The Story of Dios
"This is a story from the days when all the women of the world were still princesses."
A question of two stories
The Stuff Legends are made of... Or evil purple haired men, anyway.
The series Shoujo Kakumei Utena gives us two different tales of Dios.  They are pretty much the same, except in the matter of Anthy.  I shall summarize...
~The tale of the Rose Prince--The Shadow Girls' Version
Once upon a time, there was a prince, who went about the world rescuing all the princesses (see quote above), etc. etc... Until one day he became ill. All of the other people of the land wanted him to come out and fight for and rescue their daughters, anyway.  The only person who even cared he was ill (or even cared about him at all) was his sister.  Even Dios himself wanted to go out and help the people.  But his sister would not let him.  She went and told all the people that they could not have him--he was hers, and hers alone, that she had sealed him away.  This angered the people, and they impaled her body upon their swords...  She sacrificed herself for Dios, but...  Dios was no longer Dios, but rather The Ends of the World. 
~The tale of the Rose--Story Told to Young Utena
Once upon a time, there was a prince, who went about the world rescuing all the princesses (see above quote), etc. etc...  Until one day he encountered an old woman, who told him of one who would steal away all the light of the world, and cover the world in a shroud of darkness.  A witch.  The old woman then told him of the castle that floats in the sky--the witch's castle.  The old woman escorted him to the castle personally, and then revealed to him that she was the witch.  And not only was she the witch, but she was also his own beloved sister.  She told him that she was the only woman who could not become his princess... and therefore she became a witch.  So she imprisoned the prince in the castle, and darkness overtook the world, anyway... 
Now... These stories are both well and good and all, but they leave us with a question...
Question:  What actually happened to Dios to turn him into Akio?
I'm sure there are an innumerable amount of theories out there on this one, but, saying as this is my Dios shrine, I'll just tell you what I think, okay?  Okay, well... I'll start out with my first theory by asking you a question:  If someone stabbed your sister with a million swords of hatred, would you be terribly fond of them no matter what their reason was?  I should think not.  Now that we have that established, I'm sure you can understand my line of reasoning...  Dios is like, the ultimate good in the world, right?  And he's been out risking his ass for these people and their daughters and THIS is how they repay him?  And as I said, he is the ultimate good...  He doesn't do things halfway.  So, when he went bad, he went BAD. 

Second theory:  Perhaps Anthy was not lying.  Perhaps she did seal Dios away somewhere.  MAYBE this was for his own good, maybe she even thought it was for his own good, but I'm betting in her secret heart of hearts (if this wasn't the actual reason, which it may have been) she didn't want those other princesses to have a prince.  She didn't, so why should they?  They only mistreated him, anyway!  She was the only one who really cared!
So she took him away, where no one could hurt him, and no one could have him.  Save her.  But...  It backfired, she sealed him away too well, and all that was left was an evil husk of the man she once knew... Akio..


One has to wonder, however, if this was an immediate thing, or if it was perhaps a slow sinking into evil... I mean, maybe after the unwashed masses stabbed Anthy, Dios just quit caring about them...  And we all know what happens to stagnant water.  It... <insert dramatic pause here> stagnates.  Anyway, yeah, it stagnates, but that's a process that takes time.  Speaking metaphorically (which I should not do), the Bacteria of Evil don't Breed overnight.... 

Third theory:  maybe this isn't supposed to be an actual story at all, but a metaphor for growing up (which, of course, the entire show basically is), in which Dios goes from an innocent, a child who truly cares about the world and about the purity of others, into Akio, an adult who cares only about his own enterprises and his own benefits, but who is also obsessed with regaining his lost nobility.  This amplifies the idea of the original incest between Anthy and her brother, since, after all, Anthy is the one who took his innocence (again, metaphorically speaking). 
Do I sound like I'm accusing Anthy of murder, or what?  Oh, wait.  I am.
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