Welcome to VegasPete Hell
Aug. 19th, 2022 03:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
miss_ingnoNot really a review because it's mostly me screaming about things lmao
So I binge-watched the thai drama Kinnporsche the Series this Sunday/Monday, and I'm hooked. Especially by the secondary VegasPete ship, gifsets of which was the reason I ended up checking out the drama in the first place.
The vibe of the whole drama is very fanficcy self-indulgence. The mafia setting is more of a dressing, and the plot is only important in that it maneuvers the characters into positions to make important choices and to check off tropes, which I hear is pretty common for thai dramas. The characters themselves develope a fascinating depth, some of them more subtle than others. However, I had trouble figuring out when the characters were acting in a certain way intentionally, and when it was just done for comedic timing or similar reasons. For the most part, the characters are very consistent, but certain aspects tend to fluctuate for plot convenience. This is especially obvious with the skill levels: in the first episode, when Porsche needs to rescue Kinn, Kinn is pretty much helpless in a fight; but later when he's recruiting Porsche he suddenly developes fighting skills on par with Porsche's. Similarly, Porsche's fighting skills (the reason he's being recruited!) suddenly vanish in a later scene when the antagonist needs to escape.
Spoilers under the cut.
Actually, NONE of the characters have a single braincell most of the time, except for maybe Vegas. God, they're all so dumb (and I love them).
I do love how they handled the dubcon scene. I didn't know about the kidnapping-rape-sex thing before I watched KPTS, but apparently it's way worse in the novel (as in, clearly noncon)? They did a lot to humanize the situation. Quick recap (for the drama): the minor family arranges for Porsche to be roofied, Vegas sets out to "mark" him by leaving hickeys to piss Kinn off, Kinn & co. come in for the rescue just on time before things happen. And then Kinn remains alone with a high as a kite Porsche in an anonymous hotel room and they fuck. Apparently Kinn initiates/pushes himself onto Porsche in the novel; they switched that to Porsche constantly coming on to Kinn like a happy drunk until Kinn's control snaps. It's shot very lovingly and hot and -- imo most importantly -- it's treated as a bad thing that happened. Kinn clearly feels guilty and Porsche seems close to disassociating the morning after, clearly struggling with what happened. It takes them several episodes and multiple attempts at apologies to move on together (at which point Kinn very pointedly lets Porsche go, promising no retribution will be visited upon Porsche & Chay. Very 'if you love it, let it go' -- and Porsche immediately comes back too as Kinn's life is being threatened immediately after he left lmao).
The TL;DR is: Pete is spying on the minor family and gets caught, Vegas is in charge of his torture. Because things went wrong thanks to Pete's intervention, Vegas needs to go into hiding. Vegas' dad orders him to kill Pete, but Vegas decides differently and takes Pete with him to the safehouse as his 'pet'. Honestly a lot of the torture is shot very similarly to BDSM stuff: Pete is chained up, gets some Cock & Ball Torture, is spanked with a belt, and a bunch of humiliation stuff scenes a la petplay. Imo, the interesting is how this is shot in clear contrast to the actual BDSM sex scene they give us: Pete initiates the bondage and the entire time Vegas is incredibly gentle and his expression is one of awe, devotion, worship. He never takes it even an inch father than what Pete asks for.
All of this happens rapidly, in 2-3 episodes with other scenes from the other ships in between, before Vegas lets Pete go. It is depicted as unhealthy and co-dependant and two broken people finding each other. But they also very nicely build up *why* they trust each other, why they are drawn to each other. They find common ground in being victims of abuse by their fathers, even if they both cope with it very differently. Pete is drawn to Vegas not because he's a pretty face, but because of his dark edges (there's a meta in there how being able to see that makes Pete able to *trust* that Vegas is. Not genuine, because boy he's got on masks upong masks, but with Pete he drops them. And what Pete sees he can trust because he *is* broken and full of sharp edges. It's real). And Vegas is drawn to Pete because Pete *sees* him, sees beyond that masks and *accepts* him as he is, darkness and all, and doesn't flinch (everyone else flinches away from the depth of his desires, making him feel like a freak. With Pete, for the first time he feels *human*).
Anyway, I have way too many feelings about these two, if you can't tell xD
Oh well. Hopefully there'll be a second season where they can resolve this :D
On the other hand, the finale gave us badass Kim, headphone-hair dye crimes (WHY CHAY. WHY.), adorable KinnPorsche resolution, and an amazingly cathartic VegasPete get-together where they're both broken af (Vegas being suicidal after having lost everything including his abusive father, Pete begging him to live for him by purposefully making petplay references). They even got a cute post-credit hospital scene *melts from sugar* It's fucked up as all hell and I'm eating it up :D
All in all, this was a very fun watch and the characters won me over. You'll probably find me writing a litany of VP fic after I've finished my![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
guardian_wishlist fills :') I've already started three of them.
So I binge-watched the thai drama Kinnporsche the Series this Sunday/Monday, and I'm hooked. Especially by the secondary VegasPete ship, gifsets of which was the reason I ended up checking out the drama in the first place.
The Premise
Heir to the main mafia family Kinn hires reluctant bodyguard Porsche (who has debts to pay and no way out). Shenanigans ensue as they clash and fall in love. The other two ships are Kinn's brother Kim and Porsche's brother Porchay (just called Chay), which is more a high school summer romance "I'm in love with my idol" vibes (except Kim is lying to Chay about Things); and one of the main family's head bodyguards Pete having an enemies-to-lovers torture-to-BDSM dark romance with the heir to the minor family (the antagonists) Vegas. CW for dubcon in both early KinnPorsche (I think it happened in ep 4? 5?) but also VegasPete's whole set-up. (More about this in the spoiler section)First Impression
It took me a long time to warm up to the main characters, Kinn and Porsche. I had an easier time growing attached to Pete and Vegas, although to be fair, I knew some of their upcoming backstory already going in so that was easier. But Vegas especially just swept me off my feet with how charismatic he was being and how strongly his actions contrasted with his antagonist status, it kept me trying to guess what was really going on, knowing his goals motivated him even when he seemed genuine. Lots of fun double guessing! All the actors did a decent enough job, but it took a while for me to buy into most of them aside from Vegas - and one other noticable exception. Chay (acted by Barcode who was 17!!! at the time of filming) was frickin' incredible. That level of acting skill, the emotionality, it all sucked me in instantly.The vibe of the whole drama is very fanficcy self-indulgence. The mafia setting is more of a dressing, and the plot is only important in that it maneuvers the characters into positions to make important choices and to check off tropes, which I hear is pretty common for thai dramas. The characters themselves develope a fascinating depth, some of them more subtle than others. However, I had trouble figuring out when the characters were acting in a certain way intentionally, and when it was just done for comedic timing or similar reasons. For the most part, the characters are very consistent, but certain aspects tend to fluctuate for plot convenience. This is especially obvious with the skill levels: in the first episode, when Porsche needs to rescue Kinn, Kinn is pretty much helpless in a fight; but later when he's recruiting Porsche he suddenly developes fighting skills on par with Porsche's. Similarly, Porsche's fighting skills (the reason he's being recruited!) suddenly vanish in a later scene when the antagonist needs to escape.
Spoilers under the cut.
KinnPorsche
While I like the ship and their dynamic, I really had trouble buying into the characters at first. The actors did a wonderful job fleshing them out/keeping them consistent, but I didn't really feel it? Not until the stakes were raised (and then I was busy screaming into my pillow about their stupid Keeping Secrets thing especially after the No More Secrets talk lmao). Like. What! I mean I get it - the secret was about Porsche suspecting Kinn's dad to be involved in his parents' death and covering it up, that's not easy to bring up, and in all fairness they did try talking about it once or twice but were interrupted. *grumbles* Anyway, neither of them have a single braincell, which really makes me wonder how Kinn is such a great businessman.Actually, NONE of the characters have a single braincell most of the time, except for maybe Vegas. God, they're all so dumb (and I love them).
I do love how they handled the dubcon scene. I didn't know about the kidnapping-rape-sex thing before I watched KPTS, but apparently it's way worse in the novel (as in, clearly noncon)? They did a lot to humanize the situation. Quick recap (for the drama): the minor family arranges for Porsche to be roofied, Vegas sets out to "mark" him by leaving hickeys to piss Kinn off, Kinn & co. come in for the rescue just on time before things happen. And then Kinn remains alone with a high as a kite Porsche in an anonymous hotel room and they fuck. Apparently Kinn initiates/pushes himself onto Porsche in the novel; they switched that to Porsche constantly coming on to Kinn like a happy drunk until Kinn's control snaps. It's shot very lovingly and hot and -- imo most importantly -- it's treated as a bad thing that happened. Kinn clearly feels guilty and Porsche seems close to disassociating the morning after, clearly struggling with what happened. It takes them several episodes and multiple attempts at apologies to move on together (at which point Kinn very pointedly lets Porsche go, promising no retribution will be visited upon Porsche & Chay. Very 'if you love it, let it go' -- and Porsche immediately comes back too as Kinn's life is being threatened immediately after he left lmao).
VegasPete
That same level of humanizing is seen in their choices for how to handle the VegasPete ship. (HEDGEHOG!!!!)The TL;DR is: Pete is spying on the minor family and gets caught, Vegas is in charge of his torture. Because things went wrong thanks to Pete's intervention, Vegas needs to go into hiding. Vegas' dad orders him to kill Pete, but Vegas decides differently and takes Pete with him to the safehouse as his 'pet'. Honestly a lot of the torture is shot very similarly to BDSM stuff: Pete is chained up, gets some Cock & Ball Torture, is spanked with a belt, and a bunch of humiliation stuff scenes a la petplay. Imo, the interesting is how this is shot in clear contrast to the actual BDSM sex scene they give us: Pete initiates the bondage and the entire time Vegas is incredibly gentle and his expression is one of awe, devotion, worship. He never takes it even an inch father than what Pete asks for.
All of this happens rapidly, in 2-3 episodes with other scenes from the other ships in between, before Vegas lets Pete go. It is depicted as unhealthy and co-dependant and two broken people finding each other. But they also very nicely build up *why* they trust each other, why they are drawn to each other. They find common ground in being victims of abuse by their fathers, even if they both cope with it very differently. Pete is drawn to Vegas not because he's a pretty face, but because of his dark edges (there's a meta in there how being able to see that makes Pete able to *trust* that Vegas is. Not genuine, because boy he's got on masks upong masks, but with Pete he drops them. And what Pete sees he can trust because he *is* broken and full of sharp edges. It's real). And Vegas is drawn to Pete because Pete *sees* him, sees beyond that masks and *accepts* him as he is, darkness and all, and doesn't flinch (everyone else flinches away from the depth of his desires, making him feel like a freak. With Pete, for the first time he feels *human*).
Anyway, I have way too many feelings about these two, if you can't tell xD
KimChay
Not much to say about this ship. It's cute, it ends unresolved with quite a bit of heart-break. Kim is a music star and Chay's idol, the reason Chay wants to become a musician himself. And Kim is incredibly charmed by Chay and his crush on him, but he has ulterior motives: Kim is investigating Porsche, Chay's brother, trying to figure out why his dad is so determined to force Porsche into working for their family as a bodyguard. Kim doesn't trust his dad and fancies himself something of a detective, the fandom lovingly calls him Kimlock Holmes. The problem? Chay finds out. and Kim is *really really* bad at expressing his feelings, which he caught by that point.Oh well. Hopefully there'll be a second season where they can resolve this :D
The Finale
I have so many feelings about this. They really boil down to: why did no one fucking shoot Korn (the main family's dad and boss)!?!?? THERE WERE SO MANY MOMENTS and the lying fucking bastard deserves to die :< *grumps* also, Korn's decision to demote Vegas (his nephew) after Gun's death (Vegas' father/Korn's younger brother) and promote Porsche to head of minor family? I am *frothing* with rage. Porsche has zero braincells and even less experience in leading any kind of business! WTF! (From Korn's PoV it makes sense, though, it makes Kinn happy and Porsche is waaaaay easier to manipulate than Vegas. Stone, birds. And reliant on Korn/Kinn's experience to help him lead. Fucker.)On the other hand, the finale gave us badass Kim, headphone-hair dye crimes (WHY CHAY. WHY.), adorable KinnPorsche resolution, and an amazingly cathartic VegasPete get-together where they're both broken af (Vegas being suicidal after having lost everything including his abusive father, Pete begging him to live for him by purposefully making petplay references). They even got a cute post-credit hospital scene *melts from sugar* It's fucked up as all hell and I'm eating it up :D
All in all, this was a very fun watch and the characters won me over. You'll probably find me writing a litany of VP fic after I've finished my
guardian_wishlist fills :') I've already started three of them.