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A child talking about seduction
- This is more of a nitpick than anything, but it still bugs me. In episode 2, Catarina first meets Alan after befriending his fiancee Mary. He confronts Catarina about her friendship with Mary, straight up accusing her of trying to "seduce" Mary. This happens when they're children. First off, how in the world would a nine-year-old boy know what the word seduce means, much less enough about it to accuse another girl of trying to do it to Mary? It'd be one thing if he accused Catarina of stealing Mary from him, as that makes more sense because a child does know what the word steal means, and it can also be used for people as well. I find it really hard to believe that a nine-year-old child would know what a word like seduce is, and it's just baffling that Alan, a child, upon hearing his fiance go ga-ga over making a new friend, would just come to the conclusion that said friend is trying to seduce her. How did he even come to that conclusion, to begin with? No child I know would ever think like that or use that kind of wording. I myself didn't know what the word seduce meant until I was in early high school, so this just baffles me to no end.
- Alan is a prince, so he'd probably be schooled in things more advanced than what a normal child should know about.
- Alternately, while they look like children they are acting like adults, since Japanese culture places emphasis on youth and so people look younger than they really are.
- Adding to the fact that Alan is a prince, in volume 7 it is revealed that Geordo's and Alan's grandfather, the king before the current one, was an infamous lecher who had several concubines (not all official) and multiple affairs. When he died before he could designate which of his numerous offspring would be heir, it gave rise to a bloody conflict over the throne that lasted until Geordo's and Alan's father won out. The previous king is still viewed with contempt because of all of this in the present day, including by his grandson Geordo. Alan's view on this hasn't been depicted, but it wouldn't be that much of a stretch that he grew up hearing about his grandfather's behavior from the court, learning about the subject of seduction this way. You could even infer he was told on purpose in order to instill contempt against such behavior in him, in order to forestall a repeat of the relatively recent bloody conflict. (Note that the author might not have thought about any of these things being connected when they wrote either of them, since they are six volumes apart.)
- For some reason, boys in this novel often act older than they appear to be—Geordo has his political calculations for engaging Catalina when he's 8, and Nicol "applied appropriate kinds of pressure" on nobles who badmouthed Sophia when he's 11. With this in mind, Alan's using "seducing" doesn't seem to be out of the ordinary in the universe. It is, maybe, the side effect of being exposed to court politics; Keith reads more age-appropriate in his POV chapters, as well as the girls.
Nobody seeing Alan as a potential contender?
- This expands on something that even puzzles Catarina. Namely, there is not a single noble that supports Alan on the throne. Alan's disinterest in the throne has nothing to do with it—Geordo isn't interested in it either, but there are already people who support his side of things. Sure, he's probably better known as a musician, but it's also obvious that he isn't stupid.
- Episode 5 of season 2 kind of goes into this: Alan was sickly as a child, and that apparently was enough to make some nobles look down on him as a possible successor, which didn't help his inferiority complex.
- Also, Alan and Geordo are much younger than their elder brothers. Geordo can overcome this because he's The Ace, but with three viable candidates already Alan isn't remarkable enough to seem worth backing.
Bios for the characters
- Who are the characters talking to during the Switching P.O.V's in the Light Novels? Is it supposed to be the reader or is it like bios in a game?
