“Simon is on the ground. His wing is bent the wrong way.” - Baz, Wayward Son by @rainbowrowell
Drawing this was a heartrending experience, friends. (What does it say about this fandom that THIS should be the second most requested Wayward Son scene behind the Truck Bed Scene? It’s like y’all were trying to hurt me. 😭)
The original concept for the strip was full color. But it became apparent very early that full color wasn’t appropriate given the gravity of what happens in this scene. More than a battle between vampires, I felt deeply that this part of the book was the culmination of Baz’s battle with himself: Baz the man/magician versus Baz the vampire.
From early on, we get a lot of Baz holding himself back from violence. Reigning himself in. Even Simon remarks on how unused Baz is to wielding the full breadth of his vampire abilities in a fight.
All that changes in this scene.
In the strip I drew, this shift plays out in the interplay of light versus dark, white vs. black with Simon’s red blood being the catalyst for Baz’s journey from one side to the other. For instance, when Baz’s shadow falls on Simon’s wounded wing from above, it is representative of Baz’s guilt at having indulged his vampire side with Lamb at the risk of the person he loved most (“I told him it’d be all right.”). In short, we can follow the erasure of Baz’s humanity from the top to the bottom of the strip by the way the shadows increasingly consume him.
Nowhere is the pull between his identities more apparent than the moment on Spread #3 when he reaches for Simon (“Simon… love… get up”). Juxtaposed against the most detailed frame of Simon’s face in the sand, Baz’s features are completely erased by shadow.
By the end, Baz is totally framed in black and utterly transformed. Where once he was framed in white and beautiful against the desert backdrop, the orientation of the camera flips, he turns his glare on us, and Baz the magician is gone. Only the vampire remains. (“Everything I am is already gone.”)
Per usual, I didn’t borrow all of Rainbow’s incredible words (trying to be respectful of copyright), but in my attempt to capture the essence of this moving and heartbreaking scene, I latched onto the words Baz repeats from Carry On: his emotional speech from the leaver’s ball. As they do in Wayward Son, they beautifully frame the agony of this moment.
I hope I did this scene justice and that those of you who never wanted to see this scene drawn will forgive me. Lol (I promise the next Snowbaz art I do will be fluffy wholesome happiness.)
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