Agency

[geek_chronicles]

Title: Agency
Character(s): Prussia, Liechtenstein, Hungary, Germany
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: EFFI BRIEST.
Summary: Meanwhile, while History is happening, one or two other things keep nagging at Prussia. Small principalities should be seen and not heard.

Comments

[byzantienne]

Late comment is terribly late (and also LJ ate the first version of this, damnit!) But I love this, a lot. You have influenced my Liechtenstein characterization now, I will have you know. The fact that she doesn't age or change or do things (or at least things that Prussia thinks of as things, er) but nevertheless persists is so brilliantly creepy. It's Prussia attempting (and basically failing) to deal with female power. And that is COOL. (And, y'know. Has bumped the Hungary/Liechtenstein/(Prussia) AHEWniverse piece higher in the queue, 'cause now I know what the theme is~~)

And then there was FAUST. And Wagner. And literature. And the things this fandom can do with cultural memory are just fantastic, truly they are.

So are YOU.

[geek_chronicles]

Prussia: Ahahaha, today's a good day to seize some vital regions, hell yeah! I think I'll start with--
Liechtenstein: Oh, I just love being alive!
Prussia: --Fine, whatever. Now beat it, Schmetterling, I've got work to do. So anyway--
Liechtenstein: And I love this dirndl I sewed for myself!
Prussia: What are you doing.
Liechtenstein: *Twiiiiirl~*
Prussia: ...Hate you.

In a nutshell. :D
Teeheehee, and I cannot wait to read it. Hungary + other female creatures seems like such fun that we are all missing out on.

[elwon]

This is amazing.

I love seeing Prussia interact with all his ladies. (Much love his his awkwardness dealing with crying ladies.)

Mems. ♥

[geek_chronicles]

Poor Elisabeth. She was so not a fatty fat walrus. Wah.

&hearts

[pseudo_tsuga]

I have no idea if this is what you were going for at all, but I love how there's both history and feminism, two good tastes that are even better together. The focus on masculine power (his idea of masculine anyway) and the weaknesses thereof and how, in the end, that focus of Prussia's blinds him to ways of surviving because he's so concentrated on fighting and progress that he can't see the other ways available. (It bugs him that Liechtenstein is small and never grows!)

Also how that focus also denies and misunderstands the history of women and their ways of coping with the world. (Pff, of course he finds the novel about a Prussian woman boring.)

Ha, sorry, my comment must sound incredibly pretentious but I really enjoyed this fic.

[geek_chronicles]

It was a good portion of what I was going for, I think, but I certainly didn't want to beat anyone over the head with it so I'm glad it can still seem a little ambiguous. :) And yes--his proactively digging himself deeper and her passive longevity and the larger thread of mortality and loss that becomes more and more of an issue for him whether or not he fully appreciates it--it should bother him that he doesn't understand it all.

(Hah, I don't blame him. Effi Briest can be kind of a nightmare if you're not in the mood for it. Fontane was still an interesting dude.)

Thanks for reading! &hearts

[fabledquill]

;___________;
THIS
oh my god, all the sneaky little literary references, and the subtle Monty Python joke
"I'll bite France's LEGS off"
lollll
and the HISTORY, my god the history.
and and the characterization is just marvelous. You paint Prussia as less of a complete douche and more like a speak-before-he-thinks kind of guy.

and this line: I'm not the one who went all crybaby because Italy finally grew a pair.
oh.
my.
lorrrrrd, girl. xD Just finished that unit in World History, and GOD HOW I LAUGHED.

[geek_chronicles]

DO YOU KNOW, I WONDERED IF SOMEONE WOULD MAKE A MONTY PYTHON REFERENCE? AND YOU DID, AND IT WAS MAGICAL. &hearts

Prussia is only mostly a douche, in my personal head canon. He's also only mostly a giant failure, though it's probably a slightly larger mostly in the latter case.

Vittorio Veneto makes me so very pleased. Bitches don't know 'bout Italy's berserker mode.

[fabledquill]

ONLY FOR YOU, BABY

Trufax. He's highly stressed, imo. He just doesn't want to show it. Being a military buffer state's HARD.

YESSSSSSS my god, I wish people took more notice of that particular bit.
And his bitch fight with Austria-Hungary too, lol
and ransacking Turkey
and the whole "fascism" thing

[atiko]

Ooooh, HERE it is! ♥ What is wrong with me recently, why do I keep missing your delicious posts?

Haha, Gilbo. Again, I love how you write him, how he's obviously not as uncultured as Austria likes to think considering his insight and knowledge of literature, for example - yet he goes out of his way to be blunt and rough and a dick to people like poor Elisabeth or Liechtenstein. xD

Best thing about this fic are the smooth transitions - personified countries on a riverbank, over a centrury of historical events in the background, two queens and some literature and it all flows together perfectly. Hungary as Kriemhild. Also loved the Fontane bit - Prussia's complaints about the boringness sound just like our whining back at school. xDD

Another one about adultery, he said, so naturally Prussia is curious. Last time they gave it a French title and he had the gall to give her a happy ending, of all things. People were scandalized, though in all fairness the title should have been warning enough.

Pure gold. :D

[geek_chronicles]

Dunno, the same way I keep missing your comments/everything else? :E Go us.

So ok, STORY TIME. A few weeks back in my German Lit class we were reading this and I was feeling pretty blah about it, knowing what was in store for us from prior experience and all, but my groovy professor was making it much more enjoyable as he always does with historical background and long rambling asides and cool as hell stuff about Fontane himself, so I felt a little better.

And then. And then we started talking about characters and Bismarckian hierarchy and he specifically referred to Effi as Prussia and I suspect I made a very, very silly face.

Gilbo's failure is his most endearing trait, really. I kind of like turning that into something just awful. :D