#BJ3 theories

[herefortheships]

In which Beetlejuice is kinda like a wedding puzzle

You know how so many of us agree here that Betelgeuse picked McArthur Park for the wedding dance because it's a goodbye song, and he knew he was never going to force Lydia into a marriage she didn't want? While that is still true and headcanon I totally accept too, check out this hot take I'm presenting you now (ok maybe it's kinda crazy but give me a sec of your time 😆):

What if the song also represents Betelgeuse's wedding vows?

Ok, hear me out. I had this idea last night answering a question here. You know how in the first movie the wedding was pretty much completed? Betelgeuse got "eaten" by the sandworm right when they were being pronounced "husband and wife". While they didn't get to like "seal it with a kiss" or anything, it was literally a word away from being official, which might just be why Betelgeuse kinda considers him and Lydia to be married (he wants to "remarry" her in BJBJ), at least to some extent. He considers they're in a long distance relationship. lol

So, the second round comes in BJBJ, and we pretty much pick up where we left off in the first movie with this wedding whose conclusion has been "pending" since 1988 😆. This time around we get the wedding vows, which weren't actually said in the previous wedding, and we also got their first dance together as husband and wife at the same go.

How are these Betelgeuse's vows? Let us examine. 😭

McArthur Park is a goodbye song, pretty much; this man understands he is losing his one true love of his life, and, though broken-hearted, he's letting her go. The "sweet green icing flowing down" is the park's scenery, which is representative of this relationship, falling apart. This love is "melting in the dark", what once was is now over. The rain is a symbol for tears, if you ask me, because having to let go hurts and he's looking at this all in tears. He'll "never have that recipe again" because he'll never meet someone like her again, basically, she is irreplaceable as his one true love, even if he ever meets someone else after her; all that time spent waiting and building that love was wasted, and it's never coming back. (That's what I understand, at least lol.)

But there's so much beauty underneath the poetic, yet whacky, lyrics. He is expressing his feelings in a very honest way. He is telling her that she is irreplaceable for him. She is "the one", the love of his life.

It's a selfless vow of eternal devotion, where he is declaring her to be the one true love of his life. "Selfless" because it does not require her to love him back; he's only declaring how he feels, and vowing that he will be loyal to her forever; she will always be "the one" for him.

Anyway, if we got the ceremony in the first film, the vows and dance in the second film, then next part of this crazy "wedding puzzle" should be the final "I do". Thank you for coming to my Ted Talk 😌.

No, no but hear me out! 😆 Tim Burton is entirely capable of creating this crazy wedding puzzle where the third film finally completes the wedding ceremony once and for all. We’re kinda seeing this wedding play out in parts, starting in the first Beetlejuice, continuing in BJBJ, and hopefully ending (hopefully with them finally married!) in BJ3.

And ok, Lydia and Betelgeuse did sort of say the "I do's" and "exchanged" the rings in the first film, but it wasn't genuine, you see? And it also wasn't complete. Lydia didn't get to say "I do", Betelgeuse did it for her. So the true, genuine "I do's" should be exchanged in the third and final wedding, completing this crazy "wedding puzzle". We should also hear Lydia's vows or see something that represents or symbolizes her vows, like the McArthur Park song symbolizes Beej's vows. Also the vows usually happen before the "I do's", before the final consent of marriage and the pronunciation of "husband and wife" (I mean I suppose not always, but it's been like that at all weddings I've been to, which admittedly hasn't been many lol), so that adds to this wedding puzzle theory I'm cooking up here while sleep-deprived on Tumblr dot com. This puzzle is crazy too bc obviously it’s out of order, but we’re seeing bits and pieces of a wedding playing out, is what I mean 😂.

I'm counting on there being a wedding in BJ3, because Tim Burton said so himself: "It's Beetlejuice, so there's always a wedding". (I'm also super confident we're getting a third film 😅🙏🏻).

Anyway, I hope you like this additional layer of head canon I'm adding to the wedding scene. 💚💜

[herefortheships]

I mean there's always the chance that the second movie is just some weird dream that Beetlejuice caused Lydia to have?

Yes, that certainly is a possibility. I think the ending is pretty ambiguous as to when the dream sequence started, so you can draw your own conclusions. I've talked about my thoughts about it before when I've been asked in this post , and also here, and here just giving my two cents about the ending. Those are my personal interpretations.

Truly the best person to ask about the Dream Theory is no doubt @xxx-theartofsuicide-xxx She is the authority on this theory, with the most detailed and well-researched analysis on it on Tumblr. She makes a solid case, so if you're interested and haven't read it yet, you should go check her analysis out.

[herefortheships]

Você acha que no primeiro filme o casamento seria consumado?

(Answered this one also in English below the "keep reading" cut, because it's a good one and I wanted to share with everyone ✨ Question: "Do you think the marriage was complete in the first film?")

Hola! No sé si traduje bien la pregunta 🙈 Pero si te refieres a que si completaron la boda en la primera peli, yo creo que no tuvieron tiempo para eso. El pobre Betel se lo llevó el gusano de arena antes de que pudieran pronunciarlos marido y mujer tan siquiera. Pero yo sí he llegado a pensar que para Betelgeuse el matrimonio se completó al menos en un sentido personal, aunque no se completara la ceremonia de manera oficial.

Él sí dijo que quería "volverse a casar" con Lydia, o sea, que en un sentido sí consideraba que estaban casados durante todo este tiempo y la segunda boda sería más bien una formalidad para completar la ceremonia. En la segunda podemos tener más imaginación, porque Beej continuará con Lydia y lo vimos en su cama, así que la relación entre ambos continuará desarrollándose. Yo pienso que en la segunda tal vez sí llegaron a completar su boda, pero al violentar el código 699, pues se canceló. Pero Betelgeuse le hace caso a eso? Nope! Sí hace caso y se va cuando Lydia dice su nombre, pero luego ya lo vemos metidito y calentito en su cama 😆 compartiendo su cama como su marido.

Estoy loca de ver cómo verá su relación Betelgeuse en la tercera película. Tal vez ignora por completo que violentó el código y se considera el esposo de Lydia y el nuevo padre de su hija. Le faltaría a Lydia firmar algún documento o algo para hacerlo oficial y liberar a Betelgeuse, si me preguntan a mí. Yo creo que en la tercera ya estarán casados, pero sólo necesitarán hacerlo oficial en papel, de modo que no pueda ser cancelado. Lydia o Betelgeuse quizá tengan que conseguir un loophole ahí, porque si no mal recuerdo, la violación del código 699 anula matrimonios futuros entre vivo y muerto, tengo que revisar eso, pero estoy segura de que ellos hallarán una forma. Quizá casándose por medios del mundo de los vivos, sin tener que ver con las reglas del mundo de los muertos completamente. Ya veremos. 😉

Inglés abajo porque la mayoría aquí hablan inglés y quiero compartir con todos este porque me encantó hablarlo 💜

____ English answer here____

Hi! I don't know if I translated the question well 🙈 But if you mean if they did complete the wedding in the first film, I think they didn't have time for that. Our poor Betel was "eaten" by the sandworm before they were formally pronounced husband and wife. But you know, I've accepted the headcanon that Betelgeuse considers their marriage to have been completed, at least in a personal sense, even if the ceremony was not officially completed.

He did say that he wanted to "remarry" Lydia, the love of his life. That means, in a sense, he did consider himself and Lydia to be married all these years, and the second wedding would be more of a formality to complete the ceremony so he could be free. But in love? I think he's seen himself as her husband all along, to some extent at least.

In the second we can have more freedom to imagine where things will go, because Beej will continue to be with Lydia, and we saw him in her bed, so the relationship between the two will continue to evolve. I think that in the second movie, maybe they did complete their wedding, but by violating code 699, it was canceled. But does Betelgeuse care about that? Nope! He does listen and leaves, back into the Netherworld when Lydia says his name, but then we see him tucked in and warm in her bed 😆 sharing her bed space as her husband.

I'm crazy to see how Betelgeuse will see their relationship in the third film. Maybe he won't give a shit about the code violation and he'll consider himself to be Lydia's husband and the new dad to her daughter. Lydia would only need to sign some document or something to make it official and free Betelgeuse, if you ask me. I think in the third film they will be married, but they need to like finally, make it official in paper, in a way that's not voided. Like, Lydia or Betelgeuse will have to find a loophole there, because I think the code violation will null future marriages as well. I'd have to re-read that, but I'm sure they'll find a way. Maybe by marrying by the rules of the world of the living, without having to involve the rules of the world of the dead completely. We'll see. 😉

[rtfics]

Everything I'm hearing from my friends and ex-coworkers in media is both Winona and Keaton are saying Yes. Keaton especially. Why on earth wouldn't they? Keaton's even said, “Oh yeah, I’d do it (Beetlejuice film) every year, yeah."

Tim Burton, a seasoned pro, would be insulted if people didn't make his 36-year-old baby a smash hit, and if they didn't automatically leap at the idea that Beetlejuice Beetlejuice indicates the possibility, if not probability, of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.

I don't consider myself bad at film analysis -- I used to professionally comment on films, books, and popular culture on NPR to 10 million people. I don't consider people who don't subscribe to any fan's particular headcanon, theory, or interpretation to be greedy and ungrateful. Audiences enjoyed the sequel. They'd love more. That's a natural and, typically, hoped for reaction that warms the heart of any creator.

If Tim Burton appears to be playing coy, that's Burton. Once upon a time he said he'd never do TV. He swore he'd never work with Disney again, and then he did Dumbo. People in the industry know, Tim do that.

If BJ3 happens and it sucks, that'll suck. If it happens and it's good, mazal tov. If it never happens, c'est la vie. Anything and everything can happen, especially in the movie industry. (And even when a project is green lit, and there's tons of money backing it, and there's producers and associate producers and a list for the dream cast is written up, the project may not happen. Trust me, I know this. Don't even get me started. Two words for all aspiring screenwriters about to sign a contract: Kill Fee.)

Anyone can have any opinion they want, that's cool, it's all good. We all of us can pick a theory until the Future shows us otherwise.

funny af to me that WB shortchanged Tim for BJ2 and is now begging him for BJ3 while he's like idk 💅 we'll see

For the record, we don't need BJ3 and y'all are all greedy, ungrateful, and bad at film analysis for thinking we do. If I was Tim, I would be deeply insulted and have a bone to pick with all y'all.

But it's still validating watching them kiss his ass for it. I hope he drags out negotiations for months before telling them "sorry, Winona said no" lmao