denryion

This started strong, dragged a bit in the middle, and had a rather disappointing ending. I watched the uncut version, so it had a happy ending, but I found it disappointing all the same.

I liked the mythological storyline and much preferred it to the crime storyline, despite the low-budget CGI. The crime storyline dragged a bit at times, especially in the middle. Did we need to see the whole love affair of Art and Kao played out? It was beautifully acted (especially by Art) and compelling of its own right, but had no bearing to the overall storyline so an entire episode dedicated to it was a waste. The filler episode dedicated to the side couple felt the same way, especially since we barely saw their romance through the rest of the series. The fact that Khem got shot at the end and they completely gloss over it and never mention it again is a testament to that. I would have rather had more time spent wrapping the story up, rather than the leads reuniting less than 10 minutes from the end. Some of the fight sequences dragged on too long as well, particularly the opening sequence. It took me a while to get started because the opening is a bunch of fighting and shooting and you don’t even know who’s who to know what’s happening yet. Also, the crime storyline was related to Tharn’s parents’ death while the mythological storyline was directly tied to the romance, so the mythological storyline enhanced the romance whereas there were definitely times where I felt the romance was overshadowed by the crime storyline.

I loved the concept of the romance - reincarnation, soulmates, forbidden love. But wow Tharn pissed me off so many times, and his reasoning and actions in the end cheapened the whole relationship, in my opinion. He disregarded Phaya’s concerns so many times — ignoring and dismissing his dreams when he himself wants Phaya to listen to his visions, or continuing to attempt to contact the doctor after promising Phaya he would trust him and stay away. He often acted flippant, ignoring calls or having an unfriendly attitude, for no real reason. He didn’t return the level of affection that Phaya gave to him. In the scene directly after they finally get together and Phaya has a nightmare, he doesn’t even hug him. And in the morning, he goes around pushing Phaya away and semi-rejecting his affection. Phaya was so sweet in giving verbal and physical affection, and I don’t think Tharn reciprocated in the slightest. Yes, he was willing to sacrifice his life for Phaya’s, but that’s the extent of it. The worst was when Phaya was in a coma in the hospital, fighting for his life, and Tharn actively chose not to stay in the hospital and instead went about working and investigating his parents’ death. And not only that, but he let the doctor console him, crying on his shoulder and holding his hands. It was like an on and off switch — one minute he cared and was crying, and the next he looked totally unaffected and dedicated to work.

And the end, when Tharn chose to stay with the doctor for an entire YEAR while Phaya was desperately searching for him, unsure if he was even alive, because he was worried about the doctor “suffering” was horrifying. Because what about Phaya suffering for that entire year? And the doctor was the one who has been trying to break them up and kill Phaya this entire time, so why does he deserve any grace? Yes, Tharn justifies it by saying he wanted to convince the doctor to stop breaking them apart in this life and future ones, but then in the special episode he talks about how the doctor was there for him and saved him after he lost loved ones AGAIN. Totally ignoring the fact that the doctor was the one responsible for killing said loved ones in the first place! And the fact that they gave the doctor a redemption arc, saying he “let” Tharn return to Phaya, as if that was something he had the right to dictate in the first place…I was seething.

Plus, Tharn tries to play this placating middleman in half the scenes where the doctor and Phaya are physically battling. Even in the past life flashback, Tharn just stands around while the doctor is actively strangling Phaya and begs him to stop instead of physically intervening. When he’s dying in the end, he tells both the doctor and Phaya to stop fighting as if Phaya is doing something wrong by trying to stop the doctor from killing him and stealing Tharn away. He chooses to go with the doctor in both the past and present life to “keep the peace” instead of fighting for Phaya like Phaya is willing to fight for him. Why is it Phaya standing up to the doctor and telling him Tharn doesn’t love him instead of Tharn telling him himself? He was never once straight up with the doctor — he should have told him point blank that he was in a relationship with Phaya and that he loved him, but he didn’t even once disclose his relationship status. Tharn is a spineless man with no conviction that’s willing to die for love but not willing to fight for love.

I also didn’t like all the secrets between Tharn and Phaya, and sometimes for seemingly no reason. Pharn should have told Tharn about the doctor way before he actually did. Tharn should have trusted and believed him when he did. And Tharn would just lie for no reason sometimes. Like why did he tell Phaya there were no updates to the Kao case when he’d just been told that the fiancé had agreed to handover evidence? Phaya finds out two seconds later anyways when Tharn has a vision of the fiancé being murdered and has to warn the team, so what was the point?

That being said, I really liked that both leads were complete equals and equally capable. They were both responsible for protecting each other, which is something you rarely see in BLs - normally they stereotype the top into that role as if the two are related. There’s no power dynamics either. Even if there are times where one might tell the other what to do, there’s never a case where they’re unable to refuse or are physically forced or coerced into something.

There were a few confusing things about the plot. One is the whole past life Tharn. It’s explained that Tharn was a female in his past life, and the dreams Phaya have show a woman played by a female actor. But in all the flashback scenes, the “woman” is portrayed by the same actor as Tharn - looks male, dressed male, but with long hair and addressed as if they were female. I didn’t understand that. Why not have the same actor play both the dream and flashback versions of Tharn? And even if you were going to have the male actor do it, why dress him male instead of female if she’s supposed to be a woman?

Second is the whole karma thing. It’s said that Tharn had bad karma from wronging people in his past life and they’re out to kill him and his loved ones in this life. His life is intertwined with Phaya’s, and he needs to protect Phaya because Phaya will rid him of his bad karma. But that’s not what ends up happening at all. No one is out to kill Tharn. The only bad guy we see is the doctor, who is out to kill Phaya and keep Tharn alive because he wants Tharn to himself. And the only loved one that is killed is a dead ex that was alluded to. (Side note but I take issue with the dead ex plot point, especially given that it’s only mentioned in passing once. Was that necessary? His parents would have been a better choice.) His parents’ deaths were attributed to the crime storyline and not the mythological one. And how exactly did Phaya rid Tharn of his bad karma, even if you take that to refer to the doctor? Because he loses to the doctor in the final battle in every life, this one included.

None of the Luangpor’s prophecy came true, so all the advice he gave seemed like complete nonsense as a result. Yes he provided the protective amulet, but he did nothing else useful. He told Tharn to live with him at the temple, except no one was out for him or his family because the doctor never wanted to kill him or his family. He kept going on about giving merit and mindfulness and meditation and enlightenment and how morals should be dictated by Buddhist precepts, but none of that ever had any tangible impact on anything. And because it had no tangible impact, it came off as preachy, like if a pastor character kept going on about praying and Bible-defined sin but neither had any visible magical results in the fictional universe. Plus he knew from the start that the doctor was evil, but did nothing to warn Tharn or protect him. So I don’t get what his purpose was or why Tharn and Phaya had so much respect for him.

And third, the idea that the whole high-power corrupt criminal / political network came immediately tumbling down the minute they caught Montree was ridiculous, especially given that he had an even higher power backer. It took them what, 15 years to catch Montree due to corrupt interference, and you’re telling me there was no corrupt interference getting Montree and everyone else associated off the hook this time around?

Also, I took issue with the whole messaging that legal justice always prevails, even if it takes longer, but that’s just blatantly untrue. They even prove it in the series, with all those rapists that got off scot-free and the whole corrupt political network. Just because there was eventually legal evidence to arrest one of the rapists does not negate that the others were under-punished or that many, many people were roaming free due to corruption. The inspector kept wailing on about following the rules and not letting personal matters interfere when he himself was breaking the rules and letting personal matters interfere by investigating his brother’s death and Montree’s association.

And fourth is more minor, but the 2nd couple had some kind of break up going on in the beginning, with Khem saying they were still together and Thongtai saying they were broken up. But it’s never mentioned again and they act like a couple through the entire series, getting engaged in the end. That should have been properly explained, especially given that there was a filler episode largely dedicated to showing how they originally got together.

The special episode was a bit lackluster for me. It was more crime/action focused, when I wanted something more character/romance-oriented. Since I preferred the fantasy to the crime in the first place, I just wasn’t that interested in the storyline. The only place the fantasy came in was Phaya’s past-life brother suddenly revealing himself and helping to defeat a henchman. It didn’t even make sense, because he didn’t show up when fighting the doctor, but he helped to defeat a henchman? The brother also warned that Phaya and Tharn’s powers would wane if they were too far apart, but nothing ever came of that, which was really disappointed. That would have been a much more interesting dynamic to explore. There was also a kid they had to take care of and a shall-we-have-a-baby dynamic, which is never my favorite.

There were some sweet moments and an NC scene in the first half of the special episode, but not much in the second half. We didn’t get an ending kiss either. And it really pissed me off that Tharn brought up the doctor in a positive light, talking about how he helped save him when he lost loved ones, when the doctor was the one responsible for their deaths.

There were some consent / boundary issues, but relatively non-egregious for BL standards. (Although I live for the day when consent issues as a whole aren’t normalized, and I don’t have to consider it a good day when they’re “only minor.”)

The scene that bothered me the most is when Tharn is in the bathroom, drunk, and Phaya comes in and reaches around him and helps him zip his zipper up. They’re not even really friends at that point, more just colleagues, so their relationship isn’t anywhere near that level. Tharn pushes him away and protests and then pushes him away again when Phaya says something about pulling it back down again if Tharn doesn’t need his help. Phaya also asks if Tharn is single, but the tone is kind of intimidating (I don’t know if that’s the right word, really). The whole interaction was kind of like a high school bully that’s only bullying you because they like you, basically. It also felt out of character, because Phaya is never that egregious with overstepping boundaries like that again.

Aside from that, there’s a scene where Tharn is drunk and leans into kissing distance, but ultimately doesn’t go in for a kiss. Phaya kisses his forehead. For their first kiss, Phaya grabs Tharn as he’s leaving and kisses his cheek, then his lips. Tharn doesn’t pull away but he doesn’t welcome it either - he gives a soft rejection (“let’s go to bed”) and avoids him after. Tharn liked Phaya at the time but wouldn’t admit it to himself, but the point is he wasn’t given the opportunity to consent because it happened so quickly and he likely would not have consented if he had been given the opportunity. Phaya doesn’t respect Tharn’s space in the aftermath - he kept pushing to get Tharn to let him drop Tharn home and to go out to eat, basically trying to get Tharn to stop avoiding him.

There’s one scene where Phaya pretends his bike is broken so he can stay overnight at Tharn’s, but he sleeps on the couch by his own choice. There’s also a different scene where Tharn grabs Phaya in his sleep, and Phaya takes that as an invitation to stay in the bed and sleep instead of going back to the couch. He also touches Tharn’s face and pulls him even closer to cuddle. There’s a point where Phaya invites Tharn over to his house because he wants to introduce him to his family. He tells his family in advance but only tells Tharn it’s a surprise, so Tharn doesn’t really get a choice in the matter. And overall, I felt Phaya was too grabby when trying to get Tharn not to leave. He was never forceful though, as in refusing to let go or actually preventing him from leaving, which is a step up from other BLs.

When Phaya thinks Tharn told the doctor about his dreams, he gets violent, including punching Tharn in the face hard enough for him to bleed. He’s also overly jealous of the doctor, sometimes reasonably given his knowledge of the doctor’s intentions, and sometimes unreasonably. He goes behind Tharn’s back and tells the doctor to stay away at one point, and also gets in a physical fight with the doctor at another point. But he never forces Tharn to cut contact with the doctor. He does request that he keep away from the doctor towards the end of the series and gets upset when Tharn wants to contact him, but it’s justified by that point because Phaya knows that the doctor is evil by that point.

The NC scenes were fairly explicit (naked ass, stimulated sex). They were okay, but a bit mechanical. The light orb effect over NC / romantic scenes was really annoying though. Their first proper kiss was a bit of a disappointment as well. It was shown from a really faraway camera angle and cut away too fast.