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waitmyturtles · 6 days

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GMMTV 2024 Part 2, let's go

I've had my MULTIPLE cawfees and I'm watching the GMMTV Part 2 trailers. @my-rose-tinted-glasses, this one's for you!

TL;DR what I'm excited for: Ossan's Love with trepidation; Revamp: The Undead, I'm first in line; The Ex-Morning with open arms; Us, once we have a better sense of the screenplay; Sweet Tooth, Good Dentist, drop it like it's hot, Mark; Thame-Po, boys look gewd

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1) Ossan's Love: THE KEY WORDS BEING "INSPIRED BY"

If I take away the inclination to do any sort of comparisons to the Japanese version whatsoever ("INSPIRED BY"), I'm thrilled that EarthMix get to do romcom. Earth at this level of baka is utterly unbelievable to me, you are too smokin' hot, boy, but try to bring it, because if you do, and it's a success, then I'll be fucking really impressed.

2) Leap Day: Looks scary. Gun!

3) The Heart Killers: ...

Man. Man! First in muscle shirts and an earring, kisses pushed up against walls, etc. Where have we seen this before. Lemme guess, they all get together in the end. I would like to force myself to be excited about this somehow, Jojo on 10 Things, but. I haven't been there with JoongDunk yet, either, so actually, they seemed kinda refreshing against the FK vibes, ha. Anyway, this reignited my OF burnout, which I'm honestly trying to ignore as I get close to re-watching The Eclipse for my Old GMMTV Challenge project. @my-rose-tinted-glasses, my trust issues switch is flipped to "on."

(Get Jojo away from ships, please. He had Tay kissing Joss and Mild in the same year AFTER Dark Blue Kiss. He fucking doesn't need to use ships.)

4) Friendshit Forever: no subs, seems intense, the gals are smokin', NEW AND BOUN?! Hate to say it, but even without knowing what this is exactly about, I'm intrigued? My Boun! New and Boun!

5) Perfect 10 Liners: They're letting New Siwaj do 30 episodes, folks. I have no predictions on this one, y'all will have to tell me if it's good. Perth is back with New Siwaj directing after 2018's Love By Chance. If they give Chimon a little comedy, I'll be happy. I asked for Junior again, but maybe I wasn't expecting him to go to school, but I will admit I like JuniorMark together, and if they get to helm 10 episodes as the center stars, then good for them! Maybe that'll be the bit of this series that I watch.

6) Us: I believe in this screenplay more than how 23.5 is working out. I think Fon Kanittha needs more stuff on her plate to play around with to make a great show. This trailer was great. I'm watching My Precious the Series now (after having watched the movie this past weekend, which I was disappointed by -- the series is MUCH better, and going better than 23.5), and I'm seeing that Fon does stuff very well, background community building that gives us macro- and micro-level understandings of her characters. If those levels are Sing Harit, I'm here for it, that was an unexpected appearance, but if he's recalling the strength he brought to Todd in Not Me, then I'm a happy camper.

7) Hide and Sis: I love Piploy. Wednesday Club was a total holiday trash watch for me last year, but I loved her a lot. Looks like they're promoting this as a multi-generational show with known older actors, the approach of which I like. Everyone hates each other and maybe tries to kill each other; Keeping Up With the Thai Kardashians, maybe? Surprise, Gawin's a cop. Chimon as murderer, I'll support that.

8) Thame-Po: This looks cute. I'll consider a pre-order! Separately, I happen to adore cute Lego from LYKN, so good on those dudes for getting a show, and I like that William is pushing his boundaries outside of music.

9) Break-Up Service: I am happy that Off has gotten this kind of sneaky love romcom (?) role.

10) Revamp: The Undead: I'm here for it. I'm so happy for BounPrem. I'm happy to see some strong support dudes in Kay and Mark in this project. I haven't watched My Only 12%, so I don't know from Santa, but I know a lot of friends love him. I am totally seated. GMMTV is really the BL Machine, huh, absorbing this project.

11) Sweet Tooth, Good Dentist: Do not get me wrong, I am very excited about this; I am just wondering if Baby Ohm needs a little workshopping to get more diversity in his expressions. But I am very excited, Mark looks SO DOWN and ready to lead. View! Jimmy! I'm good with this.

12) The Dark Dice: High School Squid Game, I can't

13) The Ex-Morning: I gotta admit. This kind of moment is one of the reasons why I'm so happy doing the OGMMTVC. The big-ass smile I had on my face seeing KristSingto again, even though I really wasn't the biggest fan of SOTUS -- I've done a whole accountability turn on Krist after seeing him in Be My Favorite, and I appreciate that this show will go meta on the KristSingto background. It fucking sucks that Shadow sucked, because Singto is such a good actor, just seems like his scripts are here and there lately, but anyway. Aof Noppharnach writing this? Last Twilight ended cringe, but I'm still an Aof girlie, so I am 100% excited for this.

14) Scarlet Heart Thailand: That wasn't really a trailer, but considering the reputation the base story has in Asia and globally, I like, business-wise, what this means for GMMTV, a historical that will have appeal to multiple generations. I understand the original novel for this, Bu Bu Jing Xin, isn't translated into English, and that's a bummer, because it seems like this Thai version, which has already been dramatized in China and Korea, is based squarely on the novel. Fuck Win. These were the kinds of shows I loved as a kid when I watched Asian shows with my folks, so I have to admit that I'm intrigued, but I would have liked to see a meatier trailer.

That's it!

#gmmtv part 2 #scarlet heart thailand #the ex-morning #the dark dice #sweet tooth good dentist #revamp the undead #break-up service #us the series #thame po #hide and sis #perfect 10 liners #friendshit forever #leap day the series #ossan's love japan #i am not tagging that jojo show for my damn safety #y'all will have to tell me if that show is worth watching

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wen-kexing-apologist · 9 months

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Thai QL Favorites Game

*sigh* y'all seem to love torturing me with the terrible, terrible weight of having to pick favorites.

Tagged by @telomeke

Favorite Thai QL: Moonlight Chicken

gif by @jaehwany

This is so fucking hard because like…I Told Sunset About You, 180 Degree Longitude Passes Through Us, and The Eclipse exist and I could wax poetic about all of them, about how much heart went in to them, about how strong the performances of the actors are, about how emotionally impactful these shows were for me. Because all of them were, and they were impactful and relevant to me in so many different ways. I can say with utter confidence that I have not been as impacted by a piece of television as I was with ITSAY and 180D. But, fundamentally, Moonlight Chicken is the show that started it all for me. Moonlight Chicken is the first show that I started writing analysis about, it is the first show that I started interacting with other people on this website over, I have so many tumblr friends now explicitly because of how I engaged with this show, and how others engaged with this show. And so, regardless of how many other incredible, impactful, cinematographic masterpieces grace my screen, Moonlight Chicken will forever be my favorite because it gave me a community I didn’t have before.

Favorite Pairing: First and Khaotung

gif by @gunsatthaphan

I want to make it very clear, I do not condone fanservice. I am generally opposed to speculating about the nature of two actor’s relationships to one another outside of work. So, when I talk about my favorite pairing, I mean it strictly as scene partners. First and Khaotung are my favorite pairing because they are incredible fucking actors. First is a fucking chamelian, like seriously, I saw him in Not Me first, then in The Eclipse, and I think it took me until I looked up what else First had been in during my first viewing of The Eclipse that I even realized he had played Yok. And that blew my fucking mind because Yok and Akk are radically different characters. Yok is loud, chaotic, comfortable, and open. Akk is quiet, stressed, distressed, closeted, suppressed, and First does such an incredible job with both of those characters. After I watched The Eclipse for the first time, I went back right after to watch Not Me so I could compare First’s performance, and I was just blown away. I have since rewatched The Eclipse about six times.

gif by @choikangho

Then I saw him as Alan in MLC and again, First was able to be an asshole to Jim while maintaining a sympathetic position, he navigates so well the razor thin edge that has to be balanced when it comes to making a character that first appears as an antagonistic force but whose pain and anger is immediately understandable, and he does it with ease. It both makes me sad and happy that Aof did not know how good of an actor First was. I heard from @so-much-left-to-learn that Moonlight Chicken started filming before The Eclipse was released, and that Aof wasn’t ever on set for The Eclipse and therefore would not have really had a chance to see him playing more serious roles. I am glad that Aof acknowledging how blown away he was by First means that First actually can act and I am not just distracted by the angelic face of his. Also, this boy can fucking cry.

gif by @gaykey

Khaotung similarly, I think my first exposure to Khao was The Eclipse and then I saw him in A Tale of A Thousand Stars and I was like “Hello??????????? Where did my rat bastard go? This is a sweet ray of sunshine!” Khao is a powerhouse, and a master at displaying, expressing, and articulating grief that it radiates out of the screen. It is unsurprising to me that everyone was singing his praises in MLC and I feel some type of way about the fact that Aof knew how talented Khaotung was and trusted him to carry the heavy responsibility of portraying the grief of losing a parent so soon after Aof lost his. And everyone who said that your eye can’t help but be drawn to Khao whenever he is on screen is correct. Khaotung is a force to be reckoned with, and though you are drawn to him, I don’t think when he is not the focus of the moment that he ever steals the scene. Also, this boy can fucking cry.

gif by @thebvbbletea

I think it was @ginnymoonbeam who said that First and Khaotung elevate every role they play, and I have to agree. But further, they elevate each other, and I so enjoyed the clips I’ve seen of First and Khaotung discussing their friendship and how they had never gotten to work together, and how they had a conversation with each other when they got cast opposite one another in The Eclipse being like “this is probably the one and only time they are going to have us work together, so let’s show them what we’ve got” and they just like…demolished those fucking roles, and now are scene partners in a number of shows. I loved watching the Behind the Scenes videos where First and Khaotung describe what they have learned from each other working together, especially how First is always going back to look at the camera and to observe the scene they have just recorded so he can see how the scene is looking, take mental notes, and adjust as needed, and how Khaotung had never done that until he was on set with First.

Again, I will not speculate in any way, shape, or form about the true nature of their relationship to one another outside of work, but inside of work they do appear to be deeply deeply important to each other which is just so wonderful to witness. Regardless of whether or not their friendship is that strong when cameras aren’t rolling, I love seeing sweet, vulnerable, and strong displays of male friendship where First and Khaotung are literally crying at the thought of not seeing each other every day. Like, I just think shit like that is incredibly important for people to see in hopes that they will understand that it is okay to love your friends loudly and strongly.

Most underrated actor: Jennie

I love Jennie so much, my face always lights up when she is on screen. I think she is a great actress, and gave a very compelling performance as Mae in 3 Will Be Free. I would love to see her in more things, in larger roles.

Favorite Character: Akk, The Eclipse

gif by @fuligongs

Thankfully this is a Thai QL tag only so that I didn’t have to pit two bad bitches against each other (Wen Kexing and Akk). Ohhhhhh Akk, you are trying so hard to please everyone around you, and you are so scared, and so prone to being manipulated, and so stressed out. You have so much pressure on you, you are carrying so much doubt and fear and pain. You tried to murder your classmates, you cry yourself silly over problem you are partially responsible for. You are complicated, and suppressed, and constantly on the verge of bursting, and I want to just wrap you in a blanket, give you hot chocolate, and tell you everything is going to be okay. Akk is my beloved BL boy. I relate very hard to the composition of his character. I am not an Akk apologist, because he has done some very wrong things in his life, but I love him because of all the wrongs he has done. Because he didn’t know any better, because he had a lot to lose if he did not do his job to a satisfactory degree, because he saw a hot boy who was immediately mean to him and fell head over heels, and because Akk is constantly evaluating and questioning his worldview, and adjusting it accordingly. He has such a huge heart and he’s not quite sure what to do with it.

Favorite Side Character: Chot, Step by Step

gif by @mushiemadarame

This man has his shit together and spends too much of his precious time corralling his love sick, dumb fuck gay boy boss and his love sick, dumb fuck gay boy coworker around their enclosure.

Favorite scene in a QL: 180 Degrees Longitude Passes Through Us, Ep. 8

The farewell Wang gives to In near the end of Episode 8 is probably my favorite scene in a QL ever for a very innocuous and unexpected reason, and that is the flashback to Mon comforting Wang in the aftermath of their confrontation. Now, poor @bengiyo can attest that when I first saw the literal like…ten seconds of Wang falling against the doorframe of his mother’s bedroom, and then collapsing sobbing in to her arms, that I was sent in to the most intense emotional distress of my entire life for deeply, deeply personal reasons. I shared this entire clip because I think the confrontation itself is a marvel to behold, the way the tension has been building and building and building the entire show, and you can almost hear the whistle as the pressure finally becomes to much, and then erupts. GOD THIS SHOW IS SO FUCKING GOOD. Anyway, it took me thirty minutes to calm down and breathe properly from Wang’s “Ma” moment in this episode and because of how strongly it impacted me, it is my favorite scene.

Favorite line in a QL: “You’re allowed to be weak, at least with me” / “You don’t have to be strong, not with me”

This is a line that is very frequently said by at least one half of a pair, Akk and Ayan say it to each other in The Eclipse, King says it to Uea in Bed Friend, I’m pretty sure there is some variation of it that Praipai says to Sky in Love in The Air. It is cheesy, and tropey, sure, but boy oh boy how I love the level of safety and comfort it implies between characters. Like, fundamentally, an aspect of relationships that is constantly evaluated in romance, is who knows you better than anyone, how you show your most authentic self to the person that you love. I mean, seriously, how much of romance stories revolves around hiding parts of yourself you fear no one would ever love? How much of romance stories revolve around keeping secrets because you are scared of losing the person you have? How much of romance has their conflict arise from the revelation of the secret, but not the secret itself? How much of romance has their resolution occur after moments of complete and total honesty?

I love all variations of this line, non-verbal ones included, non-verbal ones especially: from Pran sobbing in to Pat’s shoulder in Episode 10, to Tien fainting in Phupa’s arms, to Akk and Ayan always holding one another while one or both of them cries, navigating nightmares, and panic attacks, bearing witness to abuse, etc.

All that said, the other line that has been haunting me recently is “No one has asked me how I am in awhile” said by Tawan in My Ride because oof, yeah, in many ways and in many aspects of my life I am Tawan and truer words…

Most Anticipated QL (& why): Only Friends

First being a slut. Neo being a slut. Mark being a slut. Force being a slut. Khaotung being a slut. Book being a slut. JENNIE!

This chart:

This clip from the trailer:

(gif from @ahxiang)

The playlist:

I am 0% looking forward to the fan reactions because I feel like this is a show rife for the picking around discourse, but I am looking forward to seeing what kind of a ride (haha) Jojo takes me on.

Healthiest relationship in a QL: Mork and Tawan, My Ride

gif by @save-the-data

I haven’t finished this show yet, I have the last two episodes to watch but I really love the reciprocal relationship the two of them have, I know it seems funny and ironic to say this, knowing that Mork did withhold information from Tawan and continued to try to alleviate his fears by lying to him about it, but they are open and honest with each other in a really wonderful way, I love their dynamic, and I think that as they continue to know each other, and love each other that they will only get better and better with open, honest communication, and mutual respect and care.

Most toxic relationship in a QL: Akk and Theo, Enchante

Sorry if you like this show, and sorry if you like this couple, and I know this feels out of left field when VegasPete exists, when FUTS exists, when Boss and Toy exist but like…

Theo does fuck all for Akk, he just creates the most elaborate lie, doubles down on it, triples down on it, lets four other boys try to woo him, and Akk’s devotion to Theo and Theo’s downright obliviousness to Akk’s life needs leads to Akk getting fucking FIRED FROM HIS JOB BECAUSE THEO COULDN’T FIGURE OUT HOW TO RIDE THE BUS. Like…I’m sorry, but as much as I do believe that many relationships have some inherent level of imbalance, whether that is time, emotional needs, income, life experience, etc. and that can be fine and does not inherently make a relationship terrible or “toxic”, folks I’m sorry, I have seen 60 BLs at this point and I think this is the couple that I like the least.

Guilty pleasure series: There is no such thing as a guilty pleasure, I own that shit…

My guilty pleasure series is not so much a series as it is revisiting certain scenes in different BLs that I love. I have rewatched a number of the fight scenes, make out scenes, and sex scenes in the shows I have seen: Eclipse, Bed Friend, La Pluie, LITA, KinnPorsche, Moonlight Chicken, etc.

gif by @liyazaki

There isn’t a particular order, and there is no intentional plan, but sometimes a backing track of a scene gets stuck in my head and I have to watch the scene to get it out, and sometimes I’m like “damn I miss my boys”, and sometimes @colourme-feral is an asshole and reblogs King and Uea gifs and I am seized with the urge to see them again. I tend to watch kissing scenes and sex scenes a lot in the shows that I’ve seen because I love breaking down the choreography of the scene. If you don’t know by now, I spend a lot of my time in shows analyzing the body language of the characters and there are no scenes more rich with body language to analyze than the strongest emotional moments, which come through the eruption of a fight scene, or through the intimacy of a love scene.

gif by @alexshenry

I will often watch a particular moment of a scene like four times in a row, trying to parse through every microexpression on an actor’s face, or wonder how the hell they managed to get through a scene without laughing. I love watching other people have strong emotional responses in a television show because I cannot and do not act, and therefore I am constantly amazed and curious about how a person is able to make their face move like that, make their body move like that, make their eyes shine like that, etc.

Most underrated series: He’s Coming to Me

Honestly, I would say 180 Degrees Longitude Passes Through Us is also a highly underrated series, but 180D is very heavily reminiscent of stage plays (which makes sense since the director is a playwright) and I that is not a style of performance that is as easily watched for everyone. So I can understand the physicality, and the pacing, and the space to be a barrier to actually enjoying the show. Which is why I am going to say something most other people have said…He’s Coming to Me.

I am picking this one because it is filmed in a similar style to most other GMMTV BLs which means that it is accessible to a wider audience. But it’s released was impacted by a number of different issues, including fan pushback, which is to say the least a goddamn travesty. This is a beautiful piece of media, with (unsurprising) stellar performances from Ohm and Singto. Aof knows how to do an Episode 5 roof scene, let me tell you. I have seen it on a recommended watch list from time to time, with mostly just the statement that people should watch it because there is a really good coming out scene. Which is literally all I knew about the show when I started watching it, and which promptly became a thing I got a bit miffed over, not because I didn’t love the coming out scene (I super super did) but because this show is so queer. This show is a gay trifecta (by, for, and about queers) and no one fucking told me?!

Like, seriously the only thing anyone at all had to say about this show was that the coming out scene was good? Not the way that seeing ghosts is a metaphor of queerness, not that Ohm delivers one of the most gut-wrenching screaming apologies? Not a peep have I seen about Ohm’s ramble about people’s assumptions about what and who he likes by his friends in the locker room?

Everyone needs to see this show. I know that the distribution of it prevented a lot of people from seeing it in any timely fashion, but it is available on YouTube now and I would highly, highly recommend it. This was a 10/10 show for me.

Tagging @solitaryandwandering, @colourme-feral, @ranchthoughts, @rocketturtle4

#la pluie #step by step #moonlight chicken #bed friend #mlc #hctm #3wbf #first kanaphan #khaotung thanawat #jennie panhan #ohm pawat #singto prachaya #180 degree longitude passes through us #kinnporsche #only friends #thai ql tag challenge #wka long post #Spotify

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sergeantsporks · 1 year

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Writing request: everyone talking about Hunter getting a job while they're in the human realm and I'm like what if Hunter gets a babysitting job?, and the children are curious about him and ask him every aspect of his life and also why he acts like he can talk to the bird in the window and Hunter just doesn't know what to do

“You’re sure you can handle this?”

“Of course I can. It’s a bunch of kids, I’ve taken care of worse. Besides, I want to help you and your mom out.”

Luz chuckled. “Children can be more of a handful than you’d expect. Some of the kids in Amity’s reading circle were about ready to summon an eldritch deity to bathe the world in blood and darkness!”

Hunter blinked. “Okay. Well, I’m sure these kids won’t try that.”

“Mhm. Oh, if they say they want to play Bloody Mary, say no.”

“Okay? None of the kid’s names are Mary, so I don’t think that’ll be a problem.”

Luz handed him her phone. “Text my mom when the parents get back, I’ll come get you. Have fun, don’t let them eat you, byeeeeee!”

Hunter shook his head, ringing the doorbell as she raced away.

I’ve led a conniving bunch of backstabbing coven members.

How hard can a few kids be?

The door opened, a woman in a nice dress standing behind it. She was busy pushing earrings in, but she gave him a brief smile.

“Hunter?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Awesome, hi, I’m Cara, thanks for agreeing to babysit on such short notice! Our regular babysitter fell down a bunch of stairs and broke her arm, but thank goodness Camila said she knew someone. You’re one of Luz’s friends, right?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“Oh, you’re so polite. Well, I doubt this actually needs to be said, but since you’re Luz’s friend, please don’t bring any wild animals into the house. Oh, come on in, I’ll just explain everything very quick, let you meet the kids, and then I’ll be heading out.” She stood back in the door, and Hunter followed after. “Bedtime is at 8:30, they know their bedtime routines, just prompt them to get ready at about 8:15. They’ve already eaten dinner. You guys can watch a movie, and they can play outside, but only if you’re out there to watch them, okay?”

“Okay.”

“Alright, that’s all I can think of. Do you have any questions for me?”

“What are they… not allowed to do?”

“Well, don’t let them gorge themselves on sugar or run around the neighborhood naked or play with knives or fire, but that’s about it. Normal rules, you know? Just make sure they go to bed on time, okay? They’ve got school tomorrow.”

“Alright.”

She snaked her head around the corner. “DREW! SARAH! HUNTER’S HERE!”

Hunter flinched at the loud sound, quickly followed by the pounding of feet and giggling. Two kids skidded down the hallway in their socks, pushing and elbowing each other to be first.

“Alright, this is Drew, that’s Sarah, say hi?”

“Hi, did you drive here? Do you have a car?” Drew asked breathlessly. He looked like he was about eight, and was the spitting image of his mother, freckly nose, brown, straight hair, and a long, sloping nose that was just a little bit too big for his face. “Will you drive us places?!”

“Uh—no. Sorry.”

Sarah twisted in a circle as she talked to him, pirouetting on her tip toes. She was younger, maybe five? And her brown eyes were HUGE in her face. “Do—you—like—” she broke down giggling, falling in a heap to the ground as she lost her balance mid twirl. “Do you like—do you like—” she snuffled in. “—cats?”

Hunter’s nose crinkled. “My friend has a cat, but it tends to bite and scratch me.” Not that he particularly blamed Ghost, since their first interaction had been a fight at Eclipse Lake.

Sarah gasped. “Mean kitty! Mr. Puddles is nice, you’ll like Mr. Puddles, Mr. Puddles likes everyone.” She sniffled in again. “What does ‘tends’ mean?”

“Means that it does it a lot, sweetie,” her mom interjected. She gave each of her kids a kiss on the top of the head. “Alright, I’ll see you tomorrow morning, be good for Hunter. Bye now. Thank you, Hunter.”

Ms. Cara disappeared out the door, locking it behind her. Sarah held her arms up, opening and closing her fists. “Up!”

Hunter looked up at the ceiling. Just a ceiling. Nothing weird about it. “What? What’s up?”

“She wants you to pick her up,” Drew advised wisely, “Say please, Sarah.”

“Please, up!” Sarah demanded.

“Oh. Okkkkkaaaaayyyyy…” Hunter gingerly wrapped his hands around the little girl’s waist and lifted her up, holding her out at arm’s length. “Hi?”

She burst into another fit of giggles, hiccupping, and Hunter quickly set her down before he could drop her. She ran down the hallway, then came back with a doll. She balanced the doll on her hip, wrapping its arms around her neck. “Pick me up like THIS.” She glanced at her brother, then back at Hunter. “I want to ask a secret,” she stage-whispered.

Hunter picked her up again. She was so light, barely anything. He could probably throw her up and hit the ceiling if he wanted. She clung to him, putting her face right next to his ear. “What happened to your face?” she whispered, “Does it hurt?” Her tiny, pudgy hand touched his scar. “Ow. Do you need a kiss better? Uhm. Uhm. Uhm. Mommy gives mine a kiss, so I got the magic. If you need a kiss better.”

Hunter’s chest ached, and he shook himself. “Uh…”

“I heard the question!” Drew yelled, “What happened? Did you get in a fight? Did you get in a car accident? Did you fall off of a cliff?!”

Hunter slowly walked towards the couch, sitting down. Sarah shifted so that she was kneeling on his lap, giving him a wide-eyed stare with those big, brown eyes. Drew sat on the couch next to him.

“Did you fight a criminal?”

“No.”

“How’d it get there? What happened?”

Snarling

Bright pain across his face

“Hunter, why did you get in the way?!”

“It was a monster,” Hunter said softly.

“NO,” Drew protested, “You’re making that UP. Monsters aren’t REAL.”

“This one was.”

“What did you do?” Sarah asked in a whisper, “How did you get away?”

Hunter gulped.

Kneeling still, even when his knees hurt and his back was stiff from holding position

Speaking only when spoken to

“I was very quiet. And I was very still. And it left me alone if I did that.”

“MAN,” Drew complained, “I would have FOUGHT it. I would have WHOOSH!”

His fist swooped through the air, overswinging and driving right into Hunter’s gut. Hunter doubled over with a whoof. It didn’t really hurt, it didn’t even knock the air out of him, it just startled him and made Sarah topple sideways off of his lap.

“DREW!” she shrieked.

“Oops! Oops, I’m sorry, Hunter!” Drew’s lip wobbled. “I’m sorry, it was an accident, I’m sorry!”

“It’s okay,” Hunter gasped, “It’s okay.”

“You’re not gonna tell my mom, are you?” Drew asked in a voice on the verge of tears.

“I’m gonna tell Mom,” Sarah promised.

“No!” Hunter took a deep breath. “No, we don’t need to tell your mom.”

“She’d be really mad,” Drew mumbled, “She told us to be extra good.”

This was their being “extra good?” If Hunter had been this energetic and questioning and unwieldy with his own limbs back at the coven, he’d never have even made it to the scout trials. “Yeah?”

“Yeah,” Drew grumbled, “She’d probably talk to me a long time about being careful and watching where I’m going so I don’t hurt anyone. It would be so boring.”

“I wouldn’t fight the monster,” Sara said suddenly, “I’d make it my friend, so it would say sorry for hurting me.”

Hunter’s gut clenched. “There are some monsters you can’t make friends with,” he said softly, “Sometimes, no matter how hard you try, they’ll just keep hurting you.”

“Nuh uh. I could,” Sarah insisted. She sniffed. “I could hit it, though, too. With a STICK.” She stuck her nose up in the air, looking at her brother. “Not my hands.”

“Please do not demonstrate.”

“Okay!” Sarah grabbed Hunter’s hand, swinging it back and forth. “Mo-vie! Mo-vie! Mo-vie! I wanna waaaaaaaaatch… Papunzel!”

“It’s Tangled,” Drew told her in an aggrieved voice, “It’s not ‘Rapunzel’!”

Hunter handed him the remote. “Can you get it set up?”

Drew turned the TV on. “Do you not know how TVs work?”

Hunter’s ears burned. “I do!” he lied, “Just… I don’t know how your TV works!”

Sarah patted Hunter’s hand. “This movie has no monsters,” she whispered to him, “Just Mother Gottle.”

Mother knows best, listen to your mumsy, it’s a scary world out theeeeere!

Hunter’s gut clenched as the movie progressed, and he got up, walking towards the hallway.

“Hun-ter?” Sarah asked, “Where are you going?”

“Bathroom,” he told her, moving out into the hallway and leaning on the wall, struggling to heave air into his lungs.

It’s not real.

It’s just a movie.

You’re okay.

He flushed the toilet in the bathroom and turned the sink on for a few moments before going back to the kids. Mother Gothel fell out of the window, and Drew cheered.

“Yaaaaayyyyy, she’s DEAD! EUGH!” He flopped over, squeezing his eyes shut and sticking his tongue out.

“That’s good?” Hunter asked, “You think she got what she deserved?”

Sarah sniffed. “What’s deserved mean? Like, uhm. It sounds like. It sounds like dessert, and she didn’t get dessert. She got dead.”

“Deserved is… what’s right. What should happen to her.”

“Oh. Yeah. She took Papunzel away from her mommy and daddy and made her stay in a tower. And she stabbed Fin.”

“Flynn,” Drew corrected.

“That’s what I said!”

Hunter shrugged. “Do you… do you think she loved Rapunzel at all?”

“No,” Sarah insisted, “She just wanted her magic!

“Yeah!” Drew agreed, “She was evil.”

“Yeah,” Hunter said softly, “Yeah, I guess she was.”

Sarah yawned, and Hunter checked the time. 8:10. Close enough. “Okay, time to get ready for bed.”

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOO,” Drew howled.

Sarah shook him. “You promised Mom you’d be good! Go! Get! Rrrrrrreaaaadyyyyy!”

She tugged/pushed him to his room, and a few minutes later, they were both in PJs, and they smelled like mint toothpaste. Drew dragged his feet and complained, but eventually went back to his room, and Sarah went to her room after drinking water and grabbing her doll from the ground.

“Good night!” she said brightly.

Hunter turned off all the lights except the one in the living room, and sat on the couch to wait for their mom to come back.

He heard the gentle padding of bare feet on wood floor, and Sarah came up to him with a sniffle. “Hunter?”

“Yeah?”

“Something moved, I saw the shadow on the wall. Is it the monster?”

“Oh—Sarah, it’s okay, the monster is gone, it’s not here. Here. I’ll stay right outside your room and keep guard, okay?”

“Okay,” she snuffled, shuffling back to her room. She poked her head out, and Hunter planted himself just to the side of the door, ramrod straight. Her head withdrew back into the room, and Hunter relaxed slightly. Probably it had just been his shadow. Didn’t hurt to be too careful, though. Their mother had left him in charge of their safety, and he wasn’t going to let something get in.

Hunter didn’t realize how late it was until the lock on the front door clicked, and the door swung open. He padded out into the hallway to see Ms. Cara, kicking her shoes off.

“Hey,” she whispered, “Everything go alright?”

Hunter nodded.

“They didn’t give you any trouble, did they?”

“No, ma’am. All good.”

“Alright. Awesome. Hang on, let me get your payment. Let’s see, I said twelve dollars an hour, it’s ten, I left… okay, fifty dollars sound good?”

Hunter counted up the hours in his head. “That’s a couple dollars over…”

“Ah, don’t worry about it. It’s easier. Call it a bonus for the short notice.”

She rifled through her purse, and Hunter pulled out Luz’s phone, painstakingly texting the number labelled “Mom.”

Done.

Ms. Cara handed him two twenty-dollar bills and one ten. “Do you need a ride home?”

He shook his head. “Thank you.”

“No, thank you. I know who to call in a pinch, now!”

Hunter gave her a brief smile, then stood outside to meet Luz. She was there in minutes, and she gave him a wave. “Hey! How’d it go?”

“Well.” Hunter scratched the back of his head as they started back down the road. “I’m… starting to think that maybe I didn’t have a very normal childhood.”

Luz barked a startled laugh.

“Yeah, I think you might be right on that one.”

#toh #the owl house #asks #writing requests #toh hunter #hunter wittebane #sorry i didn't get to the flapjack bit it just didn't fit in naturally anywhere

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hils79 · 7 months

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Hils Watches Moonlight Chicken - Ep 5

I forgot this drama is only 8 episodes long so I'm over halfway through now. Wild. I'll be finished in a couple of days. Feels so quick after a 40 episode cdrama

So we're seeing what Alan and Wen were like before they broke up. I'm starting to have a theory about how this is going to end...

Also, it's weird seeing Mix kiss someone who isn't Earth. I've only seen the two of them together in dramas

Damn that fight scene was brutal but holy shit First and Mix are good actors. I was so focused on what was happening I forgot about the food that's in front of me

Thank god for Gong, who is apparently the only sensible person in this drama

Okay, here's my theory now that we're under the read more tag. I'm worried that the plot of this movie (two people who fall in love but don't end up together because of other factors) is what is going to happen to Jim and Wen. GMM typically doesn't make bittersweet BL dramas but this one is bit more mature than the others. I am bracing myself just in case this movie is foreshadowing.

That's about the highest level of praise you can get from a teenage boy

It's always Engineering or Architecture

Wen's just had a 'oh my kind of step-nephew is in love with a boy' moment. He looks so fond.

They don't live in a small town or anything. I don't think it's unreasonable for Jim to ask for someone who didn't show up at his restaurant and yell at him to deal with his loan application.

Yes, let's have a very thinly veiled conversation in which Wen is compared to a pen

It's just occurred to me that I've seen First play a high school student (The Eclipse), a college student (Not Me) and now a bank manager who I assume is meant to be in his late 20s or early 30s. All of these dramas were filmed in the last 2 years. That's some range!

Come on dude, don't be a total dick. You had better send off his loan application and not just toss it in the bin.

Okay, that's interesting given my comment above. Why DID Jim go to Alan's bank? Is he hoping to get turned down?

It's like he was reading my liveblog and is now answering all of my comments :D

Gong is my new favourite. He's so done with all Wen and Alan's nonsense

He is so right and he should say it

Well, let's see. We were having a nice romantic Christmas moment, then your ex-boyfriend who you still live with and share a bed with showed up. He yelled at you, then he yelled me, then he yelled you some more and shoved you over. Oh, yeah, and this dude is also in charge of whether I can borrow the money I need to save my business.

Okay, if this was closer to the end I'd be more worried that they were going to go with the bittersweet movie ending but given that there's another 3 episodes after this one maybe it'll be okay?

Alan really does like talking in metaphors. Wen was a pen, now Jim is chicken

I was saying today I am enjoying that for the most part characters in this actually use their words instead of just leaping to conclusions and making assumptions. Not always, but way more than most dramas. I'm glad Wen and Alan have finally had the mature conversation that they needed to have for both of them to move on

I still think Alan is going to end up with Gaipa but given that they haven't even met yet that may just be wishful thinking.

A good progressive boy

Bold of you to assume you can just move in with Jim

#hils watches #hils watches moonlight chicken #hils watches tdramas #moonlight chicken #tdrama

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duhragonball · 15 days

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Neon Genesis Evangelion 17

"A solar eclipse. The cosmic ballet... goes on."

"Sir, the eclipse was last week."

"No, you're supposed to say 'Does anyone want to switch seats?'"

"I ask that every time we take the train, sir."

"No, it's a Simpsons bit. How have you never seen the monorail episode?"

"No one ever wants to switch seats with me..."

This one opens with the council of crappy old men questioning Misato about the events of the previous episode. They wanted to talk to Shinji directly, but Misato refuses to allow this due to his precarious mental state. I accidentally watched this scene early, because I thought it was Episode 16 and I clicked the wrong thing. So these guys are asking about Shinji getting swallowed up, Eva and all, by an Angel, and they want to know if it was trying to communicate with him telepathically. "What the fuck happened?" I asked, and then I realized I was on the wrong one.

So I guess I can relate to these old farts desperately trying to make sense of what's happening in this show. For them it's real life, and NERV isn't exactly forthcoming about the details. Hell, a lot of NERV personnel don't even understand any of this. Shinji was inside that Angel, maybe talking to it, and he has no idea what happened to him. The old men question Misato by proxy, and they ask some good questions. But Misato's answers mostly boil down to "I don't know, and neither could anyone else."

Like, the Angel probably contacted Shinji's mind. I think that's as valid a theory as any. Maybe the Eva was the one talking to him, but if so, it picked a strange time to do it. But I'm just speculating about what might have happened in a fictional cartoon. For the characters, this all actually happened, and they have no idea if the Angels are intelligent, if they recognize humans as intelligent, if they have the means or motivation to communicate, etc. The old man council that talks to Gendo is made up of the most powerful bigwigs in the world, from what I gather. And they only know just enough to be terrified. I can understand how they desperately wish they could just talk to Shinji and ask him what he knows, but then they'd be even more terrified to learn he's even more confused than they are.

All Gendo will say about the matter is that the Angels appear to be getting smarter, which was something I picked up on a while back. The Third Angel just rampaged its way into Tokyo-3. The Fifth Angel had a more coherent plan, and it seemed to know exactly where to point that big drill. The 11th Angel actually made it inside the NERV base and nearly won. But the 12th didn't actually attack. It's like it waited for the Evas to come to it, just so it could trap them inside itself and... do whatever it did. It seems likely that it sacrificed itself just to complete that task. If that's true, then it isn't just acting independently, as some of the characters believe. If I'm right, the 12th Angel was setting up a strategy that will be carried on by the 13th, and so on.

Speaking of the 13th Angel, did you know NERV has a second branch in Nevada? No? Well, it doesn't matter, because it's not there anymore. It mysteriously vanished, along with thousands of staff, a new Eva, Unit-04, and everything else in an 89km radius. This wasn't an explosion, so Ritsuko theorizes that this was accomplished by the same "Sea of Dirac" effect the 12th Angel used to swallow up Shinji. So it's a safe bet that an Angel took out NERV-02 in a single stroke.

There was also another Eva being built in the United States, Unit 03, and I guess that one was already completed, so they're shipping it to NERV's home office in Japan. But Unit 04 was special, I guess. They were installing some new engine in it, and that's all gone now. Ritsuko begins to despair, like she's worried that anything less than five Evas won't be enough to survive what's coming.

Gendo, however, seems confident that the NERV base in Tokyo-3 is all they need, and Unit 01 is the only Eva they need. Unit 04 and the second branch were unexpected losses, to be sure, but he sees them as being of no consequence. So why did NERV bother building them in the first place?

I think I'm starting to get the picture here. I don't know what they're talking about when they refer to the "Dead Sea Scrolls", but it sounds like a set of predictions about future events, and NERV's mission is to navigate humanity through some predicted crisis. But Gendo seems to be the only one who really understands how any of this works. Ritsuko and Clownshoes seem to have some vague grasp of his plan, and maybe Rei knows a thing or two, since she seems to be an important part of it, but I doubt any of them have the complete picture. Then you have characters like the crappy old men, Misato, and Kaji, who know just enough to be concerned.

So I think the NERV branch in the U.S., plus whatever facility they had in Europe, were originally set up as failsafes, in case Tokyo-3 ever failed. But as the plan has progressed, it's become clear that those foreign offices only continue to exist to placate frightened governments. The U.S. insisted on being involved in building Units 03 and 04, and Gendo let the baby have their bottle. He doesn't even need those American Evas, he just let them work on it so they'd have something to do while he handled the important work.

That S2 engine was somewhat important, but this doesn't bother Gendo either, since the designs are still on record in Germany, so they can always build another.

Gendo and Ritsuko discuss the arrival of Eva Unit 03 while they look at a "dummy plug". Basically they built an entry plug with a computer recording of Rei's brain patterns. The idea is to load this thing, empty, into an Eva, and it will activate without a pilot. Ritsuko is skeptical that the Eva will be of much use without a human to operate it, but Gendo doesn't care. As long as it merely activates, that'll be enough for him.

However, the Dummy Plug isn't ready for use just yet, so they still need a pilot for Unit 03, which means they have to recruit the Fourth Child. So is this what Rei's been doing inside this contraption they're looking at? Is it recording her brainwaves to upload into the dummy plug?

But how can they locate the Fourth Child in time? After all, there are very few humans with the right parameters to be compatible Eva pilots. That's why the Marduk Institute was created, to carefully screen potential candidates from all over the world-- ha ha just kidding, there is no Marduk Institute. They put all the likely pilots in the same school in Tokyo-3. And they already have a guy picked out, it's Toji Suzuhara.

I'm skipping around a little, but Misato finds the whole thing fishy, because they just happened to get a Fourth Child lined up right when Unit 03 was ready to be delivered, so she asked Ritsuko about it and Ritsuko was evasive, saying the official paperwork from Marduk would be delivered tomorrow. So Misato asks Kaji what he knows, since he's secretly working for the Japanese government to spy on NERV, and he tells her there never was Marduk Institute or whatever. NERV identifies and selects the Eva pilots themselves, and they use "Marduk" to make it look like there's some convoluted process to it.

I think it probably also struck Misato suspicious that the Fourth Child just happens to be living in Tokyo-3, attending the same classes as the First, Second, and Third Chidren. It's like they already knew he was pilot material from the beginning, and they've been keeping him close by just in case the need arose.

A bunch of people moved out of Tokyo-3 after the battle in episode 2. But Suzuhara and Big Rigg Mahoney stayed, and I'm pretty sure that was because they had family who couldn't leave the city. It's very likely that NERV quietly arranged for certain families to be tied to the city, so that their children would be here when needed.

Ha ha! Look at Ritsuko's coffee mug! That's adorable! Cat cat cat cat!

Anyway, there's a scene where Suzuhara has to deliver papers from the school to Rei, since she's been absent for a while. He doesn't want to go alone, so he asks Shinji to accompany him, although I think that one girl with the pigtails was hoping he'd ask her to join him. Suzuhara is amazed to see a girl's apartment look so dirty, but Shinji's been here before, so he's probably just relieved to see she threw out all the bloody bandages. He cleans up her trash, and when Rei finally comes in, she seems genuinely touched by this gesture. She even thanks Shinji, then later reflects on her words of gratitude. She never even said thank you to Gendo before, and she actually likes and respects him.

Also, Kaji reveals his secret hobby to Shinji: growing watermelons. I have no idea what the point of this is, except that gardening is both a source of pleasure and toil, and while Kaji finds the experience rewarding, Shinji can only think of the pain involved. Well, pain and hardship have some value in the grand scheme of things. As Kaji says, suffering can make it easier for you to be kinder to others.

So you might be wondering where Big Rigg Mahoney's been this whole time? Well, he was off on a trip. I think he toured some old battleship or something. Anyway, as soon as he comes back, Suzuharu gets summoned to the principal's office, and Big Rigg Mahoney's like "What'd you do now?" Ha ha! It's funny because he doesn't know his friend is getting drafted to fight in the robot war!

See, this episode doesn't actually come out and say Suzuhara's the Fourth Child. I mean, it's pretty obvious from the way they keep cutting to Suzuhara after conversations about the new pilot. But they never spell it out. I already know, though, becuase when I was looking up these guys' names so I could tag them on this blog, I ended up finding out Suzuhara is not only chosen to be the Unit 03 pilot, but he also dies later on. So that's why I didn't want to go any further to look up the other kid's names, and that's why I started calling him Big Rigg Mahoney.

Ironically, Big Rigg Mahoney wishes he could be the next Eva pilot. He asks Shinji to recommend him to Misato, but Shinji doesn't have that kind of pull. Neither of them know Suzuhara got the job yet, but when they do find out, Big Rigg Mahoney would probably be kind of envious. Hell, for all we know, Big Rigg Mahoney might actually get the job later on. I refuse to look it up and find out! But I do know there's going to be an opening soon...

But Suzuhara does know he got the job, and the look on his face says it all.

He's still sitting there hours later, and the school rep, who tried to go with him to Rei's place earlier, asks him to finish up his afterschool duties, but he's too bummed out. She mentions how he buys school lunches because he has no one to cook for him, and she says she cooks for her sisters and always makes too much, so...

Suzuhara offers to help her dispose of her leftovers, which is kind of this weird thing where she's doing him a favor, but neither of them want to make it look like a favor. This is powerful stuff, very subtle. Suzuhara's not looking forward to this Eva stuff, maybe because he's sat in the plugsuit with Shinji during a battle, and because his sister is still in the hospital from the Third Angel battle. Oh, right, he visits her twice a week because the rest of his family can't get out there as often, so if he gets killed (ha ha! "if".) there's be no one to visit her at all. I think he's seeing Pigtails here as though for the first time. Before, Suzuhara had his whole life ahead of him, but now he realizes he needs to make whatever connections he can in life, while there's still time to do it.

Meanwhile, Asuka tries to bug Kaji while he's working, and she find out about the new Eva Pilot. She doesn't take this well at all, which... I mean, Asuka never takes anything well, but I think in this case she's upset because Suzuhara being the next pilot just proves there's nothing exceptional about the job. In Germany, she probably believed--and might have been told-- that her compatibility with Unit 02 was a product of her skills and intellect. And she gradually came to recognize Rei and Shinji as peers, albeit begrudgingly. I mean, Rei was the first, and Shinji has the combat experience and stats to back him up.

But to Asuka, Suzuhara is just Some Guy. He didn't go to a fancy school; he's not a savant True Believer like Rei, and he's not the miraculous son of the NERV Director like Shinji. Suzuhara is just some dude she goes to school with, so how does he rate? Well, it's Episode 17, and I still don't know how Eva pilots are chosen, but I'm pretty sure it's just some sort of brainwave pattern that only so many people have. As long as the readouts are in-spec, they could slap anyone in there. Shinji had never seen an Eva before and he survived. Hell, NERV even has plans to run Evas with no pilot, save for a computer simulation of Rei's brain. It really doesn't matter who they put in there as long as it runs.

So naturally, this is huge blow to Asuka's pride. She doesn't understand. What is there to understand, Asuka? You thought you were a pilot, but all you really are is an ignition key.

And that's the episode. Once again, a real tour-de-force, which makes me wonder what the hell was going on with those first 13 episodes. At least now I understand why they've been doing that Rebuild of Evangelion thing. As popular as NGE is, it's an uneven production at best.

And the next episode looks like it's gonna be bleak as fuck. Ha ha! Misato promising fan service in that same cheery voice gets darker and darker every time she says it! This is gonna be terrible! Now this is what I signed up for!

#neon genesis evangelion #2024ngeliveblog #shinji ikari #toji suzuhara #rei ayanami #asuka langley soryu #big rigg mahoney #misato katsuragi #ritsuko akagi #clownshoes #gendo ikari #kaji ryoji

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electronickingdomfox · 5 months

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"The Starless World" review

Novel from 1978, by Gordon Eklund. It begins with Kirk reading "War and Peace" in bed, when he gets a call from Spock: they've found a lone shuttlecraft, with a man inside who claims to be Jesus Christ. Okay, you got me hooked! I found this novel quite enjoyable and it kept my interest at all times. It's also well-written, and offers a rare glimpse in the characters' private lives from time to time. My main complaint is that the ending was way too rushed, as if the author realized he had a limit of pages and had to solve everything quick, with a literal deus ex machina.

Some spoilers under the cut:

Well, it turns out the man inside the shuttlecraft is not Jesus Christ, but Thomas Clayton. A previous roommate of Kirk in the Academy, whom he had to report for cheating at exams. The man feels quite a lot of resentment for Kirk, but he has also turned completely mad since his disappearance many years ago. He claims to be actually dead, and be the envoy of a god, Ay-nab. He's put inside an isolation cell, but escapes after knocking McCoy out (this doesn't stop McCoy from doing what he does best, even with a bandaged head: mill around the bridge to annoy Spock).

The Enterprise is suddenly attracted by an inescapable force, and sucked into a Dyson sphere. This is a massive hollow sphere with a star at its center. Inside, it's like those snow globes, where there's a little world in the middle of the glass ball. Something like that but in giant scale. Upon beaming down with Sulu and Uhura, Kirk finds out the world, called Lyra, is a literal paradise. They also come into contact with the natives of the only village that seems to exist there. The natives insist that the star inside the sphere is their god, Ay-nab, something that Kirk can't believe at first.

It soon becomes apparent that something's rotten in Lyra, though. The natives talk about the Strangers, people that their god claims for himself, to feed on them. They're more active at night, like zombies. Also, the constant vigilance of the star, only interrupted by the brief eclipses caused by the inner world's moons, starts feeling truly as a "God is watching you" situation. A Klingon ship has been trapped inside Lyra too. And the Klingons seem all too friendly with Kirk, and too eager to escape that place. The reason: Lyra is travelling straight into a black hole.

That's as far as the plot goes, which I don't feel the need to spoil any further. It's not particularly original, but it's entertaining. Many things are similar to the TOS episode "For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky". I have to give props to the "lady of the day" in this novel, Ola. She's quite likable, brave and useful, and gets to save Kirk (and everyone else) in the end. Ever since Kirk rescued her from a beast, she insists that Kirk is her husband (though he says they're just good friends). She's described as pretty, and Kirk's rejection is probably due to the fact she's written more as a little girl than an adult. Ah! By the way, she's also literally a white-furred chimpanzee, like all the other natives of Lyra.

One thing I liked in this book are those little scenes with the crew, where nothing relevant to the plot is happening, but that flesh them out as persons. Sulu teaches magic tricks with cards to Ola, yet another weird hobby he got into lately. Kirk, McCoy and Uhura are bored in the bridge and start an increasingly absurd debate about the meaning of the phrase "a needle in a haystack" (you know, that kind of conversations that pop out among coworkers when you're tired and bored and becoming a bit unhinged). McCoy tries to tell Spock a riddle, but Spock interrupts him all the time to point out all the inconsistencies in his tale. And it's so obvious he's actually messing with him. Actually, Spock is kind of funny in this book. He's in full logical mode, but with this underlying sarcasm that lets you know he's quite a bitch deep inside. There's also a surprising amount of backstory for Uhura. We learn a lot about her childhood in Senegal and her father (who she gets to meet! well, kind of...). I think that TOS writers in this era had a greater leeway to invent details for the characters, with less constraints from established canon. Unfortunately, the rushed ending doesn't explore the aftermath of Uhura's plot in the novel.

Spirk Meter: 2/10*. Very, very little. But there's one point where Kirk informs Spock that he's going to meet the Klingons alone, and Spock becomes suddenly quite emotional about the danger (as happened in "Devil in the Dark", when Kirk's alone with the horta). In fact, Kirk is disturbed by the emotional display, and says he didn't know about the depth of Spock's feelings on the issue.

Apart from this, Spock leans on McCoy to smell his breath and check if he's drunk. Which, for a Vulcan, suggests an awful lot of familiarity. They're a bit clingy with each other while on the planet, as well.

Also, there's a comedic bit, where Kirk wakes up in sickbay after going through hell, and finds Scotty's face, hovering over him, "the most gorgeous sight he had ever witnessed in his life".

*A 10 in this scale is the most obvious spirk moments in TOS. Think of the back massage, "You make me believe in miracles", or "Amok Time" for example.

#star trek tos #star trek novels #novel review #k/s #spirk

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visionthefox · 3 months

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small sams rant (I swear this one is dumb- but I need to let it out) SPOILERS I TALK ABOUT THE NEW EP. (specially Solar x Moon) RESUME : Im bothered over a simple one off scene that may not mean anything in the long run and can actually be debunked at any time -but my ass feels like complaining today..

I dont know how to feel about it. no I dont care for Jack, the use of new models is bound to happend, and the lore is mid- is to be expected no- what bothers me is the first SECONDS of it.. when Jack list the Celestial Family- he added Solar .. and.. that is bothersome for me ppl didnt used to have an issue shipping Solar and Moon., sure maybe it was just a crack ship or too small to be noticed, yet as time passed it was clear the two had created a bond.. now.. this bond could be seen as anyhing we wished for.. until Earth had to "ruin it" in a way- pushing (?) Solar into accepting to be call something related to family- as one can see in the ep Lunar is in huge trouble in VRCHAT- (but amma be honest? I know of this clip by this vid , since I avoid anything with Earth on it,but that clip is important) He is not really so eager to do- sure maybe is just Solar being Solar (also- I view that as pushy- you can tell me is not- but this is how I see it- Im the problem) but you may think! someone who pretty much had lost his whole family as he was force to leave them -and now is living under someone else place- would be at least happy to be accepted as family, if not just show gratitude -he can express happiness! he can laugh.-he for sure can say "oh.. well.. thanks you" and move on but what does he say? "you dont have to actually use a family tree for this- im just " and she cut him off - sure her intention may be good but she is so pushy about it .. he comes to actually say he may feel like a cousin and soon enough doesnt like the sound of that.. well he said "that does not roll of the tounge" and I googled what does it mean, so is not like he is not comfortable but also.. is not like He is %100 up to that tittle.. ALL OF THIS TO SAY - I feel like due to the "drama"? issue, with the ship and Earth now saying he is "part of the family" -whoever is on control of the channel had to take a decision.. and this may be it.. (no I dont think the VA sare in control. they are just VAsthey do a job) Solar can be classified as "family" - yet.. family can mean different things- from where Im from- we call say "you are like family to me" as a way to say "I feel close to you" but actually view the person as a good Friend- but the thing is, the show may want to just set Solar as family- and so avoid any if not all mention to a ship (and I know the term is often used for romantic, but I did see ppl like them to be both ace who just like each other) and I feel.. bad.. I feel like by doing this they ruin the fun of actually having a windows open for the joy of "what if" scenarios.. is not like ppl cant just make and AU like when ppl did to be able to ship Sun and Eclipse, just a silly AU to let loose- (silly hero and tamed villain type of thing) but yea.. idk.. Solar as actually a friend felt more right than him being "family"- dude is not one to actually ask ppl to do much bonding- nor he seems to actually be interested on these familiar things (the Christmas was more as a wholesome thing- in my eyes- (but also I didnt see if fully-again, I dont watch anyting with Earth on it)) but yea.. idk- is not even a big deal. but Im in love with their dymanics as besties.. (or lovers~)

#the sun and moon show #tsams #sams rant

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fillipquesender · 24 days

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I'm having trouble keeping up with all three shows so I'm curious about that one thing you said- what did Ruin say that made him defendable? :o /gen

This is off by memory so there might be so.e stuff I can't remember correctly bare with me 💔

Heads up none of this is to justify what he did, its just to show that he isn't pure evil like how I've seen some people be treating him

Okay uhhh theres the fact that he actually had a good reason for all this (taking down the creator council), which makes him morally grey. Whilst it did lead to the death of so many dimensions, it did stop a lot of harm from happening.

Uhhhsehehs theres the fact that he didn't want to kill solar. Lots of people keep overlooking this and say he meant to kill solar but he didn't, he said he did reshearch to see if there was a way to not kill solar but there sadly wasn't.

Theres obviously also all the trauma he's experienced (watching everyone he know in his dimension go insane due to the virus), which adds to his hatred of the creators.

The fact that he didn't want to kill innocent people but he had to so his plan would work. He said himself that he hates himself for it ("I hate myself as well. All this killing and trickery.. it does get to me." - Why was eclipse made)

THE GODDAMN FACT THAT HES NOT PURE GODDAMN EVIL. I SEE SO MANY PEOPLE TREAT HIM LIKE HE IS BUT HES NOT HES MORALLY GRAY.

I haven't watched the newer videos yet so I don't know what else there is, I ended up fixating of laes gaming videos rather than actual lore videos 🔥🔥

#dca #fnaf #sun and moon show #tsams #sams #the sun and moon show #sams cosmos (ruin)#sams ruin #tsams cosmos (ruin)#tsams ruin #theres also the slight possibility that all this acting made him loose his actual personality (me fr)#because if hes supposed to be canonical eclipse then that would make sense #if theres anything wrong on here then oh well #im still gonna defend him

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chibipandaao3 · 1 year

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Thoughts on Between Us as a former swimmer and lifeguard.

• I’ve mentioned before, but I’ll say it again because I find it comical and endearing, their form when diving or swimming. It’s very cute and not great. And I can’t blame the actors for that. I was taught how to dive off the blocks (into shallow water) when I was maybe 12 so I’ve had lots of practice - and even I’ve biffed it.

• I’ve seen some people say that Team’s brother (Ton?) and Team struggling/drowning is unrealistic - no. In fact, that’s one of the most REAL drowning scenarios I’ve seen in media. Even as a lifeguard - 6 yrs under my belt, trained, etc. - my boss always said “don’t try to save someone if you aren’t on the clock” Why? Because oftentimes the victim unintentionally drowns the savor…it’s super common sadly.

• Team’s cramp/swimming alone/drowning - they did a good job of this in the show (but from what I’ve read it’s more explained in Hemp Rope) but a real talented swimmer is not going to be in THAT much danger normally. Why? We aren’t afraid of drowning, so generally we wouldn’t panic and therefore would be fine. Roll onto our back, tread water with single leg and arms, reach for the Lane line, etc. OBVIOUSLY, 2 other things are at play here with Team. 1) he’s exhausted, in part because of his extra practicing but also his chronic insomnia (both of which are more highlighted in the book) and 2) he does have a fear of drowning. So I think his panic is pretty justified all and all. And, yeah, never swim alone but certainly NEVER DIVE alone. A great swimmer will likely be fine even in an emergency like Teams BUT if you hit your head diving…which I’ve seen happen…no, no swimming alone please and thank you.

• this one is a strange one, but Win’s jewelry. Now obviously this is a club AND since they discussed things like being the country rep (hinting at Olympics territory) it’s kinda a mute point but I find it funny. In the US (at least at the high school level) you can’t wear jewelry at all during meets 😂 like I got my nose pierced before season once and, oh boy, I had to take it out for every event and then run to the locker room to shove that thing back in…it was a thing…

• Win being able to get Team out - based on the trailer it’s seems safe to assume that Team doesn’t fully lose consciousness BUT it is so hard to pull a person from the water by yourself! Like it’s not fun at all.

Related but unrelated rambling; Rescue Breathing =/= CPR. Now things might have changed since I was last certified but damn 😂 no one seems to get this. CPR is if the heart stopped beating - you don’t want to go crack a rib on someone if it isn’t necessary. Most of these fics Win (or anyone) would not be doing CPR (unless they’d checked and found no pulse). 😆

Okay………that’s it for my rambles. I really should be working but I’m just dead so this is what I decided to do. If anyone actually read this 😆 have a wonderful day and I hope you’re looking forward to Sunday cause I am! Hoping to trick my bestie into watching all the episodes with me, but we gotta finish The Eclipse first haha.

#between us the series #Between Us #Hemp Rope #TeamWin #WinTeam #A swimmer rambles to the internet because they know no one in real life who would care or understand #with the knowledge that the internet also neither cares nor understands and therefore this is essentially words into the void #oh well! have a great day

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absolutebl · 2 years

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This Week In BL - The Rankings have CHANGED

Oct 2022 Wk 3

Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs. Organized by which ones (in each category) I’m enjoying the most.

Ongoing Series - Thai

My Only 12% (Fri iQIYI) 11 of 14 - pretty disingenuous of iQIYI to muscle in an ad for its own app and not show it immediately serving ads to the boys. In other news, I still love Peak on screen, the years have not changed my delight in that boy. (I may need to do a Make it Right rewatch.) The question is does Cake feel left behind and jelly as a friend or is he actually in love with Eiw? And if he is, does he realize that about himself? The conflict is so good with this show, so well established, entirely based in characterization, and not an ounce manufactured. I couldn’t be happier it this BL got handed off this this pair, it was made for SantaEarth. I do think, since we got a ton of family life establishment (not to mention Love of Siam reference) that the big separation for these two will be family driven in ep 13. But first we get a whole ep of adorable boyfriends! Yay!

Big Dragon (Sat Gaga) 3 of 8 - bathroom drama, naturally. This is a true enemies to lovers, these two spy on and bully each other. They even talk about non-consent. It’s the harshest version I’ve seen since China existed the field (aside from the Japanese dark stuff, of course). But also this show is using actual BDSM to drive plot and character (not just touring kink), the stuff Unforgotten Night couldn’t even dream of and Mame has never bothered to research. We got Dom voice, roll play, service submission, orders, humiliation. It all turned out to be a tease but the point was also to show these two have compatible kinks (which means compatible intellectual and physical chemistry, so the narrative arc is going to be around emotional chemistry) and that they both know the scene. Someone behind the camera knows what they’re filming too.The way these two transition between anger, resentment, titillation, and flirting (and the way, with kinksters, this can all be the same thing) is really well done. I guess what I’m saying, ultimately, it that this BL is proving itself to be a lot more sophisticated than I expected. I could not have loved the Domme rep more, quite frankly. I’m excited for next week as Big is playing the faen fatal and I love him.

The Eclipse (Fri YT) 11 of 12 - A very tense 11 doom ep but also... off. I did see the twist for the teachers but not the students. That’s because the teacher twit was set up but the student betrayer twist was... not. If Thua was so into the truth why never tell it himself? The resolution was abrupt and most of the second half very odd. It made me wonder if this had a really intended to be a 15 episode arc, in which case they compressed the last 5 eps into 2? The pacing felt totally off from all the previous eps and the pool scene felt like reused footage.The rapid fire character and relationship changes and shifts in arcs was rushed and confusing. But the flirting and claiming was cute, I guess. Also horrible suspicion we may get a sad end now? Truth or another round of Bad Buddy suckering?

Ai Long Nhai (Mon iQIYI) 4 of 10 - I don’t know what to say about this show. I’m enjoying it but I’m pretty sure I shouldn’t be. (This happens to me a lot with pulps.)

Ghost Host, Ghost House (Weds YouTube) 3 of 8 - Honestly I speed though all the ghost stuff for the few BL moments. But it’s worth it because Pluem delivers the softest most seductive krap ever and watching them flirt over noodles is an unalloyed pleasure.

Remember Me (Sun Gaga) 2 of 8 - The BL parts are good, and JaFirst excel. But it moves incredibly slowly with way too many establishing shots, just like The Yearbook. If it’s Mean directing again, he’s gotta shake of the New-yoke right quick.

Hard Love Mission (Sat WeTV) 1-2 of 4 - it’s a short run, so what not? Well because the subs are terrible, everyone looks like they should be in high school, the acting is awful, there’s a dumb feen fattale, the actor/seme seems to have been chosen on the basis of height not talent, and they already leaned in to awkward in a big way. On the bright side the uke is older then the seme and v cute, tropes are dropping thick and fast (there’s only one bed!), and the size difference is vast (if that’s a thing you’re into). All in all, it’s not good but what the hay?

Work from Heart (Thurs YouTube) 5 of 7 - I like the lead pair better in this show then their last one but its nothing on JeffGame, and the lack of plot is challenging for me.

Love in the Air (Thurs iQIYI) 9 of 13 - I still mostly think Pai’s a douche, but it’s nice to see him taking care of Sky, especially as Sky clearly needs someone to do it so badly. Still Sky could do better... and Pai still has to. DUMPSTER FIRE TRASH WATCH ALONG HERE.

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

My Tooth Your Love (Taiwan Fri Gaga & Viki) 3 of 1 - Honestly it’s such a relief to watch something from Taiwan in amongst all the Thai folderol. I might be liking this that much more because it’s restful by comparison. I could not be happier with the bratty rich kid kissing a waiter to make a point to his parents. I know, consent, but also... great characterization. I fucking love the ultra-grumpy bar manager character. And the dentist with the sad eyes who worries too much. And our poor boy who needs a therapist more than a dentist. They are all so awkward and broken and CUTE. GAH!!! (I’m getting very @heretherebedork level emotional about this one.)

Roommates of Poongduck 304 (Korea Thurs Viki) 2 of 8 - Poor JaeYoon, HoJun is so mean to him. The camera work in this drama has much more voyeuristic gaze than most KBL. In other words, the directing of this show makes it feel a bit more genuinely gay than a lot of the other BL that comes from Korea. It is fun to watch these 2 slowly become friends. I wish we had enough time to watch them also slowly fall in love. But since this is KBL, that part will be a rush job.

Kabe Koji (Japan Mon Viki) 3 of 10 - I guess this episode was a little bit better. The show is just so painfully EXTRA. As is often the case with Japanese stuff, I keep feeling like there's bones of great story in this drama. And I get glimpses of it, but then it’s covered again - like tasty steak smothered in Kewpie mayo. Oh, Japan.

It’s Airing But I’m Not Watching It

War of Y 20 eps - it’s just all too much for me.

My Roommate 32 eps of 2 minutes each + terrible production values? - I’m not bothering.

Fahlanruk (Sun GaGa) 12 eps - I cut my losses at ep 5. Someone can tell me if the 2nd half is worth it, after it finishes, but I’m not gonna bother to watch it every week. I don’t like any of the couples and the fujoshi framing is repulsive under the context of a narrative trying to be this authentically gay. I’ve lost all patience.

Oh My Sunshine Night 20 eps - I’m scared it’s gonna be sad, so I’m waiting for spies to tell me it’s safe, so far reported to be quite the soap opera.

To Sir With Love AKA Khun Chai 28 eps - dito

2 Moons 3 Thai (Mon ??) 10 eps - I searched for it in a lacklustre manner but couldn’t find it legally anywhere convenient. I will watch it if it’s easy to do so. Possibly as a binge. Rumor is it’s quite banal.

SELF (Thurs ??) - same again without any rumors

Wish Me Luck (Sat ??) - seems to have be delayed into next year

In Case You Missed It

That’s Work From Heart, The Staircase is back.

Gossip

I’ll have more for you next week as I process the Nov release announcements.

UWMA rewatch! The plan was: one UWMA ep a day for the 17 days before Between Us launches on Nov 6. However, I missed the start date (stupid work) so I’ll start tomorrow (Mon 24) and double down on the days when there’s no other BL airing (see calendar below). Wish me luck!

The UWMA Praise Watch along (opposite of a Trash Watch) will happen here on this blog.

Next Week Looks Like This:

October 2022 line up is here.

This week’s best moments?

Ai Long Nhai serving up the Gay Advice Dads!

That’s Aye for ya, brutally honest.

I love a bit of self reference.

I will love her forever. (Big Dragon) Viva la bisexual rep!

Look could we please get a BL featuring this boy? I love him.

Gay identity ownership in BL is still so rare, I cheer every time it drops. (My Only 12%)

Ouch.

(last week)

Current earworm? N.Flying - The Night (Pairs well with My Only 12%)

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hanasnx · 11 months

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eclipse

summary: someone tries to take advantage of senator chuchi’s childish crush on a jedi hero.

word count: 0.9k

character(s): anakin skywalker x riyo chuchi, ahsoka tano, padmé amidala, and obi-wan kenobi (mentioned)

notes: my pinterest board for rinakin

warnings: anakin being a little manipulative, ahsoka annoyed with riyo’s crush (as a friend)

“I admire him, nothing more.” Riyo muses a reply to an invasive question, watching longingly as The Hero With No Fear converses with her dear friend Senator Amidala.

Ahsoka tilts her head at her companion. “Oh, my mistake. Seemed like you can’t take your eyes off of him.” The layer of sarcasm goes unnoticed by the Pantoran, nervously wringing her fingers in front of her. Still, her gaze remains, despite Ahsoka’s verbal suspicions.

From what Riyo gathers, Padmé says her farewells, and departs, leaving the Jedi General to pensively idle. “Do you think he’s coming over here?” Riyo asks, anxious, and pivots her attention to the padawan for the first time since Anakin wandered within her view.

Ahsoka raises her tattooed brows. Toying with the situation out of annoyance for her friend’s denial, “Probably. You better get out of here while you still can. He looks mad.” An empty warning that Chuchi regards severely.

“What do you mean? Genuinely? Oh—“ Interrupted before she can make her getaway, Anakin invites himself to the pair, and catches her off-guard.

“Senator Chuchi,” he greets, a polite tone of voice and Riyo falls silent. “A pleasure to see you again.” His words heat her up like a hearth, and she swears he could hear her heartbeat. Her tension intensifies when he takes her hand in his to clasp. Further still as he palms atop hers. Both appendages, in such a sincere form of reception. She could hardly scramble for thoughts let alone words. There’d been rumors flitting about how the Jedi Knight had metal for a right hand; she could feel it now, underneath her weak grasp.

All she manages in response is a subtle, acknowledging nod. “General Skywalker.” she concedes in a near whisper. Praying he’d release her. Paranoid he feels her sweat through his leather gloves. The connection severs, and Riyo tears her gaze off of the Jedi, gluing it to the red flooring, in order to catch her breath.

Ahsoka clears her throat loudly. “Master, the ship is prepared. If you’re all done here…” she trails off, hoping for Anakin to interject and finish the sentence to confirm his answer.

Luckily, he does. “Thank you. Wait for me there.”

A sigh, “Yes, Master.”

Anakin’s eyes follow his padawan to ensure she exits. “Forgive her indelicacy, we’ve had minimal rest in recent days.”

Riyo didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary. Ahsoka is her ally, which comes with a number of jobs. Such as pulling Riyo’s head out of the clouds. The largest, and most distracting cloud, being the one who stands in front of her now.

“Oh, no problem. No worries.” After the dismissal, there’s nothing left to say. Her mind doesn’t work like it should, words won’t form. An awkward reticence occurs and she contemplates tearing her skin off. “Oh, oh, goodness, I’m sorry. How insensitive of me, how are you doing, General Skywalker? I haven’t seen you since…”

“Since Pantora.” he completes for her, and she dwells on the dimple that’s created when his lips curl. Get a hold of yourself, Ri, this is unprofessional. “Busy. A lot to do and not a lot of time to do it. You’re looking well.”

Looking well? In what way? Healthy? Or… or beautiful? She’s getting carried away. Her mouth is so dry, she worries she’ll hitch if she tries to speak. How embarrassing that would be. She clears her throat. “Thank you,” She condemns her weakness. “Um, you as well.” So handsome. Perfect, muscular form and broad shoulders encased in stylish Jedi robes he’s altered to his preferences. His hair had grown out, curling around his neck. Her hand itches to run her fingers through it, and her cheeks burn at the idea of actually following through with it.

“I’ve been meaning to speak with you directly for some time now. I apologize again, it’s been too long.”

She’s quick to derail that notion. “No, of course not,” Talk to me anytime. It’s never too late.

“The Talz, Obi-Wan seems to think there’ll be no problems, but I can’t shake a feeling. The assimilation, this is off the record, how’s it coming? Peaceful?”

The subject being changed allows Riyo to fill into herself, to shift her mindset towards her career. “Oh, yes. Near seamless. They’re responding well to our scouts, everything’s running smoothly in our dig sites… What were you looking for?”

Anakin pauses, and folds his arms behind his back, rounding her and she follows. “Is there a reason you said, ‘near seamless’?”

“Um, I suppose I was keeping the possibility open, didn’t want to be too sure that…”

Anakin advances on her, slowly, but enough for her to register how close in proximity he is, his intense gaze boring into hers. So near, she could feel his body heat radiating off of him, see the details in his scar. “Riyo,” he says, his voice low, as if keen on deterring eavesdroppers. She nearly chokes over how he invoked her first name. “You can tell me.”

There’s a mist. A mysterious inkling she did not care for. Something dark, and hidden that picked at the stray strings of her mind, searching for the one that would unravel her careful veil. She recoils, and hardens. “There’s nothing to tell, General, if the Pantoran system has a public issue, you’ll hear it addressed in the Senate.” The phrases that emit from her mouth surprise her own self.

It does not perturb her companion as he searches her eyes. “Very well.”

She stifles a shiver, a cold spot must’ve passed over her. “Is there anything else I can do for you, General?”

“No,” He steps back. “No, I don’t imagine there is.” His last words before he bows his head, “Senator.” and departs. Riyo views him as he recedes, and swallows hard.

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waitmyturtles · 10 months

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Turtles Catches Up With Old GMMTV: Until We Meet Again Edition

[What’s going on here? After joining Tumblr and discovering Thai BLs through KinnPorsche in 2022, I began watching GMMTV’s new offerings -- and realized that I had a lot of history to catch up on, to appreciate the more recent works that I was delving into. From tropes to BL frameworks, what we’re watching now hails from somewhere, and I’m learning about Thai BL's history through what I’m calling the Old GMMTV Challenge (OGMMTVC). Starting with recommendations from @absolutebl on their post regarding how GMMTV is correcting for its mistakes with its shows today, I’ve made an expansive list to get me through a condensed history of essential/classic/significant Thai BLs produced by GMMTV and many other BL studios. My watchlist, pasted below, lists what I’ve watched and what’s upcoming, along with the reviews I’ve written so far. In a LONG POST, I’m writing today about New Siwaj’s incomparable drama, Until We Meet Again.]

TW: suicide, suicidal ideation, psychological trauma

Gah. I am so psyched to be finally sitting down to write my thoughts on Until We Meet Again, but I’m actually at a bit of a loss on where to start. There is SO MUCH TO TALK ABOUT.

I think, where I can start, is to first say that this was, in my opinion, AN ABSOLUTELY SPECTACULAR SHOW. I did NOT expect this, at all. I’ve been around the way with New Siwaj, the UWMA screenwriter and director, a few times now for the OGMMTVC -- his writing on Love Sick, his work with Cheewin on Make It Right, and his work on MAME’s novel in Love By Chance have all been on the OGMMTVC list. I know that Between Us, the UMWA WinTeam continuation, was considered mostly a let-down for weak writing, and that New’s more recent shows, including A Boss and a Babe and Double Savage, were viewed quite critically (although I am a Double Savage apologist, for which I’ll explain my viewpoints later in this post).

So. What I did not expect from 2019′s UWMA was to experience so many layers in a drama à la the work of Aof Noppharnach. Yes, I cannot believe I’m going here, to compare a New Siwaj drama to Aof’s oeuvre, but damn if I will, because good lord, New took his magic hat of tricks, pulled out THE GOOD STUFF, and made it all work.

This is a list of themes that I saw in UWMA, that will help me structure this long write-up, but by no means should it be considered complete, as I’m sure I’m missing themes that you all likely caught in your watches and re-watches:

1) A new narrative structure for New -- balancing the impact of side couples by leveraging focus, equally, on two MAIN couples 2) The continuation and end of the 2019 trend of reincarnation and spiritual connections to love 3) Intergenerational queer trauma (micro-level) 4) Generational acceptance of queerness (macro-level) 5) Food and its Proustian effect on memory 6) Reflections on filial piety and the devastating effects of expectations -- and how children and parents seek redemption, particularly in New’s work

And before I even dive into THIS list, can I just say: MY GOD, FLUKE AND OHM. And Earth and Kao! But FLUKE AND OHM. Jesus, does New have an eye for talent -- from the Make It Right guys, to Perth and Saint, and then to Fluke and Ohm. I was seriously TAKEN with their chemistry. I did hear from a number of folks during my UWMA live-blogging that they can’t rewatch UWMA because of Fluke/Pharm’s rendition of the blushing maiden trope, but for my tastes -- I think the way he rendered the trope was really necessary to communicating Intouch’s story, history, and emotions, and just -- Fluke just ATE this role, my gawd. And Ohm/Dean responding in kind vis à vis Korn’s regret. YOW. It’s been a few days since I finished the show, in a total RUSH of drama hunger, and I’m still shaking my head and MARVELING at their performance.

Okay, back to the themes list. So, early in my Thai BL journey in the fall of 2022, after I had watched KinnPorsche and The Eclipse as my first two Thai BLs, I watched A Tale of Thousand Stars (way before the OGMMTVC was born), and noted that I appreciated the lack of side couples in the ATOTS storyline. I now realize, through the OGMMTVC, that side couples are both a BL trope and a byproduct of the drama styles from which BLs were born, the ensemble-based dramas like Love Sick, Senior Secret Love, and Kiss/Kiss Me Again.

New’s Make It Right -- while beloved in my heart, for the chaotic duos of TeeFuse and FrameBook -- WAS messy, with all the other couple stuff happening around it. That, along with Love By Chance, made me wonder -- why do BLs that center fabulous dyads with sizzling chemistry take away from that energy with all the side couple action? Even Together With Me, a non-New Siwaj and non-GMMTV drama, got sidelined in part with a VERY questionable side couple plot in BrightFarm.

Reflecting back on KP and The Eclipse, I had that question in mind as I started UWMA, and wondered where the Alex and WinTeam storylines were going to go. But, frankly, I ended up appreciating what NEEDED to happen with DeanPharm and KornIntouch, because -- the original novel storyline clearly demanded that these two couples, who were NOT side couples, but MAIN couples, needed a MAIN spotlight for their collective story to be told. @clairificusrex mentioned in a liveblog comment (THANK YOU, LOVELY HUMAN!) that New Siwaj benefitted in the screenplay from having a wonderful original novel to work with, and while I don’t read Y Series canon, I can only imagine that this was indeed the case.

So, New, in order to hew to the novel, had to perhaps hold back his usual instincts to muss up the main couple vibe, by centering DeanPharm and KornIntouch. With that control necessary to the story -- I think the narrative STRUCTURE of the drama just blew open. It was FASCINATING, it drew me in, and the structure allowed for another New predilection to be leveraged WELL, in his love for flashbacks. @lurkingshan, you mentioned that your taste wasn’t necessarily aligned with New’s fancy for flashbacks, which I totally understand -- I think flashbacks hurt the overall narrative structure of Double Savage earlier this year. But I think, here for UMWA, they were necessary, and I might very well be apologetic to that considering what I DID see in Double Savage by way of the story that New ended up screenwriting over there in regards to intergenerational family trauma (again, more on this later in the post).

This narrative structure lent itself handily to the next four themes on this list, all of which deal in memory, in spiritual roots, and/or in the generational passage and inheritance of trauma and emotion. 2019, as we know now, was a big year for shows themed around Thai spiritual culture and/or reincarnation. We have He’s Coming To Me, we have Dew the Movie -- we have art here, queer-centered art, that does not lend itself to happy endings, that depicts, through reincarnation or, in the case of HCTM, a ghostly purgatory, how DIFFICULT it had been to be comfortably queer and/or openly out in past and present Thailand.

And then UWMA comes along, telling TWO generational stories, intertwined by the red thread, but also, in the words of the WONDERFUL @bengiyo, connected by Korn and Intouch’s intergenerational queer trauma, the most PERFECT coinage of a theme for this show. In 1988, when Korn and Intouch die, they cannot be out. They cannot even be SECRETLY in love. Their bad dads use the foulest of language to describe their love (much like Phop’s dad in Dew). And Korn kills himself, and Intouch follows.

And what we learn, through Dean and Pharm, are the emotions, the regrets, the LEARNED BEHAVIOR that Korn and Intouch have picked up on in the afterlife, embedded in Dean and Pharm, that keeps Korn and Intouch’s love alive, with CORRECTIONS and ADJUSTMENTS made by Dean and Pharm that reflect on how not only Korn and Intouch’s love has changed and improved, but also how Dean and Pharm are learning how to love EACH OTHER, themselves, as they adjust to their OWN belonging to each other, in Pharm’s own words. GAH -- my aching heart. (Thank you to @lurkingshan for talking this through with me early on in my UWMA watch.)

I mean. THE DEPTH OF THIS. Intouch is a terrible cook, and Pharm is like, a restaurant-level chef?! Pharm is so resistant, and Dean is so FORWARD? (OHM THITIWAT, GAH!!!) (Listen. Pharm. P’Deeeean can grab MY butt, okay?) (See what I did there, @lurkingshan and @bengiyo? THANK YOOOOUU.)

And Pharm’s blushing maiden approach. Yes, I will also admit, that sometimes, it was a little cringey. But I think the blushing maiden trope was really necessary to the story -- ESPECIALLY IN THE CONTEXT of Intouch’s anger, ciphered through Pharm in the last episode. And I think that Fluke Natouch ultimately rendered the trope beautifully -- again, especially against the gorgeous ending of the show. Oh, THAT CONDO SCENE, PEOPLE. I LOST IT.

Of course, Intouch would want to hold back through Pharm in the present day. If Intouch DIDN’T hold back vis à vis Pharm -- he might lose Korn again, if Pharm missteps with Dean. Intouch may have felt that HIS forwardness lent to their troubles -- so Intouch holds back, through Pharm. And Intouch ultimately communicates his love for Korn differently in the afterlife, more hesitantly -- through a resistance to intimacy, and through food and cooking in Pharm, which itself was another amazing move in this show.

Listen. Even my pinned post says what I value in dramas, not just in BLs. You give me food in BL, and I give you my heart. But also, let’s talk about the meaning of food in Asian dramas for a second. It’s no coincidence that MANY Asian dramas and doramas center food, including my favorite BL of all time, Kinou Nani Tabeta/What Did You Eat Yesterday?. If you don’t know Asians, of any ilk -- let me make a BROAD continental and sub-continental judgement. ALL WE THINK ABOUT IS FOOD, lol. While I’m with my family, while I’m working, while I’m writing meta -- I’m thinking about food, I’m thinking about what I want to cook, what I want to order, how I can mix the cuisines I love (Thai-Indian curries, anyone? YUM). Malaysians literally boast about having multiple meals, way past three meals, a day. We Asians are proud of our cuisines, and we want y’all to be EATING, A LOT, and to try all our dishes. (ITSAY, your Hokkien mee is calling me...)

But, also: FOOD MEANS FAMILY. Let me say it again: FOOD MEANS FAMILY. You FEED the people you LOVE, with delicious food. Shiro and Kenji. Kurosawa and Adachi. The guys in Jack o’Frost. The guys in The Eighth Sense. Omg, even Kinn and Porsche. We’re seeing it in Tokyo In April Is... And Pharm, to Dean, Intouch to Korn.

And BESIDES Intouch/Pharm becoming a great cook, GOD, the story ALSO INCLUDED the Proustian reference of the madeleine and involuntary memory -- but in SUCH a stunning way, as to RECALL DEAN’S FAMILIAL MEMORY of eating his grandmother’s Thai desserts -- his grandmother, Intouch’s sister, and how Dean could get an indirect spotlight into Intouch and a depth of an understanding of Intouch’s happiness besides his love for Korn. And how Pharm EMBODIED that love for Thai desserts through Intouch’s family lineage. Oh, just get me MESSY, PEOPLE. FUCKING GENIUS SHIT.

Memory on memory on memory. Dream on dream, nightmare on nightmare, tears and red threads, inherited trauma, intergenerational trauma. The micro-level of what Dean and Pharm had to live with on a daily basis in their recollections of Korn and Intouch. The macro-level of what Pharm and Dean experienced when all of their parents accepted them for who they were as queer individuals, and their partners, as well. How Dean’s dad could ACTUALLY RELATE to Dean himself, because Dean’s dad had been rejected by Dean’s mother’s family. And how that ALLOWED Dean’s dad to accept Dean and his choice to be with Pharm. How that trauma was relieved, how Dean and Pharm DID NOT HAVE TO PHYSICALLY RELIVE what Korn and Intouch had gone through, and how those involuntary memories that Dean and Pharm carried vis à vis Korn and Intouch traumatized them until Dean and Pharm could RECEIVE their OWN familial acceptance.

The LAYERS OF THIS SHOW. Before I get to the last theme on my list, I really just need to metaphorically slam my palms on an allegorical table and give New Siwaj a huge hug, because THIS SHIT IS NOT EASY TO PROCESS ALL AT ONCE, and I can’t wait to do a UWMA rewatch to try to catch more (and I’ll likely need to write another meta, ha, when I do that). I mean, again, just to use food as an example of a kind of storytelling TOOL to INDICATE memory, especially in the context of lost and found love, of intergenerational trauma and relieving regret -- BRILLIANT. BRILLIANT.

And. The last theme on the list, the theme of filial piety, of Asian family systems and devotion and loyalty and expectations, and the devastating effects on the micro-individual level (and even the macro-social level as well) that those expectations can have.

So, I watched Double Savage, screenwritten by New Siwaj, out of order from UWMA. Very quickly, since many of you have likely NOT watched Double Savage because it’s not a BL (but it DID have Ohm Pawat and Perth Tanapon in a hose-off scene -- you can’t take the New Siwaj out of New Siwaj, amirite): Double Savage is about Korn (Ohm P.), a middle son who is branded a jinx by a HORRENDOUS Thai-Chinese father, and how the abuse leveled on Korn by his dad has intergenerational ripple effects across their family and community.

Let’s break this down. I now know that New Siwaj does bad dads from Thai-Chinese lineage very well. UWMA’s Korn is expected to take over a mafia business. His dad is disapproving that Korn doesn’t want to take over the business -- which is an UNQUESTIONABLE and EMBEDDED expectation in most Asian family lineages (hello, Jeng and Step By Step) -- AND Korn’s dad is ALSO disapproving in Korn’s love for Intouch and vice versa. Separately, Intouch’s dad is disapproving that Intouch is in love with Korn, a mafia scion.

Modern times are modern for a reason. 1988 was 31 years from 2019. I want to emphasize here the understanding that Korn and Intouch likely had -- that besides running away, there was no other existence for them to be together than to kill themselves and be together in the afterlife. And running away, and still living and existing, would have been a guilt-ridden and dangerous existence, for what Asian children are expected to do and live for vis à vis their parents. Korn likely HAD NO OTHER IMAGINATION for a life that he could live OTHER THAN to take over his father’s business and to be a heteronormative adult in the late 1980s. And, to top that all off, both of their dads were fucking assholes.

I really liked how this was juxtaposed to the relationship between Dean and his father. Dean was clearly set up to be as stubborn as his dad. Meaning, at least to me -- that Dean was FAR less likely to be told what to do by his dad, that Dean would and maybe COULD, stand up to his dad. We didn’t see it happen, but I could have imagined Dean not accepting “no” for an answer from his dad to accept Pharm. (Makes you think about Pat, Pran, and Ming, no?) Dean had Korn in him. Dean/Korn was NOT GOING TO TAKE THAT SHIT AGAIN, and that was CLEAR. I want to emphasize: THAT’S BIG. That was BIG on New Siwaj and the UWMA novel writer to include that in the story. That’s parental defiance. That needed to happen in order for Dean and Pharm to survive. As an Asian, that gives me a kick of welcome energy.

But I also really want to note what New Siwaj did at the end of the show, something so deft, it might have left non-Asian viewers wondering what was going on. In the condo scene, Dean and Pharm are ciphering Korn and Intouch -- and when Korn’s father shows up in the wheelchair, Korn’s father knows what’s happening.

And Korn apologizes to his dad. Korn had already apologized to Intouch, but Korn also apologizes to his dad, and to his brother, and to his nephew in Sin. This really gets me, y’all, I understand this as an Asian. Korn is APOLOGIZING for the PAIN he caused in his family AND in Intouch, because -- filial piety. He knows what he did to himself was devastating to the Asian family system he was born into, to the Asian society he was born into, and he apologized for the suicide he committed unto himself that caused that extra-social pain.

Like. As crazy as that sounds, it’s also an INCREDIBLY SOPHISTICATED way to ACKNOWLEDGE that Korn had broached a social boundary, and Intouch had followed him. THAT IS A HELL OF A LAYER TO ADD TO THIS STORY, ONE THAT I DID NOT EXPECT, and that SHOOK ME at the end of this series.

A similar situation happened in Double Savage. Despite the horrendous psychological abuse that Double Savage’s Korn received from his father -- an adult Korn ends up apologizing to his father for the trouble that HE may have caused. Now, what I appreciated about Double Savage was that THAT dad was like -- no, no, *I* should be the one apologizing. BUT, I want to indicate and emphasize here, that BOTH storylines acknowledge that Asian children NEED to know, SHOULD know, ARE BORN TO KNOW, that their actions have collective effects on a wider family system. We are born to understand and think like that. We are not dealing with an individualist Western perspective here. (I literally FLIPPED when I realized that New Siwaj has had MULTIPLE CHARACTERS NAMED KORN APOLOGIZING TO BAD DADS, and I’m an Asian over here UNDERSTANDING WHY, and I’m just like, pfffftt GGGAAAHHHH.)

Why am I harping on this? BECAUSE: vis à vis EVERYTHING ELSE that is lineage-based in this story -- from children being born, to intergenerational trauma, to reincarnation -- UWMA is structured around an über-macro theme of worlds being linked, by threads, by genes, by history, by spirit, by trauma. We are collectively linked. Babies are born -- we saw many babies in this show. Children belong to families. Lovers belong to lovers. Dean PHYSICALLY belongs to Intouch’s family, and Pharm to Korn’s family. A happy existence will be when a family accepts a child’s partner. Happiness is in a family growing, not a family shrinking. Warmth and growth and love happens when a happy family sits at a table and eats together.

As Pharm says at the end of the show -- oh, my HEART -- “I belong to Dean.” Yes, you do -- because you have become Dean’s family, and Dean has become Pharm’s family. Korn’s family BELONGS to Intouch’s family, and vice versa. They are destined, MEANT to be linked together, AND TO BE FAMILY, ALL TOGETHER.

Kurosawa and Adachi become family in the Cherry Magic movie. WDYEY’s Shiro and Kenji become family by way of living and eating together. Even if BBS’s Ming doesn’t acknowledge Pran -- Pran is Ming’s family. LOVE. MAKES. FAMILY.

What Korn apologized for was the impact his decision had on his family — WHILE HE WAS IN LOVE WITH INTOUCH, WHO KORN’S FAMILY WAS NOT ALLOWING KORN TO MAKE AS KORN’S NEW FAMILY in the 1980s. Korn was able to apologize in the afterlife — BECAUSE Dean and Pharm DID WHAT HE AND INTOUCH COULD NOT DO, by way of generations, by way of family acceptance, by way of inherited trauma and STOPPING that inherited trauma in its tracks -- very much like Pat and Pran banding together and doing the same for themselves. Dean and Pharm did the hard work of making the relationship a real one, in every aspect of their intimate, micro-level family lives, to a public, external existence in the world. Korn could FINALLY experience the release of GUILT he had towards Intouch and towards Korn’s family, now that Korn’s love for Intouch could FINALLY flourish outside the constraints of filial piety through Dean. THIS IS HUGE. I have no words to tell you what the BRILLIANCE of this means to me as an Asian. LOVE MAKES FAMILY, and LOVE THAT IS ALLOWED TO FLOURISH GIVES YOU THE RELEASE TO BE YOUR TRUE SELF.

Dean had learned from the inherited trauma that he got from Korn that he needed to stop the trauma train in his tracks, and he did, and he confronted his father, and his father blessed the union of Dean and Pharm. When Dean took the gun away from Pharm, and embraced Pharm, Korn and Intouch KNEW that they could finally be safe in the afterlife. Dean and Pharm were the ciphers that finally ALLOWED Korn and Intouch to exist happily together in spirit. Korn, especially, could exist freely, now that he was relieved of his guilt. Dean and Pharm were, LITERALLY, Korn and Intouch’s FAMILY -- the FAMILY that ALLOWED the FINAL RELEASE for Korn and Intouch to be together as their true selves and spirits.

And Dean and Pharm confirmed that in FRONT of the family member, in Korn’s father, that had originally caused all this pain. The intricate layers, communicated to a primarily Asian audience, of Korn apologizing to his father, and then of Dean embracing Pharm and confirming their love AND Korn and Intouch’s love, in front of that former barrier -- that is GROWTH and FLOURISHING in the face of generational defiance, and about as sophisticated and eloquent a communication of familial transcendence as I could possibly imagine seeing in Asian drama art. WHOA. I’m a little out of breath with this.

Wow. And speaking of being one’s true self: I deeply loved that Dean and Pharm took a three-month break. I loved that Pharm was smart and strong enough to demand a break to understand if DEAN and PHARM -- INDEPENDENT of ANYTHING they had INHERITED from ANYONE -- actually loved each other and belonged together. Fuck. Pharm was like, no -- this one’s on me. I need to see, outside of ANY INFLUENCES, FROM ANYONE, ANYWHERE -- if I love Dean, if Dean loves me, and if we belong together. Brave. Badass.

AND, I truly loved how Korn and Intouch -- DEAN AND PHARM’S FAMILY -- came BACK to Dean and Pharm’s dreams to offer thanks. I loved how, in the end, the past and his family came back to give Pharm that little contextual nudge to say to Pharm, it’s okay to love Dean for Dean, AND to love how you two came together, through Korn and Intouch. And Pharm could acknowledge, finally, that he belonged to Dean. God damn.

This story was so multilayered, SO complex, SO filled with a respect for love at its highest and most complicated levels. This story was filled with CRITICAL SCRUTINY towards Asian family systems and the trauma that those systems can render. This story was filled with an acknowledgement for the power of LOVE that those same family systems can offer unto children who NEED pillars of love and support (Pharm’s mom and brother, badasses!).

Y’ALL. I just, I DID NOT KNOW that New Siwaj could DO THIS! I know that UWMA is considered his best show, but like, this is his best show BY A LOT, A LOT. Double Savage, in contrast, had a lot of narrative and structural issues that detracted from the core stories of filial piety that were ultimately very important to tell.

UWMA did not fall into that trap. It was SMART, it MOVED (FOR SEVENTEEN EPISODES! I SLAMMED THIS SERIES! I could have watched MORE, I cannot believe I’m SAYING THAT!), it was. It was just BRILLIANT. It was an ode to romantic love, to family love, to the power of memory. In 2019, it joined He’s Coming To Me in a burgeoning echelon of cinema-influenced BLs in storytelling, soon to be joined by I Told Sunset About You, ATOTS, and others. It took the sad endings of He’s Coming To Me and Dew the Movie and said -- not today. Today, we will let love LIVE, let QUEER LOVE live, in REAL LIFE, in REAL TIME, and we will not let our lovers live in regret. We will take queer love, we will give queer love FAMILY, and we will give it the HONOR IT DESERVES.

Until We Meet Again is a must-watch of the highest order, and goes on the shortlist of shows that I will refer to as one that makes me proud to be an Asian. It was easily one of the most important shows I’ve watched in this project. All credit to New, Fluke, Ohm, Earth, and Kao for a PHENOMENAL experience -- my heart and mind have been bettered because of this show.

[FLUKE. AND. OHM. Fluke and Singto coming thru in Shadow the Series? Sign me the FUCK up. Actors on actors. WOW. Did UWMA ever introduce me to another crop of dudes who can fucking tear up a screen. I had SO much fun watching UWMA, whew!

And, yep. I had to follow this up with 2gether, ha. I’m going to spare myself a little pain, if y’all don’t mind, and combine my write-up of 2gether with Still 2gether. I know there’s a lot to be said about the lack of intimacy in 2G, which I can’t wait to dive into, but I can’t help but to also run into another wall of analysis with dear P’Aof’s work in S2G. I’ll make it all work!

After I get myself together with 2gether (HA) -- it’s ITSAY time. I will be planning on watching ITSAY TWICE before writing, as I’m preparing myself to catch EVERYTHING I can before I pen words. Stay tuned.

Status of the list below. As always -- if you have feedback, send it my way!

1) Love Sick and Love Sick 2 (2014 and 2015) (review here) 2) Make It Right (2016) (review here) 3) SOTUS (2016-2017) (review here) 4) Make It Right 2 (2017) (review here) 5) Together With Me (2017) (review here) 6) SOTUS S/Our Skyy x SOTUS (2017-2018) (review here) 7) Love By Chance (2018) (review here) 8) Kiss Me Again: PeteKao cuts (2018) (no review) 9) He’s Coming To Me (2019) (review here) 10) Dark Blue Kiss (2019) and Our Skyy x Kiss Me Again (2018) (review here) 11) TharnType (2019-2020) (review here) 12) Senior Secret Love: Puppy Honey (BL cuts) (2016 and 2017) (I’m watching this out of order just to get familiar with OffGun before Theory of Love -- will likely not review) 13) Theory of Love (2019) (review here) 14) 3 Will Be Free (2019) (not a BL or an official part of the OGMMTVC watchlist, but an important harbinger of things to come in 2019 and beyond re: Jojo Tichakorn pushing queer content in non-BLs) (review here) 15) Dew the Movie (2019) (review here) 16) Until We Meet Again (2019-2020) 17) 2gether (2020) and Still 2gether (2020) (watching) 18) I Told Sunset About You (2020) 19) YYY (2020, out of chronological order) 20) Manner of Death (2020-2021) (not a true BL, but a MaxTul queer/gay romance set within a genre-based show that likely influenced Not Me and KinnPorsche) 21) A Tale of Thousand Stars (2021) (review here) 22) A Tale of Thousand Stars (2021) OGMMTVC Fastest Rewatch Known To Humankind For The Sake Of Rewatching Our Skyy 2 x BBS x ATOTS 23) Lovely Writer (2021) 24) Last Twilight in Phuket (2021) (the mini-special before IPYTM) 25) I Promised You the Moon (2021) 26) Not Me (2021-2022) 27) Bad Buddy (2021-2022) (thesis here) 28) Bad Buddy (2021-2022) and Our Skyy 2 x BBS x ATOTS (2023) OGMMTVC Rewatch 29) Secret Crush On You (2022) [watching for Cheewin’s trajectory of studying queer joy from Make It Right (high school), to SCOY (college), to Bed Friend (working adults)] 30) KinnPorsche (2022) (tag here) 31) KinnPorsche (2022) OGMMTVC Fastest Rewatch Known To Humankind For The Sake of Re-Analyzing the KP Cultural Zeitgeist 32) The Eclipse (2022) (tag here) 33) GAP (2022-2023) (Thailand’s first GL) 34) My School President (2022-2023) and Our Skyy 2 x My School President (2023) 35) Moonlight Chicken (2023) (tag here) 36) Bed Friend (2023) (tag here) (Cheewin’s latest show, depicting a queer joy journey among working adults)]

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