Oh, thank you!

I liked what we saw of Dudley's ambitious and snarky side in 3x13 and I'd quite like scenes of him and Elizabeth just discussing politics. Like the conversation where they discuss what to do with Gideon. Something in the vein of when Liz says he's the only man in England who can beat her at chess. I love that kind of…

Yeah, IKWYM—that difficulty of abstraction is part of what I find interesting about the whole thing, b/c I've watched a ton of shows that concentrate on women navigating "soft power" (i.e. indirect power through men that relies on presenting oneself as an object of romantic/sexual interest, often as a Madonna figure),…

One thing that did unequivocally disappoint me about the second half of S3 is how Greer and Lola were written off.

Ha ha, I loved that scene too. "So what are your plans, now that you're no longer engaged?" "I don't know, I didn't think it was up to me. Seems that the queen's been making most of my life decisions of late." :DDD

Oh yeah, I get you. It's just the conversation of, "The show wants us to think XYZ" is a pet peeve of mine with fandom in general.

UGH YES. One of my favorite moments for them was when they sat down to a game of chess in 3x12. And I really love Dudley's reaction shots when Elizabeth has a classic Liz moment, even in this ep when she was like, Not now, I have to concentrate on taking Scotland! and he just gives this wry smile. I LOVE THAT.

That's exactly what I'm saying, though—I see people talk all the time about "The message the show/writers are trying to send" and I think viewers in general are way too confident about being able to read the writers' minds. I'm basing that on experiences I've had with multiple shows, and from what I've seen audiences…

I wasn't disappointed that Elizabeth and Dudley didn't get a moment of happiness, but I am terribly sad that it seems they've written off Dudley. I LOVE their scenes. So so much. 3x13 was probably my favorite ep for them. Or maybe 3x12. Hell, I love it all. So yeah I wish we could see more of Dudley next season (I…

I'm appreciating Mary and Gideon narratively precisely because they're not appealing as a couple in the traditional sense. It removes the romanticism from the equation to strip bare the reality—that Mary's way of politicking relies on using her body and her sex to win men over to her side. That's true for a lot of…

Over the years I've come to be extremely skeptical of anyone's claims that "The show wants us to think X" or "The story wants us to think Y." Honestly… how do you know? A lot of the time it seems to me like the audience projecting its own judgments onto the text.

1) Seconding the love for the "What is love, if not sacrifice?" line from Elizabeth. It's a line that's unthinkable coming from most other female protagonists I know, and it says a lot about the kind of person Elizabeth is. To view marriage not just to any man, but a man she loves overwhelmingly, as a SACRIFICE,…

I completely disagree with so many of your points.

I wasn't pleased by the turn taken by Cecil and Elizabeth either, but I'm willing to keep an open mind because the show has still stuck to one thing regarding Elizabeth, which is that at no point has any of her political success depended upon a man valuing her as a sexual or romantic object. This makes her the…

I completely disagree about Mary.

I'm all for people and characters having complex and conflicting motivations, I just don't think Rachel is such a case when it comes to the forged note. We saw in the previous episode that she justified bringing Kirk to set and springing him on Mary and her daughter by saying it could help Mary get past the abuse,…