Tale of Thousand Stars or Bad Buddy?

jezz, imagine not liking a quality slowburn plot 

 Prachurjya:

LOLZ ? I wasn’t judging you but maybe kinda:) idc . In my defence, how many times I do I have to state that were “L.O.V.I.N.G “each other from the very start. They might not have said the word or did any physical but they were still in love. Sometimes love is so beautiful that you don’t need to but a name like boyfriends to it. And tian was there only for a few months by the end of which they were already deeply in love. They were so much in love that they thought of the other person more than their own. It was only 2 years ofc tian has to get his education. It was his right and also the only means to become a certified teacher so they can live the rest of their lives there. Simple and beautifully put. See? And good day to you as well. Have a great day hating ATOTS.

I don't think you're really being fair here.  My problem with ATOTS was the endless stream of poorly-written excuses for them not to get together, and frankly, romantic love DOES have a physical element, otherwise it's just being friends. The way they interact is the way I do with close friends or exes, not romantic partners. And being in love is pointless unless you share it together, not pine from a distance forever. I like the slow burn, and I liked how they were handled for about 2/3 of the story, then it just got a little silly, overusing one or the other of them being in the hopital all the time for silly reasons.

I have high cholesterol and for worry I can't sleep unless I've taken my medication, yet a guy who knows he'll 100% drop dead if he doesn't take his doesn't? Plus for me, poor writing is when reality is ignored for a plot point. I have no problem with supernatural elements - that's not what I mean. I'm OK with someone feeling the compulsion to do something because they have someone else's heart. But when characters can teleport through space and time and find someone in a huge forest in the dark, that's stupid, and it's just so that a character is in the right place and time to take a bullet to resolve a conflict, rather than it being done by two characters processing that conflict.

The big conflict at the end of ATOTS depending on all the characters acting like totally different people (e.g. a doctor horrendously violating his oath to publicly reveal not only Tian's but Torfun's confidential medical info, the reserved and private Chief publicly accusing Tian of lying in front of the whole village without getting all the info, or not one person in the entire village having any follow-up questions to the comment "Torfun is dead and I'm responsible". ("OK, Tian's a murderer. We'll just leave him here. Have fun playing, kids. ")

In the end, that ridiculous conflict was just waved away by having chief shot. The subsequent conflict, Tian being angry that Phupha knew and was taking orders from his father, was good writing and organic to the characters and was how you would expect them to react. So why were 2 episodes wasted on the gangster nonsense that could have been devoted to development of Tian & Chief's relationship? Because they had to stretch them getting together to the last 10 seconds so that they didn't have to do anything overtly gay - and the director admitted as much. Slow burn increases tension - a lot. That's why it works. But that tension has to be released in a satisfying end, and most people won't be satisfied with a long-distance shot of a kiss for 10 seconds.  I'd rather have a 30-second close-in hug. I didn't need a long naked sex scene on the mountaintop, just some time with them interacting as a couple.

Tian and Chief are opposites - there was so much more drama that could have been mined by their clash of personalities - and reallythat's what gave them their charm - and yet a flimsy external threat took the place of a character-driven story. What would you rather watch? 2 hours about a cartoonishly evil drug dealer trying to kill them, or 2 minutes of chief arguing with Tian about how he brushes his teeth wrong? 99 out of a 100 people would choose the latter. 

Bad Buddy took a step down in my estimation with Ep 9 for basically handwaving away the Wai conflict (again with a cartoonishly evil villain with a comically tiny gun) which had been so central to the story and so powerfully handled up to that point - that's bad writing too, but so far (a big caveat with 3 eps remaining) that's the only time it's happened.

I don't think BB is lightyears ahead of 1000 Stars, but I'd put it at 9.5 vs 8. But let's retire the tired accusation than anyone who doesn't like something wants dirty sex. Nobody ever says that, but it's always the first assumption made - and that says more about the speakers hangups about sex than it does the person they're accusing.

I won't argue between the two series because I love them both, with their stories, twists, characters, and everything in them. So far, Bad Buddy made it to my Top BL Series list! So, there! :)

@jpny01 I’m seeing you quoting my reply only today or I would’ve replied earlier. Ok so now Bad buddy has also ended and we all saw how it turned out and I’m not going to say anything about that(I’ll let everyone be the judge of that). Because I wont waste my energy over fictional characters by criticising them or defending them anymore by writing long ass paragraphs coz it’s ridiculous . I know better than who I was when defending ATOTS in this thread a month ago.  Now I have better things to do in life than cry about BL characters in utopia so yeah whatever I guess lol.

 Antee:

Lol I couldn't quote your OP post because it was too long but I had to know…. Did your rating of Drake’s character  change after ep9? Aha Korn best boy.  

Great Question!

Closer to the end of the series, Drake's character made way more appearances than when I initially made this discussion. I will say that my score has changed, but not by much. Instead of a 4, I'd give it a 6. I still wish Korn was given an actual story rather than just being a best boy. However, Drake did a great job at playing up Korn's enthusiasm and attitude. I liked him a lot more in the lastest episodes than anything.