#omg this is this show’s the southern raiders except it’s much more skippable to a lot of people

[myinterestsvary-writes]

Rewatching the contentious beach episode again, like perhaps the third time this year hehe. I don’t know, maybe I’m just built different but I still really like that episode and wholeheartedly, unironically stan Tamaki and Kyoya without disregarding the episode or any of their character flaws that are usually effectively lampshaded and/or made fun of. But I do agree with a lot of people in that the manga portrays this much better.

I compared the Japanese and English Dub and the English voice acting does make it sound worse, even if I can still take away that Tamaki wanted Haruhi to be more careful and considerate because she’s a girl because of all sorts of biological and societal reasons. Many of which feminism directly counters partly by saying that “Haruhi doesn’t need a man to save her” and “women are capable to deal with things themselves/they shouldn’t be infantilized or belittled for their gender” but I’ve never been much of an outright self-proclaimed feminist anyway despite agreeing a lot with what they have to say so that probably explains my leniency with this episode.

The point is that it’s not only that she’s weak(er) because she’s a girl. He literally questions if she knew how to fight/defend herself, which tells me that it would’ve made the situation better for her to be in regardless of gender to Tamaki but because she can’t and to add on that she’s a girl as well, in Tamaki’s eyes she was being stupid. I still agree with that specific point, what can I say? Not with everything he said and did though like ignoring her for example, yet this episode still proves that Tamaki is an idiot yet well-meaning and serious/capable in the right situations.

Here’s the thing that’s hard for people to wrap their heads around because there’s so much under-explained ideas clashing with each other that confuses people into thinking it’s bad: Haruhi correctly counters what Tamaki says about her being a girl with someone (her) needing to do something regardless of gender. She sounds far more correct and reasonable in the English Dub—she’s presented as right and relatively calm in both versions actually, I’m pretty sure objectively in the context of the show because Haruhi is the reasonable one here still as usual, though given more character through her decision-making. Maybe it’s because I can understand the language Caitlin Glass is speaking, maybe that’s why there’s stronger reactions from me with it. I understand better in Tamaki’s head that he just wants her to act more like other girls and not be as troublesome, but the show never betrayed her into conforming to those ideas (in the manga, he eventually learns that it’s fine for her to be herself and she learns in the beach episode that still regardless of gender that it’s okay to ask for help which is a fine message to me to portray {“Alright, [Haruhi] you win.” - Tamaki} because…I saw her as being more reckless than brave in that confrontation with very noble intentions, she’s allowed to be flawed and humanized). Tamaki and Haruhi are coming from two different perspectives here, that’s why people choose sides in this episode when I don’t think that’s truly necessary.

It’s a thing that Tamaki idealizes and fantasizes about the perfect Haruhi of his dreams, supported by the fact that they are not friends who spend time together outside the club. It’s a thing that Tamaki is very much wrong (and weird) for doing that. That’s not talked about enough when analyzing that argument scene. What he says here is in character and his sexism/stupidity is not played up to the extreme, just made serious and actually understandable/not niche in that Tamaki’s only understanding of women has been presented so far in his encounters with women from similar SES in the Host Club. It’s consistent to what we know of him so far, his words don’t warrant deeper analysis of his general view of women and why he feels the need to treat Haruhi the way he does because of, for example, how he grew up with his mother. It’s as simple as him being stupid and yes, sexist but realistic. If he were real, there’s no excusing or reasoning away his behaviour excluding the beach confrontation. Since he isn’t, however, I’m pretty sure it’s fine to laugh at him as he’s usually very wrong when it comes to the politics of the show (and the leftist online world—not upset or judging you guys) and this episode is no exception in portraying him as such yet allowing us to find him endearing as he is allowed and should be presented for more than the clown for good character writing imo to avoid flanderization (plus, I do think that he does chill out and becomes more tolerable and understandable if you’ve always taken him seriously as a character because he gets dissected in the manga later on). I can’t explain this well right now, but Tamaki is more than just his incorrect opinions.