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An analysis of some BL logos
[Adapted from something I wrote in Thai]
Last Twilight
The logo uses an opacity gradient for the characters, the characters would gradually fade, both the Thai and English title, with the word "twilight" being the only word to not fade. The fade probably represents Day's losing vision, with twilight being the only word that is not fading, might be a representation of the Last Twilight (book in the series), where twilight is the last fleeting moments where the body doesn't fade away.
Only Friends
[I think I'm kinda bullshiting this part]
The logo of this series replicates the neon sign of the YOLO pub, the centre of the story, the purple probably symbolises queerness. The size of the word "only" symbolises one of the core ideas of the story, in an attempt the balance sexual desire and friendship, their relationship became so entangled and complicated that they can't be "only" friends anymore.
My School President
The san-serif characters used in the logo is an attempt at replicating children's handwriting, as such the characters have a messy and uneven look, but make no mistake, the characters are expertly done, the space and shape of character fit with each other for the most part, despite the different stroke widths and typographical tradition. The colours used are cyan, greenish yellow and white, all real chalk colours you would find in schools. The finishing touch of the heart in lieu of the negative space in the ธ of the word "president" indicating the love of Gun for Tinn is such a good way to show the series easy going, puppy love and a slight playfulness.
The Eclipse
คาธ "Khat" (The Thai title) means catching or swallowing, used in the context of natural occurrences such as a solar eclipse สุริยคาธ "Suriyakhat" (alternative form of สุริยคราส "Suriyakhrat," the word for solar eclipse), symbolising the story of Rahu swallowing the sun or moon during a eclipse. Therefore it is not surprising that the logo's background is a sun during an eclipse with the title written out in a san-serif font with the terminals being rounded into an angle. The text is made to look like an eclipse as well. The style of the text probably symbolises the authoritarian nature of Thai schools, the fact that they used a modern style of lettering (san-serif) is probably a symbol that authoritarianism still exists in Thai school, even if the edge is dulled a bit with insubstantial reform.
1000 Stars
The thread that links Tian and Phupha is Torfun's diary, the usage of handwritten style of text for the title symbolises this thread well. The show's creators have made a wise decision of not incorporating any stars into the logo as the stars are of lesser importance to the story. The stars counting wish could not make Phupha and Tian's love suddenly appear, their love happened on their own, not by some divine miracle. Using stars for the logo would only be a visual wordplay, rather than emphasising the essence of the story
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Something I came to realise from reading Thai BL fanfiction is that many authors tend to address characters by their surname but in thai naming customs we go by first names first.
I actually had a hard time comprehending addressing someone by their surname for a long time.
This change changes the mood of the story much in my opinion, addressing them the English way makes the story seem more foreign (or from the viewpoint of Western audiences, more local).
In the end it’s a matter of taste, whether one strives for cultural accuracy at the cost of relatability or the reverse, but I personally like things to be more grounded to the context they came from, so I prefer the Thai way.
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If you’re wondering why I have been gone for a while, well… I have been bombarded by work both school and advocacy so I haven’t been as active, and I will presumably not be active probably until mid-December.
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Only friends being a queer show that speaks to queer audiences and makes them feel seen and heard and only friends being a queer show that upsets queer audiences because of the narrative and the way some characters were treated can and should coexist.
I'm so tired of the notion that all queers are the same and that all queer media has to speak to us the same way simply because it's queer.
TopMew/SandRay ending up together and Boston being treated so horribly by the show will speak differently to different queers who watched the show.
Some might be happy about these events some might be upset.
Queer creators can only do so much. And they can't possibly represent the whole queer community equally. They don't have to.
I think some of the creators of only friends treated non-monogamy horribly biased and definitely pushed harmful ideas surrounding a certain type of queer that could've & should've been done with so much more care. And some queers may view the story in a totally different way than me. Which is fine.
But just like all of us creators were shaped by their life experiences so that's that.
Yes only friends is a queer show, created by queer people but that doesn't mean queer viewers have to like how queer topics were handled or feel represented by it. And yes only friends is a queer show, created by queer people and may make queer people happy and feel seen.
Both of these things can be true. And both of these things are valid!!!
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Why I think much of Only Friends discourse here is flawed
TL;DR Western audiences expects Only Friends to be more progressive than it can be considering its situation. Only Friends is already a gamble by GMMTV as it is one of the first prime time series focusing on queer sex life to be aired on TV. As Thai audiences and censors are still quite conservative, GMMTV probably added some conservative messaging on sex and relationships to appease those people and for the series to be able to be aired during prime time. Much of the discourse didn't factor in these aspects.
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Note: I think I did a shitty job building up to the conclusion, I did not proofread this. I think the TL;DR captures the gist of my argument already.
I have noticed that much of the negative reaction surrounding Only Friends finale has been coming from Western audiences, this might just be me being in an echo chamber where people don't discuss BL series or it shows a divide in audience
I think the ending is catered to the Thai audience rather than Western audience which creates a crash of worldview. Thai dramas has always been filled with moralistic messages and almost always ends in a happy ending, this is already the case in plays as early as the late 1700s.
Even into the TV era, Thai audiences are also accustomed to the moralistic storytelling that ends in a happy ending, most Lakhons basically boils down to this. Branded ships also began in this era (I remember the Channel 3 heterosexual ships getting much popularity, although many of the couples actually married later on so IDK). Although as time progressed, audiences are more accepting of less moralistic storytelling, but still a general sense of good triumphing over evil is still present.
Coming into the BL boom, despite BL being a new genre at the time, Thai audiences still expected the same kind of things they expect from heterosexual lakhons and most Thai BLs still follow that. With the popularity of BL ever rising and fan service being an expected part of promotion, happy endings are kind of mandatory for BLs.
I think Only Friends ended the way it did because GMMTV understood Thai audiences. Much of the Thai audience watches a series for their favourite actors and only some watch for the story (as you can see from the amount of boring university BLs). Deviating too much from the standard pattern would only alienate viewers away.
Despite the picture the tourism board may be trying to presenting, Thailand is still a conservative society, many people still cannot separate sex and relationships. Open relationships and polyamory relationships are still being frowned upon.
Combined with conservative censors which rate BLs for a higher age level than heterosexual dramas with straight up domestic violence, without moralistic messaging, the show might get an 18+ rating and has to be aired after 22.00 (like Friend Zone) or even worse, not being able to be aired at all.
GMMTV probably understand this very well, pushing Boston's separation of sex and relationships as normal might as well be suicide. Much of the audience does not appreciate that view and the censor probably would not like that very much.
I think in their minds, pushing a show so involved with queer sex life into prime time is already enough of a gamble for them, risking that spot being taken away or alienating their (somewhat) conservative audience too is not a chance they's like to risk.
I think the production still should've pushed more for Boston to be accepted but in the end that was what we got. The negative reaction is justified.
I think the issue in the discourse right now is that Western audiences expect a liberal viewpoint being presented in this series, but in reality, Thai audiences are still quite conservative and for a boundary pushing show like Only Friends (Gay OK Bangkok amongst other works are not prime time shows and maybe not even shown on TV at all, that's why I said Only Friends is boundary pushing) has to make compromises to appease those audiences which ended with Boston ending up the way he did.
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Afterword: I think my analysis mainly focuses on cultural viewpoints rather than the content of the series, whilst Western audiences tend to do the opposite. This probably stems from my background in advocacy, which focus on cultural aspects when it comes to analysis.
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Feel free to respond or criticise, I want to hear differing viewpoints from mine as well. I agree with much of the analysis about the series here but feel that they are too overly critical because their analysis lack the cultural background that explains the thought process behind the decisions the production team made.
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Note: This post is translation exercise for me, I wrote this as an article in Thai. No tags because I don't think it deserves to be in the Thai BL tag. If someone were to stumble upon this post, feedback would be appreciated, I will probably be publishing this somewhere and I don't want to get cancelled.
Cultural Analysis: Why we end categorising BL as a genre
By Kathoey Kae
Greetings, dearest readers
I'm a new writer, if I wrote something wrong, something inappropriate, feel free to criticise my writings, I do not mind.
So, as of late I have been obsessed with a series, a series from the company near Asok. This series has the vibe of written by gays, directed by gays, watched by gays. The common vernacular would call this type of series, "BL." From my experience of watching almost a hundred "BL" series, it feels weird to call it "BL," it doesn't fit the tropes of this genre, everything is so gay... I don't know. If I had to categorise it, I'd probably categorise it as "Queer Media." But after much thought, I came to the conclusion that the issue isn't how "BL" this series is but rather that BL is useless as a genre.
But my dear readers, before you bring the cancel caravan, I would like you to understand how I came to that conclusion. The story of this series focuses on the love life of queer people, 5 gay, 2 Lesbian, 1 Bi/Pan and 1 Trans. They each have varying levels of questionability, there is no puppy love, some characters are open to showing their sexual arousal, some do not commit to tradition relationships etc. I don't think this really fits the bill for BL, which I think sparked some controversy because some people believe that this series present people in the community negatively by presenting them as more sex-crazed than the rest of society.
Although this genre is already heavily criticised for not being able to present an accurate picture of queer people, but I believe that that criticism is valid because the definition of BL as a genre is so encompassing. Some BL may want to present the sex life of queer people (like this one), some wants to present the coming of terms with one's sexuality and coming of age, some may want to present a romance akin to post-evening news lakhons. We can see that the goal of each BL is so vastly different that we cannot expect the same representation of the community.
In the past, "BL" may be easy to group together, as they shared some clear common characteristics which is; developing from sexually explicit gay media made by women for women, usually set in an education institution, with plot centred around puppy love with some hints of sexually content (this is especially clear in print media). But in contemporary times, "BL" has moved away from those characteristics that the only thing most BL share is their same-sex male lead characters.
We should not expect the same kinds of queer representation from media with vastly different purpose of presentations. Imagine this situation, a film wants to present the life of a female spy, whilst another film is a documentary about the feminist movement, would you expect them to present women in the same way? Probably not, because these 2 films have 2 different aims when presenting women. We cannot set the same standard for all films, we have to look at the context behind each story to determine whether that representation is problematic or not.
I understand that queer representation in media is still limited, but policing which type of media presents queerness "correctly" is no different from defining what queer people can and can't do. Isn't placing all media with queer leads in the same genre actively countering the normalisation of queer people in media? We should stop expecting queer representation to fit to one's believes the same way we don't expect progressiveness from Christmas movies from Hallmark.
I understand that some portrayals of queer people is inappropriate (such as the "He isn't gay, he likes the main character") but BL has long progressed pass those tropes. The issue with queer media in Thailand isn't the representation but rather the culture associated with said media; the obsession with positions on the bed, the questionable support for the community by actors, the discrimination against actors in the community etc. Those are issues of media media in the present, rather than queer media not fitting what you, my dear readers envisioned.
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if i have permission to be a bit of a bitch in your inbox (feel free to ignore this if not), the dichotomy people build between bl and queer media is sooooo fascinating. and of course by that i mean it gives me hives. the universalizing of 'real queer experiences' is obnoxious as hell, but how its been applied to ofts has really shown me why i find it so obnoxious. most of the people who hold this dichotomy would never classify a bl that ignores homophobia as 'authentically queer' media. but i definitely saw people who hoped that the 'authentically queer' ofts would exist in a bubble without any slutshaming, or that it would be resolutely shut down in show. but in my aroallo experience? that would be as inauthentic as the no homophobia bubble, so where does that leave us?
also the circular logic in the bl vs queer media arguments is mind numbing. 'bl doesnt cover these types of themes' yeah dude because you forcibly remove everything with those themes from the bl category in your head. 'queer media must acknowledge homophobia' the idea that a story by queer people about queer characters isnt really queer because it chooses to focus on joy or discovery or any other facet of queer existence is so fucking depressing. go hug a queer friend and think about why you feel queerness is defined by suffering before anything else.
Oh, hey, you found my soap box, Anon! Let me just step on up there with you for a minute.
So, first off, let me just say how much I hate the term “authentically” queer. It seems to suggest that in order to be queer, you have to be queer a certain way. As an ultra femme lesbian, the queer community often makes me feel like I’m not queer enough. That I don’t understand the hardships that come with being gay because I am “straight-passing.” This is the same thing people do to BLs. News flash: if you’re queer, you’re queer. Period. Congratulations, that’s all it takes to be authentic!
I don’t think it’s a coincidence that a large percentage of the people I see using this designation are straight women who think that queer suffering is a necessary part of the queer experience, but a lot of “authentically queer” people—me included—don’t want to be reminded of our real-life suffering every time we turn on the TV. Heartstopper is triggering for me. Bad Buddy is not. As a queer woman currently living in Ron DeSantis’s Florida, I deserve to be able to turn on the TV every once in a while and not be reminded that there are people in the world who want me dead.
I’ve learned that when people describe a BL as “authentically queer,” what they actually mean is “This BL feels more Western”—the racist insinuation there being that Western media is inherently better.
I feel like The Eclipse is a good example of this hypocrisy. No one has ever called The Eclipse “authentically queer” despite the fact that it delivers one of the most nuanced takes on the dangers of systemic homophobia that I have seen anywhere. The writers of both the source material and the script are gay men. The director is queer. That seems to meet all of the qualifications these people set for “authentically queer” and yet no one has ever questioned that The Eclipse is a BL. Why? Because it incorporates traditionally Asian/yaoi humor tropes such as the pratfall and the accidental kiss.
Are you sensing a pattern? It’s not the queer-ness of a piece of media that determines whether it is seen as “authentic.” It is its “Western-ness.”
Let me be very clear: All BLs are “authentically queer” media because the only requirement needed for a piece of media to be “authentically” queer is for the characters to be queer. And if you don’t like that, then maybe stop watching BLs.
If the people who were producing these shows had a problem with the term, that would be another discussion, but they don’t. P’Jojo has never advertised Only Friends as anything other than a BL. The fandom did that for him. And with all due respect, if the people making the fucking thing are calling it a BL, then it’s a fucking BL.
So, yeah. Not liking BLs doesn’t make you cool. It makes you a bigot. The fact that the term has become so derogatory is rooted in both racism and misogyny because this was originally a genre created by women, for women, and the hobbies of women are so often infantilized.
BLs are queer media. Die mad about it.
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Pointing out inaccuracies in fanfics that don't need to be pointed out
I was craving some First Khaotung content so I decided to read some Eclipse fanfics on AO3. I found a couple that the central point of the story was Akk being expelled, and as someone who is working on child's rights, I can guarantee that that's impossible.
The ministry reformed their student punishment regulations in 2005 and the reforms ended corporal punishment and expulsion, the new regulations only had 4 states of punishment;
Verbal warning
Academic probation (best translation I found)
Behavioural score deduction
Activities aimed at changing behaviour
But obviously, this is Thailand we're talking about, so in practice students may be expelled. They do this by pressuring the students to sign the resignation papers, I've been told as much by my colleagues who work with students.
For the fanfics to be accurate, the author needed to write the principal character to threaten Akk to sign the papers.
The fit later goes into lengths about the university having an issue about younger students not respecting senior students, which is probably illegal (did not check, just gut feeling that it's against the law), also this is not a thing, unis have like 435000 (Ramkhamhaeng (Open Uni)) 37000 (Chula) 33000 (Thammasat), 32000 (Mahidol) students, it's impossible to care about mundane stuff like that.
I think the author was probably too inspired by SOTUS when writing the fanfic.
The fanfic was fun albeit unrealistic.
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Funfact; I was going through an Administrative Court ruling to fact check this post, I don't even know why I'm doing this.
The court ruling stated that
"For defendant 1 to terminate the student status of the plaintiff from defendant 1's school would be against the Ministry of Education regulations on the punishment of students 2005, therefore the [expulsion] is against the law"
(I translated this myself, if you can read Thai, go for it, it's on page 10)
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I think one of the most powerful messages from Only Friends is:
Down with branded pairs, up with messy chaos!
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THE MORNING AFTER: ONLY FRIENDS, EPISODE 12 -- WHEN ONLY FRIENDS GOT 2GETHER-ED
TRIGGER WARNING: EVERYONE'S UP FOR CRITICISM HERE, JOJO AND TEAM, FORCEBOOK, FIRSTKHAO, ALL OF THEM. Read at your peril.
Well. Big deep breaths. I spent a lot of time on a show that had been marketed as not-a-BL, that ended as a BL. As a mom with not that much time to spend on watching and writing on dramas that were marketed incorrectly, I am feeling some kinda way (fucking pissed off).
So many people had amazing takes yesterday, on both sides of the aisle, regarding how the show ended (pro-ending here, anti-ending here, here, here, here, here, and here, and my dear friends @neuroticbookworm and @lurkingshan did heavy lifting on reblogs yesterday, so stroll on over to their blogs for more).
I want to set up a constellation of points to touch upon before I get into the meat of this post.
1) I referred quite a bit to my review of Theory of Love throughout my watch of Only Friends. In that review, I meditate on how the majority of the general global public judges sex, and casual sex, and people who have sex and/or casual sex. Generally speaking -- even in countries that makes as progressive art on sex and sexuality as Thailand and the United States -- that's a rule of thumb that I can rely on. Sex is judged by the majority of the global public.
2) I hate to say it. I cannot believe this happened. But I was right about monogamy being an ultimate theme in Only Friends. Not just a theme, fam. A theme by which people judged others for having open, casual, and consensual sex. Queer sex. Queer sex that is so very often had outside of the constraints of a monogamous relationship.
There was a reason why that holiday party was populated by couples, except for Boston, and Boston had to grovel to them in apology for their friendship. In Only Friends: monogamy wins, and casual queer sex loses.
3) Unfortunately, in part though an analysis of Cheum inside of last week that I accidentally started (ha), I see that points 1 and 2 come together to have created a fabric and framework of judgement that Only Friends ended on.
The last paragraph in this excellent post by @benkaaoi notes that the assumption by a large portion of the OF fandom that the creative choices that were made to end this series were designed to save the sanctity -- economic and otherwise -- of the shipped pairs of ForceBook and FirstKhao. This rings true to me.
Most of the BL shows that I've watched this year are older shows, through my Old GMMTV Challenge, in which I've been studying the changes over time that GMMTV and other Thai networks, have made towards their editorial choices, attitudes, and risks in producing BLs. I included Only Friends on this syllabus to note the show's impact as a kind of zeitgeist measure of how much heat and literary controversy GMMTV could take in airing increasingly progressive queer media -- even though Only Friends wasn't originally intended to be a BL.
To the theory that Only Friends needed to save the ships... and to another theory that the ships needed to be saved in the most moralistically judgmental way that I could have ever imagined (I was actually blown away by how heavy-handed this messaging was) -- I look to the ending of 2gether.
The majority general reaction to the ending of 2gether from within the existing BL fandom in 2020, was one of guffawed incredulousness. BrightWin/SarawatTine did not kiss in the first season of 2gether. It took Aof Noppharnach to come in to make Still 2gether to indicate that these two young men may have been at least vaguely sexual with each other throughout the course of their fictional relationship.
Yet, 2gether was a massive success. Many theorize it was because 2gether was the first big BL to air during the start of the COVID pandemic, and new BL fans had time to be at home and watch shows. But I posit in my 2gether/Still 2gether review that 2gether was also successful PRECISELY BECAUSE IT LACKED SEX (and by sex here, I mean plain old kissin').
As I stated earlier: sex is judged by the majority of the global public. With BrightWin NOT kissing, new fans who may have been implicitly and/or explicitly turned off by physical depictions of queer love could glom comfortably onto 2gether, and watch a BL without the "threat" of physical depictions of two men expressing their love to each other.
Subsequently, BrightWin gained massive social media followings, 2gether made GMMTV buckets of money, and GMMTV went -- well, hot diggity.
Many of us had impressions of Only Friends as...something else than it ended up being. Early on, Jojo Tichakorn, for instance, cited an early non-GMMTV, non-BL show, Gay OK Bangkok, that he and Aof Noppharnach worked on in 2016 and 2017, as being referential to Only Friends. Gay OK Bangkok centered on a group of queer friends, mostly cisgender men with Jennie Panhan in the mix, as they lived their lives and dated away in Bangkok.
I'll tell ya, GOKB didn't end the way Only Friends did, and I'll get into that more in a bit. I believe @benkaaoi, @lurkingshan, and others are absolutely right that the ultimate moralization on casual sex that this show depicted -- and how Only Friends punished Boston for his casual sex -- was an economic decision designed to reflect on the sanctity of monogamy that shipped couples like ForceBook and FirstKhao can sell back to their fans, fans that may have actually flocked to GMMTV shows from 2gether, and that demand a fantasy of devoted monogamy from both fictional characters and professional actors who are actually only just doing fan service to earn their livings. GMMTV has known for a long time how to make money, and money the network doth has made from Only Friends, and from shipping their ships around the world to service the growing fandom.
Casual sex in fiction, casual sex that breaks up the ships.... fucks that economic shit all up.
GMMTV has taught us our lesson, a lesson that we had already learned from the no-kissing rule of 2gether. Loose lips shall not sink ships at this network. And I think we lost a chance for a big and progressively artistic zeitgeist that GMMTV could have taken risks on, if it had the courage to risk depicting something truly novel.
I want to note quickly another framework that I dug into while I was watching this show. I sent a flare to @lurkingshan before I started watching the episode that I was going to, in part, watch this last episode from my personal Asian lens. I wanted to ask myself, as I was watching this disaster -- is there anything happening here that strikes my heart with fear and doom as an Asian?
Indeed, yes. I didn't expect it, but there was a dialogue on individualism vs. collectivism.
Boston. My dear, sweet Boston. Boston, named after a city so very distant from Bangkok.
Boston was punished by his group of friends because he didn't adhere to the rules of the group. His individualistic actions and preferences -- his preferences to "roll alone," as Nick stated, would not work in the frameworks of either monogamy with Nick and/or the group dynamics of the hostel crew.
The link I linked above is an amazing answer to an inquiry I posed to dear @absolutebl last year about how Asian social collectivist paradigms are depicted in BLs. In that question-and-answer dialogue, I asked ABL Sensei about the motif of queer revelations in BLs, and how seemingly straight characters respond in kind to being approached with a proposition to a queer dalliance and/or relationship. Generally speaking, the Asian collectivist mindset is to at least attempt to respond in kind to those kinds of propositions, as one's behavioral habits are designed to be responsive to others instinctually, as opposed to only servicing oneself. To only service oneself is not only seen as selfish, but also as disturbing to the general flow of public existence among one's societies. To respond in kind means that you will not cause potentially disturbing angst to another individual or group. (Collectivism explains why Asian countries performed much better with mask mandates during the pandemic than we in the States did.)
So -- Boston filming Ray, Boston sleeping with Top, created waves in the friend group. He was so severely punished for it.
And the show iterates, and repeats, Nick's preference that Boston move forward alone in Boston's life, because of Boston's tendencies to make decisions that suit himself. As an Asian-American, I mutter to myself: god forbid.
Nick will not commit to Boston -- and yet, will also condemn Boston for making his own decisions outside of the specter of a monogamy that does not exist between Nick and Boston, and that Boston will still get judged for, as referenced in the Sand/Nick conversation depicted above.
In other words: if Boston makes a decision for himself? That's punishable. Because it might hurt someone else's feelings -- a someone else that actually hasn't committed to Boston, and/or allowed Boston to commit himself to.
This group caught Boston in a moralistic and collectivist catch-22, the likes of which I just would have never expected from Jojo and team, even if the creative team faced the economic pressures of the GMMTV bigwigs. I'm sorry to state that I am beyond disappointed in this condemnation of individualism, sending Boston alone, judged, and friendless, off to New York City to live in, what, the immoral boundaries of Chelsea? Homey, get a fucking SWEET-ASS PAD, and FUCK THESE LOSERS, leave 'em BEHIND in your cloud of airplane gas emissions. See you at the La Quinta rooftop bar on 32nd Street, friendo.
Only Friends could have ended so much better. And I understand that in the Only Friends novel, published AFTER the script was finished, that it did end somewhat better for Boston (cc @jinitak, reporting from Thailand, thank you for this heads-up about the novel!).
So. Any-fucking-way. Do y'all know how Gay OK Bangkok ended?
Of many lovely endings for the various GOKB characters, an older main character, Aof, was dating a much younger character, Big. (CC to @neuroticbookworm for our quick convo on this last night.)
Aof was sex-averse. Big wanted lots of sex. Big slept with a lot of people. He loved Aof. Aof couldn't handle Big having sex with other people, and they broke up. It was a lovingly handled break-up, written just gorgeously by Aof Noppharnach.
After their break-up, I thought Big would disappear from the show. Instead. Instead! Nong Big, the little brother to the core group of queer friends that centered GOKB, was welcomed back with open arms. Arm, Pom, Sathang (played by an effervescent Jennie Panhan), and others toasted to Big, telling him he would always be family, no matter if him and his ex, Aof, had broken up. In the queer circles of friends that I'm a part of, exes are not as commonly excommunicated as they are in straight circles.
Only Friends could have been this. Something, a little something, like this.
Instead, Only Friends punished a friend for acting outside of the rules of their group.
Boston was punished because.... because Only Friends had to end up being a BL. For the sake of the moolah, for the sake of collectivism, for the sake of the shippers who'll buy tickets around the world to see ForceBook and FirstKhao perform fan service on stage.
I just didn't think that the show would be so brutal, on so many levels, in the end, to people who want to have casual sex. I don't think any of us expected this. But, it's over, it's done, and the piece has been said -- GMMTV said, no casual sex today, and here's how we actually feel about it.
I'll see you over on Gagaoolala for Playboyy. Deuces, OF.
(It was an absolute pleasure writing meta with the Ephemerality Squad -- onto the next one! @lurkingshan @neuroticbookworm @ranchthoughts @twig-tea @slayerkitty @thatgirl4815 @distant-screaming @clara-maybe-ontheroad)
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I’m cracking up at people getting mad at Sand for not drawing better boundaries with Boeing. We have seen for 11 weeks now that Sand can’t draw a boundary to save his life. I guess folks thought Ray was special in this way? But nah, as Sand’s mom said, this is simply how he is. Once he cares about someone he has no ability to resist giving them what they want and trying to care for them even if he gets nothing in return.
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Something I find randomly funny is how good the showing instead of telling can sometimes be in Only Friends. Like, yeah, you know Nick's the IT guy because it's said. But you also know he's the IT guy, because he was smart enough to creep on Top's IG using a computer so he didn't accidentally like a photo, while Mew wasn't.
Mew accidentally liking Boeing's photo was such a painfully relatable moment.
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I really wish they translate the Only Friends novel
FYI: This has spoilers for the novel
So, some context, the novel was written after the script was finished and the author said that they rewrote part of the story to fix holes and issues, so the novel may give out a different subtext to the series.
For example, Top was portrayed more as a player in the early parts of his relationship with Mew, Boston's dad is portrayed as a progressive politician standing up for the common people, the Boston's scandal was more a "this country is stupid that having a son that has a gay sex life is wrong" rather than what's presented in the series.
Okay, so what I'm getting at here is that the novel ending is different, Boston is not just thrown away, he reconciled with the group, he gets an ending that is more deserving than in the series.
I think this is because the author had time to rethink parts through and correct any issues which makes the novel a better version of the story in my opinion. And I want non Thais to be able to experience this as well, which is why I want them to translate the novel.
Also side note; Mew's insecurity in dating in the novel also stemmed from his mother, one is a comparative literature professor and the other a SEA Write award (an important prize of literature here) writer, so his insecurity comes from people recognising him as the son of the SEA Write writer rather than someone he truly is, which makes my heart warms a bit, I don't know why
But yeah, I want them to translate the novel so bad
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I saw a post saying “but the music festival trip was Sand and Ray’s thing!”
It literly isn’t! Like it’s a Sand thing. It is his dream and he would love to experience it with someone who he loves. (Ray is also in no way a replacement for Boeing)
When Sand tells Ray about his dream, Ray asked permission to join (Episode 9 4/4)
People forget that this is not a first time love situation. Sand was a whole person before Ray and has had relationships before.
Ray is literally inviting himself for Sands dream. As it gives him something to look forward to and establish a sense that they are going to be together indefinite. But the Music festivals are not Rays dream, he even said “I don’t care about the bands as long as you are there.”
A lot of bls are first love or first relationship, having a innocent tint of them to have ‘never have done this before with anyone’. But Only Friends is not that, they have had relationships, sex, trauma and drama before.
Ya’ll wanted messy gays and now that we have them, you’re still not happy?
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WARNING: SEPARATING THE ACTOR FROM THE ACTING/CHARACTER. IF YOU CAN’T HANDLE THAT THEN SCROLL ALONG
Okay now i love Khaotung as much as the next person, but Ray is the biggest red flag and it’s gotten to the point where I can’t defend him any more. I have to admit that I was partially blinded by Khao and dismissed some of Ray’s behaviour because of Khao, but not anymore.
I think something that sums up Ray’s character very well is the fact that he treats people the way he treats alcohol, and money. This is especially true for his behaviour towards Sand. We know that Ray still likes Mew. Prior to the end of episode 7, Mew would always shut down Ray’s advances and scold him for his addiction. Mew even stopped being Ray’s emergency contact because he has seen Ray grapple with his addiction for so long, to the point where he’s tired of it. But then Sand comes along, someone who is giving Ray all this attention even while they’re strangers. Sand gives Ray so much attention that he becomes his new emergency contact. Any stable person, who is emotionally available, would have already been in a relationship with a person like Sand by this point. But Ray isn’t stable or emotionally available. He’s a ticking time bomb. So Sand being so attentive and easily giving into Ray results in him being disposable, just like alcohol and money. Notice how Ray always starts drinking heavily when things upset him or don’t go his way; like when Top was first introduced to the friend group and started flirting with Mew at P’Yo’s bar. He also throws money at whatever he wants, especially when he’s rejected the first time, like when he wanted Sand to be his drinking buddy and started upping the price when Sand started walking away.
So when he can’t get what he wants from Mew, he starts messing with Sand to fill that space. He knows that Sand will always just give in to him so he treats him however he pleases. He even calls Sand a wh0re and offers to pay him, even though Sand has told Ray it’s not like that countless times before. He does not care about Sand’s feelings at all. He couldn’t even say sorry for his harsh words when they were at the hospital, yet Sand apologizes for giving him the audio clip!!!
In fact, Sand is so disposable to Ray that when the opportunity presents itself, Ray snatches it up with ease. He was so pleased to hear that Top and Mew broke up. Someone on tiktok even pointed out how Ray immediately started a fight when Top came over to the hostel. He does not want there to be any chance of them getting back together, because then he wouldn’t be Mew’s rebound any longer (and he knows he’s a rebound and I think he’s even proud of it).
I see people saying that they hope this MewRay rebound situation will lead Ray to come to a realization about his feelings for Sand. But I say, fuck Ray and his realization! Because Ray is functioning on E, there’s no need for him to be with anyone for a long time. He needs therapy and rehab. And next week’s episode is going to be a testament to this, as even though Ray ends up with his so-called beloved Mew he is still a ticking time bomb. He’s even turning Mew into one and still bothering Sand while he’s trying to move on from him. I am no longer rooting for any couple besides the lesbians and P’Yo
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Look people I don't care if it's unhealthy or whatever. I will be needing Ray to grow an unhealthy uncontrollable lifetime obsession with Sand (he wouldn't mind) because my baby deserves that. Sand deserves to have a man not just head over heels insane for him, but on the verge of attic husbanding him (the only thing stopping Ray would be the force that is his crazy mother-in-law lol).
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This scene is lowkey kinda sad ngl
(This post is a rant)
Context: Thai law still doesn't recognise same-sex marriage, legal gender change, LGBTQIA+ people still don't have the same rights as cisgender heterosexual people.
This scene really resonates with me, the latest attempt at trying to amend the civil code to enshrine marriage equality via court ruling was done by a lesbian couple in 2019.
The fact that we're still fighting for marriage equality here probably is a testament to how conservative the Thai ruling class is. In their decision, the court argues that
Marriage is a union for reproduction
-By this logic, people who were castrated or women on birth control should not be able to marry but alas they can. It's not a valid point.
Marriage equality would be a burden to heterosexual couples due to paperwork for welfare and other services
-It's not the fucking job of the court to decide that.
Marriage equality would lead LGBTQIA+ people to marry for the welfare (?)
-Marrying for welfare is already illegal
Civil Partnership bill has already been introduced
-It doesn't give equal rights to LGBTQIA+ couples.
BTW, I was mad in a mall that day reading the ruling, they were so fucking homophobic, it's hate speech. They had shit like only men and women in the world, LGBTQIA+ people are unnatural, that kind of bullshit.
This makes me sad and mad in a way, my mind while watching wandered off and thought about how his mothers would be able to see each other if they were to get admitted to a hospital, how will they be able to build a life together if they couldn't get a mortgage or other types of loans, how would their welfare benefits work, etc.
It angers me that 9 old near dead people who could've decided that people like Mew's mothers could be able to live a life with as much rights and dignity as their heterosexual counterparts but they decided to spew shit from their mouths that is so disgusting, they should not be able to talk again.
Every time I see this kind of scenes it gives me hope that LGBTQIA+ relationships that are not just 2 young men in love would be shed a light on but on the other hand it angers and sadden me to the tenth degree that Thai society still doesn't have a place for them.
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Fun fact about the poem Yai is reciting
Note: I could not find a translation of the poem so everything is translated amateurishly by me
As people wanted to know, the poem came from Nirat Phukhao Thong (Voyage to the Golden Mount), one important work of great poet Sunthon Phu back in the 1800s.
The poem he is reciting is this verse,
ไม่เมาเหล้าแล้วแต่เรายังเมารัก
สุดจะหักห้ามจิตคิดไฉน
ถึงเมาเหล้าเช้าสายก็หายไป
แต่เมาใจนี้ประจำทุกค่ำคืน ฯ
Roughly translated as follows;
Even though I am not drunken by alcohol, I am drunken by love.
It is very difficult to stop my heart from wandering.
Drunken by alcohol goes away by late morning the next day,
But drunken in the heart is recurring every night.
My translation is probably subpar, but it gets the point across.
The historical context behind this is that Phu is travelling to the golden mount in Ayutthaya (Don't get confused with the Golden Mount in Bangkok). He was travelling from the south of Bangkok and he passed a distillery and he commented on drunkenness by love. All of this was written when he was a monk by the way. The genre of poem he is writing, Nirat is poems about voyage, usually filled to the brim with love from a man to a woman he left behind and people excuse that even if the author is a monk.
The interesting part is about Sunthon Phu's life, he was a monk at the time because he was good friends with the previous king but he embarrassed the king's son and after the previous king died, the son got to be king. Phu, not really getting along with him, decided to be ordained to avoid any persecution from him.
In this poem he wrote many verses on how much he yearned for the previous reign. He did not really enjoy the life of monkshood. Sujit Wongthes (I'm his fan, bear with me) basically summarised Sunthon Phu as an 19th century celebrity, he had girls lining up to be his wife. He probably did not enjoy the life of a monk which is probably bland for him.
Another thing of note is about the metre of the poem, Sunthon Phu is known for his skills as a Klon writer, he is known for writing Klon 8 (Klon with 8 syllables per verse) very craft fully and you can see that in the poem.
First we need to understand the structure of a typical Klon 8. The typical Klon 8 has 4 verses per stanza with each verse having 7-9 syllables, the syllables have to rhyme in this set scheme as follows,
Note: This diagram is arranged the traditional way Thai poems are written, 2 verses per line.
Sunthon Phu's style is known for using exactly 8 syllables per verse and has a lot of rhyming within each verse as demonstrated below
Note: This diagram is arranged with each verse being on a different line
This section of the poem is probably not the best part to show that he uses exactly 8 syllables, so please trust me on this one.
Note: This diagram is arranged with each verse being on a different line
But this section really showcases the amount of inner verse rhyming, in this 34 word section, he managed to put 11 rhymes into it, quite impressive
This concludes my TEDtalk on Sunthon Phu, I wanted to talk about this more but I am too tired. I will work on the historical context behind the series post soon.
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