alexis

No problem :)

I know. I was only responding to the hypothetical "how can one consider a bodyswap-themed series a BL." And a straight series can give good message to people, but that is beside the point, which is that there can be representation without misrepresentation.

Queer themes are not BL. There can be GL series, trans series, etc., but that does not make a series BL. Otherwise it's just gaybaiting.

It's only BL if two guys end up together. Otherwise, it simply is not BL, and no conversation can ever change that. Words have meaning, after all.

Aww, too bad. But thanks for the heads-up!

Are there extra scenes in the movie?

BL, by definition, is about two boys in love. That, again, is a thing that is very much real. Lord of the Rings is a fantasy. Game of Thrones is a fantasy. Two boys in love is a reality. And this series does a poor job at that. But, yes, to each their own.

Healthy relationship is a thing that is very much real, you know? But if your idea of "realism" is "messiness" courtesy of poor choices and subpar acting on top of inane storylines that are all over the place and make virtually no sense whatsoever (e.g., empty capsules? fake prescription? why? for what godforsaken reason and purpose? what actually happened between Pete and Jeff's character? when and where? how did they get together and how did they break apart? and why? etc.), you do you, I guess. Just don't besmirch the "typical BL" which is so much and far better than this sorry excuse for a series.

Thailand produces around 30 BLs a year but around 200 opposite-sex series. Taiwan makes around 10 BLs a year but almost 100 opposite-sex series. Most of Japanese and Korean BLs are usually short, and even when combined they both count for only about 20 a year; this while the two countries produce hundreds of opposite-sex series, most of them hour-long, every year. And we all know how things work in China, so I'm not even going to go there. So, no, please learn statistics. Thank you.

the bromance to BL ratio is like 1000 to 1 but yes "not everything has to be a BL" because apparently almost "everything" has to be bromance. yeay, heteronormativity! :)

not everything has to be a bromance lmao good BL is perfect too :)

I hear you. But the complaint is that there hasn't been a fair depiction of the character development of their romantic feelings, which, slow as they may be, are still very much there. It's the subtle difference between ambiguous and suppressed, and so far the adaptation leans hard on the latter, hence the complaint. But I suppose, yes, we just have to wait and see.

I'm not "on-your-face" gay but I'm still gay. And I'd hate it if people were to misrepresent my conventionally masculine homosexuality as heterosexuality. It's 2022, people. Get on with the times already.

It wasn't filmed in China, and it's not going to air in China. Addicted was on air *before* the BL ban was instituted, so using it as a measure of anything is simply pointless. "China moves to kill off popular gay-themed ‘boys’ love’ dramas," SCMP reported just a few days ago (https://www.scmp.com/news/people-culture/china-personalities/article/3165101/china-moves-kill-romantic-gay-themed-boys). Chinese BL, if you could even call it that, is dead. And in light of the growing climate of state-sanctioned homophobia in China, some LGBT Chinese may well follow suit.

I am a gay man, which, like BL, means something.

Yes, my point is that if it turns out to be BL (actual BL), then hooray! But if not, well, then it's just not. It doesn't matter whether or not their chemistry is strong.

"The literal origin" of "platonic love" is sexual love between two men. That's not what it means anymore, is it? ("Though Plato's discussions of love originally centered on relationships which were sexual between members of the same sex, scholar Todd Reeser studies how the meaning of platonic love in Plato's original sense underwent a transformation during the Renaissance, leading to the contemporary sense of nonsexual heterosexual love.") I mean, are you, like, a shipper or something? Because this insistence that it's BL simply because two guys "have chemistry" sure is familiar.

"in some popular Japanese shows that are considered bl, MLs don't even kiss"

Yes, but the male leads confess to each other and *they* know they're together. That's what makes it BL. Honestly, how is this complicated?

Boys love (noun): "A genre of fictional media originating in Japan that features homoerotic relationships between male characters; yaoi."

Not sure why you feel the need to insist that something is BL when it's not, but words have meaning, you know?

Your definition is bromance, not BL. If it were actually BL, then The Untamed would never have passed Chinese communist censorship, which by law explicitly bans BL.