“one” by sleeping at last is an extremely Biana song
okay so after listening to this song and looking at the lyrics I have concluded that the correlation between the words and Biana is the heavy emphasis on perfection and letting that go, finding yourself in the process. At least that's how I'm interpreting it to relate to her character. it almost feels like it encompasses her character over the course of the series, starting with her perfect composure and then how she looses it but accepts it.
The line, "No, I'm not saying perfect exists in this life / But we'll only know for certain if we try," feels more like Biana towards the beginning of the series, always striving higher and higher and to be better and better, this model of herself she'd created that she's trying to live up to. She doesn't know if it's possible, but everyone thinks that's who she is and so she's going to try so hard, she is going to give every piece of herself to try and be this perfect thing that everyone sees.
That kind of ties into the next line I noticed which is "The price of this so called perfection is everything." It cost her everything to maintain that person, so as soon as she didn't have it anymore she didn't know what to do. There was nothing left. In society's eyes, her scars meant she wasn't perfect anymore, that she had failed to uphold that image of herself they asked of her. Except that person, that perfect, pretty Vacker princess, was all that she was. No matter what accomplishments she made, they came second to that perfection. If she's in battle, what people notice is that she looks calm and pretty and fashionable while fighting. They notice she's a Vacker before they notice she's a person. And so much of this hinged on her looks!! So when she got her scars, when half of her body was torn and shredded, it took that perfection from her in the eyes of everyone else. That was everything she was. It cost everything she was to be perfect.
However, we see in the books that she learns to separate herself from what others think. That feels echoed in the line, "I, I want to feel the transformation / A melody of reformation," because she transforms herself. Yes, she does physically change in a way as her body heals from this huge trauma. But! I'm focusing on mental transformation, how she heals her perception of herself and her self worth. She doesn't want to be burdened with the expectation of perfection anymore, doesn't want to keep living the life that was given to her. So she lets go of it, reforms herself into someone who loves herself as she is, someone who doesn't care about other's opinions and judgement. Because people are always going to judge Biana Vacker, but she doesn't have to join them.
There's a shift in the song from perfection to grace, which I find interesting. Instead of perfection, which costs everything, there is grace, and "grace requires nothing of me." I think that can be applied to Biana as well and how she shifts from giving everything to try and achieve a perfect where she doesn't even know if it really exists to existing as she is as graceful, something she is instead of something she strives to be.
This is an excellent suggestion, nonsie. Biana and her relationship to her scars are one of the most complex parts of her character becaue they're a representation/fruition of something much deeper. Her relationship to elven society and its expectations can all be glimpsed through those scars, the way she loves them.
Thank you for the recommendation! I second your judgement that this is a very Biana song
yousharknotpass
2087
