#scoy

FreenBecky Cinematic Universe

SCOY (2022)

GAP The Series (2022)

Uranus 2324 (2024)

The Loyal Pin (2024)

Tagged by @starlightskyshine! Thank you for tagging me!

Rules: give some gifs for QLs that make you happy. Then tag 5 friends to spread the smiles.

I LOVE a lovey dovey fluffy pairing with a happy ending!!! 🥰 I love love!!! ❤️ I tried to go for the most feel-good ones with the least amount of angst. Did I put too many? Nah, no such thing!

Gotta start with my OTP!! (Ok yeah it’s angsty but it’s also so fluffy!!)

Cherry Magic (in all its forms!)

(link to the first gif cause it's not showing up for some reason)

My School President

Only Boo!

Caged Again

Secret Crush On You (it's worth the effort to get past the cringe! 🤭)

My Love Mix-Up! (I liked the Thai version too but nothing beats the Japanese version)

Takara's Treasure

(link again cause idk how to work this thing)

Monster Next Door

Your Sky

(and last but not least the only GL I've seen that could count as fitting in this category 🥲)

Be My Angel

Finally catching up on last week's Me and Who episode, and My Seng! My Seng! My Seng has come back to me! I've had less than a minute of screen time with him so far, but he's already doing what I love about his BL acting so much.

One of my preoccupations is effeminate performances. I find the emphasis on representing straight-passing and/or masculine gays in media SO BORING. (Even though I fucks with the soundtrack,) I have no love in my heart for Brokeback Mountain. That str8 population is a minority among queer men, and it ignores--at worst purposefully spurns--the more prevalent and encompassing stigma behind homophobia: misogyny. You aren't initially teased because you're fucking men, it's cuz you're not acting like one. They'll say "you throw like a girl" before they learn the word "fag," and it's why bottoming is more denigrated--it's feminine to be penetrated. In fact, the traditional Thai gender system, in contrast to the Euro-American gender/sexuality division model, is set up around these distinctions.

As many of you probs know, I'm very interested in the actors behind the performances. Part of that started because I wanted to know about what Thai culture considered effeminate or queer and how the actors differed or aligned with what they brought to their queer characters--are they heightening their own aspects or transforming into a different character. Not as some kind of factor for including or excluding actors because of their sexuality, mind you. Amongst the tumblr discourse about which BLs are "queer," I wanted to understand what was lost in translation and what parts of my own intimate familiarity with effeminacy from my own cultural context I ought to bring to my perspective on that. Seng has been instrumental to my appreciation of this.

Seng, due to a disgusting invasion of privacy, is publicly out as a girl-dater. Even without that information, though, Seng's public persona he shares on social media and at events is nothing like any of his characters. He totally transforms. And to my eyes what he brings to his characters reads as so very Gay.

Not only that, he's brought vastly different kinds of effeminacy to each different character. From his campy dork in SCOY to his soft and slightly sad young professional in Knock Knock Boys, his two-faced diva in War of Y to the perfect ex he's giving us in Me and Who--every single one of these characters would get clocked by middle school bullies for their distinct queer presentations. Femme, no, but from the tilting of his gaze to the fluidity in his walks, Seng's characters each in their own ways embody so many subtleties of queer men, and it never feels like a parody of them.

Seng is one of the prime examples of what BL can offer in terms of breaking ground for queerness on screen, not because of his own sexuality. It’s because he takes the Effeminate seriously in his work. That's what I'm here to see from these actors.

@trribledelight asked for "BLs that made you think or learn smthg or shook you culturally? Eg the political considerations in Not Me..."

Let's get the rough ones out of the way first, shall we?

1 2gether

Green. One of the most egregious reps for punching down humor against femmes in BL (and there sure are a lot out there). Seriously GMMTV? Must you?

At the time we all watched this because there wasn't anything else to watch, and it's been a long time since I bothered with a rewatch, but Green is one of the reasons I just can't with this series.

I'm not knocking the actor, but the character and how the other characters behave around him, and the director with regard to this aspect of the plot and portrayal was rough going.

What shook me was how casually homophobic 2g was. It was just so odd to watch a gay romance gloss over and degrade queerness. I was like, wait, aren't they supposed to be on our side?

(Ah, the before times.)

2 Fish Upon the Sky

Shall we address the head wrap in the room? This BL has some of the most shockingly racist content I've seen in a long time. Also punching down humor. I fast forwarded through it and I still don't want to think about it. GMMTV should be throughly ashamed of themselves... Again. I was shook, but in a bad way.

Okay, now for the ones that shook me in a good way.

3 Until We Meet Again

I watched this early in my Thai BL journey (while it was airing) and I had no idea what to expect. Frankly, you could watch it now and still not know. It's just very unusual for a Thai BL.

The plot twist about how they each ended up reborn. Just so brilliant. I still can't get over it. So simple. SO CLEVER. So punishing for the families.

Fantastic!

4 Secret Crush On You

This one kinda shook me all along but that Daisy & Touch scene. It lives on in my head rent free forever. Just because it was so beautifully sweet and genuine and kindly towards a femme character.

I still don't like this BL.

But I love that scene in it.

5 My Beautiful Man

I went on a JOURNEY with this show. Mostly because I didn't think Japan had it in them to land something this complex. But they managed it beautifully by not shying away from the delicious messy ugliness of it all.

Possibly the greatest final episode in all BL.

And from Japan. Usually so bad at endings.

I remain gobsmacked.

6 Unknown

I shouldn't have been shooketh by this one but I really was.

The style of it while staying so down home and gritty.

How old school Chinese BL it felt yet it still managed to be very modern BL about it.

The execution and quality of the acting.

How it was aired (available in YouTube?! we NEVER get that from Taiwan!)

Also the pair branding. We haven't gotten this level of pair brand from the leads in a Taiwanese BL since SamYu.

I'm was absolutely riveted by everything about this show and its production.

I loved seeing it. I hope we get more BLs like this from Taiwan as a result.

But I ALSO hope they realize that a big factor in the popularity and the success of this show was in distribution.

It's what's for dinner.

Along with the stepbrother trope.

KOREA'S SUPRISES

I watch a lot of Kdramas as well as BL, and have done for a really long time. I'm riveted by Hallyu, from an entertainment industry perspective (what I wouldn't do to get my hands on some of their proprietary data). I also listen to a ton of Kpop.

Therefore, Korea dominates the P'ABL gets shooketh list because I had (and have) more expectations firmly in place around Korea's media product sfyle than anyone elses. Even before they started to make a big play into the BL scene.

My favorite BLs from Korea, like Semantic Error and Light on Me are EXACTLY what I expect from them, manufactured perfection. But I was also shook more times by Korea than other BL nations because I had such rigid expectations.

7 Color Rush

Yeah yeah. But it starred an idol. It started out pretty and stiff and everything I was expecting and then the concept hit me up side the head and I never recovered from the CLEVER of this show. I'm not used to my Kdramas or my BL being this high concept and SMART about their sanitized perfection.

8 Blueming

What with the 8th Sense and others since, Blueming seems to have been somewhat forgotten about. But at the time, I was shook by the down home grit of this show. By the actual pain from the characters. By the higher heat concept. By Korea actually going THERE.

And then these babies came along...

9 The 8th Sense

I just didn't think Korea had it in them. Yes, I realize now that it was a bit navel gazey, and we were weighted heavily towards the seme and his pain. I would have liked a better balance between the leads, but that's in retrospect.

At the time I couldn't believe it. A KBL dealing with mental health?

And can we talk about those sex scenes? How insanely comfortable the actors were with each other? How easy in each other's personal space? I've not seen anything else quite like that from Korea. It's super rare. I had assumed they, culturally, just didn't do casual intimacy, or if they did, it wasn't allowed on screen.

Of course now I know the CAN do it, I want more.

10 Love for Love's Sake

Okay, lots to unpack with this one. A genuine isakai BL, in the original sense of the term. The death twist didn't shake me up, but the execution, acting, open gayness, and a couple other things did. Enough to make me still think on this show with fond surprise and affection, despite its undercurrent of darkness.

I like to be shooketh.

IM MAKING MY OWN GAME BITCHES

God - Monster Next Door

2. Khatha - Midnight Museum

3. Tos - The Rebound

4. Pure - My Gear and Your Gown

5. Phupha - ATOTS

6. Prom - Playboyy

7. Nuea - SCOY

8. Alan - Pit Babe

9. Piseang - Be My Favorite

my type is 'top that will be nice to me' mostly. a red flag or two made it in

also i'm asexual so you don't have to know for a FACT you would either. i just wanna know who yall are drawn to because it is fascinating

im gonna tag

@yinwaryuri @sunshinesanctuary @negrowhat @tbhimnoteasyonmyself @callipigio

Hi and thank you so much for asking me a question especially such an interesting one!

Of course I have my own favorites both toxic ones and the cuties I can't forget. Now for the first part, toxic relationships, it depends on your definition of toxic because there are multiple different angles you can look at them from. I shall start the list with the toxic ones and this is in no particular order as I can't really rank my favorites. Personally, I don't really like toxic relationships, I can watch anything, but some characters/relationships just won't sit well with me that is why you won't see those popular red flag characters. Anyway thank you again and let's start the lists!

(Also this is me trying to remember the plots of series I watched (Also also I got asked this 2 days ago, but my perfectionist self had to fact-check everything and pick out a gif for it. All of them are happy because... well just because I want them to be.))

TOXIC

1. Kill to Love - Duan Zi'ang & Xiao Shuhe

In this case, both of them are toxic but on different levels. Xiao Shuhe is self-destructive while Duan Zi'ang is obsessed and possessive, driven to madness at the thought of losing the person he loves. He is not only possessive he is also willing to kidnap AND hold Xiao Shuhe captive for as long as he pleases or until the other stops running away. Duan Zi'ang also lied to Xiao Shuhe multiple times, killed half of his people including his own brother and then enslaved the other half that survived. I mean... love him but there is no denying it.

2. Only Friends - Top & Mew

This one is quite obvious... Top betrayed Mew's trust when he slept with Boston and Mew is manipulative. Idk if everyone would agree but Mew doing things with Ray to make Top feel hurt was quite manipulative of him. Top was also a substance user which could lead to more toxic behavior and he was kind of pushy to get in Mew's pants. There isn't much more left to say, but I still loved them in this role, their characters were written so well even if parts of their storyline got cut.

3. Jazz for Two - Song Juha & Seo Doyun

I think this one is also quite obvious... Juha is just plain toxic, from the lack of control in a physical way to degrading Doyun because he likes him. When he saw Doyun with his own sister his first thought was that he was exposed, that they talked about him. And yes I liked them more than the main couple so I chose them.

4. Till The World Ends - Golf & Art

Incredible series, but Golf was toxic from the very beginning. Like the opening scene is a huge red flag... Golf was very toxic in his first relationship with his girlfriend and then his relationship with a new boyfriend started on a lie which he never decided to reveal on his own. He is also possessive and jealous and impulsive because what do you mean you hit a man IN THE HEAD just because he talked to her? Golf also kept Art locked away from the world which is still a red flag even if he partly did it to protect Art.

5. Secret Crush On You - Nuea & Toh

Not everyone's cup of tea but I love them very much and so do my friends. Both of them are just red flags. Toh is a stalker who keeps everything his crush touched and worships it like it is his religion while Nuea is a very jealous type which again is and can be toxic.

Sweet

1. Destiny Seeker - Songkhram & Ai

EXTREMELY UNDERRATED! It is one of my all-time favorites. Forced enemies become fake enemies who start a secret relationship while pretending to be enemies around their classes. They are so clingy and caring for one another. It is such a joy to watch. It's messy on the edges, but the chemistry was so good and that NC scene.... I am still hoping that one day Earth and Bank will come back together...

2. A Boss and A Babe - Gun & Cher

Of course my comfort series is on the list. Is boss x inter really appropriate? No, but in this case I just don't care. I adore ForceBook and their performance in this series was so well done, their characters had such depth and the chemistry??? Is there plenty of angst in the series? Yes, but again the love they have for each other just erases everything.

3. Reset - Thada & Armin

My latest obsession is here again no surprise. There is so much pain in this series, but the love that they have is so pure, so beautiful and so impactful. Thada trying to spoil Armin was one of my favorite things ever. I honestly don't know what to say about this series, they are just my everything.

4. I Feel You Linger In The Air - Yai & Jom

This one also has one of the most beautiful love stories ever told and if we ignore everything around them they were so gentle with one another. The love they shared was so beautiful and if we ignore parts of the ending they had a very sweet ending.

5. About Youth - Xu Qi Zhang & Ye Guang

Gonna be completely honest with this one... I don't remember the plot of it I just know how it felt watching, I remember how warm around the heart I was, I remember talking highly about it. It is quite short, but it is very sweet and lovely.

Also the OST is a banger.

*This is NOT what show has the highest heat/most sex scenes/etc but what show is the HORNIEST on MAIN. Not all sex scenes are horny and not all horny scenes are sex scenes.

You know, the random couple who are friends with the leads but do not actually have a real storyline. They're just there to look pretty and offer advice, usually they're cameos from other established acting pairs but not all the time.