A father reads to his son about the nation of Emmaly and its four kingdoms. It feels very Princess Bride.
Then, a painting of a man on a horse turns into a real man on a horse
This is Charan, who rides cinematically over green hills and paints in a bathrobe. The King calls for him, and he’s attacked as part of a test. He passes, and so does the show, because the fight looks good.
The King urges Charan, the grandson he raised, to be less formal. Then he orders him to sit and talks about tea as a cover for a secret mission. Charan needs to get some Earl Grey.
The Early Grey is Prince Khanin
Nin doesn’t know he’s a prince. He’s living his best life in London with white people whose accents aren’t British. As an Emmalian, fencing is important, and he’s participating in a match. I know less about fencing than racing and have no idea what’s going on except Nin wins by 1 point.
Charan watches and later follows him. Nin fakes him out and confronts him. In the tradition of oblivious romantic leads meeting their life partners, Nin is irritated by Charan. He says some things about flirting and not being interested in Thai, not realizing Charan speaks it too. Oops. Nin is a brat. I like brats.
Charan irritates Nin further by giving him unsolicited fencing advice, then walks off.
Despite his dislike of Charan, Nin takes his advice
He wins his next match easily while Charan watches.
Nin is excited to tell his Dad, but Charan ruins it by being there. Dad won’t explain why Charan’s there or what’s happening, and Nin is a brat. I don’t entirely blame him.
The next day, Nin goes to a party celebrating his victory, and Charan invites himself along. Some random lady teases that Charan is Nin’s type. I think Charan is a lot of people’s type.
They play a gross spin-the-bottle pocky game. Charan and Nin are paired, and Nin drags Charan into a kiss to get their pocky as short as possible. Charan acts scandalized because of something about Emmalian’s and kissing, but won’t explain.
At home, Nin learns from his Dad that kissing is basically a love vow. Oops. Nin wants to confront Charan about the situation, but then overhears something big.
Charan and his dad talk about Nin being a prince
And it’s time for him to go back to Emmaly. Dad also explains he’s not his real dad, and bows. This doesn’t help.
Nin spends a day sobbing. He recovers enough to talk to his Dad, who explains his real mom was murdered, and he was taken away and raised in secret. Now it’s time to go back and compete over royal succession.
Nin objects to the idea, but men appear and attack them. Charan fights his way outside with Nin, but they hear a gunshot inside. Nin wants to go back in for his Dad, but they’re still in the middle of a fight. Charan stabs one guy and shoots another, finding a police badge and handcuffs on one of them.
Charan takes Nin to a place
I have no idea where they are, but Charan says it’s safe. Nin tries to escape to return to his Dad, but is quickly caught.
Back in the kingdom, being a King sucks, and Nin is right to want to run away. Then, the King suddenly tells his son that Nin is alive.
Nin’s cousins (I think), Ramil and Ava, are fencing. Ramil wins and talks about how sad it is that Ava can’t compete in this royal succession thing because she’s a woman.
After she leaves, Ramil manhandles some guy who doesn’t seem into it, but I’m unsure if he dislikes Ramil or their secretive situation. Ramil thinks there’s no succession competition, because he’s the only heir. Once in charge, he and this reluctant guy can be together.
Suddenly, Charan decides this place isn’t safe
I dunno what changed. But Charan tells Nin that if his Dad is okay, he’d go to Emmaly, which gets Nin to go. On the plane, Charan gets nervous during turbulence and grips Nin’s arm as he sleeps. When he realizes what he’s doing, he lets go. Nin thinks he’s having a nightmare, but Charan doesn’t explain.
He tells Nin it’s his duty to protect him. But when Nin asks if it was just duty for his father, Charan tells him he thinks it was more. Charan tells Nin that he matters to him, which almost makes up for not explaining anything ever.
Nin maybe realizes how alone he is, because he wants to know if Charan will still be there for him in Emmaly. Charan doesn’t answer.
They land in Thailand, which is right next to Emmaly
This is a good explanation for everyone speaking Thai. Unfortunately, they are still being pursued. Charan keeps taking Nin’s hand as they run, but eventually they’re cornered.
Charan fights them off, but it starts to rain. He’s distracted by some childhood memory and gets sliced on the arm. Nin helps by taking one guy down with a glass bottle to the head.
They escape into some guy’s bookstore, where Charan discovers he lost his phone. The owner wants them to leave, but Nin charms the bookstore owner into letting them stay and borrowing his phone.
Charan’s friend helps them out
And irritates Charan by being casual with Nin. Nin gets into it, pretending to be Charan’s younger lover. But Charan explains things to his friend, who starts bowing.
They get out of the country using multiple decoys, which seems clever until they stand together in the middle of the train station. But, dressed as an older hetero couple, Nin and Charan get on a train headed to safety. Nin, looking good in drag, thanks Charan for protecting him.
Back in Emmaly, the King tells Nin’s bio-Dad that he’s announcing the competition is starting that night. He’s sick, and no one knows. He wants bio-Dad to win and be the next King. For Emmaly, Nin must be the next prince.
We see Nin arriving, looking uncomfortable, as everyone bows.
I don’t understand this competition
The kids are competing so their dads can be king? And then later, when their dads are dying, do their sons compete? How does this work? This seems like a terrible system.
I dunno about this King either. Hiding Nin away to grow up in a lie that’ll tear his life apart. Lying to his son that Nin is dead so they have no relationship. Setting up a competition where he wants a certain outcome. At best, it’s not great. Maybe they’ll justify it by making the other sons and cousins evil.
Plus, Charan didn’t look comfortable around him and doesn’t seem like a happy person. He’s stabbing and shooting people because he has to, and suffering from some kind of trauma. The King raised him, how much of this is his fault?
Nin is a nice combination of emotional and strong. I like how easily he played different roles. I’m really looking forward to watching him navigate a completely new, probably hostile, royal world with Charan at his side.
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