Ok, so this is bubbling up now in the TleFirstone fandom and I dislike it enough that I feel the need to say something. I really, really dislike how interfans talk about New Siwaj Sawatmaneekul. He is supposedly the director of You(r)tuber and I am seeing western interfans complain and demand that the director be changed. I get that people might not like his body of work and may prefer someone else and that is ok. But the way they talk about him is just so mean spirited and mean girls if you know what I mean. Like he is not a real person so you can say whatever you want about him. Like he is toxic for any of the bl actors to work with. I saw some TleFirstone fans complaining and someone popped up and said- I don’t know about this, tell me the tea so I can hate it too, and the op then listed a bunch of criticisms that honestly didn’t even make much sense to me but were very harsh.
This level of vitriol should be reserved for directors/producers/whatever who are actually toxic, i.e. abusive emotionally, physically, sexually, or obviously misogynistic or homophonic, ect. Not for someone whose works of art you just don’t like. Acting like your favs will be corrupted or destroyed somehow just by working with him for one show is awful and disrespectful.
Plus, it seems completely out of step with how the Thai audience receives him. He is getting tons of work (his overly packed schedule I do think is a legitimate concern), so his shows must be doing well with the Thai fans. I was afraid that Fourever you would never get to the second set of stories but the show did well enough to not only get a commitment to do the second half, but they added a story. And they got to it quickly too which means the investment came quickly! As a western inter fan myself, I always try to remember that I am a guest in this space and I am not the target audience. I should not expect to be catered to and I find other interfans either forget that or don’t even think of it. Western interfans complaining and being mean are not going to change how the Thai bl industry works. New Siwaj is not going anywhere, he has a bunch of shows on the docket so people are going to have to get over it or I guess they will just be miserable about it which makes the fandom so unpleasant to be in. Unfortunately, I know which approach is more likely.
That is not to say that you can’t criticize him, of course you can. In the first season of Fourever you, there were some bad continuity issues with Hill and Ter’s story that people have legitimately criticized. Also their part dragged on for too long, which seemed to be acknowledged by the people making the show and led to 2 special episodes for Johan and North. But most of what I see is not actual criticism, people are not watching his work and making judgments on their own, they are just pilling on, passing around the same criticisms that get worst in every mention like a bad game of telephone. And he is often being blamed for everything people didn’t like in a series, giving a pass to all the other people involved, particularly the screenwriters. Often the issues I see are really about the script, like in Revamp where I don’t think he actually had much to do with it. There are other people involved - writers, producers and directors and no one ever seems to lay the blame at their feet.
I went to his mdl page to see all the shows he has been involved in and find myself even more confused by why there is such this level of hate. Many of his shows are fine, I wouldn’t say that they are perfect, I can definitely criticize some stuff on several of the ones I have seen, but I enjoyed each one I watched and don’t think any were terrible. And finally, he created Until we meet again which is a classic in the bl space. He was also involved in Make it Right, which I did not know. These are both fundamentally important pieces of work in the genre and flawed or not, both contributed so much to the development of bl that I personally don’t think he even needs to do anything else to deserve high regard. Until we meet again is one of my favorites personally and I don’t think many bl series since have met its level of quality even with its imperfections (though some definitely have), though that is obviously a personal opinion.
Sorry, this got very long. But I think what it comes back to is we all have preferences, but we should figure them out for ourselves, not just take other’s word for it and pile on with others. And we should all try to remember that these people we are criticizing are real people and be kind and constructive with our criticisms. Kindness seems to be in short supply everywhere unfortunately.