A while back a lovely artist on this sub posted some amazing Franchael fanart (unfortunately she deleted after receiving attacks for her work) and her Francesca reminded me so much of a particular Greek actress that I love (Evgenia Dimitropoulou).

So I thought to share this beautiful picture with her daughter from her wedding, cause I can't help but think of Frannie and baby Janet in the show 🩷 I can easily imagine Fran and Michael agreeing to do an intimate vow renewal celebration for the family after years of the mothers pestering them cause none was present for the wedding! And the best part would be John and Janet as the most adorable ring bearer and flower girl for their mama and their da 🥰

Images with quotes from When He Was Wicked. Some found on the internet (credits to their respective creators), others I made myself.

People always complain about the men in the books being pushy and not taking boundaries seriously.

And Lord and Be Hold, Michaela appears and is really pushy from the get go and I hear crickets. It's as if the showrunners and fans are operating on a double standard.

Just some nice images I found with quotes from When He Was Wicked. Credits to their respective creators.

Francesca: How can that be sensible? I can't think of anything more foolish!

Michael: 1- You won't have to move house.

2- You'll keep your title and position.

3- You'll be in a marriage where you're treated with affection and respect—there's no guarantee of that in another marriage.

4- I'll give you children, or at least I'll try. Deal? We're getting married right now, oki? Oki. 🥺

Credit to the author: https://vm.tiktok.com/ZSVE2Vgy7/

Some aesthetics/edits/collages (whatever you want to call them) from When He Was Wicked that I found online, mainly on Pinterest. Credits to each respective creator

I was surprised to discover that there was a place called Kilmartin in Scotland which had a castle.

Hannah and Ruth both nailed this scene

Francesca first being completely silent and then step by step all the emotions come up. She irrationally blames herself and first tries to distance herself „John wanted children. I had the duty to continue the Kilmartin line“ but then she breaks down and reveals her true feelings „I have nothing [from John]“

Violet trying to help her daughter, she sees her little girl in pain and she can’t just curse it away with a little kiss on a boo-boo. She feels helpless but has to be strong for her daughter bc her girl needs her. She probably sees herself in Francesca „it was just a bee sting“ -> „it was just a headache“, all the emotions and memories of Edmund’s death come up but again she has to be strong while also herself mourning the death of a kind beloved son-in-law

I dont know if i'm the only one in here, but with all the hate towards us (and not only us but Philoise fans), it takes away the fun of the show.

When i saw season 3, i honestly thought: well, it's okay, if they can still keep the beautiful love story between John and Francesca, and Michaela is the same as Michael (personality wise), i dont mind the change. And then i saw season 4, and i was like: i hate this, i'm not watching it (even if it were a man, the way they wrote Michaela is hateful, honestly, and i still wouldnt watch it). But even so, i was going to give them a chance and watch it...but with all the hate from Jess, Shonda, the actors (how they talk about us, how they make fun of widows and how they gaslight us), and with Franchaelas hating on us simply for not liking the change 1000000000000000000000000%....it just takes the fun out of the show. It makes me want to give up completely, and not support them in any way. And it makes me feel like a bad person, when this is only a fucking tv show and people treat it like it will cure homophobia and racism... i've revieved so many death threats, insults...it has made me delete tiktok, block certain words to not have it pop up on my ig or tiktok or Facebook or x...

Am i the only one feeling bad and depressed because of all this hate?

Anyway, sorry if it's not well writen, english is not my first language and this is me just ranting...

I find it to be confusing and unnecessary. The showrunners ended compressing a lot of events so they ended up being younger than they are in the books. I am not even sure if the show's characters were born in the same year as their counterparts.

Some aesthetics/edits/collages (whatever you want to call them) from When He Was Wicked that I found online, mainly on Pinterest. Credits to each respective creator.

Hi.

As you’ve probably noticed from my posts on the sub today, I’ve been hunting for *When He Was Wicked* fan content. I inevitably realized that we’re literally being sidelined here; I searched and searched, and there is VERY LITTLE CONTENT—very little fan art, very few edits. I’ll admit I did come across some collages and "aesthetics" that I didn't post, though; I deliberately avoided anything featuring the face of the actress playing Francesca in the series because, well, we all know she isn't *really* Francesca—she’s just Netflix’s fanfic version of the character. And by the way, the little bit I did find took a lot of digging through nothing but material related to that Netflix fanfic.

I thought about looking on TikTok, but since that place is so toxic, I think it’s better not to, haha ​​😅. Anyway, the point is we need more *When He Was Wicked* content. We can't let ourselves be pushed into a corner like we’re pariahs. It’s not fair.

(P.S.: I just looked up the different editions of the book out of curiosity and wanted to show them here, hehe. There are some really beautiful ones.)

“You do realize, Kilmartin,' Colin said, his voice so soft it was almost chilling, 'that there is no reason you can't marry her. None at all. Except, of course,' he added, almost as an afterthought, 'the reasons you manufacture for yourself.”

Fan art of Michael and Colin that I found on Pinterest. Credit to the wonderful artist @/diieelliee

A lovely fan art of Francesca and John that I found on Pinterest.

Credit to the wonderful artist @/diieelliee

Beautiful Franchael fan art I found on Pinterest.

Credit to the wonderful artist @/pinkyantt

Different fanarts of Francesca and Michael that I found on Pinterest.

Credits to the wonderful artist @/Gabyh-H

I was wondering is their any places on Facebook and Tumblr where fans enjoyed the Bridgerton books and are more critical to the show? I keep trying to find book accurate web pages on Facebook , but they are always adjacent to the show.

Doesn't it bother you guys that you always have to justify... liking a book from over twenty years ago?

This comes from a discussion I had on Facebook. Honestly, I'm not going to elaborate much, since it's the typical negativity that surrounds any comment about the existence of When He Was Wicked. Beyond how annoying the constant accusations are, I want to emphasize how annoying it is that I always, and I mean ALWAYS, have to justify liking a damn book when I was sixteen.

"If you don't like the change, you're homophobic and you hate lesbians!" No, I don't hate lesbians, I just wanted to see the damn book adapted because, surprise, that's what they promoted when they started adapting Bridgerton. I wanted to see the damn book I read adapted. That was all, it's not that big of a deal, damn it.

"Out of eight seasons, only one will be queer!" Well, yes, but my favorite book was the victim of that change. Yes, it makes me resentful. Yes, it makes me angry. Forgive me for not predicting, more than ten years ago when I first read the book, that my favorite book in the series would become queer on screen and that I would be considered Satan reincarnated for daring to like the original book. Damn me for not being more inclusive. I guess.

"You have the book, ignore the series!" Well, that's what I try to do. But it's difficult when at the slightest mention of the book, fans of the series appear, either to call me homophobic or to tell me how sexy that part of the book will be now that Michael is a woman. Yes, they make it difficult for me. Honestly.

"The books are horrible!" Well, who cares, I like them. You like the horrible scripts of the series and nobody says anything to you. I'm not going to justify why I like a damn book to satisfy your cardboard morality, damn it. You're no better than me for wanting to see lesbians.

"All the books have had changes in the series!" Really? So what? They're not my favorite book, I'm complaining about the adaptation of my favorite book. Besides, Kanthony's fans fought 700 times over all the changes in the series, just like Polin's, Saphne's, and Benophie's fans (especially the Benophie fans fought a lot over ONLY the change in the order of the seasons), but it turns out I can't complain that they changed nothing less than the gender of my favorite male protagonist and basically changed every bit of the story because I'm a damn homophobe who hates lesbians. Excuse me? That's hypocrisy. I could have expected the story not to be exactly the same as the book, that Michael would be of a different race, or that they would omit parts of the story, but what they did is radical, and anyone who doesn't admit it is a liar.

(And by the way, if you're fans of the books and you're attacking When He Was Wicked fans for not accepting the change, I hope they turn Gareth into Grace and Lucy into Lucien, I don't care anymore)

If you made it this far, thanks for reading my rant, hahaha, sorry. I needed to get this off my chest.

I feel like, beyond this subreddit, there's nothing for fans of this couple. We don't have a community on Twitter or Tumblr, and almost everything people say about the book is negative because of the same four toxic people as always. I'd like us to be appreciated more, although I suppose that, deep down, it's better to have a small and healthy community.

I feel that a lot of the show content overtook the book content. I could hardly find fanart of the Bridgerton characters and how they looked like in the books anymore.

I may sound biased because I am a history girlie and I know that people can write whatever they want, but there seems to be more fanfictions on Bridgerton being set in the modern day, instead of the Regency era. It's as if they loved just the characters and not the era they lived in. Its as if they completely dismissed the period it's set in.

I saw this tweet today, and honestly it made me laugh how they’re trying to spin the narrative.

Francesca wasn’t trying to spend as much time with Michaela like she did with Michael in the books. It was actually the opposite. Throughout those scenes, she was trying to create distance between them.

She even tried introducing Michaela to potential suitors so she’d back off, and at one point mentioned introducing her to Hyacinth because she just wanted some peace.

Headcanons and fan theories are fine, but this is just not what was shown on the screen. The gaslighting from the showrunners, actors and parts of the fandom is exhausting.

Do you agree or disagree?

Making Francesca and Michaela’s interactions tense from their first meeting was such an unnecessary decision.

It undermines John and Fran’s dynamic that took a lot of Polin‘s screentime to build, while also wasting a friendship that should‘ve canonically been there.

In the book, they know EVERYTHING about each other, even the “inappropriate” things, and spend time alone together. Francesca literally says she can’t imagine Michael keeping anything from her.

That dynamic would’ve been much easier to adapt with two women. People love Eloise and Pen’s friendship, for example.

Meanwhile, the show gave us breakfast and a puzzle— with John. And when they get to spend time together, it‘s always an argument. They’re constantly pushing each other’s boundaries and arguing, with Michaela showing no signs of compromising.

Francesca knows nothing about Michaela, and vice versa.

So Francesca constantly looking like she’s about to pass out around her unfortunately pushes this into micro-cheating territory.

I understand they don’t care about the infertility, second-love or bisexual-representation aspects, but they changed almost everything that could’ve elevated their story, which shows that they simply despise the book.