Frederick the Great, discussion post 16

[cahn]

We have slowed down a lot, but are still (sporadically) going! And somehow filled up the last post while I wasn't looking!

...I was asked to start a new thread so that STDs could be discussed. Really! :D

Comments

Re: August 17

[mildred_of_midgard]

To think that a year ago, I could have named just three (at most!) of Fritz' siblings without knowing much of their personalities beyond Wilhelmine (and that Heinrich was the other one with military gifts and gayness)

Same!

did not know Lehndorff existed.

Same!

I knew Fredersdorf had existed, but not much more.

Yeah, we both knew he was in the "six most loved" and a candidate for possible lover, but that was about it.

Algarotti and Suhm? Never heard of them.

Algarotti I knew only thanks to mobster AU, where he ends up being Fritz's long-term partner. Suhm: no idea.

Voltaire: I knew they corresponded passionately, lived together briefly, then had a messy breakup that both were responsible for, then resumed correspondence, but no details at all!

Émilie I knew by name, but nothing more.

Same, and only from mobster AU. If we go back and ask me 14 months ago, I can't name any Fritz siblings, I only know he had a brother who predeceased him but not before fathering FW2, haven't heard of Fredersdorf, Algarotti, or Émilie. (In the same sense that I had never heard of Lehndorff: the names got mentioned in bios I had read, but left no mark whatsoever in my memory.)

Between 14 and 12 months ago, I read MacDonogh and Blanning, some of Wilhelmine's memoirs, all the AO3 fanfic I could stand to read, and some Wikipedia and tumblr, then started chatting with cahn. By the time you came along, I was a good deal more prepared to chat than I would have been just two months before.

But now!

I wanted to write fic back then, but I didn't know any of the players outside of Fritz, Wilhelmine, FW, SD, and Katte, and I had no idea about the lives of even these people other than the major high points, of which there are generally only one or two a year. But in the last two months, I was able to knock out fic about Lehndorff and Peter on short notice!

Which brings me to: a year ago, there was no AO3 tag for Fredersdorf, and now he has 9 fics, 4 of which he stars in! <3 Not to mention all the other characters who now have fic for the first time, such as Heinrich.