This one’s interesting - I think it’s got a lot of potential, and dabbles in some very interesting ideas, but I can’t help but feel as though it could have gone further. I’m not going to say that I think the story ought to have been different - I think there’s room for stories that are more “low-key”, and I think this is a good example of a story just like that which manages to be interesting in spite of it, but at the same time, I feel like there’s an underlying ‘darkness’ to the story which would have also been very interesting to explore further.
This specifically pertains to William’s character - he’s the highlight of this story for me, and I left the story hungry to see more of him. He starts out seeming like a somewhat ‘normal’ husband, only for you to effectively realize that he’s been more or less sold off by his family for the sake of a folklore about bringing luck to whoever marries him. The folklore, the fact that his family didn’t even bother to clarify that he’s a man, and even the fact that it doesn’t seem as though he’s ever believed he’d be able to achieve the dreams which Brock fears he stole from him… all of that is ultimately left as background noise to a far more mundane tale about tradition bringing the newly married couple together. Honestly, rather than feeling like the couple were going to be happy from here on out, I mostly came out of this story thinking that William really ought to get some therapy because it sure does seem like it could help him out.
There’s also the possibility that I’m off with this interpretation - at the end of the day, the story keeps most of this quite vague and up to interpretation, but it does tie back to a sort of disconnect that’s present here - the implied darkness of William’s background is quite a far cry from how casual the story otherwise is about it.
Then again, I do think that it ultimately is a strength - while I might be left wanting for more at times, it provides a lot of interest and texture to what is otherwise a simple story. The situation the two characters find themselves in is undoubtedly wrong, and neither seems entirely happy with it, but there’s something uplifting about how they manage to make the most of it regardless.