jpny01

I can't think of any except MODC. Which Korean BLs have had unhappy endings? Remember, not everything with boys is BL - some of them are "normal" lgbtq+ films.

I couldn't sit through the first ep, so if the second is worse that's not a good sign.

I completely lost interest when Huai En tripped and the director materialized out of thin air to catch him. I can already tell this is going to be a trope checklist, and despite the good-looking cast, I've been bored so far, so I'm demoting this to "fast-forward through in case Linus Wang takes a shower" status.

In Close to You, there's so much symbolism - when they're together there are phallic symbols everywhere - at the beach a bottle sticking out of the sand at a specific angle, etc. And the twisted wedding symbolism when Yong Jie is carrying him bridal style - he's wearing all white, with blue accents (something borrowed, something blue...) I love that kind of thing.

In any case, I prefer that kind of "toxicity" to some girlfriend we've never heard of dropping out of the sky in the penultimate episode to cause implausible misunderstandings leading to sitting in corners crying thinking of happy times with a sappy Jeff Satur ballad blasting in the background (I love Jeff Satur - but they have him write the same ballad over and over).

Now I'm curious what you think. Personally, I don't think any of them have been that bad. Drama isn't drama if there aren't conflicts and paths to redemption and character development. I don't think the word "toxic" is very useful. It seems to mean anything where everyone isn't firing rainbows and unicorns out their asses.

Obsessed was just about a guy going back in time to avoid getting killed - it was just a fairly normal BL romance otherwise . Close to You I could see some people having trouble with, but actually that was my favorite after Trapped. I like it when there is visual symbolism & metaphor and Close to You was artful.

Actually, I read it like @afternoon_sidekick did. There have been 10 History stories so far counting this one. If "a couple were good and the rest were toxic filth", then that means 2 were good and 8 were toxic filth. We could stretch "a couple" to 3, but that's still the big majority of them being filth, so it's difficult to understand which ones you mean. The only one I can think of that a lot of people found toxic was in History4 Close to You.

Doesn't all drama contains "toxic" elements? Otherwise it wouldn't be drama.

Now I'm confused why you can't be asked a question without getting hostile. There was nothing confrontational in the question. Calling someone an asshole is frankly a lot more toxic than a fictional story can be, given that he's an actual human being and fictional characters aren't.

Because if you do, then total strangers on the internet don't feel validated and take it as a personal attack. - I'm not referring to @Luna Jen here who isn't doing that.

If people are singling out Phuwin, that's not really fair since he's not worse than 75% of BL actors, and also, his characters have both been annoying, so for people that can't separate an actor from a role, they might get carried away with criticism.

I think he had good comic timing, and a comic side-character is to me a more appropriate role for him, not a leading man, and definitely not such a sour character as this one - it makes Neung come off as bratty and unpleasant.

You're right. When I was in Chiang Mai, I found violent high school gangs looking for a fight in every retirement home and ballroom dance studio in the city. That's why the word for "Samba" in Thai translates as "death match". Come on . You can just admit something is stupid even if you like the series.

It is totally inconceivable that a high school gang is at an elderly person's social club looking for a fight. Come on, you're really reaching.

Having a teen bodyguard must be a really bummer when he's suspended for two weeks. I guess they got everyone to agree to not kidnap or kill Nueng for that period. I doubt I'll be able to let go of the Ballroom Dance Death Match, though. Because this is so formulaic they had to set it among high society people, who I guess are known for brawling at ballroom dances.

I can't remember anything about Kissable Lips except that it was tiresome and I forgot to watch the last eps of Eternal Yesterday.

OK, so three BLs. That's three of several hundred. It's statistically irrelevant. Happy endings are an integral feature of BL, and when there isn't a happy ending people start burning things down because it's a firm expectation. And there's certainly not going to be an exception in a formulaic bag of tropes like this series.

Yes it is. There have been exactly one BLs with sad endings, and that was Make Our Days Count.

I'll bet a million dollars that Chopper's father isn't a villain and it was Nueng's mother that had her husband killed.

I felt secondhand embarassment for the writer, who thinks there are fights to the death in upper-class ballroom dances.

I don't dislike him, I just think he's very mediocre (except at comedy). I don't think he's annoying - just boring. I don't think he's bad in this, he's just not compelling enough to make me continue watching.

I agree - I don't get it. The writing in this is awful - formulaic & predictable. The whole plot was predictable from the first episode (is anyone not a hundred percent sure who killed Nueng's father? Hint: it was his mother). Nothing even makes sense. Have you ever been to a ballroom dance? How many hoodlums that will try to kick someone to death over someone bumping into them did you encounter there? What is this dreck? I get they want to be KinnPorche Lite, but a death brawl at a ballroom dance?

Phuwin isn't an awful actor, and he's decent at comedy, but he's certainly not leading man material. They have Chimon & Perth in this - why would they waste them on minor characers? They should be playing the leads. I will say Phuwin is cute and Pond is not hard to look at - I guess that's the criterion. I can't watch any more of this.

This is a BL. It has a happy ending. Even if one of them is killed horribly, he'll come back as a ghost and there will be a happy ending.

Yeah, I'm dropping this - it's too stupid to watch. Who gets that violent at a ballroom dance? Over being jostled by some drunk guy? Come on. And on top of that it's boring and formulaic, and I'm over series driven entirely by jealousy. BL writers only have one trick in their bags - the total lack of originality is breathtaking. Why is this even set in school? The plot has nothing to do with school - it's just because someone felt it had to be so they awkwardly spooned it in. It's a joy to watch Chimon and Perth, but other than them the acting is mediocre. And do BL characters have any other reaction to jealousy than violent drunkenness? Ugh.

Well, I'm caught up now. In UWMA, were WinTeam so dad-son? It's a little creepy. And unfortunately, dull. I'm not really a Benz fan, but Tae is really good in this - his giddiness was really cute.

Me too. I think maybe one of the problems is that in UWMA, WinTeam was the side couple that provided relief from a heavy story, and there's just not enough plot to sustain an entire series - and whoever wrote the script lacked the imagination to add elements to the story, so they just keep playing the same flashbacks and nightmares over and over.