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Val under the desk....
Aug. 29th, 2015 01:24 amAs we see, Val really isn't especially good at talking to Holly because she assumes that a thirteen year old is able to do more than is actually possible. It'll probably occur to her that getting her bowels in an uproar when a child says that she is aware of the evils of the world but isn't actually in a position to do much comes from a reluctance to admit that her own insane expectations are actively injurious to the child she wishes to protect.
What makes things worse is that Holly has to assume adult responsibilities that will hamper her later in life owing to Val having a catastrophically damaging personality flaw that will jeopardize her happiness. As we're about to see, the defining tension of Val's marriage to Phil is her fear that he'll end up like her first husband who died in the line of duty. While it's true that no one really gets over something that traumatic completely, it seems to me that Val isn't even willing to make the attempt because she's not really as strong a person as she'd like to think she is. The loss of control implicit in living in a world where death, physics and causality cannot be shouted into obeying her leaves her too paralyzed by doubt and fear to think and results in her wanting to live in a bunker safe from everything.
This means that Holly has to be the adult and summon Evie like a damned genie in a bottle to get Mother to embrace life and that's sort of sad and pathetic. A kid shouldn't have to do that and she shouldn't be described as being evil because she doesn't especially care for that role.
What makes things worse is that Holly has to assume adult responsibilities that will hamper her later in life owing to Val having a catastrophically damaging personality flaw that will jeopardize her happiness. As we're about to see, the defining tension of Val's marriage to Phil is her fear that he'll end up like her first husband who died in the line of duty. While it's true that no one really gets over something that traumatic completely, it seems to me that Val isn't even willing to make the attempt because she's not really as strong a person as she'd like to think she is. The loss of control implicit in living in a world where death, physics and causality cannot be shouted into obeying her leaves her too paralyzed by doubt and fear to think and results in her wanting to live in a bunker safe from everything.
This means that Holly has to be the adult and summon Evie like a damned genie in a bottle to get Mother to embrace life and that's sort of sad and pathetic. A kid shouldn't have to do that and she shouldn't be described as being evil because she doesn't especially care for that role.
