This doesn't suck, at all!

Two fics for Guardian Wishlist are written, edited and sent for beta-reading. Well ok, one fic and one short ficlet. But still, I feel so accomplished. 😊 The third fic is started, but I feel like I bit more than I can chew with this plot bunny, so I don’t know if it will get finished in time for collection reveal.


Shine episode 8

It was partially what I expected, and partially not at all. I guess I had too big expectations for that finale because I ended up feeling a bit underwhelmed. But in general it was a very good and very emotional drama, and I would absolutely recommend it if you want to watch BL that’s plotty and angsty and full of complicated, messy, and sometimes tragic relationships between complicated and messy people.

More with spoilers here.

I was a bit disappointed by their decision to make Tanwa blameless in at first keeping Trin at home while the riot happened, just because he promised Victor he would do that. It feels like they did it so Trin can forgive Tanwa with a clear conscience. But I admit that the last scene with old men Trin and Tanwa in 2025 still together was very sweet.

I also admit that I was dreading that Krailert would kill himself. He didn’t. But his fate was horrible. Trapped in that marriage, without any means of escaping. I think they wanted to make it look like him paying for that choice he made after his actor lover was killed in the past, and he decided to stay in the army and work for people who killed Win. But really what choice did Krailert have even then? Would the army even let him go if he decided he didn’t want to have anything to do with them after Win’s death?

And ok, Dhevi reveal surprised me a lot. That I didn’t expect at all. Talk about complicated and messy people. But at least thanks to her Naran is alive and safe, and she made Pracha pay with his life for what he did to Veera.

And I have a fanvid rec. Here is a lovely fanvid about Wan and Pleng from Affair:

RL is meh. I don’t feel well lately, probably because of menopause. But I did go to my cardiologist just in case. And my heart is fine, but my blood pressure is too high, and I have to start taking a pill for that, too. As if I didn’t have enough health problems as it is. *sigh* And I have five mosquito bites on my face. Ugh... There were no mosquitos here all summer, maybe because we had a swallow nest on the top of our apartment building and there were a lot of swallows around in previous months when they were teaching their young ones to fly. It was so entertaining to observe as they were zooming outside our window like teeny tiny grey planes. But now there are no swallows and a lot of mosquitos. Just go away, you little bloodsuckers. 😠


On the positive fannish front – I bookmarked five wishlists from this year’s Guardian Wishlist. There is no way five fics are happening, but I hope at least two might. I already started writing them, and here is hoping they will get finished. My last Guardian fic was written in 2023, and I forgot how fun it is to write Zhao Yunlan bickering with Ye Zun, or Chu Shuzhi and Guo Changcheng saying ‘I love you’ and kissing a lot. 😊


And now my drama watching report.

I finished:

Love is for the Dogs

It was a lovely and adorable drama with a sweet happy ending. I was trying very hard not to get my hopes up about this drama ending with a proper threeway, because the finale teaser was very suggestive IMO. And it is a Japanese drama, so it could happen. Well, it didn’t, but even without it I enjoyed this cute, little drama a lot.

The Winning Try

It was fine and I enjoyed it. It was the best when the drama focused on the students and an underdog rugby team, and not on the school politics and disappointingly boring villains. Sometimes there was too much of the latter and not enough of the former IMO. But it was good when it was about the bonds between the rugby players, and about Ga Ram being an unconventional and inspirational couch. The romantic relationships were very much in the background in this drama, and I liked that, too. And I even ended up enjoying a cute budding romance between two students, and a mature and complicated exes-to-lovers relationship between Ga Ram and Bae I Ji.


I’m still watching:

Kill to Love

It finished airing, but I still haven’t see the last four episodes, because something happened in episode 8 that dampen my interest. Don’t get me wrong, it is entertaining. And everyone is so pretty. But I guess I wasn’t very deeply invested after all.

Major spoilers here.

I found the main couple fine, but nothing special. Even if on paper it does sound like my kind of thing. But I was much more interested in the secondary pairing that gave me heaps of loyalty kink. And it’s a dark and fucked up flavor of loyalty kink. I loved it. I was also very much into a complicated and intense relationship between two princely brothers. And the death of the Crown Prince in episode 8 meant no more of my two favorite things in future episodes.

I do plan to watch those four episodes soon. But mainly because I want to have the knowledge of the whole canon in hope I will have a fix-it fic with the Crown Prince being alive to read in the future. 😊

Shine

Episodes 5 and 6 were excellent. But I’m so anxious about the last two episodes. I’m preparing for a lot of angst and heartbreak.

More with spoilers here.

Wow, switching in a BL drama, that’s something you don’t see often. 😊 Or like at all. They only allude to it sometimes. I haven’t seen a BL drama explicitly showing it yet. Although apparently it happened in Suntiny, too, which I still haven’t watched.

After it happened I thought that it would be so cool if they went with ApoMile instead of MileApo for Trin and Tanwa’s first time. And they did. And it was hot and perfect. ♥

About more serious matters - I’m so scared for Naran. He says to Krailert that he cares more about fighting for change for the country than his own safety. It’s obvious that Naran was torn between his love for Krailert and his morals and doing his job as a journalist right. And at the end, as we see in episode 6, the latter won.

And after what happened to Win, I think Krailert is terrified that the same thing will happen to Naran now.

Also I was pretty sure that Trin and Tanwa would get their happy ever after, but after these two episodes I’m not so sure anymore. It probably won’t end happily for them, either.

Also I dipped briefly into tumblr’s Shine tag and I’m so amused by majority of fans being so invested in Shine’s background het couple (just like I am), and urging Dhevi to just have an affair with Veera already.

Affair

My newest love and obsession. I love Harmony Secret a lot, but this drama speaks to my id even stronger than Harmony Secret. And I have only one last episode left to watch. And then I think I’ll start a re-watch. And write at least one fic. Probably more. 😊

A bit more with mild spoilers here.

Wan is like a character made exactly for me. I love her so completely. I love that Wan isn’t simply in love with Pleng, she’s obsessed with Pleng. That love is Wan’s reason for living, for doing what she’s doing all her life, even for becoming a doctor.

And Wan’s love is possessive and controlling. Ahhh, that scene when Wan gets angry and drags Pleng home just because Ek tried to kiss Pleng’s hand. And then she says: “I don’t like anyone touching you.” Her intense jealous possessiveness pushed my buttons so hard.

This kind of possessive and controlling love interest doesn't work for me at all in M/F pairings, and only rarely and in special circumstance works for me in M/M pairings. But give me F/F version and I will eat it up with a spoon every time. 😊

And wow, Lookmhee and Sonya’s NC scenes are hot, hot, hot. I would make gifs, but I still prefer not to strain my elbow too much. Even writing this post took me three days. But the official playlist on youtube have an uncensored version, so you can see it for yourself in episodes 5 and 6, if you want to. 😊

I dropped:

Twelve

I watched the first two episodes. It was mildly entertaining, and Park Hyung Sik makes a very sexy villain with those beautiful black wings. But I feel like the plot should move a bit quicker when they have only 8 episodes. But no, in these two episodes a lot of time was dedicated to, frankly speaking, not even very good fights instead of character development for our main characters. At the end of episode 2 I realized I didn’t care for any of the heroes, and that the villain was sexy, but also rather boring. So I don’t plan to watch the rest.

Doctor’s Mine

I rarely anti-rec things. But this is an anti-rec from me.

I take back everything I said about this drama being surprisingly good about consent issues. I dropped it after episode 5, and I haven’t watched the next episodes, only read discussions on reddit and tumblr, because I was so disappointed. And I’m glad I didn’t watch them. Because even reading about it was infuriating. It ruined Mon and Pak’s storyline for me, too.

Here is a good post on tumblr explaining what happened in episodes 5 and 6, if you want to know more.