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Philoise ReWrite
Thinking about how Shonda could tweak Eloise’s story to make it fit the world of Bridgerton the Show better, and now I’ve made myself obsessed with an idea I know we won’t get.
Make Eloise a governess.
Since show!Eloise has more of a feminist independence streak, I’d love it if her desire to do more with her life plus all of her talk of girls needing education inspires her to work, and become a governess. Eloise always talks of hating her society, and the big critique of her character is that she doesn’t do anything to really reject it. A woman of her station becoming a governess would be a step down, but would be a positive direction in her journey to be who she wants to be. Book Eloise was content with being a spinster, but show Eloise wouldn’t be content with relying on her brothers or being stuck in the house her whole life.
With Marina dead, Phillip would be in charge of finding a governess to teach the children, and Eloise would write to him to inquire about the job. Since Eloise and Marina are no longer cousins in the show, maybe Eloise hears about the job from Pen, and that’s how they begin their correspondence. For me, this solves one issue I have from the book where Eloise does not know her cousin had children, Philip never tells her in his letters, and she’s surprised when she arrives. Due to how Phillip and Marina got married, I feel like his show character wouldn’t treat taking on the responsibility of becoming a stepparent so lightly anyway. Show Eloise knows there will be children AND that’s she’s going to mind them on purpose. Instead of using her being surprised as a plot point, they can lean into the fact that Show Eloise has a lot of trauma around the idea of being a mother. Season 1 has her remind daphne about how terrifying it was to overhear hyacinth’s birth and violet almost dying, and season 2 shows daphne singing to her in Anthony’s flashback of the night. I see people saying all the time how Eloise criticizes motherhood so it sucks that her story basically makes her a mother immediately, but in the show it’s so clear that there’s trauma there, and each season so far has dealt with trauma left behind from childhood. This is Eloise’s.
As for the rest of it, I think everything else works for show Eloise- falling for someone over letters before she meets them makes sense for a girl who felt such strong kinship with lady whistledown in season 1 and who’s main resentment of the ton is feeling like she’s being stared at and appraised when she dresses up for a ball. Eloise would be secretive about her letters because she’d want to prove she could do the job before giving her brothers the chance to try to talk her out of it. Instead of Eloise throwing caution to the wind and running away because a man proposed to her by post, she’d be running away because she is looking for independence in a career, but subconsciously is attracted to the potential employer writing the letters. A conflict about independence vs depending on someone would be a great way to frame the season for show Eloise. And instead of giving up one for the other, imagine if Phillip- who had to give up his formal education when his brother died- encourages her to teach/be taught? Opening a village school together would give them more to bond over than her just indulging his love of botany.
But if I can’t watch nice things, maybe I can read nice things, so if anyone has a fanfic like this let a girl know!
The people who are super convinced that Bridgerton is a flop or that Jess Brownell is going to be fired because they personally hated S3…you know we can see the ratings right? Like we can see that it didn’t flop. They’re not firing Jess because you didn’t like Penelope’s lipstick.
Bridgerton opinion that will get me cancelled
As a Black woman who looks more like Marina than I EVER will look like Penelope, seeing people use Penelope being white and Marina being Black/mixed as an argument to side with Marina and act like she was the victim of Penelope’s racism always makes me itch. Y’all act like stopping her from baby trapping a man is a hate crime and it’s not.
There are issues with how Bridgerton has incorporated racially diverse casting and forgotten the real world implications of the decisions they’ve made, but none of that is an excuse for Marina’s behavior, and I’m not siding with her just because the person who called her out as white, and it’s not “racist” for Polin to be my favorite couple. I can see why making Marina a single unmarried pregnant teen as a Black woman makes people inclined to side with her, but in-universe none of that holds weight, especially when Marina’s nasty behavior has equally been directed at another Black woman (madame delacroix). If your argument boils down to “you just don’t like Marina because she’s Black” miss me with that. It’s weak and it’s a lie. I dislike her because she was wrong to do what she did to Colin (who would not have been fine and I’m also tired of him being collateral damage in this dumb Penelope vs Marina argument), and showed NO remorse about the damage she did to him, even when she had a year to reflect. I don’t feel bad she got called out for it. She might be the victim of society, she might even be the victim of George Crane, but she is in no way the victim of Penelope, who saw the harm she was doing and put a stop to it.
And while I’m on it- let’s talk about how this inevitably gets pulled into calling Penelope fans “self-inserts” for a White character. People- unless you are the author who is writing the character, a character cannot be your self insert. The only thing they can be is relatable to you. And any character can be relatable for any reason. Example- Julia Quinn, a white woman, wrote every character in Bridgerton. Shonda Rhimes, a Black woman, read Penelope’s story and found her relatable. In producing the show, Penelope is Shonda’s self-insert, but the audience can only find her relatable. Characters are SUPPOSED to be relatable. That’s not a flaw. You relate to Marina which is why y’all hate Penelope so bad, and I gotta PRAY it’s just because of race, because if it’s the baby trapping y’all relate to somebody needs to get Maury Povich out of retirement because there are a lot of men out there who are NOT the father.
Me whenever the Marina vs Penelope conversation is reduced to Black vs white.
Shonda knew what she was doing when she cast him. He could stay on Bridgerton for all 8 seasons and I’ll watch him age like a fine wine.
Black male lead. Indian female lead. Big female lead. Bi male lead. Lesbian love intrest/lead. ASL side characters. Disable side characters. Black leads as one of most important characters (Lady Danbury, Queen, Anderson, John). Indian side characters. Feminists.
Shonda Rhimes and Julia Queen, you'll be the love of my life forever. No show has it all yet Bridgerton exist.
COREY MYLCHREEST as KING GEORGE III | QUEEN CHARLOTTE: A BRIDGERTON STORY (2023)
“You are everything I never knew I wanted. I cannot live without you.”
— Private Practice
Dearest readers, prepare yourselves for a new chapter of scandal. Bridgerton Season 3 is coming...
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