Have you seen ep 3 of Soulmates? It has WLW! The show is an anthology each ep is separate like Black Mirror. Sadly no one is talking about it except the MLM ep.

I did! I did, and as I mentioned, I was expecting it to go with poly and it did, so not really my thing, even with Georgina Campbell in another f/f role. I did see that the mlm ep was gonna have the Pennywise actor and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett in a kind of romcom ep and I kind of wish we’d gotten that as well, heh. I do have some thoughts on how, considering the rules of this world, every other couple–whether or not they choose the person who’s their soulmate–is monogamous, just not the wlw couple, but I’m more just observing the pattern than making any judgment on it.

What I liked about bly manor is that finally for once there are a lot of straight people who recognize a wlw relationship. Not that it hasn’t happened before but my straight friends said that they actually cried at the ending, so it was refreshing to see that they were actually moved by a wlw plot line! It really doesn’t happen that often which is really sad

I get that but the bulk of our stories in mainstream have always* been sad precisely to inspire this sympathy in straight people. “Realistic” homophobia, whether it’s in coming out stories now or historical drama, has always been for straight people. Queer characters suffering, being separated, dying frequently, that’s constructed for their benefit already. So it is a little sad that it takes this approach for them to recognize us. 

And of course, if it’s sad enough even the straights are crying, there’s no hope for me, lol.

*ETA: Well, not always, of course first they were sad because it was a cautionary tale. I meant the ones where they’re sympathetically told. Although of course…therein lies the rub, even sympathetic stories can be cautionary. But that’s a whole different convo, I just wanted to address my inaccurate generalization.

I liked you gifset of the Discovery crew seeing Michael again, it was such a sweet scene seeing how happy they all looked. Even “I’m too cool for you nerds!” homicidal maniac Philippa Georgiou looked like she finally got to release a breath she had been holding in the whole time since they arrived. Also, it was cool to see Nhan in the credits, and that Detmer might actually be getting a storyline! I adore the mains, but I do find the bridge crew interesting as well.

It was! I loved it, because while I do have complaints about the show, that’s one of the things that’s really worked, that the Discovery crew really loves Michael and vice versa, and especially in this setting now, so alone and kinda scared, they just want to all be together and regroup as the family they’re going to have to be now. Georgiou’s breath she wasn’t holding was definitely a fun addition to the montage of relieved smiles and laughter. I feel like the show kind of forces emotional and inspirational moments sometimes (”there is…life” and the whole thing about Kal waiting for and counting on the Federation) and should just stick with a few each ep. In this one, the Tilly first impression line and that final scene with Michael felt so earned and good because we’d been seeing Tilly struggle and the crew missing Michael, too many kind of dilute those and just feel awkward and forced.

And yes, Nhan and Detmer, it was super fun to see so many of the characters and dynamics we don’t usually get, and I think that’s one of my main complaints. I really think they should just go ahead and make Michael the captain. That way, the screentime wouldn’t have to be divided between her often totally separate adventures on the one side and then the whole of the Discovery crew on the other. If she becomes the ship’s captain, there becomes a lot more overlap. Unless the only thing they’re gonna do with this extra screentime is kill Detmer, then I would prefer less, lol.

For the asian show anon: White Nights on Netflix (Night Lights) mainly focuses on the first female lead and then the second female lead. It’s one of the rare ones where there’s barely any m/f relationship (there’s only minimal references to the past brief relationship between the first female lead and male lead). In terms of the level of subtext, there’s quite a lot between the two women from the parallels, dialogue, and OST lyrics? It feels like TPTB def wanted to go in that direction bc they said that ‘womance’ was the focus, but probably there’s only so much that they could do considering it was on a broadcast network. Seo Yi-kyung is one of my favorite characters of all time so maybe check it out if you’re interested!

Awesome, that sounds perfect for what anon wanted. It also sounds pretty great to me, I’m putting it on my list!

Do you watch any asian shows? Do you know any with f/f relationships or at least ones that doesn’t focus on hetero rs too much?

Ummm, honestly, no, not that many. Precisely because there are so few with f/f OR no m/f, which as you specified, are two different things. I follow people into kdrama, for instance, so I can see that there are a fair number of shows which focus on platonic relationships with women (and then m/f romances for them, but that’s how it goes), I just haven’t watched them myself. From Japan, Miss Sherlock (RIP Yuko) was a great example, and was pretty subtexty. Seonam High School Investigators had them solving cases and one of them was actually f/f. 

Oh, Four More Shots Please, an Indian series on Prime, about a group of female friends and one’s a wlw. Oh, gosh, I forgot about The Rich Man’s Daughter from the Philippines, it was such a rollercoaster ride, but if you go in just kind of ready to skip the second half or skim through it, the first half was cute…well, I mean…there were also dark parts then…it’s a telenovela, lol. Oh, also from Japan, there was Transit Girls, canon f/f. 

But for the most part, webseries are probably the way to go. There was the odd Lily Fever from SKorea, Maaya 2 and The Other Love Story from India, Just Another Love Story from Nepal (though I had an issue with it but if you can get past it, as others have, you might still enjoy it). 

Recently I’ve been seeing a lot of posts on my dash about m/m ships from Thai shows, not as much f/f, but it’s an odd coincidence you asked this yesterday because just the day before, I’d been skimming through the f/f parts in a show called Friend Zone, it starts here if you’re interested. 

Honestly, I’m sure there are a million shows that could fit under what you want, I just don’t know them or can’t remember. 😮