An overview of the metaphors in Ivan's songs that allude to Till (or his feelings for Till), cause I wanted to have a comprehensive & updated list of ways he thinks about him, the way they are styled and the keywords that are used.
So, a little bit of visual metaphors and a LOT of lyric analysis incoming!
Firstly, I should start from the most well-known and the only one that's a VISUAL metaphor (afterwards, I'll be focusing on text): falling stars.
It'll help with the written parts a lot and it's good to get into context, so!!
At first, a night sky with falling stars is shown to be a sight Ivan is entranced by (moved to tears, even), a bit of beauty in the midst of his awful early childhood.
Eventually, though, they become associated with something else:
The many shots of falling stars alternated with Till facing the segyein "dog", an unreasonable but brave struggle, show that Ivan saw that same entrancing beauty in Till and began equating HIM to stars.
The way that, as he watches Till, stars appear on his eyes while his pupils dilate further establishes that connection.
The next sample appears on this flashback, during their escape attempt:
Ivan's eyes aren't shining brightly under the star shower, but only when Till proves to be unable to leave everyone at Anakt behind and backtracks their escape.
At such a moment, as he watches him go, Ivan appears to be bittersweetly appreciating the strange beauty in Till's nature again.
Do note that the visual cue at this point has evolved from detailed stars, to a bright white glow overtaking Ivan's pupils, but the meaning remains the same.
The same glow is displayed on-stage. The stage itself features a star shower, but Ivan's eyes don't consistently shine from it; they only shine when he's actively reviewing that memory with Till (and looking emotionally affected by it), and lose the glow when he's recomposed himself.
In other words!! Stars or a centered glow in Ivan's eyes = actively thinking of Till, the traits about him that Ivan is entranced by and the feelings he evokes. It is a visual metaphor and also a signal of strong unchecked emotions.
A handy comparison to show it properly:
With that good old visual covered, I can move on to text/lyrics!! My actual point for this post LMAOOOO.
A disclaimer: I said "Ivan songs" and not "songs by Ivan" intentionally. It's not quite relevant how each song was written in-universe; Black Sorrow, CURE and Nowhere are still songs through which Ivan's character is represented to us viewers. They are assigned to him and convey his POV. So, "Ivan songs".
Now, when it comes to lyrics, in Black Sorrow itself Till isn't alluded to as "star" or "sky" in text, but rather skipping right to "light"/"shining" (what the visual metaphor evolved to).
Here's an overall view of the lyrics with that first Till metaphor in green! 'Cause I find that color-coding different things I'm studying helps.
As for what's in red, these metaphors allude more to Ivan's feelings about Till, than Till himself. His "black sorrow" being the overall circumstance of loving hopelessly and "dark sea" an alternative description, which seems to describe the pressure of his feelings increasing whenever Till is close.
I've bolded "where your eyes reach" for later, hehe, as it is an incomplete reference in Black Sorrow alone.
Aaaand I've grayed out the mentions of "story" because they're common in Ivan songs (it's a character thing, very in line with his rationality, to see his own life in such a way and repeat this keyword), however, it's ambiguous whether he refers more to his story with Till or his life overall, and in this song I lean towards it being more personal than relationship-oriented.
To present it another way:
Looking at what the lyrics of CURE have next.
Here, instead of sticking to light/shining there's a literal appearance of "falling stars". Being consistent with Black Sorrow, this would again hold the meaning of the feelings Ivan holds for Till (though it is interesting that Till is the first to sing it; a lot could be said about the distribution of lines, but I'm sticking to my Ivan POV right now).
The keyword of "a story" is not ambiguous at all here, but turned into "our story". Again, it's a very Ivan thing, but the meaning is definitely shared this time.
Nowww Black Sorrow's "where your eyes reach" and CURE's "in your gaze, where I'm seen" tie in nicely to the repeated visual of Ivan looking at Till & Till not looking back that's been going around in the videos + side material, but by… pretty much denying that its an absolute.
While a common assumption in fandom is that Till simply never "looks back" at Ivan, these mentions in the lyrics make emphasis on the times (maybe scarce, maybe brief, maybe not) when Till DOES see him. And the weight these times seem to hold in Ivan's perspective.
Nowhere is much more about Ivan and his view of himself overall, but it does of course contain a few allusions to his feelings for Till, which are an important part of his life anyways.
Going ahead with a little bit more color-coding~
The "in love with you" intro is literal, not metaphorical, so nothing to add to that LOL. But hey, it's there and we know who he thinks about when it comes to love, so.
It's noteworthy that this audio plays in the background of the whole song, steadily, always present.
Anyway, other metaphors: first, the "my sky". It's debatable whether this is a valid Till metaphor, as Ivan thinks of Till more specifically as a night sky full of stars or the stars themselves, so it's not clear if it's just "sky". I'll leave that up to anyone's interpretation.
A stained history (or specifically, stained with blood) is, again, more of a personal Ivan metaphor for his life and unavoidable death, ambiguously tied to Till on occasions, non-ambiguous just in CURE.
"Nowhere, dyed in black" brings back the metaphors of Black Sorrow, wherein things going black or dark alludes to the weight of his feelings of love. Nowhere makes emphasis on Ivan's view of himself as stained and twisted, so this meaning is pretty consistent.
hat's it for the content of the 3 Ivan songs so far!
So here's a metaphor summary!!
Stars, falling stars, light, shining (& sky?) (visually: stars or a bright glow in the pupils) = Till, from Ivan's POV
Black sorrow, dark sea, going dark or black = Ivan's love in itself
A story, history, stained story, stained with blood = Ivan's view on his own life and destiny, ambiguously related to his relationship to Till
(Our story = definitely related to Till)
Where your eyes reach, in your gaze where I'm seen = Till looking at Ivan, another shared theme
While for example mizisua use a flower metaphor, comparisons to God and the keyword hope, ivantill use a star metaphor and very different keywords come up, such as light & dark. All pairs involve different themes, after all. It's interesting to look at and keep in mind, for me.
I think not a lot of credit is given to the lyrics in ALNST and how subtle but consistent they are with some things! It's nice.
A lot more that could be discussed about them, but this is all I wanted to go through for now.
(Can you tell I had fun color-coding stuff tho?? lmao)
wondering if paratise and nowhere are canonically published disks after his death within the alienstage universe... <- fuackkkkkkk till better get the fuck up outta mizi's arms and listen to them
nightmare nightmare nightmare guilt ridden and regret filled attack onto till 5 million times
imagine listening to a dead guy's music who you're responsible for the death of and you know the songs are about you <- technically nowhere is more about ivan's illness of being alley boy and his connection troubles/autism but still nowhere literally starts with the lyric "in love with you, when you were mine" and plays in the background of the song for almost the whole time
i hope till just alive to listen to ivan's death disks and then kills himself out of grief and guilt and torture and loneliness
lock in till you gotta lock in!!!
heart and nowhere up there as the most soul crushing alien stage songs imo. like damn. def top 5 at least like holy shit ivansua doomed siblings to hell and BACK
