#thinking about how that scene mirrors the red-and-yellow colouring at the boat party

[langernameohnebedeutung]

#thinking about how that scene mirrors the red-and-yellow colouring at the boat party #izombie #liv moore #blaine debeers #literally her hesitation there is so sexy. It really feels like she had a long dark moment of 'if Major is really dead - what's the point?' #I don't think she would ever do it because there are so many other people she cares about. But it is still extremely happy place for me. #plus I really don't think that this was the reason why Liv didn't go for the lethal shot immediately. #I don't think she was in that state of mind to be calculating (she didn't even consider this issue when she was much clerarer) #so I don't think she thought of this issue just after the fake hostage exchange that Blaine set up #I think the reason why she shot him in the side and hesitated is bc she still had hope that Major was alive #(after all she states that he killed Lowell. For Major she -asks-. So i think she stll had hopes of him being alive and finding him)

[langernameohnebedeutung]

thinking about how the izombie pilot episode used a pale blue colour scheme (very clean, very cool, very understated, very sterile and calm even though it's a stressful situation) for its opening:

only in the corners/the periphery, there are some other colours that are really standing out, most notably red and yellow:

but then, the red and yellow become more prominent:

(remember how I once made a joke that those red splatter patterns on the windows give awful children's hospital colour theory vibe? like...what a specific choice)

anyway, as we've gotten darker and more yellow and red, note how the composition of the screen is also much busier and less pristine that in the previous shots - even though nothing is happening here and it's pretty peaceful. On the other hand, it is still very systematic and contained with these many kinds of rectengular shapes and very consistent shots.

That gets us to the boat party. Which is a clashing mess of red and yellow (the fire, the clothes, the cups, the pool toys - which is definitely a choice bc you'd expect the Max Rager theme to be more prominent) and a lot of altering shots with a lot of movement and colours being far less contained:

now, I'm going to forward a little to the second flashback bc it becomes even more prominent there. Just remember we go from this setting:

which has its whole own colour scheme which kind of picks up the cooler, calmer colour scheme of the hospital with some of the darkness of the previous scene + some murky greenish tinge that really gives 'morgue death decay'.

Then, another boat party flashback following the same patterns as mentioned earlier:

(you might actually notice that towards the end of it, yellow is even overtaking red with its presence. I actually think it is very interesting because yellow often symbolises life, joy, vitality - but I feel like here, it really cuts closer to death and destruction. Yellow also often makes an appearance when it comes to disease, infection, putrid, sulphur, haz-maz suits etc. So yellow here definitely leans into a death and disease symbolism and I remember I already once made a post how deeply these things are associated with Blaine - who is widely regarded to be the zombie Patient Zero, considering that he was already high on Utopium when he arrived and started drinking Max Rager - it really is fitting that he's literally wearing bright yellow here. He's kind of the most prominent source of yellow.)

Then, cut to black. Followed by this:

In the next scene, which has a really strong birth-symbolism, we see the world from Liv's perspective, after she just drowned and wakes up in a body bag and it's really ALL yellow:

until she rips open the body-bag and we see clean, calm blue again on the other side:

and then you have the beach scene, where you first see the world from Liv's perspective (ripping opening a yellow body bag to reveal blue sky).

Liv is still in red in front of the blue backdrop (and spitting up fluid, did I mention birth symbolism. She now carries the 'red' into the normal, calm and orderly world)

Cut to the emergency worker in the same light blue (at least his front) that Liv wore earlier, surrounded by emergency vehicles, stretchers, and bodies (laid out on yellow):

again, with red, yellow, and blue, with blue being in the background.

Something interesting I noticed while speeding through the episode is that we rediscover this theme mostly in the tint of the screen colour and some outfit choices: Liv always likes to wear a bit of red (something she clearly liked before, but now it kind of mirrors the red-yellow scheme:)

you also have this kind of slight yellow-ish tint in the scene with her friends and family trying to stage an intervention, with Liv knowing it is hopeless:

the scenes where she's with Ravi in the morgue or working with Clive however are much cooler, even if still dark:

Now, after Peyton gives Liv a big Talk To about how she's losing herself, we get this scene:

Now, in this scene, Liv is returning all the items she stole bc she was under the influence of cleptomaniac brain but couldn't really be bothered to fight back, because she was too depressed (among them a red eyeball, a red-framed photograph and a red snowglobe)

But also notice how in this scene, the blue and the red is combined: Both in her outfit as well as in the lighting in the second one - the red that was previous associated with blood/suffering/her new zombiefication and the blue that was associated with healing/order/her previous human life.

At the same time, red also often stands for heart-blood and passion. Now, Liv in her previous life was definitely driven and ambitious (this post was actually supposed to be about the theme of amibition on iZombie) but...mostly she was ambitious for the sake of it and mostly, by going through the motions. This is addressed in a lot of later episode and also plays a big role in relationship with her mother and her brother: Liv was a desperate people-pleaser and obsessed with being perfect, being systematic, getting the best grades. She was the golden child of her mother, who is usually held up over her brother (who still is very good at stuff, just more laid back)

We never really see her as particularly invested or passionate in medicine as a field - in fact, the show resolves without ever having her return to work in a hospital or this being a major issue. (Compare that to Major's passion for social-working) The real loss she felt was (other than losing her engagement to Major and disappointing her family) was that she was no longer helping people. But that is something she learnt in this episode she could reclaim and that she could do by using her new 'powers' in a constructive way. Combining her old life and her new life. The blue and the red.

Unfortunately tumblr doesn't allow me to post anymore pictures so I'll just verbalise it: Another important subplot of this episode is Liv's struggle to sleep. She cannot sleep and hasn't for five months. The scenes where she tries to sleep are usually kept in dark blue - with the red letters of her alarm clock showing us that she cannot sleep, counting down the minutes that she's lying awake. But in those scenes, red and blue weren't 'working together' so to speak - they were clashing. Because she can't pretend to be normal or okay. But at the same time.

Towards the end, she does manage to sleep - and towards the end, we also have a sleeping scene of her in almost perfect bright white with only a light blue tinge - the darkness is gone. Symbolising how she did get rest and calm, after she started accepting her new self.

(cut to another yellow scene, when she has a vision in her sleep of Blaine in his jacket chasing a guy in an alley with yellow-ish street lamps)

#in another adhd win: i actually wanted to make a post about something else entirely #izombie #fandom