Things I love about Isobel:
1. Her relationship with Matthew. It isn’t given nearly as much attention as it deserves and somewhere through season two it became less of we’re-awesome-and-i-love-you-for-what-you-are-and-whatever and more of god-mother-you-are-so-annoying. But her relationship with Matthew is still great.
2. Isobel Crawley is more competent than Doctor Clarkson.
3. Isobel Crawley wants to do things. I appreciate the characters who want to do stuff so much on Downton. You have someone who wants something more than sitting around and wearing pretty dresses; she wants to be useful. And if she can’t be, she finds somewhere else to be.
4. Ugh, but more than that you know that she really wants to fit in with the Crawleys at the same time. She wanted them to think they belonged when they first came. She wanted to be friends with Violet. Or, she assumed they’d be on familiar terms at the beginning at least. She wanted Cora to be bluffing when she was told to leave. She wants to be a part of this family, but she wants fundamentally different things from them so - conflict!
5. Her relationship with Sybil! It is also beautiful and overlooked. That deleted scene where Sybil asks her to go to the rally and later Isobel says that Sybil was “looking for a partner in crime”. Ugh, I wanted them to be partners in crime so badly you have no idea. And then Isobel is the one to comfort her in that “sometimes I feel all the men I’ve ever danced with are dead” scene and just. I want more Isobel and Sybil. I probably won’t get this.

Things I dislike about Isobel:
1. It’s less things I dislike about Isobel fundamentally and more things that bother me with how she’s written. The biggest one is that she’s written to lose to Violet. All the time. Sometimes she has small victories, but overall it’s set up so the Dowager gets the last laugh. This will never stop bothering me, no matter how much I love Maggie Smith. And I love her a lot.
2. The way she just evaporated to France and then they cut out all of the scenes that mentioned her in passing. She was basically erased for a large section of season two. So if Violet isn’t here to one up her, what does she matter?
3. I dislike how, at this point, it seems like no one in the entire household appreciates Isobel. Not even Dr. Clarkson. And since Sybil is Ireland and Matthew thinks she’s a bother now, she’s really on her own and oh Isobel.
4. That being said, sometimes Isobel is overly pushy and too much a martyr for my tastes. But I feel like a lot of this comes from the must-always-lose-to-Violet thing.
5. I dislike how Isobel doesn’t have a dog. Did you see her in that Christmas Special? Someone get this lady a dog.

Give me more, anon. Give me more.