#And I don't mean the ones we were given as covers on YT

[vanitas-vanitatum-mortis]

If I had a nickel for every time that Alastor looked like that and wasn't able to finish his song I'd have two nickels.

Which isn't a lot, but it's funny he was interrupted twice like that.

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - So Many GREAT Kisses!

Organized, in each category, with ones I'm enjoying most at the top.

(Please notice I am now using 6 dots in all ellipses because according to Taiwanese BL that's how we queers roll. Who am I to argue?)

Sept 2024 Week 3

Ongoing Series - Thai

Jack & Joker (Thai Mon IQIYI) ep 2 of 12 - A most excellent glow up. And it’s still a great show. And I cannot wait to see the many different faces of War. Bring on the Leverage of One action-packed mess. I'm waiting.  

Monster Next Door (Thai Thurs Gaga ) ep 9 of 12 - I’m gonna say this because it drives me crazy. Why are boys in BL, when out and about the countryside, always dressed inappropriately for Thailand? If it’s hot, takeoff your damn jacket. I don’t mean to be crass or crazy or whatever. But don’t wear a jacket when it’s 90° with 90% humidity. In Thailand, jackets are for malls. Meanwhile, I’m an extrovert and that still seemed like an exhausting trip. Although, I suppose they didn’t show all the drive time in the van, when everyone is asleep.

Meanwhile, why are the sides so frustrating in this show? Authentic friends-to-lovers is always a slog. Finally a kiss! And a decent one.

New character? Aw! Hi Yu!!!! Gosh Putter is so cute.

Where were we? Oh yes, Beer is now heartbroken. Always the great fear in F2L that the friendship will be destroyed as a result. And it’s a decent fear. 

On a completely different note, I cannot help but wonder when somebody’s chue len is Beer, if that is because beer was involved in their conception. Like, it’s the name you give your "oops baby" from that drunken night at the club. Don’t mind me. I’m just over here in the corner being crass.

Battle of the Writers (Sun YT) ep 8 of 12 - That was one of the cutest wake up sequences ever depicted. Utterly adorable. And now he’s blind again? Oh my God this is such a soap opera, I can’t even. Meanwhile, wicked ice prince finally made his move. Gah! Why aren’t we getting more of this couple? I always love the sides best with this production house.

I Saw You in My Dream (Weds Gaga) ep 10 of 12 - I love a hard fraught game of badminton. Even though we actually didn’t see play. YoIng claiming was so cute!!! And their shower kiss was v hot. Yay little show! Also cute use of the punishment trope!

Kidnap (Fri YT) ep 3 of 12 - The weight upon the shoulders of our idiot good guy kidnapper continues to pile up. So does the affection. The dude playing Q has sanpaku eyes. Cool. He’s not a particularly good actor though. Rough because everyone around him is giving their very best.

The problem is. I'm noticing. I shouldn't be noticing all the talent trying so hard. That usually means there is something wrong with the story, or there was something wrong on the set.

I don't know what to say at this juncture except I have the sinking suspicion this might not actually be a good show. (Covers head and cowers. Don't hate me.) I'd loved to be proved wrong, but my faith is GMMTV is only about 50% these days. And it probably should be lower.

Addicted Heroin (Thai Tues WeTV) ep 6 of 10 - I was so confused by how we suddenly got on a trip together, that I went back and re-watched the previous installment. And it still isn’t explained. So I have no idea why our leads are on a trip but apparently that’s the next trope to hit. I also have no idea how they're suddenly boyfriends. I’m just generally confused by this episode. It’s like an alt reality. We skipped over all of the stuff where they actually got into a relationship. In general I wasn’t wild about this episode.

The Trainee (Sun YT) ep 12fin - The most realistic thing about this show is that everybody is everybody else’s ex on any given set. I feel that in my bones. Or do I mean boner?

Frankly, both actors look better after a glow up and I guess pretending to be more their actual ages suits them? Considering what was actually done to invoke youth (a lot of the shine and gloss) aging them was an anti-glow up. A great mattification? Well...... this was a somewhat lackluster finale. (Thank you, thank you, the pun was unplanned. It's a gift.)

I don’t know. I guess I wanted to see Jane suffer? Work HARD to get the kid he abandoned back? I would’ve liked to have seen Ryan a little bit more competent and capable and his job. Maybe dating someone else. But I also do not want any more episodes. This was more than enough. So instead no separation, just boyfriends and a montage of their lives together, getting new and better jobs, moving in together, being supportive and sweet, etc... LOOK: It’s never a good sign when I immediately want to rewrite the show that I just saw.

In conclusion:

A story about a group of interns at a commercial video production company. While I genuinely love OffGun, I’m not convinced this was a good vehicle for them. Is it terrible for me to say, I miss their PickRome days? I don’t think they’ve ever had rolls that suited them better. Still, theirs was the best storyline in this ensemble piece masquerading as a BL, although they still fumbled the ending. Thus, I enjoyed about a 1/3 of it as much as possible, and 2/3 of it less than conceivable. 7/10 and I seriously considered dropping it to a 6/10 so don't push me.

Love Sick 2024 (Thai Sun iQIYI) ep 1 of 15 - Not gonna lie I was very skeptical. But I like it fine. Better than I expected because it’s been changed just enough. But it does need to stay changed. I don’t know what I’m trying to articulate here but…... I guess we’ll see.

Live in Love (Sun Gaga) ep 3 of 5 - It’s cute in a weird disjointed way. I’m enjoying it enough, I guess. I do like how forthright and direct Kla is. 

Bad Guy My Boss (Thai Sun Gaga) ep 1 of 10 - Ah. Bully romance. My old frenemy. Of course making this office based means +10 for workplace harassment. Well well well. This will be red flag party town I see. How VERY old school yaoi. It’s all very Cdrama CEO = dudes in suits walking on parquet (minus all the gay sex of course.) The jumping around between times and unfinished scenes is very strange. Is this Starhunter chaos only applied to a timeline?

Imma say this so they hear it at the back. YOU HAVE TO CHANGE THE HAIR. If you do time jumps: change. the. hair. It's the easiest and best clue if you aren't going to apply a filter or other cinematography tricks. JUST CHANGE THE DAMN HAIR STYLE.

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

The On1y One (Taiwan Thurs Gaga) eps 9-10 of 12 - And now we all start using six dots in our……? A new coded way to indicate that one is into BL? I did think we were in a slight mire with ep 9, too much teacher filler. Not enough time spent with our boys. Meanwhile, sports day. Pouty Baby utilizing the power of Ge, in front of all of the classmates who do not realize how hard he is flirting and activating babygirl = one of the greatest things ever to happen on my screen. Essentially this was a version of the claiming trope, only nobody knew it but the two of them. Fucking genius. Yes, I watched it multiple times. Then babygirl is injured, the carrying and the flirting!!!! Gah!

I don’t mean to trivialize the show, but this is me and I can trivialize everything even something as brilliant as this. But that conversation about history at the beginning of ep 10...... Was that about topping and bottoming? Because it sure seemed that way.

And then...... Possibly the best only one bed trope twist ever?

This show is so fucking amazing.

And I am so worried about the end.

Sugar Dog Life (Japan Sun grey) ep 7 of 10 - I love the kinkyness of our baby boy’s fantasy. Where he is the gift and his boyfriend is in uniform. Very nice. Thank you Japan. Never one to let kinky dogs lie. Also, the premise continues: one half thinks that they are already boyfriends and acts like it, and the other half is still trying to become a boyfriend. It’s absurd in that way that only Japanese miscommunication extraordinaire can be absurd. Also could Kyosuke be any more under his boy’s thumb? 

Love is Like a Poison AKA Doku Koi: Doku mo Sugireba Koi to Naru (Japan Tues Netflix?) 1-2 of 10 eps - Shiba is a top lawyer, angular aggressive bespectacled workaholic cat-type (Kitten? Babygirl? Tsundere? Some unholy combination of all 3?) I am reminded I should be more considerate of my potted plants. OMG the teasing and the little tongue sticking out. Haruto is such a flirt. I love this dynamic. What fun! Manic pixie dream boy but MAKE HIM EVIL! Or very high? Or a grifter? I have absolutely no idea what’s going on. But I’m enjoying it. It’s very...... very

First Note Of Love (Taiwan Mon Gaga) ep 7 of 12 - Oh! Good kiss. Smart to have the younger character initiate. I also like that he put a stop to it and then went and had a long conversation with a friend about it. Cautious boy. Also shows how in control of the situation Sea is becoming. It works for this BL since he has the stronger personality. I don't care what the characters say, this is about Sea becoming a rock for Neil.

But the secondary couple is actually winning this show. I want so much more of them. 

Seoul Blues (Korea Fri? YouTube) ep 8fin - I’m not sure that blackmailing and entrapment, especially of your ex, necessarily justifies cheating. Plus I never like it when it’s gays against gays. But what did I expect from this show? This whole series was basically Korea’s version of messy gay. If you liked Only Friends you’ll probably enjoy this bullshit. And they were quite pretty. I, however, am monumentally displeased. 4/10 FATALLY FLAWED but still, basically, BL, however…... do we want to support this kind of behavior?

KOREA PLEASE GIVE US A NEW PROPER BL!! WHERE ARE YOU? WE ARE SAD AND LOST WITHOUT YOU.

It's like now they discovered boys can kiss they can't be happy.

It's airing but...

The Hidden Moon (Sat WeTV) ep 1 of 10 - This is a supernatural romance (my ghost boyfriend trope) by Violet Rain (I Feel You Linger). A man is hired to write an article about an old mansion in Chiang Mai being converted into a café. He sees the ghosts of people who died at the mansion, falls in love with one of them. Was substantially recast. I loved IFYLITA except the ending so I think I'll let this one run it's course you can tell me if it's work tracking down... if they managed to land it. I have my doubts.

Happy of the End (Japan Tues Gaga) - A boy is disowned for being gay, dumped by his boyfriend, and ends up in a dysfunctional co-dependant relationship with his would-be kidnapper. We were due for another messy JBL and it's exactly as expected. I do not like it at all. And ya know what? There is plenty airing. DNF 

In case you missed it

I FINISHED Meet You at the Blossom (China). I ate crow, binged the fucker, and live blogged the experience. I enjoyed it a lot and got quite witty (I think) there are also puns (warning). But if you don't wanna slog though it, here are my final thoughts:

This was undeniably a wuxia and most definitely a BL. Evil stunning princely Cheekbones meets and falls in love with the bisexual disaster Dimples of his dreams. There’s a lot of floaty fighting, tangled plot, and overworked emotions. From start to finish it is exactly as it claims to be, including more than the expected amount of sexual claiming (dubious conscent to the point of rape). I’m not wild about the wuxia genre, but I will tell you what I do like: Very pretty men in flowing robes + eye makeup + hair ribbons wafting about stabbing and kissing each other plus ridiculous soap opera machinations. I also like cheekbones and dimples. AND I love a stupid gay sleeve, okay? There was also truly epic levels of stink-eye, and that too is to be lauded. This show left me grinning like crazy. Was it great? Not really, but it was a great experience and I enjoyed it immensely. 8/10

4 Minutes (Gaga) Ended - Spies reported in to say the ending was not-exactly-unhappy and mostly lackluster. I'm torn over whether to watch. My natural disinclination to binge, meets my dissatisfaction with wishy-washy, is going up against my love of high heat and pretty men. Oh the age old struggle between art and lust.

Mitsuya-sensei no keimakutekina ezuke finished and it’s reported to be solid. Age gap treated with respect. I'm curious, so I'll check it out if I can get hold of non-G-drive subs.

Next Week Looks Like This:

Upcoming BLs for 2024 are listed here. This list is not kept updated, so please leave a comment if you know something new or RP with additions.

Still Coming Sept 2024:

9/28 Teenager Judge (Vietnam Sat YouTube) ?? eps - oh I don't know just Ba Vinh doing his thing with pretty boys again.

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

I love love love this execution of the punishment trope. What's Ai going to do to you, Yu? Ride you to death?

I Saw You in My Dream indeed.

Sigh. This show. (Addicted Heroin)

All praise one of BL's best-in-show glow-ups. Nicely done, Jack.

James, on the other hand. Never needs a glow-up. Still the prettiest. Has been since Oxygen. (Battle of the Writers)

He's playing the role of Saint in this show, thank you very much. Speaking of which, wouldn’t that be just the most gorgeous pairing in the entire universe? Saint and James? I’ll be in my bunk. 

Taiwan giving us a boop! Reminds me of Be Loved In House I Do, right up there with TharnType as chronic boopers.

Why is he SO GOOD in this show?

All Frist Note.

(Last week)

Streaming services are listed by how I (usually) watch, which is with a USA based IP, and often offset by a day because time zones are a pain.

The tag BLigade: @doorajar @solitaryandwandering @my-rose-tinted-glasses @babymbbatinygirl @babymbbatinygirl @isisanna-blog @mmastertheone @pickletrip @aliceisathome @urikawa-miyuki @tokillamonger @sunflower-positiiivity @rocketturtle4 @blglplus @anythinggoesintheshire @everlightly @renafire @mestizashinrin @bl-bam-beyond @small-dark-and-delicious @saezurumurmurs

Sigh, Tumblr in its infinite wisdom doesn't like too many at-ings.

[juanitasupreme]

Exo's titles ranking

Now it's been a long road for me to stan them i won't lie. I used to be in the dark but now I see!

Tempo: not only the best title track but also their best album. This song is divine, pure excellence of the gods. The intelligence that it got, the depth, the acappela part that even locals know about. EXO was just flexing their vocalists the whole song. I have no idea how SM put this masterpiece out and allow songs like Sticker, Savage and co out ??? What happened to quality ?

Obsession: how to spell perfection. Showed that Exo even with 5 members (+Sehun) could deliver excellence. And it's their strength always being exo no matter how many. Also the concept is out of this world like SM were truly in their bags with those evil vers.

Call Me Baby : EXO was at their lowest...fat, nasty and losing members left and right. Career in shambles. They came on this bitch mad as hell!!! Also we should start a petition to have them sing call me daddy as they should originally be!

Monster : Shawty you got it! There is hearing this song then listening to it with good headphones and it changes your life.

Overdose: OH SHE WANTS ME OH SHE GOT ME OH SHE HURTS ME KOREAN KOREAN SOMEONE CALL THE DOCTOR KOREAN KOREAN KOREAN OVERDOSE. Note on the mv: they were given 20 000 wons, a box and a dream

Love Shot: it took me some times to appreciate it at it's juste valeur but you know in moments of despairs you go back to listen to shit and get hit by pure talent. "People come and people go" even Shakespeare couldn't come up with that! Bonus: they looked extra fine and got everyone and their grannies in suit doing a cover of it #ILove***Shot

Growl: You know songs like that, they are stories that people can identify with. You know what I mean, anybody. Children were singing the song at graduations. At weddings. At funerals. Sm put those bitches in a basement and made money on their back shamelessly (I know that people might not agree with this placement but it's my opinion period.)

Lotto : all of this for a yt girl ? Regardless, #IStandWithAutotune LO LO TO TO

Mama : CARELESS, CARELESS, SHOOT, ANONYMOUS ANONYMOUS, HEARTLESS, MINDLESS, NO ONE WHO CARE ABOUT ME ? I love this song but they got ATE by the Youth With You (Xinwen the woman you are!) girls! It's no longer an exo song to me.

Ko Ko Bop: Kai wasn't showing his nigerian's heritage for nothing. Something for the summer, for the girls to have fun. It's indeed noise music but when you put the right amount I can stand it. IT GOES DOWN DOWN BABAY

Don't fight this feeling: uuuuumm it's not even that bad, it's just extremely weak next to their majestic discography

Love me right : Shawty imma party til the sun down is the reason I can't stand this song. Blame Sehun for this placement. I am a firm believer that he should only say e x o in every song. Some people are in groups for their voice (not him), their dancing skills (not him), their variety abilities (not him) or their visual (I will give him that I can't be a hater full-time lol). He should stand in the back and be pretty that's it #NoTalentNoMic

Power : stadium music, nothing more nothing less.

Universe: by courtoisie I included it. One thing about it, is that exo will always shows off amazing vocals. Still a snooze feast (not everyone can have ballads as excellent as T-ara's). Have to add that I saw a comment saying "Sehun's voice is so angelical [...]" and let's not lie to ourselves ladies and gays.

Wolf: probably stray kids' blueprint (minus the vocals). A crime against humanity. If you asked me between being stuck in an elevator with Leeteuk, Shindong and Heechul for 10 hours or listen to this song for less than 1 hour I would choose suju...

[thetaekookcloset]

M a new army and new taekooker. I love your blog so much. Very difficult to find takook content with rational perspective. I was minding my business and commenting in yt video and suddenly one jikook shipper came and attacking me with things like we are delulus and jk hickeyoment is true and how jk told in jikook live that if jimin leaves he will pilost a selca with bite mark and when they and hickey were trending they posted a selca together. Is all of this true my heart is crying over it

Well, the hickey thing is "true" insomuch as Jungkook showed up at rehearsal with a bruise on his neck and Jimin told the members, staff, and cameras that he had bitten Jungkook the night before when they were drinking and Jungkook was messing with him.  Basically, he said that they'd been drinking, Jungkook picked him up and spun him around, Jimin told him to stop but he didn't, so Jimin bit him.  That's the story as Jimin told it, and Jungkook later repeated it back when, a little while after that, one of the staff running a camera asked him how he got the bruise.

None of that is especially out of the ordinary -- we know they don't have much in the way of physical boundaries, and while it's true that neck-biting isn't exactly typical platonic behavior, the entire maknae line and Hobi already do things that seem a little out of the ordinary.  Imagine what they could get up to when alcohol is involved. 

I've discussed my thoughts about this in my post about Jikook, but they can be summarized as: I pretty much figure we can take their words at face value here and assume this story is the truth (because otherwise I doubt Big Hit would have put it in their content), and if we were to assume that it isn't the truth, that it's a fabrication to cover up a hickey, then I don't see why we would have to assume that the hickey came from Jimin in the first place.  If Jimin is already making up the story, why not also that aspect of it?

The same can be said for the other bite mark instance you've mentioned.  Yes, Jimin, Jungkook, and Jin did a V Live together in a hotel (the iconic, "Hey stob it!!" live lol, I believe) and Jimin was making to leave.  Jungkook grabbed him and told him not to go, and threatened (?) him to get him to stay on the live by saying that if he left, Jungkook would post a selfie (of himself, alone) where people think it looks like he has a hickey.  (People know this because he did eventually post it by the way.)

From what I understand, a lot of Jikookers think the fact that Jungkook threatened Jimin with this means that Jimin had something to do with the hickey itself.  But why?  Even if that were true, Jungkook just posting the selfie wouldn't have given anyone that information.  If Jungkook believed the threat of posting that particular picture would keep Jimin on the live (which is in itself not suspicious -- the guys often want to keep each other on the lives, I would guess because it makes them feel less awkward if there are other people there to help fill the time), then it was because he knew Jimin wouldn't want him posting a photo of himself with a hickey, in general.

Could that be because they were in a relationship at the time and Jimin didn't want anyone else seeing it?  I guess so.  But for one thing, you don't typically leave marks on someone and then not want other people to see them lol.  And also, that's only one possibility.  The other is that he was concerned about their squeaky clean image and didn't want Jungkook messing with it.  I guess we can all decide for ourselves which possibility we think is more likely.

As for the last thing you mentioned, that when Jikook and "hickey" were trending, the two of them posted a selfie together, that I don't know about.  I've never heard that before, but that doesn't mean it isn't true.  Personally, even if it is true, I'm not sure how much it matters or how likely it is that it had anything to do with the trending hashtags, especially if it happened during the time when they were in the habit of posting together a lot more.  But for all I know, that's true, I really have no idea.

Ultimately, there's a ton of content out there, and the best thing I can tell you or anyone else is just to look at it, you know?  I appreciate the chance to talk about my own opinions on these topics, but it's not like I'm a holy font of BTS shipping knowledge lol.  There's original content, Taekook content, Jikook content -- anything you could possibly want -- and I feel like the best thing anyone can do is just watch it for themselves and draw their own conclusions.  If you check out Jikook content and it makes you doubt Taekook, that's okay

But you also might find that if you check it out for yourself, the relationship Jikook actually have presents itself very clearly to you as different from the one you see between Taekook, and you won't have to feel this anxiety about individual moments that other shippers bring to your attention.  Of course it's also okay if you're just not interested in doing that, but I just feel like when it comes down to it, individual moments can never really compare to the overall sense of an entire relationship, because specific moments can always be obscured, talked around, or lacking crucial context.