16th of May 1824:

The Bridgerton brothers makes a short visit to Romney Hall to “defend Eloise’s honour.”

“Brothers. He should’ve considered that. It was maybe best to avoid courting a woman with brothers. Four of them to be precise. Four. It was a wonder he wasn’t dead already”

— bridgerton book covers if they were penguin classics

bonus:

How do you think Phillip would prepare for his first Bridgerton Family function?

I imagine he is an anxious bag of beans. Not to mention the fact that half of them have tried to choke him and he doesn't know what the sisters have in store for him.

You know what's funny? This kind of reminds of when in the book the first time Phillip meets the Bridgertons, which I believe included Violet, properly, with the twins.

This first important proper meeting, meeting his mother in law for the first time, had the kids pull out their Sunday best, and you wanna know the first sight his future wife and her relatives had? Phillip was rolling on the floor with his kids. I don't remember exactly how they ended up like that. A part of me wants to say one or both of the twins inherited their daddy's hatred of formal dressage, and Phillip, wanting to make a good impression, was requiring they were properly dressed. It unintentionally got turned into a game.

It was honestly such a cute scene and one I hope they keep. Phillip honestly really just wanted to make a good impression as Eloise's fiance, and instead, he gets embarrassed. Though honestly walking in on a man of the woods type like Phillip seemingly playing with his kids, probably endeared him a little bit with Violet at least.

Now all I want is a post wedding rundown between Eloise and Francesca.

It's not like Eloise could have one with Penelope!

It's probably just me but I really think married Francesca and Eloise trade bedroom tips. They both have incredibly virile husbands, and as far as Eloise goes, all her friends are married to her brothers . So Francesca is her only outlet for trading sex tips.

I think Francesca and Eloise have these talks in which they start out trying to one up each other, with what wicked things they've done with their husbands lately and usually end up having very informative and bonding conversations instead. Francesca did it in the stables, Eloise did it in the greenhouse, so they trade advice on how to do it more comfortably, what's the best spot at Aubrey Hall to not get caught by Anthony, what position is better for a tryst in the royal museum without getting too many clothes disheveled etc

Because the fact that they both bribed a maid to tell them how babies were made bonded them in an intrinsical way forever.

Ive said it before, I hope they include that scene in s3, just Francesca and Eloise casually giving their pin money to Annie Mabel to get the scoop on what happens in the bedroom. Because it would be awesome 😎 I know in s1 they made such a big deal about Daphne not knowing about sex and it was a big part of her character arc, so a lot of people are expecting it to be Daphne who gives Francesca and Eloise the #talk, but I personally hope they stay true to the books. Mostly because I love the younger sibling hijinks of saying 'hell no we ain't ending up like Daphne' to whatever version of the talk Violet gives them, and striking out on their own tu find the #truth about sex, via the most reliable source they know: the maids

You can't tell me that Eloise and Francesca first meeting post wedding wasn't a big ' tell me everything, and I mean EVERYTHING about what went down ' tell all gossip session with all the drama and scandalous details. You only see each other a few times a year so of course you spill about how happy your husband makes you and how big his .. estate is

And that's the tea

About Theo and Eloise:

In my humble opinion:

Theo’s use as a character is to encourage Eloise to look past the surface of people. Of course he’s there to introduce her to romantic attraction, but in a very specific way, and it’s to start developing a sense of what she might like in a partner. Just because someone is perfect for you superficially does not mean they actually are, and for a character like Eloise patience and discernment are going to be very important for her storyline.

🛑 If you really really love Theo or Theloise and think they should be endgame, please stop now… 🛑

We got foreshadowing of this when Violet tries to hook Eloise up with that ton guy at the Hearts and Flowers ball. Violet picks him out for Eloise because she says he shares her rebelliousness. And that guy is rebellious and is looking for someone different, just like Violet says. But his personality is all wrong for Eloise and it crashes and burns pretty much immediately.

Theo is said to be “perfect” for Eloise. And on the surface, he might seem so. He’s a radical. He’s political. But those are his interests. Not his personality.

So let’s really look at his personality. Theo is one of the most condescending and patronizing people Eloise comes across. When he first meets her, he talks down to her, making assumptions of her based on her gender and class. Their initial banter is the stuff of meet cutes, which glosses over WHY they were bantering back and forth like that in the first place- he immediately underestimated her intelligence upon seeing her.

It’s debatable why she accepted it from him vs the other guy, but I think the biggest issue is that unlike the guy Eloise danced with at the ball, Eloise has a reason to keep talking to him despite him showing the same attitude that left her running from the ballroom floor. She needed him for something, so it was worth continuing to engage, and engaging with him for longer allows her crush to grow.

Eloise is going to be a character who needs time to really fall in love. And so she is going to need to develop the capacity for more patience for other people than her character currently has. She’s often impulsive and makes snap decisions, but Theo forces her out of that by being a character she has to work with. Which is a great thing! Through Theo, Eloise gets to explore more of her interests, which is not nothing! Credit where credit is due, she’s obviously going to want that in a partner, and I would hope any relationship they write for her would have that as an element to it. It’s valuable for her to learn that that’s possible as she starts to develop her sense of taste in men.

But he’s also not the ONE yet, which is also valuable for her.

When Eloise doesn’t kiss Theo he blows up at her. He lashes out and accuses her of being just like every other lady. Going back to the foreshadowing from the Hearts and Flowers ball, there’s some irony here- there, Eloise gets offended because the man implies that she’s Not Like Other Girls. Here, that is used against her. Theo thinks Eloise should act a certain way because she’s rebellious, but when he dismisses her as a prude, he once again reveals the superficiality of his politics when it comes to praxis.

At the time I watched S2, I hadn’t yet read the books, but I’ve read them since, and this is very similar to a scene from TSPWL, where Eloise is trying to discuss something serious with Phillip, who is trying to kiss her instead. We don’t know yet whether that scene will make it to the show or not, since show Phillip seems to have a somewhat different storyline from the books, but it was a deliberate choice to use that as a reason for Theo to lash out at Eloise in the show, and I think it’s actually about Eloise’s growth. In the similar scene in the book, she calls Phillip out for this behavior while in the show Eloise just cries. Somewhere between age 18 and 28, she won’t take it, even from men she likes, which is, frankly pretty realistic. Even the most radical feminists sometimes take BS from the “radical” first boyfriends they date as teenagers. Eloise has a realistic mix of strength and vulnerability, and Theo hit a vulnerable spot for her. She’s a feminist, but she has very little real world experience with relationships between men and women outside of her brothers, and Theo is a valuable storyline to create that experience, so that when she is ready (hopefully 10 years on, I’m team time jump Eloise), she’ll have the combination of patience and discernment necessary to find and keep the right person for her.

When it comes to Sir Phillip specifically, Eloise is interested in his words first. They write letters back and forth, they never meet in person before Phillip proposes, so we know physical attraction has nothing to do with it. When she runs off to meet him she’s partially there to assess his personality. See how he actually acts. And he’s not perfect. But even as flawed characters they ultimately compliment rather than clash. In the books we know she had been courted before and turns down multiple proposals, so she had enough experiences with men to know where she stands. Eloise was never going to settle for the first man who liked her, or even the first man she thought she might like, and in fact, so many happily married women have that story of “wow, if I had married the guy I was with at 18 it would be a disaster.” Eloise is getting that with Theo.

Because imagine Theo and Eloise long term. Imagine their verbal sparring when they’re fully on Theo’s turf, with Eloise as his wife. His condescension would get old so fast with Theo always having the upper hand. Eloise likes the buzz and mental stimulation of their banter, but ultimately she’s a woman who likes to be right, and likes to feel like she’s being heard and respected. Theo likes the novelty of a woman like Eloise, but prefers when he’s in the teachable position- giving her books to read, taking her to rallies, etc- and not when her needs don’t line up with his desires.

I won’t claim to know how they’re going to do Phillip in the show for Eloise’s season, other than what we all know the changes they’ve already made to his backstory with Marina and the twins. But I do think counting him out already by claiming Theo is “perfect” for Eloise is a pretty shallow read on what’s been seen and what’s still possible for her.

Sir Phillip was, in his own strange way, hers. The one thing she'd never had to share with anyone. His letters were bundled and tied with a purple ribbon, hidden at the bottom of her middle desk drawer, tucked underneath the piles of stationery she used for her many letters. He was her secret. Hers.

To Sir Phillip, With Love by Julia Quinn

Modern teenage Oliver and Amanda

Phillip?!?

it's always gon be FUCK phillip crane 🤞🏿

Idk who needs to hear this but hating on Sir Phillip Crane does not make you as cool and quirky as you think it does

Dear friends—

We’re excited to announce the dates for #PhiloiseWeek 2024! Join us on May 20th to May 26th to celebrate all things Philoise!!! 💜🌻

“Penelope was the one who finally figured out what you'd done" Anthony said. "We asked her to search your room, since she's probably spent more time there than any of the rest of us."- TSPWL

It makes me real sad that this super close friendship has been basically wrecked by the TV show. Don’t get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoy the show but the direction they’ve taken with Penelope’s character makes me sad when I think about how it’s going to play out with Eloise and Colin finding out her identity. In the book she doesn’t do anything half as bad as pushing Eloise to almost ruin and the Marina storyline doesn’t even exist, they made her so much crueler in the show and idk how they’re gonna come back from that.

Phillip: When Eloise walks down the street, she does not care what anyone thinks about her in any situation. She is my hero

Phillip: when I walk down the street, I need everyone to like me so much. It’s exhausting

Michael flirts with every spouse but mostly with Phillip. Because plant daddy doesn’t realize how hot he is that the merry rake has to let him know.

I like to think that even when the merry rake is flirting with him, Phillip is totally oblivious because he knows that’s just how Michael is on a general basis. And doesn’t even clue in that it’s being done intentionally. Michael putting on Phillip his best moves would be so funny because little Amanda would be obviously enamoured by the Earl of Kilmartin, while Phillip is like ‘my kid thinks you’re super hot…but also I don’t get it’ ‘Michael why are you blinking so much, is there something in your eye?’ I admit it would be very funny to see Eloise come up behind Phillip to give Michael the stink eye and warn him off. While Phillip just thinks Michael is being just as friendly as the ladies of the ton are with him.

Married to a Bridgerton, had to be. Sigh. This guy doesn't know he's also super attractive and Eloise would like to keep it that way, thank you very much.

Give me playful, flirtly Benophie!!!!

I think I have to stop making fun of Gregory’s inability to shoot? Because I actually think none of the Bridgerton men can shoot? And I actually think Gregory might be better than all 3 of his brothers…??

In To Sir Philip With Love:

Philip hits the target the closest better than Anthony, Benedict, Colin. But then Gregory as the youngest goes after him and matches Philip’s shot

And then in On the Way to the Wedding:

So all 4 Bridgerton women can out shoot Gregory by his own admission.

Ergo if Gregory was a closer shot than Anthony, Benedict and Colin; but worse than Daphne, Eloise, Francesca, and Hyacinth. Is it just that Bridgerton men cannot shoot for shit?

For ages I have been slandering Gregory as the worst shot in the Bridgerton family but actually he’s not? He just made fun of himself so much I believed it?! But apparently evidence says otherwise…

Anyway I now think Anthony is the worst shot in the Bridgerton family.