i have so manyyyyy pls fgjdfj 😭😭 LONG post so you are warned, get some popcorn 🫡🫡
for now, by this ask i'm going to assume you mean them as a couple before they were torn apart which is fine, i have a bit of "prequel" hcs for them as well.
so before i get into this and the other hcs, i want to mention first that i take the fate card reading to heart (if you don't know what i mean, you can read what i mean by the article i wrote here). by that i mean that i trust the fate reading about ross and liz as The Real Deal™️ through a storytelling context. i'm a Christian so naturally, i do not follow it in reality lol
one of the biggest complaints about ross and liz (but moreso ross) is the annoyance of his refusal to let go of his love for her. well i don't see it as that, i see it as his impossibility of letting go of her (and vice versa). ross and liz are not the average loves and there is some supernatural things at play when it comes to them (not enough for a fantasy but it's subtle), so i use that in hand every time i think about them.
how they met:
i totally see them meeting each other for the first time and they're very taken by each other. you can interpret this as love at first sight, but i think of it as just a very intense connection. in the books, it's mentioned that the chynowyths and poldarks actually share a great history together as their families were connected and/or intermarried since the BC times. also in the books, ross meets her when she's 16 (he's 4yrs older than her in there as well which i understand it was normal "of the times" but ummmmmm 😬😬 and understandably, they obviously look much closer in age in the TV show, like 1-2yrs apart) so i both of those things to my advantage. liz moves to cornwall from london at 16 (if you want my character hc analysis of her just ask but that would be leading off rn) and is told by her mother to meet the trenwith family as the stepping stone to getting her a higher place in society via connections. it's actually francis and verity who answer the door and greet her first. ross, 17 at the time, isn't there with them as he's upstairs and they call him down. as he walks down the stairs that's when he and liz meet each other's eyes and that's how the connection starts. by the time he reaches the door and they both exchange greetings the connection is SO intense they almost become frightened of it. they're so young and never had this emotion before, and at such concentration. they have no idea what they're feeling in their small 2 minute greeting before she leaves but it's lasting, of course.
when they realize they loved each other:
i like taking the card reading as my foundation of ross and liz, but not so much that it makes them seem like puppets that have no choices of their own and are completely at the hands of Fate. so while they had an intense connection at first meet, the actual love part isn't until later, i estimate 2yrs ish after. one of ross' biggest positives is his compassion for the helpless, and liz realizes she loves him after he fights off a group of men bullying an elderly woman and her grandson. for ross, i use what the show gives us and what another fan mentioned (i can link you if you want) which is that ross deeply admires liz as a person. on the way home, liz declares to him on a cliff that she's going to resist her destiny as a woman in the 18th century, and by seeing that passion and fire in her that he himself admires he realizes that he does love her, and he would do anything to protect her dream. also, if you're curious imo liz realizes she's in love first and ross soon after.
as a couple:
•one of my favorite things about rossliz is that in the entire show, neither of them confess that they love the other, and yet everyone and their mother knew they were in love. their love is so strong, so true and so factual that it's not necessary for that. i used that to my advantage and in typical rossliz fashion after a dramatic moment they have their first kiss as confirmation instead of it being verbal (it's after liz gets kidnapped, but again that's in the hc character analysis. something for another time). thanks to their intense connection from the start, they don't get nervous first kiss jitters. in fact, they smile at each other as if this a sure thing since forever. a bit mature for a beginning couple, but rossliz are a very mature couple, for the most part.
•in school: i did some small research about some things in the 18th century (yes, i am THAT unhinged sorry) and shared gender schools were a thing around the time ross and liz were born (early 1760s). in addition, there's a small moment in the books when liz watches a moth as a form of small enjoyment and ross mentioned early in S1 that liz has "an enquiring mind" in like the most loving tone ever so dang! yes fine i will make the hc that he supported her school activities 🙄🙄🙄 ross did well in school enough, but it was liz that really loved it and soaked up as much as she could. unsurprisingly, liz really took to nature and tried to take a nature class but couldn't go as far as she could because of her gender, so ross went incognito as a student, giving all the assignments to her and she would give her answers to him to give to the teacher. they never got caught. (i haven't decided if this occurs before or after they become a couple but it doesn't hurt to put it here).
•their trust in each other:
do we need to keep repeating that ross and liz are not the average couple? they had it before they were a couple of course, but their growing trust in each other took the attention of the public. george was childhood friends with both of them, and sometimes liz would run errands or take classes with him etc and ross would be perfectly fine with it. whether george would try anything on liz was no concern to him as liz wouldn't respond to him. it would never cross ross' mind anything of the opposite would happen, not out of ignorance but out of surefire trust of her. and the same is for liz. of course in relationships but in other things too. for example in another hc she, francis, verity and agatha are trapped in a barn that sets on fire while ross is away sailing with his father. suddenly liz smiles and shouts "Ross is here!" completely bewildering the rest as ross should not be back for another couple of days. but she assures them that he's coming and that they should stay at the door. just as the rest are about to protest, ross crashes open the door. my main idea for this hc is in S2 when liz resists george's gifts to her out of loyalty to ross, and then he tells her to accept them anyway and he wouldn't be offended. likeeee this man's trust in her it's incredible i love them sm 😭😭😭
"fighting"
no they don't have the bickering stage among them, but they do have very strong opinions in what they believe. in ross' case, it's more emotional and in liz' case it's more logical and reserved. whenever they have a disagreement, ross loses his arguments all the time because he's too founded in emotion and eventually follows liz' advice. i have this hc as it's stated in the books when ross and liz actually do have a disagreement it always ends with her using common sense and ross feeling stupid that he relies too much on his heart (not that liz makes him feel stupid, just that he regrets his too passionate heart)
miscellaneous:
•during research, i learned that not only is elizabeth an extremely old name (since biblical times) but "Lizabeth" and "Liz" were nicknames around the time ross and liz were born, so naturally he (along with his family) called her that. they all used her full name as they grew into adulthood, but ross fell into calling her that again during the bossliz stage (the era i call for them when they became business partners after francis died).
•in school they both excelled in french and studied under cornwall's local apple tree, ross' favorite spot being lying his head on her lap as she tested him as they ate the fruit.
•not really rossliz but themselves but in extension: geoffrey charles considers them his real parents 🤫🤫
•oh and by the way i DETEST the "love scene" in S2 and it could have gone WAY better, but i think that's for another post as i have extensive thoughts about that. the TLDR is that it's way more consensual and in a much more sympathetic light.
sorry i made you go through all this, but this is the end of the hcs for this page, hope you enjoyed 😭😭
