translating things, building chill software for my friends, playing ttrpgs, making procedural vector art, learning piano, writing unhinged Utena fanfics, and just vibing
had so many feelings I needed to write a Juri fic: The Last Scene
(note: this fic doesn't have any spoilers past episode 12. Orange Paler Than The Dawn, which this is loosely a sequel to, includes spoilers from much later in the series, but isn't Required Reading per se; The Last Scene draws on it occasionally for oblique references to our non-canonical Juri backstory, but that's about it.)
That bit about the background music/The Sunlit Garden is very cool, I hadn't picked up on that.
In terms of Juri having the opportunity to give Utena the sword, I have two and a half interesting possibilities. This seems to have been a sanctioned duel, so maybe the whole student council knew some duel was going to happen and Juri guessed it would be Utena challenging and Touga either was just feigning surprise or he really thought Juri would be the challenger. Or, maybe Utena sought out Juri off screen being all "I need to borrow a sword, I can't pull one out of Anthy any more", which would be interesting.
Hmm, you interpreted it as Anthy flashing back to Utena's prince at their first meeting? I thought she was thinking about the Power of Dios moments when the ghost prince descended from the castle, since she was present for those. It would be very interesting if she was somehow around back at the beginning, though. I mean, there were roses there, so why not a rose bride?
The power of self does seem super-relevant here, where Utena frames the purpose of the duel as to get herself back rather than primarily for Anthy's benefit. But you don't interpret it as Utena using the power of the ring/self here? So, like, you think it's just that Touga's Rose Bride trick has a finite duration and Utena just had to wait it out? If so, that raises the question of whether Touga knew it had a finite duration or not. Or did Anthy end up withdrawing her power somehow due to her dramatic prince flashback???
oh I love the idea of Utena being the one to go hit up Juri for a sword – she's literally the fencing team captain, I can totally imagine Utena going "hey, does your club have any spare swords? I need one for a fight" and Juri going "what? no don't try to duel Touga with a fencing foil you dumbass, here, use my actual sword". like, it's either them or the kendo club, which I'm assuming is run by Touga at this point now that Saionji's gone?
I don't think the sword power inherently has a finite duration that Utena needed to wait out, but seeing them struggling reminded Anthy of something that moved her deeply enough to make her stop sustaining the connection – which I guess is also kind of still the power of Utena's spirit on display, but affecting the fight in a more indirect way sorta blurring the self/other question?
I can buy that Anthy is the key here, but that sorta raises a lot more questions both regarding how Anthy's agency works and also what her connection to/knowledge of Utena's prince/the Power of Dios is. Excited to see how things develop!
