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if-i-was-a-cucumber · 7 months

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my love for mew | only friends

to be absolutely frank, i was super hesitant to make this post because i’m a bit shy to make only friends (2023) content.

this is mostly because of its explicit nature? everyone on the planet has known that this is the Sexy Show™ (at least everyone in the bl community) and i’m very squeamish with that sort of thing. i’ve only been tentatively watching the show because i know it’s definitely going to be a mark on the community, just because of how popular it already is, but as a somewhat sex-repulsed asexual i sort of only started watching it because i knew it was making some sort of history, even if as just a small blip.

but omg i was wrong. on so many levels. and maybe i’ll make a post about the other levels someday, but for this one i want to talk about how wrong i was about specifically MEW.

1. mew as a character - my first impressions

six main characters in only friends, right? top, mew, sand, ray, boston, nick. basically everyone in this show has a “thing” about their except for mew. top is a sort-of asshole who sleeps around; boston is an even bigger asshole (like HUGE) who sleeps around even more, except he’s less rich; nick is kinda cute in personality but is actually a bit deranged; ray is needy and spoiled but everyone lets him get away with it; sand is responsible and tired of everyone’s bullshit, even his love interest to an extent.

but mew? since the beginning, all we ever got was “virgin.” he’s innocent, sexually pure. that really didn’t do it for me — meaning it didn’t intrigue me. i was fully prepared to go in and come out of this show with mew as my least favorite character, not because he was bad or evil or anything, but because he was boring. the worst crime you can commit in media is to be boring.

even his relationship with top, as the episodes progressed, was very bland. yes top was a cheater, but that didn’t quite affect mew’s characterization, other than that it reiterated that he was a little naïve in this field. great, more virgin mew. i just really wasn’t into this little perfect smart boy who’s never had sex before and is so sweet and innocent and kind to everyone that even his friend ray is in love with him.

there was a small beam of hope, though, in the episode 2 date with top. i liked his agency, i liked how he wasn’t so drawn in by top. and i especially liked the following line:

as quick as that hope came, though, it faded. that’s not what this post is about though, and i’ll get to it in a sec. for now:

2. book kasidet as an actor - my previous biases

before anyone says anything, this is not meant to be slander against book. the whole next section is talking about book specifically in the context of the characters he’s acted as before, not about him as a person. he is a great actor who portrays all of his characters exactly as they are. this is not really about him — the only real reason i’m bringing him into this is because he’s mew’s actor.

book’s only other main roles in a series have been as théo in enchanté (2022) and cher/laem in a boss and a babe (2023). which is amazing, considering how recently he debuted, but i digress. the point is, at least in the thai bl industry where i can probably recognize 80% of the actors in any given bl, who the actor is and especially who they have played in the past is really important to me when i watch a series.

forcebook has never quite been my cup of tea, in the least offensive way possible. i dropped enchanté on its first episode (because the plot annoyed me) and a boss and a babe on its second (i couldn’t get over the workplace unprofessionalism). i’ve never been super involved in the forcebook fandom, either. not to mention a part of force’s appeal is his physical sexiness and as an ace person, that really doesn’t appeal to me. what i’m trying to say is that i had no initiative nor care for either force or book as actors and had no previous attachment to them that would draw me to love their characters.

an example of this actor-bias working positively are a couple who are in this series: first and khaotung. the eclipse (2022) was one of my first ever bls and i absolutely adored it from start to finish. i rewatched it twice and have since gone through reoccurring phases of firstkhaotung obsession. and in only friends, sand and ray (played by firstkhaotung) are my favorite couple.

i won’t say this is strictly because first and khaotung portray them, because that’s not at all fair to how sand and ray are as their own individual characters and how much i love them as well. but i can’t say it doesn’t contribute.

an example of this actor-bias working extremely negatively was pond naravit from fish upon the sky (2021). i don’t know if i’ve mentioned it on this blog before or not but i have a very hate-love relationship with that series. for one, the approval of disgusting fan behavior icks me to no end and i can’t help but scream at mork in every scene of the later episodes; for two, mork’s disavowal of every one of pi’s rejections sends me to non-con city, without my consent. (and yes the above picture was taken out of context but mork deserves it.)

but on the other hand, for some god damned reason, i’ve rewatched the entire series not twice, but three times. but i’m digressing again. the point is that for a very long time, i refused to watch never let me go (2022) just because pond naravit was in it, and at the time, i thought i despised him because of how mork acted in fish upon the sky. of course i gave it a try and watched a pondphuwin interview or two and now i love him just as much as the next fan, but the actor-bias theory is real.

so, back to the original topic, a part of my initial dislike for mew was not only that his character was boring, but that i didn’t care enough for book kasidet as an actor or forcebook as a couple to carry me through that dislike. i really wanted mew to have personality, to have something special that differentiated him from a slab of cardboard, even if it was a negative trait.

3. the moment it all changed - only friends episode 6

the real meat of this post. the reason i’m posting any of this in the first place. it’s because i wanted to share the moment everything about my perceptions of mew as a character changed.

for a while i’d been thinking of mew as maybe a little more than the cardboard he appeared to be. he had some sense of agency, he wasn’t completely dependent on top, even if he did fall in love so soon. even if their romance had zero chemistry, at least mew was taking things on his own terms. i even supported him punching ray, at least in the context of creating character for mew, because that was something interesting that surprised me.

what really surprised me was THE SCENE. you all know what i’m talking about.

after mew’s birthday, after ray made a mess out of the whole thing and turned mew’s special day into a shitshow, after mew decided it’s okay and let’s spend sweet sexy time with my boyfriend, he pulls THIS:

AND WITH THAT SMIRK, HE PLAYS BOSTON AND TOP’S SEX TAPE RIGHT THEN AND THERE. I CAN’T TELL YOU HOW HARD I GASPED.

and then there was more.

their ENTIRE RELATIONSHIP DYNAMIC has changed. they’ve been building up the whole past 6 episodes of mew trying to be in charge but top always getting what he wants in the end, like with mew trying to take things slow but eventually he does sleep with top. mew having his own reservations about LASIK but top eventually convincing him to get it, making him physically vulnerable to top for an entire evening.

no matter how much agency mew is trying to garner himself, top always, ironically enough, ends up on top.

but here? right here? there’s no question about it. this whole evening, mew achieves the control he’s been trying to find throughout this entire relationship, and it comes in the form of his boyfriend fucking his best friend. you KNOW top has lost control because we’ve never seen him look so blank and powerless, have we?

but it gets better.

because mew wasn’t only in charge once he started playing the sex tape. he’s been affecting the mood of the scene since the beginning.

he hugs top when he enters the room and gives him a false sense of security. he even brings up ray. he lit that candle in the back just a moment ago. he’s literally and figuratively setting the tone for everything.

“when we fuck someone like boston, it’s hard to stop fucking them. don’t you think?”

top tries to isolate mew from ray again. he takes every chance he can get to insult him. and mew lets him believe that it’s working. (of course top’s insults also make sense in the context that ray was being an asshole that morning but we’re talking about mew’s characterization right now.)

and most linguistically of all to contribute to the change of atmosphere: mew is on top of top.

fangirls, fanboys, and fanneithers of the jury, i believe mew is moving up the ranks.

#gmmtv bl #thai bl #only friends #only friends series #character study #mew #topmew #only friends episode 6 #mew pre–ep 6 and post–ep 6 is a big enough change that he could host his own eras tour #please share your thoughts on the only friends characters!#i love reading about them #i read that one about boston and machiavelli #it was so good that i'm writing an english essay on a machiavellian-esque character from a short story #i feel like top and mew are going to be more interesting from now on #we do need to have a talk about their severe lack of chemistry though #it's not like forcebook doesn't have any?#the lack of chemistry must be a creative choice for topmew #especially since it's so noticeable in comparison to sandray and bostonnick #bl meta

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magentagalaxies · 2 months

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one of the absolute funniest moments on scott's tour that i wasn't able to capture on camera (for obvious reasons) was at the meet and greet after the nashville show these two older gay guys mentioned they were reading scott's wikipedia page before the show to find out more to chat about at the meet and greet and like. idk if this is just because i am very familiar with scott's wikipedia page but you could tell that was the extent of their scott knowledge (which is valid not everyone is researching a documentary on the guy)

but then they asked about the poster for the lowest show, which they'd never heard of before their wikipedia reading, specifically this quote:

"The posters—featuring Thompson lying supine on the ground with a big wad of semen dripping down the side of his face—went up around the city on September 10, 2001"

and they were like "wow we'd love to see those posters hahaha" and i immediately jump in like "oh i have that photo on my phone give me like 2 seconds"

to be clear: these guys had not interacted with me or acknowledged my existence the entire conversation. they had their backs to me when they were talking to scott, i did not introduce myself as directing the documentary since i wasn't filming and they didn't ask who i am, etc. but my brain was like "oh someone wants to learn more about scott? my time to shine, let me pull up that folder in my camera roll". even scott was like jfc here they go again.

anyway i barely had to scroll back in my doc research folder so i immediately held out my phone to the guys and showed them this

it's a photo taken days after 9/11 of scott in front of the posters for his show which was supposed to open the following week

so i hold out my phone and explain this thinking like hey i'm being so helpful these guys wanted to see this aspect of scott lore and i gave it to them!! meanwhile these two old guys are like i can't even focus on the poster anymore i am standing next to scott thompson and also WHO THE FUCK IS THIS CHILD AND WHY DID THEY JUST HAVE THIS ON THEIR PHONE?

another one of the funniest tour moments was after meeting up with some gay guys in their 70s who were friends-of-a-friend-of-scott and immediately befriending both of them we were about to leave and i asked for their phone number and scott just rolled his eyes and was like i'll give you his phone number in the car as though he was saying "jfc jessamine this is ridiculous even for you". he never ended up giving me the old guy's number

#i just love old gay men so much lmao #and they seem to love me (or at least the ones in the second example did lmao)#also one of the other indicators that the first guys only knew about scott's personal life from his wikipedia page #is that they assumed the last boyfriend mentioned on there was someone scott was still dating to this day #and they were like ''oh i'm so happy to hear you have (boyfriend's name)'' meanwhile scott is like ''uh sorry we broke up 21 years ago''#meanwhile i'm like SAME NUMBER OF YEARS THAT I'VE BEEN ALIVE SCOTT!!#to be fair scott hasn't had a serious long-term relationship since then so we have joked about my birth somehow being the antichrist #but just for scott thompson's romantic life. like there's some curse that scott can't be in a serious relationship until i am #which is very funny bc both of us did in fact have a date we were looking forward to when we got back from the tour #in my case mine is with a hot nonbinary person who works at the venue where scott did his boston show and that's how we met lmao #this is also why i was pissed off that my instagram locked me out bc i have hot nonbinary person's instagram but not their phone number #and i said i'd message them when i got back from the tour. which i cannot do #tempted to just message them as mouth congress (the one account i can still get into) and send them my phone number #maybe i'll do that if i don't get my instagram back by buddy's birthday #anyway maybe this is oversharing about both my love life and scott's love life but i just find it very funny #like i was never someone in high school who went on dates and gossiped about it with my friends #and now i get to have some bizarre version of that where my peer group is goddamn scott thompson????#between this and me pulling up the lowest show pic in like 2 seconds yeah maybe we are weirdly close lmao #but i wouldn't have it any other way

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