The Dragonfly Prince despaired. No sooner had he emerged from his chrysalis, transformed from an uncertain and confused youth into his new, assured, confident adult form, did he find out he was being used as a simple metaphor for maturity and self-discovery in writer/director James Bird’s feature film Honeyglue.

His tale was a recurring motif in the film’s misfit love story between Morgan (Adriana Mather) and Jordan (Zach Villa), who form a seemingly instant connection after a brief encounter at a nightclub. Their relationship forms the basis of a story penned by the androgynous Jordan, with the Dragonfly Prince serving as his analogue.

While the Dragonfly Prince understood why he was only being used as an analogy – one that would be better suited to a teenage notebook than that of a film of technical competency – he wished there was more to his presence than this. He wanted to straddle both lines – like Honeyglue does in its attempt to be unique by having Morgan’s love interest be non-binary, while at the same time saying that there’s nothing unusual about being pansexual or of indefinite gender.

Similarly to Honeyglue, the Dragonfly Prince tried to gain wider acceptance by addressing some universal problems and current social issues about identity, but never talking about them in any real depth. He also wanted to make people laugh, as does Honeyglue with its allusions to the works of Lynn Shelton and other mumblecore comedies, but attempts at being witty and quirky felt forced and fell flat, as the humour was decidedly vanilla.

Learning that his lifespan would only be three months long (something mentioned at the top of Honeyglue), the Dragonfly Prince realised his time was short, like Morgan in the film, who has an inoperable brain tumour. Despite that, he felt a distinct lack of real human emotion, such of which is absent from Honeyglue.

He thought there would be some conflict or tension, or that he or someone around him would learn something and grow, but in the end there was nothing of the sort – exactly like scenes in Honeyglue where Morgan’s conservative family show obvious discomfort when Jordan is around, but don’t build to anything.

He didn’t know what to do or even how to think and everyone around him started feeling more and more ill-defined, much like every character in Honeyglue. Just as the film does, he unnecessarily went looking for a change of scenery just to prolong his lifespan and in the hope of finding something new that could rejuvenate himself.

The Dragonfly Prince walked plenty of familiar avenues, like Honeyglue does, and after a while wasn’t sure at all where he was going, again like Honeyglue. Eventually, he came to the conclusion that, once again like Honeyglue, he either didn’t know where to go, or just didn’t have anywhere interesting to go.

That’s not to say there weren’t effective moments in his life, or in Honeyglue, but in the end, like the film, he just ended up running out the clock as he trudged on to an inevitable and underwhelming conclusion. After which, the Dragonfly Prince would fade into obscurity, and with him all of his clear promise – exactly like Honeyglue and those involved with it.