"Now, let me take a good look at your face... you've grown into a beautiful woman! You remind me of Olvia. You're starting to look just like her. (...) You have her kind eyes."
SRAM’s S3 is easily one of my favorite S3 remakes, if not my favorite (tied with Druck’s third season). Their use of metaphors, visual imagery and in particular, using the Little Prince as somewhat of a common thread is one of my favorite choices a remake has ever made. Sure, the season had some parts that didn’t quite stick the landing (like the Filip plot line) but overall I could sense there was a lot of care put into telling Lovro’s story. Now that the season is over, as someone who went to uni for these kinds of things, I wanted to make a list of my favorite references/metaphors even if it’s just to visualize it for myself. I didn’t mention every single thing, but that’s because I could be here all day:')
(English is not my native language, so I hope I managed to make it clear enough lol)
The Little Prince
This is, by far, my favorite reference in the season and one that a remake has ever added. In The Little Prince, a boy falls in love with a red rose that blooms on his tiny planet, a place where flowers typically don’t last longer than a day. This rose, however, fully bloomed. The flower is rather vain and demands the prince does a lot for her. So much so, that the prince begins to feel frustrated and starts to question whether the rose actually loves him back. In short, he doesn’t understand the rose. It leads him to run away and explore a bunch of planets, eventually ending on Earth. Throughout his travels he begins to feel regret about leaving his rose and starts to long for her. One of the key moments is when he meets a fox who wants to be tamed, which he calls ‘establishing ties’. The fox sees taming as something going from ordinary to something precious and unique. But you’ll also become responsible for the other, meaning that a relationship takes care but it’s still a precious thing to have.
This is Lovro’s journey in a nutshell. He fell in love with his rose (Ivan) but kept running away from any conflict, anything that came too close. Eventually, after Ivan’s manic episode, he also begins to question whether Ivan ever truly loved him. But, like the little prince, he realizes they did have something beautiful and still longs for him.
Flower Imagery
The flowers are used extensively throughout the season, which ties in with the Little Prince references. On more than one occasion does a flower represent Ivan, like the red flower that blooms in a place a flower shouldn’t bloom (also kinda a Little Prince reference) and the flower in the artsy music video in ep. 9, where all that’s left for Lovro in the end is a flower.
Another rather in your face one is the Protea, which shows up in the Mexican restaurant that Vito works at. First shown in episode 7, it symbolizes courage, resilience and transformation. All aspects essential to Lovro and his growth during the season. It also shows up during their date in ep. 10, which just ties it all neatly together.
Underwater Metaphor
The underwater kiss has always been one of my favorite scenes in SKAM and the remakes that I’ve seen (WTFock and Druck being my only other two), so it brought me a lot of joy to see SRAM use it more than once. I really liked that in this remake being underwater was for Lovro the only way to feel safe enough to kiss Ivan for the first time, hidden away from the rest of the world. For him to dream of Ivan whilst imaging them back in that pool, like it’s the only safe space for him to go to. I especially love how their last scene of the episode is them kissing in a blue lit room, like they’re under water, but now they’re above ground.
Daydreaming
Lovro’s daydreaming serves as an important plot device, to show how much Lovro wanted to be with Ivan even though he felt like he couldn’t act on it. However, to me personally it also showed some of the most romantic moments of the season. Lovro dreaming of riding on the back of Ivan’s Tomos after only just meeting him. Lovro fantasizing about Ivan whilst listening to Josipa Lisac’s ‘O Jednoj Mladosti’, that was introduced to him by Ivan, even though he claimed it wasn’t his vibe. I especially loved that Lovro let Ivan into his world by the end of the show, daydreaming together. It showed how big of an effect Ivan had on Lovro right from the get go and it was just a very nice touch to the season.
Blue/Yellow Lighting
Once the use of blue and yellow lighting was pointed out to me, I started to see it being used everywhere in the show. Blue is typically a color that represents melancholy, loneliness, isolation, etc. whilst yellow is a bright and happy color representing the complete opposite. I love this in particular with the almost kiss, with the world being yellow but Lovro’s mouth being blue. My favorite case of this, however, is when they go to Ivan’s room to hang out in episode two. His room is so yellow/orange, almost like Ivan literally brightens Lovro’s life just by being in it.
Romeo and Juliet
The last thing I wanted to mention is the first time Lovro sees Ivan. I don’t know for sure if this was the intended purpose, but to me if felt like a reference to the Romeo and Juliet balcony scene. In the story, it’s not the first time Romeo and Juliet meet but it’s a very recognizable and iconic moment nonetheless. There is just something so romantic about it all, especially with how smitten Lovro looked the second he laid eyes on Ivan and how Ivan looked up at him as well.
Like I said, there is so much more to mention but these are the ones I loved the most. Overall, I had a lot of fun watching this season and I hope for season 4 they'll do something just as interesting for Vanessa:)
Me and my friends were talking about how Zuko and Mai are just the worst canon relationship in AtLA, and decided that Zuko would find his true passion with Sokka.
I haven't seen the movie, so this happens at some unspecified time at an unspecified place.
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