Dialogue is a lean language in which every word counts-Sol Stein
Dialogues make powerful remembrances; substantial enough, if the vestiges are memorable and thought provoking. While BL dramas are mostly littered with such significant exchanges, there are very few quotes/dialogues that leave an impression on our mind. In today’s feature, our authors will be reminiscing their quotations and interpreting their meaningful approach!
Yarnball’s Favorites
There’s nothing that gets me like a good script, and I can’t begin to list the number of quotes I’ve loved in BL, but for brevity I’m going to limit myself to Thai BL series from the past few years
The Entire Script of A Tale of Thousand Stars
– Ok, no.
The reason I love this series enough to mention it every chance I get is that at its heart it’s a story about learning to grow past the person you were and discover parts of you that you perhaps didn’t know existed. Tian’s story is one that many of us who’ve been confused about our direction in life and the choices we make can relate to.
I’m just choosing a few that really resonated with me
“You just need a place that fits you… The place that fits you will make you grow.”
And then there’s this amazing line from Khama, the resident wise village elder:
“Do you know what is much harder than apologizing? It is forgiveness, especially learning to forgive yourself.”
And, on a less life-lesson-y and more BL note, because at the end of the day I will always come back to this fantastic scene, the warm domesticity of Tian and Phupha under the mosquito net:
“Tian, what did you have for dinner?”
“Stir-fried kale and omelette. Why do you ask?”
“I just want to talk to you.”
The simplicity and the unspoken emotion in this scene is why this is probably the moment I completely fell in love with the series and knew there was no turning back.
Bad Buddy the Series
“You know what? When you’re away, I was so damn happy. I didn’t have to compete against you. I wasn’t being paranoid. I didn’t need what your GPA was. I didn’t need to know which sports you were involved in. But guess what? It was so depressingly lonely for me.”
BBS absolutely peaked on that rooftop with Pat and Pran and the rawness of their confessions to each other, and this line, despite how it’s become something of a BL meme, is one of the lines that hit hardest from it, when Pat talks about how he was happy that Pran was gone, because they weren’t competing anymore, but then twists it around like this. It’s brilliant, I love it, especially for the way Pran’s expressions change throughout.
Not Me
Like Thousand Stars, there are so many amazing lines in Not Me, because it’s a series that goes beyond genre conventions and gets into social and political discourse in such an interesting way.
“Freedom is the oxygen of the soul” is obviously a favourite, since it reappears throughout the series and ties in with narrative threads.
But then there’s also this beautiful insight from White,
“We can’t be brave without fear. But being brave with no fear is like an explosive with no target. The look from someone who’s overcome his fear surprisingly warms my heart. In that moment, I realize if he’s the bravery, I must be the fear.”
It reminded me of a line from Maggie Stiefvater’s Raven Cycle: “If you cannot be unafraid, be afraid and happy.”
Dark Blue Kiss
“I thought you only liked taking pictures of views.”
“You’re in every view I see.”
I liked DBK because it’s rare to see a series about an established couple dealing with life and miscommunication, interspersed with super cute lines like this between resident bickering couple PeteKao. And of course, this from the greatest BL dad ever:
“Even if Pete calls you a friend, I know who you really are to him. Honestly, no matter the gender of who Pete’s with, if that person makes him a better person, I’m happy.”
Until We Meet Again
“In this world, you can be afraid of anything. I will always be right beside you. But you cannot be afraid of me. Do you understand? Especially my feelings for you, don’t be afraid of them.”
A lot of great lines in UWMA, but what’s stayed with me is Win’s reassurance to Team. For me I loved WinTeam because we know there are aspects to their story we don’t get to see, and the promise of those layers of meaning are heightened in this quote.
PotatoBLChild’s Favorites
I’m going to get straight into this one mainly because I am terrible at remembering important things like good dialogues unless I’ve watched them recently.
A Tale of Thousand Stars (2021) Episode 10
“Can you forget what I asked you to forget?”
“No matter how long, I will still be waiting for you. I promise”
I think every dialogue, gesture, and expression in the airport scene—along with the music that leads to that forehead kiss—can be considered my favourite thing about 1000 Stars. Phupha conveys his love for Tian without explicitly saying he loves Tian in this scene. It’s so precious and makes me cry every time I watch it.
The Eclipse (2022) Episode 05
“Tomorrow, we’ll make the school reconsider those outdated rules.
Just a little further, guys.
Let’s make this worth all the insults from our parents.
Make it worth being unfollowed by so many friends.
Make it worth being a freak in the teachers’ opinions.
I really believe it. Tomorrow…will be better than this.”
This dialogue shared among Nong, Nian, and Nun from The Eclipse may look like it’s referring to the student protests taking place in Suppalo’s all-boys secondary school. Still, it definitely is alluding to much more than that. The series is barely halfway through, and we’re already getting some solid conversations around the LGBTQIA+ community in Thailand (thanks to P’Golf and the team). I hope they’re right. I do hope things get better—for all of us.
We will be back next week with the third edition of this feature. So till then, keep watching this space as we bring you more updates from the Asian BL World!
The BL Xpress 
THE ECLIPSE
“Why does it have to be him?”
-Akk pondering to the universe about Ayan
In what is arguably turning into the best BL series of the year, Akk articulates a thought had by every teenage boy who has had a crush on another boy.
It sometimes means why does it have to be a him (instead of a her). It sometimes means why does it have to be someone who could end up hating or even hurting me if they knew. And sometimes it means perhaps the scariest thought of all, it’s someone who may reciprocate your feelings, which in turn makes, for the first time, your truth real.
THE ECLIPSE may be just a mystery set in a boy’s prep school. Or it may be an allegory about human rights in Thailand, But it universally is a story about opening a new door in one’s life that can never again be fully closed.
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