Line #32 Headscratchers/PrincessTutu


1	* Mytho wasn't that good....Couldn't he sacrifice just a piece of his heart just for Ahiru... After he supposedly was going to sacrifice all of it anyways... Besides he supposedly had an impulse to help everyone yet he ignored the fact that Ahiru was trapped in duck form...
2	** Mytho isn't a bad person for not sacrificing a heart shard for Ahiru to be a girl. For one thing, Ahiru isn't "trapped" in her duck form—she ''is'' a duck. It's unnatural for her to be a girl, not the other way around. For another thing, Ahiru wouldn't ''want'' him to give up some of his heart for her—she fought REALLY hard for him to be a complete person again, and if he gave up part of his heart, he'd give up part of himself. It's particularly bad since the heartshard she transforms with is the feeling of Hope...can you imagine being incapable of feeling any hope? He'd be miserable without it.
3	** That's a pretty good point. I love how the theme of this series is accepting yourself as you really are.
4	** Moreover, Mytho probably ''can't'' give up just a single shard of his heart, as suggested by how he had to shatter the entire thing when sealing the Raven only required five pieces.
5	* What is Princess Tutu anyways? Ahiru made it clear that she wasn't being herself while transformed ... Makes you wonder...?
6	** From all of her responses you can tell Princess Tutu ''is'' Ahiru, but maybe a wiser, stronger version--not to mention a version with killer ballet moves.
7	** My interpretation is that her Princess Tutu form simply allows Ahiru to express herself better. She can dance better and is more articulate. Plus magic flowers and vines and spotlights on demand.
8	* Was the town actually a real town trapped in a story? Seems to me it was due to the fake barriers, and the fact that the teacher-cat appeared as a real cat at the end.
9	** Yes, it was a real town, where nobody noticed the weird stuff going on because they were trapped in a kind of alternate reality.
10	* Why did her friends forget her existence at the end? Did everyone forget what happened?
11	** Well, it's to add to the drama, of course! Aside from that, everyone seemed to have forgotten ''all'' weird things, such as the ballet-dancing animals. Ahiru's existence wasn't really normal to start with.
12	** It's also probably due to Drosselmeyer's story machine being broken. Right after that happened, anything that was magical in the town either vanished or turned into something normal.
13	** Ahiru's friends were human to begin with as well, and she was a duck her whole life.
14	* Does Mytho change height? He looks Ahiru's height in scenes with her, yet he's almost a head taller than Rue in his scenes with her.
15	** Mytho doesn't, but Ahiru does--Princess Tutu is taller than Ahiru. Are those the scenes you're thinking of, or something else?
16	*** Also to consider, when Ahiru is Tutu she's almost constantly en pointe (on her very tippy toes), this adds quite a bit of height. Regular Ahiru is shown as shorter than Mytho.
17	* Just who or what ''is'' Tutu? Is she Ahiru, only with powers? Is she Ahiru channeling the character from the Story? Is she an entirely different character all together?
18	** The impression I received from the series is that everyone is effectively their respective character, or at least acts in such a way as to be indistinguishable. Either way, though, Tutu is Ahiru the human is Ahiru the duck, her wish to protect the Prince granting her the ability that she displays in the story, in the same way the Prince is Mytho. The trick is that they are [[spoiler: not just the [[YouCantFightFate character as written]], but also the person who [[{{ScrewDestiny}} chooses the path they wish]]]], which is what made the acts of the second chapter possible.
19	* There's another one: free will versus the dictates of the Story is a major conflict in the story. How much free will did the characters have entering the tale, before they began to realize their respective intended endings? Did Rue and Ahiru love Mytho out of innate feelings, or did they love him because they were written that way in the Story? Likewise with Fakir, are his [[{{HoYay}} protective feelings]] towards Mytho simply due to Drosselmeyer, or would he have become the knight even without Drosselmeyer's influence? For that matter, would this make their feelings any less true if it were so?
20	** To me, it seems the story took any feelings held by the characters and altered them to fit the roles they were given. I think their feelings are all genuine, though warped somewhat by Drosselmeyer's desire for a "Grand Tragedy".
21	** Also, at least Ahiru was selected to be put into the story specifically because she cared for the Prince in the first place, when she was still just a duck. Since their feelings develop significantly and even had the power to alter the intended storyline (Rue's sacrifice and Ahiru's selflessness, for instance), they are definitely very true.
22	* Personally, it bothers me that Rue's love for Mytho is never called into question. There is nothing left to him but his body and his desire to protect others: how can she love him truly? I would think that she is deluded into loving an empty shell, projecting her feelings onto an empty canvas, and be horrified by his reactions and grow to hate him for becoming a person. [[spoiler: Evidently, though, she has truly been in love with him since she was a little girl.]] Being supportive of him changing in a positive way seems to be Duck's domain, and that strikes me as true love. So why does Rue [[spoiler: get the prince in the end]]?
23	** Rue ''was'' shown to be disturbed by his changes at first, but in the second season I think it shows her beginning to accept him for who he truly is, not just as a prince that will love her because that's his nature. Plus, the second season seems to make a case that [[spoiler:Rue is prepared to love Mytho even for his darker qualities--brought out by the Raven's blood--whereas Ahiru is scared of it and pushed away by it, even though she still tries her best to help him]]. Plus, although Ahiru definitely cares for and supports Mytho, she never has gotten to know Mytho as well as Rue or Fakir.
24	*** Thank you. It is nice to know that my lack of emotional dissonance is not due to a flaw within myself.
25	** I believe Ahiru herself clears this point and explains it in Akt 24. [[spoiler: As she speaks to Fakir after Rue's HeroicSacrifice, she says that she wouldv'e not been able to be as selfless as Rue did, willing to sacrifice absolutely everything to help Mytho in desperate cirumstances. Ahiru's pendant that give her her human form AND the ability to become Tutu? It has a shard of Mytho's heart, and Ahiru points out that she would've thought twice if she directly had to give it up since, understandably, she loves having a human form. Rue, on the other hand, gave her own life and freedom in exchange for Mythos's own, '''without any hesitation''', when the Ravenfied!Mytho was fully under the Raven's control and went to him ("Let the Prince go, please! Eat my own heart instead!"). And Ahiru herself says "'''I''' wouldn't have been able to do that for him".]] Therefore, it's less about "supporting and helping a loved one to change in a positive way" and more like [[spoiler: being ready to give everything for a loved one, including your life, if push comes to shove"]]... something that Rue did and that Ahiru confesses that she would have '''not''' be able to pull if in the same situation.
26	** In retrospect, Princess Tutu's inner monologue during episode 13 shows that she and Rue/Kraehe are more alike than one might think. While Ahiru/Tutu's love is ultimately of a different sort ([[TheFourLoves more]] ''[[TheFourLoves agape]]'' [[TheFourLoves than]] ''[[TheFourLoves eros]]''), she was always thinking of the true Mytho, the prince who could love anyone unconditionally. That's exactly why Rue loved him, as well.
27	* We see that Rue first met Mytho when she was [[spoiler: a little kid]]. The same goes for Fakir. And they each develop feelings for him because they grow up together. But...wouldn't that make Mytho at least 13 or so years OLDER than Rue, probably even more if he's technically ageless by rule of magic? Watching that [[spoiler: kissing scene]] and thinking that they could be decades apart...just...Ugh.
28	** In general, I don't like the fandom interpretation that Mytho is "ageless"--I think he ages, just that the spell he used to shatter his heart stopped him from developing as a person completely, not just emotionally but physically. Although he's been wandering around for years as the same physical age, he was practically in a coma considering he literally couldn't feel any emotion or even make choices for himself. So the fact that they're technically so far apart in age doesn't squick me that much, because both emotionally and physically they're probably on the same level.
29	*** Ah, thanks for shooting down that interpretation. It always had me bothered in terms of relationships (although it does make excellent FanFic bait).
30	** There's also the fact that Mytho is, yknow, a character. Maybe he's not ageless himself but he doesn't age because he's out of his original story and in another one.
31	* Why does Drosselmeyer like tragedies so much? At the end of the show he wonders if he's in someone else's story, shouldn't that make him reconsider some of his logic?
32	** He seems to not be all there--possibly because of the abuse he suffered at the hands of the townspeople, although he might've been just as crazy and sadistic before. He also seems to be doing the story as revenge toward the town, so trapping them all in an endless cycle of tragedy probably seems to fit, for him. As for his own story...right after he thinks that, he says [paraphrased] "Oh well, if I am the I'll just keep doing what I want to do!", essentially mimicking Duck and Fakir's decision to end the story by being themselves. He probably thinks he's clever/powerful enough to mess with whoever wants to write him into a tragedy.
33	** I prefer a slightly different interpretation myself. Yeah, he's a little crazy, but you have to remember that a really important part of being a fiction writer is making your characters suffer for a more interesting story. He's not the first person to take glee in writing a hopeless tragedy. The nutzo part is that it's an actual town. And his statement at the end of the story, to me, is him saying that if he's a pawn, that's okay, just make it a good story. I think he isn't upset at the notion at all. It makes him more interesting that way.
34	** He seems to just get off on it, but maybe I've watched too many episodes of ''Series/CriminalMinds''.
35	* Who is that woman narrating at the beginning of every episode?
36	** TheNarrator. Possibly the narrator of the fairytale everyone's trapped in, since she finishes off the story, too.
37	** I think she's supposed to be TheNarrator of all fairytales and essentially a character herself. She's the literal voice of the text. I also always thought she and Edel were two sides of the same coin, where Edel was the light fairy voice to draw attention to herself to push the plot and TheNarrator was the voice of cold, harsh reality because she was the voice of the inevitable.
38	* Why did Rue choose Ahiru for the pas de deux during lessons? Sure, it makes for a very sweet scene, but I am still in the dark about her motives, especially since she had to the play the role of the guy.
39	** Ahiru and Rue had a friendly moment earlier in that episode, so that probably influenced her choice. Plus making the worst student look good shows just how great of a dancer Rue is.
40	* What I want to know is this: how is it that after minor exposure to Raven's blood, [[spoiler: all the townspeople,and in a more severe case Mytho, turn into crows]], whereas Kraehe, who's been fed Raven's blood since she was a baby, [[spoiler: retains her human form]]?
41	** I assumed that because she had been exposed from a young age she had developed a sort of immunity, whereas the town people had a sudden exposure to it, which caused them to change.
42	** I don't think the blood has specific effects, so much as it puts you under the Raven's power. He wanted Kraehe as a human agent, so she didn't physically change.
43	** Plus, there's a ''major'' difference between Rue's exposure and the town's people exposure. Rue was ''fed'' Raven Blood, while the Town's People were ''drenched with'' Raven Blood.
44	* This is admittedly really minor, but what is up with Ahiru's eyelashes? The really long one, specifically. Nobody else has it.
45	** I guess it's stylistic?
46	** Nobody else has those eyelashes, but then again nobody else is a duck in the form of a human girl either.
47	*** Actually, Rue has that one long eyelash too.
48	* Did anyone else find it strange how at the end Mytho reveals [[spoiler:that he had a different name as the prince in the story?]] The only thing that makes any sense seems to be that Fakir gave him that as more of a nickname for some reason that I can't quite pin down. Just because he was young and it sounded better at the time? Fakir had been shown reading the story as a child, and it's a bit hard to believe that the book [[spoiler:would never mention the name of the main character.]] Maybe it was supposed to be dramatic, [[spoiler:the idea being that he can now remember his own name]], but it bugs me to no end.
49	** If the opening narrations are any indication, Drosselmeyer is rather averse to actually naming characters. I doubt Mytho had the lucidity to remember his name when he first appeared to Fakir; it's easily possible that Fakir simply named him.
50	** He did. At one point, little Fakir says that the name of the Prince in the story sounded silly. So he says that 'Mythos' (what Charon had said upon realizing that Mytho was indeed a storybook character come to life...) sounded cooler. Mytho himself, newly heartless, had nothing to say other than something along the lines of "sure".
51	*** Fakir naming him based on what Charon said probably happened. However, in both English and Japanese, what Fakir said was that he thinks "Prince" is a weird name or that he thinks it's weird for Mytho's name to be "Prince." He never mentions Mytho having any other name at all. Even if Mytho hadn't been able to remember it himself, since he is entirely a character made by Drosselmeyer, wouldn't the name have to have been written for him to remember it at all? Though, if not, it opens up the possible for the story's world to have "inner workings" a lot more complex than what Drosselmeyer wrote- It's not like he could have named all the characters, and yet individual people would probably have names within the story. But that's really more of a Wild Mass Guessing subject.
52	** It's explained in one of the prologues that the prince lost his memories along with his feelings when he shattered his heart, so naturally he'd forget what his real name was. Also notice that, throughout the series, as he regains pieces of his heart, he regains some of his memories as well as his feelings.
53	** Fakir says outright that he gave Mytho his name when he found him. It makes sense, if he wouldn't want Mytho to remember who he is.
54	* Why does everyone keep calling Fakir a failure in the second half of the show? He did a pretty good job of slicing up an army of ballet ninjas before saving the day in the underground lake. Where's the failure?
55	** He failed as a knight in the story, as in not dying for his prince. He survived instead, which made story take completely different turn.
56	* Considering how possessive Rue seemed to be in the middle part of the series, why was she so blasé about Anteater Rita supposedly stealing Mytho from her?
57	** Anteater Rita isn't a real threat. All she's really trying to do is make Rue jealous and unhappy, and Rue knows this. She also knows that she can get Mytho back just by telling him to, and that without a heart, he's an unsuitable boyfriend for anyone but herself (which is proven when Rita dumps him on her own). The reason she gets possessive later is because a non-heartless Mytho isn't soullessly compliant and his emotions might cause him to decide that he doesn't want to be with her anymore [[spoiler:remember that her father has raised her to think that she is inherently unlovable]], so Tutu's actions represent a genuine threat to her status quo.
58	* Why does Mytho keep asking Tutu (in the first season anyway) how she feels about him? Fakir claims to have read the story to him, so he ''knows'' she will disappear if she tells him she loves him. In fact, apparently it's his ''favourite part'' of the whole story. Does he want her to vanish or what? Or is it that when he enters his story role, he forgets what he knows about it?
59	** Mytho's actions make even less sense in the end, when everyone is already trying to [[RageAgainstTheAuthor defy the story]] [[ScrewDestiny and their role in it]] by trying to come up with new and creative ways to break everything apart, and Mytho, having gotten all but one shard of his heart back... goes along with Raven's demands and a HostageSituation. Of course, then he tries to fight the Raven and decides to break his heart again rather then give it over... wasn't it obvious from the start that the situation was skewed against him - he'd already been in the exactly same one before, after all, and ought to know how it ended. So my version of explanation of why he did all that... unlike others, who are originally humans forced into their roles in the story [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation (or having chosen them)]], Mytho is a fictional character brought into the semi-real world, so he has a much harder time [[ScrewDestiny defying stories]] or even realizing the implications of following through with them, which would already be a part of defying them - as more GenreSavvy Tutu has demonstrated by not answering the question. Basically, Mytho can't make the connection between [[StarCrossedLovers storybook Tutu]] and [[MagicalGirl real Tutu in front of him]] as being the same character with the same curse. He's probably better at it after getting his whole heart back - without it, he seems not only emotionless but suprisingly clueless - "What is this feeling I have?"
60	** Mytho and the Raven are the only characters with no existence outside of Drosselmeyer's stories (the other characters were all born in the real world), so neither of them are capable of defying him. Presumably they can't act outside of their original characterizations - at any rate, Mytho never finds out about the story-spinning until ''after'' Drosselmeyer has been overthrown. Since the book is actually his (forgotten?) past, Tutu probably represents a strong memory (and most likely regret of some sort, considering his ChronicHeroSyndrome).
61	*** Also remember that Princess Tutu has his heart shard of ''hope'', specifically. Even with all of his other emotions, without the capacity to feel hope, he can't realistically resist anyway.
62	*** Where does it say that Tutu was his heartshard of hope? Fakir writes that 'the power came form deep within the duck's body, and it was hope,' and Drosselmeyer complains about a mere duck having that much hope. All of this attributes the Hope as Power to the person who became Tutu, not the entity known as Tutu. It would make more sense that the shard that enables the transformation into Tutu is the one that hold his powers, his magic. Why? Because throughout the series, Tutu exhibits various abilities, such as falling lightly as a feather, summoning up plants to help her, etc. At the end, the restored Prince is shown doing every single one of the things Tutu could do, which he never showed any hint of being able to do before, even once he remembered who and what he was.
63	** Various bits of dialogue throughout the last couple episodes suggest that Tutu's pendant represents the Prince's desire to have his heart restored, and that this is why Duck is so dedicated to finding all the shards, as well as why the pendant reacts when they're nearby.
64	* Why does everyone constantly mock Fakir for supposedly being a knight who failed because he was afraid to die? Unlike, say, Mytho or the Raven, Fakir was a real person in real life before the story took effect. We see him as a little kid who, at most, was said to only be a reincarnation of the knight from the tale. And even if we look past that, he showed that he ''was'' willing to die during the confrontation with Kraehe at the lake, and he only survived thanks to Ms. Edel saving him. So why do Mytho and Rue continue to mock him for being a failure?
65	** The knight’s purpose in the story was to die without landing a single blow. In not dying, Fakir failed in fulfilling the story’s purpose. Not to mention that as a traditional knight wielding a sword, it’s stated that he can’t effectively protect Mytho that way.
66	* What exactly does eating someone's heart do for the Raven? I originally thought it would somehow allow him to circumvent the seal keeping him imprisoned, but even after the Prince's heart is restored, he still tries to consume one. Does it just make him more powerful in general?
67	** He said he would eat it and "become immortal", so presumably there was some special property to the Prince's heart alone (perhaps because he was so loving).
68	* A small thing compared to other headscratchers on this page, but at the start of episode 11 (Akt 11), we have a scene of Ms. Edel standing on the bridge and a woman walks up to her and essentially pushes the gem called [[spoiler: Love]] onto Ms. Edel. This mystery woman is shrouded in a giant hooded cloak, but we see her hand, and it's some sort of wolf claw-human hand hybrid. We never see this woman again, nor does this potential subplot ever get explored. (I mean, in 26 episodes, there was only just enough room for the main characters) but because it was introduced so suddenly, it felt rather convenient. I was just curious as to what peoples' theories are about this woman. Was she a random person [[spoiler: written into the town/story by Drosselmeyer?]] After all, in the scene immediately preceding it, he says "we need someone else" and we're led to believe he's talking about [[spoiler: Ms. Edel]] but I'm not good with ambiguity to begin with so I need someone else to pitch in here...
69	** Going strictly off of somewhat-vague memories, I guess my interpretation is that the woman turning in the gem was meant as a sign that there is more to the story than just the narrative the main characters are following. It makes sense for that to be the case in a town as big as the one they're in and even moreso from the in-universe "it's all just a story" angle -- sprinkling in hints of detailed narratives outside the main story is the mark of a good writer, from the perspective of this one.

Context Headscratchers / PrincessTutu