and no one even knew, it was really only you
Another meme ganked from redbrunja!
Pick a paragraph (or any passage less than 500 words) from any fanfic I've written, and comment to this post with that selection. I will then give you a DVD commentary on that snippet: what I was thinking when I wrote it, why I wrote it in the first place, what's going on in the character's heads, why I chose certain ( Read more... )
Pick a paragraph (or any passage less than 500 words) from any fanfic I've written, and comment to this post with that selection. I will then give you a DVD commentary on that snippet: what I was thinking when I wrote it, why I wrote it in the first place, what's going on in the character's heads, why I chose certain ( Read more... )
This scene was a scene...I knew what was going to happen in it, knew what it was going to convey on the surface and subtextually and how both sides were going to contribute to the plot, but I had no idea how I was going to actually, you know. End the scene.
Originally, I started moving into a longer exploration of Itachi finding out that Sasuke was going to be entering Academy, but the scene started losing focus; the most important part of this scene is Itachi and Shisui's conversation, and that's it. So logically, it should end right after their conversation. I knew that, and ended up chopping off the Sasuke scene, but ending the scene at "Having a definite course of action does that," felt too abrupt. So I decided to mention Sasuke anyway, while moving away, but it still prevented me from having a conclusive-feeling end to the scene. Looking at it again, I really dislike "To hell with my life;" I don't feel like it fits the tone and voice Itachi's been presenting the scene in, and it's somehow even more abrupt than the firts ending. If I could rewrite the end of this scene, that would be majorly overhauled.
The apple symbolism here was actually a total accident. The real focus of the image of the apple was the blood that got on it. Blood is a big theme/motif in this fic; the taste of blood, especially, recurs in many places. Itachi is both repulsed and fascinated by blood, which is touched on in many other scenes. Blood represents violence in that context--Itachi hates violence, but cannot escape it, as it is integral to his way of living, in the same way that he hates blood itself as a physical substance, but obviously cannot live without it in his body.
Blood also, more subtly, refers to family ties. They're my flesh and blood, Itachi mentions at one point in his narration when he's talking about the Uchiha. In this way, blood is symbolic of bonds--think about "blood ties" and things "signed in blood," etc.--whether these bonds are desirable or not. With the clashing symbolism of violence and severing (you only bleed when you're cut, and Itachi does cut himself above), and family and bonds, blood serves as kind of a universal but contradictory symbol, tying family and violence together. What can heal you can also hurt you. Bonds can strengthen you and weaken you as well.
The way this is kind of brought to the surface is through Shisui, Itachi's clanmate and friend, licking off the blood (which Itachi actually emphasizes with italics in the original fic--that phrase over other actions like "takes a bite," and "hands it back to me"). Shisui is the first family member Itachi kills. It's implied that he's also one of the first (if not the first) friends Itachi ever made, especially in one of the opening scenes, where Itachi talks about not being able to remember a time before Shisui was there (compared with how he should and does clearly remember when Sasuke was born). So, Shisui is the first bond Itachi makes, and the first one he severs.
Anway, all this tl;dr is supposed to say that the important symbol in this scene is the blood, not the apple. I only spotted that the apple could be a symbol for temptation, death, knowledge, etc. (re: Biblical imagery, practically in the public domain) after walking away and coming back to the scene. I kind of like<.i> that as an underlying implication, don't get me wrong, but the point is, it happened by accident, and I worry that it overshadows what I actually did think of by myself.
Also, before I move on, note that in the last scene, when Itachi runs to Anko after Shisui's death, he buries his face, covered in bloody tears (i.e. the result of him gaining Mangekyou) in her shirt, and it leaves a stain. It's when he recognizes that even though he left, and they hadn't been speaking, there was still that bond, the next hardest bond he has to sever before he can fully carry out his mission and cut all ties to the village.
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