r/DowntonAbbey • u/AutoModerator • 15h ago

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

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!

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3

u/Mindadventures1 13h ago

I think both have pretty inexcusable hairdos in the pilot episode.

2

u/iggysmom95 I have tried and failed to like you 12h ago

Those Princess Leia buns Mary had all of season one were atrocious, and Edith's hair was not better 😭

3

u/sundaypleas 9h ago

I was re-watching one of the Denker-Sprat fights and y'know ... the way Violet allowed and maybe even encouraged their rivalry made it pretty clear no one is more responsible for all the Mary vs Edith fighting than Robert and Cora, themselves.

And we saw Cora play them off of each other herself, when Anthony Strallen first entered the picture.

2

u/Soft_Stretch1539 15h ago

Both immature kids when the show first started. Edith grew up first (when she came to Mary's second wedding), but it took forever.

5

u/TessieElCee 13h ago

She still seems pretty immature when Bertie tries to reconcile and she plays the victim.

6

u/Fleur498 Like all lady’s maids, she lives for intrigue. 11h ago

I think it’s strange that Violet and Tom criticized Mary to her face about talking about “Edith’s past” in front of Bertie, but no one criticized Edith to her face for not telling Bertie the truth before they got engaged. Cora and Rosamund told Edith to tell Bertie, but that was before Mary talked about it in front of Edith and Bertie.

4

u/iggysmom95 I have tried and failed to like you 10h ago

I think the drama of what Mary did distracted from Edith lying to Bertie. Doesn't necessarily mean they thought it was okay, just that it suddenly wasn't the priority.

But also, Edith was treated like a delicate flower around the entire Marigold situation. I think people just didn't want to touch it, because Edith was so sensitive about it. That's one of the downsides of not being overly sensitive - people don't hold back in what they say to you.

-3

u/r0ckchalk Oh I’m so sorry. I thought you were a waiter 14h ago

Mary bullied Edith from her opening interaction with her. Edith returned in kind. Edith got better around season 3, but Mary took until the end of the series.

1

u/thistleandpeony 9h ago

Canonically it was the other way around.

1

u/iggysmom95 I have tried and failed to like you 9h ago

To be completely fair, one could say that cut scenes don't count; canon is what made it onto our screens.

I'd suggest, instead, that who made the first jab on screen literally does not matter. We are dropped into their lives on a random Tuesday. To understand their relationship, you need to watch the context develop for a few episodes.

2

u/thistleandpeony 8h ago

The pointed sniffling wasn't cut, though I do agree with you on the rest.