#dark blue kiss the series: ep 7

[ranchthoughts]

An Update to the Kissing Multiverse!

The first version is here, second version here, third version here. There is also a little bonus stat crunching here. My tag for this project is here.

Well, Only Friends and Dangerous Romance are over, so I am back with another GMMTV Kissing Multiverse update for you all. And boy howdy it is a doozy. We've added 16 shows, 19 actors, and 33 unique kissing pairs!

Rules

Must have visible lip to lip contact

Must be shown on screen in a GMM tv series (no kisses from ads, promotional content, trailers*, movies, etc.)

*please note this means none of the GMMTV 2024 trailers count

Breakdown by Show

The data set now includes 77 shows.

(full list in alt text)

Breakdown By Actor

The data set now includes 131 actors.

(full lists in alt text)

Results and Discussion

Unique vs. Repeat Kissing Pairs

Last time round we learned that the vast majority of GMMTV kissing pairs are one-offs and that mixed gender pairs were less likely to repeat. Those conclusions hold true for this update.

There are 169 "unique" kissing pairs in the dataset, and of those, 156 (92.3%) appear only once, in one show. 13 pairs (7.7%) appear at least twice.

The 13 pairs that appear in more than one show are:

Book/Force (in A Boss and a Babe, Enchante, and Only Friends)

Bright/Win (in 2gether and Still 2gether)

Dunk/Joong (in Hidden Agenda and Star in My Mind)

Earth/Mix (in A Tale of Thousand Stars, Cupid's Last Wish, and Moonlight Chicken)

Fiat/June (in The Gifted and The War of Flowers)

Film/Gun (in Not Me and Three Gentlebros)

First/Khaotung (in The Eclipse and Only Friends)

Gun/Off (in Not Me, Puppy Honey, Puppy Honey 2, and Theory of Love)

Lee/Mook (in My Dear Loser and The Jungle)

Louis/Neo (in The Eclipse and Fish Upon The Sky)

Marc Natarit/Pawin (in Dangerous Romance and My Gear Your Gown)

New/Tay (in Dark Blue Kiss and Kiss Me Again)

Phuwin/Pond (in Fish Upon the Sky and Never Let Me Go)

The kissing pair that has appeared in the most shows is Gun/Off, with 4 shows out as of now (and 2 more in the works!).

10 out of 13 of these repeating pairs (77%) are same gender pairs, specifically BL branded or brand-adjacent pairs. Once again, an interesting look into the GMMTV het vs BL system.

All in all, 97% of mixed gender pairs and 85% of same gender pairs appear only once, in one show.

Same Gender vs. Mixed Gender Kissing Pairs

Of the 169 "unique" kissing pairs, roughly 60% are mixed gender pairs and roughly 39% are same gender pairs. This ratio has shifted slightly from the last update (when it was 59% mixed gender and 41% same gender) as I have added more het shows to the sample.

Now to look at the shows themselves: 35% of the shows had only same gender kissing pairs, 47% of the shows had only mixed gender kissing pairs, and 18% of the shows featured both. You will notice that this is a 8% increase in favour of "mixed gender kissing only" shows compared to the last update which is due to the number of het shows I added this update.

Most Kissing Pairs Per Show

The average number of kissing pairs per show is 2.4.

The shows with the most different kissing pairs are:

Only Friends (16 different pairs)

The Warp Effect (15 different pairs)

Friendzone (11 different pairs)

The Jungle and U-Prince (9 different pairs each)

The Player (7 different pairs)

Not Me, Three Gentlebros, and 3 Will Be Free have 4 different kissing pairs each, and then all other shows have 3 or fewer kissing pairs each.

Welcome Only Friends to the top of the ranking! 🎉 A well deserved placing. I would like to take a moment to hone in on the distribution of kissing over the course of the series:

We hit 9 kissing pairs in ep. 9, 10 pairs in ep. 10, 11 pairs in ep. 11, and 12(+) pairs in ep. 12. Very satisfying.

The Power of Jojo

Jojo, every series:

You get a kiss and you get a kiss! YOU ALL GET KISSES!

(inspired by @dribs-and-drabbles here)

As we've learned over these past updates, Jojo has an outsized impact on the number of kissing pairs. He has directed roughly 10% of the shows in this sample, but his shows account for nearly a third of all kissing pairs (32%). Half of Jojo's shows are in the top 6 for most kissing pairs per show (Only Friends, The Warp Effect, Friendzone, and The Player).

The average number of kissing pairs in a Jojo show is 7.4, compared to 1.8 for non-Jojo shows.

Interesting to note: last update, the average number of kissing pairs per show for Jojo shows was 6.0 (1.4 lower) and the average for non-Jojo shows was the same (1.8). Only Friends had quite the impact.

(note: in this section, I am just looking at kissing pair iterations here not at unique kissing pairs, e.g., Phuwin/Pond are a pair in two shows (once in a Jojo show and once in a non-Jojo show), so they are counted twice.)

Most Kissing Partners

First, to put this in context: 50.4% of the actors in this sample have only had one kissing partner. The average number of kissing partners per actor is 2.6 (an increase of 0.3 from last update - again, possibly due to Only Friends).

We've had some significant changes in the leader board this update. Previously, our top 5 were Joss (10 kissing partners), Lee and Namtan (9 each), and Ohm and Nanon (7 each).

Welcome our new leader, Lee, with 12 kissing partners!

Krist takes the second spot (11 different kissing partners), followed by Joss (10), Namtan (9) and First (8) to round out our top five.

Next we have Gigie, Mild, Nanon, New, Off, and Ohm with 7 different kissing partners each; Film, Mond, Mook, Neo, and Singto with 6 kissing partners each; and Bright, Fluke Pusit, Jan, Khaotung, and Mark Pakin with 5 kissing partners each. There are also eleven actors with 4 different partners, and fifteen actors with 3 different partners each.

This update sees an astonishing 6 new kissing partners for Krist and 3 for First, catapulting them into the top 5. The impact of Only Friends can't be denied either - it increased every one of its actors' total kissing partners, and pushed Mond, Neo, Khaotung, and Mark Pakin up into the upper echelons, along with First, of course.

Most Kissing Partners in One Show

We have a new reigning champion for "Most Kissing Partners in One Show"! Thanks to his tireless hard work in Only Friends kissing 5 different people, Neo rockets to the top of the list.

We now have seven people who have kissed 4 different people in one show thanks to Only Friends (First, Mark Pakin, and Mond in Only Friends; Fluke Pusit, Gigie, and New in The Warp Effect; and Plustor in Friendzone), and eight cases of people kissing 3 different people in one show (Book, Force, and Khaotung in Only Friends; Joss and Namtan in The Player; Joss again in 3 Will Be Free; Krist in The Jungle; and Singto in Friendzone).

Please note that all of these instances (except for Krist in The Jungle) happened in Jojo shows.

In total, there are 52 instances of people kissing more than one person in a show, and 31% of actors in the sample have kissed more than one person in a show at least once.

Which of the GMMTV boys has kissed the most guys?

Last update we had a five-way tie for first place between First, Fluke Pusit, Neo, Plustor, and Singto, with 4 men kissed each. Only Friends has significantly changed the situation.

Congratulations to First for taking first place in the men kissing men category, with 7 men kissed! Next we have Neo in second place (6 men kissed) and Khaotung in third (5 men kissed).

First has kissed Gawin (Not Me), Force (Only Friends), Khaotung (The Eclipse and Only Friends), Mark Pakin (Only Friends), Mix (Moonlight Chicken), Mond (Only Friends), and Ohm (The Shipper)

Neo has kissed Drake (Only Friends), Force (Only Friends), Louis (The Eclipse and FUTS), Mark Pakin (Only Friends), Mond (Only Friends), and Title (Only Friends)

Khaotung has kissed Book (Only Friends), First (The Eclipse and Only Friends), Mond (Only Friends), Pawin (55:15 Never Too Late), and Pod (Tonhon Chonlatee)

There are now seven men who have kissed 4 men each: Fluke Pusit, Krist, Mark Pakin, Mond, New, Plustor, and Singto. Special shoutout to Mark Pakin, Mond, and Plustor for racking up all these kisses over the course of one show each (Only Friends, Only Friends, and Friendzone respectively).

Finally, there are eight men who have kissed 3 men each, and eleven who have kissed two men each.

The Kiss Web

Behold... the Kiss Web, newly updated:

And, as usual, some colourful breakdowns too:

The reach of the top 5 kissers: Lee, Krist, Joss, Namtan, and First.

The kissing webs of the top three shows: Only Friends (in pink), The Warp Effect (in blue), and Friendzone (in green). Yes these are all Jojo shows.

Some "kissing triangles" (no squares this time because there were too many to show). Note the triangles completed in the course of one show: Nat-Plustor-Singto (Friendzone), First-Khaotung-Mond (Only Friends), Mark Pakin-Neo-Title (Only Friends), Fluke Pusit-Gigie-New (The Warp Effect), and Joss-Mild-Tay (3 Will Be Free).

I’ve been having fun Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon-ing around this web and I’d like to propose a challenge to you all: what is the longest chain between two people (with the most people between them) possible? Basically, reverse Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. Bonus points if there is no quicker shortcut between them.

If you’d like to play another little game, see my post here.

Contributing authors: @airenyah, @alsoran, @alwaysthepessimist, various anons, @bengiyo, @burnsuncomet, @callipigio, @cangse-sanren, @catboykacchan, @catboyjosten, @catsundmaus, @chickenstrangers, @crowie, @dribs-and-drabbles, @ffirstkhao, @foralleternityidiot, @isaksbestpillow, @jeonghanurl, @kattahj, @kpinhiding, @lurkingshan, @maibpenrai, @maybeitdontmakesense, @nieves-de-sugui, @non-binarypal7, @sammie-lightwood-bane, @sollucets, @userneos, @theselightsareblinding, @tiistirtipii, @waitmyturtles, @williamrikers

Data visualization consultants and beloved proofreaders: @chickenstrangers, @dribs-and-drabbles, @wen-kexing-apologist

Asked to be tagged: @blmpff

#kissing multiverse #gmmtv kissing multiverse #ofts #thanks for coming along on this journey with me! #and big thanks once again to those who contributed kisses #it will be a while till the next update - gotta let some more shows come out - but this project isn't done yet! #I would like to make a specific request - does anyone know what kisses happen in Wolf?

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - Lesbians WIN & I'm excited about a Thai BL again!

Organized, in each category, with ones I'm enjoying most at the top.

April 2024 Wk 4

Ongoing Series - Thai

My Stand-In (Thai Fri iQIYI) ep 1 of 12 eps - Adaptation of Chinese novel Professional Body Double by Shui Qiang Cheng. Stars Up (Lovely Writer) and Poom (Bake Me Please) directed by the same team as KP (not a recommendation IMHO - my biggest criticism of KP was the clashing directing styles). The MDL description made it sound complicated af but actually it's not so bad. In fact it's GOOD.

Stuntman Joe dies on the job and wakes up in the body of another Joe who has an entirely different life. But our Joe just gets his new body right back into his old existence, full of friends, enemies, and one troublesome ex. Poom is absolutely killing it in the lead. Mek is perfectly cast as the Actor du Jerk. I’m not sold on Up’s bratty brokenhearted rich kid... yet. The show though, I like it. I like a one (two) night stand starting things off and I like a lot of morally gray characters. Fun fun!

Deep Night (Thurs iQiyi) ep 8fin - The lesbian moms are the cutest thing in the world and my favorite thing this week. Bar none.

Summation:

It's about a host club and all the gay boys in it and some stuff that's not important because... PEOPLE OF EARTH WE HAVE A HONEST REP OF POLY IN A BL. Stand up and raise your hands in prayer to the Thai BL gods because sure as shit no one else was ever going to give this to us. For that alone this show gets 8/10 from me. Bonus Lesbian moms and great kisses.

Two Worlds (Thurs iQIYI) ep 7 of 10 - Say what you want about MaxNat all these years that they've been paired makes them great onscreen boyfriends. And you know me, I'm a total sucker for linguistic negotiation. Makes my heart go all mushy. That said, now that the leads are together, I’m really uninterested in all the drama around the ex-boyfriend/triangle. I'm glad this is only 10 eps.

1000 Years Old (Thurs iQIYI) ep 11 of 12 - They gave me the tiniest teaser for the kinky vampire BL that I have wanted my whole life. And now I'm just fucking annoyed with the rest of the show. 

We Are (Weds iQIYI) ep 3-4 of 16 - Q & Toey are the only interesting thing going on. I actually didn’t like this pair in My School President, but I’m enjoying them here. The others are all fine but these two have my heart. I have questions like: did Phum ever get his shopping bags back? And why is Phum driving a different colored car half way through the ep?

Only Boo! (Sun YouTube) ep 3 of 12 - The quality is good (it’s GMMTV) but the acting is... not. Still I loved that Moo just made the confession for both of them. Very in character. Does this plot remind anyone else of Footloose? Just me? Side couple was cute but now a bit too stalker for me. 

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Unknown (Taiwan Tues YouTube & Viki) ep 10 of 12 - It’s fantastic. Such a great show. We are so lucky. This is basically Taiwan’s The Eights Sense. I didn’t know they had it in them, but I’m really glad that they did.

Living With Him AKA Kare no Iru Seikatsu (Japan Thurs Gaga) ep 3 of 10 - As JBL’s go this is way more my speed (than Alaska). It’s just so sweet and awkward but charming about it. The confession was so earnest. 

Blue Boys (Korea YouTube) 2 of ? No MDL link - It’s very sexy this one. Not sure what Korea thinks it's doing, but I’m not mad about it. 

Gray Shelter (Korea Thurs iQIYI) ep 5fin - summation: About a slacker nursing a crush on the (brief) older stepbrother who abandoned him. Upon finding him again he moves in with him, upends the mans lost suffering life. A dark gritty piece with confusing subs making it too chewy to really grok. It's trying to do too much for its length. The tension is real and the acting is good, it's just everything else stymied clean execution of the core concept. Frankly I spent this show expecting (and wanting them) to just fall into bed together - in a kind of desperate fight sex. It didn’t happen, and I’m disappointed by the non-ending we got. (Whether it’s going to have more in the series or not.) 7/10 I'm open to changing the rank if a part two fixes this one's flaws.

Boys Be Brave AKA Roommates (Korea Thurs Viki) ep 1-2 of 8 - Oh dear. Terrible hair. Jock nerd pairing. OCD baby cakes. Cohabitation trope. Killer side couple. Def unhinged. 

At 25:00 in Alaska AKA 25 Ji Akasaka de (Japan Thurs Gaga) ep 2 of 10 - I’m still genuinely not sure about this one. It’s just a little too awkward for me in the wrong way. I expect all Japanese BL to have a certain aura of awkwardness so I don’t know what it is about this one turnign me off. I do enjoy that we’re getting both stories, the one between the actors, and a little bit of the roles that they’re playing on screen but... yeah

Love is like a Cat (Korea Mon Viki) eps 7-8 of 12 - The leads finally had a moment but there is negative chemistry. Why am I watching this? 

It's airing but...

Lady Boy Friends (Thai WeTV grey) 16 eps - reminds me a bit too much of Diary of Tootsies only high school. Not my thing. DNF unless it turns a corner and is truly amazing.

Memory in the Letter (Thai WeTV) - 6 eps, when it's done, tell me if I should bother?

In case you missed it

Kiseki Chapter 2 (Sun iQIYI) 6 eps - finished its run but I won't be finishing it. Stays dropped.

GMMTV announced the second half of their 2024 line up. I got excited and picked my favorites, details + trailers here. Basically my ranking is:

The Heart Killers

ThamePo

Revamp

Sweet Tooth

Perfect 10 Liners

The Ex-Morning

Ossan’s Love Thailand

Next Week Looks Like This:

IMG

What happened?

Knock-Knock Boys (Thai WeTV) - 4 college friends conspire to help their friend lose his virginity. Familiar faces like Seng (yes, Billy's previous pairing) and Best, news here. But will it actually air this month?

Upcoming BLs for 2024 are listed here. This list is not kept updated, so please leave a comment if you know something new or RP with additions.

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENT

I have adopted him. He is MINE. I love him, your honor. (The Stand In)

I love the SO MUCH. (Deep Night)

(Last week)

Streaming services are listed by how I (usually) watch, which is with a USA based IP, and often offset by a day because time zones are a pain.

The tag BLigade: @doorajar @solitaryandwandering @my-rose-tinted-glasses @babymbbatinygirl @babymbbatinygirl @isisanna-blog @mmastertheone @pickletrip @aliceisathome @urikawa-miyuki @tokillamonger @rocketturtle4 @blglplus @anythinggoesintheshire @everlightly @renafire

If ya wanna be tagged each week leave a comment and I will add you to the template. Easy peesy.

#this week in BL #BL updates #Two Worlds #Deep Night review #Unknown the series #My Stand-In #Gray Shelter review #Living With Him #Kare no Iru Seikatsu #1000 Years Old #At 25:00 in Alaska #Love Is like a Cat #Boys Be Brave #BL series review #upcoming BL #BL news #BL reviews #BL gossip #Thai BL #Japanese BL #live action yaoi #Taiwanese BL #Koren BL #BL starting soon #BL coming soon #Blue Boys

[respectthepetty]

Let Me Introduce Myself

I’m Respect the Petty, and I love colors. I’m on my own little mission to annoy all of y’all about how colors, lighting, barriers, clothing, and other visuals enhance QLs and add depth to the story.

For those of you who keep asking me for a “Master List” (bleh!) since apparently it takes too much time to scroll through my insane amount of posts because I don't know how to stfu, here it is! Plenty of posts didn't make the cut simply because there is a limit, so I included the ones that delivered the most features from above, and if you search my tags by the series' titles, other posts regarding the show's colors should be able to be found.

The goods are below the cut 👇🏿

A quick overview of what I do and what the colors mean

Key:

Color Coding shows the main colors associated with the characters <- most of you are here for these

Barriers examine the physical barriers that separate characters in a scene and what they represent (emotions, miscommunication, etc.)

The Clothing Tells the Plot looks at a specific clothing item in a scene  

Background Noise includes various elements like barriers, clothing telling the plot, lighting showing feelings, and general details for the show

Episode Reviews cover all of the above for each episode plus my unhinged ramblings

Series (alphabetical order)

*If you don't know where to start, I suggest Big Dragon, Semantic Error, or Between Us

180 Degree Longitude Passes Through Us

Background Noise

Background Noise (chopsticks)

Background Noise (puzzle pieces)

609 Bedtime Story

Color Coding

Barriers

Episode 4

All the Liquors

Color Coding

Bed Friend

Color Coding

Color Coding (Jade)

Background Noise (lighting and reflections)

Between Us

Color Coding

Color Coding (Negative Blue)

Color Coding (Cups)

Big Dragon

Color Coding and Episode 1

Background Noise [Where the Sun and Moon Meet]

Episode 8 (Finale)

A Boss & A Babe

Color Coding

Candy Color Paradox/Ameiro Paradox

Color Coding

Catch Me Baby

Color Coding

Chains of Heart

Background Noise

Cherry Magic

Color Coding

Cutie Pie

Color Coding

Dark Blue Kiss

Color Coding

Background Noise

Destiny Seeker

Color Coding

The Director Who Buys Me Dinner

Background Noise (lighting)

Barriers (lighting)

The Eclipse

Color Coding

Color Coding (Teacher Sani and Teacher Waree)

Background Noise (sun & moon symbolism)

Background Noise (wealth and class)

The Eighth Sense

Color Coding

GAP

Color Coding

Color Coding (finale)

Ghost Host, Ghost House

Barriers (brief)

God's Own Country

Color Coding (brief)

Happy Ending Romance

Barriers

I Will Knock You

Background Noise (lotus)

Individual Circumstances

Color Coding

KinnPorsche

Color Coding

Background Noise (parallels)

Background Noise (VegasPete parallels)

Light on Me

Color Coding

Color Coding (Color Exchange)

Love Mechanics

Color Coding

Made on the Rooftop

Color Coding

Manner of Death

Color Coding & Barriers

Moonlight Chicken

Color Coding

Color Coding (exchange)

Background Noise

Background Noise (Alan)

My Beautiful Man/Utsukushii Kare

Color Coding (Pending)

Background Noise & Barriers

Background Noise & Barriers (ep. 2, 3)

Background Noise & Barriers (ep. 4)

My Love Mix-Up/Kieta Hatsukoi

Color Coding

My School President

Color Coding

Color Coding (Parents)

Barriers

The Clothing Tells the Plot

Naughty Babe

Color Coding

The New Employee

Barriers

Never Let Me Go

Color Coding

Color Coding (Nueng x Palm)

Color Coding (Chopper)

Background Noise (Positions)

Background Noise

Barriers (Nueng)

Oh! My Assistant

Color Coding (brief)

Old Fashion Cupcake

Background Noise (brief)

Our Dating Sim

Color Coding

Color Coding (Orange)

Background Noise

Episode 3 & 4

Episode 5 & 6

Episode 7 & 8

La Pluie

Color Coding

The Promise

Color Coding

Color Coding (Pink)

Secret Crush on You

Color Coding

Background Noise

Semantic Error

Color Coding

Background Noise

Smiley

Color Coding

A Tale of Thousand Stars

Color Coding

We Best Love

Color Coding

What Did You Eat Yesterday?

Color Coding

Young Royals

Color Coding

General Posts

Cinematographers

Joy Maneerat Srinakarin (The Warp Effect, I Told Sunset About You, KinnPorsche, Great Men Academy)

Ratchanon Kaeosaart (I Promised You The Moon, Big Dragon)

Rath Roongrueangtantisook (Never Let Me Go, Mama Gogo, He's Coming To Me, A Tale of Thousand Stars, 3 Will Be Free)

Suthipong Teerasakul (Chains of Heart, The Eclipse, 609 Bedtime Story)

Language

Lost in Translation

Language as a Weapon

Hostage Posts

Japan’s Use of Space

Why QLs?

Notes:

If a link doesn't work or goes to the wrong post, let me know

If you have an ask or a request, feel free to send me a message, but be warned that I really don't shut the fuck up about colors, so you could get a ten-page report back in response

If you write a post about colors, lighting, barriers, clothing, or other visuals, feel free to tag me

I'll update this post at the end of each month depending on what discoveries I've made during that month (Updated: 4/15)

Now that you know who I am, remember that a world without colors is a world devoid of emotions and feelings, so embrace the magic and follow me down this chaotic path of visual rhetoric.

#The colors mean things #color coded boys #the cinematography #the clothes speak to me #the clothes telling the story #background noise #crossing the line #master post

[morkofday]

Pick Your Vice Versa Outfit ↳ Talay Rawi Edition [Puen ver.]

My Top 10 Talay Outfits for @stormyoceans​​​​  layout insp. [x]

+ bonus:

(some thoughts under the cut!)

more rambles about these outfits for you monica! i hope you enjoy ^^

TOP 10 Talay Outfits explained:

10. Zebra Boy a stylish and flowy zebra print shirt with basic white slacks and talay’s signature white bag. this one is so silly but cool i had to include it. i actually am obsessed with both of the white & black print shirts tess owns but the other one is mostly worn my ohm in the series so i didn’t inlude it here (ep 2 when tess/talay goes to pester tun at the café). also i just like this scene a lot and couldn’t get over the “secret lover” -line. 

9. Reunion Blues a simple navy blue dress shirt and light colored pants plus talay’s round glasses. listen: am not a big fan of talay’s clothes in his own universe even if he looks adorable in them, but this one! this one is a legend. straight up iconic. he looks so pretty in dark blue and then we have this whole scene and ugh. just pure insanity. 

8. Goodbyes taste bitter an orange and white striped shirt and black jeans. am so obsessed with the v-neck of this shirt, it’s crazy. i don’t blame puen at all for instantly going like, “oh yes, that’s my bf now” bc honestly? very understandable. talay just looks so good in this shirt, holy hell. continues on the road of, “why must you dress up so nicely when the occasion is breaking my heart?” i guess these two are similar like that. 

7. Let us kiss again a red-blue-white striped sweater with red pants. i love this color combo on talay so much. blue and red just suit him. the shirt is also tight fitting and it’s amusing to see puen Struggling bc of it. man is not able to keep his hands off. it’s very understandable but pls sir, calm down. you’ve known each other like two weeks. and you still haven’t even told talay that you’re not kissing him just bc but bc you’re head over heels in love with him. get a grip. 

6. First Kiss a simple white sweatshirt and red/fucsia pants. i don’t want to say this but i have to say this: talay’s ass looks amazing in these pants. like, am not one to stare but oh boy. it’s right there! stealing the show! and then it’s combined with talay’s sexy wet hair after running through the rain to look for his long lost lover friend who he wants to make up with. Literally. bc they’re kissing by the end of this. and i scream. 

5. The Green Sweater a yellow-green sweater combined with white pants. talay looks adorable in this with his guitar and the sweater paws. am not at all surprised that puen looks close to tears bc bitch, me too. it’s just So Soft and then it’s mixed with the guitar (+ the lotus flower) and talay singing a love song and. i want to hug him so bad, puen get out of the way it’s my turn now. 

4. The Wedding Suit a light pink colored suit, apparently without a shirt underneath. this whole thing began with this suit. as i said, this one is 100% outshining the one puen wears in this scene. i am just in love with this suit; the color, the simplicity, the cut, the way talay wears it so casually. he looks amazing and positively ethereal. puen is marrying him on the spot. talay is thinking it’s a joke but i might just tell him it’s not. get a ring and be done with it, would you. this might sound controversial after me saying puen is rushing things with the kisses but i don’t actually have anything against it.  

3. Loneliness is yellow a simple black sweatshirt with bright yellow pants. i feel like the more heartbreaking the scenes get, the better talay gets dressed. he’s always serving looks when am crying on my floor. i don’t mind tho bc why not have several mental breakdowns at the same time, saves me the time. he looks absolutely glorious in that black shirt, and the colored pants are a wonderful touch. if tess got nothing else, at least he's had the sense to buy all these clothes.

2. The Gray Jacket a textured gray jacket with a black shirt and white pants. the texture on this jacket makes me go wild bc it looks so nice to touch and the whole jacket looks so cozy. am wondering how talay can wear that with the heat but that’s fortunately something that doesn’t get to me through my screen. he looks very huggable once again. he looks positively radiant when he smiles. and it’s just a plus that puen looks so gone for him bc yeah, valid. am in love with this sunshine boy too. 

1. Second chance a gray sweater with red details, combined with red pants. honestly talay’s best outfit in this whole show hands down. every time i start this ep, i am just blown away by this outfit. the styling team was going crazy that day. the shirt has a v-neck, the red details work so well, it fits talay nicely, the rolled sleeves, the delicate bag. the pants are tight fitting and make his legs look extra long and slim. especially in that billiard room lighting he just looks insanely pretty. i want to yell into the void. the void might yell back at me. 

Bonus: Striped Bathrobe a black and white striped robe, worn mostly for breakfast. i am not really sure what to call this but a bathrobe felt like the closest fitting one so i went with it. it’s crazy how this is literally the second outfit puen ever sees talay in if we don’t count talay being half naked. he got absolutely bewitched and talay is not even bothered. this striped robe is what truly mattered. and please let’s not talk about ai’dang. 

#asiandramanet #asianlgbtqdramas #vice versa #vice versa the series #puentalay #sea tawinan #jimmy jitaraphol #countaspieceofme #userjjessi #lightmiup #tonanons #mjtag #lextag #ninisdarlings #becauseigtf #tesstag #tuserchlo #tusersilence #userconcrete #usertoptaps #usermor #userhanyi #userspicy #finally this is done too

[negrowhat]

Yes, Daddy.

I’m supposed to be working rn, calling people and shit, but instead I’m going to make a list for y’all. It’s another one of those random ones, I revealed myself to be one of the anons in @kwonzoshi​ ‘s ask box and the word ‘Daddy’ came up in reference to Payu so I just decided to give you a list of the BL characters that I KNOW (have a feeling) have been called ‘Daddy’ in their lives once or twice. I’m not a k!nk specialist, this post is just for fun and please don’t take it too seriously.

Payu from Love in the Air. No one can convince me that Payu does not have Rain calling him Daddy on a consistent basis. Be fucking forreal. The reprimanding, and punishments, the coddling, the constant money spending. He fixed Rain’s car for free. Daddy. Rain’s daddy.

Kang Yohan from The Devil Judge. Every single thing about that man screams ‘Daddy’. The way he just let Gaon move into his estate and DON’T EVEN GET ME STARTED ON HIM SHOWING GAON ON OFF LIKE A KEPT BOY AT THAT FANCY ELITIST PARTY! The age gap solidifies it more. His name is Daddy Judge and you better put some respeck on it.

Tharn from TharnType 2: 7 Years of Love. I’m not here to defend TT because it was def a red flag series as a whole. But NO ONE is going to tell me that Tharn was not in full blown Sugar Daddy mode in s2. Techno was literally calling Tharn Type’s Daddy throughout s2 and I couldn’t agree more. All Tharn wanted to do was put a ring on it and make it rain billions from the ceiling on his angry boy.

Sun from Dark Blue Kiss. Sun was Mork’s Daddy. IDC. He wasn’t rich but he was def speaking to Mork like Daddy would. Reprimanding him but also taking such sweet care of him, making sure he was fed and paid and supported emotionally. Sun was like a Back Burner Daddy, it wasn’t as obvious but the traits were there. Mork would call him Daddy as an insult but literally no one would take it that way.

Win from Between Us. This was more from the special eps. Team called Win ‘Daddy’ on Pharm’s rec (Dean should be on this list too, maybe I’ll make a pt 2) Win definitely liked it. A lot. Win is more of a fuckboy to me but he’s Teams Daddy which makes him Daddy for all. He does give off a very daddy dom vibe so I get it.

Lian Kilen Wang from Cutie Pie. I didn’t particularly like Lian all that much but yea he was Kuea’s Daddy. Very textbook Daddy too. “Do as I say because I have your best interests at heart and if you don’t I will punish you.” IDK how to explain it but y’all know he is.

BONUS!

Yi from Cutie Pie. Lian’s emotionally stunted bestie acted like a literal father, like he birthed Diao himself, but Diao seemed into it so...

#ok i'm going to get back to work #maybe #love in the air #the devil judge #tharntype #tharntype the series #dark blue kiss #cutie pie #cutie pie the series #between us #between us the series #uwma

[hughungrybear]

Me while watching Last Twilight Ep. 7:

I am sooooo ready for the real flirting and courtship between P'Mhok and Nong Day to commence 😁

1. So yeah, I have read so many meta writing concerning August and what motivated him to do what he did (shoutout to Mark Pakin for unknowingly being the root cause of all my angst against August 😅). Those who tried to understand August are a lot better persons than I am. My petty ass would still like August's head on a platter 😅😅😅😅

2. Okay, the starting scene feels like Bad Buddy Episode 6 all over again - the awkward tension after a rooftop kiss 😭😭😭 P'Aof, why do you do this?

3. That's it, if we are not getting GeePorjai in this series, I am more than willing to marry Porjai myself 😂😂😂

4. No, Gee. Day does not have to patch things up with that d*ckhead August. <after 2 minutes> I am still amazed of how selfless Mhok can be that he is still willing to let Day meet August despite of everything because it will make Day happy. I guess as Porjai said, when Mhok loves, he loves deeply and passionately - and it shows 🥺🥺🥺

5. Hmmm, I guess they are trying to somehow redeem August? Ngl, the speech was good. But I'm still putting that "pity kiss" on my list of unforgiveable things along with Non's stalker behaviour (Dark Blue Kiss) and Wai's curtain drop (Bad Buddy).

6. Gee knows Day so well 😂😂😂 Also, wtf did you mean Mhok is not your type, Day??? What exactly is your type anyway? After August, one might have thought you would re-calibrate your standards. <after 5 seconds> Oh, no. 😰 That's just selfish, Day. It will be torturous for Mhok to stay and care for you, knowing how he feels about you. It's like leading him on. You should have followed Gee's suggestion, if this is the case 😔

7. Mhok is taking what he can get, I see. I just hope this does not end in heartbreak - mine. I am so tired of crying with every episode 😂😂😂

8. Porjai is just trying as Mhok's wingwoman 😂😂😂 Good thing she does not have to try that hard since it seems like Day is slowly accepting his feelings for Mhok.

9. Day sniffing Mhok's blanket - how Pat-coded you are 😂😂😂 Yes, I still have a Bad Buddy brain rot. 😅😅😅 Also, dang, Mhok's neighbours. Let other people sleep 😆

10. (Sigh) I guess what we'll get is a NightPorjai agenda (goodbye, my GeePorja ship)? Night really seems to care about Day despite the latter's animosity against him.

11. Oh, Day. 😔 You should never have put boundaries on something that you wanted to cross yourself. <after five seconds> OKAY!!! Finally boyfriends!!!! For a second, I thought I'll be hating Day in the next episodes.

12. Mhok is just gonna get cheesier, isn't he? He is going to be insufferable, won't he? Ngl, I'm a bit scared for Day 😂😂😂😂

OH, NO. DAY IS GOING FULL BLIND 😱😱😱

I guess the next episodes will focus on what happened between Night and Day. Ongoing theory in socmed is that Night is the reason for Day's condition. I'm not convinced because P'Aof has that reputation of subverting the 'obvious' in what motivates his characters' actions - i.e., Mes' uncle's financial woes led him to watch Mes die from a heart attack in He's Coming to Me, Tian's illegal race bet causing Torfun's death in ATOTS, and Ming betraying his bff, Dissaya, by stealing her scholarship grant as the root cause of the family rivalry in BBS.

I really am curious to see what P'Aof has cooked up this time. Plus, it's a beach episode next week 😊

#last twilight the series #last twilight ep 7 #mhokday #mhok x day #jimmysea #jimmy jitaraphol #sea tawinan

[trashexplorer]

BLCD 2022: July Releases

 I’m late, sumimasen.

Legends:

✓ - have      

💡 - interested

✘ - not interested (but will probably still listen to)    

🙏 - dying for

1. Fudanshi Shoukan ~Isekai de Shinjuu ni Hameraremashita~ vol. 5 Tokusouban CD ✘

Release Date: 2022/07/08

Cast: Satou Takuya x Ishiya Haruki

Synopsis: Special CD for the release of the 5th volume of the series.

2. Kiss and Night 💡

Release Date: 2022/07/08

Cast: Maeno Tomoaki x Tsuchida Reiou *good luck, boi

Synopsis: Omi, known as the Queen of an exclusive strip club called Grand Cage, and only special members can see him perform. Subaru Shinonome, a rich heir of sake brewery, declared to Omi he'll make him his. How will Omi respond to him?

3. Happy of the End ep.05-08 ✘

Release Date: 2022/07/15

Cast: Tachibana Shinnosuke x Eguchi Takuya

Synopsis: Adaptation of said chapters.

4. Boku to Kare no Kiken na Doukyo Seikatsu: Sunao ni Narenai Shinchousa ✘

Release Date: 2022/07/27

Cast: Okitsu Kazuyuki x Itou Kento

Synopsis: Extra for the game of the same name.

5. Boku to Kare no Kiken na Doukyo Seikatsu: Inran Gyangu ni Goyoushin ✘

Release Date: 2022/07/27

Cast: Ishiya Haruki x Itou Kento

Synopsis: Extra for the game of the same name.

6. Boku to Kare no Kiken na Doukyo Seikatsu: Sagishi no Misuteriasu na Aijou ✘

Release Date: 2022/07/27

Cast: Yamanaka Masahiro x Itou Kento

Synopsis: Extra for the game of the same name.

7. Online Game Nakama to Sashi Off shitara Shokuba no Onijoushi ga Kita ✘

Release Date: 2022/07/27

Cast: Shirai Yuusuke + Abe Atsushi you’re the same person???

Synopsis: Hashimoto, an average salaryman, works under the harsh leadership of his high-spec cum handsome demon boss, Shirase-san, day by day. The only thing Hashimoto looks forward to is to talk to his gaming friend who he met online, UMA, complain to him about his boss, and joke around together with him. Feeling at ease around him, Hashimoto eagerly plans for his offline meeting with UMA with high hopes, but——?! (Huffly Parfait Scans)

8. Oni Joushi・Gokudera-san wa Abakaretai. 2 ✘

Release Date: 2022/07/27

Cast: Itou Kento x Shirai Yuusuke

Synopsis: Adaptation of the second volume of the series.

9. Kirai na Yatsu to Kuttsuku Mahou ni Kakaru Hanashi ✘

Release Date: 2022/07/29

Cast: Kumagai Kentarou x Hayama Shouta

Synopsis: Kuga, who just made his college debut, has to room with Kyouhei, an unfriendly guy who Kuga just couldn’t get along with. Kuga hated him because of how critical he was of him, but then their hands got stuck together?! There was only one way for them to be free of one another, and that’s cumming together?! 

10. Neko to Spica 2 💡

Release Date: 2022/07/29

Cast:

Takeuchi Eiji x Sakakihara Yuki

Kamio Shinichirou x Nakajima Yoshiki

Synopsis: Adaptation of the second volume of the series.

11. Nie no Machi -Iro Musubi- Tokuten ✘

Release Date: 2022/07/29

Cast: 

Kitayama Kyousuke x Gatake Tetsu

Kawada Shinji x Gatake Tetsu

Takahashi Kouji x Gatake Tetsu

Sarutobi Soji x Gatake Tetsu

Synopsis: Special CD for the release of the game of the same name.

12. S to N ✘ 

Release Date: 2022/07/29

Cast: Okamoto Nobuhiko *welcome back + Nishiyama Koutarou

Synopsis: Yuta Natori is a junior in high school, enjoying the peace and quiet of his school life when out of the blue, Kazushi Setoguchi, a freshman, asks him to be his boyfriend. Being straight, Yuta declines politely, but ever since, Kazushi keeps showing up wherever he goes... Days of this, and Yuta can't take it anymore. He blows up at Kazushi, thinking he will finally get the message... but uh-oh. Why is he looking at Yuta so adoringly!?

13. Zetsubou ni Nake 1 ✘

Release Date: 2022/07/29

Pairing: *lmao goodluck

Komada Wataru x Maeno Tomoaki

Maeno Tomoaki x Komada Wataru

Synopsis: bootleg Sono Kuchibiru ni Yoru no Tsuyu Akamine and Utsumi are two men linked by a dark past only Utsumi remembers: Akamine raping him six years earlier. But when Utsumi comes to exact his revenge, old wounds are reopened and the two become locked in a cycle of violence, betrayal, longing, and despair.

#blcd releases #blcd 2022 releases

[mlaura-solointer]

Goodbye 2022 Pride Month

🏳️‍🌈Pride month, days 29&30 

Watchlist of the last 2 days of this 2022 pride month. Of course I’ll continue to watch lgbt+ stuff and in July I plan to restart all my Korean series that I paused (1 almost at the end and the others are beyond their middle) and other western series that I stopped to watch beacause my attention was elsewhere.

1- Plus&Minus, episodes from 9to12. I read that there will be more episodes but I think that the 13th will be a sort of special and the other 2 bts.

2- Our flag means death, episode 7-8.

3- Bad buddy, ep. 11. My fav Thai series with Dark Blue Kiss.

4- Love me gender, episodes 2-3. Ep. 2 it’s about Felicità/Happiness, lgbt+ people and not who found their happiness living the life they wanted. There’s a crossdresser person, a switch couple (ftm and mtf couple), and few other stories. Ep. 3 it’s about Ruoli/Roles and there’s a story about a dad who decided to be a house husband, a trans woman + her children and ex wife etc. It’s about challenging the stereotyped roles imposed by society.

5- a year later I’m ready to say goodbye to Word of honor + the 8 minutes special and easter eggs.🏳️‍🌈

#Pride month #last 2 days watchlist #bad buddy #our flag means death #plus & minus #love me gender #Word Of Honor

[dribs-and-drabbles]

Enchanté ep 8

Wow, this one has divided people hasn't it? Well, in case you haven't figured it out, I'm well and truly on the side of "OH MY GOD IT WAS SO FU*KING PRECIOUS AND ADORABLE" and will be scrolling past all the negativity on my dash. You're welcome to your opinion, of course, but I did love this ep and still do love the series. (Is it perfect? No. But do I care? Also no.)

So on to the ep...I squealed so many times - in fact I probably continuously squealed for the entire time - and not only for the action but also the visual elements. If you've followed me for a while you'll know that I went feral over Bad Buddy's colour patterns and wardrobe choices. Now, Enchanté doesn't seem to be nearly as deliberate with its colour and wardrobe choices as Bad Buddy but I was delighted when some patterns set up in previous eps returned in this one. I'll come to those in a moment.

First, though, the beginning of this ep continued the muted, monotone feel from episode 7 with just a few blue-red-and-white and brown elements.

I loved this connecting shot with the soft red roof, the baby blue sky, and the white of the building and clouds.

Out of Akk and Theo, it was only the latter who wore colour - and both times it was a dark blue sweater, the second time however with the red and white trim. Brown also featured with Theo and Saifa's bags...

...as well as the guitar and Saifa's t-shirt in the bar. And again there's the red and blue behind him.

I liked that Saifa had both blue and red in the stripes of his shirt - and already with the "I can help you" and the selfie, I suspected he was actually helping Theo and Akk get together...and the shirt reflects that. Best Boi Saifa!

But the bar scene in general was the moment I squealed the most. Because following an episode and a half of muted colour, here we have so 👏🏼 much 👏🏼 colour 👏🏼. I've mentioned quite a few times since ep 3 that I've had my eye on purple being an important colour with Akk and Theo and I just LOVED that the staircase was bathed in a purple light - the staircase they took to the balcony/rooftop to confess. Ahhh! 👩🏽‍🍳💋 And I did say in my ep 7 review that I hoped purple would "come back when Akk and Theo finally sort their relationship out (i.e. KISS DAMMIT!)" and it did!

And on the balcony, along with the greenery and yellow fairy lights, there's the blue of the sky and the red lamp on the left...oh and the off-white of the stone balcony railing.

I have to pause to gush about the way this scene was filmed and the lights in the background. I loved that they framed the shot in order to have the vertical line of blue lights in between their faces...and the combination of red and blue (and, alright, some others) in the wider shot. It's just so beautiful and I completely understand why directors are choosing to film these kinds of scenes in these locations!

But something about the reveal. I was so pleased that the hints I had picked up on in earlier episodes about both the identity of Enchanté and about how Saifa seemed different to the other three ambassadors turned out to be correct. Even if you don't like where the plot went I hope you can appreciate how it was seeded from early on. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

And now we have two episodes left...and no idea what might happen in them...which is...exciting?...but also a little scary. A similar thing happened with Bad Buddy - in that all the scenes in the trailers and previews had occurred in eps 1-10, so we didn't know what to expect...other than there was a big family conflict that still needed resolving. With Enchanté, there's no conflict, right? Not in the same way. Maybe something with Theo's dad, the university, and Theo's degree major...or maybe something more with the ambassadors...or even Akk's insecurities and Theo's...manipulations?...Im and Egg are back next week (yay! I missed them!) but I can't see there being conflict there...soooooooo no penultimate ep break-up? We can hope, right? 🙏🏽🙃 Na, na?!

#enchante #enchante series #enchante the series #come on enchante...you can do it! #break that tradition! #akktheo #akk x theo #akktheo my beloved #I've gone on enough in the actual post #so I won't extend it further into the tags for once 😂 #visual patterns in enchante

[ranchthoughts]

an analysis of the Baseball Mom shirt, Bad Buddy ep. 5

Many have spoken about the shirts of Bad Buddy, and specifically the Baseball Mom shirt before:

In her excellent meta about Pat's shirts, @chickenstrangers posited that the Baseball Mom shirt Pat wears during the episode 5 rooftop scene hints at how Pat sees a future with Pran - partnership, a family (though not necessarily one with kids), possibility. @thegayneurodivergentagenda notes that the Baseball Mom shirt is a tank top, representing Pat at his most "unguarded," his most vulnerable, compared to other scenes where he wears multiple layers.

@respectthepetty gives a quick primer on the colours of Bad Buddy here - the Baseball Mom shirt is dark blue (Pat's colour) with red writing (Pran's colour). respectthepetty also points the rooftop scene out as a time when Pat and Pran switch colours: Pat is wearing red shorts and Pran is wearing a light blue shirt.

@dribs-and-drabbles spoke here about the flashes of red over Pat's heart that appear in his episode 5 shirts as he becomes more and more sure about his feelings. dribs-and-drabbles also spoke here about how the intensity of the colours in Pat's shirt could speak to the intensity of his feelings, and that the "Mom" on his shirt could reflect the role Pran's mom will have in the success (or failure) of their future relationship.

I would like to add my contributions to the venerable field of Bad Buddy shirt analysis by expanding on the potential meanings of Pat's Baseball Mom shirt in a couple of avenues: Mom, Baseball, and Baseball Mom.

Mom

Firstly, the word Mom. I have talked before about how Pat subverts the typical seme/uke dynamics (and their conflation with masculine/feminine, top/bottom, dom/sub, etc.) we often see in BLs. Pat embodies many of the physical and social qualities we might expect from a "seme" character: he is a bit taller, more muscular, more typically "masculine" (likes sports, doesn't like doing chores, etc.), etc. However, he takes the "uke" role in tropes about as often as he takes the "seme" role (he tends to Pran's wounds, kisses his cheek, is clingy, etc.), even deliberately casting himself in the "uke" role to pursue Pran during the episode 7 bet (e.g., pretending to be sick so Pran will give him a sponge bath). @absolutebl called Bad Buddy a "masterclass" in using tropes to upend our seme/uke expectations. Furthermore, Pat casts himself in the "feminine" role several times over the series: in episode 3 when he is helping Pran visualize the bus stop and offers to play Pran's girlfriend, or when he plays Riam in the play (originally a female role), or even when Pran is upset that Wai isn't speaking to him in episode 9 and Pat suggests they fake breakup and offers to pretend to be the one who got dumped and is heartbroken. And of course, the post-sex scene in episode 11 where it is strongly implied Pran was the top in that encounter.

Thus, the fact that Pat's shirt says Baseball Mom could be a further continuation of the subversions of seme/uke and masculine/feminine in Bad Buddy. Going by typical BL metrics, Pat narratively, physically, and socially should be the "seme", the "masculine" one in the pair, but the show subverts our expectations by having Pat often be the "uke," or "feminine" one in trope instances, sexual situations, and more.

Baseball

Secondly, I would like to examine the choice of baseball. The association of sport to Bad Buddy feels especially apt given the competitive nature of Pat and Pran's relationship. Rivals since birth due to their families' feud, Pat and Pran have always been competing with one another. Even once they become friends, and are on their way to being lovers, the spirit of competition doesn't leave them (there are too many examples and metas to go into them all here so here is a sampling of the myriad of posts detailing Pat and Pran's competitive edge: 1, 2, 3, 4). In fact, competition is the only way they know how to maintain their connection - as @dudeyuri points out in this post, Pran continuously refuses to let Pat settle the debt he owes Pran for saving Pa's life when they were kids in order to keep Pat in his life. The best example of this is of course the episode 7 Flirt-Off Bet, where Pat and Pran compete to see who can make the other fall in love first. They can't simply express their feelings to one other, they (especially Pran) aren't ready for that, so they will work their way around it and through it in the way they know how, through the language they both know: competition.

But back to baseball - why baseball, rather than any other sport? As far as I understand, baseball doesn't seem especially popular in Thailand. Why doesn't Pat's shirt say Soccer Mom or Volleyball Mom, or even Rugby Mom, a sport they both play in the show? Baseball is a slow game: there is a lot of standing around and waiting, a really good hitter only hits the ball about 30% of the time, there are 10 innings, etc. Like baseball players and fans, Pat and Pran are not unaccustomed to waiting. Pran has been pining for Pat for ages, waiting without much hope that Pat will return his feelings. Pat waits for Pran to come around to the idea of a relationship over many long months of the Bet. Both of them are waiting for the day their parent will accept their relationship, when they can be free to be themselves openly. And we as an audience are waiting too - will Bad Buddy have a happy or tragic ending? Are we going full Romeo and Juliet or Kwan and Riam, or is there a light at the end of this tunnel?

In his wonderful novel Summerland about baseball (and many other things), Michael Chabon writes: "The fundamental truth: a baseball game is nothing but a great slow contraption for getting you to pay attention to the cadence of a summer day." In Summerland, Michael Chabon often brings up the idea that baseball was made to make one appreciate a slow, summer's day, and that lovers of baseball and of life know the true purpose of baseball and of life is to pay attention to the small moments and details. This feels relevant to Pat and Pran's story: two people kept apart by their families and faculties, enjoying what moments they can steal in secret. Pat and Pran end the series unable to be fully open about their love, but they will take the happiness they can get. They choose to stay together, they choose optimism (Pran's room full of :)), they choose to focus on the little details of their love for one another. The path to being together might have been long, and still not over yet, but Pat and Pran will wait and enjoy the slow cadence of the journey there together.

Baseball operates on a different timeline to other sports - there is no clock counting down the minutes - just like queer people operate on a different timeline to their non-queer peers. The concept of queer temporality posits queer people live on different timelines than the societal norm, experiencing the past, present, and future in different ways than non-queer people (see @chickenstrangers application of this to Bad Buddy here and @shannankle's application of it to The Eighth Sense here). Queer people are waiting for milestones: their first kiss, first relationship, their first desired puberty, legal marriage, etc. Bad Buddy is a very queer show, full of queer temporality and realistic queer experiences (e.g., pining, self-discovery, waiting for their families' support, no "gay-for-you," no overly prescriptive seme/uke dynamics, no fairy tale happy ending, etc.). Bad Buddy even operates on a different timeline than other shows with regards to the chronological passing of time as it has several significant time skips (the one between episodes 6 and 7, and the one between episodes 11 and 12), both of which upend our expectations about how the show should go (I go into more detail about this here).

In Summerland, Chabon says: "life was like baseball, filled with loss and error, with bad hops and wild pitches, a game in which even champions lost almost as often as they won, and even the best hitters were put out seventy percent of the time." Bad Buddy is not a show full of unrelenting successes. While wearing the Baseball Mom shirt, Pat kisses Pran and get kissed back, but the scene ends with Pran leaving Pat on the rooftop, both in tears. Pat may have confessed feelings, but the pair's relationship moves forwards in fits and starts over the many months of the episode 7 bet. Pat and Pran eventually come together and date, but they have to hide it from their friends, and when their friends find out, their friendships are strained (Pran and Wai's in particular). Even after gaining the support of their friends, Pat and Pran still must hide their relationship from their family and face the consequences of their ongoing feud. While there are many victories and moments of joy in Bad Buddy, they are tempered by moments of failure, of bad luck, of pain and fear. And that's life (and baseball).

A quote attributed to Juliana Hatfield reads: “Baseball is more than a game. It’s like life played out on a field.” What is television if not life played out on a screen? What is Bad Buddy if not the familiar story of star-crossed lovers, a story of queer love and realization and heartbreak, played out on a screen? And to further this argument of "playing out" - Bad Buddy tells us a familiar story of homophobia but played out through the lens of a family feud (there is seemingly little/no homophobia in the world of the show, but nevertheless the show is all about hiding, (non)acceptance, coming out, etc.). What is Bad Buddy if not the eternal story of queer struggle and joy in the face of that, played out through an allegory of familial feuds and generational trauma?

Baseball Mom

Finally, I would like to examine the confluence of "Baseball" and "Mom". For those not in the know, sports parents are a very specific breed. They are typically wildly supportive of their child, often to the detriment of other children (do a quick search for "hockey parents suck," for example and you will find endless articles, blog posts, and Quora questions about the phenomenon). They tend to be single minded, ride or die for their kid and their kid's team, and ready to hurl abuse at anyone who "stands in the way" of their kid's success (other parents, the opposing team, the opposing team's coaches, referees and judges, etc.). When we first meet Pat, he embodies some of the worst traits of a sports parent: he is ready to fight at the drop of the hat to protect his own team (the Engineering faculty), despite the collateral damage it causes and the trouble it gets him and his team in. Over the course of the series, Pat mellows (and there's been so much great meta on this, e.g., @grapejuicegay's post about Pat escaping from under his father's thumb): he works together with Pran to make sure his team (the Engineers) and the opposing team (the Architects) aren't kicked out, and even ends up in a peaceful place with Wai.

Pat enthusiastically loves and supports his friends and his family, like a sports parent does, and while this initially manifests as him physically fighting the opposing team, it eventually settles into what an ideal sports parent (Baseball Mom) is: supporting their team while respecting the other team, and working for a fair space where both teams can compete but also have fun.

Conclusions

While many others have explored the meaning of Pat's episode 5 Baseball Mom shirt before, mostly through the lens of colour theory, I wanted to throw my hat in the ring and provide reasons as to why the choice of "Baseball Mom" suits the show Bad Buddy and the character Pat. I think it speaks to the subversion of seme/uke dynamics in the show as a whole and particularly in the character of Pat; it reminds us of the slow and realistic progression of Bad Buddy and life itself, with all its successes and errors, and Pat and Pran's competitive dynamic; and it recalls Pat's personality and arc through the show.

#bb #bb meta #throwing my hat in the ring of bad buddy shirt analysis #thank you to all the bad buddy shirt scholars who have come before #ranch thoughts #bad buddy #bad buddy meta

[absolutebl]

10 Best BL Final Episodes!

It’s no secret that I judge a BL’s on their final eps. Here’s the thing, the dinner may be middling but if the dessert is good, that’s what you remember. That is what counts. I like a show that leaves a great taste in my mouth. So here are my top 10! 

1. My Beautiful Man 

The last two eps brought this show around from good to fantastic, but the final episode really is something special. I lost my mind over how good this one ended. 

2. Semantic Error

I love that they did a proper confession kiss/hug ending but then ALSO gave us a domesticity stinger. Very nice, and so unexpected from Korea, both the tidy ending and the domesticity follow up. I don’t even mind the 4th wall break, it was cute. 

3. A Tale of Thousand Stars 

Much as I rec and love this show, mostly it’s muddled in my head and a little long, but a LOT happens in the final episode including a very satisfying super romantic resolution. 

4. Still 2gether

Am I picking this because we finally got a decent kiss after waiting two seasons, and it was a really good kiss? Why yes, yes I am. Standards.

5. Long Time No See

Am I picking this because of the fight sequence and the blood covered kiss is so hot? Fuck yes I am. KBL isn’t noted for its endings, either too abrupt, arbitrary one year separation, or too sappy. LTNS neatly avoided all these issues. 

6. Gameboys

TAKING OFF THE MASK. Come on. Iconic. 

7. DNA Says Love You

Everything is resolved, that adorable the ending cafe sequence, the back hug, the wrestling in front of the camera it’s all SO CUTE. 

8. Bad Buddy

I will never forget how tense we all were after the penultimate ep’s slap up side the head. The final was just so clever, how they managed to get the characters together and happy without actually resolving their family issues but in a totally understandable way. How basically they were playing with the concept of staying in the closet but for different reasons than normal. GENIUS.  

9. You Are Ma Boy

Just classic romantic finale where we get to see them together and happy and also a nod at the other characters. 

10. Dark Blue Kiss 

DBK is such a comfort watch for me. PeteKao have one of my favorite dynamics, and the story comes full circle starting and ending with a pool kiss and also harkening back to their previous series where it was a pool kiss that outed them. But it’s the flash forward to when Kao is teaching and Pete comes to pick him up that I love the most. The final shot of them holding hands. It’s SO CUTE. 

Honorable mention to Puppy Honey with them catching each other on dates at the movies, that was a lot of fun. 

This post sparked by a question asked by @a-foul-bauble-of-mans-vanity in Aug 2022. Thanks sweetness’. No responsible for cool endings after that. 

(source) 

#thai bl #bl endings #best bl ends #best bl final eps #final eps in bl #Puppy Honey #PeteKao #Dark Blue Kiss #You Are Ma Boy #vietnamese bl #Bad Buddy #GMMTV #DNA Says Love You #taiwanese bl #Gameboys #Gameboys the series #pinoy bl #Long Time No See #korean bl #Still 2gether #sarawattine #Tale of Thousand Stars #A Tale of Thousand Stars #Semantic Error #My Beautiful Man #Utsukushii Kare #japanese bl #adapted from a manga #adapted from a manwha #live action yaoi

[respectthepetty]

A Balancing Act

Yin and Yang. The symbol of balance of the nature like a dragon, a tiger, a phoenix, and a turtle from different directions. – Episode 7

Previous Posts' Recap: Ep. 1 [Yin & Yang], Ep. 2 [The Color of Anxiety], Ep. 3 [Do you get déjà vu?], Ep. 4 [The Cages We Live In], Ep. 5 [You Changed Me], Ep 6 [The Warmth of the Sun], Bonus: Where the Sun and Moon Meet

Parallels and Callbacks

When speaking to Yai, Mangkorn tells Yai that if he upset, then Mangkorn is upset too which callbacks to their phone discussion in episode four.

At the end of episode four, they fought while the storm raged around them, but this time, they leave before the storm comes because they are clearly communicating.

In episode six, a mirror was used when Yai spoke harshly to Mangkorn which reflected their true feelings. Here, neither are hiding their feelings and looking at each other. Also, the rainbow-colored paintings on the wall are a nice touch.

Yai and Mangkorn visit the dragon temple that was shown in the first episode and stand in the same positions. They chase each other similar to how the tiger and dragon chased each other in the first episode, and the tiger appears several times to balance out the dragons surrounding them.

As many have pointed out, Yai has the camera and Mangkorn has the memory card used in their first sexual encounter, but this time, they are focused on the present instead of dwelling on the past.

During the hospital scene in episode two and Yai’s kissing scene with Nine in episode five, their shoes are shown. Yai discussed with Nine about comfortable shoes representing love, and throughout the episode, it is shown that they both are wearing their comfortable shoes.

Yai and Mangkorn go to the same restaurant that Yai went with Park and Phong when he missed Mangkorn in episode three. Yai is wearing Mangkorn’s colors, and Mangkorn is wearing Yai’s. Dumplings symbolize love, family, and wealth so Nine and Mangkorn are fighting over Yai’s love.  

The scenes in the bed and bath call back to their first sexual encounter in the first episode and Yai’s self service scene with the after shot of Mangkorn sucking his drink.  

Mangkorn wakes up in the bed similar to Yin waking up alone in episode five.

Mangkorn tends to tell Yai commands or instructions twice before Yai complies. Mangkorn doesn’t like being teased about his apology note, so he asks Yai if he is being naughty before Yai stops.

Dragon & Tiger (Symbols)

In the temple, they write “Dragon” and “Tiger” down for the blessing.

Nine and Mangkorn meet in the hallway that is Yai and Mangkorn colored. Nine tells Mangkorn that he has known Yai longer, but Mangkorn and Yai met as children. Nine mentions the past several times, even telling Yai that in the past, he could take him home. Nine is focused on the past each time he interacts with Yai.

The plushies in the crane machine are dragons, and Yai goes out to buy a tiger one.

The bracelets feature the yin and yang symbols but they are wearing each other’s symbol. Yai wears Yang, and Mangkorn wears Yin. This is also similar to the bracelet exchange Hong and Nadear had in episode five.

A dove is a symbol of peace and long lasting love, and Yai’s shirt is tiger print.

At the theme park, they encounter tigers and dragons as well.

In the dark, Mangkorn and Yai are most vulnerable throughout the series, and here in the dark, Mangkorn apologizes to Yai. Right after Mangkorn asks Yai if he will be his partner, the light comes back on. Mangkorn has kissed Yai in the light, so now this is where they find balance in between the dark and the light, in between vulnerability and love.

Yai and Mangkorn wear each other’s color throughout the episode.

Even the mouthwash is colored coded.

The gayest bridges in the world, Rama VIII!

Park & Phong

Hong and Nadear have blue and pink backgrounds while they play the part of Park and Phong at the restaurant merely observing the spectacle.

When Yai and Mangkorn are enjoying their big day out, they dress in pink and blue.

Balance

We finally get the shot that probably convinced everyone to watch this show. Mangkorn nor Yai wears his creature necklace, but they are wearing their bracelets. They are no longer selfish, but thinking of the other. They are no longer Yai and Mangkorn, but Big Dragon. They are part of each other.

Mangkorn gets accepted into the program, but had already stated he would possibly turn it down.

Yet when Yai unveils the renovated bar in the next episode, he is back in his color with his necklace and isn’t wearing the bracelet.

#big dragon #big dragon the series #mangkorn x yai #the cinematography #the colors mean things #a balancing act #episode 7

[luxwillbefree]

non frustrates me to no end hhhh

#dark blue kiss #lux watches dbk #dbk: ep 7 #i actually got attached to him and i do want him to be happy #but he's kind of a little bitch #i hope that by the end of the series he can move on from his crush on kao and be happy on his own

[crapyouknowme]

Highlights of 2020

Tagged by @mfshirtballs - this should definitely be interesting because I'm going to have to wrack my brain...

list your top 10 shows (bl or not) you watched in 2020 (doesn’t necessarily have to be shows that came out in 2020 though!)

tag at least 10 people you appreciated this year

tag 10 more people to continue the tag

Top 10 shows of 2020 💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

As I wrote this, I realized that this is in no particular order because I was wracking my brain.

1. Cherry Magic

What to say - this show literally carved itself into my heart and forever be such a warm memory as the year ended. I never felt such a visceral, soulful PURE LOVE at this level in a LONG time. This drama felt... real, relatable and just PERFECT? Kurosawa was such a disaster gay - to be in a one-sided love for 7 years??? WHAT. Adachi.. his clumsiness and his insecurities felt so GODDAMN relatable that I rewatched the show from ep 1-12, 4 times!! 

Thank you Cherry Magic for being such a surprising, yet wonderful gift.

2. Until We Meet Again

I know that the chemistry between Korn/In and Pharm/Dean really struck me as being so painfully beautiful. It got confusing a bit but their pain had a searing affect on me. Watch for the gut-wrenching love and stay for their chemistry.

3. He’s Coming To Me

THIS WAS THE SHOW THAT INTRODUCED OHM TO ME so I’m forever grateful because MY GOD CAN THIS KID ACT??? He just breathes pure talent. The story is bittersweet if you think about it but OH-SO-WELL-DONE by both Ohm and Singto! The story felt like fate and it can get super depressing but then it hugs you like a soft cloud.

4. 2gether The Series

I don’t think I cannot put this show - I was so beyond invested that I would watch even when subs weren’t uploaded on time hoping that I would magically understand Thai. At first, Tine was a complete doofus and in a way grew onto me as an endearing doofus. Then, when Sarawat’s story came to be - I think I literally saw my heart leap out of my throat. A must watch show!

5. 2moons2

I know people were apprehensive about a remake, as was I, but I was willing to give it a chance to see the other two couples’ stories fleshed out. BOY, I was... just invested in Ming/Kit + Forth/Beam more than I thought I would be. It was just nice to see what could have been with the original.

6. Where Your Eyes Linger

AH SHIT THIS GODDAMN SHOW WHAT THE ACTUAL HHOLY HELL WAS THIS SHOW MY GOD. MY HEART. RIPPED RIGHT OUT. DOA. DEAD ON ARRIVAL. 

Tae Joo and Kang Gook.. truly.. TRULY..  were precious and all I ever wanted to do every goddamn episode was to give them the warmest hug. They both needed it. The episodes were shorter than I would have liked but creatively (screenwriting, acting, direction, cinematograph) well-executed. I mean I felt the tangible ANGST between these two IDIOTS whenever they breathed. 

7. Your Name Engraved Herein

Why does this show exist to just hurt me. It’s rhetorical and there’s no if/way about it because even if I were to re-watch it, which I won’t because I maxed out on pain already for 2021, I would bask at the beautiful acting, direction, lighting of this show.. There were many times where I would literally be clutching my pillow with a deathly grip as I watched the pure heartbreaking sadness consume me. So many Oscar worthy scenes SO MANY. I felt like bawling so many times but I would have never finished it if I had let those flood-gates open. What a beautiful, yet macabre movie.

8. Theory of Love

oh man.. this show.. for me, THIRD carried this drama (not that the other actors didn’t do their best). He is one of the best actors I’ve seen and it’s just really refreshing to see someone with NUANCED acting. He conveys his unrequited love with a breath of fresh yet suffocating air. Khai... oh Khai... I don’t think I would ever understand you but thank you for coming around and giving love back to Third.

9. Gaya Sa Pelikula

MY first Filipino BL and it literally blew my goddamn mind?????? LIKE WHAT. The premise of it was literally ‘like a movie’ and so I stayed because I was immediately captivated. If you’re hesitant about watching it because of whatever reason, just know that Vlad and Karl have immense chemistry and truly bring justice to the story.

10. I Told Sunset About You

THIS..fucking show. I MEAN PURE TALENT exists with Billkin and PP because where in the actual fuck did they find these actors? I honestly thought I lost at least 5/7 lives during this show. It is a damn masterpiece and I’ll be damned if I don’t watch it another 11 times. Teh’s internalized insecurities are just so beautifully fleshed out, which is such a contrast to Oh-Aews struggles. To be ripped apart by circumstances at no fault of their own (well Teh had his moments), to find each other once more.. UGH CANNOT WAIT FOR THE SEQUEL.

Honorary Mention: DARK BLUE KISS

I don’t know much people on Tumblr so I’ll just tag @purple-howl @seekingstarlightinthecity @gunsatthaphan 

WHOEVER WANTS TO GO DOWN THIS PATH AND REFLECT ABOUT 2020 SHOWS. go ahead 💜💜💜

#cherry magicc #uwma #Until We Meet Again #hctm #he's coming to me #2gether the series #2moons2 #wyel #where your eyes linger #your name engraved herein #theory of love #gaya sa pelikula #itsay #i told sunset about you

[shinygoku]

Top 10 CSatM Episodes (2/2)

See part 1 here

As a few paragraphs and pictures for 10 episodes in a row makes a rather long, unruly beast of a post!

The second half of my personal preferred picks for a Top 10, though the order they’re being listed in doesn’t correspond to my favour, but the order how I watch them on my DVDs. I still suggest you read the first half of the list before this one, all the same~

Spoilers below the cut, be warned! ✂

Crater 101

So this ep is pretty much a sequel to Lunarville 7, and is followed up with Dangerous Rendezvous. Neither of those made the cut of my list though, and even isolated from those it makes a solid story. The most Space-y of all the episodes and a visual treat, cause while we mostly stuck to the stark accommodations of Lunarville 7 in that episode, here we see the grey grimy gloom of the outside of the Moon, and the sharp, delightful contrast of the Mysteron’s fantastic plastic Complex. Here, vivid marbled colours and flashing lights join inorganic shapes that suggest something of the Mysteron’s nature, but as always, nothing conclusive.

Moving away from the lovely Aesthetics, this is also a strong one for characterisation. We get some sweet interactions with The Lads and for this episode only, the Best Female Character in the whole show. Linda Nolan is the controller of Lunarville 6, a smart, capable woman who had her own cool space mission referenced and in fact critical to the plot. She is also relatable in that she catches feelings for Scarlet, so while she’s barking up the wrong tree I still have nothing but respect for her, hehee.

Eerie, tense, interesting and still somewhat funny, this is another episode that eeks into an even higher ranking list than 10, I could comfortably put it in 5 and mmmaybe 3. Though I’m not gonna be able to say definitively as the best episodes all bring something different to the table, and this may just be the strongest in the uniqueness regard.

Fire at Rig 15

I get the feeling this may be an unorthodox choice, somehow? But yeah, I just really enjoy it. It’s not a funny episode, but it is rather exciting, and contains some lovely new music and a sweet scene at the end. The Mysteron’s plot is pretty simple, but should it succeed, devastating as it would be crippling Spectrum’s operations by removing the unique type of fuel all the craft uses.

In a way, it’s kind of like a dark mirror to a typical Thunderbirds setup; whereas in that show the initial fire would be more likely to be accidental or just maybe some ne’er do well like the Hood, this time it’s as simple as the Mysterons reopening the master valve. When traditional firefighters would eventually retreat to make room for International Rescue, here Spectrum themselves have a rather passive role as a professional rolls in. And of course, said man finds himself very, very dead due to further Mysteron interference (see picture), with Black seemingly hypnotising the poor bloke into standing too close to the explosion.

From there his duplicate half buries his original corpse and later receives direct instructions from Black to suicide bomb the nearby refinery, and it’s en route to this is where the thrilling car chase takes place! Scarlet saves the refinery but the whole SPV he was driving is completely ablaze at the end of it. Like my thoughts on Point 783, I really appreciate the human touch to the last scene, with soft music as arrangements are made for Scarlet to recover from the horrible state we’re spared of seeing. Seeing how his ability to recover from death is one of the cornerstones of the whole premise, I love it when we’re allowed a bit more insight into what the other Spectrum personnel do in the situations, in this case White specifically instructing Dr Fawn to make sure Scarlet is comfortable as the process takes place.

Treble Cross

A notable and unique spin of an episode, where a rather routine Mysteron threat takes quite the turn when their assassinated target is brought back to life! It seems by the 2060′s we’ll have cool machinery to do CPR for a couple of hours as well as doctors ready to play god when they happen to drive by the car crash scene, heheh

Seriously though, this is a really fresh premise, that the villains who have been using doppelgangers for their devious schemes get the tables turned. This time the duplicate gets perma-killed while the original Major Gravener willingly participates in an undercover mission to help draw Captain Black into a trap at last... However, an easily overlooked factor in the driver who was also killed had been duplicated offscreen, so even with this amazing chance Spectrum can’t catch Black. But the World Capital, Futura City, is saved and Spectrum find the Mysterons themselves can’t tell their own copies from the original person, so it’s all in all a net gain!

Also this episode contains the World’s Happiest Clock, so that’s a neat plus.

Flight 104

We start this story on the incredible note of Captain Blue singing in the shower of the Hotel room he shares with Captain Scarlet. Scarlet then orders them both room service for some lunch. And if that sounds like the start of a fanfic plot, it may well be, but it’s also literally right there in the episode, baybee!

Charmingly domestic opening aside, I love this whole shebang. Again it’s the usual Mysterons threatening of an individual who Spectrum are bodyguarding, but the way both our heroes and villains go about this is different from the norm. Scarlet and Blue are trying to avoid drawing attention, so they spend the whole episode in normal clothes (Blue spending 1/3 of this in that comfy bathrobe!), and don’t have their comms. What’s more, they get a pair of reporters suspicious, and the two trail them looking for a Big Scoop.

When I was first watching this, I was expecting the journalists to get killed by Black to be the Mysteron Pawns, but no! They’re both fine from the start to the end! Then we find Black doing ....something.... to the Flight Crew of the titular Flight 104, but they aren’t killed either, just drugged. Instead, the Mysterons remotely pilot the plane on a slow collision course with the Alps, but are undone when an Electrical Plant interferes with their control.

As breaking into the pilot cabin had the side effect of jamming the landing gear, the plane has to crash land at the airport, but almost everyone being unharmed makes this one of the most gentle episodes of the lot... of course, Scarlet himself is still heavily implied to have been killed from the crash, but even his injuries seem pretty minor this time. And yet, it’s not lacking in excitement, as the tension of Spectrum trying to communicate with the two without their Comms and the inability to override the Mysteron’s control until that pre-established Electrical weakness kicks in holds for a while.

Inferno

Those who know of me from Thunderbirds are Go (the 2015 TV series) discussion are likely to know how much I love the episode from Season 1, Tunnels of Time. It heavily features my favourite ship in that show as they explore an ancient South American Temple which is full of peril. The temple is destroyed by the end of the episode.

So anyway, Inferno features my favourite ship in this show as they explore an ancient South American Temple which is full of peril, and tragically the temple is destroyed by the end of the episode! Heheeheheee~

Ok seriously though, eerie parallels aside this is another utterly beautiful instalment, with set design and lighting that really blows other episodes out of the proverbial water. And the pyrotechnic team clearly had fun with the seemingly unending explosions at the end of the adventure. An all-around visual feast!

Main plot is relatively simple, like in White as Snow, the Mysterons kill a Satellite and its crew and steer the reconstructed version towards their target of the week. Unlike WaS, they succeed in the end, a reminder that they’re still not to be underestimated. No human lives are lost, but the important complex and more tragically, the 800 year old temple that’s otherwise intact, get bombed to smithereens. Something something additional cost of warfare on Culture and History.

But while this is the end of my personal Top 10 list, it’s not all bad, because the Scarlet and Blue antics in the temple are utterly lovely and [chef finger kiss] splendid cinema~!

That about wraps up this Two-part post of mine! Picking 10 out of 32 is easier than 10 out of 100, but it’s still tricky as most of the episodes are very good, with only a few I’d promptly write off as a candidate for the list. And in some ways I wonder if I went about this the right way, some eps I only saw once and might feel strong enough to pip one’a the ones I did choose.

I have been rewatching each of the eps covered, and a few that didn’t make it, but my initial choice was made looking at the full list and letting my gut grab a few, having to think over more as the slots filled. Some fan favourites like Lunarville 7 came close, but I hope I’ve been able to clearly convey what it is about this selection that gave them the edge ;3

I will write further posts on Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons in the future, but after this mammoth and also the Notable Episodes list I’d quite like to enjoy it for a while without thinking about points to talk about, haha

#Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons #Captain Scarlet #Supermarionation #Gerry Anderson #CutCat Top Lists