BradBluddy16

I’m a little concerned that the preview leaned so heavily on the happy ending beach trip trope, quickly skipping over Jinn’s “farewell” letter. Did J break a supernatural law with his Ep 11 revelations? Was his future/“parallel world” self consoling him because he wasn’t able to save Jinn in the end? Could we be getting an Episode 12 curse?

At least, there is enough of a fandom to bring in the toxic fans. Back in the early Only Boo days it was looking pretty grim. I would hope that the less vocal, majority of the fandom understands that P’New is the best bet to get the SeaKeen magic out to the masses. They can win their Maya award another year.

“Van, why do you have to act tough when you can’t handle it?”
Farm is truly an angel on this earth.

I’m really trying to understand all the backlash against Van. I know we have all known, and probably have had our hearts broken by this type of person at some point in our lives. If those feelings are still raw, maybe it is hard to see it playing out on screen; hard to get that emotional separation that BL usually provides for us. There was a lot of outcry against Yotha in P10L, but I don’t remember people actually unable to continue the series because of it. Now Perth, a gifted and experienced actor, was able to use his eyes to show Yotha’s continuing affection for Gun, even at his most emotionally devastating. It’s not that Java, a young, and let’s face it, disarmingly beautiful actor, plays Van with less nuance. In Episode 10, especially, he was telegraphing Van’s heartbreak for all for us, including Mai, to see. His character, though understandably traumatized, just takes an uncomfortably long time to begin to connect with his own feelings. Maybe it is that: a combination of how Van is written, and Java’s pitch perfect embodiment of him.
We understand Farm. We are Farm. We can’t help but identify with Farm’s dilemma.
Who wouldn’t be swayed by such beauty, charisma, and need. Maybe it all just touches too close to home.

Oh Van. How dare P’New bring a realistic, emotionally wounded and immature young man onto our screens, especially if we are still triggered from dealing with these people irl!
I blame YothaGun. Despite some gnashing of teeth, they were a runaway success, and their
“sunshine destroyer-sunshine of this world“ storyline really struck a chord. It may not be a coincidence that, from critical fandom flashpoint mass, the VanFarm coupling should get a feel-good resolution leading directly into SurfJava’s MuteLuv episodes. It’s almost like GMMTV knew what they were doing. 😉

I wonder if the runaway success of YothaGun became a topic of discussion in the writers room.

I agree to disagree, but that is so funny!!

Good. I do want us all to get along :)

That’s the old Only Boo defender spirit I remember, Annabel! If we could just get you to come over to the dark side….

Apologies for blowing cigarette smoke in your face @Neoptolemus. If you are looking for something other than a quickly shot and cut college rom com, which values chemistry and heart over details, P’New is probably not your guy. I disagree that it is “crap” directing or a lack of integrity, though. But good on you for giving it a go.

Sigh. It is so hard to be both a SeaKeen and P’New stan these days. I would love to bring both sides together and hammer out a peace treaty. To the SeaKeen fandom I would point out that Head 2 Head has exponentially increased their popularity, and Van’s “toxicity” has brought passionate attention to the series. I’m guessing that is what GMMTV was banking on when they chose P’New to helm the project. The plan was to get eyeballs on SeaKeen, knowing their charm and chemistry would do the rest. That P’New was able to rush and maybe haphazardly get the show out before the end of the year was critical; otherwise it might have been lost in the 2026 first quarter wasteland. Maybe the series isn’t perfectly refined, but it’s GMMTV; BL is their bread and butter; they need a lot of shows, fast; and P’New can crank them out. In the end, we still get peak romance; a series that has all of the feel good charm (and sometimes toxicity) of Perfect 10 Liners stitched together with the supernatural tension that made Until We Meet Again a classic. Why can’t we all just get along?

I always appreciate you trying to reset the fandom with your thoughtful takes. My BP drops every time I pick up your thread.

Bravo! Our poet laureate is back. Love how you are looking at this series “head” on, without any of your usual clever wit and sardonic playfulness, although that was always appreciated. No wonder you can communicate Van’s journey so eloquently.

Hey Only Boo Friend, I remember you having a similar reaction to the YothaGun arc in P10L. Is it the toxic boyfriend trope that takes you out? A lot a people seem to be feeling some type of way about it; but to me that is only reinforcing how well it is being portrayed. Fans wouldn’t be experiencing real hatred if the director, scriptwriter, editor and cameraperson, not to mention Java and Surf, weren’t doing a great job bringing it to life. I personally thought this episode excelled at finding the balance between making Van serve his penance while setting up a realistic path to redemption. And for you FaifaWine stans, there’s the JJinn romance that just keeps getting sweeter and sweeter.

Nong Nooong is a shrimp mounting an otter. Just saying…

With three Head 2 Head episodes left, please excuse me for wanting to self-indulgently revisit my pre-show predictions to see if I have any of J’s future vision powers.

From early October:
“Five things I’m looking forward to with Head 2 Head:”

1. “Keen getting a hold of a Boy Sompob OST and crushing it.”
- Sort of. I guess Boy Sompob works exclusively with Wabi Sabi. The Pure Kanin OSTs are all good but don’t quite touch the emotional depths for Keen to truly unleash his inner Adele.

2. “New Siwaj returning to a supernatural love story that doesn’t include vampires”
-Agree. P’New has reconnected with that red thread tension that made UWMA so compelling.

3. “Sea being unshackled and given a more playful character to sink his paws into (meow meow meow)”
-Agree. Still I couldn’t foresee that Sea had developed into such a full-range acting tiger (roar, roar, roar).

4. “With New Siwaj being a master of the tasteful, but not demure, NC scene, SeaKeen will finally get to 2nd base”
-Pending. We might get it at the start of Ep 11, before all penultimate-episode-hell breaks loose.

5. “Keen, that awkwardly endearing, gyrating teenager from his Project Alpha debut, will rightfully become the new Crown Prince of BL (at least until Fourth gets his bangs back, and Ticket to Heaven changes the universe as we know it)”
-Pending. No question that Keen is coming into his own; between Head 2 Head, CLO’VER, MuteLuv, and Only Boo and it’s OSTs, Fourth’s grip on the crown may be loosening. And is Ticket to Heaven really real or just a illusory vision we all shared?

There seems to be no end to Keen’s talents: acting equally well with comedy and drama, hilarious improv, singing, center position idol, dancing, playing guitar and piano, and now lip gymnastics(!?!) He’s come such a long way from the endearing awkwardness of his Kon Mun Ruk Project Alpha debut.

Here are some of the possible explanations that help me sleep at night:)
J - He was allowed to return from the future in the hopes of saving Jinn, but he is bound by a celestial non-disclosure agreement about sharing details of his visions/memories (not a spoiler; I have not read the book)
The Father - ThamePo and Only Boo both showed us the unfair, even barbaric pressures put on idols to stay uncoupled. Imagine the landscape twenty years ago and adding a child to the mix. Also, who was the shadowy figure with the dad; with that level of success, was the mob involved? Or worse, the army?
Van - this is the easiest, as we have already been handed all the facts.
Van’s parents died tragically when he was 14 or 15. Reattaching to another human being will, understandably, not be easy. Van keeps everything light, always redirecting any serious conversations as a coping mechanism. If he ever goes deep he will encounter some unimaginable levels of grief.
No, Farm does not need to smack him, dump his ass, or worse. He needs to be constant, and not fall for any of Van’s avoidance strategies, until Van can break down his own walls, and walk through his fears of attachment/abandonment.

True. It’s BL. It has to start with the ship and their chemistry. But the story and the direction has to be there, as well; otherwise we would all just be watching fan service content. I guess P’New has his detractors because he is similar to a pulp fiction writer; he produces a tremendous amount of content, and doesn’t seem to sweat the details. We all love an auteur; but BL, like romance fiction, needs its pulp producers to keep the genre’s blood flowing. And P’New, love him or hate him, is very good at what he does.

Shout out to New Siwaj. Not sure what’s behind all the fandom fuss, but, aside from a vampire series that had him stray too far out of his collegiate comfort zone, dude has been on a roll of late. We Are had its moments; Fourever You made it half way there; Perfect 10 Liners was two-thirds perfect; and Head 2 Head finds him fully back in his sweet spot, that supernatural/romantic fusion that made Until We Meet Again so compelling.