#bl trope game

[syrena-del-mar]

7 and 14

Thanks for sending these my way, Ben!

#7. Star-Crossed Lovers

Choco Milk Shake! I actually touched upon this trope in my response to Shan, but I love this little show, so let me rehash the pain. I know this might change, considering the fact that there is a season 2 coming out, but as it stands, they're destined to always only have 99 days together.

There's no growing old together, not even a future beyond a few months together. Both couples are always destined to be separated at the end. If Milk and Choco even try to stay beyond the agreed 99 days, they will cease to exist. No amount of love will keep them together.

The fact that Choco and Milk came back for a second time by their volition, for their own love...

I'm not sure that I'm ready to go through the pain of another 99 days, but I know if that's the route they go for season 2, it'll end up being bittersweet. I'll enjoy every second of it.

#14. Sunshine/Sunshine

Ingredients. Hands down. Was it a BL? Was it a long-form commercial? Probably.

I'm a sucker for slice of life, even more so when you can tell that they both are very much in love with each other. Marwin and Tops were both just forces of positivity, just on the different spectrums of the personality scale. Even if we don't truly know their ending, they left me confident that their relationship will survive the long distance.

Also, I feel like Sunshine x Sunshine is usually reserved to high school settings. Which is why I loved that in Ingredients, they were already a few years into being adults and just really starting to figure out what life meant living together. While I enjoy all the high-intensity, convoluted shows, Ingredients is a breath of, much-needed, fresh air.

Send me a trope and I'll answer with my favorite BL

[wontune]

� jimmy. ( ator ) lockscreen !

[the-golden-comet]

✨Trope Bingo🧞‍♂️💖✨

Thank you for tagging me @tragedycoded , @jev-urisk , @theink-stainedfolk , and @drchenquill to complete bingo boards! I lined all of them up to events in Your Wish Is My Command. Take a look~ 💖

✨ Your Wish Is My Command: Available Now! 🧞‍♂️💖✨

I will tag @thatuselesshuman , @gioiaalbanoart , @finickyfelix , @willtheweaver , @paeliae-occasionally , @yourpenpaldee , @justabigoldnerd , @pippinoftheshire , @ceph-the-ghost-writer , @kaylinalexanderbooks , @leahnardo-da-veggie , @illarian-rambling , @aurumni-writes , @the-inkwell-variable , @castiels-favorite-hunter , @musicismymoirail , @lavender-gloom , @smellyrottentrees , +open tag for whoever wants to join✨

Here is my bingo card for Peter Hart:

[twig-tea]

For the BL trope ask game: 8, 9 and 10

Whew, coming out swinging! Ok here we go.

8. May/December

There really are not a lot of these where the age gap is truly significant. My actual favourite BL couple with an age gap where their ages are part of the conflict they face is The Pornographer/The Novelist though I acknowledge their age gap is probably not enough to fully be considered May/December. Rio becoming a mentor for Haruhiko does add to the May/December aspects so I'm just going to commit lol.

The concerns around their age gap came up in the sequel short more than the original series, but they definitely started their relationship in the original series at different life stages and it was one of the things that caused Rio to run from Haruhiko in the first place. To my memory there are some funny reversals in this one because Haruhiko gets his life together faster than Rio does but that means even as Haruhiko gets older they remain at different life stages and it continues to be a source of conflict.

Also just going to say, for anyone looking for old man yaoi, there is also a bonus fantasy/nightmare imagination scenario that Haruhiko pictures between Rio and his mentor that takes place in Continued Spring Life (though I would not call Rio's relationship with his mentor a romance!).

[NGL my favourite truly May/December romancecin BL is Choko and Maru from Ossan's Love and Ossan's Love Returns in which Choko is older than Maru's mother and it is a major source of conflict between her and her new mother in law until they find common ground.]

9. Fake Dating

I know I'm pretty alone in this, but YYY is one of my faves and it is actually a perfect example of the fake dating trope. For those who never saw this show, the central plot is that Nott and Pun are pretending to date in order to be allowed to stay in their apartment (the landlord loves BL). There are constant misunderstandings, pining, and it's compounded by the fact that one is also in a BGP with a different guy. There are real stakes tied to their fake dating, and the faking of the relationship becomes painful to the point that they become willing to risk those stakes (getting kicked out) rather than continuing to fake it. This show is absolutely wild and a LOT of nonsense happens, but the core is a pretty standard execution of this trope! And I love it a lot.

10. Bodyguard

I'm going to include censored projects in this because my ultimate favourite in this trope is Sleuth of Ming Dynasty. Zhou is at points of the story assigned to be a literal guard for Tang Fan, but he also just does it anyway off the clock because that's who he is. This show, to my mind, hits all of the important beats related to a bodyguard tripe including the person being protected balking at the protection and sacrificing himself so that his protector is not hurt (as well as at other times and being entirely blasé about his own safety because he trusted Zhou to protect him and had full faith he would).

Link to the original ask game post!

[bengiyo]

For the QL ask game, could I ask 7 and 13 please! -☆

7. Who is your favorite friend character in Asian ql?

Cherry Magic Anime Tsuge, my beloved.

This version of Tsuge is my favorite, because he and Adachi are a hot mess, and he has to work a lot harder to reach through to him. I also found the friend moments between them to be more heartfelt, because it came with the sense of "we're adults who don't get to see each other very often.

13. Which Asian ql tropes get you every time?

Crash Into You aka You Can't Fall In Love if You Ain't Clumsy

Earphones Sharing

PIggyback Rides

The Yin-Yang Lying Together Pose

Head Pats

For the Asian QL Ask Game

[absolutebl]

This is BL challenge for you (if you choose to accept them).

1.a) Please write your top 3 or top 5 favorite tropes in BL.

b) From each trope, write at least 3 BL that you love.

(Feel free if you want to write the reasons or not of why you love them).

2. a) What is the first BL that make you want to know more about and eventually love BL?

b) What is that one BL that have a special place in your heart (for whatever reason)?

The BL can be in in the form of manga, manhwa, manhua, books, tv series or movies.

Thanks so much if you want to answer this long ask.

1. BL Challenge Accepted!

a) Please write your top 5 favorite tropes in BL

Love Rivals to Lovers

Age Gap hyung romances (the younger character is the seme)

Stepbrothers and/or best friend's brother

Paranormal Take On Fated Mates

Whipping boy (specifically attack dog variant)

Remember: I am trash and I love a problematic trope that adds tension and/or kink to a narrative, especially it it messes with a power dynamic.

b) From each trope, write at least 3 BL that you love.

Love Rivals to Lovers

Hey Rival I Love You, Vietnam

That's it, that's all I got. There's been some illusions to this with side couples like in Jun & Jun recently, but it's rarely a narrative driver or they copped out (Hidden Agenda).

Age Gap hyung romances (the younger character is the seme)

Minato's Laundromat

Old Fashion Cupcake

Lovely Writer

Also: Oxygen, Private Lessons

Stepbrothers and/or best friend's brother

Addicted

Cherry Blossoms After Winter

HIStory 4: Close 2 You (sides)

Paranormal Take On Fated Mates

Until We Meet Again

Color Rush

La Pluie

Whipping boy (specifically attack dog variant)

Utsukushii Kare

Where Your Eyes Linger

Never Let Me Go

2. a) What is the first BL that make you want to know more about and eventually love BL?

Love Sick

b) What is that one BL that have a special place in your heart (for whatever reason)?

Love By Chance

Post dated September 2023, currently airing BLs not included. Not responsible for hits to this list after this date.

(source)

[emotionallychargedtowel]

For the BL trope ask game: 4 and 13

Thanks for the ask, dearie! (And for getting this ask game started to begin with.) These tropes are very much up my alley.

Long-Term Pining (4)

I’m a big fan of long-term pining, as I'm sure you know and as is probably abundantly clear to anyone who reads my tumblr or talks about QL stuff with me elsewhere. I’m not sure what’s so especially compelling about it for me. Part of it is how special it is for someone to be that loyal and committed. Staying constant over a long time without encouragement is one of the biggest indications of the strength of someone’s feelings you could have. I also relate to it in some ways, because when I have serious feelings for someone they don’t ever really go away. Not to mention all the hopeless crushes I’ve had in my life. 

A lot of my favorite BLs/QLs involve a significant amount of pining, so I had plenty of ideas for this trope—if anything, I had too many. I decided to go with my new blorbo, Ai Di from Kiseki: Dear to Me, because his pining takes a really interesting form. 

According to something Louis Chiang said in a behind-the-scenes video, Ai Di has liked Chen Yi since he was six or seven years old, which would have made Chen Yi nine or ten. By the time of the second part of the story, Ai Di is 22 and Chen Yi is 25. That’s sixteen years of pining.

The thing I find most interesting about Ai Di’s version of pining is that it has a really paradoxical quality. Because of a combination of circumstances and his personality, he doesn’t respond to things in the way we would expect for someone who’s pining for someone else. (I guess it’s no wonder I got obsessed with Kiseki after watching it a couple weeks back, since I seem to have a thing for paradoxical relationship dynamics.) Basically, Ai Di is pining for someone while pushing him away and even rebuffing advances from him, things you wouldn’t expect someone deeply in love to do. 

Ai Di gives Chen Yi a hard time about how "his eyes gave him away" when he looked at their boss at this meeting, but what about this?

In the 2019 part of the story, Ai Di often pushes Chen Yi away and even pushes him toward their boss. He passes up invitations and complains about Chen Yi including him in things, repeatedly makes fun of Chen Yi for being a virgin (according to Ai Di) and says he’s impotent, and tells him again and again to confess to or hit on the boss, practically daring him to at times (albeit in a derisive way that wouldn’t be a great approach if he actually wanted Chen Yi to make a move). When Chen Yi kisses him, he bites his lip hard enough to make him bleed (after only hesitating for a microsecond). After he has sex with Chen Yi when he’s drunk, he distances himself in the biggest way yet. Partly out of guilt about this, and fear that Chen Yi will hate him when he realizes what he did, and partly out of his usual desire to protect him, he voluntarily goes to prison for four years in order to protect Zongyi (whose imprisonment is Chen Yi’s responsibility). 

From this point on, Ai Di pushes Chen Yi away even more than before. When Chen Yi comes to visit him in prison on their shared birthday and brings a cake like the ones he used to get for him, dropping massive hints that his eyes have been opened now, Ai Di is incredibly cold and tells him never to visit again. When he’s released in 2023, he continues to push Chen Yi away with all of his might. He avoids him, tells him repeatedly that they should cease all contact, and returns gifts Chen Yi sends him. The most hurtful thing he does is probably the way he talks about the night they had sex, claiming he did it “just for fun.” He goes on to rebuff two more advances from Chen Yi despite continued hints that he has come to understand and even return Ai Di’s feelings. 

If your prospective partner has to put you in a double kabedon, you're hardcore about avoiding them.

Chen Yi’s next attempt is successful. He ties Ai Di up, since he apparently has to be physically restrained in order to hear Chen Yi out. Chen Yi finally tells him more explicitly that after Ai Di went to prison he’d figured out how he felt and how much he’d done for him, that he knew it was him when they slept together (at least, after a certain point), and that he’d realized that he actually returned his feelings. 

This is an epic amount of avoidance for a long-term piner. In some cases, his avoidance is probably for the best. When Chen Yi first starts to put the moves on him, he hasn’t begun to sort out his feelings about the boss. Giving way could easily have made everything worse. But once Chen Yi starts to understand his feelings, it would have made sense for Ai Di to start to let his guard down. Yet he pushes back against Chen Yi’s overtures way harder at that point. 

When asked in an interview (translated here) about what advice he would give Ai Di, Louis Chiang said about Chen YI, “you have to go after him relentlessly, don’t let go of him, don’t let go of your own love for him, keep looking at him persistently, and make him look back at you.” Ai Di pretty much does the opposite of this, so there’s no wonder Chiang thought he could use this advice. 

Why would someone behave this way? There’s actually a good psychological explanation. It has everything to do with the adverse experiences he had as a child. We don’t know when the boss started taking care of Ai Di, but he was definitely with his birth parents or some other parental figures for some time before that happened, and according to him, his parents “went crazy because of drugs,” implying intense use of serious substances. Even if he was under the boss’s care at a very young age, his most formative years would have been spent in a very chaotic environment. It seems like he experienced severe neglect and he may have seen any number of things a child shouldn’t. Like a lot of people with this kind of early experience, Ai Di appears to have a disorganized attachment style. Which is something I could go off about, but that should probably be its own post. 

For now I’ll just say that I think the paradoxical way Ai Di behaves given his devotion to Chen Yi is one of the things that makes him such an interesting character. 

Grumpy/Sunshine (13)

I'm a bit partial to this trope, too. I have a few favorites. Ji Woo and Seo Joon from To My Star are right up there. But for this post, I’m going to talk here about another grumpy/sunshine pair I love: Mamoru and Issei from Kabe Koji. 

How much more grumpy/sunshine could they get?

When it comes to BL protagonists, Mamoru is about as grumpy as it gets. He approaches the world as if disappointment and provocation are so inevitable that he may as well get angry and resigned now and skip the part where he makes an effort. And it seems like he’s had his share of experiences that led him to have these expectations. He deals with homophobic bullying on a regular basis. His rare sources of happiness are really tenuous, like his vacillating popularity with readers of independent comics. And his selective, biased memory of what happened with Issei serves to justify his worst views of life and humanity. Yet in the face of all of this, he has a remarkable, stubborn insistence on following his dream, and though he compromises it at times, he usually listens to his creative voice in an admirable way. 

Issei, meanwhile, is such a sunshine boy that he dances right up to the line where toxic positivity starts. But he doesn’t cross it. He's not always great at sitting with his own negative feelings, though he manages to grow his capacity for that as the story progresses. But it comes pretty naturally to him to sit with other people’s negative feelings. It’s one of the reasons he keeps winning people over wherever he goes--he's able to join with people in their fear and distress and still hold on to a thread of sincere positivity and compassion.

The trouble with Mamoru is that the negative filter he applies to everything is too extreme and he applies it so rigidly. It’s wild to see how much his brain is able to twist anything into something bad. Studying psychology and doing some training placements as a therapist definitely showed me firsthand that human beings have a remarkable capacity to twist things to fit their existing beliefs and expectations, so the fact that I was frequently blown away by Mamoru’s negative filter is really saying something. 

In his gentle, good-natured way, Issei forces Mamoru to look at things differently and open himself up to new experiences and relationships. It’s amazing gift to be able to do that. I don’t think I could pull off being as sunshine-y as Issei in a million years, even though I have some low-key Pollyanna tendencies. But I wonder if I could learn from the way he relates to people. Sometimes he handles other adults in ways that remind me of things I’ve read in parenting books. I guess this is because he makes it a priority to validate others, and that’s an important parenting skill. I don’t think he infantilizes others, though. It’s more that Issei is the kind of person who would treat a kid with as much respect as an adult. And really, the things that kids need from interactions with their parents are almost always the same kinds of things we all need from one another. 

And again, so grumpy, so sunshine.

It’s interesting that Mamoru is able to provide something to Issei that he can’t get elsewhere. It’s been a while since I watched Kabe Koji so I could be off here, but I think it has to do with the one little idealistic piece of himself that Mamoru has guarded with all of his grumpy defense mechanisms–and the fact that Issei ended up as a sort of patron saint of that part of him, a symbol of hope in the world. If he only saw Issei this way, that would be a big problem. But he’s still able to see him as a person–if anything, he understands his personhood and respects his feelings more than anyone. I guess he’s cynical enough that an idealized image of Issei as a perfect ray of sunshine wouldn’t be believable or appealing to him anyway. Sometimes his image of Issei gets a bit disconnected from reality, like what happens when he doesn’t interact with him in real life for a long time and just sees him doing idol things on TV and stuff. But as long as he’s around him sometimes, he continues to really see him in a way that few people do. 

It really doesn’t get better than someone who really sees you for who you are and still thinks what they see is exceptional. Or when someone you think is truly exceptional sincerely loves you back.

[raikantopenis]

4, 6, and 14

Thank you for the ask, Sarge! Ofc I blanked and forgot every drama I've ever seen the moment I saw it :(

4. Long Term Pining

Ok, this kinda cheating since we haven't gotten the live action drama yet, but Heaven Official's Blessing/Tian Guan Ci Fu is the definition of Long Term Pining!!

I mean, 800 years is 800 years. Talk about fatal devotion.

These two have dealt me so much emotional damage, I cannot think too hard about them in public. I will tear up.

6. Coming of Age

180 Degree Longitude Passes Through Us is, amongst many other things, a story of Wang's coming of age, and his separation from his mother. This is an insanely good short series, with strong acting/writing/cinematography overall. So much time has passed, but I am still insane over lines separating and connecting characters. And some quotes found a permanent home in my notebook.

14. Sunshine/Sunshine

Gotta say, Sunshine/Sunshine isn't really my thing. I guess I just enjoy it when a character is hissing and clawing as they are being dragged into love. But.

But.

I cannot not love them. Our Dining Table/Bokura no Shokutaku has healed me in ways I didn't expect. The whole show is really cute, but also surprisingly deep for the fluffy feel-good setup. As expected of Japan.

BL Romance Trope Ask Game

[harborpointeblvd]

This is BL challenge for you (if you choose to accept them).

1.a) Please write your top 3 or top 5 favorite tropes in BL.

b) From each trope, write at least 3 BL that you love.

(Feel free if you want to write the reasons or not of why you love them).

2. a) What is the first BL that make you want to know more about and eventually love BL?

b) What is that one BL that have a special place in your heart (for whatever reason)?

3.) Who are your top 5 (or top 3) seme & uke from your favorite BL media (both can be from the same BL or different from each other )?

The BL can be in in the form of manga, manhwa, manhua, danmei, books, tv series or movies.

Thanks so much if you want to answer this long ask.

Challenge accepted!

So lately I've been watching a lot of Thai dramas, but I started with manga/manhwa, so I'll be talking about both.

1. I'm gonna do top 3 favorite tropes, because I can't think of 5.

Hidden Agenda. Not like the Joong/Dunk series. I'm talking about when a character comes onto the scene with a secret personal mission but foils their own plan by falling in love. This, of course, leads to a snowball of lies, followed by the inevitable dramatic fallout. For example:

Not Me - Honestly, just fucking outstanding. I love this series so much. The guilt that White feels the longer he keeps the lie going, and then Sean's confusion and refusal to accept when shit unravels is just devastating. It's what I live for.

Tale of Thousand Stars - What makes this one extra devastating is that we the audience can see the full picture. The villagers only know what Tian tells them, and Tian's own perspective is clouded by survivor's guilt. So while we can see where everyone is coming from, it's clear that Tian doesn't deserve the punishment that's being piled on him.

Unintentional Love Story - There is a manhwa and a K-drama adaptation, but I'm talking specifically about the manhwa. The dynamic between the leads is so cute, it's almost like the author is trying to make you forget the relationship was built on a lie. Until, of course, it all comes crumbling down.

Third Act Breakup. I know, everyone hates this trope. But something you should know about me is that when I get into a story, I want it to ruin my life. Okay, not really, but I might like angst a little too much. I find it extremely cathartic to experience heartache vicariously through fictional characters. Admittedly, this trope often relies on characters acting in ways that don't make sense. But when it works, it works.

Blueming - The simplicity of Blueming is what makes it beautiful, and that includes the breakup. It's not some convoluted drama or people acting out of character, just humans making human mistakes and needing time to reflect on them.

Dark Blue Kiss - Speaking of convoluted drama. I can't even defend myself on this one.

Last Twilight - Oh god, this is gonna be my most controversial pick. I liked the breakup scene in Last Twilight. It was gut-wrenching, but it felt necessary. Like, they both needed time apart in order to grow independently. I mean, they kind of squandered that opportunity for growth, but we're not here to talk about episode 12.

Unrequited Love Reversal. There is just something so satisfying about watching the pursuer become the pursued. The character who initially took the other's love for granted suddenly has to work to get it back. I think it's a wish fulfillment thing. It's probably unhealthy how much I like this trope.

The Best Smell - This manhwa is kind of a hard sell, but trust me, it's so good. It's about a boy named Kanggo whose sense of smell is so powerful, he can smell emotions. He despises the smell of lies, so he initially hates Kamin, who is very withdrawn and secretive. But Kamin has a secret crush on Kanggo, and his affection smells so sweet, that Kanggo starts to do anything to be near Kamin. But the closer Kanggo tries to get to him, the more Kamin's guard goes up.

The Third Ending - The first season, specifically, because I didn't like the second season. Yoonseul reconnects with Jun, a guy he rejected in high school, believing it will fix his karma. When the two become closer, Yoonseul becomes confused about his feelings for Jun. After rejecting him for the second time, Jun pulls away, and Yoonseul realizes too late that he's fallen for Jun.

A Shoulder to Cry On - Specifically the manhwa. While I thought the drama was a pretty good adaptation, my favorite scene played out much more satisfyingly in the manhwa. After rejecting Dayeol and pushing him away, Taehyun regrets his decision and tries to make up with him. But Dayeol decides his life is easier without Taehyun in it, and he tells him, "I can handle my feelings for you, but I don't think I can handle you." And it's on their graduation day, so he just straight disappears from his life after that.

2. I first started reading manhwa in 2020 when I was in quarantine and needed a distraction. I'd been reading Haikyuu or something, and someone on YouTube recommended Someone Else's BL Manhwa. I instantly fell in love with it and to this day it's still my favorite BL manhwa.

I transitioned to dramas when I watched Blueming, which is one of the few k-drama adaptations that I thought was much better than the manhwa it was based on.

Aside from those two, a BL that holds a special place in my heart is Bad Buddy. It was the one that started my great GMMTV binge-watch, and I've watched it three times since then. It's my comfort watch.

3. I don't really like the seme/uke labels, but I can just tell you some of my favorite BL main characters.

I tend to be drawn to two kinds of characters. The first are those who are not very smart, but very passionate and sincere.

Gun - My School President

Heesu - Heesu in Class 2

The second are those who are stubborn and kind of bratty. Even better if they're only bratty to the love interest, because that's good stuff.

Seunghee - Someone Else's BL

Team - Between Us (Between Us wasn't very good, but Team can stay. And no, I haven't watched UWMA.)

Day - Last Twilight

[syrena-del-mar]

7 and 18 for bl tropes

Hey Shan! I honestly thought this would be easier to answer than it actually was.

#7: Star-Crossed Lovers

This may be stretching the trope a little bit, but Choco Milk Shake. I know the premise of this one is a little out there, but once you look beyond the reincarnation (or is it incarnation here?), it's a story about grief, loss, and acceptance.

Now this may change, considering there's a second season coming out soon, but currently where season 1 left us, they will always be destined to leave each other. Even at the end, when they choose to come back for a second time, they're still only allowed the 99 days. There's no true future where they could all truly be together.

It's been over a year and honestly the end card after Choco and Milk both crossed back to heaven will always get to me.

When Choco arrived to heaven, he sat down and started crying, and Milk had to comfort Choco for a long time.

#18: Slow Burn

Where do I start with Plus and Minus? First off, I will always have a love for the fact that they were divorce attorneys. This show really went all introspective in understanding why some relationships succeed and others are bound to fail; divorce attorneys are the ones that see that ending. Some relationships in pure shit shows, while others just fizzle out without any true reason. While I don't think I necessarily loved it because it was a slow burn, I do have to admit Fu Li Gong was playing the long game here.

This show really brought forth the idea that 'love isn't this end-all, be-all magical fix' to reality. No matter how much you love someone that doesn't guarantee a 'successful' relationship. Which is exactly why Zheng Ze Shou and Fu Li Gong end up breaking up in the penultimate episode. Yes, Li Gong has love and pinned over Ze Shou since their childhood, but that wasn't enough. Instead of communicating and asking Ze Shou what they should do, he just makes a decision for the both of them. Their relationship was never going to work if Li Gong was never going to fully communicate with Ze Shou.

I think the writing was clunky at the ending, but honestly I love the questions about love it was bringing to the forefront. I honestly don't think those questions of love have been fully tackled in any other BL since this one.

Send me a trope and I'll respond with my favorite BL

[wontune]

� pavel phoom. ( ator ) lockscreen !

[waiting-on-mars]

For the BL ask box meme ;) 🏆💭🎇

a recent release you enjoyed: i FINALLY finished dangerous romance (recent can be a few months away right lol) and i loved it!!! perthchimon's chemistry is out of this world!!!!!

something that you find annoying in bls: the prat fall trope, or whatever its called when a guy falls somehow and the other guy catches them and oh look we're so close to each other, its more of a romcom trope but i feel like its done a lot in bls, i enjoy silliness in my bls but its way too silly for me to take seriously, get close some other way!! stop falling over all the time!! they practically trip over nothing!!!

favorite ending: i finally finished naughty babe and i LOVED their ending!! getting married and then adopting kids 3 yrs later!!!! thats so freaking cute ;w; kon diao is no longer alone T^T

bl ask box meme

[twig-tea]

Hi!

So I'll only ask one so you can answer with how many you want. Be free!

5.Second Chance Romance

💜

Thank you friend, this is true bestie behaviour!

5. Second Chance Romance

To break this down a bit, I think technically a second chance romance requires there to have been a relationship in the first place. So as much as I absolutely love Our Dating Sim, Tokyo in April Is..., and a Breeze of Love, for example, they never did more than kiss or hook up once before circumstances forced them apart, so I'm discounting them for the purposes of this post (but watch all three of those shows they are excellent).

I honestly think the best example of this in BL is His (the film). Shun and Nagisa dated for years, broke up, and the film is all about the two of them re-learning one another and finding how they fit together now. They need to work through both the things that caused them to break up the first time, as well as the hurt from that break-up, before they can get together again in the present. Their getting together in the present is informed by (as well as hindered by) their first romance.

Runner up goes to To My Star 2. TMS2 isn't quite as perfectly aligned to the trope because only one of them wanted to be broken up and there isn't a ton of time between the break-up and the should-we-get-back-together dance. But there is a lot of working through the things that broke them up the first time in order to allow for them to even potentially work this second time, which is a key component of second chance romances.

Finally, I'm going to mention Until We Meet Again. This is definitely not a standard Second Chance Romance by any stretch; the second chance is from their deaths in their first lives. But it's clear that even if their memories from their lives as Korn and Intouch are not conscious, they have been influenced by their subconscious memories all their lives. Pharm was desperate to learn to cook because In never got the chance; Dean had a tattoo because he felt like he was constantly searching for something. Dean learned to be direct because Korn spent so long not being direct with In; Pharm was hesitant to trust Dean because In felt betrayed by Korn's suicide. They had to work through their past life trauma in order to be able to work in the present.

Link to the original ask game post!

[hypermascbishounen]

I think it's an interesting choice that they gave her those red shoes that stand out so loudly against the rest of her outfit. To me it could read as a bit of a Dorothy from Wizard of Oz thing, which might inform her character somewhat. A friendly rural girl that easily makes friends with different people without judgement, and is well suited for an adventure.

(It would also be symbolically fitting HoD's queer-coding, bc Dorothy is one of the original Queer Icons, and "Friends of Dorothy" specifically was a code phrase to refer to queer people).

But also, it honestly looks like she's wearing riding boots. That's not the outfit you would ride a horse in, but those aren't the shoes for light indoor activities either. They're not even particularly feminine for the time period. She's kind of wearing the equivalent of a floral dress with combat boots, so a somewhat tomboyish reading of her character doesn't seem very far-fetched!

Iirc, Lydie also made Juste and Maxim's friendship bracelets, but didn't make one for herself, which is also a potentially interesting insight into how she feels. Especially because that isn't necessarily how Maxim always saw things, if his insecurities were anything to go by. Or even how Juste might have seen things, given the different endings.

She's also younger than Juste and Maxim by a couple years, and the true ending always gave me the impression she's used to mediating arguments between them and breaking up fights, lol. Her sprite directly stands between them with her arms out like she's refereeing velociraptors. Which takes a lot of guts and/or trust to get directly between two heavily armed people who are also a wizard and a ninja respectively. And they listen to her!

An idea that won't leave my head is that Lydie is an excitable tomboy.

Think about it. Lydie, who in appearance is a frilly delicate girl, has two boys as her best friends. Two rough warrior boys, at that. How did she become part of the group? Surely she does more than just sitting demurely as they spar?

I like to think that Lydie is actually kind of reckless and likes to play danerous games. She's the kind of girl that would ruin her skirt climbing up trees or jumping on stones to cross a river. She causes a lot of headaches for her family, who want her to act proper, and this may be why she loves to spend time with her friends, who don't care if she is improper because they just like her as she is. I don't think she is that big of a rebel, because she still looks like someone who takes care of her appearance (the hair alone requires careful styling), so she might play coy with her family and be on her best behavior... until tempted by her besties.

Generally speaking, if I were to write Lydie, I think I'd move away from the "gentle" archetype and make her a ball of energy lol. The kind of person who is constantly fidgeting, bouncing on her feet and clapping her hands because she just can't wait to spend more time with her favorite people in the world!

I could also take this artwork as proof that she likes nature and animals. She doesn't have the innate talents of a witch or a Devil Forgemaster, sadly lol. She just tries her best even if she gets her fingers picked at or bitten.

Also, we know that after Simon's victory, the Belmonts became heroes of the land, and a whole village was built around them. Juste, most likely, didn't grow up shunned for his bloodline. But! He was still born different. Frail, pale, and with strange magic potential. While discrimination due to magic is not as intense at this point in time as it was in centuries past, it's possible Juste was surrounded by rumors, perhaps even doubted as a worthy successor of his grandfather. You know, for that nice family legacy stuff :)

The point is, I think Lydie never cared. Along with Maxim, who gets to experience for himself how strong and driven Juste is, Lydie might have been the first person to not treat Juste like the latest Belmont with all that comes with it, but as a boy worth of befriending. Lydie got to know Juste's various quirks, like his stubborness, or his fastidiousness when it comes to fashion and decor (I bet they joked that she could learn from him lol), and decided he was funny and that's how a friendship started.

Oh, and the wiki suggests that her surname hints at her ethnicity being Transylvanian Saxon or Banat Swabian. I think it's pretty cool and it could influence her in some way.

I need to think of more quirks to give to her. But I really would like to flesh her out a bit because she has potential to be interesting :>

[witchywithwhiskey]

andy barber + "you don't need anything, you want it"

optional scenario: assassin/mercenary

undone by a pretty spring sundress

pairing: dilf!andy barber x babysitter!female reader

warnings: 18+ content (minors dni!!!), smut, piv sex, unprotected sex, creampie, unspecified age gap (but reader is def out of college), thigh riding, dirty talk, daddy kink, praise kink, light bdsm, pet names (sweetheart, angel), some bratting, referenced spanking, fluffy ending

word count: 2,100ish

a/n: instead of assassin/mercenary Andy Barber, may i offer you dilf Andy Barber? 🫣 lol let's be honest, Andy is always a dilf 🤭 but i've already done ex's dad Andy and dbf August so i wanted to do a different trope and i've never done a babysitter fic so i gave it a shot!! hope you enjoy, Aspen!!

The sounds of shrieking laughter and childish games filtered into Andy Barber’s kitchen while you stood at the counter, putting together a bouquet of spring flowers that would sit nicely on his dining room table. You’d retreated into the house because you’d needed a break from the party Andy was hosting—the one he’d hired you for the afternoon to help him host.

It was a little outside your normal duties, since you typically worked as Andy’s babysitter, watching his young son on nights the single father had to work late at his law practice. You knew some of the parents in the neighborhood thought you were a little old to be babysitting, given you were old enough to be married and have a family of your own. 

But you ignored them because you enjoyed babysitting for Andy. It helped supplement the meager pay you received from your day job, and you liked spending time with Andy’s son Jacob, who was a sweet kid. More than that, though, you found yourself really enjoying spending time with Andy.

And if you weren’t mistaken, Andy liked having you around as well. 

In the months that you’d worked for Andy, you’d grown increasingly aware of the way he stared at you when he thought you weren’t paying attention. 

His crystal blue eyes would drift down to your tits when you were looking something up on your phone. And more than once, you could’ve sworn you felt his gaze on your ass when you’d bent over to pick up some toys on the floor. But each time, when you turned to the older man, he was innocently looking elsewhere.

Altogether, you’d gotten the impression that Andy might want you to be more than his babysitter, but he hadn’t yet acted on the heated looks he gave you. So you may have taken matters into your own hands and worn a skimpy little sundress to the party he was hosting for the neighbors and all their kids. And you were delighted when it had the intended effect.

You hadn’t been in the kitchen for more than a few minutes when Andy cornered you, using the moment when everyone else was distracted by watching the children play a game they’d made up to approach you. His body crowded you into the counter, close enough that you could feel the warmth of him brushing against the swaths of bare skin not covered by your sundress.

“I need to speak to you upstairs,” Andy murmured in your ear. His warm breath ghosted over your cheek and bare shoulder, causing goosebumps to raise all along your arms.

But you stifled the shiver racing down your spine and continued fluffing the flowers in the vase in front of you, pretending you didn’t notice the demanding edge of Andy’s voice or the way he crowded into you. After all, he’d waited months to approach you, and you decided you wanted to have a little fun with him before you gave in to the tension crackling between the two of you.

“You don’t need anything, you want it,” you responded cheekily, your tone light and playful. “Isn’t that what you’re always telling Jacob, Mr. Barber?” You tossed your head to the side and gave the older man a sly smile over your shoulder.

Andy’s expression darkened, his soft mouth pulling down in a frown that was framed perfectly by his neatly trimmed beard. He looked particularly delicious in a simple blue t-shirt and jeans—though you also appreciated all the suits he wore for his job as a lawyer. You’d spent many a night imagining Andy undressing you entirely while he stayed all buttoned up in one of his suits, making you hump the bulge in his slacks…

Andy’s big hand wrapping around your upper arm brought you back from your distracted thoughts.

“I assure you, sweetheart, what I’m feeling is a need—not a want,” Andy growled, dragging you away from the counter and forcing you to abandon your bouquet. You didn’t protest, though, as he led you toward the stairs and up to the second floor of his suburban Massachusetts home. 

Andy had only just pulled you into his bedroom and closed the door when he spun you around and crowded into you until your back hit the door. Then, with a muttered curse, Andy ducked down and captured your lips with his own, kissing you so passionately, your head spun. 

You wrapped your arms around his shoulders and kissed him back just as fervently, your mouth parting and allowing his tongue to twine with yours. He groaned into your lips as he tasted you, the deep sound of his pleasure making you hot all over, wetness gathering between your thighs while your mouths slid together. You squirmed against Andy’s hard body, pressing your softness against him as your body yearned for friction.

Andy shoved one of his legs between yours, his big hands gripping your hips tightly and shifting you so that your pussy rubbed against his thigh. You wrenched your mouth from his with a sharp gasp, your body rocking against his as pleasure shot through you from the tips of your fingers to the ends of your toes. Andy watched you with hooded eyes as you humped against him, hands sliding down your sides.

“Wish I could watch you ride my thigh all afternoon, angel, but I need to be inside you,” Andy groaned, reaching beneath your dress and hooking his fingers in your panties, moving you back to pull them down your trembling legs. You let out a little whine at the loss of friction against your pussy, but Andy only hushed you. “Shh, I know sweetheart, you’re needy too, aren’t ya? Need daddy to fuck you, huh?”

Your head fell back against the door with a thunk and you let out a breathy, surprised, “Daddy,” tasting the way the word sounded on your tongue and enjoying it far too much. 

“That’s it, angel, call me daddy,” Andy murmured fervently before capturing your lips in another kiss. You could feel his hands working his jeans open and pulling out his cock, but you couldn’t move your arms from around his shoulders; you were pretty sure if you did, you’d collapse to his feet. “Christ, I knew ya would be perfect—been wanting this for so long, but that pretty spring sundress of yours was my undoing.”

A pleased smirk curled the edges of your mouth at Andy’s confession, and you decided you’d tell him later that had been your intention with wearing it. For the moment, though, you simply leaned up to whisper some teasing words in Andy’s ear. “If you need me so bad, then take me, daddy.”

Andy hooked an arm around your waist and spun you again, walking you back to his bed and easing you down onto the plush softness of his blankets while his hips settled between your thighs. His cock rested against your bare pussy, making you moan with desire.

“Gonna have to make this quick, sweetheart,” Andy murmured as he brushed kisses to your jaw and cheeks, his hips grinding his length against your soaked folds, getting himself drenched in your arousal. “But next time I’ll fuck you soft and slow like you deserve, alright?”

“OK, daddy,” you said on a moan, tilting your hips to grind your bare pussy against his cock. Andy buried a grunt in your neck and reached between your bodies, adjusting his cock until the tip pressed against your entrance. 

Then, all at at once, Andy pushed inside you, both of you moaning at the feel of his thick, hard cock stretching out your tight, warm pussy. It was better than you ever imagined, having him inside you, your body taking his entire length and joining you to him in the most intimate way.

“Feel so good, daddy,” you murmured breathily, your mind spinning with pleasure. You cupped Andy’s face in your hands, your nails raking through his beard gently, as you stared up at him. You hoped every bit of the pleasure you felt was clear on your face, so he could see how good he made you feel.

Andy seemed to, his smile filled with affection and arousal of his own. He leaned down and brushed a kiss to your lips, teasing you with the flick of his tongue before pulling away and catching your eye. 

“Ready, angel?” 

“Yes, daddy,” you answered sweetly, more ready for him than he could even know.

Then Andy took what he needed, and gave you what you needed, too. He fucked you hard and fast, pumping his thick cock into your tight channel with a ruthlessness you’d only ever glimpsed when he’d take work calls at home. He was brutal, and you wanted to scream your pleasure, but Andy’s hand covered your mouth, keeping you from being overheard by all the neighbors crowded in the backyard.

When he seemed to be getting close, Andy reached between your bodies, his thumb finding your clit and rubbing in tight little circles until you shattered apart around him. You came so hard, you bit down on the flesh of his palm to keep yourself quiet.

Andy didn’t seem to mind, grunting through the sting of your teeth and the delicious clench of your pussy, fucking you harder until he pressed deep and came inside you. You shivered when you felt his load leak out around his cock, in awe when you realized just how much come he must’ve pumped you full of that it was overflowing. 

As you caught your breath, Andy peppered your face with light kisses, praising you. “Such a good girl, sweetheart, so fucking good for daddy.” He kissed the apple of your cheek, his beard tickling you and making you giggle softly. “Now, I need you to keep my come safe inside you for the rest of the afternoon, can you do that, angel?” Andy asked, catching your eye and giving you a serious look. His hand pressed against your lower belly, making your pussy flutter while butterflies took flight in your chest. 

It was on the tip of your tongue to simply say yes, but a delightful thought took hold of your mind and you found your lips forming the same words they had earlier in Andy’s kitchen. “You don’t need anything, daddy, you want it,” you said, giggling when Andy’s face turned stormy.

“You’re lucky we have to get back to our guests, angel,” Andy growled pressing his forehead to yours while he glared at you, though there wasn’t much anger to his gaze—only desperate arousal. “Otherwise I’d put you over my knee and show you what I do when you’re a bratty bad girl.”

You were helpless to your body’s reaction to his words, your cunt clenching hard around Andy’s cock and making him chuckle. “I need it, daddy,” you cried, hands fisting in his t-shirt and trying to hold him close.

But Andy was already moving away, pulling out and stuffing his cock back in his pants. You watched him with a pout while he grinned down at you. When his appearance was presentable enough, Andy hauled you up from the bed and smoothed your dress down over your curves, fixing it for you. 

“Be a good girl and help me get through the rest of this party and we can have some fun later,” Andy promised, pressing a kiss to your forehead. Then, like he couldn’t help himself, he caught your mouth in one last deliciously sinful kiss. 

You returned to the party with Andy, finishing your bouquet of spring flowers and putting it out on the table. Then, you helped him wrangle the kids and their parents for dessert, everyone enjoying the beautiful spring evening. 

If anyone from the neighborhood noticed that, after you returned, Andy treated you more like his partner than his babysitter, they didn’t say anything. (In fact, in the weeks and months that followed, when it became clear the two of you were together, each of your neighbors would try to take credit for setting the two of you up.) When everyone left, they thanked you just as much as Andy for hosting the wonderful party.

Once everyone was gone and you’d helped Andy put Jacob to bed, he delivered on his promise of rewarding you for your good behavior. Later that night when you told him you’d worn your skimpy little outfit just to see if he’d finally make a move on you, Andy chuckled and murmured that he’d forgive your naughty trick just that once. Then, he made sure to show you just how undone he was by your pretty spring sundress.

[maybe-boys-do-love]

It's wild that the whole global trend of gay-focused happy ending romance shows and movies has only been going on for *looks at calendar* a measly ten years!

Just ten years ago. 2014. That's when you get the discovery of a market for queer romance series and films with happy endings. That year the OG Love Sick in Thailand came out. Brazil puts out The Way He Looks, which deserves so much more credit than it receives for influencing the aeshtetics of the genre. Looking premieres on HBO, and although it had low ratings, it's an important touchstone. And, despite Nickelodeon’s censorship and shifting the program from tv to its website, the Legend of Korra confirms Korrasami in its season finale.

The next year, in 2015, we get Love Sick season 2, and China, pre-censorship laws has a few options: Happy Together (not the Wong Kar Wai one lol), Mr. X and I, and Falling In Love with a Rival. Canada, premieres Schitt's Creek. In the US, Steven Universe reveals Garnet as a romantic fusion between two female characters, and will proceed to just be so sapphic. Norwegian web series Skam premieres and sets up a gay protagonist for its third season, which will drop in 2016 and entirely change the global media landscape.

Then, 2016! This is the MOMENT. That aforementioned Skam season happens. Japan puts out the film version of Ossan's Love and anime series Yuri!!! on Ice. China has the impactful Addicted Heroine, which directly leads to increased censorship. The US has Moonlight come out and take home the Oscar. In Thailand, GMMTV enters the BL game and Thai BL explodes: Puppy Honey, SOTUS, Water Boyy, Make It Right, plus, the Thai Gay OK Bangkok, which, like its influence, Looking, is more in the queer tradition but introduces two dramatically important directors to the Thai BL industry, Aof and Jojo.

By 2017, Taiwan enters the game with its History series. Korea’s BL industry actually kicks off with Method and Long Time No See. Thailand’s got too many BLs to mention. Call Me By Your Name, though not a happy ending, makes a big splash that will send ripples through the whole genre, and God's Own Country offers a gruff counter-argument to problematic age differences and twink obsessions. This is also the year of Netflix reboot of One Day At a Time bringing some wlw to the screen, and the Disney Channel has a main character come out as ‘gay’ on Andi Mack ( I’m am ready to throw fists with anyone who thinks the Disney Channel aesthetic isn’t a part of current queer culture). And I'd be remiss not to mention the influential cult-following of chaotic web-series The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo: "Sometimes things that are expensive...are worse."

All this happened, and we hadn’t even gotten to Love, Simon, Elite, or ITSAY, yet.

Prior to all this there are some major precursors some of which signaled and primed a receptive market, others influenced the people who'd go on to create the QLs. Japan has a sputtering start in the 2010s with a few BL films (Takumi-Kun, Boys Love, and Jujoun Pure Heart). Most significantly in the American context, you have Glee, and its ending really makes way for the new era that can center gay young people in a world where queerness, due to easy access to digital information, is less novel to the characters. And the QL book and graphic novel landscape was way ahead of the television and film industries, directly creating many of the stories that the latter industries used.

There's plenty of the traditional queer media content (tragic melodramas and independent camp comedies) going on prior to and alongside QL, and there are some outlying queer romance films with happy endings that precede the era but feel very much akin to QL genre tropes and goals, many with a focus on postcolonial and multicultural perspectives (Saving Face, The Wedding Banquet, Big Eden, Maurice, My Beautiful Launderette, and Weekend). I don't mean to suggest that everything I’ve listed ought to be categorized as QL.

Rather, I want to point out how all of these new-era queer romance works are in a big queer global conversation together, in the creation of a new contemporary genre, a genre that has more capacity and thematic interest to include digital technology and normalize cross-cultural relationships than other genres (there's a reason fansubs and web platforms are so easily accepted and integrated to the proliferation of these series).

You're not too late to be part of the conversation. Imagine being alive in the 1960s and 70s and participating in the blossoming of the sci-fi genre. That flowering is where gay romance sits now. Join the party.