cahn: (Default)
cahn ([personal profile] cahn) wrote2021-11-06 07:29 am
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18th-Century Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 32

:) Still talking about Charles XII of Sweden / the Great Northern War and the Stuarts and the Jacobites, among other things!
mildred_of_midgard: (Default)

Re: News from 1740

[personal profile] mildred_of_midgard 2021-11-20 06:10 pm (UTC)(link)
Giuliano Dami: How come I got the bad press for the same job?

Exactly what I was thinking when I read [personal profile] felis's finding!

I don't think Peter, from what we know of him, would have been the type to take the initiative, do something like offer a hug.

100% agree. This is the kind of thing Katte and Keyserlingk would have been more likely to do. (Though after 10 years in exile, I doubt Katte offers the hug up straightaway--but I think he's more overt in displaying his enthusiasm and affection, which maybe gives Fritz some warm and fuzzies, which gets them into a positive feedback loop. Where I think Fritz and Peter got into a negative feedback loop, where the less enthusiasm they see from the other person, the more likely they are to assume the worst and to dial down their own enthusiasm accordingly. :()

But as we've seen, there may have been some friction from the beginning. Especially since these are the same two that will lead to Fritz saying, just a year and a bit later, "Okay, give him a raise and then maybe he'll give me some peace."

Peter Keith: Reserved, maybe, but not your doormat.

(Also, this is part of what I'm working into my account of how Katte and Peter in AU!exile hit it off: Peter, like Fritz, craves affection and warmth from the other party, and is too reserved/insecure enough to be the initiate radiating warmth without knowing how it's going to be received. But he responds well once it's given, and Katte gives it.)

And if his looking for cues of how to behave with this new version of Fritz came across as poentially calculating to Fritz the paranoid, it would have made him even more formal.

Also very true, and in keeping with the bad feedback loop.