Flower Motif

So I've noticed a bit of a flower motif in this story that I wanted to talk about because why not.

So flowers. Flowers hold a specific meaning to the Duke's family. Upon proposing/marrying their fiance, the head of the Duke's family offers a garden full of flowers to the woman as a show of their love. This is a tradition that's probably dated back for some centuries, so it is pretty well established and a pretty important part of the "lore" so to speak.

Alexandro's late father gave Alexandro's mother a garden full of roses. Roses are typically represented as a form of deep love in most stories, movies, books, etc so you'd expect their love to be just as deep as the roses the Duke gave his wife. But in this story, the Duke and his wife fucking hate each other. They regularly cheat on one another, can barely seem to stand to be around one another, and maintain the fact that their marriage was purely political with no sense of attachment whatsoever. This sort of disdainful apathy even extends to their son, who they couldn't give any less of a fuck about.

As a result, roses take on a different kind of meaning in this story. It represents the illusion of love, a false love that gives off the pretense of being real. And this sort of representation extends to Alexandro's love for Elenora in the original story.

Whenever we see Elenora in this story, her image is surrounded by white roses. There are white roses when Elenora and Alexandro meet after so many years apart, white roses whenever she's brought up, and white roses whenever Ibelina flashes back to the original story and Elenora and Alexandro's relationship. White roses are a big thing with those two, so it would be right to assume that Alexandro offered Elenora white roses when he first proclaimed his love for her.

And here's the thing about white roses: they're commonly used as a symbol of true love. A pure sort of love, untainted by corruption and hatred. Happiness and perfection, all rolled up into a single flower. And initially, that's what Alexandro's and Elenora's love seems like. Elenora used her pure love to open Alexandro's heart, made him into a sweeter, more kinder man, and also used it to undo his curse. Her love freed him of the taint that had cursed him ever since he was young, giving him new life and purpose.

But here's the thing: a white rose is still a rose no matter how pure it may seem. Alexandro and Elenora's love seemed perfect and true, but -- just like the white roses that signified their love -- it was just an illusion. Elenora never loved Alexandro the way he wanted to be loved; she loved Deigo and probably thought of Alexandro as a friend or even brother. Alexandro believed in the promise of the pure love Elenora provided, never realizing how false it was. He continued to believe in it throughout his entire life, until he rebelled against the crown and died as a rebellious traitor, alone and unloved.

Much like how the false love between the Duke and his wife turned them into unsympathetic assholes, the false love between Alexandro and Elenora turned Alexandro into a desperate traitor willing to do anything to get a woman who probably never cared about him in the first place.

But then there's the love between Ibelina and Alexandro in this story.

During Ibelina's or Alexandro's dream sequences, we get brief flashes to the future where an older Ibelina and Alexandro are shown frolicking through a field of sunflowers, happy and content. Ibelina even mentions sunflower seeds, saying that they're her favorite snack. So its safe to say that the sunflower represents the love between her and Alexandro.

Sunflowers represent adoration, longevity, and loyalty. To give someone a sunflower is to bring joy and happiness into their life, lighting up their world and giving them some much needed warmth -- which pretty much defines Ibelina's and Alexandro's relationship to a tee.

Alexandro's life before Ibelina was pretty shitty, what with the curse and the asshole parents. Moreover, no one really cared about him or what he was going through, seemingly washing their hands of him the moment the curse started to go bad. She was the only one who ever made an effort to try and give him a good, joyful life, the only one to stay with him during those trying days when the curse seemed like it was going to kill him, the only one to truly seem him as adorable even with his curse and bratty attitude, and the only one who showed that she loved and cared for him even when everyone else did. And she did all of this despite believing that her actions would have no affect on his life; that he was destined to fall in love, be rejected, rebel, and get executed and that nothing she would do would ever make a difference.

The sunflower motif between Alexandro and Ibelina represents a different sort of love compared to all the other flowers. It is not the "deep" love of the normal rose or the "pure" love of the white rose. It is instead a sort of "realistic" love -- a love that is built up over time, through trust and affection. A love that starts out rocky, has a few bumps and obstacles along the way, but nonetheless is more tangible than any other. A love built on truth and trust, rather than an illusion and false promises. A love that can actually last, instead of falling apart.