#franz and elisabeth

[moonxreverie]

Elisabeth & Franz | Sailor Song

I don't believe in god, but I believe that you're my savior

[fromtheheather]

Empress Elisabeth of Austria (1865) - Franz Xaver Winterhalter

[fufferrrrrrr]

Mit ihr stirbt die Welt

[antoniettabrandeisova]

Kaiserin Elisabeth (1837-1898), c. 1855. By Franz Schrotzberg (Austrian, 1811–1889)

[eridonna]

Elisabeth De Musical, Netherlands Premiere

📍Schouwburg Het Park (14.03.2025)

Pia Douwes as Empress Elisabeth

Danique Dusée as Young Elisabeth / Jonge Elisabeth

Milan van Waardenburg as Der Tod / De Dood

Ann Van den Broeck as Archduchess Sophie

William Spaaij as Lucheni

Ronald Jorritsma as Rudolf

Guido Gottenbos as Franz Joseph

Sjoerd Oomen as Maximilian of Bavaria

[derschleierfallt]

find the scans here!!

finally getting started on some elisabeth manga scans! the scanning is definitely not going to be perfect (turns out i don’t have a scanner, so i have to use the one on my phone 🙈), but i can’t put off sharing for much longer

for now, here are the cover illustrations, because i really really love them a lot

[diioonysus]

bows in art

[sisionscreen]

Devrim Lingnau and Philip Froissant as Empress Elisabeth and Emperor Franz Joseph in the second season of The Empress (2022).

[bambooale]

《ROYAL CHILD》

[archduchessofnowhere]

We talk about portrayals of Sisi, but I think that Franz Joseph was, if anything, even more misrepresented by the recent period dramas. How would you rank the portrayals of him you have seen/read (in historical novels)? Is there any piece of historical fiction that actually captures his character accurately?

Hello! YES I always focus on Elisabeth but he is also completely butchered in all these new series. I think I've said it before, but basically it's very hard to reconcile who FJ actually was (both as an emperor and as a person) with him being a love interest we as an audience can root for. Specially in these new adaptations in which Elisabeth is outspoken, mature and actively politically involved in the events of the empire (and not just the Compromise). Why would our Girl Boss protagonist want to be with a man who was bureaucracy made flesh, very conservative, and just kinda boring in general? It doesn't work. Thus, his personality also gets rewritten.

I don't really have a decided ranking, but off the top of my head I'd say these are my least to most favorite portrayals:

Sisi & Ich (2023): Do you hate Sisi adaptations that turn FJ into a horrible, abusive husband in order to make his wife look good? Well, this portrayal does just that. He is only very briefly in the movie but I hated every minute of it, personally I was mostly fine with the movie despite all its inaccuracies but there was one scene from this part that was a deal breaker for me. This movie should've been just two hours of Irma and Elisabeth traveling and nothing else.

Die Kaiserin (2022-): The solution of the screenwriters to the problem of "how do we make FJ likeable?" Basically turning him into his brother Maximilian lol. You see, he has liberal ideas but his evil mother doesn't let him pursue them! Oh, and he had nothing to do with those executions, that was also his mother! In fact everything bad he ever did was all his mother's fault, because he is not even governing, his mother is. By season 2 it almost seems that FJ has absolutely no idea what's going on in his own empire and needs to be explained basic thing like Italian nationalism. This series sanitizes FJ in levels that just aren't seen in any other adaptation, not even the Sissi Trilogy. You are watching the show and can't help but think "who is this guy???". The only thing he has in common with the real FJ is that he loves his wife, but the way their relationship is portrayed is so unlike the real couple that not even that makes him similar to his historical counterpart.

Sisi (2021-2024). This FJ is in the opposite end of the same spectrum as Die Kaiserin's FJ. Season 1 had the original take of not making FJ likeable, but instead they turned him in a borderline cartoonishly evil, violent and smug man. He smiles as he orders executions, he beats his aids for not reason, he openly cheats on his wife and publicly insults her in a fit of jealousy. Honestly I was baffled by this take, because even after all these bizarre changes they still went for a "Sisi and Franz's great love story!" approach for the series. Which was. A choice. They obviously wanted to make him like that so that he could go through a redemption arc thanks to his relationship with Sisi, but it was just not a well written arc, and when his personality does change in later seasons it doesn't feel like earned character grow but simply that the writers decided to tone down their original approach.

Yet I will admit I'm lowkey fond of this portrayal, I liked most of his storyline in season 2 (he spends most of the season bonding with a feral child and also definitely has a thing going on with Andrássy you can't convince me otherwise), and in season 3 I found myself agreeing with him. So yeah, utterly butchered FJ but in an entertaining way at least.

Sissi Trilogy: I'm honestly overall indifferent to this FJ; he is basically the blueprint for every posterior depiction that portrays him as a Prince Charming love interest. Yet, for all the overomantization of Elisabeth's early life, the movies don't shy away from telling us how FJ was directly responsible of the counter revolution executions. We even see how he is still hated in Hungary and Italy (at least until Sissi comes into the scene). A certain show from a certain straming service could learn that it's not necessary to completely sanitize his image and pin all his faults onto his mother to make Franz Josef into a palatable love interest.

Sisi (2009). I feel about this FJ almost the same as I feel about the Sissi Trilogy's FJ, but in this portrayal we do see more of him than just "Sisi's love interest". Also it's not always all the color of roses, he and Elisabeth disagree and fight more than once. His relationship with his brother Max is also really interesting, pity they only interact in like three scenes. Overall a solid take, if a bit romanticized and not particularly remarkable.

Kronprinz Rudolf (2006). Not a bad take but for what I remember they portrayed Taaffe as having this great influence over FJ and putting him against Rudolf. And like no the evil minister was not responsible for FJ distrusting his son He Was Like That.

Elisabeth das Musical: the only depiction on this list that I truly like, and it really proves that the only way to have a good FJ is to not make him into a love interest. He is only a supporting character and yet the musical nails the most important bits of his personality and his relationship with Elisabeth outstandingly well (loved his wife but never understood her, cheated yet still longed for her, let her go but always hoped she would comeback next to him). There's even room to also show his relationship with Rudolfl! The only thing that I don't really like is that they do portray his mother as having a lot of influence over him, but that's mostly because the musical has an outdated take on Sophie (which works pretty well in a storytelling level nonetheless!). Boote in der Nacht is the saddest song in the entire musical, and the musical is not even about FJ and Elisabeth as a couple. Just a great, nuanced and engaging take!

I know I'm missing a lot FJs but these are the ones that came to my mind right now; I don't think I've ever seen Franz Josef in a piece of media that isn't about Elisabeth or Rudolf. Thank you for your question!

[arinewman7]

Empress Elisabeth of Austria as Bride on Horseback in Possenhofen

Carl Theodor von Piloty and Franz Adam

oil on canvas, 1853

[roehenstart]

Elizabeth of Bavaria, Empress of Austria. By Franz Russ.

[ravensseasons]

Answer me, my sinking ship...

[eridonna]

Halb sieben Uhr abends, in der Augustinerkirche. Merkwürdige Zeit für eine Trauung, aber passend, An diesem 24. April 1854. Sehr passend, porca miseria!

April 24, 1854

On this day 171 years ago: 16 year old Elisabeth married Emperor Franz Joseph in the Augustinian Church in Vienna.

[potato-practice]

Unsichtare Augen seh'n uns beiden zu

[derschleierfallt]

pia douwes & thomas borchert, 1993