The Lost Eagle
Jul. 17th, 2013 11:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
schneefinkI have a huge weakness for loyalty kink, and I finally had the time to check out two sources that were recommended for that reason: the movie "The Eagle" and the book "The Lost Prince" by Frances Hodgson Burnett.
I heard good things about the The Eagle, and I already read and enjoyed some fic. But for some reason the movie didn't completely work for me and I'm not sure why. The reasons for their loyalty seemed vague - friendship, a sense of duty, attraction, some mixture of all of that. It's probably difficult to show visually and for that they did a good job, but I had to fill in a lot myself and couldn't simply enjoy the trope as much as I wanted to. I often recognized what they were trying to do, but on a more intellectual level than when I just want to watch a movie, if that makes sense.
The Lost Prince, on the other hand, is pure idficcy loyalty porn, as I've seen it described somewhere. I read it becausesurexit recced it (and I was bored), and that was a great decision. Sure, it has childrens' books tropes like way too young protagonists for the adventures and idealistic kings, it has some dangling plot threads (what happened with the spies and the Squad?) and some plot holes, a terrible lack of positive female characters, and the main character, while good and kind, is also quite oblivious (bless you, Marco), but it also never takes itself too seriously. And it has so much loyalty kink to wallow in, it's delicious. Marco, Lazarus and the Rat towards Stefan Loristan and the Rat towards Marco especially. So much hero worship and devotion! Fortunately there are already some fics on AO3 and I'm hoping for more during Yuletide.
I heard good things about the The Eagle, and I already read and enjoyed some fic. But for some reason the movie didn't completely work for me and I'm not sure why. The reasons for their loyalty seemed vague - friendship, a sense of duty, attraction, some mixture of all of that. It's probably difficult to show visually and for that they did a good job, but I had to fill in a lot myself and couldn't simply enjoy the trope as much as I wanted to. I often recognized what they were trying to do, but on a more intellectual level than when I just want to watch a movie, if that makes sense.
The Lost Prince, on the other hand, is pure idficcy loyalty porn, as I've seen it described somewhere. I read it because
surexit recced it (and I was bored), and that was a great decision. Sure, it has childrens' books tropes like way too young protagonists for the adventures and idealistic kings, it has some dangling plot threads (what happened with the spies and the Squad?) and some plot holes, a terrible lack of positive female characters, and the main character, while good and kind, is also quite oblivious (bless you, Marco), but it also never takes itself too seriously. And it has so much loyalty kink to wallow in, it's delicious. Marco, Lazarus and the Rat towards Stefan Loristan and the Rat towards Marco especially. So much hero worship and devotion! Fortunately there are already some fics on AO3 and I'm hoping for more during Yuletide. 
