i think clara bow is my favorite right now. god it's so good, its so smart and so beautifully produced. it SOUNDS fatalist, like it's the lyrics yes but how it's just her voice and a guitar at the beginning, how her start began. the violins coming in and the way it builds and builds it's sound like her career built over time and how she gets closer and closer to making it, bigger and bigger as a star. and then when she's at the top, she has it all, finally what she wanted, the instrumental falls away as it's quiet at the top, lonely but peaceful because she did it. she can rest now, right? well, then she says "thems the breaks they don't come gently" to transition as on the horizon she sees the new her, just starting out and shiny and new. her tower has already begun to crack and crumble. Finally, the song ends with the same instrumental that it started with, that guitar strums up again just as hers did once, as a new girl, the new her, begins her rise. the one who will take her place has already been born.
it's so poignant to hear her depict it this way, so matter of factly and without any pain or any vindictiveness. having broached this topic before many times before, she's feared it for so long. how her star will one day wane and it won't be her fault. It's just the way of things. but this is a glimpse into how she really feels about it now that its finally happening. what it feels like to see her destroyer in her infancy, knowing who she will grow to be. and what is she to do? smother the infant in it's sleep? another will come, and another and another. the song feels mournful but with resignation that she was once that person to usurp own heroes, and those who idolize her will tear her statue down one day to erect their own in it's place, and that's the way of things. should she prepare this girl, or warn this girl? should she tell her everything that is to come? the song really just takes more of a stance of remove like she'll learn, but she will learn when she faces it, and that's the only way to understand it. growing older and losing that sparkle and shine, which she was still chasing for a while but perhaps has realized there's no use. in all the iterations of this confrontation with her fate before, she's beat back against it, wallowed in deep sadness over it in Nothing New, how she white knuckle held onto it in YOYOK because she's different and special, and even how she quite naively assures her predecessor that she understands, or she thinks she does, but she will not give it away so easily, because not now, not yet, maybe the ones who came before her gave it up so easily but not her, she won't, not ever. but here, it's not a "they WILL say" or a "one day", she says "You look like Taylor Swift" presently, now. she's looking her destroyer in the face. or someone is saying it to her destroyer now. Her statement of it feels like a concession and maybe a recognition, finally, without the anger and without the desperation to hold on. a nod maybe from across the room. as if to say "yes, it's you, it'll be you, if you do it right. I know because you are like me, and I was like the one who came before who were like the one who came before, and on and on it went and on and on it will go. i would say congrats, but one day you'll understand why that isn't quite fitting and why i'm not putting up as much of a fight anymore. and i know now it's not mine to give, but it is yours to take." because maybe it's because she see's with a bit more clarity, finally, that her predecessors might not have left it all behind, bowed out, because they wanted to. perhaps they all felt like her, they were all just like her, never wanting to let go. while the first parts of the song feel like what's happening to her is so singular, what are the odds! perhaps she's never been that special in the grand scheme of things, each of them always like someone else that came before her and there will always be someone like them to come. they all only ever left it because they had to, the writing was on the wall, and they knew that the only choice they had was whether or not they'd bow out gracefully. Retain a piece of dignity and take their place among the stars to shine down on the next pretty, sparkly thing.
And i love it as a closing track because it while her romantic life may be in turmoil, while she may have lost herself completely as her life imploded, this is one thing she found surprising clarity about. this has been the way of things for a century plus. she can wave away all that frivolity and finally have a real conversation with herself about something real and true, something only time could tell her. admit to herself that the new sparkle, that dazzle, I'm not chasing it anymore, it's futile and i don't need it as much as i used to. and anyway my destroyer is already here. but when she finally arrives that fateful day to break down my door, i'll be sure to leave it unlocked for her.
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‘Elain didn’t apologize to feyre! Elain sucks! Elain is worse than nesta!’
All of y’all need to shut up right now- A court of Frost and Starlight, page 175-176 bottom right to top left- ““I asked Nuala to do it in that order,” Elain said as the others gathered round. “Because you’re the foundation, the one who lifts us. You always have been.””
If that ain’t a fucking apology I don’t know what is. (Except for the fact that she didn’t explicitly say sorry but I do believe she says that in another scene) Elain is not nesta. She does not and did not shove people away. Personally I think of all the sisters Elain is going to work the hardest to overcome her trauma and embrace it (obvi on the arm of a certain red haired beauty)
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From all of the romantic interests on Gilmore Girls, we have to be honest: Rachel was the healthiest character. She realized her mistake and tried to have another chance with Luke by doing the right thing. The moment she noticed that she didn’t have a chance with Luke because he was in love with Lorelai, she didn’t push, she chose to remove herself from the narrative. She didn’t just grab her things and left, she packed and waited for Luke, explained to him why she was leaving and gave him advice with Lorelai. Do you wanna know why her skin was glowing, her hair beautiful and her entire aura was magnifying? Because she was a healthy woman! She was confident, gentle, thoughtful and honestly the best romantic interest in the show. Rachel is one of those types of women that you should look up to, especially being in a relationship. And also, the only character that knew what communicating was.
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