fandom: 18th Century CE Frederician RPF character 1: Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig von Preußen | Henry of Prussia (1726-1802) character 2: Catherine II of Russia character 3: Wilhelmine von Preußen | Wilhelmine of Prussia (1709-1758) character 4: Anna Amalie von Preußen | Anna Amalia of Prussia (1723-1787)
fandom: 18th Century CE Enlightenment RPF character 1: Lady Mary Wortley-Montagu character 2: Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis character 3: Armand de Vignerot du Plessis de Richelieu (1696-1788) character 4: Francesco Algarotti
Also, I had to change some of the writeup for last year and I added a bunch of links to rheinsberg. Any more good relevant ones you want me to put in?
But someone else is going to have to write about how great Emilie is, because I tried briefly and I honestly don't know enough about the Enlightenment not to sound dumb doing it :P
FANDOM NAME: 18th Century CE Frederician RPF Content notes: Really abusive and dysfunctional family WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Would you like a fandom with all kinds of canon slash tropes (mean abusive dad who might have been suppressing his own slashy tendencies, tragic love story with loyal best friend)? Would you like a fandom about a magnificent bastard royal figure who is a modernist and reformer (and very much into freedom of speech and religion) for his time but also likes to invade various territories for fun and profit? Would you like a fandom with interesting, layered female characters, including a woman who becomes Empress despite all of Europe thinking this is hilarious being that she's a WOMAN?
Let me introduce you to Frederick the Great / Friedrich II / "Fritz" fandom. Boy/adolescent Fritz is beaten and publicly humiliated by his father (Friedrich Wilhelm), and his boyfriend (Peter Keith) is deported when his father catches them. He falls in love again, and he and his new boyfriend (Hans Hermann von Katte) try to escape, but dad catches them and executes Katte -- and orders Fritz to watch (though evidence seems to show that Fritz was not in fact made to watch). Katte's last words are some variation on, "I die for you with joy in my heart!"
Fritz earns his freedom by marrying a woman (Elisabeth Christine), whom he sees... approximately once a year, for dinner. He eventually becomes king when his father dies, at which point he turns out to be pretty much a spectacularly magnificent bastard. On one hand, Voltaire reports on Fritz' liberal tendencies that he said, "In this country, there is freedom of conscience and penis." On the other hand, Fritz also goes around breaking treaties and invading people on paper-thin and/or really zero justification. Hilariously, he first writes the Anti-Machiavel, basically saying "You should definitely positively not break treaties and invade other people just because you can," and then a whole three months later invades Maria Theresia's province of Silesia, just because he can. (Later he tells his people to go look for a historical claim to Silesia, which they find.) Maria Theresia, meanwhile, fights three wars with Fritz, after which he gets to keep Silesia.
WHERE CAN I FIND IT? (optional): The best primer for this for a total beginner is probably selenak's primer on this as a TV show, complete with imagined fanon responses.selenak and mildred_of_midgard have been gracious enough to welcome me to their fandom by telling me all kinds of wacky stories about it. Much of these collected stories, synopses of various interesting bits about these characters, and various research can be found at rheinsberg (which I've linked to copiously in this post).
Re: Yuletide Nominations, Redux
fandom: 18th Century CE Frederician RPF
character 1: Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig von Preußen | Henry of Prussia (1726-1802)
character 2: Catherine II of Russia
character 3: Wilhelmine von Preußen | Wilhelmine of Prussia (1709-1758)
character 4: Anna Amalie von Preußen | Anna Amalia of Prussia (1723-1787)
fandom: 18th Century CE Enlightenment RPF
character 1: Lady Mary Wortley-Montagu
character 2: Pierre Louis Moreau de Maupertuis
character 3: Armand de Vignerot du Plessis de Richelieu (1696-1788)
character 4: Francesco Algarotti
Also, I had to change some of the writeup for last year and I added a bunch of links to
But someone else is going to have to write about how great Emilie is, because I tried briefly and I honestly don't know enough about the Enlightenment not to sound dumb doing it :P
FANDOM NAME: 18th Century CE Frederician RPF
Content notes: Really abusive and dysfunctional family
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Would you like a fandom with all kinds of canon slash tropes (mean abusive dad who might have been suppressing his own slashy tendencies, tragic love story with loyal best friend)? Would you like a fandom about a magnificent bastard royal figure who is a modernist and reformer (and very much into freedom of speech and religion) for his time but also likes to invade various territories for fun and profit? Would you like a fandom with interesting, layered female characters, including a woman who becomes Empress despite all of Europe thinking this is hilarious being that she's a WOMAN?
Let me introduce you to Frederick the Great / Friedrich II / "Fritz" fandom. Boy/adolescent Fritz is beaten and publicly humiliated by his father (Friedrich Wilhelm), and his boyfriend (Peter Keith) is deported when his father catches them. He falls in love again, and he and his new boyfriend (Hans Hermann von Katte) try to escape, but dad catches them and executes Katte -- and orders Fritz to watch (though evidence seems to show that Fritz was not in fact made to watch). Katte's last words are some variation on, "I die for you with joy in my heart!"
Fritz earns his freedom by marrying a woman (Elisabeth Christine), whom he sees... approximately once a year, for dinner. He eventually becomes king when his father dies, at which point he turns out to be pretty much a spectacularly magnificent bastard. On one hand, Voltaire reports on Fritz' liberal tendencies that he said, "In this country, there is freedom of conscience and penis." On the other hand, Fritz also goes around breaking treaties and invading people on paper-thin and/or really zero justification. Hilariously, he first writes the Anti-Machiavel, basically saying "You should definitely positively not break treaties and invade other people just because you can," and then a whole three months later invades Maria Theresia's province of Silesia, just because he can. (Later he tells his people to go look for a historical claim to Silesia, which they find.) Maria Theresia, meanwhile, fights three wars with Fritz, after which he gets to keep Silesia.
On the family front, Fritz goes on to treat his brothers... in a way rather reminiscent of the way his father treated him. He doesn't execute anyone's lover, but after a bunch of emotional beating up of his brother August Wilhelm, August Wilhelm dies of what everyone else in the family -- except Fritz -- thinks is a broken heart. (It may have been porphyria.) Yeah, lots of dysfunctional family in this fandom.
And I haven't even gotten into the snarky Voltaire/Fritz frenemy ship, culminating in Voltaire trolling the world by fabricating mean stories about his ex which weren't realized to be fabrications for two hundred years! Or his brother Heinrich who had a love/hate relationship with Fritz and was BFF's with Catherine the Great!
WHERE CAN I FIND IT? (optional):
The best primer for this for a total beginner is probably