After reading nasty comments on characters and dramas over the years, I’m not surprised anymore how easy it is for netizens, whether k-netz or i-netz, to gang up on something they don’t like or understand. The hive mentality is strong with both fans and anti-fans.🐝

I wish however that the good readers of this blog set themselves apart and at least TRY interpreting and reasoning out instead of joining the hate bandwagon. We’re smart and sassy bitches after all.

What makes this kdrama remarkable will be the story and the storytelling. (I promise you: this kdrama won’t live nor die on HyunBin’s dimples. 🤪) Of course, the script is of paramount importance but the production of the drama can make or break the script.

That’s why I had to take a second look at the use of flashback in this kdrama.

I agree that the director has used flashbacks liberally. There’s always flashback in the beginning of the episode, and even midway through it, we still get replays. So the observation is correct that flashback is a staple.

However, to me, when a director of this caliber insists on using flashbacks, even to the point of meticulously opening each episode with one, then there must be a logical and CREATIVE reason behind it. Readers shouldn’t dismiss the director’s effort as “stupid” or a “waste of time.” Instead, they should worry that that they’re probably the stup..uh..stupendous ones who missed something.

Look, off the top of my blonde head (and note: we blondes are supposedly not the sharpest tool in the shed), I can give three possible reasons for the use of flashback.

One, the flashback is a brilliant film technique to DUPLICATE the game mode and to give us the gaming experience of being logged OUT by the show at the end of each episode and logging ourselves BACK IN at the start of the new episode.

I checked: all the episodes ended in a cliffhanger or a “shocker.” For instance in Ep 8, the falcon lands on JW’s wrist and the message is delivered from the “master”. In Ep 9, just as he is frantically ordering the Programmer to locate Sec Seo, the game informs him, “You have lost your ally” and follows it up with, “You’re out of Granada. Out of bounds. Your duel will be canceled.” And now in Episode 14, SeJoo is back.

These shocking turns of events are the equivalent of getting ambushed by a commando attack in a game. We just don’t see the plot twists coming. And the episode end is equivalent to dying/logging out.

When we tune in to the next episode the following day, we are virtually logging ourselves back into the game. Hence the flashback.

A gamer will understand this. Once the user dies/fails his task and gets logged out, he has to start from where he previously last saved the game. He doesn’t necessarily resume from the last point where he was killed or logged out. He might be set back and need to work his way back up again. Like, JW had to return repeatedly to the restroom to get that rusty sword to fight the Nasrid warrior although he already had the sword when he died. (If that had been me, though, I would have just stayed in the bar and ordered tapas and fino. Goodbye, game!)

We are replaying the “game” as we watch the flashbacks, but this time, we’re noticing details which we missed the first go-around. The director has kindly filled us in and given us the backstory.

Two, the flashback is an efficient way to regain our sanity after watching the previous episode.

Watching the show can be disorienting. It SIMULATES the confusion in Jinwoo’s world and we’re like the Programmer encountering the game in Episode 1: shocked.

He exclaimed, “What was that? Did you see that? How is that even possible? This is the best AR game I’ve ever seen. I can’t tell if it’s real or fake!”

Like the Programmer, when we’re watching the episode for the first time, story develops so rapidly that we oftentimes can’t believe what just transpired. We’re horrified, amazed and thrilled.

However, just like with Prof Cha in Episode 13, the story also creates a dissonance or disconnect in our heads. After encountering the image of his dead son, he asked JinWoo. “How could this be possible?” And JinWoo answered, “I asked myself that question every day for the past year.”

Then when Prof Cha met Dir Park later, he again expressed his profound disbelief.  “I ran away. My son was so terrifying that I had to run away. I was scared out of my wits.” When Park said, “No way. Did you really see him, too? You saw HyunSuk? Was JinWoo telling the truth?” all he could answer was, “How could I ever say that JinWoo was right? Who could possibly ever say it? Could you?”  lol. Because he was a man who dealt with facts, what he saw defied his norms. It was unreal … but real.

So, like Prof Cha, we can’t process what we’re watching…or we’re too slow to process. Our minds question the validity of the story. Like, how can Jinwoo limp and not limp at the same time?? How can HyunSuk die from an AR swordfight? How can Marco’s body be in Granada but die in Barcelona?

But while we’re at loss to explain the show, we’ve no choice but suspend our disbelief and focus on the story. We’re so caught up in the magical world created by the kdrama that it’s hard to separate fact from fantasy.

That’s why the flashbacks are important. They serve to “reboot” our overheating brains. They put some semblance of order and realism into what we’ve just viewed so we can become rational again and watch the show with open eyes.

Last, the flashback also creates a FRACTURED sense of time and space.

We live in a linear world where there’s a beginning, a middle, and an end. Also, if a person boards a train at point A, we expect him to get off at point B. He doesn’t disappear into an unknown place. Our concept of time and space is fixed because … well… that’s how we experience time and space in our daily lives. lol.

But in this kdrama there’s an artistic and creative license to show how life is in a SURREAL world where time and space aren’t respected.

Look: this kdrama is basically a conventional story. In a nutshell, a young inventor gets into trouble and he calls for help from an expert. But he goes missing before the expert arrives so the expert takes a whole year to find him.

But the writer transformed the story into a fantastical, magical one by adding the inexplicable mystery of the Augmented Reality game.

Suddenly, we’re seeing things that defy the natural world. Like a woman with a big belly who’s only a month pregnant (lol). Or a kid who leaves for Barcelona AND returns to Granada on the same evening of the 28th of February. Or the same kid who’s stabbed in Granada then travels to Barcelona and back… without dying from a perforated lung or stomach. (Jinwoo will make a poor surgeon or a lousy detective storywriter.)

In as much as the flashbacks helps us regain sanity and explain some confusion, they ALSO add to the insane and convoluted plot. The flashbacks break up the continuity of time and space, forcing us to reconsider the things we’ve already seen.

To me, then the flashback ALSO serves as a trompe l’oeil or a visual illusion. It cautions us not to trust our eyes, because the scenes we view on the screen, despite Jinwoo’s convincing voiceovers, can be false or half-false.

Do you see that? 😀

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So these are my reasons for appreciating the flashbacks in this kdrama. Far from distracting me, they force me to explore the kdrama further,  and check out the intention of the director and the direction of the story.

I’m actually thankful there are flashbacks. Instead of wasting my time hyperventilating on HyunBin’s dimples, I’m diverted by the other things I notice like… hmmm… Do you know that this screenshot from the Opening Credits of MotA on Netflix isn’t from gardens of The Alhambra?

+100 points to anybody who can guess where this is. (Shhhh… The hedges tell you the name of the palace.)