[ SECRET POST #1585 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #1585 ⌋


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


01.



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02.
[Shoujo Kakumei Utena]


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03.
[Pirates of the Caribbean]


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04.
[Zak McKracken and the Alien Mindbenders, Loom]


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05.
[Westminster Bagcarrier]


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06.


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07. [repeat]


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08.
[Eek! The Cat, Garfield]


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09.
[Gintama]


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10.
[Sassy Gay Friend]


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11.
[Doctor Who]


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12.
[florence and the machine]


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13.


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14.
[Inception]


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15.
[fakenews_fanfic]


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16.
[Ace Attorney]


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17.
[alex o'loughlin/the invisible]


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18.
[G.A.B.E.]


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19.


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20.
[The Black Cauldron]


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21.
[Pokemon]


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22.
[Girls Next Door by Pika-la-Cynique]


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23.
[Cuanta Vida]


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24.
[John Lennon]


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25.
[Tangled/The Enchanted Forest Chronicles]


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26.
[Inception]


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27.


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[ ----- SPOILERY SECRETS AHEAD ----- ]









28. [SPOILERS for Puella Magi Madoka Magica]



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29. [SPOILERS for Homestuck]



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30. [SPOILERS for Super]



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31. [repeat]


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[ ----- TRIGGERY SECRETS AHEAD ----- ]









32. [TRIGGER WARNING for rape]



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33. [TRIGGER WARNING for suicide]

[Doctor Who]


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34. [TRIGGER WARNING for self-harm]



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35. [TRIGGER WARNING for rape, abuse]








Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 00 pages, 00 secrets from Secret Submission Post #226.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 1 2 3 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 1 2 - too big ], [ 0 - hit/ship/spiration ], [ 0 - repeats ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

from the moment she met anthy, utena was concerned only with doing what SHE thought was right and not what WOULD be right for anthy. she constantly pushed anthy out of her comfort zone because she "needed" friends, a social life, to be a normal girl. she manipulated her into saying that she didn't like being manipulated, and took her at her word. she was a huge hypocrite in almost everything she did and said to anthy, and even at the very end she made everything all about her.

she used the rose bride more than anyone else, all in the name of pretending that she wasn't.

...akio was pretty awful too.

[goshedly.livejournal.com]

While I agree with her being a hypocrite and not understanding Anthy, since that was the main point of the first season pretty much, I disagree with her making it all about her in the end. You're kind of pushing aside what she did in the very last couple of episodes. That was when it was hammered into her how she was being manipulated by Akio, and how much pain she really was in. At that point, she was simply loved Anthy, and was trying to make Anthy's pain stop by any means necessary, even when she stabbed her.

That's what made her a "prince". If, at any moment during the last episode, she was still treating her as a project, Anthy's heart wouldn't have opened and she wouldn't have had the strength to leave Akio.

[kaasen.livejournal.com]

Utena was guilty of pushing Anthy too far, but she honestly didn't understand, I think. I remember that in school we were encouraged to reach out to our peers who sat alone at lunch, because just showing a little kindness could make their lives a little better. When Utena pushed Anthy to do new things, and Anthy put on a smile, I'm sure Utena was happy to see her happy, even if a some of it was because she felt she had helped someone.

Also, who says she didn't end up liking being 'normal,' once Anthy got used to it and was being bullied less? We know that Touga got her to say she liked being the rosebride, but who knows whether she was just being manipulated again? What if she was being cruel on purpose to make Utena feel bad?

And also, Akio was WAY more of an abuser than Utena, holy shit. He organized the whole thing! Even if Anthy acted out most of his plans, he was still the mastermind. And don't forget, he was raping her. Way worse than making her go to a dance.

[(Anonymous)]

well, okay, utena was using anthy the worst out of the duelists. akio was... akio.

though i'm not sure i would choose "school dance and complete humiliation simply for existing" over "nonviolent rape" if given the option.

not everyone has the same priorities.

[(Anonymous)]

...Nanami was the one who humiliated Anthy at the dance, not Utena.

I don't agree that Utena was the worst out of the duelists. The others were just as bad as her. No, they were worse. She is, as people have mentioned, the only duelist to realise her mistake, apologise for it, and change the way she acted because of it.

[(Anonymous)]

but utena made her go, and forced her into the spotlight after her dress was ruined.

i did, amazingly, watch the series i feel so strongly about.

[kayleen-san.livejournal.com]

Anthy was put in the spotlight the second the dress started falling apart--which was Nanami's doing. They do dance after Utena shields Anthy, but like I said, all eyes were already on her.

[(Anonymous)]

Utena didn't know that the dress thing would happen to Anthy, and she wasn't trying to draw attention to it once it happened, either. You're blaming the wrong person. Nanami was the main person at fault there.

I'll draw an analogy. Say that Person X hands Person Y a slice of chocolate cake and says "It's delicious! You really should eat it." Person Y might or might not want the chocolate cake: we don't know. But then, Person Z comes along, takes the cake, and violently slams it into Person Y's face. Person X tries to help clean up the mess. By your logic, Person X would be the most blameworthy person. But they aren't.

I don't want to sound mean here (though I probably will inadvertently) but you're blaming the wrong person unfairly, and it sounds as if there are personal issues mixed up in this for you which are clouding your judgement.

[anamatics.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that really really really was not Utena, it was Nanami. Utena saved the situation from actually being worse for Anthy. Try again.

[kaasen.livejournal.com]

I think I can see your point that Utena tried to guide Anthy's life more than the other duelists. But the other duelists seemed to be fighting for her to get the the power to bring the revolution, which is really just as selfish as using her to put on a performance as a prince. But are you saying you would have rather had her slapped around by Saionji? Miki and Juri probably wouldn't have treated her badly, but they didn't seem to have the strength to try to change Anthy's situation. I truly think Utena was trying to help, even if her reasons were misguided and she was uninformed, which sometimes made the situation worse.

Is it your opinion that Utena is worse, or Akio? You call it nonviolent rape, but we don't really know. We saw Akio pull Anthy towards her in a rough manner when she was hesitant to come to him in one episode, so it's possible she just lays there and takes it to avoid retaliation. Also, rape doesn't need to be physically violent to really take a toll on a person. If you could call an experience like going to a dance and suffering utter humiliation harmful, then I'm sure you can see that even without physical abuse, rape is also extremely violating.

[ember-reignited.livejournal.com]

she used the rose bride more than anyone else

Wrong. She used the Rose Bride exactly as much as anyone else. Yes, it was wrong, and yes, you could argue that her hypocrisy makes it worse — though she's hardly the only hypocrite around, and did't Miki also want to own Anthy in order to "save" her? But in the end, Utena was also the only Victor ever to realize their mistake and willingly pay the price for fixing it.

[luna-ashes.livejournal.com]

... Did you miss the part (the whole final arc, actually) where Utena realizes how naive and hypocritical her actions were, and then how she went and apologized profusely for it? Because that did happen. Whether that makes up for what she did or not is up to you, but she still did it. In fact, she's the only character in the whole series to realize just how awful her actions and behaviour towards Anthy are, and to go and actually go do something about it.

[phaethon.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it really feels like the OP stopped watching after the Student Council arc or something. This interpretation of Utena's character is only accurate for half of the series, if that.

[luna-ashes.livejournal.com]

It's either that, or massive character interpretation fail.

[phaethon.livejournal.com]

Initially, you're right -- Utena was incredibly selfish in how she interacted with Anthy. She wanted to save her, but it was mostly a self-driven pursuit and not as noble as it appeared. She, like the duelists, viewed the Rose Bride as a means to an end. Similarly, while she was abused and otherwise tormented, Anthy isn't a perfect angel. She's manipulative and chooses to inflict pain on others as a way of easing her own. Utena, as well, is a means to an end for her.

But as the series progresses, both Utena and Anthy reach various breaking points. You'll have to forgive me for forgetting which episode this is, but they go through a personal rennaissance when Anthy tries killing herself and she and Utena share that tearful rooftop embrace. Utena admits she was wrong; Anthy has been confronted with her own damaging behavior. From that point forward, they no longer act in their own interests, but for each other. Even Anthy's betrayal of Utena was a deeply compassionate act, as she wanted to spare Utena from the fate of becoming her prince.

This is all my own interpretation, of course, but I believe Utena changes the world because of her true and genuine compassion. It was the missing ingredient that, for all his machinations, Akio could never create. Anthy, in turn, is transformed by that compassion and can be a whole person again.

[(Anonymous)]

(Not the OP)

I do agree that genuine compassion was what was missing, but I feel as if it wasn't that Anthy was transformed by that but that she was inspired by it (for lack of a better word). Because what she did at the end of the series was such a pro-active thing, a step that she made under her own power. It's a bit like Utena opened the door, but Anthy was the one and only person to decide she could step through and actually do it.

[phaethon.livejournal.com]

Oh, I absolutely agree; I didn't intend to gloss over Anthy's accomplishment, because it was very much a step she had to take on her own. But Utena's kindness toward her was certainly an impetus, and if Utena was really so much of a horrible monster as the secret implies, things wouldn't have worked out quite like that.

[romanticide-xd.livejournal.com]

You do realize that one of the points of the series was Utena realize that? She did and felt really bad about it, and even at the end she only convinced her that she just could stop being the rose bride if she hated it so much, and so she did.