[spoilers] Harry and Ruth. The Wonder Years.

[Silktie]

(15-01-2011 05:07 PM)A Cousin Wrote:  She's has seen Harry be ruthless many times. I think she is beginning to understand how ruthless she can be and that scares her more. It is when Harry is being conflicted and uncertain that she is thrown by him.

(15-01-2011 04:08 PM)Byatil Wrote:  As we are supposed to believe that Lucas is conflicted with his own feelings of love throughout S9, I think it makes sense that he would be looking for 'answers' in other people's relationships - he justifies his selfishness by telling Ruth to "be selfish for once".

This is an interesting observation to me. Ruth does not answer his question either. It remains to be seen how she is going to react to it all.

Two very interesting observations here. I think it's very true that it's her own ruthlessness that scares her at this point. She definitely has no illusions about how ruthless Harry can be, especially after events in 8.1. And she blamed him for not being ruthless enough with Lucas in 9.7. The thing with season 9 Ruth for me is that her actions are very contradictory - when he lets Uzbek go in 9.3 she commends him for taking the "decent" option, yet she blames him for not immediately acting on her suspicions against Lucas, believing he is too soft with him. All this is perhaps an indication of her inability to come to terms with her own increasing willingness to act ruthlessly in the defence of the realm.

I sometimes wonder whether her actions are partly because she feels guilty about giving up the location of the uranium so easily to Mani in 8.1, especially since it then proved to be a futile gesture. She must realise by now that Mani would have killed them all in any case, even if he got what he wanted from Harry. Is part of this more ruthless approach in season 9 perhaps a subconscious attempt to compensate for that moment of weakness?

Re Ruth deciding to be selfish or not:
The question she must decide for herself is perhaps more whether it will really be a selfish action to allow herself to love Harry. Why is it necessarily seen as a selfish action? To be selfish entails choosing to do something that is to your own advantage, and will disadvantage others. Who, exactly, will be disadvantaged if she allows herself to love Harry?