Source: @/bridgertonnetflix on Instagram

In one of your asks you said you had a lot of thoughts about Benedict, I'm very curious about that, care to expand yourself if you have the time or you want to? ☺️

Hi Anon! Yes, I do! I love Benedict and I have a lot of thoughts about him haha. It's definitely something I plan on touching on in my fic Royal Pains and future fics.

I did love AOFAG, I just think Benedict's book let him down. The forbidden love trope and Sophie are perfect for him and Sophie is such a strong, great character.

It's just, Benedict is very different to his siblings and being the spare, the second son, that can do a lot to a person, especially in that era. The constant feeling of not being enough-he's not the Viscount, he's just the spare. It's where a lot of his insecurities stem from, like not thinking he can paint and being heavily critical of himself stems from. I know AOFAG touched on it and these insecurities but I really think it was sort of a wasted opportunity and instead made him a bit of a dick? Instead of explaining his feelings, his emotions, his anger? Letting him have his moment? Then Sophie comes into his life and she's someone who wants him for him, not because he's the spare, she doesn't even really know who Anthony is until she starts working for Violet.

He's also the most sensitive, romantic sibling, I think. He's in a role and society he isn't suited for. It's wearing him down. He puts on this front, in the show and in the books, of being the peacemaker. He doesn't get into arguments. He's reliable. He's his mother's favourite. There's no room for him to be judgemental or angry. His role is to always be there but not be seen. He's incredibly unhappy but I think he feels he isn't entitled to be unhappy or bitter and he has more freedom than Anthony but less freedom than Colin, so he's sort of stuck. Being in Anthony's shadow your entire life would make you angry and frustrated and he never really had a moment to fully express that. Instead, he blackmails Sophie to come to London to control one of the only things he can in his life even though it's incredible unfair on Sophie and the pressure he puts her under to be his mistress is unacceptable and I wish it had been written differently.

He also fixates on Sophie in masquerade because she's the one person who made him feel more than just the spare, on that one menial boring night at the ball. He's stuck in the boring, frustrating loop in his life and she was that moment of freedom and then she's gone.

Sophie is also the one person who makes him feel like he's worth something. Who sees him for who he is and not just the second Bridgerton, which is why she's perfect for him and she also takes little shit. He needs someone to show him sometimes he's worth something. That doesn't mean his family don't love or appreciate him as Anthony/Colin/Violet heavily rely on him and the show definitely has built him a strong relationship with Eloise which I LOVE, but no one really sees him and understands him to an extent.

Him acting unfair and irritational is human behaviour but it needed to be explained more about why he's acting and feeling that way. What being the spare does to a person. Like in season 1 during the duel-he's visibly terrified as his brother may die and the last thing he would ever want is to be Viscount, but he isn't happy being the spare either. The show has more room to explore him and is dealing with Ben very well so far- with his passion for art, sexuality and his role as the second & I'm excited for season 2 as he's definitely getting a big arc to build up for season 3! We already got a few Sophie hints and we'll definitely be getting a lot more!

There's something so beautiful about Benedict wanting to be more than a Bridgerton...

Then voicing these feelings for the first time and only to Sophie, and Sophie being the first person who truly sees him for who he is...

To then Sophie getting angry because the family jokes about him and they don't seem to know him...

To finally the family understanding how unique Benedict is...

It's his love for Sophie that stood him apart 🥹🥹🥹🥹🥹

It even became THE love story of the Bridgerton family!!!

Excuse me while I cry 😭😭😭😭😭😭

I know!!!! So many people making these stupid comments. I'm sorry you feel that way, but Amy March always knew her worth. Damn you Greta 🤬

"I understand you, Amy. I'm also the second option 😞" you're also DUMB bc Amy is not the second option, she's the RIGHT OPTION

“I forgot you were rich when I said ‘Yes’. I’d have married you if you hadn’t a penny, and I sometimes wish you were poor that I might show how much I love you." Amy, who was very dignified in public and very fond in private, gave convincing proofs of the truth of her words.

the holy trilogy of fanfic: fluffy, angsty, and spicy

I absolute LOVE 💜

When he does THIS 💜

Laurie: 'I can fix her' she's a goddess of rage and chaos and she's perfect the way she is. You are just a coward.

I need to talk about Pen's "glow-up" because it's something so special to me and so relatable.

In the book, Pen can change her wardrobe only because Portia gives up on her and doesn't make an effort to dress her up anymore to attract suitors. This is sad, but it does tell you that Portia genuinely thinks her horrible taste is good. But this left Pen to figure out what SHE wanted to wear without her mother's imposition. She likes more sober colors and she actually knows what looks good on her. She's making her own style and growing up. 🥹🥹🥹🥹

I say this is relatable because I also had an overbearing mother who imposed a certain kind of clothes on me for years. Now that I am living alone, I finally buy clothes based solely on what I want. It's a freeing experience to be able to choose what you want. And I'm so here for Pen to get that.

I will also say that the colors and style were not the problem per se with Pen. It was the fact that she hated them. There's not one ball in which she doesn't complain about her outfit. Because she hated the dresses, she was uncomfortable and she transmitted that negativity. Edwina thought she looked pretty, and Pen immediately thought she was making fun of her 😭. Like Edwina said "it's about how one wears it." Kate looked radiant in yellow. Prudence and Philippa liked what their mother chose for her and it showed. But Pen hates it, so she should be able to say so and not wear it.

As we have seen in the tiny glimpses of her, she has amazing taste. Madame Delacroix helped her, but Pen also knows what looks good. And I find absolutely amazing that Pen still retains traces of Portia's style. She has sober colors, but the silhouette is much more fitted than regency dresses, and that's just Portia's influence. She's still her mother's daughter, she's still a Featherington.

Anyway, I love to see a woman getting the reins of her life. Clothes and hair may seem like a vanity issue, but they're not. I spent my whole life listening to my mother telling me that my hair was the most horrible type ever when I only needed to style it correctly. This is important for a person's confidence and Pen should be able to dress however she wants.

I love this for Pen.

Of course this is not going to solve her problems, but it's a step forward.

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You know sometimes I wish I were rich so I could spend all my money on a proper adaption of Amy And Laurie storyline 😭😭😭

I disagree. Edwina's anger comes from the frustration that Kate had put all her dreams and notions about love and made all the sacrifices without Ed ever asking her to do it.

Since ep1, we see Kate looking wistfully at herself in the dress. When Ed asks her if that's K's dress, K says the dress is for Ed. Every time K talks about love you can see how much of a romantic she is and how much she longs for romance but she doesn't think she can have it. All of that comes to a peak when K gives Ed her mother's bangles!!!! Imagine giving up your mother's heirloom!!! Ed was not her biological daughter, K's mother didn't leave those bangles for someone else's child. Kate went a step too far IMO. And Ed knew it and gave them back because she did not want to have something that was rightfully Kate's. Anthony was rightfully Kate's. When she had her speech after the wedding she literally asked "why me and not you?!" Why couldn't K marry A? Why couldn't she have the wedding and the love of her dreams? It's inconceivable to Ed that K doesn't believe herself worthy enough to love. Yes, she wanted a romance with a viscount, but not at the expense of Kate.

"Edwina basically takes it as “so you pity me and think I can’t make my own decisions?”" Well, Kate literally admitted lying to her, keeping the truth from her. Would you have liked that? She said Ed was better if she stayed ignorant. I just think of all the movies where men do that to women, they are infantilizing the women and putting them in more danger. That's why Ed is so angry. She deserved to know, everything. K treated her like a child while also pushing her to become a wife. We saw in s1 how dangerous it is to send a young woman into a marriage when she has no idea of how reality works. Ed would have never had a comfortable life with a good man because he would have never loved her. Someone else could have been happy with that arrangement, but not Ed. It would have destroyed her, especially when K was going to leave. While K warned her about A in the first 2 episodes, after that, she gave in. During the Haldi ceremony, it is K who dissuades Ed's doubts about A's lack of love. So, Ed walked down the aisle convinced that she had a love match.

All in all, it is a disastrous situation. Ed had a right to be petty after being publicly humiliated. But once the accident happened, Ed understood that a stupid fight and a man were not more important than her sister. I would have liked some recognition on her part that maybe she just got too caught up in A's courtship, the possibility of being a viscountess, and the queen's attention that she convinced herself that she loved him and she was living a fairytale. But in the end, it was all in her head.

Both sisters made mistakes because they are human. There was definitely unnecessary drama, but I still think the sisters had a lovely relationship. And frankly, none of them would have been in that situation without Anthony's stupidity.

Maybe someone can enlighten me or explain other ideas/opinions about this, but I rewatched season 2 and I just cannot see why Edwina is SO angry with Kate to the point where she keeps spurning her and making her seem like this ultimate villain that like committed arson and murder against her??? All because she had feelings for the viscount but never actually acted upon them and was going to rid herself of the situation entirely so that nothing would ever occur?? Kate explains that she did everything and sacrificed basically her own happiness so that Edwina would not have to face hardships and Edwina basically takes it as “so you pity me and think I can’t make my own decisions?” and I just don’t know how she drew that conclusion from everything Kate said 😭 I know Edwina also has a lot of pressure on her to help her family, and I get that she felt herself to be in love with the viscount and everything, but why would you still scorn Kate after she admitted that even though she did have feelings for the viscount, she was going to put that aside for your own happiness and so you could live comfortably with a good man. I know they make up in the end but I can’t help but resent the way Edwina and Kates relationship was written for the show compared to the books. It felt like an almost unnecessary and a bit forced conflict towards the end. Like, yes, Edwina had every right to be upset her wedding wasn’t what she wanted and that her love interest wasn’t actually in love with her but to make it seem like it was all Kates’s fault and no one else’s seemed a bit ridiculous in my opinion.

@pscentral event 23: arcs

"It takes people a long time to learn the difference between talent and genius, especially ambitious young men and women. Amy was learning this distinction through much tribulation, for mistaking enthusiasm for inspiration, she attempted every branch of art with youthful audacity." -- L.M. Alcott, Little Women

A lot of historical romance authors are way better than Julia Quinn, if you are looking for more family driven plots The Hellions of Halstead Hall by Sabrina Jeffries is a good option

Thanks! I'll check them out!