Yeah, I think there's this thing where people (instinctively?) root for the underdog and resent characters who get things handed to them by the narrative, or at least, they want to see the winners lose and the losers win. Being in fandom, I guess we see it all the time -- fandom latching onto characters who are meant to be bad guys or comic relief, because we want them to win for once! Or wanting to see a character who always wins brought down...
It actually took me awhile to make it past the first episode of White Collar because of everything that happened with Neal going from prison and straight into June's penthouse. I eventually caught some later episodes, fell for the show, and worked my way backwards, but I still remember what a huge turnoff that was for me, the way everything fell into place for him like that. Which I have gathered is kind of a minority opinion in the fandom; I think a lot of the fandom is more uncritically fond of Neal. And it's not that I don't like Neal, I totally do! But I can completely understand the simultaneous "hug him and punch him" urge. *g* (I think a lot of characters on the show could relate, too ...)
But, yeah, the way you write it, inviting us to sympathize with the character but also taking them down a bit, is something that works really well for me. Or, it's not even that, entirely ... it's more that the POV is lucid enough that it's easy to tell there is a lot Neal isn't telling us, and some of what's going on he doesn't get, or misinterprets.
Or, more generally, maybe it's just the sense that the narrative deck is not stacked in Neal's favor, which makes it more interesting.
Anyway, I like it. :D
I really love the extent to which Neal just does not have a framework that adequately explains Peter. Peter just does not make sense, according to the laws of human interaction which Neal has observed.
I ♥ this observation. :) There are definitely things about Neal that I don't think Peter understands, but I think Peter gets Neal a lot better than Neal gets Peter. And, while I'd never quite thought about it this way, I like this particular framing of the issue -- that Peter is simply outside Neal's understanding of how people work.
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It actually took me awhile to make it past the first episode of White Collar because of everything that happened with Neal going from prison and straight into June's penthouse. I eventually caught some later episodes, fell for the show, and worked my way backwards, but I still remember what a huge turnoff that was for me, the way everything fell into place for him like that. Which I have gathered is kind of a minority opinion in the fandom; I think a lot of the fandom is more uncritically fond of Neal. And it's not that I don't like Neal, I totally do! But I can completely understand the simultaneous "hug him and punch him" urge. *g* (I think a lot of characters on the show could relate, too ...)
But, yeah, the way you write it, inviting us to sympathize with the character but also taking them down a bit, is something that works really well for me. Or, it's not even that, entirely ... it's more that the POV is lucid enough that it's easy to tell there is a lot Neal isn't telling us, and some of what's going on he doesn't get, or misinterprets.
Or, more generally, maybe it's just the sense that the narrative deck is not stacked in Neal's favor, which makes it more interesting.
Anyway, I like it. :D
I really love the extent to which Neal just does not have a framework that adequately explains Peter. Peter just does not make sense, according to the laws of human interaction which Neal has observed.
I ♥ this observation. :) There are definitely things about Neal that I don't think Peter understands, but I think Peter gets Neal a lot better than Neal gets Peter. And, while I'd never quite thought about it this way, I like this particular framing of the issue -- that Peter is simply outside Neal's understanding of how people work.