#maraclea

[laurelwen]

A brief note: Crossbones

When I was assembling my tarot posts and saw these two cards next to each other, I was struck by something. The angles of Nigel's body echo the crossed bones.

That's it, that's the post.

[in-the-hollows]

Alex: What did you do with the body?

Nigel: What didn’t I do with the body?

Alex:

Nigel: Okay, that sounded more sexual than I intended. I disposed of the corpse respectfully.

[laurelwen]

It's fine go ahead and just hurt my feelings like this ughghghg.

It really could have easily been Nigel who died that night, and I think Nigel knew that and was prepared for that outcome. I think that's why he flinches as he sits there and John swings that gun around in his rage. There were so many variables that I don't think Nigel could really have *known* how the night would turn out. He set the pieces up, and then just had to let them fall where they might. It's like he just NEEDS it all to reach some kind of climax and is willing to accept whatever shape that takes, even if it's not his ideal script. Maybe the fact that it DOES turn out well just further fuels his belief that this was all fated. And maybe it was fated, who are we to say?

And my feelings might be hurt, but now they're all patched up because of these tags. Believe me, I did a lot of staring at walls while writing it.

what an interesting twist it would have been had john killed nigel that night. in his fit of rage and horror, if he fired the rifle and instead of killing poor helen, he killed his only son.

all of alex’s troubles with that boy, everything that nigel did, just to die by john’s hand. his plans ruined, his sacrifice, all that he endured and worshiped; all of it for nothing but also, it would have played perfectly into alex’s hand if he ever believed nigel to be his maraclea.

a tragic accident befalls “the poor fair maiden”. dying at the hands of the man who raised you sounds awfully poetic but it begs the question, would alex have still killed john after that?

[realbeefman]

matching like minds t shirts that read I’M HIS JACK and I’M HIS PIKE

[einarravens]

one of my irl friend made a like minds bookmark for me (and thanks to her anyways) 🥺

📸: credits to my friend for the art and photo (1st pic only) ofc

(it was also given to me during recognition day at our school and I brought it when I'm out of town with my fam :33)

[bloodbathfortwo]

Like minds coded: Gudnyt.

[sweetoneiros]

i have said it before and i will say it again. the feeling that your art gives me is the same feeling that people in history had when they saw van gogh’s madness made material, when they saw the sistine chapel, heaven made real on the ceiling above their heads. humans have always known we have hearts but it is because of artists like you that we know we have souls

i am awestruck by you every single day, by your talent and your humility and you are the most wonderful internet little sibling a person could hope to have

so no head?

drawing inspired by @lunior-art my love 🫵🫶

there’s like 6 different items under the cut, feel free to explore.

different colorings because i’m indecisive (the one on the left was the original)

without background and the weird halo thingy

and the sketches (the window took me 2 hours alone)

i have a version where he doesn’t have eyes either but i’m not going to include that, you guys have seen enough.

[theotherrichardpapen]

david levithan

[mew-the-classic-peach]

Nigel Colbie lives rent-free in Alex Forbes's head

Just other random thoughts about Like Minds.

The majority of Alex and Nigel's story is narrated by Alex, adopting the style of an "unreliable narrator." Nigel's parents have all been killed, and since Nigel is a new student, there are very few people who knew him well enough, and only Alex - his former roommate - is thought to have known Nigel well enough to testify about him. Alex is introduced as having an ideal profile - highly intelligent with impeccable achievements, according to his father and even the detective. While many people can describe Alex's personality, only Alex can describe Nigel's. It almost seems as though Nigel only exists in Alex's mind and memories.

Additionally, Nigel frequently appears or stands behind Alex in many scenes. Due to their height difference, Nigel's mouth is at ear level with Alex, creating the impression that Nigel is whispering into his ear. In a sense, Nigel is like a presence that is intimately connected to Alex, and only Alex possesses the ability to hear and feel him most deeply.

Using the same vision as when Nigel approached Alex, Alex also approaches another "target" from behind toward the end of the movie. 

Now he's Jack, or more accurately, Nigel's Jack. He had his Maraclea, and they found their eternity.

Visit my WordPress for a full Like Minds review & analysis.  

[currentlyonstandbi]

that trope where two lovers are reincarnated over and over with no memory of their past lives but always end up finding each other because they’re destined to be together but with nigel and alex

[mew-the-classic-peach]

Bye Alex, your Maraclea got himself another tall psychopath murderer  🐧

I existed for him, only for him

The Corinthian/Nigel Colbie

“It was like looking at a teenage and, perhaps, more innocent version of Dream. If such a thing had ever existed.

Why the boy seemed to recognize him, on the other hand, turned out to be a real mystery.”

Keep reading

[laurelwen]

Breakdown and Comparison of the Books in Like Minds

So a careful viewer will notice that Nigel's bible and Alex's bible are clearly two completely different books. As @currentlyonstandbi also pointed out to me, the movie soundtrack underlines this by having two separate tracks titled "Nigel's Bible" and "Alex's Bible". The difference between the two is obvious in the two photos below.

We get glimpses of a few pages inside each of these books, and a side by side comparison will show that while they are different books, there are certain shared images that are suggestive of a few conclusions.

The first commonality is the use of the map insert seen above. Both maps appear to be exactly the same image, depicting the Mediterranean and the Holy Land during the time of the Crusades when the Templars were active. The map in Nigel's book is clearly larger and from the color of the paper seems to be somewhat older. Alex's map seems to be pulled from a different, newer source.

Both books also contain the same image of a man: Thomas Becket. It is hard to tell if this is merely the effect of the difference in lighting in each scene, but Nigel's version again appears somewhat yellowed, as if it was cut from an older book, while Alex's version seems more like a photocopy. Included below is the original of that image, as well as the art added in Alex's version, depicting the murder of Becket.

When Alex returns from his thwarted date with Susan, he throws Nigel's book across the room. It opens to this page, with an original pencil or charcoal drawing of a modern girl, and artwork depicting a skull inside a chalice or grail.

Alex's book also contains the same skull and cup image, but no copy of the sketch. This stands to reason, given that it appears to be an original drawing rather than an image pulled from an existing text. The same difference in paper color between the two versions is noticeable.

When we look at the images of the cover of Nigel's book (as seen in the Maraclea image above) we can see that the spine is smaller and that the pages seem to be full or nearly full. Alex's book seems to have a wider spine, and is clearly only partially filled, with many more blank pages remaining.

Conclusions and Analysis:

There are a couple different lines of thought one can pursue with this information. First: what happened to Nigel's book? We know that Alex can't have gone back to his room after Nigel died and therefore had no opportunity to hide it. We also don't actually know if he returned it to Nigel after reading it. One imagines that it would have been in either his room or Nigel's secret room, but we know from his conversations with Sally that it was found in neither location. It is possible that Alex is correct in his assertion that the Order removed it before the police could find it, or that the police chief (who was a member of the Order) had it removed from evidence.

The other possibility is that Alex was the true mastermind behind the events of the film, and that Nigel's book was an invention/exaggeration based on his OWN book to serve his depiction of Nigel. This seems less likely for one important reason: where was his book when the police investigated? Surely it would have been found, unless he had previously hidden it in some secret location never mentioned in the film.

The simplest explanation is that Nigel's book existed and was removed by the Order to preserve their secret lore, and Alex used the 9 months after Nigel's death to recreate his book from memory. We know from his conversation with Sally that he was completely engrossed by Nigel's book (though he tries to back pedal immediately after that). Obviously, he wouldn't have been able to recall or track down every piece of ephemera used, particularly not the metal badge or coin or the snippets of original documents or rare texts.

He also couldn't include the original drawing of the girl, probably done by Nigel himself and clearly placed next to the skull image as a reference to the Maraclea legend. Was this drawing meant to be Susan herself? Given that the moment this image is shown is almost certainly concurrent with the murder of Susan, it seems clear that a parallel is being drawn by the filmmaker. But unlike Susan in the movie, the hair is braided with bangs (Susan has no bangs and never appears with a braid), and the girl has an open collar showing a necklace with a cross pendant (also not in line with how Susan dresses in the film). We must also consider that this page is closer to the front of Nigel's book, implying that it has been there for a while. It's possible the drawing could have been pasted in later over whatever was on that page previously, or it could have entirely predated his interactions with Susan and Alex.

The end of the film highlights the fact that Alex believes in the Maraclea legend and obviously implies that Susan was his Maraclea. Nigel's 2 page Maraclea spread would have stood out in Alex's memory given the circumstances under which he first saw it and then the events which later transpired. While he couldn't have recreated the same drawing for his book, it is notable that he didn't attempt to create a similar spread with the skull/chalice image using another drawing or picture of a girl, including one of Susan herself.

Why didn't he?

The movie will never answer this question, but I'm firmly convinced it is because Nigel is his true Maraclea.

[Like Minds Masterpost]

[not-a-heretic]

boyfriends

-

wouldn’t be like minds fanart if i didn’t have a bloody version. i think i like this version better than the others :(

reference

[realbeefman]

if we take the phrasing “lady OF maraclea” as stated in the legend then i think. the train can be viewed as maraclea. alex’s domain. which would make the final confrontation happening on the tracks even more tragic because. nigel would’ve meant to bury him there, under those tracks. and it would mean nigel. nigel who alex describes as being obsessed with not “letting down” the bloodline. nigel obsessed with all things dead colbie. at the critical moment, saw alex in mortal danger, and chose to pull him from the tracks in an ultimate betrayal of what he believed himself predestined to do. in nigel’s mind he perverted the course of fate itself by killing himself so that his jack might live.

[realbeefman]

it's the taboo it's the ultimate transgressive desire it's lust it's grief it’s need at it's rawest and dirtiest. did you love her or the body. was she ever more than the flesh more than the meat. when is the point of no return? when does she stop being desirable? stick it in the freezer to slow down time and stop the clock you know isn't ticking. embalm the pretty corpse and make her look alive again. close enough to the memory? close enough to breathe? true enough? shadows on the cave wall and the pleasure in being deceived. remove the soul and all there is is the body. when did the body stop being hers. does it ever? isn't he all in YOUR head anyways? when does the clock really stop? when do you stop listening for it? when do you stop noticing the space between the memory and reality? when do the dead really die. when does the hand snaking up that cool, familiar body stop being about wishmaking and pretend-playing and turn into masturbation. where does she stop after the death. where do you begin.

do i want to fuck a corpse no. do i think about it incessantly yes

[bloodbathfortwo]

Sometimes I'd like to think Nigel and Alex ran away together, Living in Paris with Nigel's family fortune, and picking up a nameless homeless child that Nigel names after his mother, Alex was fully against that but Nigel had already processed the papers. Not only is Alex aware of the nature of Nigel's relationship with his deceased mother but he decided to name this kid after Helen solely because she looked like her and had this tender feeling.

Then the following year, Alex comes home with another stray, bathes her, fed her and dressed her. Helen was absolutely elated that she finally has a sister, when Nigel finally gets home he's perplexed: Why the hell is there a kid in our living room? Nigel marches all the way to the kitchen where he finds Alex and little Helen cooking up a feast.

Nigel questions who the hell is that and Alex simply replies, "Our kid" Nigel is completely conflicted by this but not against it. He believes that this is what fate had wanted them to have. If this is what his unprincipled man wants, then let him be.

They treated the new addition to their family fairly, Helen and her had gone along well and while they were processing the papers Alex did a little bit of editing.

Alex named their youngest Susan, after Alex's Deceased Maraclea. I'm pretty sure there's a reason why Nigel called her a wench, there's a tone of hatred to him and he hates Susan. Nigel was completely against this but Alex was feeling petty and he wanted to get back at him for it.