Love Triangle (Part 1)
Reeka, thank you for leaving long comments to my earlier posts, Matching Pajamas and Ambiguous Letter, such that I have an excuse to write a new series. 😉 It has taken me a while to start because I’m also writing my next chapter of “Love Never Fails”. 😛
First of all, I can’t agree with Reeka more about the character of Albert / Prince on the Hill (a teenage version of Albert) in Candy Candy. He came and went in Candy’s life several times, or as Prince on the Hill in the beginning and at the end, playing a very significant role in the story. We can see how Mizuki wrote the story such that without Albert, the story of Candy Candy simply falls apart because the heroine, Candy, would have been drowned in the waterfall, sent to work in Mexico, or would never have crossed the ocean to study in London.
Even when he wasn’t with her, she never forgot about him. Her feelings for him were already strong in the beginning (judging by her reaction to surprisingly running into him again in London), and how many times had she tried to look for him? I can easily name a few scenes in the manga. Can you? 🙂
Interestingly, we don’t see Candy go look for Terry. Yes she chased after him twice (once in London and once at Pony’s Home), but Reeka was right. Why didn’t Terry or Candy find each other after ‘reuniting’ near the fast moving train? I have thought about it. Terry was probably saving money to invite Candy over to New York. His career wasn’t well established yet, and he was unlikely to find any job in Chicago.
But for Candy, what made her stay in Chicago? She could have left for New York. She knew where Terry worked, didn’t she? Was she waiting for him to make the first move? Yet, when she finally got a letter from Terry, she shockingly found out that her good friend Albert had been injured to a point that he had no idea who he was and he didn’t even recognize her. At his rock bottom, being despised and penniless, Albert somehow ended up in the same hospital with Candy, and what a ‘coincidence’! 😛
Now, as Reeka had pointed out, why did Mizuki have to make Albert lose all his memory? I think Mizuki wanted him to know Candy from scratch, totally unaware of their adoptive relationship.
From Korean Manga Version
Then this kind nurse Candy offered to take care of Albert although he had resolved to go his own way! I’m sure her kindness must have considerably touched his heart, and a few times in the manga he expressed his gratitude to her inside his heart. It was only natural for him to fall in love with her, but he chose to love her in silence because back then he knew her heart belonged to another man. In Candy Candy Final Story (CCFS), he wrote to her explicitly (in two different letters from the spoilers),
…
“Adopted daughter” also sounds unbearable to me. Even though you won’t see it, I’m sensitive. (Don’t laugh)
…
Adoptive father — !
Damn, I did it myself
…
Candy,
at that time, I was nothing more than a suspicious man without memory, with no identification.
But you didn’t leave me. You didn’t leave me even when you were fired from the hospital.
…
I can never thank you enough.
I’m going to find out where your happiness lies.
…
It’s apparent that he regretted his decision of adopting her. Later he said he was going to find out how to make her happy, and soon after that, he returned her diary back to Candy. Why? I believe he wanted her to make a call. 🙂 See True Love and Obstacles if you like to read what I have said about this diary.
About Anthony, I think his role is to foreshadow what kind of person Albert is. Not only Anthony looked like his uncle a lot, his personality was similar, only less outgoing or preferred gardening instead of animals and nature in general. Poor Anthony wasn’t meant for Candy, so Mizuki made him die young before he could disclose who the prince was (otherwise the whole story would have taken an entirely different path), which was Candy’s first heartbreak. However, the anguish of indirectly causing his fatal accident is shared by Candy and Albert (see Marvelous feeling of security for details).
Regarding Terry and Candy, their first kiss is far from romantic to me (even though they both remembered it very well afterwards). See my earlier post about my perspective of their feeble relationship.
I was shocked when I read that some Terry fans said that Terry was Candy’s soul mate. Come on, Terry hardly knew Candy to say the least. Moreover, when Mrs. Marlowe pushed him away, he persisted visiting Susanna in the hospital daily on his own accord (possibly out of duty or guilt). Later, he didn’t have the guts to tell Mrs. Marlowe that he actually loved another woman. Then, when Candy selflessly decided to leave him, he didn’t protest at all. Some people, like Reeka, was disappointed at Terry’s behavior at the rooftop. I figure someone possibly informed Terry that Susanna had been missing, and that was why he rushed to the hospital right after the premiere. He held the freezing cold Susanna in his arms without a word (like it was the most natural thing to him), and it was Susanna (likely grateful) who told him that Candy had saved her from committing suicide. He was astonished but didn’t thank Candy for some reason (took it for granted or was he somewhat ashamed to have kept the whole Susanna thing from Candy?). Remember the way they silently stared at each other at that moment? It was as though Terry was asking Candy to understand his struggles — that there was no way he could leave Susanna after what she had done for him. Candy, being a kind-hearted girl, must have grasped his unspoken words right away. Come to think of it, why didn’t he even try to fight for his feelings for Candy? You can read my very old post concerning Terry’s decision.
Not only Terry didn’t know much about Candy, he also kept things from her. Never once had he mentioned his childhood pain to her. Even while corresponding with each other, she still had no idea why he had to leave his family in London or got rid of his last name Grantchester. In addition, neither brought up why he had shed tears on his way back to London that foggy night. The only thing common to them both was the days they had spent together at St. Paul and Scotland. I won’t blame Terry though. Being an illegitimate child, he didn’t have a good example of what a loving relationship was. His stepmother disliked him (or looked down upon him with distaste), and obviously he didn’t have a family life (highly likely spent most of his time in boarding school sulking or acting rebellious).
I won’t write Part 2 until after I’m done writing my next chapter. Please stay tuned. 🙂
I agree your ‘”Rockstown Incident (Part 4)”!!!👍👍👍……….
Terry he knew he didn’t give her happiness any more…😭
Yes that’s true. He knew he couldn’t, so he asked her to be happy, meaning to ask her to find someone who could make her happy 😥
jijijijijij I’m giggling because somebody mentioned Albert’s hands dexterity…. and my mind went to the gutters 😉
Really? Why? Thanks for reading! 🙂
Hello Ms Puddle,
I know it’s been a long time.
About this topic, I absolutely agree with both of you.
The way I see it, Misuki hadto develop two characters, she slowly introduced the man Albert wanted to be. A man aware of the value of life, no matter the society rules. And his love for nature itself is the porteay of how he understood how respect shouldbe understood. He was free to choose. He proved himself as a protective spirit. He was a loyal and wise friend. He was tender and supportive. He was trust worthy. He wanted to be a real person in Candy’s life. Without any barrier standing between them as real friends.
As William Andley he had to be an authority figure, who owed his life to his own Clan. Even being the most important figure he was unable to feel and live the freedom he wanted in the extent he wanted it. He wAs supposed to set ghe example of what was expected from him. He was a business man so I assume he had other untold qualities. He was also a man of honor, so he knew his role as an adoptive figure before
When Albert lost his memory, William did as well. It was the perfect opportunity for bothtomelt in one single person. And both fell in love.
When he regained his memory he was able to keephis free spirit and he was able to fight for what he thought was right. Finally he became WILLIAM ALBERT ANDLEY.
As for Terry, even though he was also able to grow up, he couldn’t cope with his life. He couldn’t brake his own chains and it was tragic. But I won’t say more, by now. Though thereare still so many things to discuss.
Have a nice start this week, my dear.
Very interesting point of view, SweetCandyAndley!! Never thought of it that way–two different ‘men’ melting into one! That’s brilliant! I agree with you totally that Albert himself matured after his recovery from amnesia. He said so himself in his letter to Candy in CCFS!
About Terry, sigh… He’s a tragic character, and in the end it seems to me he was portrayed as a successful Broadway actor but nothing more.
You have a nice week too, dear!
Auwwww Ms Puddle, i’m beyond happy to find you write this post. Thank you. Thank you.
When you said you were about to write a new series, i had thought it was a new fanfic story hahaha. Then i realized that you meant was this series. Nonetheless … I’m excited!
I believe that mizuki is a marvelous writer. Kind of a writer that put a deep thought into her imaginary characters and her story plot. That’s why i firmly believe mizuki had prepared something big as a result of albert’s amnesiac period. And you’re right, it’s for him, as an ordinary man, seeing and knowing candy as a woman. After we finished reading the whole manga, and carefully put things of the whole story in order, it all just made perfect sense. Like i said, even anthony’s tragedy became sensible.
Have you realized, ms puddle, that beside candy, there’s one, and only one other character which mizuki created with so much details. Yes, it’s william albert ardley. Both in manga and CCFS, mizuki made sure that albert got as many details as candy. She pictured WAA’s characters extensively ( charming, gentle, friendly, brave, free spirited, sporty, adventurous, possess many hand-skills, humble, authoritive, sensitive). She gave us albert’s past facts quite much as well. About his parents, about why elroy became so protective to him, about rosemary, about his tormenting childhoold/teenager life.
It’s only natural that mizuki prepared such character to then be paired to her main protagonist. After what candy had been through in the whole story, there’s none other than WAA who could protect and give her a good future.
I just thought, if anohito was indeed terry, then those mizuki’s work to picture the whole ardley clan story was a bit …useless? And if candy was indeed ended up with terry and it was with him she moved to london, then mizuki slowly separated candy’s future with the most characters in this manga.
I adore mizuki so much for her genious plot. It’s obviously that she got inspired by daddy long legs story ( i think many asian writers like this idea). But the great thing was she made it far from being cheesy and stereotype. I wonder if when she created the story, mizuki had an idea that at the end, terry character would gain so much supporters. Ahhahaha. Blame it on iragashi for drawing terry so good. LOL. Though for me, Albert’s pictures on volume 7 on ward was the most handsomest!! Haahhaha
P.s. Ms puddle, by God i swear, i initially just wanted to write a simple thank you in this comment. Really! 🙂
Hello Reeka! No I won’t start a new story now… LOL! Glad you like this post though. 😛
Don’t worry about writing long comments to me. I like reading your insights too (honestly)! 😀
You were so right about how much effort Mizuki had obviously put in to create the character Albert. If he wasn’t the one for Candy, it would have been kind of strange. Not to mention that everyone knew that Mizuki was inspired by Daddy Long Legs. 🙂 Though Mizuki couldn’t put everything about Albert into the manga, she did so in the old CC novel and repeated that again in CCFS. I’ll say more about that and Terry’s role in my next posts of this series.
Terry must be very good-looking (inherited from his beautiful mother), but I think amnesiac Albert is very handsome too (hee hee hee). Though near the end when he appeared as WAA he was also very charismatic. To me, these two were both very attractive men, but in different ways. I’ll say more in my future posts too. 😉
Now i can’t wait to read the next post of this series.
btw, i’ve never read the old CC novel. Is there a web which in i can read it, in english? And, if possible, may i know where can i read more extensive source of CCFS in english? i really really appreciate it if you could email me the link. Thanks A LOT!
cheers
I think some Terry sites have spoilers (translation from fans) for both old novel and CCFS. Let me try to dig them up.