Now it's time for my ROMANTIC dream!

[shanghaiworld]

this place really needs to be used more

So, we all play in a game based on the ideas of romance. So, I was thinking, why don't we all talk about that?

By that I mean why not tell us about your characters and romance. Do they have someone they fancy/are with? Do you have plans for them in this sense? How into ladies are they? Do they enjoy longs walks, dinners or something else entirely? What would they want from a relationship? Or do they just want nothing to do with it all?

So, come on, speak up and talk about romanticism and relationships!

Comments

[lifes_expensive]

Love is a complicated thing for Black Jack, considering her entire childhood and most of her adult life was driven by feelings of hate and revenge. See, no matter which flavor of canon you go by, her and her mother where hit in the face with a bomb when she was very young, which caused her father to abandon the family. The Black Jack 21 series throws a tragic twist on this by changing it so that her father had to leave in order to save his family from further harm. (In the manga he's kinda just a jerk...) Either way, after her mother died she focused on rehabilitating her torn body solely for the purpose of seeking revenge on her father.

Black Jack's scarred appearance, nasty demeanor, and secret quest for vengeance drove most people away from her. She constantly got into fights with classmates at school, and gained a reputation for being a delinquent. As she wasn't exactly popular or too inclined to deal with people, she had no relationships that would have been anywhere near romantic. It wouldn't be until med school that she would really fall in love.

Seeing as how my Black Jack is a genderswap, for her backstory I genderswapped her canon love interest as well. Kei and Black Jack met as interns during school, and while they didn't really hit it off first, they became very close very fast. Just in time it seems for Kei to develop cancer, and for things to go downhill from there. The directer of the hospital refused to operate on Kei because he deemed it too dangerous; Black Jack said damn the rules and damn the hierarchy, she would save the man she loved if no one else would. Obviously Black Jack saved Kei with her unparalleled skill, but lost him as a significant other when he announced that because the cancer had taken his reproductive organs he could no longer live as a man. He changed his name and went on to live life as a woman while working as a nurse on a ship.

This is what then broke the concept of "love" for Black Jack. She opened up, gave her heart away, and then was left behind. She doesn't regret saving Kei, and still loves him/her, but this has made it very hard for her to consider a relationship ever again. Not to mention her back-alley line of work isn't very conducive for romance, as she's constantly in dangerous situations she knows she might not come home from. And the frequency in which Pinoko or others are used to coerce Black Jack into working for someone also prevents her from letting people get close, lest they become the next victim.

Trust issues. Ever does she have some trust issues. Considering that she's been basically lied to or abandoned by different people her whole life, she's apt to be suspicious when someone comes by to tell her they love her. How can she believe that they're telling the truth, and not just blinded by lust, greed, or hero worship? How does she know they won't just up and leave once they tire of her? And if someone honestly thinks they love her, they obviously need to have both an eye exam and a mental evaluation. Black Jack is terribly cruel sometimes to people she likes, and as she's aware of this, the idea of someone being truly interested in her is confusing to say the least.

Adding to the fact that she can't understand why anyone would even want her, her skewed morals often come in to play when someone tries to get close. As in, she thinks she's protecting them by pushing them away and never giving them a chance. Also, it's been shown that she won't have sex just for the sake of sex. Maria, a female soldier in the OVA's, literally jumped naked into Black Jack's bed and freely offered herself to the doctor no strings attached. They ended up just sleeping. In the same episode, she admitted that she did have feelings for Maria, but was too scared to act on them so soon. Unfortunately after these confessions, Maria was shot down by enemy forces and died, adding to Black Jack's not so stellar relationship record.

Now for the idea of attraction by gender. I have always read either male or female Black Jack as being open to people of either gender. Considering canonically he/she still loves Kei regardless of his transgendered status and he/she is shown as having feelings for a variety of people with varying personalities, I say it's highly plausible for him/her to be comfortably bisexual. Also considering the amount of queer relationships Tezuka puts in to other works, it wouldn't be too outlandish that every tiny detail that was ever put in to a panel was done on purpose. In any case, the focus of a relationship is not so much on the gender of the other person, but of what kind of person they are.

And that is where I will stop for her because no one want's to hear more of Cari's queer theory or ridiculous headcanons because I have a headache. :B

[swarmoflies]

Sette Frummagem thinks romance is for girls and she hates it.

Yup.

Alright a few more details. Sette comes from a world where girls are expected to settle down and pop out babies eventually (kind of an oversimplification but a reasonably accurate one).

Sette doesn't want to do that. She wants to be her father, a vicious and respected crime boss, and so any conception of romance is The Enemy. Any romantic feelings lead to marriage and settling down and becoming a baby machine and so is to be vigorously denied, just like anything that can be considered Girly.

There's also the fact that it's tied up with sexuality which is something she's a bit hazy on in general. Most of her knowledge of the topic comes from stuff she's overheard from her father's whores, combined with various vulgarities she's picked up from Da and his associates, which leaves her with a rather distorted idea of what's involved. All she really knows is that she wants no part of it, which just makes her all the more insistent that she wants absolutely nothing to do with romance.

And here I thought I wasn't going to be able to write much...

[grandtheftmecha]

As with most things, there isn't a whole lot of canon behind Katina - what with being a very minor character (and watch all my characterization get jossed by the next game). Her interactions tend to get casually put under the 'tsundere' umbrella in general, but it doesn't quite fit the bill. Katina's pretty openly friendly with trusted peers, and she isn't constantly abusive to her subordinates, but she's less tsundere and more of a drill sergeant towards her teammates. Which is not to say that she isn't just plain reckless and ill-tempered, but she is pretty aware of it.

Romantically, how she approaches it depends on the depth of feelings. When she trusts someone and works with them, it doesn't take much for her to consider them a friend, so she has a similarly easy approach to casual dating and relationships. Katina is a little pickier about dating than friendship, of course. Ideally, someone needs to put up with her temper and idiosyncrasies better than most. It's important that they strike a balance between being able to have fun, and being serious and disciplined when it matters. She almost always looks for someone who is both more even-tempered than her and capable of reining her in when she gets crazy, and while it's not a conscious decision, she's somewhat aware of it.

Casual dating and physical attraction are a lot more comfortable for Katina than really deep romantic love. All things considered, she's a bit crass, not minding if someone's a pervert or in a relationship for sex. Her tastes in attractiveness are pretty broad too, for both men and women.

Real love, on the other hand, tends to feel like something that's never quite within reach. Katina's even more of a career soldier than most of the cast, and she knows that this means a violent and hectic life. Even if there are some like Kai who make it work, there are even more who die young and leave behind a mourning lover, and she doesn't want to risk any kind of self-doubt. Despite all that, she does really want to fall in love eventually, but isn't sure if it will ever happen. Fortunately, she's usually plenty happy with the dysfunctional family of soldiers around her.

Once she's in a relationship, Katina's not hard to keep satisfied. She likes drinking, she likes sports, any number of 'masculine' hobbies. Showing interest in her career is a huge plus, even if it's rare outside of the military - she became a test pilot because of an honest interest in badass technology, and is quite a bit more knowledgeable than even she gives herself credit for, but once she gets talking with someone she can go off on a tangent.

Right now, Katina has lots of attractions but little romantic interest. Just being around all this romance has her looking a little more closely at the ladies around her (Excellen and Subaru are super hot!). She's actually a little freaked out lately, though - Akiha's a colossal pain in the ass AND too young for her, and yet Katina is increasingly attracted to and interested in her. Even getting nommed hasn't changed that, just made it more confusing.

As far as being attracted to men vs. women... most of her experiences are with men, and she'd say she prefers them, but it's not as strong a leaning as she thinks it is.

[experiencedlove]

Caprica and romance. Hooboy. Here we go. THIS IS ALL OVER THE PLACE and I apologize in advance.

Cylons in general are both disdainful of and fascinated with humanity, with the idea of being alive, and that fascination includes an interest in sex and love. Out of all the Cylon models, the Sixes — Caprica's model — are the most overtly sensual and sexual. In a way they tend to conflate sex and love to some degree.

Caprica's first romantic attraction started out as just sex; she seduced Gaius Baltar in order to use his programming expertise as well as his influence and connections within the Colonial Ministry of Defense to make it easier for the Cylons to attack the Colonies. She didn't realize until right before the Cylon attack that she had fallen in love with him — and I don't think she really realized it even then, I think her decision to sacrifice her life for his was too spontaneous and she didn't have time to think it through until after her resurrection. Only after she thought he was dead did she realize how much he really meant to her (and it didn't... exactly help that she had a version of him following her around who only she could see). After realizing he wasn't in fact dead, the desire to see him again and rekindle their relationship became a focus for her. Her desire to attempt to establish peace with the humans on New Caprica was genuine, as by this point she was suffering real guilt over her role in the attack on the Colonies, but I won't say that there wasn't some selfish need to be with Gaius again buried in there, too.

All her romantic relationships ever are rocky, and everyone she has ever been with has broken her heart. She broke up with Gaius officially three times — four times if you count her relationship with Saul, of which Gaius was unaware at the time, as a "breakup" — and it's nothing short of miraculous that they finally end up finding happiness with each other at the end of the series. In season three, she fell in love with a copy of Number Three and had a three-way relationship with both her and Gaius while they were together on a baseship following the failure of New Caprica, but that ended poorly — I won't say D'Anna didn't have some feelings for both Caprica and Gaius, but her first interest was always in herself and her quest regarding the final five Cylons, and she and Gaius broke off their relationship with Caprica before going to the Temple of Five, which was devastating for Caprica. And then there was her relationship with Saul Tigh — he was struggling with having found out he was a Cylon, as well as seeing unexplained visions of his dead wife Ellen in place of Caprica during their conversations while Caprica was imprisoned on Galactica, and she essentially fell in love with him out of compassion. He got Caprica pregnant (something thought to be impossible since it was believed two Cylons couldn't reproduce), and then he found out Ellen wasn't dead after all... and then Caprica ended up losing the baby. Which was also shattering for her. It's a good thing she has a lot of mental and emotional fortitude.

Is it impossible for Caprica to fall in love with someone who a) isn't a womanizing cowardly asshole, b) doesn't discard her on a moment's notice when being involved with her is no longer convenient, or c) doesn't toss her aside after their dead spouse comes back, despite having impregnated her? No. In fact, a stable relationship would probably be really good for her, and she and Gaius are maybe possibly sort of starting to get to a point where she's not worried about him metaphorically stabbing her in the heart again (or they were, until she got pulled back into the Gardens). But I am not sure she knows what to do with a relationship that isn't a trainwreck; it'd take some adjusting. There's also the fact that she is, on some level, inherently attracted to people with huge gaping flaws; people like that feel very human and very alive to her, and given her level of perceptiveness she also easily sees past a person's worst traits to who they are underneath. She likes people with layers upon layers of complexity. Not that she couldn't become friends with a person who was very one-note, but she's unlikely to develop a romantic interest in them. Kindness and compassion draw her, but so do sorrow and loneliness and anger.

Regarding gender and physical sex: she couldn't care less. The Cylons were intended to all be essentially bisexual (at least according to writer comments), and Cylon society doesn't have gender roles in the way human society does; males and females perform the same societal functions. Two out of three of her canon love interests are male, but I see that as purely coincidental more than anything. She'd love Gaius just as much if he were a woman.

Caprica is capable of not only being attracted to, but being in love with more than one person at a time. Her feelings for Gaius are strongest, and he is always going to be her priority, but she genuinely loved D'Anna and she genuinely loved Saul. She loves without reservation or restraint, unusual for a woman who has been hurt so many times — it's almost as if she discards the pain of prior experiences when she falls for someone new, or perhaps what happened in the past simply becomes unimportant. At least until someone betrays her again.

As a very physical, sensual woman, she usually enters a romantic relationship with the expectation that it will become sexual at some point if it isn't already. She'd be a bit confused by someone who either didn't want sex or couldn't have sex for whatever reason — she's not insecure enough to take it as a personal rejection, but she'd be a bit baffled and would have to readjust her approach.

She has never had to choose between two partners — her relationship with Gaius and D'Anna was polyamorous, and she only became jealous of their relationship with each other after they broke up with her — and I don't even know what she would do if that became an issue. If it came down to Gaius and someone else, and someone made her pick, I'm sure she'd have to choose Gaius — but she would really, really resent being pushed into making a decision like that.

Being distanced from Gaius physically while in the Gardens will leave her open to the possibility of falling in love with someone else. This isn't something that should happen quickly, and she's unlikely to feel a romantic attraction for anyone who isn't at least somewhat close to her (at least physical and mental) age, but it's certainly possible and that's something I'd love to plot if anyone were ever interested.

[headedforhope]

oh heck why not!! wrote this on flu meds and while falling asleep so hopefully it makes sense....

Even with the benefit of QoH development, Mami tends to view romance much like she once did anything else that she considered to belong to a "normal" life: something she'd very much like to have for her own, and yet something that seemed better-suited for other people. With the rules of her home world no longer applicable in the Gardens (such as having to spend all her time hunting Witches), the question now hinges on Mami herself - how her damaged sense of self shapes her view of romance.

- Trust issues. Mami is a bitter and brittle girl that, beneath the polite smile, doesn't open up easily. She's been left behind and rejected before; she's had her trust broken and her feelings hurt one too many times. Even now after about a year in the Gardens, Mami can count her (non-meguca) friends on one hand. She's still inclined to focus more on the possibility of being abandoned, betrayed or hurt rather than on taking happiness where she can. This shuts down most outward attempts to act on her inner desires, leading her to repress and bottle them up.

- Vulnerability. Since contracting with Kyuubey, Mami's associated this with overwhelmingly negative feelings: danger, pain, fear. Her tight grip over her behavior and emotions is exercised in part to minimize the uncomfortable sensation of vulnerability as much as possible. Mami can breathe easy when she's in control and in her depth; to allow romantic feelings to develop, let alone daring to pursue them, is something she has no experience with and thus no control over how to handle it. It's scary, made doubly worse when the anxiety is tempered with desire. For all that it frightens her, Mami still wants a special someone for her own.

- Survivor's guilt. Mami's come a very long way since her arrival, but her shame and regret over the death of her parents is a powerful burden that stubbornly persists in both overt and subtle ways. She has an eroded sense of self-esteem stemming from it that's long since been compounded and amplified by other factors like rejection and her own behavior, the latter of which has not always been something Mami's been proud of. There's a quiet disbelief, in the back of her mind, at the thought that anyone would truly love Mami for her true self - a self that lies and manipulates, a self that's often afraid and sad, a self that Mami is trying to change but knows still falls short. Mami doesn't fully love herself, and so doesn't expect anyone else to.

As for sexuality: early on (and especially before her death) I think that Mami had a heteronormative view of romance, as befitted the society she was raised in and her own isolation from the influence of those who might have changed her mind. She didn't think that anything outside this "norm" was bad so much as....a little odd, perhaps. But time, eventual exposure to other ideas, and her own crushing loneliness have made Mami no longer care about what the "norm" dictates; what's come to matter more are the qualities a person embodies, not their gender.

Right now she's crushing hard on Utena Tenjou in part because of that; the ideals and virtues the other girl represents and possesses makes her attractive and endears her to Mami, various problematic elements aside. The romantic feelings slowly grew from a deep friendship built on a mutual trust and concern that in and of itself took time and shared difficulties to develop. Mami has acknowledged and accepted her feelings for Utena, but has chosen to keep them largely to herself for the time being - believing that to do so is, while painful, still ultimately the path of lesser hardship for them both.

[of_the_highest_caliber]

I don't even know where to begin with Subaru. Out of all the characters I have active (or, dare I say, have EVER played), she is the most in-tune with her feelings. I would even go so far as to call her "emotionally fragile", but not in the sense one might think. When she was younger, she was somewhat of a hair trigger when it came to getting angry, or sad, or ecstatic. She has steeled herself a bit over the years, with her experience with her close friends and new comrades, and the hardships they all faced together, but she is still incapable of hiding her feelings or lying about them to protect herself. Subaru does not only wear her heart on her sleeve, but she will proudly show it off and exclaim "here it is! please look at it and accept it!"

Her family's life story is a bit tragic, but she was always loved well. Her mother died ten years ago, and she and her older sister Ginga were raised by their adoptive father Genya. Since then, the three have all worked hard for their goals and their jobs, taking great care of each other when they could, and supporting one another even if at first the girls signing up for military service was not high on their dad's wish list for them. In the end, their family only grew, a true sign of their connection to each other and how much love and understanding they had to spare. Now they have four extra adopted sisters and a semi-adopted brother. To Subaru, having a connection like that goes beyond just sharing blood, or having comparable origin stories (they are all combat cyborgs; humans bred for the express purpose of becoming cyborg weapons - save for Tohma, who has his own history that Subaru isn't aware of yet).

The way she expresses herself can be rather childish and immature in the eyes of others, but she means every word she says and there is no hidden meanings to her actions. That means that if she hugs you, it is because she wants to, or thinks you need it, not because she thinks it will get her anywhere. Her reassurances or gestures of affection will never be just for show. This has tripped her up in the Gardens because of how she has been coerced into showing affection for some of her closer friends here. Sure, the kisses were so they could be freed, and she wasn't exactly herself when the music was playing, but... she cannot deny that she enjoyed those times. Subaru would have preferred those events happened at their own pace, and under her own power, but overall she is fine with the way it all turned out. It's good that her friends are so understanding (or so it seems.)

When it comes to actual romantic relationships, well... nothing is expressly confirmed in-canon like the long-running pairing of the series (Nanoha and Fate - Vivio's two mamas), but after looking at all the supplementary materials (manga, drama tracks), the Subaru x Tiana ship sails itself. What it seems to boil down to is that Subaru is up front about having feelings, but might not quite understand what they imply, or how they can be perceived, and Tiana is in Lvl 99 Tsundere mode for most of their time together. Keep in mind, they were assigned together as partners since their first days in the Ground Forces Academy, and Tiana has not been able to shake Subaru off her tail in eight years. If she really did think Subaru was a tremendous idiot, or did not return (or at least accept) those feelings to some extent, I imagine there would have been some sort of falling out by then. What this leads to is Subaru carrying this giant sun-bright ever-burning torch for Tiana that is just waiting for the right opportunity to light an actual flame. That's okay, though; Subaru is patient.

As for her situation in the game right now... well, especially after being locked in her own head for three days, Subaru is really starting to miss her home, her family, her friends, and Tiana. She's lonely, and all the signs of this are there, waiting for something to be done about them. Maybe she's so unused to feeling that way that she hasn't noticed them, herself. Whether this leads to something serious, or anything at all, really depends on what others will do with these signs. I can't even tell if something that just sort of happens would be better for her, or something that builds slowly over time, but as you can see above, it would only end up being secondary to feelings she actually has, but if she did reciprocate, it would be with whatever she can muster, and she would be loyal to that person (or persons) with everything she can spare. That might end up being more than anyone can handle.

--and that's really all I can think of to write on my own. I guess if I had other questions to go with, or prompts, I could say more. ^^;

[urbanwonderland]

Reeve. Oh, Reeve!
At home, she lived almost exclusively in her head. Being an architect, being an engineer, being an inventor, being an only child, being a head of department for the global government she serves-- lots of roles for Reeve, and none of them really conducive to romance. Nto to say she isn't the romantic type, because, oh children, she is. But she's also practical, and loaded with enough common sense to-- well, lets just say there's a lot of it.

So, even though she fancies men, no boyfriend-- at least nothing past a few dates (it's the 80s, men find Reeve a little too brainy and a little too not focused enough on their needs). Same goes for the ladies. Though she's had a few encounters, they were collegiate in nature. Mostly. Barring one disastrous office party and an even more disastrous practical joke of a hook-up between Reeve and another high-level female Shinra executive.

Here in the Gardens, Reeve is having the time of her life. At least sexually. Her relationship with Gabrielle was brief, but intense. They connected on an intellectual and physical level-- all that, and Reeve has a thing for aloof blondes.
Speaking of which, her current lover is a live in. Sephiroth sees them as good friends, respects Reeve's mind, and is a very-- passionate lover, but Reeve knows that there's nothing beyond that between them. She mitigates the romantic feelings she knows Sephiroth doesn't share by working fairly hard on her current project and being a stand-up friend. She and Sephiroth are not an exclusive item.

Reeve also has a standing flirtation with Reno. But doesn't everyone?

[histrionic]

Kuja is a construct. She was created from magic and elements of her world and given a soul by an android, who made her with the intention of using her as a tool to destroy all the inhabitants of an entire world.

She was created as an adult, with her knowledge and self already in place. She never had a childhood. She never had a chance to grow or develop, and as such, she spent most of her life without the ability to feel more complex emotions, like compassion, pity, and love. Because of this, she was always self-absorbed, vain, and cruel. Shallow not by choice, but by nature. An Angel of Death, she devoted all her life to causing war and discord, as she was commanded by her creator. So much power, so little mercy.

However, all this time, she was secretly plotting to free herself from her fate and her creator, and to destroy him. She was never able to have any true existence outside of this struggle, all her energy devoted to seeming to do what she was supposed to do while secretly striving to defy her fate. For various reasons, she saw herself as having been made to be disposable, so in the midst of all her viciousness and cunning, she was in fear of her life. For Kuja, everything was artifice, nothing was authentic.

It was telling, then, that she devoted herself to plays and poetry, works that existed for the purpose of expressing emotions like love, a feeling which was denied her. Her knowledge romance comes to her through drama, staged and elaborate, poetic and constructed of beautiful words. Those notions weren't connected to any reality, because although she had the words, she didn't have the emotion behind them. When she felt any kind of interest in another person, her feelings were shallow and selfish because she was incapable of anything else. So she would see someone lovely or fascinating as a thing to be taken and kept and possibly used, not someone to be cared for.

It was only through terror, madness, pain, and then despair that Kuja actually experienced development and emotional growth of some kind, but once she was able to finally feel compassion, she was overwhelmed with horror at the extent of the devastation and suffering she had caused. Actual feeling was nothing like what she'd read about in poetry. Now she is unable to accept herself after what she's done, and in spite of the fact that she still hides behind words and poems and a superior air, she secretly sees herself as a monster, fears her own madness, and believes that she should die.

Yet it's hard for her to avoid falling into old patterns, and those people she is best able to relate to and deal with in the Gardens are those who take direction well and do what she says, like those who served her in the past--and those who can somehow patiently put up with her very difficult manner and constant criticisms, arguments, and monologues.

Hidden somewhere inside her is a person newly capable of affection, but there's a lot of trial and trouble to get through before one can reach it.

[phobophage]

Deimonea... has essentially no concept of romance at all. None whatever. To her it's always been something boring that Dreamers and some Dreams happened to indulge in. Nightmares, by default, tend not to be even created with the capability for romantic love, among other emotional capabilities they lack.

But Dreams're malleable beings. There're a number of things to alter things that'd be essential and unalterable in humans. Back in her world, Deimonea's already been undergoing gradual changes, and coming to the Gardens definitely had an influence on her normal asexuality.

But Deimonea has absolutely no basis to base romantic experience on. She completely ignored it as she ignored other things of no interest to her, and so even the most basic things that almost any Dreamer would know are completely unknown to her. So she won't notice subtle gestures, and even things that would tip most people off, she would just perceive as a peculiar amount of interest (and likely inquire about).

If and when Deimonea starts developing romantic interest in people, it's likely to come as an inexplicable level of interest to her, and she'll pretty much have no issues acting on this interest since she doesn't really feel embarrassment (many Dreams don't). So she's likely to just start turning up around that person a lot. No attempts to hide it, even, just "I felt like coming over." So, I suppose she'd be pretty blatant, but have no idea what she's being blatant about other than that she finds that person interesting.

Given that Deimonea considers social and personal barriers as things for other people, this is likely to not be the most comforting experience of the object of her interest.

As for anyone attempting to pursue a romance with her? She won't notice subtle gestures, will pretty much just blow off more overt ones that she isn't interested in, and if she does have an interest, it's likely to be a somewhat rocky road as she learns the workings of a romantic relationship from pretty much scratch.

[mutation_is_great]

So. Melia's a fairly flirty sort. But she doesn't really want to get involved in a monogamous relationship. Something like that'd get in the way of some of the things she does as a priestess of Zephyr, who's a fairly hedonistic goddess. And, in a sense, Zephyr's ultimately her greatest love. She's passed up all kinds of opportunities, not just romantic ones, to continue serving her.

That doesn't mean that Melia objects completely to romance. But pretty much anyone she gets involved with will have to accept the importance of Zephyr in her life and all that implies. In the end, she's more likely to get involved in casual, non-serious relationships than more serious ones, but that's not something to be ruled out.

But it'd take a major change of her life priorities for her to commit to monogamy. Anything else is fairly open to happening.

[revolutionized]

I'm kind of half-asleep while writing this, but here goes.

Utena's views of romance are ultimately tied into her overall world view, which is an inherently flawed one, and her own gender issues. So her view of romance is a very heteronormative one - but this is because heterosexuality is rooted in normalcy for her, for better or for worse, and normalcy is something she clings to as a way to cope with the trauma of her childhood.

But while she views (most) girls as princesses, she herself wants to be a prince. I think this viewpoint of girls=damsels and boys=princes is something she generally accepts (for people other than herself), but she's somewhat resentful of and offended by this idea being applied to her, even when she protests that she is "normal." Her insistence that she wants to find a "normal boy" is just a way for her to cling to what is familiar and safe. She's very attached to familiar things because she's never progressed past childhood - Ohtori itself is a very ritualistic, cyclical place, where nothing changes overmuch. While she's dedicated to the Prince from her childhood (until later), to me it seems as if she's more intent on emulating the traits she sees as desirable - the chivalry, nobility and bravery - as opposed to wanting to be his princess, but this is something she doesn't really realize herself until much later.

Okay, jesus christ. ANYWAY, Utena has a very simplistic, but somewhat confusing viewpoint of romance. She says she's a normal girl who wants to meet a normal boy - but she defies gender stereotypes and dislikes them being forced on her. She does have a sexual relationship with a man - but she's manipulated into it, becomes increasingly miserable and confused for the duration of it, and her deepest emotional attachment is still with Anthy throughout all of it. She's extremely unhappy whenever she is forced to conform to gender stereotypes, in fact.

To me, in canon, she's generally not very interested in romantic entanglements. They don't appeal to her and she's either dismissive of them or uncomfortable when they happen. This is in part because she has such a childish, fairytale concept of romantic things. For now, since she hasn't lost her virginity, sex is some secret, hidden thing that she doesn't know much about and is only becoming curious about because in Ohtori she lives with Akio, who oozes sexual appeal. Not to mention all of the imagery pertaining to blossoming sexual maturity all over the place there.

In the Gardens, she's met a lot of people who don't conform to the concept of girls=princesses, and she's expanded her horizons somewhat. A lot of her fairytale concepts of the world are starting to change or go away entirely. Two of her best friends in the Gardens are dead in their worlds, for example, and that's something she's been forced to accept and acknowledge for the brutal truth that it is. She's starting to see people outside of her own little bubble, if that makes sense, and she's beginning to see that comparing her experiences to other people's experiences doesn't work, and doesn't help them. She's also developed a pretty big crush on Mami, but because she's so stubbornly intent on clinging to what familiarity she has left, she doesn't fully realize the depth of her feelings, and is afraid of what she does realize. So she's backtracking a little, losing some of the growth she's gained from being away from Ohtori and all the coffins, returning to what is comfortable. This issue is further amplified by Anthy's arrival - she's focused on making sure she is safe, and is somewhat guilty about her newfound attachment to Mami. In a dim and confusing sort of way, she views it as a betrayal, but she can't figure out why that is. She's trying (and failing) at attempting to return to what she and Mami's friendship was before Feelings happened, and that illusion will need to crumble around her before she starts to progress again.

Ultimately, I don't think gender will be a strong factor in who she chooses to have a romantic (or sexual) relationship with, and once she learns to accept this she'll probably have a more fluid sexuality with gender and sexual attraction coming in second to emotional compatibility.

[guardiandragon]

Tatsuki and romance, in a nutshell.

...Oh hey there two weeks ago. Whoops.