#3wbf

It's our lives. As long as you don't hurt anyone, whom you love, how you love, how many you love, you do what you want.

tagged by @befuddledcinnamonroll, @gotmehookedonthekpop, @baseballmomlesbiandad yaaayyyy i love this. i chose ten because that's as many gifs as are allowed in one post. but believe me this is not a comprehensive list it's just the ones that came to me first ]

VegasPete bloody kiss

the richard siken of it alllll. the fact that pete has to wipe the blood off his mouth before he gets up ugh i can't. every vegaspete kiss is a masterpiece but this one is exactly the kind of thing i love

2. lita rain's bedroom kiss

THE TONGUE! THE HAND ON THE NECK

3. kp green bathroom kiss

imo this is the most passionate, the most in love they ever were. the pure RELIEF in kinn's face. 🤌🏻🤌🏻🤌🏻🤌🏻

4. bad buddy rooftop kiss

no words needed. absolutely groundbreaking

5. love mechanics veemark kiss

oh hey that's mt gif lmao. i could honestly choose any veemark kiss but the ones in this seen are just SO JUICY i had to go with this one

6. semantic error 'in one minute i'm going to kiss you'

the respecting of boundaries. the fact that ultimately CHU SANGWOO INITIATED IT. then jang jaeyong PULLING HIM BACK IN????

7.

(look i swear to god i don't go looking for my own gifs lmao) anyway! the fact that it was kenny's ACTUAL first kiss is absolutely icing on this kiss (also the fact that he kept slipping his tongue in and they had to redo it several times)

8. 3wbf polycule kiss

so yes this is technically 3 kisses and it's not even in this gif but i didn't want to choose one so aftermath gif it is. this is my roman empire

9. 'daddy dan'

what can i say they're both so INTO IT???? the smiles splitting their faces i just. it's the best kind of kiss!

10. 2cheng first (onscreen) kiss

FRIENDS. KISSING. also gcy being shyyyyy

All of these are good and have the juice, and I can recommend them to anyone, which is why starter pack. It's not the widest expression of QL but I think the further out you get the less something needs a recommendation, it just needs the summary. Like, if someone reads 'his childhood dog and cat get reincarnated as hot men' and thinks 'that's for me' then it IS for them. Or 'homophobic dorm roommate suggests having sex with gay roommate to repay perceived debt'. like. no one needs more.

All of these are emotionally grounded, come from a variety of countries of origin, and do things with genre that I find interesting.

SKAM

It has the juice! As a SOTUS contemporary (both released 2016), this Norwegian BL is an interesting starting place because in many ways it's the most difficult to watch. Not in terms of access, episodes are here, but because it's a show told multi-modally, using social media posts, texts, playlists, etc to fill in the space between clips. I love the ambition and the way it allows the show to build such a fleshed experience for the characters. Like many of the others on my list, the show deals with emotional difficulties, mental health issues, and just the struggles of being alive.

Isak is a teenager living in shared housing, doesn't want to admit he's gay, meets the enigmatic Even, things spiral out from there.

It's also got a billion remakes, and I'm enjoying the Croatian one that's airing rn. Being salty on the side for a second, but when some people were annoyed Thailand was also adapting the cherry magic manga I was like, ok but there are like 12 skam? two live-action adaptations of a single manga is like little baby to me?

3 Will Be Free

It's poly! Thai QL shows it's versatility in genre, tone, who it deems worthy of being a protagonist, and that's all on display in 3 Will Be Free. It's just the best. It was the second thai drama I ever watched and it has kind of ruined me for all of TV since then. The humanity and empathy in it is incredible.

3wbf is like 'who matters?" and says: everybody. All lives. No one is disposable. And it does that via the medium of 3 beautiful, hapless, complicated people going on the run while being pursued by the widow and best friend of a hitman. it's good stuff. I always say that Mae and Ter really set the show apart for me; it gives so much weight and meaning to their grief, and for a guy who kind of objectively sucks but is still a loving partner and friend, and a family member, and he didn't deserve to die, cause no one does.

Not Me

This show got me so hard when I watched it. I thought I was hardened, I thought I was cynical, and then it cracked me in half. Thai QL about a direct action university student group who are working to take down the biggest billonnaire in Thailand. It makes so many political arguments about wealth and inequality and protest and human rights while also turning me into a gooey emotional marshmallow. Also the best friends to enemies relationship that's revealed later is the greatest dynamic to hit the screen since Magneto and Professor X.

Moonlight Chicken

I think Moonlight Chicken is an overall crowd pleaser and great first QL for a lot of reasons, but one is that there's two couples, one teen, one full adult, and I've seen people relate to one more than the other depending on their personal vibes. Personally, I think they're both great.

On the one hand we've got jade, heartbroken guy carefully navigating new love with someone freshly out of a relationship. On the other we have disconnected teen who wants to escape and the connection he finds with the deaf, rich, isolated kid. The marks of the pandemic were omnipresent. And the community! So much sense of place and people.

I Feel You Linger in the Air

Ok I gotta put a historical one on here, even though there's some time travel, so it's not strictly all historical. But the yearninggggg, it's everything anyone could want from a historical romance. Such an upright guy trying to do good! A modern guy shining the light on the plight of servants! Gender politics! super meaningful hand touching and dropping of honorifics! This one can never get enough love.

Love for Love's Sake

As always, I love genre shows. This Korean QL is a classic isekai (or so it seems). Protagonist wakes up in a gamified version of the novel he read, has to help the tragic character improve his life. This one ripped my heart out and repaired it better than new and I'll love it forever.

fuck me upppp. It's even better on rewatch.

@userdramas event 13: team spirit