#Swish

[archerinventive]

Celebrating this Faire Friday with some good ol' cloak swooshing. ^^

Photo by: Liv F.H or liv.ing_lively on IG

[consoledacup]

Ode to the Street Scene

I really thought my favorite scene was the wedding dance. It cuts away to no one in the room, and my heart just swells from the romance. And that cheek caress at the end? Butterflies!

But every time I rewatch, I have to pause the show and just sit with certain beats of my actual favorite scene because I'm so overcome. The writing is so fantastically good. Verica's directing is perfect. The scoring is angsty and beautiful. And Luke and Nicola deliver incredible performances. The give-and-take of this fight is exceptional, and their chemistry is electric.

This confrontation is one that is years in the making. And as they fight, they address all of it. He's only known about her Whistledown identity for a short time, so this fight was always going to be incredibly heightened and passionate. But we also get so much truth in this exchange, too.

Colin's leaving the saddest stag party ever. I'm sure he also felt weirdly guilty for not being ecstatic about it. Especially because the three gentlemen with him witnessed Colin-heart eyes-Bridgerton not a week ago. So they notice something is wrong, and he really doesn't want to talk about it.

Penelope's leaving her good friend and business confidant. And I love the little hesitation Genevieve has before asking Penelope if she'd continue publishing. She adores Penelope and has been such a fantastic support for her. So although Penelope feels like she's unworthy of Colin after everything that has happened, Genevieve is steadfast in encouraging her to not give up a huge part of herself.

So they run into each other, and Colin is immediately furious. He is shocked to see her, his Pen, out alone at night. And then he's like, well, she's Whistledown. She was doing this all along, right under my nose, having a laugh. And Penelope can probably smell the alcohol on him and is fed up with being the bad guy at this point. So she bates him because good grief, can he just look at her??

And he immediately lays into her. I really love Luke's rhythmic delivery here:

After all of the secrets you have kept, all of the things you have written over the years, all of the damage you have done.

And I love how Penelope immediately takes responsibility and apologizes. Two people have found out about her identity prior to Colin. Genevieve needs no explanation for why Penelope did what she did. And Eloise is so heartbroken and betrayed and humiliated, she has no room for Penelope's motivations.

But as angry as Colin is, he listens. And they go through her past transgressions, point by point. He asks about Eloise, as the protective brother he is, and receives a somewhat satisfactory response.

And then he asks about Marina, and Penelope is essentially like, I was saving you. For White Knight Colin Bridgerton, that is almost too much for him to take. If we go back to that scene when Penelope tells Colin about George, she purposely leaves out her pregnancy. That was deliberate. She might've gotten dismissed by him and interrupted by Marina, but she was always going to lead with, "well, she has a lover back home." Because she was terrified Colin would mount his white horse and see it as his duty to rescue Marina all the same. As a 17-year-old girl, who had incredible power, she saw no choice but to manipulate his future. That was a bad move, and she knows it.

Which is why he's like, do you really have that little respect for me? Because he reveals what cuts him the most. Whistledown called him out, belittling him. And then he finds out that the most important person in his life, his entire world, wrote that about him. And is that truly how she feels about him when he thinks she hung the moon and stars?

And that's when this fight takes a turn as Penelope lays bare everything she loves about him. She was like, I missed you just like you missed me. Here's where I praise Nicola's rhythmic delivery:

It's you. Kind, feeling, occasionally excitable good-hearted man who I love.

Even the way she says "man who I love" is just so matter-of-fact. Of course she loves him. When is he gonna get that?

Every episode this season, we see Penelope subtly gain more and more confidence. Which is why this payoff is so delicious because she has finally developed the confidence, that he helped her find, to stand up to him.

So he takes that all in, and in an almost hopeful way, he's like, well, I helped you gain confidence, and you have me now, so you really don't need Whistledown, right? You don't need to be more powerful than me. And she's a little taken aback by his plea but stands her ground, patiently explaining why Whistledown is important. Which breaks his heart because he feels that, deep down, Penelope surpasses him in talent and ambition.

Remember their engagement party when Penelope and Eloise take turns answering the riddles? He is proud of Penelope, and he is concerned something is going on with her, but he is also, plainly, jealous. Anthony obviously steals the scene with his competitiveness, but you see Colin sitting up a little straighter, wanting to impress everyone else with his quick wit. And each time Penelope or Eloise get the answer right, he deflates a little. He's always known Penelope to be incredibly smart, but now that he's desperately in love with her, he is terrified that she doesn't see him as her intellectual equal. And his fears are confirmed when he finds out she's the sharpest tongue in the ton.

He's honest about how patronized he feels, thinking about her hyping up his journal. His eyes are welling up because good god, he does not understand why she just won't choose him over Whistledown. And he chooses that moment to assert his physical dominance and join her on the step so he towers over her. He goes for broke, berating her for her carelessness, and she's not having it.

And this interplay between Luke and Nicola is like a perfect volley:

I have been careful.

You have been foolish.

Colin, I can take care of myself.

Then what good am I to you?!

And Penelope just snaps. She tells him she loves him which snaps him out of his spiral, and they finally allow their passion for each other to take over. And their physicality shows how relieved they feel in each others' embrace. Their kiss is like coming home, and they're like, thank GOD you want me like I still want you.

They're not thinking much else, but I do wonder if Colin in the back of his mind is like, she may not need my brain or my protection, and I have no title, and I can only provide her a townhome, but by god, I can give her pleasure. I think it says something that Colin's go-to move is his hands. He wants to bring her to ecstasy as expediently as possible, finding his own pleasure in hers.

Thankfully, they are interrupted because they really don't need another scandal. They were debauching each other in the street! That is an absolutely wild thing for them to do, and Colin has enough wherewithal to keep her shielded, quickly falling into his coveted protector role.

He holds her hand and walks her to her carriage. Their goodbye is tense, but he assures her that she doesn't have to worry about him. He will be at the church on time. He is still choosing a life with her, and is, of sound mind and body, intentionally entering into a union with Lady Whistledown. And then he watches her carriage leave.

Perfect, heartbreaking, passionate, angsty, emotional, sexy, honest, cathartic, electric, romantic scene from start to finish.

[renegadesstuff]

The parallels are killing me 😩🤍

[cinematic-phosphenes]

Portrait of Madame Josephina Alvear de Errazuriz | 1892 Giovanni Boldini

[orion-lake]

[lalaloobzy]

Boy oh boy do I love being an asexual aromantic with intense aesthetic attraction (or perhaps gender jealousy??) for both Roberta Colindrez and Kelly McCormack

[miss1de]

kobe bryant- the black mamba 🏀🕊️

[cinematicillness]

[sentientraven]

Haven’t posted alien stuff in a while, so I figured I’d give it a go again!

[becausethathappens]

We Watch Ourselves Get Colonoscopies For The First Time 🍑

[lynx-kin]

Welcome back to your regular dose of sans in a skirt.

simps.

[consoledacup]

Day late! But wanted to share about mutual pining all the same.

I really like how the mutual pine constantly shifts. Before they actually get together, Penelope has always pined for Colin. We see that from the very first ep of the series, and we feel her pain. And while his obliviousness hurts her at times, it's clear he has no clue about her feelings, or even his own.

Because Colin has pined for that feeling of connection he just couldn't seem to find, no matter what he did. That's been evident since season 1 when his infatuation with Marina was more of wanting to feel respected and understood by someone, and less of the woman herself.

And then he pined for Penelope's friendship when she ghosted him. That lasted for months and months. And yes, he was forgiven for his remark pretty quickly. But think of all those months we did not see. He was hurt and confused and longed to hear from her.

Even before their first kiss, there is that really lovely shot of them both looking out their respective windows at the house across the square–– total pining behavior.

And once Colin does kiss Penelope, he has almost no evidence that Penelope loves him back. Shortly before the kiss, she was refusing to engage with him, and then chose to work with him to actively pursue a husband. Eps 3 and 4 are SO fun and comfy and classically perfect for this trope.

And then we still have Colin pining for Penelope after they're engaged because he's paranoid she doesn't love him as he does her. And we have Penelope pining for Colin because she's paranoid he won't love her after he discovers her secret.

And then the last two episodes, they are pining fiends. It's so great because they are engaged and then they are married, but they still aren't on the same page. They've found this connection with the partner of their dreams, but they're afraid they're only loved for mere parts of themselves.

Jess and her team did a fantastic job, balancing and constantly reinventing this trope!!

[renegadesstuff]

THE BEST GLOW UP 😍😍

[cinematic-phosphenes]

Portrait of Elizabeth Wharton Drexel | 1905 Giovanni Boldini

[evilhorse]

It is Zorro!

[allhailthemightyquattro]

Bridgerton BTS: 1x06