Word of God/movie backstory aside, it suddenly came to me that there is one other gap of knowledge that has probably contributed to a significant part of the alienation between Touga and Nanami, and it's something that existed throughout all of Nanami's life, so it's given that she wouldn't truly notice it: Touga knows they're adopted, Nanami does not. I think that makes a big difference.
Touga's backstory is bound not to be the exact same as the movie (After all, Nanami isn't even there with him), so I'll let myself speculate a bit. Their biological parents could have died, they could have abandoned them or sold them, or the siblings could have been removed from their care, and unless Nanami was brought in later to wherever Touga was, it's safe to assume that he spent at least 5 years with his original parents. He has memories of a different family, and of losing that family. Nanami doesn't even know about any of it. She doesn't realize there is a side of her brother that she never got to meet.
"Blood" is very important to Nanami. Blood is what Nanami uses to try and reassure herself that the parents who are cold and distant to her, and the brother who's grown cold and distant too, have an eternal unbreakable bond. It's very brittle though. Nanami constantly fears being replaced, discarded or harmed by her family. Most often by Touga, who ironically, happens to be her only blood relative there.
Her anxiety can be very easily explained by her experiences with how she was treated growing up in the Kiryuu household, but I do wonder if there's some subconscious parts of her that tap into these knowledge gaps too. I already felt like it was there, in the way her love for her brother is as protective as it is possessive, and how to protect him from harm, be it real or perceived, she can go feral, often shooting wildly at whoever she thinks is to blame, always hitting the wrong targets; and so maybe, I thought, it is possible that her anxieties are also tied to these repressed early childhood memories. Ones of once having a family, and then losing that world, being thrown someplace unfamiliar. Vague mostly forgotten memories fueling her fear of abandonment, working like a constant little nagging at the back of her head signaling to her how little blood ties really matter in the end.
"Blood" doesn't matter to Touga in the same way. He doesn't hold into a rose colored view of it. He knows by experience how easily those ties can be severed, how fickle they are. That's why when he found a little girl in a coffin, a little girl who spoke of there not being anything eternal, of how those you care about are bound to leave you, and questioning what's even the point of living then, he couldn't give her anything. He couldn't save her. He didn't know the answer for himself either.
A correction: When I first wrote this, I wasn't sure of how much of Touga's movie backstory to assign to his series counterpart, but now, although I still believe there are differences between the two, I do subscribe to the idea that Touga in the show (along with Nanami in this case) was also sold by his parents to the Kiryuu family.
I think I might actually be too woke for Hoppers...
Which is weird for me to say considering a movie doesn't need to be progressive for me to like it, but with this movie in particular it just landed as unsatisfying to me.
...
And I actually think Turning Red and Luca are better than Hoppers, it's funny how so many people think differently lol
People will (rightfully) clown on Azula stans who act like she never did anything wrong and every one of her bad actions is secretly someone else's fault... But like does no one care that that is exactly what they're doing with Mai in the comics? Acting like all of her bad actions are Azula's/Ukano's fault. Acting like Mai didn't follow Azula willingly or ever cared about her brother. And while Mai's father is demonised her mother is a saint for some reason?! You know, they could have written complex relationships between Mai and Azula, Mai and her parents, show us how Mai warmed up to her brother, how Mai unlearned Fire Nation imperialism... But that would require effort and why have that when everyone can be a generic good guy or a bad guy?
There are a lot of people in fandom, who, despite thinking of themselves as progressive, have a view that art must be comfortable, comforting, didactic, with simple morals and easy to digest. I often joked that people like that "Need everything to be Sesame Street and then make it everyone's problem" "They should just go watch Sesame Street instead".
But in retrospect that was a really funny and ironic way for me to phrase this, because the truth is that the educational puppet shows I really grew up with watching as a little kid were actually much weirder lol
So anyway when I watched Jan Švankmajer's "Alice" as an adult I actually found it really comforting and nostalgic lol
But if someone wants to avoid discomfort at any cost, it makes sense why they'd make such a big deal about things like "normalization". Horror and discomfort to them must always be portrayed as alien and sensationalist. But I actually feel quite drawn the discomfort of such things being portrayed casually, the way our grandmothers tell folk tales. That's why magical realism is so interesting too.
I make fun of their outfits here a lot, but the truth is that it frightens me. It frightens me because in reality I used to dress just like them around that age, and my mind really cannot fathom another reason why anyone would do that to themselves, can't imagine an explanation for that fashion sense that does not involve someone being an autistic transmasc egg.
the two guys shiori sleeps with are movie touga (dead) and ruka (almost dead at time of car sex scene). which probably doesn’t symbolize anything it’s just funny as hell
Utena and Saionji: They'd piss each other off by mimicking each other and would argue over who Anthy is technically engaged to now. Utena would accidentally act too friendly to Wakaba and Oh Fuck Oh No. Both experience Touga being weird to them in a different way than Touga is usually weird to them.
Anthy and Touga: Probably more fun for Anthy than for Touga. I wouldn't be surprised if Touga has had nightmares about this exact scenario before. Lots of terrible scenarios potential for interactions with Akio whether he's aware of the switch or not
Miki and Anthy: Miki would just fucking faint
Nanami and Kozue: They didn't hold any ill feelings towards each other before this, but then Nanami annoyed Kozue a bit too much about her behaviour while on her body so Kozue decided to flirt with Touga, while in Nanami's body, as retaliation; so Nanami in turn tried to flirt with Miki, and soon they have each other so mad they started tearing into each other's houses looking for all kinds of blackmail and now they're convinced the only solution is murder
Touga and Tsuwabuki: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA no
Miki and Utena: I would like to see it even though I know their repressed asses would mostly just refuse to react. Utena would probably be like "Wow, a family :0" and Miki would be like "So, will I live with Himemiya-Senpai now? Haha (>/////< " )" (Spoilers: No. He will not.)
Nanami and Wakaba: Utena and Touga do not understand why they're being insulted right now
Juri and Touga: I think Juri would surely feel SOME WAY about realizing she could flirt with any girl now and no one would say a thing (still doesn't flirt with anyone). Efforts to discourage Touga from doing anything weird somehow end up with both of them subtly threatening each other with electric razors. Also kendo and fencing fails occur.
They'll try to pull that same "just project on the rose bride" shit on Juri but it doesn't work because her feelings for Shiori are comparable to that of an autistic person towards different brands of ketchup
If your God doesn’t want you to hurt people then you shouldn’t hurt people, and if your God wants you to hurt people then your God is an asshole. So if you believe in a God and you’re hurting people, then either your God is an asshole or you are.
This is not a complex philosophy.
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