hi i'm going insane, thanks for coming along. i have equipped myself with a questionable understanding of Chuubo's Marvelous Wish-Granting Engine, the Book of Golden Hours material from Jenna Moran's Patreon, and bits and pieces from other jennagames to try and fit this all together.
Let's see what we can pull together here...
I've decided to assign Princess Tutu herself the Gatekeeper Miraculous Arc Trait. This trait shows up in Glitch as the attribute "Lore," but gets a Chuubo's write-up in the Book of Golden Hours that I will be quoting from extensively here.1 Glitch specifically compares Lore to Cardcaptor Sakura, which resembles Princess Tutu2 in that both feature mahous collecting artifacts/entities that have been scattered by a magical catastrophe. Sounds promising!
In Chuubo's, miraculous abilities are obtained by completing specific narrative Arcs, that's why they're called Arc traits. So, we'll start by seeing how closely the motifs of the Arc match with what we see in the anime.
Gatekeeper is an Immortal Arc, an "Arc for those whose path is in harmony with the world."3 There's an compelling correspondence between this "harmony with the world" and the metafictional aspects of Princess Tutu.4 For much of the series, Tutu is a fairy-tale character fulfilling a fairy-tale destiny, and performs great works in so doing. Sounds like a fit for Immortal to me.
Pursuing an Immortal Arc would give Tutu access to the Immortality power as long as she's pursuing that arc, making her immune to most permanent effects that could harm her or disrupt her typical activities. I think this fits pretty well? It's rare she gets hurt, and I can't recall any long-term injuries.
Gatekeeper is also one of the Bindings Arcs, which "focus on sealed, bound powers: you develop a facility with containment and targeted use of wicked, forbidden, or dangerous things."5 Bindings is frequently associated with more of a, mad scientist or wizard-type character, which isn't really Tutu's aesthetic. But she is a magical specialist working to moderate the effects of more dangerous magic, so it's pretty solid parallel anyway.
Bindings Arcs follow a specific structure, composed of Quests that hit the following beats:6
- Bindings 1: you get stuck with a wicked partner.
- Bindings 1 (variation): you’re stressing over whether being like you are is really... ok?
- Bindings 2: there’s something you must do, because only you can... but how?
- Bindings 2 (variation): there’s something you must do, because only you can.
- Bindings 3: you do a big, convoluted plan kinda thing.
- Bindings 4: you attempt a visionary gamble.
- Bindings 5: you explore the consequences of stuff you’ve done, particularly for other people.
- Bindings 5 (variation): you become the axis of the world, or something
Does Drosselmeyer count as a "wicked partner?" Probably. I'm a little less confident on everything from Bindings 3 onwards, but I'm not too worried about it. In Chuubo's you can choose to end an Arc after three quests, or continue all the way through the fifth, so you have some room for interpretation about how this should specifically match with the events of the show.
On to Gatekeeper's own miraculous abilities!
Gatekeeper 0
These abilities are available as soon as you start a Gatekeeper Arc, even if you haven't completed any quests.
Other
This Arc comes with an associated Other, something strange and potentially harmful that definitely doesn't have a place in the ordinary world. Whether you deal with this by banishing it, fighting it, or mediating it to make coexistence possible—it's still your Other!
I'm thinking this would be the shards of Prince Mytho's heart that Princess Tutu gathers over the course of the series. Or, I guess we'd want to include the Raven's agents too, and maybe Drosselmeyer himself? So let's say Tutu's Other is The Prince and the Raven, the fairy tale that started it all.
Oblivious
You don’t see the wickedness in those closest to you. Or maybe you refuse to see?
hehehe. There's a lot more rules that follow that, but it boils down to "your enemies will have an easy time acting like your friends, and you're rewarded for trusting your enemies." I think that's a pretty fair fit for Tutu's... complicated relationships with those close to her.
(Other) Lore
Invoke (Other) Lore to learn the story of a new Other. You can target an Other that just showed up in play, or, you can describe an Other and learn the story of the Other closest to matching that description
This is an information-gathering ability. A stronger version lets the user create an Other, not just learn about it, but I think the lesser version fits well for how Tutu learns the stories of those possessed by heart shards.
A Mysterious Treasure
You have a mysterious treasure associated with the Other [...] when you call upon it, here is something it can call into being...
There's other details in there as a default, but it's also open to being custom-built at your table. Let's say this is Tutu's pendant, and what's being called into being is her transformation sequence?
Gatekeeper 1
These abilities become available after completing one Gatekeeper Arc.
Trap
Invoke Trap to tell the story of how you hunt and bind a troublesome Other.
Often you’ll be binding an Other that you’re introducing to the story for the sake of binding it. In that case you’ll start by telling the group a little bit about that Other. After you’ve done that, or if you didn’t need to do that, you’ll explain how you plan to limit the Other’s powers or mobility—e.g. by trapping it in a graveyard, binding it in a magical gem, or whatnot.
Usually you’ll have a specific binding method. Perhaps you just have to lure the Other into the open and then you can suck it into your magical gem. Perhaps you have to defeat the Other in a contest or convince it to sign a scroll before you can seal its power and trap it in a binding diagram, animal form, tattoo, prison, or promise of good faith. You might know a charm to get the Other stuck in a tree if you can get it to climb one, or maybe you can turn it into a statue until it agrees to serve you if you can just tap it on the forehead once. That’s your standard Trap
"Will you dance with me?"
This would be Tutu's primary ability to exorcise heart shards and gather them within her pendant. Higher-power versions of this miracle can have a variety of other uses, but this much should be sufficient I think.
Decree
You are empowered to command the Other. Your spoken pronouncement, menacing glare, or ritualized gesture can bind Other creatures and effects to your will.
hmmmm
Consult
Invoke Consult to tell the story of how you call upon the Other for knowledge. Specifically, describe how you consult a defeated or friendly Other about the situation, and why you’d imagine they’d know something.
hmmmmmmmmm
These don't really fit like the others do, or at least, I can't think of times when Tutu exercised powers like that. Looking ahead, the Gatekeeper 2 abilities and others that unlock after completing multiple Gatekeeper Arcs don't really fit either. So, we'll stop here, at Gatekeeper 1.
There is one more Arc-associated layer we can look at, Quest Miracles. These are abilities that work slowly, taking time to build and changing the world a little at a time.
Bindings 0-1 Quest Miracles
Quest miracles at this level focus on imbuing some of yourself, or some of some occult power, into an object, person, or thing
The suggested Quest type associated with this kind of miracle is a certain way of thinking, proposing new theories about the world. Tutu doesn't do this kind of magic either, but I wanted to include it anyway for completion's sake.
Final result: Princess Tutu, with a miraculous Arc Trait of Gatekeeper 1.
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If you want to follow along at home, a rough draft is available on Jenna's tumblr or you can get the full thing on her Patreon with a $5 membership. Unless stated otherwise, all system quotes are from The Book of Golden Hours
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The anime, not the character (for both of them)
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As I was preparing this analysis, I realized that although Tutu is "in harmony with the world," Duck is emphatically not. This tension is essential to both Duck's character and the metafictional layers of the anime. So, I decided that this post would focus on Tutu's side of things, and I'll give Duck her own showcase post another time.
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The anime again
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This quote is from Chuubo's
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This set of bullet points is taken from The Far Roofs. There's a similar set in Chuubo's but this one was slightly more descriptive
