Hello and welcome to Big Gay Energy.
I'm Caitlin. And I'm Fiora.
Come along with us while we dive into the fun and nuances of
queer media. Representation matters, and
we're. Here to talk about it.
Cheers, queers. Welcome back to another episode
of Big Gay book club. I'll be your host Theora and
today we will be discussing the Thai girl of novel the earth
vows of the land by salmon. This is my first book I've ever
read by this particular author and this author is like well
known for writing a ton of. Books.
But this is the first one I ever read, so I'm very excited to get
into this. If you're a fan of the series.
I will mainly be discussing the book, not necessarily the
series. Caitlin will be joining me for a
episode where we talk specifically about the Earth,
the series, and what we loved about it.
But today we're just going to be focusing on the book primarily
like what I liked about it. I'll do a little bit of
comparison to the series, but mostly we're going to focus on
Salman's book. If you want more Earth content,
we, Caitlin I did react to the series, so you can find select
episodes on YouTube and the entirety of the series for the
Earth and all of the four element content on our Patreons.
For $5 a month, you can get more access to even more of this
content. There's no ads, it's full length
content, all that fun stuff. If you don't have $5 to spend,
that's totally fine. Join our Discord.
We have a dedicated channels to the 4A dedicated channel to the
four elements where everybody talks about the four elements.
So go over there, make some friends, talk about the book,
talk about the series, have a gay old time just like we do.
It's very, very fun. All right.
And so with that, let's get into the novel.
So if you're new here and you've never done one of our been to
one of our book clubs before, I like to first start with how I
read the novel. Just in case you're interested
in also reading Tiger love novels that have been translated
into your language of choice or in the native Thai, your native
Thai speaker also. Hi, welcome.
So I read it through the I think it's MEB or me, but I never know
how to say it. It's MEB.
That's the app I primarily use for reading novels.
Shout out to our discord. That's where I found it and for
my understanding, that's where the authors get the most
royalties from the electronic books that you purchase.
So I primarily read through there.
It works very similar to like Kindle in the sense that you can
like highlight and bookmark and has a lot of the functions that
if you read a lot of ebooks are really helpful.
So it's helpful for me when doing these.
I just do my highlights, do my notes, and then go back.
That's how I put these episodes together.
So good app. There's a lot of stuff on there.
I got actually these these I got all the four elements spoiler as
a discounts because I guess when the series came out they like
discounted the novels. So you might find good deals on
there too for purchasing them and some can be like less than
$10 American dollars and pretty pretty affordable.
So great app highly recommend it for your Thai grow.
Love reading novel adventures. Why did I read this novel?
Honestly. So I started reading.
I started watching the series first.
I was planning on reading the four Elements at some point, not
necessarily this soon. But then I watched the show and
like, immediately fell in love with the Chaos cousins,
specifically whom we'll. Talk a lot of I will talk a lot
about episode because they're just.
So great. And so I was just eager for to
get them know them better since they are the the primary focus
of the entire series. They are the four elements.
And I really love Din. I just resonate a lot with Din.
She's a huge dork and I just love her.
And so I was just like, OK, I want to know what's happening.
So that's why I read it. And my overall impression of the
novel, very positive. Honestly, like I said this, I'm
really, really enamored with the author.
I think she did a phenomenal job of setting this whole thing up,
creating this giant mega series of novels that are now an
amazing television series. Can't wait for the rest of it.
She does a great job with characterizing her characters.
They all feel very real. It was a lot funnier than I
thought it was going to be. Like the the chaos cousins are
hilarious and they're they're just like sibling dynamic is so
fun and cute and I just really loved how it was written the
translation itself. So I read the English
translation. So I sadly do not speak Thai.
Or can read it. So I did read the English
translation. The translation itself was
phenomenal. So thank you to the translator.
And the thing I love the most about the novel when comparing
it to the series as what I love with any novels is that in this
one we got a lot of inner monologues.
So like the thoughts of mainly Rose and Din, sometimes you get
the cousins and it's really funny when you get their
thoughts. But I thought it really enhanced
the story to know what the characters are actually thinking
in those in those scenarios that you see on screen.
And sometimes it's it makes the scene funnier, sweeter.
It just adds a lot to it. So I enjoyed that a lot when I
was reading the novel. And that's probably one of my
favorite things about books in general.
That doesn't always it's, it's hard to translate to a
television series because in a television series, not in their
heads, you don't get access to their mind unless the character
explicitly says what they're thinking and or they do a
phenomenal job of like emoting, like giving you the emotions.
But even that's not always a one to one translation.
So if you haven't read the novel, I highly recommend that
you do it. Just it did add to the
experience and, and, but overall the series so far is really,
really great. And why do I say so far so
little disclaimer. So at this stage when I'm
filming this, I have seen the 1st 6 episodes of the Earth the
series so 7 and 8 have not aired at this stage.
So that will impact the way I can compare it.
So I won't for that reason will not be doing a ton of
comparison. I might do more of that when
Caitlin and I get together and talk about why we love the
series after the series completed.
And so going forward, this will primarily be a discussion about
the novel, what I loved about it, and I'll kind of go through
some general things about it too, focusing on what's
different so far in the series. But again, primarily going to be
at the novel. So if you haven't read the
novel, this will spoil things. It might, although I feel like
the series is doing a phenomenal job of paying homage to Salman's
work, and it does follow it pretty closely.
Some scenes are altered because that's what happens when you add
up things. Some scenes with the cousins for
example are altered and honestly were just even more funny in the
show than they were in the series.
Not that, not that I mean the novel.
Not that the novel is not funny. The novel is funny.
But they did enhance and change certain things and honestly
nothing is bad. It's just it all felt feels like
the same story. So if you haven't read the
novel, this honestly wouldn't spoil much unless they decide to
really deviate from some key plot lines in the show, which I
really don't see them doing. So little disclaimer, but enter
at your own risk and if you haven't read it and want to read
it, read it and then come back. All right, so with that, the
storyline or the timeline events in the novel seems pretty
similar to the series, like I just said.
So a brief overview of what happens main event wise.
So Rosendin, our main characters are reunited after 14 years
amidst Rose's father Tipicorn's coma and some deadly farm
politics. Which is not a sentence I ever
thought I'd say, but here we are.
Then Rosendin decide to get fake married in order to protect
themselves mostly Rose and expose human trafficking
another. Sentence I never thought I'd
say. Throughout the course of this.
Rose and Din realized they like each other for real and then
date for real in the middle of their marriage, which is
amazing. And then Din's.
Bestie slash assistant Cow betrays Din and rows because
surprise, Cow loved Din all along in the most 1 sided way
possible and in the. End The ultimate villain.
Wassu almost kills Din, but Cow redeems herself, sticking that
man behind bars. And then Rosen didn't live
happily ever after, really. And that's the gist of what
we're going. So in the series we've we're up
to the point. Where we're going to get the cow
reveal, I'm pretty confident, but unless they really decide, I
listen the way the series has been going.
It was I. Was watching I'm like they're
not really lingering on her but like they started to in in
episode 6. I'm like, I'm pretty sure we're
going to get the betrayal very soon because there's the camera
starting to linger on Cow looking upset and like.
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorn.
OK, so with that, I'm going to start to go through things I
love about the series, kind of in the beginning, and then we'll
do a deep dive into Rose and Den.
So let's start first with one of my favorite things about the
story, which is that Rose was never the damsel in distress.
She could have been very easily. She's like the younger, kind of
naive girl who comes back to Thailand after being away for so
long. She doesn't know the farm
politics. She doesn't really know the
people that live there as intimately as she used to.
She's back in this new environment and pretty lost and
almost helpless in a way, because her father's in a coma.
She can't really trust anybody. But she was never actually the
damsel in distress. Rose was characterized as this
intelligent and independent person.
And I really love that. So from the moment she arrives
back in Thailand, she's always questioning everyone and
everything like an intelligent person should.
In fact, there's one one piece where she's talking to MO Dang
and she says I need to follow up my father's case to find out if
this was really an accident or someone planned it.
So Rose was like self aware and she was at a disadvantage kind
of coming back into this super chaotic situation and that she
didn't have a lot of allies. She had MO Dang for sure.
And MO Dang's great. MO Dang's like the intelligence
officer on Rose's team. That bitch knows everything even
before they know it. And so that's a helpful
confidant for Rose to have. But other than that, she doesn't
have anybody who's in power, right?
She kind of has Din hanging around her, but like Din is
different. She doesn't know she could trust
Din, but Rose knows that the only way out of this is if she
helps herself. So there's one part where in
early on I think of chapter 1 where Wasu is harassing her and
Rose thinks to herself she has no choice but to find a way
through this uncomfortable situation on her own without
expecting anyone to step in and help, especially while her
father had yet to regain consciousness.
So Rose again, was never a damsel.
Rose was very aware that she was had to be enough to get herself
out of these situations, that there really wasn't anywhere she
could fully rely on. So she had to rely on herself.
And similarly, Rose, who's like the youngest in like the main
cast of characters, not with the cousins.
They're kind of like ancillary, but like in the farm drama plot
line, Rose is the youngest, right?
And so culturally speaking, Rose should defer to her elders
because that's proper including Din Wasu.
They're both older than her, but Rose was not blindly trusting of
any of her elders. OK, because she grew up in
America. She thinks differently.
She took Wasu and Din's accounts of what was going on in the farm
with a grain of salt, OK, and came to her own conclusions.
In fact, she even went so far as to test Wasu and Din to gauge
who was more trustworthy and came to the correct conclusion
that it was. Din.
And to me, this characterization, which the
author very like, painstakingly put in there, made Rose an equal
to Din in my mind and vice versa, because they were both
independently strong and intelligent women who saw eye to
eye on a lot of things. And that's what ultimately
connects them. And my favorite part of all this
with Rose not being the damsel in distress, is that Din was
also aware the whole time that Rose was not this helpless, weak
person that some people who was Sue and his father saw her as.
So the first time that Din explains what's going on with
the farm and her dad's case to Rose, like Din is like, super.
Vague about it. She's like, you know, bad stuff
happened and like, you know somebody.
I'm not naming names. I was doing some really awful
stuff. And maybe that played into why
your father was left bleeding on the side of the road.
OK, Rose, I'm not going to say anything more.
And after she explains this in a super vague way to Rose, Din
thinks to herself. Although Kasima didn't point
fingers at anyone, she was certain that Rose was smart
enough to piece things together. So that little inner piece of
Din's thought really shows that Din thought really highly of
Rose's intelligence. They've been separated for a
really long time. She got updates about Rose
through her father. But like, you can see that Din
in her mind respects Rose as her own person and really is like,
you know, I can't be accusatory, so I don't have evidence.
If I say this like vague. She's like, Rose is smart.
She'll figure out what I mean. So that shows that like Din
respects Rose and always has and does not see Rose as this damsel
in distress that she needs to save all the time, although she
does because she wants to. And neither and she doesn't see
Rose as this like helpless person that can be taken
advantage of the way that Wassu does.
And Speaking of Din, one thing I really love in the story is
Din's transformation from childhood Din to adult Din.
So when Din was a a child, she's described as this small, gangly
and weak little girl. And the key to that is that
she's not somebody physically or like, verbally is able to
protect the people she loved. OK.
And this is harped on throughout the novel.
And that's why when they cast in the series, they cast this,
like, gangly little girl. They did a great job with
casting. This is not a negative thing to
the girl. But they had to make her look
like she was somebody who could get pushed around because, like,
that was harped on a lot in Din's childhood.
And it, like, shapes Din as an adult.
So it's an important detail to get right.
And even when she's a an adult, there's still parts of that
help. Not helplessness, like, yeah, I
guess it's helplessness in a way.
Didn't helplessness to be able to be the one that protects
people. It's still lingers when she's an
adult. So in chapter 1, after Tipicorn
makes her promise to take care of Rose, didn't thinks to
herself how could he, Tipicorn entrust the most important thing
in his life to someone who had never been able to protect
anything precious in her own life?
Uncle T, don't you think you're trusting the wrong person?
This inner monologue from Din is really revealing as to how Din
sees herself, which is she's still that helpless little girl
in her brain, which is really the opposite of the way the
people who are closest to her in her life see her.
Which is why Uncle Teep entrusted Rose to Din in the
very first place, because he saw how capable she was and he was
present and a big part of Din's transformation into that very
capable human being since he kind of served as her surrogate
dad after her father unfortunately passed away after
14 years of separation. Rose, when she gets back into
Din's life, immediately notices how capable Din is as a person
when it comes to protecting and fighting back.
So again, even someone who's like not in Din's orbit to see
the transformation, but like knew her then and sees her now
can immediately see that there's that it didn't changed.
And even though Din doesn't necessarily recognize that fully
about herself or there's that lingering insecurity within her,
especially when it comes to Rose, because Rose was the
reason she wanted to be somebody capable of protecting somebody
else. It was like it all came back to
Rose. And so the fact that it's Rose
now as an adult, she's like, oh crap, can I do this?
Oh my God. Like it's that like insecurity
that sparked the whole thing to begin with.
So then 14 years later, like Din ends up becoming Rose's safe
space at the end of this because Din went through this very
purposeful transformation with the mission to protect Rose, and
Din completes her mission, which you got to give it to Din, OK?
She's a determined human being in which she sets her mind to
something. She can definitely, definitely
do it, even if she doesn't fully believe in herself.
Speaking of Din, Din is one of the reasons I love the Earth so
much because I just love everything about her.
Like she's my spirit animal. OK, If like human beings could
be other human beings spirit. Animal.
It's Din because Din is just the best.
And one of my favorite. Descriptions of Din and where I
relate to her. Is that she was described.
By MO Dang as quote, she keeps to herself and avoids
unnecessarily human interactions and it's like, yeah, girl, I get
that. Like Din is like, listen, I'm
not a people person. I'm just going to kind of deal
with you when I got to, but like.
She prefers her solitude. Her.
Farm hard, days of work, keeping things running, honoring her
parents. She's great.
And it's really, really clear when you watch Din get to know
Din, hear her farm workers talk about her, that Din works
incredibly hard to run Sun Rock Farm.
Like, so hard. She basically dedicated decades
of her life to that farm. But the downside of that,
especially in the absence of her father, is that she, quote,
barely has time for anything else, according to MO Dang.
And it really makes me wonder with Din how this socially
avoided recluse takes care of herself, honestly, because we
get gaps in time with Din, but how does she really take care of
herself? She's really adamant about Rose
eating three meals a day. She's really adamant about Rose
having the best life about. She's really adamant about the
people she cares about being taken care of.
But like, how much care does Din put into herself?
She puts a lot of work into the farm and I think the farm is.
Like her dad's legacy. Not necessarily Din doing it for
herself. So it does make me wonder, like,
does Din neglect things like wants and needs that she has
because she'd rather put her time and energy into the people,
the other people in her life? Or, you know, the farm, which is
her father in a way. And so I do wonder that about
Din. It's not really harped on in the
novel or really touched on a little.
It's there's some little things mentioned.
But I do wonder that about Din. If you have any thoughts about
like, what was Din's personal life really like?
It did at all. Like didn't have hobbies
outside. Like, I just wonder, like, what
was she doing when she had spare time because she had to have had
moments where she had some. Did she seek out her cousins?
Like based on the conversations in the very beginning, it seems
like Din is not the one that seeks them out.
They seek Din out because when this whole thing starts with
mom, she's like, why are you calling me Din?
You never call me. So, you know, I do wonder that
about Din. Like what really was her?
Did her life look like outside of?
Work. Really, if anything, like it
must have been really just sad and lonely for Din.
So I just my heart kind of breaks for her a little bit and
I'm glad once even though human trafficking is involved, you
know, I'm glad that she ultimately gets her person and
her family is a lot seems a lot closer.
At least they're bothering her more.
Because some of them really love Rose.
And so anyway, there's that. OK, other thing I really.
Love about the novel is Modang. Got to have a great sidekick.
It's not a. Series or not, a novel without a
great sidekick. And you don't get better than
modang to be honest with you and.
My absolute favorite thing about Modang is she's also a self
aware person. She is the #1 din.
Rose shipper, Shipper. And at 1:00.
Point, she insists to Rose that Rose call her that.
And Rose is one of my favorite moments in this novel is Rose
has her own inner monologue, but then she's like, Modang asked me
to call her the number one Din Rose shipper.
She insists I call her this and she's like I don't know what the
fuck that. Means.
I like died laughing reading that because it was just like
such a modang thing to do. She has such, like, so much
confidence and I love that about her and she's unabashedly.
Herself at all. Times and she's another one who
like truly cares about Rose who like yes there is a power
imbalance between them, but like there's a friendship between
them and she's like din where she actually.
Should probably more like buy honestly where she's like very
protective of like the people she cares about and is willing
to do crazy things to protect them.
I'll get to at some point. In this book club.
But I do love her personality and she was a good element of
like comedy coming in roses circle because like a lot of the
comedy comes from the chaos of Din's family.
But also like Din Modang is another chaotic element of the
of the story who is in roses orbit.
And so when everything. Collides.
It's just glorious. Other thing I love about Modang
is she's peek peek. Chaotic bisexual.
Love that about her. Her first response to Rose when
Rose was like, tell me about Wasu and Din.
Her first thing is she's like, they're both really hot.
I don't want to tell you like, you got eyes, right?
Like, girl, she's just so thirsty all the fucking time.
And it's not limited to those two.
Like it gets funnier, OK. And it gets.
So obnoxious to Rose, like Modang's unabashed, unashamed
thirst that at one point she flat out asked.
Modang do you? Want to marry Din?
Because the way you're talking about, what the fuck, I'm sorry,
it's so funny. And then OK, again, like I said,
it's not limited to Din. So at one point, it's several
points start the novel, there's flirting that happens or like
crushing between Modang and Lom, which is really fucking funny.
And at wrong point, Rose thinks she says this in her thought how
tired she is of hearing MO Dang talk about Lom's smile.
Which is so funny. Which means Mone won't.
Shut up mom smiling at her which is so funny.
Because mom will smoke. Will flirt with anybody,
including trees, and then Moneang is also a giant flirt so
there's those two together. So much chaotic, flirtatious gay
energy it's hilarious. And then as an amazing.
Sidekick Probably her best best plot line was being Rose's love
guru and just. All the the.
OK, this is one of those things with the novel really shines, I
would say more so than the series in a way, because like
the dating advice she gives Rose, there's a lot more of it
in the novel and it's a lot more explicit and it's fucking
hilarious, their conversation because poor, poor Rose.
Rose is very earnestly. Like I don't know what what I'm
doing and the MO dang's like I so got.
You and then you. Find out she's never dated
anybody her life. And then like, she's the, it's
the blind leading the blind. And it's just so hysterical.
They're like little drama where she's trying to lead Rose
through this relationship and then Rose is holding back the
fact that it's not. Real, even though morning's like
you're. Married.
Why are you freaking out about this?
And she's like, well, you know, it's not real.
But anyway, those scenes were so funny in the novel.
I absolutely love them. And then icing on the cake, peak
chaotic. Bisexualness of MO Dang is at
the end. This hasn't happened in the
series yet by the time you get this.
But the scene where she tricks Wasu into kidnapping her instead
of Rose and then he figures I get the whole the sequence.
Is so funny in the novel the way it's revealed.
But then he finds out it's she's not Rose and it's like EW what
the fuck? And then she tries to hit.
On him anyway, and it's. So ridiculous and just peak.
Modang. Even in like this.
Life or death, crazy situation, she's still herself and that's
something I absolutely love about her.
She was just. An amazing element of chaos and
I just. Loved her so so so much.
And as a person, like I said, she's also fiercely protective
of Rose, the person that you know, she cares about the most
in this whole like situation. And I love that she was such a
good ride or die for Rose. But as with a lot of tiger roll
up series, like I don't love the power and balance here.
This is kind of like if you've watched or read the Loyal Pin,
this is like an in and prick situation where you have a clear
friendship happening, but one person is the boss, the other
person's the employee. So MO Dang's back story, which
isn't in the series, is that she was the daughter of Uncle Teep's
housekeeper. So and that while sweet, it's
like, oh, they're a member of the family, but are they?
They're the servants. So it kind of gives like caste
system vibes. Like she's born into servitude,
which I don't love, but it seems very common in Thai girl of
dramas to kind of have these like lifelong friend servants to
let the rich girls. Other thing that I think helps
kind of like the loyal pin, which was that Rose and Modang
were of similar ages and so kind of made sense for them to bond
in this fashion. But we still have the employee
employer situation going on that kind of gives me a pause a
little bit. But not to say that they they
don't care about each other and things like that.
It's just like it's so that's there, OK.
Other shining moment of Modang that I absolutely fucking love
and we were I feel robbed of in the novel.
I don't know what the series is going to do.
Is that when Rosa's father comes out of the coma and Rose and Din
are kind of a little strange from each other a little bit, he
asks MO Dang to fill her in, fill him in on what happened.
He's like, what's going on with Rose and Din, What's going on
with everything? And I can only imagine what she
told him, because we don't. Get it OK about Din and Rose's
relationship? But when she's done, Uncle Teep
says. And she's like do you want me to
tell you more about that? And he says you've already told
me more than enough MO Dang. So I don't even know what she
told him. Like how explicit she went into
like. And then I was giving her sex
advice. Like who knows what she was
saying to this man but I just imagined it being this unhinged
1 sided conversation where poor uncle teeps.
Like I feel my heart going out. I could think I'm in the
hospital, but anyway, I would love those scenes if someone
would like to write them because it sounds amazing.
OK, Speaking of chaos, this wouldn't be complete without the
chaos cousins, which are one of my favorite things of the book
and just I'm makes me so excited for the rest of the stories
because. They're ridiculous, OK, And I
love them all. And this is what a cute
connecting theme for a bunch of books, which is this whole
family thing going on. So who?
Are the chaos customs. They're the offsprings of the
within a wit brothers. So we have 4.
Brothers that then have four daughters and the daughters of
the four elements. And so the oldest is Kasama.
AKA Din, who is the earth. So Din means Earth, and she's
the steady grounded. Person which makes sense to cat
have the earth be the eldest cause those are traits normally
normally associated with eldest cousin.
But interestingly Kasama is a is an only child but she has these
cousins that are essentially function like siblings which is
interesting. I don't know about the other
ones. I will be reading the rest of
the elements stories to find out, but I'm assuming they have
a similar situation going on, otherwise there'd be more
elements of the cousins. But anyway, I'm gonna, I have
the most information about Dan because this is Dan's story.
Obviously it's the Earth. So she was nicknamed Earth by
her parents to empower her because remember when she was a
child, she was. You know.
Quote weak and her parents wanted her to be strong like the
earth and also her father thought Dan was very strong
hearted like mother earth. So they gave her the nickname
earth a very big strong nickname to a weak little girl you know
who grew up to not be that and then I was looking into her like
her given name or whatever Cosima and I couldn't as far as
I could tell it wasn't a Thai word unless I did Google wrong.
But I did find in Tagalog, which is a Philip, the Filipino
language that. It is a word.
In that language and it means together or partner is another
translation. So Din mates for life is what
I'm what I'm hearing is from this and that tracks based on
Din's entire story. Rose was her first love.
Rose was her only sex sexual partner.
Like yeah, that's Din for you. So tracks.
I love that the naming also shaped the character that I
always find that really fun when authors are that deep with the
character. So again, this author is my jam
where she like really thinks about her characters, the
characterization, how they're going to grow and interact.
And I'm I'm here for this author, honestly.
OK, second cousin. So this is going to be order in
order of age. So dens the eldest second eldest
is Oppo AKA Nam or water. And she she's described as the
common intelligent 1. So she's the genius of the
family. She functions as a hotel
heiress. And a workaholic that's too busy
for people. So when it comes to love there's
actually 1 scene at Din and roses like second wedding where
the the other cousins are like what does Nam think about love?
I think it was mom. Maybe it was mom.
Thinking about it this would make sense.
And they're talking about love for some reason.
And she's like, I wonder what I was like, what does Nam even
think about love? Like, do you even think about
love? And Nam's like, yeah, sure.
Nam's just thinking about it. And they're like, OK, what were
you thinking? And Nam's like, well, I was
thinking about how it's going to be Valentine's Day soon, and I
can have a Valentine's Day special to get people into my
hotels. And then she keeps.
Rambling and then Lam tunes her out and she's like, that's what
she thinks about love. That's fucking weird.
Like so. I love it I.
Love it because A it's funny and B, the the author does a great
job of like setting up nom and like giving hints what the next
book is going to be about. So that the scene at the wedding
at the very, very end is like a good like, hey, this is what's
in store for you, reader next volume, which was such clever
marketing, to be honest with you.
Like hats off to you, ma'am. That was fucking brilliant.
I love it so. I literally can't wait for the
water because to me Nom at the stage of in my journey is the
most mysterious, which makes sense because she's seems like
the most introverted and so. And then the fact that she's
like so blinded, oblivious to everything around her except
like, she's singularly focused on.
Work and is oblivious to anything.
So the fact that another human being has to get through to her
enough to be like, pay attention to me as a human, not as a
business thing. I can't wait for that journey.
It's going to be amazing. I can't wait.
OK and then fan favorite and third cousin is Waio AKA Lom or
the Air. So like the Air.
Anyway, the wind blows. She's playful and easygoing,
which nailed it. She's a police officer, and not
just a police officer. She's like the daughter of like
the. Police officer, which she
doesn't like to brag about or use to her advantage because Lam
seems like somebody who like likes to earn her own stuff and
is not relying on nepotism. So good strong character traits
from. Lam from You Know but know about
her now. When it comes to romance, she
says she's open to love but hasn't found the right person.
But she will, and she's a huge. Flirt, she's flirting with
Modang like she's just ridiculous and she's very blunt
where she's just like I see a beautiful woman, I call her
beautiful. I don't know what you want from
me then. Then who can't?
String 2 words together at a cohesive sentence without
fucking something else. So I love that.
And then my. Favorite actually might be the
youngest. Actually no Din is my favorite.
My other favorite might be Achima AKA Phi or the Fire.
She's just the way she just crashes situations with her
personality. It will never get old to me.
So she's the bold and intense one as described by her other
cousins. OK, these descriptions came from
the other cousins that I'm using, not from me.
And then job wise, I think she's a photographer.
I don't know exactly what she does.
Again, I will get into the novels and I'll spoil it.
I don't know exactly what she does because at one point
they're like Phi's going to. Have to go back to the mine soon
and I'm like what the fuck? The mine?
What does she even? Do like does she have multiple
jobs? Like what is she doing?
She just seems like a thrill seeker and I just, I'm very
excited to get it to her. But then something I something
one of the cousins said about. Her.
That, I thought, was kind of. Revealing about her personality
was they just. They said that Phi enjoys taking
photos but hates being in front of the camera.
So she seems like she's somebody who like, despite being a bold
and intense person, doesn't like being the center of attention
the way like mom does. So that's really interesting.
Like kind of like a contrasting, I like contrasting character
traits to me in my head. So I'm I'm also very curious to
see her story. And she's also is like not
opposed to love, but as opposed to love for herself.
She's like that seems like a bunch of nonsense.
And it could be. That she's the youngest and is
like, I never really thought and it's just like not there yet
with her life and she's like I'm just going to be free into what
I want, which is valid, but she seems like the most resistant.
To love noms oblivious mom is like I keep flirting and it
doesn't work. I'll just keep trying And then
then is like, I've been in love with this girl for 20 years.
So they're very different when it comes to romance, which is
fun. Again, good characterization
because the novels will all be very distinct and different just
based on the protagonist, right? Just based on the different
character types of the elements themselves.
So again, what a cool concept for a series.
Like I just absolutely love it. And something else I love with
the Chaos cousins is their relationship to Rose and how
that progresses because it's so, so sweet and fun and it really
solidifies the novel and just makes it really wholesome and
adorable. And so first and foremost, Din,
like I mentioned, Din is an only child, but so is Rose.
Rose is also an only child. And when she's going through the
house, like Din's house, and sees the photo of the cousins,
she thinks to herself, compared to herself, this is Rose.
Rose's thoughts if she were to lose her father, she would be
completely alone with no cousins.
So when she sees the photo, she compares her life to Din's and
thinks, wow, like Din lost her father and she still has love in
her life because she has these cousins which are her family.
And she's like, if my dad were to die, I would have no one.
Like, I wouldn't, I wouldn't have that.
So there's this this like element of loneliness or lack of
family in Thailand. Like, she has her aunt, but
she's in, you know, she's in America.
And I think in that moment, like when comparing herself to Din,
she realizes just how untethered she really is, especially
because her father's in a coma. So it's kind of stimulating the
fact that she doesn't have the family support in Thailand, and
that's not Rose's fault. Rose spent the most of her life
in America with her aunt and that was that was the family.
You know, she yes, she want to go back and see her dad, but
like that was the consistent family she had.
And now here she is and she's like, I don't if my dad were to
die for real, like I have no one here, like nobody physically
unless she could cajule her aunt to go live with her, like she
would be alone. And then that made I think that
that makes it's a little sad when you think about Rose, where
it's like Din didn't have that situation, didn't actually.
What Rose doesn't know is that Dan had her father, Uncle Teep,
who helped her through it really more than the cousins because
they they was a kid when it happened.
The the cousins are younger than her, you know, like Nam wasn't
the genius hotel heiress at that time like that.
She was a teenager, you know, so when Rose is accepted into the
within a whit family, like it meant so much to her when that
happened, like when Din after their I think after during the
fake wedding, the 1st wedding, it was such a huge moment for
Rose when Din very explicitly explains to her that like she's
like, hey, even though the you know, our marriage is fake, like
you becoming a part of my family is real, like you're a part of
our family. We will all look out for you.
So Rose is now tethered to a family in Thailand that's going
to look out for her, like, even if the marriage is fake.
And like, that meant so much to Rose.
Like, especially coming out, like, coming off the cusp of,
like, looking at the photo being like, oh, man, I'm alone.
And then it's like, no, you'll never be alone.
You there. You might get sick of them.
But they're, they're yours now. No Takesie vaccines yet you've
met them. And the cousin whose acceptance
takes the longest is Phi. But once Phi realizes that Den
and Rose are like for real into each other, Phi becomes Rose's
number one fan. Like it's so ridiculous the way
Phi is like literally on Rose's side no matter what she's like,
basically she's like Rose. If Dan ever pisses.
You off again? I will beat her up for you and
Dan's like what the hell are you taking her side?
And Phi's like yeah, no, she's my I picked that one.
Like she picks Rose over Dan, which is the hilarious honestly
and honestly I think is the sweet part of the sweetest way
that could have gone down because.
Phi and Rose are of a similar. Age like I think.
Phi is younger, I don't know the exact ages but it's kind of like
a the MO Dang and rose situation.
Like they're similar ages and Rose and Phi would have the most
in common like life experience wise so it's really sweet that
they're the ones that bond and like.
Phi is like super like fierce about it and it just like when
it pisses off Dan, it's hilarious.
So I I I absolutely love their dynamic.
It's and it really means a lot to.
Rose It's so cute. Something else I really love
about the novel and the story in general is that we have positive
father figures because in Thai girl love drama we seem to be
allergic to that sometimes. And for good reason, you know,
because history. And so I appreciate that we have
a modern story with modern dad, honestly.
And so starting first with Tipicor and Rose's dad, he
really, he's much more in the story.
He really, really, really did everything he could to
prioritize Rose's well-being, especially amidst the insanity.
That is the politics on these fucking farms.
Like what the? Poor Rose.
Like the whirlwind it is for Rose to be like.
There's what? Happening on these?
Farms. I thought we were growing roses.
We're human trafficking. What?
OK, but we're even get to the human trafficking first of all,
like TP corn and props to him because he breaks an arranged
marriage contract, which yes, it was informal between Wasu's
family and his family going back generations.
Like he did that so his daughter can have her own autonomy.
And, and really what he was doing is he's breaking
tradition, which means a lot in conservative families,
conservative countries, conservative circles, that kind
of stuff. And in the process of doing that
for the benefit of his daughter, he was potentially ruining his
family's reputation because like as a businessman, businesses are
made on deals. And here he is breaking a
generations old deal. Like that is a huge deal for him
to do that and to stick so firmly and standing by his
daughter. Like when he says he loves her,
like he really means that. He really does everything to
show how much he loves Rose. And I love that about him.
And the other thing about the him breaking the arranged
marriage contract, not only is it to gives Rose her autonomy,
which yes, he also does it because he knows what she's a
piece of shit, OK. And so in chapter 1, he talks
about Wasu. I think he talks or has a
thought about him, I can't remember.
And he says about Wasu once he has thrown them them meaning
women, once he has them that meaning women, he breaks their
hearts and discards them. I won't let Rose end up with
somebody like that. So he's like, OK, I don't care
if the the marriage would benefit the family and would
bind these two major farms together and be a great
political marriage and empower us most, I would be marrying off
my giving rather my precious daughter to a monster who's
going to treat her like she's not human.
That's how much you love her. He's like, no, like she deserves
to be loved, not treated like trash.
So props to Rose's dad for seeing that and then being like,
absolutely not. Because sometimes, sometimes
poisonous love dads see that and they're like, yeah, it's fine,
that's fine, it's fine, That's normal.
And it's like, what the fuck's wrong with you?
So I good, good for you Tipicorn, for being like, I see
he's trash and I'm not marrying my daughter to trash.
Thank you. She deserves better.
Other aspect of Tipicorn that I really like in the story is that
he ends up becoming Din's surrogate father after her
father passes away. And I really love the way their
relationship builds. It's it's very it's father
daughter, but it's also like master and apprentice, like
there's a lot of respect between the two of them, that mutual
respect where he helps her out, she helps him out and it's kind
of like a different kind of partnership in a way, But I
really, really love it. It really sets the stage for
Tipa corn approving Din to Mary Rose, which is such an old
fashioned thing. Like despite all the.
Like, I mean, it's den, but despite all of the like modern,
like, you know, modern thinking involved here, he's like, I want
my daughter to marry a good person, not just marry for money
and like do all this stuff. And then Dan is.
He ends up marrying. Rose to this very old fashioned
thinking person who was den who's like I got to ask your dad
if I can kiss you first like which?
She's very respectful. I'm not making fun of.
Him, but I am making fun of den because it's.
Easy and she's hilarious and I just love that dopey lesbian to
death. All right, And then Speaking of
Din, Din also had a very positive biological father.
She had Tipicorn who was a very positive father figure, but she
also had a good father as well. So her father is Cassidy.
He's the he was the oldest cousin.
I think I am assuming the cousins like not cousin.
He's the oldest. Yeah, cousin the the male.
Cousins that started all of this.
I'm pretty sure I'm assuming that the it's age range goes
back to the. Daughters as well.
But we get less of him in the story for obvious reasons.
But in the flashbacks that we do get, or the memories rather from
Din, it's really clear that he also really loved his daughter
in a similar. Fashion to tibicorn and Rose.
So in chapter 3, one of my absolute favorite Cassidy
moments is we get this memory from Din where she's feeling
upset because she can't protect. Rose.
Because you know Rose is her entire life.
It's a din 20 years to realize she was in love with her.
But anyway, Odin, he's given her this pep talk where it was Sue,
I think bullied her and he gives her this pep talk about of like
basically that boils down to, you know, you're may not be as
strong as him physically, but you're strong in other ways.
He's like, aren't you first in your class and like really
intelligent and all this. He's like, use that.
He's like fight in your own way. Don't let people push you
around. And he says to her, I want
maiden to be strong, not so strong just so not to so no one
bullies you, but so that you never become a bully yourself.
Like you don't turn into the. Evil in the world you're trying
to fight. So I absolutely love that.
Like, it was such a great pep talk.
And I think that that was one of the most impressionable things
he said to Dan and why that memory stuck with her.
And it really shaped her because, yeah, later on, Dan is
this really strong person. And there's several trials she
goes through in this story where Dan very easily could have given
incompletely to her worst urges, especially comes a cow later.
But she doesn't. She remains really strong and
refuses to like stoop to their level.
She refuses to give in to her impulses the way other people
do. And she remains this very
good-natured person. And sometimes that's the harder
thing to do is to like restrain yourself and not act out and
like do the right thing even when it's hard.
And that's Din. Like this pep talk explains Din.
Like when you get her as an adult, it's one of the I think
one of the most important things in the novel is this pep talk
with her dad. And it's so sweet that he did
this with her. And fun fact, when I was looking
at the name Casa Din, I was like, this name sounds really
familiar. This was the last name for Pin
in the loyal Pin and Auntie Pad was his first name.
So fun fact. OK.
And I just want to get a little bit more into Rose and her
father and things that I thought were interesting when it comes
to the story. And we like pick up when they're
adults. Rose is coming back to Thailand
and having these conversations with her dad about doing that so
with her father. So her father was trying to
essentially solve the human trafficking problem on the farm
before she came back from America.
Like. And in that in that space of 14
years, like when she left, human trafficking started happening.
He's. Trying to solve all of this so.
She doesn't have to deal with it or something bad happens to her.
And we get that scene in Chapter 1 where Rose and her aunt, Aunt
Laura, are discussing her father's promises to move her
back to Thailand because apparently he made this, you
know, made this promise a long, long time ago.
And then Rose is like, it's been 14 years.
What the hell? And Rose thinks Dad always asked
her to wait for him to, quote, take care of something, End
Quote, before she could come home.
So meaning that, like, it's been 14 years.
And Dad keeps saying like, yeah, yeah, no, like, next year, next
year, sweetie, next year. I got to take care of something.
Got to take care of something. And so in a way, he's, like,
lying to her about, like, what's going on by lying by omission.
Because he's not. He's something's going on.
He has to solve it, but he's not telling her what it is.
And she's an adult now, you know, and I don't think that
like this is a intentional. It's, it's purely intentional
the way he's handling this situation with her as an adult.
I think that The thing is that her father still sees Rose as
like his little girl. You know, I mean, to some
extent, fathers will kind of always, some parents, like
always see their children, no matter their age, as like their
little, their baby or whatever. And that's normal.
I'm not saying that. I think what's significant in
this story is that Rose and her father have lived apart for 14
years. So most of his memories of Rose
or most of his quality consistent time that he spent
with her was when she was a little child.
So I think that he, without realizing it, still sees her as
this little helpless person that he needs to protect because
she's too young to do it herself.
And he doesn't fully see her as this intelligent, independent
woman, which is what didn't. Sees her as.
And I think it has to do with the fact that his view of her is
very skewed by the fact that they haven't consistently seen
each other for 14 years. Like, he has visited her and
they keep in touch, but he's not with her in the way that, like,
Aunt Laura is with her. Like Aunt Laura, maybe if she
knew what was going on with the farm, maybe would have advised
him to handle this a little bit differently because she knows
adult Rose really well, you know, And like I need to like in
the I keep going back to that line that he's like, my dad
asked me to like, quote, wait while I take care of something
before she could come home. And to me, like that, that
sentence, like that language sounds like something you would
tell a child, you know, where you're like, Rose, I need you to
be a big girl and take care of your aunt while I take care of
something like, you know, So it just I think that he still sees
her as a. Child a little bit and.
It's understandable why based on the narrative, and I'm not
saying it's a bad thing. I'm just saying that like, I
think it kind of set her at a disadvantage at the beginning
because she was underestimated by so many people.
And I think her dad was also one of those people that
unintentionally underestimated her capabilities a little bit
because it's just it's been in her, in his mind, she's still
like a little little child. Kind of thing.
Other thing I love about the story in general is that the
author did a really good job of creating actual despicable
villains with a plausible plot. It wasn't this like caricature
cartoonish villain type thing. It felt unfortunately real.
Like Wasu and Wasu pool are human garbage full stop.
Involved in human trafficking. And honestly I personally was
not expecting a human trafficking plotline in A girl
of at all. But like the author went there
and while it's horrific what was going on here, it's real.
Looking at you Epstein files, America, the world like it's
unfortunately, this is a real plot line with horrible people
and a human involving human garbage.
Like that's the Epstein files. So it's real.
And so to me, this plot line that was woven into this like
love story and this family anthology of the within a wait,
cousins, this plot line and the villains really gave the story
actual high stakes that felt real.
So it left. It gave like really good
dramatic scenarios where you felt like it was life.
Or death there's. Guns involved, like Dan's at
gunpoint multiple times didn't shoot people.
Like it felt heightened. And so I love that about it
because it made a lot of like the drama feel more real.
Not real, but like it made it exciting in a way.
Because it was just like, there was like romance and there's
this like. Oh, we're back.
To the human trafficking, like, Oh yeah, now there's guns.
Oh there's a fire. Like did almost died again, you
know? And the thing I like about the
way the villains were written is that they were like central to
the plot because like without Wassou and his father, Rosen
didn't don't get fake married. Like they're they're central to
the plot and what's happening, including the romance in a way.
Like adjacently, that was not their intention.
They actually said gay rights. But we're going about it in a
homophobic way, so joke's on you bitches.
But what I liked? About them is like while they
were central to the plot, they weren't too much.
So like Lhasa pull and his father did not overpower the
narrative the way the author sprinkled in their bullshit
throughout. So I think Simon did a good job
at like sprinkling in these scenes with with the villains
with while maintaining and then like for most part, they're not
in it. And and she did a good job of
balancing like them and their their threats that they were or
the pressure they were putting on.
I guess Din was there. It was this omnipresent thing
throughout the story, even when they weren't in every single
scene. So she she was able to kind of
like balance the scenes with having like a lot of Din and row
stuff, Din and her cousins and then having scenes with Wasu and
Wassa Pool. And but you like felt the threat
from these villains the whole time, even when there weren't
that many scenes with them actually.
So I think that was really brilliant the way she wrote it,
because often times you're just like, cut to a scene with the
villains having to explain everything.
But like, I think throughout Din and a lot of Din and Lam's
dialogue, they were like putting together what was happening with
Wasu and his father without actually having to have a scene
with Wasu and his father. So credit to the author for the
way she plotted all of this out. And it gave us more time with
the cousins, which and which is what we want.
OK, So great writing. Absolutely love it.
And like I mentioned, she did not make the villains cartoonish
because I think that this author, one of her biggest
strengths is that she's really good at characterizing people
and it very much shines through even with the villains, even
with the characters that aren't in it too much like Cow's
father. And she's a great character
writer. And honestly, that's what I it's
one of my favorite things of books and just TV series and
things like that. So I just, I really resonate
with his author a lot. I like the way she wrote it.
All right, so I'm going to wrap up this little segment, this
section with favorite moments from the series, and then we'll
jump into all the dinner row stuff and the novel.
So I'm going to start with my favorite.
Din moments because Din is one of my favorites and Din is why
we're here. So one of my favorite Din
moments from the novels in chapter 2 when Wesu and his men
show up. At Rose's farm and they try to
forcefully abduct Rose and like, Din gets pushed to the ground,
then she gets up and then she's got a gun and he's like, you're
not going to do anything, Din. And then she fires the warning
shot. What we didn't get in the series
is Din's dialogue where she's like, he's like, you wouldn't.
Actually shoot me. She shoots him and then he's
like, ha ha, you missed. And then she basically, and she
says, Wassu, that was just a warning.
Shot dot dot dot. Because if I had really meant to
shoot. You wouldn't still be standing
there asking who the first corpse would be.
And I was like, what the fuck, Dan?
Like that was so dark. Like her thoughts are actually
very dark. Like sometimes she goes to this
place of just like insane seriousness like this.
And I was like, holy shit, this is Din.
It was wild. Like, I wish that was in the
show because it's like a wildly protecting, fierce Din line and
it's amazing. Something else that was missing
in the series that's funny in the novel is that one of Din's
character quirks that's brought up by multiple characters is
that she's loves her Jeep, which is so gay, and is possessive of
the Jeep. Like, she won't let any people
drive it, touch it, look at it. It's just like, it's really
funny. I was like, that's such a gay
like country girl thing. I just love that that's Din's
character quirk. It's so real.
And other thing I love about Din is one of our favorite scenes
with her is but why she took the wedding so seriously?
So, you know, didn't basically like even though the wedding,
their first wedding was a fake wedding, like she wanted it to
be perfect and be this happy memory.
And she like put so much time and effort into it, not just to
sell it, but because she wanted to.
And she thinks to herself, like when it's kind of all said and
done and planned out, it was sweet.
It made her feel warm inside. It made her excited.
Her heart fluttered with excitement as if it were her
real. Wedding day like den.
Was so fucking cute throughout this whole thing, the way she's
like, all of her smiles and stuff were just genuine and real
and it's adorable and I love that about Den.
She's a a little. Softy in heart at heart.
Other favorite Din moments are just anytime Rose would say
something innocent and Din's brain immediately jumps to sex.
It was my just. And she did it so many times
because she's so thirsty, but fucking ridiculous at the same
time. Especially the wedding night
where Rose is like, let's just stay up all night and strengthen
our bond because we don't fucking know each other.
And then Din's like, what does that mean?
Sex? Like she's so fucking funny and
awkward about it. And I just love.
It's one of I just love awkward. She is.
She's so funny. OK.
And then my favorite rose moments.
I have a lot. Of favorite Rose moments, Rose
is actually pretty fucking funny and epic and I do love Rose as a
character so. One thing is first and foremost
is when she's talking about the marriage proposal with.
Modang and modang's like. You know, you don't love her
now, but like, look at people in the past.
They had Stockholm syndrome. They fell in love after
marriage. And Rose is like, no thanks, I'm
a modern. Woman, so I love.
That we established that Rose has been living in America for
14 years and is like, I'm not about this.
I am an independent woman. That's the end of that.
I, I need to be in love with the person I marry.
Thanks. And then I also love when Rose
first defends Din. So when Wassa Pool comes to like
basically tarnish Din's reputation and threaten her
before the wedding, and then Rose shows up in the novel, you
really get it. You're in Rose's head and you
get a sense of just how fucking furious she was.
She's basically like, I was too furious to be like
self-conscious or anything. When she walks up to Din and
like takes Din's arm and starts being like physically
affectionate with her, she's just so pissed off that like she
didn't, it didn't register with her.
And she thinks to herself, in that moment, I wanted to protect
Din in my own way, which is what Din's dad said to.
Din when she was younger, which was cute.
And when it's over and Wes believes Den, Rose explains that
to Den, that she's like, I'm going to find a way to protect
you in my own way because you're protecting me.
And the cousins are in the background listening in on this
conversation. And when Rose explains this to
Den, that's when Phi accepts Rose because she sees how
fiercely Rose wants to protect Den and like, which is what Phi
wants. And she's like, oh shit, we have
this in common. I respect you, Rose.
OK, and Speaking of fire, my one of my favorite fucking moments
in this book is Rose's reaction. The first time 5 smiles at.
Her when she's doing the lady boss Rose thing since the novel
they translate as. As lady but they translate as
boss in the series which starts doing that shit and Rose is like
what are you doing? 5 smiles at her, and Rose thinks
to herself. This is one of my favorite
things she's like, and most shockingly of all, actually
smiled at her again. Sure, it was still a fear,
slightly terrifying smile. But it was progress.
I love that. The smile is terrifying.
But so fucking like their relationship is probably one of
my favorites in the in the whole.
Story because it's just it's chaotic and it's but it's also
really sweet and adorable and I love that they they kind of have
this bond with each other. It's just it's but it's like it
is rocky until it's smooth. It's so funny.
One thing that was in the novel that's not in the series that I
really loved is when Rose and Din come back from their their
honeymoon. The first one, Rose brings back
an entire suitcase of gifts for MO Dang.
And I thought it was really sweet.
And she has her unloaded from the carpet.
She's like that's for you. Like she got her so many
souvenirs. She had a whole suitcase full,
which is just really sweet and just have thoughtful roses.
And again, that they do have a friendship style relationship
too, despite the like boss employee thing.
And Rose does think of MO Dang. Which is really cute.
I also love when Rose starts becoming consciously possessive
of Din. One thing that the author puts
in there is this. Like lipstick?
Mark thing that keeps coming up. So at the wedding, the wedding
goes down very differently in terms of like their the kiss.
Kiss kiss scene So at the wedding what happens is neither
of them know what to. Do because they're ridiculous.
So Rose is like, I guess I'll initiate it because Din never
does anything. And so she kisses Din on the
cheek. There is no fainting.
There's no this. The series was ridiculous.
Where den faints, which is yes, she's so gay she faints.
But in the novel, she doesn't. And so Rose notes that when she
does that, there's a lipstick print on Den's cheek.
And there's a call back in the series in episode 6 when she's
like, oh, a lipstick mark that's from the novel.
So any time that Rose feels possessive of Din, she will
touch the that spot where the lipstick was or kiss it again.
And in Chapter 7, Rose thinks to herself, she wanted to keep that
mark there so it wouldn't fade. So it becomes this.
Like. Tangible and then symbolic thing
and Rose like attaches meaning to it, and I like the way the
author used that and it I think it's cute that it starts at the
wedding as this like impromptu Oh shit, we got to do something
thing, but then Rose starts being like, no, I want I want
that to be. Real.
It's basically what she's saying.
It's really, it's cute the way it was written.
OK. And then last, last favorite
Rose moment is when they're in Chiang Mai, OK.
And Rose's jealousy revealed something that was really funny
to me that was in the novel. So in that scene, there's Din's
there. And then the hotel owner's
daughter, Khan, I think is her name.
Hits on Din 'cause this person's had a crush on Din forever and
then Rose gets jealous. Obviously, and she thinks to
herself, quote, even without cow around now, there was Con.
What was it with Din and women's whose name begin with K?
And I thought this was really funny because it's such a queer
person. Thing.
At least it's. Something I relate to because
like I went through a period of time where like I only had
girlfriends whose name started with J and it was like what the
fuck is this all about? But it was like the circumstance
thing with those, like they just all.
Happen to have the same name. But it was just like a funny
thing and so like. Salman, I see.
You girl, I see you like that was such a queer.
It's a queer person thing. That was fucking funny that was
in here because Din is such a. Useless lesbian.
She like defines the term. Let's be honest.
All right, before we wrap this section up and get into Din and
Roses romance, last thing I had to talk about in terms of
favorite moments in the novel are my favorite cousin moments.
So my favorite cousin moments are anytime somebody outs down
to rose like mom constantly being like she's on you, like,
you know, it was ridiculous. I also really loved the I I so
I. Read Phi's introduction before
watching the series and I will never be over the way that
character's introduced by just like barging in and being like
I'm marrying this woman instead. I've never met her before.
What's your name? Yes, that one.
Just like the way she just barges in and inserts herself.
And then like I didn't know you're here.
Like also the amount of time that five just shows up randomly
is a hilarious to me. But her introduction was just so
unhinged I just loved it. Speaking of unhinged moments,
the one time that Lom flirted with Modang was also hilarious.
So what happens is that a mom comes to the farm looking for
Din and Rose and asks Modang like where are they?
And then Modang tells her wherever they.
Are and then, Lom says. Thanks a lot.
Beautiful modang. And MO Dang, without skipping a
beat, replies. Oh, Mom, you.
Always tease me with the truth like it was just iconic behavior
for both of them. Like mom just being the flirt
that she is and the MO Dang with her unwavering confidence being
like you flatter me I already know I'm hot.
It was just so funny like those two.
I wish they interact more because they were just both so
chaotic. And lastly, my favorite cousin
moment is five third Wheeling didn't rose.
It happens. Quite a bit, but my absolute
favorite which just happened in episode. 6.
Is it's in Chapter 11 of the novel, so when Din is.
Pressing Rose to explain why. She's like, oh, you felt.
Possessive and jealous of me. Like why Rose?
Please tell me you. Want to tell me the other day
then we didn't get to finish this.
And then she's like pressing Rose, and Rose is on the cuffs.
Of saying I like you, OK, She's like stuttering.
And then Phi just jumps into the Phi just jumps in.
She's like Dan, are you? OK, And then Dan's like, Phi,
what? Why are you even here?
You're here. Nam's here.
What the hell? And then Rose awkwardly gets out
of this conversation and leaves. And then?
Phi's looking at Dan and she's like.
Why do you look like that, Dan? Aren't you happy with?
Gay. It's like, no, if I you just
twat. Like dance and it's not OK, but
it was so funny because like, you don't know in the novel, you
don't know what's going on. You're just trapped with Din and
Rose and then suddenly they're screaming.
You're like, I don't know. That's a knob shows up and it
gets it gets funnier. OK, because on the cusp of that,
Rose and then Din get into misunderstanding and then Din
upsets Rose by accident because Cow comes to see her after the
fire and is like, are you OK? All that drama happens.
And Nam. Is there and Nam's.
We're talking to Din. OK, Nam, the woman of few.
Words and she's. Like Din, I've planned many
weddings, not funerals, but I think I need to start booking a
grave for you as Rose looks so fish she's going to kill you it.
Was so funny, like if all. The cousins were not to be like
I think I got to start digging your grave because you're you're
toast it. Was so funny.
And you know that Gabe did shit. It was really fucking funny.
And last favorite cousin moment is the everyone knows except.
Them moment which also happened in episode 6.
So Din basically tells her cousins and I think it's all of
them that are there and she's that she likes.
Rose for real? And it's like just like not
nobody reacts. So then Din's like.
Oh wait, you all knew. And then mom says din.
Anyone watching from space can tell.
It's so fucking funny. She's like, you guys are so
stupid. And then you're wondering why Fi
is being all weird and shit and you're like, Yep, we all figured
it out a long time ago. It's like Din's planning your
funeral. It's like Mom's.
Planning your funeral anyway, they're so.
Stupid. I just love how stupid Din is.
Sometimes, but it's just like. It's like that oblivious.
She's sweet and just oblivious to everything and just like she
just takes herself out. She's so nervous sometimes.
It's very cute but her cousins are so funny and together.
The way they banter with each other is just everything and
anytime they're all in a room together and there's just like
dialogue with them, it's just utter.
Perfection. I love it.
All right, before we jump into DID and Rose's relationship from
start to end, we're going to take a brief moment to give some
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I hope you're enjoying this novel retelling slash
discussion. All righty.
So thank you everyone. And with that, we will move on
to Din and Rose's relationship. So let's start at the beginning.
So they are the classic childhood friends to wait we're
dating always have been trope. Their relationship started when
Din was 10 and Rose was 4, So they had quite an age gap as
kids. And four year old Rose views Din
as an older sister, obviously, like, I mean, looks up to her
things that they're they were close close as kids when they
grew up. And Rose was really aware of
Din's insecurity and reality at the time that Din wasn't able to
protect her on her own. But Rose was very aware that Din
was, quote, the warmest person she knew.
And that was how Rose described Din when she was four years old,
which is pretty remarkable that she was associating warmth with
Din when she was 4. It's quite young, and the
narrative throughout the story really harps on Din's inability
to protect Rose all by herself, which I've been over.
And especially particularly in comparison to Wasu, because they
all kind of grew up together, those three.
And even though Wasu was capable, Wasu was always
bullying Din and causing a bunch of trouble, which Rose remembers
too, that he was a troublemaker even when he was a kid.
And so we do wonder about this comparison between like Din and
Wasu and like the I'm not able to protect you as a kid, but I
am as an adult situation that goes on between Rose and Din and
their relationship. And I do wonder if it's meant to
demonstrate there was an imbalance that existed when Did
and Rose were children. Like Rose needed protection,
didn't couldn't protect her fully.
So it's almost like this fate thing where fate's kind of
saying, well, now is not the time for the two of you to be
fully be together. You guys need to grow a bit,
which makes sense. They're kids, Obviously they're.
Kids. But then 14 years later, when
they were adults, both Din and Rose have now both grown into
very capable women, and so they're equal.
So now it's like Fates, like, OK, go forth and be.
Gay, You guys did it, you're worthy of each other, whatever.
So it's kind of like this like imbalance, they achieve balance
and then they get there happily ever after thing.
And I like that narratively, I think that fits into like, you
know, a lot of like Eastern philosophies really harp on or
not harp, but like value balance.
And so that would be an imbalance to a balance.
And that would be a good relationship narrative that I
like. So when they're adults, they
reunite. That's that's when the story
really picks up. And it's really obvious that Din
has been pining for 14 years for Rose.
Yep. I think even maybe Tipicorn kind
of picked up on that also because he was the one keeping
her in the loop of what was going on with Rose.
He was obviously was like I'm so proud of my daughter, but also
like did is like a hard eyes like you can see them from space
to quote mom. And when Rose sees Din against
the biggest thing that Rose notices is Din's expressions.
And so, she notes to herself Rose the the serious expression
on Din's face, devoid of all. Emotion and the absence of the
smile she used to give me in response to my chattering.
So she noticed that like, Din is just very serious all the time
and like never smiles. And Din starts thinking that
like or not Din Rose starts putting that together with the
the big thing that changed, which is not her leaving, but
Din's father passing away. And if you think about Din, like
when her father passed away, she was really forced to grow up
really quickly because suddenly she had to be the leader of the
farm and the family. She's the oldest cousin.
She's like the next generation, her father's gone.
She can't let the farm fail. All these workers are depending
on her. Like she's, yeah, she inherits
all these dependents and she's like, fuck well, and then is
strong enough to rise to the occasion and do it.
But I think she had to sacrifice a lot to do it.
So her innocence, her youth in a way her wants and needs, like I
mentioned before, I think a lot of that was lost.
And so then just became this very serious person because all
she put all her effort into serious things like running the
farm, taking care of other people.
But I think the narratively, another thing the author's
trying to get at is that like Din's happiness is Rose and Din
doesn't start to become happy and like unserious until Rose
starts interacting with her more.
Because I think that that was like Rose is a part of her past
before her father passed away, before Din had the weight of the
world, the weight of her family on her, she was more free and
carefree. And I think that she associates
that with Rose in a way. And so when Rose comes back, I
think a lot of those emotions and like Din's wants and Din's
desire to be carefree and, and have fun, I think all of that
comes back when Rose comes back because Rose forces her to kind
of confront it just by being Rose.
And I think that like that's why I like Din associates happiness
with Rose and in a way it's kind of similar to if you've watched
or read affair like child Plenoid's novel.
It's very, very similar thing happens like minor spoiler, like
after Juan Viva and playing, they're separated for almost the
same amount of time. Like when they're back in each
other's orbits. Playing is like Juan Viva never
smiles. And it has to do with the fact
that playing when she doesn't have playing, she.
Doesn't smile when she has playing she.
Smiles. So it's kind of similar to it's
a similar kind of like a like romance probe, I would guess
between Din and Rose. But I think with Din and Rose,
it more so had to do with like all these, you know, events that
went and now that it didn't go on an affair, it did.
But I'm not here spoil affair. I'm here spoiled the earth.
So I think a lot of that was tied up in in Din's association
with happiness and Rose, even when they're reunited, One thing
I really love about their relationship, what really drew
me to the story it was how respectful it was.
So starting with Dan, like Dan from the the go, the get go is
so incredibly respectful of Rose.
So in chapter 1, when Rose is trying to figure out what the
fuck to do in this insane situation, he's like, who do I
believe? Like Wasu who's telling me Dan's
trash or Dan who's like, Yo, your dad told me to take care of
you, I'm here to take care of you kind of thing.
And so she asks them independently is when she's
testing them. It'd be like, who do I trust
when she asks them? Din responds, who when versus
like, who do I believe you were him?
And she's like, well, you know, you need to make up your own
mind because no one can decide for you.
You're an adult Rose and I believe you can make this
decision on your own. So I love how respectful it is.
It didn't always saw Rose as a capable human being.
And like that's evident in that dialogue.
But also like she, she respects Rose as a person and respects
her opinions. And what I love about their
relationship is that it's mutual.
The respect is very, very, very mutual when they have the fake
marriage Din and make sure to tell Rose like, look, this is
fake. Yes, people legally have to get
married because property etcetera.
But like if you fall in love with somebody or you don't want
to do this anymore, you just tell me we will end it.
Like you know your life is more important and what you want is
more important than like us doing this to like for to stop
human. Trafficking, whatever we're
doing. And I love that Rose does it
right back. She's like Din that's mutual.
Like, I know you're doing this to help me, but also like, don't
sacrifice everything for this. Like you can also divorce me at
any time, like things like that. So I love that they have this
mutual respect between them, and that's very consistent
throughout their entire relationship.
And so they get fake married. And then when they get fake
married, that's really when they get to know each other better as
adults. Not fully, but better.
OK. And that's when they realize
that like, they've had these feelings for each other all
along. Like the warmth Rose was feeling
was like the budgeting of like an affection for Dim that turns
romantic when they're older. And I do like when they kind of
they start getting to know each other more.
And Rose learns more about Din's life, like particularly what
she's been through the past 14 years, where Din explains that
she took over a sunrock farm, her father died.
And it's a lot more explicit what's going on, what went on
with Din in the novel. And Din's kind of explaining
this. And she tells Rose how she
struggled for years. Like Rosa's always like, man,
you make this look so easy. And then it's like, it wasn't
always like, I struggled for years to figure this out and I
had nobody. Like I didn't have my dad to
teach me. But then explains it like, your
dad helped me. That's why we're close.
And then she says something to me that was important in terms
of like, how didn't probably didn't take care of herself.
Or she says, I didn't have time to go on vacations or set aside
my responsibilities with so many workers depending on me.
I just couldn't. So that tells me that when Din
became fully responsible for the farm, her life became small and
and limited to her enormous duty on the farm.
Like she says, I could not set aside my responsibilities like
she could never stop working because the duty was too big.
And I get the sense that Din did neglect taking very good care of
herself or indulging into what she wants and needed because she
was constantly trying to take care of others for years.
And Rose, I think, recognizes how much didn't has changed and
how much that responsibility really changed her.
And that's why she's like, it manifests as the smile.
OK, the smile is gone. That's why she's like, oh,
that's why she's never. Like.
Carefree. She's so serious.
And Rose thinks Din had gone from a bright and cheerful girl
to someone distant and reserved, cutting herself off from the
people outside of her closest cousin.
So Din did isolate herself in a way she didn't mean to, but it
was like she had to in order to fulfill these enormous
responsibilities. And then as Rose and didn't
interact more, Rose starts noticing when Din smiles at her
for real with the warmth. And she noticed notes that the
smiles are warm. OK, that's like Rose's feelings.
And Din's feelings, so like that's Din's tell, OK, like her,
her tick, OK. Where Rose is like Din's having
real feelings right now kind of thing.
And then in Chapter 7, Rose notes when one of those smiles
happens, that it was a smile straight from Din's heart and it
reached right into hers. So Din's warm smile basically
means I love you. And Rose puts it together pretty
early And along the lines of the smiling.
Rose is not the only one that notices that Din's smiling more.
Cow also realizes that, and she brings it up very awkwardly to
the reader. Who's reading it?
I was like, Oh dear. And she's like, why are you
smiling so much? Dad?
And Dan's like Rosebot happiness back into my life, which is very
sweet and cute but also causes some drama.
Later when we get into Cal's story, which.
Dad, we'll go over. All right.
So then after they get married, they go on the honeymoon, they
go to Pracha and stay at one of Nam's resorts.
And obviously this was orchestrated by the cousins,
because Din. Deserves it.
And they're also like, hey, you know, this needs to be a
plausible or whatever. And like people are going to
like they're gossiping motherfuckers, you got to go.
But I think that this was orchestrated because I think
even they realize that Din needs a fucking vacation because she
hasn't had one in years. OK, Like a real break.
And so this honeymoon is significant in the fact that
this is one of the first time since her father died that Din
slowed down enough in her life to, like, appreciate the
present. Because there's a lot of
dialogue in there where Rose is like, what do you want to do
this and that. And Din's like, I don't know.
We don't have to be anywhere in the morning.
I don't have to get up at a certain time.
I don't have to do things. She's like, we could just do
whatever. So I think Din hasn't had that.
Din, like lives by her schedule. She's like, I got to be in
Chiang Mai today and talk to a supplier.
I got to be here. I got to be there.
I'm sleeping in my office.
I'm too tired. So there's a lot of flush, like
being present in the moment in this honeymoon.
That's important coming from Din.
And I think it's really significant that Din is having
this first break with Rose. And I think it's important that
Rose was there. Well, Din was kind of like
taking a break because Rose is the change, like the catalyst
for Din to kind of like revert back to some of her, you know,
childhood self, which was the more carefree affection.
Like not the Din is an affectionate, but like openly
affectionate and like giving it to her whims, her emotions in a
healthy way kind of thing. And I think that, like, it's
important that Rose was here when Din goes on her first
vacation in like, years, when they're on the honeymoon,
something I love that happens that I think is so important for
the relationship is that Rose demands equality in their
relationship. OK.
So like, again, Rose is always like, Din, what do you want to
do? And Din's like, whatever you
want, Rose. I'll do whatever what my
favorite thing is. Your favorite thing.
And Rose starts getting fed up with this.
And she says to Din, you're just agreeing with me.
Again, I'm suggesting plans so we can come up with ideas
together. But you're letting me decide
everything. And I love that Rose
consistently makes quality in their relationship a sticking
point because she's a modern woman.
After all, and. One of the reasons I love that
Rose does this is that by saying things like this, it actually
leads to healthy communication between the two of them, which
is a weakness of dens. And I think that's something
that Rose brings to the table that actually makes Din a better
person overall because Rose is like, we need to talk and
communicate like therapists. This is therapy Den and Den's
like, OK, let me express, express with words.
Den and like forces Den to communicate because she's
horrible at communicating because she doesn't outside of.
Business. She doesn't have to communicate
her feelings, so she doesn't know how to do it.
We just fell in. So Rose says to Din, If you
always go along with whatever I want and never express what you
actually want, eventually you'll start feeling suffocated.
But if you start being honest instead of just agreeing with
me, we'll be able to truly understand each other.
And then Din responds. Anything that makes you happy
makes me happy. Rose is so speechless she
doesn't say anything. But in her brain she's like, Din
is so fucking. Stubborn.
I'm not talking to her anymore. You're useless.
But I just. Love that Rose tries and she's
like no den you can't just like give me everything I want.
Like what the fuck do you? Want and then it's like I.
Just want you to be happy. She's like no bitch, you got to
want things. And while it's funny and
comedic, I do wonder if like, Den really doesn't know what she
wants, honestly, because she's never had enough time and mental
space to actually think about that, you know what I mean?
Which is actually kind of sad when you think about Din,
because all Din has been doing is work, work, work, take care
of cousins, work, work, work, work, work, take care of
cousins. And then Rose comes back in the
picture and it's work. Rose take her cousins.
Rose Work. Bert Rose, Rose, Rose.
So like she doesn't know she doesn't have time.
I don't think Din knows who she is honestly.
And like hasn't really thought what do I actually want?
And then when it comes to Rose and Rose is constantly badgering
her being like tell me Dan, tell me Dan, tell me Dan.
I think over time didn't becomes better at.
That. But is there in a weird place
right now where it's like, it's real, but it's fake?
So I think Din also has that barrier to expressing herself.
But I think it's really good that Rose presses Din on this
because, like, this is an area of her character where, like,
Din should improve or should take the time to think, what
does she want? Because I don't think Din really
has ever asked herself that question until Rose keeps
pestering her about it, You know?
And then Din comes to the conclusion, like Rose, I want
Rose. Like, that's what I want.
I want her in my life. She makes me better.
She makes me happy. She forces me to like take care
of myself and like give in to what I want and like.
And I think that's good for Din to have somebody like Rose who's
like, you need to also put you first because you keep saying
that to everybody else. And that's kind of what Rose is
saying in this conversation. And she's like, and if we don't
do this, it's going to cause resentment in our relationship.
And I don't want that. And I like that Rose does that.
It's very mature, especially coming from someone who's never
been in a relationship. Like the way Rose advocates for
shaping their relationship is really mature.
Honestly it sounds like she has experience, which is pretty.
Cool. Then Rosen didn't move on to app
for the honeymoon. And so then we get the drunk
wives thing, OK, And this goes down different than the show and
I I honestly love it. OK, so then what starts in it's
Chapter 9? So when Din Din is the first
one, Din comes home drunk after the business meeting and it's
this very like. The way it goes down is so
funny. OK, so once Rose gets drunk Dan
into their room. She gets fed up with.
Dan's drunk ass and refuses to help her because Dan is being
stubborn and is basically. Like, no, Rose, I'll just go in
another room, blah blah blah. You don't need to help me.
And then she's like, Oh my God, didn't you obviously need help?
You're allowing me to help you. Well, fuck you like.
You're on your own. So then didn't drunkenly tries
to get up and then gets dizzy and falls.
And then it cuts to Rose's thoughts.
Chef's kiss to the author. This is what Rose is thinking.
If this was a drama. Everything would have happened
in slow motion, every second would stretch out dramatically.
But this was reality, and in reality it was not romantic at
all. So what actually happens in the
novel? They tumble under the bed.
Din falls on top of Rose and Rose thinks, Oh my God, is she
going to kiss? Me, if I'm going to let her
kiss. Me.
Oh my God, this is romantic. But then din.
Just asks Rose if she can move because her arms are tired and
then once she when she's off of Rose then just passes out the
bed. And then Rose thinks so in real
life. Nothing actually happened.
Now I love that this series, which is an actual drama,
decided to do the stereotypical TV drama stuff when it came to
these drunk shenanigans. Because it honestly.
Makes this scene in the novel even funnier when she's like Oh
my God is my life going to be like a drama?
And then Rosa's like no. None of this shit does not
happen in real life, by the way. It's just a mess in real life.
And so I love that you have the scenes to compare where like,
the series was like, yeah, but we're a drama, so we're actually
going to do the stereotypical drama shit.
Sorry, novel. But it's like a little nod to
the novel because the novel was trying to make a joke about
that. And the series is like, yeah,
we'll be the joke. So it's kind of funny.
I actually do like that. I think it's hilarious.
OK, so then let's like. Continue and get on the other
half of that. So then later when they're in
Chiang Mai and Rose is drunk, Rose drunkenly tries to actually
play out the drama scene in the in the novel by pushing Din onto
the bed and falling on top of her.
And in the scene, Rose is fueled by jealousy and advice from MO
Dang, which is a winning combination.
So Rose starts drunkenly rambling, but she needs to make
the first move and Den is so confused.
And then Rose clarifies. I'm done with being jealous.
Why do all these women keep going after you?
You. Already have a wife, you have me
and Den's like Rose. And then Rose says I will take
the lead this time. She like yells it at Den and
then Rose she's just so aggressive.
It's so funny. And then she leans in.
And then Den Gay panics. And then Rose passes out.
Before anything happens. And then Din's inner monologue
is everything to me, because Din it.
Proves how self aware Din is of the ridiculous of this in real
life. And Din thinks herself, she was
just relieved because if, if it had happened, if Rose had kissed
her while being this drunk, would she have been able to stop
herself and more. Importantly, would she have
wanted to? And so I like that Din is like,
that would have been wrong because she's drunk, but I don't
know that I'd be able to control myself because Din has been
pining for Rose for 14 years, which is understandable.
So like Din is like ultimately relieved that Rose passed out
before Rose could finish whatever the hell she was about
to do. Because Den's like, I don't
think I would have been able to control myself.
And normally I control myself and this was wrong.
So I like that Din was self aware of like it's this.
Like while this scenario is presented as romantic and dramas
like it, it isn't always like Rose is not in a consentible
position. And like Dan's, like, I don't
know that I could have stopped myself because feelings, which
is a valid thing to be afraid of.
And it's after this moment here, these drunken shenanigans, that
when Din promises to show Rose her true feelings through her
actions and admits to herself that like, she hasn't been
faking this like Din does. Admit it to herself.
And she's like, I, I may not be able to say I I care, but I will
show you as if she hasn't been showing her for 14 years, but
like whatever then then a self aware, but not always self
aware. But something I love about the
novel and Rose in general is that Rose, while Rose is a
jealous person, she's aware that it's irrational, OK.
And she's aware of this and, and a self aware character.
And I do love this. So after the fire in the office
where Din almost dies, that's when Rose runs to Din and then
confesses that she's possessive of Din and gets jealous of her
for real. Because quote, I just realized
it myself that I'm a jealous person.
So this is something is in the novel that wasn't in the series.
And I love this because again, Rose is self aware, OK.
And jealousy is something that comes up in in, you know,
relationships that can come up. It it's something that's played
into pretty heavily in a lot of tiger love dramas as a as a plot
point, as a cause for drama. It definitely comes up in the
story a lot. But it it's kind of like the
situation where Rose has never been in a relationship before,
has never had feelings before and then starts feeling jealousy
like for the first time when it comes to Din and like doesn't
know how to handle it. And I think that's a really
valid human experience. But Rose becomes aware of it and
then, like, deals with it. And I think that's what
separates the way this story is written from a lot of other
traumas that just have the jealousy the other girl, like,
makes her stop being jealous. And then we just move on.
This has like, the processing of this emotion in the story that I
enjoy. And Rose learns that she's the
jealous type. And she didn't know she was
because she never had feelings for anybody before.
And I love that Rose, in the story, even after she's aware of
it, like still feels the feeling because they're not
controllable. She feels it and knows this is
an irrational emotion she's having.
But emotions can't always be controlled.
You just have to like, feel it while it's happening.
The thing that Rose can control and she learns she can control
is whether or not to act on her impulses when she's having the
jealous emotion. So in chapter 13, Rose explains
this to Din in the context of cow, because that's where this
like jealousy mostly pops up. And Rose says to Din quote, I
trust your words, Din, because Din's like, I don't feel that
way about her. And Rose says, I trust what
you're saying to me, Din. I believe you.
That's what she's saying. But my heart just gets all
twisted up whenever I see a cow near you.
I can't control it. I don't even know why I feel
this way. I hate it.
So I love that Rose says this. It's just such a mature thing to
say where she's basically saying like din, I feel jealous and it
has nothing to do with you. This is me.
I'm feeling this like and I I not that I don't trust you, I
don't trust the way. I just feel weird and I don't
know why, and I hate that I feel this way.
Din like the dumb ass that she is, is like, no, I'm into it.
I love it. I love it because she's like,
that means you care. And then she's like saying,
Rose, I'll help you control the feeling.
Don't worry about it. I love you.
That's what she does. And it's like, Din, that wasn't
OK. And I think that does help Rose
because it's like, it is an insecurity thing.
But also like Din, Din's so funny sometimes the way she just
solves problems. It's just she's.
All in all, the time is the thing.
OK. And then after Din says I love
you. Like this is when Din and Rose
in the novel kiss for the first time.
And it's really sweet that like this is after Din gets shot, I
think. And then Din, what happens?
Din is the one that initiates it.
And it's really like sweet and like romantic the way Din does
it. But then Rose gets real.
Thirsty real fast. And then accidentally like is
like getting handsy with Din and then like agitates the gunshot
wound basically on his body. And that ends this.
But like it's really sweet. And I like that that's their
first kiss in the novel. It's a very like because it's a
very then thing like well, they have like this like they're
modern women or whatever. They have this like old
fashioned, like old school, kind of like we were.
She's the girl next. Door kind of there there's like
1000 tropes roped into one and they're all very old fashioned
classic romantic tropes built into Dinnen Rose and so it would
be that like I say. I love you then I kiss you kind
of thing. Although like they get married
first, then start dating. So there's there's also that,
which is pretty funny. OK, but on the on the topic of
the jealousy as particularly when it comes to cow, one thing
salmon does really well, it shows that human beings make
mistakes and making a mistake is not an end all be all type of
thing. People can either learn to
either learn from the mistake and be better or keep making the
same mistakes and never grow kind of thing.
And so she does have that play out with Rose.
So one thing Rose regrets in the novel is the way she treats.
Cow. Especially when when she's
feeling jealous and gives into her jealousy and does things
like I have to prove that I'm her wife or I have to prove that
didn't mine that kind of stuff to make Cow back off.
And as Rose becomes more self aware of her jealousy and then
realize that she's the type of person that gets jealous, she
starts to regret the fact that she hurt Cow's feelings and
eventually apologizes for this, what she views as a mistake or
for being irrational or mature about it and things like that.
Like and well, I'll get into Cal later and like all of her stuff,
but like, I like that Rose goes on the journey of being like,
oh, I did, you know, I acted poorly in that situation, I
feel. Badly about it I've.
Learned she learns from it and then like grows into a better
person. And I do.
I just like the fact that the author takes the time to have
her characters. When they make a mistake, they
make it, they reflect on it and it's a process for grows to like
really reflect that because that's how it works sometimes.
Like really. And then she ultimately like
apologizes atones and like grows and moves on.
And that's human growth. And I like that it's really
embedded in multiple characters and like Rose is one of the big
ones, Cow is the other one. And I will get into Cow
separately once we get through the dinner and stuff.
So then Din and Rose after that start dating for real, and Din
asking out Rose was one of the biggest hot messes in the whole.
The whole story. So.
She's cuz she's a mess. So then OK so they get into a
fight for where Rose is jealous of cow and Din tries to clear it
up and telling Rose like she's like no no I I like you though I
really like you. And Rosa's hurt and doesn't
believe it because like she's feeling jealous and like doesn't
know what to do with the feelings and hates that she's
feeling them. So then Din hugs her and asks
asks Rose. This is actually the ask out is
Rose's salt because she asks. Rose, do you want me to be
honest? And Rose is like, yes.
And then Din says I want a wife and Rose doesn't say anything.
So then dense, dense. Do you wonder my real life Rose?
And it's like, what the fuck, Dan?
Like it's like it's cute, but like what?
Like what is she supposed to say to these weird things you're
constantly saying to her like. All the time, OK.
She's so awkward and the dialogue, it's cute.
Like Rosa's like what the fuck? And but like Dan explains, the
reason she says that is she's like, well, I just, I wanted you
to know how serious I was. So it's not that I.
Like you. It's like, I like you so much
that I'm thinking about marrying you for real.
Like that's what Dan was trying to say.
But that just comes out as like, let's be married for real.
And it's like Dan. Yes, she's terrible with words
and it causes problems. But it's it's like it comes from
a sweet. Place like it really does like
that was. Very sweet what she was trying
to do. And like trying is the keyword
she's trying. And so eventually they agree to
start with dating or marriage like normal people.
And what's really? Cute is that after this they
decided to do this the. Cousins, then just.
Collectively decide to start calling Rose the cousin in law,
which is just the fucking cutest thing ever.
All right, now we we get in, then we transition after this
into the cow's redemption arc and we get into her the big
reveal that she's the mole. She's.
The villain, all that kind of stuff.
Part of the villain story. And honestly, when it comes to
her character arc in this novel, I'm actually not mad at the her
character, the fact that she's in redemption arc because the
way Salman wrote it was fucking epic and really great.
Because what the author did is she or they humanized Cow as a
person that acted on her worst impulse, felt guilty about it,
realized she made a huge mistake and then made amends for it.
Like people make mistakes and they can choose to be better or
worse based on the mistake. Like making mistakes not this
end all be all black and white thing.
Actually it can be a learning opportunity even when your
mistake causes horrible harm. And that's kind of what the
author is going for and I actually like that.
So the shitty part is that like Cow is aware that didn't fully
trusted her which makes the betrayal.
All that more painful because like Din saw her as a sister
because they basically kind of grew up together in a similar
way. Although like, she was an
employee on Din's farm. Well, not an employee.
Her father was employed by Din's father to like work at the farm.
And like Din's father made sure that Kel went to school and he
was like, treated her as like a surrogate daughter in a way.
And so they kind of grew up as siblings as the thing and Cal
harbored a crush on Din for about 10 years.
And she in her mind was waiting for Din to quote, turn around
and see that she was the one that's always been right behind
Din. Like waiting for her to turn
around. Like it's recently I have this
one sided crush on you. I'm just going to wait for you
to realize that like I've always been there for you.
I'm always right by you. Like see me, I've always I've
just been with you the whole time kind of thing.
But then just saw her as a sister and like it didn't mind.
Family sticks together. And so like, that never clicked.
And then from Cow's point of view that Rose comes back and
then Rose is the one that like steals Din from her and in a way
sours Cow's love for Din. And it turned Cow's love turns
into obsession, possession, which is like the toxic version
of like, quote love. There's like a fine line between
those love and like possession and obsession.
And they very much mean different things for the person
feeling whatever that is. So then feeling all of that Cow
works on her, gives into her worst impulse, which is to team
up with the villain, which is Wasu.
And it's eventual. It doesn't happen right away.
Like he offers her to like to get in on what he has.
And she says no at first. But then Rose is the tipping
point really. And The thing is that they're,
you know, he, he presents it as like, well, you know, like our
interests align. Like he wants Rose because he
wants what Rose's assets. And then she's like.
Once I have. Rose Din can't have her and then
you can have Din and then Cow eventually concedes to this and
says under one condition, will I help you and be the mole?
It's if you don't harm Din, because I want Din at the.
End of this. But then Wassu, probably being
the character that gives into his worst impulses the most,
eventually hires a hitman to kill Din.
And it doesn't work. But Din is harmed by the bullet
from the hitman. So that's Cow's kind of breaking
point and when it comes to him. But then this kind of keeps
going and then eventually comes out that she's, you know, she
sets up Din and all this kind of stuff and in front of Din
betrays Din. And even when Cow is actively
betraying her, Din consistently holds on to hope that Cow will
do the right thing. Like Cow will realize she made a
mistake and then choose to do the right thing.
And the first time Cow doesn't like, Cow actively betrays Din,
and it causes this irreversible damage to their relationship.
And Din recognizes that she's like, there is no coming back
from this for us. There is a way to move forward,
but it will never our relationship will never be what
it once was. We will never be sisters the way
we were kind of thing. But cow similar to like Rose,
although in a much extreme, more a more extreme form, does go in
this journey to like recognize what she did and then does do
the right thing. And it's because of cow.
Cow like because was who trusted.
Her. And gave her she had inside
information to what he was doing and gave it to mom and did like
anonymous. Quote.
Anonymously and is the reason that they they get him in the
end, it was because of her like without her, they couldn't have
done it. And then she does like over time
of a period of many years, she does make amends and then
apologizes to like Din and Rose and they kind of like move on
and it's never the same, but they, they have closure, you
know, healthy communication closure.
And I, I, I like this redemption arc from the author because it
feels earned. It feels human is the other
thing, not that like things need to be earned, you know, but like
narratively speaking is what I mean.
And it just feels like a very human thing.
She just gave it to her emotions, was blinded by the
emotions. You know, she became the bully.
She didn't want to be like Dan's father warned and like this is
kind of like can happen to people.
And I just like that she it took her a long time and she made the
amends and like stayed away and like did all the things And it
was a good, well written redemption arc, not a out of
nowhere unbelievable redemption arc.
It felt natural, all right. And with this like, toxic love
betrayal kind of situation with Wasu and Cow, I did notice
something interesting when kind of looking at their storylines.
And I think that the two of them are the masculine and feminine
manifestation of feeling entitled to another person.
And what I mean by that is like, let's kind of breakdown what
they were doing. So Wassu obviously the male
figure in the situation embodies the masculine concept of like
male entitlement to other people.
So he feels entitled to Rose due to quote tradition which is AKA
the family verbal deal. Because wife is property of
husband. He doesn't want Rose the person.
He wants her assets, her land, her money, her body and when she
refuses him, he tries to take Rose by force because of
violence is male power right? And then contrast that to Cow
OK, who goes on a similar journey.
But she wants Din, right? So Cal patiently waits 10 years
for Din to quote see her and all the time plays the role of Din's
faithful assistant. Like her work Wife.
OK, emphasis on wife. And when Din chooses Rose, Cal
views it as Din rejecting her, not choosing Rose.
Not just that, she chose Rose, she rejected Cal and instead of
accepting Din as a person with her own autonomy, Cow tries to
get rid of Rose through manipulation.
And manipulation is feminine power.
Because historically in matriarchy women don't have
positions of power. They manipulate people in power
because that's how they get power, because they can't be
the. Figurehead.
By law. So Cow then drives a wedge
between Rose and Din by playing in Rose's jealousy and by using
Wasu, the man in power, to get what she wanted.
Which was rose out of the picture.
So I think it's really interesting how they kind of
kind of ultimately want the same thing with the opposite person,
the, you know, Rose versus Din. And then the way they approach
it is a masculine energy, feminine energy driven thing.
So that was interesting in the way that was written.
Not saying any of that was good, like good behavior, but it was
an interesting comparison on how they went about that.
All right, so in continuing with Rosendin's story.
So then Roses didn't get separated for a second time.
So after all the farm drama is done, when Wasu gets arrested,
Tipicorin's coming out of the coma and getting better, Rose
decides to be an adult and take control of big decisions.
And so when her father's in the hospital, the doctors are like,
yeah, he's recovering, but it's slower than we like.
You should probably send him to Bangkok because you got money.
There are better rehab centers there.
And Rosa's like, well, I need to talk to Dan.
And then Cow's in the hospital and Dan's with her because
that's her friend. And Rosa's like, I don't want to
bother Dan or like make the decision with Dan.
I'm going to make the decision myself because I'm a, I'm a
fucking adult. I can take charge.
And she does. So she decides to go to Bangkok
with her dad while he recovers. And so she doesn't tell Dan,
which is crazy. She's like mom, I'll tell her
later or whatever. And then mom tells Dan, she says
Dom's not an idiot. And then Din shows up and I was
like, Rose what? Do you mean you didn't?
You didn't. Tell me you were leaving, which
was? Not adult like but there we are.
But it was funny at. Least the scene so Rose try and
didn't have this conversation and about this and didn't his
understanding of it and immediately promises I'll wait
for you to come back. It's fine because you're going
to come back. You're a farm, you know, come
back to the farm. Did Rose explains that.
And Rose insists, like, listen, we need to take this time that
we're going to be apart to reflect on the way we feel for
real, because Rose is a rational person.
And this conversation is like, basically everything that just
happened between us went from zero to 100.
It was way too fucking fast. OK, I said hi, nice to see you
again. Next thing I know, we're
married. Like it was crazy.
There's guns. Like, this was crazy.
And Rose is basically torn between all of this because
she's like, I don't know if my feelings are like real or it was
like situational because like there was.
Like life and death stuff. Going on and I didn't want to
lose you because of that or because I love you.
And like we were fake married and had to pretend we were
married. And she's like, I need to sort
out what's real and what was like circumstantial because like
we just went through insane situations that would trauma
bond any normal pair of people. So like, were we trauma bonded
or do we really love each other? And that's what and I like that
Rose thinks about that and was like, if we're going to do this
for real, I'm going to make sure it's real like for both of us
and not this like born of circumstance kind of thing.
And I love. Love, love, love.
That they're separated not for drama.
They are separated to reflect on their.
Feelings. Like, characters aren't always
given time to process things and stories because time or, you
know, time is usually the big one.
But this is such an important part of human growth.
And so I like that the author was like, no, no, no.
They need to really, like, think about this and come to their own
conclusions and also get to know each other.
So like Din comes and sees Rose basically once a once a week.
It's insane how Rose didn't something happens with the the
dad wakes up and he's like he gets better.
And he's like, Din, I need to talk to you about something.
Like Din drives from wherever the hell she is to it takes her
hours. She's like, I'm here, what
happened? He's like I what she like drove
straight to Bangkok. And then starts doing that on a
weekly. Basis to see Rose.
Because Din is like the ultimate devoted partner.
And then they get to they get to they like date for real again
and like get to like know each other and like talk and like
form an actual. Relationship which is cute.
And then it ultimately ends with Din and Rose's second marriage
and when Rose comes back to the farm.
And so Din's second proposal was like the one of the sweetest
things ever. She basically, like creates a
path of flower petals and Rose sees them and recognizes that
she's like, oh, when we were kids, Din used to like, take my
teddy bear. We'd play hide and seek and she
would hide the teddy bear and then like lead Rose to the teddy
bear with like, flower petal trails.
And so she does a flower petal trail.
And Rose is like, I'm expecting to see my teddy bear at the end
of this trail, but it's just Din standing there.
And Din is like, do you know what this place is?
And Rose is like, this is where we first met.
And so she brings her to the where they first met.
And then Din explains like our love is not this 2 two-month
ordeal. All of that shit happened to two
months and I didn't have a timeline until.
Din says this at the end. And I was like what the fuck?
That was two months. That was an insane two months,
OK? Two months.
OK, Poor Rose. And she's like.
Our love is not two months in the making.
It's this has been a 20 year thing that's been going on
between the two of us. Just let me know.
And then Din proposes with like she presents Rose her teddy bear
and the teddy bear is wearing a wedding dress and has like the
ring on a necklace. And it's like the fucking
cutest, most thoughtful thing. And it just shows how much Din
was pining for decades. But it's.
So cute and. Personal and sweet, the way she
does it. And it honestly worked out
because their second wedding, they basically just had their
family there and like, you know, found family and blood
relatives. And so Rose was very happy.
She's like, I'm having my dad who really loves me, could
actually be at my wedding because like, if we had just
gone with a fake wedding, he wouldn't have been there.
So it was better that they did it.
And then one of my other favorite moments, mom at the end
tries to take credit for the wedding and for their getting
married. She's like, yeah, I'm glad we're
all here today because of me And the cousins are like, really?
Did you're the one trying to take credit for them getting
married? You're insane.
I mean, she's not wrong in a way.
She did instigate. They all did.
Because sometimes it. Takes a village to get the
lesbians together. And then the absolute iconic.
Iconic moment I cannot wait to see in the series is the flower.
Toss this was. So fucking funny.
So basically somebody goes up the Rose and like rose, you got
to toss the flowers. MO Dang's right in the front
waiting for you. She wants to get married.
She has like. A guy she's interested in at
this point, who she marries later.
But anyway, so MO dang's up in front and then.
It starts with. Moden yelling hey wow, why don't
you knock that out of my hands? I almost caught it and then so
now locks the mom comes in, knocks the flowers away from
Moden's outstretched hands and like redirects the flowers into
Nom's lap because mom's just sitting there talking about
business. Not.
Fucking paying attention to. Anything in life because that's
her. And then Din, she doesn't pay
digital Din's like congratulations in advance.
And it's so fucking funny because all of us player so like
Islam, the matchmaker of the family like she is.
But I just thought it was really a clever way for the author to
be like she's. Next.
Her novels next get Ready for the Water because it's going to
be a fucking hot mess because she's the next one that's going
to get married. So I thought it was cute
marketing from the author to be like next time up on the four.
It was just great and super chaotic and fucking hilarious.
I don't know where Phi was in that, so I'm really curious.
To see in the series. But I imagine if I was hiding
about a. Tree because she doesn't want
anything with love now. Mom was kind.
Of like no mom was there it's like yeah, maybe I'll
participate and she's like Nah, going to get us enough.
Decided to be an asshole instead, just.
Like I'm I'm the. Reason they're here.
I could be the reason she's nice.
Poor mode eggs like I don't want to be like.
Nobody on that flour toss was on the same page and I just think
it's hilarious. All right.
And then just to wrap up the story.
So last thing is just a quick overview of the special.
Chapters because I don't know how much the.
Series will get into this, but there's some huge.
Stuff that happens in there. So after the story ends,
basically Din and Rose merge the farms together and learn how to
manage it together. So basically Din is still like
the head manager of everything. And then Rose learns to become
Din's assistant and like manage the farm with her.
And so they spend a lot of like like long hours like learning.
And like Rose learns how to be do whatever cow was doing
essentially like as the assistant and it takes her a
while and didn't a super patient about it.
And Rose also learns that Din is not opposed to having sex in the
office because that was actually a pretty funny scene.
Rose is like this is your place. Of work Din.
Din is like, it's our place of work.
I think she's ridiculous. Rose and Din then eventually
start discussing whether or not they want kids, which was cute.
And they basically come to this mutual decision together that
like, yes, they do want to have a kid at some point, but it's
when they're ready, like they don't need to.
And it's like, we don't need to be pressured into this.
Like we can take our time and when we're ready, we'll do it.
And the the most impatient person who wants den and rose
to. Have a baby is.
Phi, who's constantly. Annoying them about it and at
one part Den says to Rose. My other favorite deadline Den's
like As for five, she keeps bugging us about having a baby.
You can. Just tell her to.
Have one of her own like she yells it because she's pissed
off and so annoyed with her cousin but like the people
person who's like I'll love is like can you guys have a baby
already like every 5 minutes and Jen's like can.
You tell her to have her own fucking.
Baby, leave us alone. OK, but then.
Five years later, five years until their marriage, they the
first niece, the next generation is born.
And so Din and Rose have a girl and her name is Daisy.
And it was like a Co parenting situation where Rose gave birth
but Din was the egg donor. So it's kind of like their baby.
And at this stage, MO Dang is married.
And has a daughter, Modnoy, who's becomes.
Friends with Daisy. And it's really cute.
So it's like, again, the cycle keeps continuing.
And the niece is very, very. Spoiled by the cousins,
particularly Phi. Like Phi is like I need to be
her number one. Like she's just obsessed with
Rose. This is just a manifestation.
It's continuing, which is so cute and sweet and just.
I love it. I love the story.
I really loved Rose and Dan. They were so such a romantic
couple. They had just first of all,
fake. Dating fake marriages like I
will never I am a sucker for that trope.
It just leads to so many fun inner monologues of just like
what's real, what isn't. And Rose and Dan had such as
like an epic love story that spanned decades and.
I like the way it really unfolded, the way they realized
it unrealized things had they really work together and became
equals in the end. And I really enjoyed their
story. And just like I mentioned, I
didn't expect this story. I expected to be like sweeping
and romantic because like they kind of have those tropes going
on. I didn't expect it to be as
violent and funny as it was. And so I was very surprised
about how balanced this story was in terms of romance, action,
and like comedy. It was really it had everything.
And I'm really, really digging this author.
Like I said, this was my first novel by Salmon and she's just
is great at characterizing. And so I'm very excited to
finish the four elements and potentially read other.
Things that she's written because I really like the story
a lot. I thought it was great.
And so to really quickly wrap this up, first I'll start with
the Big Gay Energy award. So this is an element of the
story that I thought exemplified Big Gay Energy.
And so this is a scene I didn't talk about, but this is when's
my award. So after their second wedding,
when they finally are having their honeymoon evening or alone
or whatever den is immediately thirsty the man they get behind
a closed door OK and like starts furiously making out with Rose
like up against the wall. And then Rose is suddenly like
where has this den been? This is a whole.
Different part of who did I just marry because like, what are you
doing? You've never been this like
aggressive ever. And she teases den about it
because like roses anyway, she teases den about it.
And then Den says, basically, I've been so patient this whole.
Fucking day because I love that Den gets really impatient the
second time they get married and it's like, can we just have sex
now? It's just really funny and Den
gets all suave and like smooth talking weirdly in the scene.
And it's just it's very big energy from Den who is just been
an awkward disaster for like 300 pages.
So I that gets it for me. My Taylor Swift song that I
think perfectly encapsulates the earth.
The story is love story because love story, it's a childhood
friends to lovers kind of story that has like drama in it that
doesn't 100% lineup, but there are elements that line up about
this. So we were both young when I
first saw you. So there's the.
Childhood din and rose thing and then the marry me Juliet you'll
never have to be alone that's Dan welcoming rose into the
family and I talked to your dad go pick out a white dress this
is Dan asking him doing the. Chivalrous boyfriend thing
asking Tipicorin to permission to marry a.
Rose. So I thought that song.
Really encapsulated it. And yeah, I think that's all I
got for you for the Earth. It was a lot, but it's a
phenomenal story. I really, really loved it.
I'm very excited to continue reading The four elements.
I will be reading The Water Closer to the Water actually
airing, so it's going to be a while in between now and then.
I will be doing a book club on Harmony Secret because Caitlin
and I are going to be doing a discussion about it and about
the series. And then I'll talk about the
book because honestly, I loved that book.
It was it complements the series.
It doesn't follow it as closely as like the Four Elements series
and novel, but there's like pros and.
You know there's. Like not pros and guys, but
there's like differences in similarities that I'll talk
about. Like what I liked and didn't
like, mostly liked when it came to the novel.
So that'll be up for book club next.
If you guys like the book club, if you made it this far, thank
you very much for joining me on the story.
Let me know what you thought about the novel.
You can compare it to the show maybe if you've already seen the
entire series. Let me know if there's anything
I missed because like I I did this early.
So if there's anything happens in episode 8 and seven that you
want to talk about, if you have any suggestions for book clubs,
please let me know because I really enjoyed doing them and so
hopefully we can talk about more of them.
So thank you for coming along the journey.
And until next time, hydrate for lesbian Jesus and get up all
over the place. Bye.
And with that, we've been big gay energy.
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