It's getting late, and I'm not in a calm mood, so I'm not interested in making the structure bigger, in order to put some pretty crap in order. This time I will only talk about what I want to talk about, only the characters.
Henry and Eleanor are
almost two fossils already. They are still greedy for the little flesh and blood they once remembered, even to the point of being so greedy; they only have hostility and vigilance towards the person in front of them. It's not that I don't want to believe it once. It's just that I have come this far, I can't believe it, I can't believe it, and I know that I am not worthy of being honest with others. So Henry said it was the worst of all your lies. So Eleanor said, that's exactly why I'm saving it for now. There must be truth, but it will always be distorted by heavy suspicion, and eventually it will become a new lie along the direction of suspicion.
They are the ones at the top, the source of all the misery in this family. Every weakness can be a trap, let alone those that are unbreakable and rock solid. Fossils always want to be unique and that others should be as soft as possible, to love, to enjoy, to manipulate without fear. The fact is that their collision is destined to polish and roughen everything around them. Maybe they were too arrogant to pay attention, maybe they were too stubborn to pretend not to know, but when they had to face this fact, it seemed a little too late. Luckily they didn't care - nothing can overwhelm you, Ales said to Henry - and she was right.
The two have no way out of their maze. No one is more aware of each other's hearts than them, and no one is more incapable of reconciliation than them. They got up again and again from places where ordinary people couldn't get up, bitten each other, encouraged each other, and miraculously provided each other with reasons to survive. "I want to die!" "Be patient, one day death will come." "Waste time and lose both, you can laugh it off." "This is my way of expressing despair." "I hope we never die!" Me too!"
The lion in the twilight of winter was trying his best to laugh, fight, struggle... to live.
richard and ales
Two mentally young children. They are truly sympathetic beings, with a deep-rooted attachment to their parents, even though they are heartbroken after coaxing and prevarication time and time again, they cringe and hesitate, a few soft words of comfort and promised candy can never be refused. Henry, Eleanor, Richard and Ales are more like a real family. Sons love their mothers, daughters love their fathers. The candy that Richard couldn't refuse was Aquitaine, and the candy that Ales couldn't refuse was marrying Henry and staying together. A son wants to replace the authority of an aging father, and a daughter wants to replace the charm of a color-fading mother. But for their older rivals, they were not without the slightest concern - Richard would complain about his father's indifference, and Ales would say "I used to worship you" and threw himself into Eleanor's arms and burst into tears.
They tried to fight for equal status, but in the end they were the losers. Nostalgic for the wings of parents, children will always be children.
Philip and Geoffrey
are two people on the fringes of the family.
The cowardice of his father made Philip an orphan in a sense. He had to force himself to grow faster than ordinary people in order to get everything that belonged to him, and even get back his father's share. The hardships and humiliation during this period led to his eagerness for quick success and aggressiveness. He was extremely sensitive to his age, hated the word "boy", played all kinds of intrigues and tricks, and always showed his keen eyesight and superb skills. In fact, his mentality still has an impetuous and naive side, and his desire for revenge and proving that he is a strong man is too strong, and he can't help but fight for a while, and he can't achieve real foresight. Richard said, you are still a child. Philip admits that in some ways yes. Premature maturity, the price is often incomplete.
Jeffrey is a "masterpiece", a cogwheeled, turning machine, more thoroughly lost in flesh than Henry and Eleanor. He imitates human emotions, imitates human demeanor, but can only reproduce it with the rhythm of machines. He tried to use arithmetic to deal with everything, and everything was calculated, but he didn't understand that the human heart was flesh after all. Of course, this is not his responsibility either, and it seems that his life experience is not enough for him to realize this. Look what he said to Henry: love me, father, and let me be king, for you are the only one left. Brilliant logic. No matter how disguised the machine is, probably only John can be deceived, and the others only have clear interests and tacit understanding. He is everybody's business partner, but nobody's son, nobody's brother.
They all have outsider traits.
Philip has almost nothing emotionally for all members of the family. He said "almost" because he was still a little vague about Richard's attitude. Did he ever love? At least I think there is. He said it took me two years to walk every street in hell. It's not necessary to lie. Is this love too expensive for him? I think so. When he was fifteen years old, he chased after Richard's figure. For a brief moment, Philip, who should not have expected to rely on anyone, allowed himself to rely on the son of his father's enemy, and then the man left without a word. He might not mind continuing to love Richard, but no longer in that way. So he took pleasure in asking Richard to beg him for an army of two thousand, and he hoped that he would not be ignored by anyone.
As for Jeffrey, he really doesn't want anything emotionally from all the members of the family. He is happy to negotiate with different people in turn, promise to be the minister of the dominant side at any time, report traitors at any time, and doesn't mind a little murder... sell everyone to everyone. His machine-like candor and brazenness reached such a level that no one was intimidated by him—the machine's operation was predictable. The closest human emotion is hate. Eleanor said he had a gift for hatred, Jeffrey was noncommittal. Maybe he does hate the fact that his chance to be human has been lost forever for reasons he himself will never understand.
Presumably because of this, Philip and Jeffrey are natural allies. They are all outside the core, and have their own interests to fight for and their own hatreds to fulfill. So Jeffrey can tell John in front of Philip without changing his face, he betrayed you, you can tell by looking at his face. He knew that Philip wouldn't mind. Smart people and smart people have a tacit understanding, only with stupid people need to waste their time.
John is
more like an animal, and everything comes from the simplest instincts - instinctive greed for the crown, instinctual hatred of mother and brother, instinctive love of father "like a gluttonous child loves lunch". Poor, disgusting but not hateful, even his cruelty is animalistic and lacks scheming.
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