The cousin stuff is interesting…. Sophie (the one he gets engaged to) is the sister of Elizabeth, and Ludwig and Elizabeth have a very close relationship that causes a lot of bad gossip. The fact that people are uppity over that, but not about Sophie is a little strange, though it’s possible it had something to do with Elizabeth being married already. That was a weird part of the story that I over looked, I guess.

Anyway, yeah, marrying cousins was totally fine then, particularly among the nobility. A lot of those people were related. In some points in history, there was sibling marriage, in a desperate attempt to keep bloodlines pure, or keep a particular family strong. And when you look back at those families, there was a history of genetic diseases and mental illness. There is when you’re marrying close cousins together, too, but to a lesser extent.

And I love how during this time it was ok to rail your cousin, but same sex relations? Call the Devil because you’ve just booked a ticket to eternal damnation! … makes no sense to me.

Does Wagner actually make an appearance? If he does, how is he portrayed?

“To be perfectly honest, if you took away the love story (specifically all the sex), what’s left behind is solid on its own.”

Left behind? Solid? Oh boy! (sorry I couldn’t help myself)