Alright, so this post is to make something in one of my books absolutely clear, so if you haven't read And Is This What You Dream, don't read any further than this. There's going to be spoilers, and it also just won't make any sense if you haven't read the book.
In And Is This What You Dream, Ellery can come off as an asshole--let's just get that out in the open. He's gruff, he's mean, and he gets angry pretty easily. Anyone can get this from reading the book. What I feel isn't as readily evident is that the Ellery we see during this particular journey to the Terminus is not the "true" Ellery.
For each of these characters going through this journey over and over again, being taken out of and replaced in stasis time after time, there is the original or "true" personality of this character from before the loop ever began, and then there is the current personality of the character which we are experiencing. Each time a journey to the Terminus is attempted and failed and the characters are returned to stasis, losing memories along the way, the characters also both lose parts of themselves, and have different parts of their personalities exaggerated due to lingering subconscious (or conscious) memories of the last attempt to reach the Terminus. Each time a character goes into stasis and then comes out of it once more, they're a different person. From journey to journey, the change is not large, but over time, certain shifts in personality become increasingly evident.
Ellery, the "true" Ellery, could be angry, and a little pugnacious, and yes, he did get into quite a few physical confrontations as both a child and young adult, but he knew where to draw the line. He also was very considerate of how he behaved around those he loved and their loved ones, including Rafferty and Rafferty's friends and family. There were people he didn't like or get along with among those close to Rafferty, but he had enough maturity and sense to not be a total asshole to them. The "true" Ellery is not like the one we see in And Is This What You Dream during most of the story--he's much kinder, much more toned-down, and much calmer.
I wanted to make sure this was clear due to the fact that I don't feel it was exceedingly obvious from the novel. There are a lot of things that I hinted at or otherwise alluded to in the book, but this is one of those things that after hearing from people who have read it, I don't think people are picking up on very well, and I'll take the blame for that.
I really like Ellery as a character, so I wanted to try to clear his record just a little bit since I didn't write his original character as a complete asshole.
Hope your week is going well, and if not, that things will get better for you.
TschΓΌs!
