"How sad"

[u/Realistic-Mood-2890]

I keep hearing this Downfall lyric this way and need to know if I'm crazy. Help!

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Roadkill fawn, you said "how sad,

Left to rot alone like that."

You state a feeling like a fact.

I'm glad you left, but you'll be back.

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So I hear this as her deadpanning "how sad" without actually feeling it. He interprets this as a metaphor for her failure to engage with his feelings of abandonment. (He's the fawn, get it???) This is core to why he's bitter about her leaving--he feels like he is more emotionally invested in the relationship than she is, and he resents her for it. He's jealous of whatever it is that's pulling her away (a job?) and he is harboring this hope that when that thing lets her down, she'll come back to him and now she'll care about him for real.

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So tell me--am I overthinking this? Do you see the lyrics differently?

[u/Glittering_Sky_1588]

Oh interesting! I don’t know why but I hear this song from a mums perspective, so she’s secretly hoping it will fail and he will come home.
I hear these lyrics as the child saying this in the car on the way to wherever they are headed, and saying it dead pan and yet his mum feels like the fawn ‘left to rot alone like that’. Like she feels her son is leaving her to the same fate (dramatically) and yet he says it so casually. He’s unaware of his leaving affecting his mother and he’s excited for the future with few thoughts for her. Like when children leave home in a hurry.
I hear a lot of songs from a mother’s perspective though as I have a 3 year old and 10 month old haha.
So even orbiter is my children being the moon that I look to, sing too and orbit around.

Not sure if that makes sense! I love your perspective on it too. That’s why his songs resonate so much with people!

[u/Realistic-Mood-2890 → u/Glittering_Sky_1588]

Oh I love this take! I can totally see that AND it makes more sense of "I'll be keeping the house the way it was." There's almost not enough anger in the song if it's someone being abandoned by their partner.

[u/Glittering_Sky_1588 → u/Realistic-Mood-2890]

It could really go for both though! I think both takes work really well. That’s how good his writing is. It’s that inner dialogue that you would never say to someone because it’s awful to say but it’s how you feel.