#IM VERY SAD ABOUT HER SINCE HER OVERTURE CHAPTER OK

[queen-of-hearts92]

Giant hands as imagery never mean anything good. The literal stage hands from episode 8 was scary enough but now theres this huge looking hand at the start of Maya's chapter of Overture. Due to this manga being a prequel to the anime I don’t think it’s a coincidence that a giant hand is featured here. Considering what hands like these usually mean, it gives quite unnerving implications, especially for Maya since this was in her chapter. Let me explain! About Maya Tendou and why I’m sad about her.

Quick note from the future: I wrote this post before episode 10 happened so while I would change somethings around I still stand by a lot of what I said here! I’ll probably do a follow up post to this one eventually! Ok thats all, enjoy the meta! owo/

Loom hands can represent danger from a powerful force, they often mean something is preying on someone else. Like a predator hunting down prey, the sharp claws add to the predator image hence the literal stage hands are also clawed. An example would be in the book/movie Coraline who is targeted by the Other Mother. Not only does Other Mother have creepy hands but on the posters and covers for the movie there is indeed a clawed hand above Coraline. 

Another thing looming hands can represent is a lack of control over yourself/your life like being directed by a puppet master. Remember when Maya was talking about the beauty of choice in episode 7? We can start to see why she views it so positively, cause she doesn’t often have that. To go with the theme of a lack of control, the controlling hand can also represent abuse of any kind. 

You see. The visual of an adult hand reaching towards a child who looks like her in the darkness has some, sad implications about Maya. I actually did wonder if that sort of thing happened during her childhood. I never put it in my write ups cause I didn't want to assume nor did I feel I had enough evidence but then this chapter happened. Now I’m suspecting abuse, physical and/or emotional most likely. I’ve said a few times in my write ups that you don’t get someone like Maya out of a happy childhood, and I know I’m right but what happened exactly we were only able to guess at for awhile but thanks to this chapter we have some idea of whats going on. 

Maya has had expectations thrown at her since she was born. Her parents it sounds like that they groomed her to be a stage girl. I’ve always been bothered that she's referred to as a thoroughbred. Yeah that word can be used at ppl but not normally, you call race horses that are born and bred to compete a thoroughbred. Maya has that word in every one of her descriptions, and that’s why. 

She was bred for the stage, nothing else was ever an option for her. Maya’s whole existence is the stage, the ghost story play in her chapter is really referring to her. She’s the ghost that gets swallowed up by the darkness. Two of the quotes from the play that stood out to me was “Aside from the heart of a stage, the position zero, there was nowhere else that I belonged.” and “The light of the spotlight is the only thing that reveals my existence at all”. To farther cement this parallel is that the ghost girl has Maya’s hair style therefore looks similar to her and only Maya is able to see her. Maya the performer is seen by others of course but Maya as a human being isn’t. That’s the invisible part, only being in the spotlight reveals her existence.

We can see this in the fact that Maya doesn’t have any close friends and while Claudine is easily the closest to Maya she’s still distant to the point that Kuro also sees Maya as a perfect embodiment of the stage. Kuro couldn’t even fathom that Tendou Maya was afraid of something silly like ghosts hence she thought Maya was acting instead. That’s a big relationship barrier here, Kuro needs to see Maya as a human being or their relationship just isn’t going to work.

Noticing that Maya has been dehumanized by everyone around her is extremely depressing honestly. From what I can tell her parents see her as a well trained prized pet, her peers see her as above them, and her crush sees her as this perfect stage girl to a point she cant recognize if Maya is acting or when she’s genuinely like scared in this case. Maya does do what she is expected to do but it seems like she’s created a coping mechanism of sorts. If her peers see her as this untouchable figure fine, she’ll be that to inspire them to progress. She wants to be the best so others do their best, this way it gives her a purpose besides just being a wind up toy on the stage. However this kind of coping won’t work forever cause at the end of the day she’s still treated like an object and not a person. Something will give, and it will hurt a lot. Like someone, please see her as a person! She needs that so so badly. God dammit...

On top of all this Maya being associated with birds has depressing implications as well. Birds can mean all sorts of shit, but one of the big ones is freedom. Ya know, caged birds still sing after all. If Maya is that bird, the one who can’t fly freely, then she’ll learn how to sing. However Maya isn’t associated with the traditional caged birds, she’s associated with swans. Swans can’t be contained like that, shouldn’t be contained like that. Just because a swan has accepted their cage doesn’t make the cage less smaller or tighter. Or feel less suffocating. Like I said in my episode 7 write up, Maya is trying hardcore to look only forward and never back but not facing the ghosts of your past can and will cause problems and eventually drag you down. Maya isn’t a lark or any kind of songbird, she’s a swan that learned how to sing and perform. And if that swan can’t or won’t break free, then its only gonna get worse from here.

All this shit ofc factors in kuromaya. I think one of the reasons why Maya has fallen for Claudine and seeks her out is while Kuro does see her as perfect, instead of backing down she fucking goes for it and thats exciting as hell for Maya. People just don’t do that around her nor succeed in truly challenge her like Kuro can. Plus unlike her, Kuro chose to go into the stage and acting. Maya must really admire that she chose this rough path and did it cause she wanted to. Hell maybe even envy her for being able to do that. She loves Kuro’s drive and passion, she loves being around her. But I do think that eventually Kuro also treating her as not human will get to Maya. And when that happens, that’s gonna hurt a lot man.

I honestly can’t imagine what it’s like to go your entire life being treated like a fancy animal at best and a thing at worst. The coping mechanism is probably the only reason why she hasn’t fucking lost her mind or her sense of self, but as I said that won’t solve anything in the long term. 

Maya is gonna break, everyone has their limits and I wouldn’t be surprised if she’ll be hitting hers soon. She, honestly needs to. You can’t bottle that shit up forever, its gonna explode. When the break happens I’m pretty sure Claudine will see it happen, cause she needs to see that Maya is human too. She’s probably the only one who can possibly understand since she also grew up in the spotlight. This will be a helpful and healing experience for both of them, Maya can finally let it all out and Kuro can learn a new way to look at her and even their rivalry over complicated lesbian mating dance. I’m hoping that’s what episode 10 will show us.

And I’m gonna cry a lot if it does go this way, ever since I noticed how everyone around her dehumanizes her I’ve been sad about it. I just want Maya to be happy god dammit. ;A;

Edit: I just gotta say, Green Finch and Linnet Bird now makes me think of Maya and now I’m sad. orz