Paternalistic Mr. Knightly

Looking through modern eyes at how Knightly treats Emma like a child but ends up asking her to marry him... well, it's a little creepy. I'm wondering if this was common in those times - you're practically a fully grown man, the neighbors have a baby girl, you watch the child grow up, you correct her and scold her and disapprove of her... and suddenly you're in love? What the actual what the what!!!!!

And on a more humorous note, when we get to the part in the series where Jonny Lee Miller is barking, "Badly done, Emma!", I half expect him to bring out a rolled up newspaper and thwap her on the nose with it 🐶