Why isn't Ridge going back to his wife Brooke? (General)

This is one of the few places I've found where I can post about Taylor without getting too much criticism for it. I've watched this show since I was little, and it irritated me to no end how everything harsh under the sun was said about Brooke, while Taylor was held up to be some paragon of virtue even when she did many of the same things Brooke did, or she did far worse. Steffy talks about how great the love is with Tridge, but that supposed great love didn't stop Taylor from letting Ridge almost pay for her crime against Bill. Meanwhile, I can't recall any time during the show's run when Brooke committed a crime and then fled the scene and let Ridge take the fall for it. But Ridge is having a hard time deciding if he should go back home to Brooke? Ridge has a serious problem, and it starts with the reflection in his mirror.

Without insulting Hope -- who had no control over how she was conceived and should never bear the shame of her parents actions -- the circumstances of Brooke's pregnancy with Deacon were completely inappropriate and there are no excuses for it. I've always been disgusted by that storyline. But the point I'm making is that both women were guilty of crossing a line that never should have been crossed. I'm not going to compare the pain Phoebe experienced with the pain Bridget, and later, Hope experienced. Their mothers hurt them and betrayed them, is the point I'm making, and one mother shouldn't get a pass for it just because the circumstances of that betrayal differ from the circumstances of the other betrayals. I'm of the belief that people shouldn't get intimately involved with someone whose been intimately involved with their relatives. Broken up or not. I know polarizing and shocking relationships are a soap staple, but I believe that can be accomplished without the use of semi-incestuous pairings. Just like I think Brooke was wrong for Deacon and Taylor was wrong for Rick, for example, I also think it was vile for Ridge to go after Caroline when she was married to Rick at the time and she'd previously entertained a brief, but unconsummated courtship with Thomas. It was also vile to me how Eric would marry and have children with Brooke (no disrespect to Rick and Bridget for that), seeing as she had feelings for Ridge and she was the daughter of his previous love interest, Beth; he repeats this again by getting involved with Donna, another one of Beth's daughters who had been engaged to Thorne (even if it was only to spite Stephanie). Nick was wrong for his involvement with Bridget and later Katie, after having romanced Brooke. Steffy should have never pursued Liam after almost sleeping with Bill, and she shouldn't have ever married Wyatt for the same reason in addition to her storied history with Liam at that point. Bill was just as wrong for eagerly sleeping with Steffy after she'd been married to both of his adult sons. There are other examples too numerous to name right now. But the gist is that I'm totally opposed to people getting involved with an ex or with the current partner of their relative. To say it's gross is an understatement. I know the cast is small, but that's the show's problem, not the audience's, and just because there's a limited cast, that doesn't mean the relationships should be semi-incestuous.

It's strange how Brooke is still condemned to this day for her affair with Deacon and that encounter with Oliver due to mistaken identity, while Taylor is excused for her fraudulent romance with Rick. Rick was Phoebe's first love, just like Deacon was Bridget's and Oliver was Hope's. It was painfully obvious that Taylor's interest in Rick was to make Ridge jealous -- since she'd been fully aware of the animosity between them -- and to get back at Brooke. She used him as a fill-in for Ridge and then discarded him. Then she turned irate at the possibility that Thomas could be attracted to Brooke at one point. Both mothers betrayed their daughters in one of the worst ways possible, but Taylor still gets praised while Brooke is dragged for filth. Taylor just pressed some sort of reset button with her daughter and then wondered by Phoebe met an untimely end later. Phoebe seemed to be carrying a lot of repressed emotions around about Rick's involvement with her mother, and then him kissing her sister was the last straw. But I always felt Phoebe should have taken her anger out on Taylor even though I understood why she didn't. True, Rick shouldn't have gone that far with Taylor, nor pursued Steffy after the fact. But Taylor owed Phoebe the greatest loyalty between herself and Rick, but she put herself above her child. So the idea that Taylor is better than Brooke is a joke that's not even funny. And I don't even have a horse in this race to say all of this. I'm just tired of Taylor being put on a pedestal over every other woman. That's one reason why I'm not fond of Paris, either -- she's being written very similarly to Taylor, where she can do no wrong despite all evidence to the contrary.

Are we comparing Brooke sleeping with her daughter's husband, behind her back and becoming pregnant with his child to Taylor's affair with Rick after he and Phoebe had broken up? One of these things is not like the other. Taylor is not perfect by any means but she has not slept with her daughter's HUSBAND and bore his child. Until she does that, she will be better than Brooke to me.

Well until Brooke shoots a man in the back and leaves him for dead, she will always be better than Taylor. What kind of cold heartless person does that? Taylor does. She's a poor excuse for a mother, Doctor and human being.