Downton Abbey speculation

[vilakins]

First up, I should say that I haven't seen the latest ep; that'll be tonight.

I really thought I'd posted about this but it must have been in a comment as I can't find it. A while back I pointed out that Julian Fellowes has a worrying attitude to pregnancy. (I'm squicked by it myself but have no desire to punish characters for it.) At the time we'd had a miscarriage, the death of a mother and a father, and I said that if Edith knew what was good for her, she'd be very, very careful.

I suspected she was pregnant when she went to the London clinic. Sigh. So what's in store for her now? Death through abortion? I don't trust Fellowes to give her a happy outcome here, and I'm not sure what other options are open to her in that era other than hiding in a private clinic till the birth, then a secret adoption.

Before that I was wondering whether she and Michael would get mixed up in rising German (and British) fascism, either being seduced by it or opposing it. I still hope Edith still gets the chance of the interesting life she deserves, but I'm not holding my breath.

Comments

[san-valentine.livejournal.com]

I hope that something good will happen to poor Edith - she deserves it.

It's only the early(ish) 20's though, so fascism isn't really an issue as yet. I do wonder what has happened to Michael; I hope we get an answer soon, and that it will be a good one for Edith.

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Not a big issue, no, but it was rising around that time following WW1. [looks it up] I found:

• The British Fascists, founded in 1923 as the British Fascisti by Rotha Lintorn-Orman, one of the very few women to ever lead an avowedly fascist movement. Initially they had only a limited political platform but supported Italian fascism from 1931 to their demise in 1936. (A friend posted photos of Lintorn-Orman a while back; stunning-looking cross-dresser.)
  
• The National Fascisti, a splinter-group of the BF founded in 1924 that from the outset fully supported the tactics of Benito Mussolini. They fell apart after another group, the British National Fascisti, broke away from them.
  
• The Nazi Party was founded as the nationalist and antisemitic German Workers' Party in January 1919. By the early 1920s, Adolf Hitler had become its leader and assumed control of the organisation, now renamed the National Socialist German Workers’ Party.

So I was wondering whether Michael (and perhaps Edith) might get involved with the beginnings of it. Fellowes, I thought, picked Germany for a reason and trhere was a lot of unrest there due to rampant inflation.

I'll see if there's anything tonight. Poor Edith indeed.

[thisbluespirit]

As someone who's already seen the episode in question, there's not much I can say... What did you think, in the end?

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

That if she's going ahead, at least Fellowes can't kill her that way as he's already done that plot. I can't imagine how things can go well for her if Michael doesn't turn up soon, unless she becomes a known eccentric writer or something.

[zoefruitcake.livejournal.com]

yes, I'd thought pretty much the same as you. I've also not seen the latest episode yet

[vilakins.livejournal.com]

Something unconnected with Edith that I'd been expecting happened too. I have speculations about that: who is going to do what.