Oh, but ... would Wilhelmine get more or less suspicious letters from France all of a sudden?
Oh, absolutely. Also, if Fritz is okay with using Wilhelmine as for attempts at backchannel diplomacy in the 7 Years War, including even an offer of bribery to the Marquise de Pompadour, she must have had French connections in addition to Voltaire. Mind you, these might have been forged rather recently during her months in France during her big journey.
Letters would have the big benefit of being in Fritz' handwriting, so Wilhelmine would know it was really him.
the brothers already had their Nimrod (he's even called that occasionally between Fritz and AW) and since he clearly had the steadiest friendship with Fritz (:PPP), I don't know why Heinrich would have chosen it as a thing to annoy Fritz with, having proof that it wouldn't work anyway right in front of him.
LOL. You speak truth.
if there's some kind of soul to be switched (could get complicated - or philosophically interesting! - for Fritz for entirely different reasons)
True, though I think he did believe there was a soul, just not that it was immortal. Otoh if it can be switched, there are actually long term implications possible for immortality, if you go with a horror scenario. (The villains of a Tad Williams novel have a scheme like this, I think, and also those of Dollhouse, i.e. body hopping as a way to escape death.) Mind you, I don't think Fritz would want that kind of immortality, and also would be just as likely to suspect an evil plot to oust him from power. You have a point about cadence and manner of speech, but I'm instinctively averse to dogs able to sense souls. There's an M.M. Kaye novel where a character quotes the "children and dogs always sense a good person" saying and the author is scathing about it, not least because in that case the person deemed good by the child and the dog in question is actually the villain of the story, and I must admit I sort of imprinted on that.
This said: fanfic allows the author absolute power over the rules, and if one rule is that the dog can sense the true identity of a soul, then so be it!
Something else: both Fritz and Heinrich were rationalists, so their first instinct to waking up in each other's bodies would be to assume it's a dream, possibly a fever dream if they're ill, and then the disquieting suspicion they might have gone insane. So in order to get to the fun part of a body switching tale, one would give them each an experience to assure them this is real as quickly as possible.
I don't think Fritz would want that kind of immortality
Oh, me neither.
suspect an evil plot to oust him from power
Ha. I don't actually know Freaky Friday and have no idea what's the cause there, but somebody setting this in motion for political reasons sounds rather intriguing - either as a successful switch that turns out differently than expected, or as a "gone wrong" version where he's switched with a different person than intended.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
Re: Freaky Friday in Frederician Times
Date: 2021-04-25 07:39 am (UTC)Oh, absolutely. Also, if Fritz is okay with using Wilhelmine as for attempts at backchannel diplomacy in the 7 Years War, including even an offer of bribery to the Marquise de Pompadour, she must have had French connections in addition to Voltaire. Mind you, these might have been forged rather recently during her months in France during her big journey.
Letters would have the big benefit of being in Fritz' handwriting, so Wilhelmine would know it was really him.
the brothers already had their Nimrod (he's even called that occasionally between Fritz and AW) and since he clearly had the steadiest friendship with Fritz (:PPP), I don't know why Heinrich would have chosen it as a thing to annoy Fritz with, having proof that it wouldn't work anyway right in front of him.
LOL. You speak truth.
if there's some kind of soul to be switched (could get complicated - or philosophically interesting! - for Fritz for entirely different reasons)
True, though I think he did believe there was a soul, just not that it was immortal. Otoh if it can be switched, there are actually long term implications possible for immortality, if you go with a horror scenario. (The villains of a Tad Williams novel have a scheme like this, I think, and also those of Dollhouse, i.e. body hopping as a way to escape death.) Mind you, I don't think Fritz would want that kind of immortality, and also would be just as likely to suspect an evil plot to oust him from power. You have a point about cadence and manner of speech, but I'm instinctively averse to dogs able to sense souls. There's an M.M. Kaye novel where a character quotes the "children and dogs always sense a good person" saying and the author is scathing about it, not least because in that case the person deemed good by the child and the dog in question is actually the villain of the story, and I must admit I sort of imprinted on that.
This said: fanfic allows the author absolute power over the rules, and if one rule is that the dog can sense the true identity of a soul, then so be it!
Something else: both Fritz and Heinrich were rationalists, so their first instinct to waking up in each other's bodies would be to assume it's a dream, possibly a fever dream if they're ill, and then the disquieting suspicion they might have gone insane. So in order to get to the fun part of a body switching tale, one would give them each an experience to assure them this is real as quickly as possible.
Re: Freaky Friday in Frederician Times
Date: 2021-04-25 07:01 pm (UTC)Oh, me neither.
suspect an evil plot to oust him from power
Ha. I don't actually know Freaky Friday and have no idea what's the cause there, but somebody setting this in motion for political reasons sounds rather intriguing - either as a successful switch that turns out differently than expected, or as a "gone wrong" version where he's switched with a different person than intended.