This is a really interesting article about the impact of “Bad Buddy” on the BL genre.
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I liked BB in some BLs the females are toxic and tries to get the man at every price and in BB that never happened. 
There are a few really well made BLs even here on Viki.
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I agree. BB was excellent. Since then, GMMTV have continued to redefine the BL genre. I think two of the studio’s best works since BB are “My School President” and “The Eclipse”. I’m not usually a fan of BLs in high school settings, but both these had a lot to offer that went quite a way beyond high school romance.
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Agree My school president was nice… I tend to prefer Korean anf Japanese BL because I sometimes feel that the Thai is lacking in overall story.
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Thanks for that interesting article on “Bod Buddy.” I will definitely have to check it out. I am very glad that the series is getting rid of the rape=love trope that is common in BL (and also common in hetero Thai dramas). I’m also glad it takes on the gender roles stereotypes and sexual power imbalance issues seen in many BL. I requested it for Viki. Hopefully Viki can get the liscense.
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Which Thai BLs did you watch?
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Every Thai drama and movie I’ve watched (not only BL) was generally lacking in story, directing and especially in acting. With one exception where the directing and production was lush, but still the main actor was like a piece of wood. They still have waaaay to go until they catch up to S. Korea and Japan. Even Chinese shows have been becoming better and better in the past few years.
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It feels like they don’t see the whole picture. I don’t think that the whole uke/seme matter has ever been that important in those BL dramas. It was and still is important in manga/manhwa/manhua, but not really discussed in any of the BL dramas. Furthermore, the protagonists usually lack these characteristics. So I conclude that this aspect from BL manga is usually not part of TV shows. The “rape to lovers” topic is a bit different, since violence is at least somewhat part of many TV shows. On the other hand, we can see that they removed/changed these aspects before, for example in the case of KinnPorsche where it’s part of the novel, but not really part of the drama. However, it’s neglected that this is not a BL exclusive topic. If we check out any of the Josei novels or manga which are the heterosexual version of yaoi it’s the same. Most of the Japanese dramas or novel adaptions on Viki are basically part of the Josei genre. About 80-90% of the Josei manhua (especially) have the following storyline: FL gets drugged, meets ML in a hotel, they do some stuff => Love story. This is by no means better or worse than a simple BL storyline. All the “mature” genres face similar issues if they mainly focus on the romance topic. There are some good Chinese novels that are different indeed, but a majority of them show very questionable morals. They tend to justify violence toward women, forcing them, and they often show homophobic statements and so on. The Chinese dramas are often based on them, but they get changed so much that we will at most notice some other issues.
I think it’s similar with BL dramas. If someone read the novels of KinnPorsche or Big Dragon they’ll notice the differences. The second one doesn’t even have a story, so I’m surprised the drama turned out this well (considering its novel).
So I conclude the main issue are rather the original storylines. While they change them, it’s still hard to turn junk into a pile of gold. However, there are examples such as “Manner of Death” or “Triage” that show that “love between men” doesn’t have to be the main subject.
Just like the ever evil females in some BL we have the ever hateful sister/rival in Josei stories (in fact, in Chinese novels everyone and their cat has a hateful stepsister that tries to kill the protagonist for no reason). Therefore, I think it’s too easy to just talk about BL in that regard. It’s hidden everywhere in the original works. Take for example Once We Get Married (2021) - MyDramaList The original novel called “Contract Wife Runs away from the CEO” has the following synopsis: “Her best friend’s planned a meticulous plan to schemed her. Her first time was snatched away by a cold demonic President. Her first love that once loved was also ruined. He threw down a marriage contract, ignoring her resistance and declare his possession to the whole world.”
- evil best female friend - check
- questionable encounter with CEO - check
- first love ruined - check
However, the drama is completely different from this. It’s our luck.
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I’m not a really big fan of BL but I kind of started appreciating it since I have found some of the GMMTV shows that are pretty good, and also the acting is more than just screaming when the actors need to express more emotions (that was something really annoying for me, not just in BL but in Thai dramas in general FL in F4 for example).
About this main point, somehow it bothers me even in other kinds of shows.
I’m going to drop this one here lol, cause I really appreciate the consent and acting by decision.
Also, I feel that the acting was pretty good (of course there are some really fake things but it was better than some other shows)
I have BB on my “To watch list”, so I think that I’ll give it a try.
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