Im also waiting 😭 pete better get his ass caught in ep8
I would like to apologise for the person I become when VP drops. I apologise now cause I sure as hell won't be apologising when it begins, I'll be in too deep 🤩
I simp pretty hard for Pete too tbh, he seems so goofball but his little psycho side shines thru sometimes and we're reminded that this man's a ruthless bodyguard for a mafia family. 🤩
Im also waiting 😭 pete better get his ass caught in ep8
The way I want BOC to end an episode with Vegas opening the closet door and Pete having his gun pointed at him. COME ON TAWAN DO UR SHIT SO THE VEGASPETE STORYLINE CAN BE ON ITS WAY.
Y'all, where my vegaspete simps at. I'm out here praying for a few more crumbs of vegaspete every episode and then OBSESS over the few interactions that we get. It's a hard knock life...for us 😭😭
I don't really see how KinnPorsche is "toxic", but that word has ceased to mean anything because it's applied…
If you go off the book then yeah there are definitely toxic elements in the kinnporsche relationships (esp vegaspete, bless their souls that couple's gonna cause trouble when their story airs) BUT the difference is that so far in the SHOW, the "toxicity" is handled well (i.e. not glamorized or romantacised). So are the relationships kinda toxic? Yeah but the show's great.
I disagree with quite a few of those "toxic" relationships (the last 3 specifically) but with tharntype - beyond type's homophobia (which is addressed and at least somewhat explored), it's tharn I have the biggest problem with. Beyond kissing ur roomates without consent, he also gave him a handjob as type told him to stop and it was just NEVER addressed. So not a big fan.
I do think, however, that the word "toxic" is often confused with "complicated". Many of these relationships are complicated and layered but are the show's toxic? Arguable.
In response to my comment that this series was not a Bl I will concede that perhaps I over-reacted just as some…
I would like to explain, in a less attacking manner why what you said WAS as problematic and received with as much criticism as it was:
1. You began by saying this was not a BL because it is violent, gory and has dark themes. While you have since redacted the comment, i will explain why the initial backlash was as violent as it was. I'm not sure how long you have been in this community but I've been around since the original "Make it right" and "Lovesick" days. As such, i have had both the honour and sadness in witnessing the gruellingly slow development of both the Thai and international BL industry. To give some quick background, BL (derived from the yaoi genre in Japan) was initially (and still often is) targeted towards young STRAIGHT females who like to watch cute guys partaking in cute or just borderline hot actions together. It was riddled with problematic stereotyping, superficial caricatures and tropes that are till this day prevalent and a hinderance to the pro-LGBTQ+ movement. As such, it has been a great challenge and an even greater achievement that the BL industry (with the prompting of fans and the entrance of serious, dedicated directors) has finally begun moving away from such storylines. Even still, shows like "Manner of Death" and "Not Me" and especially "KinnPorsche" are extremely few and far between. Thus, i hope you can understand how your original statement could be perceived as the embodiment of everything so many of us have been desperately (and, until recently, one-sidedly) fighting for.
2. The Putin comparison I will state right here, right now that i do not know where you are from nor do i pretend to understand the circumstances of your day-to-day life. However, to compare a fictional series and Kinn, a fictional mafia boss, to a war which has stolen the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of civilians and the tyrannical dictator who has sent both his own soldiers as well as innocent Ukrainians to die like sheep in a slaughter house is - at best - insensitive (and at worst, completely and utterly ignorant). I will not go further into this point but i am a firm believer that comparisons such as these cannot be made in good taste.
I would like to conclude by saying that i scrolled down to see both of your prior responses before this one and I will say that while there were people being just plain mean, there were far more people educating and explaining. In both of your previous posts, i have read replies of people very calmly explaining what i have restated here in painstaking detail. As such, i must wonder why it has taken 2 different comment threads for you to even begin to consider that perhaps it was your (quite obv flawed) definition of BL that was the core problem and not "people not watching enough BLs" as you previously stated.
I hope i was able to convey my points across effectively and wish you the best.
TL/DR: A very interesting and promising start to what is surely the single most anticipated BL of all time. Let us come together and pray that it can live up to the hype.
PS. If you like this review, make sure to follow my thread above for more weekly updates :)
Hey Hey!! Welcome to week 1 of what i hope will be 14 weeks (jeez that's a long time) of reviewing fun. I'm your friendly neighbourhood Sultana and this is a review of KinnPorche Episode 1.
So episode one is out and about and i have some mixed feelings.
The episode began with what i thought was an alright segment, however i wasn't feeling Kinn's intro as much as i was Porsche's. Perhaps it was the music, choice of low angle semi-steady shots or just the overall stereotypical Italian mafia set-up that i wasn't a fan of (or perhaps a special concoction of all three), but it wasn't as striking as the trailer had set it up to be. The acting was also somewhat stiff but that may have been due to the (at some points triple) linguistical changes that all involved (especially P' Mile) had to work with. Contrastingly, Porsche's suave, larger than life introduction as the sexy front man that everyone wants was set up very well in my opinion. One thing that i love about this show is the constant reinforcement of the primary colour palette (neon red and blue). This is established brilliantly in the background of the intro sequences, with the primary colours of the respective characters (red for Kinn, blue for Porsche) slowly mingling together as the scene went on. This came to an epic culmination when they met, both the colours and worlds colliding with a bang. I especially liked the spinning corridor bathed in blue light shot immediately before Kinn met Porsche. It was an experimental shot and was, unlike a few of the other shots in the intro (the car scenes with Kinn esp, the filming of which made it feel very shaky and claustrophobic), executed very well.
Pivoting slightly to the fight scene that followed their meeting, I must give P' Apo props for executing that fighting sequence so well. It looked bomb in the trailer and the real thing didn't disappoint either. Which is why the shooting of this scene made me a bit frustrated. I loved the choreography of the fight and yet some shots were unnecessarily sped up and the jump cuts were clustered in such away that the fight scene seemed more disjointed. In contrast, the slower fight scene when Porsche was doing his underground fighting was paced better (if anything, it could've been sped up just a tad bit more).
Getting to the actual first interactions between Kinn and Porsche, i think this is where the episode starting turning for me and went from "mmm it's okay" to "damn okay". In my humble opinion, Apo and Mile have electric chemistry. They seriously light up the screen when they're together and as much as i loved Porsche's usual mouthing off, him mouthing off to Kinn was even better to watch. They have a really fun dynamic and one which grows even more fun as the episode wears on. I love that at no point was Porsche intimidated by Kinn, perhaps a little afraid for his family's safety, but never was Porsche's presence dimmed because of Kinn's domineering one. This smoothly brings us to the characterisation of Kinn and Porsche.
We have yet to get very much of Kinn, other than the fact that he's hot headed and rash in his actions. He does seem to be well respected among his bodyguards, which is perhaps a testament to his character as a leader but very little of that has actually been shown. This is understandable as the show's protagonist is Porsche and thus, we won't get more of Kinn until Porsche is actually in his presence (which will hopefully be from next episode onwards). Porsche's characterisation, on the other hand, was done splendidly By P' Apo. I've read from the novel readers that Porsche is supposed to posses a level of delicate naivety and I see it so well in the way P' Apo plays Porsche. Though his character is presented as this larger than life figure, his genuine belief in the people around him as well as his somewhat shallow understanding of just how deep of a shit hole he's about to jump into is very endearing. He isn't stupid, he's human and that makes me want to root for him. Porsche's scenes with Chay are also so heart-wrenching. As a big sister myself, I know how fast i would jump into a pit of lions to save my brother (both literally and metaphorically) so Porsche's resolve to figure it all out by himself is incredibly relatable. On a complete side note, i am fascinated to see what kind of person Chay will grow up to be. Assuming the boy has grown up in a pretty unstable and tough situation, i would want to see how this reflects on the choices he makes as an adult.
A few other noteworthy things:
the music -> it's lovely. Aside from the fact that i LOVED (and was impatiently counting down the days till the release of) "Free fall" by slot machine, the simple background music is very well done. I like the slight European (specifically italian if i'm not mistaken) influence some of the sequences have. A nice and subtle nod to the roots of this story. The crescendos in the second half of the show are well placed and the music builds quite smoothly, especially when Kinn and Porsche interact. There are some places where the classic BL sound effects come in and as this is a more sophisticated show, it feels very out of place. However, it doesn't take away too much from the overall quality Kinn's English -> I saw a bit of criticism for P' Mile's English in the negotiation scene and also people ridiculing the use of English at all but i think that criticism is not really fair. Welcome to the international business trade man. Often times, multimillion dollar enterprises (or in this case, Mafia families) will come from all over the globe. The 2 heads communicating in English is VERY realistic as Kinn obv doesn't speak Italian very well and there was no implication the Italian boss spoke Thai at all. Plus, as English is such a (quote unquote) "universal" language, it would make sense that someone brought up to become the next mafia family head would have at least a sound grasp of the language.
"People say i'm more like my mum" -> perfect delivery, perfect follow up action, perfect atmosphere created. This scene was incredibly hot, props to P' Mile
Kinn easily beating up Porsche -> somewhat of a logical fallacy. Though i found the idea that someone as notorious as Kinn wouldn't move around with more heavy duty security to be a logical fallacy on all its own. All in all, I'm not sure of a sound explanation as to why Kinn could take down Porsche so easily but not the 4 crooks that Porsche could take down so easily. Maybe the guy was having an off day or something, who knows <_>
The CGI blood -> not too distracting but rlly funny once you notice. It rlly splurts out XD
P'Perth randomly speaking in English -> FUNNY. Bro istg every show he's in they're like "we have a native speaker, we must show it off even if it's out of place". This is the only time where i'd say the English rlly wasn't necessary but i'm not mad cause we got to hear P' Perth. Aussies represent man, someone's gotta ;-;
Overall, the first half of this episode was good but nothing spectacular but the show really (and very rapidly) evolved to something a lot more fun as the episode went on. The 1st episode of a show is often the rockiest as the bearings haven't been fully established yet so I'm looking forward to how this show evolves over time.
That's more balanced than most people have been, but I think you're a little hard on the team. These are teenagers…
And you've convinced me on the Fah front. My anger from the team bled into Fah and I didn't consider how horribly upsetting this had been for him as well. I do agree that Fah proclaiming he could never hate Thorn showed a great deal of resolve on his front and that he would never leave Thorn without a fight. Great discussed! :)
That's more balanced than most people have been, but I think you're a little hard on the team. These are teenagers…
I think my love for P'Suar and his portrayal of Thorn sparked a protective streak in me when it came to Thorn but I do want to discuss some of the things you've brought up (because this show is realistic and complex in all the best ways and really should be analysed more!).
About the teammates - I agree that they are on the younger side but I think i was harsher on them because I'm also their age. A close friend of mine went through a similar situation (not a athletic injury but a life-altering situation which caused them to retreat into themselves and become a bit of an ass) and I found their reactions to be too quick to turn their backs on Thorn. the GC was somewhat acceptable and perhaps even appropriate - i will retract my comment on that - however the whole team meeting up behind Thorn's back not to discuss the situation but just to grab drinks and chill? If it was me, the devastation i would've felt at seeing that would have been immeasurable. Post this scene, the show didn't really show the teammates attempting to talk to Thorn or understand why he made the decisions he did (or hear him out at all really). And i found that regardless of age, that was inexcusable. BUT this is all talking of what HAD happened rather than ep11 itself.
In ep11, Thorn is as asshole. Point blank periodt. He is unnecessarily aggressive, single minded, disrespectful and most importantly - behaving exactly like the players who caused his injury in the first place (i think the cyclic nature of this is kinda cool too when you notice it). My comment focused a lot more on what could have spear-headed this massive change in character but i don't doubt that after a while, it wasn't feasible to talk to Thorn anymore. The only person he actively listened to was Coach Tuan (another character which ep11 gave more depth to which i appreciated). i just found it rather difficult to get passed the team's very initial handling of the situation -> before Thorn became a total asshole (or when his transformation was only just starting)
Moving slightly to Fah, i really can't blame him for what happened. He was also super busy with training and simply didn't have all that time to give Thorn the support he needed at the time. And Thorn's decision to move out (although i wish he had at least told Fah his intentions) was him choosing to finally do something for himself. Now i find it interesting to consider the alternate, if Fah had been the one who retreated like this what would have Thorn done? Tbh, from ep2-3 i like to think Thorn would have found a way to reach Fah (even if that wasn't physical presence) but we cant really be sure of that. The only thing i will say is that i don't think Thorn would have ever questioned his feelings for Fah, but that's just difference in character (and not Fah's fault at all).
Shuffling sideways to Champ, i didn't really mention him at all in my comment because i genuinely don't think there's anything to fault him in. He tried to help Fah get Thorn back, supported Fah in his training and started getting aggressive with Thorn cause Thorn was being aggressive first. While Thorn views Chain as front and centre in some of his insecurities, truth be told Chain is a complete outsider to this relationship and owes either of them nothing. He just wanted his team to do well and he played the way he needed to.
All in all, i completely agree about this show portraying complex and flawed characters and i love how it doesn't shy away from either the existence or consequences of these flaws (esp in the MC/ML - i.e. Thorn and Fah). Thank you for replying to my comment btw! I enjoyed reading a different angle and it put a few things into perspective as well :)
y'all it's been a hot second but the last few episodes have been quite the ride and i didn't think the material was substantial enough (or persuasive enough) for a full dissection. This takes a sharp turn in Ep11 though as we face a full episode dedicated entirely to ThornFah.
I've said it once and I'll say it again, P'Suar is one of the (if not the) best actors on this show. Beyond being a phenomenal actor, his portrayal of Thorn is just. so. human. i won't lie, this episode made me INCREDIBLY upset about everyone around Thorn and made me want to whisk into the show and steal him away cause wtf was that. I will say i have seen a lot of people complaining about Thorn being an asshole (which he was) BUT i think that's a rlly shallow interpretation of what i think is a very not shallow episode. The last 2 episodes i think set up very well Thorn's downward spiral. This is a kid who not only single-handedly created this grp when no one else thought it to be of importance but recruited the coach, inspired P'Fah to play again and then risked his health and career in order to help his team win finals (idgaf what you say, if thorn had been benched when he was supposed to be - i.e. once he was injured - they would not have won, Fah or no Fah). And then, when a life-altering injury threatened to bench him from the game for 9 months (a massive amount of time for a top athlete), his friends created a gc behind his back and proceeded to have get togethers without him (the camp scene in ep9 made me so mad i almost threw up when his so called teammates rushed to him when Thorn found out about their little randevu). That was without a doubt the first signs of how SHIT his teammates were during his recovery. They didn't try to understand how mentally destroying this situation was for Thorn and instead villainised him when he lashed out from hurt. Those are not real teammates and they certainly aren't friends (let's be real, his only true friend in this series was Saen, the speed at which he defended Thorn when P'Vee made that Coach Tuan comment in ep11 was a breath of fresh air). So you can imagine my unending fury when the show implied that Thorn apologised to his shit-head teammates only as if he was some bad guy (he's human ffs, and they were just as shitty to him if not even worse)
Fah i was more forgiving of. The man had a pretty impossible situation to deal with and he's been a bit of an idiot from the start when it comes to his feelings so Fah questioning his feelings for Thorn with Chain was quite realistic (he couldn't have known how much Thorn feared Chain's presence). That aside, even then i was upset at how easily he let Thorn slip into the darkness. Because we all know that Thorn would've never. For all the people who abandoned Thorn when he needed it the most, Thorn would have done everything in his willpower (and probably a bit more) to make sure they didn't spiral like he did. So y'know what, i'm glad Thorn chose himself for once (even if his execution was less than desirable). the locker scene softened my heart for Fah a bit more, he seemed to genuinely recognise that they had both made mistakes and his love and support is exactly what Thorn needed in that moment. The end basketball scene was rlly the icing on the cake for me, exquisitely shot and performed by both actors - there was something so human about Fah and Thorn's silent promises to love in spite of whatever faults of theirs may arise in the future (rather than for each other's virtues).
To conclude: I really hope Thorn gets better friends, i hope Fah stays by Thorn's side and continues to learn and grow, I hope we all may find a true friend like Saen and i hope more than anything else that Chaiyakorn basketball team (with the exception of Thorn) has a big bucket of wet, stinky mud thrown on them. :)
https://archiveofourown.org/tags/Pete%20Phongsakorn%20Saengtham*s*Vegas%20Kornwit%20Theerapanyakun/works?commit=Sort+and+Filter&page=1&work_search%5Bcomplete%5D=T&work_search%5Bcrossover%5D=&work_search%5Bdate_from%5D=&work_search%5Bdate_to%5D=&work_search%5Bexcluded_tag_names%5D=&work_search%5Blanguage_id%5D=&work_search%5Bother_tag_names%5D=&work_search%5Bquery%5D=&work_search%5Bsort_column%5D=kudos_count&work_search%5Bwords_from%5D=&work_search%5Bwords_to%5D=
Go thru here and see what you like. The first 2 r my personal faves. :)
I disagree with quite a few of those "toxic" relationships (the last 3 specifically) but with tharntype - beyond type's homophobia (which is addressed and at least somewhat explored), it's tharn I have the biggest problem with. Beyond kissing ur roomates without consent, he also gave him a handjob as type told him to stop and it was just NEVER addressed. So not a big fan.
I do think, however, that the word "toxic" is often confused with "complicated". Many of these relationships are complicated and layered but are the show's toxic? Arguable.
1. You began by saying this was not a BL because it is violent, gory and has dark themes.
While you have since redacted the comment, i will explain why the initial backlash was as violent as it was. I'm not sure how long you have been in this community but I've been around since the original "Make it right" and "Lovesick" days. As such, i have had both the honour and sadness in witnessing the gruellingly slow development of both the Thai and international BL industry. To give some quick background, BL (derived from the yaoi genre in Japan) was initially (and still often is) targeted towards young STRAIGHT females who like to watch cute guys partaking in cute or just borderline hot actions together. It was riddled with problematic stereotyping, superficial caricatures and tropes that are till this day prevalent and a hinderance to the pro-LGBTQ+ movement. As such, it has been a great challenge and an even greater achievement that the BL industry (with the prompting of fans and the entrance of serious, dedicated directors) has finally begun moving away from such storylines. Even still, shows like "Manner of Death" and "Not Me" and especially "KinnPorsche" are extremely few and far between. Thus, i hope you can understand how your original statement could be perceived as the embodiment of everything so many of us have been desperately (and, until recently, one-sidedly) fighting for.
2. The Putin comparison
I will state right here, right now that i do not know where you are from nor do i pretend to understand the circumstances of your day-to-day life. However, to compare a fictional series and Kinn, a fictional mafia boss, to a war which has stolen the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of civilians and the tyrannical dictator who has sent both his own soldiers as well as innocent Ukrainians to die like sheep in a slaughter house is - at best - insensitive (and at worst, completely and utterly ignorant). I will not go further into this point but i am a firm believer that comparisons such as these cannot be made in good taste.
I would like to conclude by saying that i scrolled down to see both of your prior responses before this one and I will say that while there were people being just plain mean, there were far more people educating and explaining. In both of your previous posts, i have read replies of people very calmly explaining what i have restated here in painstaking detail. As such, i must wonder why it has taken 2 different comment threads for you to even begin to consider that perhaps it was your (quite obv flawed) definition of BL that was the core problem and not "people not watching enough BLs" as you previously stated.
I hope i was able to convey my points across effectively and wish you the best.
PS. If you like this review, make sure to follow my thread above for more weekly updates :)
Hey Hey!! Welcome to week 1 of what i hope will be 14 weeks (jeez that's a long time) of reviewing fun. I'm your friendly neighbourhood Sultana and this is a review of KinnPorche Episode 1.
So episode one is out and about and i have some mixed feelings.
The episode began with what i thought was an alright segment, however i wasn't feeling Kinn's intro as much as i was Porsche's. Perhaps it was the music, choice of low angle semi-steady shots or just the overall stereotypical Italian mafia set-up that i wasn't a fan of (or perhaps a special concoction of all three), but it wasn't as striking as the trailer had set it up to be. The acting was also somewhat stiff but that may have been due to the (at some points triple) linguistical changes that all involved (especially P' Mile) had to work with. Contrastingly, Porsche's suave, larger than life introduction as the sexy front man that everyone wants was set up very well in my opinion. One thing that i love about this show is the constant reinforcement of the primary colour palette (neon red and blue). This is established brilliantly in the background of the intro sequences, with the primary colours of the respective characters (red for Kinn, blue for Porsche) slowly mingling together as the scene went on. This came to an epic culmination when they met, both the colours and worlds colliding with a bang. I especially liked the spinning corridor bathed in blue light shot immediately before Kinn met Porsche. It was an experimental shot and was, unlike a few of the other shots in the intro (the car scenes with Kinn esp, the filming of which made it feel very shaky and claustrophobic), executed very well.
Pivoting slightly to the fight scene that followed their meeting, I must give P' Apo props for executing that fighting sequence so well. It looked bomb in the trailer and the real thing didn't disappoint either. Which is why the shooting of this scene made me a bit frustrated. I loved the choreography of the fight and yet some shots were unnecessarily sped up and the jump cuts were clustered in such away that the fight scene seemed more disjointed. In contrast, the slower fight scene when Porsche was doing his underground fighting was paced better (if anything, it could've been sped up just a tad bit more).
Getting to the actual first interactions between Kinn and Porsche, i think this is where the episode starting turning for me and went from "mmm it's okay" to "damn okay". In my humble opinion, Apo and Mile have electric chemistry. They seriously light up the screen when they're together and as much as i loved Porsche's usual mouthing off, him mouthing off to Kinn was even better to watch. They have a really fun dynamic and one which grows even more fun as the episode wears on. I love that at no point was Porsche intimidated by Kinn, perhaps a little afraid for his family's safety, but never was Porsche's presence dimmed because of Kinn's domineering one. This smoothly brings us to the characterisation of Kinn and Porsche.
We have yet to get very much of Kinn, other than the fact that he's hot headed and rash in his actions. He does seem to be well respected among his bodyguards, which is perhaps a testament to his character as a leader but very little of that has actually been shown. This is understandable as the show's protagonist is Porsche and thus, we won't get more of Kinn until Porsche is actually in his presence (which will hopefully be from next episode onwards). Porsche's characterisation, on the other hand, was done splendidly By P' Apo. I've read from the novel readers that Porsche is supposed to posses a level of delicate naivety and I see it so well in the way P' Apo plays Porsche. Though his character is presented as this larger than life figure, his genuine belief in the people around him as well as his somewhat shallow understanding of just how deep of a shit hole he's about to jump into is very endearing. He isn't stupid, he's human and that makes me want to root for him. Porsche's scenes with Chay are also so heart-wrenching. As a big sister myself, I know how fast i would jump into a pit of lions to save my brother (both literally and metaphorically) so Porsche's resolve to figure it all out by himself is incredibly relatable. On a complete side note, i am fascinated to see what kind of person Chay will grow up to be. Assuming the boy has grown up in a pretty unstable and tough situation, i would want to see how this reflects on the choices he makes as an adult.
A few other noteworthy things:
the music -> it's lovely. Aside from the fact that i LOVED (and was impatiently counting down the days till the release of) "Free fall" by slot machine, the simple background music is very well done. I like the slight European (specifically italian if i'm not mistaken) influence some of the sequences have. A nice and subtle nod to the roots of this story. The crescendos in the second half of the show are well placed and the music builds quite smoothly, especially when Kinn and Porsche interact. There are some places where the classic BL sound effects come in and as this is a more sophisticated show, it feels very out of place. However, it doesn't take away too much from the overall quality
Kinn's English -> I saw a bit of criticism for P' Mile's English in the negotiation scene and also people ridiculing the use of English at all but i think that criticism is not really fair. Welcome to the international business trade man. Often times, multimillion dollar enterprises (or in this case, Mafia families) will come from all over the globe. The 2 heads communicating in English is VERY realistic as Kinn obv doesn't speak Italian very well and there was no implication the Italian boss spoke Thai at all. Plus, as English is such a (quote unquote) "universal" language, it would make sense that someone brought up to become the next mafia family head would have at least a sound grasp of the language.
"People say i'm more like my mum" -> perfect delivery, perfect follow up action, perfect atmosphere created. This scene was incredibly hot, props to P' Mile
Kinn easily beating up Porsche -> somewhat of a logical fallacy. Though i found the idea that someone as notorious as Kinn wouldn't move around with more heavy duty security to be a logical fallacy on all its own. All in all, I'm not sure of a sound explanation as to why Kinn could take down Porsche so easily but not the 4 crooks that Porsche could take down so easily. Maybe the guy was having an off day or something, who knows <_>
The CGI blood -> not too distracting but rlly funny once you notice. It rlly splurts out XD
P'Perth randomly speaking in English -> FUNNY. Bro istg every show he's in they're like "we have a native speaker, we must show it off even if it's out of place". This is the only time where i'd say the English rlly wasn't necessary but i'm not mad cause we got to hear P' Perth. Aussies represent man, someone's gotta ;-;
Overall, the first half of this episode was good but nothing spectacular but the show really (and very rapidly) evolved to something a lot more fun as the episode went on. The 1st episode of a show is often the rockiest as the bearings haven't been fully established yet so I'm looking forward to how this show evolves over time.
That's all from me <3
About the teammates - I agree that they are on the younger side but I think i was harsher on them because I'm also their age. A close friend of mine went through a similar situation (not a athletic injury but a life-altering situation which caused them to retreat into themselves and become a bit of an ass) and I found their reactions to be too quick to turn their backs on Thorn. the GC was somewhat acceptable and perhaps even appropriate - i will retract my comment on that - however the whole team meeting up behind Thorn's back not to discuss the situation but just to grab drinks and chill? If it was me, the devastation i would've felt at seeing that would have been immeasurable. Post this scene, the show didn't really show the teammates attempting to talk to Thorn or understand why he made the decisions he did (or hear him out at all really). And i found that regardless of age, that was inexcusable. BUT this is all talking of what HAD happened rather than ep11 itself.
In ep11, Thorn is as asshole. Point blank periodt. He is unnecessarily aggressive, single minded, disrespectful and most importantly - behaving exactly like the players who caused his injury in the first place (i think the cyclic nature of this is kinda cool too when you notice it). My comment focused a lot more on what could have spear-headed this massive change in character but i don't doubt that after a while, it wasn't feasible to talk to Thorn anymore. The only person he actively listened to was Coach Tuan (another character which ep11 gave more depth to which i appreciated). i just found it rather difficult to get passed the team's very initial handling of the situation -> before Thorn became a total asshole (or when his transformation was only just starting)
Moving slightly to Fah, i really can't blame him for what happened. He was also super busy with training and simply didn't have all that time to give Thorn the support he needed at the time. And Thorn's decision to move out (although i wish he had at least told Fah his intentions) was him choosing to finally do something for himself. Now i find it interesting to consider the alternate, if Fah had been the one who retreated like this what would have Thorn done? Tbh, from ep2-3 i like to think Thorn would have found a way to reach Fah (even if that wasn't physical presence) but we cant really be sure of that. The only thing i will say is that i don't think Thorn would have ever questioned his feelings for Fah, but that's just difference in character (and not Fah's fault at all).
Shuffling sideways to Champ, i didn't really mention him at all in my comment because i genuinely don't think there's anything to fault him in. He tried to help Fah get Thorn back, supported Fah in his training and started getting aggressive with Thorn cause Thorn was being aggressive first. While Thorn views Chain as front and centre in some of his insecurities, truth be told Chain is a complete outsider to this relationship and owes either of them nothing. He just wanted his team to do well and he played the way he needed to.
All in all, i completely agree about this show portraying complex and flawed characters and i love how it doesn't shy away from either the existence or consequences of these flaws (esp in the MC/ML - i.e. Thorn and Fah). Thank you for replying to my comment btw! I enjoyed reading a different angle and it put a few things into perspective as well :)
y'all it's been a hot second but the last few episodes have been quite the ride and i didn't think the material was substantial enough (or persuasive enough) for a full dissection. This takes a sharp turn in Ep11 though as we face a full episode dedicated entirely to ThornFah.
I've said it once and I'll say it again, P'Suar is one of the (if not the) best actors on this show. Beyond being a phenomenal actor, his portrayal of Thorn is just. so. human. i won't lie, this episode made me INCREDIBLY upset about everyone around Thorn and made me want to whisk into the show and steal him away cause wtf was that. I will say i have seen a lot of people complaining about Thorn being an asshole (which he was) BUT i think that's a rlly shallow interpretation of what i think is a very not shallow episode. The last 2 episodes i think set up very well Thorn's downward spiral. This is a kid who not only single-handedly created this grp when no one else thought it to be of importance but recruited the coach, inspired P'Fah to play again and then risked his health and career in order to help his team win finals (idgaf what you say, if thorn had been benched when he was supposed to be - i.e. once he was injured - they would not have won, Fah or no Fah). And then, when a life-altering injury threatened to bench him from the game for 9 months (a massive amount of time for a top athlete), his friends created a gc behind his back and proceeded to have get togethers without him (the camp scene in ep9 made me so mad i almost threw up when his so called teammates rushed to him when Thorn found out about their little randevu). That was without a doubt the first signs of how SHIT his teammates were during his recovery. They didn't try to understand how mentally destroying this situation was for Thorn and instead villainised him when he lashed out from hurt. Those are not real teammates and they certainly aren't friends (let's be real, his only true friend in this series was Saen, the speed at which he defended Thorn when P'Vee made that Coach Tuan comment in ep11 was a breath of fresh air). So you can imagine my unending fury when the show implied that Thorn apologised to his shit-head teammates only as if he was some bad guy (he's human ffs, and they were just as shitty to him if not even worse)
Fah i was more forgiving of. The man had a pretty impossible situation to deal with and he's been a bit of an idiot from the start when it comes to his feelings so Fah questioning his feelings for Thorn with Chain was quite realistic (he couldn't have known how much Thorn feared Chain's presence). That aside, even then i was upset at how easily he let Thorn slip into the darkness. Because we all know that Thorn would've never. For all the people who abandoned Thorn when he needed it the most, Thorn would have done everything in his willpower (and probably a bit more) to make sure they didn't spiral like he did. So y'know what, i'm glad Thorn chose himself for once (even if his execution was less than desirable). the locker scene softened my heart for Fah a bit more, he seemed to genuinely recognise that they had both made mistakes and his love and support is exactly what Thorn needed in that moment. The end basketball scene was rlly the icing on the cake for me, exquisitely shot and performed by both actors - there was something so human about Fah and Thorn's silent promises to love in spite of whatever faults of theirs may arise in the future (rather than for each other's virtues).
To conclude: I really hope Thorn gets better friends, i hope Fah stays by Thorn's side and continues to learn and grow, I hope we all may find a true friend like Saen and i hope more than anything else that Chaiyakorn basketball team (with the exception of Thorn) has a big bucket of wet, stinky mud thrown on them. :)
That's all from me <3