#Bluems

[chicademartinica]

The Hwang Da Seul megaverse

[wanderlust-in-my-soul]

“How long has it been since you and me? Hugs and kisses. Blankets and snuggles. Our sparks smoldering without a fireplace. Losing time is not losing you. It strengthens my yearning for you.” ― FIDELIS O MKPARU

The Eighth Sense

Addicted the Series

Love In The Air

Nitiman

Wedding Plan

Be My Favorite

My Only 12%

Hidden Agenda

Sing My Crush

Blueming

Favorite cuddles (Part 3/?) as part of my favorite bl-trope collection (no particular order)

[loveisactivated]

Forehead kisses

[jimmysea]

Dry off before you come out. Don't get water everywhere.

LET FREE THE CURSE OF TAEKWONDO (2024)

[my-rose-tinted-glasses]

"The ocean is for contemplating things bigger than we are, and helping us to feel humble. And the beach is a place for raw honesty." - @twig-tea

For @twig-tea 💙

[how-to-be-a-tree]

"I WANT IT, I GOT IT" BABIES

[conscbgb]

BL Webtoons/Manhwas and their live adaptations

Video credit for this beautiful montage ☝️ @blwemlng on Twitter 🙏🙏

[absolutebl]

Tag Game: 10 Scenes I will never forget (BL from China, Japan, Korea & Taiwan)

Tagged by @hughungrybear

Rules: Share five (5) ten (10) scenes you can't forget. Not your favorites, the ones that got stuck in your brain for any reason.

I took that "not your favorite" line seriously.

1. Sleeves in Gay (Chinese Bromance)

Untamed was the first instance I remember but I have a screen shot from Word of Honor. Look we all get it, China. But the DISCOURSE we had over this whole thing around China, BL, and sleeves kinda cemented my relationship with BL on tumblr.

I guess you had to be here. But A TIME was had on this hellsite and we have all been Paying Attention to sleeves ever since.

As we very well should.

2. Opening meet cute Seven Days

THE STAGING. My first incidenct of a BL outright DOING manga RIGHT just on our screens for us. The perspective, the framing, the body positions... everything was perfection.

3. Into the trash bag Kieta Hatsukoi

It broke us. Every one.

4. Blueming's how to film a gay sex scene in Korea... an education

I don't like that they felt they had to do it this way, but I like that the strictures and confines pulled out a kind of shadow puppet art and the coloring was remarkable. Speaking of...

5. Color Rush's musical montage date

I liked the sound track for this show (rare for me) and I loved the atmospheric underwater feeling of this sequence plus the musical score.

There are others from this show like the rain hung, the crystal rainbow, and the rainbow fan of color wheel, but I had to pick.

6 The double down "crash into to me" trope used to emphasize the love triangle in Light On Me

Korea is just so CLEVER with their trope deployment. Watching them juggle multiple back-and-forths damn near perfectly to emphasize the love triangle and manipulate our emotions was brilliant. I still don't love a love triangle, but I appreciate the art of this one so much I gave it a 10/10.

7 "Have you been well, without me?" Our Dating Sim

Possibly one of the greatest lines ever delivered in a reunion romance.

8 Air gun to the heart in We Best Love

I could pick so many from this show but many of them would qualify as favorites. But this moment and the way you can see the invisible shot hit, because, well, Sam is just that good. It's just perfect tsundere meets pining seme acting.

9 Kiss through the net (ICONIC) in HIStory 2 Crossing the Line

Just amazing, perfect, beautifully shot, sports romance at its finest.

10 These goobers in Love is Science

Tiny family for the win.

Others I seriously considered but eliminated because they ARE favorites

Takara falling into the wall

My Personal Weatherman drunk boyfriend lap cuddles

Just Friends kissing in public in uniform

The ending running confession sequence in My Beautiful Man (I will never forget it because this one broke me, in real time)

Love Class 2 the boxers sequence

Jun & Jun the little whimper before he gives up and the kiss, also squishy cheeks

Love for Love's Sake gay punching, also "who hit you," also the magic kiss, also....

Light on Me - the confession, the hand hold at school, Namgong in the cape with flowers

The blood covered kiss in Long Time No See

Our Dating Sim's stealth kiss giggle

Cats/dogs, dark meat/light meat chicken, bisexual awakening in Oh My Assistant.

"To soft" in History 3 Trapped

Peaking over the divider in Semantic Error, also seme subscription service, ending fairy, yaja time, the LETTUCE line, also...

The backpack drop in Why R U? Korea.

The nod to the bed in See Your Love

Ghat kisses!

Dishonorable mention for the dirty minds in the corner

Minato's Laundromat - the sheet scene

My Personal Weatherman - the shirt scene (similarly My Day and the belt)

Old Fashion Cupcake - the finger bite

First Love Story - Pervert

Jun & Jun - THAT lap sit

The lap site tie grab in Kiseki Dear to Me

Love is Science in the closet makeout scene

This line in Unknown:

Should I do a whole second one for Thailand?

I don't tag but if you want to play you absolutely should!

[thirstkanaphan]

Casting Ateez in a BL (revised and expanded)

Purely self-indulgent and a way for me to draw from my stores of BL knowledge (see my tags) and procrastinate on my actual work

Hongjoong

Hongjoong doesn't quite fit standard BL male lead visuals, yet he has shown himself to be intense, jealous, and possessive with atiny (and certain other members), which makes him a good fit for a cult fave Taiwanese BL. I would cast him in a Lin Pei Yu drama as a lead who secretly and furiously pines over his love interest for years, leading to an explosive moment of passionate intimacy, only to then ghost the love of his life for five years in order to prove himself worthy.

We Best Love 1 & 2 (Taiwan 2021)

Seonghwa

With Seonghwa's ability to draw from the emotional spectrum in his art (sadness, longing, grief, anger) and his unconventional yet staggering good looks, he would be a great fit for a Korean BL directed by my queen Hwang Da Seul. A show about the cost of aiming for perfection in a society that values beauty above all else. Seonghwa would definitely try for a more authentic depiction of queerness in a BL and would not be afraid of playing a messy character yearning for love.

Bleuming (Korea 2023)

Mingi

Given Mingi's penchant for pushing boundaries and zagging where others would zig, I see him fitting in with his new friend Up Poompat in a high-budget Thai BL adapted from a Chinese web novel. A show filled with questionable/downright problematic tropes and an incomprehensible plot, yet with great ratings due to its flashy visual style and high heat. Yes, I think Mingi would have a field day and charm the pants off everyone on the set.

My Stand-In (Thailand, 2024)

Yunho

Realistically, Yunho has the best chance of being cast in a Korean bromance drama like The Devil Judge or Beyond Evil, playing an honor-bound yet impressionable rookie who comes under the thrall of a mysterious and dangerous older mentor. However, we are casting him for BL and I think he would be perfectly suited for a Japanese BL filled with comfortable and nostalgic vignettes of everyday life and extended scenes of one character cooking for the other. His handsome, boy-next-door good looks would make him the ideal romantic lead who quietly devotes himself to his childhood friend-turned-roommate.

Living With Him (Japan, 2024)

Wooyoung

Has there ever been someone more suited to a pulpy Thai BL? I mean this as a compliment, of course. Yes, these shows have a reputation for being little more than sexy melodramas with poor production values, but I see the vision. Wooyoung's magnetism, swagger, and confidence would land him a show produced by Be On Cloud with great cinematography and a high-concept story held together by tape and glue. That wouldn't matter, because Wooyoung would get every advertiser of ice tea and printer ink to fund the show.

KinnPorsche (Thailand, 2022)

San

Yes, I know San was actually used as a visual reference for a character on KinnPorsche, but he would be playing it safe as a nice, strong, romantic lead in a New Siwaj-directed Thai BL. Physically, he embodies all the attributes of a seme, defined as the active pursuer in the narrative. He is the soft dom of our dreams, and would gently yet persistently woo our skittish ML while dealing with the emotional fallout of an intergenerational trauma that threatens his happily-ever-after.

P'DEEEAAAAAN!!!

Until We Meet Again (Thailand, 2019)

Yeosang*

Yeosang is tough to cast, because we know he sees himself as a doberman while the world insists he's a maltese. Unfortunately, his angelic good looks and soft-spoken demeanor would make him catnip for a Koran BL casting director looking for the ideal uke (the passive resistor in the narrative). He would play a sweet-natured yet timed character with a tragic backstory desperate to be loved by the touch-too-possessive ML who has known him since childhood. The show would be inexpensive yet tastefully staged, with a soft and dreamy style. The chemistry would be awkward and unconvincing, but the visuals would do most of the heavy lifting. His co-star would dine out on fan-meetings for the next 2-3 years.

Cherry Blossoms After Winter (Korea, 2022) starring Ok Jin Uk, from the trot idol group SUPERFIVE

*Thanks to an excellent suggestion by @byemambo, I am also casting Yeosang in A Man Who Defies the World of BL, using their explanation:

Mob is easily one of my favorite BL characters because I rewatch A Man Who Defies the World of BL religiously. I know we tend to see Yeosang as this ethereal beauty or someone who defies the odds of reality, but Yeosang to me is one of the funniest and wholesome members once you really take in his personality and composure. I feel like even if he tries not to due to his wallflower and observant tendencies, he draws you in, which is also Mob's dilemma until he has to come to terms with his bigger than life presence in the grand scheme of things. Although he spends so much time avoiding the spotlight and desire to lay low, he finally comes to terms with how signifiant his role is in the lives of others, and I find that beautiful (even if the series itself is unserious in nature haha).

Jongho

This was the hardest casting, because Jongho is so emphatically anti-fan service. Yet his prickly appeal and fondness for weepy dramas makes me think he could tough it out in a melancholy Japanese BL. Despite a mean and grumpy demeanor, his big round eyes would fill with devastation as the person he loves is taken from him too soon, only to get him back with only enough time to say their goodbyes and learn something about acceptance and memory.

Eternal Yesterday (Japan, 2022)

I will happily hear your substitutions or recommendations.

[ahxiang]

TWO YEARS OF BLUEMING Mar. 31, 2022 - Mar. 31, 2024

[babybison]

🤝💞

[chicademartinica]

BLUEMING SPIN OFF ??!!!! Phi @absolutebl did you know about this ?

[dramadramallama]

there's a little somethin' somethin' in Hwang Da-seul's works that is hard to pinpoint, but hits—very strategically and precisely—at what I personally delight in.

is it the bitterness, in all these stories, highlighting the sweetness? the fact that the characters appear incredibly fragile? made of many, many, very, very thin layers that make it hard to parse them?

something about the grey areas, the gaps in the story line(s) remaining untouched: merely suggestions, but it paints an image, like seemingly random lines in a rough sketch; either you see the bigger picture (or you don't), either way—it's fine, it doesn't really need to be more detailed. not sure if it's a signature move, or just making the most of the production budget...

but idk it never feels unpleasant, like an itch that you can't scratch; it's just a sensation that's there and that's it. like I said, hard to pinpoint.

(although i do love the longer runtime in Let Free The Curse of Taekwondo, which did absolute wonders to the storytelling. you can definitely feel how fuller it is compared to her earlier works. i already look forward to what she can do next.)

[loveisactivated]

Keep stroking my hair.

[impala124]

Everyday stuff that HDS got me emotional over

Nail trimming

Applying lipbalm

Tugging on someone's ear

Cycling

She probably read 'find beauty in mundane things' and thought, What if I make it traumatic too? Thank you, queen. Keep up the good work!

[nabi-unveiled]

Three Tropes Tag Game!

The Prompt: Choose three of your favorite QL tropes, and show us three of your favorite examples of each.

Happy Birthday @abstractelysium!

tagged by @abstractelysium @my-rose-tinted-glasses and @thisonelikesaliens (Thank you! I love being tagged 🫶).

I decided it would be fun to explore some tropes that I haven't talked about as much on here. So for the record, that immediately removed anything with food, lonely people, plushies, umbrellas/rain, sweaters or bookcases/books. I also removed ones that I had already seen from other people (the taggers and @dramalove247).

Which left...well, mostly other tropes that I particularly enjoy...for reasons:

That Finger Needed to Be Sucked

My Beautiful Man

My Personal Weatherman

Bed Friend

Cleanliness is Next to Godliness

Who doesn't love a good rub a dub dub in the tub?

My Beautiful Man - eternal -

I Feel You Linger in the Air

Heart Killers

A Bicycle Built for Two

Let's bring it down a notch. I still have to go back to work after this post.

Why do I like this trope? Is it just because it's the back hug's close cousin? Nope. It's because as @soypim pointed out in a different tag game, I appreciate competency. And this is a competency I DON'T HAVE.

I didn't grow up riding a bike much, and I'm TERRIBLE at it. I've drove a bike directly into a wooden bridge and spent hours picking splinters out of my arms. I've *almost* got hit by a car when I couldn't get the bike turned in time. So anytime I see this, I'm like "look at those awesome people". I'd absolutely love it if someone else would ride me around on the bike instead of me risking life and limb trying to drive it myself. That said - I'd probably be picky. This often requires physical contact and there's a lot of trust (in my eyes) being given to the driver.

My Beautiful Man 1/2 (so many bike rides...take your pick)

Love by Chance

Hidden Agenda

Side note - we have a family biking trip planned in the next few months 😬. My children will definitely show me up. I've tried to make sure they possess all the skills I lack like bicycling and swimming. I'm just hoping I come out in one piece.

no pressure tagging: @delesaria-blog @ginnymoonbeam @bronte-blues @fern-tdvuh @obsessedferalgremlin and if anyone sees this and wants to play consider yourself tagged.