#BLS algorithm

[pharawee]

Babe Tanatat as THARN & Billy Patchanon as PHAYA —THE SIGN · ลางสังหรณ์ · 25 November 2023

[scarefox]

lol ok that's a very direct show title

not sure if autotranslation or actual english title

exclusive on mov app 😔 can't find it elsewhere, not even on MDL

only ep1 and 2 on yt so far, maybe they upload the rest too? since these two are 1 week apart. (they got me hooked even with their 3min episodes ngl)

Found the main actor but even in his profile this short series isn't listed. side fact: main actor is gay in RL

[absolutebl]

Hi there! I've just returned from a two-week holiday (as I'm writing this I'm actually still driving back home, but I want to get on top of it lmao), so I would like to defer to your knowledge:

could you pretty please provide me with an update on what series ended/started while I was away? I have a vague idea, but I don't want to miss out on the things that didn't get as much promo and are therefore not on my mdl.

if you can, my watchlist will be forever thankful!!

July Report: BL that Stopped & Started & Is worth Your time

Ended July 2023

Step By Step

This was Thailand’s answer to The New Employee, and everything I loved about that show I loved about this one.

This was an office romance between stern boss and sweet subordinate that felt more authentic to an office environment than previous Thai BLs of this ilk. And that authenticity added tension to the narrative and character development (how novel). Now that might be because it has western source material, or it might be because it is actually kind of old-fashioned (it’s been years since I worked as an office grunt). I also really enjoyed the brothers’ relationship, and kinda wished they hadn’t attempted (and failed) to give said brother his own side BL. That one flaw made it a 9/10 for me.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

La Pluie

This BL takes to task the fated mates trope and what it means to have love chained intimately to predestination. It’s about how faith in destiny before choice diminishes the authenticity of emotion, relationships, and connection. This is a high concept to examine through the lens of a BL.

By activating + examining the soulmates trope this show is challenging a foundation of romance: the idea that there is one person meant to be your one romantic partner all your life. This means that we, as viewers, spend much of the show worried about it having a happy ending, and that’s the source of both its brilliance and tension: would the narrative have the strength to truly challenge its own romantic core? But, ultimately, all this elevated complexity was executed in a somewhat shaky manner with the narrative derailing into some serious pacing issues and characters manipulated by miscommunication.

However, with good chemistry and decent acting all around, plus some excellent high heat and representation of consent and a few other rare tropes, this one has to (like it’s sibling show My Ride) earn a 9/10. I enjoyed it even as it made me think, so despite its flaws:

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Started July 2023 & Looking GOOD

Jun & Jun

Korea Thurs Viki 8 eps

THANK YOU BL GODS. It is so good. Like everything I want in the world. I’m incandescently happy with this show.

It’s office set,

it’s an ex idol,

everyone is pretty as peaches,

and it’s all about remembering somebody’s smell!

I could not be more delighted.

Laws of Attraction

Thai Sat iQIYI 8 eps

(Icky picked it up but they are serving it in a complicated way that may require a VPN.)

Stars the pair from To Sir With Love with the same production team. IT’S SO GOOD. A morally corrupted trickster lawyer with a tragic past, sad eyes, and a beautiful smile that he uses like a weapon. Meets paladin martial arts instructor from other side of the tracks (who is out, at least to his baby sister).

Corrupt police.

Spoiled rich kid evil.

Ambitious politician.

Tragic death.

Terrible subs.*

This show is very like Manner of Death but so far it is a much better/tighter story (there's a Devil Judge aura happening). It’s NOT BL but it is fucking phenomenal. And you should watch it. Not wait to binge it. WATCH IT.

On a global scale this might be the best thing currently airing featuring gay romantic leads. Its really fucking good. It’s Lawless Lawyer but more complex character motivation and gay af. Fuck yes please and thank you. FINALLY.

Triggers for violence, beatings, death & torture depicted on screen. Like MoD they are not holding back. 

(* A lot of the familial names they are using are not gendered in Thai but translated as such, like “nephew”. This one is gonna go down a lot easier if you know some Thai.)

ALSO:

Stay By My Side - Taiwan Fri Gaga 10 eps

Hidden Agenda that isn’t hidden - Thailand Sun GMMTV YouTube 12 eps

Low Frequency - Thailand Sat iQIYI 8 eps

Started But You Can Probably Wait IMHO

Dinosaur Love (Sun iQIYI)

Be Mine Super Star (Mon Viki)

Wedding Plan (Weds YT & iQIYI) it's mame so A trash watch is happening! 

Minato Shouji Coin Laundry Season 2 (Japan Thu Gaga)

Hope this is what you wanted.

[airenyah]

Hi, I came to report to you that your ql music research is rubbing off on me 😅 I was watching ep 2 of Ploy's Yearbook (for Joong and Namtan 😍), when suddenly I recognized a piece of music!! But I couldn't place it, so I tried to remember which series have I watched so many times that I'm familiar with the music. I reached the tentative conclusion that it must be from SIMM or possibly from Hidden Agenda (but I definitely connected it to JoongDunk). Maybe I need to do a complete rewatch of both series to confirm, what a hardship 😂 I just wanted to tell you that maybe aside from being a JD vampire bl truther, this will be your other legacy

oh my god, that's amazing!!!!!! i LOVE to hear that!!!!! i'm actually planning on making a side blog focused on shared royalty free music in thdramas, but that's something that is earliest going to happen in the summer if not in the winter. i wanna work my way through some of my fave shows first, because those are the soundtracks i'm more likely to recognize and i just wanna have them on my google doc before i go put everything in tumblr posts (which is also gonna take forever bc my google doc is currently at 100 pages worth of entries sjkfkjsfdj)

aaaaanyway, re: music in ploy's yearbook

was it by any chance desert caravan by ludvig moulin? i haven't watched ep2 yet (i was actually about to go watch it when your message came in and i couldn't help answering it first kjdkfdg), but i did see a clip of it earlier in jimmy's insta story and the scene had this music in the background. it has come up in episode 1 already as well. if it was this, then good job on connecting it to a joongdunk show because it actually has come up on hidden agenda a couple of times! i'm still missing the last 3 episodes on my music collection, but these are the time stamps so far:

ep1 pt1 - 0:13

ep3 pt2 - 0:20

ep4 pt1 - 4:32

ep8 pt4 - 8:08

And here are the time stamps for ep1 of ploy's yearbook:

ep1 pt1 - 11:10 / 17:41

ep1 pt2 - 1:50

ep2 pt1 - 9:38

ep2 pt2 - 0:27

ep2 pt3 - 3:09

ep2 pt4 - 3:07

you might also have recognized get up on that horse by spring gang as the music that plays in bad buddy at the beginning of ep7 when pat is in the car (ep7 pt1 - 1:20) or also in ep12 when patpran claim they broke up (ep12 pt3 - 3:45). oh but wait, it's definitely connected to joongdunk, you said? well, as it turns out this one has actually come up in star in my mind a lot. like. A LOT:

ep1 pt2 - 5:55

ep2 pt1 - 4:00

ep2 pt4 - 1:02

ep3 pt2 - 1:15

ep3 pt3 - 1:55

ep3 pt4 - 1:17

ep6 pt2 - 1:23

ep7 pt2 - 1:48

ep7 pt4 - 0:48

ep8 pt1 - 4:33 / 5:41

ep8 pt3 - 5:07

and here are the time stamps for ep1 of ploy's yearbook again for reference:

ep1 pt1 - 13:00

ep1 pt2 - 2:26

ep2 pt1 - 8:37

and here, have a bonus because why the fuck not: moonshiner's turn by martin landström. this one has shown up in ep1 pt4 of both bad buddy as well as 23.5 degrees. also found in ep1 of ploy's yearbook at:

ep1 pt1 - 18:53

ep1 pt3 - 6:16

ep2 pt1 - 0:35 / 17:30

well, i'm gonna go watch the new episode now! feel free to check back on this post in a couple of hours, i might edit it or add a reblog with all my findings about the music in ep2 😂

edit:

i've added the ep2 time stamps to the aforementioned ones! and i found new music as well!!

maybe the one you recognized as a joongdunk series music in ep2 was winning hand by ealot. it came up in star in my mind a couple of times:

ep1 pt4 - 3:00

ep2 pt2 - 2:20

ep4 pt2 - 9:16

ep8 pt3 - 4:17

it featured in ep2 of ploy's yearbook at following timestamps:

ep2 pt1 - 16:58

ep2 pt3 - 3:45

and there was some more bad buddy music as well (diggin' the drama by the new fools) and it amazes me that my brain immediately went "we know this!!" considering it showed up in bad buddy exactly one single time (ep7 pt2 - 13:45). bad buddy really has wormed its way into my brain in every single aspect in the last two years huh djkfkjdfg. anyway you can find it in ep2 of ploy's yearbook at:

ep2 pt1 - 11:10

apart from these, there were also two pieces of music that sounded increeeedibly familiar to me but neither shazam nor google could come up with any results! i'm gonna have to click through my "not found" list at some point, maybe they're already there. here are the time stamps if you're curious:

first one i can't find (ep2 pt3 - 2:06)

second one i can't find (ep2 pt3 - 7:09)

this is gonna bug me for a while....

[waitmyturtles]

[squeakygeeky]

That's one of the Thai teachers from Comprehensible Thai in the upper right and now watching his videos I'll never be able to think of anything except that he knows of the existence of Playboyy.

[davinciae]

started arguing about gen ai in instagram comments. i could just let the fools be but academic pride won't let me

[sweetandhella]

i love reading modern day house md headcanons, so i wrote my own

Chase listens to bubblegum pop during surgery. he also has a special spotify playlist for when the surgery is wrapping up, and he never forgets to ask the nurse to turn it on

Taub plays overwatch and valorant. Hes “ironically” the discord kitten in his discord server

Wilsons instagram reels keeps feeding him queer content. He freaks out and resets his algorithm, but after a while it reverts back to the same thing. He blocks thirteen for a while because he thinks that might be why, but it doesn’t help. Turns out he’s just gay.

House learns about neopronouns, and starts using them on Chase. Cameron is scandalised but Chase just rolls his eyes and goes with it (he was actually considering going by any pronouns, he’s not sure if it’s a coincidence or house somehow figured him out)

Cuddy has an onlyfans (this one is just self indulgent). All the shots are done super artistically, and have a soft glow about them. House knows about it and is a top tier subscriber. Cuddy knows House is subscribed to her but so long as he pays and doesn’t bother her about it, she doesn’t care.

Park is a fujoshi, she reads BL manhwas and webtoons.

House is always up to date on slang. at some point he says “i didn’t know you were chill like that” appreciatively to foreman while hes doing something completely normal like eating yogurt or something. he also never let go of the word Rizz for reasons unknown

[olderthannetfic]

I had a conversation with a Gen Z acquaintance of mine who legitimately did not know - I swear to God I'm not making this up - she didn't know that literary exists other than fanfiction with queer characters who are out of the closet. I had to clarify this repeatedly with her because I was so confused. She genuinely thought fanfic was the only place you could read about queer people. Fanfic, BL manga, and a handful of TV shows were all she could picture for all queer depiction. When I tried to bring up other things, she started complaining about people hinting at queerness and never actually showing it and I had to repeatedly explain no, no, actually, there are queer novels and comics and movies and all kinds of things in which queer people are out of the closet and it's not 'hinted' at, it's just flat-out stated. This was confusing to her across all mediums but was especially confusing to her regarding fiction that isn't fanfiction. "Why haven't I ever heard of it?" Well, aside from the fact that you say you don't read with some degree of pride, I legit don't know? I am 36 and was reading queer lit at her age (18) in libraries. It's not new.

Gen Z I am fucking BEGGING you to give us ancients a warning before you drop bombshells on us like, "other than fanfic, everyone has to stay in the closet" like... bro did you not read Heather Has Two Mommies as a kid?!

--

They probably grew up somewhere that Heather Has Two Mommies was banned the instant it was published, but yes, I too boggle at how little people know.

I imagine this person would be an outlier in any generation, but we have lost something to algorithms and mega websites like Amazon. You probably can get anything you know to look for, but you won't just happen to hear of it. Everyone's getting the same bland recs. Nobody's at the local bookstore getting idiosyncratic recs from that one employee—or even reading a fairly static blog with distinctive taste. It's all booktok discussing the same 3 books.

[pharawee]

But friends don't do what we did.

[armoredisopod]

Arknights Spring Festival 2025 PVs

New Operators

Surfer, 5* Agent Vanguard

It's sunny out, wanna go for a walk?

Xingzhu, 5* Welfare Abjurer Supporter

The pen is never sharp, but paper falls like it's flying.

Blaze the Igniting Spark, 6* Primal Caster

I'm back! Right then, it's signed with my real name, Gù Zhúhuáng. Oh Doctor, you don't have to call me anything different, you can still call me Blaze.

Yu, 6* Limited Primal Protector Defender

I'm not gonna give it away for free, hehe, but the price is negotiable.

Of all the flavors in the world, the fullness of life is the best them of all.

Operator Outfits Update

4 new additions for the Made by 0011 brand

Almond Platter - Almond

Prairie Pals - Bena

Youthful Journey - Zuo Le (21 OP)

Spring Feast - Shu (21 OP)

Operator Modules Update

Xingzhu being part of the Abjurer Supporter branch immediately gets her module

BLS-X module base effect increases her healing to 100% of her ATK

Earthshaker Guard branch gets 1 module type

Lin, Zuo Le and Chongyue get their second module

PLX-Y module base effect increases Lin's damage the more enemies are in her range (up to +15%)

SBL-Y module base effect allows Zuo Le to survive with 30% HP upon reaching 0 HP for the first time each deployment

FGT-Y module base effect increases Chongyue's ASPD by +10 when he is above 50% HP

Dusk and Eunectes get specialized modules

Dusk gets an Integrated Strategies module

Eunectes gets a Reclamation Algorithm module

Events and Stories

Such is the Joy of Our Reunion, the next installment of the Sui storyline taking place in the culinary city of Bai Zao

Regardless whether you are worried about family matters or matters of national security, when you're at the dinner table all that matters is a pair of chopsticks.

If you're alive, how come you're not eating properly? It's time for dinner. Go wash up and get ready to eat——

Operator Archives update for Yu, Lin, Wanqing and Grain Buds

Misc Stuff

New QoL features

New activity rooms that players can decorate, operators assigned to these rooms can be controlled and moved around the base, also players can use emojis here for fun

The reception room has been expanded and can be decorated with Reception Room exclusive decor items

Dualchips will only take 1 second to make in the Factory

Added dorm rotation locks, operators in the locked slot will not be affected by the dorm rotation button

Added remaining working time display for certain base facilities and a notification option for shift rotations and operators being fully rested in the settings

Performance upgrades for Workshop, Offices, Training Room, Elevators and other facilities

In-game mail players receive can be stamped and stored in the mail folder where players can review them

Added a Module Showroom where players can conveniently view and manage module information

Archetto, Iris and Beanstalk added to Recruitment

Blue Poison's [Shoal Beat] Outfit will be available in the certs shop to players that don't have it

Livestream Stuff

Showcased Yu, a 6* Primal Protector Defender that specializes in inflicting Burn buildup

First talent makes him deal Arts damage and Burn buildup to enemies he blocks and gives him Sanctuary while blocking

Second talent makes Yu recover HP and elemental HP every second when there is at least a certain amount of ally units on the field

Skill 1 passively makes him more likely to be attacked, when active it increases his Max HP & DEF and makes enemies that attack him take Burn buildup

Skill 2 increases his Block Count, ATK & DEF, makes his attacks deal Arts damage, and upon skill activation it immediately deals Arts damage to all enemies in his skill range and teleports all the hit ground enemies to his tile

Skill 3 increases his Max HP, ATK & DEF and makes his second talent apply to all operators, upon skill activation it generates a firewall that spans across the entire battlefield, operator attacks that deal Arts damage against enemies on the opposite side of the firewall will additionally deal Burn buildup based on Yu's ATK, enemy projectiles that hit the firewall have a chance to be nullified

Showcased Blaze the Igniting Spark, a 6* Primal Caster that takes advantage of Burn Burst

First talent activates when Burn Burst triggers on any enemy on the field, deal more Elemental damage to them based on Blaze's ATK and she recovers some HP

Second talent activates when Blaze is defeated, instead of retreating she will instead be knocked down and she gains a large amount of Barrier, she cannot attack or be healed while downed but she recovers HP every second, once fully healed she will revive and Stun all nearby enemies for a few seconds

S1 drops a fire field on the operator with highest Max HP in her range, it deals Arts damage every second and Burn buildup based on the damage dealt by the fire field, lasting for several seconds

S2 changes her range, increases her attack interval, increases her ATK and allows her to attack multiple targets at once, she loses HP with each attack but the enemies she attacks leaves a fire trail, enemies in the fire trail have reduced Movement Speed, receive Arts damage and Burn buildup based on the damage dealt by the fire trail

S3 changes her range, greatly shortens her attack interval, increases her ATK and makes her attacks AoE, if the enemies she hits are under Burn Burst status she deals additional Elemental damage to them, it is an ammo skill that makes her lose HP every second but when Burn Burst triggers on any enemy on the field she gains more ammo, skill can be deactivated manually

Showcased the event mechanic, Fire Stoves powered by chopstick enemies that have hit-based HP, chopsticks will go into one of the 2 stoves on the field depending on their state, enemy chopsticks can be attacked and converted into allied chopsticks and vice versa, when fully charged the allied stove will summon a spirit dragon that deals massive true damage to all enemies in its path

The cost required to spark Nian will be reduced to 200 starting from this event, the cost required to spark Skadi the Corrupting Heart will be reduced to 200 in the CN 6th anniversary event

Announced CC#3 Battleplan Extinguished Sins which is confirmed to have Ep14 enemies and mechanics

IS#3 will gain 3 more difficulty levels up to Surging Waves 18

Starting from SW16 there is a new feature where players can suppress Rejection effects and gain "Genomes" at the end of each battle

At SW17 Rejections will be replaced by Combined Rejections

At SW18, Elite and Leader enemies take -50% Physical and Arts damage for 20s after entering the field, and their ATK is increased by +30%

Rhodes Island Icebreaker Games will return with new features as an annual gamemode

Players can select their preferred play style before matches to obtain their preferred buffs and better communicate their gameplay to other players

Players can swap lineups

More levels and difficulties will be added to Regular Events

New balls and enemy units added to Positional Football

New mechanics and boss added to Bastion Defense

Players can take commemorative photos of their units with their teammates after the match

A new outfit for Vermeil and Originium Slug emojis are some of the rewards players can get from IG#1

Showcased the new base update features such as a music player that can change the background music in the base (limited to main menu background themes) and an info board that displays your friends that recently visited

Announced the next story collection event in involving Eblana, Talulah and Amiya

Teased the next event featuring Eblana

Announced Episode 15, the start of Act III of the main story where Rhodes Island returns to Rim Billiton and cliffhangers from Ep14 will be resolved

Announced an in-game event timeline that puts all the main story chapters, intermezzo, side stories and story collection in chronological order

[heretherebedork]

Whenever the algorithm finds me a new BL i didn't know was airing I am reminded that I might be watching all this glorious gay shit but the gay shit is also watching me.

[storkmuffin]

Yunho's Way of the Live #6 (Ekangmo)

The Yeosang Influence (Part 2/3- You can find part one here.)

*this is my usual rpf that i'm making up based on available materials written in the form of a tumblr essay/blogpost. pls be advised that if you disagree with something i say, you are right and i am wrong. enjoy.

Where we began

So Yunho had this coquette side since he was a little (very tall) thing but (see part 1 and his whole ang-dae-yeooo baby voice) but unlike Yeosang, Geisha Coquetry was not always his initial impulse. Take for example this early interview, where in response to a question that must've been along the lines of, Do you think I can tell my parents about my stanning Ateez? from an Atiny evidently young enough to need to care about that (Why do people romanticize being young by the way? Extreme youth sucks ass. Being a grown up is incomparably better.), he gives a very ambiguous, smart ass, mean-oppa sort of answer, using something very close to his Real Yunho Voice (tm - See discussion here)

Yunho: Would Mother and Father like our Ateez Oppa? The ones who always flip their eyes like this and go Auugh? Would they like them??

The date on this video is July 2, 2021, which means the actual response was given sometime earlier than that. I mean, this is a great answer, but it walks that line between negging the asker in a tantalizing way (Why, little girl who will be upset I call you a little girl, do you give a shit what Mommy and Daddy want you to listen to? ), and a smart-ass boy being a smart-ass in a not quite appropriate setting. It also fits the rougher image that Ateez has always had. I know International Atiny get very frustrated by the limitations placed on Ateez by the mores of Korean audiences, but from where I am sitting these people seem pretty free to run about as wild as Idols are allowed to be and still be Kpop Idol.

The thing is, unlike Wooyoung's flirty banter with his Youngbuin that went viral enough to catch my eye in my previously Kpop-free algorithm, if this footage of Yunho being a smartass was the first clip I'd seen of any of the Ateez members? It would have turned me off of Ateez. I do not find boys who get sarcastic enticing enough to pursue down a Youtube rabbit hole, even if they look like Yunho.

Showing You, Yes, You, Especially You, A Good Time

A comment that both K-Atiny and the commentary editrixes at KQ keep repeating, almost like a slogan, is 그래, 니들이 즐거우면 됬다. Which in translation is something like, Well, all right, I guess, as long as you guys are happy/ enjoying yourselves, that's enough. In the case of the employees at KQ who have to make the content, this often applies to when the members stop engaging with the camera (and the viewer) to instead break out into fits of giggles at some inside joke they never explain. From the K-Atiny, this phrase is applied to when a government pairing (ooh look at me use new vocabulary!) gets too into BL Fanservice on stage or in (often deceptively, it must be added) edited content to an extent that the fan feels left out, or in the worst instances, turned off altogether. It's a lament, when a fan says it, because if she was happy with what she was given, she could just take the thrills and apply it to her IRL boyfriend or her vibrator or whoever. Having to say, I'm happy for you means, in actuality, The rules of fandom engagement dictate that I can't actually complain but this content makes me feel alienated.

And one pair, that does function as a team but isn't encouraging you to ship them, Ekangmo, Yeosang and Yunho, are excellent at never ever forcing the K-Atiny to have to feel that 그래, 니들이 즐거우면 됬다 (I'm happy if you two are happy) type of resigned acceptance. They are working as a team to make us happy, rather than each other. The very consistent audience orientation, which is I think a discipline that Yeosang is actually really great at practicing because it just comes naturally to him (whereas Yunho has to be deliberate about it), is just so fizzy and fine.

WHERE IS THE EKANGMO UNIT SONG?

But until then, we have these joint lives of Yeosang and Yunho. (I'm not going to liveblog these, but only discuss the highlights. I don't think. )

Initially, Yunho Tried Out a Protector of Yeosang Type Persona

First up, because I picked it, is this one, where at 1:57 Atiny ask Yunho what Yeosang is doing, and Yunho calls him over.

Did you ffw'd to where I said? Because you hear Yunho using his real voice to call for Yeosang, and Yeosang also answer in his real voice and cadence. Yunho's voice is much lower and deeper than his 'for-showbiz' voice, whereas Yeosang's is much more sing-song and lighter than his Please I'm a Doberman Please voice.

And of course, on brand, on theme, par for the course, for the two of them address nakedness. The chat starts with Atiny asking why Yunho's shirt is all ripped up, and he answers by saying that he's trying to meet a certain level of skin exposure in tiny cumulative bits. Then he asks Yeosang if he's naked, and Yeosang replies that he's going to put something on in his singsong voice, which Yunho reaffirms.

Yunho, ever business minded, wants the pairing to have a slogan as well as a pairing name, and he solicits the Atiny to come up with something. Because their totemic mascot animals are both canine, there's a lot of barking and dog related puns in response, which Yunho disapproves of quite sternly. At 4:30, Yunho readjusts his glasses in a disappointed manner to ask, rhetorically, "You call that a slogan, everyone?" (Mean oppa could clearly have been his persona, but that wouldn't sell, you see.) Yeosang has the correct Geisha response - he evidently doesn't like the suggestions either, but he says, in his very dulcet voice (at 5:05) that "It's not necessary to come up with or finalize something right this minute. It would be nice to have something that's novel and unique feeling though." Yunho, Mean Oppa, picks the one that is based on an Ateez lyric, deciding for everyone, because he doesn't think anyone can come up with a novel and unique one that would pass muster. Because he's a mean oppa.

Yeosang, being the chakhae oppa, agrees. He wants there to be peace. They say the slogan together, which is very dorky, by the way (5:40 - 5:49). Yunho is many things but he's not actually cool, alas.

They ask the (very kind) Atiny (who are also paying to see this) what they think, and they get a very polite version of Y'all are Dorks, which is "It's cute." For different reasons, Yeosang and Yunho both object: Yeosang is for a variety of reasons sick of being called cute, and Yunho knows what they really meant to say. Then Yunho goes into mean oppa mode to Yeosang (at 6:00)- when Yeosang says what they were going for was something cool, he tells Yeosang that declaring yourself cool is what makes it cute (diminutive). Yoesang goes, Oh is that so? while Yunho laughs.

At this stage, Yunho is reactive to Yeosang as much as he is in sync and tuning himself to Yeosang. He keeps breaking out of Geisha mode to be disapproving, or sarcastic, or sharp. At 7:18, for example, they engage in a discussion about how it is that Yeosang ends his fanchats, because Yunho is very invested in the correct way to run his own fanchats. Yeosang loves being asked questions by someone who is actually going to let him answer and listen, so he gives a pretty detailed answer, but then the Yeodoongie that followed him into Yunho's chat start to tease him, gently.

And something interesting happens. At 7:44, Yunho reads some of the chatter and goes, "Wait, why are you making fun of our Yeosang? What is this? Are you playing Who Can Tease Yeosang The Most? Who? Who is teasing our Yoesang??" He drops out of 존댓말 into informal speech, defending Yeosang, because everyone must be very gentle to Yeosang (despite Yeosang being kind of savage whenever he feels like it tbh).

At 9:30, we go back to the Ekangmo perennial topic of nudity. (This is not the only reason I want the unit song and video. I swear.) Because their food had been delivered (as announced by the manager that lives with them) they were trying to wrap up, so Yunho was promising to do more of these joint fanchats - "We promise that if one of us calls the other one will come running over." Yeosang agrees, but then Yeosang says the phrase 팬티 바람으로 달려 올뻔 하다가 about this time - "I almost ran over here in nothing but my panties" - and Yunho laughs at his word choice, then he says " 서로 팬티 바람이어 가지고 조심해야 해. 어쩔수 없어." - we're constantly in nothing but panties so we have no choice but to be careful - which makes Yeosang laugh.

Korean language note: As with most other languages, there's a bazillion ways to describe being in just your underpants, as well as words that describe men's, women's, and other different types of underpants. These two guys - aged what, 25 in 2024, one very muscular, the other one very tall, using the word "panty" to describe their constant state of deshabille is a deliberate CHOICE.

Yeosang then "innocently" kicks it up a notch to say that the manager hyung is also in constant states of undress, (in just his panties) which makes Yunho give him a LOOK. Yunho tries to bring things to some sort of order, so he gives an explanation that they both turn on fanchat/livechat as their last to-do item of the day before washing up and going to bed, which is why they are in just their panties whenever they do a live. It's not that they are constantly in just their underwear in their dorm.

Yeosang doesn't concur, which makes Yunho give him a look. "That's wrong?" he asks. Yeosang laughs, then says, he dresses properly always. Yup. Suure.

Then, within a month, Yunho began imitating Yeosang outright. (to be continued in part 3. Or 7. Whatever the number should be)/

[aliceisathome]

i know lots of people don't follow Perth Nakhun on Youtube because his gaming stuff messes up their algorithms (looking at you @absolutebl) but he's got a great new video about My Engineer out - covering all sorts of stuff from the interviewing and auditioning process to, well, everything. Plus a little teeny bit of

He's a sweetie. Worth a watch and he's going to be doing one for each of his BL series.

[befuddledcinnamonroll]

Taking a break from squeeing over all this juicy stuff on my dash for a moment, I have to say that what both Saint & YinWar are doing here is really important for the creative side of QL.

Let's be clear, most media executives are not creative people. They may have some business acumen (though most I think fake it quite a bit), but a vast number are incapable of understanding what it feels like to be creative, or how to connect with the people (us) who engage with creative material in any kind of passionate way.

Which is why they so often make decisions like "this college BL was cheap to make and did well - let's make 20 more". It's why they keep adapting books that fit pre-established norms while ignoring the vast number of QL books in other genres. It's why they so often will only take a "risk" once it's already been proven profitable by some smaller more independent enterprise. It's why they are chomping at the bit to replace writers with AI (I hate calling it that, it's not remotely intelligent), because they truly don't see the difference between an algorithm and a human being. Both can produce "content" and that's what they care about.

Now I'm sure that part of YinWar making Jack and Joker is because they want to play in something cool & fun (get it boys!), but also they're no dummies. Partner in Crime was a test, and they saw how the people reacted.

Same with Saint. Each series pushes the QL bubble open a little bit wider, because he understands that despite what most executives think, we as viewers are not a mindless monolith that you can endlessly feed the same content to.

And vitally, what they get and most executives don't, is the FANDOM of it all. They know we want to pour over gifs & photos, and swoon over this sexy moment, and talk about that cool bit of action. We want to be fed.

We're not subtle about what we like. If you take the time to actually pay attention to us

The ironic thing is that I think both of these productions are going to do very well, and then more executives will jump on the genre bandwagon and recycle ideas, without understanding just what it is that makes us so feral for these particular properties.

But in the meantime, I am grateful for creative people who fight to make their own content. How much more colorless our world would be without them.

[thirstkanaphan]

have you ever shared your ateez/atiny origin story? i love hearing how people got into the group :)

I found Ateez around this time last year! I had somewhat gotten into kpop through SHINee, having stumbled upon a video essay about them that got me intrigued enough to listen to their music and watch a lot of their older content. Ateez had already been on the periphery of my awareness because it was a popular fandom on AO3, so I was always noticing it when I searched for fic.

I encountered them properly for the first time when I was house-sitting for my parents last June. My youtube algorithm brought this video to my attention:

I watched it, watched another, then another, and before I knew it I had spent nearly the entire weekend binging Ateez content. I hadn't even listened to their music yet, but I was so charmed by their personalities and dynamics! The music, as it turned out, was fantastic.

As someone who's primarily drawn to fandoms via shipping, I quickly identified the main pairings in Ateez and basically did a test drive of some fic (canon-compliant) and was like, oh this is good!

In a happy coincidence, Ateez was going to perform at CitiField that August. I really surprised myself by impulsively buying a ticket ($99 for nose-bleeds) since I was planning to visit my grandma in the city around that time anyway.

By the time August rolled around, I had gone from a casual fan to way more invested. I remember texting my friend about it and her joking that she could see my fixation taking hold in real time. I watched their older content, listened to podcasts, went through their discography, read more fic, and joined twitter so I could keep up with the fandom.

By the time the concert arrived, I was at like 90% conversion to becoming a fully-fledged atiny. I just needed one final push! I took an uber share to the stadium and met a girl in the car who was also headed to the concert. My first atiny friend! During our trip from Manhattan to Queens we really hit it off - she was so cool and fun and had been in the fandom for a few years already and knew all the backstories (she considers herself a multifan, but I told her I only had the mental and emotional capacity to stan one group). As it happened, she had bought two tickets for the concert thinking that one of her friends might be interested, which didn't happen. She offered me her spare ticket so we could sit together, which means I moved from a 300-level seat to a 100-level seat!

Some people may remember that the CitiField concert last August almost didn't happen. Terrible thunderstorms delayed the concert for over two hours! We were not allowed to leave the concourse, which was packed full of 30k people huddling together trying to make the best of an increasingly dire situation. I don't know what I would've done if I had gone there alone. Thankfully, I had my new friend! We found out we had even more in common, such as a love for BL, and we ended up spending those 2.5 miserable hours talking.

Finally, we heard good news: the show would go on! Not only that, but Ateez had paid to override the 11 PM noise ordinance so they could give us the full(ish) concert experience! Some things were sacrificed, such as some of the interstitial banter and my beloved Turbulence, but I am so thankful that the boys fought to give us (and them!) a memorable night.

I remember that was also the night that Seonghwa made a really heart-wrenching speech about the recent loss of his grandparent at the start of the tour. His family was in attendance and it took tremendous courage to be that vulnerable. It's worth listening to his speech, because everyone - Seonghwa, the members, the audience - was crying.

By that point, the rain had started again and continued through the final encore performance of Utopia. It felt like my ATINY baptism.

After that concert, I was all-in. I had my first comeback that November with Golden Hour: Part 2. I was traveling for a friend's wedding the week after the album released and I was on my own for a few days in Philadelphia to do some museum-hopping. The fandom felt like my travel companions! I was plugged into stationhead for most of that first week with thousands of other atiny as we streamed the new song. When I traveled down to visit my best friend in Baltimore, she generously drove me to the nearest Target so I could buy my first kpop album and she indulged me by watching their Killing Voice and Drunkteez episodes. In return, I listened to her gush about Formula 1 and Max/Charles (I will be taking her to see Ateez in Baltimore this July).

I was sitting in the airport waiting to fly home when we heard that Ateez topped the Billboard Top 200 and I swear to god it was one of the highlights of my year. It felt like our achievement as much as theirs!

As you probably know, I've since become way more involved in the fandom. I plan to return to CitiField this July with the same friend I made during that fated concert last year! It'll feel like my one-year anniversary as an atiny!

Thanks for asking!