HI GUYS I MANAGED TO REREAD BOTH CAPTIVE PRINCE BOOKS THIS WEEKEND I AM SO EXCITED.

I hadn't read the books fully since I originally read them 2-3 years ago, so I had forgotten a loooooot of stuff - basically all of the major politics and plot twists, and also a lot of the bigger details. So it was super enjoyable to read again and yup I cannot wait for Monday/Tuesday (I mean, Tuesday Australia time = Monday for us!) and am seriously considering taking a day off on Tuesday just so I can read at my leisure.

I read almost everything on my kindle and marked a bunch of stuff while reading, so here are a bunch of random reactions under the cut! I marked about three times as much while reading Book 2 so idk if I'll have time to post those, but we'll see. LAURENT! DAMEN! MEMORY LANE! LET'S GO :D



Book 1:

Damen had felt proud. He had thought, I am thirteen and a man, Kastor fights me like a man. Kastor had not held back against him, and he had been so proud of that, even as the blood pushed out from beneath his hands. Now he remembered the black look in Kastor's eyes and thought that he had been wrong about many things.

Things I did not remember: Damen's brother trying to run him through at thirteen. Things I remembered less: that Damen and Kastor actually had a brotherly relationship (of sorts), and that Damen looked up to Kastor! Like, this was not Auguste-Laurent adoration, but still. Like, Damen's in a pretty deep state of repression about his loss over the course of the book, or he just avoids dwelling on it because he wants to survive and he has that driving him forward, but every once in a while there's a moment where it hits.

Laurent's blue eyes gleamed. "So that's it. Kastor mounts his soldiers like horses in the yard. Did you grit your teeth and take it because he was the King, or did you like it? You really," said Laurent, "have no idea how happy that idea makes me. It's perfect: a man who holds you down while he fucks you, with a cock like a bottle, and a beard like my uncle's."

I love how horrified Damen is at this, but also GAH LAURENT who, of course, when describing incestuous rape, illustrates it with images of his uncle ;___;

"Don't be presumptuous," said Laurent, coldly.
"Too late, sweetheart," said Damen.

This feels so unlike the Damen we grow to know as the book progresses, this is a Damen who has no idea who Laurent is, like - I'm just imagining future Damen looking back at this moment and wanting to punch this Damen in the face. (This is probably going to be a recurring theme, once Damen actually realizes CERTAIN THINGS about Laurent.)

He felt the tension hit Laurent's body, though the tone didn't change overmuch from its usual drawl. "But my voice has broken. That was the only prerequisite, wasn't it?"

God, Laurent. OUCH, and also, the fact that this is where his mind goes ugh my heart.

Damen gritted his teeth. "You know what I meant. He heard you. He's going to act. Can't you do something about it?"
"I'm occupied."
"Then let me do something."
"Bleed on him?" said Laurent.

LOLOL I think this was the first line of Laurent's that made me laugh, like, I love how behind everything he's got not just sharp wit but he's actually just this REALLY FUNNY GUY. And probably no one ever laughs at his jokes because a) they are terrified and b) he is so mean.

"Kastor's mistress? She was in good health. The pregnancy is proceeding without incident . . . You didn't know? She carries Kastor's child. Whether there will be a wedding or not is still in question, but certainly it's in Kastor's interests to secure the succession. He gives every indication that he will raise the child as--"
"His heir," said Damen.

SWEAR TO GOD I DID NOT REMEMBER THIS PLOTLINE. IS DAMEN GONNA BE A DADDY OMG. At first I thought, there's no time to include baby drama in Book 3! Then I thought, wait, this could be a nice solution for a same sex couple. Then, later, I thought, wait, it's not like they can't just have babies with women other than Jokasta if they want to. Then -- a bit later into the book -- I thought OH WOW DAMEN ALSO HAS LIKE TEN VASKIAN BABIES RUNNING AROUND TOO DOESN'T HE.

And then I realized, WAIT A MOMENT let's skip to the future of this book when, say, Damen and Laurent are living (?) happily (??) together (???) and sharing some of their time at least in the Akielon court, where royalty are not exactly expected to adhere to monogamy and there are many, many slaves who would be happy to service them. And just like - IMAGINE LAURENT BEING SERVICED BY AKIELON SLAVES FOR THE FIRST TIME BASICALLY. Like. With Damen there. I would - I would read how those dynamics would work.

Considering Nicaise's loyalties, it was strange that Laurent had seemed drawn to him--had seemed even oddly to like him--but who knew what went on in that maze of a mind?

The Laurent/Nicaise bond will never not break my heart, and also, I love how at this point Damen just has - zero idea how to read Laurent. Like, he is 100% mystery. And not that Damen is that adept at reading Laurent later on, because even if he can read Laurent's two outer layers, Laurent always has like three layers beneath that that Damen doesn't even know exist, but at least progress!

"He wouldn't have even known about someone like me if you hadn't asked him to help me," said Erasmus. "He's a prince, his life is so important, so many people must want him to do things for them. I'm glad I have this chance to say thank you. If there is a way to repay you, I will find it. I swear that I will."

It's so gratifying to read these things and pay attention to them because they all have payoffs, gah. So Erasmus promises Damen he'll repay him, and Torveld ends up assisting Laurent with troops - a move actually orchestrated by Laurent independently, but still indebted to Erasmus's small assistance.

"Cooperate?" said Damen, with complete disgust. "You were unarmed." [...] "Like the man you just killed," said Damen, looking back at him.
"In my part of the fight the men were not helpfully killing each other," Laurent said.

I will just be here enjoying Laurent's sense of humor some more *____*

Laurent returned the look, and then some. "If you mean excluding your attempt to break my arm."
"I mean excluding my attempt to break your arm," said Damen.

Also Damen's. Damen's too.

Damen realised, suddenly, that what he was witnessing was an exercise in sheer, iron-willed self control.

This is when Damen realizes Laurent's been drugged with an aphrodisiac, and you know. I just love this line. This is like, part whatever of infinity of Damen's slow growing respect (turning into looooooooooove) for Laurent, along with, you know, me as a reader. LAURENT YOU ARE SO SEXY WHEN YOU ARE STANDING STILL AND TRYING NOT TO HAVE AN ERECTION.

"You must be the fuck of a lifetime," said Orlant, just before he shoved Damen into the audience chamber where Laurent stood alone, in front of Regent and Council.

I just love the constant gossip about Laurent and Damen's relationship throughout this whole book, which is not remotely hidden away or talked about behind their backs, and how this is the only possible explanation the men will buy for Laurent sending his guard to protect Damen, a runaway slave, from the Regent's Guard, and how unusual it is for Laurent to be acting this way. Which, I mean, yup. (Also - I marked these passages on my kindle edition of the book, but am c/ping them from an old copy of the livejournal version, and suddenly noticing all these tiny tiny changes to the prose and of course the names. This is the first time I've read the Official Edition the whole way through, and I'm glad I got the chance before book 3.)

Blessed with gifts, you squander them. Given opportunities, you waste them. I hate to see you grown up like this," said the Regent, "when you were such a lovely boy."

UGGGGGGH HOW CREEPY IS THE REGENT. HOW. (By the way, I realize reading this line that I imagine the Regent's voice as Scar-voiced Jeremy Irons.)

They gazed at each other. The Regent said, "I only hope your time on the border will improve and focus you. I hope you will learn what you need as the leader of other men. I don't know what else I can teach you."
"You keep offering me all these chances to improve myself," said Laurent. "Teach me how to thank you."
Damen expected the Regent to reply, but he was silent, his eyes on his nephew.

The Regent teaching Laurent things. The Regent teaching Laurent how to thank him. *shuts eyes real hard*

"He has." Remembering the banquet: "He asked me to bed you, then report back to him." Damen was forthright. "Not in those words."
"And your answer?"
That, unreasonably, annoyed him. "If I'd bedded you, you'd know it."

Once I was in the highlighting groove, I mean, how could I not highlight this line. REMEMBER THIS AMAZING DIALOGUE. SO EXCITED WE'RE ABOUT TO GET MORE OF IT AHHH.

He had something of that in common with Laurent, but Laurent possessed the confident, developed looks of a young man entering his prime, while Nicaise's was the epicene beauty peculiar to young boys of a certain age, short-lived, unlikely to survive adolescence.

So one of the nice things about reading on kindle is that I have immediate word definitions for any word I don't know, and in this case the Oxford definition of epicene was apparently 'the sort of epicene beauty peculiar to boys of a certain age' and I was like WHAT DID THEY TAKE THAT FROM CP, and, you know what, I don't really care, I am just choosing to believe that they did, and that the Oxford Dictionary's definition of epicine directly references Nicaise. (;__;)

***

The Training of Erasmus

This was actually the first time I read this story, and it broke my heaaaaart. Some random quotes:

"I don't have your colouring," Kallias said, and he opened his eyes, reaching up to put his finger around a curl of Erasmus's hair.

It's just amazing to how Damen's kinks for freaking HAIR AND SKIN COLOR changed so many people's lives, and also were so pronounced and you know, publicly known.

He fell asleep murmuring the long heroic genealogies, the lists of weapons and deeds that Isagoras wrote into his epic.

Damen I cannot believe you made your slaves memorize the entirety of Homer's works. WILL THE INDULGENCE NEVER END.

And since the birth of Damianos, there was no Queen

Huhhhhh I did not remember that Damen's mother died in childbirth! Hmm. And now I'm also curious, do we have any idea what happened to Laurent's mom? I... don't think we do, I imagine she died at some point earlier on.

His eyes, desperately searching found Kallias's gaze, cool and untouchable.
"You said you wanted to cross the ocean," said Kallias.

Awwwwww babies! Poor Kallias ;__;. And Erasmus. When I read this, I thought that maybe Erasmus's debt to Damen would somehow be repaid via Kallias's help in the palace when Damen gets back to Ios, but that was before I remembered it was actually via Torveld's help with troops. Still, I wonder now whether Kallias will make an appearance in Book 3 as a member of Kastor's household. This short story isn't part of the canon for anyone who bought the print edition, so he might need some more exposition to be included, but I'd love it if he were; I'd love it if he got some closure and know he helped Erasmus survive <3