scathach124:

Downton Abbey/Doctor Who AU (Rock the Time Travel AU!)

Mary and Sybil Crawley are just two ordinary young women living in modern-day London … until they come across a mysterious angel statue in the park one day and are suddenly transported back in time to the Edwardian era. Getting home to the 21st century is impossible … or it would be if they didn’t have two Time Lords racing though the time vortex to find them. It may be breaking the rules of time and space, but Matthew and Tom aren’t going to stop until Mary and Sybil are back home.

Of course, doing so isn’t going to be easy – what with a faulty TARDIS, the rules of Edwardian society practically forcing the Crawley girls into marriage, and an army of the most evil beings in the universe coming for all of them.

**original photos not mine, manips created by myself**

scvpubliclib:

paddysnuffles:

scvpubliclib:

rossansguil:

I love this woman.

I am so glad I saw this now XD

Reminder that LotF was written in direct response to a colonialist book about how perfect and wonderful and resourceful upper-class white Englishmen were. 

At the end, they’d even made the local Indigenous people their servants, if memory serves.

It was pretty much the author going “Oh, please, rich white boys are lazy, entitled, and only resourceful when it comes to cruelty. They’d be at each other’s throats in no time.”

Merely genderbending the cast of characters fails on multiple accounts because

a) It ignores the entire message, meaning, and context of the original work

b) Women and men have shown in studies to generally have very different group dynamics, especially when interacting solely with peers of their own gender. 

c) Studies have repeatedly shown that women and men typically handle and resolve conflict very differently; women often employ psychological warfare, such as making their target feel isolated from the group, whereas men posture, have a brawl, and consider the matter resolved.

d) Societal expectations of what girls should know and how they should act are vastly different from the expectations for boys. This means that the indoctrination of young girls leads them to have a very different set of skills when compared to their male counterparts.

e) The aforementioned differences in group dynamics could very well be due to taught behaviour, but either way, the ensuing result is the same: women are better equipped for group work, are better at communication than men, are better at multitasking, and are much much more likely to share resources with their community.

Note: the latter was the  result of a study of what individuals in 3rd world countries did with small personal loans from banks; the women used the cash for necesity items like food, diapers, clothing and toys for the kids, etc, and often invested a not insignificant portion of their money into their community to the point where the community was noticeably positively affected. Men would use the loans for stuff they wanted for themselves, mainly booze and gambling. The results were so starkly different that women are now more likely to be accepted for small personal loans from banks in 3rd world nations.

Reblogging again for @paddysnuffles really excellent additions to this post. 

Remember the excitement we felt at this time of year, back in 2012?

Season 3 of DA was getting ready to start, and there was SO MUCH POTENTIAL!

I remember the trailer showing Robert tearfully confessing to Cora that all the money was gone, and thought, “WOW! That’s going to be a MAJOR plot point for S3–something they’re all going to be dealing with THE ENTIRE season!”

I thought Mary and Matthew’s wedding would take place a few episodes into the series, not right away, having some “dramatic build-up” to the big date in question

I thought Edith’s love-life was going to be another MAJOR PLOT POINT for the season, where things between her and Sir Anthony are looking up, but UH OH! Look out, here comes bandaged!Patrick to throw a monkey wrench into the works!

Bates was in jail, but I thought Tom would team up with Anna, using his “investigative journalism skills” to help her crack the case and prove his innocence. I also thought we would see MORE of Robert visiting Bates, because…you know, they’re BFF’s (supposedly)

I thought Cora was going to find out about Jane, or Robert make some sort of tearful confession to her about the affair-that-almost-happened and that, AGAIN, would be another major plot point of the season, or at least for the two of them

I thought O’Brien would tearfully confess EVERYTHING to Cora, or Thomas would use that information and blackmail O’Brien, thus creating ANOTHER major plot point for the season

I thought Sybil would team up with Isobel, working alongside her with Isobel’s various social justice causes, and would be the one to champion Ethel’s dilemma in regards to her son

I thought Thomas would actually have a REAL love interest this season

I thought Ireland becoming an independent nation would, you know, BE A MAJOR PLOT POINT OF THE SEASON, because that really happened in the early 1920′s

I thought we might get a chance to see Tom and Sybil’s life in Dublin, and maybe show the two of them escaping Ireland, because Tom being a Republican journalist got in trouble with the British government, OR the IRA view him as a traitor because he married an English aristocrat and therefore target his family and THAT is why they have to flee Ireland and seek (momentary) shelter at Downton

I ACTUALLY THOUGHT SHIRLEY MACCLAINE WAS GOING TO BE A MAJOR CHARACTER THAT WE WOULD SEE IN A MAJORITY OF THE EPISODES FOR SEASON 3 BECAUSE SHE’S FUCKING SHIRLEY MACCLAINE

I thought Mary and Matthew would struggle FOR LONGER with the whole pregnancy issue, maybe even go so far as to discover that they truly couldn’t conceive a child, but Matthew is open to the idea of adopting, for which Mary struggles with, because she comes from this “aristocratic way of thinking”, and this becomes a MAJOR ARGUMENT between Robert and Matthew, and creates jealousy between Mary and Sybil because Sybil has TWINS (a boy and a girl) and Tom is worried this means that his and Sybil’s son is going to be saddled with the Robert’s title if Mary and Matthew can’t conceive, and this also throws Robert into a panic attack because “NOOOOO!!! NOT THE IRISHMAN’S BABY!” ;oP

And finally, I thought we would see Sir Richard at least one more time, whether that was trying to make trouble for Mary, or…IDK, I just thought we would see him

…Wow, nothing that happened in S3 met any of my expectations

BUT I DO MISS THE BLISSFUL IGNORANCE OF GOING INTO THAT SEASON! *le sigh*

scathach124:

Sybil x Tom fairy-tale/fantasy AU 

Once upon a time, in a far-off kingdom, there lived a young princess named Sybil. She was not only a very beautiful woman, but also selfless and brave, and she was kind to all who met her. She was the youngest daughter to a king, but when the king died, her elder sister Mary usurped the throne and ruled with an icy heart. Mary too was a great beauty, but she was jealous of the people’s admiration of Sybil. She feared they might try and remove her from the throne and make Sybil queen of the kingdom.

So, she plots to murder Princess Sybil, but Sybil escapes Queen Mary’s formidable castle. Lost and alone in the Dark Forest, she comes across the kind woodsman Tom and his family. Glad to be away from her cruel sister, she helps care for Tom’s family and gradually falls in love with him. But Mary knows where Sybil is, and repeated attempts to take Sybil’s life only put Tom’s family in danger.

Sybil decides that the kingdom must be freed of Queen Mary’s tyranny, but she hopes that her salvation lies with her former lover, Prince Matthew, who was banished to a solitary castle and cursed with a terrible spell. Tom accompanies her on her journey to rescue Matthew, but she cannot escape Mary’s wrath entirely. For Mary won’t rest until she has Sybil’s heart in her hands.

Magic spells, dark forests, and poison apples are some of the dangers Princess Sybil will encounter, but she has the power to overcome her sister’s rule …

**images not mine, sybil x tom pic edit by me**