#fleabag is a love story

[alasforher]

[evagelieneinthesky]

Usually, when we talk about the most heartbreaking part of Fleabag finale, we talk about this:

It is incredibly heartbreaking. But we all knew it was coming. And so did Fleabag. Which is why, even with the massive heartbreak, she accepts his decision. She knew he loved God, and no one will come in between that. She knew they could never be together. She had known that from the start. She neither expected nor hoped to be in a relationship. She just wanted to let him know, that she loved him. She wanted to let him know that he was loved. By her. No conditions. No matter what. Which is what makes this scene so heartbreaking.

But I think the most heartbreaking part comes right after:

These four words are enough to break her apart. Fleabag had spent most of her adult life thinking that she was unlovable. And then there comes this man, whom she loved, despite her heartbreak, telling her that he loves her back. Something she almost never hears. And this too is coming from a man, for whom admitting that he loved someone, like romantically loved someone, was a big deal.

And at this point, everything that they have been through, just becomes infinitely more profound. This is the moment, we, the audience and Fleabag, realize, that she was loved. By the man who finds her in moments where she loses herself. By someone who made her feel infinitely better about herself. By the man who made her see life in a brand-new way, who made her see herself with more love. The full realization hits, and that is what makes her (and me) breakdown. She isn't sad because it didn't happen. She mourns, because it did happen. She was loved.

(I don't know if any of this even makes sense)

BONUS:

The Hot Priest will never know that she saw The Fox, and immediately knew it was for him. He will never know, that the woman he loved saw something that apparently only he could see, and KNEW it was for him.

[sdktrs12]

@giftober 2023 | Day 18: romance ❣

[prongsmydeer]

Things I Loved About Fleabag (2016):

The careful balance of spiralling and sincerity that keeps you rooting for resolution and relief, despite the show intentionally framing itself around grief

The way that it is clear based on the way that they talk about her that Fleabag is a great deal like her mother (her off-colour jokes, her charisma, even hints of difficult friendships through the Godmother) but they don't have anyone make that comparison until the last episode of S2, with, "You are the way you are because of [your mother]" and the look of surprise on Fleabag's face when she hears it

"Don't make me an optimist; you will ruin my life," being such a telling line, because as you fall in love with the Priest, and Fleabag, you want to believe that things will work themselves out

The love in Claire's line to Fleabag, "The only person I'd run through an airport for is you," and the delightful contrary optimism of her deciding to go to the airport anyway

The revelation that Boo had offered to take Fleabag's love for her mother, intertwining both losses

The way that the Priest not only breaks through the carefully constructed narrative relationship that Fleabag has with the viewer, but also himself directly looks toward the audience on a separate beat as he tries to understand her more ("You don't like answering questions, do you?")

The entire sequence of the last few scenes, "Being a romantic takes a hell of a lot of hope," to "I love you." "It'll pass," to Fleabag walking around with a statue that is, in some ways now, a physical representation of the love she is carrying around. Because while the show is about grief, and love, it doesn't feel like it is asking you to overcome those things, but to learn to live with them while moving forward

[augustmonsooning]

That Chris Storer quote where he said "it's a partnership you'll" see is probably the surest confirmation to me that this is a love story.

I just wanna know if Storer is a Thomas Hardy fan because, for all the beautiful romances in classic literature, the one between Bathsheba and Gabriel in Far From the Madding Crowd is my favourite.

Theirs is a love slowly built, with false starts, angry splits, romantic rivals, but in the end they end up happy and together because they truly understand each other, help each other, overcome their own insecurities for each other; in short, they are friends + and in many ways comrades foremost.

Right at the end, as Gabriel and Bathsheba finally realise they have not and could not love anyone else, Hardy writes this beautiful passage "theirs was that substantial affection which arises (if any arises at all) when the two who are thrown together begin first by knowing the rougher sides of each other's character, and not the best till further on, the romance growing up in the interstices of a mass of hard prosaic reality. This good-fellowship—camaraderie—usually occurring through similarity of pursuits, is unfortunately seldom superadded to love between the sexes, because men and women associate, not in their labours, but in their pleasures merely. Where, however, happy circumstance permits its development, the compounded feeling proves itself to be the only love which is strong as death—that love which many waters cannot quench, nor the floods drown, beside which the passion usually called by the name is evanescent as steam."

Syd and Carmy have seen the worst of each other but they keep coming back, trying harder to be better for each other and themselves - theirs is romance that is growing in the interstices of hard reality - of course they'll end up together and of course it could only ever have been this way.

[exfil]

that ghost/soap dynamic take was SO GOOD. like finally some good fucking food. do you have anymore???

my thoughts on soap and ghost could fill a library but most of all i think about when soap clarifies that ghost waited for him in las almas, rodolfo says: of course, no?

and soap says no.

because for all his joking about no man left behind while trying to dodge the shadows - soap knows from al mazrah that his lieutenant is not a patient man (keep up, soap). that ghost is willing to put the mission above helping his men (first we clear for hassan, then we secure the crash site). because ghost made clear what happens when you help (are you saying we shouldn't have helped?): you loose your advantage (choices have consequences).

and at the same time, ghost says yes.

because somewhere between al mazrah and las almas, his commitment to a mission and himself (i am used to working alone) became a commitment to his team (no one fights alone). clipped commands (time to go, mactavish) became hushed banter (let's worry about you, johnny). and a lieutenant that let a helicopter with his men burn to catch a terrorist waits for his seargant (i was on the run. ghost waited for me). stays in the middle of enemy territory (i have company in the church and they are not looking for forgiveness) and patiently helps him through a hostile city because he wants him to survive (tryin' to keep you alive and get you here in one piece). choices have consequences - and after watching him get shot in front of him (thought we lost you) ghost chooses soap, consequences be damned.

of course, no? yes. (i like you alive.)

[maranello]

@charles_leclerc: Loved every seconds of it. @maneskinofficial 🤍

@ykaaar: With the fastest man alive! 🏎🔥

[sporkathon-and-mel]

This Feeling

The "I love you" "it'll pass" scene but make it lawlight

Sorry it's a day late!!! We thought today was day 7 :(

"Our game has come to a draw, hasn’t it?” Light asks, he already knows the answer; he always has, but asking the question made it real. He could no longer hide in the quiet comfort of inner doubt that hung in the place of a solidified answer. The flimsy moment of hopeful delusion is over. This is real. This is it. There are no more moves to make. No checkmate to be found. Just two men, sitting on a bench, coming to terms with the reality that their time together is over.

They sit in silence, the question weighing heavily in the air, seeming to crush them both as neither says another word. Seconds go by and feel like years. Water no longer drips from the roof of the bus stop station, and the buzzing neon lights of the route schedule sign seem to pause, leaving the two in the hollow silence of the wind.

“Yeah, it has.” L breathes, wishing the wind could take the sound of his response away in its path and leave them in the peace of their fantasy. But it didn’t. It never seems to.

The answer could change nothing about their knowledge. They both knew it was over. The situation, however, was irreparably changed.

The air sparked with the fate of the moment, with the long pent up confession that would follow the response that doomed them both to reality.

“Do you know what?” Words softly break the quiet moment. Light hesitates to continue, turning to face his partner. “The worst part of all this… the worst part is that I love you. God, I hate it, but I love you.” He knows that he’s wrong, that his love is wrong, that he should be ashamed, but he can’t look away from him. He can’t turn away for fear that if he turned back, his love would be gone to him forever.

He’s not supposed to love the man who is meant to catch him and condemn him for his actions. His love should be reserved for someone who agrees with him, who melds with his opinions and actions, but he can’t choose who to love no matter how hard he tries. He tried to love her, but he couldn’t. Lord knows he tried, and he’s afraid that the lord knows about this too.

L pauses for a moment. He doesn’t know what to say. He should, he knows he should. He’s always so prepared, always one step ahead, always ready for anything. Anything but love. He moves to try to speak, to say something, to find one more move in this impossible draw, but he’s interrupted before he can even begin.

“No, L. Please, just let that sit for a minute.” He knows if he doesn’t say this all now, it’ll be too late. This is his one chance. Not for a happy ending, he knows not to hope for that, but to at least tell someone of his love, to let it be out there, to let it be real.

“I love you.” The two detectives sit in silence as the wind sings in an air of fate. It sings of would-been’s and will-be’s. It sings of love and loss and the way the two dance as an inseparable pair.

The silence is too full for another word, so the two just sit and listen to the water drip, and the lights buzz, and the wind sing. Each sound rings with the words ‘I love you”.

When the silence is quiet again, and the echo of the words dies down, L turns to Light.

“It’ll pass.” Light can only laugh.

He takes Light’s hand in his, mourning a love never to be lived, and intertwining their fingers. Their wind chilled fingers melds into one mass through the field of burning tears in their eyes, and there is nothing left to be done.

They pause for their final, infinite moment before L slowly separates his hand from Light’s before slowly bringing his legs beneath him. He takes a few steps away, each echoing his words as his boots step into shallow puddles on damp concrete.

‘It’ll pass… It’ll pass… It’ll pass…’

“I’m leaving the case. It’s time for me to move on, and I hope you can do the same.” L’s words drip with finality as he begins to walk into the darkness down the street, his shoes still echoing the words.

It’s okay. Light knows those words are a lie anyway. Love never passes, it just changes. It changes into hate, grief, pain, memory, but it’s always there, and it was always love.

L turns back to the bus stop one last time, to face his lover one last time. “I love you too.” He says quietly, only this time, the wind does carry his words. His lover nods and L turns, resigning from their stalemated game, and from Light’s life.

“Checkmate.” Light whispers to himself, knowing exactly what to do next. L may have resigned his king, but by no means did Light have to take it. He wants the game to go on and by God, that game will go on.

He takes the Death Note out of the inner pocket of his coat, its black cover becoming spotted with raindrops as a light rain starts to pick up. Light smiles, tears out one page, and throws the rest of the book in the bus stop trash bin. After all, there’s only one more name he needs to write. He folds the final page into a neat square and tucks it back into his pocket, beginning to walk down the street away from the bus stop, and away from his lover.

Two different paths will always have the same outcome if one is determined enough. It will never end like this. Love will never pass, and even if it would, do you really think Light would let it?

[sebnameyourcar]

imagine finding your soulmate when you were a teenager and building a life together with so much love and support and care and believing that even if you didn’t meet in school you still would have found each other and loved and been loved in return. god.

[alasforher]

[cherrycrushlemonade]

look at my flea BAG!

[cptrs]

[allurared]

in the new dead ringers the iconic red surgery room scene is very didactically shown to be a publicity stunt to impress investors and all i could think about is this tweet about last night in soho

[augustmonsooning]

they need a miracle!

I really wish I knew about making gifs because this is hard to explain with just text but I really think one of the most underrated sydcarmy scenes of the series, and the one that to me confirms a sydcarmy endgame that has been plotted throughout the series is the montage at the end of "Bolognese".

We see Carmy at the grocery store and then cooking alone in his kitchen, finishing the pasta he was rolling out in the earlier episode with Syd (not the actual same pasta dough obviously, but I think it is a spiritual continuation of that pasta).

We see Sydney at The Bear scrubbing, also alone, and exactly a mirror image of Carmy scrubbing the same spot in Season 1.

And then! my favourite part! We see Sydney on the bus going home with her headphones in watching college basketball on her phone. The commentary for the game says "they need a miracle".

The Bear is a show that plays a lot with aural overlays providing commentary on what is happening within the show. In Season 1 the ballbreaker music loudly plays over the most tense moments when everything is falling apart - it's a bit of comic relief.

In the Bolognese scene it's a bit more meta, that specific line of commentary is the only one we here from the game, and apart from the lyrics of "Throw Your Arms Around Me" which plays over the monateg, this is the only line of dialogue. So it stands to reason, it's got to mean something.

But who needs a miracle? Certainly not Carmy and Claire, who in this montage are probably at their most romantic, and it's not The Bear because nothing in this montage is anything to do with the business, so it can only be Sydney and Carmy. Sydney and Carmy who in Pasta, a few episodes before were so in sync, on the brink of tipping their friendship and their partnership into something more.

As an aside, I think it's also pretty signficant that the lyrics end on "if we never meet again" in this episode, and in the following episode, we pick up the theme under the table with Pearl Jam's "Come Back"

[chaoticzelda]

Love is awful! It’s awful. It’s painful. It’s frightening, it makes you doubt yourself, judge yourself, distance yourself from other people in your life. Makes you selfish. Makes you creepy. It makes you obsessed with your hair. Makes you cruel. Makes you say and do things you never thought you would do.

…

It’s all any of us want and it’s hell when we get there. So no wonder it’s something we don’t want to do on our own.

…

I was taught that if we’re born with love, then life is about choosing the right place to put it. People talk about that a lot. It ‘feeling right’. ‘When it feels right, it’s easy.’ But I’m not sure that’s true. It takes strength to know what’s right.

…

And love isn’t something that weak people do. Being a romantic takes a hell of a lot of hope. I think what they mean is … When you find somebody that you love … It feels like hope.

[enigmasandepiphanies]

i am writing yet another essay on fleabag for my feminist aesthetics theory course (concepts in aesthetics 2), yes its a recurring narrative cause oneshots are something i don't do

first one i wrote in last course (concepts in aesthetics 1) was on tragedy of fleabag through Aristotelian pov