Chapter Forty-Five

I think Dalhard’s explosive possessiveness in this scene defines him.  His first words are both hurtful and callous: Your dead friend owes me a new plane.  He sees Dani as a possession to manipulate.  In fact, everyone is a possession to manipulate and if they are not useful, they should be discarded.  He’s no longer trying to conceal it, now it’s been brought into the open.  His true self has been revealed and it’s not a pretty sight but he still remains ignorant and unawakened.  His lack of insight is his worst limitation.

I love the imagery of someone being trapped in their own body but acting in the brief moment when something is important enough.  It’s a image of triumph, of the true self overcoming the most overwhelming obstacles.  We’re all trapped in some way and we all long to break out, even for a moment.  I believe that our traps are often self-constructed.  We can’t or won’t see the way out.

Dani needed to free herself in order to escape Dalhard’s control.  Throughout her life, she’s never believed that she deserved to win.  She had to see herself as the hero of her own story instead of the villain.  I chose laughter as the tool to free herself because I believe not taking yourself too seriously is the best way to break out of life’s traps of expectations and fears.

The final confrontation with the Huntress was always designed to show that it was a creation of fear instead of substance.  It is literally the monster in the dark, the one which keeps children buried under the covers (because claws and teeth which can rend flesh will somehow be stopped by a thin cottonblend sheet.)