>>generally speaking it's had to do a lot of spade work in
>>order to bring them "up to code" for the universe.
>
>Just wanted to note that I'm really enjoying this metaphor. Partly
>because it's so apt,

You're very kind. I do, occasionally, manage an insight that's neither annoying nor offensive.

>and partly because it led me instantly to a
>mental theater presentation of my decision to start working the
>Revolutionary Girl Utena elements heavily into Symphony No.
>1, recast as the firehouse scene from Ghostbusters:

Yeah, that's kind of how I was envisioning the process.

More seriously, I don't find anything wrong, per se, with stories that look at the darker, freakier side of Utena and say "yeah, let's go THERE." There've been plenty of damned good ones. Jacquemart springs to mind. But "it's five years later, and Utena is still emotionally traumatized and largely unhappy, with no real friends and a relationship with Anthy that grows more artificial every day, and the only people she could ever talk to about what happened were mindwiped by a person who may or may not be some species of devil and who may or may not have had more of Anthy's willing cooperation than she thinks..."

Well, that could be a great story. But it's not really a UF story, is it?

-Merc
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