That’s the consistency in Pan across these early stories. The surroundings change, and his power rises or falls, but he keeps trying to arrange things so somebody else absorbs t…

That’s the consistency in Pan across these early stories. The surroundings change, and his power rises or falls, but he keeps trying to arrange things so somebody else absorbs the damage. Nathan Cross gives that damage a human face. For Pan, children are part of how he maintains himself. Nathan is one of the people who has to keep living after experiencing Neverland. Their conflict carries the difference between the person treating a life as a resource and the person who actually has to live it. Pan is also willing to gamble on a threat far bigger than himself if he thinks there is an advantage in it. Being knocked down doesn’t make him question the kind of ruler he was. It makes him search for another route back. That is what holds his different appearances together for me: the entitlement survives even when the throne and much of the power are gone. He still thinks his continued existence should come first.