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Bit late with this one, but one think I love about My Sweetheart Jom is how similar Yo and Jom are in some ways. Like they both run headfirst into danger (for others), which is the whole reason Yo has been carted off in the first place, but we've seen it several times with Jom too (most recently with the sugarcane field fire)

But I also liked how, in the latest episode, we see Yo assume a similar role to the one Jom takes as village chief when goes to console Earn (he basically passes on what Jom said to him about his own parents) and when he's plotting to help Fluke win Prae (I think?) over. Not that I'm saying as a village chief Jom plays matchmaker, but it's that taking on someone else's problem as his own I guess?

And we've seen it earlier, too, with Yo helping whichever of the other boys that live with granny and Jom with the drug dealer thing and giving advice to Por about Rose and all the times he’s helped granny. I know this is part of his character development, but I’d say it’s always been there? Maybe I’m wrong though. I often am

And, yeah, Yo clearly has a strong sense of justice (beating that teacher up, trying to stop the shoplifter, etc.), which is also similar to Jom, but it does feel like a desire to care for others and help them too. (Though I guess those traits are tied together) They're both kind and compassionate and have a strong sense of looking out for others, but that sometimes means putting themselves in harm's way

My brain is mush today, so I don't have the capacity to dig any deeper, but I just like how similar they are in this regard and decided to ramble about it, I guess

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I am not resigned to the shutting away of loving hearts in the hard ground. So it is, and so it will be, for so it has been, time out of mind: Into the darkness they go, the wise and the lovely.  Crowned With lilies and with laurel they go; but I am not resigned.

Lovers and thinkers, into the earth with you. Be one with the dull, the indiscriminate dust. A fragment of what you felt, of what you knew, A formula, a phrase remains,—but the best is lost.

The answers quick and keen, the honest look, the laughter, the love,— They are gone.  They are gone to feed the roses.  Elegant and curled Is the blossom.  Fragrant is the blossom.  I know.  But I do not approve. More precious was the light in your eyes than all the roses in the world.

Down, down, down into the darkness of the grave Gently they go, the beautiful, the tender, the kind; Quietly they go, the intelligent, the witty, the brave. I know.  But I do not approve.  And I am not resigned.

"Dirge Without Music" by Edna St. Vincent Millay as featured in POKER FACE season two episode nine

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What an absolutely phenomenal fucking show. I love these moments, when you get to witness a BL utterly nail breaking brand new ground, show that the genre has truly only just begun, and that there is so much more incredible stuff to come.

Now - season 2 when???

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POKER FACE 2.12 ⌁ The End of the Road

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Thun and Keen of Knock Out are going to be in the running for couple of the year. Extra impressive since I wasn't even sure I shipped them for the first 2-3 episodes. The way they balance each other, stand together against all comers, and have fights without questioning their relationship, puts them right up there at the top for me.

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Wait something just hit me about my beloved Revenged Love polycule (this also addresses some of the unanswered asks in my inbox, sorry again I've been bad at replies, but I love you foil anon and others who wanna talk about the different legs of the ot4!!!): Jiang Xiaoshuai: I have been interpreting his investment in CCuwei as a relationship as not just a global love of gossip and other people's drama, but as, very specifically, an opportunity to live and love vicariously through Wu Suowei. Initially he wants to live vicariously through Getting Revenge On Your Evil Ex, but he gets swept up in the romance of it all, and it's absolutely become the vicarious desire to follow a bad boy into his bad boy pit and somehow come out safe, unharmed, but sexually satisfied. Why would he want this?? I have not read the novel and am not spoiled for what went down with his ex. I am only spoiled (via the bit of the trailer where he's yelling at Chengyu about playboys ruining things for everyone else), that he has an Evil Ex, who shaped him into the closed-off avowed single he is today. So! Letting Suowei take the risks, both emotional and literal, and reap the rewards, is, I've been assuming, Xiaoshuai's way of pursuing a do-over, a toxic fuckboy romance with a happy ending, versus... whatever the fuck happened to him... in a way where he's still protected. Unfortunately it means: 1. he's also protected from the rewards, until Chengyu drags him into a relationship kicking and screaming and 2. he's not at all been giving Suowei the warnings you'd think would be common sense for a shifu. Which is so... interesting.

Guo Chengyu: I have been interpreting his insta-attraction to Xiaoshuai's implacability and coldness, Xiaoshuai's immediate and unflinching rejection of him, the certainty and self-control with which Xiaoshuai carries himself, as a mirror of what Chengyu sees in Chi Cheng.

I have been assuming that on some level beyond the immediate (Xiaoshuai is hot and appealing), Guo Chengyu is enraptured with Xiaoshuai and pursuing him because, if he can get him to thaw, to warm to him and want him in his life, on some level it will feel as though he's gotten Chi Cheng to thaw, to warm to him and want him back in his life.

And just like revenge changed to romance in what Xiaoshuai was pursuing through Suowei's relationship, I think Guo Chengyu's desire for what he wants from Xiaoshuai is going to change. Right now he just wants him to acknowledge him. He is willing to pass a game-of-telephone rejection message along in the hopes that it catalyzes Xiaoshuai to pursue him, completely indifferent to whether or not that hurts him.

But I think once he realizes Xiaoshuai is not a sexily untouchable ice queen but someone who has been just as hurt (perhaps more hurt.) than Chi Cheng and that's why he's Like That, Chengyu is going to end up in a place where all he cares about is making him happy, the way he has not been able to make Chi Cheng happy.

Just as underlying the appeal of revenge to Xiaoshuai (and Suowei) is the appeal of romance redeemed, underneath the appeal of making Xiaoshuai or Chi Cheng want him around, for Chengyu, is the desire to actually take care of them. To have them want to let him take care of them, but to also be able to do it and make a difference.

I may be wrong but I stronglyyyy believe this based on everything we've seen so far.

Which makes Jiang Xiaoshuai/Guo Chengyu such an interesting ship at its core, because they are both bringing all this other background baggage into why they're interested in each other.

Let's not forget that Xiaoshuai only initially cedes any ground to Guo Chengyu's courtship because he wants to help Suowei with Chi Cheng. He isn't moved by Guo Chengyu in his own right, not at first. He gets there, but just as I believe Chengyu's original reasons for pursuing Xiaoshuai are all wrapped up in his Chi Cheng feelings, Xiaoshuai's original reasons for letting Chengyu in at all are all wrapped up in his Suowei mission, which is all wrapped up in HIS ex baggage.

This is without even bringing in Chengyu's explicit "oh, I can't wait to see Chi Cheng try to fuck this guy!" justification to himself upon meeting Xiaoshuai of why he's worth pursuing, lmao.

Just layers and layers of distancing and mirrors and shadows before you get to either of their real feelings.

There is so much to say about Chi Cheng and Suowei's side of things, but I unfortunately am running out of time, so I'll get to the crux of what I was thinking about.

Which is that they are not, in my opinion, pursuing each other for reasons to do with Guo Chengyu or Jiang Xiaoshuai. There is a one-sidedness to Chengyu and Xiaoshuai's focus on Chi Cheng and Suowei that is not, currently, reciprocated.

You can argue that Suowei has a lot of similar traits to Chengyu, and I think that's delicious, I think Chi Cheng absolutely has a type (snakeboys with loser auras), but I'm not sure I would say the underlying driving force behind his attraction to Suowei is a desire to fix things with Chengyu. I think he's completely accepted that he will never fix things with Chengyu and is attracted to Suowei as something new and interesting and different, at most as something that opens up the part of himself that's been closed since Wang Shuo - the part of him Chengyu has had no success in reaching.

I could be wrong of course! But the main thing I wanted to point out is that despite my reading that Chi Cheng and Suowei are in their own little world, drawn to each other for reasons less intertwined with their codependent besties/worsties than vice versa, a very very important fact about them is that they cannot and will not hurt Chengyu and Xiaoshuai.

Suowei will not put his relationship with Chi Cheng before Xiaoshuai. He is ready to drop his schemes in an instant to keep Xiaoshuai safe.

Chi Cheng cannot actually physically hurt Chengyu, and as far as we can see, he does not seem to care that Chengyu starting a fist fight in the middle of the snake rescue is what gave Huanglong the time to attack Suowei without them noticing. It's not totally clear how much he blames Chengyu for Wang Shuo, even, versus how much he blames Wang Shuo himself. (I am burninggggg with curiosity on whether he started fucking Chengyu's boyfriends on his own steam to deliberately seek some kind of proxy punishment, or whether Chengyu started throwing them at him to try to fix things. Or whether Chengyu incepted him to think it was his own idea but it was totally Chengyu's lmao.)

There's just like, a fundamental "this is how the world works" element of their deep, abiding love from Chi Cheng and Suowei for their friends. That love is not driving what's between Chi Cheng and Suowei the way they're both driving what's between Chengyu and Xiaoshuai, but that love is mirrored between them and ever-present.

And I'm not actually sure Chengyu and Xiaoshuai have noticed how much they matter to Chi Cheng and Suowei (or, still matter in Chengyu's case). Perhaps because it is in a different way than they matter to and drive them....

Anyway, it's all very very interesting!

In conclusion, all four of them need to fuck before this is through. Please. Thank you.

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It's been so interesting trying to read where Jom is in his feelings toward Yo, especially over the last couple episodes as the romance rises to the surface. From what he said to Kaew when she first arrived, I think initially all his teasing was solidly under the assumption that Yo was straight and wouldn't even register Jom as a serious romantic possibility. That started to change when Yo displayed blatant, unambiguous jealousy toward Kaew.

Since then, my best guess is that Jom has been trying really hard not to let himself think or imagine that Yo might be interested in him. Partly it's the fear of falling for a straight person, or for someone who might not be straight but might not be prepared to be fully in it with a same-sex partner. Partly it's the age gap. Partly it may be just his own general wariness of getting into something again... I get the sense that he's been single for a while and things did not end great with the mysterious Thee (sidenote HENG WHERE ARE YOU???). Whatever it is, he seems to be bouncing wildly between letting himself fall into the attraction and connection he feels for Yo, and yanking himself back. There does seem to be some testing of the waters with Yo, dangling something and then pretending it's a joke, but I can't tell how much that's conscious testing and how much it's just impulsive.

Either way, it's so good that Yo is a brave and decisive lad and moves forward to make his feelings clear. My read of Jom in the lotus boat scene is that he pretty much knows what Yo is going to say, and is scrambling to avoid it because once Yo confesses things will get real. He'll have to decide whether to accept this thing that he wants, and everything that comes with it (including potentially coming out in the Pho Chai community... we'll see how much the story decides to actually deal with that but it feels very significant even though unspoken right now.) I can see how it feels scary. I can see how it feels much easier and safer to keep flirting and teasing Yo, enjoying the little romantic zings without serious consequences. Fortunately, as Yo has demonstrated in this episode, he is capable of holding Jom up when he falters.

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emi: do i pass as super handsome?

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Jiang Xiao Shuai & being attracted to all of them

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Jom: You can tell me anything, Yo.

Yo: 404 bisexual error detected cute man too close

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Silvy via her Insta!

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"And if they look at you in the eye, go to step 2: Manifestating. Say "I love you, you love me". Just think it. Don't say it out loud. Stay positive and believe it's possible"

— Whale Store XOXO ep. 3

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Me as an introvert:

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Whale Store xoxo EP.3 stills