#so is History 3 Trapped. with its murder plot and gangs. still romcom to me. so

[mejomonster]

Like. While I fully intend for my new fic to be (mostly) a fluff fest

You know I can't wait for Ye Zun to see Ghosts in a haunted village, jump into Da Qings arms, accidentally awaken his own powers and suck a ghost into himself cannibalism style to save them

Then freak the fuck out over WHAT THE FUCK that means for his powers and life and who he is, with the looming threat of people from his past life who might still Be Alive and not particularly want a person like him with his powers to Keep Existing (you know... cause I love that power related angst that only xmen like setups like Guardian allow me...)

Also despite my best efforts at Comedy, already I've happened to write Shen Wei instinctively somehow aware he lost Zhao Yunlan before (because inexplicably to his concious mind he can't figure out why he's So Irrationally Worried Zhao Yunlan will disappear now in the present), and Ye Zun is secretly hiding a lot from Shen Wei to try and protect him from having anyone burden him with expecting him to save the world (like in his last life) which is also a bit um Emotionally heavy

Meanwhile the only angst I Expected fully to be in this fic was Zhao Yunlan coming to grips with Shen Wei's past life over and his new life Technically a new person to a degree and wtf that Means, and the balance between grief and hope inherent in this kind of romance storyline type. Which is present as you would expect but like. I maybe didn't grasp how Much it was going to permeate the Zhao Yunlan pov parts

I think the the root of the matter is simply. I'm good at emotionally weighting plots lol. U can't expect fluff from me without Something tugging the heartstrings like a brick ToT

[mejomonster]

I started Never Let Me Go part 1 ep 1:

1. Oh my god they batmanned the main character immediately. No time wasting. Turning 18, loves his dad, setup to fulfill family legacy, just wants dad alive and proud of his dad? Dad shot in the RAIN WHILE EXITING

Screaming crying in the rain oh My god

Don't get me wrong, I loved it, I'm loving the setup, it's just WOW do u see it coming they got real quick to the point I love it

2. STAR STUDDED CAST at least 3 guys from The Gifted Graduation and I'm beyond hype about it, I'm absolutely over the moon. My favorite dude is in this I'm practically in tears <3 ;-;

3. For that matter, the vibes? Actually REALLY similar to The Gifted. More realism rather than sci fi, so like The Eclipse. But visually and tonally it's leaning FAR HEAVIER into serious plot like The Gifted with queer relationships IN it but not like the main point. The Eclipse balanced both a murder mystery political protest plot WITH some very ship style shot scenes of boys standing super close and flirting for the sake of a flirty scene, but a bit subverted in that Khaotung and all queer characters on the show were heavily clearly coded as queer men, khaotungs character as a femme queer man, and so those bl fluffy romance type cliches had a certain realism to them even when the cheesy usual music played. I expect THIS show is going to go the 3 Will Be Free route, where there's a main queer romance as a center point but it's not going to be presented too reliant on fluffy shippy they fell on each other and MUSIC SWELLED CUTESY scenes. Oh sure, they may share a shower or fall on each other for sure! But I think the romantic tropes will be handled in a more grounded way as a compliment/intensification to the plot and character romance rather than the vehicles that PUSH the romance and story to begin with. (Actually now thinking about it both The Eclipse AND GAP do a really good job using cutesy fluff tropes but as a compliment to a queer character focused story to like make me feel great I Get a gushy cute over the top scene while still feeling it makes logical sense for the story). So basically... I think tonally this show is going to be like Not Me and 3 Will Be Free and I'm SO HYPE FOR IT. It's my personal preference. I imagine it'll feel initially "slow" to some people, but for me it feels the intro episode is setting up and introducing the individual characters and arcs and themes and setup well which is a good strong opening. (GAP does this while also playing with cute tropes so you can do both if you want a slightly less heavy opening ep).

4. LOVE the visuals. Again, reminds me a LOT of The Gifted Graduation visually in color choices - it's more colorful like Moonlight Chicken, but there's also a lot of more muted looking color choices that remind me of The Gifted. That make the school feel realistic rather than rom com set (like I love Bad Buddy and I love its design choices but it also leans into the bright vivid visual style which is more sitcom and romcom then heavy drama palette). The color scheme is a lot more like The Eclipse, The Gifted, Girl From Nowhere, more muted and I'm hoping it's an indication we'll get some suspense and mystery in the story like other Thai shows that go for these kinds of visuals.

5. I'm happy to say it feels like it's own thing and not a kinnporsche knockoff. I definitely Want more gang grey moral character gay adventure stories even if they are heavily inspired by other stuff or not (I LOVE 3 will be free, manner of death, history 3 trapped, and am always happy for more thriller gay stuff). But when I initially heard this show premise I expected a mafia boss and bodyguard premise. While it may eventually evolve into that setup.... these initial characters are NOT like kinn and Porsche. They're 18 for one and both in the point of life of deciding life paths, which changes the whole trajectory wildly (and in this rare instance despite me not liking high school settings I like the choice... they're 18 truly about to go to college. And the premise reminds me of The Gifted so I imagine the transition of some innocence to no innocence and involved in the corruption of the world and reality fully and no longer being naive and needing to make hard decisions will be major themes in this. Or at LEAST feature at some point. And people becoming adults are a decent character choice for telling that kind of story.) I just like a Lot of the unique choices this shows opening with, I didn't expect a story this thought out and I'm excited

And I'm only done with ep 1 part 1!!! I'm hype