Which would be less of a problem if there were other gay characters around, but as they aren't, straight!Louis is probably a safer choice. Still. He wasn't (straight, that is), but he wasn't the buffoon of all other Musketeers adaptions, either, and this is the first one where he gets some nuance, so I can't help feeling a bit regretful.
Sidenote to historical Louis XIII: had a genuinely awful childhood and adolescence after the death of his father, complete with mother openly preferring younger brother Gaston, had massive jealousy issues all his life, but also a high sense of duty, was that rare thing, a king very aware of his limitations and his need to have competent ministers, instead of thinking himself brilliant, and able to look for and find competent people doing the governing for him, going by competence, not how much he liked them. He didn't like not-yet-Richelieu, the younger Armand du Plessis, bishop of Lucon, at all originally, mostly because not-yet-Richelieu had been on the fast track with the Queen Mother's favourite, Concini, whom Louis had hated (and vice versa), and also because not-yet-Richelieu may or may not but was certainly rumored to have had a thing with the Queen Mother herself. When Louis overthrew his mother's regency and took power himself, he banished not-yet-Richelieu to Avignon, so they started off on the worst foot. But like I said: Louis knew competence when he saw it. So Lucon was called back, did become the Cardinal de Richelieu and then the first minister, and he and Louis developed their codependent working relationship. Which was simultanously close and never completely tension free. And thus interesting in a way English language fiction hasn't explored yet.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2015-01-13 04:18 pm (UTC)Sidenote to historical Louis XIII: had a genuinely awful childhood and adolescence after the death of his father, complete with mother openly preferring younger brother Gaston, had massive jealousy issues all his life, but also a high sense of duty, was that rare thing, a king very aware of his limitations and his need to have competent ministers, instead of thinking himself brilliant, and able to look for and find competent people doing the governing for him, going by competence, not how much he liked them. He didn't like not-yet-Richelieu, the younger Armand du Plessis, bishop of Lucon, at all originally, mostly because not-yet-Richelieu had been on the fast track with the Queen Mother's favourite, Concini, whom Louis had hated (and vice versa), and also because not-yet-Richelieu may or may not but was certainly rumored to have had a thing with the Queen Mother herself. When Louis overthrew his mother's regency and took power himself, he banished not-yet-Richelieu to Avignon, so they started off on the worst foot. But like I said: Louis knew competence when he saw it. So Lucon was called back, did become the Cardinal de Richelieu and then the first minister, and he and Louis developed their codependent working relationship. Which was simultanously close and never completely tension free. And thus interesting in a way English language fiction hasn't explored yet.