Minervana, I have a hunch you'll find this thread extraordinarily interesting, if you haven't found it yet   Gio uses body language to analyze the Saionji of this episode forwards and backwards.

I have absolutely no doubt that Saionji sincerely cares about Wakaba, at least for the span of time he stays with her.  He's a terrible liar; he wouldn't be able to feign affection for Wakaba any more than he can feign indifference to Touga.  The issue is that he's a very different person here than he is anywhere else in the series.  I think what this shows is that Saionji's personality is contextual.  When he's comfortable, happy, and cared for, he's sincere and even humble; but his flaw is that he can't resist being drawn into conflict.  Mikage drops by and Saionji jumps at the chance to return to Ohtori.  And at Ohtori, where Saionji has to watch his back and struggle for dominance, he turns into the violent and outwardly cynical character we were introduced to in episode 1.  Wakaba?  Forgotten, a vaguely embarrassing artifact of the time Saionji allowed himself to fall into dependence.  I love this episode too, because it shows a potential for self-realization in Saionji that we don't see so vividly out of Juri or Miki.

To bring up Jungian parallels (and use the knowledge I've gained on analytical psychology), I'd say the specialized class is really a construct of society, rather than society being the construct of a specialized class. From his observations of native tribes in Africa, Jung came to the conclusion that rulers (shamans, cheiftains, etc.) can only occupy their state of supremacy so long as they serve to maintain a psychic give and take with those below them. In layman's terms, the reason for special people is the need common people have for special people to exist. Think about modern day people, how their personal problems can be forgotten when they bitch about the latest celebrity scandal or political fuck-up.

"It is not titles that honor men, it is men who honor titles". - Machaivelli

Akio's idea, of a top-down model of society, is less an apt sociological observation and more a sign of his own social pathology. As Dios, he submitted himself wholly to the needs of normal people. Now, he is convinced that the normal are just sheep in need of a shepherd. Thus, his disdain for Wakaba. Her decline was never a failure of her own abilities, but rather the fact that she had based her newfound confidence on the acceptance and love she was recieving form someone she thought of as "special". She was always as great as she was when she had Saionji, she just hadn't been allowing herself to be. For a bad pun's sake, she "psyched" herself out.

minervana wrote:

I think you're right, YostinAust, about Wakaba psyching herself out. If she would recognize her own innate talent and gifts, without pinning her self-esteem on the opinions of a "special" person, she could flourish. It's really interesting you mention that, since the episode before this is about Wakaba and her "Onion Prince," who she rejects at the end of the episode to be with Saionji. Maybe honesty and affection are considered somehow frightening or wrong in the Ohtori-verse.

I think you've hit on something interesting here, because of course honesty and affection -- and the refusal to consider them frightening or wrong -- are part of what makes Utena so powerful at Ohtori.  She's the only member of the cast you can rely on to mean what she says and trust what she feels.  And if the others aren't as forthright, I blame it on their environment.  Ohtori is built on mistrust, misunderstanding, miscommunication, misanthropy.  Not just Akio's -- everyone's.  Ohtori is a mass of malformed relationships, and too much honesty and affection would bring the whole mess tumbling down.  Everyone knows that, on some level, and while no one's happy in their relationships, no one wants to take responsibility for changing them.  Everyone wants someone else to revolutionize the world, or wants it to happen through some kind of magical dueling game rather than through actually acting like they love someone.  Everyone except Utena, who somehow, maybe by accident of birth, is almost completely un-self-conscious about her honesty and affection.

From this perspective, what's funniest about Wakaba's asymmetrical "relationship" with Saionji is how closely it parallels Tatsuya's asymmetrical "relationship" with Wakaba.  Both Wakaba and Tatsuya approach their loved one at an angle, not head-on -- Tatsuya by professing love to Utena to get close to her friend, Wakaba by putting up Saionji to get close to him.  Both have bad histories with their objects of affection -- Tatsuya gets bawled out by Wakaba repeatedly in episode 20, and Wakaba was outright pwned by Saionji in episode 1.  Both eventually get around to acting affectionate, and both eventually find their affection reciprocated.  But in the end, both relationships end in misunderstandings.  Wakaba may feel affection for Tatsuya, but her heart is with Saionji; Saionji may feel affection for Wakaba, but his priorities lie with Anthy.  Poor Wakaba walks away from a guy who loves her, only to have the guy she loves walk away from her.  And why the misunderstandings?  Because Tatsuya talks about his feelings in evasions, and Wakaba doesn't talk about her feelings at all.  (Anonymous love letters don't count.)  These are both affectionate characters, but when it comes right down to it, they're scared of acting their feelings.  Unashamed affection or honesty would have ended either relationship in a plain rejection that probably wouldn't have sent anyone to Nemuro Memorial Hall.  It was because of hiding that matters worsened and Mikage was brought in.

As for being special, I'm not totally sure what that word means to Wakaba -- which is more important than what it means to Akio or Utena.  Honestly, I think we're meant to interpret it in terms of the narrative: the special people are the main characters.  Wakaba knows there are main characters and knows she isn't one of them.  But the main characters in this show are people with seriously fucked up relationships or dramatic personal flaws, and Wakaba has neither, just low self-esteem and a touch of neurosis.  If Wakaba believed in herself and expressed her affection without fear or shame, she'd be Utena, and the show only has room for one Utena.  There's just no role for her to fill except "actual hero's goofy sidekick."  No wonder she's frustrated.

Oh, I agree, I'm sure Saionji didn't give the pin to Anthy himself.  The reason I'm sure is that -- well -- he knows it would hurt Wakaba.  As Gio discusses, he's at least peripherally aware that Wakaba is crushing on him, hence his slight reluctance to ask her about Anthy.  Mikage would find it much easier to convince Saionji to give the hairpin to him than to give it to Anthy, Wakaba's rival.  I don't know if I'd go so far as to say Saionji would never have done the latter if it meant getting back on the A-list, but I think the former makes more sense.

satyreyes wrote:

Wakaba was outright pwned by Saionji in episode 1.

In both episode 1 and 20, A Wakaba/Saionji communication is intercepted by some third party. I believe Saionji when he says he threw the letter away--he probably gets lots of those sorts of letters, why would he single out that one for display? It seems sort of out of character for him, too--yet another love letter seems like it would be too low on his priority list to post it. Someone, or some force, intercepted it to get Utena involved, as the catalyst for the rest of the series.

As for the hairclip, Mikage took it as the catalyst for another black rose duel, and to play on both Saionji and Wakaba's weakness, and to keep them from being too happy or too close. I have to agree with StormCrow and Satyr, that he didn't know what was done with the hairclip, he even says "I never thought he'd really help me for that puny little thing!"

As for being special, I'm not totally sure what that word means to Wakaba -- which is more important than what it means to Akio or Utena.  Honestly, I think we're meant to interpret it in terms of the narrative: the special people are the main characters.  Wakaba knows there are main characters and knows she isn't one of them.  But the main characters in this show are people with seriously fucked up relationships or dramatic personal flaws, and Wakaba has neither, just low self-esteem and a touch of neurosis.  If Wakaba believed in herself and expressed her affection without fear or shame, she'd be Utena, and the show only has room for one Utena.  There's just no role for her to fill except "actual hero's goofy sidekick."  No wonder she's frustrated.

Word. It's an environmental thing too. Maybe in some other story Wakaba would be center stage, or she'd have a bigger role, but in Ohtori, the "special" people are actually the most brittle, since their insecurities make them easily manipulated. Have you ever noticed that in Ohtori, the most talented people are the most fucked-up, while the bit players seem too healthy to take center stage? I think that's on purpose. Anyone in Ohtori who actually displayed their talent, as Wakaba did briefly, would be smacked down or recruited into some poisonous, soul-warping project, like the Black Rose Saga or one of Akio's many designs.

I think Wakaba tries to express her affection for Saionji before someone knocks on the door. It's sad. Even if he rejected her, while he was still in "civilian" clothes he could have done it gently ("Our relationship is too special..." etc.).

OnlyInThisLight wrote:

See, that's strange, because for me, that line is proves to me that he didn't know.  It's a reflection of both his poor self-esteem and defensive mechanisms being reinstated (he doesn't think the gift he made had any value because it was not expensive, not able to fathom that Wakaba loved it because he made it) and that he does not know it was given to Anthy.

Yeah, I agree with you. I think in both cases, Wakaba and Saionji were "pwned," by which I mean "pawned." It's also interesting that Saionji decides to stop dueling shortly after. His personality seems basically the same, but he no longer really seems interested in Anthy. Or am I imagining this?

Note that at the beginning of the Akio arc, Wakaba gets a crush on Akio, and says things to him like "I'm Anthy's friend too!," to which Akio responds "That's very nice" or something like that. I didn't notice it the first time, but Akio seems to tolerate Wakaba since she's sometimes useful (when she goes on a "date" with Akio) but is too marginal to encourage.

The Wakaba/Saionji link is an interesting one and deserves to be explored further.