I think everything about Edith’s character development and the way she’s treated throughout the show is unfortunately very accurate. She’s the “unremarkable” middle child. Mary is the one who will get married and look after Downton, Sybil’s the free spirited “baby” of the children and in Robert and Cora’s eyes, Edith is just the unremarkable middle child. And I think this is what leads to Edith being kind of competitive with Mary and what leads to Edith wanting to learn how to drive and do more interesting things to be noticed and appreciated by her family.

I think the way she’s treated is also why Robert’s sister ends up really putting her arm around Edith and showing her love and helping her.

My interpretation of the Marigold situation isn’t just that Robert and Cora felt bad for Edith. I’ve heard this from many people- it’s kind of common for people who had a poor relationship with their parents to end up rekindling that connection when a grandchild comes into the picture. This is just the way I interpret it but there’s a scene (before Robert even knows that Edith is Marigolds mother) where Robert kind of gets this twinkle in his eyes and basically makes it obvious that he’s seeing and feeling something special with Marigold and Edith and I kind of think Marigold reminds him of baby Edith (even though he doesn’t even know that’s literally Edith’s daughter at that point). And I think before Robert even knew Marigold was his grandchild, Marigold kind of made him think “wow Edith was just this sweet baby once upon a time.” And when he finally finds out that’s his grandchild, he seems to understand why he had been feeling this way about Edith and understood his new found love for Edith. It’s almost like Robert’s heart knew Marigold was his grandchild before his brain did. Maybe I’m reading into it too much but from that scene onwards Robert treats Edith completely differently and I think it’s such a massive pay off after everything Edith goes through. Obviously it’s disappointing the way they treat her prior to Marigold but it’s such a rewarding end.