#like am i imagining it or is cressida giving off lesbian vibes?

[shaunashipman]

i'm kind of low-key shipping eloise and cressida

[absolutelynotclassicusernam-blog]

I know I just reblogged a post headcanoning Eloise Bridgerton as a lesbian, and as a lesbian myself I am all for that…

…but textually, I wonder if she might be asexual and somewhere on the aromantic spectrum.

(Disclaimer: I am allosexual and alloromantic, going only off what other people have told me about their ace and aro experiences, so please feel free to correct me on anything I get wrong.)

Pretty much Eloise’s entire identity hinges around the fact that she doesn’t want to marry, and we can all agree that that gives off big queer vibes. And we can also very easily and with great joy look at her friendships with Penelope and Cressida through a lesbian lens. But for a minute, let’s consider her canon romantic (or are they?) relationships.

When Penelope suggests to Eloise that Theo has romantic feelings for her and Eloise goes to confront Theo about it, she says not that she has feelings for him, but that she has thoughts she wants to share with him, and she asks not if he has feelings for her but if he also has thoughts he wants to share with her. The two connect by discussing books and ideas. The moment Theo tries to kiss her, Eloise immediately calls the whole thing off.

Now, it’s been a hot minute since I read “To Sir Phillip, With Love”, but from what I remember of the bare bones of it and from what we know thus far about Eloise and Phillip in the show’s universe, let’s take a look at that.

I suppose it’s possible that next season, Eloise will undergo a dramatic personality change, but as she currently is, I have trouble imagining her ever doing what she does in the book: namely, pulling a “Sarah, Plain and Tall” and traveling across the country to marry a widower who is mainly interested in a mother for his children. So what would be the pull for show!Eloise to do exactly that? My hypothesis is because Phillip is like her.

What we know of show!Phillip thus far is two things: 1) he was completely fine in a marriage with Marina that was devoid of love or sex (admittedly, I am inferring the latter since they have no more children after Oliver and Amanda, biologically his brother’s children, are born, but go with me) and 2) he’s a huge fucking nerd. He can talk about his plants for hours, and listen just as eagerly to, say, Colin talking about his travels. He, like Eloise, is all about the intellectual connections. Hence, it makes sense that the two of them would develop a bond by writing letters to each other, because for them, sharing thoughts is all love is and all it needs to be.

Now, I’m pretty sure this was not what Julia Quinn was going for, and I have no idea if it is a direction Shonda Rimes will choose to take, but wouldn’t it be cool if?