Well, at least Splish Splash offers us a different kind of happy ever after whenever we think of the horseback ride early in the 2nd hour.

We fell in love with one character but got some nonsense about another. I don’t really know. I’m trying to remember this drama but my therapist is begging me not to, so I’m giving you the part that my brain hasn’t suppressed it due to trauma. All I know is, we were BAMBOOZLED.

I had a retrospectively hilarious breakdown about this at lunch yesterday when someone mentioned Gong Yoo. This is my biggest drama trauma. So, thanks for salting that wound. I hate the Hong Sisters forever and ever.

Awwn but this post calls for a Splish Splash rewatch!

Thanks for this writeup! I had never thought about it, but I agree with you ~ it's like the dramas are afraid not to give us a happy ending, so after all the angst and frustration they give us a glimmer of hope with the reincarnation trope.

It's a reassuring trope, I remember waiting for it with Moon Lovers and being disappointed when it didn't happen

In Splash Splash Love, for me the doppleganger was not a doppelganger but kind a reincarnation of the King who waited for her. They didn't give any details, so I imagined what I wanted :p

Rooftop Prince was very disapointing, but more because the Prince didn't try to watch the dead body in the first place... He would have known it was not his wife but his sister-in-law and we would have be so disapointed at the end of the drama >_<

Big was a big mess from the start.

I think author can't handle 2 "same characters" and always ends up by messing one up like in Big, Hyde, Jekyll and Me, Are You Human Too, etc.

This is an interesting topic. My brain can justify the Splish Splash and Rooftop Prince endings because it is possible (well..., in a drama) that the past princes were reincarnated (reborn?) in the "present" time with their same bodies, but without their memories. After the time travelling happened and the main characters met, fell in love, returned to their right time, and the died in the past, the present time resumes and their reincarnations obtain those memories.

A little bit crazy, but I can rationalise it and found it plausible. What I can't accept is the ghost story: he fell in love with the personality of the ghost, he was interested in the girl who was alive, he liked what he saw, but he really get to know "her" and fell in love with "her" when she was someone else. Arguably, he could be in love already with her, but I don't believe in love at first sight or love without getting to know the person, that is only lust and interest. I don't know, this is confusing. I didn't really watch this drama 100%, but cried a lot when the ghost finally left and was very unhappy when I saw everybody moving on with their lives, for me she was the real heroine.

And finally, Big... I'm still hurt. Though I'm not sure it's the Hong sisters fault. Maybe the director or someone else decided last minute use Gong Yoo for that final scene. The drama was going downhill, but if in that final scene the actor had been the one from episode one, it would have saved the drama for me. A pity.

I always thought in SSL he was the reincarnation of Sejong... (aka still a frakking nerd. ahem)

Arghhhh, this!! This is why I was so disappointed with W. You can't kill and then replace a hero and expect it'll be OK.

Great write-up, btw!

I take my gat (har) off to you for your sassy writing style! ;) I cannot say anything bad about Splish Splash, not even that it is a scam, but your writing made me understand how it could be viewed that way. Thank you for enlightening me ! :)

Thank you! Out of all these dramas, I only watched Rooftop Prince (tried Splash Splash Love, but could not get into the vibe). And yes, I was angry with this ending (well, the show as a whole was lacking logic and missed so many good plot opportunities). However, after finding the same ending in the blockbuster "Oblivion" with Tom Cruise, I am inclined to give this lazy writing some slack.

ROOFTOP PRINCE was one of my first dramas and I remember being DEPRESSED for days after that ending, imagining the guy eating omurice miserably in the past, while she got to meet the doppelganger. I think the show tried to tell us that it was the same dude in two reincarnations - they couldn't both be alive during the same timeline so the modern guy was in a comma for practically the whole show. I thought the ending was left a bit open to interpretation, but I still don't buy this kind of happy ending either.

A brilliant essay on a type of ending that I agree seems more lazy than last-minute "happy" to me. More fan-service than inspiration, let's say.
And thanks for mentioning the Answer Me Massacres of 2012-2016 and those lost, I almost had Slimfast coming out of my nose I laughed so hard 🤣

So awesome! I did like the ending of SSL. Because he had seen her and was interested in her first, before she went back in time. Almost like he recognized her from somewhere before. So, in my mind, his future self already knew her from the time slip, but was just waiting for her to make the jump and come back to him. Which is more romantic to me. Goblin “taught” me that people can be reincarnated with their same face once every so often so maybe even with their same temperament and personality too. There is nothing to make is doubt that future Lee Do wouldn’t still be as progressive as past Lee Do. I rewatched this recently and all the same squishy feelings came back in the same way as prior. I really liked this show and wouldn’t have changed it.

@feranmi101 RamyunIsTheName,

Thanks for your essay. (Er, isn't SPLISH SPLASH LOVE only 2 episodes?)

I agree with you that soul-swaps constitute a bait-and-switch. The one that got to me most recently was ROOM NO. 9, in which the upright detective played by Oh Dae-hwan falls for the convicted murderer halmoni who's inhabiting the body of the obnoxious crooked attorney. Of all the characters in the show, I felt worst for him. He appreciated her for who she really was (although the fetching exterior didn't hurt). Alas, the romance was doomed from the start.

I'm still a sucker for a good bona fide reincarnation, however. It gets me every time if it's done well.

Wonderful! Looking forward to more of your work!

Gu Family Book had the exact same SCAM ending. They killed the heroine in the last episode just so they could work in 10 minutes of product placement (using the flimsy excuse of making the hero wait 500 years to meet a doppelganger). Then to add further insult, they made us watch the hero's parents die not once but twice. Truly a production that screwed over its audience.

And I agree about Oh My Ghostess, I came away from this drama firmly believing that he didn't get to end up with the person he was actually in love with.

Yes, the Hong sisters really blew the ending of Big, which I still think is the worst Hong sisters drama even with the super crappy ending they gave us for A Korean Odyssey and the plotless Warm and Cozy.

However, I do think Arang and the Magistrate was able to successfully execute this type of ending. Other shows should take note.

Well, at least Circle did the doppelganger thing by having his clone retain his memories and personality. Romance isn't really involved, but you get the idea.

Man I loved that drama and thanks to you I might watch it again.

"Splash Splash Love" was so sweet and funny, and I really liked the ending, I mean I wished we had more but was fine knowing those two found each other again. Yeah the king and his reincarnation were not exactly the same person but Dan-bi was also different, before going she was insecure, scared of her future and then changed and found purpose on the things that used to scare her, and the king well he also grew and even if his future self was not the dork he was on the past that doesn't mean he didn't have any of those charming points, or at least a part of his memory of his past, he noticed her first and followed her, it was a second chance for their love, and he wasn't the only one who was given a second chance so maybe they would all find each other again and be besties.

Rooftop Prince, well there it made sense for the reincarnations to be together, they met first and it was supposed to be like that, the past versions of themselves were doomed and it would be weird to mix the versions of each other, the whole time traveling was amazing and fixed a lot of things and unveiled secrets but there were 2 timelines.

Big, on the other hand was not about reincarnation or looking alike, yeah the show should have been like 1 minute longer, even 10 seconds come on, and show the face of the guy already grown up.

honestly i saw no other outcome for splish splash love. and tbh it was heartwarming IMO. cos i think the implication was also that they knew who each other were. it's reincarnation and time-slip. i mean no way could they stay together but during the last 5 mins i was like SOMETHING BETTER HAPPEN. and that few secs of them staring at each other? (tongue emoji) i love this show.

oh my ghostess is another beast entirely and i will NEVER GET OVER IT. because they spent AGES and EPISODES with two completely totally different people and she never got a chance to grow (the real her i mean) ?? like WHAT IS THIS? i hated that so i quit on ep 15 bc that was just ridiculous.

Thank you for writing this essay, RamyunIsTheName. You made great points. I read it, then immediately watched Splish Splash Love - and felt fully prepared to deal with the time travel aftermath on the basis of your spoilers, lol. What a charming 2-episode show!

I, too, only vaguely remember what happened at the end of the objectionable hot mess called Big; but I do know that I never want to revisit it, not for love nor money nor even Gong Yoo.

I am laughing so much, I loved your post :)

This reminds me of one of my most hated movies ever. "Meet Joe Black". The enire movie didn't work for me, when I watched it in theaters. And the ending killed it for me. At first she see hot guy (Bad Pitt). Hot Guy is instantly killed and replaced with Death. She falls in Love with Death. Death dies (or leaves, don't remember, it has been 21 years) and he "gives" her hot guy back. WTF?!

I am a big fan of old Hollywood movies. As a child those endings never bothers me. Like a statue of Venus comes to life, they fall in love and she disappears and he meets a woman who looks like her. Happy Ending! Growing up made me realize, that just because they looked the same, they were not the same and that it wasn't a happy ending at all.