LAST EDITED ON Aug-25-14 AT 02:23 PM (EDT)
 
(Speaking of characters we haven't heard from in a while...)

"Hi, I'm Wakaba Shinohara, Utena's ex from middle school."

"Wakaba... "

"What? I said you could be my boyfriend in seventh grade and you said 'Fine, whatever,' which I think you'll find is not a refusal."

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Ahh, yes indeed. Wakaba is always fun, but she has been on fire the last few appearances. First Dates, Try Try, Le Droit; I'm looking forward to her arrival on the Díqìu scene, as I hope this is in reference to.

Ah, good ol' loophole abuse.

LAST EDITED ON Aug-26-14 AT 02:41 PM (EDT)
 
One thing I really like, after listening to the revised / released OOTR audios, is how Wakaba has grown into the much needed and vital role of someone who can call bullshit, if needed.

There's love, trust, and a lot of friendship that's grown there, and I think it's really good that now and then she can step in and back them up if they're starting to get too far down a bad idea. Or just point out some things they haven't considered.

Plus, she gets lines like that!

Well, Wakaba was Utena's voice of sanity for long before SotS. You may remember her making mention of an incident in SKU where she tells Utena that not normal is normal for her. That was precisely the kind of sanity check Utena needs from time to time; in that case, it was to get her over having been beaten by Touga so she can go back to knock the smarmy look off his face.

--------

this world created by the
hands of the gods
everything is false
everything is a LIE
the final days have come
now
let everything be destroyed

--mu

>Well, Wakaba was Utena's voice of sanity for long before SotS. You may
>remember her making mention of an incident in SKU where she tells
>Utena that not normal is normal for her. That was precisely the kind
>of sanity check Utena needs from time to time.

Indeed. Wakaba had two main Deals in the original show. One was that she was Utena's... not conscience, but sort of an external replacement for the sense of perspective that Utena more or less doesn't have. And the other was that she really, really wanted to be one of those people who Have It Goin' On (and, of course, the show being what it was, she wasn't, and knew she wasn't, and it made her miserable). So in her appearances in UF, I've always tried to be mindful of the former wherever possible while making it plain that she got her wish regarding the latter (which they sort of backhandedly alluded to having happened at the end of the TV show).

That's why I enjoyed writing her little scene in First Dates & Firefights so much - because it's just so... Wakaba, both ways.

"You were the one who said we should call it off altogether!"

"I was wrong! And you didn't listen to me anyway! Which was good! Why are we yelling!"

"I don't know!"

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.