One of my favorite things about Queen of Attolia is the way Irene starts falling in love with Eugenides⦠way before she even consciously acknowledges that he is a romantic candidate, let alone before she acknowledges that she is in fact in love with him.
Like, girl⦠the rumors about Eugenides sleeping with Eddis donāt piss you off because it strengthens the Eddisian court. You donāt secretly wish that someone would sneak into your bedroom at night because you feel guilty about hurting them and want to apologize.
I think itās one of those⦠really tragic things about Irene, that not only does she not recognize these as romantic feelings, but that she canāt. Even when Eugenides proposes to her, her mind doesnāt go āoh, thatās whatās been happening.ā She has such a mental block that she canāt conceive of herself as a soft, romantic, loving, lovable person. She scorns the very idea of marrying Eugenides, and when he confesses that he loves her, she reacts with anger and hostility even though we the readers can see that she has feelings for him, too.
And it keeps going! If this were a romantic comedy, things would have been hunky dory from the minute she recognizes her feelings, at that moment when she thinks Eugenides is poisoned and realizes she ācouldā have loved him. But no! Eugenides makes a lighthearted joke about their married life and she snaps at him. Throughout the negotiations, she refuses to believe that their feelings are actually genuine, to the point where two people loving each other and wanting to get married is more complicated than drawing up a peace treaty between two warring nations!
Gah. Itās so tragic and itās what makes this ship ultimately so satisfying.