Thai bl fic writers on ao3, we need to have a talk.
Now, I want to preface this by saying that I have nothing against rpf. It is just not my thing.
That being said, can y'all please stop crossposting in both the show tag and the rpf tag? The only time a fic should be posted in both is if the characters are interacting with the actors.
Zee/Nunew does not belong in the show tag. Charan/Khanin does not belong in the rpf tag. (I'm just using these as an example. I'm not trying to call out a particular fandom.)
Also, if your fic isn't rpf, don't tag the rpf ship and vice versa, if it is rpf, don't tag the characters. That's a really good way for your fic to get filtered out by people not looking for one or the other.
Game was started by @siathawisit and @maybe-boys-do-love. I was tagged by @my-rose-tinted-glasses and @dramalove247, thank you both! This looks very fun!
I decided to go a slightly different route - I'm going to do The GMMTV Boys Edition™️. Basically, I'll pick (at least) one of the pairs for each rasa as either my favorite couple for the given aesthetic/vibe, or a pair I think would do very well in that aesthetic/vibe, drawing a little bit on my days of casting-director-dom. I'll put a few notes about my choices, too.
EarthMix. EARTHMIX. Just give them some moody lighting and let them fucking yearn at each other and that's a damn good scene right there.
2. Hasya (हास्यं): Laughter, Mirth, Comedy
MarkOhm is an easy choice here! Mark is hilarious, and Ohm plays off of him really well. I do appreciate their more dramatic moments, and both of them do pain and longing really well, too. But! For a comedy, especially with an improv style, it's them for me.
Buuuut... taking a close second...
...is JuniorMark! Also some great comedic chops on those two.
3. Raudram (रौद्रं): Fury, Anger
GemFourth! But like think about it. Li Ming and Heart? The simmering rage in Barth? The way Gun holds all his pain inside, behind a smile? Yeah. Them.
FirstKhao. I always want to watch them forgive themselves and each other and find in their sorrow a companion to weather the storm with. Akk and Ayan. Sand and Ray. Their upcoming roles for The Invisible Dragon! Yeah, it's them for me.
... *runs away* it's a joooooooooooooooooke just a jooooooooooooooke
6. Bhayanaka (भयानकं): Horror, Terror, Overwhelm
ForceBook! Not only did they do excellently with PhoomVicha, but I think Book has a very dark, twisted villain character inside him that I would love to see played out... with Force as his horrified but inexplicably mesmerized love? Yes please.
(I do think PerthSanta take a close second on this - Santa has a feral energy behind his eyes sometimes that I want unleashed. Let him go crazy!)
7. Vīram (वीरं): Heroism, Energy, Adventure
Heroes! Kings of BL! Forefathers! Still killing it constantly! It's TayNew. Gotta be TayNew.
(buuuuuut... if I have to give out a second place...
...I think AouBoom are right behind them!)
8. Adbhutam (अद्भुतं): Awe, Wonder, Amazement
GreatInn! Look at them. LOOK AT THEM. I rest my case. (I miss them.)
(and for second place...)
I think OffGun respect the hell out of each other as actors, and that respect translates to wonder and awe. They've been doing this for so long, and they've been together for so long, and they still manage to push each other to perform at their best.
9. Santam (शान्तरस): Peace, Tranquility, Calm
JimmySeaaaaa. My favorite vibe of theirs is soft & domestic. They are so cuddly.
And that's a list! No idea who hasn't done this, so... tag! You're it! 😊
brain child of @siathawisit and started by @maybe-boys-do-love (post). tagged by @dramalove247 (here) and @my-rose-tinted-glasses (here). thank you for tagging me! 💜
Rules: The rasas are South Asian aesthetic categories that remain influential in the regions dramas and art (read more on the wikipedia article here). Literally, it’s the dominant “flavor” of a work or performance. For the game, pick a pair that represents each rasa to you. You can choose whether you want to do CP pairings or just characters. No need to explain unless you feel like it. Then tag 5 friends to find out their flavors of love.
I highly recommend checking out @maybe-boys-do-love's post that's linked and reading the why's + viewing the video(s) @siathawisit shared.
I approached this tag game really thoughtfully, because playing involved learning something new + I love art & expression. that does mean I had none energy left for explanations lmao, but if you're curious about specific picks feel free to ask!
1. Sringara (शृङ्गारः): Romance, Love, Beauty, Eroticism
[Yai, I Feel You Linger in the Air]
Claire is an amazing choice for raudram! She'd be a good one for bībhatsa as well, come to think of it. (There's often a synergy between them in actual Sanskrit literature.) And I'm so happy to see the engagement with the theory -- as @maybe-boys-do-love said in the notes, that's the secret agenda of the game!
If you're interested in Flat Girls, I wanted to let everyone know that it's actually the director/screenwriter's (Claire Jirassaya's) second major sapphic film!
In 2014, she directed That Day of the Month, which is similarly a coming-of-age work that focuses on the relationship between two twelfth-grade girls, Goy and Lee.
TDOTM is also notable because it's one of the first productions that Goy Arachaporn appeared in. She would go on to be involved with several different queer works, including serving as the screenwriter for I Told Sunset About You.
Claire's first film, Welcome Home, which she made in 2012 as a student filmmaker also includes some more minor queer themes, as well as (possibly) another 2012 release, She is My Best Friend (unfortunately it doesn't seem like this one is available online, so I'm not able to fully confirm).
In a 2015 interview, Claire said that,
"I’ve always felt that homosexuality is a natural thing, though I never intended it to be the focal point of my work...My first film, Welcome Home, was more about family relationships, though I added a touch of my own preferences.
Still, my film ended up being lauded for its portrayal of lesbian love, and it kind of became my signature. My later films were based mainly on my own relationships, where I fully intended to deliver a lesbian message." (BK Asia)
Aside from P'Nay (Yes or No, LSLS: Pae Jai, TSOU, and Only You), Claire is one of the directors who's been around the sapphic media space the longest- which is something that I really wanted to share/highlight before FG's upcoming release ❤️
End Notes:
Welcome Home is available on Youtube (embedded above), and you can watch That Day of the Month for free on Gagaoolala.
Quarantine Stories, another project she was involved in, also has an episode with some sapphic themes. Episode two (the one in question) is linked here.
Lastly, although it wasn't a show she explicitly directed, Claire also served as one of the screenwriters for the 2018 mini series i Stories. This is a project split into four different episodes (including one that has a bi main character, and another that has a lesbian one). You can watch both of the eps mentioned above on Youtube (available here and here).
In total, this means that she has been involved in (at least) 5-6 different works with sapphic characters or themes, spanning from 2012 to 2025.
Bringing this post back about Claire Jirassaya's filmography because I've been thinking about her work recently.
She is My Best Friend still isn't available online, but it has a lot of similarities to Flat Girls. Each are films about two teenaged girls playing badminton together. Through their interactions on the court, Claire begins to hint at the girls' intensely complicated relationship. Both works also have very similar settings- a run down badminton court surrounded by an apartment building.
I'm not the first person to have noticed this/pointed this out (I think even GDH mentioned this connection in one of their promotional posts), but it's so cool to see that one of her early films was potentially built off of/extended in her most recent work.
In a 2026 interview, Claire talked about how several of her films have been inspired by different life experiences. For instance, Welcome Home combines the memories that she had of her father with the real-life experience of living with a family member after a flood. Her upbringing in the police flats became the basis for Flat Girls.
In terms of badminton and its significance across two different films, Claire notes that:
“[It] was something I did every day while living at the flats. I saw friendships form because of it, and I had fights with friends because of it. I saw differences in social status through the gear people used.* I saw ‘life’ through badminton all the time, so it was impossible not to include it in my work.”
*editor's note: from the trailer, it seems like differences in gear is a theme that's also potentially explored in She is My Best Friend
Something else that I wanted to bring up was that for a themed film screening, Momentum grouped She is My Best Friend together with a few other queer films in a collection called "We Won't Grow Old Together."
This is interesting because in Flat Girls, the main characters face so many challenges that even though they're close to each other, it almost feel inevitable that in the end they'll have to go their separate ways. They're both dealing with financial and familial issues, the weight of which at times can feel very overwhelming.
I think throughout Claire's work there's a lot of common threads- teenaged characters/plotlines about growing up, ambiguous or confusing relationships where things often go unspoken/unsaid- but it's really interesting to think about the commonality between both films of not letting their characters "grow old together" (a bit doomed yuri core if you will).
Another thing I wanted to mention is that, at times, She is My Best Friend, That Day of the Month, and Flat Girls feel a bit reminiscent of a few other Thai sapphic films from the mid 2010s, such as I Want To... (2016), The Birds from the Sun (2018), and Reverse (2019).
In I Want To..., the film's main characters, Pin and Pie, have gradually stopped being friends. Their relationship has deteriorated due to a combination of jealousy and unsaid feelings. Like Jane and Ann (the protagonists of Flat Girls), it feels like there's so much ambiguity between them, and sometimes even confusion about the meaning of different feelings.
In The Birds from the Sun, the main characters have briefly reunited after a long period of separation. It could be interpreted that they still have feelings for each other, but there's almost a sense throughout the film that they can't go back to what they used to be.
In Reverse, Aim's similar reunification with her ex causes the film's sense of temporality to become warped- constantly switching between the present and the past. The opening and closing lines of the film ("I wanted to forget you but you are always there in my dream. For you, who will always be a part of me") carries with it the same bittersweet feeling as Flat Girls.
I think in all of these films there's a throughline of the intensity of female intimacy as well as adolescent/queer uncertainty- not knowing what to say, or how to understand what's going on, or maybe even being too scared to say it.
There's not a definitive link between IWT, TBFTS, Reverse, and the rest of Claire's work, but if you liked Flat Girls, you might be interested in some other Thai films that have a similar vibe/atmosphere.
Ultimately, I think all of these films are interesting in terms of the way that they tackle themes related to sexuality and adolescence- they manage to feel realistic yet deeply personal.
Interesting interview (in Thai, sorry) with Kru Den from Domundi with a lot of insights into the real-life concerns and experiences woven into Khemjira and Love Upon a Time.
Such a good interview but I also felt sad reading some things
Edit: One thing I wanna highlight even tho this interview has many good things is about gay stereotypes and then in particularly where he talks about feminine gay man.
Or the character P'Rung who got whipped, that was inspired by a close friend from school. He was gay and effeminate. His father found out the truth because he found his cosmetics and a wig, and then P'Rung was actually whipped and kicked out of the house.
So basically a close friend of his committed not only one but two "crimes".
"There was a time when heterosexual people might have looked at the LGBTQ+ community as inferior, lesser, or strange. But now, as everything becomes more mainstream, it’s true that things are more open—yet a certain set of expectations has crept in. It’s not just heterosexuals anymore, either; LGBTQ+ people themselves have started boxing each other in.
For example, my partner and I are both more feminine-presenting (sao), and we get judged constantly. 'Who is the husband and who is the wife?' Why? Why do you have to ask? Why do you need to know? How does answering that change your life?
Even the gay representation that gets accepted in mainstream media is still mostly middle-class, fair-skinned, and conventionally attractive. You don't see plus-size gay men in BL (Boys' Love) series. You don't see dark-skinned gay men—even darker than 'P'Muen' from Phop Thoe (Your World)—they just don't exist. And honestly, P'Muen is one of the very few exceptions in the entire BL industry. Or what about a couple where both guys are feminine? Nobody is making content like that.
Some series viewers root for both actors to look totally masculine, saying, 'The uke (bottom) doesn't have to be feminine.' Sure, the uke doesn't have to be feminine. But by constantly repeating that phrase, aren't people just reinforcing the idea that a feminine uke is somehow lesser, and that a 'masc-for-masc' dynamic is superior? Why can't we have a feminine seme (top)? What about a story where two feminine guys fall for each other? I’d love to make something like that—uke meets uke, cute plus-size gay guys, or just regular gay guys who don't need to have a six-pack."
"I think the root of the fear of effeminate men, or fear of gay men who act feminine, stems from misogyny. When two straight gay men come along, we praise them a lot, admire them a lot, accept them a lot. Is it because patriarchal society still has power, or maybe people in society aren't okay with femininity yet?"
Interesting interview (in Thai, sorry) with Kru Den from Domundi with a lot of insights into the real-life concerns and experiences woven into Khemjira and Love Upon a Time.
Same scene is referenced in Badmixy's iconic DILF mv
The sexy outrageous flight crew thing is a common trope in Thai media, but here I think it's a specific reference another superscandalous lakorn, Songkhram Nang Fa/Battle of the Angels.
areudirty
gummygunk
jbbartram-illu
prguitarman
