jpny01

True - I'm not sure I've seen a buildup of not-endgame like this.. But so far it's also stuck with all the tropes, and they all point in one direction. So fear not!

I saw him first.

It wasn't really subtle - you were definitely not reading too much into it.

This series is way too full of tropes and cliches - it's starting to make me actively dislike it. I can live with dealing with every ailment with a damp towel, and the universality of Asians immediately falling ill when touched by water, but the horrible female cliche is so unpleaseant that it ruins the viewing experience.

Also, how does someone manage to draw blood trying to open a door? From his nose, maybe, but has anyone in all of human history tugged hard at a door while standing a few inches from it? Come on. It would have made more sense if someone had opened it with too much force from the inside - in fact it could have been Shin Woo, which would add another touch of drama.

I was thinking sarin.

I think we have 100% certainty, not just hope. I'm kind of surprised anyone thinks it would be someone else - are there a lot of people watching this that haven't seen a BL before?

I think it was perfectly clear that Shin Woo holds that position from the first minute of the series. This is a formula - it's always the one that hates him. It never even occurred to me that it would be anyone else.

I don't know if North Koreans are as vulnerable to rain as S. Koreans, but I'm thinking we could have won the war if we just threw cups of water in their faces.

Shin Woo looked sharp in denim with formal shoes. And OMG, he actually handed a napkin to someone with something on their face instead of rubbing his lips! It's a miracle! The revolution has begun!

Nobody is so incompetent at life that they can't open a door without injuring themselves. Tae is seriously mentally deficient. And how did Shin Woo suddenly materialize with a damp towel? Do all Asian men keep damp towels with them at all times?

I find it a bit implausible that those two particular guys would be pursuing a useless lump like Tae. Is he interesting? No. Any hobbies? No. Intelligent? Clearly not. Great hairstyle? You be the judge. Capable of doing anything at all? No.

And So Hee is so loathesome that I can barely stand to watch the series. And I really wish we get Shin Woo with literally ANYONE other than Tae. How about DaWoo? Or WooWoon (or is it ShiShin)?

I'm going to get yelled at for this, but I don't think he's attractive either as a character or physically (he does have perfect skin - I think. It's hard to tell with the amount of makeup caked on him). I tried to read him as autistic, but he's just not. I wish they had gone that way as it would have been something different and interesting. Instead he just has a low EQ, is under-socialized, and very, very dull. I don't think he's even written autisitic enough to even call it Asperger's.

I can like put it in a spoiler, but I don't see what's spoilered.

OK, let's get you with Gun so I can have Boat.

"Sir, would you like some BL with your product placement?" "No thanks, I'll have another serving of product placement, please."

This is not a criticism, because it's cute, but the translators should stop trying to use colloquialisms. "okey-doke" is something your great-aunt would say.

OK, that ep was really dull and frustrating, except for the secondary couple (and Bank's surprisingly hot body), and the girls are several levels beyond tiresome at this point. How many times does someone have to remove your hands from his body before you accept that he doesn't want you touching him? If their sexes were reversed it would be beyond creepy.

Boat is amazing - he's so expressive and I feel it all. That was one of the only times a drunk person behaved like a drunk person - and he didn't vomit! Yay! He said he doesn't remember anything, which would be silly, but I think he does remember.

Not to mention the pythons. The girls are getting annoying. To be fair, they were told Sun and Bank are relatives, so they may just think they're very close. Actually, this whole episosde was kind of dull and annoying, except the secondary couple and everything Boat did. I wish he had a more dynamic partner in this.

Well, I'm out. Last week I said the cliffhanger was a fakeout and nothing would happen, and sure enough, they didn't even really say anything to each other.

That episode was one long, unpleasant frustration. The ,main couple have barely interacted for weeks and the creepy ex has completely taken over the show. It was already too late in the story to introduce him, but BL just can't help itself when it comes to following the formula. At least it's a man and not an evil ex-gf.

The mains are acting like small children, not grown adults in their mid-late 20s. To be honest, I don't even care if they get together anymore and I couldn't get through this ep without skippping parts.

There is no chance they will be able to end this in a satisfying way with only one more short ep left. It will end with a rubber kiss in the last 10 seconds. I wanted to see the interaction between Yu Zhen and Shi Lei - that's really all this series had going for it, and now we get nothing. Next ep will be consumed by the resolution of the straight couple's situation and more implausible miscommunication between the mains.

What a disappointment - a couple of weeks ago this was almost the only show I was looking forward to each week and now I won't even bother with the finale.

The problem is they haven't interacted for weeks and I don't care if they do anymore after ep 11.

I actually have no desire to watch the finale after this episode. At this point a satisfying ending is impossible and I don't even care anymore.

OK, Ep 2 was 50% flashback - it's getting annoying.

I like that they acknowledged that they're ripping off 2gether - it was a funny joke. But that does beg the question, why was IG watching 2gether?

Unfortunately, the scenes from Ep 3 had yet another tired cliche - the mutual screaming upon seeing each other naked, as if they're not in high school and haven't see every single person in their class naked multiple times. I don't think I can make myself watch anymore.

In Ep 1 I liked that the taxi driver took advantage of the country bumkin instead of being a hot guy with a heart of gold that transforms his life - that says there may be some attempt at realism in this series. Then Main Character stepped foot on campus and the girls screeched for like five minutes when they saw him, because girls in a city of 10M people have never seen a half-attractive guy before, I guess, and I couldn't hit my space bar fast enough.

Is this a good story, or is it an endless collection of tiresome tropes? I'm seriously asking so I know whether or not to invest the time in it.

And again, the actual gay guy is effeminate and predatory, although at least he's nice and doesn't screech like a banshee whenever a boy comes within eyesight.

And now we're having flashbacks to a scene that just happened - like the previous scene. Does this rise above this terrible writing? The acting is OK and I like the grittiness, but it's really a chore to get through ep 1. Is the rest of it better, or more of the same?

This looks like yet another story about straight guys. Scenes from next week show surprise kiss with lips just touching and eyes wide open, Official Trope #45.

Was it? I might have misunderstood or not been paying attention - I could swear Tae said he had to get up early the next morning.

Almost all the authors of the novels Thai BLs are based on are women, whose experience in life obviously isn't going to include a lot of being a gay male. That's not to say women can't write fantastic stories with gay characters - it's just that these particular ones are a bit on the mediocre side, largely imitations of earlier more original works. If you watch SOTUS today, it will seem a lot like all other BLs, but that's because all other BLs imitate it.

Filipino BLs generally have better LGBTQ+ involvement and better representation, although that's very uneven, but suffer from much lower budgets and production values, although they've had great successes like Gaya Sa Pelikula, Hello Stranger, and Gameboys. Lately the Philippines has been in a bit of a rut.

The seme/uke dynamic is a relic of Japanese yaoi manga of the 1980s, and has been more or less retired in Japanese BL, and I'm not sure why it's such a fixture of Thai BL - but I would think the appeal of having two men is that you can get away from traditional male/female roles - in fact, a lot of Thai drama with heterosexual couples has moved much further from traditional roles than BL. I think in a lot of Asian countries some people have trouble getting their heads around the idea of a masculine guy getting butt-f@#$ed, as if there's something wrong with that. But that attitude -worldwide, not just in Asia - has thousands of years of force behind it and will take some sustained effort to change.