I just forced myself to watch that last episode...

I totally agree! I would have rather watched a tragic death over this

Disagree. The drama’s main focus is on treasuring youth, passion, and first love, hence her daughter’s storyline in the present day which initially serves as a contrast to that of Heedo’s. I don’t think the leads wanted to break up either, but I admire Heedo for choosing what was best for her in the long run. Her trajectory with Baek Yijin was going to be the same as that with her mom in terms of the absence and all the disappointments (which started before the LDR), so you can’t blame her for not wanting to live like that for the rest of her life. The finale was sad because naturally we’re all rooting for true love to win against all odds, but I think the couple had closure with their final remarks and the diary entries, so I’m not too peeved about the way things turned out.

I loved it. Even if I would have been utterly happy to have our couple together at the end, the drama didn’t lied once to us. In first episode Min Chae says something like “oh, mum’s first boyfriend” and that was true.

It was so real. I loved it because it was real. Life is like that. People love each other with all their will and then they break up and it leaves a whole that time can never totally fill, most of the times because we all think about what would have been.

But I loved it, I smiled through all the final episode, sometimes with happiness, as when Ji Woong proposed Yu Rim, sometimes half squeeing as when Seung Wang meets again Yi Hyun, and sometimes in real sadness as when Yi Jin and Hee Do realise they have to break up no matter how much they love each other.

I loved that the drama went for real feelings and real love and real breakup. You can’t eat love, that’s something I always say. No matter how much you love someone. You just can’t live only on love.

Thanks drama. You will be forever in my heart.

AGREE! When they rang in the year 2001 in episode 15, I knew they were going to use the events of 9/11 as the beginning of the end. Before the finale was available this morning, I saw the outrage on Twitter, so I didn’t bother to watch. Such a disappointment to an otherwise great show.

Somehow that ending would have been less painful.

Opinions from here on are disorganised and very fresh from finishing the ep so this could change after I have calmed down in probably a few days? weeks? months? or probably years....

I know I know that we have been warned that they are not the end game. Heck, they've been telling us from day one. I just cannot reconcile as of the moment, how can soulmates and one of the most well-written couple in dramaland have the saddest ending? Why can't we get the usual handholding-kissing-walking-towards-the-sunset-ending????? The love in their eyes in that 2009 scene was heartbreaking. Their love was one of the purest I've seen in Kdramaland and to have the end like this...felt disappointing to say the least.

2521 is like my first love. I shall remember the good times and I shall forget the bitter taste of how it ended.

I know it's unrealistic to always want happy endings 😑

Anyway, my take home message is don't date a journalist

Disagree. Like, really really really disagree.

I found it refreshing to see a realistic take on a relationship that burned out due to circumstances that were neither unnecessarily tragic nor unrealistic misunderstandings. To be perfectly honest, I found the romance between the leads the least compelling storyline of the drama. I mean, I didn't hate it. Not at all. But rather it was the intertwining relationships between the friends and how they changed over the years.

This was a nicely done drama, that ended in a way that felt real. Endings aren't always tragic or dramatic, and while they can still make us sad, life goes on.

I didn't hate the ending at all. There was so much more to the drama than the leads' relationship and while I would have loved a happy ending I am happy with everything else the drama gave me. Sometimes love survives trials, sometimes it doesn't and that's ok.

Disagree. This drama was primarily an ode to youth and they were telling that to us in the face since the very beginning. It's us who kept their hopes high for a kdramaesque happy ending. Though, I was rather annoyed that the writer kept tricking us in the last episode with them meeting again and again.

However, I'm satisfied with what they showed beacuse as much as we'd like a fairytale, this is the reality. Friends become distant ( as everyone mentions how they only meet at funerals), first loves may not last forever. But I'm glad they showed us that first loves can last too, in the case of Yurim and Ji Woong, though we know that their timeline was rather similar than Heedo and YiJin's.

I also think it was wise of the writer to introduce the present timeline's scenes no matter how much flak the older actress got. This way the writer has been preparing us for their eventual breakup all along. It would have been devastating to see all that unfold in merely one and a half episode. And believe it or not Yi Jin dying would have been clearly worse. That said, maybe it would've been better for us to see how even the friends fell apart so we could understand the underlying melancholy in older Hee Do. Other than that, I guess she was similar to her past self, talkative and all.

Baek Yi Jin finally fulfilled his dream, to bring his family together and it took him 11 years, so I was just happy for them. Yes, a part of me really wanted them to end together nonetheless but it was evident that can't happen. They both had their own struggles and the circumstances just didn't permit them to be part of each other's lives. But yeah, that interview in 2009 felt like Heedo was emotionally cheating on her spouse because she clearly liked someone else. Though maybe, support is the word. They moved on from longing for eachother and only hold support for one another.

I will remember this pair fondly that didn't become an OTP because they held much more than love for eachother and we've been a part of their journey. Kudos to the writer, will look forward to her other projects.

Also btw for people who dig the realistic approach of the show, I totally recommend watching Yumi's cells. It's another slice of life romance done tastefully and 25 21 is the only other similar show I can think of that has managed to keep all angles of love in consideration.

No way that I would be okay with Yi jin's death. I loved the ending even though it broke my heart. Hee do took the right call at the right time of the relationship. One thing that would maybe have eased us after the breakup was showing how they coped and came out of the breakup. Maybe then it would have reduced this feeling as if I have experienced my first break up

I ugly cried a lot, but at the end of the day I didn't hate it. I thought it would be better to get this happy ending, no matter how many mental shortcuts and unbelievable coincedences we'd get (so in a good ol' k-drama fashion), but to see them so in pain, and so broken over this made me realize that this was just not their time. They got hit with life, it was too much to handle and they had to make a choice. Their love, as strong as it undoubtedly was, was simply not enough. And now I' crying all over again. But still, I don't hate it. This drama is just bittersweet incarnate, with the sweetest kind of sweet, and the bitter that balances it all perfectly.

This drama made me think of my mom cousin first love story. They meet as teens growing strong bond, but circumstances made them drift apart. Years later both married to different people also having kids, he thought of her one night and started searching for her on facebook. He did find her and they start chatting... At that time she was divorced as it had been a bad marriage. Long story short they reconnected and now married.
The way they present present day DH made me think how she still have lingering feelings, and if they meet again they maybe could have worked out like the cousin did.

Nothing could make me want Baek Yi jIn dead. In all honesty, I liked the ending. Not everyone ends up with their first love. Circumstances pulled them apart though I do blame Baek Yi jin just a little bit for it. What annoys me is the lack of information and detailing in the future. Is Baek Yi jin still alive? Does he still live around there? What about the rest of the group? What happened to them? Is Na heedo still married? Divorced? Did she ever love him? I would have been better off without the future timeline.

Was it the best ending I’ve ever seen? No. I’m okay with them not going with the standard tragic death for our ML and there were some great moments. Hee Do and Yu Rim’s bits were great, and the actual conversations between our leads were heartbreaking.

I did find the tail end of the episode a little lackluster. Felt like they were just throwing great moments at the wall through a slideshow to garner emotion instead of writing it in properly like they’d done for the entirety of the show.

Thankfully an okay ending (for me) doesn’t ruin an amazing show. To be fair they’d have had to REALLY dumpster that ending to get me to turn my back on it…like DDSSLLS level bad. I’d have preferred them to nail the landing but…endings are hard.

I'm on the fence about this one. On one hand, I have no problem with how the main plot played out - even though I find it difficult to believe that Yu-rim and Ji-woong made it while Hee-do and Yi-jin, I equally find the way the latter couple broke up to be really believable and very much to capture that rosy bittersweet the drama has had since the start.
That said, the whole theme of everything blowing away like pillars of sand has triggered the little existential niggle inside me that keeps me awake at night, so I can't say I liked the ending either. It's a wonder I got through it, when I still can't touch the last episode of Reply 1988 because I know how it ends and genuinely don't think I can swallow it.

Beautiful show, but not exactly the thing you wanna be watching when you're struggling to grapple with the inevitability of deterioration and death😂

I am one of those who do not want Heedo and Yi Jin to end up together. All those crazy theories baffled me, tbh.

It is pretty evident that the writer wants a first love story which cannot continue in the adulthood. But, HeeDo and YiJin were more than just first loves, so whichever plot that separates them will seem weak. But, that's life, isn't it? You cannot take anything for granted.

The tunnel scene in episode 16 (the real fight, not the imaginary one) was the highlight of ep 16. They both regret saying those things, but I do think it had to happen.

2521, from what i see, is the most buzzworthy drama of all time. That alone is the writer's success.

Rainbow was the perfect word to describe their relationship for me, not love. I didn't want them to cross that boundary because I genuinely felt that they didn't develop Bark Yi Jin 'romantic' feelings for Her Do enough. So when he rejects her after the 2000 kiss by saying it's a 'Dont hurt yourself' kinda love, I believed him. Then they went on to make them into a couple and I was like aaaaaight.
Anyways, the breakup happened on very solid reasons, however, given how monumental and significant to themselves the writers showed their rainbow relationship to be, they shouldn't have treated it like a normal first loves breakup. These characters understood how much they needed each other and they understood the reasons for their breakup. So it would've been more realistic if they tried to show them giving a go at their relationship again and trying so hard and then failing. Not a toxic on and off situation but a genuine effort on both ends and then life happens stuff.
On a side note, there really was no need for the present day timeline.

This finale was bittersweet, I wanted more time with the squad and seeing their dynamic in the present day in 2021. I am very relieved that Yi-jin didn't die and that Hee-do's mother doesn't have dementia, I saw a few other wild theories going around.
For me, I think by ep 4 it was confirmed that Hee-do and Yi-jin would not be endgame or together in 2021. I thought this drama would be celebrating first love, the dreams of the youth, the times when we thought we could have it all. And it did that, I enjoyed seeing Yu-rim and Hee-do's friendship grow, Seungwon and Jeong Woong, the friendship between Yi-jin and his sunbae. The bond between Yi-jin and Hee do and how they spurred each other on to keep trying to do their best.
I think this is why the no contact in the present day feels a little off, after everything they have experienced together, I would have thought they would at least be friends and in each others lives.

I have been mad since I saw that ending and I am still trying to understand it,did I legit waste 16 hrs of my life,rave about this drama to get that???
Like can the writer make that ending make sense??

Disagree. 1000x. BYJ death will then be too cliche and a cop-out by the writer. If she went this route then she will be a coward, imo, for not sticking to the story she wanted to tell. Also if they magically ended up together per the internet theories. I am one of those who consider this as not just a story about the OTP, but a coming of age of all 5 characters. They found love, friendship, passion, and most of all they found out who they wanted to be. BYJ who was the most lost, ended up finding what his true calling was and that is why he stayed in NY. I think the show wanted to tell us that with the scenes on how he was affected emotionally by his own news stories. In the end, they all found their passion and pursued them mightily and experienced the best days of their lives. It was a happy ending. Min Chae, pretty much told us the what the writer wanted to say, when she said she is restarting ballet again and why.

Hot Take: This show went downhill since Episode 11.

It's not what I wanted but it matched the story. The problem with this stab-of-realism ending is that you really ought not to spend 12 (generously) to 14.5 episodes out of 16 total giving us the fluffy feel-goods. Subvert expectations, reimagine away, but if you do it in a hurry right at the end it just comes across as lazy speed-angst (see Pretty Noona for details).

My other hot take is that the director got a solid WWW reference in there in the final denouement, with ML trying to log into Barro Search, the site he hadn't logged into in so long.

Somewhat agree. I don't mind that they broke up and didn't end up together. Sometimes first loves are just that -- the first. They are so lucky to have experienced a first love such as theirs.

However, the present day storyline wasn't needed; it didn't bring any value to the drama. That's why the end is so unsatisfying. The whole found diary and 'faux time travel to say what you wish you had said' ending was dumb and felt out of step with the rest of the story.

Also, do we really need another finale where we don't get to see the male lead's face at the end? No, no we don't.

Well, I certainly wouldn't have preferred to watch Yi-jin die!

But although I found the ending perfectly in-tune with the spirit and themes of the show, it was not particularly enjoyable or touching for me personally.

Like others have said, I don't think the writer was ever ambiguous regarding Yi-jin and Hee-Do's romantic fate. I know there were theories floating around that maybe there would be a twist, but once the show established that Hee-Do's daughter didn't recognize the ex-boyfriend in the photos, I knew there wouldn't be any other explanation than the obvious one: that these two had a beautiful love when they were young, but were now adults with perfectly fine lives that didn't include each other.

As a lover of romantic dramas who is fully versed in and at peace with the reality of first loves rarely leading to forever loves, I feel no shame in admitting that I like my fictional couples to end up together unless I'm shown a very good reason why they shouldn't. I also don't feel that a piece of fiction has to reflect real life (which is often random, complicated, trying, and beautiful in unexpected way) to be worthy of critical praise or respect. In short, I didn't feel that this ending made 25/21 any better--it was already an excellent drama--and I would have preferred either a) that we were never given a present-day timeline at all or b) we were, and Hee-Do and Yi-jin were together in it.

I still think 25/21 was a wonderful show with amazing performances, cinematography, and dialogue. I don't regret watching it and I'm not bitter or angry. But still . . . yeah, I wish it had ended differently.

From our first meeting with HD until her retirement, HD showed amazing growth and depth. YT blew it. One of the most beautiful declarations from HD to him was her pledge to be part of his life, through despair, through had times and in times of joy. If he had shared with her, this venting could have perhaps spared him some of the anguish he experienced. He bottled it all inside, robbing her of the chance to help. There is a life lesson I learned decades ago from 'The Little Prince'. As the fox told him, "You are responsible for what you tame". He had a responsibility towards HD and he refused to honor it. Sadly, they both paid.

On a brighter note, the match in Madrid and the ending with the unabashed love between HD and YR was one of the best scenes I've ever watched. That made the series worthwhile.

I totally agree. This ending didn’t make sense when both of them were so much in love and we saw from the whet go how heedo was such a mature and strong character. So even though she had that abandonment history with her mother, this still didn’t make sense because she is the one who always fought and supported everybody around her being the pillar.

I didn’t fully dislike the ending. I can accept from a story perspective that Hee-do + Yi-jin’s relationship didn’t work out. Sometimes people can love each other with their entire beings, but circumstances just don’t allow them to be together. Twenty Five Twenty One was the ultimate love letter to youth and nostalgia, and from that angle, our leads not ending up together does kind of make sense. Love is hard but unfortunately, not all-encompassing enough to overcome the bitter realities of life.

That said, it does make me sad that practically everyone else got their happy endings and our leads didn’t - romantically speaking. You’re telling me Yu-rim + Ji-woong and even freaking Seung-wan + Yi-hyun managed to stay together (something I’m genuinely happy about!!), but not Yi-jin + Hee-do? That hurts. Why did the writer have to this dedicated to breaking my heart, goddamit. Also, I wish the actual ending wasn’t as open-ended as it was. Was it really that hard to get even a small glimpse of Yi-jin in the future timeline? What is it with concurrent-timeline dramas deliberately refusing to show their male leads in the future timeline? Ultimately, I don’t think we really needed the present-day storyline. It felt removed and dissonant from the rest of the show.

Overall, my feelings are mixed, but man it sure hurt like hell.

I definitely wish they had not included the present-day storyline. The present day Hee-do we can't recognize just made the whole thing so much more depressing. And with a husband who is away for the pandemic and doesn't know his daughter quit ballet.

I loved the characters and the cinematography. The actors were fabulous. The fencing proposal scene was awesome. No, I would not want Yi Jin to have died. But I was very disappointed in the ending.

For me, I watch Kdramas as an escape from work stressors and the awful news stories we hear daily. So, I want an HEA for the OTP. Current Hee Do did not seem like a very happy person. And we never saw current Yi Jin. I loved these two as a couple! His honesty, wearing his heart on his sleeve, and her boundless joy that was even greater when they were together. The way they looked at one another!! But we never saw either one of them having a truly happy ending! Did Hee Do love her husband the way she did Yi Jin? She didn't seem to miss him. Did they divorce (she was not wearing a ring in the present time)? Did Yi Jin ever marry, or feel fulfilled in his life wedded to his career? Did he continue to miss Hee Do and wish he'd made different choices? Did she? They obviously still had strong feelings for each other in 2009.

I felt let down by the ending. All that happiness leading up to an ambiguous present. So, I imagine a part 2, where she is divorced and they meet again and find that their love is still there... And they've matured and are no longer traveling separately all over the world...voila happy ending.

This is the first time I've watched a drama before it ended. I always Google happy or sad ending? - just that, not what happens - and then decide what mood I'm in before starting to watch. This will be the last time.

So then should I continue to watch this or not? 🙍‍♀️ I'm sure regardless the ending I don't want to see Yi-jin die! How can you want your beloved character die for the sake of story unless his life is too painful to live on? 🤦‍♀️
I have enough realities to hit me so what K drama is for?

i don't really know how i feel about the finale... on one hand i really do get what the writer was trying to do and the message of the drama overall, i mean it was no secret that yijin and heedo didn't end up together. i think a part of the problem i had with the finale was that i still had hope somehow that they would find a way back together especially with all the theories floating around as the show was on going.

another reason i'm so upset about the finale is that kdrama couples always have a way of getting back together no matter how many years pass in the time jump. and a relationship like heedo and yijin was so well developed and strong and they were so right for each other, and i know it's a case of the right person and wrong time but i'm upset that they never found their way back to each other. i get that the drama was trying to be realistic but i kind of wish now they went the typical kdrama route with a reunion/happy ending.

i also wish we had more time with yijin and heedo as a couple, their relationship was so fleeting and that makes me so devastated. i don't hate the finale, this drama was truly one of the best i've watched but i have a hard time getting over sad/bittersweet endings

I really see it as a disconnect between what the characters were written to be, and what they actually became.

Baek Yi-jin was written to be a passing boy in her life. He was written to portray the idea that everything passes in life, even young love. I totally understand the desire to write a character like that, especially in a narrative on a strong and dedicated young woman and athlete like Hee-do. But once Baek Yi-jin came alive in the hands of Nam Joo-hyuk, he ended up playing a character that stood taller than the “passing love” that was written, and the Baek Yi-jin that he created was let down by the role that was written for him.

It almost felt like they broke up at the end of the day because they were forced to break up because the script said so. But their chemistry had not worn out. Kim Tae-ri and Nam Joo-hyuk gave life to their characters that outshone the role that was predetermined for them. So, even though they were doomed from the start, watching Na Hee-do and Baek Yi-jin shine together in the hands of those actors was truly an honor.

100% props to the writers for the BUZZ this drama created. And for keeping us all guessing. And for making me stare at a wall after 16 trying to cope with it all. Well frickin done and a total win for the kdrama world. This is real cinema ppl!!!

Disagree, the ending wasn't a fairy tale perfect, but still a decent one. Some people just don't end up together. Hee - do already went through several disappointments with her mother being in the news business.

I have to disagree. While this show never really made me fall in love with it, it’s one of the most solid and beautifully directed dramas I’ve seen in a while. The writer had a story to tell and it was clear from the beginning: a bittersweet tribute to different kinds of relationships we have that shaped us and brought us to the present.

I don’t think the main leads' conflict came out of nowhere and I think it’s unfair to say they didn’t try to make it work (the littlest things count, like buying a movie ticket for the next screening because she knew he’d be late, etc). There was simply enough will and not enough way. Heedo and Yijin knew and loved each other deep enough to accept that their lives had parallel trajectories, and for a relationship to work they would have to sacrifice far too much of themselves. It will lead to resentment and a messier, unbearable split and I wonder if even their primary affection for each other would survive it.

Anyway the show was so much more. I bawled over my bowl of grapes at the girls’ hug in Madrid. I just wish we saw more of Heedo and Yurim in the present day.