#also shoutout to han bc i didn’t have to chase twinkling lights uses bc they rule and also inspired this

[operationslipperypuppet]

let’s talk about the twinkling lights of galaderon and hardwon surefoot, shall we?

now, to start this off with a caveat, i’m not going to list every time it’s used, i am going to try to generalize. i do, however, want to note that it is one of a few naddsongs that remains consistently tied to a single person in the main campaigns - it’s not used at all in eldermourne and the one use in c3 before hardwon’s return is after the bubble falls in ezry and duck team can finally see the sky (which is what hardwon was staring at in its first use).

when we meet hardwon surefoot, the man who walks into the hungry trout, one easy and early thing to see about him is that he’s searching for something. whatever it was he left behind in irondeep wasn’t his home, not really, because he never felt accepted there. as we meet bronzebeards and hear more stories about his youth, this point only strengthens. he was running.

for the most part, twinkling lights is used when hardwon sees things about his past, the aspects of him he left behind, the home he always hoped for himself, but never quite got. the first use is when he learns that he’s on his father’s ship and that he’s with people who knew his parents. it comes up when he finds his dads hat in the captains quarters, when he and gemma meet up on the balcony. and several times when he’s trying to reach out to his mom (promising his dad he’ll save her, telling her he is a vampire and learning about his dad, and saying goodbye to her when they leave shadowfell).

after leaving lydia, almost 20 episodes pass before it comes up for hardwon again. in that time he’s reincarnated, he goes through hell and comes back, and probably spends a lot of time thinking he’ll never be home again. twinkling lights is then used when he looks out over the destruction of irondeep and sees the stormborn coming toward gladeholm, the two parts of the home he imagined for himself, looking completely different than he thought they would.

the next time it comes up is when he meets shivl, and talks to her about feeling out of place among the dwarves. which is, again, the home he’s come a long way to reject, and been fleeing since the beginning.

now, of course, hardwon hasn’t completely rejected the idea of being a dwarf. it’s a major part of his identity. they are his people. but he is not theirs. not even wielding the godshammer will give him that (his offer to macgannis, when they wrestle for the last part of the hammer, that macgannis can take it, that hardwon doesn’t have to be the guy, is proof positive of this. hardwon will always consider himself a dwarf. but he will never expect to be considered a dwarf by a dwarf.)

earlier, i mentioned hardwon surefoot, the man who walks into the hungry trout, and how he was searching for a home. if you were to ask him what he would consider to be among the most important moments of his life, entering that tavern would make the list. not because of what happened after he went in there. but because of who walked in after him.

and the home he found in those people.

it’s easy to see, immediately, how at place hardwon feels at the crick. he falls in love with the idea of it long before even arriving there. but i wouldn’t consider it to be his home. and neither does the scoring of the show.

the last use of twinkling lights in campaign one, and perhaps the most prolific, is when hardwon asks moonshine if he can join her and live at the crick. making the song no longer about rejecting a home, but about him completing his arc and finding one. he literally says to moonshine that when he left irondeep, he didn’t know where he fit in and then he met her. being part of the crick is something he asks for because he wants to remain with her. his question ends with “hell, i wanna keep on hanging out with you”. she, moonshine, is the one he begs to stay for.

emily has voiced qualms about her reaction as moonshine to this moment, but it’s perfect. moonshine is nearly speechless, gives him an enormous hug, and tells him about an empty stump. that’s all that matters to him. in hugging her back, the song swells, and hardwon completes his arc, finding that home he’s been searching for and seen specks of in all the things he had to leave behind with every other use of the song.

that choice could, of course, be seen as establishing the crick as his home. but when we get his triumphant return in campaign 3, this is proven, through music, to not be the case as much.

a bastard no more is what introduces hardwon back, showing you a split second before jake says who opens the cabin door who is behind it. twinkling lights could have been used aboard the stormborn again, looking at the crick, but it isn’t. when callie, sol, and hardwon waltz back into the crick town square, murph makes a point of describing exactly what’s going on - that every crick is excited to see hardwon, that they’re all so happy he’s back and heading out on an adventure. he has found a home here. a community. the thing he explained to shivl and 1000 times through actions in campaign one that he never had in irondeep.

and yet. no twinkling lights.

but then we get it back. in 3x39: hang on!. kenna, of all people, is the one who approaches hardwon and asks about moonshine and beverly. where they are. why he’s not there. we get twinkling lights there, the first time they’re truly brought up in campaign 3 by hardwon. when he says they don’t need him. they are his home, but hardwon has left that, too, behind. the future that was so bright in its use in 1x100 has become clouded by time and distance.

until. until.

the distress signal.

no, the use of it is not when moonshine first reaches out to him, desperate and sounding weaker than she ever has in her life. it’s when he responds. when he apologizes. when he insists that he’s coming. he’s on his way. he’s sorry and just hold on for one more moment because he’s on his fucking way.

he’s coming home, to moonshine. and that’s what the music is trying to tell you.

the last time it’s used? to drive the point home? is as he says his final goodbyes to duck team and heads off in the teleporter. to actually go back home.

hardwon surefoot, the man who walks into the hungry trout, desperately wanted to find a home. and the twinkling lights of galaderon helps you, the audience to see where it is. so that hardwon surefoot, the man who trapped ultrus in a hammer, will be exactly where he needs to be when he lands in the astral plane.