Historical Characters, Including Frederick the Great, Discussion Post 42

[cahn]

Last post, we had (among other things) Danish kings and their favorites; Louis XIV and Philippe d'Orléans; reviews of a very shippy book about Katte, a bad Jacobite novel, and a great book about clothing; a fic about Émilie du Châtelet and Voltaire; and a review of a set of entertaining Youtube history videos about Frederick the Great.

Comments

Re: Your Mission: Composing a Manifesto

[selenak]

Seconding the question about Patroclus. I mean, both he and Achille are obviously very competent at fighting, and leading the Myrmidons into battle, but of the two, Achilles is even more so. Patroclus comes across as emotionally more stable, yes, but as you say, compared to Achilles, I dare say most of the Trojan War involved Greeks do. I would have to look up Briseis' praise for Patroclus after his death again to check what he's praised for beyond being nice to her, I guess.

(Admittedly: not a fan of Achilles/Patroclos, their existence as one of the oldest slash pairings not withstanding.)

I guess Alexander/Hephaistion counts, speaking of a pairing who fanboyed Achilles/Patroclos, since Hephaistion isn't just more stable than Alexander and good at fighting but apparantly also at general right-hand-maning of an ever enlarging Empire and Alexander completely folds after his death.

Anyway, we can always invent a trope, and I can change Fritz/Fredersdorf's to Competent Leader/Hypercompetent Sidekick - as long as we're not into Bertie Wooster and Jeeves territory, so people don't complain about being misled as to what to expect. :)