Yess!!! It's really sad because I really like this show. I'm not sure why. I think it's because the premise is…
I totally agree. In order for Maze to be self-sacrificing like this, we need to have seen him develop in this direction, and he hasn't - it just came out of nowhere. He's controlling and tends to conflate his own desires with what is best for everyone, so I think he would try to make sure Phap doesn't leave which would lead to a blow-up that makes more sense.
BL in general relies way too heavily on jealously and implausible failures of communication. Miscommunication can work, but it needs to make sense. Here, any one of their mutual friends could have solved the problem in a second - especially Nueng, who apparently wants Maze to be with Phap.
I feel they should have kept it simple with an old crush, college senior or ex, instead of the whole brother/step…
Or even better, something that fits what we've had so far. Phap has on more than one occassion done something outlandish that paid off - wearing the green suit and changing the client's color from red to green, and redecorating the hotel room. Even ruining the wedding worked out because it led to the commission from the Japanese guy. He could do someting wild again except it doesn't work this time and they lose a client, and Maze goes nuts over it.
I kind of feel like we've had enough jealousy stories - 99% of BLs lean heavily on this device, and it's so negative. If conflicts are more organic to the characters, and so better motivated, then the resolution is more satisfying. In the case of Maze and Phap, Phap's a sloppy impuslive artist and Maze is a materialist neat-freak - that is more than enough fuel for conflict.
Learn us, please *puppy's eyes*, what would you do with the series before it all went to hell to make it better?
I would have the characters behave in character. If they wanted a conflict between Maze & Phap, is shouldn't have been weird unmotivated jealousy of Maze's relationship with his brother, which is psycho - it should have been something that would be within character, like him doing something whacky at a presentation that didn't pay off and they lose a client.
To make it worse, they're also making Tharn jealous of Maze - what is this? Who gets jealous because their significant other spends time with his own brother?
It was also wildly out of character for Phap to get violent last episode. This is a guy that ruined a wedding to save a cockroach, which he keeps safe at home. In order to manufacture drama, the writers pulled stock tricks out of a bag and gave no thought to characterization.
I'm not sure how to fix it at this point because there's so little time left, and there's no sense of the characters anymore. They've written themselves into a corner, and any resolution will feel like it comes from nowhere and won't be satisfying. They'll have to resort to the cliche of Maze rushing to the airport, but he's too late as the flight has left, but Phap never boarded.
What I would probably do is resort to a time jump, which I think is lazy, but I can't think of any other way. Phap becomes as successful artist and returns home a year later, meets Maze somehow, and they get together on equal terms.
They think of eachother as actual brothers but they are step brothers. Maze's dad married Nueng's mom and they…
But why does everyone think that? Maze's grandmother told Phap the story, and Maze and Nueng are both public figures, so it doesn't seem likely this wouldn't be known. It's really strange writing.
If you're a Singto fan, then yes. Overall it's been pretty good, although I think it's starting to stumble toward the end. Tae is really great as Phap - it's a really different character.
Yes. The old Japanese man asked him to go back with him.
Nobody is communicating and everyone is sad. Phap is leaving for Japan to work in the arts with the Japanese guy. Maze went after him but it was too late.
many problems in most BLs could be solved simply with "Babe, could we talk?" not all this angst over undeclared…
It's bad writing. If both of them were emotionally constipated since the beginning it might work, but Phap has always been expressive about feelings, so this is just lazy, lazy writing.
Is there some sort of mistranslation going on in the subtitles? Is Nueng Maze's actual step-brother who was raised with him, or does he mean brother in the friend sense? If they're actual brothers, then the jealousy is totally incomprehensible.
If we break it down: If I were in a new relationship, then it would bother me if he wanted to spend all his free time with his brother - that would tell me he's not that interested. I love spending time with my brother, but because he's my brother, there's that take-him-for-granted-I-can-see-him-anytime effect, and I would want to be with my shiny new boyfriend all the time. So I can understand Phap being a bit jealous, and Neung treats him like shit, so there's that.
But Tharn has absolutely no reason to be jealous - he's not in any sort of relationship with Nueng. Also, men tend to be less communicative than women, but not THAT much less communicative. Do BL writers all have distant fathers or something?
Damn I’ve been wanting to start this for the longest time but what are all the comments about hating maze? Should…
I can't answer this until the last two episodes air. The series was great in ep 1-8, but 9 & 10 have thrown in a lot of unnecessary drama that requires the mains to act severely out of character and in very upleasant ways, plus there are very strange jealousy issues. Hopefully it will go back to normal next ep.
This is what I complained about on the last epsiode. They have runied Phap's character for the sake of creating…
At least in this episode he isn't violent - that was too much. And there are two episodes to fix everything instead of jamming it all into the last 10 seconds, although I wouldn't be surprised if that happens.
I liked it. There wasn't enough run time to really spend that much time on the girls being silly, but I was very much relieved that the ex was a man - I don't think I can take another story about a straight guy heartbroken over his girlfriend.
This is so disappointing. Why are BL writers unable to do endings? Almost every f@#$ing BL has a terrible resolution to all the conflicts. Here we're falling back on the laziest solution possible, the implausible communication failure. Despite the fact that Phap's whole character is about truth an emotional honesty. he can't say a word to Maze all of a sudden. Maze's emotional incompetence makes more sense, but as usual, there are a dozen mutual friends who want them to be happy that do absolutely nothing whatsoever.
You know why Hello Stranger is one of my favorite BLs? Because the characters' friends wouldn't let this happen and devised a plan to get the boys together. Because that's what friends are, not a bunch of people who sit around shopping and gossiping and watching you sink into misery for no apparent reason.
This started out so promising, and now it's descended into melodramatic mud for the sake of having characters look sad, which I guess has to be done to keep the earth spinning or something. This has been a romcom from the start - why does it have to get slow and boring like this? Nothing really happened this ep except everyone spinning their wheels. It's a sad day when the only person who can take decisive action s is the über-uke.
This film is very violent with extremely severe bullying. I don't really see what the point of it was except to be unpleasant to watch. The entire movie is bullying - I don't even see why it's LGBTQ+.
I have absolutely no recollection of watching this. I just checked it out, and while I recognize the characters, I have no idea what it's about. I guess it's that forgetable. Milk is very cute.
BL in general relies way too heavily on jealously and implausible failures of communication. Miscommunication can work, but it needs to make sense. Here, any one of their mutual friends could have solved the problem in a second - especially Nueng, who apparently wants Maze to be with Phap.
I kind of feel like we've had enough jealousy stories - 99% of BLs lean heavily on this device, and it's so negative. If conflicts are more organic to the characters, and so better motivated, then the resolution is more satisfying. In the case of Maze and Phap, Phap's a sloppy impuslive artist and Maze is a materialist neat-freak - that is more than enough fuel for conflict.
To make it worse, they're also making Tharn jealous of Maze - what is this? Who gets jealous because their significant other spends time with his own brother?
It was also wildly out of character for Phap to get violent last episode. This is a guy that ruined a wedding to save a cockroach, which he keeps safe at home. In order to manufacture drama, the writers pulled stock tricks out of a bag and gave no thought to characterization.
I'm not sure how to fix it at this point because there's so little time left, and there's no sense of the characters anymore. They've written themselves into a corner, and any resolution will feel like it comes from nowhere and won't be satisfying. They'll have to resort to the cliche of Maze rushing to the airport, but he's too late as the flight has left, but Phap never boarded.
What I would probably do is resort to a time jump, which I think is lazy, but I can't think of any other way. Phap becomes as successful artist and returns home a year later, meets Maze somehow, and they get together on equal terms.
If we break it down: If I were in a new relationship, then it would bother me if he wanted to spend all his free time with his brother - that would tell me he's not that interested. I love spending time with my brother, but because he's my brother, there's that take-him-for-granted-I-can-see-him-anytime effect, and I would want to be with my shiny new boyfriend all the time. So I can understand Phap being a bit jealous, and Neung treats him like shit, so there's that.
But Tharn has absolutely no reason to be jealous - he's not in any sort of relationship with Nueng. Also, men tend to be less communicative than women, but not THAT much less communicative. Do BL writers all have distant fathers or something?
It was nicely shot and pleasant.
You know why Hello Stranger is one of my favorite BLs? Because the characters' friends wouldn't let this happen and devised a plan to get the boys together. Because that's what friends are, not a bunch of people who sit around shopping and gossiping and watching you sink into misery for no apparent reason.
This started out so promising, and now it's descended into melodramatic mud for the sake of having characters look sad, which I guess has to be done to keep the earth spinning or something. This has been a romcom from the start - why does it have to get slow and boring like this? Nothing really happened this ep except everyone spinning their wheels. It's a sad day when the only person who can take decisive action s is the über-uke.