Just to be clear...

[skyecaptain]

...In "Fire Bomb," Rihanna is essentially telling us that (1) her ex has shot at her car, puncturing her gas tank and (I guess) spilling her brake fluid (now that's one magic bullet!), so (2) she has decided that the best way to make lemonade of the situation is to drive her car, which is leaking gasoline and can't brake, through the house of her

Comments

[skyecaptain]

Yeah, you're right. But I don't really buy the "the bullets are metaphorical" argument either, which means that someone who is not her ex shot at her car. Which is actually kind of awesome! Here's another scenario you can think of to ignore my first one:

Rihanna is a double agent for the U.S. government dealing with the Japanese mafia, who have started to gain a foothold in her (American, adopted) hometown. So she stakes out a meeting ground to "give them their info," and as she pulls up, Chris Brown is telling them everything -- that she's trying to screw them, etc. She doesn't understand why he was there in the first place, of course, until she pulls up (right after Chris Brown leaves) and the yakuza members start open firing on her car. At which point she decides that she'll need to terminate this relationship PRONTO, and since the Japanese mafia are going to kill her anyway, she might as well kill two birds (she being one of them) with one stone (the stone here being a metaphor for her car, which is a metaphor for us traveling life's metaphorical highway).

Simple!

[edgeofwhatever]

WHY CAN'T SHE HAVE SHOT HER OWN CAR. DAMN. STOP DENYING HER AGENCY.

[skyecaptain]

But she seems to discover that her brake fluid is leaking incidentally, like "oh shit, the brake fluid's going too" -- so either she had a shooting spree on her car (as opposed to, say, make sure she leaked gasoline to ensure flammable goodness) or she started by shooting the gas tank and then just kind of went a little overboard?

[edgeofwhatever]

There was a second shooter on the grassy knoll?

Actually, the brake fluid line strikes me as the opposite of incidental -- "fluid in the brakes was the last to leak" makes me feel like she was keeping track of exactly what started leaking and when.

OH SHIT, IT'S ALSO, LIKE, METAPHORICAL! "Fluid in the brakes was the last to leak" is preceded by "You could have been a part of a masterpiece" -- a.k.a. this could have been a great relationship, there was a long period of time wherein we could have stopped and made this right. FOR FUCKING FUCK, THIS SONG, SERIOUSLY.

[skyecaptain]

Biggest mindfuck came as I was walking home relistening -- the idea that you (obvs) beat me to like seven years ago -- "she doesn't want innocent people to get hurt, and lovers are innocent" -- didn't really sink in until this afternoon.

We definitely need to do a metaphor diagram for this song or something.

[skyecaptain]

Sooooo, she's driving this bullet-riddled corpse of a car (relationship) down the road (comparing to everyone else, the "lovers") to use the last ounce of juice (passion/strength) left in it to destroy the man and the woman, thus rekindling, for one instant, the spark they used to have and ending everything on that note. Chillz.

[skyecaptain]

Also, I need to figure out how many of these songs involve someone dying or being killed.

Also, what the FUCK is going on in "Te Amo"? Is it like the dead serious version of "I Kissed a Girl" or what?? "Hey, I know you're lonely, we can still dance...JUST WATCH YOUR HANDS LADY."

[katstevens]

I am praying they make a video for this one.