#and we got outside

[ratislatis]

idk why it’s just coming to me now but I remember feeling this cold, white catharsis upon realizing that it wasn’t Freddie’s decision to give Glenn that panic attack. It was Anthony’s. And the way he said it, so finite, “Glenn is having a panic attack.” in a tone that was used before only to set up a disastrous scene.

It hurt, a lot, because in the weirdest way possible that’s exactly what having a panic attack is like. You’re sitting there with your world crashing down around you and then a disembodied narrator suddenly says, “This bitch shutting down.” (Distinctly in a Stanley Parable manner.)

#dndads #dungeons and daddies #glenn close #using the team’s actual names instead of ‘mr/mrs lastname’ was fucking traumatizing but I did it so nobody would get confused #anyway I wanted to say something in the tags that I couldn’t above because I can’t add breaks while on mobile #so tw for active shooter DRILLS if you’re reading this #one time. not too long ago #we had an active shooter drill at school while I was in orchestra #and as soon as I heard that my body went ‘oh hell no’ but I have anxiety so I ignored it #and we got outside #and the whole music department was huddled in the parking lot #and it was a beautiful day #and I was shaking #and I turn to my acquaintance maddie and I go #‘I think im having a panic attack’ #and then I start laughing hysterically. and I bend over with a hand on her shoulder because there are tears streaming down my face #and my conductor bless his gay soul he comes over like ‘what is going on’ #and I had to shuffle to the bhr while an imaginary shooter was in the school #because I tried to Not have a panic attack and besties. take it from me. nobody has IGNORED a panic attack and lived to tell the tale #anyway. glenn just like me fr LMAO

[remy]

Lord I see what you have done for others. Get me out of this state !

Me and my boyfriend (butch) are finally leaving Texas for Washington in June, we have everything planned out but we desperately need funding to secure housing once we get up there, and money for the 3000 mile drive from here to there

Please reblog and share!

#chats #im so ready to be free. someone spraypainted kill all gay people on the side of the liquor store down the street on Saturday #we got verbally harassed outside of a bucees #but when we were in Seattle we talked to strangers about the move and they like. understood immediately why we were leaving TX

[biggest-gaudiest-patronuses]

anyone else have multiple traumatic memories associated specifically with holidays/family vacations? because that is a topic I never see discussed in all the So You Had A Shitty Childhood, Now What? self-help books i've been reading. but for me, it was a significant thing. and the more i think about it the more it seems like this would be an (unfortunately) common experience. would be grateful to hear if this matches other peoples' experiences...

#not a shitpost #serious post #ask to tag #tw trauma #cptsd #c-ptsd #and if so we should TALK about it #because it means there are a whole group of survivors out there whose mental health regularly worsens during holidays #like i know i am most certainly not the only person who feels an undefined Dread hanging over christmas/my birthday/july 4 etc #bc too many shitty things happened during those times and now my brain is hypervigilant bc traditionally these are the Danger Times #and this seems like it would be particularly common for survivors of abusive/dysfunctional households (aka most people with c-ptsd) #because holidays/vacations typically mean 1) the whole family is together/being forced to interact #2) and undergoing external stressors e.g. travel/relatives aka 'outsiders' visiting/routines & coping mechanisms being interrupted etc #3) there is social pressure for this to be a Fun Family Bonding Experience which only highlights the cracks in the foundation #and exposes the common Everything Is Fine/We Are A Happy Family lie #4) the cognitive dissonance of feeling tired/anxious/stressed/afraid during a time when you are 'supposed' to be Making Good Memories #and then everyone is angry/tired/anxious/triggered and things boil over and something or someone goes Very Wrong #weird that i'm posting this in october when halloween is...sort of the ONLY holiday i have only good and happy feelings towards #i got lucky there #also i have positive feelings towards Labor Day but that's for socialist reasons

[theoldkyokodied]

Aaaaand more very quick stream doodles. This one shot was so fun to watch, it’s so sad that it had to end already. But oh well, let’s not dwell on that and let’s enjoy the good time we had, like disguised tiefling gale being both Karlachs and astarions type, wyll and gale having a spa day, bing bong in general (rip king, you will be missed), and of course the 8 strength fight for magic items <3 thanks to the cast for the chaos, I enjoyed it thoroughly

#bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #astarion ancunin #gale dekarios #shadowheart #wyll ravengard #karlach #lae'zel #bloodweave #bc I say so #>:3c #I also refuse to draw gale without the beard sorry #I’m so happy we got to see more Tim being chaotic. he’s like the eye of the storm. calm and unassuming while commanding the chaos #around him #the gale wine mom moment was literally so real I nearly cried from laughter when Tim mimed eating the cucumber slices from his face mask #god I wish they could do a whole campaign I would watch that back and fourth #everything I draw that includes them is bloodweave bc I love them dearly. same goes for shartzel (still love that ship name) #I just have not yet drawn actual ship art outside of this of them so I feel less comfortable tagging it as such 🥹

[chalkrub]

svanhildr my beloved returns

#my art #oc #svanhildr #anthro #furry #goat #illustration #oc tober #(this is day 3......i'm doing it at my own pace. lol) #I gave her some funky white eyeliner as a quick experiment and loved it so now she's got white eyeliner i guess #congrats svanhildr you've been REDESIGNED. in the smallest way possible. and also with more horn texture (that i didn't reference) #i need to reference things more i am stagnating so hard at the moment. whatever #last night me and the girlies made the age-old mistake of putting on mud face masks together and taking a cute polaroid for memories #anyway needless to say the polaroid came out darker expected and now we have a photo of us that could be very badly misinterpreted #and has very very VERY unfortunate connotations that we did not foresee in our shortsighted naivety and did NOT intend #live and learn and never let the photo escape into the outside world I guess!

[vechter]

detective comics (1937) #725 // the great believers, rebecca makkai // hesitate to call, louise glück // batman: battle for the cowl (2009) #1 // titans (2008) #21 // the aftermath, caitlin conlon // superman/batman (2003) #76 // i built the walls myself, arch budzar // batman: battle for the cowl (2009) #1 // titans (2008) #15 // detective comics (1937) #874 // postcolonial love poem, natalie díaz // batman (1940) #687 // batman and robin (2009) #1 // i can tell it's aquarius season because my knuckles are splitting, caitlin conlon // superman/batman (2003) #76 // u.k. // batman and robin (2009) #2 // titans (2008) #23 // u.k. // batman (1940) #681 // coded signals, caitlin conlon // titans (2008) #15 // batman and robin (2009) #1 // against silence, frank bidart

dick + being batman

#dick grayson #batman #webweaving #dcu #bruce wayne #web weaving #dc comics #this was becoming too long but I have so many thoughts on the dickbats era it makes me feral #imagine loving ur father so much u give up ur name ur team ur identity to take care of his name and son #dick & bruce: you'll never recover from that kind of devotion #thinking about that outsiders panel where roy reads dick to filth by saying his biggest fear is being batman #wish we could've gotten roy reacting to dick in the cape instead of the weird titans for hire BS we got

[goldensunset]

i remembered i had this saved and had to do a thing with it

#kingdom hearts #kh #bbs #birth by sleep #terra #kh terra #eraqus #kh eraqus #sora ig but he's not the point here #he just Does Not Know Things outside of 1 2 3 and a bit of ddd lol #mine: kh #hall of fame i guess #oh heeeeck yeah we got this bad boy to 1k

[spacedlexi]

"sounds nice... having a partner"

#the walking dead game #twdg #violentine #clementine twdg #violet twdg #MAANN when clem says this in s3 JUST WAIT BBY #people who say clemvi has no basis like ep2 isnt just them working as a team for 2 and a half hours regardless of player choice #like be fr #clem telling louis that violet patching up the back wall is ok because she needed something to keep herself busy. married behavior #vi asking clem to help check in on everyone while she deals with the wall. their shared smile when she comes back outside :) #and then they sit in the leadership spot together overlooking the yard and everything theyve planned together coming to fruition :) #sorry i just think their romance set up in eps 1 and 2 is obvious as FUCK and im tired of (Some) people pretending it isnt #'i havent seen her warm up to someone in a long time' brody literally tells clem that vi seems to like her after its been 24 hours #after shes been a block of ice for a whole year. and clem just melted those walls down immediately while they fought walkers together #violet is so devoted to clem post ep1 its embarrassing for her #'i saw she had you pinned and i- shit i got So crazy...' sorry if you dont think shes in love with clem idk what to tell you #'i'll tear that boat apart before we leave without you' i know you would girlie!!! #the animators went CRAAZAYAYAYAY the way they look at each other... their little smiles at each other....even before the belltower #the way clem looks at her while they dance.... the way she puts her head down on her shoulder so contentedly.... #and then she keeps her head on violets shoulder as she pulls away so clems chin gets dragged with it like she doesnt want to let go #'so you never forget that night' 'i never will' they are DISGUSTINGLY in love with each other it makes me physically ill #its 2024 and im still hearing 'i just didnt see it :/'. lazerbeams you #spaced art 2024

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Alternative form of 'Hitting Wangxian with a Catboyification beam'

#poorly drawn mdzs #mdzs #wei wuxian #lan wangji #I don't have much more of an explanation to this other than 'i was struck by the vision and needed to create it' #They are both catboy coded. To me. On slightly different alignments of catboy but still. #LWJ is catboy: Fussy + bites and WWX is catboy: Stinky #Neither of them take well to being moved from their nap spot. #I love reading lying on my stomach and my cat just loves it. Hates being moved. We are locked in combat post any cuddle sessions. #I am a cat lover. I love them. They are Rotten little Stinkers. I love them #LWJ is like. *the* definition of 'cat that only likes those its in a bonded pair with. #The kind of cat that screams if it sees any neighborhood cats wandering outside. #wwx is a 'outdoor cat that wandered inside and became domesticated but NOT owned' kinda guy. #he is a menace on the local bird population and the only reason he's not dad to all the kittens is that he got fixed young. #UNLESS: the golden core transfer here was the balls (?) Animal control took JCs balls and WWX gave his up (????) #((I Also Don't Know What I'm Saying))

[mercutio-the-velaryon]

Me when I see these pics:

#gen v #gen v amazon #gen v spoilers #jordan li #marie moreau #limoreau #mariejordan #marie x jordan #i really thought i was gonna see jordan in that white top red pants combo #sick to my stomach #yeah the first pic is probably the exact same scene we got in the hallway outside Cate's room but i don't care #what if you noticed the wound on my collarbone caused by me ripping out a tracking chip as we conversed in the moonlight

[absolutebl]

TOP 10 BL Trends of 2023

This is just me with my analysis hat on. 

1. 2023 = the year EVERYONE went outside their lanes

Everything went topsy-turvy this year in BL. 

For example, Korea gave us agonized yearning and outright queerness (The 8th Sense, The New Employee) while Japan served up soft office workers and tender family (Our Dining Table). 

The BL world went askew for a while, especially in the spring of 2023. 

Not that we still didn’t still get Korea’s soft angsty bubbles or Japan’s “what are you doing and why does it hurt?” kink-fests. But there were quite a few BLs that made us chronic watchers sit up in confusion and wonder if Korea was dabbling in Taiwan’s territory or Japan in Thailand’s. Then they fudged the kisses and we were like... okay, back in familiar territory. 

In contrast, Thailand stayed course-correcting for the damage they’ve done in the past with tropes (2022) and self referential meta criticism (2021), but also almost aggressively returned to their BL roots after last year’s series of shockers. Certainly, they are reexamining those roots, transplanting some, aerating others. But they really went back to classic Thai university and high school BL and pulps in a big way in 2023. 

Taiwan is always difficult to gage because they produce so few but they seem to have stuck with what they do best with no deviation while producing more this year than they have in ages. I’m happy for that, why change a good thing? But there is a tiny part of me that really wants them to hit it out of the part with a quality piece soon. For me, We Best Love still reigns supreme, but I would really like the HIStory franchise to give us that level but longer - like a happy version of Your Name Engraved Herein. I think Taiwan has the chops to give us something as good as The 8th Sense or Old Fashion Cupcake but in their style, and I would like to see them exercise their talent for good rather than just profit. 

I know, what a very odd thing for me to say. But if any BL is going to break into the mainstream American market, I genuinely think it’s most likely come from Taiwan. 

Vietnam and the Philippines are falling behind, in general. They just didn’t bring out very many shows in 2023, and what the brought out tended to fub the endings. This is forgivable in Japan (because of their style and quality) but not what watchers want in the lower production value propositions. In other words, if you do a pulp, you can’t mess up the ending (by romance standards). that doesn’t look to be changing anytime soon. 

2. The Office Romance Dominated

After years of Thailand serving us an endless (and slightly bland) buffet of university (and a few high school) BLs, this year Korea was basically like...

Ofiice. We like the Office. It’s cheap to film we can use grown up actors, acting (mostly) their actual age. 

And yeah... it totally worked. 

To be fair, Japan has always given us office live action yaoi from the beginning (they had the source material) but this year everyone else, including Thailand, seriously started playing in this setting. 

3. Boys Danced with Boys

The darling @heretherebedork​ was a big fan of this one, and I rather like it myself. Prior to this boys dancing together was very very rare in BL, but this year we got way more than our fair share. It was lovely. 

Never Let me Go

My School President 

Bed Friend 

The Day I Loved You 

Step by Step

Be Mine Superstar

Tie the Not 

Dangerous Romance

I think there were a few more. These are the ones I remembered to write down. 

4. Getting (even more) Meta With Tropes 

BL has been getting more and more meta over the past few years but this year they really focused in on tropes specifically. Calling out their own biggest and most favorite tropes in a massive way, especially Thailand and especially GMMTV. 

Like they tunneled in on damaging tropes with Bad Buddy and the like over the past 2 years, and now they are just having fun with us. 

I mean they just started the dancing trope and already they are calling it out? That’s like rapid-fire regurgitated meta there, GMMTV. 

5. Cameos are the norm now 

Taiwan has always loved cameos but in the past the other countries have been show and steady with only one or two a year. (Unless Japan does a parody.) 

This year Korea got in on the game.

Korea rarely starts trends but they do adopt smaller and lesser known existing ones and make them super popular. 

This year they did that with cameo couple appearances, even borrowing a few of Thailand’s pairs (TutorYim and MaxNat traveled north). They did it so much I stopped tracking. Love Class 2, Why R U?, and Jun & Jun were the heaviest hitters. 

Taiwan, of course, came back swinging. Kiseki was the gum-ball machine of pair cameos. (In Taiwan mafia = gay.) 

6. We are entering the cross pollination age

The number of remakes picked up or started this year was startling, not just countries revisiting their own content (Thailand, Japan) but countries revisiting OTHER countries stuff.

Lemme explain...

Korea has started remaking Thai content (Why R U?) alongside cameo'ing Thai pairs.

Thailand is doing Korean IP (My Dear Gagster Oppa) and has 2 Chinese ones slated for next year. 

GMMTV acquired a lot of Japanese IP (Cherry Magic, Ossen, and My Love Mix Up) - and then had problems distributing it. 

This is probably the most surprising trend for me. Especially the Japanese stuff. I would have thought these properties well outside of Thailand's price range (even GMMTV's) not to mention Japan’s legendary IP issues (I swear I typed this pout before the pulled TayNew’s excellent Cherry Magic). 

Also why not option some of the older popular manga instead? Bet that's much cheeper. (I did see a NEW Thai translation of Finder into Thai, which is 90s yaoi, so I have my fingers crossed on that front.)

I shouldn't be too surprised. 

Thailand is running out of y-novel content. Their publication industry is just not robust enough (I was just talking to a friend about this at length recently). But I didn't think they had the funds to option, especially from Japan. 

Perhaps the option deals are for peanuts?

7. Korea got cheeky

I’m not sure quite how else to put this. 

After finally figuring out boys can kiss, Korea started to do not just higher heat but playful higher heat, with more aggressive word play and linguistic innuendo, like they are entering their racy rom-com teenage years (Why R U? Love Class 2 and Jun & Jun in particular.) 

I guess: Welcome to your BL teens, Korea? 

It’s cute of them. I am very much enjoying it. 

And now that comedy is warming them up, we get to see them play with actual queer burgeoning physicality in shows like The 8th Sense. 

It’s nice. I like seeing Korea stretch its wings. They still stick to their bubble, but that bubble seems to be expanding. 

8. The Amnesia Trope is back

And I, for one, would prefer to forget about it. 

9. BL got trendy 

I’m not quite sure how to articulate this category but basically we started seeing a lot of “modern” romance trends out of the west (like a/b/o) show up in our BL. Not a ton and sometimes quite small, but there has a been a steady rise of things like: no seme/uke, femme gay, out gay, condom use, messy gay. 

We also got an increasing range of sub genre frameworks (like mafia, office setting) that’s moved BL pretty firmly (even in Thailand) out of school and into the workplace, whether actual working is involved or not. 

It’s not to the point where it feels like we get more non-school BL than school BL (if I include all countries in this assessment).

Japan, in classic Japanese fashion, quietly started moving in the opposite direction. It’s what they do. 

10. The Vampires are coming 

This is an announcement trend, which I don’t usually report on but it’s so CLEAR. 

So last year we had a spate of announcements of possible Omegaverse (2 from China, 1 from Japan, 1 from Thailand - the only one that’s happened). 

This year we got 5 Vampire (or vampire-esk) Thai BLs announced including one from GMMTV. 

Whether all 5 will actually get made is unlikely, but having had (basically) none prior to this (Kissable Lips), I’m pretty confident that we will get at least 2 of them. And I wouldn’t be surprised if at least one other country made one as well. (Side eyes Taiwan with interest.) 

Final thoughts

It feels like we are also seeing a decline in BL (both by quantity and quality) from Vietnam and the Philippines. As you all know, I don’t track or really watch either of these two very closely. But it feels like, now, no one else is either. 

I think we have likely seen the BL heyday already in both places and their industries are now on the decline. 

We might be witnessing a thinning in the players in the BL field. 

FYI we had approximately 

136 BLs in 2023

Previous Years

2022: 117

2021: 95

2020: 62

2019: 40

2018: 30 

2017: 44 (China’s last gasp)

2016: 27

2015: 17 (50% micro)

2014: 17 (50% micro)

And that’s it! Let me know in the comments if you’ve spotted any additional trends you want to call out.

Last year, 2022′s trend report

2021′s Trend report

Last Year’s Stats & Predictions

(source) 

#bl 2023 #bl trends 2023 #film trends 2023 #EVERYONE went outside their lanes #The 8th Sense #kroean bl #thai bl #The Office Romance Dominated #bed friend #Boys Danced with Boys #the day i loved you #Getting (even more) Meta With Tropes #hidden agenda #gmmtv #dinosaur love #love class 2 #jun and jun #We are entering the cross pollination age #why r U? #Korea Got Cheeky #The Amnesia Trope is back #BL got trendy #The Vampires are coming

[ducks-love-peas]

meanwhile, Crowley:

Good Omens 2 | ⭑favorite moments⭑ 2/?

#good omens #good omens 2 #goodomensedit #goodomensgifs #aziraphale #crowley #nina #s2e5 'the ball' #the NOISE i made when i heard the 'rescuing me' line was embarrassing #(i was very glad the family member i'd started watching with had already gone to bed) #just. i love that we got aziraphale saying this #anyway i didn't mean to start a gif series and disappear for months oops #life was a bit much for a while #also i was annoyed at how captions were antialiased in photopea and i had to like... just step away haha (i'm still annoyed oh well) #also remind me to never do a night-outside-the-bookshop scene ever again. i've done it three times now. and i hate it. so much lol. #i made this #gos2 faves #photopeablr #gifs

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

watched Grease the other night with my buddy and. well. obviously i Had To

#this was a good warm up i think. kinda low quality cause its Small and Not Much Effort Went Into It #but i think the fuzziness adds to the charm. or something like that #ive always loved greasers as a concept and general Thing #anyway now im Thinking about what everyone's 'roles' would be #i think the little greaser group would be wally / sally / barnaby #except theyre the most unconventional greasers ever #sally is all bark and no bite. barnaby is no bark and no bite. wally is just there to look pretty #i think theyd fold frank into the group eventually due to Witnessing His Knack For Violence #i can picture them mostly hanging around a diner #where they all share the single milkshake they can collectively afford #scribble garnish #welcome home #in middle school i absolutely adored the outsiders #we even did a thing for the class where we were assigned 'greaser' or 'soc' and i was So Fucking Delighted to get greaser #assigned greaser by 8th grade english class #got to dress up and everything. i had a blast. so gender. #during that time i would even sit there in class thinking 'i was born in the wrong generation'. delusional? yes #one of my ocs is even a fuckin. universe-hopping assassin greaser #their vibe.... 50s punk... #loved the movie btw. made next to no sense. very charming

[tapakah0]

#you #... #you... #Congrats with surviving... I hope it wasn't too bad... #We had something similar last year #We live in a kind of a distant village #And our streets are connected to one heating system #And it was so cold last year that this station just broke #Me and my sister have been without water electricity and heat first day *giggle* It was funny to wear 2 complects of cloths and jacket #It was... like... -14 inside of home? *giggle* #On the second day we at least got electricity back and got a little heater (We were separated from parents so the have been calling 3 #times per day XDD) We closed all doors to not let the heat outside #Since we got sick and couldn't take a shower #We were able to go to school but we looked like shit XDD #Then we were lying next 2 days like potatoes in one room with a heater... it felt awful XDD #They couldn't fix the main heating system for almost 3 days #It was... funny.... never want to experience the same again and hope you will not too

[hajimedics]

welcome home persona AU, aka mostly an excuse for me to draw my human designs in classy children’s fairytale-inspired outfits

#welcome home #welcome home restoration project #whrp persona AU #wally darling #eddie dear #frank frankly #sally starlet #julie joyful #senjart #senja when he has a hyperfixation: crossover it with ANOTHER hyperfixation #already wrote down their arcanas and persona names THIS HYPERFIX STUFF IS SERIOUS #they are named mostly from books and opera ….. giving it more of a fairytale feeling #I think the AU’s main themes and storyline is about the strings of fate and deciding your own life….. like maruki’s dreamworld #their persona awakenings are basically them being bound by strings/chains/vines/etc and they break out and yell their persona names!!!! #BECAUSE THEYRE TRAPPED…. PUPPETS IN A STRING…… BOUND BY FATE…. YANNOW YANNOWWWWWWWW #AND THEN THEY GOT THEIR OUTFIT AND THE SICK P5 GUITAR RIFF PLAYS IN THE BACKGROUND #’’yes we’re forced to come into terms that our reality and the cope of our imagination has been limited but at least we got these outfits’’ #(sally voice) DON QUIXOTE! AGIDYNE!!!!! #also Home is the navi. it speaks as a disembodied voice that’s creaks and bangs to outsiders and coherent voices for persona users

[seagull-scribbles]

Happy valentines! what says ‘love’ like two smelly, unwashed teen boys?

Drew this after a lovely convo with @less-depresso-more-espresso, who also gave me this song to listen to 💕 so this one’s for you bestie aha

#tmnt 2012 #rasey #casey jones #raphael hamato #less-depresso-more-espresso #I love the farmhouse arc a lot actually #I think Casey went and got a few jobs on ‘local’ farms to help pay for food and bills #and April got a job helping in a shop or something she’s not very outdoorsy #and after Leo wakes up raph would start going outside #mikey looks after the animals and the farm there but we know ralh likes animals and flowers so I think he’d keep pretending to be too macho #his main jobs looking after Leo #but Casey could get him to goof off and sit in the sun and stuff #maybe raph would help chop wood or just sit near by drawing or trying to make daisy chains for mikey #something silly #anyway #I don’t do romance but I like using today as a chance to tell my friends I love them and to spend quality time snuggling my dog so #I hope everyone has a good day xxx #thank you again depresso xxx #Spotify #I tried to make this so it couldn’t be platonic but who am I kidding I sit on my friends like this all the time lmao #oh I drew this in my usual grunge way I do for 2012 and then tried to make it look softer with the same brushes so lmk if it worked