I Understand That. Lockwood And Co.

au where everything is the same except marinette has black hair and grey eyes and she goes all blue when she transforms and that’s why no one recognises her

I looked around in a blood-soaked gown

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. 

ahem

i miss girl meets world

thank you for attending my tedtalk

chat noir’s magical girl suggestions

I complain about Adrien getting screen time a lot but it’s not because I don’t like him, it’s because of how that screen time is being used. He’s heavily tied to the plot through his family but is completely disconnected from it at the same time. His character is oversimplified. We don’t know what his ambitions are, we never see him try to make up for his mistakes, we never see the internal struggle that comes from having your only childhood friend be hated by everyone (with good reason), we never see him questioning why his father has a book related to the miraculouses, we never see anything of value to his development. He is only ever naively optimistic or an angsty boy we’re supposed to feel sorry for 24/7. It’s a shame that no other aspects are explored because he doesn’t feel organic at this point, he feels like a poster boy, which ultimately, he is.

like i love klaus baudelaire cos hes everything little boys r told NOT to be ….. hes so delicate & emotional, he cries like every 40 pages, he loves reading and learning n hes really proud of that, hes so soft and physically affectionate with the people he loves, he always says what he feels and he doesnt mind being protected ….. these are all traits u find in GIRLS in most childrens books which is why klaus is so important, he teaches little boys that u can be soft AND heroic AND a boy at the same time which is a lesson boys or men for that matter are rarely if ever taught

me after projecting my entire self onto a fictional character

Carrie Wilson’s character redemption arc

let me rant. Carrie had/has a bad relationship with her mom, and that definitely had an impact between her feud with Julie; her being raised by a famous father definitely affected her in some (many) ways and gave her this pressure and obligation to be a performer, be the lead singer in her band, be successful and have ‘all eyes on her’; her relationship with Nick was actually comforting to her even thought she was always mean to him, because she doesn’t have friends besides the girls of Dirty Candy (which actually may seem not too close with her, since the only person we see Carrie hanging out with out of the band and school is Nick) and now that she’s broken up with him (probably for the 13th time but this time is more serious since Nick chased after Julie) she’s definitely more sad because now she really has no one else; she DESPERATELY wants to be friends again with Julie and Flynn (and I really love this theory the fandom created of her and Flynn having some past or future story out there) but now she sees it even more far and complicated since the arrival of this ‘hologram band’ and it just saddens her even more; LISTEN TO ME IN THIS ONE OKAY i believe she even wrote “All Eyes On Me” as a cry for help, just look at the lyrics from that perspective it’s actually terrifying (i know this sounds too deep and dramatic lol, please forgive me i’m just so invested in this type of characters i can’t help it); she has dealt with her father’s emotional trauma HER WHOLE LIFE i mean C’MON !! (not blaming Bobby, i believe he’s also a good person); and last but not least, it is really tough to see her past best friend performing with a band that makes her HAPPY. she sees Julie so happy and shinning and having all these support —from friends and parents— she just can’t help but feel sad not only because she wished that was her case, but more mad to herself because she knows she wasn’t there for Julie when she needed it and now she can’t show her support because they’re friendship’s supposed to be over.

thank you for coming to my ted talk.

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