Suliabryon

I posted an explanation of the ending up under Discussions that is apparently what the original author has explained on his Twitter/X, stating that the LAST sequence is the dream, the REST of the show is the reality, and the last sequence is meant to show Eunho's internal growth and emotional breakthrough as he embraces his love for Dohyeon and in his dream, gets to confess to him much sooner because of it.

No, I totally got it! They made it a little confusing with his saying "it was a dream" and ending in the dream sequence instead of having him "wake up" to reality next to Dohyeon, but I still understood that what we saw was a now more confident Eunho going back in his dreams to be more true to his feelings with Dohyeon from the beginning, and promising him to always be together. ❤️

I've only finished ep 9 so far but my heart just BROKE for them! 💔😭 Eunho feeling so lost and jealous and insecure, and Dohyeun (who I think might be a little on the spectrum) just loves him SO MUCH his heart can't contain it, so he inadvertantly makes everything worse just because he misses Eunho ALL OF THE TIME and just wants to be with him, no matter what. And he knows enough to know that he messed up, but not really HOW, but he knows this time somehow it's BAD so he is desperate to make Eunho forgive him and just apologizes "for everything".

Dohyeun is DEVASTATED. 😭😭😭 And Eunho is hurting just as much, he just can't stand feeling inferior and like he's holding Domin back anymore, when that isn't what's happening at all. 😭😭😭

Also, WTH with the low ratings?!?!? I haven't watched the last ep yet or read comments to avoid spoilers but so far this my favorite K-BL I've watched and it's been great.

ETA: Started ep 10 and the way Eunho's parents set him up!!! 😅

I hope we get a BTS of it, but we'll see! Yeah, I'm loving their livestreams, too. :)

I found it!! And they did handle it well, ha ha. There was obviously some embarrassment, but I really got the feeling they were actually quite proud of how it turned out and happy it was such a good scene. Minghao gesturing for the staff to calm down was hilarious, and Liang half crawling into his lap was awwww....they really held on to each other to make it through the shy part of their reacting, lol.

As someone raised around another projectile weapon who has taken courses with trained professionals...I was literally yelling at my TV "Do NOT sh00t that arrow while he is standing down range!!!" And also fully expected him to get hit because he WAS standing down range AND not very far from the target. Was no one on set familiar with this rule? LOL.

Let me tell you, I started this show because "zombie apocalypse" is kind of up my alley, and apparently this year so are C-BLs, so why not? And the actors are both good looking (especially Minghao, but both of them, really). I'm a veteran of too many seasons of The Walking Dead as well as games like The Last of Us (we won't talk about game 2, no thank you) so I come equipped with a love of the tropes and they've done a decent job of hitting them here with the whole "humans are more dangerous than the zombies" and "this immune person might be the key to humanity's survival" and "love is still the shining hope in darkness". I'm here for all of that.

But it happens to be a BL so I also knew we would probably eventually get some intimacy.

And, other c-BL's have really been upping the s3xy ante this year, but somehow I was STILL entirely unprepared for that NC scene in ep 12. The emotion? A-Leh crying when he kissed him? The desperation from them both that felt very "this could be our last night on earth"?

The, um, detail?

I also really love that even as aggressive as he was in the moment, A-Leh stopped the moment Lin Zai expressed any kind of hesitation, and then also checked in with him later when clearly they were both all in "Is this okay?" Very 🫠🔥.

The actors did an amazing job of selling not just the intimacy but the emotions underpinning it, which is what honestly makes any NC scene either great or meh. This one was great.

I've been watching the actors react to the episodes on YT as they've aired, and they are both literally so adorable. Minghao is the complete OPPOSITE of his character, such a soft pookie, and they have such a great rapport, but they are both so SHY about even small things that I can't wait to see them react to THIS. 😂

Okay, so I think I may have seen something different from the trailer. What I saw was a VERY short maybe teaser? Anyway now I'm going to go search! and also look for the other title you mentioned.

Yes, adaptation is always hard! And it is VERY difficult to turn off my editor brain and just enjoy a story and notice every single plot hole or hand wave or character inconsistency...sometimes I can, and sometimes I just can't and have to give up on both books and shows. OTOH, it's also a very valuable skill when I read my favorite authors specifically to figure out how they're doing something really well. I learned how to do exposition better by studying Ilona Andrews, for example. They are really, really good at inserting exposition in a way that is natural and not just a boring info dump to the reader.

I've learned to view a show or movie based on a book as a completely different version of the story. Like seeing Pride & Prejudice adapted, each version is unique from one another, and unique from the book.

I think that is a real possibility! He seems to get uncomfortable anytime someone asks "and what about after?" Because "after" has always meant moving on from that person and just making them a "friend", but clearly the idea of that is uncomfortable to Dean in Moth's case.

I'm an author and editor, and while I haven't written Omegaverse yet, I know authors that do, I've read it, etc., and man....Knot was a TOUGH WATCH. To be frank, so was ABO Desire. To me, Omegaverse basically took the most popular tropes from shifter/vampire/werewolf PNR and dialed it to 11 to give "fated mates" "mating bonds" heat" etc. etc. center stage in every book (and obviously in M/M it was world building for one partner to get pregnant). Anyway...I know to people unfamiliar with the genre it must seem odd and confusing, but to me it's not much more complicated than any other PNR with those tropes. I just feel like they need writers who know how to handle it. Or, in ABO Desire's case, maybe the writers should have gotten help from someone with experience in script writing and directing, because I think their inexperience really hampered things. (I think I read that the whole thing was done by the novel's authors as their first screen project?)

Books and shows are NOT the same, and what works well on the page does not always translate well to screen. It takes real skill to know what needs to be changed and how to change it.

In Knot's case, though, it felt very much like just bad writing. Which is too bad because there were so many MOMENTS that had such potential, and the leads have good chemistry, but then those moments would fizzle into poor writing again.

Anyway, obviously I could write a whole essay about what went wrong with the Omegaverse shows, but yes, I've seen the trailer for Love Scandal and WOW. But I will also say, I've heard often trailers can be entirely misleading, so here's hoping that insane chemistry and dynamic between the leads shows up in the actual show, and that the script is better than Knot's. ❤️

Oof, this comment section is rough, and that's saying something on MDL. I just want to talk about the drama. I'm pretty new to BL, got into the genre this year with some of the C-BLs out and then recently stumbled on ThamePo and went in not expecting much, and then found it to be the most adorable show. Seriously, I loved everything about it. From Thame trying to figure out if he liked Po and then getting jealous and replacing all of his ex's stuff in the apartment (SO adorable, come on) to Po trying to navigate dating someone famous while dealing with the insecurities his ex left him with, it was just grounded enough in RL relationship issues and had something really charming about it.

I find a little of that same mix here, but done in a different way, obviously. But so far the conflict for the relationship is essentially the same in that it's about these two people dealing with their own insecurities and flaws as they slowly figure out they actually have real feelings for each other. I know right now 4 episodes in, they're still acting like it's all about the physical attraction, but let's be real - if it was just physical, both of them could easily have moved on to someone else, and neither of them is willing to do that, but also can't quite seem to figure out why. 🤣 They're in denial that any real feelings are involved, but they SHOW it every time one of them feels bad about hurting the other's feelings, or when one of them gets worried about the other. They are already emotionally involved and just haven't admitted it yet.

They've done this with both characters now, where both Moth and Dean are struggling to focus on anything else, but they're so puzzled WHY and then some other character has to point out they're spending all of their time thinking about each other. 😂 Both of these boys are so broken when it comes to relationships, it's going to be a steep learning curve, ha ha. And s3x isn't going to magically make it better or make those feelings go away, it's just going to complicate it more.

Interesting, btw, that Moth literally seems to panic a b it each time they ALMOST get into it. I think some part of him knows that taking that step with Dean will be an emotional point of no return and is scared of it.

RIGHT?? Exactly! This would be a case of opposites attract, and I love it. I want all of FL's friends to find happiness and I LOVE when shows let background characters pair up. I don't need much just little hints at their story as the larger tapestry unfolds. Like what we're seeing with Yuchen and Jiu Gao.

I'm been an author and editor for over twenty years, so it's not often that I don't see something coming in a story, but boy did this show "get me" with the whole "disease is a not a disease" thing! They laid the groundwork and I SHOULD have seen it, but I didn't! Bravo, show.

Man, Lady Du is despicable. There's trying hard to rise above your circumstances, and then there is just being a complete sociopath and not caring at all who you hurt or destroy to rise up.

ETA: OMFG Nanke showing up like a ghost and scaring the life out of them! 😂 He's so serious! I love it.

"Can she be trusted?" 😂 Sir, do you think XLX would just casually reveal things to her friend if she couldn't be???

Also, why do I now lowkey ship him with Xiaolian based on one sentence?? 🤣 If I was writing this I would have her have to deliver messages or things to him and her being utterly terrified of this stoic ninja, while he slowly softens to her and finds her adorable.

Okay, so yes, this is a more serious drama, and bad things do happen, but I would say the first episode is the darkest so far, and the main focus on the show is found family, rising through adversity, love against the odds, and fighting your way through a system set with everything against you. Not just the FL, but every character including the ML must navigate circumstances out of their control, but it's handled so well and is so well done. It's really a 10/10. So yes, the beginning is super traumatizing, and there are difficulties later on, but SO FAR it has really showcased the FL's ability to be decisive, intelligent, and navigate her changed world with grace and dignity. It's a great drama.

Wait, wait...so these actors are the "third couple" from Knot, right? The brother that marked the omega trying to destroy his family to save his other brother? (Which had the potential to be an actually interesting story but nothing really happened with it since it was one episode from the end. i'm not bitter or anything.)

And I see the SLC from Knot is here, too. But this is a completely unrelated story, just with the same actors...? Do I have that right?

I have to tell you, I'm new to BL in general but I'm an author and am familiar with "omegaverse" from that side of things and when I say Knot was really disappointing from a writing perspective...like the actors tried their best and they had some good tropes of the genre in there, but SOOOOOOOOO so much wasted potential and things that made NO sense.

Yes, exactly. I had a glimmer of suspicion when he met 2nd miss, but I thought his sister might have set him up...but the hand/fist thing was a huge red flag, and the go set makes me wonder who is paying him to do all of this, because he's getting big money from somewhere.

I feel you! This drama is SO excellent and keeps topping itself!

Same! Ha ha. "Oh, this drama apparently has "lightness skills". 🤣 Unexpected!

It will??? NOOOOOOO. I want them all now!

OMG the whole scene with the bath and her sending Lady Du away and the way he LEANS and just STARES AT HER.

Okay, and in the previous episode when he gives her the ointment and stares SUPER HARD at that book he definitely is not reading to pretend he's being casual...

The casual shoulder touches, leans in to whisper, telling her she is wasted as a maid???

Sir, are you aware you are catching feelings and that they show on your face and in your actions???

Why are these subtle things so butterfly inducing?? What a testament to the acting and directing.

You know he has NO idea who she really is yet, and when he finds out...that is going to just take his feelings to 11.

Some part of him has to know he's developing inappropriate feelings towards his maid and also has to know this is a really bad idea for both of them. But the rest of him doesn't care or is blissfully unaware that he is, in fact, already in trouble.

ALSO...NO DON'T SEND YOUR SISTER AWAY! What she has to tell you is SUPER important!

And I really thought only the sister Du was a problem. I was NOT expecting the brother to also have ill intentions towards forcing marriage into the family. Makes you wonder if that whole "saving the young master's life" thing wasn't completely calculated.