[Catlady]

Originally Posted by gmw

It's not Gaiman's fault your education is lacking. More seriously, I figured the name Mr Frost was used to make it absolutely clear to the reader who this man was. There was never meant to be a question of whether it was a Jack, you were supposed to know and see what poor Scarlet was letting herself in for.

Why would Gaiman want to signal to the reader that Mr. Frost was a baddie? It should have been a surprise.

My earlier point was that they didn't know the baby was the primary threat; it could have been the other child; it may even have been an as yet unborn child. I see absolutely no reason for an information download from the Jacks (beyond the small one we did in fact get over the ghoul grave) explaining all the details of why things worked out exactly as they did.

Fairytales don't have to explain where the magic mirror came from or how it knows who is the fairest in the land.

I'm not talking about an information dump, just a bit of clarification. In the "Interlude" section, Jack is told he was supposed to take care of all of the family, especially the baby. Later, Bod is told that Jack was sent to deal with him --Bod--and failed. To me, this is pretty specific that they did know the primary target.

Something else that struck me and I've been forgetting to mention: if the Jacks had just left Bod alone, he never would have know he was destined to be the instrument of their destruction. Instead, they created the means of their own downfall. Oops!

Yes, I agree the secrecy seems redundant, although it may be that the Jacks simply prefer it that way. But I don't see that it matters.

It matters because it's an illogical detail that the author created, and he needed to make it logical in the story he was telling. He didn't do that.

Here I must quote Bod himself: ‘It wasn’t like that.’

At least not consciously. We might argue whether the Bod had this in his mind unconsciously (even Bod may be wondering that), but the hiding place was chosen as what seemed the best and most secret place in the graveyard.

The lead up to hiding Scarlett went:

This doesn't sound like Bod making plans to use Scarlett as bait.

My main issue here is Bod's casual, uncaring attitude; his coldness and lack of any sense of the gravity of the situation. OK, he's grown up in a graveyard, so his perception of death isn't going to be normal, but still, he seems unmoved by the horrible fates of the Jacks. Scarlett tells him he's behaving like a monster, and I agree with her.