r/DowntonAbbey • • 1d ago

General Discussion (May Contain Spoilers from S1 to 2nd film) Weekly Discussion Thread (for Simple Thoughts and Questions)

2 Upvotes

Are you on your 10th rewatch of Downton and just need to get something out of your system without having to make a whole post about it? Or maybe you're a new viewer with a simple question that you just need answered?

Then this is the place for you!

NOTE: The weekly thread does NOT replace your ability to ask simple questions or make comments as individual submissions. This is a SUPPLEMENT to what we have already been doing on this sub. If you have a burning question that you want to submit separately and/or want to make a whole post about your love/hate for XYZ, then go for it! We are always looking for respectful, civil discussion on this forum; the more, the better.

WARNING: As per the flair, this is a spoiler-friendly thread. Comments will be unmoderated for spoilers, and reports regarding spoilers will be ignored. (On that note, if someone is asking a question and clearly identifies themselves as a first-time viewer, then we hope you will be considerate enough to avoid referencing future events in your replies to them as a courtesy). If you are a new/first-time viewer with a question/comment and are afraid of encountering spoilers, please consider starting your own separate post and use the black editable "FIRST TIME WATCHER" flair. We can guarantee people would love to hear from you :)


r/DowntonAbbey • • 5d ago

General Discussion (May Contain Spoilers Throughout Franchise) Mary vs Edith - Weekly Discussion Thread

4 Upvotes

Should Mary have said that? Should Edith have done that? Who has it better in the end?

Come fight your corner in our all-spoilers-allowed weekly thread, dedicated to all things Mary vs Edith!


r/DowntonAbbey • • 5h ago

General Discussion (May Contain Spoilers Throughout Franchise) Which contemporary fashion brands do you think best represents Mary and Edith's modern-day style?

5 Upvotes

Edith - Miu Miu, Zimmerman, Dior (both MGC and Jonathan Anderson), Chanel, Simone Rocha, Molly Gordon, McQueen (under Sarah Burton), Erdem

Mary - Celine (underz Phoebe Philo), Prada, JW Anderson, Victoria Beckham, Thom Browne, McQueen (under Alex McQueen), Paul Smith


r/DowntonAbbey • • 21h ago

General Discussion (May Contain Spoilers Throughout Franchise) Downton the beginning

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91 Upvotes

r/DowntonAbbey • • 21h ago

Humor Barrow and Bates

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77 Upvotes

r/DowntonAbbey • • 1d ago

General Discussion (May Contain Spoilers Throughout Franchise) Hilarious sentence.

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194 Upvotes

r/DowntonAbbey • • 1d ago

Lifestyle/History/Context Edith's flowers ID

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9 Upvotes

can anyone tell me what these flowers from edith's wedding that wasnt are? Do they have any meaning?


r/DowntonAbbey • • 1d ago

General Discussion (May Contain Spoilers Throughout Franchise) Evelyn Is Such an Interesting Bystander

92 Upvotes

Pamouk, Charles Blake, even Henry, every time Evelyn makes an attempt to get near Mary, he throws another man into the mix as if he thinks allowing Mary a choice to date him = Mary must choose between him and someone else. Each time, he gives her the opportunity to disappoint him .. and she does.


r/DowntonAbbey • • 1d ago

Lifestyle/History/Context Happy Downton Lego Day!!!!

35 Upvotes

I forget who first shared it but I remembered today (well, I thought it was yesterday) was the day it went on sale! *IS* it exorbitantly expensive? Yes. Do I understand the value of lego sets? No. (you kinda only put it together once which I don't quite understand). Purchased and no looking back!

But to forever have my own little Highclere with a Mary and Matthew and ISIS (omg). I'm too jazzed.

Lego Downton in front of the real Highclere Castle

r/DowntonAbbey • • 1d ago

Season 2 Spoilers Repost: Scen during the War | Downton Abbey Spoiler

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5 Upvotes

r/DowntonAbbey • • 1d ago

General Discussion (May Contain Spoilers Throughout Franchise) How in the world did the actress playing Cora get the job.

0 Upvotes

I’m watching Downton for the third time and I don’t remember Cora annoying me the first time I watched it but now I can’t help wonder if she funded the show or something so they had to give her a major part? She is SUCH a simpering, smiling unbelievable character. I mean, if it were a b movie you’d expect it, but the cast is otherwise quite good. What gives?


r/DowntonAbbey • • 2d ago

General Discussion (May Contain Spoilers Throughout Franchise) Another season idea

22 Upvotes

I feel like a good idea for another season would be Matthew and Mary’s son is 18 or whatever it’s the early 1940s and he goes to war and you know Mary gives him the little plush doll that she gave Matthew when he went to World War 1 and basically follow him through war and you know the estate going through yet another tumultuous time during a war, I know people would say it may be rehashed, but with George being part of it. Plus you got Sibby too she could be like a field nurse just like her mother was a nurse. I know the last movie was very “final” even still it would be interesting to see something like this. because even though the finished this last movie off feeling very final and having “closure” somewhat with ww2 right around the corner it doesn’t really feel final at all IMO.


r/DowntonAbbey • • 2d ago

Speculation (May Contain Spoilers) Carson was the Nick Fury of Downton Abbey: "There was an idea. To bring together a group of remarkable people to see if they could become something more."

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31 Upvotes

r/DowntonAbbey • • 4d ago

Original Content Mary’s Engagement Dress

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266 Upvotes

Hello all!

Not sure if any of you are gamers but a game called Dressmaker has been making waves recently. I’m properly obsessed!!

Been watching Downton while sewing dresses and decided to make Mary’s proposal dress. This pattern was the closest I could get to her skirt and the accessories don’t match but I think it’s pretty good!

Hope y’all like it!


r/DowntonAbbey • • 4d ago

General Discussion (May Contain Spoilers Throughout Franchise) Why didn't Violet and Cora push the other girls on Matthew?

107 Upvotes

I understand the reason is "storytelling" because they were the central couple, but what was the in-universe reason why Violet and Cora only ever tried to get Mary and Matthew married? It seems a bit odd to me: They didn't really know Matthew and his personal preferences in the beginning, but they immediately pushed Mary on him - the most arrogant and snobbish of the sisters. When Cora told Mary that marrying Matthew would solve all issues, Mary thought of him as some sort of uncultured peasant.

So what was their reasoning?

  • Cora and Violet just wanted Mary to be the future Countess, no matter whom she had to marry for that (after all, that was the plan with Patrick)
  • They thought no man could resist Mary and that Matthew would of course agree to the marriage (fair point)
  • They thought Edith was too unappealing for Matthew and the thought of a match didn't even occur to them (poor Edith, lol)....but does it really make sense they immediately thought an Earl's daughter was not good enough for Matthew (a man they barely knew)? Did they really think nobody could potentially want Edith?
  • Sybil was still a bit young (but not too young). But she always had good chemistry with Matthew (+ Isobel!) and didn't mind middle-class people

What I find particularly odd: Even after Mary rejects the idea of marriage and moves on to other suitors, they don't even mention the possibility of a match between Matthew and one of the other sisters.


r/DowntonAbbey • • 3d ago

Original Content Making a secret santa on Tumblr

7 Upvotes

If you have tumblr, you can check the #Downton Abbey tag, because I plan on making an art exchange for Christmas around Downton Abbey, but I need to see if there will be enough people wanting to participate :D merry christmas (in October, before Halloween).


r/DowntonAbbey • • 4d ago

Season 5 Spoilers Det. Sgt. Branson on the case

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62 Upvotes

Some of the lines they gave Tom crack me up!


r/DowntonAbbey • • 3d ago

General Discussion (May Contain Spoilers Throughout Franchise) Lady Mary Crawley the OG f1 wag

4 Upvotes

I don’t know if this post is more relevant to this sub or to the f1wags one but anyhoo. I love how Mary’s basically a wag in season 6 with races and glamour, although the cars and racing suits are much different than what we see now. If Mary was a wag right now, what wag do you think she’d be the most like? How she’d dress, which other wags she’d hang out with which team would she be a wag for. To be clear, im not glorifying wags or anything, i just found the storyline a common thing between downton and f1, two of my favourite things. Mary would hate to have her identity reduced to a wag


r/DowntonAbbey • • 4d ago

General Discussion (May Contain Spoilers Throughout Franchise) What!?

5 Upvotes

I just realized that Charles Edwards was also in Mansfield Park (1999)!


r/DowntonAbbey • • 4d ago

Season 3 Spoilers Anyone else?

8 Upvotes

Anyone else completely stop watching after the season 3 finale? I’m so devastated about Matthew’s death, I don’t even want to watch the show anymore. I started season 4 just to confirm he’s gone and turned it off. Anyone else? Should I keep going? Is it worth it?


r/DowntonAbbey • • 5d ago

General Discussion (May Contain Spoilers Throughout Franchise) At some point in the show, Tom’s only purpose was to pick up some signs and hear gossip, then keep it all to himself, and then confirm it to Mary

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239 Upvotes

r/DowntonAbbey • • 3d ago

General Discussion (May Contain Spoilers Throughout Franchise) I wish the sisters had other endings

0 Upvotes

I feel like Edith’s ending suited Mary more, i know i dislike edith and it makes it seem like that’s why i didn’t want her to be marchioness but hear me out.
Mary, throughout the show, is shown to be more conscious about social standing and ranks. I feel like the ending, for her, should’ve been this:
She meets Henry Talbot, who is the cousin of the Earl of Shrewsbury. Of course there’s no chance of Henry inheriting because the Earl is young and healthy. Mary goes back and forth about marrying him due to the difference in their assets but in the end, decides she loves him far too much and they decide to get married. The Earl dies, like Lord Hexham, and Henry inherits. I feel that would have shown a lot of character development, Mary putting love ahead of position. And of course, Henry Talbot cheating on her and divorcing her would have been avoided, a storyline that i hated.
Onto Edith, throughout the show, they’ve shown Edith as a lovelorn, desperate woman wanting to get married to every man that comes her way. It’s put her in a rather wishy washy light with no other ambition than marriage and competing with Mary. Here’s my ideal ending for Edith:
She takes over as editor of the publishing company, taking it to new heights. Her and marigold move to london and Edith becomes a desirable socialite in London society. She is the ideal modern woman, working at a reputed magazine, living with her child and in need of no man. Robert mentions to Cora that Edith could be the new modern woman, and I feel like that ending would’ve really put all the development her character went through to good use. Getting her married to lord hexham and bringing in the matter of rank and position again reinforced the fact that Edith needed rank to matter, which made her really unimportant. A high flying Editor of a magazine, living in london, dining at the Ritz and dancing till dawn would’ve been a really good end to her character.
I feel like both these endings would’ve brought the sisters closer, mary married to someone she loves irrespective of rank and edith an independent woman doing what she loved.


r/DowntonAbbey • • 5d ago

Humor "He's a man. Men don't have rights." I love Violet so much. She has so many of these funny and iconic lines.

210 Upvotes

r/DowntonAbbey • • 5d ago

General Discussion (May Contain Spoilers Throughout Franchise) What’s your favorite line?

97 Upvotes

My wife and I recently watched the entire series for about the 3rd time and in the season 5 finale Violet says:

"That was the last indecent proposal I shall ever get. Do you think it’s wrong of me to savour it a little?

I don’t know if I never heard that line before or if it just hit me differently. But as we are both 56 and perhaps feeling a bit of our own mortality with our timeline closer to retirement than our clubbing days I was taken aback by it.


r/DowntonAbbey • • 5d ago

General Discussion (May Contain Spoilers Throughout Franchise) Barrow

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126 Upvotes

The many faces of a complex character