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annavolovodov · 5 years

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ya girl saw the downton movie and has some Thoughts

if you followed me at all from 2011-2015 then you'll know i am firmly Team Downstairs and did not want this movie to happen, just so you all know what position i'm coming from here.

everything below is gonna be spoilery af. if you haven't seen it yet and want info just hmu. if you have seen it and want to talk about it please message me bc i’m always up for chatting about Downton.

okay but the title sequence with the music building and cresting as we come up over the hills and get our first shot of downton... goosebumps. tbh i don't know shit about film making but i can't fault the technical aspects (costumes, music, cinematography). the impact of the increased budget was felt from the very first second.

for the plot i’m gonna split things by character to make it easier. i’ll probably go to see it again and maybe after that i’ll have some deeper Thoughts but i missed being able to liveblog during the film so enjoy my rambling first reactions.

upstairs peeps

everything with violet was iconic. i'm glad that they didn't neglect her relationship with isobel and ofc maggie and imelda played fantastically off each other. pretty much everyone has already highlighted the scene with violet and mary at the end and it tied things up perfectly between them. violet and mary are so so similar and violet has been pushing for her to inherit since before S1. the movie showed us that mary is basically running the estate even if she doesn't get the the title and i can totally see why violet is confident in the future of downton now. that being said, i don't think violet will actually die. maggie has been talking about leaving since 2012 and fellowes obviously put this in as a get-out clause for her should she want to go, but i reckon they’ll convince her to do more. if carson's palsy can be mysteriously cured, so can violet's conveniently vague illness.

i already knew that robert and cora weren't gonna be in it much, but i wish we could've seen cora finding out what was happening with edith and helping her out. it wouldn't surprise me if there was a deleted scene there cause that whole storyline felt a little disjointed. i completely forgot that cora knew about the pregnancy and was so confused at how the queen foud out about it all. i don't think we got anything in robert and cora's bedroom, or anything with cora/baxter and robert/bates, which would've also been very welcome but i guess they can only fit in so much.

onto mary: this may be an unpopular opinion but god i miss her long hair. yeah i know it wasn't the style of the time but her wig in this one was tragic and they need to fix it. i absolutely love that t*lbot didn't exist for a solid 95% of this movie and mary got her rightful place ruling downton. i wouldn't say i’m the biggest mary fan but her arc felt like one of the more satisfying ones of the movie imo.

as someone who has been firmly #teamedith from day one i am delighted to see my girl happy and successful. literally all her outfits were A+ and not to be gay on main but those scenes of her in her nightclothes getting ready for bed gave me my rights. i’m sad that she seems like she's either given up her magazine or has less of a role in it now based on what they said outside???? she did seem unsatisfied with aspects of her position so hopefully she'll go back to doing some writing and publishing cause that was a good fit for her, and if edith and bertie are “modern” enough to travel without servants surely edith moving away from traditional grand lady duties and back to her magazine that wouldn't be an issue.

the mention of sybil being gone seven years? yeah. thanks for the pain. tom accidentally saving the monarchy on no less than two occasions is the ultimate "congratulations you played yourself" moment but the fact he thought the army had sent someone to check up on him is the level of republican i'm trying to be on. i'm a bit ehhhh on his relationship with lucy, mainly cause i'd rather the screentime given to the newbies had went to established characters. but like sybil/tom was a wholeass epic romantic slowburn spanning several years through a war and across class divisions n shit and meanwhile lucy/tom have known each other for forty eight hours and had three conversations in a hallway so like obviously that’s just gonna pale in comparison????? like it just is???? i guess i don't hate it but it just was a bit unnecessary and the time coulda been spent on better things.

isobel didn't have all that much to do on her own but i appreciated her scenes with violet and i love that she was the one to figure out that lucy was lady whatever's daughter. penelope wilton's facial expressions during some of the exchanges with violet were great. i see lord merton has also undergone a miraculous recovery from his apparently serious anaemia but he also didn't appear much which was a big win for me!

team downstairs aka the ones i turned up to see

as a downstairs supremacist who has watched the screentime distribution in previous fifty two eps of the show, it’s fair to say i had low expectations going in. i expected a grand total of 10 minutes for the servants combined and i think that's why i was unexpectedly happy with what we got. ideally we would've ditched the subplots involving the personal lives of the royals and all the stuff w imelda staunton and her maid but oh well it could’ve been worse and i'll take any breadcrumbs i can get. anyway i'm eagerly awaiting the team downstairs cut of the film one of yall will hopefully make when the dvd comes out. the only part that was far, FAR too upstairs heavy for me was the last sequence of the film after the royals left and i think we would've benefitted from rounding things off with team downstairs after the ball.

so i guess retirement magically cured the palsy carson had, but i guess after matthew’s miraculous recovery anything can happen at downton when it comes to health. Fellowes is getting a free pass for retconning this one cause i cba with more death/loss. mary going to carson for help and him immediately coming to her aid was very sweet. kinda wish we'd find out what he was up to post-Downton (except for his gardening) tho.

i was expected zero carson/hughes content in this movie and yet !!!! and yet!!!!!! we were somewhat well-fed. like carson (incorrectly) thinking he can control the other servants and mrs hughes' "oh that went well charlie, start as you mean to go on" hdjksjs i love them. and the lil scene in their cottage ugh. also we got more of them using their first names and yeah i guess that makes sense given they've been married for a while now but as i said, i had low expectations.

mrs hughes is still like the best person ever but wbk. her vs. the royal housekeeper = iconic. i kinda felt bad for royal whatsherface in some ways because she clearly didn't know who she was up against THE elsie hughes who has vanquished much scarier foes in her time. the other servants were never gonna win that battle.

the 0.5 seconds of baby bates *chef's kiss* perfection. god i am slightly bitter it was only 0.5 seconds given the fuckin multiseason journey leading up to his birth. tbh we should've ditched everything involving the personal lives of the rando new characters and let baby bates have some of that time but fellowes loves upstairs too much to let that happen. the small interaction was adorable though and i'm glad the mention of his name was subtle enough that we can retcon it cause i truly believe anna and bates would've came up with a more creative choice than that. genuinely i'm so curious about their whole living situation and how they cope with a smol child while working full time but i doubt fellowes even considered that so y’know. what can we do. i enjoyed the breadcrumbs but i wanted more.

i did go into this film with the mindset of "something awful will probably happen to anna or bates," cause that's what usually happens in these things but plot twist!!!! we saw them smile on multiple occassions!!!! what a nice change for us all! i swear every time anna bates smiles an angel gains their wings. her scenes with mary were good and i'm happy their friendship made it into the film. you know what else i was happy to see? the EXTREMELY UNDERRATED brotp between anna and baxter. there was a couple of moments with them standing next to each other or talking to each other and it warmed my heart. like yass two of my fave people are friends. it's a big win for me.

i'm sure i read something about brendan being involved in another project which meant he couldn't film too much (i'm curious to whether this impacted the lack of baby bates scenes?) and while it's true that bates didn't have a ton of scenes, i didn't feel like he was absent which was good.

thomas had the best storyline imo. i don't blame him for being angry that mary brought in carson and it was actually very iconic of him to go off in the library like that. i found it hilarious that while everyone else was panicking at downton he went off on gay adventures. i really wish we'd gotten this "thomas makes a gay friend then discovers the village's underground gay scene THEN gets a boyfriend" in the show cause that would've been SO MUCH BETTER than some of the other stuff that got stretched out across the last couple series (like the love quadrangle with daisy/ivy/alfred/jimmy). like, imagine thomas’ movie plot as a series-long arc. the impact. i liked the guy that was his maybe-boyfriend and i hope any continuation keeps that relationship going.

mrs p and daisy continue to be the mother-daughter duo of the century. i thought both of them were supposed to be moving to the farm post-S6 but i suppose that would've meant they wouldn't be in the film hence why it didn't come to fruition. i guess they could all move once daisy and andy get married. mrs patmore didn't get a great deal to do but i still feel like i saw her a fair amount. comrade daisy was awesome and is definitely me when i see any monarchy-related stuff. somewhere over the last few seasons she's developed into one of the most interesting characters in downton and we don't talk about that enough. andy trashing the boiler was immature af but at the same time i feel like it completely makes sense for daisy to take that as a compliment. it’s just such a daisy thing to do?????

now, there is one thing i kinda fucked up here. while i went into the film with low expectations for everyone else, i fully expected baxley to be A Thing because how could i not and boy did i come out looking like boo boo the fool. i guess baxter and molesley have continued the tradition of Agonisingly Long Downstairs Slowburns which would be okay if we were still getting one season per year but is quite frankly rude when we're on rationed content like this. the first half of the film i thought it was gonna be revealed that they were together or something but then that scene at the end implied they're dancing around each other and my god is it frustrating. i would give so much to trade tom and lucy's romantic subplot for a baxter/molesley one but once again i know that's an unrealistic dream.

definitely not enough baxter in general but that one shot of her, anna and mrs hughes standing in the same frame was worth the price of my cinema ticket. still love molesley even tho he's a monarchist.

in terms of the overall downstairs stuff, i'm euphoric at seeing all these people interact with each other again. as we all know, found family is the best trope and since the servants are literally the epitome of that every moment focussed on them is like chicken soup for my weary soul. was the revolution against the royal servants realistic? no. was it realistic for the two people who came up with most of the plot to be the ones who went to jail for doing literally nothing wrong and would therefore want to avoid stuff that could get them in trouble with an all-powerful family? also no! however, seeing downstairs all working together for a common goal is content that appeals directly to me and i am thankful.

shoutout to the last scene which is the best way the movie could've ended it for me. use of first names AND walking home together? thank u fellowes.

tldr; team downstairs fan who was strongly anti-movie, went in with low expectations, was pleasantly surprised. there are a shit ton of things i’d change but i just really loved seeing these characters who all mean so much to me again. obviously the only reason this film happened was for financial reasons rather than a desire to continue the storyline (cause the finale tied things up perfectly imo) but i wish they'd done a two-part miniseries instead to ensure everyone gets some screentime. two ninety minute specials every few years would work much better if everyone wants to keep downton going but i guess that doesn't bring the cash in like a movie does.

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telekineticmaniac · 6 years

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Another Anime Convention 2017 — A Review

When I went to AAC this year, I had a moment in my vlogs where I realized just how much I didn’t get to share with you all in my con vlogs. I have a lot of fun filming amusing moments and recounting things that happen but the actual convention and all the bad things that may or may not happen at it, are never really caught on camera. So instead of just not acknowledging everything you don’t see in my con vlogs, and instead of taking up more space in my video schedule with a convention review for every con, I thought I would do some little reviews here on this blog so that you can know the nitty gritty of every con I attend.

Also, I know it’s kinda of a boring first blog post after saying I wanted to get back into blogging, but I think do it’s important to address. And hey, there will be some totally new things coming your way soon so if you aren’t about this life, you only have to wait a little bit longer. If you are about this life though, totally keep reading!!

The Convention Programming:

Anyone who attends this con can say immediately that is a “beginning” convention. It is very small in both attendance and venue size, but has been growing at least throughout the few years I have attended. I’ve heard people have questionable things to say about staff and the organization of the con in the past, and I personally have had some questions and confusions with the layout and programming, however this year I noticed a huge improvement in all of those things.

For example, to avoid people flaking out at the last moment, it was actually required for panelists to preregister before submitting a panel. A really simple rule set in place but and effective one as I heard much less stories of friends showing up to panels they were excited to see only to find an empty room. After a glance over the convention schedule, I saw that the content for the panels was however much the same as it has been in years past—lot’s of in character ask panels and joke-y panels. Although it’s not a huge variety like for example a con like Anime Boston may provide, it offers a type of panel that I find a lot of people immersed in specific fandoms really enjoy.

And then of course there are the events that the convention is known for: the AMV contest and, to a lesser extent, the masquerade. As far as the masquerade goes, I’ve personally always found the numerous judges, categories, and awards to be more a friendly environment than most con’s masquerade atmospheres. It’s usually a very fun show that is more about getting on stage and having a good time rather than showing off the most incredible of costumes. That being said, I think it is incredibly successful at doing that and is usually a highly anticipated event of the convention. On a the completely different end of the spectrum, the AMV contest at this convention is insanely competitive for a “beginning” convention. One might say it even rivals the AMV contest that Anime Boston holds (which is saying something). The people who compete in it produce some of the best AMVs I have ever seen and it is wonderful to pop in a watch a few—or even just watch the winners broadcasted at the end of the masquerade!

Here’s my personal favorite of the AMVs I’ve seen at AAC over the years to show you exactly the ride you are in for with the AAC AMV contest:

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The Crowd:

I’ve always loved the crowd at this convention and this year did not disappoint. I will be perfectly honest, I’m sad to see that the days of AAC being “Homestuck Con” are fading away. However the crowd of the convention continues to be rather accepting of non-traditional genres, like webcomics and podcasts. Although I tend to cosplay whatever the hell genre I want at whatever con I want, whether or not that falls under the over arcing genre of the convention, this can prove problematic at some cons. When I attended Boston Comic Con back in 2014 I received some nasty comments for being a Homestuck instead of cosplaying as someone from a traditional comic book. At Arisia, I have received comments about being a stupid kid who should go back to my anime conventions. This isn’t to say that the every attendee of BCC and/or Arisia was bad, but dealing with hate like this or even dealing with even microaggressions that prioritize specific attendees over others based on what fandoms people are in and what cosplay someone may be wearing certainly affects the overall tone of the crowd.

AAC remains kind of a safe haven for all parts of the nerd community, which I find rather interesting and wonderful all things considered. In a time where we as convention goers have to keep pushing things like “Cosplay is not consent” and reminding people that there is no nerd hierarchy, and continuing to instill the fact that people should absolutely be treated with respect, it refreshing to attend a small convention where overall the crowd is accepting.

The Surrounding Area:

I have one immediate complaint and that is T H E P A R K. For those of you who know the convention and/or area well, you probably know that there is a beautiful park across the street from the Radisson, where the convention is held. It is where most cosplayers go to get photos because it features pretty stone walls, bronze statues, and a lovely fountain. One might even argue it is the only place to get photos (unless you have an odd and specific location in mind—like one year I got photos of Kaneki in the parking garage becasue that was the tone I wanted). So. WHAT THE HELL WAS THEAT GIANT, GROSS, YELLOW TENT RUINING EVERY POSSIBLE SHOT THAT COULD HAVE BEEN GOT IN THE PARK. I am bitter about the tent. It was honestly a huge let down for me because I was really excited to shoot by the fountain and the tent made that impossible. I’m hopeful that maybe it won’t be there next year, but if it remains up that will be a huge loss for cosplayers looking to attend this convention.

Also random note, if you know Manchester, NH well and want to share with me what the purpose of the tent was, that would be appreciated. Maybe I’ll end up hating it a bit less.

But yeah, moving on to just talking about Manchester and the people there. I am a resident of Boston, so maybe it’s just me, but I always find Manchester to be so smol. The main strip of road the convention is placed on only has a few restaurants and shops and don’t think I’ve seen more than one hundred people out enjoying the nightlife at one—and there are even less people out during the day. Other than that being different than my Boston lifestyle and that throwing me for a loop, the people are generally friendly and curious about the convention. I have had some really horrible experiences when I have attended conventions involving people harassing me, stalking me, and worse, so generally this is pretty awesome.

This year however my friends and I (and many other attendees) had some serious problems with pedestrians sitting outside the Radisson and taking photos up people’s skirts without their consent. Usually people don’t sit around outside the hotel unless they are involved with the con, however this year the weather was so good it seemed that many people felt that they had a right to just invite themselves onto the hotel grounds, have lunch, and harass cosplayers. This was not okay. It upset a great many people—who were right to be upset. Cosplay is by no means consent and sniping photos that people may not be comfortable with someone taking is not okay. Con security was very helpful in trying to escort the people from the premises, but it was still upsetting and changed my view of the atmosphere of Manchester.

My Personal Experience:

Overall this con was very chill for me this year. I pretty much hung out with my friends and wandered the dealers room for the two days I was able to attend. We didn’t get to involved with the convention itself—we only attended the masquerade—but we did manage to meet new people and enjoy the crowd, which was just lovely. Other than the gross photo taking by passersby, it was quite a wonderful experience and a great end to my official 2017 convention season!

And obviously if you haven’t seen them yet, my convention vlogs can give you a real taste of my personal experience:

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Bottom Line: Would I recommend this con?

I feel like this con is a very niche con. However it’s not one I wouldn’t recommend. To anyone looking for a really chill time—so first time con goers or people who are just looking to end their convention season with some relaxation—I would recommend you this convention. If you like anime or non-traditional genres that will certainly help your convention experience, but if you attend I would have to encourage you to make it what you want. It is chill. You are probably not going to stumble into the best event ever that will totally make the convention for you. But that’s not to say you cannot make your convention experience wonderful with a few good events, a nice place to eat, and some good company!!

And thus ends my first convention review!! I hope you found what I had to say informative if not enjoyable. If you have any questions about this review or suggestions for upcoming reviews, feel free to send me an ask (because Tumblr does not have a functioning comment system at all—yikes)! Until next time Manic Fam!

—MadDog

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