@Midnight Dreary wrote:
After witnessing your father murder innocent people, having him abandon you for magic and power, and being thrown into a new and dangerous world, yes, Bae should be a broken and depressed man. Those are some seriously traumatic events for someone to suffer through. He had no one to take care of him, no skills to get a proper job in this world, and no knowledge of how to survive in this world.
A lot of people speculated that Baelfire would turn out to be a bit of a troublemaker or lost soul the next time we see him. So, Neal’s personality fits perfectly for how Bae would be NOW. Just because he had a few early years of happiness doesn’t mean that you should grow up normal and well-adjusted.
Yeah, I agree. Watching the only person in the world you ever truly loved essentially turn into a demon right before your very eyes, watching him murder and terrorize innocent people, and being thrown into an entirely different world from you’re used to. That is TERRIFYING. Just having one of these things happen to you would cause someone to become suicidal. And then add on top of that he grew up without a mother, he was almost sent to war, his father was constantly being terrorized by his fellow villagers because of his cowardice during the ogre wars, and knowing that your father, your idol, your hero, abandoned you for magic and power…Dude…you’re gonna have one messed up kid on your hands. Neal’s current personality makes total sense to me.