#but so was Boston for doing it with Top

[spicypussywave]

Sand was risking Nick... I loved him being unhinged (especially with stomping his phone) and doing the thing that should be done but like, when Boston finds out it was Nick who recorded, I don't think he's gonna be happy about it. Especially after Drake character recording him. This is gonna hurt Nick bad.

[sollucets]

coloring roundup since yesterday (there are 75 gifs in my episode nine folder. tumblr hates me so not all of them are published, and thus why none of you have seen that necking gif.) lots of blue and cyan and making things less green

this one is technically not episode nine And i've edited this scene before but i'm extra happy with this one so look at it again

[mashmouths]

should i go in the donut shop to ask if they have boston creams for the third time in a week or should i give up </3 i feel like woody harrelson in zomebieland. but maybe they'll have them this time.......

[paint-music-with-me]

(I saw something and then because I'm hyped on a Starbucks cold brew I thought I'd make it everyone's problem so)

(p.s. it's so unserious but sooo incredibly serious)

[thecasualfkfan]

I have more. But you can see it later. If you really do,why don't you just show it to me right now? No, I don't want you to cause a scene.

-Only Friends, Ep03

Boston really does know where to hit

[forcebookish]

it's funny to me how many bl/gl fans will watch a series where one of them is a tsundere bully and get righteously angry about it like it's a bug not a feature

[heretherebedork]

Here we are, almost at the finish line, and for the life of me I still don't get it. They are all messed up, confused, broken people. So... Why so much Top hate? I mean, even if we considered what he did cheating, since when is cheating a high crime in bl? That have been actual crimes committed by characters in this show and that's apparently fine. So why can't Top shake whatever image people assigned to him 9 episodes ago?

I dunno. Honestly, I like Top more now than I did at the start but I'm still not super attached.

Top is interesting but I feel like a lot of that interesting is being held back for some reason?

But I will be clear that a lot of BL fans absolutely consider cheating to the be the Pinnacle of Worst Things Possible in most shows and most relationships. Cheating has long, long been a high crime in BL and is the cause of like 90% of miscommunications in shows based on misunderstandings and assumptions of cheating.

But in the context of Only Friends? Top's biggest issue for me isn't the cheating, it's that he... has this air of trying to be perfect all the time in a way that doesn't work and I don't find that interesting, honestly?

He and Mew spent the first half of the show basically trying to act out their own little romcom of a BL that didn't really fit the energy everyone else was bringing or that I was expecting from the show. And I now struggle to see how Top fits into the world and into these relationships.

Top has spent most of the series sort of... outside of everyone else and not just as in the actual friend group. He's the addict who basically claims to instantly shake his addiction, he's traumatized but in a way that doesn't seem to affect him too badly (the scene of not wanting to take the sleeping pills anymore was good but I need more than that), he's a top tier guy who doesn't do serious relationships but he only has one ex we hear about or meet and Boeing is the best trash ever but I can see why you might not wanna pursue a longterm relationship with him.

My views on Top have changed but at the core I just don't find him to be a super interesting character. He has had good scenes (all my favorite scenes of his are with Boston and Sand) and I wish we'd gotten more of him with the other characters and less of him with Mew. He plays off everyone else so well in terms of being more fully realized as a character.

I dunno. I'm not invested in TopMew as a couple because I think they were presented and then proceeded in a way that doesn't fit with the vibes of anyone else but also in a way that feels... shallow.

I could not explain to you why Top loves Mew. I couldn't explain why Mew loves Top. Because their love just feels like it was written Because They're A Branded Pair Of Actors.

I am struggling to put more words into this.

But definitely part of it is that Top is written as a kind of foil for Ray as well but in order to fulfill that role he has to be what Ray isn't while also being what Ray is (just like Boeing and Mew) and that means he has to have the addiction and the trauma but he has to have gotten past them (like Boeing has morals and understands maturity but has gotten past that and gone right into being trash but trash with morals).

There's a lot that goes into what makes people dislike characters or find them to be ones that just aren't as engaging or interesting and I think the show did Top and Mew a bit dirty in the relationship development by having them both trying from the start because they started trying before they got to know each other and then the show kind of FFed their getting to know each other bit while showing us deeper moments with the other couples.

Or at least that's how it felt to me.

[mer-se]

lil hiatus away

[keungking]

to be honest, so far? top hasn't done anything for me to dislike him.

he hasn't lied and he hasn't disrespected mew, and he actually has tried to get along with mew's friends. it's not exactly his fault the friend group all have messy complicated feelings for each other.

and ever since he actually started talking and getting to know mew, the only times he's implied mew is some kind of conquest for him to win has been when boston has told him that's how he feels and what kind of person he is. all his playboy tendencies that we've been shown have been boston projecting that persona onto him.

originally he might've had douche bag intentions, but i can't help but feel like the fate he's rushing towards is being strung around mew's finger.

i just feel like things very well could've turned out fine if boston wasn't so dead set on ruining them just because he's jealous, maybe jealous because he's not the winner, and maybe jealous because his whore in arms might achieve something boston himself might desire but doesn't dare let himself chase (a mature and genuine relationship). perhaps he feels let down and abandoned, left to be the only predator playboy hunting men for sport that's left.

[if-i-was-a-cucumber]

my love for mew | only friends

to be absolutely frank, i was super hesitant to make this post because i’m a bit shy to make only friends (2023) content.

this is mostly because of its explicit nature? everyone on the planet has known that this is the Sexy Show™ (at least everyone in the bl community) and i’m very squeamish with that sort of thing. i’ve only been tentatively watching the show because i know it’s definitely going to be a mark on the community, just because of how popular it already is, but as a somewhat sex-repulsed asexual i sort of only started watching it because i knew it was making some sort of history, even if as just a small blip.

but omg i was wrong. on so many levels. and maybe i’ll make a post about the other levels someday, but for this one i want to talk about how wrong i was about specifically MEW.

1. mew as a character - my first impressions

six main characters in only friends, right? top, mew, sand, ray, boston, nick. basically everyone in this show has a “thing” about their except for mew. top is a sort-of asshole who sleeps around; boston is an even bigger asshole (like HUGE) who sleeps around even more, except he’s less rich; nick is kinda cute in personality but is actually a bit deranged; ray is needy and spoiled but everyone lets him get away with it; sand is responsible and tired of everyone’s bullshit, even his love interest to an extent.

but mew? since the beginning, all we ever got was “virgin.” he’s innocent, sexually pure. that really didn’t do it for me — meaning it didn’t intrigue me. i was fully prepared to go in and come out of this show with mew as my least favorite character, not because he was bad or evil or anything, but because he was boring. the worst crime you can commit in media is to be boring.

even his relationship with top, as the episodes progressed, was very bland. yes top was a cheater, but that didn’t quite affect mew’s characterization, other than that it reiterated that he was a little naïve in this field. great, more virgin mew. i just really wasn’t into this little perfect smart boy who’s never had sex before and is so sweet and innocent and kind to everyone that even his friend ray is in love with him.

there was a small beam of hope, though, in the episode 2 date with top. i liked his agency, i liked how he wasn’t so drawn in by top. and i especially liked the following line:

as quick as that hope came, though, it faded. that’s not what this post is about though, and i’ll get to it in a sec. for now:

2. book kasidet as an actor - my previous biases

before anyone says anything, this is not meant to be slander against book. the whole next section is talking about book specifically in the context of the characters he’s acted as before, not about him as a person. he is a great actor who portrays all of his characters exactly as they are. this is not really about him — the only real reason i’m bringing him into this is because he’s mew’s actor.

book’s only other main roles in a series have been as théo in enchanté (2022) and cher/laem in a boss and a babe (2023). which is amazing, considering how recently he debuted, but i digress. the point is, at least in the thai bl industry where i can probably recognize 80% of the actors in any given bl, who the actor is and especially who they have played in the past is really important to me when i watch a series.

forcebook has never quite been my cup of tea, in the least offensive way possible. i dropped enchanté on its first episode (because the plot annoyed me) and a boss and a babe on its second (i couldn’t get over the workplace unprofessionalism). i’ve never been super involved in the forcebook fandom, either. not to mention a part of force’s appeal is his physical sexiness and as an ace person, that really doesn’t appeal to me. what i’m trying to say is that i had no initiative nor care for either force or book as actors and had no previous attachment to them that would draw me to love their characters.

an example of this actor-bias working positively are a couple who are in this series: first and khaotung. the eclipse (2022) was one of my first ever bls and i absolutely adored it from start to finish. i rewatched it twice and have since gone through reoccurring phases of firstkhaotung obsession. and in only friends, sand and ray (played by firstkhaotung) are my favorite couple.

i won’t say this is strictly because first and khaotung portray them, because that’s not at all fair to how sand and ray are as their own individual characters and how much i love them as well. but i can’t say it doesn’t contribute.

an example of this actor-bias working extremely negatively was pond naravit from fish upon the sky (2021). i don’t know if i’ve mentioned it on this blog before or not but i have a very hate-love relationship with that series. for one, the approval of disgusting fan behavior icks me to no end and i can’t help but scream at mork in every scene of the later episodes; for two, mork’s disavowal of every one of pi’s rejections sends me to non-con city, without my consent. (and yes the above picture was taken out of context but mork deserves it.)

but on the other hand, for some god damned reason, i’ve rewatched the entire series not twice, but three times. but i’m digressing again. the point is that for a very long time, i refused to watch never let me go (2022) just because pond naravit was in it, and at the time, i thought i despised him because of how mork acted in fish upon the sky. of course i gave it a try and watched a pondphuwin interview or two and now i love him just as much as the next fan, but the actor-bias theory is real.

so, back to the original topic, a part of my initial dislike for mew was not only that his character was boring, but that i didn’t care enough for book kasidet as an actor or forcebook as a couple to carry me through that dislike. i really wanted mew to have personality, to have something special that differentiated him from a slab of cardboard, even if it was a negative trait.

3. the moment it all changed - only friends episode 6

the real meat of this post. the reason i’m posting any of this in the first place. it’s because i wanted to share the moment everything about my perceptions of mew as a character changed.

for a while i’d been thinking of mew as maybe a little more than the cardboard he appeared to be. he had some sense of agency, he wasn’t completely dependent on top, even if he did fall in love so soon. even if their romance had zero chemistry, at least mew was taking things on his own terms. i even supported him punching ray, at least in the context of creating character for mew, because that was something interesting that surprised me.

what really surprised me was THE SCENE. you all know what i’m talking about.

after mew’s birthday, after ray made a mess out of the whole thing and turned mew’s special day into a shitshow, after mew decided it’s okay and let’s spend sweet sexy time with my boyfriend, he pulls THIS:

AND WITH THAT SMIRK, HE PLAYS BOSTON AND TOP’S SEX TAPE RIGHT THEN AND THERE. I CAN’T TELL YOU HOW HARD I GASPED.

and then there was more.

their ENTIRE RELATIONSHIP DYNAMIC has changed. they’ve been building up the whole past 6 episodes of mew trying to be in charge but top always getting what he wants in the end, like with mew trying to take things slow but eventually he does sleep with top. mew having his own reservations about LASIK but top eventually convincing him to get it, making him physically vulnerable to top for an entire evening.

no matter how much agency mew is trying to garner himself, top always, ironically enough, ends up on top.

but here? right here? there’s no question about it. this whole evening, mew achieves the control he’s been trying to find throughout this entire relationship, and it comes in the form of his boyfriend fucking his best friend. you KNOW top has lost control because we’ve never seen him look so blank and powerless, have we?

but it gets better.

because mew wasn’t only in charge once he started playing the sex tape. he’s been affecting the mood of the scene since the beginning.

he hugs top when he enters the room and gives him a false sense of security. he even brings up ray. he lit that candle in the back just a moment ago. he’s literally and figuratively setting the tone for everything.

“when we fuck someone like boston, it’s hard to stop fucking them. don’t you think?”

top tries to isolate mew from ray again. he takes every chance he can get to insult him. and mew lets him believe that it’s working. (of course top’s insults also make sense in the context that ray was being an asshole that morning but we’re talking about mew’s characterization right now.)

and most linguistically of all to contribute to the change of atmosphere: mew is on top of top.

fangirls, fanboys, and fanneithers of the jury, i believe mew is moving up the ranks.

[tinrange]

my worst fear is that they use the boston boeing scene in the last episode as a comparison point between the two, not to show how much boston has developed and let his insecurities stop plaguing all facets of his relationships but to extoll the virtues of monogamy instead

[the-sky-the-stars-the-sea]

Y’all.

This is it.

No more speculation.

No more waiting until next Saturday.

This is the last Saturday.

We are finally going to see the end of Only Friends.

We are finally going to see the end of Only Friends.

We don’t know if there will be a second season. Until notified otherwise, this is the last time we’ll see all the characters we love and hate and love to hate and hate to love.

This has been a wild ride.

I joined the ride right before episode five came out. I watched all four episodes in one sitting and devoured episode five instantly when it came out. My Saturday mornings since, every Saturday morning for the past seven weeks, have been dedicated to watching Only Friends right when I wake up.

And now it’s the last episode.

Usually I’m very particular about these things and surely “last episode” is filed under “intimate and big emotions: definitely a night time thing” in my brain, but I know tomorrow’s gonna be a late night and I can’t wait that long. This show is the only exception in many ways for me.

This has been a fun and wild ride. I’ve loved reacting to this show with y’all for the past few weeks.

I hope every character gets the ending they deserve.

No matter what happens I feel like I’m gonna end up crying.

*deep breath* will I be ready for this, come morning? No. No I will not. But will I watch it anyway? Definitely. Will I enjoy it? I hope so.

See you all on the other side <3

[the-physicality]

.... it was like 2 minutes.... i really thought she was going to be the interview of the week but it was a headlines announcement

[jemmo]

following on from my other nick is evil post, i know we’re all so excited to see nick enter his evil arc, but what hurts me the most and makes me feel kinda sick to my stomach is that i don’t think nick is actually that person at heart. i think it’s just a matter of boston being a manipulator and that manipulation backfiring, bc he thought he could keep nick sated and in place, toeing the line between casual hook ups and something more so he’d stay put. but he didn’t factor in that this kid wouldn’t just stay happily on the fence, bc the promise of more is just not enough for nick, he actually wants more, and he will go and get it, through whatever means. and when he starts to turn and realises he really is playing with someone dangerous, he doesn’t back down, he doesn’t run, he thinks im gonna meet them at their level, not to get back at them, but to get with them. he sees boston acting up and thinks if im like that then maybe he’ll like me, maybe i can stand by his side. but the thing is boston doesn’t want an equal. he doesn’t want someone else that’s messy like him, he doesn’t want someone to challenge him. you saw how he was in that lift with top, he cannot handle it when people get on his level and clap back. he does not want to be told, he wants to do the yelling at that’s it. it’s not a case of this being a fun, sexy, dangerous cat and mouse where you both fuck each other up and get a relationship out of it, no, that’s not what boston is here for. he’s here to be on top and feel superior and good about himself. and if acts out this much just bc he feels challenged by mew just bc top likes him more than him, when mew hasn’t even done anything to actively hurt him, i don’t think he’s gonna react kindly at all when nick starts stepping out of line. and i hate that nick thinks he has to lower himself to this level just to get boston when it’s all gonna be for nothing, and he’s just gonna come out of it ruined and broken.

[qazastra]

listen to me. technically this is all Boston’s fault. But consider he’s really not the reason the recording gets passed around.

he sucks so bad I don’t like him. but if episode six has taught me anything it’s that not a single one of these characters is completely root-for-able.

[forcebookish]

the way that i was all in on top just angrily cheating on mew because they had a fight but it was this elaborate super villain plan from boston makes it all the more crazy that people are again blaming top for boston's objectively evil actions