30-something fangirl, posting about cute animals, Tokyo Ghoul, Attack on Titan, Yurikuma Arashi, and other junk. Beware of falling Memes, Video Games, and Social Justice stuff.
one thing that i think hsr does well with its villains is making you understand their perspective. even if you don’t agree with them, you can understand why they think that way or why they came to that conclusion.
like with sunday, he had a whole monologue about about his beliefs on order and it makes you see how his childhood experiences (and terrible father figure) shaped his current perspective. also having robin there as a contrast to him and to act as a personal connection definitely worked well.
with lygus you can understand that he made this robot, it became a god, and he hated it. whether or not you agree that nous limits the bounds of knowledge, you understand that’s what lygus believes. and that he truly thinks the cosmos is better off without nous.
fulwish basically trauma dumps to us before we fight her, and yeah i can totally understand why she would want to take revenge on planarcadia after having her trauma be literally used for views. like the people she had relied on in her recovery were just using her for her story.
even the lord ravager, emanator of destruction, asat pramad has an understandable motive. he’s seen two of the paths he has walked lead to suffering for the people he tried to bring joy to. he’s seen the elation devolve into pure hedonism, and seen the people he trailblazed a path for become entitled and greedy. asat pramad even says it himself, “i walked too far and saw too much. afterwards… i could not laugh again.” even his goal of killing aha is just to save THEM from the same outcome.
i also think that understanding a villain’s perspective and motive makes their defeat more satisfying and significant. it’s not just a a battle of strength, but a clash of ideals and beliefs.
I'm personally fascinated by the pervasive imagery of nature (and more specifically the "whale") being picked clean by the planet's inhabitants. I really hope it's about the leviathans and we get a clearer idea of humanity's relationship to them. Bc while these poems are obviously about the history of Planarcadia, I can't help but draw a connection to the wider universe. The whale dies (Dusk Wars?) and from it's body, it's "filthy blood," grows a tree that supports humanity's existence.
Also the comments mention that the four animals are likely metaphors for the 4 factions we have on Planarcadia: the Masked Fools (monkey), the Mourning Actors (frog), IPC (fox), and the Astral Express (rabbit). I mostly agree with this, but also think that the rabbit is a more personal metaphor for Himeko than the Express in general.
The fox in context of the IPC is super interesting tho, specifically bc of this line.
If we take the whale to symbolize the leviathans, this kind of implies that the early IPC had a hand in killing them? Which does fit with the skepticism surrounding the IPC's claim that the leviathans fell when Qilpoth ascended.
I also love this stanza
Ambergris comes from whale intestine and is used for luxury perfumes. Lanthanides are elements from the periodic table used in electronics. Actinides are radioactive elements used in nuclear weapons. Luxury, infrastructure, and weaponry: the IPC's bread and butter all across the cosmos.
I just collected the second chapters of drifting grease and with the context we have now with 4.1-4.2, I'm leaning more towards the frogs symbolizing the Xianzhou rather than the Mourning Actors. Or maybe Evanescia's Elixer Seekers.
It's also fun looking back at the first rabbit poem with the context we have now
"Back then, the rabbits were still carnivores" I think referring to the prototype Starblazers of the past that Nameless used as weapons.
"as the blazing rain washed over the whale's bones" referring to the Cindearth age and Aha trapping the husk of Voracity in the depths of Planarcadia.
I'm still curious about "no one knows if in the distant past, the rabbits had eaten the moon in the sky" considering the thing that granted Mokoto's wish wasn't Aha. My own theory rn is that it's Finality shenanigans with the alternate Trailblazer. Or even our own Trailblazer.
yeah yeah 4.4 trailblaze quest was needlessly traumatizing but more importantly:
BRONSEELE IS CANON. or at least there's apparently fanfic of these two that's canon.
(yes, there is a black cat instacam / delusional theatre that you can repair in the shelter in the Desolate Maw's Demonhold. yes the other two options are Cipher/Aglaea and Tingyun/Yukong. yes my favorite planarcadia exploration feature are these funny cat boxes)
EDIT: WAIT THERE'S MORE OUT IN THE STREETS
EDIT2: The one at the Decaying Streets space anchor had Clara & Luka, Yunli and Huaiyan, and Therta & Screwllum. Unless I'm just blind, those are the only two new ones. A shame.
One of my favorite things about Planarcadia is all the deranged HORNINESS that is floating around via interactions with NPCs and reading the comments on Furbobo Weekly.
Ryusuke x Welt Soft Daddy fancomics.
Skott x Trailblazer hardcore Pet-Play S&M comics being sold by Evanescia.
1965_Born_Softboi who decided since it's the end of the world, he's going to die FUCKING THAT LORD RAVAGER. And getting arrested for standing outside with a sign, begging Asat Pramad to give him a chance.
The weirdo shipping Asat Pramad with the Furbos.
Like, the amount of weird and horny stuff that they snuck past censorship is amazing.
Elliot Page does not play Achilles in The Odyssey like transphobes were preemptively angry about but Homer just told me he updated the Iliad and Achilles is canonically transgender now and not just subtextually transgender like in the first draft.
Me sitting on the floor, realizing that Himeko Nova was released on the 4th Anniversary of Kiana's Herrscher of Flamescion battlesuit.
Those bastards REALLY played on our emotions, exploiting the trauma of "Final Lesson" and making us worry about this Himeko dying as so many other versions of her have died across Hoyo games.
But it was never "Final Lesson".
The Trailblazer punched the "Stellaron Hack" button, and instead we got "Everlasting Flames".
The heroes face an opponent that attempts to break them by talking about the futility of everything, feeding on fear and doubt to steal away their hope.
Courage emerges from the memory of a loved one's sacrifice, and the bonds of a family-of-choice.
Hey. Look at me. Please leave yourself a note somewhere you'll see it later that says "it is going to take years if not decades to get the United States government to the level of functionality it had in November of 2024." If we elect a democrat in 2028, we are not going to be up and running by 2032.
Please make sure you have a reminder in your phone reminding you to not look at 2028/32/36 Democratic candidates and say "why are they not promising/delivering Cool Shit?" because you are going to understand that to get Cool Shit we must have competent people running a decently funded government, and we are not going to have that.
We are not getting UBI. We are not getting single payer healthcare. We are not getting free college or free preschool. We are not redistributing wealth on a large scale. We are not getting free internet. We are not getting ranked choice voting.
If we are lucky, we are going to get an IRS that can collect taxes, qualified schoolteachers, research grants, Social Security, and a government that thinks maybe it should be a priority for people around the worlds to not have AIDS, malaria or TB.
To be clear, I don't mean we should forget or take our eyes off the ultimate long-term goals of getting Cool Shit, but to get there, we're gonna have to support things like "half-measures" and "small steps" and "not tearing down people who won't get us all the way there" and "understanding that they are starting from the basement basically because every government institution is being decimated"
in other words: don't repeat what you just did to biden.
it happens every. single. time and not just in the us, it's happening right now in the uk: a right wing government runs a country into the ground so bad that their own voters can't support them anymore, so next time a leftist / centrist government is elected. they barely have the time to build the key institutions back up and stabilize the economy before voters who refuse to acknowledge subtle improvements or value strong foundations that can be built upon go "sure, you stopped the roof from leaking and fixed the plumbing and we have reliable electricity now, but those are not flashy enough! why didn't you bring us utopia from a rubble in 4 years?" and vote back the right wingers who of course wreck everything again as they promised they would while the same voters make the surprised pikachu face
People in the notes literally going, "I agree with all of this! That's why Biden and Harris were fucking evil and we need to vote for DSA candidates who cannot possibly win on the national scale and also refuse make the compromises necessary to accomplish something instead of absolutely nothing!"
I almost want to believe these are Russian trolls, but truth is, they probably actually just are that fucking stupid.
Three steps forward two steps back got us antidiscrimination laws, got us the end of redlining in housing, got us the legal right for women to have their own bank accounts. It's slow. It's frustrating. It works. Evil can't always be slain. Sometimes it must be suffocated. Be the boa constrictor.
1) Start in this year's state and local elections. Vote for governor but especially state legislature. Without nationwide injunctions, we only get justice when the state governments sue the federal government. Who approves or crushes constitutional amendments? State legislatures do.
2) GET READY FOR THE PRIMARY ELECTIONS ahead of the 2026 midterms. The primary is where the action is. Show up and vote for whoever you think best. But then support whoever wins. The primary is where you send the party a message. It works! The Democrats will seek votes from whoever shows up and not from the people who don't.
3) Protest. Keep it visible. Keep the pressure on. Show Trump that we are not going away. Show the world that not all Americans support him.
Asat Pramad legit having Tendonitis because he's an old fuck is probably the funniest thing about him. Like yeah sure he's responsible for wiping multiple civilizations off the face of the universe his body count is in the trillions and one of his hobbies is to kill somone and than steal thier life so thoroughly not even thier fucking kid could notice, but he's also just old and tired and has done just so much shit and at least some of that shit was inevitably going to catch up with him.
I just didn't expect the thing to catch to him was that one of his stolen lives was an academy dean, which means he spent years sitting down and signing papers. And that has actually literally just fucked up his hands to the point that he has to use up a piece of his pension, his real ass pension that he legit set up for his /fake life that he stole/, to buy medication to deal with actual real life it is happening to you right fucking now person reading this Tendon-fucking-itis.
Lygus was a larger than life villain with theatrical level characterization trying to make a Lord Ravager to destroy the universe.
Asat, an actual fucking Lord Ravager who has galaxies on his rap sheet, is just some fucking dude. He's a shitter, he's bored, he's so excited for something new he decided to adopt and raise a little girl to follow the exact opposite of his world view TWICE because he thought it would be funny and to him it WAS fucking funny. And he's trying to make a dead god eat a planet for that exact same motivation. He thinks it'll be really fucking funny you guys.
Let's talk about Himeko and Asat Pramad? Let's talk about Himeko and Asat Pramad!
They're alike, so alike it hurts. The obvious part first: their enduring, all-encompassing love for the Trailblaze. It doesn't matter how much time Asat spends calling the Trailblaze a lie, a delusion or a foolish endeavor, that man loved it with all his heart and soul. Still does love it, even after pledging allegiance to the Destruction. Loves it so much he can't even understand what goes through his head. Loves it so much it bled through and reached his daughter, who became the current Navigator. Said daughter who idolized him the most. Idolized Isee the Navigator and still does to this day, even if she's disappointed in Asat Pramad the Lord Ravager.
In fact, she prefers Isee to the more known, more obviously heroic Navigators. She saw his past struggle, his solemn mission amidst tragedy and solitude, his determination to carry on the legacy of the Trailblaze through its darkest hour, and she respects it. In her youth, she longed to be like Isee and drew strength from his tale.
Which brings us to their less obvious similarity: their self-deprecating tendencies. Asat Pramad had massive problems with himself and it's been apparent since his Enroute days. He became unable to find joy in his life, and grew disillusioned with the purpose he once found in the Trailblaze. He thinks it was all in vain, that his struggle amounted to nothing, that he couldn't make a difference in the end. And Himeko? Doomed to die young, doomed to perpetual weakness, doomed to never reach the stars she longed for so hard? She wanted to become a self she had no way of attaining so badly that she drew it upon existence, and then endeavored to at least make that self live the life she couldn't. Just like Isee, she toiled away for a future she had no faith in.
The difference? Himeko managed to do the one thing Asat Pramad never managed to do in his entire existence. She picked herself up.
Unlike Enroute, she never shied away from her childish joys. Instead, she gave them human form, and Motoko, said human form, gave her the push she always needed. Unlike Isee, she never gave up on the Trailblaze, resolving to do her utmost to help the Nameless rise again. Unlike Asat Pramad, who lived by clinging to gods and getting disillusioned with them, Himeko embarked on a godless Path and made herself the master of her destiny.
These two are so... So... Godamn. I don't know what else to say. They're just. Wow.
#i'm now thinking back to their convo in 4.3 where asat says that painting is about preserving the beauty in the universe#and that himeko is the beauty he wants to preserve#good lord asat pramad#“I only lied to you when I said I am Ryusuke”#GOOD LORD ASAT PRAMAD#she's the living embodiment of all of his hopes and dreams and everything he left behind and everything he's afraid of believing in#he raised her he taught her about the history of the nameless and himself he couldn't shoot down the express#he was SO PISSED when he thought an imagenae took her place and SO SHOOK when he found out she was still alive#all that and he swears up and down he has no idea why he feels the way he feels#himeko you are the GOAT and asat pramad you are fucking unbelievable
He calls her a "masterpiece" in a mocking tone, but that really is the core of it. She is the greatest, most important, most beautiful thing he ever done in his incredibly long existence.
Himeko really did just expose Asat's whole ass in that final fight, in a way only an angry daughter could be at a father who used to be there for her and then dipped.
She called him a deserter who couldn't commit his whole self to any path, because he couldn't commit himself to her, always thought he knew better so he never really bothered to actually listen to her or pay attention.
Especially the way the EN dub plays it, she's equal parts pissed beyond believe and crying while calling out her old man, a rant she's been holding in for fifteen damn years.
Thing is, she wouldn't be this angry if there was no love there at all, even faked. She did love her dad, Himeko begged her dad for stories and made him bad coffee to help him work and she loved him. And then he left. Than he left and she was still there, alone and afraid and dying.
That's the damn joke, that Asat Pramad was indeed the only father Himeko Murata ever knew. The joke is that Asat thought his daughter was dead and it was the final giant nail in Planarcadia's well deserved coffin. The joke is that even after the lie is revealed the thing Himeko is most mad about is that even after all this time her dad still isn't actually listening to her. The joke is that, after everything is said and done, the one thing Asat regrets is that Himeko won't call him "father" anymore.
The joke is that they genuinely loved each other. The joke is they directed so much fury and regret and sorrow at each other that the only thing you can possibly ever call them...is family.
Thinking about how wild it is, that Asat Pramad found it easier to assume that Motoko had somehow broken the established limitations of an Imagenae and had been traveling the cosmos for 15 years without dying........then to believe that Himeko was still alive.
Thinking about how the confrontation in the Dean's Office, when he mockingly talks about how Himeko supposedly abandoned her dreams and died. That she was afraid of the vastness of the cosmos, and afraid of the burden of responsibility, and instead retreated from it and handed everything to someone else, and then chose to die.
......when he isn't talking about Himeko AT ALL.
He's really talking about himself.
He is the one that glimpsed the vastness of the cosmos, and has become afraid. He's the one that now views the Trailblaze as this terrifying thing filled with endless possibility, and Himeko herself says in her Furbobo interview that she pities how he became trapped and paralyzed by the endless possibilities he saw. He couldn't move forward, and he was a coward too afraid to commit or choose.
He was also someone that had responsibility dropped in his lap in the most tragic circumstances. Akivili fell, Dolly turned to crystal, and everyone started turning on each other and infighting and abandoning the Express while looking to HIM to fix it all. No one realizing how broken he had become, and in the end he dropped it all on Falcon and left.
Ironically, he projected all his failings on to Himeko. He couldn't imagine that his frail little girl could be so strong-willed and brave, that she could surpass him in every possible way and manage to throw off the chains of fate to choose her own destiny.
I think it really is the cruelest, sickest joke in the end. Just not the cruel and sick joke Asat Pramad intended to play, because it was ultimately a joke on him.
That he managed to raise this exceptional, brave, strong-willed daughter that would embrace his stories, that would take to heart all the things he told her, and then she would charge forward with a determination that he ultimately lacked.
That in spite of all the ways he failed her in his absences and his being a literal monster, he really succeeded as a Father in ways that Ryusuke never could have.
Himeko says it herself, several times. She is who she is because of him, she would never have become the incredible person she is without him.
And though she claims that she only gave him a chance because he was a former Nameless, I think it's as simple as a daughter reaching out to her father. Because even with the truth, she still loved him and cherished all the dreams and hopes he gave her.
I love Himeko in every universe, so OF COURSE they absolutely twisted that Final Lesson PTSD to the fullest extent. They really, really milked that original trauma and like....
SPOILERS AHEAD
Man, the Trailblazer is just checking off doing stuff that Honkai characters never could.
Saving Firefly by changing the timeline, when Otto spent 500 years failing to save Kallen and ultimately had to accept that the only possibility was to sacrifice himself to make a new alternate timeline where Kallen lived. He could never save HIS Kallen, just make another reality where she didn't die.
Trailblazer went FUCK THAT IMMA TRAILBLAZE and used the Finality to make rewrite Time and save Firefly.
Himeko Murata sacrificed herself to save Kiana, and that sacrifice shaped the entire story from then on out. Her sacrifice, her betting on Kiana, ultimately saved the world and allowed for someone to finally, finally, after billions of years, complete an "embrace" with the Cocoon of Finality.
Trailblazer sees Himeko sacrifice herself, and manages to wield the Stellaron's power to go back in time several seconds to prevent her death.
FUCK THAT IMMA TRAILBLAZE.
Once again, our feral smelly Raccoon has checked off something from the Honkai Impact 3rd Wishlist.
ANYWAY.
Asat Pramad is an amazing character, A+ well-written and fascinating, a terrible and wicked villain but also so much fun to watch. And with so many layers of depth to him, beneath his mockery and pseudo-Enlightened Philosophy is really the story of an incredibly naive, well-meaning man that lived through some horrific times and events, and was so thoroughly BROKEN by what he experienced.
I think Himeko is correct in her assessment that he is a dark reflection of our heroes, he is their senior and predecessor that ultimately lacked the Courage to continue onwards. For all his efforts to play Hero as Enroute and Isee, ultimately he lacked the courage to go on when not directly guided by a god. He saw Akivili "die", what he describes not as a death as we would understand it, but transformation into something new. Akivili is the star at the very edge of reality.
He is stated in official material for his Boss as the Lord Ravager dealing with "Possibilities", and that seems central to his character.
Asat Pramad sees Possibilities, he tampers with Probability and uses his die to select the Possibility that he wants.
He also describes the Trailblaze as the Path of Possibilities, endless Possibility and no Limits. His description of how the Trailblaze is the 4th Apocalypse centers on what he understands to be Akivili's goal:
A cosmos of Infinite, Endless Possibilities. No limits. No ends.
This terrifies Asat Pramad.
It terrified him so much, that he came to believe Destruction is merciful, that all things will eventually decay and break down and lose their restraints or focus. That Destruction is salvation, because all other ends are too horrible to comprehend.
Himeko calls him a coward.
In his big climatic rant to Himeko at the conclusion of 4.3, he theorizes that Himeko saw the vastness of the universe, and she was afraid. He describes how she would have given up, running away from responsibility and the horror of a vast universe. That she chose to let Motoko take over, and stayed behind to die.
We now realize that he was projecting his own feelings and his own failings on to her.
HE was the one that saw the vastness of the cosmos, that had responsibility thrust upon him suddenly and did not want it. He was the one that was terrified, that ran away from it all by stepping off the Express and embracing Destruction.
His daughter was ultimately stronger and braver than he ever imagined. She is, in every way, everything good that he once was and all the strength that he never possessed. Himeko, frail and dying from the Weathering Curse, looked up and said that she wanted to die among the stars. She faced the Herald of Death and said, I'm afraid of dying but someone has to do something. She sacrificed her dream to stop that monster, and then she chose to live as fiercely and beautifully as possible to honor Motoko.
It's ironic, in many ways, that Himeko would never have become who she is without Asat Pramad's "joke". Ryusuke did not know about the Astral Express, and he did not dream of exploring the cosmos. His only wish was to save his wife and child, and he did that by leaving them behind to search.
Himeko would not be the woman she is if Ryusuke had lived to raise her.
Would she have still made Motoko? Would she have dreamed of escaping her cruel fate? Would she have fought the Herald of Death and repaired the Express?
I don't think she would have done any of that. I think Ryusuke would have loved his daughter, but he would never have raised her to become anything like the woman we know and love.
Because the Himeko we know and love was raised by a man that still, on some level, cherished the past he abandoned. A man that passed on Enroute and Isee's dreams, telling her stories of his past and encouraging her to be brave, curious, and determined. To ultimately be all the things he tried to be, but faltered at being in the end.
As twisted and monstrous as he is, I think Asat Pramad genuinely loves Himeko. At least, as much as such a being is capable of experiencing that kind of emotion. It's not a pretty or healthy thing, and he's perfectly willing to toy with and harm her.
But she's truly his greatest masterpiece. On a whim, he became the father of this little girl doomed to fade away and die. He taught her about heroism, about curiosity, about courage, about the Nameless and the vast cosmos, and the ideals he had long since abandoned.
He watched her wither and bloom at the same time, and now he has witnessed how she tricked him and ultimately picked up his shattered past identities and used them to make herself everything he wasn't brave enough to become.
She is his daughter and his successor, and the answer to his deeply-held wish to be overcome and proven wrong.
He said: You should be afraid, you are limited and the universe is terrifying. There's too many possibilities and you can't save people all the time.
She said: Nah, Imma fucking Trailblaze this mecha into your face.
I like how when you ask Asat Pramad how he fell he’s basically like I fucking hate Planarcadia so much. They’re all stupid chuds glued to their phones entrapped in a capitalist hellscape that funds violence across the cosmos. And you have to be like well yeah okay I mean you’re not wrong
Bugs Bunny accidentally transformed the word nimrod into a synonym for idiot because nobody got a joke where he sarcastically compared Elmer Fudd to the Biblical figure Nimrod, a mighty hunter.
He also solidified the idea of rabbits loving carrots when carrots actually carry very little nutritional value for rabbits. The funniest part of that is that the original joke was a reference to a Clark Gable film where Gable munches on a carrot, it was never meant to imply that rabbits love carrots. The Clark Gable reference would’ve been obvious to audiences in the 40s but it has been pretty much lost to time.
Call me a dumby, but... what do you think the Black Rose Duelist stealing the Council students' swords can mean? 😅🤔
I know a lot of people associate it with sexual assault (and so do I, partially, it's not that subtle!), but I can't help wondering if there's more to it. I kinda feel like it's a bit "boring" to cut it down to "only" SA - plus, it's of bad taste to joke about it like we see when Nanami asks Miki "did it hurt?" imho 🫤
I can read it as the 5 🌹🖤 expecting the ones they love (people they are obsessed with) to bring them happiness and whatever they feel like they are missing, but the moment it doesn't happen, they're brainwashed and then they try to take it by force. (Not sure if it's clear 😅)
What do you think?
Hi!
Sorry for the wait :) I honestly don't like the SA reading. I don't think it fits psychologically, especially as the bonds in focus are not meant to be abusive ones. At most they have toxic elements, but they are not framed as Anthy and Akio's.
Of course your interpretation works too, that said I am reading the whole arc metaphorically (that's my preference). I have shared some of my thoughts about the black rose duelists in my alchemy meta, so I will start from them:
The Black Rose Duelists are the Student Council Members' shadows.
-Miki doesn't want to grow up (hence why he keeps trying to "stop time" :P). He agonizes over his lost childhood represented by his twin sister Kozue. Kozue's obsession for him and her inability to let Miki develop romantic feelings for Anthy represent the oedipal feelings the two siblings share. They are both stuck in the sunlit garden and refuse to let go of each other as their most important bond.
-Juri struggles to express her sexuality and suffers for her masculinity. Shiori is the symbol of Juri's struggle. At the same time, Shiori herself faces similar problems. She resents her femininity, represses her feelings for Juri and projects them on the boys who like Juri. She tries to "steal" them out of jealousy for her "friend".
-Nanami is the kid of the bunch. She wants to grow up, but is still very childish. Moreover, she wants Touga's attention and is ready to serve him loyally to get it. Tsuwabuki represents all these inner conflicts. He is a child younger than her, who wants to grow up in a strong adult (like Touga) and thinks he will succeed if he dedicates his life to Nanami.
-Saionji wants to "catch up" to Touga in terms of manhood. He feels overshadowed by his friend and wants to prove his worth. Wakaba has similar feelings towards Utena and Anthy. She feels average in a world full of special people.
-Touga is a victim of Akio, who rapes him and manipulates him. Touga is forced to play along with Akio's schemes, but deep down resents "his master". Keiko is a member of Nanami's girl posse, but she is secretly interested in Touga and hates Nanami.
Interestingly, all the Black Rose Duelists feel "overshadowed" by someone else (Kozue > Miki, Shiori > Juri, Tsuwabuki > Touga, Wakaba > Utena, Keiko > Nanami). In short, they live in the shadows (both in-universe and meta-narratively since they are background characters). This makes them perfect "shadow-archetypes" of the protagonists. Symbolically, their transformation starts with them stepping into an elevator that goes down (so, they go deep into their unconscious). Then they go to the student council member they are obsessed with and steal their sword. In short, the duelist is left unconscious and their swords are used and refined by their deepest and repressed feelings.
So, imo the black rose duelists are not important characters per se. Sure, they do have mini-arcs and you can empathize with them, especially when it comes to recurring characters (Tsuwabuki and Wakaba). That said, they are important because their struggles mirror those of the student council members. They are metaphorically parts of them the SC members refuse to integrate. So, these "parts" take over and try a forceful integration by taking away the SC's swords. The swords are symbolically the souls. In other words symbolically Utena IS fighting against the student council members. She is facing hidden parts of them represented by the BR duelists.
If you want to read the BR duelists stealing the swords as chemical weddings (aka two opposite coming together into one), you can read their attempts as not fully successful weddings. The characters are just starting to face their hidden parts, but are not ready for a full integration. As a result, the union is forceful (in a way one can read as metaphorical SA, but it is not 1:1, just like reading Nanami and Touga's relationship as incestuous is not the point; it is freudian and Nanami will overcome it).
This reading fits with the DC kids eventually completing their respective union in the third arc. Symbolically for some of them the final union mirrors the BR duelist one.
Miki unites with Kozue directly
Juri unites with Shiori indirectly thanks to Ruka
Nanami unites with Touga, who is a mirror of Tsuwabuki. After all, Tsuwabuki wants to grow up to become like Touga, just like Nanami wants to forever stay with Touga. Her development lies in letting Touga go which results in her getting a better understanding of her big brother
Touga and Saionji integrate with each other, which is a result hinted in the BR arc by Keiko and Wakaba being strong foils and parallels (I have written more on this in the original alchemy meta)
These are my thoughts on the BR duelists. Dunno if they are clear enough, I am kinda tired :''') Feel free to ask more if they do not make much sense.
