Sasori and Chiyo in Belispeak by Purity Ring
I put this whole thing underneath a cut to protect the sanity of my followers. If you want to listen to the song, it can be found on Spotify, Youtube (although I haven't seen the video), or anywhere else you listen to your music. Without further ado, here's a nice cut.
Before we get down to business, I want to set my standard for the relationship between Chiyo and Sasori. At the very least, she kept secrets from him in canon (the death of his parents being a big, BIG thing to keep from a kid who was waiting for them to come back). The kid was raised as a child soldier. He deserves closure because there’s no way that he doesn't know about death. At most, there was neglect on her part. I generally lean towards the second option for a few reasons:
In every scene where Chiyo was shown with Sasori, she was detached from him. She taught him, but she was never particularly affectionate or hands-on. Her reflections were all from the perspective of an outsider: she watched through the door as he puppeted replicas of his parents. Additionally, in every scene where she recounts raising Sasori, she acts as though she had no choice where his upbringing was concerned. She was supposed to be watching over him, and if she wasn’t, who was left to keep an eye on him? Was anyone actually watching this little boy and making sure that he was fed and clothed in more than just a glorified pillowcase? Was nobody keeping his homicidal tendencies in check? Anyone? Man.
Suna LOVES child neglect. Coughing in Gaara and Sunagakure's general . . . abject failure when it comes to child rearing. Gaara went loose. I have no reason to assume that anyone in this village would step in to stop obvious neglect, even if it’s not towards the kids of a person in power. In chapter 275, Chiyo says that "what made him this way is the terrible customs and teachings of the sand." As someone notably locked in to tradition and loyalty to Sunagakure, Chiyo is complicit in making Sasori the way that he is, which she only realizes too late.
Chiyo was an older woman who likely didn’t want to go through the whole song and dance of parenting for a second time. I don’t blame her for that, but she still handled it very badly.
Sasori acts like a neglected child. If he had been able to process the death of his parents, I don't think that he would've turned out the way that he did. He shows detachment in order to force distance between himself and his emotions, even going so far as to attempt to eradicate them completely, and he seemed to despise Chiyo. These feel like the actions of someone who never learned what trust felt like as a kid.
That's a lot, but with that out of the way I can start with the lyrics!! I'll do some general takes on the song first:
It resonates with Sasori and Chiyo not just because of the refrain of "grandma", but also because it deals with a relationship somewhere between neglect and obsessive observation.
It is highly up to interpretation in many places, and highly metaphorical, which makes it easy to use for Sasori.
Lyrics! Now!
Grandma, my sleep is narrow Bid you brew me some strong drink Strain out the pulps and set them close outside For when my belly For when my little belly speaks
Right in the first line we have something that ties in well to most of the flashbacks from Chiyo's perspective where she watches Sasori sleep. Additionally, Sasori and Chiyo both specialize in poisons and concoctions, which is how I’m choosing to interpret all references to drinks and such. As for the poison that I have established as being fed to child Sasori, I’m going to say that that’s metaphorical. The poison is what she leaves outside for him and it turns him into something sour and jaded. I hope that that makes sense.
Grandma, there's air beneath my bed And it whispers And it whispers when I rest
It is shown that child Sasori still sleeps with his parents, and when they leave, he makes puppets to fill in the empty space. That bed is too big for him to sleep in alone, and it’s decorated with pictures of the whole family. His parents slept in the same bed as him, and without their comfort, he was probably scared with nothing to keep his imagination at bay.
Bid hem the skirts in salt and vinegar, vinegar
We have more concoctions! Salt and vinegar are supposed to remove negativity from a room/protect the user spiritually (if the annotations on this song are to be trusted), but they’re also common ingredients that I could see Sasori and Chiyo experimenting with. There is a lot of negativity in this household to be removed, but also plenty of poison. We love motifs!
And hover closely, oh hover closely under head
Callback to Chiyo watching Sasori sleep.
Grandma, the water is rising My boundless hair has gotten green I'll be your swimming forest island Bid you walk safely, safely over me
These lyrics are a bit harder to tie back to Chiyo and Sasori. “The water is rising” could be in reference to Sasori feeling increasingly lonely. Green is the color of envy, which he seems to (understandably) experience when he’s watching other children with their parents. The last two lines are lyrics that I’ve generally interpreted as sacrificial – maybe Sasori believes that Chiyo is leaving him alone so much because she’s doing important things for the village.
It’s all a bit of a stretch, but my vision is there.
Grandma, my hands have wandered
Sasori is growing up and getting familiar with his new craft.
And my legs, my little legs are getting weak Bid lend me your wispy frame And guard my powers, guard my precious powers in its cage
Sasori is being handed down the art of the village and he wants to take more than just puppetry from his last close familiar connection – her body, or “wispy frame” – maybe to turn her into a puppet. Scratch that, he doesn’t even have to be talking about Chiyo here, it could be the Kazekage or Komushi, both of whom have bodies that could be correctly described as “wispy”. I have interpreted the “powers” in this line as his kugutsutsukai, an art restricted to Sunagakure. With “my legs are getting weak”, he’s saying that he’s getting tired of his mortality. His body is frail and human and there is nothing that he can do about it. Unless . . .
Grandma, I've been unruly In my dreams and with my speech Drill little holes into my eyelids That I might see you, that I might see you when I sleep
These lines could refer to Sasori’s first slip-ups: his human puppetry and his disloyalty to the village. He expects to see Chiyo watching him like she did when he was little, if he knew about that – we’re back to the sleeping motif, and it’s intensified to tie into the mutilation that Sasori is now familiar with. If he knows that she was watching him, he wants to watch back.
Finally, I want to mention the repeated chorus. I could see this being repeated in one of two ways:
He’s being sarcastic. He doesn’t have anything left for her, including the love that she never gave to him in any way that he needed, and since he’s taken everything he can from her, he doesn’t need her anymore.
The chorus could mean something different the second time around. The water rising could be in reference to his hurry to leave the village before he’s caught in the act. Nothing makes sense about his hair the second time, and I could see him leaving the village as his final sacrifice to her – with Sasori gone, Chiyo is Suna’s best puppetmaster again.
The music and style also works well with our little narrative: it reaches its peak before trailing off into distorted speech that fades into nothing. Sasori loses his humanity and any love that he had for the village that did this to him.
And with that, I’ve analyzed the whole song. I love Belispeak dearly – it’s my most played song at the moment with 607 listens, and it’s always reminded me of Sasori. I even wrote a fic inspired by the song for day 6 of Sasori Week. You can find it here. It should go without saying I’m thrilled to be able to talk about this somewhere! Feel free to add on with reblogs/comments.
@queercodedvillains I promised/threatened to tag you and I am a woman of my word.
