Love How This Fandom Just Universally Decided, "Oh, We Need A Name For The Regent In Fics Because He's

Cause that’s when Damen’s the bigger man.

Damen is one foot taller than Laurent and that is important information

Addressing all Captive Prince fans...

This is the Pallas Cat.

Do with this information what you will.

BOOK - CAPTIVE PRINCE

Don’t judge books by their covers

A lot of people don’t like the blurb/summary of the first book especially because it sounds really smutty and everything as opposed to being recognised as the political, romance, fantasy emotional roller-coaster that it, but that got me thinking that, isn’t that the point? To throw us off (maybe to expect less than what it is)

And that got me thinking that, isn’t that how some of the key characters in this series are written?

I personally feel like that could be something in itself about judging a book by it’s cover (or...blurb...but you know what I mean) and that brings me to how well Pacat does character development (or rather changing the readers mind about how they thought they felt about characters) in this series.

Warning: Spoilers

One example of this, that I’m sure will instantly come to mind to those that have read the trilogy, is in Laurent, since I’m sure plenty of us all remember when we first started reading the series and instantly thought “I want this little bitch punched in the face”.

That’s because Pacat writes Laurent to be taken at face value at first before we start getting to know him and the real reason he does things. At first we judged him by his cover.

Pacat does the same thing in The Regent.

When I read through the first book, and I’m hoping others will agree with me, it was only in the latter half of chapter 8 that I finally realised what a piece of shite The Regent really was, and who’s side I should really have been on because, cleverly, Pacat doesn’t make him seem like a threat at all which is a massive deal seeing what sort of person he is.

I’ve figured this is all down to The Regent being as good at manipulating people and situations as he is to make us, even at a stretch, almost understand what he’s talking about, and so can Damen (even if instinct is still telling him there’s something wrong).

Because The Regent is subtle about things. He’s not the screaming lunatic antagonist that’s a clear threat the minute he walks on screen, He’s subtle and manipulative and good at it so you only take him at face value

and judged the book by it’s cover

at first like he wants you to and it would get you every time until we learn, as Damen does, to look at the bigger picture. . Side-ish Note: Say I’m reading too much into this but it’s just occurred to me that the more Damen understands about what The Regent is trying the achieve, or just understands things in general, the more the settings around him are described (if you compare Book 1 Chapter One especially the latter half, to Book 3 Chapter 18, the descriptions go from brief to lengthy and detailed. Almost like Damen is quite literally noticing what’s around him more both physically and metaphorically and I think that’s freaking awesome.)

Anywho, that’s just a small theory but, with the sheer amount of subtle stuff C.S.Pacat puts into their work, it wouldn’t surprise me at all.

.

Edit: The things I’ve said about your first thoughts of the Regent and Laurent and the fact Pacat successfully completely changes that, is actually better described and explained by milkylata on ao3 (particularly section 3 - perceived evil) , plus it’s actually very interesting to read so I would fully recommend it

Captive Prince livejournal commentary facts...

(from the chapter 9 commentary of book 1)

1. Vere was called Rabat in the original online series.

2. [On Damen...]

“I honestly had no idea when I started this story that Damen/Damian/Daman/Damon/Daemon is the #1 most overused name in online original slash fiction...You couldn't write a cross-over because it would be like, 'Hi, I'm Damen.' 'Oh hey, me too!'"

“I chose it naively, because onomatopoeically it gives an impression of no-frills strength (with its two strong syllables). And the ancient Greek name it derives from  'Damianos' originally means 'to tame' which amuses me no end.“

3. Jokaste was called Margaret in the original online series

"The name Margaret sounds so English and out of place in retrospect, but it is a Greek name. It means pearl. The Persian version is Morvarid, which I fell in love with, but didn't use because it has too much of an Evil Villainess feel to it.”

4. [On Nicaise...] 

“My beta calls him Salad, after Salad Nicoise. The other name in the running when I was naming him was 'Michelet', but I thought Nicaise just had that edge of bitchy flavour that suited his personality”

TV SHOW - VERSAILLES (S2 EP5)

Anyone Else?

You think Loyse took the regent’s last survivor (the boy from the trial) under her wing? After everything settled down?

Like, "I couldn’t do right by Aimeric, but I’ll do right by you.”

MOVIE  - CARRIE (2013)

Foreshadowing or Fortune Telling?

I know it’s kinda bullshit but I like to think that maybe, as a tiny fan-theory, Margret could tell the future a little bit (power could be in both mother and daughters blood, different powers obviously, but you get what I mean). It’s also could be seen, later on, when Margret says the famous line “everyone will laugh at you”

(above gif and image obviously from 1976 version)

I don’t know, I had the idea a while back when I did a school project on it but here you go anyway cause I do kind of really like this movie.

@tifaria (and anyone else who might be interested)

It’s from Season 2 of Taskmaster: New Zealand possibly episode 2 or episode 7.

“We asked them to bring the most impressive stolen item.”

BOOK - LOCKWOOD & CO

So I was re-reading The Screaming Staircase again and I came across the part in chapter 9 where only Lucy comes back after setting the Hope’s house on fire and Lockwood is taken off to the hospital and George was scared crapless.

After reading The Empty Grave however which reveals why Lockwood is so reckless, I couldn’t help thinking that maybe the reason he’s always dressed to the flipping tens (big coat, dress shirt, probable waistcoat, doesn’t wear jeans (think BBC’s Sherlock if you want visuals)), is because what he wears is the one thing he’d be able to control about what his ghost would come back like.

So, it took a long time, but I didn’t turn it away.

In fact, I ended up writing it twice so I suppose I have two chances to hopefully fulfil what you had in mind (sorry it took so long).

The first version I wrote earlier this year after a break from writing that was so long it’d forgotten what a comma was, but at the same time it also feels like a better idea. Like it’s more accurate or something with political peace proposals etc etc.

The second however, was written within the past week and is a huge improvement compared, but it’s a bit less canonical as just a lil bit of fluff and brotherly love.

So, I guess chose your fic, and enjoy.

Gifs made with giphy.com from this YouTube video