ShortCircuit

Yes, usually it's just alpha-beta-omega. Alpha and Omegas are usually rare (though there are some stories where there are WAY too many Omegas.) Most of the regular population is Beta. At times, they can switch genders (but it's mostly in VERY abusive stories, because changing genders isn't easy).

In-between genders, there are ranks. The very top are SSS-tier, then the S-tier, then the ~regular~ kind.

An Enigma is new (or at least to me, I haven't read this one's novel and I guess I won't be reading it at all). He seems to be a very-overpowered Alpha (higher than a SSS level) who can mask his scent and generally control his pheronomenes output. I guess not in this story.

But yeah - in omegaverse all possible combinations are played out, so Alpha-on-Alpha isn't actually new. The fact one of them is so OP is the new bit. And so far, TBH, he doesn't come through to me other than psychotic. Maybe it's the writing, IDK.

She's also producing IIRC. AND writing some, if not all of the music. Maybe it's lack of experience (I sure hope it's that.)

Anyway, yeah. Camp is just fine, but this is less than IMHO.

Both of them better be suffering through the whole 6 eps left, or there's no saving this story, LOL.

I got Nie HuaiSang. What the... You know what, actually. Hmm. Makes a lot of sense.

Stop hiding things? What things. LOL. There are no things, move on.

Yeah, that was rape actually. Gao Tu tried to resist and WenLang overpowered him. There is no excuse for it. And probably since it's expected for Alphas to force/rape Omegas in heat, he doesn't even react all that strong... yet.

Yeah, well, you should read (because there aren't any other ABO dramas that I'm aware of) some power-bottom Omega stories. The fact that there's a gender that tops the Alphas isn't that amazing, LOL, even in this drama some Alphas are S-tier and the others are lesser. Dominating a lesser Alpha already happened quite a few times in this drama too, just not - then - in bed. Alpha-on-Alpha stories exist too (and any and all other possible combinations). Not my cup of tea though.

It felt fresh with the invention of a new gender, but the tropes are pretty worn already, LOL.

The writer herself took on a lot of production roles, I think including scripting and directing (I might be wrong, but I think I read that, and also saw the OP credits, just didn't pay much attention to the technical team credits, my bad).

She should know the tropes of heat in ABO 'verse. And also, according to the novel (I've browsed it on Chrysanthemum Garden) there WERE excusing circumstances - at least for WenLang's actions. For some incomprehensible reason she//the team chose to basically turn both encounters into no-excuses rape. In the novel, there might be some abject excuses from the both of them upcoming, but I kind of doubt it in Hua Yong's case (because he's a psycho), maybe it would work in WenLang's case (because he has some trauma and he's genuinely stupid when it comes to actually seeing Gao Tu. I mean, HOW MANY YEARS does it take to see through GT being an Omega?! He cannot be that stupid, right? Unless he IS that stupid, LOL).

Even with the heat tropes, though, why not make use of it smartly? She invented the Enigma gender, and he's supposedly much more than an Alpha and can do basically anything - BUT control himself?!

The rapes weren't needed. HY could have seduced ShaoYu with his pheromones and even if that meant revealing his nature sooner so what, if he loves him?! And the very next day he LEAVES him (a rape victim, struggling to make sense of what the hell happened to him) and plays on his emotions AGAIN with insinuating he's being forced to be WenLang's sex slave or whatever in exchange for the medicine for SY's dad. WHY?! No show of remorse yet, nothing prepared in case he's outed as Enigma... and sadly I kind of think SY will just forgive him, just like that, because he's in love with him. Basically the Stockholm syndrome kind of love. Not really what I expected or assumed, even in a full-on trope ABO drama.

WenLang too - WHY would he go and rape a STRANGER?! If I were Gao Tu, let's pretend he could accept WenLang coming to him and doing it in the heat or because of alcohol - ANYTHING to excuse it - but to a STRANGER?! An Omega in heat, helpless, resisting... and WenLang rapes him anyway?! WHY??? How does Gao Tu moves on from that?! It's insane. But he still sticks around because he doesn't know how to go away yet. I've read some spoilers in the novel, and it looks like he's going the right way after some time, growing some spine despite a lot of pain.

But Hua Yong?... I doubt it.

Sorry for the rant - it just makes me kind of mad I actually liked this drama in the beginning, despite the shortcomings, but now it looks like it's just making material the censors can use to permanently ban making ANYthing danmei (and maybe going after writers too, as with the pedo-material producing writers of Haitang that made the news just a while back). There was some rumour of even foreign-airing dramas to be banned, basically anything danmei would never be produced (involving Chinese actors, that is). And this one would go right on their exhibits' drawer as to why.

At least it's not drop-level (yet). But after Ming, I didn't think I'd ever hate another ML so much and TBH it's not even hate, more like I despise him - both of them actually (the other Alpha I mean). At least Ming wasn't a cunning psychopath playing with his partner's emotions like he's a chew toy, just a regular violent psycho.

But the way both victims are supposed to love their ~partners EVEN NOW is very off-putting to me. (And again, before all the fans come at me, I KNOW my omegaverse stories, I've read yaoi and c-web novels and manhwa on the 'verse and I was aware of the tropes. I am not a prude. It's just that this still has no redemption of any kind, the victims are going to be ~in love~ with them, and they're probably not ever going to regret it for more than a second's inconvenience and/or move right on, never changing.)

Sorry (I guess) to say that last ep (9th) kind of broke the illusion for me, I'm now more like getting through the eps because I'm already past the halfway point. Gao Tu's side is still (a bit) interesting, but since they're the second couple and always in the background I guess there won't be much of a climax to that storyline either.

Oh, an orange onebraincell... Chaos is inevitable.

After careful consideration, I calculated that if we take a shot each time JinAn manages to get half-naked or somebody rips off his clothes, we have a very good chance to stay drunk as skunks throughout the whole drama.

...I might try it, myself. For science.

Mantis is the new word of the day...

I think it would depend on what they thought was physically wrong with him though.

The second drama in a row where he plays a substitute to fool the FL, LOL. Hopefully this turns out well, like Dear HongRang.

WHAT?! Oh sh!t...

So did they ever say why he was listed rank-7 before? I know he and his agency immediately fought it off, but if there was genuinely a reason for it... wouldn't it be dangerous to go active-duty soldier instead of PR duty or whatever some of them get?

From Dusk Til Dawn is perfection, IMHO. Some of them are more ickish, LOL, but this is someone who read and LOVED You've Got Mail, there's no extra in MDZS that scares me :D . (Besides my own personal opinion is that MXTX doesn't know how to write good smut, LOL. In ANY of her novels.)

Yup, the CGI is bad, LOL. Still they did what they could with a web drama that long, I'll take it. And TBH, it's been a while and some low-budgeted dramas look BAD BAD BAD even with the top of the damned cast possible (don't let me start on Twelve, it's the disappointment of the year for me).

Most production companies learned their lesson already, I've been watching LOTS of cdramas that have amazing CGI and special effects in general (just LOOK at Fangs of Fortune, for example!) At least they can learn. Why couldn't ABOD's production team learn too? Sometimes less is more, but then it takes skill and sadly... there's not a lot of skill other than some of their acting in this one.

This is tattoo misunderstanding level, LOL.

"I want this on my skin, it says Peace and Love in Chinese."
Actual meaning: Poop Rat Chick Was Here.

I don't get the flying on swords thing (unless the point is that the CGI isn't top tier). They DO fly on swords in the novel and it's a trope in xianxia, what's the problem, LOL?

This drama's problem isn't the lighting (YEAH we all got it, it's supposed to be pitch dark, they can't see etc) - they're freaking ALPHAs, smelling and recognising known pheromones it's their whole thing, why can't either - ShaoYu and WenLang - recognise their partners by their freaking SCENT?

MY problem with this is that it's actually a change for the worst from the novel (yeah I did look up the scene), freaking WenLang was supposed to be dead drunk and intoxicated by the pheromones and in the drama he's just... I don't know what - ready to go rape an unknown Omega just because?! Why would they change that?? How is their relationship supposed to go on from that?! (SPOILER Doormat Gao Tu actually STAYS in the business for a while, gets pregnant from this rape, and only leaves because WenLang AGAIN says he won't touch a filthy Omega and if there's any child of his gotten from such an inferior being, he'd force the Omega to abort it. Which yeah - here's prime material for a husband and lover, NOT.)

I won't even talk about the ~chains that Hua Yong had on him, LOL, I've worn stronger chains in my wild Goth days. And if his location was so strongly closed-up so nobody could enter, how come those two wannabe kidnappers just waltzed in?!

This was freaking clumsy and an insult to anyone's intelligence.

But I don't care anymore, TBH, because what bothers me the most in this drama isn't even the rape (since it's a trope in ABO anyway, I expected it). It's the freaking pacing. Everything moves soooooo slow, and it's always ShaoYu being actually interested with no hidden secrets and Hua Yong being underhanded and playing games (WHY?!), and nothing changed at all in their relationship. And then there's doormat Gao Tu - that I actually liked for most of the drama, who also STILL hasn't taken any decisive action in his hopeless one-sided love. Now I've read some spoilers from the novel and all that's keeping me watching is Gao Tu growing a f!cking spine finally and serving WenLang one of his own dishes.

But it will take forever, with this pacing.

No - how big a spoiler do you want? :D They love each other (they are married throughout the series, and they don't break up) but at the end... things are a bit complicated.

It's possible at the end of the drama. They're both still alive and in contact.