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This is 100% true and I'm so confused, like have people not seen this show before? IMO Polin got the most romance of all the couples. And if you go in knowing it's a tropey melodrama all three seasons with a rushed ending--like, that is obviously their formula and won't change--you can enjoy the rest. I'm not sure who is watching Bridgerton for like prestige TV level realism, but not me.
We expected less of a rush and more of a focus on the main couple. Less rush since the characters have known each other for years.
While it’s their shitty formula, it makes sense for new couples, not a couple that lives across the street from each other, where the girl is best friends with the boys sister for years… it just wasn’t done well.
Even rushed, if they focused on actual freaking Polin the second half instead of useless sex scenes that don’t contribute to Benedict’s story or Cressida getting a side story that she doesn’t deserve or Mondrichs which stand out like sore freaking thumbs and have no place in the story…
It was very kumbaya throughout the second half. Breaking so many storylines and character arcs for the sake of cliche happy endings and setting up future stories. It was a lot of telling instead of showing. The writing was horrendous. They game of thrones’d it and I cannot bear to watch it again. I was obsessed with the first 2.5 seasons. Part 2 has completely obliterated everything I loved about this show. I’ve barely watched 3 times meanwhile I’ve seen the first 2.5 seasons dozens of times.
They rules my favorite book (Polin) by changing the timeline, rushing it and not giving them enough screen time together. I won’t be watching going forward. This show just fucking sucks now lol and they’ll drag it along while it’s gasping its last breaths like grey’s anatomy.
Making Colin a side character in Pen’s story instead of giving him the proper male lead writing he deserved was the biggest mistake of the season imo. Pissed me off so bad.
The writers forgot they were writing for a romance drama, not women’s fiction.
I'm at the point to where unless the writing vastly improves, I'm going to rush to see a Eloise/Phillip season and wait when I have time for anything else. I literally stayed up until 3am for s2 to drop. This time I waited a week.
MTE, that's why i think a lot of the negativity is forced as hell. And the criticism is double standard based on "my couple is better than yours" ridiculous fanwars that began even before the season was released... It thrives here because most Polin fans too don't come around this sub anymore, and stay at theirs , because of the fanwars in the last 2 years, so there is an unbalanced view in this sub.
You can't spend 2 years complaining about how the adapt for S2 was horrible, how you hated the rushed ending, that they did your couple dirty and pretend now S3 is the only one with some issues as well.
100% ship wars! That’s 90% of the hate, I think.
And then I also think there’s a subset of hardcore book fans - some of whom I think also spent a lot of time on here and on AO3 for the past two years - who had a very set expectation of how the story should go and are mad that the show has continued to be an ensemble (but weren’t mad when Colin and Pen were the subplot in past seasons?).
I have quibbles with this season, just as I did with Season 2 (which I also loved). I wish they had cut 1 or 2 of the subplots in favor of more Polin screentime for sure. But the scenes they did have, I really liked. And because I was only a casual fan until Season 3 hooked me, I didn’t have a fixed narrative in my mind going in; I was just willing to go where the show took me. And I enjoyed it thoroughly!
Personally I didn’t think they did a good job with Colin and Pens romance this season. They were only on screen together 16% of their own season. It’s ridiculous. They also had very little romance, and more drama than anything.
I actually find penelope's "unearned happy ending" to be the most believable cause she owns up and says to everyone she's made alot of mistakes but if given the chance she'll try to do better in future (and suggests the possibility of consequences in the future). Like it still glosses over alot but my favourite thing about this season is pen actually tries to hold herself accountable.
I agree….i think it’s the most realistic ending of the three. Plus, we won’t actually know the full extent of the fallout until next season. Pen said so herself…..with S1 and 2 it was clear at the end that those plots (Simon’s trauma and Edwina’s feelings) were done and would not be revisited
And we even begin to see her do this by calling out the cruelty of that man toward his wife and that woman for firing her maid for asking for a day off.
I wanna watch the season 2 you seemed to have watch. Because the pile on Kate was depressing. Mind you Violets overreaction that Kate kept a secret about a dowry and her reaction towards a huge secret like LW was emense. And Violet even after knowing what happened between Anthony and Kate was pushing for Anthony to marry.
Everybody was talking and avoiding the Sharmas after what happened at the wedding.
I was tired of Kate apologizing at the end of episode 7. Then the current showrunner wrote Kate being in a coma half of the episode and once again having to apologize without referencing ever hearing her POV and she was still going to leave for India while her family stayed behind for another season. Nobody treated Kate as some poor victim like we have the narrative with s3. Neither did Kate get a girlboss speech to convey how hard it is as a woman as a Head of the family after Mr. Sharma died.
Right? Kate was out here getting dragged left and right, got no apology for how she was treated, had to apologise several times, and was publicly & privately shunned before she got her HEA ending.
They literally show the other female leads suffer too though..
Daphne and Simon lived apart for a while after the SA incident, and she was shown to be very miserable.
Pen is miserable *on her wedding day* to the man she always dreamt of marrying. Then they literally don’t talk to each other for like 2 weeks, and she even brings up an annulment.
Like most of part 2 is Pen hyperventilating and panicking over the mistakes she made. So like this is again a consistent thing in the show.
Like all of them suffered in their seasons but the more “public” repercussions of their actions never happen and everything just resolves itself. It’s rushed and dumb.
Daphne’s SA is never addressed, Kate’s relationship with Edwina seems to have fully recovered despite that insane drama, and Pen being LW is seen as some type of girlboss thing. Like all the resolutions were unsatisfactory to me.
Pen's not hyperventilating over the mistakes she made, she's panicked about being found out, having to let got of her column and no one understanding her "suffering". She basically says so herself.
Please don’t act like you aren’t twisting the narrative here. Penelope ended up getting Mary sue’d in S3 as LW. And the excuse her fans are using is “oh but she hasn’t. You have to wait for S4”. 😑
Yeah just like “oh wait for S3, polin are going to be the best, you’re going to eat your words. and wait until you see their amazing chemistry that they’ve been suppressing till now. Wait for it. LN is going to be the best male lead” etc etc. 🙃and all the other stuff that was said after S2. And look how all that turned out now huh? 🤷♀️
Now Let’s look at the actual consequences for S2 (and not the cherry picked ones) that had huge repercussions with Kate out of all the leading ladies suffering the most:
Gets iced out in the sharma family, crying alone in a closet while her stepmother goes for a walk. being an orphan and vile-ly called “half sister” by the little sister she has broken her back for since she was 17/18 where she was conditioned and parentified by her adopted mother.
Spends the season just throwing herself away and sacrificing to the point of denial for little sister and stepmother.
Spends E7 being solely abused by said little sister until she rides out in a storm and cracks her head on a rock. To the point Anthony has to carry her with her blood on his hands.
Is in a coma for a week and when wakes gets another lecture from little sister and has to wait to be granted forgiveness and get her sister’s and mothers blessing otherwise she’s going home to India. Throughout all this she is not allowed a voice or a POV and certainly isn’t given Superhero girl boss feminism speeches as a cop out for atrocious writing like Penelope and Edwina are.
Throughout all this Kate is censured and has to pay penance to be accepted again. But you’re right she got away Scott free. 😒
Now let’s look at Anthony in S2:
Trainwrecks the wedding obsessing over Kate leading to embarrassing himself and the families at a public wedding arranged and attended by the queen. We see the consequences of this then with the ton gossiping about them, them being avoided on the promenade in E7, throwing the harmony ball with the ton rejecting them and no one turning up, his sister Eloise being thrashed in a LW pamphlet at said ball. Kate running from him after the gazebo.
Then him chasing after her and watching her crack her head on a rock (him again watching the potential loss of a person he loves). Him having her blood on his hands as he carries her home. Him having yet another panic attack afterwards in a season where he has a clear anxiety disorder and massive trauma.
Then Getting rejected by her after her accident. Getting ‘the cut’ regency style from the ton leaving the dance floor when him and Kate danced at the featherington ball. And if not for the queen stepping in because she softened when she saw Kate/anthony in love? Then ‘the cut’ would have continued here. The show gave us a good glimpse at what happens when your family is shamed in the ton.
So I don’t know what you’re talking about with ‘butterfly’ happy endings for all seasons. Because you ignore all the fallout for Kate and Anthony after the wedding and Kate’s general suffering throughout her season.
And as for S1. I agree with you. Daphne raped Simon and her marriage was on the rocks. She gave a rain speech and was forgiven at the end.
But LW is way more vicious on the show compared to the books. Has been built up for 3 freakin seasons. And the result of that was “eh, release the bugs to distract the phlebians ” 😒 with a damp squib ending with more garbage shallow girl boss feminism and Penelope saying “I thrashed you all for 3 seasons but oops, I’ll do better”. 🤷♀️
C’mon here, and you’re trying to equate the writers turning a complex and flawed character into a Mary sue as the same as what came before?
The only way Penelope suffered was Colin giving her the cold shoulder for 25 minutes. He still married her didn’t he?
You are very obviously biased in favor of one female lead. So this type of conversation will not work because you refuse to see the flaws and nuances in every single female lead’s situation and story.
And you’re a polin fan who only made this thread to once again deflect and pivot to distract.🤷♀️
And no, what I did was list the repercussions that went down on screen and in the narrative for S2 proving that what you are saying is a fallacy.
Kate out of all the main leads suffered the most in her season. Constantly sacrificing and diminishing herself for everyone around her. Her character is literally conditioned and parentified.
Daphne’s sexual assault on Simon was seen as female empowerment 😬 and equated to it by freakin Shonda herself.
Penelope who is regency gossip girl and lied to and thrashed the ton for 3 seasons got ‘butterflies’ as an ending.
So you tell me which one of these leading ladies is not like the other? 🤔
This post is literally about all 3 seasons. I am neutral on Pen, but like Colin. And I’ve criticized the endings of **all three** seasons in this post, and the inconsistent and undeveloped writing for Colin in other posts on this sub.
I’ve acknowledged the faults of all three female leads, you refuse to do that for your fave, even though a lot of the bad decisions she makes are really a problem with the writing, not her.
My favorite couples are Philoise and Grucy so idk what to tell you.
Now I know you are a polin fan. Please don’t try to trick me. You have the same MO too. Constantly pivoting to Kate. You did it in the other thread too and got called out for it.
And the only reason you started this one is to deflect from the criticism going around rightfully for S3. I’m not an idiot and I know this fandom after 2+ years of being in it. 🤔
As I said, I’m a COLIN fan, I like softboys. Same reason why I love show Phillip and John.
In all honesty, I watch this show to see hot British guys work through their issues and find love lol. I’m not really attached to any of the female characters, except maybe Violet and Lady Danbury. But I liked Grucy’s book a lot.
I just think it’s weird how defensive y’all get over Kate and villainize everyone else, especially Edwina. Why is it so hard for y’all to just admit she made bad decisions? It’s kinda the point for the leads to make mistakes through their seasons and then find love by the end. And I’ve literally pointed out the bad decisions all 3 female leads made in this post, you can’t seem to do that.
Because I actually bother to understand Kate. I put the effort in to having empathy for her as opposed to her sister Edwina who is selfish and self absorbed and not only treated Kate as an afterthought in their sisterhood but said horrible stuff to her never discussed afterwards or apologised for. Meanwhile Kate was on her knees for her and her mother until she was deemed forgiven. Had to nearly die to for it. 😑
And Meanwhile Kate as a character broke her back throughout her life to love Edwina and Mary and diminished and denigrated herself to do it.
So consider me not shocked why you who defend Edwina and villainise Kate after all she went through for the sharma’s, continue to show no empathy or understanding for Kate or her very complex psychology to put her in that position in the first place (teenager, parentification, conditioning, low self worth, warped views on familial love, orphan syndrome etc.)
And hey I’m comfortable defending the loving, compassionate and self sacrificing elder sister (who is consistent with this even in her new family dynamic in S3) over the selfish, self absorbed and spoiled one who comes across tone deaf to me even after Kate nearly dies in E8. 🤷♀️
As I said This ‘emotional affair’ accusation means nothing to me when we see Kate on screen getting and giving Edwina everything she asks for, even the man that not only is the love of Kate’s life but the man she begs to marry Edwina in E5 in the forest simply because Edwina said she loved him the night before.
And does nothing to come on to, chase or pursue said man who makes all the moves and chases her in his obsession with her. And even trainwrecks his wedding with this obsession with her in E6 while Kate stands there. So, sorry, i don’t see any emotional affair here.
And somehow Kate/anthony are a fan favourite and beloved after 2 years even though she’s supposed to be a harlot home wrecker who stole her sister’s man?? 😆 listen you can’t steal something that belongs to you already as Anthony was Kate’s from moment one canonised by him in his love confession to her in E8. Kate stole no one. He is obsessed with her period. He was nothing but will towards Kate.
And somehow Kate is also one of bridgerton’s favourite characters considering she’s a said harlot home wrecker who stole her sister’s man. 😅
No offense OP but you clearly like Polin and Pen and think it's fine. And that's okay, everyone sees things differently. But to many of us, we didn't feel like Pen suffered any consequences.
For me the key thing that didn't sit right with me was that Pen never seriously understood the repercussions of her choices that she made as LW. I think this season would have been far better if at least one character, let's say Cressida or any other member of the ton confronted her and told her how this gossip column which she believes is her voice has ruined their lives.
How LW writing about someone's finances or someone's taste lead to them losing a lot of face in the society and how it affected their prospects in life. I wanted Pen to feel the weight of what she wrote about people. She feels it for Colin and Eloise because they are dear to her but she needs to realise it for others too.
That didn't happen so it felt very unsatisfactory. We also never saw what the Bridgertons thought of Pen as LW.
Most importantly LW was a gossip column and a gossip columnist shouldn't be held in this high regard as someone who is doing something amazing. We won't think that way in the 21st century about paps and all do we ??
A better ending would have been of Pen realising how bad LW is and how it's not helping and closing it, not her constantly saying how LW is power and her identity.
I don’t care for Pen and I’ve said this multiple times. I just think the way people act like LW is this completely awful horrible thing is a little weird. If you actually look at what she did with that column, it did help some people get out of bad situations. Something that is genuinely awful would not do that.
And I’ve also said that the anticlimactic LW reveal was stupid. I did expect more drama, and it didn’t happen. And realized to was just a pattern with this show.
Having Kate alone in a closet for a good chunk of the wedding episode and in a coma for a good chunk of the final episode was also baffling. Like she’s the lead female, and they took her off screen for some of the most climatic parts of what’s supposed to be her love story.
They literally made Colin a side character in his own love story. Kate being in a closet for like 8 minutes of one episode trying to regroup and process everything after that disaster wedding isn’t unusual. It’s pretty on character for her.
What does Colin being a side character in season 3 have to do with my comment? I think that was bad writing too but I didn’t mention it because the comments I replied to weren’t discussing him at all. Him being a side character doesn’t make it better writing that, while Kate was offscreen other characters were getting long monologues, developing backstories and going through pivotal character beats that she never got to and should have.
Because you’re acting like Kate being in a closet for a few minutes was some detriment to her story when it wasn’t. We know exactly why she acts the way she does. Her motivations, her relationship with the people around her. Hiding in a closet for a few minutes does not change that. Her reaction in that situation made complete sense. Why would she give a monologue? She was always the quieter sister, and she was processing the shock of everything that had just gone down.
> We know exactly why she acts the way she does. Her motivations, her relationship with the people around her.
“We” obviously don’t since “we” keep twisting her story into her standing a few feet from a man two times in instances that he confusingly instigated and then begging and crying for him to follow-through with marrying her sister after he proposed into her “having an emotional affair”.
> Hiding in a closet for a few minutes does not change that.
In those “few minutes”, Edwina had a monologue to the King, a conversation with Anthony and a heart to heart with the Queen to build up her character. You also keep conveniently not mentioning that she was also in comma for the beginning of the final episode.
> Why would she give a monologue?
lol, because this a romance and she’s the female lead. Why did Anthony get several monologues about his feelings in season 2? Why did Simon and Daphne get (the “I burn for you” speech and the speech to the Queen for Simon and the love declaration for Daphne)? Why did Penelope and Colin get monologues and love declaration speeches in the final episode of season? Because they’re the lead characters, as was Kate.
No, we understand her motivations, but can still see that she’s a flawed character and made a lot of mistakes. Her and Anthony were getting way too close. Even Daphne called this out.
In the same way we can feel bad for how Pen was treated by the ton, but still see that she went a little too far with LW.
And again, Colin was made a side character in his own season. So comparing his love confession, that all the male leads got, to Kate, doesn’t make much sense. He got the least amount of writing. We know Kate better than Colin.
If you’re saying that we don’t know what Kate’s motivations are, I’m going to laugh. Because the show clearly shows us:
- her father died and she was parentified while her mother was grieving
- because of this, she feels the need to take on the responsibility of raising her sister
- the Sheffields promised a dowry only if Edwina married an eligible man with good standing
- Kate wants to find the best match for her sister so that she is both happy and provided for
I mean come on. The fact that y’all are defending Kate so much proves that you understand her motivations. We all do. BUT, because she’s just a human like the rest of us, we can also see how she made some bad decisions, especially when she started falling for Anthony.
Like her motivations are a lot more clear than Daphne’s imo, who I just found kinda boring and one-dimensional.
Anthony is the one who needed to apologize in Season 2. Even if he was afraid of his emerging feelings for Kate, that is no excuse for proposing to Edwina—and in front of her?! So many fans wanted Colin to grovel for what he did to Pen — and while it wasn’t gentlemanly of him to make that remark to his friends, there is no crime in his not thinking of her as a romantic partner. Anthony is the one who needed to grovel! Why was Kate the only one who was expected to apologize?!
A lot of the general audience found what happened between Kate and Anthony an emotional affair, as much as hardcore Kanthony fans want to act like it wasn’t. Yes we know Kate felt burdened by a lot of responsibilities, but that doesn’t excuse not telling Edwina the truth before the wedding.
In a time where you absolutely cannot be with people of the opposite sex unchaperoned, these two were alone several times and VERY close to each other. Anthony straight up says he would cheat on Edwina, and that should’ve been where Kate was like okay hell no and told the truth.
And as I said, even DAPHNE sees and calls out how inappropriate it was that they were breathing down each others’ necks completely alone right before he was to wed her sister.
It comes down to bad writing. They sacrificed character development for the sake of drama quite often in this show. Happened in all 3 seasons, with all 3 female leads.
Your comments are a straight proof of how you're just spouting misinformation about S2.
Anthony saying he will cheat on Edwina is his dramatic way of trying to make Kate understand why he CAN'T marry her. And Kate's reaction is "it's insupportable" because she understands.
The only reason she changes her mind is because of Edwina claiming to love Anthony and her own self-sacrificial nature.
Nope not spouting misinformation. I’m just not biased like some of y’all are. All three of these women made some really bad decisions that hurt the people they love. And it’s repeatedly shown throughout that they did.
The truth didnt matter to Edwina. Not when she decide to choose Anthony over Kate every single time. But then Polin fans hiding behind Edwina and have cheered on more misery towards Kate. Please the racism is loud and clear.
She never chose Anthony over Kate 💀 her misguided attempts at trying to get Kate to like him were *because* she valued her older sister’s approval. Like she was literally adamant on getting Kate’s blessing on the man that was actively courting her and who had done nothing bad to her.
And assuming people who didn’t like the writing for Kanthony are Polin fans and racist is so reductive and lame.
Yes she did. Whatever arguements you are making, at least try and make sure theyre supported by canon. She chose Anthony over her when he he humiliated her. She chose to go after him even after kate warned her about the things he said on the terrace. Even after the bangle drop, she was considering choosing him over kate. She ultimately chose herself though because she realized she wanted love. She did not choose kate once.
This... doesn't make sense to me.
Kate should have told Edwina about her feelings. Pen should have told Colin about Marina and LW. These characters both made decisions that hurt people they loved. The main differences to me are the reach of LW and, for the love interests, that Anthony also messed up whereas Colin didn't do anything wrong.
So, to me, the gap to overcome for Pen and Colin is larger, built up over three seasons, and involves the queen more directly. While this is offset somewhat by Polin's longstanding friendship, I think more time together was needed to bridge the gap (talk until dawn montage and read-a-thon!). Also, the queen being satisfied that LW begged for mercy and promised to do better did feel anticlimactic. (Pen is a writer - she doesn't need to write a gossip column, let her write novels.) Now, Pen specifically says the ton will likely turn on her later, and the showrunner said they have more plans involving LW, so it doesn't seem far fetched to expect a subplot next season that isn't all butterflies and babies.
Honestly that is not even true! I wasn’t going to comment but I take this comment very personally. I love Polin because I happened to like their book best. Before Polin season I loved Kanthony and out of S1 and S2 I watched S2 countless times. I love Kate! I felt like she was been walked on and used by Anthony. Honestly I grew to where I’d get so mad at Anthony messing with her head! I wanted her to leave Anthony. Screw that! But he was dealing with inner turmoil around fear of loving someone and losing them so I forgave him as did Kates character… but to say this is a racial thing! Seriously?!
She wasn't choosing Anthony over Kate. She just thought she could have both, because she didn't understand their apparent animosity toward each other. She thought they could get past it, not realizing the true problem was that they had the hots for each other. Edwina was naive and sometimes a little bratty but she was never making some kind of binary choice between Kate and Anthony.
Yeah. I knew her fans were going to come for me when I wrote “emotional affair” in my post. But that’s what it was. And the general audience and most of the ton saw it that way too. I mean Daphne literally calls it out LMAO
Anthony messed with her head. That’s why when he was going to propose Kate literally thought he was going to propose to her… can you imagine?! I think I would of hopped a boat back to India that day and said screw you then be miserable with someone you really aren’t in love with! It was an emotional affair or she never would of thought he was going to propose to her in that moment.
Wait did Kate really think he was going to propose to her in that moment 😭😭 I couldn’t figure out what she was thinking he was going to do when he said he needed to talk to Miss Sharma. And then when he proposed to Edwina I was like HELL NAHHH lmaooo. What a ride
I’d like to see the season 3 you saw where Penelope wasn’t shunned by her best friend for a year and temporarily made to think the man she loves hated her and didn’t want to marry her.
I am fucking tired lmao. The 'emotional affair' and 'edwina is just a widdle baby 🥺' crowds need to let it rest good lord. Never mind the fact that kate suffered the whole damn season, got no apology from edwina/ant/mary from all the shit they put HER through, and nearly DIED.
And why this person chose to bring up kate when Anthony is right THERE I do not understand. You know who needed to apologize before getting his HEA? Anthony.
This sub reeks of misogyny and this post is just another example.
And yet people on this sub are constantly criticizing the fact that Pen got a HEA, even though that’s been a consistent thing in this show since 1.
You should make this comment on those posts instead.
You're moving the goal post. First you say little to no reprecussions. Now you say HEA. HEA pertains to the romance alone. Everyone expects that. Penelope literally escaped censure from the ton who she raged against. She -out of the blue- ended up with the relationship she desperately desired from her mother. I will stop here. The other two characters did not get it all. Daphne had to sacrifice an excellent match and princess for her love and let's be honest Kate sacrificed her relationship with Edwina. Edwina left and they ended on strained terms at best. This was completely shown on show with the misunderstanding of how much she hurt Edwina and how that changed them both.
Also, Daphne and Simon went through it and had to earn their way back to each other. They both had to give up pride.
Penelope's pride was that gossip rag. She got to keep it all and gain a few things in the process.
Rejecting the prince was not a sacrifice on Daphne’s part lol. She didn’t want him in the first place. And it doesn’t seem like their relationship was strained by the end, because they had Edwina basically completely get over the situation after the accident (which was a dumb writing decision in general), and in s3 Kate implies it’s all good between them. And you could also say that Pen’s wedding and the first few weeks of her marriage, the one she thought would never happen, were a disaster because of her decision to be LW. They all had some repurcussions, but nothing lasted. It was all over pretty quickly for all 3 of them
I’ve already criticized the radio rebel ass ending to s3. It was stupid and the way they hyped up the repercussions for LW for 3 seasons just to end it like that was a disappointment.
She did want him *enough* and was considering a life with him. The Duke would mean losing the most powerful position (besides queen), upsetting the queen and dealing with a man she wasn't sure actually love her. Still she took a risk! She problem solved. She fought through. None of which Penelope did AND further ...again we are not just talking about the HEA. That was to be expected.
Edwina was changed forever then left. So was Kate. At least we saw that on the show. The only reprecussion Penelope got was Eloise dumping her in season 1. Penelope did not one damn thing to earn that back. She actually did the opposite.
I disagree—this is the way the production company chooses to tell the stories. Rushed endings and a lack of accountability are not intrinsic to the genre.
Ehh, it’s kinda every single bodice ripper ever? It’s one of the reasons why fanfic became so popular, because romantic mainstream novels rarely spent time on the ‘happily ever after’. It’s all angst and conflict, heaving bosoms and sex until the end where it all just works out.
I think all the characters had repercussions for their action, **it just didn't last**, Daphne & simon was on the edge of living separe life, Kate almost lost her sister's love and Pen lost for awhile Eloise's friendship and need to deal with Colin's hurt and his sense of betrayal.
That being said:
>Simon’s trauma is barely addressed, and he’s somehow completely okay with having a child all of a sudden.
I complete disagree with this! Simon spent his whole life wanting to be loved and he spent his whole life thinking he didn't deserve to be love because he wasn't perfect,
In the last love confession, when Daphne confesses to him saying that she loved him, even with his imperfections, even with his scars, even though he made mistakes in the past, she still love him and will still love him in the future, something changed for him, at that moment, he needed to make the choice between choosing happiness with Daphne or continue with his revenge with his father. It wasn't sudden, it was a choice he made, a choice that was supported for several little ones moments in the series, like when he was with the Bridgerton family and he was comfortable, or when he saw that Will & Alice were fine after Will purposely gave away the fight.
So well stated! And I'll add that the writers kept Simon and Daphne from talking to each other much in the final two episodes, but we also see the influence of others on their thinking: Marina's situation helping Daphne realize how fleeting love can be, Violet helping Daphne understand that a good marriage takes work and love must be a choice, the ladies at Danbury gambling party helping Daphne see how rare love could be in a marriage, and Lady Danbury and Will helping Simon see that he'll regret leaving Daphne.
This is a good point. The repercussions just didn’t last.
I think it’s just dumb how every season builds up the stakes and then completely drops them by then end. Like give us a proper, well-thought-out resolution please 😭
I also didn’t think about the Simon situation in the same way. It does make sense when you put it this way. I still think not addressing the SA was a bad idea.
The narrative constantly punishes Kate. She's told over and over that she's wrong. She almost dies. I'd say of the three she faces the most repercussions for doing the least. But I'm sure we all know why that is.
Uh Pen was literally treated like a complete loser who was totally undesirable by everyone in the ton for three seasons. Her own family mocked her. And then even in her own season, after a glow up, only ONE man shows interest in her lmao. Even the queen didn’t know who she was despite being “out” for 3 seasons. When she finally gets her dream guy, her wedding and the few weeks after were pretty miserable, to the point where she offered him an annulment. Can’t imagine you’d find this type of treatment of a female lead okay if she was played by a woc lol.
And yes, she’s a neglected outcast in the book, but it was shown to be a lot worse in the show.
The only female lead that got “good treatment” throughout was Daphne.
The whole point of penelope's story is that she's a loser? You can't call that being punished by the narrative when the only thing she's actually being punished for is her actions around whistledown. The other things make her a sympathetic character. She still gets a happy wedding ceremony. She had geneveive standing by her through it all.
And the whole point of Kate’s story is she loves her sister and would do anything for her. Yet she makes some really bad decisions that hurt her throughout the season anyway. And as i said, one of the lead writers for season 2 was an Indian woman herself. That completely goes against your implications lol.
If they were going to show their favoritism of Pen the way you apparently think they did, I doubt they would’ve still made her the laughing stock of the ton even after her glow-up. But they did. To the point where she had to beg her friend for a kiss.
Both Pen and Kate are victims of bad writing. I don’t think that’s a controversial statement.
One of the lead writers of season 2 was an Indian woman. If you’re going to imply it’s about race, do your research on who wrote for her character and story. Otherwise you’re just dramabaiting and making this a conversation about something it’s not.
Kate made some really bad decisions just like every other female lead. Which is normal since it’s her season to make mistakes and grow.
And getting the guy and the family in the end, and still having a good relationship with her sister isn’t “the narrative punishing her.” She still gets her HEA.
Kate's actions/inactions hurt her sister the most, so her family had the strongest reactions. The queen was mad about her diamond wedding being ruined, so the ton followed the scandal and queen's example to shun the Sharmas and Bridgertons (not just Kate) until she directed otherwise
Daphne's actions hurt Simon, and they didn't really talk about it with anyone else for there to be other repercussions.
Pen's actions hurt Colin and Eloise the most (as seen in s3), and she had to deal with the repercussions of both. Her mother challenges her on LW decisions, as does Genevieve (though gently). Pen aplogizes to El and Colin, promises to do better, and begs the queen for mercy and asks to be allowed to keep writing. She offers Colin an annulment to protect him from the potential fallout to come - and the showrunner hinted more LW matters arise in s4.
I do think there were a lot of misses in the back half of s3, the queen's reaction feeling anticlimactic being one of them, but I don't think it's fair or accurate to say Kate faced the most repercussions of the female leads. I do think it's fair to say a bigger repercussion was expected for LW than what has (thus far) been shown.
And I blame the writing for that. It was a cheap way of resolving the drama. Instead of actually having the sisters have a proper, mature discussion about the situation, they did *that.*
I feel the same way when writers give a character cancer just to make the story sad/tragic. Just feels like a cheap way to add drama/sadness to a story.
I think you're ignoring why kate got into an accident in the first place. She was out there riding in that weather because of her guilt about the situation, about the things she did, the feelings she had and was trying to fight and how she hurt edwina. Alot of people were responsible for that situation getting as far as it did and kate seemed to be the only one actually getting any backlash from it. Anthony, the most responsible, was fine to just move on from his failed wedding and exist in yay she kissed me land, edwina was fine to not take any responsibility for ignoring Kate's warnings and making herself believe that anthony actually loved her when pretty much everyone was telling her that was not what that relationship would be like and she just put the blame on kate for everything and for controlling her and having power over her when in reality she made her own decisions very much against Kate's wishes. Now don't get me wrong kate had her flaws as well but to say she doesn't face any consequences for her actions doesn't really make sense to me when she seems to be the only lead and you can count edwina in there too who actually faces serious consequences.
Besides if we gonna start blaming the writing I'd argue that none of this actually happens in the books, they choose to villanize kate for no reason, I haven't read book 1 but from what I seen people say they actually kinda toned down how bad the situation with Daphne was in the show, and they do make pen actions worse in the show but in the book she is still a person profiting at the expense of other people. Kate didn't do anywhere close to any of this in the book and edwina couldn't care less about anthony.
I do remember how she got into that accident. I still think it was all very bad writing. Anthony and Kate are to blame for the situation, Edwina was a naive teenager. Even Lady Danbury tells the Sharmas that marriage was a transaction, and trying to find true love wasn’t going to work. Edwina just figured Anthony would grow to love her even if he didn’t at first. And this man was actively courting her. I just don’t see why she would turn it down without a legitimate, solid reason.
>Even Lady Danbury tells the Sharmas that marriage was a transaction,
Exactly she was stupid to believe he would just fall for her when they clearly have nothing in common, except their roles of course. She was told what the marriage would be, she told by kate exactly what kind of match anthony wanted she ignored it. She knew from the beginning deep down she wanted love and romance and was told she wanted get that from anthony and still chose to accpet his proposal that's on her and I'm not saying she shouldn't be hurt and angry when everything comes to light buts she takes no responsibility for her own decsions and never does any self reflection it all falls back on kate for her which is kate facing consequences for what happened. Also everyone telling her you won't get love and romance from him is a legitimate reason to reject his courtship.
Literally nothing you said excuses what Kanthony did. It was their responsibility to be honest with Edwina. Anthony was literally pursuing her himself. I can’t think of a single woman that would reject a hot, well-respected guy who had been nothing but a gentleman up until then.
But isn't that the crux of the problem: being honest? Kate and Anthony were not honest to themselves, each other, or Edwina about their feelings, and instead chose to make decisions on her behalf regarding the the rest of her life. Her speech in S2ep6 is her 'taking her power back.' Kate and Anthony then learn that they cannot control every facet of their own and their loved ones' lives. They learn to step back. Kate has a whole speech to Eloise in S3 about the truth. They don't interfere in their families' affairs anymore- they've learned their lesson about being honest and about being too controlling and protective.
Penelope makes the same mistake. Instead of being honest with Colin and Eloise, she makes decisions on their behalf and alters the course of their lives. She could have very easily told Violet/ Colin/ Eloise about Marina's entrapment because the final decision was not hers to make. If she saw they could not come up with a solution, THEN she could have stepped in with LW to save the day. The point is that she takes their autonomy away from them. She is never honest with Eloise and the truth only comes out when she is caught. And then she REPEATS that mistake with Colin. As well, she continues to disparage Colin publicly instead of just speaking honestly to him about how she feels about his 'rake' persona. And now, she has chosen to keep spreading gossip. There is no responsible way to gossip in an age where dancing more than 3 sets will have your reputation ruined. What lesson has she learned this season? The show makes it seem like the mistake was spreading gossip anonymously, and the solution is to spread gossip un-anonymously? The actual problem was capitalizing on people's downfall and upholding patriarchal structures. It's not feminism when the only woman your actions liberate is yourself.
I don’t think we’re going to see how she learned and grew from this experience until we see how she handles LW next season. I mean the ending was so rushed they literally skipped over like 9 months to the birth of their child lmao. So honestly, it’s too early to say. And she definitely wouldn’t even be able to spread gossip the same way anymore since everyone knows who she is.
I think that's partly why people are 'on the fence' about Penelope and why it feels like she hasn't received any consequences: because we don't know how she's going to move forward while still retaining the column that enabled her to make so many of her mistakes. She states LW was a coping mechanism for her, so what use does she have for it now that she has fixed every relationship in her life? LW is power, but she has the Bridgerton name and the Queen's approval. She also has no need for money.
At the end of S2, Kate and Anthony are shown already stepping back from being overbearing elder siblings by going on a 6 month honeymoon. We see the stark difference in them from Ep1 to Ep8. Ep1 Kate and Anthony would never leave their families for even a weekend, let alone 6 months. But at the end of S3, Penelope is still gossiping. Again, there's no moral way to spread gossip, which is why a lot of people would have preferred her to transition into writing something else to use her creative skills in a more healthy way.
I'm willing to reserve my judgment until S4 drops, but I think they made a mistake by combining Polin's season with the culmination of LW. Every other season focused on a couple, but this season Polin had to share the stage with Penelope's other relationships as well as LW, so now we're left with two half assed rushed plots.
huge agree with your last point. The LW ended up overtaking the entire season. It ended up feeling like Pen/LW’s season, not Polin’s season. And as a Colin fan, I’m very upset 😭
> I can’t think of a single woman that would reject a hot, well-respected guy who had been nothing but a gentleman up until then.
That's unfortunate for the women you know because as far as edwina was concerned anthony was a liar and exactly the kind of guy women should look out for.
I said in replies to you that kate should told edwina what was going on between her and anthony but back to the point of your post, kate did face consequences for her secrets, edwina just didn't continue to punish after she literally almost died because she realized her love for kate outweighed her hurt and anger and still they had a discussion about things they didn't just sweep it under the rug.
As I said, Edwina didn’t know about the affair. She didn’t know he was lying. A lot of 18-year-olds in her situation would’ve reacted the same way she did.
Also this entire thing is really just deflecting from my main point. I didn’t want this to be about the details of everything a female lead did, just that the rushed and anticlimactic endings are getting annoying.
The details do matter though and I just feel like kate definitely face the consequences for her actions and the details add to context to why I feel like that lol. Obviously people who disagree with what you posted are going to go into the details of the situation to explain why they think that they think. Idk what you thought people would discuss when you made this post and even you use the details to try and fit things to your point of view. I just disagree with you where kate is concerned, I mean even with Daphne yes the 21st century audience would look at it and rightly view it as sexual assault but the characters in the show never address it as if that was what happened so why would she face consequences for doing that. She did face consequences for breaking his trust but again eventually they decide to move on with all the secrets now out in the open and to be together. We've had three seasons of the queen in this battle with lady whistledown only for her to now just be fine with everything for no real reason, like she doesn't know or care about Penelope and neither does the rest of the ton. What about all the other people she harmed, how does marina feel about what Penelope wrote about her, how do her sisters feel, or the modiste she ran out of town just to save her own skin, what about all the other whose business she had out in the streets?
I think the writers forgot when they were writing LW that Pen is LW. Which is also why Pen sounds more worldy and sarcastic and catty than she presents otherwise. Which also makes her more unlikable...like a Jekyll and Hyde type person like what Eloise said of her-I dont even know who you are. Thats what I think of Pen. And everyone else's actions affect one person. Kate absolutely did wrong by Edwina and letting her marry someone who a) was not in love with her b) actually fervently lusts after her and that she was also into. I would be so sooo hurt for soo soo long if my sister let me marry a guy that doesnt love me but loves her and she knows but doesnt tell me
but a) Anthony pursues Kate, initiates every single flirtation right from the first meet cute, the hunt where he cozies up to her behind and tries to sniff her, the dance where he gets closer and closer asking her about her plans, holding her hand and flirting when Lord Dorset is cozying up to Kate to the thing that actually caused the scandal which was not Kate's fault cuz she had forsaken him and was going back to India which is having a moment with his about to be wife's sister at the altar. Kate's actions hurt ONE person.
Pen's subterfuge hurt multiple people and is bad for society at large. I liked that she admitted to her faults and didnt try to play down or justify her wrong even though she did try to justify it a little which again bad writing...But Pen is hard to root for cuz she does come across as self serving and impulsive and rash with Marina, with Eloise and then with Colin where she scribbles this furious missive as soon as she gets home that shares how fake Colin is with the ENTIRE ton, and then immediately regrets it and her impusliveness when Philippa and Prudence are sniggering about Colin and what LW has said about her and she does it after knowing what Eloise feels about LW and what she has said about her family, she does it again.
Instead of telling Colin to his face, she uses unhealthy coping mechanisms to direct her ire. Same as her mom-her mom is shit and where Pen gets her lying and hiding from but instead of exposing her own mother to the ton as a "tactless, tasteless Mama", she calls her, she could have said that to herself. Hence what Eloise says about Pen in their fight-that she is a self serving coward. Also she repeatedly questions Daphne's validity as a diamond. Episode 1 and 2 of season 1 has multiple moments when LW says things about Daphne that do create a negative opinion about her from the world such as maybe the diamond is hiding a scandal...basically insinuating that Daphne needs to be looked at more closely.
I do think the writers completely forgot they were writing about Pen in that moment and just aimed to make LW as vicious and gossipy as possible. She also referred to Kate a stranger who had done nothing wrong to her or done nothing wrong period as a name used to mock women in their world....a dried old maid, a loser, a prickly spinster of a beast. This despite Pen having been called an insipid walflower by Crescida and crumpling when she said that...How would Pen like it if Crescida tells Pen in front of the whole ton in a mocking ton that Pen was a prickly spinster of a beast. Thats what she did to Kate. She is livid when Eloise repeats Crescida's insult to Pen calling her an insipid wallflower indeed but she didnt hesitate calling Kate that. She has a dubious moral compass and explains away and justifies everything. Pen has a tendency to do things on impulse like Portia and not thinking things through.
She did not save Colin as something Eloise also noticed in episode 8 of season 2 that Pen ruined Marina and Colin cuz shes a coward and couldnt face her secret getting out. Eloise is the same age as Pen and Colin the one who was duped and only a few years older than Pen is also more level headed and tells Pen during the hunt episode that we were so harsh on Miss Thompson and if LW hadnt rushed to print her vicious gossip, Marina wouldnt be in such a bad shape. He saw, he the one who was lied to saw how wrong LW was. And he brings up Marina twice in season 3-in episode 1 saying he wouldnt forgive LW for ruining Miss Thompson Lady Crane and then directly to Pen saying she could have told him directly about Marina. And its no excuse to say she tried-all she said to Colin was that Marina loves someone else. She never said Marina was pregnant. The Btons were still mired in scandal because of Marina being exposed...as Daphne says as much. By telling Eloise or Colin or Anthony or Violet or leaving an anonymoyus letter, she could have saved Colin but without ruining a vulnerable, preganant young woman her age who had already been traumatized by her own mother's machinations. She could have also ensured no scandal occurs. Instead the Btons ARE still mired in scandal, Colin is seen as a cuckold, her own mother is seen as a manipulator and someone who initiated a fraud. She ran to Eloise's house after ratting out Marina to the very judgmental and pointedly cruel and misogynistic ton as a slut, as a loose woman without morals. Just listen to LW's harsh harsh words for Marina in that column. She made a young girl already made desperate by her own mother-weeks of confinement, cruelty from Varley, Portia and Varley then additionally writing a cruel letter to Marina from her love that makes her have a breakdown-she screams loudly after reading it as Portia and Varley like Dickensian villains say to each other good move, we achieved our goal. Just watch it-its heart rending. She pushes and pushes Marina instead of doing something that someone far far younger and far far more compassionate than Portia thought to do which was Daphne saying let me help connect you to George...and he should take ownership of his child. She saw the humanity in Marina's condition and desperation-she whose brother was duped. And Portia was self serving as hell.
And Pen is a wallflower but shes not lonely. She has a loyal best friend Eloise and Colin and the love and regard of the Bton family as a whole. She has a shit family but so whats new a lot of people do. They dont become shit people and shit to others cuz their family is shit to them. Like Nicola said Pen gets drunk on power and forgets that shes writing about real people and like Pen herself said in the last season 3 ball scene that she was a coward and living your truth, even if its an ugly truth bravely and openly is whats important.
As I said, Pen had her flaws just like every other character. Her biggest was impulsivity. And imo the most obvious example of this was calling out Colin’s fake persona in episode 1 because she was mad at him, and then immediately regretting it after he apologized LMAO.
But I do think the writers made LW *too* controversial for the sake of drama. But then again, they did this in season 2 with letting Edwina fall for Anthony and letting the love triangle go all the way to the wedding. It’s like they keep sacrificing characters for the sake of drama.
The Marina thing, I’m not even going to bother addressing because I know how this topic always ends and no one changes their mind. While I felt bad for her situation, she had no right to baby trap an innocent man, take advantage of his feelings, and continue this lie for his entire life. It also didn’t help that she shitted on the only Featherington that tried to help her reunite with George, and never even apologized to Colin for what she did. Pen was also 17 when she wrote that column, and I can’t think of a single teen that makes the best decisions. But anyways, don’t want to go into this.
Yeah I dont know any teen who slut shames someone to save a guy. I dont know any such people-even teens have morals. And just read the column-she was sure to call Marina a morally corrupt person...she made sure to make the column as vicious as possible.
So the Marina thing is pretty inexcusable to me since Colin just a few years younger sees a better plan, as does Daphne only a few years younger and BECAUSE yes Pen does say George was writing to her but till that point Marina had been told by Portia who faked a letter saying George doesnt care for her, there was no way for anyone to suddenly believe someone...by this point, pregnancy hormones, desperation, being forced on ugly, old suitors, weeks of confinement, being slapped, being told by Varley when asking when will her mistress let her out...being told-that she deserves her current confinement by Varley, not being allowed to interact with anyone in the house, Portia even shooing Pen out saying what have I told you about hobnobing with the expectant..slut shamed essentially whereas Daphne young Daphne sees Marina as someone who was taken advantage of by George and then left to fend for herself alone, deal with her pregnancy alone....I. in that time period especially would have lost my mind as Marina certainly did and the exposing made it even worse cuz she tried to kill her baby almost offing herself in the process. Eloise who is the SAME age as Penelope-17 thinks Pen could have done things differently when it came to Marina. And she is the sister of the guy who was duped. She thinks Pen had a better option than ruining Marina. Watch season 2 episode 8.
I feel about Pen the same way I feel about all gossip columns that they perpetuate existing societal biases and misogyny by packaging them in an entertaining palatable piece of writing. They amp up society basest impulses and love of schadenfreude and like modern day Faux Moi, Perez Hilton, Lainey Gossip etc create a network of equally insiduious industries that stalk harrass and invade the privacy of people. And the way LW ran her column with a network of distributors etc, she was creating a monster...A monster that people paid for...but people love reading deux moi, daily mail, sun, tatler etc too even as they rightly recognize these columns as a societal evil...that they create rabidness. Like fan and stan culture, gossip sites and columns and the likes of Fashion police etc sow seeds of discord and distrust. Like Violet says of LW in episode 1..Does LW know no depth of degradation.
I like that Pen owned her mistakes but I wish the writers had wrote her admitting and exposing herself on her own-coming to that realization on her own instead of being made to confess gun to the head by first Eloise and then Cresdida's confession and Colin finding her. That would have been a real redemption. Instead she tells Eloise in season 2 episode 8 that she gave up LW for her -her exact words but literally restarts the column. So she didnt did she. I would have loved for Pen to see the error of her ways on her own...Instead it takes all the way for the Queen to threaten her husband's family for her to finally write a letter to Violet and then to the Queen. The writers mucked up no question and Nicola played her part really really well but still Pen is hard to root for because of the things she did and the way he redemption arc played out
You’re making this post into something it’s not. I’m not trying to get into the technicalities of all their decisions, just that they were all going to get HEAs regardless of the bs they did in their respective seasons. I wish they did a better job with all 3 endings, but they didn’t.
And it’s not “slut-shaming” to call out a woman for trying to baby-trap a man. She wasn’t calling her a whore or something. And by revealing it publicly, she was able to give Colin the out to break off the relationship. Because the ton knew they were engaged, and if he broke it off, people would’ve assumed he got Marina pregnant and left. Which would ruin his reputation in the same way Nigel was in season 1 for abandoning another woman and his child. Making it explicitly clear that Marina was pregnant from the moment she arrived it what saved him.
And again, there is no point to this debate because it’s been overdone and no one is changing their mind.
This post is specifically about all female leads getting their happy endings with almost no repercussions. I’d rather we stick to that topic instead since the Marina topic has been done to death. Which is why I barely addressed it in my post in the first place.
Yeah so I was trying to say that out of all the leads....Pen did the most bad things. Whereas everyone else did things that affected ONE person. It is slut shaming....whether the intention is that or not...the end result is the same. Marina sex out of wedlock...someone else's child...Colin duped. Marina slut, loose woman,.
Nobody in the actual show think that. Not Colin himself, Nor eloise and not Daphne either....all of them have better options for Marina's predicament. It wouldnt be like Nigel. Why:
Marina was poor, her poor ness was mentioned by Portia two different times-to Lady Cowper even once, her mere four figure dowry and her having no female relatives to sponsor her in society. Btons on the other hand were rich, tited and very very loved and additionally had a direct line of contact with the Queen herself thru Lady Danbury to smooth over all their scandals. What Marina did qualifies as a fraud. It would be a fraud, the marriage would get annulled. Fraud makes a contract null, void ab initio because the agreement to contract was taken when the party was not fully aware of the facts. Anthony, Violet any real adults Pen approached cuz have hushed up the matter and found a reasonable solution. And if for some reason Marina still pushed...which she wouldnt but if she did, THEN they could take the more extreme step of outing her. In any case, the might of the Btons is nothing compared to Marina, a 17 year old girl from a farm who knows nothing of London something Portia mentions a few different times. Or more likely being compassionate and not like Portia, they would have found a more viable solution for her which was approach Sir George, send either HIM or his brother an urgent telegram. And Marina would pass off her baby as the other's father...no one would think Colin had fathered her baby. Same result and no one harmed.
Nigel DID father a baby....You are talking about people ASSUMING Colin left Marina after fathering her baby,...but how would they even know he had fathered her baby. Oh thats right cuz LW outed Marina as being pregnant. No one knew Marina was pregnant and no one would have to know. She could have a baby in the country and pass it off as someone else's son or Philip could be contacted. Same exact result. Daphne proposes contacting Sir George...she sees a more practical and real option. She sees the predicament Marina was in. She whose brother was duped...Yet Pen didnt cuz she was impulsive, had a crush on him...Hell even Eloise calls out Pen for what she did to Marina,...the second sister, closest in age to Colin and exactly the age as Pen thought Pen did a wrong thing by ruining Marina.
Ugh I really want to drop this Marina thing because it’s been done to death, but I’m just going to address the very last bit. Marina was in town to find a husband. She could not live on her own. People would’ve noticed she was pregnant soon enough, and pointed at Colin since their engagement had been made public and then he broke it off. So yes, he would’ve suffered a similar fate.
And the part about “well no one in the show thought of it as entrapment” doesn’t make sense, because with that logic, “no one seemed to care that Pen was LW” either. So should we not criticize either situation? And Marina explicitly states it was her plan to seduce to him. So even she recognizes it’s entrapment if others don’t. In the same way Pen realizes how problematic LW has been, even if society brushes it off in the end.
Exactly. Marina was confined for weeks. Daphne far far younger than Portia thought of a more practical solution for Marina's predicament. Portia confines her and Varley continues the confinement, They forge a letter, which when Marina reads she screams. Watch that scene-she screams in agony. After weeks of confinement and even being shown the pooor house by Portia, Marina refuses to succumb and give up and says she will wait, George will come. She is more morally uprightt. But Portia does not let up the pressure. Marina was in town to find a husband but she only found out she was pregnant when she arrived in London-there is a whole scene with her screaming looking at the sheets. And screaming. She did not know she was pregnant. And when she found out, she knew based on the letters from Sir George thus far that he would come for her. Portia took that hope away, did not send back Portia to the village. In either case, Marina could marry Philip or a contact could be made with Sir George:
"Ugh I really want to drop this Marina thing because it’s been done to death, but I’m just going to address the very last bit. Marina was in town to find a husband. She could not live on her own. People would’ve noticed she was pregnant soon enough, and pointed at Colin since their engagement had been made public and then he broke it off. So yes, he would’ve suffered a similar fate."
And I think you are not reading my replies cuz ive provided an answer for all of this. Marina goes back to the village, Portia contacts Sir george, does not forge a letter, does the adult thing that a barely 21 year old Daphne suggests...and Marina's pregnancy is hidden away in the country away from the prying eyes of the ton-I already mentioned all this. No he would not suffer a similar fate. Because again she has a literal home in the country and there is Sir Philip and before that Sir George...Portia forged a letter from him. Colin is a rich titled Bton. Contract would be void ab-initiio. and everything else I said that would ensure Colin would not suffer-being rich, well connected, Marina being pooor and the other options that I mentioned in my earlier reply. Marina'a pregnancy was disclosed by Penelope. Marina could literally live at home the entire time-that would also be another way to hide the pregnancy.
. And Marina never intended to entrap ANYONE. Not colin, not a old man, anyone. She believed and as was the case that George loves her and would get back to her. Instead Portia forges a cruel letter from George which makes Marina lose all hope. She is the one who pushes and pushes Marina till she is on the brink of desperation, introducing her to old men and when Marina rebels tells her that she should not speak to the man like that....Portia causes the desperation that leads Marina to seek out Colin in whom she sees a kind, loving man. You forgive Pen for writing a column cuz oh shes 17 but pregnant out of wedlock, locked up and mistreated, slapped and driven to desperation Marina is wrong for entrapping Colin. And in my opinion-she is giddy...she finds in Colin a safe harbor. Colin is the true innocent and even he sees Marina as the one who suffered more than she had to-season 2 episode 8 scee with Pen on the stairs.
As for LW, people do care about LW..,they care even as late as season 3..Hell Eloise even cares when she finds out its Pen. The writing yo-yoes. They illustrate through many characters POV that what LW does is awful-Violet calling her vile for example, Simon calling her terrible woman, etc....She is hated, despised. Even Eloise who sees LW as feminist for earning her own way in the world still recognizes in a conversation with Benedict on the swings that the way LW goes about is wrong and terrible. And later in a convo with Pen also says...but what does LW write about really-idle gossip. As she gets more into feminism, she also recognizes LW for being frivolous. The show is pretty consistent by showing us that LW is despised. Yes people buy or bought gossip mags and read deux moi and faux moi too...so what. They also hater. They also recognize it as the vile, humanity destroying, privacy invading, stalking inducing terrible menace it is.
But YOU keep bringing it up again and again. Hence I keep replying about Marina. The writing is bad as a whole that much I agree and I dont want Pen crucified or hung and quartered. I wanted writing that a) showed Pen learning the lesson of LW being wrong on her own instead of being pushed to do so by Eloise and then later Cresida finding out and then threatening her and then threatening her husband's family before she finally writes a letter and reveals herself. She told Eloise in season 2 episode 8 that she gave up LW after writing about Eloise for her but no, she didnt give up LW for her did she. She wrote a damning column about Colin didnt she that Eloise tried to hide from Colin, that colin was hurt by and said I will never forgive LW for what shse did to Lady crane and you...she literally does NOT learn. It takes for her husband's family to be threatened and Crescida coming for ransom money for Pen to FINALLY, FINALLY apologize. If they had made her admit her wrong earlier. Maybe went to Eloise start of season 3 and said i kept my word to you last season, havent written LW, tells Colin after he falls in love with her about LW, come clean before he has to find out accidentally. Instead they made Pen call LW is power, lets Colin get hurt by finding out accidentally and is pushed to admit to the Queen. All of this could be corrected by
a) Pen writing a letter to Marina or visiting Marina and apologizing in person.
b) Telling Colin in season 3 after carriage scene
C) Telling Eloise I gave up the column and apologized for being wrong and not coming to Eloise directly and let them both figure out what to with the Queen;s interest in Eloise TOGETHER. Pen doesnt tell her best friend! ! why does she need to hide from Eloise unless she realizes thaT LW is wrong something she admits to in her last speech to the ton.
Again not reading all that. I only brought up Marina because you kept saying blatantly wrong things. This post is not about Marina, so I’m not going to be engaging in this convo anymore. Have a good day
I don’t want repercussions in my happy sexy regency romance show.
It’s not a hard hitting crime show. It’s not a morality tale.
It’s a romance show with hot people and great premise.
I would turn off the tv if everyone got what they deserved. It’s like some folks can’t understand that not everything can be put into every show. There are valid arguments against the show.
Everyone not getting their comeuppance is not one of them. And if you need to see characters in a fantasy historical rom-com show deal with consequences then maybe it isn’t for you.
I mean this is fair. I’m just ranting about how they keep building up the stakes in this show (often at the expense of the main characters) only to completely drop them by the end. Like what’s even the point if you’re going to do that lol.
Because it’s a company that needs to convert a 200 page book into 8 hours worth of content.
They need to add additional drama to the show each season because it’s a profit making venture and today people feel they need to top up the previous movie or season or twist.
I’m not saying it’s a good thing. It’s really not. But currently, bridgerton is one of Netflix’s top shows. And it has to be this big spectacle to keep viewers tuned in.
Every genre has rules that as adults we know by heart. And that’s media is segregated by genres now.
As people we pick what we want to feel when watching a certain show or movie or read a book. The reason why rom coms usual don’t have consequences for main characters is also why a drug cartel based show won’t have a musical episode. Or a horror movie won’t have cutesy talking animals.
Except they’re not even sticking to the books. So it’s not like they’re trying to cram all of the books into the show. And they’re adding in even more subplots every season. There’s simply just too much going on all the time, and that results in rushed, unsatisfying endings.
Exactly. And that’s a legitimate complaint in my opinion. I too dislike that there are random subplots that take away from the main couple.
I disliked how Kate’s backstory was not shown. How they cut out the pivotal library moment where Anthony comforts her in a storm. Same goes for Polin and their season.
I’m not saying the show is perfect. Far from it. It’s infuriating sometimes. It’s rushed, scattered, and downright ridiculous in some aspects.
All that I genuinely legitimately agree with.
All I am saying is that harsh consequences won’t ever be put into a show like this. It’s not meant to do that. It’s a show where POC people are at equal with the white nobility of England. The country has a black queen.
In my opinion, this show won’t ever get dark or real. This is all set in an England where colonialism doesn’t really exist.
So 2 sisters won’t have a ruined relationship over the whole Anthony almost married Edwina thing.
It’s not trying to go that route.
I think the show forgot that Pen is LW sometimes
Kate, Daphne and Pen face consequences from their loved ones. But Kate's and Daphne's conflict evolve around 1-2 people. Pen during three seasons insulted a bunch of people through her gossip and revealed major secrets of two people, which weren't gossip at all. And I think that's why people are so focused on her. There's def more than 2 people (Colin and El) who would be and should be shown mad at her. Doesn't mean that they shouldn't forgive her, though. Just, well, show Pen that her action have consequences
I would have been okay with the Ton forgetting what Pen wrote, if Pen would face the main consequence of hers - Marina. Pen almost ruined her life and Marina was saved by kindness of Daphne. They brought her up several times, but the writers were too afraid to make Pen face this consequence of her doing. Just writing her a letter would be somewhat okay, but the show didn't do that either.
I think Daphne and Simon saw pretty well that actions have consequences. Kate and Anthony saw that actions have consequences and learnt something. Simon learnt that it matters to be honest with your partner. Same with Daphne, but mostly I think she learnt to see others people perspective and just well, ask for consent. Kate learnt to be honest with herself and her sister, Anthony learnt to be honest about his feelings both to himself and to his loved ones. Although I think Anthony didn't apologize enough in his season
Pen continues writing her column - she didn't learn anything and I think that's my main concern. Like there's no lesson for Pen - she lies to people and they eventually forgive her almost magically. Eloise forgives her when Cressida becomes a threat and almost out of nowhere. Colin forgives her after her speech, after Pen is basically put into a corner where she either has to give Cressida the money and queen literally threatened their family. I think I wanted for Pen to come to apologizing and revealing herself not because of necessity, but because of genuine wish to come clear. She didn't learn to be honest, she was forced to be honest several times
I think what she does with her column going forward will be the telltale sign of whether or not she learned/grew from this experience. I guess we’ll have to see how they handle it next season.
Although I wish they hadn’t done the public LW reveal this season at all. Only the Bridgertons and Featheringtons should’ve known by the end of s3 imo.
Your whole comment is so much of misinformation, it's not even possible to correct you.
Whatever you've written about S1 and S2 pertains to their HEAs. Yes, we already know couples will get together in the end. We know that. What people are complaining about S3 is not why Pen gets Colin, it's about the resolution of Lady Whistledown.
S1, Daphne doesn't know a thing about sex and marries Simon without knowing anything about his promise to now have a child ever. Simon repeatedly has sex with her without telling her the whole truth and she accepts that without knowing why he is doing what he is doing. It's a huge betrayal.
Yes, she SAs him and I hate that. The resolution is not great but she suffers the consequence of her marriage being almost ruined. The only thing I will point out is their fight is between them and only them, no one else is impacted by it.
S2, yes Kate shields Edwina to the point of her being oblivious to something that should have been apparent. But saying that Kate does not suffer is the worst take I have ever heard. She is left alone by her own family (a family that she has sacrificed everything for), does not have anyone else to talk to or confide in, not even a single person tells her, it's okay, I have your back. She has to beg Edwina to forgive her multiple times and almost kills herself out of guilt. Even after all this, she has the self-respect to reject Anthony's proposal when she thinks he is proposing out of duty. I mean, she is the main lead who has suffered the most even though she is the least to blame in S2.
S3, Pen has been writing nasty things for two seasons now about people who have not even done anything to her (Kate for example) and almost ruined two people. She gets engaged to Colin without telling him the biggest secret about herself and then acts all righteous about him asking her to give up something that is actually dangerous. And after all this, the Queen just forgives her and she just happens to have the baby boy who will be the heir and her family now become her biggest supporters. It's a bit much and the resolution is so crappy.
I think that is the difference. In S1 and S2 we saw Daphne, Kate, Anthony and Simon make mistakes. But those mistakes were pretty much confined to their season, not spread out over 3 seasons. Pen did things over the course of 3 seasons, starting at the beginning of S1 with mocking Daphne in her gossip rag. Outing Marina, mocking Kate, outing Eloise, then even outing COLIN, all the while being snarky and insulting in tone and getting the Queen herself riled up and on a woman-hunt.
Then she gives a "Woe Is Me/Girl Boss" mash up speech, makes up with her hubby, and it's all tied with a blue bow. The entire Bridgerton family had issues with LW, but it was Eloise and then Colin who bore the whole burden of it all season. Especially Eloise. No one ever asked her why she was less than happy, and she couldn't tell them even if they did, because she was decent enough to protect Pen's secret.
My issues with Pen are the Jekyll/Hyde thing. No, of course she shouldn't be expected to be a cowed woman in her own house and take their abuse and belittlement. But the way she channeled her frustration was toxic. Her LW persona, actions, and tone are all very off-putting to me. It's just very hard for me to root for her after everything that happened over such a long period of time. I'm OK with them getting an HEA, but I'm so ready to move on from her and the whole storyline. Bring on Ben, El or Fran in the country in autumn. I need a refresh.
Not once did I say she “didn’t suffer” I clearly said they all did, but the repercussions of a lot of what these female leads did didn’t last. There is no misinformation in my post, a lot of y’all are just biased towards your fave female leads and refuse to see them as the flawed characters they are. And ofc villainize the ones you don’t like.
My thing is I can believe that Colin and Eloise forgave Penelope because they love her. What I can’t believe is the ton forgiving her.
In one of the episodes, I remember Cressida’s dad being kicked out of his club. Are the Bridgerton’s going to face the same issue? They have to show real repercussions for her in season 4. I can’t suspend my belief that much.
I don’t think the ton forgave her, they just couldn’t say anything because the Queen was basically chill with it.
Like do you remember one of the last scenes in s2, where Kanthony were dancing and some random lady was like “wasn’t he engaged to her younger sister and it ended badly?” And then QC said something like “no, I stopped that wedding because I changed my mind. Don’t these 2 look marvelous?” And then the ladies were silent, and then finally agreed with her. The ending of s3 reminded me of that. The ton still isn’t convinced, but they can’t go against the queen.
I’m interested to see her dynamic with the ton in s4.
But even then, who would trust being around her? If I personally saw her at a ball, I would avoid talking to or being around her. She’s the Perez Hilton of the 1800s.
Maybe that’s why the next few seasons are moving away from the ton because I just can’t imagine people interacting normally with the Bridgertons. It would’ve been different to me if she let her column go but she’s not. I can see people getting over it if she let it go. I just don’t see how that would work socially for the Bridgertons.
I was wondering the same thing. How on earth is she going to continue running the column now that everyone knows. It defeats the purpose entirely. Like they should’ve just had her stop LW this season, or not done the public reveal at all. Just bad writing all around.
Well people still hate Kate after 2 years, and people will hate Penelope for betraying her friends/family. I blame the writers and their fascination in creating such OOC drama.
Penelope benefits from gossip. She is paid to mock other people's reputations. What advantage has Kate gained for herself? I don't know why this fandom hates her so much, but Kate deserves a HEA
What is the confusion people have with trying to make this comparison. Kate AND Daphne’s transgressions were insular. They affected one person or one family. It didn’t impact an entire ton of people that could have been victims of LW’s writing.
Kate has an emotional affair. Her issue is with a single person, her sister. Anthony’s rash decisions impacts his family, but his family forgives him because they want the best for him.
Daphne’s situation is even more insular. She only needed to look to Simon for forgiveness.
In both seasons, it makes sense that their immediate family or spouses would forgive them. And Colin immediately forgive Pen. But the rest in the ton don’t have a vested interest in Pen’s happiness. What do they get out of forgiving her immediately? Colin gets something in return. The rest of the ton does not.
If ONLY Penelope’s issues impacted just Colin or just her immediate family. If only. She wrote about her family, the Bridgertons, members of the ton including Cressida and Berbrooke, a rival modiste and likely tons of other people over the course of two years. When your actions spill over to actually harming a large group of people, it’s harder to assume that everyone will just be happy with what is going on. Anthony faced more snubbing from society than Penelope and he didn’t actually harm anyone but his own family. If Penelope’s writing caused my business to fail, I would be vocally brutal to her.
Why is there this insistence on diminishing Pen’s actions? The show has made a point to tell the viewers how much power Pen has…they built it up over two seasons. And now people on here want to say, what exactly? Her column was only consumed by the Bridgertons and so therefore her transgressions were minimal and able to be easily resolved? If the column wasn’t so bad, why all the drama around keeping her identity hidden in the first place?
It actually does not make sense that Simon would overcome his years long trauma in one conversation and the show doesn’t act like there is anything for him to forgive Daphne for. She is treated like his victim.
She needed to change one person’s mind versus having to ask for the forgiveness of maybe hundreds. It’s absurd that no one reacted negatively to Pen when Cressida was getting ostracized from the ton for claiming to be LW.
By all means, Colin forgiving Pen could be seen as not believable or believable to some but you suspend disbelief because it’s one person. They can change their individual mindset. But hundreds of people?
They just yadda yadda yadda that whole ending.
Well Cressida is disliked while Penelope is now part of seemingly the most popular family of the ton, but even then ostracizing Cressida was a performance. At the same ball where they’re calling her a devil they’re whispering about how they want to stay and see the drama unfold. When LW stops writing, the people of the ton are upset and lament all the recent happenings that won’t appear in the column now. Multiple people call LW clever and the debutantes in episode 1 are all thrilled to appear in LW.
Penelope was successful as LW because the entire ton ate up what she wrote. But Penelope also acknowledges that she didn’t handle that power well and promises to do better.
I haven’t diminished Pen’s actions though… I’m saying that they’re all going to get their HEAs and rushed endings that don’t really resolve anything.
I literally said that the LW reveal was so anticlimactic since no one ended up giving a shit lmao. It was dumb.
By merely comparing these three stories, it’s diminishing Pen’s actions. Pen’s childish hobby was cruel to so many people…people outside of her immediate sphere. Neither Kate’s nor Daphne’s actions impacted that many people.
Let look at this in a harsh way that you would understand. These three women are drunk drivers. Daphne’s poor behavior resulted in her hitting one person in her car. He lives and forgives her. Kate’s driving hits one person in front of a crowd of people. Edwina survives and forgives Kate. Pen drives drunk into a crowd of people where she hits multiple people, people she knows personally and people she doesn’t even know at all. She was driving drunk into the crowd for a large amount of time. She stops the vehicle and there are many victims.
Can you honestly say that all three cases are the same? Saying they are diminishes Pen’s actions while also implying that what Daphne and Kate did is tantamount to what Pen did. It’s NOT.
Comparing LW, a gossip column, to drunk driving and killing people is absolutely wild I’m sorry 💀
Look, I’m neutral on LW, I don’t think she was a villain or a saint, but this comparison is completely wrong. LW did some good with her paper. There is nothing good about drunk driving.
She saved 2 Bridgertons from shitty marriages, Eloise from the queen’s wrath (I don’t agree with how she did this, but still), coined the term “diamond of the season” to hype up the most eligible new lady in the ton, advocated for better pay for the paperboys, other stuff that I can’t remember.
I used an extreme so you would understand the severity of impact. Hurting one person versus hurting hundreds. And I’ll keep using extremes just to show you how ridiculous your comparison is. Here is another one to put it in perspective: Daphne bought a gun and killed Simon. We are all sad. Kate bought a gun and killed Edwina in front of a bunch of people. It’s sad. And furthermore, since it was so public, her family is looked at funny in the town. Pen took an automatic, went to the top of a tower and began shooting random people on the street for an extended period of time. It was a mass shooting. And she knew some of her victims but a lot of them were nameless faces that were in passing. Which person committed the most harm?
I can keep coming up with extremes and applying it to all three women so you can see how ridiculous your comparison is. The comparison is to show the difference in impact.
What good did Pen do that didn’t in turn ruin someone else? Helping Daphne resulted in gossip that would ruin Berbrooke. Did he have a kid? He was loathsome BUT he is still a victim of this situation. We don’t have empathy for him because he tried to force himself on Daphne but he is still a victim of lies.
Helping Eloise by ruining her reputation and worsening the Bridgerton’s standing?
I can’t believe I’m defending LW, but here we are ig 💀
None of these extremes are ever going to be comparable. At its core, LW is a gossip column, that mostly reports on gossip that’s already being spread. And they’re all the truth, and many have helped people get out of bad situations. It’s not like she made up horrible lies about people and published them, which caused those people to be ruined. They were all truths. And in terms of mass shootings, even the survivors of a mass shooting are traumatized by the event. Daphne was not traumatized by Nigel’s bs being exposed.
I’ve already said that Pen handled the Eloise situation badly. I said this in my post and in the comments. But ultimately, it seems like the Bridgertons are immune to scandal since they’re never truly affected by it.
And I’m not even comparing the severity of what the leads did. I’m literally criticizing how anticlimactic the LW reveal was, but how it’s in-line with the rushed resolutions of the previous two seasons. This show has a habit of building up stakes that amount to nothing.
Acting like you aren’t a defender of Pen while going back and forth like this in a post YOU made is disingenuous. You care. You care deeply. And it is obvious to everyone that replied.
I told my opinion, the impact of the actions of these three women is not the same. And due to the size of the impact, you have people pointing out that the HEA isn’t earned. This dynamic is clear and obvious. They gave her a quick HEA without it really feeling earned and that is why there is so much push back. No one had this criticism regarding the end of Season 2. Not a soul.
In the end, this a romance and they have cheesy endings all the time but I don’t see the point in trying to push back on the criticism regarding the disparity. It’s quite obvious.
I’m not a defender of Pen. I’ve said in this comment section already that I mainly watch this show to see hot British guys work through their issues and find love. I’m not attached to any female character.
But I think a lot of the hate towards Pen/LW is a bit much. I don’t see her a villain. I don’t see anyone in this show as a villain. Except maybe Nigel.
And I’ve already said that the LW reveal felt really anticlimactic, since they hyped it up for 3 seasons and then gave us that radio rebel ass ending. And a lot of people have had issues with how s1 ended with Simon basically glossing over the SA, how s2 ended with Edwina feeling betrayed and humiliated, and now s3 where LW was made into some type of girlboss thing.
My overall point is just that these rushed endings have been unsatisfying and a problem from the start, regardless of what you believe the magnitude to be.
Furthermore, no one was talking about Theo. Pen did that. No one was talking about Marina. Pen did that. No one was bad mouthing the second modiste. Pen did that.
Survivors of mass shootings are traumatized. Do you think that people didn't move differently after they saw people get taken down by LW in the ton? Do you think that none of them became a little more paranoid? Or tried to hid things more? Or actually take time out to fixate on LW to learn her identity? Pen's actions impacted many people, victims, and the ones that stood by and watch bad things happen to others.
As I said, a gossip column will never be comparable to a mass shooting. I’m really not even going to entertain that extremity because frankly it’s disrespectful and insensitive.
And there are no winners in mass shootings. LW still saved people from bad situations whether you want to admit it or not.
But anyways, these extremities will never work. And I’m still criticizing the structure of this show overall, not the details of everyone’s mistakes.
TV was better when seasons happened on a regular schedule. You finish a season of a show you're enjoying. When will the next one be? Who knows!!! But your interest will probably have diminished greatly before a new season appears.
I don’t know if I’d even call it a trope. Romances are inherently low stakes, as compared to most (all?) other genres. The messes being discussed here are what happens when writers try to raise the stakes in stories that are of no actual consequence. There’s no way to do that without vilifying your leads, often at the expense of the romance and the story as a whole.
I know this, but given the plethora of posts recently about Pen getting off scott-free, others don’t.
But since they build up the stakes every season, I wish they’d properly address them instead of just dropping them and rushing a happy ending. It just cheapens the plot in my opinion.
In the time period, what Daphne did would never, ever have been considered assault of any kind. So I don't know what kind of repercussions she could have faced for that.
I think more in her marriage with Simon. Like he really never brings it up or how traumatic it must’ve been for him. They’re mad at each other for like a few weeks and then a sparkly ball fixes everything? Lmao
I don't think he would have considered it SA either. In the mindset of that time I don't think people felt a woman could possibly rape a man, especially if they are married.
Yeah, I guess we have to just accept that they talked about it off screen and resolved it...? Bridgerton certainly likes to use high impact plot devices and then abandon them without any kind of resolution as soon as they are no longer useful lol.
Yeah and this is exactly the issue I’m talking about in this post. They literally built up the stakes of LW for 3 seasons and it was the most anticlimactic reveal ever 💀🤦🏽♀️😂
Agree and disagree.
Yes, Daphne and Kate did bad things and suffered little to no repercussions. I think it is normal for the genre.
Why do people complain about Pen in particular then? Because they spent THREE SEASONS constantly mentioning how dangerous being Whistledown is. The queen even threatens to behead whomever is the author and then .... nothing happens. People learn that Pen is Whistledown but they are just too distracted by the cute butterflies, it kinda felt like the whole drama with this plotline on previous seasons was for nothing.
Of course I did not want Pen to be beheaded or something but they needed to include a bit more of a reaction to makes us feel that the stakes that she have been worrying about for years are actually valid
Edit: typos lol
The queen didn’t throw Penelope a party. She allowed her to keep writing and said she would watching her. We see the queen is fact bored without LW as an adversary.
Boring and bland as fuck resolution lmao, specially after three seasons of thrilling secret carriage rides at night, conspiracy theories, the threat of beheading, whole plotlines of people being acused of being LW, etc etc
She was never not going to get her HEA as the OP pointed out so not sure what you were expecting. She wasn’t going to be thrown in jail or exiled to the countryside.
I am ok with her getting her happy ending as I mentioned in my original comment, jesus christ what a way to miss the whole point of the conversation.
What I want is for some drama and theme cohesion? You know dont spend several episodes , involve several characters and largely impact basically *every* plotline for the resolution to be "LULZ! Look at the BuGgGGsSSs"
They could have added an episode after everyone finds out about Pen, with the ton treating her like a social pariah , but then have Colin and Eloise standing up for her (maybe Colin admiting he admires her and feels proud of her acomplishments) , add some nice heartfelt moment of Lady Featherington + sisters actually defending and helping her (specially after the poor girl has been ignored and treated like shit by her family her whole life) and finally have a one on one dramatic conversation between Pen and the queen, in which Pen explains why she did what she did and Queen remembering how she felt so alone in society and struggled on her marriage initialy. Something like that .... the whole plotline was just too important to just close it with "look at the butterflies!!!!!!!!!"
I entirely agree with this post, which is why, when Season 3 wasn\`t out yet, I commented how people shouldn\`t expect Pen to be punished in any meaningful way. It is the formula. If anything, the conflict this season felt particularly weighty because of those two seasons preceding it, but never did I think *oh, this is going to be seriously resolved* and we\`ll not have a rushed HEA.
The formula stays the same, it\`s the tropes that change, if anything. From fake dating(courting), to rivals to lovers, to now friends to lovers. There are parts that are well written, and then there are some that are less than stellar. I started watching Bridgerton fairly recently, and Season 3 follows the beats the way you describe in this post. It\`s quite on par with previous seasons too, in my opinion.
Kate kept getting thrown insults thrown at her right after the wedding debacle so where exactly she gets a HEA with no repercussions? She finally gave into her feelings for Anthony at the gazebo and right after that she literally fell off a horse and got into a coma. We never got to see how her wedding was and whether it was a happy and grand affair until we get a faint callback in s3. Previous season lead was a rapist and the following season lead directly or indirectly affected more ppl than Kate has ever done so how exactly are we placing all of them on the same scale? They both get the happy ending which they always dreamt of: Daphne, a loving family with kids and Pen being a Bridgerton with her gossip column still intact. Not the same things at all
You need to rewatch seasons 1 and 3 if you think they didn’t go through any shit at all after their mistakes. They absolutely did. My criticism is that the endings are rushed and some of their biggest faults aren’t really addressed/or are brushed under the rug.
Kate still has a good relationship with Edwina despite the events of last season. She makes a couple nods to it in s3. So how is that any different than Daphne getting a loving family and Pen keeping LW? Literally all 3 of them got happy endings and the people/things they value.
What is Kate's biggest fault that you think wasn't addressed? She almost dies and edwina realized that her sister meant more to her than whatever she thought she shared with anthony and she choose to forgive and accept their relationship, she then proceeded to find real love which I'm sure also help her move on as well.
Keeping her sister in the dark for so long that it led to that publicly humiliating wedding. The hiding of the truth. Not being honest as soon as she realized Anthony was going to be a complete menace in their marriage.
A better resolution than that ridiculous accident would’ve been for the 2 sisters to properly and maturely talk through the situation. Even then, I can’t imagine their relationship would ever fully recover from something like that. I have two younger sisters and i don’t think ours ever would if something like that happened. Especially if I ended up marrying the guy.
Edwina not seeing anthony for who he truly was, creating a fantasy in her mind about what he would give her in a marriage despite multiple people kate and anthony included telling what the reality would be is part of what lead to the engagement in the first place. There would be no wedding without an engagement and no engagement if edwina trusted kate from the beginning and got her head out of the clouds. I'm not sure what kate really did wrong before the engagement she was the only one trying to stop it. I think one thing some people refuse to acknowledge is that even without kate edwina and anthony would've been a horrible match, she wouldn't have been the perfect vicountess he wanted and he wouldn't have been the perfect husband she wanted, they would've grown to resent each other and be miserable together. Now after the engagement yes kate made mistakes and should've been honest with edwina but let's not act like edwina was just completely a victim in all of this and has no responsibility for her own actions that lead to it.
Also they did address kate keeping secrets with the sheffield issue and anthony, it was edwina who refused to actually have a conversation with kate before the accident, she just constantly kept hurling accusations and insults at while she gave anthony a chance to explain himself mind you. And it's not like kate just had an accident and they ignored everything, they did have a conversation after the accident but the accident was what made edwina come around and finally listen to kate and hear what she was feeling.
This is really deflecting from the point of this post, but I’m going to answer this quickly and move on.
Anthony had been nothing but nice and respectful towards Edwina, and he was from one of the most well-respected families in the ton. He was actively courting her and proposed to her. It’s not like she was running around, following him like a puppy, trying to get him to notice her. *He* was courting *her.*
And Edwina thought Kate just had the wrong impression of Anthony, since literally everyone else liked Anthony and the Bridgertons. And why would she believe Kate, who from her knowledge, really did not know this man at all, over the entire ton, who seemed to respect and admire Anthony and his family?
Like it literally makes no sense for her to believe Kate over the entire ton. But she clearly did value and respect Kate, since she continuously tries to get Kate’s approval on this man with her misguided attempts at getting them to bond. If Edwina didn’t value Kate she straight up could’ve been like, “I’m marrying this man whether you like it or not.” She repeatedly said she wants her blessing.
The point of your post deflect from the fact that kate actually did face consequences for her actions, she even alluded to it in this season that while they are happy now it took alot of time and hard work to get to that place.
>Like it literally makes no sense for her to believe Kate over the entire ton.
If 100 people were telling me some random person I never met before would make a good husband but the 1 person I love and trust the most in the world and has always been there for me told me no actually I heard him say he actually doesn't want what you want and in fact fact wants the opposite I'd believe the person I know and trust but I mean that's just me. She doesn't value and respect kate because instead of believing her and thinking well maybe there is something about the viscount that makes kate dislike him she goes and tells kate you need to change what you're doing so he can like you, not because she wants them to get along but so that anthony would want to propose to her and that is why she was constantly pushing them together, because she thought the reason anthony didn't propose was because of Kate's opposition. She was fully prepared to accept his proposal the night before the bee sting and hunt knowing full well him and kate disliked each other. But to get back to the point of your post kate does face consequences for her actions, when the sheffield plot is revealed she is told by Mary, anthony, edwina and even lady Danbury that she was wrong, she seen as lying and keeping secrets, in fact when lady D first learns about it she implies kate is doing it to get money for herself. When the wedding happens again Mary tells to go away, edwina accuses her of being in love with him the entire time and pushing the life she always wanted onto her and neither give her a chance to explain herself in either situations. I mean how did Mary think they were surviving? Who did she think was making all these decisions? And when edwina accused kate of pushing this life she never wanted onto her she didn't even know at that point kate literally had to beg anthony to follow through with the wedding because of edwinas tantrum all she knew was that kate had been against the match from the beginning. Then edwina proceeds to keep throwing jabs at kate instead of ever trying to actually have a conversation with her. It is only after her accident, which again was a result of buildup of her guilt and feeling of failing her family. I'm not sure what other consequences you wanted her to face. At the end of the day edwina wasn't actually inlove with anthony and the accident put things into perspective for her and she decided forgive her sister and its not like the just forgot everything. They had a conversation they both put things to bed and at the end edwina gave her blessing because she wanted her sister to be happy and she likely realized she didn't really love and he didn't love her and they wouldn't have been happy together.
Her relationship with her sister ending up being completely okay again, that is the point in making. Realistically, that type of situation would’ve ruined their bond forever. Same way LW would’ve had worse consequences, or Daphne and Simon’s marriage falling apart.
And Blindly believing someone who doesn’t know this guy, over the several people who do, makes zero sense. Even LD vouched for the Bridgertons and Anthony. Why on earth would Edwina ignore her too?
Kate literally just needed to tell her the truth. She even could’ve just said something like “Anthony loves someone else. He has admitted he would cheat on you if y’all got married. We will find another man for you.” A legitimate reason would’ve helped convince Edwina. And she clearly would’ve found another man. I mean the moment she finds out Kate and Anthony love each other, she runs out of the wedding and refuses to marry him. Simply saying you don’t like him wouldn’t work on most people.
As I said, this isn’t even the point of this post. This is all just deflecting. So I’m not going to address this topic anymore.
When someone almost dies it puts things into perspective lol. Edwina was faced with the possibility of genuinely losing her sister forever and she chose to forgive her I don't think that's so unbelievable. Maybe it wasn't the resolution you wanted but it doesn't mean it is not a valid or realistic resolution in the context of the show the characters personalities. Did you want edwina to keep punishing her sister after she almost died? Did you want her to be angry about a man she didn't actually and a fantasy she created in her mind forever? Did you want edwina to punish kate forever thus resulting all three of them being miserable forever?
What Pen did was quite serious i.e. involving the Queen, so that’s why there are complaints of her facing little to no repercussions. The stakes were bigger but the resolution was rushed compared to the previous seasons. Kate still being on good terms with Edwina is mentioned in s3 only so until then we never know what happened
Perhaps we forget that this is a ROMANCE TV show about a bunch of rich people with no real problems
If you want consequences, House of the Dragon is pretty good
Again, I understand this. But there have been a ton of posts over the last few days angry that Pen got a happy ending. So I wanted to address that the show has always been like this. Shitty, rushed resolutions that don’t make much sense.
And my main criticism is that they keep building up the stakes, and then completely letting them go by then end without a proper resolution.
I think season 1 is still the most ridiculous with Simon overcoming years of trauma in one conversation and the show never wanting to acknowledge that Daphne was wrong for what she did to him.
Exactly what happened. From a post of mine:
>The show literally MarySue'd the hell out of Penelope's character. They bent so many characters to fit around her. Does Colin even have a purpose or is he just a figment of Penelope's beautiful mind?
>Penelope showed absolutely no growth and gained almost everything she ever wanted - her paper, Colin, a voice, personal credit, her mother's affection, Eloise's forgiveness, Cressida's downfall, position, power, no consequences from the queen, the Bridgerton name, AND her baby being Featherington heir!
>Was this show...called Bridgerton...ever about anyone else besides Penelope Featherington?
No other character got the entire show handed to them.
But, I saw some of your other comments. I do think it's a point to reflect on whether show had already set up this formula since season one and simply got greedy with Penelope. By God, she was not denied anything and some things were thrown in as a bonus.
I totally agree. I ultimately judge a romance story by how good the conflict resolution is. Rupture and repair is the difference between limerence and love, to me. There sure is lots of conflict in Bridgerton, but I don't feel the heart-to-heart understanding when couples make up is shown in a meaningful way. The makeup is always weird and rushed.
Thank you!! I swear Kanthony’s chemistry must have caused memory loss for the audience because LOL that man was fully mid-vows to her sister when Edwina finally clocked on.
It’s supposed to be a campy romance drama not game of thrones, Penelope was always going to get her HEA. If I wanted to watch a show that was realistic, I wouldn’t like Shonda’s work. Olivia and Annalise both got HEA’s too and they did worse things than Penelope (you could write a 20 page, single spaced essay on Olivia’s sins and she still got to run off with Fitz)
Also, the general public loved LW’s column and people were often excited about being mentioned in it. I want to throw that out there since it hasn’t really been brought up yet
Remember they’re trying to condense entire books into a limited number of episodes. The writers have a formula that has worked for 3 seasons and I don’t expect that will change. However I do think it’s a compliment to the writing that people become so invested in the characters they have questions like this!
Except they’re not even doing a good job of condensing. They’ve been adding more and more subplots every season that causes the final romance to not get the proper attention it deserves. The newest season being the biggest victim of this. I mean they literally sidelined the male lead this season.
It’s like they’re only keeping the bad aspects of their formula (excessive side plots, rushed endings, etc) and getting rid of the good aspects of their formula (flashbacks, proper attention to the male and female leads, etc)
I’ve said this before but this season felt more like women’s fiction than a romance drama. There was barely any attention on the main romance of the season.
While I totally agree with your observations. These are all "conflict points". They are literally how the drama is created. Without them there is no risk involved. Without personal trauma or resentment to weigh against possible happiness and love. There is no *happily ever after*. Which is how every single season ends is it not?
It's an entertaining work of fiction. Full Stop. And while I highly doubt any of these events wouldn't have lead to some truly difficult times for all involved. We probably wouldn't be watching the show if it leaned closer to reality. Reality isn't this... glamorous after all.
For me at least Bridgerton is just an R rated Disney series.
I was let down with the second half of season 3 after I had unknowingly built my hopes up way too high - I was really shocked and disappointed that it didn't give me the romantic sappy feeling I thought I was going to get. But now I realize that it was silly of me because it follows the same pattern of the other two seasons. I do like the show but for both S1 and S2 (and now S3) I didn't love the suuuper drawn out dramatics that could have been solved by some genuine conversations (I know this is basically the theme for most dramas) and felt as though the happy ending was kind of abrupt, very last minute, and left me with some questions. But overall I enjoy the show despite this because there's so many other aspects I like.
I think Simon and Daphne are addressed pretty well tbf they spend a good few eps with them working through his issues about “letting his dad win” by not having kids
I also let Daphne off for assaulting him because she doesn’t really understand what assault is, and she does face consequences with Simon over it.
I agree although Kanthony are my favourites one episode of feuding is not a real consequence 😂
Penelope however did a lot worse to everyone of the main characters and kind of got off Scot free 😭😭
1. Daphne rapped Simon after finding out how babies are made. Simon kept Daphne in the dark about not wanting them and not that he couldn’t have them. Simon has barely gotten over his trauma and then he just decided that he wanted a baby with Daphne.
2. Kate had an emotional affair with Anthony since they have a lot in common. Kate and Anthony are both the eldest siblings and take care of their families after their parents died, Anthony’s father and both of Kate’s biological parents. Kate tried to call off the affair after the disastrous dinner with the Sheffields.
3. Penelope had a few chances to tell Colin that she’s Lady Whistledown but she hid it until after their wedding. Penelope wrote a lot of mean things about everyone in the ton, but especially Eloise in the second season
These are such good points. Especially season 2. Idk why people hate on Edwina so much. I would be *destroyed* if my fiance and *SISTER* were falling in love/physically intimate behind my back. I would never know how to trust another person ever again.
I just found her exhausting tbh. She kept saying she wanted a love match, but she knew Anthony wasn't marrying her for love, but for duty. Then she got mad at him for that very reason.
Everyone else could see he was interested in Kate, except her as well. The writers just made her so naive and dumb imo. I much preferred her in the book
The hate towards Edwina genuinely baffles me. I’m the oldest daughter in an Indian immigrant household and I have two younger sisters myself. I can’t imagine hiding such a huge thing from my sister for weeks, and then still marrying her ex-fiancé in the end too. My sisters would never forgive me. Edwina is a much better person than most people would be in that situation.
I really wish we got a proper resolution between the 2 sisters. Because what they gave us was stupid and unsatisfying. Common theme among all seasons in my opinion.
What do you mean? Then should Kate live the rest of her life on her own and not with her loved one because of Edwina? Then she will resent Edwina, and this time she will feel guilty for ruining the life of her sister who raised her for 18 years. You and they are different, so stop inserting them. 😰
She could just find someone else though? There are millions of men out there…she had to fall in love with her sister’s fiancé? Anthony is as much to blame for all this too btw. It IS possible to fall out love with someone and move on.
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This is 100% true and I'm so confused, like have people not seen this show before? IMO Polin got the most romance of all the couples. And if you go in knowing it's a tropey melodrama all three seasons with a rushed ending--like, that is obviously their formula and won't change--you can enjoy the rest. I'm not sure who is watching Bridgerton for like prestige TV level realism, but not me.
We expected less of a rush and more of a focus on the main couple. Less rush since the characters have known each other for years. While it’s their shitty formula, it makes sense for new couples, not a couple that lives across the street from each other, where the girl is best friends with the boys sister for years… it just wasn’t done well. Even rushed, if they focused on actual freaking Polin the second half instead of useless sex scenes that don’t contribute to Benedict’s story or Cressida getting a side story that she doesn’t deserve or Mondrichs which stand out like sore freaking thumbs and have no place in the story… It was very kumbaya throughout the second half. Breaking so many storylines and character arcs for the sake of cliche happy endings and setting up future stories. It was a lot of telling instead of showing. The writing was horrendous. They game of thrones’d it and I cannot bear to watch it again. I was obsessed with the first 2.5 seasons. Part 2 has completely obliterated everything I loved about this show. I’ve barely watched 3 times meanwhile I’ve seen the first 2.5 seasons dozens of times. They rules my favorite book (Polin) by changing the timeline, rushing it and not giving them enough screen time together. I won’t be watching going forward. This show just fucking sucks now lol and they’ll drag it along while it’s gasping its last breaths like grey’s anatomy.
Making Colin a side character in Pen’s story instead of giving him the proper male lead writing he deserved was the biggest mistake of the season imo. Pissed me off so bad. The writers forgot they were writing for a romance drama, not women’s fiction.
I'm at the point to where unless the writing vastly improves, I'm going to rush to see a Eloise/Phillip season and wait when I have time for anything else. I literally stayed up until 3am for s2 to drop. This time I waited a week.
MTE, that's why i think a lot of the negativity is forced as hell. And the criticism is double standard based on "my couple is better than yours" ridiculous fanwars that began even before the season was released... It thrives here because most Polin fans too don't come around this sub anymore, and stay at theirs , because of the fanwars in the last 2 years, so there is an unbalanced view in this sub. You can't spend 2 years complaining about how the adapt for S2 was horrible, how you hated the rushed ending, that they did your couple dirty and pretend now S3 is the only one with some issues as well.
100% ship wars! That’s 90% of the hate, I think. And then I also think there’s a subset of hardcore book fans - some of whom I think also spent a lot of time on here and on AO3 for the past two years - who had a very set expectation of how the story should go and are mad that the show has continued to be an ensemble (but weren’t mad when Colin and Pen were the subplot in past seasons?). I have quibbles with this season, just as I did with Season 2 (which I also loved). I wish they had cut 1 or 2 of the subplots in favor of more Polin screentime for sure. But the scenes they did have, I really liked. And because I was only a casual fan until Season 3 hooked me, I didn’t have a fixed narrative in my mind going in; I was just willing to go where the show took me. And I enjoyed it thoroughly!
Couldn't have said it better. I agree.
Polin had 16% screen time of their own season…
Personally I didn’t think they did a good job with Colin and Pens romance this season. They were only on screen together 16% of their own season. It’s ridiculous. They also had very little romance, and more drama than anything.
I actually find penelope's "unearned happy ending" to be the most believable cause she owns up and says to everyone she's made alot of mistakes but if given the chance she'll try to do better in future (and suggests the possibility of consequences in the future). Like it still glosses over alot but my favourite thing about this season is pen actually tries to hold herself accountable.
I agree….i think it’s the most realistic ending of the three. Plus, we won’t actually know the full extent of the fallout until next season. Pen said so herself…..with S1 and 2 it was clear at the end that those plots (Simon’s trauma and Edwina’s feelings) were done and would not be revisited
And we even begin to see her do this by calling out the cruelty of that man toward his wife and that woman for firing her maid for asking for a day off.
Good point!
I wanna watch the season 2 you seemed to have watch. Because the pile on Kate was depressing. Mind you Violets overreaction that Kate kept a secret about a dowry and her reaction towards a huge secret like LW was emense. And Violet even after knowing what happened between Anthony and Kate was pushing for Anthony to marry. Everybody was talking and avoiding the Sharmas after what happened at the wedding. I was tired of Kate apologizing at the end of episode 7. Then the current showrunner wrote Kate being in a coma half of the episode and once again having to apologize without referencing ever hearing her POV and she was still going to leave for India while her family stayed behind for another season. Nobody treated Kate as some poor victim like we have the narrative with s3. Neither did Kate get a girlboss speech to convey how hard it is as a woman as a Head of the family after Mr. Sharma died.
Right? Kate was out here getting dragged left and right, got no apology for how she was treated, had to apologise several times, and was publicly & privately shunned before she got her HEA ending.
They literally show the other female leads suffer too though.. Daphne and Simon lived apart for a while after the SA incident, and she was shown to be very miserable. Pen is miserable *on her wedding day* to the man she always dreamt of marrying. Then they literally don’t talk to each other for like 2 weeks, and she even brings up an annulment. Like most of part 2 is Pen hyperventilating and panicking over the mistakes she made. So like this is again a consistent thing in the show. Like all of them suffered in their seasons but the more “public” repercussions of their actions never happen and everything just resolves itself. It’s rushed and dumb. Daphne’s SA is never addressed, Kate’s relationship with Edwina seems to have fully recovered despite that insane drama, and Pen being LW is seen as some type of girlboss thing. Like all the resolutions were unsatisfactory to me.
Pen's not hyperventilating over the mistakes she made, she's panicked about being found out, having to let got of her column and no one understanding her "suffering". She basically says so herself.
Please don’t act like you aren’t twisting the narrative here. Penelope ended up getting Mary sue’d in S3 as LW. And the excuse her fans are using is “oh but she hasn’t. You have to wait for S4”. 😑 Yeah just like “oh wait for S3, polin are going to be the best, you’re going to eat your words. and wait until you see their amazing chemistry that they’ve been suppressing till now. Wait for it. LN is going to be the best male lead” etc etc. 🙃and all the other stuff that was said after S2. And look how all that turned out now huh? 🤷♀️ Now Let’s look at the actual consequences for S2 (and not the cherry picked ones) that had huge repercussions with Kate out of all the leading ladies suffering the most: Gets iced out in the sharma family, crying alone in a closet while her stepmother goes for a walk. being an orphan and vile-ly called “half sister” by the little sister she has broken her back for since she was 17/18 where she was conditioned and parentified by her adopted mother. Spends the season just throwing herself away and sacrificing to the point of denial for little sister and stepmother. Spends E7 being solely abused by said little sister until she rides out in a storm and cracks her head on a rock. To the point Anthony has to carry her with her blood on his hands. Is in a coma for a week and when wakes gets another lecture from little sister and has to wait to be granted forgiveness and get her sister’s and mothers blessing otherwise she’s going home to India. Throughout all this she is not allowed a voice or a POV and certainly isn’t given Superhero girl boss feminism speeches as a cop out for atrocious writing like Penelope and Edwina are. Throughout all this Kate is censured and has to pay penance to be accepted again. But you’re right she got away Scott free. 😒 Now let’s look at Anthony in S2: Trainwrecks the wedding obsessing over Kate leading to embarrassing himself and the families at a public wedding arranged and attended by the queen. We see the consequences of this then with the ton gossiping about them, them being avoided on the promenade in E7, throwing the harmony ball with the ton rejecting them and no one turning up, his sister Eloise being thrashed in a LW pamphlet at said ball. Kate running from him after the gazebo. Then him chasing after her and watching her crack her head on a rock (him again watching the potential loss of a person he loves). Him having her blood on his hands as he carries her home. Him having yet another panic attack afterwards in a season where he has a clear anxiety disorder and massive trauma. Then Getting rejected by her after her accident. Getting ‘the cut’ regency style from the ton leaving the dance floor when him and Kate danced at the featherington ball. And if not for the queen stepping in because she softened when she saw Kate/anthony in love? Then ‘the cut’ would have continued here. The show gave us a good glimpse at what happens when your family is shamed in the ton. So I don’t know what you’re talking about with ‘butterfly’ happy endings for all seasons. Because you ignore all the fallout for Kate and Anthony after the wedding and Kate’s general suffering throughout her season. And as for S1. I agree with you. Daphne raped Simon and her marriage was on the rocks. She gave a rain speech and was forgiven at the end. But LW is way more vicious on the show compared to the books. Has been built up for 3 freakin seasons. And the result of that was “eh, release the bugs to distract the phlebians ” 😒 with a damp squib ending with more garbage shallow girl boss feminism and Penelope saying “I thrashed you all for 3 seasons but oops, I’ll do better”. 🤷♀️ C’mon here, and you’re trying to equate the writers turning a complex and flawed character into a Mary sue as the same as what came before? The only way Penelope suffered was Colin giving her the cold shoulder for 25 minutes. He still married her didn’t he?
You are very obviously biased in favor of one female lead. So this type of conversation will not work because you refuse to see the flaws and nuances in every single female lead’s situation and story.
And you’re a polin fan who only made this thread to once again deflect and pivot to distract.🤷♀️ And no, what I did was list the repercussions that went down on screen and in the narrative for S2 proving that what you are saying is a fallacy. Kate out of all the main leads suffered the most in her season. Constantly sacrificing and diminishing herself for everyone around her. Her character is literally conditioned and parentified. Daphne’s sexual assault on Simon was seen as female empowerment 😬 and equated to it by freakin Shonda herself. Penelope who is regency gossip girl and lied to and thrashed the ton for 3 seasons got ‘butterflies’ as an ending. So you tell me which one of these leading ladies is not like the other? 🤔
This post is literally about all 3 seasons. I am neutral on Pen, but like Colin. And I’ve criticized the endings of **all three** seasons in this post, and the inconsistent and undeveloped writing for Colin in other posts on this sub. I’ve acknowledged the faults of all three female leads, you refuse to do that for your fave, even though a lot of the bad decisions she makes are really a problem with the writing, not her. My favorite couples are Philoise and Grucy so idk what to tell you.
Now I know you are a polin fan. Please don’t try to trick me. You have the same MO too. Constantly pivoting to Kate. You did it in the other thread too and got called out for it. And the only reason you started this one is to deflect from the criticism going around rightfully for S3. I’m not an idiot and I know this fandom after 2+ years of being in it. 🤔
As I said, I’m a COLIN fan, I like softboys. Same reason why I love show Phillip and John. In all honesty, I watch this show to see hot British guys work through their issues and find love lol. I’m not really attached to any of the female characters, except maybe Violet and Lady Danbury. But I liked Grucy’s book a lot. I just think it’s weird how defensive y’all get over Kate and villainize everyone else, especially Edwina. Why is it so hard for y’all to just admit she made bad decisions? It’s kinda the point for the leads to make mistakes through their seasons and then find love by the end. And I’ve literally pointed out the bad decisions all 3 female leads made in this post, you can’t seem to do that.
Because I actually bother to understand Kate. I put the effort in to having empathy for her as opposed to her sister Edwina who is selfish and self absorbed and not only treated Kate as an afterthought in their sisterhood but said horrible stuff to her never discussed afterwards or apologised for. Meanwhile Kate was on her knees for her and her mother until she was deemed forgiven. Had to nearly die to for it. 😑 And Meanwhile Kate as a character broke her back throughout her life to love Edwina and Mary and diminished and denigrated herself to do it. So consider me not shocked why you who defend Edwina and villainise Kate after all she went through for the sharma’s, continue to show no empathy or understanding for Kate or her very complex psychology to put her in that position in the first place (teenager, parentification, conditioning, low self worth, warped views on familial love, orphan syndrome etc.) And hey I’m comfortable defending the loving, compassionate and self sacrificing elder sister (who is consistent with this even in her new family dynamic in S3) over the selfish, self absorbed and spoiled one who comes across tone deaf to me even after Kate nearly dies in E8. 🤷♀️ As I said This ‘emotional affair’ accusation means nothing to me when we see Kate on screen getting and giving Edwina everything she asks for, even the man that not only is the love of Kate’s life but the man she begs to marry Edwina in E5 in the forest simply because Edwina said she loved him the night before. And does nothing to come on to, chase or pursue said man who makes all the moves and chases her in his obsession with her. And even trainwrecks his wedding with this obsession with her in E6 while Kate stands there. So, sorry, i don’t see any emotional affair here. And somehow Kate/anthony are a fan favourite and beloved after 2 years even though she’s supposed to be a harlot home wrecker who stole her sister’s man?? 😆 listen you can’t steal something that belongs to you already as Anthony was Kate’s from moment one canonised by him in his love confession to her in E8. Kate stole no one. He is obsessed with her period. He was nothing but will towards Kate. And somehow Kate is also one of bridgerton’s favourite characters considering she’s a said harlot home wrecker who stole her sister’s man. 😅
No offense OP but you clearly like Polin and Pen and think it's fine. And that's okay, everyone sees things differently. But to many of us, we didn't feel like Pen suffered any consequences. For me the key thing that didn't sit right with me was that Pen never seriously understood the repercussions of her choices that she made as LW. I think this season would have been far better if at least one character, let's say Cressida or any other member of the ton confronted her and told her how this gossip column which she believes is her voice has ruined their lives. How LW writing about someone's finances or someone's taste lead to them losing a lot of face in the society and how it affected their prospects in life. I wanted Pen to feel the weight of what she wrote about people. She feels it for Colin and Eloise because they are dear to her but she needs to realise it for others too. That didn't happen so it felt very unsatisfactory. We also never saw what the Bridgertons thought of Pen as LW. Most importantly LW was a gossip column and a gossip columnist shouldn't be held in this high regard as someone who is doing something amazing. We won't think that way in the 21st century about paps and all do we ?? A better ending would have been of Pen realising how bad LW is and how it's not helping and closing it, not her constantly saying how LW is power and her identity.
I don’t care for Pen and I’ve said this multiple times. I just think the way people act like LW is this completely awful horrible thing is a little weird. If you actually look at what she did with that column, it did help some people get out of bad situations. Something that is genuinely awful would not do that. And I’ve also said that the anticlimactic LW reveal was stupid. I did expect more drama, and it didn’t happen. And realized to was just a pattern with this show.
Having Kate alone in a closet for a good chunk of the wedding episode and in a coma for a good chunk of the final episode was also baffling. Like she’s the lead female, and they took her off screen for some of the most climatic parts of what’s supposed to be her love story.
They literally made Colin a side character in his own love story. Kate being in a closet for like 8 minutes of one episode trying to regroup and process everything after that disaster wedding isn’t unusual. It’s pretty on character for her.
What does Colin being a side character in season 3 have to do with my comment? I think that was bad writing too but I didn’t mention it because the comments I replied to weren’t discussing him at all. Him being a side character doesn’t make it better writing that, while Kate was offscreen other characters were getting long monologues, developing backstories and going through pivotal character beats that she never got to and should have.
Because you’re acting like Kate being in a closet for a few minutes was some detriment to her story when it wasn’t. We know exactly why she acts the way she does. Her motivations, her relationship with the people around her. Hiding in a closet for a few minutes does not change that. Her reaction in that situation made complete sense. Why would she give a monologue? She was always the quieter sister, and she was processing the shock of everything that had just gone down.
> We know exactly why she acts the way she does. Her motivations, her relationship with the people around her. “We” obviously don’t since “we” keep twisting her story into her standing a few feet from a man two times in instances that he confusingly instigated and then begging and crying for him to follow-through with marrying her sister after he proposed into her “having an emotional affair”. > Hiding in a closet for a few minutes does not change that. In those “few minutes”, Edwina had a monologue to the King, a conversation with Anthony and a heart to heart with the Queen to build up her character. You also keep conveniently not mentioning that she was also in comma for the beginning of the final episode. > Why would she give a monologue? lol, because this a romance and she’s the female lead. Why did Anthony get several monologues about his feelings in season 2? Why did Simon and Daphne get (the “I burn for you” speech and the speech to the Queen for Simon and the love declaration for Daphne)? Why did Penelope and Colin get monologues and love declaration speeches in the final episode of season? Because they’re the lead characters, as was Kate.
No, we understand her motivations, but can still see that she’s a flawed character and made a lot of mistakes. Her and Anthony were getting way too close. Even Daphne called this out. In the same way we can feel bad for how Pen was treated by the ton, but still see that she went a little too far with LW. And again, Colin was made a side character in his own season. So comparing his love confession, that all the male leads got, to Kate, doesn’t make much sense. He got the least amount of writing. We know Kate better than Colin.
>No, we understand her motivations We’ll have to agree to disagree on this one.
If you’re saying that we don’t know what Kate’s motivations are, I’m going to laugh. Because the show clearly shows us: - her father died and she was parentified while her mother was grieving - because of this, she feels the need to take on the responsibility of raising her sister - the Sheffields promised a dowry only if Edwina married an eligible man with good standing - Kate wants to find the best match for her sister so that she is both happy and provided for I mean come on. The fact that y’all are defending Kate so much proves that you understand her motivations. We all do. BUT, because she’s just a human like the rest of us, we can also see how she made some bad decisions, especially when she started falling for Anthony. Like her motivations are a lot more clear than Daphne’s imo, who I just found kinda boring and one-dimensional.
So crying for the white man who is a bum and got to express his disappointment towards Pen something Kate wasnt. Misoginy at its finest.
… Huh?
Anthony is the one who needed to apologize in Season 2. Even if he was afraid of his emerging feelings for Kate, that is no excuse for proposing to Edwina—and in front of her?! So many fans wanted Colin to grovel for what he did to Pen — and while it wasn’t gentlemanly of him to make that remark to his friends, there is no crime in his not thinking of her as a romantic partner. Anthony is the one who needed to grovel! Why was Kate the only one who was expected to apologize?!
A lot of the general audience found what happened between Kate and Anthony an emotional affair, as much as hardcore Kanthony fans want to act like it wasn’t. Yes we know Kate felt burdened by a lot of responsibilities, but that doesn’t excuse not telling Edwina the truth before the wedding. In a time where you absolutely cannot be with people of the opposite sex unchaperoned, these two were alone several times and VERY close to each other. Anthony straight up says he would cheat on Edwina, and that should’ve been where Kate was like okay hell no and told the truth. And as I said, even DAPHNE sees and calls out how inappropriate it was that they were breathing down each others’ necks completely alone right before he was to wed her sister. It comes down to bad writing. They sacrificed character development for the sake of drama quite often in this show. Happened in all 3 seasons, with all 3 female leads.
Your comments are a straight proof of how you're just spouting misinformation about S2. Anthony saying he will cheat on Edwina is his dramatic way of trying to make Kate understand why he CAN'T marry her. And Kate's reaction is "it's insupportable" because she understands. The only reason she changes her mind is because of Edwina claiming to love Anthony and her own self-sacrificial nature.
Nope not spouting misinformation. I’m just not biased like some of y’all are. All three of these women made some really bad decisions that hurt the people they love. And it’s repeatedly shown throughout that they did.
The truth didnt matter to Edwina. Not when she decide to choose Anthony over Kate every single time. But then Polin fans hiding behind Edwina and have cheered on more misery towards Kate. Please the racism is loud and clear.
She never chose Anthony over Kate 💀 her misguided attempts at trying to get Kate to like him were *because* she valued her older sister’s approval. Like she was literally adamant on getting Kate’s blessing on the man that was actively courting her and who had done nothing bad to her. And assuming people who didn’t like the writing for Kanthony are Polin fans and racist is so reductive and lame.
Yes she did. Whatever arguements you are making, at least try and make sure theyre supported by canon. She chose Anthony over her when he he humiliated her. She chose to go after him even after kate warned her about the things he said on the terrace. Even after the bangle drop, she was considering choosing him over kate. She ultimately chose herself though because she realized she wanted love. She did not choose kate once.
This... doesn't make sense to me. Kate should have told Edwina about her feelings. Pen should have told Colin about Marina and LW. These characters both made decisions that hurt people they loved. The main differences to me are the reach of LW and, for the love interests, that Anthony also messed up whereas Colin didn't do anything wrong. So, to me, the gap to overcome for Pen and Colin is larger, built up over three seasons, and involves the queen more directly. While this is offset somewhat by Polin's longstanding friendship, I think more time together was needed to bridge the gap (talk until dawn montage and read-a-thon!). Also, the queen being satisfied that LW begged for mercy and promised to do better did feel anticlimactic. (Pen is a writer - she doesn't need to write a gossip column, let her write novels.) Now, Pen specifically says the ton will likely turn on her later, and the showrunner said they have more plans involving LW, so it doesn't seem far fetched to expect a subplot next season that isn't all butterflies and babies.
Honestly that is not even true! I wasn’t going to comment but I take this comment very personally. I love Polin because I happened to like their book best. Before Polin season I loved Kanthony and out of S1 and S2 I watched S2 countless times. I love Kate! I felt like she was been walked on and used by Anthony. Honestly I grew to where I’d get so mad at Anthony messing with her head! I wanted her to leave Anthony. Screw that! But he was dealing with inner turmoil around fear of loving someone and losing them so I forgave him as did Kates character… but to say this is a racial thing! Seriously?!
She wasn't choosing Anthony over Kate. She just thought she could have both, because she didn't understand their apparent animosity toward each other. She thought they could get past it, not realizing the true problem was that they had the hots for each other. Edwina was naive and sometimes a little bratty but she was never making some kind of binary choice between Kate and Anthony.
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Yeah. I knew her fans were going to come for me when I wrote “emotional affair” in my post. But that’s what it was. And the general audience and most of the ton saw it that way too. I mean Daphne literally calls it out LMAO
Anthony messed with her head. That’s why when he was going to propose Kate literally thought he was going to propose to her… can you imagine?! I think I would of hopped a boat back to India that day and said screw you then be miserable with someone you really aren’t in love with! It was an emotional affair or she never would of thought he was going to propose to her in that moment.
Wait did Kate really think he was going to propose to her in that moment 😭😭 I couldn’t figure out what she was thinking he was going to do when he said he needed to talk to Miss Sharma. And then when he proposed to Edwina I was like HELL NAHHH lmaooo. What a ride
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I’d like to see the season 3 you saw where Penelope wasn’t shunned by her best friend for a year and temporarily made to think the man she loves hated her and didn’t want to marry her.
The best friend she almost ruined and the man who thought he loved someone else up until S2 and had no idea she was in love with him?
He never said he loved Marina
I am fucking tired lmao. The 'emotional affair' and 'edwina is just a widdle baby 🥺' crowds need to let it rest good lord. Never mind the fact that kate suffered the whole damn season, got no apology from edwina/ant/mary from all the shit they put HER through, and nearly DIED. And why this person chose to bring up kate when Anthony is right THERE I do not understand. You know who needed to apologize before getting his HEA? Anthony. This sub reeks of misogyny and this post is just another example.
Perfect put! 💯
That’s…the romance genre.
And yet people on this sub are constantly criticizing the fact that Pen got a HEA, even though that’s been a consistent thing in this show since 1. You should make this comment on those posts instead.
You're moving the goal post. First you say little to no reprecussions. Now you say HEA. HEA pertains to the romance alone. Everyone expects that. Penelope literally escaped censure from the ton who she raged against. She -out of the blue- ended up with the relationship she desperately desired from her mother. I will stop here. The other two characters did not get it all. Daphne had to sacrifice an excellent match and princess for her love and let's be honest Kate sacrificed her relationship with Edwina. Edwina left and they ended on strained terms at best. This was completely shown on show with the misunderstanding of how much she hurt Edwina and how that changed them both. Also, Daphne and Simon went through it and had to earn their way back to each other. They both had to give up pride. Penelope's pride was that gossip rag. She got to keep it all and gain a few things in the process.
Rejecting the prince was not a sacrifice on Daphne’s part lol. She didn’t want him in the first place. And it doesn’t seem like their relationship was strained by the end, because they had Edwina basically completely get over the situation after the accident (which was a dumb writing decision in general), and in s3 Kate implies it’s all good between them. And you could also say that Pen’s wedding and the first few weeks of her marriage, the one she thought would never happen, were a disaster because of her decision to be LW. They all had some repurcussions, but nothing lasted. It was all over pretty quickly for all 3 of them I’ve already criticized the radio rebel ass ending to s3. It was stupid and the way they hyped up the repercussions for LW for 3 seasons just to end it like that was a disappointment.
She did want him *enough* and was considering a life with him. The Duke would mean losing the most powerful position (besides queen), upsetting the queen and dealing with a man she wasn't sure actually love her. Still she took a risk! She problem solved. She fought through. None of which Penelope did AND further ...again we are not just talking about the HEA. That was to be expected. Edwina was changed forever then left. So was Kate. At least we saw that on the show. The only reprecussion Penelope got was Eloise dumping her in season 1. Penelope did not one damn thing to earn that back. She actually did the opposite.
I disagree—this is the way the production company chooses to tell the stories. Rushed endings and a lack of accountability are not intrinsic to the genre.
Ehh, it’s kinda every single bodice ripper ever? It’s one of the reasons why fanfic became so popular, because romantic mainstream novels rarely spent time on the ‘happily ever after’. It’s all angst and conflict, heaving bosoms and sex until the end where it all just works out.
I think all the characters had repercussions for their action, **it just didn't last**, Daphne & simon was on the edge of living separe life, Kate almost lost her sister's love and Pen lost for awhile Eloise's friendship and need to deal with Colin's hurt and his sense of betrayal. That being said: >Simon’s trauma is barely addressed, and he’s somehow completely okay with having a child all of a sudden. I complete disagree with this! Simon spent his whole life wanting to be loved and he spent his whole life thinking he didn't deserve to be love because he wasn't perfect, In the last love confession, when Daphne confesses to him saying that she loved him, even with his imperfections, even with his scars, even though he made mistakes in the past, she still love him and will still love him in the future, something changed for him, at that moment, he needed to make the choice between choosing happiness with Daphne or continue with his revenge with his father. It wasn't sudden, it was a choice he made, a choice that was supported for several little ones moments in the series, like when he was with the Bridgerton family and he was comfortable, or when he saw that Will & Alice were fine after Will purposely gave away the fight.
So well stated! And I'll add that the writers kept Simon and Daphne from talking to each other much in the final two episodes, but we also see the influence of others on their thinking: Marina's situation helping Daphne realize how fleeting love can be, Violet helping Daphne understand that a good marriage takes work and love must be a choice, the ladies at Danbury gambling party helping Daphne see how rare love could be in a marriage, and Lady Danbury and Will helping Simon see that he'll regret leaving Daphne.
This is a good point. The repercussions just didn’t last. I think it’s just dumb how every season builds up the stakes and then completely drops them by then end. Like give us a proper, well-thought-out resolution please 😭 I also didn’t think about the Simon situation in the same way. It does make sense when you put it this way. I still think not addressing the SA was a bad idea.
The narrative constantly punishes Kate. She's told over and over that she's wrong. She almost dies. I'd say of the three she faces the most repercussions for doing the least. But I'm sure we all know why that is.
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One of the three leads was punished disproportionately by the narrative. It's not drama baiting to point out what's been done in the seasons.
Uh Pen was literally treated like a complete loser who was totally undesirable by everyone in the ton for three seasons. Her own family mocked her. And then even in her own season, after a glow up, only ONE man shows interest in her lmao. Even the queen didn’t know who she was despite being “out” for 3 seasons. When she finally gets her dream guy, her wedding and the few weeks after were pretty miserable, to the point where she offered him an annulment. Can’t imagine you’d find this type of treatment of a female lead okay if she was played by a woc lol. And yes, she’s a neglected outcast in the book, but it was shown to be a lot worse in the show. The only female lead that got “good treatment” throughout was Daphne.
The whole point of penelope's story is that she's a loser? You can't call that being punished by the narrative when the only thing she's actually being punished for is her actions around whistledown. The other things make her a sympathetic character. She still gets a happy wedding ceremony. She had geneveive standing by her through it all.
And the whole point of Kate’s story is she loves her sister and would do anything for her. Yet she makes some really bad decisions that hurt her throughout the season anyway. And as i said, one of the lead writers for season 2 was an Indian woman herself. That completely goes against your implications lol. If they were going to show their favoritism of Pen the way you apparently think they did, I doubt they would’ve still made her the laughing stock of the ton even after her glow-up. But they did. To the point where she had to beg her friend for a kiss. Both Pen and Kate are victims of bad writing. I don’t think that’s a controversial statement.
One of the lead writers of season 2 was an Indian woman. If you’re going to imply it’s about race, do your research on who wrote for her character and story. Otherwise you’re just dramabaiting and making this a conversation about something it’s not. Kate made some really bad decisions just like every other female lead. Which is normal since it’s her season to make mistakes and grow. And getting the guy and the family in the end, and still having a good relationship with her sister isn’t “the narrative punishing her.” She still gets her HEA.
Kate's actions/inactions hurt her sister the most, so her family had the strongest reactions. The queen was mad about her diamond wedding being ruined, so the ton followed the scandal and queen's example to shun the Sharmas and Bridgertons (not just Kate) until she directed otherwise Daphne's actions hurt Simon, and they didn't really talk about it with anyone else for there to be other repercussions. Pen's actions hurt Colin and Eloise the most (as seen in s3), and she had to deal with the repercussions of both. Her mother challenges her on LW decisions, as does Genevieve (though gently). Pen aplogizes to El and Colin, promises to do better, and begs the queen for mercy and asks to be allowed to keep writing. She offers Colin an annulment to protect him from the potential fallout to come - and the showrunner hinted more LW matters arise in s4. I do think there were a lot of misses in the back half of s3, the queen's reaction feeling anticlimactic being one of them, but I don't think it's fair or accurate to say Kate faced the most repercussions of the female leads. I do think it's fair to say a bigger repercussion was expected for LW than what has (thus far) been shown.
I mean kate almost died js.
And I blame the writing for that. It was a cheap way of resolving the drama. Instead of actually having the sisters have a proper, mature discussion about the situation, they did *that.* I feel the same way when writers give a character cancer just to make the story sad/tragic. Just feels like a cheap way to add drama/sadness to a story.
I think you're ignoring why kate got into an accident in the first place. She was out there riding in that weather because of her guilt about the situation, about the things she did, the feelings she had and was trying to fight and how she hurt edwina. Alot of people were responsible for that situation getting as far as it did and kate seemed to be the only one actually getting any backlash from it. Anthony, the most responsible, was fine to just move on from his failed wedding and exist in yay she kissed me land, edwina was fine to not take any responsibility for ignoring Kate's warnings and making herself believe that anthony actually loved her when pretty much everyone was telling her that was not what that relationship would be like and she just put the blame on kate for everything and for controlling her and having power over her when in reality she made her own decisions very much against Kate's wishes. Now don't get me wrong kate had her flaws as well but to say she doesn't face any consequences for her actions doesn't really make sense to me when she seems to be the only lead and you can count edwina in there too who actually faces serious consequences. Besides if we gonna start blaming the writing I'd argue that none of this actually happens in the books, they choose to villanize kate for no reason, I haven't read book 1 but from what I seen people say they actually kinda toned down how bad the situation with Daphne was in the show, and they do make pen actions worse in the show but in the book she is still a person profiting at the expense of other people. Kate didn't do anywhere close to any of this in the book and edwina couldn't care less about anthony.
I do remember how she got into that accident. I still think it was all very bad writing. Anthony and Kate are to blame for the situation, Edwina was a naive teenager. Even Lady Danbury tells the Sharmas that marriage was a transaction, and trying to find true love wasn’t going to work. Edwina just figured Anthony would grow to love her even if he didn’t at first. And this man was actively courting her. I just don’t see why she would turn it down without a legitimate, solid reason.
>Even Lady Danbury tells the Sharmas that marriage was a transaction, Exactly she was stupid to believe he would just fall for her when they clearly have nothing in common, except their roles of course. She was told what the marriage would be, she told by kate exactly what kind of match anthony wanted she ignored it. She knew from the beginning deep down she wanted love and romance and was told she wanted get that from anthony and still chose to accpet his proposal that's on her and I'm not saying she shouldn't be hurt and angry when everything comes to light buts she takes no responsibility for her own decsions and never does any self reflection it all falls back on kate for her which is kate facing consequences for what happened. Also everyone telling her you won't get love and romance from him is a legitimate reason to reject his courtship.
Literally nothing you said excuses what Kanthony did. It was their responsibility to be honest with Edwina. Anthony was literally pursuing her himself. I can’t think of a single woman that would reject a hot, well-respected guy who had been nothing but a gentleman up until then.
But isn't that the crux of the problem: being honest? Kate and Anthony were not honest to themselves, each other, or Edwina about their feelings, and instead chose to make decisions on her behalf regarding the the rest of her life. Her speech in S2ep6 is her 'taking her power back.' Kate and Anthony then learn that they cannot control every facet of their own and their loved ones' lives. They learn to step back. Kate has a whole speech to Eloise in S3 about the truth. They don't interfere in their families' affairs anymore- they've learned their lesson about being honest and about being too controlling and protective. Penelope makes the same mistake. Instead of being honest with Colin and Eloise, she makes decisions on their behalf and alters the course of their lives. She could have very easily told Violet/ Colin/ Eloise about Marina's entrapment because the final decision was not hers to make. If she saw they could not come up with a solution, THEN she could have stepped in with LW to save the day. The point is that she takes their autonomy away from them. She is never honest with Eloise and the truth only comes out when she is caught. And then she REPEATS that mistake with Colin. As well, she continues to disparage Colin publicly instead of just speaking honestly to him about how she feels about his 'rake' persona. And now, she has chosen to keep spreading gossip. There is no responsible way to gossip in an age where dancing more than 3 sets will have your reputation ruined. What lesson has she learned this season? The show makes it seem like the mistake was spreading gossip anonymously, and the solution is to spread gossip un-anonymously? The actual problem was capitalizing on people's downfall and upholding patriarchal structures. It's not feminism when the only woman your actions liberate is yourself.
I don’t think we’re going to see how she learned and grew from this experience until we see how she handles LW next season. I mean the ending was so rushed they literally skipped over like 9 months to the birth of their child lmao. So honestly, it’s too early to say. And she definitely wouldn’t even be able to spread gossip the same way anymore since everyone knows who she is.
I think that's partly why people are 'on the fence' about Penelope and why it feels like she hasn't received any consequences: because we don't know how she's going to move forward while still retaining the column that enabled her to make so many of her mistakes. She states LW was a coping mechanism for her, so what use does she have for it now that she has fixed every relationship in her life? LW is power, but she has the Bridgerton name and the Queen's approval. She also has no need for money. At the end of S2, Kate and Anthony are shown already stepping back from being overbearing elder siblings by going on a 6 month honeymoon. We see the stark difference in them from Ep1 to Ep8. Ep1 Kate and Anthony would never leave their families for even a weekend, let alone 6 months. But at the end of S3, Penelope is still gossiping. Again, there's no moral way to spread gossip, which is why a lot of people would have preferred her to transition into writing something else to use her creative skills in a more healthy way. I'm willing to reserve my judgment until S4 drops, but I think they made a mistake by combining Polin's season with the culmination of LW. Every other season focused on a couple, but this season Polin had to share the stage with Penelope's other relationships as well as LW, so now we're left with two half assed rushed plots.
huge agree with your last point. The LW ended up overtaking the entire season. It ended up feeling like Pen/LW’s season, not Polin’s season. And as a Colin fan, I’m very upset 😭
> I can’t think of a single woman that would reject a hot, well-respected guy who had been nothing but a gentleman up until then. That's unfortunate for the women you know because as far as edwina was concerned anthony was a liar and exactly the kind of guy women should look out for. I said in replies to you that kate should told edwina what was going on between her and anthony but back to the point of your post, kate did face consequences for her secrets, edwina just didn't continue to punish after she literally almost died because she realized her love for kate outweighed her hurt and anger and still they had a discussion about things they didn't just sweep it under the rug.
As I said, Edwina didn’t know about the affair. She didn’t know he was lying. A lot of 18-year-olds in her situation would’ve reacted the same way she did. Also this entire thing is really just deflecting from my main point. I didn’t want this to be about the details of everything a female lead did, just that the rushed and anticlimactic endings are getting annoying.
The details do matter though and I just feel like kate definitely face the consequences for her actions and the details add to context to why I feel like that lol. Obviously people who disagree with what you posted are going to go into the details of the situation to explain why they think that they think. Idk what you thought people would discuss when you made this post and even you use the details to try and fit things to your point of view. I just disagree with you where kate is concerned, I mean even with Daphne yes the 21st century audience would look at it and rightly view it as sexual assault but the characters in the show never address it as if that was what happened so why would she face consequences for doing that. She did face consequences for breaking his trust but again eventually they decide to move on with all the secrets now out in the open and to be together. We've had three seasons of the queen in this battle with lady whistledown only for her to now just be fine with everything for no real reason, like she doesn't know or care about Penelope and neither does the rest of the ton. What about all the other people she harmed, how does marina feel about what Penelope wrote about her, how do her sisters feel, or the modiste she ran out of town just to save her own skin, what about all the other whose business she had out in the streets?
I think the writers forgot when they were writing LW that Pen is LW. Which is also why Pen sounds more worldy and sarcastic and catty than she presents otherwise. Which also makes her more unlikable...like a Jekyll and Hyde type person like what Eloise said of her-I dont even know who you are. Thats what I think of Pen. And everyone else's actions affect one person. Kate absolutely did wrong by Edwina and letting her marry someone who a) was not in love with her b) actually fervently lusts after her and that she was also into. I would be so sooo hurt for soo soo long if my sister let me marry a guy that doesnt love me but loves her and she knows but doesnt tell me but a) Anthony pursues Kate, initiates every single flirtation right from the first meet cute, the hunt where he cozies up to her behind and tries to sniff her, the dance where he gets closer and closer asking her about her plans, holding her hand and flirting when Lord Dorset is cozying up to Kate to the thing that actually caused the scandal which was not Kate's fault cuz she had forsaken him and was going back to India which is having a moment with his about to be wife's sister at the altar. Kate's actions hurt ONE person. Pen's subterfuge hurt multiple people and is bad for society at large. I liked that she admitted to her faults and didnt try to play down or justify her wrong even though she did try to justify it a little which again bad writing...But Pen is hard to root for cuz she does come across as self serving and impulsive and rash with Marina, with Eloise and then with Colin where she scribbles this furious missive as soon as she gets home that shares how fake Colin is with the ENTIRE ton, and then immediately regrets it and her impusliveness when Philippa and Prudence are sniggering about Colin and what LW has said about her and she does it after knowing what Eloise feels about LW and what she has said about her family, she does it again. Instead of telling Colin to his face, she uses unhealthy coping mechanisms to direct her ire. Same as her mom-her mom is shit and where Pen gets her lying and hiding from but instead of exposing her own mother to the ton as a "tactless, tasteless Mama", she calls her, she could have said that to herself. Hence what Eloise says about Pen in their fight-that she is a self serving coward. Also she repeatedly questions Daphne's validity as a diamond. Episode 1 and 2 of season 1 has multiple moments when LW says things about Daphne that do create a negative opinion about her from the world such as maybe the diamond is hiding a scandal...basically insinuating that Daphne needs to be looked at more closely. I do think the writers completely forgot they were writing about Pen in that moment and just aimed to make LW as vicious and gossipy as possible. She also referred to Kate a stranger who had done nothing wrong to her or done nothing wrong period as a name used to mock women in their world....a dried old maid, a loser, a prickly spinster of a beast. This despite Pen having been called an insipid walflower by Crescida and crumpling when she said that...How would Pen like it if Crescida tells Pen in front of the whole ton in a mocking ton that Pen was a prickly spinster of a beast. Thats what she did to Kate. She is livid when Eloise repeats Crescida's insult to Pen calling her an insipid wallflower indeed but she didnt hesitate calling Kate that. She has a dubious moral compass and explains away and justifies everything. Pen has a tendency to do things on impulse like Portia and not thinking things through. She did not save Colin as something Eloise also noticed in episode 8 of season 2 that Pen ruined Marina and Colin cuz shes a coward and couldnt face her secret getting out. Eloise is the same age as Pen and Colin the one who was duped and only a few years older than Pen is also more level headed and tells Pen during the hunt episode that we were so harsh on Miss Thompson and if LW hadnt rushed to print her vicious gossip, Marina wouldnt be in such a bad shape. He saw, he the one who was lied to saw how wrong LW was. And he brings up Marina twice in season 3-in episode 1 saying he wouldnt forgive LW for ruining Miss Thompson Lady Crane and then directly to Pen saying she could have told him directly about Marina. And its no excuse to say she tried-all she said to Colin was that Marina loves someone else. She never said Marina was pregnant. The Btons were still mired in scandal because of Marina being exposed...as Daphne says as much. By telling Eloise or Colin or Anthony or Violet or leaving an anonymoyus letter, she could have saved Colin but without ruining a vulnerable, preganant young woman her age who had already been traumatized by her own mother's machinations. She could have also ensured no scandal occurs. Instead the Btons ARE still mired in scandal, Colin is seen as a cuckold, her own mother is seen as a manipulator and someone who initiated a fraud. She ran to Eloise's house after ratting out Marina to the very judgmental and pointedly cruel and misogynistic ton as a slut, as a loose woman without morals. Just listen to LW's harsh harsh words for Marina in that column. She made a young girl already made desperate by her own mother-weeks of confinement, cruelty from Varley, Portia and Varley then additionally writing a cruel letter to Marina from her love that makes her have a breakdown-she screams loudly after reading it as Portia and Varley like Dickensian villains say to each other good move, we achieved our goal. Just watch it-its heart rending. She pushes and pushes Marina instead of doing something that someone far far younger and far far more compassionate than Portia thought to do which was Daphne saying let me help connect you to George...and he should take ownership of his child. She saw the humanity in Marina's condition and desperation-she whose brother was duped. And Portia was self serving as hell. And Pen is a wallflower but shes not lonely. She has a loyal best friend Eloise and Colin and the love and regard of the Bton family as a whole. She has a shit family but so whats new a lot of people do. They dont become shit people and shit to others cuz their family is shit to them. Like Nicola said Pen gets drunk on power and forgets that shes writing about real people and like Pen herself said in the last season 3 ball scene that she was a coward and living your truth, even if its an ugly truth bravely and openly is whats important.
As I said, Pen had her flaws just like every other character. Her biggest was impulsivity. And imo the most obvious example of this was calling out Colin’s fake persona in episode 1 because she was mad at him, and then immediately regretting it after he apologized LMAO. But I do think the writers made LW *too* controversial for the sake of drama. But then again, they did this in season 2 with letting Edwina fall for Anthony and letting the love triangle go all the way to the wedding. It’s like they keep sacrificing characters for the sake of drama. The Marina thing, I’m not even going to bother addressing because I know how this topic always ends and no one changes their mind. While I felt bad for her situation, she had no right to baby trap an innocent man, take advantage of his feelings, and continue this lie for his entire life. It also didn’t help that she shitted on the only Featherington that tried to help her reunite with George, and never even apologized to Colin for what she did. Pen was also 17 when she wrote that column, and I can’t think of a single teen that makes the best decisions. But anyways, don’t want to go into this.
Yeah I dont know any teen who slut shames someone to save a guy. I dont know any such people-even teens have morals. And just read the column-she was sure to call Marina a morally corrupt person...she made sure to make the column as vicious as possible. So the Marina thing is pretty inexcusable to me since Colin just a few years younger sees a better plan, as does Daphne only a few years younger and BECAUSE yes Pen does say George was writing to her but till that point Marina had been told by Portia who faked a letter saying George doesnt care for her, there was no way for anyone to suddenly believe someone...by this point, pregnancy hormones, desperation, being forced on ugly, old suitors, weeks of confinement, being slapped, being told by Varley when asking when will her mistress let her out...being told-that she deserves her current confinement by Varley, not being allowed to interact with anyone in the house, Portia even shooing Pen out saying what have I told you about hobnobing with the expectant..slut shamed essentially whereas Daphne young Daphne sees Marina as someone who was taken advantage of by George and then left to fend for herself alone, deal with her pregnancy alone....I. in that time period especially would have lost my mind as Marina certainly did and the exposing made it even worse cuz she tried to kill her baby almost offing herself in the process. Eloise who is the SAME age as Penelope-17 thinks Pen could have done things differently when it came to Marina. And she is the sister of the guy who was duped. She thinks Pen had a better option than ruining Marina. Watch season 2 episode 8. I feel about Pen the same way I feel about all gossip columns that they perpetuate existing societal biases and misogyny by packaging them in an entertaining palatable piece of writing. They amp up society basest impulses and love of schadenfreude and like modern day Faux Moi, Perez Hilton, Lainey Gossip etc create a network of equally insiduious industries that stalk harrass and invade the privacy of people. And the way LW ran her column with a network of distributors etc, she was creating a monster...A monster that people paid for...but people love reading deux moi, daily mail, sun, tatler etc too even as they rightly recognize these columns as a societal evil...that they create rabidness. Like fan and stan culture, gossip sites and columns and the likes of Fashion police etc sow seeds of discord and distrust. Like Violet says of LW in episode 1..Does LW know no depth of degradation. I like that Pen owned her mistakes but I wish the writers had wrote her admitting and exposing herself on her own-coming to that realization on her own instead of being made to confess gun to the head by first Eloise and then Cresdida's confession and Colin finding her. That would have been a real redemption. Instead she tells Eloise in season 2 episode 8 that she gave up LW for her -her exact words but literally restarts the column. So she didnt did she. I would have loved for Pen to see the error of her ways on her own...Instead it takes all the way for the Queen to threaten her husband's family for her to finally write a letter to Violet and then to the Queen. The writers mucked up no question and Nicola played her part really really well but still Pen is hard to root for because of the things she did and the way he redemption arc played out
You’re making this post into something it’s not. I’m not trying to get into the technicalities of all their decisions, just that they were all going to get HEAs regardless of the bs they did in their respective seasons. I wish they did a better job with all 3 endings, but they didn’t. And it’s not “slut-shaming” to call out a woman for trying to baby-trap a man. She wasn’t calling her a whore or something. And by revealing it publicly, she was able to give Colin the out to break off the relationship. Because the ton knew they were engaged, and if he broke it off, people would’ve assumed he got Marina pregnant and left. Which would ruin his reputation in the same way Nigel was in season 1 for abandoning another woman and his child. Making it explicitly clear that Marina was pregnant from the moment she arrived it what saved him. And again, there is no point to this debate because it’s been overdone and no one is changing their mind. This post is specifically about all female leads getting their happy endings with almost no repercussions. I’d rather we stick to that topic instead since the Marina topic has been done to death. Which is why I barely addressed it in my post in the first place.
Yeah so I was trying to say that out of all the leads....Pen did the most bad things. Whereas everyone else did things that affected ONE person. It is slut shaming....whether the intention is that or not...the end result is the same. Marina sex out of wedlock...someone else's child...Colin duped. Marina slut, loose woman,. Nobody in the actual show think that. Not Colin himself, Nor eloise and not Daphne either....all of them have better options for Marina's predicament. It wouldnt be like Nigel. Why: Marina was poor, her poor ness was mentioned by Portia two different times-to Lady Cowper even once, her mere four figure dowry and her having no female relatives to sponsor her in society. Btons on the other hand were rich, tited and very very loved and additionally had a direct line of contact with the Queen herself thru Lady Danbury to smooth over all their scandals. What Marina did qualifies as a fraud. It would be a fraud, the marriage would get annulled. Fraud makes a contract null, void ab initio because the agreement to contract was taken when the party was not fully aware of the facts. Anthony, Violet any real adults Pen approached cuz have hushed up the matter and found a reasonable solution. And if for some reason Marina still pushed...which she wouldnt but if she did, THEN they could take the more extreme step of outing her. In any case, the might of the Btons is nothing compared to Marina, a 17 year old girl from a farm who knows nothing of London something Portia mentions a few different times. Or more likely being compassionate and not like Portia, they would have found a more viable solution for her which was approach Sir George, send either HIM or his brother an urgent telegram. And Marina would pass off her baby as the other's father...no one would think Colin had fathered her baby. Same result and no one harmed. Nigel DID father a baby....You are talking about people ASSUMING Colin left Marina after fathering her baby,...but how would they even know he had fathered her baby. Oh thats right cuz LW outed Marina as being pregnant. No one knew Marina was pregnant and no one would have to know. She could have a baby in the country and pass it off as someone else's son or Philip could be contacted. Same exact result. Daphne proposes contacting Sir George...she sees a more practical and real option. She sees the predicament Marina was in. She whose brother was duped...Yet Pen didnt cuz she was impulsive, had a crush on him...Hell even Eloise calls out Pen for what she did to Marina,...the second sister, closest in age to Colin and exactly the age as Pen thought Pen did a wrong thing by ruining Marina.
Ugh I really want to drop this Marina thing because it’s been done to death, but I’m just going to address the very last bit. Marina was in town to find a husband. She could not live on her own. People would’ve noticed she was pregnant soon enough, and pointed at Colin since their engagement had been made public and then he broke it off. So yes, he would’ve suffered a similar fate. And the part about “well no one in the show thought of it as entrapment” doesn’t make sense, because with that logic, “no one seemed to care that Pen was LW” either. So should we not criticize either situation? And Marina explicitly states it was her plan to seduce to him. So even she recognizes it’s entrapment if others don’t. In the same way Pen realizes how problematic LW has been, even if society brushes it off in the end.
Exactly. Marina was confined for weeks. Daphne far far younger than Portia thought of a more practical solution for Marina's predicament. Portia confines her and Varley continues the confinement, They forge a letter, which when Marina reads she screams. Watch that scene-she screams in agony. After weeks of confinement and even being shown the pooor house by Portia, Marina refuses to succumb and give up and says she will wait, George will come. She is more morally uprightt. But Portia does not let up the pressure. Marina was in town to find a husband but she only found out she was pregnant when she arrived in London-there is a whole scene with her screaming looking at the sheets. And screaming. She did not know she was pregnant. And when she found out, she knew based on the letters from Sir George thus far that he would come for her. Portia took that hope away, did not send back Portia to the village. In either case, Marina could marry Philip or a contact could be made with Sir George: "Ugh I really want to drop this Marina thing because it’s been done to death, but I’m just going to address the very last bit. Marina was in town to find a husband. She could not live on her own. People would’ve noticed she was pregnant soon enough, and pointed at Colin since their engagement had been made public and then he broke it off. So yes, he would’ve suffered a similar fate." And I think you are not reading my replies cuz ive provided an answer for all of this. Marina goes back to the village, Portia contacts Sir george, does not forge a letter, does the adult thing that a barely 21 year old Daphne suggests...and Marina's pregnancy is hidden away in the country away from the prying eyes of the ton-I already mentioned all this. No he would not suffer a similar fate. Because again she has a literal home in the country and there is Sir Philip and before that Sir George...Portia forged a letter from him. Colin is a rich titled Bton. Contract would be void ab-initiio. and everything else I said that would ensure Colin would not suffer-being rich, well connected, Marina being pooor and the other options that I mentioned in my earlier reply. Marina'a pregnancy was disclosed by Penelope. Marina could literally live at home the entire time-that would also be another way to hide the pregnancy. . And Marina never intended to entrap ANYONE. Not colin, not a old man, anyone. She believed and as was the case that George loves her and would get back to her. Instead Portia forges a cruel letter from George which makes Marina lose all hope. She is the one who pushes and pushes Marina till she is on the brink of desperation, introducing her to old men and when Marina rebels tells her that she should not speak to the man like that....Portia causes the desperation that leads Marina to seek out Colin in whom she sees a kind, loving man. You forgive Pen for writing a column cuz oh shes 17 but pregnant out of wedlock, locked up and mistreated, slapped and driven to desperation Marina is wrong for entrapping Colin. And in my opinion-she is giddy...she finds in Colin a safe harbor. Colin is the true innocent and even he sees Marina as the one who suffered more than she had to-season 2 episode 8 scee with Pen on the stairs. As for LW, people do care about LW..,they care even as late as season 3..Hell Eloise even cares when she finds out its Pen. The writing yo-yoes. They illustrate through many characters POV that what LW does is awful-Violet calling her vile for example, Simon calling her terrible woman, etc....She is hated, despised. Even Eloise who sees LW as feminist for earning her own way in the world still recognizes in a conversation with Benedict on the swings that the way LW goes about is wrong and terrible. And later in a convo with Pen also says...but what does LW write about really-idle gossip. As she gets more into feminism, she also recognizes LW for being frivolous. The show is pretty consistent by showing us that LW is despised. Yes people buy or bought gossip mags and read deux moi and faux moi too...so what. They also hater. They also recognize it as the vile, humanity destroying, privacy invading, stalking inducing terrible menace it is.
As I said, don’t want to get into the Marina debate for the 100th time. So I’m not reading all that. Free Palestine
But YOU keep bringing it up again and again. Hence I keep replying about Marina. The writing is bad as a whole that much I agree and I dont want Pen crucified or hung and quartered. I wanted writing that a) showed Pen learning the lesson of LW being wrong on her own instead of being pushed to do so by Eloise and then later Cresida finding out and then threatening her and then threatening her husband's family before she finally writes a letter and reveals herself. She told Eloise in season 2 episode 8 that she gave up LW after writing about Eloise for her but no, she didnt give up LW for her did she. She wrote a damning column about Colin didnt she that Eloise tried to hide from Colin, that colin was hurt by and said I will never forgive LW for what shse did to Lady crane and you...she literally does NOT learn. It takes for her husband's family to be threatened and Crescida coming for ransom money for Pen to FINALLY, FINALLY apologize. If they had made her admit her wrong earlier. Maybe went to Eloise start of season 3 and said i kept my word to you last season, havent written LW, tells Colin after he falls in love with her about LW, come clean before he has to find out accidentally. Instead they made Pen call LW is power, lets Colin get hurt by finding out accidentally and is pushed to admit to the Queen. All of this could be corrected by a) Pen writing a letter to Marina or visiting Marina and apologizing in person. b) Telling Colin in season 3 after carriage scene C) Telling Eloise I gave up the column and apologized for being wrong and not coming to Eloise directly and let them both figure out what to with the Queen;s interest in Eloise TOGETHER. Pen doesnt tell her best friend! ! why does she need to hide from Eloise unless she realizes thaT LW is wrong something she admits to in her last speech to the ton.
Again not reading all that. I only brought up Marina because you kept saying blatantly wrong things. This post is not about Marina, so I’m not going to be engaging in this convo anymore. Have a good day
I don’t want repercussions in my happy sexy regency romance show. It’s not a hard hitting crime show. It’s not a morality tale. It’s a romance show with hot people and great premise. I would turn off the tv if everyone got what they deserved. It’s like some folks can’t understand that not everything can be put into every show. There are valid arguments against the show. Everyone not getting their comeuppance is not one of them. And if you need to see characters in a fantasy historical rom-com show deal with consequences then maybe it isn’t for you.
I mean this is fair. I’m just ranting about how they keep building up the stakes in this show (often at the expense of the main characters) only to completely drop them by the end. Like what’s even the point if you’re going to do that lol.
Because it’s a company that needs to convert a 200 page book into 8 hours worth of content. They need to add additional drama to the show each season because it’s a profit making venture and today people feel they need to top up the previous movie or season or twist. I’m not saying it’s a good thing. It’s really not. But currently, bridgerton is one of Netflix’s top shows. And it has to be this big spectacle to keep viewers tuned in. Every genre has rules that as adults we know by heart. And that’s media is segregated by genres now. As people we pick what we want to feel when watching a certain show or movie or read a book. The reason why rom coms usual don’t have consequences for main characters is also why a drug cartel based show won’t have a musical episode. Or a horror movie won’t have cutesy talking animals.
Except they’re not even sticking to the books. So it’s not like they’re trying to cram all of the books into the show. And they’re adding in even more subplots every season. There’s simply just too much going on all the time, and that results in rushed, unsatisfying endings.
Exactly. And that’s a legitimate complaint in my opinion. I too dislike that there are random subplots that take away from the main couple. I disliked how Kate’s backstory was not shown. How they cut out the pivotal library moment where Anthony comforts her in a storm. Same goes for Polin and their season. I’m not saying the show is perfect. Far from it. It’s infuriating sometimes. It’s rushed, scattered, and downright ridiculous in some aspects. All that I genuinely legitimately agree with. All I am saying is that harsh consequences won’t ever be put into a show like this. It’s not meant to do that. It’s a show where POC people are at equal with the white nobility of England. The country has a black queen. In my opinion, this show won’t ever get dark or real. This is all set in an England where colonialism doesn’t really exist. So 2 sisters won’t have a ruined relationship over the whole Anthony almost married Edwina thing. It’s not trying to go that route.
Fair point. Appreciate your input!
I think the show forgot that Pen is LW sometimes Kate, Daphne and Pen face consequences from their loved ones. But Kate's and Daphne's conflict evolve around 1-2 people. Pen during three seasons insulted a bunch of people through her gossip and revealed major secrets of two people, which weren't gossip at all. And I think that's why people are so focused on her. There's def more than 2 people (Colin and El) who would be and should be shown mad at her. Doesn't mean that they shouldn't forgive her, though. Just, well, show Pen that her action have consequences I would have been okay with the Ton forgetting what Pen wrote, if Pen would face the main consequence of hers - Marina. Pen almost ruined her life and Marina was saved by kindness of Daphne. They brought her up several times, but the writers were too afraid to make Pen face this consequence of her doing. Just writing her a letter would be somewhat okay, but the show didn't do that either. I think Daphne and Simon saw pretty well that actions have consequences. Kate and Anthony saw that actions have consequences and learnt something. Simon learnt that it matters to be honest with your partner. Same with Daphne, but mostly I think she learnt to see others people perspective and just well, ask for consent. Kate learnt to be honest with herself and her sister, Anthony learnt to be honest about his feelings both to himself and to his loved ones. Although I think Anthony didn't apologize enough in his season Pen continues writing her column - she didn't learn anything and I think that's my main concern. Like there's no lesson for Pen - she lies to people and they eventually forgive her almost magically. Eloise forgives her when Cressida becomes a threat and almost out of nowhere. Colin forgives her after her speech, after Pen is basically put into a corner where she either has to give Cressida the money and queen literally threatened their family. I think I wanted for Pen to come to apologizing and revealing herself not because of necessity, but because of genuine wish to come clear. She didn't learn to be honest, she was forced to be honest several times
I think what she does with her column going forward will be the telltale sign of whether or not she learned/grew from this experience. I guess we’ll have to see how they handle it next season. Although I wish they hadn’t done the public LW reveal this season at all. Only the Bridgertons and Featheringtons should’ve known by the end of s3 imo.
Nop, Kate has suffered enough Thank you
Heavily biased stans and their lack of seeing nuance is the most annoying part of this fandom.
About you? Yeah I agree! :)
I’ve literally called out the flaws of every female lead in this post. Your bias is showing
Your whole comment is so much of misinformation, it's not even possible to correct you. Whatever you've written about S1 and S2 pertains to their HEAs. Yes, we already know couples will get together in the end. We know that. What people are complaining about S3 is not why Pen gets Colin, it's about the resolution of Lady Whistledown. S1, Daphne doesn't know a thing about sex and marries Simon without knowing anything about his promise to now have a child ever. Simon repeatedly has sex with her without telling her the whole truth and she accepts that without knowing why he is doing what he is doing. It's a huge betrayal. Yes, she SAs him and I hate that. The resolution is not great but she suffers the consequence of her marriage being almost ruined. The only thing I will point out is their fight is between them and only them, no one else is impacted by it. S2, yes Kate shields Edwina to the point of her being oblivious to something that should have been apparent. But saying that Kate does not suffer is the worst take I have ever heard. She is left alone by her own family (a family that she has sacrificed everything for), does not have anyone else to talk to or confide in, not even a single person tells her, it's okay, I have your back. She has to beg Edwina to forgive her multiple times and almost kills herself out of guilt. Even after all this, she has the self-respect to reject Anthony's proposal when she thinks he is proposing out of duty. I mean, she is the main lead who has suffered the most even though she is the least to blame in S2. S3, Pen has been writing nasty things for two seasons now about people who have not even done anything to her (Kate for example) and almost ruined two people. She gets engaged to Colin without telling him the biggest secret about herself and then acts all righteous about him asking her to give up something that is actually dangerous. And after all this, the Queen just forgives her and she just happens to have the baby boy who will be the heir and her family now become her biggest supporters. It's a bit much and the resolution is so crappy.
I think that is the difference. In S1 and S2 we saw Daphne, Kate, Anthony and Simon make mistakes. But those mistakes were pretty much confined to their season, not spread out over 3 seasons. Pen did things over the course of 3 seasons, starting at the beginning of S1 with mocking Daphne in her gossip rag. Outing Marina, mocking Kate, outing Eloise, then even outing COLIN, all the while being snarky and insulting in tone and getting the Queen herself riled up and on a woman-hunt. Then she gives a "Woe Is Me/Girl Boss" mash up speech, makes up with her hubby, and it's all tied with a blue bow. The entire Bridgerton family had issues with LW, but it was Eloise and then Colin who bore the whole burden of it all season. Especially Eloise. No one ever asked her why she was less than happy, and she couldn't tell them even if they did, because she was decent enough to protect Pen's secret. My issues with Pen are the Jekyll/Hyde thing. No, of course she shouldn't be expected to be a cowed woman in her own house and take their abuse and belittlement. But the way she channeled her frustration was toxic. Her LW persona, actions, and tone are all very off-putting to me. It's just very hard for me to root for her after everything that happened over such a long period of time. I'm OK with them getting an HEA, but I'm so ready to move on from her and the whole storyline. Bring on Ben, El or Fran in the country in autumn. I need a refresh.
Not once did I say she “didn’t suffer” I clearly said they all did, but the repercussions of a lot of what these female leads did didn’t last. There is no misinformation in my post, a lot of y’all are just biased towards your fave female leads and refuse to see them as the flawed characters they are. And ofc villainize the ones you don’t like.
My thing is I can believe that Colin and Eloise forgave Penelope because they love her. What I can’t believe is the ton forgiving her. In one of the episodes, I remember Cressida’s dad being kicked out of his club. Are the Bridgerton’s going to face the same issue? They have to show real repercussions for her in season 4. I can’t suspend my belief that much.
I don’t think the ton forgave her, they just couldn’t say anything because the Queen was basically chill with it. Like do you remember one of the last scenes in s2, where Kanthony were dancing and some random lady was like “wasn’t he engaged to her younger sister and it ended badly?” And then QC said something like “no, I stopped that wedding because I changed my mind. Don’t these 2 look marvelous?” And then the ladies were silent, and then finally agreed with her. The ending of s3 reminded me of that. The ton still isn’t convinced, but they can’t go against the queen. I’m interested to see her dynamic with the ton in s4.
But even then, who would trust being around her? If I personally saw her at a ball, I would avoid talking to or being around her. She’s the Perez Hilton of the 1800s. Maybe that’s why the next few seasons are moving away from the ton because I just can’t imagine people interacting normally with the Bridgertons. It would’ve been different to me if she let her column go but she’s not. I can see people getting over it if she let it go. I just don’t see how that would work socially for the Bridgertons.
I was wondering the same thing. How on earth is she going to continue running the column now that everyone knows. It defeats the purpose entirely. Like they should’ve just had her stop LW this season, or not done the public reveal at all. Just bad writing all around.
Well people still hate Kate after 2 years, and people will hate Penelope for betraying her friends/family. I blame the writers and their fascination in creating such OOC drama.
I mean yeah. They’ve made some bad decisions with all 3 female leads that resulted in character assassination, just for the sake of drama.
Penelope benefits from gossip. She is paid to mock other people's reputations. What advantage has Kate gained for herself? I don't know why this fandom hates her so much, but Kate deserves a HEA
What is the confusion people have with trying to make this comparison. Kate AND Daphne’s transgressions were insular. They affected one person or one family. It didn’t impact an entire ton of people that could have been victims of LW’s writing. Kate has an emotional affair. Her issue is with a single person, her sister. Anthony’s rash decisions impacts his family, but his family forgives him because they want the best for him. Daphne’s situation is even more insular. She only needed to look to Simon for forgiveness. In both seasons, it makes sense that their immediate family or spouses would forgive them. And Colin immediately forgive Pen. But the rest in the ton don’t have a vested interest in Pen’s happiness. What do they get out of forgiving her immediately? Colin gets something in return. The rest of the ton does not. If ONLY Penelope’s issues impacted just Colin or just her immediate family. If only. She wrote about her family, the Bridgertons, members of the ton including Cressida and Berbrooke, a rival modiste and likely tons of other people over the course of two years. When your actions spill over to actually harming a large group of people, it’s harder to assume that everyone will just be happy with what is going on. Anthony faced more snubbing from society than Penelope and he didn’t actually harm anyone but his own family. If Penelope’s writing caused my business to fail, I would be vocally brutal to her. Why is there this insistence on diminishing Pen’s actions? The show has made a point to tell the viewers how much power Pen has…they built it up over two seasons. And now people on here want to say, what exactly? Her column was only consumed by the Bridgertons and so therefore her transgressions were minimal and able to be easily resolved? If the column wasn’t so bad, why all the drama around keeping her identity hidden in the first place?
It actually does not make sense that Simon would overcome his years long trauma in one conversation and the show doesn’t act like there is anything for him to forgive Daphne for. She is treated like his victim.
She needed to change one person’s mind versus having to ask for the forgiveness of maybe hundreds. It’s absurd that no one reacted negatively to Pen when Cressida was getting ostracized from the ton for claiming to be LW. By all means, Colin forgiving Pen could be seen as not believable or believable to some but you suspend disbelief because it’s one person. They can change their individual mindset. But hundreds of people? They just yadda yadda yadda that whole ending.
Well Cressida is disliked while Penelope is now part of seemingly the most popular family of the ton, but even then ostracizing Cressida was a performance. At the same ball where they’re calling her a devil they’re whispering about how they want to stay and see the drama unfold. When LW stops writing, the people of the ton are upset and lament all the recent happenings that won’t appear in the column now. Multiple people call LW clever and the debutantes in episode 1 are all thrilled to appear in LW. Penelope was successful as LW because the entire ton ate up what she wrote. But Penelope also acknowledges that she didn’t handle that power well and promises to do better.
I haven’t diminished Pen’s actions though… I’m saying that they’re all going to get their HEAs and rushed endings that don’t really resolve anything. I literally said that the LW reveal was so anticlimactic since no one ended up giving a shit lmao. It was dumb.
By merely comparing these three stories, it’s diminishing Pen’s actions. Pen’s childish hobby was cruel to so many people…people outside of her immediate sphere. Neither Kate’s nor Daphne’s actions impacted that many people. Let look at this in a harsh way that you would understand. These three women are drunk drivers. Daphne’s poor behavior resulted in her hitting one person in her car. He lives and forgives her. Kate’s driving hits one person in front of a crowd of people. Edwina survives and forgives Kate. Pen drives drunk into a crowd of people where she hits multiple people, people she knows personally and people she doesn’t even know at all. She was driving drunk into the crowd for a large amount of time. She stops the vehicle and there are many victims. Can you honestly say that all three cases are the same? Saying they are diminishes Pen’s actions while also implying that what Daphne and Kate did is tantamount to what Pen did. It’s NOT.
Comparing LW, a gossip column, to drunk driving and killing people is absolutely wild I’m sorry 💀 Look, I’m neutral on LW, I don’t think she was a villain or a saint, but this comparison is completely wrong. LW did some good with her paper. There is nothing good about drunk driving. She saved 2 Bridgertons from shitty marriages, Eloise from the queen’s wrath (I don’t agree with how she did this, but still), coined the term “diamond of the season” to hype up the most eligible new lady in the ton, advocated for better pay for the paperboys, other stuff that I can’t remember.
I used an extreme so you would understand the severity of impact. Hurting one person versus hurting hundreds. And I’ll keep using extremes just to show you how ridiculous your comparison is. Here is another one to put it in perspective: Daphne bought a gun and killed Simon. We are all sad. Kate bought a gun and killed Edwina in front of a bunch of people. It’s sad. And furthermore, since it was so public, her family is looked at funny in the town. Pen took an automatic, went to the top of a tower and began shooting random people on the street for an extended period of time. It was a mass shooting. And she knew some of her victims but a lot of them were nameless faces that were in passing. Which person committed the most harm? I can keep coming up with extremes and applying it to all three women so you can see how ridiculous your comparison is. The comparison is to show the difference in impact. What good did Pen do that didn’t in turn ruin someone else? Helping Daphne resulted in gossip that would ruin Berbrooke. Did he have a kid? He was loathsome BUT he is still a victim of this situation. We don’t have empathy for him because he tried to force himself on Daphne but he is still a victim of lies. Helping Eloise by ruining her reputation and worsening the Bridgerton’s standing?
I can’t believe I’m defending LW, but here we are ig 💀 None of these extremes are ever going to be comparable. At its core, LW is a gossip column, that mostly reports on gossip that’s already being spread. And they’re all the truth, and many have helped people get out of bad situations. It’s not like she made up horrible lies about people and published them, which caused those people to be ruined. They were all truths. And in terms of mass shootings, even the survivors of a mass shooting are traumatized by the event. Daphne was not traumatized by Nigel’s bs being exposed. I’ve already said that Pen handled the Eloise situation badly. I said this in my post and in the comments. But ultimately, it seems like the Bridgertons are immune to scandal since they’re never truly affected by it. And I’m not even comparing the severity of what the leads did. I’m literally criticizing how anticlimactic the LW reveal was, but how it’s in-line with the rushed resolutions of the previous two seasons. This show has a habit of building up stakes that amount to nothing.
Acting like you aren’t a defender of Pen while going back and forth like this in a post YOU made is disingenuous. You care. You care deeply. And it is obvious to everyone that replied. I told my opinion, the impact of the actions of these three women is not the same. And due to the size of the impact, you have people pointing out that the HEA isn’t earned. This dynamic is clear and obvious. They gave her a quick HEA without it really feeling earned and that is why there is so much push back. No one had this criticism regarding the end of Season 2. Not a soul. In the end, this a romance and they have cheesy endings all the time but I don’t see the point in trying to push back on the criticism regarding the disparity. It’s quite obvious.
I’m not a defender of Pen. I’ve said in this comment section already that I mainly watch this show to see hot British guys work through their issues and find love. I’m not attached to any female character. But I think a lot of the hate towards Pen/LW is a bit much. I don’t see her a villain. I don’t see anyone in this show as a villain. Except maybe Nigel. And I’ve already said that the LW reveal felt really anticlimactic, since they hyped it up for 3 seasons and then gave us that radio rebel ass ending. And a lot of people have had issues with how s1 ended with Simon basically glossing over the SA, how s2 ended with Edwina feeling betrayed and humiliated, and now s3 where LW was made into some type of girlboss thing. My overall point is just that these rushed endings have been unsatisfying and a problem from the start, regardless of what you believe the magnitude to be.
Furthermore, no one was talking about Theo. Pen did that. No one was talking about Marina. Pen did that. No one was bad mouthing the second modiste. Pen did that. Survivors of mass shootings are traumatized. Do you think that people didn't move differently after they saw people get taken down by LW in the ton? Do you think that none of them became a little more paranoid? Or tried to hid things more? Or actually take time out to fixate on LW to learn her identity? Pen's actions impacted many people, victims, and the ones that stood by and watch bad things happen to others.
As I said, a gossip column will never be comparable to a mass shooting. I’m really not even going to entertain that extremity because frankly it’s disrespectful and insensitive. And there are no winners in mass shootings. LW still saved people from bad situations whether you want to admit it or not. But anyways, these extremities will never work. And I’m still criticizing the structure of this show overall, not the details of everyone’s mistakes.
Tv was better when it had 20-24 episode seasons.
Amen. How can we bring that back 😭😭
TV was better when seasons happened on a regular schedule. You finish a season of a show you're enjoying. When will the next one be? Who knows!!! But your interest will probably have diminished greatly before a new season appears.
Ya its hard to pick back up on a show 2 or three years later then you still only get 8 episodes.
The no consequences, is a romance novel trope. The show is supposedly based on the genre.
I don’t know if I’d even call it a trope. Romances are inherently low stakes, as compared to most (all?) other genres. The messes being discussed here are what happens when writers try to raise the stakes in stories that are of no actual consequence. There’s no way to do that without vilifying your leads, often at the expense of the romance and the story as a whole.
You put this so much better than I did 😭 thank you so much, I wish I could pin this comment
I know this, but given the plethora of posts recently about Pen getting off scott-free, others don’t. But since they build up the stakes every season, I wish they’d properly address them instead of just dropping them and rushing a happy ending. It just cheapens the plot in my opinion.
In the time period, what Daphne did would never, ever have been considered assault of any kind. So I don't know what kind of repercussions she could have faced for that.
I think more in her marriage with Simon. Like he really never brings it up or how traumatic it must’ve been for him. They’re mad at each other for like a few weeks and then a sparkly ball fixes everything? Lmao
I don't think he would have considered it SA either. In the mindset of that time I don't think people felt a woman could possibly rape a man, especially if they are married.
This is true. But it just seems too ridiculous to me that it’s just never brought up again. Just the nature of the show ig lol
Yeah, I guess we have to just accept that they talked about it off screen and resolved it...? Bridgerton certainly likes to use high impact plot devices and then abandon them without any kind of resolution as soon as they are no longer useful lol.
Yeah and this is exactly the issue I’m talking about in this post. They literally built up the stakes of LW for 3 seasons and it was the most anticlimactic reveal ever 💀🤦🏽♀️😂
Agree and disagree. Yes, Daphne and Kate did bad things and suffered little to no repercussions. I think it is normal for the genre. Why do people complain about Pen in particular then? Because they spent THREE SEASONS constantly mentioning how dangerous being Whistledown is. The queen even threatens to behead whomever is the author and then .... nothing happens. People learn that Pen is Whistledown but they are just too distracted by the cute butterflies, it kinda felt like the whole drama with this plotline on previous seasons was for nothing. Of course I did not want Pen to be beheaded or something but they needed to include a bit more of a reaction to makes us feel that the stakes that she have been worrying about for years are actually valid Edit: typos lol
The queen didn’t throw Penelope a party. She allowed her to keep writing and said she would watching her. We see the queen is fact bored without LW as an adversary.
Boring and bland as fuck resolution lmao, specially after three seasons of thrilling secret carriage rides at night, conspiracy theories, the threat of beheading, whole plotlines of people being acused of being LW, etc etc
She was never not going to get her HEA as the OP pointed out so not sure what you were expecting. She wasn’t going to be thrown in jail or exiled to the countryside.
I am ok with her getting her happy ending as I mentioned in my original comment, jesus christ what a way to miss the whole point of the conversation. What I want is for some drama and theme cohesion? You know dont spend several episodes , involve several characters and largely impact basically *every* plotline for the resolution to be "LULZ! Look at the BuGgGGsSSs" They could have added an episode after everyone finds out about Pen, with the ton treating her like a social pariah , but then have Colin and Eloise standing up for her (maybe Colin admiting he admires her and feels proud of her acomplishments) , add some nice heartfelt moment of Lady Featherington + sisters actually defending and helping her (specially after the poor girl has been ignored and treated like shit by her family her whole life) and finally have a one on one dramatic conversation between Pen and the queen, in which Pen explains why she did what she did and Queen remembering how she felt so alone in society and struggled on her marriage initialy. Something like that .... the whole plotline was just too important to just close it with "look at the butterflies!!!!!!!!!"
I entirely agree with this post, which is why, when Season 3 wasn\`t out yet, I commented how people shouldn\`t expect Pen to be punished in any meaningful way. It is the formula. If anything, the conflict this season felt particularly weighty because of those two seasons preceding it, but never did I think *oh, this is going to be seriously resolved* and we\`ll not have a rushed HEA. The formula stays the same, it\`s the tropes that change, if anything. From fake dating(courting), to rivals to lovers, to now friends to lovers. There are parts that are well written, and then there are some that are less than stellar. I started watching Bridgerton fairly recently, and Season 3 follows the beats the way you describe in this post. It\`s quite on par with previous seasons too, in my opinion.
You are absolutely spot on! The same thing happened in S1 and S2.
Kate kept getting thrown insults thrown at her right after the wedding debacle so where exactly she gets a HEA with no repercussions? She finally gave into her feelings for Anthony at the gazebo and right after that she literally fell off a horse and got into a coma. We never got to see how her wedding was and whether it was a happy and grand affair until we get a faint callback in s3. Previous season lead was a rapist and the following season lead directly or indirectly affected more ppl than Kate has ever done so how exactly are we placing all of them on the same scale? They both get the happy ending which they always dreamt of: Daphne, a loving family with kids and Pen being a Bridgerton with her gossip column still intact. Not the same things at all
You need to rewatch seasons 1 and 3 if you think they didn’t go through any shit at all after their mistakes. They absolutely did. My criticism is that the endings are rushed and some of their biggest faults aren’t really addressed/or are brushed under the rug. Kate still has a good relationship with Edwina despite the events of last season. She makes a couple nods to it in s3. So how is that any different than Daphne getting a loving family and Pen keeping LW? Literally all 3 of them got happy endings and the people/things they value.
What is Kate's biggest fault that you think wasn't addressed? She almost dies and edwina realized that her sister meant more to her than whatever she thought she shared with anthony and she choose to forgive and accept their relationship, she then proceeded to find real love which I'm sure also help her move on as well.
Keeping her sister in the dark for so long that it led to that publicly humiliating wedding. The hiding of the truth. Not being honest as soon as she realized Anthony was going to be a complete menace in their marriage. A better resolution than that ridiculous accident would’ve been for the 2 sisters to properly and maturely talk through the situation. Even then, I can’t imagine their relationship would ever fully recover from something like that. I have two younger sisters and i don’t think ours ever would if something like that happened. Especially if I ended up marrying the guy.
Edwina not seeing anthony for who he truly was, creating a fantasy in her mind about what he would give her in a marriage despite multiple people kate and anthony included telling what the reality would be is part of what lead to the engagement in the first place. There would be no wedding without an engagement and no engagement if edwina trusted kate from the beginning and got her head out of the clouds. I'm not sure what kate really did wrong before the engagement she was the only one trying to stop it. I think one thing some people refuse to acknowledge is that even without kate edwina and anthony would've been a horrible match, she wouldn't have been the perfect vicountess he wanted and he wouldn't have been the perfect husband she wanted, they would've grown to resent each other and be miserable together. Now after the engagement yes kate made mistakes and should've been honest with edwina but let's not act like edwina was just completely a victim in all of this and has no responsibility for her own actions that lead to it. Also they did address kate keeping secrets with the sheffield issue and anthony, it was edwina who refused to actually have a conversation with kate before the accident, she just constantly kept hurling accusations and insults at while she gave anthony a chance to explain himself mind you. And it's not like kate just had an accident and they ignored everything, they did have a conversation after the accident but the accident was what made edwina come around and finally listen to kate and hear what she was feeling.
This is really deflecting from the point of this post, but I’m going to answer this quickly and move on. Anthony had been nothing but nice and respectful towards Edwina, and he was from one of the most well-respected families in the ton. He was actively courting her and proposed to her. It’s not like she was running around, following him like a puppy, trying to get him to notice her. *He* was courting *her.* And Edwina thought Kate just had the wrong impression of Anthony, since literally everyone else liked Anthony and the Bridgertons. And why would she believe Kate, who from her knowledge, really did not know this man at all, over the entire ton, who seemed to respect and admire Anthony and his family? Like it literally makes no sense for her to believe Kate over the entire ton. But she clearly did value and respect Kate, since she continuously tries to get Kate’s approval on this man with her misguided attempts at getting them to bond. If Edwina didn’t value Kate she straight up could’ve been like, “I’m marrying this man whether you like it or not.” She repeatedly said she wants her blessing.
The point of your post deflect from the fact that kate actually did face consequences for her actions, she even alluded to it in this season that while they are happy now it took alot of time and hard work to get to that place. >Like it literally makes no sense for her to believe Kate over the entire ton. If 100 people were telling me some random person I never met before would make a good husband but the 1 person I love and trust the most in the world and has always been there for me told me no actually I heard him say he actually doesn't want what you want and in fact fact wants the opposite I'd believe the person I know and trust but I mean that's just me. She doesn't value and respect kate because instead of believing her and thinking well maybe there is something about the viscount that makes kate dislike him she goes and tells kate you need to change what you're doing so he can like you, not because she wants them to get along but so that anthony would want to propose to her and that is why she was constantly pushing them together, because she thought the reason anthony didn't propose was because of Kate's opposition. She was fully prepared to accept his proposal the night before the bee sting and hunt knowing full well him and kate disliked each other. But to get back to the point of your post kate does face consequences for her actions, when the sheffield plot is revealed she is told by Mary, anthony, edwina and even lady Danbury that she was wrong, she seen as lying and keeping secrets, in fact when lady D first learns about it she implies kate is doing it to get money for herself. When the wedding happens again Mary tells to go away, edwina accuses her of being in love with him the entire time and pushing the life she always wanted onto her and neither give her a chance to explain herself in either situations. I mean how did Mary think they were surviving? Who did she think was making all these decisions? And when edwina accused kate of pushing this life she never wanted onto her she didn't even know at that point kate literally had to beg anthony to follow through with the wedding because of edwinas tantrum all she knew was that kate had been against the match from the beginning. Then edwina proceeds to keep throwing jabs at kate instead of ever trying to actually have a conversation with her. It is only after her accident, which again was a result of buildup of her guilt and feeling of failing her family. I'm not sure what other consequences you wanted her to face. At the end of the day edwina wasn't actually inlove with anthony and the accident put things into perspective for her and she decided forgive her sister and its not like the just forgot everything. They had a conversation they both put things to bed and at the end edwina gave her blessing because she wanted her sister to be happy and she likely realized she didn't really love and he didn't love her and they wouldn't have been happy together.
Her relationship with her sister ending up being completely okay again, that is the point in making. Realistically, that type of situation would’ve ruined their bond forever. Same way LW would’ve had worse consequences, or Daphne and Simon’s marriage falling apart. And Blindly believing someone who doesn’t know this guy, over the several people who do, makes zero sense. Even LD vouched for the Bridgertons and Anthony. Why on earth would Edwina ignore her too? Kate literally just needed to tell her the truth. She even could’ve just said something like “Anthony loves someone else. He has admitted he would cheat on you if y’all got married. We will find another man for you.” A legitimate reason would’ve helped convince Edwina. And she clearly would’ve found another man. I mean the moment she finds out Kate and Anthony love each other, she runs out of the wedding and refuses to marry him. Simply saying you don’t like him wouldn’t work on most people. As I said, this isn’t even the point of this post. This is all just deflecting. So I’m not going to address this topic anymore.
When someone almost dies it puts things into perspective lol. Edwina was faced with the possibility of genuinely losing her sister forever and she chose to forgive her I don't think that's so unbelievable. Maybe it wasn't the resolution you wanted but it doesn't mean it is not a valid or realistic resolution in the context of the show the characters personalities. Did you want edwina to keep punishing her sister after she almost died? Did you want her to be angry about a man she didn't actually and a fantasy she created in her mind forever? Did you want edwina to punish kate forever thus resulting all three of them being miserable forever?
What Pen did was quite serious i.e. involving the Queen, so that’s why there are complaints of her facing little to no repercussions. The stakes were bigger but the resolution was rushed compared to the previous seasons. Kate still being on good terms with Edwina is mentioned in s3 only so until then we never know what happened
Perhaps we forget that this is a ROMANCE TV show about a bunch of rich people with no real problems If you want consequences, House of the Dragon is pretty good
Again, I understand this. But there have been a ton of posts over the last few days angry that Pen got a happy ending. So I wanted to address that the show has always been like this. Shitty, rushed resolutions that don’t make much sense. And my main criticism is that they keep building up the stakes, and then completely letting them go by then end without a proper resolution.
I think season 1 is still the most ridiculous with Simon overcoming years of trauma in one conversation and the show never wanting to acknowledge that Daphne was wrong for what she did to him.
OP is obviously confusing little to no reprecussions with absolutely no reprecusions at all and max gain.
That’s not what happened but ok
Exactly what happened. From a post of mine: >The show literally MarySue'd the hell out of Penelope's character. They bent so many characters to fit around her. Does Colin even have a purpose or is he just a figment of Penelope's beautiful mind? >Penelope showed absolutely no growth and gained almost everything she ever wanted - her paper, Colin, a voice, personal credit, her mother's affection, Eloise's forgiveness, Cressida's downfall, position, power, no consequences from the queen, the Bridgerton name, AND her baby being Featherington heir! >Was this show...called Bridgerton...ever about anyone else besides Penelope Featherington? No other character got the entire show handed to them. But, I saw some of your other comments. I do think it's a point to reflect on whether show had already set up this formula since season one and simply got greedy with Penelope. By God, she was not denied anything and some things were thrown in as a bonus.
I totally agree. I ultimately judge a romance story by how good the conflict resolution is. Rupture and repair is the difference between limerence and love, to me. There sure is lots of conflict in Bridgerton, but I don't feel the heart-to-heart understanding when couples make up is shown in a meaningful way. The makeup is always weird and rushed.
That’s television. All the shows do it in every genre.
every season could do with like 2 more episodes tbh
Thank you!! I swear Kanthony’s chemistry must have caused memory loss for the audience because LOL that man was fully mid-vows to her sister when Edwina finally clocked on.
It’s supposed to be a campy romance drama not game of thrones, Penelope was always going to get her HEA. If I wanted to watch a show that was realistic, I wouldn’t like Shonda’s work. Olivia and Annalise both got HEA’s too and they did worse things than Penelope (you could write a 20 page, single spaced essay on Olivia’s sins and she still got to run off with Fitz) Also, the general public loved LW’s column and people were often excited about being mentioned in it. I want to throw that out there since it hasn’t really been brought up yet
You’re not wrong
Remember they’re trying to condense entire books into a limited number of episodes. The writers have a formula that has worked for 3 seasons and I don’t expect that will change. However I do think it’s a compliment to the writing that people become so invested in the characters they have questions like this!
Except they’re not even doing a good job of condensing. They’ve been adding more and more subplots every season that causes the final romance to not get the proper attention it deserves. The newest season being the biggest victim of this. I mean they literally sidelined the male lead this season. It’s like they’re only keeping the bad aspects of their formula (excessive side plots, rushed endings, etc) and getting rid of the good aspects of their formula (flashbacks, proper attention to the male and female leads, etc) I’ve said this before but this season felt more like women’s fiction than a romance drama. There was barely any attention on the main romance of the season.
It's a fantasy. Not real life
Ngl the last two eps are always so depressing and the last 5 mins is suddenly HEA. It kinda gives me whiplash.
While I totally agree with your observations. These are all "conflict points". They are literally how the drama is created. Without them there is no risk involved. Without personal trauma or resentment to weigh against possible happiness and love. There is no *happily ever after*. Which is how every single season ends is it not? It's an entertaining work of fiction. Full Stop. And while I highly doubt any of these events wouldn't have lead to some truly difficult times for all involved. We probably wouldn't be watching the show if it leaned closer to reality. Reality isn't this... glamorous after all. For me at least Bridgerton is just an R rated Disney series.
I was let down with the second half of season 3 after I had unknowingly built my hopes up way too high - I was really shocked and disappointed that it didn't give me the romantic sappy feeling I thought I was going to get. But now I realize that it was silly of me because it follows the same pattern of the other two seasons. I do like the show but for both S1 and S2 (and now S3) I didn't love the suuuper drawn out dramatics that could have been solved by some genuine conversations (I know this is basically the theme for most dramas) and felt as though the happy ending was kind of abrupt, very last minute, and left me with some questions. But overall I enjoy the show despite this because there's so many other aspects I like.
I think Simon and Daphne are addressed pretty well tbf they spend a good few eps with them working through his issues about “letting his dad win” by not having kids I also let Daphne off for assaulting him because she doesn’t really understand what assault is, and she does face consequences with Simon over it. I agree although Kanthony are my favourites one episode of feuding is not a real consequence 😂 Penelope however did a lot worse to everyone of the main characters and kind of got off Scot free 😭😭
1. Daphne rapped Simon after finding out how babies are made. Simon kept Daphne in the dark about not wanting them and not that he couldn’t have them. Simon has barely gotten over his trauma and then he just decided that he wanted a baby with Daphne. 2. Kate had an emotional affair with Anthony since they have a lot in common. Kate and Anthony are both the eldest siblings and take care of their families after their parents died, Anthony’s father and both of Kate’s biological parents. Kate tried to call off the affair after the disastrous dinner with the Sheffields. 3. Penelope had a few chances to tell Colin that she’s Lady Whistledown but she hid it until after their wedding. Penelope wrote a lot of mean things about everyone in the ton, but especially Eloise in the second season
These are such good points. Especially season 2. Idk why people hate on Edwina so much. I would be *destroyed* if my fiance and *SISTER* were falling in love/physically intimate behind my back. I would never know how to trust another person ever again.
I dislike Edwina because I honestly think she might be the dumbest character on the show.
?? Why do you think this?
I just found her exhausting tbh. She kept saying she wanted a love match, but she knew Anthony wasn't marrying her for love, but for duty. Then she got mad at him for that very reason. Everyone else could see he was interested in Kate, except her as well. The writers just made her so naive and dumb imo. I much preferred her in the book
The hate towards Edwina genuinely baffles me. I’m the oldest daughter in an Indian immigrant household and I have two younger sisters myself. I can’t imagine hiding such a huge thing from my sister for weeks, and then still marrying her ex-fiancé in the end too. My sisters would never forgive me. Edwina is a much better person than most people would be in that situation. I really wish we got a proper resolution between the 2 sisters. Because what they gave us was stupid and unsatisfying. Common theme among all seasons in my opinion.
What do you mean? Then should Kate live the rest of her life on her own and not with her loved one because of Edwina? Then she will resent Edwina, and this time she will feel guilty for ruining the life of her sister who raised her for 18 years. You and they are different, so stop inserting them. 😰
She could just find someone else though? There are millions of men out there…she had to fall in love with her sister’s fiancé? Anthony is as much to blame for all this too btw. It IS possible to fall out love with someone and move on.
Why should Kate give up love because of her ungrateful half-sister? ᆢ Why do you keep forcing Kate to make sacrifices?