Ha! We all know why he called himself the Tomato Cultivator, right?
It’s because of this.
But to fans of “Memories of the Alhambra” (MotA), there were many references to Hyun Bin’s 2019 kdrama. I’ll go over some of them.
When EunDong’s avatar, Desperate Effort, encountered JungHyuk’s Tomato Cultivator, EunDong promptly asked to form an alliance.
We saw this in MotA. In role-playing games, there are two options when a player encounters another player: become an ally or an enemy. When the request for alliance is denied, the two players had no choice but to duel each other.
Just like in MotA, JungHyuk denied the request to be allies. EunDong had no choice then but to duel him.
But I really had no inkling that the writer and director of CLoY were going to parody “Memories of the Alhambra” until the guitar music of “Recuerdos de La Alhambra” came on. Even without thunder and lightning, the sound of the tremolo would give ex-MotA viewers the creeps. It was the signal that death was coming.
That music, combined with JungHyuk’s frantic tapping on the keyboard, instilled a sense of urgency.
Hurry!
Hurry! Hurry!
A killer is after you!
You’re dead!
However, in MotA, the game was an augmented reality experience. Hyun Bin’s character, Jinwoo, was dueling holographic enemies that looked altogether too real.
Like this Saracen warrior.
Jinwoo never had the luxury of sitting in front of the computer. He had to virtually fight his enemies.
That’s why for me, it was jarring to see Hyun Bin in front the laptop. It made clear that he was only playing an online game. His life wasn’t really endangered.
But whether it was online game or a Augmented reality game, Hyun Bin had the same stunned expression on his face at the moment of death. lol.
Seri: You played a video game?
JH: You told me to use the computer when I’m bored.
Seri: Yes, I did but you’re a level four wizard already?
The reason this surprised her is that it would typically take a lot of time, i.e., hours, even days, for a newbie player to level up. (Unless, he leveled up by other means….)
JH: Actually, I’m distinguished in many different spheres. Once I got the hang of it, I couldn’t stop myself.
Seri: You bought a lot of items.
There! He leveled up because he BOUGHT gears to win the side games or missions. When his newly-purchased gears, he was able to win the side mission. When he won the side missions, he gained “experience points” and boosted his power. That’s how he leveled up.
However, when he moved on to the next level, the whole cycle repeated. He needed to buy new gears (i.e., weapons) to accomplish new missions from which he’d gain experience points and power up.
Confession: I’m not a gamer so practically everything I learned about gaming, I learned from “Memories of the Alhambra.” Hyun Bin’s character, Jinwoo, performed missions to earn gold which he then used to buy and upgrade his weapons.
Also, in MotA, Jinwoo didn’t have to buy the weapons and gears. He owned a gaming company, and he was the company’s game-tester. He had all the time to level up. And he could order his Research & Development director to give him the best equipment and to make modifications to the weapons he acquired from playing the game.
Here in CLoY, JungHyuk must purchase the weapons, and he had to depend on Seri to pay for them. How the world has changed!
Seri told him, when she got home, that she received a text message about a game item. She was getting notified by credit card (probably for fraud alert, lol) every time he purchased a gear or a weapon for his game. He probably didn’t know that.
She guessed that he’d been spending money to level up.
JH: I’m a wizard, you know. To rule the battlefield and accumulate experience points, environmental and combo buffs are a must.
Welcome to the Capitalist World, JungHyuk!
Buffs are add-on “powers.” for instance, if he had a laser weapon, he could purchase a special power that would increase the firing range of the laser. He didn’t really need this special power, but it was nice to have.
JH: Also to patrol the battle area and survive in pit fights, I needed some guardians as well.
Ha! He’s purchasing guardians or allies to assist him. In MotA, his Secretary Seo was his guardian.
Remember him? Sigh…it was one of the saddest moments in the kdrama.
JH: (continuing) Farming dungeons just wasn’t enough, time-wise.
From what I learned from MotA, a “dungeon” in place in the game where the player can complete a mission. But usually, there are monsters in the dungeon, and the player can either team up with another player to increase his chances of accomplishing his task. In MotA, Hyun Bin’s character, Jinwoo, literally went down a dungeon in The Alhambra where he faced zombies.
Now, I don’t know what a FARMING dungeon is and how it works. That’s beyond my level of “non-expertise” in gaming.
But the image I had in mind was of JungHyuk fighting with cows, haystacks, cornstalks, and baby chicks.
I bet he geared up with pitchforks so to duel against farm animals and crop-killers. It must have been a boring arduous task alright.
JH: Anyway, it was an arduous battle.
Seri: I see. Then you should get some rest after such a tiring battle. Where are you going?
Don’t you find that Seri is more frightening when she speaks softly? To me, her soft voice only indicated that she was taking great pains to hide her emotion and that she was ready to explode. I like to think that JungHyuk had the same feelings so he confessed the whole truth about his gaming experience.
He revealed that his avatar, Tomato Cultivator, had lost a fight against Desperate Effort (aka EunDong). He wanted to have a face-to-face confrontation because he couldn’t stand losing.
Seri: “Let’s MF?” What does that mean, Jeong Hyeok?
JH: I also didn’t know what it stands for so I looked it up. It means “Let’s meet up and fight.”
That’s probably correct. All I know is if a guy is called an “MF”, that’s an abbreviation for “motherfucker.”
Seri: So are you going out to meet up the player and fight now? At Exit 3 of Cheongdam Station?
JH: It’s not like that. He hurts other people’s feelings with violent words and shows threatening behaviors. I need to give him a good scolding and teach him a lesson.
I think that’s just his rationalization.
EunDong had a hard time spelling earlier in non-North Korean formal language, so I doubt he would have learned how to use violent words in such a short time.
Seri: Take off your jacket. Sit. Logout.
JH: He must be waiting for me now.
Seri: Logout.
I like Seri’s no-nonsense style.
Meanwhile, at the Exit 3 of Cheongdam Station, the squad’s maknae EunDong was waiting for Tomato Cultivator.
There’s an “Memories of the Alhambra” tie-in here, too.
In MotA, Hyun Bin’s character, Jinwoo, was supposed to meet up with the young Sejoo at a hostel in Alhambra. But Sejoo never showed up so Jinwoo went to track him down at the train station.
SeJoo was there all along but Jinwoo couldn’t see him because SeJoo was already hidden in an instance dungeon.
In CLoY, however, EunDong was waiting for him in the cold.
because HE was trapped in Seri’s dungeon…errr…apartment.
So, there you go. My mini-explanation of this gaming scene.
Let me finish watching Ep 12 now.
Packmule3, thank you for all of this gaming terminology. I’m sure RJH had no idea that her credit card was pinging with every purchase. It parallels the purchases made by his men at the sauna.
SR will be the sort of mum who gets quieter the more cross she becomes, rather than one who yells. Quite mother-ish here, to my eyes, and he shrank down to teen son in response rather than reacting in an adult manner (Sorry/was bored/won’t do it again, etc). Also, he is dependent on her and she has all of the monetary control, and some behaviour control (child lock on computer) as well now.
While I appreciate the MoA tie ins, I felt uncomfortable during this scene in terms of plot and character development.
I loved this comedic scene. I also found his screen name to be funny and endearing at the same time. It went from her worrying that he was leaving to a subtle scolding. I’m sure she was somewhat relieved that he wasn’t leaving her for the reason she thought. I bet SR thought it was kind of cute how he discovered video games, but I understand she needed to clamp down on that activity. I loved it when she put restrictions and he followed her in protest. Funny that JH has these child-like tendencies. It’s a contrast to his life in NK. In NK everything is about surviving and you pretty much have to be an adult quickly. Whereas, in SK, you have the liberty to not always be an adult. For sure SR’s soft tone is very scary and purposeful.
For those of you have watched Ep12, this scene is kind of confusing. Remember, this scene was played twice. The first time was him losing the video game and trying to leave the house before SR stopped him. The second time was in a flashback to where he heard SR Switzerland recording when he realized it was fate. He takes the recording and attempts to walk out before SR stopped him. Where was he going w/ the recording? Was he really to go meet EunDong to MF? Let me know your thoughts. Apologizes if I spoiled it for the people that have not completed Ep12.
farming in a game is doing something over and over again to get experience or loot or something.
Farming a dungeon = doing it over and over again. Dungeons are usually played with other players as well and is often a quick way to level up. Instead of doing quests one could “farm” a dungeon
Level 4 is not very impressive though
And I wondered if SeRi saw what his character’s name was. She’d get it right away.
I mean she saw he was a level 4 mage and didn’t see the name?
@Fern ” and he shrank down to teen son in response rather than reacting in an adult manner”
I think he was over-acting (the character not the actor) trying to not get caught in his lie. He wasn’t going out to meet the Desperate Effort.
He was going out most probably to buy SeRi a birthday gift.
The epilogue showed him listening to that recorder and finding out her birthday is the next day.
When SeRi arrived we saw him hiding his wallet
I thought the scene was hilarious. It didn’t felt out of place for me/ as it’s one of those fish out of water tropes + drama reference dig that the writer have been doing throughout the drama. Don’t forget it was also quite smartly tied in, he was using his computer to download some Korea info, and then a pop up advert screen came up that said to the likes of “don’t be a coward, want to duel?” i can imagine Hyuk clicking on that definitely and once in, he probably got engrossed. Not unbelievable in fact quite believable since Seri is at work and he is having some precious free time. He also saw that Seri in Korea is quite powerful, rich and could take care of herself. Since the risks of chuglgang so quickly coming on again is relatively Low since her team is on guard he probably felt comfortable enough. The screen name made me LOL and his reaction at getting the child screen filter also was hilarious.
Him saying that he is quite excellent in all dispositions and once he gets the hang of something he does it well – was also a throwback to earlier episodes when he said the same thing so you can accept how obsessed he got. It’s consistent character posing and in kdramaland where Writers and actors all have amnesia and lose the plot/character at some point (and we tear our hair abt it thinking what happened) , I give the drama brownie points for being very consistent with the throw backs up to now.
The scene had a nice comedic pace and also shows their comfortable banter with each other , I don’t dislike how the episode went, ep12 is one of my favourites
Thanks for setting me straight, @oli! 👍🏼 I feel better about it now.
Except, we *did* see Eun Dong waiting by the subway station for Tomato cultivator, unless that was meant to be an image rather than actual. What do you think?
Just watched the epilogue. I say he was going to do both. He can multi-task, can’t he?
Meet EunDong and give him a piece of his mind. That should only take 5 minutes. He isn’t going to beat up a stranger he met on the internet.
THEN, buy Seri a gift with his own money.
🙂
This show is so well cast. I think Eun Dong is precious; I love his little face in the photos above and he was the first one of the soldiers to launch himself at RHJ and Seri for hugs. It’s amusing that the grown man and the teen were competing but also that Eun Dong beat RJH without buying lots of aids on a game neither had tried before.
I was a bit surprised that the dictaphone/recorder from 7 years back was sitting around. Maybe I missed something. I would have been ready to swear that he recognised her earlier. Maybe he did subconsciously.
I wish that the bts episode 10.5 was subbed because it looked like there was a lot of banter. It isn’t on the forum I get. Maybe I can find it elsewhere.
Did anyone see the preview of Ep 13? The ” I am going to remember you no matter what happens” has me concerned if we’re going to be hit with the almost omnipresent kdrama truck/train/car of amnesia? It couldn’t be so late in the drama, right?
Hello,
I enjoyed that humorous scene.
Hearing “Recuerdos de La Alhambra” was excellent.
Thank you for your analysis which revealed more details than I had observed.
In my turn, I contribute with a point you didn’t mention.
In “Memories of the Alhambra”, Jin Woo is obliged to play the game on a regular basis.
He has to succeed in his fight to unlock a weapon, get gold, and buy equipment.
There’s no way to do otherwise.
The game of ” Crash Landing on You” is different, which adds salt to this parody scene.
At the very beginning, in a previous sequence, we see JungHyuk surfing on the internet.
And by chance, a popup ad appears.
It’s typically an advertisement for a “Pay2win” game like there are many (clash of clans, worlds of thanks, etc…).
The player can play without paying, but he will quickly be outclassed.
His progress will be 10 times slower, and in the end, he will never have the items that allow him to outperform the others in arena mode.
In this kind of game, the player is encouraged to buy items that will increase his power more quickly, and will be used to win.
Traditionally, the player pays with real money to obtain a virtual currency (such as gems) that allows him to buy items or equipment packs.
JungHyuk has fallen into an ordinary scam in the capitalist world !!!
Experienced players are normally very aware of the nature of this kind of game, and avoid pay2win.
If you’re interested in game-themed dramas, I can recommend the Chinese drama “The King’s Avatar”.
https://mydramalist.com/24018-the-kings-avatar
It’s not a fantastic story like “Memories of the Alhambra”, it’s more of a sports drama, in the world of e-sport. The game sequences are very well done. Even without knowing in detail the rules of the game, we understand very well how it works, since it’s a game that mixes RPG, arena mode, and 5vs5.
Thanks, @wenchanteur! That was informative. JungHyuk got scammed!!! hahaha.
No, I haven’t watched “The King’s Avatar” although agdr03 finished all 40+ episodes of it. I don’t think I’ll have time to finish them all. 🙁