#bigger than me interpretation

[minty364]

DPXDC Prompt #89

Danny didn’t know what would happen when his parents portal turned on for the first time but this wasn’t it. He accidentally turned it on and the next thing he knew he was in front of this pool of green swirling liquid with this lady named Talia telling him she’d take care of him. The weird thing is he was now half dead with weird ghost powers and he somehow was turned back into a 5 year old. He met a kid the same age as him and the two quickly became inseparable, his name was Damian and even though he was to be the next head of what Danny assumed was a cult, he knew it was but he was in the body of a 5 year old and couldn’t exactly go home like this.

5 years pass and Danny gets sent along with Damian to Gotham to live with Damian’s birth father Bruce Wayne. Danny didn’t want to go at first but Bruce seemed to welcome him with open arms regardless of his background with the league. Everything is going well for the 2 until Danny meets Tim’s secretary, it’s Sam and she absolutely did not know how to handle her now smaller best friend. Tucker is doing an internship at Wayne Tech too.

[kurokmask]

*aqua voice* TERRAHHH

there is no greater pain that being unable to draw ur fav. terra for whatever reason has just been SOOO hard for me to draw. n i finally after over a yr have made something i think i actually like YAY

terra baby i love you so much

[kaurwreck]

I don't know why it's so common to characterize Kunikida's willingness to sacrifice himself for his ideals as suicidality or inevitable. It's so short sighted, and neglectful of the relationship between existence, life, and death profferred by Bungou Stray Dogs.

I came to the decision when I was seven that anything worth devoting myself to must be worth dying for, too. Not because I thought I would inevitably be asked or because I wanted to die (that wouldn't manifest for another two years). But because there are some things that transcend me, and those are the things into which I want to concentrate my immense but nevertheless limited energy, love, time, and will.

I don't know what's difficult to understand about there being some things worth dying for (or that maybe death is an end, rather than the end). But there are (and for some of us, it is).

[raindrvq]

god tiktokers cannot stand when u call them out for their lack of media literacy you try and explain why a lesbian song doesn't fit a mlm ship and they get so defensive 😭 like not everything is a personal attack on u bro

[wavesoutbeingtossed]

I have thoughts about the TTPD speculation/two years/loneliness/sharing feelings through songs train but I'm putting them under a cut because. Yeah.

OK, so I'm giving a warning:

I'm talking about BTTWS, but NOT about the speculation/inspiration behind it. Just about the feelings in it and the Midnights of it all/the idea that sharing the difficult things brings comfort/companionship. So getting that out of the way so we can remove that part of the discourse out of it.

Regardless of whatever the inspiration/event behind BTTWS may be, whether it's about a loved one or personal, I've long felt that its inclusion on Midnights, an album about things that have kept her up at night, is significant in the feelings it portrays.

For instance, we can be fairly certain that Taylor wasn't actually turning in Scooter B. to the FBI and conspiring with his ex-wife to bring him down (or was she?) in Vigilante Shit, just as we can safely guess that she probably did actually pick up that pebble in Wicklow that reminded her of a peaceful time in Sweet Nothing. The line between fiction/reality, personal vs. narrative matters less on Midnights in this case than the feelings she was expressing in the songs, which are very personal and truthful. The revenge fantasy in Vigilante Shit is her working through her anger over having her masters sold and how she's fought hard to have the last laugh over someone who is a sworn enemy. Sweet Nothing is her reflecting on the dichotomy of her (presumed) quiet home life she felt was safe and the noise of the outside world. (Now, we might speculate on why she was ruminating on this, but that's another story.)

So with that preamble out of the way, BTTWS's inclusion in the tracklist I feel is just as important, again regardless of the inspiration behind it or her personal connection to it. Even if it is a song about someone other than herself, including it as the only "not personal/not diaristic" song on an album as ostensibly self-reflective as Midnights would stick out if that were thecase, though obviously it's her album so she can do whatever she wants and could have her own reasons. (Just like she included Ronan on Red and Soon You'll Get Better on Lover about similar themes, it could just be a tribute to a loved one.) But given all the thematic arcs and parallels on Midnights, I do feel like it's there to include a specific set of feelings being processed, even if the origin on the feelings may or may not be her own. (I'm trying to be really sensitive in my word choices here, hope they make sense.)

BTTWS is a song about loss and grief, and specifically the fallout of an event outside of her/the narrator's control. The person in the song has nothing to turn to to deal with their pain: no faith to guide them, no wisdom to tell them everything will be alright. Throughout the song there is a pervasive sense of isolation: everything is over, they're living without something that was once theirs but suddenly was not. It captures the fog and confusion of living through a painful event without having any way to process. She even says from the start that, "no words appear before me in the aftermath," which for someone like Taylor who has stated over and over how writing is literally how she processes her life would be the ultimate reflection of the depths of her hurt.

(To be clear I do not think this is a song about a breakup whatsoever: IMO it clearly is not about a relationship dissolution of any kind. I just think that the feelings of grief and loneliness in the song may have felt relevant to whatever she was going through during the time the album was coalescing in 2021-22.)

Knowing what we know now about at the very least the period between 2021-2023, Taylor was going through a time of significant difficulty in her life behind the scenes, which is how The Tortured Poets Department came to be, right on the heels of her completing Midnights sometime in early 2022. She has said herself that making TTPD was a lifeline, that she had to keep writing to deal with whatever it was that she was experiencing and going through. And as I posted about earlier today, she's also said repeatedly on tour that not only is writing about her feelings how she processes her pain and loneliness, but that then sharing that music with fans brings her great comfort because it makes her feel less lonely to know people understand and relate to what she's going through.

And we know that she has self-edited her albums over the years (including Midnights) to protect herself and perhaps even the subjects of her songs, which we have seen with the inclusion of the vault/bonus tracks in the re-records and on Midnights. Obviously some of these reasons are logistical -- album was too long, cut songs sounded too much like others, maybe she or her producers felt the ones that were originally chosen were stronger, narrative or sonic cohesion, etc. -- but with what we've seen over the last few years, these songs also filled in the lines of the stories being told and reframed the narrative being told.

Nowhere is that clearer than with You're Losing Me, for example. It's pretty obvious why it was held back: presumably she wouldn't want to release a song about a relationship at its breaking point when she was still actively in the relationship. Yet as soon as the relationship ended, she released it, we can only assume because of her realization that sharing the music and having people respond to it validates her feelings and makes her feel embraced, as it were. Then with the announcement of TTPD and how it's been brewing for essentially the intervening period between when YLM was written and now, we can also surmise that these songs will be dealing with feelings she also felt the need to hold back for whatever reason at the time, but has now decided should be out there so she can feel more whole.

So coming back to BTTWS, it being included on Midnights the way that it was strikes me as a form of sharing feelings that may have been too difficult to process. Again, not implying I have any insight into what the origin of the song is about, or imposing my own beliefs onto her, or that she was sending some sort of secret message with its inclusion! But thematically, BTTWS deals with an intense loss and feeling completely unmoored and alone as a result, which is present in her other work. And that the dreams the narrator once held have gone up in smoke, leaving her reeling about what's to come next. She's cut off from the world because of the event, unable to speak about or grasp what has happened. Similar feelings are also explored in You're Losing Me for instance, and even Dear Reader (not to mention on past albums like evermore, this is me trying, arguably hoax, etc.). Just reading context clues from TTPD and her surprise song choices of late, I don't think it's outrageous to presume some of those emotions are going to be present on the new album as well.

So this is just a long-winded way of saying, I feel like the sense of loss, confusion and uncertainty about the future likely resonated with both what she had gone through in the past, and the story as a whole she was trying to tell on Midnights. And while the origin may or may not be personal or relevant to the new story she's going to tell, I also feel like these same kinds of themes are going to be present on TTPD because they're so important for her to share. (I could even mention that the response to BTTWS may even provide evidence that people sharing their experiences in general brings comfort to those going through it, but that may be veering too far into parasocial "why did Taylor do X" speculative territory.) She sings about these kinds of all-consuming losses so eloquently and mindfully that I know the new album is going to be an absolute gut punch.

(not being self-promotional but I delved a little deeper into the Midnights 3am tracks including this one a few months ago so it's why it's top of mind and why the connections and thematic parallels are so resonant to me lately.)

[rookflower]

if youre going to live by those different typical body types for each clan headcanons you gotta commit to it you cant make all the thunderclan and riverclan female characters skinny and dainty regardless

[marley-manson]

I have this impression of film analysis being relatively concrete at its core due to its tendency to always come back to the camera as a focal point. Filmic language is almost all about the camera - types of shots, takes, angles, pans, what is focused on, what is cropped out of the frame, how editing ties these shots together, how sound and music can affect the impression of the visual image, etc. You can draw a multitude of conclusions in terms of theme and meaning, but your building blocks being constructed visuals mean they usually don’t leave a ton of wiggle room for interpretation of what we’re actually seeing.

Like I have no doubt in my mind that this shot is meant to be an anonymous soldier on the cross:

This is deliberately framed to only show non-identifying details - blood and green fatigues and boots. This could’ve been a long shot, we could’ve pulled out to view him in his entirety, or we could’ve cut to his face, and if his face was important, we absolutely would have. So he’s not just anonymous, he’s anonymous for a reason, and imo the reason is so he can represent all soldiers. He’s not a soldier, he’s Soldier as a concept. This is essentially confirmed, imo, by the next shot:

with the soldiers on the tables matching the soldier on the cross in their bloody fatigues. No white sheets hiding the bodies the way we usually see operations, just green and red, like the lower legs in the previous shot, in direct visual parallel.

So if he’s meant to be someone specific then Alan Alda fucked up as a director, basically.

Of course, the meaning is still up in the air. It’s as close to facts as I think you can get that the soldier on the cross represents every soldier, but what that means for Mulcahy, well, that’s where more subjective interpretation comes in.

Anyway that poll made me want to kinda say something about my take and why there’s virtually no doubt in my mind about it. Film has a lot of room for interpretation, sometimes even in terms of understanding shots and “reading” the filmic language, but this is a pretty straightforward visual imo. Plus I just like seizing the opportunity for close readings lol.

[chirpsythismorning]

Reading some articles on Smalltown Boy (1984) and noticed they always mention Margaret Thatcher. Which reminds me of in s2 when Karen mentions Margaret Thatcher like moments after/before we get a shot of a Reagan sign on the Wheeler’s front lawn…

Can someone explain to me what Karen’s comment meant?

I’m just wondering what we’re expected to assume based on what’s being alluded to here??.

[ganymedesclock]

[Mechanic & Battlemage] [Special Units]

Resistance units finished! Featuring the actual senior rookie (not around enough to usurp Luca's ostensible 'leader' position) and the babiest of baby units. I felt it was appropriate to make Belle the one who got a student last considering that when her class first came out, all the official art just depicted her.

Lottie's cover story is she ditched Edelstein to be an independent adventurer and she hates that it's kind of almost true.

Nobody forced Echo to go do violence. This was mostly their idea. Almost all their gear is hand-me-downs.

[caenor-au]

your physical body and your mental body being radically different gives you such specific ass dysphoria i hate it. why can't real life also have incredibly complex customising screens that allow you to always have the exact appearance you're after

[cookie-dough-writes]

I was never really around for old fandom culture but Oh my god I feel like we need to bring some of that attitude back. Bring back the word squick, I BEG. Some times in life people indulge in questionable stuff which might make you yourself uncomfortable, that's great, it's good to know what you don't like, but some times you just have to move on. You don't need to send a paragraph to someone explainging ummm their [harmless] take was totally wrong or that they're an evil person for making something a bit questionable.

It's good practice to breathe and move on. You need to pick your battles. Telling someone to kill themself over a POST ONLINE, no matter how dodgy, just is not constructive and rarely blows off steam. Just breathe, and move on.

[neixins]

the sword and shield part of the prophecy is soooo vague that i’ll rotate every possible theory inside my silly little head and then go “or it could be smth else”. absolute net zero conclusions reached but i had fun.

[septembersghost]

the grief of bigger than the whole sky speaking more directly to how i feel about myself and the dead girl whose existence illness stole and whose breath i walk around invisibly in, and the ghost i feel like i am, and the way i constantly mourn her because she never got to live, she never got to accomplish her goals, she never got to follow her dreams, she never got to fall in love...all those experiences i once thought i would have and know, have known for basically half my life now, will never be, because illness and pain consumed everything i was and all the potential i once had...nothing has ever spoken to that so directly, and it's the one song where i feel like...it becomes so personal depending on what individual trauma and grief we live with and that haunts our minds at night...that girl i was ultimately existed for such a brief moment, she started to die as a teenager, i was still in many ways a child when my future began to crumble, but she was more than just a short time...i have a lot to pine about, i have a lot to live without...every single thing i've touched for my entire adulthood has become sick with sadness...i'm never going to meet what could've been, would've been, should've been...it resonates so painfully close and nothing else has ever quite expressed that before and it makes me cry, but i'm also thankful for it because it gives me a frame for the way that grief affects me. for that she herself is a haunted house feeling. there so often haven't been words, and she gave me words.

[helianskies]

oh my god interpreting is stressful what have i done to myself

[cryptid-on-a-string]

why tf is this one teacher so creepy to me specifically

[spiderziege]

19, 21 and 22 for the ask game? :)

19) How often do you draw?

hmm almost every day atm? not super long each day, especially when ive got work, but in general im drawing pretty frequently atm. it kinda comes in phases tho, sometimes ill draw every day for a while and then not at all for a week or two. always depends on when the inspiration hits

21) something you would like to improve on

drawing interiors! especially with interesting perspectives. also expressions, i always have a hard time with those

22) what inspires you?

well. hermitcraft, mostly lol. but generally i think that interesting settings inspire me a lot. in any media i always look for good worldbuilding & interesting characters more than a good and concise story, and i think thats also usually what inspires me to make fanart. if that makes sense

ask game