#it;s the whole point

[absolutebl]

Industry question for you, please: Why is it that it seems that Thai BL in particular has some really systemic issues with writing endings? Screwed-up pacing/editing, out-of-character/illogical actions, not being very satisfying... it seems like a show avoiding that fate is more of an exception than the rule, unfortunately. Do a lot of them just... not write the ending ahead of time? 😅 That would make having these sort of wacked-up endings at least make some sense, but... really, it makes *no* sense to me that that would be the actual standard writing strategy-- I mean, for example, one of the best living novel authors I know of *always* has very satisfying endings, literally without fail (I have read everything he's written and been perfectly content with the ending of every one), and the reason for that is he purposefully always writes the endings of his books *first*, then works everything back up to that point. Similarly, some of the best TV shows I've seen (from any country-- and this does actually include some Thai ones, to be fair) were written either all in one go or at the *very* least with their endings obviously already very firmly in mind, regardless of if they were completely original or were adaptations of some other source material. So... why does this often seem to be such a difficulty for the writers of Thai BL? 😅 (Sorry if I sound a little salty here, but endings either make or break all fiction for me {novels, manga/manhwa, TV, movies, games, whatever}, and I've been getting burned what seems to be more and more often lately with shows being great for the vast majority of their runtime but then inexplicably totally botching the landing, seemingly out of nowhere-- so I'm a bit frustrated with that when it seems to be a really simply-solved problem {that, indeed, has already been solved by many others before}: JUST WRITE THE DAMN ENDING *FIRST* and then work up to it? 🙃😅)

Endings huh? You a romance reader by nature? (Wait, no, you said... HE. So... Sparks? Green?) Anygay, where was I?

But yeah, I get it. I've always fancied the dessert course the most, myself.

To answer your question, not sure. I'm assuming its a narrative expectation based in culture. Like Japan and their lanes, China and 6 act structure, or Korea's adoration of love triangles. And producing culture comes to film and storytelling with its own set narrative conceits, archetypes, and tropes and aren't proscriptive but are leaned on a lot. Much as they come to film with a certain style as well.

Think about the "look" of Korean BL compared to the "look" of Taiwanese BL, for example. They have an entirely different flavor to them. Korean stuff is usually all bright and airy, lots of distance shots, super clean and uncluttered, filtered and filmy and atmospheric. Taiwanese stuff is much closer, more grainy, more bold with it's color choices and contrasts, kind-up n your face and gritty, a bit messy sometimes.

It's jarring to go from one to the other.

After watching nothing but Asian dramas for so long, I always find it jarring to go back to American shit. It feels over-acted and unsubtle and kind of brash. Over all "loud" and in my face. Jarring.

So when first encountering 4 or 6 act structure most westerners feel a little unmoored, it doesn't feel comfortable until you sink into it and leave 3 & 5 behind.

I'm mean I'm so used to K-dramas with that arbitrary year or more separation in the final episode I;m now shocked when it's not there.

I guess what I'm saying is maybe it's just a thing with Thailand, not to put that much truck in endings. The way (especially) romances do in the western world. There's a very fixed idea of what an HEA should look like in the west. Thailand may not share that idea.

I've not read the source books of any of these BLs, so I don't know if this is just their narrative style or not.

I mean there are some Thai BLs with good (if not great) endings, and plenty of Korean BLs with terrible middles, and far too many Taiwanese BLs with bad beginnings.

Ya just kinda get used to it, I guess.

15 Thai BLs with Good Endings

A Tale of Thousand Stars

Bad Buddy

Lovely Writer

2gether

Be My Favorite

Dark Blue Kiss (possibly my favorite on this list)

Destiny Seeker

Make a Wish

Naughty Babe

SOTUS

[egophiliac]

did this as a quick scribble at like 1 AM last night and...immediately lost all motivation to ever clean it up. ( ᐛ ) but I had to draw my son being the fanciest little flower boy who ever threw petals down an aisle. oh my god.

[hinamie]

spiraling

[freyadragonlord]

One of my favourite things about the end of The S-Classes That I Raised novel (major spoilers ahead),

is the realisation that the reason why Yoojin and Hyunjae's relationship looks so much like a love story at times is because it actually, honestly is.

Like, we know that sctir is a novel about love since the beginning, that's not surprising. Yoojin's capability for loving monsters (both literal monsters and the human kind) and the power of that love is at the centre of the plot.

But by the time you get to the end, you realise - and the author confirms this themselves in their final Note - that Yoojin's relationship and love for 2 specific people was the true core of the story, and what allows him to save the world in the end:

One is, of course, Yoohyun.

And that love is absolute; you cannot say that it's inevitable, cause we know Yoojin had to make a choice when he was a child between Yoohyun and his parents, and he almost chose his parents, but from the moment he decided to love Yoohyun onward, then it was unconditional and eternal. It's the love of a brother, but also the love of a parent and a caretaker.

And the other person is Sung Hyunjae.

And that love is not unconditional nor inevitable or absolute at all. It's not something that can be taken for granted. We actually see, because of how it ended between them before the regression, and thanks to the White Bird's power of seeing possible futures, that there were so many timelines where Yoojin and Hyunjae would have never come to care about each other fully (tho they are always at least somewhat interested in each other, because their personalities are actually really compatible).

But the White Bird also sees that the only possible future where the world is saved is the one where they love and hold on to each other. And that is how the story goes!

So, just like a romance novel, the necessary end is the one where they both love each other and accept that love. And it's not easy to get there! It's a slow burn.

From meeting to getting to know each other, appreciating each other's skills and intelligence, finding out they have fun together but still not trusting each other, to working on building that trust.

They go from a strong but superficial mutual interest to actually caring about each other as people.

Yoojin has to go through the self-doubt of feeling inferior and fearing that Hyunjae will lose interest in him. Hyunjae has to learn to stop pushing Yoojin away because he doesn't know how to handle having someone he cares about so much, and also someone that cares about him, because nobody in the world (except in part Song Taewon) likes Sung Hyunjae as a person, he is only ever admired from afar.

And in the end, after going through ups and downs and a few "break-up arcs", they make it. They accept their own feelings and each other's feelings.

And that's when Yoojin makes the choice to use the power that the transcendents gave him at the very beginning of the novel, to save Hyunjae. Not the world. Not even Yoohyun! Just Sung Hyunjae!

Yeah, the whole "gather 50 S-Class people", the very thing that gives the novel its title. That is not a power that is used to save the world!! It was meant to, but Yoojin is "selfish", and he will always choose to save the people close to him first.

And being able to love someone so selfishly gives Yoojin the power to save the whole world, too. As a bonus! A reward. Just a side effect.

So yeah. Is it romantic love? No. Canonically, there's almost no romantic love in the whole novel.

But is it a love story?? Yeah. Absolutely it is.

[wishfulsketching]

it has only now clicked in my head that my facial features are somewhat similar to Silco's. I feel a *little* better about my weak chin, thank you. It's been a reaaally rough spot for my self-esteem

Looking like "you" will always be more attractive than being ""conventionally attractive"", in my opinion.

I have a fucked up eye (in a boring way, tho. Just a mild case of "lazy eye" that still makes me super super insecure) and lemme tell ya, Silco being the King of Fucked Up Eye is making me happy~

I looove love Silco's whole mouth/chin situation, I am obsessed. You sharing those features mean you absolutely have your fans

[pastelchad]

Broke: Leon is a natural brunet who likes to bleach his hair sometimes.

Woke: Leon’s natural color is a dirty blond/mousy brown and he dyes his hair darker occasionally and/or it’s naturally darkening over time.

Bespoke: Leon is a natural redhead and will do anything to keep people from finding out.

[sotiredmostnights]

i know everyone likes to put tharja in the "yandere goth girl" category but tbh i feel like pigeonholing her into one specific archetype does a huge disservice to her character. is she obsessed with curses and robin? yes. is she constantly shoved into a fanservice role by intsys? absolutely.

but i think a lot of people forget just how impactful a lot of her supports are...there's something about tharja that makes nearly everyone who interacts with her divulge their deepest secrets and points of anxiety with her. we see this with libra, who tells her of the abandonment he endured at the hands of his parents. we see it with nowi, whose cheerful demeanor slips off as she tells tharja of her missing parents. and although tharja is not the only one lon'qu confides in regarding ke'ri, their support is notably the only one in which lon'qu divulges that there was romantic involvement between he and his childhood friend.

and despite her antisocial exterior, she always listens mindfully and offers to help! she even goes out of her way to discreetly help the shepherds (getting virion to do odd jobs that benefit civilians, interrogating henry to make sure he bears no ill will towards ylisse, etc).

a big thing about tharja is that she IS kind. she IS considerate. she just also has a reputation to uphold as a dark mage and that (paired with her overall awkwardness ofc) makes her true nature hard to see at first glance

[lynnetendo]

TRIED DRAWING SIFFRIN FOR THE FIRST TIME!!! FINDING MY STYLE FOR FUTURE ISAT FANART BLAH BLAH!!! NEED TO PRACTISE DRAWING SIF. SIF IS INEVITABLE

[theokusgallery]

"What do you think you're doing?"

"Helping you relax after a long, tedious day. Although I do so wish to know where you got the audacity to question me."

KtS(aWtG)!AU by @greenninjagal-blog :) (please click on the images below for better quality)

With a static + no environment version. I'm normal ! :) (RAPIDLY BREATHING IN AND OUT OF A PAPER BAG)

[lumism]

in some au situation i really do believe that if will needed a fake boyfriend, the first friend he'd go to is dustin. and it'd prove to be an entirely well based decision because dustin would approach the theoretical part with all the same thought through preparation he'd put into a science project, and the practical part with all the ardor of an oscar winning acting performance

[timothyslucy]

i am once again asking

where... THE FUCK IS THIS MAN??!!!

[disposal-blueeee]

VARGASTOBER - day 1 : memories

[hawkeyeslaughter]

i think the thing that bothers me most about the ideas that hawkeye doesn’t do well after the war is that i think it goes against hawkeye’s entire thesis as a character . because , at least to me , the most notable thing about hawkeye is his resilience . over and over again hawk hits rock bottom , and every time he gets himself to GET UP GET UP GET UP even if , especially if, it’s not fair , even if it KILLS him . even in his lowest point in the whole show , when he feels like he doesn’t have anyone on his side , he’s still insistent that he WILL get out of it . i’ve heard people complain about how hawkeye is sensitive and how he doesn’t really change throughout the entirety of the show , but what is that if not the point ? anything and everything in hawkeye’s situation can kick him as far down as it wants but that man will gladly drag himself foot by foot and inch by inch out of hell than let himself be beat by it even if he has to do it all by himself

[hellynakisser]

“they chose themselves” WOW! it’s almost like that’s the point of the entire show isn’t it? how’re the innies exploiting her when they barely know who she is? all they knew was that this is ms. casey/gemma, outie mark’s wife, and that she needs to be saved. THE OUTIES have exploited the innies for their entire lives, they did not ask to be born and put to work against their will. you’d think the conversation between innie and outie mark would wake some people up but it didn’t. in this interaction innie mark realizes that if he goes through fully with this plan then his life (and everyone else’s) is completely over. what does he get in return? he gets to “merge and be one” and “share memories” (aka reintegration, something that INNIE MARK DID NOT ASK FOR). outie mark has exploited his innie and has used him to bottle down his grief, and is exploiting him even farther by asking him to do this. do all of the innies want to essentially die? and more importantly, does innie mark REALLY want this? he was just told there will be no happy ending for him and the love of his life. the only person in his world that he loves. he FINALLY gets to choose and take back his autonomy and you’re all mad at him for it? also this ending doesn’t mean that they cant break the cycle. they still can it’s just you people are so impatient that you want everything rushed to you immediately. people root for these characters until they do something in retaliation for their life. im so annoyed and it’s obvious that a lot of people don’t see innies as humans. yall are just as bad as the outies! LOOK IN THE MIRROR.

[velvetwyrme]

for the WIP tag game, I feel like im obligated to ask about bitties and the beast.... 😳👀😏

twirls hair. bitties and the beast!! i actually have a shitty moodboard/collage i made like 2 years ago or something so... tada!

the fic is set in the middle of a city, where rival gangs of werewolves and other creatures (such as vampires) all vying for territory.

the reader is a very paranoid werewolf who gets saddled with a couple bitties after they catch them sneaking aroung their apartment. due to their paranoia, they initially threaten the bitties, slipping into their more animalistic side for a moment, before realising they aren't a threat and backing off guiltily.

it'd be a very fraught dynamic where the reader tries to keep their distance for a while, as they think of themselves as dangerous (and rightfully so!) and worry about their instincts/beastial side causing harm to the bitties.

the Pup warms up to the reader unusually quickly, whereas the Razzy takes much much longer, having been the one caught and threatened at the beginning. eventually they pick up the names Cotton and Cro :]

my god i forgot how much i actually wrote for this (i actually have a couple chapters worth of writing i never posted... whoops) but heres some snippets:

anyway you can tell its been a while since i touched this because it's still on gdocs and not ellipsus LMAO

i have. so many thoughts abt this fic. ahfkghdk,, the Pup is not actually a SF!Pap bitty!! a couple more show up later as well ! instead of an arc where the bitties get kidnapped and the human has to rescue them, the READER gets kidnapped and the bitties have to come to the rescue!!! THE READER GRAPPLING WITH THEIR INHERENT MONSTROUSNESS AS WELL AS THE DESIRE TO CARE AND BE CARED FOR. AUGHGH

anyway thank you for coming to my ted talk i can talk forever abt fic wips <3

[kookabara]

severance tumblr actually has me crashing out in a real way. how can you be concerned about relationships at a time like this