#Very Beautiful theme!

[braceletofteeth]

he's got the fire and he walks with it

[brainrotdotorg]

how many tasteless sacrilegious dolores dei-themed stripteases and burlesque shows do you think have been performed in elysium. blonde wigs and all white dresses and golden wreathes and all that. no bra obviously. spotlight shining right on the titties to mimic a lung glow effect. dolores dei drag queen performances lipsyncing to vesper-messinian chants

[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)

[castratedvader]

i think the discussion we're having about horror getting sanitized to the point where it's difficult to put certain themes in media without being accused of immorality is important but im not sure i agree on the fact that dark themes belong only in that genre and can be developed only there

[fromtheseventhhell]

I also find it funny that fandom will only accept Lyanna being her non-conforming, wild self in the context of saying that Arya isn't meant to be pretty; Any other day we get back-to-back posts about how Lyanna is actually super traditionally feminine cause she sniffled at a song once, so she's actually more like Sansa. Instead of constantly speaking on Arya and Lyanna, how about you guys reflect on why your standards of beauty for women are attached to how well they perform feminity within the patriarchy?

[prahacat]

it’s spring, but all he wants to do is sleep

[sundry-whovengerslocked]

Dirty Valentine by Richard Siken

[lucy-ghoul]

still baffled that one popular anti-dany argument pre s8 was that since she was wearing black she leaning toward the Dark Side™...... as if in the same series another unambigously heroic protagonist didn't enlist into the night's guard where everyone must wear black, and the series' author wasn't explicitly against this kind of stereotypical tropes lmao

[bunisher]

i just…. still cannot believe that they had frank quote oscar wilde and wear purple and have a whole arc surrounding closeted gay men and expected me not to notice!!!

[bluepallilworld]

The sun goes down and the creatures...

It is time...

Welcome to the party!

Here's the dark cream shipkids halloween collab!

Warning for blood, halloween music and some horror themed background elements ;3

Close-ups! (Click)

------------------------------------------------------------

Credits time!

The kids:

-Mimosa and Mu are mine

-Celestial Star and Luna Light belong to @help-im-a-gay-fish

-Estrella belongs to @shinechermont

-Aim belongs to @zu-is-here

-Ruby and Meridix belong to @orange-dreamzer

-Ares belongs to @puddle-of-creativity

-Nightingale belongs to @catlover31

-Soltice belongs to @laf-e-taffy

-Diaphanous belongs to @amarald

-Mirage belongs to @ari-cuno

-Mager belongs to @faeroviolet

-Fenzo belongs to @im-to-good-for-names

-Andromeda and Eclipse belong to @dragon-tamer-1

The background+ team (look at how big it was this year!!!):

- @diofasolia did the music (spooky scary skeletons :P) (I did some singing), the customized pumpkins, the bloody chair and the lovely lady coming out of the tv

-@orange-dreamzer did some bats, the big cake, a... flower a bit special and empty wrappers

-@pmd-appreciation did seats (pumpkin pouffe, dusty stool, skeleton armchair), the cauldron of snacks, horror movie poster, string of bats, the window, the drinks, the candles

-@amarald did the table, the black cat, the chocolate cherries and a witch hat

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

job applications: this is entry level! anyone can apply!

job applications: ...as long as you've done at least six months of highly specific work, or have this exact degree, or if you kissed a chicken during the last moon of 2012-

[reinabeestudio]

Can we talk about Starlo's family cause like. How can everyone in that house be so damn pretty

[eggsdrawings]

what in my hero academia appeals to you the most

the overall theme of the story is really one of my favorites. even if i havent liked every single way this series has played out, there’s a lot i love about what it represents. there’s a lot of remorse / being recognized that you are more than your mistakes or the abuse you have suffered. that u are worthy of being saved. i think it’s really nice

aside from that, there’s just a lot of characters which brings along a ton of dynamics that u can play around with! makes it really enjoyable to see how they could interact with each other and how that could influence their behavior.. like hawks may not have actually hung out with the league, but the IDEAAA of him becoming their friend, learning the similarities in his upbringing to theirs, being put in the position where he begins to question his loyalty to his job, coming face to face with the whole “don’t meet your idols” once he learns of dabi’s abuse coming from endeavor.. all of that is interesting to me because there’s so many ways it could have been played out, even if it didn’t exactly turn out like that in canon

[nordsea-horizons]

✨Glenhollow by @overtheriver-throughthewoods 🍃✨

[fenkko]

cant believe i reached 30 tags in prev post rambling about homestuck i didnt even know there was a limit

[cowboyshit]

why do i always gotta be so extra with my headers. this is just tumblr for crying out loud