#cp talk

[hearttok]

so i finally got to know kagekao’s story and tbh? it was interesting i liked it

[doumekichikara]

oh boy, let's see what you would change about Kings Rising.

as anyone who was acquainted with me a year ago is aware, i loved kings rising and it gave me everything i wanted and then some, so these are relatively minor changes. even so,

jokaste is the number one element i'd change, for sure! i love her and am overall very very happy with her character, but she is just a shade too enigmatic for me to be 100% satisfied. the only way to understand her is to map laurent's characterization onto her by analogy, and given that she's the closest the story has to a fully developed female character, that's really not enough. i’m not sure what specific change(s) i’d make; mostly i just want more. it feels like we have only the outline of her and have to fill her in ourselves. my deepest sincerest wish is that the fourth short story is about her.

this is not so much a kr thing as a pre-kr thing that kr affected, but at any rate—nikandros and damen's friendship. kr portrays them as having been much closer in their youth than the previous mentions of nikandros ever suggested, and i think this was a result of the first two books being written serially and nikandros's role changing somewhat in development. given his characterization in kr, i would have liked to have seen that seeded more in the first two books.

"laurent's milkmaid skin"

the apparent timing of the book, and the whole series, is something i'm going to have to just set aside (eternal summer! the end!) but my brain tends to latch onto these things and never let go. prince's gambit definitely took four weeks, give or take a few days (the trip was meant to take two and they took an extra two to get the men into shape), and yet damen thinks right there in the very first chapter of kings rising that he has traveled with the prince's guard for months. much later guion says he'd been laurent's prisoner for months, except that somehow it's still summer and has been since prince's gambit? damen also thinks it's been months since he's seen charls but when are these months meant to have passed? and after the summer palace it's even harder to reconcile the conflicting lengths of time. a consistent timeline. please.

i know some readers had many, many more issues with the final trial, but my single issue is: i find the physical presence of the letters deeply implausible and overly convenient, and i'd find it all much easier to roll with if paschal had instead relayed some piece of information that he could only have known if his story was true. something that was enough to change the council's mind, but not so neat as him holding tangible evidence. (a lack of tangible evidence would also make me hate paschal slightly less for not handing this information over to laurent earlier.)

(send me a tv show/book/fandom and i’ll say the top 5 things i’d change about it)

[doumekichikara]

omg I just read the entirety of the captive prince trilogy in a day (I feel so empty now)(I am only living thanks to ao3 tbh) XD These books are like 50% percent sass, 25% politics and 25% emotional agony and it is magnificent XD I am v curious, what do you think happens to Jokaste + baby after Kings Rising? like, do Damen & Laurent raise the baby??(!) does Jokaste come back to court or go live somewhere quiet or?? (I'm really sorry if you've already answered something similar! O.o ) (1/2)

(2/2) also, may I recommend (if you haven't watched/read/heard of already) Makai Ouji: Devils and Realist, cause it could (I think? maybe? idk?) be a pretty good au for cp, like, we have a sassy blond aristocrat (if you ignore the fact his eyes are green) and a vaguely Grecian (I guess?) looking guy as two of the main characters, and there's like a crap ton of pining and its pretty gay really and I think its pretty good XD have a nice day :D

first of all i’m sorry for taking a while to respond! i’ve been seriously neglecting my inbox. i’m so glad you enjoyed captive prince!! as far as jokaste and the child, based on the note things ended on (okay i didn’t mean that as a pun but while typing realized jokaste’s story literally ended with a note...anyway) i like to imagine her just getting tf away from this mess and living a chill, quiet life. but my deepest sincerest hope is that one of the remaining short stories is jokaste-centric, and while that could mean a view of her during the series events (as with ‘green but for a season’) i’d love it if it included some hint of her future as well.

damen and laurent raising the child is the kind of thing i’d genuinely love to read fic about but don’t personally imagine as part of their future; i think their future child(ren)/heir(s) will come about with planning and intention, not through taking in a child with this many question marks surrounding his very existence, especially when the situation as it stands does not at all suggest jokaste would want to give him to them. (that said, the three of them co-parenting is the stuff of my dreams.)

i hadn’t heard of that series, no, so thanks! i’ll check it out :)

[cenntaur-remaking]

on one hand i would say “corpse party has nothing on seven players” but seven players isnt abt children and such so ya kn o w

[cenntaur-remaking]

corpse party..........i havent head that name in years

[doumekichikara]

I actually tried to check the faq but the page doesn't open on my phone so sorry if this was ready asked. I've rececently introduced my bf to Captive Prince and he asked me about the relationship between Nicaise and Damen and i found my self not able to explain it into a proper way to someone else, so i was wondering if you could expose me your thoughts about it, coz i red alnost every cp talks of yours and i find your opinions really valid and in accordance with mine

i'm not sure if know what you mean by the relationship between nicaise and damen? nicaise is a child sex worker and that's what damen sees him as, emphasis on 'child.' nicaise does not appreciate being seen as a child, especially not by someone who ranks just below him in status, as he perceives it. he also has the same reaction to damen's size and general attitude that just about everyone does, i.e. finds him intimidating, but doesn't like that he finds him intimidating because he does not want to find anyone intimidating.

not sure if there’s an interaction that calls for particular attention bc it’s been a while since i last read the first book. i think damen’s main sentiment re: nicaise is pity, and he exists primarily as a foil for laurent.

[doumekichikara]

how is the regent's looks described in the books? i feel like you always imagine him old and creepy looking because he's so evil but i don't even think he was described like that, was he??

honestly i don’t care to talk about him or have any interaction with depictions of him, so i’m not going to pull quotes or anything. but no, he’s not particularly old or creepy looking; he makes a respectable first impression and it takes damen a while to see past that. things that are described: he has blue eyes, brown hair, and a beard.

[doumekichikara]

Hi! Thank you for your Captive Prince faq, it really helped clear out things for me! The only question I still have, and has been nagging me for a long while, is in which hand does Damen wear the cuff, and Laurent?

i can’t believe i hadn’t put this in there yet, since this is something i see confused pretty often—i’m adding it now!

laurent’s is definitely on the left. kings rising 5:

Damen fitted the cuff to Laurent’s left wrist.

it’s inconsistent which wrist damen’s is on. in prince’s gambit 20, it says: 

Guerin moved to strike the gold from his left wrist, and he pulled it back.

‘No,’ he heard himself say. ‘Leave that one on.’

in kings rising 19, it says:

It was his right hand, his wrist ringed by the gold cuff.

i personally take kings rising as the truth, since it’s more recent, and because i rather like the symmetry of their cuffs and shoulder scars being mirrors of the other’s (damen’s cuff on the right and scar on the left, laurent’s the opposite). given prince’s gambit, though, it does also make sense to have both cuffs on the left.