#korean media ramble

[happypotato48]

This Is A Gay Asian Rant About BL Comments Made By Some Queer Westerners I See Sometimes.

So you know of those gays (usually white) that made dumb tiktok dancing to list of countries that legalized same sex marriage and list of countries that discriminate against LGBTQIA+ poeple as a way to say something racist. yeah i kinda got the same vibes from some comments regard how asian BL is homophobic just cause they don't live up to queer western standard. look, i'm not saying that some BLs and their creators don't deserve criticism regard how they capitalized/exploited queerness for an easy cash grab.

But people need to understand that Asian countries despite recent progress are still very much culturally conservatives. so when people says that thai bl is homophobic and all the characters looks like bunch of straight guys, which is true for some olders thai BLs i'm not gonna denied that. but after all this time and newer BLs generally being very queer and most of creators being out queer themself and poeple still making these comments, i'm annoyed.

And don't get me start on the actors. you don't know them! why are you making assumption and calling them queerbaiter just cause they acts in bl. like maybe they're straight, maybe they're not but what they're definitely doing is making queer content for you know, queer people here. so when you made halfass comments about their sexuality what do you think that made other queer people who still in the closet feels. and when you add the nationality to that, "these thai bl pair are this and that, this korean actor is so ungrateful for his bl past", etc. when our societies are still very much still in progress regard LGBTQIA+ acceptance. it make us living here feels fucking awful like somehow we're lesser queer than people in the west just cause we don't have citibank at pride or some shit.

And the shittiest in my humbled opinion are comments regard censored chinese bls. people do know like, that the creators making these bls are risking their livelihoods for this. that these shows getting make at all are miracles. yes it sucked that they're censored but they're still very much queer shows making by queer people who want to express thier queerness despite the chinese government being the chinese government. when people dimissing these shows as not belonging in queer media, you're also dimissing their creators and audiences as not belonging in the community.

Look what i want to say is that we're trying our best over here, and maybe our best are not up to your liking. the ways we talk and express our queerness maybe still can be perceived as problematic by western queer standard. but these media are our house and you're the guests. for people aren't shitty we appreciated that you're here engaging and loving our media, this is your home too and you're welcome in it. i can speak for myself that i very much love being here on tumblr and interacting with people from all over the world who love BL. but for people who are being shitty sometimes about asian bl.

YOU'RE THE GUESTS, BEHAVE!

#bl drama #thai bl #asian lgbtq dramas #personal rant #dumb boy rambled #japanese bl #taiwanese bl #korean bl #asian ql #asian bl series #asian bl dramas #ql dramas #bl fandom #ql meta #queer media #just fandom things #fandom #chinese bl

[clambuoyance]

I'm gonna be honest. I forget canon kon is white now because I only consume fanon content most of the time so I'm like. yeah this is kon! and then I see a comic screenshot and get whiplash cuz my brain thinks ur version is correct

before i actually read the comics literally every kon i saw was poc so my mind was just like oh okay this is definitely gonna affect my brain perception of this character 🙏

headcanoning is a very interesting concept because it can add a layer or recontextualize canon but you also have to keep in mind that canon will contradict your hcs sometimes because it doesnt have the things that make things like a sexuality or ethnicity unique, if that makes sense (well duh, it was written by primarily cishet white men who are writing from a specific lens). for example, the smallville setting is very white in my opinion and if canon kon actually wasnt white then the story might have had a new layer of storytelling to explore. but his feeling of intense out-of-placeness and the struggle with identity is something that is very relatable to me so oops if i let a lil projection slip out you know? and the fact the superfam are immigrants and kon’s journey with proving he’s worthy of being a kryptonian and worthy of being a super? it’s just sooo relatable. i definitely tend to attach myself to these type of stories. if you were to ask me to write an official dc comic of him id comply with his real canon but there’d definitely be subtext id sprinkle in for people like me to relate to if ur looking for it🤷🏻‍♀️

however it’s also good to actually read stories that were built with these lenses and intentions rather than just hcs because those stories will take that potential where it needs to go.

sorry that was very rambly 💀

#my hcs also change like…often idk #once i saw cassie be fancasted as some korean idol? so now my brains like yesss greek korean cassie with dark hair roots🤩 #tim is also one i see regularly get hced as wasian #i like it whenever i see ppl make characters filipino 🙈 #bart idk 💀kon i switch between like half afrolatino or polynesian 🧐 #ig barts just white i havent seen what other ppl think for him #also random but its interesting to think of it too with media that is definitely inspired by non eurocentric things and then giving them hcs #like ninjago. clearly eastern and asian inspired #but incredibly white💀 in my head they are all in some form Asian bc hell yeah #okay i feel so rambly today sorrrrryyyy #clam answers #dc #this is coming from someone who went to a highschool that was like. 95% white lol #wait not .95% i mean 95% #also forgot to mention IK Superman’s like kryptonian but that’s basically directly tied to being Jewish too so there’s also that whole topic #but for kon specifically I keep thinking Polynesian bc of hawaii😔

[i-like-yoongi-a-latte]

sometimes I think I know near to nothing in Korean and the next second I realize one of our homework assignments is to write a motivation letter in Korean to a possible workplace??

#i'm like nah i know a tiny bit not much #and then boom oh wait i know something #i become a newsreader while reading text with honorifics lmao #it's funny because i think i sound different when speaking in a honorific casual tone compared to the most honorific one #i like studying! especially korean!! it's nice to understand a bit more when consuming korean media #elena rambles #elena studies

[the-marathon-continues-nip]

I was in the supercorp team… but you all are giving me fandom envy

hey buddy!!!! I haven't seen supergirl but I've always loved the gifs of super Corp, Kara seems sweet and lena seems so kickass!

and haha, the grass is always greener I think however the mdzs/wangxian fandom is pretty fun. it's so large that I can literally just lurk, read fic and Have Brain Rot.

the story is so expansive that once you realize you like it, you're in too deep. I always recommend giving it a go because there is something for everyone. there are excellent fic writers too and a lot of them a wlw who write the ship as is and also as f/f so it's like you have the most popular fic writers who also write f/f content (we are so spoiled in this fandom!)

just fyi most ppl watched the Netflix show, however its based on a novel that is the 'real' story...the series of Netflix had to be adapted to censorship so the plot line is a bit different but the overarching themes are there. there is also a donghua (chinese animation/cartoon) version and YouTube should have free episodes as well (the cartoon is great with the supernatural stuff, the cgi in the live show isn't the best but the actors in the live action sold their relationship even with censorship!)

#due disclosure i am completely burnt out of american media where the season ends on a cliffhanger #and fans have to do a blood sacrifice to get the next season #it just isnt enjoyable at all to me #chinese and korean dramas have a set amount of episodes and you get the full story and then its done #come on over to the asian dramas! #its fun!! #ok i rambled a lot sorry!!

[simptasia]

I was actually going to send an ask about that cause i was talking with a friend recently, and we were talking about how much we love that Charlie was Made Mancunian instead of something like a Londoner as I know they were going for the Britpop/Oasis 'troubled British musician' aesthetic, but Mancunians are like some of the nicest people in the UK, its gotta be that tram. We were talking about How they never met, but if they did, how Charlotte and Charlie could have formed a really funny friendship due to that North/South Divide. Like people joke but as someone from the UK that north-south divide is nasty, like you tell someone from the North you're moving to London they look at you like you've gone insane/Bonkers if you will. I cannot overstate just how snarky that friendship would be. Especially since Charlotte is from Sussex, a manc like Charlie is going to be bullying her as soon as she walks through the door. Like the poorest part of Sussex still gets more money than the most deprived part of Manchester, which also leads me to believe due to how it is, both Naomi and Charlie's snark might have a lil venom in it due to it really is a battlefield between Northerns and Southerners. Desmond also like Desmond is half Peruvian which is probably why he isn't like this, but I'm surprised he doesn't just full ham sarcastic talking to other British characters again that north-south divide is nasty, and he's a Scotsman everyone south of him is a southerner even Charlie and Naomi who were probably like a three-hour car drive away. My final point is i really think it would have been funny as to an American audience and every non-British character (Except people like Daniel who spent time in the UK ) it must look like a really advanced form of hate like imagine seeing people with nonsense accents bully someone else who lives an hour away with a nonsense accent cause they get their drinking water from caves instead of vast lakes.

miles: whoa naomi and charlotte really hate each other huh

daniel, who knows better: they're good friends actually

miles: [confused in american] ???

alas lost was written by americans who had no idea of the nuances of british culture. like, the only reason charlie specifically has manc energy is because it comes from dom's own brick soaked soul

like without being told, i am sure than it was dom's idea for charlie to coo over baffonee pie, a beloved northern dessert

(that's banana and toffee pie, babes!)

i woulda loved to have known how they woulda written charlie interacting with my beloved science trio. sure it wouldn't have been my delightfully indulgent internal fanfics but I Want it

i think des never made any playful jabs about charlie being english because he's not the type of person to give a fuck. yes i know the rivalries run deep but des is 1. pretty non-judgemental, 2. he has more important things to care about and 3. english pussy got him acting unwise. uh basically class and money divide fucks over des' mind, not country/culture divide

the show was never equipped to handle this so this is just my imagination but it seems more like charlie would be the one who cares about things like where you're from. not in a nasty way, but he'd at least think about it. his relationship with that posh girl lucy would have, deep down, made him feel worthless. espech with charlie's fixation on Taking Care Of His Loved Ones

and charlie being a manc really does add a lot to his character in ways i doubt the writers even realised. the dream version of megan pace cooing to charlie that he's going to save them with his musical talent, like he grew up with this need to make himself better than how he started. the punk aspects of him also tie into him being a manc because the Fuck The System and I Wanna Escape attitudes are super fucking common amongst northerners. it's a running joke that northerners suffer and whine all the time. charlie is a very northern character, almost stereotypically so. this is partly cuz of dom and partly cuz they based him on aspects of the northern music scene

i'm not saying all northerners are whiny angry little punk bitches. but charlie is and him being a manc adds like, a layer to it? also also the intersection between lower class english views of masculinity + the idea that charlie is bi and trans is utterly fascinating to me

but i digress. i don't get to talk about charlie being from the north enough, partly because like, i know most lost fans are americans who would just be smiling and nodding dumbfounded as i meme'd

but i do like to be educational. long story short, guys? manchester is a highly industrial part of the north of england and is riddled with poverty and violence and basically everybody who lives there are like the most depressed people in england (dom himself has expressed that he's proud to be a mancurian but happy he escaped)

so, like, manchester is the detroit of england. i hope that helps

#lost is an american show so they can bring up nuances of american culture #like michael pointing out that where he's from black people and koreans don't get along #but at the risk of sounding condescending #a lot of americans don't know shit about UK history and dynamics #except maybe knowing that england and ireland no beuno #and thats not ur faults its a lack of education or a lack of watching british media (which is a shame) #also like i dunno everything either. i have no idea why the north and south of england hate each other #just that they do. im sure its about something stupid #maybe it was wars. maybe its a class thing. maybe its run of the mill ''You Talk Different Than Me So Fuck You'' #i've mainly heard the jokes #like that all southerners are sadists and all northerners are masochists #anyways im rambling. thanks for the messages

[husbandhannie]

what gets me the most about the nct dream thing is that it was an edited video and not a live.....someone okay'ed these comments

#also jeno i liked you but what the fuck #seriously how many times will he say shit like this before someone whacks him on the head #and yeah the editor part really shows the fatphobia entrenched in the culture #that no one saw anything wrong with it #(doesnt take blame off jeno though....still shitty) #hope this reminds people that korean culture isnt just kpop idols and spicy ramen #it has deep flaws and a lot of remarkable aspects #......like all cultures basically #idk been seeing a lot of kpop fans paint it with a simple brush and its like. this culture is pretty fucking complez #its fatphobic and colorist and anti-feminist. and has a resilience that is genuinely awe inspiring #kindly stop trying to view it from the lens that is painted in kpop videos #its a little off-putting how many people assume what a culture is depending on heavily edited media #idk maybe its because im asian and there are similar dynamics in my culture #but the attempt of people to boil down some cultures go Easily Ingestible Bites is. off putting. #livvie rambles

[othercrossee]

Tiktok filter r insane honestly

#z rambles #ik a lot of my mutuals dont use rhis app (thank god ❤ stay safe yall) but yall do NOT understand how awful it is #ik bitches be talking SHIT about SNOW but at least that app can let u turn it off and have actual good and cute filters #but tiktok? that shit WARP your shit BAD like BAD #it warp my face so bad that idk why theae people on there r like omg i csnt be this beautiful. WHAT R U SAYINF #did this fucking app and the people on there took cunts perception of their own beauty and drag it thru the mud #i saw it look cute on this girl and i tried it and tell me why its those cat eyes filter that warp my eyes #feels lowkey racially motivated but thats just me its weird out here bro #theres worse filter its awful #idk why they keep using filters like if ur UGLY in this fikter ur UGLY irl its liek those maskfishing trend #yall r jusr findinf creative ways to call someone ugly and make people feel bad for stupid reasons #the first thought i have when i tried those faxe warping filters was not oh i wish i look like this. i was DISGUSTED and disappointed #these kids r gomna grow up feeling awful of not fitting into how tjey looked/not having any pics at all (cuz theyre warped and edited) #which i understand a lot i csnr trust my past pictures umless ir was taken by others cuz it was heavily edited and whitewashed #it wasnt that bad but it def pulled my face and eyes to the korean beauty standard (SNOW) #but u can understand its worse on there cuz its not just a camera app. its a social media with a platform for many #literally a setup for body dysphoria etc no womder these kids r turning out awful theyre being exposed to so much bullshit #yall cpuld say oh its the same as our generatiom. ABSOLUTELY NOT #they csnt compare to our childhood lets be real here we had it bettee than whatever tf they got goinf on.....not a competition its sad

[followdelight]

I need a kpop media detox.

#alyssa rambles #i should start a list of shit to do #that is not watching waaaay too much korean media on youtube #the enforcement is the struggle tho

[dean-a-mean-tae]

Normani defends Stray Kids Nicholas Ross against racist comments | Achievement Goals

The singer, Normani, went to Twitter and Instagram to defend Nicholas Ross from racist commenters. Nicholas responded with a public thank you video. - Achievement Goals

WARNINGS: Racist people, harmful words, mention of death threats, mention of su!c!de,

(@cafekitsune made the dividers) | Nicholas Master list

After coming across a hateful comment regarding Nicholas Ross, Normani jumped to defend him. It looked like she was getting ready for bed but paused her routine for her announcement. She claimed the comment was "disrespectful on so many levels" and showed true character.

Normani expressed her disappointment in the people agreeing with OP's comment instead of defending Nicholas.

The singer showed many examples of the comments and talked about the effect they would have. She mentions this happening to all people of color and not just Nicholas. It is a trend that needs to be stopped.

Normani's video brought the comments to others' attention, and now everyone is banding together to help defend Nicholas.

The video starts with Normani propping her phone up on her counter. She's in her bathroom with a robe and her hair in a braided bun. It's quiet, minus her breathing and the sounds of her getting her skincare products together.

After everything is ready, Normani looks at the camera with drained eyes. 

"It's been brought to my attention that some of y'all don't know your place," She said as she leaned her hands on the counter.

"Tell me why I just saw a comment about a man named Nicholas not belonging in a K-pop group because he's not Korean enough," Normani wondered aloud, tilting her head at the camera. She starts moving things around to give her viewers time to let the information sink in.

After a minute, Normani scoffed, "The comments, the replies to the original post, were in agreement. They weren't defending him or calling out the bull."

"The color of someone's skin does not give you the right to talk down on them," Normani explained as she started cleaning her face of makeup. Her voice was muffled by the wipe running over her lips, but the bright captions on the screen clarified what she said.

Leaning on the counter again, Normani glared, "I can guarantee y'all aren't the first people to say things like this, but that doesn't give you a pass." 

"You're asking him to leave the group and the world when you're not realizing the effect you're words have. What if you hear he committed because one more comment became the last straw?" Normani asked, her half-cleaned face contorted in anger. She frowned in thought before wiping the rest of her makeup off.

"Nicholas earned his spot in Stray Kids, and for you to try and mess that up for him," She paused and looked to the side in thought before continuing. "To try and diminish his courage in himself and in the decision his leader and the company made in choosing him. That's disrespectful on so many levels."

"You all see someone of color successful and immediately jump the gun. You don't see the struggle behind our color." Normani's brows furrowed with irritation. Absentmindedly wiping the rest of her makeup off, she began to ramble.

"There's no telling what he went through to get to the spot he's in now. You care that someone who doesn't look like you or what an idol looks like in your mind is off the charts and making music."

With her face bare, Normani tossed the wipes on the counter before snatching a bottle. She talked fast and with a deep tone, "One person may not be able to stop racism, but not opening your mouth or typing your little comments could really make a difference."

"Stop being racist and do better," Normani concluded before tapping the screen.

Normani's video has been reposted on Twitter, Instagram, and other social media outlets. Most people agree and find the behavior disgusting. While few are in disagreement and think Nicholas should be a solo star.

Do you agree with Normani's argument? Do you think she could have spoken with a better attitude? Share your thoughts in the comments.

TOP COMMENTS

"I'm glad Normani spoke up instead of turning a blind eye. Unfortunately, situations like this will only be brought attention if a 'famous' person speaks up" - Henry3 Conner243

"To take the time to type something disrespectful without caring about their feelings is disgusting. Nicholas hasn't done anything to deserve hate, and even if he did, racism is too far for anyone." - softAva

"I don't think the OP should have brought his race into this, but I do think he shouldn't be in a K-pop group. He's not Korean, he's black." - SKZarts "You don't even realize how much you just contradicted yourself. You don't want them to bring up his race but you brought it up anyway. How that make sense?" - Dandelions98

"I think Nicholas has the talent and skill to start a solo career, but he chose to be in a group. I'm glad he did because he probably wouldn't have found friends like SKZ to look out for him" - NocturnalBearOwl

Nicholas Ross Master List

©️DEANAMEANTAE2023

Tag List: @bada-lee-ily, @jinnie-ret, @hwxnghyynjin You can be added by asking in the replies, sending me a message, or doing an ask thingy.

#deantae nicholas ross #skz 9th member #stray kids 9th member #stray kids x reader #skz x reader #skz x male reader #stray kids x male reader #skz x 9th member #stray kids with the 9th member #stray kids extra member #9th member of skz #9th member of stray kids #stray kids x oc #skz x oc

[not-poignant]

@morbidlizard replied to your post “Can I ask, why do you love BL romance better than...”:

I mean it's unfortunate but asian BL is just hands down better than western for so many reasons <: / I've been reading asian BL for literal decades now (AHHH) and I can maybe count on one hand the western series I've enjoyed that had some sort of queer romance that had all I wanted or at least a part of the tropes I like...And even then, it's usually F/F relationships 9_9 (and when I say asian, I mean japanese, korean, chinese, some indonesian too! etc etc...)

​Actually yeah this is also really where it's at

I think a lot about how we're still getting extremely like... milquetoast wholesome queer narratives (most of the time) in western m/m romance media (I have nothing against Heartstopper, but it's extremely 'all queer people are pure wholesome need-to-be-protected jellybeans' and like, cool, but I want more than that as well - like give me 20 shows that are 'all queer people' in 20 different genres, thanks. BL will give me that - BL will pay people to give me that.

The only way I can get that from western media is fanfiction, and sometimes - kind of - from published m/m, when it's not paint-by-numbers rapid release that isn't about telling stories from the heart and it's about telling stories from the bank account instead (which is a valid reason to write, it's just not what I'm looking for as a reader - most readers who end up loving and writing fanfiction aren't looking for this imho)).

Thomas Baudinette is actually doing incredible work in this area of Media Studies, where it's literally a known thing that BL - particularly in countries like Korea, Thailand and Taiwan - is actually taking huge strides ahead in the genre, comparatively, especially when up against western BL.

It almost feels like we're on a giant lag, buffering behind them, and about the only place we aren't is in fanfiction, which makes sense, because the cross-pollination between fandom and south-east Asian BL is incredible (literally, they got omegaverse and guide-verse from western fanfiction and western fandom, and imho are doing a lot more with it for money than we are, see: Pit Babe).

I've been reading up pretty heavily into Baudinette's work, and also a lot of the recent and up-to-date work in BL Studies (a thing), and like, it's just kind of fascinating the different interrogations of BL we have going on in different cultures and subcultures, and how different senses of place and culture and ethnicity and minority and belonging can influence our tales, along with many different manifestations of capitalisation, economy, influence etc.

And that isn't to say there aren't huge problematic areas for BL in all countries, not just western, I can critique western BL so easily because I am western, and it's been really interesting reading critiques of BL from academics who live within other countries from their perspectives too. But I do think if I want really great BL romances, turning to fanfiction and then turning to other cultures and what they're doing is often the first thing I do. I just don't have to search as hard to find what I'm looking for. And like, I'm lazy, lol, I don't want to search through 100 published works to find like 1-5 stories I might reread but not over my favourite manhwa or like fanfiction or whatever.

This has been my area of like... personal study for a few months now (literally reading Regimes of Desire: Young Gay Men, Media and Masculinity in Tokyo by Baudinette atm) and I have a lot of thoughts of which this is just a very generalised ramble and not actually anything of great meaning but like sadkljfas TL;DR yeah

#morbidlizard #idk how to categorise this but #pia on media studies #i do think it's really incredible that we get Pit Babe in part because #western fanfiction exists #what korea and thailand and other countries are doing with omegaverse #i just think hollywood and indie movie studios in the west are fucking cowards #run largely by puritanical evangelistic supremacists #and that other countries are seeing that actually omegaverse could spin them a LOT of money #in the mass media #already #absolutely wild

[project-niji]

DISCLAIMER: This post has been used by multiple accounts on multiple sites. You may have seen this before.  TRIGGER WARNING: While there aren't any dark topics mentioned in this post, they are abundant in the story. If you are uncomfortable with self-harm, swearing, depression, suicide attempts/suicidal thoughts, mentions of rape, eating disorders, substance abuse, child abuse, domestic abuse, sexual references, personality disorders, intrusive thoughts, or obsessive behavior, then this isn't for you. (I know that's a long list, but it's a long project, and they're spread throughout the story.)

Do you like relatable characters? Do you like Project SEKAI? Do you like fandom? If you like any of those things (emphasis on the first one), then you might like SPECTRA LIGHT: Project NIJI! (If you're not interested, keep scrolling. If you are... carry on.)

This isn’t an ad to get your money. It’s an ad to get your support. Project NIJI is a nonprofit fanproject run by a bunch of… well, fans. It’s technically an Alternate Universe (AU) for Project SEKAI, but someone without knowledge of the game could still understand the story perfectly well, as the main cast is composed of 20 Original Characters (OCs).

Since this is a fanproject and doesn’t have to abide by copyright laws, ambitious collaborations or ideas can be accomplished more easily. This means that we don’t have to dance around more mature topics to hold onto that sweet, sweet 9+ rating. 

There’s five musical groups: 

Welcome TO Purgatory, a band dedicated to showing the world the truth, no matter how uncomfortable.

Sparkling☆Smile☆Stage, a group who wants the world around them to be a little less sad (even if they’re doing much worse).

LITERALLY HELL, who wants to show you that not every story has a happily ever after.

StarSuit Go!, an idol group who doesn’t believe in letting others change who you are.

Night blossomS, an online music group with questionable PR decisions who wants to reach someone.

That’s simplifying the groups a LOT, but it gets the general point across.

Now, I’ve spent most of this rambling about the project itself, but here’s why I’m making this post: We need people. Lots of them. In fact, we need:

Writers

Artists

Storyboarders

Beta readers

Music arrangers

Vocal tuners

Video editors/animators

Singers/voice actors (keep in mind that you might have to speak in another language a lot)

Translators

Color artists

Moderators (for our Discord server, and our subreddit if we get one)

Publicists (social media managers)

Chart makers (iykyk)

List of languages that we need translators for (we need people to translate these languages into English, or vice versa):

Japanese (we need the most translators for this language, as it's the primary language. Project NIJI is set in Japan, after all.)

Dutch

Swedish

Portuguese

Vietnamese

Chinese

Cantonese

Tagalog/Filipino

Russian

French

Arabic

Korean

Danish

Italian

German

Hindi

Spanish

There are other languages featured in the story, but they don't show up enough to warrant a translator.

If you can do any of those things (or maybe something else that could be helpful), then you can apply in this form. Please DO NOT DM THE ACCOUNTS IF YOU WISH TO BE A PART OF PROJECT NIJI.

#project sekai #pjsk #prsk #pjsekai #colorful stage #hatsune miku colorful stage #proseka #fanfic #fandom #fan project #recruitment #recruiting #calling all artists #calling all writers #writing #pls don't flop #pls join #pls help #pjnj #project niji

[thirdtimed]

👁👁 what's orv im intrigued <- fruityghast (sideblog)

smiles at you so serenely. i'm unimaginably delighted to have been asked and on a completely unrelated interest sideblog nonetheless LOL thank you for indulging me!!

--- --- ---

so, what is orv?

omniscient reader's viewpoint, in it's most functional definition, is a behemoth of a korean web novel spanning well over 500 chapters. this admittedly makes it a little difficult to describe in full scope. if you'd like a more detailed post explaining it & its main appeal i recommend ot3's post!

but here's my attempt at a shortened summary for you:

orv is about a down on his luck office worker, kim dokja, who indulges in web novels as the only means of escape from his brutally mundane daily life. his utmost favorite web novel is a long winded, complicated, and incredibly boring story that no one else has the time or patience to read, leaving him as its sole reader. despite this, the novel has continued to update for the past 13 years, even if seemingly only for him. one day, after more than a decade of single-handedly reading and supporting this story, the author gives out a notice they'll be concluding the series at long last. but before dokja can read its last chapter, the world shifts and changes, and the novel itself comes to life a la reverse isekai. the world has become the novel. and as its sole reader, dokja has now become one of the only people to know the world's future. he spends the rest of the story trying to guide the ensuing chain of events in a more favorable direction than the one he read-- all so he can finally reach the end, that final chapter that he never got to finish.

i think at its heart orv can be best surmised through its main refrain: "this story is for that one reader." it's an action packed shounen fantasy death game adventure story BEHEMOTH; but at its heart lies one of the most sincere love letters to the art of storytelling i've had the chance to read. it loves cliches and cheesy tropes and mary sues and everything else we're told is "bad" about fiction unabashedly, because it loves you, the reader, for taking the time to read it regardless.

i talk about it within the context of life series watcher lore mostly because they share metanarrative elements and because i as a person am kind of always ambiently musing about orv, but otherwise they are two very different media. I'm really happy to have gotten the chance to ramble about this though!

if you read all of this first of all 1) thank you so so so much and 2) PLEASE FORGET EVERYTHING I SAID IN MY PREVIOUS POST THAT WAS ALL MAJOR SPOILERS>. MAJOR MAJOR SPOILERS LOL. LMAO EVEN.

--- --- ---

okay, so how do i read it?

if youre still interested, i tentatively recommend starting with the webtoon adaptation before jumpping into the web novel. i personally found the english translation of the web novel clunky and hard to read at first, and thus neglected to finish orv for the longest time. that is, of course, until i reread the webtoon and got left on a cliffhanger so bad that i finished all 551 novel chapters within the span of a week.

there's problems with the webtoon adaptation of course, but i think its translation is slightly more accessible & its visuals make it an easier read than diving headfirst into a novel. but do consider making the jump to the novel earlier than later though, it's an incredibly gratifying read if you do make it all the way to the end.

okay im done thank you for this ask!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! explodes into a million particles

#apologies for the read more i really did try to keep it brief. did not succeed. opened up a can of worms there #hopefully i'll get to play more in depth my orv x life series thoughts #i really really really want to draw dkos watcher grian....

[starburstfloat]

The Inescapable (and Comforting!) Queer Lens of Moonlight Chicken and The Eighth Sense

I've watched quite a few BL series over the last few years, but something that's struck me (and others I've noticed from tumblr discourse!) is how two recent series Moonlight Chicken (Thai BL) and The Eighth Sense (Korean BL) both embody not only characters and a plot that centralize on real queer experiences, but also a distinctive lens that makes them so achingly and relatably queer that it would be a disservice to not dissect and analyze!

(Please bear with me as we tackle some foundational background info *cracks knuckles* so--) The lens is a really cool means to understand a piece of media because it's an artistic approach from the filmmakers to show us the world through a controlled perspective. The lens has a certain focus (also dubbed focalization). In Looking in: the art of viewing, narrative theorist Mieke Bal describes focalization as the relationship between point of view in a story alongside the vision/meaning that the observer consumes of said pov. So not only does the lens convey certain emotions, but it's the observers (aka audience watching the show) who add additional meaning to it.

This relationship gets really interesting to look at when you consider that traditionally a lot of BL has been created for straight women as a sort of fetishization of gay men (I'm generalizing here, but consider a lot of BL that feels like a straight couple dynamic).

But with these two recent series, the lens feels different. It feels like it's been filmed not only in a way that conveys queerness, but for a queer audience. This focalization creates a really special dynamic between the media and its relatability. It's one of those things where I feel like you just have to be gay to understand it, and that's probably why so many of us have found solace in these two series!

For these two works in particular, there's an undeniable focused aesthetic examination of how queer people see the world and interact with it. There's an artistic emphasis on how one's queerness is inescapable and omnipresent, and how it paints our character's world.

Let me stop rambling and try to show what I mean.

In Moonlight Chicken, this omnipresence is observable in the way the characters Wen and Jim meet in episode one. Wen gets drunk at Jim's restaurant, trying to stall on going home to his ex. The way the camera work plays out during this scene perfectly captures how queer people find and recognize one another without having to overtly express their queerness. Consider the first conversation they have after closing hours of the restaurant: the lens is focused on how subtly they are drawn to each other. There's the wide shot of both of them sitting and talking, something that may be dismissed as nothing more than a two-person shot, yet the way their bodies take up so much of the frame welcomes us to notice their body language and how open they are to one another. This, coupled with the alleyway shots later that cut to individual close ups of their faces, sometimes briefly scanning the other's, a mixture of hesitancy and recognition shaping their reactions, is so queer coded!!! Like!!!!! Hello??? I love how it all culminates to Jim saying "I don't have a wife yet...I'm sure you know my preference" like LMAOOO my dude.....it's been more than obvious but I'm glad you're saying it out loud.

I guess what I'm getting at here is that the way this has been filmed is so beautiful and comforting because it depicts how queerness is inextricably tied to how we process our world. It's in the way we instinctively tag others as being in or out of the community and find solace in that recognition, all while teetering the boundaries of our attractions and carefully assessing a situation to see whether the feelings are mutual, misinterpreted, or if it's safe to express who we are.

Moonlight Chicken manages to embody all of that in the most mind blowingly subtle ways across ALL OF ITS CHARACTERS!!!! I've never encountered any other show like it - it's simply stunning, and it's set the bar way too high now.

We also witness this comforting queer lens in The Eighth Sense. So far only two episodes are out, but the way this show has been filmed is already so much more mature, graceful, and emotionally relatable than most other BL shows I've seen. And again, I think this is because the filmmakers have utilized a lens that conveys how queer people see and interact with their world in a way that other BLs have failed to accomplish. The narrative focus is so strongly centered on our protagonists living in a straight world while they navigate and (in Jae Won's case) want to hide their queerness.

Here, the queer lens resides in the way the camerawork establishes a sense of evaluation and hesitancy. It's the way the camera lingers on how Ji Hyun shrinks a bit when the surf instructor lady jokes "you came here cause of the pretty girl on the poster didn't you?" or the way we get close up shots of Jae Won's annoyed face as he demands his friends stop asking why he broke up with his ex girlfriend. As a queer audience, these subtle clues are just so relatable. It's a reflection of our own lived experiences, of bottling up our inner selves and constantly having to monitor our reactions and behaviors in a straight landscape.

These shows aren't just giving us gay characters who Meet Cute and fall in Love and deal with some turmoil and live happily ever after - they are filmed in a way that forces us to see and be seen.

And I can't get enough.

#there's still so so much to say about both of these shows #but consider this a preliminary brain dump #tagging this under #rebecca should have minored in film studies or queer theory #moonlight chicken #the eighth sense #queer theory #film analysis #media analysis #여덟 번째 감각

[leonaluv]

with all fhe hysteria about idols fs recently do you think a lot of them will have any struggles with when these idols do eventually get to date? i imagine many of them will try to keep privwtely as possible but thats impossible in this day and age of social media but i couldnt deal with the way idols have to go through airports and they are hounded almost everywhere they go bc they are in idol group.

they surely obviously date by now and they havent been able to keep that innocent / single image that their fans want them to have so what id be interested in is not who they date but like how it would be for them to deal with the situations. some idols are getting more public about their relationships but idk if thats good thing or not. so many folk want it to be tnemselves so badly but honestly im glad it aint me dating them, not that i havent wanted too but they would have to be so realistic and careful abt it all.

i also then wonder if idols will break any steroetypes about if they would actually date normal / non idols / non koreans. obvi foreign idlls will date foreigners thats to be expected but i think it would be cool or interesting for korean idols to date foreigners as i do think a lot of idols are more open minded these days, some idols dont seem to have specific types at all whilst others are really really picky about what they want in a partner.

what do you think? sorrh for my rambling but id like to know ur thoughts about this, thanks in advance for replying <3

so, i think they should just come out and say who they are dating even though, that will break a lot of fans heart, they all are dating lol, they date at their houses of the person.

They can't even enjoy going out and dating lol sad. so, if you think of it that way like said no privacy whatsoever but they wanted a life of being famous. it's ironic. Jungkook said he wants to be the biggest star in the world but then he would get treated like Michael Jackson where he was crowed wherever he goes, can't go shopping anymore or have any time to walks without there being thousands of people showing up.

so, his phone number is always leak, people are always showing up at his house, ringing his doorbell, his location is always leak, people aways approaching you all time. so, if doesn't matter if he has nda because all of it would be found out, because I would want to go out enjoy a beautiful day.

in short version good looking people going to date lol, but they like to keep their options open so of course some will want to keep it a secret.

#kpop tarot #bts tarot

[xoteajays]

tell me all about swanfeathers!! -bibaybe

yayayyyayyyayyy thank you!!!

okie so swanfeathers is an original fic of mine. it’s a bodyguard crush trope story. the main romance is between mirae (bae yoonji) and hyeonsu (woo do hwan), but there’s a whole cast of side characters too that i’m still working on casting and naming everybody send me your fav korean fcs please. i’ve started about 3 different scene fics already.

this thing is gonna be a whole ramble mess tbh. lets gooo

so ahn mirae is 25 and she’s an ex-idol. she was in a duo band called ‘lovish’ with her older fraternal twin, narae (bae yoon young). their stage names were ‘miso’ and ‘nabi’. they debuted a few months after their 18th birthday and were super popular for a handful of years. mirae was the lead dancer and narae was the lead singer, but they were both good at either role; narae was a professionally trained dancer where mirae had natural talent, and narae was more confident to take on more singing lines but mirae had ‘her songs’. when the twins were 23, they were on holiday with their parents and mirae ended up in an accident, landing her with a number of scars, in particular a pretty significant one on the left side of her face. a month after they returned home, lovish released their last song, ‘swansong’, and then went silent on social media for another couple months. mirae then released a video exposing her label for pushing her to get plastic surgery to minimise her facial scarring even after she’d firmly declined, and that another group under the same label - that goes unnamed for the appearance of ‘privacy’ - had been talking shit about lovish, starting before her accident and then even worse after. fans weren’t overly surprised to hear this from mirae since she’d been consistently earnest about her experiences as an idol and had a habit of pushing back against authority; fans had initially recognised this when the twins were 20, and they’d nicknamed that specific lovish era the ‘disillusionment era’ since there were multiple instances of mirae pushing back against her label, for example: refusing to wear specific performance outfits that they were trying to force on her, bts videos of her removing make-up that she didn’t like and refusing to go on extreme diets, etc. some fans respected her for standing up for herself, others thought she had ‘bad behaviour’ and she ‘should’ve known better before getting into the industry’.

since leaving the idol life, narae moved onto modelling, and mirae kind of. plateaued. she joined her sister in some modelling shoots, appeared in some music videos if she liked the songs, took some classes about art history, but mostly didn’t attach herself to anything fully. she found she had more time for archery, a hobby she’d had since high school and that she’d always been an ace at, often complimented for being at a near ‘olympic level’ after years of training.

what went mostly unknown about while mirae was an idol was that she had a stalker. he showed up at nearly every show, every public appearance, at the airport when they were travelling; he once wore a pair of hidden camera glasses to a fan sign that mirae didn’t notice but narae did. the twins had three main social media accounts: their own separate ones and one for lovish itself. the stalker followed mirae’s and would only interact with her content on the lovish account. eventually he started messaging her, he’d send her videos and pictures he’d taken of her. this continued even after lovish was disbanded. when mirae blocked him on everything, he took it further and delivered a package to the twins’ apartment - not through the mail, literally to their door. they contacted the police, but they were pretty unhelpful; she wasn’t ‘actually harmed’, she didn’t know who the stalker was or his real name, ‘what did she expect since she was an idol?’. it happens twice more over almost a year, envelopes full of candid pictures of mirae. then it comes to a head when the stalker attempts to kidnap mirae. narae shows up just in time and beats the guy away, but he manages to escape before the police show up.

the twins’ dad takes the matter into his own hands, finally making the sisters move into a new apartment and hiring a bodyguard for mirae.

enter kang hyeonsu.

hyeonsu is 31 … and has no real idea who ahn mirae or ‘miso’ is, nor what ‘lovish’ is beyond hearing about it in passing from news stories and from his friends who were fans. he claims it’s not his kind of music, and even so, he couldn’t tell you the members of his favourite bands with any kind of certainty. he goes in for bodyguard interview because he’s looking for a new job, and eventually gets hired after a rigorous interviewing process.

mirae does not want a bodyguard. she wasn’t even involved in the interviews because she was hoping her father would just give up. he doesn’t. so she’s stuck with hyeonsu.

when mirae manages to convince her father to let her have ‘one more day of freedom’, hyeonsu goes home and gives in to his roommate’s - and high school friend’s - nagging to tell him who the ‘new client’ was. immediately after being told, his roommate and roommate’s sister go all in, excitedly talking about lovish and groaning because hyeonsu is ‘so out of the loop’. hyeonsu eventually cuts them off, not wanting to pry into mirae’s life. he even considers looking into whatever incident incited the need for a bodyguard to be ‘invasive’.

when hyeonsu accompanies mirae to the gym for her archery training, she mentions her coach also being one of the gym’s boxing coaches and that she wants to ‘see hyeonsu’s skills for herself’. he eventually agrees. seeing him spar is the first crack in mirae’s walls.

she’d thought he was attractive when they’d first met and joked about it to try and break the ice, but now it was becoming a bit of a problem. she keeps it to herself, but eventually confesses to her sister when her crush becomes too much. narae is conflicted about it, wanting to support her sister but also recognising the inappropriateness of it.

the two slowly get closer. he’s impressed by her archery skills; she calls him when she has an anxiety attack while alone at her apartment; she likes being around someone who sees her as more than just ‘miso the idol’; he protects her from overwhelming fans and a shitty ‘friend of a friend’ who attempts to get handsy with her; they talk about their families and childhoods and their own interests. they get attached to each other.

hyeonsu tries to stay professional, to push his feelings down because she’s much younger than him and he was hired by her father, but can feel his resolve slipping with every day he spends with her. mirae kind of gives in to her feelings, but despite how forthright she usually is, can’t find a way to confess. they keep having ‘moments’, toeing the line, but neither are confident enough to make the first move and actually cross that line.

i just have. so many ideas for them.

and they’re both so pretty~~

#bibaybe #tj answers #fic: swanfeathers #aaaaaa THEM!!! ✨✨✨ #going insane about them actually

[fastlikealambo]

I'm gonna put y'all on a show that has me screaming every episode

Modern day witch hunt, yt women out yt womening each other, affairs, magic in the real world, teenage cruelty, it's so good.

It does have an SA story-line it is shown in flashback but not in it's entirety so I will warn you of that.

This show is so fucking GOOD, it's on AMC+ on Prime Video, at least it is for me in the US

Also it's got an Elaine Cassidy in it, period drama queen and if you were starved for queer media as a teen like I was you might recognize her from Fingersmith ( if you know, you know. But if you've seen the 2016 South Korean film The Handmaiden YOU KNOW)

And it's got Stephanie Levi-John, who was amazing in The Spanish Princess, out acted damn everyone in that show and I think one of the first times I've seen a black character in a tudor based tv show but I'm rambling. She's great in this show.

JUST WATCH THE DAMN SHOW OKAY

#tv show #tv shows #sanctuary: a witch's tale #tv show recommendations #witchy tv show #fantasy drama