#i want a fmv so badly...........where can i buy some TALENT

[archieism]

Sea Lion + Archie omg please please please

list en . songs that fit characters even slightly make me go CRAZY

the sad reckless energy of sea lion…. the absent mother lyrics…... (look what i did, ma / look what i did to my hands, i broke ‘em / you gave me the stone, gave me the chisel / didn’t say how to hold ‘em) the imagery of hands and mental spiraling….. the themes of selflessness and giving and giving until you deplete yourself and trying even then at your own expense……. (didn’t say to give away every piece of the puzzle / till i was left with nothin’ / but i took it upon myself to crush it up / and distribute the dust)

the rampant recklessness of trying to prove yourself....... (i’ll take him out for some gasoline / trade this cow for some magic beans / gonna make mom proud of the deals that i made / ‘cause i’m just a modern day johnny appleseed) the few lines alluding to using sexual encounters as coping mechanisms…. (no, i know no one said it was gonna be easy / but sweet jesus who wants to sleep with me? too many moves to learn / not enough people to put ‘em on) there’s literally a line about ‘cryptic gang men’ imdkvs hello (brains and bloods and cryptic gang men/ tzars and warlords breaking bread) and a few musical references, one piano-leaning technically, but more actually singing-related…..

the end of the last verse tapering off to a tentative hope and resolve…. (but i sing a different song / of how the wheres and whys of now all prove i don’t belong / but i’m staying / i’ve planted seeds and plan to watch them grow) paralleling archie’s s4 arc with the community center and sudden dedication to riverdale as a town despite all the ways in which it’s hurt him, to honor his dad’s legacy……

(the rest under a cut bc it be like that sometimes)

i’m DEVASTATED. the song literally starts out with an audio clip that says ‘a healthy distrust’ which makes me go insane as a general theme because apparently(?) some sea lion mothers leave their young if they can’t get enough food for themselves or something, which isn’t that bizarre, but they’re also prone to being a bit sensitive to disturbances from their resting spots (psa not to bug seals if u see them on beaches), not coming back from feeding offshore and abandoning their pups if need be. and while i don’t think mary’s a bad person at ALL or that she’s even a bad mother, but you could say she’s not a bad mother because she hasn’t really been a mother at all. but due to her being a generally cool person, i forget that absent parental roles (whether it’s just one or both) can really fuck you up in your developmental years.

and from season 1 episode 1 to the present, we see adults time and time again take advantage of and / or manipulate archie, often twisting his goodness specifically to their gain at the expense of himself. and yet despite this, archie actually seems to continue to just blindly trust adults around him if they seem relatively harmless at first, or even just harmless to him or his loved ones?? he’s starting to be a little wary now that season 4′s rolled around with like frank or whatever, but he’s still very open and forgiving, even when he tries to put his foot down every now and again. but it’s super fascinating to me that this is the case, as you’d expect his trust in any adult figures to be virtually demolished at this point, whether it be by active harm to him / those around him, or passive non-action that leaves people hurt / him feeling like he’s the only one that will actually do anything to help anyone. yet he continues to trust, despite a little healthy distrust being pretty appropriate if not encouraged at this point in his life. 

the entire vibe of this song to me is fending for yourself. which is the definition of most of the kids on riverdale, but the combination of symbolism specifically (music/singing/broken hands/absent mother/dead father/the reckless selflessness that almost feels more like a desperate attempt to prove one’s self worthy of importance) feels more on brand for archie than any of the others to me. and that illustration of not really knowing what to do with yourself because you were never taught how, at least not pertaining to what life ended up throwing at you (sometimes literally just because the things you end up needing to learn could never have been anticipated by your parents, especially in archie’s case), so you’re just gonna try everything even if it kills you is so BEAUTIFULLY portrayed, so lyrically fluent and succinct, i’m just . going thru it . and the closing lines of resolving to work with what you have to help make the world a better place, even if it’s mostly guesswork that’s gotten you this far. how you’re gonna make the best of what’s happened, what you couldn’t control, and people are gonna do what they do and probably accidentally make things worse, but you and your life and your actions have a complicated elegance to them now that almost feels like only you can understand as a result, but you’re still moving at all and it doesn’t feel like you’re killing yourself to do it anymore and that’s what matters, even if only you can truly know how hard you’ve worked just to do that.

(i’ve decided i’ve been invited to my own resort / where knights can leave their armor neatly piled by the door / and every woman, child, and man will gather by the shore / and study how sea lions swim in cursive)

idk i just think it fits archie in all the right places and i think it’s rly neat.