cahn | Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 22 (or: Yuletide 2020 edition)

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Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 22 (or: Yuletide 2020 edition)

ETA: Whoops, I missed my cue -- this might as well be the next discussion post, I guess! :)

This is about the fic I didn't author (I have another reveals post for the fics I did author).

So my goal this Yuletide was NOT to write any historical fandom (because hard!) and just enjoy the excellent stuff that other people wrote. And... that sort of happened? I didn't end up authoring anything history-intensive? Buuuuut I ended up spending a lot more time than I did on any of my own fics working with

mildred_of_midgard on her fic, which she was worried about being able to pull off because she had had this completely insane idea to write a long casefic about Frederick the Great that every time I turned around had another twist put in :P :) She supplied me with what we called a "rough opal in matrix" bus pass casefic, and I cut away the matrix that remained and in some cases carved the opal -- that is to say, writing additional text for some of the scenes, what we liked to call "putting in feels," and in at least two cases entirely rewriting and/or restructuring the scene she'd written. She didn't always keep what I wrote (which we'd agreed upon in the beginning), but when she did (which was most of the time :) ) she then went in and rewrote/restructured what I put in to wordsmith (some of the words I gave her were really rough) and match her style, adding even more scenes -- that is, polishing it up and adding some gold and diamonds -- and voila, a beautiful pendant, I mean, story :)

I'm really proud of it and also it was really fun and also what I could handle this year, especially because mildred did all the parts I thought were hard and also wrote all the parts involving actual history or subtle AU before I was brought in so I didn't actually have to know historical stuff (though I guess I will never forget the battle of Leuthen now), and took full responsibility for how the whole thing turned out, so all I had to do was be like "Here, I'll write some rough feels for you for this scene!" The funny part was that I would often then write a paragraph justifying why I *had* to write the scene the way I did, and more likely than not mildred would be like, "yeah, I was sure you would do that, of course it should be written like that." (The most glaring example of this was where I inserted the Letter of Doom at the climax. I was worried there was some reason she didn't want it there, but she said, no, she just didn't have time to put it in herself and was just trusting me to do that :) ) She started jokingly calling me her "other self," to which I replied that it was with 1000% less angst and frustration -- as Frederick the Great's brother was his "other self" (which actually comes up in the fic) that he could trust to do all kinds of competent things, but they had a relationship that was, um, fraught? radioactive? Whereas this was just fun :)

Mildred did so much more than I did (we estimated a 90%/10% word ratio, not even counting the part where she wordsmithed a lot of my text) that I felt very uncomfortable being listed as a co-author, but hey, ~3000 words is a respectable Yuletide fic length :)

Yet They Grind Exceedingly Small (30384 words) by mildred_of_midgard
Chapters: 5/5
Fandom: 18th Century CE RPF, Historical RPF
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Relationships: Anna Amalie von Preußen & Wilhelmine von Preußen, Anna Amalie von Preußen & Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig von Preußen, Wilhelmine von Preußen & Elisabeth Friederike Sophie von Brandenburg-Bayreuth, Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great & Wilhelmine von Preußen | Wilhelmine of Prussia
Characters: Anna Amalie von Preußen (1723-1787), Wilhelmine von Preußen | Wilhelmine of Prussia (1709-1758), Friedrich Heinrich Ludwig von Preußen | Henry of Prussia (1726-1802), Elisabeth Friederike Sophie von Brandenburg-Bayreuth (1732-1780), Wilhelmine von Hesse-Kassel (1726-1808), August Wilhelm von Preußen | Augustus William of Prussia (1722-1758), Alcmene 1 | Frederick the Great's Italian Greyhound, Voltaire (Writer), Friedrich II von Preußen | Frederick the Great
Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Dysfunctional Family, Suicide, Alternate Universe - Dark, Siblings, Canon-Typical Violence, Mystery, Tide of History Challenge
Summary:

January 1758. Prince William is dead, some say of a broken heart. Frederick wants to absolve himself of blame for William's death. Henry schemes to end the Third Silesian War on his terms. Amalie and Wilhelmine team up to find out what really happened to their brother. Alcmene just wants to be told she's a good dog.

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Okay, I achieved screencaps. Have some illustrations of the Fritzian parts of the above.

Here are Fritz and Fredersdorf in front of Sanssouci

Here they are in a room supposedly Fritz' audience room. Actually, now that I can look closer at the screen caps, I can see it's not even in the Neue Kammern, it's in the Neuer Palais, which definitely did not exist yet in early 1756 when this is supposed to take place: the great ball room. (Note the Silesian marble!)

Fredersdorf hires a new spy, OC Max de Simoni:

Have sex for Prussia!

Simoni uncovered the Diplomatic Revolution. This is somewhat worrying for our Prussian duo:

For all I make fun of this series and it's massive liberties, they did do their research. Fritz is showing snuffing repeatedly, and note the dogs in the background here:

Now this is a rather good approximation of how Fritz' study might have looked like before it was renovated in his successor's time. This is the scene when he's duetting with hot Swiss spy Simoni.

Since Fritz has taken all the Saxon soldiers and pressed them into his army, August III. sends a messenger asking whether he can at least have his honor guard back when he retreats to Warsaw. Fritz, somewhat preoccupied with his dog, says no.

My dog is more interesting than your message

Now for the big one, the attempted assassination by chocolate scene somewhat later. First, leisure time chez Fritz:

Glasow puts the fateful cup of chocolate on the desk.

Lemme have some chocolate!

The King's love could be deadly, is all I'm saying.

This totally explains the Scourging of Saxony thereafter:

Lastly, I couldn't resist at least one screen cap not featuring our lot but Brühl (in the blue coat) and August III at Königstein, having just received the news the Austrians got defeated at Lobovitz which means they're screwed:

Awesome screenshots, thank you so much!

I feel obliged to point out what Cahn pointed out (and what I had been thinking) when the smell of opium repels her in "Grind": "Well, good, Alcmene, chocolate isn't good for dogs anyway." :P

Per internet search results: "While rarely fatal, chocolate ingestion can result in significant illness."

Poor unnamed doggie. :(

For comparison, Fritz with furry, fearsome beasts (taken from Amazon Prime "Ekaterina" video):

Since they're a Russian breed (borzoi), I imagine they were easier for the producers to obtain. But it's still extremely wrong!!

I must stop here, alas. Am still following with glee and hope to be back in the near future.

Edited 2021-01-04 15:03 (UTC)

Re: chocolate - I know, which is why in one of my stories, Fritz regretfully declines letting his dog drink from it. Bad scriptwriters!

BTW, I still can't get screeshots from Amazon Prime, not from any of my pc browsers, not on my Ipad. Maybe it's a regional thing due to European copyright law? Then again, I can get screenshots from our public broadcast tv. Anyway - the fearsome beasts in place of the Italian Greyhounds are lol-worthy.

Yeah, it occurred to me it might be a German/European thing. *shrug*

I know, I was thinking of your story as well! Let's hope 18th century Fritz knew that chocolate was bad for dogs (I'm not sure when that was discovered).

Anyway - the fearsome beasts in place of the Italian Greyhounds are lol-worthy.

And so shaggy!

Boring work meeting multitasking ETA: Also, I don't know whether opium actually repels dogs (googling says it smells/tastes strongly bitter), but I deliberately left it ambiguous whether a second, unidentified poison (in the snuff) was involved, because mystery author copout. ;)

Edited 2021-01-04 16:47 (UTC)

OK, so, this kind of confused me even more so than the height -- I do know from mildred's notes for "Counterpoint" that at the time Fritz and Fredersdorf met, Fritz was kind of filling out and Fredersdorf was not particularly stout, so I sort of imagined that was always true?? but maybe not?? but anyway, because of this, the screenshot where Fritz is the tall skinny one and Fredersdorf is the short stout one was extremely confusing for my brain

That being said, I'm pretty impressed by how much the actor actually looks like Fritz, so I guess I can see why they went with the tall guy (lol, you know what I'm thinking of typing that)

I laughed pretty hard at the "Have sex for Prussia!" and the beatific look on Fredersdorf's face, excellent screenshotting :D

This totally explains the Scourging of Saxony thereafter:

I laughed so hard at the look you captured on Fritz's face here that my 10-year-old demanded to know what I was laughing at and I showed it to her; she also thought it was funny (although she just knows Frederick the Great as "that person mom seems to talk about a lot for some reason")

Re: Fritz and Fredersdorf's respective figures - actually your original impression was correct, going by what we know. Fritz didn't become thin until the 7 Years war, where he really had a major weight loss. (He remained thin thereafter.) Fredersdorf, otoh, if you compare the two portraits we have, the one from my icon to this one from later in his life seems to have lost some weight, if anything, though nothing as dramatic as Fritz pre 7 Years War to Fritz post 7 Years War. Meaning: in early 1756, when these scenes take place, their weights are wrong for the characters. But yes, the Fritz actor does look very much like him anyway.

I'm glad my evil intentions in making these screenshots worked, and made you laugh. :)

I had not picked up on Fredersdorf losing weight, that's interesting. I've always imagined he put some weight on after 1732, when moving in with the Crown Prince and the making-up-for-lost-time table Fritz set. And of course we have no Fredersdorf paintings from before then to tell us, so that's just my headcanon. He might have been stout in 1731 when meeting Fritz! Though his age plus his peasant background plus the army plus the cost of food makes me think otherwise.

But Fredersdorf losing weight in his later years, probably related to his health issues, is interesting. Noted for fic purposes!

cahn, you remembered correctly, that Fritz starts commenting on putting on weight in 1731, at Küstrin. In late 1756, when the war started, he decides that food is for weaklings, and his loved ones start freaking out, as described by this thread. By 1758, Catt is startled by the change from when he last saw Fritz in 1755.

Apropos your lovely icon post: the more often I see this version of him, the more I like it. Even if he's very gaunt and very tall and doesn't have blue eyes.

One thing I've been wondering, though - is that flute authentic? I know the colour is, but it seems quite large. (Thinking about it, as does the book. As I've learned, Fritz liked his octavos.)

While I doubt they let the film people use one of Fritz' rl flutes (aka the one still on exhibition in Sanssouci), my guess is that they did go to the trouble of having someone create an accurate reproduction. As far as I recall, the size fits what I've seen from this kind of 18th century traverse flute. (Hence the need to take the flute apart for transport.)

Re: Arno W. as Fritz - I know what you mean. :) The gauntness can be handwaved since an icon doesn't say this is before and early in the 7 Years War, not in the later stages and after when he actually was gaunt, and his tallness comes across when he's next to other people, which except for the Fredersdorf one he's not in the icons.) (Otoh you really see that the Italian greyhounds were pets, not hunting or attack dogs, definitely small enough to be put under one's coat in the winter...)

Yes, the eye color has been bugging me! Even more than the height, lol. (The gauntness a little bit, though it does look like him starting a couple years later, so there's that.)

ngl, the tallness bothers me, especially in the pic where he's next to Fredersdorf-the-short, lol. But lol, until you said it I didn't even notice he didn't have blue eyes!

THE EYES. THEY'RE ALL WRONG. *is bugged* :P

These are great! Sorry I was so busy when you posted this write-up and these screenshots. I feel like maybe the salon with its knowledge of this level of detail was not the target audience for this series. ;) I love watching you go, "That's the Neues Palais! (Note the Silesian marble.) This is all kinds of wrong!"

Fredersdorf's facial expression is pure gold, that's hilarious.

And yes, wow, I see what you mean about Sanssouci needing a paint job back in the day. Well, it probably needed one toward the end of Fritz's life anyway. ;)

The King's love could be deadly, is all I'm saying.

For those who don't recognize this line, it's a quote from biographer Burgdorf, reviewed by Selena here.

Fritz's facial expression, OMG! Saxony, you are going to GET IT. These are great, thank you. :) And they made wonderful icons!

And yes, wow, I see what you mean about Sanssouci needing a paint job back in the day. Well, it probably needed one toward the end of Fritz's life anyway. ;)

Definitely, but not yet in early 1756! Incidentally, it didn't escape my notice they never show the entirety of Pillnitz, either, though they keep showing the (indeed very beautiful) waterfront with the stairs, which makes me conclude that Pillnitz used to look run down in the 1980s, too, not like today when it is restored to full beauty.

Trust you to recognize Burgdorf's pretentious line in its full pretentious glory. :)

Fritz's facial expression, OMG! Saxony, you are going to GET IT.

Yes indeed. That's why Nadasty made the right call when returning Biche to Fritz unharmed instead of letting his wife keep her. Who knows whether a single Pandur would have survived otherwise!

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Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 22 (or: Yuletide 2020 edition)

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