Ah yes, forgot about those BFTC moments. And yet the thing is I doubt it's even people running with the TD idea. I really feel in a lot of cases that it seems natural to everybody. I think it's what you say here, that he is supposed to be pulling pigtails. But what makes it disturbing to me is that it reads as something like negging because his lines are being written by adult men and he's being written as a cool character--I mean, sure he's often supposed to be being bratty and obnoxious, but in general he's a fantasy character. So it's pigtail pulling without the vulnerability and awkwardness of an actual child.