#tidal waves

the summer ling died is my greed lives au series where i really explore greed's character development post-canon. its second part is honestly one of my favorite fics ive written in awhile.

my other greed-heavy fic is ripple effect in my good!homunculi au, which *technically* focuses a little bit more on envy, but their story and greed's are so intertwined that it's just as much his fic as it is theirs.

verse one

"falling on my face again, so I know I'm right on track" even before this lyric is sung, I love the music that comes before it. can't really explain it, but it does give me ocean vibes. so it fits perfectly. as for the lyric, I already have a view of the speaker: he's become so used to falling on his face, considering he said again. and that's what he considers to be his "on track"

"it's hard for me to make amends when you stab me in the back" okay so now we also know that there's someone in the speaker's life who betrayed him. I'm not sure if it's a friend, family member, or partner, but it could be anyone. either way, it sounds like he's tried to make amends before. but now he finds it too hard to since he always gets backstabbed. the trust is gone

"sailing on to another sorry shore" I love how this is worded. the speaker's still talking about the person who betrayed him and now they're drifting away from him. onto another sorry shore

"talking shit, say I'm your filthy little, filthy little" first of all, this is something I always find interesting in songs: when there's a word that we know is probably coming next that rhymes, but it doesn't get used. but back to the lyric, the speaker's now describing how the person who betrayed him not only left, but is now slandering him too

"like I just happened to be in the right place, right time" not sure how accurate my take here is, but I took it to be the speaker saying that he doubts the person who betrayed him ever liked him in any way. he was just in the right place at the right time and he didn't actually mean anything

"just settle down" this is a perfect closer to the verse. the probably obvious meaning here is the speaker saying it to the one being sung to/about, but I think he could also be saying it to himself. maybe he's trying to move on

chorus time!

"I earned my place with the tidal waves" I've thought about this lyric a lot and all its meaning. I love the imagery used here. the speaker might see the waves as an allegory for his tumultuous feelings. he's earned the right to be angry about what happened to him. it crashes over him like the tidal waves that he sings about. at least, that's the meaning I took from this lyric

"I can't escape this feeling that something ain't right" the speaker is still struggling, and understandably so. something isn't right

"I carved my name as I crashed the gates" I love the imagery here too. the speaker is still likening himself to a tidal wave since he crashed the gates. he carved his name to prove that he was there, probably because the person who betrayed him made him feel like nothing

"still, I can't escape this feeling that something ain't right" the underlying sense of wrongness has persisted in the speaker even after he's been set free from the person who betrayed him. which makes sense. trauma works that way

"why don't you think before you speak? cause you don't know me at all" this. this is one of my favorite lyrics in this song. and one of my favorite ATL lyrics in general. it's so cathartic to listen to. I have so many people I've wanted to say those exact words to. but that won't happen because they're not in my life anymore, and I don't want to see or talk to them again. but to get back to the lyric itself, I love how it's worded. the speaker is fighting back now and saying that the person who betrayed him has no right to talk badly about him since they don't know him

verse 2!

"tell me how you really feel" I love how this verse starts. the speaker is encouraging the one who betrayed him to tell him how they feel

"write it on the bathroom wall" I find it interesting how the bathroom wall specifically was used here. in a couple other songs I've heard, that's the place used when someone's having a meltdown. it serves as a way around actually talking about whatever's wrong

"if anyone was watching, I know you'd say nothing at all" this lyric is a little too relatable. the person being sung about doesn't seem like the type to open up based on this lyric. they seem to instead be the type to push it down and try and tear others down to feel bigger

"treading water, yeah, you're angry and you're bored" here we have the speaker calling out why the person who betrayed him acts the way they do. they've got their own struggles and they're angry and bored

"but I'm sick of this" now we have the speaker refusing to excuse the treatment he's put up with. he understands it, but he can't find it okay

chorus is repeated again, so I'm going to skip ahead to the bridge now

"spread your lies like fireflies in a white hot summer" I like the rhyme used here. and of course, the imagery. now the speaker is just encouraging the one who betrayed him to go on and tell their lies. at least he knows the truth

"trying to pull me under" I think the use of "pull me under" was pretty clever to use here. there's the ocean theme/metaphors going on here to begin with. and the person who's betrayed the speaker wants to drag him down with them

"you sharpen words to use like knives" this is also a nice comparison. words can and do hurt, so it makes sense that the speaker would compare sharp words to knives. though to him, the words probably hurt more than a knife would

"when you lose your color, there'll be nothing left" this is at least the second time on this album that ATL has used the word "color" to mean something else. and I love how they do it. in this case, I think "color" is supposed to mean the way the person who betrayed the speaker feels big and powerful because of how they backstabbed him and how they continue to lie and slander him. but once they lose those things, they have nothing left

this is the end of the lyric interpretation, so as always I'll use this paragraph to speak more about my view of the song. I've already mentioned that the lyric at the end of the chorus is really cathartic for me to listen to, and I stand by that especially after having dealt with certain people before. I'm not going to bother saying it to them because that would mean I have to talk to them again. so I can take peace in knowing that they don't know me. I'm the one who knows myself

and that wraps up my "Tidal Waves" post! I actually debated on even doing this one today since I've been a bit burnt out. but it was one that I've been excited to analyze, so I kept at it. quick little heads-up for next week though: I've been posting these ATL essays on Wednesdays for a few months now, but that's changing for next week. a mutual of mine has their birthday next Friday, so that's when my next ATL essay will get posted since it's dedicated to them. that being said, I'm going to keep it a surprise for now 👀

Theme and description: Judgment Day rhea ripley with purple stims of fire, skulls. Oceans, candles, herself, and a lantern. FLASHING

💜🖤💅

💜🖤

💅💜🖤