Oh my goodness, yes: this. One of the Great Betrayals of children's literature, I always thought as a child. And even now, this is the one book I don't reread very often (though I ought). Greenwitch and The Grey King have always been my favourites of the series, and - at least a little - it's because they hold the seeds of all the different ways in which the series could have gone: Barney and his Sight; Jane and her wish, and her affinity for the Wild Magic (and her parallels with The Lady, though yes, that was only explicit in Silver on the Tree); Simon and his 'Kingly' nature; all the little contingency plans in The Grey King that the Light had laid aside in case it lost (the harp; the sword; the shield). If ever I were to write TDiR fic, it would be post-Silver on the Tree, and it would be about Jane and the sea and about a Wild Magic no longer constrained by Light and Dark, but free; and it would be about Barney and his Sight; and it would be about Simon trying desperately to hold onto them both. And it would be about Will realising that he was free to choose for himself, and about everyone else being granted their own choices. (And I have too many feels for Bran to mention).

Um.