UNPOPULAR OPINION TIME: I.... don’t actually think the love triangle choice is that bad. Or at least anything to really worry about. Here’s why:
First of all, all the press so far has made it very clear that the love story here is Kanthony. Even in this latest article, most of it is about how good for each other those two are. This is still a Kanthony-focused season. All the passion is Kanthony.
I actually think giving Anthony and Edwina a bond is a good idea??? One of the things that never quite sat well with me in the book was Anthony’s kind of... benign indifference to her. Sure he likes her fine and doesn’t act badly to her, but during their courtship he doesn’t really spend much time thinking about her feelings or needs, even though her entire future is in the balance. He thinks about his own needs way more than hers. Later on, he treats her like a sister, but while he’s trying to woo her, none of it is really about her. Having them find some things to bond over and a few things in common makes that whole situation feel less squicky to me. He doesn’t love her, of course, but having there be reasons to believe this could be, at least, a nice friendship/partnership that suits both of them on some level, makes Anthony look like... less of a dick lol. It makes for some better tension between - what CVD stated is the theme of the season - head vs heart when the ‘head’ option is actually kind of okay.
In the quote about Edwina’s feelings, I feel like people are overlooking an important word: naive. She says Edwina has a naive love. To me that sounds like she means a crush that Edwina naively believes runs deeper than it does. And why shouldn’t she have a crush? She is young and inexperienced in the ways of the ton. A handsome viscount shows up with flowers and tries to woo her and maybe they bond over their sense of duty and family. A crush feels pretty natural! Maybe she believes it’s more than that.... until she sees the sparks between her suitor and her sister, perhaps? And realizes otherwise? Obviously this is speculation, but that... just doesn’t seem like a catastrophic plotline to me. It also means spending more time with Edwina’s feelings than we do in the book, which I’m all for. And since she’ll probably get her own suitor, I can’t imagine anything she feels for Anthony is going to last long. Maybe she’ll get her own revelation about what real love is.
The way Kate and Edwina’s bond in the show is being described - that they are each other’s top priorities and that they are soulmates... I doubt some dude is going to really get between them in a serious way.
All of this probably only concerns the first few episodes anyway.
Obviously you don’t have to agree with my opinions or like these choices. And it remains to be seen how well they’re executed in the actual show but my point is I just don’t think there’s cause for panic. It’s a couple sentences about Anthony and Edwina versus PILES OF STUFF about Kanthony. And we haven’t even seen a trailer yet!
