K-Drama 
Still Don’t Know What the Oath Was…
As a huge The Last of Us fan, I was always going to be interested in a BL set during a zombie apocalypse. And The Last Oath certainly knows how to appeal to that particular weakness. The atmosphere, the immune protagonist, the fight for survival and the relationship at the centre of it all reminded me of The Last of Us, while the combination of zombies and romance also brought Warm Bodies to mind.
But the more I watched, the more I felt that someone had looked at the idea of The Last of Us, thought it would make a great BL, and then struggled to bring that vision to life. Even the title made me wonder how much inspiration was involved. And after 24 episodes, I was still left wondering which oath we were actually supposed to remember.
The most noticeable problem is the production itself. The AI use or what looks to me like AI-generated or AI-altered material is difficult to ignore, particularly in the intro, the music, the aerial shots and parts of the world surrounding the characters. Instead of making the apocalypse feel vast, desolate and threatening, some of these elements pulled me out of the story. The result often felt less like a fully realised post-apocalyptic world and more like a rough approximation of one.
Could the series have been better? Absolutely. Could more creative choices have produced a stronger result without leaning so heavily on AI? I think so.
But I also don't want to pretend that production budgets and industry pressures don't matter. BL is a competitive market, with new titles constantly fighting for attention. Building a convincing zombie apocalypse is expensive, and I can understand why a production with limited resources might look for shortcuts. Understanding that pressure, however, doesn't mean I have to accept the result without criticism.
AI is not just another harmless production tool. Its use raises serious questions about creative jobs, copyright, the value of human artistic work and environmental costs. We are already incorporating AI into so many parts of our everyday lives that it's becoming increasingly easy to stop questioning where and how it is used. I don't want that to happen with entertainment, either.
I can understand why a production might use AI without believing that we should simply accept it. A limited budget can explain a compromise, but it doesn't automatically make that compromise a good creative decision. And if we, as viewers, stop pointing out the difference, what incentive is there to do better?
That said, The Last Oath isn't a complete failure for me. Its biggest strength is also what makes its weaknesses so obvious: the two leads. Chen Liang and Chen Ming Hao carry so much of the series that almost everything else starts to feel secondary. The supporting characters, the side plots and even the wider conflict often seem to exist simply to give the main couple something to react to. The chemistry and dynamic between the leads were what kept me invested, and I genuinely think they could have carried a much more focused story.
The second couple, on the other hand, felt unnecessary. I would have preferred the two characters to be actual brothers, rather than adopted brothers whose relationship also takes a romantic turn. Their bond, their loyalty and the lengths one of them is willing to go to in order to save the other would have been just as understandable perhaps even more affecting without the romantic angle. For me, that storyline added very little to the series and distracted from what was already its strongest relationship.
The plot itself is full of holes, and the writing rarely makes the most of its premise. A zombie apocalypse, an immunity that makes someone a target, corrupt pharmaceutical companies and a relationship built around conflicting loyalties could have offered so much more than this. I never needed The Last Oath to reinvent the genre, but I did want it to do something more interesting with the ideas it had.
And yet, here's the inconvenient truth: I had fun.
For zombie-apocalypse fans, this series is practically catnip myself very much included. I watched it as a kind of scrappy, fan-made BL take on a genre I love, rather than as a serious attempt at prestige television. Once I stopped expecting the world-building and storytelling to live up to the ambition of the premise, I could enjoy the parts that worked for me.
That doesn't make the problems disappear, and it doesn't mean I think the production choices should go unquestioned. I can criticise the AI use, the writing, the unnecessary subplot and the missed potential while still appreciating the two actors who made the central relationship work.
The Last Oath is not a particularly strong series, nor is it a cinematic achievement. But it entertained me, it gave me a main couple I enjoyed watching, and it scratched a very specific zombie-apocalypse BL itch.
Sometimes a series can be a mess and still be fun. I just wish this one had given its own ideas and its actors — a better world to live in.
But the more I watched, the more I felt that someone had looked at the idea of The Last of Us, thought it would make a great BL, and then struggled to bring that vision to life. Even the title made me wonder how much inspiration was involved. And after 24 episodes, I was still left wondering which oath we were actually supposed to remember.
The most noticeable problem is the production itself. The AI use or what looks to me like AI-generated or AI-altered material is difficult to ignore, particularly in the intro, the music, the aerial shots and parts of the world surrounding the characters. Instead of making the apocalypse feel vast, desolate and threatening, some of these elements pulled me out of the story. The result often felt less like a fully realised post-apocalyptic world and more like a rough approximation of one.
Could the series have been better? Absolutely. Could more creative choices have produced a stronger result without leaning so heavily on AI? I think so.
But I also don't want to pretend that production budgets and industry pressures don't matter. BL is a competitive market, with new titles constantly fighting for attention. Building a convincing zombie apocalypse is expensive, and I can understand why a production with limited resources might look for shortcuts. Understanding that pressure, however, doesn't mean I have to accept the result without criticism.
AI is not just another harmless production tool. Its use raises serious questions about creative jobs, copyright, the value of human artistic work and environmental costs. We are already incorporating AI into so many parts of our everyday lives that it's becoming increasingly easy to stop questioning where and how it is used. I don't want that to happen with entertainment, either.
I can understand why a production might use AI without believing that we should simply accept it. A limited budget can explain a compromise, but it doesn't automatically make that compromise a good creative decision. And if we, as viewers, stop pointing out the difference, what incentive is there to do better?
That said, The Last Oath isn't a complete failure for me. Its biggest strength is also what makes its weaknesses so obvious: the two leads. Chen Liang and Chen Ming Hao carry so much of the series that almost everything else starts to feel secondary. The supporting characters, the side plots and even the wider conflict often seem to exist simply to give the main couple something to react to. The chemistry and dynamic between the leads were what kept me invested, and I genuinely think they could have carried a much more focused story.
The second couple, on the other hand, felt unnecessary. I would have preferred the two characters to be actual brothers, rather than adopted brothers whose relationship also takes a romantic turn. Their bond, their loyalty and the lengths one of them is willing to go to in order to save the other would have been just as understandable perhaps even more affecting without the romantic angle. For me, that storyline added very little to the series and distracted from what was already its strongest relationship.
The plot itself is full of holes, and the writing rarely makes the most of its premise. A zombie apocalypse, an immunity that makes someone a target, corrupt pharmaceutical companies and a relationship built around conflicting loyalties could have offered so much more than this. I never needed The Last Oath to reinvent the genre, but I did want it to do something more interesting with the ideas it had.
And yet, here's the inconvenient truth: I had fun.
For zombie-apocalypse fans, this series is practically catnip myself very much included. I watched it as a kind of scrappy, fan-made BL take on a genre I love, rather than as a serious attempt at prestige television. Once I stopped expecting the world-building and storytelling to live up to the ambition of the premise, I could enjoy the parts that worked for me.
That doesn't make the problems disappear, and it doesn't mean I think the production choices should go unquestioned. I can criticise the AI use, the writing, the unnecessary subplot and the missed potential while still appreciating the two actors who made the central relationship work.
The Last Oath is not a particularly strong series, nor is it a cinematic achievement. But it entertained me, it gave me a main couple I enjoyed watching, and it scratched a very specific zombie-apocalypse BL itch.
Sometimes a series can be a mess and still be fun. I just wish this one had given its own ideas and its actors — a better world to live in.
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