Wintrow/Kennit SPOILERS ALL HOBB BOOKS INCL COD

[Farseer]

For his own purposes he was able to set this aside for brief moments (say, with Vivacia, who he needed to woo so that he could possess her and thus venture up the Rain River, or even to also fill his base need to be linked to a liveship as he believed Paragon gone etc) but, essentially, he placed himself on a pedestal and distained all to save himself.

I did find it sad how Kennit wanted any liveship but his liveship. Paragon was the one creature who could have really healed Kennit, and Kennit just pushed him away.

I believe that this, too, was a defence mechanism. We push away those who want to help us so that we protect ourselves. When we tire of being prodded in our soft, inner places, like an echidna (or porcupine or hedgehog for all of you non-Aussies! ) we ball ourselves up and protect ourselves with our spikes. In that position, we can't show both soft and spike...only spike, to no matter who comes along. The same is for Kennit. He can't go to Paragon for healing because he has to uncurl himself and expose himself to hurt in the doing. To expose himself to Paragon, he must expose himself to all and to protect himself from all, he must protect himself even from Paragon.

I understand that mechanism, and practice it at times. That is not the piece of Kennit that I can't relate to. It is his predator side that I can't relate. For a time I felt like he could change if he but would and glimpsed the 'protector' role that I can relate to, and hoped that this would overtake his predator traits. In this 'protector role', I speak of how he felt that he had to protect Wintrow from experiencing what he had...but, while Wintrow did go untouched, I'm not sure that Kennit even took on this protector role with true and clear intentions, and his reactions to Althea as a feminine form of Wintrow is what makes me question that, I think.

I have known many Kennits and, well... ...I can't help but go all Fitz-berserker when I speak of them these days. Funny where you can get your courage when it's not yourself you have to defend.