thoughts on why nott is afraid of water?
The popular/prevailing theory is that Nott was waterboarded or was forced to waterboard someone else. I think that the former is more likely than the latter as the real source of her fear, because she’s so viscerally afraid of/discomfited by the feeling of water.
As far as my own thoughts? I don’t know if i have any more compelling ideas. It’s also possible that, like Fjord, she almost drowned at some point. Or that she was left out in a stockade in the rain. I think it’s just as likely that the fear stems from something that happened while she was still with her clan as it being something that happened because of a particularly cruel guard.
That being said, while we do happen to know in this case that Nott’s fear is trauma related, prior to getting that confirmation from Sam it was just as likely that Nott’s fear was a phobia that had no basis in any specific incident. When Caleb cast Suggestion on Nott a few episodes ago, I saw some people arguing that Nott should just tell the team why she hates water. But Nott shouldn’t need to share her trauma, and furthermore doesn’t need to have trauma, in order for the group to respect her fear.
