In Anthy's case specifically, I wonder if a lot of her childhood memories in general after the initial million swords incident just blur into each other as a mass of constant pain, making it hard for her to remember specifics from then. :(
I don't even think of it as slotting Touga's movie backstory into the series anymore; I've long since accepted it that thoroughly as also being series canon, thanks in great part to Enokido's commentary. His character just makes so much sense if he's a childhood rape victim.
Yeah, Touga isn't any less of a prick in ep 11 just because Utena's being a self-righteous hypocrite, and she was going to get a nasty wake-up call in one way or another. Utena admitting to how she'd wronged Anthy really does have its full impact because we can see in the first arc how she wronged Anthy; the series doesn't just tell us she fucked up, it showed us how she fucked up. It annoys me when fandom sometimes likes to cheapen one of the most powerful moments in the show by acting like Utena never actually did anything wrong and totally had full respect for Anthy as a three-dimensional autonomous human being from the very very beginning. Utena's a good protagonist because she's flawed and makes mistakes and has to learn from them -- and she does!
Re: [CW: suicidal ideation, CSA]
I don't even think of it as slotting Touga's movie backstory into the series anymore; I've long since accepted it that thoroughly as also being series canon, thanks in great part to Enokido's commentary. His character just makes so much sense if he's a childhood rape victim.
Yeah, Touga isn't any less of a prick in ep 11 just because Utena's being a self-righteous hypocrite, and she was going to get a nasty wake-up call in one way or another. Utena admitting to how she'd wronged Anthy really does have its full impact because we can see in the first arc how she wronged Anthy; the series doesn't just tell us she fucked up, it showed us how she fucked up. It annoys me when fandom sometimes likes to cheapen one of the most powerful moments in the show by acting like Utena never actually did anything wrong and totally had full respect for Anthy as a three-dimensional autonomous human being from the very very beginning. Utena's a good protagonist because she's flawed and makes mistakes and has to learn from them -- and she does!