#BL trope du jour 2022

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BL trope du jour 2022

Feeding The Boy 

Pictured above: My Only 12%, Love in the Air (x2), Big Dragon, Check Out, The Eclipse, Love Mechanics, Enchante. 

Funny 2gether call back from SIMM? 

Star in My Mind (the lap feed is their thing) 

You’re My Sky (SanAei my babies) 

Cupid’s Last Wish 

Meow Ears Up 

Possibly one of Thailand’s favorite tropes but it shows up in lost of other BL too. 

OUTSIDE THAILAND 

I told you My Esport Genius Brother was a lot gayer than we had a right to expect from China (this is from 2021) 

Poor Shin (Minato’s Laundromat) 

Plus & Minus

DNA Says Love You (x2) 

Blue of Winter

Kpop’s OnlyOneOf doing their thing. 

Kings of the Trope 2022? Vice Versa 

New variation “the share my spigot”. Sounds dirty. 

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Trope du jour 2022 

the head pat 

Pictured above: Blueming, Roommates of Poongduck 304, Cherry Blossoms After Winter, Choco Milk Shake (x2), Ocean Likes Me, Takara & Amagi. 

Moar! 

About Youth

Minato’s Laundromat 

Kimi no Koto Dake Mite Itai (aborted head touch) 

Cherry Magic yaoi

From Thailand! 

Ai Long Nhai

Close Friends

Cupid’s Last Wish

Dear Doctor

The Eclipse

Ghost Host Ghost House

Love in the Air

Secret Crush On You

That’s My Candy 

Work from Heart 

The GL version (Meow Ears Up) 

Switches! 

Minato & Shin 

Enchante

Plus and Minus 

Star in My Mind

Vice Versa 

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BL trope du jour 

lying with his head in his lap 2022 

Pictured above: To My Star 2, Choco Milk Shake, Cherry Blossoms After Winter, DNA Says Love You (2x), Plus and Minus, Want to See You, The Eclipse, KinnPorsche.

This is one that is increasingly popular even outside of Thailand. The source BL for this one is Takumi-Kun, one of the first to put it on screen in a highly iconic moment of yaoi genius. 

I’m a fan it’s very sweet and domestic

Here’s more!

Cupid’s Last Wish 

La Cuisine 

Triage

Vice Versa (switches!) 

Coffee Melody 

Enchante 

Meow Ears Up

Secret Crush On You

Star in My Mind

Unforgotten Night

Work From Heart 

And the Kpop edition

OnlyOneOfCourse 

NCT Dream 

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2022 BL - The Shoulder Lean Trope

There was so much BL in 2022 that with a few popular tropes I just stopped updating the old trope posts and started to collect for a new on. The shoulder lean is probably top of that list. By far BLs most popular trope I think darn never every BL uses this one. 

My Only 12% (combined with boys contemplating water trope) 

21 Days Theory (classic car execution) 

Blueming (in a bus, old school) and

in a bed, much less old school. 

That’s My Candy 

Check Out 

Choco Milk Shake 

Dear Doctor, I’m Coming For Your Soul (god it was so lovely to see KarnNat back on my screen) 

DNA Says Love You 

The Eclipse 

KinnPorsche

Meow Ears Up 

My Secret Love 

Ocean Likes Me 

Oh My Sunshine Night 

Our Days 

Plus and Minus 

Star in my Mind 

Sky In My Heart

Vice Versa 

Want To See You 

BONUS GL 

GAP the series 

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2022 BL trope du jour 

Touch My Face Before You Kiss Me 

aka the face caress 

Pictured above: Takara & Amagi, Big Dragon, Minato’s Laundromat, DNA Says Love You, Happy Ending Romance, Mr Unlucky, Oh Boarding House, Old Fashion Cupcake, The Promise.

As you can see this is a trope that most BL’s producing countries love. 

Moar From Thailand 

Love Mechanics

KinnPorsche

Ai Long Nhai

Love in the Air

Check Out

Cupid’s Last Wish (how much did I HATE those outfits) 

Coffee Melody (my favorite version) 

La Cuisine 

Oh My Sunshine Night 

Unforgotten Night Forgotten Plumbing 

What’s Zabb Man 

Switches! 

Ghost Host, Ghost House

Kings of this trope, 2022

Vice Versa 

Your kpop moment of they went there too...

OnlyOneOf... of course, I shoudl just call them OnlyOneOfCourse where BL is concerned. Baby boys got themselves a BRAND. 

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BL Trope du Jour 2022

BOOP!

Pictured above:

Minato’s Laundromat (classic execution, very yaoi symmetrical) 

Ghost Host, Ghost House - the very rare lap sit variant 

 Love In The Air (both couples)

Cupid’s Last Wish

My Tooth Your Love

Old Fashion Cupcake 

DNA Says Love You

Vice Versa

Plus and Minus 

Moar from 2022

Ai Long Nhai

Gameboys 2 

Oh My Sunshine Night - magical pool boop! 

Star in My Mind

Something in My Room

What Zabb Man 

a wedding boop from Taiwan 

Prior boops are here. 

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This Week in BL

Sept 2022 Wk 2

Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs. Organized by which ones (in each category) I’m enjoying the most.

Ongoing Series - Thai

The Eclipse (Fri YT) Ep 5 of 15 - Ayan is such a little blackmailing shit, but I love it for him. Also, they brought class into play. Which I always enjoy for added conflict. More longing gazes. Really these two are the kings of the longing gaze. Thua repping for overachieving queers. I see you baby boi. Omg Akk please just figure it out! Honestly? I wanted the Gifted but actually gay, and I got Blacklist but actually gay. Which is kinda of the same thing. So I’m pretty flipping happy. 

My Only 12% (Fri iQIYI) Ep 5 of 15 - Oh boy. This was a rough one. (Still, sisters in BL = some of the best sisters in the world?) That scene with Eiw and his sister made me cry. When I talk about the frustration that I have with tropes like “kill the gay” or “keep them apart” and Chinese censorship, this is what I’m talking about. There have to be queer shows with happy endings because otherwise we don’t have a model for it being a possibility. Also, is this a foreshadow? Maybe. And then that scene with Cake trying to figure out what’s going on and not understanding and them just hurting each other = heartbreaking. On the flip end of my questionable taste spectrum: Peak sure knows how to play nong for a Thai take on classic noona romance and I am here for it (stalker photos tho, please don’t). For a more nuanced look at this ep read this. 

Vice Versa (Sat on YT) Ep 9 of 12 - Perth’s character was a waste of, well, everything. Tun is such a needy af bf. Jeez. Hi Mix! You’re so cute. I like that Mix is the hottie outsider character du jour these days for GMMTV. Happy to have Mix show up as needed. Nothing much happened, I guess Tun’s choices are more understandable but he’s still a liar. 

What If (Mon WeTV) on WeTV for VIP only (pay wall) Ep1-4 of 5 - from Wabi Sabi with all unknowns, starts very cute with middle school kids meeting, realizing they are neighbors and becoming besties. The hair is particularly terrible in this one. But it’s a fun dynamic with the younger one having the crush. It’s a short one (7 Project style) but the pacing is good and I’m enjoying it. Not sure if it will end well, tho. 

Coffee Melody (Mon Viki) Ep 8 of 10 - Evil ex faen fatal booted. Yi and Pleng are sweeter than Jean (or I) can take. Jean is my precious child who thinks no one will take him seriously. Nothing happened. I’m bored. 

Love in the Air (Thurs iQIYI) Ep 4 of 13 - it drove me to the dark side and and so I wrote a limerick. DUMPSTER FIRE TRASH WATCH ALONG HERE.

Unforgotten Night (Weds on GaGa) Ep 12fin - There is a moral to this “story” but I’m not sure what it is. Don’t combine your BDSM-but-not-really BL pulp with plumbing issues? In the end, this dumpster fire was extinguished by a garden hose and all we’re left with is leaky pipes and the smell of damp trash. The only kinks were in the hose. Could be worse, I suppose. Hard to imagine how, tho. (Finished  TRASH WATCH HERE)  5/10 WATCH IT IF YOU HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO DO, BUT I WARNED YOU

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Takara-kun and Amagi-kun (Japan Thurs GaGa & Viki) 4 of 8 - This is such an adorable show. I know I keep saying this. And I keep saying how incredibly good it is a portraying high school first love. But to get Takara’s perspective and flashbacks to the original foundation of his crush is just great at the halfway mark. I’m chuffed. To see Takara’s flaws and teenage awkwardness underneath the cool exterior! Nothing really happened. But I’m not expecting much to happen in this drama. It’s reminding me so much of early super soft super sweet yaoi, like Maki Kazumi’s Desire. 

About Youth (Taiwan Mon GaGa) Ep 3-4 of 10 - This show is so painfully genuine and earnest that it becomes charming, and I’m so glad I get to begin my week with it.

Minato’s Laundromat (Japan Weds GaGa) Ep 11 of 12 - this episode really messed with my my head and may hear and days later I am still processing, you can read me trying to figure out why I feel this way in the SQUEE WATCH ALONG NOTE: Yes I think the pink haired guy who takes a photo of them is from an early BL too. But MDL was no help. I wanna say it’s someone like Saito Yasuka from Ai no Kotodama, but it isn’t? Bah. 

Papa & Daddy 2 (Mon GaGa) Ep 6 of 8 - It’s fine. The parents are awful. People react badly to them being out. Tra la la. 

It’s Airing But I’m Not Watching it

Work from Heart (Thurs WeTV? YouTube?) from DV8 an office BL featuring lots of other couples. Stars Love With Benefits pairing Gameplay & Folk. It isn’t even listed on WeTV streaming in my territory, but it is airing to WeTV Thailand. No word on distribution.

Oh My Sunshine Night - I’m scared it’s gonna be sad, so I’m waiting for spies to tell me it’s safe 

180 Degree Longitude Passes Through Us - ditto to OMSN

Way of Y - too hard on my soul, will I watch it eventually? Maybe? Probably not. I think we have and ITSAY situation going on here. 

In Case You Missed It

PPKrit won this year's Seoul Drama Awards Outstanding Asian Award for his role in I Promised You The Moon. And Yusei Yagi won the SDA's Outstanding Asian Star for My Beautiful Man. 

GMMTV's Bad Buddy won the Best LGBTQ+ Programme Made In Asia in this year's Content Asia Awards. 

On Cloud Nine finished its run, I watched the final ep. it seems to have remained pulp, pretty, terrible sound, and if not sad at least ambiguous about it’s ending. So I’m keeping it as a dnf and you can watch at your own peril. 

Gossip

New high school set paranormal Thai BL announced for 2023. Normally I wouldn’t report on something Thai this far out, but it’s to star 2 of the biggest guns we got: Singto Prachaya + Fluke Natouch. It’s called Shadow and is from VIU. Full (and coherent for a change) description on MDL. 

JBL Eternal Yesterday will premiere on October 20th, taking over Takara-kun and Amagi-kun's time slot. 

Otherwise, it’s been pretty quiet round BL parts recently. 

Next Week Looks Like This:

Starting: Tomorrow 9/11 Fahlanruk (Thai) GaGa Sundays, 12 eps, 45 min ea. 9/14 Once Again (Korea) Viki Thursdays GaGa Fridays, 8 eps, 25 min ea, 9/16 More Than Words (Japan) Amazon Prime Video JP (only?) no word on international. 

Ending: Minato’s Laundromat and What If. 

I posted a full September lineup here!

This week’s best moments?

This bit in My Only 12% was striking enough to get it’s own post. Yes, I was snarky about it. 

Another bout of 2nd lead syndrome for me. It’s a chronic illness at this point. 

I love him unreasonably. (The Eclipse) 

And him too. 

Takara’s response to the fix for overcrowded trains = boys sitting in each other’s laps. I laughed so hard. (How much do I want Amagi to just casually sit on his lap on their date next week? SO MUCH. Takara might faint.) 

Takara thinks about having sex with Amagi, falls into a wall. Been there, dude. 

Also trying to be the best boyfriend in the world (but also cool). Look at Amagi’s little face!!! 

(last week)

Current earworm? The Song from BTOB 

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I absolutely adore the head pats in Semantic Error.

Have you done a trope de jour for head pats. I looked the the blog but maybe it was too far back

Yes indeedy, also I have a 2022 version getting ready for the end of the year.

Hair Touch #1

BL Trope Du Jour - Hair Touch #2 

These have both been made obsolete by Tumblr (can’t be edited anymore) so they’re pretty old and not up to date at all. It’s a v common trope. 

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BL Trope: Under My Umbrella

2Moons (the original)

2 Moons 3 

SOTUS

TharnType

Until We Meet Again

My Engineer 

SOTUS S 

Together With Me 

My Tee 

Why R U? 

Fish Upon The Sky 

My School President 

Bed Friend 

Sky in Your Heart 

In calling out a bunch of tropes in Until We Meet Again 

Game Boys

HIStory 3: Trapped

We Best Love

My Love Mix-Up 

Blueming 

Note that the umbrella is almost always clear? 

Or at least plain. 

BL trope du jour! 

Under the Clear Umbrella

Most BL readers blame 2 MOONS for this trope. 

Do you have an umbrella?

No but I have a boyfriend, and that’s kind of the same thing.

The BL equivalent of pockets for het couples.  

Here’s Gen Y ruthlessly undermining it using friendship to cast the umbrella aside... 

This is amusing because many of the actors in Gen Y were also in 2 Moons, (and Gen Y consciously pokes fun at the source names, it’s kinda like 2 Moons fanfic) and 2 Moons the y-novel is often blamed for starting this trope in Thai BL, and in Gen Y they intentionally undermine that source material. 

And here’s 2 Moons 3 doing a 2022 counter attack with a new couple that, apparently, doesn’t need your stinking umbrella. 

Cheaters use a dark umbrella (Love Mechanics):

Taiwan bing us a seme confrontation version:

Meanwhile Fighter & Tutor are like:

SCREW YOUR STINKING UMBRELLA! 

Paint With Love uses a bucket. 

My School President offers up a dorky wingman with an imaginary umbrella trope to the boy with no game. 

Bonus k-pop group GOT7 (Jinyoung & Jackson) giving us shade for this trope: 

(source)