#shan unleashes her unpopular bbs takes and prepares to get tomatoes thrown at her

[lurkingshan]

bad buddy fandom getting-to-know-you-meme!

Tagged by @telomeke, thanks friend! I had to get through the weekend drama deluge before I could clear out some brain space to answer this one properly, because I never mess around when I'm talking Bad Buddy.

Name and whatever you want to share about yourself

Shan, she/her, I live in the US. I am a lifelong consumer of stories and both an avid reader and drama watcher. I write a lot of meta because when I enjoy a thing I love to dissect and unpack it, and I post on tumblr because I have the most fun when I do that with other people.

When did you watch bad buddy/join the fandom?

I watched Bad Buddy live when it was airing! I was not on tumblr then but I was lurking around fandom spaces and following the week to week discussions around the show, but not actively participating in them. After that my interest in bl as a genre only grew, so I created this blog about 9 months ago to start joining in the fun.

Favourite ship/s

Pat/Pran, of course. They are amongst my all time favorite couples that I've seen in any media, period. I will spice this up by also admitting Pa/Ink didn't do all that much for me. They were just a bit too underwritten for me; I am not someone that is wowed by side crumbs or enjoys filling in the gaps myself. But I am really looking forward to seeing Milk and Love headline their own show soon.

Favourite character/s

Going to take a stand here and throw my love Pat's way, because Pran is the character most in fandom seem to connect with. But I just love Pat. He's such a kind and loyal and devoted person at heart. He's a little bit of a himbo about his emotions, but he's also quite smart in his own way and he understands more than people realize. I love his easy acceptance of his own sexuality but also others around him. He has good instincts about people and it's no coincidence he ends up surrounded by such a good community of his own making. And I respect the hell out of his willingness to fight the constraints of filial piety to call his father on his bullshit. He is someone Pran can trust to stick with him through a lot of hard shit, and his easy forgiveness of Pran's more prickly attributes is crucial to their relationship health. For someone with such a healthy ego, Pat has no problem putting it aside for the man he loves. That's real strength, right there.

Favourite episode/s

Joining the pile on for Episode 11, my beloved. When I tell you I was sobbing the first time I watched it. Tears just pouring down my face from the moment Pat told Pran he understood they had to go back all the way through Pran's song for Pat and their return home. It's one of the most moving sequences I have ever seen in a romance, the way they came to the realization of what they were facing, chose each other anyway, and decided they were going to find a way to stay together, even if it couldn't be in exactly the way they hoped.

Favourite scene/s

Oh gosh, there are just so many. The aforementioned sequence in ep 11, both major rooftop scenes, that lone tear tracking down Pran's face at the end of episode 4, Pat confronting Ming. On the lighter side, there's also the brainstorming roleplay from ep 3, pretty much every courtship scene where they flirted via PPL, the FINGER LICK, the final episode wrestling match and sex acrobatics. Every scene between Pat and Pran was just aces.

One thing you would change about the show if you could

*cracks knuckles*

Okay, fam, just remember, you asked! Bad Buddy is one of my favorite shows of all time, but as I have discussed with @waitmyturtles at length, it is not perfect and I have some serious quibbles with it from a writing standpoint. My top 3:

Wai outing Pran and then Pran spending the whole episode apologizing to him. Nonsensical, infuriating, and the show didn’t do the work to make us understand Pran and Wai’s friendship enough to accept that. I still hate poor Jimmy's face to this day and I blame that on Aof.

Pat gets shot as the deus ex machina to resolve the Wai plot. Villain comes out of nowhere in the same episode, the whole situation is tonally discordant, no follow through and the injury is treated like he got a paper cut in the aftermath. It's just lazy writing. Honestly, send all of episode 9 to the trash heap.

Finale fake out. Aof undercut his own themes about the struggle of the closet and sublimation of your own needs in service of filial piety in order to play a prank on the audience. Dumb waste of half the finale’s run time that actively worked against the message he sought to deliver, and that ep 12 preview nearly ruined ep 11 for a lot of people. Luckily the second half of the finale was so strong it made up for it, but I maintain the fake out was a bad choice that I would definitely go back and change.

What are your some of your favorite fanworks made by other people?

I am a meta girlie at heart so I am always most excited reading deep dives. I cannot possibly remember all the good shit I have read on Bad Buddy, but I'll give a shoutout to the BBS (gender neutral) girlies keeping the meta alive to this day @telomeke @ranchthoughts @dudeyuri @dimplesandfierceeyes @chickenstrangers @miscellar @grapejuicegay. I am always so excited when I see new posts about this show on my dash and I had a great time clowning with you all on OS2.

What are your favourite fanworks you've made?

I wasn't here when the show was airing so I actually don't have a deep library of my own meta for this show (not that made it onto tumblr, anyway). But one of the fun things about being in bl fandom is we get to make connections across the shows we're all watching, so I'll give a shoutout to this post I did drawing a line between Pran and Jae Won of The Eighth Sense.

A song that makes you think of BBS (not in the show)

It's gotta be Same Page? by Tilly Birds. It's not actually played in the show, but Pat briefly references it when he's teasing Pran in their final scene together, and y'all, look at these lyrics:

Me missing you is missing Me missing you is missing along the way Me missing you is missing Me missing you is missing along the way Do you realize how much I am agonized? I only want to know If you and I are on the same page I really want to know if you have a change of heart Or is it just me thinking? Or is there something missing? Like how my feelings never reach you

Feels pretty appropriate for a long-distance couple with more separation ahead, doesn't it? It's fine, I am very normal about this.

Thanks again for tagging me, Tel, this was fun! I am adding @neuroticbookworm @blmpff @manogirl @invisiblegarters @slayerkitty @he-is-lightning-in-a-bottle in case you want to play, and anyone else I tagged above who hasn't done it yet, consider yourselves tagged!