#tragic bl

[absolutebl]

Tragic BL & BL With Strong Tragic Elements

This came from an anonymous ask and it is not my preferred style of BL. I am assuming the asker is already familiar with the dark side and moody arthouse smackdoodle, so I’m trying my attention to BL the borders between the dark and the light, sometimes because it’s not Japan and doesn’t feel compelled to stick to lanes.

The whole “my ghost boyfriend’ oeuvre

He's Coming to Me 

Peach of Time 

Something in My Room 

Ghost Host, Ghost House 

and all the original versions of this from China 

And tangential to this the “one outlives the other pining” take on the above

Dear Doctor I’m Coming For Your Soul 

Once Again

Kissable Lips

Currently airing Eternal Yesterday AKA Eien no Kino

Other’s that have tragic arcs or back stories or generally tug the heartstrings more than most BLs. 

Life: Love on the Line - there a strong theme of giving up and parting 

Gaya sa Peilikula - lots of trauma around identity 

ITSAY & Co. - the general hopelessness of first love 

Given - Mafuyu's dead lover and depression 

Color Rush - Yeon Woo’s desperation and fear of becoming the monster, similarly in #2 

To My Star 2 - just, sigh 

Gameboys - death in the pandemic and isolation of quarantine

Miracle of Teddy Bear

KinnPorsche’s VegasPete storyline 

Until We Meet Again’s KornIn storyline (of course) 

I cover dark BL from Japan here. 

Updated as of Dec 2022. I’ve no plans to keep this updated (since this isn' my favorite BL content). Feel free to comment with others or repost with adds to the list. 

(source) 

[heretherebedork]

Here’s an odd one!

I just saw the ask, asking you about watching Your Name Engraved Here In.

I also am here for the troupes. I watched Make Our Days Count, when I was new to bl’s not realizing it ended the way it did. (I realize the name should maybe give away the sad ending now. I didn’t at the time though.)

So, now I’m wondering have you or do you know of any list of shows that end in a heartbreaking way? Like have a very sad ending, that maybe should be avoided by those of us who don’t want the heartbreak or would maybe like to know going in that it will end badly?

If not can you think of any others you know end badly/ heartbreakingly?

Thanks, you’re the best!! I love your blog it has helped me so much!💕

So!

I know that @absolutebl has several lists like that and they are fantastically more organized than me (They're how I knew not to finish MODC!) and I highly recommend looking around to see if you can find them or asking them, they'll happily link you!

So that's my recommendation.

But, also, Gray Rainbow is another one I can name off the top of my head to avoid. Peach of Time as well.

I sometimes go into a show knowing it will end badly but that's a choice I make with the foreknowledge of what I'm getting into.

Anyway!

Yeah. @absolutebl, the lord ruler of all lists, has this very well covered. But due to tumblr's organization skills being about as good as mine instead of theirs... I can't find it easily.

They did make the list! Here!

[apathetic-microwave]

They make me cry

[khaoray]

I will. I will bring you back. And we will see each other again. I promise.

@asiandramanet april bingo: tropes & lgbtq+ rep

[functionalasfuck]

Love for Love’s Sake is really just out here giving us two people who have terrible self worth, who can’t understand how anyone could possibly love them, and making them fall in love with their mirror image. Therefore proving they are worth happiness and love.

[rythyme]

The Fallen Angel is one of my favorite paintings to see adapted as fanart bc it slaps EVERY TIME but one of the biggest tragedies in my humble opinion is that most of you will never experience the phenomenal sluttery and homoeroticism of the Fallen Angel nude model painting scene in Not Me: The Series.

[25shadesoffebruary]

HiraKiyoi gifs [2/?]: Why do you ask? Why can't I ask? I didn't think you would care.

[c00and]

Forever thinking about the way that Porchay never gets resolution for any of his questions. Porsche and him never get to sit down and have a real discussion about what their lives mean now, or why he disappeared for so long. Heck, does he even know the stuff about his mom? Sure, he’s seen her but did anyone tell him the full consequences of this truth? Does Porsche even know the full truth to be able to tell him?

And don’t even get me started on Kim. The way that Kim lead that poor boy along all in the effort of what? He attempts to solve the mystery connecting their families but what ultimately comes of it? Kim, in his misplaced, genuine pure effort to solve the murders of some “random” family associated with his own not only thoroughly traumatizes a child fresh out of high school, but also crushes his heart and his dreams. And the worst part? It’s not even his fault. I doubt that Kim ever thought that his plans would end up the way they did.

Thus, Kim and Porchay arrive at the end of their plot with nothing but anger and repression to show for it. No resolution is sight, and no hope for one.

If that isn’t tragedy, I don’t know what is.

[tomboyyyaoi]

literally cant stress enough that i am a vashwood enjoyer but some vashwood shippers really are another breed. when meryl went back for vash in episode 11 and wolfwood was fucking off bc his job was done my feed was full of "NOOO WOLFWOOD GO BACK AND GET UR MAN!!!! GO SAVE HIM!!!!!" like....

[three--rings]

So I've talked a lot about this in the past (see my tag for this topic) but I've never really talked about one of the BIG things that makes me prefer gay romance to straight.

When I first started trying to read romance novels, after disparaging them a lot as a teen, I ended up turning my nose up a lot at them for one reason in particular.

Straight romance would be like single woman meets single man and they are Instantly Attracted to each other in an undeniable way BUT THEY CANNOT BE TOGETHER BECAUSE REASON. And the reason was always really lame and forced. Like, oh no I have to focus on More Important Things or My Family Won't Approve and honestly those reasons always felt like ....so you don't actually like this person or value them too much then? And there would be hundreds of pages of increasingly hard to swallow obstacles to them just....getting together and being in love.

So it was the very rare het romance where I felt like the obstacles were valid and earned and worked. I really stuck to period romances where at least you could believe a class divide or "being betrothed to someone else" was valid.

Then I started reading gay romance, and IN PARTICULAR gay HISTORICAL romance and got ADDICTED. Because now it worked. Now you can have family disapproval and professional concerns and added not-accepting-your-own-sexuality issues and it's emotionally believable. Now I could get my love-triumphing-over-obstacles cake and also not have to turn my brain off to eat it.

And when I moved into danmei it was just Gay historical but in China and that was fantastic.

It's also why, I think, when we're talking about modern gay love stories, I very much prefer "complicated plot/setting with high drama" rather than "fluffy coffee shop/high school setting" because it's more likely to give those actual sources of conflict I like to see. Like yeah I want one half of the ship to think "maybe he's secretly an evil spy and just using me" or whatever instead of "oh no I should focus on studying" because one may be more COMMON of a setting but I find the other more emotionally satisfying.

But either way, queer love stories still feel like they have more believable obstacles to being quickly resolved. Otherwise you get romances entirely focused on poor communication and misunderstanding and I want to fucking strangle the writer.

So that's one of the big reasons why I find the "hit rate" of gay romances in whatever form much higher than straight ones for me.

[heretherebedork]

And here we see, in action, Pete's greatest character flaw... his taste in men.

We get it Pete but maybe also talk to him about not raping people?

[ticchina]

He is a work of art.

The face of a man who is stuck at a new year's event instead of making out with his bf in the streets of paris.

[ah-bee-blogs]

1,000 Years Old is so goofy silly and I am here for it!!

🌂The endless assortment of umbrellas

⚰️The coffin as a bed

🦷The glow in the dark fangs

👽The friend group searching for aliens but there’s absolutely no way vampires are real

🧛‍♂️In fact, the weird guy whose sole sustenance is pork blood soup says he’s a vampire but he’s actually hiding the fact that he’s an alien

👀The semi-stalking of the weird guy (who may be a vampire murderer) to use as a documentary subject (some questionable ethical implications there)

🙊The wacky neighbors and mysterious spirits

So absurd, it’s great

[gunsatthaphan]

nah bc the whole AlanWen story is just a little too real sdkjhfd I’m speechless truly. 

[poomphuripan]

New stills from Q17 of Up Poompat (Ming) and Poom Phuripan (Joe) in iQIYI and YYDS’s My Stand-In (2024), dir. Pepzi Banchorn Vorasataree & Khom Kongkiat Khomsiri

[25shadesoffebruary]

I want to be on the same page with you. Kiyoi Sou photo taken by Hira Kazunari.