jpny01

Earth is the punching bag of BL. If he's ever in anything where he doesn't have to be bullied, shoot himself, or cry (usually all three), it will be a miracle.

I'm still not sure how pouring a cup of water over someone in a shower is bullying. If it had been ice water, maybe, but it wasn't. That was the best kiss I've ever seen in a BL - it's not the kiss itself, it's Santa's lack of hesitation to be body-to-body with Earth. Usually there's a large amount of space between guys in kiss scenes. The way he stepped up to Earth and wrapped his body around him felt authentic and was super-cute - I was actually getting bored, and then I got a really strong kilig feeling.

If you've seen an interview with them, Santa is extremely comfortable with physical affection. That ought to be a non-negotiable criterion for casting BL roles.

If you replace the word "crush" with "obsession", you'd describe where I am.

I really, really want to see Earth play a role where he's not whiney and useless. I know he can do it, and it's an injustice to him to be typecast as "that small guy who cries a lot". I want to see him play a mafia boss.

Totally agree - I was shocked. That was one of the few where the body language didn't scream "please don't make me do this." I think what made it work so well is the full body press - usually there's at least a foot of void space between their bodies - particularly the nether regions. Even when it's a side-hug.

It's actually only 70% for all the physical things. It has to do with hormone levels we're exposed to in the womb which plays a role in determining our sexuality. A male trait is to have different sized ring & index fingers, whereas a female trait is for them to be rougly the same. Apparently there's a stronger correlation between longer ring fingers and being lesbian, but I'm sure that's not close to 100% either.

I'd read that gay men tend to classify color in a more similar way to women, i.e. more gradations of color, for example, magenta is NOT PURPLE. But straight men will just sigh and say, "fine, reddish-purple". The theory is that when we were evolving, the need to feed infants kept women close to home, and engaged in gathering, where nuanced perception of shades of the red spectrum was the difference between nutrition and painful death by poisoning.

I actually had this discussion with someone - I was trying to find an non-broken umbrella in the bucket by the door.

Me: The umbrellas are all broken.
Straight Guy: [Calling from the next room] The red one works.
Me: [Checks for red one] There's no red one.
SG: Yes, there is.
Me: No, there's not.
SG: [Stomps into the room, annoyed, grabs umbrella from bucket] It's right here!
Me: That's burgundy.
SG: How could you possibly not assume I was talking about this one when all the rest are black or blue?
Me: The rest are black or NAVY, but I ASSUMED that there HAD been a red one, but that someone took it already, because this is NOT RED, it's BURGUNDY.

That is definitely a tough question, but I'll do my best - but warning, it's long (!).

The sterotypical things I don't like are ones that I think undermine the romance. For example, boys always seem to fall in love because one trips and the other catches him and they stare at each other for 15 minutes. Why can't they fall in love because they really like each other? Why is it away some accident that causes it?

That's somewhat related to the "I'm not gay, I just like [insert name]." I know that to many people that seems romantic, because it's loving someone beyond the bounds of gender identity. Anyone that feels that way is probably totally unbiased against LGBTQ+ people, which is very commendable and a happy commentary on social progress.

However, the trope is not motivated by acceptance, it's motivated by homophobia, and is connected to the way lack of consent is used in BL.

You've probably also seen how men force women in romance quite often, and why men are always the pursuers (except for evil and "morally questionable" women) in traditional romance. That is because it's not traditionally morally acceptable for a woman to pursue and desire sexual pleasure. If she's forced, then she's not a hussy. This is obviously repugnant, because it's saying sexual aggression, even to the point of rape, is less morally objectionable than female sexual desire.

The same applies to men - it's fine for a man to be a "top", but it's not acceptable for a man to actively seek to be penetrated for pleasure - hence the frequent use of force, or you've probably noticed how the uke often acts like he doesn't want the seme to touch him - even Fiat is doing that with Leo - and that might be why that seduction scene fell so flat. They wouldn't commit. You know First can be sexy as f@#$, but then that's aggressive and way too gay because Leo will be, well, f@#$ing him. In both BL and straight romance, force isn't just common, it's romanticized. (There' is a distinction between force, and being rough - the latter is consensual and just fine.)

You'll notice that the person who says "I'm not gay" is almost always the seme - because you aren't gay unless you're a bottom. (Which is obviously not true - I just mean that's the perspective being taken by people who write these things).

Also, while there are certainly genderfluid, pansexual etc. people, it's not ALL people - "love knows no gender" means that all love is valid, no matter which gender you love - it doesn't mean that the gender of another person doesn't matter to whether or not you can love them, because obviously it does, for something like 95% of people. I'm gay, and it doesn't matter how fantastic a woman is, there is 0% chance I can love her romantically, even if I trip and she catches me.

And, a lot of us have had to fight hard for the rights we have, and it's been under the the LGBTQ+ banner, and when it's suggested that identity is meaningless, it's a bit insulting. I'm assuming you're a woman and my apologies if that's incorrect (I'm only assuming it because it's statistically likely on a BL discussion site) - so you have to fight for equality every day, too - would you want to be told being a woman is meaningless and an obsolete category? (OT, but gay men have concrete biological differences from straight men, from trivial [different direction of hair whorl, ring finger longer on straight men, index finger on gay men] to significant [differences in brain structure, stronger sense of smell.])

So that returns us to one of my problems with this series - why all of a sudden has Fiat become so passive and lost all the kick-ass fire he used to have? Because before, he was pursuing Type, who is an uke, so the implication was that Fiat was a seme. But we're told now that he only did it to upset Leo, who is depicted as an Über-seme, so Fiat must be an uke, and so he can't be masculine and aggressive anymore - he has to be shy and retiring, and be shocked when Leo kisses him on the cheek.

I get that the seme/uke dynamic is part of BL, but it's not very true to life. A bottom can be taller, older, and more "manly" than the top, or there may not be a top and bottom (versatile), etc. In BL, can you think of one case where the the uke was taller than the seme? Maybe one or two cases where the uke is older (Gen Y is the only example I can think of), and zero cases where the uke is more traditionally masculine. So now Fiat has transformed from an aggressive star athlete into a whiney 12-year old girl, because he's been squeezed into a tight uke mold.

So in a way, my problems with this series are what seem to me to be abuses of what were interesting characters, which is robbing a good actor like First of an opportunity to shine, while playing into homophobic - and sexist - stereotypes.

I hope that rambling mess made sense.

Because this is a comments section and we're here to discuss what we like and what we don't like. I could just as well say "if you don't like comments that have opinions that are different than yours, why do you find the energy to comment and read about them?

Why not instead expend the energy to tell me why you disagree with me? People have changed my mind with their perspective - that's the point of discussion, not to live in an echo chamber where everyone has to say the same positive things or they get bullied.

Also can you point to where I said I don't like the series? In fact I started with a positive comment about how well-done I think the Leon/Pob storyline is done and the nuance of Leon's gentlemantly personality. I just think the writing for Leo & Fiat is flat and doesn't do the actors justice.

Leo didn't lie - he just didn't tell him everything, and I think he was correct - if he said he was working on a project, Fiat would demand details, and then get jealous, suspicious, and sulky when he couldn't tell him everything. Plus, it probably didn't occur to him that anyone could get jealous over such a trivial thing.

I hope so. Being a rival doens't rule out being an ex, but I really don't want her to be. It would be nice if a woman is motivated by professional competition for once rather than psycho-jealous revenge.

Even making him frown like that is justifiable homicide. Although he looks just as sexy frowning as he does... well, doing anything, really.

The delivery men scene was the one I was thinking of too. It isn't BL without hawking some sort of drink, so that was OK. I actually had to pause and relax in that final scene where he was anger-chopping and beaking ceramic things (and then plopping down right into the shards). I guess he's a seme, so he's not quite as fragile. Aek, of course, would have died. Or at least been badly hospitalized needing a rare blood type for a transfusion to survive.

Thank you!

I agree - the bullying was too much for a short story like that. There are other ways to be a knight in shining armor - like maybe a character is poor and working too hard, and the white knight does something that makes his life bearable. The last thing I want to see for my escapism is homophobic bullying.

For me, this is the best thing airing, and maybe the most enjoyable series this year. The authenticity is quite surprising - usually the workplace is cartoonishly out-of-date or exaggerated, but this was written by someone who knows what they're doing.

I'm a little shocked at the 8.0 rating , and criticism s of the lack of direction or drama - as opposed to a certain other show that's on Ep 5 and there's still not the slightest whiff of a plot. This is naturally unfolding - is that not preferable to the usual BL where we all know exactly what will happen for the entire series in the first 5 minutes?

Anyway, my only complain is the product placement, which was way too intrusive in the first half - I was actually gaping at the motorcycle ad.

Zung is just unbelievable. I actually can't breathe when he's onscreen - not only his looks, those eyes, everything, but his screen presence and the instant chemistry he has with everyone around him. So far Mark has been OK, but hasn't been called on to do much as his character is so reserved - but we got a glimpse of what he can do in the scenes with his mother.

I'm really looking forward to the rest of this, but I hope this doesn't go down the evil ex-gf route - that would be profoundly disappointing. I'm hoping that's his sister or something. I have a smidgen of hope on that front, as there was no particular reason for the call with his mother to discuss visiting the following weekend.

What's wrong with food porn?

I don't think the pacing is slow, it just allows scenes to develop. I'm actually hoping that's his sister or some other type of rival, because if it's an evil ex-gf, this will decline a few notches for me - the almost total avoidance of tired tropes thus far has been a big plus. I actually had to pause a few times in the last scene - it's almost unbelievable there could be that much anger-chopping and broken plateware without so much as the teensiest finger-prick.

There's a Thai restaurant here that this reminds me of - we should go there if you're ever in town.

I'm having a really hard time getting over my BL PTSD when it comes to knives. There are a lot of knives and other sharp objects in this, and it is a known fact that BL characters can't be in the same room as a sharp object (or anything having to do with sports. Or water.) without injury. That's making this more stressful to watch than it needs to be.

But I agree, this is by far the best thing on, maybe one of the best BLs that's ever been on, at least so far. It's so beautifully shot, and I love the pacing.

I don't even know what to say about Zung - he might be the most beautiful man I've ever seen. Those eyes, and the aristocratic bearing comined with the tattoo - it kills me. I love his very nice but not overly chiseled body, his hair after that shower, his hair in general, the way he unbuttons his cuffs, the way he's always got at least one hand behind his back, his... sorry, We could be here all night.

I do have to say the product placement this ep was f@#$ annoying as f@#$. That was OTT.

I'm glad that worked for at least one person. :)

Gun Atthaphan is sort of in the same category of typecasting as Earth, but he was downright scary in The Gifted. Although he's surprisingly muscular and can do physically threatening, which is hard to imagine for Earth. Unless he had evil superpowers or something.

You'd be going crazy and go shout at him in public at school calling him a cheater? I find it hard to believe you would be that crazy. Or at least if you did have a moment (we all do), wouldn't you apologize?

I think a normal person would do exactly what you said, and and go up to them and ask what's going on. It was very clear it wasn't an intimate moment, too. Everyone talks to acquaintances at school constantly - probably dozens of times a day, probably even more.

And it's not just this in isolation - if it had only been this one time, it might have been funny (if better written, e.g. underscoring that Fiat just accused someone who was helping ophans of being a cheater - because they didn't use that for humor it just made Fiat look like an asshole), it's that petty jealousy is everywhere in this series - it's the sole source of drama in their story, which is a dull and childish thing.

People in a relationship have to have some level of trust. That can be harder at the very beginning, but Fiat has known Leo pretty much his entire life and knows what kind of person he is.