#i'm talking about new shows especially asian dramas

[baifengxis]

I know it's on me for looking too many comments and reviews about my favorite shows but do you guys ever feel like people just don't know how to like something anymore? Especially when it comes to tv-shows. It's like everyone's so ready to tear something apart, to be disappointed, to be proven right that a show is terrible like they thought it would be. I'm not talking about constructive criticism nor am I talking about being fairly disappointed over something but not only people love being negative but if you dare say that you love a show they all dislike you have to apologize because how dare you? And if you tell them to stop with the negativity because you just WANT TO ENJOY A MFUCKING TV SHOW when everything in this world is shit, they'll tell you you're censoring their opinions. Like it's not that deep please for the love of god, just let people enjoy things, if you don't like something THAT'S FINE but you don't have to make long essays explaining why and not let other people who do like it, enjoy it.

[fadelbison]

I really had to read with my own two eyes multiple times since this post had multiple people add on to it, bringing it back to my dash again and again, that the drama from Tharn and Phaya's past life did not feel dramatic at all. And somehow that detracts from taking the drama of the present as seriously as the show is taking it. This story is based on Thai folklore? The Naga and Garuda are eternal enemies. The love between a Naga and a Garuda is an insult to the literal cosmic order. Chalothon who was only trying to preserve the natural order has been wronged by their love. The natural order is also referenced several times but especially when the priest was like keep Phaya and Chalothon away from each other, they're destined to be enemies. Not meeting the show halfway to accepting this as part of your lens as an audience is frankly...an interesting choice to make. The next bit is pure conjecture on account of me not being Thai but I'm trying to relate to what The Sign is likely trying to do from my own understanding of Asian folklore and the way we use those stories to build new stories. What is there to get out of this show other than the big fuck you to 'natural order' of things that must be because of the way that they are. Why can't a Naga and Garuda be in love? This must be a concept that people explore under the general lens of forbidden love in Thailand (pure conjecture but also like I don't know how it can't be true). We all have our poorly explained versions of Forbidden Love gone bad; Romeo and Juliet, Ram Leela, Devdas would be some heterosexual stories of Forbidden Love that kind of hand waves around the forbidden part a little bit that I'm familiar with. Devdas (the story I'm most familiar with of the one's stated) and its myriad adaptations is a story about the absolute ways we hold on to class even as it brings about our own downfall.

It's a great pick for a queer adaptation because the reasons why the lovers couldn't be together was so made up and really came down to ONE person (Devdas' mother) who just couldn't let go of class even though everyone else was literally begging for the two to just be together because let me tell you none of you have met a poor little meow meow on the scale of Devdas.

The Sign is bringing the forbidden love between a Naga and Garuda as a parallel of the forbidden love between two men. Homosexuality outside of the legal sphere really does come down to an ideological difference as to what is natural vs not. Homosexuality goes against a natural order of reproduction. And this is true. Two men cannot reproduce, two women cannot reproduce with each other.

The challenge isn't to prove that they can, it's to prove that reproduction isn't the centerpoint of human life, that we have transcended the need for our life to be dictated by this 'natural' order because on principal our societies just aren't built along the paradigm of 'survival of the fittest' where the benchmark of species fitness is its ability to reproduce.

Thai shows including things that have come out of Idol Factory (that produces The Sign) are often socially engaged with LGBT rights within Thailand. Now that gay marriage is legal or on its way to be, I assume a move in the direction of bringing same sex relationships up to the same societal respect as straight relationships would be a natural direction that future screenwriters will go.

The Sign is trying very hard to take the question of homosexuality right to the heart of Thai culture and tradition and talk about it from that lens [this is less conjecture and more paraphrasing what Saint has said about the show in interviews] And I know that you all are capable of meeting a story halfway in respecting its desire to set up the stakes through references of allegorical story telling since y'all have been doing it with Last Twilight and Le Petit Prince. So I don't know even know why I had to make this post but: tl;dr: The stakes of the love between Tharn and Phaya and the forbidden nature of it is set before you even see much of the show just from the fact that Tharn is a Naga and Phaya is a Garuda and as a member of the audience you have to accept that the love between Naga and Garuda is a deviant form of love in Thai culture.

[marlo-noni]

10 more Liu Yuning songs I love!

This is part 3. Here are part 1 and part 2.

New Year's Song (过年的歌), 2020 Why it's good: it's so cute, happy, and festive! You may hear it in your local Asian supermarket around Lunar New Year, because it's fairly popular. The video is adorable too. I love his bandmates, A-Zhuo and Da Fei, in their costumes - Da Fei is the god of wealth (I think), and A-Zhuo looks like some longevity god? My knowledge of Chinese mythology and deities is lacking.

2. Adore (十分喜欢), 2019 Why it's good: so soft and romantic! This feels like your boyfriend, Liu Yuning, is singing a love song directly to you. It was also written by Penny Tai, who Liu Yuning would later team up with on season 3 (2021) of the variety show Our Song.

3. Obviously (明明), 2019 Why it's good: just very catchy, especially the chorus. It's the first song on his 2019 album Ten (十), and it's a good choice for that, because it hooks you in.

4. Light Years Away (光年之外), 2018 cover of a G.E.M. song for the variety show Golden Melody 2 Why it's good: this was his first music variety show performance, only 2 months after he blew up online in June 2018. He said on livestream that preparing for this was super stressful, and his vocal coach (or maybe a producer? I can't remember) was having a conniption the night before. But he knocked it out of the park! I also listened to the original G.E.M. song just now, and it's got a completely different energy. Liu Yuning totally did his own thing with it. Thanks to @thefeastandthefast for sharing this performance, and the story, with me.

5. Azure (这蔚蓝), 2024 performance on the variety show Melody Journey Why it's good: I love that chorus, with the "yi dian yi dian yi dian yi dian yi dian" ("bit by bit by bit") in it. Liu Yuning also recently talked about this performance on livestream, and how this song was out of his comfort zone, so he was incredibly nervous. Again, he knocks it out of the park.

6. Adventurer (探险家), 2018 promo song for the film Alpha Why it's good: someone once asked Tumblr OG Liu Yuning fan @heymeowmao for some recommendations of songs where Liu Yuning rocks out, and this was on the list. And yeah, I think this might be his most rocking song - the only contender I can think of is his recent performance of Chi Luo Luo with Da Zhang Wei on season 6 of Our Song. But that's for another post (if I end up doing a list of fave collabs). For now, enjoy Liu Yuning at his most rock 'n' roll!

7. A Good Guy (挺好个人呐), 2020 promo song for the film My People, My Homeland Why it's good: just quirky as hell! I haven't seen the film this was promoting, but I assume it's a retro thing, because this is a total disco throwback. The heroic voice Liu Yuning uses in it is super fun as well. I'm just glad he decided to do such a silly song.

8. Fireworks and Stars (烟火星辰), 2021 OST opening theme for You Are My Glory Why it's good: sappy-as-hell theme song for the drama where two of China's prettiest people, Dilraba and Yang Yang, get it on. Liu Yuning has done a zillion cheesy love song OSTs, but this one sticks with me for some reason. It's got the same songwriter as his OST for Love Between Fairy and Devil (寻一个你) and that Melody Journey song I love so much, Falling (掉), so I think maybe it's just this songwriter's style that I like.

9. A Good Year (一个好年), 2023 Why it's good: this is Liu Yuning's much lesser-known Lunar New Year song. It's much sweeter, more nostalgic, and less energetic than the other one, but I think I've listened to this one more. It just feels uplifting and warm in the middle of the January/February gloom here in Vancouver.

10. Fall in Love, 2022 Why it's good: I can't believe I almost forgot this one! I've listened to it so many times that it's not in my regular rotation these days. This is his danciest poppiest song. It was originally going to be the lead single on his 2nd album, but since that album still hasn't come out (here's hoping for January 2025!), he said it's officially not new enough to be on there anymore. Anyway, this song is fun as hell!

[blueclearcloud]

I saw some people talking about how after watching Mask Girl they realized how bad South Korea was and i need y'all to understand that that is still racist + xenophobic.

Like yes, we live in an era that fetishizes South Korea rn, but that's no excuse to pretend everywhere else doesn't suck too or have similar problems just like the show.

And news flash, it's based on a fictional webcomic. The point is to dramatize things bc it's a drama, focusing on the cruelty is the point. Yes similar things do happen in SK along with everywhere else. That's why it can resonate so well.

Impossible beauty standards, bullying, misogyny, extortion sexual assault, among other things are very common INTERNATIONAL issues.

I'm emphasizing it bc I'm from the US where all of these things are massive issues along with hate crimes and hate against Asians. The pandemic made Southeast Asians or anyone who fit the stereotype an especially big target. So be careful how you critique a show and country in such a narrow way.

[pharawee]

I love Chains of Heart. I really, really do. I just wish they'd had more time or money or idk to have better script editing. This series could be so much better with a tighter script.

This week especially could have been incredible without all the repetition (I get why they did it and I get that flashbacks and circular storytelling are a staple of Asian drama but imo it went way over the top and deprived us of scenes and reactions that could have shown us more of the actual fallout of everything that's been going on.

Slightly off-topic but I love the sfx make-up here. The blues and greens of the fresh bruises and the texture of the scraped skin are so well done (lmao I'm not being creepy, I swear, I used to do cosplay and I love my bruise-wheel). And the bruises actually change between scenes too, showing the passing of time (or maybe Lue has supernatural healing now, who knows).

But yeah, this is what I was talking about. I wish we'd actually seen this conversation happen (rather than just the beginning of it) instead of more flashbacks. And yes, it's not strictly necessary for the narrative. It's just that I want to see more of Hin/Marc Pahun and I was so curious about his reaction once he'd figured it all out.

Same with these two. They wasted a whole scene on Deedee waking up and deciding to go for a hearty breakfast. Instead, he could have called Phayu to make the connection between them clearer. This one short slip-up on Deedee's part is the only hint that he's the one Phayu sent to watch over Ken.

Also, this bit with Nott. I don't know if it's because they're planning a spin-off with Nott and Guy (I'm all for it!) but I don't think anyone who hasn't read the novel(s) will necessarily realise that Nott has genuine psychic powers and that this is a perfectly reasonable thing to happen in the author's book universe.

(It could have been even more confusing, though. There's a bit in the novel where another one of Phayu's friends (it's ok, he has his own novel too) conjures up Peter Lue's ghost because apparently he's hanging around and is understandably worried about why someone stole his whole life.)

This to me was the strongest moment in the whole episode (sorry Ken, I'll get to you in a bit). I was waiting for Hin to figure things out and confront Din about it - even more so since I realised that Hin is actually the oldest sibling (never mind that Marc Pahun is over ten years younger than Boom Raweewit - but I don't even mind since Hin is described as incredibly pretty in the novel lmao. Plus, Din is wearing the face of a presumably older man).

I love the way he chose to confront him via the phone call to make the evidence against Din/Lue even more damning. And I love Hin's (extremely justified) anger, and the way he broke down Din's walls (which must have been something Din was yearning for anyway).

So Lue has an evidence board. Good for him. I half-expected his lair to be filled with photographs and sketches of Ken but apparently he's way more focussed than that (but it would have been super creppy and a nice comparison to Ken's walk-in photoalbums).

Lue/Din also has a whole superhero closet and wtf are you even going to use these weapons for? What, are you going to duel Ingpha with a bat'leth (also do I spot Gun/Fin's garrote)?

But I find this bit even more interesting. Ken is doing something to Lue's phone. Maybe he'll use it to track him down next week? Because it seems like Din/Lue is already planning to leave again. He#s got to see this through, after all.

And then there it is. The big confrontation. Only, I was a bit confused at first until I realised that this is all Ken can do to give in. And at this point there's really no reason to talk about the past anymore. It can't undo the hurt and the pain. It can only destroy what could be a new beginning. There's always going to be an unbridgeable gap between who Din was then and who Lue is now. So Ken finally grants Din/Lue his wish:

And it works, in a way.

Imagine how dizzying and disorienting it must be when your heart feels one person and your mind sees another. But eventually...

I love how this scene is all passion and (re)discovery and as such it mirrored Din and Ken's relationship. But it's also far more gentle and loving and new for them.

And remember when all Din/Lue dreamed about was this:

Well...

It's ok that they forgot the scars. I don't even mind. 😭

Which brings me to Inspector Don aka Poppy my beloved:

And despite the preview for next week I'm still convinced he's a good guy. What other reason is there for him to keep all of this to himself? Plus, he seemed concerned rather than angry (or evil lmao).

So I'm guessing he's actually doing a much, much better (and legal) job of bringing Ingpha down. Negl I'd love for him to save the day, close his case and show that Din's whole quest for vengeance was completely pointless.

Because honestly, was it all really worth it - even if Chief Ingpha is going down in the end?

[prodigal-explorer]

🌠 welcome to my intro! 🌠

a few people might know me from my other blog, @golden-songbird, but this is my new sanders sides/omori/your turn to die main blog! i write a lot of stories, make a lot of headcanons, and think a lot of thoughts, so if you're someone who likes analyzing sanders sides/omori/your turn to die or just sanders sides/omori/your turn to die content in general, this might be the blog for you!

also, i'm just gonna put my masterlist here! this has all of my stories, fanfics, and writing guides!

now for some more about me!

* . °•★|•°∵ ∵°•|☆•° . *

🌟 annie is my name!

🌟 19 - 01.30 (aquarius)

🌟 he/she/star pronouns

🌟 enfj

🌟 i speak english, but i am learning french (i consider myself to be at an intermediate level), and i want to learn tagolog!

🌟 i don't know my gender, but i identify as lesbian!

🌟 i am filipino-american, and i am mixed! i am very proud of my heritage and i talk about it a lot!

🌟 i have ehlers-danlos syndrome, pots, adhd/autism, and anxiety.

🌟 i am an ambivert who loves people but also loves my space! i am very honest and open about my boundaries. i'm not a passive-aggressive type, and i like to communicate.

🌟 i don't really consider myself a proshipper or an anti. i kinda just stay out of all that because i don't believe that censorship is okay or good, but i also don't promote harmful ideas. not to say that either of those types of people always do those things, but it's just a weird slippery slope that i honestly touch grass too much to care about.

🌟 i'm a rising sophomore in college and i am currently majoring in theatre performance, but i am transitioning to get my bfa in acting!

* . °•★|•°∵ ∵°•|☆•° . *

✩ likes:

writing, reading, classical literature, fanfiction, journaling, musical theatre, theatre, singing, dancing, acting, video games, sunny weather, mornings, dogs, pigs, asian history, african history, pacific history, women's history, learning new things, tea, sweet foods, candy, makeup, skincare, self-care, perfume, and most of all, my twin sister!

✩ shows i watch:

i don't watch a lot of tv, but when i do, i default to the same shows. sanders sides, anne with an e, modern family, little house on the prairie, dance moms, south park, alexa and katie, no good nick, high school musical the musical the series, curious george, and fraiser are my favorites!

✩ video games i play:

i love video games but i'm not great at them. my favorite games of all time are omori, your turn to die, animal crossing new horizons, legend of zelda: breath of the wild (i haven't played totk yet, please no spoilers!!), spiritfarer, hades, good pizza great pizza, undertale, deltarune, pokémon emerald rogue, and story of seasons: pioneers of olive town. i'm looking forward to playing all the story of seasons games in the future!

✩ my favorite plays and musicals:

my favorite plays are little women (adapted by kate hamil), dance nation, fences, the glass menagerie, equus, eurydice, a raisin in the sun, and especially the miracle worker.

my favorite musicals are hadestown, ragtime, alice by heart, matilda, gypsy, west side story, ragtime, in the heights, great comet of 1812, pippin, come from away, the color purple, amelie, the mad ones, and fun home.

✩ celebrities i enjoy:

i don't really talk about celebrities much, but when i do, it's about these guys: maddie ziegler, chloe lukasiak, nia sioux fraizer, jojo siwa (i don't really know all the drama surrounding her, i just like her message), paige hyland, sofia vergara, lea salonga, eva noblezada, lin manuel miranda (i just think he's goof), beth malone, phillipa soo, karen olivo, dolly parton, amber gray, lauren zakrin.

✩ dislikes:

bossy people, authority in general, staying up late, coffee, bitter foods, dear evan hansen, be more chill, most cartoons, roller coasters, twitter, dream smp, milk, traveling, writer's block, lifting heavy things, being teased, passive-aggressive people, patton sanders, basil, keiji shinogi.

* . °•★|•°∵ ∵°•|☆•° . *

here's the stuff about me pertaining to sanders sides!

★ my favorite side is roman, i actually kin him and relate to him a lot!

★ my least favorite side is patton. i don't think he's evil or anything, but i am very critical of him and i make him the antagonist in a lot of my aus.

★ my opinion on the sides from favorite to least favorite are as follows: roman, logan, remus, virgil, janus, patton.

★ i am an avid remy enjoyer and i think emile picani is cool.

★ i do a lot of canon-deviant headcanons such as race headcanons, pronoun headcanons, and disability headcanons. i am very respectful of these things and do lots of research, mainly because such headcanons are usually projections of myself and my own experiences.

★ i write a lot of sanders sides fanfiction and roleplay ideas, as well as aus. feel free to use anything you'd like for inspiration as long as you give me credit! i've had my work stolen before and it doesn't feel good.

★ my favorite ships (in no particular order) are roceit, prinxiety, logince, literally all poly combos of roman/logan/janus/virgil, intrulogical, analogical, dukeceit, remy/roman, remy/remus, remile, roman/emile, and loceit!

★ my least favorite ships are pretty much all patton ships and remrom. i'm not a remrom destroyer who will burn down your house if you ship remrom (as long as they're like- not explicitly brothers) but i'm an identical twin so the idea of them being in love is super weird to me lmao. i can't take it seriously.

★ i love talking about sanders sides please talk to me about sanders sides! especially if it looks like we have a lot in common!

* . °•★|•°∵ ∵°•|☆•° . *

here are my other socials!

✯ ao3: ultraluminary

✯ quotev: tinyrevolt

✯ discord: waterfalldancer

* . °•★|•°∵ ∵°•|☆•° . *

thanks for reading all that! i hope we become great friends!

[gaykey]

i am new to the world of bl drama but first-khaotung confuses me and i was hoping as someone with more knowledge you can provide me insight into the bl world. first question are the majority of bl actors gay? curious about this in terms of casting and how in western media there are lota of debates about whether straight actors should play gay, so i'm curious if there is any trend in asian media. my second question first and khaotung are besties and now are an on-screen couple in several shows. have they talked anywhere about this and how their friendship has changed? it's perplexing to me. if i were suddenly cast in a love story with my bestie it would be mega awkward we'd either be giggling or i'd assume slowly having to renegotiate and set new boundries/ground rules for the nature of our off-screen relationship. either way i am impressed by the professionalism of these actors especially considering they are so young.

hello anon!

well, there are a handful of bl actors that are out.

probably the most well-known are earth katsamonnat and fluke natouch, both stars of the drama 'until we meet again' and various other projects.

tong thanayut who plays tankhun in kinnporsche actually came out live on stage during the kinnporsche world tour.

also, there are a few examples of actors who are in a glass closet type of situation like gun attahaphan & pp krit.

as for first & khao, well, a lot of the promo interviews were about their friendship and feelings towards working together as a couple.

honestly, they seem to have pretty positive feelings towards it, and said it was something they had wanted to do for a long time and were really excited about finally getting the opportunity.

in fact, they often got quite teary and emotional about the whole thing (mostly first. he's a very emotional person.) or whn asked how much they mean to each other. it happened especially when the suggestion that the eclipse could have been their last project together. they were a mess lol.

tbh, it doesn't seem to have affected their friendship, they've said it's brought them closer in fact, but, as an observer of course, i can only see so much.

though, despite all the fanservice and forced closeness that is a requirement of all established couples within the industry, they seem to have maintained a genuine affection for each other.

like you said though, they are incredibly talented and professional actors, so, maybe they have set some sort of boundary or rule system which helps them keep a healthy balance between their work and personal relationship.

[midnightfreeway]

so i just finished watching bad buddy for the third time. coincidentally, today is also the six-month anniversary of me watching the show for the very first time. naturally, i'm in a bit of a sentimental mood and want to shout my love for this story.

i have fallen deeply in love with this show. i didn't expect it to happen. it's been years and years since i've been so into something. for a while, i even thought my most intense fandom days were past me because nothing was catching my interest the same way as before. sure, i have enjoyed several books and tv shows over the last few years, but it was nothing like this.

i spend a lot of time thinking about bad buddy. so much time, in fact, that i feel a bit silly. i know, however, that this part of my life won't last forever, so i've decided to sit back and enjoy the ride.

sometimes i wonder what is it about certain stories that make me love them so much. in this case, i think it's because bad buddy is so perfectly tailored to my interests. it has just the right combination of drama, romance and comedy for me. i like stories that are generally lighthearted but also get more serious when the situation calls for it. i love pat and pran individually and i love them together. i love their relationship and how they weather the storms together and that their love for each other never wavers. i love that they included a gl storyline in the show. i love the silly shirts and the callbacks and the queer longing in episode 4. i love the iconic rooftop kiss and the subversion of tropes and episode 11 in its entirety. i could go on all day, honestly.

it was my third time watching bad buddy and i still enjoyed it immensely. at some point i was smiling so much that my cheeks hurt. the incredible thing about bad buddy is that i can quite literally feel my brain pumping out dopamine as i watch it. it never fails to make my day better.

it's safe to say that bad buddy is now one of my all-time favorite shows. the emotional high i got from watching it for the first time is quite literally second to none. there are only a few shows that have ever made me feel this way.

i can't talk about my love for bad buddy without talking about my journey with ql dramas. i'm still new to the genre—i only watched my first live-action bl in late 2022. bad buddy followed soon after, and it was the second ql i ever finished watching. it's a pure coincidence i'm here now; asian dramas, especially queer ones, are not well-known where i live. i only stumbled upon them because someone i followed on social media posted about them sporadically. had things gone a little differently, i would not have discovered this genre and bad buddy at all. i'd be out there living my life, completely oblivious to the existence of this story that has brought me so much joy over the past six months.

i'm so happy to be here, writing this love letter. i'm so happy to have rejoined tumblr and found this little corner of it where i can make posts about how much i love bad buddy. it's a story i'll keep close to my heart.

[oceanwithinsblog]

alright guys i can't keep my mouth shut anymore, i need to SCREAM and VENT about Glee (aka the tv show that i've been binge-watching for the past few weeks AND my new obsession) because AAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

spoiler alert : i might mention important plot elements or character arcs etc. so if you've never watched it before, be alert!

k so let's start by clarifying an important point here - i have spent my whole adolescence hearing my friends talk about this show... i have no idea whatsoever how i resisted to urge to watch it till now (for the record, i'm almost 25) because THIS IS TOTALLY MY SHIT !!!!!!!

the high school setting, the fact teenagers are portrayed by a cast in their 20s, endless pointless drama, crazy plot twists, jaw dropping dance numbers, wide - though at times questionable - representation of various communities (e.g. queer ppl, black ppl, asian ppl, disabled ppl etc.), cover song performances (and at some point original ones!) that leave me speechless ... like - HOW DID I SKIP THIS SHOW FOR SO LONG ???? HOW COULD I IGNORE ITS MAGNIFICENCE FOR ALL THESE YEARS ?????

tbh maybe i should be worried about the fact it feels so close and personal since i'm a grown-ass adult ☠️ (very bad at it, too) but i find it all brilliant, ridiculous and inspiring/comforting at the same time. i think watching this show is healing (or at least rocking and hugging tightly) a lot of my inner-child-related unresolved business. especially when it comes to discussion and portrayals of queer experiences, i find Glee pretty “educating”, accurate and amusing, too.  honestly, i sort of regret not giving it a chance before ‘cause i  know my younger, high-school self would have appreciated it a whole lot. i mean, asexuality still hasn’t been mentioned so far, but the multiple queer characters (and cast!) are really great. maybe the show would have also encouraged me to follow my passion for music and dancing (and dare i say singing although i’ve never in my life taken a single singing class?) after the hurtful break-up i went through with my dancing crew before the pandemic :’(

anygays, i’m now watching the first half of season 3* and let me tell you - i’m SO HOOKED. this season has been C R A Z Y since the first episode istg i can’t tell you how many time i’ve soffocated my screams with my pillow so far JSKJSK actually, just to give you an idea, i present you with a short list of what’s been making me go bananas so far

rachel’s mom returning to mckingley high for a part-time job as the mentor of a second opposite glee club

puck following his “dad insticts” and making a move on shelby just so he can spend more time with baby beth (???) 

quinn putting on a rebellious emo act and then pretending she’s all good and clean because she wants beth back by destroying shelby’s reputation (???) (what the hell btw i’ll never get quinn and her weird unlogical reasoning)

emma and will being a couple and living together OUT OF NOWHERE ???? (they’re the cutest even though i fairly can’t put up with mr. schuester + i would have preferred to see them dating before the big getting together reveal but whatever AS LONG AS EMMA IS HAPPY)

mercedes LEAVING glee club so that she can shine (this one hurt ngl mad respect for her tho)

brittany showing what she’s made of and running for school headgirl (YAY YOU GO GIRL!!!!)

rachel and finn finally working on their relationship to be a healthier couple (i still find rachel SO DAMN ANNOYING at times but it’s getting better compared to the previous two seasons + i must admit finn is just an off-brand troy bolton to me so far #sorrynotsorry)

sue declaring war to the whole arts department AND RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT ?????? (she’s so iconic and i love jane lynch so damn much istg it was heart-wrenching to see her on-screen sister pass away but sue is such a multifaceted character you can’t make me hate her EVER)

but most importantly …

SANTANA AND BRITTANY ARE FINALLY DATING ??? OMFG YES !!!! GIVE ME SAPPHIC ROMANCE !!!! (also i think they’re the most perfect combination of self-awareness, girl power, bitchyness, dumbness, crazyness, pureness and humor ever i’m loving both their character archs through the seasons for now)

kurt and blaine’s whole storyline !?!?!?! they’re my absolutely favorite duo ???? the emblem of a strong, powerful yet cute and innocent gay love ???????? istg they emotionally evoke so much in me T______T idk how to explain it, it probably doesn’t even make sense but i love seeing them on screen and i wish the best for them T________T theyr relationship is so incredible wholesome and wonderful ISTG kurt has been the apple of my eye since the very beginning of the show (no matter what crazy or incoherent act he put up in s1) and i must admit i was a bit suspicious of blaine throughout s2 but now i just plain adore them and feel like drowning in my own emotions and tears every time they appear

*which i've read could be the last proper good season according to many online comments ☠️ (i pray the awesome combination of factors that drive me crazy about this show won’t magically disappear from season 4 onwards lol)

i don’t know how to end this rant also because this post makes no sense whatsoever but let me say that i love kurt, especially, and lately i've had multiple episodes of mirroring in santana (e.g. will i ever understand if i'm actually biromantic or sapphic? who knows). not to mention, i have huge expectations for the self-discovering journey of that karofsky kid (seeing him in that gay bar the night blaine and kurt broke the rules was such a pleasant surprise!) and idk i just look forward to every main plot and subplot of this season in particular 🥹💖

i might be aware that my life is hitting rock bottom right now, yet i’m conscious enough to acknowledge this show is slowly becoming an anchor for me… to start feeling excited about life again, to start creating new dreams for me, to try and believe a bit more in myself and to pursue my interest in music and queerness alike. in short, to start living again.

ps. expect me to post a great lot about glee from now on jksjks

[chaos0pikachu]

Okay so just a couple things I wanna contribute here, and I'm putting a chunk of this response behind a cut to save folks the scrollage (especially mobile users).

TLDR: I disagree with some of the "trends" listed here, specifically the stuff about the remakes, Korea not knowing what sex and kissing are, and especially that BL is being overly influenced by "modern romance trends out of the west"; the latter two read a bit, hm, xenophobic to me ngl and spread a bit of misinformation about the media from countries like Thailand, Korea, and Japan. I also added some of sources from academics, journalists, and publishers as well. Also James Cameron is a weeb so jot that down.

So regarding Japanese IP stuff, I keep seeing people talk about how ~crazy~ Japanese copyright law is, but the general laws aren't that much different from international standards.

I'm not sure if I'm like, missing something here no one provided any sources to any case files or articles on the subject when the issue with Cherry Magic came up. Which, I can only assume since I don't have access to the contract, it wasn't a copyright issue it was a distribution issue. It's complicated, as distribution falls under copyright, but it's a subset, and typically in my direct experience, creators will sell their distribution rights or share them with their publisher (or studio) so the company can handle actual distribution negotiations.

It's very typical to only have distribution rights in select countries for adapted works (which are why VPNS are a big thing). Gmmtv more than likely, only had distribution rights for Thailand, not other countries which is why their youtube broadcast got got. That's not Japan - y'all realize this is like an entire country right?? - being assholes. It's one copyright holder - SquareEnix who publishes Cherry Magic - asserting their rights b/c gmmtv was stealing money from their - and the authors - pockets.

Now like, Nintendo is highly protective over their copyright but no more so than Disney (source 02) or Taylor Swift.

Remakes like Cherry Magic aren't even new for Japan, Korea, Thailand, etc, even for gmmtv. Their series, F4 is a remake of insanely popular Japanese manga Boys Over Flowers, which does have clips of the episodes on youtube with no issue. Boys Over Flowers has also been remade by Taiwan, Korea, China, Indonesia, China (again), and India.

It's not just the rights to remake the media, usually the IP owners also get a slice of the capital as well. Japan, China, Korea and lots of other Asian countries have been cross exchanging for decades with their television and films.

The series Mr. Queen (2020), a popular Korean drama (that's very queer until the ending, but the original story is also even more queer) is an adaption of a Chinese show called Go Princess Go (2015) based on a novel of the same name, is one example, another is My Absolute Boyfriend (2019) a kdrama based on a Japanese manga of the same name.

Also, while I'm only familiar with American contracting for IP rights (and no I'm not a lawyer I've just seen and been in the room for a lot of these contract negotiations), it's entirely possible gmmtv has optioned many 90s manga.

Optioning is just the set up, its the handshake agreement between two parties "yes I would like to make a thing out of your thing" and that's it. Lots of stuff gets optioned with no announcement b/c optioning isn't a promise or an agreement it'll go into production.

Kate Mckean, one of the best agents imo in publishing, breaks down optioning really well in her article What "Optioned" Means.

So I would argue this isn't really a "trend" so much as normal film making? This stuff happens all the time, it's picking up in BL because of the rise in popularity making it monetarily valuable, but I wouldn't argue it's at all special or a new trend since this is baked into general cultural exchanges in media of which is longstanding between all these countries. Like there's already pre-established history here of this happening for decades so it's not really a "trend" nor "new".

Okay so like, I'm not gonna front I find it a bit xenophobic to say "Korea figured out boys can kiss" this is something I've seen a lot in BL fandom discussion. That Korea "doesn't know what sex is" or similar takes and I just, y'all are talking about an entire country of people here.

I find it trips a bit into a historic trend of desexualizing Asian Men in the west (<- article by Andrew Kung about the desexualization of Asian men in the west, and his exploration of sexuality, identity and discrimination).

Which, I know we're all watching BL which includes nothing but Asian men, and yet.

Like, yes porn is "technically" illegal in Korea but Koreans still know what porn is. They still watch it. In fact it's difficult even for the government to enforce those laws, as detailed in this article by Business Insider:

""It's like shoveling snow in a blizzard," Nuri Cop Moon Tae-Hwa told Hyung-Jin Kim of The Huffington Post." (source)

The existence and debate around porn in Korea is also a complex one, with a lot of historical context. This article talks a bit about Korean feminists and porn. I also find this line of thinking discounts real world politics that effects how media is made and reflected. Like activist groups fighting for discrimination protections currently in Korea.

Like, we know this to be true in American and European cinema but it stops being true for non-white media? That's weird ain't it?

Also like, manwha is really fucking explicit. Korea absolutely knows what boy kissing, sex, and queer narratives are.

Multiple kdramas or films like Hometown Cha Cha Cha, Out of Breath, Schoolgirl Detectives, and Love Alarm, all feature queer characters, narratives and romances. They may not be "BL" - tho I would argue Schoolgirl Detectives and Out of Breath toe into GL tho Out of Breath is more of an romance film for adults - but if we count Love is Science as an honorary BL b/c of Mark and Ouwen then idk why we can't count at least Out of Breath.

Beyond that tho, like whether we count these series or not, to say that Korea doesn't know queer narratives or what boy kissing is b/c one singular sub-genre of romance wasn't delivering (which is an opinion not media analysis) is discounting all the other work being done in Korea by film makers.

Painter by Night is one of the most erotic and sexual comics I've ever read (beautifully drawn as well). Semantic Error also has sex in the comic, and there's a slew of porn comics that exist in Korea and are available to read right now.

I get that a majority of Korean BL isn't sexy, but for a long while a majority of het kdramas in the mainstream weren't either. Hometown Cha Cha Cha only has a post sex scene that's hilariously chaste.

But now? Somebody a 2022 kdrama thriller had explicit sex scenes (multiple of them!), My Name, Old Boy, Squid Game all also come to mind. Has Korea been chaste in the past? Yes and no, for mainstream stuff absolutely because the mainstream will almost always play it safe for capital value, but Old Boy came out in 2013 and has nudity and explicit sex.

I just want people to realize that by making definitive statements "Korea doesn't know what boy kissing/sex is" you're distilling an entire country of people down to 1) a singular genre of media and a niche one at that 2) ignoring cultural context and history that influences said media and 3) being moderately condescending and xenophobic.

It's misinformation and it's frustrating to see this repeated over and over by numerous people in fandom.

Lastly, the "modern romance trends out of the west" with omegaverse used as an example. I'm a good 99% positive Pit Babe was not at all inspired by Teen Wolf or Supernatural.

While omegaverse originated in the west - specifically via Supernatural - it's been popular in Japan and China for almost a decade, if not longer. The earliest omegaverse manga I can think of is Pendulum: Juujin Omegaverse by Hana Hasumi which was released in 2015, almost a decade ago.

There's countless popular omegaverse manga too, and the dynamics only moderately resemble the ones we're familiar with in the west. Juujin is part omegaverse and part furry/beastmen - the alphas are all beastmen the omegas are humans - while something like Ookami-kun Is Not Scary only slightly resembles omegaverse dynamics as a hybrid series - since beastmen are really popular in Japan in part b/c of historical mythology (you see the combination of romantic Beastmen and Japanese culture & folklore in Mamoru Hosoda's work The Boy and the Beast and Wolf Children).

I mean Megumi & Tsugumi (2018) is so popular they're an official English edition published by VIZ's imprint SuBlime and that's a straight up omegaverse story.

So if Pit Babe was influenced by anything, it certainly wasn't the west it was Japan, Korea and China.

I take contention with this line of thinking, because it centers the west way to much. Like mafia settings, why is that considered a "western" trope?

Korea alone in the last 3 years has had The Ballerina, Believer 2, My Name, Bloodhounds, Bad and Crazy, to name a few, and this isn't even getting into the cinema history of popular crime dramas many of which make up a huge chunk of Don Lee's career like The Gangster, the Cop and the Devil, or Unstoppable.

When I saw the trailer for Red Peafowl I didn't see influence from the west, I saw influence from Hong Kong.

The trailer took more inspiration from Jet Li (The Enforcer, Fist of Legend) and Donnie Yen (Flash Point, Raging Fire, Kung Fu Jungle) films than anything I've seen recently here in America. Which makes more sense, the filmmakers working now in Thailand, Korea, Japan, etc would have grown up watching those now crime action masterpieces and are now making their own work today.

So I disagree that BL has become all the influenced by "modern romance trends out of the west" I think that does a huge disservice to these individual countries who have their own histories of cinema and influence and cultural exchange. Like, do I believe American film making has had an influence over Japanese or Korean film making? Yes, absolutely - Train to Busan is a good example of this - however, the opposite is also true.

Martin Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, Darren Aronofsky, Christopher Nolan, the Wachowski sisters, George Lucas and James Cameron have all been influenced by Japanese film making, especially the works of Akira Kurosawa, Satoshi Kon, and Mamoru Oshii. Like, dios mio James Cameron is a damn weeb y'all.

John Wick's entire gun-fu sub-genre is heavily influenced by classic Hong Kong action films and the works of Bruce Lee. Legend of Korra, The Boondocks, Voltron, Young Justice, My Adventures with Superman are all obviously inspired by Japanese anime but animated by a Korean animation studio (Studio Mir). Beyond that, the rise in adult animated dramas like Castlevania, Critical Role Vox Machina, and Invincible to name a few are very clearly taking inspiration from anime in terms of style.

So yes there's totally cross cultural exchange going on, that's been true as far back as 1952 with Astro Boy who's design was inspired by Walt Disney's work on Bambi.

But do I think BL is following specific trends set by the west? No. At least not to the degree of an entire trend, because the influences I'm seeing in BL currently aren't from the west (by which we really mean American/UK don't we?) but by other Asian countries.

For example, The Sign is taking clear inspiration from Chinese & Korean costume dramas, especially Chinese ones like Ashes of Love, Fairy and Devil, White Snake (and it's many adaptions), & Guardian.

Sidenote: curious where all the femme gay chars in BL in 2023 are? Genuinely asking, I can't think of any that are very recent. I see femme gay characters more often in films than in TV shows like Marry My Dead Body (2022, Taiwanese) and Tokyo Godfathers (2003, Japanese). But for BL I'm coming up blank.

I'm also not sure what you mean by "messy gay" there's been loads of novels, comics, film and tv shows with messy gays like Shinji Ikari is the messiest bisexual put to screen. But I'm not sure what's the qualifier for "messy gay" here. Are we thinking Only Friends? B/c the only messy gay in that show is Boston, Playboyy features actual messy gay men but it's also one of the queerest BL around right now.

Again, I only take contention with this point because it centers the west and our supposed individual importance way to much. It removes the existence of history these countries have which are rich, varied, and nuanced. BL doesn't exist in a vacuum you can trace the development of Korean BL to the development of Korean het dramas almost to a T.

You can also trace their development to the queer history of each country and how Thailand interacts culturally with China, Japan, Korea, etc and vice versa. It also ignores the history of these countries influencing American cinema as well. The exchange doesn't only go one way.

Overall it feels like we're separating BL into this completely separate category of film making and acting as though we, westerners, are the target audience for any of it. Which we're not. We're a second or third tier audience, Thai studios are probably way more focused on targeting Japanese and Korean audiences than American. It feels as though we're not viewing these countries with a nuance lens, where they aren't just static producers of a singular piece of content people consume rather than a fully fledged individual country we should be engaging with.

TOP 10 BL Trends of 2023

This is just me with my analysis hat on. 

1. 2023 = the year EVERYONE went outside their lanes

Everything went topsy-turvy this year in BL. 

For example, Korea gave us agonized yearning and outright queerness (The 8th Sense, The New Employee) while Japan served up soft office workers and tender family (Our Dining Table). 

The BL world went askew for a while, especially in the spring of 2023. 

Not that we still didn’t still get Korea’s soft angsty bubbles or Japan’s “what are you doing and why does it hurt?” kink-fests. But there were quite a few BLs that made us chronic watchers sit up in confusion and wonder if Korea was dabbling in Taiwan’s territory or Japan in Thailand’s. Then they fudged the kisses and we were like… okay, back in familiar territory. 

In contrast, Thailand stayed course-correcting for the damage they’ve done in the past with tropes (2022) and self referential meta criticism (2021), but also almost aggressively returned to their BL roots after last year’s series of shockers. Certainly, they are reexamining those roots, transplanting some, aerating others. But they really went back to classic Thai university and high school BL and pulps in a big way in 2023. 

Taiwan is always difficult to gage because they produce so few but they seem to have stuck with what they do best with no deviation while producing more this year than they have in ages. I’m happy for that, why change a good thing? But there is a tiny part of me that really wants them to hit it out of the part with a quality piece soon. For me, We Best Love still reigns supreme, but I would really like the HIStory franchise to give us that level but longer - like a happy version of Your Name Engraved Herein. I think Taiwan has the chops to give us something as good as The 8th Sense or Old Fashion Cupcake but in their style, and I would like to see them exercise their talent for good rather than just profit. 

I know, what a very odd thing for me to say. But if any BL is going to break into the mainstream American market, I genuinely think it’s most likely come from Taiwan. 

Vietnam and the Philippines are falling behind, in general. They just didn’t bring out very many shows in 2023, and what the brought out tended to fub the endings. This is forgivable in Japan (because of their style and quality) but not what watchers want in the lower production value propositions. In other words, if you do a pulp, you can’t mess up the ending (by romance standards). that doesn’t look to be changing anytime soon. 

2. The Office Romance Dominated

After years of Thailand serving us an endless (and slightly bland) buffet of university (and a few high school) BLs, this year Korea was basically like…

Ofiice. We like the Office. It’s cheap to film we can use grown up actors, acting (mostly) their actual age. 

And yeah… it totally worked. 

To be fair, Japan has always given us office live action yaoi from the beginning (they had the source material) but this year everyone else, including Thailand, seriously started playing in this setting. 

3. Boys Danced with Boys

The darling @heretherebedork​ was a big fan of this one, and I rather like it myself. Prior to this boys dancing together was very very rare in BL, but this year we got way more than our fair share. It was lovely. 

Never Let me Go

My School President 

Bed Friend 

The Day I Loved You 

Step by Step

Be Mine Superstar

Tie the Not 

Dangerous Romance

I think there were a few more. These are the ones I remembered to write down. 

4. Getting (even more) Meta With Tropes 

BL has been getting more and more meta over the past few years but this year they really focused in on tropes specifically. Calling out their own biggest and most favorite tropes in a massive way, especially Thailand and especially GMMTV. 

Like they tunneled in on damaging tropes with Bad Buddy and the like over the past 2 years, and now they are just having fun with us. 

I mean they just started the dancing trope and already they are calling it out? That’s like rapid-fire regurgitated meta there, GMMTV. 

5. Cameos are the norm now 

Taiwan has always loved cameos but in the past the other countries have been show and steady with only one or two a year. (Unless Japan does a parody.) 

This year Korea got in on the game.

Korea rarely starts trends but they do adopt smaller and lesser known existing ones and make them super popular. 

This year they did that with cameo couple appearances, even borrowing a few of Thailand’s pairs (TutorYim and MaxNat traveled north). They did it so much I stopped tracking. Love Class 2, Why R U?, and Jun & Jun were the heaviest hitters. 

Taiwan, of course, came back swinging. Kiseki was the gum-ball machine of pair cameos. (In Taiwan mafia = gay.) 

6. We are entering the cross pollination age

The number of remakes picked up or started this year was startling, not just countries revisiting their own content (Thailand, Japan) but countries revisiting OTHER countries stuff.

Lemme explain…

Korea has started remaking Thai content (Why R U?) alongside cameo'ing Thai pairs.

Thailand is doing Korean IP (My Dear Gagster Oppa) and has 2 Chinese ones slated for next year. 

GMMTV acquired a lot of Japanese IP (Cherry Magic, Ossen, and My Love Mix Up) - and then had problems distributing it. 

This is probably the most surprising trend for me. Especially the Japanese stuff. I would have thought these properties well outside of Thailand’s price range (even GMMTV’s) not to mention Japan’s legendary IP issues (I swear I typed this pout before the pulled TayNew’s excellent Cherry Magic). 

Also why not option some of the older popular manga instead? Bet that’s much cheeper. (I did see a NEW Thai translation of Finder into Thai, which is 90s yaoi, so I have my fingers crossed on that front.)

I shouldn’t be too surprised. 

Thailand is running out of y-novel content. Their publication industry is just not robust enough (I was just talking to a friend about this at length recently). But I didn’t think they had the funds to option, especially from Japan. 

Perhaps the option deals are for peanuts?

7. Korea got cheeky

I’m not sure quite how else to put this. 

After finally figuring out boys can kiss, Korea started to do not just higher heat but playful higher heat, with more aggressive word play and linguistic innuendo, like they are entering their racy rom-com teenage years (Why R U? Love Class 2 and Jun & Jun in particular.) 

I guess: Welcome to your BL teens, Korea? 

It’s cute of them. I am very much enjoying it. 

And now that comedy is warming them up, we get to see them play with actual queer burgeoning physicality in shows like The 8th Sense. 

It’s nice. I like seeing Korea stretch its wings. They still stick to their bubble, but that bubble seems to be expanding. 

8. The Amnesia Trope is back

And I, for one, would prefer to forget about it. 

9. BL got trendy 

I’m not quite sure how to articulate this category but basically we started seeing a lot of “modern” romance trends out of the west (like a/b/o) show up in our BL. Not a ton and sometimes quite small, but there has a been a steady rise of things like: no seme/uke, femme gay, out gay, condom use, messy gay. 

We also got an increasing range of sub genre frameworks (like mafia, office setting) that’s moved BL pretty firmly (even in Thailand) out of school and into the workplace, whether actual working is involved or not. 

It’s not to the point where it feels like we get more non-school BL than school BL (if I include all countries in this assessment).

Japan, in classic Japanese fashion, quietly started moving in the opposite direction. It’s what they do. 

10. The Vampires are coming 

This is an announcement trend, which I don’t usually report on but it’s so CLEAR. 

So last year we had a spate of announcements of possible Omegaverse (2 from China, 1 from Japan, 1 from Thailand - the only one that’s happened). 

This year we got 5 Vampire (or vampire-esk) Thai BLs announced including one from GMMTV. 

Whether all 5 will actually get made is unlikely, but having had (basically) none prior to this (Kissable Lips), I’m pretty confident that we will get at least 2 of them. And I wouldn’t be surprised if at least one other country made one as well. (Side eyes Taiwan with interest.) 

Final thoughts

It feels like we are also seeing a decline in BL (both by quantity and quality) from Vietnam and the Philippines. As you all know, I don’t track or really watch either of these two very closely. But it feels like, now, no one else is either. 

I think we have likely seen the BL heyday already in both places and their industries are now on the decline. 

We might be witnessing a thinning in the players in the BL field. 

FYI we had approximately 

136 BLs in 2023

Previous Years

2022: 117

2021: 95

2020: 62

2019: 40

2018: 30 

2017: 44 (China’s last gasp)

2016: 27

2015: 17 (50% micro)

2014: 17 (50% micro)

And that’s it! Let me know in the comments if you’ve spotted any additional trends you want to call out.

Last year, 2022′s trend report

2021′s Trend report

Last Year’s Stats & Predictions

(source) 

[rhythmlessgay]

So, in kpop news most of my mutuals care nothing about, there's been a lot of pearl clutching over the Lisa, the Thai member of the group Black Pink, performing at the club Crazy Horse in Paris. The club is apparently a super exclusive rich people only burlesque club, Beyoncé performed there once.

Anyway, the fact that it's a burlesque show has a lot of people pearl clutching, especially in Korea and China, with Chinese social media accounts of brands she had endorsements with deleting her pictures (including Bvlgari, a brand whose CEO has ironically been spamming pictures of her on his instagram), and rumors of her weibo account being suspended impeding.

Anyway, I'm talking about all this because I can't help but wonder how much the sexualization of South East Asian women ties to the whole drama.

[cupcakesandtv]

I just saw the ask about the "demographics of people who ship daxton or benvi" and like, I'm not involved in any of these ships, I just watched the show casually so I'm not trying start drama or whatever but like, I gotta say, I am an Asian woman and I was pretty uncomfortable watching S2 because of Paxton. The character is good and I like him but I can't not think about how this is a 30 yo man playing a teenage boy when the show insists on sexualizing him by undressing him or when he kisses Devi. I am well aware that teenagers have sex and everything but the actor is an adult and that's just uncomfortable to watch you know. I wouldn't be surprised if this was the reason some people didn't like Paxton's character.

I'm not implying everyone who doesn't ship devi and paxton together is racist. There is just a certain fan here or there that immediately discredits Paxton because he's Asian American. That said, I know people find it uncomfortable that Darren is 30 and Maitreyi is 18 (19?) I've said it before that I understand if that bothers you! It's fair! Some stuff that can help give more context, Darren was cast first, before they knew that Maitreyi (who is quite young) was cast. But mindy and Lang and Darren and Maitreyi have talked about how they have intimacy coordinators on set (which is a new function of film/tv these days but mindy insisted on it so everyone was comfortable and professional.) For at least season one, (i can't say in response to season 2 but I think it's likely) everyday one of Maitreyi’s parents was always on set and all the cast said they loved her parents. And finally, Darren is dating an actress from some movie he did in Vancouver last year. The actors are professional and every care is taken on set to keep it professional.

I’m not telling you this to convince you one way or another, I just wanted to let you know, especially about the intimacy coordinator because that’s a big deal and the women running the show are taking all appropriate precautions to keep Maitreyi safe. As for the way Paxton is sexualized, I have major issues with it. The jokes about the moms loving him (Trent's mom was so creepy!) the story about how he went to prom in 8th grade, and yes, the blatant sexual lens he's being viewed through does make me uncomfortable. A teenage boy should not be sexualized like that. I don't particularly love anyone being sexualized like that but definitely since the character being portrayed is 16. It's uneahlthy and I've even written in a fic someone saying "I HOPE HE'S IN THERAPY BECAUSE YIKES" because uh, yikes. Sexualization hurts everyone but can be particularly damaging for teenagers. I'd very much like to see less of that as the show goes on but I doubt it. I'm a white lady so I don't have commentary on the points you made about Asian men being sexualized but I agree with what you've said. I know that sexualization and desexualization is a problem for Asian men and I'm including an article that goes a little bit into that and talks about the Asian men Hollywood deems appropriately sexy are often mixed for my followers to read up. It's written by an Asian American woman and it even mentions NHIE.

Asian Americans are Hollywood’s new leading men. It’s not as progressive as you think

[aphrodite1288]

Also why the most famous sasaengs and Kfan are saying d.o is dating an actress

Uhm..becoz they're not sasaengs and they're not korean.

Are you sure they're REAL KOREAN Sasaengs?

And becoz that's the FAMOUS BASIC RUMOR that has FOLLOWED POOR KSOO FOR 3 YEARS NOW SINCE HIS 100 //DAYS HUSBAND DRAMA💁🏻‍♀️ didn't I tell y'all that the biggest Ksoo rumor is that he is DATING NA/M/JIH/YUN his co-star in 100husband FOR 3 YEARS NOW? I posted this three times on this blog and explained everything about this rumor. And I got a Dandanie yesterday who shared that a sasaeng told her Ksoo is DATING IU for 2 years now like WTF? CAN THEY BE CONSISTENT AND AGREE ONE LIE ?? And I talked about this dating rumor very well and I explained everything and how fake that is. And I'm not gonna do this again coz I hate repeating myself and I'm lazy and busy. So..

If you check most of these Sasaeng pages on IG and Twitter who have their bio and ID in korean and from time to time they trick your mind into Believe theyre korean by answering asks with two words in korean and broken english doesn't mean they're korean and doesn't mean they're Sasaeng.

Can you show me the Sasaeng and the korean Kfans you're talking about? I would love to see. Coz as far as I know Korean EksoL let alone dandanies are extremely secretive and won't share anything abt ksoo just like that . And I'll tell you if this source is legit. DM me.

And please if you follow a sasaeng on Twitter or IG please they're not real sasaengs and they're not korean. Korean sasansgs don't go online in big platforms such as IG and Twitter publicly sharing info especially when Essem has made that rule of Sueing sasaengs ! The real ones have already stopped working and are hiding even harder! Korean real sasansgs work in the dark you can't know them! Unless you're in korea or have someone who lives in korea who knows them and added you to their private groups! They work in private groups on kakaotalk and Line and other apps! They don't need to go public and write you a google or papago translated bio for you to believe them. Trust me darling all of those ain't even korean.

And if they share one or two famous news and info about schedule of Ekso or any other band and share few pics of random asian girls claiming it's sehun or Chanyeol's Ex-girlfriends ( coz that's what they always do.. always accusing Poor Sechan of having zillions of girlfriends in a span of 4months) doesn't make them sasaengs 😂

Oh especially the Sasaeng pages who put "Ask me anything" polls on their IG stories those momfuckers only know 4 to 5 legit info about an idol (which is not a secret and a very famous rumor that is recently circulating or very old famous rumors) and two pics of 14y.o Jung/look with random girls from his middle school and claim them to be his exes (while the poor guy was just taking pics with his classmates) and a bunch of random skinny Plastic asian girls who all look the same and claim them to Be Sechan's Ex-gfs and they would usually say that Ji is either still dating Jennifer or is back with Krys or is now saying a model!

Oh please I know their dimanics by heart! They always post you random pics and videos from korean streets they find on Google maps or in random tagged places on IG and claim to be there! They share y'all pics of their korean food and rain in the night from their fancy korean window that displays the beautiful expensive korean night lights and big ass Traffic signs written with big white paint in korean on the fancy asphalte or korean taxi 🚕 if that's even a description 😂🤣.

I mean they usually share pics like this their stories : ⬇️⬇️⬇️ to prove you "Oh Look I swear I'm korean and I live in seoul":

They would also always try so hard to prove they're korean and speak fake broken english for u to fall for their tricks and really think that they don't know english coz They KOREAN ! And if you distrust them they share a pic of a passport to ensure you that they're korean and often tend to lie about their age and say they're 20y.o Rich DADDY girls who travel a lot to Canada and LA in the middle of the school semester for you to not aks them every now and then to show you that they're really living in korea. Or they would say they transferred to a new school in canada and they go on a fake hiatus for you to not ask them to send y'all pics of them in korea coz Duh they got a full scholarship to the fanciest Canadian business Universities. And they usually say they're taking over their fathers company and that they're just Rich by nature and don't have to work . If you're REALLY RICH (like me 🌚🌝) then why charging ur POOR fellow fandom mates real money to send it to u by PayPal for one or two pics you have of Jung/kook and his 14.yo Ex-gfs or a dozen of random plastic skinny girls you found on kakaotalk or iG and claim them to be Sechan's gfs?

Real korean sasansgs: You can never catch them unless you live in korea or have someone there who knows them and not anyone but someone who has been in korea and an Exol for years with whom they worked on Exo projects for years and whom they trust enough to add to their extremely private group chats and projects. And real sasansgs don't charge you 6 dollars for a video of chanyeol having sex with a girl in his studio??😂 Seriously 6$ for a sextape? Even in porn hub low quality sextapes of random people is expensive how about an idol's Sextape? I had a sasaeng who told me to pay 10$ for Baek's sex video with his gf and 6$ for chanyeol's 😂 just seeing the price I started laughing. Wtf. You can't have those videos theyre extremely impossible to get plus if you got them no matter what the odds are YOU DON'T CHARGE THEM FOR 6$ !!

DM me and don't be shy don't be scared I won't judge you just share your sources, I'll let you know if they're legit or not.

DM me while I'm still drinking my fancy red wine and happy ever after.

[akookminsupporter]

Since yall are talking about other ships. Same sex shipping generally is a big part of East Asian fan culture. From Thai boy love dramas, Yoai, to the subtext between supposedly straight characters in dramas. I have been a K-pop and a J-pop fan since I was in middle school, a very long time, and in every K-pop and J-pop group there is a ship like Taekook, usually the most conventionally good looking according to Asian beauty standards who are friendly that get shipped strongly. So I wasn't surprised about Taekook and I watched their ship videos like with all other popular ships, the narratives, analysis, and theories are the same because fans, especially shippers, move from groups and ships and take these things with them and it's why they're compared to Larries. Everything is repeated downright to the "snuck to the washroom together in an award show" honestly I don't know how this isn't a meme atp. Being in fandoms for such a long time, I'm desensitized to ships and fanservice LOL Although I enjoy some friendships, nothing ever stuck with me as romantic. This isn't to say there aren't ever same sex couples in the same group or in the industry. There is the couple from the group D.I.P who came out. There is Tony Ahn and Jae Duk who lived together for years and had rumors about them, and never had dating reveals news with other people despite being in their 40s. Like most Kookminers, I noticed them on my own and they're not just the most realistic or likely ship in BTS, but in the whole of k-pop. Kookmin stand out and they don't need any guesss work, explanations, or theories to explain how they are real or how they are close. We just need to watch them and listen to them.

“they're not just the most realistic or likely ship in BTS, but in the whole of k-pop.”

Wow, that's a big statement Anon😳. I don't know anything about Kpop in general to be honest let alone the ships that exist in other groups so I can't comment.

I do agree with you that Kookmin seems the most real. And as you say, you don't need analysis, far fetched theories to "prove" anything about them (although they exist too, don’t know why) you just need to sit back and watch. That’s all.

Obviously we can't be sure because we don't know but they definitely look the most real. Or the ship most likely to be real.

[lanzhanlanzhan]

This is a Wang Yibo Appreciation Post

Okay, first of all, whoever was responsible for even considering Wang Yibo as Lan Wangji ought to get an award. I mean look at this boy

Who looked at him and thought, "Yes! A perfect Lan Wangji!" It boggles the mind. In fact, one of the funniest things I found when the series was first aired was UNIQ fans belatedly realizing that Lan Wangji was being played by Wang Yibo. The whiplash must have been something because the gap is just unreal.

I remember that back when news came out that there would be a live action adaptation of MDZS, not a lot of people were behind Wang Yibo being casted as Lan Wangji. I would even admit to being one of the naysayers, and if I delve deep into this trash bin of a blog, I would probably find something I said last year that was along those lines. Mind you, this was in stark contrast to how people reacted to Xiao Zhan; most people liked him, thought he looked great as Wei Wuxian, and he just got a lot of approval on the get-go. The promotional posters that came out though just did not really do Wang Yibo justice. As Lan Wangji, he did not look the part, he seemed quite young, who even was Wang Yibo, or if you knew Wang Yibo, like really, Wang Yibo? And so on and so forth. 

The great reveal though is that apparently, Wang Yibo is the kind of guy you just have to see in action. The moment I got into him playing Lan Wangji? I was sold. I was so sold I would willingly eat my shoe for everything I ever said about CQL casting back in 2018. That face, the look? Picture perfect. His manner, his restraint, the way he conducts himself in fight scenes? It was sheer genius casting a dancer for the kind of grace required to pull off the esteemed Hanguang-jun. I love Wang Yibo's Lan Wangji and knowing what I know now, if you give me another actor to play Lan Wangji, I would stab him in the eyeballs, I am not kidding. Don't give me anyone else other than Wang Yibo.

Now, Xiao Zhan has proven time and again that he understands Wei Wuxian, and the great thing is he is articulate about it. I think it's pretty well known that this boy makes entire speeches and writes legit essays when asked about Wei Wuxian. We love that about him, and I think this is also why he is so popular with the fans. We don't get as much of that from Wang Yibo, but much like how it wasn't until we saw him in action that he proved why he was a fitting Lan Wangji, the same could be said here. He does understand Lan Wangji. How do we know? Because it just shows. I find that appreciating this boy is in seeing him just do things. I remember how it was when, with each episode that passed, people just started noticing how Lan Wangji—poker face extraordinaire—was behaving in each of his scenes. We went, "Was that--? Holy shit, yes, it is?? How is this actor pulling off these micro-expressions? How is it that we are actually getting emotions from Lan Wangji??"

This went on up until a lot of us slowly realized, "You know what? This is a really good Lan Wangji we have here."

The Untamed also gave us a lot of promotional and behind-the-scenes content, so let's talk about that, too. There is something refreshingly genuine with Wang Yibo that I don't think I often see in many celebrities. It could be because he's young, but that just makes it more impressive how well he is performing on-screen. Out of costume though, he doesn't seem to have many filters, and it is such a riot following him and listening to the kind of shit he says in interviews (and taking note of how the "more adult" Xiao Zhan reacts to them).

Besides, a drama with two guys as leads? This could have easily been a recipe for clashing egos. While whichever actors playing Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji would find themselves being called the "two male leads" of the show, the fact of the matter is, Wei Wuxian's character is defined by his actions and his convictions. He fights against something larger than himself, and in this sense he is the typical hero of a story. Lan Wangji, meanwhile, is defined by his devotion to Wei Wuxian. 

People get compared all the time, rankings are a thing, and product endorsement usually can only afford one popular celebrity as a brand ambassador. One could very easily be the actor who resents Lan Wangji's popularity being dependent on Wei Wuxian, and thus be considered "secondary" to Wei Wuxian. But instead, and despite all the wrong ways things could go, we got chemistry on screen and camaraderie behind the scenes. Wang Yibo favored Xiao Zhan and did not compete with him. It probably helped that Xiao Zhan is older (thank goodness for Asian values), but then Wang Yibo has been a celebrity for longer. Again, it could have gone badly.

I cannot stress enough how important it is to me that Lan Wangji's actor likes Wei Wuxian. It's not by any means a necessity, but a wonderful, wonderful bonus to all this—because what self-respecting Lan Wangji wouldn't adore his Wei Wuxian? We got cute banter behind the scenes, with Wang Yibo even seeming to be most partial to Xiao Zhan and generally being playful with him despite having a reputation of being cold to co-stars. He genuinely seemed to have had a lot of fun with his co-actor. I do not ship them nor do I follow RPF, but I find that them having that amiable and sometimes affectionate atmosphere does wonders for my own shipping of Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji. It's like everything just feels safe and good, and my boys are happy together in all iterations of their universe. 

I will always be thankful to these actors for interpreting these beloved characters so respectfully, especially given the nature of Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji's relationship. With the threat of censorship being a very real thing for them, I'm glad we still got the bond—and yes, love—between Wei Wuxian and Lan Wangji in the scenes they share on-screen. (Actually, I sometimes wonder if Wang Yibo's, uh, violence towards Xiao Zhan is a remnant of Lan Wangji's affection for Wei Wuxian that Wang Yibo hasn't shaken off after they end a scene, lol. What's a guy to do with those feelings, right?)

Anyway, this accidental meta was brought to you by all these goodbye posts with CQL ending. I reiterate all the "thank you's" to the cast, but really for me, my appreciation goes most of all to our unexpectedly excellent Lan Wangji. I said so much shit about him last year, but he ended up being my absolute favorite of the cast. Wang Yibo took Lan Wangji and brought him to life in a way I never thought I needed, and now holy hell, I am churning up fanfic like mad every week. It has been such a wonderful journey, and never have I more sincerely wished success for any show's actor as much as I do for this boy. I was so, so wrong about him, but boy, never have I been happier for being proven wrong.

[make-me-imagine]

congrats on 5.5k!! you're insanely talented and I'm so happy you're getting the recognition you deserve 🥺🥺 could i join in the ship requests too?

I'm a rather small sized (like, 154cm & ~40kg kind of small) Asian female from a South East Asia country and i prefer men, especially men who are taller and Age Gaps™ 🥴 I'm not sure how much you know about/believe in astrology but I'm a Libra sun, Taurus rising and Capricorn moon so you can do what you want with that 😂

I'm an INTP/INFP (I've gotten both an equal number of times from sites OTHER than 16 personality, tho I personally vibe with INTP just a teeny smidge more) if you do MBTI ✌🏼 I LOVE to read, especially fanfiction lmao, and i also write! I really love listening to music + watching shows/movies too! My favourite shows are all mystery/crime based LOL and I am working towards becoming a criminal psychologist/forensic pathologist/forensic scientist in future! (heavily inspired by Criminal Minds, Sherlock, Detective Conan and the like so 😂) I have a really vivid and good imagination please i can spend DAYS just daydreaming and imagining scenarios that I never finish writing about & generally this is how all my work is never finished loll

I'm the eldest sibling at home, and my parents haven't always been around so I've been rather used to stepping up and taking care of myself (+ my sibling, like helping them with homework and all). Some people say I'm a natural born leader? idk bc I often step up to be the leader in group work & I'll often be the one to initiate things & all. I'm a rather big procrastinator though LOLL so you'll often catch me rushing my assignments & final projects & rushing my revision for exams + finals like, 2 days before the actual exam 💀 which often leads to me becoming more stressed out & breaking down more often than i actually should so 🥲 I'm trying to quit this bad habit though

I love cuddles and hugs please I will KILL for cuddles and hugs from my back by a tall character pls it just feels so safe and comforting to be spooned too 🥺🥺 sometimes when I'm too absorbed in work or something (which happens too often for it to be healthy) I might just forget to eat/sleep entirely AND also my sleep routine isn't the best. like i will literally fall asleep at 9pm, wake up in the middle of the night on my own at like, 1am, then usually I'll be rushing homework at this time, then maybe sleep again for a short while from 4ish? till when i have to get up for school/work at 5:30/6am 💀 there's been days where i literally looked so sick from the lack of sleep where my tutor once stopped the class to ask me if I was okay and if i was going to faint LMAO 😔 i feel like I'm a night owl??? but then also i have no problem getting up super early in the morning so?? but i really feel most at home and really enjoy the 3am nights 😌

i am also the class clown lol but it's bc i just make sarcastic comments and all and my friends think they're funny???? but also i enjoy making people laugh bc sometimes i find it interesting to try and see what kind of things make my friends laugh so it's lowkey an experiment? or like something i want to achieve? at this point. I'm fluent in English and Chinese/Mandarin and I'm learning Italian so I roughly know some basics, and I really enjoyed History, which I took last year but dropped this year. (I'm taking English Literature with Biology + Chemistry this year and they're all great, except I'm literally dying from the workload aaahhh 💀)

I'm kinda clumsy and Not Good™ at most sports, maybe passably okay for badminton but I'm really not that athletic and really not very keen on exercising either 😔 I'm quite creative and good with public speaking/creative writing/impromptu performance/speech though I'd say! I'm also in my school's drama club 😎 though I'm more of a backstage lights & sounds kind of person. I'm right handed (with a really neat handwriting, as I've been told many, many, many times) and I wear thin frame spectacles which I sometimes will fall asleep in & I'm so clumsy/careless that I'm actually really afraid I'd break them (it's happened before 😭)

I'm a really good planner? like i can do up a great and detailed schedule/plan for revision and all but i will NOT stick to what i plan 😭😭 i love to snack!!!! on chips + gummies especially, and my diet is quite unhealthy lmao i literally don't eat vegetables At All™ & i don't really eat meat that much too?? lmaoo please i can go for days without having a single proper meal & just survive on snacking on potato chips + soft drinks 💀 i am a very picky eater though so really me not finding food i like/am able to stomach is also really kind of my fault 🤡

while i really vibe with and love the dark academia aesthetic, i also do video/MOBA games, like i play games like Mobile Legends & all. I'm someone who knows most, if not all the lastest trends (like tiktok, memes etc) but i won't actively participate in them? i just kind of like to know things, like Knowledge is Power you know (I'm a Slytherin, in case you're wondering, though I've gotten Ravenclaw so often it's a close tie sometimes)

okay i feel like that's enough details about me? feels like I've told you nothing that's useful oh well LOL... I'd really love a ship for Criminal Minds and Marvel? if that's possible please? in case you missed it, i prefer men! (I'm a questioning bi, with a strong preference for men) for the hc prompt "what you do on your first date" or maybe "how you met + first impressions"?

thank you so much for being so kind and willing to do this ship requests thing!! I'm sure you're spending TONS of time and effort on this and aahhh i feel bad for typing so long paragraphs now (as you may have noticed i have a tendency to ramble on if not stopped because i am just really Socially Awkward ™ sometimes 💀 and have really bad (social) anxiety too) and i really think you're super amazing for doing this??? I'm so sorry if this took up too much of your time aaahhhhh thank you so so so much 🥺😭😭 really the biggest of congratulations to you for your 5.5k??? you really do deserve every single follower & i am SO insanely happy for you 🤩❤️

- 🌙🏒 anon

Don’t worry, you definitely provided enough information lmao. 

And thank you for your kind words, I appreciate it. 

I hope you like the ships I made for you

They are under the cut: 

Criminal Minds: 

I ship you with Hotch. 

You get the age-gap here lol. He would be a bit hesitant due to the age gap at first, but he would get over it because he can not resist. He does not seem like the type of cuddles, and especially does not take part in PDA. But when you are alone he would love holding you and spooning, especially after a long day of work. Aaron would be attracted to your uniqueness as well as your intelligence and aesthetic, finding it to be very “you”. 

How you met + his first impressions: 

You met when you were transferred to the BAU as the new Forensic Pathologist.

Hotch thought you were very interesting when you first met and was definitely intrigued by you. 

He thought you fit in fairly well and would get along with the others (which you do). 

He appreciates a sarcastic sense of humor, so he would dig that as well.

Hotch could tell you had a form of anxiety and wold be patient around you when you first met so that you could open up to him at your own pace.

What you do on your first date:

He takes you to a hockey game. 

He is not the sportiest person but he has had an interest in hockey for a while, sometimes watching it on tv. 

When he learned that you liked it, he decided that this would be the perfect opportunity to invite you on a date as well as to see his first game. 

After the game, you walked around town for a bit, getting some late night food and talking or a long time. 

This allowed you to open up to him quite a bit and you grew more comfortable around him as well, which he is very happy about. 

Best Friend: 

Your best friend is JJ. She thinks you are really cool and unique and nice. She has the type of personality that is easy t get along with and open up too, so you bonded with her quicker than the others. I also feel like she is into hockey as well, so she appreciates your love for it as well. 

-

Marvel: 

I ship you with Sam. 

I think Sam is a good fit for you. He is into sports, and digs your aesthetic. He is easy to get along with and very funny. He thinks your line of work is very interesting and loves to listen to you talk about it. Sam also really enjoys crime shows ans thrillers so he is always excited to meet someone who enjoys them as well. 

How you met + his first impressions:

You met through Nat, who you had met through SHIELD years before. 

You happened to be at the compound with Nat when Sam was there and she introduced you. 

He immediately thought you were pretty and very interesting.

Sam could tell you were shy, but that did not stop him from flirting.

Though he also made some jokes and was easy going as to not scare you off. 

He made sure to ask Nat about you once you left and managed to convince her to give him your contact info. 

What you did on your first date: 

He took you to the movies first, to watch the most recent crime thriller that came out. 

After the movie you went to a nearby park and walked around, talking about the movie and other crime/horror related stuff. 

You got food at a food truck and sat by the fountain together. 

He was appalled when you told him that you didn’t eat that often (if came a part of your relationship later on that he would try to cook you meals that you’d like just so you WOULD EAT). 

You ended up spending hours together, and it felt like no time at all.

So you were definitely up for another date with him, which he of course asked you about.  

Best-Friend: 

Natasha. She was the first one you met, and slowly introduced you to the others. She thought you were really cool when you first met and was surprised at how well you go along. That is sometimes hard for her to do, so once you became friends she never took that for granted. She and Sam would gang up on you when you weren’t eating btw. 

xxaaron