He doesn't know what a Moogle is!

"Her lips moved. 'Popé!' she whispered again, and it was as though he had had a pailful of ordure thrown in his face." - p. 204

Thaaat reminded me of a scene from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (the movie, not the book, and it made a lot of people--not me-- mad).

Also, this one reminded me of the same movie D=!

"'Is she dead?' he asked.

"The Savage stared at them for a moment in silence. Then in silence he rose to his feet, in silence slowly walked towards the door.

"'Is she dead?' repeated the inquisitive twin trotting at his side." - p. 207

1:50-2:20 of this scene, to be precise. The difference is that the creepy twins don't mean any harm; it's all in their conditioning. Dudley is just a jerk-face who's been conditioned to be a jerk-face by his jerk-face parents. Ahem. Sorry. It is Harry Potter Week.

Also, maybe this is just juxtaposition of the two different cultures, but John seems almost excessively attached to his mother. They told him this was coming, and I'm perfectly aware that knowledge of terminal illness doesn't make the imminent end any prettier or less traumatic, but his denial seems... off. Preposition. I'm going to label it the Oedipus complex because I like to put intelligent-sounding things in my tags... but also because I think he might have a touch of an Oedipus complex.