Lauren60

I've heard good things about that show but haven't found time to watch season one yet. I hope to soon then I can go right into season two without having to wait.

What did you mean by "I didn't care so much for Mabel..."? Did you mean that you didn't care about her one way or another or that you didn't like her?

From the information we were given about her, Mabel seemed a decent person. The only reason I had to not like her was that she was one of the obstacles standing in the way of Mary and Tony being together. I didn't come to dislike her or anything despite that.

Since you're not for a Mary/Tony pairing, I suspect you didn't have any reason to dislike her. If you did, I'm curious as to why.

L i N d $ @ y

Tatiana is amazing.

I didn't care so much because I know very little about her plus we never even saw a glimpse of who Mabel was. So to me, she wasn't that much of an obstacle. It was different with Mary/Matthew/Lavinia though where I actually do like Lavinia.

ediedoyle

Ahh Lauren thank you so much for keeping things running on this thread.. I have so little time to myself these days and can't spare an hour to sit down writing/contemplating about this stuff too much, but I love dropping in here and scanning through the long posts.

Tom and Tatiana looked amazing at the GLAAD awards. I watched a bit of Orphan Black and it's very good! I think Tatiana borrowed Tom's accent for one of her characters on the show (Sarah), hehe. Anyway. Those two, individually and together, j'adore.

Going back on topic to Gillingham - love what you said about Mabel. I agree she was probably no more than 19 at the time of her engagement to Tony. Very young. I think I posted on another thread before about the real woman that I believe inspired the character, let me dig it up sometime.
But yeah if we had seen a few things from Tony's perspective, like the moment he broke it off with Mabel, we would get so much more insight into his dilemma, his reasons and his overall personality. I would have loved to see it. But I suppose JF wants to keep everything tightly centered on the Crawleys and Downton -- he got so much criticism for venturing further out in s2. He could have written her into the CS (I wish). But, I don't think her story is relevant anymore since she agreed to let Tony go, so unfortunately we probably will never meet her.

Whatever happens in s5 I hope Tony finds his happiness. I think Mary taught him something important about life, about reaching for the people and things that give you hope and strength and remind you that love exists in the world.. That's a lovely lesson to learn. And he has a kind heart, I really believe that, even though he pressured Mary too much in the beginning. He clearly started to realize his mistake by the end of the CS. So yeah. I'm so eager to find out what happens next for him and Mary!

L i N d $ @ y

Well said. That's why I'm looking forward to how they will be explored more next season. It would be great if it's only Tony in the picture but he's not.

Lauren60

I agree. It was hard to get too invested in Mabel since we never even got to see her. I would like to have seen her when Tony broke off their engagement. I think that would have been a good scene in many ways.

Commenting on the bolded parts:

I haven't been doing too well lately. I haven't posted in almost two weeks. Don't you hate it when the responsibilities of real life get in the way? Let's face it, there isn't much new to discuss. All we can do is rehash season four. Of course, I can usually find something to bring up about Mary and Tony. I'm sure I'll think of something.

Long posts? Who me? I guess I'm lucky they don't impose a maximum word count on posts. I could say I'll keep them shorter in the future but those would just be empty words. I suspect you should plan on continuing your scanning method.

I agree that we'll probably never meet the Honorable Mabel Lane Fox. I doubt her name will even be mentioned now that Mary won't be asking Tony about her everytime she sees him.

I agree with everything in your last paragraph. Tony has a kind heart for sure and it's filled with love for Mary. Season five can't come soon enough.

It's always a pleasure to read your take on things Edie. Please come back soon!!

L i N d $ @ y

That's my problem during hiatus for this board, it's slow and it's hard to talk about other stuff and we're not allowed spoilers on the threads so all we can really do is rehash S4 over & over until September.

SannraB

In Germany we have the translation of S4 now, finally. So i could watch it all again an well...i don't like Tony to be true. He hasn't done something wrong, but he was so fast forward that he did not seem very credible to me. Maybe he is a very romatic guy and maybe he just quickly falls in love. Maybe i am too sober and suspicious but that was too much for me. I can't understand why he became so fanatical. He seemed to me almost like a stalker. Maybe there is a background we don't know yet?

L i N d $ @ y

This is the thread for appreciating Tony for Mary so this thread should be all about why we like Tony for Mary and not why he shouldn't be the one for Mary.

SannraB

And which thread is now the right thread to post my post? Sorry, but it's getting a bit complicated now...

L i N d $ @ y

We can talk about general DA S4 discussion here.

Lauren60

Hi SannraB! I was so excited for a second there because I thought you were a new Mary/Tony fan posting to this thread. I'm sorry to see that it isn't the case. Welcome anyway!

You're definitely not the only one who was surprised by the speed in which Tony fell in love with and proposed to Mary. Tony was being pressured to marry and he was resigned to marrying Mabel out of a sense of duty. When he met Mary he was blown away by her and fell quickly and deeply in love with her. This is Mary we're talking about so it isn't too far fetched. Matthew was very smitten with Mary as soon as he met her too so there's definitely something about Mary that makes men swoon.

The point of the early Mary/Tony storyline is that the timing was all wrong for them. Tony was soon to be engaged to Mabel and Mary wasn't ready to move on from Matthew.

I wouldn't say Tony became fanatical about Mary. He definitely pursued her but he backed off and wished her well after she refused his marriage proposal. His intentions have always been honorable and he truly loves Mary.

You're not the first person to use the word "stalker" in reference to Tony. Let's remember that the only time he showed up uninvited was when he came to Downton to propose to Mary. He had been invited to the house party and to the dinner party at Rosamund's. A stalker's victim is terrorized and lives in fear of what he may to do her. That hardly describes Mary's response to Tony. On the contrary, he makes her smile and she enjoys his company.

There definitely was room for improvement with the way the Mary/Tony storyline was developed but that's water under the bridge now. I hope you'll take the time to read some of my earlier posts. I've tried to point out why I think Tony is the one for Mary. Who knows, maybe you'll change your mind about Tony. I find him to be a very attractive character in many ways and I'm crossing my fingers that he will be Mary's long term love interest.

Welcome again and I look forward to reading more of your opinions on the great show that is Downton Abbey!!

L i N d $ @ y

Yeah, I don't think Tony is a stalker or a fanatic as well. Not in that sense. Perhaps he's a bit more forward. Though what I like about him is he's very expressive and is not afraid to show his vulnerable side to Mary. Not all men can be like that.

SannraB

Hi together. Thanx for answering and Lauren, thanx for your sweet welcoming words!
Don't unterstand me wrong, it's not the way i don't like Tony because of his character, that would be totally wrong! I don't know him really. I just see a guy who had been introduced into the story and a very fast action. He came, the story writer told us that he's been knowing Mary since they were children and he fell in love with her. but who is Tony? We didn't get an closer impression of his character or the opportunity of getting to know him. The indroduction of Matthew for example had much more details. After one or two episodes you got a feeling of how Matthew and Mary interact. This is still missing between Mary and Tony in my opinion. To say that Tony is fanatical had been wrong. He is not fanatical but the situation seems to be.
Maybe we'll get to know him better next season.

L i N d $ @ y

I agree. We don't know that much about Tony only that he & Mary were childhood friends. They didn't see each other much and I'm pretty sure he knew about M/M marrying. Hopefully S5 can rectify this and give us more Mary/Tony moments.

Lauren60

Tony definitely put his heart out there without knowing if Mary will ever reciprocate. That indeed made him very vulnerable. I think his vulnerability brings out the softer side of Mary. Plus he's always so sweet and loving to her how can her heart not be touched by it? We know Mary was concerned that she had lost all the softness in her when Matthew died. She doubted if it had ever really existed or was just something Matthew saw in her. The fact Tony brings out the "soft" Mary, the kind of Mary she was with Matthew, the Mary she wants to be, is one reason why she will eventually choose Tony.

I agree with you SannraB. We got almost zero backstory on Tony and we never got to see him outside the Crawley family circle. When Matthew was introduced, we got to see him on his own so we got an understanding of his perspective on what was happening. We got none of that for Tony so his character lacks depth. Despite all that I came to like him very much and I love how he and Mary are together. Hopefully he'll be around for a while so we can get to know him better!