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ranchthoughts · 11 months

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thoughts on genre, tropes, Bad Buddy, and My School President

and here she is! the full text all together, not split into the three parts previously posted here: part 1, part 2, part 3

I also go more in detail about a lot of the terms and concepts I use here (indexes, conventions, genres, intertextuality, etc) in this post here, in case you would like more context

[strap yourselves in, this is loooooong]

The BL “genre” has so many conventions - in narrative, characterization, themes, settings, iconography, filmic techniques, and of course, tropes.

Bad Buddy and MSP do not lack these genre conventions (both are stories about boys in love, both are set in schools which is very common in Thai BLs especially, both explore a budding relationship and other social and emotional problems of youth, both hit familiar plot beats like confessions and narrative/emotional climaxes, both utilize many editing and sound effect techniques seen in other BLs, and both deploy many BL tropes like cheek kisses, head pats, forced proximity, looming, etc.). However! Bad Buddy and MSP are atypical in their deployment of genre conventions, especially with regards to trope usage and pacing - they go against genre and trope expectations to subvert seme/uke roles and dynamics and they space their narrative beats differently than other shows. As a result, the shows feel familiar but also fresh to BL audiences.

Bad Buddy, MSP, and tropes

BL tropes index so much information to audiences familiar with the genre (e.g., the nature of the relationship between characters, the seme/uke dynamics, other social information, etc.). Bad Buddy and MSP take these familiar indexes, with their well established meanings, and mix them up, give them new contexts, and use what they normally tell us about the characters, social context, relationship dynamic, etc. to tell a new story.

There are SO many examples of this so I have decided to focus on two “subcategories” of tropes: the faen fatale and tropes which are strongly associated with seme/uke dynamics.

Faen Fatales

In most BLs, the faen fatale (thanks to AbsoluteBL for the term) is a character (male or female) whose sole purpose is to drive a wedge between the main pair, often serving as a catalyst for their relationship/confession, and who generally does not get much character development or identity of their own.

In Bad Buddy, Ink seems like a classic faen fatale: she is introduced as an old high school friend that Pat was interested in and Pran was jealous of because of that fact, and now in the present day of the show Pat pursues her again and Pran is once again jealous, especially since it seems Pat is succeeding (they get food together, they hang out a lot, Pat wears the bracelet Ink gave him in high school, etc.). Pran believes that Pat likes Ink and that they are well on their way to being together, if they aren’t together already. Pat even tells Pran he likes Ink. However, it becomes clear quite quickly that Ink is not a typical faen fatale. Her interactions with both boys feel platonic, she shows just as much interest in fostering a friendship with Pran, and when Pat uses Pa’s patented “Four Ways to Tell if Someone Likes You,” Ink fails in every category. She does act a a catalyst to Pat and Pran’s romantic relationship in some ways (e.g., Pat using Pa’s patented Four Ways he learned to assess Ink to realize his own feelings for Pran), and she does act as a barrier to their relationship as some of Pran’s hesitation post their ep.5 kiss comes from his understanding that Pat has a crush on Ink (though of course their family and friends present the main barrier). However, Ink has her own personality, interests, and crucially, her own romantic arc. She is a fully fleshed out character who never had anything but platonic feelings for either lead: ergo, a subversion of the faen fatale trope.

In MSP, there are a couple of potential faen fatales, but neither develop that way in the end. Sound is introduced as Tinn’s rival, and romance media logic would suggest he will fulfill a love rival role in the show, competing with Tinn for Gun’s affections (especially as Sound is interested in music like Gun and he joins Chinzilla). Even Tiw suggests Tinn should look out for Sound moving in on Gun. However, Sound never shows interest in Gun and quickly gets acclimated into the band, only briefly presenting a threat to Tinn and Gun’s relationship when Tiw witnesses them having a seemingly intimate moment but that is sorted by the end of the episode. Like Ink, Sound never has anything other than platonic feelings for either lead and ends up with his own romantic arc. The other possible faen fatale in MSP is Nook, though she is present so briefly. I think other shows would have stretched out her plot line more and had her fill more of a faen fatale role. As it stands in MSP: Gun sees her give a gift to Tinn and compliment him, he gets jealous and snaps at Tinn, and then the show/Tinn immediately reveal to us and to Gun that it was a case of mistaken identity (Yo was catfishing with Tinn’s picture). In a matter of minutes, Nook went from being a faen fatale set up to simply someone involved in another character’s arc, part of a problem that Tinn and Gun could work on together.

Neither Bad Buddy nor MSP have faen fatale characters, though there are characters that could, and indeed seem to be set up to, fill that role. Both shows subvert our expectations and BL tropes by having potential faen fatales be uninterested in either lead and possess more character development than most other examples of the trope (including their own, completely separate, romantic arcs). In the case of Ink, this also subverts typical BL handling of female characters, who tend to be few and far between and generally relegated to the under-developed role of faen fatale.

Seme/uke Tropes

Most BL shows can be read through a lens of seme/uke dynamics, which originated in yaoi. The seme is the “pursuer” character and the uke is the “pursued”. There are certain physical (height, skin colour, etc.), social (age, wealth, social capital, etc.), and personality (active vs. passive, extroverted vs. introverted, flirtier vs. shyer) markers which are typically associated with either the seme or the uke. For example, semes tend to be taller, wealthier, older, flirtier, tanner, more active, and have a higher social status, while ukes tend to be shorter, poorer, younger, shyer, paler, and have a lower social status. “Seme” and “uke” roles are also sometimes conflated with masculinity and femininity (semes are “masculine” and ukes are “feminine”) and sexual preferences (semes are dominant and tops and ukes are submissive and bottoms). There are also tropes associated with either the seme or the uke, like ukes typically give cheek kisses and semes forehead kisses.

Thus, things like height, age, wealth, personality, presumed sexual preference, and the role they take in tropes can index the character’s status as a seme or a uke, and in turn the character’s identity as a seme or uke in the narrative (pursuer vs. pursued) indexes a character’s personality, sexual preferences, etc., however unrealistic and simplistic that is in real life. In a BL, we would expect the seme (pursuer) and uke (pursued) characters to exhibit most, if not all, of the associated seme or uke traits and roles in tropes, though this is not always true (and some BLs have little to no seme/uke dynamics at all).

In terms of physical, social, and personality markers in Bad Buddy, Pat exhibits slightly more “seme” traits than Pran, like his larger size and more “rugged” and “typical” masculinity compared to Pran’s neatness. However, both Pat and Pran take the seme or uke role in tropes about the same amount of time, with Pran having several significant moments where he embodies the seme role (looming over Pat, licking his fingers, drying his hair, etc., not to mention the post-sex scene in ep.11) and Pat many significant moments where he embodies a uke or even “feminine” role (casting himself as the girlfriend at the bus stop, being clingy, pretending to be sick so Pran will give him a sponge bath, etc.). In fact, tropes often happen twice, with Pat and Pran taking turns in the seme and uke role (e.g., both take turns cleaning the other’s face, both cook for the other, both kiss the other’s cheek, etc.). Furthermore, and I’ve spoken about this before here: both Pran and Pat deliberately take on the seme role during their ep.7 Flirt-Off bet (”whoever falls in love first loses”). To win the bet, they have to be the pursuer (i.e., seme), and thus spend the episode taking it in turns to exhibit the seme role in tropes (Pat takes off his shirt multiple times, Pran looms over Pat, they wash each other’s faces, they take the seme roles with Ink and Wai at the noodle shop to make the other jealous, etc.), thus also spending the episode taking it in turns to fulfill the uke role in tropes. The fact that the seme and uke roles in Bad Buddy are so interchangeable and balanced (they sometimes ever play the narrative roles of pursuer and pursued at the same time) demonstrates the show’s upending of traditional seme/uke dichotomies.

In MSP, Tinn and Gun are pretty much the perfect seme and uke in terms of physical and social markers: Tinn is taller, wealthier, has a higher social status, and even has a female “faen fatale” (more typical for seme characters), while Gun is shorter, poorer, from a marginalized club at school, and has a male “faen fatale” (more typical for uke characters). Some one on Tumblr (and I cannot for the life of me find this post again) mentioned that Tinn is a little “feminine” coded when it comes to romance (he is the dreamer, the romantic, always imagining romantic situations), while Gun is more what we’d think of as “masculine” when it comes to romance (more brusque, less sappy), though I am not sure how applicable these types of divisions are to BL. In term of preference markers, there isn’t much sexual content to go off of, but MSP does mention the TinnGun vs GunTinn divide in ep.12, never coming down on either side, and one of the things the homophobic teacher says is that he thought Gun was more “masculine” so he is surprised to see him dating a boy. Overall, the show deliberately eschews and criticizes the association of top/bottom or masculine/feminine with the pair. Furthermore, Tin talks a lot about wanting to be Gun’s boyfriend, to belong to Gun - and as @cinna-bin points out here, for a genre that equates seme with dominance, the one who shows and has ownership of the other, it is pretty subversive to have the seme character in the narrative express a desire to be “owned”. Like Pat and Pran, Tinn and Gun are fairly egalitarian when it comes to which role they take in tropes (Tinn catches Gun when he falls, Gun touches Tinn’s chin constantly, they both kiss the other’s cheek). I’ve talked about this here too, but often Tinn will imagine a moment with himself in the seme role (e.g., wiping Gun’s face) that won’t come to fruition, but when it does happen in real life, the trope is reversed and Gun takes the seme role (e.g., when it happens in real life, Gun wipes Tinn’s mouth). In MSP, the deployment of tropes is more about natural moment and real life, and less adhering to strict role divisions. This back and forth feels more accurate, more high school - they both take it in turns to boldly initiate and then to be shy (all the aborted kiss chances, etc.).

Finally, I’d like to add that there are many moments in both Bad Buddy and MSP where the characters are aware of the romantic tropes and intentionally utilize them to further a romantic agenda. We aren’t exactly subverting tropes here, but we are playing with them deliberately and consciously in a way you don’t get in a lot of BLs so I thought it worth mentioning here. Most of these instances come in the Bad Buddy ep.7 Flirt-Off or from Tinn’s day dreams and include:

Pat employing the “drinking from a water bottle/pouring water on yourself” and “shirt off” tropes to try and get Pran hot and bothered in ep.7

Pran looming over Pat during the bet

Pat and Pran trying to make each other jealous by employing various classic tropes with Ink and Wai respectively while eating noodles (opening their water bottle, feeding them, wiping their mouth, etc.)

Pran symbolically losing the bet by wiping Pat’s mouth

Tinn imagining himself wiping Gun’s mouth

Tinn imagining a Ghost moment while cooking with Gun

Tinn making a joke about a “hot underwater kiss”

Pacing

Both MSP and Bad Buddy are also slightly unconventional when it comes to pacing. Both shows hit the standard BL narrative beats (falling for one another, confessions, first kiss, confirmation of relationship, conflict, beach eps, etc) but at unconventional timings, they utilize a lot of time skips, and they also condense plot lines which in other shows might have been much longer.

The Placement of Narrative Beats

I will focus on two of the main places where both Bad Buddy and MSP diverge from the usual BL placement of narrative beats. Firstly, the first kiss on both shows: while there is a lot of variety in the timing of first kisses for BL shows, Pat and Pran’s rooftop kiss at the beginning of ep.5 is perhaps a little earlier than usually, especially since the two do not truly confess or get together until the end of ep.7; and in MSP, their first kiss comes quite late, especially given the numerous near-kisses that happen throughout the latter half of the show. The first kiss for MSP coming in ep.12 is not unheard of for a low-heat BL and really makes sense given the tone and setting of the show (lighthearted, high school), but combined with the early confession of feelings (hinted at as early as ep.3, and fairly confirmed in ep.6) as well as those fake-out kisses makes it feel unusual.

Secondly, both shows eschew the typical ep.11 of doom structure of a BL, where ep.11 sees peak emotional angst and the narrative/plot climax, in favour of a ep.10 (and even ep.9 in Bad Buddy) of doom, an ep.11 denouement, and an ep.12 conclusion. Eps.9 and 10 in Bad Buddy are when Pat and Pran’s friends and parents, the two biggest barriers to their relationship, find out about them. Pat is shot, they learn the real story behind their parents feud, there are a lot of emotions, etc. In ep.10 of MSP, there is the finale of Hot Wave and Gun’s mother’s illness (culminating in her receiving surgery at the end of the episode). Neither show has the main couple break up in their eps. of doom, like is common in other BLs’ ep.11 of doom, though they do have their relationships tested. Ep.11 in both Bad Buddy and MSP are instead the denouement, a quieter, more introspective look at the emotions and plot event of the previous episode(s). Pat and Pran run away from their families for their “honeymoon” on the beach and come to terms with everything they’ve learned, and MSP focuses more on the aftermath of Hot Wave and the tensions and emotions among Chinzilla, though there is of course parts about Tinn and Gun’s relationship in the face of disappointment. The final ep. for both show is thus given a bit more breathing room than in other BLs - they don’t have to wrap up the emotions and plot lines of an ep.11 of doom AND conclude the series, and can instead focus on wrapping up the series and even introducing new ideas and a look into the future (there are timeskips in both ep.12s, Bad Buddy does their PatPran breakup fake out, and MSP explores homophobia).

Time Skips

While time skips aren’t unheard of in BLs, especially in the final episode, Bad Buddy and MSP’s usage of them interject a level of realism into the series that isn’t always seen. The time jump of 6 or so months at the beginning of ep.7 in Bad Buddy means the tension build of the Flirt-Off doesn’t happen over a matter of days or weeks but in fact months. Pat and Pran are stubborn, this won’t be resolved quickly, and it give time for the tension to realistically reach a breaking point. MSP features several time skips in ep.9, ep.10, and ep.12, stretching both the Hot Wave competition schedule and Tinn and Gun’s budding relationship over a much more realistic full school year, instead of pretending the competition and build up of tension or feelings could be happening over a span of weeks. Paradoxically, the fact that the shows use time skips instead of showing (either in full, in part, or in a montage) the parts they skip (the Flirt-Off, the weeks of Tinn and Gun coming closer together and Chinzilla practicing) connects to my next point: the shows aren’t afraid to speed things up sometimes. The use of time skips both slows down the narrative and emotional arcs over a longer period of time while also demonstrating that the shows feel confident in their narratives: there is no need to stretch story lines out over episodes and episodes.

Condensing Plot Lines

The most striking thing about Bad Buddy and MSP’s pacing is how fast they move through plot lines, especially compared to other shows. In Bad Buddy, the plot line where Pat and Pran are anonymously and unknowingly flirting with each other through gifts and notes left at each other’s doors could have been the plot line for most of a show, if not a whole show, but it is introduced and resolved within ep.2. Ink is introduced in ep.4 and seems to be a potential faen fatale, but by the end of ep.4 this seems somehow unlikely and by halfway through ep.5 it is confirmed that she won’t be. The Flirt-Off happens in large part off-screen, in the 6 months or so time skip between eps.6 and 7, and is shown to us and resolved in ep.7. Other shows could have spent episodes if not half the show exploring that plot line.

I've talked at length about the pacing of MSP here and a bit here - like Bad Buddy, MSP moves quickly through plot lines that might have spanned episodes or even a whole season in another show. By the end of the first episode, MSP establish that Tinn is soft and pining hard over Gun (instead of keeping up the premise that he is cold and out to get the music club), the finale of Hot Wave comes two episodes before the end, the plot lines around Gun’s mother’s health are resolved in about one episode (the conflict around Tinn keeping Gun’s mother’s illness from him is resolved in a couple of scenes, and she has surgery and is pronounced ok by the end of the episode), any jealousy plot line around Nook is resolved in two scenes, the conflict introduced by Sound joining the band is resolved in one episode, and so on. Pretty much every problem introduced at the beginning of an episode is resolved by the end.

Bad Buddy and MSP feel confident, like they know they have narrative material to spare and don’t need to stretch plot lines out with twists, miscommunication, and jealousy. Thus, they move through plot lines much more quickly than other shows would.

Both shows feel so fresh because of this - they keep things moving, they surprise us by resolving things faster than other shows would, they don’t linger in jealousy and miscommunication like many other shows do, they skip over parts that other shows might have lingered on for the biggest punch, and they break the patterns that us, the audience, have come to expect from BLs (like the ep.11 of doom). Even the progression of the relationships, which we know will be romantic and probably happy in the end (these are BLs after all) and conform vaguely to enemies-to-lovers and will-they-won’t-they conventions, stay fresh: Pat and Pran have kissed and all but confessed their feelings, but they now embark on a months long Flirt-Off bet that delays them actually getting together. We know Tinn has a crush on Gun from the end of the first ep. and we begin to see hints that Gun might like him back from ep.3 onwards, and at first the show seems like it is going to go the typical romcom route wherein Gun doesn’t realize Tinn’s crush is on him (especially with him offering to help Tinn flirt with his crush), but like I talked about in my post here, they don’t and instead have Gun know it is him Tinn has a crush on, he’s just uncertain and a bit scared. Bad Buddy and MSP are both quicker and slower than other shows: they move through plot lines without lingering, but they use time skips to create realistic long term development of the core relationships, allowing the characters to build tension, live in hesitancy, and in the case of Tinn and Gun, be realistically slow in the physical progression of their relationship.

Conclusions

Bad Buddy and MSP subvert audience expectations with regards to tropes and narratives - like their handling of the faen fatale trope (both shows give us characters that could be faen fatales, and probably would be in other shows, that do not fulfill the narrative role of a faen fatale and receive character development and arcs of their own unlike other faen fatales) and how they play with expectations surrounding seme/uke dynamics (those who embody the seme or uke role in tropes aren’t necessarily the ones who exhibit the most seme or uke physical, social or personality markers; tropes iterations are balanced and reciprocal). Both shows change up the usual BL timelines and expected pacing - they hit their peak narrative, emotional, and angst climaxes before the standard ep.11 peak, plot beats come quicker than in other shows, and story arcs that are usually dragged on in other shows are concluded more quickly. On the other hand, both shows are “slower” than other BLs in other ways, like their usage of time skips to create realistic progressions of the core relationships. As a result of these subversions of BL genre conventions, the shows are familiar but also fresh to BL audiences.

But what does this say about Bad Buddy and MSP, and the BL genre in general?

Firstly, these shows remind us again of the importance of intertextuality. Texts (and this includes television shows) are intertextual; they all refer to one another and cannot exist separately from other texts. BLs especially are very intertextual - they have so many shared elements (tropes, characters, locations, etc.) they always (deliberately or unintentionally) draw parallels to other BLs. We would never notice how Bad Buddy and MSP diverge from other BL shows if we did not by necessity/automatically think of all previous BLs while watching them. Furthermore, where and how Bad Buddy and MSP divert from genre conventions and previous examples of the genre demonstrates their relationship to the genre and underlines the messages the shows are trying to send. Bad Buddy and MSP subvert the particular genre expectations they do and in the way they do to make a point - by giving new meanings to familiar conventions and juxtaposing typical meanings of genre conventions with their own (either explicitly, or through the audience’s intertextual analyses) the shows ground themselves in a different world view than other BL shows and give a more nuanced and realistic look at human and queer experience.

For example, the way Bad Buddy and MSP move quickly through plot points (avoiding extended plot lines centering on jealousy or miscommunications) and the reciprocity of their trope usages (deliberately balancing the seme and uke dynamics of their lead pairs) is unusual in the world of BL. It serves to emphasize the reciprocal and egalitarian nature of the lead pairs’ relationships which we also see in their treatment of one another (communicating, understanding each other’s needs and taking turns acquiescing to make the other happy, e.g., ep.11 where Pran agrees to run away and stay on the honeymoon to make Pat happier and then Pat agrees to return home to make Pran happier, or Tinn and Gun being so supportive and understanding of one another’s dreams and physical boundaries, etc.). In this post @miscellar argues the lack of miscommunication as a plot device in Bad Buddy is inherently queer and that the show as a whole does away with heterosexual/heteronormative tropes. In their reciprocity, egalitarianism, and communication, Pat and Pran and Tinn and Gun eschew the standard power dynamics of BLs which come as a result of BL’s encoded seme/uke dynamics, which in turn come from heteronormative and misogynistic ideas in the het romance genre and beyond about men and women. Defying genre conventions in some ways (e.g., subverting tropes) strengthens and underlines how the shows defy genre conventions in other ways (queerer, more realistic stories; fairer treatment for women; less heteronormativity, etc.) - these smaller, more obvious subversions of genre conventions and expectations indicates to us, the audience, that we should be prepared for larger, more subtle and implicit shake ups of genre conventions and expectations, ones that might rewrite the BL genre code for the future.

By reflecting on what Bad Buddy and MSP change, we can understand and identify the standard BL world view and set of assumptions. For example, by weakening and subverting seme/uke dynamics and their associations with things like dominance/submission, masculinity/femininity, and top/bottom, Bad Buddy and MSP reject the heteronormative and misogynistic assumptions that underlie most BLs: that gay couples have a “man” and a “woman;” that the penetrated must be feminine, weaker, sex averse, etc. like women are in heterosexual relationships; that there is always an unbalance of power (social and/or sexual) in relationships. While these are “just” romance tropes, or you might say that it’s odd to be so absorbed by the dynamics between two characters (particularly when it come to analyzing seme vs. uke and top vs. bottom), in a world where these tropes and their execution, and the preferred sexual position of a character and what that says about their personality etc., are so tied to other things and issues like misogyny, homophobia, etc., refusing to engage and deliberately obscuring are pretty radical things that say a lot about the message and view point of the shows.

Bad Buddy and MSP feel more realistic than a lot of other BLs. This is not to say that shows have to be realistic to be good, or even that viewers/that I prefer realistic shows, but it is certainly something that strikes me when I think about Bad Buddy and MSP. The relationship progression is slower, there is less dwelling in miscommunications, they even have not entirely happy but hopeful endings (Pat and Pran are continuing to hide their relationship from their parents, but it seems they are coming around; Tinn and Gun face homophobia from people in their lives, but also receive support from their classmate and parents). And beyond being realistic to the “real world,” they also feel more realistic to the queer experience: queer relationships don’t usually have such strict relationship roles and power dynamics, adhere so strictly to heteronormative ideals, or exist in world without homophobia or disapproval. They are varied, often deliberately contrasting and rejecting hetero norms, and sometimes involve being scared to come out (even to accepting parents), facing homophobia, and living in a “glass closet” limbo.

Many people have talked about how Bad Buddy walked so MSP could run - Bad Buddy was more heavy handed and noticeably deliberate with its trope subversions, intentionally trying to correct problems that have existed in the BL genre since the beginning, and this allowed MSP coming later to be more subtle with their changes, working them even more seamlessly into the style and the tone of the show. After MSP, what will be next? Where is GMMTV, and BL as a whole (in Thailand and beyond) heading? I’m excited to find out.

Bibliography

@absolutebl, specifically these posts: 1 (faen fatales), 2 (seme/uke), 3 (seme/uke tropes), 4 (GMMTV correcting for its mistakes), and all their posts about BL tropes

Agha, Asif. 2003. “The social life of cultural value.” Language & Communication 23: 231-273.

Ahearn, Laura. M. 2012. Living Language: An Introduction to Linguistic Anthropology. Hoboken: Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Bakhtin, Mikhail M. 1982. “Discourse in the Novel.” In The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays by M.M. Bakhtin, edited by Michael Holquist, translated by Caryl Emerson and Michael Holquist, 260- 422. Austin: University of Texas Press.

Chandler, Daniel. Semiotics for Beginners. http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel//Documents/S4B/semiotic.html

Chandler, Daniel. Genre Theory. http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel//Documents/intgenre/intgenre.html

@cinna-bin: https://cinna-bin.tumblr.com/post/704496825511641088/his-boyfriend-words-matter

Irvine, Judith T. 1996. “Shadow Conversations: The Indeterminacy of Participant Roles.” In Natural Histories of Discourse, edited by Michael Silverstein and Greg Urban, 131-159. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Laineste, Liisi, and Piret Voolaid. 2017. “Laughing Across Borders: Intertextuality of Internet Memes.” European Journal of Humour Research 4, no. 4: 26–49.

@miscellar: https://www.tumblr.com/miscellar/674021449476997120/here-are-a-few-things-off-the-top-of-my-head-1 AND edited to add this post, which is so crucial to understanding how intentional all this is when it comes to Bad Buddy: https://www.tumblr.com/miscellar/710442440997371904/hello-in-a-convo-we-were-having-about-qls-that

Proctor, Devin. 2020. "Intertextuality." In The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Mass Media and Society, edited by Debra L. Merskin, 849-50. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.

@ranchthoughts (myself): 1 (signs, symbols, icons, indexes, genre and BL), 2 (Bad Buddy and seme/uke tropes), 3 (MSP and imagination vs. reality), 4 (MSP being a good-natured show), 5 (MSP and narrative structure and pacing), 6 (Gun and knowing about Tinn’s crush); and everyone I referenced in those posts as well

Wiggins, Bradley E. 2019. The Discursive Power of Memes in Digital Culture: Ideology, Semiotics, and Intertextuality. London: Routledge.

#bb #bb meta #msp #msp meta #bl meta #ranch thoughts #bad buddy #my school president #this post is a monster... it's a full thesis basically #ppt thoughts

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kaleidoscopic-quiddity · 2 years

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lil things abt bad buddy that i absolutely love

girl pls help this show literally has my brain in a chokehold

the way it clowned on dumbass bl tropes like ‘im straight but i like this one guy’ and the whole heteronormative bs of there being a ‘husband’ and a ‘wife’ in a gay relationship

the fact that pat and pran had the ‘lets not call each other ‘wife’ its weird’ convo without being sexist or imply that being called a wife is demeaning, merely that its not for them

korn’s eyebrows

the fact that homophobia seems basically non-existent, like that might change now with the parent drama being introduced but i love literally none of the uni aged characters give a shit about pat and pran both being guys, just that they’re from opposing faculties

the fact that ‘big, tough’ pat is actually a clingy puppy and sleeps with a stuffed doll

pran’s dimples

the set dressing, like all of the bedrooms look so good and say so much about the characters whilst still being subtle

have i mentioned korn’s eyebrows?

actually, just korn’s entire character

the way pa and pat feel like real siblings

the way eco activism and caring for the environment is subtlety present throughout the show, u can tell its an issue the showrunners care about

the way the female characters aren’t the protagonists but still get their own unique personalities, styles, motivations, relationships, and character arcs outside of the male characters

the fact that pat and pran’s sexualities are left unlabelled, i know this frustrates other ppl but personally i like how the focus is on how they feel for each other, not what their specific identities are or internalized homophobia

the way that the bl ‘sexuality crisis’ trope is also totally ignored, pat and pran were conflicted bc they loved a guy they were supposed to hate, not because they loved a guy

the way pat and pran also feel like best friends as well as boyfriends

the fight scenes are obviously staged and feel a lil cringey sometimes but you can tell the actors are having fun

the outfits, everyone is so stylish tf

the fact that engineering and architecture have beef for seemingly no reason?? like idk i just find it funny that these faculties just seem to hate each other for no apparent reason

subsequently, pat and pran’s romeo and juliet dynamic, gotta love some forbidden love that isnt forbidden just because its gay

pat’s scent kink lmao

these two dumbasses have been in love with each other since high school an yet decided to do a ‘whoever falls in love first loses’ bet

the way the kwan and riam play could’ve been used to have a dragged out jealousy/possessiveness plotline but wasn’t, because pran trusts pat, and also because the jealousy thing had already been somewhat done with ink

the fact that ink was totally on to pat and pran before they even sorted out their own feelings, i love her sm

the way ink looks out for the younger girls at the uni and can intimidate guys into backing off, #girlboss

the background music and how the scenes wouldnt be complete without it

the way pat and pran totally love spoiling each other

theres probably way more but i was up until 2am last night watching bad buddy and my brain has turned to mush

#bad buddy #bad buddy the series #pran parakul #pat napat #patpran #og post //

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tothepoetslake · 2 years

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Episode 7: Smooth and not-so-smooth foreshadowing.

Which conflicts will Pat, Pran and everyone else face in the following episodes?

Conflict #1:

their parents: they’re not like those parents in TV dramas, they’re worse.

Conflict #2:

Ink and Pa girlfriends?: they’ve been throwing hints about them since Pat tried to get with Ink, and it seems like they weren’t just sapphic-baiting us 👀

Conflict #3: The play.

A play about two boys who were enemies falling in love with each other and having a secret relationship? Sounds like PatPran... now the question is, we already have Pat playing one of the main characters and we can assume they casted the other boy as well, so where does this leave us? Will we get Pat and Pran as the actors for some reason? And most importantly, will Pran’s or/and Pat’s parents find out about them? If that happens would it end the same way it did the last time they were on stage together?

Conflict #4: Wai.

Wai often takes advantage of Pran’s friendship. And there are several moments we noticed this: 1) He asks Pran to join the play and be in the sound team with him. 2) He makes Pran “help” him with the music for the play. We never saw Wai in any of the rehearsals in the episode, so basically Pran is doing Wai’s work on his own. 3) He asks Pran for a favour and Pran answers him with “Again?” 4) He goes to Pran’s place (uninvited) to guilt-trip him (there’s literally no other way to call it) so he’ll accept to take his place even though he was told Pran wants to focus on other things. He didn’t even asked how Pran was, and he was having a pretty shitty day covering for him and treating with shitty people because of him.

(i want pran to snap at him so bad. hopefully soon.)

Conflict #5

So Pat doesn’t seem interested in playing rugby anymore, however he hadn’t told his dad yet and it seems like he’s expecting a bad reaction from him. Maybe this will make room for conversations about masculinity, legacy and patriarchal beliefs.

Next week we’ll see more of this, if that’s what the ending scenes are teasing at.

Conflict #6: Wai, Pa and Ink love triangle?

Pa needs to figure out who’s her secret senior... Then we have that scene when he seems interested in her and wants her number. He doesn’t know she’s Pat’s sister so there’s a lot to unpack here.

Maybe Pa will be the reason for a bigger fight between Pat and Wai? Whose side would Pran take? Would Pa like Wai back or date him for a while?

What if Wai’s interest in Pa becomes a new reason for a fight between architecture and engineering? Korn doensn’t look happy with whatever Wai was doing.

(hoping Ink protects Pa from Wai ajcdnkcsd)

Conflict #7 Pat’s lack of relationship experience.

Pa mentions in a joking manner that Pat has never dated anyone before... will this create some issues in his new-established relationship with Pran? Maybe miscommunication problems? Also, it says a lot about him how he always acts like he’s popular with girls in front of his friends and dad. Another reason why he doesn’t seem to fit in the idea other people have of him.

She also mentions how other people who have got close to him seem to only have been interested in his money. I don’t think that’ll be a problem because Pran is rich too but who knows?

Conflict #8

Pat’s anger and jealosy because of Wai. I’m pretty sure he notices how Wai’s always asking for favours from Pran. And, beyond the jealousy, he seems to be even angrier at Pran being mistreated.

Pran prioritizing Wai over him will definitely be an issue in the future. It already is now. The issue with the guitar should be adressed at some point, they didn’t really mention it.

Conflict #9

Pran is overworked. We saw how he has too much on his plate and no one notices. It can end badly with him collapsing, hurting the people he loves or getting burnt-out.

Conflict #10

Pat thinks Pran takes him for granted :( this one hurts me the most, because pran has built so many walls aroung himself that he’s hurting the person who loves him the most without realizing :(

Pat would do anything Pran asks him for.

(Not a conflict but omg aksdskcmksc) PRAN’S PUPPY EYES AND BABY VOICE. that’s it.

Pran and Pat getting to know each other better>>> soon

#bad buddy #patpran #bad buddy ep 7 #ohmnanon #boys love #ohm pawat #nanon korapat

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jemmo · 2 years

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the bedroom pas de deux // ep 11

i kinda dropped my whole comparison of the romeo and juliet ballet to bad buddy bc i dont have a full version of the ballet to watch and bc i was wallowing in my emotions so much that it was kinda above my mental capacity. but there had always been another pas de deux thats available on the royal opera house youtube channel that i was waiting and waiting to do a comparison for, that being the bedroom pas de deux. and i was waiting bc i wasn’t even sure if there was gonna be a good point for comparison in bad buddy. the bedroom pas de deux is the last time romeo and juliet see each other, before all hell breaks loose and murders happen and you know the rest. this is their final and most intimate moment together, and i wasn’t sure where the plot of bad buddy was headed so i wasn’t sure if we’d get something akin to this.

but i should’ve known better. p’aof is clearly sticking to his shakespearian parallels, and as soon as pat said ‘lets get away from here’ i had a suspicion that finally the episode to mirror the bedroom pas de deux was upon us, and by god i was right.

first off, we have to talk about the title, the bedroom pas de deux. we all know what goes down in ep 11 3/4 so there’s obvious parallels there that link these points in their respective stories. just as a side note, i find this interesting going forward for predictions as a lot happens after this in romeo and juliet, a lot a lot of drama, but we only have 1 ep left for bad buddy. obviously bad buddy isn’t a direct retelling and points that parallel have been out of order and inconsistent so far in my reading of a comparison, but hey its worth pointing out and thinking about in these long says wait. anyway, these scenes both in the ballet and the show are about the characters being intimate sexually and that after glow that follows. in romeo and juliet, this is more by the book, as in they’ve gotten married in secret and are making love for the first time, and with the youth and innocence of the characters there’s that classic air of the ‘loss of virginity’. as bad buddy is more modern, this has less of a focus. first off, its not said definitely either way whether pat and pran have been intimate prior to this or not, in any capacity, and that brings in the argument of what is virginity and when is it lost, through what acts??

but thats me getting side tracked; what i want to mention more so is all the marriage talk thats been happening over the past 2 eps. we get a mock proposal on the stairs and then the words are dropped again and again through ep 10. its as if, by playing with the idea, they go through the motions of a marriage, but obviously this discussion is something that has to stay fictional and fantastical due to the legality of gay marriage. we get some branching from the classic narrative as pat and pran’s parents find out, whereas romeo and juliet’s families never find out about their relationship, but then we’re back to a honeymoon phase. and while romeo and juliet can only have that one night of intimacy and the morning after as their honeymoon, this gets extended for pat and pran through their temporary escape. and i like this bc, compared to the original narrative, which is very much a stolen moment of passion, with lower stakes as they don’t know what is ahead and have no plans to part, pat and pran are dealing with a lot more. they’ve come here in the aftermath of a fallout, and with the looming and ever-growing threat of separation. its all there, in the front of their minds, and so they need more time, they need an actual honeymoon that extends beyond an evening of intimacy and a stolen morning before parting. and thats why, for this pas de deux, you can make more direct parallels to the morning after scenes in bad buddy, but also more generally see this pas de deux as the episode as a whole, bc both are the extent of the honeymoon they get, and therefore share similar emotions.

now comes the bit where i talk about the dancing even though i have no clue what i’m talking about but here i go.

(here’s the video of the pas de deux btw)

the world spins

what i first registered upon watching this pas de deux with fresh eyes was that there’s a lot of spinning. a lot. a lot of the partner work is spins, moves are entered into with spins, lifts are spins. and i think this very well reflects this moment of loss and confusion for pat and pran, the fact that the world seems to be spinning too fast, things are happening too quickly and they can’t keep up, and all they want is a moment of respite, which they find in each other. i’ve picked out some of my favourite spin moments here.

this one i love for its changes in direction, how the spin starts facing away before juliet spins in to face romeo, then spins away to look outwards before spinning back in to be lifted in romeo’s embrace. you can follow how the directions represent that exact push and pull between what they want, being together, and what the world wants, for them to be apart. and way they spin into each other and back out and then in again is also matched in their eyeline, looking at each other, then looking out into the world, and then in the lift there’s almost this merging of the two. juliet looks up into the sky, but to look up she has to look at romeo too, and similarly romeo looks up while also glancing at juliet. its as though the final lift is a wish for the world they’re looking out to to have each other in it. they spin lost in despair and confusion and look to the sky praying it will provide some kind of hope that out there somewhere is a world with the other in it, that its not one or the other. and yet at the same, that wish is also an acknowledgement of the facts, something that pat very much had to go through this ep. by wishing for a future with pran in it, pats also admitting that the future he knows is coming doesnt have pran. thats why when asked what he wants to do after graduation he says take over the family business. he’s known all along, its always been in the back of his mind that this cant be serious, its a pipe dream to try and commit to this. and so he sees pran and he sees the world and he looks to the sky thinking why cant it be simple? how can the two exist at the same time and yet seem to repel each other like oil and water? and when the push and pull is over, where are they gonna end up? when the world stops spinning, where will they land?

this spin i love for how erratic it is. i talked in previous comparisons to the ballet about the bourrée, and about how a bourrée backwards is a motif for juliet throughout the ballet, showing both her obedience and rejection of the expectations put on her by her family. and i find it so interesting here that we get a hint of that bourrée. its the only time we see it in the pas de deux, and its such a fleeting moment that you almost miss it, but those small movements of the feet are there. but here they’re much slower, and they’re moving forward. juliet’s bourrée is most predominantly backwards, her running away from both paris, bc she doesn’t want to be with him, doesn’t want the life set out for her by her parents, and from romeo, bc she subconciously knows that she should distance herself, they shouldnt be together. the forward movement here also speaks of subconcious control which very much fits pran, this time the messages his parents have drilled into her telling him to run away, move forward, go to them, some nebulous space off stage where pat isn’t. he starts running away from pat but slows into this bourrée that speaks of his weak and defeated retreat to what he’s been told is right, only for pat to grip his shoulders and send him spinning into his arms. its a spin of such speed that speaks of how completely dizzy pran feels, how things have been turned upside down, how him rejecting familial expectations has sent him spiralling down an unknown path. but the path ultimately leads to pat, he catches him in his arms and rights him on his own two feet, grounding him in that moment, telling him it might feel like the world is spinning, but i’ll hold onto you, i’ll control the chaos as much as i can. so much may be uncertain, but us in this moment is still and calm and true, and that helps the dizziness fade.

this final moment is just one of my faves in the pas de deux, and i put it here bc of how it contrasts the speed and chaos of the spins above and many of the spins we see in the piece. its a repeated move thats almost like romeo teaching juliet how to walk again, and i see this very much in pat and pran’s escape, where pran has just broken into a million pieces on the rooftop and by getting away, pat is finding away to put those pieces back together, bringing life back into pran when he thought he’d lost it all, showing pran that when he reaches the end of his tether, he can still put one foot in front of the other and move forward. and the spin is slower and simple, just a single turn that says the world turns on its axis just like i keep on living, an inevitability of life. and when you cant take it anymore, wish it would all stop, i’ll be there to slow the turn of the earth, hold you and keep you steady and guide you forward.

the weight of the world

there is also a motif of exhaustion in the piece, which we see through moments where juliet becomes deadweight in romeo’s arms, very reflective of pran’s exhaustion after breaking down and admitting he cant cope with it all anymore. he is well and truly at his breaking point, and in these moments, if it wasn’t for pat holding him, keeping him upright, he’d break down.

but these moments also speak of trust, again something we see when pran falls apart in pat’s arms. there’s trust there that pat will hold him, he trusts him enough to be this open and exposed around him, let his emotions be that raw and trusts that pat will handle them with care, handle him with care, not let him fall. its reflected in the movement, the way that juliet lets all strength leave her body, lets herself become truly weak, so that only romeo’s arm around her waist keeps her up. bc its only by letting go so fully that you can truly feel the strength of the other person holding you up. its when you’re at your weakest that you are hit with the the indisputable proof of just how strong someone can be for you. you let everything go and yet a single arm can keep you from falling. in the same way, by breaking down so fully, pran gets to see the simplicity in how pat takes care of him. and for pat, he’s not at his strongest in that moment either, he’s breaking down too. but by offering a shoulder to cry on, a hand to hold, an arm to keep pran upright, he can keep him from breaking even when he’s threatening to break himself. he doesn’t need to keep himself composed, bc the simplest of gestures can offer all the solace pran needs. it’s just an arm, and yet it keeps the both of them upright, and together.

i especially love the progression of this move. the united hands held together in the air is a repetition of the move before, and speaks of how in the midst of loss and confusion, they gravitate towards and can ground themselves in each other. they are the thing tethering each other to the moment, even when thinks spin out of control, even as exhaustion creeps in, even when they feel lethargic and weak, its that uniting action at the start that gives them the trust in each other to fall apart in the others arms.

this final example i find especially poignant, bc i think its reflective of a trend in pat and pran’s story whereby when they’re at their highest, they fall down to their lowest. we’ve seen it time and time again; the christmas concert, the curtain falling, running into pat’s dad. all these moments where they were at their happiest being brought crashing down. you can see it here with romeo lifting juliet, bc the lift makes it so juliet is faced with the world, she looks out. oftentimes its when pat and pran reach the heights of their happiness that they are most brutally faced with the reality of the world, so when romeo lifts juliet with strength and joy, only for her to be faced with the harsh truths of the world, thats what causes her to break, and she tumbles back down into romeo’s arms as deadweight, as if in that moment truly defeated by the world she saw. pat and pran have had these experiences before. its in the small moments, like when they talk about wanting to eat hotpot together. its said in a moment of happiness, and its born from wanting joy, but it brings to light everything they can’t have and just like that the moment dissolves into cruel pain.

i say all this bc i think the best example of this we get in ep 11. pat is dreaming of a life they could forge here, he’s trying to make it happen, he’s trying to lift pran into that world where they can be together. but when pran sees it, all he can see is whats not there, namely his family, and the difficulties of the situation. thats just pran, he was born a dreamer and forced to be a realist. and seeing all the harshness of it, being lifted into pat’s world of dreams but only seeing impossibility, it defeats him. he cant live in that world, and then pat has to see pran’s lifeless body and know that’s what he could become if he tried to pursue that life. pran has his own wants and dreams and he shouldn’t have to sacrifice them for their relationship to work, hence why they ultimately go home, bc pat sees that pran wants more, and staying there would only limit him, and he doesnt want that. doesnt want to see the life and glow of aspiration slowly leave pran as he lives their simple life. pran has had to sacrifice too much to sacrifice his dreams too, and pat doesn’t want him do that for him.

mirror images

throughout the piece, which predominantly has a lot of flow and and ease, are moments of rigidness, where the dancers pose stiffly in position. this is very likely me reaching, but i love how these moments tell a small story, namely the story of pat and pran coming to terms that separation is nigh, and that they must trust that the other has the strength to stand alone so that they can be united once again.

in this first pose, both romeo and juliet are reaching forward, each of their arms mirroring the others. this makes me think of pat saying ‘you fight alongside me’, bc here they are together, reaching towards the same thing, wanting the same world, one where they are together, bodies matched in their pursuit of that future. and also note that they are reaching forward, very much trying to go on, move on from the past that has subjected them to so much hurt. this is very much like the start of the ep where they’re united in their want for escape, they’re on the same page at this point, that page being we need to get away.

the second time we see this posture, its romeo leaning juliet into position. here, its not about them being together, its about romeo seeing that juliet can hold her own. it makes me think of all the times in the episode where pat is just looking at pran without him knowing, looking at pran looking wistfully at the guitar, looking at pran walking towards the dinner table and cherishing the moment of them being able to simply exist together, looking at pran as he looks out to the ocean and thinks of his mom and sees that he’s worrying about her. pat is continually trying to gauge where pran is at, how he’s coping, how he’s feeling, what’s on his mind. and here, romeo looks at juliet assuming this position and sees that she can do it, she can hold her own, she is strong enough. bc this episode was all about pat and pran reaffirming their relationship and strengthening it so that it can withstand whatever will come. so when romeo places juliet like this, its him seeing that she doesnt need all his strength to be in that position. pran has enough fight in him now, he doesn’t need pat to fight for them alone, he can do it too, he can hold his own. just hold him there and he’ll still be reaching forward, still trying to pursue that future where they’re together. even when he’s alone, he’ll still be reaching for it.

but then we get this reversal of the first pose, where romeo is still reaching forward, but juliet is reaching behind. bc this is where they get to, a point where they are at odds, a point where pat is still very much trying to pursue that dream life of him and pran, together, in peace, and happy. but pran feels himself being pulled back, hears the voices niggling in his head telling him he has to go home, it wont work, they cant do that. he cant sacrifice his whole life that fully, and even if he shouldnt, he still cares. still cares for his parents, worries about them, loves them. the familial bond is pulling him back while pat is pushing forward, and that is where the dream starts to break, bc they aren’t dreaming together anymore. pat is up in the clouds while pran has fallen back to reality, and they cant stay isolated in those worlds without the other. they need to decide, forwards or backwards, where are they going, bc they have to go together.

and we see that togetherness in this final move where they match each other, romeo placing juliets foot in front of his and juliet moving her other to mirror his stance. it speaks of both pat and pran reaching a point together, both meeting each other to be united. its not pat forcing pran to match him or vice versa, its them matching one another, assuming the same position through both their efforts. its not one sacrificing and the other not, its them both sacrificing something to be in this fight together. and then romeo reaches to the sky, bc he still feels the pull of that faraway dream, but juliet pulls his arm down into an embrace, as if to say ‘dont dream of the future when its not certain. dont wish for a world we cant have. just hold me now, in this moment, let us be together and treasure it. let us live in this perfect present before its lost’. thats what we see on pat and pran’s final night, them coming to accept whats ahead, but saying this final night shall be ours, and we will live it without sadness or fear or bitterness. we will not regret wasting time on dreaming, bc this moment with you is a dream. no more reaching, no more wishing, no more strength, just us and now, thats enough.

the world creeps in

i did a watch of this pas de deux just following romeo’s eyeline, and i found it fascinating. bc its always on juliet. he is constantly looking at her, or when he cant, looking in the direction she is. and this is so pat. pran is at the centre of his world and he just cant take his eyes off him, cant pull himself away, cant see anything past him. and after everything thats happened, all the external forces creeping in, he wants a world that is just pran, nothing else. he wants a world where he can just look at the man he loves and pretend nothing else exists. and thats what he starts out doing, he focuses on pran. he’s seen him break down and keeps himself so attuned to him so he knows how hes doing, if he’s ok, if he is feeling better. there’s so much shit going on but pran is and will always be his number one priority. but the more he looks at pran, the more he sees pran looking out, conscious of the world, and it makes it harder and harder for him to ignore it. when he sees pran thinking about all this stuff, it becomes more impossible for him not to think about it too. and thats when we get this moment.

romeo’s eyeline - on juliet until moment where they open up to and face the world and then becomes more conscious of environment (whereas juliet more constantly conscious)

its very much a turning point. they spin and look out to the world and open up, offer themselves to it, bare their souls, say this is what we are. we see you world, we know the reality of whats out there, but what more can we do than give ourselves to you, together and united in the honesty of our relationship. they face a cruel world, they see it and admit what it is, and it terrifies them, makes them recoil, turn to each other for comfort, bc its too hard to face. i love this moment, bc unlike a lot of male ballet, this pas de deux doesnt really contain any what i call ‘presentation moments’ for romeo, where he’s showing off to the audience. there’s only this. and it creates such an intimate mood for the whole piece, which is why this move feels so alien. it contributes to that expectation people have of pat and pran to present, to act, to play their roles. to be the perfect dancers, but all they want is to hold each other. they dont want to play that part, they just want each other. and this is not a dance for us, for the outside world, its a dance for them, a chance to be together.

and after this, romeo has a lot more moments where he too is looking outwards, away from juliet, by himself. he feels the world creeping in, he can no longer ignore it. reality is approaching, and he feels time slipping away, knows how much he must treasure now bc tomorrow is looming ever closer. he too has moments where he runs away, he too has moments where he looks out at the unfair world in defeat, pat tried to stay strong and positive for pran, but he slowly cracks, we see the veneer of hope fade as he too faces reality. we see him cry more, we see him pursuing comfort from pran. he’s slowly falling back to earth, where the world cant be just pran, and he has to find a way to deal with that.

a promise

i love this final move. if you wont watch the whole thing or if you dont care about any of this shit, at least appreciate this final move. its beautiful, and is the perfect physical metaphor for what pat and pran are going through. its repeated twice. juliet crumbles to the floor weak and defeated, but romeo lifts her and rights her on her foot, just like pran falls apart in pats arms and pat grounds him, holds him at his weakest and coaxes him back to life, shows him how to stand tall and strong again. and then theres this move of strength where they push away from each other. this is pat and pran having to be strong in their separation, having to push against the gravity that pulls them together with all their strength, stretch as far apart as their bodies will let them. bc they may be apart, but there’s still a point of contact in the hands. it may not be physical for pat and pran, but they will always be holding onto each other, and that will always bring them strength when they’re apart. and its through that strength, that push, that opposition of what drags them together, that when the time is right, they can let go, they can release hands, stop holding on, not have to be strong anymore. and they will fall back together. the gravity will pull them together again. they will fall into each others arms as they were always predestined to. when juliet lets go and lets herself fall, romeo will be there to catch her. and when pran doesn’t have to pull away anymore, he can be caught by pat like its second nature, like thats where he’s always belonged, bc it was inevitable that no matter how long it took, thats where they were always going to end up.

and i love that they repeat it. its like first they’re testing if this will work, if this way forward will lead to the future they want. then they do it again, reaffirm that they can do this, they have the strength to part. and the final time, right at the end of the piece, you see romeo right juliet on her foot. and instead of before, where she fell into his arms, as if to say not yet, i cant do it yet, im not ready to leave you, this time, she looks at romeo in position, shaking her head as if to say no, i dont think i can, i cant leave, this isnt right, this isnt what i want, but she ultimately leaves. romeo lets go, and for a moment she is suspended on pointe, feeling the absolute emptiness and unbalance of not being held, and yet she stays upright, she can hold it, she can do it, and so she leaves. i love this so so much. i love that subtle shake of the head that says i dont want to go. its the exact mood of pat and pran standing outside of their houses, knowing what they have to do, having decided the way ahead, and still thinking no, i dont want it. its like theyve gone over and over the moment in their heads, but stood there, apart, the future waiting for them inside, it kinda breaks them that theyve ran and ran until they cant run anymore. there’s nowhere else to turn to. all they can do is face it. and they hate it, but they leave. and the pas de deux, the honeymoon, ends.

if you’ve got to the end of this, congrats. i dont know is this makes any sense i feel like an emotional sponge getting rung dry at this point. i just wanted to ramble, but words have been escaping me this week, so i needed to channel my feeling somehow, and this framing of the ballet has just helped me get something out, even if its messy and incoherent. but yeah tl;dr is this pas de deux is ep 11 and its beautiful and im emo. enjoy.

#bad buddy #bad buddy series #wow ive been typing random bits of this across 3 days #can you tell im struggling to process???#but i had to get something out so here #its been honestly hard for me to rant about the ep just as it is bc i get 5 words in and start crying #so its a shock i could do all this through my tears #but yes my head is still a mess and i feel like an emotional fuse that has just burst #im not sure i could even find the right words to explain how im feeling #its a lot #and i just wanna kinda ride it out to the end now #i just wanna treasure being in this period still #no matter what it holds or how it makes me feel #i just really wanna treasure it #bc i know ill never be here again #and its so special #and i just wanna love it for every second i can #man jess stop crying in the tags #youre talking about ballet get a grip #ugh #made by jemmo

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ranchthoughts · 11 months

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thoughts on genre, tropes, Bad Buddy, and My School President

This is a monster of a post (almost 5k words) so I’m going to post it in pieces, and then in full. This is Part 1 (of 3): part 2, part 3, full.

I also go more in detail about a lot of the terms and concepts I use here (indexes, conventions, genres, intertextuality, etc) in this post here, in case you would like more context

The BL “genre” has so many conventions - in narrative, characterization, themes, settings, iconography, filmic techniques, and of course, tropes.

Bad Buddy, MSP, and tropes

There are SO many examples of this so I have decided to focus on two “subcategories” of tropes: the faen fatale and tropes which are strongly associated with seme/uke dynamics.

Faen Fatales

Seme/uke Tropes

In terms of physical, social, and personality markers in Bad Buddy, Pat exhibits slightly more “seme” traits than Pran, like his larger size and more “rugged” and “typical” masculinity compared to Pran’s neatness. However, both Pat and Pran take the seme or uke role in tropes about the same amount of time, with Pran having several significant moments where he embodies the seme role (looming over Pat, licking his fingers, drying his hair, etc., not to mention the post-sex scene in ep.11) and Pat many significant moments where he embodies a uke or even “feminine” role (casting himself as the girlfriend at the bus stop, being clingy, pretending to be sick so Pran will give him a sponge bath, etc.). In fact, tropes often happen twice, with Pat and Pran taking turns in the seme and uke role (e.g., both take turns cleaning the other’s face, both cook for the other, both kiss the other’s cheek, etc.). Furthermore, and I’ve spoken about this before here: both Pran and Pat deliberately take on the seme role during their ep.7 Flirt-Off bet ("whoever falls in love first loses”). To win the bet, they have to be the pursuer (i.e., seme), and thus spend the episode taking it in turns to exhibit the seme role in tropes (Pat takes off his shirt multiple times, Pran looms over Pat, they wash each other’s faces, they take the seme roles with Ink and Wai at the noodle shop to make the other jealous, etc.), thus also spending the episode taking it in turns to fulfill the uke role in tropes. The fact that the seme and uke roles in Bad Buddy are so interchangeable and balanced (sometimes they even play the narrative roles of pursuer and pursued at the same time) demonstrates the show’s upending of traditional seme/uke dichotomies.

In MSP, Tinn and Gun are pretty much the perfect seme and uke in terms of physical and social markers: Tinn is taller, wealthier, has a higher social status, and even has a female “faen fatale” (more typical for seme characters), while Gun is shorter, poorer, from a marginalized club at school, and has a male “faen fatale” (more typical for uke characters). Some one on Tumblr (and I cannot for the life of me find this post again) mentioned that Tinn is a little “feminine” coded when it comes to romance (he is the dreamer, the romantic, always imagining romantic situations), while Gun is more what we’d think of as “masculine” when it comes to romance (more brusque, less sappy), though I am not sure how applicable these types of divisions are to BL. In term of preference markers, there isn’t much sexual content to go off of, but MSP does mention the TinnGun vs GunTinn divide in ep.12, never coming down on either side, and one of the things the homophobic teacher says is that he thought Gun was more “masculine” so he is surprised to see him dating a boy. Overall, the show deliberately eschews and criticizes the association of top/bottom or masculine/feminine with the pair. Furthermore, Tinn talks a lot about wanting to be Gun’s boyfriend, to belong to Gun - and as @cinna-bin points out here, for a genre that equates seme with dominance, the one who shows and has ownership of the other, it is pretty subversive to have the seme character in the narrative express a desire to be “owned”. Like Pat and Pran, Tinn and Gun are fairly egalitarian when it comes to which role they take in tropes (Tinn catches Gun when he falls, Gun touches Tinn’s chin constantly, they both kiss the other’s cheek, etc.). I’ve talked about this here too, but often Tinn will imagine a moment with himself in the seme role (e.g., wiping Gun’s face) that won’t come to fruition, but when it does happen in real life, the trope is reversed and Gun takes the seme role (e.g., when it happens in real life, Gun wipes Tinn’s mouth). In MSP, the deployment of tropes is more about natural moment and real life, and less adhering to strict role divisions. This back and forth feels more accurate, more high school - they both take it in turns to boldly initiate and then to be shy (all the aborted kiss chances, etc.).

Pat employing the “drinking from a water bottle/pouring water on yourself” and “shirt off” tropes to try and get Pran hot and bothered in ep.7

Pran looming over Pat during the bet

Pran symbolically losing the bet by wiping Pat’s mouth

Tinn imagining himself wiping Gun’s mouth

Tinn imagining a Ghost moment while cooking with Gun

Tinn making a joke about a “hot underwater kiss”

To be continued in parts 2 and 3

#bb #bb meta #msp #msp meta #bl meta #ranch thoughts #bad buddy #my school president #part 1 of 3... this post is a monster #ppt thoughts

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