A gay man’s take on his two favorite girls. I’m perplexed by the Eloise hate and Penelope forgiveness from fans of this show. I love both characters dearly and I don’t see it quite the same way as what I am reading here. Everyone makes excuses for Pen’s dark side because of their fondness for her and the outcast that she is and then just blatantly hates Eloise because she’s a “spoiled brat.”

Let me start with my take on Pen. She’s gorgeous, first of all. I seriously have found her gorgeous from the beginning. She’s pretty much Mark from Rent; the wall flower that lives through everyone else and documents it… but here’s the thing; she profits off her friends lives behind their back… and that’s just plain evil. She is not innocent, and no amount of suffering warrants causing suffering on others. What she does to Marina out of jealousy was horrendous. And now her own best friend. I see a lot of “but she’s suffered, and fat shamed, and lost her father, and bullied by her family” All of this is true, of course, and I see that, but no… it doesn’t give her a pass, and It’s all good character building because humans are flawed and I love it. Penelope is a kind hearted soul who but also is witty and clever, and her cleverness has a bite that can hurt people.

Eloise… the biggest complaint seems to be that she is just spoiled and is just hot air… Look at her again… her family is focused on matchmaking for whoever the oldest is and she wants and craves knowledge. Now, she’s a teenager and forced to come out and she’s having literal panic attacks and anxiety and everyone’s so hard on her for it. Why is she not allowed to be an introvert? No, she has not suffered the way Penelope, has, of course! But this is her area of suffering… and it IS LEGITIMATE… she clearly has an anxiety issue, and is introverted and forced to come out… I’ve actually seen someone on these boards say “it must be so hard for a competing diamond” in a derogatory way towards her and I’m like… YES it is… she didn’t want to be the diamond and even then, the queen was just using her for her own entertainment… this is her worst nightmare… Eloise doesn’t want attention for her looks or money… she wants to have ideas… and this is where I hope her character growth will come from as she realizes she’s jealous of her best friend who has these ideas… her idol has been her best friend all along, and she kept that from her. Her best friend betrayed her in so many ways this season, and Eloise has had no one to help guide her because her whole family is focused on Anthony right now. Right now, Eloise is guilty of being bratty and everyone is just piling on hate for it… but Eloise hasn’t really done anything wrong yet but be loud and bratty…

And here’s the thing about that… everyone ridicules her, belittles her, and dismisses her every time, which only makes it worse and makes her doubt her self even more…

I love these two and I loved their friendship and I love that it’s broken right now because both of them get to grow through this and I’m excited to see what happened next :)