#THEN INTOUCH & KORN (DEAN & PHARM'S PAST SELVES)

[bl-bam-beyond2-sidecoupleblog]

BL FANDOM BLOG: A LOVE FOR BOYS' LOVE

SIDE DISH EDITION (aka: SIDE COUPLE)

Series: BETWEEN US From: THAILAND

Year: 2023

Never one of my favorite couples, I still really like Dean (THITIWAT RITPRASERT aka OHM) and Pharm (NATOUCH SIRIPONGTHON aka FLUKE). The main couple in UWMA (UNTIL WE MEET AGAIN) they take a back seat to my faves Win & Team.

That said I'm happy Dean and Pharm have settled into their love as they both say those three little words. I LOVE YOU.

It's a Beautiful Thing.

[bengiyo]

I saw Shan say that you'd be getting your bat in her answering of the Deam Pharm ask. That made me curious. What are your thoughts on the ship?

Ah, you're the one trying to make me fight Shan for being rude about my faves.

I love Dean and Pharm because they didn't ignore this supernatural thing that was happening between them, but found their own relationship separate from Intouch and Korn.

I do appreciate @lurkingshan's and others frustration about the blushing maiden thing they make Fluke do with this character, but I can look past that because of the kitchen scene where Dean had a classic seme moment and tried to have sex with Pharm only to be pushed off. Pharm reasserted their boundaries and they were able to move forward. I liked that a lot because of what they could sense from their past selves.

I like the courtship we got to experience between them. They felt a draw, and their friends saw it. They went on a few dates and got to feel out the specifics between each other. I also love how they take so much physical comfort in each other.

I just really admire seeing two people feeling like they're connected across space and time, feeling the tragedy there, and taking their time with it. I even love that they took some time apart after figuring everything out to sort what was them and what was their past selves. I love that Pharm loves cooking, and has to figure out if that's because Intouch wanted to feel Korn.

I love them so much.

[talkingbl]

The Good and Bad of Until We Meet Again (UWMA)

SPOILER WARNING. TW: suicide

The Good:

Our second lead couple, WinTeam. Boun and Prem have so much chemistry it's quite literally seeping through the screen. Every WinTeam scene towards the end of the series feels like you're peeping in on a private moment, and, despite having all of .25% of screen time, every knowing glance feels completely earned

The characterization of female characters. Manaow and Del were awesome the whole time. Both characters felt like actual human beings and not annoying/inappropriate fujo caricatures/evil masterminds attempting to break up our boys

Ohm and Fluke actually have decent chemistry. Ohm has Bright Varchirawit moments where he acts in a way that Dean looks completely infatuated with Pharm

Somewhat out-of-the-box story. A soulmate concept, while quite common in BL novels and comics, is quite rare on camera. I think the way the story was portrayed from two different time periods was a good move too

Fluke's acting in the last 2-3 episodes was damn good. While I wasn't personally affected by his acting, I did find his portrayal of Pharm struggling with Intouch's emotions to be quite compelling. The scene where he threatens to hurt Korn the same way Korn hurt him (Intouch in this scenario) was some of the best acting I've seen in BL

This has probably been said 1000 times by now but Dean and Pharm have the healthiest relationship in any BL I've ever seen. Dean is respectful of Pharm's boundaries and Pharm is generally clear about his timeline and what he does and doesn't want to do with Dean. There's one or two moments where Korn overtakes Dean and he nearly makes the wrong decision, but, unlike other BLs, it is quickly reversed and Dean doesn't make a move that will scar Pharm

This story actually has a story outside of the romance and the characters have interests outside of their love interests. This point is largely a result of the soulmate topic at play though because part of the reason our protagonists even figure out they're soulmates is through the traits and hobbies they share with their past life-selves

LOVE the concept of soulmates being reborn into each other's past-life families. It adds an air of mystery to the plot

The cast all looked like regular every day people and were styled/made up appropriately. No one looked fresh off the runway for no reason and that added to this show's believability

The Bad

When UWMA is slow, it is slow. It can get very boring very quickly. I attribute a lot of the slow-paced feel of the series to the filler episodes in the middle of the series and the scenes where Dean and Pharm are just looking at each other without doing anything substantive. There's also waaaay too many scenes establishing that Pharm likes to cook as if we hadn't caught on to that fact 11 episodes into the series

The main couple competes with their past-life selves (co-main couple?) for the 'least compelling couple' award. Honestly, DeanPharm probably beats out KornIntouch. At least KornIntouch have actual conflict that comes from themselves and not some weird external thing that only shows up in their dreams/when Pharm hears a loud banging noise. I don't know..it just seems like we don't really know why Dean likes Pharm (and vice-versa) and only know why Korn (in Dean's body) likes Intouch in (Pharm's body)

I don't like Korn. There, I said it. His character had the ability to be extremely compelling and emotionally moving but most of the time (with the exception of a few moments at the end of the series) he came off like a self-loathing douchebag

The casual fatphobia was too damn high. Yes, I understand this is not real life. Yes, I understand that it's supposed to be a "joke" but like it wasn't even funny? It was just "Manaow, you're fat, no one will ever like you." << How is that funny? It's also strange because not only is nothing inherently ugly about any size body but Sammy's Manaow was lowkey the most attractive and charismatic member of the cast outside of Boun's Win

They had something good going with the mafia family concept but literally never showed it in the detail it deserved. Would've loved to have seen Pharm/Korn's mafia family business dealings, especially since Korn's brother/Pharm's uncle was a really good side-character who would've made a believable mobster

Despite having driven their sons to suicide, Korn's father gets the benefit of the doubt because he's "still hurting from it"...fuck outta here with that bullshit

Korn and Intouch's scenes looked too modern. It was hard to pinpoint the time period of their scenes because it looked like it was, at the very earliest, set in the 2000s, but everyone claimed it was 30+ years ago (around the mid- to late '80s)

At points, the scenes looked very low budget. The production quality was even slightly inconsistent sometimes scene-to-scene

Pharm being a naive, coy, shivering bottom was highkey annoying at times. He acted as if he had never had an adult (not adult as in sexual but adult as in acting not like a shy child) thought or issue in his entire life despite being a university student

The crying every episode got old very quick. When a character shows too much of one emotion, it desensitizes the viewer to it. Pharm cried so much that I pretty much never cared when he showed sad emotions until he was possessed by Intouch at the end

That's really all I have for now for UWMA

[0ffgun]

ok but it's literally not complicated at all, they were simply both reincarnated into each others families, that's it. pharm is related to korn, dean is related to intouch and sin happens to be the son of one of korn's brothers. he had 2 other brothers so of course they are gonna have kids in the future. i literally understood it right away and i never even read the novel some people just need to learn to pay attention. i even expected sin to be the cousin before it was revealed.

If In and Korn were not related, how would Dean & Pharm ever be related? LMAO. Anons be wildin'. What surprised me the most was that they switched families cos it would make sense to me for them to be reincarnated into their own families down the line, but I guess the other message here is acceptance of that which is outside of us. Their families accepting them not because they are related but because they've learned also shows us that the 2 families did not keep that hatred going.

dean and pharm are not related @ anon. they are the reincarnation of korn and in but they share no blood connection. pharm and dean are the reincarnation of in and korn but they are their own person, they are not in and korn. i think most people fail to understand the concept of reincarnation.

Okay so I’m gonna answer these together because I got quite a few asks regarding these things and it’s easier to reply in one go. So!! For some people it’s not much of a hard concept to grasp, but considering the amount of times I’ve received confused anons and seen other tumblr users replying to similar asks like mine, it’s safe to say that there are actually a big bunch of people who find it complicated. I understand it just fine, however I have messed up with the timeline while typing it out for someone, so I definitely see how easy it is to get lost in it. And unfortunately if a majority of the audience struggle to understand something, then I would count that as a slight flaw. But hey! Nothing can be perfect!

Personally I really like the way they were reincarnated into each other’s families - it paves the way for forgiveness and understanding quite nicely. I’m looking forward to everyone getting closure and being happy and for Dean & Pharm to be free from that stress that their past lives has burdened them with.

And anon #3 you’re right, I think the concept of reincarnation does get misunderstood a fair bit here too, causing some viewers to feel a bit icky with the thought that they’re dating their reincarnated relatives. And for those who do find it confusing -- it’s not all that strange! They have no blood relations to each other whatsoever! In & Korn were in love and when they died their souls reincarnated into two completely different bodies. Just their souls, nothing else. They’re completely different people, Pharm is not In, Dean is not Korn. In the past they were them, yes. But not NOW. They have similarities with their past selves, but their personalities are totally different because they’re different people.