[TWK’s spoilers] Jude doesn’t understand Cardan, but maybe we can?
From the moment Jude found the paper with her name written several times hidden in Cardan's room and thought, "Oh, he really hates me", I knew I couldn’t count on her to understand Cardan's character.
She always saw him as great evil. But on her side he's a puppy. And she couldn’t even see it.
TWK Chap. 25 - Jude’s thoughts about Cardan when she is back in land:
“I recall Cardan sitting atop the dappled gray horse on the beach, his impassive face, furred cloak, and crown highlighting his resemblance to Eldred. I may have tricked him into his role, but I didn’t trick the land into receiving him. He has real power, and the longer he’s on the throne, the greater his power will become.
He’s become the High King, and he’s done it without me.
This is everything I feared when I came up with this stupid plan in the first place. Perhaps Cardan didn’t want this power at first, but now that he has it, it belongs to him.”
Acting is Cardan’s way to survive in Faerie. Then, it’s not just because he looks confident that he is. It’s quite the opossite. We know that. Jude don’t. She is afraid to believe she cand understand him.
You know, like when you want to believe something but you're afraid to really believe it?
TWK Chap. 23 - Jude’s thoughts about Cardan when she is in the sea:
Sometimes I think about Cardan while I am lying there. I think about what it must have been like to grow up as an honored member of the royal family, powerful and unloved. Fed on cat milk and neglect. To be arbitrarily beaten by the brother you most resembled and who most seemed to care for you.
Imagine all those courtiers bowing to you, allowing you to hiss and slap at them. But no matter how many of them you humiliated or hurt, you would always know someone had found them worthy of love, when no one had ever found you worthy.
Despite growing up among the Folk, I do not always understand the way they think or feel. They are more like mortals than they believe, but the moment I allow myself to forget they’re not human, they will do something to remind me. For that reason alone, I would be stupid to think I knew Cardan’s heart from his story. But I wonder at it.
Another Jude's mistake is to assume that the same issues that move her can move him. They are unlike.
She was powerless against the world in which she lived.
He was unloved in the same world.
And neither was wanted by this world. The way they desire this acceptance is different ways. Like Jude and Talyn fighting for acceptance in Faerie world differently.
In another part we see this
TWK Chap. 23:
Balekin seems surprised. “He sought Eldred’s attention,” he says finally. “For good or for ill, and mostly for ill.” “Then perhaps he wants to be High King for Eldred’s sake,” I say. “Or to spite his memory.” That seems to draw Balekin’s attention. Though I said it only to suggest something that would misdirect him from thinking too much about Cardan’s motives, once it comes out of my mouth, I ponder whether there isn’t some truth to it.
Which shortly after is almost confirmed, Cardan really acted for Eldred’s memory during much time.
TWK Chap. 26 - Cardan to Jude:
“When my father sent me away, at first I tried to prove that I was nothing like he thought me. But when that didn’t work, I tried to be exactly what he believed I was instead. If he thought I was bad, I would be worse. If he thought I was cruel, I would be horrifying. I would live down to his every expectation. If I couldn’t have his favor, then I would have his wrath.”
I came to the conclusion that:
Whenever she seems too sure of having understood him, she's probably wrong. And whenever she comes to a conclusion about him accidentally or with little security, she may perhaps be right.
