#darcy's story

[toss-a-coin-to-your-stan-account]

pride and prejudice enjoyers when the main characters make choices based on both their pride and their prejudice

#me when mr. darcy (a very prideful character) complicates the story by acting on his prejudice: HOLY FUCKING SHIT THIS IS WHAT I CAME FOR #mine #pride and prejudice #jane austen #classic literature #literature #books #reading

[ashfae]

The thing about romance is, it makes a good story.

As soon as Neil described season 2 as "quiet, gentle, romantic" I figured we'd be in for it, because as he's the first to point out, writers are liars. And the best way to deceive is with truth.

Season 2 is romantic. The trappings of romance are everywhere. Crowley tries to set up Nina and Maggie by trapping them under an awning during a rainstorm, a classic cinematic bonding technique. Aziraphale's chosen method comes from his beloved books: the ball, the dancing, appearing as a pair in public, hands held as you twirl gracefully with your heart thrilled and racing. If they can set up a sensational kiss that will unlock the happy ever after. They've lived on earth, they've studied the tropes, they know how romance works.

The problem is a story is only a story.

Nina and Maggie had the classic romantic setup completely by accident before Aziraphale and Crowley ever began trying to interfere with them. They get locked in Nina's coffeeshop. They can't escape or communicate with anyone else, they end up talking by candlelight because there's no electricity, Nina offers wine. Maggie mentions how she'd hoped for a chance to talk to Nina, and now here they are. It's every bit as much a standard as what Aziraphale and Crowley attempt to arrange. Blanket scenarios galore exist because of that starting point. We love that story. And there's nothing wrong with that.

But it's still only a story, it's not enough. Because once that moment of connection is over, however lovely it was, all the rest of the world comes flooding back in in the form of dozens of angry text messages. Nina's messy entrapping relationship hasn't magically gone away just because she and Maggie shared a romantic encounter.

And it's so tempting think oh well, that's easy. We'll just give them more romantic encounters and eventually those will overwhelm the rest of the baggage. Must do, because it'll make them fall in love, and once they realize they're in love that trumps all other considerations, right? So it'll be fine. Love Conquers All.

Neil also mentioned Pride and Prejudice.

Darcy knows he's in love early on and makes a disasterous proposal that shows that he has no understanding of Elizabeth's perspective, possibly hasn't even thought about it. They've been meeting in forest lanes for walks, conversing, had tete-a-tetes in the sitting room, danced at a ball. And while his turn of phrase isn't as flattering as he thinks, he's still offering her everything he thinks she wants and needs: affection, security, his good name, wealth, an escape from the embarrassments of her situation, the world. How can there be anything to object to? Why would anyone ever refuse so much of value?

Elizabeth quite rightly cuts him to pieces. He lashes back with a few hard truths of his own and they separate. During that separation, he thinks and he learns. He takes to heart the criticisms she offered, re-examines his assumptions, opens his eyes. Thinks about her perspective and how sometimes the only difference between pride and arrogance is where you're standing. He does the work. When they meet again he tries to demonstrate that he's learned--not in order to court her again (yet), but because the only real apology he can offer, the only one that would have weight, is to show that he's grown, he listened to her. He changed.

Elizabeth of course has her own journey, accepting that many of her own conclusions about Darcy were erroneous because they were formed without her having the full picture to hand, and once she's done that she has to apply it to her own situation as well. She loves her family, but they do place her at a disadvantage on a number of levels, leading eventually to full-out disaster as her younger sister carelessly ruins all of their reputations. It's hard to admit, it's mortifying, but Darcy was offering her a great deal she needs. His offer did have worth for all that she dismissed it as an insult. And as she learns to value his own character more highly, and then as she sees that he did listen to her even though she insulted him so thoroughly...well, she grows too. And when they do eventually come together it's not because of courting and balls. There's a big romantic gesture in his rescue of her sister but even that isn't why they'll get their happy ever after. It was just the catalyst for the conversation. They win because they've learned how to understand each other and how to communicate for the future. How they can strengthen and support each other, how to balance their strengths and weaknesses. The films leave them at the wedding, but the book shows a bit of their marriage too, and during it they keep learning from each other. Their relationship is held up as a superior love story for good reasons.

The end of season one was romantic too. Crowley stopped time rather than face a world where Aziraphale would never speak to him again, Aziraphale walked into hell to protect Crowley, they dined at the Ritz and toasted the world. But then they stopped. Sure they spent time together, talked, enjoyed each other's company. But if they were talking about important things would Crowley still be living in his car? They had a bit of respite but all that real world baggage that exists outside of the romantic moment hasn't been faced, none of it. Four or five years sounds like a long while but for beings who are quite literally older than the earth? That's just an intermission.

Nina's relationship ends, leaving her with a tangled mess; Maggie realises the sweet dream of love she's been longing for isn't as important as the real Nina. They talk. They plan. Nina will sort through her life, get closure, figure out what went wrong with Lindsay and what she wants from a relationship, learn how to ask for respect instead of just bending under her partner's demands. Maggie will support Nina the way Nina needs, which sometimes means helping her get oat milk for the shop and sometimes means giving her processing space. They're on the same page; they're going to do the work. That's why most likely they'll succeed. To quote one of my favourite fanfics: it's not happily ever after, but it's a chance. It's all going to be okay. (The Profane Comedy by Mussimm, who absolutely nailed this theme)

The romance is nice, it's lovely. We need it to keep ourselves going. To give ourselves the dreams that help us get through the days and nights. But it's not the relationship. It's not enough on its own. The wedding can be the grandest most beautiful ceremony ever with doves flying and sweeping music and bells ringing, but that doesn't guarantee the marriage will last.

Crowley and Aziraphale have had their romantic gestures, oodles of them. One wing raised to protect the other from falling stars, another from rain. Shared ground, shared interests, hands offered in friendship and held on a bus. They've tried to get to the same page, they really have. They just aren't there yet. The biggest most important things still haven't been talked about, and season 2 showed there are even more of those big important things than we'd realised.

The show paints Maggie as Aziraphale's foil and Nina as Crowley's, even to the point of Nina casually calling Maggie 'angel'. But Aziraphale's baggage is Nina's. The toxic relationship has to be processed and understood and closed, and it hasn't been, despite season one. Lindsay never really liked Nina very much, for all that they tried to keep her trapped; Heaven never really liked Aziraphale very much for all that he believed in it. They both let themselves be used. But Lindsay left Nina and went to their sister's, whereas now the head of Heaven has reached out to Aziraphale and said here, we can fix this, you can fix this, don't you want to fix this? Others are already writing about that and maybe I'll add to it later, not sure. And Crowley, like Maggie, has had a sweet dream that he has to set aside. Maybe he'll be able to pick it up again eventually, maybe not. But sometimes you offer support by buying oat milk or rescuing your beloved from the legions of hell, and sometimes you do it by standing back while they sort through their shit.

Quiet, gentle, romantic. It was.

But that's only part of the story. Now they have to do the work. They thought they had, but they were wrong, because there's so much they just hadn't touched yet and tried to cover over with relief and sleight of hand and alcohol and forgiveness. The apology dance doesn't mean much without showing that you listened and learned. They've faced so much trauma already and that should have been enough, we wanted it to be enough and so did they and it's such a blow for it to turn out that there's still more to do, that the baggage hasn't just gone away and can't be hidden under blankets or soothed with cocoa. The texts are still coming in and demanding answers.

But it'll be okay. It will. It's still a chance. And one that in the long run makes them better, builds something real that lasts.

The best stories, the ones that last longest and become classics, are the ones that don't end with the kiss under the awning or the blanket scenario or the wedding. They're the ones that heal us while the characters heal themselves. It's hard to accept that there's still more to do. Harder to imagine how it can possibly work out. And yes, bloody frustrating to wait and see.

And we'll get through that interim by telling even more stories. Because the story is never just a story. It's how we get through the work, it's what we tell ourselves so we can do the damn work. Stories are what we cling to and how we remind ourselves we're human and connect. A book is a person you can carry with you. We're not alone, none of us, stories connect us because we love them and see ourselves in them, which means we see each other.

Aziraphale's back up in Heaven to deal with his unfinished baggage; Crowley left his behind long ago and it's clearly going to come back and bite him in the arse however much he tries to go his own way. And they can't help each other with that. Not yet.

But they'll get there. So will we.

#good omens #good omens season 2 #gos2 spoilers #good omens season 2 spoilers #crowley #aziraphale #ineffable husbands #nina #maggie #nina and maggie #stories #romance #relationships #am I projecting here #of course I am isn't that the whole point? #pride and prejudice #elizabeth and darcy #quiet gentle romantic #good omens meta

[hender-ka]

Idk why, but this is so Bridgerton/Pride and Prejudice coded. Now nothing can stop me from writing this story about a single and grumpy lord, bye

(edit: the reader will be curvy, bye)

#pedro pascal #joel miller #delulu #pedro pascal tlou #sag awards #bridgerton #lord #javier peña #fake scenarios #stories #fanfiction #pedro pascal characters #joel miller x reader #anthony bridgerton #bridgerton netflix #pride and prejudice #mr darcy #pride and predjudice 2005 #lets go mr Darcy

[poetryofmuses]

"I crave a love story so great it is talked about for centuries"

#literature #dark academia #dark acadamia aesthetic #darcy #dorian gray #jane austen #aesthetic poetry #dark academia aesthetic #light academia #art journal #love #love story #romance

[bethanydelleman]

I think I figured out the problem with the Enemies to Lover's trope, it has a bimodal distribution. Let me explain!

Most tropes have a normal distribution:

I hypothesize that with EtoL, there is very little middle ground. This is a bimodal distribution:

You either do EtoL well and join the ranks of the immortals, or you crash and burn. I've discussed previously what makes EtoL work, but there seem to be a lot of traps for writers to fall into when it comes to this trope. For example:

the turn being based too heavily on lust (common JAFF trap)

never fully establishing the enemies phase

insufficient apology on one side (almost always the man's) which makes the other's acceptance unsatisfying

the pair have the communication skills of a newborn baby (ei: the misunderstanding could be fixed with a single sentence)

one side is a real asshole but it's excused because of TRAUMA

growth is ignored in favour of acceptance (can work, usually doesn't)

Relationship is clearly toxic, above and beyond the extenuating circumstances/magical premise (The problem isn't that Edward is a vampire, that's part of the premise. The problem is his disregard for Bella's autonomy)

One side gives in because the other is too obsessed with them

Once Upon a Time flew by having Hook feel meaningful remorse for his past actions (the scene with the Little Mermaid got me so good) and establishing begrudging respect between him and Emma, The Mindy Project crashed and burned by not showing sufficient growth in Danny (does he respect her career now or are they just horny?). Parks and Recreation got it by making the leads both good people who just got on each other's nerves because they had different valid approaches. I think Brooklyn 99 is one of those rare mediocre ones, because the enemy stage isn't fully established but the relationship is still satisfying. The Kdrama Alchemy of Souls got it right by having both main characters display an impressive amount of personal growth, while 100 Days My Prince burned because it relied too heavily on obsession and trauma excusing behaviour.

Pride & Prejudice and Much Ado About Nothing show that the beginning dynamic can be completely different, old antagonists vs. first impressions, but the trope can still work if it's done right. The problem is that it's so often done wrong.

So when it's good, it's SO GOOD, when it's bad, it sucks.

#enemies to lovers #tropes we love #jane austen charted #what makes stories work #I am not tagging for the things I insulted in here I don't want to die #pride and prejudice #I think you can argue about whether P&P is true enemies to lovers #since Darcy fell so early #but I think it counts #yes I googled the top EtoL couples and then gave them my own ratings #sometimes I wake up and choose violence

[anghraine]

I saw a post that was like "P&P is about a man listening to the love interest and unlearning his toxicity" and it's similar enough to many others I've seen that I'm just ... aghhhh.

ffs Elizabeth is not the love interest; she is the protagonist of the damn book and P&P is primarily about her character and development and experiences. If you care more about Darcy's, okay; that doesn't mean it's what the book is about.

Yes, Darcy listens to Elizabeth's criticisms despite the circumstances and that's good. But that framing makes it sound extremely one-sided, yet Elizabeth's arc (which, again, is the main focus of the novel) is contingent on seriously considering what Darcy says and drastically overhauling her conceptions of pretty much everyone involved. The listening goes both ways!

Not going to lie, "toxic" and its variants are losing all meaning for me at this point.

#love interest elizabeth bennet might be my peak villain origin story tbh #darcy is one of the most prominent austen love interests but the book still isn't essentially about him #anghraine rants #anghraine babbles #austen blogging #austen fanwank #otp of otps

[lunannex]

“Your hands are cold...”

#they’re soooo elizabeth and darcy coded #<<< friendly reminder that the part of alhaitham’s story quest where we go to his house is titled pride and prejudice #just some food for thought!!!! #my art #haikaveh #kavetham #haikaveh au #(i might draw more of this) #kaveh #alhaitham #genshin impact #genshin fanart #mlm

[gooberdargon]

OOooooOOOoooOoOooooh story of undertale

#story of undertale #disney #disney villains #brokenkareoke #amphibia #phineas and ferb #heinz doofenshmirtz #dr doofenshmirtz #king andrias #emperor belos #darcy amphibia #bill cipher #gravity falls #lord hater

[forpiratereasons]

Do you think we've seen the last of the red silk? I want to say no, because unlikely things like the letter in the bottle and finding the leathers at the bottom of the sea are things that happened, but is this just wishful thinking

i think we have because the red silk was symbolic of something fairly specific - not just ed's heart, but in watching s2, i think i also see it now as the unattainability of love for ed. we're just not those kind of people.

the red silk is the dream of love. the hope of love. he has only a shred of it, only a hint of something that's not his. stolen. passed to him by his mother, but with a warning attached - not just that they aren't the kind of people for fine things, but that they aren't the kind of people for love. ed's dad was violent, abusive, and likely ed's mum felt trapped by that relationship. that's why ed has to kill him - to free her. the scene with the full moon, you wear fine things well, that's a dream. it's a magical moment, it's a fantasy type of moment, and it's gorgeous and beautiful and important to both ed and stede and i love it - but it's not reality for them. not yet.

ed lets go of the red silk to throw away his dream of ever being loved.

but then!

we have stede dressed in red. he first dresses in the red suit - and that's not quite where stede needs to be, is it? he loves it, and i love it for him, i want stede to be able to embrace his fancy clothes-horse side of him, his silk jackets and so on, but it puts distance between stede and the crew. it's gotta go. but there's middle ground here, and he does keep the red shirt, and that!! that red shirt, that works. it's fancy, it's got a frilly lace collar, and it's enough of an invitation for ed to comment, to catalyze a kiss.

it's real. not a shred of something but an entire thing, a shirt, a wearable thing, a useful thing. ed's heart has come back to him, but this time it's just stede. you don't need the metaphor. it's just stede. that's his heart.

#darcy answers #ofmd #our flag means death #gentlebeard #blackbonnet #ofmd s2 #ofmd s2 spoilers #i am honestly also mourning a lot of the symbol heavy things we had in s1 #but i realize why it's happening and how it serves the story

[girlweepinginstairwell]

#i strongly suspect pride and prejudice will win simply because the tumblr girls LOVE darcy and because it’s the book she’s known for really #it was the first book of hers i read so i’m super fond of it too and elizabeth and darcy are among my favorite couples of all time BUT #i personally am casting my vote for persuasion... #i think it’s such a beautiful story & her writing is at its best #jane austen

[thatscarletflycatcher]

The more the time passes, the more convinced I am that a reading of Jane Eyre that omits the theme of mercy as key to the story is incomplete at best and bad at worst.

#jane eyre #i think this is at the root of all the insidious and useless darcy vs rochester comparisons #because ultimately the wrong Austen heroes do is forgivable #the effects of their sins are more or less easily reversable #such as Darcy's pride and rudeness or Wentworth's pettiness #there is mercy being served with atonement #but it isn't a radical mercy #which I think is the point in Jane Eyre #Rochester's attempted bigamy is beyond justification #it can only be understood as sourced in stupidity and immaturity rather than in true wickedness #it can also be understood as part of the way he was raised up and the sins of his own father #but cannot be justified #Rochester can only be either hated and shunned or loved and forgiven #there's no possibility of indifference #the characters that create the most unhappiness to themselves and others in this novel are those who live without mercy #and those who act with mercy the opposite #Rochester's redemption is possible because he has shown mercy to others #at least sometimes like Adele and his first years with Bertha #st John can have everything in his favor and yet his mercilessness makes him a figure of fear for Jane #Jane's deliberate choice to show mercy again and again IS essential to the story #Jane Eyre is a bildungsroman AND a romance because of it #readings that seek to turn Rochester into a complete forever villain #i.e. he is a liar and he actually tortured Bertha into madness #are ultimately readings that want a reason to reject any sort of mercy for him #by making him incapable of good and repentance

[hycinthrt]

if theres is one thing i feel like the 2005 pride and prejudice movie did not come close to portray as well as the 1995 series did was how absolutely MORTIFYING the netherfield ball was. i have never felt so much second hand embarrassment watching a scene oh my god the whole thing was a mess and its supposed to be a mess because this, this was the reason mr darcy was so determined to get bingley the hell out of there

LIKE AHGSJDJDJDHDJ SO MANY THINGS IN THIS SCENE

every bennet family member doing their own embarrassing shit on their corner of the room, elizabeth going through the five stages of grief, darcy looking at everything with a face of complete horror, bingley giving uncomfortable side eyes while trying to keep his 😀 face. it was a train wreck, one of those scenes from a reality show where everything was going wrong

i love you you beautiful embarrassing painful scene

#darcy could not handle the cringe #i love the 2005 movie to death but the 1995 version has so much of the absurdity of the story i love it sm #nothing to see here #pride and prejudice #pride and predjudice 1995 #jane austen #literature #elizabeth bennet #fitzwilliam darcy #mr darcy #colin firth #mr bingley

[embeccy]

"You have bewitched me, body and soul, I love you."

- Jane Austen

#foryou #tumblrpost #source: tumblr #quotes #literature #quoteoftheday #poems and poetry #poetry #love quotes #mr darcy #elizabeth bennet #jane bennet #jane austin quote #jane austen #pride and prejudice #love language #love story #love #lovers #in love #feelings #true love #i love you #book quote #booklover #book quotes #bookworm #books & libraries #booklr #books

[darth-sonny]

kraangified!leo but he gets kraangified as kraang prime instead of just a normal brute

#had a theory that the huge ass eye in the middle of the throne room was kraang prime and the one the mad dogz fought was subprime #and since it's universally agreed that leo was in the prison dimension for FAR longer than just ten minutes i thought: #''why not make a leo possession story??'' #it's gonna be heavily inspired by the darcy arc from amphibia #tmnt #teenage mutant ninja turtles #rottmnt #rise of the tmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #leo hamato #kraang prime #prime leo au #my art #sonny draws

[funkyllama]

"The Way We Were,"

Eloise, together with her Cousin, Raheem, and Viola visit the Château de Saint-Cloud as it's open to the public for the Summer Season. Little to their knowledge, Philippe is arriving home from a ride around the surrounding grounds.

Act Three, Alternate of Scene Thirteen: "LAKESCENELAKESCENELAKESCE-" This scene was ripped from Pride & Prejudice 1995 and features Prince Philippe from @empiredesimparte. While I'm on a bit of an impromptu hiatus, I think I should show ya'll the original Scene Thirteen, aka the catalyst of me scrapping everything I had planned for the last time ;-; It's also the only scene I saved from said alternate story >:D

[Eloise] Prince Philippe!

[Philippe] Your Majesty-! I uh...

[Eloise] I didn't expect to see you, we heard the House was open. I should have never thought-

[Philippe] I'm in town for business. I presume Prince Lenerd is well?

[Eloise] Ah- Yes! He's very well. Thank you, Sir.

[Raheem] Do you think they're dating?

[Viola, Wispers] Idiot! They could probably hear that.... but, totally.

[Philippe] Where are you staying?

[Eloise] A friend of a friends, it's quaint compared to your... business.

[Philippe] Oh. Yes, of course, Mhm. Well- I've just arrived myself. And your couisn is doing fine?

[Eloise] Yes, Indeed.

[Philippe] Mhm. You'll have to excuse me.

#he was once Darcy. now he's Dark (colonel) Brandon. #sims 4 screenshots #the sims 4 #storytelling #royal simblr #sims story #ts4 royalty #ts4 story #ts4 storytelling #simblr #sims #sims 4 #rodchester extras

[anghraine]

Even for me it's a petty nerdy complaint, but there's a thing where a bunch of historians were consulted to construct an image of what Darcy would look like at the actual time, and:

They went with a 1790s setting for P&P, which I strongly approve of. I think P&P very definitely shows its 1790s origins (iirc it was originally written in 1796-7), both in details and in the pretty stark contrast between the setting/atmosphere of the earlier and later Austen novels.

Buuuut while I am not a historian (and I have gripes with even literary historicism despite using it in my dissertation lol), I think it's a mistake to give him longish powdered hair. I have reasons!

See, I actually like the idea of pushing back on popular images of Darcy. I support this on general principle! But the de Bourgh-Darcy-Fitzwilliam family are pretty blatantly coded as Whigs IMO. And by the point that Austen was writing P&P, Pitt the Younger (well, Parliament, but ...) had recently instituted an unpopular tax on hair powder. Unless I'm totally misremembering, many Whigs of the Fitzwilliam type stopped using hair powder as a quick result (eventually, it would die out altogether, but that hadn't happened yet).

Now, it is possible for P&P to be set several years before it was written, which would place it before the powder tax and make that image of Darcy more likely. And you could argue for that based on some of the militia/Brighton stuff, but I think its setting is more of a loose "now" (when written) than assigned to a particular year, especially considering that only some of the dates can be reconciled to any single almanac year.

So I would place the beginning of the book at or after 1795, and if the Internet can be trusted in this respect, the Act was instituted in May of 1795, and would be months past by the time Darcy shows up in Meryton.

So in my personal opinion, Darcy would have worn hair powder when he was younger, sure! But by P&P? I don't think so. He's young, opinionated, and comes from an extended family pretty clearly referencing one of the most powerful Whig families of his time. He'd probably enjoy thumbing his nose at politicians he doesn't like or respect, lbr.

#also while i've written darcy as blond for personal amusement #my actual headcanon is that he has black hair and would thus be pretty striking in a powder-wearing community #which i imagine meryton etc does lean towards #1790s p&p supremacy though #anghraine babbles #long post #austen blogging #austen fanwank #lady anne blogging #fitzwilliam darcy #the fitzwilliams #i think it'd be fun to have a pride and prejudice adaptation that doesn't change the story but does lean into political context #the first scene is with the bennets. the next is darcy and fitzwilliam getting their hair cut off #(bingley is hair powder agnostic)