BenieJ

I heard this one was bad. BPG said I'd probably want to stay away from it.

Agreed! I also get tired of only one flavor of gay man in these. The ones who could pass for straight. There's nothing wrong with them, but I'm on the fem side. And I never see fem gays in bl's. I never see gay clubs or really any gay "culture".

You hit the high points!

Very nice post. I agree completely. I'm gay. And I get really sick of the majority of bl relationships being toxic fetish tropes.

Yeah, he's supposed to be Kuea's friend but he's more interested in the money he can make off of him.

Yes. Very, very creepy. His insistence that Diao drop everything and come home is also not great

It's a discussion board. If you feel it's a living hell then you are way too invested in it. It's just a place for people to post their opinions. And you're the one who seems consistenly embittered just because MDL isn't your clubhouse where YOU can gatekeep and turn away people with opinions that differ from your own.

I know asexual people exist. But even a good sexual relationship can start as a fun friendship. Totally on board for that. Can't wait until the fandom runs with it.

She's your sister, so of course not. It's not about energy, you just don't fuck your relatives. Diao and Kuea aren't related and that friendship energy between them is a great foundation for a real and strong love.

I'm totally shipping them.

I just read through the last day's posts and you said you were done with the subject. Apparently you aren't. You should probably follow your own advice and if you don't like something, pass it by. BPG has as much right to be here as you. You spend more time complaining about other people's opinions than you do discussing positives about a show you apparently like.

It's kind of weird that you're so obsessed with BPG.

New was really good on the drums and I love his singing! I am hooked on his voice. And there have been other BL's with a central musician plot. TharnType, 2gether and a few others. I may not always love the plot of a show but I always appreciate music as a central character theme.

And what New lacks in acting chops he totally makes up for as a singer.

I will totally agree that if you mean just the leading character, then Lian is a protagonist. I guess I always feel like in romances the protagonist is kind of like the hero. He'll make terrible mistakes maybe, but not THAT kind of mistake. And I always feel like when they make a mistake they shouldn't compound it by hiding things. But then Lian and Kuea both hide a lot.

I will also agree we still have time for redemption. I want to like Lian SO BAD! But I need him to apologize for that whole thing in the car. And I really, really need him to stop doing creepy stuff like trying to force Kuea to live with him against his will. I can't handle too much more of the awful treatment. I gotta be honest.

You can call Lian a protagonist even when he is doing evil stuff. But, that doesn't mean others see him that way. I feel there is a line protagonists in romances don't cross. And he crossed it. Stealing the footage was expressly so that Kuea didn't know who brought him home. It had everything to do with the kiss.

It doesn't matter what the "show" was acknowledging. When I talked about what happened upstairs, I said Lian needed to be redeemed. Lian needed to acknowledge he did something wrong. Not the show. The character. Lian has not redeemed himself or acknowledged he did anything wrong. That looks kind of like "Kuea, I acknowledge I did a shitty thing and kissed you while you were unable to consent. I am very sorry. I promise not to do it again. There is no excuse. I will respect your personal agency from now on."

Committing one non-con act and then deciding not to dig the hole deeper with another one isn't acknowledging or redeeming yourself. It's very Sad. Had Lian faced what he did, I'd have considered that maybe he could be decent. Instead Lian stole the security footage and ignored Kuea's agency again by making Kuea move in with him against his will.

The romantic music is always the show creator's tool for setting the mood. It clues the audience in on how the creators mean for them to feel about the scene. Which means the romantic music was telling us this was a romantic moment. Which, EW!

But if for some reason they were using the music in a weird way and wanted it to give us Lian's POV, that's worse. That means he thought the non-con kiss was romantic! It drives how questionable his ethics are. Who feels romantic about kissing someone who was nearly unconscious? Creeps do.

Look, I feel like you are going through some major mental gymnastics in order to excuse what went on. That's not really necessary. Just like what you like. Whether it's characters that kiss half conscious people or shows that romanticize non-con behavior. That's all up to you. Just don't expect everyone else to like it too. That's alright, isn't it? YKISNMK.

1) A protagonist can do bad things and still be the protagonist. But If a protagonist commits a non-con act, then no. That's a very bad guy thing. And until Lian redeems himself he will solidly remain the bad guy.

2) Instead of making up for doing it in the first place, he has his PA steal the security footage. Still looking like the bad guy to me.

3) Lian refraining from kissing Kuea again upstairs does not redeem him of having done it the first time. It just means he didn't commit a second assault. The first one is still right there, unresolved with apology or acknowledgement of wrongdoing. Just because Lian knows he crossed a huge line and didn't do it again does not mean he's made up for doing it in the first place.

4) The drama still framed the non-con kiss as romantic. And ew! Yuck! So outside of Lian's characterization, the way the show handled the non-con was gross.

The people who have problems with elements in the drama are allowed to be here posting on it. And maybe if the show creators hear from not just the "we love this" people, there might be some gradual change in how BL's are written.

BL has been around in Thailand for quite a while. It's always had a toxic element and representing non-con as cute has always been a problem. I don't care if the BL industry is in a "shaping phase" or a startup phase or a dying phase. The phase of the industry has no bearing on whether we should speak out when a show's content is being represented in a problematic way.

Non-con kiss in a show by a villain, with it actually addressed as noncon? No problem. Non-con kiss in a show by a main pairing member, treated like it's romantic? Big problem. And when a big problem like that keeps cropping up, it should affect the industry. That's how change happens.

Everyone does have different opinions. And that's fine. But not everyone is of the opinion that non-consent in a drama is sexy.

Many people feel that a non-consensual act in a drama should be framed as the crime that it actually is. Some feel that if you're going to have non-consent in a drama it shouldn't be framed with romantic music and have support characters ohhing over the act like it was two lovers having a sweet moment. We find THAT strange.

"Shitty" things CAN happen in a drama without the drama automatically being a problem. Bad guys do awful stuff in dramas all the time. But the operative term here is "bad guys". Everyone who is complaining isn't complaining the non-con happened. We all know that sometimes awful characters do awful things. They are complaining because it was portrayed as romantic, not awful. They are criticizing because the awful act was carried out by someone we aren't meant to be seeing as a villain.

Not everyone feels like supporting a character in a pairing who is guilty of that kind of act. And that's an opinion we're all allowed to have.

You're right that it doesn't matter that it's a drama. It's not okay. It doesn't matter that it's common everywhere to represent D/S or consent wrong or to romanticize toxic behaviors. It's still wrong.

And if it's wrong I don't see why we shouldn't be able to call it out. We call out other wrong stuff all the time. Why not this?

And it can be VERY toxic. I hope he does well in all his endeavors.

I'm not liking it either. It's beautiful and I love the music. And the actors are doing a good job. But the story is a NO. I think I'm going to stop watching it too.

This episode was good! Everyone was sweet. Loved it!