jaydeejay

That's honestly what I would like to know too.
But I do believe they've purposefully kept the fact that they know each other a secret. Probably to keep things as professional looking as possible? And also to, I guess, help Maze distance himself from Nueng since he used to be so attached? I think it's more of the latter than the former.

Since it was a secret and Maze kept acting like a weird ex, other characters (and the audience included) assumed he was just that- an ex boyfriend. But then they introduced the bizarre brother complex plot line that I've seen in sooooo many yaoi/BL stories. Ugh.

I will say, I do understand Tharn's jealousy a little bit. He has this crush on someone who gives him some attention and bits of flirting here and there, but then the person turns around and has this super close, seemingly romantic relationship with someone else. Though I don't recall if he knows about Nueng and Maze being brothers.

Tbvh, anything higher than like an 8 for BL dramas on MDL is fairly uncommon. So a 7.7 isn't too bad.

So I don't take the ratings too seriously on here. If it sounds interesting to me (and bonus: if it has an actor or two I like), then I'll judge it for myself. There are shows that I've come to really enjoy that have low ratings and some I've come to dislike that have very high ratings.

I'll have to go back and rewatch some of the episodes, but after watching ep9:

I honestly feel like what they're trying to do with Maze's character is give him a bit of development throughout the show, but then have him go right back to square one. But when he falls, there won't be anyone to catch him. I wouldn't be surprised if they went this route: Phap keeps his distance from Maze, Maze *finally* realizes how much of an asshole he's been, and then he *finally* uses the bit of development as big steps towards change. This usually happens when you have a character that's some level of mean/stuck up (typically very mean and oblivious to others' feelings) and usually gets what they want but doesn't truly realize what they're missing until it's suddenly gone.

Whatever it is that Phap and Maze have been doing up to this point clearly wasn't really working for them, in my opinion: Phap apologizes for things that he shouldn't, Maze doesn't apologize, like...at all, Phap bends to Maze's whims a little too easily, Maze doesn't budge, Phap needs to use his words more, Maze needs to stop this weird ass brother complex, etc etc. Sure they had their cute moments, but the whole thing wasn't cute nor healthy in general.

I do think writing Nueng as someone who's doing his own thing and ignoring Maze's emotions and having that clearly hurt Maze, but then turning around and having Maze do the same thing to Phap is really good. Hopefully Maze realizes this pattern and changes it.

Will I forever despise the weird borderline incest/brother complex shit they really tried to pull in this show, though? Absolutely. That's honestly my biggest issue with the story so far. If I was in Phap's shoes, I wouldn't go after some rich snob who has a brother complex. Like, I can't imagine getting jealous of my crush's brother of all people.

And yet, love works in mysterious ways.

I saw yes; you may end up loving it- or hating it. It really depends on what type of pairings and whatnot you enjoy.

I see Phap and Maze's characters as borderline caricatures of who they're meant to represent: a poor artist and a rich snob. As a matter of fact, a lot of the characters are pretty exaggerated, and not in a bad way, in my opinion.

I 100% agree with this.
I can see how people would be annoyed by Maze, but tbvh what happened at the end of ep9 wasn't all that surprising to me.

If anything: the acting, side characters, and set designs/locations are great!

I'm quite weary myself about what they have planned for Saendee's character. I personally think that, to some degree, he's lying. That he still has one last thing up his sleeve- either something new or adding to something that's already started.

As for Phai's confession: to be fair, he's been saying since the end of season 1 that he's not interested in Thanu anymore and doesn't want to stir up any more drama between the two of them. There hasn't been any interactions between Phai and Thanu since then either. So, in my opinion, him saying this isn't weird.
I do think there's a possibility he may have a bit of feelings left for Thanu, but it's very clear he doesn't want to be in a relationship with him anymore.

I've been wanting them to go back to this little plot detail since the beginning of season 1- and they finally did! Very curious to see what they're going to do with it.

I could just print out this review and hang it on my wall LMAO
Especially the part about Pok! I think you a great job at explaining his character and how complex he can be.

I honestly hope he shows up next episode and stays until the end!

Yes! Thanks for pointing that out!
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I want to say another character(s) have said the same thing and he didn't appear to get upset/as upset? I want to say Kit would say similar things to Pha before, like when Pha would try and tell him to live his dream for him and Kit would be like "Oh no, don't say that! You'll be ale to do that yourself."

I feel like he may have gotten upset because Thanu was mentioned in the group of people hanging out with them? BPG and I have a small theory that Pha may try and get Wayu back if he recovers; in either the last episode or in ep4, they said he started this new treatment and has been taking to it well so far. So that miiiight be a possibility.

Either way, I think what you said is definitely possible though!

That's all true!
Maybe next time he could try recording it- maybe have someone, like Kalae, hiding in the locker room. That would be a good idea. I'm sure Kalae especially would be willing to help.

However, there's 3 things to remember:
1) The last time someone tried helping him, his trust was completely betrayed. That someone being Tong. After going through all of that, I don't blame him for being weary about wanting to ask for help from anyone. It's easy to say that you'd do it despite going through the same thing, but the point is that not everyone thinks the same way.

2) If all of this blows up, I wouldn't be surprised if the knowledge of him getting into the university via cheating (even though he wasn't the one to do it) would somehow pop up. My theory about the teammates is that they may already know or are going to find out somehow about this.

3) And of course there's the whole Pride thing. Stereotypically, men are known to be prideful people. And on top of that, some people simply don't like asking for help, even for the easiest of tasks. I know a few people in my family and friend groups that're like that, and it annoys me to no end lol

I'm sure it's a combo of any of these 3 things.

This!

And he doesn't have any proof it's them either.
To make matters worse, it's just him vs those three- and potentially more. He's the new kid that's pretty damn amazing at swimming and could probably beat out the rest of them, seniors included. I wouldn't be surprised if there were more that didn't like him.

They showed us twice how oblivious the coach is: once when he brushed off the comment the teammate said to him, and the other time when he made the announcement. I also wouldn't be surprised if he'd also brush off these allegations, too.

And Pok does run the risk of being forced to leave he stirs up too much drama. Of course, it isn't *him* that's causing it, but things can probably be shifted to make it look like he's the issue. We can see how much swimming means to him, so I doubt he'd wanna run the risk of leaving.

Time for another initial thoughts on the episode!

Basically: episode 6 was great! The amount of symbolism in it was fantastic. I would say that this week, the character(s) that stole the episode was definitely Phai.

Breaking it down by characters/pairs:

❤PokTong:
The episode started off continuing the drama between Pok and some of his teammates. Instead this time, Pok is finally made aware of the issue he didn't even know was there: they beat him up in the locker and leave him there.
The coach? Is extremely tone deaf, I'm saying that right now LOL. The way he made the announcement about Pok replacing the guy who hates his guts RIGHT in front of them...Oh my god.

I do love that this separation between them hasn't been fixed yet. I was hoping that they wouldn't mend the pair by the very next episode. I also love that Tong, poor Tong, is still trying to look out for his safety however he can. I can understand Pok not doing the same for Tong, but also still thinking about him.
All-in-all, I'm pleased with the PokTong scenes this time around. They were also great in ep5. No complaints here. NEXT!

❤MarkKit:
Once again, I found myself sitting here thinking what in the world is going on with these two. But then I remembered the conversation Kit had with Phai where he mentioned that either Mark or Kit will finally break this weird separation and go running to the other person- but Kit thinks it's going to be him, not Mark.

And yeah. It should be Kit, in my opinion.

Initially I was confused by the fact that they've been having these video calls where things seem normal, but physically, they're staying away from each other. But it's actually very telling of where they're at emotionally/mentally. Neither of them want to budge: Mark because he thinks it's right for him to agree with Kit, and Kit because, well...he's being passive aggressive.

Their scenes were interesting, but at the same time, I don't care too much for them. I still believe they needed this to happen because it's been a long time comin'. But the timing of it happening still feels a little jarring to me. So, NEXT.

❤ThanuWayuPha:
Wayu is still confused about how he should feel: is he really checking up on and spending a lot of time with Pha because he wants to or because he feels like he has to? He still isn't sure how to feel about Pha, so he's still keeping his distance from Thanu, who's willing to wait for him.

HOWEVER, even though he doesn't know how to feel....Man, oh man, the symbolism for their parts were INSANE. First we have a close up of Wayu zoning out and picking at the apple in his hand- with a knife. He's meant to be cutting it and feeding it to Pha, but he's too distracted. Lets pause here and think about the apple for a sec: in a previous episode, when Thanu was drawing Wayu, he drew him gently holding an apple. Wayu in this scene isn't damaging it, but then Thanu takes a bite out of it- I'll get back to this little biting detail in a sec. And then Wayu cuts an apple and feeds it to Thanu. With Pha, however, he's basically stabbing at it.

In some cultures, an apple represents the heart/love. When Wayu is with Thanu, he takes care of the apple (his heart). He cuts up an apple and feeds it (his love) to Thanu- hell, Thanu took a bite out of another one and Wayu didn't mind. I'll mention something about the biting again later LOL
However, when he's with Pha, he's damaging it. He doesn't feed it to him. He accidently drops it and doesn't bother trying to pick it up.

There's also the fact that Thanu means bow. Bow and arrows are, stereotypically, used to shoot at apples. Cupid uses the bow and arrow to pierce love into people's hearts.
On the other hand, stabbing of the heart with a knife....a very different meaning.

I was talking to BadPennyGirl about the symbolism, and she pointed out the sexual nature of it. I'll leave it to her to discuss here, but omg she makes some great notes about it.

Continuing on from the apple, Wayu has his back turned to Pha pretty much the whole time. The room also appears darker than usual. Pha finally gets his attention, but once they're done talking, he lays back down with his arms crossed and leans away from Wayu.

All very telling.

I think Bas' expressions in this episode were very good, especially the part when he was teary eyes talking to Dun's character, Thanu, towards the end. NEXT!

❤Saendee and Phai:
Oh jeez, where do I even start??
First off, my favorite scenes in this episode had these two in it.

The scene where the juniors (I call Sab, Klui, Kalae, Tong, Pok, Saendee, Phai ,and Pok "juniors") were texting each other, and Sab and Klui were like "we don't want Saendee to join us" and Kalae, the only one with brain cells in this group, texts them like "Wrong group chat guys. Saendee's in this one!!"
That scene was fucking HILARIOUS. I love the juniors a lot.

After that, Phai approaches Saendee yet again, but this time he explains how he chose to change his own fate and reveals he got a tattoo- but it's of bamboo, not the bow and arrow that showed up in his visions. I have some ideas of what the bamboo is meant to represent, but I'm going to wait until they hopefully explain it themselves.
Now, Saendee's expressions in this scene were gold. When Phai started unbuttoning his shirt, you could see the surprise and the *yearning* in his face. Throughout the rest of the scene, the yearning was there. Not thirst, but we can tell he wants Phai. I'm SO glad they included this because I was hoping they'd show his feelings for Phai again. I want to say the last time they did was all the way back in S1E2?? When he helped Phai tie his apron. I thought it'd be great to have another scene like that to help us remember why he's *really* doing all of this for- and they did!

And then the part where it looked like they were gonna kiss- I almost screamed. Phai still looked the way he did all those episodes ago, where, to me at least, it looked like he was being pulled in but maybe not aware of his own feelings?

However, do I think Saendee is going to change *that* easily? No.
I hope not yet anyway. It feels like it's still a little too early for that. Was I surprised that he agreed to apologize to Thanu and Wayu. Yes. Do I 100% believe him? No.

Though I will say, I was absolutely shocked when Phai dropped the drawing Thanu made him and they both went to go pick it up and it ripped. And Thanu didn't seem to care and left to go run after Wayu. Back when Phai first told Thanu to not worry about him and the visions, I honestly felt that conversation closed the book, so to speak, on whatever was going on with them. I feel like this scene did though.

I still don't know how to feel about Saendee and Phai maybe being together. I'm going to wait and see what else Saendee may have planned. Phai is too sweet (and naive) to end up with the Saendee we have now.

Congratulations on graduating!! ❤❤❤

Happy Birthday!! ❤❤❤

Here's the link!
https://www.instagram.com/ohstarhunter/tv/CY6nBK6LMP5/?utm_medium=copy_link

A couple of days ago, I saw a clip in Star Hunter's ig story that showed what definitely looked like Padbok's actor, Junior, in his engineer fit hanging out with the other actors. So it seems like Padbok should come back at some point! If I can find the clip, I'll link it below.

The biggest reason why I ended up watching it was to see how they'd overcome their parents' nonsense, and I was quite disappointed, tbvh. Because I honestly have no idea how I'd go about it, so I thought it was a pretty great concept.

I agree, a season 2 isn't needed at all.

If anything, a spinoff focusing on Pa and Ink could work. With bits of Pat and Pran.

A Philippine BL show did something similar where the girl got a spinoff wither her potential gf.

Just finished the show! I may do a full review at some point, but here are my general thoughts on the show:

PROS: GREAT chemistry between the main actors, GREAT acting in general, sets and locations were very good as well as the music

CONS: the nonstop attempts at utilizing dramatic moments and very real issues, but then 2 seconds later completely destroying the buildup and potential to explore the reality of these said issues. Basically: the bits of drama feel like they serve no real purpose in the show.

Here are some notes of mine broken in sections:
1) This show is very clearly meant to be a very lighthearted romcom that, at the end of the day, doesn't take itself seriously. However, they try to add in issues that, in my opinion, require moments serious contemplation and exploration, but then they just laugh it off with some lighthearted humor. Example: the both of them being outed by Wai to the whole school. With all the dramatic music and with how that episode ended and with everything else in general, it's clear they wanted us to feel immense worry for these characters. What will the students think? What will their parents, who very likely could find out from this incident, think?? Being outed is a very serious problem, and that to happen in front of a crowd of people by your own best friend is no laughing matter. So how will they handle it?

Well, in the next episode, we learn that literally no one but Wai himself cares about them dating. Pat and Pran are able to be together on campus- and no one cares. We hear that supposedly a couple of the seniors in the engineering department are mad, but we don't see it and it's never mentioned again. And then a minute later, Wai is chill with the two of them dating.

It got to a point where I knew exactly what would happen every time they try to do something dramatic: Pat and Pran will easily figure their way out of it easily and things will be fine. Very predictable.

The #1 challenge for them: the parents? At first, I was genuinely worried for Pat and Pran. But as the show went on, all the worry went away. They'll be fine. They'll be able to date each other. Maybe not openly, but it'll work out for them in the end. This challenge that the main characters have to overcome? Really not an issue because the writers made me believe so half way through the show. They showed us time and time again that we don't have to worry about these two.

I wish that instead of attempting to be a weird mix of both romcom and drama, they would've just stuck to one. Not to say that mix can't work, but I don't think it worked with Bad Buddy.

Actually, it makes me wonder: if these two actors weren't in the show and were replaced by other actors who had some chemistry but not as strong as Ohm and Nanon, would this show really be as praised as it is? To be very honest, I don't quite think so. Which is an issue for me with the writing.

2) A couple of things that I did like about the writing: the fresh takes on queer relationships- fresh for BLs, specifically. The discussions about not needing to apply heteronormative talk to their relationship was great! This isn't the first BL drama to have a lesbian/wlw couple, but it's the first one I've seen that gave them a decent amount of camera time! I also loved how casual Pat and Pran are around each other: instead of the usual clinging to each other and calling each other pet names- basically, the stereotypical cheesy, gooeyness of being in a relationship- the two of them are chill and comfortable around each other, and it's great!! People who don't like it: y'all gotta learn that love looks and feels different to everyone.

Queer relationships where the people involved due like using "wife" and "husband" and ones where they're clingy and mushy with each other very much exists and aren't always toxic. But they tend to be portrayed to the extreme in BL stories, so much so that they come off as toxic and then are terribly romanticized. Thus having these moments in this show and other shows that have attempted to do the same thing, is very important.

3) I saw a comment once say that there is no character development with Pat and Pran and how that's an issue. I agreed at first, but then I realized: it isn't them that need to change, it's everyone else around them. They've done nothing that warrants change; it's the parents and their friends that have issues. And they did change eventually, some more and faster than others. So, there's your character development!

All-in-all, I would give this show a good 8.5/10. If the story was written better and knew what it wanted to be, then it would've been a solid 9.5 or 10 for me.
I wouldn't recommend it for the story, but I would recommend it for the chemistry and bits of nuance, if anything.