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I have to say, the rewatch parties we were having every week (that eventually had to be split in two) played a big role in how much I obsessed about this series. Sharing it over and over with this bunch of nice, smart, geeky and funny people really elevated the experience for me.

Yeah, well, that's the way Chai Jidan writes (and she also wrote and filmed the live adaptation). I haven't read Addicted, but I have read parts of Advance Bravely, and that is supposedly "gentler" than Addicted. Her gongs have near superhuman powers, she spouts ridiculous factoids, her love scenes can be super adorable and then turn super toxic in the blink of an eye, and things are generally kind of crazy and over the top, mostly in an entertaining way but sometimes very cringey. I read it on Wattpad and half of the commenters are calling out the toxic scenes, while the other half seem to be loving them. I don't like to generalise, but I get the feeling it's an age divide and a culture divide.
Considering the nature of those novels, I would say that they are definitely written for a mature audience in some respects, but I am also very certain that many, many teenagers read them. And I don't really know why, but a lot of teens seem to be into rape fantasies. I know that if you do dare to criticise Addicted or TharnType in a public place, you will instantly be told that you are totally wrong and just a hater by some obviously very young people.

It's literally just five comments down from yours :)

I just come back to the same place for coffee every day, LOL

I'm with Foreigner -- I was hooked only few minutes into the first episode. I just loved everything about it -- the soft, warmhearted comedy, the way Akaso plays Adachi, the visuals, the music score, the idea of the telepathy powers and how it was executed, the interaction between Adachi and Kurosawa -- by the scarf scene at the end I was already a fanatic and dying for episode 2. And then there were just more and more things over the following episodes that made me fall even deeper in love. (I'm Kurosawa in the hug scene, LOL)

Oh, okay, then I misunderstood, and we are in fact in almost total agreement :)
For me the "family members getting it on" bias doesn't actually stop at being biologically related -- even if one sibling was, say, adopted but raised from infancy with their siblings, I would still consider that incest, because there's something about siblinghood and family relationship that precludes a romantic/sexual relationship in my mind. There is an extra layer of squick involved with a closely genetically related couple who can produce offspring, because of the hazards of inbreeding, of course -- which hasn't stopped most of the royal houses in Europe from doing it.

But I agree that two people who are strangers, or near strangers, and are not genetically related, and are only thrown together because of other people getting close -- that is not the same thing at all. They are like any two people, just with unusual familial circumstances. In Addicted, the two boys didn't even know that their parents had married, since they didn't live with them and had never even been introduced as stepbrothers. There were other things that bothered me with Addicted (like the toxic behaviour and violent dubcon), but that part was a non-issue. That there are people who found that part objectionable is very odd to me, especially since most people also don't seem to feel that there's anything objectionable with a situation where two sisters are dating two brothers (not their own).

I completely agree that there are other issues in BL that are much more harmful to the LGBTQ community, the "queer predator" probably being at the top.

Please bear in mind that the translation might not be literal. The English title is "Brothers" yes, but the Thai title is much longer, as we can see above, and while I don't speak Thai, I do know that the Thai word for "brother" doesn't have the exact same meaning as the English word -- for one thing, it can also mean something like "a senior I respect among my social equals", which doesn't have a corresponding word in English but is often translated as "brother" anyway, in lieu of a better word.

I feel that teacher/student romance is problematic because there is a power imbalance -- the teacher has power over their students, they can make their life hell if they wish, and the grades they give can have a huge impact on a student's future. This opens up for some very unhealthy potential pressure being put on the student to keep their teacher happy. So that's the factor that makes it unethical -- not (necessarily) the age difference (which is this case is negligible). The same thing, in my mind, goes for boss/employee office romance, where one person has the power to fire the other, or keep them from advancing, if they aren't happy with them. But many people find that kind of power imbalance dynamic very appealing, and as you say, it's a staple of yaoi. (Personally, I am not fond of it, but then again I dislike a lot of tropes in M/F romance too.)

Thanks! This means that it's a very common and normalised romantic trope, at least in Asian dramaland, and if that's the case I don't think there is a big problem for the LGBTQ community if it turns up in BL romance. Context is very important.

As far as I know, it's not something that is seen a lot in Western romance movies/dramas, so if it suddenly turned up in Western LGBTQ romantic media, I suppose that contrast might potentially be problematic (especially since BL/LGBTQ romance drama is still so very scarce in the West). Again, it depends on the context.

Did you perhaps reply to the wrong person? I haven't condemned it, I argued that it was a common trope in straight romance , and the only case where I personally feel uncomfortable with it is when there is a situation of codependency, significant age difference and power imbalance, and where the biological relationship is vague (I get your point that this is based on reproductive sexuality, but I guess I have a cultural bias against family members getting it on whether they can reproduce or not).

You have a very good point about the dangers and risks of stigma potentially being much bigger for the LGBTQ community. And the worst part is that this is written by straight women... some of whom are worse than others. (*cough* MAME *cough*)
I actually dropped LBC1 a few episodes before the end just because I couldn't handle where the Kla/No storyline seemed to be going, and the Ae/Pete storyline (which I loved) seemed to be more or less resolved anyway. I did watch LBC2 but it was mostly very disappointing. (I think even those who actually like Tin/Can thought so. Both of the actors were just phoning it in. )

If you don't mind spoilers, the way they handled Tar/Tum in LBC2 was to
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back away from it. Tar was in France for most of the series, and when he came back at the end, Tum had another love interest, and Tar basically told him to go for it. So Tum/Tar ended up never actually happening, both of them "grew out of it" and moved on.

True... but this trope isn't limited to BL. There's an entire "stepsiblings" subgenre in MF romance too (though I don't know if it has transitioned from book to screen yet). Most of it is the same as this; unrelated adult people who don't know each other, suddenly finding themselves close to each other due to the remarriage of the parents (i.e., not actually incest). I don't know what it is that makes this concept so enticing for some people -- the taboo-that-is-not-really-a-taboo, perhaps?

I don't particularly care for it , but I don't particularly mind it either, unless it's like the Tar/Tum pairing in TharnType and Love By Chance, which was all kinds of icky due to the age difference, having actually grown up as siblings (whether they were biologically unrelated or not, which was never clear), and the whole codependency factor. That was definitely incestuous and I'm so relieved they handled it the way they did in LBC2.

I'm pretty sure there is a valid explanation for everything... but I agree. Even if he were under duress, he should have found a way. Shu Yi's anger is very understandable.

I was debating whether to renew my subscription or not, and then I left it too long and it renewed itself today, so I guess I'm screwed and will have to watch it as it unfolds...

I know. This is TORTURE.
Still not going to be able to stay away, though.

Please put this under a spoiler cut.

No, it isn't. I live in Europe and it's not available for me unless I use a Thai VPN.

Yeah, that makes sense, that people can watch it in one of those places, but not both! Thanks!

They are all adults, they are not in school or college, they are actually talking about sexual identity and addressing some of the stereotypes in BL and issues in the BL industry, there are some underlying mysteries with some of the characters -- like Nubsib, he is definitely flirting big time with Gene, but he also seems to have some ulterior motives, and Aey also has something going on besides just being hot for Nubsib. It's also the general feel of it, which is hard for me to pinpoint in words, but it doesn't remind me of anything I've seen before, really. It's a bit too early after only one episode to say if this will hold all the way through, but to me it feels fresh and new.

Imagine getting this latte art in your morning coffee: https://twitter.com/Icafe14/status/1366701907884957700