#ill bring the wine
it’s interesting how both bridgertonandour flag means death approach the aristocracy and high society with almost exactly the same concept: “this is a space full of unspoken social contracts bound by unwritten rules of ‘correct’ behaviour, forged through traditions you will never understand, and if you deviate from it in any way, you will be socially punished”.
andbridgerton whole-heartedly markets this as the central premise for a ~*~romantic escapist fantasy~*~, where the fantasy is the fulfillment of those contracts through successfully navigating that society – sure, you can break rules to “follow your heart” but the key aspect of that escapism is still working to empower yourself within those social constructs, and within socially acceptable parameters of sexuality and gender expression.
meanwhile,our flag frames it as a space that systemically sets you up for trauma – where the punishment is a form of interpersonal violence, where the rules are a framework for abuse of power, where the victory is when you either defy it, defeat it, or escape from it. mary thrives in her widowhood, stede is completely freedwhen he fakes his death, and highest catharsis in episode 5 isn’t ed successfully navigating the social rules of the dinner party but when stede burns it to the ground. it’s the acknowledgement that these rules are made by power and are used as enforcementsofpower and to defy it is to take that power for yourself.
like. these two shows are, on a base-level, similar premises: historically inaccurate romance-centred lighthearted shows, but it truly demonstrates how the difference between queer-centric and straight-centric romance media is a ravine.
