Dear Yuletide Writer
thank you so much for creating a story for me! I hope you'll enjoy the experience and appreciate the work you're doing - writing a story in a tiny fandom we share is absolutely lovely, and I'm guaranteed to be pleased by your gift, so don't fret. My prompts are just that, prompts, not absolutes; if you have an idea that doesn't fit with any of them, but features (some of) the characters I asked for, I'll love it with added joyful surprise.
General DNWs:
A/B/O - if you want to write a werewolf AU for any of the canons I nominated, be my guest, but I'm really not into this particular type of story -, infantilisation, golden showers.
General likes:
character exploration, characters helping each other recover from trauma, messed up and/or co-dependent family relationships, witty banter, friendship against the odds, the occasional light moment in a darker story or conversely some serious character stuff thrown into a comedy fic.
On to the fandoms.
18th Century Frederician RPF
Here the characters I requested are an "or" rather than an "and", i.e. you don't have to put them all in the story. Anything focused on any of them will make me happy, and the prompts are just suggestions; if you have a story idea that's different from any of them, go head! But if you are looking for some inspiration, here are some ideas:
Wilhelmine:
- The September 1746 lunch with Maria Theresia that was the last straw bringing the enstrangement between her and her favourite brother to a climax: how did that go? What did they talk (and not talk) about? Bonus point if you can work in how Wilhelmine ended up doing a portrait of MT afterwards.
- Wilhelmine and Amalie, the oldest and youngest sister of a big family, so far apart in age that they could technically have been mother and daughter; they were also the two with the most difficult relationships with their mother, having a very different perspective on her than their brothers, and possibly the only people who could empathize with each other on this. They both were very musically gifted, and Amalie became Fritz' favourite sister after Wilhelmine's death. In a way, Amalie was a might have been for Wilhelmine: if she hadn't married but had remained at her brother's court (which included the torn loyalties when it came to their other brothers, which was more a thing for the present Amalie than for the absent Wilhelmine. Amalie was the first sibling to learn of Wilhelmine's death and who had to tell everyone else, after a year where she'd already witnessed the deaths of brother Wilhelm and of their mother. Any take on what this relationship between sisters was like (we're free to speculate since only a very few letters survive, but we do now they corresponded far more) would make me happy, from either sister's pov.
- Wilhelmine's first visit to Berlin after the big argument, making the reconciliation with Fritz final; it had been a surprise visit on her part, courtesy of one of Elisabeth Christine's ladies-in-waiting she'd met while taking the waters and with whom she'd returned. Please give me the meeting(s), the hugs, all the emotions on both sides - all the sibling hurt/comfort!
Heinrich:
- canon divergent AU where he actually takes Steuben up on his somewhat mad "Heinrich for King of the new US!" idea, travels to the ex-colonies and meets your Founding Fathers of choice while Steuben as his campaign manager tries to convince everyone that a gay Francophile Hohenzollern prince, cousin to the guy they've just become independent of, is just the ticket for head of state. Whether Heinrich actually becomes King Henry I. of America or goes home to Rheinsberg is up to you, I'm mainly interested in Heinrich & Founding Fathers (and -Mothers, if you like) interaction
- the relationship with Lehndorff: how they went from friends to friends-with-benefits in the year that Heinrich got married, or conversely, Lehndorff after the death of his first wife (and all his children with her) travels with Heinrich in the Netherlands (which was also Heinrich's first trip outside of Prussia in a non-military capacity); this pairing is just made for hurt/comfort
- the Friedrich-and-Joseph encounter at Neisse, from Heinrich's perspective (as he was also present); what went through his head as Fritz met his most high rnaking fanboy who was also the son of their arch enemy ? Did he already see that Joseph's brand of fannishness was of the "want to compete" type rather of the "I'll give you everything" type (as with Peter III)? Was he just irritated by the adoration? What did he think of that very Fritzian stunt of the Prussian delegation wearing Austrian white uniforms, and the justification? Was he already making plans for his trip to see Catherine in Russia? You decide.
Ensemble:
- The Hohenzollern Wusterhausen family reunion of doom during Ulrike's visit in 1770. Give me all the glorious dysfunctionality and sibling bickering!
- the Strassbourg trip of 1740, starring Fritz, August Wilhelm, Fredersdorf and Algarotti; whether you choose just one event in it (say, the outing/arrest), or choose to cover everything from them dropping by in Bayreuth at Wilhelmine's first to the aftermath where Fritz would meet Voltaire at Cleves, whether you do it as crack fic or play it straight, that trip is just made for comedy fiction.
This is also my prompt for August Wilhelm, as I propose his perspective might be the one most made for comedy (just how much or little does he notice of the Fredersdorf-Fritz and Algarotti-Fritz dynamics?), while also offering a chance to show his relationship with Older Brother at its best, before things go strained.
Circle of Voltaire RPF
- or, the fandom formerly known as Enlightenment RPF. :) Here, too, the characters I requested are requested in an "or" manner, you don't have to put them all in the same story.
Émilie du Chatelet: anything, really, but here are a few possibilities
- young Émilie the card shark making money to finance books (I don't care whether it's apocryphal, this is fiction, after all)
- Émilie's decision to actually live with Voltaire at Cirey (which is a different thing from taking him as a lover) and giving up Paris (in a world were being at court and being near the King was regarded as essential for the nobility) in favor of a self-created (temporary) Utopia of literature and science in the countryside: this was by no means a given decision and would have been regarded as scandalous to insane by the majority of noblewomen in her position. Show me her decision-making progress
- Émilie, during her last time in Versailles, talking with the Marquise du Pompadour; they were both smart women whose rise against the odds earned them hatred as much as adoration, and the former Mademoiselle Poisson was, like Voltaire, a product of the middle class (while Émilie was old nobility), who now was on top of the social order of their world - but also completely dependent her relationship with the King for being so, while Émilie had by then created a name for herself that wasn't dependent on Voltaire anymore, and would have started her great Newton translation already
-Émilie - who had wanted to visit England but never actually did - meets that experienced English traveller Lady Mary Wortley-Montagu, en route from England to Italy. Again, two controversial, smart women, who shared some friends but who as far as we know did not meet, which is just what fiction is for. Lady Mary was older, more experienced, but also in the full flush of a middle-aged amour fou, and unrequited love at that. For all the controversy she caused, she had never published under her own name (nor would she until the end of her life), sticking to the rules for noblewomen in this, whereas Émilie had done just this. Otoh, Émilie kept other conventions till the end of her life (her husband as the "official" father of her last child, for example). How far do you go, where do you draw lines for yourself, these could be topics for them to discuss.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
- aside from the Émiilie prompt, see above:
- the relationship with Lord Hervey: starts out as two witty people hitting it off, gets baptism under fire when Alexander Pope attacks them both and they attack back, goes through its crisis when they both fall for the same man (Algarotti) and miraculously survives through the rest of their lives. She told his son he was the only man whom she trusted completely (and also that they were never lovers). Not unjustifiedly so, since the same Hervey who wrote one of the most maliciously entertaining trashy tell all memoirs of their time about the royal family kept absolutely mum about Lady Mary's passion for Algarotti, even when they were competing for him, and successfully kept her secret so well that nobody found out until her letters to Algarotti were discovered by Byron in Venice decades later. So: perhaps just a scene, or a letter (since Lady Mary's letters to Hervey were all destroyed by her when his son returned them after Hervey's death) showing that relationship.
- Lady Mary in Italy in 1756, meeting Algarotti again; he's sick, she sees herself as old, a war in Europe (and overseas) has just started; they manage a friendship this time while also working on their respective books, looking back on their lives; this must have been when she decided to publish as herself, and I envision a bittersweet autumnal type of story.
Watchmen (TV)
I love the series, and the characters requested; consider them as an "or" request, as in: you don't have to include them all. Any of these characters as central focus will do.
Laurie: this middle-aged, cynical yet still wanting to get the job done version of Laurie is my platonic ideal of her, and any story exploring her will thrill me. Some possible ideas - which you don't have to use, if you have your own very different plot in mind, go for it!
- the further adventures of Laurie Blake and Wade Tillmann, ill adjusted detective duo. I can see Laurie sponsoring his transfer to the FBI, or, conversely, both of them going private (though not vigilante; been there, done that) as P.I.s. There's a lot of issues to be explored between them - her younger self's decision to go along with the cover-up of the mass slaughter he experienced, for starters, but also her emphatic decision not to work behind a mask/alias at some point between the original Watchmen and this, whereas who knows whether Wade can make that adjustment (even with knowing the truth now)
- Laurie and Angela: so much to talk about (yes, including Jon, but many other things). Relating to the above, again, Laurie's dislike of masks. She makes the point early on that there is no difference any more between police and vigilantes if the police is allowed to hide. (And the narrative bears her out.) But Angela - a black woman in Tulsa - has lived in a different reality from Laurie. Knowing now that the whole mask thing was part of a scheme might change he attitude, or it might not. In any case: she has family to protect, Laurie does not. If you go with Angela having now some or all of Jon's powers: Laurie is the only other one who knows what it's like to live with someone who has these kind of powers, who could help her adjust to her new reality, but Laurie is no one's idea of a therapist and prone to be acerbic, while Angela is not one to take any bs quietly.
- if you want to explore Laurie's backstory between Watchmen the comics and the start of the series, there are obvious questions - why the switch to "Blake" as surname? How did things with Dan end? (Her having Archimedes is such a neat, ambiguous detail, as is the Senator trying to blackmail her with a possible release of Dan's. Why the FBI?
Angela: the lynchpin of the show. I love her. If you want to do something post show, I'd prefer it if she does have at least some of Jon's powers (though I loved the series ending leaving it open to the viewer - fanfiction is just a different issue).
- Angela through the series is, no question about it, a cop who uses physical violence on suspects (and covers up other cops doing so). Now the series gives us several points how she got there, and her being presented with the final result, even without the "now she has superpowers" factor, gives her very good reasons for change, but what I'm curious about is this: Angela is a smart woman. She must know that even from an amoral and just pragmatic pov, the success rate of getting the truth this way isn't high, and that it is more about having power (which, given what happened when she and her family were powerless, is of course part of the attraction). Still, I'd like for her to face either someone whom she's beaten up or their family, with "well, he's/was a racist thug/I had reason to believe he could know something" not being used as an excuse by the narrative (meaning she can tell herself that, but the story itself doesn't okay it)
- Jon and Cal have quite different personalities; did Angela feel she was in love with two people in the same body, or did she manage to see them as one
- Angela and her grandfather, now that the dust has settled: so much to explore. She's been in his head, but he only knows her from a distance. Their experiences as poc cops/vigilantes in different eras, with both the differences and similarities. The pain of being an orphan through violence, of making violence your therapy, of still being able to reach out and care for other people. Some hurt/comfort for Angela and Will, even just a quiet scene or two between them, this would be lovely
Will: making him Hooded Mask and the very first superhero in this universe, and making the Tulsa massacre his origin story was such a genius idea, and I loved all the (painful, poignant) flashbacks we got. Still, there's so much potential for more. If you want to use Watchmen the comics, how did Will truly relate to the other Minutemen aside from Nelson? Did he later read Hollis Mason's memoirs? (Showing that Hollis at least had no idea who Will really was.) Did he ever consider "mentoring" a younger successor, as Hollis with Dan and Sally with Laurie?
If you want to focus just on show canon: did Will knew he was bisexual before Nelson entered his life, or was this his first m/m experience? How about afterwards? He accepted the inheritance from Nelson - did he also believe the apology, and did it even still matter at this point to him anymore? He has witnessed so much in his long life, including the civil rights movement, and later Stonewall , both after he'd given up on justice through any means other than personal violence - but still, what did this mean to him as a black and as a queer man respectively?
Vincent and Theo:
Hands down both my favourite fictional take on the Van Gogh story, and my favourite Robert Altman movie. I was thrilled to see someone had nominated it! Intense, co-dependent siblings relationships are my cup of tea, and while the movie gave me this in spades, I'm greedy and want more. A few possibilities:
- Theo making the decision to support Vincent early in the movie (and revealing the money Vincent had already received was not from their father but his): does he believe in Vincent's talent or is this purely a decision based on Vincent being his brother? Does he have any inkling on what this will mean in the long term for himself? He's the younger brother; in a conventional family structure, Vincent would have been expected to mentor and support him. How about exploring what makes Theo decide to become his brother's support system/confidant?
- when they try to live together in Paris: it's not in the movie, but supposedly one of the other post-Impressionists made a crack that it's a shame Theo wasn't a woman, otherwise he'd make the only wife able to put up with Vincent. There's some truth in that yet the movie also shows how they clash, not least because Theo still wants a part of his life that's not all Vincent, all the time (as opposed to the end of the movie, where his own breakdown into insanity comes with wanting to exclude everything that's not Vincent), and his relationship with Johanna is getting more serious. This is eventually resolved by Vincent's decision to go into the South, and my prompt question is: does Vincent do this solely for the sun and the cheap living (with the expectation of Gauguin moving in with him), or does he also want to give Theo that secretly long for space? Maybe a Vincent pov on this decision?
- outsider pov: how does Gauguin see the brothers and their relationship? He tells Vincent at one point he's lucky to have such a brother (meaning in the scene: someone who sponsors him and sends expensive painting material from Paris) , but also is both defensive and sarcastic in the scene with Theo after Vincent's breakdown. So - marks to be exploited? Two weird Dutchmen? Strangely compeling? What does he think? This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1412144.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.
General DNWs:
A/B/O - if you want to write a werewolf AU for any of the canons I nominated, be my guest, but I'm really not into this particular type of story -, infantilisation, golden showers.
General likes:
character exploration, characters helping each other recover from trauma, messed up and/or co-dependent family relationships, witty banter, friendship against the odds, the occasional light moment in a darker story or conversely some serious character stuff thrown into a comedy fic.
On to the fandoms.
18th Century Frederician RPF
Here the characters I requested are an "or" rather than an "and", i.e. you don't have to put them all in the story. Anything focused on any of them will make me happy, and the prompts are just suggestions; if you have a story idea that's different from any of them, go head! But if you are looking for some inspiration, here are some ideas:
Wilhelmine:
- The September 1746 lunch with Maria Theresia that was the last straw bringing the enstrangement between her and her favourite brother to a climax: how did that go? What did they talk (and not talk) about? Bonus point if you can work in how Wilhelmine ended up doing a portrait of MT afterwards.
- Wilhelmine and Amalie, the oldest and youngest sister of a big family, so far apart in age that they could technically have been mother and daughter; they were also the two with the most difficult relationships with their mother, having a very different perspective on her than their brothers, and possibly the only people who could empathize with each other on this. They both were very musically gifted, and Amalie became Fritz' favourite sister after Wilhelmine's death. In a way, Amalie was a might have been for Wilhelmine: if she hadn't married but had remained at her brother's court (which included the torn loyalties when it came to their other brothers, which was more a thing for the present Amalie than for the absent Wilhelmine. Amalie was the first sibling to learn of Wilhelmine's death and who had to tell everyone else, after a year where she'd already witnessed the deaths of brother Wilhelm and of their mother. Any take on what this relationship between sisters was like (we're free to speculate since only a very few letters survive, but we do now they corresponded far more) would make me happy, from either sister's pov.
- Wilhelmine's first visit to Berlin after the big argument, making the reconciliation with Fritz final; it had been a surprise visit on her part, courtesy of one of Elisabeth Christine's ladies-in-waiting she'd met while taking the waters and with whom she'd returned. Please give me the meeting(s), the hugs, all the emotions on both sides - all the sibling hurt/comfort!
Heinrich:
- canon divergent AU where he actually takes Steuben up on his somewhat mad "Heinrich for King of the new US!" idea, travels to the ex-colonies and meets your Founding Fathers of choice while Steuben as his campaign manager tries to convince everyone that a gay Francophile Hohenzollern prince, cousin to the guy they've just become independent of, is just the ticket for head of state. Whether Heinrich actually becomes King Henry I. of America or goes home to Rheinsberg is up to you, I'm mainly interested in Heinrich & Founding Fathers (and -Mothers, if you like) interaction
- the relationship with Lehndorff: how they went from friends to friends-with-benefits in the year that Heinrich got married, or conversely, Lehndorff after the death of his first wife (and all his children with her) travels with Heinrich in the Netherlands (which was also Heinrich's first trip outside of Prussia in a non-military capacity); this pairing is just made for hurt/comfort
- the Friedrich-and-Joseph encounter at Neisse, from Heinrich's perspective (as he was also present); what went through his head as Fritz met his most high rnaking fanboy who was also the son of their arch enemy ? Did he already see that Joseph's brand of fannishness was of the "want to compete" type rather of the "I'll give you everything" type (as with Peter III)? Was he just irritated by the adoration? What did he think of that very Fritzian stunt of the Prussian delegation wearing Austrian white uniforms, and the justification? Was he already making plans for his trip to see Catherine in Russia? You decide.
Ensemble:
- The Hohenzollern Wusterhausen family reunion of doom during Ulrike's visit in 1770. Give me all the glorious dysfunctionality and sibling bickering!
- the Strassbourg trip of 1740, starring Fritz, August Wilhelm, Fredersdorf and Algarotti; whether you choose just one event in it (say, the outing/arrest), or choose to cover everything from them dropping by in Bayreuth at Wilhelmine's first to the aftermath where Fritz would meet Voltaire at Cleves, whether you do it as crack fic or play it straight, that trip is just made for comedy fiction.
This is also my prompt for August Wilhelm, as I propose his perspective might be the one most made for comedy (just how much or little does he notice of the Fredersdorf-Fritz and Algarotti-Fritz dynamics?), while also offering a chance to show his relationship with Older Brother at its best, before things go strained.
Circle of Voltaire RPF
- or, the fandom formerly known as Enlightenment RPF. :) Here, too, the characters I requested are requested in an "or" manner, you don't have to put them all in the same story.
Émilie du Chatelet: anything, really, but here are a few possibilities
- young Émilie the card shark making money to finance books (I don't care whether it's apocryphal, this is fiction, after all)
- Émilie's decision to actually live with Voltaire at Cirey (which is a different thing from taking him as a lover) and giving up Paris (in a world were being at court and being near the King was regarded as essential for the nobility) in favor of a self-created (temporary) Utopia of literature and science in the countryside: this was by no means a given decision and would have been regarded as scandalous to insane by the majority of noblewomen in her position. Show me her decision-making progress
- Émilie, during her last time in Versailles, talking with the Marquise du Pompadour; they were both smart women whose rise against the odds earned them hatred as much as adoration, and the former Mademoiselle Poisson was, like Voltaire, a product of the middle class (while Émilie was old nobility), who now was on top of the social order of their world - but also completely dependent her relationship with the King for being so, while Émilie had by then created a name for herself that wasn't dependent on Voltaire anymore, and would have started her great Newton translation already
-Émilie - who had wanted to visit England but never actually did - meets that experienced English traveller Lady Mary Wortley-Montagu, en route from England to Italy. Again, two controversial, smart women, who shared some friends but who as far as we know did not meet, which is just what fiction is for. Lady Mary was older, more experienced, but also in the full flush of a middle-aged amour fou, and unrequited love at that. For all the controversy she caused, she had never published under her own name (nor would she until the end of her life), sticking to the rules for noblewomen in this, whereas Émilie had done just this. Otoh, Émilie kept other conventions till the end of her life (her husband as the "official" father of her last child, for example). How far do you go, where do you draw lines for yourself, these could be topics for them to discuss.
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
- aside from the Émiilie prompt, see above:
- the relationship with Lord Hervey: starts out as two witty people hitting it off, gets baptism under fire when Alexander Pope attacks them both and they attack back, goes through its crisis when they both fall for the same man (Algarotti) and miraculously survives through the rest of their lives. She told his son he was the only man whom she trusted completely (and also that they were never lovers). Not unjustifiedly so, since the same Hervey who wrote one of the most maliciously entertaining trashy tell all memoirs of their time about the royal family kept absolutely mum about Lady Mary's passion for Algarotti, even when they were competing for him, and successfully kept her secret so well that nobody found out until her letters to Algarotti were discovered by Byron in Venice decades later. So: perhaps just a scene, or a letter (since Lady Mary's letters to Hervey were all destroyed by her when his son returned them after Hervey's death) showing that relationship.
- Lady Mary in Italy in 1756, meeting Algarotti again; he's sick, she sees herself as old, a war in Europe (and overseas) has just started; they manage a friendship this time while also working on their respective books, looking back on their lives; this must have been when she decided to publish as herself, and I envision a bittersweet autumnal type of story.
Watchmen (TV)
I love the series, and the characters requested; consider them as an "or" request, as in: you don't have to include them all. Any of these characters as central focus will do.
Laurie: this middle-aged, cynical yet still wanting to get the job done version of Laurie is my platonic ideal of her, and any story exploring her will thrill me. Some possible ideas - which you don't have to use, if you have your own very different plot in mind, go for it!
- the further adventures of Laurie Blake and Wade Tillmann, ill adjusted detective duo. I can see Laurie sponsoring his transfer to the FBI, or, conversely, both of them going private (though not vigilante; been there, done that) as P.I.s. There's a lot of issues to be explored between them - her younger self's decision to go along with the cover-up of the mass slaughter he experienced, for starters, but also her emphatic decision not to work behind a mask/alias at some point between the original Watchmen and this, whereas who knows whether Wade can make that adjustment (even with knowing the truth now)
- Laurie and Angela: so much to talk about (yes, including Jon, but many other things). Relating to the above, again, Laurie's dislike of masks. She makes the point early on that there is no difference any more between police and vigilantes if the police is allowed to hide. (And the narrative bears her out.) But Angela - a black woman in Tulsa - has lived in a different reality from Laurie. Knowing now that the whole mask thing was part of a scheme might change he attitude, or it might not. In any case: she has family to protect, Laurie does not. If you go with Angela having now some or all of Jon's powers: Laurie is the only other one who knows what it's like to live with someone who has these kind of powers, who could help her adjust to her new reality, but Laurie is no one's idea of a therapist and prone to be acerbic, while Angela is not one to take any bs quietly.
- if you want to explore Laurie's backstory between Watchmen the comics and the start of the series, there are obvious questions - why the switch to "Blake" as surname? How did things with Dan end? (Her having Archimedes is such a neat, ambiguous detail, as is the Senator trying to blackmail her with a possible release of Dan's. Why the FBI?
Angela: the lynchpin of the show. I love her. If you want to do something post show, I'd prefer it if she does have at least some of Jon's powers (though I loved the series ending leaving it open to the viewer - fanfiction is just a different issue).
- Angela through the series is, no question about it, a cop who uses physical violence on suspects (and covers up other cops doing so). Now the series gives us several points how she got there, and her being presented with the final result, even without the "now she has superpowers" factor, gives her very good reasons for change, but what I'm curious about is this: Angela is a smart woman. She must know that even from an amoral and just pragmatic pov, the success rate of getting the truth this way isn't high, and that it is more about having power (which, given what happened when she and her family were powerless, is of course part of the attraction). Still, I'd like for her to face either someone whom she's beaten up or their family, with "well, he's/was a racist thug/I had reason to believe he could know something" not being used as an excuse by the narrative (meaning she can tell herself that, but the story itself doesn't okay it)
- Jon and Cal have quite different personalities; did Angela feel she was in love with two people in the same body, or did she manage to see them as one
- Angela and her grandfather, now that the dust has settled: so much to explore. She's been in his head, but he only knows her from a distance. Their experiences as poc cops/vigilantes in different eras, with both the differences and similarities. The pain of being an orphan through violence, of making violence your therapy, of still being able to reach out and care for other people. Some hurt/comfort for Angela and Will, even just a quiet scene or two between them, this would be lovely
Will: making him Hooded Mask and the very first superhero in this universe, and making the Tulsa massacre his origin story was such a genius idea, and I loved all the (painful, poignant) flashbacks we got. Still, there's so much potential for more. If you want to use Watchmen the comics, how did Will truly relate to the other Minutemen aside from Nelson? Did he later read Hollis Mason's memoirs? (Showing that Hollis at least had no idea who Will really was.) Did he ever consider "mentoring" a younger successor, as Hollis with Dan and Sally with Laurie?
If you want to focus just on show canon: did Will knew he was bisexual before Nelson entered his life, or was this his first m/m experience? How about afterwards? He accepted the inheritance from Nelson - did he also believe the apology, and did it even still matter at this point to him anymore? He has witnessed so much in his long life, including the civil rights movement, and later Stonewall , both after he'd given up on justice through any means other than personal violence - but still, what did this mean to him as a black and as a queer man respectively?
Vincent and Theo:
Hands down both my favourite fictional take on the Van Gogh story, and my favourite Robert Altman movie. I was thrilled to see someone had nominated it! Intense, co-dependent siblings relationships are my cup of tea, and while the movie gave me this in spades, I'm greedy and want more. A few possibilities:
- Theo making the decision to support Vincent early in the movie (and revealing the money Vincent had already received was not from their father but his): does he believe in Vincent's talent or is this purely a decision based on Vincent being his brother? Does he have any inkling on what this will mean in the long term for himself? He's the younger brother; in a conventional family structure, Vincent would have been expected to mentor and support him. How about exploring what makes Theo decide to become his brother's support system/confidant?
- when they try to live together in Paris: it's not in the movie, but supposedly one of the other post-Impressionists made a crack that it's a shame Theo wasn't a woman, otherwise he'd make the only wife able to put up with Vincent. There's some truth in that yet the movie also shows how they clash, not least because Theo still wants a part of his life that's not all Vincent, all the time (as opposed to the end of the movie, where his own breakdown into insanity comes with wanting to exclude everything that's not Vincent), and his relationship with Johanna is getting more serious. This is eventually resolved by Vincent's decision to go into the South, and my prompt question is: does Vincent do this solely for the sun and the cheap living (with the expectation of Gauguin moving in with him), or does he also want to give Theo that secretly long for space? Maybe a Vincent pov on this decision?
- outsider pov: how does Gauguin see the brothers and their relationship? He tells Vincent at one point he's lucky to have such a brother (meaning in the scene: someone who sponsors him and sends expensive painting material from Paris) , but also is both defensive and sarcastic in the scene with Theo after Vincent's breakdown. So - marks to be exploited? Two weird Dutchmen? Strangely compeling? What does he think? This entry was originally posted at https://selenak.dreamwidth.org/1412144.html. Comment there or here, as you wish.