blmpff:

net_siraphop on ig 02.04.2023

grapejuicegay:

hands

scarefox:

me: oh? what happened? 👀

….

LOL

Anonymous asked:

Just reporting in after step by step episode 10 and erm…….it’s not “step by step” the series anymore.

It’s “long jump by catapult” the episode

Ps: I didn’t notice any colours I was…. Distracted. so your knowledge, if you were not also distracted , would be greatly appreciated.

respectthepetty:

I sat on this ask for a bit because I have mixed feelings about this episode, but unlike everyone else, I have only one true issue:

JEN’S PINK!

Where in the Old-Navy-flip-flop was it?!

If there is anything a Pink Person knows how to do, it is to wear pink!

Even in the most desperate of times, a Pink Person ALWAYS WEARS PINK!

So for Jen to abandon his color in these trying times knowing that Jaab is dating someone named Paint (WHAT THE FUCK, JAAB?!) while attempting to celebrate the love and union of two of his friends … bruv.

Like, I’m thrilled the show confirmed that Jeng has been thinking about marrying Pat since he saw him in his tux in episode four.

And I’m so happy that Jeng was wrapped all up in Pat’s blue with blue lighting, blue ties, and blue clothing.

(Homie was drowning in the DEEP BLUE)

And it’s great that Jeng and Pat got that blue lighting treatment while Pat wore pink because he, too, is in love.

But why did we have to sacrifice the Pink Person’s pink to do it? Then for Jaab to be in those ugly ass neutrals?! I might not know what his color is but I know for damn sure he will NEVER be neutral!

Jen and Jaab lost their colors this episode as Jeng and Pat picked up each other’s at an exceeding rate, which is alarming.

As @colourme-feral pointed out, Pat and Chot started this episode as versions of each other at different points. Chot is in a long-term committed relationship that is a secret, while Pat is too scared to even start a relationship where his outcome could be very similar to Chot’s. We don’t know why Pat and Put broke up the first time, but the popular guess is Put’s job required a level of staying in the relationship closet that Pat was uncomfortable with.

What will happen now that all eyes are on Jeng and Pat and the relationship is already affecting their jobs? We are getting some blues next week.

But at what cost?

Because if Jeng’s color really is black, why is he regressing back into it with neutrals like his brother has with Jen when Pat is stepping into it?

This is clown behavior, but Jeng’s father is wearing blue, so I’m hoping when he speaks to Pat, he won’t be the absolute worst.

And Jaab is moving back into a shade of red.

But, honestly, I just need Jen to get his color back. And I want Jaab to be the one to give it back to him.

Because both of these brothers avoid the hard conversations (Jaab when Jen wanted to talk about their kiss and Jeng when Pat wanted to talk about their work issues).

Both of these brothers are going to have to make a choice, not just about their colors, but about their love.

It’s time to make a tough decision.

la-fourmi:

video credit to _ppspace, rung1312, adoreux98, theziipz, cccatnip_, ppwlogs, hakunajung. I hope I’m not missing any.

There’s so much more but here’s a taste of whatever they got going last weekend.

wen-kexing-apologist:

Bed Friend and Reflections- Part 2

In case you missed it here is part 1

Episode 5

Episode 5 has very few reflections in it, and the first one is pretty subtle. It’s the reflection of the bed in the television. This is the first (but not the last) time that we see the reflection of pillows. This is, in a way, a mirror of the reflection in Episode 4 of Uea asleep in bed.

The reflection sits behind King’s sleeping form, and it shows Uea’s side of the bed is empty. While Episode 3 is where I think Uea first realizes he has feelings for King, I take Episode 5 to be where Uea’s feelings deepen and he begins testing King. The space beside King should not be empty, Uea should be there, and so even though Uea is present and extremely visible in this scene his absence from King’s side is brought to our attention. 

Their relationship gets a little more tenuous because King begins to bring up the arranged match and so the only other reflection we get in Episode 5 is the barest trace of King’s shoulders in the window when he and Uea are hugging on the leather chair. 

The scene itself is very cute and shows King’s commitment to Uea to have him agree not to smoke. But I want to take the reflection as foreshadowing to the break down between them in Episode 6. King and Uea have yet to admit their feelings and therefore are unclear on their feelings for each other. This uncertainty will make Uea (partially because of his history) lose sight of what King means to him, and what they mean to each other. But we aren’t there yet…

…or you know, more likely it’s just a reflection.

Episode 6

The first reflection of Episode 6 actually plays with the concept/the theme. Jade is asking Uea about the person he is seeing and King, being the menace he is, will not stop looking at Uea. But Jade has no indication whatsoever that Uea and King are fucking, so he looks at the computer that is parallel to King thinking that King must be looking at his own reflection.

But there is not a single reflection we get from King where he is looking at himself. So Jade won’t find anything in that reflection because King isn’t focused on himself, he’s focused on Uea. 

Keep reading

heretherebedork:

Everyone is waltzing now! @absolutebl Best new trope 2023 already won?

bengiyo:

Step By Step: It makes sense to me.

We’re taking a break from our game this week, so it’s time to get into the Step By Step discourse. Much has been said about the pacing and the writing of this show. I want to write out some of my thoughts on the gay things that are going on and how I think they play into the themes. I’ll try building off my post from last night and expanding those thoughts.

Let me say that I am writing this from the perspective as a Black gay male in the Gulf Coast of the US. I’m writing from that perspective and primarily for that perspective.

The Frustration Is Intentional

I think one of the big themes of this show is about how people are not going to be able to have happiness if they can’t live their lives honestly with each other. Almost every couple is having problems of some sort in this show, and most of them are because of their inability to be direct and honest with each other about what’s going on. Pat gained clarity with the MLM Big Tall by telling him right off. He and Put can’t be together because neither of them can talk about how much they don’t fit anymore. Beam can’t be with Ae. Ae is always fussing with Khanun. Jaab and Jane can’t be together because they can’t talk about what’s going on between them. Pat and Jeng are struggling because Jeng is struggling.

I agree that these episodes have not felt triumphant, but it doesn’t feel like that’s what the show is going for right now. They had a false honeymoon phase. It almost feels like they’re hoping that the release in a year’s worth of sexual tension will fix all the other issues. However, the world is still pressing in. Ying saw this, too, and reminded Pat that he is the one who must be strong. It feels kinda cool to me that a romantic lead who’s the more femme written such that they must take total control of their destiny. Neither of these dudes are going to solve Pat’s problems.

Jeng is Broken

Jeng broke last week when he finally admitted what’s been going on with Pat to Jaab. Something I feel very strongly about is how little care is given to boys who mask well enough to pull of heteronormativity. They are suffering quietly, but we don’t care about their pain because they seem so put together or they’re unfun. Jeng has been nursing a crush on Pat for a year, and he was confronted with the revelation that Pat has only seen him as a coworker, has thought he was straight this entire time, and has explicitly said that Jeng is making him uncomfortable.

Jeng’s breakdown says he knows how tenuous his hold has been for a long time. We all noticed that he seemed off this week. He’s barely processing Pat’s confession. He’s throwing food to the ground. He’s not taking care at work. Instead of creating appropriate professional distance from them, he’s instead planning to promote Pat past his colleagues. Jeng is not paying attention.

Beyond his interest in Pat, the only thing he showed interest in this episode was continuing to bring food to the local homeless population. We learned in the first episode that he cares a lot about food waste, and we can tell that he clearly has cultivated a positive relationship with at least one unhoused community (See @wen-kexing-apologist post for more extensive thoughts about this).

gif by @pharawee

My good sis @shortpplfedup revived her Anatomy of a Scene series to talk about the final bed scene between Pat and Jeng to highlight how out of sync they are. We also have a great observation from @grapejuicegay about the parallels between the last bed scene with Put as well. I personally also like that Jeng is making a hot mess of things because I think we need to see competent people break sometimes. I like that Jeng is messing up here because he’s older than Pat. I like that Pat is recognizing that being an adult in a relationship is going to require him to also take charge in his relationships, and we get early signs of this with Jeng placing Pat higher than him on the bed, and also a specific linguistic slip that occurred during the car scene where Pat drops honorifics for Jeng (@chicademartinica).

My man is not well. I knew he was genuinely broken when he recoiled at Pat’s suggestion that the rest of the company was relying on him. This was one of his primary motivations for returning to the company in the first place, and he’s completely lost the thread of that because he just wants to be with Pat. I think Jeng will do better if he leaves the company and focuses on his humanitarian goals, and I am excited to see how the show faces that.

I Don’t Think the Romance Is the Goal

I do think that Pat and Jeng will get together. This is BL after all. However, like with Lovely Writer, I think the narrative goals are about how the societal systems around the romance complicate the romance and make it almost impossible. In Lovely Writer, it was the structures of BL production. In this show, it’s about the way corporate culture makes that impossible within the company.

I’ve been reading the posts where people are struggling with this show or frustrated with some of the decisions on the editing floor. Both @lurkingshan and @neuroticbookworm wrote about their feelings about the lack of emotional catharsis or the confusion around the pacing of the story. I see both perspectives and do genuinely share in these frustrations. However, much of my energy has been spent on how the side plots fit into this drama and what they reveal about the main couple as our vehicle through this story.

The Role of the Hets

I was chatting with @lurkingshan last night and I posited that Beam’s role in the story is to show what happens to the people who are cowardly in romance. I also just finished Coffee Prince, where I spent the entire time complaining to Shan about the messy hets in that show. @chicademartinica already did a good breakdown of this in her earlier post about how intentional Tee is being with these beats.

With Beam, he and Ae knew about the feelings that existed between them, but Beam never said anything or did anything with it. Ae may fuss with Khanun a lot, but he’s not afraid of her. He loves her. He is happy with the life they are building and he’s the one who fathered a child with her. Jeng and Put both failed to speak with Pat properly, and now he’s been forced to run away from them. Like Beam, they have been cowards in their relationship with him.

With Jaab and Jane, both are also an example of abject failure to discuss anything about their feelings for each other. Both are pining for the other and making life choices about the other without consulting the other. They keep meeting and clearly thinking about each other, but keep creating barriers between any kind of connection.

Chot is Everything

Chot. I will be writing an In Praise of… essay for Chat like I did for Framboise. We’ve talked about how Chot is an example of who Pat could be someday (@imminentinertia).  I think it’s noteworthy that Chot mentioned that he and Krit have been struggling with the closet for eight years. Chot may be out and proud at work, but he’s closeted privately because his partner cannot share his life with him fully. I think it’s notable that it’s been eight years since SOTUS first aired, and Chot is a reminder that BL has a duty to the queers whose lives are packaged for mass entertainment in these stories.

I can’t find one of the posts right now, but I also agree that I think it would be satisfying for the story for Chot to take over Jeng’s role in the company. It felt extremely intentional to me that the Forge project was helmed by and starred almost exclusively gay/bi/femme men despite the funders and decision-makers having a weak understanding of BL and queerness itself. So many organizations rely on the emotional intelligence and availability of queer people to keep themselves running.

gif by @pharawee

I also feel like Tee wanted to do right by a character for Bruce this time. Many of us felt some kind of way about what happened to his character in Lovely Writer, and I like that he gets to be the first one to signal that the needle is moving a little bit. After eight difficult years, he and his partner are going to see his partner’s parents. Chot is a reminder that none of this stuff happens quickly. It’s been a year in the show for Jeng and Pat, but it’s been decades for some of us in the struggle for queer rights.

More than anything, I am glad that Pat has a queer friend who isn’t too much older than him to give him perspective. It’s imperative that we continue to show that queer people are rarely alone in their lives as adults. They’re finding their friends and community. We also take care of each other. Chot is not going to sit idly by and let the Baby Gay in the office flounder. He takes him under his wing at the expressed concern from Jeng.

Let’s Talk About Gay Sex

They showed Ben’s happy trail!!! I can’t believe it! We’ve come so far! These two can kiss!!

gif by @wanderlust-in-my-soul

I really love these two jumping into a physical relationship quickly only for it to end up not working for Pat. Chot warned him that he was looking down on Jeng’s feelings. Jeng has more feelings than just his attraction to Pat, and that’s going to be the struggle for the rest of this show. Pat needs to see the totality of Jeng, and these two need to figure out what they want for themselves.

I can’t wait to see what triumphant sex looks like for these two.

Well, that’s all I’ve got this week. I’m enjoying unpacking this and La Pluie with everyone right now. Keep posting! Keep chatting! Tag me if you write more stuff! Thank you for coming to my post.

Also tagging @waitmyturtles because I feel for you and the struggles you’re having with this project coming off of Tee’s earlier work.

wen-kexing-apologist:

Bed Friend and Reflection- Part 3

part 1 // part 2

Episode 8 

Reunion

We start with the reflection so good that I had to jump the gun and talk about it when the episode came out instead of waiting like I had planned to do. I’ve decided to call it the Boyfriend Sandwich

I love this shot for a number of reasons, one being that the way it is angled means that if either character turned away they would still appear to be facing each other. Two being that they are watching each other’s backs. Three being the BARRIERS. Physically they are together in this space, but they are not on the same page. In the present moment, there are no bars, no vertical lines, no objects keeping them apart, their reflections though? Literally in frames. Trapped in boxes. Restrained. They want to be together but they can’t until they break out of the misunderstandings that are keeping them apart. Their reflections are trapped, but so too are their reflections trapping them. They can’t run anywhere, they can’t hide, they have to face each other (emotionally), if they are going to find the freedom they both crave. 

King’s Confession

So to open after the flashback to them standing together, their reflections also together in the water? I love it. 

They are here to talk, they are here to talk about their feelings. They are here so King can admit that he was acting out of jealousy and possessiveness. They are here to start over, they are here to come together, to finally finally get together and so their reflections are allowed to stand together just as they are. Without barriers, without boxes, without frames. BUT there is so much space between them and their reflections, a lot of distance they will have to cross in order to move past the harm that was done to their relationship. And something that is less obvious in the reflections but is a motif that carries through is how much water is a protective force for King and Uea. As I was rewatching this show to try to catch all the reflections, I started noticing windows too (and will most likely write a post about them) but rain is often used for progressions in King and Uea’s relationship. For example, in Episode 3 when King is asking Uea about why he started the FWB, in Episode 4 when Uea calls King after leaving his Mom’s house, and in Episode 9 when they are driving home after meeting King’s parents. So though it is not raining here, their reflections are in water as they move into the “seeing each other” phase. 

Uea’s Confession

Now the thing I really like about the reflections in this scene are how they kind of wind up showing us that Uea feels alone. That he’s been bearing the weight of his past abuse alone. Physically we see Uea with King but the way the camera is angled cuts him off from reflecting back at us. King at this moment is unaware of what medication Uea is taking and why, but he has always been and will continue to be a constant and supportive presence in Uea’s life. 

(Image zoomed in to better show the reflection)

BUT! We get this one little moment of King crossing the lines, touching Uea’s forehead (despite their currently instated no touching rule) and the only part of King we see reflecting back at us is him reaching out to Uea.

And after King drops his arm, Uea goes back to standing alone, and it is interesting to me to see the little gap where the two pieces of reflective surface meet, creating a vertical line that is splitting Uea. As if he is of two minds, tell King the truth or keep it hidden as he initially intended. 

(cough, cough @respectthepetty cough couch barriers cough)

And it is so interesting to me too in this scene that when we cut to Uea and King sitting at the counter, before Uea has figured out the right words, when he is still grappling with the decision to tell King about it, something he had sworn he would never do, we only really see Uea reflected in the apartment window. 

It’s hard to see so I’ll zoom in a bit, but because King is wearing all black, his reflection, while present, gets lost amongst the background of the city. Whereas Uea is the only one easily recognizable in the window because his red shirt makes his reflection visible against the dark background. 

And every moment in between these wide shots, when Uea is confessing, the camera is close on his or King’s face, not panned out like in the shot above. There are no reflections because the only image in the frame any time Uea speaks is either Uea’s face or King’s. Because Uea is physically bringing King in to his life with every confession. Because they are physically together in this moment. Because Uea is opening up to King, is allowing King to fully know him. And after he tells King everything, what do we get?

A camera angle that eliminates any reflection of King or Uea from the window, it focuses entirely on the present moment, the real moment, the physical, tangible moment. And the more this scene continues after Uea has finished telling King everything, the fewer wide shots we have, instead we just get to experience the hug, with their heads coming together to block where we would see any reflected image in the window or with close ups on King and Uea’s face. Uea is no longer bearing the weight of his past alone.

Episode 9

Episode 9 was honestly less reflection heavy and more windows heavy, but the reflections that they did include? Oh BOYYY *chefs kiss*

This is what I would technically file under a window shot (since it is being filmed through a window) BUT the reflection of the city over Uea’s face? A great indication that Uea has a lot on his mind. He is thinking about his stepfather, the abuse he suffered at his hands, the abuse he suffered from his mother, and how much he might hurt Tonkao in the pursuit of justice. Even when King walks up to join him

The reflections on his side aren’t as busy, with a repeated reflection of the decorative pillars that are attached to his apartment building. He’s of one mind, and that mind is to make sure Uea feels supported in whatever decision he makes.

We get a callback to this reflection of Tonkao crying in Uea’s rearview mirror, I’ve already talked about this reflection but here it serves as a great way to represent Uea feeling like he is possibly leaving Tonkao behind if he gets his stepfather arrested and breaks up her supportive and loving family environment. 

And then my favorite reflection of the entire episode, Uea’s irredeemably evil mother sobbing and pounding at the window of the cop car. 

And why do I love this reflection so much? Because she is both looking in to the cop car at #pransdaddarktimelineedition as he gets consequences forced upon him the way he has been forcing himself upon anyone that breathes. But her reflection is looking out of the cop car, as if she is also trapped in there, because she is complicit in all of this. She chose not to believe Uea and thus aided her husband in continuing his abuse against Uea and others. She herself was abusive to Uea and is also deserving of consequences. But she is really only a danger to Uea, and Uea wouldn’t leave Tonkao with no parental figures and so the biggest consequence she will ever get is to watch her husband be carted off to jail while all of their neighbors watch, publicly humiliating her.

I don’t have a lot of very intelligent things to say about this reflection in particular, but I do notice that the reflection here has a bit of blur in the space between King and Uea. I’m going to choose to read that as them still being undefined in their relationship. Especially because this scene is entirely about Gun and Jade teasing Uea and King about still not being boyfriends.

These reflections are interesting to me because we get the people that are being reflected are the people Uea has good, supportive relationships to. We get the reflection of King, following behind Uea as they enter work together, and we get the reflection of Jade running in to cockblock Boom. But we never see Boom reflected here, he is and will remain outside of Uea’s life and especially outside of Uea’s inner circle.

Another window shot that I would have saved for a general windows post, but there is something to be said once again for what the reflections on the characters are telling us as opposed to what the reflections of the characters might be saying. In the image above we have Uea being covered by reflected light and King being covered in reflected darkness. King, as we know, is in his head and a little broody because of his interaction with his family. But, Uea tries to comfort King, reaching across his area of light to touch King’s face and pull him out of that darker headspace.

We have yet another window shot, but we get all the tasty little symbols wrapped up in one here. We get the rain, which has been a recurring theme for them, we get Uea in pink which I think represents a loving home for Uea, and we get a reflection, this time with a smattering of lights all around them because their world is alight when they are together. While most window shots in this show so far have been very simple shots that I don’t really feel like are intended to have real meaning, Episode 9 was interesting to me because they did a lot more with the way light plays off of windows this episode than they have done for most of the series.

Our final reflection of Episode 9 is Uea, alone, on the phone with King’s Mom and for some reason, to me, this reflection makes him seem even more alone then he would if they just had a shot of his whole body in the hallway. Having reflections like this always make me feel like a character is of two minds. And I think that is the case here with Uea where he is having to hold a conversation with someone he isn’t sure likes him, that has barely acknowledged his existence, and who he as a person is (up until the conversation at the end of the episode) does not know how to interact with. Uea hasn’t had mother figures in his life, not good ones anyway, he was ripped away from his family in Lampang and grew up until the influence of an extremely homophobic and horrifically abusive mother. Regardless of the civility he has been shown there is no way he isn’t apprehensive of being rejected by yet another mother figure, and he has no way of knowing what King would do if his mother whole-heartedly did not approve of their relationship.

Episode 10

We’ve made it to the end! Episode 10, and the reflections were once again used sparingly here. Which makes sense, there is no more emotional tension to resolve and so we get to see the reflections living harmoniously with the real world.

We get to see King and Uea being ridiculously in love and dancing with each other on the boat, and we get to see they are emotionally on the same page because their reflections are both present and clear. 

We get a small reflection of Uea’s back off the bedroom window

This serves to show us that King’s hand is on Uea’s back, and Uea is being embraced by his lover. As I have said probably too many times at this point, King’s reflections are never centered around him, they are always about Uea. 

We get their reflection in the mirror of King’s kitchen, with us only able to see the back of Uea’s head, and a clear line running in front of King’s face. Because of this we don’t get a clear delineation of where King starts and Uea ends. They are forever a part of one another now, they are forever entwined. 

We get the hazy reflection of King’s face looking over all of the rings. Uea and their pending engagement on his mind.

And to end it all

We get a reflection of every important person in Uea and King’s life surrounding them in the reflection off the office window. We don’t see Uea and King in that reflection because they are being shielded by the group. For me, this is the perfect last reflection to have. King and Uea being engulfed by love, and joy, and happiness.

blmpff:

(3s) 23.04.2023

nattaphum:

New photos of Mile and Apo wearing SOURPLUM for Chic Magazine ✨

(via yeetlegay)

respectthepetty:

I love Love Tractor. I’ll get the last two episodes next week, but I’m a sucker for its great color coding and Yechan being the biggest softie, so let me take a moment to appreciate both in episode 5 and 6.

Yul and Yechan are wearing different colors, but when the light hits Yul, his black shirt looks blue and he is holding a blue book, while Yechan’s light blue shirt now looks green-ish as he holds his green-lined mat in front of his crotch (which he had to do several times because more than his heart is awakening)

Then Yechan is wearing blue where he admits he does like Yul.

And shows up in the blue shirt with that green-ish keyboard for Yul.

And those red gloves have now moved to Yechan’s left upper pocket to reflect his heart opening up to Yul

Then Yechan gives Yul his heart (it’s not his heart, but IT IS!) that he stole from someone else because stolen fruit tastes sweeter!

And Yul’s head is draped in Yechan’s green

But both are still very much their colors because Yechan’s bed step up is green but Yul’s is all blue. I wonder it will be like when they actually make it into the bedroom.

Oh, oh, OH! Yechan dreaming about Yul and being bathed in blue!

And even when he wakes up, he is consistently framed being stuck between the two blue curtains in his green vest

Yechan’s mom, who is a Pink Person, is even rooting for them

She told Yechan to find a pretty person (she has already stated several times that she thinks Yul is the prettiest), and she wears both of their colors under her pink/purple vest

After Yul’s (ex) boyfriend left, he was constantly in his blue (and the dog’s leash is that blue/green-ish color since he is THEIR dog)

And Yechan tried to get back to his green

But next week, he’ll trying merging their colors

BECAUSE HE ADMITTED THAT HE LIKES YUL!

I’m easy. If a show gives me colors and an honest guy, I’ll love it.

And I really do love it!

(via blmpff)

blmpff:

net_siraphop igs 27.04.2023

sollucets:

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tae hyung: [rude to jae won]

ae ri and ji hyun, immediately: i want to see the light leave his eyes

(via lostindramas)