Troubled Blood - *Spoiler-laden discussion*

[EllacottObsessive]

Setting this up for Strike and Ellacott fans to talk about spoilery things.

Strike is very loyal, isn't he? He's like a big St Bernard.

@parentalhelpline

Honestly popper that was what made me think of it. What did strike learn from his mother? That relationships are messy & tempestuous & don’t last. I think that maybe that was another reason he stuck by Charlotte, men left his mother on a regular basis & he was not going to be that guy.

Definitely agree. If Leda and Charlotte are examples of what he thinks love is, then maybe his reluctance to name his feelings for Robin is because he doesn't want to interpret them as love by that dysfunctional measure. It's interesting the number of times we are told Strike has feelings he prefers not to dwell on or name. He thinks love always turns bad. I'm hoping the next book moves him on from that significantly as Robin's kindness and generosity gives him a better picture of what love looks like.

100%. I wrote a fanfic exploring Strike's definition of love, and why he is deluding himself that he's not in love with Robin. I think he sees love as necessarily painful and destructive, like an angry animal in his chest, and I think at the end of TB, it's slowly beginning to dawn on him that love doesn't have to rip your soul to shreds.

I maintain that his experience of Joan's final weeks was a real catalyst for this - he realized how much she loved him, and how much he loved her, and although losing her was painful, and there were some regrets, the regrets were about not embracing that love sooner. He's putting the pieces together slowly.

I may be in a minority here but for me a lot of Strike’s back story doesn’t really add up. I just can’t see him going to Oxford and is it really likely with such a disrupted schooling and his upbringing that he’d be going for that or even get in? Unless it was a rebellion against his upbringing. I can understand why Strike doesn’t leave but in a way I don’t buy Charlotte sticking with Strike for so long. Also her getting engaged after two weeks, I understand why it happens but is it really realistic to real life? With Robin you really understand where she’s at and why she’s got there but with Strike I just don’t believe in it.

Rowling needs to write a Young Strike prequel to explain it all

More seriously, there is still lots to come out about Strike. I feel like there will be one book, or part of a book, devoted to resolving Leda's death, or at the very least Strike's feelings about her death, and I think Strike's younger half brother by Leda and Whittaker will make an appearance at some point.

Oh, I've known Charlottes. She makes a horrible kind of sense to me. That codepency, the dramatics and wild gestures, and having a specific bloke following her around like an adoring but wounded puppy.

I don't know enough about Oxbridge, except that I know the application process is different to other universities, but Strike is clearly very intelligent, and the adaptation does have Lucy suggest that a teacher or something saw something in him, which does happen (I think she just says he was the first in the family to go, from memory).

I think the he's very much a fantasy on one level, though.

I think she just says he was the first in the family to go, from memory

• in the book, that is!

That’s interesting EO. I don’t know anyone like Charlotte, at least not well anyway, which probably limits my view a bit.

Like others I’m really enjoying this thread. I remember reading the first book and I’d heard JKR say she had plans for 6 and I thought hmm that seems a bit of a stretch but obviously I eat my words! 5 was definitely the best yet.

I think this pretty much was the Young Strike book, given we see him aged 5, 7 and teenage.

Presumably the rather ferocious memory and intelligence that makes him a good detective was useful in his Oxford application too - that and having a point to prove.

I think this pretty much was the Young Strike book, given we see him aged 5, 7 and teenage.

As well, there's glimpses of older teenage Strike in Career of Evil when he is remembering Whittaker and Shanker, and life with his mother at that stage. Given that he has started to tell Robin about his past when he discusses his (lack of) relationship with his father in TB, I think he will tell her more about his mother and her death at some point, and that will be another breakthrough moment for him.

I've just seen elsewhere the point that Robin and Strike try 'that talking thing' when they come into conflict about her visit to see Ricci- and it works! Look at that personal growth right there, Strike.

Yes that was my take lancelottie - basically he would have aced the interview & entrance exam

I’m still not sure about Charlotte staying with strike. She’s so stunning according to the books that she could have a whole army of men following her around adoringly. Meanwhile even though young strike is obviously fit & healthy, he still has the wiry Pube like hair and he’s never described as handsome. I understand Charlotte going off with him at the party to piss off jago but I’m
Not sure how she stayed involved for 16 years

Yeah, he's not handsome, but I'm still not sure what that's supposed to mean. He clearly hasn't the slightest problem attracting women, and women that are considered very attractive too. He has presence, charisma, and he's a big, powerful man, even after his disability.

I'm becoming convinced that the 'not handsome' thing is a combination of Rowling drawing a contrast between him and Matt, and a projection of his own self deprecation. Not that I think he's got matinee idol looks, but there's more to being attractive than looks. It's feasibly in character for Charlotte to both remain somewhat obsessed with him, and combine that with a vindictive sense of ownership.

I have found my people. I love these books and the tv show. TB landed just when I really needed a huge book to get lost in for a few days, I was so happy I nearly cried when I bought it!
I love these characters and the way they’re developing. This story was the right amount of complicated too so I really got caught up in it.
I do and don’t want them to get together. It feels like if they do that’ll be the end and I’m not ready for that just yet.

I read TB within a few days of it coming out & have only just recovered from my sadness & frustration that I can't read what happens next yet! Now I'm going to have to re-read it & then I'll be bereft all over again!

As far as Strike/Charlotte goes, I don't think he was known about enough for her to have known who he was when they met but I think they probably bonded pretty quickly that first night & instinctively/subconsciously recognised each others brokenness. Plus, he was a bit of rough & so very different to all the posh boys in her life so far, & v useful for sticking two fingers up at everyone.

I so wish I was a Robin type, but I think I'm probably more of a Charlotte-trying-hard-to-convince-everyone-she's-a-Lucy.

Meant to say, Strike looks like a battered version of Jeremy Sisto in my head.

Isn't the description of Strike that he looks like Beethoven with a broken nose?

I have been googling pictures of Beethoven because I know how to have fun on a Friday night.

I have been googling pictures of Beethoven because I know how to have fun on a Friday night

I have been writing a podcast...

Partying hard at the parental house 😆😆

Beethoven is interesting 😆😆

I’m afraid strike & Robin are Tom & Holliday now and I can’t get past that

Absolutely, yes, I know the physical descriptions of Strike. (Back to front and inside out, but I'm not obsessed, nooooo). What I'm saying is that 'Not handsome' according to the evidence of the books, doesn't mean 'Not attractive'. They's not the same thing. So, in that context, while Charlotte could get the pick of what ever blokes she wanted in theory, there's nothing about Strike being described as 'Not handsome' that would mean she would be unlikely to want to keep him.

Rowling is playing with us. She's created a protagonist who isn't the dashing, good looking hero. She's telling us that 'handsome' don't mean shit. There's so much more that makes people attractive. When you consider what utter shits in the books have been 'good looking', it's a good lesson.

I am really hoping that’s the truth @EllacottObsessive because that would be brilliant 😁

What, the podcast? Yes. I've written a ten minute little bit of nonsense. You can all hear my dulcet tones when I work out how to do the techy bit....

We’ve all known guys who are not classically handsome but have that ‘something’ factor, I assume strike has that whereas as the classically handsome Matthew does not have that X factor

Or tldr
Handsome is as handsome does 😆

Burke doesn't fit that, but he's not a Greek god, chiselled feature type, so I think he gets the essence of it. Plus hairy. 🤣😂🤣

I think Tom has a natural air of melancholia that he brings to the role which is what majestic him so good, I always think of strike as an essentially melancholy person. Sure he has bouts of happiness but he’s so world weary & expecting of disappointment

I think that’s another thing with Robin - he’s almost expecting at some point she’ll let him down because everyone does - but Robin never does