Disclaimer: This post is the second in a trio of essays on the events of the Finale of The Royal Romance, in which I place Prince Liamâs final decision to marry Countess Madeleine in the context of his role as king, the current state of his country Cordonia and how he will move forward from the events of his Coronation. The first essay looks at Cordonia is a nation and how Liamâs role is defined by the events that have taken place there over the past few decades. Part 2 will explore the Liam x MC relationship and look at how Liamâs interactions with the MC change his beliefs over time.
Disclaimer 2: For the purposes of this essay, I have included only the Liam-centric diamond options and romance-point-responses as part of the plot.
Do read Part 1 before you proceed to this point.
MC: Our relationship is so strange. Itâs not like he [Liam] can sweep me off my feet and carry me out of hereâŚ
Maxwell: When youâre royalty, the rules are different.
- TRR Chapter 8, âA Waltz to Rememberâ.
Liam comes to New York with one fervent wish: to see the Statue of Liberty - the ultimate symbol of freedom - right before he goes back to Cordonia to fulfill his duties and choose a bride. He refrains from asking his friends to include it in their schedule for fear of sounding ungrateful. So when an adventurous, fiesty young waitress jumps on the chance to make his dream come true, he is more than intrigued. Almost instantly, he confesses his deepest desires to her as he would an old friend.
For most of their boat trip to Liberty, Liam seems to admire the MC for being precisely what he canât be: gutsy, adventurous, the kind of person who constantly follows her heart. He recognizes in her the freedom he lacks.
For both Liam and the MC, this romantic interlude seems special because they donât expect to see each other again.
The MC, at the beginning of the game, is given three options that reveal to Liam what her ultimate dream is: to see the world, to fall in love or to live every moment to the fullest. Each of these goals, in some way, propel her to take that giant leap to Cordonia once Maxwell makes her the offer.
The Liam she finally meets at the Masquerade Ball is in many ways different from the tourist she had met in New York. In Cordonia, he is the Crown Prince, constantly aware of who he is and what his duties are, and the consequences of his actions. When the MC asks him what he thinks of the social season, he says, âI know itâs sillyâŚbut it is tradition. I know how important it is to Cordonia to find the right queen.â (TRR Chapter 4). He tells her that his feelings do not exactly count in the face of Cordoniaâs stability, citing the example of his brother Leoâs mother. The MC will have to build her reputation in court and gain public approval if she is to be considered a fit candidate for his hand.
Itâs easy to forget sometimes what a personal leap it is for the MC (especially if Liam is her LI in the playthrough) to settle into courtly life. She has to use her limited funds to impress the royal family, the press and the public, quickly learn the new things that all the other suitors seem to know already and say all the right things to the right people, all while being able to snatch only a few minutes with Liam here and there.
Liam seems aware of how difficult her transition is, and strives to make it easier on her from behind the scenes. He persuades Drake to keep an eye on her to see if she is lost (something that actually does occur at the Derby), ensures that Drake gets the room next to hers at Applewood Manor, arranges for American barbecue to be given at the beach party so she will get a taste of home. He is aware that among all the ladies vying for his hand, the MC is at a disadvantage because everything about this experience is new to her.
The MC, on the other hand, attempts to give him opportunities to let loose, relive his childhood and forget for a while that he has the responsibility of an entire nation on his shoulders. At the Masque, she convinces him to play maze-tag with her after the ball, confiding in him later that âyou laughed more in this maze than you did all night at that Masqueradeâ. The hedge maze, from there on, becomes symbolic of their relationship - a reminder of Liamâs mother, and his past, and a promise that he can relive happier memories with a woman who is willing to see him as merely human.
Another example of the MC encouraging Liam to take risks and try out new experiences is the âcronut runâ (although, to be fair, the cronut run is really for ALL her Cordonian friends). It is here that Liam reveals to her exactly how sheltered his life is: âItâs strange. Iâm the potential leader of my country, and thereâs still so much of it I havenât experiencedâ. He realises this needs to change, but isnât sure how to go about it yet.
Their relationship in Cordonia begins on slightly shaky footing, both aware that Liam is expected to make time for all the ladies participating in the social season, and that they cannot give in to their need for each other no matter how tempting the prospect is. While the MC is willing to go further in her relationship with him, Liam reluctantly exercises control over his desire for her, for different reasons over the course of the social season.
From the Masquerade to the hot tub scene at the Nevrakis Chateau, Liam is aware that anything can happen over the next few months and isnât willing to take chances with her. At this point the MC has only begun to prove herself to the King, Queen and the Press, and her reputation as an American vying for the Princeâs hand makes her an unconventional choice. By the time they slip into the hot tub at Lythikos, Liam is already starting to feel the strain of repressing his feelings for the MC in favor of being fair to everyone. Itâs probably at this point that he starts to question exactly how useful the social season is, given that during the Coronation he doesnât hesitate to call it a âdamned processâ.
The Royal Regatta, which follows this sequence, is a turning point that raises questions both for Liamâs future and his relationship with the MC. King Constantineâs announcement about retiring and handing over the throne to Liam complicates things even further. Had Constantineâs rule continued, and the MC succeeded in winning Liamâs hand, she would have had plenty of time to fit into her role, so that by the time she was Queen she could prove she could handle the pressure. With this announcement, however, there are chances that whoever Liam will marry will be pushed headlong into the role of Queen.
By this time Liam is already sure he wants to marry the MC (he takes her to Forgotten Falls - a favourite childhood spot - and almost confesses his love to her there), but has no idea how she will fare as Queen. It is a question he asks her often over the next few days, warning her of the expectations she will be asked to fulfill, trying each time to gauge whether this is something she will be okay with.
It is during the Apple Blossom festival that the MC truly gets her moment to shine. Here (if the player clicks the correct options) she not only shows a keen enthusiasm for Cordonian traditions, and manages to charm both the Queen and the Press (again), but has also formed alliances with the suitors who were out of the running already. Where earlier the Queenâs questions tested her opinions on governing the nation, here their discussion centres around delegation and the need for allies. Her answers prove to the public that she is serious about becoming Liamâs Queen.
This also explains Liamâs own change of behaviour. In Applewood, the MC notices that he is happier and more carefree, and definitely more ready to talk about the future. We are never explicitly shown why, but over the course of the book we discover that the MCâs reputation has grown in Applewood, making the Princeâs decision to select her easier on him. At the ruins close to the village where they rode horses, Liam asks her what kind of king he will make. Her encouragement makes it clear to him that he is not alone.
In the same diamond sequence, Maxwell tells the MC that he saw âsomething in [MC] that Cordonia needed: hopeâ. It is at this moment we can pinpoint when exactly Liam started becoming confident in his choice of queen. By the time Liam sneaks her into Applewood hedge maze for private time, he has begun talking about spending an eternity with her, asked her what kind of legacy she will want to leave behind and what causes she will champion. At this point he has stopped considering anyone else for his hand in marriage.
It is during their stay is Applewood that their kisses become more frenzied and desperate, and where their need for each other is starting to reach its peak - by the Beaumont chapters Liam is literally biting her neck.
The Beaumont chapters mark an important transition in the way their relationship functions: so far, the MC has been the one who, in Liamâs words, has been âjet-setting around Cordonia, attending grand formal eventsâŚâ, and Liam already feels the need to give more to the relationship than he has so far, by having his first ever date with her.
Midway through the date, he tells her that he has never dated before, answers awkward, silly first-date questions, and confesses to her his dream of having a family. This experience is the closest Liam has ever gotten, in his adult life, to being normal around someone.
His efforts to meet the MC halfway donât just stop there. He takes the risk of wearing a suit to match the MCâs gown, aware that the symmetry between the couple will cause a stir. He offers her a massage at the Beaumont spa, hoping to help her relax a bit before the craziness of the Coronation ball begins. Having hosted a wildly successful party for the first time, her chances with Liam are now higher.
But because this is a relationship with strange beginnings, Liam and the MC are able to move forward quite quickly in some aspects of their relationship, while tiptoeing around others. For instance, they tend to be open to each other about happier times, but do not always share troubling information with each other, such as the truth behind Constantineâs retirement (though Liam does tell her that she would have been the first to hear it if he ever was ready to talk), the Tariq fiasco and the damaged lock on her door at Applewood. Part of this, of course, was because the MC convinced herself that there was nothing to worry about.
Liam and the MC finally confess their love to each other at the hedge maze in the Coronation ball - the first place Liam had ever taken her to in Cordonia. By bringing her here to confess his love, Liam comes full circle. This was the place where he pulled away for the first time, afraid to go further. This is the one place he treasured for the memories it held. In this moment he is confident now that she will become his queen, and nothing - or no one - can stop him from choosing her. In this place, he now wants to make new memories, with her.
Over the course of their relationship, the MC has never failed to turn everything Liam knew to be true, on its head. The social season was about getting him a bride and a fitting queen for Cordonia, but the MC managed to get him to think beyond it. This is never more evident than in these lines:
When Liam eventually makes love to the MC, he doesnât just ask her consent for the sex. He also asks her how she wants it. Both options yield different scenarios, with Liam moulding himself to fit into the MCâs needs for that night. This may seem like a small thing, but the fact that he wants her to enjoy sex the way she wants it, not the way he assumes it should be, shows us that as soon as he is done with this social-season-facade, he plans to place her needs first.
There is an element of tragedy to this love scene, given that it happens just minutes before they are denied a chance to ever be a couple in public. We know what took Liam this long, what it took for him to rein himself in everytime things threatened to go a little too far. We know that he was waiting for approval from all sides, hoping against hope that he would be able to both fulfill his duty to his country and be with the woman he loves. He was confident enough in the fact that theyâd be together that he stopped waiting and gave in to what theyâd both wanted all along. And right after this he finds the same woman being openly humiliated in court, thrown out without being given a chance to clear her name.
When the scandal finally breaks out in court, Liamâs first reaction is to ask for her, and then yell out to her so she can hear him. When he doesnât get a response (because her screams are too far away to hear) he turns to Regina, angrily insisting on talking to the MC before she pulls him aside and whispers instructions in his ear. By the time he announces Madeleineâs name, he is furious. He is actively resisting in the only way he knows how.
Liam, stickler for rules, demanded an audience with the suitor he loved just as the night was drawing to a close, just minutes after being crowned. He insisted on it. He called out her name in public. Not in anger, not in suspicion, but in shock. All this in front of his family, in front of the court and other suitors and the press. At that point it almost didnât matter that his mask of self-composure was slipping in front of a crowd. He didnât stop insisting and trying to buy time until his parents forced him to follow the Coronation rule. That might not seem like such a risk, but with the background he comes from, it is.
We must realise that his love for the MC develops over time, and so do the changes that love has brought in him. From being resigned to choosing someone he could just hope to be fond of and slightly compatible with, his experience with the MC proves to him that any bond lesser than love will be detrimental to his marriage and detrimental to Cordonia.
At the end, Liam finds himself living out the words he said, mere months ago, while visiting Lady Liberty.
