-Aprillen-

If this doesn't wipe the floor with all other dramas at the awards circuit, I will be very surprised. And I don't just mean the BL category. I mean ALL OTHER DRAMAS.

Please, everyone! Let us put any reveals about the ending behind spoiler tags!

I was so afraid that this series would break my heart, that when it ended like it did I was shaking and crying in pure relief. I would have loved it however it ended. But now it has my undying devotion. I don't think I've ever cried this much when watching anything, at least not in the past decade. But they did it. They managed to give us a happy ending without making it feel trite, or cheap, or like a compromise. It was beautiful, and perfect.

I feel like I have been through a wringer. But a perfect, beautiful wringer made of starlight and gold.
Before I started watching this, I thought it was far too expensive to watch legally. Well, guess what -- I ended up paying for every episode, the last one as it dropped so I could watch it directly on Vimeo, and the previous four retroactively. Because if anything deserves my money this year it's this series.
Continued below...

Same -- but I decided to throw them money for the other four eps too, because I could afford it, and they deserve it.

Oh, thank you! I was getting anxious because I was reloading the page and there was nothing!

Sometimes we are allowed to be shallow :)

Yes -- I feel like BL (especially in Thailand) had almost started to stagnate a bit, and then 2020 came along... and whatever else dumpster fire this year has been, it has been amazing for BL . Not everything we're seeing right now and in the future is going to be great, but it feels like it's evolving! With so much BL content, creators are going to want to set themselves apart more, try for something unique, and that opens up for a much wider range.

People are absolutely correct that ITSAY is a fantastic series -- but I agree, I would NOT call it a BL.

I have watched a lot of the Filipino BLs, and yes, some of them are pretty groundbreaking, while still adhering to the BL genre. They range from really great (Gameboys, Gaya Sa Pelikula) to kind of awful. And some of them are labelled BL even though they very obviously aren't (possibly in an attempt to capitalise on the BL trend). But when it comes to Thai BL, I am rather hoping for Manner of Death to expand the framework and set a new standard (BL with a different setting and an actual, you know, *plot*). ITSAY is never going to be that standard, although I do hope we will see more series of that level of quality with LGBTQ+ content.

So guys, I just went and threw money at Nadao/Vimeo to watch this legally, and will do for episode five when it drops. Because this is not just something cute and ultimately meaningless I will watch to distract myself a little from real life and then forget about. This series will stay with me for a very long time (even if the legal videos won't). It's probably the best thing I've watched all this year, and I don't even care that I don't know if I will sit there at the end crying with joy or with grief -- I just know that I will be crying. But however it ends, I'm now pretty confident that I can trust Nadao to not screw it up. Whether hopeful or devastating or bittersweet; it will make sense.

I will make sure I have tissues at hand -- and whisky, just in case it breaks my heart. I am ready.
(I am not ready.)

Who would understand love
We might not know each other by the first time we met
But love at first sight will stay in our heart forever
When we found each other
It erased all the pain
You are the true love that I have been longing for

But love is complicated and might not be how we wish
If we were meant to meet, why do we have to be set apart?
If we are set apart by the skyline, I'm glad to break through
If we are set apart by a mountain high, I'm not afraid
If we are set apart by time, I'm pleased to wait
But if we are set apart by destiny, I have to give up, don't I?
Don't I?

In the end of a love novel
Normally, it brings back anyone who has been apart
To see each other again and say "I love you" one more time
But in my reality, our love can not be like that
No matter how hard we try, there is no way we can be closer

If we are set apart by the skyline, I'm glad to break through
If we are set apart by a mountain high, I'm not afraid
If we are set apart by time, I'm pleased to wait
But if we are set apart by destiny, I have to give up, don't I?
Don't I?

If we are set apart by the skyline, I'm glad to break through
If we are set apart by a mountain high, I'm not afraid
If we are set apart by time, I'm pleased to wait
But if we are set apart by destiny, I have to give up, don't I?
Don't I?
If we are set apart by time, I'm pleased to wait
But if we are set apart by destiny, I have to give up, don't I?
Don't I?

(Taken from the translation in the offical MV)

Yes, BL is basically gay romance drama written for a female audience. I would love to have a combo, though: romantic LGBT+ dramas with happy endings. (Although it seems that not even things labelled BL get a guaranteed happy ending...)

It's called fanservice.

Admission, identity papers, a whole set of clothes, school uniforms, etc, allwithout letting her brother or mother know... Yeah, there are a few plotholes. But it's charming enough that I just roll with it :)
(She should really have bought a separate phone, too...)

All of them are subbed now!

Yes, and add to that what might happen with homophobia added to the mix, if Type was out in public. It wouldn't be about the nurse, but it would be something else, and it's possible that nobody would stand up for him at all in his workplace -- at least nobody with any power to do anything. And he might find it a lot harder to find a new job, and advance his career.
Seriously, the people who complain that Type is "selfish" becuse he still balks at coming out in public have probably never experienced that kind of systematic homophobia.

In a way I agree with you, it's been long enough, but at the same time coming out in public is something that every person should get to decide for themselves, even if it's hard for the out partner. And there is still a lot of homophobia in society that could affect him, like at his workplace -- his boss already doesn't like him, so it's not strange that Type would worry about what would happen if the boss found out that he's in a same-sex relationship.
But most importantly, I think Type still has issues that stem from being publicly hung out in the media when he was still a child. He's not keeping it secret from anyone important -- he even stands up to his homophobic father about it -- but the idea of strangers, colleagues, neighbours etc knowing about it probably gives him some anxiety.

I've really missed Mild! If nothing else, I'll probably continue watching this just because of him, lol

Personally, I don't romanticise marriage at all, so I do agree with you in a way. But to some people it's a very powerful symbolic act, and from what we've seen in the trailers, might afford them a sense of greater emotional security (Fiat says at one point in the trailer that since they're not married, he's free to try and win Type, which is asshole reasoning, and if you do reason like that, an actual marriage probably won't stop you either).
Another reason, which I'm not sure is applicable here since same-sex marriage isn't yet legal in Thailand, is that if something happens to one partner, and they don't have any kind of legally formalised partnership, the remaining partner is left with nothing, and with no rights -- in the case of homophobic families, they might be shut out from hospital visits, funeral, everything, and possibly left homeless. If the partnership is legally formalised, the remaining partner will have the rights of a spouse. But like I said, I'm not sure that would be applicable in Thailand even if they are married somewhere else (say Taiwan, which is currently the only Asian country with marriage equality). I don't know anything about Thai law. But since this is set seven years on, maybe MAME has envisioned a future where same-sex marriage *is* legalised in Thailand...? I guess we'll find out.

I'm assuming (though I may be wrong) that Techno's boyfriend is Kengkla, which is a storyline in Love By Chance 1 and 2 (and one I don't particularly like). But it's confusing because Techno is supposedly the same character but played by a different actor in LBC (and he does the character very differently from Mild). And LBC2 hasn't actually ended yet, so the Techno/Kla storyline isn't concluded. So who knows...

As for the possible familial relationship betweenTharn and Phugun, I guess someone who has read the novel will have to answer, because sometimes the subbers translate things to "brother" when all that was said was "phi" or "nong", which doesn't have to mean they're related at all.