#dafad

[clementbourgeon]

[clementbourgeon]

[welshword]

#Welsh Word of the Day: Dafad/ #Sheep

[bibliophilemnm]

Downton Abbey Fandom Amnesty Day Post 2

My second “Downton Abbey Fan Amnesty Day” post. And I’m worried that it may be unpopular, but as it is amnesty day, I’m going for it.

I don’t hate Dan Stevens for leaving Downton. And, before I go on, I would like to say that I will ship Mary/Matthew for as long as I watch this show. I will go down with this ship (in case you didn’t read my earlier post…and to be perfectly honest, I would be rather surprised if you did). But I can honestly say that I don’t hate him for leaving.

As an actor, he was perfectly within his rights to do so. He was only under contract for three years, and he fulfilled that contract. I wish he would make some kind of statement outlining his exact reasons for leaving, because I don’t think we have anything that specific (tbh, I didn’t read that telegraph article word for word, so I could be completely wrong on this point). But for all we know, he could have been having family problems, or something like that. He does have two very young children, and I’m sure that was a factor (Downton is VERY time consuming according to the actors).

However, I do think he handled it wrong. Don’t keep telling people not to listen to the tabloids when the tabloids are correct. Don’t lie to your fans. JBF never said anything before she left, and nobody hated her for it. We all just miss Sybil a lot. We don’t think she’s a horrible person, or a “scumbag” or anything like that.

 I am mad, though, at Julian Fellowes and ITV. I realize that this may not make much sense. After all, it was Dan Stevens who decided not to return, and JF’s hands were tied. However, all the actors were only ever signed on (until recently) for three seasons. I think it’s unrealistic to expect every actor in a show to continuously sign up for another season. They easily could have ended Downton Abbey after the third season and had a happy ending. Matthew and Mary would have been happy for the rest of their very long lives together. Maybe Sybil wouldn’t have died (because JBF wouldn’t have felt pressure to sign on for another season).

So I’m mostly angry that we missed our blissfully happy ending.

I should also add that just because I’m not mad at him doesn’t mean I don’t die laughing every time I see a “Scumbag Dan Stevens” meme. That shit is hysterical.

[handy-for-the-bus]

DA Fandom Amnesty Day

M\M: For me M\M relationship is very very cold. They have no chemistry at all. Mary is the coldest woman for Mathew. I don't think they really love each other. I think Mathew does\did loved Mary but I don't think Mary loved him that much and think she only likes him, at least is what she shows. I don't like them as a ship. There's nothing there. They spend the episodes saying that they love each other but is just not believable.

[bibliophilemnm]

Downton Abbey Fandom Amnesty Day Post 1

In honor of “Downton Abbey Fan Amnesty Day,” I have decided to jump on the bandwagon and just get a few things off my chest. Hopefully they won’t turn into rants.

My first is shipping. And I find this is a problem for me in all my fandoms, but I have a lot of problems with it. In the DA fandom, I personally ship Mary/Matthew (*tear*). I have nothing wrong with other ships (for the most part…we’ll get to that in a minute), but I personally like M/M.

That being said, I hate shipping wars. I have encountered this in all my fandoms, but it really gets on my nerves. Clearly it’s all a matter of opinion, and if you prefer Anna/Bates, or Thomas/Jimmy, or Carson/Mrs. Hughes, good for you. I will never try to stop you, nor will I judge you for it, and I hope you return the favor. 

However, I must say that there are a few ships specific to the Downton fandom about which I really couldn’t care less, and don’t really care to see. Namely, Isobel/Clarkson and Carson/Mrs. Hughes. As much as I know some people would love it, I really don’t care about it. Sorry. Good luck to you shippers!

[crackalley]

Right, after a cursory flick through the DAFAD tag the thing that jumped out at me was someone asking "Why is O'Brien sympathetic to Lang and not to Bates?"

Well, lets think about it...

First and foremost is there any good reason why she should be nice to him? You are not obliged to like everybody in the world nor indeed everyone you work with and there will always be plenty of people that just annoy you over something and it means you can't stand them. Does this mean they're a terrible person? No, because they probably have people that they feel the same about, you might even be one of them yourself. Does it make you a bitch? No, because sometimes you just don't like people. So really, why should O'Brien like Bates? Because everyone else does? Fuck off. That's just childish. 

That aside, one of the first things Bates does is come inside without invitation. It might seem like next to nothing but for O'Brien, who I personally think is more alike to Carson in terms of her adherence to rules and protocol that Hughes will ever be, "pushing in" as she says is rude. So she's rude back. 

Then it turns out that he's disabled. Now, she's spent her whole life in service, fighting tooth and nail to get herself into this position, which is as high as a women like her can rise (there are very rare occasions of a lady's maid becoming a housekeepers, but the roles, though different, didn't outrank each other, they both deferred to the lady of the house and unlike the way its show in Downton sometimes, Mrs Hughes would have had to ask Sarah to look after the girls when Anna was ill, not tell her to do it.) So suddenly in comes this bloke who they've never heard of before, who's going straight into one of the highest ranking roles in the house and as far as they can see, he can't do it properly. 

Please at this point remember that Carson was iffy about him and so was Cora and Mrs Hughes and Mrs Patmore both pulled faces too. Importantly, Cora aside of course, those are the other senior servants, the others that like O'Brien have worked their way up so she's not alone. 

Then the Thomas element comes in. She wants him in that position because then they'll have the ear of the Earl and the Countess and be considerably more secure. Also, and this might just be me, but I think she wants him to do well because at this point he's still young and she can tell him what to do a bit. I don't think that's all their relationship ever was, but looking at the way it fell apart once Thomas realised there was nothing more he needed from her and she wanted something from him now, I think there's an element of rebelling against your Jedi Master. 

Obviously things go from bad to worse in series one and both parties injure each other. And there's no point pretending that Anna and Bates are some poor helpless victims of Thomas and O'Brien's bullying because they manage to bite back just as well thank you very much and I think they're about evenly matched and it's part of the reason I found the cottage scene in 3.08 so icky but I won't get into that here. (PM me for a further rant, lol)

Then Bates buggers off and the replacement (presumably? We don't know if there was another I suppose) is a different kettle of fish. I know that the moment in 1.01 when Robert greets Bates is supposed to be a bit whimsical and his "You never asked" charming, but I can totally see where Thomas and O'Brien were coming from in terms of nepotism. For god's sake, Carson gives Bates a trial, he couldn't do it, then he was halfway out the door when Robert ran after him. He's a clear favourite upstairs from the beginning, but Lang isn't. So why would O'Brien have the same problem with Lang when he's a completely different person?

Unless of course you're assuming that she had a little mental box for "Valets" that has a big black cross on it?

The question could be referring to the problems they face of course but again, it doesn't make sense because they're completely different people with different problems. 

I always got the impression that it wasn't that Bates was just "disabled" but rather that it was his leg so he couldn't do the extra work like serve at table and might have trouble with the stairs. If he'd been missing an ear or something it might have been quite different. 

Also we should remember that O'Brien's brother had shell shock too so she was predisposed to be more sympathetic to him because of the memory of the brother that she said was her favourite. 

So there we go, question answered in summary:

O'Brien is sympathetic to Lang and not to Bates BECAUSE THEY'RE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT FUCKING PEOPLE AND THERE'S NO REASON WHY SHE BLOODY SHOULD BE!

[piperholmes]

I don't want Branson to be happy.

What I mean is, I don't want him to be happy with another woman. I understand why some people say "I want Tom to be happy with someone else one day." But not me. I will be happy and contented knowing that he will love and mourn Sybil the rest of his fictitious life. And since he is a fictional character, I can wish that for him. Because if Julian Fellows wants to screw with me, then I will delight in screwing with Tom. ;) #naughty I want him to be a widower forever!!!