Lyson

For right now since S03 is incomplete it's hard to say if it'll get worse or better. Ep6 tanked hard because the art was bad AND it was filler from the manga not compacted well, it should not have used up an entire episode, filler never should, but they did and so atm, OPM S03 is one of the worst rated anime seasons of all time LOL.

Most people view fiction stories through perspectives that align with their overall view of the world, that's why people will have different take aways. If the writers never one hundred percent make it clear, we're all left to speculate.

Hannigram is my #1 canon onscreen pairing, unique for sure. Bryan Fuller really gave us something beautiful.

AoT? Man, I can barely remember. I think after s01 I stopped, or maybe not, I think I watched part of s02, I can barely recall it was years ago. I think the main dude had been revealed as a titan? I might be misremembering, I could have seen he was revealed a titan somewhere on the internet lol Was that in S01 or S02? I think I might have lost interest because I didn't get attached to any of the characters. Generally if none of the characters are appealing to me (personality/looks/interesting story or plot) I just can't get into it.

YES, exasperating for sure, it's not looking good either for 2026, have you seen GMMTVs lineup? More budget, shittier scripts. I didn't think it was possible but holy fuck lol
Shine IMO is the best Thai BL to date. Thailand makes a lot of asinine shit (let's just say it, it is what it is), so when something is well done with a mature, proper story, I feel like it stands out. But while Shine is a great LGBTQ story with good acting/directing/cinematography/etc, the plot being politically based is what might lose a lot of viewers. I love it so much, it was like a Thai version of Fellow Travelers (also such a good show damn), so I enjoyed it very much. If you ever get back into it, I'd like to know what you think!

"I was just worried about infections LOL." ~~ I hear you, I hear you, I think about things in all series/movies that bother me like it's impossible to ignore. I still think about the fact that the dude left the tap running in the club bathroom in Unforgotten Night. I dropped that show after episode 1 but I never forgot that tap.... Actually the same thing happened in Hitman's Bodyguard, in my brain, that shower is still running. So yeah, trust, thinking about unsanitary sex scenariin shows lingers.
Did you drop Top Form, I did, I think it was the episode after the honey scene, it just lost me. Who's Rangga Jones? KP overall was below mid, I have no idea why it was raved about. I originally dropped it when it first aired because it was such a miss for me, one or two good scenes in there, and some decent acting, but the story was sooooo shite man. I went back and rewatched it again recently (skipping literally everything not related to MileApo) because after Shine I was finally able to appreciate Apo and Mile as actors. KP was, upon rewatch, still mid shite to me, was difficult but I managed to get through it the second time lol
"The BDSM aspect of Vegas and Pete's relationship made 50 Shades of Grey look revolutionary." ~~ this is a worse than any insult I could have come up LOLOLOL kudos

There has to be a balance of both for sure, or in some cases they should leave sex out entirely in some cases, like Dead Friends Forever and Mandate, both would have been SO MUCH BETTER without any sex.

The novel is very different, the entire premise is different so there will be some things that are explained and some things that are totally new, including additional doors and the uncensored relationship of the MLs. It's a good read :)

The ending of the novel is not related to the series at all. It's totally different.
The ending of the series has three main scenarios as of now:

1) Comatose Jiushi wakes up and everything was a dream, so he spends the next 50 years creating the virtual world he dreamed about so he can see everyone one he dreamed of.

2) Jiushi had entered a virtual game world, then he 'wakes up' back in his reality after having purified the game, and the virtual world ceases to exist. Lanzhu included, he ceases to exist as he states he would in ep 36. So he spends the next 50 years creating the virtual world he experienced and the people in it, as a comfort for his loss before he dies.

3) Everything that happens in the series happens inside a virtual world, and after the virtual world is purified, everyone from the real world who lived/died in the virtual world returns to the real world with all their memories wiped and they go back to their normal lives.

Which one do you feel most likely fits the series ending? You can decide.

If you want a more detailed answer about the difference you can let me know :)

The manga is incredible and so is the art, the anime production of S03 had issues from the outset, that's why it took 6 fucking years to make and even then, they rushed it and the budget was obviously terrible. It's sad too because Monster Garou Versus Saitama is one of THE best parts of the manga so far and they really screwed us. The story is fine so far, it's the art and animation that's awful.

"Most are lazy and noncommittal." ~~ yeeep.

Yeah, Brian was a loaded character, he was a whole new shade of a red flag lol but he was also very real and direct and unapologetically himself. I guess we'll have to agree to disagree on Brian as a character. I think people saw Brian in totally different lights depending on their own life experiences. My point of view is that Brian was who he was and everyone tried to make excuses for how he was, tried to make sense of his life choices and dismissiveness about the things they found to be important (like what you're mentioning, that he went through things people/viewers saw in a certain way but he/his character didn't and they didn't understand why he didn't see it that way and that made them pity him but he didn't gaf). The ending felt realistic for someone like him imo. Best case scenario if he'd committed to Justin is they ended up splitting up anyway because Brian is not wired for that life. I didn't think he was someone who didn't want much out of life, that idea just depends on each person's idea of what 'much' is. For some people, 'much' is falling in love, settling down with one person and being close to family and friends, for other people, that stuff isn't important or interesting, but rather being independent, financially stable, having freedom to do whatever they want and having good positive relationships because they want to not because someone is related to them or they grew up together and so on, some other people might just like to stay home and watch gay dramas and go out once a month, and some might be happy going backpacking and never staying in one place or one country, with regards to sex, some might want monogamy and some might like casual sex and some might like no sex. Happiness and much is defined person by person. I think Brian was happy, but when Justin came into the mixture, happiness was to a certain redefined, but also, a lot of what happened with Justin was a burden for him and vice versa. For Brian and Justin, I feel like eventually there would have been a lot of resentment, and with Justin having picked up a lot of Brian's traits, yikes, as Brian got older and Justin got more frustrated and fed up with him. Heh. Messy. That's how I see it anyway. A happy ending is not impossible in a fictional multiverse though XD

No apologies, these kinds of discussions in old fandoms are rare! And yes, to each their own, debating and discussing is just for funsies.

Hey lots of people couldn't stick out Hannibal, it's an acquired taste hehe

AoT lost me bro, there were times I was like 'who came up with this?' but not judging their creativity, just, like, I wasn't into it.

YES mom's on the BL train is a skill. My mum just finished Shine recently. I'm head over heels for Shine (it's more LGBTQ than BL), for TrinTanwa (the main pairing) but the story is also so good, so I had to get her to encourage her to watch it and she enjoyed it legit. I encourage EVERYONE to watch it, that show bumped so many BLs down on my list to move up, it was so good. MXTX BL supremacy!! Now you got me picturing all those wannabe TU haters dodging giant pokeballs thrown by MXTX, using EVADE and being NOT SUCCESSFUL. LOL

We might have! I have talked about SKAM with some people on here before. I think you might be one of the few who don't like SKAM France, yes, that's my second fave. Trust, I respect and love the original SKAM, but wtFOCK excelled in chemistry for me. I think France also stood out more. As for the other SKAMs they all kind of fell into a similar mid level entertainment for me after those first three.
Did they fuck? I didn't get that they fucked, I thought they just fooled around and got paint all over lol. But you know it's all good, people thought that Top Form BL was some amazing show but using honey as lube is the dumbest fucking thing ever, that was written by someone who clearly had no concept of anal sex and I thought that was not sexy, but fans lapped that shit up and in KinnPorche they fucked in the water XD it's all very fancy looking, but yeah, no one's having a good time having sex with honey as lube or having anal sex in water, especially not chlorinated water LOL fans will say 'it's fiction, they can do that' so yeah, sometimes you just gotta let it go lol
heh maaan, fanfiction has some high points, and many many lows, if we had a coin for every time there was something cringe many of us would be rich!

Totally agree on YR, it was a solid show, beginning to end!

Fair enough, not for everyone! I watched for Aron Piper, I stayed for Aron Piper, I left when Aron Piper left (s05). I'm either interested or immune to sex scenes in shows, gay, het, whatever, if I like the characters, I'm interested, if I don't, it goes by in a blur and I won't even notice. It's an autopilot thing, happens in BLs A LOT for me for secondary pairs, I won't even remember their names.

Yeah, for me XZ stopped at WW, I never even tried anything else of his, movies or music. I'm a fan of WY big time, primarily for his dancing and as Lan Wangji second, everything else he does (he's DONE A LOT of stuff, I'm not gonna list all that) is just great extra entertainment. But it'a a no about the acting thing, WY has pulled away from that for a while now, these days he does an occasional song and performance at big events, he does a lot of international travel for the brands he's endorsed by and the second season of his documentary Exploring the Unknown is currently airing. He's got shares in C-cent too I think, he's just living his best life rn, doesn't gaf about nothing lol

I love the art of Great Pretender, it's fantastic, and for both, the stories are amazing and interesting, 10/10 would recc! The animation for s03 is ass, ngl, we fans got shafted by whatever time constraints and pathetic budget the studio decided to give it, but i don't really care, I watch the anime as a side interest, for me the OPM manga is all I need and I'm up to date with that so it's whatever. I would not recc bothering with S03 though, it's so bad and getting worse, ep 6 recently was so weak.

Ah yes, 100% get what you mean and imo that's just lazy writing, it's when the writer doesn't want to commit to one or the other because they're afraid of displeasing readers/viewers/fans. Absolute weak sauce. Endings needs to be defined or open ended, trying to achieve both actually does just make people frustrated.

Aw I disagree! In QaF we see Brian go through A LOT to try NOT to change, in the end he was even willing to go against his playboy nature to settle down with Justin, but in the end it comes back to bite him in the ass because he basically 'taught' Justin to be 'free' like him, so when Justin has the opportunity to leave, Brian's growth is shown in that he's willing to let Justin go instead of being selfish and only thinking about himself and then he goes back to his old lifestyle because everyone else moved on around him while he was trying to stay the same. It's bitter sweet, I liked it. I feel like of course it's possible Justin eventually went back to Brian, but I also think it's entirely possible that Justin never came back and that he ended up living a lot like Brian did. We reap what we sow~~! hehe

Oh I love Hannibal, I am totally on board with violence in shows/movies, I can watch it and write it, it doesn't phase me, the more stylistically graphic the better. Hence why I love Deadpool and Hannibal and Interview with the Vampire, they all suit my dark, angsty red flag preferences in fiction. But I get what you mean, it's not for everyone. AoT bored me to all hell though, was it graphic? I never made it past the first season.

Haha XD MDZS was like the original IT for horror fans and kids of the 80s, it CHANGED people indeed, it'll stay with the people who read/watch it for life. Even my mother watched it and loved it. MXTX is a powerful writer, she knows how to build worlds and characters and develop them properly which is what needs to happen for people to grow attached. It's a rare thing to find good character development in BLs, China does seem to hold the W for that over all.

Writing is so awesome, I used to love it, glad you get to express yourself that way!

SKAM is it's own kind of legend, my fave of all the SKAMS is wtFOCK. Since you like foreign LGBTQ, did you watch Elite and Young Royals? I'd recc Elite up to s05, YR was a banger all the way through, good ending.

"I wouldn't call myself a Xiao Zhan fan because real Xiao Zhan fans would be offended." ~~ oh we really are two versions of someone similar. I would also not call myself a fan, not even close, I've never even bothered with anything he did outside TU. I only know about the group thing because I like Xia Zhiguang. lolol I am a fan of WY though, no cap. XZ was perfect as Wei Wuxian and that's all that mattered.

I think policing grammar isn't even fun when trolling, it's low hanging fruit, as they say.

I was wrong, I think this may actually be a little TOO camp and cheesy for me to get properly into. It's likely gonna be a background watch for lols, which is fine. Just a bit of a pity since I was looking forward to it a for a while but now 10 episodes of this type of content might feel longer than it is. Anyway, everyone looks good, especially Pond and Santa and the budget was obvs good over all. Fun enough to pass free time when there is free time.

There's so much anime, it's like it never ends. I've only delved back into anime on occasions, for like small limited runs such as Angels of Death, Great Pretender, Zankyou No Terror, Saiki K, etc. I think at this point the only ongoing Shonen Jump manga I read is One Punch Man, manhua is very rare for me to bother with and I don't read webtoons at all. Oh and I read Deadpool comics on going. Deadpool is my fiction BAE.

It seems we might be same same but also very different versions of the one being LOL Brian Kinney was a fire gay hot mess bastard, how to not fall for him? For me, Together With Me was my first Asian BL, still one of my faves to this day, second came The Untamed and so I found the rabbit hole of MXTX and leapt down it head first >:D I am one of those who loved the ending of QaF, firstly I am ALL FOR AMBIGUOUS endings. You ever watched Drive? I loved the kissing scene with him and FL (love both actors too) and I wanted them to be together, but at the same time I loved that they left it open ended. It's one of my fave types of ending. So for me QaF was all good. Now Hannibal NBC, I can live with the open ending of S03, but if they do a season 4 and we get proper closure on Hannibal and Will actually being together, I won't complain, know what I'm saying?? So you like a happy/closed ending and I don't mind an open ending XD

I loved writing when I had the time, but now I can't spare it. You write novels or fanfiction or both? I watch things all countries, Western, European, Asian. It's all good as long as it's good, but I'm picky so it's not many. But yes, I can't hear without my damn subtitles!

Your in the majority about Zhai Xiao Wen, pretty much everyone I've seen talk about the show was keen to see him play XL.

I think they WOULD have chemistry because they were friendly, their boy group didn't do any of that skinship shit so chemistry in that way I can't say, but probably since XZG was so good in the censored BL he did, conveying feelings without being overt. Are you a fan of Xiao Zhan like most people are? Should I also tell you that Xia Zhiguang was in the same music group as XZ too later on? lol XZG is unknowingly destined to play HC (in my brain at least)

"Ugh, this is why entertainment companies should take note of fan casting." ~~ preach.

This is the internet, caring about grammar is a wild concept.

Fan Xiao is such a psycho, I laughed a lot in this episode. Also I like Lu Zhen, he is soooo pretty.
Thank you China BL loophole.

Riiiiight? We're from a time when yaoi/slash barely even HAD legs, it actually was like being a part of a secret club back then. Now slash is so open and out there.

I pretty much keep a ship forever once I glom onto it, I'm picky so when I find something I like, it sticks. To this day I'd STILL READ Tala/Kai or Kai/Tala fanfics if they existed, but you know what dead fandoms are like, it's a lonely place to be lol
I don't read Yugioh fanfiction anymore but considering what kinds of tags I see in fanfiction of the other fandoms I am a part of, I would not be surprised if it get's really messy. Ah what a time it was to a yaoi/slash fan back then.
We do have a lot in common, some non yaoi and some yaoi, aside from Hybrid Child I read/watched all the others you mentioned but from some of my die hard ships (not in the yaoi genre, but the shonen jump genre) I moved on from Japanese anime/manga at some point, just couldn't stay interested. I think Queer as Folk largely took me out of the animated slash genre in general, and my personal interests changed. Not that I don't appreciate some anime/manga now, but like you've moved onto crackships, I've moved on to live action/TV series/movie ships. We change out tastes though, it is what it is!

I agree, the actor who was cast as HC doesn't have the right demeanor, aura or vibe for Hua Cheng, he looks way too soft. and I'm not even trying to be mean, I just don't think Zhai Xiao Wen is pretty enough to be Xie Lian. Honestly, the actor playing Lu Zhen in To My Shore (have you watched the latest ep? I lol'd so much, FX is such a psycho bastard!) is even 'prettier' imo. BUT YES Xia Zhiguang us perfect, he's a good actor too and he's got hella Aura, he can play a dark role very well and he's already familiar with MXTX's work and he acted in a censored BL a male lead. It's an empty dream but he'd be fantastic as Hua Cheng. IF ONLY CHINA WOULD LET US HAVE NICE THINGS! Fun fact that, since you like Zhai Xiao Wen, he and Xia Zhiguang already know each other, they were in a music group together, so if Zhai Xiao Wen was acting across from him at least their chemistry wouldn't be bad!

Rewatches are never a bad thing, although I'd rather read the manhua again, the art is so beautiful!

HAHA! YES Sometimes when I mentioned Beyblade I feel like I'm screaming into a void but you're a fellow FAN! Aaaah yes, fanfiction dot net really fell off man. Yeah I used to have my beyblade fics on ff.net BUT nope, I don't think you would have read my stuff. I only wrote the much lesser popular ship of Tala/Kai and Kai/Tala, that was it, no other BB ships and now what's left of of my fics are on AO3, but I don't write anymore, I only do fanart and fmvs now. I loved Tala (also the US name version, aka Yuriy, I also only watched the dub!) But yeah, THAT era.
I HAVEN'T HEARD THE WORD LEMON SINCE I WAS A TEEN BRO now I just call is sex and smut and slash. As for innocent, I dunno man I read and write some smutty stuff for BB XD I've never been all that shocked by anything, when I discovered slash/yaoi I just realised it was way better than het stuff and I rolled with it lolol but fanfiction itself has gone the way of excess kink these days, which was not present back then! So in that way, the content itself was more innocent for sure! Also I think BB was mostly written with the characters as teens, rarely aged up, so that's why it was tamer, but YU GIIII OOOOOHHH had Yami and Seth, adults so lol

BB and GRAVITATION and YUGIOH HOLY SHIT MAN high five! So we have BB, Yugioh and Gravi in common, can I ask if you are/were also into the yaoi/slash of Death Note and FULLMETAL ALCHEMIST <3333 (manga/brotherhood ONLY!) FMA is STILL my Japanese manga/anime Holy Grail.

I have mixed feelings about Eternal Faith because I love Hua Cheng and Xie Lian so much but I don't like the casting of the series they filmed, i don't think either actor is suitable for the roles. I'd still watch it, but it won't hit the same. I have a this personal impossible dream of Xia Zhiguang playing Hua Cheng, he'd be so perfect!
https://i.pinimg.com/1200x/54/84/15/5484157a8c85f88b0a0003fe69170a94.jpg
https://i.pinimg.com/1200x/68/5f/d6/685fd67c2981a65f742a47f02cb1b8c3.jpg
And Xie Lian is just so fucking beautiful in the manhua, I'm not sure WHO could play him 😭but yes, we might get something with the way CBL is doing things now!!!!

The novel still sounds like a step up and let's face it, even fanfiction writers are still writing gay relationships and sex in some, uh, odd and questionable ways, so we gotta learn to just let some stuff slide!!

"Morbid curiosity had young me reading a lot of trash." ~~ lol we've all been there, this is how we figure out what we think is trash and what we prefer, it's the natural course. I been in the slash game since I was 13 writing gay fanfiction about Beyblade bro. I have SEEN and READ some things that cannot even be explained lol

I enjoyed the MDZS novel and I love TU but honestly, my fave from MXTX is Tian Guan Ci Fu, THAT is my MXTX HOLY GRAIL. The novel, the manhua, the donghua, the original art releases, no misses yet. HuaLian <3

AH 2023, that would explain why it's perhaps better written, maybe with a writer who is more aware of the current world climate and more informed about the topic of gay relationships and sex and stuff.

Jfc Counter Attack is incoherent fangirl trash fanfiction lol no question LOL i don't know how any person read it and found it enjoyable. Even SHE said don't read Counter Attack when Revenged Love dropped. Revenged Love is so much better than the novel. It's funny we're talking about this, I just posted this yesterday:
https://x.com/lyson_pain/status/1991478128053813296 lol
As for her Addicted novel, imo the show was rapey trash, I didn't even read that novel.

I agree that the writing of a lot of the older novels out of China (and Thailand) are far from polished, even MXTX wrote some things that are nonsensical (in terms of what she knew about gay sex) in MDZS, in her later works she'd definitely improved.

When was TMS written? Newer or also an old work?

Eh, yeah me too. These days I generally determine whether to read the novel based on whether I enjoy the first/second ep of a show, only very few novels were read BEFORE their adaptations. But I'll check it out, thanks.

The level of interested I have to be to read the original novel has to be VERY HIGH lol. I'm not there atm, may not get there. Probably will just watch the show. BUT if you got a link to an English translation, would possibly skim it.

If it's got Jisung, I'm seated. That is all.

HIGH KEY

😂 Bro just wants things he wants, he doesn't gaf about the details, he's actually quite an original character/lowkey psychopath and I'm here for it! Seeing of he manages to tap them both will be entertaining af, but I'm not about that throuple/polyamory thing, so if I had to choose one, I'd like to FX to end up with LuZhen, but I doubt he will since that character is listed after Youshu. Ah well, I guess I'll just be along for the ride >:D definitely gonna be fun

I don't watch anything omegaverse at all. That content should remain in fanfiction imo.

Oh nvmd, I see other people want it too >:D

Potential controversial opinion incoming:
I want Fan Xiao to dick them both down, no cap.