This is what I posted about KP and Prior from KP's book thread. Which sums it up as well as I can.
Arthur Crabtree wrote:KP really doesn't like Prior, which at this point is difficult to grasp. Certainly, Prior appears to like KP. It seems to hinge on two things. In fact, let me made a leap of imagination. I wonder if Prior/Cheese is a team man who doesn't really question what he does, but enthusiastically does what he thinks is expected of him, way beyond the point where it is helpful.
Like Gabriel Oak's new dog in Far From the Madding Crowd, who only knows his job is to herd sheep, and who will do it at any time, in any circumstance, to the point where he herds them over a cliff. And so if Prior thought his job was to reintegrate KP, he would do it endlessly, way beyond the point that it was painful to KP. Or if he thought it was his job to keep the fielders on their toes, he would do it without question, until the fielder was scared to touch the ball; but he had done his job.
He's done nothing wrong, and yet... Gabriel Oak has no livelihood and is on the road to a labour fair, and has shot his sheepdog through the head.
I always say that everybody's right.