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This review may contain spoilers
Deconstructing Narcissistic Abuse - Thai BL Style
⚠️ SPOILER WARNING: Contains spoilers for character dynamics, backstories, and recent plot developments.
** Will adjust accordingly as the series works through it's final third.
☆☆☆
Mr. Fanboy presents a chaotic mix of slapstick humor, showbiz commentary, and thai BL romance, but behind the pretty faces, Domundi has brought out a sharp and jagged knife.
This is a study in narcissistic and emotional abuse, control, and the messy reality of breaking free from it.
☆ The Anatomy of a Parasite
When you look at Nine’s behavior, it is the exact, textbook blueprint of how abuse starts. It always begins with emotional control, and if left unchecked, it blossoms into a full blown biohazard, spreading into other areas of your life.
I like to imagine self worth as a river; an ecosystem of give and take. But whenever that river runs dry (for whatever tragic backstory reason the writers are going to feed us later for Nine), that empty riverbed becomes a vacuum. To sustain the ego, it has to feed on other poor buggars like you and me.
They are the real world vampires, zombies, or parasitic lore of your choice. Pick whichever creature is native to your region and imagine that.
Success is actually a great mirror for your social circle. The people who actually care about you will be genuinely happy when you win. If they aren't? Good riddance 👋
For Nine, someone else succeeding cooks him alive because he treats it as a direct, personal theft of his survival. Connections to him aren't partnerships, they're chess pieces.
In school, Third was outperforming him. Nine lacks the emotional maturity, spine, or internal resources to work harder, so his only option to restore his fragile ego is to annihilate the person threatening it.
Abusers like Nine don't attack openly from the front gates. They infiltrate your perfectly beautiful mind castle and set up camp as an invited guest, making it much easier for you to internalize their actions as your own fault later.
Nine keeps Third shackled as his "best friend" precisely so he has an all access pass to Third's vulnerabilities, routines, and blind spots. Intimacy is a camouflage. You are useful only as long as you stay trailing at least 3 paces behind.
☆ The Toxic POS Handbook
When Nine’s ego gets so much as a scratch, his manipulation tactics proceed as follows:
1. Sabotage
Whether it's framing Third for cheating in school or trying to ruin Wan now, Nine’s instinct is pure destruction. He rigs the entire game so he never has to look at his own hollow mediocrity.
Nine having a full blown panic attack when the producer screamed in his face and reminded him that he was disposable is an example of this. The producer was rightfully angry at being lied to and reminded Nine not to use his trauma as a weapon. Nine slapped him. This lead to an explosive moment of rage where for once, Nine looked genuinely distraught. Whether or not he has a trauma remains to be seen, but what we as the audience saw, was his thoughts not focused on any abuse, but on his insecurity and fear of being replaced. The attack on his ego.
2. DARVO (Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender) An actual manipulation tactic taught to me by a therapist.
The worst part of the flashback wasn't the framing. It was Nine playing the tragic victim afterward. He twisted reality so thoroughly that he convinced himself, and successfully Third, that his malice was justified, because Third had more of a chance than he did thanks to his mother. No self awareness, no empathy, no remorse, only a vacuum of how much it's all about him and how he's hurting.
He reversed the roles so aggressively that Third was left running after him, carrying the guilt for a crime Nine committed.
3. Enter Wan: The Uncontrollable Variable 🧝
When Wan was just a harmless fanboy worshipping from a stool in the back, Nine didn't give a damn. In fact, Nine created Wan's fanboy status. He knows Wan's account. He follows social media trends. He oversees everything that has his name on it, and how it benefits him, even if it's negative, as seen in ep. 1. Wan sat comfortably as a harmless little minion at the bottom of Nine's mental food chain.
When I look at Wan, I see a fluffy little loppy ear bunbun munching on his dandelion dreams but I think Nine might be imagining the rabbits from Monty Python 🤣 (consider that mental image officially shared with you all, you're welcome ☕️🌼).
The moment Wan begins to rise, gaining recognition and an emotional tether to Third (Nine's main food source) Nine's control mechanism starts cracking its little cogs. Wan doesn't play Nine's toxic little games, doesn't cower, and challenged him right to his face 🤭
And more dangerously, Wan offers Third a mirror reflecting healthy, actual affection, threatening to snap the trauma bond that has kept Third hooked for years.
When abusers can't control you, they will try to control how others see you. The moment Wan glimmered ever so slightly brighter than he was supposed to, Nine was at Third's front door having dinner with his biggest chess piece, Third's Mother, to remind and enforce the lie that he is control of Third, and Third has no agency of his own.
E.g Nine threatened to drown Wan, manipulates how others view and treat him, uses Third's tense dynanic with his mother against him.
☆ Third's POV: Trapped in the Middle
Third doesn't necessarily want to protect Nine. He’s trying to direct the flow of events because he knows his mother will override him and his choices anyway.
(It has been shown she has immense control over his decisions. How deeply this runs, is yet to be explored)
He’s conditioned to do what he’s told because what he wants has probably never mattered a day in his life. So he'll give Nine whatever he wants, no matter how evil the methods, just to keep his mother out of his hair. Third is trapped between two toxic powers who have total control of his life.
We've have seen him cope by shoving down all of his resentment, and it's been leaking out here and there in his mood swings.
BUTT! Now, along comes sweet, innocent Wan, who exists entirely outside of Third's personal hell. And in order to reach him, Third has to break his own cycle. And that's really hard.
Because by deleting that video, Third actively chose not to protect Wan. And there Wan was, wide eyed and gentle like a fluffy little bunny, asking him about his feelings, while Third was hit with the realization of who he had just chosen to protect instead.
Domundi is getting seriously serious with the abuse logic here. You have to get utterly, bone deep tired of your own bullshit before you finally make a move. It takes years because it's so deeply engrained in your 'normal' that every cell in your body is programmed to follow those habits built by your environment.
Something devastating will probably have to happen to Wan in order for Third to finally make a run for it. He’s going to have to WANT to fight for him, because right now he's hovering on the sidelines. That love needs to be stronger than his baseline survival instinct.
☆ My Endgame Guess & Chaotic Sideplots yet to be revealed .....
Underneath all of the cruelty and manipulation is absolute terror. Nine is just a scared little boy terrified of being exposed as an ordinary, flawed failure. When an abuser realizes they are losing their grip, they don't self reflect. They double down, bare their fangs, and try to burn the entire forest to the ground so their food source can't walk away easily.
Nine is absolutely not finished. He will just cast a bigger net next time because he's been shown over and over, by Third himself, that he will not hold him accountable. His grip is still tight and he is still in control.
☆☆☆
Meanwhile, those delightful little scamps, Renji and Time have their own plan 🐈🐈⬛ I don't think they really care about anyone else except each other, and they're about to bribe the producer with whatever secret stash of ammunition they've been hoarding 😂. And it's not hard to make copies of digital files 🤷♀️ but so far, I don't think there's enough of any kind of bond for them to want to protect Wan. I think they are fully self serving right now. There is still time for their intentions to change but that Renji went to his brother, to threaten and bribe with the footage, and not his own management who is now being threatened with legal action, is enough for me. Renji and Time currently, are working for their own interests and Wan took Time's role, which is a conflict of interest right now.
☆☆☆
Celebrity power dynamics run on narcissism and self interest. That is a brutal truth of the business. Of course, not everyone is an abuser and there are genuine artists out there but Domundi is doing a very good satrical job of showcasing this is in a very Thai BL manner.
** Will adjust accordingly as the series works through it's final third.
☆☆☆
Mr. Fanboy presents a chaotic mix of slapstick humor, showbiz commentary, and thai BL romance, but behind the pretty faces, Domundi has brought out a sharp and jagged knife.
This is a study in narcissistic and emotional abuse, control, and the messy reality of breaking free from it.
☆ The Anatomy of a Parasite
When you look at Nine’s behavior, it is the exact, textbook blueprint of how abuse starts. It always begins with emotional control, and if left unchecked, it blossoms into a full blown biohazard, spreading into other areas of your life.
I like to imagine self worth as a river; an ecosystem of give and take. But whenever that river runs dry (for whatever tragic backstory reason the writers are going to feed us later for Nine), that empty riverbed becomes a vacuum. To sustain the ego, it has to feed on other poor buggars like you and me.
They are the real world vampires, zombies, or parasitic lore of your choice. Pick whichever creature is native to your region and imagine that.
Success is actually a great mirror for your social circle. The people who actually care about you will be genuinely happy when you win. If they aren't? Good riddance 👋
For Nine, someone else succeeding cooks him alive because he treats it as a direct, personal theft of his survival. Connections to him aren't partnerships, they're chess pieces.
In school, Third was outperforming him. Nine lacks the emotional maturity, spine, or internal resources to work harder, so his only option to restore his fragile ego is to annihilate the person threatening it.
Abusers like Nine don't attack openly from the front gates. They infiltrate your perfectly beautiful mind castle and set up camp as an invited guest, making it much easier for you to internalize their actions as your own fault later.
Nine keeps Third shackled as his "best friend" precisely so he has an all access pass to Third's vulnerabilities, routines, and blind spots. Intimacy is a camouflage. You are useful only as long as you stay trailing at least 3 paces behind.
☆ The Toxic POS Handbook
When Nine’s ego gets so much as a scratch, his manipulation tactics proceed as follows:
1. Sabotage
Whether it's framing Third for cheating in school or trying to ruin Wan now, Nine’s instinct is pure destruction. He rigs the entire game so he never has to look at his own hollow mediocrity.
Nine having a full blown panic attack when the producer screamed in his face and reminded him that he was disposable is an example of this. The producer was rightfully angry at being lied to and reminded Nine not to use his trauma as a weapon. Nine slapped him. This lead to an explosive moment of rage where for once, Nine looked genuinely distraught. Whether or not he has a trauma remains to be seen, but what we as the audience saw, was his thoughts not focused on any abuse, but on his insecurity and fear of being replaced. The attack on his ego.
2. DARVO (Deny, Attack, Reverse Victim and Offender) An actual manipulation tactic taught to me by a therapist.
The worst part of the flashback wasn't the framing. It was Nine playing the tragic victim afterward. He twisted reality so thoroughly that he convinced himself, and successfully Third, that his malice was justified, because Third had more of a chance than he did thanks to his mother. No self awareness, no empathy, no remorse, only a vacuum of how much it's all about him and how he's hurting.
He reversed the roles so aggressively that Third was left running after him, carrying the guilt for a crime Nine committed.
3. Enter Wan: The Uncontrollable Variable 🧝
When Wan was just a harmless fanboy worshipping from a stool in the back, Nine didn't give a damn. In fact, Nine created Wan's fanboy status. He knows Wan's account. He follows social media trends. He oversees everything that has his name on it, and how it benefits him, even if it's negative, as seen in ep. 1. Wan sat comfortably as a harmless little minion at the bottom of Nine's mental food chain.
When I look at Wan, I see a fluffy little loppy ear bunbun munching on his dandelion dreams but I think Nine might be imagining the rabbits from Monty Python 🤣 (consider that mental image officially shared with you all, you're welcome ☕️🌼).
The moment Wan begins to rise, gaining recognition and an emotional tether to Third (Nine's main food source) Nine's control mechanism starts cracking its little cogs. Wan doesn't play Nine's toxic little games, doesn't cower, and challenged him right to his face 🤭
And more dangerously, Wan offers Third a mirror reflecting healthy, actual affection, threatening to snap the trauma bond that has kept Third hooked for years.
When abusers can't control you, they will try to control how others see you. The moment Wan glimmered ever so slightly brighter than he was supposed to, Nine was at Third's front door having dinner with his biggest chess piece, Third's Mother, to remind and enforce the lie that he is control of Third, and Third has no agency of his own.
E.g Nine threatened to drown Wan, manipulates how others view and treat him, uses Third's tense dynanic with his mother against him.
☆ Third's POV: Trapped in the Middle
Third doesn't necessarily want to protect Nine. He’s trying to direct the flow of events because he knows his mother will override him and his choices anyway.
(It has been shown she has immense control over his decisions. How deeply this runs, is yet to be explored)
He’s conditioned to do what he’s told because what he wants has probably never mattered a day in his life. So he'll give Nine whatever he wants, no matter how evil the methods, just to keep his mother out of his hair. Third is trapped between two toxic powers who have total control of his life.
We've have seen him cope by shoving down all of his resentment, and it's been leaking out here and there in his mood swings.
BUTT! Now, along comes sweet, innocent Wan, who exists entirely outside of Third's personal hell. And in order to reach him, Third has to break his own cycle. And that's really hard.
Because by deleting that video, Third actively chose not to protect Wan. And there Wan was, wide eyed and gentle like a fluffy little bunny, asking him about his feelings, while Third was hit with the realization of who he had just chosen to protect instead.
Domundi is getting seriously serious with the abuse logic here. You have to get utterly, bone deep tired of your own bullshit before you finally make a move. It takes years because it's so deeply engrained in your 'normal' that every cell in your body is programmed to follow those habits built by your environment.
Something devastating will probably have to happen to Wan in order for Third to finally make a run for it. He’s going to have to WANT to fight for him, because right now he's hovering on the sidelines. That love needs to be stronger than his baseline survival instinct.
☆ My Endgame Guess & Chaotic Sideplots yet to be revealed .....
Underneath all of the cruelty and manipulation is absolute terror. Nine is just a scared little boy terrified of being exposed as an ordinary, flawed failure. When an abuser realizes they are losing their grip, they don't self reflect. They double down, bare their fangs, and try to burn the entire forest to the ground so their food source can't walk away easily.
Nine is absolutely not finished. He will just cast a bigger net next time because he's been shown over and over, by Third himself, that he will not hold him accountable. His grip is still tight and he is still in control.
☆☆☆
Meanwhile, those delightful little scamps, Renji and Time have their own plan 🐈🐈⬛ I don't think they really care about anyone else except each other, and they're about to bribe the producer with whatever secret stash of ammunition they've been hoarding 😂. And it's not hard to make copies of digital files 🤷♀️ but so far, I don't think there's enough of any kind of bond for them to want to protect Wan. I think they are fully self serving right now. There is still time for their intentions to change but that Renji went to his brother, to threaten and bribe with the footage, and not his own management who is now being threatened with legal action, is enough for me. Renji and Time currently, are working for their own interests and Wan took Time's role, which is a conflict of interest right now.
☆☆☆
Celebrity power dynamics run on narcissism and self interest. That is a brutal truth of the business. Of course, not everyone is an abuser and there are genuine artists out there but Domundi is doing a very good satrical job of showcasing this is in a very Thai BL manner.
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