Till this day STILL don’t understand the OhmNannon outrage

And we don’t talk about the hate the new partner and old ones gets over the breakup… i won’t forget the hate Cooearth, JJ and Leng suffered…

To date I’ve yet to be so invested in a ship that any separation truly hit me in my feels. And I think that is because I can separate the work from the personal relationships between actors. Actors should be able to work with who they want, and not tie themselves to anyone for all eternity, so any professional break up is just part of their career. The work they put out while they were a “ship” isn’t somehow devalued now that they aren’t working together. I can still enjoy My Only 12% or Bed Friend, knowing the actors are working with other people now.

I have more empathy when personal breakups occur though, regardless of whether that relationship was romantic or platonic. Because most of us get more out of the relationships we have built over years outside of work than we do with those we merely work with. So when a personal separation happens, it often has a more devastating impact on the lives of those involved. I have yet to truly experience an acting partnership I follow closely go through a permanent personal separation at this stage (though some have had rough patches). And unless the separation was due to something truly heinous (like ab*se of some form), I don’t think I would ever turn on either actor. I would just continue to support their work as individuals and wish them the best in life in the future.

I've  never gotten that involved.  It's work. They're working. It's not real.  I don't want to see the same people working together all the time.  It gets boring after a while.

I have never felt upset about a BL breakup.  I love many pairings but I see everything as fan service unless the pair says otherwise.  I would have loved to see Ohm and Nanon in another series but I was not heartbroken.  It was unfortunate, though.

I 100% agree with your take on this issue.
This nonsense reminds me of the Wonho Monsta X drama (kpop), where some monbebe freaked out when Wonho and a member of Monsta X were scene, hanging out on public. Just because Wonho was (forced out) left Monsta X doesnt mean they aren't still friends.

Smart Boom, BenzGarfield broke my heart.

I am pretty sure that GreatInn were always going to “break up” after a set number of series. Net and James were beautiful together and of course James doesn’t or has ever deserved the hate he got, and I think more than anything it underlined to him that he made the right decision to opt out of the circus. And I am sorry, but OhmNanon stans are just insufferable. I genuinely believe that even if they are real life friends, they’re never going to be public about it BECAUSE THEIR “FANS” TAUGHT THEM IT WASN’T SAFE. And I 100% agree with you on the femme-phobia – Nunew’s recent death threats and people crashing out over Cooheart’s post about Santa just underlines the BL fandom’s fear / disdain of actually queer people.

Maybe it’s all my years as a regular series / movie / romance / chick flick consumer – I can appreciate a partnership that works – but I am always more excited to see new pairings. I think whatever it is that lights our brain when we’re anticipating / exploring new stuff is a bigger part of my brain than the comfort of the old.

Also – I am sorry but why is it that BL pairings must be set in stone? And Asian ones in particular? I cannot tell if it’s just fetishization or racism that only Thai BL actors must make announcements and put themselves on blast to “fans” if they do not continue to work with an on-screen partner while anyone else can and is encouraged to work with as many people in their industry as they can. It genuinely angers me.

I am also realizing that a lot of BL fans are younger and maybe that’s why they cannot tell fact from fiction? Therefore the insistence on the BL ship continuing forever and forever and that they be real and never stray from their designated “top” and “bottom” roles .

Fans also seem to not know when they are being manipulated by business.  I am both poor and cheap and I will never buy merchandise; I never want to feed the machine. I personally do not enjoy branded pairs at all – like I get the economics / bottom line part of it but it all just lowkey enrages me. I am not saying that GMMTV or any of the other production companies don’t deserve to make money – I just think that the current business model is very far from perfect. And what’s worse is that the current system not only encourages toxicity but also is quick to eliminate people, who maybe deserve more opportunities. Look at all the amazing actors that have left GMMTV  - Toptap, Boss, Drake etc. they deserved to be given lead roles in shows but because of the lack of a BL partner they were pushed to BFF roles and how challenging/ interesting can that be after a while?

I also feel like for the most part the current system makes it hard for good content and stories to be created. People would rather gush about the couple they like in a below average show  - and gain them the advertising dollars, than give a chance to a great story etc. if they think the ship will never work again together. Again – these expectations are not transferred to white actors as far as I can see.

Obsessive fans are like creepy dolls in horror movies. Actual dolls are supposed to be cute. But those obsessive fans turn into zombies at airports & pull out their "i bought your merchandise, spent a lot of money on my flight ticket to your fan-meet & you're telling me you 2 won't work together again ?!?"  card 🤦🏻‍♀️

I don’t buy merchandise.  I hate clutter. 😂

I've been saddened by unfulfilled potential of some ships or some series they could have starred in. I've enjoyed my share of fanservice. I have favourites of which i watch and enjoy shows i'd drop if other people were acting in them.
But most of all, I know that IT'S A JOB. And honestly, this might make me a bit of a bitch, but i take pleasure in reminding this to people who are acting up.
When these actors "clock out", then what they do is none of anyone else's business and sometimes clocking out means out of the ship and that's fine.
We'll never truly know why a screen partnership ends, but sometimes it looks so amicable and lead by external factors that I don't really get why you should be upset for more than 5 minutes (ok, i'm gonna be less callous, a few days/weeks)!
Your point about the business-assigned-bottom usually getting blamed is so true and infuriating! And even when it's some other type of shenanigans, they get the blame, like that friendly kiss between Gun and Tay. For SOME reason, Gun was the one who got more flack for it. Absoluttely maddening.

Anyway, yadda yadda, remember that it's a job 🤣

Obsessive Fans need more in their lives. Read, watch other genres, go out with real people and do stuff without electronics. Some of us are wane and enjoy BL but stay in the real world. Don't waste your life on fantasy or you will ultimately have nothing.

Me and my Bad Buddy boxset. And the glimpse of FlukeFirst in my Not Me photobook. I’ve been disappointed to see couples break up but I just can’t fathom the extreme parasocial lengths some people have gone. Like…I started Memoir of Rati after the GreatInn announcement and the worst feeling I had was just walking away like ‘oh they won’t do anything else together, oh well I liked both their shows’.

I'm just happy you are not a Domundi hater. Hearing Kong already has plans to retire (though 8 years from now) caused one second of panic ... until sanity returned.

I agree with pretty much everything you said. Shipping is fun, but I think the thing that gets lost among some fans is that these actors are real people, with real feelings and real lives. The downside of brand pairing is fhat the actors make themselves a commodity and that leads to fandom entitlement.

It is hard when a ship splits, especially if they bring you joy or comfort. I know I was sad (and shed a tear or two) over NetJames. I'll be sad if any of the ships I currently follow were to split. It's sad because something is ending; its okay to have feelings about it.

What's not okay have been some of the fan responses, and you are absolutely correct about the ones who usually get blamed. It becomes frustrating as a fan who just wants these guys to be happy in their work. The amount of careful staging that is done for NetJJ and James, so they're not seen interacting is actually mind-blowing. Part of me wishes the production companies would let them decide how to handle it (for instance, like when Poon replaced Fluke in My Romance Scammer, and we got tons of Fluke and Marc interacting with OhmPoon). That's how it should be, in my opinion. Not every pair split may want to handle it like that, but idk, maybe it would help some fans.

At any rate, the longer we're fans of the genre, the more ships that will split (for all sorts of reasons), so fans should prepare themselves and perhaps have a patch of grass to touch on standby, lol.

The "fans" getting out of hand is very frustrating. I think a big part that led here unfortunately is companies used to have the artists apologize and make statements as if they were caught cheating if they were with a friend outside or something(or even dating someone else, they shouldn't be scared to have a real life), so some fandoms really seemed to feel they basically owned these actors. I'm glad now it's changing more with people getting sued and actors being defended by their companies much more now.

Honestly actors acting with different partners and not only their "ship" would have created so much more varieties in their acting and chemistry rather than stuck with one and serving boring/mid plot. And we have to admit that some actors are popular or the series becomes hit because of the "ship" rather than their acting or the storyline🫠

TAETEE!! MAXTUL!!! I miss them so much!! I genuinely want more series from them!!

The shipping culture will never be something I’ll understand. I think actors should be allowed to broaden their acting horizon, and to work with different partners on every project, unless there is a second season to a well received series. Otherwise, no, there should be no shipping at all. It’s called acting for a reason, and shouldn’t bleed into RL. Those people’s lives can get destroyed because of delusional fans who can’t get over their fantasies being popped like a soap bubble.
That’s why I favour Japanese BLs that aren’t so ship driven.
True, some ships might work well, but I’ve honestly stopped watching most new BLs with older couples because I find them repetitive and boring, no matter what the new storylines are.

OhmFluke. I miss them from Until we meet again, and other series.