brian wrote:

I just re-watched the episode where Touga is deceiving Utena into believing he is her Prince. He has a longish conversation with Anthy where she says she would like to learn to cook but he tells her that a Rose Bride is not supposed to know how to cook. He really rubs her nose in her Rose Bride role and she looks very crestfallen. She shows a lot more emotion early on than  I remembered. She clearly wants to learn how to cook. Utena herself doesn't seem to have understood that.

It kind of leads back to the whole Rose Bride = Uber-Trophy Wife theory, doesn't it?

I don't think that Utena's presence is required for Anthy to mirror Utena's feelings. It wouldn't do for Utena to hear from a third party they saw Anthy rave dancing last night, after all.

And besides, as Touga believes it, the Rose Bride doesn't have a true self, at all, but is only a mirror for the feelings of the Victor. That's something that goes beyond simple pretending - Anthy becomes what the Victor wants her to become. Or that's what Touga's been fed by Akio.

Statements like that make me wonder exactly how much Touga actually knew about, hell, anything. For the one episode that he actually has Anthy, he's not trying to mold her into what he wants her to be, at least not to the extent that Miki, Saionji, and Utena do. I think when he looks at Anthy, he sees power, first and foremost. At least the others saw a person, even if it is a person of their own design.

SleepDebtFairy wrote:

Maarika wrote:

I think she didn't bake those cookies herself anyway. There was no poison, those were just mindgames. So Anthy had no readon to bake those cookies.

She can make curry though!
And takoyaki and yakisoba, though neither Utena or Wakaba seemed very delighted about those. Then again, I'm not totally sure if she made them herself or not.

Oh, yeah! You're right. She did make Utena a lunch box that showed up the one Wakaba had made her. (But then Chuchu quickly ate all of the food in it. Hm...) As for the curry, well, she did cook it, but it ended up being more like a spell than anything, didn't it?

Hm. Are takoyai and yakisoba cold or hot foods?

Is it possible that if she's not much of a cook, then Chuchu ate it to take one for the team, so to speak?

True, its is very pleasurable to watch the cooking failures.

After Giovanna's post, I had the best mental image in which Anthy was seated in the dungeons at Hogwarts, learning how to brew Polyjuice Potion...

Anyways, I think that Anthy simply chooses not to cook well. I mean, look at how many other things that she chooses to put up with. I.e. being slapped up by Saionji, the sex with Akio, constant harassment from Keiko & Company...The list goes on.

I'm sure that if she really wanted to, she could. Like with the cookies...The time came for a bit of a comfort food, but with that hint of danger that makes treats that much tastier, and Anthy pulled through. If she really wanted to, I'm sure she could cook. And if all else failed, she's a witch, so she could make her cooking great with a little bit o' magic.

I don't think it's been done, and I'm in the middle of the HP books so my nerdrage is intense. I'd been thinking of starting a 'Write paragraphs of terrible/horrifying HP/SKU crossfiction.' The possibilities for disturbing depictions of gay sex with Dumbledore are limitless.

On the Anthy front, I vote passive-agressive faux incompetence. It's a tiny sign of rebellion against the 'ideals' of femininity imposed on her by the role of the rose bride.

On the HP front, I vote Ginny/Juri all the way. You know it makes sense. Even if most of it would be angersex.

Last edited by Miss Bluesky (05-07-2009 04:19:50 PM)

Sou: she punishes people with her horrible cooking.

Oh Anthy, punish me with your bad cooking! I promise to choke it down and pretend like I like it, just for the chance to experience your other...dimensions as rose bride...

PrinceoftheLostEternity wrote:

sharnii wrote:

Sou: she punishes people with her horrible cooking.

Oh Anthy, punish me with your bad cooking! I promise to choke it down and pretend like I like it, just for the chance to experience your other...dimensions as rose bride...

Who wouldn't want to experience her "other dimensions"? lol

Ya, I want to eat her curry. Depending on who I evened up switching personalties with, it just may solve my problems. But then of course, the other person would just have my problems.

More cooking motifs: There's a scene in episode 11 where Anthy talks with Touga. Anthy talks about her earler picnic with Wakaba, and says that she wants to cook as well as her. But Touga smirks and says that as the Rose Bride, Anthy shouldn't cook; she only has to stay in the garden and tend her flowers. Anthy then looks down and looks sad.

In another scene in the Akio Car arc, Utena and Wakaba are complimenting Akio on his delicious-looking cake. "It's rare to find a guy who can cook!" they both declare, upon which Akio smiles and tells them not to compliment him until they actually taste it. Utena then says "There's no family resemblance in that department," an obvious reference to Anthy's bad cooking. But what's strange is that Anthy answers "Why, thank you," while dumping salt on an egg. Utena says, "That wasn't a compliment." Anthy says, "Really?"

I believe that cooking in RGU represents a giving of warmth and protection which is them reciprocated by love and admiration from the "loved" (the guests) to the "lover" (the cook). All the Duelists want Anthy as a ticket to miraculous, power and eternity, but they all (think) they know better than to actually love her or expect love from her. In their eyes, she's either a mindless doll, a pathetic damsel in distress who stuck herself in a situation she deserves, or an evil witch who controls the lives of everyone around her. The ones who do seek her love are disappointed and disillusioned; even if Anthy could've genuinely tried to please Duelists for the sake of pleasing them, they would've still disappointed and disillusioned them because she's still a human being. And no human being, whatever his or her good intentions, is capable of entirely satisfying another human being, especially an insecure, selfish human being whose paranoia drives him to see betrayals that aren't really there, and ignore the lies he should be paying attention to. This includes Saionji, but extends to all non-sociopathic abusers. The one person who cares about Anthy (besides Utena) is Miki, and he only loves her because Anthy acts like the sister he never really had around him, so that love is based on illusion.  And Utena and Miki are the odd ones out here. Most of the cast wants to slap/use/fuck/kill Anthy, stab her with a million swords, or a combination of the above. Thus, Anthy's inability to cook represents her inability to either recieve or give the appearance of love. It's one of the unspoken stigmas of being the Rose Bride.

(More on Akio's cooking later.)