Split Screen: Let Me Be Your Father Figure

Thanks for tuning in to Split Screen! Intro host Madelyn here, bundled up and hiding in the Off-Topic Corner from this miserable winter rain. It’s chilly here, but not as cold as on the slopes of Shinhwa Ski Resort or in the ring with Todoroki’s icy blasts! Zip up your coat, grab your scarf, and don’t forget your cloves! This Split Screen winter isn’t all snow angels and Santa. This slope’s a black diamond!

(New to Split Screen? Now’s the perfect time to plan for a holiday binge watch! Catch up on all our blogs here.)

Boys Over Flowers Episode 12 (from minute 33)

M: Some frosty goodness, or rather badness, this week.

E: So many near death experiences crammed into one episode alone.

M: You described this as our Midseason Finale Week, and I was like “how can Boys Over Flowers top last episode’s kidnapping cliffhanger?” But maybe you were right!

E: I mean, the ending did feel like a transition point for the show since it shakes up a few things.

M: I need to start having more faith in Jun-pyo.

E: My faith is just not with the writers all the time. Nothing to do with Jun-pyo specifically. I just really thought they were gonna make him yell at her again.

M: But no! We got quiet disappointment over the inevitable loss of the necklace. A reasonable reaction!

E: Okay, except for the fact that he believed a word of what those horrible, horrible girls who should just vanish from the show said.

M: I’m with you about Regina George and the Mean Girls disappearing, but to be fair, this already sounds like a diabolical plot of theirs. Right? It seems like something they would do, ratting Jan-di out. As Jun-pyo it’s not like, “that’s weird they’re saying this to me.”

E: That’s fair. I just want him to assassinate them. Just a little.

M: A minor assassination.

E: But, anyway, they also send Jan-di out into a blizzard which sure is a terrible thing to do to somebody.

M: That wasn’t intentional. They’re deeply mean, but not intentionally murderous.

E: I don’t know, they didn’t seem particularly remorseful even when they noticed the weather was getting worse.

M: The one girl, Korean Amanda Seyfried, was worried. I think the others were just covering for the fact they majorly effed up.

E: I didn’t see them after Mama Ji-hoo came after them, so maybe he assassinated them. No proof to the otherwise yet.

M: Ji-hoo wouldn’t do that.

E: Because he’s a bad mother.

M: He should have kept a closer eye on his kids. Jan-di was literally assaulted on the ski slope. Ga-Eul, cool dad Ga-Eul, also failed her in this regard.

E: To be fair to Ji-hoo, he is a single parent to three boys and shares custody of Jan-di. That’s a lot to handle for one teenager.

M: He also didn’t notice that Jun-pyo was almost kidnapped for the second time in as many episodes.

E: The bodyguards are so incompetent. I cannot believe he managed to slip by them by using the bathroom and stealing somebody’s jacket.

M: At least they’re consistent. These are the same guards that utterly failed at tailing Jan-di seven or eight episodes ago. They haven’t grown skills since then.

E: But shouldn’t they have been fired by now?

M: Theoretically yes, but it seems like Shinhwa has other worries.

E: Oh yes, Papa Gu who does exist in fact has collapsed from shock and is hospitalized in Beijing.

M: Please tell me the shock wasn’t about Jun-pyo and Jan-di.

E: I doubt it. Mama Jun-pyo seems like the type to not tell him until she’s fixed it, you know?

M: What was their phone conversation about? I was so preoccupied about who was she was talking to that I missed it.

E: I didn’t follow it very well. She mentioned something about his father? By which I assume she means like his predecessor in the company too.

M: The fact that the newscasters were referring to “Shinhwa-gate,” and that Mama Jun-pyo (whose name I should really learn at some point because this is sexist).

E: Nobody really calls her by her first name. It’s always Chairwoman. Or President?

M: Well, the Chairwoman seemed to be ready to flee the country while on the phone with her apparently-not-yet-collapsed husband.

E: Yeah. I’m a little disappointed that there was no build-up to this apparently company scandal or collapse. Like, I feel like there haven’t been any hints that Shinhwa was struggling in any way, so this kind of came out of nowhere.

M: True, but Jun-pyo is actively disinterested in this kind of thing. As long as it’s a scandal not just a bad financial quarter, that could come out of nowhere, at least for the family in Korea.

E: I guess. I wish we knew a little more about what the problem was, that’s my problem.

M: Coming up next episode, no doubt.

E: However, the meat of this episode was Jan-di contracting hypothermia and Jun-pyo throwing himself in front of a moving truck in order to escape his bodyguard kidnappers to come back and save her from the snow.

M: That makes twice, eventually three times, he put his life on the line for her just this episode.

E: We watched last week’s Split Screen a couple weeks ago, so it’s hard to keep in perspective that the kidnapping plot with Haje also wrapped up this episode.

M: It’s crazy. This show is crazy.

E: I was typing that summary above and laughing a little, because man that’s a lot.

M: Mid-season finale, I’m telling you!

E: I told you!

M: Yeah yeah, minor details. Let’s get back to Jan-di pulling a Toradora!

E: I didn’t have a good layout of the lodge in my head, so I wasn’t sure where she was going or why she was slipping so much or really anything. Because the three girls told her it was in a building somewhere, but she seemed to be looking in the snow still?

M: Jan-di doesn’t trust those girls either.

E: I suppose that’s fair. Anyway, she eventually gets too cold to keep going and collapses in the snow.

M: It looked for a moment there like both Jan-di and Jun-pyo might freeze to death separately.

E: I don’t think this show is going to kill of any characters to be honest. Knock on wood.

M: You’re right, although I was genuinely a little worried about Ji-hoo when he was going to go look for them. He’s expendable at this point. He’s served his love triangle purpose, and now he’s just floating around being a mom.

E: Parents are always in danger in these sorts of shows.

M: Case in point: Papa Gu. Anyway, we get a reverse reprise of both the fake drowning scene, although not fake freezing this time, alas, and that scene where Jun-pyo almost died in a tower on a cold day.

E: I was really disappointed that he didn’t wrap her up like a babushka.

M: Missed opportunity. Instead, he revealed his weird obsession with an ordinary breakfast food.

E: It’s such a rich kid trope, I feel like. Enjoying regular commoner food.

M: And for F4, specifically enjoying regular commoner breakfast! Ji-hoo likes pancakes, Jun-pyo, eggs. When will we learn Woo-bin’s preference?

E: I don’t think Woo-bin eats.

M: Have we ever seen him eat?

E: I feel like we’ve only ever seen him drink coffee or tea, so I think he subsists on that.

M: And some stylish, bright blue blazers.

E: Ji-hoo also eats a lot of Jun-pyo themed foods.

M: The most tragic moment of this episode was Jan-di making that Jun-pyo rice ball, and then not catching him before takeoff.

E: I knew as soon as she made into his face that there was no way he was going to get that.

M: She was so relatable making that picnic lunch too.

E: Casually snacking while packing.

M: That’s what I do when I make lunch everyday.

E: It’s what everyone does when they do anything in the kitchen.

M: We skipped over gratuitously half-naked Jun-pyo.

E: That is what you’re supposed to do though! You’re supposed to take off your wet clothes because they just make you colder.

M: Well, he gave his clothes to her. I guess they weren’t that wet.

E: Less wet than her clothes probably. You’re supposed to like wrap yourself in something dry by the fire I think.

M: This has been Warm This! It’s Dangerous to Search for a Necklace in the Snow Alone!

E: It was all very cute though despite all the impending death.

M: Cute or incredibly tacky to say “I love you” via text for the first time?

E: Better than leaving without saying it at all?

M: This has been Date This!

E: It’s Dangerous to Date Alone!

M: That’s as good a transition as any to Romance Tracker!

E: I don’t know how this separation will affect the relationship. They’re already so far apart in other ways, like, you know, money, so it’ll be interested to see the inevitable strain it causes.

M: Nah, I disagree. I think this is the show giving us like a one episode break from the Jun-pyo Jan-di roller coaster.

E: So, you’re saying that next episode will be entirely Yule focused?

M: That’s exactly what I’m saying!

E: Hey, if that really happens, I would be very happy.

M: I think it’s gonna be a big, I guess this is my non-romantic prediction, a big daddy issues episode.

E: Ooooooh, good drama.

M: Because we still have that dangling plot thread of Yi-jung’s womanizing father, plus Jan-di and her dad definitely have some talking to do about his gambling or whatever.

E: I bet they just drop the plot thread about the debtors selling his organs. That’s my prediction. They just pretend that they left them alone.

M: I think Shinhwa has other things to deal with now.

E: Fair enough

My Hero Academia S2E12: Todoroki vs. Bakugo

M: I admit it: I was wrong.

E: Yup, no villains came to the sports festival. To be fair, it would be a pretty stupid move to go to the sports festival. I guess you also said something would happen somewhere else, which would be more logical. But yup, championship match went off without a hitch. Sort of.

M: This whole sports festival is such a bad idea. Bakugo could have easily killed Todoroki, or vice versa, by accident.

E: When I first watched this, I was actually really disappointed they weren’t just playing sports. Like, I wanted them to play quirk soccer and quirk basketball, and I was upset.

M: That would have been A. far more fun to watch and B. less transparently “hey villains, here’s the weaknesses of all the up and coming heroes!”

E: Yeah. 🙁

M: Ah well. Maybe season four.

E: But anyway, as the title implied, we got to see Todoroki v. Bakugo.

M: The fight was pretty boring for a final battle situation.

E: I actually like that about it. Because it would be so easy to lean in to the “coolness” and just have Todoroki using his fire like he’s totally over his trauma now that Deku has given him a pep talk. But it would also be not at all how that works.

M: I know, and I agree, using his fire comfortably would have been a cop out. But he proved in previous matches that he’s really good at using the ice strategically. Trying to just get Bakugo in one big blast didn’t feel smart enough.

E: As Aizawa said for everyone to hear, he had slowly been getting more and more off as the match progressed. So, he committed himself to this fire attack which he then abandoned and didn’t even bother thinking of something to replace it with.

M: That makes sense. Still, if I was a spectator, I would have been disappointed.

E: I would have been calling someone about how they chained up one of their teenage students. And muzzled him.

M: There are no words. Just say he was hurt and Recovery Girl needs to look at him.

E: I know! There are so many better ways to handle him being angry, right? Just don’t put him out there. What is it saying about your school that the person on top of the podium is literally uncontrollable?

M: Yeah, there should be some serious thinkpieces coming out in Hero City or whatever this place is called. Tokyo?

E: Most of the cities are Star Wars references, but I don’t remember exactly what city UA is in.

M: Aldebaran. Whatever. Some serious reflection on the pressure placed on high school students to excel.

E: Anyway, if it wasn’t clear to you readers, Bakugo ends up winning the finals, but is less than happy with the way the match played out.

A brief localization corner from me: the dub has a tendency to change lots of lines (but particularly Bakugo’s) from quiet, thoughtful things he’s saying to himself to yelled, loud things he’s saying to someone else.

Like when he grabs Todoroki’s head here, he says: You’ve got a powerful quirk, but you’re a bad aim, try harder.” When in the sub, he says, more quietly “the stronger the quirk, the more imprecise the attack.” Like he’s strategizing to himself not insulting Todoroki specifically.

M: Hmm. Interesting. I feel like we get a little bit of the remnants of slightly more strategic and reserved Bakugo in Aizawa’s commentary.

E: Yeah, I always feel like the dub sort of shoves some characterization onto Bakugo from outside sources. Which also happens in the sub! They just tend to support his lines more fully there with what he actually says.

M: Fascinating localization corner, Emma!

E: Thanks, I used it in an essay for school.

M: Did it get an A?

E: It did. It was video essay actually.

M: Put it on the Youtube.

E: The copyright hammer is strong.

M: It’s analysis!

E: The music copyright hammer is strong.

M: Mute it!

E: Speaking of music, I always feel like MHA has a strong soundtrack that they use somewhat ineffectually. Like the music that plays when Bakugo is yelling at an unconscious Todoroki and Midnight puts him to sleep is like way too intense. And makes you feel like Todoroki has died.

M: I thought it was a villain that had invaded with toxic smog.

E: Right? It was very villainous music for what amounted to stopping a temper tantrum.

M: It also seemed like overkill. Not the music, Midnight’s intervention in general.

E: I was okay with using the put to sleep gas in that situation. He’s clearly upset, you probably don’t want to startle someone while they’re still in attack mode. Where it goes overkill is the muzzle in my opinion.

M: Okay, then I’ll take this this other way: she should have been gassing people more often.

E: That’s fair. Yeah.

M: Deku should not have been allowed to permanently mutilate himself.

E: Yeah, the Deku v. Todoroki match definitely should have been stopped a lot sooner than it was.

M: Anyway, lame that All-Might, well, number one, didn’t do Plus Ultra. I fell into the trap.

E: “But I thought everyone did such a good job!”

M: Okay, except what’s the first thing you do when you give them all a medal? Say “yeah, good work I guess, except you suck.”

E: He gives them advice and a supremely awkward hug, he’s just an absentee dad, okay?

M: He needs to get some lessons from Ji-hoo on parenthood. But seriously! You don’t come up to someone after opening night of a play and say “you were great! But man, you gotta work on your accents in case you’re in a play where you need them!”

E: He’s a teacher though, right? And he commented on the things that made them lose. Tokoyami was relying too much on Dark Shadow and had no counter in the light and Todoroki’s is somewhat self-explanatory. He was giving them feedback.

M: My acting professors never gave me feedback on opening night. You can’t let them enjoy it for like an hour?

E: They got a hug too!

M: Awww, forget it.

E: Speaking of parents, and family, we got some wholesome and some depressing family stuff. Iida visits his very-not-doing-so-great brother, Todoroki decides he needs to settle things with his mother, and we get little glimpses with Uraraka, Deku, and Bakugo.

M: I have many thoughts on this family coda. Number one: there are still real doctors? Not just magic healers?

E: Yes? I mean, you need a lot of various quirks to run a fully functional hospital without real doctors.

M: But 80% of the population has a quirk. I know the majority of those are mostly useless, but surely like 2% of the population has a useful healing quirk.

E: Okay, maybe those people are also real doctors.

M: Yeah, but who needs surgery when I can just kiss ya better?

E: As for Todoroki’s mother, she’s in a mental hospital actually.

M: I knew that. Not sure there’s a quirk that can adequately replace talk therapy, so that’s fine. I’m just surprised that Ingenium still needed an IV.

E: Well, that’s to keep you hydrated right? Probably more convenient to have an IV than a Quirk user sitting next to you all the time.

M: It’s the only use for Sprinkler Man, okay?

E: Poor Sprinkler Man.

M: Hydration and fire safety, all in one package!

E: So, Deku leaves us with that ominous “the atmosphere around the school began to change” dun dun dun.

M: I mean, duh. You all just beat the crap out of each other on national television.

E: That’s just what friends do.

M: Other parental thoughts from me before we get to Lawsuit Watch: I thought Uraraka’s parents were possessed by evil villains.

E: They just startled her. And Madelyn apparently.

M: It didn’t seem out of the question.

E: I mean, it was in the post credit stinger, so I don’t blame you for expecting a twist.

M: Also glad that we got an update on how poorly Deku’s mom handled this whole thing.

E: She passed out seven times! The last two from dehydration.

M: Sprinkler Man, where were you?

E: He has to constantly sit by Ingenium, that’s where he was.

M: Gotta have him spawn mini sprinklers like Endeavor.

E: Oh. Spawn, I get it.

M: I see how that might have been confusing.

E: I was just picturing floating mini shower heads around him, but I get it.

M: Also a useful quirk. Most relatable teenage moment of the episode though goes to Bakugo, for yelling at his teeth after he woke up at noon.

E: I do enjoy how you see him still have the gold medal clenched in his teeth in the classroom because he literally cannot unclench his jaw to let it go.

M: Okay, Lawsuit Watch time!

E: I mean, the Bakugo family has some serious grounds for lawsuits.

M: Oh man. Was that in the waiver?

E: “We are not responsible if we must chain and muzzle your child for any given reason.”

M: Should have read the fine print.

E: The UA waivers must be like 200 pages long just to cover every situation.

M: I don’t think there’s much liability on the Boys Over Flowers side this week. Bad stuff happened, but it was everyone’s own decision.

E: They could try to sue, but I don’t think the lawsuit would be successful.

M: Oh wait, I’m an idiot. There’s definitely some corruption or insider trading or something happening within Shinhwa.

E: True, but we know so little about that at this point, it’s hard to make a judgement for a lawsuit.

M: You’re right, it’s not as cut and dry as the shackles.

E: Yeah. Shackles are a good start for any lawsuit.

M: Okay, I think predictions are gonna be rough this week, but gimme the title.

E: “Time to Pick Some Names”

M: Prediction one: everyone listens to the last five minutes of an episode of Talk This.

E: Yes, I paid for product placement on this Japanese anime before we even began out podcast in the first place. Wait? Maybe it was after actually? Yeah, it was.

M: Good, it’s a quality prediction.

E:

M: Prediction two: the results of the draft come back and Invisible Girl is demoted to General Studies.

E: (    )

M: Meta. Prediction three: Mineta gets a weirdly large amount of drafts.

E: ( ͡☉ ͜ʖ ͡☉)

M: Prediction four: wow that one really looks like him. The eyes! Back on track, prediction four: Bakugo gets the most, including Endeavor’s request, just to get Todoroki’s goat.

E:

M: Prediction five: Aizawa gets his bandages off and no one remembers what he looks like.

E:

–

Hey everyone! As always, thanks for tuning in to Split Screen! If you want to catch up or jump in after these climaxes, we’re watching My Hero Academia on Hulu (dub) and Boys Over Flowers on Netflix.

Next time! A big surprise starts us off on Boys Over Flowers and then nothing happens. And the MHA crew picks some incredibly boring hero names. Come on! I want to see some creativity! Like Floppy Arm Man or something like that!