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ineffable-opinions · 1 month ago

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BL Genre

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BL is a genre in itself – practically well as the way Masala is a cinema genre.

BL / romance

I don’t think BL is romance or even a sub-genre of romance. Many BL are romance. Many more of them have at least a romantic side to them. There is enough overlap between those genres to give the impression that BL is romance. (I remember the discussion Killing Stalking had prompted.)

But there are plenty of BL devoid of romance. Like One Room Angel, Social Reform Season, and The Orc Bride. Similarly, BL is not exactly porn even though there are plenty of ero/porn-BL.

Also, there are plenty of BL where romance takes backseat such as The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window, Blue Morning, Brother, Lawless Gangster and Thousand Autumns.

BL / queer

Queer – Even if one were to ignore queer as method in academia, it is still so complex. Can I call it a genre the way I call BL a genre?

Let me quote Taiwanese tongzhi (queer) author Chiang-Sheng Kuo:

[W]hat exactly is queer literature? Is it queer literature if queer people like to read it, or is it only queer literature if there are queer characters in the books? Or is it an appendage of the queer movement? If a queer author writes a book without queer characters, does that represent a certain aspect of queer culture?

(You can find the whole interview here.)

I think the problem persist even when I think of queer as a label.

Then there is the issue with conception of “queerness” itself. Like, in a way it is a limiting term. Is it fair to call normative or customary male-male erotic practices such as masti and Launda Naach, “queer” just because that’s how it is perceived elsewhere now?

To quote what Kaustav Bakshi wrote in Writing the LGBTIHQ+ movement in Bangla:

In the last decade, the question of decolonizing queer epistemologies was being raised periodically, whereby queer politics, despite having a shared agenda of toppling heteronormativity, and queer culture, albeit having a shared aesthetics, became more and more regionalist – not in a negative sense – but, with implications of difference, which can be interpreted and understood only when one subjectively experiences the ‘region’ with respect to gender, class, caste, ethnicity, physical and intellectual ability, access to education, metropolitan cultures, and most importantly, the internet.

[T]he attraction towards the launda is not understood as ‘queer’ – non-normative or out of the ordinary – but, as an integral part of sexual life, which is not always compulsively alert to the heterosexual-homosexual binary.

Imo, decolonizing queer epistemologies comes in handy when discussing BL since there are plenty of BL dealing with:

Historical BL set in eras and locations that had customary male-male sexualities and practices.

BL with special settings, like omegaverse and dom-sub-verse, with different (if any) idea of queerness.

BL / other queer content

I wonder if it is apt to consider BL the way western queer shows (such Verbotene Liebe, Queer as Folks, Os Nossos Dias and SKAM) are considered? Won’t it be better to evaluate BL in relation to local non-BL queer content in BL producing countries? But then, there are BL inspired by western queer culture such as Partners by Tamaki Yura.

Just as Japan has gei-comi, and other manga like Shoujo Manga Artist Minamoto-San Comes Out, and Kieta Hatsukoi (shoujo), What Did You Eat Yesterday and My Brother’s Husband (seinen) beside BL manga, different countries offer diversity in queer content with noticeable overlap. But clubbing them together would not be easy. Moreover, this diversity is as much cross-sectional as it is temporal (tanbi, JUNE, shonen ai, yaoi, BL in Japan).

There is lot of overlap between BL and gei-comi. Gengoroh Tagame first published in JUNE (a magazine that contributed to BL we know now). There are magazines and anthologies (Nikutaiha BL) that offer crossover between different streams of queer content.

Similarly, there are danmei (Chinese BL) novel written by queer men such as the autobiographical works: Six Records of a Floating Life and Waiting Until 35 Years Old by NanKang BaiQi and Bei Cheng Tian Jie (北城天街) by FeiTian YeXiang.

The main difference between BL and other queer genres is BL’s focus on moe (affect). Anyway, BL predates LGBTQ+ acronym. It predates de-pathologization of homosexuality in many BL creating regions. Fu-people (BL fans) were creating BL before mainstream media started representing queer people in media. Fu-people battled state and its censors everywhere along with queer people.

Live action BL is commercialized and we get mostly feel-good content with happy ending since they appeal to the widest audience. But that is capitalism (and the State) reaping the dividends of decades of fu-people’s labor of love. But as the scope expands, it is likely that BL is romance perception would change too, like with up-coming adaptation of Smells Like Green Spirit. But it is also likely that audience members may reserve "BL" label for works that they think are BL - that's just moe (affect) in action.

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ineffable-opinions · 7 months ago

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How should I reply to this after that awesome opening 「SALAAR サラール」 had in Japan? There would be lot more Prabhas doujin in Comiket after this movie. So much for reclusive Japan taste narrative...

I think AbsoluteBL's confused use of the terms BL and yaoi is very revealing.

Yaoi = [how AbsoluteBL (ABL from here on) uses it] synonym for older ボーイズラブ (boys love) manga.

= [popular use in anglophone BL animanga fandom] BL manga with explicit content; as opposed to shonen ai.

= [original meaning] mostly derivative works (there were original works too), which were mostly plot-what-plot type, that are self-published (doujinshi). I have italicized yaoi when conveying this meaning.

Boys Love (BL) = [how ABL uses it] newer BL.

= [popular use in anglophone BL animanga fandom] (yaoi + shonen ai) umbrella term, referring to all BL content.

= [original meaning] commercially published BL works.

Original Yaoi (BL doujin) is what Nekoyashiki produces and sells at the comic convention in Kabe Sa Doujin Sakka no Neko Yashiki-kun wa Shouninyokkyuu wo Kojiraseteiru (2022) which is based on a BL manga by, Minamoto Kazuki, a gay mangaka (artist).

source - This post has the direct link to all doujin and manga shown in the live action. They are all real and you can purchase them from DL site and other manga websites.

Here are two panels from What Did You Eat Yesterday dj - the live action was based on the seinen manga and does not include these yaoi scenes.

BL seems to be the most popular term among viewers of BL live-action. There isn't any yaoi – shonen ai type bifurcation between live-action content given the limits on what can be shown on screen.

Japan only has the term ‘boys love’ ‘BL’ for all commercially published BL. Meanwhile, anglophone BL animanga fandom uses the terms yaoi and shonen ai to classify works based on sexual content. Please mind that these terms are practically loan words (hence not italicized) with different meanings (so I have italicized yaoi and shonen-ai to convey this) their different usages in past and present Japan.

I want to quickly mention the Top 10 BLs Out of Japan post. The terminology issue is very prominent in it. ABL classifies Seven Days as a live action yaoi. Seven Days is not a yaoi. Anglophone audience would call it shonen ai since the original manga lacks sexual content. [The manga is way too overrated for fu-people (BL fandom) to mistake it as anything else at this point.] For the Japanese, it is a BL.

Takara-kun and Amagi-kun is also just a BL for the Japanese. It is not a yaoi. It is a shonen ai. But for ABL, it is BL because it belongs to “modernized version of the genre…”

ABL doesn’t stick to own definition, jumping onto yaoi again when referring to Minato’s Laundromat, purportedly a “modern take”. By anglophone categorization, this work is shonen ai - based on (lack of) sexual content. Arguably, the first actual yaoi on the top 10 list is Old Fashion Cupcake. But the adaptation self-censored all explicit sexual content from the manga. They hinted at seme's fixation with oral cavity irrumation (aka throat-fucking) with a thumb in uke's mouth.

My Beautiful Man season one showed fingers in mouth, to hint at the fellatio from the novel it was adapted from. Subsequent season/movie gave clear indication of sexual content but never very explicit.

Cherry Magic, Our Dining Table and Restart After Come Back Home are all adaptations of shonen ai. Life: Love on the Line didn’t adapt to screen any of the sexual content in the yaoi.

My Love Mix-Up! manga is not exactly a BL in publication. It is a shoujo romance with a BL in it. The live action adaptation, however, is marked as a BL and hence can be considered so. By anglophone categorization of BL, it can be considered shonen ai.

Wondering why sexual content is self-censored?

Why so many shonen ai live-action? (commodity fetishism)

BL “Censorship” & Commercialization

Now back to the post in discussion.

ABL: In yaoi there’s light (sweet, clean, bright, airy) vs dark (erotic, serious, gritty, rough).

There is no such bifurcation in yaoi, or in BL for that matter. Even the yaoi-shonen ai bifurcation doesn’t exist in Japan. [Moreover, what’s with those descriptors attached to “light”? It sounds like we are discussing architecture rather than media. What exactly is “airy” yaoi?]

As for narrative progressions, there are five identifiable ones:

あまあま – sweet

Characterised by smooth progression of ship’s romantic development. There would be no serious threat to the our ship's relationship. Happy ending is assured. Audience’s worldview (世界観) is never threatened. Main characters would be paragons of virtue or at least easily redeemable. It would ensure the most comfortable viewing experience. There are plenty of erotic works with sweet narrative progression, but not any live action.

e.g.: Cherry Magic, Old Fashion Cupcake, Seven Days

2. ユニーク – unique

All the themes discussed in the BL would be treated in a unique manner. It will defy all rules and expectations, but would not necessarily be completely unpredictable. Nothing is guaranteed. Most likely to threaten audiences’ worldview. It is the opposite of sweet BL in a way – opposite of comforting.

e.g.: One Room Angel, Sing in Love

Sing in Love (2022) – it is best to venture into this movie without knowing anything about it. I’ll only recommend it to people who are comfortable with all sorts of themes and treatments and don’t require any kind of content warnings. In case you are interested in watching but unsure about triggering content, feel free to message/ask me.

3. シリアス – serious

The mood as well as themes and their treatment would be serious. Audience’s worldview (世界観) would be threatened but won’t deviate too much. Main characters would be virtuous to an extend or redeemable. It would not necessarily be comforting.

e.g.: Takara-kun and Amagi-kun, No Touching At All

4. 邪道 – evil road (Jadō)

Audience’s worldview (世界観) will be threatened. Characters would do despicable things. Bad ending and meriba (merry bad) ending are the expected outcomes. It would not be comforting.

e.g.: Fujimi Orchestra, Sei no Gekiyaku

5. 王道 - royal road (odo)

Characterised by rough progression of ship’s romantic development with significant ups and downs. Audience would get a rollercoaster ride. There would be serious threats to the couple’s relationship. Happy ending is not assured. Characters may do despicable things. Audience’s worldview (世界観) can be threatened. It would be oddly comforting.

e.g.: Given, The Novelist

source

In the chart:

ほのぼの – heartwarming – Example: Restart After Come Back Home

コメディ – comedy – Cherry Magic

ダーク – dark – Sing in Love

シリアス – serious – Cornered Mouse Dream of Cheese

キュン – exciting (kyun) – Mr. Unlucky Has No Choice but to Kiss

ABL: Generally speaking, the shows that are very light very sweet and very bright, cartoony, with lots of slapstick elements will have little to no sexual contact at all: so Cherry, Mix Up, Ossan, Same Difference, Mr Unlucky, Our Dining Table to fall into this category.

ABL’s assessment of why there is no intimacy between the main couple in certain BL is a misattribution. Most of the works used here as example are either shonen ai or self-censored adaptation. Such self-censorship is driven by commercial motivations. Ossan's Love 2016 had a kiss and a seduction scene, not to mention a harem set-up.

There are plenty of BL that are erotic comedies – which can be considered ‘very light very sweet and very bright, cartoony, with lots of slapstick elements’ – such as Dick Fight Island, Yarichin Bitch Club, Hangout Crisis, and Kimi Ni Koisuru High Heels. Live action adaptation of Cosmetic Playlover could go there but after self-censored adaptations of 25 Ji, Akasaka de, and Sukiyanen Kedo Do Yaro ka, I don’t really have any hope.

There are plenty of live action BL that are the opposite of bright and sunny and lack intimacy between the main couple - Kei×Yaku: Abunai Aibou andThe Night Beyond the Tricornered Window. This again is due thanks to self-censorship as an adaptational decision, driven by commercial motivations.

Also “light BL” owes more to yaoi (doujin BL) than to its predecessor shonen-ai (early BL that was published as a shoujo sub-genre; not to be confused with the English loan word "shonen ai"). First ever live action BL was adaptation (Summer Vacation 1999 released in 1988) of the shonen-ai The Heart of Thomas by Hagio Moto and it was very “dark” by ABL’s standard. Moreover, ABL seems to be unaware of both this movie and how sexually explicit some of those shonen-ai manga were.

Also, use of terminology such as “uke” which originated years later, during yaoi boom, when discussing shonen-ai is anachronic. Of course, uke-like androphilic male representation is really old (see this post on customary male androphilia in Japan) but shonen-ai was working with very different takes on gender(s).

A foursome scene from the shonen-ai Zankoku Na Kami Ga Shihai Suru by Hagio Moto

Risqué is Risky

Wide marketing usually involves cutting down on sexual content. It ensures run even in conservative medium, exemplified by the success of What Did You Eat Yesterday manga that was serialized in the magazine for middle-aged men called Morning.

A lot of live action BL, that are not comedies, have been directors’ passion projects – reading manga and deciding to adapt them. There are no lanes in Japan for BL. Directors have been trailblazers. This is bound to continue into the future.

Some notable directors:

Yôka Kusano (草野陽花) - Bokura no Ai no Kanade, Forbidden Love, BL: Boku no Kareshi wo Shokai Shimasu

Satoshi Kaneda (金田敬さん) - Ai no Kotodama (2008), Junjou (2010), Fujimi Orchestra (2012)

Miki Koichiro (三木康一郎) - The Novelist, Given, Zettai BL ni Naru Sekai VS Zettai BL ni Naritakunai Otoko

Yukisada Isao - The Cornered Mouse Dreams of Cheese (2020)

Some notable screenplay writers:

Takahashi Natsuko - No Touching At All, Seven Days, Silhouette of Your Voice, Does the Flower Bloom?

Kanasugi Hiroko - Takumi-kun Series 1-5 + Our Kogen Hotel (2013) [no Thailand didn’t invent branded pair], Sukitomo (2007), Udagawachou de Matteteyo, Fukou-kun wa Kiss Suru Shikanai!, Cosmetic Playlover

That being said Dangerous Drugs of Sex (2020) was the first “hard” BL film in Japan. I would be disingenuous to argue that it was Japan sticking to its lanes. It was a whole new sub-genre of live action BL – there has been plenty of anime adaptations of ero-BL but that was the first live action adaptation. It was also a new thing in Japan’s queer media landscape. The mindset of the cast and crew is remarkable, including the MC, Ishiguro from Future comics.

youtube

Risqué can be rewarding too.

Dangerous Drugs of Sex was a blockbuster, enjoying long run in theatres and ranking number 1 in Netflix Japan. It stayed true to the explicitness of content and pushed the boundaries enough to bring about convergence between gay pinku cinema and BL.

OP Pictures’ entry into BL genre, The Shortest Distance Is Round movie series, has also been successful. Their new movie Heavens x Candy (2024) is now showing in theatres in Japan. Interestingly, this one is 15+ and not 18+ like their previous franchise – clearly aiming for wider demographics and opportunities to promote. OP’s entry into BL making is internally fu-culture (BL fan culture) driven, mediated by BL fan and AV actor Kasai Ami.

There are many super popular themes and settings, other than ero-comedy, that BL live action is yet to touch - yakuza (with the exception of Double Mints), historical, beast-man, fetish, etc. Live action BL will probably grow more accommodative in the future.

And to counter the wild claim that Japan doesn’t care about markets outside itself:

youtube

Here are some popular Thai BL actors promoting Japanese BL Takumi-kun Series 6: Nagai Nagai Monogatari no Hajimari no Asa (2023).

While I understand where ABL’s obsession with Japanese exceptionalism comes from, it is particularly duplicitous and disingenuous when imposed to BL since it is driven by ever-present moe (affect) and transnational fu-culture. Also, it is China and Korea, and not Japan that has produced some of the lewdest and goriest BL.

As always I welcome all corrections, critiques and comments.

Hi fave bl encyclopedia ❤️

So my question is about Japanese bl, like I don’t understand it! Please help 😭

So I know japan is like the motherland of yaoi and they pretty much started it all, and they make some pretty graphic and explicit bls ( which is not my cup of tea tbh), but then they also have shows like cherry magic and keita and the most recent KEI X YAKU (I am watching this one rn, and I actually like it so very much) but for the life of me I can’t figure out why these shows are made with zero intimacy between the main couple, not even a simple innocent kiss?!

are these shows considered more mainstream? Are the yaoi only allowed in fandom space? And not in mainstream media?

Just why are these shows made the way they are?

Don’t get me wrong CM and KH are two of my absolute favorite bls of all times, but I still don’t get just… WHY?

Hi!

The Weeds of Japanese BL

So I am going to go off of this blog post on the history of Japanese BL and yaoi and only bother to repeat myself if strictly necessary.

Top 10 BLs Out of Japan - top 10 plus history of BL (part 1 in the series on the history of BL)

Otherwise there would be a lot of rehash.

So my question is about Japanese bl, like I don’t understand it. Please help!

So have you read the above post? Because if you haven’t reading that will at least give you some kind of foundation for your understandable confusion.

But part of most people’s misunderstanding over Japanese BL actually has to do with the nature of Japanese cinema.

Here’s the thing, the Japanese have a very specific taste to their cinema. They have a style and lens that they stick to and (with a few noted exceptions) they pretty much haven’t deviated since the 1950s.

In film style there’s atmospheric (cinematic and sweeping, think Kurosawa) vs live action manga (think cartoonish + sound effects, stylized framing and staging techniques meets slapstick).

In yaoi there’s light (sweet, clean, bright, airy) vs dark (erotic, serious, gritty, rough).

In the sexual sphere there's prudish & chaste vs kinky & explicit.

Everything seems to be bifurcated in Japan. Now, on a very few occasions they can tread the line between the lanes, and borrow bits and pieces from different approaches, but most of the time they stick to those lanes pretty cleanly.

I can’t figure out why these shows are made with zero intimacy between the main couple, not even a simple innocent kiss

Generally speaking, the shows that are very light very sweet and very bright, cartoony, with lots of slapstick elements will have little to no sexual contact at all: so Cherry, Mix Up, Ossan, Same Difference, Mr Unlucky, Our Dining Table to fall into this category.

They'll owe a lot more to Shōnen-ai (which is turn has a lot to do with Bildungsroman) which means it's more gentle and tends to be a journey of self discovery for the uke - undertaken by younger characters (or younger acting/seeming innocents), and thus (like YA) much less sexualized.

(I am not going to comment on KEI X YAKU since I didn’t watch it because it appears to be a bromance.)

are these shows considered more mainstream?

Sort of, it’s more that they’re just considered a different category. Like how USA draws a distinction between the amount of sexual content that is allowed in a sitcom versus a soap opera. Similar kinds of topics, frameworks, filming style, and target demographics dealt with, but expectations around nudity and sexuality are way different. Different air times and lengths too.

This doesn’t seem weird to me because I grew up with soaps vs sitcoms. But if I step outside of my upbringing, it’s odd right? The nature of the sexual content is so different, but they’re mostly both family dramas with a ton of romance. And then the “late night” (read sitcom timeslot) soaps came along kinda blending the two. Ah... the 90s.

Where was I?

Okay so, why are they different? Because Japan thinks of them differently.

Another thing to know about the Japanese film industry?

They take little to no interest in or guidance/feedback from the international market. They do not care. Their attitude, when something like Cherry Magic does well outside of Japan is... oh do the internationals like that one? How quaint. That’s special. Should we consider... distribution? A second season? *yawn* how tiresome.

Which is why a JBL will drop locally, get mad pirating and illegal subs and such, and then about half way through suddenly show up on a distribution platform like Viki or GaGa pretending it has always been there.

Can you sense my frustration? This is why backlist is so hard to get hold of too. But it KEEPS happening.

Like Japan just forgets about us.

Which is probubly because THEY DO.

Japan cares about their own internal market interest and style way way WAY more than any other BL producing country. (I would argue including Mainland China.)

Japan respects Japan’s taste.

PERIOD.

End of discussion.

Look at the HAIR.

I rest my case.

When I talk about the fact that Japan has an unchangingly firm point of view? This is what I mean.

Set your expectations based on what Japan has done in the past, because that is what they will do in the future.

You will never be disappointed. They will hold steadfast to their traditions, the good, the slapstick, and the kinky.

Are the yaoi only allowed in fandom space?

Cherry Magic I would call both mainstream, popular, and live action yaoi.

Plenty of yaoi of this type (and back in the day) has very little on page kissing (or anything else for that matter), either. There is a whole sub-genre of sweet, or even clean, yaoi. Which is not to say it didn’t piss me off that they couldn’t actually kiss in Cherry Magic. Especial with that elevator fake out and the dead fish kiss from the side dishes. Very disappointing.

Might be expense involved. Talent ain’t cheep in Japan, might be too costly to have them kiss.

Or they just being coy teases about it.

Basically they brats, and we in a non-con kink relationship where they promise but never deliver kisses in some kind of weird passive aggressive D/s dynamic. Also, VERY Japanese.

Oh shit, my dating trauma is showing.

Ignore that last bit.

Just why are these shows made the way they are? Don’t get me wrong CM and KH are two of my absolute favorite bls of all times, but I still don’t get just… WHY?

I know it is super frustrating. I would like it if they just put at least one kiss in there too.

Here’s the thing: I happen to like Japan’s lanes, even as I am frustrated by them. Because when they do it well, they are square root of it all.

Get it???

SQUARE root?

Because, ya know, no kisses = so square.

Okay I’m pushing it.

But also the other lane gives us kisses = great = MURDER DEATH MUTILATION!!!!

Oh, Japan.

Here’s some interesting stats on Japanese ‘s BL (or more properly LAY - live action yaoi) for you:

As of early 2022, there’s still only about 55 of them.

High heat erotic LAY & pinks: 21

Light cheerful LAY in which there is little to no kissing, or it’s very dead fishy: 21

LAY that managed to be very yaoi but actually strike a balance between the two: 12 (and I include all the Takumi-kuns in here and they seriously might not qualify because... Takumi)

I just did the count for this post and it’s wild how even the split was.

(I’m missing some and not all are really BL, but with a sample of only 50+ it’s not really statistically viable anyway).

If you want to really understand how Japan adapts yaoi you should delve into Love Stage!!:

Read the yaoi manga

Watch the anime

Watch the Japanese live action adaptation

Watch Thai BL adaptation

It’s a pretty informative experience. Tells you a lot about Japan’s relationship to the industry and genre that they started and how yaoi is treated differently in the different mediums.

But honestly, the answer to your question is gonna really frustrate you.

This is all just Japan being Japan, and it’s the way they approach BL. Because it’s the way Japan approaches cinema.

Because, in the end, even if we call it BL, Japan is always going to do LAY, and that is kind of its own creature. The starter to the sour dough, not the bread that results.

Because Japan is always going to pick their lanes and stick to 'em.

Having said that, here’s some LAY that actually manages to have all of the things we expect from BL including kisses!

Seven Days

Given

Life: Love on the Line

Restart After Come Back Home AKA Risutato wa tadaima no ato de

Utsukushii Kare AKA My Beautiful Man

That last one is absolutely amazing. See me lose my tiny mind over it and how it manages to be SO yaoi and SO Japanese and SO WONDERFUL despite everything. Or perhaps BECAUSE of everything.

Utsukushii Kare is a BL that actually no other country could make. It’s PURE uncut Japanese live action yaoi and it’s AMAZING partly because of that.

Mr. Unlucky (AKA Fukou-kun wa Kiss Suru Shikanai!) is an interesting test.

I, and many other aficionados of LAY, expect it to have no kissing. But it’s already odd in that it got its distribution sorted before it started airing. Like a goddamn adult. This is confusingly un-Japanese of it.

If Japan produces this as a slapstick comedy, in the vein of Kieta Hatsukoi (AKA My Love Mix Up), but it actually has decent kiss like Utsukushii Kare? It means Japan, whether it likes it or not, is finally being influenced by the popularity of Korean & Thai BL.

But if it doesn’t give good kiss, it means they are still sticking to their established traditions.

And this being Japan, my money is on the later.

Let’s see how much crow I eat in a month.

More on Japanese cinema here.

(source)

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mostlysignssomeportents · 2 years ago

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There’s never just one ant

So there's a great Thai restaurant in my neighborhood called Kiin. Yesterday, I searched for their website to order some takeout. Here's the Google result.

That top result (an ad)? It's fake. It goes to https://kiinthaila.com, which is NOT the website for Kiin.

The *third* result is real: https://kiinthaiburbank.com

Fake site:

Real site:

I got duped. I placed an order with the fake site. The fake site then placed the order - in my name! - with the real site, having marked up the prices by 15%. Kiin clearly knows they're doing this (presumably by the billing data on the credit card the fakesters use to place the order). They called me within minutes to tell me they'd cancelled the fakesters' order.

I could still come pick it up, but I'd have to pay them, and cancel the payment to the fakesters with Amex. Actually, as it turns out, I have to cancel TWO payments, because the fakesters DOUBLE-charged me.

Here's what that charge looks like on my Amex bill. See that phone number? (415) 639-9034 is the number for Wix, who provides the scammers' website.

How the actual FUCK did these obvious scammers get an Amex merchant account in the name of "KIINTHAILA" by after supplying the phone number for a website hosting company? What is Amex's KYC procedure? Do they even call the phone number?

And why the actual FUCK is Google Ads accepting these scam artists' ads for a business that they already have a knowledge box for?! Google KNOWS what the real KIIN restaurant is, and yet they are accepting payment to put a fake KIIN listing two slots ABOVE the real one.

To be fair to these scammer asshole ripoff creeps who are trying to steal from my local mom-and-pop, single location Thai eatery, they're just following in the shoes of Doordash and Uber Eats, who did the same thing to hundreds (thousands?) of restaurants during lockdown.

Doug Rushkoff says that the ethic of today's "entrepreneur" is to “Go Meta” - don't provide a product or a service, simply find a way to be a predatory squatter on a chokepoint between people who do useful things and people who use those things.

These parasites have turned themselves into landlords of someone else's home, collecting rent on a property they don't own and have no connection to.

There's NEVER just one ant. I guaran-fucking-tee you that these same creeps have 1,000 other fake Wix websites with 1,000 fake Amex merchant accounts for 1,000 REAL businesses, and that Google has sold them ads for every one of them. Amex and Google and Wix should be able to spot these creeps FROM ORBIT. Holy shit do we live in the worst of all possible timelines. We have these monopolist megacorps that spy on and control everything we do, wielding the most arbitrary and high-handed authority.

And yet they do NOT ONE FUCKING THING to prevent these petty scammers from using their infra as force-multipliers to let them steal from every hungry person patronizing every local restaurant.

I mean, what's the point of letting these robber-barons run the entire show if they're not even COMPETENT?

ETA: Dinner was delicious

#thai food #burbank #google ads #kyc #amex #wix #creeps #ripoffs #go meta

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zuko-always-lies · 3 months ago

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What Suki felt sorry about (Suki meta)

"The Warriors of Kyoshi":

Suki: [Voice-over.] And if you don't answer all our questions, we're throwing you back in the water with the Unagi. Suki: [Grabs Sokka by his collar. Angrily.] A bunch of girls, huh? The Unagi's gonna eat well tonight. Katara: [Leans forward in her bonds. Pleading and apologetically.] No, don't hurt him! He didn't mean it. My brother is just an idiot sometimes. [Suki released Sokka, but still stares at him in dismay.] Oyaji: [Cut to frontal view of Suki and Oyaji who angrily points at Aang while looking at Suki.] Throw the impostor to the Unagi! Suki and the rest of her warriors immediately retract their metal fans from out of their belts and slid them open. Ready to counter any sudden attack, they threateningly start to move forward and surround the bound friends.

later:

Suki: [Looks at how Sokka continues his warm up.] Well, you're in the right place. [Cut to a side-view while Sokka is loosening up his hips.] Sorry about yesterday. I didn't know that you were friends with the Avatar.

This is quite interesting. What really strikes me is that Suki isn't sorry because she and the other warriors attacked a bunch of kids just visiting their shores. She isn't sorry that she threatened to gruesomely execute those kids. She isn't sorry she nearly carried out the execution of at least one of these kids. She isn't even sorry that those kids turned out to be completely innocent.

What she is sorry about is that one of those kids was the Avatar, and the others were the Avatar's friends. That's why she thinks what she did was wrong. Not anything else about what happened, just that.

Again this brings me to my point: Suki is a very morally grey character and I like her like that. It's the one way she was ever allowed to be interesting in the writing of ATLA.

#Suki #Suki meta #ATLA meta #ATLA #I know I'm making a lot out of a little #but do you realize how hard it is to write Suki metas?

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klbwriting · 1 year ago

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Who Am I Really?

Chapter 2

Fandom: Aquaman

Pairing: Ormxfemale!Reader

Warnings: none

Summary: Orm wakes and tries to figure out who and where he is, YN decides to let him stay with her

Orm woke up with a groan. He sat up looking around the small bedroom confused. Where was he? Why was he here? Did he live here? Why was he bandaged? What was his name? He sat up as the door to the room opened and a woman came in carrying a tray. She quickly set it down on a dresser before going over to him, gently pushing on his shoulder to stay in bed.

"Don't move, you might start bleeding again," YN said. She looked at the bindings and gently moved them, frowning, and removing the one around his shoulder. "That's impossible...how did you heal so quickly?" Orm shook his head, more confused. Had he been injured? She took off the bandage around his abs and the one around his shin. Finally the one around his head. "All healed, you must be a metahuman."

"Do you know me?" he asked. YN stopped to look at him for a moment, really stare into his eyes. They were a bit glassy, very confused, not at all with the confidence and surety he had shown when he entered her shelter. He must have hit his head hard on the wall, perhaps he was having some short term amnesia? She let out a breath.

"We just met yesterday, you came into my animal shelter. You said your name was Orm," she said softly, trying to be gentle and not freak him out. If she were in his position she would be losing it right now, but Orm took in the information and swirled it in his mind, trying to pull out anything from his memory. Orm floated there and he felt pain, sadness, loneliness, but it was like it was someone else's, not his own feelings. He pushed them aside easily and shrugged.

"I can't remember anything," he said finally. YN nodded and smiled. "Do you know where I'm from? Do I have family?"

"I don't, I didn't find any ID on you either, maybe the attackers took your wallet with them, but I don't know, I didn't see. You were very brave, going out there against those metas, I'm guessing by the fact that you healed so quickly that you're metahuman too," she said. "Do you think you could stand? I was going to have you eat some breakfast in bed but you might want to move, stretch your legs a little. Orm nodded and she helped him stand but after a few moments it was clear that his body was fine, it was only his brain that was having trouble. They headed into the rest of the house, Orm looking around, trying to orient himself. He saw things that must have been deep memories, he knew where the bathroom, living room, and kitchen were based on what they looked like, he just couldn't remember anything about himself. Was this normal? He shook his head again, taking the offered seat at the table.

"Thank you," he said as YN set out eggs, biscuits, some kind of gravy.

"I'll go to the police today, see if they had anyone reported missing," she said. For some reason alarm bells went off in Orm's mind at that. Why would he not want her to find help with him? What had he done. He looked at his hands, trying to figure out if they knew how to hold weapons, knew bloodshed, maybe had even caused some. Either way, he couldn't be found.

"I don't think you should do that..." he said, trying to recall her name. She looked at him brow furrowed.

"I'm YN, and why not? Someone attacked you, maybe you are a protected person, or maybe you're part of the Justice League or something," she said. Then another thought struck her, what if he was the bad guy? A villain who had just stumbled into her shelter looking for pets to do experiments or something on? She shook the thought, she couldn't imagine it, not with the man who yesterday was so attentive and looked at those dogs with such love and care. Orm wasn't a villain, not really. Or maybe she was being foolish and naive. Didn't matter, if he didn't want help she would leave him be, perhaps he did know something, but he just couldn't bring it out yet.

"I think whatever attacked was after me, and maybe its because I've hurt people," he said softly. He hadn't touched his food, still not coming to terms with the idea that maybe he was a terrible person, a tyrant, a dictator...why had he thought so highly of himself? Tyrant? Dictator? Those words were for evil leaders weren't they? He couldn't have been a leader, he didn't feel very much like one at all. He didn't notice that YN was talking to him until she touched his hand. Instantly his thoughts still, calming enough that he looked at her clearly. How did she do that? Make him safe and warm? He didn't think he'd felt that before.

"Orm, don't worry, you can stay here, I have the extra room and as long as you're willing to help with the animals you can get free food and have a bed as long as you need it," she said. He stared at her. What kindness she had in her that she would take in a stranger, and yet a stranger who knew nothing about himself, that she knew nothing about, and invite him to stay, give him a place to sleep and a purpose. It was a lot to take and Orm felt something on his face.

"What is happening?" he asked, wiping at the wetness that appeared on his cheeks. YN got up from her seat and walked over, hugging his face to her body, stroking his hair. He felt something stirring, almost a memory, just a feeling of safety.

"You're crying," she said. "Its alright, you've just been through a trauma, it must all be overwhelming, not having any memory. You must be scared." They stood in silence for a time, letting him get whatever emotions he needed to work through out of his system. She didn't move, just stayed there, holding him and stroking his hair. He leaned into her, trying to suck in the feeling of safety she gave him, wanting to find a way to capture it so he didn't have to depend on her for it anymore. After he seemed to calm down she left his side, sitting down again and he felt a little empty at the loss of contact.

"Thank you," he said, he felt like he would be saying that a lot to her for a while. She just smiled and looked at their now cold breakfast. She moved to reheat everything and set it back in front of him. This time Orm ate, trying to figure out what he liked and didn't like. Gravy, gross, biscuit, delicious, eggs, on the fence.

#orm marius #king orm #ormmarius #orm marius x reader #king orm x reader #kingorm #ormmariusxreader #kingormxreader #ormseries4

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ineffable-opinions · 5 months ago

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BL is a genre in itself – practically well as the way Masala is a cinema genre.

BL / romance

But there are plenty of BL devoid of romance. Like One Room Angel, Social Reform Season, and The Orc Bride. Similarly, BL is not exactly porn even though there are plenty of ero/porn-BL.

Also, there are plenty of BL where romance takes backseat such as The Night Beyond the Tricornered Window, Blue Morning, Brother, Lawless Gangster and Thousand Autumns.

BL / queer

Queer – Even if one were to ignore queer as method in academia, it is still so complex. Can I call it a genre the way I call BL a genre?

Let me quote Taiwanese tongzhi (queer) author Chiang-Sheng Kuo:

(You can find the whole interview here.)

I think the problem persist even when I think of queer as a label.

To quote what Kaustav Bakshi wrote in Writing the LGBTIHQ+ movement in Bangla:

Imo, decolonizing queer epistemologies comes in handy when discussing BL since there are plenty of BL dealing with:

Historical BL set in eras and locations that had customary male-male sexualities and practices.

BL with special settings, like omegaverse and dom-sub-verse, with different (if any) idea of queerness.

BL / other queer content

The people on here getting mad about one couple getting too much screen time or another not doing enough in 4Minutes are the same to me as the booktok people who can’t read anything without romance. Sometimes it’s about storytelling that makes you scream into your pillow every week idk what else to fucking tell you

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twig-tea · 1 year ago

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2023 BL/GL/QL Round-Up Post

I thought for posterity I'd post a reflection on everything I watched that completed in 2023. For me, that means anything that started in 2022 but the last episode was in 2023 is on this list, but anything that will still be airing after 31 December 2023 11:59 my time (EST) is not on this list, even if the bulk of the show did air in 2023.

A few stats:

110 discrete pieces of content (series/films)

clocking in at est. 600 hours of NEW BL/GL content only

from 9 different countries (Cambodia [1], Philippines [3], Hong Kong [1], Japan [18], Korea [19], Myanmar [1], Taiwan [6], Thailand [56], Vietnam [7])

~50% of the content I watched on this list is from Thailand

~85% of my content was on YouTube [40%], GaGaOoLaLa [23%] and iQIYI [21%].

[Note that this year a lot of older GMMTV shows moved off of YouTube and onto Viki so if you're looking at these stats to decide what to pay for, this won't account for that.]

This doesn't include re-watches or catching up on old shows [e.g. I re-watched Love Sick, My Ride the Series, Semantic Error, ITSAY/IPYTM, Our Dating Sim at least 3 times lol, and anything with a s2 I re-watched s1 to prep, among others, watched Fujoshi Ukkari Gei no Kokuru (2019) for the first time] or non-QL [e.g. Heartstopper s2, Our Flag Means Death s2, Taskmaster s. 15 & 16, Uncanny Counter s2, One Piece s1, etc.] but does include films as well as shows, though I don't count special episodes separately (so Wedding Plan counts once, though I watched both the show and the special).

I hope you all appreciate that with this much content, and with my general brand of being unable to make decisions, I really struggled to narrow down a top 10 list. What follows is the best I could do lol

Top 20 Shows I'd Recommend From This Year:

Moonlight Chicken

Our Dating Sim

Bed Friend

The Eighth Sense

La Pluie

Sing My Crush

Tokyo in April Is...

Wedding Plan

Laws of Attraction

I Cannot Reach You

I Feel You Linger in the Air

What Did You Eat Yesterday S2

I Became the Lead in a BL Drama

If It's With You

Love in Translation

Our Dining Table

My Personal Weatherman

My Beautiful Man: Eternal

My School President

Be My Favorite

+10 I liked but I would only recommend with caveats:

Love Class 2

The New Employee [for the Rainbow Rice Cakes]

Let's Eat Together Aki and Haru

Never Let Me Go

Kiseki: Dear to Me

Unintentional Love Story

The Day I Loved You

End of the World with You

A Breeze of Love

Jack O'Frost

Bonus: Not a BL but worth calling out:

One Room Angel

Midnight Museum

Grand Guignol

The Warp Effect

Sadly, of the GLs that aired this year, I wouldn't recommend any of them. The best one was Show Me Love, which was not actually good but had very gorgeous women and a LOT of flirting.

The other huge thing that happened this year was that I stopped lurking! Thanks specifically to @lurkingshan and @bengiyo demanding everyone start talking about La Pluie, because they got me to post my first meta post. And because I started actually talking to people, I started making actual friends, and participated in organizing things like the Be My Favorite clown checkpoint for ep 11. I also disappeared a month because of life, and am still catching up on everything I intended to write this year. But it's been really rewarding finding this corner of tumblr with likeminded people who like good shows, like to think about these shows, and who are interested in talking about them in a way that's insightful and respectful.

It's been a long time since I felt comfortable enough participating actively in a fandom, and I just want to say to everyone I've interacted with this year: Thank you!

Full list under the cut for anyone curious! [Mostly in order it aired but may be slightly off].

Love Bill

Director Who Buys Me Dinner, The

Star Always Follow You, The

Cutie Pie 2 You

Between Us the Series (Hemp Rope)

Reason Why He Fell in Love with Me Special & S2 [international release]

New Employee, The

I Will Hit You/I Will Knock You

Individual Circumstances

609 Bedtime Story

GAPYuri / GAP the series

My School President

HitBiteLove the Series

Never Let Me Go

Moonlight Chicken

History 5: Love in the Future

Oh My God (ToDo) the Series

Warp Effect, The

End of the World, With You

My Blessing the Series

Our Winter (miniseries)

All the Liquors

Once in Memory: Let Me Be Yours

Shoulder to Cry On, A

Jack O'Frost

Our Dating Sim

Midnight Museum

Me, My Husband, and My Husband's Boyfriend

My Colleague at BL Shop might be My Meant-to-Be

Unintentional Love Story

Chains of Heart

Bed Friend the series

Bad Brother the Series

Stormy Honeymoon

Eighth Sense, the

Bad Brother the Series

Future Series

Tin Tam Jai the series

Crush on You

House of Stars the Series

Happy Merry Ending

Boss and a Babe, A

Pastsenger the Series

Love Mate

Love Syndrome the Series

Promise the Series, The

Day I Loved You, The

Our Dining Table (Bokura no Shokutaku)

Our Skyy 2

My Story the Series

Starstruck

Love Tractor

Naked Dining

Luminous Solution, The

Omai Series / Is My Roommate A Foreigner

Stupid Genius

Step By Step

La Pluie the series

Tie the Not

Sing My Crush / Follow the Wind

Tokyo in April Is .../ Shigatsu no Tokyo wa

Senior Love Me?

Be My Favorite

Show Me Love

Dinosaur Love

Low Frequency

Stay Still

Stay By My Side

Jun & Jun

Wedding Plan the Series

Laws of Attraction, the

Love Class s2

Minato's Laundromat S2

Hidden Agenda

Bon Appetit

Why RU the Series [Korean adaptation]

Be Mine Superstar

Star, The Season 2

Love In Translation

My Beautiful Man: Eternal

My Personal Weatherman

Bump Up Business

Naughty Babe Series

Only Friends

Grand Guignol

Dangerous Romance

If It's With You / Kimi to Nara Koi wo Shite Mite Mo

Y Journey: Stay Like a Local

I Feel You Linger in the Air

Venus in the Sky

Kiseki: Dear to Me

I Cannot Reach You

You Are Mine

Breeze of Love / Weather Forecast of Love

Mr. Cinderella 2

Let's Eat Together Aki and Haru

One Room Angel

Marry My Dead Body

Lucky My Love the Series

Pure Vanilla: Recipe for Romance

Absolute Zero

Memories, The

My Dear Gangster Oppa

Shadow

What Did You Eat Yesterday? S2

Middleman Love

Beyond the Star

Bake Me Please

You and My Stars

I Became the Lead in a BL Drama

#2023 round-ups #bl meta #multi bl #typed so i can stop thinking it #twig talks #top lists are so hard for me this is the best I could do #if anyone wants to know anything about any of these shows feel free to ask!#best of bl 2023 #long post

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bluedalahorse · 1 year ago

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Hello @simonsapelsin! I’m ready to respond to the comment you left yesterday.

Within the parameters of canon—most likely no, but maybe? It would have to be backed up by a lot of plot and character developments in order for it to work.

This ended up being way too long, so more thoughts on sargust + thoughts on the potential created by AUs and canon divergences + thoughts on the idea of “healthy” relationships behind the cut…

So obviously season 2 ended in a really, really bad place for sargust. August refuses to embrace accountability and doubles down on his harmful behavior. Our last shot of Sara is her calling the police to report him, and in that moment she’s completely alone. They have that painful conversation about August buying Rousseau. That’s… that’s a lot for them to overcome, and season 3 doesn’t have enough episodes to get us there fully, unless the writing team are very, very clever and efficient.

There’s a popular fan interpretation of sargust that says that Sara and August both project identities onto one another and don’t see one another’s real selves. I understand and agree with that interpretation up to a point, but I don’t know if I necessarily agree with it 100%. In my mind they do see real things about one another (August sees Sara’s ambition and desire for independence, Sara sees August’s emotional vulnerability and need for help. And they do connect with one another in ways that others haven’t been able to connect with them. What August and Sara fail to predict about one another is the other’s choices. Sara assumed August would choose to be honest and August assumed Sara would choose to be queen. But I think the care they showed for one another earlier in the season was real, and the way they could hold space for one another was real. That’s really a meta I could write for another time, but a lot of it hinges on this line, which is not a line I am even remotely normal about:

(Note: I’ll probably write this meta eventually. The fact that these characters create a sort of home with one another! Also lol @ August looking like he is stoned out of his mind.)

So what would it look like for sargust to get a Second Chance Romance within the parameters of canon? I mean, first of all, they’d both have to mature independently for a while and work through a lot of the trauma they’re carrying.

For Sara, I want her to get away from home and have some distance from the place she grew up so she can put her childhood in perspective. Therapy would help. (I want that for Simon, too!) I’d also like to see Sara find some neurodivergent friends/community—I mean, we do tend to find one another and run in packs! And then some sort of career or life path that makes her happy. Maybe with horses, sure, but it’d also be interesting to see Sara keep horses as a beloved hobby while also finding a different career she’s passionate about.

For August, accountability and rehabilitation and understanding of the harm he did is incredibly important for his personal growth. Whether he faces that through the legal system or through some other process is something we have yet to see in the show. Then comes the long work of restitution and atonement, as well as the steps August needs to take to grapple with his various personal traumas. Like, please get this boy a place to process his grief over his father, treatment for his disordered eating, and rehab for his addiction to pills.

Now, Sara and August wouldn’t have to be 100% healed and self-actualized when they run across one another as adults—I don’t know if there’d be a story if they were, and this sort of stuff is lifelong work! But further along the paths above that I described—that could still be a good story.

Beyond growth and maturity, I think we’d have to see some sort of change in how August and Simon relate to one another, happening primarily on Simon’s terms because he was the one wronged, and that would need to be an important part of the story. This feels crucial. Now that Sara’s aware how much she hurt her brother, I don’t imagine she’d enter a relationship with August even if August is a super chill, okay person now. So I actually think a good Second Chance Romance story would have to heavily involve Simon in one way or another. But a fic where August and Simon interact more honestly with one another, and August has to face up to Simon’s personhood? That would definitely hold my attention. (I am kind of hoping they get more extended interaction in season 3, really. They have some sneaky but fascinating parallels as characters and I like watching the way Omar and Malte play off one another.)

Outside of canon… one thing I have considered is the potential to write a version of sargust in AUs that’s more tailored toward happy endings. Which doesn’t quite relate to your question but I do want to talk about it. As of now, AUs/Canon Divergence fics are a perfect place to make sargust actually work out. This fandom has a lot of imagination for AUs and canon divergences. And it’s no surprise—Young Royals is a rich, nuanced text that can be explored from many angles, so it only makes sense that we’d want to create a thousand alternate universe scenarios where canon could have gone differently. In my mind, if people can write “Erik lives” AUs, then “sargust is successful because August learns over time to be less shitty” AUs are also fair game.

The thing with writing an AU or canon divergence is that August’s complex brand of shittiness does not have to be inevitable or eternal. We’ve got creative freedom, baby! We can write any kind of arc for him that we want to and nudge him in all kinds of directions, and set him and Sara up for success! To me, part of the spirit of Young Royals is embracing the idea that everyone has choices, and that they are capable of growth that allows them to make better choices. I mean, sure, it’d be weird to find a version of August on page #1 of a fanfic who’s suddenly like, quoting bell hooks and pushing for an inclusive socialist utopia. I don’t know if I’d suspend my disbelief for that. But I also really struggle to suspend my disbelief for AU versions of August where he’s like… a straightforward flat villain solely out to cause trouble, which is something I have seen out there in the wild and clicked the “back” button over. I crave the nuance. The texture. The literary crunch of it all!

And I don’t think August has to be the center of a fic for that to happen, even. Like I think there’s ways to have him and Sara as a story’s Beta Couple or Gamma Couple and we’re rooting for them and you know what? It’s an AU where some of the characters are fae or 1980s punks or rival scholars of Cold War history so events are happening differently anyway. I’m sure there are ways to write August in character as his shitty self and have him eventually grow and change, without having August also ruin his chances with Sara because he does something that fucks Simon over so completely, you know?

Now, I know there’s fic writers out there who never under any circumstances want to write August’s character and can’t do so from a place of emotional safety. For some folks it is more comfortable to engage with him as a more straightforward villain. And that’s fair. Everyone should write what they feel comfortable writing! In this post, however, I’m thinking more about the people who want to include some kind of nuanced arc for August in their story, but also feel like no one will be interested in it, or like they’ll actually lose readers and engagement if they do write about him, even as a secondary character. Every once in a while I’ll see another fan allude to a really cool fic idea that involves August in some way or takes him in an interesting direction, and then they’ll be like, “oh, but why bother writing it, no one will read it anyway.” And… that makes me incredibly sad! Because I would happily read those fics. I know some other people who would happily read those fics! But I think we’ve normalized the idea that that’s just not how things are “done” in the Young Royals fandom. Which makes it very hard for people to take that risk. I think we’re missing out on some cool stories as a result, that could really be satisfying to read.

One final thought… I notice some fandoms use the word “healthy” when describing their OTPs/favorite pairings. I hope you’re okay with me unpacking that a bit? This is less a response to your comment in particular and more a response to fandom at large.

Honestly, “healthy” is a word that’s starting to feel pretty loaded for me, and can kind of rub me the wrong way. It seems that generally what people mean by it—when they apply it to a pairing—is that the pairing is good at communicating, respects one another’s boundaries, responds to one another’s needs, processes trauma, etc. And I do appreciate in a story when characters can do these things, to an extent.

But putting it under this umbrella label of “healthy” …well. Okay. “Healthy” is a word that society has added a moral dimension to, and it often gets weaponized against people with disabilities and mental illnesses and other chronic conditions. And health is not an indicator of personal worth. Holding people IRL to a standard of “healthy” kinda feels like you’re saying “it’s okay if you have these diagnoses, as long as you manage them in such a way that it seems like they don’t affect you or the people around you.” (And as someone who’s just recently begun managing a chronic condition, who’s struggling with how to tell my family members because of the way they’re going to moralize about my diet or my stress levels, and also struggling with the shit I’ve internalized over the years… well. I’m thinking about how we use the word “healthy” a lot.)

Bringing this back to the realm of fandoms (because, oof, TMI there blue!) holding a fictional character or pairing to the standard of “healthy” can kind of create some uncomfortable fandom dynamics—at least it can for me, personally. When I see fans take pride in the fact that they ship a “healthy” pairing, to the point where they frequently talk about how “healthy” their pairing is, it’s almost impossible for me not to read such comments as using a moralizing tone that implicitly puts others down for having “unhealthy” ships. Sometimes—generally I haven’t seen this as much in YR fandom—there are even people who will straight up write you off if they perceive your ship as “unhealthy” or “toxic.” And then suddenly all ships are either deemed healthy or unhealthy, and healthy ships are retroactively interpreted as doing everything right, while unhealthy ships can never do anything right, and there’s no hope for them. And that is… a bleak and boring landscape for shipping, if you ask me.

I want to read romances where writers are informed about how trauma can affect relationships and how one can learn to survive it, yes. But I feel iffy about the idea of a perfectly “healthy” romances for sargust or wilmon, seeing as they’re all characters with trauma and mental health struggles, and all of them have days that are Not So Good. They could all mature into adults who’ve learned from their past, but like, Wilhelm might still have panic attacks because anxiety is like that sometimes and it’s not a moral failing. August could go through rehab and be in a much better place and harm others less, and still might struggle with intense emotional disregulation or thoughts related to disordered eating, you know? I’d like reading trauma-informed stories where sargust can mature and heal. But they still might have bad days because that’s what being human is.

In addition, I also like tragic sargust where things just don’t work out between them and everything falls apart, because as I’ve said elsewhere on this blog, I’m a slut for tragedy.

So. Idk. I talk about all these things and all these possibilities in hopes that maybe someone in the fandom will get inspired by them. We’ll see if it does that! Ahaha. It’s worth a try.

ADDENDUM, since I didn’t talk about my own fic ideas here:

Heart and Homeland is an AU fic, and it’s tragic sargust for sure. And I’m proud of it, despite the part where their relationship is tragic! And I tried to work in little glimmers where you see how their relationship could have worked.

Now, my next fic idea, shared with @heliza24, is one set in a canon divergence universe where Sara goes to campus to look for Simon, on the night that Everything Is Fake But Wilhelm’s Love For Simon Is Real. As Sara walks around campus, trying to find her brother, she bumps into August, who is still high from the party and is just sort of… emotionally all over the place? In my head I think Sara and August actually trip over one another and he gets a skinned knee or something, so they have to break into some part of school late at night to get band-aids from a first aid kit, and they end up in a weird, late-night conversation and August actually ends up talking to Sara about his grief for Erik. Thus, he’s never at the window to film the video, and some weird door opens up in his brain about actually having someone he can open up to. He doesn’t change overnight, but his character—and everyone else’s characters—are butterfly effected in a totally different direction. That’s all I’m going to say for now! But gosh, I really hope I get the time and energy to write it.

#young royals #sara eriksson #august horn #sargust #this is a long post i am sorry #and also it veers into my thoughts about fandom stuff in general #but hopefully there are a few good ideas in there

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snorkling-in-sodasea · 6 months ago

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The Antartic Short

Yeah, the one that came out yesterday as of this time. Where I.M.P. went to the artic or whatever. It was absolutely impressive, how it was only almost four and a half minutes and that was enough time for it to have three major things that made me pause and question shit. It's been bugging me since I saw it so I just gotta put it in a post

First problem, which isn't as major as the other two as far as bugging me goes, Millie actually claims that the slaughter at the station is more brutal than fucking wrath beasts. You mean to tell me that that generic-looking aftermath of a massacre is worse than anything you can find in the fucking Wrath Ring in Hell? And yeah, I'm calling it generic because come. On! That little tease of a slaughter at the beginning of Full Moon looked worse than that and I.M.P. were the ones to cause it!

Honestly, I don't get at all that demons in Hell have standards. Hell is supposed to have the worst of what humankind have to offer and hellborn should only be slightly better than that, if they're gonna be better at all. Really, the morality standards never made sense anyway. Like how mafia in the past believe that it's being gay that will damn you to Hell and not the whole killing people shit. So why the fuck are Blitzo and Moxxie looking unnerved at Millie committing arson to the psycho penguins? Just don't care!

Second problem, the Asmodean crystal and it's majorly impractical requirement to work. Fuck seriously, Seeing Stars established that Earth is just as dangerous as Hell so I refuse to believe that the succubi, incubi, and other demons like Barbie would never be in danger if they traveled to Earth. That means there's always a chance that they could be in danger from a psycho or something and need to make a quick getaway. They won't have time to go to fucking town on their fucking crystal! Really, what if the time spent pleasing their damn crystal is the time that it takes for the danger to reach them and kill them off? So the Asmodean crystal is even worse as a way to and from the human world because at least the grimoire doesn't need the goddamn TLC to work! Really, goes to show that even when Stolas is giving a 'thoughtful' gift, he really didn't bother to put any thought to it where it really counted. What's more, Blitzo so as fuck never used that tongue shit in Apology Tour and the beginning of the short so why the hell did it turn into a problem then? I want a fucking in-universe explanation, not the meta reason Rule of Funny!

And third problem - this section being rather NSFW - what the fuck does that mean that Blitzo being a top automatically means that he's not good at oral? If anything, I would have expected a top to do oral than a bottom! What's more - again - the whole damn point of Apology Tour was to establish that Blitzo's a shitty person, he was, and that he needs and wants to change. That was the whole damn point. That means being good at bed, being a practical good at it, is the only thing that Blitzo had going for himself when it came to scoring that many exes in the damn first place! If he's a shitty person and shit in the sheets, then how the fuck did he ever get that many exes? Especially female exes. Some people believe that Blitzo is so selfish that he never wanted to go down on someone, there was even someone who said that he especially never went down on a woman before, and I'm like... am I even supposed to believe that Blitzo is even bisexual anymore, let alone pan? Blitzo was always depicted as a sex hungry deviant as long as it wasn't Stolas. Am I really supposed to believe that Blitzo never wanted to go down on people because he wanted to? He could easily not care about his partner's pleasure but wouldn't he go down on people like that because he personally wanted to? Even if that shit was supposed to be true, what about all the fucking times when Blitzo and Stolas would have sex on the full moon? Wouldn't have Stolas demanded for Blitzo to eat him out at any of those sex sessions? That Blitzo would want to be super ultra good at sex to please him enough to keep the book for another month?

Like damn, these shorts and episodes and anything of Viv's works only is enjoyable you watch each one in a vacuum. Even when a previous episode or whatever is being addressed, you still have to have a certain extent of obliviousness to what's being referenced so that you don't get taken out of the viewing experience

#helluva boss #critical #blitzo #stolas

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poupeesdecirque · 10 months ago

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Posting by Queue, or: why I need some distance from my crafts

It has been some time since my last hobby meta blog entry, it had different reasons and one is that I need distance. Like, yes I of course enjoy crafting and sometimes I am like a little child that runs everywhere to show off things.

But it got ... less intense. And I learned I do better when I keep projects or at least details to myself to sit on them for longer. That the first euphoria is purely mine and not to be shared.

Like for my photos I have a buffer of several weeks now. Yes, I know past-me would have kind of hated that. But I learned I do better when I have a time buffer. I do take photos weekly but sometimes they don't feel special enough to get the weekly photo feature?

Friday & yesterday I went out for photos and while I like the ones from yesterday way more than the ones from friday I am not sure if the set from yesterday will get the feature or not as it's only a hand full of photos giving me that certain spark.

Other than that I am a very emotional artist, I sometimes really fuck up my art and hate it at the moment I worked on it, but then, sometimes, after a few days or weeks I can look at it and just wonder about what was my problem the day I made it.

Another thing is that I, myself, enjoy my art. The process of it. And I like to see my blog updating, sometimes I forget what post will go online and then I check the blog and think "ah yes, this was that thing!", and it reminds me why I made the blog overall, to show myself I had progress and that every tiny step counts.

Which leads to another reason why I hold back in regards of posting. Yes, I do share some snippets in my stories over on insta but not always and not all. I sit on over 300 drawings from the last two years alone nobody ever will see, I enjoyed drawing but it's nothing for the public eye. I will maybe go back and redraw some and share the redraws then, who knows?

But wait, there is actually more reasons.

The biggest or main reason is ... i sometimes go really wild on projects. In January I finished so many dolls it was insane, I worked on Cosplays and other crafts in an incredible speed, I have literally no idea where I found the time but I somehow did and doll parts arriving every week did the rest.

I keep the blog running with partially 2 month old stuff but .... to be honest I don't have doll stuff aside photos to do anymore. All I can do is wait for bodies to be shipped (or dolls even) and arrive. There has been no movement since January. Aside Iza getting the shipping notice for our Split, might take a while until its at her place and I can't really start on the Akuma until I got the body (which I at least have finally ordered this month) as colors need to be matched and mods to be made.

I am truly itchy to do something else than sewing all the time, I do enjoy cosplay but you know how much I like sewing (hint: not at all). So to remind myself of the fun I had in the past weeks I have mixed my blog to bless me with some progress I had which was maybe not sewing all the time. And well, the Cosplays have deadlines and I do get some ideas aside purely sewing while doing them, so that keeps me going for now.

Yes, I could start redoing dolls like Alastor or Erwin. But you know what? IT'S ALMOST ALL SEWING. Urgh.

Aside that real life is pretty good at eating me up and I just want to enjoy crafting. Right now drawing feels like stress relief but I hate the results and just scan the pieces and put them away to never look at them again, I have a bunch of posts queued up without any captions, a wip entry of a current project only has two photos but I lack the spoons to actually get them done. But since those posts are so far back it's fine (yes I know drafts are a thing).

In general I enjoy having my art to myself to get used to it before I put it out into the wild as I just recently got reminded I do bad with direct comparisons still and it hits some triggerpoints from the past and makes everything harder, I don't need that.

I literally have no idea if this blog makes sense even, lol. I just am tired of sewing and stopped working on my current project around lunch time and have drawn so much today and I walked way too much the whole week my friends urged me to stay the ef home and at least try to relax. But I'm restless as my body is too stressed (I know it all I'm a certified relaxation trainer so eh), so, have an over the place blog entry.

#blog #hobby meta #or something like that #idk

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waitmyturtles · 10 months ago

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If you haven’t watched She Loves to Cook, and She Loves to Eat (TsukuTabe), season 2, please extradite yourself to my general location so I can either

a) have you arrested, and/or

b) kidnap you and force you to watch this

perfectly-paced

perfectly-shot

perfectly-written

show about two women discovering their sexualities unto themselves and with each other in like

THE MOST EMPATHIC WAYS I JUST CANNNNNNNOTTTTTTTTTTTT

I AM BLUBBERING

THEIR COMMUNITY OF FRIENDS

THE WORK THEY HAVE TO DO TO FIND SAFETY FOR THEMSELVES AND EACH OTHER

HOW THEY MANAGE THE LITERAL THREATS TO THEIR HAPPINESS TOGETHER

HOW THEY MAKE COMPROMISES FOR EACH OTHER VIS À VIS THAT SAFETY

HOW THEY CREATE A HOME AND FAMILY TOGETHER THROUGH THE FOOD THEY LOVE

HOW THEY USE THOSE SAME LOVING TACTICS WITH THEIR FRIENDS TO CREATE THEIR CHOSEN FAMILLLLLYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY

HOW THEY COMMUNICATE!!!!!!!

HOW THEY��RE BOTH AWARE OF WHERE THEY MIGHT BE SLIGHTLY STUMBLING ON THEIR COMMUNICATION AND HOW THEY GET THROUGH THOSE OBSTACLES TOGETHER WITH JUST BEAUTIFUL OPENNESS AND AWARENESS

HOW THEY PACE THEIR INTIMACY!!!!!!!

THIS IS ME (thanks @lurkingshan)

ME RIGHT NOW

OH MY FUCKING GODDDDDDDDDDD

And this is how I feel AT THE END of the season! Click the link above, this season has easily one of my top 5 episodes EVER, TsukuTabe episode 8, it hangs with Bad Buddy episodes 5 and 10, and Extraordinary Attorney Woo episode 11, and What Did You Eat Yesterday season 1 finale, watch ‘em!

I LOVE THESE BEAUTIFUL PEOPLE SO FUCKING MUCH

MONSTER GL!!!!!!!!!!!!! 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆

AND ALL OF THIS IN A SERIES THAT WAS LITERALLY ONLY FOUR HOURS LONG. MY FUCKING GOD.

I might have to write some real meta when I calm the fuck down, but. The entire TsukuTabe franchise is a MUST WATCH of the very highest order. If you haven’t watched it, watch it now, drop everything. That was Asian queer media at its UTTER finest. Damn, NHK, you fuckin’ won the GL battle, homes.

#tsukuritai onna to tabetai onna #tsukutabe #she loves to cook and she loves to eat #nomoto x kasuga #kasuga x nomoto #higa manami #nishino emi #THIS WAS MAGNIFICENT

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la-principessa-nuova · 12 days ago

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on Monday when i was trying to avoid using tumblr but couldn’t get the things done i meant to, i was going through some old accounts and updating my name/email/etc

and i came across instagram

and like, i was never super active on there. i posted my art for a few spurts and one year i was posting a bunch of photos i took one week in the summer over an extended period of time

but really i’ve never actively used it

which means it’s also the only account where i never did a mass unfollowing of people from high school and college, so i still follow a bunch of people from back then and vice versa, and some of my closest friends from then are on there.

so anyway i went to go see about downloading my data and deleting my account, and i realized (i don’t know how consciously at first) that it was sort of like the one way i could like actually come out to my high school friends.

so i decided instead of deleting it, to private it and update my name, and then i archived all the posts that had my face pre-transition or my deadname in them.

My deadname only appeared in the text content of one post where I quoted my mom saying “<Deadname>, can you <help with something>?” which was easy to fix by just starting the quote at “can”

and I hid one comment bc a friend called me “bud”. I remember feeling uncomfortable about being called that at the time and wanting to respond but feeling awkward because of that word. Now it makes perfect sense haha.

But then I was like… how do I get attention to this so my old friends see it?

So I posted to my story (is that how you say that? i’d never used that feature before haha) with a picture of me in girlmode eating cheese in the middle of the night, looking as if I’d been caught in the act, with the text “midnight cheese” and some effects.

And some people saw it, but no indication whether they knew or cared it was me.

So I did it again yesterday, this time being a little more on the nose with a selfie of me winking and the caption “Nice to meet you… or is it?” with a clip of Man, I Feel Like A Woman playing with lyrics on screen, the part that says “I wanna be free, yeah, to feel the way I feel. Man, I feel like a woman.”

I felt awkward about it bc like I wanted it to make people think “wait who is this? why am i following her?” and put it together, but also like that if someone has no idea what a trans person is they’d just scroll past, but also like I like having fun so it had to be fun, but then it kept seeming really like the way people make fun of trans women like a *wink wink nudge nudge* kind of vibe.

But it was temporary so I figured it’s fine like that.

Before going to bed, a couple people had seen it, but no response, so I wanted to do a proper post as well that could sit out for longer and capture the people who never look at the stories. I was hesitant since it sticks around more for people to really scrutinize, but I did. I posted a selfie I took in the car on Friday with the text “hello again” at the top diagonally.

Then today, I checked and both the story and post had been liked by just one person, one of my closest friends in the latter half of high school, basically my sidekick. And I’m just like… do I think he realized it’s me? idk.

But yeah, like I don’t like that I got sucked into all of that bc fuck Meta, but it’s almost like since I couldn’t come out in high school, here’s my chance to do that in whatever little way I can.

Plus it’s the biggest most “public” coming out I’ve done in a sense, and yet I don’t care what they think in the grand scheme of things.

I think maybe that’s it too, is that there’s a weight to the concept of “everyone I went to school with”, and just openly being out to people from my school without going person to person I think really makes it feel like I’ve transitioned everywhere but work, rather than before like I had come out to my family and a few other specific people.

#sabrina’s marvelous mind #sabrina is working on herself #trans #long post

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absolutebl · 1 year ago

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This Week in BL - 2 GREAT Shows but everything else is kinda blah

Organized, in each category, with ones I'm enjoying most at the top. Happy new year, BLabies!

Jan 2024 Wk 1

Ongoing Series - Thai

Last Twilight (Fri YT) ep 9 of 12 - This show is really earning its chops, and these actors are executing beautifully. I think this is a great BL, and it reminds me quite a bit of ATOTS, only the physical comfort between the actors is more genuine and easy to watch. Unfortunately a guitar came out. Nice communication tho.

That was a very lovely romantic sex scene. Very prettily done. Classy boys, very classy.

Gah what a beautiful final scene with Day saying the last thing he wants to see is Mhork. Pure unadulterated romance of the highest order.

The Sign (Sat YT) ep 7 of 12 - If killer, why hot? Poor Tarn compelled to try to rescue everyone else from their fate, because he cannot save himself from his.

Meanwhile Phaya is finally learning that you catch more water snakes with honey lube than vinegar.

Stellar confession from Phaya brutally honest and very fated mates.

And another lovely sex scene, so I guess that was a vision and not a fantasy Tharn had.

Lets be clear those two shows were GREAT everything else this week was kinda blah.

For Him (Thurs iQIYI) ep 6 of 12 - I find the backstory very odd. Are they twins? What happened to Blue? Am I meant to care? Do I care?

Twins the series (Fri GaGa) ep 10 of 12 - I mostly just feel sorry for First. He’s so rightfully confused. Zee/Sprite keeps blowing hot and cold because they two different people! The after sex cuddle was cute.

Pit Babe (Fri iQIYI) ep 8 of 14 - Love getting more JeffAlan. Also I switch favorite character allegiances in the trash watch happening here.

Cooking Crush (Sun YT) ep 6 of 12 - Didn’t air this week and I hardly noticed.

You and My Stars YT 1 of 2(?) - school kids, love triangle, it’s cute enough.

My Universe (Sun iQIYI) 1626 ep 20 of 24 - Just so boring. 3/10

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

VIP Only (Taiwan Fri Gaga) ep 8 of 10 - I’m not into the love triangle. Although I kind of like the new suitor, he’s honest and a good communicator. I appreciate these things in a BL boy. But I begin to wonder if triangles should be left for KBL. Also, this should have been an 8 epper, 10 is too long.

Sahara-sensei to Toki-kun (Japan Fri Gaga) ep 5 of 8 - No ep until Jan 12

I Became the Main Role of a BL (Japan Sun Gaga) ep 1-3 - AKA BL Drama no Shuen ni Narimashita: Crank Up Hen - A rising star is paired with an (older) former child actor (doesn’t think he’s good enough) in a BL series. It’s fun, built on a dynamic of off screen paralleling the on screen, so near constantly meta. All the tropes are there but are as a result of the filming process. The star turns out to be obsessed with the former actor and very dorky about it. In fact, everyone in this show is a little gremlin weirdo (affectionate). There’s tons of scenery chewing miscommunication drama, slapstick, voice over head hopping, and eccentric sides characters. “And he comes with feathers” applies to a number of my friends. You know I don’t like stories around fan obsession, but otherwise this was enjoyable. 8/10

A nice start to the JBL year. Keep em coming, Japan.

It's done I Need to Catch up

What Did You Eat Yesterday Season 2 AKA Kinou Nani Tabeta? Season 2 (Japan Gaga) 10 eps - will binge when I have a spare day.

It's Airing But...

[INTERNATIONAL] Cherry Magic (Sat YouTube) ep 3 of 12 - yeah Japan put the smack down on our boys. Sadness. You can use a VPN if you like. Read all about it here.

Playboyy (Thurs Gaga) 14 eps - Dear Playboyy, it's not you, it’s me… I hate you. You’re about as deep (and as palatable) as a shot glass of cum. While I'm sure you’re someone’s kink, you're my weakest link. Goodbye. I DNFed this at ep 5. Frankly I'm impressed with myself for getting that far.

Night Dream (Sat YT) 6 eps - It’s a pain to track down and I really didn’t like the first episode so… DNF

The Whisperer (Sun ????) 10 eps - Thai horror BL that ALSO involves cheating (what joy is mine). I don't think even the perfect single dimple can motivate me to watch. Word is... it's terrible.

7 Days Before Valentine (Weds WeTV) 10 eps - Giving me Luminous Solution vibes. I'm waiting to binge if safe.

Dead Friend Forever (Thai Sat iQIYI) - horror, meh, tell me if it's worth my time?