Not sure if you’ve already answered this one or not but I’m curious what your top 5 BL character development moments/achievements would be?
My personal fave is Charn’s process of opening his heart to Tin and how it changed him but didn’t detract from his sassiness.
Hmm, this is an interesting one to consider. It requires the character to change in some way. It's notable because a lot of times it only happens for one of them.
Alex from The Warp Effect
I actually really like the arc for Alex. I think seeing a character reckon with the consequences of his choice or lack of choices was really well done in this show. I like that part of learning for him was about how his people pleasing hurts the people he's trying to appease and making the choice to take better care of the people around him by being a more active participant in his own life.
Nakamichi Misaki from Me, My Husband, and My Husband's Boyfriend
I think I really liked how much she learned that she can choose the kind of relationships she wants from the people around her. I like that so much of her learning about what kinds of love are possible is grounded in her genuine love for Yuki. I have some complex thoughts about where the show chooses to end, but I like how assured she seems about her own life by the end of this compared to the way she seemed trapped at the beginning.
Uea from Bed Friend
Continuing even into Middleman's Love, I really love that Uea learned that he doesn't have to dim himself. He is beautiful. There's nothing wrong with that. It's not his fault that people treat him a certain way. He is also unwell. I'm glad he admitted that and is getting help. I'm glad he's built a support network that knows about his struggles so they can take care of him. I'm glad he severed ties with his horrible mother. He is thriving as himself and not who he was told to be.
Kawi from Be My Favorite
In so many ways I thought Kawi was an incel at the start of the show. I like that so much of his arc was about seeing people around himself in a kinder way, and also treating himself more kindly. I like that he had to face that no matter what he tries he will always eventually lose his dad. Grief is one of the constants of being alive. Everything dies, and so we have learn to cherish what we have and accept that nothing lasts forever. I actually came to like Kawi by the end of the series and could see what Pisaeng saw in him originally.
Amane in If It's With You
I love this boy, and I love how much he's comfortable with the fact that he's attracted to men. I like that his journey with Ryuji is learning that he doesn't have to skip over the cute stuff about first love and run directly to the apps and hookup culture. I like how, even though I wasn't necessarily keen on the chaste ending, it didn't feel like Amane regressed into a sexless being. It's hard for a lot of us who didn't get to have these cute experiences as teens. Dating is hard. We didn't get to practice in simpler settings. I like seeing Amane get a second chance at high school love and blossom as a result.
Ask Me Top 5 BL 2023 Anything
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Late top 5 ask because I just thought of it: 5 shows that you are always down to rewatch
What a great question that is also such a mean and incredibly evil thing to ask me, wen-kexing-apologist, Chronic Rewatcher lmfao
So fun fact I have seen KinnPorsche 14 times, Our Flag Means Death 11 times, The Old Guard 11 times, Heartstopper 11 times, The Eclipse probably 6 times, Bad Buddy and ITSAY 4 times, etc, etc, etc. And those are counting all the times I have watched a show all the way through. This is not counting the number of times I have actively gone back to watch specific episodes or specific scenes.
See the problem is sometimes I hyperfixate and then I just have to watch it until it is out of my system, sometimes an OST pops in to my head and then I get the urge to watch the show again, and sometimes I agree to edit the transcripts for the backlog of @the-conversation-pod and @bengiyo and @shortpplfedup start talking about a show and I'm like "ahhh good times! I should rewatch that!"
So you can imagine the stress I am under. I'll have to do this by category
Show I Am Constantly Rewatching: Bed Friend
gif by @perths
I know what you may be thinking, and yes you are correct I am in this rewatch for Uea's emotional journey. Uea is my sweet summer child, I love him, I have adopted him in to my family, his happiness is my happiness and I love love love watching him go from a quiet, reserved, unhappy character who keeps getting put in unfair situations through no fault of his own in to this confident, vibrant, happy person who is on his way towards healing. Often times it can be hard for me to pick A Favorite thing; a favorite character, a favorite scene because there are so. many. good. ones. But I am constantly, and I mean constantly rewatching the scene in Episode 8 where Uea tells King about his past. I have lost count of how many times I've seen it, no even kidding I watched that scene before I went to bed just last week. I will always always be down to watch that show because I love seeing how far my boy is able to grow with just a little bit of love, care, and therapy.
Show I Would Rewatch for an Instant Mood Boost: If It's With You
gif by @jimmysea
I have a difficult time understanding/feeling emotion in my body unless I abstract it in to fiction. So when I experience strong emotions it is typically when something super happy or super tragic happens on screen, in a book, during my D&D game, etc. One of my absolute favorite things is when something makes me so happy that my body is no longer able to contain it and I have to do the Neurodivergent Hand Flappies(TM). I think I spent 80% of this show grinning so hard it hurt my face and doing the Neurodivergent Hand Flappies because it just...they made me so happy. Amane is so sweet, and he deserves happiness, and he is getting his happiness and he's just full of sunshine and I already rewatched this show like immediately after it finished. This show joins my This Could Fix Me list.
Show I Would Be Down to Rewatch for Emotional Catharsis: Eternal Yesterday
gif by @duckflyfly
I have not rewatched this show...yet. But I want to, and I know that I will eventually. I can only imagine that it is sadder and more evil the second time around. I cried soooo hard over this show. But it is beautiful, and it is healing, and the pain is a good type of aching pain that comes with coming to terms with grief. With acknowledging grief. With finding where the beauty and peace lie within death and memory, and the way its claws dig in to you and leave you changed forever. Ghosts can be warm, and this show makes me warm despite it all.
Show I Would Be Down to Rewatch for Content: I Told Sunset About You/I Promised You the Moon
gif by @thii-nii
I think I am in @shortpplfedup's camp about how you find new things to think about every time you watch this show. I actually desperately, desperately own I Promised You the Moon several rewatches because I have seen ITSAY four times at this point and IPYTM once. I am currently rewatching IPYTM with a friend who is seeing it for the first time, so that should help. But the first time I watched this show I was unable to function to notice anything, and it wasn't until the third time I'd watched ITSAY when I was rewatching it to prepare for the podcast panel, that I finally was able to form any level of coherent analytical thought to it. So I would rewatch this at any point just to see what more I could pull out of it.
Show I Would Be Down to Rewatch But Haven't Yet: 180 Degree Longitude Passes Through Us
gif by @dingyuxi
Bold, based on how intense of a reaction I had to this show, I know. But this was one of my favorites, I never wrote anything about it because I was too busy having a literal mental breakdown over it, one that was so bad I almost had to bail on the entire show with like...20 minutes left of it, and I originally nixed my plan to show it to a friend. BUT I have watched the specific scene that did me in (and only that scene) and it went over fine once I knew to expect it so I do want to watch the whole thing again. I have a friend who I have been forcing to watch BL shows I liked and I watch them with her, and this is on the list. However, I am currently running her through I Promised You The Moon and What Did You Eat Yesterday? Season 2 so this show is still quite a ways out from a rewatch because I am not a total monster and want to give her some modicum of emotional break between those two shows and 180 Degree.
Bonus:
Show I Would Never Rewatch: Enchante
I hate this show truly an unreasonable amount. I hate Theo so much oh my fucking god. I refuse to watch this again and I'm mad that I finished it.
ASK ME MY TOP 5 OF ANYTHING BL
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@casketdweller (beloved) asked: For Claudia to find tucked in among the gifts for the children, was a stuffed toy of her own. Shaped in the form of Gelert, There was a blue-green ribbon tied around its neck. There was obviously no, indication who left it for her, but it had her named written in that familiar script on the tag lovingly attached to the ribbon.
It was the boy that found it first, somewhere among the rain of paper and ribbon, and bounding black hounds chasing hollow wooden balls tossed by giggling maids. It was cleverly hidden, Vincent thought to himself, tucked behind the biggest boxes beneath the branches of the pungent tree (one's nose would clear right up if got too close!). The little canine was carefully retrieved and given an eyeballing, and the name tag, after a moment, earned something of a sly and smug grin.
Poke. Francis's new wooden sword jabbed Vincent right in the shoulder, earning a playful and muted 'ooow' as he drew a hand to clasp the spot. ”What are you smiling about over here?” She inquired suspiciously, twirling the wooden end side to side as if to dig in. “Bring it out. You are meant to open your gifts where we can all sight it.”
“It's not mine,” Vincent responded, wiggling the mini Gelert at his little sister who scrunched her brows curiously. “it's ma's. Let you have three guesses as to who it came from.” His grin only widened, knuckles crowning beneath his chin.
Down drooped the wooden sword as the young maiden examined it, eye quick to catch the tag dangling from the ribbon. Her brows scrunched deeper, tapping it up to the light. “How did he get in here? The morning has been too busy, someone should have seen him.”
“You are only asking now how he gets into the manor? Only now?” Vincent chuckled. “How many times have we spotted him and we hadn't the slightest clue where he popped from? He could be coming down the chimneys for all that we know. Would you be surprised if there was a secret door through the solarium?“
That earned a scoff and a roll of those blue eyes. ”Not in the least.“
”Ask not from whence Mr. 'Callows' came, my little sister.“ Vincent tapped at Francis's nose before giving it a buzz with a pinch. ”Ask where he is going only.“
”Beneath our pine?“
”Perhaps he is hidden amongst the ornaments, shrunken down to the size of a thumb.“
”You're daffy.“ The sword drew up and gave a gentle bonk to Vincent's noggin. ”Give mama her present, it is not polite to hold hostage gifts meant for ladies.“
”Since when is it that ma has enjoyed being treated with the courtesy of a lady~?“
Another bonk. ”Daffy boys are run through with swords and left outside for crow's pinochle, you know. National decree by the Queen herself.”
“Oo,” Vincent made a face, squinting his eyes at his little sister and pointing at her. “You, my sword maiden, are malevolent.” A swat at the sword and a rustle of his fingers through her hair with very audible protest, and Vincent rose up and wandered across the floor to Claudia at last. Francis was naturally tailing him, fixing her hair with grumbles beneath her breath and huffs. “Ma?“
Ma — Claudia — was somewhere on the nearest lounge buried beneath a long draped blanket, a shawl, a slumbering wolf, and fresh curly wood shavings, her wood cutter's blade fiercely at work shaping out the crude satyr. Her brows popped in acknowledgement, white-pupiled eyes flicking up from her work. ”Aye? Are we ready to move outside?” She inquired with a grin and squint of the eyes. Oh yes, despite the horrible fact that it was sheet upon sheet upon sheet of snow out there, Claudia would expertly drum up the interest of playing in it with the children. Just because she hated the blasted cold did not mean they needed to inherit her grudge for the season!
But lo, her eyes hooked onto the Gelert and lit up into a bloom. “Ohhh.”
“It's for you.” Vincent offered, hopping up next to his mother, never minding the wood chips. Francis flanked on the other side, very much minding the wood chips and sweeping them off before getting cozy and burying her face into Gelert's coat. “Hidden in the tree.”
Crooning with adore, Claudia abandoned her work to cradle the toy and bring it in close to embrace, stroking fingers over the head and tapping at the little ears, her expression completely melted with drooping lips and a matching hum. ”Did you fall asleep again? You got a pup now!” She remarked to the wolf, who only snored in response. Her eyes rolled and a hand clapped heartily at his side with affection before pinching at the name tag.
Ah, there it was. A knowing, twisting smile grew across unpainted lips. Her heartbeat skipped a few regulated pulses. Vincent and Francis both observed, sharing a look with one another that matched in thought before glancing back to their mother and her 'mysterious' unnamed gift.
“Isn't that the sweetest little wolf ya ever seen?” Claudia asked, winding both arms around her children to yank them in and hug them close, patting the small wolf to her chest. “Soft the touch, too. Either of you really felt him?” Her head tilted, wiggling it at Francis's nose and making it give her a kiss, which made her face scrunch, yet earned a small smile in its wake. “He's even got a ribbon! I don't know whether to keep it tied, or put it on one of you.”
“All the better to noose Vinny with.” Francis hummed, leaning her head into Claudia's shoulder and finally reaching up to actually pet the little wolf plush, stroking the top of its noggin. Claudia gasped with false shock, hand drawn to her chest.
“Ma, she is wicked this morning.” Vincent shot, fist pinning to his cheek. “I don't think Franny should have gotten any presents for such behavior. She's likely to turn green and grow warts with that very attitude. It's more fitting for a goblin.”
“I am deserving of them. I have dealt with you all this year, have I not?” Francis clicked. “You are utterly incorrigible and sneaky as a fox.”
Vincent fluttered his eyes at Claudia. “I?”
“You.” Claudia smirked, gently elbowing his shoulder. Her son only sighed defeated, shoulders slumped. “She does have a point, you know.”
“If I may say,” Tanaka spoke from his perch behind the chaise, a gentle but impish smile of his own on his face. “he has you for a role model, my Lady.”
A scoff! “I?!“ Claudia exclaimed.
”You.“ All three responded.
”Damn and double damn.“ She relented, holding mini Gelert up to her face and wiggling him. ”Am I worthy of this persecution, little Gelert?“
The toy wolf's eyes only shined in the light of the morning. While it held no opinion itself just yet, perhaps the stealthy gifter would be a fourth to agree.
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