OK, mildred, I'm starting to see what you mean about teen!Fritz just not... being very good at plotting. It seems clear from the way she talks about FW and Fritz that he just wanted OUT.
Yeah. :/ Even adult Fritz was like, "That went off like a childish prank, and Keith and Katte were GREAT GUYS, don't get me wrong, but, uh, about as dumb as I was at that age." ("Now I just never tell anyone anything ever, problem solved. I have a different problem now, called failing Interpersonal Relations 101, but that's okay, you can just bury me next to my dogs, k? K??")
Honestly, I feel like bb!Fritz was trapped and desperate and furious and impulsive and scared to death and also *despising* most everyone around him and especially FW, and none of these things lent themselves to thinking clearly. The real problem, in my mind, is that every time I read about these events, Fritz, who's young and not thinking clearly, is completely alone and trying to come up with an escape plan on his own, and having to drive it and drag everyone else into it, and everyone is going, "Um, maybe...not...Fritz?" and no one is saying, "Look, this is an abusive situation, you're right, you 100% need out. Sit down, it's okay, I as an adult will come up with a better idea."
I'm not blaming anyone for this, it's the 18th century with 18th century mores and FW is an absolute monarch plus totally batshit to boot, everyone gets a pass from me, but really, expecting an 18-yo to come up with a plan for escaping his abuser, when his mind goes into blind emotional turmoil every time he even thinks about said abuser, is asking for a really, really bad plan.
Actually. Writing that out. I wonder if the reason *so many* people were in the know about this plan was that, consciously or subconsciously, Fritz was looking for someone to go YES YES YOU NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE* and to actually take some initiative, instead of him having to drag everyone into his plan by sheer force of personality, when everyone I can think of is--quite understandably, given the nature of the plan and the risks involved!--very reluctant to have anything to do with it.
* This...may or may not be one of my fix-it fic AU WIPs, just saying. :P
I would point out that Alexander the Great, tactician extraordinaire and undefeated in battle, came up with a really bad plan for dealing with *his* semi-estranged father at the same age (selenak, I'm referring to the Pixodarus affair), and the only reason it didn't end as badly was because Philip was never as awful to Alexander as FW was to Fritz.
ETA: I couldn't agree more with selenak's claim that Alexander would have killed FW well before FW killed Katte. How much of that is the difference between their mothers (Alexander's mother is #1 suspect in the eventual murder of Philip; no one's clear whether Alexander was involved or not), the difference between their centuries (Enlightenment prince vs. Achilles-cosplayer), and the difference between their innate temperaments, we'll never know.
Wilhelmine (who seems in general a little less damaged/abused, although the queen is putting her through a LOT of emotional abuse, it's super awful)
Yeah, FW was awful to his wife, Wilhelmine, Fritz, and to a lesser extent most of the other kids, but everyone is agreed that, as the heir and future king, Fritz got the brunt of the abuse. Wilhelmine, in turn, got more abuse from non-FW people.
It SUCKED to be those kids. :/ CPS for everyone.
Fritz: I have another plan!
Lol, your summary reminds me of an Eddie Izzard skit, where he's talking about Napoleon invading Russia, then deciding it was a bad idea.
Hitler: "I've got a better idea, got a better idea..." *invades Russia* "Oh, it's the same idea! It's the same idea, it's the same idea..."
ETA 2: I also wish to point out what I said in a slightly different way somewhere else in this conversation. I, at the age of 17, having just been accepted to MIT to study physics, could not figure out a plan to get across the country and attend MIT in the face of my parents' resistance, despite the presence of sympathetic adults at my high school. Which you'd think someone who'd just been accepted to MIT could do! You'd think it would be inherent in "smart enough to be accepted to MIT"! But no. That's not how it works.
And granted my situation was much less desperate. But the flip side to that was that I wasn't all panicky inside and should have been thinking more clearly. So this is one reason I'm reluctant to say this plan wasn't Fritz's best effort at that age.
Re: Reading Wilhemine's memoirs
Yeah. :/ Even adult Fritz was like, "That went off like a childish prank, and Keith and Katte were GREAT GUYS, don't get me wrong, but, uh, about as dumb as I was at that age." ("Now I just never tell anyone anything ever, problem solved. I have a different problem now, called failing Interpersonal Relations 101, but that's okay, you can just bury me next to my dogs, k? K??")
Honestly, I feel like bb!Fritz was trapped and desperate and furious and impulsive and scared to death and also *despising* most everyone around him and especially FW, and none of these things lent themselves to thinking clearly. The real problem, in my mind, is that every time I read about these events, Fritz, who's young and not thinking clearly, is completely alone and trying to come up with an escape plan on his own, and having to drive it and drag everyone else into it, and everyone is going, "Um, maybe...not...Fritz?" and no one is saying, "Look, this is an abusive situation, you're right, you 100% need out. Sit down, it's okay, I as an adult will come up with a better idea."
I'm not blaming anyone for this, it's the 18th century with 18th century mores and FW is an absolute monarch plus totally batshit to boot, everyone gets a pass from me, but really, expecting an 18-yo to come up with a plan for escaping his abuser, when his mind goes into blind emotional turmoil every time he even thinks about said abuser, is asking for a really, really bad plan.
Actually. Writing that out. I wonder if the reason *so many* people were in the know about this plan was that, consciously or subconsciously, Fritz was looking for someone to go YES YES YOU NEED TO GET OUT OF HERE* and to actually take some initiative, instead of him having to drag everyone into his plan by sheer force of personality, when everyone I can think of is--quite understandably, given the nature of the plan and the risks involved!--very reluctant to have anything to do with it.
* This...may or may not be one of my fix-it fic AU WIPs, just saying. :P
I would point out that Alexander the Great, tactician extraordinaire and undefeated in battle, came up with a really bad plan for dealing with *his* semi-estranged father at the same age (
ETA: I couldn't agree more with selenak's claim that Alexander would have killed FW well before FW killed Katte. How much of that is the difference between their mothers (Alexander's mother is #1 suspect in the eventual murder of Philip; no one's clear whether Alexander was involved or not), the difference between their centuries (Enlightenment prince vs. Achilles-cosplayer), and the difference between their innate temperaments, we'll never know.
Wilhelmine (who seems in general a little less damaged/abused, although the queen is putting her through a LOT of emotional abuse, it's super awful)
Yeah, FW was awful to his wife, Wilhelmine, Fritz, and to a lesser extent most of the other kids, but everyone is agreed that, as the heir and future king, Fritz got the brunt of the abuse. Wilhelmine, in turn, got more abuse from non-FW people.
It SUCKED to be those kids. :/ CPS for everyone.
Fritz: I have another plan!
Lol, your summary reminds me of an Eddie Izzard skit, where he's talking about Napoleon invading Russia, then deciding it was a bad idea.
Hitler: "I've got a better idea, got a better idea..." *invades Russia* "Oh, it's the same idea! It's the same idea, it's the same idea..."
ETA 2: I also wish to point out what I said in a slightly different way somewhere else in this conversation. I, at the age of 17, having just been accepted to MIT to study physics, could not figure out a plan to get across the country and attend MIT in the face of my parents' resistance, despite the presence of sympathetic adults at my high school. Which you'd think someone who'd just been accepted to MIT could do! You'd think it would be inherent in "smart enough to be accepted to MIT"! But no. That's not how it works.
And granted my situation was much less desperate. But the flip side to that was that I wasn't all panicky inside and should have been thinking more clearly. So this is one reason I'm reluctant to say this plan wasn't Fritz's best effort at that age.