jpny01

DUDE. I mentioned it because Young Royals consciously shows imperfections in teen complexions - i'm not compariong to this except for that one aspect, so please relax - it has nothing whatsoever to do with budget - and more money doesn't necessarily mean a better series.

Thai BLs employ both makeup and filters to give everyone perfect skin. It's a stylistic choice, but at times it's so blantant that it's distracting.

They seem very literal, so it can be confusing because everyone refers to themselves in the third person, calling themselves by their name or "we". Like "Anda wants Bank to stop at this store." "We want to improve."

BLs are all written like traditional romances with a boy in the woman's role, so Thee is acting like an older brother reacting to someone hitting on his sister. That's why this seme-uke thing is both misogynist, because it views femininity as weak and in need of protection and guidance, and homophobic, because it associates being gay with being feminine - the seme is never gay, but the uke often or even usually is - and hence weak and needing a "real" man to "take care of him."

The short answer is no. Thee is just protective. Although I'm not feeling the Ryo-Anda chemistry so I'm trying not to ship Anda with his brother. I'm glad my brother isn't built like that or I would need serious therapy.

But seriously Anda with Bank seems to work better for me than Ryo.

I guess it depends on how well this did, but I have no idea what the viewership has been.

I'll PM you.

Sorry, I should have explained that. In the BL Oxygen, in the main pair there's a boy who "lost his smile" when his mother died, which is very limiting as a plot device (and made the character look like a serial killer).

There's usually some basic setup that often makes the relationship plot-driven instead of character driven, so that the characters have to behave out of character to send the plot where the author wants it to go.

Or in Until We Meet Again the main couple are bound by destiny to be together due to events that we see at the very beginning of the series, so they're laboring under the burden of absolutely no dramatic tension whatsoever, whereas everyone was totally gaga over the more organic development of the secondary couple.

Attempted rape is a bit severe a label - it was more like not respecting the boudaries set by somoene who didn't want to because he was afraid he had hepititis, and ironically the censored version made it look much worse because all he did was give him a hand-job, whereas cutting the scene where they did made it look like he went much further.

The abduction was of course way over the line, but one might note the title of the series, which was not "Rainbows and Unicorns" and assume there may be some extreme behavior - and none of that makes the series bad. Characters don't need to be morally perfect - if they were, it wouldn't be a drama, it would be fanservice for young viewers. We could have series where nobody does anything but rescue puppies and have their attorneys draw up notarized consent contracts for every step in the relationship, but that would be incredibly dull.

I do agree that they were a bit addicted to cliffhangers, which was not a good choice, but the intention was to have additional seasons to continue the story, which is why it ended like that and why the secondary couple wasn't explored much. It's not the series fault the Chinese goverenment stopped allowing BL - which is a reason why we should support this series - not only are they taking a big risk by making it at all, they even poked the nose of the leader of China with that Winny the Poo Sweater. If enough people are brave like this, it may re-normalize BL.

I wasn't serious about the tripping - but sometimes in BLs the trip/fall/stare is the reason why the boys fall for each other which to me is homophobic - only an external pressure can cause them to look at another boy instead of just being attracted to them. When it's done for comedic effect, it doesn't really bother me, although that cliche is getting really, really tired. If something is in 99.9% of stories, maybe it's time to think of something new.

As for Kissable Lips, sex isn't always fan service. They didn't show anything at all - if it were fanservice, then they would have shown the sex scene instead of them just kissing and then jumping to the next morning. It's just a fact of life that adult relationships usually involve sex. These are not high school students, one is 20-something and the other is 500-something - it just wouldn't be realistic if they confined their relationship to holding hands and pecks on the lips.

On the other hand, your point about whether or not they should have done it given Jun Jo's impending death is certainly arguable - but If I knew I only had a few days left with someone I loved, I would want to make the most of it, not distance myself. That's not to say that you or anyone else would neessarily feel that way, which is of course perfectly legitimate - but I think a majority of people would have done what they did, and while that doesn't mean it's the only option or even a better option, it also isn't wrong or fan service.

Although I still don't understand why a 500-year old need to go to school. It's kind of pervy.

You must be really fun at parties.

I agree - that's usually the main purpose of the secondary couple - to provide a contrast. I think one of the reasons for Secondary Couple Syndrome is that they are not as constrained by the Central Plot Gimmick (like "a boy who lost his smile") and their relationships can be more character-driven.

I have no recollection of watching this series. Also, Darth Vader is Lukes father. :)

I feel like there needs to be a separate genre where the characters do nothing all day but sweet things for each other and rescue puppies while their attorneys draw up notarized consent documents for the characters to hold hands or kiss.

I agree with that. A lot of people didn't like Addicted/Heroin because they didn't notice the title was "Addicted/Heroin" and were surprised it wasn't about rescuing puppies. But to me it was one of the best BLs, where the focus was on the characters and not how rich and popular people were - it's still one of the few BLs that was just about two guys, not a "real man" and a 12-year old Victorian girl with consumption trapped in a boy's body.

I'm feeling like I need to go on hiatus, but I probably won't because I'm weak.

LOL - you're right - there are definitely trends. I think next we're moving on to mafia stories. Birdeynamnam above pointed out that there was a large quantity of flashback in this ep - I think that probably contributed a lot to my feeling about how repetitious a lot of the basketball gets.

Now that you mention it, it might have been the overuse of flashbacks that was off-putting more than the excessive basketball. Combined, it was a little frustrating.

Not as annoying as it is for a series to be dull.

I didn't mind the more authentic potrayal of teenage complexion - I was just caught off-guard by it, because nobody ever does that - it was refreshing. Especially the prince - a prince with acne? Impossible!!! Next you'll tell me an uke can have acne! That's against the law - although they're allowed (encouraged or required, even) to use acne cream on their perfect porcelain skin.

There is a difference, but in a romance, people have sex because they're in love - they don't fall in love because they have sex, right? Although they do fall in love if one of them trips and the other one catches him and they stare at each other for 15 minutes. So if Min Hyun tripped and Jun Ho caught him, that would be cruel. He should just let him fall.

Sorry if I didn't write what I said clearly - I meant that a lot of people criticising Dome don't seem to mind Vee's participation, not that Vee isn't upset about it. One of the best things about this series is Porsche's spectacular acting in portraying how incredibly upset he is about all this - I've never seen a BL actor that raw before.

And I know you don't require perfection - actually I've seen people attack you for liking series containing "questionable" things. I think maybe part of this is that Vee comes off as more sympathetic than Dome because Dome is reserved and Vee has a harder time concealing what he's feeling. That creates an impression that Dome is OK with all this. But to be fair, Pan is not his sister - the stake for him is a youthful relationship, whereas for Vee it's his family. There's no real comparison.