backstory

Some stories describe him as a typical navy guy with extensive experience with the opposite sex, but I tend to think that anyone who would shut himself off from his children when he is left a widower isn't capable of being a 'love 'em and leave 'em, woman in every port' kind of guy. That's how he managed to make captain at such a young age. Totally focused on his career.

I did the sister. I actually looked it up and it appeared as if that was true.

I love most of this detail, it really works for me - I've always had trouble picturing him telling M about himself, "come meet my mother!" but it makes sense to me. (of course, in fanfic he has to be married more than 11 years since his oldest child is 16 and she's been dead for "several" years!).

Interesting that he grew up without his own father - can explain his flailing around a bit for how to handle things especially after his wife dies. (I'm mixing fact and fiction here, as we know that he was not a martinet in real life).

I am totally standing by my version of G which I've written about in my stories - ferocious ladies' man ("tasted the local cuisine" hahaha) before his first marriage, and ferociously passionate husband after that. No cheating. I put a line in one of my stories that probably wasn't clear to anyone but me, when she thinks he only wants her to be his mistress and he says that after they're married, she'll understand why he doesn't want a mistress. I think I was trying to say that he finds the best, er, outlet for him, in all his wonderfulness, is the intimacy that comes with being with the same person everywhere and all the time. That what can grow between two people over time and who know they are in it for the long run is far more satisfying than....oh, never mind, I'm still not explaining it right, I hope you got my point.

I do have a bit of a backstory that he has engaged in a couple of meaningless encounters since his wife died. Just to underscore his feeling that he won't ever find "it" again. There are different ways E could fit into that which we've discussed.

But anyhow, the mix of fact and fiction you've presented above works quite well and I welcome other thoughts.

I had a story that might not be his very first time, and I've never decided if it was disturbing or delicious. Here it is:

he is 18, or maybe he has to be 20, home from the Academy, he has a younger sister or two, so there is a governess. She is unsmiling, dressed drably, her hair pulled tightly back, but she has the most unusual eyes (I have to work our more detail on this). She stares at him the whole time over dinner. She never smiles.
That night, he goes to bed, but he somehow knows to lie awake and . . . suddenly his door swings open, just long enough for him to see her backlit, except of course she now has gorgeous hair spilling down to her waist, and the backlighting reveals a pretty appealing gal. Then the door closes, it's dark, she joins him - I'll skip the next part, having promised to keep the board clean...let's just say she's not straitlaced at all. When he wakes the next morning, she's gone, she doesn't come to breakfast and he leaves that day.

I originally thought of this just to make the point that he was so yummy that the governess hit on him, and I tried to make him old enough that it was not skeevy. But it got a little weird with M being a governess and all. So it's just been sitting there in my notebook.

Anyone else?

I think yours is both disturbing and delicious, Anne. Maybe make the sister a bit older, and she brings a friend home who hits on G in the night? The whole governess thing is what is, um, icky, and puts into question why none of them would stick around to care for his own children.

True enough, though CP could certainly make 12 random women hit on him. I do love the little tidbit about his own governess getting sacked after she introduced him to the fine art of French kissing.

Makes one wonder what he looked like at 12, yes? lol

could be something to that indeed, @indigoblue. (I think I wrote something like that once).

Yeah, and maybe the nun's influence was what encouraged her to go into the abbey? (Sorry, confusing threads here)

there are certainly stories where he had to win Agathe's family over (he didn't inherit a title, for example) and where they disapproved of Maria. I love those stories, more chance for him to have principles (principles are hot) and for love to triumph over snobbery.

I also think it makes sense for him to have come from kind of a cold background, explains why he didn't know what to do with the kids.

Maybe what we are saying is that he had the TRAPPINGS of a happy childhood (maybe parents; certainly money; a home) and maybe she didn't have those trappings, but she ended up getting more of what she needed.

in a good way, I hope.

What I meant was: that children can live in big houses and have piles of stuff and money, but especially if they have emotionally unavailable parents they may not thrive or may experience problems later on. Having someone to love and care about you is as important as having your basic physical needs met. N'est-ce pas?

Interesting you say that....reading a wiki page on Robert Whitehead (Agathe's grandfather) says he died in 1905 and left his fortune to Agathe.

I wonder why only Agathe, though. He had 5 children, and I assume more than one grandchild. Interesting.

fanfics do a lot of violence to the whole Trapp/von Trapp thing: the circumstances of his having a title, and so on. I have shamelessly turned him into a wealthy hereditary aristocrat. Then again, the whole timeline is so different from RL that I say, whatever works? Do it.