Grand Duchess and other possible suitors - what if..

[Romanov_fan]

Perhaps he was a contradiction.. some people are. That would explain the difference between his public and private natures, for one. I really can't explain him, not that anyone can.

[Eric_Lowe]

Something about Serge is no altogather right, that is why when it was suggested that he was a repressed homosexual, it gathered momentum as they thought they finally figure out what was wrong with him...

[Romanov_fan]

It is very hard to know; this is why there was/is so much speculation about their marriage. Ella never liked it, but anyone married to Grand Duke Sergei would have had to put up with it, this speculation. He would have gotten it anyway, whoever he married or didn't marry. Ella was sometimes hard to understand, but would have gotten less speculation if she hadn't been married to him.

[Eric_Lowe]

Well at least Ella was easier to approach, Serge was hard to approach AND hard to understand. VMH seemed to like him though...

[Romanov_fan]

You are right about Sergei, he did nothing to make people think he was much different than rumour, which was rather unfortunate. Ella did present a better image: she was compasionate and reasonable, if you got to know her and looked past the rumours. I think they were both complicated, but in different ways. I think some people did think somewhat well of Sergei, but he was difficult. Both of them prefered to remain engimas, perhaps?

[Eric_Lowe]

Ella wasn't but Sergei certainly was...an egnima.

[Romanov_fan]

He was an enigma, but I think Ella wasn't in real life, but sort of became that way, because she would not let people know much about her, or her life. So, in that way, she is an enigma, because she chose to let herself be seen as one, even if she really wasn't one.

[Eric_Lowe]

Well lets get back to Willy and Ella...

[Romanov_fan]

ah yes, and think if they had married, the stuff we could debate about them! They would have been an odd couple as well, just like Ella and Sergei.

[Eric_Lowe]

No...I think Ella would be more assured of herself than poor Dona. 

[Romanov_fan]

Well, yes, Ella was more assured of herself than Dona. But with Kaiser Wilhelm's eccentricity, and Ella being a rather private person (which Kaiser Wilhelm was not), they might have made a strange couple. Both of them were in some ways enigmas, and I think they would have made at least a much debated couple in history if not beyond that.

[Eric_Lowe]

I think both Ella and Willy had a vain side. Ella would still be the belle in the ball, while Willy will have his soilders and parades. 

[Romanov_fan]

That could well be true. Only, Kaiser Wilhelm was always, to the end of his life vain. If there is one thing you know about him, it is that. He never really changed although he was in exile. It is kind of funny to read some of the stories about him and how full of himself he was. His royal relatives defintely thought it was, at times, a bit amusing although it was also overbearing. It reminds me of someone I knew, although not very well. He would come into room, and be '' I am ( insert name)'' like he was in charge of everything, and we didn't know who he was, although we did. He wasn't in charge of anything, but thought he was..oh well. In short, I would say pompous. As for Ella, she was defintely very selfless later on. In youth, she was more vain, yes, but she lost it as she got older-and it was never as bad as the Kaiser-of course, what was?

[Eric_Lowe]

True...If Ella had married Willy, she might not have developed her softer side...

[Romanov_fan]

She might not have developed her deeper side through what she experienced, and through being married to Sergei and becoming interested in Orthodoxy.She might not have been as understanding as she was.