Or, rather, even more motifs and archetypes

I just finished reading a collection of Grimm Fairy Tales (almost three hundred stories!) and I've noticed more motifs and archetypes beyond prince, princess, and witch that appear in SKU. The list is incomplete and unorganized now, but I thought you guys would appreciated it.

The forest – A fairy tale staple, the forest is the place where some poor fellow gets lost and accidentally stumbles upon a witch's cottage or cursed castle. In SKU, there are two such forests: the forest in the opening fairy tale and the dueling forest (which also includes the dueling arena). These two forests play a similar role to the fairy tale forest. They are at the center of the mixed-up fairy tale. Of course, SKU manages to subvert this motif when Utena discovers that the dueling arena is simply Akio's illusion.

Sibling Relationships – In fairy tales, siblings a) love each other, b) hate each other, or c) scheme against each other. More often than not, fairy tale twins love each other, step-siblings hate each other (and the so-called "evil" step-sibling schemes against the "good" sibling), and other siblings are a mixed bunch. If three brothers are involved, however, the older brothers often scheme against the unsuspecting younger brother. Kozue takes the sibling love just a little too far, Touga (arguably) schemes against Nanami, and I don't even want to get started on Anthy and Akio's relationship. However, I will say that I believe that Anthy and Akio are actually step-siblings. Not only does it explain the different last names, but also it explains their mixed up relationship.

The different types of princes:
    Stereotypical – The "ideal" prince that Utena wishes to become
    Cursed – When a prince angers a witch, the witch usually turns the prince into something very un-princely. Under this definition, Anthy's a witch who turns Dios into a cursed prince (Akio). Mikage and Juri are also (arguably) cursed princes.
    Forgetful – In some fairy tales, the prince is forced to do a series of impossible tasks but the princess does all the work for him. Afterward, the prince plans to marry the princess, but then he does something stupid that makes him forget the princess. Utena does a series of impossible tasks (i.e. the duels) with the help of Dios and/or Anthy so Utena's somewhat like the forgetful prince. However, I mostly included this archetype because I thought a fairy tale with memory issues as a plot device was amusing and very SKU.

The different types of princesses:
    Stereotypical – The damsel in distress
    Bratty – Nanami, need I say more?
    Curse-breaker – When the prince is cursed, the princess has to save the prince. Utena and Wakaba in episode 12 (and if we're going to call Juri a cursed prince...) somewhat fit this archetype. I'm mainly mentioning this because it's an archetype I found more often than I thought I would.
    Helpful – These princesses help the forgetful prince. They also make me wonder why they were ever captured by a witch in the first place if they can chop down a whole forest in an afternoon. Anthy (and even Dios) remind me of this archetype.

Luck of the naïve – It's almost like an absolute rule in fairy tales. The most naïve character (prince or not) will always end up with the gold/princess. This archetype has "Utena" written all over it.

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Like a said, it's incomplete now (needs more Saionji and Ruka), and I'm sure you guys have some awesome insights that I missed.

Last edited by Malacoda (03-21-2010 03:18:32 PM)