#ohmnanon

Let's play a game! Let's explore the magic of critical thinking together. :D

Yay!

In 2021, GMMTV released "Bad Buddy" starring Ohm and Nanon, a career move they have both lived to regret, at some level, to this day! While "Bad Buddy" was airing and the OhmNanon machine was being constructed, brand new OhmNanon fans cheerfully (and sometimes aggressively) told everyone they could pin down with their knives long enough to listen to them that Ohm and Nanon hadn't even wanted to do BL! Ohm had done a fair number of BL series already and was looking to phase out of it, and Nanon had never done a BL series and wasn't especially interested in joining in!

(I wonder why?)

Legend has it that director Aof knew they weren't keen, so he got them to agree to "Bad Buddy" by going to them separately and telling them, "Hey. Y'know your friend? The guy you're friends with? The boy you enjoy spending time with? He's signed on. Don't you want to work with him?"

So Ohm and Nanon signed on to this one BL series.

Ohm was twenty-one.

Nanon was twenty.

Just underscoring their ages for no reason whatsoever. It's not like young people are easily pressured and exploited or anything.

"Bad Buddy" was a massive hit, and GMMTV probably went, "You can't stooooppppp! You're making us moooooneeeeey!"

Somehow, even though Nanon had been very clear and open publicly that he had no interest in doing BL long-term, he became half of the imaginary couple OhmNanon. FOREVER.

Do I know what went on behind the scenes? No.

But let's go back to that critical thinking thing.

Nanon said: no BL.

GMMTV said: ONE (1) BL.

Nanon said: fine, one BL.

"Bad Buddy" ends and GMMTV continues to promote the fuck out of NEWLY MINTED OHMNANON THE BRAND.

How much agency do you think this twenty-year-old had in holding his boundaries?

I'm not a GMMTV Is Evil person. I am a GMMTV Is Exploitative and Money-Obsessed person. I think if you're an artist with savvy and good legal representation, you can make a solid life and career at GMMTV. It's a job in a cutthroat industry.

I'm sure that's how Nanon, with family in the industry, got out of his imaginary couple work with Ohm when Whatever Happened Between Them happened between them.

And now it's 2026 and there are still OhmNanon fans devotedly making sure no one on the internet ever associates Ohm or Nanon with anything but the memory of OhmNanon.

Now, Sky and Nani were twenty-six years old when they did their first series together. From what I know, GMMTV got dancey happy giddy excited about their series "High School Frenemy" doing really well, so they probably went, "HEY HEY HEY HEY HEY WHAT IF YOU TWO KEEP WORKING TOGETHER AS A BL IMAGINARY COUPLE? YOU JUST HAVE TO FLIRT WITH EACH OTHER AND EXCHANGE JEWELRY AND TELL PEOPLE YOU'RE IN LOVE FOR REAL AND WE'LL GIVE YOU SOME OF THE MONEY WE MAKE FROM IT."

On cue, the ghosts of Ohm and Nanon's peace and sanity set the ceiling on fire and screamed fountains of blood from their gaping mouths onto the floor around Sky and Nani's sneakers, so Sky and Nani said, "I think we'd rather not."

But GMMTV wanted money, and BL imaginary couples make easy money, so what do??? HOW GET MONEY [geysers of fire and melted gold]

Presumably, GMMTV went, "Ooh, ooh! I know! Okay, what if we don't market you as a BL imaginary couple, but just…friends! CLOSE friends!"

So they did that. Are doing that.

If you're mad at SkyNani for [checks notes] refusing to appropriate queer culture for profit by marketing themselves as friends, but you simultaneously support BL imaginary couples whose sexualities you don't know, then you've found yourself right smack in the middle of a conundrum there, partner!

How can you be sure BL imaginary couples aren't exploiting queer culture for profit?

Because I guarantee you some of them are. \:D/

I even know some of them are! And one of those pairs is pretty ding dang diddly doo popular with some of you making the most noise. \\\\:D////

Attacking SkyNani like this is just using half-baked logic and performative justice-seeking language to justify going on a witch hunt because you can't deal with your own unexplored or reckoned-with issues.

Find joy in something, anything, immediately.

To be clear, I think Bad Buddy was a step forward for what BL shows should get right. It had ideas related to discussions of consent, gender dynamics, as well as more progressive versions of what other BL series try doing.

We all loved "the kiss" of episode 5. This was because we've NEVER gotten a well executed, comfortable, affectionate kissing scene in BL ever and before BB it was either uncomfortable or forced or just sort of out of place.

Bad Buddy made strides in dropping a lot of the unhealthy BL series tropes(such as being very casual about SA or assignment of gender roles) and replacing them with healthy ones, and we can see this influence cascade into other series that came later.

Bad Buddy isn't necessarily a "bad show". But I think many look at is as an ideal for what more BLs should be like, without recognising the core issues with a plot like Bad Buddy and the execution around the nicer moments.

The premise of Bad Buddy is so so strange, and it's romance narrative takes place in a very weird dynamic.

Both these guys' families (and college departments?) are rivals/fighting for some reason. So they both need to sort of put on the act of disliking each other, despite being attracted to each other. And this premise would be fine if the execution wasn't so weird. Right BEFORE the ep 5 kissing scene, we get this huge drunk ramble scene that's supposed to be super tense and serious, but I just found it kind of ridiculous. Why are these boys fighting and acting so serious ? What even is the basis of this conflict?

Even after we get explanations for these conflicts in the series, nothing justifies the plethora of strange things each of these characters do or behave like, which took away from a lot of the stakes of the show. Bad Buddy gave us a really nice relationship that made full use of some really good actors but the actual narrative conflict felt so unbelievable to me that I couldn't buy into the drama or conflict that made the couple develop or seem better.