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curekibouka-writing · 8 months

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Analyzing the lullaby motif in book 7 (+translation of lyrics)

MAJOR SPOILERS for book 7 chapter 1-5

I hope everyone remembers the lullaby Malleus sang for everyone when he overblotted because that motif came back FOUR times in chapter 5 and I am going to analyze them all because they make me way too emotional 😭

Please feel free to find the lullaby motifs in this post and this post if necessary (although one of them is not included).

Translated lyrics of the lullaby:

A warm cradle

Starlight and joy

My eyes are watching over you still, let's be together

With no fear, even if we wake from this dream

Sleep, sleep, my beloved child

In dreams, I pray you would be guided to walk toward the light

(Analysis begins under the cut:)

The melody of the lullaby has been used 5 times at least in the story, they include:

When Malleus hummed it to everyone he put to sleep during his OB

When Meleanor sang it to Malleus

When Lilia sang it to Silver

When Malleus sang it to Silver

In the bgm when Sebek was helping come out of the darkness

The themes of this piece of music are love and farewell.

Motif use 2 is chronologically when the lullaby was first sung, it’s a song of love from a mother to her child when she knows they must part. I believe that when Meleanor sang this lullaby, she had already made up her mind to fight and let her guards escape with her child. She was taking the last moments she had with her child to name him "Malleus" and sing him this lullaby (7-75). Lyrics include sth like “I will be watching over you even if we wake up from this dream” and “may you be guided and walk towards the light”. But the beauty that comes with the theme of farewell is the theme of legacy. Because even though Meleanor is now gone, her song, and thus her love, never died.

Because Lilia remembers it. Motif 3 is Lilia singing it to Silver, and he’s also sung it to Malleus before. In a musical story, even if the characters lie or don’t have perfect information, the music never lies. Even if Lilia once doubted whether he could love Malleus and hatch him properly (7-77), and even if Lilia may still doubt whether he could love Silver, a human, properly (7-81), the motif symbolises love which tells us the truth — Lilia is capable of giving love. And the legacy is not just that Lilia passed the song to Malleus, it’s that Lilia internalized the song and sang it to his own son. He has seen what kind of mother Meleanor was, and he’s learnt from her kindness, her pride, her love and he has put that into how he raise his own child. Lilia has Meleanor’s legacy too.

And then to address the two Malleus motifs. First of all Malleus never sings it with lyrics, which would imply Malleus himself doesn’t fully know the true meaning of the song. However, he knows that he’s felt happiness and protection from hearing this song, so he sings it to Silver when Lilia asks him to as motif 4 (7-81). When he sang it to Silver he sounded confused, it must’ve been a long time since he’s heard the song. But he still remembers it, which means Meleanor’s love never died because Malleus remembers it all the same. It’s still in Malleus. It’s still there.

But when Malleus overblots, the song gets twisted a little bit (motif 1). However, in Malleus’s mind, it’s still a song of happiness and protection, because he overblotted trying to protect everyone’s happiness forever. But the music sounds creepy to show you the true nature of the song is not like this. The nature of the song is that "even though I cannot be with you always, I will still love you and wish for your happiness". This is the part that Malleus did not understand and did not cope with. It’s also interesting to note that Malleus sang motif 1 with a smile and no hesitation, he was completely confident and sure in what he was doing. Meanwhile, in all other three sung versions, each singer had their own different emotions in their singing, and those emotions were a lot softer, a lot less certain.

And the fifth and final use of the motif is used in the bgm when Sebek yells at Silver for him to get a grip (7-86). The song is arranged into a victorious piece with certainty and assurance. The use of the motif reminds us of the themes: love and legacy. It calls attention to these themes and entrenchs the truth that Silver IS Lilia’s legacy, and that’s only possible because of the love that Lilia has given him. The exact part where the bgm starts playing was when Silver said "Even in the darkness, I could always hear it. 'Stand up' 'Don't give in' 'Live'... it's father's voice. [...] All that he taught me, that's the proof that he had loved me. It's not a dream and not an illusion... it's true love." (I'm serious he really said "true love" for real this IS a translation T^T). When Silver saw Lilia's memories of the song, he denied the love, he said he should not deserve it. The motif had to come back because this is the moment when Silver can finally realize “Ah. This song is full of love and father sang it for me.” The motif HAD to come back because Silver has to come to accept it.

But the bgm arrangement is also made for Sebek. The bgm is full of certainty because Sebek has no doubts in what he’s telling Silver. Sebek, who has grown up alongside Silver, has witness all the love between Lilia and Silver. He KNOWS Lilia’s love is true and he’s conveying that to Silver with certainty. This bgm summarises what Sebek was doing so well, Sebek sees the love Lilia has for Silver and was literally blasting it in Silver’s ears.

As Disney's Sleeping Beauty (1959) puts it, "true love conquers all". And we've been shown that there's love in every direction among our Diasomnia found family. Let's hope that, soon enough, Silver and Sebek would wake Lilia up, and they can finally show Malleus the true meaning of his mother's lullaby and the wish she entrusted to it — that he would walk towards the light, even if she cannot be the one guiding him...

#twisted wonderland #twst #twst spoilers #twisted wonderland spoilers #twst ch 7 spoilers #twst chapter 7 #lilia vanrouge #silver #twst silver #sebek zigvolt #malleus draconia #mallenoa draconia #meleanor draconia #twst book 7 #twst translation #twst analysis #diasomnia

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riddlerosehearts · 7 months

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okay, i know this is a lot of screenshots but i really wanted to include them all in this post to convey just how much meleanor loved malleus and how incredibly distraught i am about it. when she's introduced, she's singing a lullaby to his egg about how she wants him to always stay with her and feel happy and safe, the kind of lullaby any good mother would sing to her baby. and then she starts raging hard and throwing thunderbolts everywhere because she and her egg are in danger, and lilia and baul, trusted members of her guard, are late in arriving to help. she's angry and frustrated and worried for her child, but she quickly softens for him, tries to sing him to sleep, comforts him when she thinks her thunderous anger might have bothered him, speaks of her belief that he'll become a bright, shining star for their people. she accepts the duel against the knight of dawn because she feels that as a mother, she must protect her child at all costs and joining the fight is the best way to do that. she has the confidence to believe that she'll win and come back home to her baby, but the wisdom to come up with a plan in case she doesn't. and honestly, it's kind of a crazy plan, to give an egg that needs genuine parental love to hatch to an orphan who believes himself to be incapable of love, but meleanor has so much trust in lilia and believes she knows him better than that, knows that he can love this child enough to nurture the egg into hatching. and of course, we know she was right. we know that although her participation in the duel may have been a mistake, she did it out of love for malleus and it's still thanks to her plan that lilia could grow to love him as well and hatch his egg.

but malleus will never know all of this, not really. sure, other people like lilia and baul and maleficia must have told him about his mother, about her incredibly fiery temper and her love for him that burned just as strongly, but there's a difference between being told that your mother loved you and actually getting to feel that love. meleanor died when he was still in his egg. he can't possibly remember what the smile on her face would've looked like each time she gazed down at him and held him as she sang him to sleep, or remember that the last time she would ever see him she entrusted him to lilia so he would be safe no matter what. he can't even remember the words to her song, only the melody, and he doesn't remember it came from her. in another translation i read he wondered if he heard it from one of his nannies. fae live such long lives, and he will live the entirety of his without ever knowing his mother who wanted nothing more than to be able to watch him grow up. i wonder how she would feel, seeing him hum her song to the knight of dawn's child--the son of the very man who killed her--to lull him to sleep and then humming it again later for the dark purpose of putting an entire island of people to sleep so he won't have to lose them. but of course, if she were alive for us to know how she feels, then all of this would've been a very different story to begin with.

#this post is a bunch of silly word vomit that's basically just stating the obvious #a TON of words to say meleanor loved malleus so much more than he can ever know and i'm so sad about it #but i paused my re-reading of part 5 for a stupid amount of time to write it #so here. take it.#god she's such a good character #twisted wonderland spoilers #twst spoilers #twisted wonderland liveblog #malleus draconia #meleanor draconia

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