If you’re anything like me, a chronically online millennial who engages in fandom™️, you’ve potentially been victim to seeing something you love disparaged by a total loser.* (And by total loser, I mean a complete stranger that you don’t know, but because they are disparaging something you love, that makes them a loser.) As a full-grown adult who works and exists outside of the digital world, it feels insane to be so annoyed by an opinion that literally has nothing to do with you. But also, it’s fun and exciting, and that’s what fandom is about, right?
I can’t count the number of times I’ve finished a story, only to look up reviews and see the story I love being ripped to shreds. “This was so slow/ stupid / boring. Tons of plot holes. They rushed the ending.” It feels like suddenly descending upon enemy territory. I thought this was a safe place! And listen, I GET IT! We can and should have different opinions on things. We are all arriving at stories from different places, thus influencing our enjoyment of a thing. But it feels so personal to see something you love wildly misunderstood and categorized as BORING!
Run Wild is Boring
The most recent “boring” allegations to rock my world have been towards my heart and soul of a danmei series, Run Wild Sa Ye. If you’re new here, Run Wild Sa Ye is the series that got me into danmei earlier this year. I’ve been crying on camera about it ever since. (I promise my review of volume 3 is coming soon!) As a newbie to danmei in general, I wasn’t aware that many prefer historical danmei over modern danmei (stories like Heaven Official’s Blessing). I’ve been reading both types of stories, and I love them equally. They are so wildly different, I don’t think it’s fair to compare them. But I have seen a lot of people call modern danmei boring in comparison to historical ones.
I’ve had many things I love be called boring before, but the Run Wild Sa Ye boring comments hit differently. It makes me think of the overall commentary on slower-paced media being called boring. Run Wild Sa Ye is a story where two high school students who are both going through extremely difficult battles find solace in each other. Most of the story is told through their day-to-day lives. We see the boys eating meals together, attending class together, working together, and having slice-of-life moments like this. I’m only reading the licensed version, so as of volume three, a lot of the higher-paced moments have been basketball games, dealing with a gang, and intense family fights.
Even though their outside worlds are chaotic, the two characters don’t have a lot of drama when it comes to them becoming an official couple. There are internal conflicts, and I’m sure more are on the way, but in general, as far as romance goes, there hasn’t been a lot of resistance yet. And maybe that fact, coupled with the day-to-day depictions, is what people find boring. Maybe they’re looking for more of a “will they, won’t they” situation where the pairing struggles to get together. Maybe they want more opposition to the lovers, more people getting in their way. Is it boring because the couple gets together relatively early?
Deserved Boringness
Another factor I think about is how, when a series ends, most people are looking forward to the extras or side stories. They do want to see their favorite couples in the regular parts of life, just being a couple. I think about The Dangerous Convenience Store or BJ Alex, where the extra stories are just little tidbits of the couple in their day-to-day life. Or how people write fan fiction to give readers a mundane view of their favorite couple. Is this only satisfying because it’s an extra, and it means a lot more when they struggled to get here? Is the boring part of a relationship only exciting when you’ve had to work for it?
For me, what makes Run Wild Sa Ye special is the “slice-of-life” of it all. These boys are going through it. Jiang Cheng is dealing with learning he was adopted, being sent to live with his bio father, who is a complete piece of shit, and struggling to adapt to the slums when his life before was so different. Gu Fei is basically a full-time caretaker to his disabled sister; his mom isn’t much, and there are rumours he killed his stepdad. It seems the only moments these two are normal teenagers are when they are together. Their little rituals of eating together, hanging out, and being in class together bring them both so much joy.
What I love about the mundanity and slowness of Run Wild Sa Ye is that it reminds me that love is not just fiery, passionate moments. It can be the slight touch of your palm as your partner sneaks you a milk candy. It can be the stolen glances in group settings, the slight touching of legs under the table. It’s the rushing to go to bed because you know you’ll see them in the morning. All of those little moments mean so much when they are with the right person.
The Human Part of it All
In general, I think there’s a part of culture where slow-paced, character-driven stories are “boring.” If there’s no big villain, drama, or fighting happening, it’s mid and wack. There’s a larger conversation somewhere tying this need for big action or plots to the way we’re all dopamine-addicted, looking for the next big hit to satisfy our needs. But that, my friends, is an essay for another day. I’m just here to fight for slowing down and appreciating the “boring.” More slow-paced stories, more mundane, more “boring.” Even though to me, it’s not boring.
What it comes down to is that no part of the human condition is boring to me. No part of existence on this Earth bores me. I love stories where the struggles are internal, where people have to deal with the realities of their lives. Sometimes the villain isn’t a yao cursing the Earth. It’s that little voice in your head telling you that you’ll never leave the shitty town you were born in. It’s the voice planting doubts that you deserve to be happy. Both Jiang Cheng and Gu Fei have so many things internally to deal with. This is what makes this story so important and interesting.
What Run Wild Sa Ye represents is a yearning for normalcy, whatever that even means for these two. It’s being in the throes of life, in circumstances you absolutely have no control over, and still finding a way to reach a hand out for connection. Does this person erase all of your problems and rewrite your life? Absolutely not. But it does make these harder moments easier, even if that “easy” is just sharing a meat patty with them.
In all seriousness, you’re not a loser if you disagree with me.*
*But I am sensitive and believe everything I love is perfect and therefore, do not agree with anyone thinking it is anything less.
I really think when people say a story is boring, it just depends on where they are in their life. Younger or less experienced readers/viewers are more likely to want something over the top dramatic, flashy, action packed and completely miss the fine details of a story. They are also more likely to insist something is the “Best” or the “Worst” ever. I remember when I used to work for a library and I could always tell if someone was an avid reader or if they were just getting into reading. For readers that were reading their first non-school required book, when I would ask about the book I recommended for them, they would always say it was the “Absolute best book in the world!” or they would call it “The worst book ever!” it was never in the middle because they had nothing to judge it by. For readers that had read hundreds of books, they could always point out fine details and talk about how there was good points and bad points in the story. What an inexperienced reader would call “Boring” a more experienced reader would call “Highly detailed”.