Their relationship starts as if solving Taekyung's friendlessness and securing his spot on the council is just another one of Daon's many personal projects. Soon after Daon takes him under his wing, though, the two of them find themselves thinking about each other a fair amount, and their relationship involves a healthy dose of reciprocity and mutual care. I think this pairing works very well together, and they might have succeeded were it not for Daon's heroic flaw and the actions of a certain Sohee, which we'll get to. But suffice it to say that after this transpires and Daon sacrifices Taekyung's trust to maintain his image as a universal people pleaser, their relationship becomes significantly weaker than it initially seems.

Which brings us to the second leg of our triangle, Taekyung x Shinwoo. Their relationship is initially much rockier, as Shinwoo apparently finds Taekyung embarrassing and not worth his time. Shinwoo is curt, rude, and dismissive of his attempts to join the council, which only drives the naïve Taekyung to try even harder (with some encouragement from the other council members). This phase comes to a head when Taekyung finally snaps and outright asks why Shinwoo hates him in a scene that is VERY emotionally satifying, as we see Shinwoo truly flustered for the first time. After Taekyung unsuccessfully tries to stop a group of bullies from ganging up on him, Shinwoo seems to mellow out and seems to become much more thoughtful toward and protective of him, even as he grows closer to Daon.

One thing that i enjoy is that Shinwoo's relationship with Daon never becomes combative. They both experience some jealousy at various points in the plot, but it never becomes a simple power struggle. Even after the incident with Sohee crushes Daon's chances, and Shinwoo sees the opportunity to pursue Taekyung, he offers Daon a chance to try and win him back. This extension of empathy has to do with his own backstory, where Shinwoo was once the victim of homophobic cruelty as well, and prior to Taekyung he had built up psychological defenses to protect himself from that pain happening again. But despite his neurosis around being loved, Shinwoo is also an absolute gem who goes out of his way to make sure Taekyung is cared for, and his relationship with him is ultimately just as sweet (and as fraught) as Taekyung's relationship with Daon—which makes the final choice between them infinitely more compelling than stories with clear narrative favoritism. I cannot stress enough how much this trope simply works when it's clear the writers, actors, and directors all care about the story and the characters within it.

Namgoong Shiwoon is the fourth student council member and he is an absolute delight in each and every scene. Whereas the other three boys tend to have flatter affects (which i ascribe mostly to their characters but others have called underacting), Shiwoon is a golden retriever of a human being. His actor consistently nails his delivery and, despite his clear role as comic relief and expositor, he also does a good job in his more dramatic one-on-one scenes with Sohee and the other boys, balancing his levity with thoughtfulness. Whether he's serving as mediator, wingman, goofball, or just a good friend, i love when Shiwoon is onscreen. Namgang for life.

I guess we need to talk about Sohee. She is, unfortunately, our second major conflict, and, unfortunately, she has a crush on Daon that culminates in her outing him and Taekyung. Suffice it to say that she is not a character i expected to like at all. And yet. Once what's done is done, the story is not done with her. Sohee is the rare character who is made to undergo a difficult but (in my opinion) satisfying redemption arc, and her plot serves as the most obvious manifestation of the show's major theme: You cannot change the pain you've caused; you can only repent going forward, and what happens next is up to the ones you hurt. Her journey to atonement begins with accountability, and i think it's important that Light On Me uses her character to model that you can both do something absolutely reprehensible and still be worthy of your humanity. You can recognize too late that something you have done was a possibly unforgivable error, and you can still take accountability. Whether you are forgiven is out of your hands. Once Sohee lets herself internalize these ideas (thanks Shiwoon!), my heart softened toward her character, to the point where i was genuinely happy to see her in the finale.

Daon's phoenix era is also important thematically. He must learn to take care of (and stop neglecting) himself and, by proxy, to stop putting others' ideas about him first. For a character whose entire identity is about pleasing everyone, the realization that it is literally impossible to make every single person happy is a major blow to his self-concept, and we can empathize how difficult it is for him to rebuild a self that knows where and how to draw those boundaries. In addition, this arc supports Sohee's in many ways by emphasizing the unforeseen consequences of his actions on the set of his future possibilities. Because of his heroic flaw, there is no longer a straightforward path to a romantic relationship with Taekyung, and he will have to process that grief in much the same way that Sohee is processing her own. And he still takes accountability, not because it is easy or self-exculpatory, but because he thinks it is what Taekyung deserves.

The final episodes demonstrates how to do a narratively resonant fakeout scene. At the end of the penultimate episode, we see Taekyung and a sleeping Daon in the otherwise empty student council room, with Taekyung reaching out to gently touch him. Suddenly, Shinwoo grabs silently and desperately at Taekyung's wrist—and he tears away. Is he really rejecting Shinwoo? And after a long held breath, the finale shows us: Yes, and no. Taekyung tears away from Shinwoo's grasp, rejecting his neurotic and instinctual possessiveness. You cannot change the way i feel about Daon. Then—he reaches out to wordlessly take his hand. Now, let me choose to care for you, too. This moment is a revelation for Shinwoo and the audience, who up until this point have primarily seen their relationship from the perspective of his neurosis, his fear that he will have to prove his love over and over again and still may not be the one Taekyung chooses. In this brief gesture, we see Taekyung refusing to entertain his fear and, at the same time, demonstrating in a physical way his own agency and capacity to choose Shinwoo for himself, without coercion. An inkling of the reciprocity he learned with Daon now serves to reject the delusion that Shinwoo has been or will ever be the sole and eternal pursuer. Poetic cinema.

And eventually we return to the beginning, the flashforward scene with the fireworks on the beach, and this time it feels like a revelation. I love that Daon is happy and carefree, showing that heartbreak is not a permanent condition, and it is possible to be fully satisfied with friendship and self-love. I love that Sohee is here, suggesting that she and her friends have done the magnanimous and difficult work of repairing their relationships over the years. I love that Taekyung is here with his camera, that he has come so far and learned to cherish the relationships he once dismissed. And i love, more than anything, that everyone is sharing this moment, that romantic relationships can share space with friendships, because all forms of human connection are worthy of celebration. All the themes of the show are here, mingling with each other just as the characters are. It makes my heart soar.

As for the bonus content, our main three have cameos in the series Best Mistake 3 (2021), where they look like they are thriving and living their best lives. It's not much, but if you need more of them it's nice to see how they've been getting on. (You don't need to watch the whole show; the girls have already isolated every clip for your viewing pleasure.)

I had a good time, but:

Let's keep it a buck: Sohee spends a large chunk of the plot being absolutely poisonous, with no traits other than monomania and cruelty, and there are really no other girl characters. She doesn't have the worst overall arc in terms of genre standards, but her writing doesn't feel great in the moment. Love her though! (Eventually.)

There was nothing wrong with the teacher/faculty sponsor character per se, but sometimes it felt like the story forgot about him for a good stretch only to have him pop back in out of the blue. Were more of his scenes cut for time? That's what it was giving.

Character(s) entitled to financial compensation: Daon, my beloved. This boy has the weight of the earth and sky on his shoulders, and everyone around him just keeps adding more. Given that he is simultaneously the unlucky corner of a love triangle and the target of a digital homophobic harrassment campaign, i just know the writers had fun laying it on THICK. And he STILL smiles through it like he isn't in desperately need of an affordable licensed counselor at talkspace dot com. Yeah, his story is important thematically or whatever but at what cost? Praying that any future sequel brings #JusticeForDaon. It's what he deserves.

Conclusion: Light On Me is a series that understands how good character writing can be used to elevate even the most well-worn tropes—and also understands that the tropes themselves should not be immune to change. It treats a fairly absurd initial premise with unwavering sincerity, and without melodrama transforms a very basic coming-of-age story into a bittersweet and resonant tale of friendship, yearning, and self-love. Give this show its flowers (so we'll never miss it in the crowd).

And if you want to hear about the quietly sentimental To My Star (2021)…you know where i'll be.