#lonely girls the series
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Twig's GL Recs for March-July 2024
[Here’s my rec list for GLs through to Feb 2024 ]
Fake Buddies Korean, YouTube, 7 episodes (one ep BL, one ep GL, one ep crossover, and then 2 more BL prequel eps and two more GL prequel episodes), approx 45 minutes when compiled, Apr 27-Jun 28 2024
At first this was a little three-part series in which it turns out both members of the couple are secretly in a homosexual relationship with their best friends and using the other as a beard. Lots of comedy of errors and puns (“I like lilies better than roses”) as the characters try to make each other understand the situation they’re in. The backstory prequels were really cute friends to lovers, and it was really nice to see these couples land in solidarity! This series is short and cute and pure fluff.
To the X Who Hated Me: YunO x Jane Korean, YouTube, 3 episodes ~6 mins each, aired May 22-29 [microseries complete, X who hated me series may be ongoing]
When the previous 2-ep miniseries under this umbrella landed (which I wrote about here: ), I had no idea it was going to be a series of microseries! These are all short but good second chance romances. This one has a “reality”-show-within-a-show format, with a frustrating misunderstanding, and a good kiss. Be sure to always watch past the credits for this series!
You Are My Star, Thai, YouTube, 1ep 37 mins (aired as 3 12-min eps and then they compiled into this one short film), May 18 [complete]
youtube
This was a cute Thai GL that I enjoyed mostly because of the very clear cribbing of specific scenes from recent BLs. It was mostly trope-y (both cuteness and drama), with good kissing. See if you can spot the BL references.
Xiao Xiang Yi Jiu, Chinese, YouTube, 7 episodes 2 mins each, May 20-June 3 [complete]
youtube
This little microseries is about a girl becoming an intern for her crush/idol. Happy ending, and they do become explicitly girlfriends! No kiss because censorship.
Lonely Girls Korean, YouTube, 4 episodes 8 minutes each (32 mins compiled) May 14 [complete]
youtube
This is about a couple that struggles with the closet, lack of communication, and how to make their relationship last in the face of uncertainty. Also there’s good kisses. SukFilm have done other series before and since, but this is my fave GL of theirs so far.
The Two of Us Deep Night spinoff, Thai, YouTube, 6 episodes, 15 mins each, airing May 30-July 4 [complete]
I was so confused at first, because I didn’t realize this was supposed to be their story during the events of Deep Night that we didn’t get to see. I was excited about this one but bummed that we started the miniseries with a health scare and then a threat by Meiji to marry some guy just to make Freya jealous? I found it a little frustrating that two women in their 40s could not be honest with each other. The couple is so cute, but the storytelling is not, so take this rec with a grain of salt. Still, it’s so nice to see women in their 40s being super cute and in love in between the drama so I’m keeping it on this list! I am very glad to have gotten the dance sequence and the bath sequence.
******
And of course currently airing right now so take with a grain of salt because i don’t yet know how they end, but
Ayaka is in Love with Hiroko Japanese, 8 episodes, 25 mins, airing July 4- August 22 [ongoing]
This is a laugh-out-loud funny office comedy in which Akaya flirts desperately with her senior colleague at work, Hiorko, who then spends her evenings complaining to her friends at the lesbian bar about oblivious straights who don’t understand the meaning of what they say. I've written a little more about this show here. It is my favourite GL of the year so far and if it stays this good is on its way to being one of my favourites of all time!
The Secret of Us Thai, 8 episodes, 50 mins each, airing June 24-August 15 [ongoing]
This series starts with the cutest episode of all time and then devolves quickly into serious drama lol but it did a good job avoiding pure “noble idiocy” so I’m hopeful it will continue to hold up. As of ep3 things are happening that I did not expect, so I’m really curious how this one will go. In the meantime, it is also worth noting that these actresses are excellent kissers.
[UPDATE: Of these two that were airing, I ended up thinking I was going to have to retract for The Secret of Us but instead retracted for Ayaka Is In Love With Hiroko. I had way more fun with Ayaka week to week but the ending was really disappointing; The Secret of Us in contrast nailed the ending. I wrote about it a bit here. ]
#gl series#media recs#sapphic media#typed so that i can stop thinking it#gl meta#fake buddies the series#to the x who hated me#you are my star the series#Xiao Xiang Yi Jiu#lonely girls the series#the two of us the series#ayaka is in love with hiroko#ayaka chan wa hiroko senpai ni koishiteru#the secret of us the series#Youtube
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Blue Boys' spicier parts are hidden behind a paywall, but what is available for free is really good to me!
The first episode ended with Nami hugging Jaemin in bed because he was cold, then they started making out. The second episode began with Jaemin trying to avoid the conversation, but Nami directly stated that him being cold was merely an excuse to be close to Jaemin.
And during the second episode, they had a nasty argument, yet at the end of the episode, Nami showed up at Jaemin's door saying he was cold with both Blue Boys in black.
Basically, I like it!
MDL says it'll be four episodes, and if the GL from the company, Lonely Girls, also turns out good (as well as color-coded light x dark), I will stop talking smack about short QL Korean series.
Promise.
#blue boys#blue boys the series#lonely girls the series#korean qls#they are short but use the time wisely#and they are color coded#color coded people in love#the colors mean things
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911 lone star fashion -> every grace outfit
↳ 4.11
#911 lone star#911lsedit#grace ryder#every grace outfit#my gifs#queued post#at the end of this series I should make a master post of all grace's pjs#she has so many and I'm honestly jealous. I need to up my pj game#and robes!! I one day long to have as many beautiful robes as Grace ryder and also the golden girls#these are my aspirations
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The fact that ongsa and Aylin have never had friends over and they were both so excited that they RAN to the door when their friends arrived is just. I’m so emotional over them
#the lonely girls aren’t so lonely anymore#I could cry#why are they literally me though#like I get so excited when I realize I have friends lol#but anyway#23.5 degrees#23.5 degrees the series#23.5 the series
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Summer 2024 Lagniappe (A Minisode)
AND WE'RE BACK!
Summer didn’t give us a lot to say, but we ALWAYS got something to say. Ben, NiNi and Shan talk a highlight of the season, Twig reports from the field, and we award summer’s Girl Who Tried.
Timestamps
The timestamps will now correspond with chapters on Spotify for easier navigation.
00:00:00 - Welcome 00:01:15 - Introduction 00:02:21 - Twig’s Dispatch 00:14:24 - Spotlight: Tadaima, Okaeri 00:20:34 - Girl, You Tried 00:27:08 - Celebrating 50 Episodes
The Conversation Transcripts!
Thanks to the continued efforts of @lurkingshan as an editor and proofreader, we are able to bring you transcripts of the episodes.
We will endeavor to make the transcripts available when the episodes launch, and it is our goal to make them available for past episodes (Coming soon thanks to @wen-kexing-apologist). When transcripts are available, we will attach them to the episode post (like this one) and put the transcript behind a Read More cut to cut down on scrolling.
Please send our volunteers your thanks!
00:00:00 - Welcome
NiNi
Welcome to The Conversation About BL, aka The Brown Liquor Podcast.
Ben
And there it is. I’m Ben.
NiNi
I’m NiNi.
Ben
And we’re you’re drunk Caribbean uncle and auntie here sitting on the porch in the rocking chairs.
NiNi
Four times a year we pop in to talk about what’s going on in the BL world.
Ben
We shoot the shit about stories and all the drama going into them. I review from a queer media lens.
NiNi
And I review from a romance and drama lens.
Ben
So if you like cracked-out takes and really intense emotional analysis…
NiNi
If you like talking about artistry, industry, and the discourse…
Ben
And if you generally just love simping…
NiNi
There is a lot of simping on this podcast…
Ben
We are the show for you!
00:01:15 Introduction and Summer Season Recap
Ben
And we're back. We have reached the end of the summer season. It is hot as hell and hurricane season is active, but we at least still have our shows to watch.
Shan
Wow, what a way to set the mood.
NiNi
That is [laughs] one way to start, for sure. [NiNi and Shan laugh]
Ben
Girl, I’m stressed! [laughs]
NiNi
I feel you. I feel you. I feel you. We are here. The summer has been… it's been a lot.
Let's just dive right into what we came here to discuss. Shan is here. Say hi, Shan.
Shan
Hi!
NiNi
We're going to talk a few things that we didn't talk through this season. Twig’s gonna come in and leave us her dispatch, and then we're gonna round it up and award the Girl, You Tried. There are a lot of girls who tried this season. [laughs]
00:02:20 Twig’s Dispatch
DISPATCH! Thank you for having me back. [music]
While folks were lamenting having nothing to watch this quarter, I was as busy as ever!
In the skip section: Sadly, Korea really dominated this category last season, starting with Blossom Campus. Honestly, this was the biggest disappointment this season for me. This was my–the Korean independent team Strongberry, who I normally love—they released a full length Kdrama that, I don’t understand how it went so wrong. The story is about a university transfer student who works at the library and ends up in a few interactions with a taekwondo major and they fall for each other. It was boring, the story didn’t really flow, the chemistry was flat.The only good thing I can say for it is that when they do kiss, they kiss well. But it was not worth watching to get there.This was the least queer Strongberry has ever felt, and to add insult to injury it ends on a cliffhanger. This is a pass from me, friends.
Love is Like a Cat. Mew of the newly public MewTul relationship stars in this hybrid Thai/Korean production that did not manage to retain the good qualities of either country. It is bad. And not even in a fun way. The premise is a famous Thai actor is blackmailed into doing a Korean reality series in which he has to work in a dog cafe, despite being afraid of dogs. That sounds like it would be cute and fun, and somehow it was neither. Poor acting, cinematography, chemistry, story, everything was mid. Also, content warning for animal death—way to alienate your target audience.
Gray Shelter was a Korean short series that barely felt like BL? Honestly, it was trying to walk a trauma narrative and BL line and I don’t think it did that successfully. The romance felt rushed and the trauma part felt like it was being sad for the sake of sad rather than having anything to actually say about trauma. Also had another cliffhanger ending. Not my fav.
Moving away from Korea, Lady Boy Friends is a show that has a high barrier to enjoyment, so judge for yourself. It’s a remake from 2015 and the premise is an ensemble show in an all boys high school in which a good percentage of the cast are actually trans girls in an all boys school. There is a lot of infighting amongst the trans women, they are extremely catty and mean and clique-y to each other. That part I honestly found kind of fun, and I did enjoy them banding together against a common enemy. Unfortunately that common enemy is another trans girl who is looked down on for transitioning “late” which calls her authenticity into question. This show also has sexual assault played as comedy which is honestly the main reason why it’s in this section; there was also a gay couple who got the bulk of the focus in the last few episodes, and while that storyline will likely be the most appealing to this audience, I didn’t particularly like that the trans characters got short shrift in their own show, so. I didn’t fully love it.
Kiseki Chapter 2. This was a production by 9NAA. They have a history of not paying and exploiting their actors, and they’ve done it too many times, so I didn’t watch this one. Pay your actors and hire intimacy coaches and then I’ll talk about your shows.
The last one in this section is actually a GL Thai channel that I wanted to shout out. It’s just not to my taste, but I don’t like gatekeeping GL ‘cause there’s so little of it and it’s so hard to find. So, if you’re a fan of the melodrama and older, toxic relationship type tropes, give these guys a try. Last quarter they put out “Friend with Benefits the series” and “Sea [as in S-E-A] you soon”, and my favorite of the three was “You Are My Star the series” which I enjoyed because it retread a lot of BL tropes so I watched it and played, sort of, spot the BL parallels. JPC Media Channel on YouTube.
Now onto the shows that you might actually want to consider. There were a few genre BLs this season that were varying degrees of hit or miss so I’ve grouped them together. I love genre stories, so I don’t want to be too harsh on shows that push the boundaries of the BL genre, but all of these had at least one fatal flaw that makes me not able to recommend them without caveats.
Memory in the Letter is a Thai BL sci-fi/fantasy in which a student falls in love with a stranger in the mirror. This is a short series that had real high highs and low lows for me, including some of the best chemistry across a pane of glass I’ve ever seen. But also, the ending was so poorly handled that I had to call poor Ben to watch with me just so that I’d have someone to share my psychic damage with. Without spoiling anything, this show involves an age gap with actors not age-appropriately cast to hide the fact that the age gap is so large? It also doesn’t treat the age gap seriously or engage with the very serious problems that it raises in its own plot, and I found that very frustrating. So. Make your own choices on that one.
1000 Years Old the series. This show is a Thai vampire show that spends the first three quarters being an extremely low stakes series in which a vampire owns a pork blood soup stand and a glorious umbrella collection, and is in love with a man obsessed with searching for alien life. It is exactly as silly as it sounds. But then the last few episodes everything turns into intense melodrama, and I’m going to spoil this because I don’t know how not to: We find out that the vampire stays friendly with another vampire who murdered his human lover across multiple lifetimes. I was vibing and then I was really not.
Two Worlds is another Thai series, and a MaxNat vehicle. The premise of this one is as it says on the tin: There are two parallel universes connected by a glowing body of water. Our protagonist loses his love interest and travels to the parallel universe accidentally while grieving, to realize he has the chance to save his boyfriend’s doppelganger in this new world. While he does that, he finds himself falling for someone else instead. This series is a relatively slow burn show. Whoever made this show, they did the most bewilderingly good job of undercutting every dramatic moment so that it had no stakes or impact that I’ve ever seen. This show was almost impressively boring considering how much was happening at any given moment. I liked that it seemed to be saying people weren’t interchangeable, but then in the end the show undermined its own message. Watching this show was informative for learning about pacing and how narrative tension works or doesn’t in shows.
Last in this section is The Spirealm. This is a chinese danmei adaptation that we almost didn’t get because of censorship; it was heavily adapted so that rather than magic, the core of the unnatural happenings are a Virtual Reality video game in which our leads have to puzzle through dangerous mysteries to figure out the secrets of each level. It’s fun in an “oh this does feel like a video game” kinda way, and I enjoyed puzzling through the mysteries alongside the leads. But the mysteries drag on too long and they’re repetitive, and the ending of the book is actually really undermined from the adaptation choices. Also, if you’re watching for romance subtext, this is a VERY tame story even for censored cdrama. They barely touch, the shipping moments are few and far between in a long series. So, be forewarned.
Moving away from the supernatural and back to more standard QL fare, A Secretly Love. This felt like a very old-school Thai series, a feeling that was helped by the horrifically bad subtitles; about an engineering student who has been in love with this senior for years and watched him fail miserably at romance over and over. This heavily relies on the viewer enjoying the lead pining over someone who treats him badly for most of the series. So, in order to enjoy this, you have to find someone showing affection by being grumpy, rude, jealous, and demanding cute. No judgment, just giving you the information you need to no. Worth watching if you’re nostalgic for 2020s Thai BL.
Please Teach Me This is a vertical-format microseries from Korea about an aspiring idol trying to attend college that you have to grind through ads in order to watch. Honestly the series was fine, very middle-of-the-road KBL, but the microseries format and the barriers to watching make it not worth sitting through, in my opinion.
Blank the Series is a Thai GL is in the same universe as GAP, so if you miss Sam and Mon the characters, they do appear, though portrayed by different actresses. The main couple in this story have a 16-year age gap and the romance starts when the younger one is in high school, though due to plot reasons she’s of age. I know that’s a barrier for some, so I wanted to mention it off the jump, especially because she acts young. That’s the part that I actually struggled with most. This story is very lakorn-like in terms of it being very high melodrama; it also, especially in part two, gets quite sexy. The height difference is also really something. It’s in two parts and both are complete, it does have a happy ending with a cute timeskip. So, you know, manage yourselves on that one.
Jazz For Two. High school Korean music BL in which the main couple really fell flat for me and the side couple were a bully-turned-love-interest that I also really did not enjoy. This show tried to incorporate internalized homophobia as part of its main storyline but didn’t engage with characters overcoming it, so everyone feels kind of like they suddenly switch from being in a drama to a romance and it was both jarring and honestly, a little offensive. Trigger warnings are also important for this one, so take care of yourselves if you’re deciding to watch it.
Boys Be Brave. Another KBL in which a man who can’t say no tries to get the person with a crush on him to ask him out, to no avail. This felt like it was trying to be a manic pixie dream boy meets an autistic-coded grump, but they didn’t quite calibrate either of those characters right. The side couple also ended up landing kind of badly in terms of class politics. But it was pretty, and they were cute. I actually had fun with this one despite everything I just said.
Deep Night is a Thai BL in which the son of a club owner is against the host/club business model until he falls for one of his mother’s hosts. He decides to start working there to get closer to him. You might imagine that a setup like that would involve class and power politics, but you would be wrong! That being said, this show has a lot to recommend it: The main couple has great chemistry and the side couple is a canonical throuple, and there is another side couple of older sapphics to enjoy, as well. It is also very prettily shot.
Lastly, Close Friend 3: Soju Bomb is a beautifully shot and cute friendship drama, another Thai/Korean joint series this time about Thai boys in a Korean band who go on a bender in Korea after their contract is canceled. Honestly, my only caveat about this show is that it is absolutely not a BL. There isn’t a romance subplot at all in this show. I spent the entire time it aired so confused waiting for the romance to appear! It does not. If it hadn’t been advertised as Close Friend 3–a series which was previously all BL shorts–I would have enjoyed this for what it was. As it stands, I hold a grudge for being misled. Go in knowing what you’re getting and you’ll be fine.
Finally, let’s get to the shows that you might have missed that I actually recommend. To Be Continued, a Thai second chance romance of a famous person and a doctor who were friends when they were in high school. This one tells a lot of the story in flashbacks that are poorly paced at the beginning, so the start of the show really drags. But the reveal for why they broke up was satisfying. The pacing is the barrier in this one–if you can power through the first few episodes it ends up being a good little show. They have great chemistry, the story holds together, and I had fun.
Gym Affairs is an absolutely bonkers but cute mainland China BL in which a guy gets a personal trainer and sparks fly. This show is a silly comedy that is also surprisingly earnest. It goes by extremely fast and I really enjoyed the ride. That one’s on YouTube.
Blue Boys/Lonely Girl. SUKFilm is a Korean YouTube channel putting out short series. Blue Boys was a little disappointing, the couple had too many issues that they cycled through so fast. The GL though, Lonely Girl, was much more focused with a single main problem between the couple and so it worked much better. And both are really beautifully shot and have some great kisses.
Fake Buddies is another YouTube miniseries. It’s a 7 episode Korean series about a girl and guy who are dating, ostensibly, but really both using the other as a beard because they’re both in a gay relationship. The first few episodes are very funny comedy as the two of them try to make the other realize what’s happening; and then we get prequel episodes for how the gay couple and the lesbian couple both came to be. It’s a fun use of 45 minutes on the guynextdoor YouTube channel if you’re bored.
To the X Who Hated Me is a Korean GL produced by Red Q. It’s a series of microseries, there’s two out so far with 2-3 episodes each. They’re both GL and solid short second chance romances that are very fun.
City of Stars is the last one I’ll be talking about. It’s, in my opinion, the best hidden gem QL from this quarter. A charming celebrity/regular guy romance that tackles shipping, toxic fans, and the unreasonable expectations on people in the spotlight. Acting is a little rough, and it’s not perfect, but it had some really good things to say and it very smartly sandwiches those things among some pretty good sex scenes. The two leads are my communication kings. And there’s some decent trans side rep as well. This show really uses BL as a vehicle for having something to say and I appreciate it. And the story really holds together in a way that’s a little refreshing in Thai BL, too, so I really liked it.
And that’s the dispatch for this quarter! Thanks again for having me.
00:14:25 Spotlight: Tadaima Okaeri
Ben
It's time to talk about my favorite show of the season that no one else watched except for Twig. [NiNi laughs] We're going to talk about an animated BL from Japan called Tadaima, Okaeri. It is the best show of the season and I'm begging you, please, to go watch this show.
Tadaima, Okaeri is a 12 episode BL from Studio Deen that aired on Crunchyroll. Studio Deen is actually fairly important in the BL space. Pretty much all of the BL anime that we're probably going to recommend to you offhand was produced by the studio. In this particular one, they're adapting a manga series about a gay couple in the omegaverse that is trying to raise their kid in the suburbs. Our protagonist's name Fujiyoshi Masaki, that is actually his name, and his husband, Hiromu. Masaki is an omega, his husband is an alpha, and they have a son named Hikari together. He is a little baby and they are living in the burbs away from everybody else because they had a very difficult time getting together.
The show was not so much about the difficulties these two had getting together, it's about them building a life that they love and are happy with after going through what they did. So, like, this is your favorite leads, married and trying to raise their family now and working on healing some of the relationships that were damaged over the course of them getting together. There's a great deal of healing and growth in this. There's healing between Hiromu and his dad, who was not keen on their romance in the first place. There's the fact that these two guys love each other and love being parents. I am very often amused by how much my dad is still obsessed with my mom. And I really liked seeing that in a gay couple here. It was really restorative in a lot of ways, ‘cause we don't ever really see dads in BL.
This show was so healing. This was such a peaceful experience of a show to watch. What I like the most out of fluffy shows like this is for there to be a nice arc about what life we’re building for our family and a strong thematic thrust of, we're not trying to get back at anybody who hurt us. We just want our kid to grow up in a world where he—and eventually their daughter too—are loved by the people around them. Each episode was about a specific sort of challenge that the family was facing, and some of them were really huge. Like, how are we going to reconcile with the kids’ grandfather who wants to be part of his grandson's life? Even if it's something as small as, Hikaru is getting older and he wants to run an errand. Okay, we're going to let him deliver a letter to his grandfather to the mailbox, and getting a two year old to deliver something [laughs] successfully to a mailbox was a production unto itself, because he kept getting distracted.
It was genuinely one of the most delightful and wholesome experiences I have ever had in the genre. I have said for a long time that I've wanted a married gay dads show. I was not expecting it to come from the omegaverse of all places, but this was everything I ever hoped it could be and honestly, so much more. If you can handle omegaverse nonsense, including mpreg and the alpha omega pheromone shit, and rutting behavior. This is one of the best shows I have ever seen.
Shan
Oof. [Ben laughs] You just said so many words that upset me.
Ben
I know. I know!
[all laugh]
NiNi
I was like, “if you can handle” I can handle none of those things. I'm sorry.
Ben
If you're gonna be in genre, you gotta take your shit seriously, and I think that's why it worked. This show was not embarrassed about being an omegaverse show. It's not like [funny voice] we're going to do this in omegaverse because we know the girls will fucking show up for it. It took the conceits of its own genre seriously and incorporated it into the emotional context of their characters.
And so like I totally get it, mpreg is not easy for a lot of people. The rutting behavior stuff, it's not easy for some people. The way that omegaverse is used to perpetuate some of the heteronormative kinds of misogyny that women face is not for everyone, truly and sincerely. When I say that these are caveats to watching this, I am not being funny. These are real things that are being dealt with in this show, but they're not half-assing it. These are not normally things I enjoy. Tell a good story and take your shit seriously and we can show up for it. And that's what happened for me here.
So, I wholeheartedly recommend this show, but I do think it's important to not downplay that this is very legitimately an omegaverse story.
Shan
I appreciate that.
Ben
It's a 10, baby! Perfect execution of its own premise, and genuinely, it's the kinda show that was so fun to watch with other people.
Shan
I have been so intrigued by the conversation around this show and I really regret that it has so many of my hard lines in it [laughs[ because I would like to see it. I don't think I'll be able to, but I have heard nothing but praise and love from the people who've watched it.
Ben
I love the show with my whole heart. I do not recommend it at all. [Ben and NiNi laugh] This show had really strong ideas and it wore its whole heart on its sleeves the whole time. Mm mm mm. What an experience. Great show.
00:20:32 Girl, You Tried
Ben
Let's hand out our favorite award on the show: Girl, You Tried.
NiNi
Our nominees this season for a Girl, You Tried are Unknown the series from Taiwan, Love is Better the Second Time Around from Japan, and Living With Him from Japan. Does anybody wanna do propaganda here?
Ben
Ooh…
Shan
Let's start with reminding folks how we think about Girl, You Tried.
Ben
The Girl, You Tried for me is meant to reflect on a production that missed the mark, but we felt like the core work and the intent was there to actually do something good, and for whatever reason stumbled.
Shan
There's different ways that shows can stumble. There are shows that can be very well told and very confident up to a point, and then a mistake is made that is hard to recover from. There are shows that never quite nailed what they were trying to do, but did clearly have aspirations. There are shows that have a solid idea of at least the beginning and endpoints and something in the middle just got messy. So, those are different categories of ways that shows can go sideways. And all of these different ways came up in this season.
For me, a show like Unknown is not a Girl, You Tried because they actually did succeed at what they were doing for the vast majority of their run. So I wouldn't call that a Girl, You Tried. They made a mistake right at the end—and it was a big mistake—but their level of execution was so good through most of the show that I can't really consider that a Girl, You Tried.
For our two Japanese BLs here, Love is Better was really solid through about the first four episodes, and then it kind of veered off in a very strange direction that I still don't really understand why that happened. Versus Living With Him had a solid start, had a pretty decent end point that it was trying to get towards, and then got kind of messed up along the way trying to stretch out the story.
So for me I think I would want to give the Girl, You Tried to Living With Him out of these three, because I do think they had the bones of a good story. They executed parts of it really well. But in their effort to stretch it out into a longer format than the story really supported, they kind of lost track of some of their threads and got a little confused in the way that they landed at the end. So for me that one makes more sense as a Girl, You Tried because I see what they were trying to do. And I think that they just made some execution errors that got in the way.
Ben
An interesting analysis; one I will be pondering. It feels mean to say that Unknown is a Girl, You Tried because they rushed to their sex scene. It ignores how good the family story was around all of that, but I am also torn now if I'm going to choose between Love is Better and Living With Him because I feel like my angst for Living With Him is it doesn't release the implied sexual tension that really irritated me more than anything else, which Love is Better absolutely did.
Man, this is hard.
Shan
Have we ever had a Girl, You Tried tie?
Ben
We have not.
NiNi
There's usually a fairly clear cut winner once we talk about it, but I think part of the problem is that Love is Better and Living With Him sort of failed in similar ways, so it's hard to choose.
Ben
If I have to choose between the two of them, Love is Better the Second Time Around knew exactly what it was doing and it made very bad choices, and there's a difference between making stupid choices and struggling against something you couldn't do, in my opinion. I will give it to Living With Him because there's so much hang time, it's overly reliant on actor charm to hold itself together, and I do like how well the cast was able to hold this flimsy project together.
I think weaker actors would have made this a more irritating experience than it was, as opposed to just being kind of disappointing. So if I'm backed into a corner and have to choose [Shan laughs], it's going to be Living With Him.
Shan
[laughs] You do. Good job.
NiNi
Oh no, I'm about to throw a spanner in the works because I'm going to go for Love Is Better. [laughs]
Shan
This is very exciting! This is Conversation pod history!
Ben
Go ahead, give us your reasoning.
NiNi
For me, the original premise of Girl, You Tried was always ‘a strong idea that failed in the execution,’ and I feel like the ideas from Love is Better were stronger to me than the ideas in Living With Him, just in terms of, A, what I was interested in seeing and, B, what they wanted to do. I feel like those ideas were stronger in Love is Better. So the failure of the execution part is not the part that I'm looking at in terms of comparing the two, but the strength of the premise part.
Ben
Because both of these shows had really strong gay themes in them that I was really compelled by, I am going to allow them to tie and both get a Girl, You Tried, because I think both these shows were trying to do something really cool. I think by episode 3 and 4 both of these shows, I was like, “This show's got something in it. This is a real contender!” And then it was like, “Oh no, what happened, girl? Come on.” [laughs]
NiNi
So our first ever Girl, You Tried tie! Girls, you both tried.
Ben
Congratulations to Japan for getting your first Girl, You Tried awards.
NiNi
Is it?
Shan
And the double at that! Japan, always overachieving.
[Ben and NiNi laugh]
00:27:02 Celebrating 50 Episodes
NiNi
I think we have exorcized the demon of the summer, so let's wrap this up. We are wrapping our summer lagniappe and wrapping our summer season. See you in dot-dot-dot weeks for our fall season beginning as soon as I can get my shit together and edit.
Shan
NiNi, should we shout out that this is the 50th episode of the podcast?
Ben
Oh shit!
NiNi
[gasp] Oh my God, we didn't even talk about that! Yes, congratulate us, guys. This is episode number 50 for The Conversation!
Ben
Oh my God. [air horn sound]
Shan
There ya go.
Ben
If you are one of our listeners who has listened to us talk for all 50 episodes, please—
Shan
Wow.
Ben
—shout us out on Tumblr. I would love to talk to you and see how you're feeling about what we're doing after all this time.
Shan
You're a trooper if you actually did that.
NiNi
[laughs] Please, please, please. If you love us and you're hearing this, we are 50 episodes old today. Send us a note. Either send us a note on Tumblr if you know how to do that, or send us something in the Spotify down below—whatever…answer the thing thing.
Ben
[laughs] In the doobly-doo.
NiNi
Listen, okay? Auntie's old, okay? She don't remember what things are called.
We out! Say bye to the people, Shan.
Shan
Bye, people!
NiNi
Ben, say bye to the people.
Ben
Peace.
#ben and nini's conversations#podcast#the conversation#on art#lgbtq#bl series#summer series#summer 2024#thai bl#gl series#korean bl#blossom campus#love is like a cat#gray shelter#kiseki chapter 2#memory in the letter#1000 years old#two worlds#please teach me#blank the series#jazz for two#boys be brave#deep night#close friend 3: soju bomb#to be continue the series#gym affairs#blue boys#lonely girls#fake boys#the x who hated me
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Sorry for the tag intrusion! I'm looking for a slenderverse or similar series to watch during my lunch breaks. So far I've watched/finished:
Marble Hornets
ECKVA
EverymanHybrid
MLAnderson0
MyMovie14
Hollow Hemlocks
Hiimmarymary
Stan Frederick
Icanseethegiant
One Hundred Yard Stare
Lonely Darkness
If anyone has any suggestions, no matter how obscure, please let me know. Thanks!
#please don't start any arguments in the notes#i just wanna see what you folks are interested in#slenderverse#marble hornets#slender series#slenderman#everyman hybrid#emh#everymanhybrid#please help a girl pass the lonely retail hours
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Welcome to Letters2fiction!
The concept here is to send in a question or a letter request, and you’ll get a response from your fictional character of choice, from the list below. Please stick to the list I’ve made, but of course, you can ask if there’s some other characters I write for, I don’t always remember all the shows, movies or books I’ve consumed over the years and I’m sure I’m missing a lot 😅
Status: New Characters added - Thursday March 21st, 2024
TV SERIES
A Discovery of Witches:
Matthew Clairmont
Baldwin Montclair
Gallowglass de Clermont
Marcus Whitmore
Philippe de Clermont
Jack Blackfriars
Sarah Bishop
Emily Mather
Diana Bishop
Ysabeau de Clermont
Miriam Shepard
Phoebe Taylor
Gerbert D’Aurillac
Peter Knox
Father Andrew Hubbard
Benjamin Fuchs
Satu Järvinen
Meridiana
Law and Order:
Rafael Barba
Sonny Carisi
Joe Velasco
Mike Duarte
Terry Bruno
Peter Stone
Hasim Khaldun
Nick Amaro NEW!
Mike Dodds
Grace Muncy
Kat Tamin
Toni Churlish
Amanda Rollins
Olivia Benson
Rita Calhoun
Casey Novak
Melinda Warner
George Huang
Sam Maroun
Nolan Price
Jamie Whelan
Bobby Reyes
Jet Slootmaekers
Ayanna Bell
Jack McCoy
Elliot Stabler
One Chicago:
Jay Halstead (Could also be Will if you want)
Antonio Dawson
Adam Ruzek
Greg "Mouse" Gerwitz
Dante Torres
Vanessa Rojas
Kevin Atwater
Sean Roman
Matt Casey
Kelly Severide
Joe Cruz
Sylvie Brett
Blake Gallo
Christopher Hermann
"Mouch"
Otis
Violet Mikami
Evan Hawkins
Mayans MC:
Angel Reyes
Miguel
Bishop
Coco
Nestor
911 verse:
Athena Grant
Bobby Nash
Henrietta "Hen" Wilson
Evan "Buck" Buckley
Eddie Diaz
Howie "Chimney" Han
Ravi Panikkar
T.K. Strand
Owen Strand
Carlos Reyes
Marjan Marwani
Paul Strickland
Tommy Vega
Judson "Judd" Ryder
Grace Ryder
Nancy Gillian
Mateo Chavez
The Rookie:
Lucy Chen
Tim Bradford
Celina Juarez
Aaron Thorsen
Nyla Harper
Angela Lopez
Wesley Evers
BBC Sherlock:
Greg Lestrade
Mycroft Holmes
Sherlock Holmes
Moriarty
Molly
Bridgerton:
Anthony Bridgerton
Benedict Bridgerton
Simon Basset
Daphne Bridgerton
Eloise Bridgerton
Kate Sharma
Edwina Sharma
Marina Thompson/Crane
Outlander:
Jamie Fraser
Claire Beauchamp Randall Fraser
Frank Randall
Black Jack Randall
Brianna Fraser
Roger MacKenzie
Fergus Fraser
Marsali Fraser
Jenny Fraser Murray
Ian Murray Sr.
Ian Fraser Murray
Murtagh Mackenzie
Call The Midwife:
Shelagh Turner / Sister Bernadette
Dr. Patrick Turner
Nurse Trixie Franklin
Nurse Phyllis Crane
Lucille Anderson
Nurse Barbara Gilbert
Chummy
Sister Hilda
Miss Higgins
PC Peter Noakes
Reverend Tom Hereward NEW!
Narcos:
Horacio Carrillo
Peaky Blinders:
Tommy Shelby
Downton Abbey:
Robert Crawley, Earl of Grantham
Cora Crawley, Countess of Grantham
Lady Mary Crawley
Lady Edith Crawley
Lady Sybil Crawley
Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham
Isobel Crawley
Matthew Crawley
Lady Rose MacClare
Lady Rosamund Painswick
Henry Talbot
Tom Branson
Mr. Charles Carson
Mrs. Hughes / Elsie May Carson
John Bates
Anna Bates
Daisy Mason
Thomas Barrow
Joseph Molesley
Land Girl:
Connie Carter
Reverend Henry Jameson (Gwilym Lee's version)
Midsomer Murder:
DCI Tom Barnaby
Joyce Barnaby
Dr. George Bullard
DCI John Barnaby
Sarah Barnaby
DS Ben Jones
DS Jamie Winter
Sgt. Gavin Troy
Fleur Perkins
WPC Gail Stephens
Kate Wilding
DS Charlie Nelson
Sergeant Dan Scott
NEW! Once Upon A Time
Regina / The Evil Queen
Mary Margaret Blanchard / Snow White
David Nolan / Prince Charming
Emma Swan
Killian Jones / Captain Hook
Mr. Gold / Rumplestiltskin
Neal Cassidy / Baelfire
Peter Pan
Sheriff Graham Humbert / The Huntsman
Jefferson / The Mad Hatter
Belle
Robin of Locksley / Robin Hood
Will Scarlet
Zelena / Wicked Witch
Alice (Once in Wonderland)
Cyrus (Once in Wonderland)
Jafar (Once in Wonderland)
Gideon
Tiger Lily
Naveen
Tiana
Granny
Ariel
Prince Eric
Aladdin
Jasmine
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
Hercules
Megara
Tinker Bell
Merida
Red Riding Hood
Mulan
Aurora / Sleeping Beauty
Prince Phillip
Cinderella
Prince Thomas
NEW! The Vampire Diaries / The Originals
Stefan Salvatore
Damon Salvatore
Caroline Forbes
Elena Gilbert
Bonnie Bennett
Enzo St. John
Niklaus Mikaelson
Elijah Mikaelson
Kol Mikaelson
Rebekah Mikaelson
Freya Mikaelson
Finn Mikaelson
Mikael
Esther
Marcel Gerard
Davina Claire
MOVIES
The Pirates of the Caribbean:
Captain Jack Sparrow
Barbossa
Will Turner
Elizabeth Swann
James Norrington
Kingsman:
Merlin
Harry Hart
Eggsy Unwin
James Spencer / Lancelot
Alastair / Percival
Roxy Morton / Lancelot
Maximillian Morton / The Shepherd
Orlando Oxford
Jack Daniels / Whiskey
Gin
BOOKS
Dreamland Billionaire series - Lauren Asher:
Declan
Callahan
Rowan
Iris
Alana
Zahra
Dirty Air series - Lauren Asher:
Noah
Liam
Jax
Santiago
Maya
Sophie
Elena
Chloe
Ladies in Stem - Ali Hazelwood books:
Olive
Adam
Bee
Levi
Elsie
Jack
Mara
Liam
Sadie
Erik
Hannah
Ian
Fourth Wing - Rebecca Yarros:
Xaden Riorson
Dain Aetos
Jack Barlowe
Rhiannan Matthias
Violet Sorrengail
Mira Sorrengail
Lillith Sorrengail
Bodhi Durran
Liam Mairi
#a discovery of witches#law and order svu#law and order#law and order oc#chicago pd#chicago fire#mayans mc#911 abc#911 lone star#the rookie#bbc sherlock#sherlock#bridgerton#outlander#call the midwife#narcos#downton abbey#peaky blinders#land girls#midsomer murders#once upon a time#the vampire diaries#the originals#the pirates of the caribbean#kingsman#dreamland billionaires#dirty air series#love hypothesis#love theoretically#loathe to love you
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The fact that Mami is only 15 screws me up a little. She's barely older than Madoka and the rest of the girls and yet she forces herself into the "mature responsible caretaker" role. I get that magical girls don't live long, but I expected the 16-18 age range for her.
#puella magi madoka magica#mahou shoujo madoka magica#madoka magica#pmmm#wyfy's meltdowns#magical girl#mami tomoe#pmmm mami#mami madoka magica#if Mami didn't cut herself off from the world she probably would've ended up in Madoka's class#Madoka is 14 turning 15 in a few months during the main series timeframe#theoretically if Mami were born a year earlier and/or had her 16th birthday before Madoka's 15th she'd still be older but not by much#she puts so much on her shoulders#I think “Mami Tomoe” did die during the accident despite the wish#she's isolated herself and forced herself to become mature#even if she's still technically alive “Mami Tomoe” is a completely different person untill the holy quintet comes along and reteaches her-#-how to be a teenager; laughing and having fun with friends#even then Mami still forces herself into the roles of “leader” “caretaker” and in rebellion “mother”#she's a lonely kid who's lost everything and didn't die when she was supposed to; which only causes more heartache in the end#instead of dying in a tragic accident to be mourned by family she dies in a witch's labyrinth and is forgotten by the world#the concept of outliving your own story is one that never fails to get under my skin#people tend to overlook Mami's tragedy in favour of the more bombastic ones (Madoka Homura Sayaka) but I think her's is pretty compelling
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girls turn 16 and base their personality on one of these:
(spoiler alert. it’s all of them)
#gilmore girls#a series of unfortunate events#violet harmon#ahs murder house#lisbon sisters#the virgin suicides#maxine minx#spencer hastings#pretty little liars#aesthetic#lonely girl#girlblogging#16 years old
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Today is a triple-GL day!
My Marvellous Dream Is You starts today. This is IdolFactory's next GL series after GAP, adapted from a novel by the same author whose work was the basis of GAP. We started off at a sprint, with the first episode including a ton of drama and reveal after reveal. So much drama in ep1 has me a bit nervous but it made for a rollercoaster episode!
Lonely Girls episode 3 also just aired; this is a Korean short series by the same folks doing the BL Blue Boys. It's dealing with the stresses of the closet including uncertainty, jealousy, and feeling disconnected from your partner's life. [Also just as an FYI, unlike Blue Boys, as far as I know this one doesn't have cut content but airs earlier for those who subscribe]
Finally, my favourite of the three, To The Ex who Hated Me was a 2-part miniseries that ended today (clocking in at ~20 mins total). This is by RedQ, who I didn't call out in my GL rec post as creators to follow but should have! They've made a few of my favourites including Love More Than or Equal to 75 Degrees, Girlfriend Project, and Love Tech, all of which are good (listed in order of my preference). This one is about a couple who get together and start a YouTube couple account, and how that strains and causes misunderstandings in their relationship. It was really cute!
All three are on YouTube (linked in each description above), and the third one is complete!
#gl series#to the ex who hated me#lonely girls the series#my marvellous dream is you#gl meta#sapphic media#the gl goddesses are smiling on us today
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like it's just the way that outside of the BATB/POTO 'love what's ugly and ostracized' narrative itself cocteau was gay and everybody hated his gall about it, howard ashman was gay and had to conceal it and died of aids after finishing his work for disney's batb.... rather than have dark be homophobic and spitting in the face of his inspirational roots (the sole canon detail i can't stand) it's much much much more interesting for me to both read and write not someone who's meant to be a pervert (in humor) and an agape lover (in serious contextualization) only to turn and say 'no homo' to the crowd every single time but rather, instead of all that, someone who, simultaneously taking daisuke into account, is both extremely firm yet simultaneously insecure in the struggle to establish their identity not only in regards to themselves but also around others.
that applies to a lot, but i've been considering it especially in regards to dark's gender and daisuke's attractions. dark in my portrayal (while overall 500% nonbinary) is closer to someone bi-gender rather than agender; the feminine aspect to him isn't just theatrics, it's actively also part of his entirety to him, (compared to daisuke's passivity; the ten thousand canonical princess allusions,) and even if nobody ever recognizes it in a cognizant way, it is always, always there, the same way that erik blurs and obscures gender in leroux's novel (my second enormous inspiration, sugisaki's outright admitted primary) and sakurai occasionally discusses his relationship as both a performer and a person as well (my third enormous inspiration and sugisaki's secondary,) (see 1, 2.) simply put, the tragedy of (my!) dark does not ever derive from his being able to choose and sit comfortably and confidently with this sort of identity (in fact, it's one of the few things he can stubbornly, viciously decide for himself [alongside daisuke] as essentially a non-human, autonomous 'angel',) it's instead the way that his personality is so strong and 'anti-feminine' in the eyes of convention that said aspect of himself often gets disregarded for strictly masculine (and regardless, further self-contradictory and therefore isolating,) expectations.
dark himself alone does not care if others do not understand him; this is meant to be one of his far more admirable and impressive traits. he's staunchly independent: he knows who he is, what he's supposed to be, and he knows that if he actively presented himself more femininely (crossdressing to 'pass' essentially,) then people's behaviors WOULD be very likely to change around him, but he doesn't even do that because it goes against his overwhelming sense of pride. he never contorts, he never twists himself, what matters to him is that he and he alone understands himself and knows what he is, what he isn't. but he is, without proper support or acceptance, still alone. even bearing a strong character, the stifling loneliness and inherent, underlying self-sense of broken/wrongness of the 'other,' (god's luciferean problem child, the black sheep, the black-leather wearing punk,) is still inflicted on him. dark exists solely for himself, he exists solely for daisuke, which is simultaneously wherein the inversion and insecurities lie: if dark is canonically the live metaphor for all the aspects of daisuke's self that he attempts to and yet cannot possibly, conceivably repress, from his loves to his faults to his shames and his criminal sins as a thief, then the likes of daisuke's own personal confusions in regards to himself and his attempts at intimacy/socialization with others is the other, hidden side of dark's absolute self-confidence; it's every fear of perpetual isolation, misunderstanding, and abandonment for things outside of daisuke's own control.
queerness in relation to the self (transgender allegory) queerness in relation to others (non-hetero-romanticism) mental illness (depression, anxiety,) etc, etc, dark's thematic basis may at its most general simply be "a secret that feels wrong and that you feel you can't really tell anyone or else you'll get in trouble/won't be as liked as much" but it feels much better to give due respect to each of these primary roots.
#*・゚⊰ 𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐎𝐅 𝐂𝐀𝐑𝐃𝐒. ⊱ ✦ › OUT.#reference.#'tsun r u angry about homophobic dark again' u can't take the guy everybody loves and is supposed to actively admire in the series#then have him say all the time he hates gays. when he's gay#DN's mothers and grandfathers are all gay sakurai was smashing his head against that boundary even in the 90s ish#what's not clicking#this is not a particularly well thought out ramble btw#i just think it's important that dark as a character (mine i mean) has a particular kind of struggle that isn't often actively touched on#which is being strong but lonely. deeply independent but out of necessity. he doesn't need assurance per se; just acceptance#as yes. still a young child. /a teenager./ not an adult.#even though he's constantly putting his entirety into subtly. selflessly giving (just as shamelessly as he takes as a thief)#dark really. does not get a lot back. and it's even at the point where he doesn't want it either bc hes the 'responsible' one#it's often that people lose interest in him once this stuff comes into play because suddenly he's less attractive for being 'complicated'#and/or bc he's not a 'real' girl. or he's not 'fem' enough (again: strong personality. opposite of a waifish damsel)#nvm me getting followed once by an all fem muse blog that said no fem+fem shipping 😭😂 what the hell even was that#dark counts himself as 'male' he counts himself as 'female' he counts himself as 'other' he just doesn't want to connect with 'none'#because he and basically all the other arts also are all 'none' from the start. they're artworks. canonically their pronouns are all over#the place too. in dark's case he only uses he/him because he is. an ore-sama chara. but i hope#everybody who ever comes into my house (blog) knows him and mine very specifically#as an ore-sama ojou-sama. that's what Mine Is#the same way daisuke is christine. is sleeping beauty. is gerda from the snow queen. but also the cursed prince#ok? ok#ok. im going to cook now#like i love riku but we do not need to bash gay ppl to have a happy het shoujo romance#riku couldve had a cute gf if she wanted. the gf couldve been dai. couldve been dark. :/#'daisuke was originally to be a girl but there weren't a lot of romances from boys' perspectives' and he still can be both. this is how
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hihi jess can i request a moodboard if ur willing 🛸🐞🌙🐾🌸 <if these make no sense ill always take a jess' vibecheck 🩷🩷 all the ones you have made till now are so pretty!!!
🛸🐞🌙🐾🌸moodboard for Juni (this is accidentally just ksm as fox mulder moodboard)
#now im just thinking about x files#txf skz..... ksm as mulder- smart seems respectable has a pretty coveted job but everyones like hes weird as hell#also doesnt do what hes told....#lee knows scully bc no ones doing skeptical bitch as well as him. also put him in a ginger wig and a pencil skirt pleeeaassseeee#chan could be skinner bc like The Boss man but hes chill and cool sometimes but also he could be a lone gunman.....#felix is melissa 100% catholic girl all grown up and now is a lil hippy dippy and love is all around. will be killed unfortunately.#Han / changbin / jeongin/ hyunjin lone gunman.... lone gunman yeah.............#hyunjins the hot himbo one that was in the spin off series i liked but no one else has watched bc they crashed a plane into the twin towers#like 6 months before that actually happened so its not on dvd or streaming services lmao#yes.... no one asked for this and yet here i am#ask game#okay gnight for real bye#skz
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There she is
There's my girl 🥹💖
#god she is so cute and lovely I adore Lucy so much!!!!#I can't wait to just watch her grow from a naive kind Vault Dweller to a kind yet brutal LW UwU#i guess she'd be considered A Lone Wanderer guess we'll find out#my baby my baby girl my sweet lady love!!!!!#i will hurt anyone who talks negatively about Lucy get your stanky ass out of here if you even say one bad thing about my girl#fallout show#Fallout Lucy tv show#Fallout Lucy#Fallout tv series Lucy#fallout tv series
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i save doujins png by png on my computer so i can read it easily at random times when i think about it. and not use vpn. usually it's this one specific caname doujin. rn it's welcoming morning
#i like this doujin series#ame internal knots. it's true. it's true. that and i love the artstyle to bits#the expressions are crazy good#anyways. a part of it specifically in the last part rly reminds me of#that quote from hello girl i put as ame a while ago. they ring kind of similar to me#ame's very almost petulant like “if only”s#another doujin by this artist where ame's like “if that's all love is then that's really sad”#this ame is so eternally lonely
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alex vulkov from the twisted series reminds me of batman hehehe ♡🙈💕
#reading his pov is so traumatizing tho :'(♡#wish i could somehow make him feel better :(</3#he so lonely n dont rlly talk abt it 💞😭♡#his heart must feel so heavy :((♡#just read abt how he can never sleep n the flashbacks from his past 😣♡#his mum dad n poor baby sis i wanna cryy :(♡#liana's diary ♡#my batman ♡🦇💗#alex vulkov ♡#alex vulkov#twisted series#twisted love#booklover#dark romance books#coquette girl#just girly posts#just girly things#girlblogging#girl hood#girl blogger#girlhood#girly stuff#girly#girlblogger#girly girl#coquette dollete#dark coquette#pink coquette#coqeutte#coqette
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