18th-Century Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 35

[cahn]

In the previous post Charles II found AITA:

Look, I, m, believe in live and let live. (And in not going on my travels again. Had enough of that to last a life time.) Why can't everyone else around me be more chill? Instead, my wife refuses to employ my girlfriend, my girlfriend won't budge and accept another office, my brother is set on a course to piss off everyone (he WILL go on his travels again), and my oldest kid shows signs of wanting my job which is just not on, sorry to say. And don't get me started about Mom (thank God she's living abroad). What am I doing wrong? AITA?

Comments

Re: Philippe and Liselotte gossip

[selenak]

I don‘t recall anything about Liselotte‘s (full) brother, either (only about the half siblings a bit, since her fave was half-brother Carl-Lutz, and half sisters Amelie and Luise were the ones getting the „…there‘d be only ten men left for love“ reply), so I don‘t have more information than you do, but I note that unlike Liselotte, he didn‘t get the benefit of being raised by Sophie for years far away from his warring parents, which might have had something to do with his aversion to marital sex?

And ah yes, the tale of the rosary and medals. :) But hey, it seems to have worked for Philippe. After all, if one counts all the pregnancies from both Minette and Liselotte, he had successfully fruitful intercourse with them at least eleven times, and since I doubt it was only eleven given the odds that every bit of marital sex resulted in a pregnancy, probably more often than that.

(In Versailles, the way Liselotte gets Philippe to successfully have sex with her isn‘t via religious kink but roleplaying and indulging his fantasies of ravishing another soldier after battle. Methinks the producers knew that if they brought out rosaries and medals, they‘d have lost their viewership right then. *g*)

Re: Philippe and Liselotte gossip

[mildred_of_midgard]

Methinks the producers knew that if they brought out rosaries and medals, they‘d have lost their viewership right then. *g*)

*g*

I wouldn't be offended on religious grounds, but I would definitely find it orders of magnitude less sexy!

roleplaying and indulging his fantasies of ravishing another soldier after battle.

Actually kinda hot?

Re: Philippe and Liselotte gossip

[selenak]

Oh, it was definitely direct as hot. (Plus the actors on that show are ridiculously attractive.) Mind you, you had to suspend your disbelief that Liselotte the virgin would figure out on her own that the way to get Philippe, err, going was to play out a sexual fantasy of his, but as far as historical unlikelihoods in Versailles are concerned, that's actually a really minor one compared with the rest. Also one thing the show always did very well was handling Philippe's secuality. He doesn't become straight after sex with Liselotte. The Chevalier remains his primary love interest, even when they're on the outs. Any flings he has are with other men. That show!Philippe additionally developes feelings for Liselotte isn't because they've managed to succesfully have sex a few times but because she accepts him the way he is and is possibly his first true friend (as opposed to lover) on the show. (Simultanously, she and the Chevalier develop their own rivalry-to-friendship arc.) There is never any implication show!Philippe would or should be happier in a heterosexual relationship (when he's on the outs with the Chevalier he's clearly miserable), and strictly within the show universe, the Philippe-Chevalier-Liselotte triad the show ends with is possibly the most successful love relationship of the entire three seasons.