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"(S31) S2M7 Ceremony and Celebration"
 
   LAST EDITED ON May-27-13 AT 07:09 PM (EDT)
 
16 One can only imagine how many Æs-strength Advil Frey had to down during the course of the debrief. PJM

66 As Corwin will later say to Juniper, "All the children of magic dream of this city."

153 I don't consider myself terribly good at this kind of scene, but I'm still pleased with this one. Utena's proposal strikes just the right balance between "gallantly poetic" and "directly concrete"; it's very her.

169 Utena echoes Dios's words to Anthy in the last movement, something that doesn't go unnoticed by Anthy.

277 Back in Duelists of the Rose.

304 Anthy begins to show the wisdom that would eventually let me out of the trap I found myself in, authorially, at S2M6's end.

306 Almost - very very almost - but not quite.

405 For all that she's pitying Corwin a bit now, it will hit Utena once the edge comes off her exultation that she's not entirely happy with things as they now stand either - though she almost hates herself for thinking it, what with Anthy back and all. We'll see this in Ad Astra.

477 Good old Kozue. She was always one of my favorites of the "second-string" Revolutionary Girl Utena characters, and one of the joys of completing the Lost Tournament was that it presented the opportunity to work with her for more than just the occasional intermezzo cameo.

How do we know G likes Kozue? He named his car after her. PJM

503 Phil designed this scene to bookend the Miki/Kozue one I'd just finished for the spot above it.

Eyup. The sections I wrote for Juri in this movement count among my favorite, most satisfying pieces of writing for the Symphony (along with the section in S2M4). Even when tweaked and edited by Gryphon, it gets across what I wanted to express: that even with everything they'd been through in both Cephiro and in Midgard, both Juri and Shiori are growing, moving on, yet retaining their friendship. PJM

601 Corwin would be appalled at how rude he's being to Anthy here... if he were conscious.

Anthy, on the other hand, just thinks it's incredibly cute. ALC

609 Some awesome Chinese battle chefs are in Valhalla.

616 I like this image a lot as well.

633 Anthy isn't sure whether to call Corwin "Sir Corwin" or "Lord Corwin" at this point. Really, either is applicable, though it isn't entirely proper to call him "Lord Corwin" before his formal nomination as an Æs.

649 I never got a chance to show it (despite plans to sometime during Corwin's time stuck in Asgard in the Fourth Symphony), but Thor knows where Corwin's apartment is because he lives across the hall - having been kicked to the curb by Sif for his dalliance with the Kilrathi girl he rescued from the wrecked WDF Delphinus during the aftermath of the Ragnarok. Sif got the palace; Thor got a bachelor pad across the hall from his favorite nephew's and no more hassles about where he's been all night. He figures it's a fair trade.

683 Even I'm not sure whether Corwin recognized her from his encounter with her prophetic shade, or his dream way back in Christmas Rose, and he won't remember this moment when he wakes.

I always figured it was both and more - Corwin has almost certainly had more than one dream of Anthy, given how closely their lives are going to end up tied, and thus, he does know her, in many little ways. But it's not something he's destined to remember consciously. ALC

717 Bell has a special little song she sings when she cooks eggs. No, really. It's in the OVAs.

740 And how! Although it would've been rather funny for Anthy and Corwin to try and bluff their way through the Investiture in the form of each other, uh, that would've made for some pret-ty weird action come the end of the piece.

785 Why no, Anthy doesn't mind the view at all.

922 Anne wrote this scene; I see here that even at this early juncture, she understood Anthy's wisdom regarding the matter much better than I did. It could be argued that I identified too closely with Corwin during this part of his arc to consider the overall story as objectively as, perhaps, a writer ought.

978 Heather may be my favorite supporting character I've never done anything with. She's never even had any lines, and yet she's always kind of lurking in the background, like the Golden Gate Bridge in photos of San Francisco.

1015 Kozue may have developed a reputation for jumping anything that stood still long enough at Ohtori Academy, but they were all guys, as far as I know.

That's always been my impression as well. PJM

1026 Literally; Skuld unconsciously levitates when she's happy.

1061 I would never have thought I'd be writing this scene when I wrote the first Saionji scene in Wounded Rose.

1141 Though traditional enemies of the Æsir and Vanir, the Jotun have had peaceful diplomatic relations with Asgard and Vanaheim since Utgard-Loki's surrender after the Ragnarok.

1155 Damn straight Strickland is there. Mrs. Bonis is, too, but I unforgivably forgot to mention her. Also in the crowd are the Mui twins.

1162 I'll bet Presea cleans up pretty well. We never see her in anything but that ratty blacksmith's apron in the source material...

We do, actually, but not for very long. When she makes the Knight's heartswords in MKR, she wears a dress, since their Making is largely an act of will and doesn't involve anvils and very hot fires. However, I was never very fond of her dress in the source material - it made her look too much like a Greek goddess and not enough like a Valkyrie. ALC

1273 Dinivities First Class are the highest of the gods, those with a place in the pantheon and a portfolio that is exclusively their own. This rank entitles Corwin to seek a seat on the Æsir Council, not that he has any interest in that. Category Two indicates that his "assignment" (a formality, since the celestial bureaucracy can't "assign" a Divinity First Class to do anything he doesn't care to do) is to protect (and inhabit) Midgard. Unlimited refers to his discretionary latitude, which is complete - he doesn't report to any celestial agency or have any direct superior, apart from the general dominion over all the Æsir that is exercised by the Council and the All-Father. When his power is restricted to enable him to return to Midgard, that doesn't change him to First Class, Category Two, Limited. Whether a divinity wears a power limiter is not reflected in his titles.

1290 It scans a little better in Old Norse.

1335 I am not always satisfied with my attempts at poetry or incantations. These I like.

1369 From Queen's News of the World (1977).

We are the champions, my friend
And we'll keep on fighting 'til the end
We are the champions
We are the champions
No time for losers 'cause we are the champions
Of the world!

1411 This is, in fact, the Valkyries' Hall - the same place Utena and Vigdis wrecked in Year's End Confrontation Blues, and the room from which Corwin left on his journey to Cephiro in Knights 1.

1427 At this point, no one in the known galaxy has ever heard of Lh'owon or the S'pht Protectorate. The S'pht, also known as Compilers, are a species of cyborgs with a great affinity for computer systems in the Marathon games.

1448 As many have speculated, Major Motoko Kusanagi, formerly of the Royal Salusian Ministry of Public Security's Section Nine.

1503 Another change we hadn't quite anticipated, but which was eminently logical when it came to our attention.

1528 It is unknown whether Presea made any... improvements to the blade while she had it.

1603 Little escapes Edward's notice, however subtle.

1605 I love this little scene, because it so perfectly encapsulates Bell's enormous compassion and scrubs away the last vestiges of Anthy's ancient shame and self-recrimination.

1657 Skuld hangs with Gryphon. Of course she's seen Captain Scarlet.

1709 Actually, it's because Phil drew it on that side when he did the wedding portrait. :)

1727 There is no specific real music that matches Kaitlyn's compositions for the wedding, but when I was writing these scenes, I used the march version of Ben Kenobi's theme from the end of Star Wars (on the soundtrack as "The Throne Room") as a stand-in for Corwin's march, and of course Utena's is based on "Scarlet of the Campus", which Kate already wrote in UF.

1744 I knew as soon as I wrote Saionji's apology scene in Duelists of the Rose that he would have to give Anthy away at her eventual wedding to Utena. The symbolism of it is too perfect for any other candidate to have even a ghost of a chance.

1754 Thanks to Bell's kindness, Anthy is now completely - this may seem like a familiar theme - who she was always meant to be, and it shows in ways that are especially striking to those who have known her longest. I didn't want to distract the scene by dwelling on reaction shots, but it's worth noting that Juri, in particular, was momentarily stunned by the very sight of her.

1787 Corwin's benediction is another kind of thing I don't consider myself all that great at, but again I find that I'm still pleased with this one.

1801 Corwin uses a variation on traditional Salusian wedding vows (also popular among Zetans, for obvious reasons) here; they echo, especially in the final clause, the vows exchanged at his father's wedding to Kei Morgan. Notice that there is no actual mention of exclusivity, nor of obedience; mentioning either concept in Salusian vows would be insulting (in the case of obedience, very insulting) to the participants.

1805 This weirded a few people out, but it made perfect sense to us, and still does. All along, Utena has adopted traditionally masculine roles and made them work for her without sacrificing her womanhood. It only follows that she is Anthy's husband and Anthy is her wife.

1809 Similar to the way Russians link their arms to drink toasts.

1828 Traditional at military weddings.

1831 Apparently these guys knew something I didn't as well. The full significance of this bit didn't come home to me until quite some time later, and I wrote it.

1836 Marty Rose - one of our biggest Magic Knight Rayearth fans and undoubtedly consulted much more in the course of working up the MKR material than I ever managed to credit him for - provided this scene and the reunion to follow.

1909 As the design of Avalon has progressed since this was written, this is probably not quite accurate; Marty works for the NAPD (and is often loaned to the IPO), not the Avalon County Sheriff's Department, and the ACSD doesn't have a division it calls CID. Blame CSI: New Avalon for this, mostly.

1982 Not quite as dire a threat as it sounds, since Salusians reach legal majority at 42.

2020 Rei Ayanami.

2037 Satoru is the eldest, and by far the wisest, of the three Shidou brothers.

2116 Including Card No. 1's impromptu performance of "Sultans of Swing", as seen in Twilight 7.

2121 The first and only time we've ever seen what orchestral instrument Devlin plays.

2196 In the second episode of Revolutionary Girl Utena. Her dress - provided as a nasty prank by Nanami - dissolved when "accidentally" drenched with a pitcher of water. Utena, showing the kind of gallantry and panache you generally have to be born with, threw aside the ballgown she'd been feeling awkward in all night, appeared in her duelist's dress uniform, and fashioned a dress for Anthy out of a tablecloth (performing the "And the flowers are still standing!" trick in the process) in moments. It was an auspicious beginning to their relationship. Fortunately, Anthy doesn't track the memories back far enough here to think of Nanami and get melancholy at this inopportune moment.

2230 Nall's humanoid design is based on his appearance in Lunar 2: Eternal Blue.

2306 Pretty much the entirety of the Juri/Kate dance was written by me and Gryph; I'd write a section, he'd tweak for Kate's reactions, I'd adjust for Juri's train of thought, and so on and so forth. As far as I can tell, it worked out admirably.

(Ss an aside, I really need to draw Kate and Juri dancing in this scene one of these days - I have the design for the DSM Orchestra uniform, it's there in the text, I just have been distracted by a gazillion other tasks.) PJM

2320 Kate sometimes feels as if she is forever having to do this at dances, even though it's really only happened a couple of times.

Yeah, well, it takes a while to get Juri back up to speed into the here and now. PJM

2399 I have always meant to have a scene sometime in which Juri and Corwin actually talk about this - I'm not sure they've ever had a conversation on screen - but I've never quite found a spot for it.

Eh, one of these days, if it ever comes to pass, it could be done in flashback-form, somehow. PJM

2420 Not having been provided with a manual, Juri doesn't realize that this is not any particular obstacle to having a friendly dance in Asgard.

2424 And so, Juri takes another step into the wider world she's found herself in. Like Utena, "home" has been redefined internally to fit her new situation. PJM

2473 I know Juri's heart all too well here (for all that I didn't write this scene, Phil did).

2474 The fact that she's able to have these realizations, and dwell on them, and discuss them with another, shows that Juri is slowly, ever so slowly, learning not to jump to conclusions when it comes to matters of the heart and social interaction. Okay, so she still has a tendency to take two steps forward and one step back in this learning process; nobody ever said it would be easy. PJM

2527 And she did, at that. PJM

2602 And in turn, Kaitlyn has her own growing realization of what Juri means to her. PJM

2622 I did write this line, and I remain very proud of it. It sums Kaitlyn up perfectly at the moment she speaks it.

I wholeheartedly agree. PJM

2633 I believe that Kate secretly gets a thrill whenever she manages to catch Juri off guard - and this was the mother of all off-guard moments for her in their relationship so far. PJM

2670 Poor Tsuwabuki. Nanami treated him terribly for most of their association, and yet he can't quite let go of her, even after he could no longer delude himself that she was doing anything but mistreating him. An idealist, he truly felt she could be saved... but he was never in a position to try.

2676 The Tenjou Academy Student Councilor doubletakes (save for Wakaba) in reaction to the kiss were also fun to write. PJM

2725 And to think, back in the development and planning phase, we were just intending for this point in time for Kate and Juri to be considering a relationship, and possibly a dance and a peck on the cheek - not going this far. Shows what we know about the character's plans and dreams... PJM

2755 If Anthy can joke about the subservient hell that was her life as the Rose Bride, she must be feeling better.

2766 This line, delivered with Anthy's best wide-eyed innocence, slaughtered the studio crew when it came out in a development bull session.

2789 "Memo to self: Bet everything you can possibly scrape together on Anthy Tenjou in the Corwin Bowl." At 76 to 1, Gudrun is fantastically wealthy today.

2863 Later, when I was finishing up Interlude on Titan (For Tomorrow), I was stunned to discover that the bit of this conversation between Corwin and Anthy that I flashed back to in that story ("... and in that, you and I are one") wasn't here. I could have sworn I put it in; I remembered writing it. More on this below.

2885 This bit, and the ensuing exchanges between Miki and Kozue, were written separately and then cut into this scene at appropriate intervals.

2894 She wrote that note, too.

2923 Clearly, Miki is getting back at Kozue for all the shenanigans Kozue got up to back at the Academy. PJM

2974 Liza quotes an English translation of Friedrich Schiller's Ode to Joy, a German poem probably most famous for its use as the lyrics to the choral fourth movement of Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 in D Minor, Op. 125.

Freude, sch&omul;ner Götterfunken
Tochter aus Elysium,
Wir betreten feuertrunken,
Himmlische, dein Heiligtum!
Deine Zauber binden wieder
Was der Mode Schwert geteilt;
Alle Menschen wirden Brüder,
Wo dein sanfter Flügel weilt.

Joy, thou beauteous spark of God,
Daughter of Elysium;
Enter we now drunk with fire,
Goddess, in thy radiant shrine!
By your magic is united
That which custom's sword divides;
All men living are as brothers
Where your gentle wings abide.

2976 Some readers thought it was weird for Liza to carry on introducing herself in this way for so long after the Spirit of the River was destroyed, but my take on it is that it's custom - she'll keep doing it until she has another ship.

3007 Ah, good old Rina.

3025 "Grave feminine conspiracy" is a phrase he's heard his father use to describe the cadre of women whom he half-jokingly (and quite rightly) suspects of surreptitiously watching out for him.

3028 Actually, she is, and she doesn't have terrible odds, considering. She once confided to Skuld that if she ever was going to jump the fence, so to speak, it'd be with Corwin.

3048 Presumably when one dances swing-style with Dorothy, there are, shall we say, fewer of the aerial maneuvers.

3066 Consolation prize, son. Word travels fast. They all know exactly what door you slammed in your own face and why, and they all feel terrible for you.

3101 I still choke up a little when I re-read this part.

3108 The image of Tsuwabuki flanked by Keiko and Wakaba deliberately hearkens back to a piece in one of my RGU artbooks showing him, er, rather squashed between them, all three in their Black Rose outfits, and Tsuwabuki, in particular, sporting the Anime Standard "Help Me I Am Being Mind-Controlled" face. (As I recall, the girls look too wickedly pleased with themselves to pull it off.)

3142 I think it's time we blow this scene. Get everybody and the stuff together. Originally, Corwin and Dorothy danced to "Tank!" and the duel was set to "Sing, Sing, Sing". In retrospect, now that I've written For Tomorrow and For Today, I ought to've left it that way - but "Tank!" has an honorable history as a dueling song in UF, having appeared in both Aegis Florea stories.

3200 Where have all the good men gone and where are all the gods?
Where's the streetwise Hercules to fight the rising odds?
Isn't there a white knight upon a fiery steed?
Late at night I toss and I turn and I dream of what I need:
I need a hero
I'm holding out for a hero 'til the end of the night
He's got to be strong and he's got to be fast
And he's got to be fresh from the fight
I need a hero
I'm holding out for a hero 'til the morning light
He's got to be sure and it's got to be soon
And he's got to be larger than life

3236 Corwin is slightly downplaying the amount of effort required, but he doesn't want to worry anyone, and it really is well within his capabilities.

3286 And they thought he didn't remember.

3345 Yes, Juri with her hair down - mmm mmmm Mmmmmmm. (How she manages to get it curled up in time for work every day is a mystery for the ages.) PJM

3357 I sometimes forget that Leonard was at this wedding. I must remember to touch back on that somewhere in the Warriors stories.

3378 While he was hiding out in her room after his expulsion from Ohtori Academy, Saionji carved this pin for Wakaba - and she knew he was working on it for her. When informed (as part of a plot to drive Wakaba into the "student counseling program" that was the vector into the Black Rose trap) that the price of his readmission to the Academy was to give it to Anthy instead, callously crushing Wakaba's spirit (again), he did so. It's this, more than anything else, that Wakaba referred to back in Duelists of the Rose when she told him, "You were a bastard to me."

3411 One of my favorite paragraphs.

3433 A meeting that was ordained by fate.

3447 She'll eventually put it together, but not until The End of the Tour.

3568 This song was suggested by Zoner, who is, among many other things, a gigantic Sarah McLachlan fan. Other songs considered included the 10,000 Maniacs cover of "Because the Night", which very nearly got the nod but was a little too fast-paced, and R.E.M.'s "Nightswimming", which had an appearance in a sorta-similar scene way back in Crossroads but was deemed... well, not hot enough for this purpose. (As an aside, in the UF universe Kate did either write or rearrange "Because the Night" with Juri in mind.)

3631 Kate is ten ninjas.

3663 We'll see the East Tower Room in For Tomorrow.

3707 Procol Harum, 1967. Notable for its Bach-esque organ line and chord structure, which particularly endear it to Kate with her fondness for baroque. The lyrics are rather nonsensical but oddly evocative.

She said "There is no reason
And the truth is plain to see"
But I wandered through my playing cards
Would not let her be
One of sixteen vestal virgins
Who were leaving for the coast
And although my eyes were open
They might just as well been closed
And so it was later
As the miller told his tale
That her face, at first just ghostly
Turned a whiter shade of pale

3744 When this story came out, it provoked the most peculiar reaction from one of the users frequenting the EPU Forum at the time, Phil Thorne by name. A self-proclaimed Critical Literary Thinker, Phil wrote a lengthy post lambasting the piece for its "crypto-lesbian subtext" (though personally I can't imagine what on Earth is "crypto" or "sub" about it) and announcing that, although he could perhaps forgive the Utena/Anthy plot since I'd inherited it from the source material, it freaked his action out that Kate and Juri also got busy that night. I could hardly make head or tail out of it, but I didn't really have to; the Forums were a much busier place in those days, and there were plenty of other users willing to take a stab at figuring out what Phil was on about and trying to set him straight. Strangely, though teenage lesbians bothered him, he didn't seem to mind any of the implied brother-sister incest. I'm not sure what that says about him or me. (We'll get back to that topic later.)

I thought it was hysterical. There's a reason it's still in my sigblock on the Forum. ALC

Anyway, for the record, yes, there are a lot of lesbians (and/or bisexual women) in this corner of the UF universe. Part of that is, indeed, because I inherited some of the situations from the source material and had to follow them up if I was going to stay true to the characters. Part of it's just coincidental: the characters happened to come out that way. None of it has anything to do with any odd agenda to further the lesbian cause in my writings, or such weirdass notions. Sure, like about two and a half billion other straight guys, I happen not to mind the mental image of two good-looking women together, and I'd be both lying and engaging in priggery if I tried to claim that that wasn't at least a subconscious factor at work when I design original characters who turn out to be bisexual, but it's not like I sit at the computer thinking, "OK, who can I turn into a lesbian today?" Sheesh.

3747 This has to be one of the more satisfying ways I've ever read of ending a Symphony movement. Mad props go to Gryphon for these last sections, and taking another step in the healing process for Kaitlyn (and Juri too). PJM

3760 Ye gods, the cast list of doom. I believe Geoff Depew ran through the draft and put this one together for me, as I was spent from having written the last scene.

3872 At last count, I have contributed about 6.8 MB of original artwork and commission colorings to the Symphony. PJM


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(S31) S2M7 Ceremony and Celebration [View All] Gryphonadmin Dec-17-06 TOP
   RE: Annotations: S2M7 twipper Dec-17-06 1
   RE: Annotations: S2M7 Polychrome Dec-17-06 2
      RE: Annotations: S2M7 Peter Eng Dec-18-06 4
   RE: Annotations: S2M7 Micah Hakubi Dec-17-06 3
   RE: (S31) S2M7 Ceremony and Celebration JustTheBast Apr-03-10 5
      RE: (S31) S2M7 Ceremony and Celebration Gryphonadmin Apr-03-10 6
      RE: (S31) S2M7 Ceremony and Celebration BobSchroeck Apr-05-10 7
   Line 2863 Revisited Gryphonadmin May-27-13 8
      RE: Line 2863 Revisited Offsides May-27-13 9
   RE: (S31) S2M7 Ceremony and Celebration BobSchroeck May-29-13 10
      RE: (S31) S2M7 Ceremony and Celebration Gryphonadmin May-29-13 11
   RE: (S31) S2M7 Ceremony and Celebration Mephronmoderator May-30-13 12


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