Testing testing

[thekumquat]

As people have been saying today on Facebook, the Dreamwidth format is much better for a proper conversation.

So... (thinks of contentious topic that hasn't been done to death)

Lawrie: will she grow up to be a bearable human being or a complete nightmare?

Ditto for Peter, Patrick, Ann and the rest of them.

Comments

[nineveh_uk]

I tend think that all of the siblings will probably be both nicer and happier people when they are out in the world on their own, and not in the Marlow/Kingsmead/Dartmouth hothouse being constantly judged against other Marlows and found wanting both by the family, other people, and themselves.

[purplerabbits]

I think I know quite a few full grown Lawries - some of their friends love them to bits, and others only find them bearable in small doses. I'd be in the latter camp, but I think she'd be basically OK. I'd enjoy seeing her guest appearance on Morecambe and Wise :-)

Peter will probably grow up to be a typical obnoxious man of his class, always having a bit of a chip on his shoulder because his friend are richer or more successful than he is. Maybe he'll develop a terrible coke habit in the 80s and lose his money in dodgy investments. Can you tell I don't like Peter?

I actually love Patrick as he is, even though he is a snob, I think he'll get a job with the BBC doing history documentaries and hang out with David Attenborough and be right at home :-)

[mrs_redboots]

Ann will be lovely when she grows up a bit - in the books, she does try her best but is too immature to see when she is being officious and when she is being genuinely helpful.

Peter will be fine as soon as he can be made to see that he is not Navy material and will be much happier doing something else.

Patrick will work out okay in the end, once he knows what he wants to do with his life. If he really wants to run Mariot Chase and save the estate for posterity, he will need to buckle down and learn estate management and work closely with his father. If he doesn't much care, he may just fritter his life away.

Lawrie will, I imagine, be a relatively decent human being. I half hope she doesn't make it as an actress - if she does, she will always be a self-centred diva. If she finds something to do where she has to think of other people, too, she has potential.

But by and large I think they'll all grow into decent human beings - most people do, after all!

[antisoppist]

I like Lawrie and think she will be perfectly fine once she isn't 14 and isn't surrounded by her family. She takes her acting seriously. She just has to wait for the rest of her to catch up and to be somewhere where the tactics that get her siblings to do things for her don't work (drama school) and are actively detrimental to her career (drama school) so she has to develop some new ones.

[thekumquat]

I agree, though I don't particularly like 12-15yo Lawrie and I suspect 16-18yo Lawrie might be worse (add booze and trying to get the attention of whichever sex)

I think her dedication to acting as well as growing up would then improve her immensely. I wrote a story about that: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11870817/chapters/26804166

Patrick, I mostly like and am convinced a bit of growing up and meeting a variety of people would sort him out, but he could go in a variety of directions, partly to please others (and yes, ended up writing two novel-length stories, one a first draft of something fairly Forestian which I keep meaning to edit, the other with a gay Patrick and activities Forest certainly wouldn't have written about!)

Ann - like others I think she'd learn the difference between officious and helpful when away from her family (and given how popular she is at school, perhaps already has, but family has a way of making you act younger again). I wish Forest had managed a book about her - her certain religiosity and authority-is-right view is a mindset I just can't get into.

Peter is the one I worry most about - he has such high expectations of himself and often fails to live up to them. I hope he'd become a happy decent engineer away from the Navy, but I see it equally likely he'd persist in something that goes horribly wrong and, in his efforts to deny how much he himself is to blame, ends up with a drinking problem.

Rowan needs to get some friends or confidantes or will end up with a breakdown and depression.

Giles will either continue a successful Naval career with a little less hubris after RAH, or end up discharged after the Falklands. Either way it'll improve him.

Ginty will probably only become bearable and acquire her own personality after her first divorce.

[jackmerlin]

Well, it just goes to show how long it is since I've had a look at Trennels! It's nice to see new posts even though I'm answering this very belatedly! It strikes me that a lot of fanfic is an attempt to answer that very question, in giving the characters bearable futures.
I have a horrible feeling though that I might not like any of the Marlows very much as adults - not unless they really move away from their current background and class attitudes. Patrick in particular, could end up something like Jacob Rees-Mogg. They're all from a land-owning, private school attending, Conservative voting, Churchill worshipping background with an unquestioning 'we know best' attitude (especially in RAH) after all. I think Rowan, stuck running the farm, might become hardened and bitter and unsympathetic to others. Peter, as others have said, might become discontented and never settle very happily into anything due to his awareness of his own failings. Nicola might escape into a wonderful life after working her way round the world or going to University, or she might end up married to Patrick and being quietly miserable behind her stiff upper lip. In some ways, I think Lawrie has the best chance of all - drama school could be a great leveller, and she is astute enough to learn that you at least have to pretend to care about other people once you're a famous actor!