hold me

"Why'd you let me fall asleep?" "Cause I'm an awesome brother. So what did you dream about?" "Lollipops and candy canes." "Yeah, sure."

[Image ID: Excerpts from the opening section of “The Woman Dies” by Aoko Matsuda (translated from Japanese by Polly Barton) interspersed with images of dead women from popular media.

THE WOMAN DIES.

(Image of Padmé Amidala from her funeral in Revenge of the Sith, image of Ophelia floating in a river before drowning, from the 1851–52 painting “Ophelia” by British artist John Everett Millais, representing Act IV, Scene VII of Hamlet.)

And so, the woman dies. The woman dies so the man can be sad about it. The woman dies so the man can suffer. She dies to give him a destiny. Dies so he can fall to the dark side. Dies so he can lament her death. As he stands there, brimming with grief, brimming with life, the woman lies there in silence. The woman dies for him. We watch it happen. We read about it happening. We come to know it well.

(Image composite of Gamora and Natasha Romanoff at the bottom of the cliff on Vormir from Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, image of Andrew Garfield’s Peter Parker holding a dead Emma Stone as Gwen Stacy from The Amazing Spider-Man 2.)

‘I’ve got it! Let’s kill her off!’                                         

‘Yes! Her death will solve everything!’

‘Okay! Let’s hit the pub!’

(Image of Jon Snow holding the dead Daenerys Targaryen after killing her, from the finale of Game of Thrones, image of Ned Stark holding a newborn Jon while his mother Lyanna Stark dies, from Game of Thrones.)