You bring up a lot of terrific points about how different approaches towards storytelling can impact the audience in certain ways.  I don't know if this is a coincidence or a pattern that alludes to a cultural perspective, but I have found that Japanese works or works inspired by Eastern philosophies tend to use themes of transformation more often than Western works.  The whole concept of good and evil as binary, as well as the idea that a villain must be killed if the hero is to be victorious, seems very ingrained in storytelling from Western sources.  This is a very generalized and simplistic view, but there's some truth to it IMO.  My educated guess on why the emphasis is placed on themes of violence is because of how storytelling in the West evolved alongside religion's rise to power in medieval Europe and beforehand.   

I was one of those people who actually liked LOST's ending because of its use of transformation.  I guess an example of both transformation and violence might be Star Wars' Return of the Jedi or Gladiator.  Yeah, I think Gladiator pulls it off better.  I think this whole violence theme has a ton to do with the comic book movie phase of Hollywood.  It's black and white morality, the good guy triumphs over evil and all is well and good.  It's simple, predicable, escapist, "feel good" Kool-Aide that offers assurance and comfort in the face of the increasingly complex and morally grey reality of the world.  At least that's how I look at it sometimes. 

Back to RGU, I have no idea how you managed to break down the main thematic story of the show.  What did you tell your friend about it?  How did you explain it?  And has she watched it yet?  I need tips because I would like to introduce RGU to a friend who's not big fan of fantasy though she loves Twin Peaks.   

sharnii wrote:

That theme of violence doesn't feel true to her. When the good guy kills the bad guy things are not magically better, and deeper problems are often revealed. Also the good guy and the bad guy are never so simple as that: if we look deep enough and accept ourselves entirely, there is a hero and a villain inside every one of us.  Whereas the theme of transformation has a deep truth to it.

You just told the story of The Legend of Korra with these few lines. But no really, general YA fiction in particular deals so much with themes of transformation which is one of the main reasons why it probably even appeals outside of its intended demographic.  What are some other strong examples of fiction that uses themes of transformation over violence?  All that's coming to mind right now are Miyazaki's films.

The Little Prince Opera sounds like a great story!  Thanks for the suggestion.  Just this year Netflix released an animated film version fyi.

Thinking on it some more, I guess transformation is such an internal process that it lends itself far more better to a written medium than a visual one.  Visual storytelling is mostly about external processes, so something like transformation requires more effort and innovation to portray.  Also, perhaps it requires more from its audience... so I guess it could be considered niche?  I just don't know enough about this to really make a solid guess on anything.  But is does interest me a lot.  Would you count 127 Hours as a transformation themed story?  I'm brainstorming for more examples. 

Could RGU be considered transcendentalist in some of its themes?  Google took me on a trip and I wound up researching transcendentalism in literature and made some parallels with RGU.  From my understanding, transcendental themes are closely related to romanticism but center more on nature, civil disobedience, self-reliance, the conflict between individuality and conformity, and the ideal of spirituality and awakening.  Again this is what I could make sense of; transcendentalism is really confusing. 

The nature theme is a bit harder to come by in RGU but I can see it as more the isolation of nature almost.  Like Utena and Anthy's dorm in arcs 1 & 2 being so far away from the rest of the campus, or how the ending could be interpreted as Utena returning to nature (aka outside of Ohtori and back to her homeland).  Even the dueling arena begins in a forest but then extends away from it - could signify how the duels and everything attached to it are negative and an anathema or at the very least, something unnatural that grew out of something natural.  Yeah...um, well, civil disobedience, self-reliance, and the conflict between individuality and conformity are all self-explanatory, and spiritual awakening could be the whole idea behind all the different levels and instances of transformation throughout the series and the ending.  It's interesting and if anyone knows some stuff about this (aka all you brilliant English majors out there) help me out please!

I saw the French animated Little Prince. Wasn't a fan of that adaptation. It wasn't bad, but I think the opera captured the original story so much better. It pretty much told a brand new story using metaphors that were similar to the book. Jamie Caliri's segments were, in my opinion, the best part of that film. (But I've always been a Caliri fan...)

As I recall, the transcendentalist movement was heavily influenced by both Hinduism and Unitarian [Universalism?]. So I can see how Utena might resonate a little with that.

Last edited by barafubuki (09-12-2016 05:33:16 AM)