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Ewald von Dobermann Blog Entry |
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February 16, 2024, 12:00:34 AM 2/16/24: r/SketchDaily theme, "Free Draw Friday." This week's character from my anthro WWII storyline is a twofer: Horst von Dobermann and Ewald von Dobermann. They are respectively: older brother and uncle of Louis Dobermann; older son and brother-in-law of Ilse von Dobermann; older son and younger brother of Rudolf von Dobermann; and are deceased before Inga Dobermann or Adelina Dobermann enter the story. Horst is a bit of a playboy (I gave him a dueling scar, seemed appropriate); I don't know much about Ewald, but he seems nice. There'll be more about them later in my art Tumblr and Toyhou.se. Regarding their design, they're fawn-and-tan doberman pinschers; Ewald is a bit chubbier and I gave him light reddish hair to distinguish him a bit. This is now all the von Dobermanns! Well, except Adelina's and Gerhardt's sons, Louis II and Diepold (they take their mother's name). TUMBLR EDIT: Horst and especially Ewald are characters I don't know a lot about, so I haven't much to say. Like Ilse and Rudolf, they both die in the Spanish flu pandemic while Louis Dobermann is recuperating in a military hospital (where he meets bride-to-be Inga). Neither Inga nor of course Adelina ever gets to meet Dobermann's family as they're wiped out within days of each other in 1918. The rest of this entry, until the end paragraph, will be divided/individualized for these two characters to avoid too much repetition... Alas, poor Ewald, I hardly know him. So I guess that means there's lots of room for future potential plot development. He's cheery and bubbly, a little more so than older brother Rudolf, who's more staid yet still quite sociable. Not surprisingly, he gets along well with his older nephew Horst, who regales him with tales of all his scandalous (well, not quite) exploits. Ewald never got the chance to be so adventurous himself, possibly due to not being in the best shape--unlike the rest of his tall, athletic family, he's somewhat short and plump, and has light gingery hair rather than blond or brown, so I imagine he might be a bit self-conscious about his looks, and was probably never very popular with the ladies. So he lives rather vicariously through Horst's stories of his latest adventures. This is a bit ironic, as it means he has more in common with his younger nephew, Louis--Louis is the wallflower who doesn't go on adventures, plays it safe, and feels uncomfortable dealing with people--yet, like the rest of the family, Ewald never fully understands the depth of Louis's discomfort in social situations. Ewald is just a bit shy until he warms to others, then he loves it. Louis...is utterly miserable in public. Ewald doesn't get it. So he and Louis never really connect. That there is about all I know about Ewald as an individual so far. Also similar to Louis, as the younger brother, he's not the primary inheritor--the estate belongs to Rudolf (and by extension, Ilse)--and although he has enough money of his own, he largely relies on Rudolf's good graces, and lives on the estate as a bachelor largely because Rudolf and Ilse permit it. They don't mind--the more the merrier, and they're quite a close-knit, loving family--but it's simply a fact of Junker succession. Ewald is unwittingly the one to bring about the von Dobermanns' end, though if it hadn't been him, it surely would've been one of the others, likely Horst, due to their socializing. Well into the Great War--which Louis, in traditional Junker fashion, went off to fight in--Ewald returns from a trip to the city, not feeling very well. By evening he's too ill to join the others at dinner, and goes to bed. By morning, he's feverish and coughing violently. Rudolf falls ill, then Ilse, then Horst, as well as much of the staff. Ilse and Horst, the better off so far, tend to the other two the best they can, but quickly realize they're fighting a losing battle; a family doctor they call says he can't come out to them, they need to get to the hospital if they want aid. Horst manages to drive them there--by now Ilse is coughing and gasping for breath, while Rudolf and Ewald are barely conscious--before collapsing himself. All four are taken to bed and promptly treated, but one by one, the von Dobermanns succumb to the flu...first poor Ewald, then his brother, then Horst, and finally Ilse. Ilse fights as long as she can--insisting she needs to see her son, refusing to believe the doctors who tell her he's in the next room--before her body gives out and she slips away. The doctors think maybe it's best she died believing her son was still alive and in the army, rather than lying dead in the next room...they've long forgotten about the other von Dobermann son, who went off to fight in the war. They remember him again as soon as he has the family lawyers transfer large monetary donations to the hospital and the city to fight the pandemic: Louis is injured and hospitalized, but alive--the only one to not catch the flu. ...The entire von Dobermann family is eradicated almost overnight, leaving the younger son, Louis, as the sole survivor and inheritor of the entire estate and all its finances. He goes from being an army captain lying deaf and wounded in a hospital to Freiherr Dobermann, the insanely wealthy sole owner of the Dobermann estate and sole carrier of the family name. It's a lot of responsibility to take on at once, especially for someone who is so ill at ease dealing with the public. Fortunately for him, shortly after receiving this devastating news in the hospital, he receives an unexpected visitor: A young woman named Inga, who makes the rounds offering encouragement and companionship to the injured troops. For the first time, Louis feels a spark, and Inga feels the same. He eventually returns to his family estate, but he's not alone, and he's no longer the only von Dobermann left. Despite tragedy's best efforts, the family line carries on through their daughter Adelina, then through her sons, Diepold and Louis II. [Ewald von Dobermann 2024 [Friday, February 16, 2024, 12:00:34 AM]] |