#kaede wants so badly for barnaby to be the cool dad | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

mad-madam-m · 3 years ago

Text

T&B2 Thoughts: Episode 7 – Out of the mouths of babes oft times come gems.

I'm sorry. This one's long. It's so long. So much rambling. So many feelings. Buckle in, you've been warned.

- Y'all this episode is literally everything I have ever wanted. EVERYTHING. I've wanted stepdad!Barnaby and hero!Kaede literally since I finished watching the first season back in 2017, and the fact that the show actually gave it to me is beyond what I'd hoped for. It's also yet another time that we're shown how Barnaby is really part of Kotetsu's family now, and it's a role that Kaede accepts him in, too.

- Date attempt number three! I am never, ever going to be over how they are both literally so happy about going out to dinner together. Kotetsu is so excited he jumps out of his chair. Barnaby is actually smiling. He has a place he wants to try! Kotetsu is buying! I am curled up in my chair holding a pillow and trying not to combust with joy!

- Me shouting at the TV: KAEDE DAMMIT DON'T COCKBLOCK YOUR DAD

- I love her, I do, and I'm usually thrilled to see her but oh my gosh I knew as soon as she showed up that dinner wasn't happening and I was going to cry.

- It cracks me up that Kaede gets a freaking autograph from Barnaby every time she sees him, which has apparently been multiple times, enough so that Kotetsu comments on it. The implication that Barnaby has spent enough time around Kotetsu's family and Kaede specifically for that to be a thing brings me no small amount of joy.

- Also like, for all that it's an upset to his plans, Kotetsu is so obviously excited to have Kaede there that he's humming while he's cleaning up the apartment and washing the dishes. He loves her and he so rarely gets to spend time with her.

- All Kotetsu has ever wanted is for Kaede to think he's cool, and to find out that everybody at her school thinks that he has the coolest job—and that Kaede agrees—makes him so flipping happy. JUST LOOK AT THIS PRECIOUS DORK, LOOK AT HIM.

- And then Barnaby quietly bows out to let them spend time together because he knows how important it is for Kotetsu to have time with his daughter, even though Kotetsu tries to get him to stay (because Barnaby is part of his family, too!). Gosh I so badly wanted Barnaby to stay for this, to actually see him more with Kotetsu and Kaede.

- I shrieked to see that Muramasa is married again and has kids, especially since that's something that Kotetsu said was his goal at one point in some of the extraneous material for the series.

- Barnaby goes out to dinner with Mattia, who he called because he couldn't have dinner with Kotetsu...and he's talking about Kotetsu. Because of course he is. Because Barnaby is always going to talk about Kotetsu and it's a good thing Mattia appears to be a fairly willing audience for that.

- "What in the world could Kotetsu possibly be doing that Barnaby wouldn't be there for?" A demonstration on damage fines, which is hilariously appropriate and I am just positive that this is, essentially, a version of community service so that he doesn't have to pay some of his own damage fines.

- The Kids Law Classroom is fucking amazing, and I lost it when the kids started asking about Lunatic, although Kotetsu saved Yuri from having to actually answer any questions about it. I admit, I was surprised that we got so much of Yuri this season, but absolutely no Lunatic. Even his tie has changed: it's simply black and white now. He's clearly stepping back and letting the heroes (and really, Kotetsu specifically) take charge now, although it comes across less as retirement and more like he's just waiting to see what they'll do.

- STEPDAD BARNABY STEPDAD BARNABY STEPDAD BARNABY. TAKING KAEDE AND HER FRIEND TO HIS FRIEND'S WORK BECAUSE KOTETSU CAN'T DO IT. ALSO APPARENTLY WHILE DRIVING KOTETSU'S CAR. I'm sorry there's really only screaming here; I have no coherent thoughts, just shrieking.

- Poor Saroja, not wanting NEXT powers. And the way Barnaby just shakes his head when she apologizes for it; he knows that being a NEXT isn't all sunshine and roses and he's certainly not going to fault anybody for not wanting that. I’ve mentioned it before but it bears repeating: I’m glad they’re bringing up more of the NEXT discrimination in this season and really showing how it affects the lives of the NEXT, hero or not.

- KAEDE WANTS TO GO TO THE HERO ACADEMY!!!! SHE WANTS TO BE A HERO!! HERO KAEDE!!

- Y'all seriously the noise I made when I first saw that brochure was unreal. I didn't think I'd ever see any of my headcanons referenced in the actual show, never mind getting two of my favorites in one episode.

- Do you know how much I love that Barnaby and Kotetsu are together as a unit for this conversation with Kaede??? How clearly in sync they are and how clear it is that they are both in a parental role? Partners both inside of work and out of it, to reference Barnaby's comment about his own parents in the first season.

- Ouch damn Kaede way to hit below the belt. I don't blame her at all for feeling that way—we know from the first season that she and Kotetsu had a rocky relationship for a long time because he put his work first and hid from her what that work actually was—but it's a hell of a punch to bring it back now, especially when Kotetsu's really been trying to do better.

- I love that it’s Barnaby who goes after Kaede and Saroja while Kotetsu calls his brother to talk through this whole thing. And when the show pans to this scene, where Barnaby is sitting quietly on the bench next to them, it’s while Muramasa is telling Kotetsu that when someone makes up their mind about what they want to do, all their family can do is support them. Just another way this show is reminding us that Barnaby is part of Kotetsu’s family, now.

- Kotetsu is also really sitting with the knowledge of how his mom must feel about his job. He's heard it before, but it didn't click with him until he heard Kaede say she wants to do the same thing. And now he's feeling the same kind of fear that Anju’s probably dealt with almost every day since he decided that he wanted to be a hero.

- And on that note, let's talk about the difference in parents/parental figures in this show, because WHOA BOY are there some feelings here! I think it's noteworthy that 1) this episode comes immediately after the one with Lara's mom, and 2) that Barnaby is the one with the line "No parent would tell their child they want them to work in a career that puts their life at risk."

Barnaby, who became a hero in the first place because Maverick—his father figure—essentially manipulated him into doing so. And we just watched Lara's mother spend an entire episode pushing her daughter to stand out on the show, get more points, do better, be better, while being completely unaware that Cat's powers don't work when she's scared. And then you contrast that with Kotetsu's reaction to Kaede wanting to be a hero, and the way Anju talks to him about his job in s1, and it's just...there are feelings, okay? Like I said in the tags on this post, there’s probably an entire essay that could be written on these comparisons.

- Kotetsu saves Kaede when she falls!! BRB I’m just gonna be sobbing forever over here.

- I cannot for the life of me remember whether I’ve talked about it in these episode posts or in Discord or in the tags of another post (possibly all three; I’ve talked about this show a lot over the past month) but Kotetsu is a lot more stable at this point in the series than he was in the first season. He’s settled with his powers where they are, he’s settled in his partnership with Barnaby, he’s more settled in his relationship with Kaede.

You got the sense in s1 that he was floundering, trying desperately to stay afloat while dealing with all this upheaval in his life (grief over losing Tomoe, his company going under, a snotty new partner, his powers fading, etc. etc.), and he was fighting to keep those struggles to himself so as not to worry the people he cared about. And all of that was reflected in the show: he mistimes his powers and has to be saved by Barnaby or he's not fast enough to save Kaede when she's in danger. But in this season, he's the one doing the saving, like with Cat in the previous episode and then Kaede in this one. He's worked through a lot of his shit, he's opened up more with the people he's close to, and now instead of just wanting to be someone Kaede can depend on, he is now.

- Okay this conversation between Kotetsu and Kaede is so good though, for a number of reasons. It's a significant change from where their relationship was in the first season, where Kotetsu still treated her very much like the little girl she was when she still lived with him and Tomoe. Now, he sees that she's growing up and he treats her at the level where she is, rather than the one where he wants her to be. He acknowledges where he's screwed up and that her feelings on being neglected are valid, and Kaede really sees that he’s taking her seriously. Plus, the conversation itself is honest and they're actually dealing with what it means for Kaede to want to be a hero. It's a dangerous job, which Kotetsu knows better than most people. And I like that he promises to seriously think about what it means to be a hero and the example he wants to set.

- I can’t even with these two. I know they’re the villains but they crack me up.

#Tiger & Bunny #Tiger and Bunny #Tiger & Bunny 2 #Kotetsu x Barnaby #TaiBani #M watches TNB #M writes meta #M rambles #not sure how the last 6 episodes will go since uh #there will mostly be just a lot of screaming #as we bid farewell to the romcom shenanigans and jump into the actual hero stuff

84 notes · View notes