#something something romeo and juliet parallels

[rhellireda]

crying over ‘the lady of the lake’ episode in the 2 thousandth and 23rd year of lord you know, like a normal person

[dlzdrz]

Fionna and Cake 1.07 "The Star"

Romeo + Juliet (1996) dir. Baz Luhrmann

[merrilygreen]

FOUR DAYS LEFT COME ON

THEY WON’T WIN BUT WE CAN AT LEAST EVEN IT OUT A LITTLE BIT

More quotes, submitter's comments, and credits for photos under the cut!

Mercutio and Benvolio

Additional quote I picked out:

Mercutio technically calls Benvolio hot here, just saying

Submitter's comments:

Hamlet and Horatio

Additional quotes I picked out:

let's get this one out of the way

an earlier part of Hamlet's "passion's slave" speech shown above, essentially saying "my soul chose you as its own":

Hamlet persuading Horatio not to kill himself over his, Hamlet's, imminent death:

Submitter's comments:

(^ yep, I got 10 submissions total, the joint most of anyone)

Photos:

Mercutio & Benvolio: The Globe, 2015

Hamlet & Horatio: Hamlet (2009) TV movie by the Royal Shakespeare Company

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Writing Notes: Subplots

Subplot - a side story that runs parallel to the main plot.

It has a secondary strand of characters and events that can infuse important information into the main storyline.

Also known as a minor story, a subplot creates a richer, more complex narrative arc in novel writing and other storytelling mediums.

When crafting a narrative, a writer’s job is to create a compelling story.

One way to do that is through subplots—secondary storylines found in novels, plays, television shows, and movies.

In creative writing, a subplot can reveal more about secondary characters, create plot twists, and add another dimension to a story.

Most importantly, a good subplot raises the stakes for a main character.

An Example: Romeo and Juliet

William Shakespeare weaves several subplots throughout this tragic love story.

The backstory of the long-running feud between rival families, the Capulets and Montagues, creates the central conflict in the play—two young lovers from warring families desperate to find a way to be together.

The subplots involving the warring families create dramatic plot points that escalate the tension, like when Romeo’s best friend Mercutio is killed by Juliet’s cousin Tybalt.

4 Types of Subplots

When coming up with writing ideas to enhance your main plot, think of using one or more subplots. These could include any of the following:

Mirror subplot: A smaller-scale conflict mirrors the main character’s in order to teach them a valuable lesson or illuminate how to resolve the conflict.

Contrasting subplot: A secondary character faces similar circumstances and dilemmas as the main character but makes different decisions with the opposite outcome.

Complicating subplot: A secondary character makes matters worse for the main character.

Romantic subplot: The main character has a love interest, and this relationship complicates the main plot.

6 Tips for Writing Better Subplots

When you’re writing a book, always brainstorm the best subplot ideas that can deepen the tension and make your main character’s scenario more complex.

Try these tips when you craft your next narrative:

Ensure that your subplots play second fiddle.

A subplot exists to support your main storyline but should never overpower it.

Subplots should end before the main plot.

The exception to this rule is a romantic subplot, which often concludes in the final scene.

Give your subplots a narrative arc.

Subplots are stories, too.

Create a narrative framework for each, though on a smaller scale than your main plot.

Use this technique to tell a supporting character’s story that affects the protagonist’s actions.

You might even incorporate flashbacks as a subplot, mirroring a character’s journey with something that happened in their earlier days, like high school.

Write character-driven subplots.

Just like your main story, characters should drive the action in a subplot.

Create foils that can highlight qualities in your main character.

These characters will either help or hinder the protagonist in the story.

Try a new POV.

Your subplot might provide information that your main character is unaware of.

If your main plot is told in first person, try changing the point of view in the subplot to third person.

Figure out how to connect the subplot and the main plot.

There are numerous ways to use subplots.

A parallel subplot runs throughout the entirety of the story, showing different sides of the same plot.

This builds suspense as the reader waits for the two plots to collide (think The Fugitive).

You can also write small, isolated subplots.

Briefly introduce a character who drops in early on, then revisit their journey near the end of the story to shed light on the deeper meaning of your main plot.

Ramp up the tension with a subplot.

Propel your main story with information revealed in your side stories.

Subplots are a strong medium for foreshadowing events, so use them to drop hints and clues.

Source ⚜ Writing Notes & References

[iicarusflew]

dude.

that scene where oliver confronts james after he broke his nose ... it's a love confession. god. it is. you’re like a bird. this fragile, elusive thing. if i could catch you, I could crush you.

(why is this romantic as hell and back? nothing anyone would ever say to me would be as romantic and crushing and full of terrible desperate yearning as this)

and then james says that line from romeo & juliet balcony scene. something something about it translating into i hate myself because i’ve done something hateful to you.

it's like when oliver told colbourn that as actors they felt two things at the same time, what their characters felt and what they were feeling. so james is trussed up and confused with his actions and in love with oliver and quoting ROMEO MONTAGUE. this isn't duality, it's parallel. it's one thing on top of other.

...and of course the scene ends with oliver holding james's hand over his heart and james staring at it like he's just realised... the enormity of this. this unspeakable thing.

[writing-for-life]

The Mortifying Ordeal of Being Known

Or: Does Morpheus really have commitment issues?

[Bear with me, I’ll get to this panel 🤣]

I’ve read many times that Morpheus supposedly has commitment issues, and it always has me scratching my head a bit…

I personally rather think he is desperate to commit. He so badly craves a serious relationship that he is prone to rush into it and build it on wonky foundations, but he has certainly no commitment issues as we would commonly understand them.

Is it in his nature though to be truly seen and understood when he is [a] Dream? And can dreams ever last? These are the much more interesting questions in my view. Let’s have a look at the romantic relationships we know of…

Killalla: Walked out on him. That wasn’t his lack of commitment. If anything, he came on a bit strong while she was still assessing her feelings for him.

Alianora: He fully committed to her despite basically being bullied into it by Desire. And they were happy for “a goodly while”. For those in doubt: “Goodly” doesn’t mean “a bit”. It means “great, large, long.” And the fact that Alianora couldn’t go back to her own plane because she had stayed in the Dreaming too long corroborates that they were together for a long time. Probably longer than any human relationship ever lasts, because I doubt “a long time” means “a couple of years” for someone who is 12 billion years old.

And now I’ll sandwich the relationship we hardly know anything about between some random (?) panels to also make a point why I think it might sit here in the timeline…

Titania: Who knows. Sounded like an affair, and as if they both had no intention of committing. He was clearly very fond of her though, and I can never shake the feeling that we should look a bit deeper into AMND and find the parallels between Auberon, Titania (not hard, and they are pretty much pictured as estranged) and Bottom. There are many ways to get confused with a jackass, you know? 🤣 Plus, Bottom is the one who gets to play Pyramus in “Pyramus and Thisbe”. That’s the ultimate blueprint for “Romeo and Juliet”: Ill-fated love of catastrophic proportions, people are dead by the end of it. That’s why I often wondered if the affair with Titania was actually pre-Nada, and the inspiration for Shakespeare wasn’t random (it wasn’t random for The Tempest either). I mean, it wasn’t random anyway because it was a parting gift, but I also don’t think it was entirely random with regard to their relationship. Wild head-canon of course, but maybe not that wild (he also says that Wendel’s Mound was already a theatre before humans walked the earth, so there’s that)? And even if he wasn’t committed (we quite frankly don’t know if he intended to but she didn’t or couldn’t), she and the Fae meant enough to him to give them a play as a parting gift.

Nada: Killed herself after one night, but that wasn’t down to lack of commitment on his part. Again: If anything, he came on far too strong, wanted to be with her and was far too pushy about it.

Calliope: We don’t know how long they were together before they had Orpheus. Could have been a while, could have been only a shortish time. But even if we assumed they had him fairly quickly—they were still together when Orpheus, who was mortal, got married to Eurydice, so even if he got married young, we’re still talking something in the realm of +/- 20 years, and that’s the absolute low-ball-estimate. And while they had started to drift apart (considering what we know from Calliope), they were still on good terms and had no intention of splitting up until the whole Orpheus drama caused a rift they couldn’t mend. Again: That’s not someone who has commitment issues. It’s a relationship breaking down over hurt, stubbornness and grief.

Thessaly: Again, she was the one who left him and caused his dramatic interlude in the rain. Were they ill suited? Yes. Did she feel neglected and went into a strop over it? Yes. Did he not get that she felt neglected? Also yes, but that’s not lack of commitment. That’s his not getting that people aren’t mind readers (must be hard if you’re probably one yourself 🤣) and, by and large, need assurances of love. He doesn’t get that these women don’t understand they have his love; he can’t grasp that line of thinking because it is all so clear to him when he loves someone: They have him, what’s the issue? Is that a not so great way of (not) communicating when you’re having a relationship to someone? Absolutely. Is it a commitment issue though? Absolutely not.

I think Morpheus doesn’t really have commitment issues in romantic relationships—wouldn’t that almost be antithetical to his nature? Rules and responsibilities. Yeah, about that one…

What I do think is that he struggles with the mortifying ordeal of being (not) known by his lovers. Because how could he? He is Dream. That is his problem. Dreams cannot be fully known or understood. He is very eloquent but at the same time a very… confusing communicator. I don’t want to say “bad”, because I feel that’s not getting to the bottom of it. Again, it is the nature of dreams to be confusing and strange, open to (mis)interpretation, hard to grasp and understand. And they also stop being dreams once they become real. All of that is true and hence makes relationships both hard for him and those involved. Is he truly not willing to commit though?

I still find that hard to believe…

[queen-morgana91]

Do you think that Lyanna and Rhaegar were seriously in love?

Yes. It’s literally so plain to see, you have to dig your nails deep in denial to think otherwise. You can read between the lines that GRRM wrote them as lovers.

GRRM has described himself as a romantic and ultimately R+L will be framed romantically (yes yes it has problematic implications when you think about it, but so do many other relationships that the series frames romantically, not least because these books were written with thirty-year-old sexual mores).

He dies with her name on his lips, she with his roses in her hand.

The subversion of “dragon kidnaps girl and valiant lover knight fights a war to save his beloved from her tower” when in truth the “knight” turns out to be a bit of a manwhoring douch who slept with every woman he came across, and the girl loved the dragon he slayed.

The gender subversion of the beautiful Princess with the beautiful voice and the valiant knight who stands up for the weak.

The tale of Bael the Bard, in which a Stark maid associated with winter roses disappears with a singer and comes back with their son. A male relative takes part in his killing and presents it to her as some kind of victory, but it actually breaks her heart, and she dies “by tower”.

Lyanna being heavily asscoicated to Winter Roses which were given to her by non other than Rhaegar Targaryen when he named her his Queen of Love and Beauty. Roses in general are a symbol of love while the blue rose adds a hint of mystique and in attanining the impossible.

Rhaegar, the emo Prince, who was said to have been never truly happy, named the place he stayed at with Lyanna the “Tower of Joy.”

Dany seeing a blue flower growing out of a wall of ice, which filled the air with sweetness in the HotU during the love section of her visions. It's a clear hint of Jon Snow being the love child of Rhaegar and Lyanna who will likely also be Dany’s third and final husband.

Ned confronts Robert about not truly loving Lyanna, because he only ever saw her beauty and not the Iron underneath- it’s implied that the big moment between Rhaegar and Lyanna was meeting her as a Knight who valiantly defended the honor of the weak, not some lovely little maiden spotted at a feast as she would have been to Robert.

The author refers to Rhaegar as a “love struck prince.”

And of course, we have this official new artwork by Justin Sweet, one that GRRM personaly commissioned, which frankly gives me some misguided hope that TWOW is nearly upon us. lol

I love the interplay of light and dark given what we know of these characters: Rhaegar with his sense of grief/doom is fully in the shade of the enormous heart tree while Lyanna is in the half-light half-dark, perhaps representing her own more optimistic and less convoluted worldview. She's exploring, finding balance; he's watching and seeing something he admires that somehow exists in all the twists and inescapable turns of the forest engulfing them.

The third 'person' in the art is the heart tree itself, old/wise/frowning, but also cradling both Lyanna and Rhaegar. They're both connected to it, representing in a sense that their fates are sealed and known. This is a stolen moment they're having (it's a false spring) but despite the simplicity it's still connected to the much larger world around them.

Another point I like is the lack of sigil etc. on their clothing—we know who they are but the interaction is not one of Targaryen to Stark on it's face. [there's also this other art by the same artist which parallels Lyanna and Jon's poses + Rhaegar and Jon's clothes

LAST AND MOST IMPORTANT THOUGH: the blue roses at the bottom that are firmly in the light.

Conclusion: Rhaegar and Lyanna were intended to be your classical tragic love story; think Romeo and Juliet or Tristan and Isolde and whatnot, not Rhaegar kidnapping some random girl to have a Visenya. Although Rhaegar’s desire to have a third child probably pushed him into pursuing his passion in running off with ‘his Lady Lyanna’ too use some of Ser Barristan words here.

[hamletthedane]

Falling deeper into obsession over the parallels between Hamlet and Juliet’s characters, and how both plays are ultimately about children playing out their parents’ revenge fantasies. Protagonists placed in the position of puppets who only exist to further the ends of others.

The revenge of their stories is not their own. They did not cause the problems that they now suffer for. And somehow they ended up as the protagonists to a story already in motion.

But that’s where it gets interesting: they actively CHOOSE to struggle against the legacies and ancient grudges of their parents. The plot is not their own, but they MAKE IT SO.

The story of Hamlet is not that of Othello or Macbeth or Henry V: he is not self-motivated in his revenge, and can only be the passive participant of the inevitable plot (as R&G Are Dead points out to great effect). The things he does don’t ultimately matter: this is his father’s story, and his father’s revenge will occur in one way or another. “The readiness is all…” But he can do something: he can choose to end the story, to accept his fate and refuse to forestall his doom any longer.

The story of Juliet is not that of Rosalind or Merchant’s Portia: her defiance and cleverness, struggling against the edicts of those who raised her to create a renaissance generation, does not result in happy marriages ever-after. She dies trying to change the course of her fate and trying to defy the inevitability of a revenge plot coming to a head. She dies at her own hand, aware that only her and Romeo’s deaths can resolve the story they’re in.

Incredibly, in the inevitably of a narrative set in motion - doomed from the start - there is still an element of choice.

We have two very different characters driven by very different goals but still bound by the contract of their narrative to play out the tragedy. They’re children doomed by their parents and characters doomed by their narrative and stories doomed by the audience’s consumption of them. But what makes Hamlet and Juliet exceptional is their struggle against it. Somehow, in all the chaos and violence of the stage, they gain a small amount of power and control - for just a brief moment, they make decisions that change their story.

(And maybe those changes only work to immediately end their story, but they work nevertheless. In the horrible time-loop of a tragedy narrative, their escape is arguably the ultimate resolution of their character arcs. They “take arms against a sea of troubles/and by opposing, end them” at last)

[you-were-alone-too]

thinking about how argyle tells mike "surf's up, romeo" when he and el are trying to talk at surfer boy pizza and then there's also the stove behind mike during his monologue that has the name "montague" (romeo's last name) on it.

at first glance most people probably assume this detail is pro-milkvan because mike and el are being compared to romeo and juliet, a pair of star-crossed lovers who fell in love with each other at first sight. this is what romeo and juliet's relationship appears to be on the surface, but the whole play is actually making fun of teenagers who claim they're in love when they don't really know each other. (almost like how milkvans and general audiences tend to perceive the show versus fans that actually try to read into the deeper meanings).

something something "i've loved you since that moment i saw you in the woods" paralleling romeo when he first sees juliet and thinks he's in love with her. (this combined with mike actually not falling in love with el at first sight as he claimed during his monologue because in s1 he wants to send her back to a mental hospital so they can go back to finding will. and if we compare this to romeo thinking he's in love with a different girl and crying over her moments before he sees juliet and then decides he's actually in love with her instead, well, it doesn't take much to put two and two together)

anyway i just find it really interesting that mike is referred to as romeo both textually and visually moments before and during his i love you monologue to el. definitely coincidental of the writers and set designers and this surely doesn't mean anything

[demigod-shenanigans]

Yeah, yeah, Valgrace is Romeo and Juliet coded but hear me out: they’re actually Pyramus and Thisbe, which is a Roman myth.

Same basic story of rival families (rival camps, you know how those parallels work), but the way the deaths go down is different. It’s not a planned faked death that goes awry because the other person doesn’t know.

Pyramus and Thisbe plan to meet under a mulberry tree. Thisbe gets there first and sees a lioness killing something and hides, but loses her veil as she flees.

Pyramus never sees Thisbe’s body (because she isn’t dead), but finds her bloodied veil and assumes she died. He deals with this by falling on his own sword.

Thisbe returns, wanting to talk to Pyramus about what happened to her, and finds him dead/dying (depending on the version of the myth).

This is more accurate in terms of it being unintentional—Leo not wanting to fake his death but actively trying to escape death with his plan—Jason never seeing Leo’s body and the death by stabbing thing! It’s also perfect for Leo coming back at the end of Burning Maze and asking for Jason first thing and finding out he’s dead. You’re welcome :)

[gayofthefae]

Was telling my mom about the Romeo and Juliet death scene blocking parallel in the ily scene and she was deeply confused for a while to the extent that she became unsure if I was talking about Jonathan and not Mike because she basically just...forgot they were dating

She said she thinks of him as gay so she was so earnestly confused for so long at why they would be paralleled to something romantic 😭

[formulaheart]

there is something to be said about the parallels between benvolio of romeo and juliet and horatio of hamlet. something about them both spending the whole play attempting to break up/prevent unnecessary fights and keep the peace. something about both of them supporting their best friend(s) even when they're acting crazy and trying to protect them. something about both of their best friends being reckless, as if they have nothing to lose. something about how the last scene they have with their best friends, its horatio begging hamlet not to fight laertes because something is off and he's in danger, and benvolio begging mercutio to get off the street because he's bound to get into a brawl and get hurt. something about how their best friends both died in their arms in the end despite all their best efforts to save them, and left them alone to tell the tale.

[sapphire-weapon]

I think Eagleone is canon because in the game something really happens between them and it’s very noticeable, but I’m wondering why you consider them canon?

Because the romantic nature of their relationship is baked into the thematic framework of the narrative. In order for RE4make to achieve what it's trying to do with its storytelling, Leon and Ashley's relationship has to be read as romantic.

Resident Evil 4 Remake is Resident Evil 4 re-imagined as a fairy tale. Survival Horror is the genre of the gameplay of RE4make, but Horror Fantasy is the genre of its story.

RE4make contains fantastical elements that were not present in OG, including but not limited to:

Leon and Ada's plaga hallucinations (Ada's especially looks like it has a magical effect)

The magical blue fire that keeps the Armadura at bay

The cursed black water in the castle (irrespective of whether it's tied to the mold in RE7; it's still attributed to turning men mad and is treated like a magical reagent during the ritual)

Ashley getting possessed -- not Saddler using her plaga to manipulate her body (which he also does in OG) but actually physically possessing her and speaking through her mouth and seeing through her eyes

New enemies that invoke the imagery of Minotaurs

On top of that, one of the major themes of this story is: folklore, story books, and fairy tales. We see it show up not just in the characters but also in the lore of the world itself. Just to name a few examples off the top of my head, we have:

Luis's parallels with and direct verbal references to Don Quixote

The folklore of "madness" spread around the villagers that Mendez tried to quell panic of

Historic folklore from when the people of Valdelobos thought of Las Plagas as demons

Salazar's invocation of Pulgarcito (which is a Spanish fairy tale)

Literal storybooks that you find throughout the game, like the one in Mendez's house and the holy scripture (complete with a colored illustration like a child's picture book) in the castle

And, most of all -- and, most importantly for our purposes -- "The Knight and the Princess Fair" allegory that gets repeated over and over throughout the game centering entirely on Leon and Ashley.

And it's not just Salazar being a crazy asshole, either. Luis also refers to Leon as "Prince Charming," beckons him to the ballroom, and tells him not to be late for the dance.

The story itself also has an element of "true love conquers all" in it, as both Leon and Ashley literally pull off the impossible. Leon manages to fight off Saddler's influence (something that we've seen no other character manage to do -- and Leon's plaga is very advanced at this point) while he's holding Ashley in his arms. And tiny little 120lb Ashley manages to heft all 200+lbs of Leon and his gear up onto Luis's surgical chair all by herself in order to remove his plaga. They saved each other for each other and only got through this ordeal because the other person was there with and for them.

This narrative is then reinforced by overtly romantic imagery, like Leon appearing to Ashley bathed in moonlight, and Ashley wistfully looking to him off towards the horizon, hands clasped to her chest, as embers float around her like fireflies.

It also invokes the imagery of classic romance stories and fairy tales, including:

Several literal princess carries

Prince Phillip about to break the spell on Sleeping Beauty with true love's first kiss

The Prince approaching Snow White's altar

Leon kneeling before Ashley like a knight does his queen

Romeo and Juliet's very famous balcony scene

Leon extending a hand to Ashley as though he's asking her to dance, not once but twice

And in case all of that wasn't enough -- if you somehow still didn't catch it, Capcom included a set of matching alternate costumes for Leon and Ashley literally called "Romantic."

I don't know how much more explicit they could've been about this, short of having a big, sweeping kiss scene -- especially when you consider that absolutely none of the above was present in OG. None of those scenes happen in OG at all.

And this isn't even taking into account that the devs restructured the plot of OG to follow the story outline of a romance novel beat-for-beat -- nor the overt sexual imagery associated with specific lines of dialogue between Leon and Ashley. And even if you ignore the fairy tale aspect all together, Leon and Ashley's relationship is intrinsically tied to the theme of teamwork, and there's a romantic element about how that is portrayed, too.

So, sure. You could look at RE4make as a story about a man who's just doing his job and saves the president's daughter because idk he's a badass and that's just what he does. And he overcomes his trauma about Raccoon City because he actually saved a person's life finally, and it wouldn't have mattered who it was; it just happened to be Ashley.

Sure.

You could.

But you miss the fucking point of what the storyteller(s) were trying to do.

You miss the intention of the developers paying homage to RE4OG being such a huge part of so many people's childhoods by turning the story into a fairy tale.

You miss the parallels of Leon becoming a broken husk of a person because of failing re: Ada, and Leon finding his smile and his kindness again through Ashley.

It leaves you with a shallow story where shit just kind of happens and Leon's a cool dude who overcomes the odds all on his own because he's so cool and strong.

And you'll never be able to convince me that that's how the devs wanted their story to be read. Not with the deliberate layering of themes and imagery and allegory that they've folded into the narrative.

And you'll never convince me that all of this was just a coincidence, either.

Eagleone is canon -- just not canon in the way that most people tend to think of it.

Because the one thing missing from RE4make's fairy tale is that Leon and Ashley don't live happily ever after. They don't end this game a couple, and they'll never be together in the future.

Because while RE4make was a fairy tale, it was the nightmare horror version of one.

And horror stories don't get to have happy endings. That was true for Ethan and Mia in the literal storybook that was RE:Village, and it's true here for Leon and Ashley.

But that doesn't make the romance between these two characters any less real.

[obii-wan-kenobiii]

near the beginning/middleish area of the play hamlet goes to horatio and says hey. i love you and i admire you and i enjoy being around you because you have qualities i admire. something something in my hearts heart (i don’t have it memorized yet and im paraphrasing). the pure devotion horatio shows to hamlet throughout the play is just. oh my GOD. at the end of the book in hamlets death scene horatio says “now cracks a noble heart. goodnight, sweet prince, and flights of angels sing thee to rest.” which implies that he believes hamlet will go to heaven. keep this idea in mind for a minute while i clarify that it’s pretty clear throughout the play that the characters are written as christian. horatio tries to drink the rest of the poison that killed gertrude when hamlet dies, attempting to kill himself. in christianity, suicide is a sin. he knows that by doing this, he is committing himself to hell. now, if hamlet is going to heaven, why would he do this? you ask. well, horatio’s sheer devotion to hamlet, as a friend, as a lover, as whatever you classify it as is so strong that a life without him would be a walking hell, making actual hell bearable if he can follow hamlet into death. side note - i want to draw a parallel here to the scene in romeo and juliet where juliet kills herself after finding out romeo really is dead. they were written as lovers. do you see the parallel? also, specifically in the scene of hamlets death, horatios referral to hamlet as “my sweet prince” is especially important here. sweet has been a term used in shakespeare to imply romantic love in multiple plays. the fact that it’s used in this scene so explicitly steps out of subtext and ventures into canon territory. and honestly, this isn’t a the curtains are just blue situation because many of shakespeares works are inherently queer. for example, twelfth night. viola literally pretends to be a man for a large portion of the play, crossdressing and playing the part. that isn’t even subtext at that point. okay rant over but yeah hamlet was bi but that’s not the main point of the play and i think anyone using it to erase whatever the hell he had going on with ophelia can just stop talking 🫶 

[allamericanb-tch]

taylor swift songs that aren’t about her exes

mean - regarding people saying she doesn’t write her own songs 

long live - dedicated to her band and her fans

never grow up - dedicated to her younger self

you are in love - written for jack antanoff and his partner

blank space - satirical song written about the media painting her as a serial dater and insane woman

shake it off - ignore the haters

a place in this world - feelings regarding fitting in 

mary’s song - falling in love and settling down (not personal experience)

fifteen - dedicated to 15 year old taylor and abigail

change - bringing change to the world

the best day - about her love to her family

epiphany - dedicated to her grandfather

closure - feud with her old label

marjorie - dedicated to her grandma

miss americana & the heartbreak prince - uses the metaphor of high school to represent the american political situation

me! - just a fun song

the archer - anxiety (represent by the lack of a beat drop)

the man - double standards and misogyny 

tied together with a smile - her friends eating disorder

forever winter - about her friend who overdosed

ronan - dedicated to a little boy who died from cancer

22 - a fun party song

champagne problems - mental health

no body no crime - fun murder mystery song

the lucky one - fame and the struggles that come with it

starlight - dedicated to ethel kennedy

nothing new - insecurities and feeling unwanted

cardigan - made up love triangle from betty’s perspective

betty - james perspective

august - augustine’s perspective

mad woman - female anger / when women are angry they’re painted as “crazy” by society

mirrorball - changing yourself to fit in

this is me trying - burnout

dorothea - presumably about selena gomez

ivy - a story of unrequited love

exile - a story for folklore

cowboy like me - story for evermore

tolerate it - unappreciated love

look what you made me do - feud with the kardashians/jenners

this is why we can’t have nice things - kardashians/jenner feud backstabbing

i did something bad - feud

seven - childhood friends

you belong with me - friend in a toxic relationship but with a romantic twist

hey stephen - a fun love song she wrote as a kid

enchanted - about developing a crush on the guy from owl city

the other side of the door - not about her own love life

willow - casual love song

gold rush - crushing on someone everyone is crushing on and romanticizing them and the idea of a relationship and then ultimately realizing it’s just a fantasy and it fading away

happiness - looking forward to happiness even if there isn’t any right now

evermore - mental health

right where you left me - story for evermore

it’s time to go - encouraging people to leave toxic situations

you need to calm down - gay rights

afterglow

it’s nice to have a friend - having a friend

the 1 - story

my tears ricochet - leaving her old label and breaking ties with scott borchetta

illicit affairs - aNoThEr story

invisible string - story

peace 

hoax - possibly about her old label

the lakes - want to leave the toxicity of social media and run away/escape

superstar - being starstruck

jump then fall - having a crush 

untouchable - cover

love story - romeo and juliet but happy ending

ready for it

delicate

gorgeous

i wish you would

bad blood - feud with katy perry

how you get the girl - tutorial basically

clean - parallels between coming clean and leaving a toxic relationship

new romantics - fun song / youth experience

innocent - kanye / response to his song about her (“i made that b**** famous”)

i’m only me when i’m with you - dedicated to friends and family

christmas tree farm - childhood

call it what you want - reputation

new year’s day

only the young - used for political campaign for democrats

today was a fairytale - for a movie

sweeter than fiction - for a movie

both of us

beautiful ghosts - for a movie

renegade - hurting someone when they try to help you

breathe - growing apart from friends

eyes open - for a movie

safe and sound - for a movie

crazier - for a movie

the last great american dynasty - rebekah harkness (previous owner of her rhode island home)

i don’t wanna live forever - for a movie

the way i loved you - inspired by the notebook

teardrops on my guitar - about a crush

better than revenge

speak now - story

everything has changed

run

better man - wrote for little big town

ours

wildest dreams

message in a bottle

death by a thousand cuts - based on a movie (someone great)

soon you’ll get better - moms cancer

dancing with our hands tied - about how she didn’t want to put joe through the harassment she gets from the media but him refusing to break up with her

carolina - for a movie

lavender haze - addressing public opinions and rumors about her relationship with joe

you’re on your own kid - takes you through her life

karma - scooter braun

bejeweled — confidence

dear reader — advice

sweeter than fiction - written for a movie

only the young — political injustice

when emma falls in love — emma (stone)

castles crumbling — september 2009 vma’s 

timeless — written about her grandmas first love

clara bow

i hate it here

thanK you aIMee

cassandra

the bolter

[that-ari-blogger]

A Look In The Mirror

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power exists in cycles and spirals, that's part of why I call it an tragedy trying desperately to happen. A ton of the tension is driven by the question of whether or not the characters will break out of the cycle. In other words, the story is about agency vs fate (a bit like Romeo and Juliet, I wonder what else the two have in common).

There are many ways to get across this theme, perhaps with carefully laid parallels and nuanced storytelling, both of which She-Ra does. But Signals takes a different, far less subtle approach. The episode tells the audience overtly what the series as a whole is about, and what exactly can subvert it.

Let me explain.

SPOILERS AHEAD: (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, God Of War: 2018, God Of War: Ragnarök)

Signals opens after Entrapta's loyalties become general knowledge, and I would like to start with Bow's story in this episode, because it is a microcosm of how the story works as a whole. A vacancy is opened in a hierarchy and the new appointee tries to do things the way that their predecessor did. People become caricatures of those they see as powerful in their designated area and have to learn that being themself is just as useful, if not more so.

Bow, for example, seems convinced that failure is to be avoided or hidden. He has to be perfect, and able to fix anything. But, as Entrapta herself explains:

"There’s no reason to get huffy because an experiment fails.  Failure is a vital part of scientific endeavor."

For all of her eccentricities, Entrapta is one of the wisest characters in the series, with only Razz outdoing her in that regard. (Swiftwind comes close). To that end, this is rather decent life advice, sometimes the best way to learn is to get something wrong and experience the consequences for that, instead of being either protected from consequence, or being punished for trying.

Hold on to this thought.

In essence, Bow is a relatively simple character by nature, he is necessary to balance out the entirety of the rest of the cast. But the word "relatively" is doing a lot of heavy lifting there, because Bow is nuanced, specifically in his relationship with obstacles.

Bow begins with a very simple worldview, but Entrapta single handedly complicates this time and time again. With her death, her allegiance, and her legacy. Bow realises that his worldview needs nuance when his top down perspective gets someone "killed", then he realises that his idea of binary morality is skewed when Entrapta defects, and here he learns about failure and tactics by trying to live up to her image.

Bow remains simple, in contrast with the theme park character development of Catra, Adora, and Glimmer, but he does learn and adapt.

So, Bow sets the baseline, to break from the cycle, you need to change. You need to stop trying to be someone else, and instead focus on being the best you that you can possibly be.

God Of War: 2018 and its sequel use the analogy of fate to describe this principle. Thor becomes an absent father because of his own father's abuse, which then leads to Magni and Modi being schmucks as the cycle continures. Odin explicitly gets to see what his future holds and ends up inadvertently causing it to come true in his attempts to subvert his fate.

Fatbrett on YouTube has a video titled Odin - A Deconstruction of Villainy that delves into the character as a whole, but I would like to zero in on Odin's core flaw and the message of the game as a whole. To change your fate is to change your nature. Odin is incapable of change, so the prophecy comes true.

But Kratos and Atreus do change, but their journey is towards learning to not avoid being themselves. Kratos' journey in God of War: 2018 is directly caused by not telling his son about his past, and Atreus spends the entirety of God of War: Ragnarök trying to be either his father, or Odin. The message of the story is this:

"Don't be sorry, be better"

Learn from your mistakes.

Adora takes this in an interesting direction, because it's genuinely difficult to see her as having much meaningful character development in series one at all, and I actually think this is a good thing. Because on a surface level, Adora goes from bad guy to good guy and escapes from an abusive relationship. But does she? The only thing that happens to the parental relationship is a pallet swap.

All Adora does in season one is change her surroundings, but the key part of that is her foundation. Adora spends season one surrounding herself with people who will enable that character development to flourish and not be broken down... and Light Hope. In season two, Adora starts making strides towards actual agency, and that is all because of the setup she has been doing.

I have gone into Depth as to how Light Hope is a bad influence in other posts, but this episode hammers home just how easily Adora internalises things. She keeps Shadow Weaver's tales of the Weeping, Headless, and Undead Princesses in her mind, for example, absorbed uncritically.

But Adora also keeps the obsessive blaming. She sees a problem and immediately attributes the cause of it to the Horde, a holdover from her time there, where she had the same attitude towards Princesses. In this instance, she's wrong, and the problem is more nuanced, and her assumptions get the better of her.

Speaking of assumptions, the first ones make an appearance in this episode, kind of. The messages that they leave behind give a glimpse into their lives that we haven't come close to getting before.

"I’ve been thinking of them as these big epic figures. But they’re regular people, sending messages to their loved ones."

The theme of cycles and living up to legacies continues with the worldbuilding of this story. Modern Etheria tends to visualise the First Ones as great and powerful and perfect, but they were just as human as the rest of the characters. Once again, those trying to mimic their predecessors exactly come up short.

Over on the Horde side, Catra is going through a similar situation, she is trying to become Shadow Weaver, but coming up short because there was more the story than she realised. Shadow Weaver had to do paperwork, for example.

There's also the fact that she is still in the abusive environment. She still regularly visits Shadow Weaver, so the psychological bullying still happens, but she's also around Hordak, now. I said that Adora has just pallet swapped her situation, and I think Catra has done the same.

When Hordak takes the atmosphere out of the room, it is awful, and it's the moment in which Catra should realise that it doesn't matter how high up in the chain of command she goes, she will still be suffering. She should realise that she needs to get out of there for her own safety and sanity.

But she doesn't realise that. Instead, she applies what she has learned in her upbringing. She is convinced that all she has to do is succeed, and she will get that attention and fairness. Conditional acceptance is what she is used to, so she doesn't see anything out of the ordinary here.

"Failure is when something ceases to serve a purpose. When that happens, it becomes worthless to me."

This is Hordak's worldview, and I hate to argue with a villain, but I think he's wrong there. If success is usefulness, and everything will eventually stop being useful to you, then you have a pretty sad life. If you judge everything by utility and don't care for relationships or things that just look and feel nice, then you are alone.

But on a broader, purely utilitarian perspective, this idea is bunk by that standard too. Failure as worthlessness is an objectively false idea, because mistakes are things to learn from. If something doesn't work, try again differently.

In other words:

"Failure is a vital part of scientific endeavor."

Entrapta is back, and this episode actually gives a glimpse into how to subvert the cycles, specifically through Entrapta and Hordak.

Firstly, Hordak has evidently been trying the experiment over and over again without learning anything. So Entrapta, by nature of her ability to adapt, makes the experiment work. It's a tiny metaphor for what I've been saying so far.

But Entrapta breaks through Hordak's barriers because of her sense of freedom. The best way to break free of a downward spiral is to start moving in a different direction, and Entrapta does that easily. The reason she so easily switches sides is because she isn't tied down by anything (not even morality). She can't even be imprisoned because she is impossible to contain. Entrapta is a free spirit, and I think that that is what the series is about, personal agency.

Catra and Adora are repeating the same story over and over again because they think they have no choice, that's what the tragedy of the series is, the two main characters are on a road to destruction and can't change direction. But the story isn't a tragedy, it avoids being one at the last possible moment when the characters finally realise that they have agency, and that thematic is foreshadowed right here, in Signals.

Final Thoughts

In my plan for this post, I wanted to bring up the Darksouls series, of all things, but I think I will save that idea for a later episode.

In any case, this episode manages to discuss some overarching philosophy, as well as explicitly state that this has happened before, this is a story about repetition, learn from your mistakes.

Also, the cinematography in this episode is really cool. It flies under the radar a lot, but the camera placement and movement really heighten the tension and vibe of this episode.

Next week, I will be talking about Roll With It, an episode that is near and dear to my heart for completely unbiased reasons. Definitely unbiased. Not bias there at all. So, stick around if that interests you.

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