OOC: I wrote a fanfic about Jirall, inspired by Sia’s song “Chandelier” a LONG while back, but I felt that considering I’m doing these musical musings type of posts more often I might as well talk about the fanfic a bit and also why I think the song fits Jirall a lot.Â
https://www.fanfiction.net/s/10476702/1/Chandelier
To summarize what the fanfic is about first, it was supposed to be an AU take on what Jirall’s reaction was to Zael accepting the offer of being a knight and therefore also becoming Calista’s fiance. (Please note: I know Jirall should be in jail during this time but I completely neglected that fact when writing the fanfic). I’ve always imagined Jirall to be the type that gets so angry that he goes straight to drinking to cope with things (so I warn in advance that there is some alcohol abuse in this particular fanfic) and so I put that in there.
Why do I feel like Chandelier fits Jirall? Well, everything just goes downhill for the poor guy. First he can’t get Zael to get away from Calista because Calista was Jirall’s fiance in the beginning. And then it’s obvious he can’t cope with his emotions so easily, as he has been incredibly aggressive to Calista especially in the beginning (though the anger shifts more to Zael because Jirall doesn’t want Calista to be with Zael). And then he gets imprisoned for being falsely accused of murdering General Asthar (which really really sucks) and he just snaps. When Zael visits him in the prison Jirall will be muttering to himself and such, his tone of voice indicating increased madness. Also at this point, this is where Count Arganan offers Zael his knighthood and makes it a more permanent chance for Zael to replace Jirall as Calista’s fiance.Â
Finally to top it all off, while the Gurak are invading, Zangurak uses the poor guy to try to kill Zael, ultimately making him go mad. As much as we all want to hate the guy, he’s just been thrown around too much and his madness is the end result of being used so much in the name of politics and other people’s agendas. I just feel like Chandelier fits for Jirall because I interpreted from Chandlier’s lyrics that everything just goes downhill and the singer is doing what they can to drown out the pain of everything else, but the ways they’re currently using to cope with the pain just aren’t working, and even causing them further harm—something that I can see Jirall doing.