We all know Maya liked Lucas for a long time (and that the “she only liked him to see if he’s good enough for Riley” thing is bullshit). But when did he start liking her? When did it start becoming obvious?
In other words, I thought it’d be fun to map out the Lucaya story from the pilot until Texas, and see what we can see. Since this will take a while, I’m going to focus on season 1 only in this post; season 2 will come soon.
So, let’s take a look at the Lucaya moments, big and small, and then we’ll talk about them in a broader sense.
Pilot: The sloppy joe thing. Farkle uses sloppy joes and chicken pot pie as obvious metaphors for the girls (sloppy joe = Maya, chicken pot pie = Riley). Lucas is eating a sloppy joe, as is Maya. I personally don’t think this necessarily means Lucaya, but it’s an interesting minor observation. (It’s also a callback to a Boy Meets World episode and Cory and Shawn have a verrry similar lunch food=girls conversation)
Boy: The start playing their “game” of teasing each other.
Father: The game continues. Maya seem almost jealous when she can’t get Lucas’s attention back onto her as she’s teasing him while he walks away with Riley. At the school dance, he brings her a rose. She comments that he puts thought into their game; he agrees.
Maya’s Mother: Lucas shuts Farkle up when he starts putting his foot in his mouth in regards to Katy not showing up to Maya’s art show.
1961: The first time Lucas is outright supportive of Maya: he encourages to keep trying with her art.
We see more of their game when discussing his great grandfather - Maya sings a song about it, and Lucas doesn’t seem to mind. Likewise, Lucas is thrilled when he finds out Maya’s family comes from the Clutterbucket name.
And things start to get interesting here: Maya’s grandmother May seemed to have a “missed opportunity” - the theme of the episode - with Lucas’s grandfather. (Likewise, there’s a hint of this with Riley and Farkle’s grandparents.) While this connection is between the grandparents and not the kids, this is all VERY eye opening.
Crazy Hat: The birth of the first hahurr. It comes after Maya spent a day (offscreen) alone with Lucas.
Flaws: Lucas picks up Maya to stop her from doing something she might regret. Maya later jumps on his back to stop him from doing the same thing.
Friendship: Lucas appoints Maya as his Secretary of State, and it’s very clearly spelled out that it means he thinks highly of her. She helps put together a video for him that means a lot to him.
Their games continues, when Maya sings a song about him and he plays along on his harmonica.
First Date: There’s an interesting exchange between Farkle and Lucas about dating the girls, and Lucas says if Farkle started dating one, he’d start dating the “other one.” Moments later, Maya approaches him and he greets her as Other One.
He ends his date with Riley (that they’ve been on for all of 2 minutes, poor Riley) because Maya’s upset and encourages Riles to go to her.
And I’d be remiss if I didn’t address this, even though I honestly, truly don’t know what to make of it:
Maya is wearing a yellow top, and Lucas is in a bright turquoise. In the background of the scene, there’s a boy and a girl at the water fountain (I think?), and she’s in a bright turquoise dress; the boy is in yellow.
So what does it mean? Possibly nothing, but it’s sooo strange. They’re not explicitly focused on, but they are very much in several shots, and it’s a little distracting and hard not to notice. I’m not saying this automatically means Lucaya, but...god it’s bizarre. If they were both in blue, or more neutral colours, I’d chalk it up to coincidence. But yellow and turquoise? That shit’s intentional.I just don’t know why.
Okay! Now that we’ve laid out the Lucaya moments, what can we gleam from this?
Well, it seems to me there’s been small nuggets of Lucaya from the early days. They start playing their “game” as early as the second episode, and it ramps up throughout the season. Lucas never seems to be genuinely upset with her about any of this; in fact, her encourages her and often joins in in some way.
Crazy Hat seems to be the turning point: they spend time alone together, and Maya hahurrs him, which quickly becomes a staple in their relationship. And to make it more interesting, we see them get more physical with each other directly after that episode. Interesting development, huh?
We’ve seen that despite their teasing, Lucas is protective of Maya and her feelings pretty early on. We also have it spelled out for us that he thinks highly of her - in the same episode where he takes Riley on a seemingly romantic princess horsey ride, no less.
Lucaya is low key in season one, but it’s there. We see their relationship develop and grow as the season progresses. Season 2 is where everything ramps up like crazy, but there are some eyebrow raising moments in season 1 for sure.
JATP characters/relationships as text messages
yes i am the funniest person alive thank you
"how are you doing?" my emotional dependency on a kids show gets stronger with every passing day
seriously! I’m just so freaking curious. what is it?!!?! it obviously isn’t a phone or something technical related.
the thing is, he ALWAYS carries it (except when he plays), and he carries it literally EVERYWHERE!! it’s always with him! SO WHY IS IT SO IMPORTANT? WHY? what’s in there that his been carrying ever since we know him?!
ALSO!!!! I DON’T THINK HE KEEPS HIS DRUM STICKS IN THERE. firstly because the bag doesn’t seem that large for them to fit, and I don’t know if I’m just being desperate, but in here you can see how he has them out with him. it’ll just be kinda weird if he holds his drum sticks in there, but if THAT’S THE CASE, then I’d like to believe IT ISN’T THE ONLY THING HE CARRIES IN HIS WAIST BAG!!!
Music in Film: Olivia Rodrigo: driving home 2 u (2022) dir. Stacey Lee
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
About the Russian invasion - how is everyone feeling there? What can we do to help?
Thank you so much for asking!
A little bit of history: it's actually been 8 years since russia first invaded our country. But for the last years it was getting more and more quiet. And now BOOM again
Many people evacuated from the destroyed by war cities in 2014 and some still live there even though they support Ukraine. It's hard to leave your home. So it's emotionally different for everyone. There was a joke that people from Kyiv worry more than people from Eastern Ukraine. Because they have experienced a similar thing in 2014 and now they're more prepared than ever before.
Personally, I'm panicking from time to time, because, yup, it's stressful. Most people don't really speak about the war and evacuation because it's scary. But I feel like everyone's trying to be prepared for the evacuation or fighting. Every night does feel like a last one, after all.
Since the beginning of the war, our people have been giving money to military charity. One of the most famous military charities is "Return alive" (Povernysya zhivim). Many Ukrainians donate here every month. Here is a link for Facebook page of the charity, let me know if it translates to English or if i should make a post with translation:
There is also a charity that helps military. Yana Zinkevych, a Ukrainian politician and a commander of the Hospitallers Medical Battalion, leads this charity. In 2015 she was paralyzed during a mission and since then she has been using a wheelchair. She has personally saved more than 200 soldiers and she's awesome.
https://www.facebook.com/100020149602229/posts/914756185872693/
In her post here she makes a list of needed ammunition and the needed money.
I tried to write about the charities that Ukrainians trust in. They are famous, they have been trusted by people all these years, so as far as I am concerned, they can be trusted.
Here is a post by @everlasting-burnout who provided more links. They seem trustworthy.
Thank you so much for reading and I encourage to reblog. Just to remind you, I'm trying to tell about Ukrainian situation as objectively and as truthfully as I can
adrien + looking at marinette
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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.
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