Young Master Bates = Young masturbates (snicker).
Yeah, I got that. I was hoping for more.
I don’t see why you think that. Anna seemed to be attracted to Bates from his entering service at DA. He was polite to those who weren’t kind to him, he was kind and helpful to those below him in station within the house hierarchy. He was stoic and not asking for extra assistance when his leg would bother him. He’s sexy, in his way. And what other eligible men would Anna have access to? Carson is too old, William is too young, Thomas is too gay and too hateful. Those are all the men in the house staff at DA. There are staff who work outside - grooms, gardeners, chauffeur, but she wouldn’t normally associate with them. She would normally have 1/2 day off per week - no time for romance with village men. Anna is a quiet, steady sort, and so is Bates. He really is the only man for her.
StG
That’s a nice view!
He’s always seemed a little psycho to me.
Bates is highly morally ambiguous. He may have “honor,” but he also has a hell of a martyr complex, and he uses it as an excuse to be a coward. He’s brought pain upon others because he wouldn’t grow some balls and do what was right.
He’s an interesting character. As I watched through the show, I found myself many times thinking “when is it dishonorable to be honorable?”
I guess it’s “honorable” to have not turned Thomas in, but that also meant that Thomas, who is clearly toxic, stayed in the household. So Bates gets to be all honorable and stuff and everybody else has to continue suffering Thomas’s abuses. Bates didn’t really have to go jail, right? Look at the pain that caused Anna.
Goody goodies bug me, so Bates bugs me. That said, there have been many times I’ve appreciated that at least one person in a situation is behaving with class and dignity.
As for the limp appearing and disappearing–that’s not necessarily unrealistic. Did we ever learn the nature of his injury? People with a “bad leg” or whatever sometimes have good days and bad days, In exigent circumstances, sometimes they can compensate very well indeed, but only for a short time, and they pay the price later.
StGermain covered a lot of this, but I’ll expand.
I think it’s obvious why Anna liked him in the first place, and why she continues to want to be with him, starting with simple availability. Realistically, there would probably me more men around than we see in the show, but the pickings would still be pretty slim. Then along comes Bates. To start with, he’s dead sexy. Even if you don’t think so, you have to admit he’s a good-looking guy. His kindness and dignity has already been covered. And look who she’s surrounded with. So many of her compadres are stupid (Daisy, William), mean (Thomas, O’Brien), etc. He may have a bunch of disreputable stuff in his past, but he’s essentially in the higher-class section of the servant class. The fact that he’s so highly favored by Lord Grantham doesn’t hurt either. From her perspective, he’s totally crush-worthy. Then as she got to know him, she fell in love with him and vice versa.
It’s not a Disney movie, though, where the princess and the guy fall madly in love on the basis of really minimal association with each other. Bates and Anna got to know each other really well as co-workers and friends before they got together. He clearly values and loves her and shows it. Their future goals are congruent as well. This is not a case of “she loves him, that’s all you need to know.” We know a lot of why she loves him, and the rest can be inferred.
A lot of people go through a lot of trouble to be with their partner/spouse. He’s not mean or abusive or anything. Her actions are well within the range of normal behavior.
As an American, I’m not sure what a name like Bates connotes to a British person, but to me, it sounds like a very “proper” English name, and tells us something about the character.
I’d love to hear what the name says to British people though. It could be very different.
The show has turned into a soap opera? It’s ALWAYS been a soap opera! Dead Mr. Pamuk was being dragged through the hallway in the very first episode for heavens sake. The show is filled with sex and treachery and all sorts of trumped-up drama. It happens to be a particularly well scripted and acted soap opera, but it’s a soap opera nevertheless. And that’s why we love it.
I hated the prison sub-plot too, by the way.
Maybe I should say that the prison subplot felt like a particularly bad soap opera cliche. It took me out of the show every time.
I felt the same way, because it didn’t even *go *anywhere. And the resolution of it was incredibly lame and rushed. I was expecting there to be some kind of twist like he really *did *kill his wife, or Sir Richard had her killed. Or maybe some *actual *danger while in prison. The one scene where he fought back against his cellmate had the potential to take the plot in an interesting direction, but then it became dull and boring again. His character was completely wasted for most of Series 3.
+1
I agree with you, TashaKitty. During series two, Tom & Lorenzo wrote this during one of their recaps:
“*t’s straining all credulity that:
A) A servant with as much baggage as Bates would continue to have a high-ranking position in a great house, since he constantly seems to be flirting with various forms of scandal, from jail time to a scheming wife willing to destroy the House of Grantham, and
B) That a woman with as much common sense as Anna would spend all her time and energy fussing over him.”
Twelve episodes into the show, and that was their take on him! And the baggage with this guy increases week after week, series upon series. He’s become the Bob Benson of Downton Abbey, an unnecessary distraction from far more interesting characters and storylines. Honestly, I’m still not convinced he didn’t have a hand in Vera Bates’ death; Anna flat out didn’t want to tell him about the assault because she feared he would have a murderous reaction, and it appears we are in fact building up to that. She asked him not to see her as a victim, but it’s never about anyone else with Bates, it’s always about Bates and the cross of martyrdom he insists on hoisting himself upon.
He’s a one-note melodrama magnet. I’d be happy to see him written out of the show.
When asked about why he did not rat out Thomas, I think Bates’ reply was
something like “I am not going to cause ANY man to lose his job.”
I assume there is also a class solidarity factor mixed into this remark,
as well as the reality that good jobs were very hard to find in pre-1914
England.
Singanas 11-8-13
Originally Posted by Sitnam View Post
The Bates Anna relationship is unbelievable, Anna character is never defined enough to explain why she likes him and why she goes though so much trouble to be with him. I liked him in the beginning, but he isn’t an interesting enough character to be the center of the plots for entire episodes, which he is often.
[/QUOTE]
Having seen so much female loyalty and devotion to hapless males in my
lifetime, I have no thought to question Anna’s love for Bates.
Yes, Bates is boring, uninteresting, and dumb enough to screw on a steel brace
tight enough to make his leg bleed. But I am guessing that Bates reminds her
of her father or some other authority figure she loved as a child.
Love is not always logical or selfserving.
Singanas 11-8-13