This review may contain spoilers
Several great examples of seeking verbal consent, and several other examples of dubcon/noncon. Win asked for verbal consent several times, but he also kisses Team immediately after Team says not to touch him, until Team physically pushes him away. There was one scene where he asked for verbal consent, and Team did not give a verbal or physical answer, but it was taken as a yes anyways. I appreciate the attempt, but it wasn’t truly a good depiction of consent overall.
Team constantly looked uncomfortable. He was always backing away from and pushing Win away, even once they were in an established relationship. From a real world perspective, there was a lot of noncon/dubcon as a result, because consent is determined by someone’s words and actions, not what may or may not be going on in their head. I think that was a poor character / acting choice.
Lots of boundary crossing from Win, such as finding Team’s address and coming to his room when Team was avoiding him, or making comments about Team knowing what’s under his swim trunks when Team is uncomfortable with their recent hook up.
Win primarily took charge and took the lead both in the bedroom and the relationship. Team had this inexperienced, virginal thing going. Win was much more dominating, like slamming Win into the lockers, pinning his wrists, and I guess a kind of sexual intimidation? Team did flip the script a few times but Win primarily took the lead. None of the roughness was pre-negotiated.
Win was also the one responsible for taking care of and protecting Team and not so much in return. I feel like a lot of the time, the way this presents itself in BLs is that the caring/protective one is either controlling or parental, and both of those are a turn off. Like the whole showing up to take care of him when he’s drunk when he’s not talking to you and didn’t give you his location, or forcing him to sleep in your room for his insomnia, or demanding that he tell you in advance if he’s going to skip class - it’s presented as sweet and romantic, but it’s really violating his wishes, boundaries, and autonomy. Caring for someone when they don’t want to be cared for or in ways they don’t want to be cared for is not actually caring for them. It’s indulging your own controlling impulses.
Plus, the way Win spoke, it felt he viewed Team as a little kid some times. Like he kept petting his head and saying “good boy” like Team was a 5 year old or a dog.
There was one scene where Team almost drowns and Win saves him. The first thing Team does is start apologizing to Win, like a little kid scared of getting in trouble with his parents. And Win proves him right because he immediately starts going off on him, cussing at him and even raising his fist to punch him, but stopping at the last minute. The whole scene was gross. Win’s anger is meant to stem from a place of worry and fear but the minute you feel tempted to hit your partner, it’s already gone too far. Instead of Win comforting Team, who just nearly died, he just made it all about himself. The way Win kept going off on Team for not listening about the pool being closed was bullshit, because people have the right to make bad decisions without their partners berating them and telling them they’re not allowed. And telling your partner that they’re not allowed to make choices that you perceive as harmful to them is still controlling, even if it stems from a well-intentioned place.
Overall, I wish the relationship was on a more equal ground. I wanted Team to put in the effort to caring for Win too. And I wanted Win to stop being so aggressive in his “care”.
There were two good NC scenes at the beginning of the series, but the heat really dies down from there. I would have traded the sex scenes for some proper, continuous physical affection. Like it’d be great if Team wasn’t always dodging Win and actually kissed him once in a while. It would have been better of the NC scenes were later in the series as well, because as it is, we start strong and end disappointed.
There were way too many couples. Bee/Prince and the M/F couple could have been cut. They were awkward and boring and a waste of screen time. The last 2 episodes felt more like an ensemble romance and I felt that the main couple was put to the side to close up all these boring side stories.
Team constantly looked uncomfortable. He was always backing away from and pushing Win away, even once they were in an established relationship. From a real world perspective, there was a lot of noncon/dubcon as a result, because consent is determined by someone’s words and actions, not what may or may not be going on in their head. I think that was a poor character / acting choice.
Lots of boundary crossing from Win, such as finding Team’s address and coming to his room when Team was avoiding him, or making comments about Team knowing what’s under his swim trunks when Team is uncomfortable with their recent hook up.
Win primarily took charge and took the lead both in the bedroom and the relationship. Team had this inexperienced, virginal thing going. Win was much more dominating, like slamming Win into the lockers, pinning his wrists, and I guess a kind of sexual intimidation? Team did flip the script a few times but Win primarily took the lead. None of the roughness was pre-negotiated.
Win was also the one responsible for taking care of and protecting Team and not so much in return. I feel like a lot of the time, the way this presents itself in BLs is that the caring/protective one is either controlling or parental, and both of those are a turn off. Like the whole showing up to take care of him when he’s drunk when he’s not talking to you and didn’t give you his location, or forcing him to sleep in your room for his insomnia, or demanding that he tell you in advance if he’s going to skip class - it’s presented as sweet and romantic, but it’s really violating his wishes, boundaries, and autonomy. Caring for someone when they don’t want to be cared for or in ways they don’t want to be cared for is not actually caring for them. It’s indulging your own controlling impulses.
Plus, the way Win spoke, it felt he viewed Team as a little kid some times. Like he kept petting his head and saying “good boy” like Team was a 5 year old or a dog.
There was one scene where Team almost drowns and Win saves him. The first thing Team does is start apologizing to Win, like a little kid scared of getting in trouble with his parents. And Win proves him right because he immediately starts going off on him, cussing at him and even raising his fist to punch him, but stopping at the last minute. The whole scene was gross. Win’s anger is meant to stem from a place of worry and fear but the minute you feel tempted to hit your partner, it’s already gone too far. Instead of Win comforting Team, who just nearly died, he just made it all about himself. The way Win kept going off on Team for not listening about the pool being closed was bullshit, because people have the right to make bad decisions without their partners berating them and telling them they’re not allowed. And telling your partner that they’re not allowed to make choices that you perceive as harmful to them is still controlling, even if it stems from a well-intentioned place.
Overall, I wish the relationship was on a more equal ground. I wanted Team to put in the effort to caring for Win too. And I wanted Win to stop being so aggressive in his “care”.
There were two good NC scenes at the beginning of the series, but the heat really dies down from there. I would have traded the sex scenes for some proper, continuous physical affection. Like it’d be great if Team wasn’t always dodging Win and actually kissed him once in a while. It would have been better of the NC scenes were later in the series as well, because as it is, we start strong and end disappointed.
There were way too many couples. Bee/Prince and the M/F couple could have been cut. They were awkward and boring and a waste of screen time. The last 2 episodes felt more like an ensemble romance and I felt that the main couple was put to the side to close up all these boring side stories.
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