#boston ofts

[fuck-i-like-too-much-stuff]

Stop calling either of my children victims, they're both enablers of their own abuse.

[gwenniesqueals]

I am only on episode four and I only have one question. What the fuck are they doing? I should have been warned. The trauma, the boning, and hotness whew.

[maybe-boys-do-love]

Only Friends Dream On trailer proving some of my firmly held beliefs about the original series.

The narrative and writers didn't hate or punish Boston. His friends did. Monogamous cultural standards did. His father's prominent political position did. But the narrative never did. When a story's ending is thronged by a character's absence, to lift a phrase from Marilynne Robinson's final sentence in Housekeeping, the absence was not signifying condemnation. Interesting that the Dream On trailer uses Romeo and Juliet, because I had just been thinking about that play as an example to parallel with Only Friends where the characters deaths and absence at the end signify the wrong-headedness of everyone else. All this is to say, the bitch is back! Neo's appearance as Boston in the trailer tells us that yes it's gonna be messy but also that Boston is beloved (Jojo has stated as much explictly).

Only Friends was a commentary on the BL genre in relation to queer media genres. I won't go into the particulars of my theory about the allegories here, but Dream On is diving deeper into the commentary by being directly about the drama behind the scenes of BL dramas lol.

Only Friends did not depict or view committed partnership as a happily ever after. Dream On is about to give us a bunch of couples in messy established relationships rather than the original series arcs around coming together *wink wink*. The EarthMix casting is beyond exceptional, since they are the most highly rumored to be an actual couple. Then we get Ohm Pawat and Gawin who both have sorted through BL partners like few others in the business, and Ohm's especially have been associated with scandal and mess. If you think the ending of Only Friends with the three established couples opening their business was the writers' idea of a happy ending, the Dream On trailer is here to tell you that you're sorely mistaken. The mess continues well beyond saying let's be exclusive.

The writers of Only Friends did not see monogamy as the perfect answer or sustainable for everyone, and Dream On is about to show us how wonderful and messy that can be.

[danielsarmand]

i think whatever happened to boston to make him the person he is today also made him gain this deep-seated belief that all he has to offer is his body. he believes sex is all people could ever want from him and probably all that he could give them anyway.

this is the moment that consolidated the notion in my head. he was genuinely confused–not disappointed, just confused–about nick wanting something from him that wasn't his body. "then what?", as in, "if you don't want to fuck me, then, what else is there?"

i don't think he is aware of it being a negative thing, though. like, i think he thinks he uses his body as a weapon, meanwhile he merely uses it as currency. trades it in for any scrap of attention he can get his hands on.

[my-rose-tinted-glasses]

[kinnbig]

in relation to this tweet from Jojo, which I love - I’m amazed by the number of posts I’ve seen suggesting that Nick is an innocent victim of manipulation from Boston. no one is saying Boston isn’t messy as fuck, but he’s been so clear about his feelings and what he is/isn’t looking for. he’s told Nick multiple times that while their relationship might develop in the future, he is only interested in casual sex for now - and Nick has willingly agreed to this kind of casual, non-exclusive relationship. Boston has absolutely no obligation to be ‘faithful’ to Nick, or to tell him which of his friends he’s attracted to. Nick wanting things to be different doesn’t make it so.

violating privacy and boundaries is clearly a theme with Nick - he expresses interest in Boston by leaving suggestive photos on Boston’s phone, having already gone through (and jerked off to) Boston’s personal pictures. bugging his car takes it a step further.

(I think there’s something to be said about the way Boston’s promiscuity and open sexuality seems to make his right to privacy seem trivial or less important than that of someone more reserved - it’s fine that Nick jerked off to Boston’s personal photos, because Boston slept with him after; Nick only secretly recorded Boston having sex because Boston led him on; Boston’s a whore, so it doesn’t matter, he was asking for it… but that’s a post for another day)

this isn’t to say that Boston is an innocent victim of Nick’s behaviour either - my point is that categorising them simply as Manipulator and Victim is reductive to the complexity of both characters. they’re both interesting, fucked up, flawed people, and that’s what makes them compelling as characters - and what makes it fun to watch as they make each other worse.

[theresoneicouldcallking]

ONLY FRIENDS SEASON 2 (2025)

[bl-bracket]

Deserved Better Round 1: Boston (Only Friends) vs Haoren (Happy of the End)

[Submitted Reasons Under Cut]

Who deserved better?

Boston (Only Friends)

Haoren (Happy of the End)

[See Results]

Voting ended onJan 31, 2025

Boston: "He had his flaws but he also had his reasons! He deserved some of his ending, because of his actions, yes. But it was way too much just for not having the same view on relationships as everyone else."

"I mean one could argue that Boston got the best ending out of them all because he's living his best life slutting it up in the US away from his shitty friends while they still have to deal with each other, but like... why did they have to revenge porn my guy TWICE"

"Sure Boston was a bit of a dick (sleeping with a friend’s boyfriend) but he didn’t deserve the treatment he got in the show. He got non-consensually recorded for porn and then was blackmailed by a friend with it. Pretty much all of the Only Friends characters did shitty things but only Boston is unfriended by the group because he was being a bit of a slut. And arguably what Boston did was actually less worse than a lot of the other characters on the show. The retribution he received was incredibly disproportionate."

"Look... was he an asshole? Sure. But the only person he actually deserved ill treatment from was Mew. He did not owe Nick, Top, Cheum or Atom ANYTHING. His privacy was violated multiple times, even though he was always clear about how he wanted things and how important consent was to him. He did not ask Nick to fall for him either, and it was Top who was in an actual relationship and went behind Mew's back to cheat on him. Yeah, i do think that he shouldn't have gone for a guy his friend was interested in because bro code, BUT HE GOT WAY WORSE THAN HE DESERVED."

Haoren: "Sexually abused as a child. Abandoned by his mother. Lived on the streets with nothing to call his own. Gets sex trafficked. Is repeatedly sexually, physically, mentally abused, starved and even gets many severe injuries that require surgery because of the sex trafficking. Escapes from the trafficker but cannot escape that life. His only friend is the guy who trafficked him in the first place. Finds his "mother" again but she doesnt remember him. Still gives her money. She kills herself with no warning. Has to be on the run all the time. Is almost killed at least 10 times, by others or himself. Has to go to jail even though he is a victim. Has to leave the love of his life and lives with zero hope of having him waiting for him outside of jail. He went through enough torture in one life than most characters go through in ten. (If he doesn't win this bracket i will kill) (/hj)"