Ramblings of a Regency Fantasy Fanatic

But I am HAUNTED by the way Eloise looked at Pen all through season 3. 

I cannot get it out of my head how much it looked like a woman in love with her best friend and having to cope with the fact that what she thought were platonic feelings are actually romantic ones. And realizing that the main reason she wanted them to be spinsters together was because she was in love with Pen and couldn’t bear to see her marry another.

Benedict has known Anthony's gay for years and often covered for him at school when Anthony slipped out for any rendezvous with another guy.

Colin, dear sweet oblivious Colin, has no clue.

Eloise knows, of course. She and Benedict have discussed how bad Anthony is at hiding it.

Daphne knows, but she thinks she's the only one in the family who knows. She assumes Benedict probably knows, but she doesn't have the highest opinion of Benedict's intelligence (unfairly so, but that's how siblings are).

A list:

Anthony's ridiculous possessiveness over Daphne isn't about DAPHNE, it's about SIMON

Jonathan Bailey did a great job playing a straight guy but did you NOTICE THE LOOKS BETWEEN HIM AND SIMON, because I sure did

Anthony's bizarre insistence that Daphne MUST NOT marry Simon makes MORE sense if he's gay and in love with Simon (yes, yes, yes, I know it's because Julia Quinn was writing the modern and very historically inaccurate Brother's Best Friend trope, shush)

Anthony's whole thing with the opera singer/Sienna was comphet, with him trying so hard to be straight for his family

Aside from the fact that Daphne is an emotionally manipulative immature teenager, the Prince would have been a much better choice for her than Simon was anyway! Leaving Simon free for Anthony. ;)

If Daphne had figured out early on that Anthony and Simon were in love with each other and decided to act as their cover, it makes the ENTIRE season 1 plot of fake dating make WAY more sense. (Because NEITHER the Bridgerton books nor the Netflix show portrayed the Fake Dating trope in a way that made ANY sense historically. Or even non-historically. It was so limiting.)

Bridgerton the show did better than the Bridgerton books at showing us a family that cared about each other despite disagreements, and frankly, I give a lot of the credit for that to the actors who played the Bridgertons seemingly getting along really well offset and that transferring to onscreen.

But as someone from a big family that cared about each other (plus a pretty caring extended family on one side), it was cringe-inducing to read the Bridgerton books and watch a lot of the "family" moments on the show. And I've tried a lot of other Regency-family series besides the Bridgertons and every time it's cringe-inducing. (Same thing with fantasy series that try to portray a big family.)

And when you read letters from the Regency period, it's pretty obvious that (OF COURSE) just like now, there were families who loved each other and cared about each other and actually supported each other and families who couldn't stand each other.

Little ways Bridgerton did give us this:

Benedict and Eloise smoking together in the garden.

The 3 older boys taunting each other from time to time.

Anthony eventually supporting Benedict's love life.

Anthony supporting Benedict's career (TERRIBLE way to do it, but Anthony is a disaster, so no surprise lol).

Gregory and Hyacinth acting super typical for their age and being adorably at each other's throats one minute and co-curious besties the next. (Okay, 'besties' might be an overstatement.)

Ways Regency fiction/fantasy can do so much better:

Siblings who have regular co-conspirator relationships. Imagine if Colin and Daphne regularly teamed up against Anthony.

The Intelligence Grapevine that almost always exists in a family with more than a few kids, unless they're hugely separated in age and super hate each other.

Brothers! Who! Support! Their! Sisters'! Choices! (I need to write a whole post on this lol.)

Sisters being just as protective of their brothers not getting bad girlfriends/wives as the brothers are of their sisters not getting bad husbands.

.....so this list is definitely going to get long enough to require its own post lolll.

So yes, anyway, I just want big families in Regency fiction portrayed better!