This is something that came from that "Rain" story I wrote a few weeks back. It's been hanging around since then bugging me to write it, so I did. It may be different from the conventional view of events, but hey, like I've said before - that's fiction for you
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Thanks for reading and commenting, and I'm pleased if on some level this story helped fill a gap.
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I was quite shocked at the way the film handled the incident, because it looks like Philip actually participates in the rape.
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I've been reading and re-reading all these fics, and this one hurts the *most* I think, precisely because there's no reassurance of everlasting love between these two from other stories. Strangely, or perhaps not so strangely, I see parallels of character between Alexander and Philip in this. This incident reminds me of the Eumenes incident in ways more than the conflict between personal loyalty and duties of kingship. Alexander and Philip both tend toward a stubborness that may seem a bit cold....Good thing Hephaistion's understanding. As for Pausanias, what's been done to him and Philip's reaction perhaps a demonstration of the problem between two lovers of vastly unequal social status....
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Absolutely. I quite like Philip, and I tend to think that a man who could drag Macedon up by the bootstraps would have to have a fair streak of the bloodyminded about him. Obviously Alexander shared a few of his father's virtues in that department. He learned about kingship from somewhere, after all. They're both men with strong minds and strong wills, and they both have a demanding bitch of a kingdom for a mistress. The diffence when it comes to their personal relationships (at least in my work) is that Philip chooses his kingdom, but Alexander sometimes chooses himself.
With regards to the problems of differing social status, that has its own issues. Clearly being the king's lover comes with its share of hassles - any man with powerful friends is bound to attract powerful enemies. Pausanias seems to have paid the price of that ... and we all know how that ended.
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