I can't believe this topic even needs a post but here you go anyways *drumroll*
WHY ANTHONY AND EDWINA WOULDN'T HAVE WORKED OUT
i'm assuming edwina is about 17-18y while anthony is 29-30y, which makes them have a 11-12 year age difference - aka, a huge generation gap
i don't know what else to say except that it's like shipping the current kate(26y) with gregory(14y), considering they have the same age gap as edwina and anthony
(y'all really be shipping a teenager with a grown ass middle aged man huh 🤨 insisting that he found her body hot 🤨👏 jesus)
one of the prime reasons why kathony connected was because both of them were forced to mature themselves too early, as a result they understood and found peace with one another
edwina on the other hand is still a teenage, and would likely go through maturing as a normal person, without the positionboth kate and anthony were thrust into - this in turn, will unfortunately make her unable to connect to anthony for most of her life (if they were to get married)
this is just a personal opinion, but like daphne said, anthony somehow felt like he would suit a person who was more his equal
besides the obvious maturity and age range, one of the other reason why kathony suited each other so much was bcoz of how close in height kate sharma was with anthony
edwina on the other hand, when she stood besides anthony, felt more like a daughter he was about to debut into high society (her soft facial features as compared to kathony further prove this take)
SEXUAL OR ROMANTIC ATTRACTION TOWARDS EACH OTHER
"anthony found edwina hot enough to consider her as a wife"
i'm convinced every attempt edwants take to mention how anthony probably found edwina hot is just to convince themselves to stay rooted in their delusions
the only reason anthony 'choose to court' edwina was because she was named the diamond; imo he would have courted anyone in that 💎 position, provided it wasn't eloise, pen or cressida
the closest thing to 'hot' that he thought about edwina is probably that she has a pleasant face - in other words, you can find someone to be good looking but that necessarily doesn't mean you are attracted to them, which is exactly the case for anthony
edwina too, I believe wasn't really interested in anthony beyond him being handsome and being a viscount (pay attention to the proposal scene she says "I'll be your viscountess" instead of just "yes ill marry you" - maybe I'm looking too much into this but it felt like she was primarily more interested at the life a viscountess had to offer than in anthony)
moreover, you can see in all their scenes together (which again, was always chaperoned), there is never really any sexual tension or romantic feelings in the air - wherever they talked, the most it felt like it was an amiable friendship or I dare say, acquaintance
if you haven't already noticed, anthony and edwina are quite different in their temperaments
let's take for eg. anthony has a natural inclination to be competitive, on the other hand, edwina rather be in a environment which is cooperative
anthony is a bit brazen, once he puts his mind to something no one can stop him from acting towards it, even if the ton deems it to be scandalous - as long as he knows his cause to be right, he could care less about what the ton of him
edwina, on the other hand schools her behavior to fit the ton - she is calculated in the way that she knows she has to put on pretenses to fit in and survive within the tons judgement - you can see in various scenes whenever she is uncomfortable or upset, she hardly ever let's it show in her tone, chooses instead to be polite in all her interactions with the society
now one can say opposites attract, however in real life such marriages or relationships do not really last long - all healthy relationships need both partners to have something in common, be it their personality or their interests - for edwina and anthony, one of the only legit thing they had in common from the start was the death of their fathers at a young age
this is why I think, their marriage would have been doomed from the start - things would have been a bit different if they had even a bit of spark between them, but they didn't - if married, anthony would have been distant and miserable and edwina would have been lonely and miserable
the only saving garce would have been a child between them, but knowing anthony, he would have either not touched her (and put his brothers children as the inheritors of the viscountcy) or even if he did, he would have done it quickly while imagining someone else, wishing that when the child was born it shared the blood of someone else (and honestly yall have to be too cruel to wish this upon someone)
all throughout the show we have seen that, despite his sometimes dickish behavior, he cares about his family quite deeply, sacrificing most of his youth to take care of the viscountcy so that none of his family members feel loss of their father, atleast in financial terms
in the mere age of 18, he made sure that none felt the need to give up the life they previously had just because their father was not there anymore - he made sure all of them lived comfortably while still maintaining the level of influence they had while the 9th viscount was still alive - he did that all because he wanted the others to suffer just a little less than him
so it isn't surprising that he would want someone who would get along with his family and match the sort of wild spirit they seemed to have - I can give you my word, diamond or not he wouldn't have married someone who didn't care or his family didn't approve of (imo kate was the only unique case, if he would have to marry, it would be kate or no one else)
edwina, while everyone did treat her with respect and care - the bridgerton siblings were awkward with her, simply bcoz their vibes didn't match, they were somewhat too competitive even for trivial things than what she would have expected or been comfortable with - and honestly no can can blame her for this; people are complex, you either hit it off or you don't, there's no in between - if you don't have the spark now, chances are you won't have it even if you have known or met them a whole lot of times
so yes, if they did marry, edwina would have been a bit lonely since she was unable to connect with the family well as she would have liked - the only companion she might have had from the bton siblings would have been francesca, who seemed to be somewhat quiet, a little less competitive and bold unlike her brothers and sisters
it seemed incredibly clear by the end of the season that kate to anthony was as much important to him as his family, if not more
his family was in the brink of ruin, with not one but two big scandals threatening to forever change the social footing they had in the ton - but for the first time anthony didn't care, he danced with kate in front of the entire tons judgement - he knew just how scandalous that was but he was ready to do it all for kate
so it is a good thing, I assure you, that kate was a good person who cared and got along with his family as much as anthony did
would he have given up this much for edwina? unfortunately no - he would have ofcourse provided and cared for her if he had been his wife, but! he would have never put her needs above his family (if you still think he would have done so - sorry, he wouldn't have, yall are just in denial at this point)
That's it for now - go ahead and add more points if anyone wants 🤞