Wrote a long ass reply, and, having no blog, I'm just gonna archive it here
for later perusal
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The phenomenon of Imaginary ships is pretty ingrained in Thai culture I
think, be it straight or gay, as evidenced in 2013 series Hormones and 2018
series Girl from Nowhere, they even do this with peers at grade school. Het
drama actors who act as love interests and received massive love from fans
also keep pairing up with each other and gets asked all the same questions BL
cps get asked about(it is common for the Thai industry to ask all celebrities
about personal questions, straight or not), they just don’t do the pocky
stick type of games with het CPs because it’s kinda taboo to make boy-girl
do those things boy-boy can do.
Is it weird and off putting to people from other cultures, and does it
generate toxic behavior from some immature audience? Most likely, but
endorsements, fanmeets, exposure on variety shows make a lot of money, and
these actors are not simply just actors, they do singing and dancing and TV
hosting and modeling, like all around entertainment, the CPs are essentially
TV personalities like a boyband /2 person comedy duo that people want to see
again and again. TV series don’t make that much money, but what follows
after the CP gets popular does.
The entertainers does have a say in whether they want to go this route too,
and popularity also is a strong factor as well. Before Taynew there was
Newearth, but that didn’t hit it off because the chemistry wasn’t there,
and Tay New were long time friends before and must’ve agreed they were good
work partners for this arrangement to keep going. You can see FirstGawin was
pretty well received in Not Me, but they weren’t real life friends and didn’
t agree to work with each other despite popular demand, but FirstKhaotung
were good friends for 5 years so it does look like there would be some real
life shipping.
As for fan meltdowns, there are always going to be a new generation of
teenage audience and immature people who gets rabid, you can’t control the
internet or other people, it is an occupational hazard when you’re a
celebrity/ idol and that’s true around the world, whether you market
yourself as involved with a co~star or single and available. Take K-pop idols
for example, every dating news becomes a scandal and receives fan backlash
because they’re no longer available for the fans’ fantasies. You can
dislike the phenomenon but each countries‘ unique social fabric generates
different type of industries, and when there’s demand, there’s supply.
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