Lyson

Welp, I liked it! Ep 10, I'd say landed well enough, about 75% good, and the other percent was shit.

The SHIT bits:
I ALWAYS skip singing in ANY BL, as it is, waaaaaay too many BLs have some person singing something and it's NEVER entertaining, EVER. The scenes with Heesu and CY continued to be a waste of everyone's time because that friendship is shallow bs and nobody gaf. CY is one of the worst written 'friend' characters I've seen in a while because this guy's 'me me me' complex is exhausting jfc.

Anyhoo, the 75% HIGHLIGHTS:
- Heesu telling his sister (you know what) was a great scene, so well done!
- Heesu telling Seungwon (you know what) in that classroom was well done too!
- Seung Won telling CY to (essentially) eff off and mind his own business was fantastic!
- Everything following the carrot juice on the bench photo was SATISFYING AF.

And my 100% PERSONAL HIGHLIGHT OVERALL:
- Lee Sang Jun, I RARELY find SK actors attractive, and he is one of those rare cases. He's 👌
Apparently he was in Connection, but it's fair I overlooked him, I saw no one but Ji Sung in Connection. He may be going on my fave Asian celebs list after some more consideration.

Right so, when I think back on eps 1-8 (which I enjoyed) and deduct 9 (which wasn't great) and then add the 75% of episode 10, weighing it up against my personal rating system, I'm giving this 8/10. Over all it's worth a one time watch. It won't make my recc list though, watching or skipping it, neither is a major loss.

A second season or special episode likely won't happen because I'm sure a majority of people are gonna rate and drag this down based on their personal sensitivities and tank any possible hope of that, but if they ever did make a follow up with Heesu and Seung Won continued, I'd watch it for sure.

So yeah, it's been fun ✌️
REVIEWED

It's weak af. GMMTV is relying entirely on fans watching these shows just because. They don't even try with these scripts, before the production companies used to try to improve the story from a novel when adapting it to a script, not anymore. I feel bad for the actors. This BL was tropey and typical already BEFORE they brought in Jimmy to play another cliche 2D character.

In contrast to the commenters here, episode 5 fell off for me. This 'two chasing one/make the one ML jealous' trope hardly ever works and it's not working here either. I have never been a fan of Top MLs simping for no good reason over a bottom BL, it very rarely makes sense, and that's what's happening here. Sant is likable, sure, but nothing he's done has warranted Jay or Captain to be 'fighting' over him or chasing him like he's the best they've ever seen lol. It's weak writing, but it's also pretty par for the course bad troping on GMMTVs part, no surprise there. Take their popular actors and waste them on cheesy/tired roles is what they do.

I was hoping for more fun and some antics of friendship, maybe finding a wingman in Jimmy's character appearance as Jay's friend, helping him pursue Sant, some shenanigans, but nah, 'do a trope to death' is how GMMTV rolls. Hope this passes soon, I like Mark enough to try and stick around, but another episode of this will be dull af.

"The drama just kind if presents them as best friends without really giving evidence to support that assertion, leaving us to fill in the blanks." ~~ this is exactly what makes those scenes in episode 9 pointless. You can't have a big best friend emotional fallout when no one cares about the friendship in the first place. The whole thing would have been more effective if Heesu and CY had seemed any kind of close, then it would have been buds before studs or mates before dates or whatever the gay version of bros before hoes is 😂 and viewers would be keen to see them stay friends, but alas, CY has no such value.

I'm okay with a delayed confession, I was always okay with a final episode confession, so long as it was done well but since the writers went for it in episode 9, they should have done so with better writing coordination and better plot flow. I also don't have any particular attachment to who's going to confess, I'm good with either one really. I'm actually not the biggest fan of the whole 'verbal confession' thing always being the go to in BLs, it's a bit inorganically written sometimes, it doesn't work in every scenario. Of course, in the context of this show, it's definitely necessary. I just hope episode 10 still manages a pay off that is worth it.

It's been good for real, I've been enjoying it since ep one. I think the acting has been great and I even liked the pacing and Heesu's gradual realization that he likes Seungwon was well done. The story was building steadily with some layers and the metaphor of seizing the moment and following your 'heart', being who you are and not letting secrets be a burden and so on. I like Heesu and Seungwon, I like JiYu, I don't so much like CY but he wasn't annoying me, until episode 9. I feel like the writers dropped the ball with the disagreement between Heesu and CY and the end scene with Heesu and CY. The focus fell off.

They built up to what could have been such a great coming out scene for Heesu, there could have been some tears, some stress, some relief BUT then they ended it with a confession to CY instead of SW, so there was no pay off at all, it was a let down tbh. We should have gotten the pay off of relieved happiness when SW admitted to returning Heesu's feelings. The writer apparently doesn't know when to stall the pay off and when to deliver it. The whole 'me, me, me, self absorbed' thing with CY was too much, he even made Heesu's personal struggle about him, and it makes no sense because CY as a 'friend' character is not worth the strife Heesu is shown to be experiencing. The friendship between Heesu and CY has been weak af since the outset, even after watching 9 episodes, I couldn't even tell you why they're actually friends.

Imo, it would have been better to have Heesu confess to Seungwon first, be bolstered by SW's returned affection and then in episode 10 he could have told CY (and whoever else, like Ho Sik and even his sisters) about it, and personally, I think his confession to everyone besides SW should have been focused on his sexuality, not about his superficial crush on CY, because from the audiences perspective that was a plot device that was intended just for Heesu to realize/overcome/move on, not to be made a major emotional turning point in the story, because pretty much nobody gaf about Heesu's former crush on CY. As it was, they dragged it out with CY unnecessarily.

I'm still hoping episode 10 can save this downward trajectory. I hope 10 opens with Heesu wrapping up the convo with CY fairly quickly (preferably with CY having not made it about him and given his so called best friend support and encouragement) and then leaving the room with more confidence to go and talk to SW. Eh, I guess we'll know soon enough.

Nailed it.

They built up to what could have been such a good coming out scene for Heesu, it was set up for some good tension, there could have been some tears, some stress, some relief BUT then they ended it with CY instead of SW, so there was no pay off at all, just an uninteresting ending to the episode, dull, which was a pretty asshat decision. Not even a cliff hanger, more like a low flat step. We should have gotten the pay off of relieved happiness when SW admitted to returning his feelings Writer's need to know when to stall the pay off and when to deliver it.

The whole 'me, me, me' thing with CY was too much, he even made Heesu's personal problem about him, and the issue is, the character is not worth the strife Heesu is shown to be experiencing. As I mentioned back in a comment from episode 3 or 4, the friendship between Heesu and CY has been weak af since the outset, I couldn't even tell you why they're actually friends after watching 9 episodes. Trying to make it some powerful friendship moment for those two was a flatline.

It would have been better to have Heesu confess to Seungwon first, be bolstered by SW's returned affection and then he could have told CY afterwards. As it was, they dragged it out with CY unnecessarily, because a) nobody gaf about Heesu's former crush on CY, that was a plot device everyone was ready to yeet long ago, and b) the 'friendship' between Heesu and CY is about as interesting as watching paint dry.

Episode 10 has one last shot to change the downward trajectory that episode 9's misguided direction of character importance has taken.

Script Writer: So how far should we take the miscommunication trope?
Production: Yes.

I see this is adapted from a webtoon, so I'm assuming it's already got a conclusion. That said, I don't want any spoilers. I just want to say I prefer Ha Min over Ji Hun as an over all character. If this is meant to be a story where Ba Woo ends up choosing one or the other, I'd hope it ends up being Ha Min.

That's new! People are usually so surprised when I say I don't like him because he's so popular for some reason. But yeah, to each their own, and he doesn't make it onto any of my personal lists. AB was difficult to stick through for sure lol you aren't missing anything.

Oh, no particular reason other than my personal tastes. I managed to make it through Advance Bravely (mostly) but I don't actually like Gong Jun. I know you might gasp in shock, but yeah lol, he just doesn't appeal to me.

I have no interest in WoH, if I had a 'Not Interested' list it'd be on there. lol Did they hug in WoH, I mean actually hug with intent to hug and not accidently? If so, then that's great they managed to get away with it before the major Cn BL shutdown. So I'd stand corrected, WoH was the last hug in a Cn censored BL :D

Sure.

No prob

Yeah, Ozone definitely comes across as 'low functioning' since he seems to be unable to live alone and function independently in society.

I don't personally see a problem with these terms. 'High/low functioning' when referring to autism isn't meant to be offensive or anything. At least, I don't use them that way.
Like, look at 'sociopath' and 'psychopath', these aren't 'official' terms either, but they come with a clearer impression and we readily use them all up and down, professionals won't put it in their files as a diagnosis, but many of them will still use those words in general discussion.

Yeah, they're low key tapping final destination vibes here, so let Ozone speak to the stars 😂 it's all good.

Autistic people are still their own people with individual personalities, they just don't process things the same as neurotypical people. What we're seeing in Ozone in each ep is a mixture of 'behaviours' that don't really give the character his own personality imo. What kind of person is he? He's like a patchwork of different depictions of autism in media. The writer should have sat down and decided on Ozone's personality and then should have done research to decide how to depict that in a neurodivergent person and also, what level of neurodivergence, something suitable and unique to this character. Because one thing I do think is that Ozone is supposed to be a low functioning autistic person. Whether or not that was the writer's intention, that's how he comes across to me.

I see you mention Asperger's, which is on the extended autism spectrum. You ever watched Adam (2009 movie)? That was a good movie based on an autistic character with Asperger's. People with Asperger's are considered to be high functioning autistics if I recall correctly.

As for the being able to 'hear the stars', well , this show is already supernatural so I just chose to overlook that.

Just when I was feeling bored after ep 5, this episode revived my interest. Best ep yet!

It was a good ep over all, keeping the suspense going and raising more curiosity, acting is not a let down, pacing is good, but, ngl, I burst out laughing when the mother giving birth flatlined and the doc and nurses where so chill and like 'oh, she died...so anyway' LOLOLOL. Man no, that was beyond unrealistic, they would have tried VERY HARD to resuscitate her in any real situation, like, the production crew really thought no one's gonna notice that whack level of bad writing?

Also, the writing of Ozone's autism is not particularly...uh, well done. It's like in We Best Love, where they wrote Zhen Xuan as being on the spectrum and then directed him to act like L from Death Note, it's like. NO. Bruv, it doesn't work like that, the writers are lazy. Just do a little more research and write the autistic character in a more natural appropriate and original way, don't wing it with a bunch of mismatched depictions you've see before, because Ozone kind of feels like that, it's too all over the place.

They can't hug because they're not meant to be friends and China's no-homo policy does not allow non-platonically based same sex characters to hug. Without realizing it, that's actually one of the biggest tells in censored BLs, the two male leads who are 'just really close friends' barely physically get close to one another, it's actually a notable detail and it gives the game away, especially when the MLs are actually being friendly with other MLs.

The last time two censored MLs were allowed to hug in a Cn BL was in Advance Bravely.

The ending offers an ambiguity that allows you to decide what you want to think was real or not real. Below are the three most comment perspectives for the ending of the series (which vastly differs from the novel):

1) Comatose Jiushi wakes up and everything was a dream, so he spends the next 50 years creating the virtual world he dreamed about so he can see everyone one he dreamed of.

2) Jiushi had entered a virtual game world, then he 'wakes up' back in his reality after having purified the game, and the virtual world ceases to exist. Lanzhu included, he ceases to exist as he states he would in ep 36. So Jiushi spends the next 50 years creating the virtual world he experienced and the people in it, as a comfort for his loss before he dies.

3) Everything that happens in the series happens inside a virtual world, and after the virtual world is purified, everyone from the real world who lived/died in the virtual world returns to the real world with all their memories wiped and they go back to their normal lives.

Which one do you feel most likely fits the series ending? You can decide.