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Rehearsal, comfort, a blindfold and.... more?

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Maybe Gus is the cutie of the BewGus pairing and not Bew.

Smushing his boyfriend because he can’t give him a proper hug lying down.

Reminding him his bf is there.

Collapsing into his boyfriend for dramatic effect.

Indulging his bf with smiles when he wants.

Trying to make sure Bew is happy.

And happy when Bew says he’s happy.

And then there’s our former cutie, talking to the guy extorting him.

GusBew, pawns in a warzone: media poking in, too much trust, pink fantasies, and very diligent actors (Episode 6)

Hi! Hey! Hello! It’s moonchild here, your resident theorist and analyst, back to business because my brain hates me and…yep, Chewin got what he wanted: me in a choke-hold talking about his series. So, let’s talk about it.

To be honest, when the trailer for War Of Y came out, and then the individual arc stories trailers came out, the things that grabbed my attention were the fanservice bit in New Ship, the evil editing in Y-IDOL and the trio stuff in Wife, but it wasn’t strong enough for me to think that I would think too much about them, just passing commentaries and stuff like that (I talked about this in my first post for NottPun). I was expecting just a few tweets from me talking about the opinions I always had about the whole “controversy” about fanservice (honestly, I was very excited about that part, my mouth was salivating just with the imagination of what New Ship would say about that) but instead I have 5 big ass posts about New Ship, a few asks and a very resumed thread on twitter.

And I’m about to do the same with War Of Managers. And the “funny” thing about WOM is that when I saw the trailer, my first thought was “In this one, we are going to talk about the fights between actors’ managers and the lengths they go to make sure their client is the one that get the most attention, the most opportunity, the most money. A real blood bath”, but I had no idea how right I was and how I wished I was wrong. Legit.

(Also, a tangent before I start rambling about the episode: we got EVERYTHING translated in this episode and the way this simple fact changed a lot of things is just mind blowing. And by everything I really mean everything. And everything is important to understand exactly how this story is going to play out.)

Anyways, I know you are all excited to read what I took from the first episode but I have to be a responsible adult before we get this little baby on the road, so let me lay down the usual disclaimers: everything that you guys will be reading in this post is the result of my observations into very specific parts of the episode, frame by frame repetitive viewing and me getting to the most plausible conclusion after taking all in, meaning that most of the things will be on the speculative territory, others in (maybe) theory territory and some can (or so I think) be proven by in-dialogues and scenes arrangements, so take things with a grain of salt, ok?

Just like I did with the previous 5 posts about NottPun, I will divide this in segments to make it easy for you guys to follow my thought process and also will follow the order of events presented in the episode, with things in bold being mostly dialogues and things in italic being me emphasizing or exaggerating my thoughts. So…who’s ready for the start of the fight?

Characters profiles

I said before that one of the things that I hate the most when it comes to making these theory posts is having the need to make myself a character profile because it can be wildly inaccurate and make my understanding of certain actions wrong just because I had a biased viewing of a character. Granted, we know GusBew from New Ship and we had a glimpse of how they are but we all know how characters in other’s story can have a personality that do not align with their real personality and that’s exactly the case we have here; in terms of ground to analyze, I took what we saw during NS, compared with what we saw on the first episode of WOM, left intact the points of convergence and scrapped what was not shown here.

So, starting with Bew, the one with the most easily personality to assess. Even in NS, he was shown to be a soft and caring guy, sensitive, a bit shy around people but lovable regardless. He’s always eager to please people (something that in this industry seems to be very dangerous), whether is professionally or personally, and also one of those people that sees the good in others, even when the person in question is not exactly good for him (for example, Pun and his borderline “rude” behaviors towards him), to the point of ignoring anything that can hurt him, and also gives people second chances. Basically, a ball of sunshine.

Now, Gus…this guy is the one whose personality got a shift between NS and WOM. When we were introduced to him and Bew, he seemed almost the same as Bew, plus the fact that he seemed a bit protective of Bew and also very patient with him, specially during work, like he trusted Bew and knew that he could do a good job, just needed to relax a bit. Now that we can see more of him, he appears to have a teasing side and maybe flirty, more serious than Bew (I don’t know if that’s because he assumed the “top” role of the ship or if it is a part of his real personality, but anything is valid) and also more intense. He says things but sometimes seems to mean something else, or don’t actually say what he’s supposed to say, or being more specific, he’s very ambiguous.

All in all, they seem to be very good friends, after all they’ve known each other for 5 years, support each other and genuinely wish to see the other having success in whatever they do. A good professional and personal relationship that seems to work perfectly for everyone involved.

Now, and apparently this is a pattern (look at me talking like this isn’t the second story arc), the tone and ambience of the episode served a bit of lore (this is where the translated articles come in), gave a bit of insight of GusBew relationship, the relationship between the managers and the relationship between the actors’ and the managers, as well as a bit more of backstory between Toon (Bew’s manager) and that fucking bitch that used to be Pun’s manager. There isn’t much to talk about GusBew’s relationship, not something that would warrant a whole single post about it, except a few things that I noticed while re-watching the episode to make this post and made my heart boil and hurt…as always.

Also, I realized that we are going to have a few recurring themes in here too, because Chewin likes to make people suffer with consistency and I love that about his storytelling, so get ready to make me bring references of things that I talked about in my posts about NottPun, just to make this post more pretty 😊.

Anyways, going to the themes of the episode, I managed to identify mainly four:

1. Biased media and subversion of expectations;

2. Contractual naiveté;

3. Genuineness of actors’ actions in public;

4. The weight of Fantasy vs Reality.

1. Biased media and subversion of expectations

The episode started with a big clue of how we are viewing this story: through two lenses, one being the person telling the story (Bew) and the other being the media (that represents the outsiders, the fans, the ones that only see what are shown to them and have no other way of forming opinions because of that). Sometimes, we are shown a piece of information through an article, that shapes our perception of a given situation that we are yet to see and right after we have the true information of said situation, that shows us exactly how misleading the media can be when it comes to give information. This is not exclusive to things we are not seeing yet but can also be related to specific situations that already happened and even set the stage to future events of the story.

And nothing shows that better than the articles that precede the beginning of the episode.

I don’t know if you guys paused the episode to read the articles (seriously, the amount of interesting things in those articles is insane, for real) but the first article basically calls GusBew “superstars in the making” (that’s actually the headline of the article) and says that they are more famous/hotter than NottPun, the main couple of Mafia Baby and that because of how big they are becoming, the fans are demanding a fanmeeting for them – this is the episode telling us indirectly that GusBew are rising in the hall of fame, surpassing NottPun’s fame even if GusBew are not the main couple in MF. GusBew are big names now and their treatment is changing accordingly.

The second article, however, starts to paint a different picture regarding GusBew. While saying that the fanmeeting “GusBew Until Eternity” sold out within a blink, a testimony of their growing fame, they also mention, in a question manner, that it sold “too fast”, like the person that wrote that article was genuinely surprised that the fanmeeting of a famous ship really sold out that fast. Granted, that could’ve been just someone innocently surprised about that fact but as far as I’m aware, tabloids in Thailand usually use the time in which it took for the fanmeeting to sell out and not outright asks (because it was a question that was made, not a statement) “sold out, too fast?” – this was the person questioning GusBew growing fame, saying that the same way the fanmeeting sold out too fast, they also got famous too fast.

But the gold of the articles (at least the first articles that appear in the opening of the episode) is the one that talks about the fanmeeting and, oh boy, it was a wild read. Because I managed to extract the text from a screenshot that I took of the article in question, let me put it here verbatim for you guys:

“WHAT A HOT MESS! BEW WAS LEFT ALONE. GUS WAS NO WHERE TO BE FOUND!

The problems continued even in the event. It was almost an hour late from the announced starting time. Gus-Bew's neighbors are enraged they complained until they voice hoarse.

The meeting started; PRAISE BE TO JESUS! But it was only Bew who came out, frightened for his dear life. Gus was nowhere to be found. Poor Bew spent eternity singing (?) live and another decade interviewing with the renowned 'Queen of Fan-meeting' Sprite Samon. Whose professionalism couldn't help resurrect the liveliness of this show.

Fans speculated Gus to be pissed-drunk like a dog. (Gus is a party animal!) People were bashing him for letting Bew handle his dirty laundry once again. Only half-way through the event, Gus fanbase GUS’ HONEY and Bew's PARENTS were at war with each other. The chat box went WILD. Poor little baby Bew was panicking it was heart wrenching to watch. It's hard to be a BL-fans!!! "insert eye-rolls"

So eventually Gus turned up but what happened when he did? Go watch the recording of the live stream. (Yup, you have to pay again to access.) All in all, it was the apocalypse from the get-go. It made us wonder...what would this pair's future be?

Let's keep being nosy – oops – let's keep cheering them on, guys!”

What I want you guys to understand from this article is that:

1 – It was the first thing we saw about the fanmeeting and made us think that it had happened the way it described: that Bew got ditched (the other side of the article, the one written in Thai, had as a headline “Messed up? First fanmeeting without a partner. Was Bew ditched?”), that a “war” (probably a fight, they were just using that word to emphasize that it had been something bad) broke out between the two fandoms (notice that the article did not talk about GusBew fandom, only Gus’ fandom and Bew’s fandom. This could mean that they don’t have a joint fandom, just like NottPun, because them too did not have a joint fandom mentioned in their story arc) and that Bew was so scared that all hope was lost and not even the host, that was someone used to deal with fanmeetings could help him.

2 – It painted Gus as a party animal (“fans speculated Gust to be piss-drunk like a dog”) and suggested that he was not exactly a responsible man (“people were bashing him for letting Bew handle his dirty laundry once again”, meaning that it was normal for Gust to just not be where he was supposed to be, and that Bew was the one responsible for cleaning up his mess. The article was basically saying that Gus was a jerk and Bew was suffering for it.

3 – The person that wrote the article used a pretty sarcastic and ironic tone on their words, like they were mocking the entire situation (“But it was only Bew who came out, frightened for his dear life”; “Poor Bew spent eternity singing (?) live and another decade interviewing with the renowned 'Queen of Fan-meeting' Sprite Samon”; “Poor little baby Bew was panicking it was heart wrenching to watch. It's hard to be a BL-fans!!! "insert eye-rolls"”), painting Bew as this person in need of being saved and Gus as this very bad, very wicked person, that was using Bew for whatever reason, at the same time suggesting that GusBew was a needle away of just stop being a ship because this was so unbearable.

After the episode actually begins, we have Bew, alone, in the dressing room, having his makeup done for the meeting (not gonna lie, the first thing I thought when I saw that scene was “why is Bew alone, shouldn’t he be with Gus?”), the small pep talk between Bew and Toon (here we see his pleasing personality, when he says that he “don’t want to disappoint her” because she “had done so much for him”) and then Pla (Gus’ manager) appears alone in the dressing room, worried about the fact that Gus was not there where he was supposed to be, getting ready for the fanmeeting. Because we already saw the article saying that the fanmeeting was a failure, or something like that, we are expecting the drama to start, showing that the article already shaped our understanding on how the situation will play out.

To make matters worse, when Bew calls Gus, the first shot we have of Gus in the episode is of him drinking alcohol (remember the part of the article that says that fans were speculating that Gus was late because he was drunk?) and there is a white substance on his nose, that he keeps cleaning off (I don’t think I need to tell you guys what this could be implying) and he do not seem very interested in actually move to go to the fanmeeting place. And when Gus tells Bew to give the information that he would be there soon to his manager, the first thing that Bew says is “you tell me to do things every time” (here we have the ”Gus letting Bew handle his dirty laundry once again” bit mentioned in the article). Basically, we were seeing the article happening in front of our eyes.

But then, when we actually get to see the fanmeeting happening, we realize that the article were a bit misleading in its words, because the order of the events was not correct: instead of being Bew coming to the stage -> him singing -> the interview between Bew and the host -> the said war between the fandoms + the chat box going wild -> Gus appearing on the event, we see that it was actually Bew coming to the stage -> a small interview with the host -> him singing -> Gus appearing midway his singing with the cake and the rest we see how it went. The funny thing is that the article listed all the “bad things” that happened at the event (with a very high dose of exaggeration and some lies sprinkled in the middle) and when it came to the part where it was supposed to say what happened when Gus appeared, it tells the reader to “watch the recording of the live stream”, instead of telling simply that Gus was late because he was preparing a surprise for Bew.

The article was more interested in creating this bleak scenario, turn Gus into the bad guy of the situation and Bew in the damsel in distress, than on give an accurate description of what really happened during the event. And more than we, the viewers, having our expectations turned into this situation (when Gus pick up the phone from the table, we can briefly see baking materials there and even see that he was wearing an apron) but because we had already read the article, we focused on the fact that he was drinking and attributed his behavior to that single action, the people who will only read the article and weren’t either in the even venue or watched the live streaming, will see those words, take them at face value and believe in everything that was written there because they have no other way of proving them wrong; and I guarantee you guys that not many people would pay to see the recording of a live streaming of an event that had so many things happening disastrously.

The article literally did GusBew dirty. And will win money while doing so.

After the event, there was one last article whose headline was “Sweet, touching, precious. GusBew are more than shipped couple!” and the text on the picture read “We are family: the industry won’t break us”. These two sentences can be used to set the tone for the next events of the story (the first insinuating that their relationship is more than just professional) and also as a response to what the media/industry is saying about them (the second one insinuating that no matter how hard the industry tries – industry here being the whole ecosystem that revolves around the actors – they will always remain together because their bond is not superficial). And the funny thing about the last article before the second part of the episode is that precedes Bew’s voice over on the picture the four of them took at the end of the event: “you must be wondering, how is there war when there is so much love. The title is Manager’s War, so the story should start from there”; this was a direct contradiction to the “we are family” part of the article, because it was telling us that the industry did manage to break them, the bond they thought was strong enough to survive anything thrown at them, that the “love” people were seeing, them thanking their managers, calling them “family” were nothing but empty words.

The beautiful beginning of a tragedy.

2. Contractual naiveté

Ok, this part is going to be short but that doesn’t make it the least important, because it messes with my degree in law school and how easy it is to scam/lie to people when it comes to legal stuff like this. It literally pained me to watch the conversation surrounding contracts in this episode.

So, in the first scenes of Bew and Toon together, while she was trying to calm him down, Bew said that he “didn’t want to disappoint her” because she “had done so much for him” and because of that he wanted to “do that (all the works, whether being s simple fanmeeting or an acting job) properly to thank her”. This shows clearly that he feels indebted to her, because she helped him get to where he was at the moment and deserved only good things in return, adding the fact that he also refers to Toon as “mom”, a nurture figure in his life, someone he can rely on. Later, during the ending (?) ment of the event, when GusBew called their managers to the stage, this is what Bew had to say about Toon:

“I would like to thank Mommy Toon, for adoring me and taking care of me. Did you all know that me and mommy Toon, we never made a contract, it’s all heart and trust, because I love and trust her the most without needing a paper contract. I want you all to love her like I do because I’ve never seen her as a manager, but I see her as another mother.”

Now, I guess you guys can see how this is a recipe for disaster, but things can go even worse when you start to realize that Bew is literally working for someone without having any kind of legal protection, the person responsible for managing him let that happen without being worried and no one around them seems to care about the possible problems that a lack of contract can cause in a near future. Because while working alongside someone you trust can ease a bit of worries one may have, we should never forget that business operate in a different setting than a mere friendship or emotional connection; when your rights are in stake, trust and heart won’t be enough to help you in court if something goes wrong.

Seeing how Bew thinks that just because there is a seemingly trustworthy connection between them, that she adores and takes care of him and he loves her, a contract is unnecessary is a commentary on how is easy to use emotional connection to abuse people professionally and even get away in situations where the law would usually get involved. The way Toon, the older one between them, is just letting that professional relationship continue without a contract rubs me the wrong way and gives a manipulative personality to her, that reminds me of someone else.

Oh, and to make matters worse, apparently Bew and Toon have met each other for more or less 5 years. Do you guys know who also had meet for this exact time period? Pun and that bitch that used to be his manager. Yes, Toon cares for Bew, but do you guys know who also seemed to care about someone else in this business? That bitch that used to be Pun’s manager. Bew loves and trust Toon, but do you guys know who also used to love and trust someone else in this industry? Pun. The parallels between BewToon’s relationship and Pun and that bitch that used to be his manager’s relationship is really unsettling and goes even deeper when you remember that Bew was supposed to be under that bitch’s management, but Toon stole Bew from her.

Yes, Bew dodged a bullet by being with a different manager but how can we be relieved that he’s not being used sexually for someone else’s gratification when he’s under a somewhat illegal management and no one seems to care about that? How can the industry, that wants as many people as possible to be in its roster, simply let this kind of thing happen and not have some sort of regulation to avoid abusive practices? How can we look at BewToon’s relationship and see love and care between them when she is basically making him work for her for free, exempted of any legal obligations she may have by being his manager?

How evil can someone be to use another person’s naiveté like this and still pretend to be a good person? How can I look at Toon and not see manipulation coming from her when things like this are happening? How can I trust her when she isn’t giving me reasons to do that?

What I wanna say with this is, even if it was just a passing comment and this never gets mentioned again or pays off into something, never let someone use “love” and “trust” in the place of a contract. Protect your rights, protect your incomes, protect your assets, protect your image; you never know when and where things can go wrong.

Because no matter what we think about, something always goes wrong.

3. Genuineness of actors’ actions in public

Now, let me stir up some controversy here…oh, I mean, let me highlight the controversy that the episode itself stirred up and talk about it.

So, talking about the fanmeeting (I’m in the third theme and didn’t even went past the first part of the episode, that is an hour long! That’s how much information we got in this episode), we got the people in the venue singing happy birthday to Bew, a very small speech from Gus and then a little thank you speech from Bew, where he talked about the support he was getting from people, as a boy for the outskirts that never imagined that would be famous one day, and stuff like that. After the part where he says that he was very lucky, Bew looks at Toon and she makes a gesture to signalize that he should cry, and Bew did that, prompting a “don’t cry my baby” in the chat box from the live stream, followed by Bew thanking Gus for being by his side for the past 5 years, a hug shared between GusBew and after Gus looked at Pla, Pla makes a gesture in his cheek, signalizing that he should kiss Bew in the cheek, and Gus did that; and that exchange brought to my mind my favorite subject to talk about: fanservice.

But, before I continue, let me ask you guys a question: have you ever looked at your favorite ship interacting in public and felt like they were following a script?

Seeing what happened in a moment where it should have, by logic, be totally unscripted and real, considering that Gus had just made a birthday surprise for Bew, being manipulated by their managers, I immediately thought about OhmNanon’s fanmeeting and a specific thing that happened. To put everyone in the same page, because I know not everyone follows the same actors that I do, a few months ago, during an event, OhmNanon had a small disagreement while surrounded by people, and that made some people speculate that they were having some kind of problems between them (remember when I talked about social media and how it warped the way we view human relationships? Yeah), prompting Ohm to go on twitter and explain that he was just a bit tired from work and that made him exaggerate in his reaction to something that Nanon said/did, but everything had already been settled between them, so people didn’t need to worry about them.

What’s that have to do with the fanmeeting in WOM? Well, during their ending ments in their fanmeeting, Ohm mentioned something about the fight that happened, saying that because they had been meeting every day, he felt irritated but after he went back and thought about that, realized he hadn’t been mature, so he wanted to apologize to Nanon because of his actions. Nanon then said that he felt hurt about the situation and frustrated but because he loved Ohm, he couldn’t actually get mad at him, that he cared and was worried about Ohm and stuff like that. The ment ended with them screaming that they loved each other, and with a very tight hug, them crying of emotion, all nine yards; it was a very intense and personal moment, that happened to be happening in front of a lot of people.

However, a few days, probably a week or so, in an interview, while talking about the experience that was the fanmeeting, a reporter asked Ohm if what had happened (the emotional part of the fanmeeting, specifically their ending ments) was real or scripted and, I kid you not, Ohm’s expression changed from happy for talking about how good had been the fanmeeting to a bit (very) irritated and upset with the question. He professionally answered that it had been everything real, but that situation got kinda stuck in my mind and this episode brought it up. Because it raises a very good question regarding what we see and what we consider real when it comes to this, that is how can we really testify that the interactions that we see happening between the actors are really genuine and should we really put that much expectation onto those same interactions as a way of validate what we think about the relationship between those same actors?

In my post for episode 2 of NS, I talked about how the discourse about fanservice revolved around two major “conclusions” regarding it: either the fanservice would make the relationship fake or it would make the relationship real, based on what each person thought about fanservice and used a few examples to explain exactly how the online discourse was very shallow, but people did not want to admit that. And when we have a situation where gestures during an emotional moment are “influenced” by third parties, there’s no way someone wouldn’t start to question things like that (I don’t know about you guys, but my brain fried a little when I thought about that) and see with a bit of distrust everything that happens between actors.

But here’s the thing: fanservice is something that the majority of actors do because they have to entertain their fans and keep them happy. Fanservice is literally just something they are inclined to do because it helps them stay relevant and also gather more people that may like the synergy between them. While fanservice can be used to understand the nature of the relationship between the actors, it also can just be a fun thing that they decide to do together (vide MaxTul, for example. They are quirky and their fanservice can be very…sensual at times but everyone can see that they are friends, very good friends, and enjoy these little moments of teasing and playing). Also, the act of interpreting a relationship of two people we barely know personally (regardless of what the person in question decides to disclose online) based on how they act in public can be very misleading and toxic, to both parties, and lead to feelings of disappointment that can, at times, be avoided.

Then, I bring back the question I made earlier: have you ever looked at your favorite ship interacting in public and felt like they were following a script?

Would you look at them differently if displays of affection were just a part of the fanservice they do? If the moments we deem personal and important between them are nothing but a pre-established plan to make the fans swoon at them? If all the “I love you” and “I care for you” and the “let’s stay together like this for a long time” are just sentences they have to say to add a sense of longevity to the ship?

And let me add more questions to the above ones: how about the different ways people express affection, is it fair to use our metrics to dictate how they should behave just for our satisfaction? If they do things just to please us, does that automatically make their relationship fake? Is it bad to do things to please other people or there are limits to it? Where is the line people should not cross when it comes to affection display?

4. The weight of Fantasy vs Reality

Let’s continue talking about fanservice (yay!) and go a layer down, because if there is something that I like to do is to analyze things and make my brain go into overdrive because of it: the dissonance between what people fantasize about and what people actually want in real life.

After the workshop for their new series, Toon and Pla were talking and Pla mentioned that on their post on twitter, that contained a clip of the workshop, people were “cheering GusBew to be a real couple” and Toon answers with a “at first they will cheer but it they announce they are real, everyone will stop shipping and will stop watching”, adding that she wants GusBew to be “brothers that act real”, that it was “already good enough”. I could mention that what Pla wants is the exact opposite of what Toon wants, that is GusBew to “be real but act like brothers” but what I want you guys to focus on is on the part where Toon says that having GusBew revealing (it that was the case) that they were a real couple would signify that people would stop shipping and watching, aka supporting them, just because of that.

And as a queer person, I have opinions about that.

It is almost common knowledge that BL was primarily created by straight women to straight women, involving a mlm couple that would catch their attention and serve as an escapism and also self-insert fanfiction, where they could have the dynamics of a straight couple in a non-straight couple without the weight that the imbalance that a straight relationship carries with it (hence why it is very common in antique BL stories to have so much emphasis on couples with strict fixed sex positions – the seme and uke bit – and how the sex position had to be very visible through the personalities of the characters). The idea of having a fictional gay (I’m using this word into the sense of fully gay characters, because bisexual men were not common and are not exactly common in BL media made by straight women) couple whom they could project their fantasies is the reason that makes BL media so attractive to some women, how they can use the staple of self-insertion but also have the ability to detach themselves from the narrative whenever they wanted or felt the need to do it, without having to suffer the consequences of it (it can be the reason why there are so many women used as villains in BL media, because it represents the villain of the women reading the story, using the character that sees the woman in question as villain as a placeholder for them); believe or not, there are plenty of women, that are religious, that watch and consume BL content but outright say that they not support gay relationships in real life.

Why? Because queer media is still largely seeing as just a fantasy, a story that was invented just to be consumed and then left behind as soon as the new shiny story comes by, a romance novel that does not represent reality.

A good example would be the south korean reality show “Merry Queer”, that featured stories of queer couples on their coming out journeys and how was their daily like as queer couples. While a lot of people were expressing support for the show and just being positive about it, I remember seeing one comment of someone saying that “having BL is fine, because is just fantasy but a reality show was too much and they did not support it” and that comment made me think in how some people love to watch BL (after all, the public it caters too is very large and also gives a lot of revenue), love to talk about BL, gush about shipped couples, make fanfictions, make fanarts, say that their shipped couple “is real” but as soon as a queer story (we all know that BL rarely depicts queer stories) is showcased, as soon as the fantasy wall is broken and the reality that the couple they love to watch on screen is something that actually happens in real life hits, their discourse changes abruptly and suddenly queer people are not worthy of existing.

Another example: “His Man”, the first south Korean gay dating show. A YouTube commenter, in a live or video (I don’t remember exactly which), asked if he should consider the reality show a BL (as in, put HM in the same category of a BL series) and contestant used his IG account to explicitly say that his life was not a fantasy, it was reality, and should be treated as such.

In both instances, we have a clear case of people “supporting” BL media (fantasy) but acting disgusted with queer people (reality), because it forces them to understand the fact that their beloved BL’s, even if they are fantasy in terms of being in a fictional ambience, are a re-imagining of a real group of people. And they don’t like that because when it becomes real, it stops being “appealing” to them.

And Toon knows that. Even if she’s just talking through a business standpoint, her words are very much true because it highlights something that we see every day: (not to bash or send hate to anyone, just saying things the way they are) some people go through big lengths to show support for (seemingly, because we don’t assume sexuality in this household) straight actors but deny the same opportunity to the queer actors that we have. And I’m not talking about a situation where someone just didn’t like the actor’s personality (after all, we are not obligated to like everyone in this world) but because they are explicitly or publicly queer. The support, the cheers, the money, stop coming in when they come out.

Even Pla, the one so interested in turning GusBew real, is doing it so under the guise of “no risk, no fame”, meaning just for the money, because he wants them to be real but act like friends, brothers, he wants GusBew to pretend to be something they are not (brothers), the same way Toon wants GusBew to pretend to be something they are not (a couple), both only thinking in what would bring to them more benefits, more opportunities, more space in the industry, more money. For them, the queerness is a marketable trait, that can be switched on or off at beck and call, only when necessary and only under their specifications, the “you can be gay, but only this (insert some microaggression/homophobic word here) type of gay” situation; even when the queerness is acknowledged, it comes with specifications, with stipulations.

Us just being queer is not enough.

What I mean with all of this is to say that there is a very big difference between the idea of a shipped couple being real, the possibility, the fantasy, and the reality of having a queer couple: while one is practically a safe space for people outside queer spaces, the other is the brute reality that the rose tinted glasses people are wearing to consume BL media are hiding the existence of queer people outside of their fantasy world, of their safe space, of their ideas. Our reality, our struggles, our pain, none of that is attractive, is pretty, is appealing to them, so they prefer to ignore our existence and stick to a watery down version of our lives.

*********************************************

Now that the themes I identify were all covered up, let’s talk about the rest of the episode, that consists in GusBew, their relationship between them, their relationship between their managers and a few things that I thought about the happenings of this episode. A small disclaimer (yes, another one, sue me) before I start, I don’t guarantee that the things you guys will read from here on out will actually make sense because I have a lot of conflicted ideas in my mind, that keep changing every time I rewatch the episode, so bear with me, ok? Ok.

So, I really don’t know how to start this section because, for some reason, it is very difficult for me to talk about the relationship GusBew have, something that did not happen with NottPun. GusBew, before anything else, are friends. They’ve known each other for 5 years, had their breakthrough in the industry together, are having their first main roles together, they are basically experimenting a lot of things together. Like I said on Gus’ character profile, he seems to enjoy be around Bew, teasing him and even being a bit flirty but Bew just tells him to stop doing those things because there are not fans around (I’m not using this as an excuse just to mention NottPun but this reminded me of Pun saying the exact same thing during his talk with Nott before the event where he fainted, on episode 2), also being a bit “sus” when he looks at Bew but, other than that, there seem to be very good friends.

Just like happened with NS, we seem to be getting this story through Bew’s perspective, considering the fact that he’s the one doing the narration (at least in episode 6) and the episode really focuses on Bew, his expressions and his feelings, more than it does regarding Gus (there are a few intentional slips regarding him but they are very scarce and you need to know exactly what to look for to catch them) and his acceptance of the fact that he likes Gus (finally a non-speculative sentence, because he himself tells that). That being said, we are left with the option of filling the blanks with the information that are given to us, to make sense of the things that the story is trying to tell us.

Contrary to what happened to NottPun, where I said that there were some early mutual feelings between them, I feel like doing the same with GusBew would be a very risky move because I don’t have clues to lead me to that conclusion and with Gus’ attitudes in this episode, I really don’t want to say that he likes Bew; and this is where my conflicted ideas come along because:

1 – I said in his character profile that Gus is very ambiguous, because he says something but seems to be meaning other thing entirely different. There is this aura of expectancy coming from him in certain situations, like he’s waiting for Bew to say a very specific thing to him, something that he knows but for some reason simply don’t say out loud. Sometimes he looks at Bew with shiny eyes, too many emotions being displayed in there, but those emotions don’t stay displayed for long, being quickly replaced with his usual expression, the serious man that walks with Bew.

I have this theory that Gus knows for a while that Bew likes him (Bew’s feelings did not start recently, I’m almost certain of that) exactly because of this “expectant aura” that surrounds him when he’s around Bew, but I digress.

2 – How far can we trace Pla’s plan to get GusBew more famous? Because since the start of the episode, they were pushing the idea of GusBew becoming real, with their “no risk, no fame” motto, but they only actually told Gus to have sex with Bew after hearing Bew confessing to have feelings for Gus (based on what we know so far, that’s not that much to begin with) and not before. Yes, they used the workshop situation to make Gus and Bew spend the night in the same place, but Gus didn’t try to do anything until Pla told him to, which is very telling.

Also, what exactly Pla said to Gust to make him accept the idea of having sex with Bew? Did Pla told Gus that Bew liked him or was, at the very least, interested in him? If so, Gus only accepted because it was his manager telling him so or he used this as an excuse (just like NottPun and their “workshop” sessions in 701) to do something he wanted to do for a really long time? Because none of them (GusBew, I mean) strike me as a hungry-famed people, so to say that Gus only did that for a more “realistic acting” sounds very far-fetched.

Adding to that, what was the motive that made Pla got to that point? Yes, they want Gus to be more famous and Gus’ fame is momentarily attached to Bew’s, but what was the prime motivation? More realist acting, considering that they got very satisfied with the outcome of GusBew’s “rehearsal”, but it seems too risky (even for someone that seems to be used to the idea of taking risks) to use such extreme methods just for that. And the fact that we got an article talking about the workshop, with the headline “EXCLUSIVE: SECRET WITNESS METHOD ACTING? BL-COUPLE FORCED TO 'IMPROVISE' AND FELL IN LOVE(?) DURING WORKSHOP” (the caps lock is from the article itself, not from me), with the word “forced” can give a very bad image to GusBew and their managers, something that goes against what the managers want.

3 – Gus insinuates that he has feelings for Bew for the past 4 to 5 years, that is the time that they’ve known each other. When him and Bew are talking about the conversation that happened between their managers, Gus tells Bew that “he’s an actor, so he should know what’s real and what’s fake” and asks him right after that if “for the past 4 to 5 years, Bew think he was acting all along?” and if Bew thought that Gus “was faking with him”. I can be reading too much into it but the way he talked, the words he used, lead me to that “conclusion”.

Also, the way they talked in here made it seem like something had happened between them before they had sex the day before the shooting, whether it was them having sex or just a kiss.

I really, really, don’t want to say that Gus also likes Bew but sometimes it seems like that’s the case. I also don’t want to think of the possibility of Gus knowing for a long time that Bew liked him and used that as a way of going up on the fame ladder, because it would render their friendship fake and turn him into a jerk, something that the text messages that he exchanges with Pla (posted on the Copy A twitter account and translated by BillySengOFC) really seems to be highlighting:

“Pla: How?

Gus: Full

Pla: According to the plan?

Gus: Accordingly

Pla: Perfect

Gus: OK

Pla: Did you take a clip?

Gus: P’Pla!!!

Pla: Oh, I'm kidding, that's all.

Gus: ...

Pla: Close the job.”

I’m trying to not make quick judgements in this situation because I feel there is much to this story, so I will just stay still and wait to see how this will play out, because we did not have anything related to Gus on this episode for me to say something about what happened. And when I decide not to judge people in this type of situations, I tend to be rewarded in the end (me when I decided to wait for Nott’s explanation on why he was the one selected to be on TTV and not Pun), so let’s wait and see.

However, there is a small thing I wanna talk before I finish this post and it is related to the conversation that happened between Toon and Pla. While they were arguing about the fact that Pla told Gus to intoxicate Bew, to make Bew think that Gus liked him, Pla asks Toon “why don’t you think that Gus could actually like Bew?” and Toon answers by saying “like? Like what? Gus likes women”. Bew, that was listening to their conversation, then starts remembering what had happened between him and Gus and thinks that Gus only used him to get famous (I mean, it is what looks like, but I won’t make any judgement about that yet), and after that we have the following article displayed (the caps lock is from the article itself, not from me):

“GUS GASIDECH

2019

NO GIRLFRIEND, BUT OPEN FOR LOVE

SAID LOVE IS GENDERLESS

BY PANUWAT INTHAWAT

GUS BARES IT ALL. SAID HE DOESN'T HAVE A GIRLFRIENDYET. NOW EXCITED TO WORK WITH NEW PARTNER, BEW IN UPCOMING BL ABOUT "MAFIA. FOR FUTURE LOVE INTEREST, HE'S LOOKING FOR SOMEONE WHO UNDERSTAND HIM. OF ANY GENDER. SINCE 'LOVE IS GENDERLESS.

(Text: Have no-one beside but still open because love has no gender!)”

Let me say two things about this:

1 – The fact that this article came right after Toon said that Gus liked women (insinuating he couldn’t like Bew because he was straight) could be seen as a commentary on how some actors are prone to queerbaiting when they are not queer (by giving broad answers like those that Gus gave, they are keeping the possibility of them not being straight in the air by not actually saying they are queer. This is not me saying that people should come out or that we should force people to come out but just how some people just use this “loophole” as a way of not alienate the fans they have, whether the fans are straight or queer).

2 – The fact that the article came right after Toon said that Gus liked women could be a way of the series saying that Gus really is queer but, probably because he used to be with women publicly (and hid the men he got involved with), is read as straight. This led me to a very, very, annoying though that me, as a bisexual woman, really see roaming around in BL media: bi erasure.

I AM TIRED OF HAVING TO WITNESS BI ERASURE!

Seriously, the first thing I thought when Toon said that Gus liked women was “and?”, because this apparent lack of bisexual existence in the BL universe, where either you are straight or you are fully homosexual reminds me of the time I used to have internalized biphobia, one of the reasons that made me take so long to accept my sexuality, because of this fixed idea that people are not allowed to be attracted to more than one gender and being with one gender automatically means that you “picked a side” (one of the things that some people say about bisexual people is that we need to pick a side, make a decision, choose who are we exactly attracted to) and can never “revert the situation”. When you deal with this type of prejudice, it turns annoying pretty fast and sometimes you just cannot bear to see it anymore without having an aneurism or two.

I can count with less than ten fingers the number of canonically bisexual male characters in BL media (I could talk about pansexual people or just multisexual people in general but it is easy for me to talk about bisexuality, as is something I’m more familiarized with), without having to infer their bisexuality or having people straight up telling that character X is not bisexual (Wei Wuxian, from Mo Dao Zhu Shi, and Tine, from 2gether, are a prime example of this), how bisexual people are portrayed in BL media when they exist (in Together With Me: The Next Chapter, there are multiple instances of Korn making very passive-aggressive comments about how the possibility of Knock cheating on him were very high. Granted, he had reasons to think like that, considering the fact that Knock cheat on his girlfriend with Korn, but when you add the knowledge that Knock is canonically bisexual, things take a different turn because it paints bisexual people as more prone to cheat than the others, another prejudice that is thrown into us).

I don’t think the screenwriters were thinking that far away when they made that scene and the article, because there is another possibility in here, that Gus really is gay and just pretends to be straight for some reason (it happens more times than we can count) but the way all the mix just rubbed me the wrong way, I couldn’t not comment about it. Maybe I’m very passionate about it because I consider myself technically a baby queer (I only came out to myself fully in 2018, but had been thinking about the possibility of not being straight since 2011) and I’m fighting a lot of things at once, and one day this won’t really bother me as much, but right now bi erasure pisses me off in a way that I cannot explain to anyone, so I needed to talk a bit about it.

Well, this was my theory/analysis post about the first episode of GusBew story arc and, even with me fully knowing that it could’ve been better than this, I don’t think my brain is capable of thinking more than this when the second episode (and seventh of WOY) is coming out in a few hours (more like 15 hours in my time zone) and I will need to be prepared to take more notes and try to create a more cohesive narrative that doesn’t paint Gus as a jerk and showcases how nasty the managers can be (I mean, Toon actually gave Gus food containing shrimp, something he’s allergic to so, that’s a given) and also gives more highlight to Gus apart from him being Bew’s partner.

Like I said at the beginning of the post, I wasn’t intending in making this kind of posts about WOM and didn’t really think that I would have something to talk about it but after the episode, I have to admit: Cheewin does know how to grab your attention with compelling stories. Yes, I’m sold and yes, I’m here to stay.

#warofy #war of y #war of y: war of managers #war of y episode 6 #gusbew #gus x bew #bewgus #bew x gus #theory #analysis #megapost

Y'all, I don't know who is still watching War of Y (because I feel like it's been crickets in the tag since War of Managers started), but the end of episode 9, like, damn. Talk about plot twist.

I won't spoil, but that ending just made slogging through the last few episodes worth it. I can't imagine how they're gonna wrap up in next weeks episode for Bew and Gus.

#not gonna lie I did have some suspicions earlier in the episode #but they did an excellent job of continuously redirecting me #I was surprised #good job guys #war of y #gusbew #gus x bew #bewgus #bew x gus #war of y: war of managers #war of y the series #thai bl

I am deeply enjoying Bew as the mastermind, both in terms of openly with Gus and secretly behind his back for more nefarious purposes. I love when the sweet ones are sweet but also not-so-sweet. Bew started out sweet but that broke inside him when he was betrayed by the people he thought loved him and now he's just out here plotting all their demise... except Gus. Because he loves Gus enough to keep him. But he's learned to never trust again.

#war of y #war of y the series #bl drama #thai bl #bl series #thai drama #thaibl #thai series #gus x bew #bew x gus #bewgus #gusbew #poor gus and bew #this was interesting but i kinda thought it was happening #bew did such a 180

You know what I just thought about. Bew started punching Gus when he accused him of leaking the sex tape. But he did it himself. So he just wanted to punch Gus for what he did and took the opportunity!

#war of y #war of y the series #bewgus #gusbew #bew x gus #bew baby was ANGRY #and he said this is my shot

I knew Bew had that photo of Looney Toon’s account a little too close at hand. But this episode was still a whole rollercoaster of did he do it? Did he not? Why would he? But who else would have the video? Oh he’s being extorted. Did he also do the drugging thing? Did Toon? Yo’s never going away. This is how all the police procedural shows go. You commit a crime, and now you have to kill to cover up. Sorry, Yo. But yeah. Definitely hurt when Bew said Gus sounds like Pla. And Gus said Bew sounds like Toon. Their “moms” made them this way. Their final episode is going to hurt. And probably mostly for Gus.

#bew x gus #war of y #I was like this is it!#although I feel like we’re supposed to be sympathetic to her and Pla now #but they did horrible things #I’m glad Toon was crying #the truth is coming out!#the number of times #bewgus #spoilers #gusbew #so that’s something #so I’m still mad #it didn’t but Gus and Bew did #she should cry #war of y the series

GusBew, army of two pawns in a warzone: rose tinted privacy, bridges burned, treason and rainbow front (Episode 8)

The title sounds weird, right? I know. And the title is not going to be the only weird thing you guys are going to see here today.

So, before I start the post, I would like to say a few things that will serve as some sort of explanation as to why the post is going to be the way is going to be (or just an explanation as to why I don’t sound as enthusiastic as I did in earlier posts) and, even if it takes a few minutes of your reading time, I would like for you guys to read it anyways.

Ever since I started doing analysis posts, I always had in mind that I was doing it primarily because I tend to overthink when I watch things and taking it all out from my brain helps diminishing the overdrive that takes hold of me when that happens. I never expected so many people to read and engage with the things that I write (I didn’t even know how Tumblr communities worked when I posted my first PuthKaeng post back in 2021) and also never expected to enjoy writing the things that I think when I watch certain shows, the act of rewatching and discovering new things that I didn’t see before, exchanging opinions with other people, etc. Running this blog, the way I do makes me genuinely happy, and I like the idea of enjoying writing the things that I do, because even if I have this weird sense of urgency, I only talk this extensively about the things that I like.

This is where War Of Managers, and particularly this episode, the one being the subject in question, comes in. I was not expecting WOM to have the same pace and storytelling of NS, because even if it talks about the acting industry and managers, it does so in different optics, with different characters and different backgrounds. What I was expecting, however, was to have, at least, the same level of carefulness and temporary transition that NS was so good in bringing us; it was not exactly perfect, there are a few things that could’ve been made better in the first story arc, but it was coherent and understandable. War Of Managers is not being treated with the same care and I’m kinda sad about that.

Sad because WOM has a good plot, immense potential, fairly good actors being involved and is compelling enough to grab your attention and make you wonder what will happen next. However, there is this weird…I don’t know…presentation like the production team didn’t want to make NS and WOM very similar (because, again, it talks about actors and managers) but in that quest to make that distinction clear, ended up getting lost in how to do it and instead of give themselves time to see it the story actually makes sense the way it was designed, just threw it there and prayed for a good result. I’m not saying that WOM is bad, because it’s not, but episode left me with this nagging feeling that the story is not quite there yet; and that took all the will I had into writing this post.

This post is only being written, mainly because I hate leaving things unfinished and because I feel like I owe it to all of you. Episode 8 is NOT something that I think I’m capable of talking about the way it should be talked about, because it was a bigger mess that I thought episode 7 was and that’s saying a lot coming from me. I legit don’t know if this feeling is on me because of the lack of subtitles in very important moments of the episode (I thought we had gone past that. AisPlay, please, pull your shit together) of because of the overall messiness of the timeline of the episode but right now I’m not very excited about this story arc (my feelings can change, it has happened before, so I have faith that it will happen again).

Anyways, sad writer rant aside, let me get back to my normal programming and properly begin this post with the basics here, of me being a responsible adult and laying down the usual disclaimers: everything that you guys will be reading in this post is the result of my observations into very specific parts of the episode, frame by frame repetitive viewing and me getting to the most plausible conclusion after taking all in, meaning that most of the things will be on the speculative territory, others in (maybe) theory territory and some can (or so I think) be proven by in-dialogues and scenes arrangements, so take things with a grain of salt, ok?

Contrary to the older posts, I will not divide this one is theme segments but rather in two parts, the first half and the second half of the episode respectively, because even if I know some of the subjects the episode touched and pretended to talk about, the execution was not exactly something that I see as appropriate (?) or something like that. Also, this post will bore of a “talk” from my side to what went through my head while I was watching the episode and I hope that it becomes an interesting way of me to expose things to you all.

Without further ado, let’s dive into it.

First half – GusBew living their rockstars phase, but not really

The episode started bringing back something that I talked about in the previous posts, one being in the very first episode of GusBew story arc and the other in the previous episode. The first one is related with the fact that there was no contract between Bew and Toon and how that fact alone was a very disaster heavy recipe, because it opened doors to things going wrong and things always goes wrong, is how life works and to quote what I said in this post, “seeing how Bew thinks that just because there is a seemingly trustworthy connection between them, that she adores and takes care of him and he loves her, a contract is unnecessary is a commentary on how is easy to use emotional connection to abuse people professionally and even get away in situations where the law would usually get involved. The way Toon, the older one between them, is just letting that professional relationship continue without a contract rubs me the wrong way and gives a manipulative personality to her”. While BewToon are talking in his room, each one laying down in the opposite sides of one another but with their heads close (this could be a commentary to how they are now operating in different sides of things but still close to each other. Or it could be nothing, who knows), Toon begs for Bew to say something, as she is worried about him and Bew asks her if she “wants him to go to her and cry, forgive her for everything, go back to being the same and act as if nothing happened”, making Toon deny that those were her intentions and say that she didn’t mean to do what she did and that Bew could scold her all he wanted.

Bew then says that she “was not wrong” (not gonna lie, when he said that I literally screamed “yes, she is, don’t enable her, you were doing great”) and that he was the one in the wrong “for not being smart and make a contract with her like the law says” because “the contract from the heart that they have is why she can do anything to him, hurt him” (a commentary on how is easy to use emotional connection to abuse people – exactly what I talked about here) but Toon denies again and says that “she didn’t mean to hurt him”, something that is hard to believe because she was very aware of the consequences of her choices, knew very well she was playing with Bew’s feelings, knew that he would feel betrayed, that the trust between them would be broken but decided to do it anyway (Gus also did the same but we are talking about different people with very different roles of importance in Bew’s life. I swear I’m not trying to defend another man online) and now was trying to coax Bew back into see her the way he used to see her before all of that mess was unraveled in front of him but Bew, however, is already catching on to her manipulative behavior and tells Toon to “go, before the anger turns into hatred”.

After this, we have Bew looking at the account that decided to copycat GossipXoxo, and the account is very determined in ruining not only Gus’ image (still propagating the “alcoholic” agenda) but also Bew’s image, by calling him “two-faced bitch” and saying that those two “traits” make GusBew a perfect match. But what I wanna talk about this part is the tweet where the owner account says that “a dirty whore should be locked in a brother” and how that, at least to me, seems like an unintentional commentary to the ”purity obsession” that many people seem to have around celebrities. And I know I said I wasn’t going to talk about specific themes here but this also ties up with the theme of expectations vs reality, in terms of how people prefer the fantasy but scowls at the reality of things; little rant warning.

So this person, the one trying to “expose” GusBew, calls Bew a two-faced bitch and after that a dirty whore, alluding to the video of GusBew having sex (that’s a can of worms I won’t open right now) and also to the image that Bew specifically “projects” to the external world (after all, his fans are called “parents”, this to say that people feel entitled to his personality and behavior, just like some parents do with their children), almost like saying that Bew’s image is completely dissonant with his real personality and that he should be shamed for that. The way this person, using a very private moment of GusBew, talks about Bew having sex as something shameful strikes me as weird but also something that kinda makes sense in the context of how people demand high morals from famous people, because they are public figures and “should set examples and standards” and then shame and hate them for showing everyday actions (like dating, for example) because it goes against the image the public want them to have, because is the famous people job to be what they are not (pure, saints and immaculate people), as famous people are very much compared to gods in some people minds and those people tend to take that to the very extreme.

This also makes me think in how, in actors case, people are “fine” with them doing those things deemed “immoral” (drinking, partying, having sex) on TV because they know is not real, is not the real person doing those things but a character, are also “fine” with the idea of their shipped couple engaging in sexual activities and being lewd in public but as soon as those same actors are shown actually doing those things (or hint at doing those things) it becomes a problem because it creates a conflict between the godlike image some people put into them and what they actually do in their private lives, in an environment where people feel entitled to the actors entire life, not only professional but personal also. An actor dating someone that is not their shipped partner? Forbidden. A member of a famous music group getting married and having kids? How dare they have sex? Pictures of an actor drinking and having fun? Being a bad example for those who follow him.

The second thing that happened in the beginning of the episode was the conversation between GusBew, where Gus was trying to explain his side of things, something that he didn’t get to do before and his first words were “I never did as per plan, everything I did I truly felt it” and, before me going to the point where Bew acted like Gus was still in acting mode (to be honest, if I were in Bew’s place, my reactions would’ve be the same), I wanna point out that I said in my previous post that when Gus was talking about the plan, or starting to talk about the plan, begging for Bew to listen to his explanation, he started his sentence with “everything I did with you” but never managed to finish what he was about to say and I made a comment about that particular scene, saying that, and I quote, “I’ve managed to come this far without saying that Gus liked Bew, after all I haven’t been able to assert his personality and gather information that could help support this hypothesis but I swear – and I don’t know if this thought only appeared in my mind because the words he said reminded me of the confession scene in MonTeam’s second episode in Y Destiny or because it was something logical – that when Gus said that “everything he did with Bew”, I was expecting him to finish that sentence with a “I did it because I wanted to” or something that could serve as an indicator of Gus being in a “relationship” with Bew for over a month because he genuinely wanted to and not because of some plan made by his manager”. This was important for me to talk about because it was one of the few instances of expressed emotion that Gus showed in episode 7 and also served as a gateway for us to peak into Gus intentions and actions, something that had been very difficult to do, because of his ambiguity, and in this episode was also a way to show his investment on his relationship with Bew because after Bew said “that take was very good, now stop acting and tell the truth”, Gus insists that he’s saying the truth, that regardless of what their managers told him to do, at the end his actions were real, even if the situation they were was not supposed to be real.

The conversation goes on and Bew says that Gus supposedly “didn’t agree but didn’t disagree either”, meaning that he was as guilty for the situation as the ones that gave the idea because he did nothing to stop the plan from being carried over, and Gus said that “he couldn’t because he was scared that would be a problem, so he didn’t say anything”. Again, because Bew does not trust Gus or anyone else right now, he accuses Gus of “doing things as planned”, “getting things his way” and that if Gus really loved him, why didn’t he said anything, making Gus answer that “he didn’t know how to”, as he was “scared Bew would get hurt”, prompting a very logical question from Bew, “and don’t you think I’m hurt?”, because let’s face it, people are going around saying that they didn’t mean to hurt Bew but ended up doing something that inevitably hurt him in the end. Gus apologizes, hugs Bew and says that “he won’t hurt Bew again” but Bew tells him that “he was stupid not to see it” and that Gus “didn’t mean that much to him” (did anyone had a flashback to Pun saying something similar to Nott on episode 4 or it was just me?); Gus, seemingly hurt, asks Bew if he “had to say that” and Bew says that Gus “don’t need to console him” and that he didn’t have to be worried because he would still “do their projects the same, like nothing has happened”, as they “were actors” and just “pretending in front of the moms, and FC Gus could do it already”, before putting his glasses and leaving Gus behind.

One thing I want you guys to notice here is the fact that Gus stayed with his glasses on the entire conversation, while Bew only put his glasses (bigger than the ones being used by Gus, probably alluding to the fact that he was the most affected in that situation) when the conversation ended, and he was leaving. This was the first time, since episode 6, that they had a serious conversation with Gus not having direct eye contact with Bew and that could be read in two different prisms: the first one is that Gus was somehow lying about something during that conversation and didn’t want Bew to find out or he was hiding the intensity of his feelings, as a way of protecting himself from something. I commented on my previous post that Gus uses his glasses as a type of “cover” from his reactions and emotions, especially when he didn’t want people to read him so easily, and in this episode they served to hide the emotions coming from his eyes only, because it was easy to read his emotions in his facial expressions (the plead when he told Bew that he was telling the truth, the regret when he apologized and the pain when Bew told him that he didn’t mean much to him and that he would continue to pretend that everything was fine in front of the managers and their fans), a crack in his nonchalant expression that also served as a cover for his emotions; this begs the question: if we saw all of that in his face alone, what were his eyes showing that we did not see?

Now we get to the meat of the episode, the clip of GusBew having sex, that was leaked by the NatalieRomanov account. GusBew were doing a live, talking about their rehearsals for the upcoming concert, doing a little fanservice (here, I use this word in the literal sense because that’s exactly what they were doing, pleasing the fans to make the rumors of them having problems die down) and also making the rumors that their managers were having problems die down when someone in chat told Bew to not go on twitter, making their managers obviously go to twitter and show Bew the clip people were mentioning in the chat. Seconds later, we are presented with an article (that was not translated, and I had to watch two different Portuguese translations to catch what the articles were saying – kinda funny that I watch an episode with English subtitles while my primary language is Portuguese and then had to resort to Portuguese translations so I could give you guys English translations. I hate AisPlay, seriously – where, basically, they were saying that a very bold (?) video had been posted and that he looked very much with a BL actor and that the hashtag #BewNotSmall was trending on twitter and wondering what Bew would say about that.

Following that, there was a press conference where Bew confirmed that it was in fact him in the video, saying that at the time the video was recorded, he “was young” so he “didn’t think about it carefully”, before a reporter say that “someone noticed that his hairstyle at the video was the same as now” (because people cannot repeat hairstyles in the world, right?), prompting Toon to step in and say that “the picture was distorted, and it was a long time ago, whatever he’s saying, believe him”. Seconds later, we see Gus and Pla going to where Bew and Toon were, and this is where the can of worms I refused to open at the beginning can be opened: Gus says that “taking clips like that is a privacy matter” – a very true statement, regardless of what you may think about the subject of recording sex tapes, it is a decision that, when taken in accordance between the parties involved, is matters only to them and no one has the right to make them feel ashamed for that – that “the person that’s wrong is the person who released the clip and invaded privacy without the owners consent” – another true statement, because if the people involved in the clip did not released the clip themselves or did not gave permission for the clip to be released, whoever does that, for whatever reason that it is, is a very bad person and should not be entertained – and that “Bew is the victim here, he shouldn’t be blamed” and “we should blame the person who did this”, finishing with a “I want the society and the FCs to understand Bew”; the message is was pretty much crystal clear: we should avoid victim blaming (when it’s clear that sexual contents were released without the content of the owner) and just ignore when the people themselves release sexual contents like this, as it all boils down to one key word here, consent.

Press conference ends and we cut to Bew punching Gus and asking “how could Gus do that to him” while Gus tries to calm him down (another déjà vu with NottPun, when Nott told Pun to calm down when the whole viral clip debacle happened in episode 4) and that “he didn’t do it”, while on the managers side of things, Pla was doing the same with Toon, telling her that they were not responsible for that. Toon, not believing in that, said that Pla “was angry about Gus and did that to her child”, and Bew asked Gus “if not you, then who” because Gus “was the one that took the clip” (remember Gus’ chat with Pla, where he ”acted” outraged when Pla asked if he had taken a clip? Fake fucking bitch), said that “loved him and all but hurt him in the end”; at the same time Bew is accusing Gus of doing it, Toon is doing the same with Pla and then the reverse happens, with Pla accusing Toon of releasing the clip, stating that “the clip came from the ‘detective girl’” and the same account “took the clip from her IG to spread that Gus was addicted to alcohol”, something that could only mean that Toon was the one responsible for that leaking incident (Gus was on the other side making the same questions to Bew, wondering if Toon was not the one responsible for that) and the reason both of them gave for that suspicion was the top spenders campaign for Pure Skin that Bew was currently doing; then Bew threw back the accusation to Gus, saying that it could’ve very much be a plan of his, for the exact same reason he was accusing Toon, Gus seemed hurt while asking if Bew could only think about that, said that he didn’t know what to say, Bew then told him that he didn’t need to say anything and that he should go. The managers were doing pretty much the same thing, with Pla suggesting that they postponed or even cancel the event that GusBew had and then announced their artists separation, but Toon denied because that action was just Pla running away from problems, but Pla said that the person running away from problems and pushing everything to him was her and that if Toon wanted to accuse him, to get evidence and then went to talk to him.

Like I said, this episode was being a bigger mess than episode 7 and things were only getting started.

(The article mentioning what Gus did in the press conference was also an allusion to the victim blaming that was happening, with the headline “Knight in a shining armor” and “Gus appears to defend Bew during the press conference. Please respect the human dignity. When will Thailand stop blaming the victims?” bellow it. This don’t even need an explanation, is obvious.)

The scene where Pla talks about his investigation, that the IP address from the detective girl account showed that the account had been logged there, meaning that someone from the company was responsible for the tweets, is mainly interesting for the fact that the camera panned on Kitty (the girl that offered brownies to Gus on episode 7) and she looked a bit…guilty when that piece of information was released. Yo even tried to explain that they were in a computer central, meaning that anyone, including Pla that was accusing other people, could’ve used one of the computers just to hide their trace, and Kitty said that because the clip was very personal, no one there could have leaked it because they didn’t have access to it, but my senses were already fixated on her and considering the fact that I thought that it was a woman posting the tweets at the beginning of the episode (because of the jaw shape), my bets were on her.

Before we go to the second meat of the episode, I wanna talk about the scene between PP and GusBew. Even if it was sort of a filler scene (or at least it felt like that for me), a lot of things happened in those less than 5 minutes: people were still very much blaming Bew for the leaked clip, with some saying that they were disappointed with him and others that they couldn’t see Bew as a “baby” anymore (remember what I talked about the obsession with purity), the GossipXoxo owner account decided to be human for once (or maybe because this was a very serious topic and not their attempts at “expose” NottPun) and saying that what people were doing to him was sexual harassment and victim shaming, asking if actors were not allowed to have sex and what people would do if Bew committed suicide because of what happened, Gus showing emotions more freely towards Bew and an appearance from PP.

It was the PP part that caught my attention, because besides him always been where the new actors are and always the ones involved in problems, he always seems to know what to say (probably because he has more time in the industry and, therefore, more experience): he said that he had been through all of that before (the “that” in his sentence was not explained but I doubt e was talking about having a sex tape of his leaked) and that if Bew couldn’t take it he shouldn’t force it (notice that as soon as PP puts his hand on Bew’s shoulder while saying that, Gus immediately gets up from the floor and goes to where PP and Bew are), that everything would be better and no matter what happened nothing was more important than the person beside him (not PP not being subtle saying this after looking at Gus, I see you bestie) and Bew shouldn’t let other people problems ruin his relationship (yep, PP bestie dropping facts here and showing at the same time that he knows that GusBew are more than a ship. I wonder, did he know that NottPun were also more than a ship?).

Bew, obviously surprised with that, asks if PP knew about him and Gus and PP says that “the industry is small, everyone knows everything, even the war we have nothing to with/didn’t start”, before asking for a selfie and then saying that he would tag both of them before leaving GusBew alone in the practice room. Seriously, the look Gus gave to Bew, the longing, the pain, the sadness, the love in those eyes, not gonna lie, I kinda pitied him and wished for Bew to forgive him.

The conversation between Pla and Gus was another interesting thing to pay attention because it was basically a conversation between the industry (being represented by Pla) and the actors (being represented by Gus). In one hand we have the industry telling the actors to not get too involved in what they do, that the things they do is just for the fans and that now that the ship was basically finished, Gus could venture into other projects (I talked about how the industry loved to sell the idea of treating a ship as a unity, stripping them of their individuality and the moment one of them started “drifting apart” (i.e. doing solo work), it would start to sell the idea that the ship was dead), and in the other we have the actors complaining that the industry only wants publicity and do not care about their feelings, remembering it that they were human too and not mere products that they could replicate and sell until the public interest shifted to something else. The “yes, you are, but you are not a normal person, you are a people’s person” is a callback to what I said about the entitlement that the public have towards famous people, that feeling that they deserve to have control of that famous person’s life and anything that goes against what they previously set for them, they would need to be punished for it), complimented with “you are an actor, a product on the shelf” – the dehumanization of the industry in one sentence right here.

And then the industry (Pla) paints a scenario: if one day, the product on the shelf cannot be sold (the actor itself or the ship), no matter how much you promote or give it out (fanmeetings, top spender campaigns, photobooks, music singles, etc.) no one will buy (no fans equals no money and no money equals loss of value). In the end, it expires (the idea that actors have expiration date inside the industry, so they need to fight with everyone to cement their name in the industry – my theory of easy replacement (i.e., apparent lack of space within the industry/dispute between BL actors that I talked on my first two posts for NottPun) and then what? It’s just taken away from the shelf and everything that was done from the beginning would go to waste. And no actor wants to go through this worst-case scenario (basically, s scare tactic being put in motion), so they smile and nod to what they are being told to do, because at the end of the day, is their job and the show must go on.

Onto the second meat of the episode, we start it with Gus, drinking and looking miserable (as he had been looking since Bew found out about the plan and decided to give him the cold shoulder)and looking at the unanswered messages he sent to Bew (I don’t know why but Gus sending a message saying that Bew was selfish for not opening the door for him and the next message after that one was him saying “I love you” was kinda funny), we had Toon calling Gus and his first response being “what’s wrong with Bew?” and then turning off the phone in her face when she asked to meet up with him (that was also funny) and lastly an unknown number calling him, that ended up being Yo’s number and someone said to Gus to go get Yo because he was drunk af and Gus, being the good guy he was (don’t let the media fool you, believe in me), decided to go.

When I saw that, my first reaction was “why call Gus, of all people, to go get Yo, when they just reunited and had a fallout at the same time, doesn’t Yo have any other friends to go get him?” and something felt very wrong about that entire situation, like Gus was being lured under false pretenses to be in a place where he shouldn’t be. And that’s exactly what happened.

Second half – I only needed a good and clear timeline of events but here we are

Second half is where things start to get a bit confusing, at least for me, timeline wise because we don’t have a clear indication of time passage to pinpoint exactly when things are happening (except the 48 hours of wait until Gus’ court hearing) and things seemed to have happened too fast and with no justification. So, let’s speedrun this too:

- For some reason, Bew had gone back into having mother-son days with Toon, despite him saying that things wouldn’t go back to normal. One thing was him pretending in front of other people, because he needed to maintain a certain image, other thing completely different was him going back to something that had only started because they still had that “mother-son bond”, but that had been before the all-plan expose. Him still calling Toon “mom” can be explained with force of habit but him slipping into old habits while still maintaining Gus away from him? Weird;

- Gus kept telling Bew very variation of “I love you” in any chance he got, explaining to Bew that the reason he had gotten into the mess he was at that moment was because he missed him and was worried about him (he was not blaming Bew but explaining why he was stressed);

- The hearing court was used by Toon as humiliation tool towards Pla, with her saying to a specific reporter (that probably was hired by her) that all the evidence that were collected to prove Gus’ innocence were found by her and Bew and not by Pla;

- As the news that Gus was “saved” by Toon and not Pla, people started bullying them, going to the point of trending hashtags, with one of them directly telling them to die – this, to me, can be read as a comment to how people feel protected enough on the internet to be extremely evil and toxic to other people, because the “anonymity” their profiles give to them is like a mask covering their faces and, by proxy, their identities, and freedom for them to do what they want. This can also be a commentary into how people find “justifiable” to do certain things to specific people just because they did something they did not agreed on and won’t regret even if something actually happens; the internet allows that detachment from our actions, because all it takes for us to walk scout-free is to exit any social media, turn off the internet and go take a walk outside.

- Toon, being the bitch she is, was having fun watching Pla being cyberbullied and when Bew questioned her about her behavior, she said that “if she allows Pla to always hurt them, then they will always be the prey”, then starting to gaslight Bew into staying on her side by saying that Pla “wanted to separate him and Gus” (not that she never thought about that before, she didn’t even wanted them together in the first place), that she knew Bew still loved Gus and if he didn’t want to stay away from Gus, then Gus had to be on their side. She went even further and used Bew’s dream of building a house to his mother and siblings, saying that having Gus on her side would give Bew a boyfriend, a house, money and happiness, literally everything Bew ever wanted;

(The article that came after that conversation was very interesting, basically saying that NottPun had gone through the same thing before – the managers having problems – and now GusBew were the latest victims, as any war between managers would always overload the artists and break them apart.)

- Another fight between PlaToon happens, with Pla saying that a couple event was not necessary and that a single event was more important, and Toon asked them if it was really the single event that was more important or the money, making Pla say that he didn’t want anything with Toon but since the press conference she kept creating problems and Toon threatening Pla by saying that she would apologize to the FC but if they find out that the person responsible for breaking the ship was them, it would be her problem. A physical altercation almost happened but GusBew stopped in time and then we discover that Toon had been making plans with Gus behind Pla’s back, and she starts saying that if it wasn’t for her Gus would still be in jail; when Pla tells her that they were still Gus’ manager, Toon (being the bitch she is) tells him to then act like one, asking kind of manager is emotionally unstable, to the point of having their artist console them (this was a very dick move from her, to use a moment of justifiable emotional turmoil, as a weapon to destabilize them. Even if it was within her character, it was still a dick move) and this was enough to make them physically fight, ended up hitting GusBew during the fight accidentally and making them leave the managers to sort their things out;

- In Bew’s room, Gus is cleaning up the scratch on Bew’s cheek and during a few seconds of pause, Bew looks at the wall (that was decorated with their pictures) and says that “that time was very good” (probably referring to the first months of them as a shipped couple), making Gus ask him if “they were just a ship or a real couple” and “how would their future be” but instead of answering his question, Bew asks Gus “if there was no plan, how would he be now” and Gus basically says that things wouldn’t be that different and he would “still be close to Bew the same”, “would slowly love Bew”, “would have know himself slower” and Bew finishes with a “but we would be fighting as much as now” and Gus agrees with him. After that, Bew gets up from the couch and goes to the house model he destroyed at the beginning of the episode and tells Gus that he dream of building a house like that, where he could reunite his family, with a room for Toon (this baby is still putting Toon on his plans, for the love of god, please let her go!) and when Gus asks him “if there is a room for him” (space for him in Bew’s life), Bew says that “it’s damaged” (meaning that what they had built together, the trust and the love, was broken) and Gus says that “if it’s damaged, fix it” (start over and built a new one), he “would help” (give himself truly to Bew);

- While they are remaking the house, they start to talk about the managers and Bew comments with Gus that Toon told him that Y couples that don’t have the same management wouldn’t survive and Gus tells him that Toon told him the same thing and that had already talked to him for him to leave Pla, and when Bew asks him what he said, Gus tells that it could be good, because with both of them under the same management, there wouldn’t be conflict of interest. After Bew remind Gus that Pla would never agree with that, he says that the needed to get away from them (their managers) and find someone else, and Gus is hesitant, saying that PlaToon had taken care of them for so long (baby, Koon also had taken care of Pun for a really long time and look how it ended) and asking if that wouldn’t be disloyal but Bew tells Gus that he always thought that the reason they got so far in the industry was because of themselves and that they didn’t need their managers, the managers needed them and, in a very Chad and reverse uno move, Bew uses the same words Toon used as a justification for her shitty behavior towards Pla and says that “if they allow PlaToon to hurt them, they will always be the prey” and that they can get away from their managers without looking bad;

- Gus then asks Bew if they are fine as before and Bew says that “that will never happen”, before saying that “it will be even better” and pull Gus to a kiss. After that, Pla starts creating problems (as always, when Toon is not doing the same, of course) and Bew decides that it was time for them to stop that madness;

- On the day of the event, Toon decided to expose Pla, saying that they had manipulated the results of the top spender campaign by bribing people and that the money they used was not theirs but from someone else (insinuating that it was Gus’s money), Pla tries to hit Toon but Gus stops them and says that Bew had already been hurt because of their fights and Bew says that they are tired of the constant fights and if things continue the way they are, they couldn’t continue to work together. Satisfied with the scene that she caused, Toon leaves the room, Pla does the same and Bew starts “crying”, being immediately consoled by Gus, who hugs Bew and then whispers that “the moment they were waiting had arrived”.

- We are then showed a few scenes, in which the most interesting ones are the one where Yo is holding a phone (that I assume it was Gus’ phone), that ties up with the scene of him wearing a hood and sitting at the same chair we saw the person messing with the ‘detective girl’ account was, and the other one was Kitty also messing with the ‘detective girl’ account and tweeting “they are so done. Bew said that he doesn’t want to work with Gus. Abandon the ship! GusBew is no more” – this was basically saying that both of them used the account, not only one person.

- The episode ends with GusBew sleeping together on his bed and Gus getting a phone call from Yo.

Final thoughts – Holy shit, my head hurts

I know I said at the beginning of the post that I walked out of this episode feeling a bit disappointed and sad and didn’t explain exactly why because I needed to talk about the episode first for you to understand my reasons. So, the first reason is how they handled the subject about the leaked video, and I don’t know if it was expectations born out of the preview for this episode but I was expecting to see this take more time on the episode and see exactly how this affected Bew, how he processed the situation he was in, how did stopped thinking that Gus was involved and who became his suspects for the leaking, if he even has one to begin with. Yes, some people are still commenting about it, but it seems like this was put into the story just to create conflict between GusBew, raise some suspicions about PlaToon and nothing else, when I know something like this has lasting effects. Did Bew lose sponsors after the incident, any job prospect? Did he gain new sponsors or something like that? What was Toon doing behind the scenes to mitigate the negative consequences of what happened? Because it seemed like she was more busy dealing with Gus and fighting with Pla, instead of actually taking care of her artists, the one she so proudly call “son”.

The second reason is the inconsistency of the characters behavior during the episode and how some things are never explicitly showed to us, we are forced to infer them by paying extra attention to the things being given to us. Why the hell Yo (if my suspicions are to be believed) leaked the video? Yes, him and Gus had a spat out, but I don’t think it was so bad to the point of him doing something like that? When did Bew decided to “forgive” Toon for the things she had done, to the point of having a “mother-son” day with her, when he explicitly said at the beginning of the episode, that things were not going to be the same? How did she convinced him to act like everything was fine? Why did it take longer for Bew to extend whatever reasoning he used with Toon to Gus? Yes, different people, different situations, but if he could act the same next to Toon, the person he supposedly trusted the most in the world, someone that basically raised him in the industry, why couldn’t he do the same with Gus.

Tied with the second reason, is the lack of a clear timeline, something that could help us have a sense of time and understand better how long each of the characters took to get to the stage we see them at the end of the episode. When you have knowledge of the passage of time, it gets easier for you to place situations into the right time brackets and analyze them accordingly.

This is not to say that the episode was not good or enjoyable, because it was. Seeing Gus shed more of his emotional protective gear just to get Bew back, how the industry is sucking the energy out of them slowly, how he doesn’t know himself well enough because he’d always been in the shadows of his managers, being skillfully manipulated into being someone he was not, stripped for the opportunity to discover himself at his own pace. How Bew, having been hurt by the people closest to him, became more sharp into analyzing the things around him and started seeing exactly how manipulative people could’ve been, and how he needed to be smarter and protect himself better, to avoid further manipulation scenarios was like seeing a Pokémon evolution, that you’ve been waiting for so long. They tried to humanize the managers, more specifically Pla, with the bullying incident and, even if I do not condone anything made towards them in this specific situation, I cannot in good faith feel complete sympathy for the people that act like money is more important than the people they are supposed to guide and protect.

The episode was hard to piece together a few things, hence why it took me a full week to sit down and write it (I literally just finished writing this), also because I was just not in the mood to rewatch the episode and see if I had miss something that was worth talking about. Probably the episode that came out today (that I will only watch tomorrow morning) will explain some of the things that I felt that were misplaced in this episode but, in the possibility that that do not happen, I will still give it my full attention and still continue to write about them, because even if I don’t have the energy to do so, my head wont leave my head alone and I don’t believe it will until I write about it (yes, I quoted a Dave Matthews Band song. Check them out, they are really good) and because I really like to share my thoughts with Tumblr BL.

So, I hope you guys enjoyed this mess of post and see you guys on the next one.

#warofy #war of y #war of y: war of managers #war of y episode 8 #gusbew #gus x bew #bewgus #bew x gus #analysis