Let's talk about the double standards between how Yuri and Min Ho are treated as love interests in the fandom
I think it's time someone brought up the double standards between how Yuri and Min Ho are treated as love interests by this fandom.
Both Min Ho/Kitty and Yuri/Kitty get scenes that are "parallels" to moments in TATBILB, but somehow these only mean that Kinho are endgame but not Kittyuri? Hmm why is that? Writing off the fact that Kitty wrote a love letter for Yuri exactly like how LJ did for Peter and kicked off this entire franchise is laughable. The parallel with only 1 person having a love letter written about them is hugely significant and has clear intent. What does it accomplish to deny that?
Min Ho has a sex dream about Kitty, and so this means they're endgame right? Even though Kitty has a sex dream about Yuri? Surely this means the same thing for both couples right? Not to mention Kitty is the main character and her POV matter's more...
It's wild how part of this fandom just ignores every single thing going on with Kitty and Yuri in order to elevate their fave. Like people theorizing that somehow Min Ho paid for Kitty's tuition and is the reason she can attend KISS, when the reality of the show is that Yuri got her mom not to expel Kitty and she is the reason that Kitty can attend KISS.
Here are just a few things that happened in the show, that if the scenarios were exactly the same and Yuri was replaced by Min Ho, people would be SCREAMING endgame, but because these moments are between Yuri and Kitty they just get completely ignored.
- The sheer amount of times Yuri reaches out to touch Kitty and the "twinkling love chimes" play in the background as we go to slow motion and close ups
- Kitty defending Yuri's looks to that guy at the party and saying that her nose is "annoyingly perfect"
- Kitty completely enraptured by Yuri DJing and saying "why does it feel like I've been zapped by a million volts of electricity when I look at her"
- When Dae was talking to Kitty, he says "[watching Kitty look for someone to kiss] it felt like my stomach was being ripped out. And that's way more than just a silly crush. I think that's... love." and then the very same episode ends with Kitty watching Yuri call Juliana on the phone and says "why does it feel like my stomach is being ripped out" (explicitly letting the audience know she is experiencing LOVE here)
- Kitty goes in to kiss Yuri when they are practicing for the fan dance. They share an "almost kiss" moment that gets interrupted.
- Kitty and Yuri exchanging "I can't lose you"s to each other
- In season 2, Kitty's entire reaction to Yuri opening up the door to the dorm room and everything melts away besides Yuri who is showered in golden light
- Kitty moved to tears by her mother's VHS tape and takes Yuri's hand in hers to ask her if she would come with her to find her family - which leads to their first kiss
- The angsty scene where Yuri asks Kitty to pretend the kiss didn't happen and Kitty says "thank you for telling me how I feel"
- Kitty writing Yuri a love letter just like you-know-who did
- Kitty and Yuri having their little squabble while going through with the dance performance
- Yuri brushing Kitty's hair off her neck to put her mother's necklace on her
- Kitty telling Juliana exactly what Yuri needs and Juliana stealing her exact words to pretend she knows Yuri better
- Yuri going out of her way to another town to get Kitty's cousin to hear her out and is the catalyst for Kitty reuniting her family
- and literally so much more
I also want to talk about narratively how Yuri and Kitty are clearly structed as the (endgame) slowburn of the show. Kitty and Yuri are constantly interrupted when they share a special moment or need to talk about their feelings. Just off the top of my head there's when Kitty almost kisses Yuri during dance practice, when Dae shows up to their tent for his date with Kitty, when Yuri wants to talk to Kitty about the almost kiss before the dance performance, at the airport when Kitty is trying to confess her feelings to Yuri and Juliana arrives, and when they actually share their first kiss they get instantly interrupted (and caught) so they can't talk. They aren't given the space just to be together and express everything they want to say to each other, because those are the classic tropey obstacles keeping them apart as the slowburn romance they are! All these moments of interruption are textbook slowburn story beats, and it's just wild to me that a lot of people refuse to even acknowledge how endgame-coded the entire Kittyuri narrative is.
I also want to highlight how basically every single scene between Praveena and Kitty was all about how Kitty clearly has feelings for Yuri. And how basically every Juliana and Yuri scene was about how Yuri has feelings for Kitty. This is textbook stuff.
I think there's a clear bias to downplay everything that happens between Kitty and Yuri in an effort to try to elevate anything that happens with Min Ho because he's not getting the endgame slowburn setup and content - and people want to pretend he is. He's getting some moments with Kitty, but that's because he's the obstacle romance to the endgame. It's so funny how people can pretend not to see where this show is going. Season 1 ends with Kitty choosing Yuri and wanting to be with her - but she can't because of Juliana. Season 2 ends with Kitty going off with Min Ho because she's trying to move on from Yuri (and Yuri ends the season single wow what a coincidence). When season 3 picks up it's so clear that now Yuri will want to go all in with Kitty, but now Kitty is the one who is unavailable. Text. Book.
Downvote me all you want, it only proves my point, and I'm not going to pretend things are on an even playing field online. It's clear what personal biases people bring to these "discussions" because Yuri is never taken seriously. End rant.