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| Details |
| Author: | Mishell |
| Summary: | Bran writes to Captain Sparkwire about his concerns regarding Prince Anduin. |
| Rating: | T for Teen |
Captain Sparkwire:
I'm sure you've heard by now that Prince Anduin has gone missing. Again. Obviously we'll try and find him, but I have another concern I thought I should raise with you.
I met the Prince and even worked with him a bit a couple of years ago, and found him to be clever and wise for his age. Possibly because he's had so much on his shoulders since he was a wee lad. But I also think that when you force a child to be a man before he's ready, he snaps back like a bowstring and acts like twice the child in rebellion eventually. And thanks to some observations by Oranna that I'd never thought of along those lines, it's clear to me this is what's happening. Regardless of the reasons, it is an extremely volatile situation, and I'm also concerned about our human squad leader's inability to see it clearly. You know how humans can be about their kings and nobles and such, thinking them superior.
But whatever else he is, Prince Anduin is a child going through the torturous process of becoming a man, and because he has power both political and priestly, it's letting him rebel in ways that could affect more than just himself and his immediate family.
The boy has thus far run away at least three separate times without notifying anyone or gathering backup to accompany him. He has also mind controlled those attempting to put any sort of check on this childish behavior, something that is flatly against the teachings of the Mystic Ward and I presume the Cathedral of Light when it comes to one's allies. If you have to mind control someone to get them to do what you want, maybe what you're asking them is not reasonable. Such as, for example, leaving a fifteen year old boy alone to do what he pleases in an unknown land beset by at least three different calamities simultaneously (the sha, the mogu, the Horde).
I can forgive him for being blind to the danger he's in, but I am more than a bit miffed at Sir Atley, who is a fully grown man and is somehow so blinded by his "royalty loyalty" that he will not admit the lad's being a full-on brat and that some of his behavior (the mind control in particular) has been quite literally unlawful. This sort of behavior is not the behavior of the child Anduin I met. He is clearly compromised in some fashion by a combination of childhood trauma and adolescence itself. And yet Sir Atley is still talking about him like he is some sort of savior who Knows Best and should be turned loose to do whatever he pleases. Whereas I've seen Sir Atley forbid grown adults to go off alone into situations far less dangerous than present-day Pandaria.
I got Sir Atley to grudgingly admit that the boy needs backup at least, but he's still talking about it like we should be meekly following in the child's shadow instead of grabbing him by the shoulders and giving him a good shake - literally or figuratively as need be - and telling him what all he's doing catastrophically wrong. The boy has gone wild, Captain. It's obvious to me. It's obvious to his father. I cannot figure out for the life of me why it isn't obvious to anyone else.
I think if he can survive to eighteen or twenty he might make a decent king, but if people keep treating him like some kind of adult or worse yet god in child's clothing, he is never going to get the chance to prove me right.
I don't know that you can do anything about this, but I just wanted you to be aware of what seems a lack of perspicacity on our usually-brilliant leader's part here. He's got a blind spot when it comes to his prince, and while I understand it on a certain level, I am not inclined to tolerate it without at least making someone aware who is above him in the pecking order. This is not (yet) a formal complaint, but in case it gets out of hand, I don't want it to seem like a formal complaint is coming out of nowhere.
Thanks for your attention while I ramble on. I'm just frustrated, is all. With the boy, and with others who don't seem to be frustrated with the boy because of who he is (which is actually what makes it so much more important that he get brought up right). I would never have gotten away with half of what he's been doing when I was fifteen, and there was a lot less riding on it.
Sincerely,
Prospector Brannagen Stillwall