tomopiiro

Thank you so much for your comment! I really appreaciate seeing someone who seems more willing to be having an actual conversation about this. Gaga being an official platform to watch Wu in certain regions is exactly my point, I only bring up the marketing because GMMTV made the conscious decision of selling the license for Wu to Gaga. I do not want to go too much into the whole bromance discourse that is currently ongoing because I feel like it adds absolutely nothing of value to what my main issue is about. I brought up topics like queerbait and fanservice because I have seen people tend to derail the conversation by bringing up those exact topics, so I wanted to acknowledge those beforehand, though it doesn't seem to stop them from bringing up other irrelevant topics.

Saying that the people upset by it being on Gaga should just "not watch it on Gaga" is a little bit naïve and is ignoring a big part of the issue. It's not just about it being on Gaga, it's also about the blatant false advertising and the message it sends to the LGBTQ+ community as a whole. GMMTV could have sold the license to literally any other streaming platform, so ask yourself why exactly they chose Gaga, the ONLY explicitly LGBTQ+ platform. You can also ask why Gaga even wanted the license for it in the first place. They kind of play together...

If I may chime in a bit here, her username includes a strictly sapphic term which makes this even worse. Either she is sapphic yet still homophobic (unfortunately not impossible) or she is appropriating a sapphic term while mocking real queer people.

Let's not do personal attacks, please.

Last I checked, it wasn't available on an exclusively LGBTQ+ platform, but go off I guess.
Why do y'all always have to bring up literally anything else. I stated clearly exactly what I was talking about. This whataboutism does nothing except prove my point.

Pardon me if I have misinterpreted the tone in your message, but not once do I say to stop supporting them, I said to not support a series that is not explicitly queer being hosted officially on an explicitly LGBTQ+ platform. I personally will not be supporting it regardless, but I hold no ill will towards people that are fans of SKNN and want to support it for SKNN alone. Just please help actual LGBTQ+ people in speaking out against a platform like GagaOOLala being an official platform for (some) non-Thais to watch this series. It does not belong on a queer platform as stated repeatedly by the cast and crew!

This entire situation genuinely makes me so upset.

Let me preface this by saying, I don't have anything against Sky and Nani as people, and if they do not want to do BL, that is their decision and should be respected—however—the way the company (emphasis on the COMPANY, not SKNN as individuals) has been marketing them feels too much like "BL Lite—Hold the Homo™" and I especially felt it when they went to Japan for fanfest back in February. It was SKNN and 6 BL CPs, and they had the exact same merch—except for the stamps which had the mascots separated. Why would SKNN need "couple" items in the exact same way as the BL CPs? This is the most egregious recent example I can think of, but I'm sure it's not the only time because this is something that has gradually been escalating for a while, and it continues to escalate even now.

Having read so many tweets and responses from SKNN fans recently, I have to say it feels like they severely lack the ability to be objective about anything when it comes to SKNN because to them everything has to be a subjective opinion and whoever speaks out against Wu/bromance does so just because they don't like SKNN. I'm sure it applies to some people, but majority of what I have seen have been criticizing GMMTV as a company based on objective facts, which I fully stand behind.

Seeing that out of all the streaming platforms GMMTV usually sells the rights of their series to, GagaOOLala—an exclusively LGBTQ+ platform—is the one to officially host Wu in certain regions is outrageous, and if you are a SKNN fan or even remotely respect them and their crew's vision for Wu, you should absolutely be against this! But that is not what I have seen, and that is the thing that upsets me the most.
I already knew this company has 0 respect for their actual queer work (as shown with them choosing to not present any of their queer series for the AFM last year, instead choosing to include TWO series that hadn't even been filmed yet + Enigma Black Stage), but to see the lengths some of these fans go to to discredit BL and to justify everything is extremely hurtful to me as a queer person. They are also not helping the queerbaiting allegations when they further go on to queerbait when others ask whether the Wu novel is queer or not. Do they really lack that much self awareness?
Then there are the smug people trying to turn it around by using queerbait against the BL industry and especially the actors. I'm sorry, that's not how that works. Queerbaiting is a term that applies to fiction, and real people CANNOT QUEERBAIT. I will die on this hill. I do not care where these actors may or may not stick their dicks, I'm good on not knowing because it's none of my business, and it doesn't take anything away from how they portray canonically explicitly queer characters for their series.
Regarding fanservice, that still isn't queerbait, and that is an exhausted topic because literally everyone does fanservice to some extent—yes, even SKNN. Just accepting work together IS a form of fanservice. ALSO, I think a lot of people forget that a lot of the GMMTV artists are just close in general, and working together that closely with one person for years does absolutely affect you in one way or another. It's not surprising some CPs may be more comfortable with doing more fanservice-y things in public, but IMO, that doesn't mean it's disingenuous. If you read too much into fanservice, that is a you-problem. Just let them have their fun with it if they enjoy doing it. Anyway, that's a completely separate conversation, and I'll leave that there for now.


Please, if you are a SKNN fan, do not support Wu being hosted on an exclusively LGBTQ+ platform. Last I checked they had even tagged it as BL and even office-romance. How is this not blatant false advertising and even queerbait? Please respect the LGBTQ+ community, and let us have the platform for explicitly queer stories. This is not the platform for this kind of series—unless it's a censored Chinese BL in the form of bromance (for obvious reasons.) I hope you understand.


As always, I may not be the best at wording myself, so if you have any questions or want me to elaborate more on a certain topic (except the fanservice one, I do not want to get further into that at this time,) please do let me know. I also apologize if I may have come across a bit harsh in certain parts as I am genuinely upset by this entire situation.


Edit: Shoutout to little pillow princess below for completely missing the point yet also proving my point. They have repeatedly said it's a friendship series. Please do tell me where they have said it will be queer. Something being implied through subtext is not explicit, which in this case does make it queerbait and it does not belong on a queer platform. If you still take this as a personal attack, that is not my problem. Support it on any other platform, just not the one that is exclusively for queer media.

Edit2: Can we please keep to the topic at hand? I am genuinely trying to have a conversation here, but I just keep getting met with whataboutisms and people justifying their support for SKNN. I think it's great that you want to support them, but please recognize that what GMMTV are currently doing with their marketing of SKNN is in fact very harmful to the LGBTQ+ community. You might dismiss it thinking it isn't that deep, but it actually is. I am not telling you to boycott Wu or any other bromance series, that's completely up to you, I'm just saying to get bromance out of queer spaces like GagaOOLala unless it is explicitly queer or literally censored BL.

From what I have heard, it is not explicitly stated and more just vaguely implied, which does make it queerbait, yes.

Well, yes, but I do think them showing viewers that cutting off family members may be necessary in some situations, would be a good thing. Sometimes the damage done is just too big, and that's okay. I think the constant messaging of "forgive your family because your family comes first!" does more harm than good. I just want them to divert from that every now and then.

I need them to start normalizing cutting off awful family members in these series.

Does anyone know if this is the standard for this company by the way, or is it only because it depicts say gex? /gen

Nah, because why are they connected through bluetooth? 💀

Confirmed or just headcanon? I personally see him more as an ADHDer than autistic.

How about Nat in Cutie Pie through Naughty Babe? /gen
While Naughty Babe aired after he turned 21, I believe he was still only 20 during filming. There is also Gems in Battle of the writers. He appears to only have been 20 during filming as well.

Not trying to imply anything here BTW, just saying that Nat and Gems seem to be the only exceptions (so far) in this case.

What in the pseudo-incest het yaoi was this?
And why didn't I hate it?

That's fair. I think I'm just seeing things differently because I am so used to having to jump through several hoops just for access to content. I do hope you will be able to bring some changes to the company with all this, but I unfortunately do not have high expectations. Not because of you, but because of the company.

Anyway, thank you for your time. I hope you have a great rest of your day!

First of all, thank you for taking the time to respond! I really do appreciate that even if we don't necessarily agree.

"We’re calling out the lack of transparency before the deal was executed and the way they marketed the series globally without informing that same global audience where to watch."
The problem is that GMMTV has never had that kind of transparency if it doesn't also include their Thai audience. We also do not know when they made the deal with Viki in the first place. It could be anytime before the trailer dropped to the two-week gap between the trailer release and the first episode aired. If they should announce which platforms LYT would be available on before release, this should also apply to all their other series. The most similar situation (not saying it's the same) I have seen to LYT is Friendshit Forever, which started being removed from YouTube as the series was airing to reappearing on Viki in certain regions. Granted, they did have a couple episodes gap so the episodes WERE originally available on YouTube before they were geoblocked. They did not announce this either and I didn't find out until I saw FF available on Viki. It seems GMMTV might continue doing this kind of thing going forward…

"And respectfully, you keep saying you’re ‘not part of the fandom’ and are ‘just observing,’ but then continue writing paragraphs explaining why fans should accept the situation. That’s exactly why it comes across as dismissive. You’re not the one affected, so of course it looks reasonable from your side."
I never said it was reasonable, nor that you should accept the situation. I'm sorry I may not have worded myself properly in that regard. I'm telling you to hit them where it hurts. Social media is only able to do so much — especially now when a contract is involved. If there was no contract, then (as seen with Girl Rules,) it would be a different story. Like I said, this only applies to those regions where Viki is available yet LYT still isn't. Specify those areas and focus on them specifically for the unblocking topic.


As a final addendum, when I talk about my observations, that has no relevancy with whether or not I consider myself a fan (which for all you know I still might be, I just don't participate on social media.) I am the kind of person that loves pattern-recognition, and even if I was an active member of the fanbase, I still would have picked up on and said the exact same things.

Not sure how many people will see this now several days later, but let me put this as clearly as I can:

- I am 100% behind you when you are complaining about GMMTV's lack of promotion for LYT and otherwise poor treatment of the artists. Please continue with this!

- GMMTV sold an exclusive license to Viki (as confirmed directly by Viki, and it also wouldn't be available on Viki in the first place if that wasn't the case) OUTSIDE of Thailand. GMMTV decides where the license should apply, but the license still lies with Viki and they can't just go and do whatever because their fans want them to. It all depends entirely on what the license entails.

- GMMTV NEVER promotes international streaming platforms unless it also applies to Thai viewers. Asking for this is asking for special treatment IMO. The ONLY exception I am personally able to find are 4 posts from the same day in 2024 specifying how international viewers in certain countries could access the series Kidnap on GagaOOLala. I have never seen them mention a platform where international viewers specifically can access their content ever since.

- Viki IS considered an official platform in this case, but GMMTV only cares about the money they earned from the deal; they do not actually care about their international viewers, so if some countries still don't have access to the series, that's none of their concern. YouTube pays based on views and watch time; contracts have a flat licensing fee and is therefore prioritized. I do not know how much this licensing fee is, but ask yourself why GMMTV would prioritize it over the gradual income YouTube brings and that's probably your answer.


I'm really not trying to step on any toes here, because I DO think the way you are standing up for your idols is admirable. My issue fully lies in the main focus being about unblocking the series. It quite honestly makes you come across as entitled. /gen /nbr

I know it is geoblocked on YouTube in over 100 countries, but in how many of those countries is Viki available and in how many of those again is LYT not available on Viki? That is IMO the only number you even remotely have a case for here, and I do hope that GMMTV are able to compromise on those specific countries because they would fall outside of the exclusivity contract with Viki, however I need you to know that — as a company — they are actually not required to do so!!! As much as it absolutely sucks, you just have to accept that this company only cares about money and arbitrary numbers and does not actually care about you! Spending money also doesn't make them care about you, they'll gladly take your money and not give you anything in return.

In this situation, you have to strike them where it hurts the most, and that is their wallet, but in this case that would also affect the actors negatively, so I really don't know how you should go forward with this.
I think GMMTV and their partners' focus on trends and fan engagement is STUPID. Fans should not be required to do all this in order for their idols to get work. It's pure insanity! Being a fan should not be a damn job, but it basically is in this case!


I know I don't always come across very well, but hopefully this makes my intent come off a bit clearer. I do not want to stand up for this company and am looking at this purely from a realistic angle based solely on my own observations over the last <2 years.

If you still are confused about anything, please let me know and I'll try to explain as best I can. Just please don't dismiss what I have to say purely because I am not an active part of the fandom, I am still majority on your side here!

Truly one of the shows of all time🤣

But that is also one of the distributors in Thailand. They do sometimes in the trailer specify "available worldwide" yes, but one thing I have noticed about this company is that they're incredibly inconsistent, it's pretty much the only thing they're consistent at. To my understanding they only include "worldwide" if it also applies to Thailand. If it doesn't, you can forget about GMMTV mentioning it — unless for some reason they do (like with Kidnap,) but don't get used to that.
I do hope that for the areas where Viki is available yet viewers still cannot watch it, they are able to work out a solution for LYT. However, even with the amount of money they receive from international fans, they are not actually obligated to do so.

Sorry to bring up my history with Japanese media again, but the amount of gatekeeping that they do over in Japan is actually insane. I am constantly shocked by how easily accessible everything is especially with GMMTV. They even have official English subs for their releases? Even live streams?! That is absolutely insane to me as a Starto fan of 9 years. They only in recent years started making their artists' stuff available on YouTube and Spotify. Just bringing this up to put into perspective how much worse it really could be, not because I'm standing up for the company or anything. At the end of the day, we as fans are in the palm of their hands, and we just have to accept that — even if GMMTV are actively shooting themselves in the foot in the process. Their problem, not ours.

GMMTV is a company. All they care about is money and a number that looks good on social media. They do not care about you as a fan.
Let me put it like this: if they can just give you nothing yet still receive good numbers in the form of engagement in return, why should they bother giving you the content in the first place?

"We Are listed Viki on original promo materials" okay, I think I must be looking in the wrong place because I personally see nothing of this. Please do link me to anything where GMMTV themselves have personally mentioned Viki.