#atots text

[smittenskitten]

LIVE PRAN PAT REACTION

(BOMBASTIC SIDE EYE)

tian is savage

they outright called each other sluts

I MISSED THEM SO FUCKING MUCH

[thegayneurodivergentagenda]

[taeminie]

it would be so funny if phutian go to bangkok and they run into khaotung and they’re like omg longtae!!!!! and he’s like “longtae who? my name is ayan”

[chinzhilla]

tell me why tian petting phupha’s hair while he’s unconscious made me burst into tears 😭

[chickenstrangers]

What really struck me about this final BBxATOTS episode, and in line with the other crossover episodes, was the importance of queer stories, and more specifically, queer community through stories. I keep coming back to the plays conceit in both Bad Buddy and Our Skyy 2 because this is how it best explores the interplay between texts and awareness of itself as a story.

I love that A Tale of a Thousand Stars is the play that Pran chose, outside of it being used to fuel the crossover. Pran found Tian's diary online somehow, maybe looking for other stories of people like him, and it spoke to him. It resonated enough with him that he wanted to put in the extra work to adapt it, and make the trek out to the mountains. Tian is able to tell his story in his own words in a more public way than Pran maybe can, and through that story they connected with each other.

Being able to tell their own stories is so impactful. Tian got to write down and share how he sees his relationship and his journey. Pran explicitly seeks and obtains Phupha's permission, and Phupha even sets the terms upon which he is comfortable with the play, determining who he trusts with their story. It also shows growth that Phupha let them portray his story like that, showing him as a romantic lead, and while there is of course a lot more to his character than his relationship, it shows he's less hesitant about sharing this side of himself more openly.

We got to see Phupha and Tian's reactions to the play highlighted, seeing that they appreciated the portrayal. We also saw Ink and Pa's reactions, how moved they were by the play and Pat and Pran being able to portray it; how the story was received by other queer people. These special episodes are exploring the tension between needing to hide and wanting to be seen and open, and in the play, both Phupha and Tian, and Pat and Pran got to open a little bit about themselves to others. Even though it is Tian and Phupha's story on stage, Pat and Pran are telling their own as well.

The play is an adaptation, and like all adaptations, it revises the original. Pat and Pran are all about revising stories, and sometimes completely rewriting them and throwing away the originals. But unlike with Romeo and Juliet/Kwan and Riam, they don't change the story, though it is nuanced by their performance and the context of it (lines about not sacrificing yourself to repay for someone else's life taking on new nuances when spoken to Pat as Tian as @grapejuicegay brilliantly pointed out; mirroring Phu and Tian's hug before the kiss but at first only intending it to end with the hug because they're not supposed to be publicly affectionate). But they're performing a romance, not a tragedy this time, and they are taking on ATOTS' happy ending for themselves as well.

There's a lot of agency in this act of adaptation, outside of the play itself, in a way that there explicitly wasn't with the first school play in Bad Buddy. This performance parallels so clearly the forced outing in episode 8. The curtain closes on a kiss, and Pat and Pran are aware of their audience during it, instead of the curtain falling open violently on a private moment of affection. Instead of the shocked stares from their peers, the loathing in Wai's eyes, and the subsequent shunning from their friends, Pat and Pran's kiss is met by their community with love and encouragement. Pat and Pran are hesitant to kiss at first, but it is because of the support of their friends that they push past the barriers between the characters and themselves. Ink, Pa, Wai, Korn, Phupha, and Tian are there to witness their public affection, and support them. Rather than rewriting the ending of Romeo and Juliet/Kwan and Riam, this time the show is rewriting part of Pat and Pran's own story, in a way that feels healing.

It's unclear how much Phupha and Tian knew about Pat and Pran's situation with regards to their parents, but in any case, with his one condition, Phupha has given them an opportunity to be somewhat open about their relationship more safely. They get to work together openly to put on the play, similar to how building the bus shelter and Kwan & Riam gave them an excuse to spend time together. They get to be affectionate in public for the first time maybe since they ran away to the beach. Pran's mom sees the video of the play, but doesn't react too negatively because they have the excuse of just playing their characters. But even there we see a softening, because the last time she saw them working on a concert together, she tore them apart. Here it's possible to see her taking small steps towards quietly accepting their relationship.

A lot of Pat and Pran's relationship is about performing. They pretend to be enemies for most of the original show, first to hide their feelings, and then playacting fights and animosity in front of their friends and parents. They even fake a fight to stop Tian and Phupha's argument. But here they get to perform as lovers, as people in a relationship, as something a bit closer to the truth. But its also important that they had a moment as themselves, "Now that we're behind the curtain can we kiss as Pat and Pran?" There's a healthy separation between the performance and their authentic selves.

We saw this episode as both couples were able to be more open about their relationships, in part aided by each other. Pat and Pran helped Phupha get out of his head, modelling a level of affection he wasn't very comfortable with before due to a lot of internalized homophobia as well as other tensions (@wen-kexing-apologist explores this so beautifully). And Phupha and Tian gave Pat and Pran to show a bit of themselves by acting out the play. And most of all, they were able to be more affectionate with their partners due to the sense of comfort their newfound friendship fostered, and building queer community. (And I'm thinking a lot about the ideas of community that Aof often explores, as @waitmyturtles discusses so wonderfully (x, x)). The whole special is brought together by the sharing of stories, by portraying others thoughtfully, by connecting over common experiences.

It's not a perfect happy ending. This episode reminded us of how Pat and Pran are still not as open as they want to be, and won't be able to be for years to come. Having that small moment on stage is bittersweet in the grand scheme of things, but it allowed them to reflect a part of their story in front of others, while also telling Tian and Phupha's love story. But there's still happiness there, and community that they've built with Pa, Ink, Wai, Korn, and now Tian and Phupha. I hope they'll get to visit the mountains again, like they return to the beach, and get those little spots of refuge in their lives. And it's nice to know that we're still just in the middle of Pat and Pran's story.

[letgomaggie]

We know P’Aof is a creative genius and his use of literary references are very purposeful and never in vain. I was struggling to see the point of using something like Snow White -- a very happy fairytale -- as a play reference, especially against ATOTS, which is intertextual and meta and lines up so well. Of course, of course it wouldn’t be that easy right? So, I have a few thoughts on how the Snow White allusion will play out. 

1. The first and most obvious one to me was about, again, perspective. (It’s always perspective with P’Aof I swear). We have with us yet again, two tales, and two perspectives. One is a classic Western tale that’s always been up for revision. The other is a native text, that ponders the act of revision and retelling itself. 

I think a lot of this is referential to their futures and their present. @chickenstrangers talks about queer temporality and queer futurity here. Let’s remember that the events of BBS EP 12 are still in the future - yet to happen - for OS2 PatPran. We know the destination - and this is what makes this version very obviously a happy story. But Pat and Pran are still walking the path to this destination. I think we’re seeing them at a point in their relationship where they are not in complete sync with each other. They’re still walking the same road, they’re just not in step with each other. And that’s okay! 

It’s also important to look at who is bringing forth what to the table. The engineering faculty is the one which has chosen Snow White. Architecture is choosing ATOTS. One is Western, far removed from Pat and Pran’s lived realities -- it is instead a dream, a fairytale. It’s also bold about love, where differences exist but love exists alongside it. The Prince and the Princess didn’t have to fight with the world to love each other, they only had to find their way to each other. (I’m recalling Pat’s realisations about his feelings for Pran, the blind optimism he brought to the table, the way he kissed Pran and felt good vs the way Pran approached the kiss -- with despair, sadness, guilt, fear. Please look at this wonderful exploration of the kiss here.) Pat was in a romcom! His optimism bleeds through -- he still wants to be able to love Pran openly, he’s got a charade going -- the charade of death! Snow White! -- but he’s hopeful of living without the charade in the future. (look here as well!) For Pran, he’s very much living in the present. ATOTS is a real, lived story of queer love and struggle. He too wants to live without the charade, but for him, the nuances of the struggle are much more pronounced. 

One is an old story, and its simply a story. One is a new tale and its a lived reality at that. We’re exploring hopes and dreams in the face of reality and imagination baby! Pat and Pran want to chart their own course, and they need to find a way to blend these two outlooks together. 

They’re both trying to explore the question of “If they can, why can’t we?” but they’re looking for hope in different places. Considering the open ending of the BBS storyline, and the fact that one of them goes abroad while the other stays with his family business -- the future they end up choosing is the one their partner looked at first. They’re still learning from each other, and they continue to grow together. 

P’Aof, let me kiss your forehead PLEASE. 

2. We’re addressing underlying themes of patriarchy! We know that P’Aof’s shows are genre aware as well as time aware. We also know that retellings for him are heavily about subversion, among other things. I’m focusing on the subversion right now because it’s not just any story -- Its Snow White, a classic Western fairy tale, that is well known for its revisionist retellings! Retellings and fairytales (especially the Grimm’s) go hand in hand. Retellings are, in the postmodern context, about unmasking the ideologies inherent in the story and then flipping it. 

Early on, we establish that Pat is the so called prince and Pran is the so called princess in need of rescue. Or is it? Pran has been the one leading Pat this time on divergent and creative thinking. It’s Pran who is taking risks, doing things on his, going after what he wants. It’s also Pran who gets lost (with Tian) and needs rescuing. Pat is part of the rescue effort. But who ends up rescuing whom? 

A sidenote to this point: Pran is also hurt and exploring his independence from Pat while being in a relationship. The fight they have seems petty on the outside and they are certainly mature enough to try and find a way of communication that best fits them i.e. the bet but Pat is the one who needs to apologize and relearn this time. It is clear that there is a modicum of hurt on both ends. They are trying to solve their concerns on their own, as well as together, as well as with the help of others. So, who is rescuing whom and where? Is it Pat rescuing Pran? Is it Pran rescuing Pat? Is it Pran rescuing Tian? Or is it Phupha rescuing Pat? Or is it any other way around? We don’t know yet, but the whole tiger thing makes me think this will definitely be alluded to, if not addressed. 

3. Mirrors! Mirrors in older gays! Mirroring each other stories! 

The first mirror is again, related to perspective. Pran is the one showing Pat how to look at the wooden bench as a mirror for the Snow White adaptation. I also read it as Pran holding up the mirror of reality for Pat -- atleast, a foreshadowing of this, because Pat wants to be open and Pran is more focused on the reality of it all. That they address this in a fantasy situation where anything can veritably happen is so interesting because I think it hints at how BBS EP 12 ended: the future they live there is still happy, and its all a lot of careful planning. Planning, I think, that took place in the time period we see in OS2. They’re figuring it out, laying all the what ifs out and seeing how it goes. 

But they’re still young, and they’re still kids, so Pran gives into a little pettiness and leaves Pat at the bus stop. Pat follows anyways. 

Onto Phupha and Tian: they’re messy y’all. They’re able to see each other in Pat and Pran, and this has been discussed elsewhere. 

Here’s a few posts that examine mirroring/elements of it in the OS2 episodes: here, here, here. (These are the three that stood out to me the most but there’s a few more out there.) 

 Overall, we have been able to see these two episodes address crossovers, the metatextuality of ATOTS, and parallelism across the two shows - of each other AND of themselves. 

 Phupha - Pat and Tian - Pran is genius mirroring in my opinion, and the fact that they examine peril in these pairings is going to be interesting. 

The most important thing jumping out to me is the whole: I see him in you but I also see myself in you. I’ve been here before. I want to be where you are. Literally, pick one of the four and they fit all of these simultaneously. It’s so potent, I cannot shake the fact that this is really going to be super important soon.

I’m not expounding too much on mirroring right now because we have two episodes more to go, and I have also linked all the places this has already been touched upon. We must wait for further insights.

4. The setting. We move from the city to the forest. The city is where ATOTS wants to be. The forest is where BBS wants to be. One show desperately wants to address reality and move out of the liminal space it exists in (ATOTS). The other has been grappling with reality for so long that it seeks the safety of the forest, where reality cannot touch them if they don’t want it to (BBS). BOTH shows have couples that are seeking to strike a balance in their relationships. 

Although we are yet to see Phupha and Tian come down from the mountain, the trailer for OS2 seemed to imply they will. With BBS, we have seen them move already. Even though they are seeking the independence the setting provides them with, let’s also remember that Pran is trying to put on a show based in lived reality. And so, they continue to call each other buddy here -- they can’t shake it off. Even in front of an older queer couple -- who they know have seen their fair share of trials and tribulations and will be safe around -- they keep to their reality. I think an echo (mirroring!) may happen with Phupha and Tian when they descend the mountain. 

Other implications of the forest include: isolation, independence, freedom and fear. The City vs The Forest in OS2 is simply about finding your place in the world. Snow White moves from her life of luxury to a life of daily toil that she does not resent. She moves back to royalty at the end of her story, but her stay with the dwarfs was formative for her. BBS x ATOTS x OS2 is investigating movement and change.  

Tian has made the choice to move from his life of luxury to the forest with Phupha and its not a choice he regrets. That’s been made clear for us. He however, does wish to strike a balance. He is okay with new things in a way Phupha is not. Phupha finds the city a place he does not know his place in. He’s afraid of what it means to not have his duty define him first and so he sticks to what is familiar to him. (hmm who else do we see this in, I wonder.) Pran and Pat are living in a glass closet and its stifling. Each time they try to ‘escape’, its to places that are very far removed from their reality, and where they can only be guests. They yearn for the freedom these places -- Zero Waste Village, Chiang Mai -- provide. Pat immediately wants to recreate the honeymoon, and he goes so far as to pitch a tent in their house to bring in a sense of that freedom. He’s thinking about their time in the Zero Waste Village as an ideal he would like to have for them permanently. Pran is not comfortable evading reality. He’s scared of what the relationship might do to everything else that he is and has. (Ahem, this is such a clean mirror guys, what did they use to get this shine?) I can continue to ramble about fear of loss of control, what does freedom really mean, change and adjustment in relationships, growth etc. etc. but I want to see what P’Aof and co have in store for us. 

5. Someone gets injured. They have to, its implied heavily and also -- Snow White. It could be literally any of the four or it could be the kid. The whole rescue thing is also about returning from the point of no return. (Death in Snow White, I don’t know what in OS2?) A little bit more on the death motif here by @chickenstrangers .This is also in conjunction to my point on who saves whom (point 2). This is one I really think the next two episodes will shed better light on, so I’m simply jotting it down here and hoping for the best.

Anyways, this was me holding a sermon in the town square, thank you for listening. Come Wednesday, P’Aof and co will come strolling in to the square, drinks in hand, and say “see you looking, catch it, here’s your cola” and dump all their soda all over me. And you know what? I will welcome it. 

A small biblio of bad buddy meta and other posts I have been reading and thinking about, and posts I think in some way or another talk about the things I have mentioned here: 

Growth and Aging of Queer Relationships by @moonlitfantasyblr and @waitmyturtles 

They Love Each Other! by @gracefulnosplinters​

Nong Nao Mask by @lurkingshan​

A Full Circle by @jemmo

[waitmyturtles]

Well — I can’t believe it’s over. Moonlight Chicken was… I’ll get the words for it. Satisfying is the first one that comes to mind. And MC was my first beginning-to-end fandom on Tumblr. The big brains, the META, the psychological and cultural analyses! I’m a peon in a sea of passionate geniuses here. I love this community so much.

Where do we start. Moonlight Chicken, episode 8/finale thoughts and impressions. As usual, quick hits first, then the big thinks.

1) So much wonderful fan service. And I know that fan service can often take a show out, and when fan service is included in a script, I’m sure that at times, it makes directors and screenwriters grit their teeth. But I’m REALLY THANKFUL for all the fan service with all the couples, and yes, I’m including First and Khao here, because — come awn, the way these two almost OVERACTED their relaxedness at the bank and the food truck at the end, I was giggle-crying. Had we seen Alan smile any bigger at any other point in the show than at the food truck? THE SWAPPING OF THE CHAT IDs? THOSE CUTE LOOKS? KHAO’S little head shakes? THE TURN AFTER RECEIVING THAT MYSTERY CHAT? THANK YOU, AOFFFFF, thank yoooouuuu! Thank you for knowing exactly what you were doing for us and our ships, ha.

A dear anon recommended My School President to me, and I’m gonna definitely watch it, because I’m officially a GemFourth stan. More on this later, but I absolutely adored that their storyline took up a huge chunk of screentime. Besides the storyline interweaving beautifully with the major theme arcs of this last episode, their chemistry just could not be better. It’s been well documented how Fourth has been EATING his role, but Gemini, too! The TEXTS! The knowing looks! How much Gemini is able to communicate just by looking at Fourth. SO SATISFYING AND FULFILLING, GAAAHH.

And, and, and — forgive me for being sentimental. Because I’m still so new to this wonderful world of Aof’s work and Thai BLs, I didn’t have to wait as long as so many of y’all in the family for Earth and Mix to reunite in such a good script. But I was still feeling the nostalgia early in the series at seeing these two together, and I felt it so strongly in this episode. Jim FINALLY breaking out of his shell. Calling Wen his boyfriend. Leaning in to make a move (on the wonderful couch). Holding Wen’s hand and squeezing it in response to Wen. Gah. Too great.

Just, like….. how are these GMMTV couples SO GOOD? HOW ARE THEY SO GOOD TOGETHER? (Yes, not quite accurate to call AlanGaipa a couple, but shhhhh.) Anyway, sighs of happiness.

2) LENG. Gossipy. Luv u. Sneaky b.

3) I know we kinda despise her (and by “we,” I mean all of my inner children who want to grab these guilt-stricken, “what do I do nowwwww” whine-whine parents by the throat), but umm, Jam’s a 10! She cute! I liked her mall outfit, I cannot lie.

Jam came full circle. She admits to her shit. She figures out how to come thru in the most sensible way she can. I’ll offer more thoughts in a bit, but I’m actually a little glad that we didn’t get the rage scene that I so WANTED to see in episode 7. She’s ready to pony up for school. That’s the best way she can help, and I’m glad she was written as figuring that out.

What did I see happen to Jam? She leaned into the kind of parenting and family building that she could manage at this point in her life. What she was CAPABLE of, she did. She created a family table for ALL her family. To show that kind of blended family, eating all together, at peace, with a small child in their presence…. to have created a warm environment where Jim could finally, comfortably come out without judgement. She replicated the same table that Jim himself had created at his diner. She’s paying her dues back to BOTH her brother AND her son, both of whom she rejected and abandoned.

I have to hand it to Aof. My inner child’s heart is wrecked at this, but I have to hand it to him. He treats bad parents with compassion. ATOTS, Bad Buddy, and now here. He doesn’t blame bad parents for who they ARE — he instead skewers WHERE THEY CAME FROM, the culture from which these styles of parenting are borne. God, Aof. That’s not necessarily emotionally purging for Asian kids traumatized by the unexplored impact of filial piety. But it’s much more of a realistic artistic meditation, a FAIR one. I see what he did with Jam, and I ultimately have to appreciate it, even if I was dying for a rage episode. I appreciate that Aof, as an artist, will not succumb to base emotion simply because it’s the surface feeling. He will always dig and layer what ends up truly working as an emotionally balanced meditation.

4) Big themes. Once again — a return to the balance between old and new cultures and perspectives, and how us oldies get pulled along into the new age. But also, in this episode, we were reminded of what youngsters bring with THEM, from THEIR pasts, into their future.

This episode focused on Jim’s movement and Li Ming’s movement. Oh, my heart. I’ll start with Li Ming.

Li Ming is really a hero of mine — I think what he demonstrates for me is that youthful FEARLESSNESS towards change that we admire youngsters for so much — while us oldie parents are also worried about them, we fear for them, because we know that there are potholes and pitfalls when change can happen quickly and blindingly.

I think that's what Jim was referring to when he says to Jam that Li Ming helped him (Jim) find his maturity. That was at the core of the night talk that took place in episode 7. I think Jim saw, in Li Ming, what Jim *needed* to see in Li Ming to trust Li Ming with Li Ming's own growth. Jim needed to see that Li Ming could consider his options, and be more emotionally sophisticated and aware than Jim ever has been.

And, I think -- that helped Jim TRUST Li Ming. That wonderful short conversation between Li Ming and Jim, where Jim confirms with Li Ming that Jim is just *worried* about Li Ming, like a parent.

When Li Ming says, "love isn't that big of a deal." When Li Ming talks about other ways that life needs to be sustainable.

Li Ming KNOWS Jim, and knows HOW TO TALK TO JIM.

How brilliant is that, to see that in someone so young, just dominate you, an older person, by way of emotional knowledge and sophistication? Jim had no choice, in my read, but to trust Li Ming -- and, maybe, take some inspiration and take that sophistication, and internalize it, so that he (Jim) could begin to relax and find happiness as well.

5) The other story about Li Ming's movement is between him and Heart, and as I said before, I'm just totally sold on GeminiFourth as a pairing, because their dynamic was really perfect for the growth that needed to be demonstrated between the two of them.

HEART! We saw Heart shoot his shot, dang it! HEART! With his wanting a boyfriend, with his parents learning sign language, with PEOPLE AROUND HIM LEARNING HOW TO TALK TO HIM. On multiple levels, even if we didn't see all of it actively (like with Heart's parents), Heart made demands and shot his shots, just like Li Ming did with his own family.

GOOD GOD -- could Aof have used this motif more wonderfully, so EFFICIENTLY? Young people get shit done! No holds barred, they can bolt through their own obstacles, their own barriers, to get shit done. Young people aren't held down by the past, like some old uncles we know.

And yet. Young people CAN ALSO RESPECT THE PAST, AND BRING LONG-STANDING CULTURE WITH THEM -- as Heart and Li Ming showed at the temple, as Li Ming danced as a lion, bringing in the Lunar New Year (FULL CIRCLE from when the series premiered, y'all!) AND THAT'S GROWTH. That's how the world spins, that's how Pattaya spins -- a place caught in the middle between the old and the new, the historic and the modern. Just like Li Ming and Heart, they are always growing, always maturing, and fast, like young people do, before they get stagnant-ish and older-ish, like Uncle Jim.

6) And then we see the growth paradigm with Jim, as reflected in the mirror of Li Ming. We see Jim -- finally -- loosening up. We see Jim come out as paired up with Wen to his sister. We see them on a date, a romantic date on the beach. (Sure, Jim is still an old dad, complaining about the food or whatever, geez, Jim.)

We see him close the old place, and open a new place. We see that new place as a new and modern way to hold over the old culture -- khao man gai, outside, under the stars, the way it's supposed to be eaten in an equatorial country.

I'm borrowing the following screencap from @hummingbirdsinjune:

We see Jim, finally, reflecting. We see him reflecting on how people were able to move forward, people like Jam and Gaipa, while he reflected on how he was held back. We see him figuring out how he won't hold himself back, and won't LET HIMSELF BE HELD BACK, anymore. He cancels the lease to let go. He, finally, wants to be in control. He sells the car, one of his last links to Beam. And commits to moving forward in so many ways.

And he stays in Pattaya. So we know -- he's still going to be connected to the old ways, the historic culture, of Pattaya.

And when Wen choose to decline the job. When Wen -- AND JIM -- decide to build a home together. Home isn't anything modern. Home is HOME. Home is history. Home is building history together. Jim is both leaving things behind.... and leaving nothing behind. Because he's building all he needs in his life once more.

The building of home with Wen. That's what ultimately took me out about this episode.

7) I believe I finally got the khao man gai analogy to the show that I long wanted before the show premiered. As with Jam's table at her husband's house, when the guys were sitting and eating at the diner before the diner closed. Jim's family, Jim's community. How food brings everyone together. That was a presage, I think, for the home he was going to eventually build with Wen. Y'all know I wanted this, and I'm so glad I got it. Yay, chicken rice.

I'm totally going to have more thoughts over the next few days, but this is what I got for now. I'm so in debt to Aof as an Asian fan of his dramas for giving us such unbelievable commentary on culture and family. We are INCREDIBLY LUCKY to have this artist making these shows. They are so important to me as an Asian, as a lover of my culture and Asian cultures, as an Asian child and mother also struggling with the balance of old and new values and cultural rituals. Aof's shows teach me so much, about extra- and introspection, and Moonlight Chicken was absolutely no exception.

[fallentenshi128]

Bless everyone who brought this clip back into my timeline.

Like... This clip is so loud.

If mix is referencing the scene from ATOTS, literally the next thing their characters do is fuck lol.

and the vibe is already pretty horny because why is earth shirtless?

And why did Mix post this publicly?????

Apparently this is soon after they patched up divorce era so maybe they were just really loved up or whatever.

But also Mix's finsta must be wild bc remember when he posted Earth's text telling mix to invite him over bc he's lonely?

Mix like.... What are you doing lol

[nothinglikegod]

[Special thanks to @geraniumplant for taggin' me. It's a compliment to have someone curious about ya. I really enjoyed learning about you too. : ) ]

𝐅𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐎𝐑(𝐒): Ah, Don't make me choose! They're all beautiful. (I've been pretty into Green this week.)

𝐅𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐅𝐋𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐑(𝐒): Savory

𝐅𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐌𝐔𝐒𝐈𝐂: Same as the color situation, but I've been enjoying chill pop lately. Stuff like Prelow & Portugal. The Man.

𝐅𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐕𝐈𝐄(𝐒): The Thing [1982] & Watership Down [1978]

𝐅𝐀𝐕𝐎𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄 𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒: TriStamp, ATOT, Berserk

𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒: TriStamp [For the fifth time?]

𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐌𝐎𝐕𝐈𝐄: Talk to Me [2023]

𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐋𝐘 𝐖𝐀𝐓𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆: The Fall of the House of Usher [2023]

𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐋𝐘 𝐖𝐎𝐑𝐊𝐈𝐍𝐆 𝐎𝐍: Sobriety, physical and mental wellness

𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐑𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐋𝐘 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐈𝐍𝐆: A sea of unread texts and social media messages.

𝐋𝐀𝐒𝐓 𝐒𝐎𝐍𝐆: Hackensack by Fountains of Wayne

Tag: @livio-the-doublefang @orangetintedglasses @liesandalibis @millionsnife @fatedstrands

[gilly-bean]

8 shows to get to know me

Thanks @kyr-kun-chan for the tag it took me some time trying to really think these through but this was a lot of fun!

1. A tale of thousand stars

Atots has to be on this list because it was the first BL that I really really loved and the first thing that got me commenting and not just lurking on this hellsite. There was something really moving about this show, how tender and careful the love was, how fulfilling Tian's journey to self-discovery was- I'd never seen anything quite like it before. This is also why Earth and Mix will forever be one of my favorite pairings ever and I will watch them on anything.

2. I told sunset about you

I told sunset about you was like a transforming experience to me. It's hard to capture it now but watching it the first time I felt like I was a teenager again, I felt those same butterflies, the same anxiety, the same shitty feelings you feel when it's difficult cos you're in love but you don't really understand it and it makes everything awful and beautiful. Itsay made me write and actually post my writing on ao3 for the first time ever that's how much it meant to me.

3. Bad Buddy

I love Bad Buddy, I was obsessed with Bad Buddy, I did nothing else but think about what was going to happen on Bad Buddy for 12 weeks when it was airing, I wrote like a 35k long fantasy au fic about Bad Buddy cos I was so obsessed with it. But what makes Bad Buddy so important to me is the friends I made along the way while watching it- the clown server was my first proper fandom experience and I wouldn't trade it for the world.

4. Last of Us 

The one thing you should know about me is the fact that nothing gets me going like stories about familial love. If I'm not watching the gays falling in love in a million different ways, I'm watching a show about family. Which is why Last of Us has to be here. Not only is it genuinely a brilliant show, it has all the things I love in it- horror, queer love, a parent destroying the world for their child- yeah I'm all in. And the games were fucking awesome.

5. Succession

Succession is on this list to demonstrate how much I love shows about families. If the Last Of Us is about the lenghts you would go to protect those you love, I think Succession is the opposite- it's about how far you can go in destroying the people you love, how much damage you can do precisely because you love. The characters are all genuinely terrible people and yet they make me feel things cos it's family and family fucks you up. Also it's incredibly funny. Mostly it's incredibly funny. The only thing funnier than the show is Jeremy Strong saying that it's not a comedy.

6. Shameless US

Shameless has to be here because of how much Mickey and Ian meant to me. I think they were the first proper canon queer couple on a show that I actual liked. Season 4 and 5 remain legendary. Mickey still owns the best coming out scene in tv history. And Shameless fundamentally was about family and the relationships between all the siblings were so dear to me. It all felt so familiar and comforting despite no because of the chaos.

7. SKAM 

SKAM has to be here since I truly do not know another series that occupied my brain quite like this one. Not only were the stories so good, the format where clips and texts and photos could drop at any minute made me insane. I was Isak staying up all night. I was him waiting for that text or celebrating that picture that let me know everything was alright. That feeling can't be recreated but I'm so grateful I got to be there for it. Once in a lifetime.

8. Moomins

This is really hard. There's so many shows I love so much but it's really difficult to think what would say the most about me, what has had the most meaning. I ended up choosing the Moomins because that was my favorite series when growing up and it still kinda is. Those silly little characters embody to me what it's like being Finnish and the wave of nostalgia I get from it has everything to do with the sense of place it has. Moomins are home to me.

That was legit so fun. I'm tagging wifeys @elnotwoods and @liyazaki just because I really need to know what those shows are for you even though we've talked about it a lot. No pressure but you know 🥹🙏

[smittenskitten]

they wildin

[thegayneurodivergentagenda]

The way our fandom says bad buddy brain rot and the way @miscellar wrote the Zombie fic and the way it's all connected and a metaphor for something so beautiful

[anna-kitsun3]

A sweet baby boy who deserved so much better

[chickenstrangers]

I knew Our Skyy was gonna give us something to chew on with the architecture/engineering plays plot but this was so good!

I have talked extensively (too much?) about the Romeo and Juliet/Kwan and Riam framework in Bad Buddy, but the new plays fit really well into the themes I explored there. Bad Buddy uses two literary tragedies to explicitly create an optimistic and revisionist story of queer possibility and queer futurity.

The original show follows the story of Romeo and Juliet and Kwan and Riam (Plae Kao). As I wrote before, Bad Buddy uses multiple moments of crises (the outing, the gun shot, and the fake breakup) that specifically emulate these stories but subverts them so that tragedy is averted.

Most relevant for Our Skyy 2, the time jump between episodes 11 and 12, reflects a revised version of Juliet's faked death. While in the play, Juliet fakes her own death and Romeo is deceived, in Bad Buddy, Pat and Pran are both in on the trick, pretending to be dead (broken up) to the outside world while continuing to be together. So this is the moment in time where we find ourselves now.

But now we bring in two additional literary references (yes, one of them is P'Aof's own show, but I am treating it as a literary text in its own right). Both of these texts nuance the original Romeo and Juliet story line.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarves is a fairy tale. Unlike Romeo and Juliet, it has a happy ending, even in the Grimm version. But just like in Romeo and Juliet, it has a false death when Snow White eats the poisoned apple. Just as in Shakespeare's play, people believe her to be dead, putting her in a coffin.

If we take the time gap in episode 11 and 12 as the scene when Juliet has taken the poison and appears dead, these two episodes take place in a very liminal moment between life and death. Like Juliet, Pat and Pran give the appearance of death (that they have broken up), but they are both in on the deception.

The death motif continues into the Snow White allusions as well. They explicitly discuss Snow White's coffin, with Pran playacting as dead. The show is deliberately bringing focus to this part of the story. The four year gap takes place during both Juliet and Snow White's false deaths.

It's also significant how Snow White is buried. She still looks so alive that the dwarves cannot bear to bury her in the earth; instead they put her in a glass coffin. Here she can be seen in her state of death. The glass coffin is analogous to the glass closet that Pran and Pat are in. Many people know or at least strongly suspect that they're in a relationship. Even in the Bad Buddy finale, we see that the parents know even if they're not ready to acknowledge it yet. Pat and Pran are both Snow White, pretending to be dead, their false death on display.

And then we have the A Tale of a Thousand Stars play, which we learn is based on a true story and written by Tian, so presumably it follows the events of the show.

ATOTS is also not a tragedy, but it too inhabits a liminal space, playing with the idea of life and death. Tian nearly dies at the beginning of the series due to heart failure, but like Juliet and Snow White's, it is a false death.

Tian's story is about learning to live again, learning to not feel guilty for his life. He gets a second chance at life, but in his chest beats the heart of a dead girl. Throughout ATOTS, Tian's mortality is a looming question, as he keeps pushing himself harder than someone who just had a heart transplant really should. But being in the mountains is the first time Tian gets to really feel alive.

All of these stories are about death to an extent. Romeo and Juliet and Plae Kao end in both the lovers' deaths. Bad Buddy the series subverts these deaths, refusing to end in tragedy. Now in Our Skyy, we see Bad Buddy specifically aligning itself with stories that have happy endings. Even in this illusion of death, Pat and Pran are living.

I talked before about genre awareness in Bad Buddy, and especially episode 12 is about Pat and Pran taking control of their own narrative, choosing to not become Romeo and Juliet or Kwan and Riam. They break the fourth wall when they narrate in voiceover how they have been dating in secret. This is the exact same voiceover that is used at the start of Our Skyy! Pat and Pran get to tell their own story, subvert the genre conventions of tragedy and romance, and live their life as they want to.

And now we have Tian and Phupha telling their own story as well. Tian apparently wrote it down, and a central tension surrounds whether or not to give away the rights to their narrative, wanting whoever else tells it to tell it with care. Both these shows are about the characters taking control of their own stories, queering the narrative.

When given the choice about which stories to tell, which plays to put on, this time Pat and Pran don't want to tell a tragedy. They want to tell a romance.

[everybodyelsesgirl]

1000 stars  ☆  text post meme     

☆   phutian edition  ☆  3/∞

[aprilblossomgirl]

The Eclipse and the School Curse.

Suppalo uses the school curse to keep things under control. They hope the rumor would make students stay away from violating or, further, questioning the rules. While this approach might have worked in the past, it just doesn't make sense that it would be today when students are becoming more critical. When the World Remembers insisted on protesting the school uniforms, the curse happened to them, from mild events to more dangerous accidents. However, they were aware that there was no curse. No incidents happened by themselves; there must be someone behind it. That's maybe why in one of their next protests, they demand the school catch the bad guys behind those accidents.  

And so, the question would be, who's behind it, then? The last few minutes of the last episode showed Akk to be the one behind the supposedly last curse, that is about to be burned, as Kan said. However, it is unclear whether he was also behind those other previous incidents (I know from the special episode he's behind the blood incident, but none indicating the others). Regardless, another question would be, did he do it all on his own or by an order (from the school authority)?

Rewatching the conversations between Akk and Teacher Chadok, I had my suspicion; however, no lines directly indicating that he ordered Akk to carry out the curse. "They have no idea what the curse will do if they keep on being stubborn (episode 3)" was the only line from Teacher Chadok that backed up my thought but still not entirely. Well, in the next episode, we will get to it, that is, if Akk would open to Aye when confronted about it, I think.

Now, back to the curse. I have so many feelings about this since I've started to relate to the narratives built around it.

First, the curse is used to keep something undisturbed by inflicting fear of performing disobedience. In this case, the school uses a curse to scare students and prevent them from violating or criticizing the rules. It was meant as a tool to maintain order in the school. But still, why an outdated approach?

A little out of topic, but this analogy might help understand the use of the curse. The use of the school curse for rules enforcement here is similar to the use of the scary forest myth to make people stay away from entering and even approaching it. In the past, it was known as one of the strategies to protect rural natures, commonly used by the elderly in the local or traditional communities. To some extent, it worked that at least outsiders stayed far or out of the forest, so the forest stayed pristine and undisturbed. A point to understand, though, is at the time, the myth was used with a somewhat 'good intention' to protect nature.

Nowadays, such an intention might hardly exist. With politics added to the motives, the myth is still used, but in the wrong way. It still scares people away, but for a different reason. Before, it was to protect the forest for the sake of nature conservation; now, it was to 'protect' the forest for the sake of nature exploitation by a few greedy groups.

So, to answer why the nonsense approach, it might be either:

the whole school system is run by older people who are simply uninformed of the current development of society in general or education in particular and have no idea of better rules enforcement, which I don't think that's the case, or

to divert the attention from anything possibly more important that’s happening within the school system, or

to deliberately instill fear of disobedience towards the school authority instead of encouraging a positive attitude of critical thinking towards the rules.

All this is to say that, maybe, the whole thing about keeping the regulations and reputation of the school was not about maintaining order but more about maintaining authority. In the first case, an order should allow disorganization or disruption to recreate or redefine the order itself, allowing critique and questioning for improvement. In the second case, however, the rules cater to only a few groups of people, giving flexibility and advantages to them while causing repression and disadvantages to the rest outside the groups. And so now, as I wrote here before, the ultimate question is: who's behind the Suppalo school system?