#POST: BL NEWS FORUM

[blnewsforum-by-blbambeyond]

2023 BL SERIES by The Month...

Welcome to The Upcoming BL of September.

9-2-2023 NAUGHTY BABE: THE SERIES

Thai BL Series (Saturdays)

From: Mandee

Available on: IQIYI

9-2-2023 VENUS IN THE SKY

Thai BL Series (Saturdays)

From:

Available on: IQIYI

9-3-2023 PAPA, WHAT IS LOVE? SEASON 2

Filipino BL Series (Sundays)

From:

Available on: Gagaoolala

9-9-2023 OUR STORY: THE SERIES

Filipino BL Series Sequel (Saturdays)

From: Oxin Films

Available: Oxin Films YouTube Channel

9-9-2023 THE PROMISE: HONEYMOON

Thai BL Special (1 hour)

From: Devonte 296

Available: No Information Yet but possibly DEVONTE296 YOUTUBE CHANNEL or WETV

9-15-2023 YOU ARE MINE

Taiwanese BL Series (Fridays)

Available: Gagaoolala

9-15-2023 BUMP UP BUSINESS

A South Korean BL Series (Fridays)

Available: No Information Yet

Update: This Series will reportedly release in movie version in it's home country. A release date internationally is said to be in October of this year. This BL will star several members of ONLYONEOF featuring NINE & MILL as Jihoon and Eden.

9-26-2023 I CAN'T REACH YOU

Japanese BL Series (Tuesdays)

Available:

9-27-2023 ABSOLUTE ZERO: THE SERIES

Thai BL Series (Wednesdays)

From: Studio Wabi Sabi

Available on: IQIYI

9-27-2023 BON APPETIT

Korean BL Series (Wednesdays)

From:

Available on: IQIYI

9-23-2023: MR. CINDERELLA 2

Vietnamese BL Series Sequel

From: 02 Productions

Available: 02 Productions YouTube Channel

@pose4photoml

[visualtaehyun]

Hey, I just wanna know from where did you start learning thai? Also, what advice do you give to those who wanna start learning it

Hiya anon ✨

I'm not sure how much help I can be, considering I'm not doing a course or following an app or anything people usually do for language learning 🥴 I've been learning mostly by immersion tbh - I've been almost exclusively watching Thai series for over a year now, plus interviews, variety shows, youtube content, songs, so many songs lol, tweets, etc.

My personal learning approach is pretty loose and chaotic lmao but here goes:

1) The biggest hurdle for me was the script. Apart from already having started to notice recurring words being said in the Thai BLs I was watching at the time, I also wanted to be able to read people's tweets! In the end, it was a combination of 1) an app I happened to find (Pocket Thai Master for Android, it's free on the Play store!) and 2) the Wikipedia article on the Thai script that both helped me to understand and start reading and writing. Coming from a non-tonal mother tongue, learning the script early on really helps to understand the tones in Thai so it's something I would for sure recommend!

2) I started keeping a lil vocabulary notebook (you know those two-column ones?) shortly before my Bangkok vacation earlier this year. It not only helped with new vocabulary but also kept me practicing writing! Anytime I encounter a new word, I look it up on either or all of the following online dictionaries: thai-language.com, thai2english, Longdo Dictionary (which I literally just now realized can be set to English in the upper right corner, I've just been using it in Thai ever since I found it djsjdh), Wiktionary in Thai, or if all else fails I google it and might find an old forum entry or maybe an article if it's a slang word or idiom. I recall having dinner in a Bonchon in Bangkok and brokenly asking the waitress for chopsticks so, while waiting, I looked up and took down the word's spelling and pronunciation and when she came back and saw me copying all the info into my little notebook liKE A NERD she laughed and complimented me for the effort haha

3) If I hear a Thai word I'm unfamiliar with that I can't look up because I don't know the spelling, there's a few approaches. If I have context for its meaning, for example subtitles, then I look up the translation instead and hope I find it. If I don't, then there's the option of using thai-language.com's Reverse Phonemic Transcription function (this site in general is my holy grail tbh, it's why I mostly stick to its romanization style for any of my #local woman harps on about linguistics posts). Another option is using the papago app's speech-to-text function. Yes, you read that right. A Korean translation app, that I previously used when I was learning Korean and thus still had on my phone, proved to be useful for me to make sense of the spelling or pronunciation of Thai words. At the beginning, I only used it to read me homonyms out loud so I could parse the difference in tones lol but then I realized it wasn't half bad at rendering an accurate transcription! Sometimes I use that feature to check my own pronunciation or remind myself of the spelling of a word.

4) I always like to recommend @lurkingteapot's comprehensive Thai language learning resources post (it's far more coherent than my post here lol). And shoutout to @recentadultburnout for posting about Thai language and culture as a native speaker (both on tumblr and on ao3)! 🙏

5) This might be minor or self-evident but ya know- install the Thai keyboard for your devices! You're gonna need it sooner or later anyway if you wanna actually use the language. And if you're a keycap and keyboard nerd like me and happen to fall in love with a keyboard in a Siam Discovery store ehem then I do recommend getting a Thai layout keyboard (or keyboard stickers!) because that has proven to help me a lot in terms of ease of learning on desktop and familiarizing myself with letters I don't often encounter. Throwback to that one time I was on the train, revising consonants and their tone classes, and indignantly texted a very confused yet amused family member a photo of my hand-written copy of the Thai consonant table, asking how I'm ever supposed to differentiate between ฎ and ฏ!! Even now, I have to lean in and squint like an old lady to see the difference on desktop. 😭

I hope at least some of this proves to be helpful in your quest to learn Thai! In any case, you're not alone on tumblr or in our little BL/GL/QL fandom bubble - I know of several users who are learning Thai, like @airenyah and @philologique and the aforementioned @lurkingteapot, just to name a few I personally follow and who I'm sure all have their own advice to give if you shoot them an ask~

สู้ ๆ นะ :) /suu suu na/

[alans-snz]

Okay so I'm pretty new to Tumblr and have only been on the sf forum previously (yeah, I know, I'm slow like that). I've noticed that all Ge/nshin names are written with a "/" sign in-between the letters. Again, I'm new here, so bear with me. Why do we do this? Is it to avoid the wrath of Tumblr or Hoyo? Or to avoid vanilla people finding out? Like, I'm so confused... Also, how do you search for specific characters on Tumblr if their names are spelled with a "/"?

Hey there!! No worries, this is a really good question!! It's the latter: to avoid vanilla people who are going through tags from finding our kink-related content. That's why we also use the term "snz" and a lot of our blogs are private to only Tumblr users too. We want to keep our content to the snzblr community to avoid any possible harrassment from outsiders (cause a lot of people on the internet are cruel to things they find "weird").

Regarding searching, it's definitely a lot more difficult since a lot of us mark the slashes down differently. There's even variety in how many slashes are used per name and/or just in general. Sometimes people use double slashes while others use single slashes like I do. And we tend to break apart the names differently too. I tend to break them apart as much as I can and try to avoid small words when I break them apart for extra good measure to avoid vanillas finding my content, but that's just how I do it. Some people break them up less and/or in different places.

However, I would say the best way to search is to look through your favorite snzblr pages with a character or characters you like on them. Most pages have their tags consistent so if they have and/or share multiple pieces of content for a character, you can click the tags on their pages to go to their other posts with them.

For example, you can do that with Kae/ya, Di/luc, Al/hai/th/am, Ka/veh, Tar/tag/li/a, and more here!! The best way to narrow stuff down would be looking at other specific tags first like my gen/shin or gen/shin im/pact tags and then you can go searching for character-specific tags there. Most other pages will have this as well to make it easier for people to find content of their favorite characters. They will also often have fandom tags in a pinned post for even easier searching. In my case, I have my gen/shin tag in my pinned post, but not c/el/ls a/t w/or/k since it's a newer contribution to my page, and so far, I have only covered one character there when it comes to snz. To anyone interested, I do plan to do some sort of content on Kil/l/er T from the original and maybe even some R/ed Bl/o/od C/el/l A/A2/15/3 from Co/de Bl/a/ck at some point, so stay tuned!

Hope this helps, welcome to snzblr, and thanks for the ask!!! 💕

[ru5t]

TRANSMITTERS.

Inspired by the above image, which was accessible on the band's website prior to the album being released and for some time after. This was an interactive image; tuning the knob on the right to different frequencies caused different short videos, the 'transmissions' shorts, to play in the screen of the device. This device does not appear in the music videos (or anywhere else for that matter.)

Most of the transmissions have been archived [here]; tw for flashing images. As well, while there are no direct scares, some of the audios are loud and/or jarring, and the vibes of several of the shorts can be a little disconcerting.

When it came to fandom, a lot of us started out on twitter (as there were official accounts of characters from the world of Danger Days already found there, run by various members of the band(?) and other creatives responsible for the killjoys universe) and thus in-character posts were restricted to 140 characters. We mostly did dialogue-only interactions and pictures. This, naturally, begged the question – how were the characters communicating this way, through 'voice' and images? We latched onto the transmitter as the obvious answer, and the idea of transmitters and practice of talking-only interactions stuck across the years even as writers moved to other websites and forums in order to do longer writing.

In universe, the transmitter is the smartphone of Battery City and the zones. It can connect to other transmitters, receive public broadcasts and informational text files, and store information. The amount of storage space, of course, depends on the model. There is also a means of determining a device's location, and sending the information to other devices; luckily for killjoys, it's not a constant ping like a phone tower, and doesn't transmit this information by default - it must be generated and relayed. They function largely on radio signals, but can be connected to and communicate with other computers/systems via a wired connection. All transmitters broadcast and receive audio. All transmitters are capable of displaying images and video. Most are capable of saving recorded audio. Some have cameras, but it's not common in the zones (generally speaking, killjoys are a little paranoid about cameras.) Some have typing interfaces; those that don't typically have dictation tech, where spoken word can be converted to text.

City versions of transmitters are often limited to some degree. Generally, the more privileged the citizen -the closer to Center City they are- the more options available to them, both as a matter of cost and what BL/ind will permit them to own and have access to. Citizens in the Neon Slums generally have the most limited devices, which are commonly bugged for surveillance as well. Some citizens in the lower city and slum will take their devices to special servicers who check for bugs and remove certain software-based limitations, 'jailbreaking' the devices, but it's dangerous. It technically qualifies as criminal activity. Being caught breaking transmitters or owning one that has been broken can get a person punished or even detained.

Killjoys tend to have a wildly variable range of new and old transmitters, as some are capable of getting their hands on the newest, shiniest works of tech, while others use rejects from the slums or even macgyver transmitters together from parts scavenged from the dumping ground in zone 2 and other scraps from the old world. Unless they're after a locked one on purpose, it's safe to assume every killjoy transmitter is jailbroken. Smart killjoys get their recycled transmitters checked for audio taps and tracking bugs, or learn to recognize the signs and bugs to get rid of them themself. (But really. Contact someone who knows what they're doing, or you might miss the sneaky stuff and bring a world of hurt on yourself. <- Tech vc) Transmitters aren't so necessary in the inner zones, where populations are closer together and news can travel by word of mouth, but are vital in the outer zones to get wind of dangerous weather or animals that might be moving through, as well as to call for help or send word ahead of yourself. Killjoys aren't always the most trusting, not even of each other, but it remains true that the 'joy that tries to lone wolf their way through the zones is likely to be dead sooner rather than later: it's wise to keep connected, even if only to listen.

The popularity and near-universal promise of transmitters is also what makes pirate radio stations so popular. It's the quickest and safest way to spread words that BL/ind doesn't want anyone saying, as the signals get bounced around so much it's hard to say where any of the chatter is coming from. Radio hosts who have tower setups that reach across multiple zones are well-known and often at least vaguely venerated. Striking down a DJ is a black mark on you, and when the city manages to pin them down and take them out, entire swathes of the desert go dark. They fill the silence with music and conversation, keep you connected in a disjointed desert, and bring word of disasters both natural and of the curated Better Living variety. Anything and everything to help zone runners keep running. Dr. Death Defying of the WKIL is the most known and celebrated of the DJs, broadcasting from who-knows-where on the regular, guiding the new kids and the Fab Four alike out of the stickiest messes with crow crews and back to the dust bowl called home. Other recognized broadcasters include DJ Hot Chimp, an elusive and eccentric rabblerouser, and DJ RKO of a station called The Fence, which focuses on helping groups relocate lost members or otherwise learn what happened to them. (Nothing haunts like the question you can't answer.)

Though there is no real way to gauge the size of the device from the only official appearance of it, it seems safe to assume most transmitters are roughly palm-sized, handheld devices. I've taken to mentally comparing them to sony's line of ''watchman'' devices (1982-2000) in terms of approximate size and range of styles.

[thessaliah]

You know, I feel you. Some of kids of the new fandom sound like entitled morons. The code-nonsense I just read made me barf.

By kids I mean you. A 22 years old trying to pass themselves as an old fan. Lmao. I couldn't hide my shock when someone linked me to read your arrogant post attempting to pass yourself into a BNF of old yore. No babe, back off. All you address is old, good or bad, you're not a ship police, you are a nobody. A regular fan the same as everyone else. But let me introduce myself, also a fellow fan.

Hello there. I'm Thess, former administrator of all the livejournal Hellsing communities, former ringleader of all the Hellsing roleplayer community in yahoo (oooold shit), former writer with more than 100 fic under my belt (which got awarded and voted by the community and won prizes), former mod and part escalator of the Band of Hawks and other forums, and an original member of the FIRST Hellsing forum in English (formerly localed in hellsing.nu). All those shiny Young King Ours magazines? Were scanned by us, one of my friends, Taylor, owned them and shared them. I was friends with Erin of Shine too. We used to make cooperative Round Robins among all fanfic writers, we used to give giftship, we used to cooperate with artists to do mutual art-fic project frequently too.

You don't know shit. You weren't there waiting the new manga release, speculating, arguing, gushing month by month, all these ten years Hellsing run. We left once it was over. Then you came I guess.

I come from a pre-pixiv era, if you didn't know, most japanese Hellsing fanart was made in personal websites, collected in webshrines. And it was always AlucardxIntegra >>>>>>> PipxSeras >> AlucardxSeras >>>>>>>>>>> other ships popularity wise. Something incredibly novel because seinen manga and works of the era (Trigun and Trinity Blood later) had more yaoi domination. Alucard and Integra was just so amazing that all yaoi fans liked it better than the boring BL options of Hellsing. Also a phenomena noted in the Hellsing guidebook, officially published by YKO. ;)

I am The Original Integra Hellsing fangirl. Claimed her all around social media back in the day which was before Hellsing finished. Hells, my handle was SIR HELLSING lol. The person who guessed Alucard was coming back and was going straight to Integra's bedroom when he does when nobody thought so and later bowed to my actual literacy skills. Because I knew Hellsing was a tribute to Dracula, not just as novel, but as a franchise. I recognize the cliches Hirano was subverting to give the Count his happy ending.

If you call yourself a "cop", I was the Fandom Mafia Donna who literally ran a community to criticize and help fanfiction with challenges and scores (targeting those who bashed Integra because she was "in the way" of their Alucard ship). We had a good system back then, we were bitchy and ate our own. You wouldn't have survived as soon as you spouted that you shipped IntegraxSeras and AlucardxAndersen and tried to tout it as a canon sticker (no issue with those pairings, my friend Jade/DreadNot was and still is the biggest and best writer of AxAA but she knew it was a fanship; and I've written gift fic). You would have gotten laughed at and made a laughing stock.

Let's see... you are against AlucardxIntegra and AlucardxSeras? Oh shit. I might be against the later as notp, but that's bullshit to pretend is some new fan thing (even with the kissy mushy aspect, it's an old tradition, while the other pairings? Newer). This fixation with yuri and yaoi, on the other hand? Clearly a product of this new fandom. AxI vs AxS are the original SHIP WAR. The one that burned and dedicated threads of Hellsing.nu forums to argue against one or the other and you, a literal who fledgling is trying to speak about them? For real? Of course, AlucardxSeras has family-element, but so is your precious IntegraxSeras. Integra acts like her mother surrogate and is even clear in Romancia where she scolds her as she does with a child. Seras' arc, in the manga, is to follow her father figure steps (Alucard), and protect her mother figure (Integra) because she failed to do so in her childhood trauma. That's basically it. She got adopted now by Hellsing. She's the daughteru. You're just taking out of context a lame scene by otaku to titillate them as something that supports a ship. It's ok, but you're using ammo against AxS while ignoring that interaction you ship (with Integra) is also found family to Seras.

Her love interest, the couple "everyone is envious of", is Pip Bernadotte. You can't even write Seras after his "death" without Pip because he's part of her and cannot part at all as a "Combination". And there is still Gonzo show AlucardxSeras which is as canon and part of a "love triangle" officially with AlucardxIntegra even if it's in the loser side.

Hirano, in the Hellsing guide, already declared AlucardxIntegra and SerasxPip are the ships his manga stuck with from the beginning, dismissing the possibility of AlucardxSeras. But see that? It's always those three considered and addressed when they speak on pairings. No AlucardxYour guy of choice, or IntegraxSeras, because they are fanships without real authorial intent or substance that simply aren't even considered in the first place when he began to write the thing. He did choose to not go the AxS direction. If you want to play canon sicker and ship police as you do, you need to acknowledge that your preferences (sans HeinkelxYumie) are beneath AxS in the canon scale.

Don't even make me start on the bullcrap with Integra you brought up. Integra isn't meant to be androgynous (neither is Rip!). She's written straight out Hirano's fetishes and he gets mad when people assume she's androgynous or manly. He just finds girls in suits and with glasses and long hair hot. Rip and Integra are his taste, rather than Seras. You can say that to you she is, but framing it as authorial intent is bullshit. He has no problem to admit Alucard's not male (yes! he said so! Alucard was originally male but after his transformation he/they lose that grip of gender) and Heinkel is intersex, but the idea of anyone trying to pass Integra, his beloved waifu, as manly or androgynous makes Hirano angry. He even chose the VA of the Gundam character he has a crush on as Integra's VA. And declared her as his waifu. And won't even touch your mischaracterization of her and why she stabbed herself in the anime. The ending of both anime and manga are meant to be ambiguous of her choice because it could go either way. All old Integra fans know this if you properly have a grip of her character and notice what she wants (both in anime and manga, that are different things). But you do not have that, huh?

Tone down your arrogance and know your place. It's fine to like a fanship, and you can do it without shitting on canon ships (and try to literally pull "canon" on these while not thinking yours are absolutely outside the canon interpretation - SerasxAnyone is no go after she drinks Pip's blood because she's Pip and Seras, it'll always be a threesome unless you AU it. Period). It's fine to have the "Integra won't become a vampire" interpretation as long as you know she also can become a vampire and is as valid. Be self aware please! When your interpretation (and that "coded" new fan nonsense lmao) clashes with authorial intent, propping it as totally canon-follower is ick. No issue if it's our preference.

Also stop being so full of yourself and call yourself an "old" fan because us, the real old fans, don't claim you.

Buh-bye.

Hey op just curious what makes you hate the new Hellsing fanbase. As a fellow Hellsing fan I was wondering if I’ve completely missed something strange going on lately.

The new Hellsing fandom honestly irks me because of the surface level probing of the source material*. Yes, to most it's a hard core, dark, violent, mad and bad-ass anime but, like I've said so often, for so long on this dumb blog, it has the BEST female characters I've ever seen, recently rivaled by Arcane. Incredible depiction of platonic relationships and morally grey characters. To me, it's primarily a found family story, among other things.

The side characters are incredible, Yumi and Heinkel are the most underrated of the show. I mean come on priest and nun lesbians (lesbian used liberally). Heinkel is confirmed by the author to be an INTERSEX HUMAN. Alucard shapeshifts into a female (which, looking at the Devilman fandom, everyone took for an obvious trans metaphor, why not here?). The source material is as homoerotic as it can get between a lot of the characters (the tension between Sir Integra and Seras during the blood scene). Let's not forget Rip van Winkle, Pip, Walter, and Alexander. Alucard's teasing, Seras' naivety and subsequent maturity, Pip's endurance and playful wittiness. These characters and relationships are stuck in my head forever, they're all incredibly unique, fleshed out and worth remembering, no matter how short a time they spent on screen. And the character designs? As a long-time vampyr and catholic guilt fan, can I just say. Rawr. This show shaped how I dress like irl and my own shitty characters, as well.

Sir Integra is my favorite character of the show and one of all time. Sir Integra Fairbrook Wingates Hellsing. Like, an actually good depiction of a no-nonsense, androgynous as hell, unabashedly commanding (dare I say) woman? And it's played completely straight? No "Whaaa that's a woman?" every 2 seconds or "heh, you will listen to me despite my womanhood" from her. Powerful in her own right despite being the few "magic"-less humans of the series. 0 sexualized Ultimate scenes (sorry Seras and the "hot down there" comment doesn't count, that was banter). She was fucking knighted by the Queen of England before she was even 25, hence Sir Integra. Canonically bi-racial and South-Asian. I'm not even going to go into her character's willpower and values but. Hellloooo??? 

Not to mention, something noteworthy about the series, but Hellsing works because Hirano made time for silly moments. I mean, hell, one of the scenes I remember most vivdly was the gag of Heinkel lighting Sir Integra's cigar and being mega-pissed about it during the final battle, it's funny yet in character, despite many fans saying the humor throws you out of the "reality" of the show.

Oh no, but what do the new fandom gremlins talk about? "Alufart rails Y/A" "OMG VLADCARD'S BARA HAIRY TIDDIES I WANNA RUB MY FACE AGAINST THEM" (you know who you are) “I drew the most fucked up version of Alucard I could think of in my twisted mind”

and my personal "favorite":

"omg 🥺 what if intewa and alucard kisswdd", it's almost as bad as Seras x Alucard.

Unfortunately, I am a part of the ship police, so I'm gonna say right now that these two are my most hated ships:

1) Sir Integra and Alucard's relationship goes beyond romance to me. Since none of the new fans know the lore, Sir Integra is and will die a virgin (canon), it's literally plot relevant because by having sex, if she gets bit she will become a zombie slave (obvious but apparently needed to be said) and, taking a note from the 2001 anime, gone is any chance to continue the Hellsing mission. If she was bitten, plot armor aside, she'd have to off herself instead of becoming a vampire. (and for you freaks out there/pos, dare I say… ace representation? you can argue about desire and subtext later)

2) Seras and Alucard's relationship was specifically noted by the author to be a father/daughter dynamic, which is kind of obvious in the show. Like I said, fundamentally a found family series. Yeah, you don't need to treat found family like family family but I gen can't stand this ship.

I know that people will ship characters who've never been in a room together before. I can't stop people from shipping them and these two ships have ALWAYS been popular in the fandom. I typically ignore this and, yes, "don't like, don't interact" is my main rule. However, new fans ONLY talk about this stuff. None of the rest of the show seems to matter, just Alucard's hairy mustached tig bitties and him fucking one of the two women in the main cast. Or someone's self insert.

((tangent but personally my favorite ships are Alexander x Alucard (obviously in an enemies to enemies way), Heinkel x Yumi, and a romance only Seras x s.Integra. Like, you want old women yuri??? There ya go! They were in a mansion for like 30 years (I forgot) together, probably going missions alone and sharing their grief over Alucard and their unique experience/history. Like I said, I can't help who people ship, I'm not trying to say the source material is in favor of my ships or "how dare people interpret these obviously gay characters as straight". like no, that's not why I'm upset and ik alucard and alexander weren't yaoi-ing it up but like. alucard and s.integra shippers dni /j))

Not to mention, I couldn't help but notice, despite this information being readily available to my middle school self, no one knows the fckn lore or background of this show?? I honest to god saw someone comment that Hellsing Ultimate™ was a bad “remake” because it diverged from the original anime.

Here's SOME fun facts:

-the 2001 version of the show has a different ending than the manga because it wasn't finished yet (duh). Hellsing Ultimate is "soooo short" because production took almost a decade and it was trying to be a faithful, well-animated (that takes time bruv) adaptation. Oh, and a bunch of directional changes that I won't get into.

-there are multiple OVAs following Walter's youth in WW2 (Hellsing: The Dawn). Young Walter's design honestly was one of my favorites from the series so. Walter enjoyers. Check it out.

-there is a bonus book explaining a lot about the characters and process of creating Hellsing written by Hirano himself. whenever I got a hold of it, though (8+ years ago) there was no English translation.

-Alucard didn't just transform into a girl that one time, he was in his girl form the entire time during WW2 (hence why when people mention his possible affair with the Queen it might've been a sapphic thing but I think that mostly stems from the abridged series. the queen thing not the girl thing)

-Hirano used to be a Hentai mangaka and actually designed many of Hellsing's characters in said hentai or in short stories (such as Crossfire, it's basically extra, non-canonical Hellsing content) beforehand. Which, this used to be the most popular "fun fact" but has been lost to the sands of time now, so prepare for a lot of people rediscovering this.

-personal lore is I almost named myself Rip van Winkle bc of this show (quirked up Portal, Grell Sutcliff, queer-coded, rifle-wielding shawty)

Anyway, to sum it up, I hate when people don't interpret characters in the same way I do. Yes, I am a bad “fandom elder”, idgaf I am fundamentally a hater.

*I keep seeing this happen with old shows that resurface. Unlike newer or more popular shows where every scene gets scoured, characters who showed up for one scene get analyzed, and endless cafe AUs are made- older shows mostly get fan art of the main charas and the ships of the two hottest characters and that's it. Discussion of lore and themes are completely off the table. So I'm not surprised, just disappointed.

[thedude3445]

current irons in the current fire

Before I get to start new fun projects to kick everyone's asses, I gotta finish the stuff already out there, so let's remind ourselves what those are:

(gonna make a readmore cut thing because this got too long, as rambles often do)

Systemless, the very silly very gay epic that's wrapping up finally after 3 years, I'm aiming to finish in April. Honestly this book is super up the Tumblr alley and even has BL romance but I forgot to promote it on here lol. I'll do that when the ebook versions come out

Golemancer, which really bombed compared to my original expecations, but it's still a pretty well-liked story honestly. I am going to wrap up Book 2 since it's already almost done, then publish ebook versions, and if those do well I'll finish the series later on. I should have done this over a year ago...

Japan Romance, the codename for a long-gestating project I've been working on since 2019. It was a novel, then a comic, now it's a visual novel, and yes I'm intentionally adding these comma splices why do you ask? When this project comes out someday you are gonna flip out, I promise. It's gonna be my ultimate early career project.

Project U, a collab with Ktalaki, the actual mspa prophet and not me actually. This project will never see the light of day, on purpose.

Game Jam. Quinlan Circle is gonna do a week-long game jam during Golden Week. Unless the game is literally unplayable, we will post that online afterwards.

Project Z, this is a codename that's actually just the impending release of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom, a game that I suspect will take up an entire month of my life. Still working on creative projects even while this game is out is going to be my life's ultimate challenge. When Fire Emblem Engage came out I totally failed at doing anything but playing that game (and also dealing with various life crises throughout February but that's a story for another time AKA an actual blog essay not this thing)

MSPA Reread 2023, a project that's semi-creative because it's unlocking entire spheres of my brain I forgot even existed. The sheer nostalgia that came with reading Homestuck Act 5-2 took up multiple days of my life reminiscing about old projects and long-dead forum thread. I'm on Act 6 Intermission 3 now as of today, and I think my friend group will finish around the end of April. Later, I'm gonna read the Epilogues and Homestuck 2 for the first time and see why people hate them so much lol. I know they're not "strictly canon" but I'm a long-time Star Wars EU fan, so fluid canonicty in layers is totally normal to me. Maybe not to other people...

(also I guess Psycholonials counts here? And the visual novel games? IDK about those quite yet)

Anyway there's one thing that I'm building to, and that's a project codenamed Really Big Story. You might be able to guess the story concept based on the codename. Quinlan Circle has been going for almost 5 years now, and we're getting ready to work on something super ambitious. But we can only work on it after we're all in better spots creatively. For me this means finishing (or quitting) all the stuff I've built up over the years. I have too many projects!!!!!

If you actually read this whole thing, send me an ask for which of these you want me to ramble about in my next mini-blog. I'll do that tomorrow or something (the mini-blogs will never be as long as this one, at least I hope so lol because this took like 20 minutes)

[blnewsforum-by-blbambeyond]

Casting News:

Any BL fans watching Star Struck. Well that's Lee Sang Min playing Han Joon's senior. He is soon scheduled for his very own BL. He is one of the mains in upcoming Korean Remake of WHY RU?

@pose4photoml

[talesdevourer]

This was supposed to be a comment or two... now it's an essay. Probably a bad written one, sorry.

@theshadowsingersraven your tags 🔥 that's exactly what I've been thinking the whole time. It happens I see some posts that show the author doesn't have basic knowledge of how fandoms work and then in their bio I read they are almost 20yo and it's good to have always new people but the problem is that some of them don't care when other, with more experience in this field, try to explain how things have always worked to approach a fandom in a safe way.

Social media only reinforce the already existent mindset because algorithm shows us what we want and what we already know. Social medias are a great way to learn different things but only if you are curious, for a big number of people it only makes them bask in their own ignorance... but that's another topic.

I think that before (I'm in my 30s and I started to experience fandoms when I was about 15 on forums and ao3) real life and online were two completely different things. I think people who have loved from a long time ships and fandoms can make very easily the distinction from real and fictional, I talk from my pov but I feel like my brain is very well trained to separate these things. It sounds silly I know but I talk with a lot of people who think, for example, that what we like in fictional always mirrors what we want irl. Or our expectations. And while sometimes it can be true, if that's a rule than I think it's crazy.

The same goes with original works vs fandoms. Where OW is like real life and if you like to think outside the box the author provided you than you are weird or disrespectful. When you can easily like both the original and all the crack scenarios your mind can create. Your mind is trained to multitask, like and separate things.

I love dark romance okay? And I love BL so I'm well used to a certain level of toxicity in fictional stories. That doesn't mean I'm toxic or I live toxic relationships irl. I can make distinctions and enjoy my red flags fictional characters. I also can like morally grey fictional man and atsm love the golden retriever ones in a different book/series/anime etc. To some people that looks impossible, if you like Zade Meadows in the book it means you support abusers.

Back to the toxic relationships. In the ACOTAR fandom I've read some abhorrent things about this topic that sometimes it was hard to just shut up and move on to the next post.

I'm not saying it's a generational issues because I personally know 20yo people who know the general etiquette of fandoms and ships and 30yo who don't, but this inclination to blend real into fiction often comes from people who approach fandoms in this specific historical period, when online and real is deeply intertwined.

I'm not an anthropology so maybe what I said is just a bag full of s*it and I REALLY HOPE I DIDNT SOUND OFFENSIVE I SWEAR IT WASN'T MY INTENTION, just tried to analyze what I've seen lately.

I realize I too derailed a bit from the original post but I think that how people approach fandoms is deeply connected to how people ship, because in fandoms there's always been different groups of people who shipped different pairs, but when the cohabitation is tough than it means that a portion of these fans don't know how to live peacefully a fandom without bashing others.

I have a new hypothesis about why the ACOTAR fandom is so weird.

And I think it's because there is a difference between the people who enter this fandom as shippers and the people who enter because they like the romance genre*.

I think many life long shippers enjoy romance. Maybe they don't always seek out the genre but they see romance in whatever media they are engaging with and they take those characters and put romance spins on them even if those characters aren't from a romance story. You ship because of a feeling. You see a dynamic or maybe you think about what a dynamic could be and then suddenly you're pulled in. Like falling in love. But you're falling in love with the idea of a couple. How that couple ends up becoming in canon is independent about how thinking about them together makes you feel.

I think romance readers aren't necessarily shippers*. They enjoy reading romance in a romance canon but they don't necessarily ship in the way shippers do with obsession and devotion regardless of what the canon says. They ship because they see that this couple is good together and it does make them feel squishy inside. Similar to a shipper. But they weren't necessarily going to see that until the canon actually played it out. To me that is responding to a romance plot as the author intended.

And maybe that is something different than shipping. I know for myself, I can read and watch romance and feel pulled in by the love I see but I don't "ship" them in the way I have shipped my OTPs with the level of obsession and devotion and need to construct my own head canons and fanon.

And I think that is a big issue when people from different backgrounds try to talk about shipping and the ship war in ACOTAR if they aren't coming from a similar experience. As I discuss a lot on this blog, there is history and culture behind shipping. And shippers have developed a common language to discuss shipping in a way that respects others shipping habits while also maintaining your devotion to your own ship.

It seems like those who are in this fandom because they enjoy canonical depictions of romance only are often confused by people who are taking characters into their own fanons and playing around with them or are devoted to them regardless of what the canon validates or not.

If you are used to shipping generally it seems very weird for people to say things like "I ship this because they're end game" or "I'll stop shipping if they don't end up together". Because shippers tend to not ship because of end game. They would LIKE end game because having canon validation is great. But it is not necessary (I also am tempted to make a whole post defining the differences between canon vs. fanon vs. end game ships because I frequently see the ACOTAR fandom using these terms incorrectly).

I think sometimes we are talking across each other and not to each other because we don't share a common cultural understanding of fandom or approach to shipping.

*obviously people can be both. Maybe the first couple you shipped is because you got into a romance series. But the point is that shipping at its heart comes from a feeling. How thinking about these characters together makes you feel squishy inside. And that can exist with or without canon. Shipping canon couples does come with many rewards, and canon can validate and be positive feedback on your shipping feelings, but you don't ship because they're end game. You would ship them regardless because you saw something special in their dynamic and whether the canon gets it or not isn't going to stop you. I like reading romance but I find romance in any genre because my shipping brain never stops.

[hirugaymi]

lemme tell you about the new football anime please

It’s called Blue Lock and it’s my brand of absolute shitshow;

TLDR: the soccer anime is a shitty gay as fuck battle royale and your op here LOVES it.

First thing I want to make clear is that sports anime is a very vague definition because people who create these stories will literally just fucking do anything. Love it. You got your serious sports drama that inspire you to become better, like your KazeTsuyos and your Haikyuus. You got the fujobait/yuribait bullshit that’s just kinda themed around sports so it has a plot to follow along (Free!, Sk8 the infinity, that one about the golf girls dressed in lingerie I think).

and of course, the biggest contendant of the sports genre: the anime bullshit. Prince of Tennis, Kuroko’s basketball and, most recently: Blue Lock. 

Blue Lock is a battle royale manga that uses football as a plot but it is impossible to make any statement on said plot because the manga is kinda silly and is constantly contradicting itself but that’s not the point I want to make. This huge post is not a criticism, but mostly about me sharing my new favorite cringe. 

The art is stellar, I’m an absolute sucker for good dyanamic art in manga and BL (will purposely use this abbreviation that always makes me cackle) has so much power to its art, actually! Nomura Yusuke-sensei, the responsible for art and character designs, is very very good at his job!

(It’s hard not to get spoilery with these examples)

Anyways, when I started reading this thing the battle royale and the “anti-sports anime” aspect were the things that got me thinking I should keep going and, let me tell you, this thing does not go where you expect it to go and I will spoil you a little bit on very later plot details on this story, so just skim with your little eyes closed in case you...really don’t want spoilers for  BL anime

I realize this post will not sound coherent at all, I’m mostly spitting out thoughts about a manga that I, admitely, have not thought about that much.

Yes, they have bullshit powers in this thing. They have SPECIAL MOVE NAMES they have JOJO STANDS they have ELDRITCH FOOTBALLIC ABOMINATIONS. 

and it’s EDGY, good lords it gives the 13 year boy who watched too much anime vibes. I dig that cringe so hard.

The best part though? As every other representative of its genre, Blue Lock, the manga that has BL as its IN UNIVERSE ABREVIATION, is so unapologetically gay. 

As gay as a battle shonen gets, which is a lot, may you not lie to yourself. You like your BL with childhood friends and cliche high school scenes, they got you a WHOLE ASS SPIN OFF AROUND YOUR FAVORITE GAYS. 

Do you like your gays extremely on the nose and horny, I GOT YOU SOMETHING FROM BL 

WHAT IS THIS BULLSHIT YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN

This manga has been my personal source of campy madness for a while now. I purposely look for the chapter discussions on manga forums just to see how people react to these and most of the time you just get guys talking about actual football (boring) but sometimes.... sometimes you get these

(TL: BL is about repressed homosexuality with a bit of football sometimes sprinkled on)

the purpose of this post is just to tell you, this manga/anime may look like a serious shonenfied reading on japanese football but that is far away from its best asset. The crazy levels of drama and the homoeroticism are what you should be here for, because those will not require any critical thinking (or eye-straining, let me tell some panels are REALLY hard to get through, geez, the protagonist keeps turning into puzzle pieces)

If you got curious about it and want to have any idea of what awaits for you in Blue Lock, trust your friend over here, this is what you should expect.

[suzuran777]

Machine translation tools for Japanese visual novels (2022) (Updated in 2024)

Today I'll share some translations tools I have been using to play Japanese visual novels, and maybe provide a short explanation how they work. I found many other guides, but most of them were published over 8 years ago and seemed a little bit outdated. I have only used them for BL visual novels so far, but they have all been working pretty well! These days we are lucky to get official English releases of visual novels and I recommend supporting these, but there are of course a lot of games that have not been translated, and who knows if they ever get translations in the future, so I think machine translation tools can be really useful. The machine translation might not be perfect, but it has definitely improved a lot within the past couple of years and it gives people the opportunity to play these untranslated games.

Update: Since this post has been getting some interaction again a few years later I decided to add some new information! First of all, if you get some kind of error when installing a Japanese game, make sure to change your computer's locale to Japanese and make sure a Japanese language pack is installed, if not it won't be able to display Japanese text and you might not be able to install or open the game at all.

LunaHook This is one of the more recent translation tools which I've seen people using recently! Unlike Textractor it will find most hooks immediately and you don't have to manually search for them or enter a hook code manually. It can be downloaded here (the download link is on the right if you scroll down). Textractor won't be updated anymore, so right now this is the best altnernative now. The way you hook the program to the game works the same way as the Textractor instructrions below, it does look a little bit different, so if you have any trouble there's also a tutorual on YouTube here. There's also LunaTranslator which is more similar to Sugoi Translator, which you can download here. Everything I listed below is from 2022 so it might be a bit outdated, but it might still be useful to illustrate how to hook these tools to the game, so I won't delete it.

Textractor You can download Textractor here. One of the newer tools I have been using for a couple of years now. Very easy to use. you just open the game and Textractor, press ‘’Attach to game’’ and select which game you want. The dropdown menu next to it should now show multiple hooks. 

You might want to skip through some text in the game to find one that works correctly, but usually it is pretty easy to find one that works. In the example below I’m using it together with LoveDelivery’s new game Tokyo 24 Ku.

In some cases it doesn’t immediately show a correct hook, so you might need to add a custom one. In this example I will be using Slow Damage’s Japanese version. I’m aware it’s getting an official translation, but keep in mind it’s just an example of how to use these hooks/translation tools. Also please skip through the tutorial of the game first (when Taku appears and wakes Towa up)

> Open the textractor folder and look for a text file called ''Saved Hooks''. If you don't have it don’t worry, you can just create a new text file and give it the same name. 

>The next thing you should do is to find the folder Slow Damage is installed in and copy the file path. Then paste this in the ''Saved Hooks'' text document.

> Find the hook code. These can usually be found on forums like Aarinfantasy. Slow Damage’s code is  /HS65001#-1C@5C40:slowdamage.exe

>The ‘’Saved Hooks’’ text document should look something like this now. Make sure the spacing and everything is exactly like the picture below or it might not work.

>If you open your game (Slow Damage in this case) this new hook should appear in the dropdown menu. You might have to try a few of them before you get the right one, make sure to check that it hooks all of the Japanese text and doesn’t skip any.

> After doing this check again if the new hook works. If it works it should look something like the screenshot below. If it’s still skipping certain parts of the dialogue (mostly the hiragana and katakana) the hook isn’t working yet.

>Alternative solution: I’ve heard from a couple of people that this method sometimes doesn’t work, but they found alternative solutions. First copy the hook code mentioned above. After this select ‘’Add Hook’’ in Textractor.

Translation Aggregator Can be downloaded for free here. This is an older tool that was previously used a lot with other tools like ITH. One of the reasons I didn’t put ITH in this list is because some versions of it stopped working for me after switching to a Windows 10 PC, so I think it’s just not very reliable to recommend it anymore when newer tools exist. Some of the Textractor tools also allow you to just see furigana and the meaning of each kanji, so it's also useful if you already know some Japanese but just want to easily look up new kanji.

Translation Aggregator itself doesn't hook the text, though it does translate it. This means you need another tool like ITH or Textractor to hook it for you. I sometimes use Translation Aggregator because Textractor still gets a little bit buggy when you're playing certain games. One of the main problem I ran into is that it sometimes stops translating. In this case you can open Translation Aggregator and select different machine translation tools. Unfortunately it's a pretty old program so not all the translators work anymore, but some of the version I linked above still do. Make sure to press the icon next to the translator’s name so it automatically translates the text Textractor copies to your clipboard. It should look like the picture below (the screen on the right).

Sugoi Translator Can be downloaded here. This one also has an offline mode and uses DeepL. This one works pretty similarly to Translation Aggregator, but the quality of the translations and the interface is in my opinion quite an improvement. I could explain how to use it together with Textractor and DeepL, but you can watch an instruction video about that here! I think it's much easier to watch this than to follow text instructions. They have their own Discord server too, so I recommend joining it and asking questions there if you have any! It can be found in the description of the video.

There's of course many other tools you could use, but these are the three I'm personally using at the moment. In the past I've used ITH and ITH VNR in combination with Translation Aggregator, which still works for a lot of older games, but there are definitely better options these days.

[potteresque-ire]

Hi. Thank you for your posts. I just learned from your last post (sorry I’m new in fandom and don’t know a lot), that DD was scolded by his own fans for shooting in Untamed, really? I mean as I got he wasn’t an experienced actor back then, I only saw his (im sorry fans of this drama) that cuts of the drama where he had red hair and was flying in the air. Moreover, I don’t know how popular he was back then. As I often see comments of toxic solos that Untamed didn’t actually played as much, or maybe played the same role in gg and dd popularity as for example their other dramas, what I can’t agree with. Thank you.

Hello Anon! Sorry for the late reply. 

There are at least two reasons why Dd’s fans didn’t want him to shoot The Untamed, as far I can tell. The first was protectiveness: the two popular BL-related dramas before The Untamed both faced censorship issues — Addicted (上癮, 2016), a true BL drama (耽美 danmei, with the homosexual element explicitly in place), never got to finish its broadcast. Guardian (鎮魂, 2018), which was what I’ve called an adapted BL drama (耽改 dangai, in which the homosexual element was made subtle / re-written as “socialist brotherhood) did make it to the finish, but was pulled from the digital shelves almost immediately after the finale for several months. The reason for the pull was never released to the public, and many assumed it to be related to the BL roots of its original material (the novel by Priest of the same name). While the four major actors all eventually emerged from these censorships unscathed, it was a gamble on an entertainer’s career and Dd’s fans understandably didn’t want him to take that risk, especially when with these censorships, it was viewed as very possible that The Untamed wouldn’t even make it to airing.

The second reason was that some fans simply didn’t want Dd to have anything related to BL, adapted or not, and he lost fans because of his decision to act in one. 

Re: Dd’s popularity. May I say this? Even the most cautious part of me cannot fathom saying that The Untamed hasn’t been the most significant contributor of Dd’s popularity—especially in the international fandom. 

In China, c-fans often talk about popularity in terms of whether an entertainer has “got out of the circle” (出圈). The Chinese entertainment market is huge, and can absorb as huge a number of entertainers — but the vast majority of them remains known only within their circle of fans. With China’s large population, an entertainer may even have enough fans to hold concerts (as Gg did with X-Nine) but still considered unpopular, a no-body. They’re considered popular only when they’ve “got out of the circle” — ie, when even non-fans know about them. They’re only considered very popular only when people who don’t follow c-ent closely know about them; 頂流 (dingliu “top flow”) is the small list of entertainers who have sufficient star power to move traffic both in the social media and in commerce; whose names are most likely recognisable even by those who only skim the entertainment news. 

Dd may have a lot of fans but he wasn’t out of the circle before The Untamed, even though his future was indeed promising in that he had stable exposure with his Day Day Up (天天向上) host role, and he was very talented and young. The Untamed got him out of the circle, got him into 頂流 (dingliu “top flow”). 

Could something else have placed him in these spots if he skipped The Untamed? Maybe. But there’re really no “could have been”s in life, right? A life choice is made, and every effect of that choice — its good, its bad and its ugly — stays with the chooser ...

And is there really enough bad, or ugly, to assume Dd may want to dissociate himself from The Untamed, play down its positive effect on his career? On Douban 豆瓣, among the most popular media review sites in China, The Untamed remained the highest scored among Dd’s dramas, even after the score fell significantly (from 8.3, I believe, to the current 7.7) from the bombardment of 1-star reviews post-227. The Untamed was Dd’s achievement, no matter who played WWX. One of the many, yes, but it was bright and eye-catching like the shining star on top of an already sparkling Christmas tree. 

(If I got the history correct, the most “fiery” scolding Dd got was from the fans of MDZS, who wasn’t convinced he could play LWJ with his k-pop resume and image. Dd also had no former experience playing period drama (the red-haired flying film role really ... couldn’t count) and the Lans, being the most traditional and scholarly among the sects, posed an especially strong requirement on their actors in knowing how to bring out the ... Confucian flavour in their roles. These fans already held a lot of rage / frustration from their favourite story being chosen for 耽改 dangai — with the gai, the adaption, promising to gut their most favourite element of the story, ie. the romance between LWJ and WWX — and some, unfortunately, decided unleash that anger and frustration onto Dd,  the most famous time being on Dd’s 21st birthday, during the birthday live chat. It was yet another example of what I personally think of as misdirected verbal violence, so prevalent on China’s forums and message boards, stemming from not remembering-who-the-real-enemy-is (quoting Haymitch from the Hunger Games): the book fans couldn’t take on the system that made dangai a necessity and so, a subset of them misdirected their emotions and harassed the people working on the dangai; likewise, a subset of solos and cpfs have been tearing each other apart over 227, forgetting who exactly banned AO3, who made such banning and the reporting culture that led to the banning a thing...)

[komari-maxx]

I think there's some room for nuance, but I largely agree. I remember when Yuri on Ice was airing and I absolutely loved it. Then the last episode came out and it felt like they changed it at the last minute to leave it open for a sequel (that never happened btw). Nobody seemed like they were in character, nobody got to finish their character arc, but there were good visuals so everyone loved it. I felt so alone and alienated by the fandom because it became their mission to expel everyone who wasn't 100 positive. I found another mutual who felt the same and we used the tag "yoicritical" to talk about it so it wasn't tagged for people who didn't want to see it.

I totally get what you're saying though. If somebody said "I really liked A Boss and a Babe, but I didn't like how they handled the ending," that's different than saying "I don't like abaab. #abaab" Then it's like, why are you here? I remember when Attack on Titan was new and I thought it looked dumb and gross and like something I'd never watch. I never posted about it, because why? Let people have fun with their dumb and gross show. Same with BL, if you don't like an actor pairing, you don't have to watch it!

Maybe it's fear of missing out, people feel like this is the Big Thing and they have to watch it because everyone else is. Then they hate every second of it because it's not a good fit for them and feel the need to dump that feeling on the internet.

All of this is a long winded way of me saying that I miss forums. It was so much easier to pick and choose what posts to read by their title, walk away from a thread that got stupid, everything wasn't a giant mishmash that users had to attempt to control themselves with tags.

Please, I can't even browse the TopMew and ForceBook tags without people shitting on them. It's driving me nuts, like what happened to keeping your negative opinions to yourself.

oh BL fandom does not know how to do that, i experienced this with abaab too. straight up people in the tag like, "i don't like a boss and a babe." like cool, literally no one asked, fuck off then.

i made a post in all the tags telling them to shut the hell up and keep it on their own blogs but they won't listen. it should be the first thing you learn about tumblr: keep your whining on your own blog and leave it out of the tags but noooooooooooooooo, not in BL fandom. EVERYONE has to know how stupid you are lol

i simply don't go in the tags anymore, and if i do i just hit J until i find a gifset and sometimes even those aren't safe😒

also i can't BELIEVE that people still have negative things to say after that incredible scene between them. none of these assholes know what good acting is nor do they deserve forcebook. i hope they stub their toes.

here's the thing about opinions: maybe they're just personal feelings blah blah blah, but when you're going against literally everyone in production and the industry who praise forcebook's talent and chemistry, you're straight up wrong. there's no other word for it. you'd think they'd get that by now but

i hate this word but, cringe tbh. imagine thinking that your "opinion" holds more weight and importance than industry professionals, than the directors themselves. every director forcebook have worked with praise and love them. how are these losers not embarrassed? just can't handle that their faves aren't the leads i guess. unrelatable *flips hair*

stay strong, anon❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥 like i always say, hit that block button till it bruises❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥

[mejomonster]

sure thing! the post linked at the bottom covers the main chronological points of the government ramping up restrictions and policing fans to changing the structure of weibo (chinese blogging site) by removing rankings for supertopics (like forum pages for celebrities or CPs/pairings) so fans are not encouraged to spend money carelessly on idols. as well as this its worth looking up the milk dumping scandal on iqiyi (or i can explain it if you cant find any comprehensive description) which is the reason survival shows are cancelled and a lot of this became a problem in the first place. The "fast track" option mentioned is directly SHLs influence haha, they were notorious for the "you can pay for vip + vip fast track + extra episodes! all separately!" thing...on the plus side now you dont have to pay for extra episodes in advance if you have vip haha.

but yeah bl dramas weren't exactly forbidden more like discouraged? and I havent heard exactly "hyx will air next year" but last time the c govmnt cracked down on a drama type and went "dont air as many xianxia dramas" the untamed aired like 3 months after? so we can guess that once everyone relaxes we will get more content. the tension peaked around the 100th anniversary of the ccp haha, in fact theyre already starting to relax, part of the suggestions focused on male idols not wearing obvious makeup, not being "effeminate" (this is a bad translation but it is relatively accurate haha) and idols in general not being focused on/invited to shows/used for money mongering (actors are ok but idols not so much) and already male idols have makeup endorsements and song releases and performances to advertise things (ive seen performances to promote coats and hanfu) and invitations to shows so... i am hopeful that hyx will air at some point, hopefully next year.

I also want to mention the "yin yang contracts" issue because dramapotatoe jie didnt, basically some actors would sign a public contract and a private contract (for a lot more money) and pocket the money without declaring it. some of these came to light around this time and thats why a loooot of dramas are being postponed or the release date never being announced (xiao zhans oath of love for example) because the paranoia in the industry - even if noone has done it!!! - is basically at an all time high haha

its really funny watching all this happen real time on twitter and weibo while tumblr is basically disconnected from the entire issue haha

https://dramapotatoe.com/a-new-chapter-in-c-ent-and-fan-culture-summary-of-qinglang-clear-internet-campaign-10-new-measures

the article you linked: https://dramapotatoe.com/a-new-chapter-in-c-ent-and-fan-culture-summary-of-qinglang-clear-internet-campaign-10-new-measures

Thank you for this!

[rigelmejo]

Dude I was on the language learning forms as I do sometimes, and someone was lamenting the lack of Chinese content to immerse in (watch, read etc). And how it was hard to find and they didn’t have this problem with Japanese what should they do?

Well. 1. I get their frustration on one level, as I do think Japanese content is so much more mainstream to watch in English speaking countries (at least anime and Japanese video games), that trying to find content in a language where it’s harder to just find content right on Netflix or from a friends recommendation does bring up a new challenge. Whereas with Japanese, probably you could accidentally stumble onto it or have a friend recommend you something, then at least explore deeper with some idea of what you liked/where to start finding it.

However. The person also sort of thought the lack of content was due to Chinese just not having as much content or as interesting content. Again I’m going to assume their key issue was just - it can be a new challenge finding media if you have a harder time just starting.

Because lol?? Chinese has SO much content. Like as far as language content on the internet alone??? Chinese has been eons easier to find than Japanese for me, and in terms of sites I actually use regularly is much closer to my experience of English online (there’s so much Chinese content online... so much... an incredible amount... like in chinese I’ve even found free movie watching sites FOR shows in English - like the way I find sites in English to watch Chinese shows IN chinese lol! Like you can use English to search for Chinese stuff, and literally do the reverse to find English stuff, there is so much Chinese stuff... I found more stuff in Japanese using bilibili in chinese than I could find of Japanese using YouTube In English). And Chinese drama land is HUGE it feels as active as American television, so you have endless genres to dive into and companies and actors and writers etc (there is a distinct lack of sci fi though as far as I’ve seen, but to be fair america isn’t making a Ton of sci fi compared to like Detective shows either - it’s just English speaking sci fi has had some more good ones in recent years). There is no lack of Chinese content out there. There’s audiobooks, dramas, audio dramas, talk shows, radio, fanfiction, novels, fanart, manhua, sites to find other stuff, forums, weibo, search sites, just a lot?? Like, if you think Japanese has enough internet content then there is an adequate amount of Chinese content on the internet too lol. You just may have to do a touch more initial exploration.

I just. Thought the assumption “can’t find media means their media sucks” was funny. Because also? I have not found that to be true. I know very little about Thai media. I just happened upon SOTUS cause of a friend talking about it. So like someone watching anime conveniently - I got into it. It was good, so I dug, and found a lot of amazing Thai shows (and some I didn’t love cause lol genres all have a mix of quality depending on show etc). There IS a ton of amazing Thai shows that exist right now. But if all you ever found was SOTUS? While it was great when I saw it to me, once I found more I realized there was a LOT better stuff. So like if you see one cdrama on Netflix (if that’s how you first easily find the media), that does not mean all shows will be that quality or anything like them! And just cause it’s the first one you found doesn’t mean they’re all like that ones quality.

Like I had a similar experience with jdramas growing up, so I get it. I was into anime, saw some (trainwreck) live action adaptations. And as a teenage just blanket assumed all Japanese live action media was gonna be around that quality. And then in recent years, I checked out some Japanese live action media - to see if new stuff was better. YEAH IT SURE IS (and I would imagine some old stuff was great I just gave up after one not-wonderful one lol). SO MANY AMAZING jdramas exist now! Even the ones I most feared would not be great - live action adaptations of anime’s? They’re so much better now, some of them are genuinely loved in their own right as standalone live actions. So like. One not-great show experience is NOT representative of the entire plethora of shows available and their quality. Now that I’ve realized how MANY good jdramas I missed out on? I have so much catching up to do ToT

2. If you’re in this boat of “content seems hard to find, so I feel like there’s none or no good stuff” what to do?

First ask some friends for recommendations?

Check Netflix, Amazon, YouTube (YouTube has a ton of cdramas), Viki, iQiyi app. Like how some people get into anime, maybe you just need an easy conviennent show in your recommended to get into more content.

Check out rec channels on YouTube like Donghua Reviews and Avenue X to hear about some shows and figure out the kinds of ones you’d even want to check out (I imagine other languages also have review channels like for kdramas).

Go to MyDramaList.com. Search genres you like, read recommendation list posts. if you’ve seen a show at this point already you can look it up and see in the “Recommended” section what other dramas are like it, you can see it’s genre tags to see WHAT genres you even seem to like. Use this to start DIGGING and finding stuff you might really like. Since like with anime, you’re only going to find the most popular stuff at first just based on Netflix or friends (which might not match up to your personal tastes as well as finding stuff that Is more your favorite genres).

Try out new stuff. And if it sucks, you don’t like it? Drop it, learn that about yourself, start another new thing. You’ll figure out what you like and dislike pretty fast (like I personally hate bad pacing or bad writing specifically characterization, and I can notice when the specific things I love are gonna be in a show pretty fast).

Check out genres specific to that language’s media. Because if it’s new to you, you might not know if you even like it or not, and if you like it then which things you personally prefer in it (since even within a genre there will be wildly different content and feels). For Chinese this might be wuxia, xianxia, palace dramas, costume dramas, republican era dramas, tomb raiding dramas etc.

*That’s how it worked for me, SOTUS led me to the bl drama fans, eventually they recommended Guardian so bam I guess I was learning chinese, YouTube recced me more cdramas from there to continue with, and mydramalist.com helped me find other shows with actors I liked from guardian (and other bl related shows which led me to Go Princess Go of all things for the bi lead), and that site helped me find more genres and shows I’d like, as well as friends continuing to rec things. Didn’t take long to figure out what I liked, didn’t, and to start noticing what upcoming stuff I’d probably be excited for. And now there’s so much good stuff found I don’t have enough time lol.

As for non show media: use shows as the jump off point. Just like using “easy to find shows” can be used to break into finding more shows. Once you have a show you liked a lot - look up it it’s based on a book, if it has an audiobook, an audio drama, a manhua, a donghua. Chances are it DOES have some of this stuff, because cdramas do a PRETTY regular amount of the time. Often cdramas have all or nearly all of these other story types. So jump into those, then find more novels or audio drama or manhua etc by branching off from the one you liked to others like it. Novelupdates.com is good for doing this with novels (it has a recommendations section), I imagine manhua sites have rec lists too, ximalaya starts recommending stuff once you’ve listened to a few audio on it, etc. And if you get into fandoms of those x media types, those fans will start recommending more too. And again, even if you just stick to media related to shows you liked - so often shows have so MUCH related media that would definitely keep you busy. (Like I didnt wade into non-show connected novels until I looked up more novels as recommendations afte show-related novels, like MDZS and Guardian leading me to SVSSS and 2ha and Can Ci Pin which at the time had no show adaptations, and then eventually found just-novel rec lists - which is still the main way I find fanfic).

[queermediastudies]

[Please watch from 5:53 to 9:43] 

“From Sworn Brotherhood to Gay Marriage - Chinese Danmei Trope and History Explained” by Youtuber “Cool History Bro”, May 2021.

Audiences and Queer Reception -- An Example of Chinese Danmei Culture by Siyu Qi

In the article “making things perfectly queer”, Doty suggests that he would like to “propose ‘queerness’ as a mass culture reception practice that is shared by all sorts of people in varying degrees of consistency and intensity” (1993, pp.2).

I think what he is trying to address here is that queer culture, as a culture that originated under the oppression of the dominant culture of society and inevitably developed under the influence of the dominant culture, has a target audience that includes not only the LGBTQ community, but also cisgender straight people. LGBTQ people are undoubtedly the creators of queer culture and the dominant agents that drive its development: in the majority of media content produced with a straight, non-queer audience at the center, LGBTQ audiences have still managed to develop tactics and strategies to find their own "queer moment" and identity in seemingly straight texts. While the sexual majority, or the non-queer people, may also inadvertently become participants, builders, and transmitters of queer culture by accepting, interpreting, and responding to mainstream cultural products through a non-traditional perspective. And that diverse audience composition has enhanced the visibility of queer culture and played a positive role in its development.

Based on this, Doty emphasizes that “queer is not an ‘instead of,’ it’s an ‘inclusive of’” (1993, pp. 2). The audience of queer culture has queer people as well as non-queer people. The media content that carries queer culture can be a direct work like Brokeback Mountain as well as a work like Singing in the rain that is meant to serve non-queer audiences but inadvertently provides identification for queer audiences. In a word, it is not necessary to have a “perfect” queer work created by pure queer people, purely for queer audience, and totally unrelated to mainstream culture, in order to be considered a product of queer culture. Queer culture is not binary against mass culture, instead, it is a part of mass culture for the general public.

Below I will explain Doty's theory by bringing in the example of how Danmei works have contributed to the development of queer culture in China.

Danmei, so called “boys’ love” (BL), is a genre of literature and other fictional media which features romantic relationships between male characters. Danmei is typically created by and targeted towards a heterosexual female audience (Madill & Zhao, 2020). It first originated in Japan in the 1970s in the form of manga and was introduced to China via Taiwan in the 1990s (Wong, 2021). As one of the few early queer cultures to enter China, Danmei let its first Chinese audiences in the 1990s and early 2000s aware that “love can also happen between male and male”. Since then, the development of Danmei culture in Chinese society can be roughly divided into two phases:

The first stage was from the late 2000s to 2015, a period in which China's Danmei culture was characterized by the search for queer identity in non-queer media content and its expression through multiple forms of fan art such as recreated articles, pictures, and videos. Its development process is roughly as follows: thanks to cultural globalization, many British and American movies, TV series and Japanese anime works have entered the Chinese market, such as the Merlin series (premiered in 2008), Star Trek (2009), Sherlock series (premiered in 2010), Captain America series (premiered in 2011), Thor series (premiered in 2013), Naruto series, and Digimon series, etc. Danmei's regular readers, while watching these non-queer works, found that the complex and deep “brotherhood” between the male protagonists and another male character was similar to the male-male love depicted in Danmei's works. It was the time of rapid development of the Internet in China, so they posted the queer elements they discovered from the non-queer works in the form of text, pictures and videos on social networking platforms and forum websites and attracted more and more young female netizens as companions through mutual forwarding and recommendation. Those non-queer works have thus become the queer culture initiation for a generation of young people in China.

As Danmei culture has become more and more popular, its development has moved into a second phase, from 2016 to the present. During this period, Danmei audiences are no longer satisfied with merely engaging in fan art as such re-creations, but have started to produce more original Danmei literature set in Chinese culture, and the great popularity of these Danmei-themed novels has led to Danmei culture being brought to the TV screen. However, due to the Chinese government's re-censorship of the "ban on LGBTQ elements in public media," Danmei-themed dramas have had to take on the guise of non-queer works, such as having a gay couple call each other "best buddies" in their lines, deleting kissing scenes from the original book, or adding a female lead to the plot just to prove that "these two guys aren't gay". Audiences even coined the term "communist brotherhood" to describe the relationship that everyone knows is queer, but has to pretend to be non-queer in order to pass the censorship. The good news is that the government's crackdown did not stop Danmei culture from taking the country further by storm, and now it has once again become a bridge to queer culture for the generation born after 2000 (Zhao & Wong, 2020).

In general, Chinese Danmei culture has two main characteristics: first, the audience is diverse, with a larger proportion of female who self-identify as cisgender heterosexual; second, it emerges from non-queer media content and develops in the guise of non-queer works. Admittedly, Chinese Danmei culture clearly still has problems, such as the fact that the stories always take place between two young, good-looking, able-bodied males; the content still contains a heavy dose of heteronormative ideology (Madill & Zhao, 2021). But it is undeniable that its development has played a key role in increasing the visibility of queer culture in Chinese society, as Doty's theory suggests, and is pushing queer people, who have been "erased" for a long time, into the public eye.

References: Doty, A. (1993). Making things perfectly queer. London: University of Minnesota Press.

Madill, A., & Zhao, Y. (2021). Engagement with female-oriented male-male erotica in    mainland china and hong kong: Fandom intensity, social outlook, and region.

Madill, A., & Zhao, Y. (2021). Female-oriented male-male erotica: Comparison of the. engaged anglophone demographic and that of the greater china area. Sexuality & Culture, 25(2), 562-583. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12119-020-09783-9 

Wang, A. (2021). Contemporary danmei fiction and its similitudes with classical and yanqing literature. Jentera (Indonesia. Badan Pengembangan Dan Pembinaan Bahasa. Pusat Pengembangan Dan Pelindungan), 10(1), 127-148. https://doi.org/10.26499/jentera.v10i1.3397 

Zhao, J. J., & Wong, A. K. (2020). Introduction: Making a queer turn in contemporary chinese-language media studies. Continuum (Mount Lawley, W.A.), 34(4), 475-483. https://doi.org/10.1080/10304312.2020.1785076

[sakuraalexia]

So, 2021 actual plans, for both writing and drawing, at least the ones I have for now. Drawing first:

One thing I had meant to do but couldn’t because I felt sick, it was a picture that was Christmas related, besides Snom, but I had that done a week before the holidays. If you read this story you might get an idea of what it was. But still it counts.

I have two draw this in your style challenges to do, one ends in a few days and the other the end of this month, and I wanna do them both.

This year though I really want to focus on improving things, last year I looked for a way to start drawing digitally without having to sketch manually first, because I wanted to be less limited, and I could do so. And now I also have a new tablet, with a screen, so I think I can improve even more once I get more used to it.

So now I want to try and do bigger and more complicated things, such as better backgrounds, instead of leaving them blank or just put some random colors. Also because I wish to show more of the world I am creating, for my Pokemon region. I’ll still be drawing the characters too, I haven’t finished drawing my OCs like I said I would mostly because I got sick of doing the same thing, but also because I was using a style I was trying out, and that I felt didn’t stick with me too well, style that I changed in the drawings after and that I feel much more comfortable with, so, my OCs will come again, and drawn even better.

I really care about this project I created with a friend 5 years ago, but that we had sort of abandoned because we didn’t hear from one another as often, he’s very busy, but I took it on my hands last year again, and I mean to give it more life at some point. Even writing wise, because all I did so far has been drawn, the writing phase hasn’t started yet, at least when it comes to the story itself, the planning and setting is pretty much done, I need to finish up the plot, because its very long.

Other than this I mean to try and use less references for posing, because I feel like I am still weak in that regard, and anatomy, so I mean to study that better. I don’t mean to get rid of them completely at the start but to be less dependent from them.

I mean to also try to refrain myself from rushing to the finish, as when a drawing of mine starts to come together I tend to rush to finish and post it, and I want to work on being more patient, because after I post I always notice there’s something I haven’t done well or that could have been corrected, that, if I took my time I could have fixed. I’m a rather weird person, I can never get around starting something, but when I do I can’t stop and even rush to finish.

Writing wise:

Being part of a forum we made, starting last year, a “challenge”, which is essentially take a writing project, new or old doesn’t matter, and work on it and try to finish it during the year. Last year I did with my Pokemon region, and that actually got me doing more stuff than I ever did the previous years, and I’d still work on it in the background. I had gotten distracted from writing Beyond the Reality, which was fine though, as it was the first long fic I wrote and finished in years.

However the main project of this year is yet another Borderlands fic, it will be called Sing to the Moon. I had thought at this when it was around Halloween where I drew the Sirens as wolves and it became an idea for an actual AU.

So yes it will be a sort of supernatural AU with humans and werewolves, things are pretty much set as I already fixed the world and its factions and characters, and the plot is almost done too. It might be in 3 arcs as it loosely follows the plot of the BL games, even though not at all faithfully, otherwise I wouldn’t do an AU.

I won’t post this one until its over though, like for Beyond the Reality, because since I have a story with leaving stories unfinished because I tend to lose interest, I’d rather finish them up first then post regularly, without pressure to post a new chapter every now and then, and also I can guarantee constant updates.

In the meantime I’ll just work on whatever I feel like in that precise moment, with writing I tend to go with the flow of things, letting inspiration hit me when it wants to. Inspiration might be anything, a word, a picture, a song, something a friend talked to me.

I’ll still attempt to do challenges too, both writing and drawing, even though with the second one I might be a bit inconsistent, given my condition, for example I can’t do month long challenges anymore or rather, if I do I have to drag them out because my body doesn’t allow me to force myself to draw every single day, but it doesn’t mean I can’t do anything at all.

Anyways, these are my plans, I hope to be able to keep faith to them, and also that games won’t distract me too much heh. I recently got a bunch of new ones haha. ^_^”