Vincent’s Tale: Sunflowers (Prologue) isn’t just a return. It’s a reset.
A new chapter in Ren’s immersive “Tales” universe, the piece opens not with a beat drop but a blood-stained headline: a 14-year-old girl dead from a stab wound, her 14-year-old attacker in critical condition after a violent encounter with police (though the Spotify version later declares him dead).
It’s a chilling re-entry into the same world that birthed Screech’s Tale, Jenny’s Tale, and Violet’s Tale.
While Ren has stated this isn’t a direct sequel, the shared universe connections are intentional, particularly through the news broadcast framing.
This is where Vincent’s story begins. Sunflowers is the prologue, confirmed by Ren himself in a pinned YouTube comment, with Self Portrait set to follow as the next official episode in the series.
We previously explored that second chapter in our article Ren Self Portrait Lyrics Meaning: A Breakdown of Vincent’s Tale and the Chaos Within.
Released on July 17, 2025, and already topping 1.1 million views, Sunflowers introduces Vincent; a figure who may or may not reflect Van Gogh, Ren himself, or a collision of both.
In the opening shot, Vincent rolls a spliff on a stained couch while the world burns, figuratively and literally. Beside him, a vase of sunflowers is engulfed in flame.
Ren wrote, produced, directed, and starred in the piece. Filming took place in Brighton with Chung Ming Wong Kai Lacey on lighting, starring Aaron Jones as Vincent (per video credits), and location support from Sam & Goz.
He fuses storytelling, philosophy, and self-reflection into a single camera glide, threading a visual rhythm that feels both improvised and intricately staged.
The lyrics are sparse but arresting. “The sunflowers wilt when the skies do not rain,” a metaphor for artistic drought that reflects both Van Gogh’s struggles and Ren’s own.
“Here lie the corpses of corporate machines” pushes further, presenting modern capitalism as a kind of industrial graveyard where authenticity can’t survive.
Midway through, the perspective expands. “As we all fall down / In London town, shaky ground” places Vincent’s unraveling inside a broader societal collapse.
“Never surrender” doesn’t land like a call to arms, but it rather sounds like resignation.
The war here is internal and external. A breakdown of mind and system.
“The grass, it stays greener in places unknown” gestures toward escape, not necessarily geographic, perhaps imagined, perhaps unreachable.
Speculation around Vincent’s identity continues. Some believe he may be Screech’s foster father, citing visual nods and costuming overlaps.
Others note that Screech’s Tale ends with two different fates: death in the YouTube video and survival in the Spotify version.
The discrepancy appears deliberate, a narrative sleight-of-hand Ren has used before.
Visually, Sunflowers balances realism with symbolic disruption. The burning bouquet nods to Van Gogh but subverts his sunflowers’ usual associations with hope and light.
Here, joy combusts. Beauty scorches. A sweatshirt branded “Luke 1977” sparked biblical theories before fans identified it as a British fashion label.
Television static flickers with recurring motifs. A red smear stains the carpet.
A static-distorted rabbit, possibly a callback to Sick Boi’s slaughterhouse bunny blinks into view.
The dream logic gives the piece a feverish rhythm, shifting between long takes and subtle cuts that blur the line between reality and perception.
The soundscape feels equally composed. Funeral march horns, sparse piano, and operatic yodels create a sonic atmosphere both theatrical and claustrophobic.
One listener described it as “a one-take fever dream.” The effect is immersive. Disorienting. Intentional. It’s brief, cinematic, and tightly coiled.
Beyond lyrics and visuals, subtler cues are scattered: a cryptic Instagram reference to Screech, surveillance motifs, coded fashion, even the styling of Vincent’s hair echoing Ren’s own look from Self Portrait. The thread isn’t just thematic, it’s visual and recursive.
Perhaps the most unnerving moment is the tone. While the TV announces the death of two children, Vincent lights his joint and barely reacts.
It’s not apathy. It’s paralysis. Emotional burnout. A survival reflex honed in a world that doesn’t stop burning.
Ren later revealed that production was interrupted by a severe autoimmune flare-up.
He underwent stem cell treatment in Mexico before completing the shoot. That context reframes Sunflowers. It’s not just a conceptual prologue. It’s a survival artifact.
In retrospect, Sunflowers serves as the fuse for everything that explodes in Self Portrait.
That next chapter is wild and jagged, filled with rage and vocal combustion.
But here, the fire is quieter. It sits curled up on a sofa, eyes fixed on the screen, waiting for the spark.
How do you interpret the burning sunflowers, are they a symbol of protest, loss, or something even more personal?
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Full Lyrics To Vincent’s Tale – Sunflowers (Prologue) Lyrics by Ren
Intro
Tragic scenes last night in London
A 14-year-old girl was found dead from a fatal stab wound
Her attacker, a 14-year-old boy, was also declared dead at the scene after a violent altercation with police
Over to reporters on the ground for more
Verse 1
Oh, such a beautiful shame
The sunflowers wilt when the skies do not rain
It’s a story I’m sure we all know
It’s a moment of madness inside of the woes
Chorus
As we all fall down
In London town, shaky ground
Carries me, war rains down
Blindingly loud
Never surrendеr
Verse 2
Oh, what a terrible scenе (ha)
Here lie the corpses of corporate machines
Planting seeds where the grass never grows (ha, ha)
But the grass, it stays greener in places unknown
Chorus
As we all fall down
In London town, shaky ground
Carries me, war rains down
Blindingly loud
Never surrender
Outro
(Uh, uh, uh)
(Uh, uh, uh)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Chee!
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah