#Prince's gambit

[dekirufran]

A redraw from the famous painting "La belle dame sans merci" because I wanted to jump on the trend Not entirely satisfied, but I miss them so I had to post it

#captive prince trilogy #laurent captive prince #damen captive prince #captive prince #prince's gambit #kings rising #cs pacat #lamen

[laurents-secret-diary]

the quirked up white boy Of Vere

#laurent of vere #captive prince #kings rising #prince's gambit #MY PASTY GUY #i know he's supposed to be enchanting or whatever but i need him a bit fucked up you know what i mean #if he is anything like how damen describes him then my dude resembles a victorian child huffing asbestos #“his skin almost indistinguishable from the pristine white shirt he wore” #ok? ok?? MY MAN TAKES BATHS IN THE STYX?? #I just find it soooo funny that this is Damen's ideal man. #this frog ass looking aint shit white boy with the brain processing power of an intel i9 card #i bet his hands are always clammy but noone would know because this dude wont let anyone touch him lol #caprisun

[voidstilesplease]

During the scene in Prince's Gambit when Laurent and Damen were taken captive by clan riders and saved by Halvik, there's a part that goes, "Acquiring the fallen man's short clan sword, Laurent inserted himself at Damen's left, which, Damen noted without surprise, let Damen do all the heavy fighting." Damen thinking Laurent placed himself in that particular side to let Damen do all the brunt work when it's actually Laurent covering and protecting Damen's weak side from all the beating he took 😭.

I'm gonna start chewing glasses HELP

#capri reread #prince's gambit #PG: chapter 13 #captive prince #books #bookish #favorite books

[stromuprisahat]

Laurent’s vocabulary [in Akielon] hit its limits when it came to military terms and manoeuvres, but Damen filled in the gaps. It was of course no surprise to find that Laurent had a well-stocked armoury of elegant phrases and bitchy remarks, but could not talk in detail about anything sensible.

Prince's Gambit- Chapter 9 (C. S. Pacat)

#Captive Prince trilogy #Prince's Gambit #PG Chapter 9 #Laurent VI of Vere #Damianos of Akielos #V #books #quotes #C. S. Pacat #LOL

[swordsswordsswords]

memes for the second book

#captive prince #captive prince spoilers #prince's gambit #prince's gambit spoilers #princes gambit #laurent of vere #damianos of akielos #lamen #king's rising spoilers

[serendipetite]

laurent giggling.

laurent giggling against damen

laurent being unable to stop giggling

they were literally in peril and laurent is giggling

i'm sorry but i have not once been able to stop thinking about this

#captive prince #prince's gambit #laurent of vere #i know it's describe as laugher but that boy was giggling and i won't be swayed otherwise #laurent de vere #laurent

[mklinaaa]

my fav part of kings rising is where makedon basically adopts laurent

#cs pacat #captive prince #prince's gambit #kings rising #laurent of vere #makedon needs his own tag please i love old grumpy men #he got that vibe of relative who shows you photos of his children on his phone

[ninicaise]

"why don't we see laurent's schemes in kings rising? why does he act so helpless, like a puppet?" idk maybe because laurent & damen are no longer friends for the entire first half of kings rising so laurent is back to being completely alone and after prince's gambit he has no idea what to do without damen beside him. maybe bc laurent is not actually the domino master of the series. the regent is. maybe bc laurent is (canonically) behind in the game and the only reason he ever had a chance of winning is literally bc not him nor his uncle can ever predict wtf damen is going to do next. this is textual btw i am not making shit up. just as the "captive prince" is both damen and laurent, the "prince's gambit" is both laurent's and damen's gambit.

#been rereading pg and i have Thoughts #captive prince #kings rising #prince's gambit #damen #laurent #analysis #this is not directed to anyone specifically its just that i've seen this complaint abt kings rising around A LOT #and like. kings rising Has a problem. but it's not this one #laurent's behavior does make sense #literally why are you believing damen whenever he says laurent is an unbeatable mastermind #laurent is the king of duality. cruel yet kind / hating yet loving / serious yet silly / manipulative yet true #why wouldn't he be cunning yet innocent. mature yet childish. powerful yet helpless #look at the motifs bro #this may be a small fandom but we are not immune to fandom mindset. expand your understanding of things its rlly fun i promise

[bluebutter-art]

Lamen Wedding For @seasonsofcapri 🍂🍁✨

View on AO3 here!

#laurent of vere #damianos of akielos #lamen #capri #captive prince #prince's gambit #king's rising #captive prince fanart #capri fanart #Auguste is somewhere out there smiling from the sky :") #Pallas #Lazar #Nicaise #Nikandors #my art

[lestatdelioncoeur]

#the romance of the inn scene in prince's gambit is so evocative of Lestat and Nicki's auvergne nights #cs pacat #anne rice #captive prince #prince's gambit #kings rising #interview with the vampire #laurent of vere #damen of akielos #lestat de lioncourt #nicolas de lenfent #iwtv #amc iwtv #iwtv amc

[bb-8]

give or take a few small differences, it's practically the same story

#more referring to book Howl #captive prince #c.s. pacat #laurent of vere #howl's moving castle #capri #lamen #howl pendragon #damen of akielos #prince's gambit #kings rising

[ltrllynbdy]

So a few years ago I bought this trilogy called captive prince but after reading a few chapters of the first book I kind of gave up on it. I normally don't have a problem with exploring darker themes in a story but captive prince in particular was unenjoyable for me at that time

Later, I was bored with nothing much to do, so I decided to check my bookshelves, found captive prince and started reading and boy I am so glad that I did! I finished the books in a few days and proceeded to read all the short stories.

First of all, before I get to praise the book, I want to say my main criticism about the books: "the slavery stuff in the first book is badly written". Don't get me wrong, Captive prince does not glorify slavery like some haters suggest. I'm not exactly opposed to writing slavery in fiction and there are many political/historical fictional stories that have main characters trying to abolish slavery. It's a common theme.

Captive prince is not much different from the main character ,Damen ,who used to be a slaver himself, gets turned into a slave and tries to abolish it by the end of the series.

It's a fine idea on surface level but there's one big problem with it , I'd like to call it the "Erasmus problem". The first book of captive prince heavily suggested that there were slaves like Erasmus who liked to have a master and I want to believe it's Damen being biased and bigoted because of his privileged upbringing but the story itself still falls apart. There are also instances where sexual slavery becomes apparent and uncomfortable. So if any of these bothers you like it bothered me, the first book of CP is definitely not for you.

OK now for the positives:

From the second book onward, this trilogy becomes a masterpiece.

This story is truly an enemy to love. Most of the other enemies to lovers stories that I have read are just characters either having a simple rivalry or a petty misunderstanding. They dislike each other because one character ignored the other when they were kids , or because they are simply on a different sports team. Captive prince does not shy away from giving the main characters good and logical reasons to hate each other and even hurt each other to an extreme for great and understandably human reasons. They have hurt each other a lot and have no business ever falling in love and still somehow manage to grow and understand and develop something special and unique and I think it's beautiful.

The slow burn: The romance starts only after the entire first book (in which they just hate each other) and most of the second book (where they get to know and understand each other), it's not the slowest burn I've ever read but for a book with characters like these two, it's necessary. and well written

Captive prince's author is extremely brave in making the first book and one of the main characters deliberately hateable with a seemingly unreliable narrator: I don't think I've ever read a story where I hate the first book and enjoy the rest. First impressions are very important and when people don't like an entire first book they probably wouldn't try to continue. I have no idea how and why this author managed to make people still invested enough to publish the second and third book but I'm glad that it happened. It was so enjoyable reading the story from one character's perspective and going from absolutely hating the other character to loving him and understanding him. with the unreliable narrator that is Damen.

The world building, writing and the political story: This may not be the greatest political story with the greatest worldbuilding I've ever read but considering the genre that is m/m romance, I think it's excellent. Let's face it, it's not common for m/m romance to do worldbuilding and politics well. I don't want to seem mean but I've read a decent amount of books and m/m romance and very few of them were actually satisfying to me in terms of politics. Captive prince was one of the rare gems. There might be a few plot holes for me here and there but seeing the characters struggle with each other and plan things out , helping each other or getting fooled by each other in a romance story focusing on mostly only two characters was great to see. I also found some aspects of Homonormativity in the world hilarious. Unless you are married, you are not allowed to be straight in Vere because they hate bastards lol

Despicable villain: This story has the worst and most hateable villain I've ever read in an m/m story. This again goes back to the author being brave enough to write the story the way it is since a lot of romance writers don't dare tackle some really darker aspects.

Subversion of Tropes and Exploration of Power Dynamics : This one was a little hard for me to put into words but basically the series delves into power dynamics in relationships, politics, and society, offering nuanced portrayals of domination, submission, and consent and I don't necessarily mean sexually. In most romance stories, whenever character 1 goes to character 2's kingdom as a lover or sex slave (usually character 1 is the female character in a straight romance) you'd almost always see them have one specific power dynamic. In Captive prince, their characters and their dynamics clashes and changes rapidly and as the story goes on, Damen as a king becomes almost equal to Lauren (I would argue he even becomes politically more powerful than Laurent during certain parts of the story considering Laurent remains a prince for the most part but I digress)

Flawed and human characters who hurt each other without actually romanticizing toxicity: One thing that some people criticize about captive prince and I disagree with, is that it has a toxic relationship. I have to mention that there's basically no actual relationship between the characters until the end of the story and when they do get into a relationship they are a very sweet couple. I think people call them toxic because they were flawed and literal enemies who hurt each other because of it but that's not what I call toxic. Toxicity implies that them being together (they were not together) poisons their life. Both characters manage to grow and understand each other. Damen in particular is a character who you don't see his flaws at first but it becomes more evident how privileged and naive he was and he changes a lot as well as Laurent.

Overall I think excluding the slavery aspects of book 1 which are badly written, this story hits the mark of everything I need in a romance book and I just needed to talk about it. Thanks for coming to my ted talk!

#captiveprince #Captive prince #damen x laurent #laurent de vere #damianos of akielos #damen of akielos #Damen #Laurent #Book review #lgbtq #Prince gambit #kings rising #c s pacat #lamen #Capri #prince's gambit

[laurents-secret-diary]

oh damen we're really in it now.mp4

#captive prince #damen #damianos of akielos #damen of akielos #kings rising #prince's gambit #ITS HIM ITS MY GUY #also can i just say #i know i made him blush in the rip pitcher sketch because thats the correct interpretation of that scene. cuz he saw his thighs #but can we all agree that those must be the palest pastiest legs a man has ever put in direct sunlight #diogenes said to plato “this is a man” about that peeled chicken because he mistook it for Laurent in a chiton #i bet he burns like a lobster #you leave him in direct sunlight for too long and he starts heaving like an office laptop from 2016 booting up Baldurs Gate 3 #i am still in the middle of book 3 and when i tell you i am in DIRE NEED OF SOME LAURENT POV DECRIPTIONS OF DAMEN #TELL ME HOW LOVELY HE IS I NEED YOUR PASTY ASS TO SAY IT #I want to hear those rapid fire thoughts because you just know he is extinguishing them like summertime mosquitos #if the govart dies chapter is anything to go by #damen oh damen you really thought ancel was gonna shove that stick up his ass during that one performance. i love you. #you are THE funniest motherfucker in that book and your obsession with that blue eyed featherless biped only adds to it #who drops a pitcher when they see a white boy approach #god out of fear maybe #i would never live it down straight up never #that memory instantly became damen's dark horse in the championships for the most embarrassing shit that he will think about in bed at nigh #caprisun

[voidstilesplease]

the way damen almost pissed himself thinking he had inadvertently killed the prince of vere by advising him to discipline govart only to be promptly stumped where he stood because laurent's exfoliated hands and delicate wrists could actually hold a sword well enough to win a duel against a giant hothead war veteran. damen may find an issue with laurent's method of public humiliation, but damn if it didn't make him hot and bothered

#this scene #im telling you #capri reread #captive prince #lamen #damen x laurent #books #favorite books #prince's gambit #PR: chapter 3

[lost-in-fictionn]

I bet Laurent was screaming crying throwing up inside when Damen said I speak your language better than you speak mine, sweetheart

#Capri #Captive prince #Damen #Laurent #Lamen #damianos of akielos #laurent of vere #prince's gambit #Kings rising #cs pacat #damen x laurent #laurent x damen

[chuwannin]

ERASMUS: ‘‘I told you that I would repay you. You did so much to help me in the palace. And... And I didn’t like the Regent. He burnt my leg.’’ ANCEL: ‘‘A whore. So what if I am? I’m not ashamed of it. I’m good at it. I can make men want me.’’ NICAISE: ‘‘I don’t care. I just wanted to… I don’t care. I’m going back to bed. Don’t tell him I came.’’

#captive prince #prince's gambit #captiveprinceedit #c.s. pacat #erasmus #ancel #nicaise #mine