#tonchon

Still watching though!

Characters are so deeply in denial of their own feelings for one reason or another that they genuinely have no idea that what they're experiencing is atypical.

Characters with families so controlling or unaccepting that they simply cannot believe themselves to be gay because they know it wouldn't be acceptable.

Characters that don't do self-reflection as a whole and so never look at the love they're showing as anything beyond friendship no matter how far it might go beyond that in every other way.

Characters who are just so content exactly as they are, and so dumb in their own way, that they never try to look past the surface of any of their thoughts or actions.

Chon: Oh that's so sweet.

Ton: Yeah, it was eating me up inside, so I called each and every one of them and told them that I never loved them.

Ton: I have NO friends that are gay.

What you thought I was gonna let this one go by? 

Initial thoughts, I’m getting a happy-go-lucky cheerful 2gether meets Puppy Honey feel. There is nothing wrong with this. It’s exactly what I wanted from the Thai BL world right now. 

So if you like Wat & Tine and/or Pick & Rome, these babies should work for you. 

Best thing about it? 

Chon is out gay to his friends and family. Tonhon Chonlatee seems to be consciously using this identity to lampoon BL tropes with queer ownership. This could go very wrong, but so far I’m utterly delighted. 

Worst thing? 

Seme might be too stupid to live. 

And we just had to have the supportive female friend character be a Yaoi-reader self insert. Just STOP. Did we learn nothing from Pearl (Gameboys)? HEY THAILAND make your girls more like Pearl and less like Khim. For ffffuuu... erm, yeah. Grrr.  

Eternally Biased Recap

Tonhon Chonlatee launched with a dig at The Untamed. Heh heh. You go boys.

Moves on to introducing an actual gay character pining for straight childhood BFF who hasn’t been seen in years. Appropriate bucket-upending meat cute is then delivered. The friend is back and tattooed with hot.*  

Cue drooling and multiple trope drops. 

This one moved us quickly through the first ep of them meeting and setting up the co-habitation proximity relationship stress. So that by ep 2 we are already into the university setting. (Lessons learned from My Gear and Your Gown, mayhap?) A+ for pacing. 

Tropes We Got In Ep 1

The artful lip wound but no tending was executed. Merely a: “Is it split? No? Cool, you’ll be fine.” I kind of love a slightly uninterested seme character. The nurturing thing occasionally throws me for a loop. 

Clutch that pillow. (Runs to see who’s directing this. Not one of the usual suspects, so this visual trope is officially leaking into all BL.) 

The fast and the bicurious (bonus: grab my waist). (Personal preference: an actual motorcycle always makes me happy.) 

Seme to the rescue. (Demerit for predatory feminized gay. Sigh.)

Extra bonus points for uke taking point and DEFENDING HIMSELF. Yes!!! 

Queer sparkle unicorn award for defending gay identity + lamp-lighting a negative trope. 

The face caress or cheek pinch. Plus the ubiquitous: 

“Your skin is as soft as a girl’s.” 

I saw you feed him. 

Share my closet, only this time the seme has to wear the uke’s too small clothing. Ha! I loved this one. It’s a parody trope, how fun is that? 

Also lots of... 

Stare at Me Meaningfully

* Personal note on Podd, I’m so happy he got this role. I couldn’t stomach his arc in Dark Blue Kiss for deeply personal reasons. But he is perfect as Ton and I look forward to his clueless awakening. 

Next up? 

UNIVERSITY HERE WE COME!