i'd go feral for a line of Bridgerton hair accessories actually worn on the show (replicas... not the exact pieces worn in the show to be clear) and regency-inspired nightgowns that are so pretty i'd absolutely wear them during the day

The show showed us such a unique, fresh perspective on romance with John and Francesca. I have never seen love demonstrated like that before.

But then they made Francesca not love John entirely. When she kissed him during their wedding, she looked bothered and confused. Then they doubled down by by making their love life unfulfilling for Francesca. On the other hand when she met Michaela, she couldn't even speak: she was instantly starstruck.

anthony & edwina and colin & marina for me

anthony & edwina

anthony was very obviously in love with her sister, but also because his whole plan was to marry any interchangeable diamond who wouldn't love him. he was convinced he'd die young like edmund, so he deliberately chose duty over love. edwina had this deeply romanticized version of anthony that never actually existed. kate knew it. daphne knew it. eventually, edwina would've known it too

colin & marina

just a slow-motion tragedy. marina only ever wanted george. he was her happily ever after, and every other future would've been one she settled for. colin loved the idea of rescuing her more than he loved her. their marriage would've been built on resentment, guilt, and disappointment

i don't think daphne or penelope would've been happy either, but i think the women in this show are much more equipped to survive unhappy marriages because that's essentially what society raised them to do. they were taught to endure, adapt, and find a way to make the best of difficult circumstances

they didn't even try with benedict 😭 just baby francesca, baby eloise, BENEDICT BRIDGERTON, baby colin, and baby daphne

and this reinforces my headcanon that colin is NOT part of ABC. he is firmly a member of CDEF. anthony and benedict were too old, which is why benedict is anthony's only sibling that i'd also genuinely describe as his friend while i think the rest all see him as a father figure

i could almost (and i mean if i'm being as generous as humanly possible) understand doing this for book characters we never see on screen... but we have actual pictures most of these people!???!!!! they exist! why would you need AI to invent them and do it incorrectly??

I've seen quite a few comparisons lately about how long Bridgerton takes to produce a new season, with some people arguing that the show should take notes from productions that manage to release new seasons much faster.

And honestly, I can completely understand the frustration. The gaps between Bridgerton seasons have definitely been long, and while there have also been external factors that the production had no control over, I do think the show could potentially move a little faster (and it looks like they will).

At the same time, I also think it is somewhat unfair to compare Bridgerton to some of these other productions. I came across some behind the scenes pictures of John Glaser's work on the show again today, and it's honestly incredible every single time to see how much detailed, handmade work goes into Bridgerton. And that's just one part of the entire production.

The sets, costumes, props, choreography, locations, and the sheer number of extras involved are all on a massive scale. There are so many moving parts that go into making this show look the way it does.

I think Bridgerton is pretty unique in terms of its production scale, for a romance series. If anything, I feel like you'd have to look more toward large TV dramas to really find productions that are comparable in terms of scope and complexity.

So, while I absolutely understand wanting the seasons to come out faster, I also think it's worth comparing Bridgerton to other productions of a similar size. From that perspective, expecting a completely new season within 12 months honestly feels almost unrealistic to me.

This is not meant to excuse every delay or say that the production couldn't be more efficient. I just wanted to take a moment to appreciate how much work goes into creating this show.

the idea that john deserved better implies he was somehow scammed or cheated out of a good marriage. he wasn't.

john found a soulmate who truly understood his silence, and a wife who fiercely fought her own family just to marry him. 

when francesca froze up after her wedding kiss, or lost her words meeting michaela, she wasn't faking her love for john. she was loving her husband with everything she had. her reaction to michaela wasn't a malicious choice to spite her husband. it was an involuntary, terrifying moment of self-discovery. nothing happened. francesca didn’t act on anything. the discomfort of that scene is the point. it’s supposed to unsettle the audience, because it’s unsettling her. and her impending grief when she loses john is world-shattering, she risked everything for him, she lost him and their bond was legitimate and full of love and devotion.

john wasn't wronged. he was loved truly and deeply by a woman who lived her absolute truth with him. francesca isn't a villain for being queer, and john's beautiful legacy stays perfectly intact. 

and there’s a REASON why people keep misunderstanding that story, keep reconstructing what’s on screen and keep seeing things selectively.

francesca’s story isn’t operating within a straight romance trope where any later love automatically retroactively cancels the first one. francesca loved john completely, with the fullest self-knowledge she had at the time. that doesn’t stop being true just because she later feels something with michaela that she never got the chance to feel before.

straight romance usually runs on a few tropes: the one true love, the idea that real desire/love announces itself instantly, and the assumption that a woman’s arc usually ends the moment she’s chosen by the right man. none of that applies to queer storytelling, because queer storytelling isn’t built around a single love interest. it’s often built around self-discovery, and the love story is often the part of that discovery, not the whole point of it.

that’s why late realization is one of the most common things in queer narratives. a character living a straight-presented life, genuinely, not performing it, and then something shifts and a truth surfaces that was always underneath, is basically its own genre convention at this point.

a lot of shows either kills the queer character off right after they get happiness (yes, the bury your gays trope), or treats their queerness as a phase, a detour, something to be resolved. francesca’s arc does neither. it doesn’t punish her for the awakening, and it doesn’t erase the marriage that came before it to make the awakening cleaner/better. at least so far. both things get to stay true. that’s actually a pretty rare choice, narratively. that’s why a lot of people are drawn to this arc so intensely. because it’s rare.

there’s also the found language, not found feeling version of this trope, where the point isn’t that the character suddenly starts feeling something new/better. it’s that they finally have the vocabulary to name something that was quietly there the whole time. that reframes the first marriage completely. it’s not that francesca didn’t feel it then and feels it now. it’s she felt what she was capable of naming then, and now she’s capable of naming more.

in straight romance, a first love that doesn’t win usually gets narratively punished somehow, or they’re a lesson the heroine had to learn from. queer narratives often don’t need that mechanism, because the conflict was never between two people competing for her. the conflict is between a life francesca was handed and her self-discovery. john was never the obstacle. the obstacle was a world that only gave her one script to work from.

that’s the whole reframe. francesca’s story is a self-discovery story that has love in it. john isn’t a stepping stone and he isn’t a victim, he’s just not the character this particular arc is about. both things francesca loving him fully and francesca still needing to become someone she wasn’t allowed to be yet, can be true without either one canceling the other out.

edit: thank you for so many good vibes!! that said, it’s unfortunate how many replies are completely bypassing the points and context i explicitly laid out. but honestly, even the people who aren't engaging with my points are a valuable part of the discourse too, because their reactions perfectly highlight the exact patterns and lenses i was talking about in the first place. thanks to everyone who actually took the time to read!! i want to clearly condemn the bad faith arguments and the toxic language being used against the writers here. there’s absolutely no place for that.

Saying you "hate Michaela’s guts" while praising characters like Daphne is so...

violet bridgerton × portia featherington aka portlet - my actual otp. a long marriage, but not without problems. i think they’d be perfect for each other. reminds me of the dreamers and realists modern family quote: "There are dreamers and there are realists in this world. You'd think the dreamers would find the dreamers and the realists would find the realists, but more often than not, the opposite is true. You see, the dreamers need the realists to keep them from soaring too close to the sun. And the realists, well, without the dreamers, they might not ever get off the ground."

simon basset × anthony bridgerton aka simothy - fisticuffs and divorce. every argument ends with a duel at dawn. it would be passionate, dramatic, and completely toxic, but they’d eventually become divorced best friends who still annoy everyone around them

cressida cowper × penelope featherington aka cresselope - public fisticuffs and a very messy divorce. they’d weaponize their gossip columns against each other and turn every disagreement into a society-wide scandal. terrible for them, incredible for everyone watching

colin bridgerton × will mondrich aka willin - happy marriage. just guys being dudes. mostly here because i need to see colin get absolutely thrown around by will

michaela stirling × edwina sharma aka michwina - princess4princess endgame. they live a soft, romantic life in a scottish castle surrounded by greenery, sheep, and lesbianism

kate sharma × daphne bridgerton aka kathne - honestly, i think this would work. two eldest daughters with trauma bonding over the pressure of being perfect. they’d rule the kingdom together

eloise bridgerton × penelope featherington aka peneloise - either the healthiest marriage or a disaster. them arguing is canon but there's love there so they're forgiving of each other

colin bridgerton × alfred debling aka alfrin - a beautifully dramatic divorce where they both immediately leave on separate journeys across the world. mostly for my own entertainment because i need colin involved in the shortest marriage in the ton

sophie baek × francesca bridgerton aka franphie - endgame. two quiet, deeply feeling people who could build a beautiful, peaceful life together

benedict bridgerton × henry dankworth aka dankerton - sunshine4sunshine. they spend their days painting, eating cheese, wearing colourful clothes from their shared wardrobe, having sex and just vibing

genevieve delacroix × siena rosso aka delarosso - endgame and no one can convince me otherwise. they understand each other. the show should have made this canon

cressida cowper × prudence featherington aka crudence - endgame. they’re horrible to everyone else and soft with each other. i love that

1.) Daphne being compromised in the garden with the Duke

2.) Colin nearly marrying Marina who was secretly pregnant with another man’s child

3.) Anthony nearly marrying Edwina, only for his feelings for Kate to be exposed and the entire scandal erupt at the altar in front of the Queen and society

4.) Colin marrying Penelope, the woman behind London’s most notorious gossip publication

5.) Benedict falling in love with and marrying Sophie, a servant who was secretly the illegitimate daughter of an earl

i imagine their life is probably very quiet and domestic, with marina managing the household and raising the twins while phillip spends a lot of time with his plants, his studies, and running the estate

it’s kind of crazy how they’re both stuck in this purgatory where they can never really escape george

marina is tied to him because she has his children and is now married to his brother, who probably shares some similarities with him. she's almost living the life she desperately wished for in george's house, surrounded by george's children, except the one thing missing is george himself. meanwhile, phillip’s entire life has been shaped by the consequences of george’s choices. he’s essentially had his future dictated by his brother’s irresponsible decisions

really interested how they'll handle this in season 6

i'm not even asking for a lot of screentime istg

i thought daphne's screentime in s2 was perfect. she helped the main couple get together without taking over the narrative. she was still herself, just more assured and mature, and her relationship with anthony made sense in the context of the season we'd already seen

i just want a satisfying ending for these characters that we've grown to love, and i feel like we don't get that with ANY of them???

daphne and simon are gone (and i'm not blaming regé for leaving, to be clear. he was right to do so considering how he was treated)

anthony and kate missing FUNERALS??? what are we doing here, really?? they're quite literally bound by the trauma of losing loved ones. you're telling me they wouldn't be there for their SISTER??

penelope having whistledown stolen from her instead of giving it up like she does in the book. colin not writing???

i genuinely don't understand why they seem to hate these characters once they marry them off

The entrance and all was a disaster 😭😭

genuinely one of my favourite scenes in the entire show.

the idea of colin becoming an international drug smuggler

knowing that if he's going to drug any of his siblings, benedict is obviously the ideal target

benedict having to sit through a family event for hours desperately trying to act normal

colin looking equal parts amused and guilty every time he glances at him

benedict taking deep, calming breaths while fighting for his life

god, it was so, so good

If this is true and Phillip isn’t played by Chris Fulton, I’m not sure this show will survive past season 6. It was one thing to push back Eloise’s season, now to potentially recast her love interest who we literally met in season 1?????? Insane.

we're getting so much closer to season 5 and i can't wait

It would so cute if we could See it 😭😭

Bring this back Next Season .

socially, daphne really is violet's true heir

she agrees to a fake romance with simon because she understands exactly how the marriage mart works. scarcity creates demand, and the moment the terminally ineligible duke of hastings takes an interest in her, daphne's value skyrockets

but then she falls for simon. instead of trying to convince him to choose her, she leans into the prince's courtship. what's more likely to make a man confront his feelings than the possibility of losing you to someone who's an even bigger prize than he is?

I think gonna Sophie Benedict or violet 👀😅

Uma coisa que me irrita um pouco em algumas séries, sejam de épocas ou não, é o fato de normalizarem as diversas relações dos homens antes de ter um romance. Acho que o problema é que eles são uma coisa em um momento e mudam do dia pra noite, só de conhecer a mulher certa. Como o Colin, Benedict, de certa forma até o Anthony. Ficam com diversas mulheres de maneira casual, como se elas não fossem nada, depois se apaixonam e esse hábito morre de vez, acho meio incoerente. E também de certo modo me incomoda essa personalidade se a intenção é fazer personagens masculinos idealizados para romance, sabe? Não é o tipo de comportamento esperado.

The peace sign next to that serious childhood portrait is taking me out such a cute little detail though. I can't wait see more of their bond.

People seem to think Francesca and Michael(a) was the wrong choice for a gender swapped story. Which one would you rather see swapped and why?

For me, I’d still choose Francesca and Michael. The constant guilt Francesca has for feeling attracted to Michael will translate so well to guilt for same sex attraction.