I Would Trade That Dumb Hot Air Balloon For The Smyth-Smith Musical ANY DAY. What On Earth Did The Balloon

I would trade that dumb hot air balloon for the Smyth-Smith musical ANY DAY. What on earth did the balloon do for us? The Smyth-Smith musical gave us Polin, Penelope and Agatha, Peneloise, and Felicity. It even gave us insight to how Penelope had grown as LW over the years. WHY DID THEY TRADE IT FOR THE BALLOON?

I hate Marina for Marina. Penelope could’ve been nowhere near her character and not involved at all and Marina’s actions alone would be enough to make me dislike her.

That being said, Ruby ate that role up and doesn’t get enough credit for how good her acting was because people are so blinded by dislike of her character. I don’t know if she’s still acting or even wants to keep acting, but her talent is undeniable.

And that’s my 2 cents on this.

Marina Crane, Nuance, Human Decency, and Differing Opinions

Let's talk about things that might make people mad on the name of addressing important issues

Let's start with some facts

Facts:

The hate Ruby Barker got is inexcusable. She's a human being and deserves to be treated as such. She has no control over her character and her character's actions overall.

Marina is a nuanced character with an interesting and tragic story. You can hate her and acknowledge this.

Marina is a flawed character who does bad things. You can love her and acknowledge this.

You can love or hate her without taking it out on other people or being disgusting about it. Loving her doesn't give you some moral superiority OR justify her actions. Hating her doesn't give you some moral superiority OR edge.

Some of the hate directed her away is because she's black and if you're one of those people you need to do some introspection.

Now, let's get into the opinion portion of this

Personally, I hate Marina. I don't wish a horrible death on her because that's horrible. I wish her circumstances were better. In fact, had her actions been slightly to the left I'd probably like her. My hate towards her also has nothing to do with racism, unlike some people.

I hate her because I've been on the receiving end of her actions. She's emotionally abusive and does not feel the need to apologize for it. She uses actual abuse tactics, many of which I have been the target of.

I see my abusers in her in those moments, outside of those moments I enjoy her story and character. I would have loved to see her play some Lord looking for a match of convenience. Instead I got to see some scenes that are extremely triggering to me. Marina is a traumatized characters, that doesn't give her the right to add to Colin's trauma.

So many of his actions in s2 and s3 are direct results from this, she traumatized him. This pain and hurt doesn't go away easily, I've been trying for 7 years to move on and I'm still a work in progress.

I don't hate her because she got in the way of my ship (I'm a hardcore polin fan), I don't hate her for existing, or for her situation. I hate Marina because of her actions. She had other choices in gentlemen who were close to her age and might look the other way with regards to a child that wasn't their own. Let's not discuss that topic today, I only mention this in regards to her treatment of Colin and how that choice led to it.

Colin was a romantic and felt an attraction to her, she saw that and took advantage. She singled him out, she was desperate and thought the love of her life had deserted her. Part of her draw to him was his family, both connection wise and, likely, in terms of family dynamic.

She love bombed him. It's that simple. The compliments, laughing at jokes she clearly finds unamusing, and the constant attention.

She manipulated him and his feelings, she's good at playing his thoughts and feelings against him. He wants to be seen as a man and taken seriously. What better way than for him to take a wife? In her obviously. She lets him think it's all his idea. He has a hero-complex so she mentions how horrible the Featheringtons are to her. It's calculated. (Again, if she did this to someone who didn't have feelings for her, I'd be cheering for her to get that bag.)

She isolates him from his family. With a tinge of gaslighting regarding his mother's feelings as Violet wouldn't have opposed their marriage if it made Colin happy. She creates this “us against them" mentality to separate him from his family. The Featheringtons are cruel to her and his family does not approve, there is no way this could work.

Does any of this justify hating on people who love her character? No.

Does this justify hating on the actress who played her? Absolutely not, she's not her character.

Until next time 🫡

For anyone still comparing Luke Newton to Luke T. and Jonathan and insisting on creating childish ship wars and competition between three men who love and respect each other and their work. For anyone still talking shit about Polin. For anyone still spreading rumours from bullshit fake "sources" about Luke and Nicola. For anyone still calling Luke Newton ugly, talentless, unemployed and a loser and diminishing his work and who he is as a person, in any way...I say this from the bottom of my heart, grow up.

It literally costs nothing to shut up and enjoy your season and yet, here you all are still cosplaying as Temu Regina George. Seriously, move on.

Adding this pic of Luke Newton to the pile because yeah, you’re on to something.

Also I can’t be the only one that sees this? I feel like Netflix should do something with this information..

The hypocrisy around Luke vs Nicola is so glaring when it comes to age gap discourse, and we can all see it now, but Nicola tried so hard to indirectly put an end to it.

Nicola could see all the shit people were throwing Luke’s way for not only not dating her, but him getting dragged for dating a woman younger than himself, meanwhile she was dating someone else and with an even larger age gap. The whole time she was trying to send Luke support and get people off his back with posts about being his fan and then being friends and what a good guy he was because she knew it wasn’t his fault and he was taking all the heat from HER fans while she wasn’t ready to hard launch her own 24 year old boyfriend. She tried so hard to say stop without coming right and saying stop, and to protect everyone’s reputation and privacy at the same time. She really was trying her best and people let their delulu and unwillingness to just let things be ignore her.

People are still trying to lump them in together as if the age gaps are the same when Luke got dragged for a much smaller one, or blame Luke for bursting their bubble on them dating because he dared to not hide his girlfriend on a big night for himself- a night that was just as much about him as it was about Nicola. All to make excuses and justify why they righteous to hate Luke and not hypocrites at all, when it’s not ok to hate either of them because we are not entitled to their private lives!!!

This fandom owes Luke and Nicola both apologies for treating them like playthings, like dolls who’s faces you can mush together and make kiss, like public property. But they ESPECIALLY owe Luke an apology for all the hate thrown his way. This is honestly a “just say you hate Luke and go” moment, because maybe the fake fans who only like him when they think he’s dating Nicola can finally set him free from their expectations. He never deserved what happened to him, I hope this puts an end to it.

Lukolas responding to this by making it about Luke being in love with Nicola, I will block u.

Taking his hard work and the effort he put in and ignoring it is disrespectful to him and his craft. It’s rude to him as an actor to pretend like he could only pull this off because he’s in love with her. I used to want more projects with him and Nicola because I love them both so much, but now I can’t wait for him to have a project with a new actress as his leading lady so some of the fandom that doesn’t respect his work can move on and leave Luke to the actual fans of what he does on stage and screen, and not just the romantic fantasies they have of his real life.

I’m actually tired of Luke Newton not getting his full credit for the success of selling the season. This is not discounting that Nicola is a powerhouse when it comes to PR, but Luke sold that chemistry HARD during the promo run. Polin took off among non-shippers when they both came out for that first event way back on Valentine’s Day, with Luke looking hot AF and people became locked in on the way he looked at her. Every single social media post had comments about how HE looked at HER, and people getting curious because of it. That was HUGE to what made them popular, and it never let up, he helped sell their chemistry - to the degree of some fans placing unhealthy expectations on it, but that’s another story. During interviews, even when Nicola did most of the talking, Luke served up delicious fanservice by often being the one who would say the most unhinged bits that sent the fans spiraling- talking about how tiny their intimacy wear was, being comfortable naked, blushing and giggling. People loved it. On and off the screen Luke has been responsible for half the magic that’s made Polin so beloved, he deserves to be acknowledged right alongside Nic.