Split Screen: The Blood Moon Rises

Welcome to Split Screen! Your intro host Madelyn here, with your weekly dose of Off-Topic Corner TV fun. We’ve got heartbreak. We’ve got danger. We’ve got a bunch of teenagers experiencing trauma of all varieties. What more do you need on a chilly Wednesday? Why, the thoughts of your two favorite Talk This hosts, of course! Let’s see what we thought of this week’s drama.

(New to Split Screen? Catch up on all the craziness here!)

Boys Over Flowers Episode 15 (up to minute 34)

M: How many different ways can I describe Split Screen as a rollercoaster ride before it loses all impact?

E: Pretty sure it already has.

M: These episodes were too much for my heart.

E: You were very active and vocal this set of episodes.

M: The writers kept throwing me for a loop! First, Ji-hoo gets his wallet stolen. People, have we learned nothing?

E: Apparently not, because Jan-di then leaves her own wallet on a food stand.

M: What is wrong with them?

E: They’re both a little dumb.

M: Then, Ji-hoo becomes a busker, which is as good an opportunity as any to state my renewed appreciation of the Boys Over Flowers theme song, sung by none other than Woo-bin.

E: Woo-bin becomes a bigger and bigger enigma the more we learn about him.

M: Ji-hoo also comes from a boy band background, so it seems plausible he/s also featured on the soundtrack.

E: When they transitioned from his live singing to the soundtrack I thought that the voice sounded particularly similar, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he was singing one of the tracks.

M: The acoustic version of that song was nice and chill.

E: I’ll have to actually look up which song it is so you readers out there can appreciate it.

Madelyn also thinks Ji-hoo is stupid

M: Despite the fact that he apparently works as a conductor, Ji-hoo has never earned a dollar in his life. It really highlights the gross pay discrepancies in orchestras today. Advocate for yourself, man.

E: He must just be a guest conductor or a volunteer conductor, or maybe there’s some sort of minor conductor labor laws.

M: You’re stretching here.

E: You never know.

M: Most importantly, it was an opportunity for Ji-hoo to show off his English.

E: His English is perfectly serviceable. It was better than what we’ve heard of Jun-pyo speaking English, in my opinion, but not as good as Woo-bin.

M: Not enough sick slang.

E: Anyway, they finally, finally head back to Korea after seemingly staying like three more days than they were supposed to.

M: But wait, there’s more Macau shenanigans! This is a contender for the most useless, extraneous scene of the series. Emma, take it away.

E: How did I forget about this scene? And why do I have to be the one to talk about it?

M: Memory Deleted.

E: Legit, I overwrote it in my mind somehow. I wish it had stayed that way.

M: Please, tell the good people about it.

E: Again, why does it have to be me?

M: Because you were traumatized, and it will be funnier.

E: I don’t even know how to talk about it.

M: You’re so lame.

E: By all means, continue the stand-off.

M: Okay, so Jan-di wakes up and is very sleepy. As one does when one wakes up, she goes to the bathroom. Because it’s an unfamiliar house and she’s basically still dreaming, she forgets to lock the door. All well and good. A normal person would hear the sound of urine and know not to open the door. “But maybe,” you reply. “She was going number two and there was no sound.” A regular awkward encounter might go something like this: someone else opens the door, Jan-di yells, and the other person quickly closes the door. But Emma, what actually happened?

E: Jan-di remains asleep. And Ji-hoo is not a super normal person.

M: They stare at each other for a full minute before he says “the door was unlocked,” and slowly backs away.

E: He did mostly just seem confused, so maybe he was also asleep.

M: Jan-di tries to hang herself with the hair-dryer cord and retreats to her room to cry in her cute pajama ensemble for the rest of the morning, much to Min’s amusement.

E: And this scene really adds nothing to the rest of the events this episode, so we can just move on from it, and memory delete it. Until Emma has to go back and get screenshots (EDITOR EMMA: But I refuse).

M: It did set up the “cute” breakfast tray with his note. I didn’t think it was cute, but I’m #TeamJunPyo.

E: Jun-pyo is not doing so stellar currently.

M: I’m telling you, I am seriously worried he’s going to pull a George Bailey and try to drown himself.

E: I guess that would be where his fear of water came back in like you were asking this episode.

M: The bright spot of this Macau arc, other than The Hardy Boys Woo-bin and Yi-Jung, has been Manager Jung.

E: Manager Jung is a good bro. Slash father figure.

M: He has come in clutch for Jun-pyo so many times.

E: He was such a non-entity at the beginning of the series because we were so focused on Butler Lee, but he’s a sleeper candidate for “most in need of spin-off series.”

M: This episode alone, he sat for hours with Jun-pyo outside of Min’s mansion while Jun-pyo pouted about the Jan-hoo piggy-back ride. He pretended to have an important document in need of signature to alert Jun-pyo to Jan-di’s departure. He claimed the Prime Minister of Singapore was in urgent need of Jun-pyo to get him out of family time, and he was just the most comforting friend you could ask for. No break-up hide-and-seek in sight, just warm hugs.

E: Yeah, but for all his help, Jun-pyo is not making a great case for himself to Jan-di right now. He mostly just punched Ji-hoo and stared at Jan-di wordlessly before their departure. Good job man.

M: To be fair, it has to be rough to see your best friend since toddlerhood giving your girlfriend, (I realize they’re broken up but that was YESTERDAY) the exact same gift you were going to give her.

E: It’s rough, but I do think that Ji-hoo has a point. As much as I’m not fond of any Ji-hoo incarnation outside Mama Ji-hoo. Like, he gave Jun-pyo all the room in the world until he just entirely shut the relationship down. So it’s not inappropriate to have a crush on her anymore since Jun-pyo has cut himself off from her and his friends now.

M: The phrase is “bros before hoes” or, if we’re going to be a little more delicate, “boys over flowers.”

E: That’s when they were bros though. Jun-pyo had to be forced to see them. And that ended with Yi-jung slugging him.

M: No one has any empathy for what he’s going through. I’m so glad they’re all team Jan-di, but it’s a little weird that these friends Jun-pyo’s had for over a decade are so quick to drop him completely.

E: Take into account the six months of silence though.

M: Right, that’s exactly what I’m taking into account. None of them seem worried about that and how suspicious it is.

E: Maybe we’ll see that dawning later, but I think that the initial hurt at being entirely blown off by Jun-pyo is entirely reasonable.

M: I also want to throw out there that even if it’s acceptable on the Jun-pyo side of the friendship for Ji-hoo to be crushing on Jan-di, she’s totally devastated and heartbroken. It’s not cool on the “Jan-di is my friend” side of things to be wooing her so overtly.

E: I don’t think anything Ji-hoo has done is exclusively romantic at this point.

M: Except for the fact that he told Jun-pyo–

E: Okay, but as long as he doesn’t expect anything from her, even if he has certain intentions, if he’s able to respect her own decisions, then that’s fine.

M: I know, I’m just getting a lot of Nice Guy™ vibes from Ji-hoo.

E: That’s where the expectations part comes in. That’s what defines the Nice Guy: expecting gratitude of a certain variety. It’s not just being nice.

M: I just don’t love the “I let my friend have her, but now it’s my turn” vibe.

E: I think you’re reading into it a bit, but I could be eating my words as much as you in the coming episodes. I think we should move on to normal predictions since this was pretty much Romance Tracker. Although I guess we didn’t get to the doctor stuff.

M: I have been waiting for that transition. SPEAKING OF EATING, Jan-di is a terrible porridge employee, what else is new? But she isn’t a terrible obstetrician!

E: I don’t believe anyone who is inspired to become a doctor after witnessing childbirth. Childbirth is not beautiful. They made sure we knew that in 9th grade biology.

M: It’s horrifying, but also miraculous if you can get past the horror part. Jan-di clearly did.

E: Sure.

M: She didn’t seem to be there when the placenta came out. Maybe that will burst her bubble.

E: She was mostly just holding the woman’s hand and hiding during the process, so I guess that would help.

M: I can’t believe she’s going to become a doctor. We can’t see that happen on the run of the show, can we?

E: We had a six month time jump, we could have another.

M: It takes like eight years to become a doctor.

E: Maybe she’s a prodigy. It does fix some problems with social status if she was to become a doctor, which could smooth things over with Jun-pyo’s mom, further down the line.

M: That Shinhwa diploma should open some doors for her.

E: I’ll be glad if we see some Jan-di dream-focused episodes though as opposed to anything romantic with either Jun-pyo or Ji-hoo. Take the chance to let Jan-di grow a little bit away from very needy boys.

M: I really hope she’s too busy studying to date Ji-hoo. That would be ideal.

E: Any other predictions?

M: The pay-off of the doctor arc will definitely be Jan-di saving someone’s life. I can’t decide whose though. At first I thought Jun-pyo, but that’s too obvious. I’m thinking Mama Gu?

E: An interesting idea. I’m just waiting for her to realize this is Ji-hoo’s father or whatever.

M: Can Jan-di treat my broken heart from seeing Manager Jung cradling a crying Jun-pyo at the airport?

E: If she could, it would be a major scientific breakthrough.

M: Yo, that’s another prediction. I am #worried about the heiress finding those shoes. Oh, and what about Jun-pyo’s sister???

E: That’s for next time.

My Hero Academia S2E17: Climax

M: Second Split Screen in a row where I end Boys Over Flowers yelling about Jun-pyo’s sister. I’m obsessed with sisters. Anyway, switching to brothers now. How many times does Iida have to say “I’m the second Iida son” before the writers trust me to remember it?

E: He was having a little crisis okay.

M: I never say to myself in crisis: “I’m the first Paquette daughter.”

E: Well, we’re not part of an illustrious line of superheroes. Maybe then you would.

M: Food for thought. We pick up, shockingly enough, at the climax of the fight with Stain and Shigaraki and everybody. The Nomus. Lot going on here.

E: Shigaraki was mostly just chilling on a building, holding his binoculars weirdly because he can’t put his fingers on things.

M: The kids made a lot of dumb mistakes in this fight with Stain, I gotta say.

E: Such as?

M: Number one: Iida fried his engines right away? Have some restraint, dude.

E: If he’d had any restraint in that moment, Todoroki would have been bisected, but okay, continue.

M: Mistake two: none of them wiped up the blood on the ground. That was a puddle of danger.

E: We are very lucky that Stain is not willing to literally eat dirt to destroy his enemies.

M: He would just have to touch it with the tip of his tongue.

E: Maybe that would have exposed him too much to attack. It does take his eyes away from the battlefield.

M: Dive tongue-first. Play to win.

E: What if you accidentally just get useless Native’s blood again?

M: Well, Native was only a minute away from reviving, so that would still be helpful.

E: Do you think it stacks? Or do you have to renew every time it runs out?

M: I dunno, dude, I haven’t gotten this Persona mask yet.

E: Any other mistakes?

M: Uh, duh. There was really no need for both Deku and Iida to go for the finisher. Probably one of them could have finished the job.

E: See, if one of them had done it, though, you would be saying, “sure was risky to put it all on Iida taking the final blow, someone should have probably followed up.”

M: Shush, I’m getting to the biggest, most obvious mistake of all. Mistakes number four, five, six, seven, and eight: Todoroki, you idiot, why didn’t you use more of your freeze ray?

E: Well the ice didn’t seem super effective during the fight. I also wonder how using his fire is impacting his ice strength. And there’s also the thought that Midoriya is immobilized right in the middle, hence possibly killing him in the process.

M: Okay, but here’s a counter-thought: remember when Todoroki was in the sports festival, fighting children who are ostensibly his friends, or at least his colleagues? Who was it that he fought? Remind me.

E: You forget that since Todoroki fought Tape Man that he’s been through years of psychological development in the span of a few weeks.

M: Sure, sure. But when Todoroki, granted a less well-adjusted version, but still fundamentally the same dude, when Todoroki was fighting Tape Man, he showed no hesitation in literally blasting the s#!t out of him with an ice castle that filled an entire arena. You’re telling me that the most dangerous villain on the streets today is right there in front of him and he doesn’t immediately freeze the whole freaking alley?

E: What if it doesn’t work though? He has to work with Deku, right? So he can’t just freeze everything on the chance that it keeps Deku from doing anything, but doesn’t work on the more skilled and agile villain that he knows next to nothing about.

M: Yeah, but once Deku is paralyzed, there’s basically nothing to lose.

E: I can see why you think it would be realistic for Todoroki to just do that based on characterization, but I think putting everything into one ice blast like at the festival would be immeasurably dumb, because it slows him down. And if it doesn’t work….he’s dead. But from a characterization point of view, I understand.

M: If there’s a time for a desperation move, mano-e-mano with the Hero Killer is probably it.

E: He seemed to think he was doing well enough before Stain got in his face, and once he’s in bisecting range, probably too late for an ice blast. But we’re getting on stuck on something again, so let’s transition.

M: Speaking of getting stuck, you have to agree with me that rope-tying Stain instead of just encasing him in ice was dumb.

E: I think rope-tying is better long term, because you have to melt the ice to move him, and then he would be unrestrained entirely.

M: Do both then! Tie him, then freeze him.

E: Perhaps a little un-hero-like too.

M: IT’S THE HERO KILLER.

E: Wanna prove the Hero Killer’s point?

M: I’m sorry, the guy was attacking fourteen year olds. They should feel free to chill him a little.

E: Well, good thing they didn’t in the end, because Deku would have certainly died.

M: More like good thing the Hero Killer’s rib held out for a few minutes.

E: So before we got all into the pedantics of ice, we probably should have mentioned that they students do defeat the Hero Killer in the end.

M: They better all get As for the internship.

E: They tie him up, Endeavor has sent Gran Torino and some other pro heroes to their location based on Shoto being a bit smart and letting someone knew where he was going, but the flying Nomu swoops in stealthily, I guess.

M: I loved Shoto texting while his dad was telling him important information.

E: Deku invited him to Beat Up an Important Bad Guy on Facebook, and he needed to be there right then.

M: I also like how Endeavor is way smarter than All-Might. It’s not even close.

E: He’s a big jerk and an awful person in almost every way, but there does seem to be a reason he’s managed to become the Number 2 Hero. He used his quirk in a lot of creative ways this episode.

M: The fire-running on the wall was dope. I was a little concerned for the sidekick he rescued though. That guy was pretty close to the flame beard.

E: Imagine what Endeavor could do if he wasn’t focused on maintaining his perfect flame beard at all times.

M: Do you think he changes up the style sometimes?

E: In the flashbacks from the sports festival, I think he just had a mustache or at least a smaller beard.

M: I dig it. Mutton chops for season three!

E: But anyway, Deku who has hurt his leg and his arm gets snatched up by the pterodactyl Nomu. Only to be rescued by the Hero Killer himself.

M: I think Gran Torino could probably have saved him, if push came to shove. But it allowed us to briefly travel to Breath of the Wild Hyrule, so worth it for the crossover appeal. And thematically appropriate with the end credit scene!

E: Too bad Stain didn’t get a whimsical fantasy makeover for the end credits.

M: The blood moon is rising…

E: He seems to take down the Nomu partly because he is not fond of Shigaraki and partly because he’s just embarrassed for these heroes just standing there watching a child get snatched by a dinosaur with an exposed brain.

M: Isn’t it because he’s a #truehero?

E: That too, or rather, he seems to consider himself like the Judge of heroes of which he’s, of course, only found one to be worthy.

M: He seemed to think that Deku and Todoroki were chill.

E: I mean, if he likes All-Might, makes sense he would at least like Deku to a degree.

M: What was up with the red-eye blood-moon thing?

E: I think it’s just a symbolic illustration of how intimidating and imposing he seemed in that moment.

M: That’s not allowed. On this show where people have crazy quirks at all times, you can’t do that me.

E: Okay.

M: It’s like that time Uraraka’s parents were zombies.

E: I’m not even going to engage with you on this because I’m exhausted.

M: I know you can do it. I was just afraid that the Hero Killer was actually Cyclops from the X-Men.

E: Okay, here’s a nice little rule of thumb for you. Just one Quirk. Unless they have exposed brains. Okay? Okay.

M: His quirk had to do with blood, and the BLOOD MOON ROSE.

E: You know it’s not actually Legend of Zelda, right?

M: Boku No Zelda Linkademia.

E: You can tell Madelyn actually really liked this episode because she is doing nothing but complain about it. That’s what I do too.

M: It’s true! It was a good episode! What was up with rib thing though?

E: I think it was more that he passed out from pain. Not specifically the lung piercing.

M: Wait, he’s not dead?

E: I don’t remember, honestly.

M: I thought for a minute that he had licked his own blood and paralyzed himself.

E: Unfortunately we’d already seen him with his own blood in his mouth earlier. Although maybe that did paralyze him. Who knows. For as impactful as it is, I probably remember the least about this arc. I don’t know why.

M: Well, it’s time for Lawsuit Watch!

E: The mother delivering the baby probably could sue for Jan-di being just a rando in the delivery room.

M: Does the doctor have a license? He just chuckled when Jan-di accused him of being a quack

E: Meanwhile there continued to be violence on My Hero Academia, but not really lawsuit violence?

M: I guess the dictionary-length waiver probably covers this, but if I was the parent of any of these three children, I would be very upset that this was allowed to happen. Maybe not Endeavor. Endeavor wouldn’t sue.

E: Endeavor will just give an impassioned speech about Shoto harnessing his full potential the whole train ride home.

M: It’s tough one.

E: I mean, we’ve been assuming a pretty ironclad waiver for these kids. There’s some interesting law stuff that will be brought up next episode, so look forward to that. But for this week, feels like Boys Over Flowers.

M: The baby was born seemingly healthy though.

E: Does that matter?

M: You can’t really sue for malpractice if the baby is healthy.

E: You sure?

M: Nope!

E: Okay, are you ready for next week’s stunner of a title?

M: Falling Action.

E: It is called *ahem* “The Aftermath of Hero Killer: Stain”

M: Bite me. I guess that means there won’t be big time jump.

E: Maybe. Everything after is the aftermath technically.

M: Maybe it’s about Present Mic teaching everyone geometry.

E: Well, now we should just skip next episode. No point.

M: Okay, prediction one: Recovery Girl sticks to her guns and refuses to heal Deku’s arm.

E:

M: Prediction two: Gran Torino falls asleep on the train to the hospital, then goes to the cafeteria for snacks. He forgets all about Deku until he drops a taiyaki.

E:  

M: That was elaborate. Prediction three: there’s a sharp divide in how Endeavor and All-Might treat their respective sons at the hospital.

E:

M: Prediction four: Iida has to go to the psych ward. He becomes buds with Todoroki’s mom.

E:

M: What is wrong with you.

E: ( ͡°? ͡°)

M: Prediction five: the other class 1-A kids spend the rest of their internships making a nice get well soon card for Deku and crew. Also some stuff happens with Stain, no idea what that will be, but probably important stuff.

E:

–

As always, thanks for tuning in to Split Screen! We’re continuing to chug chug along on these rollercoaster shows, and we appreciate you twisting and turning with us. If you want to catch up, we’re watching the My Hero Academia dub on Hulu and Boys Over Flowers on Netflix. That’s Boys Over Flowers, not Meteor Garden.

Next time! Stain’s words cause a ripple effect over the world of My Hero Academia, entirely unintentionally on his part. And, in Boys Over Flowers, Jun-pyo continues to spectacularly implode his relationship.