#like yes i plan to rewrite a's story to be kinder to him but also!!!!!!!! i do so love the look of suffering on him LMAO

[varilien]

(oc uses he/him)

i think these are all from late 2020/early 2021?? mr a has spent the majority of his existence to this point being my punching bag but i think going forward i'm gonna TRY to be nicer to him. probably. dfhjk

[eahtheramblings]

I love your character rewrites! Can you do Ashlynn Ella and her stepsisters?

I made this post a while back that details Ashlynn’s relationship to destiny and others like Apple and Duchess which might interest you, but alongside that here’s a bit more about how Ashlynn, Prudence, and Charlotte work in this au!

For Prudence and Charlotte, the first change I would make is having them be present in the story from the very start as minor antagonists. In the second series of books, Faybelle has 7 fairies that act sort-of like her minions in both the villain and mean girl way. Now the reason there's 7 of them is probably because there are 7 fairy godmothers in some versions of Sleeping Beauty, but that feels like too many characters to juggle, and they don’t really get a role in the story outside of acting as yes men for Faybelle. Heck, I don’t even think they get names. So in this au, Prudence and Charlotte are Faybelle’s minions/friends, forming every high school’s story stereotypical trifecta of mean girls. They carry out Faybelle’s orders, and in return get status among their peers in the villain track for being in close proximity to Faybelle. When the destiny conflict begins they are strictly on the Royal side, following Faybelle’s lead. They help Duchess in her plans to expose Ashlynn’s relationship with Hunter, and generally have it out for everyone. The two of them especially have it out for Ashlynn, but not for the reason you'd expect. You see, part of it is because it’s what the evil stepsisters are supposed to do, but part of it is also due to their own personal gripes with destiny:

Despite all her postering, Prudence really isn’t all that bad. Had she been born into a royal family like the Charming's, then she probably would have been a crown jewel due to her kinder nature. But she wasn’t, so she had to learn to be bitter and cold, to keep her emotions in and make sure the blood from her bleeding heart was never visible. It’s made especially worse by the fact that she’s the eldest of the stepsisters. People look at her not just as the future henchman to her mother, but also the future Wicked Stepmother, which put’s lot more pressure on her to keep it all in. Becoming faybelle’s minion helps to relieve some of this pressure as it takes the expectation to be the main evil off her when they're in a room together, but nothing can distract from the other destiny related pressure she has. You see, something many people in Ever After seem to forget is that not only does Cinderella’s mother have to die for the story to continue, but the Wicked Stepsisters father also has to die. The Wicked Stepmother is a widow after all. Cinderella’s mother becomes a magic tree. She’s dead in the flesh sense only, but still gets to interact with her daughter in some way, granting her magic dresses and the like. But Prudence’s father is just dead. Died when she was five, and there was no magic tree that awaited him. He’s gone, and in a few years whoever Prudence marries will be gone too, a fact that haunts her as she has been told time and time again by her weeping mother to never marry for love. Prudence like most of the royal villains believes she has a noble role, as without the Wicked Stepfamily the tale of Cinderella would never exist. But sometimes when the pressure of being evil gets too high, and her grief gets too overpowering, Prudence releases her that pain onto whoever is closest, which tends to be either her sister or Ashlynn. 

Charlotte is definitely the angrier of the two. A year and a half younger than Prudence, her family had her start school early to keep them in the same grade, but despite this she is old enough to understand the lesser talked about implications of her destiny. She knows deep down that it’s unfair that she and Prudence will eventually end up disabled at the end of the story for villainy that they were supposed to do, but buries that feeling underneath a mantra of “life’s not fair, so just deal with it”. She repeats it over and over, because she needs to believe it’s true. She isn’t allowed to play book-ball because her mother insists it isn’t proper for a lady. Life’s not fair, so just deal with it. Faybelle treats them more like pets that can perform tricks than friends sometimes. Life’s not fair, so just deal with it. She sometimes spends hours at a time late at night letting her eye’s roam her room, wondering how much of her eyesight she’ll lose; her mother only lost about half thanks to her reinforced spectacles, but it varies from cycle to cycle. Life’s not fair, so just deal with it. Her dad is dead. She was too young to really remember him. Life’s not fair, so just deal with it. Her soft-hearted older sister, who takes care of pet beetle’s and dances with such serenity on her face and apologizes for fighting with her by sewing her little gifts is going to be forced to deal with double the amount of vitriol and grief than Charlotte would because she was unlucky enough to be born first. Charlotte would tear out her soul and offer it to the worst of devils if it meant she could switch their places. But Life’s not fair, so just deal with it. It just happens to be that since it’s socially acceptable, tormenting Ashlynn is just Charlotte’s preferred way of dealing with it.

As for Ashlynn, I detailed some of it in the above linked post, but beyond that I really just want to let her do dumb teen things. I mean, she runs a business in high school, has the death-not-death of both her mother and herself hanging over her head, and is all the while dealing with sharing the role of the “responsible” one in her friend group with Apple. The amount of pressure she is under would be enough to make a grain of sand skip pearl and turn straight into a miniature black hole. My interpretation of Ashlynn is that prior to legacy day, Ashlynn was dealing with her emotions in a similar but more socially acceptable way to Briar, always moving and never stopping so the emotions can’t reach her, but with things like running her business rather than partying. But ever since legacy day moving at that breakneck pace has been harder and harder. She doesn’t know if the destiny system is real or not, she isn’t 100% sure if it would be more moral to suffer for the good of the whole, she can’t be certain if she can picture a life without the Cinderella story. The two things she is certain of are that she doesn’t want to lose her mom, and she loves Hunter. And this mixture of catastrophic pressure and teenage mindset leads her to a breaking point where she and Hunter run away for a short while during true hearts day. They are eventually brought back to the school by a “through the woods” style rescue party of their friends (that’s right, the timeline is in my grubby little hands now, I'm rearranging all the plot points). But after being brought back Ashlynn starts to pull back from taking on so many responsibilities. There's only so much one girl can take after all. 

Or well, in this case, three.

[thyandrawrites]

feel free to ignore this ask if you want but.. do you think there are parts of hawks and dabi's characters that can be enjoyed despite the ending in your opinion?

I think that different people will give you different answers on this just because that ending was very divisive. But since you're asking me, then my answer is yes, of course!

I totally understand people who don't want to touch bnha with a ten foot pole anymore after having all their expectations so abruptly disappointed. I think that's a valid reaction after investing yourself in these characters and their struggles for years. But I also think that the ending we got wasn't the ending that was planned all along, just a plan B that threw all the plotlines in the trash in order to give the series a quicker ending so Horikoshi could stop working on this manga. So it's easier for me to disregard anything that doesn't fit the themes of the story and enjoy the characters up to a point where their arcs still made sense, you know?

For Dabi that's easy enough because I just have to ignore & rewrite the latter part of the second war arc. For Hawks... Well, I stopped enjoying his character a long time ago if I'm honest. Like 4 years ago now. I never quite swallowed what Horikoshi did to him with the whole Twice plotline and then the Enji PR agent one. Not to mention the whole HPSC president nonsense. So while I do still like parts of him, it's in a much more critical way, if that makes sense? I have to rewrite larger chunks of his arc (or read works that rewrite large chunks of his arc) to still feel something positive about him, tho I understand that's a very personal reaction. I know plenty of fans who don't feel the same way I do, and that's totally okay, too.

Basically: no one can tell you if you can still enjoy these characters or not except you. If ignoring parts of canon will help, then do so. It's not a moral failure to want these guys you formed an emotional attachment to to have a kinder epilogue. But if the bad outweighs the good, and knowing how their arcs end sours the whole thing for you... Then it's also okay to feel that way and let them go, imo

[sheep-mc]

As promised from yesterday...

Yesterday following my not-so-brief rant post, I stated that I’d follow up the travesty of that event with a more in-depth analysis and more collected thoughts. That is what awaits you under the cut! Be warned though, there are going to be major spoilers for the event (and possibly things that occur from lesson 20 and prior)

First I’m going to give a summary of the event and how I view it. This is mostly for those of you who haven’t played the event yet, so you can understand why the community is so angry about it. If you’ve already played, feel free to skip the next 3 paragraphs.

It starts out with Lord Diavolo suggesting a party to improve the bonds between the exchange students and the student council. Asmodeus suggests that everyone should dress up - but nothing big, just small angel wings and such. Diavolo shakes his head and says that everyone should go all out, because if you’re going to dress up, you may as well go all the way. Several of the brothers (Mammon, Lucifer, Belphegor) express disdain for this, saying that they don’t want to get dressed up, but Diavolo uses his own magic to put them into outfits anyway. Not just any outfits. Their old Celestial Realm outfits. Simeon then mentions that Michael has given him a gift to give to the brothers, as a thank you for them treating the angels so well. The gift is only for the brothers, not MC, not Diavolo, just the brothers. Simeon aware of the effect the bangles will have on the brothers. He does not tell them this until they’ve put it on. He knows fully well that the bangles will cause them to act in more “righteous ways”. The bangles then react unexpectedly with Diavolo’s magic, causing the outfits and bangles to become irremovable. That is to say, they cannot take them off. It was forced upon them when several of them clearly showed that they did not want to go along with this, and now they cannot undo it. That’s the first issue.

After this, Diavolo still decides that he wants to hold the party, and Simeon agrees. The preparations continue nonetheless. Throughout the event, we speak to the brothers as they’re preparing for the party. Here we’re shown that the brainwashing of the bangles is gradual, not immediate. Mammon is able to resist it slightly at first, claiming that he’s going to cut the clothes off of him. Once he grabs the scissors, his behavior changes. He decides that what he’s doing is dangerous and instead goes to put the scissors away. This action scares Leviathan, who fears that they’re all going to turn out like Mammon and that he doesn’t want that to happen. When we’re alone with Lucifer and Satan, the bangles have only started to affect them, but it hasn’t fully kicked in. They express that they don’t like the situation at all and that they don’t feel like themselves, ending their interactions by telling MC to leave them alone because they don’t want to be seen like this. Speaking to the rest of the brothers, the effects of the bangles have been fully realized. Leviathan has put away all of his obsessions, offering a Ruri-Chan figure to MC because he ”doesn’t need it anymore”. He goes on to say that he was hiding behind anime and manga and that from now on he will work on nurturing his relationships with his brothers and being honest with MC about his feelings. Even if MC rejects him or calls him gross, he doesn’t get upset. This is obviously out of character for our beloved otaku.

The rest of the brothers suffer a similar fate. Beelzebub no longer feels hungry, claiming that instead of feeding himself, he wishes to feed others and see them happy. He says that he wants to be kinder, implying that he wasn’t kind enough before - which is fucking bullshit because holy shit this is Beel we’re talking about are you fucking kidding me you don’t think Beel was kind enough he was literally the nicest of the brothers what the fuck are you on about - ANYWAY. Belphegor goes on to say that he was wasting his life by sleeping it away, and that all of his brothers are good and that he wants to spend more time with them. He doesn’t want to take naps anymore, unless prompted by MC, and he says that he used unfair tactics when trying to win MC’s love. He also says that he won’t be doing that anymore, and is instead going to do things “the fair way”. Asmodeus offers you all of his beauty products, claiming that he was trying too hard to be beautiful before. If you choose to kiss him, he’ll go along with it, but say that he feels like he’s betraying his brothers and being unfair and sneaky. For some reason, I can’t recall much of Mammon’s interaction for the life of me. I remember him saying that he was mean and rude and greedy and shameless before, and how he wants to change to be a better person now, but I don’t remember the second half of the interaction. I just know it was bad. The event ends with the party being held, Diavolo and Simeon smiling and laughing, Solomon and Luke being concerned, and Lucifer overcoming the power of the bangle. Well, that’s what Lucifer says, but I believe he was lying.

Here’s my actual opinions on it:  It was fucked up! I left this bit out of the summary, but all of the brothers (after Lucifer and Satan) express that they don’t want to do anything unless you’re okay with it. They want to be someone good enough that you’d approve of it. They don’t want to upset their brothers. All in all, they’re prioritizing the thoughts and feelings of others over their own. They express hatred for their past selves, condemning their actions and interests as shameful and wrong. Even their most harmless actions. They got rid of every single bit of their own personality in order to “purify” themselves. This ideology is the exact embodiment of toxic positivity and it’s revolting. I would also like to focus more on how all of the brothers (except for Asmodeus and Beelzebub) showed that they didn’t like this idea. for the most part, they were strongly against it. Satan, who according to this event, has never been an angel, says that he doesn’t feel like himself at all. He shows the most fear towards the effects of the bangle and quite frankly it’s just. Disturbing to see someone like Satan so afraid. Lucifer tries to hide his worry, but his thoughts are similar to Satan’s, since he also says that he can’t rest because he doesn’t feel like himself.

Some of you might think that the changes were good or harmless or whatever, and you might have appreciated the fact that they’re trying to change for the better, but realize this: their change was forced. They didn’t do it of their own free will, they didn’t have any experiences that caused them to think or feel this way. It was all forced. They’ve been brainwashed. They are not doing this of their own accord. It’s not them. They are not themselves.

And this is not a side effect of the Celestial Realm or being an angel! If you’ve played through certain cards devilgram story (Belphegor’s “Hatred” or Lucifer’s “Glory Days”) you can see that the brothers are still themselves even though they are angels. They still have their personality and are not completely “holy” or “pure” or “righteous”. This is specifically a result of the bangles. If this had been part of the main story it would have been interesting. It could have been more thought out and well written and had a conclusive ending. So where am I going with this?

I believe that the devs had good intentions but executed them poorly. This is an event, meaning it’s non-canon and not related to the main story. I think that the devs wanted to show how toxic the beliefs of the angels can be, and they did good on that. That was genuinely disturbing to play through. What they’re missing is criticism. If the brother’s had returned to their normal selves and said “what the fuck was that”, then it would have been okay. If they had focused more on how wrong and weird the changes were, and how it’s actually bad, then that would have been a satisfying conclusion. But they didn’t. Well, there was one brother that supposedly returned to his normal self, right? Lucifer.

At the party, Lucifer tells MC that he’s returned to his normal self, but admittedly the clothes still cannot be removed. He shows that he didn’t enjoy the experience, but as he’s watching the rest of his brothers still controlled by the bangles, he...doesn’t do anything. He says that it’s interesting and that they should let it play out a bit more, just to watch them. Now, I am not a Lucifer simp. My MC has copious issues with him. However. This characterization is just PLAIN FUCKING WRONG! WHAT?! What were the devs thinking?! That’s Lucifer! He cares about his brothers above all else in this world! He was strongly against the angel outfit and bangle idea! He said that it made him feel unlike himself! Lucifer has experienced the brainwashing of the bangle first hand! He would never, EVER say something like that when he KNOWS how serious it is. Yes, he is a sadist. Yes, he likes to joke sometimes. But this? He would be way more concerned for them. Which is why I believe he was still under the effects of the bangle. I don’t have a full theory for how much it was affecting him at that point in time, but that will probably come about later.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on the event thus far! It’s possible that the next event will have a callback to this one (considering how this one mentioned TSL: The Musical) but I highly doubt it. I also don’t think that there’s going to be continuation of this in the main story. I doubt we’ll ever get our resolution, but if you want one, I plan on rewriting the entire event on my Wattpad. I’ll announce it when I finish posting it, so feel free to follow for that or just check it out later. My dms should be open and obv you can comment/reblog on this post so if you want to discuss this more, feel free to intract!

[ziracona]

I think you've said the your first plan for Frank's fate was a lot different than what happened in fic? Do you mind sharing what your original idea was?

Sure!

So, originally, when I added Legion to In Living Memory--which was by far the biggest rewrite I did to my outline--I planned out Susie’s arc and Joey’s more or less as they appear in-fic. However, almost none of what happened with Frank was planned. So, when I write, characters often do stuff I don’t understand at the time or only partially understand, or figure out the reasons behind later, which can be a little bit of a hassle but isn’t too bad. Unfortunately, they also not just incredibly infrequently will decide to do shit I had no idea they would do ahead of time, and like, I can’t stop them, because like it or not, if I did, I’d be writing them OOC, so I just kind of have to go with it. When I got to The Lost, the section with Frank was supposed to be very different. He was supposed to show up, and Jeff was going to be low-key nice to him. I think in the original outline draft, he was a little more fucked up still than he is in-fic, so in the outline, Jeff bumps into him upstairs while looking for the tape, easily incapacitates him when Frank attacks him, and is super surprised by winning the fight in like 0.8 seconds, and realizes how fucked up he is. Frank is kind of freaked out, because he’s super weak and at someone who he would expect hates him’s mercy, but Jeff just is kind of silently like “it’s okay--don’t worry” and doesn’t tell anyone else he’s there so that he won’t be in trouble, and they leave with the tape. When I actually wrote the chapter, that changed to Frank being more healed at this point, and them actually fighting him, and some of what ended up in chapter, but Jeff was mostly just expected to be like “Okay, but we’re not going to kill him. We’re going to show mercy even if he wouldn’t, and let him go.” because Jeff is, well, Jeff. And instead he was like “Hey uh can I do a thing?” and I was like “Uh yeah I guess” and he just went off and was unreasonably nice and compassionate to Frank Morrison for like 40 pages and I was like...This is going to butterfly effect update everything. Shit.

And it did. Thanks Jeff. (Sincerely though, it’s much better the way the cards fell and the way I ended up writing/developing Frank and Julie and also Jeff and Joey and Susie too).  Originally, Frank was going to be slightly conflicted (as Jeff would still have been unexpectedly merciful to him), but to a much, much lesser extent. He was never a monster--he’s kind of a shitty person, but not without redeeming qualities, and he’s still in his early 20s. [To be fair, though, in ILM, Frank gets away with a lot. Like, going back and reading Tenacity, Adrenaline, and Grit alone, he does some sincerely fucked up stuff to Meg that he is allowed by the compassion of the rest of the cast to come back from. Meg doesn’t get enough credit for how nice she is to Frank by the end of the fic. Which I mean, everyone nice to the Legion is going to be automatically juxtaposed with Jeff, who is the most compassionate and selfless man ever, but credit where it’s due, Meg is a super, super kind person. Lets Frank go in Vs. because he helped Susie and because it would make Susie sad, doesn’t try to get revenge on him even though he’s caused her lasting PTSD and some pretty big trauma for petty reasons, is willing to believe he and Julie could/have actually changed, and while at fic-end she’s still kind of at “I am sincerely glad for you that you’re not who you used to be, but also, being close to you is traumatic for me because of what you did to me in the past, so I do not want to be around you,” (which is already a both valid and incredibly generous place to be at towards him), she feels further compassion for him because at this point he really does sincerely regret and feel guilt and shame for the things he’s done and wish he could change them, and extends the possibility that maybe in the future she will heal enough that that’s not the case anymore and there might be a future where they could be okay with each other, or oven become friends. And I know that next to Jeff people don’t all be looking as amazing as they would otherwise haha, but that’s like, that’s such a kind and strong and compassionate choice to make towards someone who has hurt you. Forgiveness is such, such a valuable thing, because it just is never merited, it’s always an act of compassion, and I really love her for that. I know I’m totally derailing the actual question so I’ll get back to it now though--sorry--I just have a lot of love for Meg Thomas.]

But uh yes, back on topic. Frank was never a monster. Legion is super interesting and I love them because they’re in a class all their own, which I know I’ve said before. But like, “teens who murdered one guy once spur of the moment because one of the group was in trouble” is such a different mental/psychological/ethical/emotional place to be coming from than any of the other killers. Frank is kind of a shithead, but he does genuinely love and care for his friends, and would be willing to suffer for them. He’s definitely got Reactive Attachment Disorder too, which is part of why he has such a hard time getting to trust Jeff eventually. 

So, as aggressive and kind of shitty but not wholly without redeeming qualities, his original story would have seen him usually an aggressor (tries hard to stop Susie, hurts Meg, gets on Joey’s case for anything kind he does, kills survivors pretty brutally & threatens people to try and keep them in line, etc), but also having moments of sympathy and humanity (letting Quentin go in Distortion/Iron Maiden, conflicted about Jeff helping him, being willing to get incredibly hurt by the Entity to protect Joey, fighting Ghostface to save Susie even though their relationship is not good right now, etc), and getting kind of mixed results in his ending. He would still have saved Susie in Vs. and been helped by Meg, who would still have offered him temporary Clemency because he saved her girlfriend and she’s got some honor, and would have escaped with Julie and the rest of the survivors and allies and made it back to the world. However, instead of sticking around to help patch up Jeff etc, Frank and Julie would have booked almost immediately in 600 Seconds (I doubt he would have stopped to help the truck driver either), and ended up with an uncertain fate. In the original outline, they kind of go off Bonnie & Clyde style and live together on the run. They send Susie and Joey postcards and such sometimes, but are kind of just MIA at the end, and it is unclear/up in the air if they will escalate into violence again, or be convinced by their old friends to come meet up and maybe try living a different life. I am not sure of details beyond that, because that outline kind of burned to death with the first actual paper draft of The Lost, as at that point I was pretty sure what Jeff was choosing to do would drastically change Frank’s future and decisions. I was kind of unsure how to feel about that at first. 

I’ve never like, hated Frank, but when Darkness Among Us released, I did not like him. Didn’t hate, but like, he was kind of vaguely portrayed as an angry, violent white boy who thinks his sad backstory gives him the right to commit murder, and despite that was wildly not just like, liked, but like, stan-style liked and pretty frequently really woobified too in big chunks of the fandom right after release, while the much more canonically sympathetic Joey got super sidelined (probably for race reasons) and so did Julie. So, I certainly didn’t like, plan to give him as big even a role as he had? I wanted him to be complex because he just was, but uh, it was surreal for me that I ended up having a deep emotional attachment to Frank hecking Morrison, but like, I guess here we are lol. And I’m not sorry. It was a good way for the story to go, and improved the plot. My frustration with the initial portrayals I saw were p valid, but I just didn’t end up writing Frank that way, or seeing him that way when I got to know him, and the person he was in ILM is someone who I am happy got and chose to take a shot at redemption and a good life with people who loved him. I care about him a lot. I think after The Lost, and certainly by the first draft of The Cat I was fully on board with how I knew then that Frank’s story was going to go, and it’s a kinder, softer story than I had planned, but I’m glad it was. I’m glad the stupid rat boy got a redemption arc. It’s so fkn hard to actually choose to change if you do bad stuff in real life, and it’s pretty damn valuable if someone can face the guilt and responsibility of what they did, accept it, and try to find some way to make right. He had a stacked deck in life, and got pretty lost out there for a while, but he beat the world, in the end. Frank let himself get pretty hardened and chose to throw out a lot of humanity before he decided to stop, but he did, and he earned a little bit of hope in the end. I don’t know if his ending is fair or not, considering all the bad shit he did, but I also don’t think it has to be. I don’t remember the exact line, but Jeff’s right when he says that life has always been unfair to them, but never in ways that were good, and that unfair can be a good thing too. Life is so rarely unfair to human beings in a way that is merciful or kind, and it’s really kind of amazing the rare times it is. I’m happy things ended up how they did. : )

[Also: fun stupid fact as a last note here. When I decided to expand Frank’s role, I was like “Okay, I can definitely see the value of this character arc and story change, and I like it and am on board, but you absolutely cannot sideline Joey to give Frank room,” like--I was not going to end up like

nuh-uh, so I literally invented a rule for myself that any time Frank got new content that wasn’t in the outline, I had to give Joey new content too so he wouldn’t get bypassed/sidelined and his arc and narrative would get the value and consideration and time it deserved alongside Frank’s and not accidentally, good intentions or not, end up getting overshadowed, and I really did stick to that. Like it got kind of funny to me. But I’m also glad I did because now Frank has a cool and well developed, hard-earned redemption arc, Julie gets one too, and I get *EveN MOooREe* Joey being a wonderful character screen time. Just good for everything all around. <3 ]

[veryotl]

The ending of Are You Human Too... Was good. It delivered on some character development, people were happy in the end, and the story felt complete and wrapped up. All in all, the ending was good. But it wasn’t great. There are some things that could’ve been done better, and I think they could’ve really done it well just by rewriting the last 20 minutes of the episode. 

Let’s start from the end of the 17′th episode. Dr. Oh died, and Nam Shin III is framed for her death. This isn’t the best move, but I think it was necessary. The way they laid out the story, Dr. Oh had to die to provide enough dramatic tension surrounding the kill switch. She knew too well how to save Nam Shin III, and so for the sake of the story had to die. It also very neatly wraps up Nam Shin’s story, giving him a reason to ask himself why he did all of what he did if in the end, he didn’t ever reconcile with his mother and tell her that his father was killed and didn’t commit suicide. 

The last episode progresses normally, with Nam Shin III expressing sadness, insisting to meet Nam Shin to talk to him about his mother’s death despite the kill switch ticking down, and Nam Shin getting kidnapped and used to extort Younghoon. Nam Shin III saves Nam Shin, and Nam Shin tells Nam Shin III it was his fault Dr. Oh died, and not to blame himself. Nam Shin III puts the watch on Nam Shin, and he leaves by himself and lets So Bong help Nam Shin back. Here’s where it starts to get different. 

The resolution to the situation with Younghoon was good... But rushed. What I’d like to see is, instead, Younghoon not making it out of the police station, getting questioned, and eventually getting released and rushing alone to where Nam Shin was held and meeting up with him and So Bong. He helps Nam Shin clean up, and goes along with Nam Shin III’s plan to pass him off as the robot to get him to safety. 

Nam Shin III, confronted by the villains, still throws his watch into the water and is passed off as Nam Shin and gets shot by Seo Jang Gil and falls into the water. Seo Jang Gil, believing he’s shot the real Nam Shin and that Nam Shin III is still under suspicion for murder, goes and takes over the company. Younghoon and So Bong pull Nam Shin III out of the water, discovering that it ended up shorting his kill switch and leaving him off-line. This way, we still get a death fake out. It’s here where Ye Na shows up to the lab and says that her father killed Dr. Oh, and So Bong, Nam Shin, and Younghoon concoct a plan. 

Nam Shin, wearing the robot watch and under the guise of Nam Shin III, shows up to Seo Jang Gil with Younghoon. Younghoon tries to get a confession, but Seo Jang Gil calls the authorities to arrest Nam Shin III, thinking he’s too clever to fall into the trap. When they arrive Nam Shin reveals that he is the human version and that Seo Jang Gil tried to kill him. At first, Seo Jang Gil says it’s all a ploy to frame him because Nam Shin wants his company back, but then Ye Na comes out of hiding and shows the law enforcement her father’s confession of killing Dr. Oh. Seo Jang Gil is dragged off to jail, Nam Shin seizes the company, and Younghoon thanks Ye Na.

Back at the lab, David tries to reboot Nam Shin III to no effect. Hell, why not, we can even do the one year later fast forward. We have a short scene talking about how Ye Na has been promoted in the company, how Younghoon is running the company until Nam Shin wants it, how Nam Shin doesn’t want it and wants Younghoon to keep it until Hee-Dong can run it. Then we go to the lab and we can see that Nam Shin has provided money and resources to David to help Nam Shin III recover. So Bong gets off work at the gym and brings MyBo to the lab, and talks to an unconscious Nam Shin III, telling him about how thanks to him, Nam Shin is okay and Younghoon is happy and how everyone is safe and how he did his duty protecting humans, and how he lived up to his rule but she’s not happy because she’s still alone, and she wishes he’d come back. David tries to reboot him once more, and this time Nam Shin III comes back, hugging So Bong and telling her not to cry. David delivers a sappy line about how he must’ve wanted to come back, and fade to black.

So why do I think this ending would be better? Let’s go through it one by one. First of all, it gives a solid ending to the character arc of Nam Shin. It draws a direct line from the Nam Shin of the beginning, who hated the robot and hated everyone for abandoning him, into the Nam Shin of the end, who supports bringing the robot back and also is kinder to everyone for helping save his life when he was in the coma. It also delivers a little more on the character of Nam Shin as smart, giving him an ending where he can use his quick nature to get his revenge on Seo Jang Gil himself, making it a nice satisfying ending. It also brings it full circle, where Nam Shin III protected him while he was in a coma, and now Nam Shin is protecting Nam Shin III while he’s in a coma.

Secondly, it gives a little more context to Younghoon’s ending. Throughout the series, Younghoon has struggled with trying to decide what he wants his ending to be, saying both he and Nam Shin don’t want to be CEO. This way, when Younghoon does take over the company, it’s with a very solid ending in mind - the intent to pass it on to the next generation, not just holding the position of power because no one else will.

Thirdly, it provides Ye Na with just a little bit more of a development. The addition of an ending to her story where she utilizes her head for business in becoming more active in the company for her own sake, and also the ability to betray her father right in front of his face, and let him know who did it, that he can’t control her anymore. It gives a more satisfying end.

And finally, for Nam Shin III, it gets rid of the rushed feeling of the ending and also gives context to Dr. Oh’s death. If Dr. Oh was there, she could easily reboot and help fix him, but it shows the cast struggling without her and gives her death more of a story purpose. Once he does wake up, it’s shown as part of his becoming more human, and responding to what he wants which is to be with So Bong, despite his main objective that he was brought for being complete. It gives a sense of giving us an ending that would be satisfying and just letting him die, but then allowing him to come back and live happily. His arc is over, he doesn’t have to live anymore, and if he was just a robot, he would accept that his objective is over and shut down. But he’s more than that now, and wants more than just his prime objective.

So in conclusion, do I hate the ending of AYHT? No. It’s acceptable, and I still think it’s a pretty good show considering the ending. As demonstrated I do think they could’ve done better with the time and background given, but all in all I still enjoy the show and don’t think they “ruined it” on the last episode.