#just this whole sequence....... crazy. bonkers. like that's why!! that's the main reason why he was always going to that study!!

[coldlikethestars]

this makes me wanna explode into tiny little pieces

[absolutebl]

Hi! You mentioned that patpran did not manage to convey that they want to bone onscreen. Can you give ships with great sexual chemistry? I do not think i have seen this in any bl i watched. But then, most of the bl i watched are thai, pinoy and japanese. Thank you!

Ah yes, Taiwan.

You want Taiwan.

10 BLs in Which it's Clear BOTH Characters Wanna Bone

Okay so I have a high heat post here. However I'm thinking you also want ones that are ALSO actually decent shows to watch (no murder, mutilation, sad endings, etc...). And you asked for great sexual chemistry not necessarily that the chemistry be depicted or realized on screen. There's a few lower heat ones that also qualify under those circumstances. 

HIStory 2: Right or Wrong (Taiwan 2018 VIki) - people always sleep on this BL but you can't knock the chemistry, especially at the end. These two really want to get together. 

HIStory 2: Crossing the Line (Taiwan 2018 VIki) - the mutual nature of the crush is slow burn but there are early dream sequences and yeah, the actors are good. 

HIStory Obsession (Taiwan 2017 VIki) - short but still they manage to convey mutual attraction, in fact it could be argued this is the primary driver for the obsession. 

Be Loved In House: I Do (Taiwan 2021 Viki) - a slow burn but when they finally do get into the bedroom it's hot and sweet

Why R U? (Thailand 2020 Viki) - so the main couple (ZeeSaint) I would probubly put forward as Thailand's best for this specific niche. The cool thing about this series is that Fighter’s crazy physical need for Tutor is a problem for him as part of the plot, so it has to get addressed and dealt with. He’s almost angry with Tutor about how gay the desire makes him. (Really he’s angry at himself and scared of his father, but...) Zee does a great job portraying this conflict, even with a bonkers plot. Also they’re verse. All this is very rare in BL. 

TharnType (Thailand 2019-2020 VIki) - I have my issues with how they get together but then?... yeah.

(Apparently Viki cornered this market while we weren’t looking.)  

The Mafia Trifecta of Ooooooo 

Apparently, bad boys make good lovers. 

HIStory 3: Trapped (Taiwan 2019 Viki) - cop chases mafia boss, cop falls for mafia boss, hijinks and great sex ensue, also manages to be endearingly domestic. Second couple is good too. Not unhappy but not satisfying ending.

Manner of Death (Thailand 2021 WeTv direct) - MaxTul always turn in great high heat but this is by far their best work. It's not strictly BL linguistically and considering age of protags etc, it’s gay romantic suspense, but it is a fun show especially if you also like crime thrillers. And it’s HEA. 

Long Time No See (Korea 2017 GaGa from Strongberry) - hitmen who are on opposing sides of a turf war and fall in love with each other. It's great.

The Exception

HIStory 3: Make Our Days Count (2019 Taiwan Viki) - both couples are high heat and both couples are great at it and portraying real physical desire, it takes the main couple longer to get there, tho. Warning, DO NOT WATCH THE FINAL EPISODE. Watch up until the leads move in together. Then STOP. You can thank me later.

There is a reason I call this show: HIStory 3: The BL That Shall Not Be Named 

I have a full assessment of the whole HIStory franchise here. 

Microfilms out of Taiwan & Korea can hit this out of the park:

I highly recommend Korean BLs Just Friends? and Some More (Strongberry) both on GaGa. 

There are a bunch of others out of Taiwan too like Innocent but these often contain triggers and/or sad endings. Also mostly on GaGa. 

I feel like there are some pretty good one-sided examples too. Like Sib in Lovely Writer absolutely wants to bone Gene. But this post is getting long.

2022 Additions

NueaToh in Secret Crush on You

All 3 pairs in Cutie Pie

Both couples in Love in the Air 

PluemKawin in Ghost Host, Ghost House. 

Look at the lust for those legs, Pluem wants them wrapped around him SO BAD. To be fair, Kawin does have lovely legs.

Dated middle of 2022. Not responsible for pairs that cum after... ba dum 

(source)

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

Leon really out here trying to steal the role of main character from Gloria like FUCK OFF M8 THATS MY JOB

This was actually my biggest problem with Leon. 

His whole gimmick is that he’s unbeatable, right down to having the Hall of Fame tune repurposed into a battle track for the player’s fight with him. He’s only ever known victory. The trouble is, that never gets challenged until the very end, when you get to fight him. Which makes for a good goal to work to, but as a character, it leaves him boring and obnoxious because he has no weaknesses. I mean, he must, but the story isn’t going to let you see that. With how present Leon is in the story, I mean...he definitely has a personality, but it’s just taken as a given that he’s the undefeatable hero of the story, and the player can do nothing to challenge it until they get to battle him. Which is frustrating for many reasons. He feels like a prop to motivate both Hop and the Player, but not much else. His being an in-universe Charizard fanboy doesn’t help...either way, his “unbeatable” status is used to justify him being the one to handle every action sequence...without the player, like you said. 

First of all, this has never been how it’s worked before. The Champion has always faced the trials alongside the Player. Imagine if Cynthia had sent you on your way when the portal to the Distortion World opened up? Imagine if Lance had barred you from taking down Team Rocket’s base with him. Why should Leon get to turn us away from seeing the action? I hate to say it, but it’s a pretty clear indication of cutting corners. Most of the time, if there’s an action set-piece, the game is very careful to make sure you don’t see it or get to take part. The player never gets to, y'know, play the game, until the very end. Leon always sends you away with a patronizing encouragement to focus on your gym challenge while he goes off to handle the problem. The game suggests that this is because he's an adult and you are a child...but that simply doesn't fly. 

Sorry, we're eight generations into a franchise that has never suggested any functional difference between adults and children in it's universe. It is well established by this point that having Pokemon is all that matters, a person's age has never had any social impact. Or if nothing else, getting your first pokemon is treated as a "coming of age" ceremony, so the player would be just as much an "adult" as Leon. The difference in their age would normally indicate that they aren't equals, but it just doesn't work in this universe, it's an attempted excuse to keep the player out of the action that fails to align with established world-building. It’s patronizing, but it’s also inconsistent, which amusingly bothers me far more. This is also why I don't like it when the games feature police, because that's another aspect of real world society that simply doesn't fit in the Pokemon world. If police exist, why is it always down to the most powerful trainer, aka the Player, to defeat the criminal organizations? 

I’m not sure what it is, but all of the corner-cutting and evidence of deadline fever, all seem to converge around Leon. Nothing sums it up better than the sequence where the Player and Hop storm Rose Tower. It finally seems like the plot is picking up. We all knew Rose would be the villain, has he kidnapped Leon? What’s going on? Who is the evil team? You get there, you fight Oleanna, who acts blatantly antagonistic, and refuses to let the player past...but then when you beat her, you get there to rescue Leon, and...he’s not in danger. At all. There’s no threat. You get still images with no music as Rose outlines his motivation (Which is absolutely bonkers, but never mind that right now) and then Leon just...leaves. Of his own volition. The plot doesn’t go anywhere, and you come away from it thinking, “Wait, did we just break into a megacorporation because Hop was hungry?” 

Later on, Leon fails to catch Eternatus, and the player must step in. This gets completely glossed over and ignored despite being a clear example of Leon’s character actually failing, and showing weakness. He lost. He is not unbeatable, Eternatus bested him. It actually drove me crazy when I first played, because his whole deal is that he’s never been defeated until the player dethrones him. Except. He has. I don’t care if it was a Pokemon and not a Trainer, that should matter! It contradicts everything about his character and then does nothing with that. Then at the end, he reiterates the condescending bit about how the “adults” will handle things, before we transition into the credits...with no Hall of Fame sequence, god knows why. 

[dcarevu]

DCAU #20: Prophecy of Doom

“You gave him ten million dollars, sir? And to think I was fretting over the electric bill…”

Hey, guys, so lemme tell you about the craziest thing that just happened to me. There I was, dressed in my cloak at the DCAU brotherhood meeting. And the leader of the brotherhood, Nospoilerz, looked right at me and said, “You! Young man! You are in graAaAve danger! I see disappointment! I see pain! I see misery and woe!” I left the place scoffing to myself, not believing one word of it. But then I turned on Prophecy of Doom and I realized that this guy actually may have known what he was talking about.

Episode: 19 Robin: No Writers: Sean Catherine Derek (teleplay), Dennis Marks (Story) Director: Frank Paur Animator: Akom Airdate: October 6, 1992 Grade: D

Am I being too generous with that D? Because this is definitely my second-least favorite episode so far. It’s another Sean Catherine Derek/AKOM “classic” from season 1, and this just goes to show that sometimes reading the episode credits is all you need to do… Sigh… Bruce Timm himself has made certain remarks about both of these creative forces, citing AKOM as a subpar studio, and Sean Catherine Derek as a writer that would always try to throw in a big message, but could never really make it work in practice. We saw this in The Forgotten with the subject of homelessness, and we see it here again with the fortune teller who is actually just scamming people out of all their money. Yeah, she didn’t write the story of this one, only the script and such, but her fingerprints are all over the place when you break out the powder. Unless you’re a really good writer, a half-hour Batman show is just not a good way to get some of your important, socially-conscious messages across to the public. Who exactly wants to see that? Eric Radomski and Bruce Timm were going for a grim, crime-noir. Sean was pushing for a recycling bin and a god damn dog to be in the show, guys. I think recycling is as important as the next guy. And boy do I love a cute pupper. But this says a lot. Boy. Don’t you just wish that we got a whole episode about why we should should recycle? Just imagine how that woulda turned out.

We would see some of the “big, real world statements” taken on much later with Static Shock, and from what I understand, it often worked quite well. But this was after a lot of DCAU establishment. It also was a very different show than Batman TAS. Not to mention, well, Sean Catherine Derek wasn’t involved with Static Shock at all. I wish her no ill will, and I hope she’s happy writing for whoever she writes for nowadays, but the sooner these episodes we’re looking at leave her behind, the better. Reportedly, she clashed a lot with Bruce and Eric when it came to their visions for Batman the Animated Series, so overall I would say that she just was not meant to be part of this team, or wasn’t flexible enough to write stories that would suit this show.

I didn’t think he was legit until he showed me his kickass flyers!

Nostromos is the one-off villain of this episode, and I’m certainly not gonna be anxiously awaiting his return for a future episode. He’s a guy who supposedly has magic powers and the ability to read fortunes, but as we can tell from spending less than five minutes with him, he’s a big fraud. In this episode, it makes for some confusion as far as how we’re supposed to see and react to him. Mysterio from Marvel did this concept wayyy better because Mysterio was more frightening than this guy. At least back when I was a kid he was (yeah, I get it, he’s got a big bowl on his head)! With Nostromos, we, the audience, along with Bruce Wayne, are skeptical of him from the beginning, and the way he carries himself makes it really hard to feel threatened by him at all.

Top 10 DCAU guyliner material

“The vibrations are right for prophecy.” This guy offers a translation to a completely lost Bruce Wayne

“You are merely the eye trying to view itself!” explains Nostromos. Now this guy looks just as confused as Bruce is. 

Even after we come to the conclusion that he likely was responsible for the sinking of the gambling cruise ship. He’s just so silly and his plan is so uninteresting. And then we see that the other people involved in Nostromos’ brotherhood (a big group of rich/important people) are eating up every word that he spews out, and we get music cues and other moments that almost seem to try and make us take him seriously. It makes the people in this episode seem like absolute dimwitted fools, and how all of them managed to finesse their way to the top of the money tree with that kind of gullibility is beyond me. The tone is really mixed. And it continues to stay mixed throughout the entire episode. It’s just weird to see Batman, the strong creature of the night who always saves the day (not literally, saving the day at night sounds bonkers), be in any sort of danger, but then see everyone else being idiots and that the villain is just a big joke.

“You!!!” This was a pretty poor-looking shot, especially when you see it in movement. 

Bruce’s glass mysteriously shatters.

And what is Nostromos’ plan? Well, his main one is to basically convince the brotherhood that an economic crisis is right around the corner in order to get them to give him all of their money. Is that not the least creative place you could go with a crazy cult in a Batman episode? The least they could have done was made it so that Nostromos wants to kill Bruce for a specific, personal reason or something. Things do get a little bit crazier eventually, but in a way that’s almost as dull as everything else. Nostromos ties Ethan Clark’s (a friend of Bruce in this episode) daughter to this giant solar system display, where she is in danger of being crushed if another planet happens to collide with her.

Seems to me like he could have made things a little simpler if he had just threatened to shoot her.     

This sequence just doesn’t visually suck me in, nor did it with Char. She thought it could have looked a lot better, especially when it’s such a preposterous idea. The episode needs to do something for me to fall under the spell of the suspension of disbelief. It has been said that Akom just didn’t have the chops to animate this the way it was asked for. And trust me, I believe that. It hasn’t taken me long to understand the impact of Akom on Batman the Animated Series. But in my mind…even with proper transition from the storyboards to full motion, is this really a scene that I would have been asking for? Did I really want a conclusion where Batman jumps around on moving papier-mâché planets gone awry?

This is pretty much the best we got, folks

So yes, I do in fact agree with Char, this scene could have looked a lot better. But I also have to ask the writers whether or not this was even a good idea in the first place. And Nostromos causes the planets to spin all over the place, past their normal speeds, by beating on the control panel and breaking it. Why does whamming on a piece of technology not usually just shut off the technology? It always sends it off on a deadly rampage. By the end, Batman escapes, saving Clark’s daughter. And Nostromos gets caught by a stray planet from the spinning display as it lands on top of him.

Nostromos and his crazy plot are much like how Red Claw ended up being a few episodes back. Has potential, then does nothing worth remembering with it. Y’know, this episode also feels like a 70’s Scooby Doo episode. The villain seems like a Scooby Doo villain, has a Scooby Doo villain-esque plan, and even gets caught like one of Fred’s traps. And y’know how usually Fred’s traps are completely over the top, but ultimately the animation and everything keeps it pretty underwhelming? That was the whole climax to this one. It’s like Batman was Scooby Doo, wrecking the bad guy’s plan and managing to trap them. I really wish everyone on the Batman TAS team had known better by this point when it comes to what type of show they should have been writing. Clearly some of them were in on it, but not some of those stubborn ones. I get that it’s still season one, but this episodes wastes time. Instead, we could have gotten something much better in its pace. But these writers were here taking up staff slots, not trying their hardest to produce a really good Batman show. They were too focused on only pushing hard enough to create a typical Saturday morning cartoon show, or a show that displayed a moral, and it’s like, another show could be used for things like that. I think when Paul Dini or Alan Burnett wrote their episodes, they made it so damn evident that they were pouring their hearts into the scripts, and were actually trying to make something good, something they they would have wanted to see. They were giving the best to Batman that they could. This show was airing before I was born. And even if it were brand new, it wouldn’t make any sense to hold a grudge or anything on some of these earlier writers. The ones who didn’t utilize the potential of a Batman show like this. Because what these writers did was make the good episodes seem even better. Not every episode may have been ground-breaking in this series. But even with those which weren’t quite up to snuff, with those which didn’t elevate the animation landscape, we still got so many episodes that did, and they are why the cartoon is remembered as being so important, so influential, and so gosh-darned entertaining. Them, and Batman going, “Psyyyyychic energiiiees, Alfred”. I could listen to that on repeat.

One of our establishing shots of the episode, use for a prelude which ultimately doesn’t end up being all that significant for the story. But at least the jazz was nice!

I don’t believe that we ever actually get any confirmation as to whether or not Nostromos planted this. I’m surprised an episode like this didn’t take the extra step to spell it out for us.

Uh oh, don’t let the fish drown!

Ethan and Lisa Clark. Wonder if they’ll appear past this episode.

Total Scooby Doo villain vibes.

Here are the mugshots 

These keyboard sound effects, though. Let’s get some official Batman TAS ASMR.

Batman flees the falling elevator, not falling victim to Nostromos’ plot

This was a pretty shitty fight scene.

Were you even trying to avoid that swing, Batman? He even gave you some time to react before he swung!

This was a decent shot.

Kevin Conroy’s acting was a lot of fun here. He put a tremble into Bruce’s voice that we all know is Bruce faking, but that’s only because we know better!

The most disturbing moment of Batman TAS so far. This damn smile. Especially with the way his eyes move. And you’re telling me that Bruce couldn’t hold in this smile? It’s not like he saw the camera and knew we were watching. They shoulda had him wink right at us while they were at it.

Maybe the bit that saved this episode from an F

Or maybe it was specifically this ass shot. And you say you watch Batman for the plot.

This is the shot our climax ends on. Just take it in.

This one was harder to write for some reason. Could have something to do with the fact that I’m staying in some friends’ living room and sleeping on their couch with another person over spring break. Not to mention, I have to do a lot of this typing on the floor. But I hope it gave something worth reading regardless! Here’s to a smoother review for next time. They can’t all be winners. Much like the episodes themselves. 

Char’s grade: C

Next time: Feat of Clay (Part 1) Full episode list here!

[agentnico]

The Fate of the Furious (2017) Review

Family. Family. FAMILY!!!!!!!!!

Plot: When a mysterious woman seduces Dom into the world of terrorism and a betrayal of those closest to him, the crew face trials that will test them as never before.

And so they are back for the 8th time!! That alone is quite impressive. For a franchise to keep making more and more money enough to make it reach an 8th film is quite cool, there’s no way around it. That being said, these films are nothing great. You sort of know what you’re getting into. Over-the-top unrealistic action sequences and defy any kind of natural physics, cast performances that aren’t really performances but just people that act like they are the coolest people on the planet, a plot so excentric and random that even the Joker will be wondering what the hell is going on. And ‘The Fate of the Furious’ stays true to it’s franchise nature by being as bonkers as the rest of them. I was never a fan of this franchise. I’ve only watched about two or three films out of all of them. But I get why people like them, and judging by this movie genrere and what it sets out to be, I’ll cut it some slack.

As of late, the Fast and Furious franchise has become more of a spy mission orientated bunch of films, so in all fairness this new film does try and bring it back to the original roots by having street races again, and a bigger focus than even on cars. Although this time round Vin Diesel’s Dom Toretto goes rogue, so we actually now get to see him go against his own team. And the reason behind is a surprsingly human reason, although even with that in mind it was a bit unrealistic for him to just turn against his team, as up until this film the franchise has made it more than clear how important family is to Dom, and how his crew is part of his family. And then all that ‘character progression’ is thrown away just to build up some intrigue. Also, on the topic of the crew, Dom’s team has become way too big, that it’s just now become difficult to keep up with all of them. Obviously Dom has to stay, Dwayne Johnson’s Hobbs has the charisma and is just a straight up bad-ass, Michelle Rodriguez’s Letty is Dom’s wife and is sort of the main emotional core of the film, Tyrese Gibson’s Roman is the comic relief, so that just leaves Ludacris’ Tej Parker and Nathalie Emmanuel as Ramsey, who don’t really do much, so I say they must go. Just kill them off. No one will care! Especially in light of the fact that we now have new members joining the team, with Scott Eastwood being put in as a replacement for Paul Walker I assume, however the writers ruin any chances of us giving any kind of crap about him, because he doesn’t really do much, and if he does, he only messes things up. And every time he was about to do something cool, Kurt Russell would walk in and steal the scene, as if he just didn’t give a f***! A very nice addition though is Jason Statham’s Deckard Shaw, who upgrades from being a villain in the last movie to now joining the actual squad, and his banter with Dwayne Johnson is the best part of the whole film. There’s an especially memorable action scene where Statham has to save a baby, which is the best thing ever. Also Charlize Theron is in this movie playing the villain, and it was really weird, because with everyone else not giving any kind of good performance and simply just playing themselves it was very weird to see someone actually properly acting. Theron does a great job at bringing us a Bond-like villain, and she did a spectacular job at, well, being evil.

The action sequences are all ridiculous as usual from zombie cars to the crew fighting a whole goddamn submarine because why the hell not?? There are also a couple of surprises in the film with some very welcomed cameos, so for fans of the franchise that will be a bonus. All in all, this film does what it sets out to do -  give us some crazy popcorn action and that is really it. Doesn’t make it a good movie, but I guess it doesn’t make it a bad one either.

Overall score: 5/10

TOP MOVIE QUOTE: “Let me tell you something. Me and you. One on one. No one else around. I will beat your ass like a Cherokee drum.”