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broadwaytheanimatedseries · 6 months

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Okay but hear me out!

Dead On Main Revolutionary Ghost Utena AU:

Canonically, Jason focuses his rage to summon the All Blade

Ghost Prince Danny would have the Ring of Rage, but not the Crown of Fire yet

I hypothesize to you that the two are connected, and not only that, but that wearing the ring allows one to draw the All Blade out of the other. Like, literally.

Because of this, summoning the All Blade of their own accord is the mark of a ghost powerful enough to be the ghost king's betrothed, and whatever other ghosts were in the running are pushed back in line as the All Blade wielder is now at the front.

It is part of ancient ceremony that predates Pariah as Ghost King and dates all the way back to the first Royal of the infinite realms, King Lazarus.

The connection itself is no more than a pull towards each other, a fascination at most to make an easier base to build a genuine and in this case, human connection.

To become actually engaged Jason would have to willingly appear before the Ghost Prince and allow him to draw the All Blade out of him, something he is not very excited for and might actually have other lasting impact besides the engagement.

Y'see Jason isn't a halfa the way Danny is, he came back twice in a short amount of time between those two instances, and while the second time was Lazarus induced, no one really knows how he woke up in his grave and broke himself out. There are theories but Clockwork was watching and even he doesn't seem to know for sure, so it's really anyone's guess.

So what the engagement ceremony could do, potentially, is either solidify his halfa status by sheer amount of ectoplasm transfered by the act, or alternatively it could just kill him on the spot and then he'd probably become a full ghost.

Now, neither of these sound great to Jason, but he also doesn't like that a bunch of ghosts have been trying to fight him for their Prince's hand in marriage, something they can only do while the Prince is still not engaged to anyone.

Meanwhile, Danny doesn't appreciate that as soon as he came of age all these marriage proposals started being thrown at him, he's known some of these ghosts since he was a teenager so that's really weird for one, and he gets that most of them are just trying to secure their happiness and not to mention their future safety as the mortal world seems to be moving on with the anti ecto act, which had lead many a specter to retreat back to the realms, causing a lot of unrest as the realms become more crowded and politically tense between factions who have not needed to interact for a while now.

It would seem the Amity portal and even Danny fighting the ghosts and sending them back through it was the break many of the realms' denizens desperately needed, but now with that option no longer being safe, as even their king can't protect them from the GIW when they're gaining so much support from governments across the world, tensions are running high in the realms and it seems that it's every ghost for themselves.

Danny doesn't really resent any of the ghosts for doing what they feel they must to make sure they aren't destroyed in what is shaping out to be a realms wide war at this point, even as he works overtime with his council to prevent that from happening, and he understands they obviously don't expect any actual marital kind of relationship from him, which is at least a little reassuring even if the idea of being married to any of them is still very weird, but he can't help but think there could be a better solution here that he's missing.

And then he feels it, a pull telling him he's overlooked something, someone important.

It's like a fire engulfing his ice core but not burning it somehow, just as it does not cool the fire around it.

Two opposite forces meant to cancel each other out, somehow instead keeping perfect equilibrium with one another.

He talks to Frostbite and Clockwork and finds out what that pull is and takes their advice to follow it.

Jason doesn't realize he just altered the source of all his recent problems to his location as he draws the All Blade to fend off yet another "challenger to the Prince's hand" whatever the hell that means, as finally one of them was dumb enough to try to use actual magic against him.

However, he soon feels the answering pull back from Danny as the latter decides to use the power in his ring to open the portal, feeling that this candidate should at least know he's coming to talk to him.

It's almost the opposite, he feels the fire of the pit madness flaring a bit, but instead of immediately trying to spread, to threaten to consume him unless he tempers it himself, it is still burning just as strong and wild, but kept in one place by an icy chill, an aura of cold, clear fury and calm in equal measure, it doesn't thaw from the fire anymore than his fire dies from the lack of heat around it.

They sustain each other, impossibly.

So Jason and Danny finally meet and give each other the rundown of their side of things and agree that maybe the best bet to not only stop ghosts from attacking Jason and proposing to Danny, but perhaps the key to overthrowing the GIW so the realms' denizens don't have to afterlive in fear and portals can be reinstated to allow travel through the realms and back, not to mention keeping the GIW from going after Jason himself who by their definition is certainly considered an ecto entity, is in fact to go through with the Ring and Blade ceremony.

Jason, at this point, is more of Earth than Danny, who has unfortunately had to step back from his normal mortal life when he turned 18 to take care of realms business, despite still only being Prince.

He was meant to have more time but with the GIW advancing like they had been it was in the realms' best interest as well as his own that he decree the realms going no contact with humans for the foreseeable future.

It's been nearly 3 years since then and they are still getting ghosts back from parts of the world who have been avoiding humans as much as they can.

As soon as he turned 21 all this ghost marriage nonsense has has been making his job of protecting the ghosts in all the realms a lot more difficult, so when ghosts realized he didn't want to be challenged every day for his hand, they went to the next best thing, the top candidate.

Now, Phantom was saying that he's gonna marry the guy they've all been trying to defeat (and failing, to his credit, so at least he was worthy of being top pick)

A lot of them were upset or disappointed, but he explained how this arrangement could potentially help out everyone in the long run and most got on board when they heard the new plan.

Now the only problem is that getting engaged, as mentioned previously, is a ceremony that could prove dangerous to Jason and "not to be insensitive about it, but if you die and become a ghost that sorta defeats one of the main purposes of us even doing this." Danny points out.

"So what's our plan, Your Majesty?" "It's Royal Highness, I'm not king yet, thank the ancients for that." "Yeah yeah, so what are we doing, Your Royal Whinyness?" "Rude. Anyway, there's a chance you might become a full halfa during the process, that means getting a second form and a fully developed core and powers besides the All Blade, which would be better than you dying. So the best way to ensure that outcome, as much as any outcome can be guaranteed anyway, is to start the process of making you a halfa before the ceremony."

"Okay? How do we do that?" "Well, we gotta get some ecto in you - " "aren't you made of that? This better not be a pickup line" "no, not like that! I told you, this marriage doesn't have to be anything more than a contract, I'm about as thrilled about having to get married to save my people as you are about doing this to stop ghost from kicking your ass on a weekly basis." "Excuse me? I won all those fights!" "Yeah, after getting tossed into brick walls 5 times per ghost" "not every ghost tossed me into walls. Box Bitch did throw crates at me tho, that hurt." "Holyshit, Boxy is not messing around anymore huh? Well, makes sense, he's a father now. He doesn't wanna raise his little girl in these conditions. Still glad he lost, but I'm surprised Lunch Lady even agreed to him trying."

So they start Jason on his ecto diet and in the meantime the batfam is brought up to date about everything that's happening and they get to work, Batman gathers the JL to push back on the GIW's fuckery and all of Jason's siblings have an engagement party and a bachelor bash to plan. The girls decide to plan a Bachelorette party for Danny because he deserves to have a break as well.

Jason hates his stupid family, but Danny seems happy to be part of one again after so long, so he sucks it up and plays along.

It's possible that maybe while preparing and planning and helping each other and working together, Jason has gotten to know and developed a fondness for Danny.

Okay so maybe he's a sappy fuck who fell head over heels in love with him in the span of like a month, but this is still just a contract to Danny, and Jason isn't going to push for or expect anything more. Danny doesn't need that kind of stress in his life rn.

Danny has been freaking out since he met his soon to be husband because holyshit that's Red Hood, that is THE Red Hood! No wonder he passed the trial of the All Blade, and the way that fire burned around Danny's core, a fire he now recognized as the warmth answering from Jason's own, made him realize that this is way more than just a contract to him. Still, he'd been part of the realms for a lot longer than Jason ans he was their future king. Jason as part of this contract would be his equal but until the marriage was sealed, he was still technically Jason’s superior. And it didn't feel right to take adventage of that and suddenly change the terms of this deal, to make Jason in any way feel pressured by Danny's own feelings. No, this was just a contract, like Jason wanted it to be. He would keep that promise to him.

Jazz and Babs get together to help their idiot baby brothers figure out their unrequited love is actually very much mutual pining and they're just being stupid.

Anyway the marriage ceremony is a different ritual from the engagement ceremony, the All Blade wielder summons it and presents it to the wearer of the ring, who sheaths it back into the summoner's core, symbolizing that they both have power over the Blade but it belongs to its wielder, and even the king himself may not keep it without permission. The Blade as a manifestation of Jason's will.

(And as a bonus, we know Jason is a literary nerd so he recognizes and appreciates the romance novel tropes happening to him, especially in the high king's court, but he is not a weeb. So I don't think he'd recognize the Utena references happening to him. But you know who I think would? You know who is a weeb who loves swords and is soooo jealous of Todd and his husband right now? It's Damian. Damian's fucking seething that he doesn't get a magic sword. He's so pissed and it's very funny.)

#dee's aus #dee writes #dc x dp #dead on main #ghost king danny #ghost bride Jason #rgu inspired au #mostly just the imagery #very loosley based on Prince Utena and Rose Bride Anthy #this was supposed to be just a silly goofy haha idea but now its got so much lore

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antihibikase-archive · 7 months

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Lily of the Valley

Not finalized design I think . But since I made Slater incarnations before that had inspirations from The Vessel and The Heart, this is kinda ?? Similar to that,, more inspiration from Vessel specifically (angel motif and how his coat looks), but tried to keep it looking like canon Slater, just with less gray.

Also inspired by the design of the yumemiushi angel, except without the halo. (Unless the halo is like.. a gold ring on his finger or something?)

#My Art #((Idk what to tag this as awawawa))#((Um anyway. Lily of The Valley. Angel of the Relic Song. Something something pearl symbolism = pearl diver mitski))#((And also I guess inspired by True Light. Opening of DN Angel))#((Though this is for an RGU-inspired AU hence why flower motif.))#((And why I tried to keep white the central color compared to his usual gray))#((He still has a red ribbon its just not on his neck this time- its on his finger.))#((The little angel wings are less like Vessel's and look rounder because ummm))#((I kinda want to mix both the angel and lily of the valley motifs))#((And the buttons and back part of the coat is like . Similar lace to yumemiushi's frills and pearls))#((Awawawawawawawawawawawa I haven't really been making much lately but um. Yeah))

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chibi-pix · 1 year

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Finally. Quiznaking. Finished. So. A couple nights ago, my brain was hit with a screenshot redrawn that I’ve seen of one lady pulling a sword from another in magical summoning glowiness. And. I didn’t know what that was from. AT ALL. So I spent like half an hour trying to figure out what it was and I did. And my brain said “We should draw this with VLD Pidge and VF Larmina.” And. While thinking of differently from Revolutionary Girl Utena (which I ended up watching the first two yesterdays), I loved the pose and the concept of summoning the sword from another. It was cool. So, in the end, I had to do that with Larmina and Pidge for some AY that hit my mind. And while I hated drawing the pose initially and figuring out the background, I am pleased with it in the end. I’m proud. Also, Larmina has an undercut. This was based on @toasthoneyandstardust’s concept with Larmina and that was the best idea ever. She looks so amazing with it.

Anyway, I hope y’all enjoy this one. Until next time!

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briebysabs · 9 months

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Wait. Wait y’all. Is mochijun actually a fan of RGU? Bc hold on, and I’m probably going crazy, but lemme draw you in. And this will contain some RGU spoilers. Let’s start with Noé, I think he has some similarities with Utena. You might be like “Well, Utena is a naive, straightforward, pure-hearted character. It’s not that hard to share those characteristics.” Fair but think of it this way. Both Utena and Noé are “outsiders”pulled into the main story, the play if you will bc of an object of interest.

Whether it’s the rose ring or the Book of Vanitas. They are essentially anomalies that leave their impact and revolutionize people’s lives/way of thinking by being a kind person. Both of them encounter their partners almost like fate. Now I don’t know what Vanitas and Anthy have in common other than the need to be “saved” (whatever that entails) as well as being painted the witch or symbol of misfortunate by the world. Only being vulnerable and learning to reach out by being with Utena/Noé. But notice another thing, y’all ain’t gonna believe this. In the last episode of RGU, Utena fails to hold onto Anthy and their hands slip. Her last words in the tv series is I’m sorry Anthy I couldn’t be a prince.

I couldn’t save you.

GUYS PLEASE WTFF

RGU and VnC break the 4th wall to explain how these are characters, these are assigned roles. RGU has princes and princesses, VnC has observers and a narrator. We go through each “Act” of this tale. They portray the shift of adolescence into adulthood. Vanitas is 18, Noé is 19. I guess another thing Vanitas has with Anthy is growing up fast, both were shoved into the world of adults and thus believe they know how the system works. A pessimistic view of life, although thankfully Vanitas is not in eternal suffering. And we all know how much mochijun loves her flower symbolism, symbolism in general and honestly her art gives the same vibes as RGU. That sensual, like drop of eroticism idk how to describe it but you get my point. I don’t think it’s on purpose obviously but it’s cool to note. Do I think all this is intentional? Bc mochijun hasn’t come out and say she was inspired in some ways by RGU. I just made a couple connections, there might be more I can’t think of at the moment. But I think it’ll be really cool if it was.

Finally, we all got our time loop theories about VnC. RGU is a loop I’m just saying. Also I think this is kinda funny and interesting. The whole thing is this shojo manga au where Jeanne dresses up in boy’s uniform to school.

Dominique Saionji, prince of the school.....okay.

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vodyaniks · 11 months

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i am so 👁👁 about ur bloodborne/rgu au

do u have any more thoughts about it? any ideas for other character designs? no pressure but if u do...🤲🏻

Hell yeah I do! Thanks for asking!

I don’t know how to describe it properly but I’ll try. I imagine the students of the school wearing the masks like choir (and the masks have the rose crest on them) their uniform is also inspired by the students of bloodborne. Also I want to make separate boss designs for all the student council members. Sayonji would be a top naked samurai (more inspired by genichiro last fase from sekiro). Miki I imagine having a clock shield and casting magic/arcane attacks (related to music maybe???) and Touga would be a “false prince” with a shadowy crown and maybe creating shadow clones that you have to fight.oooooh and juri/siori could be something like the lothric and lorian fight in ds3. Also when I started designing all this I realised how samey all the council members look I guess it’s for the sake of animations simplicity but still….

And that’s about it for now but I intend to keep posting new designs as I come up with them 😎😎😎✨✨✨✨

Also if anyone has their own ideas for this au I would be so happy to hear them :)))

#my art #bloodborne #utena fanart #rgu

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thebirdarts · 5 months

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Illustrations for the lovely Dolly aka @the-raging-tempest , for the pwotr pals secret santa!

i have drawn some of the amazing writing she had done for per pirate au, specifically the first part! i had such vivid images of what Lariel was doing, i had to draw some of them when i got your name!

under the cut i have the individual images & the passages that inspired them!

"Lariel wandered towards the edge of the railing to look over the water. Massive dark clouds were pushing inland towards the city."

i made the artistic choice to have the doorway of the carriage be a framing device, loosely inspired by rgu's use of the conservatory as a bird cage & further use in arches, with Lariel feeling caged by her brother being a theme, so her i hoped to show hos shes still trapped, but looking out onto the sea, hopefully conveying her longing for freedom that the sea will offer her

"Fearing for a moment before extending her hand up to the sky and yanking"

i love the idea of her reaching into the storm clouds and tearing out the lightning to do her will!!

"A flash of lightning and thunder boomed and echoed. Her aim was at the railing where she once stood."

"The wind whipping the yellowish paper into the water. The headline reading: Murder in Baldur’s Gate! Ellvesem family found butchered! No one is safe!"

#thebirdarts #i had so much fun drawing these for you dolly!!#you words pained such vivid pictures!!!#and i cant wait to see more of this au with the twins!

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helloanthy · 8 months

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Hii

How are you? Hope you're doing good. I want to say that I love your art and it's a huge inspiration for me :D

I also really love your metas! Especially about transmasc Nanami. I was wondering...in this interpretation, what would Tsuwabukis role be in the story? Would Keiko (and the others) still follow Nanami around, or would the 3 spectacles guys be a replacement entourage? Personally I think Nanami is too good for them lol

Also, what do you think of transfem Saionji and (possibly trans) Wakaba? Or Wakaba and Anthy?

Feel free to ignore if you don't want to answer, I just really appreciate your thoughts!

{Slightly off topic, but THANK YOU for your takes on A:TLA. As someone who did enjoy the show when I first watched it, it irks me to no end when fans think of it as the pinnacle of representation. I'm mentally begging them to watch a different show}

Thanks, again!

hello hello ! im alright anon, thank u ! i hope ur doing good as well thank u thank for ur kind words, im happy u enjoy my anthys 💜 to be honest i did not think that far into that AU. canon tsuwabuki ... maybe instead of putting nanami in danger to be more like touga he's nanami TWO ✌🏼 and is what transmasc nanami is to touga ? as in he chooses to emulate nanami as a prince and is still his little stooge ? haha. maybe instead of putting nanami in danger tsuwabuki would set up scenarios that puts other female students in danger in front of nanami for nanami to "save". to show off his princeliness ??? im sure nanami would still get mad if he found that out because its so much trouble hahaha or ... if tsuwabuki is a girl she would come up with schemes to put herself in seemingly mortal danger in front of nanami ? i think nanami could still have aiko keiko and yuuko in this AU. i agree that nanami is too good for those spectacle guys hahaha ... theyr way too boring ... for me .... perhaps the only difference for their motivations being friends with nanami in this AU is that. theyr settling for the lesser brother. similar to canon, how they are friends with nanami for her connection with touga. but thinking about it, isn't this ... a bit sadder though ? transfem saionji & wakaba ... lets take this opportunity to throw wakaba in with juri in the unrequited sapphic storyline club hahaha. iv always liked to interpret wakaba in canon to actually have a crush on utena but is completely unaware of it because of comphet. i do also truly think she had a crush on saionji too so if i had to label her i do think shes bisexual. but i cant help wanting to lesbianise everything can i ? and i think itd be fun ... an explicit love triangle [is it a love triangle if neither saionji or utena romantically love wakaba back 🥲 sobs] between them trans wakaba ... i feel like this would need an entirely different post to be honest. but ... one thought i have. perhaps of nonbinary wakaba. the binary narrative sidelines them because this story is not about that. well ... it IS but not in the way that wakaba is. does that make sense ? metaphor how nonbinary genders are invisible under heteropatriarchy ? while utena is gender nonconforming her gender as she herself states in the show is still binary. i dont know if that explaination makes a difference to anybody reading though. though theres a lot of directions i feel i could go with this. im having too many thoughts about it so im going to need to put a lid on it for now 😅 aaa, lastly, i dont think i really had any "takes" on ATLA ? just that i called it orientalist and that i dont really like it as much as RGU ... surprisingly though, a lot of people disagree with calling it orientalist ? really odd. thats like disagreeing with me saying the sky is black. but i have also learned from others on here that the "casual" definition of orientalism is conflated with anti-asian racism, so i guess i understand ... ? [even still though i do think ATLA has facets of anti-asian racism. but i doubt people who dont even know the origin of orientalism could understand that] also its odd to call ATLA "representation" to me. its not representation at all. well ... i mean. i guess it could be called "asian representation" the same way berserk is "european representation"

#✉️#💐#genderbend cw

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zagreuses-art · 2 years

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Breaking in a new art program with this! Revolutionary girl Yaz! Inspired by her outfit in once upon time. I've got a whole RGU doctor who AU in my head, I will probably do more stuff for it in the future.

Description under the cut

[ID: a digital drawing of Yasmin Khan in a princely /soldierly uniform based on the one she wore in Once Upon Time. She is holding the sword of Dios in one hand at her side, with the other hand angled towards it. She is posed on one leg as through she is running forwards, the same pose as a illustration of Utena Tenjou. Her hair is half up in two buns and the rest fans out behind her. The background is a gradient of blue watercolor splattered on white, with some flecks of pink. End of ID]

#digital art #doctor who #yasmin kahn #revolutionary girl utena #RGU

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surumarssi · 1 year

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My beloved rgu post-canon diner au that exists only in my head and is loosely inspired by the plot of The Bear is indeed one huge metaphor about adulthood and the weight of responsibility!!

#re: cooking signifying characters' maturity in rgu

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bpd-shuichi-togo · 4 years

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(vibes at a deranged frequency) housamo rose bride au

#error.txt #IM TOO FULL OF PASTA TO ELABOR8 FURTHER BUT?? RGU INSPIRED AU #(loses my mind)

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cviperfan · 4 years

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Okay so partially motivated by how many references there were in SPoP and largely bc it's been in my backlog for years and I remembered the whole thing got uploaded to youtube a while ago, I finally got around to watching Revolutionary Girl Utena for the first time so time for some hot takes

2 clarify I did see the movie about around 2000 which was my introduction to the series, and I did see like 1 episode back in anime club (over a decade ago now tbh) but for the most part I went into this with only a vague sense of the ending and offhand knowledge of a few of the weird comedy episodes so this was mostly a blind watch

Before getting into #spoilers I will say that this ended up being an easy Top 5 and that it's definitely still worth watching (fair warning for the very frequent rape and incest (and sometimes both)), especially if you've somehow also avoided most of the context of this show like me, and it really is one of the rare Nothing Else Like It kind of show (though it has roots in older shoujo like Rose of Versailles and modern stuff like Revue Starlight have picked up its lede)

Okay spoilers from here on

I really only kinda have vague memories of the more knightly take on Utena from the movie so Series!Utena having this powerful Dumb Jock Energy threw me

Like she's out here invoking the Air Bud Rule from minute one

This bit where Akio is going on about some Important Life Lesson thing and she's just fuckin

crab walking im

what a hero i love her

I have always kinda been more partial to shoujo than shounen bc the sense of like emotional urgency and the heightened exaggerated feelings are just more compelling to me narratively and what Utena does spectacularly is really drive that to fucking 11 and it permeates every aspect of the show

Like the melodrama of it all is so shameless and it's so committed to letting its visuals and music drive the mood and emotional intensity of its stakes that they kind of speak for themselves and demand to be taken on their own terms rather than having clear or rigid interpretations

Like it's kind of a situation of "yes most of what you're seeing ties into the show's bigger themes and characterization but also you can just vibe to the spectacle as well" like even when it's not on the Dueling Arena there's a theatricality underlying everything that pairs perfectly with the spirit of shoujo even as it... not necessarily contradicts it, but challenges it in some ways and also wants to coexist with it?

And I think that's the interesting thing how it wants to tackle some of these arch concepts tied into the genre while also being deeply intertwined with it. Like it really is a Product Of Its Time in so many ways but it also feels somehow timeless and transgressive in others even now?

Like part of me would be interested to see a remake that took into account 23 years of conversation about how much perceptions of gender and sexuality have changed but at the same time would it lose some essential part of itself in that transition? idk potentially

Also lbr a hypothetical remake wouldn't even attempt to revise anything it would just redo it thus making it pointless

So I know this has been a thing that's been brought up before but seeing it play out dang RGU and NGE really are just companion pieces to each other huh

Subverting the themes and narrative arcs of their respective genres, mysterious quiet girl who's directly the key to everything, the ritual of action setpieces rendered as Actual Ritual in the story, banger OP, comphet ruining everyone's lives

Also they really don't have much in common comparatively but I'm definitely seeing pieces of Utena in Kill la Kill too? Particularly how Mako's arc feels like a fleshing out and expansion from the archetype divergence Wakaba got in that one ep (I can't believe klk was the utena/wakaba au fanfic)

Speaking of which damn he is a sleazy bastard and a gross predator but ngl Akio can Get It he and Ragyo are basically the same character and I guess this is just my type apparently???? oops

Like I'm recognizing how like really awful he is but also you really can't blame Utena for crushing on him he is super hot and charming

aside i lost it at the audacity of "well even tho i am a man like twice your age (AT LEAST) and took advantage of the situation and also i am clearly not the type to take no for an answer since you didn't reject me you're basically just as bad as me" bruh

The Black Rose Arc is... interesting bc like it borders on superfluous with how it resolves and yet the introduction of a "monster of the week" type power rangers element specifically built to expand on the secondary cast is a pretty inspired choice

again my primary point of introduction to the series was the movie which is basically a remix of the Student Council arc so when I got to 12 I was like wth are they gonna fill the rest of this with? WELP

What I really like about it is that usually this kind of setup-- the 'character is faced with their dark inner thoughts they shy away from and they become a short-term enemy' deal-- ends with the char in question coming to terms with this and overcoming it to become a better person

but here it's just like... they lose and then they just gotta... sit with that, forever. Like it doesn't really change the status quo of their relationships w/ utena or the others but it does just stick around for them and now the audience knows that about them too. like sometimes you just can't take that shit back.

Utena's relationship to queerness, having heard about it tangentially for years but seeing it play out now is also interesting bc while in the grand scheme it doesn't feel necessarily any more ahead of its time than something like Cardcaptor Sakura there is a casualness to it that's distinct

Like for the most part it's either kind of the tangential fluff that even then was part of shoujo as a standard but then there's also stuff like the Akio/Touga or Touga/Saionji hinting or Kozue's casual pass at Anthy in addition to the maintext Juri/Shiori push-pull and ofc the subtext-but-maintext Utena/Anthy threads

I wanna take a moment to talk about Juri bc of how kind of in the spirit of the show itself it plays things both with and against the grain with her

Like she's a Tragic Lesbian which is nothing new but usually this character type (and Distinctively Lesbian characters in general) in anime/manga tend to be portrayed as being very predatory, invasive and either played for laughs or to repulse the audience, so the degree of empathy RGU shows her in 97 is rare to see even now.

Like there is a "safeness" to her bc of how unattainable Shiori is (though their arc ends in a decidedly ambiguious way), but it doesn't really feel like she's getting the short end of the stick over the more straight-leaning characters bc arguably all of the relationships here are defined by an aspect of chasing the unattainable, echoing Utena's own quixotic search for her Prince, and her choosing to remain closeted feels realistic *especially because* of the surrounding context of how heteronormative the world she exists in is. Like the character is aware of that and is navigating it in a way that feels honest

Speaking of which it's interesting how the reveal of Juri's pining for Shiori in Ep 7 echoes the bigger reveal of Utena/Anthy bc of how it plays up this heterocentric love triangle or at least it seems to be but then the cards are on the table and no that's really not what it is at all, and it feels significant that after spending most of the series naively oblivious to Juri’s feelings and what she wants out of a relationship with Shiori that Utena finally Gets It in Ep 37

Is it a coincidence Juri actually gets to be the one to point it out? No

Speaking of triangles big ups to the Ruka/Juri/Shiori one honestly bc of how hard it commits to the unknown third result of a LT where absolutely no one comes out happy and it actually works even with the handicap of Ruka basically coming out of nowhere just for these two episodes

Like all three of them want the one person who's absolutely never gonna love them back and that's just rough buddy and isn't that kinda the show in a nutshell

So the thing that struck me about Utena/Anthy and how it plays out is how subtle it really is. And that does make sense bc while f/f teasing/subtext again was part of shoujo before it's quite a different thing for the heroine to ultimately reject her 2 male love interests and choose a life with her female best friend, esp in nineteen ninety seven

Like I think you can argue that Ep 12 feels like The Moment where What Their Relationship Is, Definitely shifts and that possibility is suddenly there, and then it doesn't come back in a big way until the ending but there are tiny glimpses throughout where you can see that working in the background if you’re really paying attention

Small things like Anthy's flashes of unspoken jealousy, Utena fretting over her even when she's in bed with Akio, and part of that is coming from going in with a knowledge of what the endgame is and keeping an eye out for it. I can hardly imagine being a viewer during the og broadcast and then ep 34 comes and suddenly the intent is made clear and our understanding of the inciting incident gets all flipped turned upside down

And to a modern viewer I can get coming into this for the first time and being frustrated at just how close to the chest it gets played, but that's also kind of the only way it gets to happen at that point in time? But I think it ultimately is effective and vital to their individual arcs and dovetails nicely with the themes of the show

Like I remember hearing that original manga creator Chiho Saito was pretty against their paired ending, but with a lot of convincing from Ikuhara ultimately came around to it, and it's hard to imagine the anime's ending working any other way and being nearly as impactful

And there is something really beautiful about the bucking against the established idea of yuri relationships being a childish concept that gets left behind in order to 'grow up' actually becoming the impetus of their own journeys into adulthood and eventually back to each other, and it’s hard not to feel a little disappointed that for this Bold Step and declaration for the future that RGU takes that while yuri is more common than ever it largely continues to exist within the realm of schoolgirls and something to be left behind in adolescence like for RGU’s faults and shortcomings it saw this world of possibility in moving forward, while the genre largely elected to stand still

And it really speaks to either the timelessness of the show or how much the queer experience has remained constant that even with a tragic ending, that hope, or rather the promise of their reunion, feels bold and defiant and genuinely uplifting even now

Like the moment where just before they reach out to each other one final time, and their voices as children speak out to each other, as if finally fulfilling a promise they barely remember, I really did just start ugly crying

Lastly some assorted closing thoughts--

-Touga? Punk. Guy really takes advantage of Utena's whole prince thing to manipulate her, ends up losing to her in the rematch and then fucks off to mope for like AN ENTIRE SEASON then pops back up "oh yea im in love with her literally nothing else about my behavior has changed tho" like lmao you tried i guess

-Also i know Touga's design is p stock standard bishounen ojou-sama type but god this is all i can think about when I see him

- Green Touga Saionji is a bitch-ass motherfucker but like he at least tried more than anyone else so uh that's something I guess?????

Like the guy clearly has some unresolved feelings about Touga so i'm inclined to be sympathetic bc wow poor choice my dude but also... bitch-ass motherfucker

-Nanami really went through this thing for me where it's like... she's a brat and a shitty person but it's also hard to really dislike her bc she does get what she deserves most of the time and also she gets kinkshamed more than most of the cast despite none of them really having a high ground over her lol

-Miki did nothing wrong (aside from like the implied incest but that's also like... half the relationships in this show uh)

sidenote I can completely see the notable excess of Incest Subtext/Maintext being intended as like... A Thing to comment on how common it is within shoujo and also tying in to like the bigger themes of Growing Up bc the idea that you’re chasing after your own damn siblings betrays some freudian inability to mature or whatever but tbqh it doesn’t always feel like the show knows the line between commenting on this and indulging in it and RGU is very indulgent by its own nature so I really can’t blame people put off by the show as a whole bc this is an area where RGU is largely indistinguishable from its genre peers

-Juri really did nothing wrong tho also props for having the best duels

-FUCK SHIORI THO for eel

so obviously i have not seen the show up to now but I've been in yuri circles for a long time so I knew about Juri/Shiori and my perception of it had always been "oh it's one of those kinda messy with complicated feelings" kinda ships where the drama is a big part of the appeal and that's true but like

the actual nature of it I did not realize up to now and OH SHIORI'S REALLY THAT BITCH HUH

So not only does she date that one anonymous guy specifically to spite Juri unaware she doesn't actually like him BUT THEN WHEN THEY GET REUNITED SHE'S JUST LIKE LOL IT DIDNT MATTER BUT HEY WE COOL RIGHT *AND THEN* when she finds out about Juri's feelings she's like HELL YEA I CAN HANG THIS OVER HER HEAD FOREVER FUCK HER

***AND THEN*** when she gets some karma after Ruka dumps her ass she airs her dirty laundry out in front of EVERYBODY like Juri hasn't been dealing with this shit like an absolute champ the whole time like?????

Like ok i get that there's the sad longing drama there and usually that's my jam and the show itself seems to end on kind of an ambiguous note and the follow-up manga from this year seems to leave it as kind of a "maybe" but I'm sorry get Juri a better GF 2020 she deserves better

I saw some Juri/Wakaba going through the tumblr tag for the show and honestly that's some big brain shit I'm here for it

Also now knowing exactly how this dynamic operates it really makes that Jasper/Lapis reference pic one of the SU crew drew of them read very.... interestingly???????? (tho Lapis' design reads a lot closer to Kozue and that's probably a closer personality analogue too)

-I love that thing in ep 37 where the whole SC is just very casually like hey utena if the whole revolutionizing the world thing with anthy doesn't work out uhhh call me im free haha just kidding unless...? lmao

-I'm pretty uninclined to try to pin precise sexuality HCs to characters for series this old where the ambiguity is part of how its danced around like partly coming from my own experience I'm inclined to read Utena as bi but that really is just coming from me?

But on the other hand literally every time a guy is like "i love you utena come be happy with me and we can love each other forever" she's like "k" after having left them on read for a day and disconnects from them entirely so lesbian going through comphet is a pretty valid read i think lol

-Lastly I think it’s pretty interesting but validly frustrating how fast and loose the show’s relationship with dream logic and non-traditional storytelling really is like when the shadow girls show up I was like “oh this is a greek chorus thing and it’s meant to reflect on the themes of the episode” (or uh in the case of exactly Ep 29 to break from tradition and explicitly tell us what a characters deal is lmao) but then no actually turns out they’re actually real characters who exist within the show too fuck you

ANYWAY I really did love this show and felt like I got a lot out of it despite it being pretty infamously hard to decipher but the ways it's inscrutable appeal to me specifically so very happy with this I'm gonna be thinking about it for a while

#revolutionary girl utena #cw: rape mention #cw: incest mention #might follow up with some thoughts about the movie later

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ao3feed-utena · 4 years

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I Was a King Under Your Control

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3bysLh2

by lynxyne

Izuleo focused Revolutionary Girl Utena AU- you shouldn't have to watch RGU to read, and it will likely diverge! That said there are likely to be spoilers for the original work. Also heavily inspired by Checkmate because I am broken. It will not follow/include everything from RGU.

[SUMMARY: Izumi is drawn into a strange world where Leo is a bargaining chip in cruel duels as it's claimed if won, the ability to grant any wish will wait at the end of the tunnel. With intent to save Leo from this unfair world and grant him freedom, is he truly any better than the others seeking to fulfill his dreams- and do they deserve to have their dreams shattered?]

This work will have quite a lot of problematic elements (as does RGU) but all will be tagged. I do not condone any of these, and this is likely to be a dark work. Please do not read if this will be harmful to you.

Words: 1996, Chapters: 1/?, Language: English

Fandoms: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game), Shoujo Kakumei Utena | Revolutionary Girl Utena

Rating: Not Rated

Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply

Categories: M/M

Characters: Sena Izumi (Ensemble Stars!), Tsukinaga Leo, Sakuma Rei, Narukami Arashi, Mikejima Madara

Relationships: Sena Izumi/Tsukinaga Leo, Mikejima Madara/Tsukinaga Leo

Additional Tags: But very few to start, Transphobia, Trans Character, AU, Alternate Universe, I will add tags and archive warnings as applicable, So Many People Are Trans, Female Pronouns for Narukami Arashi, leo and sena are trans, i promise everyone i tag will be relevant and i will give them too much screentime, eichi yuta hinata mika nazuna shu ritsu all to come, PAINFUL LEVELS OF INSPIRED BY CHECKMATE, Revolutionary Girl Utena AU, Abuse

read it on the AO3 at https://ift.tt/3bysLh2

#IFTTT #ao3feed #fanfic #utena #revolutionary girl utena #shoujo kakumei utena

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syrupwit · 7 years

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Letter for Chocolate Box 2017

Hello! Thank you for considering making something for me. I am not that great at letters, so please contact the mods or send an anonymous ask message if anything is unclear. Also! I’m probably not as picky as I sound.

In general, I like:

Femslash, slash, and gen (most of these prompts are f/f or m/m but I also like gen a lot!)

Pretty girls wearing pretty clothes

Supernatural creatures looking rad

Cool monsters

Humor and crack!fic

Supernatural horror, especially ghost stories and cosmic horror

Isolated or "outsider" characters finding true friends

Powerful people/beings who are unusually loyal and attached to less powerful people/beings

Pining

Sexuality angst, whether it concludes with gay/bi characters being hopeful or determined and more comfortable with themselves or getting further entrenched in self-destructive spirals

Women being really important to other women, whether their relationship is overall positive or negative or conflicted or whatever

Unconventionally attractive characters/couples

Domestic slice-of-life with a slightly weird twist

In general, I do not like:

Het as the main romantic pairing (unless it’s for Katanagatari)

BDSM (unless specified in a prompt)

M/f femsub. I know this is implied to be a DNW by the bullet points above, but this is a hard squick for me so I want to make sure that's made clear!

Romances where one character becomes a ghost over the course of the story (it's OK if they start out a ghost)

Issuefic

Onscreen rape/noncon (unless it’s Korse/Party Poison i guess)

Onscreen child abuse

Fandoms I requested:

Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys

“The Hound” (H. P. Lovecraft)

Katanagatari

Original Work

Revolutionary Girl Utena/Shoujo Kakumei Utena

Prompts/DNWs for Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys

The only pairing I’ve requested is:

Korse/Party Poison -- Hero/villain! Post-apocalyptic dystopia! Mind control! Do Killjoys really never die? Has Korse ever captured Party Poison pre-music video canon? Is post-comics Korse imprisoned by B/L/I/N/D and does he then meet a brainwashed Party Poison? Or perhaps the characters have another past together, one that either or both have forgotten? (If you have a messed-up idea, please feel FREE to run with it for this canon.)

DNW: Child abuse. Also, although I am well familiar with the variety of ways that bandom and Killjoys canon have been integrated over the years, I would prefer it if the characters of Party Poison and Korse were kept separate from their bandom counterparts for any fills or treats made for me in this challenge.

Prompts/DNWs for "The Hound” by H. P. Lovecraft

("The Hound" can be read in its entirety here.)

Narrator/St. John -- When they're not busy stealing cursed amulets, examining the treasures in their underground collection of sacred objects treated disrespectfully as Goth memorabilia, or discussing the finer aesthetic points of their mutual ennui, what sorts of activities do these graverobbing hipsters get up to in that big empty house on the moor?

DNW: Necrophilia, guro, het (m/f).

Prompts/DNWs for Katanagatari

I fucking love this anime, occasional fanservicey shots of Togame and all. If you aren’t familiar with it, and you like or at least don’t mind anime, backgrounds that have more definition than characters(’ noses), borderline-supernatural fiction set in historical Japan, and outlandishly dressed people having slow, lengthy, at times philosophical conversations while ostensibly doing sword things at each other, then I recommend that you try it out!

In any case, here are my pairing-specific prompts:

Togame/Yasuri Shichika -- Togame and Shichika being happy and enjoying time together ;__;

Hitei-Hime/Yasuri Shichika -- Post-canon, Hitei-Hime and Shichika are set upon by bandits and must dispatch them. These bandits don’t know what hit them!

Togame/Yasuri Nanami -- AU where Nanami, not Shichika, accompanies Togame on her quest.

Hitei-Hime/Togame -- Hitei-Hime and Togame matching wits pre-canon.

I also just think Hitei-Hime is super super pretty, and I love her character design. So... If you feel inspired to draw even a small or sketchy picture of her? I’d totally be pleased.

DO NOT WANT: Hitei-Hime/Togame/Shichika that posits Shichika as the focal point of the triad.

Prompts/DNWs for Original Work

My likes and DNWs are well specified at the beginning of the letter, so here are just prompts for the pairings listed:

Female Non-Humanoid Robot/Female Humanoid Robot -- Uh. Anything, honestly! What do they do? How did they meet? How did they fall in love? ...Robot sex?

Female Cryptid/Female Human -- Female Human gets lost in the woods and is rescued by Female Cryptid.

Barista/Vampire -- Hardworking Barista just wants to take out the trash so they can go home and wash the scalded milk smell from their clothes, but then they are attacked on the way to the dumpster. Who to the rescue but that slightly creepy customer who orders their own weight in coffee and sits in the darkest corner of the shop all day? (Why were they loitering in that alley anyway?)

Necromancer & Demon Summoner -- What is the relationship between these two? Are they friends? Friendly acquaintances? Professional rivals? Do they set up shop in different suites in the same aged, sparsely populated office building, and gradually come to realize that they work in similar fields? Do they totally fight a monster or some aspect of city bureaucracy together? Is there a regrettable incident where a ghoul called by the demon summoner wanders off and consumes some of the necromancer's employees? Or do they just trade professional anecdotes over a cup of tea?

Female Demon/Female Human -- A female graduate student, lonely and bored with being single, accidentally summons a succubus. But it works out!

Female Alien/Female Human -- Female Human is exploring some strange ruins when she encounters Female Alien. (If you wanted to make Female Alien a more Lovecraftian sort of alien, tentacles or gelatinous shapeshifting abilities or POWER TO INSPIRE INDESCRIBABLE FEAR or no, that would be awesome.)

Prompts/DNWs for Revolutionary Girl Utena

I love Utena! What a great show and character. I love the movie too, and could happily expound on why I think it functions as a sequel to the anime series more than an AU, but this is not the time or place for that.

Some general likes for RGU fic and fanart:

Surreal tone

Absurdist humor

Roses

Beautiful uniforms and dresses /o\

RGU-specific dislikes/DNWs:

Explicit sexual content -- not for this fandom please. Implied is welcome!

Works focused specifically on how characters recover from abuse and trauma

Noncanonical character death

Juri or Utena paired with male characters romantically (though one-sided crushes are fine)

Prompts for each pairing listed:

Anthy/Utena -- Utena is an enthusiastic but inept barista; Anthy is her favorite customer.

Anthy/Utena -- Anthy, Utena, and Chu-Chu have a nice time at the beach. Or anywhere, really.

Akio/Touga -- Akio reveals to Touga that he is dead.

Anthy/Kanae -- Angst! I requested this pairing because of this fan theory about Kanae being a former winning duelist who chose to become Akio's princess, and Anthy having bitterness towards her because of that: http://rosepetalrevolution.tumblr.com/post/152521898992/ You don’t have to go along with the fan theory -- anything angsty with Anthy and Kanae would be great.

Juri/Shiori/Ruka -- (Please no Juri-->Ruka or Juri reciprocating Ruka's feelings.) Shiori cottons on to Ruka's feelings for Juri and suggests they all do an activity together, hoping to shame both of them with her knowledge. Things do not go as planned.

Nanami & Tsuwabaki -- Nanami rents a house for summer vacation. Tsuwabuki accompanies her. It turns out the house is haunted... or is it?!

Utena/Wakaba -- Wakaba gave Utena chocolate for Valentine's Day. What does Utena give her for White Day?

Touga/Saionji -- Touga is a ghost, and everyone has forgotten him. Then Saionji starts having strange dreams...

#chocolate box 2017 #optional detailed letters for exchanges tag

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