Edited to add the links to my explanations of the Final Grade.
Memories of the Alhambra: Q&A on Marco and Open Endings
Memories of the Alhambra: Oli’s Bugs and Dungeons
Memories of the Alhambra: Phoenix’s Happy Ending and Game Explanation
Memories of the Alhambra: Goyangi’s Instance Dungeon and Odysseus
Memories of the Alhambra: Ep 1 and 16 Wrap-up
Memories of the Alhambra: Game Logic Again
Memories of the Alhambra: Jesus on the Donkey 🐴
Memories of the Alhambra: On NPC HyunSuk
Memories of the Alhambra: First and Last Impressions
Memories of the Alhambra: On Instance Dungeons Again 🙂 and Bathrooms
Memories of the Alhambra: My Timeline Notes
Memories of the Alhambra: On Bug NPC Marco
I so often end up explaining tvN’s widely-panned finales of hugely popular kdramas that I’m thinking of charging for my services. Say, a cookie for every howler tvN produces?
Sesame Street spoofing Les Miz in “Les Mousserables”
For a long time now, I’ve been convinced that tvN definitely knows how to HYPE its dramas (and sell those PPLs) but it fails spectacularly in delivering customer satisfaction with its endings. While I do appreciate that it supports its writers and directors and allows them to take artistic risks and creative ventures not available in the state-sponsored networks, I’m aware that it often throws the viewers under the bus with their endings. Its over-ambitious themes, twisted story arcs, fantastical characters and epic cinematography simply cannot compensate for a solid script and honest-to-goodness storytelling.
In fact, I recently gave tvN a special year-end award: my Wall-Banger Award for producing the most number of over-hyped AND crappy kdramas last year.
link: Bitch Talk: Wall-Banger Awardees of 2018
Thus, I’m surprised at how much I enjoyed Memories of the Alhambra. From start to FINISH, I was riveted. If I were to hold a lecture on film analysis (and I’m not a film critic or a literature major), I’ll definitely choose this kdrama for dissection. There’s plenty of material to provide mental stimulus and robust discussion. Students, however, will be invited based on insight, maturity, wit, and bitchiness. For instance, anybody talking about HyunBin’s dimples TWICE in a single breath will be tarred and feathered. And anyone complaining WITHOUT MERITS about HeeJoo’s tears will be pushed out the window. –Don’t worry, our lecture hall will be on the ground floor. There’s nothing for YOU to cry about except loss of vanity.
I’m going to buck the trend and give this kdrama a high rating. I’ll follow up later with a post explaining my grade in a Question-and-Answer format.
Meanwhile, if you have any question about the final episode, feel free to post it here. I’ll see if we can answer them together in a healthy discussion. Warning: I’ve never been anybody’s scapegoat or punching bag. If you have any beef with the writer and director, I won’t allow you to take it out on me. 😀
yes yes, me me, I have questions. Not about dimples :)))))
1. Why was Jin Woo a bug too & regardless of the answer why did he accept to be deleted as well since he got rid of the 3 previous bugs and had no NPC terrorizing him anymore? He could simply ask to shut down the server and live his life, no?
Sure, he didn’t know SeJoo was back .. but if he did it so that SeJoo could come back then I find it kinda sad and useless.. It’s stupid if a grand gesture/sacrifice happens only because you don’t know the problem was already solved..
I saw people asking why he didn’t have to delete Marco too but I think Emma was capable by stabbing him to delete all bugs at once. That’s what the message said when she tried the first time anyway. So maaaybe, since he couldn’t summon Marco like the other bugs, he thought he had to let Emma delete Marco through that “delete all bugs” feature (which meant stabbing him)
But SeJoo was back.. I find it stupid if that was his reason.. Miscommunication (not talking to HeeJoo when he returned the car which would give him info about SeJoo) lead to him believing he had to die? Is that it?
2. It felt like the open ending was there because the writer couldn’t think of a believable reason for JinWoo to come back from being deleted. Or make up one in 1 episode. Sure, we were led to believe only his character was deleted but.. that’s not really true either. He even had the guns when the servers got back online after a year.
Where was he in the meantime? Could he see HeeJoo in the church coming so often to the place he disappeared from? That was his instance dungeon for sure, the church, the walls turned in the same way they did when SeJoo activated that feature on the train while being in dager of being killed by Marco.
How did he come back? If like SeJoo he was stuck in the game for using the instance dungeon to avoid being killed by Emma when she was deleting the bug or something like that (?? I’m blabbering, I think..) and he released Master from the instance dungeon when he, JinWoo became the new Master.. how did he came back after a year?
3. Did he came back? Is he just instanced in the game or is he real in that last scene? Because HeeJoo logged in I think the show was trying to make us believe she could only see him logged in? So he’s still in the game waiting to be released by some new Master?
There are not really questions for you to answer just some frustrating stuff I was left with after finishing this drama.
True to form, MotA delivered shockers till the very end, showing that anything the viewers will predict will actually not happen!
While I can’t say I am happy with the ending (I think I’m a closet romantic), it made sense because ever since the kiss and goodbye scene at the mall, I had this feeling creeping in my bones that maybe that was not a random kiss at all but a planned last farewell.
I have to confess I’m still confused about Jin Woo’s fate at the end. I do think that because Hee Joo was running with an almost-smile on her face to meet Jin Woo (cue happy background music), the writer wants to imply that they do meet in the game. I also noticed that the gun that Jin Woo’s shadow was holding was flickering but not his shadow, implying that he is not an NPC but a real game player. Obviously, his ID doesn’t exist anymore as the game got reset. The other players in the game at the cafe also confirmed that he seemed to be a high-level player without a game ID.
I am assuming that the sequence about Se Joo mentioning the instance dungeon in another dimension where only the Master can hide was meant to indicate that Jin Woo (who is now the master) can be alive and well in a safe place inside the game, just like Se Joo was.
Now for the burning questions in my mind:
– If all the bugs are eliminated, the game is normal now. So why does Jin Woo need to hide in the instance dungeon at all? Was he just waiting one year for the game to be re-launched and someone to complete the quest, reach level 100 and rescue him just like he rescued Se Joo? But again, if the game got reset and Emma got deleted too, does the original quest still exist?
– How can Jin Woo still be the Master and the highest level player with access to guns when the game itself got reset? Shouldn’t his points be all gone too, when his ID got deleted?
– Why does Jin Woo help the players about to get defeated if the bugs are all gone and the NPCs can no longer cause harm in real life? In a normal game, when a player gets killed in in-game combat, he or she simply gets logged out, loses all the points previously earned, and has to log in again and start from scratch (at least that’s what my limited gaming knowledge tells me). Isn’t that the whole point of a game?
Or at this stage, is Jin Woo still leveling up by killing the NPCs? Maybe there’s a level which, when reached, he can move out of the dungeon.
The possibilities are endless. Would love to hear your theories on how to answer these questions 🙂
Sorry forgot to add **sending 10 cookies your way** 😉
Ooh ooh, I have a few things I’m mulling over!
+ I have the same question as everyone about why Marco and Sejoo seem to be exempt from bug status. Possible answer: Sejoo said Marco no longer showed up once Jinwoo completed the quest and became the new master. Were they “debugged” at that point? 🤔
+ Also, on bugs, in episode 15, the show specifically included a message from the game when Jinwoo removed the Key of Heaven from his chest: “You cannot delete the bug.” (Screen cap: https://i.imgur.com/jrvv7jj.jpg) How was he able to delete Hyungseok, Prof. Cha, and Sec Seo NPCs? Unless the game only meant he couldn’t delete himself (hence the job for Emma)?
+ I think Oli raises a really good point about the necessity of Jinwoo’s sacrifice at all, something I hadn’t considered until now. Possibly Jinwoo believes that ALL bugs must be eliminated for the game world to stop bleeding into the real world? Or he was just so weary and broken down by this point that a part of him *wanted* his story to end?
+ If Jinwoo is stuck in an instance dungeon the same way Sejoo was, how is it that Next players are able to see him when Jinwoo couldn’t see Sejoo on the platform at Granada station? I can accept that instance dungeon = different dimension? = no physical body = no need for food or drinks or showers or using the toilet or anything like that, I guess—maybe time even moves differently there, or doesn’t move at all—but ?? @ the different experiences that Jinwoo and Sejoo seem to have in the indun.
+ How about the show’s final message: “Trust is the magic that changes the world, not the technology.” (Screen cap: https://i.imgur.com/CSvZp46.jpg) My first reaction after the end of ep 16 was: “That’s it??” but after the credits rolled and I saw that last line, I thought: “Ooh PM3’s post on faith!!” 😂 Not to mention the on-the-nose church + Jesus imagery in the last two episodes. Heejoo telling PSH that she won’t give up on Jinwoo. The final affirmation of her belief/faith that they would meet again. Is Heejoo going to be able to see him like the other Next players? Season 2 where Heejoo grinds to become the new master, completes a quest, and rescues Jinwoo? 🤪
+ I think it’s kind of funny that for most of this drama’s run, it felt like game > romance but by the end, I was feeling the romance more than the game. It’s a bit romantic that Jinwoo survived two near death experiences (stabbed in the heart and Prof. Cha’s NPC ambush) and the first thing he did was think of Heejoo waiting for him to come by, right? Retrieved her car, even, stood outside her window, and just… watched over her for a bit. And then quietly went to his death. 🙃 It’s a pity they didn’t have any scenes together in the last two episodes, but I actually don’t mind that they didn’t reunite at the end. The foundation of their relationship is Heejoo’s trust and that’s what we got.
– How can Jin Woo still be the Master and the highest level player with access to guns when the game itself got reset? Shouldn’t his points be all gone too, when his ID got deleted?
This is a source of confusion for me too.
As for this: “– Why does Jin Woo help the players about to get defeated if the bugs are all gone and the NPCs can no longer cause harm in real life?”
Jin Woo was helping low level players kill NPCs too before the reset. He used to shoot NPCs that others player were battling against. Not to make sure the humans weren’t hurt because those parts were before NPCs could inflict damage in real life too. But probably just to get the XP from killing them, level up faster. I’m not sure he needs to level up after the reset BUT I’m sure after killing all NPCs you see for one year you end up automatically shoot any NPC you see. Just out of habit :))
Haha @Oli..Just out of habit! That totally cracked ne up 😛
Another theory: Maybe he wants to help them get to higher levels and eventually to reach the quest level so that they can free him!!!
Wow..theories galore! I think the writer and director have at least been successful in generating more theories and controvers by keeping that ending deliberately open-ended.
@goyangi: I thought of pm3’s explanation of faith and belief too when they rolled out the credits after the closing scene 🙂