#be my favourite meta | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

stuffnonsenseandotherthings · 9 months

Text

Be My Favourite is Queering More than Just the Love Story.

I wrote here about how, at the start of the show, Be My Favourite queers the straight narrative by taking a heteronormative romance plotline (Kawi pining after Pear for years and using travel to Get The Girl) and transforming into a queer love story (in which Kawi falls in love with his love revival).

Now I thought once Kawi and Pisaeng got together that would be us done with the Queering of the Narrative but it seems like this show still has more to give, albeit in a much more subtle way: Be My Favourite now seems to be Queering the lens and structure of the show itself.

We have spent the entirety of Be My Favourite experiencing the story from Kawi's perspective. Yes, we occasionally get glimpses into Pisaeng's or Pear's point of view but Kawi is the character throughout which we, the audience, understand and process the majority of the narrative and is, as such, the defacto protagonist, our lens into the show.

In most "standard" single-lead stories we stay with the same protagonist, the same audience lens, throughout the entirety of the narrative, right up until the very end. After all, why leave a character we have grown to know and understand in the penultimate act? This is the "expected" structure, the "accepted" structure, the (hetero)normative structure.

Not in Be My Favourite however.

In episode 11 our perspective suddenly changes. As soon as the camera follows Pisaeng out of the door at 7:30 instead of staying the the sick Kawi, the audience lens shifts and the roles are reversed: Pisaeng is now the protagonist, the lens through which the audience understands and experiences the narrative, while Kawi, who up until this point has been the centre of our experience as the audience, is suddenly relegated to the "secondary" role of the love interest. The audience lens has been flipped on it's head.

So how exactly is this queering? Well, the queering of a text can take many forms but it's primary function is to challenge and, where possible, deviate from the "accepted", "standard", (hetero)normative structures and this includes the in the very structure of the narrative itself. Just as Be My Favourite queers and escapes the restrictive narrative boundaries of the straight love story by having Kawi fall for his love rival, it is now queering and escaping the restrictive boundaries of the narrative structure itself and challenging the idea of how the story "should be told". Why should Be My Favourite stick to the set (and historically heteronormative) binary of "Protagonist/Love Interest"? Why must the characters be defined by arbitrarily assigned labels? Why shouldn't the character roles be fluid and changeable? Why must things stay the way they have always been?

Be My Favourite says screw "normal" right down to it's very heart and I think that's pretty darn cool.

#thai bl #be my favorite #be my favourite the series #be my favourite episode 11 #be my favourite meta #what I also love is that the shift is done so well it doesnt feel weird or jarring #it works perfectly #partly because of the Pisaeng POV flashbacks we've been fed throughout the show #kawi x pisaeng #kawi #pisaeng #who said my degree was useless?

84 notes · View notes

waitmyturtles · 9 months

Text

Alright, omg -- really excited to write this, really excited to build off of some excellent thoughts from the family, particularly @bengiyo and @lurkingshan -- @bengiyo, you verbalized some questions I had about the timeline we were watching in 2/2, so I'll ask them again here. Be My Favorite, the dreaded episode 11, let's do this:

First off, I LOVED THIS EPISODE, despite the many open threads we have going on. What else would I expect from a GMMTV penultimate episode otherwise?

The poem scene -- Pear reading UCHANEE's "Khop Fa Khlip Thong" (we are SO lucky that the show creators cited the poem at the end of the episode), overlaid with Pisaeng and Kawi in their intimacy -- gorgeous. @placetneplacet's post here depicts this overlay beautifully.

I also think we got a lot of hints about the structure (cc @lurkingshan, structure-ish, ha) of this episode from the conversation between Pear's dad and Pisaeng's mom at the start of the episode. Through that conversation, and from the conversation revealed between Loong Crystal Ball and Kawi, we see and hear: that much of life is about leaving life alone to let it process and simmer as time goes on. Loong Crystal Ball gave Kawi the ability to right his wrongs, as he said in his own words -- but also, he chides Kawi to say, listen, a lot of life is about luck. There are things you can't change. Let it go, let it simmer.

Between the conversation with the parents, the conversation with Loong Crystal Ball, and then, then -- Pisaeng being refused medical information at the hospital, and Pisaeng's anger at Kawi's condition -- I take this episode to be partly about acceptance of a present the way it is, the way the present presents itself. That moral, that reality, about accepting things as the way they are, is a huge theme to this story. Pear's dad and Pisaeng's mom have got to accept that the loves that their children have found are the loves that these parents will need to accept. That, mom and dad, is a part of the life of a parent. In the end, you can't control EVERYTHING about the lives of your children.

And of course, the competing theme to an acceptance theme is: how do you change the present? How can you change HOW the present presents? How can you make the present for yourself -- and even for others -- a BETTER present?

It's not just Kawi's condition that serves as a metaphor here. We know Pisaeng will go to the past to begin addressing this in episode 12. We'll find out if Pisaeng can impact Kawi's health.

BUT, ALSO, VERY IMPORTANTLY: we also see commentary about LGBTQ+ rights here -- and how LGBTQ+ rights have MUCH improvement to do, despite Thailand's progressiveness (remember that same-sex marriage is still illegal in Thailand!).

Based on the timeline presented in 2/4, we can assume that we are in 2024 when Kawi is in the hospital. And Pisaeng is being refused by the doctor to receive sensitive health information about Kawi. Pisaeng is not considered to be Kawi's family -- in 2024 Thailand. Clearly, that's something that needs to be changed -- along with Pisaeng's micro-level desire to keep Kawi from getting sick, which we know may be an impossible task, as we learned from Kawi's dad.

As this episode started, I couldn't help but think back to the lessons we learned early in the series about truth and the philosophy of truth, from Nietzsche, from Einstein, from Orwell. I was thinking, we gotta harken back to some of those lessons -- and certainly, I think this episode touched upon this, specifically from the dystopian viewpoint that despite the excellent work in moving LGBTQ+ rights forward by people like Max, that Thailand is still held back by generations of cultural convention against equality. "On Truth and Lies in a Non-Moral Sense," indeed.

But to me, this episode also touched upon something far more simplistic, and I think I'm convinced about it by what we saw with all the parents in this episode -- Pear's dad, Pisaeng's mom, Pear's mom, and the glimpse of Kawi's dad. And as well, I'm thinking about the following vis à vis the seven-year timeline we saw with Pisaeng's and Kawi's relationship:

The work of being in a relationship, as Pear's dad said in episode 10, involves compromise and forgiveness. A relationship is like waves to a shore. The water moves forward, goes back, gets high in the tide, gets low in the tide. A relationship is akin to a living, breathing thing. It takes energy to tend to it. Two people need to go back and forth, forward and backwards, to tend to it, to help it grow. We see Pisaeng and Kawi very simply compromising on their sleeping habits by using two comforters in bed, for instance.

They're happy, certainly, but.... as @bengiyo mentioned, in this particular seven-year timeline, there's something going on. Kawi keeps eating, and is sitting at home, seemingly not working, or working as a freelancer -- and we don't know what's up with that, as the most recent alternate timeline had him working as a singer.

I'm gonna posit a clown theory that builds off of @lurkingshan's questions about what exactly is happening here.

I don't trust the trailer of episode 12, but I will go ahead and (probably inaccurately) predict that BOTH Pisaeng and Kawi will be living in back-in-time timelines. And in the confusing process of all of that, what lesson they might learn is -- this may very well be an INEFFICIENT way of managing their relationship. Because -- they could be doing that work of improving their relationship in the damn present, without the damn crystal ball, like the rest of us schmucks in real life who are dealing with hubbies and wifeys and all our partners in-between (it's been a long week with my temperamental toddler, LOL, tired mom here).

In other words: whether you have a crystal ball or not, whether you have the ability to go back and fix your past, your responsibility, when you are partnered with your love in a relationship, is to tend to the relationship. Present, past, future, whatever: you need to care for the relationship as lovingly as you love your partner, because that union will be what takes you through your life, when you find that loving partner.

I believe this was the message that Max was giving Kawi in episode 10 regarding sex, which is why I don't follow the theory of Kawi being ace. I believe what Max was saying was, a relationship needs equal engagement and balance, and compromise, and a curiosity about exploring oneself for the sake of your partner, and vice versa. I believe the end of the intimacy scene in episode 11 indicates that Kawi is not ace, but was hesitant about the unknown regarding sex (cc @grapejuicegay on the unknown, as ever!).

I know the narrative structure was a touch bouncy, and I will give all big ups to my dear friend @lurkingshan, because I agree with you that the structure of what the show is carrying at the moment is delicate at best. It needs some scaffolding. But, for my tastes, the EMPATHY of this show, and particularly of this episode -- the empathy that this show is about to hand to Pisaeng, to start doing the damn work for the relationship that Kawi's been doing for the past few episodes -- is carrying me. I think this show continues to be fabulous. And I'm really moved by the messages of the equity of love, and the importance it's placing on how love is work, love is the truth here, and how all of this is being treated lovingly, equally, and with compassion. I'm all for it.

P.S. I think Krist and Gawin are better than ever in this episode. Gawin is SLAYING. I appreciate Krist's acting work in the intimacy arena. Both of them are killing it.

(CCing the BMF fam for y'alls thoughts, in addition to Ben and Shan: @grapejuicegay, @crowie, @dribs-and-drabbles, @chickenstrangers, @rocketturtle4, @shortpplfedup and apologies to anyone I missed!)

#be my favorite #be my favourite #be my favorite meta #be my favourite meta #be my favourite the series #be my favorite the series #krist perawat #gawin caskey #kristgawin #kawi x pisaeng #pisaeng x kawi

98 notes · View notes

morathicain · 9 months

Text

Okay, so ep 10 of Be My Favourite has left me ... frustrated? Talked a lot to my friend @ommited-miscellaneously about the way Kawi’s character seems to have switched and how uncomfortable the dynamic between them was and how weird some decisions were (like the mom, like ?????????). Is he ace coded? After some consideration, I doubt it. I rather like the theory (of @shouldiusemyname ) of him being an observer who isn’t used to be an active participant but also going in blind.

But regardless if it’s one of the two or the good old “one of them needs to be pushy and the other needs to play coy to the point of seeming repulsed”, it was done badly in my opinion. Like, a lot of people seem to think them sleeping together in the end was romantic and a sign of Kawi realising he actually likes to do all of that with Pisaeng, but it made me highly uncomfortable. Pisaeng had been trying to get any sign of affection from his boyfriend this last episode and Kawi has reacted repulsed to the smallest touches. Could it have been the nerves? Sure, but it’s still not a cool move, dude. Did his avoidance of actually telling Pisaeng what had been bothering him and instead saying he “ENJOYED” himself this day despite clearly been aggressive and rejective the whole day sit wrong with me? Definitely. Like, sorry, but this treats Pisaeng as if he’s dumb and can’t see when someone actually has a bad time? There was a chance for communication and it wasn’t used at all. Instead, they instantly jump to the sex!!

Which was the next ... uncomfortable thing. Like, they haven’t had a sober kiss yet. And Kawi clearly doesn’t feel ready. Why the fuck, do they need to jump to sex instantly, without proper communication, when they haven’t even had a sober kiss? Why couldn’t they have a talk so Pisaeng understands and they then can proceed to like ... watch a movie and cuddle, hold hands and share a first tentative kiss? This felt so rushed and I’d only accept it if it’s going to explode into their faces next episode.

Also, I was getting BohnDuen flashbacks. Of course, Kawi isn’t as bad as Duen, but the way he treats Pisaeng’s simple wish to spend time with his boyfriend and thinks Pisaeng wants to jump him all the time, wasn’t sitting right with me. Most of the episode he was an outright asshole to him while Pisaeng was so desperately pushy. Yes, the nerves but DAMN, that’s what the offer for communication at the end has been for! Like, I can accept a lot of reasons for him being overwhelmed but it still stands that Kawi didn’t use the chance to communicate his struggles and he should have grown enough as a person till now to use that. And if he doesn’t, on purpose, then this show suddenly gets deeper and less wholesome and light than it was during the past episodes. And to me, it rather felt like a checkmark.

Somehow, this kiss felt also less natural and comfortable as the two drunk kisses they have shared before. Yes, the nerves, but I’d argue that the circumstances made it feel different. In those two kisses before we’ve seen Kawi communicate a clear need and wish to be close to Pisaeng and initiate the kisses (hell, him being unable not to play with Pisaeng’s hair in the first one was adorable AF and exactly the vibe I would have wished for their first time - let me see that he enjoys it!) and nothing of that need or his crush on Pisaeng has been shown in this episode?

We know that Pisaeng has been going to the future, too, we just don’t know since when and how often and what he’s learned. But if they need to constantly travel through time and their relationship STILL raises my hackles like that ... maybe they shouldn’t be together at all? Really, this episode it sometimes felt as if Kawi isn’t really interested in a romantic relationship with Pisaeng at all or that he never thought beyond “getting together for the greater good”. It leaves me baffled after all those episodes before which were well done and a lot of fun and I wonder if something changed/if the problems were here all along/if the writers actually have a magic trick up their sleeves that will make it all make sense and be good????

So yeah, my thoughts on this are complicated and I’ve spend a good portion of last night trying to put my finger on why both of their behaviour felt so wrong to me (yes, Pisaeng’s, too - it felt almost mindlessly pushy???). In the end we have to wait and see ^^°

As an extra, things that would have made it better in MY opinion:

more time between Pisaeng confessing and Kawi realising his own feelings, maybe with Pisaeng actually exploring his sexuality more and having boyfriends (he’d know better what he wants and Kawi could maybe observe what a relationship with Pisaeng might look like and also what he wants from his relationship with Pisaeng?)

them having an actual talk about what they want and need and their fears

them NOT jumping to sex instantly but also NOT avoiding any other form of intimacy (and IF Kawi has intimacy issues then PLEASE talk about that!)

have Kawi initiate cute moments in between too, let us see his need to be close to Pisaeng and be supportive (and not only have him promise it in a call with Pisaeng’s horrible mom - no I won’t forgive her being homophobic and distant 99% of the show just to have a last second switch) despite being a bit overwhelmed and nervous

Have Pisaeng NOT pretend as if he’s had a horrible fight with his mom to come and be with Kawi, this was stupid and not in character all along, wtf guys?

Have them break up and I mean this seriously - I was so uncomfortable during this episode and the fact that they didn’t properly talk made me think that if this goes on (or would go on irl because the show might just behave as if everything is fine next episode) they are doomed. If they don’t find a way to properly communicate their needs and limits, they’ll get stuck in the worst relationship, thinking this is the only way to make sure the world is happy? Thanks, I hate it.

Anyway, I wrote a quick breakup scene here and will now wait and see what next week brings. It might be the build up for the angst in episode 11 as always but I currently have a hard time believing that they’ll handle the topic properly and well enough for me to want them still together in the end (pls prove me wrong pls prove me wrong pls prove me wrong) and that would be a damn shame because the show has been fun and cute so far. But we’ll see ...

So far thank you @ everyone who read till now. No hate please, this is MY opinion and you can have another. I’d rather be convinced that my view is too unjust but I’ll only accept friendly discussions. Rude comments will be blocked. Thank you! <3

#Be my favourite #be my favourite meta #bmf #pisaengkawi #no I didn't like episode 10 #proceed carefully #criticism #couldn't even include everything I didn't like #talks about sexuality #and boundaries

31 notes · View notes

marbles290 · 9 months

Text

Ok I’m adding to this Episode 12 as I go along BARE WITH ME this will be long

The way we get answers the 1st MINUTE of the new episode love that for us. We now know he is a songwriter. I believe I said it somewhere that the reason Kawi wasn’t singing is because of privacy and some other factors

Also I love how you can tell when Pisaeng has something on his mind because he just stay quiet and stares

It’s such a good conversation because now Pisaeng feels like there relationship is the reason he didn’t sing with the record label

WHY ARE THEY SO CUTE Just staring at each other

I knew that’s what he was going to say but now it’s loaded he is not only talking about kawi getting sick but his career as well . Pisaeng thinks he/their relationship is the reason Kawi won’t become a idol . If they break up kawi probably not around Pisaeng to get sick and he will be a idol

He said it I mean WE BEEN KNEW but to hear him say it 😭😭😭

Like I said in my other post Pisaeng had to learn that somethings he can’t change. They realize that if they hold hands they can get through it together. It’s rough to think about but kawi learned that from his father and now Pisaeng learned it. You can’t or maybe you don’t want to change anything. Even IF Kawi died they had so many beautiful years together

Also they look GOODT together (and max ofc)

The fact they was so wrapped up in each other they didn’t even realize he was there. It just shows Pisaeng was the right choice the WHOLE Time

I will close this by saying this will be a top bl of 2023 to me . Was it flawless No but the plot the script the actors just A+. Ngl GMMTV has not been pulling me in since ATOTS this show was not only a breath of fresh air but also well thought out. I gotta give it to GawinKrist there chemistry was off the charts and I know it surprised so many ppl including myself . They both are amazing actors and deserve nothing but praise. So happy Gawin got his lead role.

The themes that was touched on here was beautiful to watch and things ppl need to hear and see be represented

#thai bl #be my favorite #gawinkrist #be my favorite series #be my favourite meta #be my favourite the series #be my favorite the series finale #kawi x pisaeng #I’m going to go cry now

15 notes · View notes

poorly-drawn-mdzs · 7 months

Note

I ABSOLUTELY ADORE YOUR SQQ HE LOOKS SO FUCKINH DONE WITH LIFE

The recipe for SQQ is: calm on the outside, screaming on the inside.

#poorly drawn svsss #svsss #shen qingqiu #ask #No joke I'm pretty sure he is my favourite 'guy gets transporte'd to another world' character #I recently rewatched the (sadly never to be continued) animated version of SVSSS and I cant get over how perfect he is for the role #He is *so* done with everything going on around him. Forced to be calm and mean. Born to scream and be kind.#The gap between the internal and external dialogue is one of my fav character/writing quirks.#The personification of the 'he lied' dialogue tag.#Love how deep the SVSSS meta and literary analysis community gets with him. Piosplayhouse has opened my eyes to trans SQQ #what is the system is *not* a metaphor for pressure to adhere to societal norms of gender and sexuality?#I really need to finish the books...that is probably my biggest burning hole in my 'DNF' pile. I liked it! I just got busy.

1K notes · View notes

starflungwaddledee · 1 month

Text

he does this every single year 🍰🎉

#meta knight #king dedede #kirby #bandana waddle dee #starstruck dee #metadede #<- kind of? i guess it's implied but just in case bc i know some people like to avoid #sorry i am running late but i didn't forget him i promise!!!! happy birthday to my favourite blueberry #kirby and starstruck used their FAVOURITE confetti because they LOVE him but he isn't even going to eat it?!?!? smh... 🥺🥺🥺#the caption was originally additional dialogue! it was starstruck worrying that he didn't like their gifts followed by #kirby saying “no it's fine he does this EVERY year.” i'm sure he'll eat them later; confetti not withstanding.#my art #my comics

515 notes · View notes

karvviie · 9 months

Text

i am so delusional about them

#they’re my second favourite pair after grimmons #mainewash #agent washington #agent maine #the meta #rvb #red vs blue

2K notes · View notes

heretherebedork · 9 months

Text

Oh, the pain of this scene and the reality behind it, the difference between boyfriend and husband, between sharing a life together and being able to legally bind yourselves together. The agony of knowing that you are literally everything he has and that it is not enough to let you help him.

This is why we need legalized marriage for everyone, this is why the legalities matter, this is why we fight for what we can because it matters in the end, it matters so, so much.

Piseang can do nothing because there is nothing legally tying them together and there is nothing to do. He cannot fight this. He cannot love Kawi enough to overcome this.

Love is not enough. Love does not give him the rights he does not have, does not cut through red tape, does not open doors. Love may light his life and love may be beautiful and love may move mountains but love cannot make the choices he needs to make.

Love cannot make a medical decision or give him permission to stay with Kawi. Love cannot open the doors or let him sign the paperwork. Love cannot do anything. Love is not enough. The freedom to love is not enough.

662 notes · View notes

adh-d2 · 2 months

Text

If there's one thing The Bad Batch nails every time, it's a dramatically lit face-off:

The animation on this show is just goddamn stunning.

#Hunter v Cad Bane is my personal favourite #The way the little dust motes float around them #ugh 😭#the animators deserve all the awards #the bad batch #sw tbb #star wars animation #the bad batch spoilers #tbb spoilers #the bad batch season 3 spoilers #tbb season 3 spoilers #tbb meta #the bad batch meta #tbb s1e8 #tbb s3e4 #tbb s3e7 #my content

289 notes · View notes

pokimoko · 7 months

Text

The fact that Main-verse Ooo is as good and as kind as it is (relative to the other universes shown so far, at least, it's obviously not perfect) all because of the same character that starts off as the OG series' antagonist, the person we were made to see as the bad guy (albeit an often ineffectual one) for several seasons, is making me lose my mind.

Imagine finding out the guy you spent your childhood beating up and saving princesses from is in fact a driving catalyst behind you being able to exist, and not only exist but also live in a world that knows what kindness is. All because that man, the same man who you've witnessed do terrible things, once met a little girl and taught her how to be good.

Simon's story really shows us that even if you lose your way and forget how it is to be good yourself, the world keeps the memory for you. That act of love Simon showed Marcy by protecting her and seeing her as more than the monster she thought herself to be created ripples upon ripples, small at first but eventually enough to help give their wreckage of a world—a world that easily could have been forsaken, its goodness overlooked because of its inhospitable remains—a chance to grow into something beautiful. Because of those very same ripples Simon created, the people of Ooo grew up in a world where they know enough about kindness that they were able and willing to spare the 'bad guy' some, to see beyond the wreckage and allow him to grow too.

In saving Marceline, Simon helped to not only to save the world, but also himself.

#fionna and cake #fionna and cake spoilers #adventure time #simon petrikov #ice king #marceline abadeer #simon and marcy #meta #this was just a phone note to get thoughts out of my system but then it came out semi-coherent #so welp guess i'm writing meta now. i'm really in the deep end now. but yeah...Ice King and Simon's story being about the power of kindness #A cruel world requires constant cruelty to be maintained. But kindness? That reaches across time. one act of kindness sparks another #'I need to save you but whose going to save me?' That act of love and compassion is gonna save you ya dingus....eventually #In a less kind world finn and Jake could have watched those tapes about Simon and still decided IK was a hopeless cause.#That he was too far gone to be saved. But they didn't. They chose to treat him nicer and actually be friends with him.#One thing i always loved about IK's story is that he didn't have to completely change himself for people around him to treat him better #They changed their perspective and were kind to him and it was THAT that helped him change. to grow beyond the 'antagonist' role #to quote my go to and all time favourite good place quote:#'the point is people improve when they get external love and support. How can we hold that against them when they don't?'#Arrgh sorry I just always loved Ice King's arc in the show. From pesky antagonist to the person Finn dived into a chaos god to save #(the world's new beginning and its near ending being all because of simon. he has such main character energy and boy does he not want it)#And now we're getting Simon stuff and I'm so normal I'm so normal I'm so normal (<- has never been normal about this character)#(i...i have many MANY drawings of ice king and simon from 2015 and the years after. i was doomed from the start. F&C was the final straw)#(as was reading marcy's secret scrapbook recently...and here i thought i'd truly reached the capacity of hurt i can feel about these two)#Going insane over these last two episodes. 'she didn't have a me'. Fionna and Simon bonding. Gumlee kiss. PETRIGROF BACKSTORY #and the implication that Simon isn't remembering it accurately? Their sweet sounding love song actually foreshadowing their issues?#I am clawing at the walls. thank you AT crew you are enriching the enclosure that is my brain

465 notes · View notes

inventedfangirling · 3 months

Text

My friends i watched love for love's sake and I swear i don't have a fckin clue where even to start.

I know a lot has been said about the show already and i know a LOT more would be said about in the future, but i just can't help adding my own two cents to one of the most thought-provoking, moving and brilliantly executed pieces of art i have ever seen.

I'm not gonna go on about just how much I loved Tae Myungha's character and how he is one of the most interesting people I've seen on screen in a long time. I'm not gonna talk about how unbelievably squishable Yeowoon is and how his duality totally ruined me that I need him to get into my pocket and NEVER leave. And oh I need him to put Myungha in his pocket while at it. I'm also not gonna talk about precious 'of course i'm gay, i've always liked girls, you don't know how to be loved' Sangwon is to me, cos if i start I can promise you I will most certainly never stop.

So for the sake of the rest of this post, I'm moving on. (NOT REALLY THO)

I just LOVE LOVE LOVE all the interpretations that people are coming up with, LOVE LOVE LOVE the show for filling in the gaps but LOVE it more for still leaving room for pretty thought-flowers to bloom around.

You know those artworks or puzzles that have something obvious hidden in a maze of confusion and haze until somebody points out the pattern, you zoom out and realize wow it was this clear all along?? That's a LOT of what watching the show felt like to me. The pattern being how inexplicably inter-connected Myungha and Yeowoon are. Not because they are each other's blorbos, but because why they are eo's blorbos. Why they don't care for each other from a sense of sympathy, but from empathy, despite not knowing the depth of their connections explicitly.

Eventhough we do see glimpses of it from the start, it only gets more clear later how Myungha and Yeowoon really are mirror versions of eo. How the first time Myungha sees Yeowoon he's stopping him from killing himself, and then we later find out that Myungha ends up killing himself. How both of it was triggered by a series of disappointments in life, starting with a troubling family and ending with a grandmother who passes away. Of how both of them seem to really have no one else to call their own in the world. Of leading very lonely depressing lives, that seem to never have a glimpse of hope. How both of them seem closed off, but inside they really are so fragile it hurts to perceive the depth of their feelings. It all comes and hits you once you've taken the whole show in and have gotten a few 1000 seconds to think about it.

We start off with myungha's character wanting to make his blorbo's character happy, and he's in it cos he cares about him, he doesn't have to think about himself. A 'pathetic' character experiencing a lot of pain, what's not to love, Myungha thinks, not realizing that it's his own mirror self that he is feeling so much for. Myungha sees Yeowoon's problems as someone from outside and is therefore able to objectively look at it, and approach it proactively, taking so many steps to help him, my favourite (and arguably most important) of which is the effort he puts in to help form yeowoon a friend circle. Something that he couldn't do for himself cos he never even considered a possibility of that. Why would anybody want to be around him? He ruins everything right?

And then to go on despite believing that, to falling in love, to deciding to choose to save both his grandma and yeowoon, finally FINALLY taking control into his hands even if for a bit to say what he wants, to spending the last few days together, to breaking up cos he just thinks the worst of himself, cos he doesn't know better. And then to the eternal darkness, where moments before leaving, just like in his real life, he realizes he wants in, he wants to live, he wants to love, but more importantly this time, he wants to try being loved. Even if it's difficult, he wants to try.

I love how eventhough the show is heavily Myungha focused, we get meaningful dynamics with multiple characters. Round eyed gasp inducing moments dont just belong to the two mains but also to sangwon whose line to myungha post the stalker incident just ruined me and really set the tone for whatever the show was later revealed to be all about.

I love how complicated the narrative got while still telling a more or less coherent story, how in hindsight, a lot of it makes even more sense now. How as Myungha gets closer to yeowoon his self-hating tendencies manifest in the form of debuffs and errors, because of his own brain's inability to perceive himself as somebody deserving love. His childhood trauma and the numerous rejections life has given him, because of the kind of person he turned out to be because of those rejections, all appear to stand in his way of happiness, as if he can't help being a bundle of sadness and a harbinger of problems. Even as he says he doesn't believe in destiny or fate. Or as we initially are made to believe in the game as, yeowoon's happiness, when in reality this was never about yeowoon at all. Yeowoon never existed in the first place and in "real" life, he never does.

I was blown away by how Myungha is in fact no longer in the mortal world but that fact doesn't hurt as much as that he would have to leave a world where he could finally feel happiness, feel loved, feel cared for, even if he consciously tried avoiding them. They still came to him, they still cared for him, they still fiercely wanted to protect him, (Cos he is just a tiny meow meow, who has been hurt a lot in his life, who wouldn't wanna caress and nurse him back to health HUH) just as much as he wanted to protect them.

And coming to the question of what's the game, where is it happening and who orchestrated it? It's definitely set in the afterlife or the limbo between life and the life after. It could be the author friend doing it, or the author friend has given myungha's brain the power to control the game OR of course the possibility that this has all been happening in myungha's head the whole time.

Whatever it is, the whole point has been to take Myungha from a person not wanting to live his life, feeling so devoid of love and happiness, to a journey of love and friendship, of the importance of fostering connections, of making efforts, of helping others, but equally of letting others help you, of putting your hand out and asking for that help. And in my head I love it most when I think of it as entirely Myungha orchestrated. Of it being a desperate cry of pain to himself, from himself, to save himself. Yeowoon and the game and the missions and all of it was for him to see himself in ways he never allowed himself to be seen as, to take care of himself in ways he never has, to love himself like he has never known to. To finally run towards himself, even if pathetic and sad, the Cha Yeowoon of the game, the person waiting at the end of the finishing line was the Tae Myungha in him all along.

You know that tumblr quote 'do it for her' but its about your future self, right? Myungha rooting for Yeowoon is sort of like that? When he's protecing him, he's protecting himself? When he's cheering for him, he's actually cheering and rooting for himself? When he's loving him, he makes space and place to love himself?

I just love the idea of a (self) love story.

Eitherway Yeowoon x Myungha supremacy.

Extreme(ly accurate?) Interpretations apart, Love for Love's Sake is truly one of the, if not THE finest (self) love story I might have ever seen.

As a person who avoids fics/books with mcd or shows with tragic endings, it felt absolutely revolutionary to me that my biggest joy and relief came from the fact that the main character is dead (the thought of myungha having to leave the game was too much to handle) and he gets to live in this game where he has a cute boyfriend, a supportive, caring friend group and his grandma back. it wasn't the game that was temporary or non-existent, it was actually his life outside. And that's not bad? Cos this is a story and Myungha isn't real, but as real as he is, he got his happy ending.

The show taught us to love, to see love, to be loved and to share that love. It told us that maybe the afterlife is a videogame simulation where we all get to live in friendship and love forever, with our blorbo and our friends. There are a lot worse lives to live. And I'm glad he found it in himself, enough love, courage and hope to write himself a better one :')

#love for love's sake #love supremacy zone #bless this show #tae myung ha #cha yeowoon #korean bl #myungha x yeowoon #kbl #already 2024 favourite #i'd be shocked if anything could beat it #this is ofc just my own interpretation #meta #love for love's sake meta #okbai i have to post it now or i will be writing for EVER

268 notes · View notes

dreamofademondetective · 1 month

Text

Autistic Sherlock and Jonk Watson. What a pair they are.

#sherlock & co #sherlock and co #sherlock holmes #john watson #autistic sherlock #jonk watson #I can say with absolute certainty that podcast!holmes is by far my favourite modern adaptation of the ACD canon #it is perfect in every conceivable way.#from the cases to the humour and meta references. and especially the interpersonal relationships between our leads #all of these elements are being handled with care and everything is so lovingly crafted.#what a masterpiece.#…I should probably make a full post about this. instead of ranting in the tags

140 notes · View notes

waitmyturtles · 9 months

Text

Alright, I was a little late in watching Be My Favorite, episode 9, but I’m all caught up and here’s the late meta: @lurkingshan, I know you hipped to me that the episode was sad, and it was, definitely, but also -- I found to be uplifting, and not just because of that RIDICULOUSLY GORGEOUS dialogue between Kawi and Pisaeng at the end of the episode (could Gawin BE ANY BETTER in this show?! GODDAMN).

But first, a couple quick notes. I didn’t have time to pay my respects through the reblogs earlier yesterday, so: yes to the fat-coding discussion re: Kwan (agree with you, @lurkingshan and @jjsanguine) -- amazing dialogue at the link, and my theory on Not x Kwan is that Not is meant to represent TOTAL heteronormativity, which isn’t a stretch for him, obviously. (When characters are written to be so DESPICABLE, it gets me thinking that the character is actually written really fucking well.)

In this instance, if we are to compare Kawi to Not: Kawi, through his reflections on the future and the past, is slowly working on changing himself (more on this in a moment re: the uplifting bit). He’s learning through his mistakes that he’s either made and/or knows he COULD have made.

Not, I think, represents society’s disinclination to either change, and/or to change AND accept the change of others. I write about behavioral change a lot, because it’s really fucking hard to do, AND people who try to change in their micro- or macro-communities often have a tremendously hard time being accepted... kinda like coming out of a closet, as Kawi and Pisaeng’s relationship is revealed against their will, and Kawi immediately clocks that it’s Not who’s behind it. As well, referring back to the fat-coded discussion re: Kwan -- I get the sense that Not would “never see Kwan that way,” because the fat-coding around Kwan would signal that Not is “lowering his standards” about women, which could affect his reputation with his guy friends. His behavior, I think, is loathsome precisely because it’s rooted in such perfectly delineated heteronormativity -- from spotting Kawi and Pisaeng *not* kissing, to assuming they kissed, to narc-ing to Pear about it, to telling his dudes the next day in class with people around, to knowing that Kawi overheard it. He’s just -- playing the perfect biased het dude, to a tee. Not is playing his own role in society as he believes it should function.

Which is why I, along with hopefully everyone in the fandom (lol) loved that Pear rejected him. And I’d call that moment an uplifting one for Pear. We know, in a different scenario, that Pear leaving Kawi COULD HAVE MEANT that she ended up with Not.

Instead, in what’s being presented to us as the active and live world of Kawi’s current truth, Pisaeng had the opportunity to confirm to Pear the HONEST truth about his relationship with Kawi. In the Kawi-is-a-rock-star alt-reality -- Kawi was holding back from Pear, keeping his feelings away from her, and putting himself first. She wasn’t presented with truth from others, and thus led herself to believe that being with Not, in marriage, was going to be the right decision for her and the baby they had conceived of.

In the current, we’re-still-in-university reality, her friends -- Pisaeng and Kawi -- are honest with her. They both cannot give her the heterosexual love that she desires from a man. Not appears. And she rejects him.

This is such a complicated and, to me, lovely “reality” to contemplate, and links tremendously with what Pisaeng was saying to Kawi at the end of the show. Reflecting back on the earlier episodes: Kawi could not save his dad. Kwan might be heartbroken. And Pear is heartbroken, twice -- maybe even three times, from her mom, from Pisaeng, and from Kawi.

Kawi demonstrates through his changing behavior that drinking ain’t gonna solve these problems. Even Pisaeng confirms that, too.

The show, instead, is inching a bit closer, not to absolute truth, as I dissected when I first binged through episode 7, but instead to a kind of truth that is as best as you can make it, while working on making your life better.

@sparklyeyedhimbo noted that Nietzsche came thru again in this episode (THANK YOU, friend @chickenstrangers, for hipping me to the link!). The quote behind Kawi and Pisaeng is from “Thus Spake Zarathustra”: “He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.”

As Pisaeng said, and I paraphrase: if you want to be happy, you gotta do the work. If you want OTHERS to be happy.... you gotta do the work of making YOURSELF HAPPY, *FIRST.*

And I find that message UTTERLY uplifting, and I think Pear took some of that with her when she walked away from Pisaeng and Kawi to stand up for herself with Not, and to not compromise on her values to potentially be him. I thought that was badass. Pear has a life of change ahead of her.

One final note. Pisaeng’s talk with Kawi at the end of the episode happened to touch me as a mom, even though the monologue was rooted in an uplifting and romantic perspective. It struck me that part of what Pisaeng was saying was -- if we’re happy, people will see that we’re happy, and that might HELP PEOPLE find THEIR OWN happiness.

It reminded me a lot of behavior modeling, which is a wonderful modality for parents/caretakers to practice when raising kids. It’s essentially, like -- we adults will behave exactly the way we WANT our kids to LEARN to behave, and we can show them honest ways of communicating if we communicate well ourselves. If you want your kids to be critical thinkers, for instance -- demonstrate conversations of critical thinking IN FRONT OF YOUR KIDS, and maybe even involve them in those conversations.

I really believe that being happy isn’t something that any one person, or a coupling, should be judged for. Look at fucking Not -- judgement all over the place. Again: I think he represents heteronormative society, a part of which pooh-poohs deep love happiness for the sake of negativity and criticism.

Instead, I love that Be My Favorite takes the responsibility of having Pisaeng and Kawi model for us, IN THEIR OWN WORDS AND BEHAVIORS, the very hard work of CHANGING, for yourself, maybe even for the people you love, and showing the people you love, and your community around you, that that change is very much worth making, to find better and more HONEST happiness in your life. THAT’S how Kawi can impact others, in the end.

(Let us hope, oh LET US HOPE, this show continues to be as good as this episode!)

#be my favorite #be my favorite meta #be my favourite #be my favourite meta #still totally digging on using the two spellings haha #kawi x pisaeng #pisaeng x kawi #gawin caskey #krist perawat #can't believe it but krist is killing it too

93 notes · View notes

sad-endings-suck · 3 months

Text

so bf of taigen to recover from life threatening wounds, just so he can hike all the way to kohama village from master eiji’s forge, buy the best food you can possibly find there, hike all the way back, and then proceed to promptly plop said food right in front of mizu and watch her eat all of it. dosen’t even blink. those dumplings are a childhood nostalgia food for him and he did not eat a single one. literally recovered from his injuries just enough to leave on his own, solely so he could go get food for mizu, and only for mizu. he didn’t get dumplings for anyone else, not even himself. he hates kohama, but he’ll go walk straight into the village centre that smells like the fish on his dad’s fists, just to purchase the only good thing from his childhood in that place, proceed to enjoy none of it, and offer it all to mizu with absolutely no expectations.

#blue eye samurai #and of course it doesn’t make up for his bullying and other utterly condemable behaviours towards mizu. that’s not the topic of this post #or my point rn #my point is the very personal selfless act of kindness he makes almost naturally like it is breathing #‘’he’s not a good man but he could be a great one’’#‘’… he (Taigen) BELIEVES he loves you (Akemi) very much.’’ - Mizu #oh mizu he’s got it bad for you #and she knows it #taigen blue eye samurai #taimizu #blue eye samurai meta #no you don’t get it #for ONCE in his life this man doesn’t take the opportunity to complain #that’s crazy #taigen’s all time favourite hobby is complaining. so if he’d really rather buy food for his nemesis/future bf/gf then he’s down BAD #mizu blue eye samurai #mizu x taigen #mizu #taigen #taizu #mizu/taigen #bes taigen #bes mizu #blue eye samurai analysis #mizu bes #taigen bes #taigen/mizu #taigen x mizu

201 notes · View notes

thunderboltfire · 2 months

Text

I have a lot of complicated feelings when it comes to what Neflix has done with the Witcher, but my probably least favourite is the line of argumentation that originated during shitstorms related to the first and second season that I was unlucky to witness.

It boils down to "Netflix's reinterpretation and vision is valid, because the Witcher books are not written to be slavic. The overwhelming Slavic aestetic is CDPR's interpretation, and the setting in the original books is universally European, as there are references to Arthurian mythos and celtic languages" And I'm not sure where this argument originated and whether it's parroting Sapkowski's own words or a common stance of people who haven't considered the underlying themes of the books series. Because while it's true that there are a lot of western european influences in the Witcher, it's still Central/Eastern European to the bone, and at its core, the lack of understanding of this topic is what makes the Netflix series inauthentic in my eyes.

The slavicness of the Witcher goes deeper than the aestetics, mannerisms, vodka and sour cucumbers. Deeper than Zoltan wrapping his sword with leopard pelt, like he was a hussar. Deeper than the Redanian queen Hedvig and her white eagle on the red field.

What Witcher is actually about? It's a story about destiny, sure. It's a sword-and-sorcery style, antiheroic deconstruction of a fairy tale, too, and it's a weird mix of many culture's influences.

But it's also a story about mundane evil and mundane good. If You think about most dark, gritty problems the world of Witcher faces, it's xenophobia and discrimination, insularism and superstition. Deep-seated fear of the unknown, the powerlessness of common people in the face of danger, war, poverty and hunger. It's what makes people spit over their left shoulder when they see a witcher, it's what makes them distrust their neighbor, clinging to anything they deem safe and known. It's their misfortune and pent-up anger that make them seek scapegoats and be mindlessly, mundanely cruel to the ones weaker than themselves.

There are of course evil wizards, complicated conspiracies and crowned heads, yes. But much of the destruction and depravity is rooted in everyday mundane cycle of violence and misery. The worst monsters in the series are not those killed with a silver sword, but with steel. it's hard to explain but it's the same sort of motiveless, mundane evil that still persist in our poorer regions, born out of generations-long poverty and misery. The behaviour of peasants in Witcher, and the distrust towards authority including kings and monarchs didn't come from nowhere.

On the other hand, among those same, desperately poor people, there is always someone who will share their meal with a traveller, who will risk their safety pulling a wounded stranger off the road into safety. Inconditional kindness among inconditional hate. Most of Geralt's friends try to be decent people in the horrible world. This sort of contrasting mentalities in the recently war-ridden world is intimately familiar to Eastern and Cetral Europe.

But it doesn't end here. Nilfgaard is also a uniquely Central/Eastern European threat. It's a combination of the Third Reich in its aestetics and its sense of superiority and the Stalinist USSR with its personality cult, vast territory and huge army, and as such it's instantly recognisable by anybody whose country was unlucky enough to be caught in-between those two forces. Nilfgaard implements total war and looks upon the northerners with contempt, conscripts the conquered people forcibly, denying them the right of their own identity. It may seem familiar and relevant to many opressed people, but it's in its essence the processing of the trauma of the WW2 and subsequent occupation.

My favourite case are the nonhumans, because their treatment is in a sense a reminder of our worst traits and the worst sins in our history - the regional antisemitism and/or xenophobia, violence, local pogroms. But at the very same time, the dilemma of Scoia'Tael, their impossible choice between maintaining their identity, a small semblance of freedom and their survival, them hiding in the forests, even the fact that they are generally deemed bandits, it all touches the very traumatic parts of specifically Polish history, such as January Uprising, Warsaw Uprising, Ghetto Uprising, the underground resistance in WW2 and the subsequent complicated problem of the Cursed Soldiers all at once. They are the 'other' to the general population, but their underlying struggle is also intimately known to us.

The slavic monsters are an aestetic choice, yes, but I think they are also a reflection of our local, private sins. These are our own, insular boogeymen, fears made flesh. They reproduce due to horrors of the war or they are an unprovoked misfortune that descends from nowhere and whose appearance amplifies the local injustices.

I'm not talking about many, many tiny references that exist in the books, these are just the most blatant examples that come to mind. Anyway, the thing is, whether Sapkowski has intended it or not, Witcher is slavic and it's Polish because it contains social commentary. Many aspects of its worldbuilding reflect our traumas and our national sins. It's not exclusively Polish in its influences and philosophical motifs of course, but it's obvious it doesn't exist in a vacuum.

And it seems to me that the inherently Eastern European aspects of Witcher are what was immediately rewritten in the series. It seems to me that the subtler underlying conflicts were reshaped to be centered around servitude, class and gender disparity, and Nilfgaard is more of a fanatic terrorist state than an imposing, totalitarian empire. A lot of complexity seems to be abandoned in lieu of usual high-fantasy wordbuilding. It's especially weird to me because it was completely unnecessary. The Witcher books didn't need to be adjusted to speak about relevant problems - they already did it! The problem of acceptance and discrimination is a very prevalent theme throughout the story! They are many strong female characters too, and they are well written. Honestly I don't know if I should find it insulting towards their viewers that they thought it won't be understood as it was and has to be somehow reshaped to fit the american perpective, because the current problems are very much discussed in there and Sapkowski is not subtle in showing that genocide and discrimination is evil. Heck, anyone who has read the ending knows how tragic it makes the whole story.

It also seems quite disrespectful, because they've basically taken a well-established piece of our domestic literature and popular culture and decided that the social commentary in it is not relevant. It is as if all it referenced was just not important enough and they decided to use it as an opportunity to talk about the problems they consider important. And don't get me wrong, I'm not forcing anyone to write about Central European problems and traumas, I'm just confused that they've taken the piece of art already containing such a perspective on the popular and relevant problem and they just... disregarded it, because it wasn't their exact perspective on said problem.

And I think this homogenisation, maybe even from a certain point of view you could say it's worldview sanitisation is a problem, because it's really ironic, isn't it? To talk about inclusivity in a story which among other problems is about being different, and in the same time to get rid of motifs, themes and references because they are foreign? Because if something presents a different perspective it suddenly is less desirable?

There was a lot of talking about the showrunners travelling to Poland to understand the Witcher's slavic spirit and how to convey it. I don't think they really meant it beyond the most superficial, paper-thin facade.

#The witcher #Sorry if its convoluted I just got reminded of something and it made me a little angry #and as I had this conversation a lot of times I've decided to put it into written text #sorry about being bitter #but these are some of my favourite books and I'm still upset when I get reminded how badly they were treated in the recent adaptation #I'm not saying you should never change anything #But it's good to have enough background to understand why some things are the way they are in the original #and to understand what the source material is about #we don't talk about particular character's looks or something (altough I feel they could care more about it too)#but central themes tropes and motifs #long post #it may seem like I'm talking from a high horse here #people are welcome to interpret literature however they want #Nobody has a monopol on themes #I just think that in this particular case the cultural context influences the worldbuilding #and if changed it doesn't have the same impact anymore #meta

154 notes · View notes

lbibliophile-sw · 5 months

Text

One thing I love about Clone Wars fanart is how much of it is just various characters napping on each other. We all took one look at them and decided that what they really need is snuggles and sleep.

#the codywan sleep bingo has done excellent things for my dash #but it is a common trend for both the jedi trio and various clone groupings #my favourite form of ship art - whatever the relationship type #meta

386 notes · View notes