I had read something slightly different, what a strange thing, the version that I read, said something along the lines of "miriam was of the same thinking of the queen (prince's mother), indeed, she was the one who suggested lay down with a boy much younger than her, and he even had fever, but they really didn't care at all, and is for that, that he has a trauma about touching or being touch by women". As you can read the version I found, says that he despises the former queen and that, bounded with his own bad childhood, makes him treat not very well to blanche
Yea and again that’s why I tried to emphasize that those are quotes from the translation I’m reading from cause I know since it’s translations, people get different things. I think what we can take away from it is that it was pressure put on both of them but Miriam was willing to do it. Cause there was always pressure on Queens to give birth to an Heir. After also meeting her father and sister, it becomes clear how disparate her family is to have one of their daughters as queen and give birth to a boy. It just doesn’t sit right with me how people are just saying “she raped him” and that’s all they say. For readers to come to their own opinions they need context.
Oh also about why he treats Blanche so coldly. From the translations I read we get inner monologue of him thinking how kind and soft hearted she is and how he’s worried she’ll be taken advantage of. Cause he wants to make her his Heir but he can’t have her act like that in such an important position. So I think he acts that way to try and toughen her up, not realizing that it has made him a poor father
Umm spoilers?...anf my opinion
I was only able to read up to a certain point of the novel. I recall this part. Eventually before the ball, he comes to be able to touch the queen for like 5 mins without freaking. From the novel, I didnt get good vibes about the dead queen. She didnt seem horrible but I felt that she was a schemer...maybe later chaps would dispel that feeling for me but so far no.
Also ml seems to get a little jelly with fl, since at the ball she speaks to raven, the ml seemed weird. He seems to hold interest for fl since he keeps wanting to see all the expressions she can make.
If anyone has more spoilers, I welcome them.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts!
From what we’re reading about the previous queens family it seems they are power hungry and maybe the reason (in the novel) the ML doesn’t hate Miriam is because he was so young and doesn’t see how she was bad? Idk but OMG! Yes! I’m so excited to see more of Raven, it seems as tho he isn’t interested in politics as people assume and has developed a crush on FL
I feel like people aren’t getting the full picture of what’s going on and I feel like it’s cause a lot of people are reading from Spoilers. I just wanna share some of the conversation between ML and FL about Miriam and what happened. *this is coming from translations Of the novel*
~Spoilers below~
These are direct quotes from the translation of the conversation.
“After death of my first wife I cannot overcome something inside myself and enter into bodily contact with another women...”
“In truth, I still love the former queen,Miriam, even though I said otherwise.” ‘He said her name as if the name meant something special to him’
“No. Blanche is my own daughter. By nature, Miriam would not sleep with another man.”
(He explains how he was 15 when she was born, and how his mom wasn’t afraid he would die before they would conceive a child and she wanted to preserve her bloodline)
“My first wife Miriam, was of the same opinion as my mother, she told me ‘you have to try hard and conceive a prince!’ Even when I had a high fever, I thought it was much more important to have a baby as soon as possible than to take care of my health”
(FL cries for him)
FL thinks to herself ‘it is only the fault of those who forced a seriously ill, immature boy to make love to an equally immature girl. It is the sin of all those people who pushed two children into the bedroom like animals and told them to have a child inspire of everything, putting their own interests above all else’
‘-they demanded adult things from the little boy and girl.”