#rwrb analysis

perhaps it is just because i used to be in theatre, but the lake scene destroys me because you can see them use stage acting techniques. (please rewatch the scene if you want to take in the full play-by-play analysis i'm about to drop)

at first, we see henry lying there, basking in the sun. alex then comes and playfully shakes water all over him. they engage in some light teasing and then alex begins discussing what he wants for the future. for their future. he starts talking about how much things will change when his mom wins the election and how he won't be as heavily scrutinized and watched by reporters anymore and, as he does this, he starts touching henry. trailing his hand up and down henry's arms and torso. he is talking about love and is using touch to help show his love. he takes henry's hand as he brings up next summer and coming back to austin (which they both know means the world to him) and being together. everything changes the second he says that they can go out in public and it won't matter if they are seen. everything. and you can see it so clearly in galitzine's acting choices. in the way his eyes open and his hand drops. the way his smile fades. because he's coming to realize that alex wants something henry cannot give him. he wants a lover he can build a life with. henry realizes here, that alex is in love with him back. and perhaps he already knew, but he is realizing that alex is about to say it. he's coming to realize that alex doesn't understand that they can't be together like this. that henry can't have this. ever. henry has known his entire life that he cannot have what he truly wants--that he cannot love and be loved in return, not in the way a lover deserves. not out loud. galitzine looks heartbroken here, as he tries to sever the physical contact between the two of them. as he tries to take his hand back. he smiles, but it's a forced, pitiful thing. and then it cuts back to a taylor zakhar-perez with hearts in his eyes. he isn't picking up on henry's physical unease, because he is so overwhelmed by his love for henry in this moment. he cannot see past it. when alex's words and voice take on a certain tone, henry begins panicking. he knows it's coming, he can hear it coming. he can't let the words be said. his eyelashes flutter in such a desperate way and he sits up, hoping that will finally get alex's hands off him. that the reminder of how much alex loves him will stop, but it doesn't. because, again, alex cannot see past his love in this moment.

this is the moment that tugs at my theatre kid heart so hard because he is taking the stage. alex is upstage left of henry, and they are both in open positions. he cannot see henry's expression. he doesn't see what henry is feeling, but we do. we see when henry turns green here. how he starts looking nauseous. how he looks ill. this is the beauty of getting this story told in both film and writing. we would never be able to understand this in writing. in the novel, everything we see and hear and think is influenced by alex and how he interprets it. this is us, for the first time, seeing henry when he's not performing to anyone, including alex (pretty ironic when it's one of the biggest parts of galitzine's acting in this film, imo). this is us seeing henry as he is. this is henry without any pretenses. alternatively, we can see both of them. we can see the unabashed joy on alex's face compared to the tangible grief on henry's. this is being able to see two characters display themselves so openly. this is a representation of how alex's expression and the love dripping from his voice never changes when henry can't see him, because he is much more open as a character. you can see everything he feels on his face. henry is not the same. henry has been taught to repress every part of himself and the second he is able to escape the audience (alex, in this case), the frail mask he upholds shatters. here is where his facial acting loses the subtlety it has been keeping throughout the film. because this is when we see him with no need to close himself off for the first time.

and then alex begins speaking of how he feels like there is a rope attached to his chest that keeps pulling him towards henry. and henry. god, he feels it too. of course he does, he always has. but he can't now because he knows alex has gotten in too deep. he knows that he has to cut things off between them. their happy moment has come to an end. so when he feels that rope attached to his chest too, pulling, telling him that he belongs with alex, he tries to block it off. physically, he draws his arm up over his chest and covers where the rope is pulling.

and he hears alex say something that sounds suspiciously like the beginning of "i love you," and jumps into the water. it's not as if he doesn't know. it's not as if he couldn't tell, of course he could. but if he hears alex say the words, he only has three real choices. he can deny loving him back, which he knows he isn't capable of doing (not to alex. he's not that good a liar), he can tell him he loves him back but that he cannot do this, or he can tell him he loves him back and be convinced that he can. that he needs to try. henry came to terms with the fact that he could never have the love he wants since he knew he wanted to kiss a boy for the first time. he grew up knowing that. he cannot have alex claremont-diaz make him feel hopeful for something he knows there is no hope in. he cannot have alex's strong will telling him he can have his greatest wish. he cannot be given a reason to believe that he can be happy when he knows how it will end. so he can't hear it. he can't hear alex say he loves him. and he doesn't.

Ok school's out responsible student mode off fandom mode on

Watch me dissect this one 17 second reel

Firstly, our boys are back!!! I missed them, all four of them (Firstprince, Taynick) so fucking much!!!

Secondly, they're in comfortable PJs here, and Taylor is shirtless underneath his hoodie, implying that this is in between takes where he's shirtless, which leads us into the next two shot

Thirdly, I guess this means Alex is getting a hair update? I think they're keeping this sweepy side parting instead of reusing the previous fringe (I kinda like it?)

Now this is where it gets interesting

This is Henry's bedroom in Kensington, Alex is alone (at least right now) in Henry's bed, and the bed is unmade

Alex is shirtless 🤤

And this is curious: Alex doesn't have his key necklace, nor his beaded bracelet and his smart watch.

Continuing the point above, looking back at the first movie, Alex takes off his accessories after sex: In Paris he wears it during sex but in the after glow he takes everything off and we can see everything on the bedside drawer; In DNC we also see it on the bedside drawer; the morning after V&A Alex doesn't have them on either

BUT, in this scene in the reel, Alex has his pants on, so the jury on what the context is still out

Now Henry on the other hand, still has his signet ring, but also seems to be sporting a rainbow weaved bracelet!!!

The boys are in different clothes from the shots where they're talking directly to us: it's harder to tell with Taylor and Nicky's wearing a jacket so we don't what shirt (or if there's a shirt at all lol) is underneath, but his pants here are dark while the previous pants were light blue

Also Taylor's classic big laugh lol I love you sweetie

Everyone say hi to Jamie Babbit, our director for the sequel! She's known for her work in queer films, so it's very exciting to see what she'll bring to the sequel

Like even if they spent years in passive aggressive fights, Alex almost immediately registers Henry as a safe person. And I love how Henry allows himself to open up, something he struggles even with Pez who is his dearest friend.

I love how Henry lets Alex vent, even if it's really late for him, even if it's strange and sudden; I bet he thought in his mind "this is something I have to take now, I won't have another chance to be this close to him, this is everything"

RWRB Parallels series: Part 5

In this series, I will write about the parallels within the movie, in no particular order.

Alex wears a key on a necklace around his neck all the time. It’s the key to his childhood home back in Austin, TX. Its his anchor as he navigates his life as the First Son. It reminds him of simpler days when he was an anonymous child of two working class parents. He says that he was once an anonymous person to Henry at the NYE party under the Linden tree. The key is a reminder of his roots, where he came from and how far he has come.

(This gif is here just to show the key. Nothing else. Please believe me. 👀)

Henry sees the key during their hook-up and asks Alex about it. Alex tells him about its significance. Henry suddenly realizes that he has never owned a key in his life till date. He lives in a palace filled with people to open and close doors for him. Alex jokingly says...”No such thing as a locked door when you are a prince.” It’s a heart-breaking thing for Henry to realize. A key represents privacy. His life is so public that he can’t even have a key to his own room in the palace. He has absolutely no agency in his life.

Cut to the airstrip scene after the V&A museum visit. The Storming of the Kensington Palace has happened, and the lovers have reconciled to the fact that they are in this together. Henry asks for patience from Alex. They are saying their goodbyes and they don’t know what the future holds for them both. They only know that they both love each other. Is love enough? Neither of them knows.

Henry is anxious af and he feels the oppressive weight of his royal life in the form of his signet the ring weighing heavily on his finger and soul. He can’t bear to take it anymore. He wants its weight off his finger. The weight of years of history bearing down on him as he says in Kensington palace.

He removes it and gives it to Alex. “I want you to have some part of me, till you can have all of me again.” It’s a promise to Alex. Henry wants Alex to have something tangible from him to anchor Alex when an ocean and uncertainty separates them, to remind Alex of his love that requires great patience from him.

Alex doesn’t hesitate to remove the necklace with the key and give it to Henry. Its symbolic of the key to his heart, his very essence. They are giving each other integral parts of themselves for safekeeping till they can have the whole of each other. And Henry finally owns a key, the key to his soulmate's heart. He couldn't have asked for a better first key.

I spliced the scenes discussed into this video.

Note on Nicholas Galitzine:

Nick is the effing king of micro expressions. He shines in this scene(and every other emotional scene) at the airstrip. Alex hugs him and wants to kiss him goodbye. It's a public place and they aren't out yet. Henry can't afford that kiss. He stops Alex with just a slight shift in his expression, a tight smile to let Alex knows that he wants it but can't have it. Yet. Watch it again if you missed it.

Nicholas Galitzine, I shall forever bow down at thy feet for bringing my tortured and angsty Henry on screen.

Part 1: I need to get out of here!

Part 2: I can’t believe how wrong I was about you.

Part 3: I'm also a world-class insomniac.

Part 4: Sometimes I wonder if what we do has any meaningful impact on people’s lives.

Part 6: One meeting years ago has occupied such a vast mental and emotional space in your head?!

Part 7: Who I am and not who you want me to be!

This is just after Ellen tells him that he's no longer allowed to speak to the press. He looks so hurt. I've never really noticed it before because he goes from being frustrated with her about the "idealistic/realistic" argument into the "Yes, Madam President" quip, but this look here reminds me so much of how he looks when he's crying during the storming of Kensington AND the moment on election night telling Henry he thinks Ellen is practicing her concession speech when he's on the verge of a breakdown.

He's hurt here. All his life, he's wanted to follow in his parents' footsteps, to be a politician and to make a difference in the world and to be someone who his father didn't see growing up, and here's his mom essentially telling him that he's got it all wrong. That wanting to get down in the Texas dirt and speak for those whose voices haven't been heard by getting people registered to vote isn't -- shouldn't be -- the top priority.

warning! i’m talking about sex and i’m not censoring the words i use! if this makes you uncomfortable or could be triggering, scroll now!

i don’t know if i’ve talked about it before, but i have a lot of problems with the way that people define what counts as sex. a lot of people are of the opinion that there has to be penetration for it to be qualified as sex, especially people in cis straight relationships.

in reality, by my definition, sex is the shared intimacy of mutual pleasure. meaning that if you both get off, it’s sex. this includes hand jobs, oral sex, penetration, even mutual masturbation.

if henry were to say “have sex”, it would negate all their previous sexual encounters as “not enough” to count as sex. but henry says “make love”, separating the penetrative act from the other sexual acts they share but not saying that the other things he and alex have done together are “not sex” because they didn’t involve penetration.