#meena love sea

[visualtaehyun]

Pronouns, curses, and cake crimes 🍰

Finally here with the in-depth version of my rambles plain reactions from the other day. Title brought to you by @jeffsatyr cause I love that turn of phrase in his post here so much!

Disclaimer: not a native Thai speaker, still learning 🙏 color-coding characters again: Mut, Rak, Prin, Meena

Rak's lovely relatives

คุณเพิ่งด่าไอ้เด็กเหี้ยนั่นว่า เอาเวลาว่างไปหาอะไรใส่หัว ดีกว่าเสือกเรื่องของคนอื่น ผมไม่อยากเป็นคนเหี้ยครับ /khun pheerng daa ai dek hiia nan waa ao wehlaa waang bpai haa a rai sai hua dee gwaa seuuak reuuang khaawng khohn euun. pom mai yaak bpen khohn hiia khrap/ = You just told off that nasty brat, that [she should] use her free time to find and put something in her head instead of prying into other people's business. I don't want to be someone nasty.

My translation is probably too mild but I wanted to highlight these two aspects: 1) He continues to call her a child (เด็ก /dek/), even though Rak told him last episode that Prin is older than Mut lol and 2) he uses the same curse word twice (เหี้ย /hiia/), once to describe her despicable behavior and then to distance himself from it - and hilariously ends that statement with a polite ครับ /khrap/! -> เหี้ย /hiia/ is used as a curse word but originally refers to a type of lizard

แมงดา /maaeng daa/ = can mean pimp or (male) prostitute or gigolo; lit. a horseshoe crab

It comes from how male horseshoe crabs will cling onto a female's back during mating season, taking advantage of its mate, and is therefore used to disparage men who benefit off of women financially.

Pronouns galore!

Connor and Rak use ฉัน /chan/ and นาย /naai/ in both directions -

Kom uses ผม /pom/ and apparently just คอนเนอร์ /Connor/ -> polite formal 1st pers. pronoun as Kom is younger but he seems to call his older boyfriend just by name which could indicate familiarity, equal standing in their relationship, or maybe it's just because Connor is a foreigner and thus prefers having his name used??

with Rak, Kom uses ผม /pom/ and พี่รัก /phi Rak/ -> polite yet familiar

Mut and Kom use กู /guu/ and มึง /meung/ in both directions, same as Vi and Rak -> rude, familiar pronouns; they're around the same age and have been friends for ages

Mut calls the girls คุณ(ไข่)มุก /khun (Khai)Mook/ and พี่วี /phi Vi/ -> really shows the difference in closeness!

Special interlude

I've seen enough people talk about this inspired subbing choice here to figure it might be interesting to read about:

โคตรพ่อโคตรแม่รู้สึกดีเลย /khoht por khoht mae ruu seuk dee loei/ = It feels fanfuckingtastically good [...]

-> โคตร /khoht/ refers to one's ancestors or lineage but is used as a vulgar intensifier. Adding พ่อ /por/ = father, and แม่ /mae/ = mother, onto that just makes it stronger by swearing on both sides of the family tree I guess lol (A translation in the same vein might then yield you something like 'It feels so motherfucking good' but I love what MMY's translator went with!)

Rak's actually-lovely relative

ตาเค้าเอง /dtaa khao eng/

-> เค้า /khao/ is a cute informal 1st pers. pronoun, her friend Ing-Ing uses it as well For context, it's most often used in Thai QL by 1) characters who wanna be cutesy with their partner, like Sun once or twice in 23.5 or Tan, consistently lol, in We Are, or 2) by characters who are sweet and cute to begin with (mostly women tbh). Anueng in Blank or Pleng and Wan in the upcoming GL Affair also come to mind.

ว่าไง สาวน้อยของน้า /waa ngai, saao noi khaawng naa/

-> น้า /naa/ = uncle or aunt, specifically the mother's younger sibling 'Uncle' only shows up in the subs here but he always uses it as a 1st pers. pronoun with Meena. Also spot the sweet and soft tone he uses here with his niece uwu

แต่น้ารักห้ามเอาน้ารักตอนที่น้ารักอายุ 13 มาเทียบกับมีนาตอนนี้ /dtaae naa Rak haam ao naa Rak dtaawn thee naa Rak aayu 13 maa thiiap gap Meena dtaawn nee/

For her age, she is quite perceptive and clever and it seems her mom and/or uncle (and maybe grandma too?) made sure she understands the full scope of their family drama. Nina, the actress, is a few years younger than that and looks it too tbh so I'm glad she mentions Meena's age for us. She calls herself by name and him uncle Rak น้ารัก /naa Rak/ which, adorably, sounds close to น่ารัก /naa rak/ = cute/lovable, there's a difference in tone though!

พี่จะทำให้เขา ต้องรัก พี่ /phi ja tham hai khao 'dtaawng rak' phi/

-> ต้องรัก /dtaawng rak/ = must/have to love; Tongrak's name He's said this several times in previous episodes but it specifically threw me back to this scene from ep. 3 🥺

คนอย่างผม ใครจะไปกล้าขอคุณต้องรัก /khohn yaang pom, khrai ja bpai glaa khaaw khun dtaawng rak/ = Someone like me, who would dare to ask Khun Tongrak (/you). ...which could also be read as: = Someone like me, who would dare ask you to have to love [me?].

The word she uses is หน้าด้าน /naa daan/ = boldfaced, shameless, which is surprisingly rude lmaooo

The พี่ /phi/ came and went and now she addresses him exactly the same way as her uncle Rak - น้าหมุด /naa Mut/ hehe

Oh and hey, here's a crazy thought-- Mut and Meena have about the same age gap as Mut and Rak, he might even be closer in age to her than to Rak! In the novel, Rak is 30 going on 31 and judging by Kom being 19 in Love Sand, Mut can't be much older than 20, maybe early 20s.

Submission

วันนี้คุณว่าง่ายกว่าปกตินะ /wan nee, khun waa ngaai gwaa bohk-ga-dti na/ = Today you're more docile than usual.

-> ว่าง่าย /waa ngaai/ = docile, obedient, submissive, compliant, to listen If you've seen more than one Thai drama, I expect you've encountered the word ดื้อ /deuu/ before which is most often subbed as 'stubborn' but can mean 'to not listen, disobedient, obstinate, defiant, resistant' so this word here is just about the opposite of it!

อยากทำก็ทำ ผมเป็นของคุณอยู่แล้ว /yaak tham gaaw tham. pom bpen khaawng khun yuu laaeo/ = [If you] want to do it then do it. I'm all yours.

-> อยู่แล้ว /yuu laaeo/ at the end there can express certainty or completion so this could also be translated as 'I'm already yours' if that makes any difference to anyone but me lol

[marshmallord]

she was fujoing outtttttt i’m crying

[schrodingers-hoarding-problem]

I've known meena for about 5 minutes and if anything happened to her I'd kill everyone in this room and then myself

[biherbalwitch]

star of the show actually. mut and tongrak are merely supporting characters in her story

[rayandgay]

You can depend on me.

[bird-inacage]

Love Sea Episodes 6-8 | Meena's Uncle-in-Law

I adore their dynamic and how sweet Mut is with Meena. You are reminded that he's just a big kid himself. "You're only 7-8 years older than me," says this wise little sweetheart.

[babyangelsky]

The maids kids know everything

Yeah so I'm not done yapping about expressions this week and ya'll can blame @almayver , @slayerkitty , @prapaiwife , @fallsouthwinter , and @crispywizardtale for enabling me.

I wanted to talk more about Meena in my expressions post because the second I saw her adorable, sweet happy face go from this

to this the second she saw her grandfather waiting for her after school, I knew we were going to be in for a lot.

And boy howdy, were we.

First though, can I say how much I already LOVE Nina? Baby girl is 10 years old and she absolutely blew me away. She's doing a great job. Her expressions as Meena are clear and excellent and telling in the very same way that Tongrak's are. It makes it feel like they're really related and like she's grown up around him her whole life and picked up his mannerisms, it's incredible to see.

Of course, that also meant that she ripped my heart out.

Meena is sweet and cute and intelligent and it's obvious that she's the absolute light of Tongrak's life. She's also very precocious, which means that she knows everything to an extent that no child should.

This baby girl is very aware of how messed up her family is. She knows her grandparents' history, she knows her mother is afraid of her grandfather, she knows her uncle is even more afraid of her grandfather, and even worse than all that, she knows she should be afraid of her grandfather.

When her grandpa shows up at her school, she knows to take a picture and then go in the opposite direction of wherever he is. She knows to tell Tongrak right away. She makes the decision not to tell her mother because she knows it'll stress her out.

She says THIS.

Do you know how fucked up it is for a child to say this so casually?

For all that Tongrak and Kwan have been traumatized and harrowed by their upbringing, it's clear to me that they've done what they can to shield Meena from suffering because of it too. She seems like a bright, happy little girl.

But it's precisely because they're harrowed by it that Meena knows as much as she does. Kids see things. They understand more than they're ever given credit for because so few adults see them as actual people. Even if neither her mother nor her uncle said a word about their family history, Meena would pick up on all the things that are wrong and all the things not being said.

For god's sake, she won't even let her uncle pick her up from school because she knows he's terrified of her grandfather. No child should have the things on their mind that she does.

Yes, it's fucked up that there's even anything for her to be aware of in the first place and that she's having to think about comforting the adults in her life, but being aware of things helps to protect her. There's less of a chance she'll be hurt by her grandfather or anything else if she knows to run away and that she has safe places and people to go to.

And that's why it matters so much that Mahasamut told her the truth about his feelings for and relationship with Tongrak.

No one is ever direct with children. No one dares to be frank with them or meet them on a level they can process and understand because again, children aren't always seen as people. There's always this feeling of "you can't say that to a child" or "that's too much for a child!" and I'll agree that most children don't need to know absolutely everything.

Meena isn't most children, however.

I didn't pick up on it the first time for my expressions post, but when I went back and rewatched the scene in Tongrak's living room, I clocked this expression from Mahasamut.

He makes this face the second Meena brings up her grandfather. He wasn't really paying that much attention to the conversation before this but after? He zeroes in because he knows it's important.

There is no world in which Mahasamut wasn't going to offer--insist even--to pick Meena up from school. Ain't no way. He's just learned exactly how cruel and fucked up Tongrak's father is and now here this child is telling her uncle about how she saw that same man was waiting for her after school. In this exact moment he set himself up as one of those safe people for Meena to go to.

And I really think Mut realizes that in order to be that for her, he has to be honest with her. He tells her and she understands because she is intimately familiar with what it means for one person to pay another for their company. Once he's honest with her, he can then reassure her that he isn't with Tongrak for the money and that he sincerely cares about him.

Meena wants a happily ever after for her uncle. She can pick up on the sadness and loneliness in his novels. She sees that Tongrak takes care of everyone but that no one takes care of him.

When Mut asks her to root for him to get to be the one to take care of Tongrak and that he's confident that he can be, her whole face lights up and she has fight back her smile.

Maybe most kids don't need this level of frankness, but Meena does. I can only imagine how betrayed and hurt she would feel if she were to find out later from someone else that her beloved uncle's relationship began with money like her grandparents' relationship did because she has already seen how that ended.

Mahasamut has known this child for like an hour and already he's treating her and her feelings with the same respect and consideration that he shows to Tongrak. And that is exactly what she and any child deserve from the adults in their life.

[logically-illogical-2me]

Meena is honestly the best girl 🥹

[skzsaxicolous]

normally, kids in dramas make me roll my eyes and I try to ignore them.

But this absolute joy of a person is the exception.

Nina's giving everything. she's a really good actress and I really enjoy her scenes. I was pleasantly surprised and hope to see her in other things soon!

[askewedview]

Meena's little reach out for Mut when her Granddad was confronting him, she was so scared but also wanting to protect her Uncle Mut.

Then when she ran to try and drag Mut out of the restaurant. She is so brave - I mean she is so clearly scared but still trying to protect everyone around her.

I love her beyond belief (and that actress is amazing!)

[laurenkmyers]

the way nina padovan comes in and immediately out-acts 90% of the gmmtv roster, like, this girl is 10 years old.

lads, take note

[wuxian-vs-wangji]

The worst thing Gen A can imagine...

A dead smartphone.

[negrowhat]

Why is Meena being stalked by her own grandfather?? That's weird that he can just show up to her school??

[bibimbinge]

this is probably the hardest episode of Love Sea to watch

[rayandgay]

a four part story

[lurkingshan]

It has come to my attention that a lot of folks apparently did not realize what sex act we were watching at the end of this week’s Love Sea (Mut was fucking Rak’s face, y’all). I want to talk about it a little because aside from reaching a new frontier in m/m sex acts depicted in bl, it was actually a really important character moment.

This episode was a lot about Mut wrestling with the power dynamic between him and Rak. It’s been present the entire time, of course, with their class disparity setting the foundation. When they first met Mut met Rak’s antagonism by leaning into a local hick act, playing like he was someone Rak could easily dismiss and mistreat. And after they started sleeping with each other we’ve seen him consistently ignore Rak’s more abrasive comments about his (lack of) wealth and social status and his own perceived power over Mut. He has seemed determined to see past Rak’s defenses to get to who he really is, and so he’s not letting himself be distracted by Rak’s awful comments. He has been pretending not to care when Rak says degrading things to him.

But pretending is the key word there. Mut is a human being, not some kind of unbelievably tolerant robot who is solely here to put up with Rak’s abuse. Just because he is not reacting in the moment doesn’t mean he’s not hearing or feeling those things. We have seen his vulnerability and insecurity show themselves in a few moments, and that came back to the forefront this episode with Khom’s arrival.

Because Khom is his friend, and he took one look at this situation and expressed real concern for Mut and how he is allowing himself to be treated in this relationship. Khom held up a mirror to Mut about the way money and power is defining his dynamic with Rak and everything he’d been suppressing came to the surface. He is insecure about the class disparity between them and he is uncertain about whether he has the status to be taken seriously by Rak.

And to his credit, Rak responded to that vulnerability by finally relenting and letting Mut in a little more. Not only confiding in him about his family traumas, but trusting him with someone he holds absolutely dear. Letting Mut care for Meena is one of the biggest signals Rak can send about his true feelings and how much he is coming to trust Mut.

Which is where that final sex act comes in. Their relationship has always been rooted in their sexual attraction, so this shift in their dynamic needed to be recognized there, too. Rak chose to show how he feels about Mut, the trust he is developing for him, and the way he is starting to cede power to put them on more equal footing by engaging in a sex act that puts Mut firmly in control and in a dominant position over Rak. It’s not the kind of thing someone like Rak is going to allow with someone he doesn’t trust or respect, and it’s a clear gift to Mut to reassure him that he doesn’t actually think of him as just a toy he bought. It was a really meaningful scene.