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[blondelikelaurent]

You know, I really love the book titles of the ‘Captive Prince’ trilogy because they’re so simple yet so accurate and also kind of multilayered?!

Captive Prince - very obvious, a captive prince. But: could it also be two captive princes or am I reaching here? Because to me, Laurent isn’t really free here either.

Prince’s Gambit - I feel like this is Laurent’s gambit but maybe it’s also Damen’s? Seems simple, but when you think about it: book 1 is about Damen, book 2 is about Laurent; and both could be about both.

Kings Rising - well, this must be a fave because: kings, plural! Rising! Together! It’s just.

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Captive Prince in a nutshell

Laurent: *coldly* You killed my brother.

Damen: *Hornily* ...Wanna kill mine?

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Book one Damen to Laurent

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‘‘Don’t you say his name.’’ The words were forced out of Laurent. ‘‘Don’t you ever say his name, you killed my brother.’’

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Summer Palace Inspired

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[blondelikelaurent]

Auguste: *texting* Laurent, answer your phone.

Laurent: *also texting* Give me a minute, I cant find my phone.

Auguste: Okay.

*five minutes later*

Auguste: You���re a terrible person. You’re killing me. You’re killing your brother.

[blondelikelaurent]

I was thinking about the scene in Prince’s Gambit where Laurent goes off on Aimeric; how you, as the reader, come to understand that his verbal lashing at Aimeric’s naivety re: the Regent is more or less self-flagellation.

We know that Aimeric and Nicaise are mirrors of Laurent. I vaguely recall Pacat herself stating they’re essentially alternate version of him, set on different paths he himself might have taken.

I don’t think that’s strictly accurate, though. I can’t imagine a version of Laurent that didn’t outgrow the Regent, because in no world would the Regent not have discarded him, in vying for the throne.

Aimeric is only a version of Laurent in the sense that, he represents that green boy who is yet to grow up; he is young Laurent in stasis. Their disparity is ridiculously emphasized by Jord’s intervening defense: “He’s just a boy.”

Conversely, Nicaise, who IS actually a boy, is more of an equal to Laurent. In book one he’s outsmarted due to his inexperience in court politics and mind games, but he’s a lot worldlier than Laurent could have ever been at his age.

Nicaise knew that he was running out of time, that the Regent didn’t love him. “He always was smarter than the others,” Laurent says, and I think he counts himself among those others.

Nicaise is in Laurent’s past situation, but shares Lauren’t present sensibilities. I might even assert that in some ways, Nicaise is the boy Laurent wishes he could have been, someone who didn’t blindly trust in the Regent’s love –only a hair’s breadth away from breaking off his influence.

That’s why he invests in him so personally, a possible element of wish-fulfillment: You’re smarter than I was, you can get yourself out of this.

Aimeric and Nicaise are, then, exact inverses of each other: a childish adult vs. an adult-like child. Both recall Laurent’s past, but Aimeric is a ghost, stagnant, while Nicaise is a window to re-writing the narrative, putting things to right.

[blondelikelaurent]

why is it always the fancylad boy-king type whos the bottom. maybe his tough loyal knight who uses his body to protect and defend him and lives to serve him wants to get railed

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these were a hit on twitter so figure i’d share on tumblr dot com. context = everyone was making fun of a book that was marketed with this same format. enjoy the capri versions

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For the first time, he caught a glimmer of what Laurent would be like as a king. He saw him, not as the Regent’s unready nephew, not as Auguste’s younger brother, but as himself, a young man with a collection of talents thrown into leadership too early, and taking it on, because he was given no other choice. I would serve him, he thought, and that itself was like a little revelation.

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Yesterday I was scrolling through Instagram and found user phant0masy who makes some stunning neck corsets and all my thoughts went flying towards Laurent, so I doodled something as soon as I opened my eyes today 💃

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how could I forget kings rising

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Baby Laurent is literally my son idk