“is there anything else you need” hes such a bitch (affectionate)

wdym huan’er and song cong stop being friends 😔

and still i think it is a fundamentally hopeful drama, bc even when nothing is fixed and there is no cure, love and connection are still present. friends still show up for one another, neighbors still feed each other, and kindness is still freely given.

where characters spend their entire adolescence together.

and the way in which these characters experience these difficulties mean that even when they are all still neighbors, they sometimes feel worlds away from one another. they don’t all feel like they’re in the same place anymore, which feels like the saddest thing u can do in a youth drama

i think that’s why the angst in this drama feels so real; nothing is really fixed or solved, characters just have to find a way to adjust and keep going.

like song cong’s mother, there is no cure to his injury. and just like song cong, xichi experiences a hardship that his friends cannot understand

similar with xichi. in other youth dramas, he would have made a full recovery, at least enough to pass the final requirement. but he doesn’t. you spend 8 episodes watching him dream openly and bravely, and within two episodes his dream is taken away and never really given back to him

the miracle never comes. he has to grow up faster than the others, his friends and neighbors cannot offer a cure for his mother’s injury, and still the rest of the world keeps turning.

but always home separates the trio 11 episodes in. you spend 10 episodes growing fond of their friendship and closeness, and you think surely there will be some miracle, that even amidst the current hardship song cong is facing, he wont be separated from his friends

but always home makes story choices that are unexpected, which in turn makes the stakes feel higher. youth dramas rarely separate their main characters, not even in university where all the characters would likely attend different schools

even in arrti with a similar conflict, where lu shiyi’s physical condition cld very well mean the end of his dream, did not necessarily feel intense to me bc i somehow always knew there would be a magical cure

and in other cdramas, the angst doesnt even feel real to me 😭 and thats great! the stakes are low so i dont necessarily feel sad about specific conflicts because i KNOW it’ll work out

same with dont leave after school; though the character arcs are sprinkled throughout the whole season, their stories progress in an almost linear way

ray of light begins with all the characters having their own difficulties and overcoming them over the course of the school year. it feels like all the characters are in the same place and all end up leaving those hardships behind together

the only other cdramas i can think of that are just as angsty is ray of light and dont leave after school? but i think what makes always home different is theres a sense of change throughout the drama that is ironically not present in other dramas ab growing up