#but it's not like he's gonna be in a swordFIGHT it's just pointy and the most

[babybat98]

I wish you would write a fic where... Thranduil and your Legolas sibling characters all come to Minas Tirith for Aragorn and Arwen's wedding, and Legolas and the whole Fellowship now have to deal with the whole Mirkwood family being there. Especially poor Gimli.

I just love everything you've told me about these elves, and I want to see them Causing Shenanigans.

Refering to this post

Oh but there'd be so much shenanigans though!

Like just Thranduil alone would be enough to turn everyone's hair grey. Or at least he will be after he stops clinging to Legolas like a particularly stuborn koala. Gondor comes very close to loosing their favourite wizard becasue the moment Thranduil hears the word 'balrog' he's off after Gandalf, sword in hand. And then he goes after Elrond. And probably Aragorn to, once he learns of the Path of the Dead... In the end Legolas just straight up hides his dads sword and puts a bottle of wine there instead.

Ok to be fair Gandalf and Elrond are gonna have the entire damn forest after them when they learn of the balrog and sending their baby prince to Mordor business, so instead of mentioning that for every character just imagine Gandalf and Elrond doing a very nervous powerwalk away from an angry forest mob.

Now for my OCs we got Thondaer(he/him), the oldest of Thranduil's kids. For being a wood elf from Mirkwood, he is strangely chill. For being the child of Thranduil and Lannien(Thranduil's wife) he is alarmingly chill. He got his dad's regal aura but not as much of his temper. He's probably also more subdued than usual due to being injured in the war up northtotaly don't have a fic about that coming up oups. And that pissed Legolas off because why is he not being babied when he was the one who had an actual near death experience curtecy of a poisoned arrow???

Thranduil: Oh don't worry, you are both grounded the second we get back home<3

But at the end of the day Thondaer is still a Tranduilion, and his siblings tend to bring out the worst in him, so it's not long until he and Legolas pick up their long standing competition of 'The Most Stupid Trick Archery You Ever Did See'. At one point an arrow flies in through a window to catch a single leaf of Thranduil's crown, who just sips his wine and goes 'boys will be boys' as the nobility of Gondor freaks out.

Yes it was Legolas showing of his new shiny bow, what else did you expect?

Second child Lagoreth(she/her) on the other hand... She cares a lot less about being proper than her older brother. She would actualy punch Gandalf and Elrond for sending her brother of into danger like that. But her anger is both explosive and short lived, and once she thinks there's been enough broken noses(and Legolas talks her down a bit) she mostly stops being angry. She'd probably get along pretty well with Elladan and Elrohir tbh. She's more into swordfighting than archery, and I can see them exchanging tecniques. Those 3 becoming friends is the forst time anyone's ever seen Thranduil truly nervous.

Ok so I know you technically only said Thranduil and the siblings, but you also did that 'the whole Mirkwood family' and that was your mistake. Because there's just a few more pointy-eared nusiances running around and I'm dying to go off about them. This is gonna get long so enjoy the read more lol.

First we got Doro(they/them). They're Thondaer's spouce, and I'm a bit on the fence on if they'd come along or stay back home to keep doing their job as a healer, but I'm gonna say they're coming this time just for fun. They'd probably not cause to much mischief, but there's a little surprice in store for Thondaer for sure. How do you think he'll take being a father?

That leaves Legolas's closest friends, the young elves of Mirkwood, and part of the last generation to be born as the shadow fell over their home. Forget turning all the humans hair grey, then these guys will have everyone, human dwarf and elf, go white as Gandalf before the end of the week.

Tinnu(he/they) is a sarcastic little shit<3 If you thought Legolas was bad with his off to find the sun then you have not heard the snark on this elf. I think growing up so close to Thranduil gave them a weird view on authority and how you treat nobility. But because he's part of Legolas's friends, and Thranduil pretty much sees the gang as his own children, he can get away with waaaayyyy more than he should. He's also visualy impared and uses a cane to navigate, and is not above exploiting the fact that Men tend to underestimate him for that. Like, if they forget that his ears still work just as good as any other elf? Then that's on them. Also their puppy dog eyes are dangerous.

Dûrwen(she/they) is kinda what happens when you take the impulse control of a Took, puts it in an elf, and teaches them to fight. They're loud, obnoxious, and the fastest way to get her to do something is to begin with 'I dare you to-'. She's the one who says "hey, let's get every single bird in a 3 mile radious to congregate in the royal meeting room" or "let's see who can break into the kings bedchamber and steal the most shoe laces". But she is also loyal to a fault, and is the first to get along with Gimli. Even if he did wonder a lot about the giant toad in his boot.

Nagor(he/him) is in general the most layed back of them, but also curious and stuborn. He'll drive everyone, but most of all Gandalf and Elrond, completely bonkers with questions. Like you know when a child gets started on the 'why' train? That, but dialed up to 11 and them compresed into a tiny ass elf. At the end of their stay Gandalf insists he'd rather just have gotten punched again. Nagor would make friends with Merry and Pippin so fast and the kitchens are never safe again. And for a change of pace Legolas will for sure be clinging to him, because Thondaer was not the only one injured in the war up north.

Thilion(they/them) is the mom friend, and probably the only reason Minas Tirith is still standing. I mean they're not opposed to hiding under the meeting table and tieing everyones shoelaces together, but they are the one who manages to figure out a plan so they don't get caught doing it. Can't have your friends end up in trouble now can you, so best make sure no one can ever prove it was them :) Probably gets along realy well with Aragorn.

Crithril(she/her) and this barbieelf has ADHD. She has a habit of stiming by braiding peoples hair, and there's a big missunderstanding between her and Gimli for a while before Legolas and Thilion manages to sort things out. Eventualy Gimli manages to either aquire or make some dwarven stimtoys that successfully divert her from his hair and beard without hurting any feelings. Crithril also has a favourite position to be in, which happends to be upside-down, and many a Gondor noble has been shocked by her just casually hanging from the cieling like it's completely normalit is. But no one dares say anything, because there's 5 other elves there and they all have knives and oh hello Thranduil your highness, no I was just... admiring your peoples acrobatic skill and deffinintely not judgeing your sons friend haha please don't kill me.

I think that's it for now, phew :D

#lotr #ocs #ask game

[icharchivist]

It is interesting to me that they chose Seofon and Tweyen for Relink, but then again, Tweyen would be our first character to use a bow and arrow, so that could be interesting. I can tell you, Rackam always got MVP in the demo because he's a gunslinger, so he takes less damage while attacking from a range. Eugen is likely gonna be like that as well

Seofon is another swordfighter on top of the several we already have, but they each have different specialties, so it can still be interesting. Percival fights with a sword, but he adds fire, Siegfried hits like a nuke, Yordarha is quick and nimble and Katalina gets Ares as support. The captain is just kinda basic to get you started, but that's valid, they're still really good

I hope they either let Seofon dual wield, or summon his spirit swords outright. Something like the more combos you land, the more swords you get until the dude is a pointy tornado of destruction. That would be fun

If he comes to Rising, they should definitely do something like that as well. Let him show off his special skill. I think that would be a good way to differentiate him from the other sword fighters

It's a bit sad that Seox isn't included, but we already have Ghandagoza for the melee freak and Seox probably wouldn't like to be in the spotlight like that anyway

Besides, who knows what else they'll add later. It's cool that they're keeping that venue open all the same

Definitely looking forward to the game ^^

www you're right yeah!

I think those are interesting choices, and if anything it's also because Seofon is pretty much the person you'd want to represent the Eternals. Versus can get away with showing Seox because Seofon appears in the plot itself of his stories, but i think Relink may not want to dangle characters they don't intend to be playable over people's noses.

Tweyen is the other popular Eternal otherwise so it's fair she's getting her spotlight, esp like you say, being the first archer of the game.

as for the rest we still have to see how it goes.

Relink still works with special attack that looks like CA so i'm sure Seofon's multiple swords will come handy in special attacks like that.

as for Rising it'll depend what they decide to do with him by the end of it.

Definitely looking forward to see how they'll show it all off though ^^

#ichareply #ichafantalks gbf #anonymous

[albatris]

fuck it, jet's getting a sword

#this is what happens when i dont get enough sleep #giving jet graves a sword with the same gusto i gave noa a harmonica #and i dont mean just in the ''jet is the type of dude to own a sword for aesthetic reasons just because Hell Yeah Sword'' way #bc this had already been established #he's gay and swords are sick as hell next question #im talking. final showdown #he's never BEEN in a final showdown before hes never even been in a fight #it's just like #well! shit seems like it's about to go down! he wants to be useful! he has no idea what the best way to Not Die is #he knows damn well he's gonna be useless if he has to use his fists to defend himself #he probly just looked around and was like ''ok what are my options'' and decided ''sword'' was his best bet #he's never used it before #but it's not like he's gonna be in a swordFIGHT it's just pointy and the most #threatening thing he owns #i know he gets to charge with it while screaming at the top of his lungs #idk whether he gets to Stab #jet graves is just super super not down for murder he's fuckin terrified

[kicktwine]

do you have more thoughts on keyblade fighting that you need to put somewhere, because i have two hands ready to catch Should The Need Arise

anon: hey I heard you mention you’d analysed the combat styles in KH and what you said in the tags was already alluding to really neat stuff, but I for one would love to hear more of what you came up with!! so if you ever wanted to share any of your analysis then the floor is yours

aHAH, MY EXCUSE!!

Okay, so first some words on “standardized wielding styles”. These are styles shared by Terra, Aqua, Vanitas, Riku, and Xehanort and every other scala and daybreak kid. I will make the argument that the red style is the fanciest standard style, while the purple is seen often to make it easier on the little chibi sprites. BUT, I cannot discredit Eraqus, who uses the purple variant in bbs, nor can I discredit half of the Foretellers (Gula and Ava, at least, use this. Invi and Aced use the first type). So, two standard styles. For simplicity, let’s say one for primary offense, one for primary defense. The standard offensive style really wasn’t popular before Scala-era society.

check this difference out, specifically between ava invi and gula:

then between eraqus, hermod, and xehanort, and eraqus and terra.

These two were likely popularized and standardized for education in Scala ad Caelum for their predominant lack of obvious weak spots.

After this, we have unique styles. Those include Sora Kairi and Xion’s (similar to standard defense, but more mobile at the expense of form — Kairi takes after Sora but less confident, she hasn’t been hit that heavily yet), Ven’s (backhand, heavy range and mobility), Roxas’ (modified for two keyblades, but takes after Sora), and Axel’s (taught himself, comfortable with chakrams).

So! Let’s go.

.

Standard (offensive)

All styles have sub-variations, of a sense. Different wielders can choose where their keyblade points, and how they hold it exactly, based on what makes them most comfortable. Terra and Aqua point theirs downward, while Vanitas and Riku hold theirs above their head. What is recognizeable to this style is a hand for the sword, and a hand for guarding/blocking/items/magic.

It’s incredibly efficient. With only one hand on the weapon, you not only free up a hand for other things, but increase your range of movement with said weapon. Test it out yourself! The keyblade hand is always your dominant hand, held behind you for increased power when attacking (since you lose a significant amount of it by choosing not to grip with both hands). This style also decreases the speed of the defense you have, but with that increased mobility and swing power, along with a hand free to brace against the keyblade (defense strength up!), it makes up for it. Many people who use this also have strong barrier spells — both a testament to their preference for coverage and an acknowledgement that any directional block will take a little longer and be weaker if they try it with one hand.

The pointy end, though. What difference does it actually make, the height it’s at?

I think it’s half a matter of attack style preference and half intention. Riku, Vanitas, and Xehanort stab quite a bit. Aqua and Terra slice more. Not that they don’t do both, but it’s the first instinct. Aqua and Terra are also likely taught to hold their keyblade neutrally, in a safe position, until someone starts attacking. It’s polite! Eraqus also holds his one-handed, neutrally, until he gets into position. Riku and Vanitas learned to fight assuming everyone was out to fight them. Invi and Aced may like this style because of range (i hc she’s blind and strikes very very quickly, and he’s already very powerful with just the one arm and wants better motion).

and on character specifics: Terra often switches to two-handed, to copy his dad and add extra power to his hits without always sacrificing the empty hand. Vanitas likely was forced to relearn how to fight, as instead of solely being trained to be better at withstanding, he was constantly being made to better his own attacks. The moves Xehanort uses would best be replicated in the same style. Vanitas is wild for holding the massive spiky x-blade like that.

Now, what‘s good on this style does not correlate to what’s bad in the other. The two standard styles simply have different ways of dealing with each con they create or taking advantage of each pro.

(Here’s an interesting side note — Gula uses standard defensive, but in this instance, swaps. One hand… likely to display confidence! Wrong move, but hey. He got cocky. He’s also doing it wrong, and swaps back to two-handed to take Aced’s attack.)

.

Standard (defensive)

The main detriment of this style is the lack of ease of long range movement. Hold a wrapping paper tube out in front of you with both hands, then run. It goes to the side, or tucks in to your stomach, right? Dodge. Your legs will get in the way unless you know where to move that sword. It requires, interestingly, a little more discipline. You’d think Aqua would like that, but no, she wants movement and practicality, and she loves magic, and remember that you must take a hand off this style to grab a potion. You’d think young Eraqus wouldn’t, but remember that he’s a fancy royal lad.

The main draw, though, is tankiness, readiness, and power. You don’t need to move as much if nothing dares hit you! Ava and Gula might be attracted to this style because they’re not as physically strong, but want protection in close-quarters fighting. Using this style when your muscles aren’t as big but you still want to Hit Things Good, or when you want to be a boy you can’t knock over with a pail of water (horse stance rules), is probably solid advice.

Traditionally, this is a lot less like fencing, and a lot more like a samurai sword or kendo. Your blade is held in front of you, giving you very easy access to blocks and frontal attack/defense. In losing some twirly spinniness, you gain power and minimize your opponent’s ability to parry and block.

you gotta dodge master Eraqus so mcuh

All styles will swap between one and two hands for different moves. Eraqus, notably, swaps to a stance very similar to Xehanort when channeling a metric ton of magic.

Both of these styles require a degree of upper body/core strength, as does all swordfighting. I would be interested to see someone whose keyblade style relies on leg strength.

.

Sora, Xion, and Kairi

please look at the difference between the foretellers’ or eraqus’ two-handed grip and Sora’s. Do this with your shoulders and a top-heavy object.

They’re both in a hard stance, but hon. What are you, a gremlin? Anyways, a traditionally taught master would have… better form, even if it’s harder to learn at first. It’s habitual. Sora nearly crouches, and holds his keyblade back-pointed with two hands, which makes it easier for him to dodge roll, push off his feet quickly, and pull off those spinning combos he loves. It‘s really gonna hurt his muscles, in the future, though, since he’s doing a squat for like…. hours. Pulling on those shoulderblades and neck. Xion, too. Replicas had better have correct muscle dynamics. Kairi is brand new, so… maybe Aqua can teach her how to hold a sword so it doesnt hurt you.

Okay, now look at the grip itself. Held in front versus held to the side-back. They’re really attempting to combine both standard styles subconsciously, giving themselves more attack power while really wanting to keep that hard defensive parry, wanting to prevent all attacks to the front while also wanting mobility. It’s working for them really well, they fight like an anime character, and manage to get the best of both, with a minor sacrifice of length range that they don’t care about. We’re flexible and full of magic, baby! Holding the blade like this makes it pretty easy to let go with one hand without sacrificing that crouched defense position.

Now, Sora, specifically, is very adaptive. He’s had two keyblades, claws, guns, yo-yos, and a giant shield, to name a couple. He retains a bit of that alert crouch no matter where he goes, but Sora knows how he wants to attack and how to balance that with the most effective way to use his current weapon. He’s a smart kid! Sora has the most ridiculous shotlocks, which are also probably due to not always wanting to go standard for it. He also prefers to keep his focus on the enemy, which is evident in his reprisals and lack of very many effective “escape” moves.

Xion is very similar to Sora, but she does have some moves that are all movement. She switches to one handed for strikes a lot — using two for defending, one for smacking. In her data battle I’d swear some of those heavy hits are claymore-like. But anyways, since we’re magic, Xion cares not for the laws of exhaustion, and will ping about as a ball of light everywhere. Short range? Up in your business. Mid-range? In your business with one hand. Long range? Throws a boomerang. Hit her? No you dont. Ball of light. She’s above you and wants to bash your head in. (Vanitas also does this! A lot. It’s an easy way to catch someone off-guard. I’ll argue that the soras are very tough and strong, but not tanky. they want to avoid being hit a lot)

Another interesting note about Kairi. I say “unconfident” not because she doesn’t hit hard, but because her stance is also often tilted back, ready to dodge. It’s two handed, but almost all her moves are one. She does love spinning and throwing the thing! It looks like she’s been taking notes from the wielders she knows. It would be easy to teach her a standard style, I think. See here, she lets go on the strike, and by trying to do both, actually ends up with an advantage (being confusing) and disadvantage (losing both the power of two handed and versatility of one handed).

A counter to Sora and Xion is difficult to pin down. Time? Probably. Lack of heating pads. Something that takes all their attention is about the only way to get a sneak attack in, and then you have to hit hard. A counter to Kairi would be anyone who can knock her off balance. She needs a sturdier stance. .

Roxas

Roxas is interesting. He takes after Sora for the one blade. Wielding two, however, nets him a totally different way of fighting. Roxas’ clavicle muscles n… deltoids and stuff must be Ironclad. Also, two handed means you are very fast and sharp all the time. He has the advantage of standard defense (horse stance), and the advantage of offense (range of one sword, but twice).

Roxas generally attacks in two ways — simultaneous hits, and follow-up hits. Either he hits with both at once, or hits hard with the first one, and adds the second one as a bonus smack. He can attack by hitting in opposite directions with the two, like a drum, but that will be a little awkward and leave him prone to being tangled. That established, the follow-up hit method means he spins a bunch. As do we all.

Roxas gets a little complicated because we are not in the real world. We have magic and turning into light and physics that let you become a circular saw. So, typically, disadvantages would include: being unable to let go of a weapon to grab something or use an item, having just a very big silhouette to attack on, having difficulty with close-range attacks because Oathkeeper and Oblivion are kinda long, and convenience. Roxas gets to dodge #1 (keyblades can be unsummoned) and #4 (keyblades can be unsummoned). Speaking of dodging, he also gets to skirt the difficulty of dodging and rolling with two swords because he turns into a beam of light. But he can’t dodge how difficult it is to use two swords effectively — he needs to concentrate on fighting, and nothing else, or he risks messing up. He has to be very, very coordinated, and undistracted. Luckily he’s pretty good at making his opponents shut up, most of the time. Blocking is another thing — theoretically his blocks could be strong, but Roxas has no real brace: crossing your blades and taking a hefty stab might smack one of them back into your face. He mostly uses reversals and dodges, because of this.

The takeaway to this is Roxas is built for speed and power, and he is very strong. He’s a mid- to far- range fighter who if you’re not careful can snap you in half if you’re too close (be SO careful of that cross blade scissor).

A perfect counter to Roxas would be a tank that can grapple, and also be very distracting. If you can take hits, be talkative, and get close enough to stop his blades, you have a chance.

.

Ventus

This is a bizarre choice, my guy, but I get it.

Backhanded weapons are very impractical for a lot of... attacking, mainly in mid-range combat, and Ven likes to either fight very close or throw the keyblade like a boomerang (and hey, backhand gives it a good whip for throwing). His attacks aren’t meant to one hit KO, but they do come with a bit of power to them, especially on the backslash. Like holding a knife for gouging. It’s for very close defense — pretty good when Wayward Wind and Missing Ache have hooks.

Backhand also, while retaining that empty hand for potions and guarding, gives you an extreme coverage boost. By which I mean Ven’s sword hand now has a nearly 270 degree sweep of “I see you, don’t touch me”, very quickly, based on just flicking his wrist. It sacrifices a ton of strength/sturdiness, but you don’t need that if you’re dodging. You also don’t really need to block, which is slower, but relatively sturdy when Ven does it, as he blocks with mostly the chunky hilt between crossed arms. He sacrifices (again) a bit of strength for coverage — an attack would hurt his arms, not his chest, if he were hit head-on.

His attacks often have him flip the blade around in his hand, too. Quick swaps between standard moves and backhand ones. Basically, Ventus is built for moving, protecting himself, and quick attacks that wear down the enemy, not outclass it. Likely because he’s good at fighting, but everyone he’s fought hits harder than he can! It doesn’t matter how he holds it, getting hit will hurt. So he just. Doesn’t. He’s not a buff little guy — but he is a persistent one. Ven very likely made this up on his own, in Daybreak, and it was too hard to fix his whole style, but it was enough to correct most of his form so he doesn’t hurt himself too much. He is going to have to really stretch that shoulder and wrist (maybe get a brace), though. At least his neck is ok. … not sure about his knees tho dang boy that crouch

A perfect counter to Ven would be someone big and fast, who hits hard mid-range. He’s already been sparring with Terra, though, so when in doubt, try scruffing him?

.

Axel

Theres not a ton to say about him — he‘s not a swordfighter. He uses his keyblade like it’s a frisbee. Because that’s what he’s used to! His neutral is behind his back on his shoulder, which is terrible for readiness, but okay for chucking the thing. It’s good it has a sort of… ripstik like… boomerang quality.

Axel’s fighting style is completely made up, like most of the self-taught wielders’. His strengths lie in some of the benefits of standard offensive style (one-handed), and some of the same coverage stuff as Ven, having a cocked wrist most of the time so no one can sneak up around him without risking getting whacked very quickly, and having an interesting range due to the pointy end being basically on a spinny swivel wherever his hand moves. He’s not going to be good at close-range and he knows it — his attacks are mostly distance. And the guy has ZERO defense, combined with zero coverage when idle, so it’s for the better.

Distance-wise, though, he rocks. Treating the blade like it’s a flaming throwing weapon means his idle is actually great for sudden flick-tossing and attention-guiding for sneakier attacks, and his stance itself (…nonexistent) serves a different purpose: bait. Basically a big "come hit me". Fun, when you have a lot of fire magic and two friends who are beasts and love to take advantage of a distracted enemy — distance on the blade, proximity on the burning.

A perfect counter to Axel would be someone pinging around very close <—> very far and circling him incessantly. Like, data Xion could wreck him, as he has to wait for the boomerang to come back -- he no longer has two spinny wheels. Also someone with water magic.

.

SO! In conclusion! Having a teacher who teaches you correct sword usage rather than instinct may detract from overspecific styles that benefit you most but leave weak spots, but your muscles and your oversights will thank you. Everyone is glad we have the power of the Mouse and anime on our side.

Keep in mind again that I have done cursory research, and have had minimal actual sword instruction, I am not an expert and this is all for fun anyways :]

#I ran out of images which is homophobic #KH #ask #mojimallow #THANKS MOJI #If you’re wondering what the counter would be to Terra and Aqua; in terms of counters there are no counters #not style-wise anyways. That’s why they’re standard. #Terra can’t react very fast and Aqua needs more mp but that’s individual #and we are mostly talking BASE COMBAT here #of course lingering will can use keyblade transformations and there’s magic strategies — but that would make this post… much longer #brrrrrrr #kh analysis #kh meta #thanks to the handful of other people who asked me to expand on the same thing <3<3<3 #REALLY wanted to include one of Invi blocking — just go watch invi and aced fight for two standard offense #it Shows off their strengths and weaknesses #… no living adults do the two handed grip. Watch Sora and Xion’s data battle for an approximation I guess?? #you. Hey you. Look in the notes rn #metazone

[some-triangles]

PART 3

The following morning: it’s art class.  Utena is spacing out because she was up too late last night ballroom dancing in rose space. Anthy takes her by surprise and they have a bit of a chase sequence through 20th century architecture’s greatest hits. Hey, it’s the Guggenheim!

They finally make it to the erstwhile chairman’s residence.  Utena is knocked out by the view.

Who’s that girl and her girlfriend?  Standing right where her brother used to stand?

Utena sketches Anthy and thanks her for everything she did last night.  Anthy brushes it off with an “I’m engaged to you, after all.”  Utena takes her ring off and says she wishes Anthy would cut it out with the whole engagement business and just be honest with her, so they can be real friends.  (The jolt of emotional intimacy she got last night really hit the spot.)  Anthy essentially says “you first.”

So Utena strips. Anthy was possibly not prepared to have her bluff called in this instance.

Anthy begins to sketch Utena, very, very slowly.   Utena summons up the maximum amount of princeliness she can muster while naked and says “it’s not fair if I’m the only one doing the modeling.”  Smooth! Or would be, if she wasn’t trembling so much.   Anthy gets up and takes off her uniform.

Utena can’t look at her. (This is Anthy’s response to the “why didn’t you just say something” critique. Who’s going to listen?  Who can listen?)  She turns away and looks at the paintings instead.

Akio’s paintings, in fact.

And the subject.

Something inside Anthy is missing.  There’s a prince where her heart should be.

To find out why, we’re gonna have to go back to the shadow puppet girls.  They present a brief filler interlude (featuring Nanami’s only appearance in this film, in cow form – Anthy never did like Nanami, did she?)  before delivering the goods.

Anthy’s version of Akio is a sad clown.  He’s got his sex car but he lost the key, so he has to take a taxi.  (Poor Kanae!)  Seems like the only thing that really turns his crank is painting pictures. Pictures of his drugged sister, specifically, starring in her own Henry Darger afterworld.

So, we’ve got an updated take on what those tiny paintings from the opening credits were about.  They’re the remnants of the old academy, capsules containing the entire rose bride mythos. They persist even after Akio is gone.   They are not literally Akio’s work – one of them, after all, depicts his fall from the tower – but they remain inside Anthy, coloring the way that she sees herself.  This movie is about her setting them on fire, one by one by one.

(Good save?  Good save.)

Anthy shows Utena the secret of the rose bride, but we don’t get to find out what it is, cause this is the point where time starts to dissolve.

Holy shit what happened!

Utena and Juri are dueling now.  OK!   Juri says Utena’s not gonna beat her playing half-prince, so Utena swaps her bichrome outfit for the full white Dios suit and wins.  No time to soak that in, though, as revelations are flying thick and fast.  It turns out that the significant thing Anthy showed Utena up in the tower wasn’t the hole in her chest, but the castle in the sky, which is a shame, because we get from that lie to the actual truth within about five additional minutes of screen time, and it would have felt like a more complete gesture if everything had actually come out up there in the mutual nudity zone.  Instead, another cavalcade of compressed rigamarole has to go down, of which this is the most significant element:

The crime of the Rose Bride: her complicity.   This is a problem because Akio can only “find his key” if he thinks his sister is innocent. Knowing that she’s willing to go along with it all because she loves him deflates his boner completely and he ends up doing a bit of a murder/suicide. 

(Anthy gets better.)

She’s blamed for his death, of course, and flees.  (This is happening now, rather than in flashback, because cause and effect collapsed pretty much entirely after everyone got naked.)  Utena has the presence of mind to run after her, but ends up in the Black Rose Arc somehow, except where you’d expect to find pointy fingers there are road signs.  Utena runs into a Do Not Enter but the distant beep of a car horn tells her where to go next.

I’m going to be honest with you: it is at this point that it becomes difficult to pretend that anyone other than Ikuhara is calling the editorial shots.  You can feel the hypomania ramping up.

Utena stumbles across the elevator of truth and prepares to Go Deeper.  What personal delusion could she possibly have to address?  That Touga’s still alive, of course.   (The fact that this is a delusion she shares with Shiori is not addressed.  Maybe Shiori’s also a ghost?  Which makes Juri, maybe, a half-ghost?  We definitely saw Anthy get murdered, also, and nobody seems to have a problem with that.  It is ultimately difficult to tell if anyone in this story is actually alive or not.)

Touga’s ghost tells her she can stay in this world with him forever if she wants to.  Utena declines, saying there never really was a prince.  Her memories are coming back, you see.  It turns out that Touga gets to be the rape victim and the drowned boy in this version of the narrative – meaning that he takes the suffering of the female characters upon himself, rather than the other way around.

We’ve figured out a way to atone for toxic masculinity!  Get buggered in a cabbage patch and drown.

Having cured Utena of her prince complex, Touga swims away.  He kind of pulled a Ruka here, startlingly enough, as he returned from the dead just long enough to fix his ex-girlfriend’s brain by manipulating her into swordfights.   (Assuming he’s an actual ghost, and not a figment of Utena’s imagination.)  This is the problem with Ikuhara’s habit of returning endlessly to his thematic hobbyhorses: every time he goes back to the well he seems less and less critical of what he finds.

Whatever.  You were a relatively decent phantom this time, Touga, and we’re going to interpret you as a Jungian combo of Anthy’s guilt and Utena’s masculinity, both now integrated and put to rest.  Godspeed.

The basement elevator goes down so far that it arrives at the top of the tower, and Utena steps out into the rose-infested dusk.  Anthy says Utena’s now the prince of this academy and all the shiny things she wants are hers forever, as long as she stays here.  Utena, fresh off having been healed by a dead boy, says:

“Let’s go outside!”

These, unfortunately, are the magic words which activate the machinery of the denouement.  It’s time for… oh, jesus

If all of this felt a bit rushed to you – the unpacking of Anthy’s abuse, the explanation of the nature of the academy, Juri’s entire arc, the revelation that Touga and possibly a few other people have been dead all along, Utena’s internal unraveling of the prince myth as it applies to her – understand that it is very important that we save an entire half hour for what happens next.

#utena #utena liveblog #cw rape mention #some heavy lifting in this one #I feel like this movie should have been an OVA series #or else basically everything not directly pertaining to anthy/akio/utena should have been cut