Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-24.236.100.143-20191206231733/@comment-24.236.100.143-20200101232654

Right from the start, I liked Keefe. Sure, he wasn't my favorite character, at the time that place still went to Fitz, but every moment we spent with him he grew on me. I usually tend toward the more serious characters, but Keefe made me laugh, and I like that. And while Sophie was trying SO hard to hide her crush on Fitz, Keefe all but flat out told her that he liked her, with all of his jokes about being the captain of the Sophie Foster Fan Club. But I still liked Fitz best.

Then Exile happened. I'm not going to get into what I thought about Fitz's reaction, I have a whole other rant about that, so I'm just going to focus on Keefe. When Alden's mind broke, Keefe reacted the way I had hoped Fitz would. Sure, he was sad about the death of the man he thought of as a father, but rather than lashing out, he tried to fix it. He could see that Sophie felt it was her fault, but unlike Fitz, he didn't force the blame on her. Instead, he tried to help her fix it.

And when Fitz called her broken, and she started to fall apart, he was willing to fly across an ocean for her. And remember, at the time, they'd known each other for, like, a year. Up until that point, he had just seemed like her crush's best friend. But what 'crush's best friend' fly's across the ocean for this girl he barely knows?

People say that Keefe joined the neverseen for Sophie. But I'm not sure that actually helps our argument. What does help our argument is that he didn't do it for himself. His actions were reckless, and impulsive, and maybe even slightly stupid, but he did them for the right reason. He felt he had to make up for his mother's actions. He felt guilt. And for elves, as we all know, guilt is dangerous. He was trying to save the world single handed, and that, in my opinion, is a noble, if slightly impossible, cause.

Remember, Sophie is the only person that Keefe lets in. He's suffered so much emotional trauma that it's hard for him to trust. He feels that he has to rely on himself, and that if anyone knew the truth about his past that they'd push him away. When Sophie didn't, he was probably shocked.

He was scared. Scared that Sophie would push him away. Scared that people would blame him for his mother's actions, especially considering the fact that he kind of blamed himself. But even though he was terrified, he still fought for what he thought was right.

Let's look at his behavior in Flashback. He liked Sophie since book one, and knowing that Sophie didn't return that sentiment must have been incredibly painful. But he was still willing to let Fitz have her, because that's what would make her happy. He cares about her so much that he's willing to endure heartbreak for her happiness. Some of that could have been because of Alden's meddling, but I believe that he would have done that anyway.

When Sophie came back from the matchmakers, he was the first one to realize something was wrong. But where Fitz learned the information from pressuring and eavesdropping, Sophie willingly revealed it to him. And Keefe's right. If someone really loves you, they would be willing to endure being a bad match. Again, not getting into Fitz's behavior.

To me, Sophie and Fitz's relationship has a sort of arranged, forced feel to it. She mostly shares things with him because of Cognate training. But Keefe and Sophie know each other because of spontaneous conversations. The chemistry between them just seems so much more natural.

anyway, that was kind of all over the map, but oh well.

--Trickyzbear