▲ 103 r/DowntonAbbey
The Ideological Murder of Tom Branson: Or, How Fellowes' Royalism Reveals His Double Standard
I've got something to say about Tom Branson's character development, and I believe it exposes Julian Fellowes' ideological prejudice in the way he presents history.
Tom Branson's early years are interesting. He is idealistic, morally upright, truly uneasy in aristocratic settings, and prepared to question the family's worldview. His beliefs include social consciousness, Irish nationalism, and skepticism of hierarchy. Even though we don't always agree with him, we like him for being true to his convictions.
By the end, particularly in the movies, he has developed into a reliable confidant of the royals, romantically involved with Lucy, and practically integrated into the organisation he had before questioned. More concerning: he ends up being Princess Mary's marriage "secret saviour," resolving aristocratic issues and demonstrating his value by being devoted to the crown.
However, this is what truly irritates me:
This contrasts with Fellowes' treatment of the Russian aristocratic immigrants. Other evacuated Russian nobles, such as Irina Kuragin, are portrayed as tragic victims. Sincere sympathy is shown for their suffering under Bolshevism. The performance laments what they have lost; they are sophisticated, cultured, and dispossessed by the chaos of history.
Both groups are dispossessed, which is a startling irony. They both lose everything. However, while one receives sympathy, the other receives... what? Domestication?
However, they truly escaped a feudal society in Russia. In fact, it took a bloody revolution to destroy it. After centuries of colonial domination and dispossession, the Irish independence movement emerged. However, Fellowes portrays Tom's early Irish republicanism as naivety that needed to be civilised and Russian nobility as the victims of civilisation.
Fellowes sympathises with those defending established order and hierarchy. He's sceptical of those challenging it.
TL;DR: Tom's character didn't evolve; he was rewritten to align with Fellowes' ideological preferences. He stopped being a genuine ideological character and became a useful tool for reinforcing that established hierarchies are natural, inevitable, and ultimately worth preserving.
u/Super_Socram — 27 days ago