Annabel : But if it's you there instead? Montresor's schemes will die on the vine under your watchful eye.
Prospero: Alright.
Montresor: So ima' just be taking one of our teammates off on a stroll after dark in a secluded area of the academy with no supervision whatsoever whilst leaving an ominous message before I'm out the door sound good?
you think you want to break lenore just like you think you want will to stand up to you but actually you are EXACTLY where you want to be no changes necessary
Hey psst. Hey Ada. Hey Ada your boyfriends gonna go murder someone & leave them to die in the woods. Yes someone hopelessly pining after him. Hey Ada hey. Hey-
So uh, idk if this is a hot take or not. Iâve tried to be nuanced in my understanding but there are going to be things I havenât considered/mentioned, so letâs keep it civil please!
okay so Im sure thereâs gonna be a lot of posts talking about the horror of Montresorâs situation and how this proves he cares about Will (which tbh we already knew), and the romantic undertones of him killing this version of Will for the Will he knew, but I want to highlight another perspective: specifically Willâs, and how this episode conveys the horror of his situation.
disclaimers!! Iâm a fast passer but I will try to only use evidence/information capable of being seen by episode 160. And two Iâm a Montresor enjoyer, I understand how complicated he is and the fact that he does care. I understand how much his situation sucks, however based on my reading of the text I do not think he is justified in inflicting harm on Will. I very much enjoy their dynamic but I think downplaying its toxicity is honestly a disservice to the themes itâs trying to portray and the characters of both Will and Montresor.
letâs dig into this.
this episode and the episode before it gives us a glance into Willâs perspective. We get to see not only the actions he takes, but also how he sees the world, especially in this episode. In fact, we also get a good idea of how Will views Montresor. And how does Will view Montresor in this episode? Heâs Terrifying. Will is scared. Will wants to live, desperately, and he tries his best to fly and fawn his way out of this situation. Will is genuinely terrified
will tries to run, but Montresor chases him down. Heâs all alone out here, and Montresor is bigger and faster than him. So he has no choice but to try and plead. To be so soft and sweet and appealing. To bear his neck with the hope it wonât hurt so much when the teeth sink in
when we see Montresor hovering over Will, lantern in hand chasing him down, Montresor is not being presented in a triumphant light. Montresor in this moment is monstrous. Will is genuinely scared for his life. This moment is presented as both emotionally and physically VIOLENT. Even the color palette suggests violent.
but perhaps all the pain and suffering he inflicts Will is justified, right? The teasing and humiliating him? The manipulating him, ignoring him, luring him out into the woods? Burning him, cornering him, shoving him to the dirt, dragging and throwing him around, pinning him, keeping him from escaping, interrogating him, breaking him down, refusing to accept Willâs answers to his questions, threatening to MURDER him, systematically dismantling Willâs fragile indentity until it breaks? All of that is worth it, because Will isnât human, and Montresor cares.
And he does! Montresor cares deeply for the version of Will in his mind. But Montresor has only been taught one way to care and it is with teeth. With spilled blood and control. This Will isnât right, he isnât behaving how Will should behave, just as Montresor didnât behave as he should have behaved, and thereâs only one way to respond to that. Violence. Rejection. Punishment. This Will must be punished.
In this way Montresor is exerting control over Willâs personhood, and repeating the cycle he wanted so desperately to run from. Will says Montresor is wrong, that he is Will. And who gets to decide that, ultimately? Perhaps he is a copy. The one before him melted too. Perhaps he was a copy too. Perhaps they are equally monstrous and equally human. It is true Will is forever changed by that night, but should he have to die for a memory? Who gets to decide who he is? Is that up to Montresor? Does Montresor get to deny him of his identity, his personhood, his life because he is different? Strange? Queer? Because there is no going back to the way things were and Montresor is haunted by the ghost of a âbetter, truerâ past?
Will throughout this chapter is practically screaming his desire to live! He is clearly terrified and hurt. Montresor cares, Montresor is trying to protect HIS Will, and to do it he has to sacrifice the version of him he cannot recognize. And that is horrifying.
Montresor is a deeply sympathetic character, heâs complex and certainly not heartless. But that doesnât mean heâs harmless either. Him falling into this cycle of violence and control is tragic, heartbreaking even, and if he keeps going he may truly shape Will into something more like him. I also think itâs important to remember that how he treats Will is not harmless. Willâs pain is not to be dismissed, and while Montresor may view his actions as justified, that doesnât mean they actually are. Tbh Montresor knows jack shit about how all this works! And I hope weâll be able to have a nuanced discussion of their dynamic and the themes it deals with, especially including the darker ones.
I love how this is the first time in the series where both of them has had to fully confront how truly, utterly horrifying a force Monty's fondness for Will is all on its own, even underneath all his bluff & bluster: That's it's not really a good thing for Will despite the close connection he's experiencing for arguably the first time in his life. Especially since any previous attempts from other people at separating their bond, while well intentioned, hadn't quiet cut into the meat of their dysfunctionality just yet in my opinion - less so a lack of sentiment on Montresor's end, & more so how intimacy as a concept is internalized by two individuals with very warped views on how they relate to others, as well as the widely dehumanizing power imbalance & toxic patterns that follow as a result.
This time however, Montresor, in a shocking display of honesty, not only openly admits to the significance William held in his life, but the lengths he'll go to just to seemingly defend said significance from being replaced by anyone else - a specific insecurity of Wills that he told Montresor in their final moments - in an action that is entirely, staggeringly bereft of Williams own benefit. As a result, Wills self-worth & identity has been once again driven into the dirt, this time harder then ever, with his sense of self completely mangled from the inside out. About to be subjected to a brutalization far worse then anything anyone has ever done to him out of their negligence.
This is no longer just Williams own devotion thatâs being used to torment him. Itâs Montresors as well.
Honestly, for as much as ppl clown on the misfits for having developed such ride or die bonds with each other in such a short span of time, I always personally got the feeling that the sentimentality, this shared sense of comradery they held for one another & subsequent co-dependency is like. At least relatively normal. Even some what expected for the harsh environment they're facing.
"I could only conceive this singular behavior to arise from a consummate self-conceit assuming the vulgar airs of patronage and protection.
...
As it was, I at length grew restive in the extreme under his distasteful supervision, and daily resented more and more openly what I considered his intolerable arrogance."
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