Emergent Utena Behavior
Apr. 9th, 2006 08:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
occultatioSo, Dance and the Dawn. Was awesome. And certain elements of its awesomeness really ought to be recorded for posterity, as they were fucking amazing.
(Quick catch-up for those who are as yet uninformed: D&tD was a fairytaleish LARP, in which six Ladies of Ash had until dawn to find their True Loves from among the six Lords of Ice (and their Prince), at a glamorous ball hosted by the cold, cruel, manipulative Queen of Ice. Ladies could ask questions as they danced, and the lords could answer or not as they pleased. There were favors which could be given, which could inspire Lords to greater feats in deuling each other. It was really magnificent.)
The thing you need to know is,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
thekinginyellow based all of the lords and some of the ladies on characters from Utena. Not usually with regard to backstory, but very much personality-wise. Nobody was given any specific instructions or directions related to this, of course -- it was just a cute little organizing principle. Thing is, purely by coincidence and acting out our characters' motivations, we managed to recreate the plot of Utena to a truly scary degree.
I want to talk about all that "emergent Utena behavior" (to borrowlocke61dv's term, but it's going to be spoilerful. So I would reccommend that those of you who have not yet seen the series, or those of you who intend to play in the next game of D&tD, stay away from the rest of this entry. Because it would be a shame to spoil yourself for either the anime or the game.
So, okay. First, to set all the players out. There was the Queen of Ice, and the Duke of Ash. She was an icy and manipulative courtier, he a kind and crippled old man. There was also the Queen's son, the Prince of Ice. Then there were six lords, and six ladies. All in all, the characters laid themselves out as such:
The Queen of Ice.....................The Rose Bride
The Duke of Ash......................Prince Dios
Lords
Prince Adron Revallion.........Akio
Lord Joachim Selle................Touga
Lord Paleos Kieron................Saionji
Lord Jael Samangelov........Jury
Lord Rebec Mirabilis.............Miki
Lord Shain Tachrymon.........Shiori
Lord Marisse Armster............Mikage
Ladies
Lady Jade.................................Utena
Lady Kassarin..........................Kozue
Lady Gedra...............................Anthy
(and three others)
I played Lord Kieron, the Saionji-based character. Going in, I knew this meant I was hopelessly in love with the Queen, despised all the other Lords, and was planning on spending the evening being a cruel asshole to all the ladies. That was it, however, and once I got into character, I completely forgot about everything Utena. I mean, I forgot so completely that I didn't even catch on that Jade was Utena until she literally pulled a sword out of the rose on her chest (the ladies' favors were all roses of unusual materials).
But. Over the course of the game, I was rude to everybody in general, but especially nasty to two people: Lady Gedra and Lord Mirabilis. They just irked me the most, and so I verbally bitchslapped them with great fervor. Also: towards the end of the evening, I saw Lord Selle wearing the favor of Lady Jade, with whom I had had a nasty argument earlier because she wanted, as a Lady, to duel (I was violently opposed, since my fundamental character was Protector: a lady protecting or fighting for herself was abhorrent to my worldview). As a result, I made some nasty cracks at Selle wearing the favor of this stupid girl, but I was also tremendously jealous that he had a favor at all, because the only lady who had given me her favor earlier that night had taken it back right before I was challenged, by Lord Selle, to a duel. In other words, purely by accident, I ended up in exactly the sort of love-hate relationship Saionji has with Touga.
Oh, but Touga himself. So, through the deuling mechanics, Lord Selle realized from the very, very beginning of the game that Lady Jade was meant to be his true love. Now, at the end of the night, the Lords had no choice in who to marry: the Queen would list the ladies in the order of her favor for them, and each lady would pick a lord, who would be honor-bound to accept her offer. So Selle's problem was that he had to convince Jade that he was her true love, without explaining why he thought so (Lords were absolutely forbidden from revealing the dueling mechanics to ladies).
Meanwhile, Lady Jade was basically looking for someone who would respect her as a true equal... a lord who would not laugh at her request to join him in the front lines of a battlefield. Since Lord Selle was still fundamentally a playboy in demeanor, he had his work cut out for him. He did have one special power, however: he could kiss a lady and make her fall in love with him for three minutes (and obtain their favor). At the end of the evening, then, Selle knew he was losing Jade, and was struggling with whether or not to force her hand. He eventually made the opposite decision as Touga did, but the exact same thing ended up happening anyway, as Lady Jade proposed to Prince Adron, who accepted her offer.
(As a sidenote to this, Lady Jade had the special ability to challenge a lord to a duel three times over the course of the dance. She only used it once, however: after the very last dance, right before the choosing of husbands, she challenged the Prince. Between the timing, the opponent, and the fact that she pulled a sword out of her freaking chest, I finally cottoned on that she was supposed to be Utena, but apparently it was all entirely coincidental.
That's the greatest thing about all of this, really: it was all totally coincidental. It wasn't planned at all, or even suggested strongly; it was simply Emergent Utena Behavior.
(Oh, and the most hilarious part of all: only two of the Lords had a "good" ending. One was Lord Tachrymon, who was revealed at the end to be a soulless monster, who was not chosen by anybody and became the next Prince of Ice. The other one, crazily enough, was me, Lord Kieron. Who had spent the entire night being an utter asshole to everybody and everything. My Lady picked up on the hints I had been dropping about my motivations and character, and successfully figured out that I was completely suited to her company, and was the only Lady to do so. She was also, perhaps uncoincidentally, the most cruel and manipulative of all of the Ladies. The happiest ending in the game went to the two assholes. Go us!)
If I've forgotten anything, which I'm sure I have, please remind me and I'll add it in. Mainly, I want to record this stuff for posterity, so we don't forget it when talking about this game in years to come. This was seriously one of the best roleplaying experiences I've had, and far and beyond my favorite one-shot ever.
(Quick catch-up for those who are as yet uninformed: D&tD was a fairytaleish LARP, in which six Ladies of Ash had until dawn to find their True Loves from among the six Lords of Ice (and their Prince), at a glamorous ball hosted by the cold, cruel, manipulative Queen of Ice. Ladies could ask questions as they danced, and the lords could answer or not as they pleased. There were favors which could be given, which could inspire Lords to greater feats in deuling each other. It was really magnificent.)
The thing you need to know is,
thekinginyellow based all of the lords and some of the ladies on characters from Utena. Not usually with regard to backstory, but very much personality-wise. Nobody was given any specific instructions or directions related to this, of course -- it was just a cute little organizing principle. Thing is, purely by coincidence and acting out our characters' motivations, we managed to recreate the plot of Utena to a truly scary degree.I want to talk about all that "emergent Utena behavior" (to borrow
locke61dv's term, but it's going to be spoilerful. So I would reccommend that those of you who have not yet seen the series, or those of you who intend to play in the next game of D&tD, stay away from the rest of this entry. Because it would be a shame to spoil yourself for either the anime or the game.So, okay. First, to set all the players out. There was the Queen of Ice, and the Duke of Ash. She was an icy and manipulative courtier, he a kind and crippled old man. There was also the Queen's son, the Prince of Ice. Then there were six lords, and six ladies. All in all, the characters laid themselves out as such:
The Queen of Ice.....................The Rose Bride
The Duke of Ash......................Prince Dios
Lords
Prince Adron Revallion.........Akio
Lord Joachim Selle................Touga
Lord Paleos Kieron................Saionji
Lord Jael Samangelov........Jury
Lord Rebec Mirabilis.............Miki
Lord Shain Tachrymon.........Shiori
Lord Marisse Armster............Mikage
Ladies
Lady Jade.................................Utena
Lady Kassarin..........................Kozue
Lady Gedra...............................Anthy
(and three others)
I played Lord Kieron, the Saionji-based character. Going in, I knew this meant I was hopelessly in love with the Queen, despised all the other Lords, and was planning on spending the evening being a cruel asshole to all the ladies. That was it, however, and once I got into character, I completely forgot about everything Utena. I mean, I forgot so completely that I didn't even catch on that Jade was Utena until she literally pulled a sword out of the rose on her chest (the ladies' favors were all roses of unusual materials).
But. Over the course of the game, I was rude to everybody in general, but especially nasty to two people: Lady Gedra and Lord Mirabilis. They just irked me the most, and so I verbally bitchslapped them with great fervor. Also: towards the end of the evening, I saw Lord Selle wearing the favor of Lady Jade, with whom I had had a nasty argument earlier because she wanted, as a Lady, to duel (I was violently opposed, since my fundamental character was Protector: a lady protecting or fighting for herself was abhorrent to my worldview). As a result, I made some nasty cracks at Selle wearing the favor of this stupid girl, but I was also tremendously jealous that he had a favor at all, because the only lady who had given me her favor earlier that night had taken it back right before I was challenged, by Lord Selle, to a duel. In other words, purely by accident, I ended up in exactly the sort of love-hate relationship Saionji has with Touga.
Oh, but Touga himself. So, through the deuling mechanics, Lord Selle realized from the very, very beginning of the game that Lady Jade was meant to be his true love. Now, at the end of the night, the Lords had no choice in who to marry: the Queen would list the ladies in the order of her favor for them, and each lady would pick a lord, who would be honor-bound to accept her offer. So Selle's problem was that he had to convince Jade that he was her true love, without explaining why he thought so (Lords were absolutely forbidden from revealing the dueling mechanics to ladies).
Meanwhile, Lady Jade was basically looking for someone who would respect her as a true equal... a lord who would not laugh at her request to join him in the front lines of a battlefield. Since Lord Selle was still fundamentally a playboy in demeanor, he had his work cut out for him. He did have one special power, however: he could kiss a lady and make her fall in love with him for three minutes (and obtain their favor). At the end of the evening, then, Selle knew he was losing Jade, and was struggling with whether or not to force her hand. He eventually made the opposite decision as Touga did, but the exact same thing ended up happening anyway, as Lady Jade proposed to Prince Adron, who accepted her offer.
(As a sidenote to this, Lady Jade had the special ability to challenge a lord to a duel three times over the course of the dance. She only used it once, however: after the very last dance, right before the choosing of husbands, she challenged the Prince. Between the timing, the opponent, and the fact that she pulled a sword out of her freaking chest, I finally cottoned on that she was supposed to be Utena, but apparently it was all entirely coincidental.
That's the greatest thing about all of this, really: it was all totally coincidental. It wasn't planned at all, or even suggested strongly; it was simply Emergent Utena Behavior.
(Oh, and the most hilarious part of all: only two of the Lords had a "good" ending. One was Lord Tachrymon, who was revealed at the end to be a soulless monster, who was not chosen by anybody and became the next Prince of Ice. The other one, crazily enough, was me, Lord Kieron. Who had spent the entire night being an utter asshole to everybody and everything. My Lady picked up on the hints I had been dropping about my motivations and character, and successfully figured out that I was completely suited to her company, and was the only Lady to do so. She was also, perhaps uncoincidentally, the most cruel and manipulative of all of the Ladies. The happiest ending in the game went to the two assholes. Go us!)
If I've forgotten anything, which I'm sure I have, please remind me and I'll add it in. Mainly, I want to record this stuff for posterity, so we don't forget it when talking about this game in years to come. This was seriously one of the best roleplaying experiences I've had, and far and beyond my favorite one-shot ever.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-04-10 12:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-10 12:52 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-10 03:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-10 08:40 pm (UTC)That makes me happy. It's really cute.
The whole fairy tale thing, I mean. Never mind the Gnostic god. >.>;;
no subject
Date: 2006-04-10 05:10 pm (UTC)