Well that's what I get for not looking things up before referring to them :-) Having since looked it up, I was misremembering / taking too expansive of a view of the last part of the line "He knew nothing of marriage and very little of women", having turned it around in my head to imply that he knew at least something. Anyway, for whatever reason, Asim's choices seem more informed and deliberate to me than the way most people write Lucy. And that makes for a character whose choices I can respect a lot more easily.
It occurs to me that this way you just phrased Asim as having "no room for anything else" is an interesting reflection this bit of Dalia thinking about Peter with respect to a promising suitor bowing out:
*** It was those limitations that made Peter the High King that he was. He would place devotion to Aslan, Narnia, his subjects, and his siblings above all else. Peter loved everyone and everything, too much, too well, and too deeply. With so much love already given, Dalia had wondered whether he had any leftover. Nadie had, unsurprisingly really, seen it as Dalia herself did. *** (and yes, this time I did look it up!)
I did notice, and was quite amused by, the subtext you mention with Polly and Mary :-)
Re: All aboard the Susan/Director ship
Having since looked it up, I was misremembering / taking too expansive of a view of the last part of the line "He knew nothing of marriage and very little of women", having turned it around in my head to imply that he knew at least something. Anyway, for whatever reason, Asim's choices seem more informed and deliberate to me than the way most people write Lucy. And that makes for a character whose choices I can respect a lot more easily.
It occurs to me that this way you just phrased Asim as having "no room for anything else" is an interesting reflection this bit of Dalia thinking about Peter with respect to a promising suitor bowing out:
***
It was those limitations that made Peter the High King that he was. He would place devotion to Aslan, Narnia, his subjects, and his siblings above all else. Peter loved everyone and everything, too much, too well, and too deeply. With so much love already given, Dalia had wondered whether he had any leftover. Nadie had, unsurprisingly really, seen it as Dalia herself did.
***
(and yes, this time I did look it up!)
I did notice, and was quite amused by, the subtext you mention with Polly and Mary :-)
-H