#honorary danmei

[welcometothejianghu]

Welcome to another round of W2 Tells You What You Should See, where W2 (me) tries to sell you (you) on something you should be watching. Today's choice: 괴물/Beyond Evil.

Beyond Evil is a 2021 Korean drama about two cops that solve a small-town murder that one of them might have committed. Also there's more than one murder to be solved. Also more than one of those murders happened twenty years ago. Also, the cop might have gotten away with at least one of those too.

It got sold to me on the strength of the main pairing, which is absolutely captivating and worth the price of admission. But the entire cast is amazing, the story is great, and it's all just so satisfying. I love everyone in this weird small Korean town. I love having emotions and various Korean foods with them.

I got five reasons why you should watch it! Read 'em!

1. Do You Want To See An Old Man Cry?

In fact, do you want to see every man cry? Do you want to see every man in the cast either cry or pretend to cry or be on the verge of tears at least once? Do you want to see the main characters, who are both men, cry multiple times, often while otherwise wet as well?

Well, buddy, Beyond Evil has got you covered.

2. Absolute Nightmare/Absolute Nightmare

I do not consider it a spoiler to tell you that Han Juwon (the younger one, on the right) is a very mentally unstable superboy. You already know everyone thinks Lee Dongsik (the older one, on the left) is psycho -- it's nearly the first thing you learn about him. But when you're introduced to Han Juwon, you're given the impression that maybe he's just cold, self-possessed, and competent.

No. He is an absolute freak. This is a freak4freak relationship. They are both completely unhinged. They have both been traumatized to nigh-unimaginable degrees, and they have each decided to make it the other's problem. Fortunately (or unfortunately) for both of them, they both get off on that real hard, and they get real mad sometimes about how hard they're getting off on it. It's delicious.

And yet what makes it great is how they're different flavors of freak. They've got the age difference (40 and 27). They've got the height difference (even though the actors are only like 1cm apart, the whole thing is somehow shot like there's a bigger gap). They've got the class difference (small town weirdo and cop royalty). One's a messy bitch, and one's a prissy prince. One has a whole network of people who affectionately endure him, and one has exactly 0.73 friends. One wants to take care of everyone else but not himself, and one has never looked out for anyone else a day in his life. One's a smug little shit, and one's ... also a smug little shit, but differently.

You have perhaps been given the impression that Beyond Evil is like Hannibal, and that Juwon/Dongsik is like Will Graham/Hannibal Lecter. It's not, and yet it scratches a similar itch, if that makes sense.

Don't let me give you the impression that this is textually gay. They do not smooch or anything, so don't be waiting for that. But holy cow, is it homoromantic -- and the leads know it is, and they roll around in it, and everyone else in the production supports their doing it. They have the kind of chemistry stars are jealous of. (It helps that the younger actor is a muffin who has a such crush on the older one.)

And that's even before the part where they get married live on national television. Is that a joke? You'll have to watch to find out.

3. Lee Changjin (and the other antagonists)

I'll talk in a second about excellent and despicable all the bad guys are. But I need a special moment for this motherfucker right here.

Lee Changjin is a wretched, scummy piece of shit who damn near walks away with every scene he's in. He's not the worst like a little meow meow -- he is the actual worst, and it's so good. He's sleazy. He's pathetic. He's hot as fuck. You meet his ex-wife, and you're like, no, honey, sure it was a bad decision, but I totally get it.

Clearly he has a special place in my heart, but all the bad guys in this series are done so damn well. Their realism makes them even scarier. They're not incomprehensible ghouls out there being bad just to be bad. They're (mostly) making calculated decisions based on keeping their own heads above water, and to hell with everyone else.

I'm not going to spoil the identity of the murderer for you -- but it kind of doesn't matter, because you find out who it is less than halfway through the show (and because there are multiple people in this show who've killed someone). There's something bigger and more awful at work here, perpetrated by people that you knew were bad news from the moment you met them.

Beyond Evil is a cop show that is not copaganda, because one of the biggest villains in the series is misuse of police power. The show stresses accountability for police misconduct -- to the point where that accountability hurts characters we want to see get away with stuff because, come on, their bad behavior was totally justified! But it wasn't! The ends do not justify the means here. The world is not better when powerful people use their power to get out of the consequences of their shitty, selfish actions, even when those shitty, selfish actions were objectively kind of cool.

Fair warning, a lot of this show is about complicated relationships with abusive, absent, deceased, and otherwise difficult parents. Those parents are not always (or even mostly) the bad guys -- but the bad guys are all shitty parents. And yet, their adult children are tied to them in complicated ways that do said children no favors. Some of the most heartbreaking pieces of the show are about how these kids break free from those parents -- or, more tragically, don't.

4. Just plain good television

This is a series that can be handled by Your Average American Television Enjoyer Who Can Handle Subtitles. Its quality is on par with a lot of well-thought-of English-language shows I've seen. It's a tight, well-plotted story that's clear enough to be easy to follow, which is sometimes a high bar for a multi-tendriled murder mystery. The small-town setting even gives it a good source of levity to break up the otherwise tight tension.

It's only sixteen episodes long, but there are enough reveals to make a rewatch more than worth your while. The first half in particular improves exponentially on the second viewing, because once you have all the information, events and decisions that you initially read one way, you can see meant something else entirely.

I was initially going to say that if this were in English, all those fans of things like the Wire and True Detective would be super-horny for it -- except that's not true, is it? No, shows like that (which I have seen, for the record) glorify cops who can't be held down by your damn system, so they have to say screw the rules to get things done, because they're too cool and manly for things like paperwork! While Beyond Evil acknowledges that there are some places where the Korean law system is janky and might let a guilty person go free, but that doesn't mean cops get to do whatever they want about it.

My declaration of the show's quality isn't just me judging by my own tastes. This show won the Korean equivalent of Emmys for Best Drama, Best Screenplay, and a well-deserved Best Actor for Shin Hakyun, who plays that incredibly handsome horrible old man. This is a show that actual people who hand out actual awards for good television thought deserved awards.

So I guess if you always wanted to get into those shows a certain kind of dude can't stop talking about, but you had reservations about how authoritarian/libertarian/misogynistic/homophobic/boring they are, Beyond Evil is here for you!

5. Written and directed by women

This one I think is important as hell, because this is a Dead Girl Show (i.e., a show where men kill multiple women as a major part of the plot), and I know a lot of people are justifiably wary about those. However, there are no hints of sexual assault. The violence is gendered, but it's not sexualized. The murders and postmortem mutiliations are handled with the appropriate horror, but it's not torture porn. And the dead girls are treated like -- and grieved like -- actual humans who matter.

I think a whole lot of this can be chalked up to the fact that both the writer and the director of Beyond Evil are women.

In fact, not only are they both women, they're women who don't do this kind of story all the time. Shim Nayeon has directed five things, four of which are comedy/slice-of-life series. Kim Sujin has written a few dramas about mystery-solving teams, but even more comedy and adaptations of webtoons. I have no idea how the two of them got put on this drama together, but it was a perfect match.

This is not to say that men would be incapable of pulling off a story like this. It is, however, a commentary on violence, and how different it looks if you've grown up seeing yourself everywhere as its object rather than its subject. Sure, you could just flip the script and make a story about a lady punchkicker! A lot of people have, and I've enjoyed many of them! But you could also choose to tell a story about gendered violence in a way that isn't just needlessly retraumatizing the people who have to live their entire lives under its shadow. Moreover, you could tell a story about how even good-guy cops can wind up unintentionally buying into paradigms where some women are valuable and some are disposible.

...And if it winds up being teensy bit of a fantasy story about a world in which so many cops give a shit about this violence, well, that's what fiction is for, right?

In short, you love a team of powerful ladies power-drunk on an Arnold Palmer of Respect Women Juice and Sad Man Tears.

Bonus: BANGER SOUNDTRACK

Oh, it's so, so good. (Spotify link)

Have I convinced you to watch it yet?

It's on Netflix, which may be easiest for most people! However, it's also on Viki, and I much prefer the subtitles over there, because a) they keep the flavor of the Korean terms of address, and b) they actually translate the damn episode titles (wtf Netflix?).

There's no bad way to watch it, though!

(ack, they're so cute~)

[adaywithanotherferalrat]

*jumps between obsessively posting about different fandoms*

Parkour<3

[wordsifelt]

Hi....If you don't mind, can I ask, what are your top 10 (or top 7) favorite media (can be books/ manga/ anime/movies/tv series)? Why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before......Thanks....

Hi! That was a hard question to answer lol, but after several hours of deliberation I have arrived at the following 10, in no particular order:

Mo Dao Zu Shi and Heaven Official's Blessing by MXTX: (danmei) So yes i cheated a little, these are two novels by the same author, but what I like about them are the same, the author writes relationships extremely well, and she writes very well rounded characters. The plot is very nuanced and makes you think.

Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Prachett (Tv series): Truly is a gift to humanity, i love this series, I love how queer it is, how the love permeates everything, how very humane it is (also I'm a sucker for mythological fiction, Percy jackson was a favourite growing up)

Loveless by Alice Oseman (novel): This novel is brilliantly done, and perfectly explains being on the aroace spectrum. I read it recently and it's helped me so much with my own journey discovering my sexuality.

Not Me (Thai drama): Apart from having one of the sweetest romances I've ever seen in any media, this drama also focuses on a lot of political issues, revolution, anarchy etc. Also a great exploration into queer joy. I think it is the only drama i have 10/10 stars

Six of Crows duology by Leigh Bardugo: well written characters, good motivation and plot, beautiful world building and most of all amazing representation, one of my all time fantasy favs.

The All For the Game trilogy by Nora Sakavic: I went into this series with actually zero expectations and it has consumed me for years until I can't find anything else even remotely close to the raw emotion this brings out in me. I don't think anything will ever surpass this. Definitely my comfort read.

Yuuri on Ice (Anime) : One of the first queer anime I ever watched. I love figure skating, the animation style was beautiful, and the love was there. It's a very comforting and fun anime to watch.

Given (Anime): Yet another amazing queer anime. Great exploration of grief and healing and love. Also amazing music.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak(novel) : It's such a bare look at the holocaust and at how it affected those persecuted and involved. Beautiful writing style. I can never read this without crying.

Heartstopper by Alice Oseman: Queer joy for everyone 🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈🏳️‍🌈 (need I say more?)

Some honorary mentions:

Gideon the Ninth: This book drove me insane

I Wish You All the Best (novel): beautiful exploration of non-binary gender

Word of Honor (Chinese drama): I love the main couple, they've got great chemistry

Sasaki and Miyano(anime): most wholesome fluff anime ever

Hope this answers ur question. And I hope you find some good recs in this!

[murasaki-cha]

If you don't mind, can I ask, what are your top 10 (or top 7) favorite media (can be books/ manga/ anime/movies/tv series)? Why do you love them? Sorry if you've answered this question before......Thanks....

That moment when you're in so many pieces of media you forget all of them

Well my most most favourite I would say:

Trash of the Count's Family (and the rest of the Self Sacrificing Bastards)

The Cruel Prince triology and The Stolen Heir duology (TFOTA)

Percy Jackson and the Olympians and the entirety of Riordanverse

Like so so many villainess manhwas I can't pick one all of them

Purple Hyacinth

(Honorary mentions because I really can't stop at 5 things: Brooklyn Nine-Nine, 86 Eighty Six, Marvel, danmei especially MXTX works, QQGK and Fake Slackers, bl in general, Tangled is my favorite disney movie, Yona of the Dawn, etc)

[remythologise]

okay JUST for you @toosday a continuation of the ‘how bad would their first time be, ranked’ based on some of the non-western ships I love (I won’t include any canon ships from danmei because their first sex scenes are literally described in detail in the books.)

kang yo han/kim ga on: there is so much catholic symbolism and bdsm going on here. gaon hearing ‘good boy’ during the act alone makes this a 15/10 experience

kurogane/fai: 12/10 world-transcendingly amazing even though fai cries during or afterwards because he doesn’t know how to accept love in a normal way

ash/eiji: if they HAD sex it would be 10/10 the first time even if either of them had Guilt about it afterwards (for different reasons; ash because he’s dragging eiji into his life, eiji because of ash’s past sexual abuse), but they never had sex because ash died. boner killer!

victor/yuuri: real ??????? on whether they had sex in canon yet actually. there are so many doujin that deal with this I won’t even try to chime in. 9/10 world-class athletes do it well

kotetsu/barnaby: well due to barnaby’s bad knee (derogatory) and kotetsu’s bad back (honorary) they don’t manage to be as athletic as they’d like about it but it’s still very sweet and overwhelmingly emotional for them both. 8/10 marks deducted for the dad jokes kotetsu made which ruined the mood

richard/seigi: they’re in the middle of having 7/10 pretty good sex and seigi says ‘you’re the most beautiful thing in this entire world’. richard has a complex about it and seigi only at this point wonders if he loves richard as more than a friend (novel readers don’t @ me this is an early canon based joke)

nezumi/shion: mutual handjobs at some point during canon in the west block are a solid no. 6/10 (ha, ha)

langa/reki: unfortunately I am SO sorry to tell you they have sex while skateboarding no I’m not kidding. despite grievous injury they enjoy it immensely and a 11/10 sexual skate gets downgraded to 5/10 only because of the bone fractures and hospital bill

lee dong sik/han joo won: this is SUCH an unbelievably bad time between joowon’s hangups over hygiene and daddy issues and guilt and dongsik’s hangups over literally everything else. 3/10 but they still come back for more because they’re far more compelling to each other than anyone else

shinji/kaworu: mind-meltingly overwhelming and existentially terrible for shinji and, much like eve, he dooms the human race while he’s at it. -100/10

[cyanide-latte]

Ask Game: 1, 4, and 50 asdfghjkl

1: who is/are your comfort character(s)?

HOO BOY THERE'S A LOT OF THEM but I'll try to keep it condensed down to the important/current ones rn

Daughter Dooley and the Walker Sisters from Old Gods of Appalachia

Cecil Palmer from Welcome to Night Vale

Oliver Banks from The Magnus Archives

John Doe from Malevolent

Sabriel from Garth Nix's The Old Kingdom series (a mainstay comfort character I've loved for a very long time)

throw darts at a board of well-known Final Girls from horror movies, you're sure to hit a comfort character of mine (yes I count Quentin from the Nightmare on Elm Street remake as an honorary Final Girl, he's chilling there with OG Nancy)

you could probably count the entire Legion from Dead By Daylight but Frank Morrison especially is a comfort character

Power Girl from DC comics

also throw darts at a board of characters from all of MXTX's danmei series and you're probably gonna hit one for sure (bonus points if it's Wen Ning or Jiang Cheng)

and listed last but definitely at the top of the pile right now above all else is Shuichi Iguchi/Spinner from My Hero Academia (no, I don't accept criticism.) Look at him. Look at him.

(I was doomed from the start the first time I watched s3 because he instantly appealed to my inner TMNT-loving 8-y.o. self, like my past child self fuckin reached through time, grabbed my shoulder and went "that design pleases me aesthetically, good job", then we get the moment GIF'd here and I was like "oh he's a fuckin' dork okay", and then when I actually researched the character later it was like HOLY FUCK THIS BACKSTORY KNEECAPPED ME, I HURT IN MY HEART, OH NO, THIS ONE IS MY FAVE.")

*proceeds to stuff the feral side of myself back into their cage*

Ahem. Anyway, moving on...

4: which cryptyd being do you believe in?

The Thunderbird, if you want to classify it as a cryptid?There are several cryptids I find cool, but the Thunderbird I've known about since early childhood (lived on the res as a little kid, what up.) So it's special to me, and yeah, I'd say I believe in it and have for a very long time.

50: can i tag you in random stuff?

ALWAYS.

[cantalooprat]

The Cultivator and His Contract Demon

not a webnovel but its still a danmei manhua so im just. putting it here. as an honorary entry bc its too precious not to include!!!

gorgeous art!!!!! tbh so many manhua Suffer from subpar art but this one is just so gorgeous and lovely to look at, also all the char designs r top tier

damn the chars r great like even the seemingly insignificant side chars have their own stories and i just feel for all of them sigh like the green-haired cultivator who "abandoned" zhiyi bc he wanted someone stronger but then it seems like he had a falling out w his partner n then the partner died?? n then he vowed to nvr take a second contract demon i read it n i was like KNIVES AUTHORNIM KNIVES and also the seemingly happy-go-lucky shifu who gave some exposition in an extra part abt how cultivators can choose what they want to look like, they can even look young forever if they want to, and he gets asked then why do u look so old n he just goes quiet like bc the one person who appreciated my appearance is no longer here n i was like WOW SUDDEN KNIVES...

yknow they made it such a big deal abt how demon lifespans r much longer than humans n thats why they discourage demon-human relationships but like it's also heartbreaking to see these humans who loved their demon partners n will remember them for the rest of their long, long lives

the wolf sidestory bro i thought fusa was just gna be one of those annoying 2ml but this author doesn't disappoint i was looking at his v eye-catching assistant like wow hes putting this unruly prince in line i wonder if theres... something...... and when the lantern festival comes it was Very Clear that assistant felt Something and then!! the backstory!!!! im broken they're So Good

and the token bestie of the ml even he has a backstory and an actual explanation for his gag blank face portrayal like damn i can rly feel the love this author has for this series

lol i havent actually talked abt the main cp of the series they're v cute but the vanilla kind of cute but like the beginning when the gong won the martial arts tournament to show that he's the best option for his shou and the shou was like convinced he wasn't gna be chosen but then he was!!! precious so very precious

[momoliee]

Hi, momoliee....Thanks for answering my ask....If you don't mind me asking, who are your top 5 (or top 3) favorite couples from all of the danmei novel that you've finished reading until now? And why do you like them? Sorry if you've answered this before.....

Usually when it comes to ships, to me it’s always more about how much I enjoy the dynamic itself rather than the depth so here goes :

1. Ranwan : two lifetimes. three personas. three separate stories. beautiful. full of love. We have the tragedy and angst that’s Chu Fei and Taxian jun with all its pain, we have the bastard mo ran 1.0 and his obsession with Shi mei while Chu Wanning watches from afar in pain and self deprecation and longing. And we have mo ran 2.0 and his gentlemanly respectful manner trying to cover up the beast within as well as the flustered and overwhelmed but nevertheless happy cwn. They give you angst, jealousy, possessiveness, sweetness, fluff, respect, sex. One chapter mo ran is preparing a whole feast based off of cwn’s tastes, the next hes fucking him brainless before one of them is somehow dying or getting his soul torn out while the other cries while holding him. Basically it’s a full package stuffed into one ship💀. That’s of course without even going into the analytical depth of their love and relationship and all that but let’s keep it here.

2. Fei Du x Lou Wenzhou : I remember while reading the novel I thought, this is one of the hottest steamiest slowest of slow burns ever without even the explicit sex. Fei du constantly invading lwz’s space, constantly flirting with him, constantly making his moves and the moment lwz so much as gives him a sly glance, watch him fall down the stairs cause he wasn’t expecting THAT. Their relationship revolved a lot around then sizing up each other and constantly trying to piss each other off. And then finally, our sociopathic little boy at last found someone to love him and care for him after all these years of suffering and pain and— pls theyre just wonderful ok.

3. Cezhou (from qjj) : enemies to lovers need I say more. Their dynamic started off very very fun, I’d laugh at how they’d act around each other, feeling like each was trying to pull at the pigtails of the other with all the mocking and pettiness. Then it’s slowly progressed to romance and their romance is so so sweet and so so sensual. It’s full of love and feelings and emotions and you can just feel it. Even the sex feels so…loving idk theyre just so in love it’s heart wrenching

4. Wangxian : pls we have the class clown/trouble maker x the good stiff rule abiding student and who doesn’t love a bit of that. What I love about them is that they really understand each other without any words needed. Wwx doesnt have to explicitly tell him why he did what he did, cause lwj knows and lwj understands. Lwj doesn’t have to smile or raise his voice for wwx to catch that he’s happy or figure out that he’s angry, he can just always tell. There’s this communication without actually communicating that many couple no matter how much they blow each other’s ears while talking, they can never reach that level of understanding. Idk they have a very very very deep and genuine connection and it’s just, it’s nice.

5. Hualian : they’re warmth, they’re healing, they’re home. They feel like a sweet cup of hot chocolate on a cold winter day. Them healing together makes me feel like a part of me is healing too. Maybe it’s the everlasting love or all the quotes like, “you made me realize how simple it is to be happy” but, I’m just very fond of them.

Honorary mentions : Ximang !! And yushipei :D

[pocketfulofrecs]

Our first Author Spotlight is finally here! And the first author in the spotlight is justdoityoufucker!

They have published 31k+ words on mdzs fic on ao3 - 7 works and 1 series. You can find them on @whiteflowercrimsonparasol on tumblr and @justdoityoufucker on twitter.

Their fics:

i’ll keep on walking (our post) - [teen | 2.6k | wen qing time travels and changes things]

violent delights - [teen | 4.3k | no golden core transfer]

i had to abandon myself (you took all of me) - [mature | 10k | wip | everything changes after the staged fight]

the world wags on (our post) - [teen | 3.4k | wei changze is alive]

in payment, a hand (series) - [teen | 10k | yzy cuts off wwx’s hand]:

and there was a new voice (which you slowly recognized as your own)

moved through my heart (like the thinnest of blades)

such music (you stood stock still)

Dee’s favourite: Honestly, violent delights is just so sweet? I love all of their works, but violent delights has a special place in my heart. The sheer hilarity of WWX’s Golden Core just refusing to reside in JC’s body made me cackle. Also, it ended so sweetly. I really love it!

Ju’s favourite: This was hard, but I’m between “i’ll keep walking” because I love time travel and Wen Qing, and she is so badass on this one, and fixes everything, and in the end she has her family safe, including her new brother Wei Wuxian. And “in payment, a hand”, that is a very interesting series, and Wei Wuxian gets a family that he deserves, and the Jiangs also get what they deserve. It’s sad in the beginning, but it gets so soft at the end, and we can see wangxian intimacy, and how they love each other. It’s just really lovely, okay?

The interview:

Q. When did you start writing fics? Did you have fandoms before this one?

A. I started around 2009. My first fanfiction attempts were for the 2003 Fullmetal Alchemist anime and movie and pretty quickly petered off, but I really got into fanfiction when I reread and finished watching Naruto around 2016. It’s still the fandom I’ve produced the most published (and unpublished) fanfiction for, but I’ve also written some works in the Voltron: Legendary Defender and Bleach fandoms.

Q. What made you start writing for MDZS?

A. I actually wasn’t planning on writing for MDZS! I wanted to write SVSSS fanfiction when I first got into danmei and c-novels! But I found some really thoughtful meta posts on characterization in MDZS and the MDZS fandom, as well as some fics that I felt were really good and showed really good characterization, which made me lose most of my self-control. And then I found some prompts that were going around, and I lost the rest of my self control and now, well, here we are.

Q. What’s your favourite fic you’ve written?

A. For MDZS, it’s a work-in-progress, but i had to abandon myself (you took all of me). It’s allowing me to explore philosophy for the first time in a few years, and it’s given me a reason to really research what the setting of MDZS might have been like and how cultivation (in the context of xianxia novels) works and could work.

Q. What’s your favourite type of fics to read?

A. I love love love fluff fics in general! I also have been really enjoying canon-divergence fics for MDZS, there’s some writers in this fandom who do those “what if?” kind of scenarios really well. Honorary mention, also, to fics where Wei Wuxian is raised in another sect

Q. What’s your favourite comment? Or type of comment?

A. Any comment!! Honestly, the entire idea that people like my writing enough to tell me will always boggle my mind, especially if it allows for me (as the author) to engage with my readers.

Q. What motivates you to write?

A. Most of the time, just the simple need to get an idea down and tell a story. I’ve been writing fiction since I was in fourth grade and fanfiction has been a really good outlet for me in that regard. Occasionally I’ll dive back into original fiction, but fanfiction in particular already has a basis for characterization which makes it easier, for me, to write.

Q. Who’s your favorite author?

A. I honestly can’t choose a favorite fan author because there are soooooo many who are incredibly talented, but in terms of professional authors I love MXTX (of course) and Tamora Pierce! If you like historical fantasy, I highly recommend her Tortall and Emelan books.

Q. What is your favorite trope to read and/or write?

A. I loooooove soulmate AUs (as evidenced by how many of them I’ve written for other fandoms)! I also really love, in the MDZS fandom, to read and write time travel AUs. They allow for really cool exploration of what could happen and how one person’s actions could change the whole course of the story.

Q. Do you have any advice for new authors?

A. You don’t need to finish everything you start. I have folders just full of WIPs that I’m probably never going to finish, but all of those words and all of that plotting and planning still contributed to where I am today! Also, I highly recommend keeping those unfinished works because one day you might use them! I’ve reused ideas, dialogue, and even actual passages from my WIP when writing something new.

Q. What do you think is the most important element in writing? Plot, characterization, relationship?

A. Of course, all elements are important, but characterization! Characters usually drive every other aspect of the plot, the setting, and are usually make-or-break for me as a reader.

~

Check out their stories on ao3 and remember...

Comments and kudos feed the author’s soul.

[welcometothejianghu]

Once more, being real generous with the "functional" here.

[welcometothejianghu]

Welcome to another round of W2 Tells You What You Should See, where W2 (me) tries to sell you (you) on something you should be watching. Today's choice: 절대 그이/My Absolute Boyfriend

My Absolute Boyfriend is the 2019 Korean live-action adaptation of the Watase Yuu manga "Absolute Boyfriend." (There are two other adaptations, one Taiwanese and one Japanese.) It tells the story of a woman who has just broken up with her celebrity boyfriend, and the robot who becomes a real boy by falling in love with her.

(And yes, the reason we started watching it was because of Yeo Jingoo, since the tantalizing prospect of "that guy who played Han Juwon, playing a robot boyfriend" was too amazing to pass up.)

I need to note right off the bat: I am not usually a consumer of bippy k-dramas, romcoms, or het romance in media in general. No shade to anyone who likes these thing; they're just not my regular cup of tea. So if your tastes are akin to mine, you may have looked at the poster and been like, hm, no thank you.

Thus I am here to try and sell you on it even if you are not a fan of these genres.

This show is so unwatched that (as far as I can tell) there is nothing for it on AO3. There are a mere eight hits for the manga, Zettai Kareshi | Absolute Boyfriend, but there's nothing at all for this adaptation. This is an absolute crime, for reasons I will detail in the forthcoming five reasons to watch (above and beyond the simple pleasure of watching Yeo Jingoo be a handsome goober, though that remains a serious point in its favor):

1. Balls entirely to the wall

You know those Tumblr posts where someone comments and is like, at no point could I have predicted what the next word in that sentence would be? Yeah, that, only the sentence is the show.

This show is absolutely bonkers. It is absolute storytelling mayhem. It is gleefully head-clutching weird. Someone told it that girls like exactly three things -- cute boys in adorable outfits, cute boys with their shirts off, and cute boys in Situations -- and it is ready to deliver.

I could tell you what the plot of the show is, or at least I could try, but that wouldn't convey the sheer volume of shenanigans it gets up to. I feel like every time it had a flashback montage (set to one of its six licensed pop songs), I was like, oh yeah, that happened.

The thing, too, is that it's so self-aware. This show knows precisely what it is, and it's having fun with it. The acting is often melodramatic, but obviously very consciously so. I'm not going to say the show never takes itself seriously (because it does -- see my point #5), but it never doesn't know exactly what it is.

Browsing the MyDramaList page, I can see that a lot of viewers had lukewarm feelings on the show as a whole. (Normally I don't make the mistake of reading the comments, but since this is such a non-property in English-speaking fandom, I had to go find out what the hell.) And yeah, I can imagine that if you came into this expecting a more straight-faced entry in the genre, what you get could be confusing and alienating.

If you watch this, take off your nitpicker's hat. There are many, many points that do not make sense. Just go with it. Let the cute boys take off their shirts. Kiss a robot. Embrace chaos.

2. A++ Girlfriend

Eom Dada is great. She's just so weird. I love her and I absolutely understand why those two boys want to get with her.

She is a special effects makeup artist who runs her own three-person team that specializes in sci-fi/horror properties. One of the first things we see her doing is mixing up a bunch of different types of fake blood, because, hey, a lot of different stunt people are going to die today, and you can't just use one type of blood for everybody!

She is a dadgumn professional, is what she is.

What she isn't, however, is a pick-me, not-like-the-other-girls girl. Several times, she gets dressed up real cute and femme, and she never expresses negativity toward her more girly-girl friends. It's not that she's rejecting femininity so much as that her vision of femininity is big enough to include creating beautiful fake severed body parts. When someone describes a female character as "quirky," I cringe reflexively. But that's what she is! She's got quirks! She's a nice, normal girl who is also a big weirdo.

Since I did go read the comments, I found out pretty quickly that a lot of viewers hate her. Part of this, I'm sure, is just your generic vitriol you see aimed at any woman in a show, because holy fuck, we sure do hate women.

But I think part of it may come from how she's not asking "how high?" every time those boys tell her they'd like her to jump. There's some real viciousness out there toward women that turn down men, epecially from other women. Without getting too much into psychoanalysis about it, an awful lot of hate gets directed from other women toward the female ex-/partners of desirable men, much of which comes from the terrible assumption that if you were in her position, you'd be appropriately grateful! You'd treat that boy right! That lucky bitch doesn't know how good she's got it!

...You see how that's bad, though, right? Like, really bad and toxic?

Eom Dada tells those boys "no" when she doesn't want what they're offering. She's realizes early on that setting yourself on fire to keep your partner warm is terrible, so she stops. She's going to make them wait until she wants it -- and if she never wants it, well, those boys just get to keep right on waiting!

Read me loud and clear: I'm not saying the only reason to dislike Eom Dada is misogyny. Sometimes you just don't like a character! It happens! It's legal! What I am saying, though, is that when you look at a lot of the hate toward her all at once, certain trends emerge, and they're more than a little bit ugly.

And I think that's unfair because she's an absolute pumpkin who deserves all the smooches and spicy noodles she wants.

3. ...Are they gonna kiss?

And by "they" here, I don't mean Girlfriend and Robot Boyfriend, who obviously smooch. I mean Robot Boyfriend and Ex-Boyfriend.

They hate one another! They make heartbreaking sacrifices for one another! They're vicious rivals! They team up to solve mysteries! They're incredibly suspicious of one another! They trust one another completely! What the actual hell is going on with these two? Because oh boy, the show itself sure doesn't know.

Their relationship yo-yos constantly throughout the length of the series. They're never friends, but they get weirdly close on several occasions, including rescuing one another from terrible predicaments. They also both seem fascinated with each other, above and beyond how they're competing for the affections of the same girl. The actors have some solid chemistry (much of it comedic) in their shared scenes. They're certainly not afraid to get right up in each other's personal space.

This isn't queerbaiting, it's not using gay as a punchline, it's ... something, that's for sure. And by that I mean, I don't know if I've ever seen a more powerful vindication of the principle that the optimal solution to every love triangle is a threesome.

This to me is one of the flaws of the show, that it has decided it must never acknowledge the strength of their independent bond outside of its place in the central love conflict, and to keep from doing so, it keeps nuking Ex-Boyfriend's character back to square one. He learns about love and trust and growth! ...and then we need the plot to have a which boy will she choose??? conflict, so he's got to unlearn all of that real quick so he can be a real dillhole again. If it didn't feel obligated to do that, things would get sexy fast, I'm just saying.

Here is the main reason I'm baffled that I'm getting no AO3 hits for this: These three would be one hell of a throuple. Where are my bisexual horndog fix-it fics where all three of them wind up sharing Ma Wangjoon's comically large bed?

4. Weirdly healthyish messages about romance?

I mentioned earlier that het romance in media is not my thing, and one of the main reasons it's not is how many just gross messages it delivers about normative gender roles and behaviors.

This show absolutely starts that way. Robot Boyfriend is raised on all your classic romcoms and taught that love is all about giving everything with no concern for your own well-being, while at the same time overriding all your partner's objections because you know what she really wants. When he first latches on to Eom Dada, he's kind of your classic overbearing comedy stalker who doesn't take no for an answer, because True Love.

And then ... he changes. He realizes that his romcom education is not going to help here, so he decides to figure out what kind of boyfriend she actually wants. Once he does that, he starts to figure out that he wants to be loved too. And that's when things get interesting.

He never stops being pretty forward about things, but it becomes far more playful when he's not pressuring her, just reminding her that the offer is still on the table. Eom Dada then responds by becoming clear about how she definitely wants to take this boy out for a spin -- just at her own pace, when she herself is ready for it.

It makes an interesting contrast to how, when she was with Ex-Boyfriend, all she wanted was for him to acknowledge her (which he wanted to do too, but couldn't, for absolutely bonkers reasons, because this show is just Like That). The two of them are still in love, but the show makes it clear that being in love doesn't mean you're going to be good together -- and it doesn't mean you have to forgive the bullshit your ex-partner pulled back when you were together.

But the love triangle isn't even the sole source of romance! There's a whole 'nother love ... triangle? quadrilateral? Whatever, you've also got Robot Boyfriend's charmingly goofy MIT-educated co-creator/trainer/big brother, who becomes the object of affection for at least two of the supporting characters.

My take on this is that Handsome Robot Hyung deserves the whole harem: the boss lady who can pick him up, the cute thirsty girl who does yoga, and the sweet gay-coded boy who is so impressed that he knows robots. (This is another tragic casualty of the NO HOMO attitude of the show, where that boy should be treated as a legitimate love interest, but can never be. But we know better!)

I'm used to seeing love triangles solved in one of three ways: 1) one point on the triangle gets demonized so significantly as to make the other one the obvious choice; 2) the eventually unchosen point gets given a Consolation Prize Significant Other so we don't fell too bad about how they didn't get chosen; or 3) one point dies or is otherwise removed from the narrative, letting the other two hook up without guilt. None of those things happen to either of these love polygons. Despite some genre-appropriate catty, melodramatic speed bumps, everything gets resolved in the manner of adults with reasonable amounts of emotional maturity. It's weirdly kind of nice.

(This isn't to say there's no toxic bullshit that slips in -- for instance, I still don't know what to make of that one arguing couple, or what Robot Boyfriend says to them. It's just much less than I expected.)

Your mileage may vary about the choices the show makes at the very end. It's not how I would have ended it, sure, but I also don't think it could have ended any other way -- remember, this is a show that never forgets what it is. It is contractually obligated by its genre conventions to keep certain narrative promises. If anything, I think it's interesting how much it feels it can get away with leaving hopeful yet unresolved, up to and including how many people are still comfortably single at the end of the show. Partnered romance isn't always the solution to everything! Sometimes you've got your career and you've got your friends, and now you've got some time to work on yourself! Maybe it won't always be that way, but it sure is right now. And that's great.

5. A surprisingly sophisticated meditation on memory and mortality (say that five times fast)

Real talk: In the past four months, I have lost a lot of people, places, and animals who were very dear to me, and had some close calls with a couple more. It has sucked exactly as much as you think it has.

So yeah, in the last few episodes, I blew through some tissues.

To a certain degree, it's exactly the kind of melodramatic tearjerker narrative you'd expect from a property like this. And let me tell you what, there is nothing wrong with getting a good, sappy cry going because of the overwrought dramas of fictional people. There are plenty of objectively mediocre shows and movies I put on because I know I'm going to be a blubbering wreck by the end.

This show, however, has the extra layer of interest that Robot Boyfriend is both Boyfriend and Robot. I don't want to spoil anything, but I will say that having a guy designed to be reformatted every time a new person smooches him adds a whole lot of interesting layers to what counts as death and mourning.

Add that to how Eom Dada is still grieving the loss of her beloved father, who taught her everything she knew about her career, and you get some surprisingly moving little moments that creep in through the wacky hijinks that make up the rest of the show.

Look, it's nothing I'd ever teach in a Philosophy seminar, or anything so profound as that. But it's quiet and nice, and it has more depth than I expected, and it all hit me right in my tender little feels box. If that's the kind of thing you're open to, you could do a lot worse.

Thinking about giving this one a shot?

Viki's got the series in its full 40-episode run. (It's actually 20 hour-long episodes split in half because of commercial break rules, if you're wondering why it's sometimes Like That.) So does Tubi. I guess your choice then becomes which one's ads you'd rather sit through.

I think if you go into this with the attitude that you're just going to go with it all and laugh at how zany it is, you're in for a fine time. Whether or not you think it's good is up to your standards of quality. But it's hard to deny that it's a whole lot of fun.

And then get your ass to AO3 and give me some OT3! Mama needs these three cutie patooties to smooch~

[welcometothejianghu]

I'm not going to be the one who writes the 100k-word post-canon epic about Park Jeongje dealing with the fallout from [end-of-series spoilers], becoming an artist, getting real into online furry communities, and transitioning at 45, but dammit, someone should.

[welcometothejianghu]

bonus:

[welcometothejianghu]

OT3: traumatized priest/traumatized cop/traumatized taxi driver who used to be a child shaman but is now psychic for his own reasons

[welcometothejianghu]

Hello! This blog is @ladysisyphus wearing her c-drama hat (so you know it's very tall and fancy). I realize that some of my tagging is nonintuitive, so here's how to find what you're looking for, sorted vaguely by what you're likely to find the most of:

#tyk - This is the catch-all tag for (nearly) everything TYK/SHL/Word of Honor/Faraway Wanderers

#qi ye - Specifically Qi Ye/Lord Seventh material

#guardian - Reblogs and shitposts only; if you want my original observations, check out @dragoncityinteriordesign

#mdzs - A catch-all tag for Untamed/CQL stuff

#yi city bitch - A subset of the MDZS tag for, well, you know

#nirvana in fire - Nirvana in Fire

#the disguiser - The Disguiser

#sloof - Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty (or however many definite articles you put in there)

#a league of boyfriends - A League of Nobleman

#bloody youths - The Blood of Youth

#qi hun - Qi Hun/Hikaru no Go (the live-action one)

#thank god cit's friday - TGCF/Heaven Official's Blessing

#dmbj - Most DMBJ/Lost Tomb content is over at @katamaricule, but some of it also winds up over here

#house haunters - Once I couldn't remember the title of Psych-Hunter, so I said this instead, and it stuck

#kinnporsche - KinnPorsche, the Honorary Danmei

#yin yang master - Just the Dream of Eternity one, at least for now

#longxi - The Wind Blows from Longxi

#beyond evil - Beyond Evil

#kingdom - The Netflix zombie drama Kingdom

#winter begonia - Winter Begonia

#my roommate is a detective - He sure is.

#lotus boys- Mysterious Lotus Casebook

#that nice boy - A catch-all tag for pretty actors in pretty photoshoots (some of whom may be girls)

#honorary danmei - Not Chinese, but close enough for a reblog

If you're looking more broadly for my original contributions across various fandoms, try these:

#i made this - These are my original posts, some of which are moderately serious and respectable

#shitposting is soothing to me - These are specifically my original shitposts, memes, and other nonsense

#in real life - My various collections of actors from costume dramas not wearing their costumes

#rec post - Things I think you should watch!

#my fic - General fanfic by me; see also @w2writesstuff

#small fandom summer - My current fic project

Also, this whole thing runs on a queue, so if you wait around a while, there will be new stuff!

[momoliee]

Hello again.....Thanks so much for your answers...😄 (First of all, please just ignore it if you don't want to answer)..... If you don't mind me asking, can I ask, who are your top 5 favorite MDZS characters? And why do you like them? Sorry again if you've answered this question before....

1. Jin ling : idk why but I really have a soft spot for that kid. Even tho he’s very spoiled, acts like a ‘mistress’ and has a lot of anger issues, I still feel like that child has a big heart, and like he only ever wanted a family he could rely on with the way he forgave wwx and jgy and all. Kinda cute how he also wanted jc and wwx to reconcile 🥺

2. Wei Wuxian : I always found wwx’s character to be so so charming and funny, he just has no shame and I love that he’s always going around causing trouble. Wwx is a hero, he always tries his best to protect and save everyone even if it comes at the expense of sacrificing smth important to himself for the sake of that. He doesn’t mind casting himself out, getting misjudged and cornered if it means the ones he cares about are all safe and protected. He’s brave and courageous and pretty damn loud with his opinions and there’s nothing wrong with that. I’m v v v fond of his character

3. Wen Ning : soft baby boy who deserved so so much more than what he got🥺 he suffered just as much as wwx and lost what wwx lost too. One of those characters that you feel were treated horribly from the very beginning despite doing nothing wrong. I’m so glad he got his little happy ending and I just, I wish when the time comes he can Rest In Peace and go see his sister

4. Lan Jingyi : the little bitch. Sassiest character I’ve encountered in danmei so far. Seriously how did he make it through with that tongue of his. But he made me laugh a lot ngl. It just felt like someone had to be the Bitch about all what was happening otherwise I would’ve been unable to handle the frustration of the hypocritical cultivation world

5. Wen Qing : strong, badass doctor. Strict, stern but has a heart of gold. Just wants her brother to be safe and okay. She really did care about wwx too and you can tell. She deserved a whole statue built for her, considering how focused she always was on healing and helping the injured

Honorary mentions : jiang yanli for being such a softhearted and gentle person in such a cruel world (especially to her brothers who needed the tenderness) and lwj for being the mighty Hanguang Jun ((also mianmian for being one of the only people to stand up for wwx even if it meant having her honor shamed by those disgusting cultivators))