Marriage and children: What is the culture behind it?

[amst27.livejournal.com]

Hello everyone,

I am extremely curious concerning the subject of marriage and children, what is the culture behind it? For example, does the emperor have to have a lot of wives and numerous children to continue the royal line? Does the emperor have a lot of wives for political gain? I get the impression that the emperor is playing his children either against each other or maybe something else to prove their worthiness to be the next successor to the throne, and whomever proves worthy may have to remove their father by exiling him or killing him to challenge him for the throne. I think that this is terrible, but it appears to be that type of environment they live in. The emperor is a crappy father! However, to be fair he was probably raised without love and affection from his own father and/or mother, so he does not know any better. We do not know the history of the current emperor's childhood. And, does the emperor marry off his children for political gain? It would be nice if the series could explain the social culture and customs of the Britianina empire, but I do not think that this will happen. It seems to me that you have to piece together their social customs from certain episodes and do your best to interpret it. I do hope that I have not confused anyone with my questions. I would appreciate any help that you can give me.

Thanks!

Comments

[treeflamingo.livejournal.com]

The political and inheritance system of the Holy Britannian Empire is pretty similar to that employed by the Japanese themselves during those few times when the emperor was an actual leader and not just a figurehead. Those high enough up the social ladder have wives and concubines, the Emperor having the most impressive harem of all, and all of the Emperor's children are raised to think of themselves as having a shot at the throne - if they can prove they deserve it. There is intense inter- and intra-house rivalry as everybody tries to intrigue their way to the top; the Emperor encourages some of his children and incites vicious competition among all of them; being born into the royal family means that your "family" consists of your mother and maybe any full siblings you might have; your Father (capital F) is the boss you are born under and are destined to overthrow. It's a little bit naive, in my opinion, to make value judgements about Charles' parenting. He's not trying to be a 'daddy'. He's trying to hold on to and consolidate power as long and as much as possible while grooming (ideally) one successor.
On the subject of why it seems that only the Emperor is polygamus, I would assume it's because he's the only one with a Royal Blood Line to preserve and a throne to protect. Nobody else needs to go to such extreme breeding measures to produce a suitable heir; nobody else needs to create the next Emperor.
A question of my own - does it ever look to anyone else like Charles' true favorite is Lelouche? There's something about all this that makes me think he's testing Lelouche especially hard because he expects the most from him. And if he dies during the test, there's always Schneizel.

[ladyassassin27.livejournal.com]

Yes, the fact that he didn't just dispose of him when he had the chance instead just wiped his memories, got me thinking that he may want Lulouch to take over, and the Emperor's leniency when it comes to Schneizel has always bothered me a bit, maybe he doesn't bother with him since he's deemed him to be the back up in case Lulouch dies is accidently killed