ShortCircuit

This is turning into a complete 'nother mess. Who's 4 minutes is it this time? And if everything isn't really fixable and we get a philosophical take on how what's done is done... what's the actual purpose of the plot?

Shinigami working overtime this ep.

The fetish parts in YGM! are safely marked by the translator just so you can skip them, and they all come with warnings, you can just jump over them if they give you the ick LOL.

HEA is obviously Happy Ever After LOL. The one with the fetishes is You've Got Mail! (and if you want to, I'll write you another super long comment about it, too, LOL, I love that story a lot!)

So, the story goes like this: the grassland people (Mongol tribes) manage to sack a few border provinces that the ML's father was supposed to keep safe. The whole family, the whole ARMY, Shen ZeChuan - LanZhou - 's foster brother - all of them die. Only SZC (only survivor of the lost battle) is brought back to the capital to be punished for his father's sins.

In comes Xiao ChiYe - Ce'An -, a son of the general who now has to go and sacrifice his own clan's men and army to get back the lost provinces and then keep them against the hordes, with dwindling supplies and few and getting even fewer men... A suicide mission. That makes XCY extremely aggravated with anything having to do with SZC, in part because that also means he's now an unofficial hostage for his father's behaviour in the Imperial Court.

Their first meeting is the first time XCY tries to kill SZC directly.

SZC escapes death through machinations of people behind the scenes but is exiled to a temple's domain and there he grows up for a few years (he's 15 when it starts, XCY not much older) getting taught by one of the Imperial Perceptors of old, and beginning his own calculations to get back at everyone he took offense against (he's quite the vicious little viper, our LanZhou). Eventually, when almost all grown up, SZC and XCY meet again. Slowly, while trying to kill each other or make the other one lose more, they grow close enough for XCY to get increasingly obsessed with SZC and then they FINALLY start to work together and escape the court (though a lot of things happen before that) to get to border and help Ce'An's family and also - maybe - conquer the Empire from the outside towards the centre.

I can't begin to tell you how smooth these characters feel like. SZC is a paragon of sensuality and XCY is mesmerised (me too, LOL). He's a hot-and-cold blackheart who doesn't let ANYone in, except - slowly and against his will, Ce'An. Ce'An is the paragon of virtue (except smart and not stupidly self-sacrificing heroical), and boy do they actually grow up throughout the story! I think I'm just a bit in love with SZC, hahaha~

So yeah, if you want epic, sensual, undying soulmates who are not EVER shy (their bodyguards are treated to all their... doings, because XCY doesn't care and SZC doesn't mind either if anyone knows, LOL), tragedy and romance and revenge, you'll love this story.

I read the fan TL myself - many thanks to the translators, this was a very good TL, smooth as wine, just as the title of the novel. I've got the first volume of the English official TL and it has the most beautiful illustrations (they do that in the SSE danmei TLs), haven't checked the TL yet, haha, I'm used to the fan TL :D

I can't really praise this enough. These men are true enemies-to-lovers and they feel real. (A lot more real than any other danmei charas I've read about, at least in xianxia and wuxia stories :) )

This is absolutely the first Thai drama where the leads are two cute guys where I don't really root for them to get together but I'm hoping the GIRLS get to become an item, LOL.

Go, PangPang and Kan!! :D

I have no idea what he's singing about, but this is the one song at the end of ep 5 that really hooked me into the OST.... This is going on my playlist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwVnQrOAvI4

QJJ (fan TL title is Bring in the Wine) is unashamedly in the open about the ML and MC being in (passionate) love with each other, throughout the story. No wishy-washy obliviousness about it from either of them, and they're even quite proud to display it for everyone to see (and do some repeat performances in case anyone was left doubting, LOL).

I wouldn't say ~better~ when comparing danmei novels - but different in a very good way, oh yes.

I think the fan TL (which is AWESOME) is still around somewhere, if you want to give it a try. It's true enemies-to-lovers, and HEA (I mean - danmei, 99% chances of a HEA anyway LOL). It's also wuxia-only, no fantasy elements. But the most scorching danmei I've read yet (and I've read a lot the past few years).

(Here's making a very small exception for scorch levels for You've Got Mail! because THAT one is 1-chip-challenge level of hot, LOL, but includes so much fetish scenes, it's unsafe anyway hahaha~)

On the other hand - morning wood.

Because it also happens :D

Yeah, well, I only get access to the SevenSeas danmei, since they're easily available in Europe, and I already spent quite a lot of Euros I don't really have to spare on almost EVERYTHING they've published, LOL (with the exception of the fish pet story, that I haven't read already and I didn't really get into when I tried reading it.) The books themselves are GORGEOUS and even if I mainly read ebooks lately, just the feel of the paper is luscious (got the cheaper paperbacks, too, not the DeLuxe editions, I don't have that kind of money LOL).

If you DO decide to get at least ONE of them - get Ballad of Sword and Wine (Qiang Jin Jiu) - other than MDZS, that might be the best danmei ever translated.

Just the one novel, but in three volumes. The fan TL is one single file. The official TL (when it comes, I read it's licensed now) will probably span more volumes, they usually do with danmei.

(English official TL of MDZS for example had 5 volumes, TGCF had 8!, 2ha isn't even finished and reached its 6th volume... YGM! only got its first one published, BUT on the bright side they look extremely good and I don't cry (much) about the price :D)

Yeah, well, when exhausted... It happens to all of us :D

It doesn't deviate much at all, IMHO. I AM a big fan of MuSuLi, though my favourite is Copper Coins (because Xue Xian - that is all). I think she'd approve of this adaptation.

... But I do miss the nickname and the cat HAS to come soon. I hope they keep the cat in.

Don't worry, he notices. He REALLY does. His personality is way more sunny and in the open than JT's, and he seems to get over things really easily, but he's not dense. And he's continuously gathering small pieces of info about JT, because he cares so much. As is JT - he's paying attention at all times to his Wang-Zai.

They're attuning to each other, getting closer and closer.

I don't really see any LOGICAL stopping point except for the time skip (and that'll have a SE if it ends there.)

If they want to stop at the realisation of love (and force the parents into being supportive, which is not in the story), then it can have a HEA and that's that, but it'll be a waste of an extraordinary love story.

If they follow the story... Ack, at this point in time I'm getting really frustrated, just as I wanted to enjoy it as it goes. *sigh*

About 1/5th of the story remaining after the time skip (94-112). That'll be a short season, if it goes like that, or they could fluff it out a bit, LOL. But IMHO there's no way they put in half the book in the remaining 6 eps from this season, if they make it seasonal, and also I can't see how they can split it so that it does have a meaningful end (in case s2 doesn't happen) and still not reaching the time skip...

In the novel they're 16, but yeah, in the drama they can change a few details.

It wasn't SW's b-day, I think it was Gao TianYang (maybe) - he's the one who is in the row in front of SW in school, LOL.

The novel is very much HEA. But if it ends in S1 then they'd have to get an original script (I don't mind at all, as long as MuSuLi has a say in it in some form) OR they end it at the time skip and the HEA comes in S2. It'll be a shorter season too, if that's the dividing point, because only a third of the story comes after.

Chapter-wise, we're 35 in from 112 by the end of ep6, so only a third in... (edited because math isn't happening LOL).

They're 16, they don't know themselves what's in their minds, LOL. All hard drive space is taken by schoolwork, RAM is using up some borrowed space to focus on food and maybe 1% goes to guessing their own feelings and maybe the occasional passional meltdown LOL.

IMHO, it's extremely clear JT is laser-focusing on SW lately, like he can't let him get out of his sight. And SW is pretty conscious at times of it.

For anyone who remembers the story of Leader the cat and JT's obsession with it (AND the reasons for THAT), it's painfully obvious too how and why he's choosing SW as his new home beacon.

Both come from dysfunctional families, one has lived on the streets, the other one has a very shady past, their own relationship starts out as pretty functional (sex in exchange for shelter and sustenance) and ends up as a lot more, there will be violence and neither is really likable (though both are pitiable.)

There's a HEA for the manga, if you want to know but they can go either way with the adaptation. IMHO 8 eps won't be enough to go through all chapters of the manga, but who knows.

They're not saying it's a Furuba adaptation outright either. So maybe it'll have some flavour of it, anyway? :D

PangPang: When there's something strange... In your neighbourhood... Who you're gonna call? GHOSTBUSTERS!!!!

Kan:.... What she said.