Phoenix’s post is in blue italics. My comments are in black.
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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
Same here. I thought that was a last farewell, too. I warned you, didn’t I? I said it reminded me of that scene in Casablanca. 😀
Memories of the Alhambra: The Love Story
Jinwoo was saying goodbye to her without letting her on that it could very well be the last time he saw her (at least for a long time). THAT’s why his face looked like this:
Back then, when I was writing that blog post, I couldn’t describe the expression properly. He was neither sad nor serious. I thought he even looked happy but that was strange way to describe a face when he was parting with his beloved. Like, why would he look happy?!
So then, I decided to say that he looked at peace. He finally found a girl who would cry for him. Unlike all the previous wives, here finally was HeeJoo who would cry and REALLY miss him.
… which was a weird thought for him to entertain if he was expecting to come back right after he leveled up to 100.
So when he left the hotel after killing the soldiers which Prof Cha sent him, I fully expected him to complete his mission then. To me, he only “detoured” to HeeJoo’s place. That’s why he said as he got on the elevator, “All of a sudden, I remembered that HeeJoo might be waiting for me. That was the only thing I could think about.”
His objective was to return to the church where NPC Emma was and finish the task but the thought of HeeJoo waiting made him go to her house instead. When he hesitated to ring the doorbell and he left the car key instead, I knew. He only wanted her to know that he DID come back as he promised. But he had a final mission to accomplish: to put things back in order.
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.
Yes, I agree with you. I thought the writer intended them to meet again. And yes, I also checked that only the gun, and not his shadow, was flickering. But the user in the café also confirmed that he wasn’t an NPC but a real guy. So we’re safe.
Phew!
But wait! There were also snowflakes. I believe that the snow flurries were meant the first snow of the year. The director made sure we didn’t miss the snow flurries. It was snowing on Heejoo’s way to the restaurant. She looked up to observe at the snow flurries before going inside to meet Park.
Then, while waiting for Park inside the restaurant she was staring at the snow flurries again.
Then, outside when she told Park that she was going to wait for Jinwoo no matter, snow flakes were floating down on her.
That’s a hint from the director. 🙂
You see, in kdramas, the first snowfall is auspicious. If you make a wish on that day, it will be granted. And if you profess your love, your love will come true.
So yes… this is one of those signs that a happy ending was intended for this kdrama.
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.
Yes, I agree. Just check the editing of the scenes. We were switching from the scene with SeeJoo informing the Programmer about the dungeon to the scene with HeeJoo finding out about the mysterious gamer. There’s a build-up of tension which culminated in HeeJoo running outside to meet this mysterious gamer. lol. Of course, there’s Jinwoo, alive and well.
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?
He isn’t in the instance dungeon anymore. He might have been “hiding” there while the servers of the “Next” game weren’t activated but he’s released himself from there. According to SeeJoo, the master hiding inside the instance dungeon would be invisible. SeeJoo explained, “No one could see me. It’s like we were in the same place, but in a different dimension.” So if Jinwoo was still in this dungeon, the other gamers wouldn’t have encountered him. Even if they had their lenses on, they wouldn’t have been able to detect him, just like Jinwoo couldn’t see SJ on the ground right under his nose.
So the fact that he’s been spotted by other gamers is a good sign that he’s out and about.
Yes, I think he was just waiting there for a year until the game relaunched. But as I explained to Oli, there might be a temporal difference. A year in real world might not equal a year in that other dimension of his. Time could go faster in that other dimension, just like in heaven, a minute could be a year or an hour could be a decade. SeeJoo was only disoriented when he was released but he didn’t look dehydrated, unkempt (more than usual, lol), or emaciated. (And I remember “Goblin” where the Goblin was in this frozen tundra for a few moments but a decade had already passed in the human world.)
And no, the original game and quest no longer exist. But he’s still trapped inside the game. That or … (I’ll explain in a bit).
But I’m not worried that he’s trapped indefinitely. As I told @oli, the original game designer SeeJoo is now onboard and the Programmer is also on top of things. So Jinwoo will be fine. They need to locate him first and then the game designers will figure an exit plan.
– 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?
It sounds like a conundrum, right? If the game has been reset, then how come he has the guns?
Because he’s THE master. 😀
Zinu the player dies, but Jinwoo the person lives. And Jinwoo’s still the master just like Sejoo was still “the master” although he was logged out. Sejoo only lost his place as “the master” when another master, Jinwoo, came along.
Apparently, that instance dungeon is still a safe zone for the master during a reset/reboot. Which makes sense…
You see, if Jinwoo is the master of the game, then the game can’t make him disappear otherwise he’s not THE master of the game. lol. Do you see what I mean? To me, the game was set to auto-self-destruct if it encountered glitches or bugs. But the game could NOT destroy its own creator or master. Why? Because no creator would program his creation to attack himself. 🙂 I mean, SeeJoo wasn’t that crazy or suicidal to design a game that would outright KILL him, right?
So my best guess is (or putting myself in Sejoo’s shoes): an auto-destruct system was embedded in NPC Emma as a fail-safe measure. In case of viruses, NPC Emma would activate it.
It would seek to destroy NPCs and user data (like Jinwoo’s Zinu) corrupted by bugs so it could reboot the whole program and start all over without the bugs. Obviously, NPC Emma wouldn’t kill its creator or programmer, just the game program itself.
As it happened, the creator Sejoo was playing the game himself as the master and he dragged Jinwoo into the game.
When Sejoo’s level was overtaken by Jinwoo, and he was freed from his instance dungeon by the successful completion of the quest, Jinwoo took over his spot. The game recognized him as the new master. It erased all his data as user Zinu when the reboot came, but Jinwoo the person was protected in that “instance dungeon” Sejoo originally created for the master, because Jinwoo was the new master.
Are you still with me?? 🙂
Hmmm…in that case, this is what I think happened when the servers were reactivated:
Jinwoo’s weapons were also erased when the NPC Emma erased the bug/user Zinu. However, once the new game was launched (about 15 days prior to the report of his first sighting, right?), he was able to get out of the “instance dungeon” because he wasn’t endangered anymore. He then quickly worked his way up since he played this game before and knew how to level up efficiently. Again, he needed a gun. lol. He must be past Level 50 now.
His goal was either to reach level 100 so he could escape the game OR to reach a high enough level so that other gamers would start talking about him.
That would explain why he was helping other gamers: to create a buzz (like in Episode 7) and get his people to locate him in the game.
😀
– 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.
You’re right. There wasn’t a bug in this new game so the NPCs couldn’t kill him. But he was trying to be located. 😀
Look: the first thing he would do (IF HE COULD) after he was freed from his “instance dungeon” would be to return home to HeeJoo. Right? But the fact that he hadn’t returned to her even after 15 days or so of the launch of the new game meant that he was stuck in the game and the programmers/servers didn’t know he was there…which made sense because his original user file Zinu was lost.
He was NOT trying to defeat NPCs for the heck of it. I think he was helping out the other players to create a buzz about him who-was-without-a-name. He was trying to be located by HeeJoo whom he knew for certain was looking for him.
Of course, he could just try to level up to 100 and be freed from the game, but it’d be faster if Sejoo or his friend the Programmer were to get him out of there. But SeJoo or his friend wasn’t looking him…
It was only HeeJoo who had faith in him returning who was keeping an eye out for him. 😀
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What do you think of that? Does that work?
Who’s next, @goyangi?
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Update: I have to add this here so I don’t have to search the comment box. My dear friend @nearsea jogged memory. Thanks.
In case people whether I’m just pulling my “theories” out of my but…err… proverbial hat, I said that Jinwoo was waiting for Heejoo to come and get him because that was what she did before: she followed HIM.
Remember in Episode 13, she was searching for him around Myeongdeong, and she found him in the restaurant where he greeted her with “I knew you were coming.”
And then in Episode 14, for some reason, he knew she was outside the dressing room, and quickly opened the door and pulled her inside, and began scolding her for wearing her lenses.
At first, I wondered what did he mean by “I knew you were coming” and I didn’t know how he could have known that she was outside the dressing room. Did he have have a GPS tracker on her? What the heck? El Creepo guy with dimples!
Then, I realized it was tied in with the train. Heejoo also RAN after him at the train station!! (Facepalm, packmule3! I’m slow-witted nowadays) There was a pattern to her behavior and Jinwoo knew that. lol.
Of course, he knew that if ever he went missing, SHE would find HIM.
See that? It IS part of the script, nearsea! I’m not imagining things when I can back it up with precedents in the script. 😂
Lol. He had FAITH in her, too! It wasn’t a one-way belief. It was reciprocal. He loved her too so he was also WAITING for her to come find him in the same way that she was WAITING for him to return. 😂
Now I really have to work on @goyangi’s questions. Thankfully, they’re game questions too and I think I got it now.
Links:
Memories of the Alhambra: Final Grade
Memories of the Alhambra: Oli’s Bugs and Dungeons
Memories of the Alhambra: Goyangi’s Instance Dungeon and Odysseus
oh, oh! I love this theory of him trying to create a buzz so that HeeJoo could locate him 🙂
I thought about this too! That he was trying to send signals for He Joo, so she can rescue him. Doesn’t it also echo a previous episode where He Joo follows Jin Woo after logging into the game? Only difference is then he had a user ID so it was easier for her to locate him.. But now she would just need to look around that historic gate for a while. I think it’s safe to assume that they meet soon. 🙂
Although this question does come to mind, how in the earth is he still trapped in that AR world if the game gets reset? Wouldn’t it make more sense if he could come out of that dungeon once the game starts from scratch?
* I can’t get my head around only this thing that, when the game’s server was switched off, how did that affect the existence of se joo and jin woo lol. We really have to consider part of this drama as fantasy lol, cause no theory can explain this.
That’s right!! See? We’re still good at brainstorming…
In Episode 13, she was searching for him around, and she followed him in the restaurant where he greeted her with “I knew you were coming.”
And then in Episode 14, when he knew she was outside the dressing room, and just pulled her inside and scolded her for wearing her lenses.
Both times, I did wonder what he meant by “I knew you were coming.” And I wondered how he did know?? I thought he meant that he had a GPS tracker on her, but no. It’s tied in with the train.
She also RAN after him at the train station!!
So he knew that if ever he went missing, she would find him.
See that? It IS part of the script, nearsea! I’m not imagining things when I can back it up with precedents in the script. 😂
Lol. He had FAITH in her, too! It wasn’t a one-way belief. It was reciprocal. He loved her too so he was also WAITING for her to come find him in the same way that she was WAITING for him to return. 😂
Thanks for patiently answering all my queries.😁 Once again, your answers make perfect sense! I’m in awe of your analytical reasoning!👌👌👏👏 You probably have more insights into the writer’s mind than the writer herself!!!
I too had been puzzled by Jin Woo’s expression when he was parting with Hee Joo – he wasn’t looking exactly sad or particularly happy. It certainly didn’t look like the expression of someone who was going to his death either. I remember he had said that only his part in this is left – so he must have figured out what he had to do and how he would have to hide in the instance dungeon till game launch.
I love how you keep focusing on faith – not only faith that Hee Joo had in Jin Woo, but also the other way round. Jin Woo was creating a buzz because he too had faith that Hee Joo wouldn’t give up and would come looking for him, once the game is launched. That’s why the ending caption about faith, not technology, making the world go around, seems so apt now.
…needless to say, this deduction makes my secretly romantic soul very happy 😝 I’m just super glad I found your blog By accident before the series ended 😊😊😊 It also gives me the closure I was hoping for.
By the way, I never caught on to the snow imagery. Thanks for pointing that out 🙂 Yes, in Korean dramas, snowflakes always seems to have a happy and wish-fulfilling connotation, much like cherry blossoms in Japanese anime.
I think for this writer, since she didn’t intend to start writing a love story, she had planned to focus on “belief” — as she called it but it’s actually faith, remember that. 😂
However, love is intrinsically tied to faith and hope, too.
That’s also very Christian. It’s in the Corinthians passage on love. The ending goes: Three things will last forever: faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love.
My personal understanding (I’m not a theologian or particularly holy — as you all know) is without love, you cannot have faith and hope. Hence it’s the greatest. Love is the reason we can have faith, and we can hope.
Thus while the kdrama didn’t produce the “right” number of kisses, back hugs and canoodling which PSH’s fans/anti-fans DEMANDED, it didn’t mean that there was no love going on between the characters.
In fact, it’s a deeper love when it transcended the mere physical, and became hmmm…how shall I call it?… a more SPIRITUAL NEED to have someone believe in him.
Of course, the story isn’t going to split evenly 50/50 between HJ and JW. If JW is seen as the driving force of the story then HJ can be seen as the steadying force.
I read that the writer wanted to pattern JW after Odysseus. Well, Odysseus had a wife to go home to: a faithful (note the word) Penelope waiting for him to return after 10 years (!). She had suitors wanting to replace Odysseus and she rebuffed them. Then she ordered a tournament or contest where her husband killed all these odious suitors. 😂
“He had FAITH in her, too! It wasn’t a one-way belief. It was reciprocal. He loved her too so he was also WAITING for her to come find him in the same way that she was WAITING for him to return.”
This makes me feel like some girls feel when they see dimples :)))
“Lol. He had FAITH in her, too! It wasn’t a one-way belief. It was reciprocal. He loved her too so he was also WAITING for her to come find him in the same way that she was WAITING for him to return.”
That’s how powerful Jinwoo and Heejoo’s love is. Nothing is impossible because they have faith in each other.
“If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you.” – Luke 17:6
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Is SJJ a christian? I noticed in W, she also have this Creator-creation theme. I only managed to watched first 2 episodes of it. I will catch up on that after my MoA feels subside hahaha
You’ve already answered a lot of my questions over the last couple of posts, PM3. 🙂 Fantastic insights. In the comments section too, everyone! I’m 😭 at the understanding that the love AND FAITH were totally reciprocal between Heejoo and Jinwoo.
This writer-director duo were def more deliberate with their crafts than most people (myself included) seem to realize.
lol!!! I forgot to post my comment.
Give me two minutes. I’ll be back.
Packmule3: I hadn’t read about Jin Woo’s journey being compared to Odysseus’ epic journey! That’s a surprise! Now of course it all makes more sense – Jin Woo’s eventual return to mirror Ulysses and Hee Joo’ s faithfully waiting for him a la Penelope **extra emphasis on our favorite word “faith”** 😊😊
😂 Yes faithfully. It makes sense, right? Penelope just didn’t “believe” Odysseus was coming back. I just googled it. He was gone for 2 decades. One decade for the Trojan War then another just to get home. He could have died at sea but she waited.
Just like with HJ.
And her regular visits to the church showed dealing with her grief. I thought she was pretty strong then, too. She really did remind me of a soldier’s spouse then.
🤦♀️ dimples again.
Is there plastic surgery for dimples in SK? Are HyunBin’s dimples real? 🤪
See that? To me the kdrama did end up on a hopeful note. HJ and JW will meet up again.
But it’s up to US the viewers to determine that.
Frankly I got more satisfaction when I discover things on my own, like I was playing a game and succeeded in leveling up. Sure! It would have been lovely to see the two kiss in the moonlight while they’re honeymooning in Granada. But from an intellectual standpoint, there’s nothing like understanding a story to make it unique in kdrama-land. I can rightly say that I was “moved” by the kdrama even though I didn’t shed a tear. I was moved because my perspective widened.
And yes, that’s very sneaky of the director to include that postscript for the viewers. Faith is the magic that changes the world, not technology.
Also, when you consider the significance of the Alhambra to Christianity, then yes, faith IS undoubtedly the magic that moved the world. Not technology.
Remember: when King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile conquered Granada, it unified Spain under a Catholic monarchy. That was in 1492, the same year mentioned at the start of JW’s battle with the Nasrid warrior.
Not only that, in that same year when Spain was united, 1492, Christopher Columbus was commissioned by the King and Queen of Spain to voyage westward and discover new territories for the crown and the Cross. Columbus then discovered the Americas or the New World.
So yes, from historical standpoint too, the faith did move the world. 😉
Wow! It ties up with history too!!! That’s just awesome.
One question (and forgive me if I’ve just missed the answer above): Even though she finds him, how does that rescue him from the game? Is it just her looking and finding him that rescues him or does she have to do something? Or is that not answered or hinted at?
I’m a lazy thinker so in MY imaginary world, she runs to him and he runs toward her (like in a beach scene) and then he wraps his arms around her and whirls her around. Behind them, up in the sky, fireworks.
But if I want a more convoluted ending, then this: she meets him and realizes he’s trapped. She cries and he smiles and consoles her. They call Sejoo who’ll figure out how to get him out right there and then.
Or he levels up to 100 and gets out of the game while eating subway and drinking whatever-that-water-is-called.
It depends really on how close he is to reaching level 100.
But my advice is don’t get stuck with the “side questions” and side details like this. 🙂
Go for the “BIG PICTURE” that the writer and director want you to see.
The side questions are like your “regular NPCs.” Focusing on the itsy-bitsy details of the game is like going after the regular NPCs and SLOW GRINDING. You don’t “level up” or reach that Happy Ending waiting for you.
Instead, focus on the bigger “game,” just like Jinwoo did when he was in a hurry to level up to 100. He went gunning for the more difficult NPCs. lol.
The point of this whole kdrama is FAITH. Do you take that big leap of faith or will you get stuck with the whys, the hows and the impossibles? That’s why there’s a postscript after the show ended. It was shown in the final credits: “Trust is the magic that changes the world, not the technology.” You’re focusing on the “technology” or the MECHANICS of the show and the logic of the game. Go PAST that. 🙂
Ha, ha…normally I don’t nitpick at all, especially with a drama I like, which MoA I loved. Though (cough, cough) if it weren’t for your analysis of FAITH I might or might not have “gotten” it. I’m glad I read this blog because I’m re-watching it and it will mean much more. My nit-picky question was only because I was imagining trying to explain the drama to a friend and I could imagine they would ask such a nit-picky question so thought it might be good to have a handy answer.
hahaha. 😀
Tell you friend to take “a leap of faith” or do as Heejoo did: run for it. lol.
I feel kinda sorry for PSH’s character, if you ask me. In recent months, I’ve never seen a character so misunderstood and reviled. tsk tsk tsk.
You can always tell you friend that this kdrama is a “metaphysical” experience. 😀 By using games and gaming analogies, it explores very abstract ideas and allows the viewer to decide for themselves what level of “gaming” experience they’ll attain. Whether they end at Level 4, Level 51, Level 98 or gain Master level, that’s on them. You really cannot play the game for them, if you see what I mean.
Which is so much like faith. You can give a person 1001 logical reasons to believe in God, Santa Claus, your love, your relationship, your future together, the OTP’s happy-ending or whatever at all. But if he won’t take THAT final step, then what can you do? It’s a personal decision.
Just consider my blog something like a “cheat” code. lol.
I consider your blog as something I wish I’d discovered earlier! But thankfully it was in time for MoA.
Haha..@packmule3: Very aptly put. Your blog is indeed a “cheat code”😊😊😊 for us. Thanks for all the effort you put in to answer all our burning questions!
“Which is so much like faith. You can give a person 1001 logical reasons to believe in God, Santa Claus, your love, your relationship, your future together, the OTP’s happy-ending or whatever at all. But if he won’t take THAT final step, then what can you do? It’s a personal decision.”
@packmule3: I came across a quote that fits so well with what you said here.
“To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.” – Thomas Aquinas.
I must admit though, I was disappointed that I didn’t get the drama’s take on the “side questions” and “side details” in a more concrete way. I guess I have a slight preference for things to be spelled out a little bit more. (Which may be why I preferred dramas like “Life” and “Forest of Secrets”. Just the right balance between mystery/subtlety and clarity for me.) It was also a bit more challenging because I was a little disappointed by the latter half of W as well. (Can’t really rmb exactly why.) Wonder how you’d like W. But yeah. I feel, at any rate, this drama was about us seeing through the eyes/experience of Jinwoo most of the time. Perhaps that’s also why not all the answers are spelled out. It’s to help us identify with his journey, with his quest in dealing with the new situations that keep unfolding.
PS: “Both times, I did wonder what he meant by “I knew you were coming.” And I wondered how he did know?? I thought he meant that he had a GPS tracker on her, but no.”
Jaded me thought that he knew because of the game. Like, the game telling him that there’s another player in the vicinity, as in the first few episodes, such that he could trace his steps towards Hyun-suk. *sheepish.
Hi, I love your ending explanation. But I have a question about Seejoo, after he accidentally killed Marco somewhere near Granada, why did Seejoo go back to Barcelona and email Jiwoo at Marco’s room? In the note that Marco held to, there was Jiwoo’s phone no & email address.
Seejoo should have come home at Granada & emailed Jiwoo from his computer.
We’re not going to get a perfect explanation for this one because we’re only hearing Jinwoo’s conjectures or assumptions about the events. Too bad he didn’t have time to meet Sejoo and get confirmation before he was eliminated as a big, eh?
Sejoo would have had all the answers but since he was suffering from PTSD, we didn’t hear his explanation either.
But I’ll throw my idea out here because I like to think outside the box. 😂 It’s possible that there were two copies (or versions) of the game. One version would be the one in Granada which HyunSuk was trying out. This didn’t require J-One’s special lenses, bec as far as I know HS wasn’t allowed to have and didn’t have access to J-One’s special technology.
Then there’s another program, the one in Barcelona which Sejoo downloaded from Marco’s computer and emailed to Jinwoo. The one would be specifically set to work with J-One’s special AR lens.
🤣 Does that work? But it’s really anybody’s guess bec as I said Jinwoo died before he could get confirmation from Sejoo, and Sejoo was too freaked out to give any credible answers.