jemmo

[jemmo]

watching nct wish, a group I’m gonna see in 2 weeks at smtown, on gmmtv live house like… what is this reality

[jemmo]

thinkign about characters i like being sweet and tender with each other

[jemmo]

Is it just me or have there been pretty slim pickings from BL shows this year? Korea is all over the place Japan is barely airing anything same for Taiwan Thailand is especially weak. That being said there have been some gems so I want to ask what have been your favorite BLs so far this year?

It is not just you. This is the worst BL slump I’ve experienced since I started watching it. There are fewer shows compared to the last few years and most of what we’re getting is not great quality.

I had to think about your question for a minute and honestly, there has not been much I’ve truly enjoyed this year. Heesu in Class 2 is the only 2025 BL I can say I unreservedly loved. I enjoyed watching Gelboys, When it Rains it Pours, and ThamePo, but none of them made a lasting impression or got anywhere near my all time favs list. The rest of the shows I’ve watched this year ranged from bad to boring. And I am only watching two currently airing shows, The Next Prince and Reset, after dropping several (and not starting a few yet as I wait to see how they go).

I don’t know, man. I’m really glad I Became the Main Role in a BL Drama is coming back in a couple weeks and that there are a couple other good shows on the horizon, because it’s feeling dire out in these streets.

[jemmo]

[jemmo]

What it felt like when Austria won last minute:

[jemmo]

listen. i may be biased but baabinbua stole the show.

[jemmo]

Are you trying to get on my last nerve? I'm sorry. For what? Calm down, listen to me. From now on, no matter what you post on tik tok I'll give you a like.

GELBOYS สถานะกั๊กใจ (2025) dir. Boss Kuno

[jemmo]

Gelboys, Episode 6: Holy Shit, LOL.

Not only am I still 100% into this show and loving the living DAYLIGHTS out of it, I feel like last Saturday's episode got a lot of us whipped up to write some really good meta, especially among those of us that are trying to figure out how to judge these young characters.

There were two scenes in particular that really got me (....besides all of the other insane scenes -- "I'll hit on you" ON GROUP ZOOM WITH THE BACKGROUND WALLPAPER, pants-pissing, all of it):

1) This one:

2) and this one:

@tinrange made some AWWWESOMMME observations in this answer to @clairedaring here, namely about how we, as the audience, can approach understanding at least what's happening with Baabin and Bua, but I think @tinrange's post also covers how we as the audience can understand Fou4mod as well.

To quickly summarize @tinrange's post -- especially her EXCELLENT last paragraph of analysis -- the show isn't judging these characters. We, the audience, are led to judge the characters, all coming from our own perspectives, what we might be relating to vis à vis the characters and their stories, whatever we might be bringing to the table. In this post, @jemmo attributes their frustration about these characters particularly to a style or an inclination that director Boss Naruebet Kuno himself brings to his pieces; I certainly felt a particular level of Teh (TEHHHHHHH) emanating from Fou4mod's tear ducts during episode six.

I want to add to the conversation about judging these characters simply from my perspective of being an old Asian mom and auntie. I feel for these guys so hard. I want to make them all a nice bowl of soup and tell them to just keep pushing and living, because things will sort themselves out eventually. I'll send them WhatsApp "thinking of you" gifs with glittery stars and roses to make them feel better.

I can't bring myself to judge any of them. But I want to get back to what @tinrange was hinting at in her post, and then bring a post of @lurkingshan's into the mix here.

The question that I'm pondering, related to @tinrange's post, is: are we, as the audience, supposed to judge these characters? Like -- as a key component to a successful narrative?

@lurkingshan pondered in this post that what Gelboys might be about is -- when teenagers and young adults are young, that a big part of behavior-building is about imitating or inheriting the behavior of your friends.

I want to flesh that out. In the group chat, earlier in Gelboys' airing, I called this, not intergenerational trauma, but "intragenerational trauma." In other words -- when young people are young, the ways in which they behave are imitative of how their close circles, their family members and their friends, behave. Part of the typical behavioral change and growth of young people becoming adults is testing these behavioral qualities, and either keeping them or changing them, depending on how they suit the individual as the individual grows up.

Think about, for instance, the ways in which people who grew up with siblings might judge an only child, even in the adulthood of said only child. "That person is an only child, that's why they act that way." Think about how many times you might have said this to yourself as you judged someone else.

I'm not at all surprised, nor do I judge, Baabin for acting the way he did with Bua. He's seen it happen to both Fou4mod and Chian. He also sees that that kind of playa behavior still allows one person to remain close to another person -- even if there's "no status" between the two. He might have kissed Bua, he might have told Bua that he's not interested, he might have stated his intention to hit on Fou4mod, and... he's seen all these "no status" dudes still circling in constellations around each other, for years.

Right now -- at this moment in the show -- having a "no status" has been the acceptable status quo of this love square. On my end, I'm not going to judge any of these characters for not breaking out of the status quo, because among teenagers in messy love and attraction -- that's a tall ask. And that's my auntie side talking. (And the show's theme song is literally called "No-Status Status," so -- macro-level themes!)

Teenagerhood is so messy. To go back to the question that I posed in relation to @tinrange's post: in my opinion, this show is working because it's capturing that mess so well. I don't need to judge any one character from a binary perspective of, "they could be better." I only knew I could have been a better-behaved youth...when I became an adult, and I was filled with regret at my past behavior. That's something that just happens as you get older. My teenage self had zero capacity for any best behavior I could have mustered. I was a goddamn mess, like these boys. And I turned out alright.

To me, this show is successful, because capturing the multiple layers of these characteristics is an artistic feat, and I think Boss Kuno is doing an exquisite job of depicting these behavioral facets. I think it's totally well within anyone's right to judge these characters heavily -- they're all behaving questionably. I'd claim, from that perspective, that the show is successful in part, because it's captured that questionable behavior so, SO well.

[jemmo]

THIS ISNT A DRILL AOU AND BOOM FOR ONLY FRIENDS 2. WE ALL SCREAMED. I FUCKING WON.

[jemmo]

ive realised that i will always hate boss kuno’s main characters just a lil bit bc they always have the worst main character syndrome. and not in a way where they’re conscious of it, they will just always put their feelings and any kind of impulse or mood they bring before anyone else.

and i know, i know, these characters are teenagers, that’s how they are, except, so are all the other characters, but they aren’t like this. take gelboys. every other character has let something go for the sake of someone else, or at least shown some awareness and made it clear they’re considering someone else when they do or don’t do something. bua doesn’t want to do his nails bc he feels guilty that he might’ve been the reason chian and fou4mod broke up. baabin lets fou4mod go on about chian again and again while still comforting and being by his side despite his feelings. even chian showed awareness for fou4mod’s feelings when he was hanging out with bua and feeling bad that it’d make him jealous. but fou4mod just does whatever he wants on whatever whim has taken him that day and acts like a victim when the consequences hit him. he’s mad at bua even though bua didn’t do anything?? he keeps baabin on a leash for emotional comfort and used him to make chian jealous and drops him at the drop of a hat but still has the audacity to act upset when he thinks baabin has made friends with someone else, and he drops chian with no warning bc he’s mad about a situationship he got himself into and agreed to with full awareness, and never vocally said he wanted more. like i get it. he’s supposed to be messy and overemotional, but it’s also just so difficult to watch 2 people now competing for his affection when, from watching as a viewer, all i see is someone who is not deserving of it. and it’s not that i hate seeing these things portrayed, it’s the fact that at the end of this, he’ll probably end up with someone and no one will bring him up on the way his actions have made them feel like shit, and that means he won’t change. everyone around him has changed and grown in some way, but he remains the childish dude from the first ep, doing whatever he can for attention and crying when he doesn’t get it. and im bored of it.

[jemmo]

listen… i was so ready to be mad at baabin too, but i think this is just something he has to go through. because he and bua are endgame. i believe it. i need them to be. and baabin doing this is truly just to get it out of his system. he saw everyone being honest in that zoom and even if he does have emerging feelings for bua (which he does, i know he does), the feelings he has for fou4mod are so deep-rooted, they have history, these are feelings he’s carried and committed to for years probably, and it was probably the first time he ever felt that way, that if he didn’t step up in that moment and let it out, which he’s tried to do and cowered away from multiple times now, he probably would’ve regretted it so much and never gotten over that crush. he just has to do it and he has to lose. and i don’t mean just lose to chian, i mean lose to himself too. his own feelings for fou4mod have to lose to his feelings for bua. he needs to realise that whatever he feels for fou4mod isn’t more just because it’s been longer, and he needs to wake up to the fact that fou4mod has never had those feelings, like you’ve been right there all this time and he’s done nothing, even when you think he was, it was just to make chian jealous, and he needs to let that realisation hurt him bc that is cruel, and he needs to let bua mend the parts of him that had him believing for years that he’d always be poor bua with the unrequited crush. no, he can be loved and have his own love for someone be cherished by that person, not just used to make them feel better.

so yeah. i believe baabin should and will sort himself out. we will get our buabaabin endgame.

[jemmo]

secret relationships is so exaggerated and messy at this point that i watch it like im watching a dating reality show

[jemmo]

KIM JUNSEO as JUNG DAON in Secret Relationships (ep.04)

[jemmo]

I'm going to give you one more chance.

WE BEST LOVE: FIGHTING MR 2ND (2021)

[jemmo]

its just me and the album i decide to have on repeat this week

[jemmo]

wait everyone rb this and put in the tags who you started reading fanfiction for, and it doesn’t have to be anime

[jemmo]

ot5✨