Like everything in Utena, and especially with Dios, I think its all up to speculation.

What I thought: The Dios that "rescued" Utena.. that was mostly just the fluffy, happy, idealistic memory that Utena made up in her head to cover up for the real, not-so-nice and more traumatic memory that actually happened. 

In the real memory (episode 34), Dios hardly seemed to save her at all. He kind of.. finds her.. and she gets up and follows him. I mean, he "rescued" her, but really it seemed more like she was intrigued enough by him to get up and rescue herself.. and then he showed her tragedy that was greater than hers. So, in my opinion, I don't really think he rescued her at all. I do wonder if he was trying to find her, show her Anthy, and inspire her to save Anthy because he couldn't do it himself. I think he knew that he was changing to Ends of the World and wasn't the prince anymore.

Two possible explanations for why Dios helps Utena:

1. Dios is now a spirit separate from Akio. When the "complete" Dios fell, the noble, princely part of him separated from Akio and began to exist as a helpless ghost. This new, weaker Dios can go around offering comforting words to a few people, but has little power to do anything else. Nevertheless, he tries to draw people into the duels in order to find a person who could save Anthy. This theory is consistent w/ the manga, where Dios and Akio are explicitly stated to be one prince who split off into two people. It also matches the end of the episode 13 clipshow where Akio goes into the castle, or at least the illusion of the castle, to talk to and taunt Dios right to his face. Dios doesn't speak, but reacts by glaring at him. And in the last episode, Dios is shown soothing a stabbed and betrayed Utena. Therefore, we know that there is a Dios who exists in the series separate from Akio. (There is one scene in ep 38 where Akio shouts that "Dios is dead!", but I don't think a faded ghost can count as "alive".)

Edit: If you believe this theory, then there are two explanations for Dios' current motives. The first is that Dios no longer cares about helping random girls. He helped people all around the world at the expense of time spent with his one sibling, and was rewarded by watching the world stab said sibling. Thus, he now only cares about helping Anthy. The second is that Dios still tries to help sad girls, but now does so by showing them images of a skewered Anthy and telling them how good they've got it by comparison. In the second explanation, Dios still cares for Anthy, but is not hopeful that anyone can save her. The 2nd explanation seems to have more weight because he says things to Utena like "you can't save her because you're a girl who'll become a woman" and because he tries to get Utena to crawl away in the last episode instead of urging her to save Anthy.

Either way, there's a scene in ep 34, where young Utena begs Dios to save Anthy and asks him why he can't. For a brief moment, Dios puts on http://ohtori.nu/galerie/v/series/episodes/apoarc/34/Series_ep34_207.jpg.html, as if he's remembering how the world made him so sick he lost most of his powers to save others. Or maybe he's remembering how he lost most of his powers to save others after becoming disillusioned by the world's violence and splitting off from Akio. Whatever you believed ultimately caused Dios' downfall.

2. The Dios which visits young Utena is actually Akio in disguise, a scenario that Dalbun summarizes well. If you believe this theory, the aforementioned bitter glance would be Akio briefly revealing his scheming nature and complete and total lack of ability to actually be sincere about saving his sister.

Of course, Akio is a lying liar who lies, so it might not be best to trust his word that he "helped" Utena. He could also have been speaking Jedi-truth; Dios is technically a branch of Akio's spirit, so if Dios approached Utena, Akio could try to take some of the credit. I'm personally more inclined towards Theory 1, because it explains events in ep. 13 and 39. I also find it hard to believe that Akio would actually put effort into wandering the world looking for sad children, because he no longer cares or believes that it's possible to make a prince's sword to unlock Dios' power. Being the puppet master of the duels keeps him content and happy. He obviously won't say "no" to ultimate power, but what's his reaction when his one featured attempt fails? "Oh look, this sword won't work either. Ah well. Might as well drink a milkshake. ". But of course, it's your decision to make.

Last edited by Nights1stStar (03-18-2010 04:55:15 PM)

Thanks for answering my questions everyone. I thought that Akio was lying about being the one to save Utena, but that does make a lot more sense that it was him than Dios still randomly appearing and being able to save people even after he was sealed away.   The fact that Akio appeared to Utena during that time makes me curious about how the other duellists got their rings.  I wonder if Akio appeared to them in moments of their lives where they were vunerable, or if they were given their rings in a more unceremonious way.  It's interesting that the only other person we actually see receive a regular ring is Nemuro. (At least, as far as I can remember.  I can't remember if we saw Touga giving Nanami her ring or not.)

Last edited by HonorableShadow (03-19-2010 03:31:07 PM)

HonorableShadow wrote:

The fact that Akio appeared to Utena during that time makes me curious about how the other duellists got their rings.

The implication during the early Student Council episodes seems to be that they simply received their rings in letters from Ends of the World. Here's one exchange:

Juri:  But Tenjou Utena... Is she trying to revolutionize the world like we are?
Touga:  No.
Touga:  Unlike us, she doesn't seem to receive the letters from the Ends of the World.
Juri:  If not, why does she bear the Rose Signet?

Sounds pretty straightforward to me. Also, Anthy confirms this in one conversation in the Sega Saturn Game... which, while not a part of TV series canon, is based directly on it.