I have developed the worst obsession with this show, so you get more analysis. By the way, having watched the final arc more than once now, I am firmly convinced that the Tarot connections, at least in the end, were intentional.

But building from what I talked about there, the Major Arcana and the duels, like the cards, being split into sets of seven, and talk about the importance of hair color in Revolutionary Girl Utena.

Or to quote Oancitizen, "WHY DOES EVERYONE HAVE RAINBOW HAIR?"

( Warning for wandering analysis and MAJOR SPOILERS. )

The constant mention and showing of coffins towards the end of Revolutionary Girl Utena followed by Utena's revolutionizing the world got me thinking of how much of the story can actually fit into Tarot symbolism. Which, considering the Tarot works in archetypes and RGU is made of archetypes and symbolism, of course that answer is going to be "a lot." However it's one thing to be able to connect characters or events to cards and another to actually notice and map out a pattern. One is so much more satisfying when you like to organize things. Which happened when I clicked onto Wikipedia and realized that Utena fights exactly twenty-one duels over the course of the series.

The Major Arcana of the Tarot consists of twenty-two cards, The Fool (0), followed by numbered cards I through XXI. Counting Utena herself as the Fool, it is possible to view her duels--rather than specific characters or other events, though I'm sure you could do it there, too--as The Fool's Journey, the supposed journey of enlightenment that is mapped out by the Major Arcana. At least as it is in the structure and imagery of the Waite deck.

I've only seen the last arc of Utena once and despite having had a deck of Tarot cards for like, ten years, I'm not particularly talented with interpreting them. But I fell in love with the anime and I'm a sucker for analysis, so there. Disclaimer aside, let's get moving.

This contains major spoilers for the entire series.

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I like keeping track of things I've read, but I realized the master list on my much neglected site is a bit out of date. So I decided to revamp it and post it here. This is mostly for my reference and will be added to whenever I finish something new. Books are organized alphabetically by author. All nonfiction books have been at least halfway read. List includes everything I can remember reading from middle school onward. Does not include books I attempted but failed to finish; it would go on forever.

Favorite Authors: Storm Constantine, Sarah Monette, George R. R. Martin, Catherynne M. Valente, the Brontë sisters

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Like the journal you saw before this and the one before that and the one before that, this one is, you guessed it,


FRIENDS ONLY

I need to protect my top secret plans for taking over the world with throw pillows and tapioca pudding.

In the past I added random people who asked to be my friend, and I decided I'm just not going to do that anymore. For one, I realized I don't feel comfortable dealing with people I don't know in my personal journal. For another thing, when I don't know a person, I don't tend to comment on their entries, and that makes them mad because I'm supposed to fawn over everything they do. Also, people who ask me to add them and then never update piss me off. Far too many times that's happened.

You can still ask and I'll consider it, but unless I know you from school or from an LJ community or something of the sort, I'm probably not going to add you back.

Did I unfriend you and you didn't want this? It's because you haven't updated in like, a year, and I figured you weren't reading. Tell me if I'm wrong; I'll fix it.

Your Life is Rated PG-13

Your life isn't totally scandalous, but you definitely don't shy away from adult themes!

(Entry last edited 8/21/09)