Tyler: Representing humans and their darker sides

Image source: Popsugar


This blogpost is going to be my interpretation of the character Tyler from Wednesday series, seeing it from his perspective. Even if you are team Xavier, do give it a read anyway (promise to try to not trick you to change your team).

Picture of Hunter Doohan (Tyler) for this blogpost can quite be like a candy, attracting many girls (or even boys) to this blog post🤭.

As most have already seen the series or have come across spoilers on Instagram anyway, I'm free to post spoilers here too. Or if you do not want spoilers, watch the series Wednesday on Netflix (not freeload it on Telegram!) and come back here soon after finishing the first season (ofcourse I would like the additional view😂😜). 

I think Tyler, at some extent, represents all of us. We all have a negative or even monstrous side to our personality which could lay dormant for years or decades. But when something major happens (or compounding of small things until it reaches the boiling point), that side of ours come out. It may not be as severe as killing people but it can come up as burst of bottled-up anger and frustration. It is as scary as someone who is very calm and happy-go-lucky kind of a person who usually do not get angry, but when they do, all the bottled-up anger comes out as a volcano.

Even his dialogue at the Rave'n dance, that he did many bad things but he is not a bad person, shows that we humans can sometimes do bad things but it may not necessarily define us. Yes, I do not support murders, rapes, acid attacks through this example. I think we all have happened to hurt someone emotionally and mentally (break their hearts) and have been hurt ourselves as well.

Tyler was a hyde (a kind of monster). Though when he was in control of himself, he was best as a human. A friend to Wednesday, someone who loved her (atleast I would like to believe so with all his actions and his eyes and smile when he would see her. The eyes say it all, Chico). Plan may have started to harm her eventually, but in the process, he did fell in love with her and genuinely cared about her. That can also be seen when he whispers in her ears that she has no idea what's coming (he went from perfectly fine to almost teared up while whispering). Also the date in the crypt was a little too romantic to distract Wednesday (so Laurel can get that book/diary). 

But being manipulated and violated by Ms. Thornhill/Laurel Gates, his hyde personality started overpowering him. As what is told in the series, Hyde are loyal to their masters and will do anything ordered to them. He started killing normies and outcasts as a pawn in the game, with eventual plan of Laurel/Crackstone killing Wednesday. 

Tyler was outcasted within the outcasts. He loved Wednesday but she was very much behind the mission of finding the monster, which even led to her almost torturing him in 2nd last episode. That would have enraged him further, leading to final episode of him hurting her and her friend, Enid.

I feel he himself was the victim of abuse and manipulation. Along with all the people he was manipulated to murder, he himself was victim of manipulation and abuse (being chained and injected with chemicals). Yes, near the end, he did confess that when he became conscious of what he was doing, he started enjoying murdering people in the end (which I myself do not approve of). But for the most part, he was victim of the bigotry game itself.

This similar theme was also reflected in Kartik Aryan's Freddy, that an innocent loving person can come out with worst side of themselves, when they are abused, manipulated or hurt badly.

Maybe he knew he was a hyde and thus wanted to know more about his mother, by what it is showed, he never knew.  Or he was just curious to know about his mother, and having no channel of information about his mother, Ms. Thornhill/Laurel Gates (who wanted to kill all the outcasts) took advantage of that fact and started manipulating him.

This reflects the importance of communication, that how it can prevent misunderstandings (and such severe consequences). If his father, a sheriff and a normie who married an outcast (a hyde), had spoken to Tyler about his mother, he might not have been manipulated by Ms. Thornhill. If his father could get himself to honestly speak about his wife with his son, it could have given a kind of catharsis to both of them. Maybe he even knew about everything about his son being a Hyde but didn't reveal it to him. Instead he chose to avoid talking about him, and Tyler's curiosity led him to look for other channels of information about his mother, ending up being manipulated by Ms. Thornhill.

I also wish to see a positive change arc in Tyler's character in the next season, that he is able to control hyde side of his personality. That he works on himself, gets therapy and get back to his loving and innocent side (which most girls fell for). 

But many people, in comment sections of posts/music edits related to Wednesday and Tyler, commented that they hope she help and fix him to get back to his Tyler side. This is something I do not agree with. This shows the patriarchal and misogynist thinking of a girl having to fix a guy, to help him get better. A loving relationship will ofcourse help you get better, but she isn't a therapist. No woman are. No girls have to take it as a mission on themselves to 'fix' a guy. He is his own person, and if he knows what he doing is wrong, he can work on himself to become better version of himself.

I myself would like to see them together as a happy couple in 2nd or 3rd season (I dont think Wednesday would forgive him so easily). But the narrative shouldn't be forced as from the starting, she is shown as someone who isn't interested in romantic relationships. 

Character of Tyler and him converting to Hyde under the manipulation leaves us with many lessons or about humans who can show their darker side when they are badly hurt, betrayed, manipulated or so. And about the sheer importance of communication which can be cathartic and solve many misunderstandings, preventing any harsh consequences.



Comments

  1. Damn you described him pretty well!!👀even i was having the same view about Tyler(good&bad personality)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hehe Thanks. I think he deserves better, from his own father. Hope he takes therapy and we see a positive arc in his personality.

      Delete

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