Colin's hitch in his breath when he first kisses Pen followed by his heavy breathing and furrowed brow when the kiss deepens haunts my dreams. His face throughout the entire scene is a masterclass on falling in love.
I can't get over the way he stares at her during that entire scene. She is a goddess. He's seeing her in a whole new light. He's been thinking of her for days. He's got all of these feelings swirling around in his brain and he doesn't know what it all means. He's desperate to see her but doesn't know what to say to her. But in that moment, when she asks him to kiss her? The only thing that does make sense for him is that he absolutely must kiss her.
And when the kiss breaks, he doesn't pull away. He stays in her space because he wants more because it feels right. Her running off throws him back into the present. But he's changed. You see it on his face. Those jumbled feelings that had been plaguing him click into place. Colin knows he's in love with her and from here on out, he leans into it because nothing else matters.
It's such a beautiful scene and I'm so proud of Colin for not hiding from those feelings. He talks constantly about how brave Pen is but uff. He is equally as brave.
I really hope Anthony randomly wakes up in a cold sweat a couple weeks after Polin's engagement and is just like "I owe Daphne an apology, maybe dancing together a few times at a ball does signify" to a very confused Kate.
Interesting what people are taking away from S3, particularly the discourse around how Pen wasnāt properly romanced or courted ābecause sheās a mid-sized lead.ā
Babes. My love. Sweetheart.
Daphne was fake courted for weeks and then compromised and then denied a proposal.
Kate was all tension, turmoil and heartbreak and then compromised further.
Pen got:
- two stags locking horns over her affections,
- chased down in a carriage,
- a man on his knees for her begging her to see him as a prospect,
- the best (imo) āI have feelings for you and have no idea if you feel the same but I just need you to know itā speech since 2005 P&P,
- a very sexy and consensual, if compromising, romp in a carriage,
- FULL AND IMMEDIATE COMMITMENT WITH ZERO BULLSHIT because this man could not live one more second without her being his,
- defended to her mother,
- paraded around the ton and in front of her worst enemyās face,
- the most utterly reverent sex scene in the history of the show,
- an engagement ring that matched his motherās because of the parallel friends to lovers love story,
- and him constantly worried out of his mind that he wasnāt good enough for her
āØ AS āØ SHE āØ DESERVED āØ
I mean, maybe Iām a little too modern but that beats a promenade and flavored ice dates and calling hours by literal lightyears. That angel girl was thoroughly ā damn nearly aggressively ā romanced.
Do I still have issues with the screen time, absolutely, but Jesus if Colin wasnāt head over heels whenever he pulled his head out of his ass. (And even, sometimes, when he hadnāt.)
One detail I love that hasnāt been explicitly shown is that Penelope is definitely the favorite mistress amongst the staff in the Featherington household. Penelope and her ladyās maid Rae are locked in for life. And yeah you could argue that Penelope is obviously going to be Raeās favorite because of the bond between ladies and their maids during the era, but itās not just Rae who seems to love Penelope:
-Varleyās loyal to Portia through thick and thin but holds an obvious soft spot for Penelope and aā¦. toleranceā¦of Prudence and Phillipa.
-When Eloise came to visit it looks like the staff there were also on edge for Penelope; they seemed to give the girls complete privacy for their whistledown conversation after the moon ball (which is crazy given that staff in Bridgerton are ground zero for spreading gossip lol).
- youāre telling me that in 3 seasons no staff- especially those that work late- never saw Penelope leaving the house in her whistledown cloak? Someone had to have seen her by now and that implies they just pretend that they donāt because they like her that much
- footmen back then usually help escort the passengers down from their carriages. The footmen post-carriage scene knocked on the roof instead. Those footmen knew damn well what was happening, they just happened to be team polin.
- back to the realest bitch out there: Rae. I have a theory that with all her little side eyes and smirks at Colin she told the other staff what was so clearly going on and was like ālisten guys Penelope may be our favorite but bless her heart sheās got NEGATIVE rizz. We need to help our girl outā and so thatās how all these too-perfect opportunities for polin to meet up happened.
colin really thought that without eloise, he can finally monopolize pen for himself, but hon hon hon,,,, little does he know, hyacinth is there to mess up his plans lmao.
show! pen may not have felicity, but she has a hyacinth whoāll adore her for the both of them uwu
just thinking about edmund bridgerton ii, thomas elliot bridgerton and the featherington cousins growing up together is ngl making me feel š„¹š„¹š„¹š„¹
Polin magical girl AU. Pen moonlights as magical girl vigilante who saves everyone from the villain of the day, and that she keeps as a secret to everyone and Colin is the dude she crushes on and looks up to Penās magical girl persona.
Colin's "entrapment" line was hard to listen to, but it was most definitely a sign of how unhinged he really is for Penelope.
Ok but for reals, I'm not sure how everyone else reacted when Colin said his now infamous "entrapment" line, but I just love how if one looks at this line a little more closely, it was definitely some semblance of an underhanded (and also a bit silly, lol) attempt to actually keep Penelope entrapped. Haha, the irony of it all. Idk, at least that was my read on it!
Like, it was definitely said in anger as well; he's hurting, and heās hurting badly, so of course he wants to hit back in some way, however he can. Luke Newton absolutely meant it when he said that Colin reacts to the reveal in the worst way possible, alas.
My very first reaction to that scene: //pauses the screen to yell at Colin at 4am in the morning, āEntrapment????! If you feel trapped, then why the hell are you still going along with it, ya dumb ass!!!
Because really, think about it: Colin was definitely within his rights to call off the wedding, especially when he'd mentioned that Violet had noticed that he and Penelope had not seen each other for some time. It would have been the perfect time to reveal Penelope's secret to his mother, if indeed he felt entrapped by the LW of it all. Violet is family; if he wanted to still protect Penelope but no longer wanted to marry her, he would have been able to count on Violet's discretion. I'm sure she and Lady Danbury would have come up with some sort of plan to deal with the aftermath regarding the Bridgertonsā reputation, as we'd seen with Anthony and Edwina's botched wedding.
Furthermore, it would have probably been the better option to reveal it to her, since the existence of LW does put his family in danger; Penelope herself knows this. Every decision she makes post-LW reveal to Colin is due to the Bridgertons being in danger. Lady Danbury makes a point of this when she said in the last episode, āThere is only one other person who loves the Bridgertons more than I.ā
Eloise was able to keep the secret with no real consequences because although Penelope was her ex-bff, El still loves her, and besides that, nothing legal binds them as Colin's marriage to Penelope would.
Even when he was getting ready to talk to Benedict about getting funds to fulfill Cressidaās demands, he insisted on making up a lie to shield Penelopeās identity as LW. He knows more than anything that fulfilling a demand like this, all for the sake of his wife and at the cost of using a substantial amount of Bridgertonsā financial assets, may not put his marriage in the best light within his family. He doesnāt want to be forced to have to choose between his wife and his family, so heās keen on keeping the lie going.
So for all intents and purposes, he doesn't tell his mother, or any of his other siblings (besides Eloise, who already knew); this in and of itself is hella fucking risky. The fact that Colin is willing to take this risk of withholding Penelope's secret identity from his family, the fact that he doesn't think to jeopardize this potentially risky betrothalāalready goes to show the measure in regards to how much he wants Pen for his wife. We the audience know this because he waits until the very last minute to tell Violet, and even then, it's not Colin who chose to reveal it to her, but Penelope herself.
Another point: arguably, we can also say that Colin has a lot more wiggle room with his engagement to Penelope to call off the wedding, much more than he ever did with his engagement to Marina.
"A man of honor"? Exactly what "honor" are we talking about here? Colin claimed that he would have married Marina had she just told him the truth, yet when push came to shove and the truth of her pregnancy was revealed for all the world to know, he still chose to take the out Penelope gave him through LW. Itās easier to make a declaration like that when itās all said and done. Lol Sure, he regretted it and apologized for his behavior later on, but he had made his choice regardless. Yāall can just feel Marina and Lady Danbury judging this dumb ass (affectionate) for dwelling in the past. Silly young man! XD What's stopping him this time around?
"We had been...intimate." Are you talking about the mirror scene, sir? Because let me assure you, you and Penelope have long been "intimate" way before you decided to buy a love nest and take her V-card the very next day you proposed to her. In fact, this is where the significance of their first kiss in 3.02 rings so, SO importantly and WHY it was vital that it was Penelope who asked and said that it would not have to mean anything. Colin knows Penelope would never use their first time together and/or the heated moment in the carriage as a way to entrap him. That first kiss alone should have already warranted that they get married, but Penelope makes it clear that itās simply a favor, nothing more.
Oddly enough, Iām surprised Colin doesnāt bring up the idea of a long engagement (yknow, as he initially wanted with Marina, but whoās keeping track at this point), considering that would have potentially benefitted their situation. š¤ His dumb ass (affectionate) was more than willing to stick to the wedding scheduleā¦huh.
Besides all that, I donāt think itās the showrunnersā intent to ātaintā those special moments between them by changing the context through Colinās (very biased) POV; to believe that to be the case would be, imo, just a bad faith argument. The genre is romance, yāall; these intimacy scenes are on an entirely different pedestal.
Because remember, that āentrapmentā line of Colinās only came about due to Penelope starting the conversation with, āAre you going to call off the wedding?ā
Didnāt it almost seem like an afterthought, that he just came up with it on the spot? Hahaha.
I can bet yāall Cressidaās fake ass ā¬20,000 blackmail money that before theyād met up to discuss wedding breakfast plans with their mamas, it had probably never even occurred to Colin to cancel their wedding. Angry and furious as he was, it was never a question of whether or not he still wanted Penelope for a wife.
The fact that itās Penelope who begins that conversation and opens that Pandoraās box possibility is so, so damn important. Because not only does it show how much Penelope truly loves him in that she would never trap him, it also shows her maturity, in that sheās willing to face the consequences of her actions. Sheās willing to give Colin the choice to back out, heartbreaking as it would be to face it, even if she herself would not be the one to pursue that choice.
She gives him the choice a good number of times: the wedding breakfast plan scene, the wedding day itself when she hesitates on the aisle, and the annulment offer after the butterfly scene.
Penelope defends herself softly, but truthfully: she never meant to entrap him, because she really didnāt. And Colin knows this; he would not still love her and want her if he honestly believed she wanted to entrap him. Hell, even if she did, the audience knows itās a desire that comes from a good place: she loves him, so of course she doesnāt want to lose him. She wants to marry him, because she loves him. Thatās all there is to it.
But despite knowing this (imo, anyway), we can also say that this conversation may have contributed to Colinās downward spiral during the majority of episode 7 and 8, and why he becomes hella fucking desperate to be āusefulā to her.
Because unlike himself, Penelope has now begun to entertain the idea of living a life that doesnāt include himāat least, not as her husband. Penelope is brave and strong enough to let him go due to the pain she caused him for her lies and her actions as LW, and as for Colinā¦wellā¦
(I love it, itās the same conundrum that Anthony faced in S2: Kate is strong enough to leave him behind and return to India, but Anthonyā¦wellā¦)
TL;DR, Colinās entrapment line was literally an excuse he gave himself to keep his betrothal to Penelope intact. Itās a line that works in two ways simultaneously: itās a painful, childish, underhanded thing to say in order to hurt Penelopeās feelings, to get back at her for the anguish heās suffered. Yet at the same time, itās also another excuse he gives himself in order to push through with the marriage, to tie Penelope to himself forever.
Because unlike Penelope, the very idea of living without her as his wife, of not having her in his life, is and always will be an impossible notion for Colin to ever entertain.
ā¦..not even six hours later i got an offer of a well paying full time long-term job with free room and board in queens in nyc, allowing me independence and a way to escape an abusive situation and an unhealthy environment
likes charge reblogs cast, folks, this is the good luck post
the last time I reblogged this post right before I got a great job, in a permanent work-from-home position, with benefits, retirement, and a salary literally 3x what I was making before, doing something I really like.Ā
this is definitely for self indulgence but like i will be laughing my ass off if any jo bros song is in the ost just for the comparison with the bridgerton bros lmao
Kinda want a Polin AU where Finch and Dankworth thinks it is now their duty to be the men in Penelopeās life, and becomes overprotective brothers to Pen, so they try to intimidate Colin and āassessā him, but like Colin, who grew up with two insufferable older brothers, only raises an eyebrow with an amused smile. Heās mildly intimidated but like, this is also quite funny
