I will not waste your time or mine by recapping the plot/story of this show. That is not the point. This is a story about human drama and friction. Below is the raw "calculus" I did for the major interpersonal relationships in Asawa ng Asawa Ko.
But before that, let me just say: I DO NOT LIKE how this series' title was translated here on IMDb. It DOES NOT mean "My Husband's Wife." A more accurate translation would be, "The Spouse of My Spouse." Also, the Tagalog title INTENTIONALLY abbreviates to "A.N.A.K." which means offspring or child/children.
Anyway, onto my analysis:
ASAWA NG ASAWA KO (shipping calculus)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: RAVEN
FOUNDATIONAL TEXT(S): IKA-6 NA UTOS
Taking a procrastination break, but hey: did you know ive recently become obsessed w a brand new obscure ship dynamic?
Basically, imagine at least 3 people: X, Y, and Z.
An incomplete love triangle (or bigger shape) exists such that:
X -> Y ->( )<-Z. Also, XZ are closely related (family/bffs/ect), on good terms, and care a lot about eo.
X, while obsessively in love with Y, is a fundamentally good person who would never try to break up YZ or hurt Z in any way due to their relation.
Y, meanwhile, is obsessively in love with Z. But also, Y is a toxic and manipulative person and is just good at hiding it. Y would do anything, hurt or dispose of any rival, commit any crime they can get away with, so that Z is theirs and theirs alone.
Eventually, X catches onto Y's true nature and witnesses them do a horrible thing to isolate Z from a possible romantic rival or any job/opportunity that would get in the way of YZ relationship.
Of course, X wants to tell Z the truth and expose the secret, but Y can't have that and thus uses X's feelings for them as a tool of manipulation to keep X in line.
So you have this escalating trainwreck of unrequited love, manipulation, and building animosity between XY and their opposite impulses to protect and care for Z (in X's case) vs to harm and monopolize Z (in Y's case).
R: i like Y->Z dynamic though icl, possessive yandere style
R: i think it's funnier to think that Z doesn't like Y at all though
in the telenovela, XZ are brothers (and business partners), and there is a person W who is Z's true love(mutual). Y serves as the main antagonist.
the series is mainly about the Y->Z×W love triangle while X is supporting cast (but I find him the most interesting character).
Over 60% of screentime is just YW fighting publicly and scandalously 😂
These women (Y & W) have the most depth and are the most narratively active characters while Z is much more passive.
R: i don't really know what my stance on love triangles (or corners) is, the last time i've encountered them was in teenage media when i was, well, a teen
R: Z is just there
The conflict in the telenovela between XY that sparked my interest was that while YZ were temporarily broken up, XY had a pity/loneliness fuck that produced a child. However, Y put a lot of effort to make it seem like Z is the father, not X, to again manipulate him into getting back together.
X eventually finds out and is fucking furious and demands his rights over the child (whom he partially raises as "nephew" before he found out the truth since YZ are both busy people)
And what does Y do? Nearly murders X, kidnaps him, then arranges to have him assassinated.
But Y (pampered city girl) cringefailed in the choice of assassins. The thugs just indefinitely hold X hostage and lie about killing him in order to extort Y for more (of Z's) money.
Also, Z in the series is annoying af and i hate him 😂 i would much rather his true love W end up with another person, V.
R: bro 😭 what's going on in this show 😭
R: thugs are the only winners here
THERE IS A LOT MORE GOING ON
R: xy fucking is crazy work though lol
THAT'S WHAT MADE ME INSANE!
I don't "ship" them as in hope they end up together, but I want them to duel to the death.
W is the main character, but I've hardly even mentioned her! She has by far the most plot.
R: i am now invested as well
The main plotline is actually: WZ are in love, get married, have a child. Then Y who is their mutual friend hatches a plan to have W kidnapped and killed by Y's estranged brother V who leads an insurrectionary group in the mountains (roughly analogous to the PH Communist Party IRL).
However, V upon meeting W decides not to kill her, but instead train her and make her a member of the insurrection. Thus, W lives there for several years. She eventually "marries" V to become co-leader and guarantee her own safety and survival as she secretly plans to escape and get back to her husband and child.
Meanwhile, Z searches for W for a while but after multiple years of nothing, authorities convince him she's probably dead. Z then starts a relationship with and eventually marries Y (as is her plan).
However, W does eventually come back and now they are left with a situation of who is really a legal spouse and whose marriages (VW or WZ or YZ) really count—both in their hearts and in the eyes of the law.
I think the reason why it's so gripping, even if the plot can be nonsensical at times, is because it's entirely character driven. The writers craft every plot and every scenario to get the maximum conflict, emotional depth, set-up/payoff cycles, and cliffhangers possible.
R: this is definitely lvls of plot only kpop stans would come up with
On the contrary, kpop stans would be influenced by kdrama. Whereas, longform kdrama is influenced by the teledrama traditions of multiple other countries such as USA and LATAM.
Filipino telenovelas, meanwhile, are obviously influenced by the latam tradition (mainly). However, we've adapted elements of NA and East Asian dramas over the decades, too. PH simply loves beef and drama, unconditionally.
Thus, the telenovela I've described as well as kpop stan written fanfic plots share a COMMON ANCESTOR—but took different ways to get to their final products.
Currently, the series has over 120 episodes and it airs daily from Mon-Thu nights on YouTube for free and subtitled in English.
I usually watch a week's worth of episodes every Fri along with my housemates. We are all too invested 😂 I am team VW truther while everyone else is team WZ truthers. And they're wrong for that, BTW!
My landlady doesn't care much for the romances, but she passionately hates Y and only watches to see if/when Y is finally defeated 💀
Ideal soundtrack for Asawa Ng Asawa Ko: "Faded" and "Slow Burn" by Illest Morena. (PUT SOME RESPECT ON HER NAME!)
MANILA DISPATCHER — THE OCCASIONAL UN-CANCELLATION
today: BTS, k-pop/idol music, and south korean celebrity culture in general
ALWAYS REMEMBER: south korea *regrets* + *resents* japanese idol culture and pop culture in general. south korea wants to do better than japan, less strict and less tragic with their international art—but they made different mistakes.
korea is one country with one people and one language... BUT SPLIT IN TWAIN. the north's heart is still frozen; too betrayed by foreign wars and imperialism. south koreans, at their core, love and miss their north korean relatives and friends. those are family. one of us.
but the north is too closed off, so south korea's artists + media + academia + business decided they need to be louder and more open. make art and products and celebrities *so critically acclaimed and popular* that even our northern korean families can hear it.
south korea SCREAMS because they know the entire fucking world does not listen to the north. south korea is a culture of achievements and excellence.
south korea is the glitz and glam capital of asia. brands and symbols and bigness. they tell you what they're about right in the names and labels and titles. they are merchants and advertisers and promoters.
but they YEARN for reunion, reunification, with their other half. one korea. just korea. the best korea there ever was.
NOT through war. NOT through violence. NOT through money or foreigners meddling again.
south korea wants a FAMILY REUNION, a FEAST—with north korea.
in case some of y'all missed it, i've always listened to bts/bangtan/every other name they have
however, i do not consider myself a bts fan. i am no longer a part of the bts army. i am ex-kpop-military in general. an ex-stan, exile of both stans and antis.
some kpop fans will call me a "hag"—i refuse this title. i am transmasculine. he/him/his pronouns. i am a wizard, if anything. never a hag.
but also, i still listen to bts and keep up with the creative output of the members, though i don't enjoy some of it. that's okay. not all of it has to be for me.
same goes for other kpop bands and musicians and even producers. same goes for korean literature, animation, and performance art.
i no longer need any of these to be translated, explained, analyzed, reviewed, or hyped. i already love korean art enough + i already understand enough of the korean language.
because. once again. i am scottish-jewish, yamato-japanese, spanish-meztizo, filipino-tagalog. 1995. wood pig. libra/gemini. empress/world. etc.
i JUST DO love + respect korean art more than you ever will, unless you are actually korean in any way.
i JUST DO understand all forms of japanese art from any era for any audience better than you ever will. because i am ethnically japanese. my paternal great-grandmother was a japanese woman who grew up in a rural fishing village in nagasaki, but settled down in the philippines due to you-know-what.
am i fluent in japanese? fluent enough. i can translate doujins or manga, depending on the dialect and number of dense chinese terms. novels are a little much; too tedious. i trust other jpn language appreciators to handle that.
do i watch anime in sub or dub? it depends on the show. some anime are better when dubbed into a different language, especially if the characters therein are not 100% japanese (e.g. code geass, death note, fullmetal alchemist, jujutsu kaisen, chainsaw man). however, other anime make no damn sense in any other language (i.e. monogatari, jojo's). others still need multiple languages simultaneously to work well (e.g. great pretender) or illegal fandubs to fill in the gaps (salute to all arabic, russian, brazilian portugese, and tagalog weeb warriors especially).
how about chinese? absolutely hell torture to learn the writing system, but i love the poetry and opera and rap and pop and people having fun with it in general. i'll never have the patience to sit through high-brow chinese literature. it has to be zoomer or zillennial media for me to appreciate chinese.
and finally, why do i never speak tagalog on here? because y'all are too fucking stupid to appreciate my tagalog. wrote a brilliant tagalog poem and posted it on here; zero notes. complete and total flop. sorry not sorry. i am just as smart and well-read when it comes to tagalog, but nobody ever fucking believes me because i look too wasian💀 + they are scared by my english/japanese/latinate/romance/germanic/whatever else. sigh.
SUMMARY: Min Yoonji contracts her broke and disowned twin brother to pose as her in order to escape her upcoming arranged marriage to young CEO Kim Seokjin.
(previously posted on ao3 here)
GENERAL OUTLINE:
The Concept of Us is Comedy Gold Premise Min Yoonji contracts her broke and disowned twin brother, Yoongi, to pose as her so she can escape
CHAPTERS 1-4:
The Concept of Us is Comedy Gold Min Yoonji contracts her broke and disowned twin brother to pose as her so she can escape her arranged marr
BREAK UP WITH THE OPERADA. CIS WHITE WOMAN WITHIN, TRANSCEND TO THE DIVINE FEMININE !
pov: you break up with a clean girl
THERE IS A REASON THESE GIRLS WERE ALL IN THE PUBLIC EYE TOO EARLY
AND A REASON WHY THEY HAD TO KEEP BEING REBORN AND REINVENTED
#2 THE DESTINATION:
ASPIRE AND ADMIRE - BUT DO NOT DEMAND OR OVERWHELM - THE MAGICAL FEMININE.
THEY ARE COMPLETE ALREADY.
AND JESUS FUCKING WEPT DO NOT ASK THEM TO HURT YOU OR PUNISH YOU FOR BEING ATTRACTED TO THEM.
THEY HAVE THEIR CLUBS + CLIQUES. SMILE AND CHEER FROM AFAR. NO HURT URSELF EVERRRRR
PART 3: THE SOULIST FEMININE
THEY ARE HERE TO HELP YOU.
YOU DO NOT FUCK THEM, NOT DATE THEM, NOT CRUSH ON THEM, NOT MARRY THEM.
YOU HELP YOURSELF BY SINGING THEIR SONGS IN THEIR LANGUAGE OR YOURS.
YOU HELP THEM BY DANCING TO THE BEAT OF THEIR HEARTS AND TELLING OTHERS TO JOIN IN.
THEY ARE GUIDES. NO TOUCHY. NO HURT YOURSELF OR THEM OR ANYONE CLOSER TO THEM THAN YOU.
SING, DANCE, FIND THE BEAT TO YOUR OWN HEART.
only after all this. can you reach WISDOM & WHIMSY - to find your creative voice.
if you already found it, welcome to my blog. you'll remember in one of my fandoms or wips. if you forgot, i'll help... or go find a shiny thing in one of my blogs or tags or abouts.
BREAK UP WITH THE OPERADA. CIS WHITE WOMAN WITHIN, TRANSCEND TO THE DIVINE FEMININE !
pov: you break up with a clean girl
THERE IS A REASON THESE GIRLS WERE ALL IN THE PUBLIC EYE TOO EARLY
AND A REASON WHY THEY HAD TO KEEP BEING REBORN AND REINVENTED
#2 THE DESTINATION:
ASPIRE AND ADMIRE - BUT DO NOT DEMAND OR OVERWHELM - THE MAGICAL FEMININE.
THEY ARE COMPLETE ALREADY.
AND JESUS FUCKING WEPT DO NOT ASK THEM TO HURT YOU OR PUNISH YOU FOR BEING ATTRACTED TO THEM.
THEY HAVE THEIR CLUBS + CLIQUES. SMILE AND CHEER FROM AFAR. NO HURT URSELF EVERRRRR
PART 3: THE SOULIST FEMININE
THEY ARE HERE TO HELP YOU.
YOU DO NOT FUCK THEM, NOT DATE THEM, NOT CRUSH ON THEM, NOT MARRY THEM.
YOU HELP YOURSELF BY SINGING THEIR SONGS IN THEIR LANGUAGE OR YOURS.
YOU HELP THEM BY DANCING TO THE BEAT OF THEIR HEARTS AND TELLING OTHERS TO JOIN IN.
THEY ARE GUIDES. NO TOUCHY. NO HURT YOURSELF OR THEM OR ANYONE CLOSER TO THEM THAN YOU.
SING, DANCE, FIND THE BEAT TO YOUR OWN HEART.
only after all this. can you reach WISDOM & WHIMSY - to find your creative voice.
if you already found it, welcome to my blog. you'll remember in one of my fandoms or wips. if you forgot, i'll help... or go find a shiny thing in one of my blogs or tags or abouts.
A story about many packed musical opening nights, an epic battle against creative block, a quintet of busybody friends, two pop-rap love songs, and a conspiracy theory based on flying kisses.
Or: Yoongi is a famous rapper-producer with a massive crush on musical theater actor Kim Seokjin. Thanks to a meddling best friend, he may have to face his feelings soon, but maybe it's not so bad when he also meets the muse to end his two-year album-making slump.
CHARACTER TWITTER PROFILES:
CHARACTER INTROS:
+ Namjoon is a rapper & Yoongi's label mate.
+ Hoseok is a rapper & choreographer, & namgi's former label mate (they used to form a loose rap trio). They still work to create banger rap tracks together sometimes.
+ JK is a singer-songwriter, & namgi's label mate.
+ Taehyung is a photographer/travel blogger. He used to be in the same company as Jin, but quit acting because he thinks being a blogger is more fun.
+ Jimin is a contemporary dancer & choreographer, & Jin's best friend.
BRIEF HISTORIES OF THE BOYS:
Yoongi
Rapper, producer, composer, and writer.
Signed under Prism with Jungkook.
He started out as a member of a loose circle which included Namjoon and eventually Hoseok, "Dopemen." / "Boyz With Fun"
His official website pays respect to his treasured history with the circle, thus it is named dopeman.com.
Even as a soloist, Yoongi has done a few big collabs with Hoseok and Namjoon. The most well known of these is the Cypher series.
Hoseok
Rapper, dancer, and producer.
Yoongi's former label mate.
After several successful years under Prism with Yoongi and Namjoon, he decided to go his own way and found his own label, Base Line.
Mostly produces and trains his artists these days, as opposed to making his own stuff.
Namjoon
Rapper, writer, composer, and producer.
Yoongi's best friend and former label mate.
Now signed under the Base Line label.
He writes and composes for a lot for Base Line's other artists (and is absolutely beloved by them).
Jokingly, Hoseok's "work husband."
Still works with Jungkook often, even though they're not under the same label anymore. (Even if Namjoon had signed under, say, an American label and worked in the US, Jungkook would've taken regular trips abroad just to keep working with him.)
Jungkook
Idol singer signed under Prism, and thus label mates with Yoongi and former label mates with Namjoon and Hoseok.
Also a superb dancer and fairly competent rapper.
Does modelling on the side.
Shoots or at the very least edits music videos of his B-tracks by himself.
Widely famous for his music and other ventures, but even more so on the internet where he's earned a reputation as both a trendsetter and chaotic force of nature. Has been blamed to "break the internet" several times.
Joined Prism specifically because he considered himself a fan of Namjoon, and wanted to be under the same label as him.
Was absolutely heartbroken when Namjoon transferred to Base Line, but less so when Namjoon promised they'd still keep working together. Jungkook since then has made Namjoon deliver on this promise every chance he gets.
Seokjin
Award-winning and very well known musical theater actor.
He does modelling on the side (that's how he got to know Jungkook).
Went to college with Namjoon.
Will make his cinema debut as an actor signed to Prism.
Used to be in the same company as Taehyung, until Taehyung decided to quit acting.
He's so famous because he keeps his fanbase engaged through being super active on social media + hosting regular streams on VLIVE (mostly mukbang streams).
Taehyung
Once in the same company as Seokjin.
He quit acting because he thinks being a photographer slash travel blogger is more fun.
Currently living the high life (and loving it).
Since he travels so much, every time he's back in Seoul he does not hesitate to drag out Seokjin and Jimin to get wasted and be super sappy.
Went to high school with Jimin, but lost contact with him for years until they met again through Seokjin.
Are he and Jimin together? Who knows. Seokjin calls it an "on-again-off-again long distance relationship with extra steps."
Jimin
Choreographer and contemporary dancer who became internet famous "because he's just that hot" (-Taehyung)
Seokjin's best friend, but no one among their larger friend group has any idea how they met or got to know each other. It's considered by Taehyung and Namjoon to be one of the biggest mysteries of the modern age.
The story of how Jimin and Seokjin came to know each other changes every time someone asks: "Jin-hyung's been my platonic soulmate since I was in the womb" "Oh Jimin? I've known him since he was in diapers" "We actually got close because Jin-hyung taught me guitar when I was in elementary school" "Despite starting out as near strangers, Jimin-ah single-handedly got me through high school in Australia" "I'd never been abroad till Jin-hyung - who to be honest kind of intimidated me before we were close - encouraged me to take a semester in the States and now I owe everything to him"
Taehyung calls him his muse.
--- BASIC STRUCTURE ---
CHAPTER 1: SET THE STAGE
Introduces the characters and what they're up to before Yoonjin meet.
- Yoongi's longstanding crush on Seokjin.
- Yoongi's creative block and the album situation.
- Seokjin's trips abroad and the accolades of Epiphany of a Thousand Summers, contrasting his loneliness and longing for companionship.
- Jimin tries to set Seokjin up on dates (cheered on by Taehyung) but they never end well.
- Namjoon and Jungkook's endless "Will they or won't they?" dance feat. Sope being frustrated with it all.
- The slightest hints about Boyz With Fun and the situation with Hobi's label shuffle, specifically how it affected/hurt Namkook.
- Taehyung's year-long trip and Vmin's on-again/off-again relationship.
CHAPTER 2: CREATIVE TYPES
Leading up to Yoonjin meeting at Epiphany's re-opening night in Seoul, and the aftermath, AKA Yoonjin getting to know each other.
amandla
pixelskylines
prguitarman
