Reviews

it was very different from the other bl's. i decided to watch it when i saw the actor who played khunkao promoting the series on the streets of thailand, telling people to watch it. as i said, the series was very different. i got a little lost in the historical narratives, and frankly, the sets and acting in the timelines were bad. but the acting in general is very impressive. i honestly didn't expect such an ending. i especially didn't know how to react to the plot twist in the very last scene. my favorite character in the series was pun. his relationship with kor was amazing, and it was the thing that affected me the most. kor's death was very tragic. although many people died in the series, the fact that no one, including their lovers, cried was very unrealistic. honestly, i don't know if i liked it or not. the acting and the chemistry between the main couple were very good. it felt like it could have been a great series, but the scriptwriting prevented it.

p.s.: there are significant omissions in the cast, particularly regarding the actors who had an impact under the series title. this looks a bit bad in terms of credit. even the most minor characters were very well-acted. i don't know the actors; it would be great if someone who knows them could add their names.

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When the Morning Sun Meets a Forest, The Right Pieces Fall into Place.

This drama was the first modern one of SWL that I had seen as before it was only some costume ones which were hit or miss. Here though, he nailed his character. I know ZJM from several other shows and knew she would do well. I also knew several of the supporting characters like the SML or LWM and others. This was a story of when the morning sun met a very green forest, the right pieces would fall into place.

Pros: Being a work of Gu Man, who had a lot of say in her works, as she was always the screenwriter as well as apparently selecting the leads and others herself which was a great thing as we saw in YAMG as well. All of her work have been successful in one way or another. In this story, you had two people destined to meet each but due to a misunderstanding orchestrated by a wicked person (we had several here), the ML played by SWL or LYS, a one in a million protégé neurosurgeon got into a car accident and lost his ability to be a surgeon so he became a businessman instead in his family's rather massive and successful empire in the PV industry. He was angry because he thought the person who had invited him somewhere and after his accident ghosted him was a young lady he fell for at first sight, herself the daughter of a wealthy businessman in a different field. That young lady our FL or NXG however wasn't obviously responsible and didn't even know he existed. She was a college student elsewhere with a crush of her own on the SML or ZX whom I gave the nickname "hunk of junk/lack of balls" to. Though she confessed to hunk of junk/lack of balls, he rejected her, because even though he himself liked her but because of his inferiority complex of her being rich and him poor along with the fact that he seemed completely oblivious to how their mutual "friends" treated her, her roommates; once right before graduation letting others accuse her of letting an important interview call for one of them be forgotten by her without any proof other than the ring leader aka toxic chick who along with her wing woman both liking him just came at her. It was later discovered and admitted that another girl had been in the room when the call came through and she was the one who forgot plus at the company itself, though the company made the call, they didn't write it down. So a lot of people dropped the ball but only when the girl remembered, told the college committee and NXG investigated as well as hunk of junk's senior sister (who worked at the company) came forward and apologized to him on the phone only but not to the involved parties, was NXG's name cleared; hunk of junk knew the truth but never said a word. Only the two girls NXG was friends with ever truly apologized.

Because he and toxic chick knew each other since childhood, she used every opportunity to shove that fact into NXG's face and basically imply that they kind of were together or he would always do things for her most of which were lies. NXG texted him about it apologizing for the confession and that she never meant to steal him away but he never replied basically in her mind confirming those suspicions. Their last two years, he spent either never saying a word, sending her mixed signals with his actions like the thesis help attempt, or plain putting her down with his words. In other words, he expected her to be telepathic to his thoughts and feelings. Once they graduated, and she and her cousin JR, went on a little 2 month vacation to Europe which they called a study tour (I'll talk about cheap faux tour in the cons); which was somehow misconstrued to her studying abroad thanks to the cousin's housekeeper telling hunk of junk that when he came by the house looking for her.

I will say that Z "hunk of junk" X played by LWM whom I've previously seen in a tiny role in Moonlit Reunion but more memorably in FOF, was the most complex character in the entire show. Also, he's probably LWM's most different character from both others that he’s done and himself IRL, though only starting in c-ent 3 years ago. He absolutely nailed the part of a guy, oblivious in college of the girl he liked feelings choosing to stay quiet or “resist; hold back” as he pointed out during his tantrum as opposed to saying something back like "wait for me" or "I'm not ready just yet". ZX always thought she would be there, single waiting for him always taking her for granted (as she pointed out to him during his tantrum and her just spelling everything out for him saying he was lying to himself, that with his IQ and EQ, he didn't understand obvious things she said and did, because he didn't want to understand, that he had many opportunities but failed each one and why LYS got her was because he had openly told her he liked her and when she said she liked someone else, he didn't have a problem with that, but would let her pick. He treated her like an adult and pursued her showing her what real love and open communication going both ways looked like) until it was way too late. All of the push and pull between and inside him was shown in his micro-expressions and how only when he started working and came across a situation where bad rumors were spread about him and a few of his coworkers including one of the women, how he recalled the frame job and toxic chick's constant bashing and belittling of NXG in college and how she must have felt after hearing Chris' words; how he nearly sent NXG an “I'm sorry” but instead decided to sit in the darkness and cry. This was after the tantrum episode. Everything was about him and he didn't seem to understand how others felt until he experienced it for himself or someone he was close with now as an adult spoke about it. Though on the contradictory side, he wasn't a complete narcissist as he was able to make genuine good friends; two of whom he later started a successful business with, he himself got that status he always wanted through hard work, and he was able to express gratitude like he did to LYS for helping his friend/colleague after the latter experienced a medical emergency on the slopes. And that's why I'm proud of LWM because he was able to pull off a rather complex character in a show that didn't require that much, if at all.

Now when ML met FL as he downgraded himself from the main office in Shanghai to Suzhou it was half because of the misunderstanding and also because he still had feelings for her. Their start wasn't smooth as he moved her from her department to his and gave her extra work to do in a way to give her a hard time but also to be close to her and get to know her. He was quite puzzled that she didn't remember him and each time that came out in conversation he grew cold and distant toward her and assigned her more work. It wasn't until she landed in the hospital after falling from the balcony and him catching her and venting his frustration at her in the hospital though not completely saying the entire thing and her saying that he was the reason for her bad luck and crying plus later on one of her coworkers telling him how often she got hurt at the factory where she didn't have to be but he made her work there during his as she called it "bipolar" moments, that he finally called a truce between them though she had no idea why. He confessed to her not long after that after running into the university classmates along with toxic chick (who's fake apology and implication of her and hunk of junk being together; who was standing behind her and was only shocked when the study abroad to study tour misunderstanding was cleared up) and hunk of junk, he rescued her from also giving them the impression that they were together causing hunk of junk to panic, get wasted, say really rude things to her, making her cry for the last time over him.

After that, the show just showed two people getting to know each other properly and spending time together as we also learned of both families dysfunctions, his father died when he was young in a different country after he was set up by an uncle or two for a mistake within the conglomerate and was shipped out to work in some remote location where a war broke out. LYS' mom never got over what her family did and moved to Switzerland while letting ML grow up and go to school while living with his paternal grandparents. Mom met and married a wonderful man. FL's mom divorced her bastard husband and FL's father for cheating and the entire series shows him and his first love and her daughter living in a villa. That daughter pretending to be FL is the wicked person spoken about who liked LYS and was the reason for him being on that highway and then ghosting him in the hospital later. When the truth came out, LYS was stunned and distraught understandably, and took a few days leave to travel around for both himself and work. After receiving the letter with the entire story from his side of how they met or when he first saw her and her remembering that day as well, she called him and told him to stop over in her hometown on the way back to Suzhou. They went to walk around the cherry blossoms which was kind of a full circle from two years before when the fake invited him to do the same, and this was when they--both real people--officially got together.

The rest you'll have to watch, but I'd like to point out that like YAMG both mom's of the leads were amazing people who knew each other from a while back so the ski trip other then both moms, also included FL's uncle, aunt, and semi annoying cousin JR, and ML's stepfather was a very happy one filled with love and fun; LYS with his surprise to NXG made the trip even more memorable. Hunk of junk and coworkers ended up vacationing up there as well; didn’t dampen the spirits too much (though it was his younger bro that set him up). NXG's paternal grandparents were also great people; they could barely stand their asshole son; especially after learning what he essentially allowed gold digger first love and fake daughter to do, after NXG laid it all on the table for him and both mom and grandma found out the despicable actions of all three and how he treated both his only actual daughter and LYS. ML's grandfather was alright, he learned a hard lesson himself finally understanding his wrongdoing with ML's father. Other great people were ML's niece (who was ultimately named successor of the big company) and nephew. Having non-toxic family members is rare in cdrama land. Also NXG's coworkers/friends were night and day from her college roommates. They were always supportive and accepting and fun to be around. ZX's coworkers were also nice people.

OSTs were my favorite especially the one in English called "You Are the Light of my Love." The desert scenes were great and costumes as usual per modern drama; I liked it more when FL started dressing like a young lady and not a kid.

Cons: Whoever thought putting so much propaganda into a romantic drama was a good idea, didn't think things through. At first it wasn't a big deal, here and there in a conversation, one could brush it off but than in a college lecture the leads went to, that started talking about their industry and than proceeded to vilify the West and go into politics before trying to tie things up with a pretty little bow with "all countries in the world under the sun will prosper." It was ridiculous and unnecessary. Afterwards at the end of the series it was all countries bad and China the leading in everything technological especially last year and I'm like y'all blind or something? This is a romantic drama not a lesson in business politics. Or the off the cuff remarks that Mr. Zhang would suffer in America because the food and atmosphere is bad/different. I felt like that was a slap in the face to every Chinese American because there's plenty of Chinese food in every city not to mention places like NYC and San Fran having Chinatowns taking up whole portions of the cities where you literally feel like you went to their country. It's not like Mr. Zhang's son lived in the middle of a cornfield in Ohio, for Pete's sake! Stupid.

This show had plenty of money but apparently not enough to even have CGI of European cities on NXG's and JR's study tour that they had to use a green screen and stickers or posters. Continuing, it felt very disheartening when every single evil doer got a slap on the wrist instead of real consequences; bastard father after NXG read him the riot act and grandma and mom found out the extent of his stupidity and harm, just had the benign tumor removed, but though it had supposedly done some harm to his hearing and facial movement; the actor never acted it out so it was a loophole and his business never suffered like in the book. He was still as arrogant as ever. Gold digger and fake daughter were presumably kicked out of the villa with some money intact but no one went to jail and we never actually saw that. Asshole uncle and his son; were allowed to continue being in the company or one at least and both retained their wealth. Toxic chick quit her job and left the city; that was it. None of them got any real punishment. We were all waiting for karma and she forgot about them; I felt that was lax writing; two screenwriters so whomever wrote it, didn't do it well.

While we got a strange proposal and an equally strange wedding (just them two, no family or friends seen anywhere); the time jumps in the last episode didn't make sense especially the last two. One after 10 years and one after 3. Why wait a whole decade after getting married to have a child? And why jump 3 years into the future, just to show a walking creepy as hell robot and cars that can do everything but fly when everyone knows not one country on earth is that advanced nor will be in 2-3 years. It just didn't jive with the rest of the show. Showing a family of 3 with the cute daughter was great, also exiting out ZX with his coworkers was appropriate but the majority disappeared before the wedding and were never seen again, with no explanation given. Things could have been done better at the end with that especially given how important they were to the rest of the show and the leads.

Would I recommend it? I absolutely would. Despite the cons and there were enough to definitely pose questions, pros outweighed them by far. This was a great lesson in how to have the right type of relationship and the right type of friends as well as whom to cherish as family and whom to disregard.

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Watch for the tension, not for the plot (trigger warning: sexual harrassment)

This film was not a waste of my time, because I felt like it lit a spark in me that I have not seen for a long time (possibly because I took a break from films and dramas that are like these).

I would recommend this if you simply need a mere tick-in-the-box for "enemies to lovers" or even "Dance BL". Also if you like one character being like ice or snow, and the other being like fire or sunshine. That said, there are a few options that are far better. I suppose this film is a manga adaptation, so I don't even think I can blame the directors for everything that I am about to complain about.

The love shown in this film does remind me of this quote from another Japanese film, Happyend, which states, "You can say important things without words". A lot of the development of this relationship seems to be like that - without words. But in a way that seems to be almost unhealthy. The avoidant character Shinya Sugiki shows hardly any signs of true character growth. It appears that what drives his character growth is a quote about dance I find to be rather cringy - "love is what makes [dance] whole". Honestly, it seems like whatever minimal character development happens for him is pinned on this quote. Shinya Sugiki is actually a fascinating character in general, though. A lot of dichotomies. Like being self-sacrificing and also a control freak.

DON'T GET ME STARTED on the amount of boundary violations and questionable things this promotes (nothing new to BL). Stuff like Shinya Sugiki pushing his genitals against Shinya Suzuki at the start and he never even apologises for it. SEXUAL HARASSMENT HELLO? And then Shinya Suzuki literally forcing himself on Shinya Sugiki after Sugiki pushes him away. CONSENT WHERE?!!!

Cultural misrepresentation is there of The UK to some extent (I live here and it's not all old white men and women - but I suppose the ballroom scene might be like that still). But primarily of Latin American culture. The idea that Latin American dance and culture is simply "sexual" - i.e. how Suzuki describes it - is a stereotype. The British (in my eyes partly represented somehow by Sugiki) are not that cold either, although we certainly have plenty of courteous avoidants if you look in the right places, like for instance my former taste in men.

The plot makes no sense whatsoever, like how does calling someone lame then suddenly result in a surge in romantic closeness (I suppose I can see why perhaps because its like maybe the character who was called lame was like "He's the only one who sees me and will call me out for my mess"). But the reason why Sugiki keeps pulling away emotionally and physically is never made that clear, although of course self-image issues do play a role. You know what, I should give this film a bit more credit because there is at least some reasoning behind the push-and-pull dynamic. Like Sugiki talks about how he sort of became the "grim reaper", i.e. how while he wanted to replace the person in power during ballroom dances and become like a more chivalrous and warm version, he inevitably (as humans do) enjoyed being in power, and we can sort of see this leaking into his life in general.

Also, the women are sort of just supporting characters. Although they have distinct personalities, nothing about their background or story is well-developed. So if you are a fan of having side character women who actually have their own story (I know not all of you are), then this is not the film for you.

Anyway, that's it. In sum, watch for the steaminess and the aesthetics (I'll leave complaining about the smoking aesthetic for another day), but keep a critical mind and separate this romance and the cultural depictions from reality as much as you can. Or maybe that's what I need to do with my pattern of being drawn to avoidants in the past.

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Short, sweet, en pointe!

This one will give you the heart burning angst almost immediately. Will they or won't they? Will this be the normal Kdrama with the happy ending or will sometime else happen? ML and FL (and supporting cast too) are all a joy just to look at. If you're short on time, this one is for you!
It's a shame they didn't go deeper and make this a longer series. The OST is wonderful and like ai said before, I can watch the ML anytime!
There was so much potential in this story line. They could have followed FL when she flourished with her career as a lyricist. Big lights. Famous singers. They could have followed ML photographing around the world. I imagine all the beautiful women throwing themselves at him, giving the viewers heart attacks each time, afraid of not fulfilling the unrequited love waiting for him .
Again, I liked the story, actors, music. Shirt and sweet.

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A REVENGE MATERPIECE

CHENG YI brought on different character he as played on like the other dramas he has filmed in which he is strong or zero to hero, in this drama he is just a boy wanting to avenge the death of his family. A boy who is parents were killed and his sister survived and he took care of was his sister for seven years. IN the twenty-Four Strategies of Chang’an ,CHENG YI (Xie Huai An) came not to clear his parents name but to take revenge who killed his parents though he was smart some death cannot be avoided .
What CHENG YI brought our screen was wonderul. LIU YI JUN protrayal of the general king and ZHOU QI who protrayed the deposed emperor and zhang mo were very good as they fit for the roles
Though i am in the 14th episode this was a wonderful change in cheng yi roles and his acting ,This is me first time seeing cheng yi as a scholar and he fits the revenge driven roles. Looking forwad to Liang Jing Shi Wu Ri .

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Don't have high hopes, just try to enjoy the ride if you can.

I had to fight my way through this k-drama, because for the life of me, I did not want to watch it. It was painful to get through, but I finished it. So here we go:

The plot was all over the place. :( I had high expectations since the writer worked on Strong Girl Bong-soon and the director on Meteor Garden, but apparently that level of quality was a one-time thing. The premise had so much potential: they freeze them then thaw them out in the future! I was so excited to see how they would navigate the modern world. But after maybe one episode of acclimation, they had zero problems. Not once did they seriously mess something up because they were from the past. They barely showed it. Occasionally they threw in an old-fashioned phrase, but mostly they just said they were from the past without ever showing it. Such a wasted trope.

And the ending? D: Wow. They froze Go Mi-ran again, widening the age gap from 8 to 11 years. They should have frozen Ma Dong-chan instead, so they would not be so uneven in age, experience, and workplace hierarchy. They could have made Mi-ran a fulltime producer instead of an intern, or even a chief because fo her unique skillset with hit shows. Instead, they made everything more unbalanced. Then she suddenly wants to go abroad to study after he waited three years for her? Come on. The YouTube channel felt like a band-aid solution, and they did not even get married. Completely unsatisfying.

As for the acting: I love Ji Chang-wook, but this was easily his weakest role I've seen... the army must have drained him completely. Ma Dong-chan was a painfully bland character, like a wet tissue, and even Ji Chang-wook could not save him. He abandoned his girlfriend of 20 years based on an unconfirmed assumption, had no real relationship with his mother, and barely any meaningful connections beyond his niece. Criminal underuse. This character might honestly be worse than Noh Ji-wook. Lucky that he is so pretty.

Won Jin-ah, on the other hand, was the saving grace of this drama. She played Go Mi-ran beautifully. Her character was interesting, grounded, and genuinely enjoyable to watch. Her relationship with Nam-tae was adorable, and their bond surviving 20 years apart was one of the few things that worked fro me. She was a good daughter, a good sister, and had a far better reason to be frozen than Ma Dong-chan ever did. Her only mistake was falling in love with him.

The supporting cast, though? What a mess. Overacting, overreacting, tonal whiplash, and so much cringe I had to look away. The show could not decide whether it wanted to be serious or comedic. Na Ha-young’s storyline was treated with heavy seriousness, while Byung-shim's was played for absurd laughs, and neither approach worked. There were no real consequences, no emotional payoff, and they just sent Na Ha-young's character away when things got inconvenient.

My favorite part of the drama was Nam-tae! He opened his own bakery. I love seeing good people get good endings. :D

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A good time

This is a really good comedy thanks to solid jokes, dialogue and situations in which our characters find themselves in. The chemistry between the actors is really good, Kang Ha Neul and Han Sunhwa are definitely the standout with the unhinged and savage performances, while Kang Young Seok delivers a very fun character and Kim Young Kwang some heartfelt scenes. The friendship is the best part of the story.

While I really enjoyed this film, I can't help but feel The First Ride missed an opportunity to properly develop mental health issues in the aftermath of a tragedy. In one hand, I am glad this wasn't a sob fest but, at the same time, sometimes this issues were used as a punchline and even forced the story to be more emotional when the set up was already touching enough.

Overall, this is a good watch and I recommend it.

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Hunks, Boyfriend Swap, and Poetic Justice

I wanted a romance with my latest drama crush Cheng Cheng and was not disappointed with this one. I love the plot : You Xin's boyfriend has the seven-year itch and is fooling around with her best friend (it's always the best friend or the sister/cousin). After an light accident You Xin feels playful and innocently pranks them by pretending to have amnesia, but her plan has unexpected results and she sees horrified her boyfriend and bestie taking the opportunity to make her believe THEY are a couple and that her boyfriend is his friend Yan Zhou. Her boyfriend thinks himself very clever and that his great plan will somehow result in her pining after him because her instincts/deep love will prevail (lol) while he will get the freedom to enjoy his affair, but it backfires (duh) when Yan Zhou takes his new boyfriend role very seriously, making him nervous.

SML is a classic jerk with an inflated ego who thinks he's so great both women can only be grateful for his attention and forgive everything, so it's quite enjoyable watching him hoisted by his own petard, because his bro is sure not giving the girlfriend back. The drama started hilarious and sexy, I couldn't get enough of the ML swearing to SML he will never touch his girl, being all "I give you my word bro I would never betray you", and then flirting with her like crazy the minute after, going for a romantic sprint of steamy kisses, loud sex (in hearing range of the cheating couple), baby planning and proposals in a matter of days. Cheng Cheng is the perfect mix of intensity (while his friend was dallying with fake bestie, he was longing for her) and tenderness. At first it's clear You Xin is using him to get revenge, she didn't have the best first impression of him (she's self-conscious about her humble upbringing and overheard him telling her boyfriend she wasn't good enough for him, of course he meant the opposite but she was very hurt), but when things cool down she notices how sincere he is to her and isn't immune to his charm. It was fun and they had great kiss scenes, but once the seduction is over I would have liked a bit more tension in their relationship, maybe some cracks (ML is too perfect) instead of the very silly last minute "twist" showing us the endless meltdown of the cheating BF that went on for way too long.

Both Cheng Cheng and Ao Ri Ge Le are total hunks which made for some premium eye candy (the scenes where they are arguing together are a visual treat, too much sex-appeal in one small vertical frame), and if you enjoy FL having two very hot men being obsessed with her (while fake bestie makes a fool of herself), you know what to do.

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Nothing but cute faces of the leads

Don't waste your time. It would have been ok if this wasn't the story of a contemporary research doctor with a miraculous access to modern items in their original packaging thrown into a novel. It didn't even have witty or funny script with enjoyable dialogue.
If the FL was the original character written as daring feminist who got tricked into wilderness and then worked her wits to entice the bandit chief into marrying her and felt in love with not knowing he was her betrothed it would have been better.
This was extremely low budget production and even though the actors did ok it was nothing but parading of pretty faces dressed in nice costumes. The chemistry was good and romance satisfying in regards to leads' undying loyalty to each other, but that was it. I had seen ML in better roles so I hope somebody else will post better things about it that I missed.

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This was short and sweet, but wrapped up a bit unsatisfactorily. The premise was cute and if there was another episode to wrap things up nicely, I would have rated it higher. The prophecy said that if they meet coincidentally 3 times, they would be soulmates, and that part happened. But the fortune teller also said that the person from Korn’s dream was not his soulmate and had already found his person, which means they can’t be soulmates, and that was never acknowledged. Maybe it was meant to be a faith thing - they’re soulmates if they believe they are - but if so, it wasn’t conveyed properly. Also, the humor was cringy and every interaction where the couple actually spoke to each other was really awkward. Their interest in each other seemed primary based in appearance.

Couple of chaste but proper kisses. No boundary / consent issues between the leads.

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Deep, yet Depraved Love That Will Light Your Fuse - In ALL the ways.

To My Shore is raw, twisted and complicated, just as most people are. These two are soulmates, who go through hell in the process of discovering themselves, and the depth of their connection! It is about the merging of two complicated individuals and watching that initial spark ignite into a flame that dares to consume them both, scorching the audience's souls along the way. For those of us who enjoy powerful stories like this, it is a MASTERPIECE!!

This story is based on a novel, so there is a cult following of fans from the books into the drama. It follows the original story well, though it is not for the faint of heart but instead for those of us who can appreciate the art of a love like theirs.

Newcomers >>> Welcome! If the headline of this post doesn't intrigue you on sight, that means you've stumbled into the twisted and dark side of dramaworld, and here we live on the edge! Hopefully you can appreciate the mastery of this story and its storytelling style the way we all have.

If you can't, that is okay too! No one is asking you to branch out of your comfort zone, but please do not judge this story based on your own perceptions of what merits as good/bad. It is either your cup of tea, or it is not. There is no judgement here, but if you dare to take this ride - please come back and tell us how it impacted you. Be it in a positive or negative way, this experience will not leave you unscathed. That I can guarantee.

If you loved this story, they are making an EP 16 for us to get our fulfilled Happy Ending that our characters deserve after going through all the chaos, destruction, and growth that comes only with lived experiences, making and learning from mistakes, and allowing ones instincts to push them past the limits of conventional expectations only to come out the other side, forever changed.

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