The Mockingbird, The Jabberjay And The Mockingjay 🕊️ Inspired By This Post By @fromevertonow

These are hard to make without transparent images available huh

oh, little pavlova cookie..

"The sun had not yet risen when she saw the Prince's palace. As she climbed his splendid marble staircase, the moon was shining clear. The little mermaid swallowed the bitter, fiery draught, and it was as if a two-edged sword struck through her frail body. She swooned away, and lay there as if she were dead. When the sun rose over the sea she awoke and felt a flash of pain, but directly in front of her stood the handsome young Prince, gazing at her with his coal-black eyes..."

"...The Prince asked who she was, and how she came to be there. Her deep blue eyes looked at him tenderly but very sadly, for she could not speak. Then he took her hand and led her into his palace. Every footstep felt as if she were walking on the blades and points of sharp knives, just as the witch had foretold, but she gladly endured it. She moved as lightly as a bubble as she walked beside the Prince. He and all who saw her marveled at the grace of her gliding walk."

- "The Little Mermaid" Hans Christian Andersen

The Adolescence of Utena (1999)

everything I love

Someone NEEDS to draw post!ohtori Anthy with this kind of fashion sense. I might end up being the one who Needs to draw her like this.

The Covey:

my mother watches Utena (part one)

“the roses are… roses?” Don’t worry mom we’ll English teacher you eventually.

She really doesn’t like Saionji.

We’re only two episodes in and she already knows there’s something lesbian going on.

So, lets now come to the next topic. This moves us away from Hinduism and into Buddhist territory. This sentence is one of the 3 Main charscteristics of the World according to Buddhism.

In Buddhism, the world has 3 Main Features, anata, anicca and dukkha. Meaning that there is nothing Staying constant, nothing which lasts eternal and the World will always have suffering.

(Ironically, in Utena, this sentence of nothing lasts eternal later ends with "but there is always suffering")

In Buddhism, these Main Features of the world are responsible for time becoming a cycles, or to say it otherwise, a Revolution.

But why does this lead to suffering: via the 3 poisons: hatred, delusion and greed

Delusion here is also meant as a desire of self deception and clinging to illusions and delusions despite the knowledge of them being false. In Buddhism, people are trapped in a world of illusions because they do not want to leave that world. Due to that, in the end, Utenas decision to leave the world of illusions and the cycle was the only right thing because there, she won against the poison.

Interestingly, in Buddhism, the path to free yourself from the 3 poisons is called a "vehicle". Like for example "diamond vehicle". Maybe this is meant by Utena turning into a car.

The whole Buddhist theory of suffering is also connected to the term of Sunyata which is important in the Kyoto School and post ww2 japanese philosophy. The kyoto school was a group of philosophers studying in germany under Martin Heidegger.

They combined Buddhism and heideggerian philosophy. Heidegger thought the main emotion of all humans is fear/anxiety and everything humans do is a rejection towards fear. Fear is connected to our mortality and to the fact that humans must choose actions but every action can have devastating consequences which are not always plannable but humans are always responsible for everything they do.

The kyoto school used heideggers theories and added the Buddhist idea of Sunyata. Sunyata means absolute nothingness. Absolute nothingness is in contrast to relative nothingness. Relative nothingness is basically lack and a nothingness where it's clear what is missing. Sunyata is a nothingness where it's unclear what is missing or if something is missing. And this causes fear. (Like the saying goes "you are not afraid that you are alone in a dark forest. You are afraid that you might not alone in the dark forest and that something is lurking there.

And sunyata also means everything in the world will be destroyed someday and is running towards its own destruction. (Absolute destiny apocalypse, like the name of this song.)

But everything humans achieve and do and accomplish is a reaction to the thought of sunyata. Absolute nothingness creates everything.

The sunyata theory and its influence is one reason why anime loves the apocalypse as a topic.

This Buddhist cosmology is related to the idea of entropy and self escalating chaos. Basically every possible way to fight against entropy causes more entropy and more chaos.

This is where the idea of Taoism, that the wise man does everything needed to be done by doing nothing and the idea of the immovable mover come into play. This all basically refers to the wise man as someone who avoids unnecessary entropy and who does not need to do more because of this.

As Kyubei points out, Homura is trapped in an eternal cycle of suffering due to her unwillingness to give up her desire to somehow save Madoka.

Interestingly, the Ending theme of madoka magica contains "its because you yearn with greed, even through your heart may bleed" a fitting line.