tomopiiro

They once again confirmed it is not a Y-series and Gaga has already removed any queer-related tags from their listing, so can we please just have it removed from Gaga already? I think it would all-around be better for fans if it was available on a platform a lot of people already have access to like Netflix, Viki or iQIYI, and not a more niche platform like Gaga.

I'm really not trying to start a war here, nor am I attacking anyone. I have nothing against the existence of the series as a whole, and I hope it is successful, and that everyone who will be tuning in will have a great time watching! I just don't want Gaga to be an official distributor in this case as I feel like it is not the appropriate platform for it. I hope that is understandable.

Edit: I apologize for not making it clearer originally, but my issues mainly lie in the way Gaga has been marketing this series by:
- using a 🌈 emoji in the announcement on both twitter and Instagram
- saying "Everybody's gay unless they come out as straight" in response to their own Instagram Story of the announcement (and also removing the ability for anyone else to comment, though this may be the norm for them, I am not sure)
- originally making the tags on their platform: Gay, BL, Crush, Office-Romance (I could have looked past this and brushed it off as a mistake if it weren't for the other two previously mentioned instances)

Taking this into consideration, I do hope more people decide to support the series by other means as it really does not sit well with me that a queer platform like Gaga is considered an official distributor—especially when it comes to the aforementioned things and how they (seemingly) refuse to be more transparent about it.

Yeah, I have noticed their marketing seems to be more directed towards their Thai audience, so I guess we'll just have to keep an eye out for any platforms it might pop up on internationally. My guess is Viki because that is the platform with the least region blocks, and a lot of their series tend to end up there regardless.

Very well put! There are so many ways all of this could've been avoided, yet somehow with every step it just kept getting worse😭

Yes, exactly! Things were already so volatile and then Gaga dropped that they would be an official distributor of the series in some territories, making everything even worse. They seem to at least have removed the misleading tags now, but that still doesn't negate the blatant false advertising that they have been doing for the series up until this point. In the comments of their Instagram story announcing Wu would be available on their platform, they said "Everybody's gay unless they come out as straight" which just feels tone-deaf considering the situation.

I absolutely agree that using this situation to attack either SKNN or the series does not help at all, and we should direct out attention towards Gaga and GMMTV as a corporate entity, and you're right, the only way we can really do that is by boycotting, but it can't just be boycotted by the people who never intended on watching it in the first place, actual fans have to join in on boycotting it on Gaga specifically as well if it's gonna have any effect. The downside is that some fans would be left without a way of watching the series legally, as not everyone has access to a VPN, which is why we all need to come together and try to get it off of Gaga now before it starts airing. Maybe that's a bit idealistic, but hey, they pulled Wooju Bakery recently (though that one did have a whole legal issue involved,) so maybe that could be worth a shot?

This is a nice way of looking at it, I suppose. Still a bit naïve because it doesn't actually address the issue of having a non-queer series on their platform while marketing it as queer, but I do appreciate the sentiment and that you're trying to look on the brighter side.

You just acknowledging that genuinely means so much to me. Thank you. And thank you for taking the time to read my comment.

Yes, I wanted to give you both the same message because you were talking about the same topic. I am aware this isn't exactly the correct platform for this, but I do still want to try and mitigate derailings and especially personal attacks (not directed at you) where I am able. I apologize.

I made this comment to share my feelings on the situation, and it makes me upset to see everyone so up in arms when nothing I said was meant as any sort of attack.

Please, if you're gonna comment under my comment, at least stick to the topic at hand and stop bringing up literally anything else to try and prove a point. If you need to resort to whataboutisms, I'm sorry, but you have already lost your argument. Also, please do recognize that GMMTV are in fact attracting a homophobic audience by marketing their bromance "pairings" in this way, but that doesn't mean everyone that is part of SKNNs audience is homophobic. If it doesn't apply to you, please ignore and move on.

What you bring up is a valid topic, but this is not the correct time nor place to be having that conversation.

If you're just here to pick a fight, please leave my comment thread.

(sorry for the copy-paste)

Please, if you're gonna comment under my comment, at least stick to the topic at hand and stop bringing up literally anything else to try and prove a point. If you need to resort to whataboutisms, I'm sorry, but you have already lost your argument. Also, please do recognize that GMMTV are in fact attracting a homophobic audience by marketing their bromance "pairings" in this way, but that doesn't mean everyone that is part of SKNNs audience is homophobic. If it doesn't apply to you, please ignore and move on.

What you bring up is a valid topic, but this is not the correct time nor place to be having that conversation. Please respect that.

If you're just here to pick a fight, please leave my comment thread.

Alright, yes this is very valid but please don't fight if you're in my little comment thread thingy. I want to have a genuine conversation about this, and that doesn't work if we throw insults at each other.

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