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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![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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:
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.
Re: The Adventure of the Time-Traveling Valet - and Heinrich/Grind
However, on a more serious note I agree the shock of Nazi propaganda and the Holocaust would do it. If you want to have a look at how Nazi propaganda using Fritz looked like, check out this scene of a vile example in question if you can bear to. It's from Der Große König, aka the "keep fighting, Germans, never mind that setback in Russia!" propaganda film, directed by Veit Harlan, who was a very efficient director for melodrama who also had started a second line in propaganda movies. (Jud Süß was the other.) Harlan had good actors at his disposal (including Otto Gebühr, who was the most popular Fritz actor of his day and had been since Weimar Republic movies made him loved in the role), and the whole thing is effective propaganda because it does use just enough recognizable historical elements to work on people vaguely remembering their school lessons while at the same time utterly distorting them. The scene in question, which is set post-Kunersdorf, goes roughly thusly:
Heinrich: ...we're fighting other Germans here. Do you really want the HRE to go?
Fritz: The HRE is a bankrupt institution which has to go. I'm all for German unity, but the Habsburgs have lost their right to lead it by promoting "many blooded" people in their empire along with Germans. It's a shame we've got to fight other Germans in order that a future Empire led by Germans can be founded, but historical destiny must unfold. BTW, you're now an ex Generalissimus, I'm taking command back. Shame we don't get along better, Heinrich.
Heinrich: Is if you'd ever had fraternal feelings in your life. ("Wann hätten Sie je brüderliche Gefühle gehabt" isn't paraphrase but a direct quote.
Fritz: *burns last will*: If I'd died at Kunersdorf, this document would have made you regent, I'd have entrusted it all to you. Good thing I didn't.
Heinrich *looking at the burning document*: You'd known all about shoving a brother aside and destroying him.
Fritz: I am A Great Man Of History, and you're those elements in the army who dare to doubt Great Men And Their Strategies. Watch me chew out my other generals next.
Generals: Your Majesty, we're screwed and should sue for peace.
Fritz: *asks all the famous generals, from Seydlitz to Ziethen, and not one is ready to side with him on continuing the fight*
Fritz: You're all wrong, and I'm right. We'll fight on. History will prove me right.
The Worst Fanboys, Watching: Harry Truman is totally going to write that fanboy letter any time now...
Re: The Adventure of the Time-Traveling Valet - and Heinrich/Grind
Haha, okay, that I could see! That would be awesome: Fritz being "nice" canonically and not involving a 180 from his normal personality.
Was totally thinking of Otto Gebühr and Stalingrad, yes. Ugh. Fucking worst fanboys. I endorse your crackfic idea!
Fritz, FW2, and A Christmas Carol
Uh huh. I don't think Fritz is upset enough about Jena-Auerstedt to reverse his treatment of FW2.
Also, in pasting your summary of FW2 to Rheinsberg this morning, I was reminded that you'd commented on the difference in the English and German wiki treatments of FW2. Did you notice the banner on the English one reading, "This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. The specific problem is: tendentious bias towards militaristic evaluation of frederick william"?
Fritz: That's my tendentious bias, thank you very much. Can I interest you in my opinion on my no-good, money-wasting, flute-playing grandfather?
Re: Fritz, FW2, and A Christmas Carol
BTW, while Voltaire writing to Madame Denis he's got a soft spot for Fritz' badmouthed Granddad while proofreading the Histoire de la Maison de Brandenburg is inevitably one of the doctored 1750 - 1753 letters, I can't see any advantage in him inventing that observation post facto, so I'm guessing that observation was one he actually made back in the day. And I do wonder how Fritz reacted...
Re: The Adventure of the Time-Traveling Valet - and Heinrich/Grind
Der Große König: wow and :( I can see how this could have been effective propaganda :(