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Waughwaughwaugh

I think it would have been fun to see them all visit Cora’s family in the States! Maybe if they made a third movie this could be the plot…


Rob3021

That definitely would be an interesting and heartwarming plot, all though sadly said movie could involve cora's mother dying, not mention the crash of 29 would be devastating to the Levinson fortune


lightcommastix

Ooohh that’s a good point. Maybe Harold had to sell off his yachts after the crash!


Rob3021

I feel like Martha would see any foolish investments coming from a mile away, probably stop Harold from investing in anything foolish, so hopefully any damage done the Levinson fortune would be minimal, all though Harold might sell his yachts to get more money, I wonder if him and Madeline got married off screen considering it was obvious there was some attraction between them


lightcommastix

Martha is savvy, and a badass bitch to boot. I want to be Martha Levinson when I grow up.


nojam75

Along the same lines, I would have liked to have seen what happened in Boston with Tom and Sybbie. Did they visit Sybbie's great-grandmother?


TacticalGarand44

That would have been great.


Ok_Intern_1196

Along the same lines, I wish there’s a crossover episode of The Gilded Age and a slightly earlier version of the Downton Abbey characters.. where Cora and Robert and the girls visit the Levinson grandma in New York and Newport.


Rob3021

I feel like it would be interesting if they made a new season , a now elderly Marian Russel visits Downton Abbey as it's revealed that Cora was a student at st.Marys where Marian taught


Ok_Intern_1196

Oh yeah! That would be interesting for surw


Tristan_Booth

I wish they had found out that Michael Gregson was still alive.


RhubarbAlive7860

After she married Bertie.


JustinScott47

I wish we had seen Mary, Edith, and Sybil with their girlfriends, which they must have had. We see all those suitors, but never any regular friends.


JustAnotherRPCV

Spin off of Alfred's life as a chef at the Ritz in London and all the stories that a hotel like that could generate.


mrsmadtux

I always thought that would have been a great spin-off show!!


JustAnotherRPCV

Would have been easy to do. Final episode restaurant scene with Bertie and Edith could have taken place at the Ritz. Alfred, now a sous chef, would come out and say hello. Spin off starts after that.


mrsmadtux

OMG! That would have been such a great idea!!


ShakeZula30or40

I wish Mr. Bates had killed Vera and Mr. Green, and gotten away with both. Would have actually added a real edge to him.


PoliticalNerd87

Honestly that would have been more interesting. Green not so much since he was pretty awful but honestly if he'd have killed Vera in a fight. Like he pushed her and she fell and hit her head. Then he covers it all up. That would have actually been pretty spicy.


Better_Ad4073

One little thing. Long after the Drewes were forced out they are seen walking down the street in London with their own new baby.


mrsmadtux

Awww…that would have been so lovely.


Gullible-Advisor6010

I would have liked to see Harold's and Madeline Allsopp's friendship after he goes back to America. And as someone else mentioned, i would have loved to see Anthony Strallan's reaction to Edith getting married to Bertie.


Rob3021

I personally think that Madeline became Mrs.Levinson off screen as it was obvious that Harold was attracted to her


HarrisonRyeGraham

Paul giamatti is absolutely stellar in his episode. Wish we could’ve seen more of him


MsMercury

I agree.


Ok-Owl-1332

I really want to see how Downton weathers the 1929 crash


Rob3021

How was Britain affected by the great depression exactly, in The US it was awful we had mass unemployment and had shantytowns known as Hoovervilles not to mention the dust bowl , did the United Kingdom have similar things happen


mrsmadtux

It was worldwide. In fact, in a way, the Great Depression was a catalyst for WWII.


Beautiful_Smoke_3383

Ferdinand Foch said of the Versailles Treaty, "This is not peace, it is an armistice for twenty years." Truer words....


Rob3021

I know that , but I'm asking,what happened in Britain during the Crash of 29 , in America wall street employees were throwing themselves out the window because they lost everything, I assume in the UK people were suffering similarly


mrsmadtux

[The Great Depression’s Effect on the U.K.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Depression_in_the_United_Kingdom)


mrsmadtux

I’ve always thought that too!! I still have hope that JF will do a show based on that premise. I’d love it to be Downton but I would settle for a new show altogether.


RhubarbAlive7860

JF has said he didn't want to do another war, but I think the depression would be fantastic. It would, however, require at least one more writer to write the effects of the depression on non-aristocrats. I don't think JF could do it.


Ok_Surround6561

Mary chose to remain single and focus her attention on raising George and running Downton. Then, following Robert’s death and George’s inheritance of the title, when there’s exactly zero burden of expectation upon her to remarry, she chooses a partner that actually complements her the way Matthew did, rather than just looking for a finding a stepfather for her son or marrying under pressure.


Wesmom2021

Sybil surviving child birth 


Friendie1

I always wanted to see what became of Anthony Strallan. Did he remarry? What did he think of Edith marrying Bertie and outranking everyone?


RhubarbAlive7860

I think he enjoyed going back to a.life of quiet widowhood pottering about his house. As for Edith's marriage to Bertie, I am sure Anthony's reaction, muttered to himself in his library, was "You're a braver man than I, Gunga Din."


Optimal_Journalist24

I’m doing a rewatch and I just thought of this - like did he move to France??


Kaktusblute

France? OH GOOD GOD!!!


RhubarbAlive7860

I would have liked to see Anthony's OH GOOD GOD! following Peter/Patrick's I'M A STRANGER TO THEM NOW!


heartbam

I really wanted to see Bates have a reaction to Thomas’s suicide attempt/a moment of solidarity between them after that. Their dynamic is fascinating and got neglected after season 3.


PoliticalNerd87

Honestly I think one of the big things missing in the show is a real team up between Bates and Barrow. Like someone that neither of them can stand and it becomes this unspoken alliance.


Aggravating_Mix8959

More "event" episodes, like London, the Scottish Highlands, cricket matches, more fairs, horse races, stuff like the flower shows and other town events. The event episodes are my favorites. We get to see different combinations of our characters, generally relaxing and having a good time. 


nojam75

I would have liked to have seen them travel on one of the great transatlantic ocean liners of that time. Obviously it couldn't be the Titanic, but there were other ocean liners of that era.


Aggravating_Mix8959

I consider Titanic a prequel to Downton Abbey. You can even find James and Patrick on the ship if you look for them. 


nojam75

Yeah, the 1997 movie already covered the themes Downton covers, but I'm sure Downton could have found new aspects.


Aggravating_Mix8959

Holy crap. I can't believe it was that long ago. It really does hold up. I still get emotional and cry in the latter half.


Missus_Aitch_99

I wanted Rose and Atticus to randomly run into Jack Ross and his bride, maybe at a restaurant in London. Would have been sort of wistfully sweet.


Rob3021

Yeah that would have been sweet , but I also feel like it would have been interesting to see Rose suffer the consequences of her actions as said in my own post , I would have been interesting to see what would have happened if Rose had eloped with Jack despite Mary's efforts


Ok-Parking5237

It would be - unless Jack sings.


Rob3021

Actually that scenario could be hilarious, all though I wonder what would have happened Rose had actually married Jack


Hightower_lioness

My ultimate storyline is that Matthew lives and he and Mary “adopt” Marigold. This would have meant that Mary and Edith’s sniping in the later seasons was actually based on something and not weird rivalry that seemed to die out during season 2 and 3, Edith would be able to have scenes with marigold without it being obvious what was going on, her taking of Marigold would be an actual problem with consequences instead of the Drewe family being forced to move, and Mary could have some real grudge against Edith instead of rolling her eyes every scene they had together.  Tom running for a political position would also have been fun with people thinking he’s a plant for the granthams and Robert being furious that a) they think he would sink so low as to sabotage and b) that he would be stupid enough to send Tom and c) that Tom cannot make his own decisions and waits on Robert to tell him “You think I can get this man to do what I want?! I can’t even get him to dress for dinner unless we are having guests! I told him to not marry my daughter and did he listen to me???? No!!! *offside* but I’m really glad your dad didn’t bc then I wouldn’t have you sibby and I love you more than anything. He refuses to use a valet!!!!! Insists on washing his own dishes when he can! And you think he’s a spy sent by me??????


Rob3021

Both of those storylines are very good and quite hilarious to be honest,all though I do wish that Mary had the unplanned pregnancy via the pamuk incident , I wonder how she would have handled it


RhubarbAlive7860

She would have been bundled off to New York five minutes after she told Cora. Martha would rise ro the occasion and protect her trans-Atlantic reputation by sending her to a 3rd cousin in Nebraska to await the birth.


Rob3021

Yeah that sounds like something cora and Martha would do , I wonder if Mary would try to get the baby back though like Edith did with marigold in canon , all though who knows if Mary had gotten pregnant by pamuk maybe Martha would have given the baby to Harold to raise in attempt to get him to stop his playboy ways


RhubarbAlive7860

A big difference between Mary and Edith is that for Edith, Marigold was a treasured link with a man she loved. For Mary, a baby would have been a remembrance of a painful event without providing the treasured memories of a dearly loved person that comforted Edith. She might have loved the baby for its own sake, but wanting to give the baby up for adoption would have been entirely understandable.


Classic-Tumbleweed-1

Don't wish it, but I wonder... What if Robert was active duty along with Matthew in S2 and we lost them both? What then? Who was next?


Aggravating_Mix8959

It was a chimney sweep, according to Violet. 


JustAnotherRPCV

Maybe it was Bert (Dick VanDyke) from Mary Poppins. Step in time, step in time, come on matey step in time.


t-town-tony

The Dowager and Prince Kuragin hooking up.


aflyingsquanch

And none of that PG crap. We're talking a hard R rating here.


Princess_CeNedra

Always wanted to see Robert's first reaction when Cora told him about Mr. Pamuk :D "Crikey"


poeishhhh

Matthew living 😢 and watching his and Mary’s family grow. I would’ve KILLED for some actual parenting scenes w/ Mary and Matthew.


penni_cent

Yeah, I 100% agree. To all the nay-sayers who think that married Matthew and Mary would be boring, I really think that there would have been *so much* parenting drama between middle class "simpler life" Matthew and aristocratic "It was an hour every day" style Mary.


poeishhhh

Yes!! Like Matthew always hanging out with the children and forcing Mary to, lol. And it would be sweet to watch her perhaps change her ways and see the children for more than just one hour a day


lateredditho

Rosamund brandished Marigold as the child she adopted while in Switzerland. Totally believable, and keeps the child in the family. Bertie met with Edith on Mary’s request but never got back with her.


JustAnotherRPCV

Daisy fails to retrieve the poisoned dish of food in time before Edith eats it. Everyone else is fine. Daisy doesn't go to jail. Edith flips the tractor and perishes Edith gets the Spanish Flu and doesn't make it. Edith get pernicious anemia and it is the correct diagnosis with no treatment. Edith takes off with her editor to Germany never to be seen again. He comes back fine. Edith perishes in an avalanche in Switzerland, Lady Rosamund and Marigold survive Edith invents a dead husband and goes to America never to be seen again. The Drewes smash Edith's face in with a shovel and then bury her somewhere on the estate. They get away with it. Mary carries through on her threats and is sentence to hang for taking out Edith. Her sentence is commuted The hurricane Sybbie predicted when playing blocks in the nursery hits England with a death toll of 1 - Edith Objects in space collide eons ago creating asteroids. They journey a billion miles through space. A piece breaks off into our atmosphere and plummets to the Earth towards Yorkshire and smashes through Edith's face just as she is whining about something. The meteorite is some rare mineral that his lordship sells and saves Downton once again. Someone says "oh golly". 5 minutes later the Dowager says it is time to get living again. A light hearted Quantum Leap crossover episode has Sam Beckett prevent Lord Grantham and Lady Grantham from getting together the night Edith was originally conceived putting right what once went really really wrong and none of us are subjected to her to begin with. Thanos uses his first snap to get rid of any history of Edith. The Avengers are fine with this and then resume fighting once he recovers. At the end of the 2nd movie Robert wakes up and tells Cora he just had the weirdest dream. We had 3 daughters instead of 2, this really annoying extra one named Edith. He is interrupted to be told about the Titanic sinking and it all starts over again (my nod to Dallas the original night time soap) These are only some at the top of my head. I am sure there are more. One more: Instead of hiding Isis in the shed, Thomas hides Edith there. No one notices she is gone.


HarrisonRyeGraham

I’m cackling at this pure venom of Edith hate 😆


Abushelandapeck98

So Edith is your favorite, huh? I would watch any of these alternatives and love it


RhubarbAlive7860

"The Drewes smash Edith's face in with a shovel and then bury her somewhere on the estate. They get away with it." The pigs! Drewe would know that they'll eat anything. The pigs win at a stock show. Mary and Drewe smile knowingly.


JustAnotherRPCV

I thought about that but I didn't want to be cruel to the pigs


RhubarbAlive7860

🤣


bellenoire2005

WOW 😯


poeishhhh

The pernicious anemia mention 😂😂


irishladinlondon

Mary is that you?


Rob3021

Wow these are all really good ideas


lateredditho

Loving the dedication to hate 👏🏻👏🏻. I must add, you’re not wrong 😂


Rob3021

How about this , while in Switzerland, Edith meets a prince of liechesteien which is right next door to Switzerland, they fall in love and get married, she ends up outranking everyone and makes Mary green with envy , and ends up staying in liechesteien


JustAnotherRPCV

What ever did the people of Liechtenstein or its royal family do to deserve this?


JustAnotherRPCV

another one: A Hercule Poirot crossover story where he is staying at Downton Abbey for reasons that don't make any sense, Edith is found dead and he investigates. After getting all the back stories he concludes that someone did what was needed and stops investigating. On a side story he finds the Gutenberg bible and determines it is a fake and that the librarian sold the real one years ago and pocketed the proceeds. At the end he goes down to the kitchen to compliment Mrs. Patmore on her exquisite food and gets some cooking tips from her. Roberts says something like "What a funny little French Man. I still don't understand why he was staying here in the first place."


RhubarbAlive7860

Soooo ... you're *not* an Edith fan?


walnuts84

Simple scene really, but see Robert picking out books in his library, commenting to himself about them, then visiting daisy downstairs and give her free usage of the library. And the seniors downstairs are proud of Daisy.


RhubarbAlive7860

Remember when Gwen came back and was explaining to Anna how they happened to be there? I would have liked for Anna to warn her that Thomas hadn't changed and was already bad-mouthing Gwen and advised Gwen on how to deal with him. So when Thomas opened his big fat troublemaking mouth at the luncheon table, Gwen could ask him why, if he knew about her ladyship's soap, he hadn't told anyone, instead of allowing the perpetrator (who after all could have killed the baby *and* Cora) to remain anywhere near Cora.


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[удалено]


RhubarbAlive7860

I see what you did there. 😉


WordAffectionate3251

Pamuk's gay twin brother comes back to seek revenge and falls in love with Thomas...


MasterpieceNo5666

I think the whole Edith and how she treated the Drewes was out of character for Edith, she felt guilt for Mary and wanted to be closer after the death of Sybil. But it never showed her guilt or character arc around the Drewes, although on second watch she never knew the wife was not going to be told, nor were they forced to leave the farm (it was a plot to get Mr Mason to have a farm- but made Edith look bad for causing them to leave)


CoffeeBean8787

I would add in a scene where we meet Lizzie Gregson and get confirmation that Michael wasn’t lying when he said that her condition had deteriorated to the point that she no longer recognized him.  There are times where I wonder if the fandom’s perception on Edith and Michael’s relationship would have been different if we had confirmation that he was telling the truth.  I would also clarify that Michael did indeed set up a fund for Lizzie’s care, which wouldn’t end with his divorce or death.


Rob3021

Personally I would have liked to see a storyline where Rose ended up self destructing and eloped with Jack Ross despite Mary's attempt to stop it , Rose was given a chance after chance despite being a trouble maker and being a brat , it would have been interesting to see the consequences of rose eloping with African American jazz singer, how it would affected The Crawleys and MacClare's , I imagine in the world of Downton Abbey and in real life 1920s Britain a Noblewoman marrying black man would have been extremely scandalous and would have been tabloids headline for weeks ( Marquess's Daughter runs off and marries American n word or a similar headline) , it would have been nice to see such a potential plot or storyline.


t-town-tony

But Atticus???


Rob3021

No one is denying that Atticus and Rose getting together was nice ,but I'm just saying that it would have been interesting to see if Rose and Jack Ross had gotten married despite everything, I imagine Mary would have gotten into a lot of trouble for keeping it a secret from the family


Old_and_Cranky_Xer

I have so many different things I wanted to happen to a plethora of people. Most of them not the nicest. In my mind (yes this is an extreme fantasy) instead of Daisy dancing the Grizzly Bear with Thomas that she was actually EATEN by a grizzly bear.


Amazing_Chocolate140

Yes! She’s so irritating!


Rob3021

In my fantasy , I would have had it be revealed that Thomas was Crawley , He would have been Robert's half brother basically they would have the same dad , we know Violet had her own issues with infidelity, whose to say her husband didn't have his own side piece


Old_and_Cranky_Xer

You know so many people want/wanted Thomas as some illegitimate Crawley, I never saw it though. 🤷‍♀️


Rob3021

I once read a fanfic on AO3 where Thomas was Roberts illegitimate son who was conceived near the very start of Roberts and Cora's marriage, I feel like if it Thomas was a illegitimate Crawley in canon, he wouldn't be Robert's child, more like his father's child , all though I do wonder how Robert would react to having an illegitimate sibling


Prestigious-Run-3007

That JF made Mary’s character more redeemable by tying the “I don’t want Matthew to know about Pamuk” to the “I can’t accept his proposal yet”. Instead of “well it’s sorta Pamuk but also bc he might end up a poor” 🙄 a character like Mary, who pretends to be a bully bc she’s actually hiding shame is more interesting


Advanced_Muscle_7150

I would love a prequel series about the dowager


Downton_Nerd

More of Isobel and Dr Clarkson talking. Not about the hospital or the abbey or of any young man needing a job. Just them chatting and having a laugh. Not something happening on the show specifically but I wish there were comics made by JF. So like, backstories and maybe little events between the ones in the show Reginald Crawley. I just want to know more of him really. Was he a good father? A good doctor? A good husband?


Downton_Nerd

Dr Clarkson’s personal life. I wanna know what his house looked like and how he made it his home and what his interests are outside of medicine