#and bianca lawson too

[ennaih]

Not Every Film I Watch In 2024

16. Bones (2001)

[kaywopp]

[coraniaid]

I was thinking about how Kendra really should've been mentioned in Fool For Love given its an episode where Buffy wants to learn about previous Slayers' final battles so Top 5 episodes in which Kendra should've been mentioned in?

Ignoring the episodes I'd have liked to actually see Bianca Lawson return in (either in flashback or some alternate dimension or in a dream sequence or as the First) and ignoring Fool For Love as well since you mentioned it already (but I agree that's a good call otherwise).

S3E07 Revelations -- obviously Angel didn't personally kill Kendra, but he played a very major role in her death (she came back to Sunnydale to stop his plan to wake Acathla, he lured Buffy away from the library so she wasn't there to protect her, he sent Drusilla to kidnap Giles and Kendra tried to stop her). So it would have been nice, in a way, if anybody had thought to bring Kendra up during that scene in the library where they're arguing about Buffy keeping Angel's return a secret and how he killed Jenny Calendar and tortured Giles. Especially when they're doing so mere feet away from the spot where Kendra was murdered. It would have nice to suggest that Buffy wanted to talk to Faith about Kendra at the end, too (even though I think Faith still brushes her off the way she does in canon).

S3E08 Lovers Walk Relatedly, it would have been nice if -- while Spike was busy feeling sorry for himself and remembering all the nice spots in Sunnydale where he and Dru had murdered people in better times -- the writers had remembered Buffy had reminded him that one of the people his ex had fun murdering was Kendra. Or that, way back in Becoming Part 2, the very last time Buffy said Kendra's name out loud in the show came with a threat to kill Drusilla ("Forget about Drusilla. She doesn't walk. She killed Kendra.")

S3E15 Consequences. Don't think this even needed Kendra to be mentioned by name, but it would have been nice if the show had acknowleged that this is in the third time in barely a year than Buffy has been questioned by the police in a murder investigation. And by the same guy all three times! Detective Stein doesn't seem to be part of the town-wide conspiracy to cover up the supernatural, so what does he think really happened to Ted and to Kendra? I get that the show at this point wasn't trying to be too serialized (but Ted, at least, will get brought up at least one more time in Season 4's Fear Itself), but ... I dunno, I just think it would have been a nice bit of continuity to have Stein tell somebody (Buffy? the Mayor?) that not only does he think Buffy was involved in Finch's death but that he still hasn't ruled out her being involved in Kendra's death too (whatever his bosses told him to make him drop it).

S5E14 Crush. This isn't actually a very good episode (as indicated by the words 'written by David Fury' that appear on the screen at the beginning) so we can't expect too much from it, but ... look! It's Drusilla! Back in town for the first time since Becoming! And Spike's talking about killing her, even. "Why do I care?" Buffy asks him, which would be a perfectly fine way for Buffy to express her disinterest in Spike and demonstrate her refusual to be swayed by his attempts at coercing her to 'admit' her romantic feelings for him if this were any other random vampire, but this is meant to be a vampire Buffy has a strong preexisting personal grudge against. She killed Kendra, David. That's why Buffy should care. You could, I dunno, at least have Spike bring that up again? ("If you don't admit there's something there ... I'll untie Dru, let her kill you instead. Just like she killed that other Slayer.")

S7E17 Lies My Parents Told Me. I mean, not the canon version of the episode, which is basically unsalvagable, but in some other better version of this episode where Buffy finds out that Robin was Nikki's son it might have been nice to contrast Robin's years long quest for revenge with the fact that Buffy didn't allow herself to leave town and hunt Drusilla down for revenge. Not because she didn't care about Kendra (at least, she cares about Kendra in my version of the show...), but because she had a responsibility to everyone alive in Sunnydale. That would, at least, be a better way to echo Nikki's "the mission is what matters" line than the gross way the episode settles on ("You're trying to get revenge on a man who doesn't exist anymore! Also, isn't it cool and fitting he got 'his' coat back?")

[finckyoufreeky]

Dream cast IWTV

Christopher Heyerdahl as Magnus

Gilian Anderson as Gabrielle

Bianca Lawson as Akasha

Karen Gillan as Jesse Reeves I'd cast Lauren Ambrose, but I think she's too old to play Jesse)

[fischerfrey]

the malinda family

a while back i did one of these for the quinn family so i wanted to give the malindas the same treatment. i don't have faceclaims for all the members out there but i included everyone i did have and some spouses too. additionally, acacia malinda is now canon, good for her!

founders' era:

devon terrel as fergus gryffindor nathalie emmanuel as iseult of caen

victorian era:

jacob anderson as timotheus malinda ruby barker as agnes malinda dalmar abuzeid as jacob macmillan ashley madekwe as aravis malinda by @potionboy3 nick sagar as leonidas malinda by @potionboy3

fantastic beasts:

gugu mbatha-raw as ethel malinda lucien laviscount as everett malinda antonia thomas as eloise malinda jamie dornan as rory o'neill by @unfortunate-arrow jude hill as miles o'neill by @unfortunate-arrow millie davis as jane o'neill malia baker as catherine "kate" o'neill by @unfortunate-arrow

hphm:

chiwetel ejiofor as mervyn malinda thandiwe newton as juniper malinda, née raeburn elliot knight as jacob malinda iman benson as verna malinda bianca lawson as elinor greengrass, née malinda savannah steyn as eliza greengrass samantha logan as evangeline "angie" greengrass celeste o'connor as evenin "eve" greengrass

hpma:

lauren ridloff as verna malinda keri russell as merula malinda, née snyde eren m. güvercin as rowan "roe" malinda nico parker as acacia malinda

[blackcharactertournament]

Submitted explanations:

Frozone

Submission(s) opted out of sharing their explanations.

Kendra Young

the second slayer who is called after buffy dies for a few minutes, v dedicated to slaying, killed off far too soon, bianca lawson looks identical now as she did 20 years ago, carries a stake called mister pointy

[atopvisenyashill]

whose photo did you use for aelinor penrose in the graphic where she’s the hypothetical granddaughter of baela? i recognize india from queen charlotte in the granddaughter of rhaena graphic

damn i think i mixed up the dragon twins 😭 who is the aelinor penrose who isn’t queen charlotte dhshdhshdj

aldklsafj it's fine anon lmao. here's the graphic anon is referring to btw, from my "how is aelinor related to house targaryen" meta-

The Aelinor Penrose that is the granddaughter of Rhaena (on the right) is Samantha Barks. She played Eponine in the Les Miserables movie and 25th anniversary, and has been in a bunch of productions since then (her oom pa pa as nancy in oliver! is genuinely one of my favorites, she's so fun). She has one (1) black grandparent so I thought she'd be a good fit for Aelinor!

If anyone is curious about my fancasts (i know how hard it is to find period resources for PoC!!) it's-

Viserys II - Linus Roache

Aegon IV - Alfred Molina

Daeron II - Marc Warren

Aerys I - Sami Zayn. The only not really accurate casting here, because I struggled on finding a North African or Palestinian fancast that has a facial heir, looks white, isn't egregiously old, and I hadn't already used for the Martells lmao, so I went with my man Sami Zayn (real name Rami Sebei), who is Syrian (so still West Asian like Palestinians) (and also a cool dude and great wrestler).

Daenaera Velaryon - Jodie Turner

Aegon III - Jamie Campbell Bower

Elaena - Kylie Bunbury (not a lot of people know this but her mom is white! she's my go to "mixed people should not be barred from playing monoracial characters because a lot of mixed people do not actually get clocked as being mixed" right next to bianca lawson as "plenty of light skinned people are in fact monoracial too").

Ronnet Penrose - Max Irons

Alyn Velaryon - gonna be real honest I just grabbed a model off pinterest because the Alyn casting hadn't been released yet when I made this lmao

Rhaena Specific Fancasts

Alyssa Hightower - Ruby Barker

Aelinor Penrose - Samantha Barks

Laena Penrose - Antonia Thomas

Robin Penrose - Regé-Jean Page

Ronnel Penrose - Willy Cartier (his mom is senegalese and vietnamese and he's talked a lot about how her identity has affected his own mixed identity which was why he came to mind)

Baela Specific Fancasts

Laena II Velaryon - Crystal Clarke

Ronnel Penrose - Howard Charles

Laena Penrose - Denée Benton

Robin Penrose - Adetomiwa Edun

Jon Waters - Adrian Lester

Jeyne Waters - Karidja Touré (she's in that amazing movie Girlhood but this picture is from a short film she was in called The Adventures of Selika)

Aelinor Penrose - India Amarteifio

Also here are some cute pics of the actors and their fams-

[samantha barks and her mom and grandma (and sibling I think); willy cartier and his mom leah cartier; kylie bunbury and her mom; kylie bunbury and her dad and siblings]

[midnightsun-if]

I feel like I need to address that female Sloane’s fc is Halle Berry and how much I love you for that. That’s it, that’s all I wanted to say.

😂, I’m glad that you approve. A young Halle Berry has the vibe I’m going for… With a little of Bianca Lawson thrown in too probably.

[sloanexlawson]

→ INTRODUCING SLOANE LAWSON

in character

Name: Sloane Lawson

Faceclaim: Chloe Bennett

Gender & Pronouns: Cisfemale & She/her

Age: 32

Birthday: January 5th, 1992

Occupation: Associate @ Finishing Touches & tattoo artist @ sinful ink

Neighborhood: South Hills / recently moved to masonboro

Sexuality: bisexual

Does your character have a secret? She attempted to poison her ex husband after he cut her off and instead accidentally almost killed one of her kids instead.

biography

tw: death, drugs, foster care

foster care wasn't exactly something she thought would ever happen to her but then again, what kid expects to end up in the system? sloane was the only child of bianca and dino stanley, two people who got married when they shouldn't have. two people who had kids when they should have. and finally, two people that thought that drugs were more important than the kid that they were supposed to take care of. sloane basically raised herself until she was seven and that's the age she found both of her parents overdosed in their living room after getting off of the school bus. panicked, she called the cops and she was sure that was the beginning to the end.

she went through a couple of foster homes before she ultimately landed herself at the lawson's, which followed with her being adopted. sloane had never felt more loved than she did there and if she were being honest, she wished that the lawson's were her real parents, the ones that had her all along but regardless of what she hoped for, she still knew that everything happened for a reason, even if it were fucked up.

sloane, once lanky and awkward, grew into her body as a teenager and she was pretty popular with the boys. none of that really mattered to her. she was more focused on her art than anything else. that was, until she met tanner, her high school sweet heart and soon to be husband. art, while it was still important, was put to the back burner and she turned down an art scholarship to marry tanner and follow him off to his own college of choice.

his family was already pretty loaded and so they were taken care of regardless of what the two decided to do, even after they had their two sons. when she had her boys, they were the only things that mattered to her. really, her family was the only thing that mattered. she really believed that she had it all and that she would always live that perfect life but once tanner passed the bar and joined his uncle's firm in seattle, he became more interested in his assistant than he did sloane, which ultimately resulted in him cutting sloane off and their boys too. his life with them wasn't something he wanted anymore.

heartbroken and furious, she attempted to poison him. sloane made a pie with a little something in it in attempt to fake a peace offering but before she could get it delivered, one of her son's ate a piece and it resulted in them in the emergency room. that was certainly something she didn't have the money for but her kids were her world.

since her original plan didn't work, that being landing his life insurance before the divorce was finalized, she packed them all up and moved back to wilmington, and right back into her adoptive parents home. she was lucky kian handed her a job and to make a little extra, she started working at the adult store. eventually, she landed them an apartment in south hills.

she picked up art once again and decided to focus on the important things in life. now, her family is first and anything else is second.

[wilmingtoncrp]

As the event was in full swing—everyone enjoying the activities for the Springtide Bash—the attendees were startled by an unexpected broadcast on the town's emergency alert system. A distorted voice began speaking, capturing everyone's attention. The mysterious figure behind the broadcast claimed to have irrefutable evidence that implicates a well-known and respected figure in the community in the death of Mayor Thompson 30 years ago.

"Citizens of our town, I come to you today with a heavy heart and a truth that has been buried for far too long. The evidence I possess will shock you to your core and shatter the illusion of trust you have placed in one of your own. For 30 years, the death of Mayor Thompson has been a mystery, a tragedy that has haunted our community. But now, I can reveal that Abraham Lawson, the very person you have admired and respected, played a crucial role in the mayor's untimely demise."

"The motive is clear: Abraham had a secret connection to The Tattler, the notorious figure who has plagued our town for decades. Together, they conspired to eliminate Mayor Thompson, who had discovered their nefarious dealings and threatened to expose them. The cover-up that followed was an intricate web of lies and deceit, masterminded by him and his allies; the influential Ashford family, Evangeline and Eleanor, Peter Aquino, Michael Hayes, the charitable Minhyuk Yoon-Castillo, Bianca Johnson, Samuel Johnson and Melodie Clark. They have spent the last three decades burying the truth, silencing witnesses, and manipulating the narrative to maintain their facade of innocence."

"But no longer. The evidence I hold is irrefutable, and it will bring their house of cards crashing down. Unless Abraham comes forward and confesses to his role in Mayor Thompson's death, I will release this damning proof to the world, and he will face the consequences of his actions, along with his co-conspirators. The time for secrets is over. The truth will be revealed, and justice will be served. The choice is yours, Abraham. Confess and face the judgment of your community, or watch as your carefully crafted world unravels before your eyes."

Chaos erupted as the broadcast ended, leaving the town reeling from the revelation. The accused individuals—if present at the event—faced immediate scrutiny and questioning from the authorities and the public alike. 

OOC

Feel free to add the new development to your threads, if you want to.

Have fun!

[avatarskywalker78]

Formal OC Introductions - Emma Johnson (fc Bianca Lawson)

As most of my OCs on my Masterlists were added after the initial post, I'm going to be posting about the ones you might not've seen for the next couple weeks!

Three months after the Terrigen Crystals were introduced into the ecosystem, Emma Johnson undergoes Terrigenesis and gains the power of night vision and camouflage - three months after that she, along with two other NuHumans, are found by Triton and brought to Attilan, the Lunar City. It is a sparkling and glamorous place and Black Bolt is welcoming enough, but Emma can already sense there's something not quite right - it's clear that of the elites look down on them because they were born on Earth, and once she strikes up a friendship with Maximus, the King's brother, this becomes even more pronounced. When Crystal outs him as human, Emma is enraged at her actions and comes to his defense - something nobody was expecting. Their friendship grows stronger as a result, and he explains and later shows her the truth about Attilan- that it's built on a rigid caste system, one nobody is interested in changing. That those with powers deemed 'useless' are forced to work in the mines for the rest of their lives, and those deemed too dangerous locked up for the rest of their lives...and not only that, some NuHumans are already in the mines. Emma is horrified and furious, especially as it's clear that his family are perfectly fine with how things are. It becomes clear there's only one way forward, and Emma soon becomes one of the revolution's main supporters, using her own position to gain information and make plans. A change is coming to Attilan, and nothing will ever be the same...

Tagging (let me know if you want to be added or removed): @shrinkthisviolet @ocappreciationtag @starstruckpurpledragon @daughter-of-melpomene

[jangyeevns]

in reference to this post, i’m gonna have a lax little group set in huntington beach, california and surrounding muses ages 21-45 ( maybe 50.. i’ll tweak soon when i decide ) because older muses deserve a place too !! i’m capping it at ten muns for now and it’ll be moots/friends/vibe check clearance exclusive for maximum comfort for everyone. basic rules and info are as follows:

obviously, no god-modding, ship/face-chasing, bubble roleplaying, ooc drama, generally abusive, insensitive or intolerant behaviour, etc or you’re out ! we’re all adults here, so while i’ll intervene when something is brought to my attention, i should assume we all know how to act for these tough and uncomfortable conversations to be avoided or handled privately and considerately.

age ( outside of established rule in next point ) and race-bending are also BIG no’s so let’s not do that, yeah?

muses, fcs and muns must be 21+ to be considerate of ages of majority in some parts, and the rule for aging a muse will be +/- 4 years per the fc’s current age.

recent community fuckery has me adding this, smh. if shipping/having romantic connections comes about, do consider the ages of both muse and fc and not indulge in massive age gaps or power imbalances; chemistry is so valid, but we also have to bear in mind the implications of a 30+ year old fc being with a 22 year old fc, especially as 21 is the youngest age accepted.

you can apply with 2 muses with one being gender, body or racially diverse since i’m not about to facilitate a white and cis as fuck environment because there’s no reason in 2023 ?? this goes for every second muse you pick up when additional muses are allowed once things kick off.

banned fcs shouldn’t have to be rattled off like crazy since lots of lists exist for people who don’t wish to be used and we know most of the problematic people to be wary of, but for those who are either still used in abundance or conflict with personal comfort ( which muns can add onto once accepted ), they include: the hadids, the jenners, kj apa, cole sprouse, nicola peltz, justin bieber, timothée chalamet, ester exposito, dove cameron, danna paola, legacies cast, angus cloud, any zionist, pro-trump or anti-blm tools, sabrina carpenter, george sear, gavin leatherwood, matt daddario, josefine frida pettersen.

interest checks will be on a weekly basis since we all have work, school and other commitments to prioritize at times and rp is a hobby ! since this won’t be an open group, activity checks and hiatuses won’t be mandatory at the moment.

THE APP !

[ faceclaim, age, gender, pronouns ] — i think i just saw FIRST LAST leaving the pier with AESTHETIC ITEM + AESTHETIC ITEM in hand. you haven’t heard of them? they’re a/n OCCUPATION from HOMETOWN, living in NEIGHBOURHOOD and you can always find them at THEIR FAVOURITE SPOT. i don’t know, they seem pretty - NEGATIVE to most, but i thought they were + POSITIVE when i spoke to them; we’ll just have to wait and see what else they have in store for us. [ mun name/alias, age, pronouns, tz ]

feel free to add extras to get a feel for your muse ! it doesn’t impact acceptance if i’m being honest, but i always love a little insight if someone’s even willing to provide it LMAO

SAMPLE APP !

[ tingting_lai, 22, cis woman, she/her ] — i think i just saw PHOEBE ZHU leaving the pier with A SCRUNCHIE COORDINATED TO HER OUTFIT + RASPBERRY PEACH ITALIAN SODA in hand. you haven’t heard of them? they’re a STUDENT/RETAIL CLERK from SOUTHPORT, CONNECTICUT, living in GOLDENWEST and you can always find them at THE BEACH. i don’t know, they seem pretty - PERFECTIONISTIC to most, but i thought they were + EBULLIENT when i spoke to them; we’ll just have to wait and see what else they have in store for us. [ jules, 25, she/her, nt ]

TAKEN FCS !

tingting_lai, bianca lawson

MUN COUNT + FCS !

tbd !

[celestriahq]

do you happen to have a most wanted species and potential face claim? i want to join but i want to make sure that whoever i bring contributes to the group. thanks 😊

* 𝐚��𝐬𝐰𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐝 ! currently would love to see more draki, daemonaki or humans ! here are some most wanted fcs too but whoever you bring will contribute to the group bc YOU will contribute with your shining face + ideas <3

adeline rudolph, adria arjona, aisha dee, aishwarya rai, alberto rosende, alex blue davis, alex landi, andy beirsak, any skarsgard, alisha wainwright, amber midthunder, ana de armas, andrew koji, angela saradyan, anna lamb, anya taylor joy, aslihan malbora, avan jogia, bae suzy, bailey bass, banita sandhu, ben levin, berk cankat, bianca lawson, brenda song, brianne howey, briante tju, brittany o'grady, candice patton, casey cott, chance perdomo, charles melton, charles michael davis, chase sui wonders, chella man, danai gurira, daniel henney, davika hoorne, dayo okeniyi, deepika padukone, demet ozdemir, dev patel, diana penty, diana silvers, diane gurrero, dichen lachman, dilraba dilmurat, dylan wang, eddie liu, ella balinska, eric dane, evan mock, freddy carter, froy gutierrez, gemma chan, go min si, hari nef, harry shum jr, hayden christensen, henry golding, hunter shafer, india amarteifio, isaiah mustafa, jacob anderson, jameela jamil, jesse williams, jessica alexander, jonathan daviss, kaylee bryant, keith poewrs, khadijha red thunder, kim woo bin, kofi siriboe, lewis tan, levy tran, lisette olivera, lizeth selene, lucien laviscount, luke mitchell, lupita nyong'o, mads mikkelsen, mahesh jadu, maria rascal, mason gooding, mena massoud, melisa pamuk, myra molloy, nathalie kelley, nicole maines, ok taecyeon, olivia holt, quintessa swindell, rahul kholi, raymond ablack, sarah shahi, savannah lee smith, sean teale, sobhita dhulipala, tati ganrielle, taron egerton, tesa thompson, theo james, tom hilland, wawwa nicha, zendaya, yasmin finney, zion moreno, zoro natharuetai.

[foundershq]

I absolutely loved Witches Of East End and I've been in love with Jenna since her Step Up days. I've been trying to find and read all of the Witches books, I'm still sour with how the show got cancelled. Apologies to my members, I love to change up my mascot too much! On the other hand, I'd love to see the faces from the show make an appearance here! I know Bianca Lawson has a variety of resources! She would make an excellent Banshee or Necromancer.

[halliescomut]

BL Hot Take? - Acting Pairs & Age Gaps

This is likely not actually a hot take, but I'm interested in the conversation as a whole and I want to post my thoughts.

I have seen, for obvious reasons an uptick in discussions regarding age gaps for actors paired together. I tend to call these sets of actors acting pairs or acting partners, and that's how I'll refer to them here. All it means is two actors who work together portraying multiple characters and in each set of media those characters are in a relationship with each other. It's not to indicate the personal relationship between the actors themselves is romantic. We have multiple examples of acting pairs: Earth and Mix, Ohm and Fluke, Boun and Prem. These examples all have very minor differences in their ages, Earth-Mix's being the widest at 4 years. A good amount of the acting pairs in most of the shows from the last couple of years are usually 6-7 year age differences or less, when their characters themselves are meant to be approximately the same age. It is of course different with series depicting couples where the characters have a significant age gap like 180 Degree Longitude and Minato's Laundromat.

Now, for the more problematic acting pairs. So, in general when you see this discussion you have 4 key examples being brought up. Zee and Nunew, Max and Nat, Cooheart and Santa, and Jeff and Barcode. All of these acting pairs have an 8+ year age difference. Their characters have a range of age differences with Zee and Nunew's characters in Cutie Pie having what looks to be about a 6-8 year age difference, Jeff and Barcode's a 5-6 year age difference, and Santa and Cooheart's no age difference at all.

Now age differences between actors in acting pairs is incredibly common. You will most often see it with straight couples since we are discussing repeat pairings my example is Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson who have a ten year age difference. But it's also present in queer couples too. One of the wildest examples being in Pretty Little Liars where you see a 31 year old (Bianca Lawson) and 23 year old (Shay Mitchell) playing a 16-17 year old couple.

When it comes to the acceptability of these age gaps among actors, when that same age gap is not being presented in the characters, it is going to be a little bit of a 'your mileage may vary' situation. For me personally it comes down to what those actors are being asked to portray, in addition to the age of the younger actor. So for the examples previously set, upon their first acting roles as a pair Barcode, Santa, and Nat were all underage during filming, and nowhere in those series are they doing anything even remotely close to an NC scene or really even something that wouldn't be allowed on primetime TV or in a PG movie. In contrast, Nunew was 20 and Nat was 19 when they filmed the Cutie Pie series. The NC scenes for Nunew and Zee, while not graphic are more explicit and more focused on because they're the main couple. Nat's romantic scenes with Max are much shorter and more allusionary. As we move into 2023 we are supposed to get a Max and Nat lead series focusing on their Cutie Pie characters, which Nat will be 20 years old very close to 21 at the time of filming. It's likely those romantic scenes will more closely mirror what we've seen so far from Zee and Nunew, which is a PG-13+ level as far as western standards.

So, since we all know this topic is up again because of Jeff and Barcode let's talk about their upcoming series. The series itself is being done as a collaboration with a Korean production company and is set in Korea. The vibe of the trailer does more closely match what you normally see with Korean BLs. It is likely that it will also maintain the common standard that Korean BL tends to have as far as sex scenes. It's also been mentioned that it's a comedy. It's HIGHLY unlikely there would be any scene closely resembling the sex scenes from KinnPorsche. It wouldn't fit with the intended atmosphere they're creating. If it's depicted at all, it's likely to maintain a more atmospheric and romantic quality versus being graphic or explicit. Probably the closest comparison would be Roommates of Poongduck 304.

Now, I will be honest with you, I don't think any actor who's underage should be portraying anything more explicit than what's allowed before 8 pm on a weeknight on network television (which just comes down to kissing, maybe hands under clothing, allusion to clothing removal, then fade to black). I feel this way regardless of the age of their acting partner, and regardless of the age of the character. It's unnecessary and exploitative.

If the actor is over 18, they are a legally an adult and able to make their own decisions about the roles they play. This includes anything encroaching on explicit territory. If you are 18, 19, 20, you are an adult. You have your own voice and ability to use it. There are of course circumstances that can make things problematic, which is behind the scenes persons pressuring an actor to do more than they feel comfortable, and lack of advocates in production spaces. But those are also INDUSTRY problems and are not the fault of the actor or their partner. In the west specifically there has been a push to have intimacy coordinators present for the filming of any scenes intended to show sex. Their job is to advocate on behalf of the actors and help ensure a safe working environment. It's also very common to have closed sets and minimal staff for filming these types of scenes. I can't speak directly to the standards in East Asia, I simply don't have enough information. All I can guess is that it's unlikely that anyone not required to be there to keep filming going would be on set for those types of scenes, because why are you going to pay people to be there when they're not actively needed.

I think what leads to a dissonance with seeing these acting pairs is the fanservice that is encouraged (and occasionally required) by production companies. It blurs lines to have these actors doing performative affection with their acting partners outside of filming or workshopping. I truly think that's where the icky feeling comes from for your average viewer. You are more often seeing the actors (not the characters) behaving in a couple-y romantic way while being aware of that age difference and then you're seeing private bedroom moments on screen in the series.

Another thing I want to note, just because you feel someone is too young or too innocent for portraying sex in a series or film, if they're legal adults they're simply not. Like I'm not gonna claim I know who's a virgin and who isn't, but by 18 years old practically everyone knows what sex is, has thought about having it, and there's a reasonable chance they've had it. Found this fun chart based around a study done by the Durex condom company:

So I guess in conclusion, you can feel the way you feel, but try not to infantilize grown adults, and be sure to keep characters and actors separate. Promoting and encouraging safe work environments for actors is very important, so spread the word about intimacy coordinators. And as always, if actors are reporting exploitative and abusive work environments, whether on set or not, believe them and hold those companies accountable however you can.

[27vampyresinhermind]

That’s why though! A vampire can’t play a vampire. It’d be too on-the-nose. That’s why he’s just eternally playing young roles. He’s like the Bianca Lawson of Thailand. At this point, I’m convinced Earth will be in his fifties and still convincingly playing teenage roles! The man does not age!!

Santa Pongsapak The Vampire Project (trailer)