something I’ve noticed in fandoms lately is a lack of… object permanence? perspective? Just reacting to each episode/chapter of something as if it’s final & whatever plot line they dislike is the status quo forever? like…… have a tiny bit of patience
I kinda understand because a lot of franchises lately have ended in shoddy and poorly thought out ways, but tbh either have some faith in your fav show or just write fanfic
this combined with people reading a boatload of fanfic between seasons then coming back to the show & getting upset that their headcanons aren’t canon… disappointment is a normal feeling but I also feel like people put themselves through unnecessary stress watching shows they clearly do not like
I have thoughts on Francesca Bridgerton's story, but I have to think through them
Full spoilers ahead for the Bridgerton show and books
And I also need to make some disclaimers first: I have absolutely no issues with the show gender swapping Michael to Michaela, and I am excited about queer Francesca. And also the last time I reread the book When He Was Wicked was in 2023, so I'm afraid I might remember some things wrong, but honestly I've read it quite a few times lol.
Okay but I do have issues with how the show is adapting Francesca's story so far. I think it would still be possible for them to adapt the things I like about Francesca's book but from everything we've seen so far, it's looking very unlikely
The things I particularly like about Francesca's book are as follows (and generally would still work for Francesca's story to be adapted even with Michael gender swapped to Michaela, so that is absolutely not my issue):
I read a lot of historical romance and I very rarely see sexually experienced female lead characters. This holds true in the Bridgerton books and the show thus far for everyone other than book Francesca. She's written as a relatively mature woman whose plot is about a second chance at love, finding love with a partner after her first partner has passed away. She is written to have loved her first partner and to have enjoyed sex with her first partner. That said, she is still written as finding greater sexual pleasure with her new partner, the romantic lead of her book, than she has ever had before, but it's important imo to get at least the representation of someone who has loved someone before and has had at least acceptable sex before their book romance plot, in a historical romance book. Often when I read historical romances where the female lead has ever had sex prior to the book's main romance, she has trauma or negative experiences around those prior sexual encounters. I have no issues with the existence of any of these stories but the fact is problematic that the vastly overrepresented majority of romance book, especially historical romance book, plots consist of virginal heroines finding love and sexual pleasure like they've never imagined before with their romantic lead partners.
Relatedly, there are multiple ways of being in love, and showing John and Francesca's "softer" type of love is nice in the book and was especially nice in the first half of season 3 of the show. And I would be fine if Francesca were bisexual or biromantic or something like that, but the show keeps heavily suggesting and leaning into and doubling down on Francesca seeming to only show interest in Michaela and not in John hardly at all.
Which brings me to my next point that I like that in the book Francesca has never considered Michael a romantic or sexual prospect until well after her husband has passed, whereas on the other hand Michael has been absolutely whipped and head over heels for her from day one and suffered in hot, angsty silence which makes for excellent tension and forbidden love. The show keeps showing us absolutely no reactions of Michaela's but showing us Francesca having reactions to Michaela despite being married, and I'm simply not a fan of anything adjacent to a cheating plot. Even season 2 is my favorite season thus far and I have to kind of turn off part of my brain to enjoy it because it's too akin to cheating. And I get if the show is making the storyline for Francesca be mainly about her lesbian or otherwise sapphic awakening and that is an important story to tell, but that's simply in no way aligned with the book in the slightest, though it could be if they did it differently and really just waited longer for some of Francesca's reactions to be shown to the audience. We're seeing nothing from Michaela's perspective. And yeah I guess the show doesn't have to be in any way faithful to the book but all things considered it has been so far, and for the most part when it hasn't been, it's been an improvement (other than basically cheating being the plot of season 2). I'm not convinced yet that they're at all improving Francesca's story (especially since it's also the best bridgerton book, despite its own glaring issues that the books all have in their own ways).
And so coming back around to my original point, in changing Francesca to be the one we see falling for Michaela immediately rather than for Michaela to fall for Francesca immediately and Francesca to have no thoughts of Michaela as a prospect until years down the line, the show seems to have turned Francesca into the same virginal, relatively inexperienced heroine as every single other one we've gotten in every book and every season.
So basically I'm still so excited for Francesca's season, I love Francesca and John and Michaela in the show so far, and I will be watching and I will probably be happy about it, but I'm still gonna complain about the fact that I think they're ruining what I envision they could do with adapting Francesca's book. And I would just really like to see some of Michaela's reactions to Francesca rather than just Francesca's reactions to Michaela.
And of course I maintain that if they were going to pick one bridgerton to write as a presumed lesbian on the show Eloise would make the most sense and it would be so easy to adapt her book (which is also the worst bridgerton book as it stands) by just switching Philip and Marina...
A giant crystal appears in the city of Tokyo. The blue-glowing crystal blended into daily life and became a familiar presence. However, those peaceful times came to a sudden end. Strange monsters appear from a mysterious, menacing energy polluting the crystal, driving humanity to despair. As terror dominates the city, armed warriors emerge,
as if they were answering to a cry for help. As they conceal their identities and quickly disappear after battle,
people began to call them 'ghosts'…
Look at these beautiful portraits of them from the new Dissidia Duellum mobile game that was fully shown off today. I love most of the outfits, except Cloud's, I don't really like his pants lolol. I'm still conflicted about it being another mobile title with no PC version for other people at launch, but I'm just glad I'm getting anything Dissidia at this point right now.
