dangermousie | The Outsiders: meta on 8-10, and pics from 8

OMG. I finished The Outsiders ep 10, and

kitsune714, when you said the drama went dark, you weren’t kidding.

It really has the feel and pace of a tragedy: the best that can happen is delaying the inevitable for a while.

Whoa.

In a way, this drama is a good drama to put you off love for good. It seems to bring pain and unhappiness. I keep wanting to make Yu Yen run away from there. Being around Ah Hao brought her so much misery and even if he is not responsible for 99% of it, it doesn’t matter. You should be sheltered and happy, not ‘Elder Sister.’

It’s complicated, of course, why she stays with Ah Hao. I do not doubt that she genuinely loves him. But in part, it’s also because she’s given up so much, sacrificed so much for him, that to walk out would be to make all these choices and sacrifices meaningless. They have to be worth something.

And of course, the tragedy is, that Ah Hao did it all for her. He and Danzi and Ah Qi joined the Triads to protect their loved ones, to be the biggest, baddest guys on the block so no one could hurt their dependents, but they are losing sight of it, especially Ah Hao and thus, Yu Yen as well. How far they have changed from the sweet happy girl and the open, romantic boy of the beginning!

I keep thinking how this ‘job’ sucks the guys’ souls out. They go from being sick and shivery after their first murder, smoking and shaking in the baths (that first murder is probably my favorite scene in the drama, the way it intercuts between them killing and their childhood selves and Yu Yen), to blithely not minding it a bit. (Their Mob Chief is clever. First they just witness and murder, then they do it, and then it’s routine).

Ah Hao, who would have rather cut off his arm than harm Yu Yen, who was willing to let her go, slaps her. Hard. Because she came somewhere she shouldn’t and got a bunch of mobsters hurt. And true, he is horrified at himself right away, but you know? It’s because violence is so endemic to him now, lashing out is his first response.

This was the scene that made me hate Ah Hao btw. I still haven’t changed my mind as we didn’t have any Ah Hao/Yu Yen scenes afterwards. I don’t care if she shouldn’t have come and she got a bunch of your underlings hurt. I don’t care if you are horrified right afterwards and fall apart. I don’t. Not when she was doing it because she wanted to be a good mob wife to you. You should get down on your knees and thank God for sending you a girl like that, who you do NOT deserve. She should be playing piano in a music school, not being in the muck with you. Also, you have what? A foot and 80 pounds on her, probably. Ugh.

I think Danzi is my favorite now. In a way, he can take better care under the circumstances of Yu Yen then Ah Hao, in part because he is the mature one, and in part because he doesn’t live with her, she is not his primary responsibility so he can have a bit of a breathing space.

The thing is, any happiness Ah Hao and Yu Yen find is temporary. At first he doesn’t tell her truths and tries to shelter her because he is so scared she would leave. And then, after he sees tangible proof she would not (she got a mob thing tattooed on herself), he can’t hold it in any more and all the truths and fears spill out to her. But you know? She is not cut out for this, not without really remodeling herself and destroying the very innocence and happiness he fell for.

But OMG. Yu Yen is so incredibly strong, isn’t it? In the aftermath of her rape, destroyed as she is, she still has presence of mind to know that knowledge of the fact that she was raped would destroy Ah Hao, who would destroy himself and everything around him. So she swears Ah Qi and Hong Do to silence. And OMG, Danzi kills the rapist. YES. (btw, Danzi found film, so basically Bao Guh, who knew how much Ah Hao worshipped Yu Yen, had his underling rape her and photograph it? That is beyond sick. And I assume he was going to casually provide photos to Ah Hao, right?)

I adore the secondary OTP btw, Ah Qi and Hong Do. They are beyond cute. And unlike Yu Yen, Hong Do is equipped to be a mob girlfriend. She has no problems with what the guys do, and doesn’t have to change herself. Her reaction on finding a severed finger is that the guy it belongs to won’t be able to make rude gestures any more!

But yeah, I love this drama and it breaks my heart. Everything normal is dropping off. Uncle Huai gave up on Ah Hao after finding out about the mob and I don’t blame him, though the scene of Ah Hao on his knees, weeping, is wrenching.

At this point, all I can hope as a happy ending is for Yu Yen to get out. It’s too late for the boys.

Beginning of the end of it all. Receiving orders for their first murder:

Walking out on the way:

Calling Yu Yen before he goes off to do it. It’s his last moment as a good person, someone worthy of her, isn’t it? And he knows it.

Murder. I love these intercuts so much:

Shaking in the aftermath:

*umm, I took a lot of these*

I love Hong Do!

And the décor is cool:

Yeah, that’s basically their future:

The more his world disintegrates, her more he wants to keep her safe as the one good thing, but of course the more it confines her, and his world scares her.