Guinea Pig Enthusiast

Something interesting about the few descriptions we get of Prentiss in the past is how he seems well liked and genuinely good intentioned, at least as described by Todds Mother in her diary. When Viola reads from the diary in CW1, theres the following description

“A man called David Prentiss, who's got a son just a bit older than you, Todd, and who's one of our better organizers -- I believe he was a caretaker on the ship over, if memory serves me correct--"

A caretaker, as described by Hildy in CW1 is “One of the ones who stays awake and keeps track of the ship.”.

I think it’s interesting that Prentiss had this role (and he was likely good at it aswell, if he was “one of the better organisers”.), The ships caretakers are almost entirely shown as something with positive associations. In the prequel “The New World”, Viola narrates “Hope. That’s all anyone ever talked about on the convoy, especially as we got closer. Hope, hope, hope.”. The caretakers are shown to take an entirely nurturing and constructive role, being the people who maintain the health of the other passengers and take a leadership role during the first stage of settling.

These positive descriptions continue again in the Diary, when Todd first reads from it in CW3. Theres the following excerpt:

“– and if that weren’t bad enough, son, Preacher Aaron has started to blame the Spackle, the shy little creachers who never look like they eat enough. We’ve been hearing reports from Haven about Spackle problems there, too, but our military man, David Prentiss, says we should respect them, that we shouldn’t look for scapegoats for a simple crop failure–”

Todd is surprised about this (asking “You said that?”) but the Mayor brushes it off (“If your mother says I did,”). To me atleast, this is very different from how we would expect Prentiss to act at any other point in the series. By the start of CW1, he’s using Aaron as another way to control the residents of Prentisstown by making everyone attend church without going himself. But in this description, hes actively trying to de-escalate a conflict that would likely only benefit him as the “military man” if it were to happen.

Another thing I think is notable is that according to the Diary (CW1): “[Prentiss] convinced Jessica Elizabeth, our Mayor, to found this little settlement on the far side of an enormous swamp so that the Noise of the rest of New World can't never reach us unless we allow it to. It's still Noisy as anything here in New Elizabeth but at least it's people we know, at least it's people we trust. For the most part.”

While you could read this as the Mayor wanting their group of settlers to be more isolated so it was easier for him to take control and manipulate them, you could also read his intentions here as being genuine. As Ben says in the latter half of CW1:

“A lotta men scattered theirselves into far communities, getting away from Haven as fast as roads could be cut. But soon folk realized there was nothing to be done about it so for a while we all tried to live with it the best we could, found different ways to deal with it, different communities taking their own paths. (…) That's what New World is. Informayshun, all the time, never stopping, whether you want it or not. The Spackle knew it, evolved to live with it, but we weren't equipped for it. Not even close. And too much informayshun can drive a man mad. Too much informayshun becomes just Noise. And it never, never stops.”

My interpretation of this is that atleast at this point, Prentiss was genuine in struggling to cope with the noise. Especially as New Elizabeth was the furthest away settlement from Haven that we see on New World, I get the impression that it could be one of the “far communities” that Ben was referring to. As someone so obsessed with knowledge and control, I doubt the Noise was something he would have been able to easily just tune out. We see how the overwhelming amounts of information end up effecting him during his and Todds fight at the end of of CW3:

“This world is eating me alive, Todd,” he says. “This world and the information in it. It’s too much. Too much to control.”

“Then stop trying,” I say and I hit him with a VIOLA.

He flinches but don’t fall down. “I can’t,” he says with a smile. “It’s not in my nature.”

When he gets power, he doesn’t relinquish it. This and his ambition only increase as time goes on. I think this links to this interaction he has with Todd after the first battle in CW3:

“ “Control your Noise and you control yourself. Control yourself–”

“And you control the world,” I finish. “Yeah, I heard you the first time. I only wanna control myself, thank you. I ain’t got no interest in the rest of the world.”

“Everyone says that. Until they get their first taste of power.” ”

You could interpret this as Prentiss at first only wanting to find a way to silence his noise, but later realising its potential as a weapon. This links well to this dialogue from Prentiss after Todd controls James for the second time:

“ “The shame disappears, Todd,” the Mayor says, appearing behind me in that way he does as I watch James make his way thru the army camp to get Angharrad’s extra water.”

How would the Mayor know this unless hes speaking from his own experience as the only other person who can control people?

Another thing that stood out to me about potential Prentiss backstory theorising was how weird he is about war. A lot of his what he says to Todd about it seems weirdly personal, and he even claims some of it is based off his own experience. For example, this conversation between Todd and the Mayor after the first battle at the start of CW3:

“I know how you feel, Todd,” he says gently.

“No, you don’t.”

“I do,” he insists. “I remember my first battle in the very first Spackle War. You think you’re going to die now. You think this is the worst thing you’ve ever seen and how can you live now you’ve seen it? How can anyone live after seeing it?”

“Get outta my head,” I say.

“I’m only talking, Todd. That’s all I’m doing.”

I don’t answer him. I just keep whispering to Angharrad. “I’m here, girl.”

“But you’ll be fine,” the Mayor says. “So will your horse. You’ll both be stronger. You’ll be better for it.”

I look at him. “How can anyone be better after that? How can anyone be more of a man after that?”

He leans down close to me. “Because it was exciting, too, wasn’t it?”

We should probably take this with a grain of salt, as it’s in his interest to relate to Todd in this moment. But in general, theres more Prentiss dialogue similar to this which you could easily read as him projecting in some form:

“It may not seem like it, Todd,” he says, “but you will look back on this as the day you finally became a man.” His eyes flash. “The day you were transformed.”

Ben also speaks about how the Spackle war changed people in the second half of CW1, though in a less positive way: ““War is a monster," he says, almost to himself. "War is the devil. It starts and it consumes and it grows and grows and grows." He's looking at me now. "And otherwise normal men become monsters, too.""

The first spackle war began and despite initially being opposed to it, Prentiss began to take enjoyment in the extra power it gave him as New Elizabeths defacto “Military man”. When the Spackle War ended and he no longer had a common enemy to unite his faction with, I imagine this is when he started scapegoating the women for the purpose of retaining the influence he had during the war, the potential extra power he could gain by staging a coup again Elizabeth and as mistress Coyle puts it “because he couldn't know them in the way that men could be known before the cure.”

The remaining events I think are pretty easy to explain via Prentiss just wanting to solidify his influence over everyone left in Prentisstown, similarly to how he would act during the events of the series. The “Kill someone when you turn 13” law was to test his influence over people, and something to unite his people with. Closing the schools so he could keep the children uninformed and less likely to oppose him. Keeping Aaron around because he was entertaining and weird.

To summarise (atleast according to my interpretation) His backstory is him being essentially the same person at his core, someone obsessed with control. At the start, he channels this productively as a Caretaker on the ships, where he does his job well. When introduced to the Noise, hes initially overwhelmed by all the information it offers, he soon realises its potential as a way to manipulate people and then a way to manipulate people. Despite initially not wanting a war, he realises the power it gives him and his focus turns to holding onto the same influence.

Even if you disagree, I hope this was interesting or atleast collected a bunch of quotes in one place to speculate on your own Prentiss brainrot. I might add to this later or edit it so its coherent, but its currently 5am and I’m going to bed

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Here’s some miscellaneous stuff/ headcanons:

-I think Davys mother / Prentiss’ Wife got killed at the same time as the rest of the women of Prentisstown.

In CW2, Davy says: “Oh, my mother's long dead," he says. "Just like yers."

While she could’ve died in childbirth or for other reasons, I think comparing her to Todds mother while discussing her death might indicate they died under the same circumstances

-This isn’t direct evidence but I think the Prentiss downward spiral(tm) works thematically with the series. CW2 opens with “Battle not with monsters lest you become a monster and if you gaze into the abyss the abyss gazes into you.”, which most obviously relates to Todd and Violas conflicts, but I dont see why one of the major themes of the series cant extend to Prentiss aswell, even if his backstory isnt given as much focus. I honestly really like the amount of ambiguity that he has in the series. I think it really encapsulates his and Todds power imbalance. He can always read Todds thoughts, but Todd can never read his or truly know his past or who he used to be as a person.

-I like to imagine there was a point in New Elizabeth where Prentiss had began to use his Noise but hadn’t figure out how to silence it yet. So there was a period of a few years or so where this fucking weirdo would be walking around thinking about geometry in unnatural and distressing ways

-Maybe baby Davy instinctually found the Mayors noise unnatural//offputting? Maybe young Davy would naturally gravitate towards his mother, which the Mayor couldn’t understand because of her lack of noise, So Prentiss viewed him as being too trusting and simple. Davy later trying so hard to please him made him resent him more??