ms stirling’s silly rabbit

H: We’re excited because we’re the first queer love story taking centre stage, but they’re both really interesting characters..."

M: I hope that fans, especially in the queer community, feel seen and heard and represented. And I hope that they feel celebrated because I think that every love-story is beautiful."

M: “I think Michaela like [the book guy] is very charming, you know, has a great mask up and she keeps people at bay with this pretense...

H: A lot of what we've done so far isn't in the books, so we've had quite a lot of license to play around...

as someone who did read the book because i like to know my enemy for context, many so called fans aka the vile homophobes and racists who think they’re the only ones in the world entitled to seeing themselves portrayed onscreen, are either greatly exaggerating or straight up lying about certain aspects of the plot in order to justify their bigotry. especially when they whine about the show not ‘staying true’ to john presence, the dynamic between francesca & the male michaela, and fran’s so called infertility journey.

LIE 1# 'they diminished john on the show in order to 'push michaela/ a gay 'agenda'. WILDLY UNTRUE. (but even if so, who gives a fuck lol)

john is ONLY in chapter one of the book. which opens with male cousin's (MC) pov. john, fran, and MC are discussing fran and john’s anniversary and fran asks MC for ideas. he, being in love with her, isn't all that enthused. they move on to fran telling MC he should find a wife but MC and john ask her to stop and that he’ll find one when he’s ready. then MC and fran decide to go on a walk because john is unavailable. john then mentions a headache, goes upstairs and dies. these are the majority of his lines.

CH 2: mostly focuses on fan and MC’s flirty conversation during the walk. when they get back to the house, they discover that john is dead and the rest of the chapter is fran and MC processing that.

from the beginning, which opens on MC brooding about his love for fran and how he can't have her, it's obvious that the book is way more invested in establishing the flirty back and forth between MC and fran rather than depicting any so called passionate lovestory between fran and john. because the actually love story is between FRAN AND MC. (i get get reading comprehension that an all-time low, but this is crazy the author literally spoon feeds it to you 😭)

so the claims that john has this incredibly rich personality and backstory is a lie and a lazy one. he’s little more than a plot device to build up the second love trope in the book and not even an interesting one. literally for a dollar name something about john outside of his love for his wife. you can’t, because the book doesn’t give him anything to work with lol. and if the bigots were honest with themselves they’d admit that the show gave john more depth, care and personality, by fleshing out john as a kind and dignified man who loves his wife and cousin deeply. and was actually afforded the depth and screen-time needed to depict his relationship with fran as a sweet, trusting and fond connection between two people with similar personalities that truly feel safe with each other.