Gaga and her fans rn

[Didymus 34,379]

Ever since the BTWB ended I've been feeling like Gaga was sending mixed messages to her fanbase..

This is no criticism or final answer, but I gathered my thoughts about it below:

Spoiler

Who can forget this time? The BTWB was suddenly cancelled and fans' supportiveness quickly changed into frustration. Gaga entered a pretty much constant social media silence for a few months, after a heavy fan dialogue during the BTW era.

When ARTPOP started things seemed back on track, though the era made some, imo, ambiguous references to the fans. For instance:

Pretty much certainly a reference to The Little Mermaid:

Now this can be interpreted in multiple ways, of course, but it stays weird to make a reference to a character who steals a girl's voice; specifically, a mermaid. Gaga of course wore seashell boob coverage, which can't be anything but a reference to Ariel, who wore her iconic sea shell bra. Sea shells on boobs is not a motif in any Venus/Aphrodite image ever made, so the question remains: was Gaga really paying homage to only Venus/Aphrodite or Ariel? After all, Ariel also came out of the sea.. naked, on legs.

This seems to be an eerie reference to her being able to walk/dance again after her depressing wheelchair era.

Now this get really eerie when we remind ourselves of this performance:

A mermaid in mourning on a wheelchair. I don't wanna go all conspiracy theory on your asses, but you have to admit.. that's a weird freakin' coincidence. If I go on in a personal theory: what was The Little Mermaid really about? It was about someone who doesn't feel at home in their natural habitat. Ariel longed for another world, but couldn't live there, unless she made a drastic change. Could this be what Gaga is trying to say when she shows herself as a mermaid in a wheelchair? A being supposed to be free to swim everywhere, but with no water?

Wasn't that, after all, the theme of the Yoü and I mermaid scenes?

Taylor Kinney, in the role of Lüc Carl, conducts all sorts of experiments on Gaga, including her transformation into a mermaid.

Tellingly, her long dark brown hair disappears during this transformation, to give rise to the exact same hairdo in the wheelchair performance: a typically Gaga-esque teal (while the long black was more Stefani-like of course). Note how we see a kind of flesh-colored shell-like boob coverage.

The point, however, is that Gaga has no real purpose there. The bit of water she has is a tank and a bathtub Taylor has to keep filling. In the Yüyi fashion films with I&V (note: same photographers who made Applause), we see her mermaid character in another very unnatural position: a director's chair.

In another photo shoot, we see her apparently (how I see it) having crawled out of a defiled ocean.

And again in the same position (also shot by I&V btw):

The implication seems clear: this mermaid has nowhere to go, has no room to breathe, is out of her natural habitat, her freedom stolen from her, but she still has to run the show. Perhaps she still wants to run the show. Indeed, at the end of Yoü and I she runs back to her torturer, dreaming of a marriage, half-human, half-robot. Remember what she told Billboard magazine: "When did you become the fashionable robot?" about her 2012-3 period.

So after all this (incl. a mysterious "some of you will betray me" comment at the BTWB, seemingly foreshadowing the ARTPOP era), Gaga has returned, has her legs back, comes out of the sea as a new woman. But does she still have her voice? Has it been taken from her? And there we re-enter Little Mermaid zone. Gaga also seemed to identify with Ariel on Twitter after her little moment with Azealia, posting this:

Clearly then there's a Little Mermaid undercurrent between era's that deserves to be noticed.

How does Gaga appear at artRAVE? Oh yes. As Ursula..

This reference is undeniable, since she is wearing the exact same hair as Ursula (also an octopus obviously): short and white. What does this mean? Remember the song she's singing: Paparazzi. Written from the standpoint of a.. fan. And what does she do next?

She sits in a monster claw.. or is caught in it? What song is she singing again? Do What U Want.. Let's look at some lyrics:

You can't stop my voice 'cause
You don't own my life but
Do what you want with my body

And, perhaps more tellingly when the theme of Yoü and I is concerned:

Sometimes I'm scared, I suppose
If you ever let me go, I will apart
If you break my heart
So just take my body and don't stop the party

This sounds like she's clinging to a lover who is basically treating her like a human without a voice (*ping*). Of course this is the same claw appearing in Applause, which obviously was a Mermaid reference. Do we need to see it as a coincidence that Gaga not just dresses as Ursula (during a song which is about an obessed fan) but is caught in one of her claws a minute later during a song about her ambivalent feelings about freedom and love?

Connect to one of her latest Instagram posts:

Again, paparazzi (oops, it's actually fans - *ping*) hounding on her, Gaga standing there out of place, not engaging, not smiling, plus an ambivalent quote about freedom with a clear reference to the dark side of fame: now it's something done to her.

This of course isn't the first time she's made a reference to fame being a dark force. Remember Fame? 'It's black like the soul of fame'. Connect to Applause's lyric: 'If only fame had an IV, baby, could I bear'. 'I live for the applause'. The undercurrents can't be missed imo.

Now what is she saying about this whole period?

"I was ****ing tired! I was overworked. It became all about the money. I began feeling like a corporate machine – and my art was paying the price. I didn’t get into this business to sell perfume or take selfies with strangers."

"I’m grateful for what I have, but that doesn’t mean I don’t value the gift of life. Because while this house is beautiful, once I cross my property line I’m no longer free; it’s legal to stalk me all over the world. The thing that makes me happy is that piano."

The piano she couldn't write on during ARTPOP, that is, 'cause she'd realize she was selling someone else. Cue Ariel having to seduce Eric without having a voice.

Now the conspiracy possibilities just go on and on. Take a look at Paparazzi.

Wheelchair, turns into.. the robot/seductress from Metropolis:

A reference she made before:

Probably just coincidence, but eerie stuff.

So all in all, I'm sensing some serious double messages here, artistic expressions of the things she's saying quite straightforwardly now in interviews. What's going ahn? Not concluding anything, but the ambiguity is real.

Whether you read or not, please share your opinion about the subject

How do you think Gaga feels towards her fans at this point?

Have you noticed a change? If so, when/how?

[LanasNerfGun 4,679]

She's probably getting a laser tattoo removal treatment on her monster claw at this very moment

[luckythisway 2,602]

yes I definitely have. I met her after the artRAVE in NYC and the final Roseland show and she didn't really talk to the fans at all. But during the BTW era, she was very talkative to fans. it's apparent in social media too, as she would always tweet love for her monsters, which has been very rare lately. 

[lmxoxo 943]

3 minutes ago, LanasNerfGun said:

She's probably getting a laser tattoo removal treatment on her monster claw at this very moment

[Bitter 3,640]

i am not sure if i undestand your whole point but i definitely applaud you for the effort.

 

[The Surrealist 27,470]

[Didymus 34,379]

Just now, Bitter said:

i am not sure if i undestand your whole point but i definitely applaud you for the effort.

There isn't really a point I guess, but I just always found this weird "anti-fan" stuff during ARTPOP and now with all her statements about how awful that period was in so many ways for her, describing herself as a robot specifically, I tried to connect some dots between what she did artistically, and imo there's a possibility she was low-key hinting at how stifled she felt by everyone, incl. the fans for a while already.

Or she planned her whole career and she's fooling the **** out of us

[venusfly 17,885]

She is definitely more quiet with us and doesn't interact with us pretty much at all anymore so i dont know how to feel

[Bambino 24,116]

Didn't she say something like things changed when she got a new management and that everything she did before just wasn't feeling real to her? Maybe that included her fans too

[Didymus 34,379]

Oh look, she had a mermaid umbrella

(only relevant if you read the spoiler)

[Prismatic 4,789]

Something tells me that I better save big for the next m&g. 

[Didymus 34,379]

1 minute ago, Bambino said:

Didn't she say something like things changed when she got a new management and that everything she did before just wasn't feeling real to her? Maybe that included her fans too

"I was ****ing tired! I was overworked. It became all about the money. I began feeling like a corporate machine – and my art was paying the price. I didn’t get into this business to sell perfume or take selfies with strangers." (2016)

[SOON 3,991]

Wow... It actually makes sense. 

[AJH219 4,448]

I think your interpretation is spot on, actually. Its pretty obvious that this fan base has been stifling/overwhelming to her over the last few years. However, she has no one to blame but herself for that. I think adopting that Mother Monster persona during the BTW era really backfired on her. The fan base has become absolutely obsessed with everything single thing about her, a side effect I don't believe she  anticipated at the time. I'm glad she's backing away. One of the initial reasons I was transfixed on her in late 2009 was because she had the  mystery around her. I feel like we've seen that elusiveness return slightly. 

[yASSsss 35,510]

When GGD was having a meltdown yesterday (about Gaga not caring about her fans etc),she posted "xoxo monsters" on her Snapchat.And as far as I can remember, she's done it quite a few times. I don't have any receipts to prove this but it definitely means that she loves to see what we're talking about her, she does care about our opinions, that's why she still lurks GGD.

I'm sure she'll interact with us more, once  LG5 era kicks off <3 

EDIT-just read the spoiler.Thanx for making this thread.  

It may not be that deep but i do agree with Ariel-Ursula reference.I'd die to know what goes on in her head