#Mirrors parallels trauma twins etc etc | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

trampohlena · 3 years

Text

Okay, so after last night’s episode I would just like to say that Supercorp IS Endgame. I’d also like to point out the various reasons as to why Kara and Lena are not only soulmates but true twin flames.

For those reading this post who have never heard of the term twin flame: “A twin flame is your own soul, shared across what appears to be two physical beings. It’s one soul, split into two bodies.” -Google’s definition.

For those who are spiritually inclined and have a proclivity for indulging esoteric philosophies; Lena and Kara are ABSOLUTELY twin FUCKING flames 🔥🔥🔥!!

Here are the reasons why:

1. Their drastically different childhoods that resulted in remarkably similar trauma.

Both Kara and Lena have experienced great loss throughout their life. Both mourned the death of their parents, and life as they knew it, at a very early age. Both were shipped off to a foreign land, forced to leave behind everything they knew, in hopes for a brighter/safer future.

Albeit, Lena got the shorter end of the stick in regards to unconditional love, but both were given a second chance and a new start...and yet, they still never fit in, or felt like they truly belonged.

Although they individually have dealt with said trauma in different ways (Lena by pushing away those who try to get too close, and Kara by holding on tightly to those she holds dear) both of their actions are motivated by the same subconscious fear that they HAVE never and WILL never TRULY belong. All while yearning for a sense of “home”.

2. They are opposite reflections of each other; true “mirror souls”, if you will.

Physically, aesthetically, economically, and emotionally—they are complete “mirrors” of one another.

Kara is strong, physically powerful, cut from marble, all hard edges and sharp lines—except for her face. Lena is clearly not as physically powerful, she is soft, all curves, and exudes the grace of the Devine feminine energy—except for her face, which is hard edges and sharp jaw lines. You see what I’m saying?

Aesthetically and economically go hand in hand of course. Lena’s exorbitant wealth is evident in her high-end designer appearance; whereas Kara’s aesthetic is more humble and grounded, and prioritizes comfort over “fashion”. (Let’s admit it. Some of Kara’s fashion choices have been questionable. She clearly rocks the chinos and button-downs better than anything else in that eclectic closet of hers she refuses to come out of 😏)

Emotionally...oh honey. Do I need to say more? I won’t say much but I will say this: Kara is the sun and Lena is the moon. They compliment each other in a way that ensures the world keeps turning.

3. Their individual strengths are the other’s individual weakness and vice versa.

Goes along with the aforementioned “opposite reflection” point above but I’ll expand a bit further in regards to their specific personality traits.

Lena is predominately analytically driven, whereas Kara is emotionally driven. Lena is good in crowds, Kara is not (overwhelmed). Lena is introverted, Kara is extroverted. Lena is detail oriented and has the memory of an elephant, Kara is clumsy and as forgetful as a Pisces (but hey, she has a lot on her plate and barely any free time to balance it). Lena eats like a rabbit-bird-hybrid and Kara eats like a garbage disposal. Kara loves giving and receiving hugs and other forms of physical affection whereas Lena does not (UNLESS it’s from Kara, of course). Etc. Etc. you get the picture.

4. Now this one is the DEAD GIVEAWAY. Undeniable, irrefutable PROOF that Lena and Kara are twin flames.

They are LITERALLY completing what is know as the Twin Flame Journey or the Twin Flame Union.

The stages of Twin Flame Union are roughly as follows:

1. Yearning for “the one”. I think every human being that believes in love experiences this whether it’s throughout their entire life, or only their adult life until they meet this person but yeah. You get it. Kara has always wanted that “Wapow!” moment.

2. Glimpsing/meeting “the one”. Whether it’s only for a short moment, an extended meeting, or perhaps merely locking eyes with them as you pass each other by...you feel immediately connected. There is an instant soul recognition when meeting them, so much so that you could have sworn you’ve met them before or that it’s as if you’ve known each other your whole lives.

Remember when Kara met Lena? And she was gaga-eyed over Lena? Or when Lena felt so comfortable around a new acquaintance that she granted an almost stranger unbridled access to her office? Or how about when Red Daughter flew to America (the country she was taught to hate), with no recollection/memories of Kara’s relationship with Lena (again, the woman she was taught to hate), all because she felt PULLED to do so. And then when she did meet Lena she looked at her and practically drooled over her as if Lena was a double XL cheeseburger with extra special sauce from Big Belly Burger? Like, biiiitch 👀

3. Falling in love. Need I say more? Fine, again, I will. You CANNOT tell me that there is no way in hell that these two morons are anything BUT in love with each other. That’s a lot of double negatives and I appplogize so let me reiterate for clarification: THEY ARE IN LOVE AND YOU CAN’T CHANGE MY MIND!

And at this point is it so freaking BEYOND platonic love, the show cannot explain it away or sweep it under the “just close friends” rug. No. Kara used her Fifth Dimensional Wish (she literally could have wished her entire planet didn’t explode) and she said “make Lena not mad at me, I’m sad 😔” 👀. Mmmkay. Not to mention Lena picking Supergirl over Jack, her former lover. Or the plethora of other times Lena chose Kara/Supergirl over everyone else she knew. Mmkay.

4. The fairytale relationship/friendship. Lena has finally found someone she can depend on, be vulnerable with, support her without judgement, trust with her life etc. and Kara has finally found a true best friend, not her sister, not Kenny who she didn’t realize was her best friend till after he passed? And now he’s not dead?? But her one true best friend that she felt she didn’t need to be neither Supergirl, nor Kara Danvers, but rather Kara Zor-El around (despite Lena not knowing that little tidbit of information).

They were each other’s best friend. Each other’s person. They were happy.

5. Outer Turmoil and Inner Purging—Supergirl and Lena fight. Lena still does not know that Kara is indeed Supergirl and does not pick up on the brewing tension between herself and Kara.

Kara of course is riddled with guilt and her relationship with Lena becomes strained. This outer turmoil creates inner purging by bringing out negative traits in each other. I.E. Lena hiding kryptonite and also Kara asking James to spy on her. Shit gets messy but they still try to make it work.

6. The Runner and the Chaser/Separation Stage—Tensions mount between the two and Lena FINALLY learns about Kara’s secret. And she has a choice to make. So what does she do? She runs. Not physically but emotionally. She completely withdraws from not only Kara and their friends but also withdraws from herself.

She literally experiences cognitive dissonance and becomes someone she is not. Someone other people made her believe she was on the inside, even though Kara knows that it isn’t. And so, Kara chases her.

Lena becomes the runner and Kara becomes the chaser as they navigate this separation stage.

Continuously running and continuously chasing.

7. The Surrender and dissolution stage—they’re fucking done. They’re tired. They’re exhausted physically, mentally, and emotionally after all the bullshit they put each other through as well as all the bullshit Lex and the Phantom Zone put them through.

They come to an impasse in regards to Lex and realize the only way to defeat him is to work together, as a team. (El Mayarah anyone?)

They surrender to their emotions and to each other as their egos dissolve and their souls expand after having learned invaluable life lessons. The major one being: THEY CANNOT LIVE HAPPILY WITHOUT EACH OTHER!

8. The last stage that we have yet to see but we fucking better or else I’m gonna January 6 the CW studio building—“Oneness”.

This time, I’m not gonna say more.

So, in conclusion: Supercorp is Endgame because Lena Luthor and Kara Zor-El Danvers are the literal definition of a twin flame, soulmate connection. They are the same soul, manifested in two physical forms, for the sole purpose of expanding their soul’s consciousness.

They deserve to be happy, they deserve to be together. Not only does their union parallel some of the greatest love stories throughout history, i.e. Romeo and Juliet, Darcy and Bennet, Superman and Lois (duh) it would also break the curse of generational karma and illustrate to anybody who watches the show that the only person who defines who you are is YOU. Not a name, not a legacy, not society’s expectations, YOU. And most importantly of ALL...it would showcase that love truly does conquer all.

I rest my case.

TPTB, make Supercorp Endgame or kick rocks ✌️😘

Sincerely,

An empassioned fan with way too much time on her hands.

#supercorp #supergirl #lena luthor #kara danvers #welcome back kara #soulmate #twin flames #the cw

103 notes · View notes

delusionland · 3 years

Note

CASSROSE FOR THE SHIP MEME COWARD idk if it's all of the questions or i'm supposed to choose one but y'know i'll let you decide

PRE-RELATIONSHIP

How did they first meet?

Cass & Rose first met when Rose tried to kill her! She was currently in the middle of her Dad’s WORST abuse. Cass spent the whole fight thinking about the parallels between them---two fucked up girls with even more fucked up Dads, still wanting their approval, still wanting to be Good to them.

What was their first impression of each other?

Cass didn’t stick around long enough to get Rose’s impression of her---but Cass’s impression of her was that they were mirror images---and that was beyond just the fact that Rose could copy her every move. She would never admit it, but there was something exciting about the fight. She felt like she was trying to beat the sense back into her---trying to beat the sense back into herself, remind herself that daughters are more than the Fathers they loved, girls are more than men & their approval, and people are more than killing---even as she stabbed Rose not in the back---but right in the neck.

But Cass also couldn’t help thinking she was beautiful. She couldn’t help thinking her moves, the way she moved her body---was perfect in so many ways, a fine-oiled machine. She was impressive. Better than so many other people she’d fought, so many grown men---if only she could see that.

Cass can’t wait for Rose to snap out of it, to come to Cass on her own terms, to fight her again as her own person, like Cass feels she is... mostly her own. She wants to feel the full brunt of who Rose is through her moves. Not just copying---but her passion, her tension, her strength, unhindered by what Daddy wants.

She wants to be infinite with her. She wants to bite & claw & rip. She wants Rose to show no mercy---no hesistation. She never wants Rose to worry about what her Dad thinks of her moves again. Because Cass sees her as capable of so much more.

Did any of their friends or family want them to get together?

Steph thought it was hot, Tim was okay with it, since Rose then became a Teen Titan. But Bruce did NOT approve.

Who felt romantic feelings first?

Cass. Love at first tremble, love at first cartoonishly cry for ‘Daddy.’ How can someone so broken match you so well? Sometimes loving someone is also... an attempt to love the part of you you see mirrored in them, that hurts you, but you feel is still worthy of love. Cass wants to ‘fix’ Rose. But she also wants to see her wild & free & strong, and that’s what love is to Cass. Being yourself.

Did either of them try to resist their feelings?

Nah, because it started out as sexy murder times and then calmed down to ‘I’m tired. You want food?’ And then just... blossomed naturally.

If you had told one of them that the other would be their soulmate, what would they think?

I think Rose would laugh, but I think a part of Cass would agree. She’s never met a match for her quite like Rose. If they’re not soulmates---they’re definitely twin spirits, seperated in two different worlds & bodies, that met each other again. Cass isn’t particularly superstitious, but she thinks that, at least, MUST be true.

What would their lives be like if they had never met?

GENERAL

Who initiated the relationship, and how did it go?

Cass initiated. She saw the hesitation in Rose to leave, and just... offered she stayed. When Rose touched her and melted closer, she kissed her, and their bodies---tired from battling their perfect match, melted like butter together, into limbs & sweaty skin into a salve of satisfaction.

Did they have an official first date? If so, what was it like?

Cass introduced Rose to ‘rooftop tag’ with Steph. This was also Cass’s way of asking Steph’s approval. They all had so much fun together, though Rose initially didn’t understand what was going on.

What was their first kiss like?

It wasn’t magical. It was the most natural thing. Just the thing they were supposed to do, because they wanted to. It was the next step, the next logical leap. When you want to touch someone---in every possible way---to rough girls like these, first you fight, then you touch, then you kiss.

Were they each other’s first anything (kiss, relationship, etc.)?

Not on Cass’s end at least.

What’s their height difference? Age difference?

Cass is 5′7″, so a little taller. Rose is sllightly older mabe?

What’s their relationship with each other’s families?

Cass has fucked Deathstroke up and wil AGAIN.

Who takes the lead in social situations?

Cass, Rose can be kind of awkward. Cass never does so in a convention manner, however. She is silly & endearing and floats through life with a sense that everything will go right---because nothing can be worse than it used to be.

Who gets jealous easier?

Rose.

Who whispers inappropriate things in the other’s ear?

BOTH.

LOVE

Who said “I love you” first?

Rose. And Cass repeated it back in a whisper, just for her to hear. Words are hard for Cass, they’re special. Cass had thought Rose always knew she loved her---that they didn’t have to say it. Words take things to a new dimension of reality that Cass was never privy to. Unlike the ‘real world’ of feelings & bodies, sometimes words feel like too much, too tenative, too scary. But Cass trusts those words with Rose, and only Rose.

What are their primary love languages?

TOUCH. And gifts!

Who uses cheesy pick-up lines?

Cass LOVES cheesy pick-up lines and uses them with WILD ABANDON to make Rose blush!

How often do they cuddle/engage in PDA?

ANY TIME CASS CAN GET AWAY WITH IT.

Who initiates kisses?

USUALLY CASS, SHE JUST LOVES TO KISS HER GF!

Who’s the big and little spoon?

Cass will physically fight to be big spoon. And she WILL win. This is LIFE OR DEATH!

What are their favorite things to do together?

Fight, playfight, and cuddle while listening watching Cass’s language youtube pages. (She’s trying to learn sign language and Mandarin.) They also like to cook together. But mostly Cass likes to eat her food, even though it’s WAY too spicy for her most of the time. They also like to play pranks on the Batboys / Titans. Cass tries to force Rose to come dancing with her, also, at punk shows.

Who’s better at comforting the other?

Cass is, probably, unless Rose needs WORDS. In which case, Steph is lol.

Who’s more protective?

Rose. Cass believes Rose can protect herself.

Do they prefer verbal or physical affection?

PHYSICAL!

What are some songs that apply to their relationship, in-universe or otherwise?

we fell in love in october / girl in red

daddy issues / the neighborhood

What kind of nicknames do they call each other?

cass calls rose ‘copycat.’

Who remembers the little things?

ROSE PROBABLY.

DOMESTIC LIFE

If they get married, who proposes?

ROSE...

What’s the wedding like? Who attends?

they have a small wedding and only invite GIRLS and alfred. it is streamed in the batcave but the boys are not allowed to come!!!!!

How many kids do they have, if any? What are they like?

oof. i don’t see them having kids tbh. too much trauma. they end up having their own sidekicks eventually, though, and they kind of get adopted lol.

Do they have any pets?

a cat that cass also calls copycat squared just to make fun of rose. it is missing one eye.

Who’s the stricter parent?

cass!!!!

Who worries the most?

rose!!!

Who kills the bugs in the house?

cass!!!

How do they celebrate holidays?

they just eat a lot of food and have sex tbh. after patrol, of course. the worst crimes happen on holidays!

Who’s more likely to convince the other to come back to sleep in the morning?

cass refuses to wake up any earlier than 2pm.

Who’s the better cook?

ROSE.

Who likes to dance?

CASS!

#ooc: replies #yoakkemae

5 notes · View notes

thewatsonbeekeepers · 4 years

Text

Chapter 5 – Hey, Soul Sister: Who is Eurus?

Do you get it? She’s his sister? But metaphorically, she’s a part of his soul? I was very impressed with myself for this title. Anyway…

This chapter of the meta is going to deal with the various times we meet Eurus before TFP and what this might mean, which will help us to understand who she is once we have stripped off the disguises.

Before series 4, we had real!characters and MP!characters set up as distinct entities, particularly in TSoT, which distinguishes between MP!Mycroft (the deducing brain) and real!Mycroft, as well as MP!Irene representing desire and real!Irene, who doesn’t come near the episode. The MP section in TSoT, for a lot of people in the fandom, broke down Sherlock’s psyche into MP!John vs. MP!Mycroft – and John is clearly winning.

However, I want to suggest that Sherlock’s psyche isn’t nearly so straightforward as a tug of war between the brain and the heart. Whilst MP!Mycroft undoubtedly represents the oppressively reasonable part of Sherlock’s psyche, that’s not the only thing repressing him – it can’t be. If it were simply a rejection of ‘sentiment’, this wouldn’t be the powerful queer love story we know it to be – there is a lot more internalised homophobia being dealt with than just love being illogical. That’s where Eurus comes in.

Eurus and Mycroft are parallel oppressive forces in Sherlock’s brain, but they’re oppressive in different ways. Having family members and childhood trauma be the psyche’s symbols for repression is particularly poignant in a queer love story, for obvious reasons. However, I want to take you through my reasoning behind Eurus being the most secret and troubled part of Sherlock’s soul.

The first clue is that her prison is called Sherrinford. We all assumed that the third Holmes sibling was going to be Sherrinford back before s4, and it seemed that way in the beginning, with Mycroft mentioning speaking to Sherrinford several times, construing it as a person rather than a place. This is no coincidence – for those who aren’t familiar with the history of the stories, Conan Doyle’s original name for his protagonist was Sherrinford Holmes, which he later changed to Sherlock. That Eurus is trapped inside Sherrinford is a clear suggestion that Eurus is something that’s trapped inside Sherlock – a dangerous MP entity. More important than that, Sherrinford is the version of Holmes that never made it into the books. Plenty of people have worked on queering the Holmes canon and working out what ACD might have been implying and leaving out and arguably none more so in an adaptation that Mofftiss. Let’s think about the implications of this. A kind of second self, not shown to the public, buried inside your mind and forgotten since childhood, which is bursting out into a moment of acute psychological distress. Gee, I don’t know what that could be about. The Sherlock that Sherlock thinks he is has thus far been dominated by MP!Mycroft, but this series is about uniting canon!Holmes with the non-canon, queer Sherrinford who has always existed, judging by the name, and who is currently dominated by the destructive MP!Eurus. The other important point to note here is that Sherrinford is an island in the middle of the sea – that’s not a coincidence, given how much water imagery abounds in this series. I spoke briefly in Chapter 2 X about how water represents Sherlock sinking deeper and deeper into his own subconsciousness – this is the deepest he can go. In Greek mythology, Eurus was the name of the wind most associated with causing storms at sea X – this isn’t a coincidence either. She’s very deliberately tied in with water.

(In real life terms, of course, all this means that a real!Eurus probably does or did exist in some form, although I can’t begin to hazard a guess about this. However, I’m trying to refer to her as MP!Eurus when she’s in her normal form in the MP, in case we get a series 5 with Sian Brooke as real!Eurus, and also to distinguish her from therapist!Eurus etc.)

This is my reasoning as to why MP!Eurus represents Sherlock’s innermost trauma. She is not merely the fact that he loves John – he deduced this in TSoT without her appearance. She is the trauma that he needs to come to terms with. A running theme through our analysis of Eurus will be that her gender is particularly important; her representation of Sherlock’s repression cannot be but as a woman, because for most of s4 he is only able to process his identity through the most heterosexual of lenses. We see this hinted at quite early on in TST, when Sherlock takes on a case called ‘The Duplicate Man’, warning John that it is never twins. The word ‘duplicate’ here, removing twins, leaves us with the only real possibility that it is in fact the same person. Eurus’s gender makes that more difficult to see; she needs to be female, but it’s much more difficult to elide the two characters without employing a Cumberbatch doppelganger. However, this hint that Eurus is not only male but an actual ‘duplicate’ of her brother should give us pause for thought. With this in mind, I want to use the rest of this chapter to analyse her three forms before TFP.

1.) Faith!Eurus

I’m certainly not the first to point out that Faith!Eurus is a mirror for John, nor will I be the last – people jumped on it pretty much as soon as TLD aired. There are a few good reasons for this. Firstly, she walks with a cane, a throwback to ASiP – in case we’d forgotten, however, Sherlock has a flashback to John walking with a cane to make the link explicit. We are supposed to link these two characters, the authors are saying pretty clearly. Faith!Eurus is also suicidal, which John was at the start of ASiP, as made clear by the fact he carried a gun – and Faith!Eurus does the same. Sherlock also takes her out for food (for more on the food/sex metaphor, see here X) which he doesn’t with anyone bar John, and we certainly never see him talk so easily with someone who isn’t John. An eagle-eyed tumblr post that I can’t find now also broke my heart in pointing out that Faith!Eurus’s unseen self-harm matches long-sleeved John Watson a little too well.

This isn’t just the show trying to remind us of what John was like in ASiP, however. MP!Eurus is the trauma prodding Sherlock’s sexuality – it’s going to be hell to get through it, but he absolutely needs to do it. This is Sherlock’s trauma, not reminding him that John was suicidal, but forcing him to acknowledge it in the first place, something which Sherlock has buried. We know this because of the way the image of John forces its way into Sherlock’s mind – it’s much like the way Moriarty breaks into TAB. His brain is making a connection that he’s not quite capable of making and it’s knocking him. His deduction that Faith!Eurus is suicidal is accompanied by that image of John, and he then re-enacts the food ritual he completed with John the evening John left his cane behind, before throwing Faith!Eurus’s gun into the Thames – proving that it was Sherlock himself who stopped John from taking his own life.

This is trauma, however, and Sherlock can’t process it in full – hence why the image of John that breaks in is shaky, and Sherlock tries to push it out of his head. It’s also why Faith!Eurus, who in Sherlock’s subconscious could take any form, specifically takes the form of a woman. His gay trauma means that he first has to process John’s suicidal ideation in a heterosexual dynamic, before fully grasping and applying it to his relationship with John. (Chapter 9 X explains how that plays out over the rest of TLD in full detail.)

2.) E!Eurus

Taking a jump back to surface level plot here, the first thing that grabbed me about E!Eurus was just how minor John’s flirtation with her was. In the terms of a television show which really rides on very high drama (multiple faked deaths and insane cliffhangers for a start), the emotional peak of John’s emotional arc with Mary being that he texted another woman – not went out for lunch, not kissed, not slept with – is bizarre, particularly when we know next to nothing about E!Eurus at this point. It’s incredibly anti-climactic as a means of John falling short of Mary’s view of him. Maybe we can accept it as in line with John Moral-Principles Watson, but it’s difficult to accept as in keeping with the nature of a show whose intent is nearly always to shock.

With this in mind, let’s delve back into the MP to see how that might give this moment greater emotional significance. Chapter 10 X is on the hug scene, and that will deal with John’s revelation of his infidelity in greater detail. For the moment, the most important thing to remember is that John Watson is not real!John – he is heart!John. In other words, we are seeing a similarly heterosexualised re-enactment of Sherlock’s relationship with John.

I will talk a lot in Chapter 10 X about how MP!Mary is linked to Sherlock’s compulsory heterosexuality; at the end of TST, Sherlock substitutes Mary’s body for his because he cannot conceive of John’s queer grief without breaking himself. This is interesting because the E of Eurus actually stands for Elizabeth in this scene (certainly in the credits, and possibly elsewhere, although I can’t remember Sian Brooke actually saying it). Elizabeth is Elizabeth is Mary’s middle name in BBC Sherlock, which looks like another of those shared name links our creators love so well. If so, this begins to justify how Sherlock’s heart is conceiving of its emotions. We will see in TLD that heart!John’s relationship with fem!John in the form of Eurus is aligned with Sherlock’s sexual desire in the form of MP!Irene. Both are hidden and exist only in texts – i.e., they cannot be spoken yet. But they will be.

3.) Therapist!Eurus

This one is perhaps the most straightforward on a symbolism level, but also possibly the most significant moment in the series. Therapist!Eurus, plain and simple, is Sherlock’s trauma prodding at John, interrogating him like a therapist would, trying to work him out – and largely failing, right? She can get basically nothing about how he feels about Sherlock out of him. But this is part of MP!Eurus’s ongoing project to get Sherlock to wake up – the Gay Trauma is interrogating John, trying to suss him, and failing.

Except, in the final scene of TLD, without the help of Therapist!Eurus, Sherlock has finally sussed John – it has taken until Culverton’s confession to recognise that John is suicidal without Sherlock (Chapter 9 X). The sigh of relief that is the hug scene (Chapter 10 X) is a kind of acknowledgement of that relief that he’s finally worked out what he’s been trying to cover up with drugs – so much so, that he misses the obvious, which is that John is suicidal again. When John leaves his cane with Sherlock in the hospital, it is a reminder of the first time he is suicidal, and Sherlock doesn’t make the immediate leap in his comatose haze that this is what his psyche has been trying to tell him. Hence you have this moment of immense relief and fade out at the end of the hug scene which suggests the end of the episode, and could feasibly end Sherlock’s life, except we’re started awake with a much more abrupt and troubling ending scene – Therapist!Eurus shooting John. Because, of course, if Sherlock is gone again, John must be suicidal again, and it has taken a few scenes of cognitive dissonance for this to clock. Indeed, it’s not Sherlock himself who clocks – Gay Trauma in the form of Eurus!Therapist returns and shoots John for us. This shooting isn’t, of course, permanent (in one of the worst cliffhanger resolutions in TV history), but that’s because it’s not real – it hasn’t happened yet. It is Sherlock, through MP!Eurus, finally recognising the problem – John.

This is particularly poignant in light of the opening and closing shots of TLD. Although there’s the fucky not-blood red that fills the screen at the end of TLD, apart from that the shots of Norbury shooting Mary and Therapist!Eurus shooting John are one and the same shot. It’s also a stylish shot (what I call split screen, but given that I never went to film school I think that’s just my name for it) and it’s repeated enough times over TLD that it’s pretty clear the creatives want it to be memorable. By the time John gets shot, then, we shouldn’t be caught up in the drama of it – we should be thinking, as so many did, “something’s fucky.”

And it is – but it’s brilliantly fucky! Head over to Chapter 7 X if you want to read about Norbury shooting Mary, but TLDR it’s a metaphor for Mary shooting Sherlock as understood from Sherlock’s warped and depressed perspective – and he’s finally realised what it means! The version in which Mary shooting Sherlock means John losing Mary (the Norbury version) is one in which John is sad, goes to therapy, and the world moves on. Now, however, that Sherlock has recognised that John was suicidal, he can also recognise that Mary shooting Sherlock will make John suicidal again – hence why it’s the same shot. Mary shooting Sherlock is the same as John dying – and the latter is much more important in Sherlock’s mind.

[It’s worth noting that the identical shots we see in TST and TLD don’t match the shot in HLV, although admittedly that one’s not in the MP – it does strike me, however, that the sounds are reversed – HLV sounds like a dart, whereas the MP shots sound like bullets. If anyone has any thoughts on that, do let me know – it has me flummoxed for the moment. If you want meta explaining why the shot from TST is the same as HLV, Chapter 7 is here X, and I’m certainly not the first to hypothesise this. For me, the TLD shot being the same is therefore a logical extension.]

#tjlc #chapter five: hey soul sister - who is eurus?#eurus holmes #meta #my meta #mine #bbc sherlock #johnlock #tjlc is real #bbc johnlock #e #mary #queer theory

30 notes · View notes

alwaysahiccupandastrid · 5 years

Text

“Us” (2019) - Thoughts (SPOILERS!)

So I watched Jordan Peele’s “Us” today at the cinema and I just need to get some stuff off my chest about it because I went alone and have no one to discuss it with xD

Please do NOT read if you want to avoid SPOILERS!!!!

This movie creeped the fuck out of me - it wasn’t a particularly jumpscare-filled movie but it was creepy as fuck

So the movie opens with Adelaide going to this funfair/amusement park and wandering off into a house of mirrors. There she meets an exact clone of herself (Red) and she’s not the same since. She’s traumatized and can’t really speak about it, though they say she takes up dance or something as a way to express herself

That opening with the creepy choir music and rabbits? What the fuck? I did not need that nightmare fuel?? :))

I literally had no idea about the amount of tunnels that are apparently under America but woW OKAY THAT’S NOT UNSETTLING AT ALL

Fast forward to present day and she’s an adult with a husband and kids, and they’re at the beach where the above stuff happened, and she’s super freaked out about it.

The Tyler family are literally so white privilege - and I say that as a white person. It’s fucking hilarious. “It’s vodka o’clock” - lmao that really is such a white thing to say

Also the twins?? They were Ross and Rachel’s daughter, Emma, in Friends when they were babies??

I actually liked most of the humour to be honest, it kind of lulled you into a false sense of security

Zora pretending to turn off her phone and then continuing to use it once her mom had gone was so relatable tbh

I probably shouldn’t have taken my glasses off and redone my hair at the exact moment the Tethered people showed up because I’m blind as a bat and it was a blur for a full minute whilst I tried to rearrange my goddamn headband

Pluto (Jason’s ‘Other/Tethered’ person) was literally so fucking creepy; maybe it was the mask, maybe the movements, maybe everything put together...but holy S H I T. NIGHTMARE FUEL

The story that Red was telling about the shadow?? Y I K E S.

Also Red needs to drink some water, it was super unsettling

I’m never going to look at scissors the same way again

Yo the Tylers getting murdered happened so fast WTAF

Love how we were tricked into “oh they’re out there?? oh no they’re not, haha cool...fUCK o_O”

I probably should not have laughed so hard when Kitty called out to “Ophelia” to “phone the police” and it went “now playing fuck the police” XD

Also “Ophelia”?? I see you with your “Alexa” parody, movie!

Can I just say that the twins and their Tethered selves doing gymnastics freaked me out way more than anything else in any other horror movie yIKES

The scene where Kitty’s doppelgänger (Dahlia I think?) puts on lipstick, goes to hurt Adelaide but then cuts her own face open instead and laughs?? Literal chills, man

Being a gore fan, I really appreciate the sheer amount of blood in this film, 11/10 high-key recommend

I can’t believe that every time we eat anything, the Tethered versions of ourselves have to eat raw rabbit like??? gross?? definitely not having nightmares about that...

The white people’s boat is called B’Yacht’ch I fucking cannot

Also usually in horror movies, it’s a cliché that the “token black person” dies first but in this film it’s the irritating white people who all die, and all of the black family survive this is good content

The soundtrack is A+

The fight scene/dance duel scene? With the remix of “I got 5 on it”? BEAUTIFUL. POETIC CINEMA I SWEAR

THE TWIST AT THE END BYE

I am so confused and questioning everything I know, what the fuck Jordan Peele

Okay so the “twist” deserves it’s own section because bitch the FUCK

So the huge twist (SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER) is that Adelaide and Red switched places right at the start of the movie - so the person who we think is Adelaide is actually Red, and vice versa

I’m not saying the twist was bad but I kinda knew already that Adelaide and Red were switched at the beginning of the movie - I mean the moment is heavily implied in the trailer!

I think they drop so many hints/clues throughout the film that it starts to add up quickly

First of all, the fact that Adelaide-who-is-really-Red only drinks water and barely eats anything. Like she repeatedly refuses to drink any alcohol too

It’s mentioned that Adelaide-who-is-really-Red doesn’t talk a lot, and at first it’s like “oh it’s the trauma of whatever happened in the funhouse” but then it makes sense that it’s actually Red

Adelaide-who-is-really-Red REALLY did not want to be back at that beach - again you assume it’s because “trauma” but nah, it’s because she knows what she did

The way Adelaide-who-is-really-Red killed one of the doppelgängers was kinda reminiscent of how the Tethered were killing people

The story that Red-who-is-really-Adelaide tells about giving birth to those ‘monsters’ seems oddly human for something supposedly without a soul (since she mentions that the experiments duplicated the human body but they couldn’t do the soul) - and then it’s like “...oh fuck”

Red-who-is-really-Adelaide knows that ‘real’ people eat proper food because she ate it herself;��‘real’ children get proper toys because she did too, etc.

The reason that Red-who-is-really-Adelaide’s voice is so hoarse/raspy is because Adelaide-who-is-really-Red choked her into unconsciousness before taking her place

To add, Red-who-is-really-Adelaide is the only ‘Tethered’ who can actually talk

The fact that the beginning of the movie shows Red-who-is-really-Adelaide watching an advert for People of America on TV (the people holding hands across the country), it’s on her t-shirt when the switch happens and then that’s exactly what the Tethered start to do. Also, near the end of the film, you see her cutting up those paper-chain-people who are holding hands

The Thriller t-shirt; right at the end of the Thriller music video, there’s the whole identity question of “is he who we think he is”? (I think)

So, here are a few gripes I had despite overall liking the movie;

It started off kinda slow, which was good in some ways because of tension and character establishment etc, but putting a whole two to three minutes opening credits thing really slowed it down a lot after the opening (though I did like the soundtrack during those credits)

Despite the switch being relatively well-done and a good twist, it just seemed really obvious after seeing the trailer

The twist sort of brought some plotholes but I’m going to bring that up in my question section in a sec since it may be intentional (you’ll know what I mean in a second)

I feel like a few times during the film, it was building up tension to be terrifying/scary but then the “punch”, as it were, came too soon to reach its full potential - like it peaked a tad too early

Finally, questions I have after the movie! (and boy, do I have questions)

Does Red-who-is-really-Adelaide not know that she’s not one of the Tethered? Did she forget completely? Like why does she want and plan to kill all “normal” humans? She must retain SOME memory because she talks about food/toys, plus the People of America/holding hands thing.

Also does Adelaide-who-is-really-Red not remember that she’s one of the Tethered at all before the end of the film?

The Tethered are all shadows of the “normal” people (for lack of a better phrase), so why is Adelaide-who-is-really-Red able to a) speak normally, b) dance so well, c) move more “normally”? And why does Red-who-is-really-Adelaide not move “normally” (eg. the dance parallel) when she’s “normal”?

^^ I wonder if over time they both forgot or repressed those memories, and only fragments remained. And then Adelaide-who-is-really-Red only remembers at the end that she’s actually a Tethered-person.

Adelaide-who-is-really-Red is a Tethered-person, right? So does that mean that the “normal” Zora and Jason are half-Tethered? Is that why they manage to survive so well or...?

Why does Red-who-is-really-Adelaide want to kill everyone in the outer-world? Is this supposed to reflect not separating “us” vs “them” or something? She clearly got loose from being cuffed to the bed, so why didn’t she escape after and go back home?

^Also, who uncuffed her? And why? Was it the Tethered?

Sometimes it’s like the Tethered completely mirror the “normal” versions, and then other times they don’t. Which is it? Why?

What happens next?? What is the purpose of the Tethered all holding hands in a line? What are they hoping to achieve? Are they trying to send a message?

Jason seems to realize that Adelaide-who-is-really-Red is...well, actually Red - and so does she now. What impact does this have? Is she going to go crazy and kill her family?

Do Tethered have feelings? Or emotions? Because Adelaide-who-is-really-Red married Gabe so...? You know?

Is the fact that neither of them remember the switch that well/they both adapted supposed to signify that souls aren’t a real thing?? Because supposedly that’s what the Tethered lack?

Are there Tethered for ALL of America or just Santa Cruz? And what about the rest of the world? Do I have a Tethered-version of myself??

Finally, if there is a Tethered version of me out there, I’m sorry for eating so much since that means you’ve had to eat a fuck ton of raw rabbit :’( Please don’t kill me, we can be friends!

Overall, though, I did enjoy the movie! :)

#SPOILERS #us #us movie #Jordan peele #long post is long #this took over an hour to write but now my brain is somewhat cleansed #this is all I could think of from the top of my head

120 notes · View notes

abybweisse · 6 years

Note

There is this question that bothers me a bit , why isn't our ciel loyal to the queen ? Why does he hide things from her ? I mean we all know that he only returned to be the watchdog just to lure the attackers to try to kill him again right ? Then what does he gain if he hid things from her and made her suspicious?

Good question....I can think of a few things:• He’s automaticity trying to keep the secret that he’s got a demon as a butler. That they’ve got a contract he’s bound to even more strongly than he’s bound to his queen.• As you said, his current goal/quest really has nothing to do with serving her.• He doesn’t trust anyone; he can’t. For all he knows, she could have something to do with the murder of his parents, etc... and I suspect he’d be right about it if he’s ever considered the possibility.• He’s got a knack for playing strategy games, like chess, and he might automatically go into gamer mode when dealing with anyone, including her. This is tied into his trust issues.• And it... um... works **perfectly** with my Mother3 theory....1. Lucas is never loyal to King Porky (and finds that people are often not trustworthy), but loyalty is what the king craves/demands most. 2. Lucas has a personal quest of his own; it’s also revenge: the murder of his mother, the disappearance of his brother, the destruction of their house (it gets burned down a *few* times), and the broken mental state of his father. Turns out he’s got a prophecy to fulfill: pull up these needles to wake a Dark Dragon (a parallel to the demon contract). This Dark Dragon can fix a lot of things, but it *cannot bring back the dead*. “What is lost can never return”....3. The king IS behind the trauma Lucas and his family has suffered, and Lucas has to confront him in his quest for revenge.4. Lucas plays it kind of neutral as he’s lured into the king’s game — King Porky makes it very much about games within a game — and then Lucas becomes openly defiant. Meanwhile, Lucas’ (dead, reanimated) older mirror twin, Claus, is brought under complete control of the king (the king even calls Claus his “robot”), and then the two brothers are forced to confront each other. So, as much as it might bother some in the fandom, I think a big part of why our earl isn’t truly loyal to the queen in Black Butler is because Lucas isn’t loyal to the king in Mother3. Both monarchs want unconditional obedience from one twin (from everyone, actually) but cannot have it. They each use the older twin to (temporarily) achieve this feeling of absolute control. Then, as it eventually must, that all falls apart.

12 notes · View notes

the-organizing-principle · 7 years

Photo

‘Twin Peaks as Fugue’ Theory, Part 1: Who Is Margaret Lanterman?

Expanding on the theory I started to articulate in this post, I’ll focus now on what this might mean when viewed in light of specific characters and plot points. I’d like to start with Margaret Lanterman (The Log Lady), exploring what this particular character could represent if the theory that all of Twin Peaks was dreamed up by Dale Cooper/Richard holds true.

I think one of the biggest clues into this character can be found in the “Log Lady Intros,” a series of short vignettes written and directed by David Lynch for Bravo Network’s re-airing of the series in 1993. Consider that—for all intents and purposes—the show was over at this point; Lynch did not expect it to be revived. So this was probably his last chance to say whatever he might have felt was left unsaid after the season 2 finale, and with these vignettes he was able to add a kind of director’s commentary to each episode, however obliquely.

I’d like to look at the last Log Lady Intro, first:

"And now, an ending. Where there was once one, there are now two. Or were there always two? What is a reflection? A chance to see two? When there are chances for reflections, there can always be two--or more. Only when we are everywhere will there be just one. It has been a pleasure speaking to you." —Episode 29 / “Beyond Life and Death”

This line struck me as familiar: a few years later, Lynch would direct the film Lost Highway, in which a character known as “The Mystery Man” (Robert Blake) would have a spooky conversation with Bill Pullman’s character, Fred, wherein Fred learns that the man he’s speaking with is simultaneously in front of him and inside his house (the man hands Fred a phone, and Fred calls his house and speaks to the man, who answers). After failing to convince Fred that they’d met before, the man concludes the unsettling conversation with the line, “It’s been a pleasure talking to you.”

Lynch himself has confirmed that Lost Highway is a film about a character suffering a psychogenic fugue / what he describes as a “parallel identity crisis” (x). There is also evidence that Lynch considers Lost Highway and Twin Peaks as works that share some overlap in terms of the fictional universe they occupy. Furthermore, the Mystery Man character is widely believed to be a personification of Fred’s jealousy over his wife’s unfaithfulness (x).

Of course, these similar lines of dialogue aren’t obscure enough for it to qualify as direct evidence of a connection between the Mystery Man and Margaret Lanterman, but it was enough to draw my attention to a potential parallel even if it wasn’t intentional. The Mystery Man knows things that shouldn’t be known, especially by a “stranger.” Fred is afraid of him, and of his unsettling insight. Fred is trying to escape the truth of what he did. Meanwhile, Margaret also has preternatural insights. In the original series, I got the sense that Dale was wary of her whenever they were forced to interact. Remember the scene where Margaret first approaches him at the diner, with a message from her log? Dale seems distinctly uncomfortable, only humoring her at Harry’s nudging (unusual for Dale, who is normally so friendly). Why would the Log Lady make Dale nervous? If Dale/Richard is trying to escape a painful truth from his past via the conjured fantasy world of Twin Peaks, what might Margaret represent to him? In the same way that the Mystery Man personifies Fred’s secret, repressed jealousy, I think Margaret might personify Dale’s secret, repressed understanding of the illusory world he inhabits. Through Margaret, Dale receives coded hints about the true nature of this world.

We can find these hints all over the series, but they seem especially potent in the Log Lady Intros. Consider the very first one:

"Welcome to Twin Peaks. My name is Margaret Lanterman. I live in Twin Peaks. I am known as the Log Lady. There is a story behind that. There are many stories in Twin Peaks. Some of them are sad, some funny. Some of them are stories of madness, of violence. Some are ordinary. Yet they all have about them a sense of mystery – the mystery of life. Sometimes, the mystery of death. The mystery of the woods. The woods surrounding Twin Peaks. To introduce this story, let me just say it encompasses the all – it is beyond the "fire", though few would know that meaning. It is a story of many, but begins with one – and I knew her. The one leading to the many is Laura Palmer. Laura is the one."

I will go into more detail about Laura later, but for now, consider the theory that Laura is the central focus because she represents a distortion of Dale/Richard’s deepest pain and sorrow, repressed and kept secret from himself by his fractured psyche, likely originating out of some kind of trauma involving someone named Judy. Out of this trauma, Dale/Richard has invented an entire world to cope with his break from reality: the world of Twin Peaks, the “story of the many [various characters].” What is the obscure meaning of “fire” that the story of Twin Peaks is “beyond”? I believe that “fire” represents a catalyst; a force that can be destructive or cleansing; ultimately, the truth. In the context of the fugue theory, the “fire” Margaret refers to here might be the real-world incident that caused Dale/Richard to retreat into the fantasy world of Twin Peaks. More on this later.

Then there’s the intro to the third episode:

"There is a sadness in this world, for we are ignorant of many things. Yes – we are ignorant of many beautiful things. Things like the truth. So sadness in our ignorance is very real. The tears are real. What is this thing called a tear? There are even tiny ducts – tear ducts – to produce these tears should the sadness occur. Then the day when the sadness comes. Then we ask, 'Will the sadness that makes me cry, will the sadness that makes me cry my heart out, will it ever end?' The answer, of course, is yes. One day, the sadness will end."

Although this could be a reference to various characters’ sadness over not knowing the truth about what happened to Laura Palmer, it’s difficult to imagine how this particular truth could ever be considered “beautiful.” Neither would whatever unknown trauma Dale/Richard might have experienced prior to his retreat into Twin Peaks. So what “beautiful truth” is left to be sad about? I think Lynch is referring to a sense of understanding and acceptance that eventually follows a period of grief, even if it is only arrived at once a person has crossed over into a new awareness, beyond death. Remember, death is “just a change, not an end.” Although very esoteric, this message might indicate that Dale/Richard’s pain and sadness temporarily “ended” when he retreated into his fantasy world, but will never really end until he confronts the “beautiful truth” that is genuine understanding of his trauma and how it has affected him.

Now consider the fourth intro:

"Even the ones who laugh are sometimes caught without an answer. These creatures who introduce themselves, but we swear we have met them somewhere before, yes? Look in the mirror. What do you see? Is it a dream, or a nightmare? Are we being introduced against our will? Are they mirrors? I can see the smoke. I can smell the fire. The battle is drawing nigh."

Are the “creatures who introduce themselves” the various characters Dale encounters in Twin Peaks? Has he met them before, in that they are simulacra of people he has encountered in the ‘real world’ (i.e. the psychiatric institution, etc)? These characters could be mirroring real people, but they are products of a dream/nightmare in the world of Twin Peaks. Perhaps Dale/Richard can’t choose who enters this dream or what form they will take in here, and perhaps some are harder to obscure in the dream language than others, and their real selves slip through the cracks in small ways, causing stress on the fantasy’s foundation. Margaret is particularly savvy: she can see the “smoke” that indicates the “fire” of change: the fantasy can’t be maintained forever. The “battle” might refer to the struggle of his consciousness to keep the truth obscured in this unstable delusion.

This thread continues with the fifth intro:

"I play my part on life's stage. I tell what I can to form the perfect answer. But that answer cannot come before all are ready to hear, so I tell what I can to form the perfect answer. Sometimes my anger at the fire is evident. Sometimes it is not anger, really – it may appear as such, but could it be a clue? The fire I speak of is not a kind fire."

The fire is not kind: the truth hurts. Margaret’s apparent “anger at the fire” could indicate Dale’s unconscious frustration with his inability to face the truth. He’s not ready to hear it: not any of his various personifications are ready to hear that they don’t “exist” outside of his fantasy. The truth comes out in small clues that are made palatable to his psyche.

The fire thread picks up again in the intro to the twentieth episode:

"My husband died in a fire. No one can know my sorrow. My love is gone. Yet, I feel him near me. Sometimes I can almost see him. At night when the wind blows, I think of what he might have been. Again I wonder: why? When I see a fire, I feel my anger rising. This was not a friendly fire. This was not a forest fire. It was a fire in the woods. This is all I am permitted to say."

Again, we see secrecy surrounding the concept of “the fire” in “the woods.” Read on to see what I think “the woods” really is...

Now, intro to episode eight:

"Hello again. Can you see through a wall? Can you see through human skin? X-rays see through solid, or so-called solid objects. There are things in life that exist, yet our eyes cannot see them. Have you ever seen something startling that others cannot see? Why are some things kept from our vision? Is life a puzzle? I am filled with questions. Sometimes my questions are answered. In my heart, I can tell the answer is correct. I am my own judge. In a dream, are all the characters really you? Different aspects of you? Do answers come in dreams? One more thing. I grew up in the woods. I understand many things because of the woods. Trees standing together, growing alongside one another, providing so much. I chew pitch gum. On the outside – let's say, of the Ponderosa pine – sometimes pitch oozes out. Runny pitch is no good to chew. Hard, brittle pitch is no good. But in between these exists a firm, slightly crusted pitch with such a flavor. This is the pitch I chew."

I’m including this because it clearly speaks to my theory that all the characters in Twin Peaks are aspects of Dale/Richard’s dream/fugue state. Less clearly: if Margaret “grew up in the woods” and “understand[s] many things because of the woods,” the “woods” might represent the unconscious. Margaret is a link to Dale’s unconscious mind, hence her prescient understanding and Dale/Richard’s nervousness around her. He can only tolerate her veiled truths in specific doses, hence the “pitch” that is just right (neither too vague nor too direct).

Then, before episode twenty eight:

"A log is a portion of a tree. At the end of a crosscut log -- many of you know this -- there are rings. Each ring represents one year in the life of the tree. How long it takes to a grow a tree! I don't mind telling you some things. Many things, I mustn't say. Just notice that my fireplace is boarded up. There will never be a fire there. On the mantelpiece, in that jar, are some of the ashes of my husband. My log hears things I cannot hear. But my log tells me about the sounds, about the new words. Even though it has stopped growing larger, my log is aware."

Margaret’s fireplace is boarded up because her character is not permitted too close to “fire,” or the catalyzing force of truth. Her log is the conduit through which secrets from Dale/Richard’s unconscious mind pass; a method of limiting and regulating what breaks through Dale/Richard’s protective mental barriers. Margaret can help Dale/Richard, and he sometimes relies on her insight to solve problems in his dreamworld, but she can also harm him by revealing too much and breaking the illusion he wants to maintain. He doesn’t want to be completely divorced from his unconscious mind, but it contains repressed information that is dangerous to his illusory world.

Even more evidence! Episode nine:

"As above, so below. The human being finds himself, or herself, in the middle. There is as much space outside the human, proportionately, as inside. Stars, moons, and planets remind us of protons, neutrons, and electrons. Is there a bigger being walking with all the stars within? Does our thinking affect what goes on outside us, and what goes on inside us? I think it does. Where does creamed corn figure into the workings of the universe? What really is creamed corn? Is it a symbol for something else?"

This speaks further to my theory that the entire world of Twin Peaks could have been dreamed up by one man, i.e. Dale/Richard. His trauma has pervaded his mind, affecting his interior experience to the point that he has lost touch with reality. Creamed corn, we know, is a substance that represents “pain and sorrow”/”garmonbozia,” and is consumed by the lodge inhabitants (The Arm). We learn this in TP:FWWM. Why creamed corn, though? Maybe Lynch is just very creeped out by this food; also, maybe Dale/Richard has been fed creamed corn during his hospitalization, as this food would not be uncommon on a hospital menu. Maybe Dale/Richard hates it so much that his unconscious has incorporated it into his dream world as a particularly insidious substance.

Now, episode twelve:

"Sometimes nature plays tricks on us and we imagine we are something other than what we truly are. Is this a key to life in general? Or the case of the two-headed schizophrenic? Both heads thought the other was following itself. Finally, when one head wasn't looking, the other shot the other right between the eyes, and, of course, killed himself."

Is Dale/Richard “the two-headed schizophrenic”? This might seem like an allusion to Leland (who hadn’t been revealed as the killer yet at this point in the series), but Leland’s second head—i.e. BOB—was a separate entity, not just another “side” of Leland. BOB didn’t think “the other (Leland) was following [him]self.” Leland, unknowingly possessed by BOB, was unconscious of BOB’s presence. If the fugue theory holds up, then this Log Lady Intro could more accurately refer to Dale/Richard’s perception of himself as someone “other than what [he] truly [is],” and the projection of BOB (who he does, in fact, pursue, and who ultimately pursues him in return) as an externalized, evil force, could be Dale/Richard’s unconscious distancing himself from an internalized source of fear and pain. Remember, BOB is “with” Dale’s doppelganger, and the doppelganger is ultimately an aspect of Dale/Richard’s fractured psyche. Therefore BOB, however far removed, is ultimately part of Dale/Richard, too.

Without added commentary, let me share the following intro from episode thirteen, which should be self-explanatory now:

"Sometimes we want to hide from ourselves. We do not want to be us. It is too difficult to be us. It is at these times that we turn to drugs and alcohol or behavior to forget that we are ourselves. This is – of course – only a temporary solution to a problem which is going to keep returning, and sometimes these temporary solutions are worse for us than the original problem. Yes, it is a dilemma. Is there an answer? Of course there is. A wise person once said with a smile, the answer is within the question."

I swear I’m trying to skip over some of these but they just keep supporting my theory! Here’s the next one from episode fifteen:

"A poem as lovely as a tree. As the night wind blows, the boughs move to and fro; the rustling, the magic rustling that brings on the dark dream. The dream of suffering and pain; pain for the victim, pain for the inflicter of pain – a circle of pain, a circle of suffering. Woe to ones who behold the pale horse."

This has always been my favorite Log Lady Intro, but it wasn’t until recently that I began to think about the idea that Dale/Richard might be the “inflicter of pain” referenced here. Leland is an obvious alternative, and given the timing of this intro in the series, it probably does refer to Leland on the surface. But could there be a subtextual meaning, wherein the blowing “night wind” could mean dark, disruptive thoughts surfacing in Dale/Richard’s consciousness, and the “magic rustling” is the rearrangement of those thoughts into their distorted perversions, rendered psychically acceptable in the “dark dream” of Twin Peaks? Keep in mind that, although a fantasy world, Dale/Richard cannot control everything that happens in Twin Peaks; in fact, I think the whole series is about him gradually losing control over this unstable delusion.

From episode twenty three:

"A hotel. A nightstand. A drawer pull on the drawer. A drawer pull of a nightstand in the room of a hotel. What could possibly be happening on or in this drawer pull? How many drawer pulls exist in this world? Thousands, maybe millions? What is a drawer pull? This drawer pull - why is it featured so prominently in a life or in a death of one woman who was caught in a web of power? Can a victim of power end, in any way, connected to a drawer pull? How can this be?"

To me, this seems to emphasize the significance of the end of Josie’s arc as a literal “compartmentalization” of her character by her dreamer, Dale/Richard. Her story was spiraling out of control, and so the dreamer had her killed off and tidily packed away inside a drawer pull (the drawer being a symbol of a mental compartment). She wasn’t completely erased, though, as both Ben Horne and Pete saw her in various other wooden objects at the Great Northern in episode 27, and there was a cut scene from the finale wherein Dale was supposed to see her in the curtains of the lodge. I’ll have to go deeper into what Josie could represent in relation to Dale/Richard as the dreamer, later, but for now, consider the recurrence of Josie’s likeness in objects as a potential side effect of Dale/Richard’s compartmentalization; a kind of cognitive dissonance resulting from her erasure.

A big, self-described clue comes in the intro to episode twenty seven:

"There are clues everywhere, all around us. But the puzzle maker is clever. The clues, although surrounding us, are somehow mistaken for something else. And the something else, the wrong interpretation of the clues, we call our world. Our world is a magical smoke screen. How should we interpret the happy song of the meadowlark or the robust flavor of a wild strawberry?"

This significance of this vignette (in relation to the fugue theory) is so obvious that I wonder whether this was meant to be a big reveal on Lynch’s part... Does it even need to be explained? Out of context, it sounds like an esoteric rumination on the nature of reality. I think that this meaning could double as a direct reference to the world of Twin Peaks as a “magical smoke screen” for the harsh reality of Dale/Richard’s actual world.

...

That’s all on Margaret for now — stay tuned for more character / plot point analyses, which will hopefully be much shorter!

#twin peaks fugue theory #twin peaks #theory #analysis #the log lady #margaret lanterman #twin peaks: the return #twin peaks spoilers #david lynch #Dale Cooper #psychosis #fugue #explanation #lost highway #the mystery man #richard #josie packard #schizophrenia #log lady intro

2 notes · View notes