Juliana is such an amazing character. I love my confuse little bean.

She is! We’re getting more f/f characters now and more types of f/f characters, but Juls actually does fall into a lot of the older f/f archetypes for “good characters”, teen character starting to discover their sexuality, kind of serious and not super into guys, crushing on her friend, a little messy but mostly morally impeccable, and now that I think about it, perhaps that because this is the Mexican version of that introductory character. Once US rep graduated past psycho lesbian evil bi femme fatale types, they went with very sympathetic, relateable types on purpose, where the audience would be predisposed to like them. 

And Juls is all that, but she embodies her personality so completely, with so many layers, responsible and older than her years, her mother’s confidante, but still kind of a brat with Panchito and Milagros, insecure in some ways, confident and experienced in others. I fell in love when her way of breaking the ice with/distract Val was by pretending to mug her. What a doofus. She’s just a person, and I love her.

u don’t know the half of it boocita. i found ur blog aages ago through i think a gif of SNSD (loml) and stayed for the OUAT / meghan ory content so we’re probably going on at least 6 or 7 years? i’ve followed you through thick and thin ? but it’s been a quality time

I was like, I’ve never giffed SNSD in my life, but lol, I guess there were a few there. Wow, ages ago! You stayed through so much…unlike certain friends who abandon you when you gif a lot of the white cishet couple from The Mentalist. >_> 

Oof, you stayed through TRMD and then the Depression Era of 2016. I still sometimes think about my Meghan Ory True Justice project. So many gifs to make, so little time… Welp, here’s to more times like the AAM experience. 🙂

Do you think the new juliantina cut will have subtitles at some point? My dumb scandinavian self is distressed lol

I’ve seen people wonder the same thing, “if they want to reach an international audience, maybe they should add subtitles?” and people have conjectured that some of Barb’s tweets may imply they’ll add them. At worst, about 95% is already subbed by fans, so they might do the additional scenes and then redo the timing and editing for these versions. 

i always took juls turning away because she was uncomfortable with val being high

Hmm, I do think that’s a part of it in the sense that this all is happening while Val is not fully in control. Except for when Val tried to give her the pill, Juls has been exasperatedly patient with her, humoring her little games. When she’s pulled up to dance, she’s still smiling, it’s only at the closeness that can’t mean anything because Val is high and just being playful that there’s more…pathos?

image

And another anon:

i think with val she was so drunk at that party that she was just going with her gut and even in the way she’d gushed over juls up until then had seemed really instinctive and kinda not self aware. whereas with juls in the zipper scene and the way she’d slept next to val there is like the RESTRAINT.. the gay woman’s restraint… u know what i mean boocita (sorry yes its me), and Juls is just way more lucid throughout the whole party scene

Omg. YOU. Still hate the name, but wow, we’ve been together for so long. :’)

No, for sure, we’ve always compared how impulsive and instinctive Val is while Juls turns inward and is so watchful and careful, by necessity, so it’d make sense that even when Val isn’t under the influence, Juls is more aware of her feelings. The gay woman’s restraint all right. Though even Val the next day can’t help but realize the implications. 

And another anon:

I always thought Juls became aware of her feelings when dancing in the park and Val wasn’t aware until the Party/dress shopping. (I think they had feelings long prior but just didn’t recognize them.)

I love that there can be so many of these theories that don’t necessarily contradict each other, because obviously it is a long process of realizations and questioning yourself. “Is it because she’s so pretty? My first pretty female friend? I want to be like her? I look up to her?” We’ve all gone through that.

When I was rewatching the park dancing scene earlier today, even before the deleted scene, you had Juls clearing her throat and having trouble speaking and meeting Val’s gaze, like, she’d have to know something was up. Whether it was the catalyst to full realization or just the start of some intense self-questioning, obviously we’ll never know (unless the writers weigh in), but we can theorize! 

i feel so validated now thinkin that juls knew about her feelings way longer than val did bc of that zipper scene

Ah, this kind of ask takes me back! I think the “when do you think they knew about their feelings” category of ask was second only to the top/bottom discourse. 😛

But, hmm. Did we not think there was already realization on both fronts the night of the party? Val did almost kiss her that night. What did the zipper scene convey that, say, Juls turning her head away when Val tried to dance with her earlier didn’t?