1. To be fair to your eight year old brain, it was fairly subtle. Especially in the face of most media having couples go from "I just met you" to "Let's get married" in the space of a few days or less.

2. Definitely some good logic there.

3. I definitely agree with you, and probably for the same reasons. I don't think Smalls is necessarily meant to be a messianic figure, as he clearly does have some flaws as you point out. He definitely does seem to have a "Chosen One" role though, and unfortunately those do occasionally get confused. That is a fun interpretation of Smalls and the Blackstars. I just kind of got the impression for their brief exchanges in Ember Falls that they're among the few friends Smalls has had growing up.

4. That is an interpretation of their relationship I hadn't considered before, and kudos to you for thinking of it. I've always taken any hesitation on his part as an unfortunate result of his place as heir to the throne. He loves Heather, but he clearly recognizes that he has a duty to all of rabbitkind and puts them first. Heather recognizes this, and it's part of why she loves him in return. I mean, they both acknowledge that they dreamed of getting married while in the tomb, but don't even announce their engagement until a year afterwards at the first Feast of the Mending. I think Smalls is a bit like Cole in this regard-placing duty before love-as opposed to Jo-who at least briefly thought that love was as important, if not more so, than duty.

5. That is another excellent point. I know of a series or two that went into next generation stuff and had major characters become parents, only to not be so great at it. It's sad, but when you consider that they didn't know their own parents it makes perfect sense. Wilfred was no doubt an excellent guardian, but he couldn't really give Smalls any sort of education in that area-at least, not by example. There's another rabbit who I'm sure has plenty of trauma/angst we could discuss.

6. Yeah, the deck was stacked against Kyle from the moment Smalls told Heather "I'm so glad to finally meet you when both of us are awake." He might have had a chance with Heather under different circumstances, but definitely not in the series as it played out. Still, I like to think that he found love eventually. Question is, what kind of relationship did Bleston have with Kylen and Naylen's mother?

It would definitely be interesting to learn more about Smalls' life, both during and prior to the events of the series. For a character so central to the plot, he gets very little coverage. Heather and Picket being the main characters of course detracts some focus from him, and we never even got a chapter from his perspective as we did with Sween, Emma, and Whittle. And let's not even get started on our boy Jo Shanks, who ALSO was smitten with Heather...for all of the five seconds it took him to find out she was a Longtreader.

Of course, S.D. Smith probably didn't want to let us see too much of him in the first book because he wanted to build up to the reveal that Smalls was Jupiter's heir. Then in book two he quickly gets marched off to his supposed death. It's also not until book two that we find out just who Kyle really is and who his dad is. The full weight of his and Smalls' interactions wouldn't really be appreciable until AFTER you know both their true identities and those of their respective fathers. It would make for a great spin-off story at this point.

I think Smalls' stability says a lot about his character as a person as well as Wilfred's as a guardian. He obviously protected Smalls from the very worst of things. I also get the impression that, while they did frequent First Warren up until it became too dangerous to stay there and virtually impossible to leave or enter, they did quite a bit of traveling as well. Smalls notes having had "adventures" with Cole and Heyna, and was apparently friends with at least some Harbone rabbits as well.

I don't think I'd say Heather's oblivious so much as S.D. Smith isn't usually very overt in his romantic subplots. It's fairly clear by book two, if not sooner, that she and Smalls are in love, to both us as readers and to outside observers within the series. I mean, we get straight up inner dialogue from her saying she wants to be queen so she can stay with Smalls. Bleston seems to be aware of this, and we even hear rabbits at Cloud Mountain speculating on whether she's going to marry Smalls.

In book three, Heather goes so far as to resolve that she won't marry anyone else, but will live as though she were Smalls' widow. She declares her love for him before the Seventh District, in such a way that Harmony and the Tunneler, at least, can tell she's not just talking about friendship or admiration for the leader of the Cause. One of her conversations with Smalls in Ember Falls also seems to hint that they both want to get married, with Smalls even saying “When the war is over and I’m crowned at the First Warren, I’ll be able to do many things I wish I could do now.” Heather responds to this by lowering her gaze, which seems a possible indication that at least one of those things is known or hoped by her to be their marriage.

It just so happens that we don't get the overt "I love you" moments between them until book four. Their relationship, or at least what we see of it, is typically more reserved than that for whatever reason. @Meadow once drew a piece in which Heather freaks out because Smalls asks if they can hold hands. It's exaggerated, of course, but Heather and Smalls do seem to be more quiet about their affection. By contrast, Picket and Weezie hug no less than three times over the course of Ember Rising despite knowing each other for all of two days.

As for poor Kyle, I think he was doomed pretty much from the start with Heather. If she WAS oblivious about anything, it was his apparent attraction to her in book one. Even if she did notice, she doesn't seem to have thought of him as more than a friend, and a somewhat untrustworthy friend at that. Then of course he had to go and betray Smalls, whose feelings for her she was at least beginning to reciprocate, and all of Cloud Mountain.

That incident left a rift in their relationship, and by the time Kyle came back into her life she was very much in love with Smalls. To make matters worse, Kyle was revealed to her to be affiliated with Bleston, and both of them were a threat to Smalls' future place as king and to his life. Heather was definitely not down with that, their occupation of Halfwind, or Bleston's hypocritical ideology. Kyle, unfortunately, was wrapped up in all that, and so Heather wasn't likely to give him any chances. She became annoyed when he tried to compliment her, and very deliberately moved her hand out of his reach when he tried to take it.

Anyway, those are my thoughts. Sorry it's a lot-concise arguments aren't exactly my strong suit.