TianQi

Funny you mention that. I'm usually not on the side of the unpopular opinion, but views are views.

I see where you're coming from about strong people not always being strong, but still...getting into a full-blown relationship is one hell of a way to cave.

I feel like Aun would be satisfied if Dew were just out of Mint's life period and Aun isn't someone that Dew's unfamiliar with and there's also Joey as their quasi-mediator. Even though he wants Dew to be with Mint to, he ultimately wants all his friends to get along. There were just so many other ways that this Mint situation could have been dealt with and I just feel Dew's actions were more ill-thought than a reaction to pressure.

I see what you’re saying, but I don’t feel the show really played the version of Dew thay you’re presenting up, if he even exists at all. Dew isn’t defeated. He has his head on his shoulders well and I’m spite of all the shit he takes, he often fights back when opposed. I really just feel like this decision in so far as his character is concerned is out of place. We don’t really see Dew being confused about his feelings with Mint. We see him saying to hisself and others that he doesn’t like her, but then at the last minute, he dates her…it’s just…off.

“Are you living under a rock” is an unnecessarily rude way to start a conversation. Whatever you feel about how I reacted to that statement is of little concern to me at this point. and intersectionality and ethnic struggles exist in many places and we do know about that here too, thanks.

Dew could have and should have avoided dating Mint and he had every implication that he should be firm and double down on that.

“ and I like how you sum up threatening to murder someone and other literal emotional abuse as making excuses. And painting the perpetrator as a victim who literally couldn't take no for an answer and tries to murder for the rejection...”

I didn’t do this. I referenced how you described Dew as a person, not what’s been done to him.

Do I think he deserves to be shot and killed as implied by tsuliwaensis? Maybe not, but I can say that I sympathized with Dew much more until this episode.

We don’t even know he’s gay as he’s never said that, first of all. What we do know, however, is that he doesn’t like Mint. He’s expressed it internally and externally and “trying” out dating someone you know is obsessed with you (as if they’d be ok if after a month you’d be like “No, it’s not for me”) isn’t a very sound decision and it seems (to me at least) as someone who’s known Mint for years, he’s realize that.

Cool. Thanks. That makes things make much more sense.

My dear, where I live is a country and continent where societal and family pressure far outpaces yours, I'm sure. Dating your best friend because she and some other friends or other people you know want you to isn't as unavoidable as you're making it. Dew is an adult, not a student. Gay or not, he doesn't like Mint and HE knows that better than anyone else. His parents seem to want him to do well in the company more than anything else. To that end, he'd be much better off without a partner until the company's doing well, especially one like Mint. With the way you describe him (read: make excuses for him), one would think he had no agency over anything in his life at all.

Pressures of life notwithstanding, I'm having a really hard time believing that a normal person would force themselves into a relationship with someone they know they don't like. If it were his parents arranging a marriage for him or something, I'd understand, but it's literally just Mint herself and Aun.

Did they directly express this in the show at some point or just drop clues?

Sadly, I agree with you. Dew is unsure about a lot of things: how to do his job well, who Mum is, what he feels about Mum etc., but what is sure of is that he doesn't romantically love Mint. The minute he even got into the relationship with her, my somewhat decent opinion of him went out the window.

I'm gonna start My School President soon.^_^

Thanks. I think I’ll check it out. If a Thai high school BL at this point can manage to not be mediocre, it must be good.

Thinking about starting this, but is there anything really setting this one apart from the other school BLs plot-wise?

My School President and Never Let Me Go

…REALLY? I not expect a sequel to this at all, but I think a miniseries was a good way to go.

Yeah, I feel the bisexual/sexual fluid way is the way of most BLs in general, but when I mean when I have seen BLs when we know at least one of the guys is gay before the relationship happens, it's usually in a Taiwanese BL. I haven't heard the "I'm not into men, I'm only into you." line since SOTUS though. I don't think BL is meant to be or should be representational for gay relationships though and I think most gay guys realize that. So as long as young gay guys aren't being disillusioned, I think the genre at least opens people's minds (mostly straight girls) to gay romances, albeit with intense heteronormativity.

My assumption about Chopper is that at some point earlier in time before their implied fallout, Chopper may have actually been the scumbag, but now he's changed and he's trying to get back to being with Ben. I think Ben may be deceiving Neungdiao because he needs something from him that Chopper may already know about which is why he asks Ben what he does in ep 2.

I wonder what you mean by "quite bad"? Do you mean coming out to your family and not being accepted bad or something else? Because outside the context of a conservative family or possibly a particularly conservative work environment, Thailand is actually quite LGBTQ-friendly.

If you're comparing Thailand to Europe or North America, then I guess Thailand's pretty homophobic, but if you're comparing Thailand to Asia, then it's basically the #2 most open country after Taiwan.
Also, the premise of over half (at LEAST) the BL in basically every Asian country is a 'straight' man falling in love with another 'straight' man...Taiwan is the exception in that in many of their BLs over the past 5-6 years, the sexual orientation of the characters was made known as gay before their romance actually started.

Vice-Versa and Enchante did have a lot of this as well. Maybe Tanya is coming from a place where she feels her hands are somewhat tied, but I also felt like if she's just as rich and powerful as her brother-in-law and I think she knows what he's capable of, so in order to protect her family, I'd expect her to be ready to fight fire with fire especially after her husband's murder. We'll see though. There might be something else going on.