Brutally Soft Lore #01
A lot is going on with my most recent (and first post back!) of Brutally Soft. It really is meant to be up to interruption, but I wanted to share what I was thinking symbolically with Wednesday's dream (for anyone interested in that kind of thing).
To start, I redid this post four times, trying to figure out the best way to tell the story. Although pretty cliche, I think this dream sequence was a good look into Wednesday's psyche.
If you're an anime fan, you'll see the obvious nod to Neon Genesis Evangelion. NGE is an allegory for loneliness and depression. Alongside the other religious imagery in this post, it was a fitting reference that encompasses Wednesday well.
Neither I nor Wednesday believe in a God. Rather I choose the ocean to represent a sort of godly entity. You could interrupt this as Wednesday praying to Mother Nature as a kind of God as well. Here is where you'll see the NGE inspiration. The crosses floating in the ocean are meant to, in this scene, imply that the ocean itself is representative of a God. I wanted it to look someone what ... punishing? Almost angry? Like her prayer will not be answered, or she feels like it isn't going to be. It's a hostile interaction.
In the picture of Wednesday crying, she's facing away from the sun and the reflection of the crosses is still behind her but now they are upside down. Almost like she is turning her back on God or has lost faith. You could also interpret this as Wednesday being somewhat "sinful" and that sinfulness even follows hers ie. it looming behind her. Although this post has nothing to do with faith (and Wednesday had none, to begin with), this really is just to show a loss of hope. I love how this came out and I hope people see this detail but if you didn't hopefully now you do!
Despite the sin references, I use the daylit scenes to represent good intentions. Here Wednesday is hanging her head before she breaks down, but I placed the sun here to represent a halo. She, although struggling with motherhood, is trying. She is a victim of hardship. The dark ocean scenes came to be more of how Wednesday views herself and her situation and the daylight scene represents more of how others see her. I didn't add Amelia to this post because it is about a mother and daughter, but you could imagine, in a way, she is the sun looking down on her brightly.
Oh, Drew. I always edit Drew with angel wings because I think she embodies pure good. She's a child, pure of heart. In Wednesday's life, she acts as an angel as well. But I won't get too much into that here. In a not-so-subtle way, I chose black wings. Not to say she's fallen but perhaps darkness could or has or will enveloped her. Alternatively, the all-black is a way to mourn Drew's childhood. In the last detail, Drew is looking at a raven (or maybe you saw a crow) a symbol for a bad omen, the one Wednesday is worried about bestowing onto Drew. This scene is during the day, in the same sky as at the beginning of the post. Although you could deduce that Wednesday is either cynical or broken, she has hope in the back of her mind (ie in the background) when she envisions her daughter.
The line "I pray that my daughter doesn't look like me, doesn't resemble me." I have always said that Wednesday not only doesn't, like her appearance but she'd hope Drew wouldn't look like her. If you've seen Drew, she looks a lot like Wednesday. The resemblance reminds Wednesday of herself as a child and she worries she'll also see Drew with the same pain.
I've always shown Wednesday to be stoic (almost to fault and a symptom of bad writing). That anger masks a lot of sadness, I believe anger is a symptom of deep sadness. This is Wednesday's mind, where it is not necessary to mask her emotions, there is no reason she should feel the shame of crying. In this space, she feels free to just let out how she feels, and that is by sobbing. I feel like this could make people sympathetic or view her as weak. Who knows! My goal isn't to make the reader sad (I want them to just feel how they feel) but to show Wednesday more honestly.
The line she says is derivative of a quote by Franz Kafka.
The text in yellow! As I am sure anyone could guess it is a song. It is Tell Me by Corbin. If you can take some somber music, Corbin is incredible. My favorite artist. The lyrics and who is saying them or who they are about are really up to the reader. It could read that it was a voice speaking to Wednesday, a more sympathetic voice than her own. I think you could think of Wednesday saying it to Drew. Even a voice like Amelia's or an omnipotent voice saying it to them both. It was very fitting and I wanted it to include it to provide an alternative perspective to the reader.
I spent a lot of time on this post and I am very proud of it. IDK if this new style of storytelling is going to translate to people. Hopefully, it does to someone! This is only the first post so I won't expect too much. I hope to one day get to a point where I can hear other people's interactions and theories on the story and characters. Till then! I'll be sharing mine here. Thank you for taking the to read this post.