Re: "New UF/FI Arc" -- frel, that's an oversized thread. Anyone inspired by points in this post, please please PLEASE spawn an appropriately-named new thread.

Re 1: Utena. I saw the first eight eps of "Revolutionary Girl Utena" at Balticon 35 a few weeks ago. <Homer>Roses... so many roses... so many spinning roses...</Homer> Allusions in SotS:WR imply something *bad* happened at Ohtori Academy (will we ever find out *what*?) -- are the images and lyrics of the opening sequence prophetic? Or does the "trick of the light" in the forbidden forest fall down?

(UF precedent, eg PCHammer's use of "Project A-ko" and "Gunbuster", establishes that borrowed characters' official/source continuities can be adjusted to suit.)

Re 2: Azalynn the Dantrovian. I keep thinking "Azalene XVI(?)" from "Irresponsible Captain Tylor", but she had *red* hair, right? And are Dantrovians a species with precedent in UF? "Ceremonies with joining of the flesh" reminds me of the briefly-used Deltans from the early Trek movie era.

Re 3: Amanda Dessler the Gamilon. IIRC, there are EDF _Yamato_-type ships in UF (the climactic battle of Core:4), but did planet Gamilon blow up or not? If they never bombarded Earth with radioactive meteoroids, why *do* _Yamatos_ exist? So why exactly is the Empress-to-be slumming it with other species at the Worcester Preparatory Institute? Seems awfully *egalitarian*...

Re 4: WPI. So, how many times has the school been rebuilt, according to the same I-assume-suboptimal-plan, since the Wedge took a couple of dorms with it, the Genom Tower popped up, and the whole city got shield-nuked? (Good thing they don't use Holtzmann shields and lasguns...)

Re 5: "Some characters created by Kunihiko Ikuhara and Chiho Saito" etc. *Every* UF fic has this sort of acknowledgment, but the authors never specify the characters or source anime for those of us who want to cross-reference plots, or at least get pictures. Or maybe they don't *want* preconceptions. True, such declarations up front would be spoilers; but they could instead appear in the *end* credits.

Re 6: the shape of UF's future. It's just like *today*, with the occasional alien, spaceship or niftier computer. Earth and every colony world; no cultural changes, no increases in longevity, no popular acceptance of cybernetic implants (it's still unusual and often sub-legal). This might be intentional by the authors (maybe to concentrate on characters), but (as a reader of serious SF) it doesn't ring true to me -- despite comments by characters that humans consider 20cen a highwater mark.