Skull appreciation post (jumbled thoughts bc I just binged listening to the audiobook version of Jonathan Stroud's Lockwood & Co. series)
I love how powerful Skull is. But first, some parallels (and differences) between the Luce&Skull and the Marissa&Ezekiel duos.
Marissa found Ezekiel when she was young. She adores him. But she also fears him. Tbh it kinda seems like he took advantage of her. They bonded. Maybe Marissa was always curious about what was beyond life, but Ezekiel's been hanging around her since she was a young child, and all the research she did? All the actions that led to the Problem? She did all that under Ezekiel's advice and guidance.
And yes, Ezekiel's a Type 3, and sure he's got a golden aura, and oh he's so special, but at the end of the day, it's all just appearance.
Yes, he's powerful, fine, he's smart too, but when compared to the Skull n Lucy combo, he's an insecure Type 3 ghost who was honestly kinda creepy and predatory and took advantage/really tapped into/maybe even developed Marissa's curiosity about the other side. He throws his weight around about being dead and knowing what to do to escape death, clearly calls the shots in his relationship with Marissa, and has developed a god complex of sorts in thinking that because he knows how to blur the boundary between the living and the dead, he's the strongest thing around.
Well, thank goodness there's Skull to prove him wrong.
I LOVE the Skull-Lucy relationship. My favorite part (which is very important) is that Lucy didn't free Skull because she needed him, she freed him because she wanted to. She made her decision after Lockwood had come and helped get things in hand. Even though she was confident things were in hand and didn't know just how instrumental Skull would be in staying alive, she freed him without any condition imposed on him.
She didn't free him so long as he helped her.
She didn't free him so long as he didn't kill her or any of her friends.
She didn't free him out of a tenuous trust that he'd be on her side.
Lucy freed Skull (I think) because something that had been dawning on her this whole time really clicked into place: considering the origins of agents, dealing with ghosts, capturing their sources, and just in general interfering with the existence of the dead (thank you, Big M, for all that), combined with the fact that she got a taste of Skull's existence what with being trapped in the other world (as Skull pointed out), Lucy's sense of empathy took over and she did what she thought was right. She let Skull go because he's got an existence of his own, too.
He's not an abstract idea or apparition, no, he's Skull, a thin, sardonic looking youth with spiky hair. He's someone who in life was awful, but spent so much time in death that he forgot who he was, despite being so stubborn about clinging to life, coming back as a ghost, and NOT crossing over fully to the other *dead* dead place.
He's got personality and endless ideas about murder. He kept Lucy company for the four months she was apart from Lockwood. He became her friend. He helped her in scrapes. He guided her back to life the first time she crossed over.
Maybe the difference in the Marissa&Ezekiel and Lucy&Skull is circumstance: Marissa met Ezekiel out in the wild. It ways in TEG at one point that there's an aspect of fear in their dynamic. His source list contained, unlike Skull. Ezekiel can cause so much more harm to Marissa than Skull could when contained in the jar to Lucy throughout the time they spent together needed to develop a relationship.
But that's not the main thing. Marissa depends on Ezekiel. Lucy is fond of Skull, but depends? No.
Marissa is basically in love with Ezekiel. Lucy? She's got Lockwood. She doesn't need Skull on that front.
Marissa is literally obsessed with golden ghost boy. Lucy sees the wider picture. She likes Skull, but he's not the end all be all.
But going back to appearances, well that's kinda what it's all about, isn't it? Marissa cares deeply about her image. And so too does Ezekiel. Why doesn't she keep Skull? He's rude. Ezekiel thinks him a criminal. Neither can see past his exterior, thus completely missing out on just how powerful he is.
For all that Skull jokes about killing George and (honestly kinda understandably) dislikes him, he sees him for what he is - an effective researcher who doesn't judge anyone for how they look or behave.
Skull sees people for who they are. He sees right through Marissa's disguise as Penelope (side note, it is SO messed up that Marissa offed both her daughter and her granddaughter to keep on living, like his awful is that). He's perceptive. He knows about Locklyle even before they do.
But back to Skull's strength, which was the impetus of this long ramble. He gets out of his jar basically in disbelief. Because this is Lucy, the wretched girl who doesn't keep her promises to him to speak about his freedom, this awful living person who's left him behind time and time again.
But for every mistake she's made, she's also tried her best to right it. Every time she left Skull somewhere, she went back for him. He even got a heartfelt apology from her when she left him behind and Rupert got his hands on Skull.
This is the girl who looked past his rudeness. Who wasn't someone under the honeyed thumb of a different ghost. Who gave him a chance and let him out not because she needed him or hoped he'd be on her side. This is the girl who ket him out knowing full well Skull would do as he pleased and made her peace with it.
Because unlike Marissa and Ezekiel who are inextricably tied together and dependent on each other, Lucy is Lucy and Skull is Skull.
And when he does come to Lucy's aid, well, he's barely even exerting himself. I love him so much.
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