#willow brooks

So let's start of with the main character of where's willow, that being Willow Brooks. Willow is interesting to me, cause to me she represents both a want to be seen and unrealised potential, starting with that first part, a constant thing about her is hardly anyone can see her, she doesn't seem to mind, until people start spinning her death as some sort of conspiracy, then it weighs on her that there are people that believe she never existed in the first place, this ends with her drawing graffiti on a wall, her mark to prove that she was there, that she exists. The second part is because of her regrets and longing for what she had, throughout the series we see glimpses of Willows past, her time in college, her goals, her aspirations, and most importantly her struggle to make those goals reality, she wanted to get an art degree, but that's no longer possible for her, since she died, her death was from what I theorize to be caused by an attempted climb up astronomy peak, a mountain that no one had actually managed to climb, the closest anyone came got frostbite just before the summit and had to get brought down, she likely attempted the climb and died on her way up, all of her life, her possible future gone in an instant.

Now onto the other main character of where's Willow, Ernest Green, to me the core of Ernest as a character is guilt at his perceived failure, Ernest became a park ranger shortly before Willows disappearance, the search went on for weeks before the mayor called it off due to the fear people had about ever coming to the park again, Ernest did try to protest calling it off but his plea fell upon deaf ears, for the next six months he had searched almost every inch of that park, so much so he found places that had long since been forgotten about, but even so he couldn't find any trace of Willow, all in due part to her having probably died on that mountain, somewhere almost no one would be able to find her. This brings us to the start of the series, he was still searching for Willow up until he saw her ghost, his initial reaction was of disbelief until he finally accepted that she was in fact dead, this fact seems to haunt him through the show, as almost everything he does is done in almost as a means to absolve himself of his guilt, he modifies an old lookout tower into a home for her to stay in, he keeps her company, brings her things like a TV or a telescope, and he walks around the park talking to her, all of this stemming both from his kindness and his guilt of his own perception, the feeling that he failed to save Willow, this is still unresolved as of the current episode, the closest we get is in that episode he went into a burning building with no guarantee that he would survive to go save two people, but that still doesn't absolve him of his guilt, if anything it just prevented more guilt from stacking up on what is already there.