Character Analysis
Lyle Lyle Crocodile
Lyle is the Draco Malfoy to Will's Harry Potter. He's not quite the ultimate big bad—in Paladin Prophecy, we're not sure who that is yet—but still a constant thorn in Will's backside. Lyle is Will's opposite. Will is strong, fast, and handsome. Lyle is always described as ugly, awkward, and slightly effeminate with a "high-pitched voice" (13.5). Oh, dear.
Lyle's first sin is that he "saw Will as his inferior" (13.5). And someone with a superiority complex as Will has never likes to be considered inferior.
Lyle is the provost marshal, which is like the Head Boy at Hogwarts, except Lyle is Will's age, and does everything he can to abuse his power—like conducting searches of rooms just because he wants to get Will into trouble.
Lyle also possesses Malfoy's classism. Malfoy railed against mudbloods in Harry Potter. Lyle complains about commoners. "A lesser being of the lower classes, the kind who used to know their place" (43.23). This is the only character development we get for Lyle: he's an entitled bully who thinks he is better than others.
Lyle continues, "You believe you're all so special! […] You're all stars just waiting to be discovered" (43.28). That's a weird jumble of mixed messages. Everyone at the Center is special. They're told that. Plus, they're discovered by the Center and brought there. We're not given any reason to believe that Lyle is any different. Either he isn't thinking much during this rant, or he really hates himself.
The latter is possible. Lyle never resists the bad guys who control him. He isn't necessarily a bad person (not that he is good, either), but he is recruited by the bad guys to be an agent on the inside of the Center, bringing in demons from another dimension right under everyone's nose. Being around all that demonic energy appears to make Lyle get nastier year after year, as Will observes when he checks out Lyle's yearbook photos.
Remember, Shmoopers, if you want to maintain your youthful appearance don't be evil. And don't be president.
In the end, Lyle gets his brain sucked by a Wendigo, a harsh fate for someone who is just as confused as every other teenager and who just made some bad decisions. Even though Will and his friends have hated Lyle for 95% of the book, they do an about-face and feel sorry for him at the end, as if he has become a saint in his near-death. "He's as much a victim as anybody, maybe even more so" (46.60), Will says. But it's too late. Maybe if these kids had had an ounce of that compassion sooner, they could have averted Lyle's painful fate.