This is a static copy of In the Rose Garden, which existed as the center of the western Utena fandom for years. Enjoy. :)
We all know that the duelists chose their own brides in the Akio Ohtori saga, and it got me thinking about this. Who would yours be if you were a duelist? Mine would be my best friend Danyell. Even though we're like night and day she's the twin I never had.
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The Rose Bride is a subservient role and I have no wish for that.
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Hmm I'd probably like a pre-made rosebride because to make someone I know already take on a less-than-themselves personality doesn't really do it for me. I mean I'd have to hate them I guess.
And simultaneously I'd have to want them to do every one of my wishes. And I actually find subservient people really annoying in real life. I have to be very careful to stay kind and not snap at them.
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I at this point is more like to BE a rose bride than having one.
Because I find myself very much drawn to a very good friend of mine right now.
Wait, hold that thought, has Anthy emotionally attached herself with Utena or was I projecting Wakaba or Juri's image onto her?
Last edited by Hiraku (09-29-2008 11:34:18 PM)
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I don't know really.. I'm verryyyy torn on this one.
Half of me says, i'd rather BE one than choose one... however, I also have that "must save the world" complex about me.
EX:
I work at a bookstore where we must maintain a certain percentage of discount cards in comparison to our sales totals.
Often, i find myself canceling previous plans to... "save the world" (be the prince?) and fix the percentage...
---------
I guess to sum it up...
I want to be the prince and save the world.
But when it comes to finding MY prince i'll be the rose bride any day
Edit: grammar stuff =/
Last edited by KissFromARose (09-29-2008 11:46:57 PM)
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Yasha.
Sometimes she's really more my prince, but other times she's just an enabler for my bad behavior.
As far as the enabling bad behavior component goes, Frosty could be my rose bride too.
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Giovanna wrote:
Yasha.
Sometimes she's really more my prince, but other times she's just an enabler for my bad behavior.
As far as the enabling bad behavior component goes, Frosty could be my rose bride too.
Huh... I thought you'd make Akio your Rose Bride, and Yasha would make Touga hers.
Oh wait...
Shoot, it has to be REAL LIFE person. Aw, poo...
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I am the Rose Bride. From '05, I have been Igor's flower.
Really, I am mostly a doormat, but I plot like Anshii does behind the Tower doors... or is that underneath the coffin top?
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I probably would be someone else's Rose Bride. I'm too submissive for my own good.
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Good heavens. Um... well, the problem is that I don't really have the requisite love/hate relationship with anyone, and no one has that kind of relationship with me (as far as I know). The closest candidates are people who aren't really in my life anymore, or who never really were.
So I'm safe from dueling! Unless I do it Bridelessly like Mikage (sorta) or Kanae. Huzzah, I think!
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Lady Chani wrote:
I probably would be someone else's Rose Bride. I'm too submissive for my own good.
But is Anthy really submissive to anyone but Akio? Or are the Akio Car pseudo-brides really the submissive ones? Shiori, sure (in this context), and there's an argument for Saionji, but I think Touga and Kozue were more in control of the situation than their respective duelists.
As for me, I'm going to add another voice to the "I wouldn't want to make anyone play that role for me" chorus. (If we're just talking about someone who could remove my soul sword without knocking me unconscious, well, I still wouldn't go for the dress when there's the option of matching suits.)
Personal sharing note: I have been known to be, in my (hindsight-aided) opinion, too Rose-Bride-y in a few relationships. In the sense of quietly adapting myself to what they seemed to want while (sometimes secretly) holding back a bit of my core self. It turns out that's not really such a good idea.
Last edited by End of the Tour (10-01-2008 12:45:46 AM)
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Umm, I think I'd play the role of the Prince and The Rose Bride simultaneously, because a duty of The Prince is to serve a woman and protect her, and being too much into serving, means to become a Rose Bride/Groom/whatever...
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Steering away from the context of the "Rose Bride" in Ikuhara's world, a bride is to serve her groom therefore love is-or should be-present. Love, to me, is not love without sacrifices, so it's not merely servitude or convenience that some may think of their best friends and/or lovers as their very own Rose Brides.
My real life best friend, FencingCaptain, and I switch roles. She can be my Rose Bride when my stubborn, bratty, dominant nature is too much for her to handle; I play her rose bride when she tames the prince in me (i.e. the description of a true prince in Machiavelli's mind; I'm not for the fairy tale type of prince).
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Seitokaichou wrote: Love, to me, is not love without sacrifices, so it's not merely servitude or convenience that some may think of their best friends and/or lovers as their very own Rose Brides.
Intriguing point, kaichou. You've got me thinking about it.
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This thread makes me think of what Anthy said: "All girls are like the Rose Bride"...thoughts?
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Stormcrow wrote:
This thread makes me think of what Anthy said: "All girls are like the Rose Bride"...thoughts?
I could admit that the stereotypical female will more than likely do everything and anything they can for their lover to ..well love them.. i can kinda agree with that....
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I agree that many girls are like the Rose Bride at some point of their lives. There will always be someone that can weaken them, that they would be willing to do anything for. A person they adore, and often eventually grow to resent. (Ex, Anthy resenting Akio for who he became, Kozue resenting Miki for being unable to achieve his goals, and Shiori resenting Ruka for him being who he naturally is, and of course Ruka himself with Juri.)
Most likely my Rose Bride would be my friend Kyle. Although the two of us are well known for our spats and disagreements, he's similar to me and often someone I want to 'save.' We share an understanding of eachother's darkness and imperfections. There is no romance in it, or any sense of a relationship, but the two of us are made from a similar core. Or, would I be his 'witch' because of that? I'm not sure.
Or, I'd end up in a similar situation to Juri, and have a RoseBride I resented.
There is no one I know offline who I would be the rose bride to.
Last edited by Iris (10-01-2008 12:22:58 PM)
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Stormcrow wrote:
This thread makes me think of what Anthy said: "All girls are like the Rose Bride"...thoughts?
There's a word, used among people who study literature and film, for when a character just flat-out states one of the "messages" of the piece, ideally in a way that blends in and doesn't sound like moralizing (or immoralizing, depending on the message). I don't remember what that word is, but that's what I've always taken that line as. (And, incidentally, isn't it Akio who says it, not Anthy?)
Of course, this is because I see Akio and Anthy as really living idealizations of their gender roles, and I think the series demonstrates pretty well that this isn't really such a good idea. But maybe not everyone sees them this way.
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