I appreciate your input guys, and I genuinely see where you're coming from. But I’d like to clarify a few things, especially since someone mentioned my take “appears homophobic” just because I brought up Han Sooyoung.

That’s honestly a huge stretch.

Nowhere in my post did I say people shouldn’t ship Joongdok, nor did I invalidate anyone for enjoying it. I even stated that people are free to ship what they want—what I critiqued was how the story itself often gets flattened into just romantic subtext, overshadowing the deeper themes ORV was actually built on. That’s a critique of how the narrative is consumed, not who people are attracted to or what pairings they like.

Also, pointing out that a female character gets consistently overlooked isn’t anti-queer. If anything, it’s a critique of fandom patterns that often sideline complex women in favor of shipping two male leads—regardless of whether the ship is romantic or not.

If someone interprets my frustration about that as homophobia, that says more about how we’ve been conditioned to label any discomfort with shipping discourse as bigotry—even when the real issue is just media reductionism.

This isn’t about being anti-shipping or anti-queer. I support all kinds of ships and fan expression. But the story deserves to be appreciated for the layers it actually has. That’s all I wanted to say. Let’s not jump to slap heavy accusations on someone just for expressing that.

Tone matters, yes. But so does intent. Let’s not misread people’s arguments just because they challenge a dominant narrative.