Lilac Owlet

Chapter 1 of The Capture is Soren's earliest memory, which is Eglantine's hatching. This means that Soren did not witness and/or does not remember how Noctus and Marella treated Kludd before that. In Soren's memory, his parents are always loving and kind. However, we do see in this chapter that Noctus hits Kludd after Kludd mouths off at him while branching. While the books were written during a time where physical punishment for children was more normalized, this interaction is still indicative of how poor their relationship is, given that (as far as I can remember) we never see another parent physically harm their child other than Nyra.

(It's also during this chapter that Mrs. P says that Kludd is "un-owlish," which seems to imply that Kludd was born evil, but we'll come back to this.)

In The Siege, we get a few chapters in Kludd's perspective. Chapter 17 in particular gives some insight into how Kludd sees his own upbringing, and some events that Soren doesn't recount in his perspective.

We see that Kludd, from a young age, has a love of battle claws: "Kludd had seen a Barn Owl fly by with battle claws... His gizzard had trembled with such excitement, he thought it might pop. For days, that was all he could talk about," yet Noctus forbids all talk of battle claws. At this point, Kludd's interest in battle claws is mostly harmless; it's Noctus's strict shutdown of Kludd's interests that cause his anger to grow and fester.

Even when the St. Aggie's raids start and it would make sense to get a pair of battle claws to defend the hollow, Noctus continues to forbid even speaking about them. While it's ultimately Noctus's choice as the parent to get a pair of battle claws or not, this decision prevents Kludd from exploring his interests in a safe and controlled way and builds resentment between the two of them, which creates an opportunity for Kludd to be groomed by Nyra and the Pure Ones.

Kludd also says that "he had hatched into the wrong family. He was so different from them all." I'd argue, though, that children aren't born feeling like they don't belong in their families; they're made to feel that way. Noctus's constant shutting down of Kludd, even for something as (relatively) harmless as talking about battle claws, makes him feel ostracized from the rest of his family. This rift between him and his father, again, is what makes Kludd vulnerable to being groomed and indoctrinated.

Here, we also see that in the books, Kludd views Soren as an extension of Noctus: "Soren was so much like his father... It drove Kludd mad." Unlike the movie, where Kludd's hatred of Soren is based in jealousy and insecurity about his own abilities and worth, Kludd in the books uses Soren as a proxy for his hatred of Noctus. When Kludd looks at Soren, he sees a reflection of his father, which drives his hatred for them both.

This chapter also gives us insight on Kludd's indoctrination into the Pure Ones and his relationship with Nyra. Nyra is the first one to even try understanding Kludd. The Pure Ones, unlike his father, engage with him and encourage his interests, allowing them to indoctrinate him more easily.

Kludd says "[Nyra] loved him more than his family ever had." Of course he feels that way; while his father makes him feel as though he was born wrong, Nyra not only nurtures Kludd's interest in battle claws and transforms it into a love for violence, but she also tells him that his hatred towards his family is right and should be acted upon. She validates his feelings and rewards him for his anger. This drives the wedge between Kludd and his family even deeper, leading to the events of the book as we know--Soren being pushed from the nest, Eglantine getting kidnapped, and Noctus and Marella's deaths.

Lastly, in this same chapter, Nyra says that "She had picked him out when he was just a nestling." Soren never mentions any memories of Nyra or the Pure Ones, which implies that Nyra met Kludd before he even started branching, since Kludd is pre-branching at the time of Eglantine's hatching. When Mrs. P says that it seems like Kludd has "un-owlish" about him, I interpret this as him having been indoctrinated so early on that it seems like he'd always been that way.

While he's not portrayed in as sympathetic of a light as his movie counterpart, the book version of Kludd was not born evil either. He was a child with unconventional interests who craved the love and validation that he wasn't getting from his parents, and that left him vulnerable to the Pure Ones.