Five episodes into SOTUS S, I wanted to cry. Nothing tragic had happened. The major plot climaxes were nowhere near. If I’m honest, I had felt pretty indifferent to the sequel series up to that point. Its more expensive production elements, relaxed pace, comedic sound queues, broader characterizations, and blatant callbacks to the original series seemed more akin to cash-grabbing commercial projects that followed in SOTUS’s wake. Some were fun and some fell flat, but those series lacked the show’s layered writing or direction. By the end of episode 5, however, something shifted. It continued to surprise my narrative expectations from there on out, offering new ways to appreciate many other BL series due to the clarity of its formal structure. This review is my attempt to understand how and why.
SOTUS S doesn’t primarily operate by the most prominent Western storytelling rules—the three act or five act structures that build toward a culminating conflict for a climax before an exhaustive resolution. Nor does SOTUS S make as much of an attempt to blend its structure in with the Western storytelling rules as its predecessor did. Instead, it’s a striking example of the Four-Act structure (from hereon: 4Act) that developed in China and spread to Japan, Korea, and Southeast Asia as noted by author Kim Yoonmi. It’s prominently used in Japan by manga, anime, novelists, and game creators under its Japanese name Kishotenketsu. If you’ve heard about “the three episode rule” in which you have to watch the first three episodes of an anime before passing judgment, that’s often unknowingly related to the principles of the 4Act structure.
I’ve found these definitions more helpful for understanding than the Japanese terms and their English translations, like “introduction,” “twist,” “development,” etc, which have meanings in the Western tradition that differ from they’re use in the Asian narratives.
Some caveats:
1. I’m an American just trying to figure this out from my own experiences with Asian media and others’ writings about the structure and cultures that utilize it. There’s a ton of Orientalism in writing about the subject of the 4Act structure, and I try my best, but I can’t promise I won’t accidentally slip into some of that rhetoric.
2. No single culture’s a monolith, so not every writer in the cultures will use these structures the same or at all, and the different cultures referenced here—Thai, Japanese, Chinese, Korean—also differ dramatically between one another, and so do their approaches to the 4Act.
3. Cultures have been interacting and changing forever.Shakespeare included a reference to a Christianized translation of the Buddha’s story in Merchant of Venice, for one example. Asian influences have been a part of Western writing for a long time and vice versa. Western media’s pervasive throughout the world. Inevitably, you’ll see shared aspects from intermingling as well as convergent development. My goal is not to essentialize any people, culture, or story, only to isolate in this instance the feature of the 4Act in SOTUS, which has well-documented Asian roots.
4. This is a narrative structure not a moral guide on how one should live life at all times. Some writers claim ethical, political, and philosophical implications for its use. However, you get to be the judge of when and how to use it in your perspectives as an audience, creator, and a human being just making it through in the world.
5. Thai culture has its own specific traditions around this structure and other plot structures that I’m not focusing on here simply for lack of info in English. I’d love to hear more about that from others more knowledgeable than me. Is it taught in schools or writing classes? Does it relate to other Thai dramatic structures? I don’t have the answer, but my mind is inquiring to anyone who does!
6. As with all my posts, feel free to message me about or correct me on mistakes or add more context where I falter.
Hopefully in isolating and differentiating the 4Act model as much as possible from the Western model here, I can demonstrate the latter’s importance to SOTUS S and many other BLs. From here, I’ll try to do a side-by-side comparison of the elements of that 4Act structure with SOTUS S. Spoilers abound for SOTUS S along with several other BLs.
It was a quiet week this week on the new-items-in-airing-shows front. There would have been two from Sweet Tooth Good Dentist had ep 2 aired…but under the circumstances it’s understandable why it got postponed. But I did make two more historical discoveries.
Mar 24th - Ossan’s Love Thailand
This first one from ep 12 of Ossan’s Love Thailand isn’t necessarily the same item that has been worn before BUT it is a short-sleeved version of something that has been worn in Wandee Goodday (Jul 2024) and more recently A Boy Next World (Jan 2025). Close enough to have a mention.
Mar 26th - My Golden Blood
I already knew that this shirt was going to be worn in ep 3 of My Golden Blood from the BTS pics of the filming and from the ep 3 preview, but it was nice to see it in the ep anyway. Worn in Last Twilight in January 2024, then in October 2024 in Peaceful Property.
Historical Discoveries
I’ve said it before and I will keep saying it but gif makers are amazing, not only because I get to relive moments from my wonderful shows but also because I will come upon gifsets years after a show has aired and it will contain an item already on the communal wardrobe list.
Like this yellow sweater, which @tortibomb included in this gifset, of A tale of Thousand Stars (Apr 2021), which I instantly recognised from I’m Tee Mee Too (Oct 2020), Vice Versa (Sept 2022), and A Boss and a Babe (Mar 2023). I’m sad it wasn’t used last year, breaking the yearly trend.
Sometimes clothes that feel familiar will bounce around my head like a tennis ball for a while until I figure out why. This week it was this blue cardigan which, when I saw it in the final ep of Gelboys last week (Mar 22 2025), I thought I recognised but couldn’t place at all. Then, a few days later, my mind decided it wanted to do another scan through of Your Sky in case there were any clothes in there that I had missed. When I saw this cardigan in ep 6 (Dec 22 2024) I again felt that nudge of familiarity but couldn’t place where from…until after another couple of days @clairedaring’s Gelboys gifset graced my dash and I could finally put two and two together. Game, Set, and Match.
TOP FORM THE SERIES (2025) I EP. 3 “It’s amazing you’ve maintained the title for so long. If it were me, I definitely wouldn’t be able to do it like you.”
honestly i’m not that well-spoken but thank you. my native language is vietnamese but i’ve been consuming english media for more than half of my life so i’m just much more comfortably using english on my socials (although i would love to/should post more viet contents). at the moment i’m also sporadically learning thai with resources from the r/learnthai subreddit so i could watch lakorns raw/without subs. i think i’ve become much more motivated to learn thai ever since i became a gifmaker as well since english subs of thai series can sometimes be wonky or too loosely translated.
Khun Yai, I think it’s about time we accepted the truth. Please get engaged to Busabong. I can wait. I can’t stand that, Jom! Having to live with someone I don’t love, I can’t do it! I can’t do such a thing!
