
lol of course the author went with the obsessive childhood crush backstory trope. So Masami’s always been like this from day one just casual and shallow about relationships. Tora received one act of kindness from his promiscuous neighbor and because of the way he grew up this bare minimum act became the source of his love for Masami when Masami is literally just a stranger that gave him socks once in Masami’s POV. But given Masami in actuality acts likes Tora’s mother and fully takes for granted the person he actually loves, the irony that Tora would fall in love with someone that emotionally neglects and overlooks him yet again is classic psychology. Just think of it this way Tora was emotionally abused so he seeks out the exact conditions he experienced in childhood as he’s been normalized to it, Masami does this so Tora can only see this as normal despite it reinforcing the trauma he experienced. Tora’s been conditioned to it now. It’s like those who suffered childhood abuse gravitate to abusive partners later in life. It’s actually quite fucked up, but again the author is romanticizing it as Tora just being “deeply in love”. This doesn’t change Masami isn’t a great person just because he was “nice” to a random teenage boy once but still overall treats his romantic partners as objects to take on or discard. His personality may be “cheerfully nice” but his actions say otherwise. The author really pulled the most random sob story in this BL to rational things, but actually makes Masami’s treatment of Tora far worse now that we have context to Tora’s psyche.

Seriously what is with BL authors making the most despicable, detestable, horrendous characters have a happy ending or just get away by a simple “sorry”? I’ve noticed this is present in Asian drama plots across the board regardless of genre. Kdramas, Thai BL, Chinese Soaps, Japanese low budget films. Is it a cultural thing? I’m honestly curious. It’s like a person can literally do no evil regardless of what they do, and in fact the antagonist is the only one with common sense and everyone else is brain dead to evils or wrongdoing? Like can someone seriously explain this to me.

Call me by my name is not exactly a gay romance either. They’re both bisexual men, and it’s quite different in tone in the book compared to the movie. Elio is more obsessive and it’s more obvious its a summer romance not some soulmates Hollywood spin. Plus in general parts of the plot is just plain problematic. And my question isn’t because the plot is a BL itself or their western counterparts though they’re not perfect either .

I mean fair enough. But I’m asking as I’ve seen it as a consistent thing across the board ( my original question) in much of the Asian televised and written drama i consume. And as a western perspective I question if it’s simply a coincidence or not thus I’m asking for a more knowledgeable POV or if others have noticed this. And it appears some have

Honestly this is why I get so pissed off with this genre. You cannot have it both ways of rape is sexy but also must be taken seriously when it’s convenient to “add to the plot”. At least Hentai has firmly established its identity of ignoring realism. Here the author goes with this sob story to excuse Yuki’s behavior of raping and abusing others. When the importance of his abuse is parallel to the abuse he’s inflicted. Yuki experienced a crime but he’s also not a good person as well.
Now this suggests that Yuki experienced this crime and the only alternative was for him to rape others as necessary. But Yuki shouldn’t be judged or hated for his actions. This flow of logic and all the other “sympathetic” backstories either gloss over or conflate abuse is what truly grosses me out about BL in particular. It’s reliance on rape culture by either romanticizing or making it a plot device for almost every plot it produces but never adds to the plot or provides the dominance kink most in reality are looking for. Instead never actually unpacking the damage and trauma of the experience. It’s shallow and insulting. If the author wanted to make this a senseless rape comedic plot commit to that. Not this. It’s infuriating.

True. Like if they face a trauma, let them go for therapy. Not inflicting the same trauma on other people. I hate when they say I have raped you and done bad things to you but you are still like this. They start getting emotional and acting like the victim instead of actually repenting and apologising.

I mean he’s not wrong this would be a total conflict of interest in reality and very unethical given how they met and continue to work together. It’s cute he even recorded for future evidence calling back to their less than perfect first meeting, it’s the little details like this I appreciate. Shows actual research was done for this story.

The second couple is fucking stupid. It should have just ended with the first. I dont care about shit people who are indecisive about getting together to form a mega shit. Granted the CEO is just a pushy douche bag who’s repeatedly used his position to inappropriately worsen their dynamic. but if there’s anything BL’s has taught me is women love a romantic redemption for toxic men.
Only in yaoi does a surprise kiss turn into surprise rape.