This is a static copy of In the Rose Garden, which existed as the center of the western Utena fandom for years. Enjoy. :)
#1 | Back to Top05-13-2009 11:54:50 AM
Could Anthy Have Been Utena's Prince
This is just a thought that came to me the other day. You know how that in the movie, Anthy is the one who saves Utena so that sort of makes her the prince there. Then I was thinking what about in the TV series, and this theory came to me. You know that how at the end of the Black Rose arc it is revealed that Anthy was Mamiya. What if all those years ago, she disguised herself as Dios and rescued Utena from the coffin.
When I think about it, it almost makes more sense then Utena having been saved by Dios or even Akio. Dios is never shown in the series to have a physical body, so I don't know why he would back then if he was already dead. And I can't find any motive for Akio to want to. I don't see why he would have shown Anthy to her so that she'd become a prince and save her, when what he wants at the end of the series is for him to become his princess and not save Anthy.
Also Dios appearance when he saved Utena, it was rather youthful, like he was around 14. If you remember, it was also revealed in the Black Rose arc that in the land of Ohtori, people don't age. In the flashback, Akio was the same age as he was he current time. So you could assume the same about Anthy.
I don't know how much sense I'm making, but what are your thoughts?
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#2 | Back to Top05-13-2009 01:13:07 PM
- YostinAust
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- From: Tallahassee, Florida
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Re: Could Anthy Have Been Utena's Prince
Remember, things in the SKUniverse are not meant to be phusically possible. It is in fact quite likely that it was Touga that saved Utena from her coffin and that Utena just then projected Dios onto the scene. Think about it. There is no line between the figurative and the real in that universe. Touga was the fallen epitome of classic nobility, "Akio saved her" is a reference to the cavalier douchebag nature it takes to say "Hey, you know what's eternal? That poor girl's torture!", and Anthy was never quite Mamiya. She wasn't just putting on a purple shirt and dying her hair, Akio/End of the World transformed her into the object of Mikage's misguided affection.
"In this age, the mere example of non-conformity, the mere refusal to bend the knee to custom, is itself a service"
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#3 | Back to Top05-14-2009 10:59:24 AM
- End of the Tour
- Ballgoer
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Re: Could Anthy Have Been Utena's Prince
YostinAust wrote:
She wasn't just putting on a purple shirt and dying her hair, Akio/End of the World transformed her into the object of Mikage's misguided affection.
Hmm, I'm not sure if I quite believe that. She does walk by Wakaba wearing Saionji's hair ornament, and it seems unlikely that Mikage would have knowingly given it to Anthy (and expected her cooperation) if he really intends to kill her and replace her with Mamiya. I suppose Mamiya could have given it to Akio, been switched back to Anthy, and then received it from Akio with instructions, but it seems unlike Anthy to not be in a scheme, you know?
Of course, this interpretation is biased by my enjoyment of thinking of Mamiya as Anthy during the first Black Rose episode. Specifically when s/he stabs Kanae with the rose.
Sometimes life is about making difficult sandwiches.
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#4 | Back to Top05-15-2009 02:06:29 AM
Re: Could Anthy Have Been Utena's Prince
I do think that's an interesting thought A_Man 
, and would make a cool alternate reality type fic or something like that. I'm also sure you could make an excellent argument for the proposal, as with many scenarios in SKU.
I also favour the intriguing notion that Utena was/is Dios - and therefore Utena was Utena's own prince. Follow me along this crazy path for a moment:
Dios is the spirit of princehood, and nobility and is actually timeless. So after Utena wins the power of Dios, she could well go to another world and start the chain of events that led to her being able to come to Ohtori Academy in the first place. But of course with this kind of theory Akio as Dios is also well-able (if not more able) to be Utena's prince, just in the time before he was corrupted. Which actually could have been when he was a teen y'know, as in after the swords had come for Anthy but before he'd grown up to be everybody's favourite sexual predator. 
Picture this: a brooding young man, growing ever more bitter at the fate which his sister is trapped in and at the events that pushed her there (that he himself had a hand in, "cruelly innocent" as he was...). He sees a little girl who has a noble notion, and of course he fosters it, for it reminds him of better brighter days and the happy boy he used to be. *sad music strums in the background*
Uh yes. So I figure that Dios was Utena's prince, and Dios is a younger more innocent incarnation of Akio. But sometimes I toy with the notion that Dios is also an older less innocent incarnation of Utena.
Because it's so very SKU to let your thoughts go to crazy places! 
Fanfic: http://www.fanfiction.net/u/385676/sharnii / New AMVs: http://www.youtube.com/user/sharnii2 / Old AMVs: http://www.youtube.com/user/sharnii
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#5 | Back to Top05-15-2009 09:44:51 AM
Re: Could Anthy Have Been Utena's Prince
sharnii wrote:
I also favour the intriguing notion that Utena was/is Dios - and therefore Utena was Utena's own prince.
Which is actually a lovely metaphor for the fact that other people can never save you -- you always have to save yourself.
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