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toasted-valentine · 7 months ago

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TAOPP Things That Make Me Insane

• Rowan reaches out to Maya during Love and Everything during the line “I wish I’d learned that lesson sooner”, he spent his entire life refusing to listen to anything Maya had to say, and in the end he wishes he’d went with her. That breaks my heart.

• Rowan examines Jason’s crown in Love and Everything during line “Maybe no one’s shown you mercy”, he’s addressing Maddox during this, and he’s thinking about how King Astor harmed both of them.

• Rowan telling Louis to let him go and let his scars heal during Love and Everything, Rowan tilts up Louis’ chin, but doesn’t kiss him. It’s the two finding peace and a call back to Crown of Bones and Lead.

• This is a super nerdy theater thing, but TAOPP does this a lot due to the limited cast, and I want to point it out. Maya and King Astor are both played by Miel Escamilla, they just are him in shadow during act two. You can tell it is them because Miel is the only person in the cast who has short curly hair and it’s really distinct. Having them played by the same person adds the implication that Maya looks just like King Astor, and that’s part of the reason Rowan hated her so much.

• Back to them using the small cast to the full advantage, during Your Day in Court you can see the different actors reading out lines related to their characters while playing The Courtiers. Maya actually dances with Maddox’s actor and Jason dances with Louis at one point, but they’re shoved away from their respective dance partners back into each other’s arms to show that’s they’re being shoved into a heteronormative relationship.

• During Your Day In Court, Rowan’s actor and Louis’ actors start the song handing each other, foreshadowing.

• The line “Leave the metal tight around your finger till it aches” within Talk About It With You is referencing how trapped Jason feels by his relationship with Maya, the engagement ring being physically painful to wear.

• Miel can’t wear the fucking courtier mask cause of their glasses, which makes me laugh.

• There are two different versions of Your Day In Court on stage, one of them has Louis wearing a courtier mask, the other he is not. I think they removed it for the sake of making it clear that it’s just Louis being a courtier in that moment, not just some rando. Louis participating in The Courtier’s song implies he’s just as much of a gossip and threat as the rest of them, which I appreciate.

• Louis’ costuming has him wearing a single earring, which is a common flag to signal a man is gay. Love that for him. Funny part is the fact he has it in the wrong ear lol, it’s in his left, should be on the right.

• Louis’ costuming has him wearing a fuck ton of rings in the beginning, visually calling back to Talk About It With You. Rowan also has rings on, indicating he is a whore.

• Maya is shit talking with Jason in the background during When You’re Small, and the two of them are the one’s who send the plate over to Louis to get under his skin. You can see Maya and Jason laughing about it in the background.

• Rowan’s party has BDSM gear hanging in the background, which is hilarious. This implies someone had to either go buy all of it or pull it out of their closet for the show, which is really funny to me. Imagining some college kid going to a sex shop for props has got me chuckling.

• The strap on harness in the background implies that it is canon Rowan gets pegged.

• The Bohemian played by Miel steals the glass away from the Bohemian played by Andrew Matos, and when Louis walks away the two start bitching to each other.

• Rowan is conducting The Bohemian’s singing, he later mentions they’d do anything he asks, fun visual storytelling.

• The captions of Louis telling The Bohemians that “Some activities are best confined to one’s bed chambers” has their little “aww” reaction end with a :(

• Maddox being willing to kill a rat is what we call foreshadowing.

• Lana Gaige and Miel Escamilla both have the funniest visual gags in the show, their character acting just makes me laugh, especially when Maya and Rowan get to banter and bounce off each other. The eye shadow that Lana is wearing makes them a lot more expressive, and it helps emphasize their facial acting.

• “That’s treason” is the funniest line in the entire show.

• Rowan and Maya both have the bad habit of being very rash and pushy, the difference is that Rowan acts outside the system while Maya tends to act within it. The two are foils to each other in many ways, and in the context of Maya being the older sibling, you can see their difference in maturity levels.

• Maya and Maddox being separated by bars helps them have an emotional connection, it helps her break generational curses that her brother fell into, since Astors apparently are just massive slutty mcsluttersons that managed to give fantasy birth control a reason to exist. Rowan is repeating his father’s tendency to sleep with many others, this being shown via Maya being an affair baby.

• Jason steals Louis’ earring, and I think DeLaney Rose actually missed the throw of it, cause you can see them try and catch it and hear it hit the floor.

• The implication that Jason wanted to join Louis and Rowan, but the first reason he could come up with as to why not to is being engaged makes me laugh.

• “Might as well give it a stab” is a hilarious line and I love it.

• “Even in this cut throat— place.” Love that too.

• Rowan tilts Louis’ chin up right before Blood Moon, this gets brought back up later in Crown of Bones and Lead.

• It is mentioned someone tried to poison Rowan during Your Day In Court, which failed, and the fact he saw his mother get poisoned has the implication he knew how to spot poison and that’s why it failed.

• Rowan engages in double talk, the act of saying something that can have two different meanings and be confusing, during Blood Moon with the bastard lines. Foreshadowing.

• The choreography of Blood Moon has Rowan physically manipulating Louis and touching him in vaguely homoerotic ways, good show that Rowan is being manipulative and pushing his own worst traits onto Louis.

• Rowan makes note of Louis’ hands within Blood Moon, which is a show of his tendency to only remember his lover’s hands.

• Rowan cuts his own hand during Blood Moon, cut’s Louis’, and later on Maya pricks her finger on the same knife. Rowan is willing to get blood on his hands, Louis’ is manipulated into it, and Maya is willing to do it once for Maddox. Their different levels of willingness to have blood on their hands is such a nice detail.

• Maya fucking forgets she bought Jason his dagger, home girl is completely checked out of that relationship. Louis corrects her multiple times on Jason facts actually, she’s so uninterested in him that she doesn’t know these things in spite of knowing him for multiple years, but Louis is in love with Jason so knows about it all.

• Maya uses honeybees as a sign of freedom, mentions them multiple times, and says “Where the only queens are bees!” as the ending line to Dead Princesses go to Heaven.

• You can see Jason standing outside of Rowan’s room when Louis and Rowan are having pillow talk, dude is just standing there in the back.

• Miel motherfucking Escamilla actually cuts their hair off on stage in front of everyone, you can see people reacting in the background to it, and I have so much respect for that acting choice.

• Maya taking interest in Louis’ waistcoat is a nice little sign that they’re some flavor of genderqueer and prefer to be masc presenting, this implies that she regularly looks into men’s clothing, and that’s why she takes interest in it.

• Maya finding out Louis’ gay could potentially be a reason she’s willing to tell him about Maddox during Dead Princesses go to Heaven.

• Maya corrects Louis into calling Rowan her half-brother right before Dead Princesses go to Heaven, but right after Rush of Blood to the Head she calls him her brother, showing that she’s grown attached to him.

• Maya has her engagement ring on the wrong hand (for western audiences anyways), visual touch that she doesn’t love him.

• Miel has to tiptoe to hug DeLaney at the end of Dead Princesses, which makes sense story wise since Maya is supposed to be bigger than Louis, but the actors are similar heights. Fucks up the when you’re small bit if Louis is above Maya.

• Maya swearing like a sailor as soon as she talks to Rowan is so funny to me, cause that’s how siblings actually talk.

• You can tell Rowan and Maya are related as soon as they start plotting to get Jason killed by the king lol

• Rowan grabbing Lous’ hair comes back later on, but Jason protects him, and it’s a nice show of what it really means to love someone. Hair pulling is something common within sexual relationships, Rowan goes for Louis’ hair first, while Jason goes to protect Louis at every turn.

• Maddox’s tendency to be overly careful is such a funky detail, it escalates over time, and is implied to be a trauma response to being imprisoned. Later on they are pushed by ghost Rowan to act, and it helps them be a better lover to Maya. The two of them balance each other out, Maya having classic Astor bullheadedness, while Maddox is more calculating and careful than she is.

• “Or I could blow your head off” Maddox will later kill Rowan via third degree burns.

• Maya keeps looking in her bag and kicks the dress away right before It All Just Makes Sense because she’s packing her bags, but doesn’t want Jason to be a snitch.

• Maya makes fire metaphors during It All Just Makes Sense, which later shows that she’s not afraid of getting burned by Maddox and is willing to still love them after they kill Rowan.

• Maya and Maddox do kill and die for each other, Maya fakes her own death and Maddox kills Rowan for Maya.

• Jason is referred to with Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, the idea that someone who spends their entire life in a cave staring at a wall wouldn’t know what life is actually like due to not seeing the light.

• Jason has autism, which is really nice tbh. Only Louis really gets that Jason isn’t a prick, just sees things differently, and that Jason is lovable.

• Rowan’s drinking problem is visually seen right before Old Friend, he’s drinking and tries getting Maddox to with him, but Maddox declines. It’s a completely visual thing, but good visual storytelling that Rowan has a problem.

• Rowan calls Maddox a firebrand, which has two meanings in this context. There’s Maddox being a mage that uses fire, but also the literal meaning of firebrand, which is someone who is exceptionally dedicated to their cause. It has a double meaning to the character.

• Maddox’s cause switches from legalizing magic to saving Maya, they’re still a firebrand, but have a new cause to dedicate themself to.

• Louis leaves the room right before Rush of Blood to the Head because he said he wouldn’t help Rowan kill Maya, not just because of the alibi.

• Jason’s excited expression right after Talk About It With You hurts my feelings, heelllpppp.

• You can tell that Maya is an Astor based on the fact her first instinct after seeing Maddox for the first time outside a cell is to try and jump their bones.

• The script getting completely ditched when Maya and Maddox reunite is funny to me, they just completely yeet the thing lol

•I like that Maddox and Maya are able to have an emotional bond before a physical one, again as a foil to Rowan and Louis, showing that they love each other first the foremost.

• “Charmed, I’m Maddox.” Again, love that line.

• Rowan does in fact haunt Maddox after his death, like he said he would within the opening line of Rush of Blood to the Head, but it’s to help them.

• I like that Maya is packing her bags during Rush of Blood, and Rowan spends Maddox’s part staring at the dagger and conflicted emotionally. Rowan is also completely wrecking the room, the actor pantomiming knocking stuff over like Rowan said he would.

• Remember, in a Melliot production, always listen to the lesbian. The lesbian gives the best advice, the bisexuals give bad advice, but the lesbians are frequently right.

• Maya not finding a point in waiting relates back to her earlier sentiments, nice touch of how two characters can both be brash and quick to act, but their motivations for it can completely change the outcome.

• It’s Allies with Benefits instead of friends because the two aren’t even friends, Louis just sees them as allies, and Rowan doesn’t really have friends.

• The Courtiers speak of Maya’s death in past tense, while they speak of Rowan’s affair with Louis in present. They skipped over Maya’s death as basic palace gossip fast.

• Rowan focuses completely on Louis’ body instead of anything about his personality, even when he’s complementing Louis, he’s talking about Louis’ eyes. Louis offers Rowan the chance for an actual emotional connection, but Rowan just focused on his body.

•Rowan’s voice is higher pitched when singing about something he actually wants, but lower when faking it. He’s faking masculinity for the king, and actually does this when asking for Jason’s life to be spared.

• King Astor puts a bunch of stuff in Maya’s casket, but none of it is stuff Maya actually gives a shit about, showing how he fundamentally doesn’t understand his daughter. He doesn’t love Maya, he loves the idea of a perfect daughter, and pushed her to be that.

• I like the implication that Maya’s hair was supposed to be long during act one, but she cuts it all off in act two. It’s nice she gets to be a masc and happy about it.

•Maya takes her makeup off for act two, having white eye liner on during act one, but it’s gone during act two. It’s a really sweet thing.

• Maddox says that worst case scenario is a warlock blows Rowan to bits and that start all over again, and Maddox later kills Rowan, and the new kings are Jason and Louis.

• Maddox literally hiding in a closet to avoid Rowan and Louis fucking is so funny.

• Rowan is projecting so hard within Allies with Benefits (reprise), calling Jason manipulative and telling Louis that he should only love Jason’s body. He’s trying to take the Jason role, but failing since he’s an abusive prick.

• Louis wears pink on his coronation day, being allows to just be himself instead of what someone else wants.

• Rowan is constantly trying to get Louis to “fix” him, thinking Louis could make all of it go away, but no one needs that much help. Louis can’t make things go away, and Rowan’s expectations are unrealistic. I love the message that it’s okay to help your partner, to be there to support them and make things better, but there is a line that no one should cross. Rowan crosses that line, it isn’t love, it’s infatuation and lust.

• Louis is so worried about killing Rowan, he’s begun to wish that Rowan is dead, and he chooses to do the right thing instead of continuing the cycle of death and abuse.

• The crown that King Astor has on when he slaps Rowan is the same one that Louis lifts off Rowan’s head during When You’re Small, and it’s a flag that Rowan and the king will both die. Maya doesn’t ever wear it, and she gets to live.

• There was only one bed

• Jason considers what Louis’ wants and respects Louis’ consent, it breaks the cycle Louis is stuck in, and helps the two have a healthy relationship.

• Maddox warns of guards walking in on Rowan stabbing his father, and that’s exactly what happens. The way they mess with each other foreshadows Maddox killing Rowan, the plan getting interrupted and Maddox blowing Rowan to bits.

• Rowan is right in his assessment that him and Maya are similar, but loses the fact that Maya is completely dedicated to Maddox, which differs from what he says to Maddox.

• I do think Rowan has grown to care for Maya on some level, which is why he still is secure in wanting magic legalized, at least when he’s talking to Maddox about Louis.

• Rowan’s character arc is continuing the cycle of abuse, he becomes just his father by being an abusive drunk, and becomes just like the people who only sexualized him instead of being a good lover. Heart’s Blood shows that Rowan has a similar issue to Louis in the fact he is constantly being used for sex, but he doesn’t see the fact that he is doing it to Louis now. Even the song’s name is a show that Rowan doesn’t understand Louis and the fact Louis doesn’t what a blood revolution, Louis can’t stand blood or violence, while blood is Rowan’s entire thing. He’s using Louis, and Rowan’s big love song is him wanting ownership over Louis’ body and dousing that white in red.

• Heart’s Blood also uses double talk within it’s lyrics with describing Louis both feeling “burning, clawed, and drowning.” Rowan would feel it as a positive thing, a thing of love, while it would be a complete trap for Louis. He is misinterpreting what Maya believes, turning it twisted, and harming Louis in the process. He reflects on this later as a ghost, seeing how wrong he was.

• Rowan’s confession speech to Louis is possessive and has a desire of ownership of Louis, and it’s Rowan being selfish. He sexualizes Louis, is only willing to give up drinking for Louis instead of being sober for himself, and he doesn’t even both knocking. The refusal to knock is Rowan once again missing the fucking point.

• “You whore!!”

• “It’s not :(“

• “I thought you were STRAIGHT Jason!!”

• Jason puts his hand on Louis’ shoulder instead of tilting his chin up, nice physical acting.

• I like that If I Knew You Then doesn’t involve Jason or Louis’ physicality, they’re allowed to be interested on one another on a deep level.

• Rowan calls the King dad to be petty, but he’s also desperate for some level of his approval, for anything. It’s why he begs King Astor to say anything, he’s still a kid that wants some level of approval from a parent. If memory serves, Rowan is the youngest person in the roster, and he never got the chance to emotionally mature like everyone else.

• Louis is willing to fight for Jason in the same way Maya and Maddox are willing to fight for one another, something Rowan would never do for Louis. Louis’ fear of death disappears the moments he knows Jason needs him, he is willing to make a sacrifice for his love.

• Rowan is wearing white in the end, a new start.

• This next section is just me praising the actors lol

• Alex Conboy’s performance as Maddox during Can’t Hold Back The Tide amazing, the amount of emotion in their voice is such a skill, and they deserve so much praise for it.

• The level of breath control Lana Gaige must have to sing the little death song as Rowan dies is impressive. They already are an impressive performer, absolute power house on stage, and all the numbers they’re in always strike just the right chords. Sing whispering, on the ground, softly, and having to sound like they’re crying without actually crying is a testament to their skill. Trying to combine all those things is such a difficult thing to do, but they did it because they’re Lana Gaige and they’re an absolute demon on stage.

• DeLaney Rose broke my goddamn heart as Louis, just went right and stomped on it, and just right in my feelings. Crown of Bones and Lead is their best performance in the show, and it makes me cry.

• Andrew Matos as Jason does straight guy prick and autism gay man really well, you can see the natural progression of Jason’s character and how he changes through the show. Absolutely adore it.

• Miel Escamilla committed to the bit with the hair cutting, and I have so much respect for them for that. Some of the notes they hit during the show are amazing, and being able to do priss and prim mixed with “I’m five seconds away from backhanding you” is really nice, and I love their performance as Maya.

#the art of pleasing princes #taopp #Rowan Astor #Maya Astor #jason bartok #louis rosemont #maddox horowitz

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