While I was doing that, I stumbled across your post on metonymy. Fascinating- I didn’t know that had a word. Do you have any specific favorite metonymy (scenes) in BLs? Or a link to a post where you’ve already done this? Thank you.

Hi!!! Welcome, I don't mind the notifs, I'm exactly old enough never to enable them on my phone, so they won't bother me. I’m flattered. 

The metonymy post in question is here.

Ooooo, well I haven't done a post but lemme think if I can find a few!

Favorite Uses of Metonymy In BL

“Metonymy is a subtype of [literary] metaphor, in which something (like rain) is used to stand for (or model/represent) something else (like sorrow).”

I'm not sure it is in general a favorite, but it is VERY BL and I'm always amused to see it so...

1. Shower = sadness 

Crying in the shower is just such a BL take on what, in most dramas would be crying in the rain, or crying when it's raining outside. Since BL is, ya know, horny I’m amused that in order to get at this one, they feel like they have to strip the boys and stick them in a shower anytime something tragic happens. Also, like following the boys into the men’s room, this is something that’s only really done for gay romances. 

Here’s my absolute favorite execution: 

Third in Theory of Love. 

2. Kissing in the forest = understanding & unity 

Specifically I love it in DNA Says Love You. This is the big romantic “finding each other again” acknowledgment of feelings kiss. It’s a very cool thing to have occur in the woods like this, and actually comparatively rare. (The forest is often used to indicate relationship confusion and rediscovery, but not usually in such a special way as this.) The chaos and the risk represented by wilderness, contrasted against the unity and cohesion and safety of being together as one at last, is particularly poignant with this couple. 

Plus the beam of light on their faces, it’s all very symbolic of not just cohesion but enlightenment. (Although I did spend a some time concerned about Amber getting sun burned, he’s so pale.) Plus it’s Taiwan, so it’s a great kiss. 

3. Sitting in an empty room = Loneliness

BL loves a wall slide into loneliness, especially being closed off alone in a room. So the key components are: an empty room, or space, to represent the abandonment the character is feeling; usually some kind of high contrast lighting, to emphasize the shadows and darkness; and the actor’s body language indicating dejection, usually sitting on the floor leaning back on soemthing (bed, wall, door). There are a ton of these (especially in episode 11s) but I always think about Korn in Until We Meet Again. It’s absolutely classic. 

This one uses peekaboo framing - which is this idea of something interrupting the view, making the watcher feel like they are intruding on a private moment (AKA a dirty shot). But Director New had this shot hugely cut into by blocky wall darkness, so this execution feels particularly ominous. He uses this framing style for KornInn A LOT and as DeanPharm get closer and closer to their own past, they also start to get this kind of framing and darker treatment. (New isn’t often clever as a director, but he was VERY clever with the two main threads in UWMA.) 

I should note I like this loneliness metonymy one so much I have it as my icon, that’s from 2 Moons 2. 

4. The rooftop = enlightenment

More than just enlightenment in BL a rooftop setting is almost always used for communication and understanding. It’s where two characters go to finally ACTUALLY talk to each other. It’s a safe place to be alone together, but also the height and location is being used to represent understanding. So literally being higher up = enlightenment (closer to god) but also higher up allows one to look down on the world and see everything as smaller and less significant and simultaneously more of a whole. So the rooftop is used to telegraph to the viewers that the couple is gaining perspective on their relationship. The most iconic version of this trope, for me, was Fighter and Tutor’s countdown in Why R U? 

This is a VERY old trope in BL, and comes from the way back machine in Japanese 90′s yaoi, we see it in Takumi-kun, one of the first BLs and it’s particularly common in Japanese stuff still to this day. 

5. The bridge = bridging differences 

The bridge is often used to indicate that the couple is mending their relationship, literally bridging the divide between them. Perhaps a bit in your face, but there’s a lot of hand holding and kissing on bridges in BL. It’s about crossing a divide safely, both in reality, and as a couple. Of course my favorite version of this is the confession kiss in We Best Love. 

Although the most iconic in Thai BL is probubly the same story beat but in SOTUS. 

6. Saturated lighting = nirvana (epiphany?)

I’m not quite sure how to put this one, but there is a way to use saturated lighting and a fuzzy lens not just for the usual (dream state) but to indicate a kind of emotional climax, the act of having one’s greatest wish and hope realized. Korea uses this one a lot (especially in kiss scenes, Color Rush in IN YOUR FACE about this), but my favorite execution is Utsukushii Kare’s from Japan. 

In this case the brightness of the lighting is being used to indicate getting what you want at last. A kind of orgasmic achievement... if you would, blinding in its satisfaction. 

7. We are on this road together = the future as a couple

There are lots of good versions of this. The road and walking down it, usually hand in hand, is used to represent being on a journey together. I can be used near the end of narrative to indicate happy ever after (like in Puppy Honey 2) or it can be used in the middle, to indicate more to come. Literally and figuratively: the couple is on a shared path. While I do ADORE Puppy Honey’s versions, that’s not my top pick.

My favorite execution of this is actually Long Time No See because it’s drawing a contrast to expectations of this trope. I love a twist on an old trope. The director put these two assassins walking down train tracks together happily, which has the same unity symbolism, but also tremendous inherent threat (the train is coming). This occurs about half way through a narrative that is about to get very violent indeed. So I LOVED this part. 

Also their unity is interrupted not by the train but by ordinary people and their own fear of exposure (as a gay couple). Fear from characters who we know could kill without remorse with their bare hands. It’s so powerful to watch society’s expectations interrupt and dominate a couple who should, by rights, exist entirely outside of that society with no care for its expectations... yet they still do care. 

So the doom that comes at them as they walk together is not a train, but other people. ARGH. It’s just chilling. 

8. Staggered couple = power imbalance 

While I am all over the place on how I feel about seme/uke I do love a power imbalance, AKA when one character pines/loves more than the other. When one character is rich and the other poor. Or when there is a significant age gap. 

Again Until We Meet Again’s KornIn are one of my favorite versions of this. In is very much the one who has more feeling, more interest, and more yearning. Korn is very much entirely in the position of power, rich, aloof, dangerous. The fact that New put Earth sitting on the ground at Kao’s feet in this scene is SO telling, and such a symbol of their whole relationship, especially early on. When Korn kills himself later on and In doesn’t know what to do but follow him, it’s this image from EARLY on in their relationship that I always think of. Also, note it’s another peekaboo shot? So clever. 

It really harkens back to origin manga style, again, so yeah.... I love it. 

Here’s another execution where it’s the start of a relationship, but presented in a more open, optimistic positive light. Seven Days uses a bold direct framing style and approach because that’s Yuzuru’s personality, and it’s his perspective, but Seryo is often emphasized as taller, or framed at an upward angle because he is an unattainable object of interest and curiosity (desire even). 

I always find it particularly impactful and intriguing when one character is standing (or sitting in a chair) and the other is on the ground at his feet. Probubly because I’m hella kinky. 

Is this strictly metonymy? Probubly not because setting isn’t playing as much of a role. But I love it anyway. 

Trippy, mind bending video to attack your senses.