S01.E03: Anarchy

[paulvdb]

Quote

Rasputin's influence grows. The Romanovs retreat into a bubble of luxury while the czar's forces brutally suppress protests by a starving populace.

[Arynm]

Alix is not coming off well in this. I had next to no opinion of her before this show, but I am actively disliking her now. She just seems so close minded and stupid. Nicky is no better and Rasputin is just a whore. A pedophile whore who should have been killed years before he could get his claws into the Royal Family. There was something about him that helped Alexi though, and I don't know if I believe it was just he calmed Alix which calmed Alexi.

[andromeda331]

On 7/13/2019 at 8:58 PM, Arynm said:

Alix is not coming off well in this. I had next to no opinion of her before this show, but I am actively disliking her now. She just seems so close minded and stupid. Nicky is no better and Rasputin is just a whore. A pedophile whore who should have been killed years before he could get his claws into the Royal Family. There was something about him that helped Alexi though, and I don't know if I believe it was just he calmed Alix which calmed Alexi.

She really kind of was. There were so many people Alix's didn't like or approve of so they weren't allowed around her and she kept her family far from them. She didn't really listen to anyone. Anyone who disagreed with her she immediately disliked and didn't listen too. For all the time she spent around her grandmother Queen Victoria she clearly learned nothing about ruling. Nicholas really wasn't any better. They really did seem to live in a bubble and had their ideas and no one sane could get them listen to reason. Its crazy when Stolypin is trying to get him see reason and listen but he won't. 

[Brn2bwild]

On 8/31/2019 at 9:14 PM, andromeda331 said:

She really kind of was. There were so many people Alix's didn't like or approve of so they weren't allowed around her and she kept her family far from them. She didn't really listen to anyone. Anyone who disagreed with her she immediately disliked and didn't listen too. For all the time she spent around her grandmother Queen Victoria she clearly learned nothing about ruling. Nicholas really wasn't any better. They really did seem to live in a bubble and had their ideas and no one sane could get them listen to reason. Its crazy when Stolypin is trying to get him see reason and listen but he won't. 

It seems like she learned a lot from Queen Victoria -- the wrong lessons, unfortunately.  When it suited Victoria, she went into seclusion and surrounded herself only with people who would soothe her and follow her rules.  If it weren't for the fact that Britain had a constitutional monarchy (and thus the government mostly operated without her) and her children (especially Bertie/future King Edward VI and his wife, Alexandra) frequently represented her at public functions, she would have been far worse off.

I always wonder how Alix would have turned out if her mother Alice (Queen Victoria's second daughter) had lived to an old age.  Alice was a lot like Prince Albert in the way she was sensitive and highly curious.  I could never see her closing off opinions that were inconvenient to her, and from what I understand of Alix's education, Alix was set up to be a strong, independent thinker.  Then again, I've read that a lot of what has been attributed to Alix's stupidity/stubbornness/general awfulness was been exaggerated and even fabricated (such as the idea that she practically had Rasputin on speed dial).  Supposedly she was against the Russian pogroms.  A lot of what she did, it seems, was designed to prop up her fundamentally weak husband in an unforgivingly harsh system.   

[andromeda331]

1 hour ago, Brn2bwild said:

It seems like she learned a lot from Queen Victoria -- the wrong lessons, unfortunately.  When it suited Victoria, she went into seclusion and surrounded herself only with people who would soothe her and follow her rules.  If it weren't for the fact that Britain had a constitutional monarchy (and thus the government mostly operated without her) and her children (especially Bertie/future King Edward VI and his wife, Alexandra) frequently represented her at public functions, she would have been far worse off.

I always wonder how Alix would have turned out if her mother Alice (Queen Victoria's second daughter) had lived to an old age.  Alice was a lot like Prince Albert in the way she was sensitive and highly curious.  I could never see her closing off opinions that were inconvenient to her, and from what I understand of Alix's education, Alix was set up to be a strong, independent thinker.  Then again, I've read that a lot of what has been attributed to Alix's stupidity/stubbornness/general awfulness was been exaggerated and even fabricated (such as the idea that she practically had Rasputin on speed dial).  Supposedly she was against the Russian pogroms.  A lot of what she did, it seems, was designed to prop up her fundamentally weak husband in an unforgivingly harsh system.   

Your right. She learned the wrong reasons. Victoria was able to get away with isolation because of the constitutional monarchy and her kids. She did take it badly when she anyone suggested that she come out of mourning (the letter her kids signed in 1869) but there were also times she had to come out come out although usually for a memorial for Albert or when ever she needed to ask money for her kids' marriages and also trying to help follow Albert's plans and dreams. But she also still worked behind doors. Papers and stuff. The only time Alix seem to really get into doing anything was when she was nursing during WWI. She doesn't really seem to do very much until then or until Alexei's born and his problem was discovered.  

I've heard a lot of different descriptions of her from so many different books too. The ones where's a complete saint or complete basket case and too stupid or bad seem unlikely. Then again the same for Nicholas. I don't really think they were to either extreme. I do think both had a lot of really good qualities. They loved each other very much and loved their kids, I can't imagine the horror when they finally produced an heir and he was a haemophilia and the stress from it. Not to mention seeing your child suffer so much. But they were both incompetent as rulers.  I think they both were stubborn and retreated from their duties. When they were forced to make decisions they either made bad ones or stuck with already bad policies.  They isolated themselves and their family from everyone. I do hate that Alix seems to get most of the blame. I do think they were both equal. She did have reject or not listen to anyone she didn't like but Nicholas wasn't any better. At some point you'd think he would have learned to stop listening to Uncle Sergei.