Thoughts and Boards🎀

I don’t really know where to begin in order to explain what I loved in this series, but I will say it in one word : Victor. He is my favourite character and I was so surprised because I didn’t expect him to be when both Trin (Apo) and Tanwa (Mile) were there ! I unfortunately was prepared to loose him at any moment : I understood very quickly, when the students protested the second time around (not the first time at the hotel in the first episode), that they were going to have to kill Victor off. It was the only way to end a character like him. I don’t know how I understood it, but I did and he did die and it hurt me so bad because I wanted to be wrong so badly !

I absolutely loved the fact that Victor was actually such a central character and that every single character only realises it when he is gone. Victor is one of those types of characters that you don’t really pay attention to in the beginning, even though you know the role they will eventually play will be way bigger than what you imagine. Victor’s role was grim, but the actor embodied it so unbelievably well in my opinion. Victor’s purpose as a character was to tie everyone together : he was the knot that would have to come loose at some point or be cut off in a brutal way. It was indeed brutal in its predictability : we knew and were afraid from the very beginning that someone was going to inevitably die. Victor’s death was not something that was played in a grand and theatrical way. Naran saw that one of the Colonel’s men had taken Victor as a target, he screamed, the gunshot is heard, and then a black screen. The scene ends. Victor dies in silence. No focus is made on his wound, on his face as he realises that he was shot and that life is leaving his body at the same time. Nothing. The next moment we see Victor, he is nothing more than a dead body on the floor. The focus is on whom he left behind : Trin who was his teacher and crush, his friends protesting alongside him, even Krailert (Trin’s uncle) and the man who shot him dead on purpose. They all look at him like they are haunted by what just happened, and they will be haunted by it until the very bitter ending of the series. I love the way the consequences of Thailand’s high society’s scheming now grows a face : Victor’s face. His character becomes unforgettable because he embodies the fear that tightens our throat every single time any main character appears on screen : who will die first ? Victor is killed, but he becomes paradoxically even more relevant as a character because of it. That was one hell of a debut role for Peter Deriy and I really hope we see more of him because wow does he have potential to be a groundbreaking main lead !

Now, let’s talk about my favourite couple from this series : Colonel Krailert and Naran, the journalist. Where do I even begin…the a.k.a Klai Rung and Sarasawadee ?! The secret meetings at the library after hours ?! The underlining words in romance books to communicate ?! Absolute cinema. Krailert’s whole character is heartbreaking because he is the embodiment of what a gay man should avoid being at all costs : he is in the military, married to a woman, sworn to a deeply homophobic and corrupted society that would crush him the second he’d reveal his true self. Naran on the other hand embodies the freedom Krailert doesn’t have, although he is limited as well and slowly realises he is drowning in as much corruption as Krailert. Being a journalist doesn’t grant Naran what he so desperately seeks : to speak freely of the truth, be it a matter of facts or feelings. What really tore me apart is how brave the both of them were throughout the whole series only for it to be trampled by the actual villainess that no one saw coming : Dhevi, Krailert’s wife.

This woman was so cold-blooded I swear to God, because what do you mean Naran took risks to publish Victor’s father’s risky book (with Krailert’s quiet help), quit his job because his boss was ready to lie about Victor’s death, and Krailert revealed the whole truth which jeopardised everything he’s built in his life just for Naran to look at him only for Dhevi to just…reduce everything to ashes in the end ? She forcefully separates them just because she can’t let go of her unhealthy obsession for Krailert, whom she chose despite knowing he was gay and would probably never grow to love her ! Her three brothers annihilated his previous lover just because she specifically wanted him : it’s just so cruel to have your lover’s life so unfairly taken because someone with power pointed their finger your way. Now I want to say this : I understand how Dhevi feels because she never comes first in Krailert’s mind. However, she put herself in that situation : she explicitly says in episode 8 that it was herself who chose Krailert and not her brothers as Krailert himself believed ! You don’t choose to marry a gay man, to consciously ask your brothers to get rid of said man’s lover in order to marry him, and then cry about the fact that he doesn’t love you and wants to elope with Naran. I hated the way she managed to guilt-trip Krailert into staying with her, he never got to choose in the first place. Krailert is probably the character who suffered the most in the whole series along with Veera. That man deserved everything because he was impossibly loyal to the colonel all while being secretly in love with his wife, who also couldn’t help but be attracted to him at some point ! I genuinely thought that Dhevi was just being a ‘good wife’ by not making a move on Veera, but no she was just an obsessed and controlling freak the whole time ! Ugh !

However, I love the fact that her and Moira came together to expose Krailert’s corrupted criminal of a superior and showed that a woman was always more cunning than a militarily trained man. Periodt type of moment. Moira is genuinely such an underrated character even though she is actually central to the plot. Moira is powerful in the sense that everyone casually forgets about her and therefore gives her the freedom she needs to scheme and plot an outcome that will suit her : as she is a woman, no one will think of her first, so she will think of herself.

Last but certainly not least, Dr. Trin and Tanwa the hippie ! Oh my god, how refreshing it was to see Mile in a role that is the complete opposite of the brooding mafia heir that was Kinn ! He nailed both roles so incredibly well, but I think Tanwa was particularly hard to play and he pulled it off so effortlessly ! Tanwa was completely bonkers and I loved that about him : it was his chaos that attracted Trin, who had quite a grey life. I believe Tanwa was the colour Trin needed. Although Mile and Apo’s chemistry is undeniable, their couple is still my least favourite of the show because the tension between Victor and Trin was through the damn roof ! It got me biting my fist and barking at the damn screen and I’m not even kidding. Let me say this : if Trin had ended up with Victor instead of Tanwa, it wouldn’t have been shocking at all to me. I believe that the only thing that kept the directors from making them a reality was the fact that the whole Shine series was marketed as the return of the iconic “KinnPorsche” couple. That’s genuinely it. Am I the only one who remembers that Shine was originally marketed as the BL spinoff of the “ManSuang” movie ?! That is literally what it was supposed to be in the beginning. I don’t know what changed, but I’m so glad it did, otherwise, we would’ve never got Victor, Krailert or Naran. I will end this ted talk by saying this : yes, Tanwa is the opposite of Kinn in terms of characterisation. However, Trin is not Porsche’s opposite : to me, he is merely a toned down version of him. Trin and Tanwa as a couple are also not the opposite or the reverse version of KinnPorsche : although they reversed top and bottom, their relationship’s dynamic are way too different for them to be qualified as anything remotely close to what Kinn and Porsche had. Tanwa could never dream of being Kinn no matter how hard he tried.

So, I think I’ve pretty much covered everything I wanted to say about this series. I absolutely loved it, the casting was on point, the actors were talented, the setting was realistic and high quality ! The only negative point I’d have to make though is that it was entirely too short : switching from KinnPorsche with 14 episodes to Shine with only 8 of them is brutal and not in a good way. If it had had more episodes, it would certainly had been paced different and perhaps Victor would have had the beginning of a story with Trin…YES I AM NOT LETTING GO OF THESE TWO ANYTIME SOON ! Anyway, I would love to discuss with you about what you liked or didn’t like in this series and why !

The title of this prompt/fanfic or whatever you wanna call it would be : “The Puppet Soul”

So, to remind you in case you don’t remember that specific episode : it’s the one where Arthur proposes to Gwen and Morgana uses necromancy to call Lancelot’s void soul back from the dead to sabotage their marriage and prevent Gwen from becoming Queen.

Let’s twist that episode to fit the Merthur narrative, shall we ?

Here is how it would go : what if Merlin (who would’ve previously harboured feelings for Lancelot, which would’ve been totally plausible given how zesty this show was) is in complete denial about Lancelot being nothing more than Morgana’s puppet, and for once in the entirety of the show…just lets himself feel ?

He is so emotional about Lancelot’s return that he spends every waking moment with him, which makes it so very difficult for the puppet soul to fulfil Morgana’s wish.

I haven’t thought the details or the process through yet, but the evening where Lancelot is supposed to find Gwen in the council chambers, nothing goes as planned.

Instead of finding Gwen there, Lancelot somehow finds Merlin, who is looking suspiciously red in the face. After a lot of nervous babbling and a few tears, Merlin confesses his feelings to Lancelot and that’s when everything blows out of proportion.

Just like in the actual episode, Arthur was woken up by Agravaine, and there they are, witnessing a scene that should’ve featured Gwen confessing and kissing Lancelot out of his mind, not the gangly manservant ! Agravaine is deeply aggravated and embarrassed.

However…

Arthur watches. He watches Merlin, his manservant, confess and kiss Lancelot. The puppet soul sees beyond appearances, he sees the pure, unfiltered rage hidden, contained in Arthur’s eyes. If this can tempt the king out of wedlock, then so be it.

He kisses Merlin back.

Arthur’s blood runs cold. His world narrows down to this very moment. Nothing makes sense any longer.

There is a scream. Arthur struggles to understand where it comes from, until he realises he is the one screaming at the top of his lungs as he mindlessly lunges at Lancelot, sword at the ready.

Lancelot retaliates while Merlin panics.

Arthur has Lancelot pinned to the ground, his sword raises for the final, fatal blow. Merlin comes between them.

His eyes shine gold and the sword is discarded with a swish. Arthur and Agravaine see it all. Magic.

Lancelot is sentenced to death.

Merlin is locked up in a cell.

Arthur has cancelled his wedding with Gwen.

Remember when Morgana comes to visit Queen Annis to use her to get her revenge on Arthur ? She says that she comes to her in the name of her father? First Annis thinks she is talking about Uther. Morgana then corrects her and says she speaks of Gaurlois : she says that it is Gaurlois who raised her and who made her who she is.

Allow me to object with both facts and thoughts. Remember back in the first seasons (either S1 or 2, I don’t remember), in the episode where Morgana first plans to get Uther killed when they go to Gaurlois’ grave ? Well, in that episode, when Uther and Morgana share raw feelings about their relationship to both Gaurlois and each other, Morgana says that she was only 10 years old when Gaurlois died in battle.

So, if I remember correctly, that means Morgana was only raised by Gaurlois from 0 to 10 years old. After that, she instantly became Uther’s ward and was raised by him until well into adulthood. She canonically stayed much longer with Uther than with Gaurlois !

If she spent 10 years with Gaurlois and then became Uther’s ward, she was canonically raised by him for 10 years and then more because she pretty much an adult through Season 1 to 3 in which she is still under Uther’s fatherly influence.

Considering most of your personality also builds itself during teenage-hood, which Morgana definitely experiences after Gaurlois died, she indeed inherits much more from Uther than from Gaurlois.

When Queen Annis says to Morgana that she takes way more after Uther than Gaurlois at the end of the episode, she couldn’t be more right ! Morgana is “Her Father’s Daughter” just as much as Arthur is “His Father’s Son” ! Also, let’s not forget that she is the eldest daughter !