Comments | shanghaiedinla: How M/M via DS Non-Ironically Ruined My Life Meme: Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda

shanghaiedinla

How M/M via DS Non-Ironically Ruined My Life Meme: Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda

Feb 22, 2013 00:17

"Deep down you're not on our side!"

[Downton Abbey S3/S4 Spoilers Ahead]

It is a trifecta! In an effort to catch up (again), it made sense to take on not two but three topics today since, in my mind anyway, the next three on the list are thematically linked. What is the theme? In a word: loyalty.

Day 18 - Other than Matthew not dying, what is the one thing you'd have changed ( Read more... )

m/m, matthew/lavinia, danstevens, mary/matthew, robertcrawley, television, meme, soniasaraiya, julianfellowes, laviniaswire, daspoilers, avclub, downtonabbey, m/l, marycrawley, matthewcrawley

Comments 3

eolivet February 23 2013, 13:37:11 UTC

OK, I'm trying to catch up here! I'm especially intrigued about your idea about what was supposed to happen with S/B, because I think it's SO TRUE and utterly fascinating... :)

And I think some fans' anger at Matthew -- including mine -- over his attitude in early S3 was exacerbated by the fact that whatever Matthew offered Mary by way of apology for what he said to her at Lavinia's graveside, we never witnessed it onscreen, so for many of us it was a wound that had just scabbed over when it was ripped open again with the Matthew/Mary pre-wedding fight in 3x01.Sigh. Great choice, BTW -- and I agree. You know I'm the biggest JF apologist around, but that was his one SEVERE miscalculation ( ... )

shanghaiedinla February 24 2013, 01:36:44 UTC

Hi, Mirror Shipper!

If he had to do that storyline and he knew Matthew was going to die, don't you think it would've had a lot more "Please don't think this changes how much I love you, my darling! This is only about doing what's right!"

I guess when he tells her in that 3x02 library scene, "I do love you so terribly much," it was supposed to accomplish this ... But ... it just seems like cheap lip service given the magnitude of losing Downton.

(His comments about S4 were starting to remind me about DS' and his family -- the gentleman doth protest too much! ;p )

Oh, I agree. I think it's definitely bravado and not just on his part; I see it (hear it) with Gareth Neame too. Part of it is an existential crisis; part of it is trying to get in front of this from a PR perspective (i.e. damage control).

So do you not think they extracted a S5 commitment from MD as well? And if they did ... I just don't see her as the type who would renege. (I mean even DS didn't do that technically -- and MD is a lot more honorable than DS.)

Nobody ( ... )

eolivet February 25 2013, 13:19:50 UTC

So do you not think they extracted a S5 commitment from MD as well?

I wonder...there's some speculation in some circles she only signed for S4. I actually don't think it's that big a deal if she's asked to be let out of her contract, now that JBF and DS have paved the way. I'm sure she'd be nothing but gracious (which has always been my problem with the DS apologist tendencies -- it's HOW he left. I don't care that he fulfilled his contract or whatever, he was an ASS about it on the way out. There's a way to leave your contract without being an ass, and there's a way to "fulfill" your contract and look like the biggest jerk on the planet). If MD has a legitimate Hollywood career at the end of S4, and she decides to leave, nobody is going to think her ungrateful (especially since I'm sure she'd return for guest spots if asked).

if you're not going to bother to make the romance compelling, why do it at all? Well, because that's just what people did, I'd imagine. I'm sure young widowed women did remarry -- in fact, for Mary not to ( ... )