gerard and elody have such an interesting dynamic, ‘cause elody is someone who had to grow up too quick, and gerard is someone who never had the chance to grow up in the first place
A thought about Gerard’s scene in Episode 18, which is: Elody watches the conversation between Gerard and Rapunzel.
——————
Princess Elody is a tactical motherfucker, so even when these cool young women approach her and say all the right things, things that make sense, she doesn’t fully buy in. Not at face value.
When they talk about princes, it’s somehow both completely flippant and with caustic derision — like these young men were props meant to move the plot along, sole owners of agency in stories that weren’t even titled after them. (Elody wonders about their treatment of the princes as the fairies’ deux es machina, wonders about how easy it is to “kill a lot of princes” as Snow White explains. And by their own logic, how likely is it, really, that the princes are cardboard cutouts if Cinderella is so sure her stepmother, not even royalty, has her own book?)
There’s evidence to the contrary of this in her story specifically, which she has no trouble recounting. There’s no way her prince was meant to pacify her into an idyllic life, because he’s a layabout! He’s unreliable! And sure, he’s charming and fun, yes, he tried to pull her away from the war table, but that wasn’t because of any scheming to get her to stay in line, it was just because he wanted attention. He’s frivolous, he’s not a monster, she says. She’s so passionate in her defense of Gerard’s personhood that she almost misses the shared look of the princesses, the glint in Rapunzel’s eye.
Let us show you, Rapunzel says, what a monster looks like.
The scrying ritual is completed quickly and without fuss. Rapunzel stares into a mirror that ripples like water, and then, on the other side, there he is. More froglike than he’s ever been.
“You’re a prince, friends are probably pretty expendable, right? How many friends have you really had, other than Elody?”
Now hold on, Elody wants to say, that’s goading him. That’s not fair. Cinderella puts a firm hand on her shoulder and shakes her head no, to stay quiet, to wait it out. Elody bites her tongue and waits for Gerard to prove one of them right.
“Your friends seem to really value you as a person. I’m sure it’s a comfort to know that they’re not just sort of putting up with you because you’ll tag along and swing your sword, prove a little bit useful.”
Gerard has snowball fights with his friends. He has friends? He has a dedicated workout buddy? She’s not sure he’s ever been dedicated to anything, except for gossip... or her. Now that she thinks about it, he has always been unquestionably devoted to her, hasn’t he?
“I have seen some titanic feats of strength from my companions the Beast, Cinderella, Snow White. Truly impressive acts of heroism.
I do not think I have seen any of my sisters strain more greatly than the Princess Elody to find something kind to say about you.”
Elody does open her mouth to speak this time, which turns out to be a huge mistake when a writhing mass of knotted hair wraps around the lower half of her face. Not to constrict, only to silence. A pit forms in her stomach at the thought that Rapunzel might not be lying, that in trying to defend Gerard she only condemned the worst of him.
“Yes... I don’t... I don’t doubt that.”
Her heart breaks for the second time.
“But I haven't seen the Princess Elody in a while, and I think it's telling that I'm seeing you in this lake and not her or any of the other princesses. I think you’re... manipulating people, or not telling them the full truth.”
Her eyes dart to the other princesses. Snow White’s expression remains unchanged, though Cinderella’s darkens slightly. When Rapunzel speaks again, it does not escape Elody’s notice that she doesn’t acknowledge what Gerard pointed out; she deflects. Elody is getting angrier, now, tugging at the hair around her jaw, hardly even hearing the next bit until a third voice speaks up, says the Princess Elody cares for you deeply.
“Not quite the same thing.”
“It's not, but seeing as the last thing she saw of me was me running away after I had already done that, I’m grateful that she still cares for me at all.”
The hair gathering around her tenses. Elody was brought here to see that, when Gerard thought nobody else could hear, he would prove himself to be just an agent of the fairies, or an empty vessel, or a selfish monster. What she’s seeing is none of those things. But she’s also not seeing the man she knew as her husband: he’s grown and changed, almost become someone else entirely. She wants to call out to Gerard. She wants to get to know him all over again.
“Gerard,” Rapunzel hisses, “what do you think the odds are that it got into Elody's head that the virtuous thing to do was to fall in love with a cold and slimy frog, and that every kindness she has paid you in your life has been a testament to her charity, rather than anything about you that would bring her joy?”
Elody freezes.
“I don't know that I can answer that.”
“It doesn’t seem very fair to Elody that you can’t.”
“... I agree.”
The image in the mirror of the man who will never be a man again ripples and vanishes. Elody’s hands have fallen away from the hair around her face, which is convenient, as she finds herself suddenly holding a book. The hair recedes, and she doesn’t register what it is Rapunzel is saying to try and placate her, because the book in her hands is a slim volume, bound in her favorite shade of green and embossed in golden ink.
Depending on how the rest of this season goes (and possibly no matter how it ends), I'm thinking about writing a fanfic on events of Neverafter from the POV of Elody. I don't get a lot of fanfic ideas, but this one has been tugging at my imagination since we got to meet present Elody in the reunion with Gerard.
I dunno. At the very least, I'm not going to start it till the finale. Whenever that happens though, it'll be on Ao3 (my username on that is the same as on here, as well as a link in my pinned post).
the songs i have on my elody playlist and the lyrics in said songs that remind me of her
this ended up being a very long post so press read more to see the full thing
Alone And Sublime - Mother Mother
Aren't I supposed to wanna fight for love? / And life? / Everything that people say is right? / Am I so wrong to cry only when there's something in my eye? / Am I to die alone and sublime?
I threw a pebble in a stream / And let it go about as easily as love that might prosper / All the things they sing about in gospels. / Am I so awful, to stumble only when I'm walking with another? / Is it a blunder to die alone and sublime?
[aroace elody for the win]
Coming Back to Me - Leith Ross
Last week, I wondered if dying would feel like the stories the Catholic Church told / But I used to talk to my mother about how I just couldn't wait to get old
[also just the general feeling of realising that instead of viewing the world with the child-like wonder that you had as a kid, you now view the world with a sour cynicism]
doomsday - Lizzy Mcalpine
Pull the plug, make it painless / I don't want a violent end / Don't say that you'll always love me / 'Cause you know I'd bleed myself dry for you over and over again
I don't get a choice in the matter / Why would I? It's only the death of me
Eight - Sleeping at Last
I was just a kid who grew up strong enough / To pick this armor up / And suddenly it fit
I was little, I was weak and perfectly naive / And I grew up too quick
When I see fragile things, helpless things, broken things / I see the familiar / I was little, I was weak, I was perfect, too / Now I'm a broken mirror
I'm standing guard, I'm falling apart / And all I want is to trust you / Show me how to lay my sword down / For long enough to let you through
I'm just a kid who grew up scared enough / To hold the door shut / And bury my innocence
I'ma shake the ground with all my might / And I will pull my whole heart up to the surface / For the innocent, for the vulnerable / And I'll show up on the front lines with a purpose / And I'll give all I have, I'll give my blood, give my sweat / An ocean of tears will spill for what is broken / I'm shattered porcelain, glued back together again / Invincible like I've never been
Hate Yourself - TV Girl
I'd think you'd fall in love with anyone / Who fell in love with you
So take comfort / Cruel comfort / Before you start to wonder / How you got locked inside your room
Do you let them down, gently? / Does it only make it harder? / To let the feeling linger / To drag it out a little longer / Does it put your mind at ease? / But you're the one who brought 'em here / You're the one who has to take them when you leave / And how long will it… / Take? / Before you start to hate yourself
I Guess - Mitski
It's been you and me / Since before I was me / Without you, I don't yet know / Quite how to live
It's still as a pond / I am staring into / From here, I can say / Thank you / From here, I can tell you / Thank you
Inkpot Gods - The Amazing Devil
And what you see is not the dark / It's just the gods upturning ink pots 'cause they know what you'll become
And to those gods, I will speak bluntly / "We've an accord, if you ever touch or harm him / Please, rest assured that you might not fear a man / But to a woman, by the end, you'll kneel and plea / 'Cause I'm more than what my mum told me to be"
And I can hear him break / And he doesn't understand / And I wish that I could take his hand / But where I'm going is for me and me alone
If I don't make it back from where I've gone / Just know I loved you all along
Me and My Husband - Mitski
But me and my husband / We're doing better / It's always been just him and me / Together / So I bet all I have on that / Furrowed brow / And at least in this lifetime / We're sticking together / Me and my husband / We're sticking together
Savior Complex - Phoebe Bridgers
I drag you to the shore / Sweating through the heat / You're gonna drown in your sleep / For sure / Wake up and start a big fire / In our one room apartment / But I'm too tired / To have a pissing contest
I'm a bad liar / With a savior complex
[i really just hc that elody has a big saviour complex]
Screams and Dreams - Faye
And I guess this is the way it ends / And there's no point in staying friends / And I remember when you told me that you loved me / Little did I know and little did I say / You were over your head and I hadn't yet said / What's true in our heart
So I wish upon a star / And I promise I'll go far / And I close my eyes at once / And I hear a thousand songs
[mostly just added the "wish upon a star" part because it makes me think of fairy tales, and elody is, in fact, a fairy tale herself]
Show You a Body - Haley Heynderickx
I am letting you go / I am letting you go / I am letting you go awry
It was more a mirage / In sickness and health
[all the other lyrics fit elody in a more vibe-y way than a literal way]
Slow Down - Laufey
I wish it would slow down / Even for a second / I'm so old now / Left my adolescence
Think I found somebody / But don't think that it's love
The Night We Met - Lord Huron
I had all and then most of you / Some and now none of you / Take me back to the night we met / I don't know what I'm supposed to do / Haunted by the ghost of you / Oh, take me back to the night we met
Two Slow Dancers - Mitski
It's funny how they're all the same / It's funny how you always remember / And we've both done it all a hundred times before / It's funny how I still forgot / It would be a hundred times easier / If we were young again
When - Dodie
I think I've been telling lies / 'Cause I've never been in love
Sure, I'll live in the moment / But I'm never happy here
Memories painted with much brighter ink / They tell me I loved, teach me how to think
I'm waiting to live, and waiting to love / Oh, it'll be over, and I'll still be asking when
[aroace elody for the win pt2]
and here's the playlist itself!! (art by polarsirens)
