jpny01

Maybe they were daughters or girlfriends of the producers or something. At least if they were funny or advanced the plot I could have dealt - but it neither was the case.

We'll just have to wait and see. All you've discussed above I can live with and dismiss as a young person with a major crush - you can be overeager at that age. But what I can't get around is how he called someone to bribe the drama teacher, and the guy he called looked upset - there's something really non-kosher going on there. Maybe he's just a rich kid, and what he did isn't as disturbing by Philippine standards, but it looks very sinister to an American.

There is a superficial aspect to attraction - it's inevitable and hard-coded in our genes. Being attracted to superficial characteristics doesn't make someone superficial, which is a pretty judgy thing to say. It's only superficial if you care about nothing else. I don't think Marky is sexy as f#$% because of his looks, although that's part of it - objectively he's short and not classically attractive, wears braces, etc, and I might not give him a second glance purely on looks - it's also his personality and attitude.

If there is fluidity, then any label, even if there are more of them, can still make people feel apart, perhaps even more so, as before "q" covered everything not in the "main" catagories, and now you can fail to fit into 50 gender identities. There's a point where you're deliberately setting yourself apart by atomizing gender identity to this point, and in any case the very definitions depend on heteronormative social constructs to make any sense. For example, what is a demiboy? Who decides what it means to be partially a boy and/or partially masculine? The idea of masculinity is a heteronormative social contruct, so the very term demiboy seems to me to be self-defeating. Figuring out who you are doesn't depend on minute variations of gender labels, and in fact I think it can make self-discovery more confusing and self-limiting.

Likewise, finding a group based on a label is judgmental in itself, and divides and excludes rather than bringing people together. I've gotten eye-rolls from non-heterosexuals because I identify as 100% gay male, as if that means I just don't understand gender identity.

I still think it's a phase - but I didn't mean to imply it's negative or "he's in a phase where he won't eat vegetables" if that's what it sounded like - anything that tears down heterosexism is a positive. Maybe I should have said "transition" as I think all these distinctions will become pointless and unecessary in the future - I didn't mean that everything will go back to how it was. We'll probably also view meat-eating in 50 years like we view slavery now, thinking it unbelievable that we could have been so degenerate as to eat other living, feeling creatures.

Bls are predictable in general, aren't they? The only one that has surprised me, ever, is the Shipper, and I'm not even sure that was really a BL. Well, I guess YYY surprised me a few times.

Regarding Jimmy, they did have him come on too strong as a bully and now it's hard to accept him. At least he's not transphobic or homophobic. And I may be a little biased because he's played by an openly gay actor, which is needed in Asia. I don't think he's being manipulative - he didn't need to clean the room spotless and give Joey the whole closet and organize it. He realizes he was an asshole and is making amends.

I think people are passing over some very troubling behavior from Wil. Grabbing someone's hand and publicly announcing you're his bf is totally unacceptable and is sexual harassment, at least by US standards (not as bad as tearing books, which should get the death penalty, as far as I'm concerned). Also, far from being straightforward, he's inserted himself into Joey's life without being asked, and there have been a lot of suspicious coincidences about him just happening to be around at all the right times. And re-watch the scene where he orders someone, who is visibly disturbed, to bribe the drama teacher, which is in itself morally unacceptable, let alone coercing someone else to do it.

Also, a love ballad after knowing someone for a couple of days is way, way too aggressive and creepy, not to mention asking Joey to move in with him. A normal invitation would be "You can stay at my place until you sort out new housing". I think Wil is the villain of the story, and it seems clear to me, but I'm apparently the only person in the world who thinks this, so maybe I'm off.

I agree, people's appearance should be the only reason for me to watch a BL series. Also, I wasn't serious - but let's not pretend what someone looks like isn't important to how people perceive them.

But you don't know anything about him yet, and we've had clues that there are some very troubling things he's dealing with. No excuse to take it out on Joey, but there are still 28 episodes for him to redeem himself. I don't get why everyone loves Wil, who is a creepy stalker - did nobody see how upset and scared the guy he had bribe the drama teacher was? He is not a good guy.

I think I might be the only other Nuan fan. But I'm shallow and easy and he has a slammin' body. The characters are 2-D as you pointed out, but at least the Q characters aren't pathetic and used for slapstick comic relief - I can barely sit through My Day for that reason.

Well, the parts are 30 minutes each, which is fairly substantial. 90 minutes would be a bit much. I'm not loving it so far, but at least it's not homophobic, transphobic, and misogynist like most BLs. EDIT: Never mind, I was wrong. Wrote this before getting through todays ep. Yuck.

If you're going to accuse someone of being a copycat, at least check the dates. Gameboys aired 2 weeks before this did, so there's no way it was a copy, and in any case there is almost no resemblance between the two shows. The format of Gameboys and all the other BLs coming out these days is obvious, and dictated by COVID - what else are people going to do? Social media is a thing, you know - it's not like Gameboys was making some giant creative leap.

The idea that there are 50 gender identities is a fad and will seem funny 10 years from now. There are certainly more than 2, so maybe this phase is an important corrective, but these days everyone wants to have their own special identity. At work in the USA you have to fill in your pronoun preferences in the company directory - the first time I had to do that I was really confused. And frankly, gay and straight are the most common, and for a lot of people, bi and other identies really are just a phase on the way to gay - but obviously not for all people. As a best friend, Des is in a better position than you or I to asses Mark, and although she pushed too hard, she meant well. And in any case, the whole point of that scene was to point out that her black & white thinking was wrong, so I don't understand why 90% of the comments about this completely fail to acknowledge this and act like the mere mention of a stereotype, even when it's explicitly rejected, will somehow set back the entire LGBTQ world's progress. Do you think a lot of homophobic idiots are watching this show and are going to nod knowingly?

I don't see why these shows have a responsibility to be Public Service Announcements. The existence of stereotypes is a huge aspect of coming to terms with your sexuality, and realizing they are largely false is part of the journey. When I was a teen, I was unable to conceive of myself as gay because I didn't wear drag and sachay down the street uttering arch quips. And yes, there are other gender identites, but gay and straight are the most common and it isn't Des' fault she's unaware of the spectrum. The important thing is she is well-meaning and cares for Mark and realized she was wrong and apologized. I'm kind of tired of purity tests and intolerance for people who make well-meaning mistakes. If every character starts a story as a perfect person, what's the point of the story?

Because he's sexy as f@$# and I could watch him in 100 series?

Pick-up apps usually confine conversation to asking for additional dick pics and coordinating purely transactional sex. While you can potentially get a relationship out of it, I don't see it happening before the sex part.

I get where you're coming from, and that was my initial reaction too. If you give it a shot, episode 4 is really rewarding. Some of the overused music is in the public domain and so it doesn't cost anything - that can make a huge difference to a very low-budget production. Unless you have someone on your team that can compose music, you can blow all of your budget and just a couple of tracks.

Hmm - I'm not sure I agree with you. Helping a friend come to terms with their indentity is not inherently wrong or bad. Forcing someone publicly is incontroveribly wrong, but what Des did was only misguided in intensity. I had a friend like her when I was that age and it saved me a couple of years of self-discovery.

Cute and sexy as f#$%.

100% agree. That was the hottest scene I've ever seen in a BL - to me it's proof that you can have physical love and still be PG. I hope Thailand is watching. I wish they would up the prodution values a bit, though - the artistry is good in the cinematography, but the execution is not. You either have or don't have the former, and the latter can be improved, so I'm hopeful.

I want to see him in a full-length birthday suit. Sorry, that was crass, but I'm so in love.

My first reaction was to get angry that you are calling something rape that is not rape. Rape is a serious violent crime. But then I realized that you may have misunderstood what you were watching. James fantasized about kissing Sky and unbuttoning his shirt, but he didn't do it. Then Sky grabbed him and the scene cut. Nobody raped anybody. If James had done what he fantasized about it still wouldn't be rape, but that would have been seriously morally unacceptable molestation. James at the end is clearly teasing Sky - he asked sky if anything hurt, and Sky said no. If you're a guy who's been raped, something will hurt.