Epithet Erased: Prison of Plastic - 'Say No' [Lyric Video]

The main theme for the upcoming "Epithet Erased" book, Prison of Plastic. This song was made possible thanks to our backers on Kickstarter!

Vocals - @Sapphberry
Instrumental - @PhoebesHere
Lyrics - Brendan Blaber + Plasterbrain

FULL LYRICS:

VERSE 1:
How do you balance the irons in the fire
When you keep gettin’ burned and you live with a liar?
Only a minor but the problem’s Ursa Major
You mend what’s broke but you can’t fix bad behavior

Terrified that you’re bein' inefficient
While you’re spinning your plates and washing’ the dishes
Friends all say that you need to take a break before you’re broken
But you’re terrified because in your eyes you know you need to go and-—

File your taxes
Breaking your back and
Wishing for freedom
Life's inelastic,
Prison of Plastic?
You’ve gotta make it so
You can just say no~oo

If you set yourself on fire
The world will leave you tired
So why don’t you just let it burn?

Say “Aw, heck it!”
Go on ‘n wreck it!

Let them find another warmer
The world is in your corner
It’s up to you to make it turn
Just say “No!”

VERSE 2:
What’s life like when you grant your own wishes?
Sorbet sky full a’ honey and kisses!
Baking? Self reflection? So exhausting!
Take those imperfections and coat them in frosting!

Craft your life, give it all you can give it
And pray for the day that you might be forgiven
The actors laugh on your behalf because you can control them
But to get a hug from the ones you love, you would need to console them--

All too much trouble
Stay in your bubble
Leave it to others!
It’s a bad habit
Make like a rabbit:
Bounce and then make it so
She can’t say no~oo

You can fix it all with magic
The sticks and stones, the tragic,
You’ll never reap what you have sown!

Be a hag and…
Slay your dragon!

If you bring your little sister
Admit how much you missed her
Then maybe you won’t be alone...

Make it so!

BRIDGE:
Innocent playing
Turned to dismaying
The dead of midnight
Princess of Plastic
You were the matchstick
But how could you have known?
Oh no…

No no NO no no no no, NO no no no no
NO no no no NO no no!

VERSE 3:
Life’s inelastic?
Prison of Plastic
Wishing for freedom!
(Yeah!)

Just say no!
You’re in contro~oll!
Please remember you’re related
Your hearts are filled with hatred
That doesn’t have to be the case

Cure your trauma!
Come to mama!

You won’t ever get that normal
But if you act sororal
Then maybe you could have a taste
Epithet Erased!

[Quarataia]

Molly deserves a break, a bear hug, some cookies and a responsible adult to take care of things for her, this music and arc better be cathartic for her, or else.

[Penelopekickflip]

Something I noticed that I don't think anyone else has pointed out yet: During the line "let it burn" in Molly's section, the wall that rises up is not of fire, but of Giovanni's soup smoke. Just something I noticed!

[grookeygang]

"Princess of Plastic, you were the matchstick."

>Molly is terrified of fire.
>Their mom is dead.

Oh no.

[level]

One thing that interests me about Lorelai is how much she parallels Giovanni:

He's nearly as much of a LARPer as she is, but he still provided emotional support to Molly after about an hour of knowing her. While Lorelai struggles to admit she cares to her own little sister.

[NoRegs]

Molly’s side of the song seem to imply that she “let it burn” while Lorelai’s side seem to imply she is the one that started the fire, maybe both of them where playing and Lorelai created a fire Molly was too inexperienced to dumb down which in turn killed their mom creating a rift between the sisters that we see currently

[shadyspot]

"Princess of plastic you were the matchstick but how could you have known"...OH...OH GOD.

[RottenBen]

"If you act sororal" is potentially my favorite line because I've never heard the word before, but my Latin classes from high school years ago makes it extremely easy to realize it means "sisterly" in a way. Truly a banger.

[BaronB.BlazikenBaronOfBarons]

Fun Fact: Back when this was Anime Campaign, Lorelai’s designed was more similar to her father, and her personality could accurately be described as “valley girl unironically.” In the epilogue stream, Brendan said that if the story was ever to be remade into a more professional format, one of the major changes he’d do is give her more depth and less (but still present) annoyances. Her first appearance hasn’t even officially come out yet, but I can already tell it’s gonna work out.

[marcstender]

It's a banger alright. While the opening song from the first season was a nice, slow and worked perfectly as an opening, this one delivers a whole ass story and message in a flash of great music. Beautiful done, all who worked on this.

[MAIpeleg]

"princess of plastic, you were the matchstick" gets so much sadder after you read the book.

Lorelai may be horrible to her sister but we need to remember that she's also a traumatized kid who has nobody to lean on, just like Molly.

[animationdude]

_“Take those imperfections and coat them with frosting!”_

I’m not sure if I’m worried or hyped to see where they’re going with this

[barbaraerausquin]

"be a Hag and... Slay your dragon"
**Sees a burry yellow dragon that looks all bulky and even seems to have smoke coming from it**

*Oh my god please don't tell me she made the Dragon based on her house burning from the fire*

[IAteABox]

As somebody who got to see this early as a Kickstarter backer I’m so happy this is able to be shared because it’s SO DAMN GOOD
The animated opening version is looking pretty epic so far too so be on the lookout guys

[hoennaipom]

It feels like the first part of the song is sung by Molly, describing how she feels overworked and basically carries her family on her back. At the end it dips into some of the mantra she learned from Giovanni; she should “just say no!” and be the bad guy rather than trying to be the responsible one all the time. The second part, starting at 1:00, is Lorelai describing how she’s shut herself away in a “perfect” world of her own design. Fears? Imperfections? Past memories? Who needs ‘em when you can make anything your heart desires? However, she’s debating whether or not to let Molly into her fantasy sphere. She could continue to sit back and let Molly handle all the family responsibilities (thinking that Molly can’t “say no”), or offer a hand of support to her sister, and, by doing so, overcome her own loneliness in this “prison of plastic.” Then, the third part, which is at 1:58, is actually their mother singing to the both of them, reminding her daughters of the events that transpired (likely a fire set by Lorelai that led to her mother’s demise, based on the references to fire throughout the song, and several of the verses during Lorelai’s part related to avoiding the truth and not “reaping what she has sown” ). Mom then urges the two to reconnect. While they can’t heal all wounds, with a sisterly bond, they can begin to conquer their trauma and “come to mama”— accept their mother’s death.

[nightmareshadow]

So its confirmed, Lorelai is in deep denial over her mothers death and is unintentionally pushing her pain onto her little sister.

The next arc is clearly going to be about her accepting she's gone and she needs to talk it out with Molly.

Let's hope Giovanni can help


Edit: Holy shit, people will like anything

[MusicAInz]

I think I finally understand why Martin is so neglectful towards Molly and coddles Lorelai so much.
*spoilers*
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While Martin is immature and aloof, he also loves his daughters dearly. He is not a cruel person, as shown by his flashbacks. After the accident with his wife, his life was thrown into chaos as much as the girls', but he was never the one who was good at problem-solving in his family; he was the emotional pillow for his wife. As Molly is a lot more put together, and not the cause of the fire, he probably sees a lot of his wife in her. He thinks she can take care of the family matters with no issues, just like his wife did. He doesn't see her overworking herself and him acting lackadaisically like a child as an issue, because his wife would do the same and he would cheer her up by acting that way. That doesn't work with Molly, because she is not her mother; Martin doesn't see that though.

Meanwhile, Lorelai takes a lot after him. She's a very emotional and childish girl, despite her age. She also is the one who caused the fire who killed her mother. Because of this, she locks herself into a bubble to avoid interacting with reality; the terrible reality that she lives in which she feels was created due to her own fault. She can't confront the current life that was created due to her epithet. Martin likely understands her emotional pain and, in his typical "comfort his wife" aloof love style, he coddles her to keep her from feeling the trauma from accidentally killing her mom. As Martin isn't the logical analytic type his wife was, he doesn't see that focusing his attention towards the daughter who caused the accident to keep her from feeling guilty and alone is causing one of his children to feel unloved, overworked, and alone. He also doesn't see how it is unhealthy to feed her isolation desire in her locking herself into her epithet world; the same way that a parent with a hikkikimori (a child who refuses to leave their room) doesn't understand that allowing them to lock themselves away is unhealthy. Martin's behavior is based on real parents with traumatized children. One with an obsession towards being hyper-competence due to keeping order of their chaotic life and the other with a trauma so extreme they can't bare with it, locking themself away to avoid confronting the reality of their situation.

Martin is not the best parent, but he doesn't know what to do. He is as thrown into chaos as his daughters. He is not very intelligent, analytical, or self-aware. Being all of that for the family was his wife's job. Now that she is gone, he is trying to handle his new family situation in the way he always handled his life when his wife was still around. He doesn't know how to live any other way and likely thinks he is doing a good job, because the daughter that caused the accident is putting on a false mask of confidence and happiness, while his other daughter is growing into an extremely competent woman who is the spitting image of his deceased wife; and in his mind, what could be wrong with his daughter becoming like the woman he idolized as being so perfect at everything she did?

Just an analysis.

[DizzleDoodles]

Anybody else finish the audio book and start realizing what more of these lines meant and feeling it harder this time around

[ghastly_]

Theory Crafting:
Lorelei mentions back in the KS Announcement how she seems to be within her Epithet and fighting someone/something, and states “and this is for my family, who you burned!” In this opening, her half of the song mentions “slay your dragon.” Of the characters revealed, the closest this could be to is Graham. He’s even shown in the beginning of the KS announcement when it’s flaming in the background. Considering the mention of the death of Molly and Lorelei’s mom - and Molly’s subsequent phobia of fire - my personal theory is that Molly and Lorelei were creating s’mores (what Graham is made of) when the fire got too intense and eventually ended in their mother passing away. Lorelei then uses Graham as a catalyst to vent her frustration from that day and “slay” what had killed her mother and vicariously come to peace with what had happened.

[shibadawn]

I'm loving these songs! It feeds my epithet erased addiction just enough.
Edit: It's already on Spotify, what is this?!?!

[eldritch.abridged]

This song means so so so so so SO MUCH MORE once you've actually read the book, oh my god. The small emphasis on "washing the dishes" drives me INSANE now, it's amazing I love it so much