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Pha Was Unexpected!

BadPennyGirl

Honestly, I was expecting some posturing and "hey he's mine, what are you doing?" and that sort of thing because Pha's behavior seemed so stalkerish in season 1.  

From the other side, it looks completely different.  They managed to utterly turn me around on the character of Pharawee with one episode!  I still think Thanu is the best one for Wayu, but wow.  Now I have Pha feels.

He got me with that line he said to Thanu as he was leaving.  "I'm giving Wayu back to P'Thanu."  Acknowledging that you took him in the first place took big balls, Pha.  

Wow!  I can't wait to see what comes next.  Usually I wait until a series is done airing and then I binge watch it all at once.   Not this one.  I'm here for this show, my alarm set for moment when each episode is posted.  

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aquadrone22

I was loving Pha being a no face in season 1…. But that comment did blow me away. Based on that comment, I am loosely assuming that there will be no “ fight for Wayu’s heart” because that would completely dampen Pha’s character. 

I hope they find a decent reason that Pha left Wayu and why Pha kept checking up on Wayu after leaving. Pha ghosted Yu and the series did a good job of portraying the feelings of someone being ghosted. Thanu was Yu’s rebound too, so I’m curious if we will se Yu conflicted over the return of Pha. He is more upset about Thanu’s drawing of Phai which can be a true sign Yu is over Pha. 

I’ll anxiously wait for the next episode. 

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BadPennyGirl

I agree that the way Pha absence was handled in season 1 accentuated the feeling of Wayu's isolation.  And Bas did an amazing job of acting as well.  I could just feel his pain.    

Since Pha fainted after he left Wayu in last week's episode, I am wondering if Pha originally abandoned Wayu because he was sick.  Which would be so dramatic!   

But maybe I'm wrong.

As for the gifts, Pha denied sending the creepy stalker gifts.  The camera shots seem to indicate that Sandee sent the gifts as part of his attempt to ruin Thanu and Wayu's relationship.  Perhaps Pha returned to help sort the problem out.

I can't wait to see if I'm right.  

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Elfkin

I was never a Pha/Wayu shipper because, well, poor Wayu was wrecked when Pha left.  And I am down with whatever is best for Wayu.  He's my juice!  

But I think I do have more interest in his story after episode 1 last week.

Maybe there was a solid reason he left but just couldn't say why.  Or explain himself without leaving.  Whatever the reason, it will have to be really convincing.   Big is up to it, though.  I think that actor has hidden depths.

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BadPennyGirl

I agree.  Big is surprising me.  I wanted not to like Pha, but Big's performance may make that harder than I thought, especially if they write him as a sympathetic character with good reasons for leaving the way he did.  Or at least if not good reasons, if they write him as properly penitent it may offset even crappy decision making on the part of the character.

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jpny01

Does it not bother anyone that they treat him like an object to own and give to each other? But then again, he's about as interesting as carboard box, so it's hard to blame them. Maybe one of them will toss him in the recycle bin and we'll finally be free of him.

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BadPennyGirl

I think it's how women are traditionally treated in romance stories involving a love triangle, and Wayu's role is distinctly the role of a girl in hetero romances.  

But that observation aside, any time two men discuss between themselves the ultimate treatment of a third party that isn't involved, it's not about the merits of the third party but the personalities of the two men butting heads.  It can relegate the third party to the role of possession but that doesn't speak on the value of the person this happens to.  And it happens all the time in real life, so it's not uncommon in fiction either.  But Thanu did the only right thing and shut Pha's co-opting down with a "I'm gonna love Wayu for myself, not because you want me to."

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BadPennyGirl

I am wondering when Pha is going to stop grafting his own aspiration onto other people.  Kit has no obligation to finish med school and become a doctor "for Pha".   He's doing for himself. Nor should Pha be inserting hjmself into Kit's romance in the form of "have the kind of committed relationship I would have had". That's a hard no.   Same thing on the whole "Love Wayu for me too" nonsense.  

People aren't obligated to attach a dying person's dreams in place of their own.  That wasn't cool.

That being said, Kit is pulling his own dick moves.  he's 3 years into a pre-med undergraduate degree.  He's not a doctor and he's not qualified or legally in the right to be sending Pha's medical records to any medical research entity.

He's doing that Cardinal "no" thing.  Kit is not accepting that Pha is dying and not paying attention to his wishes regarding that.  Even though Pha has said he's ready.  It's fine to hope that things will turn around and death will be postponed.  However, if death is what is happening, it helps the dying person for friends and family to accept that fact. We are taught death is bad.  In fact, death is as normal as birth -- we just haven't been taught to see it that way.  So it's enormously sad when loved ones subject the dying to extra procedures or experimental treatments when it is obvious that it is time to die. 

So I'll be watching to see how much more Kit rejects Pha's agency.  It's not like he doesn't have a history of ending up in trouble because he always thinks he knows best.

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jpny01
 BadPennyGirl:

I think it's how women are traditionally treated in romance stories involving a love triangle, and Wayu's role is distinctly the role of a girl in hetero romances.  

But that observation aside, any time two men discuss between themselves the ultimate treatment of a third party that isn't involved, it's not about the merits of the third party but the personalities of the two men butting heads.  It can relegate the third party to the role of possession but that doesn't speak on the value of the person this happens to.  And it happens all the time in real life, so it's not uncommon in fiction either.  But Thanu did the only right thing and shut Pha's co-opting down with a "I'm gonna love Wayu for myself, not because you want me to."

Correction: Wayu's role is distinctly the role of a 12-year old girl in a Victorian-era romance.

That was definitely one of Thanu's best lines. Maybe "I'm going to love Wayu for who he is, not because you want me to" might have been a bit better, but baby steps.

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BadPennyGirl

Not Victorian exclusively and not 12 year old girls.  The modern era genre of romance is still over-run with that paradigm--full of men ignoring the adult woman they love so they can go off to the side and growl at each other over who she belongs to.  And it's never a reflection of the woman's merits.  Again, it's a reflection of the quality of the men themselves.

This was refreshingly lacking in either growling or claims of ownership. (as I said in the OP, I was shocked not to see a "He's mine.  No He's mine now" argument) Thanu and Pha's oddly civil exchange was focused more on their respective love and roles in Wayu's life than in any overt sense of ownership over Wayu.  Which I kind of had to tip my hat to, even if the exchange made me roll my eyes at Pha.

He's at once very endearing and utterly frustrating.  Kind of how I feel about Kit and Tong at this point.

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CityOfAngels

After watching 3 episodes of Gen-Y 2, we know now the reason that Pha said, " I have given Wayu back to you."  In a sense, Pha has stolen Wayu from Thanu. 

Thanu is the one who has the foreboding and saved Wayu when Wayu felt off the cheering stand. Wayu understand for the longest time that Pha save him... and that's the beginning of his crush on Pha... Wayu thinks that is their destiny.  Pha never tells Wayu the truth about that.

Thanu and Wayu had a premonition so that fact has come to light.  

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BadPennyGirl

I feel like Pha's role in Wayu and Thanu's life kind of mirror's Saendee's.  

Saendee is trying to manipulate them apart using Pha, (Despite the fact that Phai has now asked Saendee twice not to hurt them).  But as you said, Pha also manipulated both Thanu and Wayu to keep them separate.

Their motivations are different, and so is the level of malevolence involved in their actions, but I see Pha and Saendee as having mirror roles in Thanu and Wayu's joined destiny.

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aquadrone22
 jpny01:

Does it not bother anyone that they treat him like an object to own and give to each other? But then again, he's about as interesting as carboard box, so it's hard to blame them. Maybe one of them will toss him in the recycle bin and we'll finally be free of him.

It is unfortunate because people believe that men are weak when they have emotional responses outside of anger, as Wayu has displayed. However, his emotional responses don’t make him a woman figure. It’s the ownership two men have toward him. It is the definition of being a “woman”. In the words of Princess Jasmine, “I am not some prize to be won”. Just when you think this stereotyped role is dying, it’s brought back. 

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BadPennyGirl
 aquadrone22:

It is unfortunate because people believe that men are weak when they have emotional responses outside of anger, as Wayu has displayed. However, his emotional responses don’t make him a woman figure. It’s the ownership two men have toward him. It is the definition of being a “woman”. In the words of Princess Jasmine, “I am not some prize to be won”. Just when you think this stereotyped role is dying, it’s brought back. 


Thank you for quoting Jasmine.  She's pretty bad ass.  And thank you for knowing that a man feeling strong grief or sorrow (or joy) doesn't make him weak, or feminine.  And even if it did make him feminine, so what.  Women aren't weak for feeling things strongly either.

But yeah, the trope of two men fighting over a lover is not something I mind seeing in fiction because we still see it in day to day life.   What I mind seeing in fiction is when it's not being addressed as a bad thing.  I hate seeing it and it's written away in plot as "them just being men".  Pfft.  

Thankfully Thanu and Pha's exchange did not fall into the whole "He's mine/no he belongs to me now" tank of absolute awful.  However, the same idea of possession and dehumanization occurs when both Thanu and Pha, at differing times, lie or withold information from Wayu in order to control him.  But then Mark is doing this, Kit is doing this, Phai even is.  

Wayu is surrounded by people who broker information to narrow the scope of his choices.

Which means he has a lot of people around him that he needs to have the "stop trying to control me" speech with.  I would find it painfully exhausting once I realized exactly how many people around me were hiding things or lying.  But I don't know that the plot of the show will address it.  

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aquadrone22

BadPennyGirl says: “However, the same idea of possession and dehumanization occurs when both Thanu and Pha, at differing times, lie or withold information from Wayu in order to control him.  But then Mark is doing this, Kit is doing this, Phai even is.”

This scenario has to be one of my biggest pet peeves in these relationships. I don’t care if it is familial, platonic, or romantic. People who use the excuse of “protecting the other party from being hurt” as an excuse to withhold information, are implicit in deceptive practices. Let’s be honest, the persons being protected will be hurt regardless. They should be able to choose what to do with the information given and they should be allowed an emotional response to the information. If I withhold information under the guise of protection, I’m really just protecting myself from having to explain and deal with the outcome of the information shared. 

One of the reasons I liked Jin and B’Bomb from Nitiman was because I felt they had a more honest relationship. When Jin admitted he didn’t like the way people looked at him for being close with Bomb, my heart melted. I completely understood his reservations and that reaction was so human. He didn’t try to pretend to save Bomb’s feelings. 

I agree with everything you said in your original post.

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