But in a gay relationship where both partners are equal, the gendering of roles is meaningless and the promulgation of unfair power imbalances that plagued (and still plague) heterosexual relationships should have no place there either. For Pat and Pran, the issue is resolved good-naturedly enough when Pat apologises for calling Pran his wife, confessing that he only did it because he thought it reflected their growing closeness. But not before Pran gets the opportunity to educate him (and the audience), with a little illustrative role-switching, how implied power dynamics can also be read into the terms used, and why it's a stereotype best discarded.
Like Pran, Bad Buddy doesn't always give up its secrets easily. And like Pat - we just have to let it reveal its subtler truths by getting to know it better, on its own terms, as one little BL revolutionising a whole genre. Perhaps the most revolutionary of Bad Buddy's iconoclastic re-workings of the genre is this: set in a world without homophobia, Bad Buddy allows us to see that Pat and Pran's struggles to make their relationship work are really not much different from any other couple's, with similar pressures (parental disapproval, or the strain of long-distance relationships made necessary for career development), aspirations, highs and lows.
