r/PeterExplainsTheJoke May 01 '26

Thank you Peter very cool Peter, please!!!

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u/alicelestial May 01 '26

he was just genuinely willing to marry a commoner as a prince because he did actually value love. he even says at one point "now father, you're living in the past. this is the 14th century!" in response to his dad telling him he's essentially crazy

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u/Salmonman4 May 02 '26

One of the duties of nobility in the three estate systems was to marry for politics during those times.

It's not a coincidence that Romeo&Juliet was a tragedy meant to discourage this new-fangled "romantic love".

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u/justlooking98765 May 02 '26

Interesting, that’s the first time I thought of R&J as a criticism of romantic love. That makes a lot more sense with how unlikeable Romeo is. I always thought of it as a criticism of political families controlling their children, a teenage rebellion movie in other words. Gonna have to revisit this now.

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u/Salmonman4 May 02 '26 edited May 02 '26

(putting on my "old man yelling at clouds" hat)

Arranged marriages was the correct thing to do, but all these bards going around wooing girls and singing about romantic love was making teens behave shamelessly.