If the fireflies were so nice and taught the bloke to dance n stuff, why did he then keep them prisoner in a jar rather than let them go home??

I swear Emrys should have been a cat.

Anyway - if the fireflies were so nice and taught the bloke to dance n stuff, why did he then keep them prisoner in a jar rather than let them go home??
That's the whole comment.

Personally, I think this bloke was very selfish! But only if you take the lyrics of the song by Owl City literally (sorry, momentarily distracted....I'm such a Gleek! Puck is soooo cute in this one! lol...Ok, I might be drooling but I'm back).

I don't think they're meant to be taken literally, he's a young adult that can't cope with the stuff going on round him. It's making him unable to sleep, his head's in turmoil & he's sick of lying there wanting sleep to take him to a nicer place. I think everything's going too fast in a kind of 'stop the world I want to get off' kinda way but when he tries to get off (go to sleep), all the demons in his head take over & he needs the light to send them away. Hence the fireflies. He may have memories of fireflies from childhood that he thinks about & until he does, sleep is impossible.

The fact he wants the comfort of childhood is evident in the video setting, it's full of toys and gadgets that young people would love. Many of us experience problems with sleeping when times get rough, I know I do (although to be fair, I don't sleep much at night anyway)...He needs the comfort of the light from the open door, to soothe him when he has bad dreams (as children do) perhaps the light 'dancing round the room' (disco ball hanging by a thread) is actually his 'fireflies' and the 'jar' is a place in his head he goes to when even sleep doesn't provide the goods, his 'Happy Place' (I'm pretty sure that light on a disco ball would look like fireflies when your eyes are closed). The fireflies are probably his good childhood memories and he sees them when he shuts his eyes & the light dances. Even when all seems lost he keeps just a bit of his childhood in his head to relate to when things get too much.

Taken literally not letting them go & keeping them in a jar is a bit cruel. Keeping something away from loved ones just because it makes you calm & happier isn't a very nice thing to do. Nobody likes goodbyes, they generally hurt & are upsetting but we can't hold onto living things just to satisfy a need in us. But clinging to a bit of childhood to comfort us to sleep isn't a bad thing :)