jpny01

Homophobia? Probably the same reason for "planking sex" where one guy planks over the other rather than having their torsos in contact like normal people.

But it could also be an attempt to portray innocence. But wait for Johan and North. If they plank, it's the homophobia thing.

I would never continue to view someone as a villain just because they were a bully in high school, especially in Korea where it's practically mandatory. There is a reason teens aren't considered legal adults, and while there are personality traits that can continue into adulthood, I think we have to be forgiving of flaws based on social pressures. We wouldn't forgive someone for murder or a very severe beating, but that's a bit different.

Absoultely - but that's not the same thing. That's living a double life in a cynical way and still having an outlet for your gay life.

This is a case of a man being around the object of his love for 10 years. If someone denies the truth to themself for that long under those circumstanes, something will give. That's why I don't think that's what's happening here.

Repressed homosexulity is extremely common at the high school age - but I think it's a stretch that someone would maintaint that repression so far into adulthood. He might live a closeted life, but he likely understands the nature of his sexuality.

LOTS of Republicans have been found to be homosexual, and often of a very prurient nature, often as predators. There was a movement to pass an anti-gay ban in congress, and Barney Frank, the only openly gay congressman at the time, announced that if they did, he'd publish a list of every gay Republican legislator. It immedialely quietly died and nobody has brought it up again.

Yes, but JY had "normal" plants, DH has four identical cactuses in a neat row, like something in a catalog.

Note that before sex, there was no conversation, no touching, no warm smiles, no kissing - DH just walked up to JY being a bit snarky and unbuttoned his shirt. There was nothing romantic or loving about it - and the post-sex pose could not have been accidental. No cuddling, spooning, or even touching at all.

In the past they were blissful and loving, cuddling in the cold, in the present they're in a comfortable heated apartment - another contrast. Hot sex vs cold in a cold room vs hot.

I agree about JY - but his expression when DH was unbuttoning his shirt was uncertain. If a man you've been dying to touch for 10 years makes it clear he wants you, would you just stand there indecisively, or dive right in? I think he longs for DH, but it didn't feel right for him.

In general I do prefer happy stories - BL is for me generally light entertainment. But to me this is not really a BL so much as an LBGTQ+ drama. For example, who is the uke and who is the seme? Why have there been no trip-catches or accidentla kisses? The only trope this relies on is miscommunication, and it's organic to the story and the characters, not someone showing up at precisely the right second to see something he misinterprets.

Agreed, but it would get boring if it were mandatory for gay stories to be all rainbows and unicorns - it's ok to stray into the Dark Side every once in a while, especially if the acting and writing is good.

I've had some issues with the editing in this, but that love scene was a masterpiece.

The contrast between the passion of their youthful sex and the dark, cold, and transactional present encounter was disturbing and strange, and the acting was so subtle from both of them, as was the visual imagery and music - their cuddling while young and their bodies not even touching in the present, and ending with a shot of a souless row of cactuses.

I'm wondering if this can have a happy ending. Or if it does, will it be rushed, not make sense and be unearned? Because they're in a dark place right now and there are still a lot of secrets to get through, like what Dohoe was doing between 2007 and 2012.

Coffee isn't a coping mechanism. It's the elixir of life.

I enjoyed the cinematography immensely, but I saw what it meant differently. In the flashback scene there was passion - in the present there was none. I think it was filmed to be dark, cold and distancing on purpose. I'm not sure what you mean by "vulgar", but their encounter was transactional and just sex, and I thought Juyeong felt it that way. It was beautifully disturbing.

Which episode are you on? I was feeling like this at the end of Ep 4, but Ep 5 & 6 turned it around for me.

While that makes sense, it's a bit of a leap, isn't it? Do we have any evidence of this in the story?

Internalized homophobia on the scale your talking about isn't something that can go on forever - 10 years of being constantly around the man you love and not acknowledging it to yourself is like a pressure-cooker - there will either be some sort of explosion or a serious burn-out of some kind.

That's one of the reasons it works so well as an international language - you can speak it terribly and still be understood, and we somehow managed to ditch our grammatical gender and most of the declensions that make German so impossible to get right.

But German is a much more beautiful language than people give it credit for - I think you can blame a certain someone shouting from podiums that's etched into everyone's minds for that.

No intrusion detected - it's a discussion forum, so all thoughts welcome.

That's a preference for stories that occupy a middle ground, not a statement of dislike of anything else - I prefer coffee but I don't dislike tea. That's a symptom of the zero-sum-game that people tend to make of everything on the internet. i.e. if someone criticizes one aspect of one episode, they're a hater and should stop watching and get cancer. That's an exaggeration fo the sake of drama, but I tihnk you've seen plenty of reactions of that nature.

It's not really a critique of femininity - there are very strong effeminate characters in BL and people like them (I among them). The critique is of ukes that are useless and resist the unseemly lusts of the seme but submit in exchange for being "taken care of", meaning provided protection and guidance. This is a throwback to an era where women were expected never to pursue or enjoy (at least not openly) sex and be subordinate to men, and men should never pursue or enjoy being penetrated. These tropes are both homophobic and misogynist.

I understand your point, but it's not the one I or the OP are making. There is nothing wrong with an effeminate man - but there is something wrong with portraying the "penetratee" as reluctant or unwilling and weak and helpless without the Top (seme). That is patriarchal and backward.

In reference to earlier conversation, you'll note there is only one ridiculous blowhard present, while the rest are thoughtful and 41 people found your review helpful, which is a good score. Not in my league, of course, but respectable.

There's another case where German comes to the rescue, as there is nothing even approaching an English equivalent to that word, which is why Joyce had to use the title "A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man" rather than saving himself a lot of effort with a single (albeit long) word. Notice my homage to German style with my convoluted sentence. I'm allowed to say things like that because I was a music major and spent hours trying to decipher sentences that were literally pages long. I don't know how anyone can accomplish sentences like that without having a stroke. Maybe that's why you have Bach and we don't.

Feminine submissive men aren't less men, but in BL they are regressive models of the worst, most misogynist stereotypes of women. That's what he means by "straight-washing". Although I hesitate to reference as awful a series as Bad Guy My Boss, the uke is feminine and submissive without being weak and useless - while nobody can accuse that series of being well-written, the character in question is well-drawn and not a stereotypical Victorian-era virgin 13-year old girl with consumption like so many ukes.

Where did he complain about BL/gay stories being too happy? I read through it twice trying to find any such statement, but you've clearly decided to read that into it.

Between him an Kim, there's enough eye candy to entertain me in the most shallow way, but I'm most shallow.

Really? Pat's ex-GF? We've done a time warp to 2017. As if if this wasn't glacial and dull enough already. It's a good thing Elyes is so pretty.

This series is so awful that I can't look away, although if I'm being honest I'm probaby not able to look away from Elyes despite the actor's almost total lack of ability. Although he does have his angry glare perfected.

Given the glacial pacing, having Pat's ex-gf drop out of the sky to cause trouble is the most unncesssary, uninspired, and lazy writing I've seen in a long time.

For me I come back because Elyes is so supernaturally gorgeous that it doesn't matter how awful the series is - I still get to look at that face.