Entries tagged with fandom: downton abbey

Entry tags:

fandom: downton abbey

Trust and Providence / by Rachel Smith Cobleigh (R)

Title: Trust and Providence
Author: Rachel_Smith_Cobleigh
Fandom: Downton Abbey
Genre: Romance, AU
Pairing: Mary/Mathew
Length: Long (155,504 words & counting)

Author's Summary:
What if Mary had immediately accepted Matthew's first proposal? Where might events have taken them if she'd trusted him with her secret from the start? An alternate universe (AU) tale starting from Series 1 Episode 6. Warnings: graphic depictions of sex, frank depictions of religion, strong language

Review:
An AU that's pretty close to Original Flavour, for those who are counting the days 'til the next season airs.

Trust and Providence (on AO3)

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Tony Stark Meets an Extremely Unimpressed Time Traveler / by Alex51324 (R)

Title: Tony Stark Meets an Extremely Unimpressed Time Traveler, or, Thomas Barrow Makes a Surprisingly Good 21st Century Butler
Author:

Alex51324
Fandom: Avengers, Downton Abbey
Genre: Time Travel, Crossover
Pairing: Tony Stark/Thomas Barrow
Length: Long (87,671 words)
Note: rec'd on fancake

Author's Summary:
In which Tony Stark ditches a boring party, makes an addition to the household staff, throws a much better party, and tries not to sexually harass his new butler.

Or,In which Thomas Barrow has a little trouble getting home from the pub, is generally unimpressed with many aspects of the 21st century, never thought of himself as a conservative dresser before, and may or may not be falling in lust with his new employer.

tl:dr: Thanks to time travel, Thomas Barrow becomes the Avengers' butler.

Review:
Another great Thomas story by Alex51324. She always does a really good job with Thomas and with whomever he's paired with. Thomas' struggles to deal with the world and the kinds of people who inhabit it 100 years later are really interesting. He's given some information packets and Steve (Captain America) tries to help but Thomas does an admirable job himself . The world-building and research is excellent overall. I particularly like the part in this one where Thomas uses a historically accurate pickup line (fortunately he happens to use it on a historian who actually understands). Also, Thomas meeting 90-something Sybie is really touching.

Tony Stark Meets an Extremely Unimpressed Time Traveler (on AO3)

Entry tags:

fandom: downton abbey

Thomas and the Earl of Findlater / by Alex51324 (PG-15)

Title: Thomas and the Earl of Findlater
Author:

Alex51324
Fandom: Downton Abbey
Genre: Costume drama, Inheritance Drama
Length: Medium (Words: 46,345)

Summary:
The Earl of Findlater turns up at Downton Abbey with news that will change Thomas and O'Brien's lives forever.

Review:
Like early canon, this is an Inheritance Drama - a Scottish earldom lost all its heirs and spares in WWI and the sitting earl was left unable to have more children by his wounds so their last option is to search for and legitimize a son he had out of wedlock as a young man. That search takes them to Downton Abbey, to Thomas Barrow. This is by the same author as the Downton/Sentinel crossover I've rec'd before. I didn't think this one was quite as good - it's well researched and well-written, it just doesn't have that emotional page-turner quality the other ones had - but a good story nonetheless.

Thomas and the Earl of Findlater (on AO3)

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Pack Up Your Troubles: Guide Thomas At Downton / by Alex51324 (PG-15)

Title: Pack Up Your Troubles: Guide Thomas At Downton
Author:

Alex51324
Fandom: Downton Abbey
Genre: Sentinel/Guide, Romance
Length: Medium (Words: 36,795)

Sequel to previously rec'd Thomas and the Society of Sentinels

Author's Summary:
In the sequel to "Thomas and the Society of Sentinels," Guide Thomas and his Sentinel, Gerald Pellinger, visit Downton Abbey. Are Thomas's trouble truly behind him, or will be fall into old ways?

Review:
Great sequel to a great fic. Gerald, and therefore Thomas as well, is invited to Downton - their return visit leads Thomas to realize how far he's come and that he's happy with the person he's grown to be. There's more of Thomas being happy in this one, which is a great addition to the first fic (most of which, he spends very upset). I also really like the reaction of Morgan (the personal guide of Gerald's friend and the guide that Thomas had the most trouble with) upon meeting the Downton staff and getting some perspective on Thomas' behavior when he first started Guide training.

Pack Up Your Troubles: Guide Thomas At Downton (on AO3)

Entry tags:

fandom: downton abbey

let's try to take it back before it all went wrong / by HowCleverOfYou (PG-15)

Title: let's try to take it back before it all went wrong
Author: HowCleverOfYou
Fandom: Downton Abbey
Genre: Romance, AU
Pairings: Thomas Barrow/Edward Courtenay
Length: Medium (Words: 6,734)

Author's Summary:
"Suppose we found a place outside the hospital to keep him," Thomas says and promptly shuts his mouth.

In which Edward and Thomas help each other heal after Dr. Clarkson allows him to stay, and Thomas falls deeply, deeply in love. Fifteen snippets.

Review:
Sweet romance fic, well written

let's try to take it back before it all went wrong (on AO3)

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Thomas and the Society of Sentinels / by Alex51324 (PG-15)

Title: Thomas and the Society of Sentinels
Author: Alex51324 aka alex51324
Fandom: Downton Abbey
Genre: Romance, Sentinel/Guide fandom fusion
Pairings: Thomas Barrow/Original Male Character
Length: Very Long (Words: 133,807)
Admin Note: rec'd on fancake, and again on fancake

Author's Summary:
After being arrested for gross indecency with another male person, Thomas Barrow learns that he has a natural gift which will plunge him into a startlingly different society which exists in parallel with the one in which he has lived his life until now. He’s not entirely sure whether or not that’s a good thing….

Downton Abbey/Sentinel fusion. (If you are not familiar with the Sentinel, fear not: the note at the beginning of chapter 1 will fill you in on everything you need to know.)

Diverges from canon toward the end of series 3 (3x07 UK or 3x06 US)

Review:
The Sentinel/Guides idea is explained pretty well in this fic so I'd say it doesn't require any prior knowledge.

It's been a long time since I've enjoyed a fic so very much as this one. I stayed up far, far too late two nights in a row because I couldn't put it down. I cried sometimes out of empathy for poor Thomas who spends the first third of the fic deeply, deeply unhappy but I really liked Thomas' character development arc here. I think it's very true to the canon character. He worked hard for his happy ending in this story.

There are a lot of OCs in this story but they're all fantastic. The world-building is amazing too. I particularly like that the language of the Sentinel/Guide fandom are Victorian-ized ("zone out" becomes "enthralled") and the choices to downplay the soulbond concept and ignore the spirit animal aspect were really good and work well with Downton Abbey world and tone.

One thing I should mention - Lord Grantham is bashed in this fic for a couple of scenes. I don't think it's a detriment to the fic, or necessarily so unreasonable as presented, but if you're a big fan of the character then you might find it unfortunate.

Thomas and the Society of Sentinels (on AO3) and sequel Pack Up Your Troubles: Guide Thomas At Downton

No with cover art:

Entry tags:

fandom: downton abbey

Something Worth Having / by mrstater ()

Title: Something Worth Having
Author: mrstater
Fandom: Downton Abbey
Genre: General, Romance
Pairings: Richard Carlisle/Mary Crawley, Edith Crawley/Michael Gregson
Length: Medium (Words: 10,215 and counting)

Author's Summary:
When Mary moves to London to escape painful memories of Matthew at Downton, she must face more than grief as former suitors and her estranged sister come back into her life.

Review:
Follows on less than a year after the end of Season 3. This story gives Mary/Richard a second chance. It's very well-written and the characterizations are good. The romance plot is developing at a reasonable pace for Mary's character while Edith's career and relationship has leapt ahead in the interim (she's certainly no longer "poor Edith"). Updates are infrequent but worth the wait.

Something Worth Having (on AO3)

Entry tags:

fandom: downton abbey

Led Home / by letsgogetlost (G)

Title: Led Home
Author: letsgogetlost
Fandom: Downton Abbey
Pairing: Edward (the blind officer from the cottage hospital)/Thomas
Genre: Friendship to Romance
Length: Medium (Words: 19,546 and counting)

Summary:
When Thomas Barrow gives into a weakness, a need to say goodbye, a great deal changes, starting with the saving of a life.
Eventual Thomas/Edward. More tags and summary and such to be added as the story progresses.

Review:
This is a very, very slow friendship-to-romance fic. It's almost painfully slow, but at least its an improvement on the show. (I really wish canon wasn't stuck on the Reality is Unrealistic version of LGBT history. We're very nearly as far as Isherwood's Berlin by Season 3 and London wasn't so far removed. LGBT history is fascinating [most subaltern history is, imo] and sure it's great when shows like this include gay characters, but do they have to act like nothing happened in LGBT history until Stonewall?)

Anyway, pardon my geeky rant and I'll get back on topic. This story splits off from canon because Thomas saves Edward from his suicide attempt (so it's an AU, from Season 2, Episode 2). I think this is a great fic. Thomas stays fairly in character, though slightly less unlikable - of course, in this fic, we're only seeing the parts of his life that make him happy rather than his interactions with the other staff at Downton, so I think that's part of the reason for the difference. There's not much of Edward to build from in canon, but I like the character this author has written. He's a canon disabled character and this story deals with that really well without that being all that he is. There's 8 chapters so far and just one more promised and I'm eagerly awaiting it (and hoping for a bit of fluff since this is such a slow-build fic).

Led Home (on AO3)

Entry tags:

fandom: downton abbey

The Abbey / by Frea_O (PG-15)

Title: The Abbey
Author:

Frea_O
Fandom: Downton Abbey
Pairings: Mary/Matthew, Bates/Anna
Genre: Spy Thriller
Length: Medium (Words: 54,367)

Author's Summary:
Perseus was always supposed to rescue Andromeda, but when the fair maiden's not such a damsel in distress, and the valiant hero's deep in over his head, things might just go a little differently this time. Modern Spy AU.

Review:
This is seriously one creative fic. The way canon is twisted to fit the spy thriller is impressive. You might not be able to imagine it now, but Frea_O certainly brings it to life. I don't want to spoil anything about it, but you really have to give this fic a chance.

The Abbey (on AO3)

Entry tags:

fandom: downton abbey

A Girl in Black / by mrstater (R)

Title: A Girl in Black
Author:

mrstater
Fandom: Downton Abbey
Pairings: Lady Mary/Richard Carlisle
Genre: Romance
Length: Long (Words: 136,375 and counting)

Author's Summary:
I'm not as sad as I should be. That's what makes me sad. The Titanic sinks, Patrick dies, and rather than wait at home to meet the new heir of Downton, Mary tries her luck in London, where she meets Sir Richard Carlisle instead. [Alternate S1]

Review:
Okay, as much as I like Downton Abbey, I'm not such a fan of Mary/Matthew. I just think Mary/Richard was so much more interesting to watch. Yeah, he's got a darkside, but so does she. With him, she was a much different character too, more dynamic, we saw her differently through her relationship with Carson and stronger in her own right whereas with Matthew, she's gone very flat. There was a lot of potential for drama there with Richard and this fic seizes that and runs with it.

A Girl in Black (on AO3)