(Untitled)

[blitzente]

Happy Tanabata for tomorrow, anybody who cares about it. We were studying it today. I embarrassed myself by asking if it was "that festival where you get fireworks". Also embarrassed myself by wincing when I heard the name "Orihime". Shippers have corrupted me, and I'm not even in that fandom.

I want to clarify: it wasn't the name itself, it was

Comments

[nighteevee]

Jenruki is actually the only het pairing with Rika that I can imagine happening in any near-canon time frame (in other words, without large amounts of "growing up" on one or both sides), but when you mention that... the closest he gets to alone with Rika is alone with Renamon.

Interesting observation about the character dynamics, though - particularly because it's as good as non-existent in Savers, which arguably tried to pull the same device (though I'm not quite sure why). If, for some reason, Henry and Rika were to meet in a world with no Takato, I imagine that the mutual hostility between them would have lasted a lot longer than it ended up doing, and possibly have played out enough to make sure they never really got over it.

[blitzente]

I'm kind of biased against every het pairing involving Ruki. Ryoki comes across as simple rivalry/friendship, Rukato is even closer to plain friendship (especially with Juri existing), Jenruki has that lack of interaction you mentioned and Hirokazu/Kenta are way out. But then, I think the only plausible ship she could be in is with Renamon...

I never saw Jen as really hostile to early-Tamers Ruki, just... indifferent. After his first intervention when she's about to kill Guilmon, he hardly comments on anything Ruki does at all. It's Takato who actually complains the most about Ruki, even though he's also the first to try and befriend her. On the other hand, early-Tamers Ruki is more than hostile enough for all three of them.

Too lazy to log out of RP account

[digiqueen]

The whole thing between Rika and Ryo could, had not Rika been the person she is, been taken as the sort of snarky chemistry so adored by certain shounen series. But I always found it fairly evident that her real gripe with him was an honestly injured pride (she might not value Kazu and Kenta's opinions much, but she certainly doesn't like it when they found somebody else to depend on). With the last episode (WHY?!-factor as it was), it seemed pretty clear that the whole thing was a setup to display character development and valuable lessons learned

XD

[blitzente]

Yeah, it was pretty obvious the writers were trying to push Ryoki. I just never found them as convincing as they were for Jukato, heh.

A quick skim-read of an (English) episode script gave me this -

Takato: [walking down the tunnel] It's too bad they don't have one of those people-movers. You know, like at the airport! That'd come in handy about now, don't ya think?
Rika: It's not funny, you know. I don't want to walk all the way to the next town just to find your little friend.
Henry: Well, if it makes you feel any better, Rika, the tunnel might flood and we could all swim there.
Rika: It's just my luck to be stuck down here with a couple of comedians.
Takato: Would you guys can it? [proceed with plot]

Which fits the bill. But two things you could say about are 1) Takato seems to be the one who started it in the first place, and 2) his last line is totally dub-invented. I was sad enough to check that in the original, all we get is a very girly sigh that seems to be his default response to everythingThe episode I had in mind was

Re: XD

[digiqueen]

To be honest, I have equal trouble with labeling Jurato and Ryuki both as canon. Ryuki because it seems to exaggarate things that aren't actually there, Jurato because it's so painfully one-sided. It makes for adorable Takato angst, but Jeri remains completely clueless (and the fanon version just gets to inheritably sugary for me to enjoy :/

I think there was another episode as well in which Henry and Rika were all hostile glaring (well, Rika at least) and Takato was looking back and forth and being nervous about it, but I can't remember which one it might have been. Not that I remember the incident you mentioned, either. I obviously need to go back and re-watch something else than the D-Reaper arc *g*

[blitzente]

I'm not so sure either of them are completely canon; I just think Jukato is really sweet, I'm a sucker for good angst/comfort stories, and with that pairing the angst could go both ways. :D; Although I wouldn't say she's totally clueless, either. She does do little things like not telling anyone when he leaves school early, getting all nervous in front of his dad, and, uh... kissing.

If any pairing in Digimon other than the OT10 that sets off for the Digital World can be called canon, it's Hirota! I mean, they kiss, too. And share dreams, and talk in unison.

And I think that's in the episode where Growmon won't revert. Ruki turns up, Jen accuses her of... something, they both stare, and Takato's all "can't we all just get along?" But I always thought it was more of an exception, because Jen doesn't often confront people unless he's provoked. And besides, I don't think the writers for that episode communicated much with previous ones - it's the episode where the bridge in Shinjuku magically repairs itself...

[nighteevee]

Kenta and Kazu are married. They just don't know it yet, and possibly never will.

I don't bother with counting any romance to be canon unless it's made blatantly obvious to be mutual, which can't be said about either of those two. Jeri always seemed to me as far too naive to catch on to Takato's crush on her own - that incident when he had a fallout with Kenta and Kazu over Guilmon and Jeri honestly did not get it really killed all my belief in her social antennaes. The dissident in me also likes to point out that in the mental state she was in during the whole D-Reaper disaster, she'd probably throw herself at Yamaki, funky sunglasses and all, had it been he who showed up and whisked her away. But of course, asking the opinions of somebody who just likes to see her paired up with pretty much anybody who isn't Takato...All in all, there was really very little in-team hostility in Tamers; for all I know, my memory might well be exaggerating the whole thing. But if the series had not progressed the way it did, there would definitely

[blitzente]

*gratitious icon!*

I don't know, I always credited Juri with slightly more brain than Takato and assumed that she genuinely thought all of them were being "silly" about it. I guess it's just another interpretation. I like seeing her with Ruki, too. D: I'm a bad shipper.

I think there was some amount of in-team conflict in the earlier episodes, before any of them knew each other that well. It was really just there to stall until they could introduce Hypnos properly as villains, and went away by the time Ruki and Renamon introduced their own drama, but it was there.

...My reading comprehension is probably off, but that looked like it was implying Ruki would confide most of her problems in Terriermon. I... can't imagine Terriermon resolving anything. Snarking about it, maybe.

[nighteevee]

Rika/Jeri remains the only Tamers coupling I ever wrote real fanfic for. OTP, it is *g*

If nothing else, Tamers has comparatively little in-team conflict; they're hardly at the level of Masaru and Tohma, or the entire Frontier cast the first ten episodes. And they spend a lot less time arguing about strategies than any of the other teams, both before and after.

What I meant was that both Henry's previously unquestioned pasifism and Rika's equally shallow doctrine of fighting are issues that are set forth as problems and solved during the early part of the series, through coming to terms with the dual nature of their partners (Henry understands that it's in Terriermon's nature to fight; Rika, that Renamon is her friend, and not just a tool). If the two had remained faithful to the ideas they have when the series start, I can easily see trouble rising from the conflicting opinions.

[blitzente]

Juruki! Do you have a link? :D I can never write fic with pairings, it always degenerates into friendships by the time I'm finished.

Oh, now I get it. Although if they had remained faithful to the ideas they had at the start, there wouldn't really be any series, heh.

Much as I hate to point people to my FF.net account due to the amounts of dreck I have up there...

[nighteevee]

Here. If you're really desperate, there's also this, but it's really sort of bad, and the only thing I like about it these days is the reviewer who complained about how I never mentioned what Renamon was up to while the girls bonded.

[blitzente]

...gratuitous. Gratuitous.