hellooo i love ur re analysis posts theyre very cool! i dunno what your stance is on random asks but i figured why not.
why does the epilogue of re8 have such heavy moon symbolism attached to rosemary? with the mother-daughter reading a storybook about a boy wanting to reach the moon and the "moon girl" design on rose's shoe.
i mean i have some surface inklings like the moon's association with werewolves and witches and such.
Hey, look around ‒ I answer lots of random asks! There's a whole tag for it.
Gotta say though, you do need to raise your standards on what qualifies as "heavy symbolism" or even "deliberate symbolism." All we've got is a crescent moon on a brand label on the inside of Rose's shoe, visible for a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, plus a mother reading a storybook about a boy trying to touch the moon. The same noun appearing twice in passing does not equal symbolism. The moon isn't even visible in the sky, which is like, lunar symbolism 101. But for the sake of the argument, let's look at what both moments are actually doing in the scene.
The boy in the story wants to touch the moon because that's the kind of whimsical thing that happens in stories for kids. Rose is going to visit her father's grave, with the storybook that foretold his death sitting on her lap ‒ she's just finished reading it as the scene begins. And here, right across from her on the bus, is a parent reading to a little girl from a storybook that is full of meaningless nonsense, that foretells nothing of importance, and is exactly the kind of innocent little family moment Rose never got to have with her dad. She watches them with a wistful smile. If the moon in the story did mean anything, the scene becomes less poignant.
The crescent moon design on Rose's shoe is a detail that apparently meant enough to the RE team that it appears in the concept art, but there, what they focus on is the colour, saying they included green to give the impression of Eveline's influence. If they wanted the audience to pick up on that, though, I'd have to say they failed miserably. I didn't even notice the logo until I saw it in the concept art, and if anyone had told me "There's a tiiiny bit of green on Rose's shoe, and a picture of a little girl ‒ that means Eveline!" I'd have rolled my eyes at them. Eveline is, yes, the only character in these games with green eyes, but they're not that shade of green, and I will bet good money most people who've played these games couldn't tell you what colour her eyes are at all. It's just not a memorable part of her. (In fairness here, it is very normal for creators to add elements to a design for reasons that sound meaningful to them, but which no-one else is ever going to pick up on, and it's still interesting to hear about them.)
But taking a step beyond the official answer, does the design symbolise anything? Mostly, it just adds to the rest of Rose's neutral, understated gender presentation. Rose is a girl with long, flowing blonde hair (feminine) who dresses in jeans, a plain cap, and her father's old, oversized jacket (not feminine). Her shoes have a girly little logo that appears to read "moon girl", with a picture of a little girl reaching out for a bird in front of a crescent moon (and if you're really determined for the moon to mean something, it's right there in "moon girl" ‒ the moon is widely associated with femininity). The logo evokes all kinds of girly marketing kitsch (generic off-brand Sailor Moon merch, anyone?) but it's still hidden on the inside of a pair of off-white converse-style sneakers ‒ more feminine and not-so-feminine in one place.
You could call Rose's outfit boyish if you really wanted, but to me, it reads mostly as chosen for comfort and practicality. The jacket honours the father whose absence has left a gaping void in her life. The shoes match nothing else in the outfit ‒ she most likely chose them because they're comfortable and neutral enough that they don't obviously clash. She's lonely, has trouble making friends, and has no-one to dress up for. Her world is full of monsters who want her dead and peers who don't like her. Maybe her hair's only that long because she doesn't feel invested enough to get it cut. The hair and shoes make pretty clear she's not trying to make any statement out of not being girly. Why put more effort into her presentation than that?
Basically, there's a cohesive character portrait in how Rose dresses, and the moon is really the least of it. Ironically, the moon probably takes away from what the creators' apparently intend to symbolise with that element. And there's plenty going on with that story on the bus too, and the moon is even less of that. Sometimes the moon is just a moon.
The Chaincaw prospers
Ever think about how Eveline is literally Mother Miranda and Mia's child? Ever wonder the business relationship edging on the border of being more? I do, a lot
Canon Divergent; Eveline and Ethan survive but cannot leave the home in Louisiana. Eveline cannot remember the events that took place before she was somewhat cured of her affliction and rapid aging.
Eveline felt the sun scorching the top of her head as she stood on the dock outside of their Louisiana swamp home. Something rotten sat in the pit of stomach, churning like the washing machine inside the house. Forever, it had just been her and Dad in the overly large house.
It’s all she knew and all she could know, but lately, images that she couldn’t explain filled her mind.
Images of a non-existent mother, father, brother, and two sisters. She saw mold in the recesses of her mind when she slept, and it crawled over her skin, soaking into her like she were a sponge. Even as she stood in broad daylight, Eveline felt the darkness creeping in.
