EARLY ACCESS Revolutionary Girl Utena Episode 38 Reaction
Added 2023-08-28 15:12:43 +0000 UTC
Comments
Hi, is episode 39 still coming out today? Thanks
Lara Rios
2023-09-04 19:05:25 +0000 UTCI like what you said about there being two archetypes for women, how they symbol of the prince is an impossible standard to actually live up to, and how Akio might have been shocked because Utena's declaration made him question whether he was inferior for "being weak" or "giving up on" being a prince. I had been struggling with the bits of true emotion Akio shows in the form of bitterness, anger, and grief and longing to be a prince despite enjoying manipulating people with similar dreams only to rip them away while abusing his sister. What you said of made a lot of things fall together for me in a possible interpretation: Past Akio had been trying to live up to the ideal of being a prince. It was impossible and he was running himself ragged. Anthy took agency to help him. But her taking that agency and saving him "Killed the prince" because in whatever Archetype Akio is thinking of Princes don't need saving. They do the saving. Akio working with limited archetypes might also have men are either princes or villains, as well as women are princesses or witches. Anthy's actions to save her brother cemented the fact that he wasn't able to be a real prince, and simultaneously because she has agency that she wasn't a princess but a witch. So he gave up on being good, because being a villain is easy and sought to punish his sister and remove as much of her agency as possible, shoving her into an old school bride archetype. Which is an archetype almost as popular and adjacent to the non agency of princess. In this way Akio was never a prince, though there might have been a time he earnestly played the role quite well. He didn't become a villain until the "witch" "killed" "the prince." At least he frames it that way so he doesn't have to own up to his own agency in choosing to be the villain and can keep hurting people for forcing him to recognize reality or having the gall to believe in ideals he can't personally achieve. But it's just a potential interpretation.
Louise C
2023-08-29 04:13:16 +0000 UTC
