Shipping, slashing, tropes, bottoms and AU.
These are just a couple of examples for the own language that us BL fans have cultivated over the years. To people not into our kind of things it might sound like crazy talk, but in reality it's just our own way of talking.
So I thought that maybe it's time for a glossary about different BL terms that we use on here almost everyday. Just to make it this one tiny bit easier for any newbie who is just falling down the rabbit hole that is BL.
This is going to be a project in progress. So if you can think of some other words I forgot and that should be added, please leave it in the comments. :blush: :blush: :blush:
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BL - Boys' Love
Boys' Love is a term that describes movies, TV shows, books, mangas, animes or fanfiction that all circle around the best topic in the world: snogging boys. :grin: :grin: :grin: The main focus of all these things is always on two males who might fall in love with each other or have been in love with each other or are falling out of love with each other. As long as there are two boys and there is some love, it's Boys' Love.
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BLDA - Boys Love Drama Amino
I know this is such a basic thing but maybe someone is as idiotic as myself and doesn't get what the D stands for. It took me ages to get that. Lol
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BLIS - Boys Love Investigation Squad
This is a club on this Amino and it's like an info point for everyone where you can ask questions about BL in every colour or shape. We will always try to give you the best answer possible.
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Bromance
This is almost a swear word on our Amino. But just almost. Bromance describes again a story where two men are getting very close. But instead of a proper relationship with love, things are staying on a platonic level. Bromances are often used to work around the Chinese ban of BL. Oftentimes the original material of a Bromance is absolutely BL but due to fear of being rejected by the audience it often gets boiled down to Bromance in stead.
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BL Baiting
This is a huge crime and whoever commits it needs to be severely punished. BL baiting means that a show or a book is advertising with BL but in the end it's just a bromance or maybe not even that. BL fans are a loyal bunch and we will watch everything. So some producers think it's a bright idea to just let us believe we are going to watch a BL show. But in the end it just isn't. This might look clever to begin with from the producers side, but let me tell you, we are all not looking kindly on BL baiting.
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Ship or shipping
Shipping is a big thing in the BL universe. So big that we are actually having our own ShipClub on this Amino. Shipping means mainly that you really love a couple together. The couple can be together already (then your ship has sailed) or they can not be together whatsoever (then the ship is still in the harbour). You can also have a ship that will never be together, like two characters from two different shows (that's called a ghost ship then). And if you are very unlucky your ship can sink as well, when your couple splits for good (yes, I am looking at you, MewArt. 🧐).
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Sailors
Members of the ShipClub on this Amino and fellow shippers in general. You don't have to be in the ShipClub to be a sailor. But you have to be a sailor to be in the ShipClub. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
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Autori
This one is again a special one for Amino. Because we have a wonderful writing club on here and their name is Autori. So whenever you see the Autori tag you can find some amazing stories on here.
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Viewing Parties
VPs are a nice community event. It's where we watch a show together with other fans from all over the world. We normally do that in our chatrooms. There are two kinds of viewing parties. There are written ones (you just chat, while everyone watches the same thing) or there are voice parties. These ones are similar, but you are actually talking to people. These ones have the tendency to get a bit more chaotic, but they are so much fun. :grin: :grin: :grin:
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Reputation
If you want to move onto higher levels on this Amino, you need more reputation. You can get reputation in different ways. You can either just be online a lot (that's how I got my 15. I practically live here :grin: ) or you can write blogs that get featured. Just writing blogs and getting likes in itself is not doing much. Your blog needs to be featured for you to get extra reputation. So it makes sense to put that extra bit of effort into your blog.
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Chatiquette
A number of rules you should follow when you are in our chatrooms. They are mainly normal common sense like "no bullying" or "no excessive swearing". But make sure you check out the welcome messages in every room you are into as it will state everything that's important for you.
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OTP - One True Pairing
Let's be honest, most of us don't have a really OPT, as it's suppose to be the one and only true couple in your heart. But since we BL fans are all greedy, most of us have more like one OTP per show. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: :grin: :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
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Uke - Bottom
This one is quick to explain. It refers to the preferred position during sex. Some people think that due to some character traits some people are more likely to be bottoms, but I would disagree. It's really just a thing of sexual preference.
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Seme - Top
It's the same as a Uke, but the other way around. If you get my gist. :sunglasses: :sunglasses: :sunglasses:
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ff - fanfiction
These are stories fans of shows are writing about their favourite couples. Fanfics might play in the canon universe of the original show, or might be set in a total different universe as well. The main thing is that the character traits of the original character are getting transported into whatever scenario you choose.
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AU - Another Universe
This is a term used in fanfics. This means that the author is taking the original character out of the normal universe they are in and put them in whatever scenario you could possibly think of. You can make Sotus into a vampire drama, LBC into a crime story or Trapped into a fluffy wonderland. Your imagination is the only limit.
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Slashing
This is an old school term from the beginning of fanfics. I think it's mainly used in Europe and America, but I think it's important to know your history. When fanfics started one of the first major pairings were Captain Kirk and Spock from Star Trek. To show who was going to be in the story they are writing the authors would write in the discribtion Kirk/Spock. This tiny slash in-between the names is were the word slashing comes from. It means putting two characters together that might not have been together in the original story. And again slashing as no limits. As long as the characters are male, you can slash whoever you want to.
And on a little side note: the top of the couple is normally the first one to mention. "Pete/Kao" means tells us now not only the couple, but also who is top and who is bottom in the ship.
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Canon
This means in fanfic speak that the story is set in the normal universe for the main characters. Like LBC would be a university setting. And everything that happened in the show already happened in that story as well.
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Multiverse or multifandom
Oh, I am a sucker for multifandom stories. They are stories where more then one couple from one show are included. You can have Arthit and Kong from Sotus, Phun and Noh from Love Sick and Korn and Knock from TWM and you throw them all into a colourful mix and voila, you get an amazing story out of it.
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Trope
This is just a fancy word for theme really. Like Sotus has a hate to love trope. LBC has a falling in love at first sight trope. And so one and to forth.
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Fanvids
These are videoedits made by fans. They are normally like a music video, containing a song and the matching visuals from the show or some BTS bits thrown in together. Some fans are really amazing artists in this field and believe me, when I say, it's so much harder then it looks like.
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Fanedits
These are pictures that fans are just making this tiny bit more pretty. The imagination is again your only limitation. You can have quotes on there, you could go for a colour scheme. Whatever feels and looks good.
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Shonen Ai
Anime, Manga or fanfics with boys' love content. It is normally not very smutty and could be seen as PG 13.
As it's used in Japan also for pedophilia it's not much used anymore.
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Yaoi
It's almost the same as Shonen Ai. But the difference is that we get smutty scenes with Yaoi. So Yaoi is absolutely NOT PG. That's why I like it so much I guess. :innocent: :innocent: :innocent:
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Fujoshi
This is a girl who loves to watch Yaoi or Shonen Ai. It means literally "rotten girl". Today I would say it is not just used for Yaoi fans but it's an inclusive term for girls who love BL in general.
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Fundanshi
It's the same as a Fujoshi but a guy. :grin: :grin: :grin:
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Fag Hag
You are a girl who has tons of gay friends and you are always attracting friends from the queer spectrum even though you are mainly straight? Then you are a fag hag. A couple of years ago this word changed a bit and it now also includes women who love watching BL. It's more a western expression.
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Portmanteau
It's the mixture of two words to morph it into one. This is normally done with the names our a couple. McDean is for example McQueen and Dean. Or Peraya is Perawat and Prachaya.
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Peraya
This is the name of the ship that is Krist and Singto from Sotus. If a couple gets extra popular us fans actually give them their own name. It's normally a combination of their own names. In this case it's Perawat and Prachaya.
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TwoWish
And again a couple name. This is the ship name for Mean and Plann from LBC. Since both their surnames end on something that sounds like wish in English, the fans just used that. Very clever I have to say.
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PinSon
This is the ship name for Perth and Saint from LBC. I have no clue why they are called that. But since Reminders I am sure no one even cares anymore. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:
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Yuyu
Yuyu is not a person, like I wrongly thought on the beginning. Lol. Yuyu are the fans of Krist. I have no clue how that name came about but if someone knows leave a comment down below and I shall update it. :see_no_evil:
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Polca
Polca are the fans of Tay/New from Kiss me again. Again the origin of this is a bit hazy for me. But I think it's down to the fact that Tay likes orcas a lot and Tay is often seen as a polar bear. 🤔
