#damen *at least i am nice to my slaves* of akielos gets a 3/10 from me

[bloody-wonder]

I think at one point u said u didnt like damen, I was wondering why?

many reasons - all of them very subjective!

first of all damen is just the total opposite of what i imagine as an ideal fictional character (which is laurent haha) in terms of his physical appearance as well as personality. i find big muscular men to be extremely aesthetically unattractive, especially when the love interest is much smaller and looks more androgynous or feminine. the height and size difference between damen and laurent, which the fandom appreciates greatly and loves to exaggerate, disgusts me quite a lot. in general, i just hate when fictional men have physical and personality features traditionally associated with masculinity and fictional women - those associated with femininity. gender norms ugh

damen is also to a broad extent a typical fantasy protagonist - a manly man who can swish his sword back and forth and relies on crude force much more than on cunning and intellect, the kind of hero the reader is supposed to relate to instantly and without questioning what he stands for. neither do i care for such heroes nor do i relate to them. although calling damen kind and stupid wouldn’t be a correct characterization, when contrasted with laurent he very much comes off as a gryffinpuff himbo. the gryffindor part i could take or leave but the hufflepuff part is unacceptable.

a very specific and weird reason for me to dislike damen is his relationship with sex. i find it much easier to relate to characters who don’t know what they’re doing and are learning as they go and, in turn, an experienced character whose prolific sex life is the subject of international gossip alienates me instantly. plus, he’s always horny. like,, ALWAYS. he really did make a move on laurent at the baths huh. i have mixed feelings about his enormous and constant attraction to laurent bc on one hand, i can’t really blame him cause have you seen laurent? but on the other one, like,, seriously? if this is how allosexual people really live, i don’t envy them

(when i was reading capri for the first time i genuinely thought that their first time at ravenel was a test to mirror the one in the baths. just like in the baths laurent wanted to see what damen would do if he had laurent naked and defenseless in front of him and damen failed the test, i thought that in ravenel laurent initiated the sex in order to see if damen would go through with it while believing that laurent didn’t know his true identity. damen failed the test once again: having sex with somebody he was exceptionally horny for proved to be more important than being honest with somebody he’s supposedly in love with. in the end, this turned out to be irrelevant, but in fics such stuff is tagged as dubcon, just sayin’)

and last but not least, i just find it very alienating how beloved he is in the fandom. in this regard, damen is much like nicky hemmick - much easier to like than some of the other characters and so people like him, often uncritically. with laurent you have to make all these caveats and justifications for why you like him, which of his actions you condone and which not, what you choose to forgive and what you choose to overlook. but with damen you can just go ahead and stan him - this dude who has owned sex slaves for most of his life and prides himself on “being nice to them” and “taking care of their pleasure”. as far as i remember the books don’t focus much on this aspect of his character development, some of the fics do a much better job. but nevertheless, it frustrates me that laurent’s book one crimes are perceived as glaring issues whereas damen’s flaws are seen as something he can just reconsider and stop doing so nobody really has to be mad at him.

basically, laurent has to earn the reader’s sympathy whereas damen has it from the very beginning just by virtue of being the generic main character. this narrative dynamic is something that fascinates me a lot and frustrates me the most at the same time. from my pov we have a man who lost his family as a child, was abused by a person he trusted and grew up in an extremely hostile environment and a man who grew up in such comfort and priviledge that it never even occured to him to question the morality of slavery - why is it the first guy who has to do the work in order to atone for his mistakes? why is it always the laurent-type character who has to redeem himself, earn forgiveness, “develop”? why does his arc have to peak in adopting traits associated with the damen-type character (futile selflessness and reckless bravery)? why can’t damen instead improve as a character by developing laurent’s cunning and power of insight? bc in our collective consciousness at some point we’ve started to associate the former qualities with heroism and the latter ones with being evil and untrustworthy. i feel like at the end of capri laurent’s personality has changed entirely, whereas damen... well he learned that slavery is bad and that people are not always what they seem but otherwise? he’s the same guy as at the start of the story. the framing tells us that “laurents” have to change in order to earn love and sympathy but “damens” are fine just as they are.

as you can tell i strongly disagree and this is another reason why i don’t like damen.