sometimes i think ab how alone laurent was ever since he was thirteen. how, in retrospect, the easier, and all the more heartbreaking route, would’ve been to just give up the fight, let his uncle take the throne, and … die. but he didn’t.
he’d endured instead a lonely life, one which he’d dedicated as a fight for his reign, and not only bc it was his birthright — some selfish need to claim what is his by blood. it wasn’t the urge to spite his uncle; eager to prove that he was better than him, could keep up with his schemes, even beat him at them, that kept him fighting, either. not even his fixation on killing damen — an attempt at vengeance against the man who’d seemingly taken everything away from him, was what kept laurent going. all of these things were just parts of what, in end, had him scraping through it all.
laurent’s true heart, as damen spoke of it in kings rising — his integrity, somehow remaining untarnished, was what had pushed laurent forward through all that time. tooth and nail laurent fought to win his throne back because he could not willingly let his country, his people, and all its innocent children fall under the reign of his uncle’s sadistic rule.
were it not so, laurent would’ve had no reason to mourn nicaise’s death, no cause to spite slavery, no want to comfort a traumatized girl with a coin trick.
laurent’s heart is rare and it is true, and it’s what, more than anything, won him the battle for his kingdom.
