I Just Don't Think I Can Handle Seeing Anne And Gilbert Interact. I Will Literally Die But Like Ok I

Been burnt too many times (has their favorite shows cancelled by netflix)

Watching the second season of XO kitty left me confused about what they did with Yuri’s character, a lot of it felt out of character to me, what do you think?

From my interpretation, Yuri’s character has always been super devoted and invested in her relationship with Juliana, a lot of her motivation and behaviour in the first season is working towards being with Juliana (e.g. fake dating Dae, trying to comply with her mom so she can go to Iceland, etc). During this time she also sheds the “mean popular rich girl” image as she slowly becomes friends with Kitty and helps her learn about her mom, and also with Dae as she helps him navigate his relationship with Kitty.

This character development of wanting to be a good friend and show up is continued in the beginning of season 2, with Yuri telling Kitty she wants them to be there for each other, and even making that speech about how she found her own family at school the past semester. She’s still very invested with Juliana and clearly happy with her. To me, the only friction in their relationship is navigating the change of Yuri having a really close new friend (Kitty) that Juliana is a bit suspicious of, but Yuri consistently reassures Juliana, and Juliana takes the time to acknowledge her insecurities and also trust Yuri.

And then Yuri just cheats on her?? And kisses Kitty “on a whim”? This is where I felt like she was behaving out of character? She then goes into a spiral trying to get Juliana back, completely ditching her friendships and expecting her Juliana to take her back after she cheated. I understand the heartbreak and desperation to fix things but her cheating in the first place and then ditching her friendship with Kitty feels out of character to me, when her whole development in season 1 was wanting to be with Juliana and becoming a good friend to Kitty and Dae.

I’m mainly wondering if Yuri has/had feelings for Kitty ever. To me, Yuri’s feelings have always been the hardest to read out of all the characters. When other characters start having feelings, it’s pretty explicitly shown (e.g. Kitty starts falling for Yuri watching her DJ, has that dream, starts getting nervous when Yuri is close when returning the necklace, fixing her hair, rehearsing the fan dance. Even Minho showed signs of starting to like Kitty, like that moment when they were cooking together at chuseok, also having a dream, longing glances, etc.).

In your interpretation, do you think Yuri ever started showing signs of liking Kitty early on? Personally I interpreted most of their interactions in season 1 as her becoming sus that Kitty might like her (e.g. assuring Kitty in the tent that she’s not making a move on her, asking her what she was doing when Kitty was getting close to her at fan dance rehearsal, again asking her what happened at rehearsal before they went on stage). It wasn’t until season 2 that she started showing some signs that she might be into Kitty, like when she awkwardly reacted to Kitty sharing she had a date with Praveena, that moment outside the VHS shop before she calls the cab, and of course right before and leading up to their kiss. Even then, it felt hard to read and out of character because they never show her falling out of love with Juliana, so it was confusing to me that they started putting those little moments in while she was still with Juliana.

Only towards the end of season 2 I felt like Yuri was returning back to the person she developed into in season 1, telling Juliana she would leave her alone and reflect on her mistakes, helping Dae with his outfit, talking to Kitty’s cousin for her. I also felt like we lacked a discussion or confrontation about Kitty’s feelings towards Yuri. They never really discuss the letter, and the kiss is called a “mistake” and they never discuss why it happened.

Would love to hear your take on this :)

TLDR: Yuri this season felt out of character to me, did she ever have feelings for Kitty, why was the kiss never explained, what do you think?

P.S. really enjoyed reading all of your posts so far about the new season, thank you for sharing, I appreciate it, and I am still on this ship with you 🫡

thank you for your kind words and thoughtful ask!!

to be honest, I don’t think Yuri cheating was ooc. I love her so much and will always support a lesbian’s wrongs, but I’d say she was 100% emotionally cheating even as early as Season 1. Her feelings may not be as obvious as Kitty, who openly states them, but they are absolutely there. Here’s what I remember from Season 1 off the top of my head:

Episode 8: Before coming out to Kitty, Yuri tells her, “you’re so likable and sincere… it’s annoying.” I see this as a parallel to Kitty saying in Episode 6: “I can say with confidence that her nose is annoyingly perfect.” Both girls have, without realizing, started to feel affection for the other, but chalk it up to their feelings of animosity. (Cue “Loathing” from Wicked…)

Episode 9: Juliana, who knows Yuri and Yuri’s romantic habits very well, has started to pick up on the fact that Yuri likes Kitty. She says that Yuri talks about her a lot, and even made Kitty a mixtape — signs that Juliana recognizes from when Yuri was interested in her. From what we’ve seen, Juliana seems to be a very level-headed and gracious person. I don’t think she would have said these things unless she felt she had real reason to be concerned. 

Episode 9: During fan-dancing practice, Juliana tries to call Yuri, but Yuri hangs up the phone because she’s busy helping Kitty. When Kitty tells her to go answer Juliana, Yuri says “you’re more important to me right now.” This is a clear example of Yuri prioritizing Kitty over Juliana. She also looks at Kitty's lips when they almost kiss, and doesn't move back when Kitty starts to lean towards her.

Episode 10: When Kitty is about to confess her love to Kitty at the airport, Yuri smiles and waits for her to finish. She already must have an inkling of what this is going to be about, as she was planning to confront Kitty about their almost-kiss while they were waiting in the wings before their performance in Episode 9. 

Episode 10: At the airport, Yuri cuts off her reunion with Juliana in order to find Kitty. When she doesn’t, she tells Juliana to wait so that she can convince her mom to bring Kitty back to KISS. This is the first time she’s seen Juliana seen each other in months, after they thought they might never see each other again, and she is thinking of Kitty instead. Even Juliana subtly points this out. This is the second example of Yuri prioritizing Kitty over Juliana.

Episodes 8-10: Yuri is very physically affectionate with Kitty: playing with her hair and clothes, hugging her from behind, leaning on her, etc. While this is not a universal sign of romantic interest, Yuri doesn’t do this with her other female friends.

This isn’t to say Yuri didn’t love Juliana. I think it’s quite clear that she did — as you mentioned, getting Juliana back is her main motivation for the first half of Season 1! But I think the connection Yuri shares with Kitty is quite different, a one-in-a-million friendship and romantic relationship, and Yuri really struggles to come to terms with it because she already has what she has wanted all her life.

We also have a hint that Juliana and Yuri’s relationship has some cracks in it even before Jina sends her away. Yuri tells Kitty in the car in Episode 1 that the person she’s seeing “isn’t serious, because it can’t be.” While they had at this point already made plans to go to Iceland together, they were likely apprehensive about their relationship working out long-term due to both of their homophobic families. I still believe that they loved each other deeply, but their relationship wasn’t perfect even before Kitty came into the picture.

Yuri is intentionally hard to read: she is guarded, keeps her cards close to her chest, and frequently lies — to everyone, to the people closest to her, to herself. In all fairness, the environment she was raised in demanded this of her in order to survive. Yuri also has abandonment issues, lashing out when she feels her relationships with others are threatened — stealing the necklace from Dae in Season 1 to prevent him from leaving her, and pushing Kitty away after their kiss. Alex points out (very gently) that she can be selfish, and her immature decisions cost her a lot this season. 

So, in truth, I don’t think Yuri’s decisions were ooc, but I still didn’t approve of how her character was treated this season. I think there were ways in which to handle her realizing her feelings for Kitty without the cheating plot, just as Kitty realized her feelings for Yuri but didn’t cheat on Dae. I think Juliana should have had the chance to break up with Yuri on her own terms after Yuri failed to show up at the art show, to give her character agency rather than just being a victim of other people’s choices. I think we should have seen more about Yuri struggling over her feelings for Kitty as well, both before and after the kiss. (I would have loved a reverse of the Episode 6 dream, with Yuri having a dream about Kitty instead… TT_TT)

thanks again for the ask! I feel a bit self-conscious spending so much time thinking and writing about XO, Kitty, but putting my thoughts into words has helped me quiet some of the chaos I’ve felt since watching the season. 

Avengers Endgame (2019) dir Joe and Anthony Russo

Disney Channel ships are the reason I have trust issues.

Plagg: In the end, it doesn’t matter since they’re the same girl!

Me:

ahem

i miss girl meets world

thank you for attending my tedtalk

Josh Cooley posted a new photo on twitter and I just

Ladybug + transformations in S2

Joshua is playing this role so FUCKING well. Every time he looks at Gina he’s so in awe of her and slowly falling for her but can’t believe it. Because he has only really liked one girl in his entire life. Since they were literal children, the only girl he’s ever paid attention to was Nini. Now, all of the sudden, he sees Gina. I mean, really sees her. Wants to be around her, misses her, wants to celebrate achievements with her, wants to open up to her. But he can’t bring himself to understand how he could like more than one girl. Or better yet, how he could stop liking the one girl he’s liked his whole life and start falling for another. 

Ricky has outright said what the writers are not so subtly throwing at us in regards to Rini’s relationship paralleling Ricky’s parents relationship. Nini being his mother and Ricky being his father. Ricky and Nini have pretty much been together their entire lives. He has been raised by two people who have been together for HIS entire life. Ricky has to slowly comes to terms with the fact that not everything lasts, people move on, they grow apart, they grow. But if he accepts his separation with Nini, he’d have to accept his parents separation. So he wants to be with her but he’s conflicted because part of him exudes his just a bit of his mothers behavior. She’s spending time with another guy - Ricky is spending time with Gina. If he accepts his mother can find a place in her heart for another love, he has accept that his heart has room for another love? That he is ready to move forward. Ricky clearly doesn’t want to accept that. Joshua is playing this so lovestruck but also blindsided by his quick admiration and liking of Gina. IT’S AMAZING TO WATCH. 

I’m not gonna sit here and pretend that Ricky never loved Nini and that’s why he didn’t say it back. I’m sure he did and probably still does which is why I do think they will get back together and he’ll finally work up the nerve to say I loveD you. “I love you. I am so sorry I couldn’t say I love you months ago. I don’t know where we would be in our relationship if I had. Maybe I would have still grown out of that love, as you have. And that’s okay. Maybe us realizing that now hurts less than it would have before or maybe this hurts more.” Ricky and Nini will both fall out of love with each other, they’ll stay single for a while and learn that they can remain best friends. They’ve known each other since they were children like cmon, they are BEST FRIENDS. 

Ricky and Gina though, wheeeeeeew child. Them are some SOULMATES. People have said it over and over again but to me, it would really wild to not put together the two people who you have SHOWN being friends with each other. The building of the friendship between Ricky and Gina. Something that we didn’t get to see with Nini and Ricky. Much like we didn’t get to see Ricky’s parents relationship, his mom was gone FROM THE PILOT. From the jump, my guy! There’s nothing for me to yearn for when it comes to rini. I don’t know what they had??? I know what Ricky and Gina have and they can slow burn this out and give me so much more and tbh I’m ready. 

same energy