#and colin is home to HER

[dollypopup]

thinking about how book!Colin was more than just a traveler. more than just a wanderer. he was an explorer. like sure, the first few times, it's basically just a study abroad. he's on a grand tour like lots of people did back in the 1800s to educate themselves on art and culture of the western world, but after the typical places- Greece, Italy, France, Colin keeps traveling. He travels for an entire decade.

at a certain point, he's not just traveling to eat Parisian food and look at paintings. he's trying to discover himself, his purpose, his place in the world, to find a drive, so why wouldn't he explore remote places? he's basically backpacking his way in the wilderness multiple times. he would almost CERTAINLY have a semi-strong grasp on the languages of places he visited, and would be able to converse in Italian or French or Spanish for the sake of his travels. he would have to know how to read a map and a compass. how to navigate. how to ration food or hunt or forage or maintain a fire. he'd have to know how to read the stars and what danger sounds and looks like, how to set up camp, how to deescalate tough situations with large groups for the sake of working together for survival. he most certainly climbed mountains, waded through rivers, lost friends.

someone doesn't travel for a solid decade and get lucky every single time. he'd HAVE to have some very tangible survival skills that he picked up after a while. he's not just some dandy fop who cocks his hat and sleeps on a feather mattress every night in a bed and breakfast after looking at a shoreline. the man is gone for YEARS. where is Colin the amateur map maker? the ruins explorer? the mountain climber? who curses like a sailor because he's certainly on boats long enough? who comes home and has to code switch immediately? scruffy colin who has snapped chicken's necks so he could eat and dug pits for water with his bare hands and learned how tree bark can aid wounds and which plants made him so sick he thought he would die in some foreign corner of the world with none the wiser? it's like he gets glossed over the shiny pretty boy who gets to be a prince on a horse and live happily ever after.

that's why book!Colin who marries Penelope and never travels again is so weird to me. like of course he's happy and in love, but he's seen the world. why wouldn't he show her? show his children? he knows a world beyond England. a wide, wonderful, sometimes terrifying and thrilling world that he's had the privilege to experience. with a heart as big as his, of course he'd want to experience it with people he loves.

and show!Colin, too. sure, he went on a grand tour and didn't do the exploration that his book counterpart did, but the hunger for curiosity and discovery wouldn't just fade away because he's in a relationship. if anything, now he has someone he can share it with even more! he sent her so many letters, I can't imagine she wouldn't be curious, too. hunger for that freedom, that education, the knowledge. they can discover together! y'all think Penelope wouldn't love riding horseback and wearing breeches and eating squirrels roasted over an open fire and skinny dipping with the love of her life in a clean, beautiful lake? you think she wouldn't enjoy seeing all the art that has been out of her reach and eating foods she can't get in London and getting dirty and messy and knowing the entire time, she gets to do it with the love of her life and her favorite person to talk to?

i know a lot of the time the fandom sees Colin's travels as something where he's running away or avoiding his life, but it would be nice to explore an opposing perspective. that this is a very fulfilling hobby and life he has. he meets people, gains skills, grows as a person on every trip. he learns to depend on himself, to do more than just what any aristocrat can, doesn't lean on servants for every whim and beck and call. Anthony and Daphne didn't even know how to light a stove to heat up some milk. You think Colin has that problem? Nope.

Colin's travels make him a richer character and a better person. It gives him a bigger appreciation of nature and himself and other communities. I think sometimes we don't give him the depth he deserves. Traveling is an incredibly fulfilling and impressive thing to commit oneself to and Colin IS a distinguished person for doing so.

idk. explorer colin just means so much to me. i love him

[andmineisyellow]

Portia: "We know what she did. She used Colin Bridgerton's help. Many people would do much worse to be connected to the Bridgertons. I shall have to pick up Mr. Bridgerton's mantle of assistance."

What Portia doesn't realize here is what Colin pointed out to Pen early on. Penelope doesn't need lessons or advice. What Pen actually needs is someone who simply supports her. Knowing Colin was in her corner gave Pen the confidence to be herself. And that kind of external love and support is something Portia has never offered her.

[dearestgentlereaders]

“And so, on an otherwise unremarkable Friday afternoon, in the heart of Mayfair, in a quiet drawing room on Mount Street, Colin Bridgerton kissed Penelope Featherington.

And it was glorious”

~ romancing mr bridgerton

[thedisdainfullysilentvisitor]

AU where when Kathony announces they're leaving again, Ben, Hyacinth and Gregory elect to go with them to India both to share in Kathony's experience and to get away from Lady Whistledown

[sees-writes]

I once read a Bridgerton fic where during the scene in S2 when Anthony is like “guess what family we are going to the races to appear as a united front” and he unconsciously counts Penelope as one of his siblings before Eliose asks Penelope if she’d rather go with them than her family and Anthony’s brain stops for a moment because he honestly forgets that Penelope ISN’T a Bridgerton at times because of all the time she spends with them and I haven’t recovered since

[suspendingtime]

"There's like this buzzy energy. And it's not even like we wait till 10 o'clock, it's like as soon as we get on set, maybe you know 7/8 o'clock. Um, and by like 1 o'clock we're exhausted so we have to, you know be fed and then we go again. And it feels really, like a brother/sister relationship that we have with everyone." - Luke Newton

BRIDGERTON 2.06 'The Choice' | BTS 'At Home and on Set With the Bridgertons' | 3/?

[jennifersbod]

the way pop culture jeopardy with my mom has become a highlight of my week

[teagrammy]

Just saw a (recommended) post cross my dash hoping Colin is going to be more upset about Pen “writing bad things about herself” than the actual tangible things she’s done to people… be fucking for real please

[pieflavorpie]

So Alice being standoffish and generally rather rude towards Celia cause she's essentially a jealous ex is cute n ok

But Sam being annoyed and exhausted [& therefore rude] when his ex [who is implied to have a history of using slightly-less-moral methods to try and get him to stop chasing his obsessions] was once again seemingly using less-than-moral methods (lying) to once again stop him from chasing after his obsession is just rude and 'I can't defend you for this one'. Bro.

[ilikedetectives]

Was gonna check out some new mods today, but then got distracted by the craziest embezzling case in Vietnam's financial history, this real estate tycoon (Trương Mỹ Lan) stole what is an equivalent of 10% of Vietnam's entire GDP???????? (x)

[dollypopup]

I'm honestly no big book fan, and for Eloise I'm like "as different to the book as they can make it, the better." (Not here to see her shuffled off into marriage to a guy who just wants her to keep house and look after his babies for him, her worst nightmare), but after this season there is one book moment I'm ready for, and that's Colin (and Anthony and Benedict obvs) beating the shit out of someone he thinks hurt his little sister. Repaying the favour for this season.

yessssss the way I NEED to see Colin step up for Eloise the same way Eloise stepped up for him. Like that's his little sister, your honor, he would kill for her. (but would also drink soup at the table when he found out she was fine, because okay El, I respect your choices)

I keep thinking about Season 2, when Colin knew about Eloise going off to the printer shop to study feminism and politics, and how he kept quiet. I keep thinking about Colin coming back from his travels with a feminist text for Eloise, which was very much not in wide circulation at the time. I think about how Colin tries to understand her in a way not many do. I think about Eloise telling him she wanted to spare him heartbreak. I think about Eloise telling Penelope she must be honest with her brother, because otherwise it is a disservice. I think about how she hugged him at the start of the season, and at the end, so so tight. I think about Colin and Eloise, and how young the two of them are, and how close in age, and how they had their differences, but also had appreciation for each other.

I don't know. I love them both so dearly. I want their relationship to keep being a highlight.

[weepynymph]

It just occurred to me that the place Colin talks about the most when he's talking about his travels is Greece and remembered that Penelope is a character in Greek mythology

And then I looked it up and--

[dearestgentlereaders]

okay but these are all giving modern au colin posting on his insta travel page

[sea-owl]

After they get married, Penelope carries around a small pocket mirror for the pure purpose of riling up her husband.

She'll pull it out to pretend to check if a hair is out of place, but in reality, she has it turned just the right way so Colin can see the obscene words she's mouthing to him.

[writingwhilecaffeinated]

Out of curiosity, has anyone written an AU where the duel did NOT go smoothly, and Benedict did have to become head of the family?

I’m honestly just super curious, it’d be interesting. I’d prefer it be maybe Anthony did shoot Simon (but Simon does NOT die cause I love Simon) but Anthony runs off. Sienna chooses not to go with him, Anthony maybe even goes to India and meets Kate early.

Meanwhile, Benedict has to become head of the family and it sucks, big learning curve, but would be an interesting character study. Like, how would HE handle Daphne and Simon? Or Colin and Marina? How would that change things? Also, of course, his own artistic journey.

Could have happy ending where Anthony somehow managed to come home without being punished. Cause fiction. Lol

Random thoughts at night…

[bridgertonphd]

i need to get a screenwriting job already bc i'm spending too much time drafting my own version of bton s4....................