There isn’t a reason why it took me so long in my BL journey to watch SOTUS. I think it’s probably because there are a lot of newer shows that people are talking about. However, SOTUS is pretty foundational for the genre. It’s a dated (the hair! the tropes! the hazing!), and I definitely found the pacing to be a challenge (it is slow-slo-mo-slow, I watched it on x2 speed), but the underlying chemistry between Krist and Singto, and the narrative about how their relationship grows and changes over the two seasons is really great storytelling.

The biggest downsides of both seasons, I wasn’t particularly invested in any of the other characters. They didn’t really have a memorable impact on me, and the pacing of S1 is just very very slow. It is the definition of a “slow-burn romance”.

In S2, I enjoyed the secondary characters a bit more than S1. Especially seeing adults (legit 40+) members in the workspace and how they interacted. Earth (“Proud”Oranicha Krinchai) was my favourite -[spoiler] she was true to herself and how she handled the situation with Todd ( “Kun” Kunchanuj Kengkarnka) was excellent. [/spoiler] Even if you didn’t like the rest of the workforce - as some of them should have been fired - it was still an entertaining enough subplot.

Now what I didn’t care about in S2 was the two unnecessary (or rather underexplored) side couples. What was the point? They didn’t have any proper narrative - both couples were at a point of conflict, and then suddenly not, without much explanation or exposition. In the end, I ended up skipping through most of their parts because I found them to be boring.

The best parts of SOTUS S were the special scenes - [spoiler] and anytime Arthit would indulge Kongphob and flirt back would send me into a fit of the giggles. [/spoiler] And I know that the fans usually prefer/defend Kongphob, and were understandably upset at Arthit’s treatment of him at various stages of S1/S2. Honestly though, Arthit has my whole heart and his journey of self-acceptance, his forms of communication and affection really resonated with me.

Kongphob has always been self assured and assertive; that’s a significant part of his charm in S1. Arthit’s love isn’t expressed as easily, he’s much more reserved and conservative. He doesn’t want to be affectionate in public, and doesn’t speak his mind easily (much to our and Kongphob’s frustration). This does change over the course of the show and by the time they are in the My Skyy episode I bawled my eyes out at the growth of their communication and relationship. That single episode alone had some of the best acting from the entire series. [spoiler] When Arthit was crying at the departure of Kong to study abroad, being concerned that their relationship would fade and they would break up - I felt that. It was an excellent performance from Krist, and probably one of my favourite scenes.[/spoiler]

SOTUS was integral to the growth of the BL genre, and I really did enjoy seeing the roots of the industry take form through this show.