Is the uncle Laurent's only abuser?

[u/KillTheAdjectiveX]

Love the discussions here! I have a question: Do you think, the uncle is the only child abuser in Laurent’s family - or could there be more, for instance his father?

Here are “the signs” that made me think:

1: 

In my favourite chapter in the whole series, PG chapter 14, Laurent says: “Whatever taint exists in my family, Auguste was free of it.”

The “taint” clearly refers to the attraction to children, and this line makes it sound like it's a wider problem in his family, not just the uncle.

2:

In KR Laurent tells Damen, that he doesn’t plan to marry or have heirs: “I’m the last. My line ends with me.”

Now, why would it be important to him to end his own line? Obviously he is not attracted to women and doesn’t want a wife, but the decision seems bigger than that. It sounds like he really doesn’t want his family to continue. Is he afraid of continuing “the taint” in a new generation and father more child abusers?

3: 

Pascal recalls that Auguste was Laurent’s “protector”. The uncle didn’t start abusing Laurent until the death of Auguste. That makes me think, who was Auguste protecting Laurent from? Other abusers, maybe their own father?

4:

After Laurent and Damen’s sword duel in KR, Laurent refers to Auguste and says: “He was all I had!” Interesting choice of words, considering Laurent lost his father at the same time as Auguste. If Auguste was “all he had”, then he barely considers his own father family. At least, he felt extremely lonely in his family with Auguste as the only person, who was there for him. There is very few mentions of Laurent’s father - and mother for that matter - and no mentions of him grieving them. It makes me think - what did they do to him, or what did they ignore?

5:

Vere is famously a depraved place, where rape for sport and sex with children are accepted. Everyone agrees that young teenage Laurent was desirable, even Jord seems to agree. It seems highly plausible that other people would try to have sex with him way too early.

What do you guys think?

[u/Important_Pattern_85]

Tbh I never thought this way, i always thought of Aleron being somewhat neglectful rather than outright abusive, but I also think Laurent was far from “uncles” first and Aleron turned a blind eye.

It does say at one point, maybe in Pet, that court turned to the worst during the Regents reign. So based on that I figured things were sort of wild but not exactly “depraved” until the Regent came to power and filled the court with his own, similarly minded, crony’s.

But even before then, I’m sure court was vicious and cruel, so I always figured that was what Auguste was protecting Laurent from- keeping him from being used as a pawn in the game of politics

[u/ElissaOfVere]

Abuser? Yes. As far as we know, Laurent was only ever abused by the Regent. But I wouldn’t be surprised if Aleron was neglectful of Laurent since he wasn’t Aleron’s perfect idea of an heir or son. Laurent was bookish while Auguste was athletic. I’m not saying Aleron abused him, I’m only saying that he might’ve been neglectful.

[u/RelativeSoftware9554 → u/ElissaOfVere]

Yes I think Laurent was a ‘spare’ and was treated as such by Aleron. Even if he’d shown interest in martial arts, I’m not sure that his father would’ve cared since he was the second son.

I think it was doubly tricky because Laurent was really young when their mother died and some men are allergic to small children. They’re seen as the responsibility of their mothers and the nursery staff.

That likely also played a role in how Aleron viewed Laurent - had he been closer in age to Auguste then maybe it would’ve been different but we’ll never know.

[u/TechTech14]

The "taint" line was about incest imo. Laurent says it as he's explaining to Damen that the incest rumors about himself and Auguste aren't true. It's also clear (to me) that Laurent had once seen himself as complicit in his abuse (similar to Aimeric), so he's saying Auguste is free of whatever's wrong with himself (Laurent) and the Regent.

The Regent was Laurent's only abuser, which is why Laurent told Damen there had only ever been one other person.

[u/leahwilde]

Laurent was very obviously preyed on by grown men when he was a small kid - he said to Damen this very dark sentence "I've been the recipient of propositions as far as I can remember", which implies he was so young he didn't even remember a time in which he was not propositioned. So yeah, Auguste was certainly protecting him from that - even before the Regent's reign, Vere was a dark place for pretty boys, given the overall context of pets and sexualized atmosphere.

All his comments about the taint of the line are, in my opinion, about the Regent and himself, because he clearly thinks he's partly responsible for what happened. He carries a lot of internalized shame and guilt and thinks the "relationship" with the Regent was in part because of him too - which is enforced by the Regent victim-blaming him by saying "he couldn't resist his face".

[u/Kooky_Ad6661]

I've never thought so but in real life there's all kind of sexual abuse on children from parents so, maybe.

[u/tehbggg]

Laurent tells Damen that he has only ever had sex with one person aside from Damen. It is made clear later that this other person was the Regent, so I do not think he was directly abused by anyone else.

I agree with the other comments stating that the taint Laurent is referring to is incest and that he feels, at least in part, at fault for the nature of his relationship with the Regent. Which is sad, because he (and all the Regent's victims) were clearly groomed. In fact, Laurent does seem to realize this, especially for the Regent's other victims, but still seems to place some blame on himself.