jpny01

I have no plans to read the book and I don't care what's in it because the series is different and needs to stand on it's own. I assume it and all other books BLs are based on are badly written. Why does everyone keep bringing up the books? It just doesn't matter - these are not the books. If you'd only read The Godfather, you wouldn't watch the movie because the book is bad and the film is one of the best of all time.

Also, I'm not watching the continuation. I tried two eps and it was so boring and lifeless that I couldn't keep awake.

Plus, the squeaky-clean perfect BL characters are uninteresting. People are flawed and make mistakes and misbehave - even the best people. That isn't toxic, it's human. People so overuse the word toxic in these forums that it's lost all meaning. The evil gf is toxic, both in terms of her behavior and the fact that such a misogynist trope is in the story at all. A character that gets jealous and is mean to his partner over it is not toxic, he's jealous and feeling insecure. If you can get through 7 years of relationship without having a fight, it's because you're an android and it's not in your programming. Or you don't really love them, because people you love can get to you in ways other people can't.

And why can't there be toxic supporting characters? Too many gets exhausting, but it's hard to sustain a long series without an antagonist (especially with the low quality of acting & writing in most BLs), and antagonists are toxic almost by definition. Also, toxicity can be played for humor. 2gether's Green in real life would probably qualify, but they managed to pull it off in the series - fortunately he was mostly in the first half where the writing was still good and he was played by the best actor in the show.

A kiss is fine. It needs to imply more though, or the ending won't make sense.

OK, there is one thing that's bothering me. They've pretty much dropped Adachi's powers - he didn't even hear any thoughts during a long period of contact. If you're going to have a central plot device like that, you can't just turn if on and off.

Also, I realize they can't get too graphic, but the total lack of a physical element to Kurasawa's attraction to Adachi takes me out of the story a bit sometimes. They could still have addressed it in a way appropriate to general audiences.

Being a gentleman and respecting someone's boundaries is in your actions, not your thoughts. When you're attracted to someone, you have thoughts you can't control (or have to struggle to control), and that's the point of of Adachi being able to read minds.

You mean it hasn't collapsed like 2gether, right? I was afraid for a moment you were saying it wasn't as good.

Unfortunately there can't really be a sequel, because if it ends well, Adachi will lose his powers. And it better be onscreen.

Episode 7 was starting to feel like the conclusion, so right in the middle of it I rushed here to check and I actually started crying when I saw there are 5 more episodes.

I thought you were out of your mind for liking this, but after the bonkers second episode, I'm onboard. You just can't say no to that much sweaty muscular shirtlessness.

Ep 2 really dove off the deep end - and I liked it. It's so bonkers that I can't help but watch, and the boys are so hot and so shirtless all the time that it makes up for a lot of the shortcomings. The choral ending was nuts. But it made me smile, so it did it's job.

If you want something that's an antidote to formulaic BL, this is for you. If you liked the original YYY, you will probably enjoy this. If you're looking for another Gaya Sa Pelikula or I Told Sunset About You, this is not it.

I'm talking seriously hot and seriously shirtless. I'm still not quite sure if this is BL or soft-core porn, but either way I'm fine with it.

I actually prefer the Why Love Why trainwreck. It's awful, but hot shirtless guys, so I'm there. This one is too heavy-handed for me epecially after the high art we've already seen from Philippine BLs.

Pinoy BL is doing just fine with several of the best BLs ever made out already this year. I don't really feel like I have a responsibility to support all of it - and this one is pretty mediocre. I don't want the industry to end up pushing out bad series after bad - I'd rather see fewer of the high(est!) quality shows that we knew the Philippines can produce.

I thought it was boring and heavy-handed, with not so great sound design and mediocre acting.

I'm going to try this one more time. My point is this:

If a story contains an evil ex, the evil ex is invariably a girl.

Yes, there are one or two exceptions, but this is out of hundreds of BLs, and one of them, in Gameboys, was a deliberate attempt to overthrow the trope, and in any case was humanized and not treated like a 2D plot device.

I am not saying "If there is a villain, it is invariably a girl". I have never said that, and I've repeatedly emphasized that I am not saying that, but you keep returning to it. The exes in TharnType were not villains, they were friends, and one was instrumental in foiling the villain, who was not an ex. Also, wanting to get back together is not evil of villainous. It only is if you deliberately sabotage the relationship, like the evil ex-GFs do, which is integral to the trope.

What is the contradiction? I think we're having a language issue here - TTTS didn't have an ex as a villain, it had a best friend as a villain.

The point is that the cartoonishly villainous ex-GF is a misogynist trope - I'm not sure what that has to do with non-villain ex-BFs - in fact it reinforces my point.

I understand that you're not trying to jutify it. And I agree that BL has way too often normalized sexual coersion in disturbing ways - but I think a lot of progress has been made lately, and so this show bothers me more than past examples, because it's a step backward. I think it's important to call out these types of things or they don't stop.

The same point could have been made if Ton set up Chon on a date with a girl, or maybe even several dates - that would have been easier to play for light-hearted humor and not been misogynist, plus Ton's masculinity would be clueless and moronic rather than toxic.

I forgot about Park - I thought you were referring to Forth.

I said "villainous exes" not "villains". I'm not talking about villains in general - of course some villains are going to be men, and some are going to be women. Parents not accepting their child's sexuality is a real social problem that LGBTQ+ people have to face in every culture, and it's perfectly legitimate to depict that. The root of that attitude can be malignant homophobia, but more often it's misguided and misinformed love for their children, and usually resolves in an affirming way.

The trope of the malevolent ex-GF is a different phenomenon. She just wants the boy for herself, and if she can't have him, she'll try to sabotage and destroy him. It's inherently misogynist. That's what I'm talking about, not the presence of villains.

I skipped discussing DBK because Non did NOT know Kao & Pete were together for almost the entire series which was the central conflict of the story, nor was he an ex. And he wasn't just a cartoon villain, he was a fully-fleshed-out character, and didn't behave out of 2D malice. That's what made DBK a step above most BLs - it wasn't loaded with formulaic tropes, and it didn't attempt to exploit negative stereotypes for humor. Non had an important role in the series and his story had an important moral lesson - whereas the evil ex-gf trope is just that, a trope based on a negative stereotype.

Sexual coersion is not morally acceptable in Asian cultures, and the fact that a lot of western comedies are trash does is not a justification. Hitler was worse than Mussolini, so Mussolini is OK?

Also, Western comedies are often stupid and trashy, but they don't normalize sexual assault, and if they do, they get protested, not defended.

I agree with that, but not understanding the habits of foreigners is different than not accepting LGBTQ+ sexuality and identity. One is impossible to understand until you are able to learn about it - the ther is rejecting someone for being who they are. But even putting all that aside, Ton has taken Chon to a brothel and had him dragged of against his clearly stated protests to be deflowered by a prostitute. That isn't buffoonery, it's subjecting someone to sexual coersion - effectively paying people to rape Chon. I just don't think that's funny, and the fact that people do find it funny demonstrates how harmful this is.

Not to mention that Chon was physically forcibly dragged off to have sex with the prostitute, which is a fairly serious criminal act, not to mention unforgivable from a moral standpoint. I can forgive a repressed person mistreating someone else because internalized homophobia is based in fear that is not your fault, but this is not mistreatment - it's inflicting serious trauma on someone.

Imagine if a gay man trying to convert a straight one took him to a gay brothel and forced him to have sex with a man - would that be funny? So why is this?

Actually, paying people to rape someone like Ton just did is worse than cheating on someone, but I'm not sure what you're referring to - did Ton say the ex cheated on him?

The problem is that if people support it, they will continue to make it. More people are watching this than are watching ITSAY, and I'm sure ITSAY was considerably more expensive to make. So a producer is far more motivated to produce shows like this and not shows like ITSAY. Imagine if your favorite actors were in something of ITSAY quality instead of this.

Again, you're pointing out exactly what the issue is - why base a series on a bad novel when you can write a screenplay meant for a visual medium?