#mew x top | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

waitmyturtles · 6 months

Text

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)

153 notes · View notes

prapaiwife · 8 months

Text

WHEN MEW SAID I LOVE THE SOUND U MAKE WHEN WE HAVE SEX I WAS LIKE!!!

#ofts #only friends series #only friends the series #mew x top #only friends mew #book kasidet #forcebook #force jiratchapong

269 notes · View notes

thatgirl4815 · 9 months

Text

Intimacy Progression Per Couple (Ep 1)

In this tweet, Jojo mentions how sex will reappear throughout the series because all of the relationships are based upon it. This got me thinking about how we’ve seen these relationships progress so far (in sex and otherwise) and how these progressions are indicative of each couples’ plot down the line.

I mentioned once before that in terms of progression, the couples follow a semi-“Goldilocks” formula, though only where physical intimacy is concerned. From this standpoint, RaySand and BostonNick stand on opposite sides of the spectrum, with TopMew fitting nicely in the middle. It’s interesting that they’ve been laid out this way because 1) it creates variety and 2) this variety suggests the role sex could play in the foundations of each relationship.

RaySand

Before the series aired, I was massively confused about the distinction between Bed Friend and FWB (still am, tbh). But after episode 1, we know that RaySand has at least some emotional foundation to their relationship prior to their sleeping together. I believe in their case, they will be friendly towards each other (idk if I'd call it a "friendship" exactly) beforehand, unlike their direct counterpart BostonNick, who had sex before any sort of emotional connection was built.

RaySand’s story being noticeably devoid of romance so far (despite the obvious hints of it) is what leads me to believe that they have the greatest chance of working through their issues. This is not to say that any relationship rooted in sex from the get-go is doomed to fail, but the fact that we have been exposed to the individual aspects of Ray and Sand—namely, Ray’s drinking problem and Sand’s helpfulness—before their characterization as a couple implies that their relationship will focus a lot on their individual issues and how those pose a threat to relationships in general. For Ray, it seems pretty clear what those issues could be given his very obvious drinking and self-worth problem. For Sand, those issues still remain unclear.

Again, this is not to say that the other couples are not given individual characterization prior to their relationships with each other--with the exception of maybe Nick, given that we see him rather sparingly in this first episode and the only thing we see him do each time is a) thirst over Boston or b) hook up with Boston. So not too much to work with there (yet). While Sand is scarcely seen outside of his interactions with Ray in episode 1, these interactions notably say a lot about who he is as a person independent of Ray (helpful, frustrated, patient, forgiving, etc.). For Ray, we're provided some additional context for his self-worth issues from his interactions with his friends as well as Sand.

I don't think RaySand is going to remain chaste for very long considering the show we're watching, but the fact that we have been given a slower build to it could say something interesting about the nature of their relationship (and where sex is involved). My guess is that RaySand's relationship will be more rooted in the comforter-comfortee trope (for lack of a better term): Sand gives and Ray receives. These roles have already been set up in episode 1, and I think they will maintain them for a period of time before Ray's inability to give back to Sand (emotionally, as opposed to physically) forms a wedge between them (see Sand's "Focus on me for once, will you?").

I would argue that sex will bring Ray and Sand closer, but I think it will inevitably mean more to them once they realize that there are actual emotions involved; what one (or both) might imagine as a hookup soon becomes a dependency. Which brings me to...

BostonNick

As mentioned above, BostonNick establish a sexual relationship before anything else. The parameters, even now, are pretty clear: they don't know each other but they're attracted to one another, they hook up and continue to do so = FWB. The problem being that Nick starts to develop actual feelings, wanting an exclusive relationship with Boston who has no desire to be exclusive with anyone (except for maybe Top, but that's up for debate).

So far, the importance of sex to this relationship is pretty clear: it is the relationship, in fact. Based on the trailer, there is a very clear boundary that Boston wants to uphold that Nick is determined to challenge. For Boston then, sex is a selfish act (this reminds me of what we heard Top tell Mew in the trailer about wanting to make him as happy as possible--I believe Boston could relate to the idea of desiring sex wholly for his own pleasure rather than his partner's).

I think Boston navigates sex in fascinating ways, and we see that through Top. I still believe Boston desires Top to feed his own ego and not much more. He can't understand how someone like Top could honestly want someone like Mew beyond a hookup. Could any of this have to do with Boston's deep-seated insecurities about relationships? Is he scared of forming a long-lasting relationship, so he settles for these quick one-offs to boost his ego and be done with it? Is he simply disinterested in settling when there are so many options? These are all questions that we don't have enough context to answer, but I think Nick's influence will force him to contend with them a bit. I'd imagine there has to be at least some of this conflict in BostonNick's storyline, otherwise the plot would be rather static.

TopMew

Mew's response to Top's advances provides a good outlook on his own values and boundaries. Just as Top views Mew as a challenge, I think Mew view Top as a similar challenge. Mew isn't naive; he knows who Top is just like he knows who Boston is. He will play Top like a fiddle. In that sense, I think he is withholding sex for two reasons: 1) because of his own values, as he states, and 2) because it's the thing he knows Top desires. To test Top's intentions, he can simply withhold sex and see whether Top's interest wanes. (This is likely what leads Top back to Boston, affirming what Mew already suspects about Top and Boston's similarities.)

For both players in TopMew and BostonNick, sex means something different. For Top and Boston, we can assume they have fairly similar ideas of it (which will notably change over the course of the series, I'm sure). For Mew, sex is about more than temporary satisfaction--it's something he holds in high esteem and wants to cherish with someone he's built a strong relationship with. For Nick, sex is a way of bringing him closer to Boston emotionally (tbh, I'm sure Nick didn't plan on forming an emotional attachment to Boston, but here we are).

*Side note, but it's funny that Nick seems on par for the course that Mew outlines for Top in episode 1:

Mew has an acute understanding of himself, and that's what gives him all the power in his relationship with Top. Top might think he's in control, but Mew is the one dictating. And if Top decides to leave, then Mew will have simply proven what he has suspected since their first night together. Mew wins no matter what (unless, of course, he starts to cave and lets his real feelings get involved).

~ X ~

This ended up being a bit of a rant, but in response to those critics on Twitter that Jojo felt the need to call out: sex isn't just sex for the sake of it. It's already informing the way these characters view themselves and their emotional ties. The emotional element of sex seems like a major component in the series, as the lines between mere physical intimacy blur with those of emotional intimacy. I think we will see that conflict come up in each of the relationships to some degree, but in vastly different ways.

115 notes · View notes

heretherebedork · 9 months

Text

The first time having a headache has been used as an excuse to have sex rather than to avoid it brought to you by a sweet virgin and a top tier.

54 notes · View notes

ppeonppeonhan · 7 months

Text

The first time I saw Mond was in Not Me (2022) -- and I acknowledged his hotness, but his character was...annoying.

Then, shortly after, I saw him in the het drama Boy for Rent (2019), and I started to register his hotness more.

So I wholeheartedly agree. Please give this man something to do other than lust after guys or girls he can't have.

#bl drama #thai bl #bl series #thai drama #mond tanutchai #only friends the series #mew x top #boeing #not me the series #boy for rent the series

35 notes · View notes

nemesis-21 · 7 months

Text

The way Mew revealed the audio clip of Top cheating?

It was fucking brilliant.

#only friends #only friends the series #ofts #topmew #mewtop #top x mew #mew x top #only friends spoilers #thai drama #thai bl #bl drama #gmmtv #only friends ep 6 #only friends episode 6 #I've never gasped so hard in my life

35 notes · View notes

athousandbyeol · 24 days

Text

come home [topmew fanfic/chapter 2]

"they were staring at you," mew pauses, looking at the group of people he saw earlier, now further away from them. "they must've known you from somewhere. probably one of your clients?"

chapter 1 / chapter 2

14 notes · View notes

bird-inacage · 6 months

Text

Only Friends | All Character End Credits

I really loved this concept for the end credits. To leave the camera rolling on a seemingly mundane but candid moment with each of our characters. It very much reminded me of 'Call Me By Your Name's one shot credit scene with Timothée Chalamet face on to camera.

Mew looks contemplative.

Nick looks conflicted.

Ray looks determined.

Top looks troubled.

Sand looks weary.

Boston looks perplexed.

139 notes · View notes

theworldinclines · 7 months

Text

#bro ive been saving the civil war one since the trailer came out hfdkjhgldkj im so lmaodshkj #AND the mew one too i was like u know what he is going to go batshit and this WILL come in handy and IT DID. god is good<3 #slay and what not !#ofts #my edits #only friends series #only friends #only friends the series #ofts squad #nickboston #bostonnick #boston x nick #nick x boston #topmew #mew x top #top x mew #mewtop #bostonmew #boston x mew

365 notes · View notes

inventedfangirling · 8 months

Text

somebody explain to me what mew was thinking when he offered sex in exchange for top quitting drugs and then proceeding to immediately give up a part of his leverage by giving him a handjob without top having to prove that he was actually gonna give up anything is just crazy to me, especially after he had held him off for weeks(months?) like boy WHAT THE HELL YOU ON

#only friends the series #mew x top

28 notes · View notes

thatswhatilikebruh · 9 months

Text

In the first episode we see a meet cute with mew and top and also with nick and boston.The only pair that had a bad start was sand and Ray. IN CONCLUSION mew × top will have a bad ending and so will nick x boston but only sand and Ray will make it as a happy couple in the end. In this essay-

#i saw the vision guys #also im a writer yup yup in this show #only friends the series #only friends #sandxray #firstkhao #forcebook #neomark #mew x top #nick x boston #sand x ray

26 notes · View notes

waitmyturtles · 6 months

Text

THE MORNING AFTER: ONLY FRIENDS, EPISODE 11 -- 1 OUTTA 3 AIN'T BAD

Preamble! I had a HELL of a day yesterday, woof. So if this comes out garbled, y'all will know why. I'll try to keep this short, but... I'm likely lying to myself, let's see.

TW: FORCEBOOK -- I'm going to say a few words about ForceBook below, so if words about ForceBook are not your thing, please move along!

I'm gonna start this post with thoughts on the three main pairs, and then get some last little thoughts out at the end.

a) I have a feeling that I don't need to write THAT much, because the lovelies @lurkingshan (here), @neuroticbookworm (here), and @chicademartinica (here) all covered the top points of this episode nicely: this episode was a BostonNick WIN. On Nick, dear Chica nailed it so hard that I will have to link AND screenshot her m'fucker:

And Boston, BOSTON, MY MAN! MY MAN! MY MAN!

(Nick says the first line below, with Boston saying the second:)

Fuckin' a. There are two reasons why I STANNED BostonNick in this episode.

1) First of all, as you see above, Nick still had to be a tiny bit of a shit. Nick was in Atom's shoes once. Nick remembers the feeling of having feelings for someone who didn't have feelings back for him. So Nick took a little passive aggressive dig at Boston by calling Boston's sex and predilections "terrible."

And Boston shot back at Atom -- and maybe indirectly at Nick -- with his perspective on sex: "[h]ow can you love me after sleeping together just once?"

I've written before (and forgive the foggy mom brain, but I believe @emotionallychargedtowel has also written on this), that the hormonal experience of sex can impact people in incredibly different ways. Some people, like Boston, feel no connection with the person he's slept with after sex; other people, like Nick and Atom, catch feelings. All of it is normal.

What happened in the dialogues that we were privy to earlier in the series vis à vis Nick and Atom was that WE, the audience, heard THEIR perspectives, and the narratives allowed US to contemplate sympathizing for them -- by playing off of a general assumption that an audience would JUDGE people like Boston for having casual sex. Boston's positions on sex (heh) pissed off people like Nick and Atom! So Boston got fuckin' wiretapped and smeared by these dudes.

However: BOSTON REMAINED CONSISTENT, CONSTANT, AND ACCOUNTABLE to his position, AT ALL TIMES, that he wasn't someone who caught feelings after casual sex. I am sure for many sectors of the Only Friends audience, that this may not have been easy to parse, especially considering the very early and popular judgements levied against Boston. (For the record, I never took Boston as a predator, and I established my thoughts early in the series run on this as rhetoric about Boston's "badness" around sex was flying around. I'm a Khai girlie. Boys, girls, and non-binary friends can be playas, too, and deserve to enjoy their sex lives without judgement.)

What I UTTERLY admire about the pace of this series vis à vis BostonNick is that it took its TIME in establishing Boston's AGENCY to be able to LEVY his position on sex SO STRONGLY and CLEARLY, with Nick's support. While much of the series allowed the popular and condemning rhetoric to swirl around Boston, this scene put a fuckin' NAIL in that coffin. I believe this scene said: you can't only listen to one side, the crying, sobbing side of a person who wants another person after a one-night stand. You HAVE to listen to both sides. The hormonal aspect of wanting to be close to your sex partner is valid, but also -- if the other side is talking, you MUST listen to what the other side is SAYING.

Boston was always clear about his position -- and Nick and Atom HAD to take responsibility for their unreasonable demands from Boston after their one-night stands with him; unreasonable, because Boston CLEARLY stated to the both of them that he wasn't a relationship guy, and would not be forced into it. And both of them ignored those statements, and all hell broke loose, TWICE.

2) HOWEVER! Boston realized, after spending more time with Nick than with any other sex partner, and after he lost his friends, that he HAD caught feelings for his fave, his Nick! Remember last week, when I got all mewdy that MONOGAMY might be the dramatic device that the show would use to "redeem" Boston? BLECH.

DAMN, did this episode SPIN THAT AROUND for me. GOD, I LOOOOOOOOOOVED THAT CONVO WITH NICK AND BOSTON ABOUT FIGURING OUT THEIR STATUS!!!!!

Paraphrasing! "I want to spend the next few months loving on you," or whatever Boston says?! FUCK, YES! Nick, all OVER this, setting boundaries, allowing himself TIME and SPACE to figure out what's best for him, with both Dan and Boston! SHIT, MARK PAKIN SHOWED UP! Omg, BostonNick for the win.

My head's spinning, because that was seriously one of the BEST conversations I've seen written in a drama about the consideration of a relationship and a status check. That impressed me as much as Pharm asking Dean for a break in UWMA -- and then Pharm straight up LIVING HIS LIFE, BBQ pork grills and all, without Dean for a few months.

And. Boston was cool with Nick's boundaries and thoughtfulness. Boston knows what he wants, but he's not gonna push Nick into anything. Boston knows time is ticking, but will wait for Nick's answer.

It was so cool to see. My heart was full.

So that pairing, the NeoMark/BostonNick pairing -- SOLID.

b) Moving on! Thanks to @lurkingshan, I got clarity on what the fuq was happening with Sand and Boeing. At first, I thought Boeing was a little SHIT for showing up to Sand and stirring unnecessary drama in his ex's life after getting rejected by Mew. (Mond, though. 🤤)

But, as Shan pointed out to me in my insane day yesterday: Sand has a problem saying no to dudes. (Homey, RELATE.) So like, then they all go back to Ray's place, and Ray KNOWS that Sand has trouble setting boundaries and saying no, because that's what Sand's mom said to Ray, but also, that's the way Sand's been engaging with Ray himself, and Ray will DEF know what will be up if Sand gets closer to Boeing again, and Ray's like, uh, come into my pool so we can nip this in the bud?, but no, we know what Jojo's thinking, so.

I mean, have sex already, you three, chop chop. I see the FirstKhao gworls on my dash not happy about not having a complete episode of SandRay peace, which I get, but also, this continues to reiterate my bleh on Sand, which like -- get a backbone, Sand. You have a literal boyfriend now, and you're still not saying no to dudes? What if Mild strolled in for a foursome? (NO, DON'T TURN THAT DOWN, SAND, DON'T.) But I'm just saying -- maybe listen to a person in your life, like your mom, to set some boundaries, like your roommate. I'm throwing my hands up in the air on this one, but at least we may get our threesome, and, Mond.

c) Okay, last pair! TopMew. For a hot second, I was impressed with Top.

I liked this, ::waves index finger in a circle::, this worked.

But I have decided. I'm done with ForceBook. I just -- please remember the TW, FB girls. I'll get back to TopMew in a second as characters, but this was my first ForceBook show, and it might be my last. Watching them is as exciting to me as breaking down Amazon boxes.

We have seen Mew waffle this whole dang series. (WELCOME BACK, THE ONLY FRIENDS VENGEFUL WAFFLE! HEART YOU, @starryalpacasstuff!)

And there was more Mew waffling, more talking to moms, and Top is just like, I'm gonna peace out, DEUCES, and then, OF COURSE, HE COMES BACK INTO THE KITCHEN, LIKE HE NEVER LEFT THE HOUSE AFTER SAYING HE WOULD (I cackled), and then they're together in bed. And now they'll move in together.

This was a BIT of a storyline ride. But -- and I HAVE TO ADMIT, part of this is my tiredness talking -- I'm just kinda bored of ForceBook at this point. Do I actually get the sense that Top is *excited* about Mew moving in? Do I get the sense that Top and Mew *love* each other? I.... don't! Is it the chemistry between ForceBook? I.... I think so? I think so!

And, so... Mew will try to convince Ray to accept Top in the next episode? I dunno. (Episode 12 previews, we've learned to distrust them.) As much as I want to try to sit here to analyze TopMew at this point, I kinda just wanna throw my hands up in the air and be like, I'll leave these characters to fiction. And I think it's because I was unfortunately spoiled by the FANTASTIC chemistry emanating out of Neo, Papang, Mark, First, and Mond in this episode (MARK! MONNND. PAPANGGGG.).

I have to admit it, and I'm sorry to admit it. ForceBook do nothing for me, acting-wise and chemistry-wise, and I am done struggling with analyzing TopMew. I'll let 'em be.

d) Last thoughts! Bye, Cheum. We haven't had enough of Nonnie in this series, and I wanna see Nonnie as April dump Cheum's ass and break shit in episode 12, the way Nonnie's real-life brother goes and breaks shit on social media. Way to hold no one, including yourself, truthfully accountable, Cheum.

(What in the. I would love a Soonvijarn episode on Jojo's thoughts on Cheum one day.)

Anyway, bye, B.

THAT'S ALMOST IT! Ephemerality? I hope Boston makes a whole bunch of righteous new homies in NYC. This whole series has made me sick and tired of proximate friends, lol. We'd better see Mond suck face with Khao and First. Andddd, bleep, bloop, that's all I got!

HOME BASE NEXT WEEK, FAM!

[EPHEMERALITY SQUAD, second-to-last weekend meta for ya! @slayerkitty (SK... I am so tired, lol), @ranchthoughts, @chickenstrangers, @twig-tea, @neuroticbookworm, @lurkingshan, @distant-screaming, @clara-maybe-ontheroad, @thatgirl4815]

153 notes · View notes