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(including tags for added context)

I think this actually provides a lot of context to the whole Clovis situation in The Clone Wars.

It’s my favorite theory I’ve come up with (though I’m probably not the first) and was my initial thought after finishing the last chapter.

At the end of the book Donna Tartt specifically made it a point to mention the ‘two flat cracks’ that went off when Henry fired at himself due to the drawback of the gun. When reading this, i thought it was an interesting detail to add. It seemed, to me, important in some way. Following that detail, in the epilogue, she added that despite having two bullet wounds to the head, he survived for over twelve hours, which even amazed the doctors. Richard himself even theorizes that perhaps Henry didn’t want to die.

Now, if aimed correctly, you can survive a bullet wound to the head with (moderately) minimal brain damage. Henry being Henry, I believe he would know that. It would be surprising if he hadn’t consider this scenario to some extent.

Despite Henry possibly knowing this fact, we already know that he wasn’t too good with guns- or at least no longer participated, and did not like, using them after accidentally killing a duck at Francis’s country house while shooting targets (they put the gun away and he never went shooting again.)

To get straight to the theory, I believe Henry planned for this, or some similar scenario. He knew where to aim, but wasn’t very familiar with using a gun, and hadn’t realized the drawback would make the gun go off twice. Two flat cracks. That’s why he had such a strong will to survive even after the two self inflicted injuries. He planned on one bullet, aimed correctly to avoid hitting anything too vital, but when the second bullet hit, his body couldn’t handle that kind of injury.

I don’t know what, but I wonder if he told Camilla something about him surviving or to not worry because he’ll be fine- that he would live and come back to her. Maybe she’s still hoping that he’s right and his promise will come true, which is why she refused to marry Richard.

My head cannon is that his mother was a southern heiress (Sharp objects vibes) . Maybe her family made money through agriculture or something and she married his father because of a semi-arranged marriage.

At school, he walks the hallways like a ghost in corduroy. The other boys shoulder past him, smelling of sweat and cologne, yelling about something. Their laughter is a kind of foreign language — loud, shared, automatic. He understands its grammar but can't seem to speak it.

At lunch, he reads a copy of The Iliad (I am cliche like that yes). Someone might throw a french fry at his head. Others try to be friends because of who his family. He doesn’t look up. He doesn’t respond. Not out of pride, just calculation. There’s nothing worth saying, and they wouldn’t hear it anyway.

Eventually he befriends the unmarried librarian. They have lunch together- I swear I saw them. She calls him a sweet big even if he is 75-year-old soul in a 12-year-old’s body.

At home, the rooms are too big. Footsteps echo like regrets on the wooden floors. His father speaks mostly in quotes — Churchill, Locke — and only at dinner. His mother glides like she’s on stage beautiful, cool, overeager to please his father. They ask how school is, but don’t wait for the answer.

He spends evenings on the floor in his bedroom, eyes tracing the spines of a hundred books he’s not old enough to fully understand — yet. Sometimes he reads them out loud, just to hear a voice in the room. He needs a reminder that he is real.