#Nottpun

[iml00]

[namtanlovesfilm]

axelle…for the picking a ship/show thing you just posted. ramking from my engineer or nottpun from yyy 🫣

OOOH, what a blast from the past :'))) I used to love both ships so much omg, but to be completely honest I haven't thought about them in a long time haha. I think back in the day I might have chosen nottpun bc overall I do prefer the yoonlay pairing to perthlay, whoops! but as actual ships I'd deffo choose ramking though bc they were more layered imo & kinda were healing and growing together in ways nottpun weren't since yyy was a comedy. and if we know anything from seanwhite being my favorite ship, is that bitches who cry together have my whole goddamn heart :')

xxx

[thefreeblog]

War of Y - Finale

Finally caught up on it. I was expecting this kind of ending tbh. And I absolutely loved that Achi suffered for choices he made.

I am all for making mistakes but purposely hurting others and not owning to it when you realise you fucked up is a big no no.

I also liked the underlying message behind this series.

Basically every industry or establishment comes with it flaws and they are there because of its people and not the industry itself.

People choices as their own even if it's under pressure or otherwise. You need to own up to that and make sure you do the right thing for you in all that mess.

It's only human to err, but what makes you even more human is to learn from it.

I loved all the 4 stories and their messages.

[little-one-eyed-monsters]

I don't think anyone has noticed yet, but Mangkorn's house is the same house they used for P'Koon (the toxic manager) in War of Y: New Ship (BillySeng's storyline).

Both shows also had me crying buckets so, that checks out at least.

[poetry-protest-pornography]

I'm finally getting a chance to go watch Gap, and I love Mon a billion, but I am absolutely losing my mind at Billy and Seng just... being Billy and Seng in universe, promoting SCOY, while the rest of the cast of SCOY is playing a different character 😂 This and the War of Y NottPun were Nuea and Toh thing is killing me. It's drama-ception.

[gunsatthaphan]

#interesting workshop.

[25shadesoffebruary]

[alwayspining]

Watch until the end, trust me, but only if you’re using headphones!

War of Y (2022) l ep 3 l dir. Cheewin Thanamin Wongskulphat

[knowingypodcast]

The Making of Pan

One of the most fascinating arcs the show War of Y explores is the character, Pan. His cold, 2-faced demeanor got people frustrated, angry, and conflicted about whether he was meant to be viewed as a victim or just a whiny self-obsessed character. This episode continues to explore that. 

From the relationships with Nott, his manager/second ‘mother’ Koon, and his peers. Pan has always seemed above others like he was only there for himself. We find out that it’s because he has massive trust issues, heavy walls up, and he has not let anyone in, not even Nott who he has been in a situationship for 3 years.  Everyone seems used or manipulated by him, yet episode 4 reveals it’s not like that. 

Keeping up Appearances

From episode 1, Pan has always been shown to have his own surface appearances,  as he smiles at his fans, seeks their validation, and acts docile and meek for everyone he wants to gain something from. He was seen as cunning, conniving, and manipulative. He knew how to get what he wanted. But this episode reveals that the cute mask was also his entrapment. Pan lashed out so many times trying to escape it, trying to let himself be free, but he was always advised that being him wouldn’t be enough. As he said, in this industry, he had to be seen above others, it was the only way to be taken seriously. Nott had it all; the looks, the charisma, the energy. Pan was the opposite well in his head he’s always been, insecure that one day people would desert him because he wasn’t adorable enough, cute enough, or precious enough. 

Reasons,  Pan had to stay in his mask

His fans were known as mothers, they saw him as childlike and innocent, Koon forced him to keep up with that role despite his want to break out

The directors and producers wanted him naive, docile, and innocent, also a cute manner, Koon forced him to stay in that pure role, and left him as a sheep to be devoured by the wolves. This formed a complex in him (along with his past traumas) of hating people’s touch and feeling dirtied by the people who exploited him

His ship with Nott was meant to be innocent, once he showed a true part of himself not willing to allow Nott’s advances in episode 2, his fans turned on him wanting him to stay cute and romantic in his mask as Nott acts as the passionate partner, or judged him and Nott for being in their mask and being fake and using BL as a stepping stone

We watch the reasons pile up as we see Pan lose control more and more and then watch as he spirals until episode 4 where it’s revealed in his head it was always never an option to show who he was. As the flashbacks consume him in the car as he suffocates himself in monoxide, we the audience realize that this is true, every time he showed his real self he was punished for it. From fainting in NC scenes because he’s overworked and uncomfortable (causing him to lose his place in the director’s eyes), to being hated for not wanting fanservice, to being viewed as shallow and fake as he tried to gain the director’s favor, to then being rejected just for being himself and not his skills. Pan never had a chance to just be himself and feel allowed to profit from that.

Egoistic or Protective? 

Pan comes off as egoistic, always thinking the world will be better because of him. Some have mentioned traits of narcissism but as we continue to reveal, we pull back the covers and realize it’s due to perfectionism and a desperate need to be worthy to others birthed from his background. Pan has been forced to be protective of himself, his identity, his skin/body, and his dreams,  his position. 

His family neglect him and let him fall through in the homophobic environment he was raised in. They were ashamed of his acting choice and continued to use that against him, his mum although she cares,  continued to let him stay with Koon because of the choice he had made. He was always fighting for their love, to be seen as worthy, needed, and precious for who he really was, a queer dreamer who just wanted to make them happy. But he was shunned. This becomes his massive goal, the reason he holds onto his necklace each time he’s in a space of hurt and fear, and the reason he got up the next day after crying to try and regain his position in Mafia baby. 

His industry makes him replaceable. The old vs new generation isn’t easy, and with this industry, you can’t look weak, as Pan says he had to seem above others, he had to make them feel frightened of him, he had to distance himself from them to be taken seriously and not used. He was insecure about his place (one because he already knew that his dislike of NC was a disadvantage, his queer identity was also another reason he wouldn’t be taken as seriously, his fear of being touched and others). He was a great actor but that wasn’t enough, everyone wanted to use him, exploit his talent, body, and even heart to be there, he didn’t want that to happen and that was a fear for him. 

His peers were competitive, fake, and waiting for his downfall. Yes BewGus may be nice and real but they were his competition, he knew what happened to the ones who were replaced, he was afraid of that, he knew Pharaoh was out for his place so he always demeaned him to keep him in check, he knew the makeup artists, people who worked with him and cared for him didn’t care for him, so he never tried to let them in either. He shut off everyone even Nott because of that fear of being replaced and hurt or stabbed in the back. 

He used Nott as a boat to get ahead, he was already insecure about being put as Nott’s partner as he admits in this episode, so instead of just dwelling on that, he used it, he used the passionate relationship to become a better method actor, refused to let Nott close to him in any authentic way, and kept reminding himself of him as a threat, he used Nott as a Boat, as he wanted to use the BL popularity to get into network television and be taken seriously as an actor, so he kept reminding Nott he didn’t want to be a shipped pairing. He did all of this and tried so hard to put space and Nott let him. The truth is Pan was just as scared of being abandoned and left (because again being himself wasn’t seen as worthy) and so he pushed back and tried to be in control. In the end, he hurt Nott, but by the end feels like he was right to have left him all along 

The Boat vs The infinite ship

Nott and Pan have always had this fascinating devastating thing about their romance. For both of them, the fear of being used/taken advantage of vs the real love they feel for each other has always been their arcs for both growth and regression. Nott feared Pan was using and taking advantage of him and when Pan lashes out and calls him a boat he breaks, it was true then, he was just a toy to Pan, it was never real.

For Nott, he’s been able to control everything in his life, everything else was easier for him, his looks got him to sleep with whoever he wanted, his acting career and others, and it was easier for him to achieve the goals he wanted, unlike Pan who had to sell so many parts of himself and identity to get there. Nott sees things as going with the flow apart from Pan, Pan is who he loves, and he is willing to be used by him. However, it gets to him and hurts him each time Pan’s defenses attack him, Pan’s cold, distanced, and manipulative mask pains him and so, he doesn’t see Pan breaking more than he is and is trying so hard to keep control. Pan on the other hand is different, he’s afraid Nott sees him as an infinite ship; a prison he doesn’t want to enter, he wants to be taken seriously for his acting, to prove everyone wrong who doubted he could do it, to prove himself that he’s worthy and precious of love for his identity. 

However, Nott’s dreams of them being together forever a shipped couple entraps that, so he lets him know it’s impossible. This is not his goal, his goal has always been to be taken seriously and not just as a shipped pairing, but it hurts Nott who feels used, and it fills him with insecurities about why Nott wants him. He tells himself lies. He believes them, Nott uses their shipping pictures, fanservice, and pairing as a way to advance himself this is why when he’s later feeling abandoned by Nott (with TTTV) he shuts down and erupts his walls back up, and lashes out at him. But as much as it’s true he did use him, he did hurt him, he did take advantage, he also loved Nott, he just was afraid, and this is proof he was right to be. In the end, the two love each other, and find solace in each other but are left with scars of what the other one does to them. 

Nott is punished even more because he sleeps with Pharaoh, a trigger for Pan, his enemy seeking his downfall, his replacement, he did that for a bit with no meaning to it, because Nott doesn’t take anything seriously apart from Pan and he is punished for that naivety and ignorance. In the end, Pan is hurt and sent to regression, and Nott is left behind by the one person he believes frees and sees him. 

Pan’s mothers (Nature vs Nurture)

Mother is an important theme for Pan because he seeks maternal care, warmth, nurture, and love. There are three mothers surrounding his life, each he gives a part of himself to and each destroys him in a way internally. Each he makes a mask to survive. 

There’s his real mum who he loves and wants validation from, who he wants to be proud of him, and who he wants to make happy. He wears a mask of egoism, and confidence that he will be fine, he becomes a perfectionist with goals and plans to prove everyone wrong and show her he can survive and make it as himself. But as he goes to eliminate himself in this episode, the truth is harsh and suffocates him, he worked hard and sacrificed so much of himself to get to her and in the end, he couldn’t. He was abandoned and left alone only to return if he could be of worth and importance. He clings to her necklace as a sign of comfort, but it chokes him instead, pulling him further and further into this desperate need for validation and love. 

 His Fans

 You have his fans, their fandom name; his ‘mums’, they want to coddle and give him love. In order to do so, he must appear happy, cute, and innocent. And so he tries to do so, despite his hatred of losing control (from his traumas), and his hate of being touched, he tries to keep up the appearances, to please them with Nott, to be docile and effective.

However, if he steps out of line like in episode 2, they either leave him or blame him for his frigidness, look of discomfort, and inability to smile and seem happy with what they want. His fans are his refuge but they also push him deeper into a web of fear that being himself is not enough. His need for their validation and comments almost drives him crazy, he works nonstop even in moments when he can’t, to please and get their love because it makes him less insecure, they’re the proof that he’s loved, wanted and precious, they tell him that and he wants that, but it keeps him in the trap, suffocating until he can’t take it anymore.

This isn’t just his fan's fault, they may be fickle but they are loyal to him as well, but their mothering pushes Pan into a different state for them, he wants to gain their love and affection by sacrificing his authenticity, by making sure who they see is what they want but it’s killing him inside. When he snaps, they see it and start to desert him. It’s painful. 

Koon is the most painful, been by his side for 5 years, she has exploited and used his body to gain ahead. Although she cared for him and tried to reduce his discomfort (due to her guilt of what she was making him into) she’s the biggest mother figure Pan has lost himself for. Not only has she taken advantage of him with false pretenses of his body, mind, and insecurities, but she’s also worked him hard with no rest, she acts like a nurturing mother, meek and submissive but behind closed doors she’s fickle, always looking for something new to gain ahead.

Pan is an object for her gain, and she reveled in that, she used him to prove a point to Bew’s manager who poached Bew away from her that she was right and more powerful, she used him to get her other clients ahead, she used him to get her name ahead. She pushed him tirelessly, forced him to stay in a mask that was suffocating him, and let him lash out at her because of it, she knows how he feels about being controlled but deliberately leaves him with his traumas every time she wants something, and she doesn’t try to protect or even stand up for him. In a flash, she moves on with Pharoah, forms a plan and uses him, and then abandons Pan once more. The truth in episode 4 is revealed, she barricaded and fed Pan with information making him feel he needed to hide who he was, so he could be favored.

For 5 years she did this, and we see the results in episode 1, Pan lashes out and tries to regain the power taken from him all those years and so what we know of him is a shell, someone filled with pain, trauma, and scars, continuously stabbed at and slowly unraveling. Koon was the most dangerous form of a mother to him, he sought her protection and guidance and let himself be an object for her, and she used and tossed him away in the mess and chaos she caused. It’s heartbreaking. 

War of Y explores many themes, but the making of Pan, his character, his masks, his negatives, and his positives slowly get unveiled and we learn about why he turned into the way he was. Made from the cracks of neglection, abandonment, exploitation, assault, and objectification, Pan has just been trying to make it to his goals, to be taken seriously, to be wanted, to be loved authentically, but also to use his identity and get his dreams to come to fruition, to prove to everyone that he could do it, and yet, in the end, his biggest fear swallows him whole, he was always alone, from the start, it was all futile. But Nott becomes an interesting person, he is the one who loves Pan masks and no masks, he is the one who seeks Pan’s validation and love, he is the one who listens and cares for Pan, and he’s the one who would sacrifice it all to make sure Pan knows that. Pan is not alone, he was made to always feel scared of letting people in, but in the end, room 701 was always a real place of care, nurture, and love he seeks. Now we hope he can return back to there.

[heretherebedork]

Fanservice vs Reality

[placetneplacet]

Going to wax more poetic on Nott and his “this is what I am take me or leave me” thing and how terribly it mixes with Pan’s “like me like me I can be anything you want” thing.

Explosive and devastating for both of them. I’m sure before we reach the end that they will cut each other to pieces on those knife edge differences.

The differences shiny and alluring and poisonous to the touch. But by the end someone will risk the poison.

Someone will drive those knife edges straight through themselves in order to keep the both of them together, deadly and lovely…never to be separated.

[thatgirl4815]

Someone please answer me this: is it Pan or Pun? Because I’ve seen it both ways.

[thefreeblog]

Whatever it is, War of Y kisses are all so damn good. Even the actors who are supposedly playing inexperienced or bad actors have A+ kissing game. 😂😂

Kudos to the workshops I guess.

[essentiallykpopandbl]

I can't stop thinking about Pun from War of Y. He is such an interesting character because he both loves and hates the world he is in. He is so uncomfortable with his body and others touching him. But when he is with Nott, we see him turn into a different person. He is confident and comfortable and so in love. And it breaks my heart even more when we see him trying to wash the touch of everyone else off his body.

[moonchildridden]

NottPun, that couple (who’re not exactly a couple) that showed a lot of nuances in less than an hour: cute and lovable toxicity, hard work and workshop in secret rooms just to save up time (Episode 1)

You know the shit is good when it makes the dead rise.

  War Of Y. A good sister series to Y Destiny, where we have 4 couples, each one with a story that seeks to show and expose the inside juice of the acting industry, especially in the Y-area. The couples, as it follows, are NottPun (with the story “New Ship”), GusBew (with the story “War of Managers). KlaPeek (with the story “Y-IDOL) and MostAchi (with the story “Wife”). And just like Y Destiny, as soon as you see the trailers for the stories, is not difficult to see that things are prone to get dark and dirty very fast and all you can do is put your seat belt on and pray it keeps you in place the entire journey.

To be honest, I wasn’t planning to make any analysis/rant/theory posts about this series, because I’m lazy and also have a post about LeoFiat in the drafts since last year, that I seriously need to finish before their new series airs but after I watched the first episode and identified the themes presented in them, my brain just got into that overdrive mode that keeps nagging me until I actually sat down and started writing. And, oh boy, I can’t wait to show you guys what my brain cooked.

Before we get this little baby on the road, the usual disclaimers: everything that you guys will be reading in this post is the result of my observations into very specific parts of the episode, frame by frame repetitive viewing and me getting to the most plausible conclusion after taking all in, meaning that most of the things will be on the speculative territory, others in (maybe) theory territory and some can (or so I think) be proven by in-dialogues and scenes arrangements, so take things with a grain of salt, ok?

I will divide this in segments to make it easy for you guys to follow my thought process and also will follow the order of events presented in the episode, with things in bold being mostly dialogues and things in italic being me emphasizing or exaggerating my thoughts. So, consider me an impostor today because I will vent a lot in here.

Oh, and also, for those who do not know me and landed here by accident, I’m moonchild, your resident theorist and analyst, back to business because my brain hates me. Nice to meet you, and let’s get into it.

Characters profiles

The thing that I hate the most is when I need to establish myself a character sheet myself, because it can be wildly inaccurate and make my understanding of certain actions wrong just because I based my ideas of a character in a biased viewing. However, when we only have one episode and not a lot to work on, in terms of ground to analyze, the only thing I can do is extrapolate a bit and hope I get something right. This was exactly what I did here.

Starting with Nott. Nott seems to be a very easy going and approachable person, smiling more and being friendlier even when the people around him simply do not give room for that to happen. This easy going way of being extends to how he views certain aspects of his job as an actor, such as love scenes, and also his personal live, with him being a bit of a flirt when he’s with Pun. He also seems intense sometimes and rather competitive, which gives him an image of someone who you should never fuck with, unless you want problems.

Oh, and he smokes. I just needed to point that out.

Moving on to Pun, this guy seems to be on the verge of getting annoyed by everyone and everything and it only needs one person to fuck up really good for him to explode and wish that the world would burn and not spare anyone (me, for real). He also seems a bit arrogant, a jerk at best and a borderline toxic at worst, getting a high in humiliating people he deems below him (Pharaoh and GusBew) and in being adored. He’s more competitive that Nott and seems to be that type of person willing to do almost everything to get where he wants, including tearing down people he sees as his competition.

  (As a side note, Pun is so fucking pretty with this hair that I would kill for him. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk)

Overall, they are a good match. Nott keeps Pun in check a little bit, as Pun could be classified as a bit of a brat, and Pun brings out a more risky side of Nott. A real match made in heaven.

Now, contrary to what I did in my PuthKaeng analysis, jumping straight to my vision of their relationship, the tone and ambience of the episode was not exactly focused on the relationship between Nott and Pun but how the environment of their job and their personalities converge and what type of reactions that convergence causes. Because of that, this post (and possibly the ones after this) will focus more on the themes that the episodes are trying to convey, after all that’s the main premise of the series: expose of the industry; and also, there is not much of their relationship shown here to warrant a whole single post about it, except a few things that I noticed and rented a fucking triplex in my head since morning, and I will be talking about that in the end of the post.

So…to the themes that I managed to identify on the episode, we have mainly four:

1. Apparent lack of space/dispute between BL actors;

2. NC scenes and their placement in series (existence, intensity, etc);

3. Unequal treatment between actors;

4. Sexual harassment from important figures within the industry/society in general.

1.       Apparent lack of space/dispute between BL actors

The episode starts with an award ceremony show being transmitted live and the biggest prize of the night, The Greatest Y, being announced and right of the bat is possible to notice some “tension” between Pun specifically and the other actor that was nominated for the same award, Atichon, if the looks he keeps throwing in Atichon’s direction are any indicative of that. Because they are in a public setting, there is a certain professionalism in front of the attendees and the cameras, just for the sake of not creating problems for any of them.

Atichon won the award and, until there and the speech he have, things seem pretty “normal”, until we move to the next scene, which is those mini fan meetings that actors usually do after events like these and here it is almost possible to identify a sub-theme: the allusion of the fragility of the actor’s fame in the industry and how the fans seem to move too fast from couple to couple, cheering for what’s in the spotlight at that moment: first they cheer for GusBew (the new actors in the block, per se) and take their photos, then they cheer for NottPun (the seniors of GusBew) and take their photos and then they cheer for AtichonDew (the seniors of NottPun) and take their photos.

While this may seem normal for some people, the point here is how the crowd “loses” interest of a couple as soon as a new one is put in front of them, and the amount of “influence” these same actors have in the industry. The fans here are being treated as migratory birds, and the fact that the show is using the biggest driving force of any celebrity, their followers, to such how unstable this type of environment can be and how the idea that there is not enough space to everyone in the industry, that someone always have to lose so that other one can shine is being ingrained in the minds of the actors.

The industry is basically saying that they have a room with a limited space, and they are too saturated to accommodate everyone, so a few people will need to give up their seats to make things more comfortable. Consequently, causing clashing between the actors and rising the competitive spirit (mind you that I’m not saying that being competitive is bad, but that the type of competitive behavior that the industry is promoting here is the real problem).

  2.       NC scenes and their placement in series (existence, intensity, etc)

This one is a bit tricky, because it may be just me reading into this too much but sometimes that’s the only way of actually understanding things, being the only part of the themes that I’m not really sure if it is intentional or not. Regardless, it took me to a tangent out of this world and I feel like I need to put this here.

Anyway, during the script reading meeting, Pun’s manager asked to the screenwriter is the amount of NC scenes wasn’t a bit too much and the screenwriter answered with a “I think it is normal when the characters grow up, the story gets more intense”, “the customers want them” and “who wants to make a season 2 lighter than the last?”. That answer took me to three points:

1 – The idea that to show maturity/character growth inside the story, it is explicitly necessary to show their intimacy, or the characters are not “mature” enough, kind of equating sex with maturity

Putting aside the discussion about how affection between queer couples is shown almost hesitantly in series, even those where being queer is their “selling point”, and how when is actually shown is almost always in a extreme way and can be considering a way of pandering to the fujoshis or not, the way the screenwriter explained the amount of the NC in the story made it seem like more than half of the story will have NC scenes because without that, even with the couple being mature, the couple would not be considered mature, which is kind of…weird, to say the least. And don’t get me started in how that way of thinking can be harmful to ace people.

2 – The absurd demand for NC scenes, instead of actual plot

We all have in mind that one series that we think that have too many NC scenes, just to hide the fact that there is no actual plot and how NC scenes are marketed and sold, more than the story itself, almost like they are separate entities. As the public that consumes BL (I’m generalizing here for the sake of convenience, I know not every person that watches BL is like that), we tend to focus more on series with a strong sexual content, even when that is not the focal point of the series (for example, Pornographer was a story with a strong sexual content whose plot revolved around that). The “costumers” the screenwriter was referring in their answer is us, the public that will watch the series, and we are mainly responsible for the adding, sometimes unnecessary, of NC scenes, just because they know it something that sells and can guarantee the series a sure thing light level of success.

[I’m not saying that NC scenes are unnecessary per se of that there is a X amount of acceptable NC scenes before the series can be considered soft porn, but that the high demand of more “mature stories” (mature here being actual sex scenes and not stories with mature characters) is making good quality of plots a difficult thing to archive.]

3 – The fact that a good chunk of screenwriters CAN’T make a good second season

Together With Me: The Next Chapter and I Promised You The Moon. Two of the most awaited seasons of their respective years, with high expectations being put in how good they would be. Two seasons that ended up giving us a big unnecessary headache.

Second seasons, after the couple is already together, should be usually made to show that same couple in a domestic setting, their adaptation to a new environment, how they resolve their problems, how they face the difficulties life throw at them, stuff like that. It may happen that a drama or two appear along the way, but nothing that takes 90% of the plot or be that heavy to the point of destroying the couple’s constructed relationship. Many people would literally PAY (no joke!) just to see their favorite couple just being cute and lovey dovey with each other, having their day by day normally, so the idea that a second season need to be more intense than the first is not as linear as the screenwriter is trying to make seem. You need to give valid reasons for the intensity, like unresolved issues left hanging in season one, a coherent added problem, and not just make an intense second season for the sake of making an intense second season.

That type of behavior gives the impression that the screenwriters have ZERO idea of how to write a happy couple and that if they don’t create problems out of thin air, may end up dying. AKA, lazy writing in my opinion.

3.       Unequal treatment between actors;

This may sound a bit random but anyone who has been following KinnPorsche's cast for a while will surely remember that Apo said in an interview that one of the reasons that made him leave the industry was that there was no equal treatment between the actors in a series' cast and the crew in general.

Being more specific, he talked about how the protagonists were treated as if they were basically royalty on the set, being able to have everything they wanted, when they wanted, and those who were not "important" in the story (secondaries and extras) were treated as if they were expendable. Nothing shows and explains this better than the scene in which GusBew and their managers are practically in the middle of the hallway, while Bew was getting his makeup done, and NottPun had a climate-controlled room with mineral water and ice cubes specifically prepared and waiting for them. Or the scene where Gus was going to prepare something to drink and one of the staff directs him to another corner because the corner he was in belonged to the protagonists, with a plaque literally written “For Pun Only”. Or even the fact that Pan's manager made the staff skip the queue shooting and put NottPun’s scenes before the ones GusBew were shooting  just because she (or Pan probably) wanted to come home early.

Let me repeat: Pan's manager went over the shooting schedule and MANAGED to delay the scene of other actors just because her actor is the protagonist in the series and left the other actors whose schedule had to be adapted because of that to deal with the consequences. It was basically a “if you’re not the protagonist, just resume yourself to your insignificance and be quiet, because you're not the boss here”.

Other thing that kind of gives the sense of this inequality is how, going back to the beginning of the episode, in the after event ceremony, every time one of the actors is introduced, we get to see their IG profile and the amount of followers they have. GusBew, probably because they are new in the industry, are the ones with the lowest numbers (with 3.2k and 2.8k respectively), followed by NottPun with 850k and 731k respectively and AtichonDew with 1.34M and 1.7M respectively. This is their way of saying that the way they will be treated will follow the “influence” they have in the industry and the most fame you have, the better you will be treated and the better opportunities you will have; I bet that if Atichon made the same demands NottPun, or their managers, do, NottPun would be left to wait while Atichon’s demands were attended.

Because, even if Pun hate to admit, he knows that Atichon is more respected and well treated than him.

4.       Sexual harassment from important figures within the industry/society in general.

Well��when I said things could get dark in a heartbeat in this series, I was not lying. The things I was talking about were already pretty serious but now we are going to tackle something even more serious: the lack of bodily autonomy that the actors have within the industry and how big figures use the power they have to get sexual favors from them. Because of that, this part comes with a trigger warning of sexual assault and sexual harassment and if you don’t feel comfortable with this kind of content, maybe is better to avoid this section entirely.

Anyway. We've all heard rumors (and we're even sure that many things like this really happened) that a lot of actors in the industry have been harassed by screenwriters, novel authors, directors, broadcasters, anyone with enough power to leverage or screw up the lives of actors who you can imagine (a good example, the most recent actually, is the harassment Mile suffered from one of the KinnPorsche’s novel authors). Most of the time this happens without the actors' managers knowing but, in some cases, actors are convinced by the managers to do certain "pleasures" for certain people in exchange for opportunities in the company they are in or in the industry in general, and these treats they are almost always of a sexual nature, which makes an already complicated situation of social and economic inequality much worse than it could be.

Leaving aside Pan's somewhat "toxic" personality and how obnoxious he can be, the way he almost screamed with his eyes for his manager not to leave him alone with the man there, how he angrily rubbed himself in the bath after the meeting, crying while remembering being touched against his will, shows that even those most "willing" to sell a little more than acting, feel pressured to do so because they feel they NEED to do that so they can stay in the industry and not be left behind. And here we're talking about someone who probably already had an idea of ​​what could happen during that meeting, can you imagine someone new to the industry, having their first role, dreaming of gaining fans and solidifying themselves in the market? Anyone underage, like Barcode for example, who had the authors using him to get massages in exchange of help with the script? Someone with no one else to advise them at these times? How many Pans are there in this industry, being coerced into pleasing people with money in exchange for publicity, a role on a major network, a year-end award? It's almost scary to think about it.

Still on the subject of unwanted touches, I was scrolling on twitter and reading some tweets about the episode and I came across a tweet that caught my attention and added another thing on this post, that I really didn’t think it was something that important to mention or analyze but considering that nothing in this episode is random and serves a purpose, now I can’t stop thinking about it.

Pun, besides being a little bratty and coming across as rude sometimes, seems to hate being touched, to a degree that every time someone touches him, immediately after his manager gives him spray so he can use. It happened when he waited for Pharaoh to step aside so he could go to his room, it happened after GusBew asked to take pictures with him and it happened (albeit justifiable this time) after the meeting with the TTV sponsor. In all of those instances, he only “allowed” the touches to happen because he was being polite, not because he actually wanted which, according to the tweet I mentioned earlier, could mean two things:

1 - His apparent germophobia could be an allusion to how Pun feels about how he is in the industry, as in the fear of being sullied and ruined, losing every part of himself because of the industry so the action of cleaning himself after physical contact could be the way he found to keep him “intact”;

2 - Could be a reaction to past trauma, most possibly of sexual nature.

No matter what the reasons are for this behavior, one sure thing is that Pun hates being touched and only allows certain people that privilege. One of them is his manager and the other, surprisingly enough, is Nott; in ANY MOMENT, Pun swayed away from Nott’s touch and, if I do say so myself, seemed very comfortable having Nott by his side, something that could mean that Nott, in a weird sense, is some sort of safe place for Pun (more about this later).

  Overall, the episode tackled in a very straightforward way a few things that we always wondered if happened in the industry and didn’t shy away from making us feel uncomfortable in the right moment, while also making us think deeply about the themes portrayed in the episode and BillySeng undoubtedly killed as NottPun, making us see the emotions and pay attention to every action the characters were doing. They evolved a lot since Secret Crush On You and I can assure that NottPun were made for them.

Not gonna lie, I was a bit skeptical about the premise of the series and wondered if they would really deliver what they were promising but after watching the first episode, see how much thought was put into the script, the acting, the setting, the delivery, the soundtrack, the pacing, everything, I can only praise their work and be really excited to see what’s next in store. It’s not easy to make a god criticism of an industry you are part of but the WOY team managed to give us exactly what they said they would: the ugly and unglittered side of the acting industry, as raw as they could do, while still being artistic about it.

10/10. Definitely recommend.

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 Now that I took the main bulk of the episode out of the way, I feel like I need to talk about the thing that rented a triplex in my mind and is living in rent free since yesterday, that is the relationship between NottPun. I think is very clear that in almost 10 pages on Word, I rarely mentioned about their sexual relationship or anything adjacent, simply because the episode itself does not focus that much in that aspect, choosing to highlight the jealousy, the competition, the pressure and the harassment that exists in this industry. However, I could not, in good faith, not mention that, not when there is so much in the little details that say more that they are explicitly showing to us.

Is PuthKaeng all over again, guys, I swear to god.

Before I begin, I want to make something very clear, to make sure we are all on the same foot here: NottPun have sex on a regular basis and Nott have feeling for Pun. This is not me reading too much into things, wishful thinking or pretending to see something that’s not there, this is me stating facts and being backed up by the characters themselves and the in-dialogue.

Going into them having sex on a regular basis theory, the first confirmation to that idea is when they meet and Pun complaints to Nott that he was late, getting a “I need to relax myself, I can’t just standby for you all the time” as an answer. The way he said that made me conclude that it is normal for Pun to ask Nott for sex and that Nott usually has free time to do that but he can’t just wait for Pun to be in the mood or only be available to service Pun, he also has his own needs, at his own time, needs that need to be satisfied, just like Pun satisfies his needs with Nott.

The second confirmation to that idea is the room they use to meet up and how organized everything seemed to be. Them going to the hotel in different times but still one after another, Nott going in first to get the room key and wait for Pun, the little sign Nott used when he saw Pun (touching his hat) and the fact that Pun went straight for the room (a little side note here, because this just popped into my head and I need to share. As nothing in this episode is random, I ended up searching for the meaning of the number of the room they meet, and the result I got was that the number 701 is all about personal power, divine assistance, new beginnings, inner wisdom and spiritual awakening. The bolded words are my doing; I leave you guys to figure out how that could relate to NottPun), with an easiness can only be attributed to an action that you do with some regularity, like muscle memory.

The third confirmation is actually two-fold, and this is where things get a little interesting:

1 - Before they went to the hotel, Pun asked Nott if the fact that the new season of their series would have so many NC scenes didn’t bothered him, so Nott answered with a simple “is just sex”, making Pun say that “is not sex, is acting”, prompting a weird expression to appear on Nott’s face, as if he was not expecting that adamant answer from Pun. The fact that Pun felt the need to make that distinction could be boiled down to the fact that he didn’t want to Nott to mix up things and end up treating what they do during the shooting for the series as an extension of what they do off-cam, i.e. them making out on their free time was not the same as they “making out” during the shooting.

2 – Inside their secret room, Nott asks Pun if what they are doing or about to do is “sex or just acting”, like he was challenging Pun to say something specific. While he was asking that, he kept caressing Pun’s ear and the way he smiled and seemed pleased while doing that makes me think that he knows very well what that action does to Pun (the man really looked like he was on cloud 9 in that moment), meaning that he has done that before enough times to know the results. That action was not a spur of the moment, it was something deliberated, almost like muscle memory.

Remember this: “in ANY MOMENT, Pun swayed away from Nott’s touch and, if I do say so myself, seemed very comfortable having Nott by his side, something that could mean that Nott, in a weird sense, is some sort of safe place for Pun (more about this later)”? Now is later, so let me talk about this.

My idea of Nott being some sort of safe place for Pun can be backed up by two particular situations, and both of them were kind of intimate. The first one is after they did what they went to that room to do, while Pun is sleeping. The way he hugs Nott, the way he rubs his face on Nott’s chest, the way he leans closer to Nott while making little satisfied noises is behavior of someone who’s very comfortable enough to be vulnerable on his sleep, with another person lying down next to them. And Nott was eating that clingy Pun, hugging him back, pulling Pun closed, smiling and then recording a story to post on his private IG account.

The second one is when they are shooting one of their NC scenes (the same one Pun’s manager skipped the queue for) and Pun seems to be a bit too stiff during their kiss, something that Nott noticed right away. While I’m debating myself between whether Pun being stiff is something that the character he was playing of him himself was stiff for some reason, what I want to point out here is the fact that Nott caressed Pun’s ear and, no joke, immediately Pun just relaxed his body and became more receptive for the kiss; the fact that they played the scene where Nott did the same in the hotel room while the current action was happening during the shooting was supposed to make a connection and say something: that something being that that specific action have a deeper meaning than just be a part of foreplay, it can also be used to make Pun more relaxed and less tense in situations where he could usually feel like that, like for example being touched.

It is like Nott touching Pun’s ear was a way of him saying that he would not hurt him or do more that he was allowed to. Their secret code; and the implications of that become even deeper when you put into account that Nott have feelings for Pun, because yes, he does, and I also have proofs of this to back it up.

The first one is when Nott is recording the story and Pun tells him to delete it. Nott, as an excuse, asks “if he deletes it, what will he watch when he misses Pun?” and then proceeds to kiss Pun. I don’t know the etiquette on how to act around casual sex partners but I’m almost sure that saying that you need a video to watch when you miss that person is not exactly what we would consider normal behavior in those situations. And while one could argue that he meant that in a sexual way, I can counter-argue without issue.

The second one, still while they are in the room, happens when Pun takes the phone from Nott’s hands, scrolls through his IG stories and stop on a picture of Nott with somebody else, probably the person that “relieved” Nott’s stress before he went to meet up with Pun, and asks “is this the business you told me about?”. Nott then answer with a “it’s just temporary business, it’s not as ‘serious’ as the next story”, referring to a picture he took of him and Pun together. His choice of words were intentional, with him basically saying that, no matter who he sleeps with, Pun will always be more important.

Adding to that, something that may slip during the viewing, mostly because the messages were not translated, is the fact that Pun sent a text message asking if Nott was busy and to meet him and Nott, despite saying that he could not be on standby for Pun all the time, ditched the person that was with him and went to see Pun. I repeat, Nott, the same person who basically said that couldn’t just be on beck and call for Pun, did exactly that when Pun asked if he was free, something that he was not. Do with that information what you will.

The third and final proof is actually on the trailer for this first story and also the teaser for the next episode. In the trailer, when Pun asks Nott why “he service (makes fanservice) that hard?”, Nott says that “he cares about Pun, admire him and that everything he does, it is all him”, and in the teaser for the second episode we have a complement of that last sentence, where Nott also asks “what service is Pun talking about?”, basically saying that everything he does for Pun, sexual or not, in front of fans or not, simple or not, is because he wants to do it, not because he feels obligated to do it. Nott could’ve outright confessed his feelings for Pun, it would be the same thing.

(And don’t get me started on the crazy idea that Nott is not exactly sleeping with other people but only making it seem like just to try to make it look like he has other options and it’s not sticking only to Pun. I swear to god, I’m more smart and objective than this).

There is so much more I’m sure I missed in this episode and each time I rewatch it, I always end up discovering something new, this is how very well layered this episode is. The more you watch, the more secrets you find out, your interpretations of certain things change and your perception is expanded, and I can’t wait for next week and the episode that will talk about how we analyze the relationship between actors based on social media interactions and how the misuse of fanservice can create more troubles than it’s worth. And you guys can bet I will be here again, talking about that.

[gunsatthaphan]

👀💕