#I just like the phrase 'macbeth level breakdown' don't come for me

[hunter-sylvester]

I was talking with my friend about Hunter’s emotional state throughout the film (as you do) and we came to the following conclusion.

Disclaimer: I know full well that Metal Lords (2022) is a lighthearted comedy & coming-of-age film of which Kevin is the main character. Like, I get why the film goes the way it goes and I love it as it is. However, I obviously hyper-focus on a certain character and I just like exploring the ‘ifs’ in films & shows, so here’s the thing:

Getting dumped at rehab by his dad should have triggered a Macbeth level breakdown in Hunter and here’s why.

Quite early in the film it’s established that Hunter’s mom left. The only explicit text we get on the subject is in Kevin’s voice-over. “He’s been into a lot of things since I’ve known him, but he’s stuck with metal longer than any of them. When his mom left in seventh grade, he decided it was the key to everything.” And two shots of the picture frame Hunter has in his room that his mom has literally been ripped out of.

So there isn’t much to go off, but there’s implications. You could just read it as him being a temperamental little shit that ripped up a photo in anger. But I think it’s more interesting to go a little further.

We know how Hunter feels about his dad, once again being something touched on in part by Kevin’s voice-over. “Sometimes he’s not so nice to people when he’s uncomfortable. And being around his dad makes him uncomfortable” It’s a line that is cut off by Hunter being a little shit in DnD but we know the word is uncomfortable. Then, obviously, Hunter and his dad are mostly seen mid-shouting match. They don’t get along. They can’t communicate productively. They just don’t get each other. There’s a lot of yelling and his dad makes him uncomfortable.

And with all of that he still has a photo of him and his dad on his shelf. What that tells me is that Hunter has to fucking hate his mom. We don’t get much of an indication as to why but one factor that would make sense is that she abandoned him. She left. And she left him.

If we assume that Hunter and his dad have always butted heads to some degree, his mom leaving him with his dad would be even worse. She rejected him, she didn’t want him and now all he has is someone who makes him incredibly uncomfortable to be around. His dad is a cunt, but at least he didn’t abandon him.

Now, Kevin. Bare with me here, it’s about to get gay. That’s how I see the character, however, it can still apply if you do see Hunter as straight (I don’t know how you manage it, but go off, cis)

Hunter is clearly very very attached to Kevin. Possessive of him, even. I think it beams off the screen that Hunter is in love with Kevin. But even that isn’t entirely necessary to acknowledge for it to be clear that Hunter sees Kevin and himself as a package deal.

“We’re Skullfucker” Skullfucker isn’t just their band to Hunter. It is them. It’s them against the world. They’re not particularly shown to have many/any other friends. One can infer that Hunter has people he plays DnD with. But that doesn’t necessarily make them his friends.

“you are afraid of everybody” It doesn’t matter that Kevin says this in the heat of a fight. I think he’s dead on.

Kevin is the only person Hunter feels safe with. The only person he’s not scared of. And then Kevin abandons him too. Not explicitly. Not to Kevin. But Hunter deeply feels like he has. Kevin getting a girlfriend, trying to get her to be a part of the band. Not to mention drumming for a different band. It would shatter the image Hunter has in his mind of their band being them. Of them, and their bond, and the time they spend together being something uniquely special. 

And then his dad is so fed up with him he dumps him at a rehab facility for no other reason than just not wanting to deal with him anymore.

I don’t buy even for a second that Hunter was dropped off at rehab for being ‘addicted to metal’. His dad didn’t wanna deal with trying to be a parent to a delinquent child that stole his fucking credit card. So he dumped him somewhere where he wouldn’t have to deal with him. In a “they’ll fix him” kind of move.

What I buy even less is that it fucking works. Hunter is portrayed as doing better after rehab. Like it was a wake-up call to someone whose main issue was just being an asshole.

No. Fuck that.

That was the last person he could rely on abandoning him too.

His mom doesn’t want him. His best friend/crush doesn’t want him. His dad doesn’t want him. There is no way in hell he is doing better after that. Hunter spends the entire movie an anxious (autistic) mess that automatically shoves down any emotion that isn’t anger. Being abandoned by everyone he had left would have been more than enough to break him.

There is just no fucking way that Hunter is okay.