viscount anthony bridgerton (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
meetatdawn) wrote2024-06-18 08:40 pm
meetatdawn) wrote2024-06-18 08:40 pm
duplicity app;
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Name: Anthony Bridgerton Door: Left Canon: Bridgerton (Netflix) Canon Point: S1EP8 after Colin leaves for his tour Age: 28 Appearance: Here. History: History at the wiki. Personality: Positive Trait: Ardent Anthony never does anything by halves when it comes to those he cares about. This is seen most clearly with his family, who he will do anything to protect. In the first season, he even goes so far as dueling Simon when Simon refuses to marry Daphne after he's been caught with her in a garden. Although his siblings later poke fun at this (in season three joking, "What are you going to do, duel your own brother?" when he's shocked about Colin's engagement), it isn't a minor thing. Dueling is illegal, of course, and there's a very real outcome where he could die since he's such a terrible shot. But more than that, it pits him against his eldest and best friend, a man who clearly knows almost everything about him. Anthony is emotional about all of it, even if those emotions tend to come out looking like anger: he's worried about Daphne; worried about the potential ruin to the rest of his family (and how that would affect their younger sisters' marriage prospects); deeply angry at Simon, who he'd already told not to go after Daphne; and also upset that he has to ruin such an important friendship to save his sister. It comes from a sense of duty, but a duty that is his only real way to express his feelings towards his siblings. An ardent, occasionally overzealous love that they may not always understand. indeed, his gestures are often misunderstood. In season two (past his canon point), he pays for Benedict's admission to art school, ensuring he is accepted. To Anthony, this is supporting him and doing all he can to make sure Benedict is happy. To Benedict, all Anthony has done is ensure that he isn't judged for his own talent. Anthony works hard as the Viscount ultimately not for status, but to take care of his family and make sure that they have every advantage possible, in a love language expressed through acts of service and rarely words, which at times obscures his devotion. But it is no less real for the clumsy way he shares it. When he chooses to share his feelings with those outside his family, they burn just as strong. For the first half of season one, he leaves Siena with a trail of broken promises until at last he realizes how in love with her he's been the entire time. He tries (and fails) to bring her with him into society and having got the courage to do so despite what it might mean for him in terms of status, he's devastated when it doesn't work out. He declares at the end of season one that he's going to do away with love altogether, and just marry for duty. To Anthony, there really isn't a middle ground, when his feelings are so strong (again, even if he doesn't necessarily know how to express them). He of course does eventually marry for love, and his expressions of that love are all ardent, all about how much his love for her consumes him. And the love they end up having together is strong and obvious to everyone. Negative Trait: Controlling The problem, of course, with harboring such strong feelings and not knowing how to properly express them is that Anthony ends up controlling of the people and things around him, desperately trying to do what's "best" for them (according to his definition) in a belief that will make them happy. In is in part a coping mechanism after his grief in losing his father and not really being able mourn him. He watched his father die young from a bee sting, something entirely out of their control. His mother fell to pieces but told him that he could not; that he had to protect his siblings, shield them from seeing their father. Make them happy and control the situation. He did so well that Daphne tells him he never cried that day--he did, but he never let them see it. His father's death meant that he also became the Viscount at a very young age, well before he should have. When he went to gather up his siblings, he was also asked to make decisions about the funeral and about the estate. Anthony was not given time to process his father's death, he was told the only thing he could do was get to work and fix things. At the same time, his mother became very depressed and so he had the run the household alone without her input for some time, which was a lot of weight suddenly thrust on his shoulders. That weight--that requirement to control things--is a constant companion for him. After Daphne's debut, he follows her like a hawk and disparages nearly all the men who might marry her, trying to ensure that the outcome is favorable in terms of status. He forgets that love should be a part of it too, and instead, focuses solely on what will set Daphne up for the future. And in so doing, he scares off nearly all her suitors and causes Daphne to feel like she cannot talk to him, once she starts to receive unwanted attention from Berbrooke. It's no wonder that Daphne feels like working with Simon makes the most sense, when Anthony is trying so hard to control everything, he forgets about her own feelings. It's that kind of control that makes it difficult to see how much he cares (or perhaps makes it seem like he cares too much about the wrong thing), and it is something his siblings remark on throughout the seasons, even after he finally deals with his grief in season 2, because it becomes such a fundamental part of him. That same control extends to his work as Viscount. Anthony works hard in his position and he's very good at finances. In season two, we get a full montage about the massive amount of paperwork he deals with to take care of the household and their land holdings. We often see Anthony in his office late at night working trying to be on top of everything and control everything so that it all works as it should. It's what he was told to do from the moment his father died, and it's a duty he takes very seriously. Negative Trait: Rakish Anthony's major vice is fucking around. (Okay, he also gambles at the club and drinks but never to his detriment.) He's a Rake with a capital R, seemingly uncaring for the rules of society and instead perfectly fit to fuck whomever he pleases. This is a negative trait--it's not just about the freedom of having sex, it means he's a bit of a regency fuckboy. He's gotten quite the reputation for it, as well, known for his days (and questionable company) in Oxford and after. His servants don't seem surprised when he takes a detour to fuck his mistress against a tree. He even checks his watch while this happens, to make sure he isn't late for Daphne's debut. His mother chides him for his two separate apartments outside of their home, which he clearly uses to fuck around with. It's a strange duality to at once be so concerned about his siblings and their standing and then also to completely ignore those rules when it comes to himself. It is, in part, privilege, and in another part hypocrisy, and also his only real way to deal with all of his pent up feelings and frustrations, the one thing he allows himself. But for as much as he claims it is entirely without meaning, it clearly isn't. He's in love with Siena and during the first season we never see him sleep with anyone else, despite his reputation. (In the second season he pays several women for sex since he's sworn off love--another montage.) He also tells Simon he'll never marry or sire an heir since he has brothers to do that, but that's something he clearly does not mean (after all, he's the viscount and the firstborn son of a firstborn son nine times over). But Anthony seems to take comfort in the idea of delaying this one bit of duty. Of having this little bit of control over his personal life, that he might have space to not be the Viscount, but to be himself. Even if it just delaying the inevitable. Negative Trait: Perfectionist Despite being a rake, Anthony still tries to maintain an image of perfection. It's a strange thing to be both in society, but Anthony somehow manages it--something we're told at multiple points when other characters ask him if it's tiring to be so perfect. Somehow Anthony truly manages to maintain both sets of reputations: a rake, and yet, the perfect viscount. The drive to be perfect is related to his need to control things--sort of the logical end of turning that same desire on himself--but it is farm more personal, and far more constricting. Whenever people talk to him about being perfect, it really is questioning how he can keep it up and whether it wears on him. Simon also points out that it's a bit of a veneer, that Anthony ends up leaving a trail of broken promises because in his attempts to be perfect he occasionally loses sight of things--like not giving Daphne enough safety or the right kind of support for her to talk about Berbrooke. But Simon also guesses it right for what it is--that Anthony is trying to be perfect so that his father would be proud of him. Anthony is trying to fill the impossible shoes of his father, who he looked up to a lot, and feels that he constantly comes up short. There's nothing less than perfect that will do, and so if all he can do is seem like he's perfect, then he has to settle for that. Powers and Abilities: He's just a regular human man. He can balance books and is so incredibly bad at shooting it is almost a power to be that bad. Inventory: (1) his father's pocket watch, (2) his pistol, and (3) an additional set of clothes (fancier, for evening events) Samples: Here. |
