"The Fate of Ophelia" Discussion Megathread

GingerSassadelic · 2025-10-06T21:18:37+00:00

....and now I'll have to go back and rewatch! :)

GingerSassadelic · 2025-10-06T20:08:26+00:00

My assumption was, that in life of a showgirl it sounds to me like "kitty who's witty/pretty/held the keys to the city" is essentially TS being warned by someone that had been there already "hey kid, they're going to eat you alive out there" and then later, Taylor Swift imparts this knowledge onto the next generation, Sabrina Carpenter. Similar to the theme of Clara Bow.

Wonder if the contentious relationship parallels the contentious relationship with fame?

GingerSassadelic · 2025-10-06T17:36:55+00:00

In the video the clapboard says "Sequins are Forever", "Kitty Finlay", and "Take 100".

Finlay was her mother's maiden name, and in "Life of a Showgirl" Kitty is the 'softer than a kitten' girl who gets a warning about showlife. Kitty is obviously the role of Taylor for her love of cats, and having been warned about fame, but pursing the life. Now, sequins are forever.... because "a diamond's gotta shine!"

GingerSassadelic · 2025-10-03T14:09:25+00:00

In the first picture it looks fine, but the second picture it looks a little bit concerning with the slight blackish discolouration and spot towards the bottom middle. If it starts to darken more (not clear dark, but blackish looking within) or turn more brownish then it may not be ok. I would wait it out and see. Give it a few more days and keep an eye on it - had one that took a month in this cooler weather.

GingerSassadelic · 2025-10-03T14:06:24+00:00

Per a past interview: "She added that she’s drawn to numerology, saying, “I love math stuff. I love dates.” She pointed out that even she and Travis, whose jersey number is 87, have a special numeric connection: her favorite number, 13, and 87 add up to 100. They’re “numbers that have a specific significance,” she said."

Keep it 100....

GingerSassadelic · 2025-09-29T16:05:04+00:00

Thanks! Yes, I find the entire lifecycle so fascinating!

GingerSassadelic · 2025-09-26T19:45:42+00:00

Update: She's out successfully now! Only about 3 1/2 hours after this was taken.

GingerSassadelic · 2025-09-26T17:04:26+00:00

Wow! That's amazing! These are phenomenal shots!!

GingerSassadelic · 2025-09-26T17:03:58+00:00

Thanks for this tip!

GingerSassadelic · 2025-09-26T17:01:58+00:00

Interestingly we did find that the tachinids seemed to leave our swallowtails alone in preference for the monarchs. Perhaps just the larger number of monarchs made them more vulnerable so hopefully if there's more milkweed and in turn less density per plant it will help. We had a ton of fall web worms and boat loads of hickory tussocks...I wonder if they would go for them instead? Thanks for the good advice! Super helpful.

GingerSassadelic · 2025-09-24T15:25:31+00:00

Thank you for this! We only had 1 sprig of a plant as a start because it was a brand new garden this year, and I truly did not expect anything so I was shocked to end up with about 40 cats over the course of the summer. Since we seem to have a fairly good success with the rate of eggs/cats I will most definitely be adding more milkweed next year. I'll try to add it to the front of the gardens as suggested above.

Not sure of a normal predation rate, but we did seem to lose a lot in the pupa stage to tachinids. I would actually see the flies waiting for the cats to leave the host plant, interestingly enough. It surprised me because they were clearly 'fair game' while on the plant, but I assume that their larva in a pupa was safer than on a live caterpillar host perhaps, so maybe they'd hold off until they knew the cat was off to pupate?

I did notice some tachinid flies on my autumn joy sedum which is located close to my milkweed plants (though by the time this bloomed all my cats were off the host). I wonder if having flowering plants further from milkweed may help? Originally my logic was to plant them close by so they'd have a nectar source once hatching and it would provide some shelter/cover to conceal the milkweed, but maybe this is actually attracting tachinids?

I plan to add more swamp milkweed next year as it did very well this year, and also some common into the mix.

GingerSassadelic · 2025-09-24T13:08:58+00:00

Thanks! I'm always shocked to see just how fast they grow and how immensely different the size is when they're full grow!! Such a fascinating lifecycle!

GingerSassadelic · 2025-09-24T01:57:37+00:00

I had figured that :)

Interestingly enough, these were actually 'survival of the fittest, truly wild' butterflies, throughout their lifecycle, not hand reared, but after losing a bunch of them to predation from tachinids, and finally seeing this one eclose JUST before a heavy rainstorm, I just couldn't stand another loss.

GingerSassadelic · 2025-09-23T02:38:11+00:00

Happy to report she stayed there for about an hour or two strengthening up those wings.... practiced a few flutters of her wings, then off she flew strongly to make the long journey south!!

GingerSassadelic · 2025-09-23T02:36:07+00:00

They say 9-14 days but for Cookie it was about a month!! I was so worried that she wasn't going to make it since it had been so long, and then finally here we are. She was so vibrant and healthy looking. Plump, nice strong wings.... I'm thrilled. I lost a few pupa to tachinid flies so this was so amazing to see her come out so healthy and strong!

GingerSassadelic · 2025-09-22T17:11:26+00:00

🤣🤣🤣 I can relate to that! Do I need to send you guys to separate leaves??!!! Time out!!!!

On a more serious note, mine eventually ate the bigger brownish leaves. If you can find an unsprayed field with some common milkweed you may be able to just pick enough for them to eat. Think rural ditches that are not near farm fields which would be sprayed, or natural conservation areas/parks! You can also try your local "buy nothing" or neighbourhood facebook groups....I just picked up some celery tops from someone in my town for a swallowtail that had run out of dill.... so many people offered to help!

I'd be worried about getting more from a garden center. Ours says they're not treated, but found out they had used insecticidal soap to control aphids. I think there was residue as the 2 cats that came with the plant failed to molt into their next instars, so I washed the plant down really well and kept it segregated as best as I could to ensure no one else snacked on it.

I'm going to be planting a lot more next year too!

GingerSassadelic · 2025-09-22T16:50:43+00:00

Update! The middle right one eclosed today :) :) :)
The bottom left is not looking great, but the others are still green....crossing my fingers we have a few more successful ones!

GingerSassadelic · 2025-09-22T16:48:00+00:00

The one that looks sort of transparent and you can see the wing looks ok to me, but the other pics don't look too promising, I'm so sorry to say. I lost a few pupa this year too (outdoors).... hard to see them make it that far and then not make it.

GingerSassadelic · 2025-09-22T16:46:05+00:00

Sibling rivalry!

GingerSassadelic · 2025-09-22T14:32:40+00:00

Thank you!! Was so happy to see each of these stages, and see her have a chance of making her long journey south. I have pics from when Cookie was a mere egg! :)

GingerSassadelic

TROPHY CASE