FANDOM NAME: 18th Century CE Frederician RPF WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Would you like a fandom with all kinds of canon slash tropes (mean abusive dad who might have been suppressing his own slashy tendencies, tragic love story with loyal best friend)? Would you like a fandom about a magnificent bastard royal figure who is a modernist and reformer (and very much into freedom of speech and religion) for his time but also likes to invade various territories for fun and profit? Would you like a fandom with interesting, layered female characters, including a woman who becomes Empress despite all of Europe thinking this is hilarious being that she's a WOMAN?
Let me introduce you to Frederick the Great / Friedrich II / "Fritz" fandom! Boy/adolescent Fritz is beaten and publicly humiliated by his father (Friedrich Wilhelm), and his boyfriend (Peter Keith) is deported when his father catches them. He falls in love again, and he and his new boyfriend (Hans Hermann von Katte) try to escape, but dad catches them and executes Katte in front of Fritz's very eyes. Katte's last words are some variation on, "I die for you with joy in my heart!"
Fritz earns his freedom by marrying a woman (Elisabeth Christine), whom he sees... approximately once a year, for dinner. He eventually becomes king when his father dies, at which point he turns out to be pretty much a spectacularly magnificent bastard. On one hand, Voltaire reports on Fritz' liberal tendencies that he said, "In this country, there is freedom of conscience and penis." On the other hand, Fritz also goes around breaking treaties and invading people on paper-thin and/or really zero justification. Hilariously, he first writes the Anti-Machiavel, basically saying "You should definitely positively not break treaties and invade other people just because you can," and then a whole three months later invades Maria Theresia's province of Silesia, just because he can. (Later he tells his people to go look for a historical claim to Silesia, which they find.)
Maria Theresia, meanwhile, fights three wars with Fritz, after which he gets to keep Silesia. Also during which she meets with Fritz' favorite sister (and former ally against their father) Wilhelmine, thus leading to Fritz getting upset and a three-year estrangement between Fritz and Wilhelmine (!) So there's lots of family drama in this fandom too, and female friendship!
And I haven't even gotten into the snarky Voltaire/Fritz frenemy ship!
WHERE CAN I FIND IT? (optional): The best primer for this for a total beginner is probably selenak's primer on this as a TV show, complete with imagined fanon responses.selenak and mildred_of_midgard have been gracious enough to welcome me to their fandom by telling me all kinds of wacky stories about it; I have links here, including links to Wilhelmine's memoirs. A hilarious summary of the War of the Austrian Succession is here. Parent up twice for an explanation of the "Pragmatic Sanction."
18th Century CE Frederician RPF
WHAT MAKES IT GREAT: Would you like a fandom with all kinds of canon slash tropes (mean abusive dad who might have been suppressing his own slashy tendencies, tragic love story with loyal best friend)? Would you like a fandom about a magnificent bastard royal figure who is a modernist and reformer (and very much into freedom of speech and religion) for his time but also likes to invade various territories for fun and profit? Would you like a fandom with interesting, layered female characters, including a woman who becomes Empress despite all of Europe thinking this is hilarious being that she's a WOMAN?
Let me introduce you to Frederick the Great / Friedrich II / "Fritz" fandom! Boy/adolescent Fritz is beaten and publicly humiliated by his father (Friedrich Wilhelm), and his boyfriend (Peter Keith) is deported when his father catches them. He falls in love again, and he and his new boyfriend (Hans Hermann von Katte) try to escape, but dad catches them and executes Katte in front of Fritz's very eyes. Katte's last words are some variation on, "I die for you with joy in my heart!"
Fritz earns his freedom by marrying a woman (Elisabeth Christine), whom he sees... approximately once a year, for dinner. He eventually becomes king when his father dies, at which point he turns out to be pretty much a spectacularly magnificent bastard. On one hand, Voltaire reports on Fritz' liberal tendencies that he said, "In this country, there is freedom of conscience and penis." On the other hand, Fritz also goes around breaking treaties and invading people on paper-thin and/or really zero justification. Hilariously, he first writes the Anti-Machiavel, basically saying "You should definitely positively not break treaties and invade other people just because you can," and then a whole three months later invades Maria Theresia's province of Silesia, just because he can. (Later he tells his people to go look for a historical claim to Silesia, which they find.)
Maria Theresia, meanwhile, fights three wars with Fritz, after which he gets to keep Silesia. Also during which she meets with Fritz' favorite sister (and former ally against their father) Wilhelmine, thus leading to Fritz getting upset and a three-year estrangement between Fritz and Wilhelmine (!) So there's lots of family drama in this fandom too, and female friendship!
And I haven't even gotten into the snarky Voltaire/Fritz frenemy ship!
WHERE CAN I FIND IT? (optional):
The best primer for this for a total beginner is probably
A hilarious summary of the War of the Austrian Succession is here. Parent up twice for an explanation of the "Pragmatic Sanction."
[Many thanks to