#damen/laurent/nikandros

[elettraml]

𝐋𝐚𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐃𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐬

It was long time since I last made a fanart of these two ❤️.

[cxinis]

my comfort meow meows

[laur-the-cat-prince]

adult Nicaise AU. also my version of Nikandros

[always-tired-plshelp]

Laurent: If you want my advice—

Nikandros: No offense, but you’re the last person I want relationship advice from. You tried to kill Damen. Multiple times.

Laurent: First off, that was before we started dating. Secondly, Damen also tried to kill me.

Damen: It’s true. It was mutually attempted murder.

[austenwazright]

I particularly just find Nikandros aversion to Laurent hilarious. Like, stop and think about it, his king was murdered by his own brother and that traitorous blonde snake, his country is being stolen and he doesn't even know which one of the main players are worse, the hateful jealous brother? The blonde bitch? The fucking veretian?! And HE is having to work with Vere!! With their stupid prince!! And he has to deal with all the border problems, and Makedon, and he just lost his brother, his brother the one true king!! And then there he is, keeping up his side of the bargain and OH MY GOD is that Damianos??? How can the gods be this kind??? Things will be ok now, the fucking kyros who were all so happy to roll over for kastor will change their minds, the future is bright again, his best friend is alive, Akielos is saved!! Oh no who's that?? It's blonde and blue eyed and... and a bitch!! And Damen has his puppy eyes out!! No not again, I can't deal with it all again!!!

[tschulijulesjulie]

this is literally my favourite part of the entire trilogy

[tiredsunrisesmeta]

Damen's Trauma, Akielos, & Cultural Community

I've been thinking about Damen's trauma & the ways he changes because of it and how it connects to his cultural identity: Damen's trauma & experiences in Vere under Laurent do come to strain & complicate his relationship with his past, his country, & his countrymen. His realization of Akielon violence on the border, his growing horror at slavery, his questioning of his father's rule, his acceptance of Kastor's duplicity, his anger at Jokaste's betrayal & his disagreeing with Nikandros's misguided exasperation & confusion at his choices in Kings Rising are some examples of this.

Another conflict ofc is the famous "a kingdom or this" conflict. His singular, unique love for Laurent clashes with his loyalty to his role as king, his country & its customs as particularly illustrated by Damen's actions at the Kingsmeet. An even earlier example, happens in Prince's Gambit after Damen kills an Akielon soldier to protect Laurent. He asks Laurent: "Don't try to use me against my own people." This conflict between his loyalty to Akielos & his loyalty to Laurent is already present relatively early in Damen & Laurent's association. Thankfully, Damen never truly has to choose because Laurent honors Damen's request. 

But despite these many conflicts, I believe Damen's trauma & its resulting emotional transformation ultimately brings him closer to Akielos, not farther from it. Because of his experiences in Vere, Damen is at the crossroads of his past & future self as well as at the crossroads of Akielos as he knew it & Akielos as it will become under his rule. Yet, despite this transformation into a new Damen & a new Akielos, Damen's past & the relationships he had, including their good & bad parts, aren't something he ever completely sheds or ever really needs to.

There's a framing of Damen's character arc that could focus on how Damen's trauma has so fundamentally changed him it puts some kind of uncrossable emotional distance between him and his past life including everyone he knew in Akielos. In this framing, his trauma reveals fundamental truths that he can no longer reconcile. Kastor is not a good brother (& never truly loved him), Theomedes is not someone worthy of Damen's hero worship (& never truly loved him), Jokaste chose herself over him (& never truly loved him), Nikandros no longer understands him (& maybe never did). 

There's a truth to all these observations. Though interpretations vary widely, of course. I, for example, disagree that any of those characters never truly loved Damen. I also think Nikandros understood the old Damen and is capable of eventually understanding the new Damen as well. Nevertheless, this framing of Damen's character arc & past relationships, at its harshest and most extreme, essentially isolates Damen from all his significant loved ones that are Akielon, and not literally (by death or literal distance like in canon) but spiritually.

In this framing, Damen's transformation essentially causes him to "outgrow" these past connections & both the personal & cultural significance they once carried for him. But I think the books refute that framing. While there is strain in Damen's relationship to Akielos & Akielons there is never an outright cutting or diminishing of these bonds & this identity. Many parts of Damen have changed but this does not cause an emotional gulf & disconnect that Damen does not at least try to bridge.

Until the very end, Damen desperately wants to forgive Kastor & keep him as his brother. Until the very end, he trusts Kastor when he should not. Damen, despite his very real wounded rage and new self protective hardness when it comes to Jokaste, nevertheless starts to understand Jokaste's motivations. Damen accepts he does not want to rule as his father did, but he still loves his father & cherishes his father's love for him, and he is not punished for this. Laurent comes to symbolize this by being the one to comfort Damen as he finally lets himself mourn his father. Despite all Theomedes did that ultimately caused the death of Auguste & the destruction of Laurent's life as he knew it, Laurent & the narrative do not punish or disapprove of Damen's grief for his father. Even Damen does not punish himself for it. Laurent also embodies this same empathy when he encourages Damen to bury Kastor in the royal crypt, accepting Damen's true personal wishes no matter how they might come across politically.

Now to Nikandros. It is true that Nikandros does not and can not understand so much of what has changed in Damen when they meet again in Kings Rising. Him & Damen clash on many things, including Laurent, plans & strategy, and bed slaves. Part of this is because Nikandros symbolizes Akielos as it was before Damen was taken from it. Akielos, as it would be if Damen had never left it. Like a rock left in a garden & returned to after many years. This symbolic connection between Nikandros & Akielos is illustrated in Nikandros's introduction in KR: "Damen took in Nikandros's familiar, classically Akielon features, his dark hair and brows, his olive face and straight Akielon nose." Nikandros is the quintessential Akielon. In many ways, he symbolizes home to Damen.

But the familiarity of Nikandros's Akielon face & demeanor are contrasted with Damen's thoughts of his own transformation after his traumatic experience in Vere. Damen thinks "The self that he had been striving to return to was gone." 

Nikandros is Akielos as Damen knew it before his father's death & subsequent enslavement & abuse. And Damen can no longer be in perfect harmony with the Akielos he once knew because he is no longer the Damen he once was. Yet this distance is not meant to be seen as insurmountable because Nikandros is not an unchanging rock, despite his relatively rigid ways. He accepts Damen's changes & decisions, befuddled, disapproving sometimes, exasperated, yes, but he accepts them nonetheless. So as Akielos will change under Damen's leadership, so too will Nikandros. Nikandros (the last remaining Akielon loved one still actively in Damen's life) will stay at Damen's (and Laurent's) side helping transform the new kingdom alongside him. 

So yes, Damen's trauma and experiences in these books has deeply changed him. Has made him more empathetic to the lives & struggles of the lowest castes of society, made him less jingoistic, more critical of his country's practices, made him more discerning of duplicity. It has also caused him shame and continued mental distress & suffering. It's caused him to repress his emotions even more than he already did (something Laurent tries to help him work through in the Summer Palace). It's caused him to harden himself in some ways. But his trauma has not made him incapable of deeply connecting to his past. The new Damen is not one made bereft of Akielon community, connection or identity because of his trauma. Nor is he someone who can only be made whole again by Laurent or Laurent's community.

It's not as if this is an interpretation people actually have of course. It's more that I think Damen completely disconnected from his roots is the natural endgame of the framing of Damen's trauma & transformation that I outlined above. Which is why Nikandros & his continuing friendship with Damen is absolutely integral to Damen & to Damen's story & character arc in Captive Prince. Nikandros embodies Akielos in many ways. All that it was, is & could & will be for Damen.

As an aside: I also find it interesting how this maintaining of the softer parts of Damen (despite his trauma), the parts that allow him to make & maintain connections, affects his relationships with the Veretians in his life. Not just Laurent, either. If Damen's trauma did manifest as insurmountable emotional disconnect or irreconcilable rage, what would his relationships with Jord, Paschal, Ancel, & Berenger look like (in canon & post-canon)? These characters either actively participated in his abuse or watched & did nothing to stop it. Yet, Damen's internal monologue affords them empathy, understanding, comradery, & even in some cases his own guilt at not being truthful about his identity with them. It offers them that when it could have offered them complete contempt or fraught disconnection. This is morally neutral. Damen's internal forgiveness is not necessarily an unquestionable good. It's just who Damen is.

There's a few fics that tackle the possible manifestations of Damen's trauma in relation to these characters, but it seems relatively less explored ground. But I think it's interesting to consider the similarities between Damen's reactions to the Veretians & Akielons in his life.

It's fascinating that Damen's capacity to forgive is mostly reserved for people that have hurt him & not others. (Kastor is one exception to this since Kastor has killed their father & killed most of the people in Damen's household. But, Damen's personal forgiveness is tempered with his understanding that Kastor can not go unpunished. Though I'd still argue house arrest in Ios is exceptionally generous and almost laughably lenient). He can be quite morally stringent about anyone who "hits someone who can't hit back" except if the person getting hit is himself 🤔. There's probably so much I could say, if I put my mind to it, about Damen's capacity to ignore and/or forgive violence done against him, starting all the way back to when Kastor stabs him at 13 to Laurent's abuse to Ancel's assault. But that's definitely for another time!

[princess-of-ithilien]

I've read several posts about how Damen and Laurent's problems are basically nothing compared to what the dark rise characters go through and how they wouldn't last a minute in that world, but that's not the point I want to make, because you know who would fucking thrive in dark rise?? Nikandros. He'd take one look at this world that has come to the brink of extinction not once but twice because some dude was way too horny for some blonde, blue-eyed bitches and hit Damen with the biggest I told you so known to mankind, the sense of superiority he'd gain from this. Outstanding

[lucky-clover-gazette]

damen & laurent's soldiers need worker's compensation for dealing with their angsty petty gay bullshit. i present the following evidence:

exhibit a:

He had put those soldiers on the door to bar the way to those men seeking Laurent out for some trivial matter, or for any matter, because when Laurent wanted to be alone, no one should suffer the consequences of interrupting him.  The taller soldier addressed him. ‘Commander, no one has entered in your absence.’ Damen’s eyes passed over the doors again.  ‘Good,’ he said. And he pushed the doors open.

‘Arrest me,’ said Damen. ‘I have raised hands to the Prince.’  The soldiers hesitated. It was the just response to his actions but he was—or had been—their Captain. He had to say again, ‘Do it.’  The darker-haired soldier stepped forward and Damen felt the grip take him. Laurent set his jaw.  ‘No,’ said Laurent. And then, ‘It was provoked.’ 

exhibit b:

A part of Damen’s mind recognised how perfectly this gift had been judged, the exquisite virtuosity of it: Laurent was delivering him a backhanded blow with one hand, and with the other, caressing his generals as a man scratches a dog under the chin.  Damen heard himself say, ‘Vere is generous.’  ‘After all,’ Laurent held his gaze, ‘I remember what you like.’

exhibit c:

He gestured and one of his squires came forward. It was still wrapped in cloth. He felt the sudden tension in Laurent, though there was no outward change.  Damen said, ‘You asked for it, once.’  The squire drew back the cloth to reveal a gold cuff. He felt rather than saw the tightness in Laurent. The cuff, unmistakably, was the twin to the one Damen wore, altered last night by a blacksmith for Laurent’s finer wrist.  Damen said, ‘Wear it for me.’ For a moment he thought Laurent wasn’t going to do it. But in public, Laurent had no recourse to refusal.  Laurent extended his hand. And then waited, palm outstretched, his eyes lifting to meet Damen’s.  Laurent said, ‘Put it on me.’  Every pair of eyes in the tent was on him.

exhibit d (lmao):

‘Who did this to you?’  ‘I did,’ Laurent said.  Damen turned.  Laurent stood in the entryway of the tent. He was arranged with elegant grace and his lazy, blue-eyed attention was all on Nikandros.  Laurent said, ‘I meant to kill him, but my uncle wouldn’t let me.’  Nikandros took an impotent step forward but Damen already had a restraining hand on his arm. Nikandros’s hand had gone to the hilt of his sword. His eyes were on Laurent furiously.  Laurent said, ‘He sucked my cock too.’  Nikandros said, ‘Exalted, I beg permission to challenge the Prince of Vere to a duel of honour for the insult that he has done to you.’  ‘Denied,’ said Damen. 

[laurentspeach]

more for the children

[ninicaise]

when they first met laurent and nikandros's rivalry was one-sided bc laurent was just like really busy at the time with what he believed to be his impending inevitable death and whatnot. post-canon though when nikandros has warmed up to laurent it is laurent who now has beef with nikandros bc laurent's best friend is damen 100% but damen's best friend is nikandros. so you see the issue. "but damen is laurent's husband!" laurent doesn't give a shit. his best friend has another best friend who isn't laurent that shit is embarassing!! and nikandros must die about it

[tsukiyo-7]

Something I absolutely adore about the Captive Prince fandom is the Nikandros x Jord pairing that is based almost purely on the fact that they're both Tired™ and Deserve Better™ and they're second in command/best friend to a couple of insufferable dumbass kings.

[cxinis]

its still monsoon over here so

[quillfulwriter]

tfw the person you've pledged yourself to has a thing for catty bitches

[always-tired-plshelp]

Damen: Look, I know you think my judgement's clouded because I like Laurent a little bit.

Nikandros, holding Damen's notepad: You doodled your wedding invitation.

Damen: No, that's our joint tombstone.

Nikandros: My mistake.

[linnetiaa]

Nikandros is not a good choice for a babysitter