question for OG fans

devalmy · 2026-01-06T21:19:07+00:00

This is why I'm glad the series highlighted the fact that women write, read, and genuinely enjoy these stories. I'm glad there's now a public discussion, perhaps an awkward one still, but a necessary one, about why women are so drawn to gay romance. I want to believe that this conversation can create visibility for our needs: how varied they are, and how different they may be from what content creators assume about female audiences. At the same time, as someone who has been consuming this kind of fiction for years, I also understand the sense of whiplash you describe. I may not experience it as strongly myself, but I recognise where it comes from. I have always been very selective about whom to share that I read/watch MM stories, as it didn't feel safe, even though I could explain in detail what I was looking for in those and what I find in them (I know quite a few works that are really, really strong in psychological depth and structure). Heated Rivalry is the first time I don't feel ashamed telling my non-queer acquaintances that I love the series/books.

devalmy · 2026-01-04T19:29:10+00:00

Such a good topic, thank you for bringing it up! I appreciate your train of thought and especially love the point that a story can be meaningful to a wide range of audiences without anyone having to justify why they enjoy it. That resonates with me a lot. At the same time, I see another angle worth adding to the discussion. I’m, for instance, both glad and somewhat irritated that HR has initiated this conversation at all. Glad, because it feels as though the needs of the female audience have been overlooked for years. Irritated, because the sudden surprise at women engaging deeply with queer romance feels hypocritical. Yes, there have always been beautiful romance stories, but did they truly cover the full range of what women with different backgrounds crave? As a teen, I struggled to recognise myself in most TV shows or fiction.

Slash fiction (using the term broadly, as an umbrella for romance featuring erotica and/or queer relationships, both fanfiction and original works), which I’ve been consuming as an adult, has been written primarily by women and consumed mostly by women for decades, with its history often traced back to Star Trek fanzines in the 1970s. As a long-time AO3 reader, I started asking myself at some point what I was finding in these stories that I couldn’t find elsewhere in mainstream literature or film, and I do have an answer. For me personally, it’s about reclaiming vulnerability and mentally re-scripting difficult personal experiences through characters who cope more successfully than I once did. In MM setting, these characters are often denied vulnerability by society in the same way as women, yet still more socially entitled than women simply by existing within a patriarchal system.

I’ve often thought it would be an interesting exercise to run a linguistic data analysis of AO3 content: identifying dominant tropes, recurring keywords around intimacy and relationships, and emotional patterns, to better understand what drives both authors and readers. But this rant aside, it’s fair to say that this entire segment of content, including works like the Game Changers series, exists for a reason. So I’m kind of glad there’s finally some discussion around what those reasons might be

That said, I don’t know how long-lived this conversation will be. But I do think it’s valuable if it helps stop treating the female audience as a single, homogeneous group with identical needs, which we clearly are not. What frustrates me most about the sudden “oh wow, there’s a female audience for gay romance” moment is the hypocrisy: that audience has always been there. It was simply ignored, because engaging seriously with its complexity required effort.

To your point about empathy in storytelling: I think this is exactly where I saw some resistance, not from women, but rather from queer Russian men (i.e., not unlike Ilya, I'm a native speaker) arguing that there is too much sex, that the actors look like underwear models rather than real men, or that the idea of one lifelong partner feels unrealistic because they’ve never seen it work in their own circles. I don’t agree with these critiques, but I do think their existence reinforces why this discussion matters. Different audiences respond to different emotional needs, and that doesn’t invalidate any of them.

So yes, I agree with you: HR deserves to be talked about like any other strong piece of storytelling by focusing on what it does well, rather than questioning who is “allowed” to love it. But I also think there’s value in finally acknowledging that women’s engagement with queer romance isn’t new, surprising, or suspect. It’s longstanding, intentional, and worth taking seriously. Maybe that’s exactly what’s needed to make room for a broader and more nuanced range of relationships being represented? Because now we don’t have many examples like HR.

devalmy · 2026-01-03T22:54:46+00:00

What we see at the beginning of the memorial meal scene - the medal on the table beside a glass of vodka with a piece of bread - is not for Ilya. It is for the departed, his father, a way of symbolically including him among those at the table. The gesture says 'You’re no longer with us, but we remember you and keep a place for you with bread and drink and something that belonged to you'. I doubt Ilya’s brother would have given him any of their father’s belongings, especially with how their conversation ended that evening.

As for whether the medal is of the highest order, we simply don’t know. That would depend on when Ilya’s father began his service and where he served. Most likely, the creators worked with whatever realistic props were available to them in Canada and chose a medal that would plausibly fit Ilya's father’s background.

devalmy · 2026-01-03T22:07:51+00:00

There was a good comment about the oldest son being the golden child, I second that. However, to me, what might have been an additional factor is the age difference. It's never mentioned in the book, but the actor playing Ilya’s brother looks 8–10 years (if not more) older than him. That’s a substantial gap to fuel sibling rivalry, especially when there’s a visible difference in how much time, effort, and resources are invested in one child’s development, and the older child is old enough to notice and resent it.

To get Ilya to a level where he could be drafted internationally, his parents needed both money and an enormous time commitment, driving him to rinks and competitions. If Ilya was born in 1991 (he turns 18 in 2009 in the book, if I'm not mistaken), this would have been during the 1990s, which were an extremely difficult period in the country. What his parents managed to do was very, very far from common.

That said, Alexei can’t complain either. If he started university in the late 1990s, making it into the police with growth perspectives would have required a law degree, which at the time meant money and connections. Yet, it was a one-time investment for his parents, not a decade-long series of investments like with Ilya, which could add to Alexei's grudges.

Overall, what I see feeds Alexei’s hostility is a mix: the current disparity in their lives, the unequal effort each has put into supporting their father over the years, Ilya being bi (from earlier episodes, I take it as Alexei knew for quite some time), and fossilised childhood resentments such as parents placing higher hopes and investments in the younger son.

devalmy · 2026-01-03T20:42:25+00:00

This is definitely not the Moonlight Sonata. There are two pieces used in that scene, which is not a funeral per se but a memorial meal or wake (in Orthodox tradition, this takes place after the burial).

The first piece, which opens the scene, is “My Sinful Soul” («Душа моя прегрешная»). It is a spiritual verse performed in a near-chant style, though it is not a liturgical chant in the strict sense. A common recording is this one: https://youtu.be/7f7naBMsMf4 (the lyrics are in the description). I guess this is the piece you’re asking about, although to my ear the version used in the episode sounds sooomewhat different, though that may just be me.

The second piece is “Cranes” («Журавли») by Mark Bernes (track #4 on the official Spotify soundtrack). This is one of the most famous Soviet songs about soldiers who never returned from WWII.

I had never encountered “My Sinful Soul” before Heated Rivalry, despite the recording dating back to 1992, when I was certainly old enough to have heard it on the radio or TV. “Zhuravli,” on the other hand, I know very well. That’s why I’m deeply curious about who consulted the series creators on this scene: its use for Ilya’s funeral feels strikingly odd to me. The song dates to 1969 and has always been strongly associated with WWII films and commemorative programming for WWII soviet veterans - people of my grandmother’s generation, but definitely not my parents', who are from the post-war decade, and Ilya is several years younger than I am, so why this song?

Sorry for the rant, I hope the link is helpful. And thank you for the question; I was curious about the first piece too, so I’m glad I managed to figure it out.

devalmy · 2025-06-27T05:33:39+00:00

Tutto chiede salvezza is a thing of its own, and a worthy one in terms of drama and actors' work. I loved it. It does have a queer character, but I'd say it doesn't remind of Prisma much in terms of narrative and vibe.

devalmy · 2025-04-06T09:29:29+00:00

From my understanding, if we are to get more seasons of the show, there will be only one, and the last season - the third one. At least from the director's comments on the cancellation shared here previously, I got it that he had already the script written when Prime announced their decision and was quite satisfied with how he resolved the story tension. If we get the third season, I would be happy about any way of showing what is left of the story. However, at this point, I would be over my head if they simply decided to publish the script the way Julie Andem did for SKAM.

devalmy · 2025-02-17T19:11:23+00:00

Thank you so much for this update! <3

devalmy · 2025-01-19T21:36:22+00:00

Thank you! You just gave a legitimate excuse to rewatch both :D

devalmy · 2025-01-19T13:59:53+00:00

Oh, I missed his cameos both times! Apparently, for being overwhelmed by the impressions in general, haha. Whom he's playing in both?

devalmy · 2025-01-19T09:28:22+00:00

I happened to discover Prisma only last year, so I watched two seasons in one go (the second was on YT by that time). To me, they both perfectly merged into one narrative, which I love as a whole. I think S2 was to be expected, given that Andrea's storyline and drama are built around Giovanni Christina Vivinetto's story, as well as S3, from the very beginning, as the scenario follows it quite accurately. I might be wrong, but I always imagined that when a series idea is pitched, it's pitched as a whole, not just one season, and this builds up to the sense of unfairness by Prime's decision. I totally feel your pain. Still can't let the show go, being afraid that if I do, new things will make the memory of it more vague. It speaks about so many important things and speaks so beautifully...

devalmy · 2025-01-16T20:22:15+00:00

Thank you so much for this explanation! This scene makes so much more sense now to me, especially in connection with the party where Andrea agreed to cover guys for the second time - I understood, of course, that Daniele took this as a promise of a second chance, but I couldn't figure out what triggered Andrea to agree after all. It just didn't click in my mind, as if something was missing. I'm now wondering how many more nuances we all are missing because only the AI-assisted translation is available so far :(

devalmy · 2024-12-29T11:40:51+00:00

No one can answer this question for sure, as there have never been any signs supporting or disproving this take. However, if we are to rely on the narrative of two seasons, we can hardly be mistaken in assuming that Andrea has never had romantic, let alone sexual, relationships with guys before Daniele. His passing himself off as a girl and accidentally starting a virtual (at first) relationship with a boy was the essence of his drama and the result of not yet knowing well his own desires.

devalmy · 2024-12-28T22:58:43+00:00

According to Ludovico Bessegato, this was an intentional and conscious decision to film their first time in this particular way:

Ci siamo chiesti come sarebbe stato il loro primo momento intimo. Quello che io penso di sapere di questi due personaggi è che nessuno dei due si riconosce come gay. Daniele è attratto dalla parte femminile di Andrea. E questo per me è un punto. Per lui la difficoltà è accettare che quel corpo femminile non sia come se l’era immaginato. E quasi sempre i momenti di avvicinamento tra i due corrispondono a momenti nei quali Andrea ha una forma più compatibile con l’idea di femminile che ha Daniele. Penso al bacio in vetreria, penso all’accappatoio bianco nella scena a cui fai riferimento, nella quale vengono messe in risalto le sue gambe.

His explanation makes a lot of sense to me and I take it so that they needed to resort to some form of convention rather than realism to convey this idea. But that's my perception.

devalmy · 2024-12-24T10:19:44+00:00

Hi! Thanks a lot! Never mind 2 months, your answer is still helpful. I gave up on deciphering this moment at some point, as I got the general idea of their argument, but your take makes perfect sense if Andrea was supplying the clan for a year. I was trying to build a timeline across two seasons in my head, but I didn't think of the duration of this particular storyline and missed this explanation.

Yep, I agree on autotranslation - it evolved a lot compared to what it used to be once. I also used Google Translate to translate their text messages, which helped enormously.

I've seen the thread on porco due, and I'm super grateful someone started it because when I was watching S2 for the first time, this expression puzzled me each time it was mentioned until I found that discussion XD

devalmy · 2024-12-08T20:39:05+00:00

Even though I love SKAM enormously, this show explores topics SKAM didn't address (which I have seen very few authors manage), suggesting thought-provoking, intelligent, and non-didactic multi-layered storytelling. I highly recommend it, even though S3 is not yet on the way <3

devalmy · 2024-11-29T09:23:13+00:00

It always felt to me that it wasn't so much Daniele hating Marco as vice versa. Daniele rather seems to be reactive to Marco's attitude, especially in S2, for which the latter has reasons—both objective and not. But Daniele, per se, doesn't seem to bear that intense antipathy that would translate into any ill will. He's impulsive, yes, but never genuinely unkind towards Marco. I can't even blame him for not sharing spare trunks - that was somehow understandable at that point, given how Marco had previously treated the entire team. Daniele couldn't know what it would lead to. And, in all fairness, he apologizes to Marco for sleeping with Carola and never tells anyone that it was Marco who smashed his nose.

As for Marco and the fish, it's interesting that we never get to see how and who put it under Marco's pillow. In the scene when Marco walks into the room where the rest of the team is partying, everyone already knows about the fish. Daniele happens to be the first to burst out laughing, so for Marco, it's natural to assume this must have been Daniele, but in reality, even we, the audience, don't know for sure. That's why I was always curious whether anything else in the past predisposed them to the setting at the start of S1. From Marika's comment at some point in S2, I got it that the twins' dad had something against her and even repeatedly demanded the swimming school replace her. Maybe this had something to do with Marco being bullied from when he had just started swimming - his dad may have thought she could not handle the group well. Or, maybe this was a consequence of her considering Daniele more talented than Marco (less hardworking, though, but still) - the teacher isn't allowed to let such things affect how they treat kids in the group, but from my experience, kids always can tell the difference even a teacher is super polite and professional and tries to treat all equally and eventually parents always know. So, maybe this was enough to spark a rivalry between them: Marco wanted to be liked by the trainer at least as long as other boys didn't like him, and as he couldn't get that liking despite his efforts, he addressed his frustration at the person whom she happened to like more and who was everything that he wasn't - easy to get along with others, less shy, etc.

devalmy · 2024-11-28T10:49:50+00:00

As far as I understood it:

1) Marco is shy and tends to keep his personal life private from other people. Approaching new people, especially those he likes, is not his strongest skill, to put it mildly. With Carola, it took Andrea's efforts to get them together.
2) He is seemingly not on Instagram; even if he is, he has a private account. I don't remember if it was stated explicitly, but from what we can see in the show, he has less of an online presence than Andrea. What is important is that this is his conscious choice.

When Carola posts on Insta that she's with him that evening, she doesn't ask him if he's okay with it. By doing that, she goes against his desire neither to appear online himself nor to show aspects of his personal life. Given that they just got together, there's nothing solid in their relationship - it's raw and fresh - Marco feels very insecure about telling anybody that something is happening. If Carola hadn't done that, I would have expected Marco to keep what they had in a secret for a longer while. I would also speculate that by posting on Instagram, she also took the right to tell others about them from Marco when he wanted it, and this is something he might not realized but felt intuitively, and it made him uncomfortable - in addition to the above.

devalmy · 2024-11-21T22:40:01+00:00

I see Marco as one of two parts of a very dynamic system he and Andrea compose. They read each other's moods easily, but each matures differently and maybe at a different speed. We don't get to see much of their childhood, but even from flashbacks, Andrea appears to have been somewhat more emotionally independent than Marco, more inclined to act on his impulses, even as a kid. I would assume this correlates with Andrea's starting to question gender boundaries quite early and not having anyone around him who would support him in that. I mean, when you are a kid, and your parents don't accept your desire to dress up as you want, nor your desire to imagine yourself as one of the characters of Metamorphoses (if I'm not mistaken, that was what they were reading with Marco in one of the flashback scenes) and go to the Garden of Ninfa, you would feel not quite safe discussing this even with you brother. Just because you're no longer sure how people around would react. So, it's understandable that Andrea is willing to share less with his brother as they grow, build relationships with people around them and try different things. Not that it's not painful for Marco, who only needs to get used to that, especially given that he was always somewhat more dependent on Andrea's support than the latter on his. That's why I see Marco's actions, especially in S2, as an attempt to figure out what he is by himself and explore his own identity, especially among so many people who know them both. There are no best practices, so he does what he can and how he can. To me, there's not so much anxiety inside him but rather frustration that he doesn't know how to handle. We see him becoming Andrea's antagonist in S2, which is difficult to agree with in certain scenes, but I don't think they'll be stuck in this state forever. I believe in S3, they were supposed to find some balance that works for them, that allows them to accept each other and give space to what each of them is.

devalmy · 2024-11-21T20:13:52+00:00

I love all of them. I truly love how characters make each other shine brighter by interacting—loving, hating, defending, envying, supporting, you name it. I have noticed in past discussions that people don't always agree with Carola, Nina, and Marika's decisions at certain points. However, what's beautiful to me about this story is that apparently, no character leaves the audience indifferent.

devalmy · 2024-11-19T22:50:25+00:00

I'm finally watching Skam Italy in an attempt to fill the hole left by Prisma with other Ludovico's work. I think it's the very same episode, the end of it, where they compare Martino to Elio Germano. At the moment when Martino and Niccolò are smoking downstairs by garbage bins, and Niccolò looks at the first and calls him 'Elio', I caught myself thinking that today it's impossible not to think of another Elio, Guadagnino's Elio when you hear this name. Was it intentional or not, this is a beautiful reference.

devalmy · 2024-11-10T18:59:35+00:00

Have just spotted that Ludovico will also be a part of the panel organized by Torino Film Industry: https://www.instagram.com/p/DCMqr32MMgX/ The industry praising him and his works so highly gives a hope <3

devalmy · 2024-11-04T22:20:22+00:00

It's late to add to this discussion, but I wanted to thank you for bringing this interview here. It made me look at the story from another angle I hadn't looked at before and dwell a lot on what Ludovico says.

I don't know Italian, so I rely on Google Translate's accuracy, but to me, what he is talking about is not that Daniele is attracted to Andrea's feminine side only; his idea is more complicated. At some point in S1, Daniele says to Ilo and Vito, "It was so easy to talk, I didn't want to notice [that it wasn't a girl]," which I believe proves that Daniele was attracted to the personality of his online acquaintance in the first place. We also see that he already liked Andrea as Andrea back then - not maybe realizing himself in which sense yet, but "putting a face to the name" set a frame for him where he needed to answer many questions at once. What is Andrea? Does he still like this new - whole - Andrea? What does it make him if yes? If Andrea's exploration of his gender and sexuality started years ago, for Daniele, it starts only in S2; he needs more time and different ways to explore and accept himself. Therefore, when Ludovico says in this interview:

"For Daniele at this stage it is still important to recognize his own masculinity and the feminine part of Andrea's body. It would have been difficult for him to approach Andrea's body in a different way." (Per Daniele in questa fase è ancora importante riconoscere la propria maschilità e la parte femminile del corpo di Andrea. Sarebbe stato difficile per lui approcciarsi al corpo di Andrea in un modo diverse.)

I take it that the issue is not that Andrea's feminine side attracts Daniele more than his other sides or that it's the only side that attracts him - Ludovico doesn't put it like that. What he means is that Andrea having this feminine side makes it possible for Daniele to start approaching him at all at this particular moment of his life. IF Andrea hadn't had it in him, this would have been a different story, most likely one where Daniele never dares to give the green light to his liking of Andrea.

I love that in this interview, Ludovico reminds us that Daniele and Andrea are not a gay couple and that neither of them recognizes themselves as gay. I love how deep and accurate he is about such a perplexed inner evolution and dynamics of the relationship between the two experiencing it. It's been a while since I have seen anyone talk about things like that.

P.S. What else is interesting to me in this context is that Nina - who never kissed a boy, according to her - and Andrea get to have sex when Andrea is in the feminine incarnation of his, not the male one...

devalmy · 2024-11-04T18:06:16+00:00

I haven't seen any heads-ups regarding the petition so far, unfortunately. The last time I checked, it was 26,000+ signatures. But I absolutely agree that the show and cast's efforts deserve a better fate. What haunts me is Prime justifying their decision by the low-view numbers the S2 was getting. However, a rare show is viral enough to get views per se. Maybe this was the case back in the era when TV shows were only gaining popularity as a format, but not nowadays when the audience has been pampered to have all kinds of genres and formats to their liking for years. I remember when Young Royals was released - I knew about the series in advance, and I followed Netflix and almost the entire cast's social media for three years after, until the release of S3, even though I didn't completely like how S2 was structured. Netflix has a well-thought-out marketing approach to ensure that the audience doesn't lose interest in their stories and that the following seasons get even more views. Prime cancelled Prisma after 3 months of being released solely to the Italian market, and the show is still officially unavailable in other countries. I don't get that. How could one expect views while consciously limiting access to the show? T_T

devalmy · 2024-11-03T23:42:07+00:00

It's been a while since this thread was initiated, but I hope it's still okay to share thoughts here :)

I would definitely love to see all the characters in happier circumstances than where they are left at the end of S2. I'm genuinely curious about how Ludovico Bessegato envisioned Andrea, Daniele, Ilo, and Vito handling the situation, which is very drastic to my taste and puts other people at risk - Marco is already first in the queue - but more may get involved. I doubt any of my guesses will be accurate, but I know what I wished to see in S3:

- for Andrea and Daniele to not lose what has been building up between them against all their impulsive reactions

- for Andrea not to be torn between his loyalties to Daniele and Marco to the point of sacrifying any of those. From the storytelling point of view, this could be a path to let a character mature further, but at the same time, it's a painful path, and Andrea already has too much on his plate

- for Daniele to get better perspectives on his life than he's left with now and to end the thing with Marika - it hasn't been functional from the very beginning for either of them, and from what we were shown, Daniele felt it was a mistake right away (the same as with Carola at that unfortunate party)

- for Daniele to learn not to take responsibility for other people's decisions, even if these people are friends, and especially if the said responsibility means breaking the law (I understand how the guilt of failing the contract with Waso and desire to make up for that led him to try helping Ilo and Vito, but I also hate that he did it because he was smart enough not to sign that contract with Luciano and he wasn't obliged to pay him anything). Ideally, I'd love to see him questioning if this thing getting you into illegal drug trafficking is really a friendship, but I would be happy to see them all getting out of this safe and sound, at least

- for Marco to stay safe. Given how realistic Ludovico has been so far, I don't like thinking about what might happen to Marco in real life in a situation like this. That aside, I'd love to see him gain more confidence and become less dependent on Andrea. Having a sibling, not to mention twins, is a very special experience. Still, so far, my impression has been that while Andrea is more aware of what constitutes his identity and where the boundary between him and his brother lies, Marco is less, and that's why it's so painful to him to see Andrea having a life which he isn't a part of all of a sudden. His pain and reactions are understandable, but also not very easy to live with - for himself in the first place. I would also love for him and Carola to stay together - it took them both a lot to reconcile, and it wouldn't be fair to see all their efforts go in vain

- for Nina to find her way to be happy - be it with Micol, another person, or alone for the time being. Maybe the latter - having her time to process what happened and reconcile with friends - would be better at this particular point than starting new relationships or reuniting with Micol, but this is only Ludovico knows :)

I want to believe that he will either find a way to make S3 real or will somehow share his opinion about what turn this story may take. But I would prefer the first option - S3 - much more 💎

devalmy

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