Yes, I actually did bit of a psychoanalytical write-up on Baloo. Man, I need a life . . . and a few less psychology classes. ^_~ This started as part of an e-mail to a friend of mine, but then became a write up. I was attempting to explain why it is that I do certain things to Baloo in my stories about his childhood, and tie them in with their impacts on his later life. These are just my personal thoughts, and are in no way sacred, or The Final Truth About Baloo. ^_^ With that in mind, enjoy! He is very solitary, and has few close friends if you think about it. He is funny and outgoing, and seems to get along with people, but his only close friend prior to H4H is Louie. Those people he does let in his life mean a great deal to him, and he bonds quickly after his initial defenses have been taken down. (this could all be because of a loss of someone close to you, distrust from an abusive parent, being alone tends to cause certain personality types to get that tough layer that prevents people from really getting to know the "inside" person. They are fun and interact easily, but have few close friends (those they do have a very close and very valuable) but make aquaintences easily.) (Kit also displays these tendencies) Another thing I was going for were those same parallels to Kit. Losing his father, not to mention an abusive father, then having a poor but happy childhood with a young, an almost child-like (David Copperfield ;) mother and a much older brother who fills that paternal role out of necessity, but then losing him too. Then spending a few horrible years in a small town, ill-run and under funded orphanage, in comparison with Kit's time with the air pirates. And then there is that happy-go-lucky air. He is determined to cruise through life doing as little as possible but enjoying every minute of it. This could be just a natural tendency, or it could also be a reaction to a difficult childhood. He has been miserable for far too much of his life, and is determined to make up for it. He has seen his mother and brother work extremely hard to support the family, and yet they were still dirt poor, thus showing that work really doesn't get you far. So you should only do so when necessary, freeing up time to enjoy life. (according to Baloo logic ;) With Grady dead he also becomes a sort of martyr. Baloo almost feels destined to take care of and act as a father to Kit, in the same way Grady did for Baloo. It is a debt Baloo feels he needs to repay.