#anthony strallan

[doctor-donnas]

TIMESTAMP ROULETTE: DOWNTON ABBEY

3x3

[massiveharmonytiger]

Read a post that inspired me to discuss my thoughts on Downton Abbey, Thomas Barrow in particular.

I interpret Thomas as demonstrating and portraying certain double standards and critiques of society. Interestingly, these pertain to ideas that are still present in some form today. I'm not sure whether the writers intended it, but that's how I interpret it.

Example 1: Lord Grantham loses the family's money on some stupid railway investment and its framed as this huge tragedy. They may have to gasp move into a smaller and less impressive house and get by with less servants. The indignity of it all. But magically, at the last minute, Matthew inherits some money from his dead almost father in law, complete with a letter that says "I know you cheated on, then dumped my daughter, but I'm still giving you this money, so you don't have to feel guilty using this money to fuel your privilege. It's my honour to serve the future Earl of Grantham."

In contrast, Thomas loses his carefully saved up life savings trying to get out of service after Mrs Patmore brings up that she'd support the black market because of how the government food rationing is creating scarcity. He's cheated by his supplier and left homeless, with no money and having to beg Mr Carson for his old job back. He only gets it back because Mr Carson gets Spanish flu and he fills in for him. Where people were somber about Lord Grantham's desperation, they're smug when the same thing happens to Thomas. Mrs Patmore says "It's wonderful what fear will do to the human spirit." That'll teach him to not accept his place in life. How dare he, a servant, try to bypass government mandated food shortages and make a profit while he's at it. That's for the higher classes.

Example 2: Three years or so into serving in the army in World War I, Thomas, shaking and shellshocked, has had enough of fear and seeing people die in front of him. He purposefully puts his hand in line of enemy fire and gets himself shot so that he can get invalidated home. He says a prayer of thanks for his deliverance. To me, this was the bravest, most radical thing he could have done. His story stands in contrast with every other recruitable man's story in the show. Three years of this and then he says NO to continuing to be a government pawn, and TAKES BACK HIS LIFE.

We're immediately confronted by what could have happened if he did not do this. Thomas starts working at the hospital in Downton, rehabilitating injured soldiers and he meets Edward Courtnay, a lieutenant who became blind from mustard gas. Right before Edward is supposed to be transferred to a convelescent home, an unknown place, away from Thomas, Sybil and their support, he commits suicide by slitting his wrists. This is exactly how Thomas tries to commit suicide himself a few seasons later. The motives are even similar. Isolation and abandonment.

Some other notable character arcs to compare this to is Mr Molesley, who manages to get out of military service because of a "lung problem" that may or may not exist, William, who begs to be recruited for years only to die almost immediately after, Matthew, who becomes paralysed, but then, becomes unparalysed only to die in a car accident after he's already produced an heir, Lord Grantham, who's reduced to a figurehead and extremely bitter about not serving, Archie, who tried to run away and was shot for cowardice, Lang, who can't even look at a man in a uniform after the war and whose PTSD is so bad he can no longer make a living and Tom, who is quite happy not serving, almost gets enlisted, and gets out of it because of a heart problem. He wanted to use the opportunity to get himself imprisoned for Ireland and freedom, because it's better than fighting, especially for a government that doesn't give a damn about you, the very point Thomas was making. He started off feeling in control because he signed up early, but saw how little human life meant to the powers that be. Theres not feeling in control in those circumstances. I feel like all of these stories make the meaning of Thomas' that much clearer.

Every scene where a man doesn't have to serve because of a health problem is laced with relief, because at least they don't have to serve. Every scene with a war injury though, that's laced with despair. Thomas' injury straddles the line between those, because it's a war injury AND an excuse not to serve.

Example 3:

Thomas as a sort of parallel to Edith. What I mean by that is if you consider Thomas' feelings for Jimmy alongside the possibility that he had strong feelings for Edward Courtnay, these relationships sort of loosely parallel Edith's relationships with Anthony Strallan and Michael Gregson.

Thomas is so soft and compassionate with Edward. You never see him confide in or comfort anyone like he does with him. He doesn't come out to him, but what he does is the closest thing to it. For him at least.

Edward is injured and an authority figure (Dr Clarkson) drives him away from Thomas which results in Edward sacrificing himself (suicide), leaving Thomas in tears.

You know who else that happens to? Edith.

Anthony is injured and an authority figure (Lord Grantham) drives him away from Edith which results in Anthony sacrificing himself (jilting Edith), leaving Edith in tears.

It sounds less serious than Thomas' situation, right. But when I was rewatching it, I was thinking to myself that the Crawleys were lucky Edith didn't commit suicide after all their dismissive and unsupportive behaviour. Her heart was publically broken and the downstairs ladies discussed how they wouldn't be able to live down the shame.

Anyways, she does live it down. Thomas meets Jimmy. And Edith meets Michael. I'm busy with a rewatch and interestingly, Jimmy is introduced around the same time Edith writes to Michael's newspaper. Their relationship begins with a letter. Thomas and Jimmy's relationship ends with a letter (Lady Antstruther). Jimmy tells Thomas he'll never write again before he leaves. And Michael never writes to Edith again because he gets unexpectedly murdered by Nazis.

Right off the bat, both relationships have something taboo about them. Jimmy is a man and Michael is married. Surrounding both relationships is a fear of scandal. Thomas because people are plotting for his arrest and Jimmy is either just not that into him or deeply closeted. I think it's the latter because even Mrs Hughes could pick up that he was flirting with Thomas, and that thing where he dials up his flirting with Ivy to comical degrees the morning after the kiss… classic damage control a la internalized homophobia. Like, if you feel nothing, why are you trying to hurt him?

Edith fears scandal because Michael, a married man, fathers her child. He tries going to Germany to get his marriage dissolved, but then, like Thomas, people are plotting for his arrest. And then death. Nazis specifically. Loving the comparison between Alfred the homophobic snitch and frikken Herr Hitler, the homophobic people burner with his army of snitches. A bit extreme, but I see it. "Normal" people who wanted a gold star from authority figures were the ones that did the most harm. Great job.

Another interesting bit is where Thomas saves Edith from the fire the same night he's supposed to be covering for Jimmy while he's trying to validate his heterosexuality or whatever. Jimmy gets caught, fired and kicked out and Thomas never hears from him again.

The cause of all this drama? Thomas and Edith's alike. Purity culture and sexual shaming.

Anyways, Thomas is just such a brilliant character.

And then they completely lost the plot with those basic ass movies. I still watch them. They're just so basic though. The series was like this Louvre painting and then it just started getting closer and closer to some kid's macaroni art. At least they gave him boyfriends though. Silver lining.

[torchwood-99]

Another Suitcase in Another Hall (Evita)

Thomas, Edith and Mary.

(I saw the Downton exhibition and Evita on my birthday, this was the natural consequence)

[laolafi]

Til Death Do Us Part, Chapter 10 is here!

Brought to you by @nonepizzawithleftglitter and yours truly. May contain traces of heartbreak. May also contain traces of wedding night related activities. Enjoy!

[nonepizzawithleftfanfic]

An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works

It's here: the next installement of our fic, the long awaited-dinner party, which comes on the tail-end of weeks of heartbreak and scandal. Brought to you by myself and my wonderful darling of a co-author @laolafi . Come have a look, see what parts of canon we have messed with this time ;)

Summary: There is to be a grand dinner party at Downton Abbey. Stakes and emotions are running high. William is dreading it all.

[phan3]

Not me annoying the hell out of my friend group with this pairing.

I’m obsessed

[survivinglifesstruggles]

Rewatching Downton Abbey and definitely headcanon that Anthony Strallan named Edith in his will, leaving all of his wealth and worldly possessions to her.

[starlitsemantics]

Downton Abbey cutting scenes that are incredibly character relevant in the versions they release outside British live TV has given me ridiculous trust issues - a rant.

In season three, the middle Crawley daughter, Edith, gets engaged to a man she was close to before World War I, Anthony Strallan. He's class appropriate and liked by her father, if considered a bit boring. He's also somewhere between twenty and twenty-five years older than her and, after the war, has lost (most of?) the use of his right arm. Prior to the war and his injury, this match was considered a good one.

In the run-up to their engagement and wedding, multiple family members of hers express doubt as to her chances of long-term happiness, including her father asking Anthony to break things off (which he then takes back at Edith's tearful request, in which she points out, correctly, that her chances of happy marriage to a young uninjured man are very slim after WWI).

We get to the wedding day and as the ceremony begins, Anthony says he can't do this, tells her that she can't waste herself on him, and leaves her standing in a white dress in front of all her acquaintances and relations. Why?

This registered to me as absolutely bizarre when I first watched it, and in the years following. I was pretty into their 'ship, thought it was cute, especially the way they bonded in season one. I also felt it would be cool to show someone who was clearly traumatized by the war actually getting an ending that didn't fall into the three established categories of: cure, death, so sad the show can't possibly be expected to deal with it. Alas. Crucially, I also thought it went very nicely with Edith's other development in season two - less self absorbed, more observant and considerate of others, interest in machinery and farming, both of which are things we know Anthony is also into, even some interesting things comparing her to Cora and Isobel in terms of her lady of the manor style.

I thought it was a huge missed opportunity (still do, by the way), but I also thought it was kind of baffling for him to do. The reasons he (and others, especially Violet) put forward against the match throughout the season read to me as ones we were supposed to see as surmountable problems to be solved - because they are. Strallan is wealthy, and compared to Robert, clearly actually on top of recent industrial developments. He can hire a nurse and also be married. We see this logic (can't do x, hire someone to do x) in his very first appearance after his injury - he has hired a chauffeur. Disability does not prevent a loving relationship. Edith would probably be widowed earlier than usual, but being a wealthy 45 year old widow, potentially with children, is hardly a terrible fate for women of her class.

So why does he jilt her, and why does he do it at the end of the aisle?

If he was so unsure about marrying her that a few snide comments make him willing to take such drastic action in front of everyone, those same comments in the weeks prior should have prompted him to do this in literally any way that was less awful to her.

If he's just not that into her, why come when Robert invites him back. If anything, not coming probably improves Robert's opinion of him there. He also wouldn't tell Edith he enjoys seeing more of her more than he should - that is a flirtatious line even I managed to clock.

Does he just not get the importance/finality of it until he's standing in the church? The man's been married before, so while it's a possibility, I don't really think so.

Does he think doing this publicly is the only way to get Edith to back off given her previous insistence?... Not if I'm meant to find either of them at all sympathetic, to be honest, and I think JF wants me to, at least a little.

So the conclusion I arrived at is effectively that he is not entirely stable and incredibly susceptible to outside influence, partly as a result of trauma and injury doing a number on his sense of self. Which is tragic, but also means it probably would indeed be very difficult to build a whole new marriage from the ground up. Not a satisfying ending, but oh well. There's always fanfiction.

The Andith fandom is mostly to be found on fanfiction.net, and I think is filled with some ridiculously talented writers. They've built gorgeous fanon for Anthony's family, staff, and background, and some of them share the same fanon. So my first instinct when I read multiple references to a conversation between Anthony and Edith where she tells him she loves him not in spite of his injury, but because of it, and that she wants him to be her life's work, I thought this was another part of that shared fanon. After all, I'd never seen it, and I've watched Downton Abbey once every couple years whenever I got a particularly bad cold. Edith is my favourite character alongside Gwen and Mrs Hughes. Surely, I would have remembered.

But, it seemed clunky. Out of place in a fanon that, by and large, is understated and subtle, preferring gradual revelation rather than such a blunt, spelled out, character motive rant. So I began to investigate. I'm not that good at investigating. Eventually, it took reference to another piece of dialogue I had no memory of but is mentioned on the Wikia page (the bit about Consuelo Vanderbilt), to get me to a reddit thread that explained. There are multiple cuts of Downton Abbey, and the one I've been watching on Netflix is different to what was aired in the UK. It also referenced the episode the scene is meant to be in, so I was able to find it on YouTube (looking for 3.03 deleted scenes should do it, if you're curious).

The scene is pretty bad. It segues extremely awkwardly from Anthony mentioning meeting Consuelo to the life's work bit. Edith's line here is actually worse than I'd seen mentioned. She loves him "[because] of [his] needing to be looked after." Yikes. I can sort of see the sentiment, but it's phrased so terribly poorly. Now, having a character fail to find the chill, witty answer to their partner being pessimistic isn't terrible. It took me a good while to consider how Edith could have responded to "soon you will be wheeling me around" (in my opinion, the one line on the show Anthony's actor does terribly), but there are ways to respond that aren't so bizarre. Saying she wouldn't mind, or that that's really a long way off, or that at least they'll be buying the Rolls Royce of wheelchairs are all in my read authentic to Edith's character outside that scene and less awful than what she actually says. They're not perfect responses. But they don't confirm so explicitly the thing Anthony himself fears ("I don't need a wife, I need a nurse" - Edith here is all but promising she sees her roles as his wife as being his nurse, which means it's much less likely he'll be able to see her blossom and set her free, and much more likely she will effectively force him to become a burden to her), and the things he's been told he is imposing on her.

It also undercuts Edith's character development from season two. Making his injury about her, and failing so categorically to see that he values independence and being useful and would hate to feel like a burden to his wife, are things I might have expected of season one Edith, not season three.

So while what I missed explains his decision making somewhat better than its absence, I don't think it's worth it. Ultimately, Edith's character development is more important to me than a spelled out explanation for why we get yet another character with a disability summarily written out. So now I've found the answer to my confusion, I will proceed to ignore it.

Still. I think their marriage could have been neat. Edith could still have made waves writing her letter to the editor. Robert could still have felt entitled to interfere given he clearly doesn't trust Anthony to take care of her. We could have seen a happy marriage that still empowered Edith's journey to modern woman (on-screen, unlike so much of Sybil's) and also addressed the trauma of the war and the economics of country estates in a way that went beyond Robert being an absolute idiot when it comes to money. Then again, I don't trust JF to have done that super well, so maybe it's all for the best we're getting to enjoy the fandom instead.

Anyhow, time to go through other "deleted scenes" to find out if I have other radically weird reads of characters before I embarrass myself by talking about them publicly.