I don't always like making comparisons, but I do think that this drama was better than Descendants of the Sun. I felt like DOTS was actually nothing but a love story, though there is a concept of life and death in it. What made DOTS unrealistic was that you know the characters wouldn't die. Here, absolutely anything can happen. It's a manhwa after all. Even for the ending, I've prepared myself for the worst possible ending, but still hoped for a good one. The writers have been playing with us - whenever we think things will finally be going the way it's supposed to, something happens. I think that's what keeps us watching this drama - the fact that we don't understand and need answers to our questions. The concept of there being two parallel worlds is perplexing and requires so much thinking. I absolutely love reading what other commentators have to say about this drama because many people notice the smallest things, which leads to theories on how the world works.
I thought it was interesting that no matter how Yeon Joo and Kang Chul rewrite the manhwa for a happy ending, the story lines just doesn't let them do it. It seems like W will never and can never be a love story because it was a thriller to start with. I like that whenever plans derail, Kang Chul realizes the mistakes and variables that exist in his world and try to compensate for it. And for that, he's such a strong character because he has such a strong will to live and to find out what's out there in the world. His curiousity is what led him to Yeon Joo and the discovery of the real world. I like that both Kang Chul and Yeon Joo aren't stupid characters. They think everything through and have motives behind every action. While I feel like Yeon Joo used to act on impulse a lot in the beginning, she did think and try to understand what was happening because there's no use and also no help to freak out. But I mean, I think Kang Chul's the only person in the world would be able to come up with these hypotheses and understand all these variables, allowing him to walk between the two worlds. It honestly confuses me that Kang Chul's arm was always flickering back and forth (between a drawing and a solid arm) when he is the protagonist after all. I believed it when they said that when a character becomes unimportant in the story, then they would cease to exist, but no matter what he does, Kang Chul has to be important.
Moving away from the protagonists and onto the antagonists, I felt like the antagonists had an upper hand this entire drama. I mean, it's a thriller; I expect it. The manhwa would have ended if Kang Chul took care of all the bad guys in the beginning. I thought it was just pretty freaky how the main reason why they can't ever catch the killer was because he didn't have an identity to start with. I mean, it made sense, it was just freaky how he could teleport and had no face. And when Oh Seong Moo gave the killer his own face, Seong Moo's face in the real world ceased to exist. At first, I thought it was hinting that there can only be one of us out there, but then I realized that Seong Moo gave the killer his face because he was, in a way, the killer himself. It was just really sad that when he died in the manhwa and came back in the real world, he still had the killer's memories, as if they were his own. It's even scarier that he couldn't control his own killer instincts because it lives inside of him.
I feel like this just emphasizes how important it is to fill in plot holes, for all you writers out there. When you write something without a purpose, things happen. Main characters will go after you because you put them through all that torture for no reason and the antagonists will go after you to give them a face. Only kidding, everyone. Let's hope that actually never happens. I'd be Soo Bong if that ever does.
And yes, I can't end this review without talking about the ending because we were all so worried about the ending (so if you didn't watch the ending, be wary of spoilers ahead, although I did spoil a lot in the paragraphs above). In an interview, Lee Jong Suk said that he actually wanted a sad ending for W. While some may disagree, I feel like it definitely would have been fitting - an ending where the protagonist and antagonist dies. It would end as a drama where justice is served. It'll be heartbreaking, but at the same time understandable. [Side Note: Anyone feel like I'm just being really depressing lately? Even after my confession that I love melodramas because I like to cry?] Everything would be back to normal (back into the regular world, no more double crossing the manhwa world), except it's not. It wouldn't be back to normal because Oh Seong Moo doesn't just die, he vaporizes in his own manhwa. It was pretty heartbreaking to me when I saw him disappear like that but after everything he's been through, I feel like it was right. I really didn't understand why he got pulled into the manhwa for the last episode because he wasn't supposed to be a character anymore, but as I'm writing this review, it dawned on me that he was necessary to kill the other antagonist because Kang Chul doesn't have enough power to do so. Talking about whom, I don't understand why Han Cheol Ho wanted to go to the real world when he would be nothing but a tiny little rice. He wouldn't have his position or power anymore because he's just a manhwa character. You can also argue that Kang Chul is also just a manhwa character after all, but he does have a place and someone waiting for him in the real world.
5/5 - Definitely the best I've watched all summer.
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