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In this work, I will be analyzing the scene that probably founded the Scielune nation: the stargazing scene. I’m not sure how many chapters this will take because I’m planning to share with you what I gathered in a pretty long Word document. This little scene is sO RICH in narrative, visual, musical and emotional meaning.
My analysis can be read from both a platonic and a sapphic point of view (even tho, let's be real, it will most likely get gayer and gayer as we go). I think that’s because probably the most interesting underlying theme to Lune and Sciel’s bond is the notion of “what could have been”. The tragic beauty of their connection is that they shared a very intimate and emotional moment together, but they never had the chance to see their connection bloom. They are practically strangers to each other and yet they were a source of comfort in one of the hardest moments of their lives.
Regardless of how you choose to read the nature of their bond, I believe one thing is clear: it’s a very moving one and the stargazing scene discloses it in such a smart and beautiful way. Writing this analysis helped me deepen my understanding of both this scene and Lune and Sciel’s bond so, hopefully, it might be interesting for you as well. (Also, I apologize if my writing sounds odd at times, English is not my first language).
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The first thing I’d like to point out is that the stargazing moment seems to be connected to the previous and, as far as we know, only other two moments Lune and Sciel had spent together on their own: the night they meet at Lumière after the Gommage and the night they sit together by the campfire after Gustave’s death. I believe the stargazing scene derives a lot of its meaning from its connection to those other two moments, so that’s why I wanted to dedicate this first chapter to explaining this connection.
The night Lune and Sciel meet is pretty much the root of their bond. As such, it supports their bond, it feeds it, but it cannot be seen. We don’t get to witness this moment, it is only mentioned. It’s buried deep within their past, but both of them remember.
Sciel is the one who brings it up first, in the campfire scene, a moment we do see, one that seems to recall the past, a bittersweet déjà vu. And Lune remembers too. Last time they sat together like that, they were also mourning.
Looks like the campfire scene is a clear parallel to the day they’ve met. And just like Sciel points out, it seems like grief is what brings them together every time. But despite grief flooding the memory, there must be some beauty to it as well, because Sciel expresses how she wishes they could have spent more time together. Time that wasn’t stained by the anguish of their world.
I believe that the things Sciel says in this scene turn it into some sort of bridge between the meeting scene and the stargazing one. Thanks to the campfire cinematic we find out that these women already knew each other and that they were together in a deeply painful moment of their lives. But, for some reason unknown, it doesn’t look like they got to be together anymore after that. It leaves us wondering why. Because they clearly have a lot of chemistry.
I’ll definitely write an individual analysis for this scene too, because there’s a lot to unfold here, but for now what concerns us about it are the questions it lays out: how come they were grieving together? Were they friends? And what happened after that moment they shared, more than a decade ago? Why didn’t they get the chance to share happier experiences together?
The stargazing scene answers all these questions. And I think it also establishes a new stage in their bond, a more hopeful one, despite their still hopeless context.
The sky meets the moon at night. That’s the title I chose to give this analysis (on tumblr) because I think it’s a pretty descriptive and symbolic way of capturing Sciel and Lune’s connection. It feels like destiny, like it’s natural. All three scenes I mentioned happen at night and, on top of that, at dark times in the women’s lives. Seems like only darkness can bring them together.
But doesn’t the moon look beautiful in the night sky? Isn’t there something deeply intimate about sharing closeness, light and warmth in the darkness of the night? When do we get to see the starts if not in the dark? I’ll keep coming back to this analogy because I think there’s a lot to get out of it (and also because I LOVE poetic and evocative analogies, I’m just intense like that hsggdcx).
All this being said and settled in this introduction, I’ll properly start with the actual stargazing scene in the following chapter. But I’ll definitely bring back these other two moments again because, like I said before, I believe the stargazing scene becomes truly meaningful thanks to them. If you’re up for the (probably pretty long) ride that this analysis will be, I hope you enjoy it and discover new details to feed your love for Expedition 33, Scielune or both ;3