This is a good conversation and I will try to post later with more useful commentary.

But for now, I think I just want to point out that unless this disaster specifies otherwise, the original manga iirc mentions Utena's parents dying in a car accident.

Which uh...kinda points in a particular direction, and I seriously can totally see Akio causing a code orange mass casualty incident. I mean, he could have done that on accident, given the way he drives.

In case it wasn't already obvious before, I wanna make clear my gratitude towards DrCornelius for starting this truly thought-provoking thread

DrCornelius wrote:

They definitely intervened after the fact, though it's hard to interpret their role without more information. Were they grooming their little duelists for the future, after causing the disaster? Or were they performing damage control after an unexpected attack, and trying to preserve the kids that survived?

After the Revolution 2017 is interesting in how it is mixing elements from 3 different, conflicting Utena continuities.  To make sense of what's been revealed in this new manga debut chapter, we'd have to assume that things not explicitly stated as conflicting are the indeed identical between the continuities.

So, were Double A "grooming" child duelists for future? 

Anime: Remember Anthy's own petting zoo as shown in Nanami's Egg Ep?  And Akio and Anthy feeding Kanae the Apple?  Grooming potential pawns/playthings for future use does seem characteristic of Double A here.  Plus remember the Black Rose Arc and the need for BR Duelists?  The Student Council alone is obviously not enough for Double A’s plans.  So Double A has got a) great powers b) creepy "groomer"  inclination.   Would the ruthless, powerful likes of Double A have proactively engineered some mass-duelist production -- aka disaster hurting/killing many -- ahead of time?  Or would they simply have stayed passive and just hope for some convenient turn of fate to further their highly prioritized plan?  I say the former is more true to their characters.

Manga: Akio flat out states that Utena's ring is the only real Rose Signet, meaning the rest of the Student Council Duelists could just be incidental pawns that are likely replaceable.  Mikage is the only BR Duelist shown.  Still, the fact that a BR Duelist even exist does point to how SC Duelists are not enough for Double A’s purpose.  Mass-duelist production (aka disaster) ahead of time remain highly probable and in character.

Movie: Too nonsensical for me to speculate on much of anything, really.  Double MA seem incapable of even coherent plotting, let alone mass-duelist production.

If there is no X, and Anthy is directly responsible for killing Utena's parents - holy shit, that would be the biggest plot twist ever. I can't imagine how Utena would react to that, their relationship might be irreversibly changed...

Canonically speaking, Anthy is, at the very least, directly responsible for fiddling with the Tenjou couple's corpses ala rose motif coffin.  That is a hugely disrespectful gesture in Asian culture (and other cultures as well, I believe).  I doubt anime/manga Utena had ever dwelled upon this aspect of their first meeting – she apparently never fully remember the event, not even after EP 35 - or even she’d blow up at Anthy and Akio for using her parents’ remains for some sick manipulation scheme.         

On a non-canon related note in case anyone’s interested:
[Anthy being directly responsible for killing Utena's parents is actually the core conflict in Seinen Kakumei Utena.  ]

DrCornelius wrote:

In a way they succeeded in doing this, that's what the armored purple cars are - an army meant to kill anyone trying to escape Ohtori, because that risks breaking the illusion for everyone else. It's like a metaphor for cults.

Good point on locust cars, and for mentioning metaphor. Because in this "Rime" bit:

*There's a really odd bit during After The Revolution where Saionji mentions an artist named Rime who "kidnapped and abused scores of children" and is still "collecting children at his art school", Touga says he doesn't care and continues to deal his art anyway, and they fight over it. It feels really random and out-of-place, unless this Rime is being introduced for future chapters... not to mention, Rime is mentioned immediately after the Disaster flashback.

Rime's inclusion seems to be Saito's way of making explicit how Ohtori Duelists are akin to those kidnapped/abused/collected children.  Saionji apparently identify with such children, and is appalled that "fellow victim" Touga is unmoved, leading to the in-chapter duel. 

I could definitely see A&A being responsible, ESPECIALLY the anime version),But if Anthy's revealed to have killed Utena's parents, I think the damage to their relationship would be irreparable. Very tragic ending, that would be.

It's a highly-likely in-canon possibility, that with the Tenjou's manga cause of death being supposedly an engineer-able car accident (and I do mean CAR "accident").

*Burning the students at Nemuro Hall for the purpose of fueling magic - where did A&A get this idea from, and know that it would work? That's not something Dios would ever be doing. Could be borrowing a black magic trick from their enemies?

Sacrifices being needed to enact positive/negative magic is also present in Ikuni's Penguindrum, in the form of the fire-backslash/existence-erasure from the Fate Train Transfer.  Remember, even in the ancient Tale of the Rose, it was Dios' self-damaging overwork as "Prince" (a self sacrifice) that kept the World bright and shiny.  It makes sense that after Dios becomes a frustrated idealist-turned cynic ala Akio, he's abandon self-sacrifice for sacrificing others . . .

*This white-haired character behind Utena, appears to be someone entirely new. Yet, Utena has an extremely minor role and White-Hair isn't even seen in *After The Revolution*. Foreshadowing?
This character isn't necessarily X, but I'm thinking White-Hair must be important somehow.

Do we know for sure that character is from the 2017 SKU Manga?  Or, perhaps she's from another story in the Flower Magazine?

*Between the manga, the movie, and the anime, SKU has hit almost every major taboo except for two really notable ones;

Child murder, and cannibalism

If a villain who's into both shows up, God help the cast.

Urm . . . I think Anime!Anthy alone already covered both - the cannibalism at least metaphorically speaking - by becoming the 12 yr old "Mamiya" who manipulated Mikage for decades.

Dude, I really really hope that it isn't revealed that Anthy killed Utena's parents. That's something that could ruin the whole franchise for me.

Here's a theory that I don't actually believe but think it's interesting to think about: What if this mysterious force has something to do with Ohtori's sister school in Amsterdam? I doubt that will actually come up, but they're both weird unexplained plot threads, so...

Giovanna wrote:

But for now, I think I just want to point out that unless this disaster specifies otherwise, the original manga iirc mentions Utena's parents dying in a car accident.

I don't think it does. I only skimmed the prologue just now, but every time they mentioned the topic they didn't give any specifics, and most of the stuff in the prologue doesn't really come up again, so I don't think it's mentioned anywhere else.

Archambeau wrote:

I have to also throw my lot in with those thinking A&A are behind this accident. A severe trauma is needed to make a child latch all of their hopes onto fairy-tale notions of princes, miracles, and eternity, so they launched a direct attack and scooped up the survivors.

Word to the whole thing.