u/7evenh3lls

I understand the reason is "storytelling" because they were the central couple, but what was the in-universe reason why Violet and Cora only ever tried to get Mary and Matthew married? It seems a bit odd to me: They didn't really know Matthew and his personal preferences in the beginning, but they immediately pushed Mary on him - the most arrogant and snobbish of the sisters. When Cora told Mary that marrying Matthew would solve all issues, Mary thought of him as some sort of uncultured peasant.

So what was their reasoning?

• Cora and Violet just wanted Mary to be the future Countess, no matter whom she had to marry for that (after all, that was the plan with Patrick)
• They thought no man could resist Mary and that Matthew would of course agree to the marriage (fair point)
• They thought Edith was too unappealing for Matthew and the thought of a match didn't even occur to them (poor Edith, lol)....but does it really make sense they immediately thought an Earl's daughter was not good enough for Matthew (a man they barely knew)? Did they really think nobody could potentially want Edith?
• Sybil was still a bit young (but not too young). But she always had good chemistry with Matthew (+ Isobel!) and didn't mind middle-class people

What I find particularly odd: Even after Mary rejects the idea of marriage and moves on to other suitors, they don't even mention the possibility of a match between Matthew and one of the other sisters.

I just found out that Marian is supposed to be 20 years old in the beginning of the series. Like, what? I thought she's in her 30s like Louisa Jacobson!

It explains so much about why I dislike Marian. She makes those childish, naive decisions because she's barely an adult, but the whole time I thought she's a 30+ year old who should know better and act more maturely at her (supposed) age.

If they insisted on casting Jacobson as Marian, they should have written her as a 30+ year old spinster who has all but given up on marriage.

Everybody seems to be so (fake) concerned about my weight loss. Not just family, but virtually everybody at my workplace! They randomly come up to me, asking me if everything is ok, as if that's a normal question to ask a colleague. Note that I am still in the "overweight" category and the vast majority of my colleagues are normal weight.

Where were those people when I gained 50lb in a year? Where they not concerned about my (mental) health back then? Apparently not!

The worst is a colleague who has been rapidly gaining weight, and is soooo concerned about me. Once, I asked her back if everything is ok with her because of her weight fluctuation and she reacted super offended and even said her weight was a private issue!!!

I really wish they only knew me as thin or barely overweight because otherwise it's a great place to work and I don't want to look for a new job. Super exhausting though right now...

My business has been under attack with fake reviews since yesterday. I received 15 1-star reviews within 12 hours (before that, I had less than 25 reviews accumulated over a year). Note that 15 reviews is more than I had customers in the prior 2 weeks....

I do not know why this attack is happening. All of the reviews seem to come from a nearby town, saying similar things (unfriendly, incompetent). Could be a scammer or just somebody I pissed off - so far I didn't receive an extortion message.

I reported the reviews as fake, Google hasn't taken any of them down so far or reacted. Should I post in the Community forum to stop this attack? What if the reviews continue to come?

EDIT: Google removed all those reviews. I didn't even appeal, they must have been auto-detected as a coordinated attack.

The past years, I suffered immensely during summer...switching from lying on the couch to lying on my bed because I couldn't take the heat. Movement impossible.

For the past few days, I kept checking the thermometer and actually put a second thermometer next to it because it couldn't believe that the temperature it showed was real. And guess what, I no longer suffer when it's above 28 Celsius (82 F in freedom units)! In fact, I don't feel lethargic or dizzy at all, and could comfortably walk around for hours.

The dumbest thing about this is that I wasn't obese for most of my adult life and I should have known why I was suddenly suffering so much during summer. But I was in denial and told myself that it's because I got older etc....like, suuuure.

Yay for summer!

If Sybil hadn't died, what kind of life would she have led with Tom? Going back to Ireland was no option, so where would they live and what would they do? It's hard to believe that Sybil would have permanently moved back into the Abbey. Tom and Robert would have quarrelled endlessly.

Everybody near Downton would have continued to call her "Lady", so moving to London might be a better option. Edith and Sybil both in London as working women could have been an interesting storyline...and Tom could have found an actual job in politics instead of lurking around Downton out of convenience.

Compared to her first appearance as a kitchen maid, Daisy is really well-off by the end of the show:

• cook at Downton (quite well paid, even for a female)
• married to the butler (who would be one of the top earners of the village)
• will inherit whatever Mr Mason owns, possibly get the tenancy
• will inherit whatever Mrs Patmore/Mason owns, including the house of ill repute

Daisy would be among the most respected and well-off members of the village. Not bad for an orphan (?) who started at basically zero.

Every time I re-watch the series, Henry's introduction and entire existence gets weirder. Can this guy even hold a normal conversation? It's like JF directed Matthew Goode to talk like an emotionless robot who is programmed to mention cars 1000 times per day.

Henry doesn't have a single meaningful conversation with Mary - which makes sense because they have zero chemistry and zero shared interests. They are practically strangers when Tom decides that Mary should get over herself and just marry the guy. Mary, who had rejected Gillingham because they didn't have enough in common and it's super important to her, goes along with it and marries Henry, with whom she has even less in common.

The whole thing is written like a fan fiction where Tom falls in love with a race car driver and Mary volunteers to be the pretend-wife, so Tom and Henry can make sweet love in their garage.