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The Only Son is, for lack of a better term, a mini-opus. Started in December 2009, on a suggestion from ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
butchiemcgee, it's grown into something I am extremely proud of and extremely shocked I managed to even write it.
It's a story based around two characters - Helga Zoller and Cpt Wilhelm Wicki, both from the Quentin Tarantino-verse - more specifically, the film Inglourious Basterds. It's about their time together, their time apart, and, at the very end, how someone lives with losing two people who - in their own way - saved the world.
This is a reference post that I will link to from each part. It's gonna get wordy up in here!
Synopsis
1938 - after the Nazi invasion of Salzburg, Pvt Wilhelm Wicki is found, injured, behind a Munich cinema by one of it's owners, Helga Zoller. Surprised but not one to turn away someone in need, she takes him in to her home to heal despite the political repercussions under a Jew-hating Third Reich. As he integrates into her family, bonds are formed and Germany becomes a virtual prison - leading men and boys into war and, eventually, the Basterds to work.
Dramatis personæ
Helga Zoller
(Portrayed by Julia Jentsch) Twenty-five years of age, she helps run the family cinema, Das Kino Haus. She has effectively brought up her six siblings after the death of her mother, Eva, seven years earlier from tuberculosis.
Wilhelm Wicki
(Portrayed by Gedeon Burkhard) Born in Austria before moving to Munich, Wilhelm was the only son in a family of four girls. Despite being Jewish (or maybe because he was), he joined the Austrian army in his late teens. Forced to flee Salzburg after the Nazi invasion, Wilhelm eventually travels to America, where he is drafted and, after a time, chosen for a team only known as The Basterds.
The Zoller Siblings
(Top, L to R) Elsa Zoller, 23 (Mädchen Amick), Gerda Zoller, 20 (Malin Ackerman), Annaleisa Zoller, 19 (Gemma Atherton).
(Bottom, L to R) Elke Zoller, 17 (Carice van Houten), Liese Zoller, 15 (Carey Mulligan), Fredrick Zoller, 13 (Daniel Brühl)
Eva Zoller (deceased) and Sebastian Zoller
(Portrayed by Joan Allen and Jeroen Krabbé)
What Are You Talking About, You Zany Broad?!
If I had to say a reason behind this, I'd have to point atbutchiemcgee and say, "she made me do it". It's not a secret that I walked away from Inglourious Basterds with a fascination with Fredrick Zoller and Shosanna Dreyfus - after the detailed conversations Butchie and I had about them and their motivations, it was inevitable that Helga Zoller was going to become fascinating to us.
In the original screenplay, Tarantino has an exchange between Shosanna and Fredrick where he talks about his family - more specifically, Helga and his five other sisters who helped run Das Kino Haus. You can see the page here, thanks tobutchiemcgee. He also touches on the Zoller siblings' absent, drunk father and dead mother, and how Helga raised him and his sisters (here, again thanks to Butchie).
The exchange shows the obvious parallels between Shosanna's life and Fredrick's, which in light of the rest of the script, may have shown too many cards for the Fredrick character and would have taken away from the growth of the Shosanna/Fredrick arc.
Originally, the Wilhelm Wicki character was supposed to have lived in Munich as a boy. The original script has the scene where Aldo Raine introduces Wicki as saying he fled Salzburg (here, excuse the crappy phone photo), but the finished film has him saying he escaped Munich. Gedeon Burkhard, in the September 2009 issue of Esquire says Wicki went to America in the 1920s, but, for the sake of this story and my sanity, Wicki was in the Austrian Army when this begins.
No doubt Butchie and I wondered what the hell happened to Fredrick's awesome sisters, and thus, this was born. Wicki's involvement was probably accidental and/or a sign of the crack we ingest, plus he's awesome and needs to have more love in fic.
Julia Jentsch was the first person who came to mind when thinking about Helga. She has the same quality that Mélanie Laurent brought to Shosanna - the ability to hold all her cards to her chest while projecting massive amounts of emotion with one raise of an eyebrow. Plus, she looks hot with Gedeon. [/shallow] The remainder of the siblings and their parents were cast in conjunction withbutchiemcgee, and hopefully help you in imagining the Zollers as a whole.
Finally, the title - The Only Son - refers to both Wilhelm Wicki and Fredrick Zoller. They're the keys to the character of Helga, and through the course of the fic and, eventually, the fallout from the film's canon, bring her story full circle.
What Where You Listening To?
It's pretty wanky to have a mix for your fic, but here are the five top songs that inspired this mess.
Mumford & Sons - Dust Bowl Dance
I went out back and I got my gun
I said, "You haven't met me, I am the only son"
Yann Tiersen - Childhood (1)
Instrumental
Jill Barber - All My Dreams
Now what do I do?
But thank my lucky stars
Hawksley Workman - The Ground That We Walk On
I treat myself like I'm not fragile
That there's no care to be taken
Peter Gabriel - Mercy Street
She pictures a soul
With no leak at the seam
No doubt there will be more. I know you can hardly wait, right?!
I'll attempt to update this as the fic progresses - I hope you all enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thanks tobutchiemcgee for her GIMMEs and general enabling, as always, and to Quentin Tarantino for creating a universe where this sort of thing makes perfect sense.
butchiemcgee, it's grown into something I am extremely proud of and extremely shocked I managed to even write it.It's a story based around two characters - Helga Zoller and Cpt Wilhelm Wicki, both from the Quentin Tarantino-verse - more specifically, the film Inglourious Basterds. It's about their time together, their time apart, and, at the very end, how someone lives with losing two people who - in their own way - saved the world.
This is a reference post that I will link to from each part. It's gonna get wordy up in here!
Synopsis
1938 - after the Nazi invasion of Salzburg, Pvt Wilhelm Wicki is found, injured, behind a Munich cinema by one of it's owners, Helga Zoller. Surprised but not one to turn away someone in need, she takes him in to her home to heal despite the political repercussions under a Jew-hating Third Reich. As he integrates into her family, bonds are formed and Germany becomes a virtual prison - leading men and boys into war and, eventually, the Basterds to work.
Dramatis personæ
Helga Zoller
(Portrayed by Julia Jentsch) Twenty-five years of age, she helps run the family cinema, Das Kino Haus. She has effectively brought up her six siblings after the death of her mother, Eva, seven years earlier from tuberculosis.
Wilhelm Wicki
(Portrayed by Gedeon Burkhard) Born in Austria before moving to Munich, Wilhelm was the only son in a family of four girls. Despite being Jewish (or maybe because he was), he joined the Austrian army in his late teens. Forced to flee Salzburg after the Nazi invasion, Wilhelm eventually travels to America, where he is drafted and, after a time, chosen for a team only known as The Basterds.
The Zoller Siblings
(Top, L to R) Elsa Zoller, 23 (Mädchen Amick), Gerda Zoller, 20 (Malin Ackerman), Annaleisa Zoller, 19 (Gemma Atherton).
(Bottom, L to R) Elke Zoller, 17 (Carice van Houten), Liese Zoller, 15 (Carey Mulligan), Fredrick Zoller, 13 (Daniel Brühl)
Eva Zoller (deceased) and Sebastian Zoller
(Portrayed by Joan Allen and Jeroen Krabbé)
What Are You Talking About, You Zany Broad?!
If I had to say a reason behind this, I'd have to point at
butchiemcgee and say, "she made me do it". It's not a secret that I walked away from Inglourious Basterds with a fascination with Fredrick Zoller and Shosanna Dreyfus - after the detailed conversations Butchie and I had about them and their motivations, it was inevitable that Helga Zoller was going to become fascinating to us.In the original screenplay, Tarantino has an exchange between Shosanna and Fredrick where he talks about his family - more specifically, Helga and his five other sisters who helped run Das Kino Haus. You can see the page here, thanks to
butchiemcgee. He also touches on the Zoller siblings' absent, drunk father and dead mother, and how Helga raised him and his sisters (here, again thanks to Butchie).The exchange shows the obvious parallels between Shosanna's life and Fredrick's, which in light of the rest of the script, may have shown too many cards for the Fredrick character and would have taken away from the growth of the Shosanna/Fredrick arc.
Originally, the Wilhelm Wicki character was supposed to have lived in Munich as a boy. The original script has the scene where Aldo Raine introduces Wicki as saying he fled Salzburg (here, excuse the crappy phone photo), but the finished film has him saying he escaped Munich. Gedeon Burkhard, in the September 2009 issue of Esquire says Wicki went to America in the 1920s, but, for the sake of this story and my sanity, Wicki was in the Austrian Army when this begins.
No doubt Butchie and I wondered what the hell happened to Fredrick's awesome sisters, and thus, this was born. Wicki's involvement was probably accidental and/or a sign of the crack we ingest, plus he's awesome and needs to have more love in fic.
Julia Jentsch was the first person who came to mind when thinking about Helga. She has the same quality that Mélanie Laurent brought to Shosanna - the ability to hold all her cards to her chest while projecting massive amounts of emotion with one raise of an eyebrow. Plus, she looks hot with Gedeon. [/shallow] The remainder of the siblings and their parents were cast in conjunction with
butchiemcgee, and hopefully help you in imagining the Zollers as a whole.Finally, the title - The Only Son - refers to both Wilhelm Wicki and Fredrick Zoller. They're the keys to the character of Helga, and through the course of the fic and, eventually, the fallout from the film's canon, bring her story full circle.
What Where You Listening To?
It's pretty wanky to have a mix for your fic, but here are the five top songs that inspired this mess.
Mumford & Sons - Dust Bowl Dance
I went out back and I got my gun
I said, "You haven't met me, I am the only son"
Yann Tiersen - Childhood (1)
Instrumental
Jill Barber - All My Dreams
Now what do I do?
But thank my lucky stars
Hawksley Workman - The Ground That We Walk On
I treat myself like I'm not fragile
That there's no care to be taken
Peter Gabriel - Mercy Street
She pictures a soul
With no leak at the seam
No doubt there will be more. I know you can hardly wait, right?!
I'll attempt to update this as the fic progresses - I hope you all enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Thanks to
butchiemcgee for her GIMMEs and general enabling, as always, and to Quentin Tarantino for creating a universe where this sort of thing makes perfect sense.
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From:
no subject
I AM SO EXCITED FOR THIS!
I love that the teeny, little what-if? thought of Wicki having known the Zollers has grown into something so spectacular and creative.
I can't wait to see how their relationship plays out and the influence he'll have on Fredrick, the Zoller sisters being awesome, and of course, the inevitable heartbreak that ensues.
Also,
GIMME GIMME GIMME.
From:
no subject
DON'T GET TO EXCITED. SPOILER EVERYONE DIES AT THE END (well Fred and Wicki) SPOILER
From:
no subject
I know :(
I love how you wrote Helga at Le Gamaar's remains.
Part 4 of KFAD will have more upset, emotional Freddy, so we'll be about even in making each other sad.
From:
no subject
Excuse you, when will there be more KFAD? I'm very tired, I'm probably typing a story about Jacky Ido or something.
From:
no subject
More KFAD probably next week and perhaps working more on our secret pairing of awesome.
As long as it's total LOLZ, then I don't mind if you write Jacky Ido. However, you get into Sho/Hellstrom, I'm swimming over to Australia and hitting you with a stick.
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
She also showed me more of the awesome stuff you've made like the Back to the Future IV: The Return to 30 Rock poster! YOU ARE TOO AWESOME.
From:
no subject
My Photoshop skillz, let me show them to you. ;)