The greatest tweet to come out of this whole adaption was “Dakota Johnston has the face of someone who knows what an Iphone is”. Nothing will ever top that.

Anne was our introvert representation and they turned her into a quirky sarcastic girl boss cliché 😭

seems like the writers tried to make period drama for people who don't like period dramas and then made everyone hate it instead

Netflix’s girlboss trope is suffocating and outdated at this point.

No one wants a stereotype. They want to be understood.

When will costumers and directors understand that the reason we watch period dramas is so that we can enjoy all of those “trappings of the era” that they think won’t appeal to us smh

Book-Anne's tragedy is that she's virtuously doing everything "right" -- being a dutiful daughter, listening to aged counsel, putting others before herself, taking care of the demanding members of her family, being everyone's servant -- and she gets nothing for it.  The implicit promise to "good girls" is that they'll be cherished in return for their submission.  Instead, she gets put on the shelf.  When we meet her at the start of the book, she is aching for love, yet reconciling herself to the life of the unwanted spinster aunt.  And even then, she's trying to do it "right"... of course the spinster aunt plays music at parties, so the young people who still have chances in life can dance.  Of course the spinster aunt stays home with the injured child so the respectable marrieds can fulfill their social obligations.  Of course the lonely "older" woman tries to fill her heart with the affection of children, when she'll never have any of her own.  NetFlix-Anne is not book-Anne.  She has no tragedy, so I wasn't invested in her triumph.

Making Anne a "girl boss" is kind of like telling introverts to be more extroverted.  Just because Anne isn't a Lizzie or an Emma doesn't mean she isn't strong in her own way.

It was so obvious that the writers thought the audience would be too stupid to understand basic human interactions and chemistry

The idea that they thought a snarky Anne is modern, makes it even worse. Anne is many of us now. She is sensitive, vulnerable , depressed , lonely yet she is caring and graceful. She doesn’t roll her eyes at insults to her appearance , she takes them to heart, and we hurt with her. Pride and prejudice was my favorite JA book as a teenager, but persuasion is my favorite through my late twenties and now in my thirties. It is mature and melancholic even with its “happy ending”. It is not easy to translate it into a movie  because it centers around two characters longing and suffering in silence. But this was just atrocious and disrespectful to the young people they say they want to bring in as audience.

Thinking teens and people on their 20's can't relate to characters unless they talk exactly like them is insulting.

Leena Norms described this as “an adaptation only Lydia Bennett would like” and if that doesn’t show you how horrendous it is then nothing will.

I wish making period pieces would note that in 1800s literature, when the word "thin" was used to describe a woman's appearance, it was as a negative, and when she was described as "plump" it implied the opposite. Not that I expect actresses to gain weight to embody historical beauty ideals, but they COULD stop writing plot points in period pieces where women are being fat shamed and continually reinforce the current ideal as one that was as much or more so in the past. It wasn't.

"we want to draw people to Austen" oh by absolutely murdering her writing? perfect

I find it insulting how little credit Netflix give their audience of younger viewers. I first saw pride and prejudice at 9 years old, the language was barely modernised and yet I was utterly drawn in and hooked by the story. Learning about the culture and attitudes of the period was fascinating and offered escapism. No one wants a period drama when everyone acts like it happened yesterday. Persuasion was anachronistic and jarring and just left me completely cold.

When Anne Elliot turned to the camera and said "we're EXES" I felt like someone literally punched me in the face🤣 like where the hell did that come from?! And WHY?!

Why Clueless killed it is because it went fully modern, it didn’t dance around it. But also it matched with Emma, the creator fully read Emma and understood her to translate that gossipy to honest personality into a 1995 teenager! Because Emma is a gossipy teenager, and so is Cher. It’s clear Persuasion was made without reading Persuasion, and like you said, spark notes like

The thing is Jane Austen is already relatable, that’s why her stories are still popular. No need to dumb it down 🤷🏼‍♂️

There is something about this girlbossification of female protagonists that feels paradoxically weak to me. They are too absorbed with whether or not they are fitting the image of what strength should look like that they have no identity of their own. I love how every single one of Jane Austen's protagonists were completely distinct people in their personality, flaws, struggles and desires. They all feel stronger to me because they all grow and evolve on their own terms, not trying to flex and pose to live up to what some marketing exec thinks "strong female protagonist" should look.

I can't believe netflix thought they had to yaasify Jane Austen, as if the books aren't well-loved classics.

Dakota Johnson saying “worse than strangers; we’re exes” genuinely threw me into such turmoil. I only saw that bit out of context, so I was so confused as to how Jane Austen had used the word ‘exes’ and if that was just a normal thing to say during her time period. Only for me to find out it was modernised lol