#khatha's out here like

[chaos0pikachu]

Last week on Midnight Museum: Devil Judge Jokes

This week on Midnight Museum: Khatha doesn’t know gay people exist

[sollucets]

so we agree, the mummy artifact is dome's past life (chan?)'s original body

[twig-tea]

Thai QL Favorites Tag Game

Tagged by @telomeke and @waitmyturtles, thank you both for the tag!

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

I want you all to know before I start that asking for favourites is biphobic so you're going to have to ignore the places where I bent/ignored the rules about how many choices I was allowed to have. Also, this is so long, and took forever, I'm so sorry:

Favorite Thai QL:

I could caveat this until the end of time, but I'm going to go with the definition of "favourite" that's "has a special place in my heart" rather than necessarily "best"; and that's undoubtedly Until We Meet Again. I got very not normal about this show. When it was airing, I used to rewatch every episode before the new episode, and then rewatch the newly aired episode at least once before binging the show to date again. And I've binged it several times since. Sometimes if I need to cry, I'll put on the first 10 minutes and ugly-sob. This show felt like an apology and catharsis for years of built-up bury-your-gays induced trauma from queer media, in addition to a balm for all of the external relationship drama tropes in BL. I think I've talked about it around here somewhere before, how this show sets up all of the tropes for things that go wrong for couples in BL, and then everything is fine, over and over? And it was airing during the very start of the pandemic before the world was calling it a pandemic, when I was so worried about everything and governments hadn't caught up to being afraid yet, and I felt so alone, and this show over and over again said "it'll be ok", at a time I really needed to hear that. Plus it's got the whole epic-love-story-across-lives and the family acceptance redemption arc that as a still-only-partially-out-to-my-family-in-my-30s queer absolutely destroys me. Anyway, there are other shows that I would agree are as good or better (shout out to He's Coming to Me, I Told Sunset about You, Bad Buddy, Not Me, The Eclipse), but UWMA remains my fave (and gets two gifs for being top spot).

Favorite Pairing: I have seen this interpreted as branded pairs & as fictional couple, so I'm going to take that excuse to answer both questions. I'm honestly not a fan branded pairs as a thing and agree with @lurkingshan's comments on this, I tend to prefer it when people continuously work with different actors. That being said, JoongDunk seem to be having a lot of fun with the whole fanservice game, which is fun to watch for as long as they're enjoying themselves and continue to be in on the joke, which seems to be the case.

Fictional couple? Right at this moment I am still thinking about Khatha and Dome from Midnight Museum. I think this one hit me in my Chinese epics button, because the story felt a lot like a danmei (not the least because you could argue it reads as censored bromance). But this show asks questions about fate, God, the devil, multiverses, and then has its characters choosing to reject all of the above in order to choose each other? SIGN ME UP. Legitimately it's the most fun I've had watching a tv show in awhile, it was bananas, and I loved the journey of Khatha figuring out who Dome was in relationship to Chan, and deciding to love Dome as Dome, at the same time that Dome was also figuring out who he was, and deciding he preferred who he was when he was with Khatha. But also just Tor + Gun are incredible actors (Tor having been a stand-out since Hormones and Gun of course since The Blue Hour) and I would watch either of them in anything, but together they were magnetic (and evidence for my earlier point re: branded pairs, as much as I enjoy Off & Gun together!).

Most underrated actor: I'm going to say James Teeradon. He had a few small roles in Hormones 2 & 3, Diary of Tootsies, and The Stranded, and he had the main role in Project S: Skate our Souls and in Great Men Academy. First, I should say, you could argue none of these classify as BLs. Second, all of these have trigger warnings, so please take care of yourself and feel free to ask if you want content warnings. But he's one of those actors who never looks like the same person in each role he's playing, and he absolutely gives me shivers. His performance as Boo in Skate our Souls was legitimately chill-inducing--this one in particular has serious trigger warnings, I put off watching it for a long time because I knew about the warnings and waited until I was in the right headspace, and it still messed with me for weeks. But oh man, oh man that show, it rewrote part of my DNA. I don't even know that under-rated is fair to say since there was buzz around him when he was in these shows a few years ago, but he was trying to make it as part of a band for awhile and he hasn't been in much since. If there's one person I want to see in something else who a lot of other people don't talk about these days, it's James.

Cheating and taking the opportunity to choose a second actor from definitely-a-BL series: Fluke Chinnathan from Second Chance the Series. While Second Chance had a lot of flaws, the acting by Fluke and Tong was stellar. Their micro-expressions and body language was unreal. I feel strongly enough about this that I wrote an ode to it as part of the BL-Bracket for best kiss scene. No idea what Fluke is up to or if he even wants to keep acting, but I'd love to see him in something else--he's one of the only other actors (than James, mentioned above) that I'll go in to MyDramaList occasionally just to check to see if they're in anything new. PS if you do give Second Chance a shot, please know going in that Run and Games, real life brothers who are both actors, are both in this series but never in a scene together, and their characters are similar, so a lot of people have trouble telling them apart without knowing there are two different characters in the show.

(Also, I 100% would have said Suar for this question before La Pluie, because he did not get enough credit for You're My Sky and I think he was incredible).

Favorite Character: Honestly, I've deleted my answer to this so many times now. Choosing one is so hard! I'm going to go with White from Not Me. Incredibly loyal, strong moral values (but willing to break the rules/law to fulfil those values because he understands that law ≠ morality), self-sacrificing, extremely competent in some ways, but also has serious blind spots in others that leads to him making very silly choices especially around who they trust, lacking in self esteem especially around whether or not people will want him around. The way he chooses to give up his privilege--not for his brother, because he could have found a way to go back to his old life after everything if he wanted--because he saw what was wrong with all of it and decided to do what he could to help fix it (and not participate in it) is something that really resonated with me. I also love that he is an absolute marshmallow who cannot hide that fact. Plus White being a disaster bi who wanted Sean from the beginning endeared him to me forever. And it doesn't hurt that he's played by Gun Atthaphan

Favorite Side Character: I have also started and stopped this section so many times. Natty and her absolutely terrible taste in women from Diary of Tootsies, Na being at some points the only reason I kept watching Tonhon Chonlatee, Namo being smart enough to know to pretend she doesn't know what's going on in Not Me, Tong the ecovillage owner from Bad Buddy, Daisy and their incredible gender and mix of self esteem + self esteem issues in Secret Crush on You.

Alright I'm giving it to Dream in Something in My Room. I don't have good reasons for this; her character was artistic, had supernatural powers, green asymmetrical hair, and was stoic with a hidden dark past, and I am a simple woman. I wanted to know everything about her.

Favorite scene in a QL: How can I choose just one?! I'm choosing three and you can't stop me.

Third place, Not Me, with Sean and White under the pride flag. It has everything: It's iconic, it's cinematic, it's cathartic, it's political, it's a critical character moment, it has great music, it's full of queer joy, and it brings me so much happiness every time I see it.

Second: Dean and Pharm in front of the Pra Aphai Mani & sea ogress sculptures in the aquarium in Until We Meet Again. Partially because I love aquariums so much, partially because this sequence is one of the first ones we really get to see the hints of Intouch in Pharm. The way he moves around that aquarium is nothing like how he moves at school or his condo, and it's one of the things that struck me so hard on rewatch; while that scene did so much work towards establishing their characters the first time around, the second+ time it has so much more meaning. The throwaway line by Pharm about relating to the ogress now gives me chills.

Plus the way the aquarium scene got called back in I Promise You the Moon makes me really happy.

But first and top, the one that will forever live in my mind for the way it made me feel in my body: Teh and Oh-Aew on the rug in I Told Sunset About You. That moment, my god. Butterflies. Chills. Chewing glass. Devastation. I don't know that I've ever felt any other scene so viscerally; it transported me back to being a teenager and cuddling in clearly non-platonic ways with my bestie and wondering what was happening. Thinking about it now still gives me goosebumps. Maybe a bit of a weird choice because of the pain but I don't shy away from some pain in my faves!

Favorite line in a QL: Honestly I could put one of several meaningful quotes in here, probably the ones I've thought about most being the one from Bad Buddy that a few other folks have noted ("I may not be able to change the world but the world can't change me either"); and "can't we just get a little bit of space?" from The Warp Effect that I mentioned in my Silvy appreciation post. but the first thing that came to mind was this cracktastic banger moment from En of Love: This is Love Story that runs through my head every time a character P-Nong's someone when they don't mean it like that (and especially when newbies get confused about whether characters are actually related):

"'P' but not brothers; the way 'daddy' [said in English] doesn't really mean father. You get it?"

--Param, being a little shit (affectionate)

But also I think special mention needs to go to this new and immediate classic by Tien in La Pluie:

Most Anticipated QL (& why): I am very excited for 23.5 and Only Friends, also WuJu Bakery (does that count if it's Korean but starring Thai actors?) but....This is niche and might never happen, but MindTrio announced awhile ago that they were going to put out Chemistry in Love, which was either a sequel or related to Calculating Love? Listen, this is a low-budget production company making a slightly quirky trope-filled shorts that tend to have pretty cinematography but falter a bit on plot and pacing, and in Calculating Love the main character hits on his love interest with a series of math/graphing equations and coffee. I fully acknowledge that I am a particular kind of nerd, but I just really, really want to see people flirting with their Extremely Geeky special interests. Some sort of of follow-up to Calculating Love has been a maybe-thing since 2020, so it's most anticipated by amount of time I've been waiting. I have a list of 290 "upcoming" shows that may or may not ever happen so I'll stop there.

Healthiest relationship in a QL: I was very persuaded by @waitmyturtles' arguments re: King and Uea, and I thought about My Only 12% and even wrote a whole thing about Tinn and Gun from MSP before deleting it.

But I'm going to use this soapbox to give a hot take and say, by the end of the series, that it's Nuea and Toh from Secret Crush on You. Both of them have secretly loved each other for the whole series, and shown it in their own very unhealthy ways: Toh by keeping a collection of everything that reminds him of Nuea, and Nuea by being extremely cool-guy persona around Toh. But by the end, both of them have aired their insecurities about their relationship, and have committed to working on their relationship together. Toh stops assuming that they will break up (which Nuea explained was hurtful to him) and declares he'll fight for their relationship in front of Nuea's parents, and Nuea allows himself to be seen as very uncool through his vulnerability, and is more open about his uncool thoughts and feelings. I remember them being surprisingly healthy about jealousy too, once they're together, showing trust in one another when that photography club kid shows up. Nuea also makes a really sweet gesture that I think gets misunderstood at the end of the show; Toh explains that his collection makes him happy, that Nuea is more important so he'll give it up if he has to but he really, really does not want to. So Nuea finds a way to make the collection about them rather than about him, so that he can embrace it too and be less discomfited by it. I feel like there's not enough "meeting people where they are", and too many makeover fantasies in romance for my tastes. Instead, Secret Crush on You said listen, people are weird, and we all just need to find the other weirdos whose jagged edges fit with ours. And it's work figuring out together how they will fit, and they won't fit perfectly, but that's ok. As long as everyone is comfortable, it can be a little weird. It may be less realistic than say the way similar themes are handled in Utsukushii Kare, because behavioural change (especially around self-worth) is hard irl, but the question wasn't about which relationship is most realistic lol SCOY also said embrace cringe culture and I am here for it even if it is sometimes hard to watch because it is SO CRINGE; but I respect it for living its truth.

Most toxic relationship in a QL: Oof. I am a strong believer in "if it works for them, that's their business", as is probably evident from above, but the reveal of what was going on with King and Peat in Love Area (parts 1 & 2) was really next level BS and managed to be both toxic and ableist, so it gets a special mention and no gif.

Guilty pleasure series: I don't really subscribe to feeling guilty about liking things, but I have a bunch that don't get a lot of love and I fully understand why lol In addition to the example of Calculating Love above (which is like, a 6 on MDL, and TBH harsh but fair), I really enjoyed I Will Knock You. Maybe it was just the novelty but I loved the character of Noey so much, his vintage aesthetic, the amount of time spent around and in temples, and the most adorable closing credit sequence of all time (shows that have closing credit sequences that reflect the main relationship in the show is one of my favourite tropes!). The criticisms about it, especially the ones about the Thi character, are fully valid and I would not actually recommend it without a lot of caveats (e.g. warnings for blushing virgin trope + age gap, and sooort of glorification of gang membership?), but I had a great time.

Also maybe Y-Destiny episodes 9 & 10? Tohru and First as Kaeng and Puth, whew. I have a special place in my heart for storylines where the characters sleep together as friends with benefits and then have to renegotiate those boundaries because I've lived it more than once lol (Only Friends when?!). But the ending episode for the series was actually so offensively bad, I like to forget it exists.

Most underrated series: You're My Sky and He's Coming to Me have already gotten a lot of love so I'll just say YES to those. Would have said My Ride before this recent release to YT. Does Triage count if it's nominated for awards but nobody ever talks about it (probably because the distribution was so messy)? I think My Only 12% doesn't get enough love because of the pacing of the last episodes, but the rest of the show was SO good.

But I'm going to take this opportunity to get on a sandbox about Diary of Tootsies (spanning S1, S2, and the movie sequel Tootsies and the Fake).

This show is not BL; it is decidedly queer. There is no single love story, and if there is, it's undermined. And yet, because it's a comedy, it also gets overlooked in the lists of Important Queer Viewing (which is fair, honestly, that is not a read). But it means my blorbo of a show often doesn't get hyped up, so I'm taking the opportunity.

This show I would argue sits squarely in the by/for/about queers category as per @wen-kexing-apologist’s by/for/about Venn diagram. Watching it feels like a group hug; it's so very clearly written by actual queer people (even if this wasn't confirmed everywhere online, the screenwriter is out and speaks about this, but it's also just obvious) and I recognize so much of my friends and people I've known in these messy queers. It deals with casual sex, drug use, HIV, adoption, being closeted at work, and more.

It is also so funny. I didn't think I liked toilet humour until Make it Right and Diary of Tootsies proved me wrong. I honestly think about the scene with Natty and the handbag in the car approximately once a month. And the opening sequence of the sequel film!! What a choice for opening credits. And these queer friends are mean to one another, even in the moments they're being supportive of one another, and it is both familiar and delightful (also reminds me of this post by @bengiyo about whether viewers still love us when we're mean). The found family tropes are STRONG in this one, friends.

There is some fatphobia, though I always struggle with how much to warn for that because this show also has one of the only fat characters in QL who gets a character arc, a love interest, and to be a whole person. And to dance! The dance sequencesssss especially in S2, oh my heart. So much queer joy in this show in general!

Last thing I'll say about this show is that it also gets left off people's lists because the "main couple" if you can say there is one is not the one most fans were rooting for--I will admit, myself included. But the narrative convinced me to be satisfied with what we got, which is honestly to its credit!

Anyway TL;DR Diary of Tootsies makes me extremely happy and I'm glad it exists.

OMG ok I am letting this go now. Tagging @redxblueihateloveyou because you've not been active for awhile so this way you'll see this whenever you come back, and @formayhem because we are newly buds and I'd be curious about your answers! At this point everyone else must have been tagged by now, so please just consider yourself tagged if you haven't done this yet and tag me so I see it! I've been loving reading everyone's answers.

[respectthepetty]

The Answer's in the Wall

Round 4 of I-Should've-Just-Binged-Midnight-Museum-When-It-Was-Finished!

Find Round 1 , Round 2, Round 3, and a bonus here.

Put on your tin foil hats because I have a last minute theory: Chan knew CPR. He was wearing a baseball cap with the zodiac on it and a scale for justice. He came out of nowhere. Dome showed that he can move through space and TIME. What if Chan saw the end of the world, and went back to the past to fix it, yet ended up dying, which caused him to curse Khatha with the very thing that will end the world in the future - himself?

You Can't Change the Past

Now that the season of Midnight Museum is ending next week on April 4, 2023 with ten episodes instead of fifteen, don't you find it strange that the first call in the phone booth came from April 4, 2023? *has a show ever been promoted as a season finale and not just a finale?*

Tum told himself to call Phone because that was "the only way." Tum took that to mean that it was the only way to change the past and save Phone, yet we saw that never happened because Tum was calling different universes.

Tum had spent years looking for phone booth, just for it to be revealed that Khatha had it. He makes Khatha call himself, and we see the scene from earlier when they first met play out again, but this time, with the knowledge that Khatha was calling himself.

Yet we haven't seen Tum call himself. All the calls Tum made in the past were to Phone in the past. Tum hasn't called himself yet. And now that he took the phone booth apart, can he call himself still or does he have the knowledge to make his Blackberry (that was recalled for being defective) a magic cellphone?

Because what he really needs is to tell Phone that he loves him. He needs his past self to say it. He can't save Phone, but he can let Phone know he loves him. He can't control Phone's death. That's not what he needs to fix. He needs to tell Phone he loves him before he dies. That is what he can fix.

And why is that important? Because we already knew prior to this episode that we can't change the past

But we can learn from it

Chan knew why Khatha acted as he did, but couldn't forgive him, so what if that leads Chan from not learning from his past and causing the end of the world, which could have been the very thing he was trying to prevent?

Imperfections are bad?

A few people have mentioned how Midnight Museum seems to imply that having a limp or wooden leg make a person incomplete. But Tum's and the other stories are showing us a valuable lesson - There is no such thing as perfect and trying to fix the wrong thing will only lead to more problems.

Anne wanted a real leg and was willing to kill for it. Ton lost her because of her greed. Moth wanted Rin back, but was content living in their memories rather than working on how he messed up in the present, so he killed her. Jib stayed so focused on who Dome was in the past that he was unable to admit that he was a completely different person. June stayed stuck in her memories of her lost love, so she became a ghost. Ing wanted a perfect life, and Bee wanted her perfect life back instead of trying to work on the lives they had. They killed the only man who was trying to make it work in the present. Much like Adam and Eve being banished from Eden, spending too much time trying to recreate what they had or striving for the life they think they should have robbed all of these characters of the life they have, now.

Chan healed Khatha, but not by getting rid of his limp. Chan healed Khatha by being a person who he could love. Khatha never needed his leg healed. He needed a friend. Chan, like all the others, fixed the wrong issue.

Chan died because Khatha tried to fix his problem by isolating Chan, when he should've tried opening himself up to others, something he still hadn't learned 200 years later.

Tarot Cards, Lotus, & the Moon

Dome is trying to figure out his past but starts trying to see the future. Limbo Khatha tells him to focus on what he can do, now.

The Magician (tarot card) is about having the confidence that people possess the skills they need to do anything they want to do for good. In reverse, it can mean greed and using skills for bad.

Chan told Khatha that he was his own strength which is why he named him Khatha, but everyone believed their strength came from Chan. Chan looked at Boon turn Khatha away and only followed Khatha after. Even now, Anthika is blinded because she was tempted by Dome's power instead of believing in Chan's powers.

There is only one Chan. Somehow his power turned from helping others to maintaining his position.

Dome is not Chan. Tum explained that different universes have different versions of people, but I don't think Dome is truly a version of Chan. The lotus and the moon are symbolic of rebirth, so Chan should be reborn. That is what Boon is hoping for because he tested Dome, and Dome isn't Chan. There is only one Chan. But he needs Dome's body.

Stray Thoughts

Anthika, who was blinded and we know can impersonate others or shape shift, took over Triphop's body

But it's interesting that Triphop was shown in the trailer to have something happening with his eyes

And The One said he was going to help a poor man's slightness eyes

This looks like the Marian Cross

Which is used as a reminder of Mary's role in the redemption and resurrection of Jesus. Anthika is doing the most.

I don't think this is Dome. I think it is Chan, dying again, but this time, in Khatha's arms.

I think this is Dome getting to live a normal life because maybe he loses his powers in the great battle for humanity

What's with the gum?

What else do these names mean since Phone was during the phone booth, Moth was for the moths episode, and Chan and Khatha's names tell who they are?

The kids are being used as sacrifices, but why so many when the stone already killed the entire school?

The dates Tum rattled off: June 14, 2011 3:18 pm; January 2, 2010 7:12 am; April 17, 2012 5:34 pm; December 20, 2012; December 19, 1991, plus the ones we already have May 1820, November 2022, and February 24, 2023 9:02 pm must mean something, but Tum never finished saying what.

Finally, WHAT IS BEHIND THE WALL?!

Is it the feelings that both Dome and Khatha are hiding for each other since they are obviously in love with each other!

Brothers? Sure, Jan.

[morathicain]

1, 14, and 15 for the ask game please :)

Hey, thank you!! <3

What are your top 10 QL this year?

Oh damn, okay lemme see what I even watched this year XD Surprisingly I didn't even watch THAT much? Damn ... So, only half in order of favourites but also not, here it comes: 1. Kiseki - Dear to me 2. My personal Weatherman 3. Our Dining Table 4. Warp Effect (watched it this year and yes, no specific GL/BL but definitely a QUEER story) 5. Sleep with me (I only watched it this year) 6. Till the end of the world with you 7. Laws of Attraction 8. Midnight Museum (IT COUNTS, OKAY?) 9. Dirty Laundry (same as with Warp Effect!) 10. Only Friends

14. What are your top 5 favourite tropes used this year? 1. Found family 2. childhood friends to lovers 3. enemies to lovers 4. Soulmates (I don't like soulmates usually, okay, but Khatha/Dome? Damn YES!) 5. ABO (cackling over Pit Babe and the omegaverse XD)

15. What is your favourite scene from a QL this year?

Well, definitely an Ai Di/Chen Yi one, but which one to choose? I have like a THOUSAND that drive me insane but I think I'll go with the final confession! (rip my heart out and let me bleed, thank you)

Thank you so much! This was fun to think about and answer =^^=

End of the Year QL Ask

[hoppipolla]

The lover's hand: A Midnight Museum episode 4 rambling

Will GMM TV pull a If Marnie Was There card on us with Khatha and Dome? They might. They probably will, but since it hasn't happened yet, I will be in denial until the big reveal.

It hasn't escaped you that Khatha's touch grows gentle whenever he touches Dome. So far, Khatha has allowed himself to touch Dome to either protect him or make sure he is safe. But in today's episode, things have developed a bit.

The beginning and the end of today's episode confirmed that Dome (let's pretend his real is name Dome for now) and Khatha have met before, a long time ago. Khatha lost Dome however, under traumatic circumstances which seem related to the creepy seated mummy we've seen in previous episodes.

The bond they share has nothing in common with the kind of bond siblings might share. Siblings don't look at each other like that nor do they touch each other like that either. (I don't even need to add screencaps here, you know which scenes I'm talking about). The intense relief Khatha feels when he sees Dome after many years resembles the kind of relief a tragic lover would feel seeing their long lost lover again with whom they can't reunite yet. I mean look at him! That look is the embodiment of selfless love, not brotherly love.

To prove the point everyone agrees on, I'll now focus on Khatha's hand gestures in today's episode (i.e Midnight Museum episode 4).

I've said in a previous text post that Khatha does not want anyone to see he cares for Dome although everyone is pretty much aware. Even Bam. This is again proved in this episode when he doesn't meet Dome's eyes — at first — when he voices out his worry and asks Dome to stay close to him.

What's even more painfully interesting in this scene is what Khatha says next: "I will be able to stop it in time". The way he says it might hint at the fact that, in the past, he failed to stop "it" in time. However, things are different now. Dome is back and Khatha intends to have him stay by his side no matter what. "It" won't happen again, whatever that is. Not today. Not ever. His words are more than a mere statement. They're a promise.

Khatha's feelings for Dome aren't clear in the sense that they are strong emotions, all intertwined. But one thing is for certain: he deeply cares for Dome and although he wished he could hide that, his body betrays him because his hand will always reach for him. There is something achingly beautiful in the way Khatha always seem to want to be in direct contact with Dome whenever he is hurting. It's as if he wants to take his pain away and replace it with comfort. He wants to be the only one suffering and he cannot bear seeing Dome risking his life and going through the same kind of pain he must have experienced at one point during his immortal life.

Tor's way of showing how relieved his character is whenever he fears for Dome's life and realises that he is safe is beyond amazing. His eyes speak volumes and his micro-expressions make your heart squeeze in your chest. I can hear the thoughts that might have crossed his mind the second he believed Dome wasn't breathing anymore. His agony is so loud and yet Khatha remains so quiet whenever he is scared, hurt or distraught.

In the beginning of this text post, I've described Khatha's look as the embodiment of selfless love. The perfect illustration of that selfless love is when he tells Dome that his immortality is not a curse hence the fact that he doesn't need anyone to save him from it. We all know it's a lie and so does Dome who is no fool, but Dome is aware of what Khatha was trying to do. Khatha didn't want to put an additional pressure on him and so implying that he is not cursed meant that he needn't become some kind of saviour.

Dome sees that and as the empath he is, he is devastated. He feels for Khatha but he knows him not controlling his powers (or anything that's happening to him) is not helping and, in a way, he may have felt relieved by Khatha's thoughtfulness .

But Dome knows that this the face of a man made so utterly lonely by a curse so ancient that he himself has forgotten that this excruciating pain is not natural. The camera angle here makes us see Khatha through Dome's eyes and it's heart-breaking.

[sparklyeyedhimbo]

every month of 2023

i got tagged by @i-got-the-feels @itsallaboutbl and @smileytharn

thank you all for the tag..this was pretty fun hahah

i am tagging @bunnakit @petrichoraline @gabrielokun @supanuts @heretherebedork @firstmix @guzhu-furen

okay lets go lets see my gif journey of 2023

(i am nice and put a read more here hahah)

JANUARY: i was still on my gaymer boyfriend agenda but i also did the the eclipse but it's a comedy. But my favorite gif out of that month is 100% this:

which also was the last gif i did for this series i had started LUL

FEBRUARY: bed friend and my school president was omi-present in this month. I also started more to experiment with adding stuff to my gifs. My favorite out of that month is this one:

this gif is always a mood okay

MARCH: this was the month of midnight museum and my mike in a boss and a babe gifs. This is where doki doki kali style was born (funny because this is also my birth month..so it's fecking fitting ahjsdhasjkd) so my favorite gif of that month is hands down this:

look at all the sporkle (I EVEN POSTED THIS ON MY BIRTHDAY)

APRIL: april was the same as march with some bed friend gif sprinkled in. but mostly midnight museum and me making fun of khatha. but for this month i will go with a whole gifset as my favorite. it's my khatha matching the artifacts in every episode gifset.

my old, pathetic and very stylish idiot

MAY: in may be my favorite joined the ranks of shows i going to make iconic gifsets for. And i was still doing the mike in our skyy gifsets. I think that was the only time i really was crunching out a gifset like on a specific time. Loved it but also it was very stressful hahaha. My favorite gif of this month is this one:

babymode!puen was one of the best things out of their our skyy episodes..and well them as DADS.

JUNE: be my favorite was in the main focus in that month but i also squeezes in my pan-coded bl people gifsets (looking back i did all of this while working FULLtime..idk what i was on) My favorite gif out of that one is this:

the birth of the excessive animated fronts hahaha

JULY: hidden agenda and be my favorite where the gifsets i did on the regular in that month. And i dipped my toes in working with "more then one gif in one gif" thing and i started to animate my own things i added on my gifs. My favorite out of that month is:

this whole set i enjoyed doing so much hahaha

AUGUST: only friends and dangerous romance mayor things i gifed that month. I also started to do so much extra work for my gifs..like create a whole ass dialog wheel for my only friends gifs hahaha. Only friends really was just so mass effect/dragon age coded that i had to. With some of these decisions these idiots did hahah. My favorite out of that month is:

nawin..it will always be nawin

SEPTEMBER: in september i really got in a low of gifing..you could say i was starting the burn out. (because my mental health finally catched up on me and well...) I only gifed 6 gifsets in that month and my favorite out of all of these gif was this one because it was the easiest to do at that time:

look it's ray

OCTOBER: ohh spooky-tober was a treat, i fell into the kiseki: dear to me hole and i think came up with one of the most fun gifsets i have ever made at this point *playboyy looms over my shoulder*. my favorite out of this month has to be this one

tHE YOINKENING!!!

NOVEMBER: November came and brought me playboyy and pitbabe and boy did these show change my brand. A stupid brainfart idea about adding peach emojis on gifs turned into well the fruity bunch and me condition people into thinking about playboyy when they see fruit. i can't really say what was my favorite gif for this month because all of them i love them dearly (even the evil gifset i had to make for @kayatoasted) but to not post yet another version of shell with a fruit penis i am going with this one:

pavel doing the fanficton sniff

DECEMBER: ohh december..my i sleep 50% of the day away and don't get shit done..but i somehow made 3 gifsets THREE..but are they iconic? because two of them are the sign gifsets? And both of them involve jellyfish? maybe? yes? but my fav of all of the gifs i DID is this one

the gif i made for @bunnakit of yai our beloved himbo and first phayatharn shipper!

one thing for sure i let go in 2023..i didn't give a shit about what size my gifs where as long as they where 540 wide i was game hahahah.

[vampirehollie]

every month of 2023

link your favorite or most popular post from each month this year <3 (it’s totally fine to skip months!) and tag some CCs you love !

i was tagged by @pranink & @i-got-the-feels (thank you lovelies 💗)

going through all my posts this year and i'm so surprised but i actually managed to post a gif set/edit at least once every single month. all my edits are almost always pretty simple but it was nice to look back on what i actually giffed this year (no surprise a lot of bad buddy)

tagging: @milkpansa @kinnsporsche @punpunsutatta @casualavocados @nick-nellson and anyone else who wants to !

january - my first post of 2023 and 2nd most popular of the month is this purpley micellar water patpran scene. honorable mention is this many faces of night set from dirty laundry (nanon's facial expressions, need i say more)

february - most popular was this monsam scene from GAP it was such a soft moment and i really like the (purple) coloring

march - most popular is this khatha + touching dome's face set from midnight museum, also one of my favorites of the month is this patpran set of pat being cheesy and pran secretly loving it

april - most popular was this (feral) patpran parallel set, also really like the pink coloring here

may - most popular was this beyond evil set of dongsik and juwon looking at each other like that when dongsik arrests juwon but i also really like this patpran sniff kiss set and patpraninkpa parallel set because of the colors.

june - most popular was this patpran scene from ourskyy. my favorites were probably this patpran cuddle parallel because of the scenes and coloring & this inkpa ourskyy set

july - good omens s2 came out and this was my most popular aziracrow gifset

august - most popular was this rwrb kisses set but my favorite and one i was really happy with is this inkpa set

september - now i entered my one piece era and my popular post was the crew's moments of realization about luffy. but my favorite post is the evolution of pran's emotions set, this was one of the first times i giffed with added effects/ink drop transitions and i was so happy and proud of how it turned out

october - most popular this month was my patpran bad buddy anniversary set, also really liked the colors of these pluto trailer gifs

november - this bad buddy/love senior parallel

decemeber - my one of my last posts of 2023 was this inkpa cuddly girlfriends set 💜

wishing you all a happy and healthy new year 💗

[glitterandhelium]

i just literally need to rewatch their interactions again...khatha unable to stay away from dome yet in some ways getting his revenge and telling dome to get out of his sight like when chan dismissed him...

this show has got me looking at every line said by every character and how it applies to dome/khatha for the double meaning ToT especially the red bride episode

"is this my doing? your face basked in sorrow?" It's wild over here y'all

"tell me, how did you end it? finally she found what she had been looking for, liberation from her past"

[chaos0pikachu]

✨Bitch we might be✨ 

Okay to start, I don’t think Dome is like, literally blood related to Khatha, the scene in ep04 and the flashbacks in ep03 suggest this to me. Khatha seems to have “met” Dome via a boat centuries ago. There’s also a bit in the flashbacks - why has no one slowed those scenes down and giffed them yet who do I have to request this from rip - Dome asks “can I call you Khatha?” my current theories are:

1. Khatha finds Dome, with no memory potentially or at least no clue where/when he is and takes him back to his village and introduces him to his fellow villagers as his younger brother Chan as a cover up to the fact he literally found this baby twink floating down the river like a gift from the universe, OR Dome took over Chan’s body like he did with the OG!Dome.

2. My other theory is, meeting Khatha screwed up Dome’s mission; maybe Dome/Chan ended up caring to much about Khatha, maybe Khatha was a distraction, maybe Khatha was a part of like a cult or something that got in the way of Dome’s mission and Dome couldn’t take him out. Idk, but I think that’s why Khatha was cursed, in part his curse is/was also never seeing Dome/Chan again. Which explain why he’s both so shocked, unsure, and has all this restrained yearning towards Dome/Chan if he believed he’d never see him again and if they’re truly the same person. 

2.5 There’s a lot of talk in the show about rebirth, Khatha flatout does not believe it, the High Priestess’ goal is to resurrect her God, the flowers Dome holds when Khatha first sees him and presents to the High Priestess are the same and represent rebirth. 

I genuinely think Dome/Chan is the same spirit as the Chan Khatha originally knows, reborn. I don’t think he’s an alien lmao There’s to much religious and spiritual imagery and discussion of rebirth, resurrection to go full sci-fi like that for me. Maybe I watch to many c-dramas but the concept of “the heavens” seems to be more at play here and not just the strict Christian one. The show is treating Christianity more like another form of mythology (they’re a literal death cult in the show lmao) than how you would see it presented here in the west. 

So I think Dome/Chan is a spirit sent from the heavens. I also think he’s a conduit, or vessel which is why he’s able to connect with cursed people/objects so easily. I don’t think he’s literally the High Priestess new God, I think he’s the body that she could use to resurrect her God into. 

What’s his mission though? Idk we don’t really have enough information to even speculate on that. 

but also can you imagine dome was given a mission by god/the gods to stop idk the world ending and he compromised that bc he fell in love with some random tall village dude with nice cheekbones? 

[sollucets]

ok looks like i have a few. a few things i just want to illustrated point out. at this point i'm neck deep on khathadome, it's over for me, and i cant make gifs so bad youtube screengrabs it is

khatha almost reaching for him while trying to convince him to move in

here i'm just pointing out for fun the way khatha instantly shoves dome behind him when he sees something spooky. both deeply lovely and obviously good sense since dome has no self-preservation instinct

the face of sheer pained relief

this set of shots makes me so [screeching] actually. we see dome looking before and after and thus are meant to understand it's from his perspective, and it shows khatha all bathed in white light and zooms in on his face and my point is dome Reciprocates the longing looks okay!!!! he is Looking too!!

exhibit b of the above (combined with dome's now 2 attempts to protect a man who can't die)

obviously that's not everything there are so many face touches and longing looks and general pining behavior in this episode these are just the ones i didnt see anybody say anything about yet

[twig-tea]

4, 10, 14

ohoooo this is a kind one

4. Long Term Pining

Now. This is very kind of you. You know how I feel about pining. Here's a list of faves in which the pining is significant in length and significant within the story; I'm going to put these in order of length of time. Please notice that we're starting in high numbers, because my men know how to pine (and I probably even missed some because my men do be pining):

La Pluie (Patts: 7 years)

Our Dating Sim (Lee Wan and Ki Tae: 7 years)

Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese (Wataru: 7 years + years the film spans)

Old Fashioned Cupcake (Togawa: ~8 years)

His (Shun and Nagisa: ~8 years?)

Lovely Writer (Nubsib: (~8 years?)

Minato's Laundromat (Shin: 10 years)

Tokyo in April Is....(Ren and Kazuma: 10 years)

My DNA Says Love you (WenWen: 10 years)

The Warp Effect (Army: 10 years)

Cherry Blossoms After Winter (Tae Sung: ~12 years)

The Untamed (Lan Zhan: 15 years)

Your Name Engraved Herein (Jia Han and Birdy: 33 years)

Something In My Room (Phat: ~40 years)

I Feel You Linger in the Air (Yai: ~60 years/a lifetime? if we count the book as canon, two lifetimes)

Dear Doctor I'm Coming for Soul (Tuapee: ~130ish years [~30 years + additional lifetimes, has to wait 100 years or something like that before they can be in the same reincarnation cycle so I'm assuming that holds])

Midnight Museum (Khatha: ~200+ years)

Guardian (Shen Wei: 10,000+ literal years)

[Ones I wasn't sure of length on offhand so I might be wrong that they're too short for the above list--anyone feel free to let me know if you do: Bad Buddy, Kabe Koji, You're My Sky. Also mentioning Eternal Yesterday here because we see Mitsuru at the end after 5 years still pining but it's implied he'll never stop for the rest of his life]

A couple of bonus GL additions (because the girls be pining too):

Fragrance of the First Flower (~15 years)

Legend of Yunze (~1000 Years)

10. Bodyguard

I answered this once, so I'll go for a GL this time:

You Yi and Yan Wei in Couple of Mirrors. Assassin as bodyguard is only extra if people aren't trying to kill you. You Yi is saved so many times by Yan Wei that I don't care whether it's strictly canon. Also, LOOK AT THEM

I know I keep choosing censored Chinese outings for this prompt but honestly is anyone doing it like them???? My other option was going to be PingXie from The Lost Tomb series. Listen, I did enjoy Where Your Eyes Linger, Never Let Me Go and KinnPorsche, but I'd argue the bodyguards in all of those series were not particularly good bodyguards lol

14. Sunshine/Sunshine

There are some wonderful sunshines in BL! I think all of my faves have been written about so I'm just going to throw the first five that came to mind here and try not to think about the ones I'm definitely missing:

Daisy and Intouch from Secret Crush on You

Mork and Tawan from My Ride

Cake and See Eiw from My Only 12%

Key and Chen from Boys' Lockdown

Aki and Haru from Let's Eat Together Aki and Haru

+bonus GL

Pearl and Alex from Pearl Next Door

Link to the original ask game post!

[waitmyturtles]

(Please forgive me if any of this has already been written — I haven’t gone through all the reviews on the tag yet!) I have ZERO BUSINESS commenting on Midnight Museum, considering I only began watching from episode 5 ONLY for the guest stars, but since friends are puzzling over the plot, and it’s as confusing to me as I’m seeing in the reviews, I just want to say:

1) There is clearly a mishmash of religious/spiritual commentary happening here. I know far too little about the influence of Hinduism on the history of the Thai cultural spectrum, but give me an ashram and castes (and spiritual figures keeping people out of religious spaces for their castes), and I’ll say that’s a commentary on gatekeeping in sub-continentally-influenced regions.

2) Couple that with a burning at the stake. Could this have been a reference to the American Salem Witch Trials? I feel like that’s a REALLY specific American reference in a Thai show. The Spanish Inquisition also had burnings at stakes. So maybe that’s a reference as well?

3) In trying to parse Khatha and Chan/Dome’s situation, what’s really coming to my mind by way of comparison is Achilles and Patroclus. Achilles and Patroclus of the Iliad were… what, exactly? Certainly companions. Maybe friends? Likely lovers — likely lovers, as was common during the time of Homer, when subordinate male soldiers served as… what, exactly — companions, friends, lovers, to more powerful soldiers.

It’s foggy. It’s assumed, but our assumptions in modern times do not account for the unspoken cultures that were assumed for Homer’s time. History can be foggy…. as is being portrayed in Midnight Museum.

But besides the lovers bit (ship ship ship), here’s what I think are the important parts:

a) Patroclus was adopted by Achilles’s father. They were raised in the same family — but it’s not clear if they were raised as brothers, per se, or more like supportive friends/companions. Some theorize that Patroclus was kind of like a servant-friend to Achilles (even though Patroclus was older than Achilles — so that may indicate a kind of caste-or-class-like difference there, too).

b) It’s often written that Achilles allowed Patroclus to die. Patroclus asked Achilles to enter the Trojan War. Achilles consented. After Patroclus defied an order from Achilles, Patroclus was killed.

It was Patroclus who defied an order — but at least, when I read and learned about the Iliad in college, it was taught that his death was attributed to Achilles.

c) As we all know, Achilles also had a “weak leg,” but Patroclus, of course, didn’t heal Achilles’s tendon. I think the healing parable there is just Patroclus’s companionship to Achilles, who was known as a totally fearsome warrior.

In the show, we are told that Khatha was the one who killed Chan. But we don’t see Khatha lighting the fire. We just see Chan cursing Khatha.

I’m not sure we can trust history here. And I don’t know how to put this all together. (And I have almost no idea of why Ton/Nanon came back, which was why I watched this episode in the first place, dammit.)

But the last thing I’ll say is:

4) There is a goddess in Hinduism named Devi. Devi is often referred to as “The Mother.” Many have called her “The One.” What Devi represents is the “oneness” of the world — that while there are countless practices, countless deities, countless ways of being, that Devi represents that we are all ultimately As One. Wikipedia has Devi down as representative of “ultimate truth and supreme power.”

I’ll say again that I have really no idea what’s happening with the plot. But I wonder if awllllll of these spiritual references are beginning to coalesce under that figure known as The One (and hell, I might tell a whole bunch of Indian aunties that a Thai show might be serving GUN ATTHAPHAN as an avatar of Devi—those home shrines could look a whole lot different).

The One is making Khatha face… something. Truth? Foggy history? The theme of the show is The Witch’s Game, and Anthikka has referenced a Creator in previous episodes, so maybe truth seeking is all a game to her and her god. What I’m honestly wondering about this show is whether or not it is a huge, confusing, macro commentary on the crazy-ass diversity of religion/spirituality/mythology, and how it can lead to the perception of various realities, as it were, when in fact — we are all just One Humanity, One Truth, and we are possibly fucking each other over by way of our selfish preferences (as Khatha wanted Chan all to himself) (but then Khatha let Chan go) (so Chan dies) (and Khatha is to blame).

I…. I just feel like there might be a simpler way to explain all of this in a drama, but who am I to be critical? At least the acting is great, even if Gun has to play like, five or six roles!

[respectthepetty]

I’m going to say it. A shoulder to cry on is really up there as one of my Fav BL. Not just year but of all. We don’t always need any NC scenes. Here it Wasn’t necessary to.

Just a good, well writtenand acted story was what was perfect about this. Korean BL have really pulled it out the bag recently as enjoying daingSim and Unintentional love story

(but also side eye future productions they have decided to Remove the BL central aspects) 👀

Anon, I did not like how it began, but I think if this had been a Japanese production, it would have leaned more into a D/s dynamic, so I recognize that's what I feel was lacking in the beginning.

But I don't even need characters to be in the same room to yell "GAY!" (looking at you, Dome x Khatha!), so no kissing wasn't an issue for me. I've seen several people mention that a strong possibility for no kissing in this series is because both actors are from the same group, and people are already outlandish when it comes to shipping real people.

So even without a kiss, I enjoyed A Shoulder to Cry on, mainly because I was invested in the side characters, much like this guy.

I wanted him to be an angle in a non-existent love triangle. I wanted him to have more plot. I wanted him to have his own love story. I WANTED MORE! He was fascinating. Even the bully, who I wanted someone to punch, was interesting because it seemed like he, too, liked Tae Hyun, but thought Tae Hyun was incapable of loving someone back. And I greatly enjoyed Tae Hyun's friends because they easily became Da Yeol's friends.

I liked that both of them were a shoulder for the other to cry on

And that both clearly desired the other even in the tiniest of moments

Overall, it was good, and it gave me a nice companion to "be brave about it" and "The love I have for you, doesn't it give you courage? Courage to love a man like me?"

confess properly

[rares-posts]

3 Days to go till MM so here's highlights from the interviews:

🌖P’Tor is so happy to act with Gun, sometimes even want to tease him, play with him. But P’Tor said Gun is very kind and everyone said he is so cute so can't tease (aww) (clip)

🌖P'Parn helps him out, N'Ploy takes pics and is cute, Tor likes to tease and ask things Gun doesn't know about the script. He asks him about it but Gun can't really answer (clip)

🌖Tor lost 10-12 kg to balance Gun’s stature. He said Gun's really small.(gtrans, Clip)

🌖Gun plays as Dome, a barista that lost his job, and was invited by Khatha(Tor) to work at the midnight museum

🌖Gun explains that there was a scene which was difficult for Gun to film because it's not like him in real life so he wasn't confident.

Tor: but when you were acting, you were so confident!

Gun: because it's in script! So have to be confident!! (partial source) (Clip)

🌖Gun: N'Ploy encouraged me, "P'Gun you can do it! Susu!"(rough trans of 0:53 of this clip🙏)

🌖Tor: Gun we can gather ten people to come to the party. Invite both people in front of the camera behind the camera. Invite people who are not involved at all hahahaha (gtrans, clip)

🌖When filming, someone said I don't want to do stressful scene, just want to act light one, so began roleplaying as rich people. Started by Gun and Namtan, they even googled Top 10 richest people in the world. (Clip)

When midnight museum airs on March 6, more photos taken by Ploy will be released 💕(clip)

🌖P’Saiparn mentioned Gun is a talented artist. When they acted together the dialogue were so long and different from how we talk in daily life. Gun can focus immediately to make everything smooth when filming. He is fun & cute outside the scene, but also focus & perfect in the scene. (clip)

🌖Tor: Gun is someone who I'm amazed at his acting, is the person who hasn't met in Thai for a long time. If not calling it talent... maybe I can't use other words, it's a talent that has been accumulated from experience since Gomin. (1) Gun didn't have to read the script that much. Just like read (once fast) and can be remembered. Yes, really talented. I liked it since workshop. (2)(....) I would be like Gun how can you do that? When he read the long dialogue, wait im almost, aww you done? i still in the halfway!(3) (Clip)

🌖Gun: please support midnight museum series. It's another series that I worked very hard on and i believe everyone did their very best. I'd like everyone to stay tuned because if you watched the trailer, it's only a few percent (of the plot) because the story is very confusing and mysterious. you can't find the way out. (Clip)

Cute clips:- gun 1, 2 | ploy fangirling over gun's cuteness: 1, 2

{♡Some translations are same as they were from the hyperlinked source tweet but some are slightly altered to be more understandable while preserving the meaning of the hyperlinked translation out of personal discretion, few are combinations of gtranslations and fantranslations. Any mistakes found are unintentional and regretted. Will be more than happy to correct in case of discrepancies.♡}

Part 2

[hoppipolla]

Khatha's loneliness

Episode 6 made me emotional so here I am rambling again.

Once in a while, there's a shot of Khatha which embodies the utter loneliness he feels in a way that just makes your heart squeeze in your chest.

In episode 3, we get this kind of shot right after June tells Dome that Khatha is under a curse. Then Dome turns around as he hears Khatha walking into the room (what he really heard was Khatha clearing his throat to get them to stop talking) and it feels as if he sees him in a new light, hence that shot. Dome catches a glimpse of the man Khatha truly is. It doesn't last long because Khatha is quick to pull himself together but it was enough for Dome to see.

There's just something profoundly sad in the way Khatha stands on his own at the opposite side of the room. His shoulders are slumped, his arms are limp at his sides, and he is slightly leaning, as if no strength was left in him to carry the weight of his curse.

Then comes episode 5 in which Khatha feels like he has to send Dome away for his own good. Now that he had grown used to Dome's presence next to him, the face he makes after looking at Dome leaving through the camera is the face of someone whose loneliness is so great that it numbs his feelings. The expression he wears is that of someone who's completely lost. Imagine the pain he must have felt when he sent the one person he has been looking for — for who knows how long — away.

Now on to episode 6 which completely destroyed my heart. Let's not even talk about that phone call because I haven't collected my thoughts yet but let's talk about that shot of Khatha afterwards, the Khatha Triphop and June see upon entering his office.

This shot alone acts, once again, as the very embodiment of Khatha's loneliness. Although Triphop and June are physically close to him, he feels out of reach hence Triphop signalling to June that Khatha should be left alone. The depths of his loneliness makes him even more lonely and that's just heart-breaking.

As if that shot was not enough, let's focus on the song which was played in the background. It's called "Bathed in Her Light" (composed by Ebb & Flod). The choice of song is brilliant. Khatha is indeed bathing in Dome's light. The warmth Dome's words carried felt overwhelming to Khatha who's been stuck in an eternal winter ever since he became immortal. Khatha was already missing him deeply but hearing Dome — hearing his soft voice — tell him that he wishes he could be happy and stay safe... I don't think he was ever treated with such kindness. That piano melody evokes the wonder you may feel when you're spending time with someone you love and you realise how much you love them. It's a kind of beautiful ache which feels overwhelming but implies how grateful you are to them. How important they are to you. How painful it would be to be separated from them. Khatha knows these feelings, better than we might think.