jpny01

YYY had a lot of deeper messages about a lot of things - that's a big difference between something like that and this. Also, YYY was completely over-the-top in a delightful way while this is shallow and half-assed about being a cartoon. Also, YYY was a BL, whereas this was 45 minutes of a man pursuing a woman with only a creepy stalker providing actual BL content.

And I'm not even upset about the stalker - the only thing that bothered me about that was how is it possible for someone not to wake up two minutes after falling asleep with someone molesting you, breathing onto your face and speaking in a conversational voice two inches from your head?

I hated this, and I was prepared to love it as much as I have most of the previous History series.

It's the opposite of that. I was excited about this based on all the past History series and really, really wanted to like it, but it felt like torture to sit through it. I don't care about the stalker trope, although it was poorly executed here.

I'm fine with a sitcom style, but it still has to have characters that aren't lame attempts to take stock manga archetypes and throw them onto a screen without translating them into realized human live-action characters, it has to be sharply written (or alternatively totally over-the-top like YYY, which incidentally, does have deeper underlying meaning). It also has to be funny. The only thing I found funny was when Mu Ren was trying to kick Li Chen off the balcony, which actually was a good translation of a manga moment into live action .

Also, I don't want to spend 45 minutes in a "BL" watching a man pursue a woman.

I think maybe you might consider that people just have different opinions and tastes than you do and that it's possible to dislike something - intensely - based on its own merits and not some strange bias. I'm not even clear what bias anyone would have coming into this.

And I'm pretty sure 99% of the people here are more than happy, even desperate, for something other than engineering students and pink shirts - it's not that they're trying something new, it's that it's awful.

Trapped was something new, and I'll bet almost every single person on here loved that - so it seems to me that you're the one coming in with preconceived biases about the rest of us.

i didn't see MODC, but Trapped is one of my favorite BLs, and almost all the others have been really good. But I loathed this and can't make myself sit through another episode of it. It has nothing going for it except two of the three mains are cute.

The first 60 seconds had me wanting to give up. Did History get a whole new production company? Who wrote this? These can't be the people that gave us Trapped and Crossing the Line, can they?

Teng Mu Ren and Xiao Li Chen are just a bad manga characters who they didn't bother to make human - when will BL makers realize that live-action is not manga or novels? It doesn't work to literally translate from one to the other.

The whole first episode of a "BL" was a man pursuing a woman, and they've explicitly told us these are guys in their late 20s, so is it credible for them to be that clueless about their own sexuality?

This is hard pass for me - it felt like torture watching it - I only slogged through it to give it a fair chance. I'm so disappointed - even History series that I didn't like very much were high-quality and generally well-written and acted - this didn't have anything going for it - even the costume design was poor. They managed to make two beautiful men and whatever that stick creature is supposed to be look frumpy. Ugh.

I don't get all the comments. I watched this whole thing in one sitting - I really liked it. I don't get all the Soda hate. This is a man who's been traumatized by his parents terrible marriage which he was made to think was his fault for being gay, and he had pre-wedding jitters which he overcame in a big way. I thought he was a well-realized and well-acted character. If we're going to condemn him, it should be for every single pair of trousers he wore. Just awful.

TBH, I thought Sung Yi Fan was the weakest link - I just didn't feel it from him. Cheng Chang Fan played a guy being crushed by peoples expectations really well - it was moving. He was not so good at being cocky, but he only had to do that for the first ep.

Anyway, this was very pleasant to watch.

I have no idea what you're talking about - sugarcoat what? Sugarcoating is my issue - non-consent is portrayed as OK instead of something wrong. This happens constantly in BL, where relationships are started by someone being forced and there being no opprobrium attached to it. I don't think you understood what I wrote, or I wasn't clear.

He's treacherous and awful, and the malice he radiates is palpable - he's really talented.

Well, points for trying something new. I think the biggest issue right now is editing - the transitions need to be tighter, as right now there's too long a gap between people who are speaking - it drains a lot of energy. Other technical issues will get better with experience.

The acting was pretty good - and I enjoyed watching ep 2.

I'm OK with consent issues only if there's a warning at the beginning of the episode and it isn't portrayed as romantic or perfectly acceptable, i.e. there should be consequences. My biggest concern is people that may be triggered as you mentioned, but equally important, children may be watching this.

On a pure writing issue, there is no way Gao Shi De would do that - it's a total departure from his character. And being drunk doesn't matter - it's not an excuse.

People are comparing this to manga & the like - which is essentially comics & cartoons, which is not the same thing as live action in its impact. You can watch a cartoon character hit somoene on the head with an hammer and find it funny. It wouldn't be so funny in live action. I think that's something BLs often forget - this isn't a novel or manga - it's live action and it's not the same medium at all.

No, jon1120873 is a know-it-all who thinks rape is fine. But I appreciate your ability to see the best in things (that is not sarcasm, I mean it).

It doesn't matter what the roots of BL are. Manga is something you buy if you want to read it, and even if you find it online, animated is not the same thing as live-action. BL is frelly available and can be accessed by children. Portraying rape as romantic is morally wrong.

That was a very toxic thing to say, so I suppose you're right. But I admire your forthrightness - not everyone is willing to publicly defend rape and label objections to one of the worst crimes you can commit "toxic". Also, I would recommend you look up the definitions of "self-righteous" and "irony".

And hopefully they can do it without Tian fainting. Again. As good as Earth is at bedside worrying, we've seen it now. Several times.

Well, Dark Blue Kiss and Still 2gether were pretty bad, but they were very well directed - DBK is one of the best when it comes to how it was directed and shot. And he did write the screenplay of Dear Loser, and you may remember how satisfying the BL storyline was (like not at all). On the other hand, Our Skyy and He's Coming to Me were some of the better BL that's come out - but He's Coming to Me didn't have a great ending. So I'm cautiously optimistic, but it's not a slam dunk for me.

I think I didn't phrase it right. What I mean is that I would rather see development through interaction, including conflict, of the characters, and not throiugh external factors. Sweetness counts as interaction. It would be less satisfying if there was nothing but sweetness, but there's nothing wrong with it.

It doesn't have to be actual conflict, and it certainly doesn't have to be substantial conflict - I don't want Tian and Pha to get into a fist fight (which wouldn't last long, lol - I think if Pha threw a cup of water over Tian he'd probably get a fever and die). I mean on the level we've had between Tian and Pha so far - I want more of that and less gangsters. Tian's struggle with the secrets he's kept is good, gangsters bad.

Things like the crime boss & associates chews up too much time that I'd rather see devoted to the characters and their issues. Or to put it another way, Tian's own problems & their implications were more than enough of a problem to overcome, and the crime thing is totally unnecessary and time-wasting. Hopefully that makes more sense.

Quality audiences for quality shows.

That doesn't mean I'm right - your interpretation makes just as much sense.

Ah, I see what your asking, sorry. I think he definitely is. It makes the most sense, and it's probably too late to introduce a new love interest anyway. Thanks - I'd kind of forgotten the frog prince.

I can't motivate myself to watch - I just don't care what happens. There are too many BLs on now and I'm actually starting to run out of time for them all. I didn't really like S1, and this is much less likeable IMO - and the best thing about it has been Ben has not really been in it, so if he's back, there's not much left for me, especially since Olan isn't gay anymore, so my main draw is gone.

I really don't like this. It's well-acted, the costume & set design is spectacular, the production quality great, but if they wanted to do a totally different story, they should have used different characters, because this has absolutely nothing to do with the previous series, and I just don't buy any of it. It makes no sense, and the failure of communication is so implausible that I just find the whole plot aritificial and unappealing.

Plus, it's not going anywhere, at least insofar as it's driven by the central characters. Next ep we'll probably get some answers, but it's entirely driven by an outside character. This is a recurring problem in BL - there are no character arcs, and relationships are never allowed to develop on their own - they're always driven by external circumstances, which is hollow. That's why shows like ITSAY and Gaya Sa Pelikula are so compelling - they are entirely character-drivien.

And if you're marketing to young audiences, I don't think it's acceptable to normalize non-consent. In this ep one character physically overpowered and forced another. And while it was definitely hot, there should be consequences. There is zero chance that anyone will forget having sex just because they were drunk. It's a weak and stupid plot device to try to pardon a character for committing a violent act. They probably didn't have sex because this is a BL, so Gao Shi De almost certainly passed out before anything happened, but the fact remains that he abused his superior strength to force someone that he professes to love. That is not what love is.

For me, Addicted was fine - I mean, the title is Addicted Heroin, so if you didn't know you were getting something that woudn't be fairy tale, that's on you. But in general, I agree - BLs are marketed to young people and it's irresponsible to normlize non-consensual sex, especially like here where Gao Shi De physically overpowered Shu Yi and forced him. 50 Shades of Grey is not the same thing because that was a fully consensual relationship and there is absolutely nothing wrong or toxic about BDSM. It was terrible writing, but that's a different issue.

As for why people like it, an imbalance of power is hot. As much as I disapproved of the scene in this ep, that was so hot I thought I would burst into flame.