Yes. This. - Tumblr Posts - Page 2

i can’t believe there’s a lightsaber whip in the acolyte and all this site can talk about is whether it’ll be nice enough to the jedi. lightsaber whip!!!!!!

One thing which I think gets overlooked in the discourse surrounding TSH is how much Charles changes through the story. Before Bunny's murder, he and Camilla seem to be the heart of the group. They are sweet to each other, welcoming to Richard, and just generally seem much better adjusted and kind. Charles is vocal about the fact that even considering killing Bunny is awful, and I think he is pretty consistently against it. Yes, Charles is an alcoholic, but given the company he keeps and the trauma of losing his parents, it's hardly surprising. I don't think I ever got the sense of him being a mean drunk, just someone who struggles to deal with his daily reality and needs a form of escapism and a coping mechanism - albeit an unhealthy one.

The murder of Bunny and the fact that he's much more involved with the police, and starts (understandably) to hate Henry is, I think, what really turns him to the dark side. None of the main characters are good people, and all are made worse by the events of the book. Charles' arc, though, is arguably the darkest, most severe, and most noticeable. Perhaps it's the guilt, or having to interact with Bunny's family, or just the fact that nothing he does will ever be as bad as killing a trusted friend. Why would you care about being an ass when you're a murderer?

Francis Abernathy is such a fantastic character to me, because he’s not outwardly violent like Charles, nor increasingly cold and self-serving like Henry, yet he is just as shallow. I often see the sentiment that his ending is so tragic and how he was forced into that unhappy, het marriage. As he expresses in his suicide letter, Francis ultimately succumbs to his own lack of moral strength and failure to act (“Forgive me for the things I did but mostly the ones I did not.”) Obviously I will acknowledge that the marriage situation was unfair — no one deserves to be ousted from their family for their sexuality. However, it really was not his only choice. Just as Richard comes to realise (and is quite disgusted by), Francis would rather remain trapped than have to get a job, provide for himself, and make his own life. It reminds me a lot of Julian’s ending, and how Richard says he could at least respect it if Julian had turned them in, since it would show some strength of character, but his running away only exposed how weak-willed he was all along. Perhaps Francis has a better moral compass than Henry, but his failure to use it renders him just as at fault for everything that happened. As always, Francis values his comfort over his happiness. That’s his fatal flaw.