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Plus, to add to the chaos, you’ve got about 30% of the players absolutely ride or die for their team, 30% separated from their bestie on the other side and doing everything they can to secretly help them out, and the remaining 30% completely baffled by the concept of competitive sports and just wanting everyone to have a nice time and win. (Looking at you, Pond Naravit.)

And don't get me started on the fashion of it all. Half of these babies (looking at Khaotung) show up to play wearing diamond earrings and watches. They never manage to all wear tennis shoes. They keep pausing mid game to fix their hair and to put on more lip gloss.

This entire thing goes on for 8 hours and a good percentage of them manage to avoid touching a ball at all during that entire time.

"If I were to kiss you then go to hell I would, so then I can brag with the devils that I saw heaven without entering it".

You have to understand. This quote haunts me. It has haunted me for years. If you look it up, it is constantly credited to Shakespeare. Except its not a Shakespeare quote. He did not say this. Its also commonly credited to like three other dudes who also definitely did not say it. No one seems to know who said it or where it came from.

My researcher friend once spent an entire afternoon trying to track down this damn quote. The closest we got is that it appears to have randomly appeared online in about 2012 and at this point it was already being credited to Shakespeare and friends and every mention of it claims they heard it somewhere else.

Okay, since it’s been such a long time, and I’ve never really done a post on it, shall we talk about the whipping boy trope? 

In a Nutsack: 

Dominant personality turns the secondary personality into his butler or secretary or bodyguard or errand boy (or all of the above) demanding absolute loyalty. It’s an owner/pet kinda thing or, to put it in kinkster terms, a service submissive dynamic. 

There’s an identity transference and obsession that’s why this is called “whipping boy.” After all the original presence was that the two boys be brought up together so that it would emotionally hurt the prince when his friends is beaten in his stead. This is why the prince loves the whipping boy to an excessive degree, it’s because he sees the whipping boy as an extension of himself.  

In traditional yaoi the whipping boy can be either the attack dog (and thus the seme character - yes, the SEME) or (more common, especially in Chinese BL) the household servant uke who grew up with “the young master” as his subordinate companion (hence “whipping boy.”) 

In both cases, the master character is actually the one who becomes addicted to (and obsessed with) the slavish devotion of the other boy. For example, heaven forbid anyone else EVER try to boss his boy around except him (we had this plot point drop beautifully early on in Utsukushii Kare). 

There’s always EXTREME possession with this one. Which becomes the pivot point for a power shift around sexual submission. 

If the whipping boy is the uke, he will eventually attempt to break away and form his own identity which will cause the master to realize what he really wanted all along (a relationship, sex). The seme will go mad with separation and hunt tirelessly for his boy. The uke will not be successful and will drift either into self destruction or depression as he is unformed and identity-void without his master. (I don’t write this trope, the yaoi gods do.) 

Watch Chinese BL Irresistible Love: Secrets of the Valet for the pitch perfect execution of the uke as whipping boy. 

If the whipping boy is the seme, he is the one obsessed and will eventually be pushed too far into his need to protect/care and attempt to take the uke, almost always sexually. (But sometimes it’s kidnapping or a suicide pact because… ya know, emo to the nth degree.) 

Utsukushii Kare is a seme execution (attack dog), which is AWESOME, since I’ve never seen it in a BL before (just in ninja and yakuza yaoi).* We only see the actual attack dog activated once, but we see it paralleled in the fact that K cannot STAND it if anyone (else) talks badly about H. But he does it so often “you’re disgusting” becomes an endearment. 

I’m so familiar with this tope I was a little surprised that anyone thought K was the seme at any point. H does literally ALL the pursuing. K is always waiting for H to tip him off the pedestal and take what they both want. It’s warped (in the best possible way) but it’s still a very traditional seme/uke pairing. 

Other BLs that Employ Whipping Boy 

Or at least some aspect of this kind of obsessive love and the slightly sinister aura as Utsukushii Kare. There’s a lot that combine this trope with dark BL themes and sad endings, I have not included those because i don’t like them, but you can read about them here. 

Like Love 1 & 2 (China 2014) - rich/poor jock/nerd 

Irresistible Love 1: Secret of the Valet & Irresistible Love 2 Uncontrolled Love (China 2016) - classic uke whipping boy (warning two versions of part 2 only one of which as an HEA, trigger for mutilation) 

Legend of Long Yang (China 2017) - rich/poor, historical, actual whipping boy (HEA comes after credits) 

River Knows Fish Heart (China 2019) - obsession, power differential, somewhat ambiguous ending 

HIStory: Obsessed  (Taiwan 2017) - rich/poor, jock/nerd, fated mates, and it’s all in the title 

Where Your Eyes Linger (Korea 2020) - attack dog variant, extremely good 

Golden Blood (Thailand 2021) - rich/poor, attack dog variant, a little odd since Thai BL leans so much brighter and lighter and that counteracts the sinisterness, but it’s actually an extreme version of whipping boy: the bodyguard character is rescued off the street as a child solely to be a  blood donor and protector 

Love By Chance 2: A Chance at Love (Thailand 2020) - minor side couple TulHin are classic whipping boy, and TinCan certainly had a bit of rich//poor obsession 

The Untamed has some attack dog elements, but it’s a huge buy in for a non HEA bromance.

More? 

A few that are not quite whipping boy but you still might enjoy for the slightly creepy sinister aspects that go with this trope. Also these all have that obsessive edge of codependency that is endemic to whipping boy. 

Addicted (China 2016) - rich/poor, kidnapping for love

Candy and Kiss (Japan 2015) - a super shy soft version, extrovert/introvert 

Given (Japan 2021) - rockstar romance, v emo

Long Time No See (Korea 2017) - two attack dogs, fantastic 

Color Rush (Korea 2021) - so creepy good, possibly my favorite BL. socially codified but also vilified codependency 

HIStory Stay: Away From Me (Taiwan 2017) - obsession and stepbrothers codependency 

HIStory 4: Close to You (Taiwan 2021) - side stepbrothers pairing, trigger for stalking and rape 

Yoonbum is an unsucessful horror author with huge creative block. He has published one book. His sleep schedule is off so he finds himself going for coffee at unusual hours of the morning. He favours convenience over quality so he goes to the fast food place across the street. He solves crossword puzzles while drinking his coffee.

Sangwoo is a law student, but works nightshifts at a run down 24 hour fast food restaurant on the edge of town. Buisness is slow so he slacks off, he usually brings a book with him to read. 

What if Yoonbum realized that the man behind the register was reading a copy of his book? A book that sold less than 100 copies?

Rick Riordan: Heard y’all wanted some representation so here an African American girl raised in the 1940’s lol

Us: OH MY GOD YES THA-

Rick Riordan: Oh lets give her an awkward yet badass Chinese-Canadian boyfriend

Us: OH MY-

Rick Riordan: Oh, here’s a Native American girl daughter of Aphrodite with a movie star dad

Us: I-

RR: What about a smol sassy Latino boy that will soon become your favorite character?

Us: AWW-

RR: Oh wait, here an lil emo Italian sad boi and his sunny optimistic boyfriend

Us: WH-

RR: Here’s a badass native Latina who takes no shit (we all know she gay af for Thalia but we must wait)

Us: Oh-

RR: Y’all wanna hear about the queen of bisexuals Apollo?

Us: I’m-

RE: What about an old, non-sexualized lesbian couple with an incredibly romantic backstory??

Us: Wait-

RR: OH WAIT! Do you want a badass Muslim girl who follows tradition Muslim values but doesn’t let it stop her from living a normal life? Oh, and she’s also in a healthy arranged marriage don’t worry

Us: H-

RR: How about a gender-fluid and transgender child of Loki with a lovely taste in fashion?

Us: Wait hold o-

RR: What about a deaf elf who uses sign language to communicate but is still a valuable character?

Us: But-

RR: Oh, and here’s two biracial siblings that look nothing alike but they’re related, trust me

Us: *shocked*

RR: OH! I ALMOST FORGOT! Literally all theses characters are dyslexic, but it’s ok because it’s possible to live a full life even with disorders like dyslexia.

Us: *faints from the tidal wave of representation thrown at us*

RR: Anything else?

Us:

I’m going to help train our friend, I won’t stand to see him take this abuse any longer

After all this time fighting, the little guy and his enemy realized that it was all pointless. Since the beginning, the hate for each other had only make them stronger but by accepting their differences and learning to respect each other, they realized that they don’t have to keep being rivals, but perhaps something else.

and it’s… fine. The prince is great! They’re in love, he’s very sweet and passionate, writing her poems and songs, giving her anything she wants. The time she spends with her husband is great.

but cinderella is not royalty, her family was noble but she never spent time in those circles. She’s used to being busy, she’s used to cooking and cleaning and mending. There are hours, days, where she has nothing to do.

time passes. cinderella learns the fancy lady type of needlework. Learns to ride horses. Reads a lot.

as is normal for royalty at the time, they travel and are hosted by nobles or stay at castles owned by the king. But even that variety begins to become routine. The prince is distracted, there’s a lot of young women living and working on their route. Daughters of nobles. Younger and prettier with soft hands that have never done a day’s work.

cinderella needs something to spend her time on, and there’s a part of her thinking a couple-only trip might get her husband’s attention again, so she suggests making an old castle that’s fallen into disrepair their “project.” It was built in the time when castles were made to be defensible, so it’s quite sturdy, but it’s overgrown and secluded. The prince doesn’t know why his family stopped living there either. A hundred years ago it was their summer home.

so they go. And they work. And for a while it’s great! But when they leave for winter cinderella’s husband forgets her once again. cinderella resolves to make the best of her life and stop worrying about a man who has gotten what he wanted from her.

summer comes again and this time cinderella goes alone to the old castle (minus staff, of course, but cinderella manages to narrow it down to only repair workers and one maid). She can cook and clean and mend again, but this time it’s her own choice. She is happy.

this summer they make more progress on repairs. The workers say that most of it can be salvaged, except one tower that’s been completely overgrown with vines and briars. It will have to come down, eventually, but for now it can be safely ignored.

cinderella has more free time now. The old castle has a surprisingly untouched library, though time and moisture have damaged many of the books. Behind a collection of greek poetry cinderella finds an old diary. Very old, in fact, at least a hundred years. It’s rude to read a diary, of course, but whoever wrote this is long dead, and cinderella is bored, so…

from the description of activities the author looks to have been nobility. Maybe even a princess. She’s sensitive and sweet and smarter than she seems to realize. If circumstances had been different cinderella wishes they could have been friends…

after the summer ends cinderella returns to her husband. He’s spending a lot of time with a young musician and cinderella can’t even work up the energy to care. She does some research about the castle and the family she’s married into, finds out the name of the princess who wrote the diary.

aurora. Cursed and forgotten. She died young, they say, in a plague that also took out the castle staff and her own parents. Luckily they avoided a succession crisis, but not so lucky for the dead.

time passes. cinderella goes to the old castle again and again, even out of season. Soon enough all that remains to be done is the old tower, and the builders say they should tear it down and fill the gaps before it gets cold.

one night cinderella is restless. The princess from the diary had been fond of that tower, and cinderella is far more attached to a dead woman than she ought to be. She gets out of bed, reads by candlelight, and finally goes to walk the empty halls.

she finds herself going to the tower. Pushing past the vines that don’t seem so troublesome really. They almost part before her. The stairs are perfectly intact, the door at the top is already cracked open. As if she should have done this years ago, cinderella steps into aurora’s bedroom.

she’s as beautiful as the stories say. And sitting under her hands, crossed across her stomach as it rises and falls, is a book of greek poetry.

years later, people will tell the story of cinderella as a cautionary one. Don’t seek above your station. Don’t marry for prestige. After all, a girl who grew up as a servant once married the crown prince, and disappeared after only three years. She ran away, they say, she couldn’t handle the lifestyle.

two old women who run a bookshop together agree with the lesson. Marrying for the wrong reasons never ends well. It’s best to wait for someone you have things in common with, shared interests.

or, failing that, the more linguistic of the two says, wait a decade or ten for someone to fall in love with you from your diary.

that summer was cruel for seokjin