openingyourselfuptojoy | Meta Wednesday: Rachel Berry

Colors I usually associate with Rachel: Pink and gold.

Discuss?

I'm not gold has been given a meta meaning, but I think I've puzzled one out: gold is winning even when you're not number one.

They wear gold dresses and ties in Journey to Regionals: "It doesn't matter what the judges say. We won because we had you as a teacher."

Kurt auditions with Not the Boy Next Door in gold pants and his Swans in their gold Regionals dresses. His is the better audition and it's a victory moment even though Rachel is the one who ends up getting into NYADA (because Kurt doesn't need training and Rachel does).

Then we have gold stars, which I posted about farther down the thread. Are there other significant instances of gold on the show?

I think pink is femininity?

Red is power, and Rachel wears quite a bit of red: her beret in New York, the dress in which she sings It's All Coming Back To Me, when she sings So Emotional with Santana. (Help! I'm terrible at remembering outfits!)

IIRC, needsmoregreen described pink as thinking you have a choice when you don't.

Hmm. Not sure what that says about Rachel.

Colors I usually associate with Rachel: Pink and gold.

Gold, definitely, but I'm not sure about pink. For some reason, pink is a colour I usually associate with Quinn (a lot of her outfits seem to be pinks, pastels and neutrals) but in my mind, Rachel is always primary colours (bold reds, blues, usually colour blocking or big designs/patterns).

“You might laugh because every time I sign my name I put a gold star after it, but it’s a metaphor, and metaphors are important. My gold star is a metaphor for me being a star.”

Rachel introduces the audience to some key ideas that help to deal with the Highly Stylized Insanity that is the Gleeverse. "Metaphors are important" is one, and signals that not all the storytelling will be immediately obvious if you're just listening to the dialogue and not taking all the "metaphorical storytelling" into account, i.e. clothes, costumes, colours, jewelry, character-specific symbols, etc.

The other two main concepts introduced to us by Rachel in the Pilot are "There is NOTHING ironic about show choir" which cues us to take the lyrics seriously and "Being part of something special MAKES you special" which, well.

Notable instances of Rachel's gold stars metaphor:
-Rachel signs her name in the Pilot. She knows she's more talented than others but as a result has no friends and is promptly slushied by Puck.
-Rachel signs her name in Preggers. She's not isolated in the way she wants in Glee club, so she's going to isolate herself totally.
-Shelby gives Rachel a cup with a gold star on it. Shelby might find it touching, but at the end of the day, Rachel's just been abandoned by her mother and it seems as though she is forever alone.
-Finn gives Rachel a gold star necklace because he doesn't think he ~deserves~ her. It's once more a sign of how Rachel's talent is intrinsically isolating.
-Rachel is unanimously nominated Regionals MVP. "I always wanted to feel special and chosen. Thank you guys for giving me that."
-Rachel signs her name in Funeral. A very similar scene to the Pilot, but by this point, she has friends and need not fear slushies.
-Her entire rant in Choke prefigures her own eventual exploding supernova.
-"'Cause even the stars, they burn. Some even fall to the earth."

Altogether, it seems that Rachel's gold stars are a metaphor for her own need to be special and chosen... which ultimately divides and alienates her from others, but their expression of love for her consists of dubbing her Most Valuable Player, which only emphasizes that she IS the best and has to BE the best to receive love. It's complicated and doesn't really have a solution.

Have something you wanna meta-over? Bring it on! Does not have to be Rachel-focused, though it can be, if you want. ;)

Do you think she is truly destined for Broadway? If yes, which roles would you think she would be best for?

I think she is. She's so focused on it -- it's been her overwhelming characteristic from episode 1 -- and she's talented, so I'm sure she'll make it. Maybe not huge-Broadway-diva make it, but I'm quite convinced she'll spend years working on Broadway and loving it.

(...although she could probably do well in the West End, too. I could believe that.)

Funnily enough, Rachel and Mike are the only ones that I think have a definite career in performance. I know the others want it, and they're certainly talented, but I think they could be happy doing other things. (Even as much as I love Kurt, I love the idea of him being on Broadway because he loves it so much. Not because I think it's the only career he'd love. I could easily see him pursuing something off-stage in theatre or fashion, even interior design or cooking.)

But I can't imagine Rachel being happy with anything other than on-stage musicals.

Meta Wednesday: Rachel Berry

Color Theory

Re: Color Theory

Re: Color Theory

Re: Color Theory

Re: Color Theory

Metaphors

Re: Metaphors

Anything Else

Rachel and Broadway.

Re: Rachel and Broadway.