#when he was wicked

[corporalicent]

FRANCESCA & JOHN STIRLING

She adored him with ever last breath in her body. He was her kindered spirit, so like her in so many ways. But it had, in a strange sort of fashion, been a relief to exit her mother's home, to escape to amore serene existence with John, whose sense of humor was precisely like hers. He understood her, he anticipated her. He completed her. It has been the oddest sensation when she'd met him, almost as if she were a jagged puzzle finally finding its mate. Their first meeting hadn't been one of overwhelming love or passion, but rather filled with the most bizarre sense that she'd finally found the one person with whom she could completely be herself. It had been instant. It had been sudden. She couldn't remember just what it was he'd said to her, but from the moment words first left his lips, she had felt at home. —Chapter two. When he was wicked.

[thebubblesoutlet]

The Bridgerton BOOK fandom is a-ok with a genderbent Sophie because they enjoy fetishizing white mlm ships. It makes no sense for Sophie to be genderbent considering that her main internal struggle has to do with her intersecting gender and class identities.

They're ok with making Eloise a lesbian because according to them all angry feminists must secretly be gay. They're also ok with it because they hate her (borderline emotionally abusive) storyline and have a hard time projecting onto her.

The push back against Fran and Michaela has been interesting to say the least. They're trying to justify their homophobia because of "Fran's fertility issues" as if its something exclusive to heterosexual relationships.

Just very eye opening. Anyways, I'm officially excited for Fran and Michaela, my 2 pretty ladies. I hope Netflix at least tries to protect the actresses, and Masali especially.

P.S i totally get being queer and feeling like eloise is a lesbian. I personally shipped Creloise and I'm still hoping that that relationship will come to fruition. I am in no way referring to the accepting, inclusive show fans. I'm instead SPECIFICALLY referring to a section of white straight women on Instagram and Twitter who don't like outspoken eloise as much as their sweet docile little Fran. Its layers of homophobia and internalised misogyny all wrapped up together tbh. The instances I've discussed in this post are all things I've observed/ seen people who are overly invested in those ridiculously mediocre books discuss these last few days. The only straight bridgerton IMO is daphne😭😭😭😭

[darklinaforever]

Fanart, by @sapphic_doodles

[klaramarieleblochova]

I don't know if y'all noticed, but Colin Bridgerton is a match-making mamma!

In season 2 he pushed Anthony and Kate together, when he knocked Kate's ball next to Anthony's. And he did it with a SMIRK.

In Benedict's story he told Benedict to get his shit together and marry Sophie right away, no matter her status.

In Francesca's story he told Michael basically the same thing.

In Gregory's story he literally sat in a tree by Greg's side, spying on his brother's match.

The mammas should give him an honorary doctorate at this point.

Too bad bitch is so blind to his own match, lol.

[dearabsolutelynoone]

“The family is noted as full of perfectly handsome sons…

…and perfectly beautiful daughters.”

[sea-owl]

I GOT MY ILLUMICRATE BRIDGERTON BOOKS AND THEY'RE GORGEOUS!

[diamonds-of-the-first-water]

I Have Evolving Thoughts on Fran’s Sexuality

(god hannah dodd is so pretty)

First of all let’s thank GOD francesca is the queer sister and not…that other one.

Anyways upon my initial viewing of part 2 I definitely read Fran as bisexual and if you continue to read her as such I think that’s fine but my mind has changed on the matter.

I believe that Fran is actually a lesbian suffering from comphet.

The reason this actually started to seem likely to me is because of her wedding scene with John. The whole season I thought they seemed so taken with one another and I enjoyed their quiet dynamic. They were more than comfortable sitting in silence with one another and seemed to grow closer in that way.

I like many others assumed this meant their love was romantic, but that kiss

Would a woman who is attracted to men make this face after kissing the man she loves? I don’t think so. Some people seem to think it’s because she’s shy but it doesn’t seem like she’s even thinking about her family here. It seems like she has retreated into her own thoughts. It seems like she was disappointed. And after spending the whole season feeling nothing for any of the men she meets why wouldn’t she be. She met a man she loved and she kissed him and she didn’t feel those sparks.

Now Fran is also autistic coded so this initially affected the way I viewed her relationships as well, but all of that changes when you take into account Michaela.

Francesca immediately starts to stutter and is flustered when she sees Michaela. We have never seen Fran act this way with a man, even her husband. It wasn’t for no reason that Violet describes how she felt the first time she fell in love with Edmund and then almost immediately after Fran reacts the same way to Michaela. The butterflies, not being able to string a sentence together. This was foreshadowing.

Some people were upset because they said it erased everything Fran said about having a quiet love and that is somewhat true, but I disagree with people saying that it erases slowly built love when Polin’s whole story is about love not striking you like a bolt of lightning.

None of this is to say she can’t love John, I believe she does I just feel it is platonic, and the loss of John would hit hard even if he was her best friend. John is one of the great loves of her life but who is to say that love is romantic? Friendships are the foundation of our lives and they are equally as important as any romantic relationship. Fran met someone who understands her and is like her, that doesn’t mean she has to have romantic attraction for him.

Some of this is affected by personal bias as I am a late-blooming lesbian, but holy shit the way I relate to Fran wanting to get married just because it would mean she wouldn’t have to pursue any other relationships with men and the way she was willing to accept whoever the Queen deemed fit because she didn’t have any criteria except “is kind to me”. Fran does not seem to be searching for love as she has not felt it before. The closest she comes is with John because the two of them are so similar and I believe she thought that because she liked him so much that she must be in love with him which is just so…lesbian coded I don’t know how to explain it.

This isn’t to say bisexuality isn’t real or is “just a phase”. Ew. Gross. No. This is just the way I am interpreting the character with the information we have now. If it comes out definitely that she is bisexual then I will accept that, sapphic rep is so needed.

All in all they look so good and I can’t wait to see these queers kiss and have a romance.

Also I think that Michaela still could have fallen first. Fran just realized she was a dyke at that exact moment and her brain stopped working which is valid. But did you see the way Michaela looked at her. I KNOW A LESBIAN FALLING IN LOVE WHEN I SEE ONE.

[deuces-sunglasses]

straight women when they can’t self-insert themselves into a romance-

[earlgreyandanime]

If Francesca and John are this cute together, Michael is really going to have his work cut out for him when it's his turn to win over the audience.

[anneeeboleyn]

NOOOOO MICHAEL STIRLING, EARL OF KILMARTIN, MY MERRY RAKE, LOVER OF FRANCESCA BRIDGERTON, "I AM NOT A GENTLE PONY" LOVER BOY DON'T LEAVE ME 😭

[corporalicent]

violet in bloom: novella | when he was wicked

(...) after his death, I was just so… stunned. I felt as if I were walking in a haze. I’m not at all certain how I functioned that first year. Or even the ones directly thereafter. So I couldn’t possibly even think of marriage. And after that… well, I don’t know what happened. Maybe I just didn’t meet anyone with whom I cared to share my life. Maybe I loved your father too much. Maybe I just never saw the need. I was in a very different position from you, after all. I was older, don’t forget, and already the mother of eight children. And your father left our affairs in very good order. I knew we would never want for anything.

[etherrealsx]

The Bridgerton couples as Taylor Swift songs

Daphne & Simon: Haunted

"Come on, come on, don't leave me like this. I thought I had you figured out. Something's gone terribly wrong, you're all I wanted. Come on, come on, don't leave me like this. I thought I had you figured out. Can't breathe whenever you're gone, can't go back now I'm haunted."

Anthony & Kate: The Great War

"We will never go back to that bloodshed, crimson clover, the worst was over, my hand was the one you reached for all throughout the Great War. Always remember we're burned for better, I vowed I would always be yours, 'cause we survived the Great War."

Benedict & Sophie: Enchanted

"This is me praying that this was the very first page, not where the storyline ends. My thoughts will echo your name until I see you again. These are the words I held back as I was leaving to soon. I was enchanted to meet you."

Colin & Penelope: You Belong With Me (🥹)

"Dreaming 'bout the day when you wake up and find that what you're looking for has been here the whole time. If you could see that I'm the one who understands you, been here all along so why can't you see, you belong with me."

Eloise & Phillip: seven

"I've been meaning to tell you I think your house is haunted, your dad is always mad and that must be why. I think you should come live with me and we can be pirates, then you won't have to cry, or hide in the closet, and just like a folk song, our love will be passed on."

Francesca & Michael / Michaela: I Almost Do

"I bet you think I either moved on or I hate you, 'cause every time you reach out there's no reply. I bet it never ever occurred to you, that I can't say hello to you and risk another goodbye. And I just want to tell you, it takes everything in me not to call you, and I wish I could run to you, and I hope you know that every time I don't, I almost do."

Hyacinth & Gareth: I Can See You

"I can see you in your suit and your necktie, pass me a note saying "meet me tonight", then we kiss and you know I won't ever tell. And I can see you being my addiction, you can see me as a secret mission, hide away and I will stop behaving myself."

Gregory & Lucy: Speak Now (duh)

"I hear the preacher say speak now or forever hold your peace. There's the silence, there's my last chance, I stand up with shaky breath all eyes on me. Horrified looks from everyone in the room but I'm only looking at you."

[darklinaforever]

It kills me how many people think that the gender of a fictional character doesn't matter.

We are in fiction, where the characters have arcs, or they embody themes. Obviously for some characters gender matters.

Michael is literally named the new heir and freaks out about becoming a new John /basically taking everything he had.

Michaela can't really have this arc... Unless we strangely learn that the laws in Scotland are extremely different from England located in the Bridgerton universe (and I speak for the universe of the series, where we have no idea if they will stick to reality where women in Scotland could inherit), and I doubt it for the moment.

So no, Michaela couldn't necessarily have the same arc as Michael.

I'm not even sure she could be a Merry Rake. Can a woman be called Rake in show Bridgerton universe ?

The fact is that Michaela will necessarily differ at certain times from Michael.

Already there are always drastic differences between the show and the book, this time I think it will be even more emphasized. (I even doubt that we will have as many nods to the book as season 3 dedicated to Polin's story did)

In any case, the very basis of Francesca's story is that despite the loss of true love you can always have a second chance, which is a clear originality compared to the other romances in this series of books ; well, is already changed with the way the end of season 3 happened.

It seems that the marriage to John was a mistake, that the physical aspect of their relationship will not prove pleasant in view of the Fran's reaction to their kiss, and worse, that Fran doesn't feel true love for John.

True love in Bridgerton often results in great passion and similarities to the story of Edmund and Violet, and Francesca literally matches Violet's reaction when she first met Edmund, but this time when she meets Michaela.

Whereas Fran is never supposed to have this kind of reaction around Michael / Michaela as long as John is alive. Because she normaly truly loves him.

So how could the story be the same after such a change to the very heart of the story ?

It's not just the gender change from Michael to Michaela that makes the adaptation of When he was Wicked complicated and uncertain for some viewers, including me too, it is above all a whole.

But for some obscure reason people refuse to accept it.

Beyond that, I repeat, Michael Stirling is a fictional male character who has been around for years.

That people are disappointed, including me, not to see this character, as he is basically on paper, be adapted to the screen is not necessarily homophobic, assumed or internalized.

Yes, some are, but not everyone. Some of us are part of the LGBTQ+ community and no, we do not all suffer from internalized homophobia so as not to 100% validate such a change !

We're talking about an attachment to an image that we have formed in our mind about a FICTITIOUS character for fucking years !

Besides, I didn't even say that I was fundamentally against it, because I have already explained several times that a part of me was happy to see a main romance between two women on screen in the television universe for Bridgerton (and the actresses are magnificent and on top of that, I'm sure, will have very good chemistry). Once again, representation is always cool, but, is this really the right place to do it ? I'm not so sure.

And contrary to what some say, I'm not saying that LGBTQ+ relationships should systematically be secondary in fiction. No way. I'm simply saying that transforming one of the main canon ships of the books without which the Netflix adaptation would not exist is perhaps not the right thing to do, since there is already a community attached behind these characters...

And seriously, if the creators really wanted a main LGBTQ+ romance dealing with the Bridgerton universe, they could easily make a spin off dealing specifically with this part of society and how they live.

I'm sure many, including me, will watch such a spin-off ! And damn I would love for something like that to happen !

You see, the opportunity to have an LGBTQ+ romance at the forefront without changing the kind of characters mostly beloved by an audience that already exists. Not very complicated though.

Do you realize how inappropriate it is to insult someone homophobic for that things ?! I don't know what kind of fucking bubble these people live in...

And it's scary to say that you can be insulted by a community of which you are a part, simply for not conforming to everything that is judged 100% morally correct for them.

If you have the misfortune of delay, sometimes there are those who unleash themselves on you to insult you for things that you don't have, simply for a fictional character...

"You don't 100% validate that a fictional male character who has existed for years and whom you have loved for years, with a fairly precise image in mind as a result, becomes a woman in his adaptation ? Well obviously, it's is that you are, at worst, a homophobe, or at least worse an internalized homophobe, and in any case that is not tolerable and you are not a true ally and you are problematic who deserves to be hated."

I don't know if you realize how STUNNING this is ! There really are people on this app who need to get fucking treatment...

And anyway why am I racking my brains ?

There will always be stupid people to come and tell me that what I say is always homophobic because if I have a problem with the change of gender of a fictional character through an adaptation well I'm the real problem.

As they say, you can't change idiots.

So stay stupid if you want, but at least leave me alone.

[patroclusdefencesquad]

i really don't get why people are so down bad for book michael that they're crying screaming throwing their toys out the pram at the fact that he's been genderswapped in the show like he was so hyped up to me as being the best man in the books and i read it like. really?? this is your man??

mr "if i ask her consent mid fuck when she's too blinded by passion to say no then she can't say she didn't agree to it" ????

mr "if i get her pregnant she'll have to marry me" ????

like yeah he started out great i love a good pining and he was v sweet about it but then his entire internal monologue just changes and it's like. no thank you

anyway all this to say canon bisexual francesca supremacy

[kajaono]

It honestly drives me crazy how many people suddenly act like the Bridgerton books are the best books ever written and hence you shouldn't change them. Just because they address an important topic like infertility or working class women, doesn't make it a good book.

Because lets face it: those are books, written by a straight white woman, for straight white women fantasizing about having sex with a hot rich dude.

Can I understand that some people want books that are easy to read and still address an important topic? Yes, definitely. But please don't act like the stories get ruined by adding a little bit depth and diversity

[diamonds-of-the-first-water]

franchael’s trying to find a way to say they hate the lesbian couple without coming across as bigoted homophobes. maybe you can’t do that because… you’re a bigoted homophobe

like not only are you ignoring the fact that it’s completely possible to have an infertility storyline with queer women and you saying they can’t is homophobic (they could also have fran be pregnant and lose the baby and question whether or not having a child is more important to her than being with michaela) you’re also acting like losing a straight ship is similar to having a POC or queer character erased. It’s not the same you fucking idiots.

anyways i hope they finger each other every episode