ShortCircuit

That even after he lectured him (HeeSu) on being a bad friend because he doesn't open up or share everything in his life with Chan Young. Like... what can you even say to that reaction?!

They barely held hands, no kiss (obviously), way too much hetrom still, two botched / awkward confessions... And Chan Young's initial reaction (too much focus on that character), that showed he's still a sh!tty friend.

Anyway. Eyecandy. That was all.

Yup, it went kind of like I imagined it would. So it ends. Oh well.

IMHO the book is more brutal than this - even if there is more of a warfare type of story and not just fistfights. And TBH a lot more heartbreaking (then again, it's a book and it takes time to develop characters so the reader gets invested in their story, where this S2 actually didn't.)

But the final feeling - the whole strife is so pointless in the end - is kind of the same.

Like seriously, so SeungWon will listen to HeeSu confess to Chan Young that he used to crush on him and very probably will walk away before HeeSu admits to who he likes now (if he even does). And then they'll probably cut to half hour of Chan Young winning some tennis match and/or Ji Yu winning some song contest etc and eventually remember this was supposed to be a BL and have the OTP confess in a roundabout way that they might be interested in each other.

And then hold hands - AT MOST. I predict there's not even a tentative of a kiss.

Oh well. At least there were some nice eyecandy actors - does anyone else think Lee SangYun kind of looks like Li YunRui? Because to me he kind of does.

2xed the hetrom and the tennis, but still they managed to leave it off for the last ep. When, because that's what they did so far, they'll focus on the hetrom even more. *sigh*

That's because knife fighting is always a lot more cruel than fist fights.

LPT for anyone facing someone with a knife: no matter how well you fight, RUN FOR YOUR LIFE. An idiot with a knife can get a lucky strike that will maim you for life or even kill you, even if they don't know what they're doing.

The ending almost saved it, but then they had to add the afterscene. Oh well.

Anyway, here's my 2 cents: too little time spent on character development (I mean, what could they even do with 30-35 mins long eps and only 8 of them), a very pointless struggle (kind of tragic in that way), and the whole season could be also called "How I became a SML in the drama I'm supposed to be ML in" LOL. Because let's face it, Baku/Ryeoun is more in the focus than SiEun/PJH ever is.

(And one final pet peeve of mine - everybody in the cast looks 30+ with about only 2 exceptions, and those two look like they're at least in their 20s. Even the actors who are actually in their 20s look older than they are. No idea if it's the makeup's fault or the filters they used or whatever, but it looked like these were basically adults who play at fighting teenager fights. For some reason S1 did it better).

ETA For a better impression on how this season felt... If you can, get Molnar Ferenc's The Boys of Paul Street, it's basically 80% the same story but better written IMHO.

Spoke too soon, ep4 is 30 mins... :(

'scuse me, WTF is this 35-min length s!it for a 8-ep series? Why not just make a movie or two at this rate?...

I mean, 6+ mins just for OP/ED, what the...

Anyone else thinks the professor is suspect? Like, are his wife and daughter really alive, and if so... what did he have to do so they survived? Or maybe they're not so alive anymore and he's just pretending he still has a family?

Night is being stupid, why is he so stubborn? If he really wants to break the cycle he should try every possibility so that it ends...

So it looks like it won't be skipping 4 years any more...

He's stronger than that. No, he didn't.

Going on only the first ep, it's pretty nice. Good cinematography (I was missing outside scenes shot during the day in a hist./fantasy kdrama LOL, the last one might've been The Matchmakers), nice BGM (not sure yet about the ED song), this might be trying to become the next AoS LOL.

The old dragon kind of gave me the same feeling as Gu WolRyung (Daddy Gumiho) in Gu Family Book (that's a good thing, LOL).

I'm not expecting some masterpiece, but it's not half bad and I wasn't expecting that, TBH. I'll give it another ep and then decide if it goes in the CW or not, yet.

Edit Wait Kim JiHoon is playing the king?! I didn't recognise him LOL.

ETA2: With a little bit more runtime there would have been even more paralels between this and Mr. Queen (same director, same historical period, re-used sets and costumes maybe, same kind of jokes, some of the support actors are the same - that I've seen so far - there might be other things. There's time.) But I seriously expect some BongHwan-ah level of OP/ED songs at some point LOL.

If you're watching NiF, you should be set, but you also should be paying it close attention - it's worth it.

But TU is extremely addictive, true... so why not watch the donghua and/or read the novel instead of moving on to other dramas? (Lots and lots of FMVs also help, LOL - like this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BTxROkpnSY ).

If you still want a drama rec, though -

1. Fangs of Fortune (not BL, lots of very innuendo-filled bromance, awesome OST, great looking leads - they would win over any other cast IMHO - good story, nice pace).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SukmbqsHCcY

2. Blossom (not BL, good plot, rebirth, epic story, Meng ZiYi - Wen Qing in TU - is FL, very nice progression, love story, HEA)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7ndGOArhCk

3. The Spirealm (censored danmei, gameplay, some - not a lot of - horror, I'm growing slowly obsessed with Ruan LanZhu, LOL, based on Kaleidoscope of Death)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04W26XqFZWQ

and on that note,

4. The Devil Judge (not BL but very queer-tinted, epic dystopia, KYH+KGO=love I don't care what non-BL lovers are saying, amazing soundtrack, great actors, satisfying ending)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dp1lgrqeBd8

More? :D

There's a discussion topic above, some of the poems are posted. He learned them by rote and could only remember half of the content LOL. So they're basically all unfinished (all famous poems but also some modern songs, because well. This is XQA after all :D)

(After 24th, binged in three long working days hahaha~) OK, this is not only bingeable, this is freaking addictive. This is the first time I've ever been sorry there is no novel to read after the drama, since it's based on an opera. Now I wonder if the opera is available anywhere in any form...

PS Chen Lian is so sister-coded, LOL :D

I mean... for YEN that makes perfect sense. She was always one to want her cake and eat it too. Just like her mother.

I loved the cinematography (amazing shots) but TBH the story is way too summarised for someone who isn't familiar with the original series/novel and the only character I actually really, REALLY liked is HuaJun. I'm surprised to see this is her only credit on MDL when she's already 27, I don't think she's a beginner. Anyway, it was fun but I could tell I was missing a lot of info on what's going on (other than what they obviously presented.)

PS Also I'm a bit surprised with the historical part - so are they portraying the Mongols as kind of good guys? Does this happen before the Mongols overran Song and instated the Yuan dynasty? (Ogedei is present in the story, right?). I thought nobody liked Mongols taking over Han kingdoms.

I seriously dobt he'd still love someone who did what she did to him. She's history now. And the one who was (kind of) family to him is only TaeYun.

Did you see that dangerous-villain-walk-and-smile he was doing when the mood hit? That won't be a priest of any kind. (Except in 18+ productions LOL). I am still hung up on the bar feet-embrace he did on HID that night, with Break Through crooning smoothly in the background LOL. I know they're father and son, but I have ZERO idea what the director thought he was doing, making it so erotic :D

So anyway, he won't become a priest.

In the very unlikely case they do make a sequel, he'll come back to revege YEN (hopefully), maybe TaeYun is resurrected (see, there's your Church miracle LOL) for plot purposes, he takes care of his mental issues with the help of Dr Kang and when it's all over, he THEN leaves again but takes TaeYun with him. The end.

But I am very satisfied with the ending already. The more the time passes, the more I find I actually quite like it. There's no need for s2. But I won't say no to that mane of glory and to the smooth killer look&walk.