So….I wrote this thing about Go Go Squid and dreamers and Fight My Way and Jealousy Incarnate. I apparently had thoughts. So, here’s that if anyone wants to read it.
Here’s the thing: Go Go Squid is not, objectively speaking, a good drama. I don’t think I would call it a bad drama, or certainly not the worst drama but it certainly is not a GOOD drama. It had the potential to be a god drama. A cute enough OTP, an interesting premise (if you ignore stupid insta-love, Hi One Spring Night. I can’t get away from insta-love). Stupidly attractive cast who can do what they were hired to do: act or be distractingly attractive so that we don’t notice that they can’t act.
The drama fell down in basic storytelling. It dropped 90% of its plots and, now this is just my opinion, but if the point of a story is to tell a story you should probably follow through with ….telling….the story? In the first few eps you think playboy Grunt is going to be an integral part of the story. But…no. He disappears for 35 eps and pops up again as Grunt the Petty Pot-Stirrer. He was still there. Drifting in and out of focus in the background.
Bu Wai, my favorite. He could give great side eye and cause maximum chaos with just a line or two, or a perfectly raised brow. If that’s what the plot called for. He seemed like he was being set up as a major player in the drama: he’s the cousin of the Male Lead. He’s almost as good a player as the male lead—maybe even better. He’s certainly going to win that championship that Han never got the chance to play in. His personality is set up as being similar to Han. He has a massive crush on one of Hans old teammates. And…..no.
Nian. How sad that the FL herself is on this list! Nian is practically a Mary Sue, practically perfect in every way. She’s a singer—the most popular on the web. She’s smart! She graduated from high school and started college with a double major when she was 15! She’s an artist—look at this pic she drew of Han! She’s a coder! She can create games for her game-loving boyfriend! And all of these traits are picked up and dropped as needed.
Plot line after Plot line picked up and tried like a finicky teenage girl trying on prom dresses, carelessly trying on dress after dress before throwing it aside for something else.
After 20 + eps of Han and Solo (and is there supposed to be some Star Wars reference here?) and All and Little Mi and Appledog fighting and crying and longing over each other when the five of them take the stage one.last.time as Team Solo, their first and last in 10 years! Gun God vs DT for the one and only time in a competition—all of that is just…skipped over.
After 20 eps of Nian feeling like she’s in a one sided love Old han pops up at the hospital that Nian’s schoolmate (who has a massive crush on her) mom is being treated at and he’s cockblocking like a champion. But all that happens in the ep before? He imagines Nian reciting the speech from when he retired. Over and over again. Maybe that time would have been better spent explaining why he decided that he loved Nian too much to keep away from her like he had promised her mom.
In spite of all of these (…and trust, many, many, more) failures….I love this drama?
Not because its good. Don’t get me wrong. It is terrible. And I didn’t even start loving it until the last 15 eps or so. And half of that love had to do with a tertiary character?
It started with Little Mi.
Little Mi was an original member of Team Solo. At one point he was probably one of the best players of CTF in the world. And he’s not anymore. He joined Solo’s SP team. He was BY FAR the worst player. He kept trying. Solo told him that the higher ups said turn it around or we’ll have to demote you to a lesser team. Little Mi had one last shot at glory. He pushed himself as far and as hard as he could. He was part of a winning team again. A vital part. And he retired on top of admitting to himself as much as he loves the game he can’t play at that level anymore. I teared up. Honestly, I legit shed a tear or two as Little Mi sobbed to his friends about the end of his dream.
I wondered how come he couldn’t be a manager or a coach or something so that he could still be around his dream. I cheered when that happened. And then he faded into the background again.
The drama solidified itself as one of my favorites when we’re randomly introduced to Buff. At first I was like—who is this fool? Why should I care about him? Why are they randomly giving Gun a nemesis in ep 32? But it was as he was farewelling his teammates who were sad but able to move on and let go and Buff was shown crying in the dark? That’s when I began to care. It was after they had finished and lost the competition, realistically the last competitive competition of their entire lives, and Buff is sitting there in the dark, wrapped in his disappointment and shattered dreams and an employee comes bouncing in with her swinging ponytail. She comes in, sees Buff, tells him to wrap it up as they have to clean, turns and leaves. Buff still sitting in the dark. Thats when my heart stirred. This worker has no reason to care about Buff, and she doesn’t. But his situation is heart breaking. He’s worked for this, sacrificed for this so much for so long and he can’t even sit in the arena of his defeat until his heart stops aching and he can get up and go of his own accord. He’s shoved out of the arena before he’s ready just like he’s shoved out of he competition because of his age. Buff goes up to his nemesis, Gun God, and with tears, determination, pride and grit all shining in his eyes he shoves his name badge at Old Han–one of the few people who probably perfectly understand how he feels at this moment, and demands that Gun God takes him to the big show, to the championship game. And then he walks away. Even if he can’t be there personally, even if his own skill set can’t get him there. A part of him makes it to the show.
It was then that this drama clicked for me. Maybe it was bad or inadequate storytelling or maybe it was my lack of paying attention (….because of bad or inadequate storytelling….
It was then that this drama clicked for me. Maybe it was bad or inadequate storytelling or maybe it was my lack of paying attention (….because of bad or inadequate storytelling….)or both but in that moment this rinky dink, middling drama wrote its name on my heart.
This is a drama about dreams. And more importantly—its about dreamers. How we define ourselves in relationship to our dreams, whether we have the courage to go for them. Whether we have the courage to let them go and dare to dream a new sort of dream.
2 years ago I watched and loved Fight My Way. Fight My Way is about dreamers who stopped dreaming because their old dreams were out of reach. They had to learn to change their dreams, and in the changing found new ones–better ones that fit who they were and what they wanted. They became happier people because they dared to change their dreams.
Before Fight My Way and AeRa there was NaRi in Jealousy Incarnate. Sure, that was about the best love triangle that this kdrama fan has ever seen (are we still bestfriends? OF COURSE HAVE A SQUID TO THE FACE AND STAY AWAY FROM MY GIRL. Guys….rewatch? When Im not homeless and have a computer?). But it was also about NaRi. She wanted to be a reporter. She, like AeRa, tried and tried again and every time she was not chosen. She shed her tears, then straightened her shoulders and accepted the role of Weather Girl. NaRi had to get her dream, realize how ill it fit, and then let it go to embrace a new dream (much like how DongMan had to relive that fight with that dillhole to move on from competitive fighting). After years of trying, NaRi finally makes it to the reporters desk. She does all right. She has a live taping and it goes disastrously…but…she was so good at the other things, with some seasoning she’ll probably do all right at this soon enough. But this is what she’s wanted. This is what she fought for for years. And…she hates it. Its not what she thought or dreamed. Eventually she gives up and walks away. But, here’s the thing. She doesn’t give up and walk away because she’s bad at it. She doesn’t give up and walk away because she’s told this isn’t for you. Somewhere while fighting for this dream, a new dream snuck up on her. She’s become the best weather reporter in the game. She’s so good at it that instead of a handful of minutes at the top of the hour she’s given her own 20 or so minute segment so that she can fully cover her topic. Her dream changed.
Old Han and Solo (there’s probably some Star Wars thing here, huh?) are the same. After that fateful win when Team Solo broke up for good Han and Solo both move on to have and run successful CTF clubs but their lives are stunted. Team Solo had been family for both of them and when they broke up neither was able to let anyone else in. They lived up until that point in memories surrounded by anger, bitterness, loneliness and longing. They missed each other but held each other responsible for the ruining of not just their
They lived up until that point in memories surrounded by anger, bitterness, loneliness and longing. They missed each other but held each other responsible for the ruining of not just their own dreams but for ruining the dreams of their best friends/brothers. And neither knew how to deal with that. They kept fighting in CTF but closed up their hearts. They clung to their old dreams but neither was quite able to get to where they wanted to be because while they held firm to the dream of championship the dream changed to one of filling the loneliness that they had surrounded themselves with.
Go Go Squid was so bad, you guys. It was. But its going to go down as one of my favorites. Not because of its quality. Not because of its characters. Not because of its OTP. But because of its commentary on dreams and dreamers. Even if it was lost and muddled along the way.
I wrote this over the course of three days! So….as Im copying and pasting Im seeing where I started to repeat myself. Which is why this is so long. BUT I HAD THOUGHTS DANG NAB IT.
1. This was excellent. You pinned down a lot of what had me going back to GGS so well. And what I loved so much about FMW and JI, which are two of my favorites. I related hardcore to the female leads in those two dramas as well, especially Ae-ra, since I also reassessed my dreams (twice) and ended up in a good place.
2. What you had to say about changing dreams reminded me of one of my absolute favorite songs by Amanda Palmer about how we change our dreams, but that doesn’t mean we give them up. It’s called In My Mind – here is the video link
Thanks for sharing! Often we expect ourselves to work our entire lives for a single dream, and both Fight My Way and Jealousy Incarnate proved that career fulfillment is not necessarily about how good our job is but how good we are at our job. I really appreciated that message.
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isa: I'm not a serial killer I'm just really passionate about things
August 22, 2019 at 7:37 AM
So….I wrote this thing about Go Go Squid and dreamers and Fight My Way and Jealousy Incarnate. I apparently had thoughts. So, here’s that if anyone wants to read it.
isa: I'm not a serial killer I'm just really passionate about things
August 22, 2019 at 7:37 AM
Here’s the thing: Go Go Squid is not, objectively speaking, a good drama. I don’t think I would call it a bad drama, or certainly not the worst drama but it certainly is not a GOOD drama. It had the potential to be a god drama. A cute enough OTP, an interesting premise (if you ignore stupid insta-love, Hi One Spring Night. I can’t get away from insta-love). Stupidly attractive cast who can do what they were hired to do: act or be distractingly attractive so that we don’t notice that they can’t act.
The drama fell down in basic storytelling. It dropped 90% of its plots and, now this is just my opinion, but if the point of a story is to tell a story you should probably follow through with ….telling….the story? In the first few eps you think playboy Grunt is going to be an integral part of the story. But…no. He disappears for 35 eps and pops up again as Grunt the Petty Pot-Stirrer. He was still there. Drifting in and out of focus in the background.
Bu Wai, my favorite. He could give great side eye and cause maximum chaos with just a line or two, or a perfectly raised brow. If that’s what the plot called for. He seemed like he was being set up as a major player in the drama: he’s the cousin of the Male Lead. He’s almost as good a player as the male lead—maybe even better. He’s certainly going to win that championship that Han never got the chance to play in. His personality is set up as being similar to Han. He has a massive crush on one of Hans old teammates. And…..no.
Nian. How sad that the FL herself is on this list! Nian is practically a Mary Sue, practically perfect in every way. She’s a singer—the most popular on the web. She’s smart! She graduated from high school and started college with a double major when she was 15! She’s an artist—look at this pic she drew of Han! She’s a coder! She can create games for her game-loving boyfriend! And all of these traits are picked up and dropped as needed.
Plot line after Plot line picked up and tried like a finicky teenage girl trying on prom dresses, carelessly trying on dress after dress before throwing it aside for something else.
After 20 + eps of Han and Solo (and is there supposed to be some Star Wars reference here?) and All and Little Mi and Appledog fighting and crying and longing over each other when the five of them take the stage one.last.time as Team Solo, their first and last in 10 years! Gun God vs DT for the one and only time in a competition—all of that is just…skipped over.
After 20 eps of Nian feeling like she’s in a one sided love Old han pops up at the hospital that Nian’s schoolmate (who has a massive crush on her) mom is being treated at and he’s cockblocking like a champion. But all that happens in the ep before? He imagines Nian reciting the speech from when he retired. Over and over again. Maybe that time would have been better spent explaining why he decided that he loved Nian too much to keep away from her like he had promised her mom.
isa: I'm not a serial killer I'm just really passionate about things
August 22, 2019 at 7:38 AM
In spite of all of these (…and trust, many, many, more) failures….I love this drama?
Not because its good. Don’t get me wrong. It is terrible. And I didn’t even start loving it until the last 15 eps or so. And half of that love had to do with a tertiary character?
It started with Little Mi.
Little Mi was an original member of Team Solo. At one point he was probably one of the best players of CTF in the world. And he’s not anymore. He joined Solo’s SP team. He was BY FAR the worst player. He kept trying. Solo told him that the higher ups said turn it around or we’ll have to demote you to a lesser team. Little Mi had one last shot at glory. He pushed himself as far and as hard as he could. He was part of a winning team again. A vital part. And he retired on top of admitting to himself as much as he loves the game he can’t play at that level anymore. I teared up. Honestly, I legit shed a tear or two as Little Mi sobbed to his friends about the end of his dream.
I wondered how come he couldn’t be a manager or a coach or something so that he could still be around his dream. I cheered when that happened. And then he faded into the background again.
The drama solidified itself as one of my favorites when we’re randomly introduced to Buff. At first I was like—who is this fool? Why should I care about him? Why are they randomly giving Gun a nemesis in ep 32? But it was as he was farewelling his teammates who were sad but able to move on and let go and Buff was shown crying in the dark? That’s when I began to care. It was after they had finished and lost the competition, realistically the last competitive competition of their entire lives, and Buff is sitting there in the dark, wrapped in his disappointment and shattered dreams and an employee comes bouncing in with her swinging ponytail. She comes in, sees Buff, tells him to wrap it up as they have to clean, turns and leaves. Buff still sitting in the dark. Thats when my heart stirred. This worker has no reason to care about Buff, and she doesn’t. But his situation is heart breaking. He’s worked for this, sacrificed for this so much for so long and he can’t even sit in the arena of his defeat until his heart stops aching and he can get up and go of his own accord. He’s shoved out of the arena before he’s ready just like he’s shoved out of he competition because of his age. Buff goes up to his nemesis, Gun God, and with tears, determination, pride and grit all shining in his eyes he shoves his name badge at Old Han–one of the few people who probably perfectly understand how he feels at this moment, and demands that Gun God takes him to the big show, to the championship game. And then he walks away. Even if he can’t be there personally, even if his own skill set can’t get him there. A part of him makes it to the show.
It was then that this drama clicked for me. Maybe it was bad or inadequate storytelling or maybe it was my lack of paying attention (….because of bad or inadequate storytelling….
isa: I'm not a serial killer I'm just really passionate about things
August 22, 2019 at 7:38 AM
It was then that this drama clicked for me. Maybe it was bad or inadequate storytelling or maybe it was my lack of paying attention (….because of bad or inadequate storytelling….)or both but in that moment this rinky dink, middling drama wrote its name on my heart.
This is a drama about dreams. And more importantly—its about dreamers. How we define ourselves in relationship to our dreams, whether we have the courage to go for them. Whether we have the courage to let them go and dare to dream a new sort of dream.
2 years ago I watched and loved Fight My Way. Fight My Way is about dreamers who stopped dreaming because their old dreams were out of reach. They had to learn to change their dreams, and in the changing found new ones–better ones that fit who they were and what they wanted. They became happier people because they dared to change their dreams.
Before Fight My Way and AeRa there was NaRi in Jealousy Incarnate. Sure, that was about the best love triangle that this kdrama fan has ever seen (are we still bestfriends? OF COURSE HAVE A SQUID TO THE FACE AND STAY AWAY FROM MY GIRL. Guys….rewatch? When Im not homeless and have a computer?). But it was also about NaRi. She wanted to be a reporter. She, like AeRa, tried and tried again and every time she was not chosen. She shed her tears, then straightened her shoulders and accepted the role of Weather Girl. NaRi had to get her dream, realize how ill it fit, and then let it go to embrace a new dream (much like how DongMan had to relive that fight with that dillhole to move on from competitive fighting). After years of trying, NaRi finally makes it to the reporters desk. She does all right. She has a live taping and it goes disastrously…but…she was so good at the other things, with some seasoning she’ll probably do all right at this soon enough. But this is what she’s wanted. This is what she fought for for years. And…she hates it. Its not what she thought or dreamed. Eventually she gives up and walks away. But, here’s the thing. She doesn’t give up and walk away because she’s bad at it. She doesn’t give up and walk away because she’s told this isn’t for you. Somewhere while fighting for this dream, a new dream snuck up on her. She’s become the best weather reporter in the game. She’s so good at it that instead of a handful of minutes at the top of the hour she’s given her own 20 or so minute segment so that she can fully cover her topic. Her dream changed.
Old Han and Solo (there’s probably some Star Wars thing here, huh?) are the same. After that fateful win when Team Solo broke up for good Han and Solo both move on to have and run successful CTF clubs but their lives are stunted. Team Solo had been family for both of them and when they broke up neither was able to let anyone else in. They lived up until that point in memories surrounded by anger, bitterness, loneliness and longing. They missed each other but held each other responsible for the ruining of not just their
isa: I'm not a serial killer I'm just really passionate about things
August 22, 2019 at 7:39 AM
They lived up until that point in memories surrounded by anger, bitterness, loneliness and longing. They missed each other but held each other responsible for the ruining of not just their own dreams but for ruining the dreams of their best friends/brothers. And neither knew how to deal with that. They kept fighting in CTF but closed up their hearts. They clung to their old dreams but neither was quite able to get to where they wanted to be because while they held firm to the dream of championship the dream changed to one of filling the loneliness that they had surrounded themselves with.
Go Go Squid was so bad, you guys. It was. But its going to go down as one of my favorites. Not because of its quality. Not because of its characters. Not because of its OTP. But because of its commentary on dreams and dreamers. Even if it was lost and muddled along the way.
I wrote this over the course of three days! So….as Im copying and pasting Im seeing where I started to repeat myself. Which is why this is so long. BUT I HAD THOUGHTS DANG NAB IT.
Katrina
August 22, 2019 at 8:04 AM
And we love when you share them!
Beverly
August 22, 2019 at 11:59 AM
Completely OT but I love Little Mi’s voice. Plus his relationship with YaYa.
another woodalchi nicole recruit
September 5, 2019 at 7:43 AM
I have been wondering if this was worth watching!! total trainwreck with a redeemable theme? sounds exactly like my cup of tea. thanks isa!
(ps where you at? i was gone for a while and maybe you are too? hope all is well. <3).
SnarkyJellyfish
August 22, 2019 at 10:30 AM
1. This was excellent. You pinned down a lot of what had me going back to GGS so well. And what I loved so much about FMW and JI, which are two of my favorites. I related hardcore to the female leads in those two dramas as well, especially Ae-ra, since I also reassessed my dreams (twice) and ended up in a good place.
2. What you had to say about changing dreams reminded me of one of my absolute favorite songs by Amanda Palmer about how we change our dreams, but that doesn’t mean we give them up. It’s called In My Mind – here is the video link
suk
August 22, 2019 at 1:26 PM
Thanks for sharing! Often we expect ourselves to work our entire lives for a single dream, and both Fight My Way and Jealousy Incarnate proved that career fulfillment is not necessarily about how good our job is but how good we are at our job. I really appreciated that message.