Welcome stranger, to this hell-hole where I obsess over everything and anything; including, my lord and saviour Anthony Bridgerton and romance novels. As I am lacking both; Anthony Bridgerton and romance in my real life.
i’ve seen relationship therapists and psychologists analyse hermione and ron’s relationship and conclude that they wouldn’t work out in the long run. they’ve argued for hermione to be with harry, krum, even DRACO (don’t understand how a counsellor can vow for canon dramione but alright) as an alternative partner for hermione since ron is “too insecure” to be with her and match her intelligent prowess or what have you.
i seriously don’t understand this sentiment. ron and hermione genuinely seem (almost) perfect to me, maybe not in the movies (a common denominator of people who don’t like romione is that they always cite evidence from the movies, since the films took a lot away from ron’s character and his growth), but definitely in the books.
looking at ron’s insecurities, a lot of people dredge his inferiority complex up to toxic masculinity primarily, when it was more explored how it was an effect of his home life (not gonna argue toxic masculinity wasn’t a factor, they’re teenagers in the 90s written by a pretty misogynistic woman so…). he was the youngest son out of how many children? all of his older brothers were brilliant in some way. bill was an extremely gifted spellcaster, charlie was gifted with magical beasts, percy’s academic score was unmatched, and fred and george (despite their trouble) were entrepreneurial inventor-geniuses. ron, on the other hand, was quite literally born a disappointment to his mother, who conceived him specifically because she wanted a daughter, whilst ginny was born her favourite (though, even then, ginny was gifted at quidditch). ron was mediocre in every sense of the word, and his two best friends were harry (one of the most famous wizards) and hermione (the smartest witch of her age yada yada). and i’ve seen people argue that harry was more welcomed by molly into the weasley household than ron ever was. this isn’t even mentioning the amount of bullshit he copped for being poor (people always downplay the blow to confidence being in poverty can have on a person who is constantly surrounded by people who not only have more, but look down on him for simply being unlucky as to not have what they do).
so yeah, ron was an envious kid, but he was that way not because he was an evil patriarchal conception but because he was lowkey neglected. and even then he was overall an extremely devoted and loyal friend to both harry and hermione, because he did genuinely love them.
there were many moments of ron standing up for hermione that was cut from the films, not as a guy who was romantically interested in her, but as a friend. ron arguing with snape for making hermione cry is one of my fav scenes in the books ru kidding me, and in the movies he AGREED with snape RU KIDDING ME. not to mention how ron was a sobbing violent mess when hermione was getting tortured in the last book, whereas he wasn’t nearly as bothered in the films. and the films cut out harry being a dick to ron about his familial concerns (in dh), so when ron left it seemed like a random dickish move over his jealousy towards harry and hermione’s relationship.
there’s also a million moments where they minimised ron’s usefulness in the books for comedic purposes (forbidden forest with aragog, troll scene, devils snare scene) so ron seems dumber than he is. like, he’s actually smart and a really good spellcaster…. in the books.
so simply by stating this most of the arguments against romione become void. “he’s too stupid/weak for her” simply not true. “he’s a terrible friend who doesn’t stand up for her” also not true. “he’s too insecure to have made a move on her,” yes, but given the context i don’t think people would freak on about ron’s upbringing, i think many would be more understanding, especially considering his growth. even if he wasn’t insecure, hermione is beyond incredible and is bound to make anyone nervous when pursuing her (not an excuse for ron to act like a dick, but it does explain a lot where the movies don’t). “they argue too much” they bump heads, none of the arguments they have are actually super damning, with the exception of ron leaving in deathly hallows.
maybe i’ve covered everything (excluding the abhorrent amount of classism that clouds people’s judgments around how they view ron when harping about how hermione deserves better? hopefully).
now, i know people won’t like me mentioning the cursed child, but i’m going to considering we actually get an insight of their life as a longterm married couple there. a lot of ron stans hated how ron was the only character that wasn’t doing something incredible. harry was head of the aurors, ginny was a famous quidditch player retired to a famous journalist, neville was a hogwarts professor, hermione was quite literally minister on magic. and ron…. ran the joke shop with george.
and i think this was almost the perfect route to go down for ron. because he was average, and was perfectly fine with just being average. hello?? that speaks leagues of growth for his character. he’s supportive of hermione’s work, he grounds her when she gets too caught up in being the literal president of wizarding society, and he still viciously defends her, minister or not. in fact, he’s proud to simply be known as hermione’s husband because he doesn’t feel the need to prove to anyone else his worth. the people he loves most know his worth, hermione never downplays or underestimates him, they are complete equals in the relationship in every single way that matters. they kept ron’s best qualities whilst making him seem more of a healed person. they work so well as a married couple without it seeming like mischaracterisation (not to mention the cursed child literally shows how those two are in love in every reality, so there quite literally can’t be a better partner for hermione or ron according to canon).
so i really don’t understand how professional relationship counsellors can go online and denounce it. probs because they only watched the movies, but it’s 2023 and ron stans should not STILL be fighting for their lives trying to defend him from people who simply don’t consume media with as much depth (which is fine, but one should clarify if they’re talking about the movies because i’ve seen people state they’re talking about the hp BOOKS when it’s simply just…. the films). anyways. romione on top, thanks to coming to my ted talk.
the way haymitch must have seen it as all his ghosts coming back to haunt him at once when katniss walked onto the train with the face of burdock and asterid, the pin of maysilee, the voice of lenore dove, and a background so devastatingly similar to his own. of course sweetheart slipped out. and of course he did everything he could to keep her alive
And this has proven my point months ago about how this production treats its poc cast and characters and doesn’t deserve them. I’m so done with dumb show….
Again, I love love love season two of bridgerton and, of course, the incomparable Simone Ashley as Kate, but the viscount who loved me is a far superior story to me because Kate Sheffield truly is a menace. Like, Kate Sharma is endlessly beautiful and pretty well perfect, and yeah, she and Anthony argue a lot, but end of the day she's basically exquisite.
Kate Sheffield is a little unhinged?! Like, this girl cannot control her dog, she wears funny little hats, she's only 21 so she's pretty naive compared to Kate Sharma and don't even get me started on the time she hides under Anthony's desk while he's with his former mistress in his office (pre-marriage and engagement, mind you, my boy would never). The Viscount who loved me is the star quarterback falling in love with a person from the marching band, but not, like, someone good at marching band? Kate Sheffield is the last chair flute; she joined because her friends were doing it and she wanted to try something new. Anthony calls her a menace a lot in the book, and usually i think it's funny and kind of mean, but like, he's not wrong. Kate Sheffield is a little bit insane and I love her so much for it.
A good-bye or perhaps a brief pause to the bee show?
Being a Kanthony fan is hard right now. Not only the way they were sidelined, but also because they are the only couple without an onscreen wedding or baby. It feels almost deliberate, petty even while the show continues to milk their popularity for views...
I was, anyways, not very invested in this season, and now all my desire to watch future seasons has just fizzled out. I love the people in this fandom, they have fed all of us with great content. Unfortunately, I only have negative things to say right now. I don't have anything positive to contribute, so maybe it's time to bow out, well for some time at least. I will lurk in the fandom and maybe catch up on some of the amazing stories by writers a million times more talented than the show's.
I don’t like how this show treats its poc actors/characters. For a show that’s so much about “diversity” and for women, how come there’s only one female poc lead so far and she was sidelined in her own season, and even now can’t get a proper storyline. Also do not get me started on how it diminishes female trauma/stories to service the male leads or tick boxes. Just showing women having sexual agency isn’t enough. Write female characters with their full depth. I’m just tired with the way Kate/Simone Ashley is being treated and I can’t be bothered putting my energy into this show.
Also I love Jonathan Bailey with my whole heart and will watch anything that he’s in. However, I hate this fandom’s treatment of Rege Jean Page. The man had full right to leave the show, he would do himself a disservice by being on it. Stop the whole “Jonny is still on the show and is booked and busy, while Rege still isn’t when he left the show for that reason”, yes and? He left because he felt that was right for his career, and at the end of the day Jonny is a white man and Rege is not, if the world treats them differently, you really think production companies won’t. Look at how Bridgerton treats its fucking poc characters and how the fandom treats them too. They was so much hate being spewed at Charithra and Simone by the “fans” during season 2 it was disgusting. And now at Masali for the genderbend.
Yes I’m not very happy with the fact we won’t get Francesca’s story in its full authenticity. Especially when the book deals with her having infertility issues and how she copes with it. But the fandom is acting as if Masali is responsible for this. LGBT romance stories are needed and are important and gender bending Michael is not the be all end all. But I have no expectations from this show to deliver. I mean they did away with the whole pining of Michael/a because in the show it looks like Francesca falls first. Which takes away from the premise of WHWW because Francesca was in love with John and a huge part of the story is her being able to allow herself to love Michael/a. The way this show could not handle a simple love story with Colin and Penelope, I genuinely have no trust in them being able to deal with a lesbian love story and where one lead is dealing with the grief of widowhood and infertility.
I think this show is ticking boxes at this point, delivering the bare minimum and then expecting everyone to be happy with it. And it’s becoming more and more clear to me that the only people who have bothered to read the books are the actors themselves, because the show runners look like they just read the titles of the books and ran with it.
Polin’s story was told even worse than how Kanthony’s story was told and that’s saying something. The aesthetics were so off this season and rather than Benedict having something useful to do the man was just there being the town bike (something he’s done for the past 2 seasons), why was my man not painting is beyond me.
When the show runner had said that kanthony are now a boring married couple that told me everything I needed to know. As if married couples don’t have challenges. Also sending them away for the worst reasons was so out of character, like just read fucking fanfiction and adapt that at this point. There was so much to explore with them and they didn’t so yeah I’m quite done.
I’m going to treat the show as some fucked up parallel universe to the books, because yes the book characters are problematic but at least their stories are told properly and every couple gets their due.
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