#glad to be proven wrong

[qqueenofhades]

YES SIR YES SIR YES SIR THAT IS WHAT WE LIKE TO SEE!

OFFICIAL DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE KAMALA DEVI HARRIS!

[noodles-and-tea]

YOUR MERTHUR ART GIVES ME LIFE!!! <3

THEY’RE SO!!!

[spooky-space-kook]

Well there ya go, Elden Ring got it. Good!

[starryalpacasstuff]

Indian BL? FROM 2017????

There's an Indian BL from 2017 that I just watched. And I have incoherent thoughts

Before I continue, massive thanks to my bestie @anixknowsnothin for telling me about this show and proofreading the post for me. You don't even watch bl so I have no idea how you found this, but I'm incredibly grateful nonetheless

Here's the link to where I watched the show from, there's a glitch in the first episode subs where the subs seem to be from another show entirely, but it's only for the first ep and about 50% of the dialogue is in English anyways, so it shouldn't be hard to follow.(My ask box is also always open if there's a specific dialogue/scene in Hindi that you want the translation of)

Edit: The link seems to be region locked, so to watch it you can use a vpn and set your region to India, otherwise the episodes are available on youtube, albeit without subs

Note:- this post is going to have a few mild spoilers throughout, but I'll flag major spoilers in red

It's no secret that India is fairly behind when it comes to queer love shows if we compare it to other Asian countries. While it has a handful of great queer shows and movies, it's still quite a small quantity. Additionally, before this, I'd never watched an Indian show that felt like I was watching a bl (if you have recs, please send them my way!!). I'm not going to get into the technicalities of what feels like a bl and doesn't, because honestly, I'm not completely sure myself. For now, I'm just going based off of vibes and feelings, and this show felt like a bl through and through.

Titled 'Romil and Jugal' after its main characters, the story is a modern, desi, bl remake of the classic story...

Romeo and Juliet

Well, Bad Buddy was the first Thai bl I ever watched, so Romil and Jugal being the first Indian BL I watched just feels right, no?

I didn't actually know that the story was based off of Romeo and Juliet till the second episode, because I didn't bother looking for a synopsis, and jumped right in. However, it's links to Romeo and Juliet quickly became apparent, around the same time I started to see similarities between this show and Bad Buddy. I also did not know that this show came out in 2017 before I googled it, having already watched the entire thing, which was a pretty huge shock, because this BL is progressive by 2024 India standards.

Alright, enough of my rambling. Here's a synopsis of the show in case you haven't heard of it. (I couldn't find an official one, so I did my best to write a spoiler free synopsis)

Ramya happens to start talking to a slightly older woman at an airport, who believes that there is no romance in the younger generation. To prove her wrong, Ramya decides to tell the older woman her brother's love story. The story from the past is shown to us as Ramya narrates it to the woman in the present. Jugal is a closeted 19-year-old who lives with his parents. One day, a family moves into the house next door, and Jugal immediately falls for the son, Romil. The two of them attend the same college, and eventually become friends. The two of them eventually get together, but have to face the challenges of a homophobic society and having parents that hate each other.

I was a little skeptical of the show going in, but the show surpassed all of my expectations in the best way possible. It's no masterpiece, and it has its flaws, but it was far better than what I expected. It had both comical elements and darker themes, and it did not shy away from exploring the darker themes at all. Oh, and it has a few musical numbers. What did you expect? This is India after all.

The show is 10 episodes long, with 20 minutes per episode, and so it does unfortunately fall into some of the pitfalls that shorter shows tend to fall into, namely underdeveloped relationships and rushed endings. I did end up feeling a little bit like it didn't make sense for the pair to sacrifice and suffer as much as they did because they hadn't known each other for very long, and I felt like they should have been given more time to fall in love with each other. But it also could be argued that the show stays true to the play, and Romil and Jugal are dumb teenagers who make mistakes and stick with each other through them. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it.

One thing that I loved the show for was that it showed us that the relationship is not all sunshine and rainbows. They argue, they break up, they get back together, and they do argue even after that. But every time, they eventually work through the issue and reconcile. The show even depicts Romil dealing with internalized homophobia and struggling to reconcile with the fact that he will never be who his family wants him to be. Although I do wish they'd have had more time to explore this, I'd say it was decently depicted and handled. The show really delves into how children are forced to uphold their family's wishes and are constantly put under pressure to make them proud. Although it clearly affects both of them, it's more obvious with Romil, who is expected by his family to date and marry the daughter of his father's boss, whom they think he is dating. There's a metaphor along this theme too, where Romil pretends to like the mango shake that his mom has been making for him since he was a kid, even though he hates it, and when he tries to tell her, he has to act like it was a joke to spare her feelings. The show also goes into the communal mindset of basing your actions off "what will people think?", and you can see how a lot of the characters' actions throughout the show are haunted by this question. Some of Romil and Jugal's earlier disagreements are due to this very mindset.

The show also very candidly depicts the extreme homophobia of society in India. Romil and Jugal had to constantly hide who they were, always having to keep up a mask and I felt that reach somewhere deep inside me. When the pair come out, the show really shows how ugly homophobia can be in India. Their parents immediately disown them. They're mocked in college and wrongfully suspended for a fight that was provoked by other students. Very, very few people stand with them, and the pair very quickly realize that now that they are out, they simply cannot live in the city anymore. So with the help of Jugal's best friend and her mother, they flee to Mumbai, where they get jobs and live as paying guests with a friend of the aforementioned mother. But, even in Mumbai, the masks stay up. They have to act like cousins, for fear of being persecuted. The series depicted the worst-case scenario that so many of us live in fear of, so watching it was something of a cathartic experience for me.

Another thing that the show did quite well is showing how different people and their mindsets can be. Jugal's best friend, Ahalya, and her mom are very supportive, and they help the pair out quite a bit. Ahalya's mother provided a safe house for the pair and helped them find a fresh start. Meanwhile, Romil and Jugal's parents are incredibly homophobic. There was a scene that really stuck with me, (mild spoiler ahead, skip to the last sentence of the paragraph) where Ahalya's mother came across Jugal's mother, who prided herself on being educated and well-read, searching up how to cure homosexuality. Ahalya's mother then tells her off for calling herself educated yet believing that homosexuality is an illness. It is so important to me that the show depicted both the violent homophobia that permeates Indian society and the surprising, warm acceptance that one can find.

One final thing that I loved about this show so, so much is just how authentically Indian it feels. Asian cultures share a lot in common, but they also have their differences, so seeing a show where I can imagine encountering the characters in real life is really amazing. Rather than something big, it was little things sprinkled throughout the story that warmed my heart. The story felt like something I could hear the local aunties gossiping about. The way it depicts queerness in India hits incredibly close to home.

One thing I've learned watching Asian bls is that the ending of a show can make it or break it, but with this one, I'm stuck. The best way I can describe the ending is absolutely insane and incredibly Bollywood.

I believe this show was supposed to get a second season because the last two minutes of the show leave us with a massive cliffhanger. Now, it's been 7 years, so a second season is unlikely, so I'm simply pretending that the last two minutes of the show never happened. But the ending has so much more to it than just this (Major spoilers for the ending up ahead. I mean it when I say major, this is like going into Bad Buddy knowing that they're going to trick their parents in the end).

About halfway through the show, I remembered what play it was based upon and realized that there was a very real possibility that Romil and Jugal would die. The first half of the last episode leads up to this, telling us that they died when reconciling after an argument in the middle of the road when they were hit by a truck. We get a super emotional scene (yes, I cried) where the two families somewhat reconcile in their grief as they go to the police station to identify the bodies. Except... they're not dead, which is revealed when Romil's father hugs Romil's (not) dead body. They reveal that they planned this to show their family that they still loved their sons. I did say it was like PatPran tricking their parents in the end, didn't I? So the families reunite, Romil and Jugal get jobs in New Zealand and get married, and return to India for a wedding celebration (yes, I cried. again). The ending does feel slightly rushed, but if I'm being honest, it wasn't as terrible as it could have been. Believing that your child is dead for a bit is a somewhat justifiable reason for a sudden change of heart. There's a part where Romil and Jugal tell their parents that if they choose acceptance, they can reconcile, but if they choose to remain prejudiced, Romil and Jugal can simply get back on the stretchers, because they'll be as good as dead to their families anyways and it is *chef's kiss*.

All in all, the show was surprisingly heartfelt and poignant. It had me laughing, kicking my feet and even crying. There's a lot more about this show that I could talk about, but I'm going to stop here for now, and I'll try to write more on it later. This show really does deserve more recognition than it has, and I'm almost mad at myself for not knowing about it before. Am I being really biased when talking about this show? Absolutely. But I do think that this show is a worthwhile watch, and I'd really like to see what other people on here think of the show, especially because I'm aware that I am biased towards this show.

I'm tagging a few people who I know might be interested/have some thoughts about the show because this is a show that I really want to hear other people's opinions on and have conversations about, so I hope you guys don't mind!

@waitmyturtles @lurkingshan @bengiyo @neuroticbookworm

[malev]

Look I’m a fan of all the “John thinks it’s Yorick bc he’s petty and hates him” jokes and while I think that definitely plays a part in it I do think it’s not an unreasonable conclusion to jump to. I do think it’s the owl (seriously, especially if you read the transcript the timing is like. Actually comical.) BUT!

Yorick’s head was previously the prince, who was loyal to the Hag, who is a daughter of Mother Darkness. That on top of being the only character who’s mentioned the day of wrath outside of Malam, and I’d say John has enough to be suspicious.

That doesn’t stop me from thinking once it turns out to NOT be Yorick, Arthur wont think the worst of John and accuse him of being jealous again, thus causing more conflict. Have you met them?

[elderstrolls]

[wavesoutbeingtossed]

CH is actually a huge part of Taylor…we just don’t know the finer details because we don’t have a tone of music about him. We just know how they met, they lived together, and he was a weird mix of obsessed with her and embarrassed by her (bc he felt emasculated). my big prediction is that there will be more than 1 song in rep’s vault about him (that isn’t TIWYCF). She LIVED with him. I am not a Karma album truther at all, but I firmly believe there are a handful of songs from her writers block period (just not enough to make an album, let alone something to follow up 1989). She liked to change her hair to signal a new era…

That’s an interesting prediction! I don’t know enough beyond the broad strokes of what we saw back then to comment. It seems like he felt threatened by her success and she lowkey seemed scared of him so.

[scifiandthedoctor]

I really hope this post ages badly and I’m wrong wrongity-wrong but the new promo has prepared me to start saying goodbye to Lokius. Disney you boring predictable no risk storyteller - prove me wrong.

Mobius is perfect though.

[the5n00k]

Remembering my The Ballad of Jane Doe storyboard again before A Soda to Remember and presumably the entirety of season 2 comes and proves my hc theory wrong <3

(the premise behind this is immediately following "scratch"'s death, he can't remember Anything. Who he is, what happened, Nothing. He's confused and scared wandering the Ghost world alone, not knowing anyone and nobody knowing him. After getting drafted as a scarer by the Ghost Council, he stumbles upon the house he chose to haunt in the land of the living and sulks all alone over his terrible fate, becoming bitter and spiteful towards the people outside.)

Maybe one day I'll clean it up and finish it

[laenaism]

So so so so happy to have seen Laena again!! And hopefully we will see her even more. But from what i could gather, it sounded like it was Laena who said “you were made to wear a crown” in the promo for ep5 so they’re clearly going the delulu route. No way in HELL would Laena say that to Daemon, she would smack him for neglecting her daughters, then punch him for good measure! so laena is just a hallucination of what Daemon wants to hear or believes he should be hearing.

Either way, they could never make me hate you Laena!! 🫂🥹

[teisubrainrot]

RGG dropping news about the Pirate Majima game and IPL finally giving us a date for Bachelor Route feels like Christmas came early

[matoitech]

rome going after kyle was the funniest shit like yeah man it was a great way to stir up drama if that was the goal, but unfortunately u stirred it up by targeting and lying about possibly the worst player u could pick this season. bcuz ppl know kyle was not saying all that. so what was the point. i do love to see ppl just immediately see thru some bullshit though that was great. is it rly stirring up drama if its just inspiring ur teammates to hate You

[cobbssecondbelt]

Me going to bed at 11:30 last night: 'Hm, it's quiet so far, I guess no real news tonight.. yeah whatever'

Me opening Tumblr this morning:

[pitgritted]

‘  gotta  do  miss  eve’  a  solid  -  ‘  sett  .  a  work  in  progress  sketch  of  my  model  design  after  my  interactions  with  han  c:  wanted  to  give  him  clothes  (  eventually  )  as  he  models  for  evelynn  !!  there’s  like  an  unseen  sketch  beside  this  one  here  (  spoiler  it’s  evelynn  ) 

[teastarfall]

eats ur art 😔👍 d e l i c i o u s

ough,,, thabk u sm,,, ure so kind ❤️

have a six doodle lolz ^_^

[roseus1215]

Aurelius owned my braincell for like a month straight, so I drew him.

(the sketch is literally from June so don't question the general idea too much, please.)