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'Twenty Five Twenty One' 9/11 scene slammed for trivializing tragedy for romantic plot

The romantic dialogue between Na Hee Do and Baek Yi Jin discussing the 9/11 terror attack enraged netizens

The tvN’s hit series ‘Twenty Five Twenty One’ has been stirring controversies from day one. While it has been receiving lots of love, it has attracted quite a bit of criticism too. The show grabbed headlines in South Korea for portraying the love between a minor girl and an older boy. Though the drama was heavily slammed, it managed to woo viewers. Sadly, the drama is back in news for an insensitive and controversial scene that included the New York 9/11 terror attack. 

Clips from the 9/11 disaster were featured in the most recent episode of 'Twenty Five Twenty One', triggering an online backlash. With Baek Yi Jin (Nam Joo Hyuk) working as a journalist in New York, the pair embark on a long-distance relationship. Na Hee Do (Kim Tae Ri), on the other hand, can't contain her delight when she sees her lover on the news. Since the 9/11 incident is still traumatic for many people, netizens did not like how the show trivialized the terror attack to further the romantic plot. This made a lot of fans slam the show heavily for the romantic fictional narrative that 'used' a real-life tragedy.

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Na Hee Do and Baek Yi Jin’s romance 

In the recent episode, Na Hee-do turns on the TV just in time for the news, and is pleased to see Baek Yi-jin reporting the news. In the show, Baek is shown covering the terrorist attack on September 11th 2001. However, as she could only hear Baek Yi-voice jin's voice during the "September 11th terrorist" news coverage, she is dissatisfied. When Baek Yi Jin calls Na Hee Do, he says, “I called because I think you would be disappointed because my face wasn’t shown today.” Na Hee-do was surprised, saying, “How did you know?” Baek Yi-jin delighted Na Hee-do by answering, “I want to look good for you so I take a stand shot.”

Why did the scene cause a stir?

After the broadcast of the episode, the scene sparked a major backlash on social media and in online communities. This is because the tragedy of the "9/11 Terror" was exploited in the romance story of Baek Yi-jin and Na Hee-do. Despite the fact that the production crew may have tried to represent the couple's passionate love in the wake of such a massive tragedy, netizens demanded answers. They wanted to know why the couple's love story was boosted by such a horrific tragedy and were disturbed by Na Hee Do's 'insensitive' joy over seeing her lover cover the 9/11 attack.

Twitter users were outraged

On Twitter, many people commented on the scene. One fan of the show defended the scene, saying, “if you watched the episode it wasn’t romanticized at all tbh it showed his unpreparedness in taking on this job and how her relentless optimism backfires,” but another criticized it, tweeting, “I— out of all better scenarior why chose this ms/mr writer???? We dont need any more insensitivity now.” Another Twitter user wrote, “I was waiting for last 4 eps to air, don't want to watch ut anymore.”