BoM/TWS Message Forum

So this line is about the Durras’, two characters I actively dislike and so rarely write about them (hey, in a cast of hundreds there are going to be a few!)

The recent Durras line got me thinking, specifically about Joe and the limits of his hypnotic way to be personable and likeable. Because I’ll admit, the chapters didn’t seem to land with me as they would otherwise.

In the line Will is uncovered from his Sulva power, and we start off with Will being physically tortured by the Durras’, pinned psychically to a wall. Will is entirely submissive at this point, basically giving the Durras’ whatever they want. He then tells them about the school and surrenders the libra without a fight, before they let him go for family matters. The next thing we know, Joe is doing his “we want to be your friend” asshole routine on Will, giving him food as they hang out.

Personally, I didn’t find this sequence believable unless Joe’s powers are so god-tier he can turn actively beating the crap out of someone to being friends with them in 24 hours. They even threw a bag on his head, forces him to drive them around, victimized him and belittled him! It feels like Stockholm Syndrome, or the act of an abuser. I was crying for Will on the pages. I was screaming for him to show even a modicum of fight, to have even the option to refuse. And when the Durras were extending their friendship, I was at a complete loss as to why Will would accept it. Why wouldn’t he even warn Sydney when she messages? This, to me, is not the birth of a Stellae; I would *never* forgive the Durras’. It’s the birth of a dark star.

So my question: how much of this is Will being weak, and how much of his apparent surrender to the waking nightmare the Durras inflict on him down to their gifts?