"be my mistress" is not thAt bad

hear me out,

i understand book Benedict Bridgerton is evil and everyone hates him but this is tv show Benedict Bridgerton. Most fans haven't read the books (i am most fans) so we are talking here about tv show Benedict, my favorite brother, and i'm about to defend him so if you hate him maybe stop reading.

there's 2 key points we both, Sophie and the audience, know that he doesn't:

 

✧ Sophie is actually a lady that was demoted to servant by her cartoonishly evil step mom.

✧ Sophie is the woman in silver.

 

and the 2 main things i see people are mad about:

 

✧ hOW can he not recognize her ??? there's only 1 asian family on the ton

there's only 1 asian family with an important role on the show but i very much doubt they're the only family on the ton. i'm sure we've seen more asian background characters over the seasons.

 

either way, we know this show doesn't treat race as a real thing. i don't even think he knows she's asian:

 

    exhibit A: even at first when his memory is still fresh and the girls ask him to tell them about her, he says everything he remembers and he doesn't mention she's asian. 

 

    exhibit B: when he's looking at the other women's mouths to see of they're her, he's looking at black and white women !! so he literally doesn't know !!! he really thinks it could be ANYone. 

 

plus ! by then end he cant even remember her face anymore, he can't draw her, he's confusing his memories with a white girl that wasn't even at the ball because he wants to find her so badly.

 

and to everyone saying "i could've recognized her", i hope you know, you sound as dumb as the "i wouldn't have looked back if i was Orpheus" people.

 

of course yoU would recognize your friend if they wore a tiny mask over their eyes, you know them !! i can recognize my friends when they're too far away to even see just by the way they walk. i can recognize who just entered my house without even seeing them just by the way they open the door or walk up the stairs. recognizing someone you know is easy. but how could he recognize someone he hasn't seen before in his life ???

 

but i would even go as far as to say: he does recognize her. because he falls in love with her again. so he recognized the important parts, the things he liked about the silver woman, he likes about Sophie. he is in love with both. but he didn't connect the dots because why would he ????? a servant at a ball ?????? that's crazy !

 

✧ why would he ask her to be a mistress that's so mean

 

SHE IS A SERVANT. she can not be a wife. 

 

wE know she's a lady, the silver one ! but HE DOESN'T KNOW !!!!!! he doesn't know.

 

he is a lord in society. he HAS to marry a lady. he can't marry a servant. he knows a lot of men marry women they don't love because it's their JOB, their literal duty. so they end up with a mistress FOR LOVE. 

 

we know he just gave up the silver woman. he gave up his only chance of marrying for love. so when he asks Sophie to be his mistress, he does it because he's in love with her and that's all she can be to him. because she is a servant.

 

we know him, we know his bisexual ass hates society's rules but he still follows them. so far he's only broke the rules in secret. he would never kiss a man on public (even if wants to) because society doesn't allow it, so he does it at queer spaces where its safe and okay. and he wouldn't marry a servant (even if he wants to) because society doesn't allow it ! so he asks her to be his mistress. the only any other way he knows they can be together. 

 

so en su cabeza era espectacular(*), he wasn't trying to be mean or to tell her she's not good enough. from his pov, he's doing this great thing, he's telling her he is in love with her.

 

to Sophie (and us), a literal lady in disguise, this is just a low blow and very sad. she's realizing she could never be more than a servant. she would hate to be a mistress because her mom was one and look how that mess ended up like !!! (another thing Benedict doesn't know btw, the mistress generational trauma). 

 

so, of course, she is mad, sad and disappointed. of course we are as well, we love her !! we know she deserves better ! but we also know if she told him the truth, he would do anything in his power to make her a lady again. 

 

she doesn't tell him tho. he doesn't know. so he's not being mean or evil on purpose. he's genuinely doing the best he can with the information he has for the society he lives in.

 

in my opinion, Colin was way more cruel to Penelope than Benedict has ever been to anyone, including Sophie. and yall seem to love Colin so. idk. maybe give my boy a chance !

 

(breathes) that's it, that's the whole rant. 

 

at the end of the day, this show is about evil rich people being pretentious and stupid, if they were real i would hate them all. so maybe you guys are onto something, fuck Benedict !  

most importantly tho,  i cant wait for the lesbians !! i'm so excited ! god when Michaela Stirling teaches Francesca how to reach the pinnacle it's gonna be so good yall. who cares about Sophie and Benedict really ?

 

 

 

-gif by @mrsbridgerton on tumblr 

(*) en su cabeza era espectacular: it's a spanish meme to make fun of someone doing something really stupid that thought they were doing an amazing thing.