Romantic Couple? (SPOILERS!)

[Andy00]

Heh heh. Okay, looks like we're going to have to tackle this. Spoilers ahoy.

Do Tsukasa and Subaru have a romantic relationship, or are they "just friends?"

We've seen the hand-holding, the hugs, the resting on one's head on the other's shoulder. For some this is enough. For others, no.

Oh yeah. Then there's the issue of Tsukasa really being a girl in real life. There's two extreme viewpoints that I want to _avoid_ in this consideration. A. "Lesbians! Lesbians! Lesbians! SWEET!" and B. "You think they might be _in_ love!?, you just want Hot Lesbian Action, you horndog." Both reactions are just knee-jerk.

That they love each other is clear. It's a particularly strong love, even in friendship. Bee Train has explored such bonds before, in the series "Noir."

However, are they _in_ love? I think it's a strong possibility. The writers were subtle, and didn't do anything overt. However, three things stand to mind.

1. When the gossip mill regarding Tsukasa's real world gender finally reached BT, she considered telling Subaru, but decided not to. Why? If she considered them "just friends" why would that be a problem? My take..one of the points of BT's character is she's awkward at romantic relationships. I don't think she wanted to get involved in an issue that might complicate what she perceived to be a romantic relationship.

2. Closer to the source, the big scene in episode 25. _Tsukasa_ finally reveals that "he" is pretty sure he's really a girl, and asks Subaru if she'd still want to be with ...her in Real Life. Subaru says "Yes" and Tsukasa's in shock, almost with tears in "his" eyes. Again, why would being a girl prevent them from being friends? And then....there's Subaru's response. She doesn't say "That doesn't prevent us from being friends." She says that she's "attracted to Tsukasa's wandering spirit."

3. Tsukasa (if that's her real name) and Subaru (if that's her real name) finally meet in Real Life. Tsukasa says "I'm home." She considers being with Subaru "home." That's pretty powerful. While I suppose one could consider being with a friend "home" a romantic consideration is more likely.

[Fatal Outlaw]

Tsukasa and Subaru were both in love, but i thought both were leaning towards close friendship when it was revealed that Tsukasa was female.

at least thats what i think

[Andy00]

That's it? C'mon! I wanna hear elaboration! What do you base that opinion on?

[Fatal Outlaw]

Originally posted by Andy00
That's it? C'mon! I wanna hear elaboration! What do you base that opinion on?

lol, thats what all my teachers say (esp. my World Studies teacher)

anyhow, i think Tsuaksa and Subaru were heavily in love before it was revealed that tsukasa was female (after that, both of them were leaning on close friendship). i mean, they both want to see each other, BAD. and it got to the point that they just do nothing but meet up in the game. theres also the time when Subaru waited for Tsukasa no matter what it took, she even lost sleep becuase of it. on the side of Tsukasa thogh, he (or she) was in bliss during the time, and he (orshe) was devastated when she found out that he was a she. anyhow, the 'feeling' was still there in the end, but i highly doubt they'd get together IRL. i guess Tsukasa realized that it just simply wont work out when he was in a 'dummy' state when he found out that he was a she.

here's a question, how about Crim? did he have feelings for Subaru?

[Andy00]

I figured Tsukasa was devasted because..er...she (Geez, any gender pronoun seems weird with Tsukasa) thought Subaru wouldn't want to be with her.

But Subaru said that she was attracted to Tsukasa's "wandering spirit." How do you interpret this as meaning she no longer wants to be with Tsukasa in the romantic sense, but rather the platonic? I took that to mean it was never gender that was the basis of the attraction, even when she thought Tsukasa was a guy.

As for Krim...that he's interested, yes. However, it seems Subaru isn't. She never does call him, even after he asks one of the crew to remind her of his "spell."

Gotta hand it to my man Krim, though. He's got something so few "Anime Cool Characters" have. True class. Two tries, and then he backed off. And even encouraged both of them to be with each other.

[shinmeiryu]

I feel they need to get to know each other in real life a bit more before anything further, regardless of being a girl/girl romantic couple or girl/girl friendship couple. I know some could take the attraction to Tsukasa's "wandering spirit" as either maybe a cop out response or a more 'inner feeling' response.

Maybe it will just end up being a platonic relationship, but I wouldn't dismiss the possibilities.

[nhat]

Do you guys think if Subaru was really a guy player, things might be more interesting?

[Andy00]

Not really. The "tension" revealed by Tsukasa's identity is what makes the couple interesting. Subaru turning out to be a guy would be a cop-out.

[GlitterSanga]

:bawling: I didn't know he was a girl! Thank you I have waited so long to figure that out. The girl/girl romantic couple is kinda gross to me because I'm a girl but I'm sure the guys haven't a care for it. I am not quite sure about this couple yet for I have seen very few episodes of the show. So...I guess they could be a romantic couple (from all the research I did on it) but they also could be just a platonic relationship but I will not say anything qutie yet:D

[Nairohe]

I personally think that right from the beginning, the love that Subaru and Tsukasa shared was a deep platonic love that had no "romantic" nature in it. I haven't seen the series for a while so it's going to be a little hard to point out a few things. ehehehe.

- Episode 19, the episode where we find out the real Subaru. We find out that she's actually limp and that the only place where she can be free is the WORLD. The episode explores her loneliness and when it gets to the very last part after she got beat up by a Subaru look a like, she somehow ends up with Tsukasa who happens to be 'waiting' for her. Instead, she says that SHE was the one who was actually waiting for a long time. Of all the times that she wandered in the game, she found something special in Tsukasa, someone shared a similar pain that she did, someone understood. She was waiting for someone like Tsukasa though I dont think she meant that in a romantic sense. I think she meant that she was simply waiting for someone who understands her.

- I see the scene where tsukasa confessed about being a girl towards subaru as "tsukasa" thinking that subaru might have formed romantic feelings towards her and might only be disappointed knowing that she was actually a girl when in truth, subaru liked/loved tsukasa just for being who she was, because she found a soulmate.

For some reason, I think that Subaru might have already known or had a clue that tsukasa was a female from the beginning. I can't refer to the anime to state facts that point to this but the knights did have some access to information "indirectly" and subaru herself is very keen to figure out small things. She also didn't sound very surprised during the confession, no hint at all. She only smiled.

[Spike 558]

I see this scenario as a hilarious send up of people who meet, and develop interests in each other, in cyberspace - Only to meet in real life and see the spark that brought them together doesn't work any more :lol::lol::lol:

[Andy00]

Is that the best you can do? <g> You don't like the idea, so you try and tell us that the characters "didn't really mean" what they were saying in the end?

[Spike 558]

Still, now that I know Tsukusa is a....you know...I'm never going to see this pic (http://www.jpophelp.com/bookscans/Newtype-2002-10_frontM.jpg) the same way ever again :dodgy:

[Aerin]

I have to agree with you on platonic love thing. Also Subaru's an adult

[Majin Buu]

I think it's possible that theres some sort of romantic between them. There feeling seemed to really point to romantic relationship but near the end it started leaning towards a best friends sort of relationship.

Originally posted by Aerin
Also Subaru's an adult

What makes you say that?

[Ado]

I think it was a more romantic relationship...especially near the end because Subaru says something like, "I'm in love with your spirit blah blah blah." So I'm guessing by 'love' she meant the sexual kind;)

[Kyrakasa]

I've seen People get married in REal Life after meeting through an Online RPG....

It happens...

I'm sure it would have turned out different if Tsukasa was older, and Subaru wouldn't be charged for Child Molestation ...


~_~

:liplick:

[Timon]

I've been thinking really deep non sexual friendship type love too. Sometimes you just really connect to a person and hold them very dearly. It's almost like the male bonding you'd see in old literature, Lord of the Rings had it with Frodo and Sam, cept here it's two girls... kinda. Which is kinda different and not seen as much as the other way mostly because back then all the writers were men (and women had the stigma of being jealous, backstabbing, etc. and were mostly still considered sexualy for the most part) and nowadays any same sex couple raises the gay alert~