#bl bracket

[Submitted Reasons Under Cut]

And I am thrilled!

Kurosawa deserves this win because he was a color-coded boy in love who was always true to his color!

Even if it was hard to see at times since Japan hides the colors in the ties.

He was consistently a good guy who Adachi could trust and feel safe with which are symbolic of his green color.

So the colors do mean things, and they mean the right guy won this bracket.

Sideblog: @we-listen-and-we-dont-judge

Google form:

Rules:

1. Do not blatantly hate or be a bigot.

2. Giving your username is optional but encouraged

3. The form is restricted to thai dramas only. (BL/GL/NON-QL/ANY)

aka, last minute propaganda for the @bl-bracket best kiss competition.

Firstly, a literature review:

@kenmakaashi writes about the imbalance we usually see in long-term pining stories that is not present in this kiss (and how that relates to Bad Buddy’s overarching dismantling of imbalances).

@lurkingshan writes about episode 5 of Bad Buddy as a whole, as Pat realizes and re-contextualizes his relationship with Pran, and how the kiss catalyzes the rest of the series.

@miscellar and @aikinn write about the emotions Pat and Pran bring into the kiss, and how important the stubbornness of both characters is to their journey.

@telomeke-bbs breaks down the moment between the two kisses here, writing about how this represents Pran’s head vs. heart, and how he cedes to his wants, if only for a moment.

@neuroticbookworm writes about how the kiss perfectly encapsulates the emotions and experiences of Pat and Pran, and its greater resonance to Asian and queer Asian communities.

And now to add my two-cents worth:

There are a lot of dichotomies, opposites, tensions in Bad Buddy, and this episode rooftop kiss perfectly encapsulates all of them, while looking forward to the eventual resolution of these tensions through the rest of the show.

Firstly, the opposing trajectories of Pran and Pat's journeys to (queer) self-realization: Pran, who knows he is gay and has known about his feelings for Pat since at least high school; and Pat, who is just realizing he is queer and that he is into Pran and has been for some time.

The first few episodes of Bad Buddy show us more of Pran's story: we learn about his crush on Pat, we see how Pat’s casual compliments and downright flirtatious behaviour affected him, we watch him silently cry after Pat says he has a crush on Ink and then outlines all the reasons someone (Pran) should like him. Pran has been keeping his love for Pat, like a lot of his emotions, repressed and hidden for a long time now (see these posts by @lurkingshan (here) and @telomeke-bbs (here and here) for more on Pran's personality and emotional guarded-ness).

Episode 5 switches it up: now we get a closer look at Pat. As @lurkingshan wrote, episode 5 is about Pat realizing things – that Ink doesn’t like him; that, going by Pa’s Patented Four Ways to Tell if Someone Likes You, he probably likes Pran; that he is indeed jealous of Wai which confirms he likes Pran as not-a-friend. (see @grapejuicegay’s amazing post for why it took Pat so long to work out how he was feeling here).

In episode 5, we watch their two arcs collide: Pran continues to repress and not act on his feelings, while getting increasingly frustrated at the liberties Pat seems to take with them (Pran performing the song they wrote together in high school, and Pat being mad about that); while Pat has speed-run his realizations and is now full to bursting. In all the ways Pran is quiet and hidden, Pat is open and loud. Once Pat realizes he is in love with Pran, he can barely hide it. He comes close to spilling it in the scene where Pat fights with Pran and Wai outside the dorm (amazing meta on that scene by @shortpplfedup and @functionalasfuck here and here), and he lets it free up on the rooftop at the end of the episode, outlining their past history and what Pran means to him and confessing he doesn't want to be friends. Pran says "You have got to stop doing this to me" (Pat makes it so hard to stop loving him, to keep those feelings repressed and hidden), and Pat finishes his queer realization arc by kissing the boy he loves. Even the way the first kiss happens emulates their respective arcs and personalities: they get close to one another, in each other's space but not making a move, and then Pat is the first to break the tension and go in for the kiss. The hidden and the open collide.

We see this conflict, this tension between hidden and open, play out again in episode 8, when Pat keeps posting things on Instagram and toeing the line of secrecy and him and Pran fight about it, or in episode 9 where Pran indulges Pat and stages the public confession and claiming on the stairs (meta about that scene by @kenmakaashi here). These moments also exemplify the care and understanding Pat and Pran have for one another: Pat is willing to hide things and pretend to break up with Pran (firstly to get Wai to talk to him again and then at the end of episode 11 so they can hide from their families) to make Pran happier and more comfortable, and Pran is willing to be more open (allow Pat to post on Instagram, stage the claiming scene on the stairs, etc.) to make Pat happier and more comfortable - it's all about compromise, the middle ground. In the end, also Bad Buddy ends up somewhere in the middle between open and hidden: Pat and Pran are open about their feelings for each other and are happily in love, but they remain hidden from their family and friends, unable to be fully open.

Secondly, this kiss exemplifies the genre tensions inherent in Bad Buddy, between BL romcom and romantic tragedy. Over the course of the series, we the audience are not sure which genre, and specifically which genre-typical ending, Bad Buddy will follow. See my posts (here and here) and @chickenstrangers (here) on genre and tragedies and Bad Buddy.

Pat, over the course of episode 5, has realized he is in a romantic story. His interactions with Pran slide into context: those were tropes of the kind we see in romantic series (looming over someone, forced proximity, etc.). @chickenstrangers talked about this here: to Pat, this kiss is the classic confession kiss in a romcom or BL. After that type of kiss, the characters get together, the series will soon end happily (or there may be some episode 11 shenanigans before they ultimately reach a happy ending). Pat keeps the kiss meaningful and emotion-filled but short and sweet; to him, this will be the first kiss of many.

But to Pran, this is a different genre of story. Pran has known he is in a romantic narrative from the beginning (he’s had a crush on Pat since high school, if not before), but he doesn’t think this is a romcom. Pran looks at their family situation and recognizes another type of story: star-crossed lovers tragedies like Romeo & Juliet and Kwan & Riam. Pran says it himself, every time they are together, bad things happen (like Pran getting transferred). To Pran, this rooftop kiss is their last kiss, could only ever be their last kiss. Because of that, he can’t help but to lean into it, go in for a second kiss, to make it count. In this edit by @movementsofmylife they liken it to pre-nostalgia (“knowing you’re going to miss a moment once it’s gone and it makes you sad and desperate to hold onto or recreate it even when you’re still in that moment”). Pran thinks this is the closest he will ever get to having Pat and being happy because to him, the tragic ending to their story is inevitable.

In this kiss, the two genres Bad Buddy flirts with (BL and romantic tragedies – which will it emulate in the end?) come to a head. And it seems by the end of this rooftop scene that "romantic tragedy" might be the winning genre of the series: Pran walks away in tears, leaving Pat behind. For a moment, Pat was so caught up in the euphoria of being able to confess to Pran and having Pran reciprocate back that he forgot they live in a world with their parents, but Pran's tears, his leaving, and his avoidance of Pat through the next episode bring the barriers to their relationship back into focus. But there’s hope in this kiss too: Pran reciprocated. He’s spent half a lifetime repressing his feelings for Pat, he’s so good at denying his feelings… but we’ve seen how Pat is starting to wear on him. Despite it all, Pran can’t fall out of love with Pat, and despite it all, he can’t resist going in for another, deeper kiss. He might be able to walk away at the end of it, but we've seen the effect Pat has on him. Pat’s unrelenting good nature, the way he helps Pran at every turn (even when they are supposed to be enemies), and his sheer stubbornness and determination have gotten to Pran, and might give them a different ending after all.

In the end, Bad Buddy does end up somewhere between a BL romantic comedy and a tragedy: Pat and Pran are still together, but are trapped in a glass closet, still hiding from their family and most of their friends. It’s not a purely happy ending, it’s not a solely tragic ending, it’s somewhere in between, somewhere more realistic (there are a lot of queer people living in similar glass closets). Just like the rooftop kiss(es), Bad Buddy has something sweet, something hopeful, something joyful, meeting some melancholic, something fearful, and something hidden.

Finally, in the rooftop kiss scene Pat wears a shirt that says Baseball Mom, which is objectively hilarious but also deeply meaningful, and if that isn't the Bad Buddy Brand™ I don't know what is. See metas on Pat's Baseball Mom shirt by myself (here), and on Pat's shirts as a whole by @chickenstrangers (here), @thegayneurodivergentagenda (here), @respectthepetty (here), and @dribs-and-drabbles (here and here).

Bad Buddy is a funny show, but it doesn't hesitate to explore deeply emotional parts of the human (and especially queer) condition: intergenerational trauma (meta by @waitmyturtles), glass closets and homophobia (through a tale of feuding families), and more.

The episode 5 rooftop kiss scene brings together all the threads of Bad Buddy: the central characters, their personalities, and their history together; the external forces that threaten their love (their families' feud, their faculties' feud); the show's intertextual references to other narratives and genres (Romeo & Juliet/Kwan & Riam, BL, etc.); among others. I've focused here specifically on three opposing tensions in Bad Buddy (hidden vs open, romcom vs tragedy, and humour vs. emotional/allegorical meaning), and how this kiss scene shows them all as the opposing forces they are while hinting towards their future resolution, which is neither one nor the other but rather somewhere in the middle.

And really, Bad Buddy overall is a show that refuses to do one or the other (the way it both subverts BL tropes and is a BL, or its handling of seme vs. uke, come to mind), instead finding a more realistic middle ground where real nuance and meaning lie.

*deep breath* FUCKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK

Alright, I'm gonna make my case for the Bad Buddy Rooftop Kiss. This is probably gonna be the most personal I've ever been on this hellsite.

Let's get this out of the way. I loved Kinnporsche. I honestly did (even though it might not look like it since this is the second time I'm passionately campaigning against the show). I loved it so much that I made my very busy best friend, @tonysteve25 who is planning their wedding, make up the time to talk to me so I can rant for two hours about the show (no need to judge me, I know y'all are equally crazy)

I'm gonna strip the plot to the basics and then build my argument, so if I end up reiterating a lot of themes that are already discussed, apologies in advance

Bad Buddy is, at its core, a Romeo and Juliet retelling. Set in a fairly conservative Asian country, and produced by a media industry whose brand of storytelling often involves an AU-esque setting where homophobia does not exist. We are shown time and again that Pat and Pran's friends and family do not have a problem with them being in a same-sex relationship.

So the conflict comes from the history their families have with each other. As a South Asian cinephile, I've watched this trope play out so many times with heterosexual couples that I'm sure it has unwittingly become a part of my brain chemistry. Oftentimes, the reasons why the families are feuding are so over the top that every shred of relatability gets thrown out the window.

In Bad Buddy's case, the reason is kept simple, albeit childish in the beginning. A business rivalry between the two families, and as a result, the boys are also pitted against each other. This simplicity gives way to a lot of levity in the beginning, but as the story progresses, the real strength of this narrative starts seeping through. This show is relatable. Almost too relatable.

The constant pressure to outperform the other in every way, be it academics, sports, or romance; the expectation on Pat to follow his dad's footsteps and match his achievements, even in a dumb singing competition; the guilt that permeates every moment of joy they feel in their relationship, because they are always aware that they are actively disappointing their parents; the quiet, painful realization in the later episodes that they will never be accepted into each other's families, no matter how hard they try; the revelation that the root of the conflict came from a scholarship stolen from a woman, to satisfy the expectations of a patriarch.

Every statement above is the reality of so many Asians living their lives right now. I personally know couples who have been cut off from their families for over 20 years because they don't approve of their love/marriage. I have peers who blindly follow the career path charted for them by their parents because it is easier than resisting and doing something they actually like. A lot of us are left feeling unmoored and struggling to define our self worth in the real world, after we leave academia, because that is all we are ever taught: your grades indicate how worthy you are.

Now, I know not a single word above argues why the kiss is the best, but I'm getting there. Stay with me now. Many people more talented than me have argued the specifics of the kiss, the reasons why it grabbed us by our throats the first time we saw it, and why we are still on that rooftop with them. The reasons submitted in the poll describe it so eloquently, beat by beat (edit: I found out that it was witten by @tiistirtipii, here). @respectthepetty begs us not to disappoint Pat again here, @lurkingshan dives deep into the character analysis and why the kiss is the perfect culmination of narration, pacing, and the characters' journey here, @waitmyturtles explores the importance of foreplay, the 'how did we get here' before the kiss, here.

What I want to draw attention to are two things. One: how this kiss was executed in such a way that all of their deeper struggles are woven into the microexpressions, so when you rewatch the show, all of the added context makes it so much more heartbreaking.

Let's be clear here, Pat and Pran did not get a happily ever after. They did not break all of the chains that were weighing them down. Pat went on to follow his father into the business (who also followed his father into it). They have to keep their relationship a secret, with no end in sight. Even in the end, the audience is shown only a hidden, reluctant acceptance from the parents, not an open love.

Pat and Pran's relationship will always be bittersweet. And the kiss shows it. The fact that the kiss was the very last shot to be filmed is no coincidence. The actors know how it ends, they have already performed it. They also know that the characters in this moment know it too. They have lived all their lives playing their families' games, they know that if they take this leap of faith, then they are willingly giving up so many little moments in life, even something so mundane as entering each other's house through the front door. And we can see it, see all of it clearly in Pran's face. Pran, who plans every detail of his life. Pran, who is also in love with his rival for who knows how long. And then we see it in Pat's face too, if only after a moment, because that's the way he is. Pat, who has looked at Pran all his life as a rival, a bandmate, a secret friend. Pat, who is the only one who can completely understand Pran, his anger and grief and devastation, because they only have each other in this wretched game. We see his face fall, and we see confusion cloud his happiness.

This kiss is the perfect summation of their relationship, shown at the very beginning of it. They can have desire, but be riddled with guilt. They can have happiness, but only in secrecy.

Two: how this kiss did more for Asian queer representation than we can ever comprehend.

I was not present in the Tumblr trenches with y'all when the show originally aired, but I've read many, many posts about how it broke the internet. Western media often fucks up queer characters because they don't write fully fleshed out characters who happen to also be queer. They place enormous emphasis on the character's queerness, and end up writing a stereotypical cardboard cutout in the shape of a queer person. Complex queer representation is hard to come by, add Asian into the mix and the pool gets laughably small.

In the episodes leading up to the kiss, we see the characters get fleshed out, their struggles explored, but they are also deeply rooted in the middle class Asianness of it all. I know it is ironic to say that other shows from Thailand are less Asian than this one, but the struggles of a queer mafia boss/rich businessman/heir to the corporate throne protagonists can sometimes be a tad out of touch for the general populace, and we can only feel so much nostalgia for our school days before we are tired of the saccharine sugar high.

When I saw this kiss for the first time, my eyes teared up, not because these gay characters are having a hard time, but because I could feel their pain, irrespective of my sexuality. I knew deep in my bones how a kiss can simultaneously feel like freedom and a lifelong trap. And I'm sure so many others felt it too. The kiss went viral because it was a perfect representation of so many struggles of Asians and the diaspora (and beyond), and it happened to be queer.

I don't know how the results will tally up when the clock runs out, but I hope we can chalk up a honest-to-goodness happy ending for them, if only in a silly Tumblr poll.

Y’all. My friends. My pals. My blogs I don’t actually know but I’m sure are run by lovely people. Please be serious for one second and consider Bad Buddy episode 5 aka an absolutely perfect episode of television aka the best episode of any bl ever.

This episode is all about Pat’s journey through his queer awakening. It’s about him finally realizing what these feelings he’s been having for Pran for years actually are. It’s about him recontextualizing everything they’ve experienced together with that new lens, and finally understanding that they fell the fuck in love in high school and never got the chance to act on it. It’s about him finally comprehending why he’s so desperate to be near Pran all the time and why Pran sometimes looks at him in a way he doesn’t get. It’s about him finally catching up to Pran who has understood all of this the whole time because he has always been clued in to his own queerness and hyper aware of what he feels for Pat.

And as soon as Pat understands, literally at the first possible moment, he acts on it. In a way we rarely see from characters in romance dramas at all, let alone bl. Once he realizes what these feelings are he goes straight to Pran wearing his heart on his sleeve, clarifies what they are to each other, kisses the hell out of him, and invites Pran to kiss him right back. And it’s a great kiss. A fantastic beat for beat physical manifestation of the emotions Pat and Pran are processing as well as an excellent high heat kiss between two actors with amazing chemistry. Anyone who was there in fandom when it happened will never forget it. We were stunned! It was unprecedented!

If that wasn’t enough, the show gives us the immediate aftermath of the kiss, when with zero dialogue Pat and Pran react exactly as they should - Pat heaving a relieved sigh and giving Pran that exhausted and exultant smile, and Pran looking at him with nothing but sadness. Because Pat is still catching up. He’s reveling in something inside him finally clicking into place. But Pran? Pran has already thought this through from every possible angle and he knows exactly how impossible this is. Everything that’s going to happen next is on their faces as we pull back from the kiss. This kiss, and everything it represents, is the catalyst that drives the narrative from here on out.

I’m personally praying for a final playoff run between Old Fashion Cupcake vs. Bad Buddy/rooftop ep. 5 first kiss. CCing @wen-kexing-apologist, @lurkingshan, and @shortpplfedup, my/our consensus is — FOREPLAY. While the kiss itself is important, the bigger question — the one that y’all think about when you’re in this situation yourself — is how did we GET HERE?

Both scenes have INCREDIBLE FOREPLAY. If I’m not mistaken, BOTH scenes are one long continuous shot (with the BBS scene taken with multiple cameras, and the OFC scene with one handheld camera). Both with incredible actors and acting. Both with rising heat and anticipation. Both with negotiation and interplay of emotion.

At least with OFC — if you hadn’t read the manga, you may not have been sure how that scene had ended. With BBS, at least the first time I saw that scene — I wouldn’t have necessarily known that Pran was catching onto what Pat what going towards until the very last second, that very last “mai.”

The kiss is not just the kiss. The kiss is everything that happened before that moment. And I sure hope that all of us voters hopefully keep that in mind as we VOTE FOR BBS EPISODE 5 TO WIPE THIS COMPETITION CLEAN continue to see how the bracket plays out.