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The Loyal Pin - Lesbian Period Drama Royalty

Stunning cinematography, a color-coded love story, and an overall excellent production made "The Loyal Pin" a highlight. For the past few months, I've been obsessed. Here's my full review with a spoiler-free version first and a deeper cut down below!

Summary: Overall: 9/10 - this is a must-watch, if you're into the genre. Genre: Period Drama, Historical Romance Watch if you are looking for... : A slow-paced childhood-friends-to-lovers story, beautiful and vibrant camera work, a highly dramatic romance with a happy ending! Watch out for... : period-accurate homophobia and misogyny, and overall ridiculous drama shenanigans Length: 16 episodes averaging about 60 minutes each Where to watch: Idolfactory Youtube Channel, the whole show is officially subbed in multiple languages and free to watch!

Adapted from author Monmaw's original novel "ปิ่นภักดิ์" (pinphak; The Loyal Pin) and directed by Kittisak "Fuse" Cheewasatjasakun, the series stars "Freen" Sarocha Chankimha and Becky Armstrong, who rose to sapphic fame after the roaring success of Idolfactory's 2022 lesbian drama "GAP the series". Now the acting duo is back better than ever for this high-budget production, officially co-funded by the Thai government's Ministry of Commerce.

In 1950's Bangkok, a young Pilanthita "Pin" Kasidit loses both her parents. She's taken in by her aunt, Princess Pattamika, to live with her at the court of the high-ranking Sawettawarit royal family - where she meets the royal family's youngest daughter, Princess Anilaphat "Anin". The two girls immediately become best friends and as they grow up, lovers. Even when Anin is forced to study abroad in England for most of her teenage years, their love doesn't waver. But with royal expectations, their class disparity, and the looming threat of an arranged marriage in sight, Pin and Anin have many obstacles to overcome before they can live their impossible happily ever after.

Let me be clear: "The Loyal Pin" is a good, even great show. But it will absolutely not be for everyone. I had a fantastic time with it and although it's not perfect, I sincerely loved my time within this world and with these characters. I could clearly see the incredible dedication and love poured into every aspect of it, from the performances by the actors to the beautiful camerawork and vibrant colors, the dialogues and scenes overall.

That might not be you. I don't want to dismiss critique of the show (I have plenty myself, as I'm about to lay out) as simply saying "You just don't Get It™️ like I do". But I do think the series is so vastly different from GAP that I'm sure a lot of people wished for just, something different. I can't blame those people, and hey, maybe Cranium will be more up your alley! Long story short, I have seen a lot of quite bad faith discussions of The Loyal Pin in the months since it aired and I want to stress that this review will not be that. Generally, if I didn't like something very much, I probably won't review it (which is why I didn't write about Blank or TSOU, sorry for catching strays).

Now that I've said that, I want to write about a show that I connected with a lot and why. I'm going to break down a few stand-out points to me, starting with our two main characters!

The Characters, My Beloveds:

Lady Pin: Our title character is the princess in this tale. A shy, polite and rule-abiding noble commoner, she's barely above the bottom of the food chain at the royal court and basically a servant. How can you not root for her? The way she endlessly loves and cares for Anin but is still conflicted about her burgeoning feelings and sexuality make her an endearing character you want to see happy. She's extremely devoted, faithful (I mean, the show is called The Loyal Pin...), and willing to sacrifice everything for what she believes in - including herself. We really see our heroine have to go through hell and back to see even a sliver of happiness. As time goes on, Pin becomes more confident but also grows jealous, makes mistakes, sacrifices too much, and is just incredibly human. She's a bird in a cage, and you just wish she could finally fly.

Princess Anin: The actual princess in our tale takes on more of a role of a gallant prince. Anin is the strongest character of the show, both in terms of bravery and emotional growth but also in being extremely consistent and easy to love. She's the mischievous rule-breaker of our main couple and a total optimist, always dreaming of a future everyone around her deems unthinkable. And with her natural charm, she's used to getting what she wants. On the flip side, her power and privilege have made her naive and she easily gets jealous (a trait she does share with Pin, so I guess it's at least equal). Anin is just as devoted as Pin is and works tirelessly to make their happy-ending happen, even when it seems nigh impossible. She doesn't even know that she's just as caged in her position as a princess as every other woman at the royal court - until it's all gone way too far.

The notable supporting cast of friends - Prik, Anin's loyal servant and the mandatory funny side-kick; Anan, Anin's oldest brother and certified Lesbian Ally™️; and my personal favourite Uangfah, Anin's cousin, who also has a crush on her (let's just not talk about that) - are all wonderful additions to the cast that make the world feel big and complex.

The two biggest antagonists in the show - Kuea, Pin's primary suitor, and Princess Pattamika, Pin's aunt, also bring the necessary spice to the mix. Admittedly, putting them in the same category is a bit mean - Kuea is a dumb prick you love to hate, while Auntie Patt is much more complex and hating her definitely hurts - but they're the closest we get to villains in this story. The show makes a big point out of the fact that, technically, most people are on board with Anin and Pin together, but the society around them is just simply not.

With a runtime of over 16 hours, the show can also really take its time to let you feel for the characters. And I love that!

Visuals: As already mentioned, the show just looks gorgeous. Kudos to the entire staff behind it - camerawork is consistently smooth, and although the layouts are often simple and can get repetitive it's still functional. The sets, the costumes, everything fits well together to transport us back in time. It's that delicious government money coming in clutch. The dialogue and writing is excellent, and character pay-off is deliciously sweet. The show works with very saturated colors that make everything look vibrant and pull you in with this nostalgia fantasy. Characters are also heavily color-coded, with Pin and Anin wearing palettes of pink and blue respectively. And when things go awry, those palettes also shift to represent their current emotional states.

The Plot (AKA the Romance): The story of "The Loyal Pin" can be easily summed up: It's the story of the romance between Pin and Anin. Their love story is the plot of the series - how they meet, how they fall in love, and how they end up together. There's no big mystery or drama outside of that - although there is plenty of drama to be had within. We've got jealousy plot lines aplenty, miscommunication, secret-keeping and everything else you'd expect from this genre. And it's all juicy as hell.

And if I may put some mild spoilers here already - my favourite part of the whole drama is that it has a point, and that our main couple actually learns how to talk to each other, process their feelings, and admit wrongdoing. It gives both Pin and Anin flesh and blood and makes them feel real, and so even when they fumble I want to see them get back up.

Pin and Anin have an undeniable attraction to each other and insane chemistry. Obviously, the actors are familiar with each other after all their projects together, so this should come as no surprise. The show is, of course, also really sexy, and although we don't see a lot of skin per se, my God, believe me, you're gonna be sweating.

(^ Anin is a certified Boob Girl)

Conclusion: What makes this show a 9/10? There's really not much to complain about here. I think if period dramas are your thing, in all their melodramatic glory, then you'll enjoy this show - and if you don't then you won't. For me personally, the repetitive layouting, the weird pacing in the somewhat drawn-out last 3 episodes, and "The Scene" (this one will have to go in the spoiler part, sorry!), among other smaller misses I wish weren't there, all made me retract a point. It's a great show - but I can easily name things that it could improve on. And I would like to see it in Idolfactory's next project.

With "Cranium" already having its pilot out, I've got high hopes!

I would recommend this show to anyone who watches (Thai) GL shows. It's one of the best I've watched so far. "The Loyal Pin" is a show with a lot of heart, great characters with even better chemistry, and beautiful visuals. It has well deserved its spot in my top 3 shows of the year. Go watch it, now, and then come back and tell me what you think!

Thank you for reading this lengthy post! This is the end of my spoiler-free review!

Now, let's get into spoilers to discuss some stuff more in depth - the great, the good, and the very bad.

The Break-Up - A Perfect Episode of Angst:

I famously wrote a very lengthy post about how excellent I found episode 13 AKA the break-up of Anilpin, which you can read here in its entirety. The post somewhat blew up on TLP twt when it got reposted there (without my permission, but it's all good now). And I'm glad people enjoyed reading it. I still stand by all of it! Sorry for not typing everything out again and linking to a different post. I just needed to highlight it again and how deliciously tasty the angst was. It was really the perfect distillation of showing the class disparity, power plays behind the scenes, mixed up with Anilpin's jealousy and miscommunication, the misogyny all the main woman are experiencing, Pin's martyr complex, and Anin's blind optimism. Really, really tasty, and it made their reunion in episode 15 even sweeter.

Princess Pattamika: A character I really need to expand on is Auntie Patt - and just to get it out of the way: I love her. She's my favourite "villain", because I can understand why she does what she does - even if she ends up deeply hurting the person she cares about the most: Pin, her adoptive daughter.

Princess Pattamika took in her niece after her brother and his wife, Pin's parents, died. Herself also having been adopted into the royal court of the Sawettawarit's, she inhabited an extremely similar position to Pin. A noble commoner, earning herself a good standing by serving the royal family well.

... and as we find out later on, she even wound up in a very similar romance - falling in love with a high ranking princess. Their relationship seemed extremely intense, probably similar to Anin & Pin's, but was cut short due to the princess' untimely death. Until this day, the loss of her love hurts Patt.

No other character understands Pin's position and struggles better than Patt. Which is also exactly why Patt is so exceptionally cruel to her when she finds out about Anin & Pin's relationship - and even before that, when Pin was just mildly disobedient and getting into trouble with Anin. She sees the heartbreak she suffered as inevitable for Pin. More importantly, she understands exactly the position this puts Anin in. Preserving the royal family's integrity and honor is the top priority of lower ranked nobles like Pin (and Patt herself). Anin & Pin's relationship is a ticking time bomb for the royal family if it were to be found out, so Patt is livid when she finds out that Pin has been keeping this secret for so long.

Throughout the show, Patt is stern and harsh with Pin (let's not forget the corporal punishment in episode 1?!). At the same time, you can see how much she cares for Pin and just wishes her to have a good life. Patt is also very conservative - again, see all of the above - and is keen on having Pin follow a traditional woman's role as a wife and mother. Which is why she also pushes Pin so hard towards Kuea, who can successfully charm her because he's buddies with Anon and works for the government. It doesn't matter that Pin loathes him, Kuea is the ideal husband because they have similar standing and he's on good terms with the royal family. Patt's misguided perspective morphs into cruelty and conservatorship. Only after Kuea is finally exposed as the POS he always was, Patt's world shatters - she's been wrong all along, and caused unthinkable pain for her Pin.

In the end, it's up to us as the audience whether or not we "forgive" her. I know I do, and I know Pin definitely does. Pin, being so similar to her, knows exactly why Patt did what she did, and that without her she wouldn't have the life she's living right now at all. This isn't to say that children should just be grateful for what their parents give them, and forgive them all the pain they cause - but Pin and Patt clearly see how they've been misguided, and find the love they have for each other again. In the finale, Patt stands by Pin and encourages her to follow her heart and do what's right for her love even if it would mean running away to England.

I just think Auntie Patt is a great character but also very divisive, and I was viscerally hurt when she turned on Pin, it's like I was betrayed by her myself. In the finale, she ends up giving Pin her unwavering support, even if it means defying authority and not adhering to social norms. It's such nice character development. Man, Patt, you've come a long way. I will not defend your crimes but I WILL defend YOU. And I wish you a very yuriful future. #lesbianmilfinyourarea

"The Scene":

(HBomberguy voice) "To me, it is always The Scene."

Alright, let's get this over with.

I'm referring to a very specific sequence of events that play out in the final episode, that are so astronomically stupid and bad that they have been in my mind for weeks. It taints the lovely memory I have of watching the finale with my bestie because it just makes me shake my head and think: "Wait, what were the writers thinking?". Completely immersion-breaking. I have to take a break from praising this show to shit talk this scene because I just can't get it out of my head. Among all the great characterization, pay-off, and overall love for Pin & Anin in the show, this scene stands out like a sore thumb. The finale itself is good - we'll get to that in a second - but this still makes me mad.

So let's break this down. "The Scene" plays out after Pin confronts Anin's father. In a very ominous scene he declares that he will have to simply "remove the problem" with Pin in order to have his way. Subsequently, guards show up at the Lotus Palace and abduct Pin, with Prik, Pia, and Auntie Patt all screaming for help trying to stop this. Pin then wakes up, blindfold removed - in the Pine Palace, surrounded by a moody and romantic setup themed around her and Anin's relationship. Confused, shaken, she looks around to look at the pictures of her and Anin, before Anin comes in to reveal that this whole charade was just a show her father orchestrated to get Pin to move in with Anin permantently. In a small flashback, we even see Patt, Prik and Pia being in on the joke, laughing their asses off as Pin is being driven away.

Now, to her credit, Anin didn't know about it and wanted to warn Pin first but came too late. But the rest? None of you have any excuse. Especially for Aunt Patt, whose writing I just praised to hell and back, this was a complete slap in the face. And even Anin - she just let it slide? That they fake-kidnapped her already anxious girlfriend? Pin does point out that she was (rightfully) terrified, and even then Anin is like, "It was just a little surprise!". Anin. Anin. I'M SORRY????

Whoever wrote this seriously needs to put themselves in the position of the audience. For 15 and a half hours we've been struggling to see the girls be accepted, taken seriously by their families, only for their relationship to be dissected and belittled endlessly. And now, that we finally have them be accepted, become some sort of joke to prank about? I could not believe my eyes. It's honestly unfathomable how this ended up in the final script when you look at the bigger picture and compare it to the rest of the (fairly tame) shenanigans this show pulls.

For this one, really, I have no excuse. What a way to destroy half of your main cast's development with just one scene. And for what? To bait us into a dramatic finale with the episode preview? Go to hell.

Now that I've said my piece on this, by far the worst scene of this show, I can move on and hopefully finally let it go. I've decided that this is simply just not canon and the writers just wanted to clock out early that day. Anyway. Lots of digital ink has already been spilled over how this is the worst scene of the show and I won't kick it while it's down any more. Let's get back to the good stuff again, which I promise is the other 99% of the runtime.

The Finale - or, The Defiant Pin:

The rest of the finale is very tasty and enjoyable and I want to talk about my favourite thing, which is our heroine Pin finally standing up for herself and her love.

The biggest conflict Pin faces throughout the show is her powerlessness in any decision, even regarding herself. Her life, her love and her body is commanded by the people above her. And it's no different when it comes to her relationship with Anin. Although Pin believes the impossible for a while, she's faced with the horrifying reality as soon as someone finds out about them.

This was admittedly quite frustrating after a while. As a viewer, I wanted my heroine to stand up and FIGHT! How many L's can this girl take without breaking? Well, a lot, apparently. The martyr complex really runs deep. So when it finally happens in the finale, and Pin goes to talk to the King directly, demanding of him the impossible, I cheered. That's my girl!!!! It was the character pay-off I've been waiting for all this time, and it was delicious. I wished it could have been earlier in the series, but I'll take it.

An Impossible Happy End:

In the end, all was well. Anin and Pin get to live their quiet lesbian life together, with the support of the entire family. Surely, this will not end their struggles - something we've been reminded of for almost the entire show - but with everyone having their backs, it might just work out. They even get to be the cool aunts to their niece Alin (named after Anin, aw!) and they get to have their own mini "wedding" in front of the whole family and brother, it brought a tear to my eye. The devotion paid off, our girls can be together forever. The End!

Who cares about realism, historical accuracy etc etc shut up. Just stop right there, I don't want to hear about it. Sometimes you just want a sapphic period piece to have a euphoric happy ending after all the shit they went through and I'll never be mad at it. We even get to hear that my bestie Lady Uangfah got rid of her POS fiancé and is presumably living it up as the hottest lesbian princess in Phrae. Bless. And for Pin and Anin, we know no surface in the palace is sacred, and every single person in the court will walk in on them making out at some point. And that's good for them!

Missed chances:

For one last nitpick, just to satisfy all the haters out there, let me list out a bunch of things I thought were either 1) stupid 2) disappointing or 3) both. Lightning round of cinemasins committed by a free YouTube series GO:

The hairpins that Anin and Pin have don't come back as major symbols in the end and I thought that was really disappointing. It was set up so nicely; Anin angrily gives hers back to Pin when she gets engaged but then they don't do anything with it. They didn't even wear them for their wedding or something. Boo!!!!

Anin gets sexually assaulted by her "friend" and the show, Anin included, just lets that slide? Sure, Anin is uneasy around Lady Aon for a while but eventually it's just like, okay? Not a great look and I found the way it was handled in quite poor taste.

The show has a weird way of going from funny to serious sometimes, I think it was episode 14 that this especially bothered me. But it's alright, whatever.

The layouts especially in quite important scenes are boring as hell, and that really softens the impact of them and that's a shame. You know which FreenBecky project has fantastic layouts? Uranus2324. For all the faults that movie had (and boy, there were many), the frame compositions were fucking amazing all around. It took me so long to write this review that the movie is now finally out so I'm allowed to mention it, and you should go watch it!

Pin wears blue to signal her allegiance to Anin when she gets engaged, but Anin never wears pink to do the opposite. Sure, her blouse in the epilogue has a bit of pink in it, but boo!!!! I wanted more. If you set up color coding this strict, ride it until the end.

The first opening theme song is really boring (although it does fit the period drama vibe very well) and I don't understand why we couldn't have had Cheevee as a theme song from the very beginning. That song is a huge banger.

Not enough Uangfah, like, just in general. Show me my girl.

We never had a scene where Princess Alissa calls Pin her daughter-in-law/second daughter or something. I was hoping for that to happen all throughout the show. We just hear that she's really fond of Pin all the time, and in a quite bad display of Tell Don't Show they barely have any scenes together. I really hoped they'd do something for the finale but no.

Anon sucked and idk why he was there, just to annoy me specifically I guess. They could have done much more with him!

Pin has a job and I think they just forgot about that half of the time.

... and that's all I have to say for now.

This is by far the longest review I've done so far, and if you made it all the way through, congrats and thank you!!! Thanks to all the messages and personal encouragement by my fellow Thai GL lovers I get to have fun writing these things. Whether or not you agree with me in the end, I hope you enjoyed reading.

As always, my askbox and DMs are open if anyone wants to geek out. Cheers!

Love, Mono

#the loyal pin #EXACTLYYYY MY BESTIE INSANE GOOD WRITING SWEEPING THE FLOOR ONCE AGAIN #me adding my signature at the end of each sentence to make it sound like i was part of the team of writing this amazing review #but honestly this show augh. will stick with me for a long time and im so happy i got to watch it with you bestie <3

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