BL Tropes & Storylines
We start off the episode Duen being teased by his friends who have found out that Duen brings him a rose via a picture posted on social media. He of course, claims he’s just teasing Duen, he doesn’t like him.
Of course when Duen picks up the phone, what does he do? When Duen says go, he runs to him. The boy is already whipped for Duen, but just wont admit it. Duen brings him to a newly opened flower shop so that he can pick out which flower he likes. Of course while Bohn is trying to tell him to stop bringing him flowers, he keeps seeing this every time he looks at Duen. 😁 He’s fallen so hard, he can’t even see straight anymore (sorry, couldn’t resist)
He can’t look at Duen when he tries to tell Duen to stop bringing him flowers at the engineering grounds, he changes his mind and asks him to bring it to the back of the building because he doesn’t want to stop seeing Duen.
The next day, Bohn tells his friends that he stopped Duen from bringing him flowers. They are headed to class, he tells them he’s going to the toilet so he can meet Duen behind the building.
Duen is on to him though. He brings the flower to him and teases him about the location change. If Bohn is embarrassed maybe he won’t make Duen buy flowers for him anymore. Bohn places the rose in his bag claiming that it is protected from the wind there. Sure. 🙄 We believe you. Bohn sees his friend outside and tries to hide which leads to another overly cliche trope. The Kabudon or Wall Pin of Love.
Bohn goes to class. Mek tells him that he’s glad that Bohn is no longer involved with Duen because someone said they saw Duen and Frong talking, Of course this makes Bohn jealous, but he doesn’t want to admit it.
Meanwhile Duen goes to the library to study with his friends. They also have seen the picture, and they pry for information. Ram gets mad and wants to go storm off to save his friend. But Duen reminds him that he’s made a promise so he has to keep it. As much as Duen grumbles about this I think he enjoys meeting Bohn each day.
After class, the engineering group splits up. Mek and Boss were supposed to have lunch together but Boss ditches him for a girl he met at the birthday party. Mek is silently disappointed, and decides to follow to watch over his “friend” to make sure he’s not being played by some girl.
Back to Duen, who is once again off to pick up his little sister. Of course his little sister is still playing with the overly friendly little boy Ben and they are playing family, so he tries to kiss her goodbye but Duen gets in between them scolding him for getting too close. Ask who is responsible for Ben. Ben says his bro is picking him up, and guess who that turns out to be? Bohn of course, lol.
Bohn is clearly disappointed and upset that Duen said they weren’t boyfriends or even friends. He’s lost in thought, wishing that he was closer to Duen.
Back to Boss and another Bitchy Manipulative Girl. She texted a picture of Boss to make her boyfriend jealous. Then the boyfriend swoops in and is about to attack boss when Mek shows up and punches the guy, thus saving his Damsel in Distress. These tropes just keep coming, lol. Of course after Boss and Mek have gotten far enough away, Boss notices Mek’s hand is bleeding, thus leading once again to the Let Me Tend Your Wound trope. And Mek stands there like a big dope with hearts in his eyes.
Meanwhile Duen is shopping with his little sister who want to stop for ice cream before heading home. All the tables are full, but Frong sees them and invites them to sit at his table. They chat and Duen’s sister asked if they were friends. Duen says no, but that this guy helped him out the other day. Of course sis wants to know his name, and Duen didn’t hear it so he tells his sis that the man’s name is Mr. Smiley.
Frong is still flirting with Duen and secretly takes a pic and posts to social media. Honestly I find this behavior a bit creepy. I know that I would be creeped out if someone did that.
Back to another couple in the making. King, Bohn’s friend and fellow engineer, was at the library and spotted Ram. He is intrigued how cute and stoic he is. When King leaves the library, the following cute scene unfolds.
Of course who should get a text while driving his little brother home, but Bohn. This next section really made me mad. How dare they show this guy checking his phone while driving his brother around in the car. They could have had his brother read the message to him, or something, but it’s so irresponsible and dangerous. 😡
Bohn decides to swing by the mall because he’s jealous. He picks up Duen and sister who is hungry, so Bohn takes them to his condo to eat before they head home.
We switch back to Mek’s condo where we find out that he’s definitely a Stalker With Crush. He keeps pictures and souvenirs as mementos of time spent together. Not going to lie. This does not endear me to him. He adds the bandaid to his collection of creepy items. He even has framed pictures of Boss around his condo.
This leads to the whole, Lover with Apron trope, where Bohn gets close to Duen to tie the apron on. This happens in so many shows, anytime there is cooking, they do this scene.
They have to spend the night because his condo floods, which leads to Duen showering and Bohn deciding to post the pic of Duen, claiming that he won’t share his chef with anyone and creating a couples hashtag for them. 🙄 All before he’s even confessed. Not cute Bohn. Not cute.
We go to Ram’s house and see him giving attention and treats to his dogs and smiling while he remembers King jumping onto the table like a cat. This leads to him being teased by his younger brother, who knows the cause of smile has to be someone did something interesting and it had to be about a dog since dogs are the only things that make him smile. He calls his brother nosy, but his brother is right.
Episode 4
We begin with Bohn watching Duen sleep. He’s smiling at Duen’s cuteness. He really does like him. He’s admitted it to himself and confessed his feelings. Duen wakes up and gets annoyed for Bohn being so close to him.
After his confession last night, Duen blew it off as Bohn’s teasing him and they went to sleep. Bohn assures Duen that he’s serious. And of course Duen tells him the standard, But We Are Both Guys trope. Bohn says he can go after whoever he likes and tells Duen that he likes him. Duen rejects him leading Bohn to think that he’s disliked. He asks Duen if he is hated, but Duen replies it is too fast. So Bohn takes heart and tells Duen he will let Duen get to know him, and win his heart. His sincerity is a fresh change of pace and it’s sweet to see actually.
Duen gets nervous, grabs his sister and scoots on home.
I have to say that Bohn handles his friends asking questions very well. I am impressed with how he handles this. Duen makes him happy and he wants to make Duen happy. He doesn’t say, I don’t like guys, I only like Duen here. Unfortunately he does say this later, but maybe his way of trying to get out of an awkward situation?
Meanwhile Duen’s friends are worried that Bohn’s teasing has gone too far. Of course they are overprotective of him. Duen admits to them that Bohn has confessed to him. When asked what his reply is Duen reassures them that he rejected the confession. He tells his friends that he hopes Bohn will give up and things will go back to normal soon.
Of course this is when the mysterious gift box appears brought to him by a cafe worker. He rejects the box. We will see this box all throughout the episode.
Back to the engineers. We see Tee and King sitting and talking at a cafe. Some first year students join and then Tee introduces himself as a volunteer camp leader and King as his assistant. This is news to King, who was on the verge of bailing until he sees Ram join the group. He decides to stay so he can find out more about Ram. After the meeting is over he finds out Rams name and that Tee is his peer mentor.
We see King go home and ask about his name. Since his name is King, what does it mean? He’s still thinking about Ram’s unusual name. His mom said his name was a combination of his sisters names. And then he babies his plants. He talks to them, treats them like they are his babies. In his room he looks up the meaning for Ram’s name and it means beautiful. He thinks it doesn’t suit him, but it really does.
The next morning Duen brings a rose for Bohn and that makes him smile, but his smile quickly disappears because Duen is returning the box to him, unopened. Duen tells him that he doesn’t want to know what’s inside and leaves. Bohn of course, takes this as a personal challenge to get him to open the box.
This next scene with Bohn in the cafe is annoying. In the bathroom he gets ambushed by this guy named Mild who apparently had pursued Bohn before and been rejected. He asks about the medical student, saying if you are ok with guys, you know how I feel. This leads Bohn to the most annoying trope…..I’m Only Gay for Him.
This scene is rife with tropes. I mean really. We have Predatory Gay who’s determined to manhandle and force affections on Bohn. This is annoying to me. Then we have Bohn, who apparently can beat up like 7 guys in the bathroom earlier, but can’t get out of this little guy’s embrace? Really? Then we have the It’s Not What You Think trope where the main character is accidentally seen in a strange position which makes him look bad in front of his crush. Duen walks in, sees them embracing and runs off as Bohn is shouting “It’s not what you think.” 🙄
Back to Mek’s apartment when he gets a phone call from Tee asking to borrow his notes. Tee is at his door causing Mek to run around and try to hide all the creepy stuff and framed pictures. Tee comes in, uses the bathroom and gets wet by leaky faucet. He opens a cabinet to look for a shirt and sees Mek’s creepy collection. I’m sorry I’m calling it that, but it just is so creepy and not cute. Tee already knew from observing them how Mek feels about Boss. Tee and he have an honest conversation about how Mek will always be hurt if he never says anything. And isn’t it better to know how Boss feels?
Back with Bohn’s friends in class. They are lamenting the fact that Bohn is still a playboy and not serious about Duen. Bohn texts Duen to tell him that the reason he’s upset is because he’s jealous. They get into a text squabble until Duen finally says yes, I’m jealous, to which Bohn screen shots and posts to social media. I really don’t like the manipulative moves of Bohn right here.
Duen sees this and calls in the middle of class to tell Bohn to take down the post. Duen gets caught by the teacher and his phone confiscated. He is extremely frustrated. Then he gets out of class to find all the jealous girls have let the air out of his tires. Bohn makes the mistake of showing up at that moment with the box once again.
Duen lashes out at him, taking the box and throwing it. He also tells Bohn that he’s made his life miserable and difficult since they’ve met and for Bohn to just leave him alone. Bohn stands there looking crestfallen as his heart gets stomped on. I feel bad for him in this moment.
Later that night Duen is regretful. Knowing that he hurt Bohn with his short temper, but not wanting to apologize. The next morning he shows up with a rose, to no one there. Everywhere he goes, there are no more surprise boxes. His plan worked and he’s no longer being bothered by Bohn anymore, but why does he feel so glum?
We then see Duen take a donation box to Ram and they have a quick conversation that is observed by King.
The next evening they are working on painting signs and making things for some sort of festival, and Bohn is extremely mopey. Boss is mega flirty, Mek is silently looking at Boss with heart eyes, and King keeps peeking at Ram. You know, the usual. lol. Boss tries to cheer him up, but his heart is broken.
Duen decides to go back to find the box. Guilt is getting to him. He knows he was unfair. He runs into Thara who was picking up garbage, and had found the box.
Back with the engineers again. Tee posts a social media message that they are all hungry. Mek tries to be sweet to Boss, who feels uncomfortable with it, and then Mek tells Tee, he finally know which hurts more. Basically confirming he will go back to hiding his feelings or giving up.
Back at Duen’s place, he sees the social media post and it reminds him to open the box. Inside is his clean handkerchief he used that day to blot Bohn’s bloody nose. With a note inside that says…..
Back to King who secretly found out Ram’s line ID and starts to text him, telling him that if he doesn’t talk to him at least he could text him as they get to know each other. Gives him the nickname Mr Cold Face and continues to text him, but Ram puts his phone in his pocket and doesn’t respond.
Ram meets his brother who brought him food. It’s such a cute scene, and I love the little brother here. He’s so adorable.
Duen brings Bohn food, opening himself up to the possibility of a relationship. This scene makes me smile.
And there you have it peeps. Episode 1 through 4 of My Engineer from a BL tropes and storyline prospective. Please let me know what you think, and also head over to see and listen to Jordie Seay’s Youtube Channel and Thoughts on Y Podcast by J. & Lay
I didn’t think Maek’s photos were that creepy, they’ve been best friends for years. In 2Moons2 Wayo had a shrine dedicated to Pha, and they hadn’t even exchanged a word, now THAT was creepy.
As for Mek, I think in my mind, it wasn’t the pictures, it was the souvenirs, aka the used bandaid gave me an ick feeling. As for Wayo and Pha they were both eyeballing each other and he had a bracelet to give to him in high school so the pictures didn’t bother me too much. I guess I had a stalker in college, so I have issues with that type of behavior. But I’m willing to overlook this to see how his story progresses. Maybe in the next episodes I will see more of him and Boss’ relationship develop. Again, so glad you found my blog 🤗💕💕
Lol, loved the nerdy mafioso. Too bad his reputation was a scam. I mean, how can you allow yourself be taken out like that and in the bathroom too?
I also think Mek’s shrine was creepy. Could have been the way it came out in the scene or his reaction to being found out.
Wayo had a shrine too. But, his confidence about it, and the way he explained his shrine made me say, ‘okay, go ahead and enjoy your quirk’.
Question, ‘Falling for the best friend’ , is a trope for bl’s too yeah? That seem to be Mek’s plot.
Ooooh, I like it. You’ve spotted another trope!!! Way to go! I agree. It is a pretty standard bl trope. As for the shrine, if it was just pictures, i think I would have been ok with just pictures, but keeping a used bandaid really creeped me out. As for Wayo, i agree. I also hope you check out the thoughts on Y podcast and Jordie’s youtube channel for other prospective. We are having fun doing this series together. Hugs 💕💕🤗⚙️🌹
Mek kept the unused bandaid. Boss put one on and gave him another one for the next day cause Boss knew Mek didn’t have any. So he kept an unused bandaid. Don’t know if that helps with the creep factor but it does for me.
Ok, thats better. It does make it less creepy. I’m gonna give him the benefit of the doubt, and set aside this and hope that he opens up to Boss, who is super adorable, showing him how much he cares for him.
I got it and bookmarked it. I will do so Friday (tomorrow) after work. This is starting to sound so much fun. Thank you guyz.
Question, you started by covering the tropes, after that will you guyz divide the couples and discuss them separately among other things?
We have 3 categories. BL Tropes and Storyline, Characters and Actors, Behind the Scene/cinematography/fan interactions. This week we are covering episode 5-7, so I will be looking at the characters and their growth/interactions in these episodes as well as content from the actor’s themselves, like IG stories, interviews, etc. Then the following week I’ll be doing behind the scenes. This way we all get to do different topics each week and it’s delivered in a different way. I just thought it would be a cool collab to have different media platforms all working together on one show. And honestly I love Jordie’s youtube channel, we’ve been friends for a while, and Jessica and Laylay’s podcast called Thoughts on Y is great too. So i suggested it as a way to do something creative with the content we all love. Hope you like it!