[ SECRET POST #514 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #514 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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[that's McKay from SGA, by the way; ass-recognition courtesy of failaga]


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 13 pages, 305 secrets from Secret Submission Post #074.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 2 3 4 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 1 2 3 4 5 - too big ], [ 1 2 - repeat ], [ 1 - posted twice ], [ 1 - random link, wtf? ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

Re: 128 OP

[quaedam.livejournal.com]

Utena is a story about women, and their relationships with one another. The writer of Maria-sama ga miteru said something similar, I believe, when asked whether she'd ever give the women in her story boyfriends--she said that she would not, because this was a story about their relationships with each other. To a story like this, heterosexual romance -would- be distracting, though not romance in general: there is at least one overtly lesbian romance in Marimite. (All the rest, though the story as a whole is called shoujo-ai or yuri, is not overt at all and could be called 'just very good friendship', much as Utena/Anthy can).

And as for Anthy saying that she will find Utena after she leaves, I think this is very important to the 'point' of the story for reasons that have nothing to do with a traditional 'lovers running into each others' arms' Romantic resolution. Utena is a story specifically about women (Anthy at one point says 'I think all women are Rose Brides) and about how they may raise each other up. Not, in fact, about how they should just turn around the old prince and princess paradigm to become lone princes themselves. Utena herself admits that for a long time she only acted as Anthy's prince and defended her to serve her own ego--clearly the old model of the prince just doesn't work, even when both men and women can be princes.

As far as 'leaving one's emotional baggage behind' goes, everyone else stuck in perpetual adolescence in Ohtori has easily forgotten this person who was their friend, Anthy has not. I would say the fact that she does not forget as everyone else does, is a real sign that she has moved beyond Ohtori as they haven't: she has made a lasting friendship and/or whatever else, and has committed to it and taken responsibility for it. It would be an incredible betrayal of that friendship and all that it achieved for both her and for Utena, if Anthy didn't even remember Utena, didn't even worry about her, didn't even, for that matter, feel any guilt for having stabbed her in the back before leaving Ohtori--which without Utena, again, she could never have done. (That above all else, I think, obliges her to see Utena at least one more time, if only to apologize and thank her!)

As for why something more than friendship between them is only hinted at and not made overt, why it would even be hinted at at all, well... All I take from what the director said was just that their relationship was intended to be subtextually sexual. A bit. Not that he meant for Anthy and Utena to be a destined prince-and-princess couple in the traditional Romantic sense of the word. At worst it doesn't significantly affect the meaning of the story a lot one way or another, at best it could be saying something about the fact that not only friendship but also sexual love can be positive and uplifting when it's not turned into the artificial fantasy of a princess being rescued by a prince.

(I don't mean to get all strident here and harp at you about this for pages; I do see your point. You've just made me think about this series again and I had to at least write what I was thinking down. :))

Re: 128 OP

[(Anonymous)]

You definitely raise good points, and in theory, I don't disagree with you. That Utena is a series about women's relationship with each other is true; however it is also very much about women's relationships with men, as well, as the Utena/Touga and Utena/Akio and Anthy/Akio relationships define so well. If the director didn't want to muddle things by having the plot revolve around romantic relationships more than it did, which I think he was wise to do, then why bother having any romantic entanglements at all? That's my question.

I agree with your second paragraph very much, and I reiterate: why the need for romance there? Doesn't friendship work to this end as well?

And I agree with your third paragraph as well, but I still feel the line wasn't strictly necessary. To me, it implied more than just a brief visit, it was a quest. While I very much agree with your reasons for her wanting to find Utena, and I don't have a problem with her finding her per se, I just question the motives behind the decision to have her do so.

Your fourth paragraph makes a very interesting point and I'll mull that over. Since every other sexual relationship in the show was at best dysfunctional, it would be an interesting contrast.

And not a problem, I'm just trying to understand this discomfort I have with the ending now that I've gotten an insight into the director's decision on an aspect of the relationship I hadn't been aware of previously. Other people's views are helping me process a lot of it. :)