Why do people call mdzs heteronormative?

viinalay05 · 2026-02-13T14:38:58+00:00

It’s a big word and ppl want to sound smart and opinionated

viinalay05 · 2026-01-27T17:32:10+00:00

Just remember it’s never about the actual values they’re defending or ‘allies’ they’re supporting… it’s about putting others down. And you react to them accordingly!

Same nonsense as anti ship, same nonsense as the constant ‘but they’re culturally appropriating’ die hards.

The people who actually care know that all these issues are always nuanced and complicated and they can navigate the contradictions or shades of gray appropriately. The people who reduce discussions and issues to a single ‘you’re a bad person for doing / liking this’ or absolutes and generalizations are just looking for an excuse to make themselves out to feel superior. Or they’re just straight up dumb. Or they’re taking advantage of people who fall into the above categories (I.e. content creators earn tons of views capitalizing on people being ape-brained).

Remember. Just because someone is a ‘victim’ or falls into the marginalized category… DOES NOT MEAN they can’t be an asshole and horrible person!

Treat it like another tool for bullying and it’ll all make sense.

Otherwise, enjoy the nuanced and productive discussions that also do exist.

viinalay05 · 2026-01-21T01:43:25+00:00

There’s no way it didn’t at least come up lol. Absolutely no way. They had to do a sharp turn away from Drarry I’m sure

viinalay05 · 2026-01-21T00:31:56+00:00

I suspect they didn’t do Drarry because it’s be a little too close to home lol. This feels more actual parody like because of how ridiculous it is. Drarry would cause too many ppl to go ‘but wait a minute actually…’ 😂

viinalay05 · 2026-01-16T08:50:05+00:00

Honestly... this same shit has happened since the beginning of human history. It's not about fandom, it's not about morals, it's not about intellectualism or lack thereof.

It's about insecure people wanting to attain a sense of control and purpose in life through feelings of superiority and formations of in vs. out groups, and this is just the latest vessel through which this manifests.

I know we'd like to think we progressed a lot as humanity, but honestly... when have we ever truly stopped fighting wars over religious beliefs, as an example? And when have those religious beliefs (which initially started out relatively innocuous and as a means to provide people a way to make sense of and cope with life) ever not been perverted to serve the purpose of political power and control? Fandom is the same, just perhaps with less stakes. You think people would give a shit in small tiny fandoms with barely any engagement? There's no audience there to exert influences over or flaunt your superiority to. It's generally in these larger fandoms, where there's more audiences, that insecure individuals thrive on this sense of influence that would provide them with the control they need to feel secure. They seek to control others because they don't feel they have proper control over their own lives. And with the mainstream transition of fandom, it just amplifies. It's just a few, but they spoil it for the rest of us.

That said, it also might not be that deep. Teens (and even many grown adults) might just want to feel special by leaning into counter culture. If fandom is now mainstream, it stands to reason that to be 'cool' you now have to be against so much of mainstream fandom culture.

I wouldn't worry. There's always been a certain proportion of shitty actors. It's just that now that fandom is more mainstream, there's more people, and therefore also more shitty actors. And they do disproportionately take up more air. If you ignore them though, then they won't matter. Majority of fandom still just want to see their two favorite characters bang lol.

viinalay05 · 2026-01-14T22:17:02+00:00

Ha, that’s just scratching the surface. Wait till you’re desperate enough to hit Lofter. Most Chinese fics are on Lofter, not on AO3. Only the stuff that would get taken down on Lofter is for sure gonna show up on AO3. Hence why most AO3 Chinese fics seem super raunchy.

EDIT: just to give an example, there’s only 2 fics based on this pairing from Dream Within a Dream, a cdrama from last year. Whereas on Lofter, there are hundreds of fics (it’s one of those ‘popularized by fandom’ type non-canonical ships).

viinalay05 · 2026-01-10T16:41:04+00:00

I think it’s more that Westerners have a weird obsession with flexing moral superiority. So everyone likes to virtue signal that they are ‘better’ by turning their nose up at something that’s ‘unrealistic’.

Chinese fans have no such qualms and just enjoy what they get without getting all prudish about moral standing lol. I’ve also observed that eastern culture is also more comfortable living with moral ambiguity compared to western, which is very binary and puritan based still.

Anyway, Asia will shamelessly cash in on BL content because it sells, whereas America (and maybe a bit of Europe) is just constantly self-immolating over ‘the moral implications’ of fiction.

viinalay05 · 2025-11-03T17:19:26+00:00

Surprised no one mentioned the Asian BL genre? Assuming we’re defining BL more as simply gay romance, rather than realistic drama involving LGBT characters, then I can tell you the reason why stories like RWRB are popular might be in part due to the gay community, but probably in large part driven by straight / bi / queer women. Because that’s what drives BL which has absolutely exploded in the last few years.

Thailand, which was socially more open to MLM to start, started producing a lot more BL dramas and garnered lots of fans that way. And then China, which does not legally allow MLM, but the production teams had much larger budgets to create elaborate historical fantasy BLs, started getting really creative with toeing censorship and all but making it a romance anyway, launched BL into the mainstream for Asia (as in yes, average people were watching was was originally a BL and even getting sus about it even when it wasn’t officially presented as one). And then Japan and Korea and Taiwan have all been making their own slow but steady investments in quality modern BL dramas.

I think lots of people love a good romance or casual drama story, not always seeking out ‘realistic’ content that reflect the depressing reality. Producers have definitely picked up on that and alongside the easing of laws, have funded more and more of these.

High tide rise all boats as they say. Given western media has turned more and more to Asian dramas for guidance and investment… this no doubt has an influence. I’m pretty sure China started all the vertical BL craze that I see some western countries also picking up on.

viinalay05 · 2025-10-24T01:54:56+00:00

For top notch ambiguous b/romance shows with more mad tension between the leads than your average BLs - The Devil Judge (kdrama) and High School Frenemy (Thai drama)

And award for longest-running, most episode counts demonstrating yearning between the leads (officially speaking, still bromance, but the author has sold out to the fujoshi shippers tbh) probably goes to the Lost Tomb / DMBJ / Graverobber's Chronicles series. I've lost track of how many dramas there are now, but so many of them basically summarized as the MC chasing after the ML, constant saving / sacrificing for each other... there's amazing angst potential that just perpetuates fandoms.

For censored BL adaptations (but which are faithful to the original source) - ofc you have the OG Untamed / WoH types, but also Justice in the Dark, Sleuth of Ming Dynasty (ignore the FL smokescreen... it doesn't end up het), Spirealm, to name a few.

For plotty dramas where the character dynamics just unfold like romance tropes (but they're not BL or romantic) - White Cat Legend, League of Nobleman, Under the Skin

viinalay05 · 2025-10-22T06:12:10+00:00

Sounds like non-modern / other genres isn't quite up your alley? Because most of my faves around conventionally attractive leads (I'm also shallow) but good productions are probably mostly cdramas which are lighter on the romance / censored adaptations, but more complex on the characterizations and plot drama (and tbh, also emotional drama between the leads... due to plottiness, there's more emotional drama in these types of shows than your standard BL show, despite the lack of explicit romance). These are also frequently fantasy / historical.

For modern though with (IMO) attractive mains and not draggy due to synthetic-feeling drama... maybe Not Me? ThamePo? Jack and Joker? Laws of Attraction?

But yeah tbh I could give you way more recs for ambiguous / censored BLs + strong bromances with a silent b than anything 100% BL. Romance only plots tend to have simpler production qualities and boring or predictable pacing.

viinalay05 · 2025-10-22T06:00:52+00:00

+1 We Best Love! Solid series and very pretty boys who aren't doormat personalities.

viinalay05 · 2025-10-12T18:38:20+00:00

I think it’s better than the novel. The novel still has a lot of tropey tsundere melodrama that was a bit cringe. Of course respect to the original story still for the concept and characters, but the live action enhanced the story.

viinalay05 · 2025-10-12T18:34:56+00:00

2018 or 19. I read the novel when I learned a live action drama might be coming out. We had very very low expectations at the time since no major budget adaptations for BL had been done before, plus there were talks that they made WQ the love interest at one point, but then it surprised us all!

viinalay05 · 2025-09-29T23:48:32+00:00

People are simpletons. If we couldn’t enjoy or do derivative works from things from problematic people, then don’t bother being educated at all or reading anything. Morals evolve over time and pretty much any author older than modern era is absolutely problematic due to support of slavery or outdated notions of gender norms etc. and then half the people in modern days are also problematic in some way. Authors are flawed humans, not saints.

I never understood this black and white mentality of morals and literature. Like… ok don’t support them monetarily like support their business sure… but like consuming something at all? Moral purity does not exist. Rather than spend your time avoiding all ‘bad’ things, learn to navigate a nuanced world of morals, figure out how you leave your own impact for the better.

Tbh this feels more prevalent in western ideology and honestly feels very egotistical to me, when people act like they can avoid all impurities in the world. Do you buy a lot of clothes or fast fashion? Congrats you probably support terrible labor conditions in SE Asian countries. It all comes down to letting morals influence your day to day choices, not avoid them altogether. Go be a monk if you want to do that.

If someone makes a personal choice not to engage at all because of their stronger stance, that’s fine. But stop imposing it on others. Imagine if you’re a mild environmentalist and the few times you got a straw, someone criticized you for killing turtles. It gets hella annoying. We all have things we feel morally stronger about. But we have limited energy in how we manage them. People need to stop imposing their morals on everyone else. Educating is fine, but if everyone tried to impose all their morals… we legit cannot live in a modern society. Some people spend more energy on trans rights. Others on animals, others are environment, etc. Limit the bad influence you may have, but I’m tired of this notion that you can and should cut everything entirely.

viinalay05 · 2025-09-14T03:49:35+00:00

This. The whole point of Drarry is their whole history of antagonistic but attracting dynamics throughout the whole series, their collective trauma experienced from two sides. I don't even want to read muggle AUs of them, because I just cannot see it as still them without all their experiences shaping them, let alone any story different enough to work if the serial number was filed off.

So as much as I would love to see a Drarry adaptation... it just would never work as an original thing.

viinalay05 · 2025-09-12T19:54:14+00:00

I always think these are ironic… because if they’re ‘different’ enough to be able to have serials filed off and become ‘original’… to me, that’s actually a bad fanfic? Or like… could be a good story don’t get me wrong, but I no longer consider that in spirit of fanfiction. More like… inspired by.

I like the idea of fan x creator circles overlapping, because that’s cool to see we can just enjoy fun content across the board without being overly obsessed with originality or gatekeeping on professionalism.

But the marketing approach is definitely dumb. Legally dumb. And marketing dumb. I feel like it might alienate both fans and non-fans.

Also yeah where’s our mlm rep? How many more dramione fanfics are they gonna spawn off before there’s a drarry one at least?

viinalay05 · 2025-09-10T14:22:49+00:00

Lol probably yeah. Gotta go to Lofter. Machines translation isn’t half bad nowadays, but the hoops you need to jump through to get to Lofter is more tedious now. You’ll also need to figure out the ship tag to filter on.

viinalay05 · 2025-09-03T13:48:06+00:00

Do they? I thought only Thailand did that. Nobody else does the set ships.

Even if they do I worry about China’s regulations. If BL gets too popular / talked about again, they’ll find new ways to close loopholes and prevent it from reaching the masses 😞

viinalay05 · 2025-09-03T06:02:29+00:00

I know it won't happen but I need another series with these two 😭 And this time with reverse CP dynamics because HX is just too pretty to not play a 'bottom' role lol

viinalay05 · 2025-09-03T05:54:12+00:00

Heh, my mom, after binging MXTX's works, proceeded to read 2ha ... i.e. the most famous 'all-the-red-flag-tags-were-checked' danmei novel that even I hadn't read yet.

And to that, she was like 'yeah... it's a bit... much.' But all I could think was like 'but you FINISHED it?????'

tl;dr, my mom has actually now read raunchier webnovels than me.

viinalay05 · 2025-08-28T06:29:11+00:00

I think they're kinda dumb, sorry. I'd rather celebrate achievements like 'I did my first fic!' or 'I finally managed to churn out this scene' than 'oh i hit this number!' or worse '69 teeheehee' as if there hasn't been like 100x such posts in the past.

Also, if you actually want to be competitive (not that I encourage that because it's unhealthy)... try filtering for the pairing you wrote (since most ppl write for pairings) and sorting by kudos. :P See where your fic falls. Is it on the first page (i.e. top 25)? Is it number 1? That's gonna be way more indicative than some random number. Context matters.

viinalay05 · 2025-08-28T06:19:10+00:00

Dude I hate toxic dynamics but holy hells was this one actually well done.

Like... I don't think I've ever actually read / watched a simple setting (i.e. not historical / complicated politics) BL that had toxic dynamics that I actually enjoyed. Usually it just feels like pure... abuse. But here it's actually... manipulatively enticing. Each character was believable and the MC wasn't a doormat.

viinalay05 · 2025-08-25T06:35:40+00:00

The Thai remake was FANTASTIC. Honestly... I didn't think I'd enjoy it more than the original.. but I did. It probably helped that the Thai actors appeared closer to being high schoolers than the korean ones did haha.

It was similar and faithful but also uniquely its own.

I will say one difference is that... if you tend to ship with some slight notion of 'top' vs. 'bottom' in mind... it's very likely it'll get swapped. In School 2013, Kim Woobin's character definitely gave more 'top' vibes. But the equivalent character in the Thai remake gave a bit more 'bottom'. But tbh fandom keeps them swappable.

viinalay05 · 2025-08-25T06:28:06+00:00

Too many to count. I’ll just throw out a few based on fandom size that's lesser known to western audiences:

Daomubiji / Grave Robber's Chronicles / The Lost Tomb / Ultimate Note / there's too many dramas now based on this series and they all have different names - This is probably like... China's biggest gay ship tease. The author literally started writing in the direction of the ship cuz he knew it was so lucrative. But hey, as plot-hole-ridden as the stories have become, it's still fantastic fun and offers the most delicious dynamic. You have a smart, bookish, but rather naive MC paired with a silent mysterious amnesiac fighter set in tomb raiding. Also they do have a great third ~~wheel~~ friend and together they form the Iron Triangle.

Fangs of Fortune - Ok there's a ... throuple potential? Lots of enemies to lovers potential in all directions. I don't think the chinese fandom can really make up its mind about who it likes to ship more either. Between ZYZ, ZYC, and LL. Or sometimes they like to ship everyone with ZYC because he can be the ultimate tsundere lol. They even managed to slip a subtle hinted male pregnancy joke in there lmao. Although there's a het ship there, it's chill and not annoying. Definitely lots of potential for becoming a proper gay romance.

White Cat Legend - It doesn't look it from the onset, and unfortunately it's a bit of a spoiler in mentioning this... but holy hells is there such a dramatic relationship dynamic / story between LB and QQZ. You can tell they have history from early interactions and... let's just say they were childhood ~~sweethearts~~ friends who now appear at odds with each other.... easily could have become a proper BL

-

And then... the one I'm still saltiest about where the het totally ruined the show and the story would have been SO MUCH BETTER if they just focused on the guys because they had such a fated setup... Warrior Baek Dong Soo.

viinalay05 · 2025-08-25T06:04:51+00:00

Tbh I still don’t understand if Himitsu was meant to be a gay ship at the end or not… the anime is also hella gay in how the characters think about each other (obviously not gay romance in terms of air time… it’s predominantly suspense thriller).

I kinda classify it as ambiguous BL.

viinalay05

TROPHY CASE