I'm not sure I agree that Zachary undergoes a Heel–Face Turn in this book, mostly because his status in the L'Engle canon as a whole is so darned variable, and it's never wholly clear how well one of his mood changes is going to stick. (His arc here is in some respects very similar to that in his first appearance, in The Moon by Night; in that book his romantic attention is focused on Vicki Austin, and as in this book he both endangers and aids in rescuing her.) Most of the harm he causes is via recklessness and inattention to detail, not genuine evil intent, and his level of moral self-awareness varies considerably from appearance to appearance.
As I sort through the available tropes, I'm a little hard put to properly classify Zachary precisely because he's never really a villain in the sense that many of the trope definitions presume. He's certainly not a Heel–Face Revolving Door or a Wild Card; Lovable Coward may be as close a descriptor as we can get, although there's a bit of Opportunistic Bastard in him, too. But I am reluctant to actually revise the text here without soliciting input from those who know the trope spectrum better than I do.
Edited by djonn= djonn
= desk@lonepenman.net
"I have no idea. Ask the Magic 8-Ball." [found in Chinese fortune cookie]
Zachary Gray: Alignment Changes
I'm not sure I agree that Zachary undergoes a Heel–Face Turn in this book, mostly because his status in the L'Engle canon as a whole is so darned variable, and it's never wholly clear how well one of his mood changes is going to stick. (His arc here is in some respects very similar to that in his first appearance, in The Moon by Night; in that book his romantic attention is focused on Vicki Austin, and as in this book he both endangers and aids in rescuing her.) Most of the harm he causes is via recklessness and inattention to detail, not genuine evil intent, and his level of moral self-awareness varies considerably from appearance to appearance.As I sort through the available tropes, I'm a little hard put to properly classify Zachary precisely because he's never really a villain in the sense that many of the trope definitions presume. He's certainly not a Heel–Face Revolving Door or a Wild Card; Lovable Coward may be as close a descriptor as we can get, although there's a bit of Opportunistic Bastard in him, too. But I am reluctant to actually revise the text here without soliciting input from those who know the trope spectrum better than I do.
Edited by djonn = djonn = desk@lonepenman.net "I have no idea. Ask the Magic 8-Ball." [found in Chinese fortune cookie]