#capri mine

the short answer to both questions is yes there is a master/slave relationship and sexual abuse, especially in the first book. that's kinda the point - putting characters into an insurmountable conflict, making them hurt each other a lot in different ways, and then figuring out if they can still fall in love even after all of that. is love stronger than hate, are love and hate just different sides of the same coin, opposite but inextricably connected - these are typical themes for enemies to lovers and cs pacat doesn't shy away from exploring them through some Fucked Up Shit TM. so if the very idea of the dark content of this sort appals you don't read this series🙅‍♀️

ik many people in the fandom, when recommending captive prince, say stuff like yeah book one is pretty rough but then it gets better, you just have to push through etc etc - i'm not one of those people. the truth is this is a book written for a particular kind of reader and you either are that kind of reader or you aren't. you either enjoy dark fiction about complex relationships that sometimes go to extremes or you don't. and this is something you might know about yourself already or if you don't you can always try it and find out, provided you're making an informed decision and know exactly what you're getting yourself into. if you don't like it just stop reading. it's a book, it can't hurt you🤷‍♀️

https://www.tumblr.com/threecheersforinking/677824836625694720/anime-ask-game?source=share

You can pick for either of these series : the lymond chronicles, all for the game, a song of ice and fire, harry potter, captive prince?

Thanks 🌻

thanks for the ask!

⚔️the lymond chronicles⚔️

favorite character: phelim o'liamroe, prince of barrow and lord of the slieve bloom...😐🤥 jk it's lymond - the man, the myth, the lemon. i mean if lymond isn't your fave character in the lymond chronicles are you even reading them right?

character i think is underrated: hmmm margaret lennox? i don't see people talk about her too often. justice for the evil ex!

character i think is overrated: philippa. don't even get me started🙄

favorite ship/pairing: while reading i did ship lymond with each and every one of his boytoys which was very entertaining but i wouldn't actually like any of these relationships to be endgame. i firmly believe lymond is bisexual, aromantic and non-monogamous, therefore the only person i would want him to "end up with" is marthe - not as a slash ship but as in lymond and marthe, both in drag, ride into the sunset together to cause chaos and mayhem✨

favorite arc/episode/scene: the hume castle shebacle from book one is my platonic ideal of a fictional experience. just thinking about don luis fernando de cordoba y avila with his "long, exquisite legs" and his perfecto scottish is enough to raise my mood for the rest of the day😁

something i love about this series: tbh the thing i love the most is lymond to the point that i'm afraid to try dunnett's other books bc there will be no lymond in them. however, i will still read them sooner or later bc my second favorite thing about the lymond chronicles is dunnett's witty but sophisticated prose which i'm sure i will find in abundance in her other works

🥍all for the game🥍

favorite character: i love both of my boys equally but i will admit i voted for andrew minyard in that best queer character poll bracket🙈

character i think is underrated: actually i don't think there is one. some of the aftg characters are controversial but i think everyone gets their fair share of love and attention🤷‍♀️

character i think is overrated: in the og trilogy it's nicky and in tsc it's sort of everyone?😅 lol i just don't think they're that interesting but i'm glad other people are having fun with them

favorite ship/pairing: andreil, obviously.

favorite arc/episode/scene: aftg is full of amazing scenes, both quiet and spectacular, but if i have to pick just one i'm gonna go with the first riko roast bc fun fact: i actually abandoned tfc halfway through the first time i tried to read it bc i just didn't know what to do with it - but then i decided to give it a second chance and the riko roast was the scene where i finally comprehended and internalized the chaotic but rebellious vibe of aftg. that's why i never dnf books - you never know which weird selfpub sports anime might become your all time favorite story!

something i love about this series: the way it depicts the relations between the society and people who are treated like outsiders due to their trauma - it always sides with the latter! exemplified by how the team needs andrew and so they have to put up with his little quirks and find ways of communication - instead of him making himself act more normal and agreeable in order to fit in. which i think is pretty much the status quo of writing about trauma so aftg feels very radical in that sense

👑captive prince👑

favorite character: it's laurent, lymond's baby cousin😅

character i think is underrated: aimeric? tbh i haven't read anything capri related in a while, maybe he's the newest fandom fave by now

character i think is overrated: never have i ever understood why everyone insists on resurrecting auguste. he dead! and not that interesting in any case😒

favorite ship/pairing: damen/laurent, since their love is the whole point of the series, but i will say for me it's more like. i'm obsessed with laurent and so i like that damen gets obsessed with him too and falls in love with him bc that's what laurent deserves. however i do not actually like damen nor do i like the final jump from enemies to lovers in the second half of book 3 soooo yeah. many caveats🤷‍♀️

favorite arc/episode/scene: laurent's duel with govart. listen, i'm a simple girl, i love me some competence porn and power fantasies with swords. also! laurent calling out aimeric for all the bad things he secretly believes about himself which leads to aimeric's suicide. that's some fucked up shit, love it👀

something i love about this series: the witty, backhanded, at times scathing exchanges which i started calling pacatesque dialogue upon encountering it in other books (of primarily australian sff authors who are personally acquainted with pacat, it's a whole thing). i know other booklr girlies like to talk about themes and motifs and whatnot but for me all of that is vastly inferior to lines like "tell my uncle boykiller etc etc". i think i just have lots of bottled up bitchiness inside me and like to live vicariously through characters who can vocalize it in such a brutal yet elegant fashion

🐉a song of ice and fire🐉

favorite character: tyrion lannister. lol at this point you can see a pattern: if he's shrewd, traumatized and blonde you can safely bet he's on my blorbo shelf😅

character i think is underrated: i'm gonna go with doran martell. he represents one of my favorite character archetypes - someone who is seen as a simpleton and a pushover but has actually been scheming and masterminding stuff all along. "oberyn was ever the viper. i was the grass. who fears to walk upon the grass? but it is the grass that hides the viper" - is actually one of my favorite quotes from the series. comparing book doran to show doran one can see how he's sort of emblematic for how the show butchered the dorne plotline😒

character i think is overrated: i did like sansa's journey in the books but they end just on the cusp of her turning from a pawn into one of the most capable and dangerous players on the board - something she however hasn't become, not yet. so i think the hype she gets in the fandom, largely based on the show which skipped a lot of steps in her character arc and made her a very basic girlboss, is somewhat undeserved🤷‍♀️

favorite ship/pairing: i definitely feel a certain kind of way about jaime & brienne but idk if i ship them in the proper sense of the word. their developing relationship is probably the most compelling in the series and some of its aspects are very personal for me as a weird looking ace girl, among other things, so i don't think i want them to become a *couple*. but i do want them to become *something*. if they survive, that is😬

favorite arc/episode/scene: tyrion's trial is one of the most excruciating and heart-wrenching yet dramatic scenes i've ever experienced. i have to admit i remember it better from the show bc that was just Peak Television and peter dinklage's acting?? unparalleled. a scene so epic it made me cry every time i watched it. just thinking about it gives me chills🫨

damen: *tries to flirt back*

maybe black and white isn’t the best description but what i mean is that there’s no discourse or good faith criticism - you’re either an anti and not in the fandom or you’re a fan and you post feel-good shitposts and cutesy art. not that there’s anything wrong with those but it looks like the capri fandom chooses to engage only with happy and lighthearted aspects of the book which is strange considering the book in question. for me personally it makes for a limited and frustrating fandom experience bc the aspects of capri that i’m interested in (grey morality, cast iron bitch laurent, fucked up veretian sex entertainment industry vs more traditional slavery in akielos) aren’t discussed in the amount proportionate to how they’re featured in the books. the atmosphere very much is “we don’t talk about trauma, controversy, anything book one, character deaths” - the fact that everyone lives / nobody dies is so popular exemplifies this perfectly. i post my asks in the main tag bc obviously i want more people to see them and talk to me but every time i did it in the past i was told not to put them there bc apparently some (many?) fans just don’t want to see any discourse at all. they’re here for smaurent aus and auguste/nikandros shenanigans and while those are perfectly valid i feel like that’s all that capri fandom is and that’s a reductive takeaway from the source material at best and misrepresentation at worst. 

Dorothy Dunnett, The Ringed Castle

*don’t read this if you don’t want to see the book and the characters discussed or criticized

this is an uncommonly cynical take on capri and i completely agree with you, especially on damen vs the slaves. in my previous post i talked about why i find the ending of capri not satisfying and how book one rape never being brought up again factors into that so i didn’t focus on the rape itself. i have many thoughts and feelings about it and one of them is along the lines of what you say: laurent raping damen by proxy never made me as uncomfortable as for example any scene with erasmus, especially those where he and damen discuss him being given to torveld. the rape is framed as reprehensible by the narrative whereas we are supposed? to be happy? for erasmus?? this brainwashed kid who rejoices in being gifted to a “nice” master. we’re supposed to listen to damen’s inner monologue about how erasmus was selected and groomed specifically for him and how he would have treated him much better than these uncivilized veretians and still think that damen’s less *problematic* than laurent? idk this makes me much more uncomfortable than laurent’s upfront villainy. laurent abused his power to commit several acts of violence against a man he had personal vendetta against whereas damen has participated in systemic sexual abuse for his entire life, all the while believing himself to be the nice guy. which is why it feels like poetic justice that he became a slave himself and even for a little while had to experience what it feels like. so basically that rape scene has a much more complicated function in capri but many people focus only on how it makes laurent irredeemable.