#you mean it's all rgu?

[adracat]

GWitch: The Aspects of Anthy

Anthy Himemiya is a divisive figure in Utena. You either love and understand her, or loathe her as much as the in-universe world does. But that's the nature of a witch and rose bride. Today I want to discuss why, in my opinion, GWitch's use and seperation of her aspects is clever. Three characters share the role; Suletta Mercury, Ericht Samaya, and Miorine Rembran

The Witch Outside Her Coffin

Let's dissect in order. Suletta has been through the ringer this season, abandoned by everyone she loves. But it's through the unconditional love of Earth House that she recovers; scarred but healing. This aspect is liberated by love and nourished into a self-realized individual but it's not an immediate process. You can't rush recovery, even with love. It's the same for Anthy.

By the end of Utena 39, she has exited her coffin and regained her agency. She was able to walk freely from Ohtori, leaving behind her oppressor. She wouldn't allow him control anymore. This realization was brought on by Utena's unconditional love and choice to reach for her, in spite of Anthy's earlier betrayal. Tellingly, she has resolved to find Utena after her love took her place as the bearer of swords, like Mio does for Suletta. She eventually finds her in the Utena movie.

The Witch in the Coffin

Eri I hadn't interpreted as an Anthy until I saw that QZ was quite literally a giant techno coffin. (Dramatic much, Prospera?) Eri is Anthy's hidden self, inert in her coffin. She cannot move forward and does not wish to, relinquishing control in the hands of Prospera. That's what a coffin in Utena symbolizes; stagnancy. Aerial is trapped in servitude to her mother and complicit in these schemes. She carries Anthy's bland affect and disconcerting calm. Aerial is content to stagnate.

To an outsider, Anthy's relationship to Akio and by relation Eri's to her mother may be incomprehensible. Why not struggle? But victims, in this instance sexual abuse and filial obligation, are not perfect. They do not operate on the same logic as the unoppressed. They may act contradictory or aid their abuser, and to an observer it seems counterintuitive. Why don't you wish to be free? But they do, only fear for themselves/others and even love for the person controlling them keep them bound. There's a significant shot of Anthy being assaulted by Akio, but she's not fighting. She accepts the advance and clings to him with the universe composed of his frame. It's not framed as romantic, it's twisted dependence. Akio is all she has after being worn away by the swords and abuse.

The Rose Bride and the Rose Gate

The Rose Bride is a title of submission, but more importantly a willing one. Like the encoffinated witch, she cannot move forward. The swords of human hatred and her oppressor will not allow it. Miorine is currently bearing the swords for Prospera, as Prospera strides towards the Rose Gate, or the Door to Eternity. But where's Mio's fire? Her abundant defiance? The Rose Bride does not have either. Miorine is pinned in place by guilt and self-loathing. And her role is lampshaded with the media and Lauda blaming her for all that has happened. The Rose Bride bears the swords of her volition.

It's important to note that this was foreshadowed in the S2 ED with the Odin iconography. Odin didn't just sacrifice an eye, he pierced his body with Gungnir and hung himself from a tree. He's associated with the Hanged Man tarot for this reason

Like Mio and the Rose Bride, it signifies willful surrender. The role of a martyr bearing sins for what they believe to be a greater good. It's interesting to note that new insight can be gained from this submission. Anthy is eventually freed from the swords by unconditional love. With the above parallel, Suletta will do the same for Mio. Until then, the Rose Bride is hung by swords.

[biruesque]

out of place, out of touch, out of time

[diezmil10000]

maybe we aren't meant for revolution

[rosebridal]

narrative foil antagonism at its best

[liquidstar]

maybe im overthinking, but do you ever think abt how in episode 1, utena justifies wearing the boys uniform by saying its not against the rules? while this was clearly a "gotcha" moment against that stuffy teacher, i feel like it also shows how shes still functioning within the parameters of the ohtori system. like, yeah, shes being rebellious, but its a form of rebellion that isnt actually revolutionary- shes still following the rules propagating the structure built around the patriarchal prince, shes just doing it in the "opposite" way of whats expected, but shes not actually fighting it. though, of course, even this much deviance still tries to get corrected... its still not against the rules. i feel like from the beginning we're told aspiring to princedom isn't a noble goal, and that utena is still part of the system as long as she pursues it

[heartslobbf]

i dont knowww there’s just something about how both nanami and touga’s warnings to utena about entering the duel called revolution are essentially ‘you can’t trust end of the world or anthy’. and theyre both genuinely well intentioned about that because they do both care about utena’s wellbeing, even if someone (touga) is too misogynistic to go about that in a Normal way. but then you have juri, and all juri does when talking to utena about whether or not she’ll enter the final duel is ask ‘what are you going to do with anthy?’ and ‘you love her, don’t you?’ like. none of the stuco ever really recognise anthy’s personhood, none of them care about her, they dislike her. but juri sees how much utena feels for anthy and she says actually, maybe the way that you feel about her is important. and she tells her to do something about that (also!! anthy and shiori parallels, huge significance for juri’s character post-ruka etc etc). what im saying here is that juri is the only character other than utena to understand, or attempt to understand, what anthy means to utena, and why that relationship is important. there is no someday together without juri and that just makes me absolutely bonkers

[daylighteclipsed]

I finished Rebirth! The last leg of the game gave big KH vibes imo (the name of the last chapter (End of the World) is even the name of the last level/world in KH1). But that ending was crazy. Does Cloud, like, know Aerith is dead, or is he so deep in denial that he thinks she’s alive?

[ninashiki]

i feel like almost everything in utena has sort of already been extensively discussed in the last two (almost three) decades of utena's existence (not that there aren't new interpretations to be made, there always are) besides black rose arc (mikage+mamiya+tokiko). which is why they're so much fun to think about. i think the need to read between the lines makes it unfortunately easy to misunderstand or look past obvious stuff if you don't pay attention, but to me it's always been really obvious that mikage's arc is a literal representation of the erasure of queerness in ohtori (society?) by akio/everything he represents. and that's so fucking tragic! nemuro was never able to find a name for his desires. he lived and died as a puppet in the shadows.

[aroanthy]

hi!! i know u talk a lot about aromanticism a lot on here, but i don’t think i’ve ever seen u talk about aromantic anthy. would u mind discussing/elaborating on it or linking to a post where u do because i’m very curious!!

i got a similar ask half a year ago or something ridiculous like that on my main blog, but i’d like to really do justice to my url right now and explain it in more concrete terms.

i will say, it’s important to bear in mind that this reading of anthy’s character is very much informed by my own experiences, and a lot of those experiences are ones im not keen to talk in depth about. but you know. let’s make some nebulous gestures towards ideas of being traumatised, being autistic, struggling to meaningfully connect with others and honestly not really wanting to do such because of how they treat you.

like ive previously said, an aromantic perspective on the world would, i think, really benefit anthy. when youve lived your whole life experiencing violence at the hands of these patriarchal structures, of which romance is absolutely one, it’s kinda like. damn. im uncomfortable buying into those ideas.

anthy also has this lovely line in ep 19 where she says to utena ‘romance either happens or it doesn’t’ and it’s just sooooooo. so very interesting to me, actually, that anthy would say something so black and white about ‘romance’, a topic that anthy knows better than a lot of rgu characters is hopelessly confused and arbitrary and often enabling violence. and utena (fellow aromantic gaybo) says 'yeah, i know, but...'. these simplifications, these elisions. what is and isn't articulated. but what? maybe things are much more complicated than we'd like to think.

anyway enough of that tangent. one thing i as a trans and aromantic person always return to when discussing trans and aromantic readings of characters/texts more broadly is that there's no singular piece of evidence that can really cement these readings as Undeniable. it's like. okay. there's a critique of romance as a patriarchal structure in revolutionary girl utena. there's an ambiguity about anthy's feelings towards characters like utena, where there is clearly a queer connection but it takes shape in unconventional and complex ways. me, i'm aromantic, i see all of these pieces and i go oh well that's because she's an aromantic lesbian. you know, there's plenty of little moments i can evidence but those moments can be used to argue for an alloromantic lesbian anthy too. romance is a very arbitrary thing and i think everyone should take their own approach to it unapologetically. of course, mine is that it's hellish and i want nothing to do with it, but im just one guy. and im okay with that. i feel strongly about this reading and it is personal, and id be dishonest to say otherwise, but i do also find that it's well-evidenced in the text. as one of my lecturers once said, don't worry about authorial intent, it isn't real <3

[clowningoose]

[universalthaumaturge]

ok i get why anthy has creature of delirium now

[fantastic-mr-corvid]

Despite Elenas whole roses & dresses style and the overwhelming amount of stuff in Celia n co thats inspired by revolutionary girl utena, ironically thats one of the few thing not inspired by rgu. Roses are just fucking cool and so is Elena<3 She was actually much more of a girl-prince, if a very jaded one, when she was a kid, and her leaving & dressing more feminine & covering up is freedom to her.

[seventeendeer]

rewatching princess tutu for the first time in 5+ years and fighting droves of inner demons trying to give poor angry boy a chance this time. tumblr tells me he’s really cool and interesting when you get to know him, I’m going in with an open heart this time around, I promise. I won’t even throw rocks at my computer when he’s on screen probably

[strebcr]

Girl help I'm back on my Utena bullshit...Again

[llycaons]

can I be honest here it's true there's ppl who insist on watching shows like iwtv then wildly misinterpret everything because it's too complicated for them but there's also ppl who will mock you for only watching shows within your intellectual comfort level/for never trying anything new or challenging and ALSO for trying to understand something and getting it wrong. obviously you gotta hear from multiple perspectives and practice critical thinking as a skill and try to learn from ppl who are speaking with authority on their own experiences but that takes time and not everyone you encounter on the internet is gonna be an expert. and obviously outside of bigoted interpretations maybe it's not the end of the world if some people are wrong about a tv show and this is coming from someone who loves to complain about other ppl being wrong about media I mean you know me

like...there are very good reasons why people are so critical of iwtv fans being so so bad at understanding what's happening or being extremely judgemental of some characters over others (racism) but it is also kind of funny to see condescending posts about how 'ugh, everyone on this site only watches kids shows' one day and 'wow, viewerss are SO stupid for not immediately understanding this intentionally complex and confusing situation' the next like I thought we wanted people to challenge themselves! they're not going to immediately understand it perfectly coming from, idk, the hunger games. and if they're not given any grace it's not easy to branch out! again I'm specifically discussing the misreadings of the interview process, the sequence of events, and the structure of the story, and NOT the misreadings of the characters wrt their race. I'm not saying racist viewers who refuse to educate themselves need their hands held by black viewers I want to be clear

imo the 'discussion questions' post was a genuinely fun and accessible way to direct critical engagement over this last episode I'm dead serious I wish we had more of them. I know how annoying it is to see people misread a story and characters you understand, but it's a complicated show and not everyone is going to get it easily or on their own idk. I'm just glad for my mutuals who knows what's going on bc EYE do not <- knows her intellectual limits

THAT BEING SAID the way some of these people are wrong is so goddamn smug and annoying. no further comment. this is the internet. where better to get worked up over poor media literacy shajshfjsjdj

[heartslobbf]

loving your brother sososososososo much saying if anything happened to you i’d…… what? what would you do? in what way would you fall apart? how would you put yourself back together afterwards? would you swallow the notion that there was nothing at all whole? would you grow bitter and jaded, would your body finally cease to reject that splinter of cynicism? godddddd. nanami. nanami. i know where those feelings lead. being a child being a baby having done nothing other than be born. thinking youve grown up thinking youve come to understand the world, only understanding a one-dimensional fragment of it. you truly don’t understand screaming sobbing crying until youve witnessed nanami’s world collapse around her in real time in the most cruel and horrific manner imaginable. dont even get me started on how anthy and touga feel about it