paying court to the unmarried oldest princess in FW's eyes would have been almost as dammable as being bff
No kidding. And given the propensity of women to get pregnant, I think it would have been six of one, half a dozen of the other, in terms of which one FW would have considered worse. And given that historical FW accused W of sleeping with Katte *and* suspected him of sleeping with Fritz, I'm not sure adding more candidates to the list of illicit affairs would have occurred to Katte even if he had been cold and calculating. It's not either/or; once you're depraved enough to sleep with the Crown Prince, what's stopping you with the Princess?
And no, I don't see Katte as cold and calculating. Quite the opposite; I think he let his emotions get the better of his better judgment where Fritz was involved. :(
Katte was a bit older than the siblings, wasn't he? So he could have been emotionally wise enough
Yeah, 8 years older than Fritz and 5 years older than W. Older, more experienced in the world, and less traumatized. In my fic, I like to make him more emotionally wise (turns out being traumatized is also bad for your emotional awareness) and occasionally biting his tongue when Fritz, W, and Keith are being immature and thinking, "Remember how young they are!" And though he might not be able to articulate "Abuse is not great for acquiring emotional wisdom," he does get as far as, "S/he's going through a lot," especially with Fritz, and cuts them some slack. Which helps his relationship with a young and already-traumatized Fritz.
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Re: Katte and Wilhelmine in rl
Date: 2019-10-28 04:17 pm (UTC)No kidding. And given the propensity of women to get pregnant, I think it would have been six of one, half a dozen of the other, in terms of which one FW would have considered worse. And given that historical FW accused W of sleeping with Katte *and* suspected him of sleeping with Fritz, I'm not sure adding more candidates to the list of illicit affairs would have occurred to Katte even if he had been cold and calculating. It's not either/or; once you're depraved enough to sleep with the Crown Prince, what's stopping you with the Princess?
And no, I don't see Katte as cold and calculating. Quite the opposite; I think he let his emotions get the better of his better judgment where Fritz was involved. :(
Katte was a bit older than the siblings, wasn't he? So he could have been emotionally wise enough
Yeah, 8 years older than Fritz and 5 years older than W. Older, more experienced in the world, and less traumatized. In my fic, I like to make him more emotionally wise (turns out being traumatized is also bad for your emotional awareness) and occasionally biting his tongue when Fritz, W, and Keith are being immature and thinking, "Remember how young they are!" And though he might not be able to articulate "Abuse is not great for acquiring emotional wisdom," he does get as far as, "S/he's going through a lot," especially with Fritz, and cuts them some slack. Which helps his relationship with a young and already-traumatized Fritz.