Candy and Prince of Darkness

[Kate]

If you were candy would u be more sympathetic towards Christoper Carrion?

[enigmaticpoet]

Yep! Sure he's horrendously scary, evil, and psychotic, but all he needs is a little love and understanding to make him a little more tolerable. He's rather pathetic, in his own totally capable evil prince sort of way. *hides from evil princely wrath*

[inkstitchling]

Considering I know his history, being the reader, of course I'd be more sympathetic. I haven't read the books in a while, and I only own the 2nd one, so I could be wrong, but I don't think Candy knows as much about him as we, the readers, do.

[Abaratian]

I don't know... I mean, Candy probably would if she knew about his history, like inkstitchling said. But I can't help but think that Boa is preventing her from feeling a lot of sadness on behalf of Carrion.

[malingomango]

yeah i think prince carrion is a bit of a sad character. but at teh same time when he touched her when they were on the roof all she felt was pain and darkness. So she'd never be able to survive his touch even if it was loving. Maybe he cant escape his darkness no matter who he loves. Who knows?

[malingomango]

i just realized that i replied to my own post......XD lmao. wow. way to go me!

[Deleted]

Like inkstitschling and abaratianxslasher said I'd like to think that Candy would be more understanding of him if she knew what we know.

But more than anything I believe in personal preferences. I like Princess Boa fine, he wasn't her taste at all and she fell in love with someone who suited her better. And why did he fell in love with her? Let's face it: because she was pretty. That was pretty much all he knew about her, everything else was his wishful thinking. Ofcourse he's not impossible to love, it's just that... well, chasing after princess sunshine maybe wasn't the brightest idea ever. ;D

Er... was I about to answer a question? Oh yeah. Um... yes, I believe I would have reacted differently. Personal preferences. I love darkness, I love midnight(although not in a particularly gothic way) and I honestly love horror books and movies so the nightmare visions wouldn't shake me... much. LOL the only thing I see myself having a problem with (except for the actual killing people part *smacks prince*) is his body temperature. Ice cold touch? Eep. Not a dealbreaker, but... eep.

[RedStockings]

Does anyone think that Candy is too young to feel sympathetic? She’s never been hurt by love, unless you count the disappointing lack of it she gets from her father. Maybe as she gets older in the books her opinions will change. I know I don’t think/feel the same now as I did back when I was sixteen/seventeen.
Therefore is she just looking at the surface of Carrion, and listening to the rumours? Does she even have the maturity to realise that what’s on the outside isn’t as important?

As for me, I already do feel a lot of sympathy for him. I think I'd work on ridding the world of his Grandmother though, since she the route of all problems.

[Abaratian]

I know when I was sixteen, I was capable of feeling all of those complex emotions. However, I'm a writer, so through my characters I had experienced it all. Maybe living through my characters, I had become emotionally precocious for a sixteen-year-old. I don't know. But either way, my point is that it's possible for her. Sure, there are immature teenagers, but there are mature ones, too. And suffering abuse for years makes it so that you have to mature up fast. I think Candy's completely capable of it, just like I feel like I would have been capable of it at sixteen.

I think the reason Candy is just looking on the surface is because she doesn't know the whole story yet. No one has told her the whole story. So, to Candy, it looks like this crazy monstrous guy was madly in love with this princess who was with another man, and decided to kill her because he couldn't have her. Sure, that's what the situation looks like on the surface, but there's a deeper level to it that she hasn't been made aware of, so she has yet to question it or sympathize with him.

[caitycat66]

I think that I would... but I'm not completely sure. Cold and dark=good. Killing people=not so good. Kind of an issue. Does that even make sense?

[caitycat66]

Jan 30, 2009 11:44:28 GMT -5 @munanna said:

Like inkstitschling and abaratianxslasher said I'd like to think that Candy would be more understanding of him if she knew what we know.

But more than anything I believe in personal preferences. I like Princess Boa fine, he wasn't her taste at all and she fell in love with someone who suited her better. And why did he fell in love with her? Let's face it: because she was pretty. That was pretty much all he knew about her, everything else was his wishful thinking. Ofcourse he's not impossible to love, it's just that... well, chasing after princess sunshine maybe wasn't the brightest idea ever. ;D

True.

Jan 30, 2009 11:44:28 GMT -5 @munanna said:

LOL the only thing I see myself having a problem with (except for the actual killing people part *smacks prince*) is his body temperature.

Also true.

[caitycat66]

Feb 1, 2009 3:59:13 GMT -5 RedStockings said:

Does anyone think that Candy is too young to feel sympathetic? She’s never been hurt by love, unless you count the disappointing lack of it she gets from her father. Maybe as she gets older in the books her opinions will change. I know I don’t think/feel the same now as I did back when I was sixteen/seventeen.
Therefore is she just looking at the surface of Carrion, and listening to the rumours? Does she even have the maturity to realise that what’s on the outside isn’t as important?

Not all teenagers are immature. I'm a teenager, and I've always been told I'm mature for my age. Of course, part of that is acting. But still. Wouldn't having a family like that would actually cause for to be more mature than others her age? I think she could be sympathetic, at least a little bit.

[RedStockings]

Not all teenagers are immature. I'm a teenager, and I've always been told I'm mature for my age. Of course, part of that is acting.

Absolutely, I agree. It's what life throws at you that shapes your view of the world, and nothing at all to do with age. Perhaps sympathetic is not the right word; maybe I should have said empathetic.

However we know Candy does not sympathise with Carrion, because she rejects his story, turns her back on his obvious pain and remains afraid of him. I’m not saying Candy doesn’t have the ability to be sympathetic, only she clearly isn’t. So why? Without having your heart broken by someone, it’s hard to understand just how awful and crushing that can be.

I assume that Candy has never been involved with someone, based upon what we know already.
1) She feels at odds with her peers, and passes her time escaping into her imagination.
2) Her abusive father has probably made her more introvert, as she doesn’t seem interested in boys at all.

When I first read the book I didn’t think this at all, but re-reading I can see how innocently Candy looks at the world. How she accepts things and the dangers in the Abarat seem quite black and white. Carrion = evil, horrible, bad. Whereas she does a lot of potentially dangerous things that could be far worse, eg: going alone into strangers homes!! She becomes a little more wary in book 2 however.

Candy has been told Carrion is evil and dangerous, and Candy never questions this. She doesn’t seem to have the insight to ask, why is Carrion evil? And maybe it’s because of the all the horrendous things that have happened to him. That is more something the reader puts together, I don’t remember Candy ever saying anything to that effect.

;D Once again a very quickly hashed response, like everything I post on here. Of course this is all my musings, and I don’t wish to attack anyone else’s point of view at all.

[RedStockings]

Actually to answer the original question: No I can’t imagine myself ever being sympathetic towards a murderer, who is clearly a complete sadist, but the likelihood of meeting one is hopefully slim. But I would be interested to know what had happened to him to make him like that. In the case of Carrion, isn't there medical studies done on women, which show they respond to cruelty and find the kind of man that Carrion is, attractive?

However Candy might end up ‘understanding’ him later on, once she knows more and decides to stop running away from him.

[caitycat66]

I hope so. There's a lot of potential in both of them, and I think they could do so much together.