#anthony watches willow

[solarsleepless]

okay then.

[amirasainz]

Ooooh can you please do reader is Lewis daughter and she’s a big daddy’s girl and she has everyone wrapped around her finger, including the stoic Toto?

AHH! I had so much fun writing this. I love the idea of Lewis being a girl dad. I hope y'all enjoy reading this and send me some requests!

-XoXo

Daddy's little love

“Who is your favourite Disney Princess, Baby?” asked Anthony, Lewis’ dad, to his 4-year-old granddaughter. Cassie, who was busy getting her beautiful, long, curly hair done by her grandmother Linda, turned to Anthony with the biggest grin on her face.

“Tiana,” she proudly stated. “TIANA? Why’s that, hm?” he asked her, now sporting the same huge grin as the girl in the living room. “Because she is the prettiest of them all. And her prince is better than the other ones. OH, and their friends are so cool, because Ray is a firefly and his wife is a star. And their other friend, the crocodile, Louis, can play the trumpet. Oh, and Mama Odie makes the best gumbo in the whole wide world,” she answered, running towards Anthony.

The older Hamilton immediately picked her up, sitting little Cassie in front of him on the kitchen counter. “Ohh, is that so, young lady?” he jokingly asked her. “UHU,” she answered with a duh-tone. “Really?” “Uhu.” “Really.” Now the game between Cassie and her Poppy started.

Linda, who knew that this little game of theirs could go on for hours, called towards the young girl. “Cassie, honey, we still need to do your hair.” “But I don’t wanna, Loveyyyyy,” whined the 4-year-old. “Nuhu, don’t even look at me with those puppy eyes of yours,” she told her. However, Cassie tried to find a way out of the situation. “But why can’t Daddy do it for me?” she whined again. “You know why, Baby. Daddy can’t make those braids that you like,” Anthony answered, sensing the beginning of a little tantrum.

Both Anthony and Linda knew that Cassie hated getting her hair done. If the young Hamilton could, she would always have it open. However, with the hot weather and her playing the whole time with her cousins in the garden, everyone knew it was better to braid it back.

Before anyone could say anything else, a figure appeared in the doorway. “What’s that I’m hearing about Daddy?” asked Lewis, who was finally back home after the Mexican GP. He looked tired but happy. “DADDY!” squealed the young girl, immediately running towards her father with outstretched arms. Lewis, who knew his daughter better than himself, picked her up in his arms and held her close, releasing a sigh of relief now that he finally had his baby back in his arms. Her laughter was like music to his ears, and he couldn’t help but smile as she giggled like crazy while he kissed her cheeks repeatedly.

After a moment, he stopped and greeted her with the biggest smile ever. “Hello, my little love,” he said, his voice filled with warmth and affection. He could feel the stress of the race melting away as he held her.

Remembering the conversation he walked into, he carefully petted her hair and told her, “Go on, love. Let Lovey finish your hair, then we can go outside swimming.” Cassie pouted, her lower lip jutting out adorably. “But Daddy—” she began, her eyes wide with pleading. “Nuh-uh, Honey. Don’t even try it with me,” Lewis said, his tone gentle but firm. Cassie released the biggest sigh on earth before stomping towards her grandmother, her tiny feet making exaggerated thuds on the floor.

Thankfully, her older cousin Willow was also now in the living room, so the two cousins could play a game while Linda finished the two Dutch braids. Willow, always the patient one, smiled and pulled out a board game, setting it up on the coffee table. “Come on, Cassie, let’s play while Grandma finishes your hair,” she said, her voice soothing.

Lewis, who was watching the whole situation with an amused smile, turned towards his father and hugged him. “It’s good to have you back, boy,” Anthony whispered in his ear, his voice thick with emotion. “It’s good to be back, Dad,” Lewis answered while releasing the hug. He felt a wave of gratitude for his family, who always supported him no matter what.

After a moment, Lewis’s face turned serious, and he looked at his dad. “Hey, can we talk for a minute?” he asked. Anthony, sensing the gravity of the situation, turned his full attention to his son. With an encouraging nod, Lewis began.

“Dad, you know how important the Brazil Grand Prix is for me, right? This year, I was thinking of taking Cassie with me. This race isn’t just significant for me, but also for Mercedes. Plus, it’s my last year with the team,” he explained, his voice tinged with emotion.

Anthony took a deep breath, gathering his thoughts before responding. “Lewis, I understand how crucial this race is for you, but why do you feel the need to take Cassie with you?” he asked, his brow furrowed in concern.

“Well, Dad, it’s going to be such a meaningful race for me, and I want my favorite person there with me. Besides, the team and the other drivers are always asking about her. And Gloria, you know, Cassie’s babysitter, will also be there. She can watch over her while I’m racing,” Lewis replied, his eyes pleading for understanding.

Anthony paused for a moment, considering his son’s words. “Okay, I think that’s a really sweet idea. And we both know how much Cassie loves traveling with her daddy,” he said with a warm smile.

“Thanks, Dad. I guess I just needed to hear from someone that my idea isn’t completely insane,” Lewis said, relief washing over his face.

“No, don’t worry about it. Now go tell the little princess the good news,” Anthony encouraged, giving his son a reassuring pat on the back.

After an uneventful flight and a good nights rest, the little trio entered the paddock the next morning. Cassie clutched her father’s hand tightly as they walked into the bustling paddock. The young girl, with her curly hair bouncing in the warm breeze, wore a bright purple cap that read "Daddy's little Champion". It was a sea of activity, with mechanics, engineers, and media personnel buzzing around. This was Cassie’s first time attending a race outside of Silverstone, and her wide eyes took in every detail with a mix of awe and excitement.

Lewis,, was a seasoned pro in this environment, but today he felt a bit different. He was not just a world-class driver; he was an overprotective dad. He kept a close eye on Cassie, making sure she stayed close and safe amidst the chaos. The media quickly noticed the duo, and cameras started flashing, capturing the tender moments between father and daughter.

Lewis’s smile was tight as he waved politely to the cameras, but inside, he was less than thrilled about the attention. He had always been protective of Cassie, and the thought of her being in the spotlight made him uneasy. He bent down to her level, his voice gentle but firm. “Stay close to me, okay, Cassie? There’s a lot going on here.”

Cassie nodded, her curly hair bouncing with the movement. “Okay, Daddy.”

Beside them, Gloria, the babysitter, walked with a calm demeanor. At around 50 years old, she had a reassuring presence that both Lewis and Cassie appreciated. Gloria had been with the family for a while and knew how to keep Cassie entertained and safe. She smiled at Cassie, holding out a small toy car. “Look, Cassie, it’s just like Daddy’s car!”

Cassie’s face lit up as she took the toy, momentarily distracted from the overwhelming environment. Lewis gave Gloria a grateful nod. “Thanks, Gloria. I don’t know what we’d do without you.”

Gloria chuckled softly. “Just doing my job, Lewis. You focus on the race; I’ll keep an eye on our little racer here.”

As they made their way through the paddock, more media attention followed. Lewis did his best to shield Cassie from the cameras, but it was clear that their presence was a big deal. He sighed inwardly, wishing for a bit more privacy for his daughter. But seeing Cassie’s excitement and knowing Gloria was there to help made it all worthwhile.

“Alright, Cassie,” Lewis said, lifting her up so she could see over the crowd. “Let’s go find a good spot to watch the race. It’s going to be an exciting day.”

Cassie giggled, her nervousness melting away as she felt the familiar comfort of her father’s arms. With Gloria by their side, they were ready to face the day, media attention and all.

As they walked to the Garage, Cassie's wide eyes took in the sight of the famous cars, the hustle of the crew and the vibrant colours of the team uniforms. Other drivers like Lando, Charles, George and Daniel, couldn't help but stop and admire the adorable little girl.

"Hey there, little champ!" Lando said, waving at her. "Are you going to cheer for your dad today?"

Cassie giggled and nodded. "He's the fastes!" she declared proudly, causing the drivers to melt at her sweetness. They all exchanged smiles, and for a moment, the competitive spirit of Formula 1 seemed to fade into the background, replaced by the warmth of Cassie's innocent joy.

As Lewis, Cassie and Gloria approached the Mercedes garage, Lewis introduced Cassie to his team principal. Toto, the usually angry Austrian, was particularly taken with her. "Well, if it isn't the youngest member of our team!" he said, picking her up and placing her on his lap. "How would you like to be the team principal for the day?"

Cassie's eyes widened in amazement. "Really? I can be in charge?" she squealed, bouncing slightly in excitement. Lewis, who was busy talking to Bono, turned towards his daughter and reminded her again : "Cassie, inside voice, ok?" "Sorry Daddy" she apologised cutely, warming Lewis heart at the sight of her.

Toto brought her attention back to their conversation. “Absolutely! You can help make all the important decisions,” Toto replied, grinning. He handed her a small headset, and Cassie put it on, feeling like a true boss.

“Okay, Cassie,” Toto continued, “let’s make sure the drivers are ready. We need to keep an eye on them!”

Cassie nodded seriously, trying her best to mimic the serious expressions of the adults around her. As she sat on Toto’s lap, she observed the team preparing for the race, her little fingers tapping away on the radio as if she were giving commands.

“Driver 44, are you ready?” she said into the headset, mimicking what she had heard the engineers say. The team chuckled at her adorable seriousness, and Lewis turned to give her a thumbs-up from across the garage.

As the pre-race festivities continued, Cassie found herself surrounded by the other drivers, who were all charmed by her presence. Daniel knelt down in front of her. “So, what’s your strategy for today?” he asked playfully.

“I think Daddy should go really fast and win!” she replied, her face lighting up with confidence. The drivers laughed, and Daniel gave her a mock salute. “A solid plan, Commander Cassie!”

Soon, it was time for the drivers to head to the grid. Toto carefully lifted Cassie off his lap and placed her back on the ground. “Are you ready to watch your dad race?” he asked her.

“Yay! Go, Daddy!” she cheered, waving her arms enthusiastically. Lewis leaned down to give her a kiss on the forehead before heading out to the grid. "I love you, my little love" he called back to her. "I love you more" she yelled. Turning towards his daughter, he said : "Impossible" before continuing his way. Their interaction gained laugher throughout the garage.

As the race began, Cassie was glued to the edge of her seat in the team hospitality area, her small hands gripping the railing as she watched the cars zoom past. With each lap, her excitement grew. “Go, Daddy! You can do it!” she shouted, her voice ringing out amidst the cheers of the crowd.

The race unfolded with thrilling intensity. Lewis battled fiercely against his competitors, maneuvering through tight corners and executing perfect overtakes. Cassie’s eyes were wide with awe as she watched her father, the adrenaline coursing through her tiny body with each lap.

During a particularly tense moment, where Lewis found himself in a tight spot battling for position, Cassie gasped and clutched the railing. “Come on, Daddy! You got this!” she yelled, her voice carrying over the noise of the engines.

Her encouragement seemed to resonate, as Lewis managed to pull off an incredible move, taking the lead. The crowd erupted in cheers, and Cassie jumped up and down, her laughter mingling with the roars of the fans.

“Look, Cassie! Your daddy’s in front!” Gloria said, smiling at her enthusiasm. She was having the time of her life, completely unaware of the high stakes of the race, so focused on her father’s performance.

As the race neared its conclusion, the tension was palpable. Lewis was vying for the victory, and Cassie could feel the excitement in the air. She leaned over the railing, her heart racing as the final laps approached. “You can do it, Daddy! Just go faster!” she shouted, her little fists clenched in determination.

When Lewis crossed the finish line, victorious once again, the roar of the crowd was deafening. Cassie squealed with delight, jumping up and down in sheer joy. “He did it! He won!” she exclaimed, clapping her hands together.

After the race, Lewis hurried to the team area, where Cassie was waiting, her face glowing with pride. He scooped her up in his arms, spinning her around. “Did you see that, Cassie? We did it!” he exclaimed, his heart swelling with happiness.

“You were the best, Daddy! I knew you could win!” she said, her eyes shining with admiration.

As the celebrations continued, Cassie found herself the center of attention. The drivers gathered around her, congratulating Lewis and showering her with affection. “You’re an amazing little team principal, Cassie,” Charles said, ruffling her hair.

Cassie beamed, soaking in all the praise. “I told him to go fast!” she said proudly, and the drivers laughed, each one charmed by her innocence and enthusiasm.

As the sun began to set over Brazil, casting a warm glow over the paddock, Lewis took Cassie aside. “You know, today was special not just because we won, but because I got to share it with you,” he said softly.

“I had the best day, Daddy! Can we come to every race together?” she asked, her eyes wide with hope.

“Of course, sweet pea. Every race, if you want. You’ll always be my lucky charm,” Lewis replied, giving her a warm hug.

The day ended with fireworks illuminating the sky, and Cassie watched in awe, her heart full. She had stepped into a world of speed and excitement, and in doing so, had forged an unforgettable bond with her father. As they headed back to their hotel, Cassie rested her head on Lewis’s shoulder, dreaming of race tracks and fast cars, knowing that this was just the beginning of their adventures tog

[sebscore]

BLOOMING BOND | LEWIS H.

pairing: lewis hamilton x fem!reader 

warnings: reference to his iconic 'imagine' tweet. talk about having kids. talk of not wanting an unpresent father. swearing.

author's note: this post by @allkindfangirl inspired me to write this and I hope she enjoys it :) 

masterlist

• • • • • • •

''Aunt Y/N, can you braid my hair, please?'' Willow walked up to the breakfast table, holding her pink hairbrush. 

The woman put her drink down, smiling down at the young girl. ''Of course, honey,'' she slid her chair back and got up, ''we'll do it inside so I can get ready myself.'' Y/N stuck out her hand and Willow swiftly took it. 

''Willow, what do you say to her?'' Her mother glanced at her, trying to look stern. The small girl huffed, seemingly embarrassed by her mother's reminder of having manners. ''Thank you, Y/N.'' The slight frown turned into a toothy grin as she looked up at her uncle's girlfriend. 

''You're welcome, Willow.'' Y/N chuckled, winking at Lewis who smiled at the pair. A skipping Willow dragged her inside the vacation home and made their way towards the bathroom. 

The rest of the family watched them leave with loving eyes, endeared by the interaction. ''Willow is obsessed with her.'' Nicola stated, looking at her brother. 

Her sister nodded her head. ''I know,'' she agreed, ''her hair needs to be like Y/N's, her clothes need to be like Y/N's- it's all I'm hearing these days.'' She sighed, not out of annoyance or agitation, but out of happiness that Willow had found a role-model in her brother's partner. 

''That's adorable,'' Lewis giggled, ''Y/N also loves her and Kaiden- always talking about how such good kids they are and wanting to buy them stuff.'' He told his family, recalling the times they had gone shopping and Y/N would see certain items that reminded her of the two kids. 

''It's very sweet.'' Anthony commented, the smile on Lewis' face bringing one to his own. 

Carmen scratched her voice. ''The little ones were very excited to see the two of you again. They were even naming all the things you could do together.'' The weeks leading up to the family vacation, Willow and Kaiden had been telling their grandmother's ear off about how much they were looking forward to it. 

''We were excited as well, it's been a while since we've all spent time like this together.'' Lewis answered, his heart melting at the thought of his niece and nephew being all giddy about seeing him and Y/N again. 

The other family members agreed. ''Yes, thank you so much for organising this, Lu.'' Samantha thanked him, sending an appreciative smile his way. 

''No, you don't have to thank me! It's my pleasure.'' He brushed her words off, growing shy. 

A comfortable silence fell upon them, bathing in the family time and the beautiful sight of the morning glow in Bali. That didn't last long, though. 

''CANNONBALL!'' 

The loud voice of Kaiden cut through the peace and the sound of someone landing in the pool interrupted the tranquillity of the moment. Lewis' brother-in-law quickly followed after his son and everyone went back to either eating or getting themselves ready for the activities of the day. 

''Nice braid, Willow.'' Lewis complimented his niece as she walked past him to go outside with her new hair, a braid with several flower accessories attached. 

''I know, Y/N did it.'' She told her uncle in a 'duh'-tone. 

Lewis simply laughed and walked to their room, finding his girlfriend changing into a beautiful spring dress. ''Hey, beauty.'' He kissed her cheek, admiring her in the mirror. 

''Hi, honey.'' Y/N smiled at him, adjusting the straps on her shoulders. 

''I just ran into miss Willow who had a beautiful braid in her hair.'' He grinned, grabbing his swimming trunks from his suitcase. ''I told her it looked nice and she just went ''I know, Y/N did it' with a little attitude, it was the funniest thing.'' He recalled the interaction with his niece, chuckling to himself. 

''I wonder where she gets that sassy attitude from.'' Y/N smirked, glancing at her boyfriend with a raised eyebrow. 

Lewis took off his infamous Senna shirt and threw it at her, the woman smoothly catching it. ''I have no idea what you're talking about, darling.'' He pretended, sheepishly smiling. 

''Oh, Mister 'Imagine' doesn't know what I'm talking about, huh?'' Y/N lightly mocked him, folding his shirt and laying it on one of the chairs. 

The Mercedes driver took off his shorts and boxers, switching them for his swimming wear. ''Anyway,'' he changed the topic, making her laugh, ''we were just talking about how well you and the little ones get along.'' A fond smile found its way to his face, remembering the conversation he had earlier. 

''Really? That's cute, Lew.'' A few years ago it would have freaked her out if she knew his family had been talking about her, but a loving bond had bloomed over the course of her relationship with Lewis and now she considered them family as well. 

''Yeah,'' he walked up behind her, trapping her in a back hug, ''it made me think about something.'' 

''About what?'' Y/N looked at him through the mirror. 

''About us having our own kids.'' 

The sudden mention surprised her, her eyebrows raised and eyes widened. They had discussed it before, but some time had passed between that last conversation and now. ''Oh.'' 

''I know we said we would continue the discussion when it's my last F1 season, but I just couldn't help but think about it when you walked away with Willow.'' Lewis confessed, a dreamy look in his eyes. 

''I understand,'' she smiled, ''you'd be a great dad, Lewis.'' 

Sometimes it was hard to ignore the warm feeling she got when she saw Lewis with kids, it made her daydream about her future with the Formula One star. Y/N was okay with waiting until Lewis was ready to retire, though. She wanted a present father for her children- not one that was away most of the time and missed all the important milestones in their children's life. 

''And you will be the most amazing mother.'' He pressed a kiss to her temple, reveling in the feeling of having the love of his life in his arms. 

''Sir Uncle and Aunt Y/N sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G! First comes love. Then comes marriage. Then comes baby. In a baby carriage!'' Kaiden and Willow chorused, yelling the popular playground nursery rhyme through the house. 

The couple laughed at the comedic interruption, pulling away from one another. ''Maybe it's not that bad to wait a few years, I'm not ready for that yet.'' Lewis joked, grabbing a towel and his phone. 

''Dream on, honey.'' Y/N teased, walking to their bathroom and taking the sunscreen from one of the cabinets. 

Lewis stuck his head through the bathroom door, a smirk playing on his lips. ''I do have a wild imagination.'' He winked, referring to his own song with Christina Aguilera. 

''Fuck off, XNDA,'' she tried throwing a discarded towel at him, ''I like Kendrick more, anyway.''

[spaceorphan18]

Ranking Bridgerton Season 3 Episodes

After sitting with this season the past month, I kind of wanted to see how a ranking would go (and those of you who know me, know I love a good ranking). These are 100% subjective opinions, and I don't expect anyone else to agree. More so did it out of the fun of it. :)

8. Forces of Nature (Episode 3)

I don't actually think there is a bad episode of this season. Truly. After really sitting with this season, thinking it over, even agreeing that there isn't enough Polin and some of the subplots could have been stronger (or not existed at all), I think all of these episodes are pretty stellar. But one of them had to be placed last, and after combing through all of them, it's episode 3.

There is actually a lot I like in this episode - Colin spending the whole episode pining for Pen, the ridiculous and romantic dream fantasy, the awkwardly cute willow scene, the angsty cake scene, Colin asking his mother for advice and awkwardly trying to figure his shit out, loved it. I also really enjoyed Debling and the development of that story as an alternative option for Pen.

What really bogs this episode down, and consequently pushes it to the bottom, is that it's also the culprit for braiding in all of the seemingly many subplots. I don't necessarily think any of them are bad on their own, but it feels like so much that it's too much at times.

We get Lord Kilmartin's introduction (yes, great), Lord Anderson (yeah, okay), Lady Tilly (ooff, fine), The Mondrichs (why are they here again?), the stuff with the Queen (this was just weak in general), and development of Cressida (it works in conjunction with LW, but idk if it holds up on rewatches?). It's just a lot and the main characters (unfortunately, especially Colin) get pushed a little to the side.

7. Romancing Mister Bridgerton (Episode 6)

This is the episode that when I first watched it, I straight up thought it wasn't that good. I've honestly changed my opinion on it a lot, but I do understand why I originally felt that way.

I love LOVE the first half of this episode. We get to have Pen and Colin in a little bit of a honeymoon stage -- the engagement ring scene is brilliant, everything at the church is brilliant, even the stuff at the Mondrich ball... It's truly delicious. And I love Colin just being soft with his sister and at the Mondrich bar scene. And then I do love the Lady Whistledown aspect of it -- Pen dealing with whether or not she wants to continue. There's some great Eloise stuff in here, too. And even Cressida pretending to be Whistledown was handled decently.

But, like episode 3, this episode was saddled with a ton of side plots, where the scenes just go on and on and on because they're the meat of some of these side plots. I don't know if they needed to be balanced better or parceled out better, I don't know. But the long stretches without any Polin, or much Pen or Colin in general in the second half is why this episode ended up lower.

I think the only reason it's moved up a spot is that I do love the Polin we do get more than what's in episode 3. Also, the last few moments of Colin discovering Pen is Lady Whistledown is an excellent cliffhanger.

6. Out of the Shadows (Episode 1)

I do think the season opener is solidly good! I actually really love Pen getting her transformation and the ridiculous of Colin (attempting) swagger as he comes back into town. I love that we don't beat around the bush, and the two of them really get to the heart of their issues right off the bat and it sets up the entire season really nicely. Plus, their dynamic as never sparkled any better -- it's truly a treat to see the two of them back on screen.

The rest of the episode works pretty well, too. The tension between Pen and Eloise is great -- and kicks off one of my favorite arcs of the season. Francesca's (re-)introduction is wonderful. There's some truly brilliant Bridgerton sibling stuff, as well as Anthony and Kate being on the top of their game. It's also got some breathing room as we haven't established the nineteen other plot lines going on this season (though the Mondrich stuff feels a little sluggish).

The only reason this episode is as low as it is -- is because I just like everything else more.

5. Joining of Hands (Episode 7)

It pains me to have this episode as low as it is because I love so much of it. The Polin stuff in this episode is just delicious. I love the tension after Colin finds out that Pen is Lady Whistledown. I love the brutalness of the first argument and the angst, longing, and actually working through some of their shit (as well as the spiciness) of their argument outside the Modeste.

I love that they still get married despite having unresolved conflict, and that their love transcend set backs. And that wedding dance is absolutely gorgeous.

Plus - we get some great Bridgerton in general stuff -- Eloise and Pen are on their way to repairing their relationship, Colin and Eloise get some great moments, Benedict is adorable at the 'bachelor' party, and Anthony and Kate are amazing in everything that they do (I love LOVE the scene with Kate, Anthony, and Colin).

The episode does have some weaker aspects - I don't care all that much about Violet and Lord Anderson nor Benedict and Lady Tilly (even if I'm all here for Benedict's bisexual awakening). But the subplots don't really weigh everything down as much, and it's a solidly good Polin episode.

4. Into the Light (Episode 8)

The Season Finale! I honestly toggled between episodes 7 and 8 and where they went, and I think maybe on a different day I could be persuaded to switch them, but I think what really sells me is everything from the Butterfly Ball onward. The ending is gorgeous, Pen's story wraps up brilliantly, Colin's grand speech was beautiful, the epilogue was pitch perfect, and all of the storylines work out in a great way, setting up threads for future seasons (obviously, Benedict is next but Eloise and Francesca are getting some good stuff, too.)

My only issue with the end of Pen and Colin's story is that I wanted more resolution to their story. The twenty seconds of make-up sex felt like not enough, and I do hope that they rectify this in Season 4. (Which I have a feeling they will.)

There are some really great things leading up to the ending as well -- I love that Pen and her mother kind of come to terms with each other and finally that relationship is being restored, as well as the Featherington sisters blooming into decent people. I also LOVE the reconciliation of Pen and Eloise. And while the blackmail plot could have been a little stronger (Cressida's whimper out was a little weak) I honestly love Colin's scene with Cressida. (As well as the hilarity of Portia, Eloise, and Colin being the ones to try to help Pen deal with it all.)

It's not perfect episode -- there's the seemingly never ending threeway with Benedict (as well as the fact that Benedict desperately needs next season because his character feels aimless at this point), and Francesca's wedding, while sweet, felt like it pushed Pen and Colin a little out of the limelight for a little too long in the middle. But pacing might have been the biggest issue of the episode. It's otherwise a great episode and a solid ending.

3. Old Friends (Episode 4)

So here's the thing. Here is the thing I've been really thinking about while putting this together. It's a testament to the carriage scene and, honestly, everything from the last twenty-ish minutes of this episode because without it, I'm not sure this episode would be that high. Pen and Colin get ZERO screen time together until the end (and I suppose that's somewhat intentional) you really start to feel it as the episode goes on.

But the tension of this episode is fantastic. Pen bonding with Debling, beginning to accept that this is her best option with pressure from Portia... Colin dealing with his own feelings and downward spiraling (though I do wish we had gotten more of him). It's really, really well done. And then the last twenty minutes is just solidly amazing. All of it. Fantastic. It's just captivating.

And then, of course, the carriage scene -- one of the best (possibly the best??) scenes of the entire show. I could wax poetic about the carriage scene for days...

This is another episode that does feel like it's saddled with too many subplots, and pacing issues, because they're withholding the Polin stuff until the very end and it almost feels like a trudge to get there at points. But it's well worth the wait -- and enough of an amazing payoff that I have this episode so high.

2. How Bright the Moon (Episode 2)

I just fucking adore this episode. Like so much. It is a romantic comedy at its finest with one of the most beautiful first kiss sequences I've ever seen. I love everything this episode chooses to be.

First of all, there's just so MUCH content for Pen and Colin, and we really get to see their FREINDSHIP at play here. (As well as Nicola Coughlan's amazing comedic chops - she shines in every scene here.) Everything between the two of them is brilliant and hilarious and awkward and funny and really, I could have watched a whole season of just this ridiculous rom-com trope-y stuff. Because they're both so good at it. Because it's just so delicious and wonderful.

We also get some of the best comedy of the show in the scene with Portia explaining sex to the Featherington sisters. And some truly great moments with Eloise, too. The rest of the side plots don't feel as heavy as they don't over shadow what's going on with Pen and Colin.

And then that last scene, the beautiful, fairy tale, fantasty-esque, shot like an Old Hollywood film first kiss that is truly breathtaking. This episode just wins all the things.

1. Tick Tock (Episode 5)

Like it was going to be anything else ;)

But no, here's my thing. It's not just the awkwardly beautiful ten minute sex scene of this episode that has me placing it on top. No, really, even if I think the mirror scene is incredible and breathtaking in it's own right.

This episode is solidly for Pen and Colin. And in a season that sometimes struggles to find good balance, this episode (and episode 2 really) are the only ones that really feel like the fully feature Pen and Colin, so it's no coincidence they end up taking the top spots.

The first half of the episode is just a continuation of the amazingness that is the ending of episode 4. The engagement announcement, the hilariously wonderful ABC Bros scene, Colin telling off Portia, Pen and Colin being so soft and sweet with each other during sex, the aftercare cuddling on the satee, the carriage ride.... it's all so, so good, I love it so much.

There's also some great stuff going on around Polin -- Kate and Anthony are back, Eloise has some great stuff, the Cressida plot is hitting its stride, the Queen is adding tension, the Lady Whistledown plot is getting turned up to eleven...

The second half of the episode is also incredibly strong, as it mostly takes place during the engagement party and the tension during that whole sequence is fantastic. All the little plot threads are getting pulled at in a way that works well being woven in together. It's GREAT drama and it really pushes this episode to be the season's finest hour.

This episode just works all the way through. It's got such lush, romantic Pen and Colin that I keep coming back to, some crazy tension built in to ramp up the drama, the characters all just so much fun to watch. This episode is amazing, and truly deserves to be at the top of the list.

And that's my list!! Thanks for reading!! :)

[thatonefangirl31]

Hey 👋

Favourite bridgerton scenes??

Hi! I was actually just thinking about this.

S1 - When Daphne and Simon see the portrait for the first time. Or when Simon and Daphne are dancing with the fireworks in the background.

S2 - The hunting scene. Anthony's hands on her were so delicate. Or They're dance after her accident. Anthony's humor showed, and they let their guards down for once.

Now, S3 is a loaded answer. Honestly, I enjoyed both parts.

The whole reason I watched the show was I saw the " Goodnight Mr.Bridgerton " clip and knew I had to see more. Her entrance before that as well. Using ABCDEFU was absolutely iconic.

Now for the cute Polin moments ~

The market scene. My babies ❤️ The way he tried to basically tell her she didn't need lessons cause she could be herself with him and she was charming . It was just him trying to build her confidence, and it was so cute! Also , he was so down bad that he was early! WHAT A SIMP!😆 🤣

The first kiss scene had me in tears. She was so vulnerable.

That leads to the willow tree scene. And that one is very near and dear to my heart. The romcom aspect was high, and I loved it!

Carriage confession specifically. Not just the intimate moment after.

Bonus " Do you feel some kind of attarmant towards him? " and " Penelope , I've been eagerly awaiting your visit. " He. Watched Pen and Debling. Through. A mirror. ;)

Part 2 ~

His first instinct after her talk with Eloise was to reassure her. <3

When he kissed her hand and said, " My bride to be. "

The mirror scene. It's absolutely amazing. As a heavy set girl, that just made me feel special. But also like I was intruding. 😆 🤣

The dancing in the church scene is so cute and loving !

Yellow

His love confession! Honestly, I'm glad we got that one at the Finch/ Dankworth ball instead of the book one. It had me in tears !!

The ending !!! Oh my gosh ! He let her edit the book ! They had an heir ! And she got not only Bridgerton's as her family but Pen is repairing a relationship with Portia and her sisters !

If you want to hear my favorite polin moments from seasons 1 and 2, let me know. I didn't want them to take over as I knew I'd have a long answer for their season.

[toriluvsnickwayne]

Getting Hooked

Chapter 10

Hook x Reader

Getting Hooked Masterlist

Andretti’s POV :

I stormed up to Tyler, my fists clenched. "What the hell is wrong with you, man?" I shouted, my face inches from his.

Tyler sneered at me. "Mind your own business, Andretti."

But I wasn't having it. "You're yelling at Y/N like that? She's just trying to help you."

Tyler shoved me, and I shoved him back. "Why are you defending her so much?" he snarled. "You want her that bad? Why don't you take your ass out and leave with her?"

I was about to swing at him when Anthony and Dante stepped in, pulling us apart. "Whoa, whoa, calm down," Anthony said, his voice firm.

Dante added, "Yeah, this isn't solving anything."

I struggled against Anthony's grip, but he held tight. "Let it go, Andretti," he said.

Tyler was still fuming, his eyes blazing with anger. "This isn't over," he growled.

But I just shook my head. "You're not worth it, Tyler."

As I looked around, I realized Darius was nowhere to be seen.

Y/N’s POV :

I walked out of Tyler's apartment, feeling a mix of emotions. I sat down on the front stairs, trying to process everything.

Darius came out and sat down beside me. "Hey, you okay?" he asked, his voice soft.

I shook my head, feeling tears prick at the corners of my eyes. "I just feel so worried about him," I said, my voice barely above a whisper. "He's not thinking straight, and I don't know how to help him."

Darius put his arm around me, pulling me close. I leaned into him, feeling a sense of comfort.

The rest of the boys came out, looking concerned. Andretti was fuming, his eyes blazing with anger.

"What happened?" I asked, my voice muffled against Darius' shoulder.

Dante filled me in. "Andretti and Tyler got into it. They were shoving each other, and Anthony and I had to step in."

I nodded, feeling a pang of worry. This was getting out of hand.

"We should get you out of here," Darius said, standing up and pulling me with him. "Let's go back to the club and grab your stuff."

I nodded, feeling a sense of relief. I didn't want to be around Tyler right now.

As we drove back to the club, the tension in the car was palpable. Andretti was still fuming, and the others were quiet, lost in their own thoughts.

I leaned my head against the window, feeling exhausted. This was not how I wanted things to go.

Time Skip - 2 Weeks

Skye’s POV :

Y/N, Willow, Julia, and I were sipping drinks and chatting at the bar, enjoying a much-needed girls' night out. But then Y/N's phone blew up with texts from Hook. She rolled her eyes and ignored them, but I could tell she was tense.

"Girl, why aren't you answering him?" I asked, curiosity getting the better of me.

Y/N shrugged, trying to play it cool. "I don't want to deal with it."

Julia and Willow exchanged curious glances, and I knew we were all thinking the same thing - what was going on between Y/N and Hook?

Y/N filled us in on the drama that had been unfolding, including the yelling match at Hook's apartment. I listened with wide eyes, shocked by the intensity of their argument.

As we continued to chat and ignore Hook's increasingly urgent texts, I saw him walk into the bar. Y/N's eyes flicked towards him, and she quickly got up.

"I'm out of here, guys. Bye."

I watched as Y/N made a quick exit, leaving Tyler standing at the counter looking frustrated. Willow giggled and grabbed Hook’s shoulder.

"Man, did you fuck up!" she said, trying to stifle her laughter.

Julia quickly pulled Willow back, whispering "Not the time, Willow."

I couldn't help but laugh at the scene. Poor Hook.

Author’s Note : Heyyyy so I’ve decided to put all of my other fics that have been submitted on hold until I finish writing this story I’ve got a few more chapters alr planned out js need to write them and this marks halfway though the story! I plan on making 20 parts (long ik) and then I’ll go back to all of my requests!! As always lots of love- Tori 🫶💋

[sheisaquarius-blog]

hi! for anthony’s day can you do something with ianthony getting together with jealous!anthony? btw i love your fics you’re so talented!!!

OH BOY CAN I, I LOVE JEALOUS ANTHONY!!! i'm sure you wanted something sweet and fluffy, but i am on my usual bullshit and made it long and angsty OTL sorry!!! i hope it's still an enjoyable read! and it ends happy!

ps- sorry i'm late! if you sent me an anthony's day prompt and i haven't posted it yet, you WILL see it! i just over estimated how fast i can write, but i'm going to fill each and every one!

Anthony thinks a lot. Not that other people don’t, he just suspects that they have an easier time turning off the faucet of thoughts, or at least letting it fade into the white noise of their minds. Anthony has trouble with that. A lot of trouble. Every one of his thoughts is loud and demanding and takes up the limited space he has in his brain. Most of the time it doesn’t bother him because he’s learned to make peace with a lot of it. He’s learned to acknowledge those thoughts for what they are and control them, channel them. Pain and anxiety were hard, but he’s managed. He has outlets, mantras, things that keep him firmly in reality when those thoughts start to overwhelm his mind and make him burn from the inside out.

His real problem is jealousy. Its roots are wrapped so deep in his bones he’d need to pull back the layers of calcium to extract the tendrils from his marrow where they nestle and feed off him. Pain and anxiety are water, they rain on him, he could drown in them if he isn’t careful, but in the end, they are things that pour over him. He fears his jealousy has always grown out of him, is intrinsic to him.

He hides it well for most of his life. Not so well that no one notices, but well enough they think it’s just normal, average jealousy. A bit childish, maybe, but not the more sinister, dark, suffocating thing that’s truly inside him.

As he grows, he manages it well enough to not make it other people’s problems (most of the time), but it eats away at him in a way he can’t control.

Not everything spikes it. He doesn’t mind sharing the spotlight—in fact he greatly prefers it. He isn’t bothered by friends’ accomplishments��those are their own.

What does bother him is singular attention. That’s the best way he knows how to put it. For an audience, Anthony would much rather be a part of something than the whole; he built two channels out of that. Smosh isn’t a one man show, and interviews don’t work very well with just one person, but when it comes to being the most important thing to one single person, Anthony is not particularly willing to share.

He's jealous in relationships, he knows that. It’s caused plenty of arguments. It worries him, he doesn’t want to be toxic, but he needs to be the most important thing to them. He can feel himself choking on his jealousy when things change and he isn’t that precious thing anymore. It’s a slow death he suffers through each time.

Apparently, that goes double for business partners because Anthony truly, genuinely worried he was going to suffocate when Anthony asked Ian to leave with him and he didn’t. His body felt hollow and burned through, like everything important in him was drained.

He’s gotten marginally better in their years apart. He doesn’t think he’s any less jealous, but he lets his flares bounce back against himself rather than out at other people.

Damn if it doesn’t catch him off guard every once in a while, though, which is how Anthony ends up breathing through his teeth at a dark, loud, too-cool party, watching Ian laugh at someone’s joke across the room as some guy clasps his shoulder to keep from doubling over.

Anthony already hates parties. It’s a manageable hate, but he does. This, though—watching Ian laugh and smile and talk and treasure someone else makes that jealousy rip through him, choking him by the throat like a fucked-up willow is trying to grow out of there. He wants to leave, except he doesn’t, because then he has to leave Ian and, well, he did that once already. He isn’t sure he’ll get a third chance. Ian does catch his eye, and there’s something of a balm for that awful thing inside him. It’s blue eyes that see him. He doesn’t realize he’s smiling until Ian crosses the dark room towards him.

“Hey,” Ian says. “You ready to go?”

Anthony shakes his head. He can’t make himself say the word ‘no,’ it’s too big of a lie, but he can deal with this for Ian’s sake. He has Ian’s attention right now, so he could endure a lot worse to keep it.

Ian takes a sip of his drink without letting his eyes leave Anthony, bright blue in this dark room. “Well, I think I’m done, but we can hang here if you want, I guess.” Anthony can’t lie, but he’s jealous. Ian isn’t jealous, but he can lie. Like a snake eating its own tail, chasing itself in circles.

“You don’t have to be done,” Anthony says. His eyes flicker to that guy Anthony definitely knows of but can’t name, who’s staring at Ian across the way, a little longing and a little awestruck. He doesn’t blame him, but he doesn’t forgive him either. “But maybe we should get some air?” he suggests.

Ian nods. “Sure.”

They wander outside together, past loud conversation and louder music, into the much lighter LA night air. A breeze rustles through the patio and it makes Anthony aware of how warm he was inside, catching on the light sheen of sweat on his skin. Ian sighs and leans against the side of the house-slash-mansion. It’s quiet between them, but Anthony likes it, until those gnarled fingers dig into him, and he starts to wonder: is Ian here with him or still back inside?

“Who was that?” he asks casually.

Ian rubs under the bridge of his glasses. “Theo? I dunno, I guess he’s, like, a food guy or something. I met him guesting on a podcast last year.”

“Cool,” Anthony says. “Yeah, I was surprised he remembered me.” Anthony nods. He exhales through his nose, but he doesn’t feel like he’s breathing.

Ian shrugs. “We really can go if you want. I’m pretty much done here.”

“Pretty much?” Anthony asks before he can stop himself.

Ian gives him a look. Anthony thinks he should be able to read it, there’s something so direct in Ian’s gaze. “Just a figure of speech. C’mon, let’s just go.”

Anthony can’t help himself; this is where his jealousy is layered too deep, this is his instinct, his nature. “You wanna say bye to Theo first?”

“No,” Ian says without a second thought or a moment of hesitation, like Anthony wasn’t just the brattiest, pettiest person he knows. “He’s fine without me, Anthony.”

“He didn’t look fine when you left.”

“Ok, fine. Well, I don’t care what he looked like. Enough, Anthony. I’m right here.”

Anthony doesn’t say anything. He can still taste that bitter blackness on his tongue.

Ian rolls his eyes. “Your dramatic ass is gonna be the end of me one day,” he mutters, more to himself than anything, then he grabs Anthony’s shirt and pulls him in.

That’s how Anthony ends up kissing Ian for the first time against cool stone at a party he doesn’t want to be at because he can’t keep his jealousy in check. Anthony is probably always going to be jealous, always going to have that bitter, rotten ugliness in there, always going to have to fight it. But maybe it was more to do with missing something he needed. Maybe he’s been trying to feed something that doesn’t want him, or maybe Ian just makes it gentler. Either way, as they break apart, that sharp, craving ache inside Anthony’s bones eases just a bit.

“Dumbass,” Ian smirks, only inches from his face, eyes wandering all over his face like he can’t get enough of Anthony’s stupefied expression.

Anthony swallows, and it tastes like Ian. The beast in his stomach tears into it hungrily, finally sated.

“So, two options,” Ian says. “We leave right now, just bolt for the car. Or,” he takes Anthony’s hand in his, “we go say goodbye to Theo together.”

Anthony can barely process what Ian’s saying, there’s so much room to breathe in his chest, things feel so easy, like all his bones have snapped into alignment. He tries, though, and Ian is patient for him. Before he answers, he kisses Ian again, feels him shift against the side of the house to get closer, to touch more of him, like he wants to be near that deep, ugly, choking jealousy.

“Fuck Theo,” Anthony breathes when they part.

Ian shakes his head. “Nah. Just you.” Anthony laughs. “Okay,” he agrees, leaning in for one more kiss. “Okay.”

[crotchety-old-emu]

OLITDP chapter 24 references

as i mentioned in my author's notes of the chapter, there's a few references that i would like to share with those who are interested in them. you don't need to know about them to understand what's going on in the story, obviously, but perhaps it's nice to have some visual aids to go with some of the things that are happening.

if you haven't read the latest chapter yet, and you want to remain spoiler free, it's best to skip this post (or perhaps come back to it later). you can find chapter 24 of our love is these days' piano here!

so here's a short list of things that might be interesting - but definitely not necessary - to know about chapter 24:

penelope's dress at the trowbridge ball is a silvery sea green. the one i had in mind was kind of like this one, from the season three behind the scenes pics. nicola looks stunning in green, especially with the red hair. i found beatrice knight's regency color compendium, a stunning overview of all the fashionable colours of fabric in the regency era, with some fantastic descriptions of how they were made and when they were worn. the willow/sea green colour shown on this page is exactly the hue i was picturing while writing.

lady trowbridge's decorations: i spent days and days researching how lady trowbridge might showcase her wealth and peculiar tastes during this ball, but honestly, i didn't find much info about ballroom decorations and i didn't want to make up things that definitely could not have happened. so i settled on things that i was already fairly certain of were pretty decadent for the era: pineapples and ice cream. after reading up on ice cream in regency times through several sources, i came across the website of ivan day, who is a food historian and has worked on some bbc regency costume dramas. he had a very insightful youtube video on how ice cream was made in those days. in it, he makes one of the ice cream pineapples i mention in the story. ivan day's actual website is under construction, but i found a photo of moulded ice groups, as they were presented in regency times, on another page which was taken from his. it includes ice cream shaped like a swan (which may have been parmesan flavoured, which apparently was a popular ice cream flavour back then).

another food decoration that both eloise and penelope mention is a flummery solomon's temple. i found out about these through watching the bbc documentary pride and prejudice - having a ball, which talks about accurate representation of balls during regency times on television. the part of the doc i'm linking to is the part where ivan day reveals a solomon's temple and explains that this would be a staple on all upper-class tables in those days. the white bits, if i'm not mistaken, are milk-flavoured, the brown is chocolate and/or coffee, the pink is coloured with cochineal.

he also has a page on solomon's temples on his blog, which has a very amusing short clip of how exactly these jellies moved. if you watch it (highly recommend), i'm sure you'll understand why eloise would think it was a good thing to comment on. ivan day himself describes it as:

Because it is made of flummery, which is a kind of opaque milk jelly, the central obelisk wobbles and cavorts in a most entertaining manner, while the four little cones shake, rattle and roll in a very naughty way.

the dance: i must have watched at least fifty different dances that were popular at the time - shoutout to regencydances.org, which not only has a very extensive list of dances, but also a youtube channel and animations showing what the dances would have looked like. i based penelope and anthony's dance on the northdown waltz - which granted, only became a thing from 1820 onwards, so it's technically an anachronism for them to be dancing it. it simply was the only dance that best fit with how i wanted the scene to go. you can find an instruction video on the northdown waltz here. anthony, in this case, would be the red rectangle, penelope the green ellipsis. here's a clip of actual people performing the dance, so you can kind of imagine what it would have looked like. i always knew anthony's confession would happen during a dance, my main inspiration for that was this scene from becoming jane. if you've seen the film, you undoubtedly know exactly which scene i'm talking about without even clicking the link. i remember that when i first saw this part of the film, i stopped breathing for a minute, because it was just such an intense moment, which was exactly what i wanted for anthony's big moment.

there you go, some insight into the tiny things mentioned in the latest chapter that you might perhaps enjoy knowing more about. hope at least some of you found it interesting!

also, i want to mention: i am not a historian, i don't claim that my fic is historically accurate, not in the very least. i try to stick to period-appropriate things, which i do as much research for as i can. but some mistakes will have slipped in there, i am very much aware. so if this is a particular pet peeve for some of the history buffs among you, i apologise.

[bithablu]

Bridgerton, Colin Bridgerton

Stop me if you've read this before but I've got a theory about Colin's time on the continent. I don't think he was just fuckboi-ing his way through Europe. I think he was working for the crown. The Napoleonic Wars were still going on and I'm sure the war office (or whatever it was called then) wouldn't hesitate to use a charming third son of a prominent family to gather intel.

You have to admit, 17 cities was excessive for a 4 month trip. With all the travel time involved, Colin wouldn't have much time to get settled, let alone bored, with a place before running off to the next city. Not to mention, the only person he tells exactly how many places he visited was Penelope. When his family asks him where he's been (during the gifts giving scene), Colin just smiles enigmatically and doesn't respond. But, judging by the gifts, he's been in or near Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland? (Violet's watch), and Bavaria? (Eloise's book).

What caught my attention was that Anthony was surprised that Colin had been to both Spain and France (not to mention everywhere else). You would think that he would have gotten some kind of notification as to where Colin's funds were being directed- even with BennyBoy taking over the Viscount duties during the honeymoon. But Anthony has no clue; which makes me wonder where Colin was getting enough money to travel that extensively and quickly. I theorize that much of Colin's travels were funded by the crown. They would have local funds in various places for him to access and they would be able to pay for the costs of the faster travel (fresh horses, boatman overtime fees, yadda yadda).

The 'Man of Mystery' attitude seemed like a dramatic change as well. Yes, Penelope was the only one to take an interest in his previous travels, but Colin seemed remarkably tight lipped about where he had been and what he had been up to. Even when asked directly, he deflected or ignored the question entirely. It makes me wonder if that 'Charm can be taught' line wasn't all he was taught. Perhaps he also learned manipulation and information gathering as well.

One last thing (for now): Colin's ever changing appearance. His Parisian presentation day outfit was clearly French inspired but his other outfits seemed indicative of other locations as well. This idea is probably better left to people who pay attention to historical garb but, to a historical clothing layman, the vibe of his clothes changed considerably. The outfit and hairstyle Colin had when he met Pen under the weeping willow tree seemed Spanish to me (I fully accept that I could be totally wrong though), his horse printed waistcoat (that he worse while staring out the window after the news came out that he was helping Pen) made me think of Poland, and the striped vest (hot air balloon scene when he distracted Pen (almost to death) with his forearms) gave off an Italian feel. Did Colin just like to sample sartorial styles or were they costumes to help him fit in?

In summation, I think Colin Bridgerton spent his time on the continent being a baby-spy for the government. I also think he's going to use this as a way to get Pen out of trouble when she gets exposed for being Lady Whistledown.

[sunnydaleherald]

The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter, Thursday, September 12th

ANGELUS: Early 20's by the cars. What is this — Chicago? (sees Angel standing on the other side of the street) Oh, no. I remember this. I remember this place. I gotta get out of here. FAITH: Why? You freaking out? ANGELUS: It's coming. (a car speeds around the corner down the street in front of them) Again. FAITH: What's coming? ANGELUS: I can't do it again. I won't! (Angel runs into the street right in front of the car.) FAITH: Angel, get out of the road. (Angel continues until he's completely across the street. A small squeaking sound can be heard. Angel turns around to reveal that he's holding a tiny Pomeranian puppy.) ANGELUS: (throwing a fit) Doh! FAITH: (giggling) Dude, you just rescued a puppy.

~~Orpheus~~

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

Sexyme Street by MamaBewear (Angel/Spike, Puppet Angel/Spike, M)

Proposals by TheClowniestLivInExistence (Darla/Drusilla, M)

Tea With Milk In by evesock (Spike/Drusilla, E)

As You Purr by VoronaFiernan (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

Unmake Me by tempestt (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

A Sword in the Man - ch. 3 by Desicat (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

[Chaptered Fiction]

And Then There Were Two - ch. 3 by Murderpart1 (Willow/Vamp Willow, Not Rated)

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Infinitely - ch. 69 by Laragh (Willow/Tara, M)

In Case You Haven't Noticed... - ch. 35 by Sdhuskerfan (Buffy/Giles, E) COMPLETE!

Midnight At The Lost & Found - ch. 4 by The_Crazy_Knight (Buffy/Giles, E) COMPLETE!

A Ripple In Time - ch. 24-45 by CheekyKitten (Buffy/Spike, E) COMPLETE!

A Taste of Buffy - ch. 4 by Maxine Eden (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Getaway Gang - ch. 2 by violettathepiratequeen (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

The Degradation of Duality [Series Part 2] - ch. 50 by Ragini (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Waiting for You - ch. 20 by honeygirl51885 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

Through The Keyhole - ch. 7 by Geliot99, cd85 (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

Getaway Gang - ch. 2 by violettathepiratequeen (Buffy/Spike, PG-13)

Waiting for You - ch. 20 by honeygirl51885 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17)

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Zombydale Gates, CA - ch. 1-2 by veronyxk84 (Buffy, Spike, T) COMPLETE!

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Artwork: 🖤 "With others I live, with you I exist..." 🖤 by o-cm-draw-o (Buffy/Spike, mildly NSFW)

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Edit: Hunger by raffaella-cerullo (Faith, worksafe)

Gifset: Buffy and Faith meeting pre-Sunnydale by whatisyourchildhoodtrauma (Buffy/Faith, worksafe)

Gifset: EARSHOT and we're all like that. we all have our little internal iagos, that tell us... by detectivedawnsummers (ensemble, worksafe)

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[Reviews & Recaps]

I'm rewatching Buffy the series (S3E2) and I hate everyone but Buffy in this episode... by ohumokay

Season 5 Episode 10 What A Bizarre Message by friendofathena

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[Articles, Interviews, and Other News]

VIDEO: BTVS Panel [with Tara, Anya, Darla, and others] - Fanboy Expo Orlando Sept 7, 2024, Part 1 of 3 recorded by tuxedomark

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[solarsleepless]

i love graydon hes just a sad little nerd with big brown eyes

[mostbelovednjpwtournament]

Most Beloved AEW Tournament Round 1 Statistics Dump

Thank you all for participating in the wonderful first two weeks of my silly lil poll

Followers: 130

Total Votes: 13,148

Times I accidentally forgot to include a wrestler: 1 (sorry ZSJ)

Beloved By Gender

So the original count of men, women and nonbinary wrestlers was 205/64/2, demonstrated in a pie chart as:

(The fact that this is the chart is a separate problem that won't be addressed here)

But after voting, the ratio looks like this:

Which means, from an overall standpoint, women and nonbinary wrestlers are more beloved than men

Voting trends

As the tournament got more popular, more votes started coming in, which is how some winners got so few votes. Over the last two weeks, the vote counts look like:

(Day 6 was the Great Riho VS Kip Sabian Battle of 2023 and also featured Ricky Starks and Nick Jackson in the voting with just shy of 600 votes just between the four of them. Day 11 was the Roderick Strong VS Trent Beretta debate and also Danhausen, garnering well over 600 votes between the three of them)

Teams and How They Fared

BCC: Bryan Danielson (31), Claudio Castagnoli (70), Jon Moxley (133) & Wheeler Yuta (186) all passed first round

Best Friends: Kris Statlander (51), Chuck Taylor (176), Orange Cassidy (186) & Danhausen (201) all made it to round two. Trent Beretta (207) lost to Roderick Strong.

The Elite: Matt Jackson (25), Adam Page (51), Kota Ibushi (58) & Nick Jackson (119) made it to round 2. Kenny Omega (160) lost to Willow Nightingale.

BCG: Jay White (76), Colten Gunn (97) &Juice Robinson (105) made it to round two. Austin Gunn (42) lost to Stokely Hathaway.

The Acclaimed: Max Caster (59), Billy Gunn (104) & Anthony Bowens (117) all passed first round.

House Of Black: Buddy Matthews (68), Brody King (102), Julia Hart (128) & Malakai Black (136) all passed first round.

Dark Order: Stu Grayson (25), Alex Reynolds (31), Evil Uno (36), John Silver (74) & Mr Brodie Lee (101) all made it to round two. Alan Angels (18) lost to Anna Jay.

The Outcasts: Ruby Soho (107) & Toni Storm (149) made it to round two. Saraya (55) lost to Brent Tate.

FTR: Dax Harwood (28) lost to Dalton Castle and Cash Wheeler (12) lost to Samoa Joe.

Jurassic Express: Luchasaurus (33) & Jack Perry (85) made it to round two (thanks to the voters deciding Jack should move on). Marko Stunt (52) lost to Komander.

Jericho Appreciation Society: Angelo Parker (33), Tay Melo (44), Jake Hager (50), Matt Menard (84) & Anna Jay (111) all made it to round two. Chris Jericho (23) lost to Rocky Romero and Sammy Guevara (10) lost to Tay Melo.

Death Triangle: Penta (41) & Rey Fenix (119) made it to round two. Pac (56) lost to Jay White.

The 100%ers

Out of the whole tournament, only 3 wrestlers got a perfect score with not a single vote against them

Powerhouse Hobbs (35)

Sting (50)

Rey Fenix (119)

Thank you to all who participated thus far and watch out for the round 2 voting starting tomorrow!

[thatliminal-wanderer]

Squiggles (Generation Loss) ID Pack

Requested by Anon

Names

Ace, Adam, Albert, Aldan, Alden, Aldon, Aldwin, Alexandria, Alfred, Alice, Alpha, Alvin, Alvis, Alvy, Alwyn, Amit, Amity, Andrew, Angelica, Anissa, Ann, Anna, Anne, Anthony, Archie, Arthur, Arwin, Ash, Ashna, Audrey, Austar, Baldwin, Barney, Bartholomew, Bellamy, Ben, Billy, Bit, Bob, Bruno, Buddy, Buzz, Cad, Caden, Cass, Ced, Cederick, Cedrick, Cedrik, Charlie, Chester, Clarissa, Dakota, Dakotah, Damien, Darwin, Darwyn, David, Edwin, Einstein, Elliot, Elwin, Ernie, Ferris, Frank, Gamba, Graham, Harold, Hedley, Horatio, Irwin, Jordan, Kadeen, Kahil, Kaira, Kaleel, Kalid, Karah, Khalee, Khaleel, Khalil, Khalilah, Lefty, Lewis, Liz, Lucky, Maitreya, Marble, Margaret, Marty, Marx, Mary, Meet, Mitra, Mitul, Noddy, Patrick, Pete, Quicky, Rafee, Rafiki, Rob, Rosemary, Ruth, Ruthie, Samara, Sedric, Sidney, Snap, Soumil, Stephen, Takoda, Wade, Wayne, Willow, Yadira, Yara, Zach, Zamil

Pronouns

ar/archive/archives, camera/cameras, cassette/cassetes, dark/darks, distort/distorts, file/files, footage/footages, fourth/fourths, fun/funs, game/games, glee/glees, goober/goobers, laugh/laughs, lost/losts, luck/lucks, mascot/mascots, radio/radios, record/records, rewind/rewinds, scare/scares, show/shows, signal/signals, silly/sillys, spook/spooks, stalk/stalks, static/statics, talk/talks, tape/tapes, wall/walls, watch/watchs, 🌐/🌐s, 🎞️/🎞️s, 🎭/🎭s, 🎮/🎮s, 🎰/🎰s, 👁️/👁️s, 👤/👤s, 📞/📞s, 📺/📺s, 🦝/🦝s, 🪡/🪡s

Titles

Showfall’s Little Face of Joy, The False Joy, The Joyful Watcher, The Judge of Life or Death, The Mascot That Loves The Viewers, The One Who Knows About The Show, The One Who Let’s The Viewers Choose, The One Who May Write The Script, The Show’s Mascot, [prn] Who Speaks to The Audience, [prns] The One Who Watches

Genders

Analogender, Analoghorrorgender, Foundfootagehorroric, G!squigglesgender, Genderlog, Horroraveil, Humornoxic, Oldinternetfriendic, Redroomic, Sweetnsillygender, Videourawarec, Vitciwatchic, Webhorroric

Other mogai

Alderanalora, Chat Omninoun, Error Omninoun, Horrorvior

[galaxy-brain-rasslin]

Thoughts on AEW: Revolution (2024)

There will be spoilers. There will also be a cut, as a courtesy.

Zero Hour:

The Bang Bang Scissor Gang (Max Caster, Anthony Bowens, Billy Gunn, Austin Gunn, Colten Gunn, Jay White) vs Jeff Jarrett, Stanam Singh, Jay Lethal, Willie Mack, and Private Part

This consistent thing of Max flubbing on the rap is interesting. My current assumption is that they're potentially having Max break away from the group. Which is an interesting choice, because Bowens is significantly more popular.

The match itself was totally fine. It was a Jarrett match. I didn't go into it expecting it to be some sort of masterpiece of technical wrestling. I expected a fun, goofy little thing with a bunch of silly shit happening that also happened to have some decent-to-good wrestling. And that's exactly what this was. No complaints.

I have no idea if White's post-match promo was intended to be interpreted as a smarmy, insincere thing filled with deliberately cheap pops for the audience, but that's how I heard it. It somehow made it so much better.

Willow Nightingale & Kris Statlander vs Julia Hart & Skye Blue

Julia Hart's character going from a cheerleader to "What if The Undertaker was a spooky girl instead?" is such an amazing transformation. I can't get over how well she's committed to the presentation of the gimmick, and how good this is. Skye going from blue-themed girl from Chicago to a Dark Kingdom cosplayer has also been an interesting development. I like how these two also seem to be enjoying the changeup.

Stokely Hathaway is hilarious. I love him on commentary. His inclusion of the dynamic with Willow and Kris is just fantastic.

If I've said it once, I've said it 100 times-- I love Willow. She's one of my favorite women on the roster. The combination of the happy/bubbly personality that also contains someone who, if pressed, will rip you in half? Wonderful stuff. And Statlander is also consistently great. Watching these two throw Skye around was fantastic.

I was a little surprised to see Willow and Kris win without any major fuckery. Julia's moonsault looked significantly better compared the one with her match against Abadon.

It was a fun little match.

Revolution

Christian Cage vs Daniel Garcia, AEW TNT Championship

Christian Cage continues to be one of the best heels in professional wrestling today. A gimmick composed entirely of "lmao L + Ratio + Dead Dad" and "I will be your father"-- all while he wrestles in a goddamn sleeveless turtleneck? Everything about that is just somebody whose face you want to see punched.

Really happy to see Garcia get the match. I mentioned before that I had wanted DG to win. That didn't happen, but I thought everything about the match was great. Menard combing out there to beat the hell out of Luchasaurus/Killswitch in defense of Danny was great.

I thought Garcia looked good in this, and I don't think him losing to Christian (especially with all the interference) will cause any significant issues.

Ultimately, I enjoyed the match. I thought it was a good opener and kept me pretty invested the whole time. Although I'm wondering who is going to be the one to actually take the title off Christian.

Eddie Kingston vs Bryan Danielson, Continental Crown Championship (AEW Continental, ROH World, NJPW Strong Openweight Championships)

Bryan Danielson is without question one of the greatest technical pro wrestlers of all time. Also, he and Eddie both are fantastic in-ring storytellers.

Bryan Danielson, in his current iteration, is also a condescending piece of shit, and he's great at doing that, too.

Like Willow, I love Eddie. Eddie is up there with Hiroshi Tanahashi in that I will literally always cheer for him. I don't care who he's up against, I'm cheering for Eddie the whole time.

This match was amazing. Eddie and Bryan are so great at getting you emotionally invested in their matches. They both know what things they need to do for the audience to get hooked in, and they play those perfectly. The narrative of this match was perfect.

I went into this genuinely uncertain just who would win. The majority of the match didn't help matters. Eddie hitting the ring post with a chop, instead of Danielson, was a nice piece of drama to incorporate into things. I also liked how Danielson really made it a point to emphasize just how strong Eddie's chops are-- with commentary even pointing out Bryan things Eddie is better with chopping/upper body attacks.

A big narrative line through these Eddie Kingston Addresses the Blackpool Combat Club matches has been that BCC generally seems to think Eddie has the potential to be a lot better than he is, and they're trying to get that out of him. Except for Mox, they don't respect Eddie until he shows up and chops the fuck out of them. Eddie has always been on their level, but he doesn't believe in himself enough to really get there.

Great match. Just a great fucking match.

I know Eddie eventually is going to have to lose the belts. It's an inevitability unless just retire all of them simultaneously, but that seems unlikely. That said, I don't have to like it.

Wardlow vs Chris Jericho vs Powerhouse Hobbs vs Lance Archer vs Hook vs Brian Cage vs Magnus vs Dante Martin

Originally the Meat match, got changed up due to Reasons. I'll be honest, I didn't really care much about this match. I assumed Wardlow was going to win, because it didn't really make sense to do this repackaged presentation of him with Undisputed Kingdom, set up a match essentially to be like "Look at Wardlow slap all this meat" and then have him lose. The inclusion of the smaller guys was, like, fine. Dante Martin is great. Hook is fun. Magnus was also great. Chris Jericho was there.

I thought it was contrived and silly, but I also enjoyed when the smaller dudes all got knocked out of the ring so the bigger dudes could do a little pose off and have slap meat. But that's because the "MEAT" chants are hilarious to me.

My preferred ending to this match would have been if Wardlow had powerbombed Jericho for the win. But you can't get everything you want. Also, Wardlow using the Last Ride as his finisher is great. I wasn't the biggest fan of Bikertaker (and I believe he had only recently transitioned into Bikertaker whenever I fell off of watching WWF/E the first time) but Last Ride is such a great powerbomb.

A silly and fun match. It was a nice cooldown from Eddie/Bryan.

Roderick Strong vs Orange Cassidy, AEW International Championship

AEW's doctor said that OC wouldn't be cleared to wrestle unless they taped up his ribs and back. So the match starts with OC wearing a comical amount of kinesio tape. In a match against a man who is literally called "The Messiah of the Backbreaker".

Strong came to the ring wearing a white hooded cape and a skull-themed, like, paintball mask. I didn't recognize it at first, but I think it was intended to be something like Taskmaster from Marvel Comics. Which is kinda cool. I'm not as familiar with Taskmaster as much as other villains-- mostly because I just haven't read a lot of Marvel stuff.

Anyway, this was a good match. Roddy, as one would expect, beat the hell out of OC's back. I think OC did great at showing that he's just a beat down dude who has barely let himself take time to recover from any injuries. And having him go up against someone who basically specializes in hurting the area that OC was already injured was just perfect.

Roddy is great. The number of ways that man can spin something into a backbreaker is always impressive. I'm glad he won. I maintain that getting this win will absolutely help the legitimacy of Undisputed Kingdom.

Blackpool Combat Club (Jon Moxley & Claudio Castagnoli) vs FTR

I think that FTR is one of the greatest tag teams around today. I've said this before. I was a fan of theirs when they were in NXT as The Revival, and I loved their little Belt Collector run with AEW. In terms of non-WWE tag teams, they're usually right up there with The Young Bucks, and whether you're a fan of the Bucks or FTR really seems to boil down to the style you like to watch. The no-flips-just-fists of FTR is a great callback to the older era of wrestling, and the two of them do it well.

Mox and Claudio also do that very well.

This was a great match. These four dudes beat the shit out of each other, and I genuinely wasn't sure how the match would go.

BCC doing a Doomsday Device with a goddamn European uppercut was wild.

I think having Mox and Jon win was perfectly fine. FTR isn't going to be hurt by losing to these two dudes. They're fucking FTR. I could easily watch these four have several more matches together. There's a kind of respectful brutality with them.

That all being said, I do wish the meme of Mox bleeding every match-- or people being surprised when he isn't bleeding-- would finally die. He hasn't done it in a while.

Of course, half of Mox's character is basically some sort of blood freak with a violence fetish, so I still expect blood somewhere in his bigger matches.

"Timeless" Toni Storm vs Deonna Purrazzo, AEW Women's Championship

Mariah May coming out to Toni's old theme, with her old gear was a great touch.

Deonna is great. I'm happy to see her here. I'm glad that there's solid technical wrestling the women's division with her and Deeb being there. This was a solid match. I didn't really have a lot in terms of expectations-- I haven't seen a lot of Deonna's other stuff, but I knew she was good.

While I think it would have been fine if Deonna had one, I also think it may have been a bit too soon for that. Also, if Mercedes is debuting soon, that sets up a bit of a lose/lose if Deonna is the champion and they try to hook those two into a feud.

I definitely want to see more from Deonna. I think she would be a good person to take the TBS belt from Julia. I don't want her down in ROH-- but that's because ROH is a subscription service, and I don't currently have it (although I do want it, because Athena is one of my favorites).

I thought this was a solid match for both of them. Toni is always fun to watch in the ring. I'm curious to see where things go with both of them after this.

Will Ospreay vs Konosuke Takeshita

1 Like = 1 Bruv.

My expectation for this match was, quite literally, just that it was going to be a fucking fantastic match. Ospreay is one of the greats. Takeshita is steadily (and rapidly) approaching into the ranks of the greats.

I fucking loved this match. The crowd at the arena fucking loved this match. Every time Ospreay and Takeshita started in on each other, you could eat the people just get so into it.

Was this a dirty spotfest? Yeah. Of course. It's a Will Ospreay match. That's what he does. But you know what? I don't fucking care. I can enjoy watching ZSJ and Bryan Danielson spend an hour in the middle of the ring, trying to break each other's fingers and I can enjoy watching Ospreay and Takeshita jump around and flip and smash each other with elbows before jumping and flipping some more.

Spanish Fly is also one of my favorite moves to watch.

The match fucked. It humped. It was great. I loved it. It was A Spectacle if there ever was one. The kind of match you can eat popcorn to, although you're going to throw it everywhere because you jerking the bag around out of excitement. So much fun.

Samoa Joe vs Swerve Strickland vs HangMAD Hangman Adam Page

Did I want Swerve to win? Yes.

Did I want Hangman to win? Yes.

Did I want Samoa Joe to win? Yes.

Did I want Hangman to completely lose his mind and deliberately fuck over Swerve? Oh god, yes.

Swerve Strickland the most over wrestler who is not named "Sting" in AEW. There is nobody who comes close to this man. He literally broke into Hangman's home, and threated Hangman's infant child, and the crowd still loves him, because he's that fucking cool. And he's that good. Swerve's popularity is so strong that anyone who goes against him is going to be booed on some level.

Hangman has, as the upper-third of his name plate said, completely lost it. Wide-eyed, driven, and completely unhinged. Does he want the championship? Or does he just want Swerve to not have it?

Samoa Joe is Samoa Joe. We all love him. He's great on the mic. He's great in the ring. He feels credible and legitimate as a champion and a challenger. Having him be the champion for this feud is great.

A fantastic match. A ton of fun to watch. There was a perfect amount of drama for this thing. I loved it.

This match also cemented the double-turn for Swerve and Hangman.

Hangman, in an attempt to prevent Swerve from winning, beat up two different referees. The only way that's a babyface move is if your name is Bobby Heenan. Hangman's obsession with screwing over Swerve has caused him to start doing this stuff. I can't wait to see where they go with him now. Are they gonna change the music? Will they keep the goofy comments in the nameplate?

Swerve, by extension, refused to use Prince Nana's crown when it was offered, saying that he didn't need it. A thing that had been used before in matches against Hangman. There is an attempt here to have Swerve redeem himself for the deplorable things he's done.

In the end, Hangman tapped to Samoa Joe. Excalibur, help to sow the seeds that many people were wondering, posed the question if Hangman was tapping because he actually gave up, or if he was tapping to spite Swerve. I think it was the latter, because he's that much of a (justified) hater.

I am still 100% in favor of Hangman and Swerve fighting forever.

Sting and Darby Allin vs The Young Bucks, AEW Tag Team Championship

Sting's last match. Going out on his terms. This was a big deal for a lot of people. Even people who weren't in AEW. I knew this was going to be special.

Before the match starts, Ric Flair made his way down to the ring to take up space. Then, Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat came down as the guest timekeeper. They also showed various other wrestlers in the audience.

The Young Bucks come out in robes and have cannons shoot out business cards. It felt like a corporate Okada entrance. I liked it.

Darby came out as he does.

Then we got a little video package of Sting in an empty theater as they show various career highlights. In the end, he says, "It's showtime. It's showtime for the last time. Let's do this."

Sting's entrance starts with one of his sons dressed as a red, white, and blue-themed Surfer Sting, complete with the blonde hair. Another son is dressed as Wolfpac Sting. Then we have Sting show up.

While Tony Schiavone's voice isn't as strong as it was in WCW, you can tell during his initial commentary during the match that's definitely trying not to get emotional.

Watching Sting, and his two sons, do Stinger Splashes to the Bucks was great.

Tables, chairs, a ladder, and panes of glass were brought out. Panes. Multiple. A series of chairs were set up, and one or two sheets of the glass were placed on top, like a table.

Sting and Darby went through tables.

Darby jumped from the ladder (which was quite tall) and landed back first into Chekov's Glass-and-Chair Table. He laid on the ground for quite some time, his back just absolutely shredded.

Sting, also, went through glass. However, he had clothes on, and looked unscathed.

The match was chaos in the best way. I had no idea who would win-- I expected The Bucks to do something fucky to screw over Sting. They threw everything at him. He withstood multiple superkicks and BTE/EVP Triggers.

Eventually, Darby came back to life, and managed to keep Nicholas Jackson at bay long enough for Sting to throw on the Scorpion Deathlock. Matthew taps. Sting and Darby retain.

Sting's last wrestling match, and he goes out on top. I didn't expect that. I don't know why I didn't expect that. Tony Khan is a billionaire wrestling nerd, and Sting was/is probably a favorite of his. If there was ever a wrestler who deserved to go out as the winner, it's Sting.

If AEW is around long enough to have a "Hall of Fame", Sting needs to be one of the first people inducted (the first person has to be Brodie Lee, or I will personally fight Tony Khan). I hope they are around long enough for that.

Miscellaneous non-match things

PAC IS COMING BACK. YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. I've missed that bastard.

KOR IS BACK. YESSSSSSSSSSSSS. I missed that goofy son of a bitch. I was so worried he wouldn't be coming back. I can't watch to see how he's going to be interacting with Undisputed Kingdom, since he seemingly rejected Roddy's offer to join.

Apparently Toni Storm called out Wendy Richter again in the post-show media scrum. Which I just find consistently hilarious.

In Summary

This shit was fucking fun as hell, dude. AEW is very consistent in having good quality PPVs. World's End was probably the weakest one I've seen, and even then, it wasn't bad. I can't wait to see the fallout of things on Wednesday.

[eleanor-bradstreet]

Willow Bark - Day 3: An Arrival

Rated: T, whump and angst Word count: 5.6k

Day 2 Day 4 Masterpost

No more summaries, so as not to spoil!

By late morning the next day, the fever had not broken and the medicine had done nothing to improve Benedict’s condition. Dr. Crowe and the village surgeon were jointly called back to the house to examine him. Their theories on his malady differed, with the surgeon suspecting that it may be brain fever. When Sophie refused to let them bleed him again, they were in agreement that there was nothing more they could offer. He was in God’s hands.

At Benedict’s bedside, Sophie brought his palm to her cheek and refused to look at the physicians. Eloise sank silently into a chair. Anthony stuttered, eyes wild, all but accusing them both of malpractice. He would seek another opinion, someone far more qualified from the city. He practically shoved them both out the door and began to pace at the foot of the bed, rambling. They were country hacks who didn’t know what they were talking about. He would have the best London doctor brought to sort everything out. There was still more to be done. This was not the final word.

As he strategized aloud, Sophie smoothed Benedict’s hair back from his white forehead. She didn’t protest or say anything at all. She nodded at Anthony but her eyes were such bottomless wells of grief and pity, it was clear she had no faith in his plans.

Shaking with adrenaline, Anthony stalked into the study once again and dashed off two hasty letters. One to his solicitor, instructing him to dispense any amount of money necessary in order to send the best doctor post haste. The other was to Kate, his heart pounding and fingers trembling as he wrote: 

En katal, 

I would not ask this of you if I did not know you were the most capable. Please tell the family, Mother in particular, that they must come now. There isn’t an hour to waste. I need you.

-Anthony

How many messengers were in the area, especially considering he had sent one off the day before, Anthony didn’t know. And how quickly they would be able to rush to the city through the interminable sheets of rain, he couldn’t guess. But he growled at Benedict’s beleaguered footman to do everything in his power to send them out and promised the man a financial reward. Then he moved in a circuit up and down the hall outside the bedroom door, assuring himself that help would arrive, that all would be well.

---

The day progressed with a kind of muffled lethargy, a thickness to the air and a slowness of movement with no one knowing where to situate themselves or what to say, but they all stayed congregated in Benedict’s room. The passage of time became impossible to contend with. Should they desire the hours to pass more quickly so that the fever might inevitably break? Or should they try to stop time altogether and stay in these moments before a darker turn occurred? They stood in silence, each tuned into the cadence of Benedict’s labored breath, each refusing to abandon hope and none of them wanting to be the first to acknowledge what they may be facing.

The relentless rain continued as the daylight faded into dusk. Anthony sat watching Eloise kneel next to Benedict, cooling his brow and neck with a cloth. Sophie stood between them, biting the nails of one hand with the other wrapped around herself. Her eyes were sunken, her frame withered. She was growing as pale as Benedict and starting to look skeletal. The thought occurred to Anthony that he had not seen her eat anything since he had arrived.

Before he could encourage her to address the matter, she suddenly spoke. “Did Ben ever tell you how we met?” Her voice was brittle but a small smile tugged at her lips as she looked down at her husband. “The second time.”

Eloise looked back. “It was at the Cavenders.”

“Yes,” Sophie nodded, smiling as she relished the memory. “We were both…escaping. He found me and gave me a ride to safety.” Then her face fell again. “We were caught in the rain and he came down with a fever. I took care of him. I don’t know why he’s so prone…” Her voice trailed off as tears began to brim in her eyes.

Anthony perked up. “What helped last time?”

Sophie shook her head, shrugging helplessly. “Just a night’s rest. It was only a few hours. This has been days.” Her voice cracked again and she started to tremble as tears began pouring down her face. She gasped, fighting for each word as she started to reel and babble. “I don’t know what…I don’t…I can’t…”

She was breaking. At last she had reached the end of her strength and feigned confidence. As he watched her Anthony saw the terror, the void of despair which was all too familiar to him. He had been to that place before and knew its overwhelming, inky grip. He rose and moved to her.

“Sophie,” He wrapped a steadying arm around her shoulders. She crumpled against him, heaving raggedly, unable to catch her breath, her eyes darting behind her endless tears. 

Eloise watched them with concern and shared a wordless exchange with her brother. “Go. I’ll look after him.”

Anthony nodded tightly then steered his sister-in-law out the door and down to the sitting room. She leaned into him, grateful for the guidance, and lost herself to the panic that was tearing through her veins. She didn’t have the fortitude to fight it anymore and part of her wondered if she even should. This seemed the appropriate response to the news she had received that morning. She had done her best to restrain her feelings this long and now they demanded to be heard. 

Anthony sat her in a chair and she continued to tremble, crying wretchedly. He kept a hand on her shoulder. “Sophie, you must remain calm. That is what Benedict needs from you right now. That is what we all need.”

Gulping through her sobs, she looked up at him. Even with the shared grief in his eyes he seemed so steady, so sure. She admired the Viscount for the many ways in which he provided for his family, including for Benedict and herself, and she had never wanted to appear vulnerable in front of him. It was enough that he had accepted her, a bastard maid, into his family when most other gentlemen would have exposed and banished her from their tier of society. Now that she was a Bridgerton, she had vowed to prove herself worthy of his name and his gracious support. But in this moment, he shared the cause of her weakness and she felt compelled to confide in him.

 “I can’t lose him, Anthony.”

His lips tightened into a line as he clenched his jaw. “He will recover. I know that he will. He is strong.” It sounded like a recitation, a dogged insistence that if he said it enough times it would manifest.

As her sobs dried to shuddering breaths Sophie inhaled deeply, locking into his eyes until he could see something desperate in hers. “Anthony…I am with child.”

He froze. If there was one thing that could make this situation even worse than it already was, surely it was this. It shouldn’t have been a surprise, but Sophie wasn’t showing any indication of her condition. Benedict’s words echoed back to him, his desperate plea for Anthony to take care of her. The urgency of his request made even more sense now, though he hadn’t mentioned…

“Does he know?” He tried to keep his voice calm.

Sophie stared at her lap and nodded, wiping tears from her cheeks. She began to ramble again but devoid of energy, her voice was faint. “I can’t…I don’t know how your mother…” Buried within her fear he detected a layer of sympathy. “Anthony, I’m so sorry. I don’t want anyone to go through this again.”

He nearly stumbled backward. She saw the parallel, but he hadn’t until she spoke. He instantly remembered his mother, heavily pregnant and running across the lawn at Aubrey Hall on that black day; heard her wailing in the stairwell as the maids tried to calm her for the sake of the baby; saw the utter despair in her eyes as she endured her labor without her husband by her side. History was threatening to repeat itself, to grow into some kind of curse he could not escape.

It brought him to his knees in front of her, eyes wide as he gazed into a future that was also his past. He recited the words again though there was no conviction in them. “We wo…we won’t. He won’t... It will be alright.”

Sophie stared off over his shoulder, her sunken eyes misted over. After a moment she spoke, her voice hollow. “He is my soul. I will die.”

Anthony shuddered. How many times had Benedict used that same phrase? Claiming that he and his wife shared a soul. It was what he had lobbed at Anthony when justifying his reasons for marrying outside their class. It was what he had said in his toast at their wedding. It was a well-worn declaration Benedict fell into when the brothers had too many drinks together. Anthony had always written it off as his brother’s typical dramatic flair, his poetic temperament run amok. But now his wife was before him, asserting the same in their darkest hour when there was no space for hyperbole. It was enough to make him consider that it may actually be true. That there may be a level of magical connection between Benedict and Sophie that he couldn’t perceive or understand.

The thought ignited something desperate, nearly angry in him. Magic or no, fate would not wrench his family apart again. Whatever it took, whatever he could give of himself to prevent or mitigate a tragedy, he would do it. He would not watch Sophie wither as his mother had. He would not hold Benedict’s child the way he had held Hyacinth, cries echoing around an empty nursery devoid of either parent. Grief had nearly taken his mother and left his family with scars that would never fully heal. It wouldn’t run its cruel game over the Bridgertons again. He would not let sorrow swallow them all whole.

He snapped to attention, gripping Sophie’s hands in his own, his eyes burning. “You will not! You will not, do you hear me?” His tone was commanding, harsh even, but he didn’t care. “You will not lose yourself in grief. I will not allow it. It was a lesson hard-learned for me, but this kind of pain is the price we pay for love.” He wound his fingers between hers. “I will not lose any of you.”

In that moment, cutting through her shroud of woe, Sophie felt for the first time in her life a novel sense of protection. Something she had longed for throughout her wretched childhood and despaired of ever finding. Someone who would shoulder her with the guidance and care of a father; a brother. The fierceness of Anthony’s grip and the fervor in his eyes left no room for doubt. She stared back at him, stunned.

The silence was suddenly broken by the footman appearing in the doorway.

“Mrs. Bridgerton, there is a Sir Phillip Crane here to see you.”

In the entry hall Anthony and Sophie found Sir Phillip dripping with rain. He brushed the droplets from his eyes with one hand while the other grasped the handle of a valise. He bowed to each of them in turn.

Anthony’s brow furrowed. “Sir Phillip. What are you doing here?”

Phillip glanced cautiously between them. “I went to Aubrey Hall and was informed of Mr. Bridgerton’s condition. How is he?”

The last time Anthony had seen this man, he had caused his sister to storm off in a fury and he still did not know the reason why. Despite Eloise’s mercurial nature, he would of course always lay the fault at her suitor’s feet before laying it at hers. He clasped his hands behind his back and stuck his nose in the air. “I don’t know that it’s any of your concern.”

Phillip retracted into himself, bowing his head. “Of course. I wanted to apologize to Eloise. But focusing on your family is the top priority.”

Anthony stared down at him, his voice clipped. “It is.”

Sophie had no patience to deal with the tension between these men, whatever its origins. It was unlikely that the mere desire for a conversation had spurred their visitor to travel through the rainy night. She kept her tone gentle, letting him know he was welcome in her home. “Sir Phillip, what is that you are holding?”

Phillip tore his eyes from Anthony and seemed to remember himself. “Mrs. Bridgerton, if you will allow me to impose myself. I came here to offer help to your husband, if I could.” He gestured toward the valise.

“Do you know something of medicine?” Her voice edged on desperation but she didn’t care.

Phillip shrugged. “As much as a botanist would. I have brought medicinal herbs. I am sure that a doctor has prescribed his own treatment, but I only sought to help.” His piercing blue eyes were impossibly kind. It seemed that Eloise had found herself a fiance with a pure heart.

Sophie felt a spark of hope flicker within. A practical stranger, she wanted to throw herself into his arms and ask him to assuage all her fears. “The doctor has said there’s no more to be done,” she rasped, biting her lip as new tears formed.

A haunted look passed over his features. “I am sorry…”

“Please,” Sophie spluttered, moving forward and taking him by the arm. She had nothing left to lose and his arrival seemed too serendipitous to question. “Please come see him. You must try.”

Fully ignoring the flustered, angry look on Anthony’s face, she pulled Phillip through the house and up to the bedroom where Benedict and Eloise waited.

When they opened the door, Eloise leapt to her feet at the bedside. “Phillip!”

Dragged along by Sophie, he couldn’t pause for a polite introduction. He tried to convey as much apology and concern as he could through his eyes alone and nodded at her. “Eloise.”

“What are you doing here?” She glanced between them all, Anthony marching grumpily at the rear.

“He’s going to help Benedict.” Sophie said with a new strength in her voice. It was clear she would brook no further questions or protests. 

Anthony and Eloise huddled near the wall as Sophie and Phillip spoke in hurried, hushed tones, leaning over the bed. Sophie shared everything the doctor and surgeon had told her while Phillip felt Benedict’s forehead, his neck, his fingers. He looked into his eyes and timed his pulse all while he lay feverish and unresponsive. He tried to hide from Sophie how his own hands were shaking, overcome with memories of the last time he sat at a fevered bedside, some of the darkest days of his life. But she was so focused on her husband she didn’t seem to notice.

They called the maid to bring hot water, muslin and a tea set. Phillip stripped off his coat and rolled up his sleeves as he began to sort through his valise, calling upon every lecture he had attended and study he had read which may be of help in this situation. With the supplies laid out before him on the bedside table, he gathered two fistfuls of dried flowers.

“Mrs. Bridgerton, can you make a poultice?”

“Yes.”

“Here,” he laid the herbs on a strip of muslin.  “Meadowsweet and yarrow. Place it on his chest. If this is a lung infection the permeated compounds may help.”

Working quickly, Sophie ground the flowers into the cloth, wrapped them and soaked them in the pitcher of hot water. Then she laid the bandage across Benedict’s chest and pressed it into his skin.

Beside her, Phillip produced another odd looking herb from his case and began to crush it into the teapot. At this, Anthony stepped forward.

“What is that?”

Phillip glanced over his shoulder. “Willow bark. A professor of mine claimed it could break fevers.” He wouldn’t tell the Viscount about his prior attempted use of the cure or its outcome. He still had faith in his professor’s hypothesis and had seen literature to support his claim. This was the plant in Phillip’s collection that held the most promise, regardless of what had occurred before.

“I hope you know what you’re doing, Crane.” Anthony practically growled at him.

“Anthony…” Eloise’s cautioning voice behind them made Phillip’s heart flutter with gratitude but he couldn’t escape the Viscount’s steely glare.

He found himself stuttering. “Nothing should cause him any harm, I only…”

When Eloise’s hand closed around Anthony’s arm he stepped back. If he was willing to do anything to help his brother, that included having faith in someone else’s ability to provide a solution, whoever that person may be. Dr. Crowe had been of no help and there was no guarantee his letter to the solicitor would send anyone else. His methods had failed and he needed to stop interfering while someone else took the lead. He didn’t like the thought of placing Benedict’s fate in the hands of Eloise’s suitor, a man whose character they hardly knew, much less his credentials to be feeding medicines into a member of their family. But it was the only option available now. There was nothing else to be done.

“I know,” he cast his eyes down in apology. “I am sorry. You are here to help. Excuse me.” He had to remove himself before he interjected further. Watching Benedict lay so limply as a stranger picked over him was stoking something defensive inside and he couldn’t bear it any longer. Without another word, he turned and left the room.

Eloise remained, transfixed as Phillip worked with quiet care to brew the willow bark tea. When she had last seen him in the gardens at Romney Hall, she had snapped in his face, fled his presence and began contemplating whether their relationship should continue any further. Now, adding to the unresolved confusion in her heart, she could not have been more grateful to see him. She could never have anticipated that he would make the journey to Benedict’s home upon hearing that he was ill. She remembered her brother’s assurance from the day before. Deeds, not words. She felt something spreading through her as she watched him helping her brother, a steadiness that made her feel less unmoored in the gloom of their situation.

Together, Sophie and Phillip pulled Benedict to sit up against the pillows. Sophie sat beside him as Phillip handed her a cup of tea and she brought it to her husband’s mouth. 

“Benedict my love,” she whispered. “You must drink.” She held his head with one hand and tipped the cup slowly with the other. Mercifully, the tea passed his lips and he did not cough. He swallowed it gently, guided by some level of instinctual consciousness. “Very good,” Sophie sighed, something hopeful lighting her features. 

Patiently and carefully, Sophie fed Benedict two small cups of tea as Phillip kept a watchful eye, replenishing the drink. When Benedict fell back against the pillows with a rattling breath and Phillip confessed that these were all the remedies he could offer, Sophie thanked him with a small smile then turned back to watch her husband. Phillip left his supplies where they were. There was nothing to do now but wait and see if the herbs made any difference. This too he was familiar with, the waiting game of indeterminate length, indeterminate hope. He had played his part and now the tenor in the room was intimate and somber, no longer a place for him. 

He turned and found his eyes meeting Eloise’s. She was staring at him intently, her expression unfathomable. He wanted nothing more than to take her somewhere private and gather her in his arms, to prostrate himself with apology and beg her to remain his betrothed. But this was not the time. Not when her brother was lying beside them battling for his life. It would be inappropriate for them to be alone together and the last thing he wanted was to incur more ire from the Viscount who was unsurprisingly even more raw with his emotions under their current circumstances. An unspoken agreement passed between them to grant Sophie and Benedict their privacy. He took Eloise lightly by the arm and walked with her to the sitting room where they found the Viscount, hunched with his elbows on his knees, head hung low.

They sat on a sofa across from him and respectfully distant from one another. Phillip desperately wanted to comfort his intended, even to just hold her hand. But not only was that out of the question with her brother watching them, he didn’t know if she would allow such advances anymore. He sat in indecision, unsure if he was welcome to stay or if his presence was scorned. Fortunately, the Bridgertons spoke about more pressing matters as if he wasn’t even there.

“Anthony, did you write to Mama?” Eloise’s voice was uncharacteristically unsteady.

“Yes. I have twice.” The Viscount pinched the bridge of his nose, clearly exhausted. “She will be here as soon as she can, I’m sure.”

“What if…” Eloise halted. Phillip could see the tears rimming her eyes, glinting in the low firelight. It suddenly struck him that he had never seen her cry. “I don’t know if…Do you remember? In the days after Papa…”

Anthony’s head snapped up and he shot her a threatening stare. “Eloise, now is not the time to talk about that.”

But she ignored him, struggling to find words, clearly insistent on recalling something important. “Benedict was always there, don’t you remember?”

Anthony continued to glare at her, his jaw locking, tears threatening his eyes too. 

“Those days are a bit of a blur, Eloise.” He ground out.

Still she did not heed his obvious entreaty to stop. Instead she looked between them both, something of a pained smile contrasting with the sadness in her eyes. “He took care of us. All of us. He read us stories and played games when you were busy and mother was…ill. He taught me how to shoot.”

“He what?” Anthony spluttered. “It was a slingshot.” Eloise shrugged innocently.

Eager to provide even a moment of levity, Phillip joked. “Ah, so we have him to thank for that.” The mystery of Eloise’s prowess with a pistol was at last solved.

Her faint smile gave him a sliver of hope. “Yes, he made sure we were occupied. Something to distract us from our tears. Though he took care of those too.” Then she turned to look into the fire, despondent, her voice falling to a whisper. “Now he’s the one…”

With that, the Viscount snapped out of his seat and unceremoniously stormed out of the room, leaving them alone. 

They sat in silence, staring after him. Though he remained somewhat terrified of the man, Phillip had empathy toward him. He knew how much weight rested on titled shoulders, and he knew what it was like to worry for a brother, but he had never juggled both pressures simultaneously. Indeed, in his life one had consequently resulted from the other. By all rights he should have been eager to leave the house, to get away from the kind of gloom that he had hoped to relegate to his past. But he found he did not want to go. Not when Eloise was there. She was why he had come, and she was why he would stay. Anything for her.

He turned to find her staring blankly ahead, mind clearly whirring. Concerns of propriety and chaperones fallen by the wayside, he was grateful for a moment alone and only wanted to give her solace.

“Your brother is strong. I have seen it firsthand.” He arched a jesting brow when Eloise looked at him. Neither of them would ever forget his eventful introduction to the two eldest Bridgerton brothers. “I’m sure he is going to be alright.”

His humor didn’t work and Eloise only deflated. “I’m tired of platitudes, Phillip. Don’t make me pretend with you too.”

Here was her honesty. He exhaled, relieved that she still trusted him enough to bare her true feelings. He would be her respite. “Alright. I don’t know what’s wrong with him, and I don’t know if I did anything to help. But I have had a brother in peril before. I know what it feels like.” She turned to meet his eyes, listening intently. Something in them was grateful. “And I can tell you that it is nothing but wasted time if you allow yourself to despair before there is cause to.”

Phillip had despaired of course. He had despaired greatly upon losing his brother. But knowing what he did now, he wished he could retrieve the weeks lost to worrying. Though his worst fears had ultimately been realized, he had cut the joy out of his life prematurely in anticipation of them. If he had only known that they were the last weeks of his life that were truly his own, where he was simply Phillip Crane, untitled student of botany, he would have savored them more. For Eloise and her family the threat was much more visible, more imminent, but he wanted her to continue to hope, not to consign herself to unnecessary grief for even one moment.

She studied his face as if searching for answers. “What if…we find ourselves facing a future that is not as we imagined it would be?”

Phillip held his breath, anguished once again that his actions were causing her to contemplate one of those uncertain futures, though in truth he was not precisely sure why. It was still unclear what he had said to cause such a strong reaction when they were in the garden. Nevertheless, he felt guilt at saddling her with so much simultaneously, though of course none of it was intended. He could only impart what he had learned from his own experiences and he would not coddle her. It was not what she wanted.

“I have faced many such futures. You adapt. The world rearranges itself into odd new configurations but just because they are unfamiliar does not mean there is no joy to be found. We must wrench our own happiness from the earth. Nurture it with care and persistence and it will grow, despite the shadows it arose from.” 

Her fleeting smile lifted his heart. She knew what he was speaking of, the incredible gift of the twins. Despite their unconventional and tragic trajectory into his life, they were its brightest points, next to her.

He leaned in closer, shifting his hand to rest beside hers on the sofa. “You have already done this, Eloise. You can do it again if need be. You have the strongest spirit I have ever known. And you are not alone. Please know that.”

She looked up at him, close enough that he could feel her breath dance sweetly over his skin, but she did not kiss him. Instead her fingers inched over, covered his own and held tightly. Warmth rushed through him and they settled against one another as they reclined back into the sofa.

Resting her head upon his shoulder, Eloise sighed, “I am glad you are here.”

It was only in this moment that she felt her body truly relax, felt as if she had stepped back from teetering on an edge of raw nerves. Ever since arriving at the cottage she had felt lost somehow, out of place and waiting for someone to alleviate that feeling. She had assumed Anthony would do it but that hadn’t occurred. Then she assumed she must wait for her mother to arrive to find any relief. But it was Phillip, his steady, solid presence that made her reassured. With him at her side, she felt prepared to face even the unthinkable because she knew he would bolster her. 

As she began to fade into sleep, she realized that a part of her had been longing to see him again. This entire time, she had silently been wishing for him to share in her burden and guide her through it. The anger she had felt before paled in comparison to her desire for his companionship. Ever since she had last parted from him, he had never been absent from her thoughts.

Benedict’s words echoed through her mind once more. Every deed Phillip had committed toward her had been gentle, caring, supportive. The way he had welcomed her into his home, the way he had tried to prevent the twins from bothering her despite how his efforts failed. Every touch, every kiss stolen in his greenhouse, all of it so tender. The very fact that he had agreed to marry her immediately and without question when Anthony demanded it. And now appearing, unlooked for, in her family’s hour of greatest need. His words had driven her from the gardens days earlier. Words always seemed difficult for him to say, their intention difficult for him to convey, so unlike herself. But his deeds - his intentions behind them were unquestionable.

— 

Left alone with Benedict, Sophie carefully laid down beside him. Nothing could compel her to leave him tonight. He hadn’t shown any change since they had given him the tea. The only sounds in the room were his agonized breaths. She ran her fingers across his brow and down his face. His features were sunken, like a specter of the husband she knew. She continued down his arm to grasp a limp hand and press it to her stomach, ever so slightly rounded. She allowed herself to hope that somehow it would help him wake if he could feel his child. If he was reminded of the person most dependent upon him. But still, he did not stir.

She held his hand in place, stroking it with her thumb, and pressed her forehead against his cheek. She was worn through with grief and exhaustion. She had no words for him. She had spoken them already, or they were sentiments that she could not bring herself to say. She could not utter a goodbye or imagine that he would never hold their child in his arms. The cloud of such thoughts hovered at the edge of her mind but she fought not to focus on it and to focus instead on the fact that he was still breathing.

In God’s hands. She didn’t know if God’s hands were to be trusted and so she held him in her own. Curling herself around him she laid her head on his chest. She could hear his heartbeat, rapid and thready, and the sound of it forced more tears from her eyes. How many times had he pressed her hand against it and told her it beat only for her? How many times had he told her it was hers entirely? If the song of his blood was dedicated to her she would listen to it, even if it was drawing to an end.

Despite how she fought to stay awake, sorrow had exhausted her to her very bones. She had no energy left to fight or to hope or to sob. All she could do was cling to her husband, the love of her life, her very soul, and drift into the uneasy dark willing this nightmare to end.

When Sophie did not respond to his knock on the door, Anthony opened it slowly and peered into the room. Something clenched within him when he saw her lying with Benedict, her face still sad despite that she was asleep. He would not wake her. Quietly, he moved to the bedside chair and studied his brother. Gaunt and pale, his face sheened with perspiration, Benedict somehow appeared older and the sight made the Viscount shudder. 

He was still replaying their last conversation in his mind, haunted by the weight of his brother’s words. He wouldn’t allow himself to believe that they were the last he would hear Benedict say, but a dark whisper from within was chastising him for not responding with a goodbye. How does one say goodbye to a younger brother? To a best friend?

Eloise’s recollections gripped him too. He was well aware of his own role within their family and its accompanying limitations. He was charged with steering the ship. He hadn’t seen what his closest brother had done after their father died because he had been too crushed by his own responsibilities and anguish. But a latent part of him also knew, however much he failed to acknowledge or celebrate it, that Benedict was the beating heart of their family and that he himself was not the man capable of healing wounds of grief. 

His siblings were not children anymore. They didn’t need bedtime stories and games. But he couldn’t fathom the yawning pain they would all feel if faced with another loss of such magnitude. And he would be left this time to shoulder that grief alone, and for an even larger family. Protector to a widowed sister. Uncle to a fatherless child. What could he offer to dry their tears? What remedy would prevent them from feeling entirely fractured? What would he do if the heart of their family actually stopped beating?

Tagging: @angels17324 @bridgertontess @broooookiecrisp @secretagentbucky @musicismyoxygen84 @queen-of-the-misfit-toys

[theaddictedwatcher]

Hello everyone!

Today I am delighted to present you the series you were able to choose thanks to the survey done on my Instagram (@theaddictedwatcherreviews) last Saturday and that is ... Oh no, I'm not going to tell you just like that! It's a series created by Julian Jones, Jake Michie, Johnny Capps and Julian Murphy (yes, that's a lot of people!) in 2008 for the BBC. Need more clues? It's a medieval fantasy series that revisits a great myth. Do you have it yet? Yes, of course, I'm going to tell you about the Merlin series!

To begin with, I'll give you a short synopsis: In medieval times, in the Kingdom of Albion, King Uther Pendragon has banned the practice of magic. Merlin, a young magician sent to the castle to be educated by Gaius, must hide his extraordinary powers in this age of terror against magicians and sorcerers. Propelled as Arthur's valet -the son of the monarch Uther Pendragon and future sovereign- following a fortuitous combination of circumstances, Merlin has sworn to protect his lord Arthur at the request of Kilgharrah -the dragon secretly imprisoned beneath the castle of the monarch Uther Pendragon. And a short technical presentation : Created by : Julian Jones, Jake Michie, Johnny Capps and Julian Murphy. Music by : Rob Lane, Rohan Stevenson, James Gosling and Michal Pavlicek. Main cast: Colin Morgan, Bradley James, Angel Coulby, Katie McGrath, Richard Wilson, Anthony Stewart Head, John Hurt.

Merlin is a freely-adaptated story of the Arthurian legend that largely rewrites its roots. Over the course of 5 seasons and its 65 episodes, the creators and screenwriters have attempted to modernise the themes of the original legend, including the following examples from the first episode:

Uther Pendragon -played by Anthony Stewart Head- governs the kingdom of Camelot which, in the legend, does not exist under his reign.

Merlin -played by Colin Morgan- and Arthur -played by Bradley James- are approximately the same age, which is not the case in the Arthurian legend.

Morgana -played by Katie McGrath- is the ward of King Uther and Arthur's adopted sister.

Guinevere -played by Angel Coulby- is the mixed-race daughter of a black smith and works in the castle as Morgana's lady-in-waiting instead of being the daughter of the King of Carmelides -a clan federated by Arthur- in the legend.

And there are other alterations that I'll leave you to discover as the series progresses (although I'll talk about some of them below but I'll warn you when I will)!

I realise that, for people familiar with the legend, this can be very confusing and even unpleasant. But, if you manage to put aside your pre-watching knowledge of the subject and give the series a chance, I think you might just enjoy it all the same.

The main cast of the series - although different from what you might expect - has been meticulously chosen. The characters may differ in character from those in the legend, but there's no denying the acting ability of the cast. Some of them were well known before the series, such as Anthony Stewart Head -notably known for his roles in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series, in the film The Iron Lady alongside Meryl Streep and more recently in the TV show Bridgerton -, John Hurt -notably known for his role in the Harry Potter saga, in the film V for Vendetta and more recently in the Doctor Who series- and Katie McGrath -notably known for the King Arthur: The Legend of Excalibur movie, the Tudors series and, more recently, the Supergirl series which I'll talk about in a later article. However, the revelations that turned out to be Bradley James and Colin Morgan are not to be outdone either. As for the guest actors and actresses, many of them are well known to the British public, and some even to international audiences. Indeed, actors such as Asa Butterfield (Sex Education), Tom Hopper (Umbrella Academy), Tom Ellis (Lucifer) and Warwick Davis (Harry Potter, Willow, Leprechaun, Star Wars) have enjoyed successful careers since Merlin went on air (and some even before that) and are recognized as major talents internationally. Whether they are recurring, main or guest actors, the unity formed by their complicity both on and off stage helps to make this cast a family with its affections, tensions, passions and losses. The relationship between Merlin and Arthur, despite their complicated beginnings and the fact that their social positions put them on different levels of equality, is a brotherly one. Merlin, on his mission to protect the future King Arthur, will do everything in his power to learn how to live at court and make himself useful to Arthur, who, for his part, will come to recognise Merlin's usefulness at his side and will develop a great affection for him, albeit tinged with teasing. Even during their quarrels, the bond that unites them always leads them back to each other, and to me, this is a fine illustration of a brotherly friendship. The bond between Merlin and Gaius is also important and touching, because, in the series, Merlin was raised by a single mother and Gaius acts as a father figure to him. Indeed, Gaius protects and educates him as best he can. In the end, a real bond and understanding develops between the old man and his apprentice, and I think it's important to show that a parental figure is not necessarily linked to a blood relative.

However, there was one aspect of the actors' performance that I didn't like, but I think that has more to do with the artistic direction than the acting ability of the actors: I'm talking about the fight choreography. I'm aware that sword fighting or even hand-to-hand combat isn't easy, but that's precisely where I think they should have been better choreographed to make the various battles that take place throughout the series more believable. Indeed, when we talk about the legend of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, these epic stories are often punctuated by numerous battles. It was only natural, then, that when I watched the series I expected big, strong, rhythmic and carefully choreographed battles. Unfortunately, in my opinion, most of the fights, especially the sword fights, failed to live up to these expectations…

I'd also like to say a few words about the different filming locations. Pierrefonds Castle in the Oise region in France, near Compiègne, was one of the locations used for the Camelot Castle set. This 14th-century fortress is open to visitors and many of the sets for the series can be seen there.

The series was also filmed at Goodrich Castle in Ross-on-Wye in Herefordshire, on Penshurst Place in Kent in England and in Wales. The fact that the majority of the sets are real means that the use of special effects - especially green screens - has limited, as the series ages, the diminution the quality of the images.

Speaking of the quality of the images, I'd like to talk very briefly about the special effects used on the series. As a fantasy series, Merlin necessarily uses special effects to symbolise the magic and mythical creatures that inhabit the kingdom of Albion. The computer-generated images were produced by the British team The Mill, whose credits include the special effects for Gladiator and Doctor Who. However, the quality of the effects varies depending on what is being represented. As long as the effects remain minimalist, such as smoke or a change in the colour of a character's eyes, they have aged well and remain effective in their own right. But as soon as they are more important, such as a fall caused by magic, a physical transformation or the animation of a dragon (this is not a spoiler, the word dragon appears literally in the name Pendragon), the effects have generally aged rather badly, look a little crude and, let's be honest, quite ugly…

On the other hand, one of the aspects of the series that I liked the most was the work that went into the characters' costumes. From what I've been able to see and learn in the course of my research, the costumes chosen for the characters by the series' costume designer, Charlotte Morris, are fairly faithful to the armour and court dress worn in the period that the series aims to reflect. One detail, however, bothers me personally in this temporal cohesion, and that's the cut of Merlin's brown jacket. I find that this jacket, which appears to be made of nubuck, seems too modern, too recent to blend in with the atmosphere that was intended to be created.

Let's take a look at the changes that have been made to the Arthurian legend! BEWARE OF SPOILERS IN THIS PARAGRAPH! In the series, Merlin -who in the legend is a druid and in the series a magician- is Arthur's valet, to whom he hides his magical powers while using them to save his master without his knowledge. He is the son of a single-mother and farmer called Hunith and his father is unknown. It was Hunith who sent Merlin to her friend Gaius, a physician in Camelot's court and a former magician. In the legend, Merlin's parentage differs radically from one version to another. Speaking of the origins of the legend, an anecdotal but noteworthy fact is that even Geoffrey of Monmouth appears in the series as a court genealogist. The real Geoffrey of Monmouth (1095-1155) did exist, and he is known to have been the first to write a very extensive version of the Arthurian legend that served as a model for all later Arthurian stories. Finally, in the most remarkable changes, Morgana, who is Arthur's adulterous sister and Morgause's consanguineous sister in the legend, is in the series Morgause's adulterous younger sister and Arthur's consanguineous older sister. END OF SPOIL. All these changes have enabled Merlin's authors to modernise the various themes and make the series more accessible to a wider audience. They also took this opportunity to slip in a few nods to the British literature to which the Arthurian legend belongs.

Finally, as usual, I'd like to end with the series' soundtrack. It was created by Rob Lane, Rohan Stevenson, James Gosling and Michal Pavlicek and for me it's one of the series soundtracks that best fits the genre of this one. Unfortunately, the link I've provided is missing a lot of tracks, but there are enough for you to get a good idea.

That's it for this article on the BBC series Merlin (2008). I hope that if you were reluctant to watch it, I've been able to help you in your choice. And for those of you who have seen it, let me know what you think and whether you agree with me.

Don’t forget to keep an eye every Saturday on my Instagram account (@theaddictedwatcherreviews) if you want to be able to choose the subject of the next article!

Until our next adventures, I wish you a great weekend and a wonderful week ahead,

Eli.