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Violet to Colin: "You're one of my most sensitive children."

The fandom: "How can she say that! Anthony, Benedict bla, bla bla..."

Colin is ONE of her most sensitive children. ONE, just ONE of them. And she's right.

ONE OF HER MOST SENSITIVE CHILDREN

He was the only one who indulged Violet and let her introduce him to debutantes in s1, while Anthony fucked his mistress and Ben went to orgies.

He was a complete gentleman with Marina. AND defended her when Anthony implied something about her.

And when he learned the truth, he confessed that he would have married her if she had told him the truth. 🥹

He danced with Pen after Cressida bullied her.

He wrote dozens of letters that his family of 8 could not care to respond to often. There are 8 of them!

He worried about Ben in s2 and supported him on his application to the Academy.

He learned the truth of Jack Featherington and instead of simply leaving, he did something about it. Not only did he help the Featherington family, but he saved other lords from being scammed.

He apologized to Will, explained why he acted rudely AND made amends to repair the damage by bringing men to Will's club.

He returned with gifts for everyone, but he seemed particularly thoughtful to his sisters and mother. A perfume for Hyacinth, music for Francesca, and a book for Eloise 🥹. Violet was so moved by his gift and here we have a lovely headcanon on the watch:

Then with Pen...

He runs after Pen, despite other men wanting to know about his adventures.

He acknowledges his mistake and immediately tries to apologize to Pen in the Four Seasons Ball.

The next day, he comes back with a heartfelt apology.

Then, he offers her help, despite the risk of scandal and embarrassment for him. He knows Pen has no one else.

He goes to see Pen at night to make sure she's ok. And when she asks him for a kiss, he does it so sweetly.

He is brave enough to leave the men who just want to know about his sexual life.

HE WAS BRAVE ENOUGH TO ASK, as soon as he put himself together and understood his feelings. He didn't play jealousy games like others, he went and put his heart on the table. He didn't even know about Pen's feelings and he risked it!

Some extracts from Colin's journals show that his family is always in his thoughts.

You can see why Violet, as the good mother that she is, can tell how sensitive he is.

Colin travels during the summer and comes back during the season to be with his family. It angers me that people think he's selfish for this when Benedict also abandons the family to fuck.

And yet, both Colin and Ben are sensitive. BOTH OF THEM, Francesca too. I wouldn't call Hyacinth or Gregory sensitive right now, and before s3, I wouldn't include Eloise either.

Anyway, I needed to get this out because I am so fucking tired of Kanthonies and Benophies making tantrums about this line.

I'm sure when s4 comes, we are going to see a moment between Violet and Ben where she acknowledges how amazing he is and everything he has done for the family. But not now, because this is COLIN'S SEASON.

[ryoryeonggu]

Let’s talk about why Colin Bridgerton is THE BEST Male Lead.

He actually went Pen less then an episode after he realizes he’s in love with her. IMO while the kiss did make him reevaluate his feelings, the fact he is actually in love with her does not click for him until that ball at the end of episode 3. We literally see the moment in clicks. He talking to the other debutant about his hero moment and he catches Pen’s eye and he realizes the reason he was able to have the courage to save the day is because it was Pen in danger and he would do anything for her. He then goes to Violet for advice and when she tells him he needs to have the courage to ask he walks towards Pen with purpose. Yes he let self out get in his way for a minute, but still before the end of episode 4 he has gone full unhinged to get the girl. It was a really BOLD move to interrupt an expected proposal but he did not care. He was a man on a mission and he delivered.

Colin literally said fuck societal norms. That man’s entire arc is about him feeling uncomfortable with the role of a typical man in that era. Yes he does play along for a while but that’s speech to those annoying dudes after he’s unable to do what society expect him to do in a brothel was so refreshing for a male lead in a regency Romance. Colin is still super young but he’s already over the Cavalier Way men regard sex. He wants love. He wants connection. He wants his sexual encounters to matter.

That man is literally the king of consent. Not only does he wait for her to consent to them moving from kissing to more he also gives her the space to reject him after his confession. And let’s talk about the confession. I’ve seen this talked about and a lot of places, but it’s still so amazing and so true… the reason that confession is so good is because it’s not the declaration made out of anger like we’ve seen in the previous seasons. Newts managed to make the confession so soft yet screaming with passion and desperation. 

I’ve seen a lot of complaints about how Colin did not yearn enough, but I feel like what people don’t realize is Colin has been a yearning for this for seasons. No he didn’t realize that Penelope could give him what he was yearning for, but that boy has always been yearning for love acceptance and connection and he’s finally realized that Penelope is the one that can give him all of those things. It’s literally the most beautiful climax that has been seasons in the making

[ryoryeonggu]

Okay, let me just say this because I don't think some people fully understand just how important this season and these two specific characters, are for some of us.

I think the main reason why this season has had such a huge success is because this one, like Nicola said herself, is for the wallflowers.

This season is for all of us who can see ourselves in either Colin or Pen or both. It's for those of us who spent half our lives feeling invisible, never good enough, or pretty enough or funny or smart enough, just never enough. For those of us, who prefer to lose ourselves in a book because real life and real feelings are just too hard to deal with sometimes. For those of us who convinced ourselves that no one will ever truly see and understand us and love us for who we are, so we obsess over fictional characters and their love stories and just imagine what it would feel like to be loved like that. For those of us, who never know what to say and feel so awkward after taking part in a conversation we didn't have time to prepare for. For those of us who always feel inadequate and uncomfortable in our own skin, who take every compliment as a joke and who constantly wonder at the back of our mind if people are just making fun of us when they're being nice. This season is for those of us who felt we had to hide, repress or destroy any part of us that made us seem weak or weird, just so we could mold ourselves into whatever people needed or wanted us to be. It's for those of us who learnt that you will only be good enough when everyone likes you and have spent our lives trying to make everyone happy, always thinking of how our actions and our words are perceived and worring about making a good impression. This season is for those of us who never quite felt like we really belonged anywhere, so we tried to escape from people and places only to realize that what we were actually trying to escape from all along, was ourselves and what we were feeling.

This season is for the losers, the awkward ones, the invisible ones, the hurt ones who keep a mask on, because no one told them it was okay to take it off. The nerds, the wallflowers, the ousiders. This season is for us. And that's why it's resonating with so many people. Because it means so, so much to see someone like yourself, represented in media; and not only that, but also seeing these chracters grow and step out of their comfort zone, becoming more confident, accepting their own flaws and each other's and falling in love and being loved back; finally being soft and tender and being seen and understood and cared for, after feeling so lost for so long. It means the world.

And all I can say is: I hope we learn to just let ourselves be, someday, just like they did.

[ryoryeonggu]

WARNING: may cause intense yearning, an inability to stop thinking about a certain woman, and waves of jealousy

[ryoryeonggu]

Colin Bridgerton & outfits in Season 3 Part 1 (requested by anonymous)

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Colin was nervous.

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Colin Bridgerton: not one for wasting time.

[ryoryeonggu]

I am SO happy to see everyone is defending Nicola Coughlan after that terrible fatphobic article came out, but I also can’t help but feel sad that this same level of support is not extended to Luke Newton.

Some people on Twitter were insulting Luke in order to defend Nicola. The article kept saying how Nicola “wasn’t hot enough” for Luke (obviously untrue and blatantly fatphobic), and people saw that as a green light to start calling Luke too ugly/boring for Nicola instead. Luke didn’t write the damn article, why the hell are you attacking him?!

This same lady claims she promotes body positivity btw:

The botox thing has been disproven multiple times. That’s just what his face looks like (and even if he did get botox, this level of cruel bullying would still be unwarranted).

Tweets and tiktoks go viral EVERY DAY making fun of Luke’s face, and yet nobody is rushing to his defense or pointing out how messed up that is. Just today I came across a tiktok posted 1 day ago that had 700,000+ likes comparing him to a character I won’t even say because it was just very mean. And the comments in the video were SO dehumanizing, talking about him like he’s not a real person with feelings, it genuinely left me in shock (“i knew he reminded me of something” “this explains why im scared of him”). Some people in the replies to the video were saying that it made their day/made them laugh super hard, and some were even tagging Nicola and asking her to show Luke as if the video wasn’t literally making fun of his appearance.

I know literally every actor/celebrity gets made fun of and bullied, especially on Tiktok and Twitter, but this all feels like too much. Luke Newton seems like such a kind person, so it’s hurting my heart to see this level of bullying directed toward him. If you can understand that bodyshaming Nicola is wrong, you can understand that bodyshaming Luke (and anyone else) is wrong too.

And yknow I wish positive videos got as much attention as negative ones, because I’ve seen plenty of tiktoks and tweets praising Luke, but of course those don’t blow up nearly as much as the bad ones.

[ryoryeonggu]

Today I'm thinking about how so much of Colin's narrative speaks to the neurodivergent experience of having to pretend to be someone else as a survival mechanism. Of the pressure in masking because your real, authentic self is rejected or ignored: too weird, too quiet, too loud, too gullible, too soft-heart, too. . .everything. Too anything. And at the same time, not enough.

Colin gets excited about his travels, about his hyperfixations, talks and talks and talks about them, and no one cares. So, Colin shuts up. Colin writes letter after letter, and gets no reply. So, Colin writes in a journal just for himself. Colin tries and tries to make his family proud, tries to marry, tries courting properly, and it blows up in his face. So, Colin chooses not to date, to become a spectator. Colin is yelled at for trying to invest, so he no longer asks or talks about money, doesn't try to rock the boat in his city. Who Colin is, what he wants, ceases to matter, the fabric of him folded smaller and smaller- instead he focuses on the shell. Builds it in image of his older brothers, of the men around him. Mirrors them.

Anthony says he should have taken Colin to brothels, that he's a fool for trying to marry and his engagement blows up- Colin thus goes to brothels. Colin hops from city to city, trying on new personas like outfits, fine tuning each one. Is this it? Will this be what finally makes them accept me? Colin's appeal to the women of the ton is that he does not talk about himself- but about them. That they're wearing beautiful dresses, that surely they'll find husbands. Separating himself from them- cannot tell them of his travels, that he's not the brave one, it was everyone working together to help with the balloon.

Deflect. Never centered. Colin exists on the outskirts as Pen does, he's just hypervisible for his exterior, and invisible otherwise. His charm is that he pleases those around him. His wounds are that the truest version of him cannot accomplish that. Thus, he becomes hyperaware of what his impact is, first to apologize and last to be forgiven. Living for the approval of others is a trap. He knows. He's fallen into it, a bear claw around his ankles.

He feels like the only way he's worthwhile is if he's providing something for someone. An apology, or comfort, or ease, compliments or winks, a laugh or a distraction, good looks or a fantasy. Providing a happy life for Pen by stepping out of the way, his own needs secondary. It's being there for his mum for an escort or a soft heart to heart. It's taking Anthony's disappointment in him and being indulgent to Eloise's insults. It's giving Benedict his special tea and saying hardly anything about why he bought it in the first place. Bringing gifts to family members who did not write back to him as he wandered the world, alone. It's sticking his neck out for Penelope with Jack, it's providing a dance or a rescue or a good time, checking on Marina to make sure she's alive and okay, listening to Phillip. Colin isn't at all comfortable being himself, the himself that is messy, so he covers it in the himself that is useful.

But what he does, what he provides other people, is not his actual worth. He thinks he's being altruistic by stepping aside and languishing in his feelings for Pen, believing she'll be happier in the future with Debling, waiting and waiting and waiting, until that candle burns out and he's at the 11th hour- and when he snaps and goes after her, when he cuts into her dance, when he runs for her in that carriage, he makes a choice for himself that he thinks, in some way, is selfish.

But it isn't. It's what she wants, too. And there's something beautiful in the fact that with Penelope, his being real, what he thinks is so difficult and unwanted, is actually giving her what she has desired all along. They both find fulfillment and contentment in his unmasking. Penelope never wanted the shell. She saw what was beneath it. She loves what's beneath it.

And I think there's something. . .healing, in that narrative. That us ND peeps who mask as a means of fitting in- that will never bring us happiness. Not really. That it didn't bring Colin happiness.

His arc is realizing that he should be his true, authentic self, and that love will bloom from it. And it does.

I don't know. I think I can learn something from that. I think I'm going to carry that with me for a while.

[ryoryeonggu]

Katherine Pierce in Season 1, episode 13: Children of the Damned 

[ryoryeonggu]

Everyone: Penelope’s gonna get married thanks to your help!

Colin:

[ryoryeonggu]

[ryoryeonggu]

COLIN AND ELOISE BRIDGERTON BRIDGERTON SEASON THREE: PART ONE

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“Colin didn’t suffer enough.” Yes, he did.

He suffered in season 1 when his family mocked and belittled him for being so open to love and the woman he gave his heart to lied to and manipulated him because of it. He suffered in season 2 when he tried to distract himself and find out who he was in his time of heartbreak and no one in his family cared that he had returned or wanted to hear about his adventures and thought of him as annoying or a bore for talking about them. He suffered in between seasons 2 and 3 when no one in his family answered his letters and the only person who truly cared about and appreciated him just for who he was had seemingly grown tired of him as well. He suffered when he abandoned the person he was and took on a new persona to fit in with the rest of the ton and have people finally take him seriously. He suffered after his best friend kissed him and changed his life along with the axis on which the earth moved and he thought it meant nothing to her. He suffered when he finally realized that what he had been searching for was right in front of him all along only to realize that he had become the architect of his own nightmare and might lose her to someone else because of the very same advice he gave her. He suffered when he couldn’t live up to his father’s memory and find the courage to ask the love of his life if his feelings were reciprocated. He suffered when he thought she would marry a man who didn’t truly love or appreciate her like she deserved. And when he finally got the chance to tell the woman he loved how he felt he refused to suffer anymore. He finally accepted who he was and what he needed and literally chased after what he wanted more than anything in this world just for the chance to make his true feelings known.

[ryoryeonggu]

- Atticus

[ryoryeonggu]

I can't get over all of the Greek legend/mythology parallels with Penelope and Colin this season.

One that has already been pointed out in previous seasons is the parallel to the Odyssey: Odysseus wanders in his travels and eventually returns home to his wife Penelope who has been waiting for him all this time. Colin wanders around Europe, often to Greece, while Penelope eagerly awaits his return home to England.

Then there's the Eros/Psyche parallels this season. Eros was tasked with finding a husband for Psyche but ended up falling in love with her himself. Colin offered to help Penelope find a husband and, well, task failed successfully?

Psyche is often associated with/depicted with butterfly wings. The Featheringtons are associated with butterflies as much as the Bridgertons are associated with bees. You'll see them on their outfits and in their hair. And Penelope's transformation this season can be seen as her emerging from a cocoon.

Eros is known for his bow and arrow. And after Penelope tells Madam Delacroix that she wishes to find a husband, we cut to Gregory pointing his new bow (sans arrow) at Colin.

Also, there's a part of the Eros/Psyche myth where Eros feels betrayed by Psyche and that's definitely gonna happen in part 2.

[ryoryeonggu]

we were supposed to be just friends...