#will rambles

[wyllwithay]

I love wyllstarion because wyll is like "i can fix him" and astarion's like "i can make him worse"

[willgrahams-dog]

"too sweet is so hannigram coded" wrong. listen to shrike right now

buckle up cause this is gonna be a long post!!

[image id: screenshotted text from reddit user @yupsquared. it reads:

I've seen a lot of pretty varied interpretations of Shrike, which always kinda surprised me as I thought it had a very direct reading. Might as well type out my interpretation now in the chance anyone sees this, or maybe I'll make it into a post.

I read Shrike as a song in which the singer describes how his attitude towards love has been corrupted by a scornful and captivating lover, and how in a sense he has been 'ruined', having no other recourse now for new love.

He illustrates this with the image of the shrike, a bird—typically symbols of carefree or joyous life, but in this case a bird that relies on a brutal counterpart, a thorn, to live. The shrike impales its prey on the thorn and then tears it apart. The shrike needs its thorn.

We see the singer in the beginning, as generally timid, perhaps naïve, but ultimately good:

I couldn't utter my love when it counted

and

And I'd no idea on what ground I was founded

and

Then when I met you, my virtues uncounted

He doesn't seem to have much ideological ground or experience. Carefree, like a songbird. Moving on, we are treated to imagery showing just how asymmetric the relationship is; the lover is much more powerful than the singer. He is "hung like the pelt of some prey [she] had won." By all accounts he is under her thumb, and he is altered by it:

I was housed by your warmth

Thus transformed

By you're grounded and giving

And darkening scorn

The fact that her "scorn", such a harsh word, is perceived as giving betrays how awful this relationship is. Happy, healthy relationships are not scornful, they are affirming. The singer doesn't care, something within him has changed, has darkened. He now flies to "the hedgerows where bodies are mounted"— the final form this relationship takes, a killing field, terrible and grotesque. Ultimately, he is reborn:

As the shrike to your sharp

And glorious thorn

—and in this final transformation, he sees the thorn, by all means a noxious thing, sharp, something to be avoided— as "glorious" even invigorating. He has become a shrike, reliant, within the context of the relationship maybe even addicted, to a toxic lover's cruelty and scornful love.

The fact that this is set to pretty, melodic, gentle folk-blues music makes it cut even deeper for me. The singer has internalized this to the point where it is reflected as harmony, instead of grotesquerie. We see it, but he is slavishly devoted to this thing whose warmth seems superficial and who wears him like a pelt. There is no going back, no return to carefree songbird days. The shrike needs to eat. The shrike needs its thorn.

To wrap, this captivation with dark lovers seems like a pretty consistent theme of Hozier's. As It Was has those lovely closing lines:

And the sights were as stark as my baby

And the cold was as sharp as my baby

And the nights were as dark as my baby

Half as beautiful too

Dark, cold, sharp, and beautiful. Not despite the darkness, the sharpness, but because of it. And if we look at NFWMB, the whole of it describes his lover as apocalypse, literally warming her fingers on the pyre of the word and giggling at the sound of the dead rising from Hell. He likes 'em bad.

**rattled this out on the train, so lil grammar edits. end id]

i'd offer my own interpretation of the lyrics, but yupsquared did a far better job than i could (here's a link to the reddit thread in case anyone wants to check it out!) so i'll just go off their analysis.

I couldn't utter my love when it counted Ah, but I'm singing like a bird 'bout it now I couldn't whisper when you needed it shouted Ah, but I'm singing like a bird 'bout it now

The words hung above But never would form Like a cry at the final Breath that is drawn Remember me, love When I'm reborn As the shrike to your sharp And glorious thorn

aside from the obvious shrike symbolism, to me, this is a contrast between mizumono and the wrath of the lamb. we know that will has difficulty accepting his feelings about killing- and by extension, about hannibal. he doesn't want to accept that he could love that part of himself, and in mizumono, we see him torn between hannibal and his life at the fbi. hannibal believes he's been betrayed by will and punishes him, destroying the possibility of a life with abigail. i think that if events had gone according to plan, will would have chosen hannibal ("i gave you a rare gift. but you didn't want it." "didn't i?"), but in hannibal's eyes will "couldn't utter [his] love when it counted" and suffered the consequences. a betrayal for a betrayal, a gutting for a gutting.

s3b has will go through a similar arc, choosing this time between hannibal and his life with molly. but he can make the choice this time, and he chooses hannibal ("this is all i ever wanted for you, will. for both of us." "it's beautiful"). even after everything they had gone through, everything hannibal had done, will chose hannibal, and his becoming is rebirth. he acknowledges their symbiotic relationship and accepts (to an extent; i agree with hugh that he's not fully there yet) that death can be beautiful. he becomes the shrike to hannibal's "sharp and glorious thorn."

And I'd no idea on what ground I was founded All of that goodness is goin' with you now Then when I met you, my virtues uncounted All of my goodness is goin' with you now

Dragging along Following your form Hung like the pelt Of some prey you had worn Remember me, love When I'm reborn As a shrike to your sharp And glorious thorn

when will and hannibal meet, and as their relationship progresses, will is unstable and unsure of himself but still has faith in his morals. his job helps him save lives, and if it plays into some darker urges he keeps buried, well, so be it. but hannibal's manipulation of will and the murder of garrett jacob hobbs brought those urges to the surface.

i think hannibal's manipulation of will was equal parts curiosity and personal longing. he wanted to see what will would do, but he also saw in will the potential to understand and be understood in return, something hannibal never considered as a possibility. he saw himself in will and that allowed him to see a future.

I fled to the city with so much discounted Ah, but I'm flying like a bird to you now Back to the hedgerows where bodies are mounted Ah, but I'm flying like a bird to you now

this verse can have multiple interpretations. one, and perhaps the most obvious, is will looking for hannibal in s3a. the first two lines are from hannibal's perspective; he fled to the city (florence), with the promise of a life with will and abigail discounted, but found himself returning to will in the metaphorical sense. leaving him his broken heart. the second two lines are from will's perspective. he's sailing away from home but towards hannibal, towards the life of violence he could easily escape. will also returns to hannibal in the metaphorical sense with the firefly tableau. he has become the shrike, mounting his prey on hannibal's thorns.

this verse can also be taken within the context of s3b, with will returning yet again to hannibal and "the hedgerows where bodies are mounted." this time, however, all four lines are from will's perspective. his "city" is a normal life with molly, and what he discounted was not the possibility of a life with hannibal (as the latter did in mizumono) but rather the possibility that he could want such a life.

I was housed by your warmth Thus transformed By your grounded and giving And darkening scorn Remember me, love When I'm reborn As a shrike to your sharp And glorious thorn

this is the final scene in the wrath of the lamb, the last step in will's becoming. he was transformed by hannibal; his manipulation, his understanding, the idea that someone could accept even the darkest parts of him wholly and completely ("you're not alone, will. i'm standing right beside you"). his love.

[ratedn]

Okay guys so I realize I have strange speech patterns and now I'm thinking about them because I suddenly became aware.

Does anyone else use the reflexive form of an adjective (I think that's the right way to phrase that) instead of the direct form? Like instead of saying "I am slow" I would say "I am not fast" and very specifically I don't use contractions whenever I say those things.

Additionally instead of saying phrases like "I am excited" I simply say "excitement" or "I am excitement"

I feel like I can't be the only person who does these things. These things have also led some people to believe I'm autistic which is interesting because I've never been tested, but a good 6/10 of my friends are autistic.

[honktwice4help]

Side blogs are insane one of my favorite artist just followed me but it’s not ME

[diana-westmoon]

MIE I LITERALLY STARTED WATCHING TMA JUST TODAY!!!!!!

YIPPIE!!

WHICH EP ARE YOU ON? :0

[chaotic-ourple]

I can't actually hurl insults at my mother but at least i can dream (literally a bunch of my dreams have been fighting and screaming at my mom then running away is this a sign)

[bitchybylershipper]

I need to know if this is just me: are you guys ever doing something and then you become like hyperaware of how you're doing that thing and then you're like FUCK WHAT AM I DOING HOW AM I DOING IT like I for real forgot how to do subtraction yesterday and I forget how to walk almost once everyday and then earlier I forgot how to throw a football when I was playing catch with my cousin like what

[ratedn]

To any moot (or follower) who is scared to dm me, by all means. I thrive off of your interaction, dms are like candy to me.

dm'ing a mutual you've never interacted with one-on-one is so embarrassing like. hi.... im sorry. you can kill me if you want... can i have your discord..... if not.. feel free to shoot me down where i stand... im sorry.. i'll leave..

[goldensunset]

[sp1resong]

being self aware suuuucks like yeah this thought pattern/behavior is stupid and pointless and a symptom. i know this. [does it anyways

[missabnormal]

imagine being a Korean person awake at like one in the morning trying to accept that the president of South Korea actually just tried to go full dictatorship by way of an emergency martial law because he was basically having a political temper tantrum and every agency and corporation in the country is all hands on deck, code red mode on everything and the military is being deployed and then the assembly revokes the martial law and then the president is like lol nevermind and now you have to get ready to work at your shitty job on a Wednesday

[wyllwithay]

Lae'zel laying on Karlach like a lizard on a hot rock if you even care

[willgrahams-dog]

i'm not reblogging this directly so as not to derail, but i think this line gets misinterpreted pretty regularly within the fandom and i wanted to go over that + offer my interpretation :3

the original line it's referencing comes from act 3, scene 1 of romeo and juliet, after romeo kills tybalt to avenge mercutio:

tybalt falls benvolio: romeo, away, begone! the citizens are up, and tybalt slain. sound not amazed. the prince will doom thee death if thou art taken. hence, be gone, away. romeo: o, i am fortune's fool!

here, romeo is remarking on his bad luck after being effectively doomed by fate (and more broadly, the narrative). to atone for tybalt's murder, romeo has to leave verona on pain of death, pretty much because he found himself in the wrong place at the wrong time.

the line can also apply to his relationship with juliet. had circumstances been different, she and romeo could have had a happy life together. it was fate that kept them apart, not a lack of love. fortune would have them on opposite sides.

will's arc, however, was set into motion because of hannibal. he was manipulated into killing gjh and then eventually randall tier, although tier's murder was more by will's volition than hannibal's. then in season 3b, after will has found stability with molly, hannibal returns and gets will to kill again.

i think that if will hadn't met hannibal, he would have had a chance at a happy, normal life, or as close to one as he could get. will's relationship with molly was an attempt to reclaim that life from hannibal- to save himself from hannibal's perception of him. but hannibal ultimately came between will and molly, just as fate prevented romeo from finding a sense of stability in juliet.

so is this line romantic? yeah, if you want it to be! hannibal's manipulation of will did come from a place of love ("no one can be fully aware of another human being unless we love them. by that love, we see potential in our beloved. through that love, we allow our beloved to see their potential. expressing that love, our beloved's potential comes true") but it also deprived will of the normalcy that i think on some level, he craved almost as much as he did understanding.

but i don't think this line is a proclamation of love from will as much as it is an announcement of blame. will blames hannibal for the loss of the life he could have had before hannibal or with molly (which parallels romeo's banishment from verona) and it's not until the finale that we actually see him choose hannibal.

tldr: will is saying that he's not a victim of fate, he's a victim of hannibal. here's the original post (op is cool, go check em out!!)

[ratedn]

You know, I realized now that I refer to Tumblr as Tumblr. Not an object or a service, but rather as a collective consciousness that I interact with.

[milo-hypno]

I'm certain this is on Tumblr somewhere, but I haven't seen it around, so I'm sharing it myself