#abh

i love songs in musicals where someone just crashes out

There’s something so heartbreaking about ‘still’. It sounds so soft and innocent,, it’s one of the slower songs in the soundtrack almost like the song is taking in a moment despite Alfred actively trying to break out of the moment to push forward the narrative before he dies. Alice being in such denial that she’s simply just talking about staying in this moment in this story and Alfred is all too aware that he doesn’t have the time to do that. He almost gets sucked into it.. he almost gets to believe he can. But he knows time isn’t on his side. They sing together so harmonious because for one brief moment it feels like maybe, just maybe, he could stay and they could be together and happy. But alas time doesn’t pause for love. Alice playfully trying to hold him there with her because she’s so scared that a story starting means it’ll have to end, and the more the story unfolds the closer to death he gets. It’s so innocently playful and so devastating human. The line that keeps making me miserable is ‘run and play with me still, on this page with me still. Stay. Stay with me still.’ Because it just feels so childlike and you remember that they’re only 15 facing the realities of war, mortality and all that they’ve lost. All Alice has is Alfred, she has nothing else. She wants to stay in this moment forever playing with him in green grass, blue skies and flowers blooming and living in a fantasy where things are peaceful and she can simply just be with him. She’s okay with time pausing and staying on the same page forever if it means staying with him, but he knows the story has to move along and so does she, without him.