cahn | Frederick the Great, discussion post 5: or: Yuletide requests are out!

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All Yuletide requests are out!

Yuletide related:
-it is sad that I can't watch opera quickly enough these days to have offered any of them, these requests are delightful!

-That is... sure a lot of prompts for MCS/Jingyan. But happily some that are not :D (I like MCS/Jingyan! But there are So Many Other characters!)

Frederician-specific:
-I am so excited someone requested Fritz/Voltaire, please someone write it!!

-I also really want someone to write that request for Poniatowski, although that is... definitely a niche request, even for this niche fandom. But he has memoirs?? apparently they are translated from Polish into French

-But while we are waiting/writing/etc., check out this crack commentfic where Heinrich and Franz Stefan are drinking together while Maria Theresia and Frederick the Great have their secret summit, which turns into a plot to marry the future Emperor Joseph to Fritz...

Master link to Frederick the Great posts and associated online links

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From:

mildred_of_midgard

So remember our friend the shepherd at Neuruppin, whom Fritz was offering to kidnap? One of my bios actually says--no citation given--that the attempt to take him alive failed, and he was shot to death, "but Frederick gained credit for trying." I don't see this in Fontane, but let's just have another moment of silence for poor 6 foot 4 guy minding his sheep.

I am also reminded that this was not just PTSD-ed son independently trying to appease his father, but an expectation of all commanders in the Prussian army to supply FW with their quota of tall soldiers for his viewing pleasure.

*silence for everyone impressed into the Prussian army under father or son*

From:

selenak

Nope, Fontane does not mention the poor guy died. Also, what you said. Alas.

Wilhelmine's father-in-law the old Margrave, btw, was understandably pissed off when the tall-guy-napping by Prussian "recruiters" started in his realm as well, and hit the roof when it got him into trouble with the neighbouring principality of Bamberg (aka my hometown), because naturally those Prussian "recruiters" did not always pay attention to borders, and thus ended up kidnapping a subject of the Prince Bishop of Bamberg, who was decidedly NOT willing to provice one of his people for the King in Prussia to drool over.

Add to this that this was while FW was simultanously bullying his new son-in-law, and Team Bayreuth must have wondered whether they should not have married Bayreuth Friedrich to ANYONE ELSE but a Prussian princess. It's to future Margrave's credit he never took it out on her.

(Note, Hohenzollern brothers: it's possible not to relieve your own trauma/anger/frustration by taking it out on your wives. See newest book report below.)

From:

cahn

...it is super sad and WTF about these tall shepherds, and at the same time, from centuries of remove, I also kind of find it macabrely funny. (Not for the shepherds, of course.)

Man, Wilhelmine really did luck out -- by which I mean, married someone who wasn't horribly awful and/or had awful PTSD or both -- wow, my standards for 18thC marriage (from the woman's perspective) are super low. And probably still too high :P

From:

mildred_of_midgard

Yeah, it's like Fritz/Voltaire: the more you empathize with everyone as real people, the more tragic it is; the more you view it from centuries of remove as practically fictional, the more comic it is.

Man, Wilhelmine really did luck out

Yeah, just cheating on your wife with her best friend gets you like an A-, when grading on the curve of other men in 18th century marriages!

How much childhood trauma did the Margrave have? Not to defend the Hohenzollerns, but childhood trauma vs. conflicts with equals beginning in adulthood makes a big, big difference to general fucked-up-ness. (It is possible to be deeply traumatized and not take it out on other people, of course, but the deck is stacked more against you with childhood trauma--which is almost word for word what Fritz told Catt, not just about himself but when observing other people who shared his anger management issues.)

From:

selenak

How much childhood trauma did the Margrave have?

The answer to this question is found in a reply at the latest post, she says with an evil laugh, here.

Edited Date: 2019-12-04 05:34 pm (UTC)

From:

mildred_of_midgard

I guess all these lives taken during the kidnapping of tall men were taken justly, and God is A-OK with that? I mean, granted the death count is way smaller than the Silesian wars, but if you have to account for each and every one...I hope God is an understanding repressed homosexual himself. ~~There were giants on the earth in those days.~~

ETA: I meant to say, nice use of "King in Prussia" there!

Edited Date: 2019-12-03 05:55 am (UTC)