Having a "target on one’s back" is a well-known idiom, likely stemming from the battlefield where an undefended warrior would become a prime target of enemy combatants. Within a civilian framework, the more graphic designation typically describes someone vulnerable to reputational damage, often with a focus on career sabotage or coordinated marginalization. Someone singled out as a main rival to the status quo, or a perceived threat to an established system.
Being exposed to such a contentious environment, especially over a sustained amount of time ("25 and it's all planned") requires the resiliency to survive and a deep-rooted optimism ("faith in the future). Coincidentally, two recognizable traits possessed in abundance by a very familiar someone who notably kick-started the new year with a cheeky social media post of a Triple 20; the highest single target score on a dartboard. Forgive the mixed metaphor, but "I roll, and I roll, 'til I change my luck". In other words, someone who understands that success means staying in the game.
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| New Orleans, February 6, 2025 |
Hmm. Let's see. Target on one's back. A threat to the established system. The focus of longstanding disparagement and career setbacks. Vulnerable to attack and public scrutiny. Yet somehow, through trials and tribulations, an individual who is able to still retain a fun-loving approach to life. Sounds an awful lot like one of Narnia's most popular protagonists doesn't it?
Hey, there, Louis!
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| Lollapalooza India, March 9, 2025 |
Now why does Louis have a target on his back? Well, that's the overarching question isn't it?
Over the last 15 years, we certainly know an awful lot about outcomes because there have been reams of documented repercussions (hit jobs) relative to Louis' pursuit of a musical career. Records blacklisted from being played on radio stations. Lack of, or outright incompetent, promotion. Interviews focused on reinforcing contractually imposed narratives like "parenthood", personal tragedies, and tabloidish One Direction chatter. As opposed to shining the spotlight on Louis as an up-and-coming solo artist. And let's not forget the intentional harassment and subversive fragmentation of his loyal fandom and all those adverse headlines and social media contrivances by co-opted "managers" and compromised PR reps.
Then there's been the multitude of coordinated media manipulations by TPTB regarding Louis' public image and crafted storytelling. Plots and strategies that began early on, while Louis was still a teenage band member in One Direction. The devoted boyfriend with the "supermodel" girlfriend. A homophobic, laddy lad persona created to alienate fans and the public in general. The beginnings of the enforced closeting and other collateral contractual restrictions that continue to open up Louis to fandom hostilities whenever he tries to project his real self.
Now, let's ask that pesky "Why?" question again.
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| Louis' "Achilles" heel |
The same vulnerability that has Harry trudging around like a prisoner, walking in circles around NY for a week ("in a strange way, we're all in this together") followed, of course, by pap shots galore. Het headlines at the ready.
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| Prisoner stripes, handcuffed hands/arms restrained behind his back 9.7.25 |
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| Louis mirroring the same pose in Franklin, TN, the very next day 9.8.25 |
A copy of a copy of a copy. With the added recurrent theme of playing darts (a game of chance and skill). While supposedly filming a video.
August 25, 2025
September 5, 2025
September 6, 2025
September 9, 2025
In the meantime, Harry answers the viewers' "Why?" while continuing to send subliminal messages to those who have always seen him for who he is. Walking past "Jeffrey's" Grocery in the West Village during one of his many recent pap walks. His stunt jacket propped strategically on his right shoulder in front of the camera's lens. All the while showing the public just how made up these perp (Oops! Narnia means pap) walks really are. Something Louis does as well. All the time. Remember these guys are media savvy.
Someone, determined, ornery and feisty enough to figure out a wily way to publicly acknowledge the love of his life for being his ceaselessly supportive (Hopeless Romantic) partner since he was sixteen years old. Someone who either should have shared that stage with Harry that night, or had the camera scanning to his elated face in the audience. Shove it Sony/Cowell.
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| Brit Awards, February 11, 2023 |
A man meant to be shared with the world
Which, speaking of triangles, how coincidental for this grocery establishment to also be near the Stonewall Inn and Stonewall Monument. "Don't forget where you belong."
All the while, Louis was photographed arriving at JFK Airport on 9.1.25. which magically just happens to coincide with Harry's sudden very PUBLIC "loved up" het appearances on the streets of NY. No doubt to emphasize Louis and Harry's continued separation. Reinforced, by the end of the week, with the controlled Deuxmoi "leak" recording of Louis and Zayn hanging out together. The photos taken at The Pond Bar, in Franklin, Tennessee of all places. Some 900 miles from Manhattan and approximately 800 miles from Bucks County, PA where Zayn is supposed to publicly live. The well-timed photos and videos dropped to remind fans, without words, that apparently Louis Tomlinson doesn't know a Harry Styles. Moreover, if Deuxmoi, is involved, certain people obviously want us to notice that Louis suddenly knows Zayn again.
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| Deuxmoi, Instagram 9.8.25 |
An official photo of them together could have dropped back on January 21, 2025 when Louis attended Zayn's Stairway to the Sky concert in LA. But for some reason the "reunion" was delayed until 9/8. Or is this September reconnection more about getting as many eyes as possible on Louis right now. If so, it's wise to ask why that would be.
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| The Pond Dive Bar in Franklin, TN |
From the beginning, Zouis set the scene with their tongue in cheek, "Outlaw" ways. Got to love these guys.
An interesting sidenote is that Zayn made sure to be seen in an Obey t-shirt. A One Direction messaging device that Liam used many times, pre-hiatus. The connotation of control hard to miss.
The back of the shirt bears a much more meditative dispatch. Maybe a bit of serenity before the chaos begins.
“Unaware of light, sound,
gravity or any physical sensation at all, I am at
perfect peace – like a mind in
space I drift yet to return to the world.”
Tune in 2 a curious feeling -
Louis, on the other hand, wore a Neighborhood shirt, the company and brand founded in 1994 in Harajuku, Japan. The design was a spiderweb, reminiscent of the similar body art he received on June 24, 2013 - at the same time that he got two other tattoos - a lit match and a fused bomb. That's right a lit match and a fused bomb. Given that Louis' spiderweb is located just above the word "Rogue" on his left ankle, the combined impression is at the very least intriguing, even provocative. What are you up to, Louis?
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| And don't forget that the Japanese streetwear's motto is, Craft with Pride |
Continuing the kabuki theater that is being staged in NY right now no one should be surprised if Harry "impulsively" shows up at Louis' Away From Home Festival with his newfound, "Friend with Benefits" appendage, to support the public narrative emerging. While Louis and his assigned Tory beard frolic in a nearby field of sunflowers, blissfully preoccupied with one another as they all experience a watermelon sugar high together. Just like two thoroughly smitten straight bros, who haven't officially seen one another in fifteen years, would obviously do. /sarcasm intended
Enter stage right, the soaring voices of Sony/Cowell/Matt Vines/Chris Frewin/Azoffs, et al. in the background: "That should shut-up those Larries. Time to release the hounds" (aka Antis, Solos, Hired Hands, etc.).
TPTB have had lots of practice, in scripting, implementing and corroborating Liam's destruction and disappearance from the public stage. Louis and Harry have always posed more of a challenge, however, because of their formidable fandoms. That's why TPTB have spent a decade eroding that support system. The transition to Discord just one more element in their grand scheme of fandom attrition. The question is whether Louis and Harry have traded/negotiated something better for themselves in exchange. "Driving down a one-way road to something better". No turning back from here. Only movement toward a desired path in life. This time openly together?
Don't forget that Louis told us from the moment he began preparation and promo for his first solo album back in 2020, that what he was about to embark upon (seeking his and Harry's freedom) would not be easy. Most definitely, not for the faint of heart. That's why he used a repetitive target aesthetic throughout the rollout which was hard to miss.
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| Target on Louis' chest with red bullet holes, April 2019 |
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| Walls Listening Party January 2020 |
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| Making of Walls Video, 2020 |
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| Odd man out in a straight world |
Louis Tomlinson: A Target. Bullets. Blood. Bull's-eye. Odd Man Out.
It takes one's breath away to be reminded about how loud, honest and vulnerable Louis has been since the beginning of his solo journey. Nor can it be ignored that the last time Louis used the target as part of his Walls aesthetic was December 12, 2020, during his record-breaking Livestream. The target appears interestingly enough on the B stage [reminiscent of Harry's use of that same letter to tell his love story during his "Live on Tour" (LT) concerts] from September 19, 2017 - July 14, 2018. Interesting end date for Harry's final show, don't you think?
And here's Louis' set list for his B stage performance. Songs are in red lettering. Narnia will let our readers see the through line.
Louis' Livestream with his big, brash, proudly displayed "H" across his chest that no one could miss.
At the time, nobody saw the radical shift that was going to come in December 2021. Louis' Livestream was a huge success. He wore an iconic "H" emblazoned across his chest. Once the pandemic subsided, the fandom believed that "paradise" was getting closer everyday. That freedom was getting nearer. In hindsight, all that optimism should have been tapped down, given his introduction of a new song, "Copy of a Copy of a Copy", but there were so many signs of resistance from both Louis and Harry that positive change was being manifested from all segments of the fandom to push them over that finish line.
As early as three days later, on December 15, 2020, there was Liam's gun-to-the-head Livestream with his bullying manager nearby, ready to pull the metaphorical trigger if obedience was not achieved (the Barnacle, aka Steve Finan O'Conner). But, Louis at least, continued to be physically separated from Babygate, for the most part.
Fast-forward to Louis' 30th birthday, the following year, and the Livestream target aesthetic quickly turned into a flashing red light. For the first time, and right before he was about to restart his World Tour (sabotage) on February 1, 2021, "Freddie", was abruptly presented as actively taking part in Doncaster Christmas activities with the Tomlinson family. Photos were posted on social media to memorialize the gathering. Two years in a row, holiday matching pajama family photos were taken and uploaded. Freddie showed up at a few Louis concerts in LA and Louis acknowledged him from the stage. The mockumentary, "All of Those Voices" made sure to film "father son moments". Family members discussed "Freddie" on camera. And even though Louis cleverly presented the wrong date for the concert in the film, the general public's perception of Louis as a dad was further entrenched into the official record.
Taking us up to today, where Narnia identifies the same pattern emerging, though it can be hard to determine what is actually happening in real time with so many moving parts in action. Clues without clarity mounting as Louis continues to try to warn fans that something big is coming. Literally, WARNING those with a watchful eye to be prepared for anything. Besides walking directly in front of an actual cautionary sign, we see Matt Vines, close at hand. If it's not him, it's the ex-Syco embed (aka inbred), Chris Frewin. And we all know how having a manager monitoring and directing your public moves turned out for Liam.
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| Louis arriving at JFK Airport, 9.1.25, with a WARNING |
Then there is another ominous sign. A target reappears in one of Louis' photos for the first time in nearly five years. And we all recognize what that means. The return of the target on Louis' back. He's telling us that he is walking into a precarious and/or dangerous situation, making him more susceptible to adverse outcomes. But, he's moving forward, nonetheless. Rolling the dice?
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| Louis arriving at JFK Airport, 9.1.25, with a target on his back |
And let's remember that Zayn also has sent out his own warning sign back on May 30. Affixed to the brick wall behind him is Billy the Puppet, from the Saw franchise. The puppet that describes in detail the traps ahead and the life and death games that will befall an intended victim. For Billy, although certain rules apply, life is always a game of survival. So if we were to try and think like TPTB who are obviously trying to eliminate Louis, Harry, and Zayn's LGBTQ+ support, and wipe their fingerprints off of their three Babygates, we have to be prepared for anything.
Think about what would impact even the most devoted supporter.
Back in January 2020, the idea was floated in the media that Cheryl was looking into a surrogate baby. It's pretty obvious who was being set up for another Babygate.
Jumping ahead to the present, we can say it looks like the plan was dropped in 2023 in lieu of bringing Liam down by other means, but don't be surprised if something similar comes out of all of this current chaos. Or, at least, the attempt to duplicate their previous "success". In other words, will Louis have to go through another fake pregnancy to finally gain the ultimate freedom that he wants. Or will there be some sort of het scandal imposed. Or, maybe a coming out scandal. Narnia has not forgotten that Harry Styles sighting at Glastonbury on the dancefloor of NYC Downlow.
Maybe a public "engagement" or "marriage"? That, or some other highly visible "proof" that Louis, or frankly Zayn, are most definitely straight. Use your imaginations because scruples will certainly not stop any attempts by TPTB to regain control of their narratives. Or will we finally find out why Louis added Executive Head of Film to his Instagram account in May. Or, see what Zayn was filming at The Pond?" last weekend? And Narnia is most definitely keeping an eye on Simon Cowell's sudden reappearance on the scene last summer in terms of One Direction and his newfound need to find what no one is asking for; a new boyband.
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| Netflix - Tudum, July 17, 2025 |
Therefore since the "Why?" and the "Because" always has been about the closet and the love between Louis and Harry, as well as Liam and Zayn, saddle up and be prepared for battle.
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| Zayn Instagram post, 5.30.25 |
As a fandom, there are still lots of questions. Lots of whys. But, remember that the because has been staring us right in the face "all this time".
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| Louis and Harry holding hands, Nov 25, 2010 |
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| Zayn and Liam, a candid moment, 2013 |
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| Louis and Harry on a date at Caraffini's September 2011 |
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| Zayn and Liam 7.2.14 Dusseldorf |
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| Louis and Harry |
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| Milan Interview, December 2013 |
Sources: Twitter, Tumblr, Instagram, Netflix - Tudum, Pop Crave, YouTube, 1883 Magazine, Fashionlouist, Urban Outfitters, Deuxmoi
Our Playlist: Where Do Broken Hearts Go - One Direction
Headline - One Direction
What's Going On? - Marvin Gaye
For What It's Worth - Buffalo Springfield
Wake Me Up When September's Over - Green Day
