#i wouldn't be surprised if krist at some point was like

[thebroccolination]

In workshops, Waa told Krist and Gawin to think of Kawi as a cat and Pisaeng as the cat's human, and what ensued onscreen is why Waasuthep Ketpetch is a hero and deserves ten thousand awards for Be My Favorite.

[absolutebl]

And the 2nd part is that I was at the Italian fanmeet and noticed that when Khaotung is referring to himself instead of using Pom he often uses his name while First if I heard correctly either uses pom or nothing (if that is even possible). So I was also wondering about your opinion on that. Because to me as a person not even close to understanding Thai it reads more cute than anything really. 🫣😅 Thanks so much if you're taking the time to answer. 🫶🫶

Khaotung when referring to himself often uses his name.

First either uses pom or nothing.

First and Khao are line mates (1998, only a month or so apart) and also about the same career timelines, which means they are both age & professional piers. Equals.

The use of own name is a bit cute, but Khao is cute, and he plays to that as part of his brand, both with First and his previous pairings. I'm not surprised. First is a little less cute (or at least, when opposite Khao, he is that way) hence his use of pom or nothing.

I wouldn't be surprised if they use informal with each other in private (off screen). But on circuit? Certainly NOT.

These two are good polite GMMTV boys and they always act that way in public. (Unlike some of the OGs. New slips into rude a lot, Tay's all over the damn place as per usual. So is Krist.) FirstKhao are very on point with their promo and very professional about their publicity.

Essentially, what you are hearing is standard informal but polite language between friends and piers in public. Because the pairs are branded with seme/uke leanings this adds another dimension to their promo language.

So in Thai there is a non-codified distinction between formal and polite. In BL you'll hear:

formal & polite (khun/name, nai/chan, younger: pom or name)

polite but not really formal (age gap: pom/phi or even hia, piers: pom/name)

formal but not polite - careful there's implied intimacy in this one, it's old fashioned, and because of that when misapplied can be quite insulting (rao/ter, nong+name/phi, and a few other iterations)

and rude (guu/mueng) which is neither formal nor polite.

All of these can be mitigated by polite particles.

On circuit you will always hear the boys using krap. So for what we see IRL on screen connected to BL promos, particles aren't in play. But in Thailand (in my experience on the ground) ha is super commonly used with friends and family, and ja within the queer community.

Which brings us to the 5th option "curt" which leaves off the polite particles and can leave off pronouns altogether and is basically not formal and also not "really" polite, but not all the way to rude. Usually only heard in males older than their conversation partner (Dean) or older childless females in positions of authority and genderfluid characters like June in Love Area.

Okay, I got a flight to catch!

Bye for now. Hope this makes sense.

[telomeke]

Thai QL Favorites Tag Game

Tagged by my Internet buddy and fellow QL fan @pandasmagorica! Thanks 🥰

Credit also: this game was created by @thatgirl4815 as Thai BL Favorites Tag Game.

So let's get into it:

Favorite Thai QL: Bad Buddy, still. After all this time it continues to hold up, I think because it packed so much intelligence into its short run of 12 episodes. I also have a soft spot for Moonlight Chicken, although it is arguably more queer cinema in episodic form and not classically a QL/BL.

Favorite Pairing: Umm, gonna leave aside the ships and talk about professional pairings for QL series. Ohm and Nanon as PatPran still top my list; they tore my heart to shreds in Bad Buddy and healed it too. But I don't need to see them as any other pair in another series also for that reason. MaxTul seem to bring it in any series they're in, so they get a mention too.

Most underrated actor: Have to agree with @pandasmagorica about Fluke Gawin Caskey. They need to use him more – he's doing a truly credible job in Be My Favorite plus wow he can sing really well. And I think Krist Perawat in the same series is also surprising all of us; he's certainly matured since his stumbly, mumbly turn in SOTUS.

Favorite Character: Eep. This is like trying to choose among your children. I love so many! Pat and Pran for different reasons (I'm very much like one, more than the other, but I love them both). But I also like Li Ming in Moonlight Chicken, maybe because of his confident self-knowledge, and all the hope he represents for the next generation.

Favorite Side Character: Arm from KinnPorsche for the wrong reasons; devastating combination of nerdy and also hot when shirtless. Also maybe Daddy Chan from the same show. And (odd/unpopular choice) maybe Dissaya from Bad Buddy; I'm just fascinated by her character and backstory, and wish we got told more of it. Also Manaow from Until We Meet Again and Yihwa in Together With Me for being the effervescent supportive besties I wish I had growing up.

Favorite scene in a QL: The opening scene in Ep.5 of Bad Buddy because it tells us so much, in so many layers, and upon the re-watch you can sense that something's starting to turn (though the closing scene on the rooftop is a very close second, for obvious reasons).

Favorite line in a QL: Pat and Pran at the end of BBS Ep.5 going "Do you want us to be friends?" followed by the softest, most gut-wrenching "No..."

Most Anticipated QL (& why): Only Friends – looking forward to something steamy for a change. Been too long since KinnPorsche.

Healthiest relationship in a QL: HeartLiMing in Moonlight Chicken. And PatPran in BBS, but only post-Ep.12 timeskip. They're so respectful to each other – but also a bit boring, so I'm not sure I'd want to watch them in another show because a drama with no drama wouldn't be a drama, now then would it?

Most toxic relationship in a QL: VegasPete in KinnPorsche? I'm still divided about their dynamic. Or TharnType in TharnType perhaps. That was just badly written.

Guilty pleasure series: KinnPorsche. Nuff said.

Most underrated series: He's Coming to Me really needs more love. Production values not the strongest but themes, acting, storyline are all top-notch (with some minor points only that I might want to quibble about). One of the earliest to deal with cultural themes in Thai QL and it was fascinating.

Tagging @airenyah, @dribs-and-drabbles, @waitmyturtles, @bengiyo, @twig-tea, @colourme-feral, @miscellar, @ranchthoughts, @chickenstrangers, @dudeyuri, @inventedfangirling, @dimplesandfierceeyes, @wen-kexing-apologist, @starryalpacasstuff, @kattahj, @lurkingshan, @neuroticbookworm...

...@theheightofdishonor, @dimpledpran, @silvercrystal1, @mineonmain, @sharingfandoms and anybody else I might have missed, feel free to play (or not!).

[gmmtv-bl-tournament-but-evil]

so as someone who has "be my favorite" as their favorite bl (and is motivated by you asking for it!) i feel like i need to chip in with some bmf propaganda. oh and i would like to say i do think people disliking krist is almost definitely a part of some of the hate/distaste against it from my experience, but i do acknowledge all of the other reasons why it may not have worked for people. even as bmf's diehard fan, the pacing was a bit off, and i think the second half of the show was weaker than the first half, with e10 perhaps the weakest for me. i didn't like how the show grappled with pisaengkawi's first time. however, the show definitely worked for me beautifully. and sure, it has flaws, but the best parts of it are so! good!

i love kawi's character arc. he starts out as kind of unlikable to a lot of people. he's whiny, difficult, petty, and all around seems like kind of a loser. and it's hard to like (well, not for me. i love that) but that's really the point, because you see kawi change so much as a person. he matures so goddamn much. he becomes more confident in his abilities and able to connect with people. kawi reconnects with people he drifted from in the original timeline and is able to help them as well! he accepts his father's death and is able to process it effectively.

he becomes someone who can really think things through and someone who knows what he needs. for example, kawi thinks he wants to be with pearmai and wants to be famous. but he lives this and finds out what he actually needs. he doesn't need to be famous through music, he just loves doing it (and we can see how he's matured a lot through how he's able to make this decision confidently) and he realizes that he loves pisaeng and doesn't want to lose him. kawi goes from someone who wants to redo his life all over again to someone who wouldn't change a thing and lives his life to the absolute fullest. he goes from someone with no friends to someone with an entire friend group to celebrate his health when he recovers. he finds someone he can be himself around and is happier for it.

i just find kawi's character arc so beautiful, and i love how he finds someone who accepts him and likes him the way he is but also helps him to flourish and become someone who is both better to himself and the people around him. i also love how the way he's acted changes (look at how cartoonish kawi is in the early episodes, before maturing, and how after he grows as a person, his entire way of carrying himself changes)

pisaeng also has my adoration. i always think about his little mini arc about accepting his sexuality, and i really enjoyed how the show pulled off exploring homophobia. his mom isn't outright disapproving, but it shows that she sees it as a problem. we can see her talk about pisaeng being able to live a life like "normal" people, and it comes from a good place to her, but is also actively harmful? i don't know, but i love when pisaeng goes into the gay bar. when he accepts himself. i actually love how the show handles parenthood.

i really liked how bmf was able to flesh out pear. it's interesting, because at first, i really did not enjoy the love triangle and thought it was a typical bl move but not something i enjoyed at all that they seemed to just have her as "the nice girl." i was pleasantly surprised, then, that they gave her a more complicated story. i thought it made pear a lot more interesting to have to grapple with some real negative emotions toward her mother. it made me understand pear as a person a lot more, and it was something unattached to the storyline of pisaengkawi, which i feel is still rare for a bl. i really liked pear by the end of the show.

and, ok, time travel is my favorite trope so this is a given but i love how bmf does time travel. it's a form of time travel i don't often see. because kawi goes back in time, and everything he does in the past can't be undone, but he can keep going to the future then coming back changing things. it was a clever way to keep the main storyline (the past timeline) clear and not muddling up what happened in it, but also exploring the main "what if?" of the story. what would happen if kawi got what he thought he wanted? and i just have to gush about those episodes, because i goddamn love them. i adore how the growing fixation on alcohol (especially with every pisaengkawi kiss pre-getting together being done while one was drunk) gets addressed as an actual problem kawi would have when he uses it to cope with the stressors of fame. i like how it shows how selfish kawi can be, the main focus of this timeline for me, and i loooooove the emotions it delivers as you realize kawi's dad is dead and there is a world of absolute heartbreak. the contrast between how wrong it is when kawi gets what he thought he wanted and at the end, when kawi gets what he really needed, never fails to work me up.

aaaaah there's just so much i love. there is so much depth to the main character of the story. i adore the themes of kindness and repression vs freedom and love and living your life to the fullest. all 3 of the main osts are great (redo jumpscared me during my spotify wrapped) and i also love the look of the show! there was so much effort and love put into this show.

anyway, just wanted to be the voice for bmf here. it's a show very near and dear to my heart in how it depicts its characters and themes. bmf made me want to be kinder, to be more confident, and to do everything to make my life better. it makes me have hope. there's so much more i want to say about the show, but those are the main points i had. also don't want to get too into this and it doesn't have much to do with bmf but i'll personally fight anyone on the topic of krist if anyone speaks negatively about him (i love him and think it's fucked up how many people still wish death on him for stuff he said years ago, after people were hounding him about his sexuality. it also hurt my heart when he cried at the bmf last ep fan meeting while explaining that he had worried that the hate people had for him could negatively impact gawin's first main role. i have more to say but I'VE TALKED TOO MUCH ALREADY). don't like bringing it up too much in bmf discussion but i definitely Have Thoughts! and people drag it into bmf discussions so i feel it bears mention

AND LIKE. THE BMF MONTAGE! THE MONTAGEEEEEEEEEE please think about that montage. thank you

Okay, wow. I. Am. Speechless.

I know I seem to always have an opinion on everything but I also know when to just step back and let the message speak for itself, which is very much the case here. If GMMTV needs someone to review BMF to convince more people to watch it, they should definitely come to you! Your passion on this is simply inspiring.

I won't add much, just say that it's very interesting you mention the OST. I sometimes have fun adapting the English transIation of BL songs on their music so they can also be sung in English and all three songs from BMF are on the list of ones I'm planning to get to. That's how much I also liked them.

So, to conclude, thank you so much for this academic dissertation of a message and ance again, WOW! Bravo!