Tuesday In The Servants Hall

tuesdayisfordancing, but all downton abbey all the time ...okay, all thomas barrow all the time multi-shipper, jimmy kent defender

[tuesdayintheservantshall]

I have at LONG LAST gotten off my ass and made the Trans At Downton collection on AO3:

https://archiveofourown.org/collections/Trans_At_Downton

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

It is an open collection, so please add things I’ve missed if you know of them! I’m sure there are at least a few hiding in corners.

Please, anyone, everyone, who writes or finds a trans Downton Abbey fic, I would love for you to submit it to the collection. Or drop me a line and I’ll add it!

[alienas]

COSTUME APPRECIATION Lady Sybil Crawley, Downton Abbey

[bellesdiaries]

Is your husband one of the other guns?

[emeraldgreen0912]

If I had to pick my absolute favorites from behind-the-scenes photos of Thomas, it would definitely be these two 😂

[callmeyesterday5943]

HERE IT IS. THIS IS THE BREAKING ABBEY SKIT FROM THE COLBERT REPORT

Yes, it was recorded from clips with BANDICAM don't @ me-

Please enjoy essentially, lost media, gang

[tuesdayintheservantshall]

This watch’s thoughts on the Mary and The Turkish Gentleman of it all:

He was aggressively coercive, but at the very end she decided to go along, probably partially for the reasons she later gives: lust and a desire to do something exciting. So for her, for the understanding of the time, it makes no difference that she said she’d scream, that he offered her no real choice, etc. It does make sense that she would tell Matthew those reasons and not the circumstances, tell her mother that she wasn’t forced but I just. Someone needs to know! Someone needs to find out! Someone needs to tell her that her decision and reasons aside, being cornered and threatened was not her fault!

[tuesdayintheservantshall]

Rather similarly, I can readily enough believe that Jimmy was primarily ambivalent about the situation with Anstruther while still being reasonably happy to sleep with her, or simply that he had mixed feelings but those included wanting her in some part, but like. I would like some closure on the complete brushing past of his attempts to say no, and putting him in a position where continuing to say no would quite likely endanger his job! I wish some after the fact addressment of the coercion, even a very small one for a relatively minor character.

[recreationaldivorce]

we all have that one fictional character who's canonically male whom you understand is a closeted trans woman but you can't tell anyone because they'll all look at you like you're insane. but you understand her

[tuesdayintheservantshall]

Thomas and Chris dancing something slower…

[dragonss-in-the-north]

The year is 1965. You’re George Crawley’s son. You’ve been caught kissing boys at Eton. Your father is taking you back to Downton for a few days. He doesn’t seem angry. You are so, so frightened that he’s angry. At home, your father sends a letter with the evening post. Two days later, he talks on the phone in a hushed voice for quite a while. You worry he’s called for a priest, or a doctor, or even Grandmamma, a terrifying, black-clad figure from hazily remembered trips to the south of France.

Instead the elderly man who turns up speaks with a Mancunian accent and wears a funny, leather glove on his left hand. You both sit in the garden. After he’s lit his cigarette, the stranger hands you an orange. You don’t like oranges, particularly. He tells you that Papa isn’t disappointed; no one’s disappointed who’s worth a damn. You don’t have to marry if you’d rather not, he says. You don’t have to do anything you’d rather not. It’s the twentieth century, for God’s sake.

Orange peel comes away in uneven patches. Segments of flesh leave your fingers sticky with juice. You eat the whole of it. Not so bad, after all.

[neroushalvaus]

i love how in every review thomas is called something different. Dresser, assistant, housekeeper, manager. Until i see the movie i'm choosing to believe that they just come up with a new thing any time someone asks

Literally it's sooo funny. I even saw one review calling him "Dexter's dresser, personal assistent, housekeeper and lover". LIKE.

I do love that suggestion. It ends with them having told the Granthams he is Guy's dresser, to Isobel that he is his personal assistent, to the downstairs staff that he is his manager ("You were supposed to say I manage your house!")... They are trying to sort this all out, while they hear Mary going "oh, Mr Barrow, he is Mr Dexter's lov-- lawyer."

[tuesdayintheservantshall]

Mrs Patmore’s repeated “wait what you’re still stuck on the fact that (you believe ~but I know better plus possibly think it’s a minor difference) your entire relationship with Mr Mason is built on false pretenses?” 🤝 Lady Mary’s repeated “wait what you’re still stuck on the fact that (you believe but come on that’s ridiculous) we killed Lavinia?”

Yeah guys. They’re still stuck on it. Shockingly those things are kind of big deals! and the person you’re talking to never indicated ceasing to believe them you just. Swept them away and assumed each successive conversation must be the end of that nonsense because you find it silly. But they have been completely upfront about considering these things to remain true.

[neroushalvaus]

For Downton Abbey: 23, 21, and/or 1!

Thank you!! 🥰 I don't think I have an answer for 23, I guess I'm pretty stubborn with da ships, but I'll gladly answer the others!

21. part of canon you think is overhyped

Different answers for the tumblr fandom and the fandom elsewhere, I think.

For tumblr, I think maybe the first movie as a whole has got itself a bit of a halo in hindsight. And I get that, I was super hyped for it when it was released. More Downton! When we thought we'd never get that! What! But you know, it's an imperfect movie, just like the two others.

Also, there's less of this now, but there used to be more hyping of Downstairs as a "found family", and I couldn't disagree more. There are fun and tender moments, but they're just that. This is a toxic workplace made worse by them being forced to live together. There are things you could call found families within the Abbey, even though I really wouldn't use that name. Carson sees The family as his family, Mary sees him as a second father. William marries Daisy to make her related to Mr Mason, and it's very much established they have child-shaped and parent-shaped holes in their hearts. It is there, but Bates will never be Thomas's father.

And then if I reach across the comfortable tumblr bubble, there are lots of things that are overhyped, like Carson and Hughes "finally" getting together, or various "[a rich person or a man] puts [a poor person or a woman] in their place" moments some Downton Abbey fans seem to love.

-

1. the character everyone gets wrong

Okay so, many people get these guys right, but you've given me a permission to complain, so!

I will start with a small thing about Thomas. I'm becoming kind of bothered with how infantilized he is by some fans. I get it, we all like babying that guy, and in some ways he is very immature, yes. But during the movies he is forty year old man, while some people act like he has never been outdoors and can't possibly be trusted to make long term decisions. This is grating in a special way when combined with people exaggerating how old Guy is next to baby Thomas, when Dominic West is just 7 years older than RJC. And Thomas is at least forty.

Second character, the Duke himself, Philip. The thing is, Philip is not a great guy. He is manipulative and able to be very hurtful with his words, and he is very conscious of his position. But you know, those are only few of the ways he is extremely similar to Thomas. But there is the interpretation of Philip as an irredeemable asshole who never loved or even cared about Thomas at all. There is also the counter-narrative of Philip The Actually Good Guy, which I also hate!

Look, I'm fine with Philip being portrayed as a bad person, I can even appreciate a work where he is abusive to Thomas, if he still is a 3D character and acts in a recognizable way. When he becomes a button you press whenever you want to cause senseless hurt to Thomas (or to Matthew, iykyk) with no characterization, that's when you lose me.

But I also have a problem with Philip who is too soft and too kind, that's not him either. He is cunning and nasty and snobbish and capable of cruelty! I'm sure that's why Thomas likes him! Even if Philip never was a dick to Thomas before their break up, I'm sure as hell he was a dick with him, and Thomas found it funny. Anyway, homework for anyone writing Philip: Watch episode one just once and pay attention to what is actually happening on screen. Then, whether you're writing an uncaring, cruel asshole or a guy who really loved someone he couldn't be with, or both, try to match the guy in your writing with the ten minutes of what we actually see. Can't do that? Work on it. Can do that? Great! Send me the link.

Also, Sarah O'Brien isn't nasty "just because", she always has reasons for her actions, not always great but still reasons, and she's not a deus ex evil for fanfic purposes, she's an intensely loyal woman who is also resentful and finds joy in the misfortunes of others, she has always been poor, she is a servant who takes pride in her work while also hating being a servant and also hating others for not wanting to move up in society, she had a favourite brother she loved with all her heart and he died, her work is all she has, when it gets threatened she ruins lives, she never forgives anyone, not even herself, she's so much better than anyone gives her credit for and --

[humlesnurr]

want edith to introduce bertie to thomas properly, in the “this is the man that saved my life” way at her wedding but she just gets to “this is thomas, he’s-” and bertie all excitedly being “peter’s beau! :)”

[humlesnurr]

before anyone says “he’s seen thomas before though” remember he’s a servant and invisible during those times

[tuesdayintheservantshall]

Edith + hair scarves such a good combo.

[impressions-of-downton]

Do devils love each other? Do they walk arm in arm in hell saying, “Ah, you are my friend, how I love you,” things like that to each other?...it was a matter of a concept of evil, wasn't it? All creatures in hell are supposed to hate one another, as all the saved hate the damned, without reservation.

— Anne Rice, The Vampire Lestat

[tuesdayintheservantshall]

God you’d think it would be hard for one storyline to simultaneously cast gay men as predatory and dismiss the possible impact of sexual assault in favor of showing homophobia as the only cause for objection. You’d think one or the other! gahhhhhhh it does not get easier to watch

[tuesdayintheservantshall]

The power of cricket compels you!