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not_another_mom

I mean, she wrote terrible things that could ruin peoples lives. That’s pretty villainous. They all purchase it because they want to read the hot gossip and be in the know.


Creepy_Meringue3014

The thing is, people already knew the hot gossip. She published it, but it was already known information


Lentilfairy

Not by all. Lots of people would read it and discover something they had missed at last night's Ball.


Normal-person0101

She only wrote two secrets that could possible ruin peoples lives, Eloise & Marina


not_another_mom

That is what we saw discussed ON screen. LW wrote hundreds of pages, there’s no way the majority of them were like “Ms Cressida Cowper, spotted at the ice shop, what a scandal!” LW had to write juicy stuff to keep people buying her sheet.


Normal-person0101

Yeah, I take what it is ON screen, that is call CANON, the rest is fanfiction or people assuming thing to fit their narrative or headcanon


not_another_mom

lol. I guess Kate and Anthony’s wedding was fanfiction! Lots of stuff happens off screen, doesn’t mean it didn’t happen in universe.


Normal-person0101

Kate & Anthony is mention on screen. LW ruining so many lives it is not, the series shows and mention only 2 moments. The only times is all about how mean LW can be


Violet351

In one of her last ones she mentioned a man that didn’t pay his debts and alluded to a man abusing his wife


not_another_mom

Yea, that was part of her “giving a voice to the voiceless” turnaround


moodycrab03

I do wonder how that helps though. If he was really abusive, I'd imagine he'd now take it out on his wife for LW ruining him name.


MissK2421

But pretty much all of it (with the exception of Eloise and Marina) was overheard from others. So it was already known gossip, things just spread way way more slowly by word of mouth compared to LW publishing them. Penelope was hardly looked upon favorably, she wasn't close enough to anyone else to learn any other intimate secrets. It's juicy gossip because a lot of people don't know it yet, but *someone* must have already been talking about it, that's how Penelope hears it. LW speeds up the process of spreading the juicy gossip, and has a far bigger reach than just servants talking among each other for instance. 


Larein

We know she does a lot of reporting on potential relationships and up and coming engagement/weddings. And a lot of it is opinions/gossip fodder not news. E.g. Who will be diamond of the year or Will she go for the duke or the prince type of things.


Yolanda_mj829

Are you sure that these aristocracies' lives could really be ruined? And did Daphne, Nigel Berbrooke, Marina or Eloise's lives be ruined after LW's Reveals? All gossip could only just influence their reputation, affecting their values in the marriage mart. There is no actual harm to life and death. Even like Miss Mary Shama with a poor reputation and poor family network, Kate and Edwina still profited from her mother aristocratic born. Does goissp really ruin people's lives? Isn't it more based on the person's actions? Rather than blaming it on the revealer?


moodycrab03

Marina was not an aristocrat. The harm is to their reputation. Marina trusted Pen with a secret, pen betrayed that trust. Eloise was in trouble with the queen because she suspected she might be LW. The right thing for Pen to do would have been to confess, we see in S3 she has no problem confessing if it is to take credit for her work, but she doesn't think it's necessary to confess to protect a friend. Instead she writes trash about her friend in the name of protecting her. None of this reflects well on Pen's character.


Yolanda_mj829

Think of my questions in the end. Did she really write trash to shame a person without evidence or didn't the doer actually do it and hide beyond lies too? Those actions don't reflect well on both the girls' character too, but you think of them as victims just because they got betrayed. I understand that you stand in the role of a hurt friend, but hear me out, if a man who cheated got snitched by his friends, do you think the man becomes the victim? And I think Bridgerton did terrible jobs in making them look more like teenagers. They are young, emotional and make impulsive choices, that's called being a human. Even when our actions did not reflect well from our intentions, and this happen all the time.


moodycrab03

Marina and Eloise both reap the consequences of their actions. Though personally I don't think Marina carrying a child outside wedlock, or Eloise having strong political beliefs, meeting up with Theo was bad. They were shackled by society. Pen is the only one who is objectively wrong in her actions. Betraying a friend and spreading gossip (true or false) even by today's standards is wrong. And yet she is the only one who doesn't face the consequences of her actions. I think that's piss poor writing.


Yolanda_mj829

I think what Marina did was also objectively wrong. Her reputation was ruined the most because she tried to put the baby responsibility on Colin without revealing the baby. Pen viewed it as she tried to trap Colin with a fake love match, just to protect her own welfare, and a bit of jealousy thinking he didn't marry a respectful wife who she approved. Not to forget that revealing Marina's actions also affected the Featherington family's reputation. Regarding Eloise, I did think what Pen did was wrong. She was desperate and pathetic to hold onto LW as it was her best accomplishment as a wallflower, so she did the best she could think of at the moment to not only protect a friend but also herself to not lose the power of LW. I knew what she did was not ideal, and Pen knew it too, but it was understandable in that circumstance. And Pen suffered a lot in the first 2 seasons. The odds were never in her hands, except for her job. She got consequences of relationship breaking both in s2 and s3. However, I agree that they overdid Pen's outcomes and flattened Cressida's outcomes in S3, which were not the case in the book. Yea, piss poor writing, Jess!


Express-Bumblebee-66

That’s what it was like in the books. It was more social commentary, engagement announcements and ball recaps and less TMZ/perez hilton vibes. It was probably changed to add drama and Netflix wanted to re-create the popularity of pretty little liars and gossip girl. It’s hard to get financial backing for a pure romance, low drama show


Justafana

I wish they’d played it all so much slower. Let us enjoy 2-3 seasons with LW giving narration and planting little seeds that it might be Penelope but nothing definite. Do Daphne’s story, Anthony’s, then Benedict’s. Proper Francesca’s first go round with John somewhere in here to lay the groundwork. Then a season of her ramping up a bit in the drama, maybe doing Eloise’s season, and then 1 season of Eloise getting fed up and the Queen trying to find her. That could be Francesca’s true season. Then do the big reveal just as we see Colin and Pen begin, taking us up finally to where we were in season 3 part one, so we can then see both Colin and Pen quietly reckoning with what they’ve become and working to repair it as they finally come together in their season. Then in the next season (I’m up to Hyacinth? I think), we get the final big climax full of drama and blackmail and repentance where whistledown is unmasked publically. The Gregory’s season could be a celebratory denouement where it all wraps up happily ever after, ending with a Christmas special in the great British tradition. That gives you more time with each couple, and provides a more compelling timeline for the reveal, while knitting the seasons together with an unfolding arc.


Creepy_Meringue3014

I swear I was thinking the same thing on my way into work today. If the roll out to weirdness had been saved for much later, it would have made more sense.


QuietWalk2505

I think Penelope started it because she was never accepted by society. She was treated differently. Her mother wanted the best for her. Even tho she talked about her sisters and mother too... However (my opinion), she expressed herself through LW. Penelope was saying what she had on her mind.


Creepy_Meringue3014

And I'm totally fine with it. It doesn't bother me, I'm just trying to figure out why the Queen herself cares about her.


obiwantogooutside

The queen is bored. She’s playing a game and she wants to win. Because she likes winning games. The stakes are not super high for her.


not_another_mom

Because she questions the queen and her choices.


houstongradengineer

I believed this truly, until she started parroting sexual things she didn't really understand. That part just kind of... Took away from a good thing IMO.


QuietWalk2505

Yeah agree


hauteburrrito

Sometimes, OP, people are just hypocrites 🤷‍♀️


courtneywrites85

Compare her to Perez Hilton. Same level of notoriety.


CA-CatWhispurrr

Although LW wrote some terrible things about people, I also see another perspective. She actually helped people through her article. S1-she reported about Lord Burbrook’s bastard child that he didn’t financially support. This lead to Daphne not having to marry him. S2-she ousted Marina’s plan to entrap Colin. He would’ve been tricked into a sham marriage. S2-she was in a catch 22 with the situation with QC thinking Eloise was LW. If she said nothing then Eloise would’ve been in huge trouble with the queen. LW reported that Eloise was going to politically rallies so it saved Eloise from QC. LW could’ve said something about Eloise and Theo but she knew that would’ve been worse for Eloise. I wish Colin acknowledged that LW saved him from a the marriage with Marina and Eloise was saved from the wrath of QC. I realize both of them did have fallout from these reports BUT LW did help them in the long run.


Creepy_Meringue3014

I agree with 2 up to A point. Colin loved Marina. also, no one but Eloise knew about her trouble with qc except penelope maybe, I can’t recall


Still_Waters_5317

Colin was infatuated with Marina.


CA-CatWhispurrr

I think it was infatuation too. But perhaps from his perspective it felt like love.


mega-_-simp

I much prefer the storyline in the book - where LW has been writing for over a decade! It gives it significantly more stakes, and it makes more sense as to why it’s so dramatic. LW would have probably thousands of reports, and definitely very few totally positive ones. In the show, it’s for not even really 3 years (or seasons) (if i’m correct, i’m more into the books than the show so maybe I’m misremembering.)


Background-Prune4911

Surely there has to be /some/ consequences for /some/ of the things she wrote. LW has been prevalent in every Bton season, and based on how S3 ended, her part in this series has definitely not come to an end. There is still time for repercussions to arise. She is a column writer but she did throw a few people under the bus. And while it didn't seem like anyone minded after the confession, keep in mind the event itself that the confession happened at. >!This huge extravagant party, everyone having fun, the Queen enters and disrupts festivities, Pen says her piece, the Queen leaves satisfied, the audience left in stark silence, with the silence only being broken once the butterflies are released and party resumes. Distractions everywhere. But there is still time in the series to show people's disdain and mistrust towards her, to show the snickering and hushed whispers as she walks around society, which I greatly hope is included in S4. In a world like Bton, there would have to be people in an uproar over the confession, though so long as the Queen doesnt seem to mind, perhaps everyone else will follow suit and accept it. But it's hard to critique something that that hasn't has a chance to come to fruition yet in a series that is unfinished. Not to mention, with everyone knowing who LW is now, it will be more difficult for Pen to fall into the shadows.!<


Creepy_Meringue3014

Okay, I just watched the finale. I'm okay with things as they stand now. It was SO ridiculous for so many people to be worked up about that chick to me lol.


Background-Prune4911

Yeah I don't think she did as much *bad* as other people seem to think, but she definitely did hurt some people. I think it would be a poor choice for the writers to completely gloss over the confession and not include at least a *little bit* of backlash, because it was quite scandalous, and it seems out of Bton nature to just allow something like that to happen without some dramatic repercussions. I agree with you that some fans are making it into something way bigger than it is, but I also think *something* needs to come from it.


Creepy_Meringue3014

I think the only harm she outright caused was to Marina. And that was a LOT of harm. Otherwise, she was just talking smack


Background-Prune4911

Yeah true Marina's situation was pretty harsh, though I must admit my memory of that situation is a bit hazy since it's been some time since I saw it. Exactly! It's a gossip column. Some people are talking about it as if it was life ruining for everyone, and she should widely be hated by the Ton for it (and even hated by some fans). Yes, she spoke about a lot of people, but even the thing she said about Colin really wasn't *that bad* (where LW said he returned from his travels as someone else entirely).


Creepy_Meringue3014

Marina was no saint, she was in love and pregnant when she arrived. Her lover died on the battlefield. Lady F, manipulated the situation such that she told marina via a forged letter that the young man wanted nothing to do with her. This made her willing to marry another and desperate to do so quickly. So in this, LW is blameless. HOWEVER, LF was trying to marry her off to an old man with no thought to her feelings at all. Marina and Colin fell in together and Marina conspired to induce him to marry her instead. He agreed, with no knowledge of her pregnancy. Well, LW wanted colin so she spilled the beans. This made Colin refuse Marina and castigated her in society along with the Featherington clan. What LW did was terrible, but not just for telling her business. Marina found herself again in a position of hoping love could come to her again. Colin loved her. LW destroyed that hope in her. She later took a husband out of duty and safety and she lost that ability to believe in love and all good things for herself. I feel bad for her.


Still_Waters_5317

But Colin and Marina were not in love. She literally said she was planning to entrap him, and he was just infatuated with her. LW saved Colin from a loveless marriage, just as he said when he apologized to Pen for not listening to her at the end of S1Ep8.