You see the stars better in your peripheral vision, because the part of your eye that picks up images in the periphery is richer in light-sensing cells, where the center is more devoted to color. Focus your eyes too much on what's directly in front of you, creating in effect tunnel vision, and you won't see many of the stars around you.

...sorry. Took his metaphor and ran with it.

Giovanna wrote:

You see the stars better in your peripheral vision, because the part of your eye that picks up images in the periphery is richer in light-sensing cells, where the center is more devoted to color. Focus your eyes too much on what's directly in front of you, creating in effect tunnel vision, and you won't see many of the stars around you.

...sorry. Took his metaphor and ran with it.

Again, the board makes what I learned in psychology class relevant to my life. Does this mean that my education is important, or just that we talk about the randomest stuff on this board?

I'm a university student and apparently have a very high IQ and yet sometimes these posts still make my brain hurt.

IQ tests are arbitrary and highly inaccurate. I've taken a number of different ones and my results have sat in a range of approximately 40 points.

What's this common sense thing that people keep mentioning?

And wisdom's more often than not age-related. Naturally it depends, but overall...

Archambeau wrote:

To return back to the 100 Duellists and Nemuro, I've personally never believed them to be an early attempt, in Ohtori, of obtaining the Prince's sword and the revolutionary power it contains.  Rather, I connect the hundred and the student council into one timeline, one machination.

That does explain why Nemuro Memorial Hall is still a burnt out husk at the end of the series.

On the other hand it raises the question of who was involved in the creation of the other failures that Akio mentions. And whether Ohtori had anything to do with those events. And lots of other stuff we can never know...

( Not that I mean to go off topic! )

I don't think that having a super goody two-shoes character like Dios around serves the story, in any way. He's at his best, when reduced to a memory. Things in Revolutionary Girl Utena deliberately refuse to fit in the classical roles of a fairy tale.

I've always thought of Dios as more or less a symbol for Innocence. More so while riding on the merry-go-round in the final episode.

I've always juggled a couple different interpretations of that moment. Originally I thought he caught her simply because catching her would get her away from the gate, which would have been more comfortable for him. I still think there was a bit of that there, but also, there must be some of that prince instinct left in him, enough that he'd do the princely thing when it suited him, and it would suit him just then. Aside from that, letting her fall breaks a decorum Akio keeps up on principle for his own ends. He's a dick, but letting Utena fall when he's perfectly able to catch her would be completely classless. I'm sure he was quite indifferent to her suffering and couldn't care less if she dropped dead, but while he is a gigantic bastard, he's not rude. Rudeness would be unbecoming, a force such as himself doesn't need to be reduced to such things.

Grr... So basically Akio is a hypocrite to...himself? I'm not sure how to put this into words...
He's good but he's bad. He's bad but he's good.... He's not exactly -both- but he's not...neither
I think I'm confusing myself.. I'll just stop here...




Some of you have questioned time lines about before the series begins?
In the manga, I believe Utena has been at Ohtori for about a month...

And about Anthy/Dios when they were 100% existing. This is a time when Princes and Princesses exist. So perhaps it's somewhere in the dark ages?

Lightice wrote:

I can't seem to think of the projector as Nemuro's creation - it's too close to Akio's own being. And if that were the case, Nemuro should have been aware, at least to some extent, that he can be manipulated with the device. I'm not sure what was Nemuro's function in the game, though - perhaps he was there to upgrade the event, somehow. The difference between one hundred duellists in the past and seven in the present implies that the game evolved somehow. It's just as unclear why the hundred duellists had to die. Nemuro seems to believe that it was a neccecary action in grasping eternity, but it's never explained, just how. It's possible that the whole event was orchestrated by Akio just to bind Nemuro permanently in his power.

Dani wrote:

Paying more careful attention to the conversation Mikage has with one of the students working on the project, I'm convinced they are working on the duelling arena, the pathway and the circular stairway. There is even the briefest of still shots of the students planting trees for the duelling forest. So you are probably right that he doesn't know about the projector. I've always kinda gone with the fairy tale magic aspect that the 100 duellists died as a sacrifice for the power necessary for all the magic that happens at Ohtori (maybe that came from Mikage's comment about the animals that died for the fuel we use). At the very least, their deaths covered up the knowledge of the origin of the arena. It can seem more magical if the duellist is not aware of its scientific beginnings.

I agree with Dani because I think that Akio seduced Tokiko to drive Nemuro to burn down the hall and sacrifice a hundred human souls. But there's more to it than that. Here's my theory: Tokiko was Akio's creation.

Think about it. Nemuro was the only person brilliant enough to build a pathway to the dueling arena, but he had no motive before she came along. I think Akio forced Anthy to either assume her identity or create the living doll that was Tokiko.  What else was he going to offer him? The quest for ultimate knowledge? No! Nemuro was satisfied with his previous work. Remember that he was extremely unemotional before he fell in love, so he was probably the only person that came closest to escaping his tempatation. It was the only way to get the genius's cooperation.