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The prince regained his heart and saved his princess, the girl who craved love finally found it, the knight who defied fate and lived finally found his path and his place in the world, and the duck was what she was always meant to be.

And they all lived happily ever after.  After a fashion.

And the writer threw up his hands in defeat and went to find other characters to torture, accompanied by the only character he could never control, while a new writer takes the stage.

The end.

And saying much on these episodes would be incredibly spoilery, so I won't say a lot.

I will say this though:  what is it with anime and manga and "I will mutilate/maim myself/deliberately go into a situation where I will be mutilated/maimed" as a way of saying "I love you?"  Granted, I'm...ah...surprisingly OK with it, but really...Though I must say that it was ALMOST as good as when *spoiler* did something similar to keep himself from hurting *spoiler* at the tail end of *spoiler*(hey, at least 4 people read this LJ who haven't read ahead of the english releases, and I think only 1 is even caught up  on the book...a few will know what I'm talking about, though, and if you explore the most used manga tags here, I think you'll find the pages...)

There should be some sort of tally of the arm/hand/eye losses and stabbing of unruly limbs as a way of saying "I love you" or something...I have 4 off the top of my head, and 2 more I've been told of(wait, maybe 5 off the top or my head...in X/1999, doesn't that happen somewhat with Subaru?  Or do I just have jumbled anime recollections?)

But back to the subject at hand, 2 thoughts before I go pass out.

1) Rue/Ahiru/Love:  Here's something the kept jumping out at me in the second act.  Ahiru is a person who loves everyone(she is, after all, a simple duck who wanted to help a sad prince) but will die if she uses the word love.  So, instead of speaking of her love, she expresses it in her actions and dance, and she feels and sees love in the world around her.  On the other hand, Rue craves love more than anything.  The word is used cruelly by her father, the raven, to hurt and control her, and emptily by Mytho, who uses the word because she asks him to, but doesn't know what it means.  As a result, Rue clings to the two of them and does everything she can to bind Mytho to her and keep her father's approval, miserable all the while, because it's not the real love that she craves.  And, of course, in the end, Ahiru is able to expres her love to the world-still without words-while Rue, realizing the difference between real and false love, finally finds the love she seeks.

2) Uzura and freedom from the writer:  By the end of the first act, Ahiru and Fakir have stepped completely outside their roles in the story by not dying.  Ahiru expresses her love though dance instead of words, thus being able to express her love without dying.  Fakir saves the prince by shattering the prince's sword, instead of dying for him.  In the story as intended by HD, they both should have died.  Instead, they've abandoned their original roles in the story to forge new roles for themselves, while Mytho and Rue are still operating within the confines of their original roles.  Because he created her, HD can still affect Ahiru, but because she has stepped outside her original role, Fakir can help her create a new story for herself.  But then there's Uzura.  Uzura is not a creation of HD's.  She's an entirely new character born when the lowliest of HD's creations-Edel, who existed only to serve as exposition-commits a single act of defiance, placing her entirely outside HD's realm of experience.  Because he created them, HD can still indluence Fakir and Ahiru, but not wholly control him.  But he had no hand in Uzura's creation(which was in itself and act of defiance against him) and so cannot affect her in the least.  Because of this, she is able to affect everything within his sphere of influence, while being completely untouched by it, even being able to turn back the flow of the story, helping Fakir and Ahiru to break free and rewrite their story.

In other words, Uzura, who shouldn't even exist, is pretty much the most powerful force in the universe.

And now the clock tells me I should long since have been in bed, and the scroll bar that this i much longer than intended, and so I say good night.

(And, if you haven't and have any interest in storytelling, archetypes, genre bending, ballet, opera or fairy tales, go watch it.)

Date: 2007-12-23 03:44 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] shadawyn.livejournal.com
Good analysis of Uzura. I hadn't thought of her that way, but I agree with your assertions.

Date: 2007-12-23 09:04 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] meganbmoore.livejournal.com
YEah, the Uzura thing just jumped out at me when she showed up and mesed w/ HD's gears...the world in the story is all about having your actions controlled by another, but Uzura is a creature created by free will, so the rules of the world don't apply to her. I'd say she and HD had equal power, except that she can affect him by throwing his story askew, but he can't affect her.

Date: 2007-12-23 05:48 pm (UTC)
ext_6284: Estara Swanberg, made by Thao (Default)
From: [identity profile] estara.livejournal.com
I've always believed that Ahiru embodies the concept of hope and this is why she can be the catalyst for all the changes without getting a conventional HEA at the end. And why I can be content with that: because of hope more change than we see is possible for everyone involved.

Date: 2007-12-23 08:59 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] meganbmoore.livejournal.com
Yes. Ahiru embodies hope, and also selfless love. In the end, I think everyone was happy, because they had what they needed to be happy.

I know some people think Fakir will eventually write a story that changes the ending, but I don't think so. Ahiru made her choice and chose her fate of her own free will, and changing that would be an insult to the choice she made.

Date: 2007-12-28 06:20 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] spectralbovine.livejournal.com
In other words, Uzura, who shouldn't even exist, is pretty much the most powerful force in the universe.
Awesome-zura! Hee.

And now I can use my Tutu icon! Which is technically spoilery if you read it the right way.

Date: 2007-12-28 08:37 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] meganbmoore.livejournal.com
Uzura is, indeed, awesome.

I think any Princess Tutu icon with text would be spoilery in one way or another. Well, maybe mot this one, but...

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