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tumblr will say "I SUPPORT WOMEN'S WRONGS" with their whole chests and then turn around and flatten complex female characters into cardboard cutouts of themselves with all the sharp edges sanded down

meanwhile the tumblr sexymen get to be messy and complex and three-dimensional

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can't stop falling in love with my minor characters. this is a problem, y'all

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i hate this weird trend in fandom where subtext is seen as a Bad Thing and is only done if the creators are too cowardly to commit to showing something. i hate to break it to you but nuance and layers are what make stories interesting, if you have no subtext then you have a very flat story

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sir ansbach

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Proof that I am still alive and still writing below the cut (it's a little sneak peek of A Strangeness in the Shadows)

Only when the curve of the garden wall places them out of her line of sight does Morgott speak again.

“I mislike the way she looked upon me,” he mutters.

There’s no bitterness in it. Only unease.

Oleg’s hand falls to his sword with a casual grace that would not seem alarming—except Morgott knows that gesture too well.

“She doesn’t know… does she?” His voice is calm, but his eyes are sharp, reading every twitch of Morgott’s brow.

Sister Siwan wouldn’t be the first person Oleg has cut down for secrecy’s sake. Nor the last.

“I know not.” Morgott shakes his head.

The uncertainty is bitter on his tongue.

“Keep thy blade sheathed,” he adds. “For now.”

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in episode 1, utena defeated saionji with only a wooden sword, without any help from prince dios (i believe this was the case) as would be observed in later episodes. saionji was using the sword of dios against utena in the duel. i find this to be very impressive on utena's part because saionji was a skilled swordsman. it reminded me of how utena managed to pass through the rose gate without the sword of dios in episode 39, with only bare, bloody hands and a heart overflowing with love for anthy. unlike akio who failed to cut through the gate even with the strongest soul sword, the one pulled out of utena.

to commemorate the 28th year since revolutionary girl utena started airing (02/04/1997), here are some parallels between the first and final episodes of rgu (per chronological order of episode 1):

utena and anthy's hands slipping away from each other's grasp both in the opening and episode 39.

the duelling arena being destroyed as prince dios wakes up in the opening versus the duelling arena being destroyed by the swords of humanity's hatred in episode 39.

prince dios on his white horse, looking over a ledge with bare trees in the background from episode 1 versus akio looking up to anthy being stabbed by millions of swords representing humanity's hatred in midair in episode 39.

prince dios and baby utena with bare trees in the background in episode 1 versus anthy walking away at the ending of episode 39.

prince dios putting on the rose crest ring on baby utena's finger in episode 1 versus prince dios trying to kiss the ring in episode 39, as utena lies helpless on the floor in the rose bride dress.

baby utena watching prince dios riding away on his white horse in episode 1 versus anthy walking down the same path at the ending of episode 39.

baby utena wanting to be a prince in episode 1 versus utena apologising to anthy because she couldn't be a prince as she hangs over the ledge in episode 39.

utena and anthy respectively, emerging into the corridor in episodes 1 and 39.

utena, anthy, and the rose garden in episodes 1 and 39.

part 2 of the post

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guy with every issue,,

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Possession.

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even as a knight you're always drunk and sad

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Stag handle knife, Europe, 19th century.

from Czerny’s International Auction House

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the most annoying people are people who don't understand storytelling. they be like "oooo how convenient that this thing happened to the main character in the very beginning". yeah no shit. that's why the story begins here

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the specimen storehouse to me is the vile crux of so much... it represents a violence that is almost (visibly) absent from marika's reign, which is the violence of museums, except there is an unavoidably visible example of this, which is the corpse of gransax preserved in defeat upon leyndell. so following a train of thought the storehouse could be seen as a distortion of farum azula, or its legend, or what has become of its legend under marika's reign- architectures of entombment, and its verticality mirroring what's left of farum azula (the structure of its crumbling provokes a keen sense of verticality), and even messmer lurking at the top vs maliketh in his cathedral. but i think too that the storehouse is meaningful for marika's character, as it could stand in microcosm for how exactly she has utilized the land of shadow- as a god she is gaoler and entomber and the land of shadow is where she has buried. Buried messmer, who is reached through the storehouse, and buried her home, which is reached through the storehouse, and buried the jar innards, with the clinic being in the storehouse basement, and, most of all, buried an entire culture and an entire people. the storehouse is symbolic of environmental devastation tracing back to a god of life and abundance- there were great horned beasts which once ran wild. and miquella following the path of the god marks his own trail in the horror which is the specimen storehouse