How M/M via DS Non-Ironically Ruined My Life Meme: Ditch Him
"We don't always get our just deserts."
[Downton Abbey S3 Spoilers Ahead]
Day 9 - Most memorable Matthew scene in S3.
It should not come as any surprise that Matthew's final moments on screen are the ones which will stick with viewers for a long, long time. (And per usual, eolivet deserves credit for putting a finger on just why his death was so disturbing to watch.) I myself have ( Read more... )
[Downton Abbey S3 Spoilers Ahead]
Day 9 - Most memorable Matthew scene in S3.
It should not come as any surprise that Matthew's final moments on screen are the ones which will stick with viewers for a long, long time. (And per usual, eolivet deserves credit for putting a finger on just why his death was so disturbing to watch.) I myself have ( Read more... )
Comments 6
I had a visceral hatred of that shot when I first saw it but it took a couple of viewings to really understand why: it is because I cannot (as hard as I try) see Matthew in that shot at all; I only see Dan Stevens happily driving Matthew into a ditch, happily "ditching" the show which has meant so much to so many. It is as if I can hear Stevens' interior monologue: "Finally, I'm giving this bozo the ending he deserves,"
You know, that's a good point -- because he's awfully smiley for Matthew. Matthew isn't even so smiley in the scene where he meets his actual son. It's pretty OTT when you think about it ( ... )
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because he's awfully smiley for Matthew
And it's the way he's smiling. It's more like a smirk than a happy Matthew smile. Like I said, DS through and through. ... It's not until we see him lying on the ground pinned under the car -- the first shot, not the one where he's bleeding -- that I see Matthew again and it's heartbreaking.
That Matthew, and nobody else but Matthew, was the cause of his own death.
Yup. And that it was senseless and it didn't have to happen and no one -- except the man in the driver's seat -- could have prevented it. :/ (As you say, meta is pretty clear.)
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What bothers me a lot is the fact that I can't believe in a family where in a younger generation a child is born a parent is dead. JF'd better invent a curse on Crawleys in S4 or something like that. And that is why I really can't see this death as something coming from inside of the story it is as you've already said something that is totally on DS. And I also didn't like how DS was smiling when he was driving - come on it was so "You see, I'm so happy I don't look at the road - you have to believe in it"
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You're right; it wasn't organic to the story. It was just the crumbling of the "fourth wall." As I told eolivet several weeks ago, there was nothing that could have saved Matthew because "DS wanted to leave." Period ( ... )
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But yes, it definitely WAS NOT the ending Mary/Matthew and Matthew deserved. Not when you look at their past and the future they could have had together.
I still can't blame DS too much though, for I do think something BIG must've happened for him to leave like that. As someone who would leave my job in a heartbeat if I could, I can kinda understand if he just really didn't like it anymore.
But now you mention it, I can almost see DS in that car, not Matthew. A sort of "giving the finger to the employer."
Hmm, that makes it worse for me actually! Oh dear, I think this meme is making me think too much about it all!
I think for me, it just feels like such a waste - everything DA set up to do is gone for me now, it'll never be the same.
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I think for me, it just feels like such a waste - everything DA set up to do is gone for me now, it'll never be the same.So true. I'll get into this more when we get to "how does Matthew's death affect the way you view S1 and S2," but looking back it all feels like ... what was the point? What was the point of giving them that Lizzy/Darcy beginning, of the heartrending separation, of the sweeping, high-stakes unrequited love of S2? Just, as you said, a waste ( ... )
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