#they litchrally ruined her life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

infinitelytheheartexpands · 1 year

Note

Opera you like but don't talk about much?

so! let’s talk about bellini’s la sonnambula.

“savannah you don’t even like bellini that much” lalalalalalalalala can’t hear you i have Opinions.

specifically, let’s talk about lisa.

if you’re not familiar with the story of la sonnambula, it’s basically about this small town village girl named amina who’s in love with a boy named elvino and they’re about to get married and shit. BUT amina is a sleepwalker! and no one in this swiss village circa 1830 knows that sleepwalking is a Thing. so when amina sleepwalks into an older gentleman’s hotel room and elvino discovers her there, he denounces her as a cheating whore and breaks off their engagement, but amina’s honor and engagement are swiftly restored once the whole village sees amina sleepwalking and realizes that That Is A Thing.

it’s an exceptionally stupid plot, but i digress.

so who’s lisa?

WELL, lisa is the owner of the aforementioned hotel and she’s had her eye on elvino for practically forever. in fact, they were even engaged before amina came into the picture and he broke up with her. she flirts with count rodolfo (the aforementioned older gentleman) in his room while she’s making the evening rounds, but runs when amina shows up (not knowing she’s sleepwalking) and drops a handkerchief in the process.

then she goes and finds elvino and is like “uh hey i think your girlfriend is cheating on you” and then elvino has this massive overreaction and yadda yadda yadda he actually decides to marry lisa after breaking up with amina! but then amina’s adoptive mother teresa finds the handkerchief and slut shames lisa in front of the entire village.

and here’s the thing: even with her getting elvino, which caused amina’s life to be temporarily ruined, i feel incredibly bad for her.

first off, she’s a businesswoman in a small town in the 1800s. that was really fuckin hard and she was probably already looked at with some suspicion by the townspeople, especially working in a job that yes, did cater to men traveling alone!

[also, a tangent off this: as i previously mentioned, lisa is in love with elvino, who was engaged to her before he broke up with her and got engaged to amina. but lisa is being chased by a local village dude named alessio, and she is Not Having It With Him. she’s trying to gently fend him off too, which is ALSO very hard in a small town in the 1800s. plus the class differences and how she’ll no longer have her own property if she gets married. get married to someone she doesn’t like AND have to give up ownership of her property? no thank you. and that may also cause some problems for her. she litchrally just wants to live her life and not get treated like a piece of shit.]

but really: is it at all sensible to claim that being in the same room as a man alone means you’ll have sex with him? girl was just doing her job and she flirted with a guy ONE (1) time at work. and it wasn’t even really flirting!

this is the entirety of the “flirting”.

immediately after this, amina shows up and lisa runs away. and i think she does even though the intruder is coming in through the window (and what sort of person would come in through the window?) because she’s probably already on edge. she’s probably afraid of making that one wrong move and having her honor and reputation obliterated, which could also be bad for her business!

and lisa getting elvino isn’t her trying to destroy amina’s reputation! she doesn’t know amina is a sleepwalker!

it’s an on-sing one line-off thing. ten seconds tops. she even leaves the room before singing the line so she doesn’t know!!! so she may benefit from amina being out of the way, yes, but she didn’t know!

also, lisa did not intend to have the entire village see the debacle play out imo. she did know they were outside to welcome the count, but the chorus was already peeping in before lisa returned with elvino so she had no way to tell them all beforehand! they didn’t know either, which makes me think lisa didn’t intend for them to know.

there is this, which some could interpret as lisa saying “uh, fuck you amina”:

but i have a different approach. this is not necessarily her saying what should happen to her; it’s her saying what will happen to her. if it’s true she’s been unfaithful, according to nineteenth-century society, she’ll be hated forever. that’s just how it was. she’ll be a social pariah.

and lisa knows that, and she’s afraid that it’ll happen to her.

and then it does.

see, in act two, elvino decides “well let’s go to my fallback girl and marry her” and lisa is obvs Quite Happy About This.

she doesn’t feel worthy of him. 🥺

so they are just about to enter the church for the wedding when rodolfo shows up to stop them and then teresa shows up. after much back and forth, lisa tries to defend herself:

this is what we call projecting. i cannot stress this enough: she is trying to protect herself.

is it very cash money of her? okay, no. is it understandable? uh, yeah.

and technically, she is correct: she doesn’t know amina is a sleepwalker and amina was the intruder in the previous act and they never interacted, so no, she has never been caught alone in a man’s room.

but as i said, even if she had been caught: she was at work! she was LITCHRALLY at work!!! what is this, a mike pence “never be alone in a room with someone of the ‘opposite’ [there are more than two genders btw] gender even for professional reasons” thing? that’s ridiculous!

and in a way, as we quickly see, lisa was caught: teresa pulls out the handkerchief she found and shames her.

and lisa is ashamed, saying she doesn’t dare to even lift up her head and she cannot defend herself.

and after this, in the libretto, lisa is silenced. she never speaks her own words again. this powerful woman is rendered powerless, humiliated to the point of losing her ability to express her own thoughts in this village now set against her.

and no one comes to defend her. not elvino, her former/current lover. not alessio, the man supposedly head over heels for her. obviously not teresa, who is the one leading the charge against her. not anyone who has ever interacted with her in a professional or personal capacity.

not even count rodolfo, the powerful man who was actually there and could exonerate her, decides to defend her.

it’s not that he can’t defend her, it’s that simply he does not want to. he litchrally says he does not want to share his thoughts.

and then he turns around and immediately pleads amina’s innocence.

he wants to defend her. and that may be possibly because of the implication for him: he took advantage of a poor peasant girl. but for lisa: oh that’s different, surely she was flirting with him, she had power in the situation because it was her business, and so on.

but let’s set that aside for a section because that is conjecture. except for elvino, no one else connects this to him.

but it ties into a larger thing that may or may not affect rodolfo, definitely affects the villagers, and probably affects stage directors to this day: the madonna/whore complex. amina is the pure madonna, lisa is the whore left in the shadows. amina’s innocence must be protected but lisa can fend for herself so surely she’ll be okay, right? wrong.

amina being an ingenue doesn’t make lisa a bad person. lisa is in a precarious position and she is afraid and she is trying her best to stay afloat in a society designed to work against people like her.

she isn’t an angel or a devil. she is a woman trying to live.

thank you for coming to my ted talk!

(had a long conversation about this last night with @carlodivarga-s)

#opera tag #opera #opera asks #asks #la sonnambula #the sleepwalker #bellini #vincenzo bellini #in short: lisa deserves better #and the madonna/whore complex is stupid #opera analysis

12 notes · View notes

wretcheddthing · 3 months

Note

Are there any songs you associate with Venali?

Hello ! :))) I’m just gonna give you the Playlist™️ break down. Fun fact! I have all of my playlists organized into folders and Venali is my only BG3 character to go directly into the BG3 folder rather than the OC one :3 it’s bc she’s canon 2 me

Songs and Reasons under the cut

• Don’t Let the Good Life Pass You Bye by Cass Elliot

Chosen bc since gaining magic, she hasn’t settled Once. This song is her reminder to slow down, appreciate the beauty of the present, don’t focus so hard on getting back to a life that can’t be returned to. It’s up to her to make her current path good.

• Dreams by The Cranberries

Sort of the same vein as the last song, except more along the lines of meeting and falling in love with Gale

• What’s Up? by 4 Non Blondes

bc tbh what the hell wven is happening

• The Cave by Mumford & Sons

Sorta follows Ven simultaneously running from and pursuing that which she considers to have ruined her. It’s a pep talk but also a reprimand to herself for putting herself in an u favorable position but knowing she’s strong enough to see it through.

And I’ll find strength in pain

And I will change my ways

I’ll know my name as it’s called again.

This bit ^ in particular bc she’s spending all of her time pretending to be somebody she isn’t (a wizard). Allowing herself to be authentic again is as much a motivator to see her task through as being rid of her magic entirely.

• Left Behind (Together) by Gustavo Santaolalla

idk how much you know about the last of us or the left behind dlc and ellie’s relationship with riley but this song. ….. …….. …. . good lird. put it on the playlist for venali and maude bc i think their relationship favors ellie and riley’s, especially how it ended.

i don’t think i’ve gone that deep into that aspect of ven’s backstory here but long, Long story short. Ven had 7 other friends, the 8 of them did adventures in childhood that turned into pursing for actual careers in adulthood. of all of them, maude was ven’s closest friend, co captain, favorite person in the world. they also had a sorta romantic, kinda almost dating thing going on. part of how ven got her powers is the entity demanded sacrifice, took control of 4 of them, made them kill the other 4. venali had to kill maude. thusly, song from left behind but specifically fun a really soft and happy moment to make me want to eat glass. also the title, being left behind together. maude because she lost her life, venali bc she lost a large part of herself.

• Euthanasia by Will Wood

honestly only here bc i’m mean. listen.

I was right there, while you fought tooth and nail

Gasping in the gas mask, thrashing ‘til you disappeared

mostly it’s the grief venali feels over the entire situation, but specifically being made to kill maude.

• We’ll Meet Again by Johnny Cash

i mean. following a theme here.

• My Silver Lining by First Aid Kit

it’s SUCH a venali song. i guess it could be a tav song in general but it encapsulates her specific journey so well.

I don’t wanna wait anymore

I’m tired of looking for answers

Take me someplace where there’s

Music and there’s laughter

I don’t know if I’m scared of dying

But I’m scared of living too fast, too slow

Regret, remorse, hold on

Oh no I gotta go

litchrally describing her search for information on what basically cursed her and her friends to have a connection to the weave they Don’t Want and Can’t Control. She’s struggling to live in the present but has to choice in the matter. She can’t dwell on the past bc it will consume her, she can’t worry about the future because it will demoralize her.

These shackles I made in an attempt to be free

Be it for reason, be it for love

I won’t take the easy road.

she’s bound herself to her current path. by running head first into the first idea she had, she’s had to full send that decision. and it isn’t easy maintaining a deception of the magnitude she is for so many years. she’s gonna see it through, though. plus the latter half of the song is pretty hopeful.

so i guess this song would be a more direct answer to your question but. venali hours, you understand.

• Don’t Forget About Me by CLOVES

and we return to “songs about Ven’s dead friends”

• Locked in a Cage by Brick + Mortar

(love these guys btw they’re great live) but basically another song about how ven feels trapped by the path she’s chosen

• Who Are You, Really? By Mikky Ekko

mostly just for the opening lyrics

So you feel entitled to a sense of control

Make decisions that you think are your own

You are a stranger here, why have you come?

Why have you come? Lift me higher, let me look at the sun.

• We Haven’t Turned Around by Gomez

i don’t remember adding this tbh. but i do like it. maybe something about that line “so you wanna make catastrophe”

• Cul De Sac by Duncan Fellows

another song speaking to how venali is unhappy with how her life has turned out thus far but also kinda allowing gale to show her that there’s some good further down the path she leads. also sort of a gale song. a big part of their dynamic is they teach each other to appreciate the parts of themselves they’d sooner forget so Y’know.

You’re just what I need

Oh, I just wanted you to see it for yourself, my dear

• Runaway by The National

bc i didn’t have enough sad song about ven being resolute but unhappy about it

• Silhouette by Aquilo

so many of these songs describe ven Before the events of bg3 but this one hits the nail on the head for the entirety of the campaign.

Devil’s on your shoulder

Raphael seeking her out for a deal

Strangers in your head

The tadpole, The Emperor, and everyone whose mind she’s connected to because of it.

As if you don’t remember

As if you can’t forget.

part of what makes ven’s backstory work for her is she has eidetic memory, and the only thing she has ever struggled to recall is what happened in the ruin where she lost her friends.

Let’s go out in flames

So everyone knows who we are

‘Cause these city walls never knew

That we’d make it this far

the odds were so insanely stacked against everyone by the end of the campaign that they Were willing to sacrifice themselves to stop it. at least venali was prepared for the reality that she might not walk away from this battle. also the line about the city walls calls back to ven’s simple childhood in baldur’s gate dreaming of some personal greatness.

and that’s what i have. i’ll probably add more after posting this :)

#asks #technofinch #<333 #oc: venali kelvyre #i Love her. she’s my everything #happy quarter after 2am

1 note · View note

pharahsgf · 3 years

Note

I've seen that scene where jc strangles wwx after the lp massacre brushed off as jc being in pain and grieving but then compare wwx's responses and his "mistakes" such as him leaving jc and jyl alone afterwards with the same weight and actually focus more on wwx's actions being "understandable but wrong" like as if jc showing a real desire and ability to kill his brother in grief isn't like, a theme or foreshadowing and not just a one time thing he did. And people can get so up and arms about jc criticism but for real it's because a) the fandom is insane about defending him to the point of hilarity like this fandom refuses to acknowledge his cruelty beyond commenting on how he can "be an asshole sometimes" with the (sometimes) unspoken caveat, "but can you blame him" and b) because what consequences does jc actually face in the end? Does wwx ever even fully heal from the mindset jc and mmy beat into him by the end of the story? His impact is insidious and with long lasting consequences and he's virtually untouchable in the story in terms of being held responsible soo yeah I think it makes sense for fans to be critical about jc where the story and other characters are not. When people pretend that because there are elements of tragedy to jc's development and his relationship with wwx, that absolves him of the very real part he played in wwx's and his own misery, I'm like...yeah jc is tragic in the same way the main characters in shakespeare's plays orchestrate their own downfall, in the same way an abuse victim becomes an abuser themselves, in how jc is given multiple chances to grow and change but he chooses to stew in resentment. Tragedy luv litchrally tragedy 🤧

yes this!! genuinely it’s so bizarre to see his behaviour excused and validated while other characters are condemned for less. jiang cheng is given so much space to grieve and lash out that to some fans his repeated violence barely registers, but if wei wuxian’s trauma even for a moment overwhelms his ability to cater to jiang cheng, that’s it, time for 400 metas about how he ruins everything.

we need to have empathy for his experience and he was in a difficult position etc etc but where’s that empathy for wei wuxian having to lie to his brother or risk losing him forever? or wen ning coming face to face with the man who allowed his sister to die? or jiang yanli wanting to be close to her vulnerable brother instead of bending over backwards to ensure jiang cheng doesn’t feel left out?

& of course jiang cheng lost a lot, he was miserable for a lot of his life and i feel for that, but when he still gets to be a powerful cultivator in the highest position of a rich and influential sect while the people who enabled him to have that end up suffering and dying, he's not exactly the victim here. and like you said! he never takes accountability for the damage he's done to wei wuxian, nor makes any attempt to understand the sheer mass of the loss he has suffered! he expects wei wuxian to endlessly support him and carry the burden of the pain yet is so quick to punish and condemn him, it almost mirrors the way the fandom regards them. really disappointing.

#replies #anonymous #long post #lol sorry if this is rambly you just really hit the nail right on the head in your ask & it brought up some feelings

13 notes · View notes

stonerzelda · 4 years

Text

i know nobody gives a shot but whoever did the drunk historu for anne of cleves can eat my ass because anne was not ugly henry was just an old cheating piece lf shit bastard and he was too busy sleeping with 14 year old katherine howard to be a decent fucker to anne, he litchrally came into court once and tried to kiss her while disguised as a commoner and SPOILER ALERT he was not pretty he was fucking gross and she spit at him cuz OBVIOUSLY!!!! and from there he tried to ruin her life so fuck that episode anne of cleves fucked

3 notes · View notes

fortyflightower · 4 years

Note

artist ask babey!!😌🤙 the smiths, charli xcx, LANA DEL REY. i could do more. we shall see

CAITLYN YOU MADE THIS SO HARD FOR ME.... thank u but also i hate you 😤 sorry this is so long i just have a lot of thoughts and i don’t know how to shut up. i told you this was going to be a novel and here it is. writers doing nanowrimo wish they were me.

THE SMITHS.... one time i mentioned that i listened to them to one of my art teachers & he asked me what my favorite songs by them were & i completely blanked. it still haunts me to this day but i’m stronger now and i will not make that mistake again

1. back to the old house

this song has everything. the depression. the softness the yearning. ALSO these lyrics...

and you never knew / how much I really liked you / because I never even told you

2. the headmaster ritual

this is the song i listen to when i’m depressed, angry, and considering dropping out of school.

i want to go home / i don't want to stay / give up education / as a bad mistake

belligerent ghouls / run manchester schools / spineless bastards all

this line makes me think of my vid prod teacher 😊😤

3. still ill

had to stop myself from copy pasting all of the lyrics from this one. i also have it on my adam playlist SO.

england is mine, it owes me a living / but ask me why, and I'll spit in your eye

what can i say... i just like the rage and entitlement of this

but we cannot cling to the old dreams anymore / no, we cannot cling to those dreams

no thoughts head empty. i think i like it because it reminds me of that line from ribs by lorde.

does the body rule the mind / or does the mind rule the body? / i dunno

this is so adam core. will not explain any further

4. this charming man

BASIC I KNOW but it was the first song i ever listened to by them (i found it on a gansey playlist on 8tracks back in middle school😔🤟) don’t have any favorite lyrics from this one but the opening is ICONIC.

5. well i wonder

this one.... is SO emo but that’s okay... also the way he sings these lyrics... TOO MUCH 4 me

gasping - dying - but somehow still alive / this is the final stand of all I am / please keep me in mind

honorable mentions are there is a light that never goes out, the boy with the thorn in his side, never had no one ever, cemetery gates, and I WANT THE ONE I CANT HAVE because i’m THAT indecisive

miss Charli XCX... i’m going to be real i don’t listen to her much but when i do i am DOWN TO CLOWN.

1. vroom vroom

i have a playlist called “music to get into a car crash to” and this is the only song on it.

lavender lamborghini, roll up in a blue bikini /bitches on the beaches, lookin' super cute and freaky

Ugh the vibes of this 😩 wish my friends and i could pull this look off

bitches know they can't catch me / (vroom vroom) cute, sexy and my ride's sporty

used this for as a caption for that one tdt drawing i did & i have no regrets. this really embodies the vibes of any scene where ronan & kavinsky are racing.

beep beep, so let's ride

i just think the sound effects are funny

bubblegum-pink ferrari, yeah, I'm so bossy

these are the vibes i would like to embody but never will. also i think barbie & elle woods gave me a primal respect and desire for a pink car.

2. dreamer

nothing to say abt this one except that all i can think abt when i listen to it is that one maggie steifvater copying charli xcx meme. also it’s an absolute banger and one of the songs i blast when i’m going unhinged but in a sexy thot type of way

3. boom clap

this song changed my life when i first heard it on the tfios soundtrack. not that deep but does music have to be? no.

first kiss just like a drug /under your influence / you take me over you're the magic in my veins/ this must be love

boom clap / the sound of my heart / the beat goes on and on and on and on and

HER MIND WHEN SHE WROTE THIS... pop music peaked with this song

LANA. i like listening 2 her music in the winter because the summer depression vibes cancel out seasonal depression like pemdas. she was litchrally my spotify artist of the decade which is so baffling because i don’t feel like i listen to her that much. ALSO every few months i get sucked into a hole of watching concert vids on instagram & it ruins my life.

1. salvatore

the vocals in this... she truly has the range.

I adore you, can't you see, you're meant for me?

catch me if you can / working on my tan / salvatore / dying by the hand / of a foreign man / happily / calling out my name / in the summer rain / ciao amore /salvatore can wait / now it's time to eat / soft ice cream

all of her ooohing and aaahing is great but THIS PART is so sexy. also i almost made a post comparing “dying by the hand of a foreign man happily” & “the choice was death or hurting adam which wasn’t much of a choice at all” but i figured it was too much

2. video games

basic but it’s a classic. also the radical face cover re-ignited my love for this song.

i say you the bestest / lean in for a big kiss put his favorite perfume on / go play your video game

there’s a video of her singing this live where she’s on a swing and she waves her hand when she says “go play your video game” and i think about it every single day

he holds me in his big arms / drunk and i am seeing stars / this is all i think of

this part makes me want to be held 😪

it's you, it's you, it's all for you / everything i do / i tell you all the time / heaven is a place on earth with you

honestly so romantic. what else can i say

3. off to the races

this is my favorite to see live videos of.. the little dance she does to it has me feeling some type of way 🥺😪 one of the classics. lana slapping the roof of this song like “this baby can fit to much daddy kink, drugs, and sex in it”

swimming pool / glimmering darling /white bikini off with my red nail polish

my old man is, a tough man / but he got a soul as sweet as blood red jam / and he shows me, he knows me, every inch of my tar black soul

the imagery of this... UGH

4. california

THIS ENTIRE SONG IS TOO GOOD. i don’t even know what to say abt it except that lana really went off with nfr

you don't ever have to be stronger than you really are / when you're lying in my arms, baby / you don't ever have to go faster than your fastest pace

you're scared to win, scared to lose / i've heard the war was over if you really choose

5. old money

this one makes me cry the hardest out of all her songs because it’s so sad and desperate

blue hydrangea, cold cash divine / cashmere, cologne and white sunshine / red racing cars, sunset and vine / the kids were young and pretty

once again the imagery in her songs is UNPARALLELED.

the power of youth is on my mind

this makes me think abt that lorde quote abt how teenagers sparkle or whatever

and if you call i'll run, run, run / if you change your mind, i’ll come, come, come

bonus: music to watch boys to

SORRY i needed to put this one on here. this one should be near the top but i completely forgot abt it until it came on shuffle play & i don’t feel like renumbering the entire list. this one truly is a ronan song i don’t make the rules (the music to watch boys to is the murder squash song). once again it’s the imagery of it all that gets to me.

i like you a lot / putting on my music while I'm watching the boys / so I do what you want

live to love you / and i love to love you / and I live to love you, boy

nothing gold can stay / like love or lemonade / or sun or summer days / it's all a game to me anyway

diet mountain dew didn’t make it onto this list but i have 2 pairs of heart shaped sunglasses because of it so it has a special place in my heart... lanas impact

other honerable mentions are the greatest, fuck it i love you, venice bitch, dark paradise, BURNING DESIRE and cherry because it’s the only good song on lust for life

#blah blah blah #would put this all under a read more but i do not have a computer on me 😪#SORRY THIS IS SO LONG #truly nobody cares about this but i have opinions #asks

1 note · View note