#and i think of ice picks and gibberish Christmas cards written by quiet women who could barely function

[sunflowerdigs]

Eloise's story ending at a rich man's country estate with marriage and babies instead of at the start of years full of education and travel would do a fundamental disservice to her character, not to mention erode the legitimacy of her very good arguments against the institution of marriage as it existed in 1825. The solution for Eloise shouldn't be miraculously falling into one of the 5% of marriages that were actually happy and equitable at the time with one of the .5% of men who could be considered a feminist. Because that's not a solution to the problem that she has brought up since s1, that's not a strike against a patriarchal system that doesn't want women to be educated or have dreams beyond having babies. Plus, it's already kinda happened to Kate (which is fine - Kate's goals and reasons for them were slightly different, as were her previous experiences) and a repetition of that plotline would be kind of boring.

Not wanting to be a wife and mother isn't a sign of immaturity. Those aren't goals that Eloise needs to grow to want, especially if they are goals that every other female character ends up wanting. That greatly limits the scope of what women in the Bridgerton universe can be and do and no one should want that. We should want to see women bucking the patriarchal rules of the time and living lives according to their own interests and desires, not the paths chosen for them by men.

"But if she doesn't start wanting marriage and babies, she can't have her happily ever after" THAT IS A VERY BAD SET UP TO BEGIN WITH I'M JUST SAYING.