Peter

[jackmerlin.livejournal.com]

This was mentioned in the last thread but two,but I thought I'd start a new one rather than add on an old. Is Peter a "poor copy" of Giles? We see him so much more from the inside whereas apart from a few lines at the end of RAH we never see Giles except from the outside. Peter has fears obviously but makes a point of making himself do the things he fears.And he is of course at the age of teenage insecurities etc.
I sometimes feel Peter's 'tragedy' is that he seems to have the potential to be a good teacher or farmer,(just to give two examples) but will end up in the Navy because it's the family tradition, and therefore is almost as limited in his life choices as the girls.Not that he won't do well in the Navy, I'm sure.

Comments

[penguineggs.livejournal.com]

Actually, I think Peter is appallingly ill-suited to the Navy, and it's a shame Lieutenant Foley's blistering but no-doubt wholly accurate fitness report probably got disregarded for external reasons. given that his judgment of character is such that when he brings home a friend who isn't an outright psychopath the family are so fascinated that they stare for hours, that he panics in a crisis (exactly the sort of crisis, incidentally, that the Navy include in their training to see if people panic during it), that he has a terrible head for heights but no judgement about avoiding situations where that factor will put him and others at risk and that he bears grudges bigstyle against people who have solved crises he has been unable to, the sooner he gives up before he gets anyone killed/the UK plunged into a large and needless diplomatic incident, the better.

[antfan.livejournal.com]

I always think of Peter as fairly competent (!) I think because I'm much more familiar with the later books. In Peter's Room - well, he falls off a horse, having maybe jumped too many fences, but deals with his broken collar bone in a stoical manner. (And he's much more sensible about Gondal than Ginty/Patrick). In Thuggery Affair he deals with the Thugs in a fairly impressive manner - eg turfing them all in the river at one point. In Ready Made Family he helps Nicola rescue the younger Dodds from drowning and train crashes.

Not such a bad record!

Maybe he's growing up and becoming more competent as the books progress? Either way I like him tonnes better than Giles, who just reminds me of various arrogant public school types I've encountered over the years...