r/DowntonAbbey

There would have had to be gossip amongst the servants, the family and even the village about Edith and farmers. She did have a short affair with Mr. Drake, and I would think most people people would have thought she was having an affair with Mr. Drew, just seems like someone would have mentioned that pattern.

Ι have to say, I disliked Bates very early, and with every rewatch I find new reasons. I think the closest I came to having sympathy for him was the first episode, when O’Brien cruelly kicks his cane and has him fall in order to embarrass him and have him lose his job (after first poisoning a nastily gossiping Cora against him in order to influence Robert) then he is crying alone in his room, desperate that he will not find another position.
But it is downhill after that. When he sees Thomas flirt with Daisy just to make William feel rejected, he physically attacks him. Then we find out he is hiding one big secret from Anna—he is married—and another from Robert and Carson—he was imprisoned as a thief. Considering how big of a deal we are led to believe hiding such a record was when we come across Baxter later, he is quite the shady character. Frankly, even during the first episode when he lets Carson lecture him not to be intimidated by the presence of “his lordship” knowing full well Robert and he go back is also dubious behavior.
After establishing his character as someone shady and prone to physical violence, it is not nard to see why circumstantial evidence would have been enough to convict him when Vera is found dead—even Robert warned him to be calm, obviously knowing his nature. And Mary and Mrs. Hughes would also not be so quick to fear Bates’ (supposed) trip to London was to kill Green, if his violent temper was not a common secret.
Regarding other downstairs characters, when he does offer advice to Gwen not to give up on her dream of changing her fate, he is speaking from drawing a parallel with his ill-conceived leg contraption. When he helps Molesley financially using the Dowager’s money, it is to make Anna feel better. Contrast that with Molesley spending weeks of his days off to help exonerate him of the charge that he killed Green. Ironically, the one person downstairs I must admit he really did help was Thomas.
I will grant he did love Anna, which is probably his biggest motive for succumbing to Vera’s blackmail after telling him Anna was involved in the Pamuk scandal. But even the way he made Anna feel guilty for having fun during the cards game Green organized, as if she should have known Mrs. Patmore had fallen ill, also shows how unlikeable he can be. When Molesley tells him he is really only nice to Anna, he is certainly dropping quite the truth bomb about him as a character.

Pamouk, Charles Blake, even Henry, every time Evelyn makes an attempt to get near Mary, he throws another man into the mix as if he thinks allowing Mary a choice to date him = Mary must choose between him and someone else. Each time, he gives her the opportunity to disappoint him .. and she does.

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 forget who first shared it but I remembered today (well, I thought it was yesterday) was the day it went on sale! *IS* it exorbitantly expensive? Yes. Do I understand the value of lego sets? No. (you kinda only put it together once which I don't quite understand). Purchased and no looking back!

But to forever have my own little Highclere with a Mary and Matthew and ISIS (omg). I'm too jazzed.

Lego Downton in front of the real Highclere Castle

I feel like a good idea for another season would be Matthew and Mary’s son is 18 or whatever it’s the early 1940s and he goes to war and you know Mary gives him the little plush doll that she gave Matthew when he went to World War 1 and basically follow him through war and you know the estate going through yet another tumultuous time during a war, I know people would say it may be rehashed, but with George being part of it. Plus you got Sibby too she could be like a field nurse just like her mother was a nurse. I know the last movie was very “final” even still it would be interesting to see something like this. because even though the finished this last movie off feeling very final and having “closure” somewhat with ww2 right around the corner it doesn’t really feel final at all IMO.

Anyone else completely stop watching after the season >!3 finale?!< I’m so >!devastated about Matthew’s death,!< I don’t even want to watch the show anymore. I started season >!4!< just to >!confirm he’s gone!< and turned it off. Anyone else? Should I keep going? Is it worth it?

I don’t know if this post is more relevant to this sub or to the f1wags one but anyhoo. I love how Mary’s basically a wag in season 6 with races and glamour, although the cars and racing suits are much different than what we see now. If Mary was a wag right now, what wag do you think she’d be the most like? How she’d dress, which other wags she’d hang out with which team would she be a wag for. To be clear, im not glorifying wags or anything, i just found the storyline a common thing between downton and f1, two of my favourite things. Mary would hate to have her identity reduced to a wag

If you have tumblr, you can check the #Downton Abbey tag, because I plan on making an art exchange for Christmas around Downton Abbey, but I need to see if there will be enough people wanting to participate :D merry christmas (in October, before Halloween).