ShortCircuit

OMG when he thought ChangYang was a ghost LOL. He was completely certain. Then he pouted 'cause he wanted to keep away and stay by his sacrifice. So cute. I can't understand how ChangYang resists hugging the baby.

That being said, how long has ChangYang been back? 'Cause maybe not just this morning could have been him ghosting around and keeping watch.

(Also, take THAT, dad and sister-from-hell! Nobody can keep these men apart :D)

OMG, QingLang broke my heart. I completely understood that "There are some things I'll never dare to do again". Come here baby, I'll give you a hug.

Also, ChangYang: *takes no sh!t. Not even from his husband* There you go, get him!!

*Round of applause around the house*

I DON'T WANT TO SEE QINGLANG SO DOWN!!!! Why did he fold so easily... ah dammit noble sacrifice. I KNOW ChangYang does NOT agree and would rather let off that school than abandon QingLang.

Also, I hope Shu YiHao loses everything in the worst way imaginable. Because he deserves it.

Whatever shall we do with ourselves when this is over. I'm already mourning it.

Also, WTH evil sister!! Fail your exams or something dire for your age or something, whatever, get a life!!

And I sincerely wish Dad's business all fail. Just to get a taste of the right medicine for him.

He's not. He became shortly suspicious because his birthday is on a different day than his twin's, but that happens with twins born around midnight from time to time. He was just trying to get justice for his dead sister.

He was scape-goated into becoming the killer of TaeSeon's dad. He killed himself in prison, I don't think there was a question of whether he was assassinated there.

Or do you mean why did TaeSeon's father die? I rather got that he was the casino manager and thus he was in Oh JaeHyeon's way into becoming its manager instead and securing her inheritance.

They managed to short-form film Painter of the Night and NOT mess it up (too badly), they're doing an upcoming The Governor's Still Sick (with an actual Chinese cast and team), the future is still extremely promising.

And if we live long enough, someone will sneak 2ha from it's prison. Maybe.

JinMan had the mall for a good while though and they did nothing. In the first season, it looked like the head of Babylon was neutral, most of the time (until JinMan threatened his grandkid or implied he could hurt them if he wanted to). Then he let Bale loose and Bale decided to take out JinMan's family. (Which again is a management issue - you have a rabid dog, you put it down, you don't try to hold on the leash). And by that I mean the SK branch never had beef with JinMan after he left until Bale started the whole mess.

Which, if the Japan area is the headquarters, they would have to have known about and maybe take some action on it.

But I guess it's been years, the script maybe banked on people not rememembering all the details or something.

I'm just kind of mad they're destroying the closed-universe feel of the first season. Maybe it'll be worth it. We'll learn in a month's time :D

I wish the ending were a bit tighter, but the previous eps made up for it. Rounded up a bit from the usual, it's a good drama and explicit - they're getting their courage :D

IIRC, there's no direct relationship with the original novel.

Anyway - re:execs. Those who pay the money choose the dance. Even if not the D+/NF/whatever CEO chooses a plot or anything, they do have managers that liaise with the SK team and I'm pretty certain they do hint (or more) at what a second season should include. Because they're aiming at a broader target audience than the SK one, and they "think" they know what people actually want.

I've seen a lot of Western-money-produced dramas go and become popular with certain audiences (that I believe are atrocious, but they have a lot - a LOT - of flashy things, even if there's not a lot of a story and/or good characters), or flop, or are actually extremely good. (Like the first season of Sweet Home. I'm not even into horror and thought that one was amazing. S2 and S3 of that one were soulless, flashy cashgrabs.)

I hope this doesn't happen with ASfK2, that they make it larger than life but lacking in soul. Not everything has to become a big IP.

Oh well. As I said, we have to see. But the start isn't as interesting as I'd hoped.

Yes. Though TBH I'm lazy, it's my go-to word for any producing Western network. So D+ then?

So, first season hinted JinMan staged his own suicide through drugs he took and that his own body - with the murthehelp tattoo - was on that morgue table. Now they switched it to a nobody's body that JinMan just happened to have prepared and lying around to stage into his own bathroom - for reasons unspecified.

Then they invent a SUPER-overlying org of Babylon in Japan that just happened to let them play around with their dicks in the sand for YEARS and only now noticed things aren't going well in SK?! Like, the hell! Also, this Japan overlord thing is clearly doing dirty evil things - to their own people too - so does that mean JinMan is a fucking mafia from the beginning, going to places just to kill people for unfarious reasons. The first season presented Babylon as a merc org that did diplomate protection and/or rescue or even hostages rescue missions. You know, things one could still root for.

Then we get the super-NK-hacker that replaces Brother (he almost was invisible in the planning, did they even tell him what was going on?)

Then we get the POLICE officer doing merc side things involving hacking and bombs and whatnot. Because he would have the time. And where did he even come from, too?

Now we get a whole network of murthehelp people who just happen to go to places nobody and their mother ever heard of, in order to protect JiAn who also, for reasons of her own, is now a bit kookoo and becoming a recluse.

I mean, why not. She did hold on for a whole night of murder and mayhem, but cracked when it was all over. Because that's what people do.

So yeah, I'm kind of not pleased. I was afraid they would try to make it a whole 'nother circus, that's what they ALWAYS do and ruin things. But still, there's a little hope left. As long as they don't kill JinMan for real - I wouldn't put it beyond them. It would be the "moral" thing to do to set JiAn free, right? (WRONG!)

Oh well, we'll wait and see.

I am mildly displeased with the start of the season, for reasons under the spoiler. But I guess this is what NF/D+/any other Western streamer always does - people like things for certain very specific reasons, NF/D+/any other streamer THINKS they know what people want and try to include that, thus destroying much that was good about the initial story. They did this to Sweet Home too, I very much hope they put enough planning and thinking into ASfK2 to not ruin it. (Though the overblown range of all organisations in this S2 already feel too much for just 8 eps).

ETA By NF I mean any Western producer, they're all alike in how they handle second seasons. (I shudder for Moving 2).

Yeah, it was good while it was about a father-and-daughter-against-the-world. In a predictible manner, once it got out of that model, it grew larger than life and thus impossible to suspend disbelief for. A longer runtime for an ep only tells me they put in all explosions they could in the hope the hype will cause a second season, maybe. What this would do to the actual ongoing season's plot remains to be seen.

Wow, cnetizens doing unsavoury cnetizens things that used to be the NORM. I know the new crackdown on online bullying is giving the studios some room to maneouvre and threaten some consequential action on rogue agents, but still - this used to be "normal". At any one time, any one person, group or water army could go on and try and destroy someone's career and livelihood using the same methods - innuendos, random clips, out of context quotes, unclear pictures (probably a lot more clear in the age of AI), and the like.

I guess either fandoms will stop going to war overly for idiotic fun, or maybe they're indeed trying to clear the waters. We'll see.

The lady doth protest too much.

Also, the "drama is fictional, all resemblance to existing persons and institutions is accidental" is a staple announcement for any drama lately. What did they "win" then?

Imagine if all other institutions or representatives of different professional associations protested when a drama involved them - like the police, doctors, lawyers etc LOL.

I know that, but he's supposed to be able to sword-fight and probably the original Gaew doesn't have an inkling about boxing. Yet another discrepancy he's going to have to explain.

You know what? "Dech", with that symbol on his forehead and that white outift looks 90% like a young SRK playing Ashoka. The way that cloth goes over his shoulder, the same facial frame, the same nose - it takes me places. So now I'll probably spend the whole drama looking at "Ashoka Maurya" LOL instead of "Dech". He's only missing the princely silver torc. Like...

https://youtu.be/oTwfou49xao?t=47

Anyway - OMG cultural shock or what?! I would die in a second. But don't they teach some historical details of past ages in school, in Thailand? How come Great is so stumped about it? Once he figured out he's in the past, he should be a bit more direct asking about how things work if he's not certain, instead of just trying to see if modern words still have the same meaning LOL. It's hilarious anyway. Still, be a bit smarter.

And boxing! Now explain how come you know boxing but can't hold a sword, please time-traveller, do explain! :D

Who's the new guy, the second and more precious son?

It's been 7 years since I kind of left the Western MM novel corner, LOL (and got deeply mired into danmei. There's no comparison, none. I'm all set to stay here for the rest of my reader career LOL).

Before I fell over the side, I was reading all kinds of novels and enjoying them, from originals by people who weren't writers on fictionpress to long-time published authors (from Josh Lanyon, Amy Lane, Mary Calmes, TJ Klune - when he was writing actual MM only - and so on and so forth, to Becca Abbott, KJ Charles, the like.) Rina Kent doesn't tell me anything, sorry :D I guess I can't go back to "normal" now, particularly for long series.

Oh well re: danmei and danmei adaptations - it IS my cup of tea and I'm all in for it :D

Do try Wu, they're good together, it's short (I wanted more...) and while not officially BL, as I've said... plenty of direct clues LOL. There are after-scenes, don't skip them :D

I didn't realise I was kind of okay with humiliation kink until watching a few eps of this one. Though TBH Xiao Fan is not into it, he's basically a powerless doormat, too sensitive for the world he has to live in and LuQing gets way into it from the very beginning, like he's addicted to Xiao Fan's helplessness.

And then they go and move it slighter into Master and Servant territory, what, is the novel kinkier?!

I get where XF's family of country bumpkins come from too, they also had a wrong reading of the situation initially and put all their hopes and dreams into it, like Xiao Fan's relationship would be a safety collar for them too. They don't even stop to consider how their quiet and meek son would fare in that rich family and what pressure they're adding to the mess. The father is ridiculously clinging to the impression that it's a real marriage, and the mother is seemingly seeing whatever she wants to see in it... but the siblings are atrocious.

By now it's clear that Xiao Fan will NOT grow a spine and that's exactly what LuQing wants him for. To me, that's unhealthy as heck, but then... that's their kink and I'm not kink shaming anyone here.

(I bet the younger sister tries or actually steals that phone.)

ETA I browsed through the novel and it's nowhere near as kinky as expected LOL. I don't see how they'll manage to fit the rest of the story in just 6 eps but that's what adaptations do all the time, I trust them to know what they're doing. Also, I take it back, the little rabbit does have a secret courage he's randomly accessing :D