Hello Everyone Just Passing By To Say That There’s No Heterosexual Explanation For This Photos Okay

fuck all romance except whatever the girl with a voice of an angel and mr rockstar mcbiceps got going on

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. 

if ship not canon then why look at each other that way

long post on the hsmtmts initial core 4 and their relationships and development i guess:

a lot of yall think getting into a relationship solves every existing problem within these characters and then get shocked when these exact problems get brought up again. the dumbest thing is that yall then bring up the argument “why spend the whole season building them up only to break them up in the next” or “you’re ruining their character development” as if we are not watching the same show and the answers are not right in front of you.

ricky accepted moving on from nini and it took her making a move and almost kissing him for him to realise he could go back to that and have one thing stay the same. he was terrified of change while she running towards change. i’m not saying he didn’t love her, but i’m saying that loving her was not the only reason for him to run back on his path of growth. and then in season two he did not like the person he was becoming with nini. ricky is not out of character this season but actually falling back to his character. because i don’t know what show yall were watching in season one but he was always goofy and carefree around gina. when he was reminiscing his friendship with nini he talked about himself as someone who was carefree and easygoing. he is not acting weird now just because yall did not pay attention to his character. he finally restored his relationship with his mother and no longer in a relationship where he feels he is being left behind, of course he no longer acts like an angsty teenager. please think a little.

nini got called out for making her life about boys and she tried to find her own person. but people seem to forget that besides that silly song that she did not actually grow from boys. in fact, right after that conversation with kourtney she was already getting jealous of ricky and gina. and right after that song she was already trying to kiss ricky. she needed that second chance with him to realise that an “i love you” wasn’t the problem of their relationship and they needed to work a lot more than just ricky’s feelings and communication. she also needed to know that her song wasn’t just for show and she actually needed to define herself and not having relationships define her.

they have not once been on the same page throughout season one and that was an argument people made before season two even aired and for some reason some of you were still shocked how things unfolded. (some even blamed outside drama but that’s another topic altogether) i feel like some of you guys are just not watching the show because this is a disney show, the subtext is not that deep. most of the things are right in your face.

and for some reason yall doing it again this season and i’m confused what part of the show have you missed? ej’s anxiety has been ongoing since season one. he is a guy that has never known anything less than perfection, and we could see that it comes from his family. he doesn’t work well with pressure and doesn’t really know his own way if things are not mapped out for him. he freaked out with having to play troy last minute, and freaked out with not being accepted into duke. mr mazzara told him to find a story and learn from it, so he focused on gina. now i’m not saying he hasn’t or couldn’t learn from gina, but that it was a pivotal moment in his life to finally learn about himself but he chose not to. now he is at camp with his girlfriend, with a responsibility he did not ask for but obviously wouldn’t turn away because that’s who he is. he had the summer mapped out for him but not anymore and that freaks him out. delivering anything less than perfection also freaks him out. this is something he should’ve started dealing with since last season when he realised his sense of self came from his family expectations. just like ricky, he got into a relationship to delay a growth that’s impossible to stumble upon. in addition, this guy severely lacks communication skills for someone that has been implied to be in several relationships. it happened with nini, it happened in the season finale with gina, and it’s happening once again. he creates scenarios in his head and goes with it instead of talking with the other person. in fact, he communicates his problems with anyone (ashlyn and now val) but the intended person. contrary to popular belief, “i’m no longer cunning” is not growth. specially when all his actions of redemption in season one was to make himself feel better. his character development is only starting now because besides not accepting that duke offer his dad practically bought him, he actually had no growth.

and then you have gina, a girl who entered a relationship in order to feel safe, seen and loved while not being over ricky. and deny it all you want, but that scene in carlos’ party wasn’t closure. her having to be away from ricky to create a path for ej and have her focus on it is not moving on. it’s only just creating a diversion that would eventually go back to its original path. this is also not me saying that she doesn’t like ej. it’s me saying that her heart has never been 100% with him because she never actually retrieved it from ricky in the first place. moreover, her character growth has never been about her “dropping the attitude” but about opening herself up to others and not run away when things get complicated as she never actually had the opportunity to form relationships and know how to communicate in them. that she doesn’t have to compromise who she is in order to feel loved and accepted.

and to just be clear, i’m not saying that these ships can’t eventually find each other again. but it’s never a surprise when a breakup is eventually coming towards them. and using “but they spend the whole season building them up” as an excuse is not the take you think it is. and that their character development is more than just “i did bad things and now i don’t” when they’re not actually growth. a lot of yall take one song or dialogue as character development and fail to realise that their actions are not following along and then call it “repetitive” when it gets brought up again when it hasn’t even been solved in the first place.

and i’m also not saying rina is above them. (although i do believe they are) but what i’m saying is that ricky and gina always had story arcs that flowed together and yet, it wasn’t time for them. so for me it makes no sense to question why rina is still a thing because you just do not understand the concept of slow burn and do not understand that these characters and their storylines have always been intertwined from the very first season. i understand the denial in season one, but if you finished season two truly believe they were over and done with, you’re either obtuse, or you were settling for extremely bad writing.

I also love Buzz

┏┓

┃┃╱╲ in

┃╱╱╲╲ this

╱╱╭╮╲╲house

▔▏┗┛▕▔ we

╱▔▔▔▔▔▔▔▔╲ love and respect

╱╱┏┳┓╭╮┏┳┓ ╲╲buzz lightyear

▔▏┗┻┛┃┃┗┻┛▕▔

you guys don’t understand how much these fictional stories and fictional characters fill me up with joy and make this insane stuff we’re going through bearable

REBLOG IF YOU ARE TEAM "STILL NOT OVER THAT CAMPFIRE SCENE"

thinkin about my two hundred different embarrassing and completely self-indulgent daydream universes that i’ve actually taken time out of my day to create content for and have never shared with anyone bc they’re that embarrassing but not being able to stop bc they’re one of the few things that bring me genuine joy 

Anne with an E + found families

Where’s the difference?