Oh dear...
Second Small Person has been having The Hobbit read to him - by me, the Resident Geek, and occasionally First Small Person - at bedtime for the last few weeks. Two nights ago he went up to bed in a state of great anticipation, announcing that "The Battle of Five Armies is about to commence!"
A little while later, I went up to say it was time for lights out, to find First (who had been reading to him) hugging a sobbing Second. "What's the matter?" I exclaimed, only to get the choked reply:
"Thorin and Fili and Kili are dead!"
Poor lamb. I remember crying bitterly as a child (still do!) over books; I was torn between not wanting him to be upset, and being secretly very pleased that a story could move him so much. (I had been observing his Thorin-fandom developing, and thinking "Hmmm, this is not going to end well...")
He was eventually consoled by my suggesting that one thing we can do, if we don't like the way a story ends, is to make up a new ending that we like better in our heads! (I didn't let on that Mummy and lots of her friends have been doing this online at some length for years and years, and calling it fanfiction...)
A little while later, I went up to say it was time for lights out, to find First (who had been reading to him) hugging a sobbing Second. "What's the matter?" I exclaimed, only to get the choked reply:
"Thorin and Fili and Kili are dead!"
Poor lamb. I remember crying bitterly as a child (still do!) over books; I was torn between not wanting him to be upset, and being secretly very pleased that a story could move him so much. (I had been observing his Thorin-fandom developing, and thinking "Hmmm, this is not going to end well...")
He was eventually consoled by my suggesting that one thing we can do, if we don't like the way a story ends, is to make up a new ending that we like better in our heads! (I didn't let on that Mummy and lots of her friends have been doing this online at some length for years and years, and calling it fanfiction...)