#colin: i would never say my wife is a bitch and i don't like her

[sea-owl]

I'm amused that Penelope speaks in a higher pitched, more innocent like voice at ton events and to Colin because that's what she's been taught will attract a man. (Also possibly, even unconsciously, a way to distance a resemblance between her and Portia) She might have even been trained to do this at one point or another. Society dictates that innocence and beauty go hand in hand. So since society deemed her, wrongly in my opinion, less than when it comes to her physical beauty, she tries harder to seem innocent even though that's not who she is.

The part that really amuses me about this is the moment Penelope let's her voice drop back to it's natural pitch and she let's her cuntieness show Colin is heart eyes and instant hard on.

Colin Bridgerton is a messy drama king and LIKES when his wife's bitchy side comes out.

[theothergal]

As the self appointed Marina Thompson's attorney, I want to talk about one of the scenes that people use to make her out to be this evil unsympathetic bitch.

I mean the scene in which she confronts Penelope about her feeling toward Colin.

People who like to shit on her for everything talk about this scene as if It was the meanest thing she could possibly do to poor Penelope.

But Is that thought?

First of all, I admit she was a bit harsh toward Penelope, she could have handled it better. I know she acts a bit dismissive of Penelope's feelings (which still doesn't justify Penelope revealing her secret to the whole Ton).

But regarding what she says:

"You love Is an unrequited fantasy. Colin sees you as you are and regards you no differently than he does Eloise or even little Hyacint. He sees me as a wife, a woman"

I mean, Is she...wrong? Because in that time, Colin DID see Penelope like a sister, he never treats her like a potential wife, as It would be expected, since she's a debutante and he's an eligible man. On the other hand, he's clearly interested in Marina as a romantic partner, and he makes it very clear.

I don't fault Marina for thinking like that, because It's the truth (for that time, of course).

Not even Anthony believed that Colin could be interested in Penelope, despite seeing her dance together, so why would Marina think otherwhise.

Marina simply states what Is true.

And the she adds:

"I must make these difficult choices for myself and for my child...even if they hurt you feelings"

Again, the wording Is a bit harsh, but that's the truth.

She doesn't take what she's doing lightly, she knows she's in a difficult situation, and the choice Is either hurting the feelings of a friend by marrying a boy that hasn't shown any romantic interest in her or ending up poor and shunned by society with a child to take care of and that's what she's trying to explain to Penelope.

You can understand what Is the inevitable choice.

And for those who say that Penelope was right to use Lady Whistledown to out Marina's secret because Colin didn't listen to her...she never said to him that Marina was pregnant. She said that she was in love with someone else, which Is a different matter. Love can change.

Had she said to Colin and Colin alone that Marina was pregnant, there was a high chance he would at least confront her. But there was also a chance that he would have decided to marry her nonetheless, that's why Penelope ruined Marina's name, so that Colin had no choice but to break the engagement.

[rainybraindays]

I don't like making posts like this, I don't like opening my blog up for people to come and harrass me but oh my god, why does the fandom allow posts like this to get away unscathed?

You don’t have to like Marina. I'll never claim that. You can like or dislike whoever you want.

But I do wonder, if Marina was played by a white woman would we get nearly as many posts like this? Would everyone be as okay with it? Would we have been so quiet about the fact that Ruby Barker was harrassed for this role? Or would there be way more people defending her? Would she suddenly be sympathetic when now shes not?

Why are we all so okay with taking this character with a nuanced story, put in a horrible situation with almost no options and turning her into a villian?

Like did we watch the same show? Did you miss the bit where she doesn't want to find a husband at all and only starts when she thinks shes been abandoned, which she only believes because she gets a forged letter saying she was? Did you not see Portia slap her? Did you not also watch a man old enough to be her grandfather being forced on her?

Lying to Colin wasn't okay, I'm not defending that, but literally tell me what her options were?

The man she loves is dead, but she doesn't even know that she thinks he abandoned her, so she can't reasonably assume Phillip will take responsibility when his brother won't. The only people Portias interested in introducing to her are those she wouldn't introduce to her own daughters. She can't reasonably think Colin will be open to her as a wife since shes pregnant becausethats not the norm. But Colin is, he says he would have married her even knowing. And Colin also doesn't view Marina as a villian, in season two hes sad yeah, but he’s also guilty because he doesn't think she deserved what happened.

This is a nuanced messy situation but no one wants to look at that.

Like you all make it very clear you view her as a whore, because she did a very normal thing and had sex. You all view her as a manipulative snake of a person, when if she was even the Whistledown article wouldn't have been a stop for her because she would have tried to get out of it. You conveniently forget that she almost killed herself in an attempt to abort her children because of her mistreatment post Whistledown article because that takes away from the idea you've concocted that shes some villainous bitch.

But then you turn around and want Penelope to have sexual knowledge that she realistically wouldn't and canonically doesn’t. You praise her for her Whistledown work even though it keeps hurting people she loves and shes lying about doing it.

This is weird, posting about how you can't wait for a character to die, and how you hope the death is - lets be honest here- humiliating, is a bizarre thing to do.

Its even more bizarre to do that, tag the character, and then also tag two ships that really the post really isn't about.

Like why is Polin tagged? Because they're both mentioned? This isn't a polin moment. You don’t talk about them at all in the meat of the post. Why is Philoise tagged? Because she's an 'obstacle' for them? They haven't even met, they aren't mentioned at all, they have nothing to do with this.

And on top of tagging these things you say "don't try and defend her to me" which why would we you clearly wouldn't listen. You follow that with saying "If you like her you probably suck" and claim to have tagged this as anti marina when you didn't. You put this in her main tag and then added "death to marina".

Theres no respect to your peers in the fandom, and clear disrespect to people who do like this character and are actually willing to engage with the character beyond fanon portrayal. Because thats what this is its not even taking her at face value anymore.

You wonder why people dislike this fandom, specifically the polin side of it, and do things like this. We as a community need to improve because stuff like this isn't uncommon, this is just one of the most blatant I've seen.

I'm going to be entirely honest if you follow quotegirl19, or don't see the issues with Marinas portrayal and treatment by the fandom this is not the blog for you.

[girlfictions]

hari need to know your thoughts on the succession finale once you finish it 🙏

i’ve genuinely been in a state of shock since i finished the ep so i’m probably going to ramble terribly bc my brain will explode otherwise.... thoughts under the cut!!! and massive spoiler warning obviously 💪

OKAAYYY in no particular order:

greg getting whacked was beautiful i wish he'd been stomped into a pulp honestly sorry for not being able to separate the art from the artist but nicholas braun is a weasel and i hope he gets hit by a car

that being said tom and greg's interactions this ep were top tier i'm not a tomgreg enthusiast like That but i think every scene of theirs was hilarious as it was twisted

tom this whole episode... phenomenal. matthew is just a cut above in terms of acting he embodied tom's hunger and desperation and patheticisms so perfectly i really felt more and more unsettled by him every appearance

i do wish we had more stewy screentime but i also wish that for every single episode arian moayed is so freaking talented and charismatic and amazing and he ate up every second he was on screen

speaking of stewy. "you kiss guys on molly" <- BITCH.....? i actually don't know if i've mentioned this on tumblr but i'm a kenstewinator for life and frankly this was confirmation that they explored each other's bodies at college idgaf what anyone has to say about it

ohhhh my god the fucking "meal fit for a king" scene. i can't even find the words for it. seeing them all so happy and having so much fun with each other in that moment was just so heartbreaking bc i KNEW it wasn't going to last 😭 like my mum and i literally checked how much time was left in the episode after that scene and looked at each other like Wellll something terrible is going to happen isn't it.

kendall My beautiful baby boy kendall IM SORRY I WASNT YOUR MOTHERRRRRRRR . i could honestly write an essay about kendall in this episode alone i have never seen such a tragic crumbling of the self maybe ever. him sitting at logan's desk thinking he's finally won... his reaction to shiv betraying their deal... him attacking roman like i was seriously breathless my god that entire sequence was fucking crazy

and to be quite honest if i was kendall in that situation well i would have killed myself in that damn board room and changed the trajectory of all those old hags lives forever . like "i'm a cog built for one machine" And now he has nothing no father no siblings no wife no kids no company my fucking goddddddd 🤦‍♀️

i started chanting "please please please dont kill yourself" out loud in the final scene and i'm dead serious the kendall water motif HAUNTS ME and i was so freaking scared . but that final frame is honestly equally awful like kendall alone with colin in the background him basically becoming logan with none of the power this is seriously the worst possible ending for him.....

shiv doomed to repeat the pattern of being under a man's thumb is genuinely so deeply demented jesse armstrong sleep with one eye open. and i hate it so much because it makes so much SENSE like yeah she's lady macbeth she's caroline she's the wife she's the mother and she will never be anything else okay OKAYY.

like that scene w her and tom in the car where he waits for her to hold his hand was so fucking spine chilling also the ambiguity of us not knowing whether tom knows that shiv was the deciding vote in his favour is crazy <- i do think it makes sense that he would know but just shiv having that as a bargaining chip so they can sting each other over and over again like its all about the cycles i fear

roman being so resigned to it all by the end was sick like ok that comment about kendall's kids was evil but i still felt for him howeverr i do think out of the trio he will be objectively the most okay in the future... like he's free from it all in a way shiv obviously isn't and kendall literally can't be

honestly i'm struggling to articulate anything more i'm still so overwhelmed by how it came to a close.. never have i watched a show that left me so heartbroken and hollow but also absolutely satisfied narratively like succession is going down in the history books FR 😭

also they're def going to sweep the emmys and it will be so deserved i seriously think they need to invent a new rule to allow for a tie because i cannot imagine how they're going to decide between kieran and jeremy for best lead... <- i do lean a little towards jeremy bc i'm a biased kendall girl but kieran's performance esp in the first half of this season was just jawdropping so who knows

this got really long i'm so sorry but i feel like a crazed woman what a fucking show what a fucking ending i will never be the same after this SUCCESSION YOU WILL ALWAYS BE SO FAMOUS !!!!!!!!!!!!

[nellie-elizabeth]

What We Do in the Shadows: Freddie (4x09)

Ohhhh boy. I haven't checked for the reception of this episode yet, but I'm going to take a wild guess and say Tumblr isn't happy.

Cons:

So here's the thing, the biggest "con" I have for this episode is one that's very conditional on whether Marwa ever comes back. Turning your only woman of color into a white British man and then sending her off, after a full season in which this character is stripped of her agency and turned into nothing more than exactly what Nandor desires is... well, it's a choice. And to be clear, I think it's a choice the show made on purpose, I think we're supposed to think Nandor's behavior towards Marwa is ghoulish and disgusting and all the rest, I think we're meant to feel horrified by it. But that doesn't change the fact that I expected the payoff for this story to be Marwa getting to live her best life, and now instead she's... effectively... erased from existence? I don't know. This ending for her character gives me very weird, uncomfortable vibes. I would have played this differently if it really is the end for Marwa, at least resetting her back to her original state before sending her off into the world. If they go back and do more with this character later, I'll be happy. If they don't, I'm side-eyeing the way this was developed pretty hard.

As far as the rest of the episode goes, I will say that I definitely liked the stuff in the main plot with Freddie more than the subplots. Looks like Colin is now a teenager in terms of development, and I'm kind of ready for him to be his adult self again. This is like baby Groot, or something. I'm ready for the original character to return from his purgatory. Nadja's troubles at the club similarly felt a bit underwhelming to me, I'm sorry to say. Some good jokes here or there, but I felt like the actual comedic bulk of the episode was treading water at some points, to get to our conclusion moment, which did work pretty well.

Pros:

I feel like I need to tap dance so much around my thoughts on the Freddie situation! Suffice to say, if this is building up to a better resolution for Marwa down the line, I'll be totally satisfied. In and of itself, the fact that this fucked up thing happens to her character doesn't bother me, because the point is that all these characters do fucked up and immoral and thoughtless things to people. It's part of the comedy and the tension of the show. So yeah, the fact that Guillermo's boyfriend shows up, Nandor gets a crush on him, uses one of his remaining djinn wishes to transform his wife Marwa into an exact copy of Freddie, and then in the end the two Freddies fall in love and Guillermo and Nandor are both single... that's really fucking funny. That's clever, that totally subverts our expectations... people were ready for Nandor to be jealous that Guillermo had a boyfriend, and never in a million years would I have expected the story to take this turn. I admired the insanity of this concept so much! I just wish I could understand what they were thinking with the resolution of it.

This really has been Guillermo's season, not in terms of everything going well for him, exactly, but just in terms of the screen time and development being given to this character and his desires. We see how happy he is to have Freddie, something in his life that's disconnected from Nandor and the rest of his life as a familiar. The shattering when he realizes what Nandor has done is really effective. There's a rule in comedy about how in order for anything to land, there has to be the moment where it stops being a joke. Like in The Princess Bride, when Inigo says "I want my father back, you son of a bitch." In a lot of ways, Guillermo storming off from Nandor, and Nandor realizing he's deeply hurt his friend, is the equivalent of that moment. It's effective if, once again, we keep it in a bubble.

In the subplots, while I mostly was just kind of shrugging, I did enjoy Sofia Coppola getting her head ripped off, and I liked Lazlo's endless list of vampire music pun names. There are always some fun one-off jokes in this show, even when a certain plot thread or scene doesn't hit quite right.

I think ultimately what this episode sets up, though, is a good thing: with only one episode left of the season, all of our characters have been brought low. Young Colin is going through a change and has thus lost his childhood stardom, Lazlo is trying to navigate the changing role he has as Colin's parent of sorts, Nadja is losing her club, Guillermo has lost his boyfriend, and Nandor has lost Guillermo, or at least it looks like that very well might be the case, along with losing his wife. The stated purposes of these characters at the start of the season have all been shattered. Nandor wanted to settle down and be married. He had it, he lost it. Guillermo wanted to assert a sense of identity outside of his role as a familiar. He had it, he lost it. Nadja wanted to open a vampire night club. She had it, she lost it. I think that works really well as a thematic tie for this episode.

So I'm torn. Again, having not explored the reaction of the fandom, I'm willing to bet that people are livid about what happened to Marwa in this episode, and frankly I'm not exactly pleased with it either. But I do think that structurally and in terms of our core cast, there are some interesting things that have been set up in this one. I know people expected Nandor to be jealous, but this twist was honestly funnier and more revealing about the fucked up nature of Nandor and Guillermo's whole deal. I suppose I'm willing to wait and see where they go from here, although Marwa's exit, if indeed that is the last we see of her, is a serious mark against the show at this point.

7/10