HOT TAKE! Ridge Forrester Has Cut a Thirty-Year Path of Destruction Through L.A. and Keeps Getting Crowned the Romantic Hero

RIDGE FORRESTER IS THE REAL VILLAIN OF B&B AND WE HAVE THE RECEIPTS

TL;DR: The show sells Ridge Forrester as the great romantic hero of B&B, the destiny, the dressmaker, the prize two women have fought over for decades. Look at the actual record, the cheating, the waffling, the violence, the secrets, and a different man emerges. We are making the case that the leading man is the most consistent source of harm in L.A., and that the halo was never earned.

The Destiny Sales Pitch

Here is the story B&B has told for almost forty years. Ridge Forrester is the dashing dressmaker, the heart of Forrester Creations, the man whose love is so powerful that Brooke and Taylor have spent decades orbiting him like he is the sun. He is the one we are supposed to root for. The destiny. The hero who always, eventually, does right.

We are here to call it what it is: a remarkably effective public relations campaign for a man whose résumé reads like a rap sheet. Strip away the swelling music and the soft lighting, and the leading man of L.A. is the single most reliable engine of wreckage on the canvas. The show has gaslit us into mistaking the source of the chaos for the victim of it.

The Cheating Is Not a Phase, It Is the Pattern

Let us start with the romance the show is so proud of, because the receipts are brutal. Ridge proposed to Caroline Spencer out of spite, then was photographed sleeping with a former fling before the wedding. He spent decades ping-ponging between Brooke and Taylor, claiming undying love for whichever woman was in front of him. While engaged to Katie, he kissed Caroline Spencer II. While engaged to Brooke, he kissed Quinn in a San Francisco hotel and was caught rubbing her leg in a steam room. He kissed Shauna while married to Brooke, then drunkenly married Shauna in Vegas.

And the Taylor of it all is its own indictment. He cheated on Brooke by kissing Taylor, then hid a whole string of kisses, Barcelona included, from his wife for the better part of a year. He slept with Taylor while still legally married to Brooke. This is not a man torn between two great loves. This is a man who treats vows as suggestions and lets two women bleed for the privilege.

The Body Count Behind the Charm

The romance is only half of it. The other half is the violence the show keeps waving off as passion. The documented record has Ridge attacking Bill Spencer repeatedly, on a desk, at an altar in Dubai, in the Sky Lounge, and attempting to drop him out of a helicopter. He punched Deacon Sharpe more than once. He punched Justin Barber. He punched Clarke Garrison.

Worse than the fists is the cruelty dressed up as fatherly love. He falsely branded Bill a rapist over an encounter his own daughter told him was mutual, then called Taylor and lit the fuse that nearly made her a killer. He directed Sheila Carter to kill Bill. He blackmailed a judge to hand Katie full custody of Will. He sat on the secret that Thomas ran Emma off a cliff. He called his own stepdaughter, Hope Logan, a nasty little name and blamed her for a coup. A hero does none of this. A villain does all of it and gets a love theme anyway.

Why We Keep Falling For It

So why does the halo stay on? Because the show is a master of framing. Every time Ridge wrecks something, the camera finds him comforting the woman in the rubble, and we are nudged to see rescue instead of arson. He knocks Deacon out and becomes Quinn’s savior in the same breath. He blows up a marriage and we are cued to mourn his heartbreak. The genius of it is that Ridge Forrester is almost always standing closest to the damage precisely because he caused it, and the show keeps shooting him like the firefighter instead of the spark.

Our Verdict

We are not saying Ridge Forrester is uniquely evil. We are saying he is uniquely protected. Sheila gets called a monster for less than what sits, fully sourced, on Ridge’s record. The difference is the lighting. Take away the destiny narration and read the list cold, the cheating, the waffling, the violence, the secrets, and the most consistent source of harm in L.A. is the man wearing the hero’s halo. We have all been gaslit, and the receipts were in the wardrobe the whole time.

Think we are dead wrong, or did we barely scratch the surface of Ridge Forrester’s record? Send us your hottest take, the beat we left out, the defense you would mount, to amber@soapoperamagazine.com and the best ones might headline our next piece!

Where Do You Land?

Is Ridge Forrester a flawed romantic hero or the best-protected villain on the canvas? And be honest, has the show been framing him as the prize this whole time? Head on over to our Facebook page and drop your verdict, let’s hash it out.