antifranchaela

[antifranchaela]

"Perverse" has a huge history though of being used to degrade LGBTQ relationships. I have seen many people call Fran and Michaela's relationship perverse, unnatural, immoral, etc because they are 2 women. You are purposefully choosing to align yourself with and use the same language as actual homophobes who say that Franchaela shippers are pushing "dangerous perversions" onto others.

If you really want to complain about Franchaela, you could just say it's not compliant to the book canon (which every story so far on Bridgerton has not been 100% compliant/"the natural state of the story" anyway... the Kanthony storyline on the show was definitely VERY different from the "natural state of the book story") instead

there's someone literally going around, stealing ur posts & twisting them to fit their goteque views. does it get any sadder? 😂😂😂

Perverts who are so desperate and perverse, they need their own fetish/attraction displayed on a TV show for it to have meaning to them or excite them - no matter the cost to others, are obviously not the most mentally well or stable people on the internet. Good for them tho. At least this way they get a quality written outline for their bullshit. The hive is notorious for it's inability to produce original thought, so them stealing someone else's work seems legit 🫡

[antifranchaela]

[antifranchaela]

“It gives me great pleasure to introduce…Michaela Stirling.”

[antifranchaela]

about francesca's look after kissing john (and their relationship)

first, about john:

in the book: i really liked the brief little bits with john at the beginning. i think fran, john and michael's dynamic was super interesting and fun, i even wished that it would've lingered in it longer. i liked that their relationship had layers to it and yet still remained loving overall. i really liked the way that he haunts the characters and the narrative after his death. i think that the way that francesca spoke continuously about him and about their bond was super sweet.

in the series: i love him. i love him with francesca. i died of sweetness each time they were on screen. i love that their love is different, and i love how pefect they are for each other. i love how he makes francesca smile and look so at ease. in my opinion they nailed it with them, and ended up being my favorite part of the season (to say that pen and colin very much grew on me would be an understatement- i think they're the cutest- but franchaela and john are my personal favorites). they're soulmates and they are best friends. love them.

the few things that they've already changed from the books: first the fact that we get to see more from john at all and his love with francesca. secondly, though, their bond IS different. in the book i did get the feeling that there was physical attraction and, truly that their love was a regular bridgerton love, if that makes sense? like, francesca did say that it was less passional than with michael but it's not quite the same as what we're getting from the show, is it? the physical stuff could perfectly develop over time, but it does seem to be absent from where we left it off. i do believe that francesca loves him. truly. it's just not necessarily super physical. Which doesn’t make it any less valid or any less of a true love! personally, i find any love stories that don’t really “stick to the norm” to be super interesting, which is one of the reasons why they were my favourite couple.

Now, about the kiss: i don’t think that the look necessarily means that she’s a lesbian. i truly think that it was mostly disappointment of not immediately feeling those fireworks that everyone raves about, or even just discomfort with having to display her affection for the very first time in front of a crowd.

she could be a lesbian, or she could be an eighteen-year-old woman whose still figuring out who she is, still figuring out how love looks like to her, and that more than anything wants to find a companion in someone that uplifts her as a person rather than drown her voice in their own sound. and she did! for some people love just doesn’t play out as easily as it may for everyone else, and that’s fine.

what she has with michaela is different, but she loved john first and she chose him, and they will be happy together. her and Michaela will have a long way to go before they can even begin to explore their relationship anyways. it is simply not their time yet.

Francesca did feel immediate attraction for Michaela, but depending on how they choose to navigate the period typical prejudice and such, she might not even have the language to understand that sort of attraction for another woman, and it won’t be the time to figure any of that out until six years later because she does love John throughout their marriage and afterwards she will mourn him. It’s not until after all of it that Michaela will become available as an option.

ultimately: maybe she doesn’t feel attraction towards men (that’s great! welcome to the club!) or maybe she just finds the navigation of romantic relationships to be a little trickier than most, and maybe we get to explore that through her storyline.

[antifranchaela]

we still have time [11/13]

summary: John dies on a quiet Tuesday, unmarried and childless. Michaela can't fathom allowing everything she knows and loves to pass to a distant heir, so in one last effort to keep hold of her life, as well as the estate, Michaela decides to take a detour through John's wardrobe before heading into Mayfair as the Earl himself, hoping that one eligible, but not so marriage-minded lady takes an interest in her unusual offer.

or, Francesca falls in love with Michaela, she just doesn't realize it yet.

excerpt:

There is one moment that will not stop returning to her. It chases her down in her sleep, in her daydreams, it pokes and prods at her mind even as she is doing something simple like getting ready for the day or trying to distract herself with a book. Michaela thinks that maybe it was even there, subconsciously, pulling her feet to a marked stop like a spooked horse on a bit, begging her not to chase after Francesca when she had walked away from their engagement in the stable. Sometimes the moment comes all at once, chronologically like she is living it again. Sometimes it comes in flashes, bits and pieces pushed at her like pelting rain.

There is the slide of silk on Michaela’s shoulders, the bustle of a dress unfamiliar after so many days in trousers and waistcoats. The smell of food being brought up from the kitchens, hot and ready for a long night of entertaining guests. The shine of a polished floor that felt out of place for a library. A set of melting blue eyes dripping like a forest in thaw, gaze frozen on Michaela like a winter’s first frost.

There is the guilt that settled in Michaela’s stomach. The fear that danced along the sweat of her palms. The wordless explanations she could not muster up. The press of her knees against the tile floor, the sink of her dress into her heels when she sat back.

Kiss me.

Francesca’s voice, clear as wind and just as harsh. Michaela cannot escape the ghost of Francesca’s anger that night, and even in her memory it overshadows everything else in the room, swarming the air until Michaela can only breathe in regret. It was there that night that Francesca demanded Michaela kiss her, and it is here now that she is sitting at the pianoforte with her gaze dripping down Michaela’s back.

I may be yours, but you are most certainly not mine.

The words fell out of Francesca’s mouth easily. Michaela was just too stupid to catch them. Instead, she swiped it aside with her lips and kissed Francesca until both of them forgot what had been said.

Before Francesca knew the truth about John, Michaela had taken great care to grip her hand tightly and win her attention with words and gestures and soft touches. She had done that to be sure Francesca would not suspect her secret. And it had worked. The anger and fear and confusion that permeated that first kiss was proof that it worked. It is only fitting, Michaela concedes, that she herself would be her next victim. That she would distract her own doubts with wishes and wants and daydreams from a younger version of herself that did not know better. That she would have the words you are not mine spoken directly to her face, and still look past it because the taste of Francesca’s mouth was sweet enough to remind her what it felt like to hope.

READ NOW ON AO3

[antifranchaela]

"This is about the fact, that a couple was raceswaped at all & in a stupid way, that doesn't work with the source material." I think you might have used the wrong word here - I'm assuming you don't have an issue with racebending but if you do I honestly wouldn't be surprised if that was some Freudian slip lol

So you don't have any issues with sex scenes. But you are implying that a queer woman relationship is not "natural or acceptable" and you don't expect me to assume you're a homophobe pretending to be a lesbian so that you can get away with saying straight up right-wing homophobic shit? At least I hope you're pretending because seeing this level of self-hate gay is sad...

What is it about Franchaela that is "perverse" according to these definitions in comparison to, say, Kanthony? I assume you are referring to the changes in the Kanthony storyline, but you've never called them "perverse" for having Anthony propose to Edwina and walk down the aisle with her while emotionally attached to Kate. I would certaintly call that dramatic but definitely not perverse.

I personally don't give a shit about keeping the story similar. They have managed to do it for every other story, though, so that's going to be the case here, and people are just jumping down the showrunner's and actresses' throats with assumptions based off a 35 second scene.

Sorry that you lost!

there's someone literally going around, stealing ur posts & twisting them to fit their goteque views. does it get any sadder? 😂😂😂

Perverts who are so desperate and perverse, they need their own fetish/attraction displayed on a TV show for it to have meaning to them or excite them - no matter the cost to others, are obviously not the most mentally well or stable people on the internet. Good for them tho. At least this way they get a quality written outline for their bullshit. The hive is notorious for it's inability to produce original thought, so them stealing someone else's work seems legit 🫡

[antifranchaela]

Can you please explain how Franchaela fans are perverts for (looks at list) being excited for a couple on a show that includes sex scenes for every main couple so far? This includes 1) a couple where the woman SA'd her own husband and 2) the man and woman had feelings for each other while he was engaged to her sister. Because using "perverse" solely to apply to the 1 queer couple out of all these is insane and you sound like an extremely violently homophobic preacher

Also quality written outline is a stretch considering the amount of typos I had to fix for you (and the ones I left because they made me laugh)! I would think looking at your own words but flipped would make you realize how stupid you sound but alas

there's someone literally going around, stealing ur posts & twisting them to fit their goteque views. does it get any sadder? 😂😂😂

Perverts who are so desperate and perverse, they need their own fetish/attraction displayed on a TV show for it to have meaning to them or excite them - no matter the cost to others, are obviously not the most mentally well or stable people on the internet. Good for them tho. At least this way they get a quality written outline for their bullshit. The hive is notorious for it's inability to produce original thought, so them stealing someone else's work seems legit 🫡

[antifranchaela]

Yep! And notice how the majority of fan casts for Michael Stirling from book fans angry about the gender change are white men or light-skinned Black men (notable exception is Kedar Williams-Stirling, who was fantastic in Sex Education and would have been my choice for a male Michael)... I see that representation of dark-skinned Black characters isn't a priority for a lot of these folks compared to heterosexual representation!

[antifranchaela]

lesbians are not perverse for being excited to see their own stories on screen 💕💛💗

this is ~totally not~ a homophobic dogwhistle at all to say that caring about representation means you're only interested in seeing scissoring on screen (this is bridgerton... we're all here for fucking, it's not exclusive to us i promise).

also fun fact you can have 2 X chromosomes and not have a vagina! but i wouldn't expect someone who uses "woke" unironically to negatively describe diversity to have the brain capacity to understand any critical thinking let alone genetics 💛

[antifranchaela]

I feel super thrilled and eager for the Franchael genderswap & I think it's great how some of the people in this fandom try to battle homophobia and misogynoir in the fandom and point out how Franchaela have had literally 1 minute of screentime together before people can jump to conclusions about their storyline.

So, basically, for those that haven't read the books, let me give you a short summary : Francesca and John are very, very happily married. John is (more or less) the love of Fran's life (or at least that's what she thinks), meanwhile Michael, John's cousin, has been in love with Francesca from the first moment he saw her (not that he ever told her or made a move, the minute he found out Fran was his cousin's girl, Michael backed off & basically all but shipped himself out of the country - he's in the army - to run & avoid Fran and John), Fran finds Michael attractive, but she's not interested in him (but this is questionable and he himself kinda calls her out on this later). She loves John. Now, eventually John dies. Fran is devastated, especially when she finds out she's pregnant & has a miscarriage after John dies. Michael, similarly devastated over the loss of John. inherits John's title & is now more aware than ever that he should marry, but he's still into Francesca. Both get into a sorta "will they/won't they", where they're clearly into each other, but struggling because they feel like they'd betray John. (Michael because he's always been into/after Fran & Fran because she doesn't feel like she can move on from the love of her life and love somebody else.) But eventually Francesca decides that she does want to remarry because ultimately, she still desires to have a family and a baby of her own & they overcome their feelings of betraying John & end up together. (That’s a very loose summary.)

So there's 3 arguably 4 core elements to Francesca's story

Her love for John & the betrayal of John, she feels at the idea of moving on

Her desire for a baby which devastates her & also makes her move on eventually (& as we later find out a difficulty having a baby)

Her non-interest in Michael (again this is up for debate) & Michael's love at first sight with her

Michael's love for John & the feeling of betraying John by loving Francesca

& As of Season 3 we know

Francesca's feelings for John are complex. She obviously fought to marry him over hesitations from her mother and she (the literal shy and quiet Bridgerton) even stood up for their engagement AGAINST THE QUEEN. It's not completely clear yet if she is (using modern terms) bisexual or a lesbian. Either way, her love for John is different, which aligns with the book where she herself recognizes that what she had with John was very different from what she has with Michael

She hasn't given an opinion on wanting a family yet other than not wanting 8 kids lmfao

She experienced potentially her first moment of sexual attraction (some may say "dropped pussy") upon meeting Michaela... in front of John. Whom she'd only married DAYS before... and she has no idea what she's feeling because she literally has never felt this and also doesn't know that lesbianism is even a thing

There is a theory that Michaela still fell for Francesca first. The theory goes that Michaela assumed Eloise was John's wife, hence why she nodded at Eloise but didn't ask for her name, she only asked for Fran's name because she assumed that was a single Bridgerton sister or a friend of John's new wife that she could get away with flirting with a bit. the second she found out Fran was John's wife her face drops

A lot of this works with the original storyline, some of it doesn't and that is literally how the entire Bridgerton adaptation has gone so far... Because that's how adaptation works especially when the original books are composed of boring ass white hetero couples where the man is often an abuser/rapist/immature man child/all of the above. Some of y'all are racist and homophobic if you can't just re-read your goddamn book that you love so much and leave the Michaela enjoyers alone

2 pussies rubbing against each other ain't gonna make a baby - BUT WE WILL CERTAINLY KEEP TRYING

Sperm donors & IVF aren't a regency thing, so the baby storyline isn't gonna stay the same. Period. And this is a really interesting take on both infertility and queerness where Fran may have to choose between marrying some random man she doesn't love just to have a kid, or being with the woman she actually loves even if it means having no bio kids. Which is extremely powerful take on infertility that we haven't seen much of, especially set in regency era

The showrunner has confirmed that Fran does love John, the aspect of that love is unclear because we haven't seen more than 1 minute of their married life together. See the most likely millions of lesbians who ended up married to men throughout history who nonetheless loved them. Period. But she will still feel a lot of shame and despair over his death regardless. In fact, being unable to love him romantically and/or sexually would WORSEN her shame because she would feel she lied to him and never told him the truth. OF COURSE SHE WOULD CARE ONCE HE'S DEAD because Francesca cares deeply for him.

So basically from Fran's perspective, there could be love between her and John (platonic or romantic or sexual), potentially desire for a baby which could absolutely still work with the lesbian plot, cause it's an actually interesting moral dilemma for her to choose someone she can't have a baby with because of LOVE AND ROMANCE (WHICH BRIDGERTON IS ABOUT BTW)

ABSOLUTELY feeling of betrayal or conflicted thoughts about John.

So what's left? Michaela? WE CARE A LOT. we'll see if theories are true that she may have fallen for Fran at first sight too

So what's left of the original relationship?

A lot of what I just said + Michaela inheriting John's title, which is apparently the least important part of the story even though many were jumping down my throat saying "Michaela can't inherit so she can't feel guilt for stealing John's life like Michael does..." MANY SUCH CONFLICTING MESSAGES

This is just riveting & anyone who doesn't get that is stupid. Sorry.

Of course it works for the "Mi-mi-mi LGBT GenZ crowd" (aka the based part of the community) and anyone with a brain who's actually read the story understands how cool and promising this genderswap is. This even includes the lady who wrote the goddamn thing!

They CAN go with Francesca's fertility plot. Which was written years after the original book because the lady who wrote the thing literally forgot about Fran and Michael ever having a kid because IT DIDN'T MATTER TO THE ACTUAL STORYLINE unlike what some people are claiming

They can go with the "Falling in love again" plot now too

Because the show hasn't revealed her type of love for John. And even if she's 100% lesbian she can still love him platonically and be absolutely wrecked by his death and hesitant to move on

And last I checked, 2 cunts - pussies, vaginas, fannies, minges, vajayjays, cookies, punanis, tacos - (EDIT HERE TO CLARIFY THE i'm assuming originally homophobic??? WORDING: "rubbing against each other"), can't procreate. but Fran and Michaela will keep trying because they love to do it and i hope they do it over a bunch of copies of "When He Was Wicked" (non-woke version)

Y'all are amazing for your defense of a queer couple over a bunch of homophobes and stupid people who can't just re-read the book and stop giving a fuck about the show already if they're that mad about it, brilliant for your approval (EDIT to remove some presumably homophobic language: "of adding representation to a very fringe struggle of queer women dealing with infertility in regency England") & ANGELIC for being so excited to see your own bedroom (and kitchen, and bathroom, and living room, and pool...) activities on TV so desperately, you haven't caused another form of representation to be erased because THE BOOK IS ACTUALLY RIGHT THERE

& A lot of people who STILL GIVE THIS MUCH OF A FUCK about any of this out are indeed racist AND/OR homophobic. I stand by all of this. Out of a shittily written season this was actually titillating. we hate to see a "self-hating" gay person 🤣

Y'all are just pathetic & can't handle being confronted by facts. Seek help!

[antifranchaela]

Why I hate Male!Michael & why that's got NOTHING to do with Heterophobia.

I feel like it's important for me to make this post, so y'all understand WHY I've made this blog.

So, first off - the central theme of Francesca’s book is moving on from the love of her life.

You do need to actually wait for Francesca, Michaela, and John to have more than 1 minute of screen time together to know more about Francesca's feelings for John in contrast with the instant sexual attraction (or as some may say "letting her pussy drop") for Michaela

That's super interesting. & 2nd CHOOSING a partner she knows she can't have a kid with is entirely different from not being able to have a kid because 1) Queer people are also infertile and also choose to give up being able to have bio kids to be with their partners and 2) Francesca is literally able to have children in the end because of Julia Quinn Magic Dick???

Most of you are the making the case "oh, they can still do all that" which is TRUE

I'm a proud lesbian woman.

Using Francesca’s story for our issues is AWESOME

Also Eloise should be queer too.

She could have easily chosen not to have the kids she ends up having & be content raising Marina's children with Philip. She's a nonconformist already! It wouldn't have been a stretch for her to fall in love with Philip's sister, who's raising the kids after both Philip and Marina died. It wouldn't have been a stretch for her to move in with the lady who doesn't care about society, only for her studies and children.

It IS NOT a stretch for Francesca to marry a man after being raised her entire life with everyone telling her that marriage is her entire purpose, attempt to have a child with him, lose that pregnancy after the tragedy of losing said husband, while struggling to understand her confusing feelings for his cousin since she literally has no idea what they mean and has no idea queer women are even a thing. she may think she can never really be with michaela in the way she wants to when she decides to remarry in the books. she may think she can never have a family with michaela - the way she yearns to in the books. she may fear she won't ever be accepted as her partner in the society she grew up in ON THE SHOW! but since this is Bridgerton there will be a Happily Ever After ending based on REAL LIFE LESBIANS who were able to live together, raise families together, and even get approval DIRECTLY FROM THE REAL LIFE QUEEN

Doing this to Fran is AWESOME! because of the genderswap and the talented actresses Masali and Hannah and Victor!

[Excluding this section from my satirical repost because this is a serious part and I genuinely resonate with the OP here and wouldn't belittle their experience here]

Francesca's story always spoke to me on a personal level. & I love Michael's gender change and am excited to see how the relationship between John and Francesca is also handled

This was the way to do it!

Also - I feel like it's important to say this : Don't go harassing the actors over this. Don't start blogs where you say the actress isn't suited for the role and where your icon is literally her face with an X over it. If you have to - get a life and some hobbies instead of going after Jess, Shonda, Netflix & Julia.