Aibu to find Mr Bates a bit creepy?

[FruityFrog]

I'm watching Downton Abbey this afternoon because it's a Sunday. I've watched it a million times but I still can't see why everyone is/was shipping Anna and Mr Bates. He's creepy and has a nasty side, while she's quiet and kind.
Am I the only person who thinks this?

YANBU, he's creepy and Anna deserved better. She would have been awesome with Turkish Theo James if Mary hadn't killed him with a giant orgasm.

No he didn’t. That isn’t in the story at all, he actually had an alibi, which was proved. He couldn’t have killed his wife either.

I’m sorry. The story wasn’t written the way you would have liked it to be.

I agree he was a weird character.
Hadn’t thought too much about it before but now off to google what else the actor has been in so I can see if it is just him or the way the character was written iyswim.

Excellent Im happy for you - if you enjoy spending time, every day learning about things in which you have no interest. Good for you.

I LOVE learning about stuff, acquiring new knowledge and skills and also make an effort to learn something new everyday but I stick to topics in which Im actually interested. I have a lot of hobbies and interests so furthering knowledge in those is a fun quest. Im curious about a lot of different subjects but I there is an infinite number of topics to be interested in and only a finite number of hours each day/week in which to do so, only a finite number of years in which Ill be alive! So I (mostly) stick to topics that I find interesting and bring me joy.

@MadMAGA you actually made me laugh out loud!

He is an amazing actor though, the different views on him simply prove this. I've just gone down a Brendan Coyle rabbit hole now.

Norman Bates was the killer in Psycho. Bates in Downton is John Bates.

I think the Bates character has to carry a lot of dramatic weight in DA, and having an open personality might go against that.
He does not lean on his knowing the Earl of Grantham through the Boer War, or even mention it - it emerges via the earl himself. Everyone hates the modest. He was a volunteer soldier, and personally brave, saving Grantham's. Basically a more than competent man of his hands as they said in those days. This makes the belief in his being capable of killing his wife reasonable. Grantham says of Bates, when accused of theft, "I'd sooner believe him an assassin" (not verbatim) and I've always taken this a sober assessment of his abilities.

He knows how to keep his mouth shut, even at his own expense, so is infuriatingly honourable.

I found the rape storyline over egging it - not as a fact, housemaids were routinely fair game to a certain kind of oik - but its happening to the Bates's.

Definitely not a creep but the character is given an overdose of very heavy storylines.

Oh Brendan Coyle played the sexiest character in Lark Rise to Candleford, and also Rob James Collier was simply gorgeous in Corrie.

I was so excited when DA started, expecting more of that, but they were both disappointingly unattractive in it! I was a bit heartbroken - so much so that I managed to get a crush on Matthew - a blonde!

If people in that house talked to each other every issue would be resolved in about ten minutes and the episodes would end there.

IMO Bates has a lot of suppressed violence and possible PTSD from fighting in S Africa.

I came here to defind his selflessness and determination in bring those that had done a big wrong to account, and realised I had the wrong Mr Bates.
This one I'm not familiar with. The other one. Great Guy.

And there's another one in a hotel who was creepy. I think we need to separate the Mr Bates into Very Good, Slightly creepy and infuriating but a product of his time, and really really creepy.

Everyone who knows DA Bates will know from the thread title which Bates is meant.

If you dont know, I recommend you get yourselves acquainted! It's all on Netflix 😉

Well yes, I was aware. Just feeling facetious.......

Sorry. Yes, that would be creepy.

Plus he was a reformed drinker, marriage to Vera made him 'frink more than was good for him'.

I wouldn’t mind. He’d take my arm and see me to safety.

He’s a very sinister character

downton is my comfort viewing! I am rewatching again