#dear wormwood

[ourstaturestouchtheskies]

Cloud Study – Knud Baade // The Wanderer – Ferdinand Brunner // Cloud Study – Knud Baade // The Wrath of the Seas – Ivan Aivazovsky (detail) // Clouds Over the Sea – Ivan Aivazovsky // Big Clouds – Hans Emmenegger (detail) // Study of Clouds with a Sunset Near Rome – Simon Denis // Before the Storm – Isaac Levitan // Dear Wormwood – The Oh Hellos

[iiinkos]

god i love thus always to tyrants sm. i was listening to dear wormwood on loop and when thus always to tyrants ended and it started on prelude again i was like “wait!!!! i was jamming!!!!” then i went back and put it on loop. still is on loop actually

[artist-issues]

I feel like I thought I saw you mention the answer to this somewhere but idk where lol. Have you read "The Screwtape Letters"? If so what are your views? [Note: I'm not biased for or against, I have not read them but I mean to someday.]

I love the Screwtape Letters. They freak me out, not because of demons or anything, but because of how easy the book makes it look to be lulled into wasting your life.

Between The Screwtape Letters and Perelandra, plus what he says in Surprised By Joy about having a “lust of the spirit,” I often wonder how C.S. Lewis seems to have such an insight into how demons would behave. But I guess if you just read the Bible you get a good-enough understanding of what the enemy’s doing to write about it and make it urgent, too.

I also think Screwtape Letters is a really good example of “Use the Portrayal of Darkness to Show How Defeatable Darkness Is” thing that I’m always excited about. And I think the preface for Screwtape Letters is where I actually got that impression that talking about darkness shouldn’t be something Christians avoid, especially in storytelling. Lewis says something like, “demons are happy if you ignore them, and they’re happy if you obsess over them,” because the point is, demons just don’t want you focused on what’s true. What’s true is, they’re the enemy and the enemy is dangerous—but also, the enemy is defeatable and we don’t need to obsess over them. We just need to think about them as often as thinking about them causes us to cling harder to Christ.

I definitely recommend The Screwtape Letters! I’m pretty sure they’re free on Hoopla if you have a library card.

[zephyrusz]

thus always to tyrants by the oh hellos is. is maybe the best piece of media i have ever found. the entire album. oh my god?

first. the album is basically about two people (lovers, maybe, wormwood and the patient) and and they r. not good for each other :( they r both aware of this yet one has so much love in their heart for someone they know is trying to hurt them they cant even bring themselves to get mad. get angry they cant because no amount of manipulation would ever come close to getting them to do all the bad things their partner wants them to. its. its amazing. "will you greet the daylight looming" no hatred, no madness of being betrayed and wishing harm upon them, just hope for them to get better.

"will you leave your shaded hollow?" IM WEAK.

and. and dear wormwood too?? the one time they have ever felt anger towards wormwood and its not even bad or wishing any harm on them. "i know who you are now, and i name you my enemy" is the harshest thing they will ever say to them.

exeunt. "so, my little dove, im afraid, i am leaving" when leaving the guy who manipulated, hurt, and gaslit them, they still remain kind.

the oh hellos what storytellers you are. telling the story of betrayed lovers, one attempting to bring the other to commit cruel acts of sin, the other showing not only do they have the agency to leave, their soul would never have allowed them to be so corrupted in the first place. wormwoods attempts would all be in vain.

[soapcan18]

EVERYONE I JUST NOTICED SOMETHING REALLY COOL

So these are the Anemoi album covers, right? Do you notice a similarity between all of them?

Yes, they all have animals surrounded by a gold ring on them. Obviously there is a lot of symbolism involved with these specific animals and their respective albums, but that’s a whole other conversation.

Right now I want to point out the gold ring— more importantly, how is it changing as the albums progress?

In Notos, the thicker portion of the ring is in the bottom right corner.

In Eurus, that portion is in the top right corner.

In Boreas, it’s in the top left corner.

And in Zephyrus, it’s in the bottom left corner.

THE RING IS GOING IN A CIRCUIT!!!

The thick portion of the ring is moving counterclockwise with each album! And if you go back to Notos after Zephyrus, it’ll be right back at where it started!

This is yet another symbol of the Anemoi albums’ themes of change, cycles, etc. AND IT’S HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT!

How COOL is that??? I just noticed!!

This is even crazier when you add on the fact that the final song you listen to, after going through all the albums, is Rounds.

And what is the ring doing? MAKING ROUNDS!! Going around and around as you keep replaying the albums, repeating the cycle of summer to fall to winter to spring to summer over and over again just as The Oh Hellos intended to convey :)

[kennythetrampvamp]

My favourite songs are the ones that take my heart, tear it apart, then put it back together again and say "you're different now"

[kitttttchaos]

Adam Parrish x Dear Wormwood by The Oh Hellos

[camthecleric]

I finished Shadowheart’s story line like over a week ago?

This song is her

[mosswoodmc]

this is what my ass looks like when I show off my taste in music to my friends.

[activatebutterflyshield]

Prompt four from @ultrainfinitepit’s Angeltober: Hunter!

This angel design is part of this set inspired by the album art and themes of the music of the Oh Hellos, specifically, this is Dear Wormwood the false dragon. With the hooves of a pale white horse and the half-bramble, half-laurel crown of Caesar the ruler upon its head, this creature appears more demon than angel. Though with its sworn duty of hunting down and killing the demon Wormwood, such an unpleasant appearance is necessary.

[randomwholocker]

jehan prouvaire is so insanely oh hellos coded especially the whole album dear wormwood

[rocknrollinbitchforu]

thus always to tyrants by the oh hellos save me! save me thus always to tyrants by the oh hellos!

[iiinkos]

im curious now so

the dear wormwood disclaimer is there because i think the trend might skew the results lel

[ourstaturestouchtheskies]

okay I haven't done a poll in a while so here's one lol

*gender neutral

I figured I'd do this since I have one for lord huron and two for florence. it was harder to pick out distinct characters for this, but I hope you still enjoy!

(and yes I know some of these are characters/figures from outside the oh hellos universe to which the band is making allusions, but just think about them in the context of the oh hellos' music)

[dusktodust]

the oh hellos, if you can hear me, PLEASE release a ten year anniversary vinyl pressing of dear wormwood in 2025 PLEASEEE

[raineyraven]

i really love the oh hellos and it always makes me kind of sad to see soldier poet king made into trendy quizes and stuff about who's a soldier who's a king or whatever. because it's a really deep song and an important part of the concept album it's a part of, but it gets simplified and taken out of its original context. the soldier, the poet and the king are not separate, they are the same character, the protagonist of the album whose conflict involves struggling to escape from an abusive relationship. soldier poet king is about the protagonist overcoming their abuse, using the second coming of jesus as a metaphor for the return and self-realisation of the protagonist. it is a triumph of the protagonist depicted through biblical symbolism. the soldier, the poet and the king all refer to jesus, and also to the protagonist.

like this song is so deep and meaningful!!! i strongly encourage people who like soldier poet king to listen to the full dear wormwood album and get the context of the rest of the story; soldier poet king is a midpoint in the narrative. and it is a complex and absolutely beautiful narrative.