I think they've conflated the brothers; the character is only ever referred to as "Keith", but he's also presented as the only one Fritz recruits for his escape plan.
Speaking of all the "Hans"ing going on, how *did* someone of Fritz's rank distinguish between Peter Keith and his brother Robert Keith in the 18th century?
If they had additional titles - like Baron of X, Freiherr of Y -, there was the option of referring to them by said title. (A bit like "my Bayreuth sister", "my Braunschweig sister" etc.) So say one Keith is also the Freiherr of Eckingen and the other the Freiherr of Keferloh, they'd be Eckingen and Keferloh. (Both places are real but to my knowledge unconnected to the Keith clan, I just picked them at random.)
There was also the possibility of nicknames, like Fritz calling Keyserling "Caesarion". If you invent these, I'd go for names of either Greek mythology or French drama & novels.
The drunk scene in Der Thronfolger is visceral to watch, like watching a public breakdown. Which it was, of course.
(within the two parter, there's also the narrative irony that during the childhood section, at the end of the first dysfunctional Hohenzollern family meal, when FW is mid explosion and WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH THESE CHLDREN, SD yells back "They're afraid of you!" and FW yells "But I don't want you" - he uses the German plural now, meaning he's adressing not SD or just F & W but them all - to fear me, I want you to love me!" His entire family: *stares*
(And of course the first time F does try a love declaration, in part II, his father thinks he's faking it and secretly mocking him, and the second time, during the drunk scene, he's just going "what even was that?" Watching, I was also reminded of the nightmare Fritz told Henri de Catt about mid 7 years war, of dreaming Wilhelmine was chiding him of not loving their father enough. The layers here - both to the accusation itself and Fritz' subconscious having Wilhelmine, who in rl sided with him, making it, thus siding with FW - are obvious.)
Re: Alternate universes where everyone is at least incrementally more happy
Speaking of all the "Hans"ing going on, how *did* someone of Fritz's rank distinguish between Peter Keith and his brother Robert Keith in the 18th century?
If they had additional titles - like Baron of X, Freiherr of Y -, there was the option of referring to them by said title. (A bit like "my Bayreuth sister", "my Braunschweig sister" etc.) So say one Keith is also the Freiherr of Eckingen and the other the Freiherr of Keferloh, they'd be Eckingen and Keferloh. (Both places are real but to my knowledge unconnected to the Keith clan, I just picked them at random.)
There was also the possibility of nicknames, like Fritz calling Keyserling "Caesarion". If you invent these, I'd go for names of either Greek mythology or French drama & novels.
The drunk scene in Der Thronfolger is visceral to watch, like watching a public breakdown. Which it was, of course.
(within the two parter, there's also the narrative irony that during the childhood section, at the end of the first dysfunctional Hohenzollern family meal, when FW is mid explosion and WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH THESE CHLDREN, SD yells back "They're afraid of you!" and FW yells "But I don't want you" - he uses the German plural now, meaning he's adressing not SD or just F & W but them all - to fear me, I want you to love me!" His entire family: *stares*
(And of course the first time F does try a love declaration, in part II, his father thinks he's faking it and secretly mocking him, and the second time, during the drunk scene, he's just going "what even was that?" Watching, I was also reminded of the nightmare Fritz told Henri de Catt about mid 7 years war, of dreaming Wilhelmine was chiding him of not loving their father enough. The layers here - both to the accusation itself and Fritz' subconscious having Wilhelmine, who in rl sided with him, making it, thus siding with FW - are obvious.)