Just thinking ab this and how this here is the foundation of their ENTIRE relationship bc Alex is just 100% genuinely being himself and saying whatever he wants bc he doesn’t care how he’s perceived by Henry and bc of that Henry is actually getting the real Alex which is wild bc Alex never really shows his real self but bc he has it in his head that he doesn’t care what Henry thinks of him he just has this freedom to be himself that he doesn’t normally give himself. And then that just becomes how they communicate bc their relationship was built on this unfiltered communication so that’s just the standard and both of them just say whatever they’re thinking bc that’s how it is and I feel like that’s why their relationship feels so genuine bc it’s just unabashed honesty and I think that’s so important bc they both spend so much of their time having to hide who they are or what they think but with each other they just get to be themselves and it plays right into the “I love him on purpose” bc everything started with them just putting their genuine messy selves forward for the other to look at and their relationship formed because of that messiness and it’s just both of them being like yes I see this messy imperfect person and I choose to love them because of that and it started from the beginning when they built a friendship on all those unfiltered texts back when Alex didn’t care and his not caring opened the door to a completely genuine relationship where he was never anything other that who he is and he never stopped himself from being that person and there’s just something so special about that

Alex: "How's it going"

Henry: *pulls an Henry and speeds away without a word*

Yeah.. convince me that those two aren't very much in love, I dare you

they're nerds your honor. huge fucking nerds. the world leaders of nerds one might say

"Both sides need to come out of this looking good, and the only way to do that is to make it look like your little slap-fight at the wedding was some homoerotic frat bro mishap, okay? So, you can hate the heir to the throne all you want, write mean poems about him in your diary, but the minute you see a camera, you act like the sun shines out of his dick, and you make it convincing." okay yeah, now I remember why I enjoyed this book the first time around

“Straight people, he thinks, probably don’t spend this much time convincing themselves they’re straight.”

My favorite line in rwrb because why the hell didn’t I think of that back when it would have been useful? Just ugh. I convinced myself so well it took me years to figure myself out. There aren’t many things I’ve identified with more than Alex’s thought process during his bisexual awakening. It’s so familiar, especially the looking back at the past and realizing what things actually meant, not what I’d convinced myself they’d meant. I love this book. I love that this book exists. It means the world to me.

Once again rereading Red, White and Royal Blue so enjoy some of my favorite lines and a few thoughts I had while reading <3

'RULE #1: DON'T GET CAUGHT'

"Well, you don't have to like him, you just have to put on a happy face and not cause an international incident at his brother's wedding." right yes good, so about that...

I'm obsessed with Cash's full name being Cassius

'"Do either of you know what a viscount is?" ... "I think it's that thing when a vampire creates an army of crazed sex waifs and starts his own ruling body."'

'When he got his first girlfriend, she made a PowerPoint presentation' I love Ellen, she's been the same he whole life, queen.

'Shaan is on the phone with Portugal' is absolutely my favorite line in the whole book.

'He just... Well, he gets told he's great a lot. He just doesn't often get told he's good enough'

'Then he thinks: If there was a prince, and he was gay, and he kissed someone, and maybe it mattered, that prince might have to run a bit of interference. And in one mercurial swing, Alex is not just angry anymore. He's sad too.'

'... where people are to busy mingling and listening to music to notice Alex frog-marching an heir to the throne out of the dining room' This paints such a vivid and hysterical picture.

'Henry is one talented bastard, a man of many hidden gifts, Alex muses half-hysterically. A true prodigy. God Save the Queen'

"... She still listens, and she tries, and she wants us to be happy. But I don't know if she has it in her anymore to be a part of anyone's happiness."

'How he realized by the time he was four that every person in the country knew his name, and how he told his mother he didn't know if he wanted them to, and how she knelt down and told him she'd let nothing touch him, not ever'

'... Two parentheses enclosing 3,700 miles.'

'He keeps staring at them, hoping if he recites them enough time in his head, he'll figure out how to feel like he's doing enough.'

'"Good morning, strumpet." Henry say, glancing away from the road to wink at the camera'

As a leftist that lives in and loves the fuck out of a red state, Alex's argument with Hunter in chapter eight is so healing tbh. "You think y'all are off the hook for institutional bigotry because you come from a blue state. Not every white supremacist is a meth-head in Bumfuck, Mississippi--there are plenty of them at Duke or UPenn on Daddy's money." Alex in this scene is so important to understanding red state democrats and liberals. Please please please go read the full scene again.

'He remembers, as if from a million miles away, telling Henry once not to overthink this.'

'It's rare anyone other than June goes out of their way to check on him. It's by his own design, mostly, a barricade of charm and fitful monologues and hard-headed independence. Henry looks at him like he's not fooled by any of it.'

Besties whatever you do Do Not listen to Haunted by Taylor Swift while reading Alex and Henry's almost breakup in chapter ten omg.

Taking up irl royal watching has made me inexplicably violent to seeing "The Daily Mail" in this book. They're actually awful irl if you were wondering.

"Alex. I don't want to do this."

"... You and me and history, remember? We're just gonna fucking fight. Because you're it, okay?..."

'He wants to set himself on fire but he can't afford for anyone to see him burn'

'This is the damage you cause, Alex, it all seems to say, right there in hard facts and figures. This is who you hurt.'

'Alex hasn't been a good Catholic on a long time, but he knows confession is a sacrament. They were supposed to stay safe.'

'"Oh, love," she says simply. "he misses Dad."'

"... On purpose. I love him on purpose."

Come re-read Red White and Royal Blue with me.

- Maybe spoilers, but probably just funnies -

“Let’s see,” June says. “In Touch says I’m… dating a French model?”

“Are you?”

“I wish.” She flips a few pages. “Ooh, and they’re saying you got your asshole bleached.”

“That one is true,” Alex says through a mouthful of chocolate with sprinkles.

“Thought so, June says without looking up.

(‘Red White and Royal Blue’ by Casey McQuiston)

“Henry’s retort comes two days later by way of a screenshot of a Daily Mail tweet that reads, “Is Alex Claremont-Diaz going to be a father?” The attached message says, “But we were ever so careful, dear,” which surprises a big enough laugh out of Alex that Zahra ejects him from her weekly debriefing with him and June.” - Red, White & Royal Blue, Chapter 3

I’m rereading RWRB for the third time and I know it’s a pretty major character note that Alex wears the key to his childhood home in Austin around his neck but this is the first time I’ve let myself think about it. At first I just ignored it like who cares because I moved around a lot as a kid and so I had no concept of what it might feel like to be so tied to one place. It’s making me think about how Alex must have felt in the White House: alienated from his past in a really tangible way. Also it’s making me realize what a romantic he actually is. Like, what main character energy lmao. A fucking physical key that is so obvious and embarrassing.

June saying, "Alex, you took comparative international governmental relational things. Whatever." Is giving my mom fucking up the name of my major the other day and calling it International Studies.

this part has always hit me like a freight train and a lot of it has to do with alex having no outlet for his emotions and the sheer volume of feeling that he experiences that’s making him need to destroy something bc it’s all just bottled up and the insanely powerful way that casey writes that so that you really feel it but I noticed something else that makes this scene just like a punch in the gut and it’s all there in the “the screen is replaced by the end of the day” and I didn’t know why that line always stuck out to me and gave me just this feeling of absolute despair but I think I figured it out on this reread. something about the inevitable repair and reset of alex’s feelings/emotions. something about the not being allowed to be broken or hurt. something about you’re not allowed to have feelings. something about it’ll get reset and fixed no matter what no matter if you like it or not or if you want it or not. something about not having control. something about you can do whatever and make whatever changes but they’ll always be set back to normal. something about your actions always being righted to fit an image. something about how the white house will always keep you in line, keep you clean and perfect and how you’re supposed to be. something about your cracks never being allowed to show. something about imperfection not being allowed. something about your actions don’t matter. something about alex is trapped in a world of images and presentation and perfection and the people around will uphold that for him always and without exception.

Henry's hiding in a closet so he could come out and drag Alex with him, that's the shit I'm talking about ❤️🤍💙

rereading this book is So funny. Alex and Henry make eye contact at the royal wedding and "something like annoyance or adrenaline" spiked in Alex's chest? yeah i bet it was something alright

I spent half this afternoon trying to decide whether to rewatch Elementary or Leverage this holiday break, and instead I ended up starting to reread Red, White and Royal Blue

Just finished reading rwrb for the second time, and I love this book so much. I cried oh so many times. Incredible. One of the best ever. Casey Mcquiston, thank you for creating a home for us <3

Just got to Alex’s: “What in the rich-white-people-sex-dungeon hell?” line, and I’m still laughing. Gets me every time. I love being in his mind.

It’s even funnier bc the last place I lived had Polo Traffic Jams. I guess it was one of the biggest arenas in the northeast, and it would host international games (events? matches? I dunno wtf they’re called). Anyway, imagine my surprise when I realize that I’m stuck in traffic on a two lane country road bc of a polo game. I couldn’t help wondering, “who the fuck are my neighbors and where am I living? I clearly don’t belong here.”