Rants and Weekly Raves (RAWR) #485
Anne: ...Another month has passed since my last post... And K Pop Demon Hunters became the number 1 album for a week. The phenomenon of this thing continues to amaze me. And the songs continues to invade my home and ears. Not that I mind too much anymore... I mean it is K pop... so... you know... I can always find a way to like it.
If you are in the US, Halloween this year fell on Friday... and we went out dancing at our usual spot. What I did not expect was how freaking long the line was at 9:30pm. The line wrapped around one city block. We have gone to the same place for Halloween nearly every year, not always on Halloween night obviously, but I'm pretty sure we have been there on another Halloween when it fell on Friday night. I seriously do not remember looking like this...
(Picture is blurry as I took this as we left a little after 12:30am... And the line is only about a third of the way. You can't see the club because the end of the building is on the right.)
The line didn't seem to have become any shorter after 3 hours.
In these last few weeks, I haven't really finished too many shows, except for the short dramas. However, as I started this post... guess what came out this week?
Strange Tales of Tang Dynasty III
I can't believe that there is a third season of this. But I am quite excited about it. And it is wonderful that the main characters continued to be played by the same actors. So... our investigation team is back in Chang'an.
There is only one little, tiny problem.
I don't even remember what happened during the second season. Well... I did recall that Lu Ling Feng is the son of the Grand Princess and the power struggle between her and the Emperor. And that was all I remembered...
So... I'm probably going to spend a few days re-watching season 1 and 2, just to remember what in the world happened. Although I don't think it really matters... I am looking forward to continuing the series!
Now, the reason I started this post was actually to talk about an interesting observation that I just encountered in my drama watching. The toxic character, and how the same "person" can be the ML in one and the villain in the other.
I know I am picking this topic from characters in BL dramas, partly because I just happened to watch these two dramas back to back and the similarities between these two characters are so striking that even I could draw a connection...
The one of the left is Hua Yong (ABO Desire or Desire the Series, depending on where you get the English title) and the one on the right is Sin Jae Min (Secret Relationships). If you read my last post, you will know that Hua Yong is the ML in his story, which would make Jae Min the villain. Both of these man are wealthy, powerful (in their own way, since we all know that the ABO world has actual fantastical power that is beyond our normal reality), and the nicest and most helpful person that the ML has ever met. Both of them were obsessed over the object of their desire. How obsessive did they get? Let's take a look....
1. Both pretended to be something that they are not - Hua Yong made himself into a "person" that Shao You normally dates, pretending to be weak and meek, basically the damsel in distress for Sheng Shao You to "save". When in reality, Hua Yong was more powerful then most of the population, and definitely did not need to be "saved" by anyone. Jae Min played the exact opposite, he played the big brother/friend who is always "there" to help Jung Da On. When in reality, he acted as a friend because he believed that this was the
only way to forever be within Da On's presence.
2. Both created situations in order to manipulate their target - Hua Yong created situations for Shao You to save him, and then created situations where Shao You would feel indebted for certain sacrifices. (Hua Yong went as far to make Shao You believe that he sold himself in order to get the drug that Shao You's father needed.) Jae Min created situations in order to save Da On or those around him, to keep Da On feeling forever indebted to him for all his help. I guess the only difference between the ML and the villain at this point is that Hua Yong always put himself in the dangerous situations. Whereas, the villain, purposely put Da On's sister in dangerous situations. I mean, he even put Da On himself into dangerous situations.
3. Both used their "friend" (and I use this term loosely because neither of these two really have any friends) to fabricate a reality - Hua Yong did it to inspire jealousy. Granted, he also did it as a trap to lure Shao You in, by making Shao You believe that the "friend" has the drug that Shao You needed for his father. Jae Min made a pact with his "friend", who also had designs on Da On, to pretend to be in a relationship with Jae Min as a way to force this "friend" into the same friend-zone with Da On. And then Jae Min created situations to purposely pull out this "friend's" aggressive anger, making Da On fear him. (I have to say, Jae Min was a good manipulator. He told another man who also liked Da On to get him drunk and take advantage of him. At the same time, he lured the "friend" to just happen to witness it, fully knowing that the "friend" would beat the other guy half to death. Thus, Jae Min was able to forever paint the "friend" as someone Da On should avoid.)
I really enjoyed watching these two characters. Hua Yong because he has supernatural powers...who wouldn't like that? And that he was always soft spoken, even when he was super scary. Jae Min... this man was something else. I swear I never even suspected of his character until it was revealed. And even though I knew I shouldn't have believed that a man who went to all that trouble for YEARS would just "let go", I still believed it for a second until Da On got kidnapped. At that point, it didn't take a genius to realize who was the kidnapper.
Here's something funny though, both these stuck to one of the oldest plot devices in Asian dramas... the childhood meet up. From the last post, we all know that Hua Yong fell in love with Shao You because of an interaction they had during their childhood. For Jae Min, he was adamant that Da On has to be with him because they met first... however, the person who eventually ended up with Da On, Seong Hyeon, met Da On even earlier, in a similar situation that led to their meeting at the start of the drama.
And this is the end of the post this time. Sadly, the only new drama that has caught my attention is Strange Tales. Sigh... I wonder when I will get out of this drama hole that I've been in for a while.