♘ information.
♘ 「 character info 」
name: Utena Tenjou
canon: Revolutionary Girl Utena
age: 14.
role in canon: Main protagonist. Gets in an Accidental Marriage with Anthy Himemiya, which is where all her problems start. Initially Jerk with a Heart of Gold, but she gets better. Action Girl and Tomboy. All the Girls Want Her, but she tends to ignore it.
♘ 「 history 」
❝ Harken unto thy master and reveal to us: the power to revolutionize the world! ❞
Canonpoint will be figured out soon.
♘ 「 personality 」
❝ So, please...don't fear this world where you and I can meet. ❞
Utena upon first glance comes off as pretty simple: she's your ideal knight in shining armor, a chivalrous, good-natured young woman with her heart on her sleeve. She's very tomboyish as well: she wears a specialized boy's uniform, scoffs at girlish things, and is better at sports than the boys in her school. While she appears to be worshipped by the majority of the female student body, she pays little mind to this and at times seems annoyed by it. For all her apparent popularity however, she has few friends. Wakaba, who shifts between calling her a "boyfriend" and dispensing snark and well-needed common sense advice, Anthy, who she doesn't understand for most of the series (and resents at certain points) and Anthy's pet marmoset, Chuchu who is...a marmoset. Later this extends to some of the Student Council members, but while friendly, Utena is no social butterfly. She maintains a wary distance with the Student Council and those connected to them, and is defiantly friends with a girl who is for all intents and purposes, a social pariah. She's blunt, stubborn, tends to go into things head-on, and fairly naive--Anthy's elliptical statements and overall mystique often confuse her, and there is a great deal that she doesn't understand about the world she lives in. After all, she still holds on to the very childish hope that one day she'll meet her legendary prince. This is a particularly odd trait about Utena...she wants to meet her prince, but she also doesn't want to abandon the notion of being a prince herself. It doesn't cross her mind until much later that she is expected to have one or the other.
She's very easily manipulated, and tends to view the world through rose-colored(hurr) glasses. She's also unintentionally (and sometimes intentionally) selfish and short-sighted at times, much like a child--sometimes she's just as bad as other characters when it comes to treating Anthy like she doesn't exist. She is initially too trusting and tends to view things in very simple terms. Utena sees in black and white, good and bad -- those who harm and those who need to be protected. When she is met with a defeat in canon, this completely destroys her sense of self, because she cannot comprehend or deal with losing (she is on the side of good, and in all the fairy tales, good cannot, or should not lose). She has to be talked out of her depression by Wakaba. She has problems with issues that fall into gray areas for this reason, and although she isn't stupid, her gullibility makes her seem rather foolish at times. She tends to avoid more complex issues or block them out entirely -- such as her subconscious Disney edit of her parents' horrific death, and her clumsy dealing with the similarily horrific reveal of the nature of Akio and Anthy's relationship in the later parts of the series. To make up for this naivete, she's also brave and optimistic, quite the feat, considering her backstory. Initially, her dueling stems from a desire to end the duels and free herself from them--over time, this morphs into a desire to protect Anthy from those who would use her.
However, Utena discovers over time that she is also not entirely innocent, as her possession of Anthy represents her deepest desire as well--to protect a princess and to become the prince she so admires. The series goes through Utena's gradual maturity in this way--her loss of innocence, naivete and the eventual facing of her own hypocrisy, and finally the realization that simply because she is guilty of things because she is human does not mean she's any less noble or good. Her meeting with her Prince shaped and molded her personality, and gave her the resolve to continue living despite the fact that her parents had died. But it's important to note that she mistakenly believes that her Prince was the sole reason for pulling her out of that crushing depression, and in reality it was seeing Anthy's eternal torment that drove her to become so noble and brave later on in life, even if she doesn't entirely realize this until the end.
Eventually, she comes to want to protect Anthy out of a completely unselfish desire to save her from her eternal suffering. Even after she is betrayed by Anthy and begins to understand that the other girl is by no means as innocent and helpless as she seems, she still attempts to do this, and succeeds. Utena herself represents a revolution: a subverting from rules that dictate in stories, women can only be damsels in distress or vilified witches. In the end, her strength and nobility convince the witch to save herself instead of being a sacrifice.
Overall? She's a really good kid with a heart of gold.
♘ 「 abilities 」
❝ I was never playing when I dueled! ❞
Utena doesn't have many supernatural abilities. She excels at sports (particularly basketball), and is in good physical shape. She's a good sword fighter/fencer, and is able to hold her own against far more experienced opponents. Initially, this is because the duels are skewed in her favor, but gradually she gains actual skill and experience, and becomes a capable fencer in her own right. She's good at adapting to circumstances that would be seen as highly unusual and traumatizing to other people -- such as weird ass floating upside-down castles or red Corvettes being shot at her at a rapid fire pace. And she's got a hell of a lot of pluck -- it's hard to get her to give up on anything. In addition to all of this...she knows how to dance. Ballroom dancing (it's a prince thing...)
Utena's main supernatural ability is the summoning of the sword of Dios from Anthy's chest, and using "the power of Dios," which imbues her with Prince Dios' spirit and gives her a boost in duels. This is unable to be used without her girlfriend Bride, Anthy. Anthy is also able to "abandon her body for the sword," which sends her into a daze and grants the sword epic powers. Utena gets bitchin' threads from Anthy during the duels as well, and eventually the Sword of Dios becomes Utena's own "heart sword"...Anthy pulls it from Utena's chest instead, and it is the physical manifestation of Utena's nobility and pure heart. (Which is a very important plot point, but yes). This ability, notably, may not work or even exist depending on the plot point Utena and/or Anthy are pulled from, and...may not work even then, because of the illusory and deceptive nature of Ohtori.
It's extremely convoluted and hard to explain...suffice to say I will try my best not to godmod or anything.
name: Utena Tenjou
canon: Revolutionary Girl Utena
age: 14.
role in canon: Main protagonist. Gets in an Accidental Marriage with Anthy Himemiya, which is where all her problems start. Initially Jerk with a Heart of Gold, but she gets better. Action Girl and Tomboy. All the Girls Want Her, but she tends to ignore it.
♘ 「 history 」
❝ Harken unto thy master and reveal to us: the power to revolutionize the world! ❞
Canonpoint will be figured out soon.
♘ 「 personality 」
❝ So, please...don't fear this world where you and I can meet. ❞
Utena upon first glance comes off as pretty simple: she's your ideal knight in shining armor, a chivalrous, good-natured young woman with her heart on her sleeve. She's very tomboyish as well: she wears a specialized boy's uniform, scoffs at girlish things, and is better at sports than the boys in her school. While she appears to be worshipped by the majority of the female student body, she pays little mind to this and at times seems annoyed by it. For all her apparent popularity however, she has few friends. Wakaba, who shifts between calling her a "boyfriend" and dispensing snark and well-needed common sense advice, Anthy, who she doesn't understand for most of the series (and resents at certain points) and Anthy's pet marmoset, Chuchu who is...a marmoset. Later this extends to some of the Student Council members, but while friendly, Utena is no social butterfly. She maintains a wary distance with the Student Council and those connected to them, and is defiantly friends with a girl who is for all intents and purposes, a social pariah. She's blunt, stubborn, tends to go into things head-on, and fairly naive--Anthy's elliptical statements and overall mystique often confuse her, and there is a great deal that she doesn't understand about the world she lives in. After all, she still holds on to the very childish hope that one day she'll meet her legendary prince. This is a particularly odd trait about Utena...she wants to meet her prince, but she also doesn't want to abandon the notion of being a prince herself. It doesn't cross her mind until much later that she is expected to have one or the other.
She's very easily manipulated, and tends to view the world through rose-colored(hurr) glasses. She's also unintentionally (and sometimes intentionally) selfish and short-sighted at times, much like a child--sometimes she's just as bad as other characters when it comes to treating Anthy like she doesn't exist. She is initially too trusting and tends to view things in very simple terms. Utena sees in black and white, good and bad -- those who harm and those who need to be protected. When she is met with a defeat in canon, this completely destroys her sense of self, because she cannot comprehend or deal with losing (she is on the side of good, and in all the fairy tales, good cannot, or should not lose). She has to be talked out of her depression by Wakaba. She has problems with issues that fall into gray areas for this reason, and although she isn't stupid, her gullibility makes her seem rather foolish at times. She tends to avoid more complex issues or block them out entirely -- such as her subconscious Disney edit of her parents' horrific death, and her clumsy dealing with the similarily horrific reveal of the nature of Akio and Anthy's relationship in the later parts of the series. To make up for this naivete, she's also brave and optimistic, quite the feat, considering her backstory. Initially, her dueling stems from a desire to end the duels and free herself from them--over time, this morphs into a desire to protect Anthy from those who would use her.
However, Utena discovers over time that she is also not entirely innocent, as her possession of Anthy represents her deepest desire as well--to protect a princess and to become the prince she so admires. The series goes through Utena's gradual maturity in this way--her loss of innocence, naivete and the eventual facing of her own hypocrisy, and finally the realization that simply because she is guilty of things because she is human does not mean she's any less noble or good. Her meeting with her Prince shaped and molded her personality, and gave her the resolve to continue living despite the fact that her parents had died. But it's important to note that she mistakenly believes that her Prince was the sole reason for pulling her out of that crushing depression, and in reality it was seeing Anthy's eternal torment that drove her to become so noble and brave later on in life, even if she doesn't entirely realize this until the end.
Eventually, she comes to want to protect Anthy out of a completely unselfish desire to save her from her eternal suffering. Even after she is betrayed by Anthy and begins to understand that the other girl is by no means as innocent and helpless as she seems, she still attempts to do this, and succeeds. Utena herself represents a revolution: a subverting from rules that dictate in stories, women can only be damsels in distress or vilified witches. In the end, her strength and nobility convince the witch to save herself instead of being a sacrifice.
Overall? She's a really good kid with a heart of gold.
♘ 「 abilities 」
❝ I was never playing when I dueled! ❞
Utena doesn't have many supernatural abilities. She excels at sports (particularly basketball), and is in good physical shape. She's a good sword fighter/fencer, and is able to hold her own against far more experienced opponents. Initially, this is because the duels are skewed in her favor, but gradually she gains actual skill and experience, and becomes a capable fencer in her own right. She's good at adapting to circumstances that would be seen as highly unusual and traumatizing to other people -- such as weird ass floating upside-down castles or red Corvettes being shot at her at a rapid fire pace. And she's got a hell of a lot of pluck -- it's hard to get her to give up on anything. In addition to all of this...she knows how to dance. Ballroom dancing (it's a prince thing...)
Utena's main supernatural ability is the summoning of the sword of Dios from Anthy's chest, and using "the power of Dios," which imbues her with Prince Dios' spirit and gives her a boost in duels. This is unable to be used without her girlfriend Bride, Anthy. Anthy is also able to "abandon her body for the sword," which sends her into a daze and grants the sword epic powers. Utena gets bitchin' threads from Anthy during the duels as well, and eventually the Sword of Dios becomes Utena's own "heart sword"...Anthy pulls it from Utena's chest instead, and it is the physical manifestation of Utena's nobility and pure heart. (Which is a very important plot point, but yes). This ability, notably, may not work or even exist depending on the plot point Utena and/or Anthy are pulled from, and...may not work even then, because of the illusory and deceptive nature of Ohtori.
It's extremely convoluted and hard to explain...suffice to say I will try my best not to godmod or anything.