everyone seems to kinda have like.. different interpretations of who sylvia is, like that she's either the green one on the album cover, or that she's the mystery woman from the exclusive artwork that comes with the burn pygmalion record, and that the green one on the album cover is just jeanine's anxieties personified...
i don't think there has been any official confirmation on who sylvia is yet (and if there has and i just haven't dug deep enough to find it, then this whole post would pretty much be pointless.. but i'm sure there's been no official confirmation, i woulda found it, i am sure..!! the only official confirmation we have of anything is that jeanine is indeed the pink one on the album cover, that is all we know.)
so, anyway, here is MY theory...
...THEY'RE BOTH SYLVIA, IN A WAY.
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i feel like green could be jeanine's mind interpretation of sylvia, if that makes sense? green feels more...ominous, and with the way jeanine describes sylvia as ("...complex and mysterious...") in admire the architecture, it could support that, but then at the same time, you never see mystery woman's face on the vinyl artwork, so it could also apply to that.. BUT IT COULD ALSO SUPPORT GREEN SYLVIA STILL..
maybe it's just me projecting onto jeanine, but i feel like when your anxieties really get to you, especially when it comes to whether or not someone really loves you and whether or not they really mean anything they say or do, it can make that person in your life feel more unknown and intimidating and scary than they really are, less trustworthy with all these things your mind is making up, it's especially worse when they aren't there right in front of you to reassure you (i know its happened to me lots)
sylvia is really just a normal girl, yeah she's a movie star, but really she's normal and i feel like jeanine sees sylvia as possibly more intimidating and like she doesn't really know her well because of her status, like sylvia is hiding things from her. this can be supported by the lyrics in starstruck.
so green being how jeanine sees sylvia can make sense, she doesn't see the "real" her, or at least it feels that way
maybe green having one eye only is how jeanine feels about sylvia, judged by her, probably because she might not feel good enough for her, because she's really only a journalist, after all, and not much else, and this could be supported by how green is on top of jeanine in the album cover and how its eye is wide open looking straight at her, jeanine with a tired expression seemingly accepting she'll always be below her... yet there's also the blush and i feel like this could also tie into green being sylvia!!! like!!! jeanine still loves her, it would make sense for the blush to be there if we interpret green as sylvia (not to mention the rainbow hearts spilling out jeanine's head.. also the embrace! like, green has its arms around jeanine like... i dunno..its sylvia embracing her..and if you wanna turn the eye thing into like something more positive i guess? you could say that she only has her eyes on jeanine and nothing else, jeanine being the most important thing to her in the end.
small dump of lyrics i feel can relate to that
also!! i feel like the album cover can also relate to what happens in crushed out on soda beach, specifically the nightmare dance verse
nightmares and dreams in general usually end up twisting things, right? making them more unrecognizable, green could be like a nightmarish version of sylvia, and well, if we resonate this verse with the cover art, jeanine does seem to be collapsed under green, and the hearts and blush could be that crush, y'know? and well the fire, crushed out on soda beach mentions burning and though it is literal in the sense jeanine did try burning sylvia's house down, it can also represent their relationship. burning in passion yet also burning down on itself.
anyway, main point, green is jeanine's messy mind nightmare mesh interpretation of sylvia, after sylvia goes away to film a movie and jeanine isn't able to see her for a while, all of jeanine's anxieties pile up and eat at her, twisting sylvia's intentions, demeanors... quite literally everything about her, and making her completely unrecognizable and different to who she really is. then that twisted version of sylvia fills jeanine's thoughts up and haunts her, making her anxieties and emotions even more loud and unstable, which could also support green being jeanine's general anxieties, too. and also i feel like in the vinyl art the mystery woman not ever like? getting her face properly shown is also relevant to this, like.. going back to jeanine not knowing the "real" sylvia. also adding this one specific verse from no leverage/no pleasure i feel can kinda relate to all that.
maybe the flowers green has could be like... jeanine trying to still see something good and nice in sylvia, again calling back to admire the architecture, jeanine tries to ground herself by thinking of what she likes about sylvia and why she loves her in the first place... so she doesn't grow hateful and spiteful of sylvia. (sadly it doesn't really work, but she tried, at least.)
also to add onto the thing about the flowers, in the vinyl art the flowers are daisies, i'm pretty sure (i am not very flower knowledgeable so who knows, it could totally be some other flower i've never heard of but, well... i'm going with what i've got!!)
i read that some of the meanings of daisies are purity/innocence, along with happiness, and i think it applies to my whole thing about the flowers being the good things about sylvia that jeanine is still trying to see through all the other stuff!! and going on with the nightmare stuff i said prior, this is all happening in jeanine's head so it can apply to that! and man, i could go into a whole other analysis when it comes to what is going on in the vinyl art but i'll leave that for another time, too >_>
also i feel this makes it pretty obvious to why mystery woman can be sylvia, her leaving (seemingly being when she left to go film that movie) and then being seen on a movie screen like. oh and also all the eyes, going back to what i said about jeanine possibly feeling judged by sylvia.
and the color green also is usually associated with positivity so that could also like relate to that?? but i dunno, i think i also read somewhere that green is considered a royal color, which could like relate to sylvia's status as a movie star.
also, something else that could kinda support green being sylvia also is how you could say green and mystery woman both kinda have a similar hair color... but maybe that's me looking into things too much, lol...
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anyway, that's kinda what i think.. very sorry for all this text, it could totally happen again.. and if you read this far thank you very much for reading!! hope you enjoyed this ramble and maybe your eyes have opened up to new possibilities too because of it..evil laugh…
its possible this argument will all fall apart once there is like actual confirmation to who sylvia is but you know!! i had fun writing this so it's whatever :oP
also sorry this was messy, i have a hard time organizing my thoughts a lot of the time like i tried to clean this up as best i could but like this is still all over the place lol
