#i like that stroud doesn't shy away from writing some actually horrific stuff for these kids and shows that not everything can be fixed

[vryfmi]

every single l&co character is basically a different taste of "sole survivor" trope

Lucy is the most obvious and most "by the book" example of said trope. it was sheer luck that saved her, and now she's not only heavily traumatised by witnessing death of all her childhood friends in that mill but also suffered from townsfolk's judgemental looks at her. "did she chicken out and left others to die?", "if she helped, would have others make it to the morning?" that's the hardest part in being the last survivor - others will judge you for the fact that you are alive. no wonder Lucy had left her hometown.

Lockwood is... well... how do i put well an orphan. but he's also the last survivor of his parents' idea. yes, he didn't know it till the very end, but he's been unconsciously following and improving upon it. if Celia and Donald were killed because of their discovery, and Jessica died due to her inexperience with ghosts, Lockwood had overcome all of it. he completed his parents' work and neutralized many sources to save even more people.

George, on the other hand, isn't that much of a survivor in the literal sense, unless you look at it from very specific angle. George was eager for knowledge, he was asking questions, was trying to get to bottom of it ever since he worked for fitties. but times and times again he was punished, restrained. where others had given up in their researches, embraced propaganda, George stayed true to himself. yes he was fired, in order to cut him off the access to said knowledge, but he never gave up. also worthy of note: he was the only one who survived looking into bone mirror.

out of team of four Holly was the sole survival. that traumatic experience made her leave agent path but stay in the agency, now working in office of rotwell. Holly has great fear of poltergeists, and that fear isn't gone, on contrary, after events in aickmere's store, it might have gotten worse. she probably blames herself in both cases, too.

Kipps is a miraculous survival of fitties regime. not only he worked so close to them, but constantly was going against inner agency's plans. yet somehow Kipps wasn't all that affected. he quit and wasn't chased after or anything. maybe fitties dismissed him as a threat and just didn't want to waste any resources on him. another point to make is that Kipps lived to his twenties. not many children in that universe make it that far.

Flo however is at most interesting example, because her trauma had broken her. no fantastic overcoming the harshness, no trying to make things work. just compare her livelihood to others: she developed severe claustrophobia (where she barely can stay in doors and have a roof over her head) after what she went through - death of her colleagues and nightmare of protecting herself with improvised weapon till morning. Flo left her agent career for good and cut ties with everything from her life prier the event. she works alone and far from people, barely resembling a person herself. it's tragic really

even skull! last of Bickerstaff's followers who couldn't pass on after what they've discovered during theirs's life time. all of them were obsessed with death, yet, scared of it immensely. mirror had turned those people into restless souls not ready to leave living plane, but only skull, last remaining witness of device's creation, came in terms with death and moved on by himself, without his source being destroyed or thrown into fire oh wait a second

in conclusion why do lucy holly and flo all have same backstory

#lockwood and co #l&co #jonathan stroud #analysis #lucy carlyle #anthony lockwood #george cubbins #holly munro #quill kipps #flo bones #i like that stroud doesn't shy away from writing some actually horrific stuff for these kids and shows that not everything can be fixed #as well as long term impact it has #it's realistic #skull in the jar #the skull #.mypost