Giovanna wrote:

No suggestions???

Utena is all in Shinji Ikari's head?

Tatsuya is the only one of the Black Rose potentials to come to Mikage and show his deepest desire at that time to not be a selfish one. That is why Mikage cannot use him.

See his portion of the elevator scene...

Tatsuya:  There was a girl I had been watching for a long time.
Tatsuya:  She was a princess to me alone.
Tatsuya:  But, she left me to see another man.
Tatsuya:  I'm sure she is being deceived.
Tatsuya:  Oh, and she was such an innocent girl...
Tatsuya:  I'm sure he'll do all sorts of bad things to her, like... or... or even...
Tatsuya:  But it's okay. No matter how much of her purity she'll lose, she'll come back to me.
Tatsuya:  Because of my love for her.
Tatsuya:  Yes, 'cause in the end, love always wins.
Tatsuya:  I would be able to make you happy. I would be able to give away anything for your sake.
Tatsuya:  I would... I would...
Tatsuya:  Why can't it be me?!
Mikage:  You're really a good person, aren't you?
Mikage:  So, there's no path for you to take here. Go home.
Mikage:  This isn't a place for someone like you.

Compared to Keiko's...

Keiko:  I admired Nanami-sama from the bottom of my heart.
Keiko:  That's what I believed, and I've been serving her.
Keiko:  But actually, that wasn't true.
Keiko:  I was only with Nanami-sama to get close to Touga-sama, even the littlest bit.
Keiko:  Without that reason, who'd want to be with her?
Mikage:  Deeper... Go deeper.
Keiko:  That selfish...
Keiko:  I'm a single girl! What's wrong with me falling in love with someone?
Keiko:  Why do I have to hold back because of her?
Keiko:  Just because she's Touga-sama's sister, she monopolizes his love.
Keiko:  Even right before my own eyes!
Keiko:  And that girl has no idea...
Keiko:  ...how I felt all this time!
Keiko:  She doesn't even try to understand!
Mikage:  I understand.
Mikage:  I suppose you have no choice but to revolutionize the world.
Mikage:  The way before you has been prepared.

He is concerned for her, and, in the end, places the blame of the situation on himself rather than another. It's a common theme through all the other Black Rose potentials that DO become duelists. The blame for the situation always goes on another. Whether that's actually how it should be or not is up to interpretation, but is one of the defining differences. That and he acts out of perceived love, rather than jealousy, envy, or hatred.

gorgeousshutin wrote:

That being said, I'm surprised I don't see anyone doing anything extensive on Tatsuya the "failed" Black Rose Duelist, when he is the only character in that show that Akio's forces cannot corrupt.  Doesn't that make him, even more than the seduced Utena (though she fights the seduction at the very end), the "Last Great Innocent" of SKU ?

I've actually got an essay on Tatsuya on ohtori.nu proper.  I wrote it before IRG existed.  I've changed my mind about a number of specific points since I wrote it, and I committed at least one factual error, because I've learned a lot from IRG   But if you're jonesing for something about Tatsuya to react to, you can read that essay here.

Thanks for the link to your well-written article, satyreyes!

Just a small thing to point out:

Tatsuya’s got rotten luck. Perhaps more than anyone else in the series, he deserves to be with the one he loves; but the world of Utena is not a place for normal people with no inner demons to face. Thus his beloved is already in love – with a man she’s going to have to pull a sword out of in a week’s time. By then it’s too late. Tatsuya, we presume, has left the campus, taking the path that Mikage shows to him and no one else: the one that lies outside Ohtori Academy. Like only a few others – Tokiko, Ruka, and ultimately Anthy – he has left the garden within which Akio says no one can ever grow up.

Tatsuya has in fact remained within Ohtori afterwards, past the Black Rose Arc until the very end.  He later showed up in the beginning of episode 30 (and got credited in Ohtori.nu's script as "guy" ) where and he Wakaba talk about kissing, and was prominently featured in episode 39's post-revolution clips existing dialogue-less beside Wakaba and her new friend.

Lurv wrote
My first impression was that Tatsuya got turned away because Wakaba wasn't a duelist. There's probably a deeper reason though.

I think so too

satyeyes wrote:
This is the "at least one factual error" I mentioned.

Ah . . .

All in all, it's refreshing to see someone write anything on Tatsuya, whose "failed duelist/pawn" status makes him note worthy amongst the SKU cast. 

It is in my personal canon (meaning it is debatable and not fact-solid) that Akio, like Anthy, can be made to give up the quest for Dio's power had he met someone who could accept his bad sides/secrets (like how Utena accept Anthy's); I always thought that had things turned out differently,  unambitious, incorruptible Tats would be just the person who could do it.