#bl chemistry

[absolutebl]

So this is actually three questions.

Who's your favorite BL pairing when it comes to their interactions as characters, regardless of the physical chemistry between the actors or your feelings on the show itself?

Who's your favorite acting pair as far as chemistry between the two, regardless of how you feel about the characters they're playing?

Which BL couple do you like best when considering both of those things?

Oooo, do I detect... a challenge? You didn’t confine me to a country so I’m picking one from each. Also I am not allowing myself to pull from my 10/10 or favorite all rounders. Because honestly who could ever beat We Best Love, To My Star, Until We Meet Again, Color Rush, Semantic Error, Light On Me, or Seven Days? This is me, after all. 

Who's your favorite BL pairing when it comes to their interactions as characters, regardless of the physical chemistry between the actors or your feelings on the show itself? 

Word of Honor repping for China 

Silhouette of Your Voice repping for Japan. I love love LOVE these characters and perhaps I’m influenced by the source yaoi (I Hear the Sunspot) but I don’t care. WHY did we not get more? A remake? ANYTHING. 

A First Love Story repping for Korea. Sigh. Just... sigh. 

See You After Quarantine? repping for Taiwan (Taiwan gave me the hardest time with this question) but OMG did I love these two so much and want so much more of them together as boyfriends. 

Love By Chance (actually a really easy pick despite Thailand’s glut of BL) and yes My Ride was the main challenger but AePete STILL remain one of the few couples I rewatch just for their interactions. 

How did I decide? I thought about which characters I really just liked watching them interact with each other as characters, it didn’t have to be a romantic or sexy scene. Also which ones I could imagine writing fanfic for (even though I don’t write fanfic). Also, I had to like the archetypes in play and like BOTH the seme and the uke characters. Usually, I get at least somewhat annoyed with one or the other. 

Who's your favorite acting pair as far as chemistry between the two, regardless of how you feel about the characters they're playing? 

Okay so I took this to me physical chemistry specifically, and for this one I went with the transference of sexual feedback energy. In that I believed the two characters actually really desire each other. And I do mean each other. For example Nitiman I totally BELIEVE Bboom wanted Jin but not the reverse. I like the moots to moot all the way into bed.... so to speak.

Advance Bravely repping for China (we were ROBBED) 

The Novelist repping for Japan, I mean I could go darker and hotter but I can’t be arsed. 

Kissable Lips repping for Korea, no really. When I say I can’t wait for these two to do another BL I really mean it, and not just because I’m curious about their pair branding technique. 

My Day repping for the Philippines. 

HIStory 4 repping for Taiwan, and that is quite the hill to have conquered boys. Congratz. 

Why R U? repping for Thailand. 

Thailand definitely gave me the hardest time with this one. MaxTul, Zee+ and Mew+? No one talks about Mew’s first series but I was really tempted to drop What the Duck on y’all and watch you squirm. I’m not that mean, tho.  

Which BL couple do you like best when considering both of those things? 

This is where I made it hard on myself not allowing myself any of my top 10 best BLs. Hummm.... So good sexual chemistry + great characters, both of whom I like and want more of in and out of the sack? 

Love O2O repping for China, again with the robbing. So unfair. Did they have good sexual chemistry? I don’t know, but I WANT TO FIND OUT. 

Old Fashion Cupcake repping for Japan. This was actually an easy pick. 

Love is Science? repping for Taiwan. Of course. I want a whole series with them. 

Daisy and Intouch from Secret Crush On You repping for Thailand. Now the codicil on this one is I like the characters but I trust neither the scriptwriter nor the director. I’d like these exact characters to be handed a real honest queer narrative with depth and exploration, as well as light hearted and sexy and romantic. But I want THESE characters. Do I even know if the actors can handle high heat? Nope, but I wanna watch them try. 

This was one where a lot of Thai side dishes really got considered HARD. Many of my favorite all rounder main couples I feel like I got enough of them in their series, and actually, I’m satisfied (TanBun in Manner of Death for example). But I had to ask myself if I spend more screen time with those side characters would I still like them as much (like PitchBank in Golden Blood or SanAei in You’re My Sky or KhunKaow in Brothers). I don’t know anymore. 

Yes RamKing nearly won, of course they did. But I’m tired of waiting. Also VegasPete, of course. 

You didn’t ask, but there are certainly some Thai acting pairs who I think should be handed more meaty roles that have good character + require chemistry like: YinWar, PokeTongue, ToruFirst, ChapGreen, MaxTul (YES MORE) and KarnNat (YES MORE). 

Also I will die wanting more from these two fuckers: 

More like this:

Giving Good Kiss in BL - Defining Chemistry 

11 BLs with the BEST Chemistry

Queer lens (from the director) and chemistry (from the actors) in BL 

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[absolutebl]

What do you think about Build and Bible's chemistry, based on your qualifications for what makes actors have good intimacy? I don't remember exactly what they are, regrettably. I think there are four things that need to be there? Maybe three. Apologies.

Heh heh, no worries. There won't be a test.

The chemistry stuff is here.

Why VegasPete Won Top Couple (for me) 

For me it comes down to 3 things: 

emotional resonance (AKA empathy - heart) - face expression, eye contact

physical reactions (AKA sexual responses - body) - breath matching, lip softness, hand movements, body language & stiffness

sympathetic execution (AKA intellectual connection - mind) - dialogue delivery, interplay and push/pull or call and response

In other words, the audience needs to feel that the characters  

like each emotionally 

desire each other physically 

are enjoying it (AKA understand each others needs intellectually)

I think VegasPete had very good all round chemistry, pretty much as good as Thailand can get. So not quite Taiwan level, but still excellent. I think with both of them they particularly excelled on their eye work. The longing gaze was excellent. So we got their emotional connection the most, which is SUPER important with a kink sequence and accounts for 90% of fan obsession with these two. We got the intellectual connection too, with the conversations and the books and everything. The physical stuff, for me, was just the tiniest bit off, but for that had to do with the kink aspect and just a touch of "oh these boy are def straight." Which I guess is a gaydar thing? I don't know. Honestly, this is micro quibble.

For me they were by far the best couple in every way in this series. I only really watched for them from the moment they came together until their final scene. I kinda forgot everyone else existed, they just blew the other couples away. Part of this was the drama of their story line but part of it is definitely superlative chemistry.

And all this even though they had a comparatively short screen time to develop their relationship which worked against them.

That said, I would have kept the edge of kink through to the end. (For me: Vegas should have sunk his fingernails into Pete's flesh, or caged his wrist/throat, in that last domestic cuddle scene there - just as a little reminder to Pete and us of what they really are to each other.) But that is a kinkster's quibble and I really cannot expect mainstream out of dungeon types to get kink as accurate and sexy as I want it. 

All in all, they will probubly end up being one of my favorites of the year, even though I didn’t love the rest of the series. But that has happened to me before with mafia BL. I gave PitchBank my WinTeam award last year (the side couple I wish were the main couple) for Golden Blood. 

VegasPete might get it this year. Although the year is only halfway through... 

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[absolutebl]

Soooo, I need some help, in the form of a reality check. Can you do a little analysis of ZeeNunew irl (if you even pay attention to that). My problem is this: I ship them! Not psychotically, but they are persistently in my brain (along with MaxNat, but I think thats just because Nat is such a physically perfect twink i just really wish he had a boyfriend. That and their upper thigh caresses during cutie pie reaction videos). The issue is that I am very...trusting?...easy to convince? So when I see videos or posts like "X and X boyfriends" or "Couple X being cute together" (which I generally don't watch, but some slip through) I'm like "oh that seems real" until someone else comes in w/the logic (ex you've mentioned Tul and Apo being confident w/a good background so they just fuck w/shippers and it made me realize i was just one of those dumb people who didn't get it at first.)

Part of the problem was I started watching BL pretty recently w/no background info on the genre,

and I'm not much of a behind-the-scenes watcher so it took a while for me to understand that the studios are promoting the ships, and the actors are ACTING, so therefore reasonable adults don't take the ship or irl flirting seriously. I had just assumed when they're not in the show they're being themselves, so, I dunno, I guess I just thought there were a lot of gay actors in Thailand or something.

I'm very embarrassed now, but I just didn't know. I don't follow celebrities but I feel like they don't do this in America so I just thought "it must be real!" Rather than "they're exploiting those poor babies"

I just get such shysweetloving vibes from them. I know Zee is great at adoring his partners, and Nunew responds so sweetly I just squee all over them, but I want to be a responsible fan and not do that. Help me out, give me external validation I'm just being stupid.

How to get over Thai BL Pair Branding 

Ah, they got ya, did they?

You shouldn't be embarrassed. They are actors, it's their job to persuade you to believe in an alt-reality, and this is some very insidious marketing tactics. Also it's pretty unique to Thailand. Also if you come from watching western cinema, we are used to Hollywood actors falling in love with each other and ending up in disastrous marriages from being on set together. It seems normal.

There are a few out gay actors in Thailand, but as yet there hasn't been any actual relationships to come from a BL. And if I were them and got into one, I would stay FIRMLY in the closet.

It's a little like buying that coffee drink because it looked good on IG and then being like, “oh, THIS is disgusting, I feel like an idiot.” Only with more emotional manipulation and not spending $8 on liquid sugar.

Not that I blame the actors! They are being told to do this, some of them are just better at it than others.

Frankly Max & Nat are better at cobranding because they have been together for so long. Sometimes you can see Zee & Nunew drop the act at the end of interviews when they are really tired.

I actually really don't like this aspect of BL, so I don't often watch things designed to encourage pair shipping (variety shows, bts, fanmeets).

I have the cure, ready?

Watch TharnType.

Then go on an internet deep dive about what happened to MewGulf.

Ta da!

You'll be cured.

I have a few things written about this as a marketing tactic here:

Co-Branded BL Couples & Thai Studios - pairs and marketing tactics (written before ZeeNunew and intentionally avoiding MewGulf, PerthSaint, ZeeSaint and all the other catastrophes).

It's like learning how to read a label on a soap bottle or an ingredients list on food packaging, your eye will eventually get trained to see what's actually happening, but it takes a while.

I talk some more about pair branding, parasocial relationships, and why I really dislike IRL shipping here. 

Here’s the bit where I got mad about skinship fantasies around misunderstandings of other cultures, especially Thailand. 

Honestly there are many reasons I prefer to talk about characters, and narrative structures, and not actors. 

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