Musings of the Obsessive Kind

Aaaand, I am finally out!

I lasted for 12 episodes of its increasingly brain-dead plot, motivated solely by Kim Jae Won and his adorable faces and the hope of cuteness that would ensue when he and Han Ji Hye's character got together.

But as of this week, TPTB decided to be kind and free up some of my short time - HJH and Jae Hee's character confirmed their love with smoochies and love making, thus bringing to my attention two things:

(1) we are on episode 14 and there is still no KJW/HJH ship and HJH is in love with Jae Hee. Even if Han Ji Hye ends up with Kim Jae Won, I would have still wasted my time spending most of the drama with the couple that doesn't interest me, even if they won't be the endgame. No thank you.

(2) I know kdrama laws. If a couple sleeps together, it's pretty unusual for them not to end up together. Not to mention that in dramas, even if synopsis says X ends up with Y, it can change and X may end up with Z due to the popularity of the latter pairing. Otherwise known as Park Shi Hoo principle demonstrated in such dramas as East of Eden, Beautiful Days, that recent Sung Yuri Jeju drama, and, of course, half of Park Shi Hoo's ouvre. This is especially in dramas whose two male leads are of equal star power. So basically, there is a good chance that HJH will end up with Jae Hee and I would have sat up through this hamster-plotted drama for nothing.

So basically, I am done. Sorry, Kim Jae Won, I promise to watch you elsewhere!

I have a problem with Shut Up Flower Boy Band (does the title of this drama even make sense btw?).

What's the problem? Well, this is my favorite character:



As far as I can tell, he's everyone's favorite character. Byung Hee is just utterly and unapologetically bizarre. He's also ridiculously magnetic and I could have really enjoyed watching him woo straight-laced Su Ah (it would have been Marry Me Mary done right!) But, as everyone knows, Lee Min Ki is only cameoing and, as of the end of ep 2, he's gone for good.

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!

Not fair!!!!!!

Evil!!!!!

Luckily, I really do like the rest of the bandmates but still - no fair! He had more charisma than the rest of the cast put together.

Hmmm, maybe I should check out Dal Ja's Spring.

I have a problem with Shut Up Flower Boy Band (does the title of this drama even make sense btw?).

What's the problem? Well, this is my favorite character:



As far as I can tell, he's everyone's favorite character. Byung Hee is just utterly and unapologetically bizarre. He's also ridiculously magnetic and I could have really enjoyed watching him woo straight-laced Su Ah (it would have been Marry Me Mary done right!) But, as everyone knows, Lee Min Ki is only cameoing and, as of the end of ep 2, he's gone for good.

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!

Not fair!!!!!!

Evil!!!!!

Luckily, I really do like the rest of the bandmates but still - no fair! He had more charisma than the rest of the cast put together.

Hmmm, maybe I should check out Dal Ja's Spring.

He: Dragon Lord, who has no emotions and despises all humans, except he rescues her from certain death, changes her bandages, brings her back her weapons etc.



She: The last survivor of the village of demon hunters, who gets up to dig mass graves despite her wounds, and grasps for her weapons with (what she thinks is) her last breath.



Me: You mean they are not the OTP?!?!?! Drama, are you on crack?

( The scene in question )

Seriously.

Yes, I realize it's a posting frenzy but due to various things, I am not posting tomorrow :P

Anyway, I can't believe it, but I am about to restart Warrior Baek Dong Soo. I don't think it's an amazing drama, the way The Princess' Man is, and I like the concept of it better than the execution, but what can I say? I am powerless before angsty assassin's mane of glory...



Plus, I ship assassin/nun just on principle. I mean - he's an assassin and she's a nun. It's a relationship dreamed up by my id.

Have a MV:

Yes, I realize it's a posting frenzy but due to various things, I am not posting tomorrow :P

Anyway, I can't believe it, but I am about to restart Warrior Baek Dong Soo. I don't think it's an amazing drama, the way The Princess' Man is, and I like the concept of it better than the execution, but what can I say? I am powerless before angsty assassin's mane of glory...



Plus, I ship assassin/nun just on principle. I mean - he's an assassin and she's a nun. It's a relationship dreamed up by my id.

Have a MV:

FYI: comment notifications seem a bit delayed.

I apologize in advance to everyone who has friended me for kdramas. I am on a major cdrama kick and probably will be for a couple weeks. Fair notice.



You know how I said I won't cap BBJX any more because repeat downloads of the same ep are a waste of time? Well, I lied. I downloaded ep 11 just so I could cap all the amazing Ruoxi/Eight scenes.

( Enter here for cap extravaganza )

In other cdrama obsession news, since I just posted a Ruby/Wallace QSHF mv, have a Ruby/Yan Kuan one. I can tell I am going to ship them so hard it's going to hurt.




Mmmm. Ruby, Ruby, Ruby, who's a girl to choose? Maybe a poll...

[Poll #1779876]

Before I get onto the body of this post, a practical query - does anyone know where I can download raws for this? This drama is so gorgeous, it is begging for caps.



Now, then. I can barely see straight because my eyes have been open for too long but I don't care! I haven't been this sleeplessly obsessed since my marathon of Three Kingdoms. The one thing that is saving some measure of sanity is that I need subs and only first 4 eps have been subbed so far (on viki). Otherwise, I can see myself watching the entire 30+ eps in one sitting and then keeling over and dying.

I am so in love with this gorgeous, tragic mood piece. The costumes and the sets alone would predispose me to loving this - visually it is an amazing drama. But it's not just that. The writing and acting and the directing - this is getting close to a masterpiece. The characters feel like period people with period people values and behaviors, not modern people in period clothes. One of the things that I love about this drama is that every character is complex, nuanced and interesting. It is very hard to make a cast of characters this huge 3-D but BBJX manages. (It makes me thing of Young Warriors in its ability to manage multiple stories. Both were done by TangRen, hmmmm). Of the themes that run through, the one that gets me the most is futility and lack of freedom - you can see Ruoxi realize that everyone in this society, even those who are as high up as she is, are merely puppets for the Emperor, puppets in a game with deadly outcomes. Her high spirits, which is what initially draws many of the princes to her, are slowly beginning to wilt under the cruel reality. And yet she is trapped - what can she do?

On the shipping front I, the Queen of Canon Shipping, am actually wallowing in uncanon ships! I am obsessed with Eight/Ruolan and that is even more hopeless than shipping Eight/Ruoxi (a good example of period cdrama dysfunction - Ruolan/Eight are married and yet it's totally hopeless). I really want to know what is going on with them - he clearly worships the ground she walks on, but he barely visits her, and she (while always polite) treats him as if he has the plague. (Girl, you got Kevin Cheng as a royal in love with you, wtf are you blind?). I actually like the possibility of Ruoxi/Eight too because they have lovely chemistry and would have the world's most beautiful babies, but less then I do Ruolan/Eight.

Also, I know this is totally ridic, but I am uncanon-shipping Ruoxi/Thirteen. There is nothing in the drama text to give rise to that, but Liu Shi Shi and Yuan Hong's crazy chemistry overrides the writing - all I can see is eye-fucking whenever they are in a scene together.

I also really liked Ten/Ruoxi. I think they could have been happy together - they are both impulsive and forthright. (It kinda makes me think of my obsession Eight/Qing Chuan in Jade Palace Lock Heart). The scene where Ten learns he has to marry the girl whose name escapes me breaks my heart (I love how that sequence transitioned to more serious paths for the drama - showing us that it is all pretty and fun until you lose your life)

So far, there hasn't been much of Four and Ruoxi's interactions but the potential is huge. I love their chemistry and I confess to loving Four so very much - he is not a tragic, heroic figure like Eight, but I love his containment, his intelligence, the hidden sense of humor, the toughness. And my favorite scene so far is actually between him and Ruoxi. It's when she asks him "as a hypothetical" what would he do if he were stuck in a nightmare dream that he couldn't wake out of (i.e. her somehow being stuck in Qing) and he replies "I have five words for you: "Make the best of it."" Somehow that gave me shivers and encapsulates his character perfectly. (Also, it's an amazing advice because you can't control your circumstances, especially in that society, but you can control what you make of them).

I also like seeing the brothers before the fall-out. Like Ruoxi, we know what will happen, and we cannot stop it.

As for the ending? What I want is for Ruoxi to wake up back in modern times. Mainly because the logic freak in me has as the only explanation is that she hit her head and is in the hospital.

I adored Jade Palace Lock Heart and it will always be a favorite, but I have room for BBJX too and, tbh, I cannot compare the two - similar plots they may have, but the execution makes them so different, any comparison is impossible.

Before I get onto the body of this post, a practical query - does anyone know where I can download raws for this? This drama is so gorgeous, it is begging for caps.



Now, then. I can barely see straight because my eyes have been open for too long but I don't care! I haven't been this sleeplessly obsessed since my marathon of Three Kingdoms. The one thing that is saving some measure of sanity is that I need subs and only first 4 eps have been subbed so far (on viki). Otherwise, I can see myself watching the entire 30+ eps in one sitting and then keeling over and dying.

I am so in love with this gorgeous, tragic mood piece. The costumes and the sets alone would predispose me to loving this - visually it is an amazing drama. But it's not just that. The writing and acting and the directing - this is getting close to a masterpiece. The characters feel like period people with period people values and behaviors, not modern people in period clothes. One of the things that I love about this drama is that every character is complex, nuanced and interesting. It is very hard to make a cast of characters this huge 3-D but BBJX manages. (It makes me thing of Young Warriors in its ability to manage multiple stories. Both were done by TangRen, hmmmm). Of the themes that run through, the one that gets me the most is futility and lack of freedom - you can see Ruoxi realize that everyone in this society, even those who are as high up as she is, are merely puppets for the Emperor, puppets in a game with deadly outcomes. Her high spirits, which is what initially draws many of the princes to her, are slowly beginning to wilt under the cruel reality. And yet she is trapped - what can she do?

On the shipping front I, the Queen of Canon Shipping, am actually wallowing in uncanon ships! I am obsessed with Eight/Ruolan and that is even more hopeless than shipping Eight/Ruoxi (a good example of period cdrama dysfunction - Ruolan/Eight are married and yet it's totally hopeless). I really want to know what is going on with them - he clearly worships the ground she walks on, but he barely visits her, and she (while always polite) treats him as if he has the plague. (Girl, you got Kevin Cheng as a royal in love with you, wtf are you blind?). I actually like the possibility of Ruoxi/Eight too because they have lovely chemistry and would have the world's most beautiful babies, but less then I do Ruolan/Eight.

Also, I know this is totally ridic, but I am uncanon-shipping Ruoxi/Thirteen. There is nothing in the drama text to give rise to that, but Liu Shi Shi and Yuan Hong's crazy chemistry overrides the writing - all I can see is eye-fucking whenever they are in a scene together.

I also really liked Ten/Ruoxi. I think they could have been happy together - they are both impulsive and forthright. (It kinda makes me think of my obsession Eight/Qing Chuan in Jade Palace Lock Heart). The scene where Ten learns he has to marry the girl whose name escapes me breaks my heart (I love how that sequence transitioned to more serious paths for the drama - showing us that it is all pretty and fun until you lose your life)

So far, there hasn't been much of Four and Ruoxi's interactions but the potential is huge. I love their chemistry and I confess to loving Four so very much - he is not a tragic, heroic figure like Eight, but I love his containment, his intelligence, the hidden sense of humor, the toughness. And my favorite scene so far is actually between him and Ruoxi. It's when she asks him "as a hypothetical" what would he do if he were stuck in a nightmare dream that he couldn't wake out of (i.e. her somehow being stuck in Qing) and he replies "I have five words for you: "Make the best of it."" Somehow that gave me shivers and encapsulates his character perfectly. (Also, it's an amazing advice because you can't control your circumstances, especially in that society, but you can control what you make of them).

I also like seeing the brothers before the fall-out. Like Ruoxi, we know what will happen, and we cannot stop it.

As for the ending? What I want is for Ruoxi to wake up back in modern times. Mainly because the logic freak in me has as the only explanation is that she hit her head and is in the hospital.

I adored Jade Palace Lock Heart and it will always be a favorite, but I have room for BBJX too and, tbh, I cannot compare the two - similar plots they may have, but the execution makes them so different, any comparison is impossible.

So, yes, still adoring Family Honor.

Only ummmmmmmmm, I am not shipping Dan Ah with Kang Suk (i.e. Park Shi Hoo) but with her hunky student who has a mad crush on her.



I mean, it's giving me mad flashbacks to Biscuit Teacher and Star Candy! And he's so funny and open and adoring! And is played by Gi Young! (Yes, Heartstrings reference). It's hitting all my kinks.




Park Shi Hoo is being awesome as always, but his character is yet to have a kind or friendly interaction with Dan Ah. In fact, he was kind of a bastard to her over her grandfather's death and then he's blaming her because she made his sis do a presentation (Dan Ah is nice and apologizes instead of pointing out that if his sis has an issue with public speaking, perhaps she shouldn't take a class where presentations are required or at least notify the faculty so they'd be aware). His competence verges on arrogance and he seem to care little for anyone outside his family but, more importantly, they have yet to have a kind or nice interaction. So I cannot ship them at all. He's an awesome big brother though.



Since awesome college boy won't end up with Dan Ah (waaaaaah!), he should at least end up with KS' sis - she has a huge and painful crush on him and who could blame her.