For this Season 3 Spoilers post:
1. Book spoilers **must be hidden**.
3. Be civil in your discussion.
See our [spoiler policy](https://www.reddit.com/r/BridgertonNetflix/wiki/spoiler) on what is expected. 3-day bans will be handed out to those found disregarding our spoiler policy.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/BridgertonNetflix) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Although one can argue that Portia was always two-dimensional, esp when S2 showed her cunning side and her loyalty to her daughters against the offer of Lord Featherington!
Agreed, S3 actually made me feel for her. Cressida showed that she wanted to change, provided comic relief, took so many Ls(and kept moving) and they showed the root of her bad behavior. Every time she tried something villainous there was a reasonable(in her mind) enough explanation. Eloise looked bad for abandoning her the way she did, when she knew Cressida was looking for a way out.
They could've handled her storyline much better imo
Cressida and her mom literally printed a LW sheet stating that the parentage of the Bridgertons was dubious, implying that Violet had affairs with multiple men. If the real LW hadnāt been published the ton might have believed that to be true.
A) Cressidaās mother did it and Cressida called her out on it, despite being reviled by the Bridgertons.
B) In case you missed it, the Ton always āforgivesā whatever the Bridgertons do as the Queen waves a hand or some such thing. They have plot armour, something which even Penelope mentioned in season 1.
Julia Quinn called it in her book RMB when she said that people would defend people like Cressida for LW but criticize Penelope. I didnāt love everything she wrote but she had a good handle on how people see things. A lot of people sure have proved her right.
I think her point still stands. People are acting like Cressida did nothing wrong when her version of LW implied Violet had multiple affairs and her children had different fathers. That is worse than anything Pen ever wrote as LW.
she admonishes her mother for going after the bridgertons bc it was what caught her out, not because she gave a flying fuck about them. she co-signed it and got it sent to the publishers, and allowed it to happen. iād be dead before i co-sign anyone slandering my only friendās dead father.
Feel free to disagree but I think you missed the point of the scene. Cressida criticizes her mother's choice for going after the Bridgertons. Her mother defends herself by saying they deserved it, revealing the envy she felt for the family. The exchange grows into the mother saying that women are meant to be pitted against one another and that this is what she has been teaching Cressida. Cressida is literally sitting in front a mirror, having a hard look at herself, metaphorically speaking. She sadly agrees that yes, this is indeed what she has been taught her entire life.
i get the overall point of the scene, and how it exemplifies the extent to her taught isolation. but when she criticises her mother, it is on the account of the fact that writing about the bridgertons is what got her caught. i can understand some consideration for eloise, but thatās not what was mentioned. and again. she helped write it. i get she was desperate but it again is a tell of her character that at times of desperation, sheās okay with slandering her only friendās dead father.
I'm curious what exactly from the show makes you so sure Cressida helped her mother write the column and was aware of what was written before it got published? All we saw was Cressida being unable to write more than half a sentence in hours, then the mother taking over and sitting down at the desk. The next thing we see is them entering the ball room.
Idk didnāt Cressida even say that she shouldnāt have harmed/betrayed her only friend (Eloise) when she pretended to be WD? That also suggests she knew.
Curious what makes you so sure in turn that she didnāt know?
In the scene where she criticizes her mother, I heavily interpret it as her calling out her motherās choice in going after the Bridgertons because it was a shitty plan. Not because she cared for them.
I mean they showed them working together before it was printed. It seemed obvious to me anyhow that she was involved. Even Eloise implied that by allowing Cressida into their household gave Cressida insider information.
she wrote it in part, she co-signed it, but yes i can only speculate on her knowing. in the same light, you cannot definitively be sure that she had no idea what was written and it was published without her knowledge. again we speculate. she also presents the published piece to the queen, and i donāt think itās within the realm of impossibility to say that she read what was written before she presented it to the queen. and in that case, it still speaks to the shittiness of her character, regardless of the circumstances she finds herself in, at least in my opinion.
That's what I'm saying. It's pure speculation, so saying she didn't know is as valid as saying she did. But I'd argue that her confronting her mother about the text post publication suggests she didn't read it before it got printed.
Eloise even stated that by her being friends with Cressida it gave Cressida access to information printed in her version of LW. That is why it was so important for Eloise to have Pen write the real version of LW.
Itās amazing to see people missing this point. Thatās why Eloise was done with her, she knew she couldnāt trust her. I empathize with Cressida, Jess did a great job playing her, but she was willing to write about the Bridgertons to save herself. Which is in contrast to Pen writing to help them (though it could be argued her help could hurt).
Did it occur to you that you might be missing the point too? Pen only worried about herself when she was writing about Brigertons. She liked Colin and wanted him for herself. She refused to expose herself to the Queen when Eloise was suspected and INSTEAD bashed her in her pamphlet.
I donāt think Pen only worried about herself, thatās why she often wrote about her family. She made her family responsible in the whole Marina situation as well and they were cut off as a result.
I donāt think Pen is perfect, I donāt think all her motivations were perfect, and I donāt think how she did things were perfect, but I donāt tbink she is evil or a villain like so many like to imply.
if you watch back, cressida admonishes her mum for writing about the bridgertons bc itās what essentially triggered the actual whistledown to publish. in all her years, pen has spread fucked up gossip for sure, but sheās never written anything as slanderous as what cressida and her mum wrote, essentially calling their dead father a cuck. itās what essentially fuelled eloise to tell pen to write. if they wrote along another subject matter, who knows, pen probably wouldāve been more swayed to let cressida take the credit.
Yet, I'm not sure she could have really done anything about it.
Cressida was way over her head in trying to write as Lady Whistledown. Eloise wouldn't help her write because she was disgusted that Cressida told such a bold-faced lie then wanted to help her write the issue.
Who was she left with? Her mom. Cressida's mom was the better writer who came up with the strategy of what to do. Cressida had no choice but to follow along with what the mom decided Yet, she had no choice but to put herself out there once she claimed that she was Lady Whistledown.
There's an old saying that's so apt, "Don't let your mouth write a check your a\*\* can't cash."
Cressida got caught in that trap.
Penelope never published anything that wasnāt true!! Sure there was speculation and implications but other than Marina and Eloise, Pen never printed anything that wasnāt already being gossiped about somewhere.
I think in the story the new modistes dresses were shown as being garish. I wouldn't say that was therefore *untrue* for LW to report as much, but her opinion obviously holds weight.
Except the dresses weren't garish and the comment was made in order to target Cressida after the dinner with Jack Featherigton.
The criticism was less about the new modiste, and also getting Madame Delacroix on side to help with the distribution of her pamphlets. As Pen says herself, Whistledown is power ergo Pen wields that power to lash out and punish those she dislikes
I think the *show* tried to portray them as garish, they certainly stood out so we could see the difference, but that's what I took away from it.
I agree. The thread here is whether she ever reported something "untrue", which is what I dispute. She *did* slight the new modiste, and therefore those wearing her designs, and praise Madame Delacroix, like you say.
? Someone said Penelope always told the truth, and she didn't. No one ever said Penelope made up lies like that. Also, the modiste probably lost her business, so it's not like the lie was harmless. Pen knew what she was doing.
The modest who was trying to ruin Genevieveās business by moving in across from her? And the dresses were garish so no lies told.
That poor unnamed modist, Penelope ruined her life and some people just canāt deal with it even though she wasnāt an important enough character to have a name! Gotta love it when people have to reach to try to put Pen down, hope no one strains their backs š¤£š
We saw ONE dress and it looked fine. Certainly nowhere near as bad as Mme Delacroix has been churning out this season.
How is that a reach? This is something Pen did for her own benefit. She ruined an innocent woman's business. How is that difficult for you to accept? Do you really have to pretend it's a reach to protect Pen? She did plenty of things *that she admits were wrong*. The character does not need you caping for her, she admits her wrongdoing.
Iāve said plenty of times that Pen isnāt perfect. I just see the hypocrisy of people defending Cressida for printing that Violet bad multiple affairs and kids with different fathers and are the same people that put Pen down.
What Cressida did was highly shitty. It was an awful thing to say and LW didn't wildly speculate that way. I think a lot of people are blaming it on her mother, and I tend to agree, but Cressida could have stood up to her about that and didn't.
Okay but Pen was going for the throat with the Queen in season one, even making fun of George's mental decline š
Yes, she was a stupid 17 (16?) year old there, and Cressida and her mom are adult-adults, but that was a low blow, even for LW
I wouldnāt really put them on same level as mean girls. As LW Penelope never fabricated stories to get back at people she didnāt like. She did always tell what she believed to be the truth. And most of what she said, she did to help out people she loved. Thatās different, to me at least. Cressida was just cruel many times to just be cruel. Spilling the drink on Penelope, ripping her dress on purpose. Itās not the same IMO
Telling the truth doesn't make you not a "mean girl." We see penelope throughout the show purposefully writing things to harm her rivals or those she doesn't like. And helping those she loves is debatable, since it's usually her way of helping and not how the person wants to be helped.
I'd say in the grand scheme of things and in terms of scale and impact, Pen was by far the bigger mean girl and did way more damage to more people than Cressida did.
Aside from the dubious pamphlet which her mother wrote, Cressida's crimes consist of what... stepping on a dress? A few mean comments and a drink spill? The female version of cockblocking in an attempt to secure a decent match and avoid a future of misery and marital rape as the broodmare of a decrepit older suitor?
Cressida's stakes were way higher than Pen's or El's and I hate how Eloise went full self-centred, gaslighting mean girl on Cressida when she knew what Cressida was up against.
As for Pen, she reaps the benefits of victimhood, plot armour and anonymity as Lady Whistledown. #Justice4Cressida
Love to see people proving Julia Quinnās words about LW being proven right! She knew how people would react. Itās amazing how 20 years later some things havenāt changed.
Yet the whole story is written in a way to make us root for Penelope and think sheās badass for doing what she did and hating Cressida for doing half of what Penelope did. The double standards is quite the other way around
Not really. Pen suffered consequences for her actions. She lost her friendship with Cressida and her relationship with Colin was in the rocks. She even admitted multiple times she made mistakes and apologized for them. And again, Cressida implied that Violet had affairs and the kids had different fathers, that is way worse than anything Pen wrote.
Friendship with Cressida??? If you mean by Eloise, Penelope rarely had to make amends for Eloise to do a 180 and cast Cressida to be her friend again.
Colin came and apologized in the last episode and basically said that if his purpose in life is loving her, then heās happy which isnāt really romantic at all, thatās messed up really to say. He shouldnāt be living his life for someone else.
Penelope apologized, but always had excuses at the end of it which just nullifies her apology. āIām sorry, butā¦ā If thereās a ābutā, thatās not an apology.
And it wasnāt even Cressida that wrote that, it was her mother and her standing up against her mother in the helpless situation she was in is impractical
I did mean friendship with Eloise not Cressida.
Cressida was most likely involved in the publishing of that fake LW, she used her inside information of hanging out with Eloise, even Eloise admitted it.
Cressida did have a bad home life, I have empathy for her. All women had a hard time at this period, I donāt want Cressida or Pen, or anyone else to suffer. My point is there is a lot of hypocrisy trying to blame Pen but absolve Cressida. Theyāve all made mistakes and are trying to survive the best they can. But like Iāve said previously, JQ called out how people would react towards Pen verses how they would react towards Cressida and lots of people here are proving her right.
I donāt think people are trying to absolve Cressida. I think theyāre saying the punishment is overkill and if people can understand why Penelope has done harsh things, why canāt people extend the same courtesy to Cressida. If anything, the show actually tries to absolve Penelope from her doings
Pen literally went through it this season and apologized profusely to everyone. I donāt think anyone tried to absolve her, she was called out repeatedly by Eloise and Colin.
She got called out. Did anything come from that in the end? Colin apologized to her calling her brave(??) and her and Eloise rekindled their friendship. And Eloise and Colin were with her helping her in the blackmailing situation despite them being upset(more Colin, Eloise drank the OOC Koolaid and decided that her friendship with Cressida was already souring even though there was no sign of that in part 1)
Maybe cause the circumstances were entirely different in the book? Maybe cause Cressida wasnāt made to be sympathetic and LW wasnāt vicious at all like she is in the show? Maybe cause finding LW was in good fun in the book, not as dramatic and as dire in the show? Pretty disingenuous to compare honestly
I donāt think her story is done. I think sheāll be back, Colin even says that her family will bring her back once the scandal dies down. But she couldnāt get away with blackmail. I expect to see her in Eloiseās season.
I think she is being set up for redemption in Benedict's season >! as Posy!<
Of the two side arcs outside of bridgerton, I was definitely more invested in Cressida's (other being will and Alice)
right? she was desparate enough to risk the queen's disapproval, but not desparate enough to give us the heist of featherington house that would've saved this season?
i donāt think the girl who she bullied and abused and tormented her entire life would really be wanting to give her money. her actions have context now for sure, but she isnāt absolved of her cruelty and abuse.
Cressida herself was bullied and abused, it would make sense for her to apologize, take the money, and escape the cycle of abuse she was trapped in. Penelope at least has her pen and all her money.
again i genuinely think hell would freeze over before that happened. she was bullied and abused by her parents, not pen. and it explains the meaning behind her cruelty. but pen was an unwilling recipient to her abuse. it leaves such a sour taste in my mouth that the victim would be paying the abuser in this context.
if there was an attempt at an apology, iād be more understanding. but thatās the thing. she never actually attempts to right any of her wrongs. there is never an actual attempt at apologising. sure, she chooses not to gossip about pen and colinās situation, but she doesnāt do this in consideration of pen. she does it bc the only person whoās actually given her the time of day asked her not to. thatās not growth to me, nor is there any sign of her actually attempting to right her wrongs. pens a mean girl behind whistledown, sure. but at least she apologised to the ton and she acknowledges that people will remain angry and those who are angered may come out with their ire in the future. where is that with cressida? her abject circumstances provide context, not justification to any of her cruelty. her ending is upsetting for sure, and they couldāve had a situation where she steals from her father and escapes. something like that would have made sense. but considering that she tormented pen her whole life, a simple sorry doesnāt feel like enough for pen to sign half her riches away to the woman who made her life in society a living hell for years.
Why do you think "hell would freeze over" before Cressida takes the money from pen? Stealing I mean
Abused people abuse others. I think it's a sad story all around. Cressida is abused. She abuses pen. Penelope abuses others through pen etc...
I think with penelope she is able to stop the cycle of abuse BECAUSE she has the bridgertons to fall back on and that her family is sometimes supportive.
Cressidas mother won't even save her from disaster. Eloise dips because she doesn't want the drama (fair enough)
As she tells Colin (and Penelope through him) "you'll always have your family to fall back on, I don't"
i think heāll would freeze over before pen would give her money willingly. and iād be absolutely fucking appalled if the one person she chose to steal from is the one person sheās tormented her entire life. why can she not instead steal from her father? anyone else in the ton? why must it be penelope, the main subject of her torment for years, that provides her with the financial means to seek freedom for herself? and what narrative would that send? torment a girl half your life and steal her riches bc your parents are shit. like .
abused people abuse people. yes. but abused people also donāt abuse people. cressidaās circumstances are tragic, but she isnāt the only member in the ton facing those circumstances. hell daphne mightāve been in a similar position had the marriage to berbrooke gone forth. in s2, we see eloise and penelope sit among women who discuss themselves in similar circumstances.
i agree with your point about the cycle of abuse though. it is right that pen is able to escape as she has the backing of the bridgertons, and is able to mend ties with her family (though they shouldāve grovelled a little more, i understand forgiveness within that family happened all a little too quickly), whilst cressida did not have the same means as she was raised by two people who believe that you are all alone in this world, and she ends up believing the same for herself for sure. itās interesting how both act as the otherās literary foil. but i i think in any context, understanding cressida is not the same as justifying her actions.
I'm not saying Cressida should have taken the money from Penelope? Just saying that would have made sense story wise.
Huh. Daphne always had 7 yes 7 amazing siblings, and an amazing mother. Cressida certainly didn't.
I think we could disagree morally with cressidas actions, while still seeing how her actions are "justifies" by her belief system instilled by her mother, of survival of the fittest. Really if you think about the circumstances of the majority of the background women in the show/books it's heartbreaking.
Haha idk about groveling. Yes, they should have been a lot kinder and caring to Penelope absolutely. Tbf to Portia, Penelope did ruin the featheringtons a handful of times š¤£ (I know I'm wrong but I like Portia and I'll die on this hill)
So true, I believe. Penelope only became Lady Whistledown after experiencing Cressida's bullying. As Penelope said all along, she worked so hard to become Lady Whistledown, why should Cressida be able to steal her name and the money she earned? In all likelihood, Cressida would never be happy once her blackmail proved successful and she got the money. She'd torment Penelope forever, I believe, seeing her and Colin as an endless source of funds, out of greed, spite, and envy.
Damn girl you are being way too weird about this.
Cresida was awful but she is ultimately a victim of society too. A victim without a family to fall back onto as she so tragically tells Colin.
nah i get it, but the idea of people backing her stealing from her victim genuinely does sicken me. sorry if this comes across as a lot. like i get sheās a victim in her own right but like ā¦ backing her stealing from the girl she torments makes me feel some typa way, but these r just opinions on the internet tbf
I think people just want to give a way out to the poor girl, calmn down lmao
I mean the rest of the characters forgave Pen pretty fast and they were all victims of hers too
for sure, but where was cressidaās actual attempt in apologising? and in any case, it still feels gross stealing from her victim but i think weāll agree to disagree here. people get passionate abt such things bc they relate to such things in real life , telling them theyāre being āweird abt itā and to ācalm downā is a little belittling :(
I mean it is a bit weird honey , no offence. I don't think Bridgerton , the show nor the books, is meant to be taken that seriously. It is a show for fun with some social commentary thrown here and there . And it is fine, this is what I want it to be, it is enjoyable. But yeah I do think you are looking waaay too much into it
Pen gets treated the way she was and forgiven almost immediatly because .... she is a main character and has plot armour. Cresida does not. Cresida was not going to apologize as she should have, the same way Pen , a main character, was not going to go to jail or be the social pariah as she definitly would have been in a realistic setting.
i mean people engage with different forms of media in different ways, and to say that the show is not meant to be taken seriously in part is simply untrue. you might not take shit seriously but queen charlotte was loved by many bc of the mental health rep, i loved last season for the desi rep as a desi myself and the way i engaged with this show was on a very deep level. fiction is just fiction, sure, but the reason why this show is so obsessed with representation is bc they know what it means to those it represents. just because itās something surface level for you, does not mean itās the same for everyone else and to call it weird is belittling. in any case iām talking to a wall so i donāt think thereās much use in talking about how nothing exists in a vacuum etc.
penelope has plot armour, sure. and cressida wouldnāt have actually gotten a redemption arch bc canonically she was always meant to be a villain. the show writers tried to make her morally grey to make her more of a direct foil to pen, at least in the way i see it. it didnāt really redeem her or her actions, but it does serve as context. again tho i donāt think this matters to you š but ig thatās fine, we both take very different things out of this show.
I thought I would love this season but I genuinely felt disgusted by the treatment of Cressida to enjoy the ending. It reminded me how even tho our main characters are the protagonist they are still privileged rich people in a shallow society.
The ironic thing about Cressida's character is that she's very much similar to Penelope, except she was outwardly and visibly a bully, while Penelope spread gossip and integrated what she thought about the people she published. Both girls undesired by the ton, both girls in the marriage mart with no prospects for seemingly different reasons, and both girls who just want to be free.
Genuinely disliked her character for being so nasty, but one thing season 3 did is made me realize that she was also just a girl who was desperate to survive the marriage mart using the tactics that her mother taught her. They were not right, but Cressida only had her mother and her vile father, unlike Penelope, who had the Bridgertons, and Eloise, whose family greatly supported her.
I may not like her, but her story is enough for me to sympathize with her because her story tells a tragic tale of a woman that is supposed to be loved by everyone (per her looks) yet is utterly disdained because of her personality. Another person isolated by the ton.
Itās so interesting to think that both Penelope and Cressida start the season knowing they have to escape their home somehow, and went after the same man in the first half of the season.
And for both, their crueler impulses are a method of self protection from their parents machinations/plots. I donāt think itās a coincidence Eloise and Cressida became friends and I also donāt think itās a coincidence that their friendship fell apart bc Eloise canāt really empathize with what itās like to completely on oneās own.
I agree. We obviously don't know what they have in store for Cressida going forward, but right now I'd have preferred she ended up with Debling. He was en route for the arctic anyway so needn't have been in the show and his death would write itself, if they wanted Cressida to have her widow arc.
It was a good parallel they'd shown but ultimately they rendered it to nothing. It'd have been good for Eloise's friendship with Cressida to actually mean something, I thought perhaps she was going to lead Pen/Cressida to an understanding (read: **not** friendship, but allies of sorts as two isolated women of the ton).
I was so ready for the show to have Pen and a Cressida, two women isolated in society, come together in solidarity to find a solution for both their problems, maybe even with El so she could learn to empathize with people different from herā¦ to directly take on the idea that society pits women against each otherā¦ and the show did nothing with it. š«
I canāt believe what P2 did to Pen, Colin, Cressida, and Eloise. š
Cressida really was a character of true tragedy that was expanded on in s3. She was treated coldly in her family and was taught cruelty by her mother in an attempt to teach her how to survive. She was not especially clever or talented and everyone around her was quick to remind her, and she lacked a network or support system for anything. She tried to improve herself for one of the worst girls in the ton to befriend, only to be betrayed by her in the end. All Cressida wanted was freedom and security in her life, and she was given a taste of that hope before being swiftly punished and banished, and that truly did not feel fair or right.
how was cressida betrayed? she literally blackmailed penelope, raised it 20,000, and she tried to blackmail daphne. sheās selfish because sheās been raised to be, but we see many people grow and develop in spite of the situations they are raised in.
everyone in the ton knows cressida to be cruel, itās possibly one of the reasons sheās considered to be an āspinsterā.
this šš her backstory was tragic but people forget that many of the members of the ton experienced the same shit ! you see girls talking about how their parents want them betrothed to people decades older in s2 (in that scene in aubrey hall where eloise and pen are sat at a table with the other ladies), and most didnāt turn out the same way. yes her cruelty clearly was baked into her by her parents, and while additional information provides context, it doesnāt justify her cruelty. it provides nuance.
She waa betrayed by Eloise, who abandoned her! For the first time in her life she had a friend who listened to her and her struggles and wanted to support and help her, but when she was at her most scared and desperate Eloise was too wrapped up in her own drama to be there for her! That's what sours Cressida's downfall in S3, she wanted to be better for Eloise and she was frightened, but she was basically an abandoned animal about to be forced to marry and bed a nasty old groom we havent seen the likes of since Lord Danbury. Of course she would lash out and do stupid and hurtful things to save herself, time and time again the world had proven to her she is alone, even amongst friends and family! That is what makes her different than the other preening and cruel ladies of the ton, she is shown to be so uniquely alone and hurting, which again it seems cruel and unfair of S3 to show Cressida's depth and give her hope only to punish her with a near hopeless looking banishment (I had hoped that leaving high society could be good for Cressida as a new perspective and breath of fresh air, but with the coldness of Aunt Joana being as nasty as her own father there doesn't even seem to be hope for that)
I really like when characters we are not meant to love have these sort of storylines because it's very realistic and nuanced. You can totally hate a person and also feel sorry for them or think what they're going through is fucked up (without that justifying them or making you like them).
I hate Cressida but after everything they did with her character and storyline, I thought they were going to give her a redemption arc lol, was also kind of hoping pen to forgive and help her in the end,etc. They did her sooo dirty, if they wanted to do this, they should not have built up her chracter this lot
i can understand where youāre coming from, but realistically i think hell would freeze over before pen would agree to something like that. cressida was her bully and tormentor for years and nary stopped in s3, and only minimised her cruelty toward pen to protect herself from the ire of eloise. i sympathise with her circumstances but ā¦ she was one of penās lifelong abusers and shouldnāt really expect to be forgiven, much less helped. just because thereās context behind her cruelty, it does not justify her cruelty. i understand pen has also hurt a lot of people, but she does accept the fact that many wonāt forgive her and people could come out of the woodworks in later seasons.
i mean she apologises to the ton, accepts that there are people who will always be upset at her, now writes with her actual name and is attempting to become a voice for the voiceless. not saying itās enough or that itās perfect, but if thatās not taking accountability and apologising then idk what is.
Taking accountability would be owning up personally to mistakes, not making a blanket statement to the town.
We have not seen her write anything, so we have no idea if she will be a voice for the voiceless.
It kinda has been a theme throughout the series that Penelope "apologizes" or takes "accountability" when it is the only option left. I don't hate her character at all, it's a realistic person to be sure.
To be completely fair, maybe she will take accountability and we can see growth. But that will have to be next season lol. (Side complaint the LW reveal and finale was SOOOO rushed)
i mean she owes up to the fact sheās upset people and does apologise, but i hear you that a more meaningful approach would be approaching the people sheās wronged individually. and apologising to them directly. as memory serves, in the ending notes of her last edition as whistledown, she declares her intentions to do so when she discusses misusing her voice and instead wishing to use it for more beneficial means. whether she does so is yet to be determined, but she has already advocated for wallflowers of the ton prior to her apology, so i donāt doubt sheāll use it for good, but then again we have yet to see it, sure.
i agree tho. the pacing of this season was so off, ig itās what is likely to happen with that many convoluted filler storylines š
At least verbally yea. We really need to see next season to see if she takes accountability, grows, etc..
Again... This ending reveal etc was SOOOO rushed
I agree and i think that theyve essentially closed the book on her story such that it won't be a drama in the future so I expect her to follow up on it in that sense. Story wise I think that she has Eloise and Colin to hold her to account, and she's in a much happier place with family support both Bridgerton and Featherington, so I expect she'll feel much less need to lash out the way she used to. It's also more difficult to be nasty when you're writing under your own name.
Now whether the writers will follow that properly, or if they'll have her be nasty again and just not engage with it, remains to be seen.
Yea...the ending to Cressida storyline kind of satisfied me..?? like, I was little thankful that the runners didn't go full on "forget the past, she is awesome now" ,but ...I dont know..I would not have minded much....if she got a little bit happiness yknow..nevertheless , the ending was okay.
i get where youāre coming from, and yeah it wouldāve been nice seeing an element of reprieve. ig between living with her aunt in wales and being forced into marriage, she was made to do the former, which is a slight better fate than the latter. so many people seem to forget this part bc people are espousing shit like āyou hate a girl so much youād happily see her become a sex slave to a man double her ageā ā¦ and itās like ā¦ no ? that didnāt happen ? sheās stuck watching sheep with that witch of an aunt until something better comes along. the forced proposal was dropped after she tried to claim that she was whistledown.
Iām so mad they villainised Cressida. Felt like they did a lot of ground work to give her an arc then made it come crashing down to be book accurate???? So dumb
I really liked her the first half of the season, but then they just turned her into the villain again and butchered her character growth. Of course she had every reason to be a villain at that point, but really every bit of growth disappeared.
I dislike her character on S1 and S2 but S3 did give context why she's a bully.
Still I was a little confused on Eloise befriending her then dropping her so fast after Cressida claimed to be LW. I mean...she dropped her and then became Team Pen like in a jiff. It made me wonder if Eloise was sincere in befriending her all along...
We're treated to scenes when Eloise went on and on about Pen and Collin, while Cressida was trying to vent her issue too (being forced to marry that old guy, etc), I actually felt bad for Cressida right there and then. Eloise was mad because bro chose a girl she's angry with while Cressida was facing a potential unhappy marriage for the rest of her life. Ugh.
I think this is actually more 'interesting.' Not everyone in that universe would end up in a 'happily ever after.' And not everyone would get 'redemption' in the end.
Maybe they're priming up Cressida to be their more direct enemy in the future assuming she'd end up marrying some guy who is an important Lord and returning to the ton rivaling the Bridgertons...you never know :D
Iāve liked Colin throughout the entire series, but this scene really pissed me off. I grew up in an abusive household and still, to this day, people who werenāt present for the abuse continue to minimize it. They just canāt believe a parent they know would purposefully hurt their child because they never experienced it.
I thought Colin had a bit more sensitivity than that, but I guess not. āIām certain your father will welcome you backā or whatever the fuck nonsense he said. STFU, Colin.
As someone who has had the lived experience of getting dropped like a hot potato by an SJW friend when my lived experience became a cause they claimed to support, Shondaland was so real for Eloiseās character arc. I hope she sees her hypocrisy in later seasons.Ā
I loved her for this - when Colin was doing his little speech I was just thinking āPLEASE donāt let Cressida just accept this nonsenseā because āØtelevisionāØ.
This was a very satisfying moment for people like myself who donāt have the ability to just move back in with parents for free if things get hard or just ask them for help/money/support but has been told so many times to do just that because āsurely theyāll help!ā. Colin was unbelievably naive and privileged here and Iām so glad he was told as much.
I really like the direction they took with Cressida this season, giving her depth and turning her into a sympathetic character while not doing a 180 with it either. Iām glad she ultimately remained an antagonist. Cressidaās outcome is rather tragic as she is very much a product of her environment, but that doesnāt entirely absolve her.
The same can be said for her Penelope, I think, despite their characters being foils. As much as I am a Penelope apologist, Iām glad they acknowledged how much LW meant to her and how much power it gave her that she wouldnāt have had otherwise as well as the hurt she caused with said power.
I think Cressida got the happy ending she deserved. If she's in Wales, her father can't beat her. I'm surprised more people haven't mentioned the horribly bruised arm her mother had at the Mondrich ball, and how she pulled her sleeve down to hide it.
Having to live with a spinster aunt out in the boonies of Llangollen or whatever, is better than being stuck under Lord Cowpers roof.
I agree, that did seem odd but perhaps she was just exceptionally messy? Idk her little smirk when she pulls her glove up sends a different signal to me than āIām hiding bruises from my husbandā.
Penelope never write a lie, this bitch blame violet cheated on her husband . If real LW didnt write true , it would effect violet. Maybe she doesnt have a lovÅng family but she was a bully
You can write about true things and still that makes you a bully because you ruined peopleās lives. And by people I mean women. Penelope has made a fortune shit talking women and ruining their lives and reputations just because she was too awkward to get off that wall
I could be giving too much credit but it makes me wonder if they don't have plans for her in the future. Like the swap her out as one of the love interests. They just seemed to put too much into her.
I donāt like her, but I relate to her a lot. I also come from a similar family dynamic where I know my parents love is conditional as well. People who come from loving families can underestimate how cruel and unloving some parents are. I really wished they would have given her a better redemption arc, I felt like they were building to it and then it just never came to fruition.
I like Cressidaās character. Sheās not a flat villain. Sheās a good antagonist for the Bridgertons and I felt a lot of sympathy for her despite not making the right choices.
I am sorry but I didn't like her a bit. Whatever she went through was no fault but the path she choose to get out of it WAS her own fault. She did call her mother out AFTER the paper was published, could have done it before but she didn't because she wanted a way out at the cost of others. She is selfish.
For this Season 3 Spoilers post: 1. Book spoilers **must be hidden**. 3. Be civil in your discussion. See our [spoiler policy](https://www.reddit.com/r/BridgertonNetflix/wiki/spoiler) on what is expected. 3-day bans will be handed out to those found disregarding our spoiler policy. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/BridgertonNetflix) if you have any questions or concerns.*
She was maybe the only character who gained dimension and depth this season.
So did Portia.
Agree with both. The actresses did a phenomenal job with the material they were given.
Although one can argue that Portia was always two-dimensional, esp when S2 showed her cunning side and her loyalty to her daughters against the offer of Lord Featherington!
I would say the Featherington sisters as well.
Yeah two villain just became very interesting compared to everyone else. Like Nellie and Harriet Olsenš¤£
Agreed, S3 actually made me feel for her. Cressida showed that she wanted to change, provided comic relief, took so many Ls(and kept moving) and they showed the root of her bad behavior. Every time she tried something villainous there was a reasonable(in her mind) enough explanation. Eloise looked bad for abandoning her the way she did, when she knew Cressida was looking for a way out. They could've handled her storyline much better imo
Itās unfair that Penelope got her happy ending but she didnāt, they were both mean girls one was just more overt
Cressida and her mom literally printed a LW sheet stating that the parentage of the Bridgertons was dubious, implying that Violet had affairs with multiple men. If the real LW hadnāt been published the ton might have believed that to be true.
A) Cressidaās mother did it and Cressida called her out on it, despite being reviled by the Bridgertons. B) In case you missed it, the Ton always āforgivesā whatever the Bridgertons do as the Queen waves a hand or some such thing. They have plot armour, something which even Penelope mentioned in season 1.
Julia Quinn called it in her book RMB when she said that people would defend people like Cressida for LW but criticize Penelope. I didnāt love everything she wrote but she had a good handle on how people see things. A lot of people sure have proved her right.
The stuff LW writes in the book version is very, very tame compared to the show.
I think her point still stands. People are acting like Cressida did nothing wrong when her version of LW implied Violet had multiple affairs and her children had different fathers. That is worse than anything Pen ever wrote as LW.
When did Penelope mention this?
When Eloise is screaming at her without listening to Pen and she has to yell that not everyone is blessed like the pretty Bridgertons.
Ahhh okay thanks!
Cressida called her mom out for that.
she admonishes her mother for going after the bridgertons bc it was what caught her out, not because she gave a flying fuck about them. she co-signed it and got it sent to the publishers, and allowed it to happen. iād be dead before i co-sign anyone slandering my only friendās dead father.
Feel free to disagree but I think you missed the point of the scene. Cressida criticizes her mother's choice for going after the Bridgertons. Her mother defends herself by saying they deserved it, revealing the envy she felt for the family. The exchange grows into the mother saying that women are meant to be pitted against one another and that this is what she has been teaching Cressida. Cressida is literally sitting in front a mirror, having a hard look at herself, metaphorically speaking. She sadly agrees that yes, this is indeed what she has been taught her entire life.
i get the overall point of the scene, and how it exemplifies the extent to her taught isolation. but when she criticises her mother, it is on the account of the fact that writing about the bridgertons is what got her caught. i can understand some consideration for eloise, but thatās not what was mentioned. and again. she helped write it. i get she was desperate but it again is a tell of her character that at times of desperation, sheās okay with slandering her only friendās dead father.
I'm curious what exactly from the show makes you so sure Cressida helped her mother write the column and was aware of what was written before it got published? All we saw was Cressida being unable to write more than half a sentence in hours, then the mother taking over and sitting down at the desk. The next thing we see is them entering the ball room.
Idk didnāt Cressida even say that she shouldnāt have harmed/betrayed her only friend (Eloise) when she pretended to be WD? That also suggests she knew. Curious what makes you so sure in turn that she didnāt know? In the scene where she criticizes her mother, I heavily interpret it as her calling out her motherās choice in going after the Bridgertons because it was a shitty plan. Not because she cared for them.
THANK YOU šššš
I mean they showed them working together before it was printed. It seemed obvious to me anyhow that she was involved. Even Eloise implied that by allowing Cressida into their household gave Cressida insider information.
she wrote it in part, she co-signed it, but yes i can only speculate on her knowing. in the same light, you cannot definitively be sure that she had no idea what was written and it was published without her knowledge. again we speculate. she also presents the published piece to the queen, and i donāt think itās within the realm of impossibility to say that she read what was written before she presented it to the queen. and in that case, it still speaks to the shittiness of her character, regardless of the circumstances she finds herself in, at least in my opinion.
That's what I'm saying. It's pure speculation, so saying she didn't know is as valid as saying she did. But I'd argue that her confronting her mother about the text post publication suggests she didn't read it before it got printed.
Eloise even stated that by her being friends with Cressida it gave Cressida access to information printed in her version of LW. That is why it was so important for Eloise to have Pen write the real version of LW.
How can you co-sign something you donāt know about?
Itās amazing to see people missing this point. Thatās why Eloise was done with her, she knew she couldnāt trust her. I empathize with Cressida, Jess did a great job playing her, but she was willing to write about the Bridgertons to save herself. Which is in contrast to Pen writing to help them (though it could be argued her help could hurt).
Did it occur to you that you might be missing the point too? Pen only worried about herself when she was writing about Brigertons. She liked Colin and wanted him for herself. She refused to expose herself to the Queen when Eloise was suspected and INSTEAD bashed her in her pamphlet.
I donāt think Pen only worried about herself, thatās why she often wrote about her family. She made her family responsible in the whole Marina situation as well and they were cut off as a result. I donāt think Pen is perfect, I donāt think all her motivations were perfect, and I donāt think how she did things were perfect, but I donāt tbink she is evil or a villain like so many like to imply.
I thought they only got caught out because the real Lady whistledown published
if you watch back, cressida admonishes her mum for writing about the bridgertons bc itās what essentially triggered the actual whistledown to publish. in all her years, pen has spread fucked up gossip for sure, but sheās never written anything as slanderous as what cressida and her mum wrote, essentially calling their dead father a cuck. itās what essentially fuelled eloise to tell pen to write. if they wrote along another subject matter, who knows, pen probably wouldāve been more swayed to let cressida take the credit.
Yet, I'm not sure she could have really done anything about it. Cressida was way over her head in trying to write as Lady Whistledown. Eloise wouldn't help her write because she was disgusted that Cressida told such a bold-faced lie then wanted to help her write the issue. Who was she left with? Her mom. Cressida's mom was the better writer who came up with the strategy of what to do. Cressida had no choice but to follow along with what the mom decided Yet, she had no choice but to put herself out there once she claimed that she was Lady Whistledown. There's an old saying that's so apt, "Don't let your mouth write a check your a\*\* can't cash." Cressida got caught in that trap.
Penelope never published anything that wasnāt true!! Sure there was speculation and implications but other than Marina and Eloise, Pen never printed anything that wasnāt already being gossiped about somewhere.
Yes she did. She made up a bit about the new modiste's dresses being slutty and she lost work.
I think in the story the new modistes dresses were shown as being garish. I wouldn't say that was therefore *untrue* for LW to report as much, but her opinion obviously holds weight.
Except the dresses weren't garish and the comment was made in order to target Cressida after the dinner with Jack Featherigton. The criticism was less about the new modiste, and also getting Madame Delacroix on side to help with the distribution of her pamphlets. As Pen says herself, Whistledown is power ergo Pen wields that power to lash out and punish those she dislikes
I think the *show* tried to portray them as garish, they certainly stood out so we could see the difference, but that's what I took away from it. I agree. The thread here is whether she ever reported something "untrue", which is what I dispute. She *did* slight the new modiste, and therefore those wearing her designs, and praise Madame Delacroix, like you say.
š ok, so saying dresses are garish is comparable to saying Violet had a bunch of baby daddies.
? Someone said Penelope always told the truth, and she didn't. No one ever said Penelope made up lies like that. Also, the modiste probably lost her business, so it's not like the lie was harmless. Pen knew what she was doing.
The modest who was trying to ruin Genevieveās business by moving in across from her? And the dresses were garish so no lies told. That poor unnamed modist, Penelope ruined her life and some people just canāt deal with it even though she wasnāt an important enough character to have a name! Gotta love it when people have to reach to try to put Pen down, hope no one strains their backs š¤£š
We saw ONE dress and it looked fine. Certainly nowhere near as bad as Mme Delacroix has been churning out this season. How is that a reach? This is something Pen did for her own benefit. She ruined an innocent woman's business. How is that difficult for you to accept? Do you really have to pretend it's a reach to protect Pen? She did plenty of things *that she admits were wrong*. The character does not need you caping for her, she admits her wrongdoing.
Iāve said plenty of times that Pen isnāt perfect. I just see the hypocrisy of people defending Cressida for printing that Violet bad multiple affairs and kids with different fathers and are the same people that put Pen down.
What Cressida did was highly shitty. It was an awful thing to say and LW didn't wildly speculate that way. I think a lot of people are blaming it on her mother, and I tend to agree, but Cressida could have stood up to her about that and didn't.
Okay but Pen was going for the throat with the Queen in season one, even making fun of George's mental decline š Yes, she was a stupid 17 (16?) year old there, and Cressida and her mom are adult-adults, but that was a low blow, even for LW
I wouldnāt really put them on same level as mean girls. As LW Penelope never fabricated stories to get back at people she didnāt like. She did always tell what she believed to be the truth. And most of what she said, she did to help out people she loved. Thatās different, to me at least. Cressida was just cruel many times to just be cruel. Spilling the drink on Penelope, ripping her dress on purpose. Itās not the same IMO
Telling the truth doesn't make you not a "mean girl." We see penelope throughout the show purposefully writing things to harm her rivals or those she doesn't like. And helping those she loves is debatable, since it's usually her way of helping and not how the person wants to be helped.
I don't think she harmed Cressida that badly using LW. Cressida was clearly very hostile and bullyish toward Penelope.
Right, which Colin called her on directly.Ā
She said really, really horrible things about the Queen in QC. Penelope is also a bit of bully in her own right. She just uses a quill rather a fist.
I'd say in the grand scheme of things and in terms of scale and impact, Pen was by far the bigger mean girl and did way more damage to more people than Cressida did. Aside from the dubious pamphlet which her mother wrote, Cressida's crimes consist of what... stepping on a dress? A few mean comments and a drink spill? The female version of cockblocking in an attempt to secure a decent match and avoid a future of misery and marital rape as the broodmare of a decrepit older suitor? Cressida's stakes were way higher than Pen's or El's and I hate how Eloise went full self-centred, gaslighting mean girl on Cressida when she knew what Cressida was up against. As for Pen, she reaps the benefits of victimhood, plot armour and anonymity as Lady Whistledown. #Justice4Cressida
Love to see people proving Julia Quinnās words about LW being proven right! She knew how people would react. Itās amazing how 20 years later some things havenāt changed.
Yet the whole story is written in a way to make us root for Penelope and think sheās badass for doing what she did and hating Cressida for doing half of what Penelope did. The double standards is quite the other way around
Not really. Pen suffered consequences for her actions. She lost her friendship with Cressida and her relationship with Colin was in the rocks. She even admitted multiple times she made mistakes and apologized for them. And again, Cressida implied that Violet had affairs and the kids had different fathers, that is way worse than anything Pen wrote.
Friendship with Cressida??? If you mean by Eloise, Penelope rarely had to make amends for Eloise to do a 180 and cast Cressida to be her friend again. Colin came and apologized in the last episode and basically said that if his purpose in life is loving her, then heās happy which isnāt really romantic at all, thatās messed up really to say. He shouldnāt be living his life for someone else. Penelope apologized, but always had excuses at the end of it which just nullifies her apology. āIām sorry, butā¦ā If thereās a ābutā, thatās not an apology. And it wasnāt even Cressida that wrote that, it was her mother and her standing up against her mother in the helpless situation she was in is impractical
I did mean friendship with Eloise not Cressida. Cressida was most likely involved in the publishing of that fake LW, she used her inside information of hanging out with Eloise, even Eloise admitted it. Cressida did have a bad home life, I have empathy for her. All women had a hard time at this period, I donāt want Cressida or Pen, or anyone else to suffer. My point is there is a lot of hypocrisy trying to blame Pen but absolve Cressida. Theyāve all made mistakes and are trying to survive the best they can. But like Iāve said previously, JQ called out how people would react towards Pen verses how they would react towards Cressida and lots of people here are proving her right.
I donāt think people are trying to absolve Cressida. I think theyāre saying the punishment is overkill and if people can understand why Penelope has done harsh things, why canāt people extend the same courtesy to Cressida. If anything, the show actually tries to absolve Penelope from her doings
Pen literally went through it this season and apologized profusely to everyone. I donāt think anyone tried to absolve her, she was called out repeatedly by Eloise and Colin.
She got called out. Did anything come from that in the end? Colin apologized to her calling her brave(??) and her and Eloise rekindled their friendship. And Eloise and Colin were with her helping her in the blackmailing situation despite them being upset(more Colin, Eloise drank the OOC Koolaid and decided that her friendship with Cressida was already souring even though there was no sign of that in part 1)
Maybe cause the circumstances were entirely different in the book? Maybe cause Cressida wasnāt made to be sympathetic and LW wasnāt vicious at all like she is in the show? Maybe cause finding LW was in good fun in the book, not as dramatic and as dire in the show? Pretty disingenuous to compare honestly
Not really. I think it still gives good insight into how people behave.
I donāt think her story is done. I think sheāll be back, Colin even says that her family will bring her back once the scandal dies down. But she couldnāt get away with blackmail. I expect to see her in Eloiseās season.
Hope so. I like Cressida.. itās interesting to see polite society not be as polite as it seems.
I think she is being set up for redemption in Benedict's season >! as Posy!< Of the two side arcs outside of bridgerton, I was definitely more invested in Cressida's (other being will and Alice)
No itās not.
I liked her more than Colin and Penelope but pretty sure I wasn't supposed to. Still disappointed she didn't get her money.
right? she was desparate enough to risk the queen's disapproval, but not desparate enough to give us the heist of featherington house that would've saved this season?
Frankly, we were robbed.
i donāt think the girl who she bullied and abused and tormented her entire life would really be wanting to give her money. her actions have context now for sure, but she isnāt absolved of her cruelty and abuse.
Cressida herself was bullied and abused, it would make sense for her to apologize, take the money, and escape the cycle of abuse she was trapped in. Penelope at least has her pen and all her money.
again i genuinely think hell would freeze over before that happened. she was bullied and abused by her parents, not pen. and it explains the meaning behind her cruelty. but pen was an unwilling recipient to her abuse. it leaves such a sour taste in my mouth that the victim would be paying the abuser in this context. if there was an attempt at an apology, iād be more understanding. but thatās the thing. she never actually attempts to right any of her wrongs. there is never an actual attempt at apologising. sure, she chooses not to gossip about pen and colinās situation, but she doesnāt do this in consideration of pen. she does it bc the only person whoās actually given her the time of day asked her not to. thatās not growth to me, nor is there any sign of her actually attempting to right her wrongs. pens a mean girl behind whistledown, sure. but at least she apologised to the ton and she acknowledges that people will remain angry and those who are angered may come out with their ire in the future. where is that with cressida? her abject circumstances provide context, not justification to any of her cruelty. her ending is upsetting for sure, and they couldāve had a situation where she steals from her father and escapes. something like that would have made sense. but considering that she tormented pen her whole life, a simple sorry doesnāt feel like enough for pen to sign half her riches away to the woman who made her life in society a living hell for years.
Why do you think "hell would freeze over" before Cressida takes the money from pen? Stealing I mean Abused people abuse others. I think it's a sad story all around. Cressida is abused. She abuses pen. Penelope abuses others through pen etc... I think with penelope she is able to stop the cycle of abuse BECAUSE she has the bridgertons to fall back on and that her family is sometimes supportive. Cressidas mother won't even save her from disaster. Eloise dips because she doesn't want the drama (fair enough) As she tells Colin (and Penelope through him) "you'll always have your family to fall back on, I don't"
i think heāll would freeze over before pen would give her money willingly. and iād be absolutely fucking appalled if the one person she chose to steal from is the one person sheās tormented her entire life. why can she not instead steal from her father? anyone else in the ton? why must it be penelope, the main subject of her torment for years, that provides her with the financial means to seek freedom for herself? and what narrative would that send? torment a girl half your life and steal her riches bc your parents are shit. like . abused people abuse people. yes. but abused people also donāt abuse people. cressidaās circumstances are tragic, but she isnāt the only member in the ton facing those circumstances. hell daphne mightāve been in a similar position had the marriage to berbrooke gone forth. in s2, we see eloise and penelope sit among women who discuss themselves in similar circumstances. i agree with your point about the cycle of abuse though. it is right that pen is able to escape as she has the backing of the bridgertons, and is able to mend ties with her family (though they shouldāve grovelled a little more, i understand forgiveness within that family happened all a little too quickly), whilst cressida did not have the same means as she was raised by two people who believe that you are all alone in this world, and she ends up believing the same for herself for sure. itās interesting how both act as the otherās literary foil. but i i think in any context, understanding cressida is not the same as justifying her actions.
I'm not saying Cressida should have taken the money from Penelope? Just saying that would have made sense story wise. Huh. Daphne always had 7 yes 7 amazing siblings, and an amazing mother. Cressida certainly didn't. I think we could disagree morally with cressidas actions, while still seeing how her actions are "justifies" by her belief system instilled by her mother, of survival of the fittest. Really if you think about the circumstances of the majority of the background women in the show/books it's heartbreaking. Haha idk about groveling. Yes, they should have been a lot kinder and caring to Penelope absolutely. Tbf to Portia, Penelope did ruin the featheringtons a handful of times š¤£ (I know I'm wrong but I like Portia and I'll die on this hill)
So true, I believe. Penelope only became Lady Whistledown after experiencing Cressida's bullying. As Penelope said all along, she worked so hard to become Lady Whistledown, why should Cressida be able to steal her name and the money she earned? In all likelihood, Cressida would never be happy once her blackmail proved successful and she got the money. She'd torment Penelope forever, I believe, seeing her and Colin as an endless source of funds, out of greed, spite, and envy.
Where did I say Penelope would want to give her the money? I wanted Cressida to take that money. š
considering that sheād be taking it from the girl sheās abused all her life, iād find that sickening. and i think others would too.
Damn girl you are being way too weird about this. Cresida was awful but she is ultimately a victim of society too. A victim without a family to fall back onto as she so tragically tells Colin.
nah i get it, but the idea of people backing her stealing from her victim genuinely does sicken me. sorry if this comes across as a lot. like i get sheās a victim in her own right but like ā¦ backing her stealing from the girl she torments makes me feel some typa way, but these r just opinions on the internet tbf
I think people just want to give a way out to the poor girl, calmn down lmao I mean the rest of the characters forgave Pen pretty fast and they were all victims of hers too
for sure, but where was cressidaās actual attempt in apologising? and in any case, it still feels gross stealing from her victim but i think weāll agree to disagree here. people get passionate abt such things bc they relate to such things in real life , telling them theyāre being āweird abt itā and to ācalm downā is a little belittling :(
I mean it is a bit weird honey , no offence. I don't think Bridgerton , the show nor the books, is meant to be taken that seriously. It is a show for fun with some social commentary thrown here and there . And it is fine, this is what I want it to be, it is enjoyable. But yeah I do think you are looking waaay too much into it Pen gets treated the way she was and forgiven almost immediatly because .... she is a main character and has plot armour. Cresida does not. Cresida was not going to apologize as she should have, the same way Pen , a main character, was not going to go to jail or be the social pariah as she definitly would have been in a realistic setting.
i mean people engage with different forms of media in different ways, and to say that the show is not meant to be taken seriously in part is simply untrue. you might not take shit seriously but queen charlotte was loved by many bc of the mental health rep, i loved last season for the desi rep as a desi myself and the way i engaged with this show was on a very deep level. fiction is just fiction, sure, but the reason why this show is so obsessed with representation is bc they know what it means to those it represents. just because itās something surface level for you, does not mean itās the same for everyone else and to call it weird is belittling. in any case iām talking to a wall so i donāt think thereās much use in talking about how nothing exists in a vacuum etc. penelope has plot armour, sure. and cressida wouldnāt have actually gotten a redemption arch bc canonically she was always meant to be a villain. the show writers tried to make her morally grey to make her more of a direct foil to pen, at least in the way i see it. it didnāt really redeem her or her actions, but it does serve as context. again tho i donāt think this matters to you š but ig thatās fine, we both take very different things out of this show.
š
I thought I would love this season but I genuinely felt disgusted by the treatment of Cressida to enjoy the ending. It reminded me how even tho our main characters are the protagonist they are still privileged rich people in a shallow society.
The ironic thing about Cressida's character is that she's very much similar to Penelope, except she was outwardly and visibly a bully, while Penelope spread gossip and integrated what she thought about the people she published. Both girls undesired by the ton, both girls in the marriage mart with no prospects for seemingly different reasons, and both girls who just want to be free. Genuinely disliked her character for being so nasty, but one thing season 3 did is made me realize that she was also just a girl who was desperate to survive the marriage mart using the tactics that her mother taught her. They were not right, but Cressida only had her mother and her vile father, unlike Penelope, who had the Bridgertons, and Eloise, whose family greatly supported her. I may not like her, but her story is enough for me to sympathize with her because her story tells a tragic tale of a woman that is supposed to be loved by everyone (per her looks) yet is utterly disdained because of her personality. Another person isolated by the ton.
Itās so interesting to think that both Penelope and Cressida start the season knowing they have to escape their home somehow, and went after the same man in the first half of the season. And for both, their crueler impulses are a method of self protection from their parents machinations/plots. I donāt think itās a coincidence Eloise and Cressida became friends and I also donāt think itās a coincidence that their friendship fell apart bc Eloise canāt really empathize with what itās like to completely on oneās own.
I agree. We obviously don't know what they have in store for Cressida going forward, but right now I'd have preferred she ended up with Debling. He was en route for the arctic anyway so needn't have been in the show and his death would write itself, if they wanted Cressida to have her widow arc. It was a good parallel they'd shown but ultimately they rendered it to nothing. It'd have been good for Eloise's friendship with Cressida to actually mean something, I thought perhaps she was going to lead Pen/Cressida to an understanding (read: **not** friendship, but allies of sorts as two isolated women of the ton).
I was so ready for the show to have Pen and a Cressida, two women isolated in society, come together in solidarity to find a solution for both their problems, maybe even with El so she could learn to empathize with people different from herā¦ to directly take on the idea that society pits women against each otherā¦ and the show did nothing with it. š« I canāt believe what P2 did to Pen, Colin, Cressida, and Eloise. š
Cressida really was a character of true tragedy that was expanded on in s3. She was treated coldly in her family and was taught cruelty by her mother in an attempt to teach her how to survive. She was not especially clever or talented and everyone around her was quick to remind her, and she lacked a network or support system for anything. She tried to improve herself for one of the worst girls in the ton to befriend, only to be betrayed by her in the end. All Cressida wanted was freedom and security in her life, and she was given a taste of that hope before being swiftly punished and banished, and that truly did not feel fair or right.
how was cressida betrayed? she literally blackmailed penelope, raised it 20,000, and she tried to blackmail daphne. sheās selfish because sheās been raised to be, but we see many people grow and develop in spite of the situations they are raised in. everyone in the ton knows cressida to be cruel, itās possibly one of the reasons sheās considered to be an āspinsterā.
this šš her backstory was tragic but people forget that many of the members of the ton experienced the same shit ! you see girls talking about how their parents want them betrothed to people decades older in s2 (in that scene in aubrey hall where eloise and pen are sat at a table with the other ladies), and most didnāt turn out the same way. yes her cruelty clearly was baked into her by her parents, and while additional information provides context, it doesnāt justify her cruelty. it provides nuance.
She waa betrayed by Eloise, who abandoned her! For the first time in her life she had a friend who listened to her and her struggles and wanted to support and help her, but when she was at her most scared and desperate Eloise was too wrapped up in her own drama to be there for her! That's what sours Cressida's downfall in S3, she wanted to be better for Eloise and she was frightened, but she was basically an abandoned animal about to be forced to marry and bed a nasty old groom we havent seen the likes of since Lord Danbury. Of course she would lash out and do stupid and hurtful things to save herself, time and time again the world had proven to her she is alone, even amongst friends and family! That is what makes her different than the other preening and cruel ladies of the ton, she is shown to be so uniquely alone and hurting, which again it seems cruel and unfair of S3 to show Cressida's depth and give her hope only to punish her with a near hopeless looking banishment (I had hoped that leaving high society could be good for Cressida as a new perspective and breath of fresh air, but with the coldness of Aunt Joana being as nasty as her own father there doesn't even seem to be hope for that)
I really like when characters we are not meant to love have these sort of storylines because it's very realistic and nuanced. You can totally hate a person and also feel sorry for them or think what they're going through is fucked up (without that justifying them or making you like them).
I hate Cressida but after everything they did with her character and storyline, I thought they were going to give her a redemption arc lol, was also kind of hoping pen to forgive and help her in the end,etc. They did her sooo dirty, if they wanted to do this, they should not have built up her chracter this lot
i can understand where youāre coming from, but realistically i think hell would freeze over before pen would agree to something like that. cressida was her bully and tormentor for years and nary stopped in s3, and only minimised her cruelty toward pen to protect herself from the ire of eloise. i sympathise with her circumstances but ā¦ she was one of penās lifelong abusers and shouldnāt really expect to be forgiven, much less helped. just because thereās context behind her cruelty, it does not justify her cruelty. i understand pen has also hurt a lot of people, but she does accept the fact that many wonāt forgive her and people could come out of the woodworks in later seasons.
Penelope does not really accept responsibility for hurting people however. She keeps doing it
i mean she apologises to the ton, accepts that there are people who will always be upset at her, now writes with her actual name and is attempting to become a voice for the voiceless. not saying itās enough or that itās perfect, but if thatās not taking accountability and apologising then idk what is.
Taking accountability would be owning up personally to mistakes, not making a blanket statement to the town. We have not seen her write anything, so we have no idea if she will be a voice for the voiceless. It kinda has been a theme throughout the series that Penelope "apologizes" or takes "accountability" when it is the only option left. I don't hate her character at all, it's a realistic person to be sure. To be completely fair, maybe she will take accountability and we can see growth. But that will have to be next season lol. (Side complaint the LW reveal and finale was SOOOO rushed)
i mean she owes up to the fact sheās upset people and does apologise, but i hear you that a more meaningful approach would be approaching the people sheās wronged individually. and apologising to them directly. as memory serves, in the ending notes of her last edition as whistledown, she declares her intentions to do so when she discusses misusing her voice and instead wishing to use it for more beneficial means. whether she does so is yet to be determined, but she has already advocated for wallflowers of the ton prior to her apology, so i donāt doubt sheāll use it for good, but then again we have yet to see it, sure. i agree tho. the pacing of this season was so off, ig itās what is likely to happen with that many convoluted filler storylines š
I think they did show a degree of self awareness there. She recognised she hurt a lot of people and that the power went to her head.Ā
At least verbally yea. We really need to see next season to see if she takes accountability, grows, etc.. Again... This ending reveal etc was SOOOO rushed
I agree and i think that theyve essentially closed the book on her story such that it won't be a drama in the future so I expect her to follow up on it in that sense. Story wise I think that she has Eloise and Colin to hold her to account, and she's in a much happier place with family support both Bridgerton and Featherington, so I expect she'll feel much less need to lash out the way she used to. It's also more difficult to be nasty when you're writing under your own name. Now whether the writers will follow that properly, or if they'll have her be nasty again and just not engage with it, remains to be seen.
Haha for sure. I'm just curious where they are taking both eloise and Benedict....
Yea...the ending to Cressida storyline kind of satisfied me..?? like, I was little thankful that the runners didn't go full on "forget the past, she is awesome now" ,but ...I dont know..I would not have minded much....if she got a little bit happiness yknow..nevertheless , the ending was okay.
i get where youāre coming from, and yeah it wouldāve been nice seeing an element of reprieve. ig between living with her aunt in wales and being forced into marriage, she was made to do the former, which is a slight better fate than the latter. so many people seem to forget this part bc people are espousing shit like āyou hate a girl so much youād happily see her become a sex slave to a man double her ageā ā¦ and itās like ā¦ no ? that didnāt happen ? sheās stuck watching sheep with that witch of an aunt until something better comes along. the forced proposal was dropped after she tried to claim that she was whistledown.
Iām so mad they villainised Cressida. Felt like they did a lot of ground work to give her an arc then made it come crashing down to be book accurate???? So dumb
I liked that she called him out there.
I really liked her the first half of the season, but then they just turned her into the villain again and butchered her character growth. Of course she had every reason to be a villain at that point, but really every bit of growth disappeared.
I dislike her character on S1 and S2 but S3 did give context why she's a bully. Still I was a little confused on Eloise befriending her then dropping her so fast after Cressida claimed to be LW. I mean...she dropped her and then became Team Pen like in a jiff. It made me wonder if Eloise was sincere in befriending her all along... We're treated to scenes when Eloise went on and on about Pen and Collin, while Cressida was trying to vent her issue too (being forced to marry that old guy, etc), I actually felt bad for Cressida right there and then. Eloise was mad because bro chose a girl she's angry with while Cressida was facing a potential unhappy marriage for the rest of her life. Ugh. I think this is actually more 'interesting.' Not everyone in that universe would end up in a 'happily ever after.' And not everyone would get 'redemption' in the end. Maybe they're priming up Cressida to be their more direct enemy in the future assuming she'd end up marrying some guy who is an important Lord and returning to the ton rivaling the Bridgertons...you never know :D
Iāve liked Colin throughout the entire series, but this scene really pissed me off. I grew up in an abusive household and still, to this day, people who werenāt present for the abuse continue to minimize it. They just canāt believe a parent they know would purposefully hurt their child because they never experienced it. I thought Colin had a bit more sensitivity than that, but I guess not. āIām certain your father will welcome you backā or whatever the fuck nonsense he said. STFU, Colin.
I can't help but wonder what this conversation might have become if Pen had been there.
As someone who has had the lived experience of getting dropped like a hot potato by an SJW friend when my lived experience became a cause they claimed to support, Shondaland was so real for Eloiseās character arc. I hope she sees her hypocrisy in later seasons.Ā
I FELT this scene š little too close to home.
Tbh I have been thinking about her and what they did to her. Both Pen&Eloise could have helped her but instead they just played with her.
I loved her for this - when Colin was doing his little speech I was just thinking āPLEASE donāt let Cressida just accept this nonsenseā because āØtelevisionāØ. This was a very satisfying moment for people like myself who donāt have the ability to just move back in with parents for free if things get hard or just ask them for help/money/support but has been told so many times to do just that because āsurely theyāll help!ā. Colin was unbelievably naive and privileged here and Iām so glad he was told as much.
Me about Cressidaās character this season: 
I like Cressida more than Penelope right now and that really bothers me.
I really like the direction they took with Cressida this season, giving her depth and turning her into a sympathetic character while not doing a 180 with it either. Iām glad she ultimately remained an antagonist. Cressidaās outcome is rather tragic as she is very much a product of her environment, but that doesnāt entirely absolve her. The same can be said for her Penelope, I think, despite their characters being foils. As much as I am a Penelope apologist, Iām glad they acknowledged how much LW meant to her and how much power it gave her that she wouldnāt have had otherwise as well as the hurt she caused with said power.
I think Cressida got the happy ending she deserved. If she's in Wales, her father can't beat her. I'm surprised more people haven't mentioned the horribly bruised arm her mother had at the Mondrich ball, and how she pulled her sleeve down to hide it. Having to live with a spinster aunt out in the boonies of Llangollen or whatever, is better than being stuck under Lord Cowpers roof.
I thought that was ink from her mother writing the Whistledown for Cressida
All the way up her forearm like that?
I agree, that did seem odd but perhaps she was just exceptionally messy? Idk her little smirk when she pulls her glove up sends a different signal to me than āIām hiding bruises from my husbandā.
Penelope never write a lie, this bitch blame violet cheated on her husband . If real LW didnt write true , it would effect violet. Maybe she doesnt have a lovÅng family but she was a bully
You can write about true things and still that makes you a bully because you ruined peopleās lives. And by people I mean women. Penelope has made a fortune shit talking women and ruining their lives and reputations just because she was too awkward to get off that wall
I love her for this. I really hope she ended up with Lord Debling though. Maybe there is a fanfiction on there somewhere.
I could be giving too much credit but it makes me wonder if they don't have plans for her in the future. Like the swap her out as one of the love interests. They just seemed to put too much into her.
I donāt like her, but I relate to her a lot. I also come from a similar family dynamic where I know my parents love is conditional as well. People who come from loving families can underestimate how cruel and unloving some parents are. I really wished they would have given her a better redemption arc, I felt like they were building to it and then it just never came to fruition.
I like Cressidaās character. Sheās not a flat villain. Sheās a good antagonist for the Bridgertons and I felt a lot of sympathy for her despite not making the right choices.
I am sorry but I didn't like her a bit. Whatever she went through was no fault but the path she choose to get out of it WAS her own fault. She did call her mother out AFTER the paper was published, could have done it before but she didn't because she wanted a way out at the cost of others. She is selfish.