Director's Commentary on the differences between VHHB Holly Blue and BDCS Holly Blue!
Well one immediate difference is simply the fact that I know a lot more about her going into BDCS. I had all the core pieces down for VHHB but I still learned a lot about her as I went. BDCS is just a chance to like, properly address all those added details.
But on the same note, the stakes in BDCS are way higher than they were in VHHB. The Donnie that Holly Blue meets in the former isn't nearly as desperate. Perhaps just as exhausted in the Nexus, but not desperate. He's not really imprisoned there. There's no deadline to get him away from it.
By more or less stealing him from Big Mama (rather than just luring him away) it's created a much more immediate threat. And BDCS Holly Blue feels the pressure from it even as she tries to remain collected about it. Additionally there's a lot of things about Donnie that force her to reflect on herself and even some ugly feelings from the past she thought she moved on from (involving Lou).
It's honestly something I'm having a lot of fun with, because these added stressors create a Holly Blue who's unable to keep her cool and collected self on display at all times. Not that I'm unhappy with how I wrote her in VHHB. She's meant to come off as someone maybe a bit TOO put together, too prepared, leaving the reader to question if she's even trustworthy or not up until she actually helps Donnie escape the stadium. But in BDCS we already know her motives due to opening her in POV, so the tension has to stem from somewhere else.
I never wrote Holly Blue with the aim of making someone perfect (of course) but her flaws are just a lot more evident in BDCS. Her self loathing, lack of concern for her well being, her drive being nothing but spite, all of that keeps boiling over when striking against a teenager who already suffered some major losses and is clinging maybe a bit too tightly to a new and comforting presence in his life.
In short, VHHB Holly rarely encountered the kind of friction that showed her uglier side. Overall she appears far more collected and sure of herself. But, amusingly, BDCS Holly Blue is going to learn to love being alive far sooner than VHHB Holly ever did.
