#very different concept

[eastgaysian]

#ordinary photo of yeti #they made astarion in a lab for me to be obsessed with. #like hottest man in game for me is halsin truthfully. astarion is my shitty little white dog with separation anxiety who bites people. #very different things. if i say i'm doing a playthrough as astarion that's when you put me down #main factor motivating me not to is i need to hear neil newbon's voice acting at least once a minute or i die. #i've got a dark urge concept rattling around the brain but i should maybe self-impose a gaming break and take care of. responsibilities 😐

[confinesofmy]

i thought cult of the lamb had dark patterns but i just read through the descriptions on that site and i think it's just a somewhat sloppily made game that i don't like but can't stop playing. it is a personal darkness, not necessarily an intended one.

#adam talks too much #the amount of glitches that it has this long after release... #and it's just a mobile game. with poor combat controls and annoying ai automation in your village. #it should not glitch out so bad that a follower becomes a static element that you can't interact with #or 20 of your followers just disappear from the map and can't even be accessed through menus #i fought the big boss on medium 8 times in a row and died every time bc the combat controls are so shit #i had to switch to easy mode so i wouldn't just start screaming #and my favourite game is a bullet hell that most people find unplayable #steam told me this was similar but it's not. it's unplayable because it does not play well. #very different concept

[chrisrin]

finally finished my ethubs fusion design!

#gemcyt #mcyt #steven universe #su #ethoslab #bdoubleo100 #ethubs #chris doodles #doodles in the back are a few different concepts #i really like how he turned out in the end :) #there's been a few other ethubs fusion designs ive seen from ppl #i wanted to take a slightly different direction with it #and moss agate felt very fitting for them

[koddlet]

the mind electric // a TOH animatic

flash warning!

#i'm not really into toh as much these days but it would've been such a shame to Not finish this #so you know. i'm glad i did it even tho my fixation is somewhere very different rn 💀 #the conception of this has made me so sick. seeing the finale trailer was a gamechanger for the ending of this #i don't even remember what the original idea was before that BUT i hope it makes you all just as sick #the owl house #luz noceda #hunter toh #hunter wittebane #hunter noceda #philip wittebane #emperor belos #toh #animatic #digital art #animation

[11thsense]

Going through my files of my more illustrative work and this is a bunch of studies, abandoned pieces, and Wips. Some of which I posted then deleted.

#long post #my art #wip #concept art #sorrryyy i just thought i might as well dump all this here....alos because some of u ask for progress shots and my process #though my process for these is very different from like my just regular character drawing process.... #these look so nice together maybe i should actually finish some of them...... #the “umi” painting in the water is an irl painting btw and its done i havent shown anyone the finished product tho sorry u guys lol #its 40 by 60 inches tho its pretty damn big....

[transformers-synergize]

re-did my ark concept for my continuity

Wanted the ark to play more into my lore of making Cybertornians more alien and buglike.

also teletraan1

#transformers fan continuity #ratchet #smokescreen #bluestreak #windcharger #transformers #concept art #transformers synergize #tfs #art post #redesign #teletraan1 #the ark #think this my first public post with my windcharger design #teletraan 1 #teletrann1 has a very different personality from g1 or any other version they are very upbeat but also kinda a jerk #maccadam

[shorlinesorrows]

my jean & neil qpr agenda (part 1?)

after Neil orders the hit and Greyson becomes another Former Raven statistic for the media to go wild with, Jean ends up texting Neil. It's definitely not a thank you, but both of them know it kinda is (prob something like "you're an insufferable disease" lol)

They don't have contact for a while, but one day Neil reaches out by sending Jean the most atrocious multilingual French meme with "Kevin doesn't appreciate me or my humor, this is a hate crime"

It's sporadic from there, and maybe at one point they meet up while Neil and Andrew are on their summer road trip. Neil and Andrew end up in Colorado, and Jeremy, Cat, and Laila practically drag Jean there to see them (he'll deny that he had a good time, but he really did)

Andrew and Jean have a bizarre and interesting dynamic where they don't speak to each other often, but they eventually grow a mutual respect and shoot each other Looks about their "I'm Fine" partners. They don't mind just sitting in the same room and sharing space while they do their separate things.

When Jean and Jeremy start their pottery class, Jean takes to it like a fish to water.

He ends up majoring in Ceramics & Multimedia Art. Something about using his hands to create, rather than destroy.

He makes Neil a little exy racket charm for his keychain.

At one point, Jeremy makes a gc with Jean, Neil, Kevin, and Andrew on impulse. Jean "hates" it but doesn't leave the group chat. Andrew only stays in it because he can mute it, and it's useful for when they plan to meet up sometimes. It also makes Neil happy and it's not something he really minds

Jean also takes LOTS of pictures. With his phone, his friends' phones, a polaroid camera he gets as a gift from Cat, anything he can get his hands on. He hangs them up on his half of the room with Jeremy.

Eventually Jeremy and Jean do get separate rooms. They usually still sleep in the same room, but it's an important milestone for Jean and his recovery. Being able to have his own space, and know he's allowed to control who comes in it.

He decorates that room so much it's chaotic and beautiful and there's probably little pencil doodles on the wall next to his bed from when he can't sleep. He tends to draw daffodils :]

It becomes a bit of a tradition to meet Neil and Andrew every summer.

When they go pro, Jean and Neil end up on teams only a few hours' drive from each other. Neil and Andrew start on the same team, but the whole Minyard-Josten Rivalry is still a Thing because they're always shooting heated Russian at each other while "glaring" and no one else seems to realize it's their equivalent of flirting.

Jean thinks it's hilarious. He harasses Neil about it constantly.

Him and Kevin eventually mend their friendship, and they care about each other a lot.

Neil probably made the three of them matching "I survived Castle Evermore" shirts just to be a menace, and then Jean and Kevin have to make him swear that he'll never wear it in public.

Neil has a habit of just. Showing up at Jean's house and crashing sometimes.

Jeremy at one point jokes that he'll have to fight Neil for Jean's time in the future, but he's not really worried. They're happier when they spend time together. Jeremy and Andrew are chill with it.

When they meet up for the first time after a game between their pro teams, none of their teammates have any clue what's going on. Jean and Neil insult each other ferociously, but also can't seem to resist hip-checks and shoulder bumps and almost affectionate shoves.

Neil constantly sidles up to Jean and pretends like he doesn't know what he's doing. Jean usually responds by absently grabbing his hand so he knows where he is.

They are literally a cat and dog. Neil will deny that he's being caring or affectionate towards Jean all day long while actively attempting to be in Jean's space, and Jean practically perks up when Neil enters a room.

When their teams play against each other, they talk in French sometimes. Their checks are always a bit brutal (they know very well how far the other can be pushed before they break) but they help each other up at the end of quarters.

Jean is constantly antagonizing Neil by smiling and complimenting his striker skills while blocking him, and Neil is constantly taunting him with words that are plenty sharp, but never actually aimed for vital spots

Jean gets a service dog and Jeremy decides to name her Mr. Barkbark Flufferpants, following Andrew & Neil's naming scheme for their cats. They usually just call her "Mr."

When they make Court, the two of them practically live in each other's pockets.

Jeremy and Andrew watch both exasperatedly and amusedly (though Andrew just calls it annoyance when asked) as the two of them dance around their Big Queer Platonic Feelings

When they finally manage to actually communicate about it, it goes something like "Idk what's happening, I'm kinda obsessed with you but it is Not Romantic and I don't know what to do with that." And then "Oh thank hell, me too, I thought I was even weirder than I already am. Wanna go harrass the fbi together?" "No."

They become even more attached at the hip after that, can practically finish each other's sentences. It's like they freaking mind melded tbh.

At first Kevin gets worried that they're slipping into old habits from the Nest, especially Jean, but when he brings it up to Andrew and Jeremy, Andrew just goes "No, they're idiots." and Jeremy nods and says "I think they're in a honeymoon phase. If we see them slipping, we'll pull them out."

Kevin decides to wait and watch, and thankfully their relationship ends up being as healthy as Neil and Jean can be. There might be a little codependence going on, but they have other people and other grounding forces to help intervene if it seems to be unbalancing.

They both put each other on their emergency contacts list.

It's a common sight to find the two of them twisted into impossible positions together just doing their own things, Jean drawing, Neil watching reruns of Exy matches, whatever.

Their dynamic just becomes Jean, who genuinely grows up to be a pretty chill dude, and Neil, who's an absolute gremlin. Except they kinda absorb each other's personalities, so they're both little shits together. They fit.

There is definitely all sorts of weird conversations that they have at 2AM in little sleepovers they do together (sometimes with Kevin, Jeremy, or Andrew) because they never got that as kids.

I bet Neil mercilessly teases Jean for being allosexual, especially when he gets flustered (all in good fun, of course)

Jean just snarks back with a "shut up, I literally saw you look at Andrew like a besotted elderly man with his partner of fifty years like five minutes ago." Neil sticks out his tongue at him.

Jean actually can sometimes read the ways that Neil and Andrew show affection for each other because of how much time he spends around them, which leads to him occasionally getting confused when other people don't automatically Get It

Neil takes a while to warm up to Jeremy because he seems Too Nice, but once he does he helps Jeremy plan to absolutely torment Jean with silly little romantic gestures that make him flush all the way down to his neck

At one point Neil tries to get Jean to explain what it feels like to be sexually attracted to someone without knowing them really closely, and it leads to a really surprisingly deep conversation about attraction before it turns into neil making dick jokes.

Cat and Laila still keep in close contact with Jean, as well as Renee. They make sure to meet up as often as they can. Cat and Jean always go for a bike ride together and they all cook dinner as a group.

They're both cuddle monsters when in the right mood. They also have the convenient ability to fall asleep Anywhere when they feel safe. So finding them curled up together in weird places at home is pretty commonplace.

They're forever partners, not in the way that the world and the Nest tried to make them be, but in a way that they created themselves.

It doesn't have to be romantic to be special, and if anyone ever suggested that they should be in a romantic relationship, they would both look at that person with absolute judgement and disgust. This person interrupted their conversation. They were talking shit about someone. Neil is lounging in Jean's lap. Andrew is saying he hates them both, and Jeremy is cackling at it all while taking a low-res picture for Cat and Laila.

idk i have a Lot of thoughts and could keep going. (i might write a fic if anyone wants to read it, and I'll definitely write little snippets for myself if I get the time. )

#my qpr jean & neil agenda #all for the game #the sunshine court #aftg #neil josten #jean moreau #tsc #andrew minyard #thoughts #tsc spoilers #jeremy knox #KNAWING THE BARS OF MY ENCLOUSURE #listen they give me brainrot and I can't find the Exact dynamic i want on ao3 so i have to write about it #(also this is all written with absoutely no hate to the romantic jeaneil folks yall are doing amazing i'm so proud of you) #anyway also a cursory reminder that queerplatonic relationships are personal and vary from person to person! #They're very very cool and can look very different! #qpr concepts #qpr

[gayvampyr]

“queer spaces should be inclusive of people who don’t enjoy sex and who have “strange”, negative or repulsed relationships with sex” and “sex is an important aspect of lgbt community, history, and activism and queer people should be allowed and able to talk freely about sex without stigma or shame” are ideas that can and should coexist.

#‘queer people were banned from and shamed for having sex and that’s where a lot of our activism stemmed from’ and #‘not liking or having sex is considered abnormal and a mental illness and also needs to be destigmatized’ are concepts that not only can but #often do coalign #it’s esp important to consider that a lot of lgbt ppl who have a tricky and strained relationship with sex are like that because of trauma #which is very common for queer folks #it’s really not an ace-only thing #like i am sex repulsed but it’s very hard to discern if it’s because i’m asexual or if it’s the trauma. either way i deserve to have those #feelings and be included in lgbt spaces and discussions about sex and treated as just another queer person with a different experience #instead of being alienated because my feelings about sex don’t directly line up with yours #im so sick of people in this community trying to pit us against each other. as an ace lesbian that shit is so toxic and harmful #my relationship with sex is fluid. im sex-positive always‚ but i often find myself sex repulsed. im otherwise neutral about it but im sick #of people acting like it’s either you enjoy sex and have it frequently or you hate it and you shame everyone who has it like youre a puritan #like. lesbians are CONSTANTLY getting hounded and told that we’re broken or mentally i’ll for not showing interest in (having sex with) men #for the same reason asexuality is considered bad or wrong or weird

[comradekatara]

i’ve always kind of assumed that lo and li are azulon’s younger twin sisters and that’s why they were foisted off on azula, because she’s also a younger sister to the crown prince. but the fact that we never actually see them firebend is strange, because it implies either that nonbenders are instructing one of the greatest firebenders in the world, or that they are firebenders who simply do not firebend. and i think that the latter is more interesting, because it reflects how their position as elderly women devalues any firepower they might provide to the empire, passive and subdued even as they train ozai’s favorite weapon.

they are the ones to most overtly illustrate azula’s precarious relationship to femininity, after all. for example, noting the position of her hair after she successfully lightningbends in “the avatar state,” or emphasizing azula’s beauty when they introduce her in “the awakening.” and it’s clear that azula doesn’t really like them, dismisses and avoids them whenever she gets the chance. she can’t even tell them apart. their very existence is almost a humiliation. a reminder to azula that this is who she is destined to become once she lives past her usefulness. not the imperious azulon, her namesake, raised above on a fiery dais, but his sisters, insignificant and functionally powerless.

so of course “almost isn’t good enough,” of course “one hair out of place” is a failure. the only way azula can prove her worth to the empire she has devoted her entire self to in a way that matters is, perhaps, by being perfect, by being better and stronger than the discarded women who came before her. but that, too, is a delusion, that any amount of excellence will reward her in a way that compensates for the erosion of her very humanity. and yet, it’s all she has to cling to. so she gives it her all to excel within a system that will never really care about her because she has deliberately been made incapable of imagining an alternative. of simply recognizing the system for the failure that it is, conceptualizing a world beyond the bars of her gilded cage, and leaving.

#SHES SO ANTHYCODED 😭😭😭😭 #azula #lo and li #azula&ozai #azulon #analysis #and someday together we’ll shine… if you even care . #this was supposed to be a 2 sentence post about lo and li btw 🥴 #ALSO to be clear im not shaming her for not leaving #azula has no concept of ‘leaving’ that is not a) in disgrace or b) in a bodybag #im saying that she CANT because ozai’s psychological and physical abuse is so potent and effective #and that’s not her fault at all #just to be clear #in my mind i am so anthypilled that im like yeah everyone understands the mechanisms and psychology of abuse #what it means to be end of the world #and also just how azula has completely internalized the logic that the only way to survive is within this framework #she’s not weak or foolish for not being able to imagine a different path #which is very obvious to me. but i realized that might not be obvious to everyone. so.

[katabay]

original thief series basso & garrett :)

ngl, it's about quality over quantity for me. an npc can have a total of three minutes of screen time, but if they have a cool name, they can live rent free in my head and I'll spend several hours trying to decipher drawable features from a blurry screenshot of pixels

there is a vague hint of a story here, and that's because every time I try to play thi4f, I get incredibly frustrated with how Not Fun the game play is. like, is the story good? well. but it has a PLAGUE. that should've given it instant 'I'll replay this once a year' status in my heart, but the game play sucks so bad that I've never finished it. I can't believe Not Fun gameplay beat out my obsession with narrative plagues.

anyway, the idea is basically if the original era had a game with a plague centric narrative and some other stuff I liked out of thi4f thrown into a narrative blender, with a heavy dash of horror thrown in because some parts of the thief games were scarier to me than entire dedicated horror genre games.

⭐ places I’m at! bsky / pixiv / pillowfort /cohost / cara.app

#if i had a laptop and the skillset i would attempt a story mod because the thief modders who create whole mission stories #are GENIUS and also somewhat terrifying. love them! xoxox #anyway im actually kind of obsessed with parts of thi4f but its also like. not at that sweet spot of almost good enough to be fun #to talk about. which. for the record. has not stopped me from talking about it at length to people #the city itself actually fucking fascinates me. its almost alive and im SO mad that not a single part of that game is actually terrifying #it should be gnarlier and instead it feels a bit like it doesn't quite want to be trapped in the story it has to tell? #but between the level that has the bodies on the meathooks #and the scene with the bodies hanging from the rafters or whatever that was and garrett living in a clock tower #because the game is very much ALMOST about changing times and authoritarian violence and capitalism #(like. by virtue of how the story sort of spins out i think it misses it's mark on a lot of stuff here #in the sense that i dont feel like it actually wants to tell that story. it wants to. go in a different direction. or at least walk on top #of those themes instead of through it) #ANYWAY between all of those things. it does kind of live in my head rent free. they did create a compelling setting #SHAME THEY DIDNT WANT TO ACTUALLY EAT ANY OF IT #unrelated but i would've given thi4f a 10/10 if they kept garrett's fucking nail polish from the concept art. cowards. unforgivable #thief the dark project #i still have no idea how to tag the game series as a whole RIP #sorry for the dedicated dark project fans. if you know what the general series tag is. please let me know #garrett thief #basso thief

[doctorsiren]

I’ve done it again

We were talking about Misty and Gregory (thank you Squib for coming up with the ship name Mistory LMAO it’s perfect) and once again (because I love to design characters) was like “hm what if they had a kid” and then decided that they should have twins because it’s been too long since I’ve decided to design twins :3

So here we have little Gwendolyn and Griffin

Gwen has very little in the way of spirit powers, but she wants to be a paranormal investigator. She will use a magatama like a supernatural magnifying glass (by looking through the hole of it).

Griffin, despite being a dude, has spirit powers (because I said so. He gets to be special hehe).

Just very quick concepts for the silly :>

#doctorsiren #ace attorney #ace attorney oc #ship kids #gregory edgeworth #misty fey #siren’s oc #gwendyolyn edgeworth #griffin fey #yes I think they would go by different last names for the side of the family they are connected most to #mistory #idk if there’s an actual ship name for them HUIDHUIDH but this is the one I’ll use for my blog ig #digital art #my art #procreate #Gwen is very Nancy Drew #and Griff is based off of one of my old concept designs for Mia Fey Trilogy AU Phoenix #😁😁😁😁😁😁

[bizarrelittlemew]

TIME FOR MERMAY 2024!

Join a game of Bingo with OFMD inspired prompts! Hopefully the graphics above should explain, but feel free to ask any questions 🧜‍♂️

Happy creating!! 💖

text version of the prompts for easier copying

#ofmdmermay #ofmd mermay #mermay #ofmd #our flag means death #ofmd event #did i technically already get a full plate by making all those doodles - let's say yes #very excited hope this can inspire!! #feel free to save the bingo board and cross out as you go #also i know another event just got posted the other day but i figured i could still post this. different concept and more cakes and all

[biblically-accurate-dca]

an experiment of mixing the style of their in game art with their biblically accurate appearance

#my art #dca fandom #daycare attendant #sundrop #sunnydrop #apologizes for the lack of art i've been having a hard time drawing stuff lol #trying to work on finishing the october prompts & also the maid dress thing lmao #also i didnt mention it in the caption but this is also very much based off of their concept art #so it incorporates some of the details from that (e.g. the eyelash + eyebrows. the asymmetrical face details & the larger amount of teeth) #i'd love to draw their concept art style more but it's so similar to their regular appearance idk if anyone would actually notice it #but the differences matter TO ME !!!!!

[weareallgonnaliveforawhile]

Y'all know those fanfics where Saiki is an asshole to Teruhashi or really rude to her until they start dating? Yeah, this is what I imagine what that Saiki meeting Canon Saiki would be like.

Canon Saiki: So do you still deal with Teruhashi?

Fanfic Saiki: I can not avoid that woman. The other day she was bothering me when a mob of her fans showed up so I teleported away and-

Canon Saiki, surprised: You revealed your powers to her?! I mean, her fans do suck, so I can understand panicking and teleporting the both of you away-

Fanfic Saiki: What? No, I teleported myself away and left her there.

Canon Saiki: You what.

Fanfic Saiki: I teleported myself away. Well actually, I was the one who kinda summoned that crowd so that she'd be too overwhelmed with them to go find me-

Canon Saiki, shaking with murderous rage: You what.

#kokomi teruhashi #fanon saiki #terusai #saiteru #saiki kusuo #saiki no psi nan #kusuo saiki #saiki k #the disastrous life of saiki k #tdlosk #saiki kusou no psi nan #Not hate to any fic creators #It's just that I've read several where Saiki is like this #Including one where he fucked with her tarot fortune (which he knew she cared a lot about) to fuck with her head #And while that's a great fic concept and the fic itself was very well written #The concept sent me into a blind rage where I woke up ten hours later in Utah at an Amish farm. #I want to make it clear #This isn't explictly romantic #This can be platonic Terusai #Romantic Terusai #Whatever #But he does love her #And she loves him #It doesn't matter what way #It doesn't matter if they love each other in the same way they love their other friends #Or if it's in a different way #The love is there #And that's all that matters

[teplejtrouba]

a detective who has a partner🔍 and a partner💕 who are friends so the three of them end up doing a lof things together and the detective refers to them as "my partners" and doesn't realise this makes everyone think they're polyamorous (they do end up polyamorous by the end of the story)

#once people start making remarks and they do realise they're apprehensive to the idea at first #(the detective that is. the partners just find it funny i think) #in a shocked and confused way #like “why would you think that! a is my best friend and b is... also my best friend. but one of them is my colleague and the other my spous #“i do not have an unprofessional relationship with my colleague! ...well i do #but a completely platonic one!“ #(they do get up to a lot of hijinks together and it wouldn't be true to call them completely professional) #the detective doesn't stop calling them 'my partners' they just have a monologue about the nature of their relationship locked and loaded #it's a friends to lovers very slow burn to get to the throuple part but we do get there eventually #character concept #yes i initially imagined the detective as a man because i love men and most famous detectives unfortunately are men #however this would work very well in any gender scenario. all three of them are non-binary in different ways. all of them are women. #i think the main detective would be really fun if she was a Philomena Cunk type of character. very smart but So dumb and self-assured #really the main thing the detective needs to be is autistic

[uncomfortably-bowing]

there's so much utena discourse around certain aesthetic signatures of the show (in particular, scenes and shots like the sword pulls, the transformations and outfits, etc.) and, like, surface-level discussions over whether these things are "Actually Beautiful" or "Actually Bad."

and i totally get it, especially with regards to some scenes---like the ways in which people have taken the ending scene of episode 33 and turned into weird pastel-pretty aesthetic boards lmao----but i do feel like a lot of the discussion is over-simplistic, and disconnected from the actual framing and themes of the series

utena and anthy's world is full of beauty. it is also full of horror and pain. there is often no clear delineation between the two, and we are forced (quite generously!) to recognize both sides of this.

the sword pulls oftentimes carry feelings of manipulation, hurt, subservience. anthy summoning the sword drives in the repetitive, obedient actions she is forced to repeat time and time again for others as the rose bride. in the black rose arc, they're violent and terrifying. in the third arc, they're stand-ins of the dysfunctions the characters have with the person drawing them, the ways in which their emotions are being twisted and ignored.

and yet! they're beautiful.

they're incredibly intimate moments, in which the two characters---who, generally speaking, are either emotionally or physically estranged from one another---cradle or hold one another, pull out a culmination of that person's essence, as a heavenly light frames the two of them together. the first time anthy does it to utena, it is out of genuine fear for her, her voice quivering with fear as she tries to do anything to help her! it's love! it's an act of beautiful love!

when pressed on how it felt to have their sword drawn, the duelists are flustered---they can't say it was just painful, because it was more than just painful. the screams of the black rose arc turn into something more quiet, ethereal, pretty---and yet still uneasy, unsettling.

a similar conversation can be had about utena and anthy's outfits. they're symbols of their roles as duelist and rose bride, and for anthy in particular it's an outfit emblematic of her status as a static, never-moving prize to be won. the outfits are as ugly as the entire dueling system, and yet---while recognizing this---the show doesn't stray away from associating the dress and the duels with delightful, beautiful imagery. the rose imagery in general is very beautiful and striking, even at some of the more dark moments!

there is an aesthetically pleasing contrast between anthy's dress and utena's uniform---one that goes back ages in terms of our understandings of gender and social status. why is that beauty there? well, for a lot of reasons! one is definitely making us question what we think of as beautiful, particularly in the contexts of gender roles and society (why did we have that gut impulse to see anthy in that dress as beautiful to begin with?) but, for the sake of this post, i think the most satisfying answer is because horror and beauty are usually intertwined in our actual lives.

so much of the show is dedicated to both finding beauty in horrifying situations and seeing how beautiful things are oftentimes pretty horrifying. anthy and utena's relationship is beautiful, but grows out of abuse, sexism, queerphobia, and hurt.

when utena and anthy dance in front of everyone at the ball, how do we interpret that? well, our first instinct is as a beautiful scene of budding love and care between the two of them; our second instinct (especially after watching the show) is that it's another example of the way in which they've both been boxed into these roles of prince and bride---and all as hundreds of eyes are staring at them. when does the line between gender as choice and performance begin, and when does it become oppressive gender roles? when does anthy's performance as the meek rose bride become her real self? when do the two's relationship become loving, and when do they stop hurting each other? when do the ugly things at ohtori become beautiful, and when do all of the beautiful things become ugly?

and there's not really one point, always, although sometimes there are---and sometimes there's multiple points, and sometimes there was no transformation at all, and sometimes things never stopped oscillating between good and bad, ugly and beautiful, scary and hopeful.

and like, even beyond the really radical ways this impacts the queer and feminist readings of the show, i just think that's also very nice. so much of utena is built on recognizing the beauty in the world. the main characters live in a shitty world while leading shitty lives. and they find beauty in it still.

(i will here also add here at the end that when the show wants to make a very clear definitive statement on one of its aesthetics being basically entirely bad with no beauty behind it, it's very frank in its framing. see: any shot with utena in a dress or her girl's uniform)

#rgu #revolutionary girl utena #anthy himemiya #utena tenjou #also i just want to add that like #beauty and ugliness are ultimately very broad concepts and a work can use them in different ways to different themes #ranging from literally just intending the audience to go “oh that's pretty!” to actual commentary #so i also dont think the question of “are we supposed to find the things in utena beautiful” is necessarily the most cohesive #in the first place haha