I think the reason why the Utena finale always kills me is because that sweet, helpful, selfless little girl who gave her life for her brother without hesitation, even if she didn’t understand what that actually would mean for her for the rest of eternity, had been in that coffin the whole time.
Anthy insists that she’s soiled and ruined because of her abuse at Akio’s hands, and she genuinely believes it. She sees herself as a wreckage of that past innocent self, who lived when things were Better and died when they stopped being Better, and now what’s left is unsalvageable junk. A “fallen woman,” only capable of acting selfishly and cynically in the service of a man who no longer loves her, who deserves to be hurt again and again for her impurity and her foolishness in clinging to him, who cannot survive in the world outside.
And yet, upon waking up, the very first thing her “true,” unguarded self does is scream at Utena to run, to save herself, to leave her behind.
That selfless little girl never left, not even when she grew up into a jaded, tired young adult. She was always there. All the swords in the world couldn’t kill her. Akio couldn’t kill her. Not even Anthy herself could kill her, not with all the denial and repression and magic in the world.
And in the end, that little girl finally experienced the unconditional love she’d always been hoping for, the kind she’d always deserved but never received from the one she’d sacrificed herself for. And that tiniest glimpse of real love and real happiness was enough to help her escape from the prison she’d been trapped in her whole life, join hands with that tired and jaded old witch who’d spent what felt like eternity trying to bury her, and walk free.
All girls are like the Rose Bride, sure. Some boys are, too. Touga shared enough of Anthy’s trauma at Akio’s hands that he eventually got a sword pulled from his own chest, even if he was forbidden from wearing the bridal outfit because a boy wearing a suitable gown for the role would be against the Ohtori Academy dress code. However, the flipside of that is that if there’s hope for even the most hated little girl in the whole world, there’s also hope for the rest of us.
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thought about in passing what jhudoras moms would be like then sketched some ideas immediately
plus a teeny bopper jhudora
also, a comparison. copied her colour palette for the faerie on the left almost entirely then made jhudys face a combo of both
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Anyways I'm so fucking relieved that Porter was evil actually. Bc I was actually so damn mad that he got to be right about Gorgug. Like there's just something insidious about the idea of a teacher who comes in and says they know more about what your path should be. And they push and push and keep telling you that they're only hurting you bc they know you can do more. And it doesn't matter if you feel that way or even if you want to do more, bc they've decided they know the right path for you. And it's only ever your life and your sanity on the line; they're risking nothing. So I was so fucking mad when Gorgug succeeded at the barbificer thing and Porter got to be all 'see? I was only pushing you bc I believed in you' bc you better believe if Gorgug hadn't managed it, the blame would've been on him not Porter....
Anyways with the hindsight that Porter is basically the big bad, it suddenly becomes a question of if Porter even wanted Gorgug to succeed. Like they had to know the Bad Kids were the biggest threat to their plan, so like. Undermining them in whatever way was possible would be smart. And so instead of Porter getting to be Right about how to treat Gorgug, it's like. Was he sabotaging him? Was he trying to make Gorgug fail? And it becomes more that Gorgug succeeded in spite of Porter's bullshit.
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(Insert disclaimer here that I'm really not trying to judge or decide if there is "one person obviously wrong" in this interaction, because i'm here to enjoy the MESSINESS and the ANGST of humanity, i'm eating the delicious food and drama provided to me)
The thing is, on the one hand, Sam is completely within his right to set that boundary with Alice - not being comfortable talking about his new building relationship with his ex is like, yeah, a very normal thing to be uncomfy about, there is nothing irreasonable about him asking Alice to back off about prying into it, and Alice should be able to respect that;
on the other hand, if they are friends, and they truly seem to be friends (Sam affirms they're friends! And I believe it after the 13 episodes we saw of them!), AND Alice is the one who reached out to help Sam out of a very bad mental (and probably financial, by that point) situation, helping him get a job, then, yeah, the word professional used in that context is NOT the good word to use at all, and obviously Sam realizes that, and obviously that's what really gets to Alice, beyond the new boundary trying to be established.
At the same time, Alice is clearly digging to get more infos and Trying to be the Cool Friend while being somewhat masochistic about it, since by now it's plain to see she does have lingering feelings for Sam, and the way she goes about it is not always nice, so she's hurting both herself and Sam by pushing and pushing about it and not listening to Sam giving them both a out from that.
BUT ALSO, Sam saying "I know you're not happy about me and Celia" means that he knows that she's hurting herself each time she talks about it; means that he KNOWS that she still feels something for him that he doesn't anymore, and that means that this beautiful, warm, sweet, lovable, people-pleaser of a man has been purposefully using those feelings to get her to do something she didn't want to do literally three episodes ago, and with no shame at at all about it.
THE POINT IS. They're so MESSY. They KNOW EACH OTHER SO WELL. They LIKE each other. They're going to have SUCH A BAD FALLOUT ONE DAY AND ITS GOING TO BREAK BOTH THEIR HEARTS (and mine, while i cackle from the pain).
(oh, and yeah: "We dated in uni, I tried to help her after her parents died, then we lost contact" ??? What a summary, Samama. I'm sure NOTHING is hiding behind those lines.)
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