the inevitable yearly capri re-read: captive prince - chapter 1
hi! i'm posting chapter-by-chapter highlights, thoughts & questions.
links: Prologue
SPOILERS AHEAD.
Captive Prince, Volume I CHAPTER 1
⭐️ best line: "i speak your language better than you do mine, sweetheart" - damen
damen = ⭐️⭐️ laurent = 0
❗️most notable for: establishing Laurent "face like a painting, snake i wouldn't fuck for all the money in the world" McBlond 👁️🗨️ newly noticed: Damen's primary goal is getting back for the good of his people, not escape for his own safety. economy of language
economy of words is a highlight
just like nothing extraneous to the point using the term instinct there, and that his instinct is to get up
exactly enough exposition and like, again, saying what needs to be said quickly to the reader
Pacat giving us just barely any information and not nearly enough to come to a full understanding of what's going on in the line, "the older brother and former heir Damen well knew, was dead"
that second scar is also important. everything mentioned is important
I hate how good Pacat is at this. fucking annoyingly good!!
foreshadowing
all this stuff about him being drugged and losing time. we're going to revisit this use of drugs to subdue him
bells were actually introduced in like, paragraph five
🔔 bells bookend the entire series is so beautiful (some real MICE quotient shit going on here...love it)
the threat of sexual assault by one of the guards that it would be by proxy foreshadowing to the fact that the sex that they are going to have for a while is going to be by proxy
characterization of Damen
Damen a man of action, relying on instinct also speaks to him having trained them to be good ones
fury paired with grief: he's not just sad, we're hammering home undigested sorrow as anger
paired with his altruistic also paternalistic streak, the "surge of will" is to protect his household, his people
Mr Sass strikes again: the beatings aren't that bad, the real torture is being visually assaulted by ornamentation
Damen pretending he doesn't have feelings, that beatings don't hurt and that the only thing that hurts is when his pride is wounded
reestablishing selflessness: what is truly unbearable to him is not knowing "what was happening to his country, to his supporters and to his people
imagery and setting
love the dark language here about bowels of the house, the slap and spray of salt water
very violent imagery over and over and over again about what is being done to him, aside from like, literal beatings
"worse than the beating had been the viewing" my GOD
absolutely love that we’re reminded casually that we're in a BDSM universe
Laurent, Laurent, Laurent, Laurent, Laurent
the courtiers were nondescript except for one (shocker)
"a young man with an astonishingly lovely face...Damen's attention caught and held"
obsessed with this
all of these people are like nobody's, literally nobody's to him, except for this one
everything that Laurent says is barbed poisonous, wonderfully villainous
i fucking hated this bitch on a first read
he's still a bitch. he's still a hatable bitch. that never changes
lots of descriptions of Laurent's incredibly repressive clothing that "looked like it would take about an hour to loosen his clothes"
this is fantastic characterization of him (also like. 😭)
if he could wear a mask to hide his face so people would stop looking at him like he is someone beautiful, he would probably do that too
THE TENSION
the first thing that Laurent says, like, the first things that they say to each other, it's flirting at like it's at 100 out of 10 🥵
"what's your name, sweetheart?" then REPEATED "slowly in the language of Akeilos
the words came out before Damen could stop them - THIS IS GOING TO BE A PROBLEM FOR YOU, HUH
"I speak your language better than you speak mine, sweetheart"
what a first date
absolutely out of control
Laurent had stopped dead the moment he had seen Damen, his face turning white "as though in reaction to a slap or an insult"
I had highlighted that the last time I did a reread
it's like such a gut punch where you're like, oh, our poor little cinnamon roll. give this boy a BAFTA, fuck the Oscar's.
Damen is fucking having the worst day of his fucking life
this isn't even the second worst day of Laurent's life. maybe not even third. definitely in the top 10. probably.
Damen’s goals
he's never forgetting and Pacat's not letting us forget that his primary goal right now, like the thing he is moving towards is getting home
escape, home, escape, home. everything else secondary
it's also very clever for him to think about the collar and cuffs in gold as weapons or currency
beautiful reestablishment of his goal and smarts
power dynamics with the Regent 🤮
Laurent echoing "petty prejudice" - this first instance of his vocal tick
all Laurent has to say to show his extreme displeasure with someone or something is that echo
you go back and reread what the last person has said
you say it again with a bit of a question mark in your voice
the establishment also of "yes, uncle" after he has to bite down on a reaction
really helps establish the power dynamics at play between them
he is the prince, but the regent is in charge and it's complicated
it's very complicated and we see that here
sexual threats and trauma
Laurent saying, basically, "I won't assault you. I would have someone else do it" = he can't imagine himself in that situation period
the order to crawl = reminding us, that we're in a BDSM universe
humour
"I imagine it would be a lot like lying down with a poisonous snake" Damen, honestly, babe, what if it's the most fuckable blond snake you've ever seen
Vol I notes: prologue, ch 1, 2, 3, 4-8, 9, 10-13