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foxes-that-run · 22 days

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Everything Has Changed

Taylor told Digital Spy: "It's about falling in love. It's about meeting someone and all of a sudden your entire perspective on the world changes - you're thinking for two, instead of one." It was written the week starting 20 May 2012, after Harry arrived in LA.

Music Video

The scene where the class is watching a move these are scenes of Paris, a hint toward Begin Again and Paris being special to Harry and Taylor. Eiffel Tower, Pont Alexandre III - Bridge over the Seine appear.

The school play scene is reminiscent of Harry's actual first performance in a school play when he was 6, Harry also recreated part of this in the Daylight Music Video.

It's full of adorable moments where the two kids, (who return for the Joker and the Queen) where the boy and girl are apart from other kids in their own private world. The tent scene is later in Willow:

The little boy reads the Notebook, Harry's favourite movie to the girl. The girl is doing embroidery (!! very loml coded! LK does too)

The girl tattoos the boy, as is in IKYWT and reality Taylor was there when Harry got the ship tattoo.

The kids communicate by text, rather like two pop stars who live in different countries would and do, such as this famous VMA exchange, and the letter exchange in the Delicate video.

The Taylors Version Lyric Video also uses Pink & Blue text and butterflies.

Live performances

Taylor performed it with Ed on the Red Tour. It wasn't played on the 1989 or Reputation tours. It was a surprise song, with TIWWCHNT, on 22 July 2023, the date of Harry's final Love on Tour show.

When was it written and 20 May 2012

15 May 2012 - Taylor and Ed started writing together working on Run first.

20 May 2012 - At the end of a tour break Harry and 1D arrived in LA, Harry & Taylor disappeared for a week. The rest of the band went to Mohegan Sun in CT and are seen by fans without Harry.

22 May 2012 - Harry performs with One Direction

27 May 2012 - Ed and Taylor meet and write Everything Has Changed together on her Trampoline. Although Ed said their 'camps reached out at the same time' Ed and Harry had been friends since Ed was 19 and Harry was 16. Ed also wrote several songs for One Direction and likely introduced them. Ed, Taylor and Harry. were experiencing all a new level of success. Only last year Ed talked wistfully about having jam nights writing music in a community this song reminds me of.

28 May - Harry gets the A tattoo and later says it is for his mum, the band laughs and says it is for a mystery blonde. Taylor wrote under Taylor A Swift and wore an A sweater in End Game.

29 May - Ed and Taylor record EHC

17 June - Harry got the temper trap tattoo

23 June - Harry's 'Hi' tattoo is first seen in Dallas 23 June, possibly referring to this song.

The draft lyrics refer to a Gemini, which Taylor has not dated. Maybe someone in Ed's life, a veiled reference to a twin (which Taylor uses again in TTPD) or Harry does have Gemini in his chart.

Ed later said, Taylor was in a relationship when they met: (Tumblr | eNews)

“When I first met Taylor I was in a relationship and she was in a relationship and we just formed a friendship through that,“ he said. "And both our relationships ended and we just carried on being friends. There’s nothing I really want more than friendship there. I know her very very well now and she knows me very very well.”

Secret message

The secret message is "Hyiannis Port" rather than "Hyannis Port". The additional 'I' may be a typo - but knowing Taylor's attention to detail I think it is "H-and-I" Harry signs short messages 'H' and 'y' Spanish 'and'.

This secret message is often thought to indicate Conor Kennedy, However Taylor met Connor 4 July 2012, 2 months after the song was recorded. Taylor owned the house in Hyannis Port house from August 2012 - March 2013, she was dating Harry for almost all of that time. As in Alex and Sierra's I Love You and August they spent time there.

Lyrics

[Intro: Ed Sheeran] “You good to go?” [Verse 1: Taylor Swift] All I knew this morning when I woke Is I know something now, know something now I didn’t before And all I’ve seen since 18 hours ago Is green eyes and freckles And your smile in the back of my mind making me feel like

The first verse set the scene for enthusiastic new beginnings. Taylor describes Harry's green eyes and freckles, Taylor continues to use green in association with Harry.

[Pre-Chorus: Taylor Swift & Ed Sheeran] I just want to know you better, know you better, know you better now x4

Harry later refers to this in Sunflower Vol 6: "Wish I could get to know you"

[Chorus: Taylor Swift & Ed Sheeran] ‘Cause all I know is we said, “Hello” And your eyes look like coming home All I know is a simple name Everything has changed All I know is you held the door You’ll be mine and I’ll be yours All I know since yesterday Is everything has changed

All I know is we said 'hello' and a simple name (Harry). Harry got his Hi Tattoo a few weeks after this song was written.

Your eyes look like coming home - Home is an important theme in Harry and Taylor's work and means a person, rather than a place. This is from the Notebook (Your mother is my home) which is also featured in the music video.

[Verse 2: Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift] And all my walls stood tall, painted blue I’ll take ’em down, take ’em down And open up the door for you And all I feel in my stomach is butterflies, the beautiful kind Makin’ up for lost time, taking flight making me feel right

Walls standing painted blue means Taylor was feeling isolated and depressed. There is an odd similarity with Paper Rings where she painted the muses brothers' walls blue... and had a suss exposition of holding a paintbrush in front of a blue wall. Here though, she is taking down the walls and letting the muse in.

Doors are a Haylor Theme

Butterflies - while butterflies were key in the artwork for Lover and appear in spotify canvases for it, Taylor only refers to them twice - in this song and Clean. "When the butterflies turned to dust that covered my whole room" Harry referenced in Olivia "The summertime and butterflies / All belong to your creation / I love you, it's all I do". He also has a large butterfly tattoo on his chest.

Flight is also a Haylor theme

[Bridge: Taylor Swift & Ed Sheeran] Come back and tell me why I’m feeling like I’ve missed you all this time And meet me there tonight Let me know that it’s not all in my mind

Making up for lost time is very similar to something Harry later said at TIFF about wasted time being the most devastating thing.

'Let me know that it's not all in my mind' Minds are a Haylor theme. Here it is filled with possibility, a leap of faith expected to be returned by the muse, which it was. On TTPD it is the opposite, a feeling that it is not reciprocated:

I hate it here: I will go to Lunar valleys in my mind

Guilty as Sin: What if he's written 'mine' on my upper thigh

Only in my mind?

[Outro: Taylor Swift] All I know is we said, “Hello” So dust off your highest hopes All I know is pouring rain And everything has changed All I know is a new found grace All my days, I’ll know your face All I know since yesterday Is everything has changed

Pouring rain is later referred to in many key songs about Harry and Taylors relationship. It is the key metaphor in Clean, which is an ending in the relationship, Everything Has Changed being the beginning. In Clean:

Rain came pouring down When I was drowning, that's when I could finally breathe And by morning Gone was any trace of you, I think I am finally clean

This reference in Clean as rain washing their love away is again referred to in My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys: "The voices in his head called the rain to end our days of wild"

The imagery of rain pouring down, washing away but also as a metaphor for depression has been a theme in Harry and Taylors songs. Most remarkably in the music videos for Falling/Cardigan. Rain is also in How You Get The Girl: "Stand there like a ghost, shaking from the rain"

#Haylor #Everything has changed #red taylor’s version #Red #red taylor swift

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rescue-ram · 9 months

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Why The Joker Is Wild Hits Different

I was thinking about this last month when I wrote 'The Time Has Come For Us To Say Sayonara', and I'm feeling motivated to write up my thoughts tonight. I'm going to list my reasons why this episode in particular rubs people the wrong way roughly in order of importance.

1) Timing This is the most obvious reason but it bears mentioning. Because yeah, the episode where Hawkeye's friends team up to drive him crazy in the same season that ends with Hawkeye having a serious Mental Health Crisis definitely changes the impression this episode leaves, especially in rewatches. I've seen theories that it was intentional foreshadowing, as well as that it was meant to be a lighthearted throwback episode that's just squiffy in execution; both seem plausible. But regardless, I think the timing increases negative feelings towards this episode among people for whom it doesn't land.

2) The Pranks Are Lame This might seem petty or subjective, but the more I thought about it the more important it seemed. Because MASH has a lot of pranks, and the ones people remember and like the most are the most outrageous ones- there are a lot of creative set ups, and some opportunities for great prop or physical comedy. But the pranks in TJIW all happen off screen, for punchline reasons, and with the possible exception of Klinger blowing himself up are all very tame and unremarkable. The "victims" reactions are not particularly hilarious either. This means there's little entertainment value in the pranks themselves, so all of the focus stays on Hawkeye's reactions, and his reactions are "increasingly irrational intense distress" which obviously some people will find very difficult or upsetting to watch.

3) No Back And Forth Other "prank war" episodes are just that- a war. There's retaliation and escalation and often a final twist to the conflict that keeps the action moving. Hawkeye never gets to retaliate or take the upper hand until the very very end of the episode- he's not even really fighting for it. He's consistently put in a reactive and vulnerable position throughout the episode, so it feels targeted in a way that's usually reserved for characters we're meant to dislike and not empathize with- but Hawkeye is our charismatic protagonist, we're constantly invited to empathize with him! So seeing him get picked on and not fight back kind of sucks for a lot of people, especially if, in putting yourself in his shoes, you would find this an insanely upsetting scenario to find yourself in.

4) No A-Plot Other "prank war" episodes are usually paired with a much more serious dramatic story line. Even "April Fools", one of the silliest, has the characters seriously thinking they're all about to be court-martialed. "An Eye for a Tooth" has Mulcahy fighting for a promotion, "Bottoms Up" has Margaret reckoning with her friend's alcoholism- even "The Smell of Music", which has one of the meanest things they do to Charles, has an A-Plot where Potter tries to help a suicidal soldier. The pranks are a welcome break in tension, and the more serious subject matter means they don't get as closely analyzed by the audience- they are straight up comedic relief. But in TJIW, there is no other plot- our focus stays, relentlessly, on Hawkeye losing it. There's no break from the tension, and as already established the weak pranks mean they don't provide that release in themselves. It is very easy to get stuck stewing in Hawkeye's distress.

5) Bad Casus Belli I really think, if Hawkeye had been the one to issue the bet- "Yeah, I said your prank was stupid and I'll say it again, Trap and I coulda pranked all of you in 24 hours or less and you'd've never seen it coming"- that A LOT of this episode's problems would decrease. His come-uppance would at least feel earned- Hawkeye has hubris, gets punished, punchline. But that isn't what happens!! BJ is exhausted and in a bad mood. He takes it out on Hawkeye in a petty destructive prank. Hawkeye is annoyed, and BJ gets mad at him for being annoyed, and then cold bloodedly manipulates him into a bet he fully intends to cheat, in order to punish him for... not finding having his boot ruined funny? For talking about Trapper? There's no explanation given for why the other characters go along with it, especially a character like Mulcahy who not only participates, but is gleeful about it to an extent that's kinda OOC. Hawkeye's punishment feels more like the sort of thing dealt out to Frank, who we expected to deserve it because he was so consistently awful. Why does Hawkeye, our loveable hardworking part-time prankster full-time doctor, deserve to get humiliated? It's charitable to say it's a lack of inciting incident causing problems- to be uncharitable, we'd have to say the inciting incident is BJ taking out his temper on Hawkeye in an honestly pretty cruel way. I say cruel especially given his reaction to seeing Hawkeye lose it in the ward was to make it worse by deliberately feeding Hawkeye's paranoia after Klinger's prank. If you are not a fan which finds BJ's fits of "evil genius" funny in themselves then yeah, the unearned targeting feels infuriating.

#mash

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inkblotsonmyhands · 8 hours

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okay im having some thoughts about the bosses/secret bosses of deltarune.

it's generally accepted that the boss and secret boss of a chapter mirror themes—re: the king has power over his subjects, despises the lightners for the control they have over him, thereby keeping him trapped, and eventually ends up imprisoned in a cage by a team consisting of 2/3 lighters, meanwhile jevil starts off trapped by the king himself in a cage, has no power whatsoever over anyone, yet wholeheartedly believes that he is free and the rest of the world is trapped, and seems to achieve a greater personal satisfaction than the king ever does through that belief. the king and jevil also display dynamics characteristic of their inspirations; the king is amongst the most powerful of playing cards, superior to almost all others except the joker, which operates outside the rules, likewise, a king reigns supreme in court, but the court jester has freedom to do whatever they please and is bound by no law.

the queen and spamton display similar parallels. queen believes she knows best, she craves control and takes it by force in a misguided attempt at actually satisfying her subjects; spamton is a salesman who hopes to sell things to others to satisfy them, through which he hopes to satisfy himself. spamton is obsessed with personal freedom; queen limits others' freedom. while this is a massive simplification of spamton's larger, deeply compelling narrative, im keeping myself from rambling about spamton and the concept of choice to try to stick to the original purpose of this post. these two characters' ends are also reflections of each other: queen ends up happy, but in a sense trapped and powerless—she becomes a resident of Castle Town. spamton gains the freedom he craves and ceases to exist. a motherboard thrives under proper maintenance and control; a spam email has no identity outside the force that propagates it.

having established all that, i want to talk about the narrative roles these bosses/secret bosses play.

jevil is a truly hidden character. you have to investigate the map thoroughly to find him; if you don't, you may not even know he exists unless you're particularly observant. you certainly won't know what he looks like, his musical themes, his attacks, his interaction with other characters, or any part at all of his story. regardless of whether or not you unlock jevil's fight, the main boss of chapter one is still the king.

spamton is different. spamton appears prominently in any playthrough of the game—you do not have to go looking for him. multiple characters talk about spamton before you see him, and once you meet him, he further elaborates on his interaction with them. spamton's main musical motifs are all heard in the main game. you battle spamton in all runs of the game, albeit lesser and more powerful versions—regardless, even a normal playthrough familiarizes you with spamton's attacks. spamton is a character in the game with as much presence as any other without any need for you to go out of your way to find him—he arguably has a larger presence than any other miniboss, because spamton's scenes and fights are striking, memorable, and dramatic right from the first, "normal" time you encounter him. he's called a secret boss because to unlock his boss fight, you have to either perform a long, long series of steps which spamton himself guides you through, or you have to manipulate the main character's childhood friend into performing some truly chilling (hah) actions which dramatically alter the course of the game. if you do this, you do not fight queen, the real boss of chapter two, at all, and instead fight spamton, the secret boss, in her position.

spamton is not a secret boss in the same capacity as jevil. jevil's existence and boss fight are both a secret, while spamton himself is not inherently a secret at all—only his boss-ness (boss-ship? boss-hood? boss-form?) is. this development between chapters one and two, between jevil and spamton, makes me wonder how bosses and secret bosses will develop in upcoming chapters.

ive started thinking about how the differences, similarities, parallels, and overlaps between the boss and secret boss could be explored in further chapters. right now spamton becomes the main boss of chapter two after making some disturbing choices—but they're still your choices, you're still the one who made them, you were too curious for your own good. what if bosses overlapped and interchanged based on softer, less damning choices? what if the choices were just as damning as they were in chapter two, but you were desensitised to their gravity? what if the game itself directs you to make these damned choices, to the extent that you never even realize that you're making them, and the "secret" boss starts rising up as an increasingly prominent antagonist, until they fully replace the normal boss?

two further elaborations:

(one) toby fox has set up the boss and the secret boss's character inspirations in a very precise thematic manner, especially the primary bosses. the main boss of a chapter based on playing cards is the king of the set; the main boss of a chapter based on a computer lab is the motherboard. the secret bosses are a little less obvious in their inspiration, but a thread i see between them is that they're based off something almost irrelevant, forgettable, yet also overwhelmingly in your face. the joker and a spam email. my purpose in pointing this out is to clarify that im not suggesting that this theming will change in future chapters; i expect a main, overt boss and a secret, covert one to be present. what im suggesting change in is how you encounter them, to what degree, and as a result of what action. the two secret bosses so far explore ideas of freedom, control, choice, and perception. i think there is great potential to explore these and further ideas through playing with the way one encounters these characters in addition to their personal character traits. after all, encountering any character at all is a result of control and choice, which are results of freedom, and perception guides the choices, the very feeling of control, and the opinion one makes of the character. perhaps these secret bosses will cease to be perceived as antagonists at all—or maybe they'll start to come off more antagonistic, in contrast to how the secret bosses so far have been characters it's almost too easy to sympathize with.

(two) the average deltarune player has already played and been deeply immersed in undertale. undertale teaches you many things, but i want to highlight two here: it teaches you to be kind, and it teaches you that a kind heart is only an entertained one. the first of these informs a lot of players' instincts in deltarune—we tend to choose the "nice" options and go for the "morally right" thing. as we have been taught, when one does that, they meet the real boss as the final antagonist, who they know is definitely a bad guy, cause they, the player, have been nothing but good. i think that deltarune wants to teach us something about morality even further than the point undertale made with its no mercy run, where we were shown how one loses their pretence of kindness to a burning urge to be entertained. i think a very interesting way to do that would be through un-teaching us the nice!nice!nice! instinct that undertale hammered in, potentially teaching a completely different, possibly chaotic instinct in its place, then manipulating the game and its bosses based on those choices we start making instinctively. a key aspect of a toby fox game is the fact that any choice, regardless of how or why you made it, is finally your own, and i fully want to be punched in the face with that fact once again through deltarune, which i think it could achieve by subverting our understanding of a "normal" play of the game. i fear i am rambling too much for my point to be clear, so to illustrate with an example, what i mean is this: we accept that the normal chapter two occurs by playing the game the normal, obvious way, while the weird route occurs by playing it the intentionally absurd way—but what if those lines between normal and absurd started blurring? what if you started feeling unsure of which was the "correct" way to move forward in the chapter? what if you started having to take morally ambiguous decisions to achieve the "normal" ending of a chapter, which conditions you to start making morally ambiguous decisions in general, until chapter six rolls around and the fandom talks about the normal route and the weird route, but somehow, the weird route is the one where everything is fine and all four friends who fall asleep in a librarby wake up?

i have never typed the word boss this many times in my life. good night, humans and monsters.

#deltarune #deltarune theory #toby fox #undertale #annoying dog undertale #kris #susie #noelle #ralsei #spamton #jevil #the world revolving #big shot spamton #deltarune chapter one #deltarune chapter two #deltarune thoughts #my writing #my theories #sans undertale

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zagreuses-toast · 5 months

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Playlist for Sybil my beloved. it was harder for me to find songs that match her character vibes (or at least my interpretation of her) from my library, which is where I harvest most of the songs for my playlists, so its a little shorter than the others. like Vime's playlist has Dad Music, this one has a fair amount of Mom energy (or at least MY mom's taste in music). explanations/categories for the songs under the cut

Sybil has that dragon centric autistic swag, and she refuses to conform to nonsense:

Whistling in the Dark by TMBG

Weird Science by Oingo Boingo

Life on Mars by David Bowie

Touch Tone Telephone by Lemon Demon

Walking My Gargoyle by the Gothic Archies (this is The Sybil song to me)

Human Behavior by Björk

Sam and Sybil songs (this time from sybil pov/themes, mainly about finding love late in life, devotion, and also a bit of loneliness, she has to share him with the city )

Take a Chance on Me by ABBA

Somebody to Love by Queen

Here is Home by Ryn Weaver

Home to Me by Devil and the Deep Blue Sea (this one!!! loving someone who is always somewhere else, being the thing they come back to no matter what)

Too Tall Girl by TMBG

Me and My Husband by Mitski

Butterfly's Repose by Zabwa

Uptown Girl by Billy Joel

Washing Machine Heart by Mitski

Pink in the Night by Mitski (mainly for the back line, I think about vimes saying Sybil said she could do knots and crosses on his back , a lot)

Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy by Queen (Sybil and her siege on Vimes's heart, which he caved to the minute he realized it was happening)

I Do I Do I Do by ABBA

Stuck In the Middle With You by Stealers Wheel (the clowns and jokers being the aristocracy)

Go Your Own Way by Fleetwood mac (reminds me of that guards guards bit with Sybil pointedly not staying at the door for Vimes' dramatic romance movie one last look over the shoulder moment, i love them so much your honor)

I Bet on Losing Dogs by Mitski (listen she has a TYPE)

Never Knew Love by TMBG

I think about that scene in Fifth Elephant where she is trapped and remembers what growing up as a large and kind girl is like, and then breaks out and kills a werewolf with an iron bar she ripped directly from the window. I think about it a normal amount:

You Cannot by Erin McKewon

It's Different for Girls by of Montreal

Smile! No One Cares How You Feel by The Gothic Archies

Not The Same by Sheldon Riley (also the autism feelings)

Misc:

Army of Me by Bjork

Bitch, Bitch, Bitch from Jekyll and Hyde

Ride of the Valkyries by Wagner (I had to)

#sybil ramkin #discworld #gnu terry pratchett #sam vimes #ear juice #♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️

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theenderwalker · 3 months

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i need you to understand i know that some of the non confidant interactions/invitations in p5 are randomly generated. akechi invited me to the jazz club two days before the infiltration of sae’s palace.

at this point in the game, even if i the player didn’t have all the details, joker knows about the betrayal and the plan. akechi knows what his intentions are at the end of this palace. and they just… go about this outing as usual. sharing drinks. listening to music. talking until late in the night.

even though in four days the world as they know it will shatter around them as a gunshot pierces (the fake) joker’s forehead. the traps are laid, interweaving into each other as piece after piece slots into place. when akechi believes he’s won and is finally rid of those pesky thieves, and joker goes into hiding as the media reports his death. when joker finally remembers everything, and the flashback ends. in four days, everything will change,

but right now, they’re in the jazz club. and the music is quite nice.

#persona 5 spoilers #floralpersona #november is a wild fucking month

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jokeringcutio · 1 year

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hiii

was wondering if i could request for arthur, like maybe you ended a friendship or relationship with him on the worst possible terms a few years back and saw eachother for the first time again in london

idk if that made sense but it’s just an idea 🫶🫶

Masterlist - Request Box - Support me on Ko-Fi AN: Sure thing! Here's a drabble :) Enjoy

Fandom: Joker (2019) Pairing: Arthur Fleck/Joker x Reader Rating: General/Teen Tags: Friendship, Moving abroad, Dark undertones. -- We Meet Again--

“Excuse me, miss,” a low nasal voice, but one you would recognize anywhere.

Arthur?

But it could not possibly be him, could it? He lived all the way back home in America. Why would he have come to London?

But when you turned around to face the owner of the voice, there was no mistaking. You’d recognize him anywhere.

“Oh my God, Arthur? Is that you?”

He looked so thin, so pale. But Arthur’s eyes still were as green as ever. They glistened with unshed tears and were bright with a mixture of emotions as if a hurricane of feelings had been trapped inside.

“You look great,” he said, voice nearly a stammer. But somehow he seemed to have recomposed himself as he spoke. You saw how his left hand clenched to form a fist and how he straightened his spine to stand a little straighter. Something in his eyes shifted. There was a confidence in them you had not seen in him before.

“You,” you started, but now it was you who stammered. Not Arthur. It always used to be the other way around. Your cheeks flushed and you brought a hand up to your lips, watched as he followed the movement with his own eyes, and saw how his lips parted in a silent sigh of longing.

Of course. After all these years. He still craved you.

You weren’t dumb, and neither were you blind. You could clearly see it in his eyes, how his pupils dilated with lust. You had known it before when you’d been friends. “You’re here,” you finally said, not knowing what else to say.

“I’m here,” Arthur confirmed in that nasal voice of his. A faint whiff of nicotine passed by. He still smoked then? Some things never changed.

“Cool,” you said, slightly at a loss for words because Arthur was here. Your Arthur. Your friend. Here.

“What are you doing in London?”

His eyes darkened and the corners of his lips twisted downward, displeased almost. But your question had been genuine interest, no refute. “Are you here for work?” You carefully asked when you saw the change in his expression. “Or to see a show?” You were near the musical theatres, so it was a proper guess.

“Such a coincidence, right?” Arthur said, not quite answering your question. Perhaps he didn’t want to share what he came to do here, you thought. Perhaps he was here with his family, or visiting a girlfriend. You knew your thoughts should not wander like that, but you still felt a pang of jealousy in your heart when you thought about him moving on. Things hadn’t been official between the two of you. You’d just been friends. But still….

You watched him as he flashed you a toothy smile. It wasn’t a gentle one, you noticed, but rather reminded you of those pictures of a shark grinning. “Remember how much fun we used to have?” he then asked, and you suddenly understood why he carried the smile he was.

You bit your lip, suddenly feeling guilty for having ended things as abruptly and as suddenly as you had. You were very much aware that Arthur had trouble striking up friendships, even back then. Whether it was due to his condition or his shyness when around others, it didn’t matter. He hadn’t scared you away.

Sometimes you wished he had.

He had made you intensely aware that you were one of his only friends back then, perhaps the only one he fully trusted, and then you had ghosted on him. Not even told him you were going to leave.

Truth be said, it wasn’t entirely your fault. Your parents had talked so often about making the move to the UK that you’d not believed it was going to happen until it was. And once it had become real, telling Arthur seemed to become impossible. You knew how he would react. He would feel as if you left him alone.

Which was in the end exactly what you had done.

Just a note that said you and your parents moved abroad.

Just a hurriedly scribbled note.

And Arthur couldn’t even properly read.

What had you been thinking?

“I never stopped thinking about you,” something in his voice was thick, as if clouded with emotion. He swallowed, audibly, then finally allowed his eyes to come and rest upon your face. You saw that the harshness disappeared from his eyes and that the shark-like smile fell from his lips until it was just him again. Just your friendly Arthur. The man who had made you feel less lonely and who had made you feel understood so many years ago.

“I missed you,” you finally admitted. You were glad he was standing here, unexpected and improbable as it was. Your hand reached for the lapel of his coat, gently taking hold of it while you watched his face for his expression. His eyes widened slightly, but there was no sign of gesture for you to stop. And so you stepped closer to him and inhaled his scent. You closed your eyes while you drew a breath, and opened them with a smile curving your lips.

Arthur was looking down at you, eyes intense. His jaw was chiseled, his lips pressed into a thin line. There was such concentration upon his face, even as he brought his hand up to your face and brushed a knuckle gently past your cheek.

We should get a drink, you wanted to say. I want to meet you again, get to know you, who you are now. What changed? What remained the same? How was your life when I was gone? But you didn’t say any of that.

Instead, you leaned into his gentle caressing touch and parted your lips in a soft whimper. It felt good, the warmth of his palm on your skin.

You were friends. Nothing more than that. But you knew he wanted it to be more. He always had. And by the sight of it, he still did. “Did you miss me too?” you asked, voice small, as if you were scared to hear the answer.

But you knew it deep down inside. The way his eyes softened and his lashes fluttered, the way he stood close to you and caressed your cheek. How his other hand now circled around you, found the back of your neck and drew you close.

You hoped he could forgive you for having left the way you had. You hoped he still wanted you as much as he did then, because this time you were older, wiser, and smarter. This time, you knew you wanted him too.

“Did you miss me too?” you’d asked.

“You have no idea, love,” Arthur said, something dark sparked within his eyes. His grip on you became more possessive, tighter. “You truly have no idea.” ~

AN: Of course we have an Arthur who turned Joker here and deliberately came to seek our dear Reader out now that he has the means to, because why not? You think he’s gonna forget about you just like that? Na- ah! 👀

Masterlist - Request Box - Support me on Ko-Fi

#Arthur Fleck #Reader insert #Arthur Fleck x Reader #Anon Answered #Arthur Fleck x You #Joker x you #drabble

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jokeroutsubs · 11 months

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Bojan and Kris' interview for Slovenian news site Siol.net (2. 9. 2022)

Joker Out does what only Big Foot Mama and Siddharta have done so far

Well, now we know where we will be on 6 October next year. In Stožice, at the Joker Out concert. The young musicians have never hidden their goals, they have predicted it, because the next logical move for the hottest band in Slovenia at the moment is to fill the biggest arena in Slovenia. "If there ever was a time for that, it's now. I'm more scared of the question of what's next," the band's guitarist Kris Guštin asked himself in an interview with Siol.net. But the guys have an answer for that too. After Stožice, they're aiming for the Balkans, and then, who knows where the new wave will take them.

We spoke to Bojan Cvjetićanin and Kris Guštin from Joker Out on the day of the release of their second studio album Demoni. We met in a bar behind Bežigrad, just a few metres away from where their homes are. Kris came by bike, Bojan by car, as he had another interview before our talk. Both visibly tired. It is an understatement to say that their schedules are packed. This summer they played 30 concerts, released a new album, shot a video for their first single Katrina, they have a big concert in Križanke coming, and an even bigger one in Stožice next year. Among the legendary Slovenian rock bands, only Big Foot Mama and Siddharta managed to sell out Stožice.

Shagadelic rock band Joker Out consists of Jure Maček, Jan Peteh and Martin Jurkovič, in addition to Kris Guštin and Bojan Cvjetičanin (pictured). Photo by Ana Kovač

First of all, congratulations, your second studio album Demons is out. How would you describe the new album in a few words?

Kris: Thank you. If we don't compare it to the first one, this album is our ultimate break up album. If we compare it to the first one, this one was made in a much shorter time, and I think that's actually a plus and not a minus of this album. It's much more genuine and polished, even though it was made in five months. This album represents our actual creative state at the moment, whereas the first album represented our creative state two years before the release, because it was made over such a long period of time.

Bojan: Creatively it's much freer than the first album. We dared to do more, and I'm glad we didn't fall into the trap of wanting to be commercially satisfying just for the sake of success. The album is much more mature both lyrically and in terms of arrangement. The first album was a patchwork from the beginning of our creative journey to when it came out. Whereas the new album is really a reflection of who we are now, in this moment. It's our present, it's our imprint.

Katrina is the name of the single you used to announce the release of your new album. Who or what is Katrina? Do we all have a Katrina?

Bojan: I believe that everyone has a Katrina at some point in their life. Who my Katrina is is irrelevant to this story. Katrina is someone or something that is gnawing away at us and destroying us in some way, but we keep coming back to it anyway.

Kris: I am my own Katrina.

You shot the music video in four hours, you decided to do it in black and white, and only the band members are in it. Who is the concept mastermind behind the music video?

Kris: Yes, we shot the music video in a couple of hours, even though it took all day to shoot due to other commitments. It's like this when you realise there's only a week to go before the song comes out, and you wonder what to do now (laughs). But even if we had had more time, I don't know if we would have done anything differently. The masterminds are Joker Out and Mark Pirc.

Bojan: The vision for the video was that it had to be very raw and radiate energy. This song is probably the most edgy, and I think it's the most reminiscent of Omamljeno telo (*Intoxicated Body) from the first album. The video for Omamljeno telo is also just a stylish black and white story. The first single from the second album is somehow Omamljeno telo five years later.

With the song Katrina, for which they also recorded a video, Joker Out announced their second studio album Demons. It was five months in the making and, as they say, is more sophisticated lyrically and in terms of arrangements than the first album. Photo by Mark Pirc

You celebrated the release of Katrina in a very special way, by diving into the ice-cold Kamnik Bistrica (T.N.: an Alpine river in northern Slovenia).

Kris: Niko, our head of security, the all-round father of the band, had been persuading us all summer to go for a dive in Kamnik Bistrica, and it just happened to coincide with the release of the song. It was great to be able to relax for the last hour before we embarked on a new chapter of our creative journey. We had breathing exercises before the dive, and when you opened your eyes and looked at the Kamnik Alps, it was really beautiful.

Bojan: I loved it, we felt like Vikings (laughs). We were guided through the whole experience by Jernej and it was very spiritual. In one hour we came together as a community to perform this ritual. It was cathartic.

Most of the texts were penned by you, Bojan. When it comes to inspiration, you have said in several interviews that you do not draw from your own life experiences. The second album lets you know that guys are growing up, gaining experience. So was there anything different about writing this album, did you draw more from yourself?

Bojan: With this album I can say that the lyrics are my story. Here, I've drawn exclusively from myself. Except for the song "Plastika" (Plastics).

Kris: It's still a personal experience anyway. In the song Plastika, he expresses his feelings through other people, similar to, say, Bele sanje (White Dreams) on the previous album.

Besides your music, your fashion style is also evolving. It kind of works that the music you make and your style go hand in hand. Does this happen naturally or do you adapt your personal style to the music? Who takes care of your visual style?

Kris: We are aware that the visual style, together with the musical and sound style, is part of the overall image of each artist. We want to do that ourselves, but we also know that it's necessary and that's why we work with certain stylists. For the cover of Demoni, Damir Raković Ponorelii, who will also dress us for Križanke, took care of the styling, and we hope for further cooperation. But today we dressed ourselves (laughs).

"The first album was a patchwork from the beginning of our creative journey to when it came out. Whereas the new album is really a reflection of who we are now, in this moment. It's our present, it's our imprint." tells us the singer of Joker Out. Photo by Primož Lukežič.

The album features ten new songs, including two in Serbian. Does this foreshadow a more serious, planned entry into the Balkan music market?

Bojan: I've always wanted to write something in Serbian, because my ancestors are from there. I always wanted my grandmother to understand what I was singing. When I show her a new song, it's great, but when you don't understand something, you can't like it to the max. That was my wish at first, but in the last year or two, everyone in the band has had the wish to go to the Balkans. The fact that there are two songs in Serbian on the album indicates the beginning of that journey.

What is your favourite song on the new album?

Kris: It depends, it changes from week to week. At the moment my favourite songs are Demoni (Demons) and Ne bi smel (I shouldn't have).

Bojan: I have my own moments too, but right now my favourite songs on the album are Padam (Falling), Novi val (New Wave), Ona (She) and Demoni.

NGVOT is a song from the new album, for which Kris wrote the music and lyrics four years ago. "Just because I wrote a song doesn't mean it's my favourite. Of course it has a special place in my heart, but it would probably be different if I had written it six months ago instead of four years ago." Photo by Mark Pirc

Can we say a few words about Novi val? What is this song about?

Bojan: At the time I wrote the lyrics for Novi val, there were forest fires in the Karst region (T.N.: plateau with lots of forest in southwestern Slovenia). That was the moment when I realised that we were clearly sliding into self-destructiveness as a society. And yet, I feel the call from the people around us and from ourselves to have the will and the desire to not let it be so. It is a kind of call to be who we are, but to say it out loud.

The album will be presented on 9 September at a concert in Križanke. If I'm not mistaken, the tickets are sold out. What can we expect?

Kris: The young Slovenian band will finally perform in Križanke. It's obvious that we are entering a new creative phase and we hope that our Slovenian fans will accept the fact that we are also going to the Balkans.

Bojan: I was thinking this morning that we have a lot of young fans and this concert will probably be the first concert in Križanke for many of them. I hope that they will remember their first concert in Križanke for the fact that they were at a great Joker Out concert.

"At the time I wrote the lyrics for Novi val, there were forest fires in the Karst region. That was the moment when I realised that we were clearly sliding into self-destructiveness as a society." says Bojan about the song Novi val. Photo by Ana Kovač

You've had a summer full of gigs, and it's true to say that you're the hottest band in the country right now. What's the best thing you've received from your fans, or an event that will stay with you forever?

Kris: It's fascinating when you come to a place you've never heard of before and it's full of people under the stage. That's what it was like in Veliko Ubeljsko, for example. That's one of the big things. I remember when we played in Sevnica and we were still taking pictures for 45 minutes after the show. A girl came up to us and, although she was waiting in line for a photo, she said she didn't want a picture with us, she just wanted to tell us how much our music meant to her. Then we talked, and it was refreshing that someone wanted to talk to you and not just take a picture.

Bojan: I agree with everything Kris said. They throw home-made bracelets on stage with names, song titles. That's definitely going to stay in my memory. At Veliko Ubeljsko, a guy from the middle came to the stage and brought me a potted plant. If I'm not mistaken, it was a cyclamen. But this year I had another big moment, and that was to stop getting upset by negative comments. If you want it or not, when you read something nasty, offensive, it just affects you. This year it happened that a person wrote a message saying that she had problems existing in this world and that she was still here because of our music. When I read that, I reflected on it. If, in fact, what we have done has saved just one person's life, it is completely irrelevant if 18 million people tell me that I am a complete loser. We have had at least five or six messages like that this year, and that is a really big thing.

Then do you read the comments online?

Bojan: I can't help it, I go and read. People are really relentless. On the one hand, it's horrifying, but on the other hand, if you don't take it too seriously, it's funny.

Kris: I've read all the comments under our videos. I guess I don't get as affected by criticism as Bojan does. However, I think it's more significant for Bojan because he is the author of the majority of the lyrics. If they attack our songs, they attack him as the author. Personally, I just like to laugh at all the comments.

"If, in fact, what we have done has saved just one person's life, it is completely irrelevant if 18 million people tell me that I am a complete loser." Photo by Ana Kovač

What's the most bizarre, unusual request from a fan?

Bojan: Collectively, it is extremely annoying that we're probably the only band that's expected to organise a three-hour photo shoot with anyone who wants it after the show. The organisers have this idea that they're going to invite us to the gigs, and we're obliged to let anyone backstage, laugh and be nice to everyone. That can be very disturbing after a concert when you are exhausted and need some peace. After two, three nights in a row of shows, we are exhausted. Don't get us wrong, we always like to take time to take photos, talk to our fans, but sometimes it's not doable.

Kris: We're considered a phenomenon. Especially this year, some of the organisers were surprised by the response of our audience and then wanted to promise something more to the guests. They promised that everyone would be able to have their photo taken with us.

How has popularity affected your private life in the last two years?

Bojan: I am much more nervous about it.

Kris: It's not the easiest at times, especially, as we said, when the organisers expect us to take photos with everyone after the show when we're completely exhausted. Of course, you don't want to be rude to the fans and you're grateful that they're there to watch and support you. But sometimes it feels like people don't realise that we are only human too and that sometimes we need peace. With Bojan that is the worst, the rest of us are a bit luckier.

You either have stage presence or you don't. You have it, the audience can see it, feel it. What about you, what goes through your mind when you are on stage?

Kris: If it's a good gig, nothing should go through your head. When you start thinking, it's not good.

Bojan: This year, for me or for all of us, the Castle Festival was one where we performed in pure euphoria from start to finish. I couldn't compose myself for three hours after the concert. At some concerts, if I don't catch a good wave of enjoyment, I honestly find myself thinking about everything, from what I'm going to eat for lunch the next day to how I'm going to go home afterwards. You can't be 100% present at all concerts, but we certainly maintain a certain standard of quality at all concerts. Then it depends on whether we "go off" or not.

"If music could save the world, then the world would have been saved a long time ago." Photo by Mark Pirc

Would you ever play for a political party, have you been invited before?

Kris: We have not been invited and we also wouldn''t do it. I don't think it's necessary to put ourselves out there, especially in Slovenia, where we have a rather toxic political environment. When you go to play for one, you immediately "alienate" the other half of your audience, and it's completely unnecessary. It's a little bit disingenuous to be an idol to certain people from a certain point of view, but then you start imposing something on them that you are not really qualified for or capable of.

Bojan: Why should anyone care what our political beliefs are just because we are public figures. Politics and music have nothing in common, except when it comes to musical rebellion. I honestly don't believe in a musical revolution anymore, as far as political revolt is concerned. If music could save the world, then the world would have been saved a long time ago. That is because I think that the best revolutionary songs were written a long time ago, and we are still talking about the same issues as we did ten or 40 years ago. I think politics is a big no for us.

What Siddharta and Big Foot Mama were for the older generation, you are now for the young. How does it feel when they draw parallels between you and legendary Slovenian bands? Do you feel pressure, maybe because Kris's father penned the biggest Slovenian rock hits?

Kris: In the beginning it annoyed us when we were compared to Big Foot Mama, maybe because of my dad, but also because of the music, because five years ago it was all more basic, rock and roll. Then we were compared to Siddharta, and now we are so unique that we can't be compared to anyone, at least not stylistically. Maybe they can compare us to Siddharta, in terms of how much we can do for the young generation. And that's very nice to hear, it's a great honour for us.

Bojan: It's definitely an honour. On my first MP3 player I listened to Big Foot Mama, Siddharta, Trkaj… . Every generation, every child needs, or rather it's good that they have, music to grow up with, to go to school with, to fall in love with for the first time, to dream with. We have succeeded in being that music for new generations. We are very proud of that and we are moving on.

To Stožice, then?

Kris: That's right, 6 October 2023.

For a musician to fill Stožice is practically the highest step in Slovenia. Are you scared?

Bojan: When we filled Cvetličarna twice, Križanke was a very logical next step. We thought about moving the concert from Cvetličarna to Križanke, but because of the beautiful red thread of the story and the steps in our lives, we decided that we would rather do Cvetličarna first and then perform in Križanke. Stožice is three times bigger than Križanke. It is quite scary that this is already our next step.

Kris: If there's ever a time to do it, it's now. I'm more scared of the question of what's next. We are lucky that after we can say that we have filled up Stožice, which is in principle the most you can achieve in Slovenia, we can target the Balkans. We are lucky that nobody knows us in the Balkans and that we will still be able to play there. My biggest fear would be that we would achieve everything in Slovenia and then we would not be able to do anything more.

Bojan: We are really going to the Balkans, where we are absolute nobodies. We are starting from scratch, with only the knowledge and infrastructure we have. Senidah has given us all a little bit of a dream. She is in the Balkans, she has made a very big leap for Slovenian music.

After the big concert in Križanke, where they will present their second studio album, it's time for Stožice for Joker Out. Kris and Bojan admit that it's scary, but now is the right time to take this step. Photo by Ana Kovač

Križanke, Stožice, then it's the Balkans. Where else will your journey take you?

Kris: Los Angeles. The post-production of the second album was done by a producer we got on well with, and we expressed our desire to visit him in Los Angeles. At the time, we hadn't thought about working for the American market yet, but this producer was very impressed with our music. He wrote that he hadn't had such an interesting band "to remix" for years and invited us to record the best songs in English in a studio in Los Angeles and then show them to someone. There are so many possibilities.

Bojan: Maybe Stožice will be brought down, because we'll be doing Madison Square Garden (laughs).

If you could choose any musician, Slovenian or foreign, who would you like to work with in the future?

Kris and Bojan: Among the Slovenian ones, it's Magnifico.

Bojan: Senidah seems to me to be a very big phenomenon. She is a top musician, singer and artist. She is a bohemian personality who was underrated in Slovenia, then she went to the Balkans, where she is the alpha and omega. And then Abba, Kanye West and Pharrell Williams.

Kris: Among the world's stars, Paul McCartney.

You spend a lot of time together. Do you ever get annoyed by each other?

Bojan: We're like brothers. We can love each other, but when we get on each other's nerves, we really get on each other's nerves. But there is an element of brotherhood, not friendship, in the fact that at the end of the day any argument is resolved and we move on as if nothing had happened. It is the same when you have a fight at home and then half an hour later it is all forgotten. We get it out of ourselves and move on.

How do you resolve conflicts within the group? Who has the final say when you can't agree on something, like which songs go on an album?

Kris: It depends on what the decision is. For financial decisions, Martin and I have the final say, for creative matters it's usually Bojan. But in principle, it's a democracy.

Bojan: I don't know if we've ever had such different conflicts of interest that a veto was needed.

Is there any jealousy between you, given that Bojan is the frontman of the band?

Kris: I'm honestly glad that I'm not in Bojan's position.

Bojan: Sometimes I wish I was in a different position. But in the last year we have made it very clear to everybody what the dynamic is, that we are a five-man band. All the commitments, like interviews and so on, were done by all of us. There are five people here and the focus is no longer just on me, as it was at the beginning. We have got rid of that and I don't think there is any basis for jealousy between us. Everyone is in his position because he is the best and because he wants to be there.

There is one last question that we cannot get past. Who is single, who is happily in love?

Kris and Bojan: One is single, the other is in a relationship.

Translation by @kurooscoffee DO NOT REPOST!

#joker out #kris gustin #bojan cvjeticanin

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wegonbealright-09 · 3 months

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Between liking and commenting on tiktoks of hot girls dancing, commenting and the deleting said comment on a taekookers video (tbf wasn't a taekook video), liking thirst traps of his friends (Mingyu) and now accidently following a jikooker, can JK please keep his account on lock or something 💀 This mf keeps bringing the stupidest discourse to my tl as always. Reminds me of Tae reposting that Jimin anti on his ig and not gonna talk about the whole IG is scary debacle. Can these dumb*sses be the least bit professional? If you have butter fingers then use a private account lord

Jungkook knows his fans and he know what they want and so he feeds them. Jokers were over the moon with the comment he made on jimins video but after he liked a video of tae they tried to play it cool because the husband shut them up.

And I remember an anon saying maybe going to the military will make him grow up and stop this kind of behavior well you can't teach an old dog new tricks. He can't make his likes private because then nobody will talk about him, if people can't talk about his music they can talk about his ships jungkook loves being the center of attention.

Same goes to tae he's almost thirty he knows how to use IG he's not illiterate he can read. He know what he's doing every single time and he's just gon act clueless after. And armies are going to back him because they part of that cult. Still can't move past the fact that at his old ass age, at 28 he said the N words in front of millions of fans and wore a durag and armies has the nerve to defend him because "he didn't know" if it was 2015 I would have let it pass because he might have been clueless then but in 2023 come the fuck on.

They both know what gets people talking and they both know what they doing, I've lost all the respect I had for tae and my love for vmin because why is the he acting like that.

They annoy me and they deserve each other, I feel sorry for whoever ends up with them. Glad my girl jennie left the loser( allegedly)

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mrschwartz · 2 years

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Alex Turner most likely has synesthesia: a compilation

“She floats like a niccy rush and stings like a B-flat” (The Blond-O-Sonic Shimmer Trap)

“When you’re experimenting with more genres, it’s so delicate. It’s like a chemistry set: you got like all the boiling tubes and pipettes and you add one or too many drops on the whole thing and it falls apart and you get the wrong colour of the smoke.” (x)

"If desire would be liquid, then it wouldn’t be something you easily sail through, but a rough sea that whirls you around. The rhythm of [Fireside] has those wild motions of desire. If desire is something liquid, it is a rolling boil–like when you’re boiling potatoes." (x)

“That sensation of longing for something or someone, if it were a liquid it’s not something you sail smoothly along in. It’s gotta roll and boil, or it bubbles and coughes and splutters, and I think we wanted the rythm to reflect that in the tune Fireside.” (x)

“I love the color of them shows, [Thunderbirds] and 60′s Batman as well, that technicolor thing. If I could make a song sound like the Joker’s laugh, when it’s all angled and pink... for me it sounds like that, technicolor. [...] I’d love to have drums that sound like that looks.” (x)

“Jamie’s doing a lot of that icy plucking in the background, adding a texture.” (x)

“Alternative Endings was [my idea for a bar name]. [...] You can see that in pink neon light.” (x)

“It was what became a line in a song called 'Aviation'–'The Colorama in your eyes takes me on a moonlight drive'–not completely unremarkable written down but when appropriated by this particular melodic idea and backlit by its chord progression it permitted me to glimpse into what seemed like a new constellation in my imagination, one that every time I heard the demo recording I was encouraged to try and traverse.” (x)

“Franz Schubert the composer said ‘there’s no such thing as happy music’. I always got a kick out of that. Not because I think that music has to be sad but because I think when it most effective there’s an element of it operating within a spectrum that has neither ‘happy’ or 'sad’ at either end of it. Music with lyrics in a language you don’t understand or no lyrics at all has the power to send vehement shivers through your body. It’s almost as if the melody or something else in there has an invisible direct line to the depths of the subconscious. This interests me greatly. I always wanted to use the word 'Colorama’ in a song ever since I saw Antonioni’s Blow Up. It was an unplugged neon light at the back of my mind for years. Some lyrics are declarations of love or hate written in blood or carved in a bus stop, in need of little or no melodic illumination. Some, I believe, are there almost entirely to facilitate it. If I ever thought about it at all I’m sure I used to think the melody was the vessel that carried the lyrics but more recently it has occurred to me that the opposite is often true. The problem with the neon sign analogy is that neon signs are invariably bolted to the wall and full of gas. Melody seems as though its poured rather than sprayed and doesn’t feel as though whatever holds it ought to be fixed to anything. I sometimes imagine each word to be made using a three dimensional open-top glass alphabet. Each letter built to harness and transport the mirror ball liquid marble of the melody. When the 'substance’ fills up the syllables they seem to shimmer and become weightless. With the addition of close harmony I see colours swirl together, parts of the lyrics glow and the way in which they float suggests that something like the 'star gate’ sequence from 2001: A Space Odyssey is happening deep inside them out of view.” (x)

“The types of sounds, or the chord progressions, or the music I was composing, let’s say on the piano or on these recordings I was making, definitely informed the lyrics, I feel, as much as the films I was watching or anything that was going on in front of me. It often does seem like it really just comes from the music. Like, that seems to suggest things to me as much as, if not more than, everything else.” (x)

“I like what you say about the pieces in the puzzle. I like the idea that the other part of that puzzle is the music, that the melody completes the lyrics, that you can feel that harmony between lyrics and music, a whole. The lyrics are just a piece of the puzzle, not something you have to decipher, but something that goes together with the music…” (x)

“Because you hit a couple of things on the way there. One was Bond villain–that went off in neon in my mind.” (x)

“Lego Napoleon movie / Written in noble gas-filled glass tubes / Underlined in sparks” (Hello You)

#interviewers straight up ask him about it challenge #alex turner #arctic monkeys #there was another one where he says he thinks of the drums visually but i couldn't for the life of me find it #take some of these with a grain of salt btw he likes to use metaphors a lot #but as a fellow synesthete i get it. it's sooo hard to describe the actual image in your head

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adoringdo · 11 months

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EXO Theory Pt. 16 - I Need All 'Ya ~ Cream Soda

What a bop, SOTY, AOTY, I love EXO. The music video has too many fast cuts that it's kinda annoying to analyse, but the fast cuts really reminded me of Love Me Right and Love Shot and some other MVs that have strong dreamlike vibes - so that's fun! Anyway...

<<- First part | <- Previous part | * Masterpost

The first thing to note with this MV is that we have two sets of EXO in the MV. The colourfully dressed EXO:

And the EXO wearing black suits:

In this MV, I actually think the suited members are representing X-EXO and the colourful ones are normal EXO, so I will refer to the suited EXO members as X-EXO from here-on.

I think it's quite obvious that the brightly dressed EXO members in this MV are trapped in a dream state that they are trying to escape, as we have seen in many EXO MVs before.

We get a few different clips of the Bright!EXO members laying like this on the floor, asleep. Very reminiscent of Love Me Right.

In Love Me Right, we watch as the members take on the roles of Alice in Wonderland characters and try to escape the dream that the Red Force has put them into. In Cream Soda, we see the EXO members asleep, but not taking on characters. Instead, they are wondering around in this space that seems to me to be very cube-like.

However, we do also see EXO outside of this space. At the beginning of the MV they arrive at this fancy dinner hall where they immediately wreak havoc and destroy the layout with a skateboard.

Straight after this we see an image of X-EXO partying and a drink falling over, seemingly out of nowhere.

This is signifying to us that these two scenarios must be connected with each other; EXO cause drinks and plates to smash and fall in their scene and a drink also falls in the other X-EXO scene. So bearing that in mind, we move on.

Next, we get this scene of EXO Chen falling onto a bed and it kind of transitions to this image of some jugs and bottles under water.

From here on I think Chen sort of wakes up from the dream and takes the place of X-EXO Chen. This is sort of in keeping with this idea I've had in my theories where Chen was the spy for the Red Force, but since Let Me In, we have seen him repent and come back to the EXO's side. I think in this MV we get some more of this theory.

Once Chen falls into the X-EXO space, we watch a scene of X-EXO Chanyeol and Kyungsoo playing chess, and we see a clip of 'X-EXO' Chen playing cards.

The chess game gets interrupted by somebody putting their drink on the table. I cannot tell who it is, but the significance of chess is still quite interesting. We've seen chess in a few different places, most notably in the Tempo MV where we see Xiumin and Kyungsoo play and their chess game creates the cube which the EXO members reenter to try and solve the puzzle to escape. The cube is a tool of the Red Force, even if the members do need it in the Tempo MV. We also see chess in Obsession where we watch EXO and X-EXO Chen play against each other.

Chess is clearly used as a symbol of the Red Force, we even see chess pieces in one opening VCR to the MAMA 2016 performance which was heavily lore based.

The card game that Chen is playing is significant in the overall storyline for Cream Soda because we get the reveal later in the MV that Chen actually played the Joker card. Just before this, we get a clip of Xiumin dropping a drop of his glass and it shows us the members aimlessly wandering in the cube like space again.

Chen then sets the Joker card on fire and we see the EXO members from just seconds before begin to celebrate.

Right after this we then see this image of a wine glass smashing to the ground - which again, is signifying this idea that as the EXO members win this round, the X-EXO members lose (as the wine glass is definitely from the X-EXO member scenes).

Not long after this we also see time go backwards; at the beginning of the MV we get a close up of someone's watch which ticks forward a second. At the end of the MV, it ticks back a second again, resetting time.

We then also see Baekhyun and Kyungsoo leave the setting looking very pleased with themselves.

Baekhyun and Kyungsoo are shown in another few clips together as well, so clearly the two of them were up to something in this MV.

This duo actually really reminded me of the two of them in The War comics - as the two of them are the ones monitoring the other members and giving them instructions in that comic. I wonder if they were the ones that told Jongdae to go over to the X-EXO side and be the spy for them in this MV. As Chen seems to be the reason that they have got free and escaped from this scenario at least. We don't actually see any of the other members escape though, so maybe only Kyungsoo and Baekhyun did in this one. Hmm..

It could also be that the two were responsible for telling Suho to talk to the girl we see in the MV as well. Before I have been over how I think girls are significant in the EXO MVs - they are almost always a representative of the Red Force.

I wonder if Suho is distracting the Red Force from noticing that Chen has replaced X-EXO Chen in the other universe. We do see cream running down the car and blocking all the windows, blocking her sight, so that could make sense.

As I said before, we end the MV with the watch ticking backwards, in line with the Let Me In and Hear Me Out MVs where time was a pivotal theme of the MVs. I think it's less so here, but I do think it's still important that time was reversed back to the beginning of the MV, but now with Kyungsoo and Baekhyun freed. It could be that we will now get a continuation of that damn The War comic as it's driving me mad we still have nothing??? It's been 6 years SM c'mon!

Anyway we mustn't ignore the most important part of the MV:

These amazing outfits and the amazing dance. Not at all lore significant, but it did need to be noted.

Tbh this video really isn't lore heavy - it's mostly aesthetics and dancing. Not complaining, but not much to really read into imo. Hope it was somewhat interesting anyway! See you in 3 years when EXO has another comeback lmao 😭😭😭😭😭😭

#EXO #EXO Theory #Cream Soda #Cream Soda Theory #EXO Cream Soda #Kpop #My Theory #My Gif

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