Oh, joy! A nice long sistermagpie TDIR post to mull over. I don't get to obsess...er...I mean analyze...this series often enough!
So I wondered if some of his gruffness with Will might have been a sign of his not wanting to make the same mistakes with another boy that he made with Hawkin, making him feel Merriman was too attached to him personally.
I think you're onto something with that. It's interesting that with Simon, Jane, and Barney, he has a soft spot; he's gentle with them in ways he can never be with Will. He's often the Drew's rescuer in the physical sense, or their comforter when the battle becomes too frightening or overwhelming for mortals. At the end of OSUS, of course he literally rescues them at the end. In Greenwich, he comforts Jane after her nightmare. In SoT, there's Simon's near-drowning incident--that scene always gave me the feeling that Merriman had left something else key in order to save Simon, which is a big deal for an Old One because they have to put the good of many over the life of one. (Or is it actually in the text? It's been too long since I read these). There must be a Merriman rescuing Barney moment but I'm pulling a complete blank.
The ending of the series continues to be a thorn in my side to this day. It's the Alice in Wonderland ending: it was all a dream...except in this case, it wasn't. It's worse than that. It was real, it all happened, only they aren't allowed to remember it, which hurts worse than it just being a dream, which is why it's maybe a good ending and not a cop-out.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-06-17 06:17 pm (UTC)So I wondered if some of his gruffness with Will might have been a sign of his not wanting to make the same mistakes with another boy that he made with Hawkin, making him feel Merriman was too attached to him personally.
I think you're onto something with that. It's interesting that with Simon, Jane, and Barney, he has a soft spot; he's gentle with them in ways he can never be with Will. He's often the Drew's rescuer in the physical sense, or their comforter when the battle becomes too frightening or overwhelming for mortals. At the end of OSUS, of course he literally rescues them at the end. In Greenwich, he comforts Jane after her nightmare. In SoT, there's Simon's near-drowning incident--that scene always gave me the feeling that Merriman had left something else key in order to save Simon, which is a big deal for an Old One because they have to put the good of many over the life of one. (Or is it actually in the text? It's been too long since I read these). There must be a Merriman rescuing Barney moment but I'm pulling a complete blank.
The ending of the series continues to be a thorn in my side to this day. It's the Alice in Wonderland ending: it was all a dream...except in this case, it wasn't. It's worse than that. It was real, it all happened, only they aren't allowed to remember it, which hurts worse than it just being a dream, which is why it's maybe a good ending and not a cop-out.