hee hoo

the flower primrose is said to represent youth, femininity, optimism. a perfect little distillation of traits aligned with Julie. the primrose card in the Floriography board game is, by a significant margin, the most grimed up flower card of the bunch (behind the poor everlasting pea, of course).

Julie's character is named Primrose in the play, though deprived of the full moniker by her three cruel sisters. (it's also worth noting that many have made the association with the 3 cruel sisters in the play to Julie's real life siblings, and i agree- the matching color palettes are pretty damning.) however, at the very end when the prince asks for her name, she rejects it, instead opting to retain her cruel nickname:

i think there's two main different ways you can interpret these things. both interpretations take the following unconfirmed scenario into account: that Julie is looked down upon by her real life siblings, which is why she came to the neighborhood in the first place, why she has insecurities so easily exacerbated by that flower not blooming, to the point where it send her into a spiral.

the first read is an uplifting one. yes, Julie faces some measure of harm or hurt from her siblings, but that rejection of the name Primrose is a declaration that the name Primrella can't hurt her. she won't let her siblings get to her anymore, she'll go off script to make herself happy. she's all in on the soot, accepting who she is and reveling in it despite external pressures not to. i love this for her, and i'd love it to be reflective of an ultimately positive character arc for her.

the second read, the one i find a bit more likely due to the filthy game card, is that this is not an empowering reclamation. this is a more subtle metaphor that shows Julie losing who she is, or rather who she is supposed to be according to the expectations set by those around her as well as herself. she's supposed to be optimistic, upbeat, an incorrigible ray of sunshine. the primrose card has been besmirched- primrella has gone all in on the soot. Julie has been stained in some way, seemingly by that stubborn, strange flower. and she's starting to give in to it, let it creep in and pull her down into a spiral, further and further away from the Julie everyone knows, the Julie she wants to be.