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Not to be like "conflating the words 'ship' and 'couple' has been an active detriment to how fandoms discuss queer coded media (especially that of countries where queer media is actively censored)," but—

Wrice and Nouli are coded into the canon, they're not just ships. This can be seen in both the pride merch surrounding the characters and in the way they're each set up as a foil or parallel to a straight couple.

For the pride merch: Wreck's refrigerator magnets and Nuonuo's hair clips (and before I see any "those are just colors": you don't see any queer specific combos in the same orders as the flags on any of the straight characters)

For how they compare and contrast to straight couples:

Episode 2 centers around the idea of perfection and control stifling love, and how people can only be a couple when they are free and can be honest and messy.

the first half of the episode is focused on Moonling. Now like, Lin Ling did already like perfect girl™️ Moon, but he started crushing extra hard when she went in messy, rage quit mode (look at that face: that is the only correct reaction). For Moon, it took her longer to come around. She initially rejects Lin Ling when she thinks he's just a replacement "Nice," but starts to take interest when she sees him as he actually is (an artsy, creative, dork). That interest is snapped alongside Lin Ling's swing (object symbolic of his true personality) when he mentions going along with the marriage/ conforming to Treeman's vision for them.

The other thing the first half of the episode does is establish how Nice couldn't stand mess and imperfection with Moon, and then in the second half, we get Wreck's pov and we're shown that Nice was the exact opposite with Wreck. The embracing of mess is shown through the parallel food fights (something Moon says Nice wouldn't be able to stand, but something we're shown him happily doing with Wreck). Additionally, the food fights are shown to have the exact same order of events: partner throws first piece-> "Nice" is initially upset, then quickly recovers and throws back-> escalates into mutual playful fighting

I also think the food fights are sex metaphors, but that's not actually that important to this discussion. I just wanted y'all to know

The final element of Moonling and Wrice's dynamic is freedom (which sadly isn't something we get to see them having a lot of since all their stories revolve around being robbed of autonomy). We see with both couples, they're at their happiest and are most receptive to being a couple when they are either literally free (wrice in the dance studio, moonling on the beach pre Yang Cheng showing up), or away from the media/press (wrice in Wreck's apartment, Moonling on the 15th floor apartment)

In contrast to wrice and moonling (who are meant to be parallels), Nouli and Ghostblade/Zhang Lan are designed as foils.

The former differs in personality while being united by ideals and communication, while the latter is united by personality and divided by ideals and lack of communication.

This difference is shown symbolically in each couples first meeting (which take place on opposite sides of the same alleyway. Ghostblade himself calls attention to this parallel)

With Nouli, we see how clashing personalities and ideas leads to communication (which leads them to finding out that they have the same ideals). Said communication leads to personal growth. The simplified explanation of their base personalities would be "Louli is loud, tough, and brash. Nuonuo is soft-spoken and understanding. Both of them are incredibly smart and ambitious." Louli's personality rubbing off on Nuonuo leads her to learning to stand up for herself (yelling at both Ghostblade and DJ Shindig) and stand up to authority (arguing with Prof Luo and standing up for Louli). Nuonuo's personality rubbing off on Louli leads her to see the wear house as an opportunity instead of a punishment/jail, leading her to realize she now has the tools and the space to make her mech suit.

In contrast, Ghostblade and Zhang Lan are brought together by their same "quiet, no fucks given" personalities, but their lack of communication leads to stagnation and devision. We as an audience can't be sure what their ideals really are and quite frankly, I don't think they know themselves. Ghostblade claims to crave quiet, but learns to love it in specific circumstances (ex: loving music because it serves as a connection to his daughter). Zhang Lan claims to want a big family/ to live with company, but she didn't follow through with moving back in with her parents after the divorce. Neither of them ever actually discuss what they want— just do what they want in the moment and regret their decisions later. Because of this, their relationship is over almost as quickly as it began.

("erasing the gays is cringe" comments aside) It is important to acknowledge these characters as queer because it is an active part in the themes of their stories:

Nice's story is that of someone who was miserable because the corporation he worked for stipped him of every piece of his humanity and forced him to fit their image of a "perfect person." For him (important disclaimer: this is about what made Nice in particular human. I'm not commenting on all of humanity here), that meant belittling his ideals (calling his desire to make people smile "cheap"), forcing him to go against his values (turning him into a human weapon), taking him away from his hobbies/ interests (I'm not familiar enough with dance to put a label on what Nice was doing beyond "not ballet") and giving him corpo approved ones (ballet, piano, stock marketing), and denying him his right to love. Now like, forcing two straight people who don't like each other into an arranged marriage is still bad, but there is an intentional commentary behind making Nice and Moon a gay man and a probably straight woman. It's about how both are dehumanized— Nice forced to deny who he is inorder to gain societal acceptance, Moon turned into a prop for profit.

In contrast, Louli's story centers around her personal complete rejection of all societal standards and how she still needs loved ones supporting her inorder to maintain that life. Hell, this is such a theme with her that it even wormed its way into how her suit works (completely rejects both trust and fear, needed Nuonuo's additions to be complete, works best when Nuonuo is on tech support during fights and can send Louli weapons while she brawls). While the obvious standards she's rejecting are "cute girls have to be docile" and "warriors have to be macho men," but her rejecting heteronormativity is a subtler theme throughout the story as well. We see it in her rejection of bully guy, her horror when she thought Da Xiong was confessing, and her refusal to accept "he's in love" as a pass for Ghostblade's behavior.

(this next part is about them as whole characters, not just the romatic stuff) All of this leads back to the show's central theme: the system is bad and needs to change. Conformity to the system keeps Nice and Wreck safe from being physically attacked by it, but leads to them both self destructing. Louli and Nounou's rejection of the system lets them be free and happy, but it also puts a target on their back and results in the agencies attacking them, killing their team, and destroying their work. TBHX makes it clear this is not a fair fate for either of them.

#to be hero x #tbhx #this post is not directed at any one person in particular #this is just a rant thats been building up since episode 2 released and I am tired #to be clear: Ship= “two characters I'd personally like to be together.” Couple= “two characters that are together”#the two can overlap but they are not inherently the same thing #for example: I like Sawako and Shouta (Kimi ni todoke) and they are a couple. That is a canon couple I ship #I dislike Tohru and Kyo (Fruits Basket) and they are a canon couple. That is a canon couple I do not ship #I like Feng Xin and Mu Qing (tgcf) together but they are not canon. That is a non-canon pair I ship #the way all my ships left my brain the second I tried to think of examples (ya girl consumes a lot of queer media where its actually canon)#but ya— its fine to dislike canon ships/ like non-canon ships. I'd be a hypocrite to say otherwise #but what gets under my skin is when people are discussing the canon and dismiss the queer ships because they aren’t sucking face on screen #especially in shows like tbhx where the straight couples aren't sucking face on screen either (except Ghostblade and Zhang Lan I guess)#truly the only difference between how straight couples and gay couples are written in tbhx #is that the straight couples get to say the words “love” or “crush”#and reminder: LI HAOLING HAS DIRECTED STRAIGHT UP YAOI WHERE BOYS KISS ON SCREEN BEFORE (see: Spiritpact and tgcf)#he was just the director (so they weren't original stories by him) but he's no stranger to queer media #the coding he puts in his shows is in no way an accident #fanon is fun but the fandomification of how media is genuinely discussed drives me fucking insane #and look— sometimes the curtains are just blue #but when you're looking at a writer/director who has a long history of making visual imagery and symbolism important to his story #you'd have to be intentionally obtuse to say the curtains are just blue #wrice #nuoli #moonling #do Ghostblade and Zhang Lan have a ship name? Do more than like 2 people even like them as a couple?