weaselofchaos

[weaselofchaos]

Best 24 of BL 2024 - Quirky Awards

ONLY shows that ENDED their runs in 2024 are up for awards.

SHOCK & AWE AWARDS

1. Biggest BL surprise of 2024:

Cherry Magic Thailand. TayNew's version was truly a lovely experience and very much its own take on the original, an adaptation rather than a remake. I'm so relieved and grateful that GMMTV managed to pull it off, and sad it wasn't more widely available.

2. The “that country did WHAT?” award:

Meet You At the Blossom from China. From start to finish it is exactly as it claimed to be, wuxia BL, including more than the expected amount of sexual claiming (dubious consent to the point of rape) and actual kisses, wife language, floaty sleeves, you name it. FROM CHINA!!!

3. Biggest casting whoa! where did you come from? award:

Up & Poom in My Stand-In. I mean, WHERE did you two come from and how did this happen? Holy smokes. My goodness are we grateful!

4. That studio did WHAT now? award:

Youku putting Unknown out wide and easily avaiable on YouTube (for most of us). It's just really rare for a Taiwanese BL to get any kind of distribution. And to do that with arguably the best TaBL of the year and not some sad little mew mew? Amazing.

5. I’m sad you were ignored award:

Sugar Dog Life - such a charming JBL, so hard to find. I'm so sad it didn't get distribution. It's charming, one of my favorites of the year, worth tracking down if you can.

6. 2024 BL That Actually Made Me Lose My Mind Award?

I gotta be honest, it was The Sign. I was such a chaotic mess of a show but never once was I bored. It was the only one that drove me into memes and captions and silliness.

I did go a bit feral for a while over Love for Loves Sake and Wandee Gooday not to mention The Only One (until it went tits-up).

NARRATIVE AWARDS

7. Best story 2024:

Cherry Magic (Thai remake). I know, but it worked just as well in another country, if not better. I always enjoy this kind of magical realism concept (after all Color Rush is one of my all time favorite BLs) and despite the increased length, the pacing was solid on this one... even from Thailand.

8. Best narrative structure 2024 award:

Love For Love's Sake. A KBL isekai about a man who must win a game by convincing a reserved teen outcast to fall in love with him. Of course, that teen represents himself and his own unhappiness. I drowned in this show and liked it that way.

9. Best 2024 dialogue (script) award:

We Are, it was just so much fun. And so FUNNY.

10. Favorite scene 2024:

Like anyone needed to ask. Unknown, of course.

11. The most rewatchable BL of 2024 award:

We Are

It's just all the couples are so cute and the core friendship group is so charming and endearing.

ACTORS & CHARACTERS AWARDS

12. Best performance of a queer actor in a leading role:

no award this year, yeah the whole damn industry should be thoroughly ashamed of itself

13. Best pining 2024:

The Time of Fever. That feeding him orange while lying on the floor scene ALONE.

14. Best wingman 2024 (The Namgoong Award)

Yai in The Sign.

15. Biggest OMG I LOVE you boys together, YAY!

SailubPon from Pit Babe & This Love Doesn't Have Longbeans, from the softness of one to the health code violations of the other. Sure their shows are bonkers, but man are these two good at bonkers (and bonking).

With a nod to BigPark from Monster Next Door.

16. Most unexpected return of a BL pair? award:

OffGun. There were rumors that Off was out at the beginning of 2023. And then they came back with 2 shows in 2024 (Cooking Crush and The Trainee)!

17. Well aren't you two just the prettiest? award:

I dithered a lot (Babe's damn waist and OMG The Sign's sex scenes hawt), but in the end it had to go to GreatInn. They were just so good at showing their characters having FUN together. There is a lot of beauty in enjoying sex and another person's company. It's so rare to see that portrayed in a BL (and it shouldn't be rare).

18. LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

I'm actually giving it to OffGun. Ya know, where others falter, these two just keep going. It's kinda amazing.

RANDOM PICKS

19. Favorite Linguistic Moment of 2024:

The general flirtatious banter from Last Twilight.

20. Biggest disappointment of 2024:

Addicted Heroin (Thai version). Some of the very best original material + one of my favorite Thai actors (who I've been waiting eons to see in a BL again) and THIS was the result? They could have fixed China's worst BL mistake, instead the made everything worse. I'm gonna be bitter for a really really long time.

I gotta sat The Only One comes a real close second tho. And I'm still mad about Last Twilight, too.

21. Best Wardrobe/Prop Use 2023

Meet You At The Blossom - I love a pretty boy pissing contest over who has the biggest sleeves. Twirl you beautiful bastards, TWIRL!

22. Best Queer Rep 2024

Again, not great this year. I loved the fun sex and play in Wandee, but there were precious few femme characters, and in general it felt like we took some steps back from queerness this year. So I'm gonna give it to Deep Night, because at least they gave us honest poly for the first time.

23. Best Meta Trope call out

Love for Love Sake - Korea taking to task the Dead Fish Kiss when they are often the worst offender was...... amusing.

But Deep Night having male sex workers having to act like they were in a BL for a couple chicks...... literally gay for pay depicting gay for pay and just, well, that's frankly a gut punch. There was some sarcastic clapping on my side of the screen.

24. Well aren't you getting all Live Action Yaoi retro with your bad self?

Dominant Yakuza and Wimpy Corporate Slave gets my vintage af award. I flipping LOVED it. Would I recommend it? Only if you, yourself, are a bit vintage.

Final question: which of the 24 was the hardest for me to pick?

20 Biggest disappointment of 2024. Look I had some pretty high expectations of some returning pairs, some great ideas, and some intriguing remakes. 2024 was full of disappointments.

2022's Version of the Quirkies

2023's Version of the Quirkies

Remember I only pull from shows that were completely finished by the end of 2024.

(source)

[weaselofchaos]

hot take lan wangji would absolutely for sure scrap all day every day no hesitation whatsoever. the only reason he doesn’t is bc no one is stupid enough to piss him off (until wei ying ofc). you get one glare, maybe two if he’s feeling patient, and then it’s instant hands. truly a miracle wwx did not take more of a beating when he was at his most insufferable. in the library w the magazine lwj literally said catch me outside so i can beat ur ass. he’s soooooo ready to challenge any and everyone he meets. jzx (either of them tbh) says literally Anything and bichen is OUT. blades at DAWN. AND noon. and you know what, fuck it, blades at dusk too. in middle school he fought wen xu and all his goons One time when he was like 12 and he beat their asses so bad that shit followed him all the way to college. legendary. everyone knows lwj is in love w wei ying bc of the lack of duels. anyone else would certainly have been punched in the face. but no wwx just gets sideye. and ignored. which only ENCOURAGES him. in fact if anyone else tries to put a stop to wwx shenanigans lwj glares at YOU. everyone says ah yes, face of jade, so serene. meanwhile on the inside he is full of lust and also more importantly rage. i Love him. he said sometimes violence is the solution actually. but only when i do it. pristine.

[weaselofchaos]

wangxian text post meme pt 2

[weaselofchaos]

book!Wei Wuxian so far is like “i like to pretend to be gay to manipulate people and freak them out and sometimes just for fun bc i’m shameless haha but i’m totally 100% straight even though i’ve never so much as noticed a woman in my life. totally unrelated, but has anyone else noticed how pretty Lan Wangji is and how piercing his eyes are and how pleasantly he smells of sandalwood? i’m going to play with his clothing while he carries me in his strong, muscular arms tralala.”

[weaselofchaos]

the wildest thing about lan wangji is the way he’s immediately enraged at his own feelings for wei wuxian. because we’ve seen wei wuxian fall in love slowly and surely, right? he goes from a quick interest to an oblivious attraction to liking lan wangji then being infatuated after his return to life, then to straight-up loving the guy intensely. we watch him develop his sexual and romantic attraction equally.

but lan wangji’s different. from the very first second he’s desperately smitten — all it took was one sly smile and he was going through the four stages of love: the desire to marry, kiss, bed and die with him. and he’s so goddamn outraged, because how dare this troublemaker trespass into his house and steal his heart so easily??

he was so conflicted that he didn’t see any other alternative if not to unsheathe his sword and fight the hell out of that idiot. feelings?? for a rebellious teenager?? right in front of my clan’s three thousand rules??? not today, devil.

[weaselofchaos]

What's the most gut-wrenching-i'll never be loved like that Hozier lyrics? I'll start:

If I was born as a blackthorn tree, I'd wanna be felled by you, held by you, fuel the pyre of your enemies

[weaselofchaos]

When Hozier said "you're too sweet for me", but also said "i'd never want once from the cherry tree, cause my baby's as sweet as can be, she give me toothaches just from kissing me", that's when I knew exactly the definition of "if he wanted to, he would" tbh

[weaselofchaos]

edward, please come home your exes are unionizing

[weaselofchaos]

At first my heart sank when the closing scene began with the Revenge sailing away, because I thought Ed and Stede were still aboard. And we’d just spent two seasons watching Ed tell anyone who would listen (was anyone listening?) that he didn’t want to be a pirate anymore. It really started to seem like PopPop was the voice of the narrative (if you were ever good at anything, go back and do that —) and every damn time Ed tried to start off in pursuit of happiness they’d just hoist him back aboard ship and put a bloody sword back in his hand.

And then the camera pulled back and he was standing on his own (terrifyingly rickety) front porch in the sunset with his true love on a quiet stretch of land. And now I’m at peace. Last season I was haunted by the last shot of Ed trapped, and grieving, and lost, and this time the last I saw of him was that smile. He’s not the seabird who flies on forever and never reaches land. He’s come to shore.

[weaselofchaos]

loved how he managed to get one last dig (affectionate) at stede before dying. truly iconic.

[weaselofchaos]

In a universe where piracy is coming to its natural end, where the theme that the leads' lives revolves around is looking like a past they'll think fondly of, someone like Izzy hands - who is the motif of that theme, THE pirate incarnate - he doesn't fit. He's done his job, he kept piracy alive for his entire life, he kept the man he loves alive as best as he could, he came full circle to realising that there was joy and beauty to be found. But he doesn't want to fish, he fucking hates fishing, an inn sounds even worse. He is piracy, it's all of him. He was done. Izzy Hands' death is a call to everyone that the days of piracy are over, that they should remember him as someone who kept it going, who did his best with the resources he had, who died a pirate's death exactly as he wanted.

[weaselofchaos]

i guess you could say I have a type: gay murderous pirates who are capable of immense gentleness towards their aristocratic boyfriend

[weaselofchaos]

All Gentlebeard Kisses (So Far)

[weaselofchaos]

#Piracy is literally found family

[weaselofchaos]

OUR FLAG MEANS DEATH

Mermen (2x08)

[weaselofchaos]

broken but not destroyed

WHAT A DISAPPOINTING AND HEARTBREAKING FINALE? To have the man who was abused, mutilated, and disabled for protecting the crew, to have a suicide attempt survivor who crawled on the ground, to have someone who battled depression and alcoholism, to cement his role as the 'Ship's Unicorn" (the figurehead that protected the crew) only to reduce him as someone who "had to die" because he had no more narrative feeling, what a slap to the face. DJenkins said he didn't want to fall back into old tropes and burying your gays, but there's an elder disabled queer man you just buried for what, to absolve Ed of his abuse? Izzy died thinking he DESERVED the torture done upon him. What a disgrace. Izzy fans rallied and kickstarted a S3 renewal Campaign. And many of us are heartbroken and grieving for a show who promised kindness but only justified the abuse we've gotten the past months? We stayed and hoped better because of kindness and belonging. "This show is kind" has never rang more hollow. I'll still love and create art for him, but I don't think I can trust any other queer show again. I thought this would be different. Do you want a queer show full of kindness and found family, for all queers, the disabled and survivors and the rough around the edges ones? It's not Our Flag Means Death.

[weaselofchaos]

loving the implication that ed got dressed IN the water just for the slay of walking out of it in his leathers. A+