#I was shooketh

[absolutebl]

10 BLs That Shook Me

@trribledelight asked for "BLs that made you think or learn smthg or shook you culturally? Eg the political considerations in Not Me..."

Let's get the rough ones out of the way first, shall we?

1 2gether

Green. One of the most egregious reps for punching down humor against femmes in BL (and there sure are a lot out there). Seriously GMMTV? Must you?

At the time we all watched this because there wasn't anything else to watch, and it's been a long time since I bothered with a rewatch, but Green is one of the reasons I just can't with this series.

I'm not knocking the actor, but the character and how the other characters behave around him, and the director with regard to this aspect of the plot and portrayal was rough going.

What shook me was how casually homophobic 2g was. It was just so odd to watch a gay romance gloss over and degrade queerness. I was like, wait, aren't they supposed to me on our side?

(Ah, the before times.)

2 Fish Upon the Sky

Shall we address the head wrap in the room? This BL has some of the most shockingly racist content I've seen in a long time. Also punching down humor. I fast forwarded through it and I still don't want to think about it. GMMTV should be throughly ashamed of themselves... Again. I was shook, but in a bad way.

Okay, now for the ones that shook me in a good way.

3 Until We Meet Again

I watched this early in my Thai BL journey (while it was airing) and I had no idea what to expect. Frankly, you could watch it now and still not know. It's just very unusual for a Thai BL.

The plot twist about how they each ended up reborn. Just so brilliant. I still can't get over it. So simple. SO CLEVER. So punishing for the families.

Fantastic!

4 Secret Crush On You

This one kinda shook me all along but that Daisy & Touch scene. It lives on in my head rent free forever. Just because it was so beautifully sweet and genuine and kindly towards a femme character.

I still don't like this BL.

But I love that scene in it.

5 My Beautiful Man

I went on a JOURNEY with this show. Mostly because I didn't think Japan had it in them to land something this complex. But they managed it beautifully by not shying away from the delicious messy ugliness of it all.

Possibly the greatest final episode in all BL.

And from Japan. Usually so bad at endings.

I remain gobsmacked.

6 Unknown

I shouldn't have been shooketh by this one but I really was.

The style of it while staying so down home and gritty.

How old school Chinese BL it felt yet it still managed to be very modern BL about it.

The execution and quality of the acting.

How it was aired (available in YouTube?! we NEVER get that from Taiwan!)

Also the pair branding. We haven't gotten this level of pair brand from the leads in a Taiwanese BL since SamYu.

I'm was absolutely riveted by everything about this show and its production.

I loved seeing it. I hope we get more BLs like this from Taiwan as a result.

But I ALSO hope they realize that a big factor in the popularity and the success of this show was in distribution.

It's what's for dinner.

Along with the stepbrother trope.

KOREA'S SUPRISES

I watch a lot of Kdramas as well as BL, and have done for a really long time. I'm riveted by Hallyu, from an entertainment industry perspective (what I wouldn't do to get my hands on some of their proprietary data). I also listen to a ton of Kpop.

Therefore, Korea dominates the P'ABL gets shooketh list because I had (and have) more expectations firmly in place around Korea's media product sfyle than anyone elses. Even before they started to make a big play into the BL scene.

My favorite BLs from Korea, like Semantic Error and Light on Me are EXACTLY what I expect from them, manufactured perfection. But I was also shook more times by Korea than other BL nations because I had such rigid expectations.

7 Color Rush

Yeah yeah. But it starred an idol. It started out pretty and stiff and everything I was expecting and then the concept hit me up side the head and I never recovered from the CLEVER of this show. I'm not used to my Kdramas or my BL being this high concept and SMART about their sanitized perfection.

8 Blueming

What with the 8th Sense and others since, Blueming seems to have been somewhat forgotten about. But at the time, I was shook by the down home grit of this show. By the actual pain from the characters. By the higher heat concept. By Korea actually going THERE.

And then these babies came along...

9 The 8th Sense

I just didn't think Korea had it in them. Yes, I realize now that it was a bit navel gazey, and we were weighted heavily towards the seme and his pain. I would have liked a better balance between the leads, but that's in retrospect.

At the time I couldn't believe it. A KBL dealing with mental health?

And can we talk about those sex scenes? How insanely comfortable the actors were with each other? How easy in each other's personal space? I've not seen anything else quite like that from Korea. It's super rare. I had assumed they, culturally, just didn't do casual intimacy, or if they did, it wasn't allowed on screen.

Of course now I know the CAN do it, I want more.

10 Love for Love's Sake

Okay, lots to unpack with this one. A genuine isakai BL, in the original sense of the term. The death twist didn't shake me up, but the execution, acting, open gayness, and a couple other things did. Enough to make me still think on this show with fond surprise and affection, despite its undercurrent of darkness.

I like to be shooketh.

(source)

[flyboytracy]

[purplepixel]

This episode man

[mumble-muse]

Saving for posterity that one time they played the BBC Merlin theme song on UK national radio in 2024

[makorragal-312]

I just played back my reaction to the final scene with Buck and Tommy and my god, the way I leaned back into the couch and my breathing picked up the closer Buck and Tommy got to each other.

Now I'm lowkey terrified of the heart attack I'm gonna have when it's Eddie.

[astraskylark]

WOAH THIS SHOW JUST TURNED YURI???

[fandomonium-crack]

Ooooho 🫨 what I would give to watch My Stand-In episode 4 for the first time over and over again. I need it to be next Friday immediately

[wellthebardsdead]

Me watching the Tears of the Kingdom trailer and hearing Mathew Freaking Mercers Voice for ganondorf: Oh fuck oh shit oh no sir please not like this oh god of fuck sir please daddy sorry dadd-

[thisisourlovestory]

Right so we did shirt signing at school today and one of the boys who’s always said stuff to me like you’re so beautiful and I love you which yknow very random, he wrote ‘You’ve been the one since day one love L’ (obviously L isn’t his actual name but yeah) and it kinda fits since I only moved to this school two years ago

And I’m very confused by this I don’t know what to think. Does anyone have any ideas?

[toastbuster-nk]

Was just casually watching bridgerton when I noticed...

...these motherfuckers are the same guy.

[wanderingxrivers]

So i was out with my spouse at a birthday dinner for a friend of his and one of the guests starting talking about "alphas and omegas" and like an long-term denizen of the internet, My head whipped up because I was not expecting *that* phrase in meatspace and I immediately asked for clarification.

Because I thought "omegaverse" as the natural association with that particular turn of phrase. However, I was in fact wrong. He was talking about Star Wars trading cards. My spouse has no idea how close he was to learning about my specific ship hyperfixation and how I view their designations as either alpha or omega dep on the fic.

[dreaming-in-daylight]

LETA

why’s your name leta? who named you that

so queenie and tina had fandom during covid, and i wanted to join but, if you havent seen fantastic beasts, tina and queenie goldstein are sisters and they didnt have a third one so they gave me another character, leta lestrange and ive stuck with it since :)

i dont mind one bit

whats funny is that i didnt watch the movies till like last year sooo

[theheightofdishonor]

i don't know whether i was more shocked about sam shoving a guy or dani getting up in someone's face

[transingthoseformers]

[bleetusmcyeetus]

I SAW SOMETHING SAY THAT IF YOU GOOGLE BARBIE EVERYTHING TURNS PINK AND I THOUGHT THEY WERE JOKING BUT–

IT??? DOES??? TURN EVERYTHING PINK???

[makorragal-312]

BRO

EDRED CALLED EMMA BY HER NAME.

NOT MELINDA.

HOLY SHIT