Magicians way [part 1]
.・゜-: ✧ :-
It's not often that he finds himself in such position, but it does happen.
John Constantine never would have thought he'd scratch the "tied up by a cult to be used as sacrifice to summon a powerful ghost" spot on his bingo card.
He doesn't even feel threatened by the cult, hell, all he will receive from this day is pure embarrassment if the summoning circle is really the one he thinks it is.
Great, it's glowing.
Little bastard knows and is on his way here.
Shit.
"Oh all mighty King of Ghosts! We summon thee! Appear!"
If he has to listen to that badly scripted American movie summoning ritual one more word, he's gonna do some serious damage.
The circle lights up in sickly green, the ectoplasm flooding the insides of the portal as it opens.
And there he stands, the boyprince of the Infinity Realms.
"Hey, dad!" The being greets, swinging a swift fist against one of the cultist.
The rest are frozen and now that they're alone John sees the shit eating grin on the gremlins face.
"Danny." He greets back, watching as his kid swipes some invisible dust from his hat and putting it on back.
"Man, this is so embarrassing for you. Let me just—"
To make matters worse, Danny pulls out his bloody smartphone and takes a picture of him tied up.
"I'm sending this to mom." He's fiddling with the rope, smug smirk on him that John would love to flip off if his hands weren't bound.
"Useless..."
Ah, here comes the blackmail. A kids after his own heart.
The little shit.
Visual picture of Constantine being embarrassed. (Yes, he's tied up with a RED RIBBON for funnsies.)
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Goodbye, My Danish Sweetheart.
Hey I think the framing of this scene is really fucking cool and I wanna talk about it because I haven't seen anybody do that. yet so. yahooo!! let's get into it
BUT FIRST. Symbolism:
an empty chair can symbolise the absence or memory of someone dear who has passed away. This is very obviously meant to represent Hinako in this scenario
In my interpretation, this scene is Kazui saying goodbye to Hinako and apologising for the circumstances of her death.
The lyrics that play are:
"I’m sure nothing will change and we’ll laugh together and call each other stupid names, so many things I wish i hadn't known, I'm just a coward."
The first part of this verse sounds like he's wishfully thinking about what could've happened after he told her the truth - if anything a bit naively.
Kazui wanted (and still wants) to get the weight of his lies off his chest, but he wasn't ready to face the consequences of that confession, most likely making Hinako's death hit even harder.
Here, he bows to the chair before turning around leaving, a silent goodbye.
~
But what about what's going on in the background of this scene? Well!
As Kazui leaves, these two scenes flash in the background. On the table in the first shot is our good friend the green apple, and Background Kazui picks it up, analyses it, before biting it.
So let's go for another symbolism refresher!!
Green apples can sometimes represent platonic relationships, like friendship, but in Kazui's case this takes the form of a sin - as not loving Hinako romantically is what he's lying about - making it a reference to the Garden of Eden story.
Going from that, biting into an apple can represent feeding into temptation.
My interpretation of this scene is Pre-Marriage Kazui indulging in his 'sin', which in my opinion is the fact he's gay.
Let's go back to that lyric shall we:
"I’m sure nothing will change and we’ll laugh together and call each other stupid names, so many things I wish i hadn't known, I'm just a coward."
So many things you wish you hadn't known huh.. Not knowing you were gay would sure make lying to your wife a whole lot easier wouldn't it?
"What I gave up a long time ago, why is it questioning me now? So many things that I should now have known, I'm just a coward"
Woohoo evidence for Background Kazui being Pre-Marriage Kazui!!!
I think this scene is the last time Kazui let himself be free before marrying Hinako. This could possibly have been when he noticed she had a crush on him at their work.
He's indulging one last time. Embracing his sin instead of hiding it away one. last. time. before giving it up for good, almost like a. goodbye.
~
So. I think this scene is framed this way in order to show the parallel of Kazui giving up his sin, and Kazui mourning Hinako's death.
As established, they both have a "goodbye, I'm sorry things turned out this way" atmosphere to them. Kazui is apologetic, in a way, that he has to give up on being his true self and he is apologetic of his lies murdering Hinako, so Milgram conveys this by showing the two scenes posed the same way in front of one another.
This framing also gives the scene a Beginning Vs End feeling that I think is really cool, and the use of Dark Vs Light colours only heightens that! (Though that's slightly off topic rip)
Conclusion? I love this scene it's awesome and amazing and super cool
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What Bruce did to Jason is shitty and fucking terrible.
I CANT ever think of Bruce as anything other than shitty when he comes to Jason.
Jason is the way he is BECAUSE OF BRUCE and at every fucking turn. Bruce proves why Jason should fucking KILL his stupid ass.
How are you gonna poison your fucking son and give him anxiety ??? (Also..DC keeps nerfing Jason, like literally why bring him back if you're gonna keep torturing him?? It doesn't make for a good plot. It just makes Bruce a piece of shit and not even interesting. He's just annoying.)
Like literally Bruce is a terrible fucking father and everything I learn about that bitch is against my will.
Jason deserves to shoot him in his knees, idc. He has EVERY RIGHT to hate Bruce atp cuz all Bruce does is fuck him up and then lecture HIM that it's his fault and goes on this stupid rant about 'you can't kill villains cuz blahblah save yourself' shut the fuck up. Just cuz YOURE a baby and can't do what needs to be done doesn't mean other people can't.
(Dick killed Joker and yet YOU bought him back 🙄 )
Bruce is a loser and all his kids and Alfred need to beat his ASS.
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"You're Just Sitting On The Train" - Double MV Analysis
There's a conversation between the two main character's in a podcast I love called Red Valley which reminds me of the imagery in Double.
"You know when you're on a train, and it's held up, and you're just stuck in the middle of a field while they get the leaves off the line or whatever, and you're going to be hopelessly late, there might be awful consequences to get stressed about but... there's literally nothing you can do about it. It's not your fault. Hopefully you've got a book or something. You're just sitting on the train."
The conversation in context with the scene is about being able to put your problems and stresses, like being late for work, on someone else's shoulders. Let them take responsibility for what's going on so you can feel some relief. It got me thinking about Mikoto and Orekoto (who I'm just going to call John thanks to Neoplasm) and I want to talk about what I think the meaning of it is!!
Trains have many, many different meanings - like almost a ridiculous amount of different interpretations can be made - but I think the meanings that are the most important while talking about Mikoto are trains representing the passage of time, destiny and loneliness.
Loneliness:
While on a train, or waiting for one, you are surrounded by people. However as shown here, most keep their head down and don't speak unless spoken too. It gives a sense of loneliness, you are surrounded by people yet completely alone.
I think this could apply to Mikoto's situation and was possibly a stress factor for him. It is implied from his T1 interrogation questions that Mikoto was popular enough, knowing a lot of people either now or back in high school, but he doesn't seem to open up to any of them. He's alone in the big city with nobody to talk to. He lies to his mother that everything's okay in their phone call and bottles up his stress. Because of this he is dependant on John to function : "But if you persist, I guess it's my job to keep things on an even keel."
The Passage of Time:
This shot showcases how long the train actually is, it flies through each carriage insanely fast, blurring slightly from the speed alone.
It's been extremely clear since T1 that Mikoto suffers heavily from dissociative amnesia, something that is a very common symptom of DID, and I think the fact this shot blurs could be representing that.
Trains representing time and how humans view the passage of time is probably one of the most popular ways they appear, we tend to think of time as one thing that moves forward constantly in a straight line, similar to an uninterrupted train on a train track, but for Mikoto (and John) time is blurry, hazy. It may seem like things move too fast to keep track of (pun not intended) or individuals with DID can sometimes describe it as feeling like you're missing hours, fronting in a place or room you know you weren't in before and being unaware of the events that led up to you getting to this point.
This feeling of missing hours is relevant to this specific scene as after the camera moves through the train the first person we see is Mikoto - not John, who was in the doorway.
Destiny:
Trains are always headed to a specific location so they can also be associated with life's journey, or in other words, fate and destiny.
Both Mikoto and John are shown as the passengers on their train, not the conductor. They are not in control over life's events, just sitting on the train and this is extremely stressing - especially for Mikoto. John says things like : "another day with that hardly barely there of a smile // You're going to break // You're overdoing it, you're already broken". Mikoto seems to find it hard to deal with life's events, aka the train ride, and perhaps feels like the end destination is unattainable at times of stress.
This point is stressed further imo by the fact that we can't see outside. The windows of the train are either white or black for the majority of the MV, sometimes light or 1 image makes itself known but never a full image of what's actually outside.
Bonus: The Train's Maps!
The map's of the train are shown glitched out, also possibly hinting to the feeling of the train's final destination being unattainable, or could also be referencing hazy memories, but I think this specific detail is about John.
We see the maps glitching out when John sings the lyric : "I don't even know the reason why I'm here." [Future Mars I now know this was Mikoto singing but um.. my overall point still stands.] I think the maps glitching could represent the feeling of the loss of purpose.
John was 'born' in order to protect Mikoto, to help carry the burden of whatever is stressing him so much, yet instead of helping Mikoto he ended up being scared of him ("hey, now I saved you right? So why in the hell are you crying?") and it was John's actions that landed them in Milgram - an environment that Mikoto finds extremely stressing, to the point of there being a chance he goes dormant in T3.
Trains are created to arrive at a certain destination, so a train with no idea where it's going (glitchy maps) has lost its purpose.
Despite being an alter 'born' to protect, John has accidently caused Mikoto more harm when he tries, so he questions his role in the system.
Edit: Journey into the Subconscious
After staring at the MV a couple more times I think there's one more train theme I forgot to mention that fits here too, which is that trains can sometimes represent a journey into the mind.
I think there's a chance that the train could represent the system as a whole, or more specifically headspace. The only people on the train are John and Mikoto and the fact we never see what's outside gives a sort of surreal, dream like atmosphere, almost as if this was happening in an environment with no psychical appearance.
The lyrics sung in Double seem to be more directed at Mikoto than the actual audience, and from the last line "I'm so sorry" we can deduce that this song is something of an apology and explanation of John's actions that he wants Mikoto to hear.
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