#and. post

a fairly straightforward one is that eternity is a "happily ever after" — the idea that once this challenge is won and the girl is yours the rest of your life is simply set. you perform as society expects and you are happy for the rest of your life. for eternity, until the end of your world. of course, this is a false eternity dreamed of by the princes of the world — a misogynist fantasy. getting the girl won't fix you and set you right. this is a very first-arc read.

a third-arc read, taking an anthy focus, is that eternity is a form of emotional closeness, of true connection. this girl who has hidden herself away under layers and layers of grief and trauma, deep within her coffin. this is the kind of connection that akio wants, in his twisted ways — he wants to be the Prince again, and not the despicable man he is. he wants to connect with anthy truly instead of feeling the guilt of forcing her through this, not for her sake, but for the sake of his own conscious. and due to this, no amount of his schemes or machinations can ever achieve eternity. utena seeks eternity too — not in a sense of guilty reclamation, but because she loves anthy. the other core duelists also seek anthy in their own ways. i think you can read the black rose duelists as seeking their own connections — their own rose brides, in a sense.

but the second-arc read, the one that really holds me to this day, is eternity as posttextual relevance. this is, after all, a story, and stories must end. and with the end of the story — the end of the world — comes the end of our characters. the only way to become eternal, to not be limited by the end, is to transcend the story itself. to become so relevant that you stick in the mind of the audience past the end. the characters are the chick. this story is their shell.

in the first arc, this is taken rather simply: this is a romance, and the ones who are remembered in the romance are the final pair. whoever anthy is engaged to, at the end of the world, is eternal; they are the last impression.

in the third arc, akio shows each duelist the end of the world. this means many things, but i like the simple interpretation: the story will end. not vaguely, but definitely. and when it ends, so will you. unless you do something. it makes sense then that the duelists become so inspired — they know this is their last chance to not recede back into the darkness, their last chance to not die without being born.

but the second arc. these characters aren't like the duelists. they are not chosen to be protagonists. they are not chosen to be foci. they are the detritus and the set dressings; the plot devices and the objects of affection. the structural bones of the architecture of ohtori. and they know this. for them, eternity can only be achieved one way: to change the story fundamentally. to kill anthy, and end her story. because her story excludes them by design. the black rose duelists fight in order to even be characters. and maybe, if they win.... they too could be eternal.