Yall forgetting that Eloise admired Whistledown for being ballsy and just when she criticises the Ton. Until Whistledown criticised her being reckless radical and rightfully so! Pen warned Eloise that if she was discovered her family would be shamed with her. Pen more than anyone understands the political games of the Ton. Sometimes even Better than the Queen. Eloise is ranting teenager who loves to complain and proclaim she wants to do something but can't learn to shut up, actually listen and feel the atmosphere of the room. Even in the on her 1st night back she managed to offend 3 naive girls who was just having an innocent conversation. Her frankness is misplaced and thats why people shun her and got stuck with Cressida.
eloise admires that whistledown is a woman that’s running her own business, she does not like what she writes past the beginning of the show, she wants to find her to make her write about more important things
@@savsav988 And she wanted to find her so that she could get her to retract what she had written about Penelope's family, ironically. For which she is torn apart for not being a good friend.
@@savsav988then why didn't she wrote it herself? Why bother finding whistledown? Whistledown was doing this for a long time and she was good at what she did, so if Eloise wanted to change the world she shouldn't have been relying on whistledown, instead she should've stepped up and should've done something on her own.
@@LJE1821I don't think anyone hates anyone in this show, if there's a situation one will choose the side they prefer , and it's fine, it doesn't mean that someone hates someone because of it since they're all very flawed and so is Eloise, she's not perfect and neither is pen, but people can express themselves as they please, but if you see this as not a person just expressing their opinion on a certain character but as hatred then the same can be said about you, if you think Eloise is right then you hate pen.
Penelope is not perfect but her character is very relatable and I sympathize with her a lot. She’s not inherently cruel but she’s a product of her society and her family who has treated her like dirt. She’s found an out in a society that treats her like she’s invisible. She’s an underdog and I’ll always root for her!
@@tillyt4054 I loved Kate too. And she wouldn’t be an internet troll she’d run a blog like deuxmoi or something cool like that with a lot of followers and readers.
Yes and no😂 let’s not rob her of any responsibility because up until now she had to get fed up enough to put herself out there and seek help and Colin just so happened to fall in love with her alone this point. Colin ain’t a villain and Penelope ain’t a saint.
The Bridgerton protagonist of the season is Colin, not Francesca. She is just debuting. Penelope would never hurt Francesca. I don't think you guys understand what she did for Eloise and why, or even what she usually does for the Bridgertons in general. First, their friendship was very unbalanced, Eloise only took two years to discover she was LW because she only thinks about herself and never really paid attention to Penelope. Second, Penelope saved her and her family, not the opposite. Eloise had two problems. The Queen thought she was LW, and she was also engaging with things society wouldn't approve of and visiting a man without a chaperone. This would very much come out and ruin her AND her unmarried sisters. Period. Doesn't matter how influential a family is, if one daughter is "ruined", society will blame the family for not teaching her how to behave, assume her sisters are the same and anyone related to her will also be shunned. Without Penelope, Francesca herself would have been ruined as well. Penelope telling the queen she was LW would do nothing to protect Eloise. She would lose the only thing she has control of, which is the narrative, and lose her source of income (her family was broke and they mistreat her, if she is to remain a spinster, she needs to find a way to support herself, she has no one to take care of her, unlike Eloise), and Eloise would be found out and ruined beyond repair. To have her associated with politics is one thing, but to know she was alone with a man? Of a lower status, too? Eloise, Francesca, and Hyacinth would all be unmarriable and not be able to find other ways of survival either. They would be at the mercy of their brothers, which, in their case, is fine since Anthony and the others would aid and protect them. But they would be social pariahs. Penelope always protected the Bridgertons, even over her own family. But she also has to report things, to show preference would put everything at risk. So, what Penelope did to Eloise. Was it a tough choice? Yes. Did she owe Eloise to tell her she was LW? No. Does Eloise have a right to be mad? Obviously. Is she completely on the right? No. Eloise always took Penelope and her friendship for granted. She also only does what she wants. SHE was the one that put her family in danger of ruin, not Penelope. She is privileged, not only in money and status but because her family is loving and understanding. She should have known better. She was being reckless and selfish and could have ruined her younger sisters. Eventually, servants or someone who knows her family would see her and talk and it would be over. Penelope tried to warn her. If LW didn't report, someone else would and things would be even worse. Penelope at least controls the narrative and did what she could to do minimal damage.
Brava! Couldn't have put it better! I think it's important to note that Pen is sorry and does apologise to Elouise but E doesn't want to hear it. I think Elouise's ego is bruised more than her reputation long term. It's an uncomfortable dose of reality for her to realise she has been overlooking huge parts of Pens perspective and just assuming she agrees with her cause she is the more dominant one in their friendship
@@sashabowerbank5445 I think Eloise had the right to be mad. But the moment she befriended Penelope’s bully she forfeited all self righteousness she had. But yes, I think she’s mad she didn’t figure out, that Penelope perhaps is smarter and one-upped her. That Penelope accomplished something with her writing and tricked everyone, including Eloise, who was all for LW until it was her mistakes on the page, which makes her a hypocrite. The only thing she had the right to be mad about was that Penelope shared something she told her in confidence. But ultimately, she was selfish doing that. If she were to get caught, she was not going to be ruined alone. She has two younger sisters. Eloise is the typical privileged white feminist, but does she really think of other people? All women? Or just herself and her rights? I know that for these movements to start to gain traction and make change, people had to support them, but usually you risk only yourself. Here, she was gambling away her future and the future of her sisters with no certainty of payoff. Penelope protected her from herself. Protected Francesca and Hyacinth. Her decisions as LW can be selfish sometimes? Yes, but the people she exposes are more selfish. Marina was tricking a man into raising another man’s child. Eloise was risking her sisters. It’s a tough choice, but ultimately she did the right thing.
EXACTLY! To me, Pen was in a Sophie's Choice situation and chose the lesser of two evils. Either LW ruined Eloise (even then just briefly as she's clearly bounced back in the Ton) or the QUEEN would. The Queen! Pen tried to warn her she was playing with fire and Eloise, being reckless and thinking she knew better, ignored her and got burned. Pen did what she had to to protect the Bridgerton's in the long run. And we saw how much she hated writing what she did when she broke down sobbing about it. Yes, Eloise still has every right to be mad and have some space to heal from the wound. But, let's face it, she brought it on herself by being careless and not taking ANY precautions in what she was doing. She didn't give Pen much of a choice.
I don't know if you're going to see it or not but I think you guys are judging Pen too harshly. Eloise got herself in trouble. She herself went looking for Lady Whistledown and she did not take any precautions either. She visited the printer's shop in her expensive dresses and her family carriage which had her family's crest on it, escaped her brother's wedding organised by the queen, knowing well that everyone's eyes would be on her family and her. Sooner or later she would have gotten caught by someone and in fact she was. Eloise getting in trouble with the queen is her own fault entirely. Pen had no other way to save her. It's clear from the first season that Featherington family don't have a strong footing in society and Pen is ignored by everyone. So if she tried to reveal herself as Lady Whistledown no one would have believed her. So writting about Eloise was her only choice to save Eloise. In fact, what Pen wrote is the least damaging thing. She wrote Eloise was meeting with "radicals", in plural. Pen's writting suggested she wasn't alone with any man. Everyone knows that Eloise has a habit of hating society so it was expected from her. It was something from which Eloise and Bridgertons could recover and they did. Look how everyone is still mingling with the Bridgertons. But what Eloise was actually doing was much worse in that time of society. On top of that the way Eloise was going if the queen didn't discover her, someone else would have and that would have actually ruined her. If someone else discovered her alone with Theo, she along with her family would have been ostracized from society for having a relationship with someone outside the noble society. That would have been something from which Bridgertons wouldn't have recovered. Pen had always supported Bridgertons. Hyping Daphne up, writting about Nigel Berbook which got Daphne's marriage with that nasty dude cancelled, saving Colin from Marina's deception, saving Eloise from the queen. Also just because Pen and Eloise are friends that doesn't mean, Eloise is entitled to know every secrets of Pen. Everybody has a right to have secrets. In fact Eloise also hadn't been a great friend to Pen. She never listened to Pen, if she did she would have discovered Pen is Lady Whistledown much earlier. Eloise herself said at the last episode of season 2 that it was the first time she actually listened to Pen. They had been friends since they were children and with all of those years of friendship she listened to Pen only once? Is that a sign of a good friend? Now she is friends with a person who constantly bullied Pen through out the years and tried to ruin her own sister, Daphne. Pen's only mistake was not telling Eloise she's Lady Whistledown after she published the article about her. But come on! She was just 17 at that point. She was still a teenager. How many teenagers make mistakes in that age. Also, one thing about Lady Whistledown, she never writes something which isn't true. She always writes the truth only. So Pen actually never deliberately ruined anyone. She always gave what people deserved.
Eloise is a lovely person and we can see that through The layers of hurt she still loves Pen. I think she needs to grow to understand people better, she said to Cressida that she doesn't understand How people can't see things The way she does. And that's The problem, she is sheltered and a bit selfish. For a feminist, I think she is a bit judgemental of Young women, she definetely was to Daphne. I think that Eloise and Pen only can be friends again If Eloise try to see things outside of her privileged perspective.
@@gotasintrospectivas yes I completely agree like Eloise has always looked at one lens of things because she is very much entitled and honestly a bit of a brat. But again, like you said, she comes from very sheltered home life and environment.
I absolutely agree but then I read the all the books years ago and they go into more details describing this. I also believe that many people are watching this thought 22nd century culture and eyes. They need to really understand and see it from the perspective of 19th century society and social norms were back then.
I love Penelope. I root for her so much. Has she ever lied in her column? No. She tells the truth and people buy it, the same ones that criticize her for writing are supporting and only care when they are the center of the writings.
@@Syntell i don't see cruelty in any of her wordings or in what she has done, as her intentions were clearly on a protective side or honest in challenging the societal hypocritical behavior. But it' always fine to agree to disagree. Doesn't make me enjoy you guys any less. I like your reactions.
@@ellecerq6409 Just because it's true doesn't mean it's right to put it out for the world to read. Nor is it the world's business. Privacy should be respected. It's one thing that people talk and gossip. It's another thing to publish in writing.
The lack of empathy for Penelope is hard to watch. No, she is not perfect. But you all speak as if the things she writes in Lady Whistledown are vicious lies, or written to tear people down. Everything she writes is with intention and most of the time that is to protect the Bridgertons. Penelope makes mistakes, but she’s a kind hearted, complex character, who is treated poorly by her family and nearly everybody in the ton. She is not cruel by a long shot. And Eloise is not innocent by a long shot, she is self absorbed and meddlesome which contributed to what happened to her last season. Hold all characters accountable, not just Penelope.
Penelope is honest and kinder than i would've been if the Ton treated me as they do to her. Including Eloise, with her self-centered views. Eloise created a whole situation putting her business and personal safety on the line of the Queen, knowingly doing so for she is way too privileged to realize that. So Pen did the only thing that could save them both, expectsting Eloise to be true to her words of not caring for what society thinks of her. Should Pen lose all her work, that guves her a safe future as a prospect single women, her employees too, and her liberty because Eloise started an investigation that she knew could risk the safety of LW? Eloise loved LW and wanted to meet her. Of course it changed when it is about herself.
The last time Eloise was trying to find Whistledown was because she was upset about what LW had written about Penelope's family and she wanted to get Whistledown to retract it, because Eloise loved Penelope and wanted to fix things for her.
Colin is faking a personality to fit in. It's so weird to me when people act like Penelope didn't help Daphne not marrying that creep, saved Colin from being trapped and Eloise from the Queen. She's the meme "They hated her because she spoke the truth". A bully victim and belittled, yet a strong woman surviving the oy way she could. Pen is so complex and interesting.
I agree. She did all of that helpful stuff, not with malice, but sometimes frustration. What we now know about the Queen makes us feel more sympathetic her being baited by LW, but Pen doesn't know her life story. It is VERY secret, even now. I think Queen Charlotte actually enjoys it as it cuts through the boredom of the season and waiting for her husband to die. In the end the Queen will save Whistledown too, after she is unmasked. Not one thing she has said about the Ton is untrue.
As for colin, he is pretending to be something he is not and putting on an façade. Even Eloise said so. With his "new" Personality. A personality that is what Anthony told him a man should have, a womanizer. Remember Anthony telling him he should stop being naive and go to brothels? Be a man. So Pen/LW, again, is reading him correctly.
I feel like the Eloise thing is being overblown. She revealed that Eloise was meeting with political people in a lower class and kept the secret that she was meeting with a young man alone (a much bigger deal). As a result, the Bridgerton family was out of the Queen's cross hairs, and Eloise had an isolated couple of months before she came back to being a popular figure who maybe has less male attention (from men she didn't want to have to deal with anyway).
That's certainly a point of view. But she also pushed to separate her from Theo, and we have no idea what that could have grown to be, effectively stopped her from being involved with women's rights or working-class activists (doing something -- the very thing a lot of people complain Eloise doesn't do), and lied to her that there had been rumors about her and Theo for weeks, among other things, and now Eloise seems like a shell of herself.
@@HuntingViolets then Eloise is acting cowardly and not what she pretends to be and say she is. Lady Mary went against social conventions for the man she wanted, with a family that turned their backs on her. Eloise wouldn't be having that with hher family and yet, despite how she tells everyone to stand up and challenge society, at the first chance she did nothing. I actually think she can be upset at Pen, but she should check her own behavior too.
@@ellecerq6409 I completely agree. Eloise likes, throwing the whole I’m progressive woman but at the same time she’s putting hardly any effort into actually trying to push for women’s rights and she barely lifts a finger to even try to change the patriarchy and polite society. This is why I sometimes have mixed emotions with Eloise, She’s saying one thing, but she does complete opposite like you come from an established rich family put some of that money into good work.
@@ellecerq6409 It was pretty early days in her relationship and she is also dealing with the betrayal of her best friend, whom she already loved. Let her be wounded for a time. It's interesting to me that if Eloise does anything, people are all over her for doing it -- how dare she talk to that boy? Her family will be ruined and her sisters will never be able to marry! She should forget about all this feminism nonsense and fall in line with society! Yet when she steps back (after being quite wounded -- can you imagine finding out your friend wrote and published this about you, even laying aside the rest), people are all over her for doing that -- she's a coward, didn't have the courage of her convictions. Can my girl get a moment to breathe? She could have revealed Penelope's identity and yet she is doing everything to protect her, despite everything. That is very kind.
Penelope is treated like crap by society on a daily basis getting called spinster and people targeting her weight (mainly her family) I get that gossip may seem horrible to others but if groups of people are treating me terribly I don’t think I would mind relaying news that everyone already speaks about on a daily basis. And she’s been poor for the last 2 seasons so she uses her work to make ends meet
I think the only one calling Penelope a spinster (a word I love, but the show has presented it negatively) is Penelope herself. Her mother obviously wants her to be one, though, so she has someone to care for her in old age.
@@HuntingViolets I think it’s something that isn’t specially stated but instead she is treated that way like society has essentially casted her out over the years and majority of the male suitors are shown talking behind her back multiple times throughout the show
@@bethelberhane Do we see them talking about Penelope? I'm not trying to be obtuse, but I don't recall that except for when they teased Colin about it at the end of 2.
@@HuntingViolets other than the season 2 season they disregard her in season 3 when they were talking Colin in ep 1/ it’s def not shown many times but I feel like those scenes capture what a lot of the gentleman in their society (obviously not all with lord debling and a couple of suitors in the first ep) think of Penelope with her being cast out and not seen as a worthy suitor
Do people not remember that the only reason that Penelope wrote about Eloise was to save her and her family from the Queen? The Queen would have destroyed the Bridgertons. Could she have made a different decision to save her, possibly? But, she couldn't think of one in that moment. It was not done out of cruelty. She struggled over the decision. As well with Marina, she tried to get her to tell Colin the truth, she refused. Her mother would have killed her if she would have told Colin the truth, so she did the only thing she could to protect him. Plus, if it wasn't for there being a Lady Whistledown paper to report such things, Daphne would have been forced to marry Nigel Berbrooke. She felt like she had no voice in that society, that no one ever listened to her, even Eloise who talked at her but never listened. So she took what everyone said in her presence, because they ignored the Wallflower, and decided to have her voice heard. Has she made mistakes of course but she is also a young woman with no real mentors. I love Penelope, faults and all. She was absolutely correct when she said that what Eloise was the maddest about was that she was jealous that Penelope was Lady Whistledown instead of herself.
I did notice that. And we have a couple of plus size debutantes for possibly the first time, although I don't think they'll probably do much. Still, it's something.
The thing about Penelope that is so divisive is that even when her actions are questionable, they are not hateful. So you can always look at those actions from different point of views. She has a gossip column? Yes. Does she lie? No. She publish gossip that is already out and offers her opinion. Granted, her opinion may be hurtful, but they are mostly correct. The two times she revealed a secret (Marina and Eloise), she did for love for Colin and Eloise. In Marina's case she even ostracized herself and her own family on the scandal. In Eloise's case, let's not forget that the Queen threatened Eloise. If Penelope were such a villanous person, wouldn't she just let Eloise take the blame for her column? Most people forget that. Pen may have taken things a bit far, but she didn't revelead Theo and she didn't ruined Eloise (who is still more accepted in polite society than Penelope). In both cases, Penelope begged Marina, Colin and Eloise to see things the way she did, but none of them listened. So I desagree with you on "she may do the same to Francesca". Did Francesca tried to deceipt someone Pen loves into a loveless marriage? Did Francesca very irresponsably tried to unmask Penelope and put herself and Penelope in danger? No. So I don't think so. She didn't enjoyed revealing those secrets, but she felt like she had to.
Penelope never lies in her articles and never writes about people who don't deserve it. So your thinking of she'll write about Francesca is entirely wrong. I don't know how people forget that it's her writing that saved Daphne from marrying that Nigel dude, save Colin from marrying Marina who tried to deceive him, saved Eloise from the Queen Charlotte. She also lessened the damage for Eloise. She actually wrote she met with some radicals, something that was expected from her by everyone and got Queen Charlotte off her hair. Eloise and Bridgertons are still welcomed in society and had not been affected by it. So she didn't actually "dragged Eloise through mud" like you guys mentioned.
I’m really appreciative of everyone defending Penelope. It’s important to remember that everyone one of these characters are flawed in some way or another. That’s to me one of the reasons that makes this show so compelling. That’s what makes Penelope not only so compelling as a character but also very multifaceted and relatable to a lot of people. Team Penelope 💚
Agree except I’m kinda Team Everyone. I see the mixed qualities and challenges of each character, and I want the best for them all, in the most collaborative, ethical way possible. Even Cressida, at this point. Though I certainly sympathize less with her than the others. FWIW, Pen was wrong to betray the trust of her friend not just by publicizing her shared secret, but also in manipulating Eloise several times. Pen had mixed motivations for outing Eloise, some unethical. Luckily, Eloise is from a wealthy, protective family, but Pen still wielded the misogynistic social traditions against Eloise. Eloise’s chances at love were harmed, while Theo could have been fired or jailed. Eloise was trying to take action on her convictions with those activists, and Pen squashed that effort. Whistledown can be a great critic for their society’s hypocrisy, but Pen reinforced the sexist status quo by shaming the activists. However, Pen is ignored or publicly humiliated by society, including her family. Her best friend and second family treat her far better, except Colin tells her she doesn’t count and Eloise shows that she barely even listens to Pen. So even among the only people to show her love, Pen is effectively isolated. In this world, and in her hateful unstable family, Pen doesn’t have many options to secure her future. It’s almost literally poetic justice that Pen creates financial security for herself as a woman by using this society against itself. Not the most ethical, but she’s less privileged than Eloise and she’s making the most of her advantages. Pen has a lot to make amends for, and whatever abuse she experienced is not an excuse for bad behavior. But Pen isn’t a completely bad person.
This is mostly an observation, but I feel like from what I've seen of the Bridgerton reactions. both of you make your minds up very quickly about moral positions, even where I feel like there is more ambiguity to be explored, or even when other reactors have overall had the complete opposite reaction and come to completely different conclusions. I noticed it in season 2, where I feel like the story was trying to present two different sides to the ultimate "perfect match on paper" match with Edwina and Anthony, where everything was perfectly respectable to wider society, which Anthony chose because he did not want to get close enough for anybody to mourn him - vs. more of a "match of the heart" between Kate and Anthony, where their stories directly paralleled and they were similar enough in temperament for them to clash (as they clashed with themselves) and it made more sense on an emotional level - but I feel like you two were very decided against Kate. I understand why, at least partially, as they - mistakenly, in my opinion - did not show her story as much as his, certainly not as much as there was in their book, so it was harder to delve into her character from what relatively little there was said or shown - but I've never seen reactors cheer at the Edwina x Anthony engagement scene before. I feel like it's a similar case this season. Penelope is a very interesting and complex character to me, for a lot of her more positive traits (her ambition, wit, creativity, purpose and her romantic leaning nature) also double as something that can be very negative and harmful in the form of her Lady Whistledown side - but when you consider the fact that these traits would never be accepted either by her family (who borderline if not actively emotionally abuse her, cutting her down for her appearance, her intellect and her want for love and affection), friends (Eloise, who does not notice her interior life to the point where - once she starts paying attention to what she's saying, refuses to hear her out for a second and uses the same words her bully does "insipid wallflower", and at multiple points is in fact surprised when even faced with the fact that Penelope is not a "spinster" by choice like her and wants love for herself - even Colin, who has used her as an emotional crutch to the point where he changes his entire personality around once she's stopped responding to him, who also openly publicly degraded her and hurt her chances of finding a match after telling her he'd protect her), or wider society (her family's poor financial standing being one thing, but also her reputation as a wallflower, overlooked and bullied by her peers, like Cressida and her sisters another). I've never known a person to handle a bad family life well without support, and though I don't think Lady Whistledown is necessarily a good thing for her longterm, I can completely understand why she does it, and I don't think it makes her evil. In fact, I think it makes her smart, leveraging her position in society as somebody who goes unseen and who has very few marriage prospects (in a time where that was a wealthy woman's only respectable livelihood - and her family not being all that wealthy, either) into somebody who has an outlet that gives her financial security and the will / purpose / validation she would likely need to survive such bleak circumstances. Even what she has done "wrong" has shades of grey morality to me, as with Marina's situation, she was dealing with the time crunch of an elopement and the fact that men could be in legal and social trouble for "beach of promise" if they broke an engagement without moral cause, as well as the fact that she was seventeen and had aforementioned strenuous life circumstances, likely not enough support or backup to handle it more peacefully. With Eloise, she warned her multiple times that what she was doing was dangerous to not only hers, but her family's reputation - which does not just include the Viscount, but has daughters (and sons) not yet out in society. One Bridgerton's ruin could have a knock-on effect on the entire Bridgerton family - and it was not the permanently ruinous information (meeting unchaperoned with a lower class man) that was released, just enough for the Queen to take her head off what could literally be the chopping block, and for her family to step up and have tighter reigns on her behaviour (which again, does not just reflect on Eloise's prospects). With Colin, the most she really remarks is that he's changed himself for the worse, which is as much as Eloise has said to his face, which, while not exactly nice - feels very "pissed off nineteen year-old on a power trip". The generic evil of nineteen year olds is another matter, I think, but I certainly wouldn't consider her even an ill-intentioned character; mostly young, (in my opinion) abused, and with a misdirected sense of purpose. I've seen people with similar circumstances in my own life turn out a lot worse. Of course, your different style of reaction is interesting, and it keeps me on my toes - but sometimes, I can't help but feel like there is a critical lack of nuance. It encourages discussion, to be sure, but I feel like there is more to be said for time period attitudes, personal stakes and story / character themes and context that play into the story.
The houses all have their own color palette. The Bridgertons wear all blue, you can see that. For Penelope, please do not hate her for long.... she is really trying to do better... and payed a huge price ... she has no friend left. In my opinion she saved Eloise because of the queen. I do think she could have handled the Marina situation better but Lady Whistledown always telling the truth. Colin did act very differently from his normal behavior. She is telling the truth about him. And dont forget Cressida was always very cruel to Penelope. I hate her for that. Penelope have no loving mom or home. The people never cared to get to know her, ignored her even laugh at her. Because of her life and how people are treating her, she has no self-consciousness at all. Lady Whistledown is her way to communicate... so she can talk with the ton. Yes she sometimes step to far. But always telling the truth. The thing is... in the book you can understand Penelope and Colin much better because they give us the information that needed. We know how they feel deep inside.... In the show we dont get that. And I think this is so wrong.... Thank you for your reaction, looking forward to your next. 😊
Well, she didn't save Eloise from the Queen since the Queen wanted to make a deal with Whistledown. She basically saved herself from having to work with the Queen, which might not have been that bad. I am open to Penelope growing, though, so we shall see if they do that or brush it aside. Penelope is much nicer in the book and Lady Whistledown doesn't do any of this stuff, so it is very different. I like how in the book, Penelope answers Colin's statement about courting her or whatever with, "I never asked you to" and also that it was only in front of his brothers. But the show always wants to rev up the drama more.
What Penelope said about Colin wasn’t kind but it was also a reaction to him basically telling all the eligible men she was undesirable. Which is what him saying he would never court her amounted to! She was still hurt and him acting like it was no big deal set her off. She also clearly regretted it after he apologized. But to be fair just about everything she has said as Lady Whistledown is the truth. Pen asked Eloise countless times to STOP looking into lady whistledown and to stop meeting that guy. Eloise made herself a target of the Queen bc she refused to listen. While Pen outing Eloise’s secret relationship wasn’t nice she shouldn’t have been expected to sacrifice herself bc Eloise wanted to be stubborn. Especially when Eloise has the security and status of the Bridgerton name to protect her meanwhile Pen does not. Her family is already in poor standing bc of her father’s financial issues.
Love the energy this season🎉🎉🎉 I think what Pen wrote about Colin is not cruel...dude has come back with a newness about him....even his brothers asked him about it. Fun fact: Kate & Anthony have a big role in the books for Pen & Colin's story... Daphne and Simon too its just that Rege (actor who plays Simon) declined to come back so her role is limited in the show.
Interesting! Pen is my girl frfr, like is she perfect no but she writes the truth. And the things she says the people of the ton would talk about anyway. Also with Eloise is was rough but I get why she did it to save herself and Eloise from the Queen. And people treat Pen terribly, Eloise was her friend but sometimes she really bulldozed her way through her friendship with Pen. And the people of the ton don't treat her well at all.
Eloise is so entitled that she can't see past herself. She only used Penelope to rant about her problems. And please, dont come and say that Penelope could have told Eloise about her being LW. But you dont tell you friends all your secrets and you know you dont. People are allowed to keep things to themselves. And Eloise does not realize how privileged her position in society is. Which Penelope has told her before. Penelope only writes about what she hears. News that is already out in the ton, she does not make things up. There are other scandal sheets in the ton, but LW is famous because she gives names. Even without her, gossip would still flow. Penelope warned Eloise to stop looking into LW. She did not, and caused her self to get in trouble. Eloise does not want to blame herself, and only wants to blame her mistakes on Penelope. Penelope is not a saint. Her biggest problem is antagonizing the Queen. Penelope has saved more people then she ruined. Including Eloise and Colin, she could have wrote something far worse about Eloise, but she choose the less damaging option.
Lol I LOVE Eloise, but she is quite literally the last person I would tell anything confidential to and this season only validates that. The child has no common sense or discretion at all. She just runs her mouth without regard for place and time, never listens to anything that doesn't support her own POV and then is shocked when there are consequences. I love that girl but she needs to take several clues and seats.
I haven't rewatched the show in a while but didn't she write the story about Eloise because the queen suspected Eloise was Lady W and was going to ruin her and the whole Bridgerton family since you can't prove a negative? I remember it being morally gray and a really tough hit, but still ultimately an act of protection, or am I remembering it wrong?
I think Francesca is a good mix of Eloise and Daphne, which makes her interesting to me. Also she was great casting, because I feel like she looks like Daphne. She seems open to the marriage mart, but practical about the fact that not everyone is going to find true love. I think making her more reserved and quiet also makes sense. You've got 8 kids in their family, they can't all be big personalties. I'll be very interested to see what happens with the actors who play Gregory and Hyacinth if the show keeps going for years to come. They were also casted as very young children, to play children. They may not feel comfortable playing their characters when it comes time for their seasons when they've grown up.
The actress playing Hyacynth is 17 and 5 seasons away from her lead role. I'd imagine by then she'd be tired of playing a child. I don't remember her book, but I kind of remember them getting tamer as the book series progressed.
I don't know why they wouldn't feel comfortable playing their characters after they've grown up as they will have grown up also. Unless you think they are among the child actors who quit to do other things.
Each family has their own colour palette that they and their household staff wear. The Bridgertons primarily wear blues & pastels, Penelope family wears citrus & bright colours, Lady Danbury reds, whites, gem colours, etc...
Calling Penelope cruel for writing a gossip blows my mind. Everyone is forgetting episode 1 season 1 that there were lots of scandal sheets writing the same thing. Eloise was excited by Whistledown because it was the first scandal sheet to use names. Penelope has cornered the market and has secured her future as a spinster since she now has her own funds.
I love Penelope. I can relate to her. She saved Eloise from the Queen. Was it harsh? Yes. Could it have been done differently? Ofc She doesn't lie in her colums she always tells the truth, sometimes harshly, but oh well. Is she perfect? Hell no! None of them are. Colin is definetely a different person, so she was not wrong, If you see it from Penelopes perspective. She has been bullied all her life, by everyone in the Ton including her family, so she is just giving back in the almost same variety she experience every day, and she has made a fortune from it. I dislike Eloise alot. She is very selfabsorbed imho. She never really listened to Penelope, and always thinks that people should have the same opinions as her. Penelope did warn her over and over to not pursue the LW thing and other stuff, but NEVER EVER listened, she always assumeed Penelope wanted the same as her because she never listened to what she actually wanted. Do I feel bad that she got hurt. OFC I do. Even Colin took Penelope for granted.
No lies were spoken! Like honestly, I would have done the EXACT same thing if I was in the same situation and were in the same circumstances. I don’t give a flying F if I’m cruel for telling the truth. I would rather someone be cruel and honest then fake and kind. In both the Marina and Eloise situation she tried MULTIPLE times, RELENTLESSLY, over AND OVER AND OVER, again to stop Marina from entrapping a man in marriage and Eloise from the wrath of the queen, but did they listen? Noooooo. So she used the only BIT of power she had to save the people she cared about. Sometimes you have to be steadfast to get sh*t done. Is she perfect? H*LL no, but did she apologize over and over and over and cried with regret right after writing the article? Yes. Honestly, She felt more regret than I would have. But It is what it is. 🤷🏼♀️💯
Pen didnt even write any lies as LW in the past two seasons, she simply wrote what ppl were alr talking abt. I think you need to go rewatch the past two seasons again 😅
Penelope is complex and imperfect, but she is not inherently bad or cruel. Plus, she only writes truths, is not her fault people have things they wanna hide, it's not her fault people fuck up, not her fault Eloise never heard her and was running around doing shit she shouldn't have, same with Marina. I feel like some people don’t get the full picture with her. She's a layered character and thank God for that.
I will always be a Penelope defender. We love a girl boss. I would definitely sob if I was the topic of Whistledown's papers but I'll still fight for my girl. Loved your reaction though.
Penelope is a complicated character and that’s what makes me enjoy her. She’s a woman who stands to gain nothing in the kind of society she lives in because she is not considered desirable by the men. Therefore, she stepped out and made something of herself during a time when women weren’t respected, especially for their minds. What she did to Marina was cruel, but Marina was also wrong. She didn’t love Colin and was trying to trick him into a lifelong commitment. As for Eloise, Pen would’ve lost everything she’d worked for if she revealed herself to the Queen all on account of Eloise’s careless behavior. Cruel? Yes, but Eloise also has substantial generational wealth along with the privilege of a loving, supportive family. Penelope does not. The Featherington’s are always on the brink of losing everything and they have no close male relatives to safeguard them against poverty. She’s not a “good” character but she’s also not a villian. She’s human.
YES!!’ So far this season is my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE!!! Polin’s love story is my favorite one and I can’t wait to see the rest of their story play out next month 💐💐💐
This actually Colin's season, Francesca's story intertwines with his but trust me, she will have her own season in the future. Because in her story in the books its really sad. But lovely. I think it spans like three books or two until she has her own book. So it will be the same in this show i believe.
I really don't understand why Pen gets so much hate from some people. She's not necessarily cruel, she airs out secrets. If the people she wrote about never did any of these noteworthy, gossip inducing things Lady Whistledown wouldn't exist. It would be different if she was making up things, that would be evil and cruel.
To be fair to Penelope, Colin IS being fake. That becomes more clear later but it’s especially noted in the book. He was behaving like a “player” because he wanted to fit in with society, AND be like his brothers (who always have no trouble getting ladies). This was reaaally emphasized in the books but is also definitely alluded to in the show in multiple ways. So say what you want about whether it was right for Penelope to write that in whistledown, but the info is TRUE 🫣😂🤣 Pen knows him better than anyone
I’d love to negotiate about your views on Penelope! You guys seem to really dislike her. Personally, I believe that both Penelope and Eloise are at fault. I also believe, even though what Penelope did was pretty harsh, she saved Eloise. Who knows what would’ve happened to Eloise if Pen didn’t do what she did. Also, honestly, Eloise is very self absorbed. In the books she is not like that. In the show she is super judgy and doesn’t see things from others point of views. If only she would listen to why Pen wrote what she wrote she would the whole fight would be less intense. But yes, Penelope CAN be too harsh, I’ll admit that. The reason why I love her so much though is because I see myself in her a lot. When you’re ignored, disregarded and treated like a freak, you tend to hate society with a passion. I don’t blame her for creating LW, she needed that out. Imagine your own mother not believing in you. That sucks. I wish I could make my own LW because I know how she feels 💯.
Welcome to what is so far my favourite season. Whistledown doesn’t always write nasty things. She’s often elevated people in what she says, but I understand why Eloise is angry, although I maintain Penelope did write what she did to try and save her from worse as I don’t see the queen believing it wasn’t her and she didn’t say anything about Theo which would’ve ruined her. Eloise should’ve let her explain. But I totally see why she’s angry. But I will always admire Penelope who has had no love in her family and whose family have been ridiculed and mocked by society found a way to use that society to her advantage through a successful business. Most in the ton seem awful.
There are many ways Penelope could have proved she was Whistledown or she could even have let the Queen think it was Eloise and do a Remington Steele thing, since the Queen wanted to work with Whistledown and only expose her if she refused. I would have found a plot where Penelope had to work with the Queen very funny, though. "Here are my notes on your column. Please fix these things before you go to print." I feel cheated!
In the first scene of season 3, Penelope is giving shout outs to the very same girls who will make fun of her later on. I will never blame her for calling out the Ton.
@@cassiegeorge141 Are they the same girls, the ones she mentions by name? I think those were the girls more likely to be wallflowers, but then it has the montage with various other girls as Whistledown keeps talking. I don't think we ever see the excited girl at the beginning or the two plus size girls spreading the rumor. It's the more conventionally pretty set. I could be wrong about this, as I have only watched it once, but that is my impression.
@@HuntingViolets why should she let the queen think Eloise was LW when LW was Pen's own hardwork? Pen built LW from ground and became society's most successful business woman. Why should she let Eloise have all the credits? Eloise got herself in trouble because of her own foolishness. Why should Pen give up the only thing she had for that? Pen tried to do everything she could. And no, there was no other way to reveal herself as LW. From season 1 it's clear Featheringtons are at the lowest tear of society and Pen is lowest even among Featheringtons. The queen didn't even know she existed until the first episode of season 3. So if she tried to get close to the queen to tell the truth, nobody would have ever paid her attention and would have dismissed her. If she revealed herself in her papers, again people and the queen would have dismissed her either thinking she's just looking for attention because of the bad name of Featheringtons or the queen would have thought she was trying to take the blame on herself to save her friend, Eloise and again would have dismissed her. Another reason the queen wouldn't have believed her is the queen thinks LW as someone very intelligent and commanding. Part of the joy she gets from revealing LW is by beating an intelligent woman, she could prove herself as more intelligent and powerful but Pen's image at that point was totally opposite. Because of her lack of conversation skill face to face, she wouldn't have matched the image of LW queen had and would have come across as a fraud. Eloise on the other side fitted the queen's image of LW much better. Eloise strongly says the truth to people's faces and often shoves her own opinion on her others, without caring about others views and opinions. So the queen would have still thought Eloise was the real LW and Pen was lying.
@@lilymanoban5747 "why should she let the queen think Eloise was LW when LW was Pen's own hardwork? Pen built LW from ground and became society's most successful business woman. Why should she let Eloise have all the credits?" Then she should take the credit with the Queen. Problem solved.
The writers use color theroy a lot in the show. The Bridgertons wear blue and often that color tends to change so in this case, Colin and Penelope will start wearing green because Penelope’s colors are yellow, and the Bridgerton are blue like in season two the Bridgertons are blue and the Sharma’s were red and pink so together when they started to fall in love you start to see them in purple. It’s really cool.❤
If you really think about it, Penelope as Lady Whistledown has saved more lives than she's ruined. If she hadn't written about The Lord Berbrook in Season 1 Daphne would have been forced to marry him. And she also cared about Colin so much that she wasn't willing to allow him to walk into a lie of a marriage with Marina. As far as Eloise, granted it was cruel, but it was also necessary. because had she not, Eloise would have been in a even worse spot since the Queen had suspected Eloise of being Lady Whistledown. Eloise was not focused on that part bc she was overall hurt. As far had the Queen, Charlotte needed some entertainment, and she has it through Whistledown. If you remove Lady Whistledown from the entire story, the show would be boring.
Yeah, good on you guys for catching on to the detail that Lady Whistledown... sounds older. Because in the book Penelope specifically tries to sound older in the words and cadence that she uses when writing. So it's definitely purposeful... She purposefully chose to make lady whistledown sound older than Penelope is... to try and throw people off of the scent of her being a peer to those on the marriage market... And instead make people think that it's an older woman looking in at the gossip of the season... But still probably somebody invited to the events.
In _Gossip Girl_ (which actually came after the _Bridgerton_ books), the voice is Kristen Bell (who is not a character), so I think it was a foregone conclusion that it would have to be someone else's voice to keep up the mystery -- although the show does give up the mystery three seasons early.
Awww...man. The "Baby Reindeer" comment hurt my heart for poor Pen! I know, she's not a real person, lol. But you know the lady from Baby Reindeer was a sexual predator and stalker, right? The character of Penelope Featherington is not some evil criminal like that. Pen is often seen listening in the shadows, getting her Lady Whistledown tea! So her hiding and watching the Bridgerton's is nothing new. Plus, it has to be uncomfortable to see Eloise after their blow-up. And anyway, Colin wasn't even in the group when she began watching them. Hoping over time you won't see Pen as a villain. As many, MANY of your viewers have said in the comments, this society has treated Penelope horribly. The worst thing she can be accused of is keeping secrets and sharing gossip. She deserves better than "Baby Reindeer". Still love you guys and can't wait to see the next reaction!
I just finished baby reindeer and omg it feels more upsetting now hearing them comparing Pen to that story. Just bc they're both plus size?? Low-key being biased honestly
@@Sjfyy_ Oh shoot, you my H.S. bully?? Funny how people that call others "too sensitive" are so often the bullies/sociopaths of the world. "iT's JuSt A jOkE!" -- GURL. BYE. 🙄
@Syntell, good catch that Eloise interrupts Cressida to protect Penelope. She is extremely hurt by Penelope, but it's not easy to turn off all your feelings. I do like that we are dealing with all relationships on this show, not just romance. It will be interesting to see what influence Eloise has on Cressida.
Y’all being too harsh on Pen omg she warned Eloise so many times to stop and even though it was messy and betrayal, she did protect Eloise in the end. Once the next scandal comes, people forget. Now Eloise is living in society and no one even cares. Pen saved her.
Yay season 3. I love you guys, The shadow children lol. Gotta wait for their season i guess. As someone who has read the books, the show really had dramatized Whistledown. She really did just report gossip, and not in a vicious way. I do hope they can redeem penelope for Colin and Eloise.
Sorry honestly there isn't really much that Penelope can do to make me dislike her. Yes, I may be disappointed in her actions from time to time, but I could never dislike her. Also, you have to realize that she is a teenager. If this is her third season, she has be at least 17. Her actions make sense for character's age. She is an emotionally-driven teenager. I did much worse when I was her age lol Also, what she said about Colin was not bad at all. Eloise said the exact same thing to Colin before she left for the modiste. Like even his own family didn't recognize him when he returned home.
I know that it is hard to understand how things were back then but Penelope actually helped Eloise by doing what she did. Eloise did not listen to Pen's warnings. So Pen did the only thing she could think of. If Eloise had been caught in the act, much worse would have happened to her and her family. Whistledown writing about her actually just caused rumors. It could not be proven and therefore the ton cannot shun the family. It just causes rumors. This scene did not happen in the books so I am interested why it was put in the story and how it will be resolved. We will see in Part 2. We have to remember that Pen acted out of caring for Eloise and her family and did the only thing she could think of. Especially when Eloise would not listen to Pen in the first place and acted rashly. Society norms are placed on both these women and it is a situation that sadly developed because of the consequences of going against those norms. Both by Eloise fighting against what is expected of her station and Pen trying to find her way through a society that has already turned their backs on her. Both women made choices and neither was meant to harm the other but in turn hurt both. Part 2 will be interesting to see.
Penn isn’t cruel. She was trying to protect Collin from Marina and Eloise from the queen, but did it the wrong way. She’s not a cruel character though.
22:58 fans have pointed out that besides the family color which is blue each Bridgerton siblings have their own color that symbolizes who they end up with in the books . Its an Easter egg for the book fans. In Season 2 in the flashback scene little Eloise can be seen with a green ribbon sash.
As far as colors go, it’s a costume designer trick to designate color stories for groups. I’m this case, families. So beidgerton blue for example. The featheringtons are always in citrus colors, per the book.
Here's an essay, if you're interested in my thoughts about why Penelope writes as LW. To me, Bridgerton is about people who make mistakes. Simon, Daphne, Violet, Marina, Portia, Anthony, Kate, Edwina, Eloise, Colin, Penelope, they all make mistakes, from misguided to pretty bad. Penelope has always been treated badly by her family, ignored by society, bullied. So I think she started writing LW as a way of mocking this society that judges her as inconsequential, as a way of holding up a mirror to these people's double standards. She writes what people are already gossiping about, she doesn't invent stories. Also, she started writing it young, and she probably never had a good role model (she admires the Bridgertons, but they wouldn't be able to make up for what she lacked in her home.) She disassociates from the LW alter ego, which I think makes it easier to channel her anger and loneliness into her writing. She can be cruel, and she's aware of that. She can also be immature, but she's still young. Everyone makes mistakes. Does that make us undeserving of love, should we suffer indefinitely? Should we be given the chance to recognize it, ask for forgiveness, and do better going forward? Like you said, it's still the start of the season, and they only released half of the episodes. Who knows how it will go from here.
Maybe it’s just how it is edited but I love how you guys always wait for the Queen to finish her entire line before reacting / commenting, compared to some other scenes, because she just has the BEST lines
I enjoyed this season it’s my favorite I understand both Pen and Elois but her becoming friend with a bully will never really make sense to me like my ex best friends said worse about me and I forgave them we became friends then when I saw that they will never change or care about my feelings I stayed away but didn’t befriend a bully that’s weird while at least Pen better than my ex friends she actually fell guilty and do care about others I do hope their friendship get fixed and become stronger also I do understand Elois she needs time but befriend a bully that’s a no to me I don’t care if what ever the bully name is kind to Elois or not but she is a bully to others for no reason.
Pen started her career as Lady Whistledown at 17. Thats a teenager. and she was poor, with a truly terrible family. And yet she is very self-aware in knowing her talents, tactful (unlike her family) enough to utilize them within the extreme limitations she has. Her career is the only glimpse of agency & power she has ever had Can you imagine the guts to do this at 17 in THAT ERA? She is ofc attracted to power(?product of emotional abuse) and yet she she is only cheeky & sassy, even offensive at times. She hasnt ever attacked an innocent or spread falsehoods for monetary gain. She was protecting Colin in season 1, and she was protecting Eloise and Genevieve in season 2. with her background, lack of learning opportunities and neglect by society, its shocking enough that she isnt a villain outright. Also, her only two friends are Miss Reckless and Mister Clueless Eloise wudnt have needed protection in the first place if she wasnt too caught up in her own opinions and obsessed with the task of proving her intellect, to the point of being reckless unkind too, as she never let her friend explain herself at ease she has a loving family. she really has no excuse for her lack of humility or faith, other than her age Even the very gallant Mr Colin, who everyone deems innocent on account of being heroically inclined, has been ignoring the threat that his carelessly friendly public interactions with her pose to her reputation & (already very slim) marital prospects. Yet she isnt mean to him, even as Whistledown, even at the peak of her disdain for him. What she wrote wasnt false at all even then, you choose to be mad at a barely-out-of-teens girl trying to stay sane & not-poor such a pity this prejudiced unsympathetic reaction was difficult to watch
bro... I do not blame Eloise for befriending Cressida at all, hey. that's here prerogative. but in my eyes Cressida has been cruel TOO so what gives? also, Pen has NEVER written anything for revenge. she has not. in truth she can write nastier things about Cressida but what has LW written about Cressida literally once, that her dress looks outdated and she only wrte this for Delacroix.
I love how hard you root for Eloise, she's my favorite. I agree with your takes on Pen, although this episode actually made me like her and root for her too (still agree that she has to make up for what she did though) so I am loving her season so much so far! I never liked Colin but again, they did manage to change that this season haha I find Cressida such a good character this season too! We can't forget how horrible she was to Pen but seeing her be a complex character and getting development too has been great.
I’m so interested to hear what you think, and I hope you love the season as much as do! So much beautiful nuance played by the two leads that I have loved.
Penelope uses Whistledown as her crutch. If she has a problem, if she is angry, if she is hurt, she has Whistledown. This is bad for other people, but it is also *bad for Penelope.*
I wanted Colin to pine this season. Penelope has poor marriage prospects partly because of Colin. He basically told other suitors that she wasn't worth courting after a ballroom of people saw him dance with her and hold her hand to lead her somewhere private last season. People respect his opinion due to his family name even though they still considered him childish. Dancing showed public interest and taken seriously by others. Not to mention, writing letters in regency era was a very serious stage in courting. Couples who wrote letters were considered almost engaged. That's why Pen's sister didn't believe she was writing Colin last season. It's also telling how Pen stops responding to his letters after last season's events. Colin constantly sought her out in public settings and crossed boundaries reserved for courting couples. It made her hopeful. On top of that, he had the nerve to make her untouchable for other suitors even if he didn't intend to. I'm sure others has been whispering about her and Colin for a while. This season, Colin needed to learn that Pen wasn't always gonna be available to stroke his ego.
You guys are forgetting she did that to Eloise to protect her from the Queen’s suspicions about her being Lady Whistledown. Ill advised yes and most certainly could have been handled in a kinder way but she did it out of love for her friend.
I feel like this season will be so nuanced and really reveal true human nature, as well as the potential of human redemption in all it's complexities. Hopefully both Cresseda and Pen do better and find love. They're actually very similar, and have *both* been very cruel in the past. Interesting juxtaposition of characters!👌 (although Cresseda angers me more tbf🤣) Cant wait for ep 2!!🔥
I’m surprised you think Penelope maliciously wrote about Eloise? It was clear that she wrote that so the Queen wouldn’t arrest Eloise. Surely Eloise is in a better position BECAUSE of Penelope. If anything Eloise is the cruel one. She didn’t even pay attention to Penelope’s personality until the very end.
I'm so happy you're reviewing this. Queen Charlotte and Lady Danbury steal every scene they are in. It might be an unpopular opinion but I love Pen! As LW she just reads people. Tells the truth and makes them face up to themselves. Everything she writes is true, it's just that when people make bad decisions they might not want everyone finding out. There's neither fear nor favour. The only time she's really messed up is when she's acted out of desperation or got too caught up in her emotions. I don't know the original books, but in my mind she started LW as a business because her family repeatedly told her she'd never marry well and was trying to build up financial resources so she could escape. I think this episode is the first time she's actually written something out of spite, because Colin was two-faced and shamed her in front of the men of the Ton. She's definitely wrong, but so is what Colin did. She's actually saved the Bridgertons twice with a lesser scandal to stop a bigger disaster, Colin in S1 and Eloise in S2 (the Queen thought Eloise was LW and would have ostracised the whole family, the scandal of what she was actually doing by meeting the printer guy unchaperoned and had been warned repeatedly not to is really her own fault, she'd have been found out eventually). S2 shows Eloise is naive at best and a complete hypocrite at worst - so probably somewhere between the two. She says she wants nothing to do with the bon Ton or society but happily enjoys all its benefits. I think the actress does a great job as showing her to be completely insufferable. But we wouldn't enjoy the show if everyone wasn't a little bit flawed and there relationships weren't messy. We're all here for the drama. Bridgerton runs on secrets and people not being truthful about their feelings to themselves or each other. LW is the great secret teller that gets things out in the open.
Hey, hi, sorry about the trauma dump during your live feed! I was going to add "But Eloise was right about her being a coward", but i ran out of characters 🙄 I really enjoy your channel and I'm always happy to see a new reaction!
Oh it's all good. I'm sure this season is going to bring a lot of different ideas about the characters as well. At least I hope it does. Loving the great drama. And thank you for the comments.
The Penelope hate here is wild & ridiculous. Eloise was a selfish friend. This is the change from the books I hate the most. They put the 2 best friends at odds with each other.
This was so disappointing. I was excited to watch your reaction because you both are such lovely people. But it seems like you are watching a completely different show than I see. Penelope has been treated cruelly by everyone in the town including her family. She started writing down things she heard at parties because she had no one to talk to. Even Eloise, though kind to her, never took the time to ask Penelope about her likes and dislikes. She was scared the Queen was accusing Eloise which could have led to her imprisonment or even execution. I wish she would have talked to Eloise about it, but she rightly guessed that Eloise would not understand. People have the right to feel any way they want about characters, but it's disappointing that there doesn't seem to be any empathy or understanding for a character that means so much to so many people.
I know what Penelope do are bad but she was never lied in whistledown papers though, what she callout about Colin is true. She always kinda sensible in her newspaper exept with Colin because he is special to her and she was so mad about what he said.
Penelope's character is a complex character and that's what makes it more interesting than just writing good about the people in society it was ganna be boring and no body will pay her no attention also she is aware of what she publishes its not like she's murdering people it's gossip and it's a show her character is very deep and she's a girl who needs to be loved cause she deserves that she also said no one is an exception from gossip even herself it's not like she's hurting innocent people all the tons are dirty people acting noble she's just sitting facts, about the bridgertons it's not like she said something about them everybody doesn't know, saving her best friend eloise last season like that was the best solution rather than letting the queen destroy the family thinking eloise is whistledown her best friend who doesn't even bother to ask pen about her personal problems or even what's going on with pen and what is she suffering from with her family and now she is listening very well to Cressida and her problems who's the true best friend now
I never understand people who don’t have any empathy or sympathy for Pen. Of anyone in the upper crust of the Ton, she is given the worst hand. Everybody overlooks her, unless they are cruel, her own friend (El) never really listens to her, her family is openly cruel. Nobody believes in her except herself. So, she takes what is already being said and throws a mirror up to the Ton and makes them look at themselves. She does make bad choices, but it is not vindictive. She is always protecting the people she loves. And she is young, and has grown and will continue. She is my favorite character of the entire series, and is often misjudged. People on the internet treat her how the Ton does in the show, and it speaks VOLUMES.
What a great reaction to Colin's glow-up! I hit the like button for that. You guys didn't even recognize him! It was so refreshing to watch reactors not knowing which couple will lead the season! But you gotta give my girl Penelope a bit more of an open mind. But Syntell carrying the torch for Penelope saved it. And loved your reaction to her glow-up as well. She is a badass - a successful business woman (and she started at only age 17!) that managed to take gossip (that the Ton was thriving on anyway) and capitalize on it during in Regency times when a woman's worth was usually only tied to her husband. She saved Colin and she saved Eloise. Now, that being said, was she a misguided 17-18 year-old? Yes, she could've told Colin in private that Marina was pregnant. Yes, she could've told Eloise the truth that she was Lady Whistledown. She was very misguided but never malicious. Eloise being friends with her bully, though? That's a new low. Anyhow - can't wait to see the rest of your reaction to Eps 2-4!
Great reactions. Reminder that Penelope is in love with Colin and has been for years. This is book 4 in the series, Colin's love story. LW is voiced by Julie Andrews.
IM TEAM PENELOPE ! that girl has always been the black sheep of the family and Eloise was her only family and she was trying to save her from a big scandal ! U guys are so harsh on judge my girl Penelope She always tries to manage with what she knows and the environment she grew up in …. I feel she’s waaaaaay less advantageous than Eloise but behaves so much better than Eloise Team POLIN all the way
She was trying to save Eloise from The queen I don't understand why everybody hates her so much. Yeah she had to throw her under the bus but she did it to save her.
See, by the time all of this season 3 stuff happens Pen and El are suppose to be in their twenties. Colin supposedly traveled the world even. It’s interesting to see how the show handles it now that they’ve made everyone younger.
Colin already loves Pen. In S1 and S2 he always searched for her company wherever they were. But they know each other since they are children. I guess it is hard to get out of the friendzone. He will see the truth eventually. She's already his favourite person!
Everyone treats Pen cruelly tho. She just found a way to earn money in a society where women weren't allowed to have any, save up for a life of her own, by writing truth that people were already gossiping about. She's a lonely, emotional teenager who's done nothing but try and protect the people she cares about. She could have said a lot worse about Eloise, but she only saus what she needed to protect Eloise from the Queen. These people get themselves into trouble.
The comment section is full of people defending Penelope and I do understand why, we want to defend characters we relate to, but I agree with you guys, I just can't see her as anything other than a villain. The whole gossip girl/lady whistledown thing is cruel and exploitative and the fact the she has problems of her own is not an excuse for creating problems for others. Above all, what she did to Marina is, to my mind, inexcusable. She could have simply told Colin about Marina's pregnancy in confidence, if she didn't want him to marry Marina under false pretences, but instead she went ahead and exposed Marina to the ridicule and judgement of the entire ton and completely destroyed her reputation. Marina was doing the best she could in a difficult situation and there's no reason to believe Colin wouldn't have been happy with her and the child. But then again, that was in season 1 when I actually liked Colin. Since season 2, all he's done is talk incessantly about himself and his travels. Even with Pen, he only ever talks about how she makes him see the world differently, how she believes in him and in general how he likes the emotional labour she does for him. Nothing about her own inherent qualities. And Pen chastises him for being cruel (which he totally was and god for her!) but then she herself writes cruel things about people behind their backs all the time. So whatever, they deserve each other.
So glad y'all aren't afraid to voice your opinions. All these comments trying to teach you what Penelope's character is like are annoying. Agree with y'all.
I love Francesca. She is my only true love of this season so far. I'm very interested to know what you think as the season progresses. It's a polarizing season for sure. People love it or hate it and there is no in between.
Yall forgetting that Eloise admired Whistledown for being ballsy and just when she criticises the Ton. Until Whistledown criticised her being reckless radical and rightfully so! Pen warned Eloise that if she was discovered her family would be shamed with her. Pen more than anyone understands the political games of the Ton. Sometimes even Better than the Queen. Eloise is ranting teenager who loves to complain and proclaim she wants to do something but can't learn to shut up, actually listen and feel the atmosphere of the room. Even in the on her 1st night back she managed to offend 3 naive girls who was just having an innocent conversation. Her frankness is misplaced and thats why people shun her and got stuck with Cressida.
eloise admires that whistledown is a woman that’s running her own business, she does not like what she writes past the beginning of the show, she wants to find her to make her write about more important things
@@savsav988 And she wanted to find her so that she could get her to retract what she had written about Penelope's family, ironically. For which she is torn apart for not being a good friend.
Girl, watch the show again. Or your just like a Eloise hater 😌
@@savsav988then why didn't she wrote it herself? Why bother finding whistledown? Whistledown was doing this for a long time and she was good at what she did, so if Eloise wanted to change the world she shouldn't have been relying on whistledown, instead she should've stepped up and should've done something on her own.
@@LJE1821I don't think anyone hates anyone in this show, if there's a situation one will choose the side they prefer , and it's fine, it doesn't mean that someone hates someone because of it since they're all very flawed and so is Eloise, she's not perfect and neither is pen, but people can express themselves as they please, but if you see this as not a person just expressing their opinion on a certain character but as hatred then the same can be said about you, if you think Eloise is right then you hate pen.
Penelope is not perfect but her character is very relatable and I sympathize with her a lot. She’s not inherently cruel but she’s a product of her society and her family who has treated her like dirt. She’s found an out in a society that treats her like she’s invisible. She’s an underdog and I’ll always root for her!
In today's society Penelope would be an internet troll , but she get's more sympathy than Kate ????? Make it make sense
I love her, tbh. Thriving business and actually having a voice.
@@tillyt4054 I loved Kate too. And she wouldn’t be an internet troll she’d run a blog like deuxmoi or something cool like that with a lot of followers and readers.
Yes and no😂 let’s not rob her of any responsibility because up until now she had to get fed up enough to put herself out there and seek help and Colin just so happened to fall in love with her alone this point.
Colin ain’t a villain and Penelope ain’t a saint.
@@ellecerq6409 She's trashing people under a fake name. How is that having a voice?
The Bridgerton protagonist of the season is Colin, not Francesca. She is just debuting.
Penelope would never hurt Francesca. I don't think you guys understand what she did for Eloise and why, or even what she usually does for the Bridgertons in general. First, their friendship was very unbalanced, Eloise only took two years to discover she was LW because she only thinks about herself and never really paid attention to Penelope. Second, Penelope saved her and her family, not the opposite. Eloise had two problems. The Queen thought she was LW, and she was also engaging with things society wouldn't approve of and visiting a man without a chaperone. This would very much come out and ruin her AND her unmarried sisters. Period. Doesn't matter how influential a family is, if one daughter is "ruined", society will blame the family for not teaching her how to behave, assume her sisters are the same and anyone related to her will also be shunned. Without Penelope, Francesca herself would have been ruined as well. Penelope telling the queen she was LW would do nothing to protect Eloise. She would lose the only thing she has control of, which is the narrative, and lose her source of income (her family was broke and they mistreat her, if she is to remain a spinster, she needs to find a way to support herself, she has no one to take care of her, unlike Eloise), and Eloise would be found out and ruined beyond repair. To have her associated with politics is one thing, but to know she was alone with a man? Of a lower status, too? Eloise, Francesca, and Hyacinth would all be unmarriable and not be able to find other ways of survival either. They would be at the mercy of their brothers, which, in their case, is fine since Anthony and the others would aid and protect them. But they would be social pariahs. Penelope always protected the Bridgertons, even over her own family. But she also has to report things, to show preference would put everything at risk.
So, what Penelope did to Eloise. Was it a tough choice? Yes. Did she owe Eloise to tell her she was LW? No. Does Eloise have a right to be mad? Obviously. Is she completely on the right? No. Eloise always took Penelope and her friendship for granted. She also only does what she wants. SHE was the one that put her family in danger of ruin, not Penelope. She is privileged, not only in money and status but because her family is loving and understanding. She should have known better. She was being reckless and selfish and could have ruined her younger sisters. Eventually, servants or someone who knows her family would see her and talk and it would be over. Penelope tried to warn her. If LW didn't report, someone else would and things would be even worse. Penelope at least controls the narrative and did what she could to do minimal damage.
Very well said💚
Brava! Couldn't have put it better! I think it's important to note that Pen is sorry and does apologise to Elouise but E doesn't want to hear it. I think Elouise's ego is bruised more than her reputation long term. It's an uncomfortable dose of reality for her to realise she has been overlooking huge parts of Pens perspective and just assuming she agrees with her cause she is the more dominant one in their friendship
That part
@@sashabowerbank5445 I think Eloise had the right to be mad. But the moment she befriended Penelope’s bully she forfeited all self righteousness she had. But yes, I think she’s mad she didn’t figure out, that Penelope perhaps is smarter and one-upped her. That Penelope accomplished something with her writing and tricked everyone, including Eloise, who was all for LW until it was her mistakes on the page, which makes her a hypocrite. The only thing she had the right to be mad about was that Penelope shared something she told her in confidence.
But ultimately, she was selfish doing that. If she were to get caught, she was not going to be ruined alone. She has two younger sisters. Eloise is the typical privileged white feminist, but does she really think of other people? All women? Or just herself and her rights? I know that for these movements to start to gain traction and make change, people had to support them, but usually you risk only yourself. Here, she was gambling away her future and the future of her sisters with no certainty of payoff.
Penelope protected her from herself. Protected Francesca and Hyacinth.
Her decisions as LW can be selfish sometimes? Yes, but the people she exposes are more selfish. Marina was tricking a man into raising another man’s child. Eloise was risking her sisters. It’s a tough choice, but ultimately she did the right thing.
EXACTLY! To me, Pen was in a Sophie's Choice situation and chose the lesser of two evils. Either LW ruined Eloise (even then just briefly as she's clearly bounced back in the Ton) or the QUEEN would. The Queen! Pen tried to warn her she was playing with fire and Eloise, being reckless and thinking she knew better, ignored her and got burned.
Pen did what she had to to protect the Bridgerton's in the long run. And we saw how much she hated writing what she did when she broke down sobbing about it. Yes, Eloise still has every right to be mad and have some space to heal from the wound.
But, let's face it, she brought it on herself by being careless and not taking ANY precautions in what she was doing. She didn't give Pen much of a choice.
I don't know if you're going to see it or not but I think you guys are judging Pen too harshly. Eloise got herself in trouble. She herself went looking for Lady Whistledown and she did not take any precautions either. She visited the printer's shop in her expensive dresses and her family carriage which had her family's crest on it, escaped her brother's wedding organised by the queen, knowing well that everyone's eyes would be on her family and her. Sooner or later she would have gotten caught by someone and in fact she was.
Eloise getting in trouble with the queen is her own fault entirely. Pen had no other way to save her. It's clear from the first season that Featherington family don't have a strong footing in society and Pen is ignored by everyone. So if she tried to reveal herself as Lady Whistledown no one would have believed her.
So writting about Eloise was her only choice to save Eloise. In fact, what Pen wrote is the least damaging thing. She wrote Eloise was meeting with "radicals", in plural. Pen's writting suggested she wasn't alone with any man. Everyone knows that Eloise has a habit of hating society so it was expected from her. It was something from which Eloise and Bridgertons could recover and they did. Look how everyone is still mingling with the Bridgertons. But what Eloise was actually doing was much worse in that time of society. On top of that the way Eloise was going if the queen didn't discover her, someone else would have and that would have actually ruined her. If someone else discovered her alone with Theo, she along with her family would have been ostracized from society for having a relationship with someone outside the noble society. That would have been something from which Bridgertons wouldn't have recovered.
Pen had always supported Bridgertons. Hyping Daphne up, writting about Nigel Berbook which got Daphne's marriage with that nasty dude cancelled, saving Colin from Marina's deception, saving Eloise from the queen.
Also just because Pen and Eloise are friends that doesn't mean, Eloise is entitled to know every secrets of Pen. Everybody has a right to have secrets. In fact Eloise also hadn't been a great friend to Pen. She never listened to Pen, if she did she would have discovered Pen is Lady Whistledown much earlier. Eloise herself said at the last episode of season 2 that it was the first time she actually listened to Pen. They had been friends since they were children and with all of those years of friendship she listened to Pen only once? Is that a sign of a good friend? Now she is friends with a person who constantly bullied Pen through out the years and tried to ruin her own sister, Daphne.
Pen's only mistake was not telling Eloise she's Lady Whistledown after she published the article about her. But come on! She was just 17 at that point. She was still a teenager. How many teenagers make mistakes in that age.
Also, one thing about Lady Whistledown, she never writes something which isn't true. She always writes the truth only. So Pen actually never deliberately ruined anyone. She always gave what people deserved.
I completely agree with everything that you just said, and you said it so perfectly, and it was very much so true.
Eloise is a lovely person and we can see that through The layers of hurt she still loves Pen. I think she needs to grow to understand people better, she said to Cressida that she doesn't understand How people can't see things The way she does. And that's The problem, she is sheltered and a bit selfish. For a feminist, I think she is a bit judgemental of Young women, she definetely was to Daphne. I think that Eloise and Pen only can be friends again If Eloise try to see things outside of her privileged perspective.
@@gotasintrospectivas yes I completely agree like Eloise has always looked at one lens of things because she is very much entitled and honestly a bit of a brat. But again, like you said, she comes from very sheltered home life and environment.
I absolutely agree but then I read the all the books years ago and they go into more details describing this. I also believe that many people are watching this thought 22nd century culture and eyes. They need to really understand and see it from the perspective of 19th century society and social norms were back then.
Finally!!! Say that again for the people in the back, because I have been saying the same thing since the second season
I love Penelope. I root for her so much. Has she ever lied in her column? No. She tells the truth and people buy it, the same ones that criticize her for writing are supporting and only care when they are the center of the writings.
Yep, she doesn't write lies...only truths that people be scared to say😂😂
Just because it's true doesn't mean it isn't cruel at times.
@@Syntell i don't see cruelty in any of her wordings or in what she has done, as her intentions were clearly on a protective side or honest in challenging the societal hypocritical behavior. But it' always fine to agree to disagree. Doesn't make me enjoy you guys any less. I like your reactions.
@@ellecerq6409 Just because it's true doesn't mean it's right to put it out for the world to read. Nor is it the world's business. Privacy should be respected. It's one thing that people talk and gossip. It's another thing to publish in writing.
@@limitlesssoul2882 the truth hurts but silence kills - mark twain
The lack of empathy for Penelope is hard to watch. No, she is not perfect. But you all speak as if the things she writes in Lady Whistledown are vicious lies, or written to tear people down. Everything she writes is with intention and most of the time that is to protect the Bridgertons. Penelope makes mistakes, but she’s a kind hearted, complex character, who is treated poorly by her family and nearly everybody in the ton. She is not cruel by a long shot. And Eloise is not innocent by a long shot, she is self absorbed and meddlesome which contributed to what happened to her last season. Hold all characters accountable, not just Penelope.
Penelope is honest and kinder than i would've been if the Ton treated me as they do to her. Including Eloise, with her self-centered views. Eloise created a whole situation putting her business and personal safety on the line of the Queen, knowingly doing so for she is way too privileged to realize that. So Pen did the only thing that could save them both, expectsting Eloise to be true to her words of not caring for what society thinks of her. Should Pen lose all her work, that guves her a safe future as a prospect single women, her employees too, and her liberty because Eloise started an investigation that she knew could risk the safety of LW? Eloise loved LW and wanted to meet her. Of course it changed when it is about herself.
The last time Eloise was trying to find Whistledown was because she was upset about what LW had written about Penelope's family and she wanted to get Whistledown to retract it, because Eloise loved Penelope and wanted to fix things for her.
Colin is faking a personality to fit in. It's so weird to me when people act like Penelope didn't help Daphne not marrying that creep, saved Colin from being trapped and Eloise from the Queen. She's the meme "They hated her because she spoke the truth". A bully victim and belittled, yet a strong woman surviving the oy way she could. Pen is so complex and interesting.
I agree. She did all of that helpful stuff, not with malice, but sometimes frustration. What we now know about the Queen makes us feel more sympathetic her being baited by LW, but Pen doesn't know her life story. It is VERY secret, even now. I think Queen Charlotte actually enjoys it as it cuts through the boredom of the season and waiting for her husband to die. In the end the Queen will save Whistledown too, after she is unmasked. Not one thing she has said about the Ton is untrue.
you guys not recognizing colin is killing me 😭😭 luke newton worked harddd for that bridgerton man look
My man been in the gym with no days off 😂🤣
He earned that look.
As for colin, he is pretending to be something he is not and putting on an façade. Even Eloise said so. With his "new" Personality. A personality that is what Anthony told him a man should have, a womanizer. Remember Anthony telling him he should stop being naive and go to brothels? Be a man. So Pen/LW, again, is reading him correctly.
I feel like the Eloise thing is being overblown. She revealed that Eloise was meeting with political people in a lower class and kept the secret that she was meeting with a young man alone (a much bigger deal). As a result, the Bridgerton family was out of the Queen's cross hairs, and Eloise had an isolated couple of months before she came back to being a popular figure who maybe has less male attention (from men she didn't want to have to deal with anyway).
That's certainly a point of view. But she also pushed to separate her from Theo, and we have no idea what that could have grown to be, effectively stopped her from being involved with women's rights or working-class activists (doing something -- the very thing a lot of people complain Eloise doesn't do), and lied to her that there had been rumors about her and Theo for weeks, among other things, and now Eloise seems like a shell of herself.
@@HuntingViolets then Eloise is acting cowardly and not what she pretends to be and say she is. Lady Mary went against social conventions for the man she wanted, with a family that turned their backs on her. Eloise wouldn't be having that with hher family and yet, despite how she tells everyone to stand up and challenge society, at the first chance she did nothing. I actually think she can be upset at Pen, but she should check her own behavior too.
@@ellecerq6409 I completely agree. Eloise likes, throwing the whole I’m progressive woman but at the same time she’s putting hardly any effort into actually trying to push for women’s rights and she barely lifts a finger to even try to change the patriarchy and polite society. This is why I sometimes have mixed emotions with Eloise, She’s saying one thing, but she does complete opposite like you come from an established rich family put some of that money into good work.
@@eriksnation231 exactly
@@ellecerq6409 It was pretty early days in her relationship and she is also dealing with the betrayal of her best friend, whom she already loved. Let her be wounded for a time.
It's interesting to me that if Eloise does anything, people are all over her for doing it -- how dare she talk to that boy? Her family will be ruined and her sisters will never be able to marry! She should forget about all this feminism nonsense and fall in line with society! Yet when she steps back (after being quite wounded -- can you imagine finding out your friend wrote and published this about you, even laying aside the rest), people are all over her for doing that -- she's a coward, didn't have the courage of her convictions. Can my girl get a moment to breathe?
She could have revealed Penelope's identity and yet she is doing everything to protect her, despite everything. That is very kind.
Penelope is treated like crap by society on a daily basis getting called spinster and people targeting her weight (mainly her family) I get that gossip may seem horrible to others but if groups of people are treating me terribly I don’t think I would mind relaying news that everyone already speaks about on a daily basis. And she’s been poor for the last 2 seasons so she uses her work to make ends meet
I think the only one calling Penelope a spinster (a word I love, but the show has presented it negatively) is Penelope herself. Her mother obviously wants her to be one, though, so she has someone to care for her in old age.
@@HuntingViolets I think it’s something that isn’t specially stated but instead she is treated that way like society has essentially casted her out over the years and majority of the male suitors are shown talking behind her back multiple times throughout the show
@@bethelberhane Do we see them talking about Penelope? I'm not trying to be obtuse, but I don't recall that except for when they teased Colin about it at the end of 2.
@@HuntingViolets other than the season 2 season they disregard her in season 3 when they were talking Colin in ep 1/ it’s def not shown many times but I feel like those scenes capture what a lot of the gentleman in their society (obviously not all with lord debling and a couple of suitors in the first ep) think of Penelope with her being cast out and not seen as a worthy suitor
@@bethelberhane Okay, thank you.
Do people not remember that the only reason that Penelope wrote about Eloise was to save her and her family from the Queen? The Queen would have destroyed the Bridgertons. Could she have made a different decision to save her, possibly? But, she couldn't think of one in that moment. It was not done out of cruelty. She struggled over the decision.
As well with Marina, she tried to get her to tell Colin the truth, she refused. Her mother would have killed her if she would have told Colin the truth, so she did the only thing she could to protect him.
Plus, if it wasn't for there being a Lady Whistledown paper to report such things, Daphne would have been forced to marry Nigel Berbrooke.
She felt like she had no voice in that society, that no one ever listened to her, even Eloise who talked at her but never listened. So she took what everyone said in her presence, because they ignored the Wallflower, and decided to have her voice heard. Has she made mistakes of course but she is also a young woman with no real mentors.
I love Penelope, faults and all. She was absolutely correct when she said that what Eloise was the maddest about was that she was jealous that Penelope was Lady Whistledown instead of herself.
Exactly 💚
Love that Lady Whistledown starts the season by hyping up all the debutants.
I did notice that. And we have a couple of plus size debutantes for possibly the first time, although I don't think they'll probably do much. Still, it's something.
Eloise got herself in trouble. Penelope got herself in trouble. They both should be grateful.
Cresida’s wardrobe this season is a representation of a bird…. Which is trapped in a cage.
The thing about Penelope that is so divisive is that even when her actions are questionable, they are not hateful. So you can always look at those actions from different point of views. She has a gossip column? Yes. Does she lie? No. She publish gossip that is already out and offers her opinion. Granted, her opinion may be hurtful, but they are mostly correct. The two times she revealed a secret (Marina and Eloise), she did for love for Colin and Eloise. In Marina's case she even ostracized herself and her own family on the scandal. In Eloise's case, let's not forget that the Queen threatened Eloise. If Penelope were such a villanous person, wouldn't she just let Eloise take the blame for her column? Most people forget that. Pen may have taken things a bit far, but she didn't revelead Theo and she didn't ruined Eloise (who is still more accepted in polite society than Penelope). In both cases, Penelope begged Marina, Colin and Eloise to see things the way she did, but none of them listened. So I desagree with you on "she may do the same to Francesca". Did Francesca tried to deceipt someone Pen loves into a loveless marriage? Did Francesca very irresponsably tried to unmask Penelope and put herself and Penelope in danger? No. So I don't think so. She didn't enjoyed revealing those secrets, but she felt like she had to.
Penelope never lies in her articles and never writes about people who don't deserve it. So your thinking of she'll write about Francesca is entirely wrong. I don't know how people forget that it's her writing that saved Daphne from marrying that Nigel dude, save Colin from marrying Marina who tried to deceive him, saved Eloise from the Queen Charlotte.
She also lessened the damage for Eloise. She actually wrote she met with some radicals, something that was expected from her by everyone and got Queen Charlotte off her hair. Eloise and Bridgertons are still welcomed in society and had not been affected by it. So she didn't actually "dragged Eloise through mud" like you guys mentioned.
EXACTLY!
I’m really appreciative of everyone defending Penelope. It’s important to remember that everyone one of these characters are flawed in some way or another. That’s to me one of the reasons that makes this show so compelling. That’s what makes Penelope not only so compelling as a character but also very multifaceted and relatable to a lot of people. Team Penelope 💚
Agree except I’m kinda Team Everyone. I see the mixed qualities and challenges of each character, and I want the best for them all, in the most collaborative, ethical way possible. Even Cressida, at this point. Though I certainly sympathize less with her than the others.
FWIW, Pen was wrong to betray the trust of her friend not just by publicizing her shared secret, but also in manipulating Eloise several times. Pen had mixed motivations for outing Eloise, some unethical. Luckily, Eloise is from a wealthy, protective family, but Pen still wielded the misogynistic social traditions against Eloise. Eloise’s chances at love were harmed, while Theo could have been fired or jailed. Eloise was trying to take action on her convictions with those activists, and Pen squashed that effort. Whistledown can be a great critic for their society’s hypocrisy, but Pen reinforced the sexist status quo by shaming the activists.
However, Pen is ignored or publicly humiliated by society, including her family. Her best friend and second family treat her far better, except Colin tells her she doesn’t count and Eloise shows that she barely even listens to Pen. So even among the only people to show her love, Pen is effectively isolated. In this world, and in her hateful unstable family, Pen doesn’t have many options to secure her future. It’s almost literally poetic justice that Pen creates financial security for herself as a woman by using this society against itself. Not the most ethical, but she’s less privileged than Eloise and she’s making the most of her advantages. Pen has a lot to make amends for, and whatever abuse she experienced is not an excuse for bad behavior. But Pen isn’t a completely bad person.
A great comment. ☺️💖
This is mostly an observation, but I feel like from what I've seen of the Bridgerton reactions. both of you make your minds up very quickly about moral positions, even where I feel like there is more ambiguity to be explored, or even when other reactors have overall had the complete opposite reaction and come to completely different conclusions.
I noticed it in season 2, where I feel like the story was trying to present two different sides to the ultimate "perfect match on paper" match with Edwina and Anthony, where everything was perfectly respectable to wider society, which Anthony chose because he did not want to get close enough for anybody to mourn him - vs. more of a "match of the heart" between Kate and Anthony, where their stories directly paralleled and they were similar enough in temperament for them to clash (as they clashed with themselves) and it made more sense on an emotional level - but I feel like you two were very decided against Kate. I understand why, at least partially, as they - mistakenly, in my opinion - did not show her story as much as his, certainly not as much as there was in their book, so it was harder to delve into her character from what relatively little there was said or shown - but I've never seen reactors cheer at the Edwina x Anthony engagement scene before.
I feel like it's a similar case this season. Penelope is a very interesting and complex character to me, for a lot of her more positive traits (her ambition, wit, creativity, purpose and her romantic leaning nature) also double as something that can be very negative and harmful in the form of her Lady Whistledown side - but when you consider the fact that these traits would never be accepted either by her family (who borderline if not actively emotionally abuse her, cutting her down for her appearance, her intellect and her want for love and affection), friends (Eloise, who does not notice her interior life to the point where - once she starts paying attention to what she's saying, refuses to hear her out for a second and uses the same words her bully does "insipid wallflower", and at multiple points is in fact surprised when even faced with the fact that Penelope is not a "spinster" by choice like her and wants love for herself - even Colin, who has used her as an emotional crutch to the point where he changes his entire personality around once she's stopped responding to him, who also openly publicly degraded her and hurt her chances of finding a match after telling her he'd protect her), or wider society (her family's poor financial standing being one thing, but also her reputation as a wallflower, overlooked and bullied by her peers, like Cressida and her sisters another).
I've never known a person to handle a bad family life well without support, and though I don't think Lady Whistledown is necessarily a good thing for her longterm, I can completely understand why she does it, and I don't think it makes her evil. In fact, I think it makes her smart, leveraging her position in society as somebody who goes unseen and who has very few marriage prospects (in a time where that was a wealthy woman's only respectable livelihood - and her family not being all that wealthy, either) into somebody who has an outlet that gives her financial security and the will / purpose / validation she would likely need to survive such bleak circumstances.
Even what she has done "wrong" has shades of grey morality to me, as with Marina's situation, she was dealing with the time crunch of an elopement and the fact that men could be in legal and social trouble for "beach of promise" if they broke an engagement without moral cause, as well as the fact that she was seventeen and had aforementioned strenuous life circumstances, likely not enough support or backup to handle it more peacefully. With Eloise, she warned her multiple times that what she was doing was dangerous to not only hers, but her family's reputation - which does not just include the Viscount, but has daughters (and sons) not yet out in society. One Bridgerton's ruin could have a knock-on effect on the entire Bridgerton family - and it was not the permanently ruinous information (meeting unchaperoned with a lower class man) that was released, just enough for the Queen to take her head off what could literally be the chopping block, and for her family to step up and have tighter reigns on her behaviour (which again, does not just reflect on Eloise's prospects).
With Colin, the most she really remarks is that he's changed himself for the worse, which is as much as Eloise has said to his face, which, while not exactly nice - feels very "pissed off nineteen year-old on a power trip". The generic evil of nineteen year olds is another matter, I think, but I certainly wouldn't consider her even an ill-intentioned character; mostly young, (in my opinion) abused, and with a misdirected sense of purpose. I've seen people with similar circumstances in my own life turn out a lot worse.
Of course, your different style of reaction is interesting, and it keeps me on my toes - but sometimes, I can't help but feel like there is a critical lack of nuance. It encourages discussion, to be sure, but I feel like there is more to be said for time period attitudes, personal stakes and story / character themes and context that play into the story.
I can't with you calling them shadow children 😭😭😭 it's hilarious
The houses all have their own color palette.
The Bridgertons wear all blue, you can see that.
For Penelope, please do not hate her for long.... she is really trying to do better... and payed a huge price ... she has no friend left.
In my opinion she saved Eloise because of the queen.
I do think she could have handled the Marina situation better but Lady Whistledown always telling the truth.
Colin did act very differently from his normal behavior. She is telling the truth about him.
And dont forget Cressida was always very cruel to Penelope. I hate her for that.
Penelope have no loving mom or home. The people never cared to get to know her, ignored her even laugh at her. Because of her life and how people are treating her, she has no self-consciousness at all.
Lady Whistledown is her way to communicate... so she can talk with the ton. Yes she sometimes step to far. But always telling the truth.
The thing is... in the book you can understand Penelope and Colin much better because they give us the information that needed. We know how they feel deep inside.... In the show we dont get that. And I think this is so wrong....
Thank you for your reaction, looking forward to your next. 😊
Well, she didn't save Eloise from the Queen since the Queen wanted to make a deal with Whistledown. She basically saved herself from having to work with the Queen, which might not have been that bad. I am open to Penelope growing, though, so we shall see if they do that or brush it aside. Penelope is much nicer in the book and Lady Whistledown doesn't do any of this stuff, so it is very different. I like how in the book, Penelope answers Colin's statement about courting her or whatever with, "I never asked you to" and also that it was only in front of his brothers. But the show always wants to rev up the drama more.
Pen didn’t do anything wrong she was trying to save Eloise who was reckless #teampenelope
Exactly 👏👏👏
What Penelope said about Colin wasn’t kind but it was also a reaction to him basically telling all the eligible men she was undesirable. Which is what him saying he would never court her amounted to! She was still hurt and him acting like it was no big deal set her off. She also clearly regretted it after he apologized. But to be fair just about everything she has said as Lady Whistledown is the truth.
Pen asked Eloise countless times to STOP looking into lady whistledown and to stop meeting that guy. Eloise made herself a target of the Queen bc she refused to listen. While Pen outing Eloise’s secret relationship wasn’t nice she shouldn’t have been expected to sacrifice herself bc Eloise wanted to be stubborn. Especially when Eloise has the security and status of the Bridgerton name to protect her meanwhile Pen does not. Her family is already in poor standing bc of her father’s financial issues.
Love the energy this season🎉🎉🎉 I think what Pen wrote about Colin is not cruel...dude has come back with a newness about him....even his brothers asked him about it.
Fun fact: Kate & Anthony have a big role in the books for Pen & Colin's story...
Daphne and Simon too its just that Rege (actor who plays Simon) declined to come back so her role is limited in the show.
Interesting! Pen is my girl frfr, like is she perfect no but she writes the truth. And the things she says the people of the ton would talk about anyway. Also with Eloise is was rough but I get why she did it to save herself and Eloise from the Queen. And people treat Pen terribly, Eloise was her friend but sometimes she really bulldozed her way through her friendship with Pen. And the people of the ton don't treat her well at all.
Eloise is so entitled that she can't see past herself. She only used Penelope to rant about her problems. And please, dont come and say that Penelope could have told Eloise about her being LW. But you dont tell you friends all your secrets and you know you dont. People are allowed to keep things to themselves. And Eloise does not realize how privileged her position in society is. Which Penelope has told her before.
Penelope only writes about what she hears. News that is already out in the ton, she does not make things up. There are other scandal sheets in the ton, but LW is famous because she gives names. Even without her, gossip would still flow.
Penelope warned Eloise to stop looking into LW. She did not, and caused her self to get in trouble. Eloise does not want to blame herself, and only wants to blame her mistakes on Penelope. Penelope is not a saint. Her biggest problem is antagonizing the Queen.
Penelope has saved more people then she ruined. Including Eloise and Colin, she could have wrote something far worse about Eloise, but she choose the less damaging option.
Lol I LOVE Eloise, but she is quite literally the last person I would tell anything confidential to and this season only validates that. The child has no common sense or discretion at all. She just runs her mouth without regard for place and time, never listens to anything that doesn't support her own POV and then is shocked when there are consequences. I love that girl but she needs to take several clues and seats.
I haven't rewatched the show in a while but didn't she write the story about Eloise because the queen suspected Eloise was Lady W and was going to ruin her and the whole Bridgerton family since you can't prove a negative? I remember it being morally gray and a really tough hit, but still ultimately an act of protection, or am I remembering it wrong?
You're remembering it right.💚
I think Francesca is a good mix of Eloise and Daphne, which makes her interesting to me. Also she was great casting, because I feel like she looks like Daphne. She seems open to the marriage mart, but practical about the fact that not everyone is going to find true love. I think making her more reserved and quiet also makes sense. You've got 8 kids in their family, they can't all be big personalties. I'll be very interested to see what happens with the actors who play Gregory and Hyacinth if the show keeps going for years to come. They were also casted as very young children, to play children. They may not feel comfortable playing their characters when it comes time for their seasons when they've grown up.
That's a very good point about the age of the casting.
OMG ! You have zero insight about Francesca 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
The actress playing Hyacynth is 17 and 5 seasons away from her lead role. I'd imagine by then she'd be tired of playing a child. I don't remember her book, but I kind of remember them getting tamer as the book series progressed.
I don't know why they wouldn't feel comfortable playing their characters after they've grown up as they will have grown up also. Unless you think they are among the child actors who quit to do other things.
@@teshara Hyacinth and Gregory have really fun books too. I hope they do get to theirs and keep the same actors.
Each family has their own colour palette that they and their household staff wear. The Bridgertons primarily wear blues & pastels, Penelope family wears citrus & bright colours, Lady Danbury reds, whites, gem colours, etc...
Calling Penelope cruel for writing a gossip blows my mind. Everyone is forgetting episode 1 season 1 that there were lots of scandal sheets writing the same thing. Eloise was excited by Whistledown because it was the first scandal sheet to use names. Penelope has cornered the market and has secured her future as a spinster since she now has her own funds.
LOL, you both not even recognizing colin SENT ME
😂🤣
He came back from summer camp a whole new man.
@@Syntellthe comment about him taking P90X took me out! ☠️🤣
So glad you guys watched season 2 first then this season! Hope you love it!!
Me too. It's been a long time comming. Can't wait to dive in.
I love Penelope. I can relate to her.
She saved Eloise from the Queen. Was it harsh? Yes. Could it have been done differently? Ofc
She doesn't lie in her colums she always tells the truth, sometimes harshly, but oh well.
Is she perfect? Hell no! None of them are.
Colin is definetely a different person, so she was not wrong,
If you see it from Penelopes perspective.
She has been bullied all her life, by everyone in the Ton including her family, so she is just giving back in the almost same variety she experience every day, and she has made a fortune from it.
I dislike Eloise alot.
She is very selfabsorbed imho.
She never really listened to Penelope, and always thinks that people should have the same opinions as her.
Penelope did warn her over and over to not pursue the LW thing and other stuff, but NEVER EVER listened, she always assumeed Penelope wanted the same as her because she never listened to what she actually wanted.
Do I feel bad that she got hurt. OFC I do.
Even Colin took Penelope for granted.
No lies were spoken! Like honestly, I would have done the EXACT same thing if I was in the same situation and were in the same circumstances. I don’t give a flying F if I’m cruel for telling the truth. I would rather someone be cruel and honest then fake and kind.
In both the Marina and Eloise situation she tried MULTIPLE times, RELENTLESSLY, over AND OVER AND OVER, again to stop Marina from entrapping a man in marriage and Eloise from the wrath of the queen, but did they listen? Noooooo. So she used the only BIT of power she had to save the people she cared about. Sometimes you have to be steadfast to get sh*t done. Is she perfect? H*LL no, but did she apologize over and over and over and cried with regret right after writing the article? Yes. Honestly, She felt more regret than I would have. But It is what it is. 🤷🏼♀️💯
Pen didnt even write any lies as LW in the past two seasons, she simply wrote what ppl were alr talking abt. I think you need to go rewatch the past two seasons again 😅
Penelope is complex and imperfect, but she is not inherently bad or cruel. Plus, she only writes truths, is not her fault people have things they wanna hide, it's not her fault people fuck up, not her fault Eloise never heard her and was running around doing shit she shouldn't have, same with Marina. I feel like some people don’t get the full picture with her. She's a layered character and thank God for that.
I will always be a Penelope defender. We love a girl boss. I would definitely sob if I was the topic of Whistledown's papers but I'll still fight for my girl. Loved your reaction though.
Penelope is a complicated character and that’s what makes me enjoy her. She’s a woman who stands to gain nothing in the kind of society she lives in because she is not considered desirable by the men. Therefore, she stepped out and made something of herself during a time when women weren’t respected, especially for their minds. What she did to Marina was cruel, but Marina was also wrong. She didn’t love Colin and was trying to trick him into a lifelong commitment. As for Eloise, Pen would’ve lost everything she’d worked for if she revealed herself to the Queen all on account of Eloise’s careless behavior. Cruel? Yes, but Eloise also has substantial generational wealth along with the privilege of a loving, supportive family. Penelope does not. The Featherington’s are always on the brink of losing everything and they have no close male relatives to safeguard them against poverty. She’s not a “good” character but she’s also not a villian. She’s human.
YES!!’ So far this season is my ABSOLUTE FAVORITE!!! Polin’s love story is my favorite one and I can’t wait to see the rest of their story play out next month 💐💐💐
This actually Colin's season, Francesca's story intertwines with his but trust me, she will have her own season in the future. Because in her story in the books its really sad. But lovely. I think it spans like three books or two until she has her own book. So it will be the same in this show i believe.
I really don't understand why Pen gets so much hate from some people. She's not necessarily cruel, she airs out secrets. If the people she wrote about never did any of these noteworthy, gossip inducing things Lady Whistledown wouldn't exist. It would be different if she was making up things, that would be evil and cruel.
To be fair to Penelope, Colin IS being fake. That becomes more clear later but it’s especially noted in the book. He was behaving like a “player” because he wanted to fit in with society, AND be like his brothers (who always have no trouble getting ladies). This was reaaally emphasized in the books but is also definitely alluded to in the show in multiple ways. So say what you want about whether it was right for Penelope to write that in whistledown, but the info is TRUE 🫣😂🤣 Pen knows him better than anyone
I’d love to negotiate about your views on Penelope! You guys seem to really dislike her. Personally, I believe that both Penelope and Eloise are at fault. I also believe, even though what Penelope did was pretty harsh, she saved Eloise. Who knows what would’ve happened to Eloise if Pen didn’t do what she did. Also, honestly, Eloise is very self absorbed. In the books she is not like that. In the show she is super judgy and doesn’t see things from others point of views. If only she would listen to why Pen wrote what she wrote she would the whole fight would be less intense. But yes, Penelope CAN be too harsh, I’ll admit that. The reason why I love her so much though is because I see myself in her a lot. When you’re ignored, disregarded and treated like a freak, you tend to hate society with a passion. I don’t blame her for creating LW, she needed that out. Imagine your own mother not believing in you. That sucks. I wish I could make my own LW because I know how she feels 💯.
Agree 💯
Welcome to what is so far my favourite season. Whistledown doesn’t always write nasty things. She’s often elevated people in what she says, but I understand why Eloise is angry, although I maintain Penelope did write what she did to try and save her from worse as I don’t see the queen believing it wasn’t her and she didn’t say anything about Theo which would’ve ruined her. Eloise should’ve let her explain. But I totally see why she’s angry. But I will always admire Penelope who has had no love in her family and whose family have been ridiculed and mocked by society found a way to use that society to her advantage through a successful business. Most in the ton seem awful.
There are many ways Penelope could have proved she was Whistledown or she could even have let the Queen think it was Eloise and do a Remington Steele thing, since the Queen wanted to work with Whistledown and only expose her if she refused. I would have found a plot where Penelope had to work with the Queen very funny, though. "Here are my notes on your column. Please fix these things before you go to print." I feel cheated!
In the first scene of season 3, Penelope is giving shout outs to the very same girls who will make fun of her later on. I will never blame her for calling out the Ton.
@@cassiegeorge141 Are they the same girls, the ones she mentions by name? I think those were the girls more likely to be wallflowers, but then it has the montage with various other girls as Whistledown keeps talking. I don't think we ever see the excited girl at the beginning or the two plus size girls spreading the rumor. It's the more conventionally pretty set. I could be wrong about this, as I have only watched it once, but that is my impression.
@@HuntingViolets why should she let the queen think Eloise was LW when LW was Pen's own hardwork? Pen built LW from ground and became society's most successful business woman. Why should she let Eloise have all the credits? Eloise got herself in trouble because of her own foolishness. Why should Pen give up the only thing she had for that? Pen tried to do everything she could.
And no, there was no other way to reveal herself as LW. From season 1 it's clear Featheringtons are at the lowest tear of society and Pen is lowest even among Featheringtons. The queen didn't even know she existed until the first episode of season 3. So if she tried to get close to the queen to tell the truth, nobody would have ever paid her attention and would have dismissed her.
If she revealed herself in her papers, again people and the queen would have dismissed her either thinking she's just looking for attention because of the bad name of Featheringtons or the queen would have thought she was trying to take the blame on herself to save her friend, Eloise and again would have dismissed her.
Another reason the queen wouldn't have believed her is the queen thinks LW as someone very intelligent and commanding. Part of the joy she gets from revealing LW is by beating an intelligent woman, she could prove herself as more intelligent and powerful but Pen's image at that point was totally opposite. Because of her lack of conversation skill face to face, she wouldn't have matched the image of LW queen had and would have come across as a fraud. Eloise on the other side fitted the queen's image of LW much better. Eloise strongly says the truth to people's faces and often shoves her own opinion on her others, without caring about others views and opinions. So the queen would have still thought Eloise was the real LW and Pen was lying.
@@lilymanoban5747 "why should she let the queen think Eloise was LW when LW was Pen's own hardwork? Pen built LW from ground and became society's most successful business woman. Why should she let Eloise have all the credits?" Then she should take the credit with the Queen. Problem solved.
I love how you guys didn’t recognize Colin 😂 he definitely had a glow up
The writers use color theroy a lot in the show. The Bridgertons wear blue and often that color tends to change so in this case, Colin and Penelope will start wearing green because Penelope’s colors are yellow, and the Bridgerton are blue like in season two the Bridgertons are blue and the Sharma’s were red and pink so together when they started to fall in love you start to see them in purple. It’s really cool.❤
Can't wait for Pen to grow on you❤
If you really think about it, Penelope as Lady Whistledown has saved more lives than she's ruined.
If she hadn't written about The Lord Berbrook in Season 1 Daphne would have been forced to marry him.
And she also cared about Colin so much that she wasn't willing to allow him to walk into a lie of a marriage with Marina.
As far as Eloise, granted it was cruel, but it was also necessary. because had she not, Eloise would have been in a even worse spot since the Queen had suspected Eloise of being Lady Whistledown.
Eloise was not focused on that part bc she was overall hurt.
As far had the Queen, Charlotte needed some entertainment, and she has it through Whistledown.
If you remove Lady Whistledown from the entire story, the show would be boring.
Yeah, good on you guys for catching on to the detail that Lady Whistledown... sounds older. Because in the book Penelope specifically tries to sound older in the words and cadence that she uses when writing. So it's definitely purposeful... She purposefully chose to make lady whistledown sound older than Penelope is... to try and throw people off of the scent of her being a peer to those on the marriage market... And instead make people think that it's an older woman looking in at the gossip of the season... But still probably somebody invited to the events.
In _Gossip Girl_ (which actually came after the _Bridgerton_ books), the voice is Kristen Bell (who is not a character), so I think it was a foregone conclusion that it would have to be someone else's voice to keep up the mystery -- although the show does give up the mystery three seasons early.
Awww...man. The "Baby Reindeer" comment hurt my heart for poor Pen! I know, she's not a real person, lol. But you know the lady from Baby Reindeer was a sexual predator and stalker, right? The character of Penelope Featherington is not some evil criminal like that. Pen is often seen listening in the shadows, getting her Lady Whistledown tea! So her hiding and watching the Bridgerton's is nothing new. Plus, it has to be uncomfortable to see Eloise after their blow-up. And anyway, Colin wasn't even in the group when she began watching them. Hoping over time you won't see Pen as a villain. As many, MANY of your viewers have said in the comments, this society has treated Penelope horribly. The worst thing she can be accused of is keeping secrets and sharing gossip. She deserves better than "Baby Reindeer". Still love you guys and can't wait to see the next reaction!
I agree, it was uncalled for. But this is a common way that people tend to think of fat women, it’s sad, but it’s a reality we have always faced.
@@michellek4349 very true. Hits close to home for me! :(
I just finished baby reindeer and omg it feels more upsetting now hearing them comparing Pen to that story. Just bc they're both plus size?? Low-key being biased honestly
Lol girl bye, it was a joke because she looked like a stalker. Calm down lmao. Y'all really sensitive these days.
@@Sjfyy_ Oh shoot, you my H.S. bully?? Funny how people that call others "too sensitive" are so often the bullies/sociopaths of the world. "iT's JuSt A jOkE!" -- GURL. BYE. 🙄
@Syntell, good catch that Eloise interrupts Cressida to protect Penelope. She is extremely hurt by Penelope, but it's not easy to turn off all your feelings. I do like that we are dealing with all relationships on this show, not just romance. It will be interesting to see what influence Eloise has on Cressida.
Y’all being too harsh on Pen omg she warned Eloise so many times to stop and even though it was messy and betrayal, she did protect Eloise in the end. Once the next scandal comes, people forget. Now Eloise is living in society and no one even cares. Pen saved her.
Yay season 3. I love you guys, The shadow children lol. Gotta wait for their season i guess. As someone who has read the books, the show really had dramatized Whistledown. She really did just report gossip, and not in a vicious way. I do hope they can redeem penelope for Colin and Eloise.
Sorry honestly there isn't really much that Penelope can do to make me dislike her. Yes, I may be disappointed in her actions from time to time, but I could never dislike her. Also, you have to realize that she is a teenager. If this is her third season, she has be at least 17. Her actions make sense for character's age. She is an emotionally-driven teenager. I did much worse when I was her age lol
Also, what she said about Colin was not bad at all. Eloise said the exact same thing to Colin before she left for the modiste. Like even his own family didn't recognize him when he returned home.
I know that it is hard to understand how things were back then but Penelope actually helped Eloise by doing what she did. Eloise did not listen to Pen's warnings. So Pen did the only thing she could think of. If Eloise had been caught in the act, much worse would have happened to her and her family. Whistledown writing about her actually just caused rumors. It could not be proven and therefore the ton cannot shun the family. It just causes rumors. This scene did not happen in the books so I am interested why it was put in the story and how it will be resolved. We will see in Part 2. We have to remember that Pen acted out of caring for Eloise and her family and did the only thing she could think of. Especially when
Eloise would not listen to Pen in the first place and acted rashly. Society norms are placed on both these women and it is a situation that sadly developed because of the consequences of going against those norms. Both by Eloise fighting against what is expected of her station and Pen trying to find her way through a society that has already turned their backs on her. Both women made choices and neither was meant to harm the other but in turn hurt both. Part 2 will be interesting to see.
Penn isn’t cruel. She was trying to protect Collin from Marina and Eloise from the queen, but did it the wrong way. She’s not a cruel character though.
22:58 fans have pointed out that besides the family color which is blue each Bridgerton siblings have their own color that symbolizes who they end up with in the books . Its an Easter egg for the book fans. In Season 2 in the flashback scene little Eloise can be seen with a green ribbon sash.
As far as colors go, it’s a costume designer trick to designate color stories for groups. I’m this case, families. So beidgerton blue for example. The featheringtons are always in citrus colors, per the book.
Here's an essay, if you're interested in my thoughts about why Penelope writes as LW.
To me, Bridgerton is about people who make mistakes. Simon, Daphne, Violet, Marina, Portia, Anthony, Kate, Edwina, Eloise, Colin, Penelope, they all make mistakes, from misguided to pretty bad.
Penelope has always been treated badly by her family, ignored by society, bullied. So I think she started writing LW as a way of mocking this society that judges her as inconsequential, as a way of holding up a mirror to these people's double standards. She writes what people are already gossiping about, she doesn't invent stories.
Also, she started writing it young, and she probably never had a good role model (she admires the Bridgertons, but they wouldn't be able to make up for what she lacked in her home.)
She disassociates from the LW alter ego, which I think makes it easier to channel her anger and loneliness into her writing. She can be cruel, and she's aware of that. She can also be immature, but she's still young.
Everyone makes mistakes. Does that make us undeserving of love, should we suffer indefinitely? Should we be given the chance to recognize it, ask for forgiveness, and do better going forward?
Like you said, it's still the start of the season, and they only released half of the episodes. Who knows how it will go from here.
Maybe it’s just how it is edited but I love how you guys always wait for the Queen to finish her entire line before reacting / commenting, compared to some other scenes, because she just has the BEST lines
I enjoyed this season it’s my favorite I understand both Pen and Elois but her becoming friend with a bully will never really make sense to me like my ex best friends said worse about me and I forgave them we became friends then when I saw that they will never change or care about my feelings I stayed away but didn’t befriend a bully that’s weird while at least Pen better than my ex friends she actually fell guilty and do care about others I do hope their friendship get fixed and become stronger also I do understand Elois she needs time but befriend a bully that’s a no to me I don’t care if what ever the bully name is kind to Elois or not but she is a bully to others for no reason.
Pen started her career as Lady Whistledown at 17. Thats a teenager. and she was poor, with a truly terrible family. And yet she is very self-aware in knowing her talents, tactful (unlike her family) enough to utilize them within the extreme limitations she has. Her career is the only glimpse of agency & power she has ever had
Can you imagine the guts to do this at 17 in THAT ERA?
She is ofc attracted to power(?product of emotional abuse) and yet she she is only cheeky & sassy, even offensive at times. She hasnt ever attacked an innocent or spread falsehoods for monetary gain. She was protecting Colin in season 1, and she was protecting Eloise and Genevieve in season 2.
with her background, lack of learning opportunities and neglect by society, its shocking enough that she isnt a villain outright.
Also, her only two friends are Miss Reckless and Mister Clueless
Eloise wudnt have needed protection in the first place if she wasnt too caught up in her own opinions and obsessed with the task of proving her intellect, to the point of being reckless
unkind too, as she never let her friend explain herself at ease
she has a loving family. she really has no excuse for her lack of humility or faith, other than her age
Even the very gallant Mr Colin, who everyone deems innocent on account of being heroically inclined, has been ignoring the threat that his carelessly friendly public interactions with her pose to her reputation & (already very slim) marital prospects. Yet she isnt mean to him, even as Whistledown, even at the peak of her disdain for him. What she wrote wasnt false at all
even then, you choose to be mad at a barely-out-of-teens girl trying to stay sane & not-poor
such a pity
this prejudiced unsympathetic reaction was difficult to watch
yay straight into it!! so excited for pen and colins story
bro... I do not blame Eloise for befriending Cressida at all, hey. that's here prerogative. but in my eyes Cressida has been cruel TOO so what gives? also, Pen has NEVER written anything for revenge. she has not. in truth she can write nastier things about Cressida but what has LW written about Cressida literally once, that her dress looks outdated and she only wrte this for Delacroix.
she quite literally wrote for revenge in this episode when she was mad at colin💀💀
I love how hard you root for Eloise, she's my favorite. I agree with your takes on Pen, although this episode actually made me like her and root for her too (still agree that she has to make up for what she did though) so I am loving her season so much so far! I never liked Colin but again, they did manage to change that this season haha
I find Cressida such a good character this season too! We can't forget how horrible she was to Pen but seeing her be a complex character and getting development too has been great.
Pen need to stop writing when she get mad lol
I love this season it’s definitely my favorite probably because I relate to pen and Colin so much.
This is my favorite season so far
It's interesting how Cressida refers to her previous attempts at befriending Eloise -- "You rejected my suit."
Clicked so fast haha ❤ love watching it with you two.
You're the best!
We love you.
I’m so interested to hear what you think, and I hope you love the season as much as do! So much beautiful nuance played by the two leads that I have loved.
Penelope uses Whistledown as her crutch. If she has a problem, if she is angry, if she is hurt, she has Whistledown. This is bad for other people, but it is also *bad for Penelope.*
I wanted Colin to pine this season. Penelope has poor marriage prospects partly because of Colin. He basically told other suitors that she wasn't worth courting after a ballroom of people saw him dance with her and hold her hand to lead her somewhere private last season. People respect his opinion due to his family name even though they still considered him childish.
Dancing showed public interest and taken seriously by others. Not to mention, writing letters in regency era was a very serious stage in courting. Couples who wrote letters were considered almost engaged. That's why Pen's sister didn't believe she was writing Colin last season. It's also telling how Pen stops responding to his letters after last season's events.
Colin constantly sought her out in public settings and crossed boundaries reserved for courting couples. It made her hopeful. On top of that, he had the nerve to make her untouchable for other suitors even if he didn't intend to. I'm sure others has been whispering about her and Colin for a while. This season, Colin needed to learn that Pen wasn't always gonna be available to stroke his ego.
Season 1: fake dating
Season 2: enemies to lovers
Season 3: friends to lovers
Season 4: love at first sight (🤞if it's Benedict's season)
You guys are forgetting she did that to Eloise to protect her from the Queen’s suspicions about her being Lady Whistledown. Ill advised yes and most certainly could have been handled in a kinder way but she did it out of love for her friend.
I feel like this season will be so nuanced and really reveal true human nature, as well as the potential of human redemption in all it's complexities.
Hopefully both Cresseda and Pen do better and find love. They're actually very similar, and have *both* been very cruel in the past. Interesting juxtaposition of characters!👌
(although Cresseda angers me more tbf🤣)
Cant wait for ep 2!!🔥
We can hope.
I’m surprised you think Penelope maliciously wrote about Eloise? It was clear that she wrote that so the Queen wouldn’t arrest Eloise. Surely Eloise is in a better position BECAUSE of Penelope. If anything Eloise is the cruel one. She didn’t even pay attention to Penelope’s personality until the very end.
I'm so happy you're reviewing this. Queen Charlotte and Lady Danbury steal every scene they are in.
It might be an unpopular opinion but I love Pen! As LW she just reads people. Tells the truth and makes them face up to themselves. Everything she writes is true, it's just that when people make bad decisions they might not want everyone finding out. There's neither fear nor favour.
The only time she's really messed up is when she's acted out of desperation or got too caught up in her emotions. I don't know the original books, but in my mind she started LW as a business because her family repeatedly told her she'd never marry well and was trying to build up financial resources so she could escape. I think this episode is the first time she's actually written something out of spite, because Colin was two-faced and shamed her in front of the men of the Ton. She's definitely wrong, but so is what Colin did.
She's actually saved the Bridgertons twice with a lesser scandal to stop a bigger disaster, Colin in S1 and Eloise in S2 (the Queen thought Eloise was LW and would have ostracised the whole family, the scandal of what she was actually doing by meeting the printer guy unchaperoned and had been warned repeatedly not to is really her own fault, she'd have been found out eventually). S2 shows Eloise is naive at best and a complete hypocrite at worst - so probably somewhere between the two. She says she wants nothing to do with the bon Ton or society but happily enjoys all its benefits. I think the actress does a great job as showing her to be completely insufferable.
But we wouldn't enjoy the show if everyone wasn't a little bit flawed and there relationships weren't messy. We're all here for the drama. Bridgerton runs on secrets and people not being truthful about their feelings to themselves or each other. LW is the great secret teller that gets things out in the open.
Hey, hi, sorry about the trauma dump during your live feed! I was going to add "But Eloise was right about her being a coward", but i ran out of characters 🙄
I really enjoy your channel and I'm always happy to see a new reaction!
Oh it's all good. I'm sure this season is going to bring a lot of different ideas about the characters as well. At least I hope it does. Loving the great drama. And thank you for the comments.
The Penelope hate here is wild & ridiculous. Eloise was a selfish friend. This is the change from the books I hate the most. They put the 2 best friends at odds with each other.
This was so disappointing. I was excited to watch your reaction because you both are such lovely people. But it seems like you are watching a completely different show than I see. Penelope has been treated cruelly by everyone in the town including her family. She started writing down things she heard at parties because she had no one to talk to. Even Eloise, though kind to her, never took the time to ask Penelope about her likes and dislikes. She was scared the Queen was accusing Eloise which could have led to her imprisonment or even execution. I wish she would have talked to Eloise about it, but she rightly guessed that Eloise would not understand. People have the right to feel any way they want about characters, but it's disappointing that there doesn't seem to be any empathy or understanding for a character that means so much to so many people.
I know what Penelope do are bad but she was never lied in whistledown papers though, what she callout about Colin is true. She always kinda sensible in her newspaper exept with Colin because he is special to her and she was so mad about what he said.
Penelope's character is a complex character and that's what makes it more interesting than just writing good about the people in society it was ganna be boring and no body will pay her no attention also she is aware of what she publishes its not like she's murdering people it's gossip and it's a show her character is very deep and she's a girl who needs to be loved cause she deserves that she also said no one is an exception from gossip even herself it's not like she's hurting innocent people all the tons are dirty people acting noble she's just sitting facts, about the bridgertons it's not like she said something about them everybody doesn't know, saving her best friend eloise last season like that was the best solution rather than letting the queen destroy the family thinking eloise is whistledown her best friend who doesn't even bother to ask pen about her personal problems or even what's going on with pen and what is she suffering from with her family and now she is listening very well to Cressida and her problems who's the true best friend now
I never understand people who don’t have any empathy or sympathy for Pen. Of anyone in the upper crust of the Ton, she is given the worst hand. Everybody overlooks her, unless they are cruel, her own friend (El) never really listens to her, her family is openly cruel. Nobody believes in her except herself. So, she takes what is already being said and throws a mirror up to the Ton and makes them look at themselves.
She does make bad choices, but it is not vindictive. She is always protecting the people she loves. And she is young, and has grown and will continue.
She is my favorite character of the entire series, and is often misjudged. People on the internet treat her how the Ton does in the show, and it speaks VOLUMES.
All I have to say is I can’t wait until the review for episode 4 drops!!Love your Bridgerton reviews ❤
What a great reaction to Colin's glow-up! I hit the like button for that. You guys didn't even recognize him! It was so refreshing to watch reactors not knowing which couple will lead the season! But you gotta give my girl Penelope a bit more of an open mind. But Syntell carrying the torch for Penelope saved it. And loved your reaction to her glow-up as well. She is a badass - a successful business woman (and she started at only age 17!) that managed to take gossip (that the Ton was thriving on anyway) and capitalize on it during in Regency times when a woman's worth was usually only tied to her husband. She saved Colin and she saved Eloise. Now, that being said, was she a misguided 17-18 year-old? Yes, she could've told Colin in private that Marina was pregnant. Yes, she could've told Eloise the truth that she was Lady Whistledown. She was very misguided but never malicious. Eloise being friends with her bully, though? That's a new low.
Anyhow - can't wait to see the rest of your reaction to Eps 2-4!
Great reactions. Reminder that Penelope is in love with Colin and has been for years. This is book 4 in the series, Colin's love story. LW is voiced by Julie Andrews.
IM TEAM PENELOPE ! that girl has always been the black sheep of the family and Eloise was her only family and she was trying to save her from a big scandal ! U guys are so harsh on judge my girl Penelope
She always tries to manage with what she knows and the environment she grew up in …. I feel she’s waaaaaay less advantageous than Eloise but behaves so much better than Eloise
Team POLIN all the way
She was trying to save Eloise from The queen I don't understand why everybody hates her so much. Yeah she had to throw her under the bus but she did it to save her.
I truly appreciate you guys going straight into season 3 and not dragging it out!
I have mixed feelings about Penelope; but Eloise needs to grow as well
She's certainly smart enough. She just needs some wisdom and that will come.
They all need to grow, for sure.
See, by the time all of this season 3 stuff happens Pen and El are suppose to be in their twenties. Colin supposedly traveled the world even. It’s interesting to see how the show handles it now that they’ve made everyone younger.
I agree!
Colin already loves Pen. In S1 and S2 he always searched for her company wherever they were. But they know each other since they are children. I guess it is hard to get out of the friendzone. He will see the truth eventually. She's already his favourite person!
Everyone treats Pen cruelly tho. She just found a way to earn money in a society where women weren't allowed to have any, save up for a life of her own, by writing truth that people were already gossiping about. She's a lonely, emotional teenager who's done nothing but try and protect the people she cares about. She could have said a lot worse about Eloise, but she only saus what she needed to protect Eloise from the Queen. These people get themselves into trouble.
The comment section is full of people defending Penelope and I do understand why, we want to defend characters we relate to, but I agree with you guys, I just can't see her as anything other than a villain. The whole gossip girl/lady whistledown thing is cruel and exploitative and the fact the she has problems of her own is not an excuse for creating problems for others. Above all, what she did to Marina is, to my mind, inexcusable. She could have simply told Colin about Marina's pregnancy in confidence, if she didn't want him to marry Marina under false pretences, but instead she went ahead and exposed Marina to the ridicule and judgement of the entire ton and completely destroyed her reputation. Marina was doing the best she could in a difficult situation and there's no reason to believe Colin wouldn't have been happy with her and the child. But then again, that was in season 1 when I actually liked Colin. Since season 2, all he's done is talk incessantly about himself and his travels. Even with Pen, he only ever talks about how she makes him see the world differently, how she believes in him and in general how he likes the emotional labour she does for him. Nothing about her own inherent qualities. And Pen chastises him for being cruel (which he totally was and god for her!) but then she herself writes cruel things about people behind their backs all the time. So whatever, they deserve each other.
So glad y'all aren't afraid to voice your opinions. All these comments trying to teach you what Penelope's character is like are annoying. Agree with y'all.
No, Francesca has not been to the balls before. This is her debut and her first season.
I think this was a great love story and I love how they told it
Been waiting for this!!
finally here 🙌🏾🙌🏾
Penelope is the villain in this scenario. You did a friend in, and there was another way to protect her from the queen.
I love Francesca. She is my only true love of this season so far. I'm very interested to know what you think as the season progresses. It's a polarizing season for sure. People love it or hate it and there is no in between.
If that's the case I can only imagine how we're going to respond 🤣😂
Regardless it's going to be a fun season watching with everyone.
So happy to have found your reaction! Looking forward to seeing the rest of them. 🩵