#byler Casablanca

[will80sbyers]

The fact that Casablanca was one of the movie inspo for s4 to me just confirms how the selfless love is gonna win at the end of the show, meaning Will gets the guy because he lied about the painting to make Mike happy

there is a part of the movie where they talk about this woman asking something like... (paraphrasing because I don't remember the exact words now) “ if someone loved you so much to want your happiness first and to have your happiness they did a bad thing would you forgive them? and Rick responds saying that no one ever loved him that much... making it clear that he wished he had that type of love

this reminds me of Mike wanting that type of pure love for himself... and Will lied because he loved Mike that much and when Mike finds out about it he will also find out that he belongs with Will

I think this is the most important parallel that they used for the love triangle!!!

but

they also took some other random stuff just to copy iconic moments and quotes, like they copied the idea of the message that El left for Mike when she left him behind from the message Ilsa leaves for Rick before leaving him... they took the "what about us?" di Ilsa, with romantic connotation, and made Will say it to Mike... so there is not a direct parallel here so I think we shouldn't expect the resolution of the triangle to be the same exactly!

spoilers for the plot of the love triangle in Casablanca even if I'm keeping things very vague:

Victor & Ilsa are married until Victor gets taken away and Ilsa thinks he's dead for one year

during this year Ilsa meets Rick and they fall in love even if they don't know much about each other and she talks about how she fell for him mostly because she felt lonely and he gave her hope

then when she finds out that Victor is still alive she decides to leave Rick and go back to Victor but this also because he needed her to take care of him after what happened to him

Now Rick and Ilsa met again and Ilsa and Victor need something from Rick to go away and save their lives

Rick first denied this help to them because he was angry about Ilsa leaving him without explanation and he still has feelings for her

Ilsa goes to Rick alone and tries to convince him to help at least Victor to get away because otherwise he will be killed, she explains what happened but when that doesn't work she starts threatening Rick with a gun but then she can't find the courage to shoot him because she still has feelings for him too, so she tries to convince him to help her save Victor by saying that to Rick, kissing him and saying she doesn't want to leave him but he must help at least Victor

after this Victor talks to Rick and tells him he knows there is something between Ilsa and him and he asks Rick to take Ilsa and leave to save her life, he's willing to sacrifice himself to save her

this act of selfless love makes Rick decide to, in the end, help Ilsa and Victor to leave and save both of them

Rick tells Ilsa she was basically not in love with him and he knows she was pretending with him and let her pretend and that she belongs with Victor and she agrees even if the audience knows it's not exactly the whole truth but she decides to leave with Victor anyway

so it is implied that what Rick said to Victor and her was a lie and Ilsa actually loved both Rick and Victor... but Ilsa and Rick don't end up together because they were not meant to be!

theoretically in this story Rick is El, Ilsa is Mike and Victor is Will but I think it's a loose parallel because sometimes you can parallel Ilsa to El and Will too instead of Mike and sometimes you can parallel Mike to Rick depending on the moment...

so I think some things in the resolution of the triangle are going to be different, and we shouldn't take it as a given, for example I think Mike and El will end up being purely platonic without implications of romantic feelings still being there!

[mushroomsleepy]

ok, but this is one of the most will byers songs ever.

[aidyaiden]

yk the instant crush (daft punk & julian casablancas) music video? yeah well this but byler.

[will80sbyers]

Casablanca & Byler