Roses Book Garden

30+ Book media reviews and role play blog.

[arathergrimreaper]

Knights of Guinevere is like the evolved version of Revolutionary Girl Utena and I am living for it.

[fellhellion]

one of my favourite things about utena is that show never diminishes how hard it was for anthy to leave her abuser  (and side note, why i dislike the ‘the twist is that anthy could leave the WHOLE time because the rose bride is the foundation of power every other character is standing on’ reading, i feel like it diminishes just how badly learnt helplessness fucks you up). As the story unravels, you see exactly how akio’s abuse wore away at her, how she’s internalised the narrative of witches/princes/princesses, how the abuse in of itself had made the thought of change and leaving it behind so terrifying and it all felt impossible to obtain, how deep this instilled learnt helplessness has carved its way into her, how he has emotionally isolated her from other relationships and threatens the ones that DO happen like with utena. 

Even as she’s saying her last words to Akio, we are never shown her expression. And it’s directly followed by a scene of Chu-Chu (who is often used to express the emotions of characters who aren’t showing them openly), crying as a weeping frog clings to him and tries to keep him in Ohtori. But he eventually pulls away and stays with Anthy. It was so hard for Anthy to leave Akio, and her decision to do so is so commendable. 

[hagiomoto]

As always, everyone except other victims of csa cares less about Epstein’s victims and cares more about the spectacle, cracking jokes, and making meme.

[cantarella-cookies]

We joke about Anthy being lesbian Jesus but her narrative is more akin to lesbian Eve. Foolishly convinced Adam/Akio to leave what is established as "good." She could even be lesbian Cain whose sin was essentially robbing the world of his brother and whose punishment was to bear infinite pain.

Utena is pretty much a one to one for lesbian Jesus too. She died for our sins and freed Anthy from the weight of her original sin 🧎‍♀️‍➡️📿🙏

[enbylesbie]

Got my first tattoo today!

The Sword of Dios from Revolutionary Girl Utena, because I am a lesbian who loves swords and roses and crying my eyes out. I wanted to incorporate thorns and roses into the design to bring a bit of Anthy into it too.

[guerrillatech]

[hekatontarch]

[queertail]

The site is '12ft Ladder' found here:

12ft – Hop any paywall

Show me a 10ft paywall, I’ll show you a 12ft ladder.

[sola-whumping]

Reblogging this on ALL my blogs because holy shit is it useful

[moonrosegirl]

Years ago I thought couldn't die until becoming a manga creator. But now l don't feel that achieving a goal in itself is all that important. When I achieve goals to satisfy my ambitions, only a moment later that achievement has become simply a part of my normal life. And there are people who are more important to me than any such goals. I think choosing people over goals will make life better and leave the least regrets. Utena got under way as a version of the classic "prince rescues the girl" story. As a concept for entertainment, it was easy to understand. And it should have been acceptable to both the girls in the audience and to society at large. But the work that suddenly took up the lives of everyone connected with it became a complete reversal of the original concept. The fault lies in the Utena that was made by real-live people-us. But tears come to my eyes when I think that this glorious Utena was created by the too-human faults of the creators.

Chiho Saito

[lgbtranswoman]

Ice cold takes from a Transgender Woman:

Men are not inherently Evil

Everyone has the capacity for evil

Transgender Men are men

Transgender Women are women

Excluding Cisgender Men from your spaces requires Transgender Men to out themselves if they want to engage (Same for Women)

Anyone can be Non-Binary, there is no "look" or requirement

Non-binary masculine presenting people should be welcome in queer spaces, many are just treated as men and predators

Non-binary feminine presenting people should be welcome in queer spaces without being seen as "Woman-Lite"

Edited the wording on the first point because too many terfs keep thinking I'm their friend.

[learn-how-to-love]

Tell that butch that she can take T and still be a lesbian. Tell that “tomboy” that he shouldn’t need to hide to keep his friends. Tell that newly-out teenage boy that he doesn’t need to be scared of growing into a man and that it won’t make him a monster. Tell that she/they enby that whatever hormones they take or not it won’t matter, she’s just as trans as the rest of us are. Tell that intersex trans man that he doesn’t owe anyone his “”real”” AGAB. Tell that late-transitioning masc enby that their new body is the hottest thing you’ve ever seen. Tell every transmasc and trans man you see that manhood and masculinity is beautiful and meaningful and desirable, and that anyone who tries to make them feel as if they had more value before coming out isn’t worth the time of day. Tell them that their smell and body hair and weight gain isn’t shameful, that they won’t be ugly if they go bald. Tell them you love them just as they are. Tell them.

[infectiouspiss]

2026

FUCK HARD

FUCK FAST

FUCK BADLY

NEVER USE GENERATIVE AI

CREATE JOY

MUSIC ALWAYS

PSPSPSPS AT KITTIES ON THE STREET

YUMMY SOUP

go see the doctor about that thing

BE TRANSGENDER

KISS YOUR FRIENDS

EAT CHEESE

NEVER KILL YOURSELF

THRIVE

[isuggesteatingtherich]

• EAT THE RICH

[akissthroughtheglass]

Much of Utena's Japanese cultural context is really hard to access as an outsider. I literally just poked around with a basic search and Wikipedia trawl and found out that Arisugawa & Saionji are both names derived from different ranks of Japanese aristocracy.

Not only that, but during the Meiji restoration and US occupation, nobility were reorganized under the British model, making "Prince" the highest title, just like in Ohtori.

Utena's basic structure includes the premise of a Japanese world order restructured along the lines of British nobility, and this is shown in aesthetics and the class character of the student council and Ohtori Academy as a whole.

The academic institution itself, with its army and navy based uniforms, has historically been the site of elite cultural production in Japan as well. The way these characters navigate personal, financial, and institutional privilege has much more specific context than I realized as an American viewer. Utena as a text reflects not just patriarchy and race but also cultural imperialism.

[empty-movement]

Hullo and Happy New Year! Creeping on Utena's 30th anniversary, we've got something special for y'all! This here is a cover to cover scan in high resolution of a literal vintage artbook, released in January of 1998 right after the series finished. Welcome to 110 full color pages of....

Rose Confession - Revolutionary Girl Utena "This is Animation"

The forum discusses the details more, but you want sauce, right??

Here's the 4k browsing friendly copy at the Bibliothèque print material archive we are growing.

Here's the ridiculous 6k copy that I have uploaded to the Internet Archive.

This is a compilation of images and events from the television series. It covers the early show most exhaustively, with the Akio Arc and beyond being teased at. It was a Ciao! Special publication, that being the magazine publishing the manga at the time, itself still having a few months to go after the series completed. The above are the only new artwork for the book, but back in the 00's this was a hot artbook, and it was one of the first I scanned back then! Enjoy!!

[smoothoperatorleclerc]

rb to have a super gay 2023

[non-binary-lil-star]

rb to have a super gay 2024

[magicmumu2]

rb to have a super gay 2025

[willofdpeople]

rb to have a super gay 2026

[vamplire]

reblog for 2026 to be the most homoerotic year for u

[ladyshinga]

I’m sorry friends, but “just google it” is no longer viable advice. What are we even telling people to do anymore, go try to google useful info and the first three pages are just ads for products that might be the exact opposite of what the person is trying to find but The Algorithm thinks the words are related enough? And if it’s not ads it’s just sponsored websites filled with listicles, just pages and pages of “TOP FIFTEEN [thing you googled] IMAGINED AS DISNEY PRINCESSES” like… what are we even doing anymore, google? I can no longer use you as shorthand for people doing real and actual helpful research on their own.

[nyandotexe]

Time to drop some links again.

– https://searchmysite.net/ Search engine for the indie web, personal websites, digital gardens. You can also find them in websites like Neocities, Indieweb, Blogarama, and write.as. There is also a big list of personal websites.

– https://search.marginalia.nu/ Search engine that focuses on non-commercial content, and promotes websites that aren’t usually at the top of the list.

– https://www.worldcat.org/ Search engine for items in libraries (books, but also maps, articles, sound recordings, theses, etc.)

– https://scholar.google.com/ Search engine for scientific papers, reviews, etc. It’s still google, but a lot better than the normal search engine counterpart.

– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_search_engines A list of search engines sorted by subject, area, and more. If you’re searching on a specific area, it might be worth checking if there is one focused on that area.

– https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_academic_databases_and_search_engines A list of academic databases and search engines.

– https://tineye.com/ Reverse image search alternative to Google’s. Also, P.S.: Please stop using Google, and start using more privacy focused search engines, like DuckDuckGo or SearchX (opensource; personally haven’t used it yet, but it looks promising for privacy-focused users)

[cereza-bat]

Also use ecosia to plant trees while your search

[batboyblog]

just saw a "Holiday" list of like 75 gay romance novels, and there was literally not a single Hanukkah one, not one, like bitch say its a Christmas list

[biglawbear]

Please report the moment if you find a cheesy gay Hannukah romance novel

[qbdatabase]

the Queer Books Database I run has a Tropes column where you can filter for the "holiday" tag, and you can also search for any individual holiday in the Additional Notes column (not by tags, so you may want to try different spelling variations)

it currently has 11 queer hanukkah romances (+2 straight romances with queer SCs, +1 FF romance to be added)

(MM) The Remaking of Corbin Wale by Roan Parrish, +autistic rep

(MM) Mistletoe and Mishigas by M. A. Wardell, +fat rep

(MM) His for Hanukkah by Reese Morrison, +trans rep

(MM) To Touch the Light by E. M. Lindsey, +trans rep, +disabled rep, +Latino rep

(all FF) Do You Feel What I Feel: A Holiday Anthology ed. by Jae, +trans rep in one story, +older FF couple in one story

(FF, MM) Boughs of Evergreen: A Holiday Anthology ed. by J. P. Walker, +kwanzaa, +black rep, +pagan rep

(FF) Eight Kinky Nights by Xan West, +ace rep, +autistic rep, +fat rep, +disabled rep

(MM) Hearts Alight by Elliott Cooper, +bi rep

(MM) Eight Dates by E. M. Lindsey

(MM) Ben's Bakery and the Hanukkah Miracle by Penelope Peters

(FFF) Eitan's Chord by Shira Glassman, +butch rep

These two haven't been added to the database (yet!), but I still highly recommend them!

(FF) Alice Rue Evades the Truth by Emily Zipps, +bi rep, +butch rep, +disabled rep

For the Rest of Us ed. by Dahlia Adler (all non-christmas holidays!)

[aroaceauri]

@queerliblib any suggestions you can add?

[queerliblib]

for non-christmas holiday books we’ve got several of the above, plus:

It Was Chanukah. And They Were Roommates. And There Was Only One Bed. by AJ Aise (+ several others by this author)

Kiss Me At Kwanzaa by L.L. Bucknor

Eight Nights in December by Kiera Andrews

Yule be Home for Solstice by Sharon K. Angelici

check out our holiGAYS list for more ✨ ❄️

[rosesbookgarden]

Looking for some historical plots. Specifically the idea of arranged marriage and knights. I’d love to explore my trans and nonbinary muses so be willing to work with that. I’m looking for about 50/50 plot smut. And I will ONLY rp with those 25+ and would like someone in their thirties or older if possible.

Wordbank

Knights| Arranged Marriage | Gender Diversity | multimuse | polyamory | historical fantasy