Isuke: Looks like you have a self-sacrificing idiot as your gf too, huh? My idiot tried to kill her opponent and herself at the same time, once. All in the name of her family. I guess we really have idiots who would do anything for their family as our gf, huh?

Cait and Blake: And yet, we can't help but to fall even more in love with them, huh?

Isuke, the ever tsundere: Speak for yourselves. Isuke doesn't fall in love.

Cait and Blake: *rolling their eyes*

Cinder landed in front of them with a dramatic flair that put even Isuke to shame.

Blake: Oh, it's you. What are you doing here?

Cinder: Couldn't help but to overhear the conversation, thought I had to jump in.

Cait: Well, do you have anything helpful to chime in about our dating lives or give us any dating tips on how to make sure that our altruistic idiots won't go dying on us first?

Cinder: First of all, I don't do dates.

Blake: *coughs* Could've fooled me.

Cinder: *glaring dangerously* Excuse me?

Blake: *unfazed* Right... You and Winter are not dating. Even though me and my team had caught you in "not-dating" scenarios numerous times in cafes, diners... Dark alleyways... *smirking*

Cinder: *ignoring hard* Second of all, I don't have any tips other than to say that one time, she said that her life doesn't matter. To fucking Penny. A robot who has no life. Can you believe that?

Blake, dryly: She was talking about Fria though and that Penny should save Fria instead of her after you tried to kill her. And need I mention that it was because of you that Yang fell into the void.

Cinder: Oh yeah, there's that. But you gotta admit, at least you came out OK and both of you finally confessed your feelings to each other in that void. Couldn't have happened if that didn't happen. *turning around to address a confused Cait and Isuke* Yeah, we were enemies before. But it's all good now.

Blake: Yeah, she and her not-girlfriend were enemies before too, but looks like Winter has tamed the fire inside her.

Cinder: Say that one more time and I'll incinerate you.

Blake, deadpanned: Winter would never forgive you, so you wouldn't do that.

Cinder: Anyway, have fun, children. I gotta go burn down some buildings. *flew off*

Isuke, who had been quiet this whole time: *trying to sound as nonchalant as possible* Isuke is not impressed by much, but you've got to introduce her to me and her girlfriend properly next time.

Blake, blinking: Why?

Isuke, flipping her hair and checking her nails: Oh, nothing. Isuke just wants to learn some dating tips from them and how not to fall in love.

Cait: Ah, that's right. Cos you don't fall in love, right?

Blake: *sarcastic, playful, tone* Cos you're a tsundere.

Isuke, unfazed: Yeah, that's right. Though Isuke is surprised you know that word.

Blake: I read a lot.

Meanwhile, the other half of the ship are having this conversation, while in the middle of sparring with each other.

Vi: Man, my younger sister really hates my cupcake and being irrationally jealous of her. Kidnapped her once and nearly killed her. And she killed her mom. Then Cait hated her for a while. That was a hard time for all of us.

Haruki: Tell me about it. My younger sister doesn't like Isuke-sama and she took what I told her once when we were young that we would be together forever literally.

Yang: My younger sister... well, I got nothing. Except that she was depressed when Blake and I got together and I didn't notice it. She wasn't happy at first, which I felt guilty of, but now that she is OK, she is actually supportive of my relationship with Blake and doesn't get jealous of her. She likes her too, but come to think of it... they don't really talk or interact with each other all that much... hmm...

Winter landed in front of them.

Winter: What are you talking about?

Yang: Oh, nothing. Just about how much our little sister hates our girlfriends. Vi's little sister hates her girlfriend, kidnapped her, killed her mom and her girlfriend hated her for a while. Haruki's little sister is jealous of her girlfriend and wanted to be the one to be with Haruki forever. While Ruby, she wasn't happy at first but now she is OK and she isn't jealous or trying to kill Blake or something. Which I should be appreciative of.

Winter: Yeah, you should.

Yang: Yeah, considering that you had it worst than all of us. The woman you're dating did actually try to kill your little sister, killed Pyrrha, served a tyrant and was a war criminal, an arsonist...

Winter: *quietly, but fondly* Yeah, she did all of that. *then realizing that she is doomed* but we are not dating.

Yang: Oh, come on! It's time for you guys to make it official, considering how many times me and my team have caught you in the act! And for the record, we have all forgiven her, well, except for Weiss, but can you blame her? She did almost killed her once. But, Cinder had proven herself to us time and time again that she had changed for the better. Don't be so hard on yourself, eh?

Suddenly, a loud boom could be heard from afar and smoke billowed in the sky.

Winter, sighing audibly: That had to be Cinder. I was supposed to meet her last night but I didn't and now she's acting out again.

Yang: Ooohhh... You stood her up. You're in trouble.

Winter: It's not like that. I was busy and I've told her beforehand.

Yang: Yeah, maybe she is acting out cos you don't want to make it official. Cinder is the epitome of "hell hath no fury like a woman scorned". But hey, if anyone can handle her, you can.

Yeah, Yang had it better than the 3 of them combined, tho Haruki's situation was more of a joke. Vi had it the worst in this scenario. And yes, these three ship dynamics are poor brawlers with younger sisters to protect meet rich girls and falling in love.

Bear in mind that China is a country that controls everything from how their citizen act to how media is represented. It's not a backward country with how fast it has developed over the years, but it's a country based on Confucius teaching about what a proper family in a society should be like.

Having said that, what I've found out recently while diving into the rabbit hole of Chinese short GL dramas, being humbled by it in the process, and how my perception of China's entertainment industry has changed since then, is this: they're really bold to push their luck on China censorship.

China not only censors, but bans BL and GL shows in mainstream media? No problem! They found a loophole in short micro dramas and they went all out. And boy, do they go all out. They still can't show any explicit love confession, kissing (tho I saw one f/f kissing scene in one of the short dramas and I dunno how they bypass the censorship, but kudos to them), but they make up for it by having the actresses with insane explosive on-screen chemistry that you can see it in their eyes, do the heavy-lifting.

Yup, their eyes do all the talking and conveying all their love toward each other. Of course, there are others besides the intense eye thing. There are hand-holding, lingering gazes, hugging that is not how friends hug each other, head leaning on shoulder, the dialogues that are not subtexty at all, the sucking poison out of the body in order to save her life (yes, there's that. And dare I say, the position of the wound and the placement of the lips, the slow motion camera angle and the timing of the music while it is happening is very obvious) the blatant jealousy, the sacrifices made, the longing, the yearning, the kabedon (yes, there's that too)... In short, it is like how m/f ship is treated if there are no censorship (safe for love confession and kissing). And there's nothing subtext about it, it might as well be a maintext safe the confession and kissing scenes.

You don't even need to crack!ship them, or read between the lines, or grasp at straws, or receive whatever crumbs thrown at you. Because it is as Canon as day. And 99.9999% of them ends with a happy ending with them being endgame! No third party in the form of a male character coming in between them, and even if there are, it is made very clear from the get go that he is there as a plot device. No need to fight between fandoms about how it's a queerbait and that the woman loves the man, not the other woman. And the the other woman was placed there as a queerbait.

I've watched so much of western shows and even some Japanese anime being a queerbait. They marketed it as Yuri, but in the end, they don't end up together, or the subtexts aren't as satisfying.

Well, one might argue that it's a GL genre, so of course there won't be any hurdles like how western shows had faced. But, let me reiterate once again that, this is China, the country famous for being very strict in controlling media/social media and banning some social media platforms, and yet, they can do it. If they can do it, western shows should be able to do it too.

Although yes, western shows had progressed with lgbtq representation, but I remember back in the early days, it was hard for them. It should be easier now, but how many western shows that has f/f with a happy ending now? And by happy ending, I also mean that it won't get axed by the streaming platform (looking at you, Netflix) just after 1 season. How many western shows treat f/f couple the same standard as how they treat straight and heck, even m/m couple? Cos I swear, m/m couple are treated better than f/f couple in western media, still. I'll give you one example in a short while.

So, seeing that China is doing all they can to push these boundaries, I really applaud them. It really put western shows to shame because western countries don't ban lgbtq shows, and yet... An example I'm gonna give you is a movie called The Old Guard, starring a very amazing and wonderful Charlize Theron. The comics are more explicit in showcasing the relationship between Andy and Quynh, but the part 2 movie, which was released very recently in 2025, didn't even dare to take the leap and make them Canon. But they have no problem with the m/m couple in the show? So, why do we still have subtexts for Andy and Quynh? Talk about double standards.

So, you can see why China GL dramas have my support and love. My support really goes all out to them (by watching more of their GL dramas).

Yeah, I know that there are Thai GL dramas too, and they're doing better than China GL drama because the government doesn't censor them and it can go mainstream, but I haven't seen any of them. I will soon, right after my newfound obsession is over lol. Time for me to expand my watchlist and taste, I guess.

But if you haven't heard of Chinese GL short drama, do explore them in youtube. The acting aren't that top notch, it's a lower budget production, the actresses aren't well-known mainstream actresses, but do give them a chance and try it for all the reasons I've mentioned above. You'd be surprised.