25. Kiwi girl. Reblogging the things I like. In love with anything Ahsoka Tano, Star Wars, Daisy Johnson, Agents of SHIELD, Castle, B99, HTTYD, Wonder Woman, Kelly Clarkson, Little Mix. I'm Krystalslazz over on Fanfiction. I write stories for H2O.
at the end of this year i just wanna give one last shout out to jennifer english and ben starr and the delightful and wholesome shenanigans they got into throughout 2025 in the name of 'promoting a video game' or whatnot
I’ve been listening to the Horizon soundtrack again and man, the two different versions of In the Flood kill me. Specifically, having the main version be Aloy’s anxieties about not living up to Elizabet’s example and expectations, but Lovisa’s version be Beta’s view of Aloy and feeling she isn’t living up to Aloy’s example and expectations, is so fucking compelling. It says so much about them as people, and it also is really the first time we get a direct viewpoint of Aloy from a different first person POV, and how much she is to Beta as Elizabet is to her.
So I’m gonna talk about their songs.
Aloy's version of the song is straightforward.
"Am I the one to hold // this crown of ash and salt? // Their kindness calls to me. I have to block it out." All through Zero Dawn, she was seeking belonging and identity, but she can't afford to seek kindness now. She is the heir to Elizabet's legacy, the legacy that is falling apart in her hands. She has to ignore it, she has to be more than human.
"My voice has grown so somber // these words don't seem like mine // but the iron won't subside // no matter what I try." Aloy feels she is losing herself - there is nothing but the mission. She feels like she is getting nowhere and it is shredding her psyche.
"Am I raindrops in the flood? [...]If I falter, if I fall // the wave inside my soul // carries all I know // Who can take my hand in the flood?" She can't tell if she's making any difference, but the world is on her shoulders. She can't see how anyone can help her. She is on her own - and if she fails, everyone on Earth dies. The pressure is crushing her, but she has to stand strong anyway.
"A voice calls me forth // through darkness unknown // my heart with silence burns through solemnness and bone // the edge beyond the shore // this weight of wood and rot // I long to reach the other // to find the path we lost." I think it's significant that the only voice Aloy is hearing at this point in the game (the opening credits) is her own voice - the same voice as Elizabet's. She is letting herself be subsumed into the identity of Elizabet, and it is crushing her ability to see anything in the world but the death and darkness.
The refrain repeats here, except that the lyrics change from "If I falter, if I fall" to "If I'm broken, if I'm torn-" Aloy is faltering, she can't carry this alone, she’s tearing herself apart, but she can't afford to break. She is desperate for someone to take her hand, but can't imagine who could possibly bear the burden that feels like hers alone.
All very straightforward - terrible, anxious, crushing, but straightforward. She is worried about her mission, and she has the weight of the world on her shoulders. She is barely thinking of herself as an individual anymore. This song is a desperate cry for help, from someone who doesn't believe help is coming for her. She feels like she is alone, and always has been.
But Beta. Beta has a very different, much more complicated theme to her version of the song.
"My hands are full of flowers // my ears are full of songs." Right off the bat, we get such a loaded, complicated line. For the first time in her life, Beta is seeing life. The base is as sterile as the Odyssey was, but Zo has filled it with plants and music, specifically for the reason that the sterility felt unnatural to her. Beta flees these things into the barren server room, but they are still there, all around where she’s hidden herself. At the same time, I think this line foreshadows Varl's death - the flowers and songs of a gravesinger, the loss of the first person to treat her like a human being and not a machine.
"My heart has had enough // I'd rather just be wrong. I listen when you talk // your words all make sense // but underneath it all // I hear where we are going with this." Where Aloy's version is just crying out into the silence, Beta's is addressing someone specific, someone capable of speaking to her. This feels so clearly about Aloy's frustrations with her - how many times did Aloy come try to cajole her into being brave, like Aloy? She's tired of it. She's used to being told she's stupid and wrong anyway. She'd rather Aloy just be mad, because;
"I am raindrops in the flood // I am emptiness." Beta does not feel significant. She is certain she's as useless as raindrops in a flood; there is no question as in Aloy's version. She is a tool. She has always been a tool. And yet...
"I am hope. I am lonely in a crowd // but when you hear me // you'll be near me// stay with me in the flood." Even though Beta still thinks of herself as helpless, Aloy inspires her to feel differently. She is so conflicted about it. She's emptiness, but she is hope, too - she is Elizabet's legacy, too. But more importantly, when Aloy is near her, hears her, then maybe...
"In dreams I never left // I had courage like the beast // My eyes they never fled // my arms would always reach." These are some of the clearest lines to illustrate this is Beta speaking, and not Aloy. She dreams of having courage, but implies that the idea of being able to keep her eyes high and forward is just a dream. She knows she is timid and scared, as a person. Her feelings of weakness continue here.
"You've hardened with your words // maybe fear is armor too // my voice is not that strong // when hurricanes come running from you." Aloy scares her. Aloy is so different from her - Beta's voice is weak and trembling, Aloy's so fierce even hurricanes flee her - but something about that inspires Beta, too. Beta feels stronger by exposure to Aloy, even though Aloy kind of scares her. And she looks up to Aloy, despite her fear;
“The little child inside // is jealous of your strength // The way you hold your head // When everything's aflame-" This is another clue this is Beta speaking - Aloy does not speak of Elizabet in the present tense. She is always asking what Elizabet would have done. Beta is seeing what Aloy does do, right now - she holds her head up even in the most dire of circumstances. Beta cannot see Aloy's fear and desperation, that Aloy only expresses within her own head in her own version of this song.
"Your back is straight as you walk away // Straighter than an oak in a storm // Only I remain // Should I have bent, been reshaped in your image? // Is that what you want?" Beta can only see how Aloy is different from her - strong, fierce, aggressive, yelling at her to be stronger. To be more courageous. To be more like Aloy thinks she should be - Aloy pushing her own feelings of trying and failing to be like Elizabet onto Beta. But Beta can't see that Aloy is angry at herself; she can only see the ways she's inadequate, the ways Aloy gets frustrated and walks away from her. Of course she wonders if Aloy just wants Beta to be another her.
And yet, the refrain repeats here, three times as opposed to Aloy's two. No matter how much she feels Aloy doesn't want her the way she is...she is inspired anyway. She wants Aloy to hear her, stay by her. Because when Aloy is there...maybe Beta can stand up through the flood.
Beta is the one who can take Aloy’s hand. Aloy does not have to be alone - and as much as she is falling apart inside from the pressure, none of that is obvious to Beta. Beta can only see her as the same inspiring figure Aloy imagines Elizabet to be - but unlike Elizabet, Aloy is here, real and alive, someone who can actually have feelings about Beta, be proud of and love Beta. Aloy is to Beta what Aloy has always needed from Elizabet - and Beta helps Aloy realize that what matters is not what Elizabet would have thought of her, but what Rost did think of her. Beta looks at Aloy and sees the person Rost made her, and is inspired by her. She can live in the here and now, and they can stay with each other, and endure the flood together.
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