Thread by @thejoanbaufort

Sanditon 2 aka The Walking Wounded: Some Tentative Beginner Threading.

By a long term lurker, first time threader.

(As a nerdy recluse myself am totally crushing on Xander in his nerdy recluse-ness. I covet his study. And his horse)
#Sanditon #Heybourne

Is Sanditon S2 driven by the Wounded Healer archetype? Is this the base line, with romantic tropes & JA refs the healing melody hooking us in? All the central characters are wounded & need healing. As is our planet. Ourselves. Is that why we are drawn into this fictional world?

As I think gets discussed around here, the relationships of Sanditon S2 are stories of the wounds we inflict upon one another and on ourselves – and the self-knowledge and loving relationships that help us understand and heal them.

Chiron is one wounded healer, there are others in various literature, religious, and cultural contexts, e.g. Pollyanna (Leo & Augusta?). I think Alexander Colbourne’s character leans on Chiron. I know I’m not the first to think this, but here’s a thread on my thoughts.

Xander’s wounds were accidentally inflicted by those he loved, as were Chiron’s. Xander’s character draws on Chiron’s; refusing to party with the other centaurs, reflective, bookish, learned, just, gentle, kind. Le Sigh.

Chiron was abandoned by his parents at birth, he was raised and taught by Apollo. It would seem Xander was dismissed by his alcoholic father and possibly by an absent mother (maybe died in childbirth with his brother?) Mrs Wheatley is likely to be his foster mother and Apollo.

Chiron was wounded in his horse half, so Hannibal is representative of Xander’s wounds, his animal half. Each time Xander is drawn away from his pain and is becoming more human with Charlotte, the horse symbolism disappears; when his wound is touched, he’s back on his horse.

The horse symbolism is everywhere once you start to notice it. E.g. Leo in her britches telling Xander a woman can dress for whatever suits her purpose, on the floor beside her is a horse doorstop. It’s always distracted me, what’s that random horse doing there!? #notanaccident

E3 is a big one. The firing practice spooking both Xander & Hannibal. Charlotte calming them both with Disney princess skill. The forehead lean demonstrating the horse-rider bond. No other character has a bond with their horse. No other horse is named. #hannibourne

The horse bond is then driven home with the picnic scene, Charlotte asks after Hannibal – not Xander – and the inside joke/horse bond swaggers him over to the picnic. The rest is cornflower history.

There are loads of other horse/Chiron examples, another is in E6 when Augusta cries out, ‘she almost restored you to a...to a human being!’ at the moment that Xander is mounting Hannibal. #notanaccident

One of the ways in which the Chiron/Wounded Healer archetype works is that both Charlotte and Xander have to do their OWN healing first. In Jungian psychoanalysis, analysts must understand their own wounds in order to better understand and heal themselves and others. #SanditonS3

This is in keeping with the desire to have Charlotte in an equal relationship. Without Xander and Charlotte’s own reflection on their own wounds and what their wounds teach them about themselves, they won’t heal and reunite. They BOTH have to work for this. #SanditonS3

Thanks @carsNcors @spillwark for inspiration & encouragement to post My First Research Thread. Happy to be shot down or giffed up, I'm late to the party so this may have already been explored!

Sorry it's so long, I got a bit carried away 😂 blessed be the gif & pic makers 🙏