#คพคพ

[lurkingteapot]

I recently realised that I live-blogged a lot of the episodes to myself back in the day, so I figured it'd be fun to have them up on tumblr now, like I added them as I first watched, for posterity. I don't have any from ep 1, mainly because I was NOT expecting to end up invested, but I do have this:

Ep 2 is a proper live blog, and I'll make sure I'll have it cleaned up and ready to post for next week.

I miss this show so much. It's right there, I can rewatch any time, but fuck I wish I could re-experience watching it for the first time.

[lurkingteapot]

Throwback Tuesday: Bad Buddy Live Blog

I recently realised that I live-blogged a lot of the episodes to myself back in the day, so I figured it'd be fun to have them up on tumblr now, like I added them the day they aired, for posterity.

Bad Buddy ep 2, Watched: 2021-11-05

Man I love that they add subs from the get-go

The rise-and-shine montage

Man I wish my dorm back when had looked like this

I'm afraid in this I'm the engineer

not a morning person at all

thank you, Chang

adfasfadsf wow you're whipped

adfasfasf

grosssssss

oh god, these children

adfasdfadsf Paa best girl

YAY FOR NON-HOMOPHOBIC FRIENDS

architecture studends >>>>> engineering students

Chang can stay though

ok I take it back, leave poor Wai alone gdi

yiiiikes Pat's dad …

oh no, they're hitting my EXACT otp buttons

they were ~friends

and now!!!

aaah

what is this Romeo and Juliet shit

oh kids

AFASDFADSFAS

Pran

I thought you were the mature one

the FUCK

ahahahahahahahaha

oh NO

adsfadsfadsfas poor kid

but hey these two

yes

this will work

[lurkingteapot]

… if I had a penny for every time a P'Aof show had one of the boys pounding away at something with a mortar and pestle in the same episode as we get to see something about that boy and his boyf sharing a first sexual experience together, I'd have two pennies. but it's still strange that it happened twice.

[lurkingteapot]

Throwback: Bad Buddy Live Blog 2021, Ep 3

Same drill as last week; have my commentary from 2021-11-12.

OH MY GOD

HE MADE HIM A PICK WITH HIS FACE ON IT

this is so good.

GOD, Wai is pretty

he is SO pretty.

oh, that food looks good

Pran: actually obsessive compulsive or just affected?

Pat: ACTUALLY GROSS

wtf

boys

are they actually having a discussion about what I think they're discussing or is this husband/wife thing something else

these two

god

omg his sajiao

I love it

ahahaha Pat

ahahahahaah

I love himmmmm

ahahaha this is so cute

oh god someone's definitely gonna see them

and draw the wrong/right conclusions

ahahaha this is cute

oh nooo

are you gonna ask your dads for help

why does he have Pran's guitar?

man this show is good

omfg what are THEY doing here

Pat has the making of an excellent politician

he's so good at talking out of his ass, omfg

adfadsfadsf AWKWARD TURTLES

these boys

I wonder what brand that guitar was/is, the logo is on Pran's bag, as well

PAT

fuck I hated you so much at first but I'm starting to really like you.

he's so good at sajiao

Pat looks SO IN LOVE

awwwwwww

omg

you HAD TO RUIN IT

what's this flirting

Pat is SO flirting

he might not be flirting well

but he's totally flirting

aaaaaaah???

sleepover next ep?

aaaaah

Looking back at this now, it's kind of funny how cdrama-brained I still was at the time (though actually, what is the Thai equivalent of 撒娇?). My live react also doesn't reflect just how much the bus stop scene shook me; that was the moment I decided I'd clear my schedule on Fridays to be able to watch each episode live as it aired. It didn't end up always working out, but I tried! and dang, dang, that scene.

[lurkingteapot]

adding to this chain of praise -- if you're going to watch one reactor or reactor team, watch Soonvijarn. If you never watch reactions, watch these. Or at least watch the recap. I promise they're worth it. Here, I'll even drop the vid links so you don't have to go search them out yourselves:

Bad Buddy Ep 1 Reaction:

Bad Buddy Ep 1 Recap:

They're fantastic and well worth your time.

just watched the soonvijarn reaction video of bad buddy episode 4 for the first time and my words...... i was NOT expecting p'aof to start fricking tearing up because of that insanely great scene at the end (nanon you absolute absolute legend i don't think i could ever get over his performance here).

i mean of course i and you and everybody teared up when we watched it but i just did NOT expect the frigging director who had shot the scene (and who had probably seen the edits and the cuts multiple times) to do that.

throughout that part i wasn't looking at anybody else on that screen not even patpran cos here was the guy who brought them together on the screen who was behind the scenes who made this all possible viewing his show from the point of view of a passive audience member and feeling moved for his own characters and perhaps seeing his own queer self there too (idk if he has spoken about why he teared up or we know more about this from somewhere else) but with no other context this legit made me (as a queer person who writes queer stories) tear up and i had to pause and take a second to appreciate just how much this show is doing for queer people even outside the show.

it's all just a lot for my tiny fragile heart. i love bad buddy so much yall its made such a special place in my mind i could cry.

ahhh look at his eyes all welling up with tears arghhh I CANNOT

in hindsight though it was funny cos here i was tearing up over p'aof tearing up over pran tearing up over pat. it was inception but with tears, it was a tearception. alright thats it goodbye i will see myself out.

[lurkingteapot]

I rewatched the bus stop scene for Reasons™️ and I'm deep in my Pat feels.

The exchange is subbed in English as "say we're friends" - "no." - "lovers, then" but from what I can tell, in Thai, it's really closer to

Pat: "imagine that you and I are friends--" Pran: "Impossible." Pat: "Okay, that you're my lover(*) then." Pran: "Huh?!"

(* the word he uses is แฟน /fɛːn/, which I'm guessing everyone on BBS twitter recognises by now. Basically boyfriend/girlfriend, but gender neutral? ish)

And that makes that just sliiiightly too long break before Pat is like "it's just so we get a different perspective!!" EVEN WORSE, at least to me. The way Pran looks at Pat, and looks away, and blinks -- he wants that "darling" Pat throws his way to be real so bad.

And then!!

And then, when Pran refuses to be the hottest architecture girl of his year and Pat, without missing a beat, is like "okay, so we're both the respective hottest guys of our faculties, and we're boyfriends", and Pran is still not biting? Pat then the immediate follows that up with "you're the husband, I'm the wife".

I used to see those as separate statements – as Pat immediately falling back on the idea that okay, if boyfriends is out, he'll be a girl for the purpose of this weirdly specific hypothetical scenario he's trying to build. But the more often I watch it, the more I can only read that as "look, just play along, I'm not trying to dig at your masculinity or whatever, I'll be the more feminine partner" (**), because a) this is the exact husband-wife-terminology Pran asks/tells Pat to stop using in ep 9, and b) when Pran scoffs "you're a damn masculine wife," Pat pivots again and starts roleplaying high femme.

And something about how he's so willing, as early as this, to go along with whatever he needs to in order for Pran to be comfortable, to open up, just tugs at my heartstrings. Even now, several full rewatches later.

(**) yes, I know, tons to unpack. not for this post tho.

[lurkingteapot]

God. I'm still thinking …

The way PatPran's parents deal is a lot like the way some homophobic parents deal with the fact that their child is queer.

See, but pretend they don't. Try to ignore it because at some level, they've accepted it won't go away. They could openly accept it, but that would mean admitting they're wrong. Addressing it without acceptance will mean potentially causing irreparable damage to the parent-child relationship -- the child is willing to pretend for the parents in order to be with the other person; if faced with a choice, the child will probably choose their partner.

So everyone is just pretending, because that's what keeps the parent-child relationship alive. Not whole, not as healthy or trusting as it could be, but civil.

P'Aof creating a world largely without homophobia and then doing this at the end … It's painful but also a fucking genius move. Other people will probably have smarter thoughts on this than I do, I'm just floored and up in my feelings, but man. MAN.