Final thoughts/interpretation on Revolutionary Girl Utena's ending

The ending of this series has me so perplexed, and ever since seeing the movie's interpretation I've been even more confused... I've thought about it a lot more, and I think I've found a satisfactory answer that doesn't involve the movie's heavy implications towards everything just being a metaphor for Akio raping Anthy, cuz that's a cop-out answer lol

Anthy sealed Dios away by offering to take all of the pain that Dios was receiving from the world... "The Rose Bride takes the swords in place of the prince"... Dios became corrupted by no longer having any of the pain of being the world's prince, and instead he became "End of the World". He says he's no longer the prince that Anthy cared about, and yet, Anthy continues to take all the world's punishment in place of him... Since Anthy is continuing to suffer as a witch for Akio's sake, even though Akio no longer qualifies as her prince.. He feels that Anthy must enjoy being this way... that Anthy is letting him use her out of her own free will. So in that case, what is it that Akio could want?

Even though Anthy is the one who sealed away Dios and the power to revolutionize the world, it's clear that Akio and Anthy can not access this power on their own... They need a duelist who has reached duel of revolution. I theorized before that this restriction was Akio's or Anthy's doing.. maybe it's due to Anthy's subconcious effect on Dios's power, or maybe the "good" side of Dios placed this restriction on his power so that only a good and noble prince can use it... But anyway Akio and Anthy are able to show people a glimpse of eternity and manipulate them into dueling to make the Rose Gate appear. This is what Akio did with Utena when she was little.. he showed her "eternity", and that lead her to becoming a duelist.

Later in the series, Utena can no longer draw out the sword of Dios from Anthy, for reasons that are never explained... I think it's because Akio didn't want Utena to be the one to open the Rose Gate. He wanted to do it himself, using Utena's sword. He must have already tried and failed to open the Rose Gate using the sword of Dios, so he figured he needed another prince's sword. From then on, Anthy draws out the sword from Utena in all of her duels. In the final duel, it's Akio who draws out the sword from Utena, and doing this turns Utena into a princess... I guess that Akio taking Utena's sword boosted his own princely image, and made Utena take on the form of a princess (it doesn't need to have more meaning than that really)...

Revolutionary Girl Utena movie recap

The art design in this movie is gorgeous... it's like a masterpiece in visual storytelling. 

But... wow, this plot is so different. It's nothing at all like the show...
Whereas the show had a lot of subtle cryptic symbolism, this movie's symbolism is very blatant and over the top.

Recap:

The architecture of this school is all weird, like an Escher painting...

Utena has short hair, and wearing a more princely outfit... Juri, the fencing team captain, and student council member is referred to as the "prince" of the fencing team. Miki is described as a genius... Wakaba is showing Utena around the school, when suddenly she sees Touga up in a window and goes to see him. Apparently, they knew each other.

Touga says they made a promise to go to the planetarium together... Utena is surprised to see him here, and acts unfriendly toward him. She notices his ring, and assumes he's engaged.

This ring lead me to the academy. The mark of the rose.

Utena sees a white rose in the middle of a bunch of red roses, and it blooms very brightly just as she's looking at it... a ring pops out of it, with the mark of the rose, just like Touga has... suddenly, a giant staircase leading up to a platform in the sky... ontop of the platform is a rose garden... she meets Anthy there. Anthy looks a lot prettier in this.

Anthy introduces herself as the chairman's sister, and says that she is held captive by these roses... she sees the ring Utena is holding, and tries to take it from her... Saionji appears, asks Utena what she's doing with the Rose Bride... He explains how he owns the Rose Bride, and anyone who has the mark of the rose is a duelist, who is permitted to come to this square to duel for ownership of the Rose Bride..

Utena doesn't like how the Rose Bride is being treated, so she puts the ring on to duel him. She picks up a kendo stick to duel with. Anthy notices something about her... she jumps toward Utena to save her, kisses her, and then makes a sword appear from her chest for Utena to use. When Utena pulls it out, her hair grows long and she changes outfits. Anthy also changed to a different dress when she drew out the sword.

Revolutionary Girl Utena series recap part 7 (finale)

This is the last "normal" episode before the final duel starts... the creepy side of the story clashes up with the normal slice of life school scenes.

Episode 37