Thanks!
Of course this entire conversation is assumption and speculation, so I feel free to go at it.....
If Mary is at all alert in the former Bedford Falls/Pottersville, she would be aware of Potter, what he is, what he wants and how he gets it. If she has any of the integrity we see of her in the actual timeline, she wouldn't approve of Potter or what he has done. She would be that one out thousands for the same reason that Peter Bailey was. Peter Bailey could also have been far more comfortable and probably have lived longer without the B&L, and fighting Potter, but he did anyway. Why him among the thousands in Bedford Falls? Because he understood injustice and thought he had a way to counter it. Who's to say that alternate Mary, in the absence of the Baileys, didn't fall into this slot?
The B&L need not exist for a person to form a sense of outrage against Potter: Mary would not necessarily have needed the inspiration or example of the B&L to form her own outlook and ideas of counteracting.
Mary, though, is not George, and she need not be walking the down the same path of reluctance and obligation. We don't know how or why she reached whatever decision she made or rejected in the alternate time. Maybe she *is* resentful of her position. Or maybe she isn't: we don't see enough of her to know what she's truly feeling here. You may be right; or I may be right; or, in this little fan fiction (as this feels to be!), maybe there's something completely different motivating her. We know, in the actual timeline, that she is happy in Bedford Falls, is comfortable in a small town setting, and loves old, broken things that can be made whole. She may have seen this sort of life disintegrate as Bedford Falls turns into Pottersville, and maybe this is the start of her crusade.
Potter is also doing pretty well despite the B&L. In any case, it isn't necessarily the certainty of victory that can propel a fight, but (need to do part II)
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ejbronte (55)
a month ago
But letting the opposition understand that opposition exists.
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ejbronte (55)
a month ago
Oh. Something else occurred to me: In the absence of George, why was little Harry at the ice pond? From what George announces, it sounds as if there are mostly older boys there. If that's the case, Harry isn't tagging after his brother but after someone else. Maybe joky, funny, Hee-Haw Sam Wainwright. In which case, Sam is indirectly responsible for the death of the Bailey's only child. Perhaps indirectly responsible therefore for an early death for Peter Bailey. It may be, then, that this preys on Sam's emotional state of mind, and there may not be a fun, successful Sam for Mary to consider for marriage.
How's THAT for speculation...?!
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strntz (11171)
a month ago
Try it this way - what are the odds that Mary, having never met George, is the only other person in Bedord Falls to take on Potter? But even that is getting off the point.
In what way is she equipped to harm him at all? If her degree was in law and she turned out to be a state prosecutor, then maybe she could take him down if he did anything illegal, but nothing was shown to say Potter was anything more than just a miserable Scrooge-like skunk - he was working within the laws of the state if not the laws of decency and morality.
Finally, we see Mary not only working as a librarian, but as a miserable unmarried woman. Considering that even though Potter was doing well with George's interference, he was doing far better with Mary's (again, assuming she was). Wouldn't she pull the plug on her crusade to take down Potter at some point instead of living the rest of her life as a miserable spinster with a crappy job in the den of iniquity that was now Pottersville?
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ejbronte (55)
a month ago
I don't say that Mary is trying to take Potter down. By the same token, in the actual timeline, the Baileys aren't trying to take him down either. They are simply attempting to offer a viable alternative to his slums and economic control. Similarly Mary would not necessarily be trying to take Potter down but to offer a viable alternative to that loud, messy, greedy world thriving under his hand: a place where a person can simple *be*; think; perhaps formulate a way out of Pottersville.
Also, of course, a place where a person can read, absorb ideas, think critically, argue intelligently. Perhaps it is in this way that Mary does the most harm to Potter, if harm she intends.
We assume she is miserable; we do not know. We see she is guarded, and protective against this world as she ventures outside, but this doesn't have to add up to miserable, unmarried woman. It can add up to a woman who knows she has to be on her guard on these streets - I'm a New Yorker; similarly, I also know I need to be on my guard in some areas of this city. That doesn't make me miserable, and I certainly don't consider myself such.
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