meta: Not Said, But Implied

[bonnefois]

Scout: ...so that brings me to the point of this story, which is I like you, and you should probably be sitting for this...


What Scout says and what he means have been shown for quite a while to be often different things. He's fond of saying that he's the best, that everyone loves him, and yet in the Haunted Hat voice lines, he states that his hat is his best friend, and in Expiration Date, he thinks that while he's handsome, he's not quite genteel enough to catch Miss Pauling's eye.

And while he frames his feelings for Miss Pauling as a crush, his whole confession being what I'm trying to say is that I like you, his actions belie something else. When he's staring down at his last days, she's the only one he wants to see. At the mere thought he might win her over, he becomes entirely committed to her, and celibate at that.

He devotes himself to her on a level which is not merely a crush, not merely a girl he'd like to take out, or someone who has caught his eyes until it has all the shades of being completely in love with her, at a level even he isn't able to admit to himself quite yet.

Scout, never having been in love, doesn't even know the word himself. It seems too grand, too far away, so he puts it the terms of a crush. I like you, I want to go out with you.

But actions speak louder than words, and his actions have shown nothing but the deepest of love.