#dw series 9 | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

rookesbane · 4 months

Text

Wherever she is, is where I’ll go.

2K notes · View notes

lenoreamidala · 6 months

Text

You said memories become stories when we forget them...maybe some of them become songs.

#clara oswald #claraoswaldedit #doctor who #dwedit #dw series 9 #dw series 7

221 notes · View notes

waffowo · 4 months

Text

While Donna Noble will always be my favourite companion in NuWho, Clara will always be the most multi-faceted and complex (as of now). I think that a lot of divisiveness surrounding Clara stems from 5 common criticisms:

1. Clara’s characterisation in 7B and how Moffat treats her mostly as a mystery box first and character second.

2. The length of Clara’s tenure and how some may have been fatigued due to the many times “she should have left.”

3. The emphasis on Clara’s flaws in Series 8 and how it kind of paints her as unlikable over her Series 7B depiction as at least kind.

4. Clara’s departure in Hell Bent as something that ruins her ending in Face The Raven.

5. The belief of Clara as the most important character in the Doctors life inherently devaluing other companions.

I think while I can understand the reasons leading up to these criticisms, I also think that it does help to look back throughout the Moffat and RTD era as it does help explain a lot of these points imo.

Actually, the character Clara most prominently echoes is Rose. Rose, like Clara, helped the Doctor through a time of extreme emotional vulnerability (for 9th, Time War trauma) and developed a relationship of co-dependency with him (as 10th) which never really went away even after Doomsday. Clara had the luxury of time however, and has undergone more events with the Doctor (Impossible Girl, Trenzalore, 50th Anniversary etc) but also how 12th was undergoing an extreme identity crisis of figuring out whether he’s a good man post-Trenzalore and saving Gallifrey. Clara was the one who facilitated his character growth through the turbulence of the arc in instances like Dark Water, Death In Heaven, Mummy on The Orient Express, Kill The Moon, Last Christmas etc and would naturally result in the Doctor developing an extremely unhealthy reliance on Clara as being his “carer,” his anchor to being The Doctor (refer to her whole “Be A Doctor” spiel in the 50th Anniversary). Series 9 already heavily implied the Doctor’s willingness to engage with destructive measures by choosing to separate Clara and The Doctor almost every episode (Magicians Apprentice/Witch’s Familiar) as the stakes rose and cumulated in Face The Raven.

RTD has also once said when paying tribute to Moffat:

“And nestling at the heart of the show is Doctor Who's very own problem category, the Companion, a title inherently subordinate to the Man. Until Clara comes along!”

Imo, while poorly phrased, I think does also hit another nail on the head to explain how Clara can be so compelling to someone like me but also extremely polarising. RTD is talking less about the companion being “weaker” or “submissive” but how Clara is the NuWho companion that wishes to obliterate the boundaries between the power dynamic of companion/doctor. Series 8 for instances plays on the recurring motif of, “Do as you are told” which the Doctor firstly uses to threaten Clara to keep her safe. However, Clara actively retaliates by parroting the phrase back in an attempt to attain parity. This escalates to the events of Dark Water where she attempts to maintain control of her circumstances by forcing the Doctor to be on equal ground with her. What is so fascinating is that Clara while changing and emulating more of the Doctor’s heroism, she equally begins to absorb his flaws which intensify throughout Series 8-9. Clara becomes more deceitful, egotistical, reckless and cunning as she begins to become more and more like him. The means she lies to Danny, her ability to think more and more like him.

However, what people (fans and haters) also ignore is how nuanced the circumstances are. While Clara’s flaws become more heightened, it is also a fact that she wants to be like the Doctor because of his kindness and heroism. Episodes like Robots of Sherwood, Last Christmas or even Rings of Akhten reveal a lot about how Clara reveres the Doctor as a mythic and heroic figure. Clara’s attitudes towards the children in Forest Of The Night, Name Of The Doctor and Into The Dalek reveal that in spite of her ego and selfishness, she is someone who desires to help people. Thus, her desire to become the Doctor becomes more explainable. What a lot of people can’t really accept is that she can be both egotistical, reckless and kind at once. Her actions in Face The Raven were driven out of the fact that it came from a place of ignorance and impulsiveness (not stupidity, the Doctor would do something similar, it’s just that Clara did not have all the clues) in what she believed would be what the Doctor would do and that she was confident she could match the trickery of the Doctor, and yet it was also driven by her compassion towards Rigsby and her while impulsive, sincere desire to save her friend.

Clara is punished because of this, she forgets that she’s far too human. The Doctor is less breakable. She pays for it and as Ashildr says in Hell Bent:

“She died for who she was and who she loved. She fell where she stood. It was sad. And it was beautiful.”

She died due to her physical fragility, her ego, her ignorance, her impulsiveness/recklessness and yet she also died because she was too brave, she died like the Doctor, who she loved (literally look at how her arms were outstretched as though she was mid-regeneration and how the black smoke parallels the orange glow of regeneration). However, this leads to the fourth main criticism I prior stated, so how does one answer that in relation to her character?

The answer is what Clara does and what the Doctor says towards the end of Hell Bent. Clara after being extracted and is with the Doctor in the TARDIS, spies on him because she is instantly suspicious of his erratic behaviour. Again, Clara shows how much she has become like him, she immediately picks up that he is hiding something because she has begun to think like him. Of course, the Doctor was planning on wiping Clara’s memories similar to what he did to Donna. But what does Clara do? She immediately reverse the polarity of the device that the Doctor was going to use on her and challenges the Doctors actions. Clara states:

“Tomorrow’s promised to no one, Doctor. But I insist upon my past. I am entitled to that. It’s mine.”

Clara’s language indicates her assertiveness and also a kind of last hurrah in her game of parity. She is refusing to submit to the narrative of being reduced to merely a companion that the Doctor moves away from. But more importantly, the Doctor after pressing the device and is losing his memory, states:

“Run like hell because you always need to. Laugh at everything, because it’s always funny (…) Never be cruel and never be cowardly. And if you ever are, always make amends (…) Never eat pears. They’re too squishy. And they always make your chin wet. That one’s quite important. Write it down.”

I think on initial viewing when the show was airing, this wouldn’t make much sense but this really shows the crux of how Hell Bent completes Clara’s arc and the necessity of her resurrection. In Face The Raven, the Doctor tells Clara that she’s more breakable as she questions why she can’t be as reckless as him. However, now the Doctor is instead telling her what would later be repeated in Twice Upon A Time, his regeneration speech. In his eyes, Clara has succeeded in graduating from the Magicians Apprentice and into becoming the Magician herself. He’s instructing her how to properly be The Doctor. As I said, Clara was also motivated by her desire to be kind when she engaged in her reckless gambit but what is so wrong about the desire to be kind? And why should Clara be punished for it? Thus, while Clara MUST die, her final act of kindness at the end of her arc enables the Universe to allow for Clara’s final transformation into the Doctor.

Clara is still dead, it is an unchanged historical event. However, to challenge the status quo and allow for Clara’s ascension, Clara becomes a fairy tale herself. Her body is caught in a permanent form of stasis, signalling her departure from the limits of her physicality (subverting her physical fragility) but also as seen through her last words to the Doctor:

“You said memories become stories when we forget them. Maybe some of them become songs.”

Clara has successfully become what she admired, a myth, a fable. She has become a symbol in a story, a story that would go on to have an infinite number of other stories. She has become the leaf she raises to the monster in the Rings of Akhten, she sails off into narrative ambiguity but also infinity. Clara is so polarising because she challenges the definition of what it means to be The Doctor on a pure metatextual level. It’s a logical progression from the introspection of the question from the Doctor himself in Series 8. To want to resist, I argue, is natural.

I could explore further about her adrenaline addiction in Mummy On The Orient Express or these traits I raised explored in Flatline which I may do another day, but I hope I have provided a new perspective on Clara Oswald.

#clara oswald #jenna coleman #peter capaldi #doctor who #dw series 9 #doctor who analysis #character analysis #dw series 8 #Steven Moffat #rtd #twelfth doctor #doctor who meta

108 notes · View notes

twelveskidneys · 13 days

Text

happy birthday, Peter Capaldi! (born 14th April 1958)

#the way i didn’t notice that i’d picked out *twelve* moments until after i made the gifs… best coincidence ever ig #doctor who #twelfth doctor #peter capaldi #pcap #new who #nu wave #dw series 8 #dw series 9 #dw series 10

35 notes · View notes

clockwork-stars · 13 days

Text

Potential spoilers for Doctor Who Series 9, Episode 4: Before the Flood

" - I can't change what has already happened. There are rules

- So break them. And anyway, you owe me. You've made yourself essential to me, you've given me something else to be. And you can't do that and then die, it's not fair.

- Clara...

- No, Doctor, I don't care about your rules or your bloody survivor's guilt. If you love me in any way, you'll come back."

*scream into the void*

#see #she's amazing I love her #and twelve #I love that man #12th doctor #doctor who #dw series 9 #dw #doctor who series 9 #clara oswald #twelveclara #before the flood

22 notes · View notes

personinthepalace · 1 year

Text

Unseen Whouffaldi Dates Compilation

youtube

82 notes · View notes

gallifreyan-heart · 2 years

Text

#whouffaldi #my gif edit #doctor who #twelve x clara #dw gifs #otp #dw series 9 #twelfth doctor #clara oswald #4.5 billion years #love quotes #otp feels

272 notes · View notes

gifsaregifts · 5 months

Text

Rewatching Season 9 is like visiting with an old friend if the old friend makes you weep by the end of the visit

#i am broken #doctor who #12th doctor #twelfth doctor #clara oswald #dw season 9 #face the raven #heaven sent #hell bent #gifsaregifts #text post #og post #dw series 9

18 notes · View notes

heyitsspaceace · 4 months

Text

okay so i just finished sleep no more for the first time, and i NEED more found footage-esq doctor who episodes, it was SO cool

#i really loved that episode and i want more like that #that's my hope for 15's run #please give me more of those sick ass episodes #doctor who #dr who #dw #the doctor #12th doctor #twelfth doctor #clara oswald #sleep no more #dw series 9

12 notes · View notes

ocean-returns · 3 months

Text

When the Doctor begins telling Bors about how he abandoned Davros, they start playing "Little Amy". Scoring choices that want to harm you.

#doctor who #dw series 9 #the boy who waited (evil) you've waited long enough

1 note · View note

thefiresofpompeii · 3 months

Text

clara oswald is a manic pixie dream girl, but only in the literal sense of each of those words, the non-metaphorical meaning. manic not in a cutesy ‘teehee i’m so quirky’ way, but in an ‘i’m an actual control freak who wants to be able to successfully balance two very different lives and be competent in leading both of them. apparently i also need to sleep and eat and relax like a normal human being??’ way. pixie not in an ‘uwu whimsical’ way, but in an ‘assertive woman of short stature who may or may not be a mischievous trickster entity from a distant mythological past, one that looks adorable at first glance but embodies ambiguity and mystery’ way. dream not in the typical sense, but in the ‘i walk through the valley of the shadow of death and fear no evil; i appear in your mind at inopportune times; you can’t get rid of the idea of me, i haunt you like a persistent nightmare’ sense. girl as in impossible.

point is, she is much-deserving of the label in a non-derogatory, non-dismissive way, but as a genuine expression of awe and fascination

#with a little tweaking much the same could be said of amy. but i’m a claraposter and i’ll leave that to somebody else #manic pixie dream girl #clara oswald #clara #jenna coleman #doctor who #dw #jamie catches up #doctor who meta #mpdg #twelveclara #doctor who series 8 #doctor who series 9 #jamie.txt #amy pond #twelfth doctor #eleventh doctor #whouffaldi

991 notes · View notes

tardxsblues · 1 year

Text

TWELVE AND CLARA IN SERIES 9

When something goes missing, you can always recreate it by the hole it left. I know her name was Clara. I know we travelled together. I know that there was an ice warrior on a submarine, and a mummy on the Orient Express. I know we sat together in the cloisters and she told me something very important, but I have no idea what she said, or what she looked like, or how she talked or laughed. There's nothing there. Just nothing. Are you looking for her? I'm trying. Well, she could be anyone, right? You don't know who you're looking for -- I mean, she could be me, for all you know. There's one thing I know about her, just one thing -- if I met her again, I'd absolutely know her.

1K notes · View notes

waffowo · 4 months

Text

I was scrolling through Tumblr and saw someone claim that you don’t need to watch Series 8 and 9 of Doctor Who. Thus, I shall advertise why both seasons are so fucking good and SHOULD BE watched.

Series 8-9 is pure character drama (with an added thematic focus). Like the most character orientated of NuWho. Moffat is criticised for his inability to either consistently write a cohesive narrative or his third acts fail to meet the hype. However, to apply that critique to these two seasons feels really wrong because these elements that played a major role during The Matt Smith era are incredibly second hand and only serve as a backdrop for the intensity of the drama at hand. Often, the finales of 8 and 9 are instead incredibly thematically driven and several “unresolved” narrative threads are actually metaphors or symbols surrounding the Doctor and Clara.

The approach is incredibly experimental and Moffat at his greatest. In Series 8, there is a literal double feature that not only has really cool monsters/concepts but is also in reality unravelling Clara’s own character and deconstructing what it means to be the Doctor. To go even further, Clara evolves from a mystery box with some vaguely defined (but still there) character traits to a dissection/inverse of Rose. Clara may be disliked by the end (not by me) but she is an incredibly complex character in Doctor Who and Series 8 further recontextualises her actions in Series 7 while Series 9 escalates them entirely.

Clara and Twelve have possibly the most insane chemistry since maybe Tenant and Tate. However, instead of the comedic genius that is Donna and Ten/Fourteen, we get an incredibly tense and tenuous relationship that verges and transcends romance and platonicism. They would literally go to the ends of the Universe and destroy it along the way if it means to save the other. Coleman and Capaldi are literally acting their asses off each time regardless of what the episode calls for. Also not to say they aren’t funny though, they are still incredibly fucking funny (Magicians Apprentice, Robots of Sherwood etc). Also to not watch these two seasons completely annihilates the character arc The Doctor goes on from 8-10 so do not fucking skip them.

These two seasons may not feel like Doctor Who but they still are regardless. They are about what it means to be The Doctor and the wildly divergent stylistic approach in comparison to RTD1 and Moffat’s Smith Era helps give the show a greater variety. I think it’s vital to keep an open-mind, tis all.

#I have a longer elaboration coming soon #doctor who #no spoilers #peter capaldi #jenna coleman #dw series 8 #dw series 9 #12th Doctor

79 notes · View notes

enbyeighthdoctor · 4 months

Text