#i’m gonna watch the new ep later

[victory-cookies]

trying to decide if I’m gonna buy one or both or any of the virtual tickets for the nycc taz/mbmbam tickets. I’m so broke rn and I’m trying to save money but I also want to see them but like. I also know they’re probably gonna be released eventually

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - THERE IS SO MUCH ON RIGHT NOW, it's crazy-making!

Organized, in each category, with ones I'm enjoying most at the top.

July 2024 Week 1

Ongoing Series - Thai

Wandee Goodday (Sat YT) ep 10 of 12 - I am with Dee, noodles do solve everything. The brothers were SO GOOD together. I’m getting to really love a back drop in BL, it’s like the mic drop of gay boys smooching. This is such a good show. I had a big grin on my face while also crying a bit. Everything I want from a BL is happening right here, in front of my eyes.

Did they gloss over the trauma a bit? Yes. Do I care? No. I don't like dwelling in trauma in general, mine, friends, online, or in my BL.

The Rebound (Weds Gaga) ep 2 of 12 - All Thai mafia is gay… again. Yes, it’s still great. No, I have no idea why they’re dropping so many eps at once. That’s not normal for a Thai drama. But I’m not gonna complain except there’s a lot on right now. I like the side couple too. I also like Frank’s poor little rich kid side dish action. I mean, Meen is an ult for me, but Frank is giving excellent second lead syndrome. Suspiciously aggressive and a touch stalker, but I don’t mind a boy that sus if he that cute. And of course, with the mafia involved there is kidnapping.

Look, is this the best show currently airing? No. Which is why it slid a little in the standings. But that's only because Wandee hit it out of the park this week. Frankly, this may not be the best BL airing right now, but it’s the best BL for me.

Sunset X Vibes (Sat iQIYI) ep 4 of 12 - That oppa bit was fucking genius. (You get it right? If you don't, I can explain.) And I immediately adore the secretary character as a result (I typed that as "reslut" and that works too.) Pleased to have such a "rich man and his spoiled boy" dynamic it going already. A dynamic I am personally IRL familiar with from the 90s. Also, kiddies stop filming adults at play! Sheesh.

I pretty much love all the couples in this show. It’s lots of fun. SamYo’s cat and mouse thing is delightful. Meanwhile, the mains are so sweetly hesitant about kisses and everything (hilarious coming from this pair). I love them and their awkward first time, or whatever is going on.

Do you know what? After that "oppa" comment this lead pair makes me feel a little bit like I’m watching a gay K-drama, similar style of personalities and everything, even the random martial arts ability. And the outing. I'm getting Business Proposal vibes. Nothing wrong with that, I was weaned on K-dramas.

All in all, great episode.

My Stand-In (Fri iQIYI) ep 11 of 12 - Yet again I spent the entire episode saying "poor Joe" over and over again. This time I didn’t cry though.

The pat way to end this is to have Joe walk through that door and then wake up back when he was about to get into the motorcycle accident. So that none of it ever happened. I suppose we’ll see what they do next week but I hope it isn’t that.

We Are Cute (Weds iQIYI) ep 14 of 16 - Do you know what this friendship group reminds me of the most? The old Love Sick music club boys. This is just the college version... 10 years later. (Love Sick was one of the few shows where I mostly didn’t yell “no singing” at the screen (also Ingredients). In my defense, I didn’t know any better back then.)

As boyfriends, PhumPeem are even more puppy/cat paring. And I am even more delighted by it. And them. In fact, this show is ALL puppy/cat pairings. I’m not mad about it.

"I’m hugging you so you won’t feel hungry" is the weirdest pick up ever. But Phum is weird. 

This Love Doesn't Have Long Beans (Fri iQIYI) ep 1 of 8 - The PittBabe team behind a new restaurant set BL full of hidden agendas and starring my new favorites SailubPon. I’m reminded so much right off the bat of PokeTongue’s side dish couple in What’s Zabb Man. Interesting, considering that came from Pon’s former studio. Love the call out of obnoxious content creators (not to mention corporate property developers). I like the chef character, he’s nicely complex. In fact, so far I like most of the characters, it’s a good range of different personality types. The plot is a little contrived and complicated but I don’t mind because the characters are such fun.

The Trainee (Sun YouTube) ep 1 of 12 - Reported on this last week already but here's what I said:

Gun still looks like he’s just out of high school. Madness.

The set for the print shop reminds me of Mork’s dad’s place in ‘Cause He’s My Boy? I swear GMMTV has only 3 sets.

I wasn't looking forward to this show at all. Maybe I just needed more of a break from OffGun? Cooking Crush happened yesterday.

Whatever, because I was absolutely riveted by this first episode.

I’m enjoying The Trainee a lot. Like, a lot a lot. It's not higher up just because there is so much good content from Thailand airing right now.

My Love Mix-Up Th (Fri YT) ep 5 of 12 - Still a chaos muffin no matter which country. So earnest. So cute. Talking stage commence!!!

Love Sea (Sun iQIYI) ep 4 of 10 - I got so bored I started looking up ways to organize my sunglasses. Trash watch here.

Knock Knock Boys (Thurs Gaga) ep 6-7 of 12 - The exes are odd. I like that Latte finally got some backstory.

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

I Hear the Sunspot AKA Hidamari ga Kikoeru (Japan Weds Gaga) Ep 2 of 10 - I’m still enjoying this quite a bit. It’s paralleling the manga quite closely, which is nice. But it’s not gonna be a particularly exciting drama if this continues. The manga is rather quiet (pun intended to amuse not insult).

Takara's Treasure AKA Takara No Vidro (Japan Mon Gaga) ep 1 of 10 - Look, if some kid followed me to college and changed the whole course of his life because I was nice about his dead bird? I'd be skeeved as fuck too. It's odd and uncomfortable, in that way Japan loves. Visuals are on point but can't say I'm enjoying it as yet. Still, it is JBL, and so I am intrigued and open to all possibilities.

It's airing but...

The Last Time (Thai Fri YT?) - Convoluted story of loss and possible reincarnation or something. Can't find it.

OMG Vampire (Thai Sun ???) 10 eps - I've put the search on hold for and y'all can let me know if it's worth tracking down once it ends?

In case you missed it

Blue Boys finished it run. I like it quite a bit. This felt a lot like a Strongberry short series. It’s very curtailed and could’ve used some legs but I've been trained into ignoring that for Korean BL. Short has always been their thing. Essentially, two boys who were acquaintances in high school are reunited and it turns out always had crushes on each other. It’s definitely an extrovert meets introvert scenario, and this being Korea, they can’t resist a tiny love triangle in the eleventh hour. But it all came out fine in the end. It has great kisses and higher heat than is normal from Korea. All in all, a surprisingly charming offering. Recommended with some reservations around the brevity of plot and character development. 8/10 

The Time of Fever AKA Unintentional Love Story 2 (Korea movie) trailer released to Korean theaters 5/25. HoTae & DongHee, side couple from Unintentional Love Story are back! Same actors, same character names. I love them. Devastated this hasn't had international distribution. I demand you tell me the moment you find it!

Next Week Looks Like This:

Upcoming BLs for 2024 are listed here. This list is not kept updated, so please leave a comment if you know something new or RP with additions.

July Releases to Come

7/10 Century of Love (Thai Gaga) 10 eps - trailer here, DaouOffroad are back, this time as fated mates in a quasi historical paranormal moment. San has spent many lifetimes waiting for his lost beloved, to reincarnate from her death a century ago. But if he fails to find her within this century's time window, he will succumb to a tragic death. And this time she's a boy. Very much Director Who Buys Me Dinner meets First Love Again, hopefully better than both. I love this pair and think they can handle the premise, it's whether the storytelling is up to the challenge. I'm curious to see but I have reservations.

7/24 I Saw You in My Dream (Thai Weds WeTV) - Dee Hup is behind this one so I have high hopes. Younger boy chronically teased his whole life by the older boy next door suddenly starts having horrific prophetic dreams about his bully and must save hime.

7/26 4 Minutes (Thai Netflix or iQIYI?) - Great is a university student from Faculty of Business and the son of a wealthy business owner. Out of the blue, he gains the supernatural power to see four minutes into the future.

7/29 Battle of the Writers (Thai ????) - trailer here, TutorYim return and while I adore them, I really hope this is better than Middleman's Love. Won't be hard. However: that premise! Ugh. Something something authors fighting - save me. Why don't writers understand that nothing is more boring than writers?

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

Product placement du jour! Also the only product placed in a BL that I regularly enjoy myself.

Yes I cried. I'm a sap.

The faens in the wive's positions! So cute.

All Wandee

(Last week)

Streaming services are listed by how I (usually) watch, which is with a USA based IP, and often offset by a day because time zones are a pain.

The tag BLigade: @doorajar @solitaryandwandering @my-rose-tinted-glasses @babymbbatinygirl @babymbbatinygirl @isisanna-blog @mmastertheone @pickletrip @aliceisathome @urikawa-miyuki @tokillamonger @sunflower-positiiivity @rocketturtle4 @blglplus @anythinggoesintheshire @everlightly @renafire @mestizashinrin @bl-bam-beyond @small-dark-and-delicious @saezurumurmurs

Sigh, Tumblr in it's infinite wisdom doesn't like too many tags.

There's these tricks, remember.

[puckpocketed]

Trying to absorb everything there is to know about ice hockey within the shortest amount of time possible really does strange things to a person. You come up against questions such as what do defensemen even do aside from skate backwards and do tummy time to protect their goalie? (Broadcasts aren’t the most informative) What the hell makes defensemen effective? What do the casters mean when they say “gap”? What are defensive details?

I love watching games back, I love trying to understand the game. I love hockey <3 But sometimes it’s nice to have help, and sometimes my favourite writers/podcasters collaborate!!

Here is part 1/3 of a podcast mini-series about defending, putting it here so I can have a copy of it in case it ever gets taken down + wanted to share with everyone some of my findings! (All episodes are available if anyone just wants to listen to them!) Transcript + edits done by me, all mistakes are mine.

Published 6th November 2024, Hockey IQ Podcast: Modern Defensemen (with Will Scouch) Ep #1 - by Hockey's Arsenal, hosted by Greg Revak (apple / spotify / youtube / bonus substack link)

part 2

[START Transcript]

Greg Revak: On the Hockey IQ Podcast today, we open up a new segment: we’re bringing back our favourite Will Scouch. If you’re on the Hockey IQ Newsletter you know his work by now.

Will, good morning. Earlier than most of us probably normally get up, but it’s a good day.

Will Scouch: Yeah, Greg, thanks for having me, it’s a lot of fun. Me and Greg go way back. We’re boys from years ago and I’m excited to hop on the show. I’m a keen listener, keen reader. 

[They exchange pleasantries]

GR: Beautiful. Well, today we’re gonna talk about three concepts. We’re gonna break it into three spots though, so everyone’s gotta come back next week and the week after that.

We’re gonna talk about defensemen, because everyone knows they’re important but how do we actually play the position well?

WS: Yeah, I mean, it’s a position that’s still, to me, being explored; both by, I’d say youth and junior coaches and pro coaches alike. There’s a lot of different ways that you can do it.

I mean, I watch a lot of hockey from around the world, all kinds of different levels. I’ve watched guys develop from 15 to 24 at this point, and just seeing how their games evolve and everything, and how effective various versions of this position is. And I think it’s a very interesting area that’s still being explored in a lot of really interesting ways, for sure.

GR: Yeah, I think back to David Savard; he comes out of the [QMJHL] as this high-flying offensive defenseman, and if we just forgot about the rest of his career and you just saw him today as this great shutdown, defense-first player, you’d be absolutely shocked.

I mean, you think about Rasmus Dahlin — kid didn’t even play full time defenseman until his actual draft year, he was still playing forward a ton. There’s so much to be explored here.

I feel like [to get a lot of] — for you NHL fans — to get a lot of value in the later rounds out of your defensemen, take those offensive players first, and we can find a lot of hidden gems later.

WS: Well, yeah. I mean, actually, I’ve said this a few times but your listeners probably don’t know, but I did a presentation during the pandemic at the Ottawa Hockey Analytics Conference about this topic exactly; how, when you look at the numbers and the defensive value of players in the NHL, I found that there were just as many in the top 50 defensive value of players in the NHL, there were just as many undrafted players as there were second round picks, second and third round picks combined.

So the draft isn’t really a great historical gauge on defensive ability. Offense is a different story from defensive players, which we could probably get into a little bit.

But I find, personally, that evaluating defensemen and projecting defense to the NHL is still really spotty and questionable. And I don’t know, in my line of work, watching a lot of defensemen, a lot of the ones who I think are some of the better defenders kind of go a little unheralded, because a lot of the time you don’t need to be particularly noticeable to be a good defenseman, but scouts are always looking for the noticeable guys.

So it’s a very interesting world and it’s a very interesting thing to pick through, but there’s definitely a lot of case studies you could dig into, and a lot of players you could look at as cases of, “Oh yeah, nobody was really paying a whole lot of attention to them!” or maybe people were thinking about them the wrong way. But if you think about things a little bit outside the box, you might be able to see something really interesting there.

GR: Yeah, so let's dive into why that may be. Classic example would be Lane Hutson, so maybe we'll pick on him a little bit, but I definitely want to talk about Rasmus Ristolainen, because he is an interesting case study that we wrote about on the newsletter.

So where I want to start with this is just modern day defending. How are defensemen defending today versus old times? A lot of times it was the big hit, separate the head from body. The puck’s somewhere, but let's separate the head from the body, and we’ll worry about the puck later — that is going bye-bye.

Every coach I talk to now, they prefer having the puck rather than having a head on a stake. So for me, it comes back to this old saying of, “position before possession.” We're gaining body positioning, we're not so much separating head from body, but puck from player.

All right, so we've got position before possession. It's super valuable in gaining the space that you need to have first whack in a puck or put the puck where you want it, or just push it to a teammate. Just having the idea of owning space and there's no better league at this and no league that values it more than the NHL. If you don't do this well in the NHL, sooner or later, you're going to find yourself out of a job making a heck of a lot less money in a league that probably no one really cares that much about. You want to be in the show, the big lights: you have to value this more than anything.

And this is actually the one thing that I noticed about Hunter McDonald. He's in the Flyers’ system now — he was an overager, but I was like, “This guy is unbelievable!” He’s a huge frame, you can’t miss him out there. He would just get the positioning before possession, and I was like, “Okay, that’s interesting, let me watch him further.”

And I feel like he’s going to be one of those bottom of the lineup guys who, unlikely, made it out of being an overager in the [United States Hockey League], going to college for a few years, but has those little details of a defenseman that you see in modern day play, which is positioning overall, which is an NHL trait to the nth degree.

WS: No, I know. I think I would definitely agree. Those are the players that are always really, really fascinating to me because you look at a guy like Hunter McDonald and the production just isn't amazing. But it doesn't — to me, when you look at defensemen, it almost doesn't really matter. That's kind of a very secondary-slash-bonus style of thing that comes with a player.

I see a lot of defenders every year and it seems like a thing where a lot of them, maybe at the lower levels, there is a little bit more of that “separate the head from the body”-type of player. And I think there are NHL scouts who still gravitate towards those guys but, at the end of the day when it all comes out in the wash, it's a lot of the time the guys that are kind of, I hate to say ”boring”, but just very effective, and just they're always in a good position.

The guy I always reference as a young defenseman who, I think, is just a really, really high-end defensive guy is Kaiden Guhle in Montreal. We're going to talk a little bit about Lane Hutson in a second, but Kaiden Guhle is a guy who, when he was in the junior level, just played such a great, balanced style of defense.

He was a good skater, but he had really good length. He was a guy who didn't just lay the body every single time, but he certainly could if he needed to. It was about his lateral mobility, it was about tracking rushes, keeping inside the dot lines, and preventing chances from inside and leading with his stick, but then finishing with the body if he had the opportunity or the need to do so. And he seemed to have a really good read of just how to do his job really, really well.

And so that's been a lesson for me for sure. He was a really interesting case study a few years ago, and he's become a pretty solid NHL defenseman. I mean, on a team this year that’s kind of struggling defensively I think he’s been one of the brighter spots on that defense group there, [he’s] doing a pretty good job at least suppressing chances against.

GR: I don’t watch as much as you do, prospects, but Guhle I did catch. For me, the play style wasn’t very good. He had elements of it, you could see the flashes, but he was just really brash. His decision making and his reads were quite poor. But the tools were there, and it was like, “Can he adjust?” Which I think he’s done a phenomenal job [of], and I think Montreal is probably the perfect place for him to develop a lot of that.

So I think you're spot on like, “Okay, how does he actually apply?“ Having assets is one thing, having the tools is one thing, but how do we properly apply those assets, those tools that you have in a good way? So I think another piece, for me, is if you do have the speed, is just making sure that you're controlling speed and then you're also keeping small gaps.

And just knowing with my high school team that no one knows what a gap is, let's define that real quick, which is: the difference in space between the forwards and the defensemen. So the space in between, “How much space are you [allowing]?” in hockey term slang. It's underneath you versus on the other side, which is above you or behind you. So, “How much space, what's that gap between D and O?”

(Editor’s note: He says O instead of F here, I assume because the person attacking isn’t always a forward. As in, “How much space between the defenseman and offenceman?”)

So you got the speed, shrink that gap as much as possible. Don't give them the space to operate or work in, or, I even call it the space to think, which [it often becomes] for forwards, especially unsophisticated ones.

WS: Yeah, I mean, that's really the bread and butter of a lot of the position. It's so much of this, like you said, gap control. I actually just did a bit of video work for a really high end player, [an] NHL draft pick playing in Sweden this year, who is producing really well.

But in terms of the defending side of the game, he's not the most incredible skater you've ever seen, he's not the biggest guy in the world. And a big thing that I noticed, that even at the professional level that was kind of a bit of a work in progress, was that gap management. Especially because the footwork wasn't amazing, [he was] keeping his feet a little too stationary, gliding backwards and sort of allowing that gap.

And when you watch the NHL that's the point of the whole exercise, watching the NHL and how they play. Forwards are fast and they're smart, largely. The guys who can score are the guys who know how to get through soft defensive pressure, the guys who know how to find lanes and cross up defensemen, and if you don't have the footwork or the mobility or the reach or all of it — all of the above — to track all that and manage it, then it's going to be a lot tougher to do your job.

But the interesting thing, though, is that there's a lot of different ways that you can get defensive jobs done. That's always been very interesting to me; seeing how different players approach the position in different ways and seeing the efficacy of that come out in the wash, and how their offense balances with their defensive ability. It's a very interesting world to dig into, for sure.

GR: Yeah, I think you've got a rabbit hole there. You just kind of opened up around defensive skating. What do clean feet look like? What does defensive posture look like, that actually allows you to have that kind of mobility?

So we'll leave that for another day. If anyone wants to go check it out on the Hockey IQ Newsletter, they can do so. Just look up defenseman skating development. We've got two good pieces there talking about building and maintaining defensive posture and keeping clean feet, which — actually massive base for anyone.

It allows you to have the proper gap that allows you to kill plays early, and ultimately, it's a lot about just controlling speed. You don't want McDavid building up to full speed. You don't want MacKinnon building up to full speed. You don't want anyone coming up to you at full speed. It's very hard to maintain that kind of speed going backwards [that we] even generate in the first place.��

How do you kill it early? How do you get a hand on someone? Or, my favorite example is just proper pivoting. A guy dumps a puck on you, how are you going back? What does that pivot look like?

I'll let you open that up because at the NHL it's almost too good, where you can't see what a bad example looks like, but you can see it's everywhere.

WS: Yeah, I mean, it's a make or break skill in the NHL. It's where a lot of defensemen die. I mean, it's a cliche at this point to talk about pucks in deep, to talk about [getting] pucks deep in the offensive zone, get below the goal line, dump and chase. People make fun of dump-and-chase kind of stuff. But if your team is built to do it, you can do it.

You can take advantage of defensemen in the NHL who just don't have the speed or the agility or the skating ability that some of your forwards might have. It is a lot easier to skate forwards than it is to skate backwards. That's just, you know, anecdotal, but also pretty factual — you're naturally going forwards.

I think an interesting trend that you're seeing a little bit more of [is] what they would call ‘scooting’. You're the coach; I don't know if that's exactly what the terminology would be, but [it’s getting] your defensemen in the neutral zone, kind of pinching a little bit more and having them skate forwards, tracking play towards the boards.

So it's not necessarily that they're doing their backwards crossovers, it's not necessarily that they're entirely skating backwards, but you see guys who are really talented skaters or do have a lot of quickness driving play to the boards in a more aggressive way than having the play in front of them. It's about them sort of tracking that play laterally, which is an interesting thing I think you're seeing more of now.

I think there are definitely coaches and systems that love to play their defensemen more that way, and the weak side defense can sort of fill between the dot lines for them and sort of leave the weaker side of the ice a little bit more open. That's kind of what I mean. There's a lot of different ways to achieve these kinds of goals, and I think you're seeing a lot of different things popping up to adapt to this. 

In situations where you have a dump and chase or something like that, or just getting pucks in deep or whatever you say, when you have a defenseman who has trouble with their footwork and turning around… Trust me, I'm a defenseman, when I play hockey, I strap on the skates — I play defense myself and that's where I fall apart, when I do fall apart. Which is often. But definitely, when play turns around and I’ve got to change directions or change my area of flow, it can be tricky. And in the NHL, I can only imagine how tricky it can be there. 

GR: Yeah. I mean, a good pivot you're looking at three steps total, like boom-boom-bam and you're there. You watch an amateur game and it could be like five, six, seven, eight chops before [they] finally get going and [it’s] looking like a proper forward stride again. [Or just] getting into a good defensive posture and positioning. It's total scramble mode.

A big one for me, too, is just the direction that you pivot. Do you wait for that offensive player to commit to their lane? It's just a great defensive habit in general, letting the offenceman make the first move. If you're making the first move, you're the one showing your cards. It's kind of like showing your cards first in Poker.

Let them make the decision and then you can pivot into them. Now you can get that position before possession, or at least get a chip on them, slow them down. You can either make it easier for yourself or your partner. So one, there's the clean footwork on the pivot, and two is making sure that we're controlling the speed and we're pivoting properly in the direction that we want to pivot.

There's a ton of times where I see, especially the lower levels, players coming up, they're in a bad spot, they're skating forward, defenseman skating backwards and they just chip it off the boards. And the defenseman is like a dog just following the puck and it ends up in the middle of the ice where the forward actually went. Again, the NHL is the best at this so it's really hard to see bad examples of pivoting into and controlling the space of the opponent.

WS: Yeah. I do a lot of work outside the NHL, and the biggest thing I notice is not necessarily the number of chops it takes, but the amount of time. You can see guys taking two seconds, maybe more, to get themselves turned around, tracking pucks below the goal line.

To me hockey is a game of milliseconds a lot of the time, right? I was working with someone years ago who really shared the idea with me that, in the NHL, generally goals are not scored if you have the puck on your stick for more than either half a second or a second.

I can't remember off the top of my head, but it's so fast in terms of; when you score goals in the NHL, it's when you touch the puck for a very short amount of time in the offensive zone and get a puck on net. And so, if you have guys who take too long — and “too long” might not be very long… If the difference is relatively short at the time you're making those pivots or those changes, but the [opponent has] got a lot more speed than you and you're [taking more] time to then start generating that speed to match the opponent, you're in trouble.

And in my opinion, I think that you want your defensemen to be more assertive. I always fall back on the strategy of; make them make a decision, make them commit. That might imply that you do the committing first, but that's where the importance of footwork and tactics come into question. 

You have to have strong support, whether it's from backchecking forwards or your partner. You want to be able to adapt to quick players who might fake one way, go another, and be able to use your stick or use your feet or both to be a factor regardless of what happens. 

It's very interesting to watch defensemen play. I find it really, really interesting to see the different approaches of different players and especially how they evolve and get into the NHL.

But yeah, I mean, [it’s so pivotal], the skating ability; defensemen who can skate, it unlocks so many doors for their career. If you're an elite level skating defenseman, it just unlocks so many doors that interest me. If you're not, and if that's not a strength of your game, then it can be a big struggle, especially against faster opponents. Even if you're big and physical and pretty good throwing the body or whatever, there's a lot more of the game in the NHL these days. Very, very interesting stuff. 

GR: I think that's actually the perfect segue into someone who, early in his career, threw the body too much and sold out too much on plays that he probably shouldn't: Rasmus Ristolainen.

Great case study, great case study from when [John Tortorella] started working with him to where he is now. Will, I'll send in the link here from the Hockey IQ newsletter so we can track a little bit better with each other. 

I found him to be a fascinating player. High draft pick, 8th overall in 2013. Really pretty, smooth skating, big body — has all of the tools that you would traditionally say, “Yep, that checks [out].” And then you looked at his stat profile and it was just abysmal. His micro stats were terrible. I think the only thing he was good at was D-Zone Retrievals, which, being able to take contact, it was kind of an easy thing for him.

WS: Yeah. I remember watching Ristolainen when he was in junior hockey, because that was the earliest years of me being kind of curious about that side of the game, and I did not really recall that being a premier area of his game.

I remember him being big, but pretty mobile, and has some skill to play around with. He did have a bit of a physical edge to him, but it feels like it was that tail end of an era in the NHL where those big, mean, physical guys were kind of in vogue, and people were kind of curious and needing guys like that. And I guess that's what Buffalo drafted him to be.

I remember being very surprised that he was in the NHL the year he was drafted. It just did not look like it was really working out there. And Buffalo just seems to have been not a great fit for him, they kind of turned him into something that he wasn't, but I do think that he's turned into some sort of serviceable defenseman.

But he, to me, is a great example of one that I always look back on and go, “Man, what if?” Like, what if things went a little bit differently for him? Because there was good stuff there, it's just I feel like the development was focused in the wrong areas.

To me, 65% of the work [is] scouting, and developing — the easy part is drafting good players, the hard part is developing them and bringing them along into being good NHL players.

So to me, if you can find the most amount of things that get in the way of that process being easy, then you're doing a really good job. And with Ristolainen, I feel like in his case they inserted more things to make that journey more difficult and sort of turned him into something that he wasn't, which is always a scary thing for me to think about doing to a player.

But it's not over for him, obviously. He figured it out. Obviously, Tortorella found something for him to do, and he has shown a little bit better. But yeah, he's always been a what-if guy for me.

GR: I always liked how Tortorella, after the 2022-2023 season, was doing his media stuff and he was like “Yeah, he's our most improved player.” You're a guy who's getting paid big bucks — I think he was making five million plus that year, still is, probably — and even him, he was like, “I was just bad the first half. And then around Christmas break, I started getting going. The second half was much better.”

Basically, the first half, they were just trying to rebuild his defensive game, and this is true for anything. Zach Benson's another good example of this. If you can't play defense in the NHL, you're going to be out quick. Benson can play defense despite being — I think they list them at five foot 10, but there's no way.

WS: Yeah, no, no. I know. He's a little guy, but he's another great example of a player where I, in my work, I do not care how big you are. I just care about how you play. Even in the NHL. And I feel like Benson's a really, really good example of that; a guy who, just forechecking alone is a really… The easiest way to defend is if he can cause turnovers in the opposing team's offensive zone, a guy like Zach Benson does that extremely well.

And if he needs to track guys through the neutral zone and backcheck, he'll do it, and he does it really well, and he does it at a speed that I found to be projectable to the NHL. And again, that's another one where I was a little surprised to see him in the NHL so fast, but he didn't really look out of place there.

He's had a bit of a slow start this season, but just a really, really talented player, and one where you kind of do look at and go, “Yeah, these smaller guys can definitely defend.” They just — the expectations are a little bit higher, and maybe for good reason, but he checks all the boxes for sure.

GR: Yeah. So for Rasmus (Ristolainen), there's two big things that, when I dug into this, that Torts was working at. At this point, I was so intrigued [that] I was tracking every single time Torts spoke and Rasmus spoke to the media. So I was like, “I wonder what they're actually doing?” Which, Torts can be tight-lipped, but he gives it away if you follow long enough.

The big one was just inside, like too much, he was finding himself, Rasmus was finding himself on the outside. So whether that be outside the dots, outside on bad ice, for whatever reason, or just finding yourself outside, like losing defensive side positioning to the offensive player.

If you finish contact, but now you're on the wall and your player's got to step to the net, that's trouble. There's a great, great clip the other night featuring, I think it was (Aliaksei) Protas [who] ended up scoring the goal and K’Andre Miller of the New York Islanders. So Caps — Rangers, not Islanders — Rangers… Where [Miller] went in soft, didn't really take positioning, got beat back to net, and Protas just put out a stick and just tapped it in, Igor Shesterkin never had a chance.

A similar idea of; okay, good, maybe you got some contact, you tried to make the stop, but you still need to maintain defensive side positioning. You still need to finish on the inside. So if you're doing contact, you can't overreach.

You just can't do that. You have to stay in good positioning.

And the second piece was just, finishing with contact to get stops, like stopping movement. Offensive play is a lot about movement, and defensive play is about stopping movement, AKA getting stops. So he would maybe make a play, or get a poke check, but the puck was still moving and could be easily on the other team's stick. 

So how do you make sure you're always staying in good positioning? Staying on the inside, as Torts put it. Or the other piece, which is getting stops, or finishing with contact — but smartly, not chasing the contact for contact’s sake? Being tactful in your play.

I feel like Risto really just learned how to play defense smartly. He was actually thinking and being intentional about what he was doing, rather than like, “I see a puck and a player, I'm going to go end that!” And then, boom, in the big scheme of things, it’s a net negative. Even though at the moment, it may have, especially to him — otherwise he wouldn't make the play — seemed like a positive, really it was a negative for the team.

WS: Well, that's the interesting thing too, going back to talking about junior players and the context in the draft and how defensive players might go a little bit underreported or undervalued in a sense.

I see this all the time, especially with North American defensemen, especially with Canadian ones, but there are definitely players who everybody talks about how good they are defensively, everybody talks about how solid they are. They're big, they're physical, they're mean, blah, blah, blah. But then when you watch things in detail, it's this sort of Ristolainen-style thing. You're talking about K’Andre Miller where it's like, they're along the boards, they're doing the thing along the boards, but they're losing.

They're allowing guys to get low on them, get through them, and even in the junior level, right? What good is it if you're trying to pin a guy against the boards and they give you a little shove, crouch down a little bit, chip the puck three feet out from you, you don't adapt to that, they get three feet of space on you, throw it out in front of the net, and boom, you got yourself a scoring chance, right? I see that all the time.

It's the focus on the body and not focus on the turnover, turning that possession back over, that really seems to be a tough lesson for a lot of defensemen to get over. I find that a lot of defensemen from the age of 18 to 23, in the grand scheme of things, their style of play doesn't drastically shift all that often.

And so, when I see things like that happening, I'm going, okay, I gotta either hope that this guy puts in the time in the gym and becomes, just, a strength nut, and pins that guy to the boards so they can't do anything, or they figure out a way to get into those situations, take a step back, chip at the puck. Really battle for the puck rather than focus on the guy.

Because I've seen it so many times with guys who are bigger and more physical, they apply it in a way where I feel like coaches will go, “Wow, look at you go, you're playing hard, you're playing the thing!” But then they escape, this opponent might escape, and create a little bit of space for themselves. And again, this is a game of inches, it's a game of a couple of feet, and every inch matters.

So in some cases, yeah, you get those situations where guys like Ristolainen, yeah, you're doing the thing, people clip the hits, people clip the physical play, but then five seconds later, someone's got some space on you and they generate a scoring chance. And so what do you really value, right? Personally, fewer scoring chances would be ideal.

GR: I love it. Last piece to wrap this up, because I think it'll go well into our next piece, which is point play. Shorting the zone.

I was able to find some phenomenal clips and do some photos of this for the newsletter. But the concept of; if you're watching a game in the NHL, if you can see all five of the people trying to break the puck out, low in the zone… A lot of it, you think about the NHL today, is like a swarm. We're going to do close support. I'm going to try to crowd the puck out.

A good way to respond to that is to short the zone, which basically means your defensemen, instead of hanging out at the blue line, are going to go into the offensive zone. And they're going to start with small gaps, they're going to be [at the] top of the circles, if not a little bit lower.

Tortorella is another big fan of this, so you can see it with the Flyers a lot, too. I would say [Sheldon] Keefe is another example of a coach who does this a ton. So you saw a lot in Toronto, now you'll see a lot more in New Jersey, which is  the perfect d-core to make all of this work. So I think Devils are going to be good for — that's going to be a great fit.

But just the idea of crowding in the space, setting small gaps, so when you do start defending, you can either cut a play off early — it's an easy pinch there if you don't have to go very far — you can cut it off. Or, 2; create a turnover in a much better spot than what is in your own zone. Why not make it in the o-zone? So from a positioning standpoint, phenomenal place to start, good way to kill plays early.

Before they can get going, before the team can build speed, and just being able to put yourself in a good spot to take advantage both from a defensive standpoint, but offensive standpoint.

WS: Yeah, I love when I see this being deployed. I think, again, I'm a geek, like I'm a math guy, and even just thinking about the numbers here, it makes such a difference if you think about it.

The offensive zone from blue line to goal line is 64 feet. So you're looking at the difference between a guy standing at the blue line being maybe 75 feet from the net or at the top of the face-off circle where you might be 20 feet closer, maybe 20, 25 feet closer. So you're cutting down the time at which you give the defense to adapt, the goaltender to adapt. You're cutting that time down by a third-ish, a quarter to a third. I'm ballparking here, but that automatically is just based on where you are on the ice.

If you can compress the offensive zone on your opponent, you're laughing. The second thing I wanted to mention here is this is, again, why skating ability and quickness and speed are so important to me. Because it is objectively a better position to be in when you're in that position — closer to the top of the face-off circles for your defensemen.

But if you do have a situation where the opponent has possession of the puck you have to get set up, you have to cover that gap, you have to cover for yourself, or you have to have some sort of system in place where a winger can cover for you if you're caught in the offensive zone. Ideally, you have your defensemen who can wheel up, get some speed going, get positioned well to counter that attack, and have a system that can swarm whoever has that puck in the offensive zone.

I think it's a really interesting trend for sure. It's a simple little thing, it's a concept that you see definitely a lot more now than you used to, but I'm all about it. It just makes sense mathematically, and it plays into exactly the styles of player that I always look for: guys who do pinch a little bit more aggressively, but have the mobility and the skating ability to cover for themselves.

I would rather have a player who tries something creative, or tries some sort of play that could lead to a high scoring chance, but may relinquish some space on the ice, but has the ability to cover for themselves.

And I can at least as a coach, rely on them — not that I'm a coach — but rely on them to cover for themselves. To go, okay, I can rely on them to try these things, because I know that if it doesn't maybe go their way, which happens in hockey all the time, I'm not going to be upset at this player, but I know that I want them to backcheck, cover for it, because I know they're capable of it.

I think that that's sort of the trade off that you have to live with, but I'm totally cool with it.

GR: All right, so we're going to call this end of the day on some modern day defending, and we'll pick up on point play in episode two.

[END Transcript.]

part 2 <- convenient link at the bottom <3

[freshlyprinted]

Tumblr terminating my account for the entire When the Phone Rings finale week was such a mean move. But I’m back and here are my two cents about the ending.

• I think reactions really depended on whether the viewers read the novel or not. For non-readers the Argan plot came out of nowhere but for those who read the book it was like ‘Ah, they went for this plot after all’. If I hadn’t read the book, I would’ve been more upset.

• The Argan side plot being short was both a curse and a blessing. Midway through ep 12 I was like are they ruining the ending. But then just 10 min later they were back on track.

• Also I kept thinking everyone is gonna hate this twist in the finale. It’s funny how we as viewers know exactly what the audience doesn’t like but creators don’t understand.

• I can’t understand the concept of ‘my father’s sins are my sins’. Even as an abstract idea, I can’t wrap my head around it.

• I’m sad we didn’t get some of the scenes I thought they surely were going to add. Apart from the naming scene, we also never saw Heejoo’s confession face-to-face. I was looking forward to seeing their ordinary dates, I thought surely there will be callbacks in the finale.

• Also I was convinced they would turn Heejoo into a newscaster by the end and Saeon would help her. But I’m glad they didn’t, people can change their dreams and aspirations in life and it’s ok.

• Usually I don’t look forward to bed scenes in kdramas because they so often seem awkward and unrealistic and it just pulls me out of the show. All I can think is these are two actors on a set pretending (*accusingly*). But I’m happy with all the intimate scenes in the show. The kisses are superb. The cuddling after the bed scene looks cozy and genuine. They nailed the comfortability between characters, how it changes throughout the show.

• I love their new house, it’s so cozy. And I adore dinner scenes in shows, it’s one of the best sets to explore family/friends dynamic. Their little community is so precious.

• The Izmael/Paltima addition was done in poor taste even if the mistranslation claims are true. But also I’m not 100% surprised by tone deafness in kdramas (I know it sounds terrible).

Side note. I binge-watched Vagabond right before the finale, it’s my first action kdrama and it’s set in Morocco (it’s great!). And my mind just kept comparing the action scenes and sets and it’s kind of ridiculous how low budget WTPR is.

All in all, WTPR is a good show, the actors are a revelation to me, eps 1-4 and 9-10 were insane, the chemistry was electrifying. There are a couple of failure moves but I’d still recommend the show.

[glasskey]

I’m Gonna Cut Your F#cking Heart Out - The June Osborne Hit List Pt 3.

With Season 6 in the making and its release just a few months away, I have been hammering out a few more of these to vent my frustration and calm my nerves, as I quietly climb the walls. Today I’m kicking off with a quote I failed to mention from S2, and oh boy it was a good one.

Thank you for bringing me that.

I neglected to include this one in last seasons Hit list and I’m sorry, I’m truly sorry. Nick returns from Canada, delivering a message from June’s family and friends. She’s not seen them in years, by now Blaine’s neck deep in love with Osborne and this is the most precious thing he could possibly give her. At first she greets him enthusiastically, she’s missed him, but somethings not quite right. During his recent jaunt to Canada Blaine suddenly became aware of his ultimate impermanence, and is now slightly distant. “I met your husband” he says and immediately her face drops. Moss plays this scene beautifully, there’s a litany of emotions that pass over her, as she learns about Luke and Moira. She’s deeply concerned and yet so overjoyed her eyes fill with tears.

“Thank you for bringing me that” she says through her tears, it’s an incredible gift and Osborne is aware it’s come at a cost. Blaine is in love with her, this was painful, not to mention incredibly dangerous. In later episodes Fred arranges for June to see Hannah as “an act of kindness”, but it’s just 5 minutes, only to have her daughter ripped from her once again, leaving Nick holding a distraught June. This was not a gift, this was a painful reminder of what it was like to lose her daughter and it drew a sharp line between the two men, and their innate sense of kindness and compassion.

As Blaine watches an elated June swept up in the news and memories of her family and friends, he acknowledges with simple clarity his newfound understanding; “I should go” Blaine says. He intends to extricate himself from her emotionally and return her to her family, but before he leaves the room he tells her he loves her. Why? Nick Blaine regardless of his position wants June to know that while she cannot be with her family in Canada, there is someone here who loves her. She is pregnant, she is vulnerable, but she is not alone. His character was criticized for the timing of this statement, but this message from her family and his confession was one of greatest acts of tenderness we ever saw from Blaine.

Meeting Luke was an uncomfortable revelation that she indeed had another life, that she was stolen from a happy family. In S5 Ep 10 Nicks words “I’m nothing” brought this moment back so vividly, his meeting with Luke painfully revealing his value as merely a placeholder for a loving family…”Just a driver.” In S5 Ep10, Blaine silently sits at her bedside, watching, never waking her…..”I should go” he’d said to her…….”It’s probably better if she doesn’t know I was here” he echoes to Tuello. She stirs as he leaves the room. He never knew she nearly woke. She never knew he was there. “Thank you for bringing me that” June says to him and as Blaine almost limps out of the room, the weight of his pain is almost visible. He’s utterly heartbroken. Her joy had cost him, but when it came to paying the price, ultimately Blaine never gave a fuck.

You will never be free of me

It’s the infamous Serena and June break up scene and I am here for it. June’s angry and hurt. Serena has betrayed her, Nick has abandoned her and her country has been destroyed by these fascist fucks. Time to lay it all out and give Serena a dose of reality. Nicole and Hannah are HER daughters, and June’s here to tell her that anything Serena may have cooked up to the contrary in her twisted little psyche, is an absolute fantasy.

She was never a baby momma, and nothing she does is going to fill the giant vacant black hole inside her; not a vast evil empire and definitely not June’s stolen daughter. June HATES her, and what’s worse is she’s determined to haunt her every step, either through her actual physical self or the insurmountable guilt of her collective acts, until both her daughters are free. As June lays it out, calling Serena cold and empty, her words echo around the cold empty pavilion.

Serena starts to feel a bit sorry for herself here, her eyes fill with tears and as June talks she looks like she’s about to crumble. But why would she care? Serena’s the resident ice queen and she’s been nothing but hostile and cold blooded to June since she arrived, with a few exceptions. Well it’s worth remembering that Serena doesn’t really have any friends, she’s just surrounded by fellow back-stabbing, pearl-clutching Gilead wives and creepy old Fred. As fancy as the Waterford’s may be, Serena Waterford is anything but a typical compliant Gilead wifey; she’s written books, she’s an academic, she’s smart, articulate and time and time again we see her attempt to establish some semblance of power equal to her male counterparts.

Serena constantly struggles between what she sees as the virtue of female servitude, and her desire to have the freedom that comes with gender equality. The fact is Serena admires June, her strength, her resourcefulness, her power, her ability to garner devotion and inspire true love. June is the embodiment of everything Serena wants and she gave it all up for shitty old Fred who doesn’t love her, and cut off her finger. “I should have put a ring in your mouth” Serena seethes, wishing she could silence the constant voice of liberty from tempting her. “I should have let you burn when I had the chance” says June, regretting she didn’t see the formation of Gilead coming, and destroy or at least escape it in time.

Technically Serena’s won this one, she makes her kneel in front of a legion of handmaids, but for the next season and a half she’ll be sporting that trademark June sized hole in her icy black heart.

Bad Luck

June has just been dragged into Gilead torture central, they’ve water boarded her, locked her in a box and pushed her friends off a roof. None of it worked. She’s not talking and something must be done. Nick’s been busy plotting and twisting arms behind the scenes, and lo and behold here comes Lawrence to try and talk some sense into her about giving up the Handmaid’s. During their friendly chat, Lawrence lets slip a bunch of commanders have become a tad unwell from being poisoned at a Jezebels June just happened to be in the local vicinity of. Oops.

“It’s bad luck” gloats June casually, they both know who’s responsible here. Lawrence has had the full measure of June before, the reckless sacrifice she is willing to make in order to get shit done, be it a plane load of kids, or a bunch of dead commanders. It’s not the first time she’s killed one and it certainly won’t be the last, in fact apart from Nick and Lawrence, there’s nary a commander alive that she wouldn’t slaughter given half the chance. Unfortunately she’s forgotten who else is at stake here; her own daughter. June has been running amuck confident in the knowledge that while Gilead would happily see her swing, it would never lay a pinky on a child. After all isn’t that what all this old timey fuss and bother is all about?

Apparently not, Lawrence informs her, as with any good regime it’s all about power and in Gilead’s case, children are the currency. Sadly this includes Hannah. At first she doesn’t believe him but unfortunately Lawrence is not in the habit of lying; Gilead have their own methods of illustrating their point no matter how painful. The next scene is one of the most heartbreaking and difficult scenes I’ve ever had to watch on this show. June is taken to see Hannah trapped in clear glass box under unyielding lights.

She scurries away from June, petrified by the sight of this shackled woman she barely recognizes. June’s at first startled. Shocked by the realization that her own child is terrified of her, and then gently she tries to pacify her, inching towards her and speaking softly. It’s like watching someone trying to soothe a scared animal.

Hannah looks at June with those huge, familiar, brown eyes, whimpering, cornered. And just like that, Gilead broke her.

Do You Understand Me?

This one is a call back to Season 1 when Serena went from 0 to 100 in the space of 10 seconds slamming June to the floor in a fit of rage because she hadn’t managed to get knocked up. Personally I think this was a culminative reaction, it’s not simply her losing shit over the absence of a baby. Serena loathes the ceremony, you can tell from her icy request for June to get the fuck out after Fred was done with her. Consider for a moment that June is not the first handmaid that has dwelt under the Waterford’s roof, and you may begin to understand EXACTLY how many times Serena has participated in this horrific ordeal. The fact is, she’s overjoyed she won’t have to go through one more incidence of watching her own husband trying to impregnate another woman. It’s absolutely grueling. In later episodes there’s a reference to the fact that Fred had previously inflicted extra-curricular activities on his former handmaid, activities that Serena had been aware of. When June arrives at the house Serena is quick to advise June that Fred is HER husband, unfortunately Fred wastes no time in dissolving the illusion that they are actually in love and proceeds to get handsy with June.

As Serena hurtles June to the floor and screams in her face there’s a bitter sense of not only rage but frustration. When will she be free of this nightmare? What ensues is a battle of wills and wits that June eventually wins. No matter, Serena never forgets….back to the plotting corner. In Season 4 June learns that Serena’s in Canada. Fucking Serena. Can’t even move countries without tripping over her it seems. Not only that but she IS in fact preggers and lo and behold it’s Fred’s. June is seething; had she endured all this shit for nothing? Locked in a room for weeks, raped, electrocuted, beaten, threatened. Time to pay Serena a visit. June, like everyone else has realized there’s nothing quite like bathing in Serena tears, it’s deliciously therapeutic. As June strolls into her cushy little “prison”, Serena is stupid enough to tell June that she “prayed for this”, assuming that simply asking for forgiveness will guarantee it. It doesn’t.

June’s come to deliver a message and she won’t be giving Serena anything, in fact she intends to take a proverbial pound of flesh while she’s at it. She’s seething with rage and in a display of biblical wrath, she lays down a good old fashioned curse on Serena’s unborn progeny. Serena deteriorates into a sobbing mess, the whole incident signaling the Handmaid Lite role that Serena was to undertake in season 5.

This phrase shows up again in season 5, this time with an almost forgiving tone after Noah is born. “Do you understand me?” binds these women together as their relationship shifts and grows throughout the seasons. June and Serena are almost mirror images and as such this asks not only if they understand one another, but also if they understand themselves.

[bengiyo]

Knock Knock Boys Ep 5 Stray Thoughts

Last week, we squarely sorted our housemates into two pairs and gave Almond a proper shake to make him get over Jumper. Almond spent the first chunk of the episode following Latte, and watched him give a talk to a club about pansexuality. He and Almond had a good moment after that, and Latte found himself getting jealous of Jumper at the barbecue they hosted later. Meanwhile, Thanwa is still looking for work but had an excellent moment with Peak in a closet where Peak apologized for taking a kiss from him earlier and asking for a new one. We left at Jane reentering the picture.

I do love their cold opens that are for a later scene in the episode. It feels so assured every time. I like the anticipation of paying attention to the moments so I know what that cold open is meant to provide as payoff.

I love Latte so much. He wakes up from sleeping on Almond and only gives a pleased smile about it. These two faking sleep are ridiculous. I know Almond was gonna toss his ass when the Now Kisstm moment started

Using the shirt to provide a barrier during a pratfall kiss is novel. I’m glad the first time their lips actually touch won’t be accidental, and that Latte got injured. We’ve only seen someone bleeding after a pratfall kiss in a few instances (Love Stage!! TH comes to mind).

Fiancée? I am ready for the drama.

These boys are nosy as hell!

The energy Jane gives off is so knowing. I am compelled.

Almond, the rich kid, took his shirt off to pretend to clean the walls with it after rolling away from the door. Incredible.

She is so ready to fight this man. They do not feel like they are romantically involved.

I feel bad for Thanwa. He’s staying out of the way, and even waited a bit for answers before calling.

Finally, someone acknowledged that every goddamn mosquito would be flying in through those open doors.

Morning wood in my BL? It’s more likely than  you think.

Almond, we see you still smiling about what you saw.

I’m with Almond. I wouldn’t want to eat breakfast at this tense table. However, I am also with Latte just trying to get some food in before walking to class.

Thanwa feels so properly gay to me. He’s being so careful about being neutral in his interactions with Jane.

I don’t like Max.

I like Lukpeach taking her offense to their sexual health club and talking about how improper it is to film people’s private moments and post them for clout.

Almond, focus please!

These two have a fun dynamic. Almond is still clearly thinking about Latte’s dick, and I love Latte being upfront that he’s down to play if Almond wants.

An unfortunate t-shirt choice there, costuming department.

This framing with the bed scene is excellent. Thanwa is still willing to offer Peak shelter, but he’s made it clear that they can’t have any more closeness while this situation with Jane remains unresolved.

Yes, put on your glasses so you can see his back properly. This show is very good at communicating that the characters are feeling multiple things.

Baby’s first dildo!

I don’t think they’re talking about the job anymore, guys.

This boy is skipping home to use his new toy! I love that for him.

You’re gonna need more Vaseline than that, baby boy.

I really love that Almond is allowed to explore his body this way. He lucked out on his roommates, too. Latte was worried when he heard him scream, and I love him teasing Almond about helping. It’s so cool that Almond is made to feel like he is desirable in some way.

And now Jane is covering for Peak, and didn’t react much about Almond saying he kissed Thanwa. She knows.

Oh no. Almond, do not go check that locker room. You are gonna get your little heart broken.

Glad I called that Jumper was already with his friend.

Almond….no… You were just at a meeting about consent.

That’s interesting. I thought we would find out about Jumper and Shawn via the clip, not that Almond would have already seen them together.

Wow, that’s a difficult cliffhanger. You could see Latte pulling away from Almond.

The preview is not promising!

Wow, I was not expecting the show to go beyond the “don’t film people” PSA aside. Having Almond overstep that boundary in a moment of jealousy and be caught for it is ripe with tension. I like that it’s Latte who catches it first, because he’s been dealing with Almond overstepping boundaries with him for multiple episodes with him following him places and trying to see his dick. Even if there’s been brewing sexual tension between them, Almond has been very firm about saying no to Latte. To have him then film and post Jumper like this is egregious, but in line with his earlier behavior. I’m excited to see where we go with them. As for Thanwa, I love that he still likes Peak even if he’s holding on his own line as well. This show whips ass.

[thatgirl4815]

OF Favorites Rankings

I did this once before the series aired, but I thought it’d be fun to rank the core characters in OF in the middle of the series’ run and once more at the end.

I’m gonna tag some of my active OF moots here (and some new OF friends as well!) if any of you want to play too—no pressure at all! And of course, even if you aren’t tagged, please feel free to play along! I’m super curious to see how opinions have changed from the beginning to the middle to the end. :)

@abstractelysium @nihilisticcondensedmilk @just-gm @firstkanaphans @prapaiwife @dreamedofyou @sandrayy @fanfictionroxs @khaopybara @tiedankelstotheocean @thegalwhorants @autisticbokutoenthusiast @itsmelb @way-too-indecisive @k-white @waitmyturtles

1. Sand

Of course it was going to be Sand in first place (get it…First place?)

He might be morally dubious in Ep6, but if anything, that makes him more endearing to me (don't ask me how). If they all play dirty, he can play dirty too. Plus, he's just got the vibe. The t-shirts, the jackets, the boots, the independence. The superior music taste? Mans has it all except for money. Though tbh, the moment that solidified Sand as my favorite was when he ran after Ray at the end of Ep6--he was just dealt a personal attack by Ray in front of everyone, but he doesn't even hesitate to go after him. And that is the marker of a ✨ favorite character ✨

2. Ray

Naturally, both Sand and Ray have taken the top spots (pun intended), and it's because I have a special place in my heart for "woobified" characters (did I use that right @waitmyturtles? 😂)...and Khaotung executes his layers so beautifully. Ray did go in for a nonconsensual kiss (which he later apologized for, but I digress) and he did hash out some pretty brutal insults last episode. Irrespective of his feelings for Sand, it's indisputable that he has used him in some aspect to distract himself from Mew. So for all that, Ray is also morally dubious--but I'll use the term realistic instead.

I just want to give him a hug and tell him that he matters. Because clearly that is something he's heard only a few times in his life. And maybe if he heard it more often, we could avoid situations like the one at the end of Ep6.

3. Nick

I’m having a bit of an inner battle with myself over this one because Nick came out of the gate with some very immoral behavior, and yet I’m still putting him above Mew, because something about him is just so…pitiful. Admittedly, I've been growing more and more frustrated with him as the series goes on and he still fights for Boston's affection when Boston has proven time and time again that he just doesn't care. Boston keeps him on a rope, and in some ways I sympathize with Nick's struggles, because it isn't easy to turn the feelings off once they've already been cemented. But alas. He's digging himself further and further into this hole.

4. Mew

A lot of my gripes with Mew have been in respect to his treatment of Ray, but I go back and forth because I do understand the mental toll it must take on him. Regardless of whether or not he's responsible for helping Ray through his mental issues, as his closest friend, I think it should've been him running after Ray at the end of Ep6. Yeah, Ray said some shitty things about everybody, but Ray has only ever wanted what is best for Mew. And Mew was going to watch him run off and potentially get himself killed, even after Ray admitted what Top had done. Something about that just doesn't sit right with me.

Despite all of this, Mew does appear to be the most level-headed of the group (alongside Sand, though that was put to the test last ep). And the moment he played TopBoston’s sex audio right in Top’s ear? Phenomenal. He nailed that execution. I will laugh when he's on his revenge kick next week.

5. Cheum

Cheum is this low firstly because she doesn't get a lot of screen time, and secondly because she's made some comments that are a little questionable too. I can't remember who said it, but someone pointed out just how often she references how lucky Mew is to be with Top--which is a little strange, looking at him like he's some big prize. Also, not to bring everything back to Ray but...she contributes to the "burden" discussion quite a few times.

I do really enjoy the small snippets we've gotten of her with April. I like that they finally gave their relationship a little bit more context in Ep6. They do seem to have some pretty solid communication (at least compared to the others) so I'm pleased with that.

6. Top

I know a lot of people have felt sorry for Top. And I understand that completely. I struggle to given that he not only cheated but lied about the cheating--and likely would never have admitted to it. For Mew, someone who values communication and honesty so strongly, it's like a punch to the face. I hope Top gets what's coming to him. (Also, stealing Sand's boyfriend? Wtf dude.)

7. Boston

Not much to explain about this one--I can understand why he is some peoples' favorite for the sole reason that he is the one creating all the conflict in the first place. But he's so twisted, manipulative, and careless that I just want Mew to kick him into that pool a hundred times over. I don't expect him to rise from last place by the end, but if he does, it'll be a miracle.

[jujumin-translates]

Event | Act 3.5 Event - NEW ERA GARDEN | EP: New Era Seeds

*Contains spoilers for Act 12 - eternal moment*

Shift: Whoaaa, Reni-san was so cool!

Haruto: Don’t yell! Think about the neighbors! We’re going to get complaints!

Shift: Okay, but like, wasn’t he so cool!?

Madoka: …

Haruto: What’s with the daze? Did you watch it properly?

Madoka: Ah, sorry. I was just imagining the two of you standing on that unfinished stage someday.

Shift: With your script, of course… right, Madoka?

Madoka: Yeah!

Haruto: And I’ll be the lead, obviously.

Shift: No way, I’m not handing that role over to you.

Haruto: Hmph, then you better work even harder if you want to shoot for the top. Otherwise, there’s no way you’ll be standing on that stage.

Shift: Bet. Leave it to me.

· • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • ·

Kabuto: …So this is Yukio Tachibana and the first-generation MANKAI Company, huh?

Aoshi: …That theater will be our new goal.

Kabuto: Yeah. We’re starting over from nothing. I don’t see how we couldn’t get fired up.

Aoshi: …By the way, I won’t be able to come and wake you up tomorrow. Please make sure you set four alarms.

Kabuto: Zznn--.

Aoshi: That didn’t take long…

· • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • ·

Fanboy: Uwhoooaaa! I didn’t really get some of the story, but that was so cool! It was sick as hell…!

Fanboy: (So this is the first generation of MANKAI Company… the ones who started it all…)

Fanboy: (If it weren’t for them, today’s MANKAI Company wouldn’t exist… I can’t thank them enough…)

Fanboy: (It was so worth skipping cram school to watch the stream.)

Fanboy: (I’d kill to go see a play live on Veludo Way… I wanna meet my oshi…)

Fanboy: Oh, right! I gotta make sure all the other guys have seen it too…

· • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • ·

*Phone notification*

Boy Who Stands Out: Hmm? “Did you watch it?”. I mean, I did, but…

Boy Who Stands Out: I didn’t really get any of it. No way it’s gonna be a banger.

Boy Who Stands Out: I’ll just give a vague response, or whatever. More importantly…

Boy Who Stands Out: …Kyaha! This morning’s post is doing crazy numbers! Literally blessed.

· • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • ·

Young Delinquent: I-I said I’m sorry… c’mon… gh.

Boy With Birthmark: …

*Smack*

Young Delinquent: Ughh--hg.

Boy With Birthmark: …

*Two smacks*

Young Delinquent: --Ghugh.

*Phone notification*

Boy With Birthmark: --.

Boy With Birthmark: …Give me a sec.

Young Delinquent: --Gh.

*Fabric rustling*

Boy With Birthmark: “Did you watch it?” …Mmhm, oopsie, I forgot. (1)

Boy With Birthmark: “I’ll just watch the VOD.” Anyway…

Young Delinquent: Haah, haaah… fuck…

Boy With Birthmark: …You’re a stubborn one, huh?

*Smack*

Young Delinquent: --Ghaugh.

*Fabric rustles*

· • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • ·

*Phone notification*

Refined Boy: “I watched it.” …And, send.

Refined Boy: It was easy to understand with the Shinsengumi theme, and it was really profound and interesting, too.

Refined Boy: I’ll have to give Dad the link to the VOD later.

Refined Boy: --Right, but first I need to submit next month’s shift schedule to my manager.

· • —– ٠ ✤ ٠ —– • ·

Yukio: …So, congratulations on the great success of our first-day finale, cheers!

Hiro: Cheers!

Kasumi: Good work, everyone!

Zen: Good work.

Yuzo: The number of viewers of the stream seems to be goin’ strong.

Reni: Thanks to this, the number of subscribers for the New Fleur Award Channel increased, so it was a meaningful performance for the Award Committee.

Syu: Well then, how about we hear a few words from our director?

Yukio: Eh? Me?

Syu: Since you’ve made such a successful comeback, are there any ideas you have for the future?

Yukio: Ah, the future… umm…

Yukio: Actually, I have a favor to ask of you all!

Kasumi: ?

Hiro: Some kinda reform or something?

Yuzo: Are you gonna try and make us do somethin’ else?

Yukio: …Please do theater with me for the rest of our lives!

Hiro: Hah…?

Yuzo: The hell?

Zen: You make it sound like you’re proposin’.

Syu: Hah! So you finally said it. You finally said what you couldn’t say back then.

Yukio: H-Hehe…

Yukio: I was afraid to even think about it, and I didn’t want to say anything as to not interfere with anyone else’s plans. But I’ve been thinking about that ever since Reni and I had our fight and I just wanted to say that…

Yukio: Truly, I’ve always wanted to say that.

Zen: I getcha. Well, I’m livin’ in retirement with nothin’ else to do anyway. I’m with you.

Hiro: I’m also with you. I’ll stay this time until the end because I couldn’t protect what we had back then.

Syu: I suppose if everyone else is on board.

Yuzo: You’ve got my word. I’ll see this thing through.

Kasumi: You’re the one who said “I want to stay close to this troupe and love them forever”, aren’t you? There’s no going back on that now.

Kasumi: I’ll help in any way that I can!

Yukio: You guys… are you serious?

Reni: …I’m sure what you’ll do will continue to be utterly absurd. It’s irritating, but I’ll follow you.

Reni: You’ve been cleared of our long-standing grudge.

Syu: You’re sure piling it on, aren’t you?

Reni: There’s no denying it. I just thought differently then.

Yukio: HUH!? Scary…

Yukio: But are you really finally making peace with things?

Reni: I suppose so.

Yukio: …I’m glad. Because you’re the first person I ever wanted to spend the rest of my life making plays with, Reni.

Reni: --.

Reni: …Hmph, I’m probably the only person in the world who can go along with your recklessness.

Reni: There’s no avoiding it.

[ ⇠ Previous Part ]

• • •

T/N:

(1) Wasn’t sure if I was able to make it come through clearly enough, but he ends his sentence with “ッピ” which is like, a very cutesy way for a fictional character to end their sentences.

[battledroidwrites]

last year i spent every tuesday night/wednesday early morning staying up until 3 am for the new tbb ep because of the fuckass timezone difference and i just can’t sustain that this year and it actually makes me so incredibly sad because it was the me-est me-time i’ve ever had. as i’ve gotten older i can stay up later and very quickly i found how at peace i was late at night and very early in the morning, and those hours became a safe space where i could just decompress and there were no expectations or stressors. in the past few years star wars has become my solace. hyperfixations come and go and in the last few months i’ve found myself not as completely focused on star wars but it was always in the back of my head and coming back to it now feels like coming home. but back to last year, those were two things that made me feel calm and safe and now i have to rush to watch the episodes before school or wait all day until it’s over to watch it. it also makes me sad because i miss out on so much of the posts that you guys make, part of the joy of watching it the second it comes out is watching posts pop up as i’m watching and laughing at live reactions and memes and knowing that while i am a lonely person there are people all over the place loving tbb with me. anyway sorry for the ramble, i just love you guys and i’m sad it’s not the same anymore. i’m probably gonna delete this later anyway.

🩵

[deedah]

A love letter to Murder Drones

Btw this is just a rambling about how I got into Murder Drones and how it has changed my view of the world, so if you don’t care then don’t read :3

(Also it’s gonna be lengthy and maybe a bit of trauma dump)

I also don’t expect @liamvickersanimation or @glitchproductions to use tumblr, and if they see this I will jump off a cliff lol

So, it started one day when I got the Murder Drones pilot in my recommended on YouTube. Buut I scrolled right passed it cause I didn’t really care about it then. A few nights later, round midnight, I saw the pilot again and caved. I then went to the playlist and watched the first 6 episodes. (This was a month after ep 6 came out)

I did fall in love w/ the style of the show, but I did not understand the plot.

so I watched the show again and again, and even watched theory vids on it. And when I tell you I bawled by eyes out when I watched the show again, got connected to the characters, I bawled by fuckin eyes out when V sacrificed herself.

While watching theories of MD, something clicked in my head and I decided that I wanted to do my own show as well.

but, I suck at creativity and can’t make up new things, just edit already made things. So I decided, if I can’t make my own stories, I would help other people make their stories.

in other words, I wanted to be an animator

after I got my mind in on the fact I wanted to be an animator, I had downloaded many, and I mean many animation apps on my drawing iPad, and tried to 2D animate.

now, I would call myself a shitty artist. I don’t know anatomy and I barely use references too.

so when 2D animation did not work for me, I almost gave up my dream to become an animator, and plus.. I didn’t even know where I wanted to work.

I didn’t want to work for Disney cause I don’t really like their stuff anymore, and dream works kinda fell off too (no offense to any fans of those people, I will respect your opinions)

So I gave up on my dream, and I checked glitch prod. for any new info for MD ep. 7. But, instead of anything Murder Drones a new show was on called The Amazing Digital Circus.

now, I absolutely did not care about some new show, I only wanted Murder drones. Then I caved again and watched TDAC. and I fell in love w/ it as well.

and TDAC brought by dream back up to become an animator. I decided that I wouldn’t work for DreamWorks or Disney,

I would work for Glitch Productions.

now, I have no idea if I’ll ever be able to work for them, but it would be an honor.

then ep. 7 dropped for MD, and I fell in love again with this episode. Especially Flesha. Her movements, her emotions, her flicker design! It was all just perfect!

So I started to look online for ways to become an animator, but not a 2D one.

My mom helped me find a program called Blender.

and yes, I still use Blender to this day

I then started to take lessons from YouTube vids online and once I got the hang of it, I started to look for models that I could pose.

now, I can’t animate good rn cause I have a very shitty laptop that can barely run one model at a time, but I’m still learning.

and then the finale for Murder drones finally comes out. And omfg I have no words

it’s peak perfection

again the characters felt so ALIVE! And FREE!

and it’s what I wanted to do! It’s still is! I want to animate characters that people love and make art or fanfics about.

so.. that’s the point of this “Love letter”

I just wanted to say.. Thank you Liam and Glitch for this amazing show that I and millions of people could be apart of. And I hope I’m able to meet you in person and maybe even work under you one day.

Again.. thank you @liamvickersanimation and @glitchproductions.

you brought be out of my shell and made me into a better person, I owe you a lot.

and with that.. goodnight

-love @deedah

[le-trash-prince]

4 Minutes ep 5 thoughts

Oh Title that bitch

The sound of dripping water in this parking garage really stands out to me bc i hate the sound of dripping water lol

Me: oh we’re finally catching up to the pre-titles sequences!

Me two seconds later when i remember this is a pre-titles sequence: wait

Title’s $INNER shirt is REAL fuckin subtle lmfao

Great and Tyme’s honeymoon era is so soft and sweet that it fucking terrifies me how much things are going to hurt later

“Don’t think about it too much” oh Korn that is the wrong thing to say

“I’m gonna tell dad” sounds so fucking childish out of context snfnfnfnf

Oh goddddddddd Great’s dad showing up at grandma’s house… the worst fucking feeling 😖

I love that when Korn is getting lectured, Great’s mom is still trying to use this to leverage Great into a higher position at the company when he Very Much does not want to do that. 

Ohhhhh Korn’s face… the bgm when he makes the decision to give up Tonkla… very nice

Really strong themes of “protecting your way of life vs doing the right thing” in this ep

Tyme in a grey shirt! The one from the beginning! I did not expect them to get here this soon! I love it though because I feel like this increases their odds of survival since there’s still three eps left

That last scene of Tyme is so interesting… I’m not sure what it is yet but it’s scratching my brain. Reminds me of a train passing overhead.

Okay so Great still ends up in the ER… and Tyme could possibly still get shot, but I think the odds of that are much lower now that Tyme has stopped trying to gather evidence. It doesn’t look like he’s at the warehouse, and I assume he’s trying to get to the hospital. I wonder if this is how quickly things originally happened? Without Great locating Nan, how long would it have taken Tyme to find the warehouse by himself? 

If they ARE entangled, how will it affect things if Great gets shot but Tyme doesn’t? I’m so interested to find out

There was some weird blurriness in a lot of the shots this ep. I gotta go back and see if that’s something new or if I simply didn’t notice it in previous episodes.

I feel like next ep is gonna be wild which is unfortunate bc I will be traveling and may not have the headroom to properly watch it right away

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - All the endings

March 2023 Wk 1

Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs. Organized by which ones (in each category) I’m enjoying most.

Ongoing Series - Thai

Bed Friend (Sat YT, GaGa & iQIYI uncut) ep 3 of 8 - Only one of them is in a fuck buddy relationship, and it’s not King Moon-eyes Husband-material. This show is so damn good. I love it when high heat is used to serve the characters and the narrative, as well as us fans. (In other words, take away the sexualized part of this relationship and the whole story would fall apart.) I suppose we should pay attention to Uea’s rules since they will all be broken. Uea has a bit of a demanding spoiled prince thing going and I’m not mad about it. This may be the most neck-kissy couple ever, I’m so happy for them! Yet another  installment in “Thailand, please get that boy to a therapist.” This ep likely has lots of extras so I might watch IQ as well. Child abuse trigger btw. 

Moonlight Chicken (Weds YT) eps 7-8fin - It was a good last 2 eps, and I ended up actually liking the complexity of the messiness more than I thought I would - disaster queer authenticity isn’t usually my thing. (Japan taught me that lesson the hard way). All in all, a stellar a little offering from GMMTV, in the Not Me or ITSAY vein of “I question whether it’s actually BL but like it anyway.” Full review and rating below.

Never Let Me Go (Tues YT) ep 12fin - The climax was rather predictably climatic (as it were). I love that Chopper shot his dad. Better aim next time, sweetheart? The cousins making up was sappy. Chopper & Ben were fine. Frankly, I’m not sure about PerthChimon’s chemistry, a bit nervous for their series now. And then Kdrama separation nation strikes again. Yawn. Question: Did the cute girl at Palm’s bar ever get her coconut juice? Full review and rating below. 

A Boss and a Babe (Fri YouTube) ep 1 of 10 - ForceBook in an office set boss/employee highly camp rom-com. Babe is a bit too slapstick for me, boss is a bit too creepy, and Book is def over egging the pudding. Well meaning chatterbox idiot is not my fav archetype. Bathroom meet cute? Huh. I don’t know. I don’t hate it, I guess?  

The Promise (Thai WeTV & YT) ep 1 of 10 - Popped into my YT feed so I gave it a try. Unexpectedly good! Phu & Nan are childhood bffs from middle school through college (almost lovers). Phu disappears just after graduation. After looking/waiting for him for ages, Nan gives up and self isolates, and the actual story takes place 10 years later. The arbitrary slapstick elements are unnecessary, disjoined, and rough. The show should have had the strength of its convictions just to be a serious drama. But it’s way better than expected (it’s about coffee, I love coffee) and no need to have watched the prequel miniseries Phupha | Nanfah. Phu’s granny and cohorts are THE BEST. Also elder queer rep. There better be a GREAT reason why Phu didn’t reach out to Nan or I will be seriously displeased. 

Chains of Heart (Sat iQIYI) 3 of 10 - I kind of love Ken’s slightly idiot gay couple friends. (I do love all of the queer family we are getting these days.) They better not betray him! Still, this is one of those shows where, despite his competency, we haven’t really been given a reason to like Ken all that much. I’m not super invested in his grief or his new romance. The captions are BONKERS but the sex scenes are good. I hope LueKen deliver as well as DinKen. Gotta say, despite my grumbling, I did enjoy it more this week. 

Tin Tam Jai (Tues Gaga & iQIYI) ep 1 of 10 - I am not a huge fan of the tsundere seme, especially if they are the older character. But this is a really good cast and for a pulp it’s actually okay acted and captioned. It’s cute. Campy. Old school Thai. I do like a flirty uke who knows what he wants. Lots of very prototypical tropes. Is it good? Well, no, but I’m still gonna watch it. 

Love Syndrome (Thai Sat WeTV) ep 1 of 10 - Terrible subs again. They a hot couple but Itt is a revolting character, asshole rather than brat. Day is VERY sexy tho. This one is messy and rough and will likely involve cheating AND the amnesia trope. I might put it onto the binge pile. 

Our Winter (Thai & Korea YT & TikTok under ThaiMiniSeries) eps 8-9 of 14 - TutorYim are cute. And nice to have decent music with Thai actors for a change. 

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

All the Liquors (Korea Thurs Gaga & Viki) ep 1-2 of 8 - Oh my God, breaking up with a man because he picked the wrong restaurant for a holiday meal is v relatable, but the reaction ”how can you break up with me before we’ve eaten?” is the best thing ever. I may identify with our baby party boy hedonist more than any other BL lead ever presented. I adore how Korea is leaning into “out gay boys” these days. Love love love the gay bestie. This is on the New Employee end of the KBL spectrum, no bad thing. Not sure about the alcoholism angle tho. Still, this is a fun show! I don’t even mind the crash into me trope when combined with baby is a floppy drunk trope. 

HIStory 5: Love in the Future (Taiwan Weds Viki) ep 10fin (or 19&20) - Not at all surprised that Vincent (Sam? How many names does this man need?) was pulling a double cross, because from the credits we knew the pairs get along. Couple’s necklaces and a sweet make up sequence for the sides. Nice sex scene and manufactured drama for the mains. Ultra cheese fest ending for all including random H4 couple. Full review and rating below. 

Jack o’Frost (Japan GaGa) ep 3 of 6 - The first time sex scene from the past was sweet and well done. That said, a traditional BL romance is not what this story is doing. It’s about 2 people at different points in a romantic journey, one of whom has memories of a failed relationship (and associated baggage) and the other who does not (so is starting at fresh). It’s using high concept to explore this, but that means (this beaning Japan) HEA is on shakey ground. Also, still running a bit low energy for me. 

It’s Airing But ...

Blue Sky Complex (Japan ???) 5 eps for VR - Kei Ichikawa's manga is getting a JBL adaptation. Weird distribution though, it started Feb 27 sequentially on 360 Channel (SHOCHIKUch) a VR video distribution service. Will inter-fans ever get to see this, and if it’s filmed for VR will it adapt without being overly dark and fuzzy? I have questions. But as usual, you do you Japan and we will wait (im)patiently to see if you remember the rest of the world exists. This is my preferred kind of live action yaoi, so fingers crossed: 

Boyband (Thai) ep 2 of 10 - Stopped airing on YouTube, and only available in Thailand & Japan. Not sure if they’re working a distribution deal or just fucking with us.

Cafe In Love (Thai ???) 10 eps on Ch3+ - Thai pulp, about trying to save a coffee shop. FairyGodBLer came through for me, but I’m collecting to binge just in case. It’s my new policy with the grey stuff.

Destiny Seeker (Tues WeTV Thailand) 10 eps - it’s not on any WeTV I can get ahold of. Bad Buddy the pulp rebirth meets Japanese handsome host club action. Same as above.

Heesu In Class 2 (Korea Thurs unknown, I check Viki Gaga iQIYI) - A gay(er) version of Sex Education. I’m still not sure this one is actually happening.

Finished This Week 

My Beautiful Man 2 AKA Utsukushii Kare Season 2 

These two have such a great DS dynamic. Only Hira would apologize for fucking and wanting to fuck his own boyfriend, but doing it anyway. Talk about a service top with a humiliation fetish. Sheesh. The masochism is strong with this one. (Since I do not deal with humiliation fetishists well, the cringe factor got to me a little.) Still, pouty jealous Kiyoi is the cutest. [One flaw: The photographer dude should have been played by Kenta. Just a little joke.] 

SUMMATION 

All in all, this 2nd season didn’t blow me away the way the 1st did. It was quieter and more uniform in its narrative and messaging - thus more predictable. The basic relationship misunderstanding remained the same - all about value and self worth and how that’s assessed. The result is a dialogue between imposter syndrome and a parasocial relationship. If these 2 only had the language and framework of BDSM to understand each other, than they would, but they don’t so the story is us watching them suffer for it. But that’s part of the fun. Part of their fun too, I think, as if the fighting and misunderstanding is just another one of their many kinks. An engaging and solid second installment that was so consistent, I’m going to keep the rating consistent too. 9/10 

HIStory 5: Love in the Future 

High concept of a man from the past traveling to Covid times and getting involved with a spoiled rich kid soon to be CEO that ultimately made for a dull story. Sides were stellar but intentional miscommunication as a narrative driver never works for me. Good chemistry, nice sex scenes, and a cheesy ending (90% of the time) is Taiwan’s BL brand. I expected nothing less. But there is a little part of me that hoped for something more. 7/10 

Never Let Me Go 

Bodyguard romance where poor boy must watch over rich boy for family obligation reasons. Simple premise well executed with a few bumps that made it feel like it was trying to tackle too much (when it wasn’t). Still, an enjoyable show that benefited from being handed to PondPhuwin who did a stellar job with their roles and chemistry. Is it going into permanent rewatch rotation? No, but a solid GMMTV offering. 8/10 

Moonlight Chicken 

I enjoyed this complicated little show, even though it’s spectacularly messy gay with lots of shrapnel and authentic pain. I thought EarthMix turned in their most compelling performance to date. But it was GeminiFourth who stole my heart.  That said, the most interesting central relationship was that of Jim & Li Ming, their father-son angst mixed with evident affection made me tear up. This was more slice of life than it was BL, but it ended happily so I’m not mad at it. 8/10 

Gossip

Apparently Pavel (my love) has been added to the cast of Pit Babe, a Thai BL series I thought was defunked (it was supposed to be out in Jan). So I’m happy. I also put it back on the 2023 tracking sheet. 

Tia51 announced upcoming sampler pack Thai BL My Universe. Normally I don’t report on Thai announcements, as they are pure speculation, but this one is reported to feature 22 actors, 11 couples, 12 stories, and 24 episodes in August 2023. STOP OR YOU’LL GO BLIND. (FB page BLUpdate2020 has a full rundown of the 12 stories.) No MDL listing that I can find. Giving the War or Y peeps a run for their money? Or just epic Thai BL lever pulp-tastic insanity?

New Pinoy BL Stay announced, 6 eps featuring boys who unexpectedly meet in Los Angeles. More here.

In case you missed it 

Jeff Satur is leaving BeOnCloud. Honestly, who tf didn’t see this coming? He just dropped a MV with SHAUN (Steal The Show). Jeff is one of the biggest Thai indies and Shaun is legacy Kpop indie. Jeff was and is always more focused on singing and that’s busted a pair before. Frankly speaking, he's ambitious and doesn’t need BeOnCloud. I’m a big believer in breaking from an agency if you have the platform to go it alone. And just because he’d not repped by them doesn’t me he can’t still work with them, sheesh calm down KP fandom. (Honestly this seems to be my mantra since that damn show aired.) 

Next Week Looks Like This:

03/08 - Pastsenger (Thai Gaga) 12 eps- Stars Marc (My Gear & Your Gown) and Cooper (My Engineer) both formerly paired with others, in a time travel paranormal that smacks of HIStory 5. Sunshine 90s kid travels to 2022, goes to university, encounters grumpy nerd.

03/09 - Our Dating Sim (Korea unknown) - What happens when two men, friends since schoo, meet again at work to create a dating simulation game together.

03/12 Future (Thai YouTube & Gaga?) 5 eps - Based on a y-novel by Faddest (En of Love - yeah I didn’t know that was based on a novel, either). About, you guessed it, an engineering student and a dentist. Maybe this will be the FOTS we were all hoping for? Fuse (the engineering student) is played by Boom from the En of Love and is kinda the same character (Field). I think we can expect this one to be soft, it’s from the 21 Day Theory people. (maybe March 19 international)

Full list of upcoming in March 2023 is here.

2023 forthcoming BL master post. (see comments, some are inaccurate, NOT KEPT UPDATED)

This Week in Subs of Qua?

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

I liked this scene in Moonlight Chicken so much I did a whole post about it. 

Chains of Heart the past relationship. can’t wait to see if they do as well with the present one. 

(last week)

Current Kpop earworm? Peacemaker by P1Harmony (I’m considering stanning this group because their rap line is insane, everyone can dance, Theo is beautiful, and Keeho is an adorable nut job with a great voice. Talk about a boy who should do BL, and probably would without a care in the world. Stop him though, these boys are gonna be the next Monsta X.) 

[giggly-squiggily]

Have you watched anymore YYH yet?? It’s so good later on down the line 😭

I have! :D Kinda! Somewhat? Since we’ve last spoken, I have watched more! :3 (also DUCKY! 🫂🫂🫂🫂🫂💖💖💖💖💖)

Spoilers up to ep. 67 below the cut!

*in an old school narrator voice* Previously on Squiggily’s watch cycle:

I finished the dark tournament and WOW- that was one heck of an arc! I knew it was gonna be great but then it happened and I was FLOORED!!! The fights were amazing: Kuwabara fake died and while I knew he wasn’t truly dead I was still all: !!!!!! And then Genkai came back??? I wasn’t expecting her to but also yay???

Kurama and his Yoko form are so BQNSNANNZNANXN 😍😍😍😍😍😍😍😍 I’m a sucker for pretty redheads: I am who I am- but his Yoko form was giving Ayame from Fruits Basket, Inuyasha, gorgeous gorgeous white haired fox people YES! So pretty, I was simping like crazy!

And HIEI YES!!! He was ever so cool! I can’t lie to you; whenever I saw him shirtless I remembered us talking about how odd it looked due to his build and the pants hem height and it made me laugh ahznnansns But he was so freaking cool; they all were!

And TOGURO AHHH!!! He looked like a Graveler from Pokemon; I’m standing by that- but my god his backstory was so sad??? I knew it was gonna be a heartbreaker but holy crap my soul hurt watching that! It was like the most recent episode of the demon slayer arc (from last week, not the finale episode depending on whenever you read this) but make it sadder and angstier!

The relationship between Kuwabara’s sister and that guy with the long hair was a thing- I knew something was developing but I also was like “Whaaaaat?” I was sad for her when she lost him but also I was like “baby that man was a walking red flag factory- yes he’s hot but the man’s not die for you hot”, you know? I adore her though- I really adore all the characters AHH!

I’m on episode 67! I haven’t started the new arc yet cause like- ✨procrastination✨ but I’m so hyped for it??? I love this show so much!!!

I’m genuinely so happy to hear from you, Ducky! It’s been a hot minute! I hope you’re doing alright- hearing from you feels like a present that keeps on giving! 💖💖💖💖💖🫂🫂🫂🫂🫂🫂

[itsalinh]

I saw many posts saying they hate this ep and the show now, but here I’m like…. I love every bit of this ep??

I want to squeeze everything in this one post, but that’ll be a lot, a lot a lot. So this one first, I’m gonna showering my love to the locker room discussion scene and the Jamie Keeley scene.

Locker room discussion

This! This is the exact reaction we can get from a bunch of men when they found out about women’s videos being leaked. Some will have dirty thoughts with it (Colin - I know he’ll never do it, but in generally speaking, yes, men does that); some will feel once those photos/videos been sent to them, meaning that they belong to them so they don’t have to delete at all; some lay blame on women for recording/taking those content; others feel completely fine with it, the ones to condemn are those leaking; some just let their exes delete those themselves. We are not colours, we are not white or grey or black, we are just flawed human. And flawed human makes mistakes. No one is completetly “white” nor “black”, and this show has demonstrated it quite clearly and has not tried to conceal it from the beginning. We have shitty thoughts, we do shitty stuffs all the time. So I don’t think any characters got ooc-ed in this scene.

I know it is not morally right for anyone to use others’ private stuffs for entertainment without their permission, whether it’s for a joke or not. Colin said shitty thing. He straightforwardly stated that he did not want to delete it, though he has a point saying others leaking are to blame. But in the end, it’s scary to think someone still has your private stuffs in their possesion. Colin did shitty thing too.

But you know. People can change for the better, and that’s why we’re watching Ted Lasso. Isaac, Jamie, Sam they all have a right reaction to this kind of situation, so they were helping their friends think right and do right too. Everybody, sad or not (Richard baby I’m proud of you), willingly deleted their exes stuffs off their phones. In the end of the day, that’s what important. Even Colin, the one who openly opposed to that idea, also found a small place for himself to deal with it.

Some said Isaac honoured people’s privacy, only seconds later he snapped Colin’s phone himself. Isaac was pretty clear with Colin’s reactions, Colin even didn’t stay with the whole team for the mass deletion, he just walked away without specifying any reasons. Also, he said fuck off to him with pretty serious expression, why so agressive man, Isaac might think. Isaac had to do what he thought was right at the moment: took away Colin’s phone and deleted everything himself.

I’m gonna detour a little bit right here. The whole scene got on my nerves. I screamed out loud, and my head could not stop spinning for the next 10 minutes. Omfg would you look at Colin’s face right there. First it was horrified, then it was distressed, later was worried, anxious and finally was defeated. Colin would never want Isaac to find out this way. He tried his fucking life to conceal and played it cool under this supreme toxic football environment, he was not ready for this kind of confrontation, especially from his bestest friend. Isaac used to have homophobic comments, what if he felt the same towards Colin? That fierceful side-eye, that shocked impression, killed pretty much Colin from the inside. But luckily, Isaac’s face neutrolised, he nodded in empathy, he knew what was Colin going through just now. Still, this new information was too much to handle at the moment. He did need some time for himself, for Colin as well. For the next episode, I still think Isaac would going through his acceptance phase, he thought he knew Colin but it turns out he knew nothing. By the end of Ep 9, he would realise how much Colin had to suffer all these years, and he would fucking murder anyone who dares to disrespect Colin and he would cherish his friend even more. I’m not that worried about the situation between Colin and Isaac, what terrifies me is “Roy is asked to so a press conference”. What…? Would it be about Colin??? If it would, I’m going die and and cry endlessly from my grave.

OK back from my detour. I literally finished the whole episode first, after that I replayed this locker room scene, and it makes me love Phil’s acting even more. Jamie first reaction towards the leaking thing was pretty unbothered. Don’t get me wrong, he was still awared of how bad the situation was, it’s just it was not his fault so he did not feel guilty. When Sam mentioned Keeley also got involved, Jamie froze right at the moment. He startled as fuck and was spaced out for a bit. He kept rubbing his bum bag and reconnecting all those dots in his head. Was the source from him? Was he the reason Keeley got all the criticsm? He did not know for sure, but he did not feel good about this either.

And that led to…

The Jamie and Keeley hug

This damn hug sums up very well their relationship. The last time we saw Jamie and Keeley interacted (I think) was at Rebecca’s dad funeral. He pretty fucked up at that point, tho actually I understand his motive, he just wanted to let things out without holding in anymore. He didn’t have a chance to really talk about his feelings for Keeley with Keeley. OK I love you, but I respect your relationship with your current boyfriend, and now I have the gut to say it, I’m happy to move on. He coming to Keeley’s to say sorry is the most Jamie thing ever. He’s now accountable, responsible and care so much for others. Maybe nobody will ever know, and nobody will ever blame Jamie, but he himself will. Him saying It’s my fault broke me into pieces, like TWICE in a span of one episode. He needs Keeley to know he worried about her and he felt guilty, he should have done better so none of these would have happened. Idk guys… I love him sm I might cry.

After a rough evening with Jack - the girlfriend who should have understood better, Keeley was tired. Everybody said sorry, but they disappointed her more after that. Jamie came with another sorry, and she might have predicted what was going to happen next. But she would never anticipated a sincere apology from him. A little bit clumsy, a little bit bum bum from her ex, her friend. She went on for a hug and my heart melted. Might be my favourite part of the episode with so much understanding, so much loving and heartwarming affection from both of them.

We might never see them together as a couple anymore (otherwise I would hate their ending very much), but more of a understanding and trusting friendship. Keeley already moved on, and Jamie also moved on would be the best for them ig.

And that, folks, is the end of my first wheezing part. The second part about Rebecca/Keeley, Rebecca/Ted, Ted/Michelle/Dr. Jacob, Ted/Henry/Beard, Nate/Rupert, Roy/Keeley and Jack/Keeley will be posted later cuz I need more time lol. I love this show sm (and I will keep repeating this on and on), they deserve everything.

Buh-bye!

[biconickyoshi]

tag games :)

Woooo thanks for tagging me @the-cloud-whisperer!! :) I’ve never done one of these before!

* Last song I listened to: Telephone Number by Junko Ohashi (classic city pop bop)

* Favorite color: Forest green - I painted my home office this color and it’s very calming (plus gives off hobbit vibes)

* Currently watching: Dungeon Meshi, didn’t expect to like it as much as I do but I look forward to every new ep and even binged the manga the other day :)

* Spicy/savory/sweet: Savory all the way, can’t handle too much spicy or sweet at a time T-T

* Relationship status: Married

* Current obsession: Strongest and longest running special interest is A:tLA since 2007, specifically Zukaang now ever since late 2021 when I had an epiphany about the ship and started writing The Avatar and the Fire Prince :)

-------------

🎶✨when u get this, list 5 songs u like to listen to, publish. then, send this ask to 10 of your favourite followers (positivity is cool)🎶✨

* Take A Chance With Me - NIKI (literally fits Zukaang so well so I listen to it a lot)

* Lovegod - Sarah Kinsley (the piano in this makes me feel so nostalgic and gives me extreme Debussy vibes)

* Naked in Manhattan - Chappell Roan (sapphic bop)

* That’s Me - Gnoss (celtic music is just 🤌🏻✨ i love it so much)

* Bewitched - Laufey (I feel like im in an old disney movie when I listen to this)

-----------------

nickname: KJ

zodiac sign : gemini, but none of the gemini traits fit with my personality so I don’t much believe in astrology lol. if I’d have been born just a day or two later I’d be a cancer and much more inclined to believe in it bc it fits me way better

height : 5'4"

last thing I googled: tripleS members (a kpop group my sister recently introduced me to lol)

amount of sleep: usually 6-7 hours, I recently got diagnosed with mild sleep apnea so I wake up literally every hour or two and i have to use a cpap 😔

dream job: hmm well I guess I’m working it right now (I’m a therapist)? when I was a kid I wanted to be on broadway (I was big into musical theater/choir)… now I honestly kinda don’t really “enjoy” working in general even though there are parts of my job that I enjoy. I honestly get the most satisfaction out of doing things I like for my own enjoyment (like writing and drawing) rather than for monetary gain.

movie/book that describes me the most: uhhhhhh I guess I’d say LotR, I very much relate to Frodo lol (which is one of the reasons he’s my pfp on my main blog). I also love its portrayal of wholesome masculinity and kindness/goodness conquering all.

favorite song: hard to choose… there’s literally so many I like lol. I really love 1of1 (both the album and the song) by SHINee (my fave kpop group)

favorite instrument: I would say the mandolin or the fiddle

favorite aesthetics: I really enjoy the vibe of whimsigoth, though my personal style does not incorporate it. I attempted it a couple years ago but felt it was too femme - nowadays I wear “fashionable” men’s clothes (layers, button-ups, men’s jeans)

favorite author: Charlotte Brontë simply because I love Jane Eyre so much. She made me feel so many emotions with that novel 😭 I related to Jane a bit too much

random fun fact: hmmmm well I was the lead in two different musicals when I was in high school which was pretty neat! I mentioned somewhere above that I wanted to be on broadway growing up so that’s the closest i’ve gotten to that lmao

Gonna tag some of y’all if you wanna play (no pressure tho) :)

@finn0cchio @my-cabbages-gorl @veggiesforpresident @buncly13 @asukas-numberone-defender @zeno-zero @rennelelorren @gordielaweirdo @isthei @kirinjaegeste

[dancing-on-tiptoes]

I am living my best single-in-the-city life tonight

have the apartment to myself for the evening bc sister-roommate is at work

laid in bed for like two hours after work finishing a good book that made me cry but not too hard and in a good way

made myself frozen pasta for dinner

took a THC/CBD gummy

popped open a can of non-alcoholic rosé that isn’t too bad

I’m sitting down to watch Bridgerton s2 (real Kathony girlies know) on my ex-gf’s account and it’s raining very atmospherically

after this I’m gonna get all cocooned in blankets and listen to a new ep of one of my fave podcasts

OH and I just got a shipment of my fave Nutella cookies so that might need to be a thing later???? the night is ripe with possibilities ☺️✨