>The tension between Corwin and Utena is right at the emotional core of
>the Symphony. Right up until Interlude on Titan and Vortigern No. 2,
>their relationship progressed organically, naturally, changing shape
>from time to time, usually due to changes in the character's lives, or
>to a deeper understanding. There's nothing unnatural about things
>heading towards a full, romantic relationship; as I said elsewhere,
>the things Corwin does for Utena in Symphony 1 and in Symphony 2,
>prior to KotTW, echo, in spirit if not in form, the kind of things
>Utena does for Anthy in RGU.

>But how it was done -- I still can't quite figure out what it
>is about "Interlude on Titan," specifically, that sets my teeth on
>edge and makes the little author-voice in the back of my head scream
>things like "CONTRIVED!" and "YOU'RE DOING IT WRONG!", but that's
>exactly how it feels to me. (And I find the story the exact opposite
>of enjoyable, so I'm not planning on rereading it to figure it out.)
>"Interlude at Vortigern's Lake No. 2" is only moreso -- I mean, Jesus,
>Corwin and Utena have to fuck to prevent Akio from driving a
>wedge between them? Akio? Christ, could this be any
>more of a betrayal to the characters, and the emotional arc that's
>been developing up until then?

Sure it was contrived. But I think that it was contrived wrt Anthy needing to break the ice as it were.

Here's my problem with your problem. You seem to take issue with the way that the relationship wound up, and I can see that. Personally, I can agree with you that it's not very realistic that they would do so. However, considering that the characters involved are: a) A fully fledged God, b) a trans-dimensional Paladin who beats up Sithlings as a quick pre-breakfast warmup, and c)...well, whatever the hell Anthy is exactly, I'm gonna take realism, and toss it in the trash-heap with all my other suspended disbelief, and smile and go 'Awwwww'.

>Akio is the last person in the Ten Worlds to be credible as a threat
>to Utena and Corwin's relationship (I won't simply call it a
>friendship, because after "Interlude at Bancroft Tower" the word
>"friendship" became too simple, even if they weren't technically
>romantically involved). That this becomes the... the
>justification for this makes them taking the next step feel
>rushed, cheap, contrived, and a betrayal of the natural, organic way
>their relationship had developed until then. To even imply
>that because they don't call each other by a particular label
>(boyfriend and girlfriend, or lover, or whatever), and because they're
>not having sex, that they could therefore be driven apart by someone
>like Akio

Again, my feeling behind this was that Anthy more used this as an excuse to mend what she felt was a wrong. I mean, it's obvious to everyone involved that C and U are in love, soulmates, whatever you wanna call 'em. And yet, because of their preconceived notions of loyalty and fidelity, they are going to be unwilling to go the extra step, not just of fucking, but of getting rid of the 'but' part of 'everything but' in their relationship. I'd say that G couldn't have handled it much better, considering the Space Opera feeling of UF. It's SUPPOSED to be over the top.

>-- who is, I suppose, a reasonably complex and competent
>villain by UF standards, but that's not saying much at all --

Yeah, I'm gonna agree with G here. You're reading UF and expecting Jane Eyre. It's not. It's a Space Opera. The characters are exaggerated, not realistic, by design. They hit harder, run faster, cook better, love deeper, and hate hotter then real people. If you don't understand that about certian styles of fiction then you really need to take a good look at why you enjoy reading.

>is insulting to the readers,

Don't fucking lump my happy read ass in with yours, hunh?

> to the characters, and, I'm sorry to say, is rather a disappointment in the >Symphony and in Gryph's writing skills, because I know it can be better than >this, because it has. As I said above, that relationship stands at

When? Name a point in the Symphonies when their emotions were more 'real', when the characters were less contrived then IaVL2? Hell, of all the relationships that I thought was handled the worst, I'd aim more for KJM then CUA. And only certain lines ('This is gonna be good'? Comeon, just a bit out of character?)

>the emotional core of the Symphony, and for it to reach its consummation at any
>point other than marking the end of the Symphony cycle/subseries... it
>feels dramatically very, very wrong.

Sure. He could just hack S5 off of the list, and toss the stories into UF/FI on their own, no subset. would that make you feel better?

--
-Pasha
"I invented Warp Drive, whatta ya got?"
"I'm the Norse God of Mecha."
"Well, I guess you win then."