#dr bloor

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Honestly the impression I always got from Dr. Bloor was that he wasn’t super into the villain stuff Ezekiel was, but went along it bc he raised him and all. Like I think he would have just liked to run a school and not be involved. I remember when he called the endowed students freaks, I think being raised by Ezekiel and having a powerful son like Manfred left him a little resentful, which could be interesting to explore. And at least Charlie told Bart he was as petty as the other Bloors

Yeah Dr Bloor never seemed that interested in Ezekiel’s evil plans. Especially considering that his reaction after Ezekiel and Manfred’s deaths was ‘I knew Blessed would do it one day’ and told Lyell and Paton that he wouldn’t give them any trouble now that Maybelle’s Will has been found. I do think he may have had some interest in the evil villain stuff, but as the series progressed he got tired of it and didn’t feel comfortable with committing literal murder or helping Count Harken.

Dr Bloor being resentful (and maybe also jealous?) of the endowed is a really interesting idea. It makes sense, especially if Ezekiel made him feel bad for not being endowed. It seems like the Yewbeams and Bloors really prize endowed people and I can see them making their unendowed family members feel inferior or inadequate because they don’t have an endowment.

I also wonder if Dr Bloor was resentful of Lyell as well. Lyell was the guy his father preferred over him. That had to hurt a lot. I love Bart but it’s so awful that he couldn’t accept his son for who he was and replaced him in a sense with Lyell, who is more like what Bart probably wanted in his son. Not to mention him essentially abandoning Harold to be raised by Ezekiel and the Yewbeams and not fighting for him. You really can’t blame Dr Bloor for not speaking to his father.

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I think the Bloors were abusive toward Lyell while he was Mr Pilgrim. From the get-go, they stripped him of his agency when they erased his memories, made him crash his car into a quarry and imprisoned him in Bloor’s Academy. They also forced him to resign from being a piano teacher and moved him to Yewbeam Castle in Castle of Mirrors. We don’t even see him go outside during the main series. Lyell likely spent ten years as a prisoner without any real agency and that had to have a huge effect on him. 

The Bloors also likely emotionally abused him throughout the years. We see some of Manfred’s interactions with Mr Pilgrim in Books 3 and 5, and they show him treating Mr Pilgrim roughly, like he was less than Manfred. And there’s also the encounter between Mr Pilgrim and Manfred (who had Charlie and Billy with him) in Book 5, which reminds me uncomfortably of gaslighting. We don’t see Ezekiel’s behaviour toward Mr Pilgrim but we see how much Ezekiel still venomously hates Lyell for putting him in a wheelchair. I can imagine Ezekiel physically abusing Mr Pilgrim at certain points, maybe early on during the ten years.        

And then there’s ableism. It’s not shown much in the series, but he had to have endured some ableism because of his cognitive impairment. (I actually think that Gabriel became so attached to Mr Pilgrim in part because they both had mental issues and were considered odd by other people.) The Bloors are most certainly ableist--they made Gabriel wear a cloak worn by a girl who suffered horrifically, despite knowing what it would do to Gabriel. And they never bothered to get Billy stronger glasses so that he could see better. So I think that they would display ableism toward Mr Pilgrim as well, maybe by mocking him and losing patience with him because of his cognitive difficulties.                 

And oh yeah, there’s also how the Bloors tried to murder him in Book 5.   

So, after all of this, Lyell Bone is most definitely not okay. Realistically, he’s going to need a lot of support and therapy to help him recover from what he went through and it will take a lot longer than two months.               

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Charlie impatiently tossed three spoonfuls of sugar into the coffee. Mr. Onimous beamed. He took a sip, beamed again, and then, leaning close to Charlie, he said, 'He knew you were connected, Aries did. And so you are; you have the photograph. These cats aren't ordinary. They know things. They chose me because I've got a special way with animals. They lead me here and there, trying to undo mischief, and I just follow, helping where I can. This case,' his finger came down on the man holding the baby, 'this is one of the worst. Aries has always been very angry about it. Time and again he's tried to put it right, but we needed you, Charlie.'

I have a few thoughts about this paragraph:

1.     How has Aries tried to put ‘it’ right? Did he try to break Emma’s or Lyell’s trance? If so, Manfred’s hypnotism was mighty powerful if even the cats weren’t able to reverse it.  

2.     According to Dr Bloor and Manfred, the Flames purposefully made sure that Charlie received the picture of Dr Tolly instead of the Runner Bean photo. They wanted him to discover his endowment and go to the Academy.

3.     If the cats have been in the Academy, they had to have seen Mr Pilgrim at some point and know who he really is. Which makes it very interesting when they interact with Charlie and never tell him about his father.  

4.     Emma Tolly and Lyell Bone were lost that day in the cathedral square. If the Flames want to make it right, surely they would need to rescue both of them instead of just Emma.      

5.     The Flames might’ve wanted to kill two birds with one stone: Charlie receiving the photo of Dr Tolly would get him dragged into rescuing Emma Tolly, and it would get him sent to the Academy where his father is. This would eventually lead to Lyell being rescued too. 

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CotRK Headcanons and Theories

The Dobinskys or Brankos were probably involved in Lyell’s car accident. That car was going so fast that there’s no way Lyell could’ve been dragged out of it without telekinesis.

James Yewbeam probably fought in World War II, making him a veteran of that war. Solange and their eldest kids probably lived through the Blitz.  

The Dobinskys and Brankos are Polish. What are the odds that they or their parents or grandparents lived in Poland and were forced to immigrate because of World War II and the Soviet Russian Occupation?

Headcanon 1: Amy wanted to leave the city after Lyell disappeared, but decided not to because the Yewbeams wouldn’t have let her take Charlie with her.  

Why did Lyell try to stop the Bloors by himself despite it being a bad idea? I think it was a combination of 1) not knowing about Manfred’s endowment, 2) pressure and stress getting the better of him and 3) potential diagnosed AD/HD.  

1)      No one outside of the Bloors knew about Manfred’s endowment until he hypnotised Lyell and Emma Tolly. It would partly explain why Lyell rushed in so ill-advisedly. He thought he would be safer since as far as he knew none of the Bloors were endowed and he was a young, healthy, and fit guy. He didn’t know that Manfred was a hypnotist. If people outside of the Bloors knew he probably would have heard about it too.  

2)      The stress and pressure. Lyell would have had so much pressure on him, because of Maybelle’s Box and how many people were counting on him. It could’ve caused him to not think as clearly as he otherwise would have.  

3) AD/HD. I really think Lyell may have some form of AD/HD that could have played a role in how he reacted. 

Headcanon 2: Amy was way less timid before Lyell’s disappearance. She developed anxiety and self-esteem issues after the Yewbeams took control over everything and treated her and Maisie terribly for years.

Manfred may not have meant to hypnotise Lyell. It’s possible that when he saw Lyell attacking him great-grandpa, Manfred just acted on instinct.

There’s still a mystery surrounding what was going on between the Ravens and the Bloors shortly before the Ravens died. When Dr Bloor was taking the picture of the Ravens, he taunted them about Manfred’s shiny, coal-black eyes, and Rufus Raven told him that he would ‘never get away with this’. What did he mean by that? It seems like the Bloors were threatening the Ravens for whatever reason. There must be a reason they tried to get away from them.

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Outside

On one summer day, he decided to explore the Academy grounds. He hadn’t been outside for as long as he could remember and something inside of him compelled him to go. The sky was the most beautiful blue, and the grass and trees were an enthralling green. He wanted to take the chance to be part of that mesmerising world.

Stepping outside was as wonderful and freeing as he thought it would be. He wandered around the Academy grounds, gazing at the trees, the greenery and the strange ruins. Once he even saw a majestic red-and-gold tree in the corner of his eye, though it was gone when he turned to get a good look at it.        

After a short while, one of the Bloors’ staff found him, and he was ushered back inside the building. Instead of taking him back up to the Music Tower, they brought him to an office in the west wing. Dr Bloor and his hypnotist son were in there, and they didn’t look happy at all. 

Dr Bloor fixed him with his cold gaze and said, ‘It’s not safe for you outside. It would be better if you stay indoors.’

He frowned. ‘Why?’ Surely walking around the grounds wouldn’t harm him. What was the danger in it?

‘It’s not safe,’ Dr Bloor repeated. ‘That is all you need to know.’

‘But—’

The young hypnotist snapped, ‘Look at me!’ He looked, drawn to those coal-black eyes. The force of the glare consumed him.

‘It’s not safe outside,’ a persuasive voice said. ‘You will stay indoors.’

He found himself agreeing, murmuring, ‘It’s not safe outside. I will stay indoors.’  

‘Now go to the Music Tower and stay there,’ the voice commanded.

The next thing he knew, he was walking out of the room and back to the tower.   

He didn’t go outside again.