JayBird

No one asked you to be an abusive husband or try to get your brothers killed. That was ALLLLLLL you.

The second prince is having his little tantrum and while I agree that, as a rule, kings seem to make for terrible fathers, my man you are definitely the MAIN problem here.

If the second prince tripped on a rock and died in his own pond, it'd be the only good deed he'd be involved in in his life.

Dear dramas, don't include children if you can't write them well 🙏

It's a little draggy and repetitive at times (could definitely have been shorter) but I'm getting pretty much exactly what I expect based on the synopsis and the other stuff I saw around the drama.

Honestly currently (12/16) my biggest issue are the product placements. It's been a while since I've watched a drama where they've been so obvious I take against the products out of sheer spite.

A little bold of you to assume I missed the appearance of once of my favourite author's works in a drama I watched.

Unfortunately you can link it to End of Eternity as much as you want but that does not change the fact that in delivery, in handling of the age gap and most importantly the tropes and tone the drama itself uses in its storytelling. It even goes so far to celebrate her dedication to her youthful crush in the final 2 episodes. Does it tackle the age gap and explore what it means? 100% but not in terms of it being a cautionary tale but rather the "right" way to do things (it contrasts this with SZ's fake online boyfriend who would have been truly predatory had he existed) as well what it means to transition from childhood to adolescence to adulthood.

As for the period scene, of course he said he wasn't her brother because he, very literally, isn't. It's an admission of discomfort and embarrassment around something he wouldn't normally be confronted with as well as an acknowledgement that he is not close enough the SZ to be buying her period products without someone who is actually her family. That would have been crossing a line and he didn't want to cross it. The red flag would have been him not involving SY.

While I agree that the drama showcases the 14/19 and 17/22 are inappropriate in terms of actually coming to fruition as a relationship I'm going to have to disagree with your view that it does so through DJX's actions or that it is a commentary on 14 being the age of consent in China.

DJX is painted as completely unaware of SZ's crush on him and, much to her irritation, treats her like the child she is. Instead we see the SZ's feelings, while intense, are childish and half-formed and marked by an innocence that would mean an actual relationship would be inappropriate. It's puppy love and the show takes great care in showing the difference between that and the mature love she develops as an adult at 19 and it is only once that change has happened that DJX begins to see her as a romantic partner.

In terms of it being a commentary of the age of consent being 14 in China, it would be a very poor one if it was. 14 year old SZ does not, at any point, have to deal with what that means for her (thank goodness). Instead she is allowed to exist, innocently, with a crush, as many children her age do without having to worry about what that means. and, tonally, the drama would be completely off if it wanted to tackle such a difficult and tricky subject. The discomfort some people feel is normal if they have issues with age gaps but not intentional on the part of the writers.

I think the point they're making is that nearly everyone is obsessed with that mind set and its causing them and others harm and making them worse sports people. Every time it's been said it either by someone who's clearly got too much pressure or the person putting the pressure on other.

The first 2 episodes were so promising but one scene in episode 5 gave me the ick so badly (and I don't use that term lightly, my skin was actually crawling) that I had to drop it.

Why did they have to add the romance? Please stop flirting with her when she thinks you're her little brother 🤮

This show could have been so much better if they'd dropped the trope that all MLs and FLs have to get together, their relationship could have been so much more interesting other than something that seemed to amount to pseudo-incest.

And it's a shame it pivoted so wildly because the first 3-4 episodes did genuinely have me in tears at some points, watching Geum Ju try to work through everything.

This show could purely have focused on the struggles of a recovering alcoholic and it would have been better for it.

Fair enough, but honestly to me it read as a teen boy clumsily try to navigate a situation he didn't fully understand nor was equipped to deal with. It was always an interesting parallel to me, that out of all the characters Chanyoung was the one to experience outright homophobia and thus had more of a stake in Heesu being happy but also safe. Heesu was alone but so was Chanyoung and, at what 14/15? , he really didn't know how best to help, he just knew he wanted to.

Agreed, his personality and actions wouldn't quite work in the same way.

It's available on Tappytoon in full.

Irc there's also a really lovely moment where Chanyoung talks about how he wished he could have been more openly supportive of Heesu (i.e talking to him about being gay and helping him work through things) but that he couldn't think of a way to do it which wouldn't involve either essentially forcing Heesu to out himself to him, which (he didn't want to do, he wanted Heesu to come out when he was ready) or it coming across as a confrontation. He was so happy when Heesu came out 🥲

So I can see that Chanyoung is certainly the least popular of the characters at the moment despite the fact that his arc is the one that has experienced the most changes to attempt to flesh it out and give it more emotional depth. This is a bit of a shame, tbh, because, although he may not have had anywhere near as much focus, webtoon Chanyoung was pretty awesome.

In the Webtoon I'd say that, for the first few épisodes, Chanyoung, like his drama counterpart, was on shaky ground vis a vis being a good "best" friend. He was definitely /a/ friend to Heesu but he'd also frequently leave Heesu behind to spend time with other friends or hobbies and it didn't feel like he was as invested in their relationship as Heesu was.

And then we found out that Chanyoung had known about Heesu's crush on him since middle school and that changed everything.

We got to see the shock of the realisation from his perspective as well the journey that followed, from doing research and confronting his own socialised homophobia to being confronted by his family because they thought /he/ was gay (which really solidified his own worry for Heesu and how he would be treated if people found out) to doing some soul searching and confirming to himself that he was straight and wouldn't be able to give Heesu the kind of love he wanted but that he still cares for him deeply.

All this culminated in Chanyoung trying to work out how to protect Heesu and maintain their friendship. He tried to start creating soms distance between them to prevent people commenting on Heesu's semi-worship of him (it was one of these comments which clued him in to Heesu's crush) and tried, sometimes quite inelegantly, to help Heesu widen his social circle. He also tried to make sure that Heesu was never able to confess to him because he knew that while /he/ wouldn't mind, no amount of reassurance that it was okay would allow Heesu to feel comfortable around him following a rejection and that it would crush Heesu and ruin their friendship. Irc, in the webtoon there's a sequence where Chanyoung is actively derailing and self-sabotaging Heesu's attempted confessions.

Anyway, needless to say, Webtoon Chanyoung is delighted when he clocks Seungwon's crush on Heesu and immediately starts trying to nudge them together. He even sounds out Seungwon to both check he's right (and find out from a queer perspective what Heesu might be experiencing) although Seungwon thinks he's just being a dick at that point.

It's a shame that we haven't had this mini arc yet, it was a very sweet story about learning to be an ally (even if very clumsily). We might still get it, but it doesn't feel like we will; drama Changyoung seems much more oblivious and wrapped up in his own things. Maybe though, you never know!

How Chanyoung was a better friend in the Webtoon (put in spoilers for people who want to read the webtoon/in case the drama décides to go with the mini arc even though the sleepover is done and dusted):

Hmmm it seems that by focussing more on Chanyoung than the webtoon (and by giving him more of a story arc) the drama may have accidentally committed a little bit of character assassination. He was definitely on thin ice as a good friend for the first few eps of the webtoon but then had a mini arc that changed EVERYTHING and showed how good of a friend he was actually trying to be.

Obviously, there's still time for him to have that arc but I'm not sure if it'll land in the same way (or of it'll happen at all).

Also also the quiet message of "it's never too late". The journey to self discovery and self acceptance is a personal one; sometimes it happens quickly, others times it can take decades but, either way, 15 or 30 (or 60) you can be yourself and be happy.

Seungwon's mums, I really do love them so much ♥️ It's brief but it really highlights how important having positive queer role models is for queer youth both in terms of self discovery and being able to glimpse what their future could be.