ooh this is a hard one! (ㆀ˘･з･˘) i'm going to go out on a limb and say probably not.....?

like. people always talk about the 95-line stars that are languishing in the weird limbo between Really Established and Still Can't Break Free Of The Traffic Star Label, because even though they've had multiple successful projects, they just haven't had that finger-snap eureka moment

the thing is, most people work their entire lives in search of a breakthrough like cql was for xz and yb, and many of them never even reach that in the end because stardom is so fickle. breakthroughs in any industry — what more an industry as saturated as c-ent — are never just because of one thing; it's usually a cocktail of many different factors that just so happen to work together at that specific point in time.

xz + yb + cql was as much good casting and good work as it was good luck: it's still the only major danmei IP adaptation that made it out to the public entirely unscathed (no pulling from broadcast), and they got to do totally uninhibited press, even abroad like in their roadshow in thailand. that was probably unthinkable about a danmei live-action that skirted censorship, what more one that was made with 5 dollars and a dream and cast young idols with everything to lose if it goes south 😭

and!!! i could write an entire thesis about this!!! but i really, really do think that the danmei genre itself was a huge factor in catapulting them into the right places: the IP already had a huge fanbase from the novels. and even if not everyone was excited about it, they were at least curious or already familiar with it compared to an entirely original script. fujos/BL fans are an incredibly powerful consumer group that has immense spending power, immense willingness TO spend that money/time, and immense(ly enduring) real estate in pop culture conversations, so much so that they have the ability to push what would otherwise be small-time BL into mainstream circles (see: yuri on ice, heated rivalry). this is not to say that i think their success was entirely dependent on fujos, but it's a sizeable chunk of people that they would otherwise never encounter so early into their mainstream careers, so imo it would be remiss not to factor this in!

i think this novelty + publicity + fandom activity really tipped it over from "well-received live-action" to "wildly successful overnight sensation" because absolutely everyone was talking about it. i was deep in kpop circles at the time and still had heard about it from friends... and in an industry like entertainment, where glass ceilings are everywhere and success rides on momentum, this really compounds in making the stars seem like red hot assets that investors/directors/casting managers/agents should capitalise on now now now

and that's the kind of attention that really opens doors for you, the doors that will lead you into bigger and bigger rooms with the potential for better and better work

i think there is always a possibility that xz and yb, by virtue of the people they are, may reach their current level of success eventually, in an alternate timeline where they didn't do cql. but i'm 100% sure it would take so much longer and would be so much more difficult than it already was, because it's like trying to do a pole vault without, well, the pole......???..?/>...?