Rakmut - Tumblr Posts
Or do you want to do something else with me?
LOVE SEA | ep 2
Love Sea Episode 3 | "Could you not leave? If I ask and you refuse, I might never dare ask anyone again."
love sea, episode 3 (of 10): Mashamut crying and asking Tongrak not to leave, basically confessing his love and Tongrak accepting
me:
#permission granted ✔️
LOVE IN THE AIR (2022), Ep. 6 // LOVE SEA (2024), Ep. 3
I know some people think this is just a lighthearted inside joke or something but with Rak's family history there's no way this continual offer of payment to get Mut to do things WONT eventually bite them both in the ass. Does Mut want payment to stay with Rak. No but, by continuing to accept the money, he's setting up a dynamic that eventually Rak will question the true and validity of Mut's feelings. Especially since his mother had a similar relationship with his father. Rak seems too serious and earnest when offering payment to be a joke on his part.
Mahasamut has never put a price on anything he's done for Rak or offered to Rak. He always says 'whatever you want to pay'. Rak is the one assigning value to the things Mut does for him, partly because that is how rich people operate (they don't value what they don't pay for) and partly because Rak does value Mahasamut and doesn't trust that he doesn't ask a price (because what is the catch?). In his experience he thinks love can be bought. It can't though: his mother could buy his father's presence for a time, but not his love. So when Mut at the end makes it clear that he's fine with any contract Rak needs to accept Mut's value but Rak can't actually buy his love, can't control how Mut feels, WHEW.
It might be just me, but I'm having a good time over here so far.
y'all are losing your minds over the first 20 min and here i am losing it because of the sound mut made while putting the helmet on him
It has come to my attention that a lot of folks apparently did not realize what sex act we were watching at the end of this week’s Love Sea (Mut was fucking Rak’s face, y’all). I want to talk about it a little because aside from reaching a new frontier in m/m sex acts depicted in bl, it was actually a really important character moment.
This episode was a lot about Mut wrestling with the power dynamic between him and Rak. It’s been present the entire time, of course, with their class disparity setting the foundation. When they first met Mut met Rak’s antagonism by leaning into a local hick act, playing like he was someone Rak could easily dismiss and mistreat. And after they started sleeping with each other we’ve seen him consistently ignore Rak’s more abrasive comments about his (lack of) wealth and social status and his own perceived power over Mut. He has seemed determined to see past Rak’s defenses to get to who he really is, and so he’s not letting himself be distracted by Rak’s awful comments. He has been pretending not to care when Rak says degrading things to him.
But pretending is the key word there. Mut is a human being, not some kind of unbelievably tolerant robot who is solely here to put up with Rak’s abuse. Just because he is not reacting in the moment doesn’t mean he’s not hearing or feeling those things. We have seen his vulnerability and insecurity show themselves in a few moments, and that came back to the forefront this episode with Khom’s arrival.
Because Khom is his friend, and he took one look at this situation and expressed real concern for Mut and how he is allowing himself to be treated in this relationship. Khom held up a mirror to Mut about the way money and power is defining his dynamic with Rak and everything he’d been suppressing came to the surface. He is insecure about the class disparity between them and he is uncertain about whether he has the status to be taken seriously by Rak.
And to his credit, Rak responded to that vulnerability by finally relenting and letting Mut in a little more. Not only confiding in him about his family traumas, but trusting him with someone he holds absolutely dear. Letting Mut care for Meena is one of the biggest signals Rak can send about his true feelings and how much he is coming to trust Mut.
Which is where that final sex act comes in. Their relationship has always been rooted in their sexual attraction, so this shift in their dynamic needed to be recognized there, too. Rak chose to show how he feels about Mut, the trust he is developing for him, and the way he is starting to cede power to put them on more equal footing by engaging in a sex act that puts Mut firmly in control and in a dominant position over Rak. It’s not the kind of thing someone like Rak is going to allow with someone he doesn’t trust or respect, and it’s a clear gift to Mut to reassure him that he doesn’t actually think of him as just a toy he bought. It was a really meaningful scene.
❝Dad's going to kill Mahasamut! You hear me?! Dad's gonna kill him! Just like he killed Uncle Doctor! What am I gonna do if something happens to him?❞
PEAT WASUTHORN as TONGRAK TAKSAKORNKARN and FORT THITIPONG as MAHASAMUT episode 8 of LOVE SEA
Fiction.
"We are not fiction,
Fairytales don't exist"
We are not fiction,
We don't get a
Happily ever after,
Just because we
Want it.
I can't
Be loved unconditionally
Just because i want to be,
For we both know
That that type of love doesn't exist.
Likewise,
You can not
Wish to love me
For we both know
That we are not meant to be.
...
We are not fiction,
There are no rules
Of what can and
Cant be.
There is no
Rule saying that
You can't be
Loved unconditionally.
And that I cannot love you,
Just because you don't
Believe that you are deserving of so.
"We are not fiction,
Life doesn't follow a script"
Love Sea the Series: Trailer (Tongrak's Love Story with the Island and it's 'Ocean')
You know me, I'm back with another analysis. This time in response to the Love Sea trailer. As I was writing this, it led me to frame our two central characters' differing outlooks as follows. Let me explain.
Tongrak 'We're not a work of fiction, fairytales don't exist' Mahasamut 'We're not a work of fiction, life doesn't follow a script'
STRONGER THAN FICTION
"Didn't I tell you, I don't believe in love. I don't believe. It's not even real to me. Between us, there's nothing more than sex." What seems to fundamentally scare Tongrak is the very idea of love itself. A belief that prevents him from accepting that anyone could love him, or that he has the capacity to love anyone in return. Because love is a construct. A fantasy. A work of fiction. Love to Tongrak is just a fairytale, it's not rooted in reality. The passages of love in his novels could never truly imitate life.
So understandably he begins to feel shaken when his relationship with Mahasamut challenges everything he thought to be true. That what he's experiencing is in fact inspiring his writing. Because it surpasses fiction.
"Everything is up to you to decide. You can pay me as much as you want. But what you can't decide on paper, is that you can't make me stop loving you. You have no right to do that." Mut seems to insinuate that as an author, Tongrak is used to controlling the narrative. This is where he feels most safe, until Mut came along and threw that into jeopardy. Here, Mut seems to declare that he isn't just some character in Tongrak's story. Nor are his feelings. He has agency. Their feelings for one another aren't just lines on paper. Real life does not operate in this way, it veers off script. That's the beauty of living. Mut's life is one dictated by the elements. One that teaches you to be resilient, to take what life throws at you by embracing the curveballs. And love is no different.
A TRANSACTIONAL AGREEMENT
Tongrak offers to pay Mut initially as a means to get him off his back. "How much do I have to pay you, to stop you bugging me?" This is then used increasingly as 'a convenient excuse' that escalates as the plot ensues. I predict that Tongrak continues the guise of paying Mut as a pretence to spend time with him.
By doing so, Tongrak is creating a false of security that is twofold. One, that he's able to keep Mut by his side as long as he pays him. Two, convincing himself that Mut's motivations are driven by financial benefit. Framing this as a transactional relationship means Tongrak doesn't have to face what is developing beneath the surface. This also instils an illusion that he can procure the outcome he wants, which is to keep Mut by his side.
As Tongrak's feelings grow, this becomes an even flimsier front. "How much do I have to pay, if I want to take you to Bangkok with me?" You can hear how desperate he sounds. Whether it's a matter of pride or otherwise, Tongrak seems inclined to attach his request to an incentive. He may be too afraid to confront the possibility that Mut could willingly leave his life behind for him - because that would be out of love and not monetary gain. So Tongrak gives Mut a reason to do so. A reason he deems fit. One he can live with. I think Mut can see through this too, and plays into the whole charade, but ultimately all Tongrak would have to do is ask. "I'm willing to be your dog." (Just say the word).
"If someone who is not highly educated like me understands, between the two of us, there is nothing more than an agreement, right?" Even if Mut is very emotionally mature, and plays along to make things easier for Tongrak to swallow - Tongrak is still trying to deny feelings they share which have long gone past just an 'agreement'. (You do feel something for me though, right? This is just smoke and mirrors but you do care about me, right?)
THE FEAR OF DEPENDENCE
In the latter segments, Tongrak displays evident dependence on Mut. It's as if Mut's aid in his survival on the island has now imprinted on his life as a whole. Tongrak gradually embraces the guide that Mut is, to lead him on an adventure with no particular destination. There's every possibility that this is what Tongrak was afraid of. Of relinquishing control. Perhaps hesitant to do so in the hands of someone younger, more boisterous and seemingly carefree. Someone he wrote off as a "dumb kid" with little substance.
The diving scene could very well be a metaphor for this. Tongrak agrees to do something that requires trust in Mut's expertise, by putting his own safety in Mut's hands. And when he does run into trouble, Mut is there to literally bring him back to life. He begins to recognise that Mut is a man of responsibility, someone he can rely on.
There have been hints that Mahasamut is also going through his own battle with loneliness or isolation. Fort says "and now Tongrak is by your side, you are not alone." MAME also comments that "Mut is the guy who is as strong as a castle. The wind and waves can't hurt him. But Fort proved that a strong man can cry." I think that as Tongrak starts to realise how much comfort and reassurance Mut provides him, he'll want to return the favour. How can he be that same emotional support for Mut to lean on?
What we're about to see is not just Tongrak's love story with Mahasamut, or 'an island', but a whole other life he may have never lived, had they never met. Mut's interception into his life is rewriting the narrative he had consciously or unconsciously dictated for himself.
Note: As with any of my metas, I am basing my interpretations on what I have seen alone. I haven't heard any spoilers from the novel.
LOVE SEA | EP 3