one of my favorite things abt being on the QL side of tumblr is how different everyone’s taste is. there’s folk who pretty much only watch Japanese bl. There’s ppl who only enjoy super fluffy, happy ending, heart melting romance. There’s buddies of mine who will watch the exact same shows as me and have wildly different opinions on them. Theres ppl who will drop shows halfway while I’m still super on board. There’s shows I really didn’t like that are other peoples’ comfort shows. There are actors I’m not the biggest fan of who people are obsessed with. I love that. I love how different we all are. It shows that there truly is something here for everyone and that there are ppl out there who love the same things you do.
(also this is why I advocate for everyone to try a show/film out for yourself even if someone doesn’t like it. Someone else’s 4 could be your 9.5)
a question for QL fandom at large: when did we start only wanting media that is perfectly suited to our standards?
there has never been a perfect show, and there never will be a perfect show, because everybody likes different things and QL is run on shoestring budgets. i thought this was something we made our peace with as viewers of the genre!
so i'm just wondering at what point fandom decided that a show is only worthy of praise/fandom if it has no problems?
at what point did we decide that talking about the problems of a show is more important than talking about what we did enjoy and what kept us watching? i don't know when it happened, but it definitely has. critique is treated more seriously and gets more interaction than people talking about what they like.
it seems like a really exhausting and slightly puritan way to do things, to be constantly finding imperfections and treating them as more important than the good parts. dunno about y'all but i don't want to be unintentionally enacting puritan shit.
i want joy, i want fun, i want the spirit of camaraderie in fandom.
so, why did fandom begin to snub any media that didn't fit very high standards? and how can we steer ourselves away from that impulse?
(i am genuinely curious about why this is happening and how those of us who don't enjoy it can change, so please feel free to jump in, even if you are 'late' or think you only have a very small contribution to make to the discussion.)
Rules: So post the first 3-5 (or as many as you want) QL shows that got you into the genre. Feel free to explain or give propaganda 😁
tagged by @suzteel - thank you for the tag, this was fun! these are the first 5 (coughsixcough) QL shows i ever watched.
1. Kinnporsche
i started watching kinnporsche a number of episodes into its run after witnessing dearest @fulltimehabibti fully losing her mind week after week and deciding to see what all the fuss was about. i knew about bl but hadn't seen any shows. little did i know i was about to have my brain completely rewired and be able to focus little else basically ever again. kinnporsche is brilliant, full stop. it is wild and sexy and funny. it's a family drama with guns. it's gothic horror and university bl and toxic yaoi and it is three different BLs crammed into one absolute epic. it launched my obsession not only with these characters and their story, but also with the entire genre it's a part of. i won't hear a single word against it. (unless the word is about the lack of women actually speaking and doing things. complain to me all you want about that. but only that.)
2. Love in the Air
meet sky and rain, my true intro to university bl boys (lmao to have this be my intro). i love these two to distraction. in fact, sky remains one of my top 10 favorite bl characters. i was inspired to watch lita after seeing a gif of rain and phayu licking each other and thinking holy shit wha?!?, alongside some kp fans adopting rascal semes prapai and phayu as the children of kinnporsche and vegaspete respectively. which i found both insane and pretty funny. i like insane and funny, so off i went. this show could easily be titled Kink Exploration for Beginners, the Series. Subtitled: A Little Dark Trauma to Frost the Cupcake. i enjoyed the hell out of my time here, and came away thinking huh. this could actually be a thing i want more of. kp might not have been a one-off. hmmm
***
so next, i decided to find a show that seemed generally popular to really test whether this was a fandom i needed to dive deeper into. i saw a gif of the two cutest ladies i'd ever seen and thought, there's shows with girls too??? omg i gotta watch this one! and that show was
3. Bad Buddy (& Zero Photography)
before starting bb i had no clue about pran or pat or any of the rest of the boys in this show. i came here for inkpa and inkpa only. and then... lost my mind. this is quintessential university bl. this is shakespeare. this is drama and humor and agonizing heartache. patpran & inkpa lit me up like fireworks. this show is the one that cemented it: i had arrived. QL fandom was my fandom now.
4. Cutie Pie
watching cutie pie made me feel like i was thirteen again, sneaking my mom's danielle steel novels and reading them with rapt attention under the covers with a flashlight past my bedtime. it has a much different vibe than the first three shows i watched. i'm still not sure if i can really describe in a way others will understand why i loved this show. it was like eating sourpatch kids. it was like listening to my favorite mixtape. it was like having a car full of clowns pour into my living room and start hula hooping. there was a secret hideout. there was a lot of tongue kissing. there was poppy ratchapon in the funniest het romance ever portrayed on screen. there was zee pruk looking at nunew chawarin like he hung the sun the moon the stars and his shower curtain. it simultaneously took itself much too seriously but also with tongue in cheek. i don't know how it managed all of it, but it did. it was a singular experience.
5. The Eclipse
hoooo boy, this show. what to even say about the eclipse. this show went deep politically. it seized me by the throat. as i watched each episode my awe continued to grow at the talent of everyone involved in this project but especially first and khaotung. they stole my heart as actors in a way that no other koojin has yet managed quite to this extent. this show taught me so much about thai politics and culture (i started researching! any show that gets me researching is a cut above). i left with a hunger for more more more. if bad buddy convinced me ql fandom was worth joining, then the eclipse sat me down, everyone piled on top of me, and informed me i was not ever allowed to leave. akk and ayan, i will never forget you.
6. Not Me
TODDBLACK. THE END. ahem. i watched this immediately after the eclipse and in many ways i associate these two shows in my mind because of their strong political messages. however, i was so young in my bl-viewing life i did not yet understand about branded pairs. i saw gun and sing in these roles and was like offgun who? why aren't these two hate-fucking? they are clearly divorced and still in love with each other and they should be kissing and screaming and and and... i just did not understand. so yeah. not me taught me about unrequited longing as a viewer. which was a lesson i would need to remember over and over as i continued forward in bl fandom. (i have no hate for branded pairs. i find them pretty fun for the most part. it's just. it would be nice if sometimes? we asked someone else to dance? maybe? please? what i'm saying is if earth (and mix) and boom don't make out sloppy in ofdo i'll start crying like a sad little sunflower)
***
these are my first QLs! i am now 103 shows in and counting. and though it all started in thailand i have since watched shows from taiwan, korea, japan, & china as well. it continues to be a wonderful, stimulating, fast paced experience being in this fandom.
no pressure tagging: @fulltimehabibti, @sawthefaeriequeen, @itsmelb
Bonus: Gap the Series
LET'S GO LESBIANS. i watched this simultaneously with not me, & freenbecky showed everyone that the girls can have it all too. the plot of this was not really my cup of tea but i did not care because it was such a good time. freenbecky are outstanding in every frame. watching it felt like i was witnessing the start of something incredible. and it was. it was my first full gl show with the boys only as side characters and i loved it. gap walked so a few years later clairebell could fly.
It might not be for everyone, but no one can deny that omegaverse has long solidified its place in the QL fandom. To celebrate getting the first omegaverse mpreg on our screens, tell us about your favourite omegaverse fics!
Every time I go into Gaga, no matter what video I click on, it gives me static and this text:
Unable to create or initialize key session (DRM_KEY_SESSION_INITIALIZATION_FAILED)
... wtf? I have tried logging out and back in, I have tried restarting my system, nothing is working anymore. I sent a message to Gaga's team but I haven't heard back at all.
Anyone tech savvy know why this is happening and how do I make it stop?
I’m going to take a moment and say that @waitmyturtles has blocked me so I can no longer see any likes or replies to my response of their bullying post and other posts of hers which can be found here. I can no longer tag her nor can I see any comments or replies to my part of that post.
I am going to ask kindly, that you not reblog my version of that post, because clearly waitmyturtles doesn’t want it engaged with, especially with me as friends have now said they can’t see any of the replies, AND I don’t think @maybe-boys-do-love needs to keep seeing the tantrum leveled at him. If you want to talk to me about it, my inbox and messages are open. I also just want to say that if they @ me, because I don’t have them blocked, it may look like they’re saying things for me to respond to I can’t see. Know I am not avoiding discourse and am staying transparent. I’m going to ask that you not send any posts, direct or vagueblogging, to me. If you don’t like it say something or let it go. But I don’t need to know.
Also, while I called out waitmyturtles and lurkingshan (who I also cannot tag, so has blocked me), please don’t use this as an excuse to pile on or send hate to them. Do not respond to toxic fandom with toxic fandom. I said it when people ganged up on @benygio over his We Are take, just like I did here. I hope one day they want to talk again but I doubt it.
I stg the people on Twitter (it will never be X) need to calm down, JimmySea did not ‘breakup’. This is not the termination of their partnership (as far as we know), Jimmy has always been honest since the beginning that he was going to be taking a sabbatical to continue his medical studies. He’s put a decade of his life into his MD and he’s allowed to want to continue to expand on that, it’s just a year or two. Trust me, there are enough artists on the roster that GMMtv will continue to bring forth all the gay for us, also Sea will absolutely continue to get work. And Jimmy will be able to return to Thailand occasionally for visits, holidays and contractual obligations with GMMtv.
But also it would be good to keep in mind that much like Tul, acting was never the end goal for Jimmy, that wasn’t his lifelong plan. It was a means to an end (paying for medical school during a pandemic) he never could’ve known the level of fame (and insane fandom) that would find him when he agreed to the Vice Versa role with Sea. He was used to shipping already after Bad Buddy and how people liked him and Drake together, but I highly doubt he expected all this.
To be honest I have a feeling that one day he—much like Tul did—will step out of the spotlight and become a private citizen once again so he can continue to run his clinic unencumbered by the fame and drama that being a QL star brings.
