(Desire) Trilogy: The Supernatural POV, Part 2

In Trilogy, The Weeknd operates as a sort of mythological ambush predator. I wrote earlier about how he does this in drug form, but The Weeknd evolves throughout Trilogy into several forms. With each successful hunt & conquest of a lover, his character evolves. He grows within a horrific mythological framework: from drug to vampire to demigod. 

For a period of time in HOB it’s as if The Weeknd’s power is tied to the house. At first, his power is directly tied to him and his lovers/prey being in the house together. When he’s in the house and there is a party he’s at full power (such as in high energy songs like ‘HOB/GTG’ and ‘The Party & The After Party’). When he ventures further away from the house his behavior changes from gloating to begging. He begs in ‘Wicked Games’ when he left his girl back home and went to the strip club. In HOB, he’s not as powerful yet. He’s weak when he’s away from the house, his base of operations. And he’s weak (in songs like ‘Coming Down’) whenever the partiers leave and his home is empty, without enough life energy to syphon. 

As he creates more and more parasitic energy ties with lovers and admirers, we witness him making more moves beyond HOB walls. He ultimately powers up in ‘The knowing’ and then moving to Thursday he powers up after The Birds Pt. 2. After The Birds, he is on a new level and becomes a ‘Rolling Stone’ something mobile, no longer bound to the old limitations and transforming to something bigger and different.

Vampire Weeknd: Feeding off the living

From HOB to Thursday, The Weeknd’s behavior is very similar to a type of Dracula or Nosferatu character in the way he seduces and manipulates women to their peril. He displays powers here akin to a type of energy vampire, glamouring his prey to get them to do what he wants before taking their life. 

(he hooks:) In classic Nosferatu style, vampire Weeknd comes to his lovers/prey, when they are alone and vulnerable. Although The Weeknd shows vampiric traits in all 3 mixtapes, I would argue he is the most vampiric in Thursday. He offers devilish deals in ‘Lonely Star’, promising Valerie her every wildest dream. He even tells her that “I could be your best friend”.

Also, in line with vampire rules, The Weeknd needs to be invited. In ‘Lonely Star’ Valerie willingly enters into a verbal contract with him in exchange for “the cars, the clothes, the jewels, the sex, the house” and of course to be a star. She speaks to him in half prayer/half confessional, her deepest wishes: “promise me you’ll all love me one day you’ll remember me”. In this scene, not only does Valerie invite him in, but she promises her corporal body to him, stating, “My body is yours, happy Thursday”.  

(he corrupts:) Throughout Thursday, The Weeknd’s mission is to build up Valerie to a frenzy. He builds up her life with excitement and pleasure. In ‘Life of the Party he’s leading her: “I'm right here with you, I'm on cloud nine, Baby, you're behind, You can follow me, You can follow me if you want”. He is leading her astray: “You're lost Baby, step outside your mind”. There’s also an element of glamouring going on, where he seems to be prompting her to do things: “GO downtown with the drugs in your body, TAKE that step you're the life of the party, KNOW that step you're the life of the party”. And he seems to be controlling her in songs like Thursday. “Not on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, But on Thursday, make sure, YOU ARE THIRSTY”.

He keeps her contained within his world and his schedule. Trapped within Thursday and living a high intensity life. It’s through the exhilaration/pleasure/thrill, he is essentially fattening her up for when he will feast.

He is more vampire now, but he still has his old drug powers too. Every drug she invites into her body only strengthens his access to her and his power over her. All the while, she believes she is in control. He speaks to her as if she has all the power but she does everything he says. The thing is, he needs her life to be bright and strong, the better for him to feast on later. 

Find what you love and let it kill you (Charles Bukowski) 

(he strikes:) She thinks she is in control, as he eggs her on. Building her higher and higher because an energy vampire needs high energy. He builds her up high in a state of hubris, after feeding her ego and denying her nothing: “Baby, you can have it all…Baby you could be a star”. Then, in ‘The Birds Pt. 1’ he warns her that there are some things she cannot have, some things she shouldn’t do with him, “You tried to warn me, But, baby, I'm warning you, Girl, I'll show you, This is no game, You'll be falling to the point of no return, No return”. She is too far gone though. She is caught up in the frenzy of being with him. He’s glamoured her and she is living a fast and glamorous life. So she cannot slow down. At a certain point her excess and indulgence of him catches up with her. 

In ‘The Birds Pt. 2’ she experiences the loss after falling in love with him, someone that she can enjoy but never truly have. The heartbreak here is paralleled with the drug lust he has created within her. In certain vampire lore, vampire blood is considered addictive and having drug-like qualities. The Weeknd appears to be following these guidelines in the evolution of his character from drug to vampire. Valerie losing The Weeknd, is akin to a drug fiend being cut off cold turkey from the drug. She suffers. She begs. And at the beginning of ‘The Birds Pt. 2’, you hear a gun being readied and loaded as a woman cries. There is a bang and the crying immediately stops. She cannot handle the loss and is slain by it, it’s insinuated that she takes her own life, just as The Weeknd begins to sing on the track. 

like the moon, we borrow our light (Paramour)

In the beginning of Thursday, in ‘Lonely Star’ she told him, “My body is yours, happy Thursday”. Unbeknownst to her, this is the fulfillment of the contract she entered. With the gunshot and her body dropping, the contract is fulfilled. Her body is his. Happy Thursday.

After this tragic scene, The Weeknd is on a high like no other, high off of the energy taken from her life. He is delirious in ‘Gone’, barely coherent and just buzzing off of the energy he’s absorbed from Valerie. Then in ‘Rolling Stone’ he transforms. The title, ‘Rolling Stone’ gives a perfect imagery of a stone/drug/crack rock, tumbling/rolling/snowballing into something new. With every lover that succumbs to him he snowballs into something bigger. After describing his evolution to greatness in ‘Rolling Stone’ he then announces in ‘Heaven Or Las Vegas’ that he is now a god:  “They say, they want god. I say, I got heaven. Well I say, I am god.”

Starting from a pure sonic tone, The Weeknd builds himself up by feeding off of the desire of others. His songs give a play by play of this sort of snowball effect, as his power grows from drug, to vampire, to demigod. Each evolution, transforming him into what we know as The Weeknd.