#it's my favourite little disaster bl ok

[pharawee]

It's not even been one day and already my heart can't take people bashing Chains of Heart so they can praise Laws of Attraction 😭

[twig-tea]

5 BL characters in 2023 who you would help hide a body

*cracks knuckles* @wen-kexing-apologist I had things to do today! Let's not lie I was already not doing them so let's go.

I am notoriously bad at keeping my lists down to any reasonable number so I'm going to give myself very specific parameters: This is a character who (a) I love so deeply I would do anything for them, (b) they would murder someone, and (c) there is someone in their show who, if they murdered, I would support their gay crime. Ok with those caveats let's see how I do [spoiler alert: I failed pretty badly].

Ji Hyun, The Eighth Sense

Ji Hyun came from the country to the big city, saw a hot guy on a poster and decided "yep I'm going to learn to surf even though I can't actually swim". He almost died and decided to lean into his convictions even MORE. He sasses out his senior and isn't put off by his lover ghosting him. Luckily for them the people in Jae Won's life figured themselves out and apologized, because Ji Hyun was not going to put up with more of their bullshit. I would do anything for this man and I fully believe if pushed he would do anything for his.

Noey Watplu, I Will Knock You

Noey is a kid who ended up running a gang mostly out of care for his community. He thinks he's so much tougher than he is, but his bravado and endless self-confidence get him through so much. Still, if he hadn't turned away from that gangster lifestyle, he definitely would have gotten in trouble at some point and I would have been with the other aunties at the food stalls helping deal with the mess.

Dung from Mr Cinderella S2

He has had a rough life, but is extremely kind, and I always stan a man who stays beside his in the face of external threats, but who also has healthy boundaries about how he's treated. The people in Khoa's life who keep messing with their relationship in both seasons....I'm not advocating murder, but if they happened to die, I would be there helping make sure they didn't mess with them anymore.

Ueangphueng and Fongkaew, I Feel You Linger in the Air

I just want these women to be happy and safe (with Mai). And if there's anyone on this list who deserved to murder someone as a treat, it's them. I love so much that they teamed up to take down their husband. I love so much that they found strength in one another. I would absolutely help them bury whoever they needed me to. And in a time when justice would not have been served for what they actually experienced, do I think they could have gone there if they hadn't found the other evidence to take him down? Absolutely, and I respect them for it.

Namnuea, Wedding Plan

This is cheating against my own rules because I don't think he would actually kill anyone but I'd do it for him and I know he'd help me hide the body so I'm counting it. I love this man. He also could technically fit into the ending category because he is (rightfully) surrounded by people who love and protect him, but count me in.

Amane, If It's With You

This is now just a favourites list but listen. I was ready to throw down for him immediately re: that high school crush, and as we got more of him and saw how brave he was through this series my love grew exponentially. He is mine and I would protect him in any way necessary, including helping him bury a very unlikely body.

Hira, My Beautiful Man

I love Kiyoi as a character so much and want desperately to protect him, but I don't need to we have Hira for that. Hira, on the other hand, canonically fantasizes about murdering his classmates because they're a little mean to Kiyoi, he's way more likely to need my help. And I love his complete disaster self so much. His arc is so slow across the seasons/movie and I know some folks got frustrated with him but he's starting from such an incredibly messed up place that the way his growth spirals makes perfect sense and is very relatable.

Koki, One Room Angel

This guy keeps getting into gang fights even though he's not in a gang, he's very likely to need me. And as a stoic, sad, quietly kind and perpetually misunderstood gay man, he immediately fell into my Love Forever and Protect With All of my Might bucket.

Kat, the Warp Effect

Listen, Kat could and would (and yes I chose this gif intentionally to invoke Wild Things). She doesn't need to because she has a wonderful group of friends who rally around her, but if anything else went down in her life and she had to choose violence, I'd be there with a shovel.

Ryunosuke, Tokyo in April Is...

I don't mean to imply that we want to murder our protagonists lol All three of the men in this show could ask me to bury a body and I'd say yes, but Ryunosuke is the one who might actually take advantage. Ryunosuke was fully evaluating Kazuma in this scene and he had good reason to. I fully believe if he found Kazuma wanting he'd find a way to make him disappear if he had to. In any case, Ryunosuke is in my bucket of favourite characters from this year and I would do anything for him.

Uea, Middleman's Love

It's cheating that he's here because really the people I'd love to help him bury were all in Bed Friend but in my defense I'll say that his energy in this show was 100% "if you hurt Jade who is too precious to exist I will end you", and I support him on this.

Misaki, Me, My Husband, and my Husband's Boyfriend

This woman went through so much self-reflection and growth. At the start of the show she couldn't hurt anyone but herself, but by the end? She was ready to hold boundaries and fight for her own happiness even if she doesn't yet know what that is and I am here to support that even if it turns out to be violence. I can't find any gifs of her in her happiness and I'm very sad about it

Nai, Shadow the Series

Dan is a monsterfucker and so he has my whole heart, but Nai is the one most likely to need my services. While Dan is in his feelings and obsessed with the supernatural mystery in the show, Nai is in the real world gathering information, setting up their bully as a fall guy, and generally being brilliant. Here for him and all his gay wrongs.

Bonus

Folks I don't need to help bury a body because they already have people for that, but who I absolutely could not keep off this list!

Maya, Rose, and Charn, Laws of Attraction and Ai Di, Kiseki: Dear to Me

I don't think they need any further commentary.

[dangermousie]

Heelo mousie! Love your blog! Do you mind recommending some of your favourite Chinese BL novels or shows?

I've seen the untamed and read it. I'm currently reading heaven's official blessing and I saw the donghua. Anything other than these two?

Awww, thank you!

Novels: I am gonna be lazy and literally copy/paste the entire danmei section of my top 10 web novels post (except MXTX’s stuff since you are already reading it.) Let me know if you need help finding any of these.

Lord Seventh - I am only partway through this so far, but it’s already on the list because it’s smart and somehow intense AND laid-back (not sure how this works, but it does) and is honestly just a really really solid and smart period novel, with the OTP a cherry on top of a narrative sundae. Plus, I love the concept of MC deciding he is not going for his supposedly fated love - he’s tried for six lifetimes, always with disaster, and he’s just plain done and tired. When he opens his life in his seventh reincarnation and sees the person he would have given up the world for, he genuinely feels nothing at all. (Spoiler - his OTP is actually a barbarian shaman this time around, thank you Lord!)

Golden Stage - my perfect comfort novel. Probably the least angsty of any danmei novel on this list (which still means plenty angsty :P) It also has a dedicated, smart OTP that is an OTP for the bulk of the book - I think you will notice that in most of the novels in this list, I go for “OTP against the world” trope - I can’t stand love triangles and the same. Anyway, Fu Shen, is a famous general whose fame is making the emperor   antsy. When he gets injured and can’t walk any more, the emperor gladly recalls him and marries him off to his most faithful court lackey, the head of sort of secret police, Yan Xiaohan. The emperor intends it both  as a check on the general and a general spite move since the two men   always clash in court whenever they meet. But not all is at is seems. They used to be  friends a long time ago, had a falling out, and one of the loveliest  parts of the novel is them finding their way to each other, but there is  also finding the middle path between their two very different  philosophies and ways of being, not to mention solving a conspiracy or  dozen, and putting a new dynasty on the throne, among other things. It always makes me think, a little, of “if Mei Changsu x Jingyan were canon.”

Sha Po Lang - if you like a lot of fantasy politics and world-building and steampunk with your novels, this one is for you. This one is VERY plot-heavy with smart, dedicated characters and a deconstruction of many traditional virtues - our protagonist Chang Geng, a long-lost son of the Emperor, is someone who wants to modernize the country but also take down the current emperor his brother for progress’ sake and the person he’s in love with is the general who saved him when he was a kid who is nominally his foster father. Anyway, the romance is mainly a garnish in this one, not even a big side dish, but the relationship between two smart, dedicated, deadly individuals with very different concepts of duty is fascinating long before it turns romantic. And if you like angst, while overall it’s not as angsty as e.g., Meatbun stuff, Chang Geng’s childhood is the stuff of nightmares and probably freaks me out more than anything else in any novel on this list, 2ha included.

To Rule In a Turbulent World (LSWW) - gay Minglan. No seriously. This is how I think of it. it’s a slice of life period novel with fascinating characters and  setting that happens to have a gay OTP, not a romance in a period  setting per se and I always prefer stories where the romance is not the only thing that is going on. It’s meticulously written and smart and deals with  character development and somehow makes daily minutia fascinating. Our   protagonist, You Miao, is the son of a fabulously wealthy merchant,   sent to the capital to make connections and study. As the story starts, he sees his friend’s  servants beating someone to death, feels bad, and buys him because, as  we discover gradually and organically, You Miao may be wealthy and  occasionally immature but he is a genuinely good person. The person he buys is a barbarian from beyond the wall, named   Li Zhifeng. It’s touch and go if the man will survive but eventually he does and You Miao, who by then has to return home, gives him his papers  and lets him go. However, LZF decides to stick with You Miao instead, both  out of sense of debt for YM saving his life and because he genuinely  likes him (and yet, there is no instalove on either of their parts, their bodies have fun a lot quicker than their souls.) Anyway, the two  take up farming, get involved in  the imperial exams and it’s the life of prosperity and peace, until an invasion happens and things go rapidly to hell. This is so nuanced, so smart (smart people in this actually ARE!) and has secondary characters who are just as complex as the mains (for example, I ended up adoring YM’s friend, the one who starts the plot by almost beating LZF to death for no reason) because the novel never forgets that few people are all villain. There is a lovely character arc or two - watching YM grow up and LZF thaw - there is the fact that You Miao is a unicorn in web novels being laid back and calm. This whole thing is a masterpiece.

Stains of Filth (Yuwu) - want the emotional hit of 2ha but want to read something half its length? Well, the author of 2ha is here to eviscerate you in a shorter amount of time. This has the beautiful world-building, plot twists that all make sense and, at the center of it all, an intense and all-consuming and gloriously painful relationship between two generals - one aristocratic loner Mo Xi, and the other gregarious former slave general Gu Mang. Once they were best friends and lovers, but when the novel starts, Gu Mang has long turned traitor and went to serve the enemy kingdom and has now been returned and Mo Xi, who now commands the remnants of his slave army, has to cope with the fact that he has never been able to get over the man who stabbed him through the heart. Literally. This novel has a gorgeously looping structure, with flashbacks interwoven into present storyline. There is so much love and longing and sacrifice in this that I am tearing up a bit just thinking of it. If you don’t love Mo Xi and Gu Mang, separately and together, by the end of it, you have no soul.

The Dumb Husky and His White Cat Shizun (2ha/erha) - if you’ve been following my tumblr for more than a hot second, you know my obsession with this novel. Honestly, even if I were to make a list of my top 10 novels of any kind, not just webnovels, this would be on the list. It has everything I want - a complicated, intricate plot with an insane amount of plot twists, all of which are both unexpected and make total sense, a rich and large cast of characters, a truly epic OTP that makes me bawl, emotional intensity that sometimes maxes even me out and so much character nuance and growth. Also, Moran is my favorite web novel character ever, hands down.

Anyway, the plot (or at least the way it first appears) is that the evil emperor of the cultivation world, Taxian Jun, kills himself at 32 and wakes up in the body of his 16 year old self, birth name Moran. Excited to get a redo, Moran wants to save his supposed true love Shimei, whose death the last go-around pushed him towards evil. He also wants to avoid entanglement with Chu Wanning, his shizun and sworn enemy in past life. And that’s all you are best off knowing, trust me. The only hint I am going to give is oooh boy the mother of all unreliable narrators has arrived!

The novel starts light and funny on boil the frog principle - if someone told me I would be full bawling multiple times with this novel, I’d have thought they were insane, but i swear my eyes hurt by the end of it. I started out being amused and/or disliking the mains and by the end I would die for either of them.

The Wife is First - OK, this one did not make my top 10 web novels but it’s a sweet, fun gay cottagecore fest. Our ML, a royal prince, and his spouse, a smart if delicate aristocrat, keep house, eat noodles, play with their pet tiger, make out and spoil each other rotten, while occasionally fighting battles and outwitting their court enemies. It’s so very mellow. That couple redefines low drama - they are both nice and functional and use their brains. It’s as if a nice jock and a nice nerd got together and then proceeded to be wholesome all over the place.

I mean, the set up could be dramatic - our ML the prince, lost his fight for the throne and is about to be killed. The only person who stayed loyal to him is his arranged husband the aristocrat guy who ML never treated nicely since he resented marrying him (marrying a man in that world is done to remove someone from the ability to inherit the throne.) And yet the husband stood by him not out of love but beliefs in loyalty blah blah. Anyway, he transmigrates back into the past right after their wedding night and is all “I got a second chance OMG! I don’t want the throne what is even the point? I want to live a good long life and treat the only person who stood by me really well!” And he proceeds to do so to the shock of the aristocrat who had a very unpleasant wedding night and generally can tell the man he just married would rather eat nails than be married to him. But soon enough (no seriously, it’s not many chapters at all) he believes the prince is sincere blah blah and then  they get together and they pretty much become cottagecore goals.

In terms of dramas, I only do period dramas (or novels) so I am not the person to be able to recommend any modern BLs. There is a flood of upcoming (hopefully) period BL dramas but it’s relatively thin on the ground now. The two I will recommend is Word of Honor (which is AMAZING) and Winter Begonia (which I just started watching but which owns me already.) I have a tag for both - the one for the former is huge and I cannot recommend either strongly enough. I’ve heard good things about The Sleuth of the Ming Dynasty, but I am not big on mysteries so haven’t watched it for myself.

In terms of the upcoming BLs, the ones I am most looking forward to are Immortality and Winner Is King, but The Society of the Four Leaves also looks promising.

[jisungshotfirst]

Hey hi hello it's been such a long time but I'm still alive lol

I came to scream about my new favourite bl! I don't know of you have seen semantic error yet but I'm absolutely obsessed! It is so cute and the characters are so lovable! No villain, no evil love triangle or bullying or anything just 2 disaster gays and their cute friends! 😭

I am also currently watching cherry blossoms after winter. Not the biggest fan but it has ok jinwook who was in the trot project group with MJ and Hui.

I also started watching blueming but I only watched 1 ep so far so i can't really tell yet if it's a good one or not.

But yeah, semantic error. I have rewatched it 4 times already and I cant stop thinking about how incredibly cute this show is!

Drama anon ❤

Hello it has been ages !! It's so nice to hear from you

And bestie I am ALSO OBSESSED. I've literally rewatched it like 5 times now cndnjd you are so right with that description !!! 2 disaster gays and their cute friends :(( it feels so nice and believable ! Like the focus was completely on these two characters growth and relationship and there was nothing thrown on top of it that is too unrealistic or too negative, they just let them have their own little story !!! It's just ... so good :((

and it's so nice to get to know seoham and jaechan ! I knew both knk and dongkiz casually, dongkiz more, but they don't get a lot of content so it's hard to learn about them. But jaechan now !!! He's such a sweetheart :( and I'm so glad dkz are getting like another shot at getting some popularity as a group!

Ahhh okay I hadn't seen anything about cherry blossoms after winter but it's interesting that it has jinwook!

I actually watched blueming! I watch it all in one sitting fjjf. It's alright! But I'm sure I would've liked it more if I didn't watch it after semantic error fjdj my standards have just shot through the roof. I really like the main character though, I wish he was treated better :( he makes it worth the watch but I would kill everyone else in that drama for hurting him

Oh my you've rewatched it as much as me nfjd it is the best !! It's my favourite bl now, to my star has been sidelined fjjd tho to my star 2 is out this year 👀👀 so we shall see if it meets my high standards jfjd. Semantic error is just so cute :((( perfect show :(