SeptimusHeap
MOD
(Edited uphill both ways)
Aug 18th 2015 at 3:22:30 AM
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Greetings. I don't see anything way wrong except for 3 and 4 - how are they Fridge anything?
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Hey! I've never added anything to tvTropes before, so I thought I'd run it by people before I jumped in there. Hopefully someone's reading this! :D (If I don't hear back for awhile, I'll just pull the trigger.)
Spoiler warning! (Not that too many people worried about spoilers might be reading "Fridge Revolutionary Girl Utena Discussion," :P )
So, I think this is fridge brilliance: In episode 7, Anthy offers Juri a rose; and Juri slaps her across the face, saying "Don't be conceited," or "Don't be too familiar," depending upon the translation. At the time, this seems cruel and random. However, upon a second watching (knowing that Anthy, Akio, and sometimes Touga manipulate people to duel) this simply reveals that Juri knows Anthy's game and isn't going to play it. You'll notice Anthy never again tries to directly manipulate Juri for the rest of the show (and getting her to duel a second time is a huge endeavor).
I think this is fridge horror... or brilliance... probably brilliance: In episode 11, Touga has this creepy conversation with Anthy in the flower garden / birdcage. Anthy says she wants to cook. He says the rose bride shouldn't cook and that when he possess her, he'll keep her in this birdcage forever. It seems super possessive and sinister on Touga's part. On a second watch, it's a totally different scene. If you take into account Anthy's weird powers when it comes to cooking (like changing people's personalities), how DANGEROUS Anthy and Akio are, and that Touga's motivation is to just get Utena away from them, this is a totally reasonable and even noble intention on Touga's part.
A third one: Touga, Tatsuya (Wakaba's Onion Prince), and Ruka (the captain of the fencing club) are all introduced with a frame of pure white roses. All three use skeevy methods in an attempt to achieve their ends, but for all three those ends are noble (protecting Utena, selfless love, and freeing Juri).
A fourth one: Mikage mistakes Utena for Tokiko as he descends into madness. In many ways, they are similar in the end. Both are self-assured, confident, and mature. Both are people who were intimately involved with Anthy & Akio's schemes. Both had terrible things happen in their past. Both are seduced by Akio. However, both of them get over it, "grow up / smash the world's shell," and leave the school in the end. Tokiko didn't "revolutionize the world" like Utena, but she also wasn't being tested at the time (that was Mikage).
I realize there are a lot of spoiler shields to put up around all that. The fourth idea might be the weakest, is it worth putting up? Thanks, folks, for reading my ideas! :D
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