>>Is there an inconsistency here, or am I seeing things? Wouldn't Kate
>>have to get permission from Gryphon-as-Sensei to take part in the IDS
>>(above and beyond any permission the school might require from Gryphon
>>and Kei as parents)? Wouldn't each member the IDS have to be screened
>>by Gryphon-as-Sensei, as Utena was, before Kate is allowed to face
>>them in some IDS activity? Where's the difference between the two
>>situations, because I'm having a hard time seeing it.
>
>The difference, basically, is that Kaitlyn and Utena are training
>together, face to face, blade to blade, every day, usually for
>a couple of hours at a stretch. They're sharing what used to be
>Kate's daily solo workout, from 4 to 6 in the afternoon. As such,
>they're having a lot of martial contact, and that will
>inevitably cause a bleeding-together of their styles.
>
>In the context of the Duelists' Society, there isn't nearly so much
>intermixing. Kate can hardly spend two hours a day training with each
>and every individual Duelist, nor would she particularly want to. The
>Society doesn't train together like, say, the Fencing Club or the
>school soccer team do; for the most part, they only cross swords for
>actual duels, which aren't all that frequent, nor do they last all
>that long. Occasionally a couple of Duelists will pair off for
>sparring - T'skaia and Juri, for instance, in A Question of
>Faith, but by and large they don't train together the way Kate and
>Utena do.

OK, that makes sense. I had the impression that the IDS met like a regular club or team does - a couple times a week for an hour or two, and the members do sparring or "hey, that's a neat looking Denn Bok, how do you use it?" sort of stuff or whatever. Anyway, I just had the impression that there was more time spent with the IDS, and therefore more opportunity for cross-contamination of style than there apparently is.

>Kaitlyn's prospective opponents for duels don't have to be evaluated,
>since as a journeywoman she's expected to defend herself against any
>challenger as a matter of course. It's only fully-involved,
>regular-basis, high-time training partners she feels concerned about
>Gryphon's opinion of.

So she does sometimes spar with the others of the IDS?

>(It's also worth pointing out that Kate is more concerned with the
>issue than Gryphon is; he basically squared off with Utena to humor
>Kate, and because he was curious about her.)

I see.

Please don't take offense, but it sounds like the IDS is truly the sham organization (I'm at a loss for a better word) it was originally created to be (as it came into being solely to provide Utena an excuse to carry live steel in public). For all you've described the group members doing, well, they certainly don't need to belong to the IDS or any other organization to do that. They may have created "a venue for weapons artists of all different styles and traditions to test themselves against one another, to face diverse opponents in a freestyle contest", but it seems to me that that's just on paper. It's a shame that the members, as described above or seen in the stories to date, don't seem to be interested in taking advantage of the opportunity they have.

But then maybe I'm getting ahead of myself, and the stories just haven't gotten to the point where the IDS members start taking it seriously yet.

Regards,

Jeanne