Musings

there used to be a bit of dialogue in the beginning of "how long" in which persephone asks "how long have we been married" and hades responds "since the world began". which, taken literally, is incorrect, since the beginning of the world in greek mythology happens before persephone's parents and hades are born. so, in reality, he's not saying they've been married since the world began, but that, to him, the world only began after they fell in love. he lived before meeting her, but now the idea of a world in which he doesn't love her yet is inconceivable to him. "it was like she was someone you'd always known".

the bridge scene in batman the knight (zdarsky) #5 is so rich in terms of bruce wayne's characterization, because we simply don't know whether he genuinely opened up to khoa to share his frustrations with no ulterior motives and took the opportunity to grab the book when he saw it or whether he had a premeditated plan to get it in which his sadness was just an act. two alternatives that have wildly different implications, but are equally plausible. that's because, for most of the comic, we're in his mind, but we have no access to his thoughts in this particular moment. we can only interpret what he says, which puts the audience in the same position as khoa and others interacting with him. it highlights bruce's transition from a young man unable to pretend to be someone else to the skilled actor we know by making the audience unable to point out where the truth ends and the lie begins. batman stories often focus on distinguishing his masks—both bruce wayne™ and batman—from a supposed "real him" underneath, and this moment emphasizes how blurred the lines between performance and reality can become.

it's so fitting that, when the instrumental version of "bring him home" plays in the end of "the final battle", enjolras' body appears during the "the summers die one by one" verse. firstly, because the reference to summer evokes how enjolras is compared to apollo, a god associated with the sun, in the novel. but, most importantly, because it indicates that, in the same way that a summer ends and gives way to the cold, but one which is eventually followed by another summer, enjolras' revolutionary ideals can be repressed through his murder, but will always resurface due to the effort of others like him, throughout history. the summers die one by one. but even the darkest night—and the coldest winter—will end and the sun will rise.

"a heart full of love" is one of the les mis songs for which i find the translated lyrics so much better than the original french ones. in the french version, marius sings "my heart trembles" and cosette answers "as does mine", while the english version has marius singing "i am lost" and colette answering "i am found". instead of suggesting that cosette feels exactly same way marius does, like the french lyrics, the english lyrics emphasize, through the antithesis, how falling in love is a wildly different experience for each of them, but one that has an equally big impact on both their lives. later, in the french version, marius asks "is this a dream?" and cosette subtly rejects this idea by replying "no, this is real". while similar, the english lyrics don't have cosette dismissing marius' idea that he is dreaming, as she instead states that her own perception is different by answering his question of "do i dream?" by singing "i'm awake". falling in love is clarity and security to cosette and confusion and bewilderment to marius, and one perspective does not invalidate the other. the english lyrics fit the story of les mis so well because they highlight the idea that each person can experience love differently, and that there isn't one right way to love another human being.

i love that harrowhark nonagesimus' father is named PRIAMhark and her mother is named PELLEamena, priam being the father of hector and of paris and pelleus being the father of achilles. hector is killed by achilles who is killed by paris. harrow is all of them. harrow is her own destroyer.

thinking, once again, about how fantine and éponine appear to jean valjean when he dies, despite neither having much of a relationship to him, because both valjean and fantine sacrificed their lives for cosette's well-being and happiness and both valjean and éponine gave their lives to save marius'. with this ending, les mis conveys that loving another person also binds you to everyone they love and love them, in an infinite chain.

my interpretation of aegon and helaena calling alicent "mummy" instead of "mother" in moments of distress while aemond calls her "alicent" is that it says less about their relationship to alicent than about their relationship to different versions of themselves. when calling her "mummy", aegon and helaena evoke their child selves, who still didn't have the responsibilities and grief associated with being king and queen, positions they never truly wanted. conversely, calling his mother by her name distances aemond from his childhood, a period of his life in which he felt ostracized and powerless, allowing him to summon strength and impose authority.

it's fascinating how aegon, helaena and aemond each operate from their own perspective regarding time. aemond acts based on the past, seeking revenge against those who humiliated him in his childhood and pursuing vhagar and eventually the throne as a response to being considered different and "not targaryen enough" as a child. while shaped by his past, aegon is mainly focused on the present, searching for entertainment and distraction to attend his current wants and to cope with his current anxieties, and demanding immediate military action in the war as a way to deal with the grief he feels. and helaena is tied to the future, that bleeds into her present through her prophetic dreams.

i still don't understand why the song "what do the simple folk do" from camelot is a duet between guinevere and arthur instead of guinevere and lancelot, who are both royalty and understandably clueless about the lives of peasants. meanwhile, arthur used to be a squire. why does he sing "that's what simple folk do, so they say" as if he doesn't know from experience? he was "simple folk"! for half of his life!