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heresmyfiddlestick · 7 months

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i long for the days of shot-by-shot breakdowns of any new trailer, and since im not on twitter (where this has undeniably already happened) im doing it myself here

why is nobody talking about hebe harrison

so the trailer starts with a silly mini trailer. we'll see all of these shots later on and i'll talk about them more then. tenteen looks around bewildered (best guess: special #1 The Star Beast

donna surrenders (best guess: special #2 Wild Blue Yonder)

avengers tower/UNIT flies the tardis around on a helicopter (an anniversary tradition? (best guess: special #3 The Giggle)

explosions in a front hallway (best guess: special #1 The Star Beast)

peekaboo (best guess: special #1 The Star Beast - we'll get to why later)

and then the title card.

we start, in earnest, with a stock footage shot of London at night, which RTD has made reference to in recent DWMs. this is the opening shot of special #1 The Star Beast

then we get Donna, talking to her mum, "Sometimes I think there's something missing. Like I had something lovely..." - this is clearly immediately post-End of Time Donna, no memories of her travels with the Doctor, so special #1 The Star Beast

intercut with the Doctor snooping around a busted up, industrial area. importantly, he's alone. without knowing exactly how Liberation of the Daleks is going to end, i think it's safe to assume the guy is travelling alone at the start of these specials, so this shot (and the ones that follow) is from special #1 The Star Beast

Donna continues, "... and it's gone." over a shot of her with different hair and top. the colours look close enough to the other Star Beast shots to have me think this is the same episode, but it's tough to say. it also seems like the trailer is going chronologically, which would mean this is from special #1. the music, voiceover, and her *emphatic blink* might indicate this is *the moment she remembers* but with that i'll cease putting on my clown makeup.

back to Donna in the kitchen, "I lie in bed thinking... what have I lost?" intercut with this creepazoid, who is definitely investigating Beep the Meep's spaceship construction. this is probably the same sequence as the jumping-through-the-hole shot above. this is where we get our peekaboo shot again. buddy is definitely looking at a nasty Meep warship being constructed. jury is still out on whether he remembers this exact thing happening back when he had curls and a scarf...

switch POV, time for Tenteen's Story. this is all for sure still in special #1 The Star Beast. he lands the tardis (i share RTD's enthusiasm that it's 13's exterior!!!) and jolts out of it (unexpected landing? does he recognize Beep's distress signal? is he thinking about all the melty daleks he just left behind?)

he begins to infodump (to whom?), "I've got this friend, Donna Noble..." and we get these two complementary shots: Dr. Who turns somewhat tentatively toward a stack of boxes, and Donna and Rose are in the same area, carrying boxes (shopping? moving? looks like rolls of tissue paper and bubble wrap in Donna's box) - for consistency's sake, i note this is all still part of special #1 The Star Beast

("I had to wipe her memory to save her life") as if the infodump wasn't enough, we have some shots of ten, the parthenogenesis, DoctorDonna, and one of the worst things to ever happen on this show. in case you forgot... (i wonder if and sincerely hope that we don't get these flashbacks in the episode itself)

and now we get context for where and to whom Tenteen is saying all this: he's sitting, wearing a new version of ten's "brainy specs" (can you hear me rolling my eyes?), saying, "if she remembers me, she will die" to...

HEBE HARRISON!

Hebe is a companion of the Sixth Doctor, whose adventures have hitherto only been on audio with Big Finish, and whose departure from the tardis has not yet been described (as far as i know), since stories with her only began to be published in May 2022. she's a 21st-century lady, though. she is also (according to the Tardis Wiki) the first companion that uses a wheelchair. this is very exciting for me (big finish brain rot) though i have not listened to any of Hebe's stories. Hebe was on the tardis with Mel too, which may be a fun coincidence or very relevant for next series!

what does Hebe think of this Doctor who is so much older and very different to the one she travelled with? how did they even meet up? where the heck are they? idk but im downloading Water Worlds right now

okay moving on

Doctor: "So what happens next? A spaceship crashes right in front of her, it's like she's drawing us in" over shots of that same busy market from before, Rose looking excited, and the Meep's spaceship burning through the atmosphere over a WeWork. I'll also note that the Doctor says "drawing *us* in" - meaning Hebe and him? is there some cosmic stuff happening to throw companions, Doctors, and other aliens in front of Donna's path to revive the DoctorDonna? who would do that? why? what's clear from this dialogue is that the conversation with Hebe takes place after the scene in the market with the spaceship crash landing. if i' m right about the snooping scenes' place in the original comic's narrative, they'll come after the Wrarth Warrior fight below

(Beep: "ah!" Donna: "what the hell?!") Donna discovers Beep the Meep hiding among (Rose's?) stuffed animals in their shed. i have to say i like the decision to make Beep's fur white, though personally the blue fur colour is what i think of when i think of The Most High

Tenteen in a residential neighbourhood with soldiers nearby (this is the first shot in the trailer of the Wrarth Warrior battle). is the Doc with the soldiers? is he following the Wrarth on his own? i'm curious to see how they adapt the comic story, since it seems like Rose follows a bit of a different path than Sharon

namely because her mum seems to find out about the Meep before the Doctor does (Donna: "we've got a bloody martian in the shed!")

cont in a reblog

#doctor who #doctor who trailer #dw spoilers #doctor who trailer analysis #hebe harrison #big finish #beep the meep #wrarth warriors #celestial toymaker #donna noble #14th doctor #rose noble #sylvia noble #kate lethbridge stewart

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starstruckpurpledragon · 5 months

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Super curious, if you're willing to share, about what your favorite Dr. Who relationships (platonic, romantic, whatever) are. DW is such a huge canon that there's so many options for what people love! (I am admittedly a sucker for mixing eras and placing companions with Doctors other than their own incarnation. Particularly Modern/Classic pair ups, but I also definitely have my favorite canon dynamics.)

Donna and the Doctor are definitely my favorite platonic ship and favorite DW ship overall. I may not have had the language for describing a QPR when I first encountered them, but that's the vibe their ship has to me. I just want Donna to keep showing up to randomly traveling with the Doctor once a season going forward from here on out. Don't care who is playing the Doctor, I have faith that Catherine Tate can forge an instant connection with any actor. (So obviously I've been super pleased by this year's specials.)

I have really enjoyed the one-sided Jack/Doctor ship too. Jack and the Doctor's relationship has been messy, but the Doctor does care about Jack (as a friend) and Jack's accepted that as enough. Him being devoted to someone without feeling entitled to having romantic attraction return is a sort of love story that doesn't get told a lot so... I think maybe that's precisely why it means so much to me.

Ace and any version of the Doctor. That is her father figure and even when she's pissed off at the Doctor for being a cagey jerk, she loves them very much. And the Doctor, no matter which version, always loves Ace as their daughter.

I really like the Doctor in mentor/mentee relationships, though obviously Ace in the father/daughter dynamic is my favorite. But Bill is definitely a close second. I would have loved for Bill to meet other versions of the Doctor and having to grapple with finding her weird grandpa hot as the two lady Doctor versions we've seen thus far would have been funny. Like, Thirteen and The Fugitive Doctor are still very much her weird grandfather person, but... Twelve would also be annoyed by this but only because Bill is making it weird and definitely not because the Doctor can't ever get along with themself. (Really, he'd be the one making it weird, let's face it.)

Sarah-Jane and Luke are a wonderful mother/son relationship and it's so lovely how quickly she comes to love this kid as her own. And then she also not-quite-adopts (but totally would if they needed it) three more kids and actually adopts one more. She is an excellent mom and mentor and I will forever be a little sad about what could have been with the show if Elizabeth Sladen hadn't passed away.

So clearly my favorite Whoniverse ships are platonic ones, but I do have a soft spot for Any Doctor/Rose as a romantic ship because they really were very cute together. They did not always bring out the best in each other, but Rose was very much someone the Doctor needed in their life, especially after the Time War. While these days I personally see the Doctor as being aromantic (or arospec) and their relationship with Rose as being a sort of romantic-coded QPR, I do enjoy it written as a straight up romantic ship when I read fic.

Ianto/Jack is my overall favorite romantic ship in the Whoniverse though. They're just adorable and I wish we'd gotten more of them instead of a nonsensical death in a third season I prefer to pretend didn't happen. (It's not so much that Ianto died that bothers me about it either. It's that it was such a poorly written death, especially after how Tosh and Owen's deaths were handled in S2.)

#starstruckpurpledragon answers #doctor who #doctor who ships #the whoniverse #starstruckpurpledragon rambles

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sarah-aliterarylife · 1 year

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5 Doorstop Novels For a Long Weekend

I like big books and I cannot lie! Please excuse the Sir Mixalot reference, but I love a big book.

Here are a few of my favourites :

1. Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell (825 pages) Five weeks. That’s how long it took me to get through Margaret Mitchell’s epic exploration of the American Civil War and life in the Deep South.

Fans of the film should be mindful that the novel is very different to the film version. Scarlet O’Hara is much less of a southern belle in the book – she’s an unapologetic, hardnosed , and at times shockingly unpleasant, woman. She gives birth to 3 children (not one, as depicted in the film), and her first two marriages are not quickly discarded failures – indeed her second marriage to Frank Kennedy lasts for several years and is probably her happiest, if not her most comfortable, relationship.

There is no doubt that Gone With the Wind is a controversial novel. Much of the language and attitudes are of their time and have the power to shock modern readers to their core (myself included). But as an epic tale of war, poverty, love, heartbreak and loss, there is little to beat it.

2. Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susannah Clarke (865 pages) Sorry JK Rowling – this is the finest novel ever written about wizardry and magic in England. Fantasy books don’t usually do it for me, but Susannah Clarke’s depiction of two wizards in 19th century England was recommended to me by a good friend and family member. It blew my mind! It was so good that I read it again a few years later, just in time for the BBC adaptation.

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell has been described as Tolkein meets Jane Austen, but I don’t think that quite does it justice. It has stormy nights, spells, haunted ballrooms, bells that ring in the night, and sinister gentlemen with thistledown hair. It also has a terrifying scene at York Minister involving talking statues. (I’ve still never visited York Minster - you’ll understand why if you’ve ever read the book)

It is a novel that enthrals and scares the reader in equal measure!

3. The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt (771 pages) I wasn’t expecting to enjoy The Goldfinch as much as I did. At first, I couldn’t quite wrap my head around how the tale of little boy who steals a priceless painting could be strung out over 771 pages. That shows how much I know. I couldn’t put it down! What unfolds is an unforgettable story of childhood trauma, addiction, the value of authenticity, despair and ultimately, hope. I loved it and can’t recommend it highly enough.

4. Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver (633 pages) This is a great choice for readers who are interested in Charles Dickens but intimidated by the complexity of his novels. I read this book during Christmas 2022 – it took me a big two weeks to finish, but every word was worth it. It’s a riveting read.

The novel transports Dicken’s David Copperfield to the Appalachian Mountains in Virginia, one of the poorest areas of the USA. Dickens’ themes of poverty and survival are translated effortlessly to the US foster care system. In this world, family may be the one we are born with, or the one given to us via social care. Addiction is everywhere and poverty is “as natural as the grass grows”.

I won’t spoil much more of this wonderful book as I will discuss it in greater detail in a future instalment, but suffice to say you will not regret making the acquaintance of Demon Copperhead and his friends.

5. The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton (853 pages) “Like a circle in a circle, like a wheel within a wheel” I found this quote from the song The Windmills of Your Mind on the Amazon listing for The Luminaries, and it sums up this twisty, spiralling novel very well. Don’t bother with the BBC’s pedestrian adaptation – your time is far better spent on delving into the novel instead.

The Luminaries demands of the reader an investment both of time and focus. Set in the New Zealand goldfields in 1866, it is a story that quite literally takes place at the end of the world.

We begin with a tense gathering of twelve men, who meet in secret to discuss a series of unsolved crimes. From there unfolds a story about boom and bust, shipping, banking, murders and ghosts. Don’t try and read it on your daily commute (like I did). Settle in next to a roaring fire, grab a blanket and a hot drink, and just go with it. Let the twisting, slippery narrative and the darkness wash over you. You won’t regret it. What’s your favourite doorstop novel?

#books and literature #book addict #i like big books and i cannot lie #bigbooks #classic novels

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becausegoodheroesdeservekidneys · 2 years

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Doctor Who, but Chronologically 21

WELL SWEET CHRIST ON WHEELS THIS ONE HAD A LOT OF PLOT

Okay, so, it’s 1892, and the episode is Angry Snow The Snowmen, and FUCK ME SIDEWAYS.

First off, it’s a Christmas episode. I usually find Christmas episodes of everything to be nauseating and tedious, but I’ll be honest, I did actually enjoy this one. But all the more so because it’s an origin story - for Clara!

Now, we all recall Clara - so far, she has been tied for first place with Donna in the Best Companion Rankings, with Rose a worthy third, because of her ability to make Peter Capaldi actually do something for once in his miserable life and help someone other than himself. Also, while it’s true that her personality is mostly in the performance rather than the writing, Jenna Coleman is indeed a charismatic actor, so Clara is a heady mix of fun, hyper-competent, no-nonsense, and also sizzlingly hot (be still my stupid bisexual heart). She is excellent, and also specifically the companion of Peter Capaldi. That’s it. No other versions of the Doctor.

So IMAGINE the surprise of seeing her here, as a Victorian governess-cum-barmaid (although the double life is never actually explained or even hinted at), meeting the Doctor for the first time - PLAYED BY MATT SMITH. Zomg! A different Doctor! And I never would have guessed she was a Victorian, what a fun twist.

Except she’s not.

So, this is an episode about furious snow that wants to be an army of ice warriors (not Ice Warriors) because Richard E Grant told it to, or something. This will kill all humans. The Doctor meanwhile lives on a cloud now, accessed via a spiral staircase, which... is also never explained at any point. He is bitter about the world and in hiding and doesn’t want to help anyone. Perhaps this is all Clara ever does. Convinces a tedious misanthrope to stop being a lil bitch. God, she deserved to have Tennant as her Doctor. Just a little. Just a little fun travel, as a treat.

Anyway the Doctor is grumping about proclaiming that he needs no one and has no friends, while nonetheless chilling in the Victorian era with not one or two but three friends. They are a fun bunch - one is a lizard woman, one is her wife played by Catrin Stewart putting on a very good Cockney accent that means she’ll probably get to survive the episode, in spite of this show’s track record of killing off Welsh people, and one is, of all things, a comedy Sontaran called Strax. In actual fact I should point out that Strax is Welsh, as are all Sontarans in New Who, which is exciting, because it’s the only way we *do* get to survive. Strax has been repurposed as a medical professional and/or butler - he gets to have lines like “Try not to worry (derogatory)”.

But weirdly there’s a whole BLOCK of plot we haven’t seen yet with him. The Doctor tells Clara that Strax died because a friend killed him, but another friend brought him back. The lizard woman tells Clara that the Doctor is alone because he lost some people who were close to him, which is not the first time we’ve heard something like that. The furious snow turns out to be the Great Intelligence, except I know that one, shout out to the Web of Fear! Luv me some Troughton. I chose to believe that Matt Smith doesn’t remember it properly because the episodes were still missing at that point.

The other thing that happens a lot in this story is people suddenly springing “tests” on Clara when she’s busy trying to save the world. She does very well in all of them, but really, it’s a wonder she doesn’t lamp someone in the face with a furious snowman. Also, there’s a moment where the Doctor smirks at a mirror and says “Bow ties are cool,” and we know that one too - he said it in the last episode we just watched to Bill Nighy while talking about Vincent van Gogh.

ANYWAY, then the Doctor realises she’s great (correct) and tries to give her a TARDIS key, which you would think is her jumping on point BUT NO because she promptly dies. So, uh. That’s weird.

Her last words to him, though, are “Run. Run, you clever boy, and remember.”

And the Doctor suddenly goes WHAT THE FUCK WHOMST????!!!?

Then we see her funeral. “I never knew her full name!” the Doctor cries. “It’s Clara Oswin Oswald!” which, uh... wow, yeah, I see why she kept that one quiet, like.

And then we suddenly get a bunch of flashbacks to shit we haven’t seen featuring Clara, saying the same words, and the Doctor says he never saw her face with the Daleks, and that she was Souffle Girl, and that she died last time, too, and then he runs off into the TARDIS to try and find her.

So this is NOT her jumping on point, but it also isn’t even the first time he’s met her, and obviously it’s not the first time we’ve met her either except we’d seen her with Peter Capaldi because of this very sensible and normal watch order, so... we still haven’t seen either Clara’s origin story OR her jumping on point.

What the fuck.

Final shout out to Him From Silent Witness who plays Clara’s employer, who at no point has anything actually explained to him but nonetheless manages not to punch anyone in the face with a butter sock.

LET’S UPDATE THE PLOT THREADS! Hoo boy.

“She” (an unknown person) is returning (perhaps River returned as Missy. Maybe Me? NEW INFO: maybe Clara???!)

There is something on Donna’s back

An entire planet, Pyrovilia, just… disappeared, somehow. (Maybe because the TARDIS is exploding??? Saturnine was also lost, and that WAS because of the TARDIS exploding. The lion man’s planet was also lost but he was a bit of a knob about it if I’m honest.)

Amy is maybe dead (she’s not)

The Doctor has been cubed (he’s out, but how?)

River is possibly blown up (unless she’s Missy)

The TARDIS has blown up (It’s fine now. Except it’s sort of melting now because it’s corrupted, but it’s fine again)

The universe appears to have ended (the universe is back again)

The Doctor has employed(?) Nardole (And Nardole was “reassembled???”)

There’s a vault in the TARDIS and it contains Missy but we don’t know why (sometimes she knocks for the bants)

What has happened to all these companions and where are the new ones coming from?

There’s an immortal Viking girl now. Her name is Me and she’s now looking after the people the Doctor abandons

Who/what is the Half-Faced Man that the Doctor talked about?

Why, when the Doctor saw the ship’s computer set to the Promised Land, did he say “Oh not again”?

What’s With The Silence?

Why was Rory entirely unconcerned by the entire world suddenly going silent when that is Not Normal and should have been, at the very least, extremely disconcerting?

What did the Doctor do to Queen Lizzie One?

Who is Captain Jack Harkness? (Is he the one who gave the companions a warning about the lone cyberman?)

Why is Amy seeing a one-eyed woman in a vanishing window?

What’s with the Doctor’s future involving getting shot by an astronaut?

Is Amy pregnant and why is it inconclusive?

Who is Sarah-Jane Smith?

How is the Doctor Bill’s teacher and why/where does he have an office?

What is going on with the Cyber War and the Cyberium???

Who did the Doctor lose to Cyber Conversion?

What happened with the Other Cyber War?

What happened with the Third War that deleted the void?

Why does Rose seem particularly important?

What’s with the statues you mustn’t blink at?

What order do these Doctors go in? (Eccleston, Tennant, uncertain.)

Which companion just... forgot the Doctor, and how?

What is the Flux and what did it do?

Who is the mysterious Victorian man who met Yaz?

Yaz and Vinder are about to die as Mori/Mwri/Muuri

There is a Lupari shield around Earth.

What’s a Time War?

What’s the Rift?

What’s Bad Wolf?

What happened with Amy’s pregnancy?

In which war did the Doctor become a war criminal, and how?

Who is the Master?

Why has Amy forgotten Rory?

Is Rory plastic or not?

Why is the Doctor sulking on a cloud?

How exactly does the Doctor have a cloud?

What exactly happened with Strax to, uh, tame him?

Which friend killed Strax?

Which friend brought Strax back?

Where did this lesbian lizard and human couple come from?

What happened with Clara as Souffle Girl and the Daleks?

How does Clara actually join?

Why so many Claras?

THIS LIST IS GETTING RIDICULOUS WHY ARE WE WATCHING THIS SHOW LIKE THIS

#doctor whom #and yet we are continuing

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sylverstorms · 3 years

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Donna x Elena ----From Winter to Spring

This is a commission written for the lovely @saltwatereulogies and I cannot thank you enough for all your support! I hope you enjoy the story :)

She doesn’t know how she escaped that nightmarish inferno. How she still draws breath. Why her body keeps running despite its condition and despite the fact that she has lost everything.

The village is gone. Everyone she knew is either dead or a monster. She watched her own father growl like a beast and cleave a woman in half, then soon after wail out her name and succumb to the flames swallowing up the building. There is nothing left. There is nothing left for her.

Why? Elena wonders. A trail of blood marks her path through the snow, towards the unknown. Why still fight?

It will be easier to surrender to the agonizing burns, to the open gashes and wood splinters stuck in her skin. It will be far, far simpler to stop pressuring her rattling lungs to provide oxygen and fall into the snow, instead. It looks… peaceful. Soft. Pure.

It will welcome her to a quiet death, she thinks, so she may join her friends and her father.

Her father. The man who had never reached his hand out to help her when she fell –either on the fields or when she tripped over hardships— yet had always been there in his own stubborn, strict way, telling her to pick herself up.

“I didn’t raise no quitter.”

Ah, is that why.

Perhaps part of her feels it owes it to him to try. She did miraculously survive the fiery wreckage she’d initially thought would be her grave. But… the odds just aren’t with her.

Elena is only human. She’s lost too much blood, been through too much punishment. Her vision is growing blurrier by the second, her legs more sluggish. When she steps on grass instead of snow, she believes her mind is now playing tricks on her, too.

Something smells sweet, like wildflowers.

That is the last thing Elena is aware of, before she drops to her knees and blacks out.

When she blinks her eyes open, she is… confused.

She never thought heaven nor hell would have a wooden ceiling. She wouldn’t have guessed pain follows one into the afterlife, either, yet there she is, prone and throbbing with every weak breath on a bed too comfortable to be her own.

Unless…

Unless she’s not dead. Unless, against all odds, she survived a second time only to suffer some more. Elena wants to cry. What cruel game is the universe playing with her? The luck she never had in life is suddenly gracing her in extreme bursts now that she doesn’twant it.

“She’s awakeeee!” an overly excited voice exclaims somewhere around the room. Elena is too dizzy to tell.

“Shh.” A second presence makes itself known, calming the first.

“Who…” Who are you, Elena tries to say, but the words never make it past her dry throat.

Heels tap against the floor, until a black-clad figure comes to peer down at her. Elena expected to see the face of her savior, yet all she sees is a ghost, its visage hidden behind a mourning veil. The image is jarring; it sends her heartbeat skyrocketing, which doesn’t help her condition.

Oh, Lord, Oh, Lord what… Elena wants to tell herself she’s dreaming. It isn’t real, none of this is real—

Until a doll jumps into the edge of her bed and says something she doesn’t hear over the sound of her hoarse scream.

The ghost flinches backwards as the world turns dark once more.

The second time she opens her eyes, hours or days later, the pain has subsided somewhat.

Elena can feel her body, at least. All the wounded parts are carefully wrapped in gauzes and all her burns are covered by a soothing salve. Her lungs no longer hiss when she inhales, so long as she does so slowly, evenly.

That, of course, is not so easy to do when she turns to her left and sees the ghost sitting there, an open book in her lap. The veil is still on, obscuring her features, but Elena takes note of her fingers as they cradle the spine of the tome, long and pale, manicured black.

Appearances aside, there is a certain calm about her that doesn’t feel threatening.

“I… I’m not hallucinating, am I?” she whispers, not trusting her voice to go any higher.

The mystery woman tenses as though her voice has startled her. “…No.” she eventually replies. Her voice is quiet, like the rest of her.

“Did… you save me…?” A single nod is all she gets in return. Her company doesn’t seem very comfortable speaking, but Elena has questions that she needs answered. “Where am I?”

“The Beneviento estate.”

Elena would gasp if she could. I made it that far? And this woman… is she really Donna Beneviento? Her father told her all she needed to know about the four Lords residing at the outskirts of the village. He had also told her to avoid them at all costs.

“Um. I’m Elena—” A cough cuts her off. The sudden motion causes every injury across her body to burn.

“…I know.”

She is too much pain, in that moment, to ask how Donna knows.

In the following days, Elena comes to accept a few things that would have normally made her question her sanity;

The doll is alive. Her name is Angie and she is Donna’s friend. Donna is the adopted daughter of Mother Miranda, who, upon the former’s request, has given her permission for Elena to remain in the mansion. When she asked what would have happened had she denied, the doll only sing-songed that she doesn’t really want to know.

It still plagues her mind, probably because she has far too much time to think and this is the only thing she can focus on, lest she starts crying over and over again.

When Donna comes to change her bandages, it is a relief.

The woman sits at the edge of her bed, at the absolute maximum distance. Elena slowly brings her body to a semi-reclining position to assist. Angie hops on the bed and pulls the covers to the side… and that is when they arrive to a standstill. Donna doesn’t move, Elena doesn’t know what to do.

“Um. May I?” the veiled woman motions with her –admittedly very elegant— hands. It’s… endearing, how she approaches the subject of touching her.

Elena nods and tries to be a good patient for her. Tries being the key word. When she’s not fighting for her life, she is not nearly as brave in the face of pain. Her teeth are gritted as Donna’s cool hands unwrap the gauzes at her right arm, her eyes closed, breath held.

“…Am I hurting you?” Donna asks, quiet as ever.

“No.” Elena forces herself to exhale. “No, you’re… very gentle.”

Donna nods and continues with the same measured movements. Elena doesn’t want to look at her wounds, afraid of what she’ll find there, so she turns to the veiled visage of her companion. She wishes she could see her face. Wonders what she may look like, what flaw she’s trying to hide.

Until a bandage catches on a particularly bad burn and Elena cries out.

Her whole body jumps—

Donna’s hands fly to her shoulders, keeping her steady with surprising strength, yet she steps away the very next second as though she’s been scorched.

Elena bites her lower lip hard enough to draw blood. There you go, making her uncomfortable…

Angie takes over for a while, also quite precise. Elena peeks down to realize she isn’t in as terrible a condition as she may have imagined. Scars will be left, no doubt, but she will probably heal well enough.

Then the last difficult spot comes up. She knows it when Angie warns: “You need to stay still here.”

“No, no wait!” Elena pleads. “I—I can’t.” I can’t, I can’t deal with this again, not again—

But Donna sits back next to her and her mere presence calms her down. “You are very strong, Elena. This is the last one.” she says.

“Hold me down.” Elena requests.

Donna doesn’t seem to like the idea. Still, she slowly brings her hand back over the uninjured part of Elena’s shoulder. “It’ll be alright.” she whispers.

“On three.” Angie says. “One… Two…”

She pulls the bandage on two and Elena would jump high enough to burst through the ceiling if it wasn’t for Donna. When the agony subsidies she realizes she’s sobbing helplessly, clutching at the dollmaker’s sleeves for dear life.

“Shh, I’m sorry, it’s over now. It’s over.” Donna’s slender fingers comb through her unruly hair.

The brunette closes her eyes and lets her head drop back down into her pillow, but she doesn’t let go of the dollmaker right away. She smells like the flowers outside her house,she thinks.

She feels like a safe space, steady, in a world that’s broken and tilted for Elena.

Gradually, Donna talks to her more. Gradually, Elena tests her body’s limits until she is strong enough to walk around the house on her own.

Angie is with her, most of the time, but she knows it’s less a security measure and more one for her safety. Her mental connection to Donna is something Elena cannot grasp nor understand, but she tries to.

The first time she manages to get to the living room, Elena stops and stares at the painting of Donna adorning the wall opposite her.

“…is that her?” she asks Angie.

“Of course!” the doll replies excitedly. “I am so proud of that one, the artist did a great job! Mistress Donna looks splendid, but it is me who steals the show!”

Elena can’t look away from the canvas. Why is she so familiar…? “Is that what she looks like?”

“Well, excluding a scar she wishes to hide. Kind of like my face. We match.” Angie answers, giving her version of a grin.

For the rest of the day, Elena sneaks glances at Donna, then the painting. It isn’t proper, she knows, but she’s curious. And… surely, no scar is enough to justify hiding that cute face from the world?

Weeks pass. Elena has healed well and she owes it all to Donna.

The two of them have grown closer in the time the former’s injuries have forced them together, close enough to have tea in the mornings and brief chats over common interests throughout the day.

When the weather grows a tad warmer, Elena asks the dollmaker to take a stroll with her outside. She sees the decorated graves, of course, but she knows better than to ask. She doesn’t want their time to be poisoned by grief. The scars of losing loved ones run deep, she knows this too well and they never really heal.

The two of them are basking in comfortable silence for a while, until a thought that feels impossible not to be voiced strikes Elena.

“Donna.” she speaks.

“Hm?”

“When I first woke up and I told you my name… you said ‘I know’.”

“…yes.”

“I’m sure we’ve never met before…?” Elena stops and turns to face her companion. Donna mirrors her.

“How certain are you?” she asks. Upon Elena’s obvious confusion, she elaborates; “As a child, I used to visit the village with my father. In one of those visits, some of the kids made fun of my scar. A boy, especially, was saying some very mean things.”

Elena starts to recall one such incident in the blurry images of her childhood.

“You stopped him.” Donna says. Pauses. “…with a punch to the face.”

Elena raises a hand to her mouth, but a quick laugh escapes her anyway. “I did?” A nod. “No way.”

“You did.”

“It couldn’t have been a strong one, though.” Elena giggles.

“I don’t know. Rumor has it he still hasn’t gotten up, to this day…” The little exhale of a chuckle that escapes Donna makes something in Elena bloom and flutter.

She wants nothing more in that moment than to lift the damned veil and see the face of the gentlest, kindest woman she’s ever met.

The winter eventually gives way to spring. The earth heals from the wounds of the cold like Elena has, under Donna’s care.

She no longer has doubts about what she feels, what she wants. It is only a matter of overcoming her fears and nervousness. Only a matter of finding the right timing and the appropriate setting.

Elena has rehearsed the words she needs to say many times in her dreams and thoughts, yet she finds herself tongue-tied and completely lost on what to do in reality. She has asked Donna to walk with her, taken her to where the waterfall calms into a river… and now struggles to summon her voice.

“What is it, Elena?” Donna, ever the sweetheart, asks. “You know you can tell me anything… right?”

“What if…” she hesitantly begins. “What if I can’t tell you? …can I show you, instead?”

“Of course.”

Elena takes a deep breath and chastises herself to woman up. One little step brings her into Donna’s personal space. Her hand raises to the edge of the veil, blue eyes searching for a sign she should stop. The dollmaker is tense, but she hasn’t made a move to back away, nor lower Elena’s hand.

She trusts her.

And that’s all Elena needs to finally, finally remove the barrier separating them for months. The cute girl she defended as a child is a beautiful woman now, looking back at her with gentle, dark eyes. The jagged scar running down the right side of her face does nothing to retract from that beauty.

“You don’t need that.” she breathes. “You never did.”

Donna glances to the side, a hint of color spreading over her pale cheeks. Elena chases her chin with her fingers, then slowly inches closer, making sure the dollmaker has ample time to decide if she wants this, too.

When their lips meet, color blooms behind her shut eyelids, within her chest. Donna’s mouth is as soft and sweet as her personality, Elena discovers. It is a short, chaste kiss but it is also a promise for many more to come.

It is the gratitude Elena will eternally hold for Donna, who found her at the ending of her life and nursed her back to this,

A new beginning.

#Donna x Elena #donna beneviento #resident evil village #resident evil 8 #fanfiction #creative writing #mother miranda #commission #because two cuties make a recipe for success #donna my beloved

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lacrimosathedark · 3 years

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Who'd like some good old fashioned name analysis?

Okay, so, I been doing so much research for Resident Evil stuff and learning shit about fairy tales and timelines and genome editing and searching for impossible Romanian poetry I got overwhelmed and went, fuck it. Why not just look at their names? Maybe I'll learn something there.

So, here I have done it. Name meanings for characters of the Mold Saga so far aka 7 and 8 aka Biohazard and Village.

(Sorry I'm on mobile I'll put a cut here when I can)

Ethan: Firm, enduring, strong, impetuous, long-lived. An incredibly consistently common and popular name. E name just like Eveline, so could be a successor of sorts to the mold.

Mia: Derivative of numerous other names of many possibilities. Mia as a word means “mine” in Italian and Spanish. Mamma Mia is a well known Italian phrase, particularly due to the ABBA song and musical of the same name, and it being the catchphrase of the Nintendo character Mario. The phrase means “my mom”.

Winters: First and last season of the year where everything becomes dormant and cold and either dies or sleeps.

Eveline: Contains “Eve”, as in both the biblical first woman. Also means a night before an event, and the game takes place in the span of one night. The name Eve means “ life”, “living one”, “mother of life”, or “giver of life”. Another possible name origin is as a variant of Aveline, which is a diminutive of Ava, which is the same pronunciation as the name Eva as pronounced in Village.

Baker: Occupational surname. In older times consider an upper-middle class job, much like the family. Also adds the emphasis of the “food” and also how they essentially make more molded.

Jack: God is gracious, supplanter. A nickname for John and other related names, but also a name in itself. It is also a word with a couple meanings, including a heavy lifting tool, to steal something, to take control of something, or an everyman.

Margueritte: Pearl. French name for ox-eyed daisy. Derived from Margaret. Sounds like maggot.

Lucas: Light. Derived from Lucius which means “the bright one” or “the one born at dawn”. Luke is also an Apostle of Jesus and was a physician.

Zoe: Life. Came from the name Eve. Fitting as Zoe was practically pushed out of the family after Eveline’s arrival, replaced as the daughter of the family.

Joe: He will add. Was added as DLC. Short for Joseph. Joseph is the name of multiple biblical figures. One is a child of Jacob and Rachel and Jacob’s favorite son in Genesis (note: Jack is a nickname for Jacob) who was sold into slavery by his jealous brothers, but rose to become vizier, the most powerful position nest to the Pharoah, and forgave his family and brought them to Egypt. One is the husband of Mary, the mother of Jesus, who loved and raised a child he knew was not his against social norms. Another is a disciple known as Joseph of Arimathea who notably took Jesus down from the cross for his burial and testified when he revived and was gone.

Rosemary: Dew of the sea. Combination of Rose and Mary or the plant rosemary. Roses as a plant vary in meaning depending on color. Mary and its variations have many differing meanings, among them being, “beloved”, “love”, “bitter”, “rebellious”, “wished-for child”, and “drop of the sea”. There are also the allusions to Mary, mother of Jesus as she is sometimes worshipped with roses, and you say Hail Marys on your rosary which is only two letters from her name. In regards to the plant, it is relatively resistant to drought and cold, though some breeds are susceptible to frost and they don’t like too much water. They have fibrous roots, so they spread and fan out like we see with the mold. They thrive in more alkaline soils and seem to have been named by a taxonomist named Carl Linnaeus. In stories, folklore, and tradition, the plants or flowers are often used for remembrance, specifically for the dead. It’s also been used as a spice and in medicine.

Miranda: Worthy of admiration. Latin in origin. Character in Shakespeare’s The Tempest, and whether she is a strong female character or not is highly debated, as she frequently defies men like her father, but often when they expect and/or want her to. She is otherwise compassionate and naive. The titular character of a Polish novel in which everyone is a mage and Miranda is a medium connected to another character, Damayanti, who is portrayed as the ideal woman and has a romance with the male protagonist, yet sacrifices her body so her spirit can experience a higher state of consciousness. Miranda can contact her soul, and disappears when she dies. Miranda in the US refers to the required practice by police of reading suspects their rights before interrogation.

Eva: Latin form of “Eve” and meaning “life”, “mother of life”, or “giver of life”.

Duke: A ruler of a duchy. A title bestowed by royalty or passed through family, often given to royalty or nobility, but can be given to anyone. In France, the peerage system was abolished in 1789 (vive la révolution), brought back in 1814, and finally perma-abolished in 1848.

(Note: While the wife of a duke becomes a duchess, the husband of a duchess does not become a duke. At least, from what I gather. This shit is confusing.)

Alcina: Strong-willed. Greek origin. There are two operas using the same story about a sorceress named Alcina who lives on an island with her sister Morgana and seduces every knight who comes to the island, but turns them into plants, animals, or stones when she bores of them. When the source of her power is destroyed, she, her sister, and their palace crumble to dust. The Hungarian name for Alțâna, a commune in Sibiu County, Romania in the historical region of Transylvania.

Bela: Bela Lugosi was an actor who famously portrayed Dracula. His name is Hungarian and meant to be spelled Béla meaning “heart”, “insides”, or “intestines”, roughly translating to “having heart” or “having guts” in modern terminology, as in being brave. However it is considered a male name and as Bela is female there is also the possibility of the influence of the name Bella short an l, Bella an Italian name meaning “beautiful”.

Cassandra: The one who shines and excels over men. Name of a Trojan princess and priestess in Greek mythology. She was given her gift of prophecy by the god Apollo but, in most versions of the tale, he asks for sexual favors in return, and she initially agrees but then rejects him once she’s gotten her gift. In anger he cursed her to always tell true prophecies that no one would believe and was thus thought a madwoman. She served a temple of Athena, goddess of wisdom, handicraft, and warfare. When Cassandra was assaulted and possibly raped in Athena’s temple and dragged out while desperately clinging to Athena’s statue, Athena was so enraged by the damage done to her temple and/or her priestess that she enlisted the help of both Zeus and Poseiden to exact revenge on the Greeks for failing to punish the man who attacked Cassandra and caused the resulting damage. Zeus gave her one of his own bolts of lightning and she struck them down at sea. While Cassandra was never believed, she was always right.

Daniela: God is my judge. Feminine form of Daniel. Daniela is also a genus of moth with only one species in the genus, Daniela viridis. It is also another name for the Italian wine grape Prè blanc.

Dimitrescu: Child of Dimitri. -escu suffixes in Romanian are like -son suffixes in English, it derives from parentage (ex. Jackson is Jack’s son, Dimitrescu is Dimitri’s child). Dimitri means “devoted to Demeter”. Demeter is the Greek goddess of the harvest, agriculture, sacred law (i.e. cycle of life and death), fertility, and the earth. Like many Greek myths, she is repeatedly wronged, and rather severely, by multiple male figures. Demeter in particular is a mother who has her daughter Kore, later known as Persephone, stolen away from her and goes on a rampage searching for her and those responsible.

(Note: Considering the founders had these names it’s a bit dumb seeing as this trend of parentage -escu names supposedly came about mid 19th century (1800s for those who find that confusing cuz I do), long after the Village was founded)

Donna: Lady or lady of the home. Italian name and a title of respect. Derives from the Latin term Dominus. The Romanian form of the word (not the name) is Doamnã. The Atropa belladonna aka deadly nightshade have berries and foliage that contain tropane alkaloids including atropine, scopolamine, and hyoscyamine which are extremely toxic and can cause hallucinations and delirium, but are also used in pharmaceutical anticholinergics. Throughout history people cluelessly used the berry juice as eye drops to cosmetically dilate their pupils, giving them a seductive doll-eyed appearance. Symptoms of belladonna poisoning are dilated pupils, sensitivity to light, blurred vision, tachycardia, loss of balance, staggering, headache, rash, flushing, severely dry mouth and throat, slurred speech, urinary retention, constipation, confusion, hallucinations, delirium, and convulsions. The plant's deadly symptoms are in atropine’s ability to disrupt the parasympathetic nervous system’s involuntary regulation like sweating, breathing, and heartbeat.

Angie: Diminutive of many names containing “angel”. Angels are messengers and warriors of Heaven, a realm souls go after death. Angel statues are also common grave markers. Children are also often told they have guardian angels, a being watching over them to protect them.

Claudia: No sure meaning has been found, but some think it comes from claudus, meaning “lame”, “limping”, or “crippled”, or clausus, which means “shut” or “closed”.

Beneviento: Good wind. Neapolitan spelling of Benevento, the name of both a province and its capital city, located in the Campania region of Italy.

Salvatore: Savior. Italian name. In the movie version (I specify as I have not read the book and the movie synopsis has more on the characters) of The Name of the Rose, the character Salvatore is hunch-backed and twisted, and has a history of not-really-acceptable religious beliefs. He was also tortured and falsely accused of witchcraft. He dies when a library is set on fire.

Moreau: Moorish, dark-skinned. French surname. Titular doctor in The Island of Doctor Moreau, in which said doctor performs disturbing and torturous experiments on people and animals, especially through vivisection, to make beastial humanoid creatures.

Karl: Free man, strong man, manly. Werner Karl Heisenberg was a German theoretical physicist who made notably important contributions to hydrodynamics, ferromagnetism, cosmic rays, and subatomic particles. Karl Marx was a German philosopher, economist, historian, sociologist, political theorist, journalist, and socialist revolutionary who believed societies develop through class conflict, and in a capitalist society this is the “ruling” class (the bosses) having power over the working class. He believed people should have equal footing and should and would inevitably fight for it. Karl Jaspers was a German existentialist philosopher and psychiatrist. His humanist ideals had him dissatisfied with the medical community’s approach to mental health and worked to improve it, and philosophizing on it after.

(IMPORTANT NOTE: Since I’ve seen accusations of the RE character and his influences being so, I feel I must state it here. Karl Heisenberg is NOT a Nazi. Both Heisenberg and Jaspers lived through World War II and neither were Nazis. Jaspers was blackwalled because of his Jewish wife. Heisenberg was forcibly drafted into the Army Weapons Bureau, but pre-war he had been repeatedly slandered as a “white Jew” and his career held back, and post-war became more political, worked against traditional primacy in the education system, and actively protested the government considering equipping the army with American nuclear weapons. Capcom reps have also stated that Karl Heisenberg has nothing to do with Nazis.)

Heisenberg: Calling mountain (could not find a specific definition, “heisen” means “to call” and “berg” means “mountain or hill”). Reference to Werner Karl Heisenberg, (explained above). Likely unrelated, but another well-known (in the US at least) name thief of Heisenberg comes from the popular TV show Breaking Bad as the alias/street name for the main character Walter White who takes the name and starts selling drugs when he is unable to afford medical care for his in-need child, but grows more twisted throughout the series. Also place name.

Berengario: Italian form of Berengar, which is derived from Germanic root words meaning “bear” and “spear”.

Cesare: Italian form of the Latin word Caesar, which is an imperial title like an emperor or empress. The word Caesar itself may come from caesaries meaning “hairy”.

Guglielmo: Italian form of the Germanic William, meaning “vehement protector” or “desired helmet”

Nichola: Anglicized form of the Greek Nikolaos meaning “victory of the people”. Also a variant of Nicholas (Considered a female variant but fuck gender roles and the description says he.). This character is also referred to as Father like a priest I looked into saints and while I found no notable Saint Nichola (meaning on Wikipedia) there are multiple Saint Nicholases, most notably Saint Nicholas of Myra, also known as the Wonderworker and the model of Santa Claus. Stories of him include gifting gold coins through a window of a home for three nights to prevent three girls from being forced into prostitution, calming a storm at sea, saving three soldiers from execution, and chopping down a possessed tree. More connected to where his treasure is found, there is also a tale of him resurrecting three children who had been murdered by a butcher who had had intended to sell their meat as “pork” during the famine.

*BONUS TIME*

By that I mean these are less important so I did slightly less research and/or didn’t feel like typing all the research so there’s less info, but it’s still relevant, so here you go!

Chris: A rare name in its own right, often a shortened version of names like Christopher, meaning “Christ-bearer”, and Christian, as in the religion.

Redfield: Literally red field. Fitting for the trail of blood in his wake because have mercy on any of his enemies, but regrettably including many of his friends and allies (rip in peace Piers Nivans).

Elena: Shining light. Greek origin.

Leonardo: Strong as a lion. Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese version of Leonard.

Lupu: Wolf. Romanian surname. Fitting as the surname of the man we saw become a lycan before our eyes.

Luiza: Renowned warrior. Polish, Portuguese, and Romanian name.

Iulian: Romanian name from the Greek iulius meaning “youthful” or “juvenile”, or ioulos meaning “downy-bearded”.

Vasile: Romanian name from the Greek basileus meaning ”king”. Vasile Voiculescu wrote a poem called Schimnicul, The Recluse in English, about varcolacul.

(Note: For those who don’t recall or didn’t notice his name in Ethan’s diary, this is Luiza’s husband.)

Rolando: Famous throughout the land. Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese variant of Roland.

Elba: Spanish form of Alba, which can mean “dawn”, “white”, or “elf”, depending on origin.

Dion: Shorter form of Greek Dionysios meaning “of Zeus”.

Wilson: Lineage surname, “Will’s son”. Very common surname in English.

Charlie: A name in itself but often a nickname for names like Charles meaning “man” or “warrior”

Graham: Gravelly homestead. Habitational surname, apparently derived from Grantham in Lincolnshire, England.

John: God is gracious. The most common name ever with the most variations.

Perlman: Ashkenazi Jewish surname. Also literal, “perl” possibly meaning “pearl” thus being an occupational name, or Perl being a woman’s name making it mean “husband of Perl”.

Emily: Rival. Latin name.

Berkoff: Could be Jewish, Dutch, or German surname. Definition not quite certain, but likely related to birch trees.

Josef: German, Czech, and Scandinavian version of Joseph.

Simon: He has heard. From Hebrew Shim’on.

Roxana: Bright, dawn. Latin form of Greek Rhoxane and Persian Roshanak.

Anton: Priceless, praiseworthy, flower.

Sebastian: From the Latin name Sebastianus which meant “from Sebaste”. Sebaste is a town in Asia Minor and comes from the Greek word sebastos meaning “venerable”.

Eugen: Well-born.Romanian form of Eugene. From the Greek name Eugenios.

(Note: This is the man who lived in the house with the red chimney.)

Ernest: Serious. Germanic name.

(Note: This man is noted to be missing in a letter to Luiza and his diary is found with the Cannibal’s Plunder in Otto’s Mill.)

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aion-rsa · 3 years

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Doctor Who: Perfect 10? How Fandom Forgets the Dark Side of David Tennant’s Doctor

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As recently as September 2020 David Tennant topped a Radio Times poll of favourite Doctors. He beat Tom Baker in a 2006 Doctor Who Magazine poll, and was voted the best TV character of the 21st Century by the readers of Digital Spy. He was the Doctor during one of Doctor Who‘s critical and commercial peaks, bringing in consistently high ratings and a Christmas day audience of 13.31 million for ‘Voyage of the Damned’, and 12.27 million for his final episode, ‘The End of Time – Part Two’. He is the only other Doctor who challenges Tom Baker in terms of associated iconography, even being part of the Christmas idents on BBC One as his final episodes were broadcast. Put simply, the Tenth Doctor is ‘My Doctor’ for a huge swathe of people and David Tennant in a brown coat will be the image they think of when Doctor Who is mentioned.

In articles to accompany these fan polls, Tennant’s Doctor is described as ‘amiable’ in contrast to his predecessor Christopher Eccleston’s dark take on the character. Ten is ‘down-to-earth’, ‘romantic’, ‘sweeter’, ‘more light-hearted’ and the Doctor you’d most want to invite you on board the TARDIS. That’s interesting in some respects, because the Tenth Doctor is very much a Jekyll and Hyde character. He’s handsome, he’s charismatic, and travelling with him can be addictively fun, but he is also casually cruel, harshly dismissive, and lacking in self-awareness. His ego wants feeding, and once fed, can have destructive results.

That tension in the character isn’t due to bad writing or acting. Quite the contrary. Most Doctors have an element of unpleasantness to their behaviour. Ever since the First Doctor kidnapped Ian and Barbara, the character has been moving away from the entitled snob we met him as, but can never escape it completely.

Six and Twelve were both written to be especially abrasive, then soften as time went on (with Colin Baker having to do this through Big Finish audio plays rather than on telly). A significant difference between Twelve and Ten, though, is that Twelve questions himself more. Ten, to the very end, seems to believe his own hype.

The Tenth Doctor’s duality is apparent from his first full appearance in 2005’s ‘The Christmas Invasion’. Having quoted The Lion King and fearlessly ambled through the Sycorax ship in a dressing gown, he seems the picture of bonhomie, that lighter and amiable character shining through. Then he kills their leader. True, it was in self-defence, but it was lethal force that may not have been necessary. Then he immediately topples the British Prime Minister for a not dissimilar act of aggression. Immediately we see the Tenth Doctor’s potential for violence and moral grey areas. He’s still the same man who considered braining someone with a rock in ‘An Unearthly Child’.

Teamed with Rose Tyler, a companion of similar status to Tennant’s Doctor, they blazed their way through time and space with a level of confidence that bordered on entitlement, and a love that manifested itself negatively on the people surrounding them. The most obvious example in Series 2 is ‘Tooth and Claw’, where Russell T. Davies has them react to horror and carnage in the manner of excited tourists who’ve just seen a celebrity. This aloof detachment results in Queen Victoria establishing the Torchwood institute that will eventually split them apart. We see their blinkers on again in ‘Rise of the Cybermen’, when they take Mickey for granted. Rose and the Doctor skip along the dividing line between romance and hubris.

Then, in a Christmassy romp where the Doctor is grieving the loss of Rose, he commits genocide and Donna Noble sucker punches him with ‘I think you need somebody to stop you’. Well-meaning as this statement is, the Doctor treats it as a reason to reduce his next companion to a function rather than a person. Martha Jones is there to stop the Doctor, as far as he’s concerned. She’s a rebound companion. Martha is in love with him, and though he respects her, she’s also something of a prop.

This is the series in which the Doctor becomes human in order to escape the Family of Blood (adapted from a book in which he becomes human in order to understand his companion’s grief, not realising anyone is after him), and is culpable for all the death that follows in his wake. Martha puts up with a position as a servant and with regular racist abuse on her travels with this man, before finally realising at the end of the series that she needs to get out of the relationship. For a rebound companion, Martha withstands a hell of a lot, mostly caused by the Doctor’s failings.

Why David Tennant Lost Hannibal Role According to Bryan Fuller

By Kirsten Howard

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By Louisa Mellor

Series 4 develops the Doctor further, putting the Tenth’s Doctor’s flaws in the foreground more clearly. Donna is now travelling with him, and simply calls him out on his behaviour more than Rose or Martha did. Nonetheless the Doctor ploughs on, and in ‘Midnight’ we see him reduced to desperate and ugly pleas about how clever he is when he’s put in a situation he can’t talk himself out of.

Rose has also become more Doctor-like while trapped in another reality, and brutally tells Donna that she’s going to have to die in order to return to the original timeline (just as the Doctor tells Donna she’s going to have to lose her memories of travelling with him in order to live her previous life, even as she clearly asks him not to – and how long did the Doctor know he would have to do this for? It’s not like he’s surprised when Donna starts glitching). Tied into this is the Doctor’s belief in his own legend. In ‘The Doctor’s Daughter’ he holds a gun to Cobb’s head, then withdraws it and asks that they start a society based on the morals of his actions. You know, like a well-adjusted person does.

What’s interesting here is that despite presenting himself as ‘a man who never would’, the Doctor is a man who absolutely would. We’ve seen him do it. Even the Tenth Doctor, so keen to live up to the absolute moral ideals he espouses, killed the Sycorax leader and the Krillitanes, drove the Cybermen to die of despair, brought the Family of Blood to a quiet village and then disposed of them personally. But Tennant doesn’t play this as a useful lie, he plays it as something the Doctor absolutely believes in that moment, that he is a man who would not kill even as his daughter lies dead. It’s why his picking up a gun in ‘The End of Time’ has such impact. And it makes some sense that the Tenth Doctor would reject violence following a predecessor who regenerated after refusing to commit another double-genocide.

In the series finale ‘Journey’s End‘, Davros accuses the Doctor of turning his friends into weapons. This is because the Doctor’s friends have used weapons against the Daleks who – and I can’t stress this enough – are about to kill everyone in the entire universe. Fighting back against them seems pretty rational. Also – and again I can’t stress this enough – the Daleks are bad. Like, really bad. You won’t believe just how mindbogglingly bad they are. The Doctor has tried to destroy them several times by this point. Here, there isn’t the complication of double-genocide, and instead the very real threat of absolutely everyone in the universe dying. This accusation, that the Doctor turns people into weapons, should absolutely not land.

And yet, with the Tenth Doctor, it does. This is a huge distinction between him and the First Doctor, who had to persuade pacifists to fight for him in ‘The Daleks’.

In ‘The Sontaran Strategem’ Martha compares the Doctor to fire. It’s so blunt it almost seems not worth saying, but it’s the perfect analogy (especially for a show where fire is a huge part of the very first story). Yes, fire shines in dark places, yes it can be a beacon, but despite it being very much fire’s entire deal, people can forget that it burns. And fire has that mythical connection of being stolen from the gods and brought to humanity. The Time Lord Victorious concept fits the Tenth Doctor so well. Of all the Doctors, he’s the most ready to believe in himself as a semi-mythic figure.

Even when regenerating there’s a balance between hero and legend: the Tenth Doctor does ultimately save Wilfred Mott, but only after pointing out passionately how big a sacrifice he’s making. And then he goes to get his reward by meeting all his friends, only to glare at them from a distance. His last words are ‘I don’t want to go’, which works well as clearly being a poignant moment for the actor as well, but in the context of Doctor Who as a whole it renders Ten anomalous: no one else went this unwillingly. And yet, in interviews Russell T. Davies said it was important to end the story with ‘the Doctor as people have loved him: funny, the bright spark, the hero, the enthusiast’.

It’s fascinating then, that this is the Doctor who has been taken to heart by so many viewers because there’s such an extreme contrast between his good-natured front, his stated beliefs, and his actions. He clearly loves Rose and Donna, but leaves them with a compromised version of happiness. They go on extraordinary journeys only to end up somewhere that leaves them less than who they want to be, with Russell T. Davies being more brutally honest than Steven Moffat, who nearly always goes the romance route. Davies once said to Mark Lawson that he liked writing happy endings ‘because in the real world they don’t exist’, but his endings tend towards the bittersweet: Mickey and Martha end up together but this feels like they’re leftovers from the Doctor and Rose’s relationship. The Tenth Doctor doesn’t, as Nine does, go with a smile, but holding back tears.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

It’s a testament to how well written the Tenth Doctor is that the character has this light and shade, and with David Tennant’s immense likeability he can appeal to a wider audience as a result. It’s not surprise he wins all these polls, but I can’t help but feel that if the Doctor arrived and invited me on board the TARDIS, I’d want it to be anyone but Ten.

The post Doctor Who: Perfect 10? How Fandom Forgets the Dark Side of David Tennant’s Doctor appeared first on Den of Geek.

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turnaroundroundround · 3 years

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Opera References in Musical Yuukoku no Moriarty Op. 2

Some thoughts of mine after re-watching Morimyu Op. 2, regarding Irene's arc A Scandal in British Empire, about all the opera references and some random thoughts that come to mind during this arc. Obviously there's a lot more to Morimyu Op. 2, for instance The Two M's and Mycroft's solo (which I often refer to as "the Mycroft Anthem" lol), the entire Baskerville arc, and the train arc, and so on. And there's a whole lot of other things I'd like to discuss about them as well, but maybe just save it for another time. I don't know if anyone has discussed these references before, and I am not entirely a pro in music either. All I have is some basic knowledge on opera and harmony, so these are just some personal impression that came to mind when I watched this arc, so please keep it in mind.

A SCANDAL IN BRITISH EMPIRE

Okay, so the biggest motivation for this post is, obviously, the music throughout the entire Scandal arc. It is heavily influenced by opera, partly because Irene herself is an opera singer, partly also because the masquerade ball itself is also a perfect stage for an opera to be shown. And the opera was not simply brought in to make the music sound good, but also utilising the plot of the opera itself to create more depth and color to the musical. About Opera during the 19th Century Some side notes. Opera has originated and developed from various different kinds of stage ever since the Greek and Romans. I'm not going into details but anyway, by the 19th Century, it's still somewhat of a luxury that is mostly meant for nobles and people with high status. There are millions of stories about nobles coming to the theatre only to enjoy the music and not the play itself, or not really watching anything but waiting to see their favourite opera singer. Like when the other things in the play are going on, they stay in there box or hang out with other nobles, playing cards and all, and when their favourite singer makes her debut, they come to the front of the box and watch her. Then they return to their games when she exits. All the luxuries. Opera is really something that is meant for nobles and those with nothing but time and money on their hand back then. And another thing is (with an image that I quickly searched on Google just now lol) back them before any stages there is always a pit for the orchestra to be in. They are just below the stage so that the music can still reach the audience as equally, but also low enough that they aren't in the way of the audience's view.

By the way, the role of the conductor and stage director back then was somewhat a blur (if I remember it correctly), as the music writer would very often himself direct the entire stage and become the conductor on the performance day. In case something goes wrong, such as actors need more time to adlib, then he knows how to direct the orchestra to play accordingly. It's quite a small detail, but in Op. 3 Liam also refers to himself (yes this is still about Yuumori lol) as the maestro, somewhat very similar to the role of the conductor himself. This reference, as we can see, shows Liam's role behind the scene conducting all the plots and instructions. It's quite a small detail I think, but also quite interesting

By the way, the leading singer, or Prima Donna (as they call Irene), are always sopranos. And the same goes for Irene Adler, all of her songs were written to highlight her soprano voice, like in 大作戦ーDaisakusen or her song with Ms. Hudson

An example from a song that I was reminded of when listening to Cecile!Irene. Of course there are many other songs we can talk about, this is just one of the examples.

Obviously, Irene's song aren't entirely like classical opera songs. They were all arranged to both highlight the opera feature, but also to suit the form of the musical and all the while showing Irene's elegant and gracious manners of a prima donna, and also showing her playful side especially during her duet with Sherlock.

YAMI NO OPERA - DON GIOVANNI BEHIND THE CURTAIN

To understand Don Giovanni references, it's essential to understand the story behind the original opera by Mozart. That being said, the actual plot of the story is quite long and contains so many details it's almost impossible to fit all of them into one post while also comparing them with the one in Morimyu, so this is a link to a more detailed synopsis of the opera. Or you can also read more on wiki. I'll just give some basic details that are referenced and discussed in this post. Overall impression: This opera revolves around a playboy that flirts with women, but lacking in loyalty and commitment to keep any of his promises to them. By the end of the play, after all the sin he has committed, Don Giovanni is engulfed in hell's fire, and punished for his sin. It is very much similar to the story in Morimyu, nobles relying on their wealth and status and have the freedom to do anything as they want, without having to worry about having to bear the consequence. Because of the difference in power and status, it is almost impossible to punish all of them, therefore having a need of a "demon" to punish them with powers that no human have - the role of Moriarty gang within the play.

In this arc, Liam is "directing" a play that is inspired by Don Giovanni. His audience is Irene Adler (and of course us who is watching the entire thing), and the main character is Lorinson who ends up being punished for his crime. Mozart's Don Giovanni is being performed on stage, but at the same time Liam's "Don Giovanni" happens, in the back stage. What we are watching as the main stage is actually the "back stage" of the real story.

In the original play, Don Giovanni was a playboy that flirts with many women. At the beginning of the play, he flirts with a woman called Donna Anna, and her father tried to defend his daughter. They got involved in a duel and Don Giovanni killed the man. Donna Anna mourns and wish to avenger her father.

In Morimyu, the story of Lord Lorinson (pardon me for not knowing both the translation of his title and his name) is added in spite of the original plot in the manga. As far as my Japanese comprehension goes, the story is that Lord Lorinson is also one that uses his status to abduct other women to his pleasure, and ends up treating them poorly.

At one point, a woman came to the Lord of Crime, saying that her daughter has been murdered by the noble and mourns her. She wishes for revenge, and Liam proceed to do so.

Don Giovanni - Act I Finale

During Moran and Louis' fight with Raymond(?), in the section behind the stage we can see the opera theatre with the Finale song going on. The ensemble is still singing as the fight goes on behind them.

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In the Finale of Act 1 here, the section that was insert into Morimyu was rather short, and was meant for a dramatic effect than actually showing what's happening in the original opera anyway. But anyway, we can see that as the fight proceeds, the curtain behind also slowly closes, ending the first Act of the opera.

It's clearer here. We can see that as they are fighting there is an entire opera going on at the back. The fact that the ensemble has their back to the audience emphasises how everything we're seeing are all in the backstage, but at the same time it proceeds alongside with all the events in the "mainstage". It's quite a powerful image.

At one point in the opera, Don Giovanni attends a party where he met one of his previous lovers that he betrayed. Then there's some talking and such and more betrayal, and somehow he then decides that he would also flirt with his ex's maid.

There isn't much that I have to say with this reference in the play, only that it is actually Fred disguising as a maid for the purpose of carrying out the plan and scared the sh*t out of Lorinson lol

I couldn't catch all the details from their conversation, but apparently Fred did some kind of stand-in again as the victim who was murdered by Lorinson, also to provoke him and lead him into Liam's trap?

At the end of the opera, Don Giovanni was cornered by the 'devil', drowning him in the flames of hell. However before that happens, the women that Don Giovanni once flirted with (as well as Donna Anna whose father was murdered by Don Giovanni) gathered, chasing after Leporello - Don Giovanni's servant - who exposed him of his guilts and sins.

The song that the women sung in this scene is "Ah, dov'e il perfido?", and there is a very small section at the end of the song that was kind of re-arranged and added to Morimyu. In Morimyu, this is the scene when Lorinson is exposed of what he is done, after that being "punished" by the devil. There is also a scene in the play when Liam mentions 地獄の炎 - Jigoku no Hono (The Flames of Hell) which is a direct reference from the original Don Giovanni. In fact, what he has been telling Lorinson is the story of Don Giovanni and how he ends up being punished - only that when Lorinson realised that, it's already too late.

(A reference from the song in the original play, the section that is used in Morimyu is actually quite short, only starting from around 5:40 within the song in this video)

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In Yami no Opera, the song is arranged with Liam's part of the melody above the entire harmony. So it is indeed a proper opera that "Liam" has based on re-arranged to carry out his plan.

While Don Giovanni is happening on stage, there is also another "Don Giovanni" being punished by the devil - Lorinson. We hear part of the original song from the ensemble in the background, and also Liam's version of the punishment along with Lorinson's struggle. And at the same time the ensemble does seem to be focusing on "Don Giovanni" - all of them looking towards Liam's and Lorinson's position. A really impressive scene.

And after that very short section, the play goes on, returning their focus back to Irene Adler and Albert's conversation. There is no "Flames of Hell" erupting in any ways except for Liam's really strong section of the Yami no Opera song. And there's no need for it, I think, as Lorinson has never been the real protagonist like Don Giovanni. Liam only made him a temporary "protagonist" and not solely for the purpose of exposing him, but only as a mean to show Irene the true identity of the Lord of Crime. So there is no point making it more dramatic than it already is.

So...

That's pretty much all that I have to say about Don Giovanni and opera's reference, I think?

Well another thing, maybe, is how much I love the instrumental arrangement for violin and piano in Morimyu. They don't have the privilege of having an entire orchestra, but instead they did as much as they could for the instruments so that they recreate the original opera vibe as well as they possibly can. And the result is, just, extraordinary.

Anyhow, I've heard many of my friends comparing the songs from Op. 2 and Op. 3, seeing that Op. 3 has more of a "flow" in between the songs as all of them were written with harmony such that they have a certain connection to each other.

Not that Op. 2 doesn't do the same thing. However the second Opus does feel more separated, I think, since the music in the 3 different arcs are much more different. For instance the Baskerville arc has a "hunting" vibe to it, describing Moriarty gang's plan to bring down the nobles' game of hurting children, while the final Scandal arc revolves around an opera singer and mostly happens within a masquerade ball. So there is a big difference between the scenes, and obviously a big difference in the music brought to them as well.

Aaaand, that's pretty much all the details I've picked up (and remembered lol) up to this point.

Anyway, I've been watching and re-watching all 3 Opus of Morimyu many times, each time firguring out something else that I haven't noticed before. So if I end up realising some other details within this arc, maybe I'll come back and add to this post.

Thank you for reading ヽ(・∀・)ﾉ

Also, thank you @rikaaki for these beautiful gifs(☆▽☆)

#musical yuukoku no moriarty #yuukoku no moriarty #william james moriarty #morimyu #yuumori #Youtube

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annicaax · 2 years

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Kellan Route Summaries: How our romance with the demon Cap'n Will Go?

Authors Note: Hey guys. I'm still pretty young but I've been a writer all my life. Fanfiction author too, for a decade. Recently my crazy busy schedule has me on tenterhooks that I have so many WIPs. Which is why I'm keeping my story short and posting only summaries.

I desperately tried to imagine what Kellan route will be like and this is the result. This post is for Kellan fans. I hope ya all will like it. I have faith you will... Keep reading til the end <3

Kellan x FMC

Author: annicaax

# Part one

In Ada's salon, MC finds a man with striking red eyes, thick gray locks falling over his forehead. He looks noble, refined and when their eyes meet from across the room, her heart stirs but not in an unpleasant way. She sips her whiskey wondering if she can truly continue to be a pickpocket again in the west... What's she supposed to do? What about the 'weirdness' that follows her? They labeled her the 'sorceress' in the New Amster. Is that what she is?

She furiously shakes her head ridding her thoughts and turns her eyes to her target again...

Kellan Malphas.

Little does she know he's the captain of the Ward soon she's destined to join hands with, and he's her destined Partner.

MC is offended. Theif though she may be, she's a woman of integrity. She makes Kellan eat his words. Kellan is bound to admit she's bold. Bit of a demonic fireball herself. While he smiles in slight admiration, the rest of the ward watches, amused that someone could talk back let alone yell at their cap'n.

Trying to rob something valuable from Kellan is a mistake. The idea of it to be exact. MC regrets her recklessness when she's caught while she tries to pickpocket Kellan. Looking into his eyes and that half smile, she's entranced again. And the way he speaks to one of his team members who soon arrives... the ward he calls them. He looks like a lawman. Is he a lawman? And lawmen are a taboo. Why did her first job in the Wisp go horribly wrong? MC wants to flee but the man's grip is tight on her hand. He takes her to the 'Ward HQ' where he tells her she's special and she can be of big use. He will provide her employment if she stops being a petty theif.

Cecelia explains what the Ward is. And ends with a comment that whoever set her up to rob Kellan of his precious possession-- an envelope in his pocket must be a demon and a sly one. (Imagine Caius is the demon who did this) MC is reeling from the surpise of it all and she also learns shes a witch! Angry and confused she walks out of the ward, back to Donnas.

But that night she feels restless, as she recalls all the mishaps she's caused so far. Maybe the ward was right... maybe she's a witch. Maybe she should visit them and talk to...Kellan was it? The following day she has another meeting with the Ward. Kellan is a busy man. So he's absent and Cece leads the meeting. MC feels disappointed noting she almost misses Kellan's domineering presence but then kicks herself mentally for even thinking that way. She focuses on Cecelia's words, understanding what the Ward does and what the world of supernatural stands for. Just a little.

Meanwhile the doors open, and Cayde and Fiona enter. While Sascha and Cece try to coax the MC to join the ward, Cayde objects saying they can't trust strangers...and thieves! (Sorry, Nate. I love you but I know this is how you'd react in Kellan's route. Well, my version of Kellan's route)

Cece says Kellan wants the MC on board so there's nothing Cayde can do. While Cayde bites his lip, MC makes a quick decision of joining the ward. She doesn't know what to do. It's not about delivering justice but the idea does please her. A world of supernatural beings, a little world of the "special" ward members, being a part of it might be what she needs. This might be where she belongs.

Cece says it's the smart move as MC's caught the eye of the demon who roped her to use against Kellan. Just then, Kellan returns and is gleeful to see MC has done the paperwork to join the ward. He fills his name too. Adds his seal and officially welcome her aboard. He then excuses himself, goes to discuss something urgent with Cece and Cayde in private, leaving Sascha and Fi with the MC.

While MC stands looking in a daze at the closed door behind which Kellan had disappeared, still feeling the burning heat of his palm on hers when they shook hands; Sascha says he's a demon too and he can pick up on pheromones and stuff like that. He says MCs budding admiration/awe can be dangerous as Kellan is a greater demon with a far greater power. A romance with him would only burn her. He also asks her not to trust demons or any such kind. Not that he thinks she's a silly but.. While Fi asks Sascha to stop his crap. MC throws a glare at the man, but she can't help be intrigued at this new world and at this new man who seems to have the power to steer her life! Yeah she's not interested in him romantically. No way but that doesn't mean he's not hell attractive. Oh well he's a demon... Wait... Sascha said he's a demon! And a powerful one Now she doesn't know what she's gotten herself into!

I'm sorry if this was lame. If I were to turn this into a full Ff, it might ages to complete and the least I could do was share my ideas with my fellow fans.

I will post more soon! Let me know what ya guys think of the above storyline... ;) Feel free to Comment and/ or Like/Reblog

#wwl kellan #kellan malphas #wwl #wicked lawless love #lovestruck #wwl kellan route #my ideas #otome #kellan route summaries

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why-this-kolaveri-machi · 3 years

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the wolf should’ve been afraid of me.

Titans 3.04

just under the wire! ... i hope.

like with the previous review, i’m typing this up as i see the episode. here we go!

spoilers ahead.

1. ... well. that was an interesting cold open.

1.25. i don’t know whether to admire this show’s restraint when it comes to gotham and its excesses, particularly arkham asylum. it’d be easy to go hammer and tongs, like suicide squad (2016) did, or any number of bat media did, at a tropey, colourful~~insanity~~ that can be quite damaging, casting mental illness in strangeness and criminality. it definitely shows gotham as... separate from the rest of the country, its own ecosystem of heroes and villains, a sort of rogue state.

but that ecosystem is still human, with its heroes needing to clip parts of themselves away just to survive, growing old and needing to be recycled, its villains languishing in the same kinds of systems that fail everybody else who needs to be helped. it’s a quieter, tenser sort of wrongness: not strange enough that you can dissociate, but not close enough that you can completely empathise. gotham is its own creature.

1.5. i know that the reasoning behind this is more doylist than anything, but i’m so glad that joker was killed off with little fanfare right at the start of the season. he is the one man in the batverse that’s transcended its confines as this sort of ethereal boogeyman/eternal edgelord and to justify his presence in the series would mean giving him this tired, overblown importance and too much of a stab at colourful, tropey “madness” in this otherwise-subdued series. i wish all batmedia would follow suit and get rid of this fucker.

1.75. so jason is bucking scarecrow’s control! or reminding him of who exactly holds all the cards right now. circling back to what i talked about in the last review, it’s remarkable just how little time it’s been since jason’s “death” and he’s already got ‘minions’ and elaborately set up plans to track, break and kill the titans. just how long has he been planning this? when did he first look at WE weapons prototypes and think that’s something i can use to blow somebody up? and the most unsettling question: did he plan his own death at the hands of the joker just so that he could break batman?

at this point it’s obvious that the scarecrow at least started jason down this path, but it’s frightening just how far he’s travelled already.

1.8. aaagh, less than one minute in! i’ll shut up.

2. conner washing his hands at the sink reminds me that he was directly in the line of explosion when hank got blown up and he’s probably got atomised hank-bits all over his skin that he’s desperately trying to wash off.

... you’re welcome.

2.25. conner, don’t you speak to gar fucking logan like that, sir, no!

2.3. if anything it’s the lex part of him that gave him the knowhow to recognise the weapon and build a de-activator for it.

anyway, for that ‘half-breed’ and ‘talking tiger’ comment?

(i wish, tho, that we actually see conner more interested in the superman part of his legacy, like maybe listening to stories from gar, or even better, dick, so we get a better idea of the pressure he’s feeling to live up to that part of him and not the part that’s lex.)

((i talked about conner’s stages of moral development in his introductory episode last season, but i wonder if the next stage of his self-actualisation would be to further integrate the parts of himself and realise that they are only parts and he, conner, is an entirely different person unto himself that can make decisions on how to use what he has and what he knows. his superman abilities can be used to destroy. his lex knowledge can be used to save.))

3. oh dawn :((

3.25. is this the last we see of dawn and hank? i mean, we know donna is coming back; would it be a stretch to think they’ll try to have a go at resurrecting hank as well?

3.5. “deathstroke didn’t make us into killers.” good, because deathstroke didn’t make jason a killer either. there’s a missing step there you need to be looking for, dick.

3.75. dick did try to break the cycle, step away from gotham, run from the possibility that he could turn into batman. it didn’t help; he couldn’t fully withdraw from his vigilante persona the same time he loathed it, and batman literally haunted him both asleep and awake. but maybe gotham doesn’t have to turn anybody into anything. maybe gotham has nothing to do with it at all. it’s about taking responsibility, realising some sacrifices are pure bullshit, and building an actual family instead of merely a team.

anyway: hugs!

(oh, also? mr “i hate flying”? i mean, there’s perfectly valid reasons to hate flying that’s not related to childhood trauma, but then again, this guy was literally a ‘flying grayson’ once. also also, remember that he also gets sea-sick. must’ve a lot of fun stories to tell.)

4. ooh that gar/kory confrontation was brief but cool!

listen, i have never seen a psychiatrist with that extravagant an office and SIR I WOULD LIKE TO KNOW HOW--

4.5. kory’s so unused to reaching out for help and it’s breaking my heart that HPG likely is some kind of impostor that’s maybe causing her symptoms in the first place.

kory and dick have mostly been apart this season but it’s remarkable how their journeys have paralleled each other; kory processes her grief, isolation and existential dread into a determination to take care of this new family she has, no matter what it takes; dick does much the same, forging ahead with plans and solutions until he has no fuel left in him and spirals into a massive breakdown.

4.25. listen titans this really is a TERRIBLE continuity error. we aren’t goldfish; we can clearly remember that two minutes ago it was gar’s upper arm that was burned, not his forearm. COME ON.

“sensory deprivation tank” *SNORT*

anyway, gar is the BEST

4.5. i wonder where these visions of experimentation took place. was it on tamaran, or on earth, after she came to hunt down rachel/trigon and before she lost all her memories? is HPG a part of the scientist group that experimented on her? ... god, i hope not. i mean, i think he is, but it would be cool to have some positive therapist representation in media.

5. you’d think the van transporting a dangerous supervillain that only batman could catch would be more secure but... i’m also not entirely surprised.

5.15. i love dick gives ZERO shits about hiding himself or even ensuring scarecrow is adequately contained. just turns away after kidnapping him in BROAD DAYLIGHT and says ‘let’s go’. I LOVE THIS DUMBASS

6. lmao gar is having a really really shitty day SOMEONE GIVE THIS MAN A BREAK or just a goddamn story arc of his own

6.5. i’m really confused about the timeline here. so... sometime ago, kory came down to earth to hunt down trigon, yeah? at some further point down the line she and her sister were kidnapped and experimented on. THEN she somehow escapes but... loses her memory? a few months pass and then we see blackfire alive and well and free; she kills faddei, can impersonate other people, and is clearly seeking out kory. but now she’s still in the experiment facility...? what’s going on?

i’m not entirely surprised about the facility being mostly deserted. either the biggest investors in this project gave up on it and it was left to the most fanatic to carry on, or they were deliberately trying to lure kory and get her to free blackfire--expand the environs of the experiment, so to speak.

7. hopefully barbara is going to get something to do other than listen to various men give her Attitude

8. how do you terrorise a terrorist? well:

i love when dick is a scary-competent motherfucker.

8.25. ooooh, the attack on crane at arkham a ploy to get crane to blackgate? nice one dick, i didn’t even think of that. but why though? to protect crane from the titans? to intercept the van to blackgate and “rescue” him? seems likely--red hood was there, except dick got to crane quicker.

9. still reeeallly unclear about the komand’r situation. was komand’r captured after s2? is this all A TRAP?? if so, why are you stepping into the only thing that can contain you, kory????

9.25. so... definite parallels between dick/jason and kory/kom here. i’m just. i’m still. really confused. i’ll shut up now.

10. this may be my favourite dick look yet:

woodsman!dick in a beanie.

10.5. i unironically love how titans has made this bizarrely-devoted-to-his-moniker, toxin-spewing supervillain into a tamer version of hannibal, psychoanalysing his victims into submission. it’s of a piece with how inward looking titans is, the way all of its villains are obsessed with how our protagonists’ minds work, to the point where they would actually spend time inside of them.

there are no big plots to end the world. no apocalypses or endgames here. these villains collect the titans’ insecurities like infinity stones. the way the titans defeat them is by achieving character growth--literally winning by the power of love. literally “the real superpower is the friends we made along the way”!

10.7. anyway, i’m betting dick is used to this bullshit from crane and is humouring him in the service of getting more information. the story about the wolf? an implicit threat, not to mention dick getting to control what crane knows about him and what methods he would use to manipulate him.

am i giving dick too much credit here? i don’t think so. he’s really impressed me so far this season.

10.75. like. there’s a real unreliable narrator vibe coming off with every person that talks about bruce (much like how the various members of the titans talked about jason’s motivations) and to buy into crane’s talk about bruce being a psychopath is to fall for the same manipulation that jason fell for. dick is the only person who hasn’t really psychoanalysed bruce this season, and i think some part of his detective brain is piecing things together into a bigger picture.

11. i’m glad kory rescued kom but did she have to kill the scientist?

(i mean, yeah, probably - the less people know that kom escaped the less likely they’re going to have the fucking govt on their doorstep, but still.)

11.5. dick’s gonna come back to wayne manor, stare straight at komand’r and go, well which room would you like? because the team might as well adopt ANOTHER person, yeah?

12. oh MAN that red hood/nightwing fight was AMAZING! and he did the thing! the boomerang escrima thing! i’m so delighted!

12.5. the anger and disbelief in dick’s voice when he says you told crane EVERYTHING?! tells me that he knew exactly what he was telling crane himself.

12.75. “everything you are is because of him” - oh that reminds me of halluci!bruce from last season. i hope we see halluci!bruce again--he is so vicious but so entertaining... so much more effective at tearing dick down than crane or jason combined. goes to show that dick’s biggest enemy is own fucking head.

12.8. oh no! dick’s shot! crane is in the wind with red hood! blackfire is now with the titans! i love it!

honestly this season’s pacing is such a big step up from the last couple. gold star, show.

#titans #titans spoilers #meta #dick grayson #koriand'r #garfield logan #komand'r #conner kent #dawn granger #jason todd #jonathan crane #a byronic cupcake #badass strawberry truffle #manic pixie pop tart #a tragic jalebi

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whyjm · 3 years

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Why I did not like the Spn finale

This is gonna be a long post..

I cannot get over my thoughts about how it ended and how bad I feel about it. I am so angry, sad and feel so utterly disappointed, I cannot wrap my mind around how this was supposed to be a satisfying tying up emotional archs ending??? Bc it was so far away from satisfying I would laugh if I was not presently crying over it..

There are several things that irked me a lot. Many people have voiced the problems of this show and its ending much more eloquently than I will ever be able to do.. But I gotta get these fucking thoughts and feelings out of my system.

I have been with Spn since the first episode aired. I am a straight woman, I don’t have to fight for representation, I don’t have to worry about coming out and being accepted for who I am, I don’t have the daily struggles of feeling anxious or depressed or suicidal or not being able to be who I am. I am lucky that way!

To me love is love and all love should be equal! And I stand with all who struggle and all who are not free to be who they are. I see you and I love you and I support you fully!!!

To see my friends having to fight, and then on top of that have a show that has meant so much to so many people be butchered and have a negative last message sent out, in its last 36 minutes of its life … It is a hard pill to swallow.

Cas and Dean

In 15x18 we got to have a beautiful confession from Cas to Dean where Cas tells Dean he loves him and we know this is romantic love bc Cas begins by saying that the one thing I want I know I can’t have and then later I love you. Also Misha confirming it! This scene made me ugly cry so hard bc FINALLY.. (BUT what is missing from it.. the editing is strange.. bc Cas pushes Dean to the right but he falls to the left. Dean has no tears in his eyes while he looks straight at Cas when he talks, but he has tears in his eyes when he looks over his shoulder and see the empty. So what in this scene has been cut away and WHY?) Misha and Jensen did a great job with this and Cas got to find peace in just speaking his truth... And it was beautiful to watch and after having seen Dean sitting sobbing on the floor the natural and logical continuation of this would have been to in the next episode address this, but in episode 19 no such thing happened. And I wondered where did Dean’s grief go where did his CARE for Cas go?? Dean who has been depressed and suicidal when Cas have died before is all of sudden cold and act like nothing have happened at least nothing that affected him very deeply.. It felt disconnected and strange. And it continued on like that and it felt very strange to NOT address such a HUGH plot point. It’s not enough to have Dean say to Chuck to bring Cas back or to see him wasted out of his mind, or hugging a dog like his emotional wellbeing depends on it.. This is not resolution or addressing it.

All of season 15 has felt like the relationship between Cas and Dean has been in focus and important to the overall arch of the season, and explored and then all of a sudden all traces of it are just ripped away, erased completely.. To have a confession like this go unacknowledged to me is poor writing bc you do not leave this big of a thing hanging in the air without resolution (fine you can argue Cas got resolution but I feel that no Cas did not get resolution either bc his feelings SHOULD have gotten a response no matter what that response was.. Dean did not, we never got to hear or see his version or his thoughts about it.)

I was thinking narratively they HAVE to address this, Deans thoughts and reactions to this gotta be shown. They HAVE to resolve this, acknowledge it. I have been sure a long time they would NEVER have Dean reciprocate Cas love but keep it in subtext bc they are too fucking chickenshit to do that but at least have Dean talk about Cas….. that I expected him to do.. But it was not done in 19. I got the horrible feeling in my gut that they are not gonna resolve this they are gonna fuck this up, they are gonna go full brothers only and not give a fuck they are gonna push Cas out and show no care. Then we come to the final episode and boy howdy is there a lot to unpack with this episode.

(I had watched the long road home before the finale and when I watched that I KNEW that the end was going to be a letdown I felt it in all of me that I was gonna be disappointed. And I was proven right. And I have so many thoughts all jumbled up around each other that I don’t know in which end to start so sorry if what follows is incoherent and rambly.. )

15x20 - The end

20 felt like a FILLER episode, right up until Dean’s death scene I was bored and was seriously considering turning my computer of and just not watch. (A finale should be as engaging and emotionally packed like episode 18 was. I refuse to acknowledge 20 as the end.. To me it ended on 19. That wrapped things up. Not completely satisfying but hell of a lot better than the disaster that 20 is.) But then Dean was impaled on that rusty spike thingy and I was watching with attention. I GET why they did Deans death the way they did, even if that is one shitty death for Dean and could have been fixed so he did not die.. I get what they wanted to get out of it: a brothers sad moment that they turned into a irksome thing. I actually cringed about the head thing and the hands and the farming of it all just urgh I got sick to my stomach watching that. What should have been a beautifully sad moment was put together in a romantic coded way and that to me ruined the heartfelt goodbye. Bc you do not touch and hold a dying family member like that. I KNOW I have said goodbye to my fair share of loved ones that I have loved soo deeply, but the thought of touching like that NO no way.. And also they have NEVER done that forehead touch in previous deaths, so to do this now just felt irksome.

They killed Dean a character that has struggled his whole life with being daddy’s blunt little instrument, who has self-worth issues and are suicidal, who has never lived for his own sake but have only ever lived to protect and raise another, he continues to put others before himself though (up until the last couple of seasons where we have seen them both break away from this toxic behavior). Finally he was allowed to LIVE and have a life that was not controlled, not running in a hamster wheel like a fucking puppet on a string. He was Free of all of that. He was free to go after what HE wanted for himself and what Dean wanted was LOVE, in my mind its perfectly clear that Dean loves Cas back bc that is what the story have been telling us.. its right there and the story do not make sense without it. Many others have done a great job at talking about this and describe this way better than me. So I leave further discussion about that topic to them.

Dean was looking for a job. The angel Dean has loved since purgatory told him that he loved him and then died sacrificing himself to SAVE Dean yet again and then Dean dies a few days later.. How is this doing justice to Dean and what the hell kind of message does this send out to the ones watching?? They are saying it does not matter if you fight, your destiny is written for you and the only relief and comfort you will have will be death. They are saying Meh don’t fight it’s better to die bc it does not matter what you do. This is one of the fucked up messages this godawful ending sent to all those who have identified with Dean and Cas throughout the years.

They also say Cas who has been part of the story for 12 years is not important enough to have there, they IGNORED Cas, a mention in passing does not do justice to a character that has been crucial to the boys lives for 12 years. Dean Screamed in Sam’s face CAS IS FAMILY, Dean was destroyed when Cas died, he was hurt when Cas left bc everyone leaves Dean, Sam missed Cas etc… but still not important enough to show up in heaven in the last episode greeting first Dean and then Sam to heaven.. PFT…

To leave Cas and Misha out of the FINALE of a show that he has been part of for 12 years is so fucking disrespectful to Cas, to Misha and ALL the fans who love and adore both. It also makes no sense since they all say how beloved Cas and Misha are. and don’t go fucking covid made it impossible bc the last scene with all those people without masks.. No that is just lying liars who lie…Covid my ass! This angers me a lot.

Family do end in ONLY blood apparently…..

(And maybe lead to a lot of viewers for walker??? hence this very nice shirltess Sam scene............. ) shirtless Sam is always good though so no complaining here.

We see Sam and the dog give Dean a hunters funeral.. NO OTHERS are there? How is it possible that none of the found family wouldn’t want to be there and show up?? Jack has restored everyone but still only Sam and the dog are there, no Eileen, no Jody and the girls, Donna, Garth, and the list goes on and on. Bc they wanna hammer in harder that supernatural has ever only ever been about two brothers and no one else matters ever.. It does not matter that this has not been true since the earlier seasons. The show of course is about Sam and Dean’s lives and journey through life, and I have loved to follow along on their journey. BUT it was a long time ago this was the ONLY thing that mattered (bc if it had only been about the brothers the show would NOT have gone on for this long). Along the way they have picked up FOUND Family, and the message of the show has been Family don’t end in blood, Always Keep Fighting. But this last episode reverted back to season 1 and disregarded ALL character growth and storytelling of the past 12 years and went with fuck it ONLY Sam and Dean are important. So the next fucked up message they sent where: There is no Family don’t end in blood.. The only family that matters is blood. And then they have the balls to say Always Keep Fighting.. Are they fucking kidding????

Character development…….. who????

Sam lives on after Dean dies and we get a montage of his life where he look miserable and is shown to not being able to get over that Dean died. We get a blurry wife and a kid named Dean. In his house there are photos of ONLY himself, Dean and their parents and maybe one of his son? Don’t remember all the details and refuse to watch that episode ever again. But no friends, no family, no happy moments are shown, it looked like a very lonely life. He dies with only his son there.. WHERE are Sam’s friends??? This montage of Sam’s supposed happy life is NOT happy bc he is not able to get over that Dean is dead, he can’t live a happy life bc Dean is not there - again something that irked me and felt disrespectful to all the growth Sam and Dean have gone through. It was toxic codependency all the way through and that is not satisfying to watch. Especially since the brothers had actually broken that dependency. Sam had broken free, Sam have through the years wanted to get away from Dean and live his life as he wants and then he was happy…We have a moment way back in season 5 maybe? Where Sam runs away and this is shown as one of his happy moments in dark side of the moon.. No Dean in his happy places, Sam having thanksgiving with his girlfriend and her family, Sam alone with a dog. We have Sam and Amelia when Dean was in purgatory. So Sam IN text have been shown being able to be happy without Dean so why could he not do it this time?? Makes no sense! You can grieve but still have a good life.. But they CHOSE to show it like Sam was miserable bc Dean was dead and life was not worth living happily without Dean there..

The brothers have lately interacted like two individual adults, separated from each other, making their own decisions and trusting each other in making them, they wanted different things in life. And seriously WHERE DID EILEEN GO?? Why was Sam not reunited with Eileen that he some eps previous was shown to love, no instead they had blurry wife which feels like such a cop out. Sam did not get to live a happy fulfilling life and why did Sam not deserve to live a happy life with Eileen??? I know they are blaming corona for a lot of things missing in the finale that they intended.. BUT and this is a BIG BUT remember Jensen did not like the ending it did not sit well with him, he had a hard time digesting it, he objected to the ending! He spoke about that dying in battle would not be a satisfying ending - see the video of him talking about this at SDCC 2019. There is so much more to say about this but other people have voiced it so much better than I ever could so I move on to the next issue.

Dean in heaven

Dean when he first arrives there happens upon Bobby who tells him John and Mary lives down the road and that Rufus and Arheta lives around there too. I hope Bobby’s wife was indoors, and that Jack with the help of Cas fixed heaven. To this Dean only smirk/smiles.. and then Dean sees baby and goes for a drive ALONE with the words he will be here soon from Bobby again Sam is the only one that ever matter PFT. Dean who found a home in the bunker alongside Sam, Cas and Jack who told John: I have a family and that he was happy with himself and his life…. Spends his time endlessly driving around alone just waiting for Sam to appear.. ALL of Deans growth is thrown out the window.. he is reduced to salad dressing. Deans only purpose is to live for his brother and cannot possibly have what he WANTS for himself not even in death. He drives around for who knows how many years until Sam dies. HOW is this justice to DEAN? How is this a good and satisfying ending for Dean. Dean who wanted to LIVE, Dean who wanted to experience people in new ways, who had let go of Sam and saw Sam as his own person, now in heaven only drives around waiting for Sam to get there having no life or meaning of his own. It pisses me off to no end that they reverted back to toxic codependent Sam is all that is important to Dean shit.. They have broken away from this shit years ago and this is how they choose to end it right back at the beginning..

Now what is the point of telling a story of growth and love and life if all that that journey amounts to is ending up at the exact point it started on?? You can watch season 1 and 2 and then this finale and it makes sense.. But having watched season 1-15 this ending does great injustice to the characters and the story. Again many others have written way better posts about this that expresses the great disappointment and hurt that is being screamed everywhere right now.

The Actors

I want to add the performance of all actors through the years, the love and care they have poured into their characters are amazing I have loved every bit of that journey. I love Jared, Jensen and Misha, and all the others for their amazing work and that is maybe why it hurts so much it ended in this way!

#spn 15x20 #Supernatural #Jensen Ackles #Misha Collins #Jared Padalecki #dean winchester #dean #sam winchester #sam #castiel #cas #spn 15x18 #spn 15x19 #rambly thoughts about the end #the end

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thestupidhelmet · 3 years

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What are the pros and cons of each season, excluding season 8 which we all know never happened?

This is a subjective opinion, of course, and it won't be a comprehensive list. That would take me too long. 😅

Season 1

Pros:

The American '70s milieu being part and parcel of the show's stories and characterization rather than being background element.

Eric and Donna's playful relationship and its development into romance.

Red being less of a hardass, his love for Eric being obvious despite Red's general toughness toward him, and Red's higher tolerance -- and even enjoyment -- of Eric's friends and Jackie.

The development of Jackie and Donna's friendship.

Hyde's complete characterization overhaul in "Prom Night' (1x19)

Kelso showing loyalty to Eric in "Grandma's Dead" (1x23) and other moments where he actually seems to be a friend to Eric and Hyde rather than solely a selfish, self-interested dillhole.

Kelso being a math and tech prodigy.

Jackie not being a stereotype "dumb cheerleader" but someone who cared about her studies, did homework on Saturday nights, and got As on her essays.

Laurie, in the first two-thirds of season 1, being depicted as smart academically, savvy socially, and not interested in Kelso at all. She was an overall more complex character until the writers used her as the show's main antagonist.

Fez being characterized as naive and trying to fit in with his American friends; he didn't know how far to push a joke and often pushed it too far in an attempt to acclimate to a new culture. Because of this, he said some disturbing things, but he came by them innocently. It wasn't due to being a boundary-invading perv (as he later became).

Fez's insight and friendship with Hyde.

Red and Kitty being in love and continuing to have the hots for each other -- and only each other. Goes against the cliched TV longtime-marriage that's lost its passion.

Cons:

Hyde's characterization before "Prom Night" (1x19) / His very problematic and disturbing pursuit of Donna romantically / sexually.

The major character shift in Laurie as a mischief maker and sower of chaos, screwing up other people's relationships for her own amusement and pleasure.

The episode order being shuffled by Fox and the premature time jump to 1977, which confused the true story arc of season 1.

"A New Hope" (1x20) being the original season 1 finale, leaving Eric and Donna's relationship uncertain. A huge conflict occurs between them in this episode, intended to the cliffhanger for the audience to ponder over the summer -- are Eric and Donna breaking up? -- which is promptly forgotten as if it never happened in the episodes that followed.

The mixed messages of "Eric's Buddy" (1x11). It's a combo of "Gay is okay!" and "Gay panic for laughs!"

Season 2

Pros:

The storytelling, in general, is very on point. It puts character (and character development) first and lets plot and humor arise naturally from it.

The character development (e.g., Red being out of work and Kitty supporting him emotionally and family financially, Hyde becoming compassionate toward and protective of Jackie, Eric and Donna working through their relationship issues and growing from them, etc.)

This is my favorite season of the series, and the two above points, I believe, cover all the pros (again, if were to make a comprehensive list, it would be way too long)

Cons:

Kelso's characterization shift. He goes from being a semi-louse who has (some) loyalty to other people to a full-on, selfish, self-entitled dillhole.

Laurie essentially raping Kelso.

Fez's Nice Guy syndrome toward Jackie

The American '70s milieu fading into the background

Red losing a good portion of his softness; becoming a less balanced character

Season 3

Pros:

More good storytelling and character / character-relationship development. Even if that development isn't always pleasant, it's organic.

Cons:

Jackie's invasion of Hyde's boundaries played for laughs (even though Donna does call her on it, which is a pro).

The show not acknowledging (through Jackie, Hyde, and other characters) the huge arc between Jackie and Hyde during season 2 and the first third of season 3 -- with the exception of "Ice Shack" (3x10), as if it never happened.

Kelso invading Donna's boundaries in "Roller Disco" (3x05)

Season 4

Pros:

The good storytelling and character / character-relationship development continues -- but not for the whole season.

Fez's characterization and relationship with Rhonda.

The unintentional but never-the-less present moments of bonding and closeness between Jackie and Hyde.

Bob and Joanne's relationship

Cons:

The destruction of Fez's character at the end of the season.

Kelso's growth of the end of S3 and first half of S4 being erased and replaced by an even worse version of Kelso.

One of the main reasons Donna and Eric breakup at the end of S3 is so she can experience independence; but she jumps deeply into a monogamous relationship (on her end) with Casey Kelso halfway into the season.

Jackie and Hyde's S2-S3 relationship dynamic getting no acknowledgment; their relationship getting no direct, obvious development at all.

Season 5

Pros:

Eric and Donna reconcile romantically.

Jackie and Hyde's romantic relationship begins.

Many good episodes (but not all).

Kitty getting a story arc focused on her.

Laurie's character development.

Cons:

Eric and Donna not dealing with what broke them up. Eric saying, "Forget about all that stuff," is the writers' way of saying that to the audience so they could move onto the engagement storyline. It's not good storytelling. At least one episode (if not more) were needed for Eric and Donna to deal with their issues from season 3.

Jackie and Hyde's romantic relationship being disconnected completely from their S2-S3 relationship.

A somewhat pathological passive-aggressiveness being added to Hyde's character

Hyde's character being manipulated to serve plot and create the cliffhanger at the end of season 5. The writers were aware this is what they were doing and acknowledged it through an exchange Hyde has with Roy before Hyde chooses not to confront Jackie and learn -- which is what he actually would have done -- and, instead, "retaliates" for the perceived injury Jackie gave him, which also serves as his passive-aggressive way to break up with her.

Hyde putting his fear of losing Jackie above Jackie's pain and feelings of betrayal once he admits his transgression with the nurse.

Hyde acting like Jackie pitting him and Kelso against each other for one night in a competition for her affection is equal to the injury he causes her by sleeping with someone else (out of insecure assumptions, a lack of trust, and an unwillingness to give Jackie the benefit of the doubt).

Fez's behavior growing more and more disturbing (e.g., hiding under Donna's bed to masturbate while Donna and Jackie sleep).

The beginning of the end of Red's true and consistent characterization, toward Kitty specifically. The start of him becoming a cliched, put-upon sitcom husband, whose wife is a cause of misery more often than joy.

Season 6

Pros:

Some very well-written, well-characterized episodes (particularly for Jackie/Hyde and Brooke/Kelso).

Kelso's character growth and story arc with Brooke.

Cons:

Kitty becoming a certified alcoholic.

Red continuing his downward spiral into a cliched, put-upon sitcom husband.

Hyde's transgression against Jackie in season 5 never being mentioned. Hyde acts like the injured party in the first few episodes of season 6, and the show writes his and Jackie's issues as if they're both equally to blame when Hyde is the one who bears one-hundred percent of the responsibility for their breakup.

No true development between Donna and Eric. Their storylines are rehashed from earlier seasons.

Eric and Donna unnecessarily setting a wedding date instead of remaining engaged, only for neither of them actually feeling ready to get married by the end of the season.

The show's first filler episode "Young Man Blues" (6x09), which does nothing to further the overall plot of season 6 or develop the characters.

The total mishandling of Pam Burkhart's storyline. This includes Hyde acting completely contrary to how seasons 1-5 Hyde would have (i.e. being pissed at Pam on Jackie's behalf, wanting to support her rather than feeling it's a burden, feeling protective of her, etc.) It also includes Jackie and Donna's potential for friendship development due to their shared parental situation being wasted.

Fez's continuing to devovle into a punchline, a punchline-giver, and someone who commits inappropriate behavior toward his female friends.

Laurie's recast causing the writers to scrap the originally intended storyline for her as an individual (i.e. continued character growth) and for her and Fez's relationship.

Season 7

Pros:

A few funny episodes.

A few decently-characterized episodes.

The introduction of W.B. and Angie.

Cons:

Red changing from someone utterly devoted to Kitty, feeling romantic and sexual passion only for her, to someone who not only finds other women attractive but seeks out their attention -- and generally (though not always) acts like being married to Kitty is a hardship instead of a blessing.

Wasting the potential of W.B. and Angie's characters. Focusing on Angie's relationship with Kelso rather than with Hyde. Not exploring Hyde and W.B.'s relationship deeply.

Jackie and Hyde's unnecessary breakups. They're caused by a rehashed conflict that was resolved in "Do You Think Its Alright (6x18)" and were likely meant to lead up to a "dramatic" series finale outcome where Hyde finally fully commits to Jackie by proposing to her.

Separating Eric from Hyde, Kelso, and Fez is many storylines and keeping most of his storylines between him, Donna, and his parents.

Fez remaining stagnant as a character.

Most of Kelso's growth being -- yet again -- erased.

Brooke and Betsy's absence.

Another post of mine you might find interesting is: What I Think Is Each Character’s Best Season of the Series (Exclusding Season 8), Character-Wise and Why.

#That 70s Show #That '70s Show #Jackie x Hyde #Red x Kitty #Eric x Donna #Ask #Anon #My Meta #My Essay

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torturedpoetemotions · 3 years

Text

Imagining The Future - A Destiel Ficlet

Read on AO3

Dean doesn’t know what to do with his life now that Chuck’s sadistic story is over.

Getting Cas back, telling him he loved him? That’s as far as he thought. And he did those things, and he married Cas, and they went on a honeymoon, and he finally got to wiggle his toes into the sand and watch the sun play across Cas’s face and feel like everything was going to be okay from now on.

He just...didn’t think past that.

A job? A career? A purpose? He’s not even sure he wants one of those at first; he’s so goddamn tired. He’s had a purpose and a job since he was four. Maybe it’d be okay not to have either for a while.

And that works great until he gets bored and restless, and then insomnia kicks in and maybe some big fuckin’ PTSD as well, because oh god, he doesn’t know if he can do this. He never learned how to live, he doesn’t know how to be a husband, he never thought he was cut out for either, never thought he’d get to have either, and he’s so sure he’s going to fuck up both.

He starts staying up late. Taking long drives. He feels the worry coming off Cas and Sam and Jack in waves but doesn’t know how to tell them it’s okay when he’s not sure whether it will be.

Okay, what can he do? He’s good with cars, he could be a mechanic. He knows plenty about field medicine, he could probably get certified to be an EMT with the right background paperwork. He’d rather shoot off his own foot than be a damn cop, he loves Jody and Donna but that’s deeply in spite of their day jobs. But a firefighter, he could probably do that.

He thinks longingly, fleetingly, of opening a bar. Discards it quickly as though it’s something he isn’t allowed to want.

He arrives home in the middle of the night sometimes, still too wired to sleep. One of those nights he heads to the kitchen for a beer, just one, just to take the edge off so he can rest. He turns on the light and feels the guilt slam into him like a baseball bat to the stomach when he sees Cas sitting slumped over the kitchen table, staring down at his own hands.

Fingers of one hand twisting the band of silver on the other as though the ring is magic and if he turns it enough times the happiness and peace it symbolizes will return to him.

Dean collapses on the seat next to him and wraps an arm around his shoulders, a hand around his two hands on the table.

“’M’sorry,” he says into Cas’s hair, and Cas leans into him and turns his head to catch Dean with a kiss on the cheek, forgiveness.

“I know you’re struggling,” Cas says softly. “I wish you’d let me help.”

“Don’t know if you can help with this, Cas,” Dean admits. Every instinct and habit he’s built up over a lifetime is screaming to brush it off and end this conversation before it begins, but he shoves them all down. Cas deserves better than this, better than the version of Dean he’s been getting for the last couple of weeks. Cas doesn’t argue with him, doesn’t insist he could fix it if Dean just told him what was wrong. He just slides his arm around Dean and holds him there, his touch solid and grounding. Dean feels himself relax, tension running out of him and exhaustion taking its place.

“I don’t know what to do with it,” he says softly, not looking at Cas, not meeting his eyes as he confesses how fucked up he is, that he doesn’t know how to live a life not steeped in blood and uncertainty and constant danger. “I’m a hunter, it’s all I’ve ever done, but I don’t want to be that anymore and I don’t know what else I’m even good for. I can’t see it.”

Cas doesn’t ask him what he means. He doesn’t need to, and that’s one of the reasons Dean loves him. He never has to explain, never has to worry about being misunderstood. Not with Cas.

“You’re right that I can’t tell you what to do,” Cas says softly, the hand on Dean’s shoulder rubbing soothing circles into his skin. “I can promise that whatever you decide, I’ll be there. Nothing you choose to be will ever change that.”

It doesn’t fix things, but it does soothe a worry Dean didn’t even know he had. He leans harder into Cas’s hold and resolves that if he is nothing else, he will be a better husband.

---

He works on his car. He watches all the TV shows he never had time to see with the world always ending. He takes Jack fishing. He gets good enough at signing that he can have whole conversations with Eileen where neither of them speak aloud. He cooks for his family, tries out new recipes, even learns some vegetarian dishes for Sam.

He limits himself to one beer at dinner. He goes to bed with Cas every night even if he isn’t sleepy. If he really can’t sleep, he reads in bed with one hand holding his book and the other alternating between page-turning and running through Cas’s hair.

When he really can’t sleep and needs a drive, Cas goes with him. The first few times Dean protests, says his insomnia is no reason for Cas to fuck up his sleep schedule too. Cas’s only response is to slide into the passenger seat of the Impala and stare pointedly until Dean gets in and starts driving. They never have a destination, just drive with the windows down and the music on, an odd mix of power ballads, mournful old country songs, and whatever Cas happens to be into at the moment.

Sometimes they talk. Sometimes they sing along to the radio. Sometimes Cas falls asleep with his head pillowed on his jacket against the passenger side window. Sometimes he undoes his seat belt and slides across to lean against Dean’s side and capture the hand he isn’t using the drive.

Sometimes the simple comfort of Cas’s warmth turns hotter, turns to wanting, and Dean pulls over on the side of the road to pull his angel into his arms and do things that would probably get them arrested if they ever got caught.

Most of the time they’re back home within an hour or two, both sleepy and smiling and ready to curl up in their bed at last.

Once, only once, Dean keeps driving all the way through to morning.

He only stops when he sees it: a dilapidated little building on the side of the old state highway, small and squat with shutters hanging crooked off the windows and peeling yellow walls.

It’s a sad sight, something that clearly used to be lovely left to weather and rot away from neglect. Something broken and living, hollowed out, long past its purpose.

Dean loves it immediately. He sees what it can be, in his mind’s eye. Sees what it will look like with someone to love it and show it some care and patience. He wants to be that someone.

He puts the car in park and reaches out to shake Cas awake.

“Hey,” he says. “Wake up sunshine, I found it.”

Cas grumbles his way to consciousness and looks around, confused, clearly expecting to be back home in the bunker. He blinks at the unlovely building and then turns to Dean. He doesn’t ask what Dean has found. He does smile at the excitement in Dean’s eyes.

He demands coffee, and breakfast, and for Dean to tell him what he’s thinking. Dean obliges on all three counts.

#supernatural #dean winchester #destiel #fanfiction #my writing

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whoovesnassistant · 3 years

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A Hello, A Thank You, And A Brain Dump.

Dear PwPP team,

I am a recent fan, and I am quite an odd one. I am a lover of everything Doctor Who, so much so I have memorized everything about the Doctor and his interactions during the 2005 revival. Yet since I have watched basically all the doctor who media I had access to (Excluding the most recent season because it does not interest me in the slightest, no offence to 13’s actor) I was without any Doctor Who content that actually interested me.

Well until I made a discovery. You see, when I was moving to a new house, I found a figure I did not remember owning. It looked like a My Little Pony version of Doctor number 10. It fascinated me because It was officially licensed! So, I went down a rabbit hole, and found a whole new Doctor Who community, lost to YouTube, or even, Internet time entirely.

That’s a little bit of a dramatization, but the point still stands that I discovered something that a lot of people forgot. The thing is, I know nothing about the My Little Pony area of fandoms, but I found this new world of Doctor Who so fascinating. Not only that, but it was a whole community!

It was intoxicating! Doctors that I’d never dream of! And actually seeing the doctor see something he truly did not know! But most of all… people who understood what made Doctor Who, Doctor Who.

I’m not a My Little Pony fan, not in the slightest, but as a Doctor who fan, your series is beyond stellar! I know when people understand Doctor Who or not, and you all did know on a level I don’t even thing some real Doctor Who show writers do! Also, your adaptation of the doctor feels so real, it is just stellar!

So, now I have to thank you, all of you. You gave me hope about the future of Doctor who will be bright and full of life! You let me see a new world of story telling. I never saw audio plays used like a legitimate series to such effectiveness and its truly brilliant and has inspired me to try to work on something similar, in due time.

Yet, lastly, thank you so much for the pure, utter joy your work emanates. Yet again, I’m only a Doctor Who fan, but this series has genuinely gave me more enjoyment that some Doctor Who episodes. It is just, raw, stupid, enjoyable, and oh so timey-wimy fun! Even with some real Doctor Who-esc dark/sad moments that makes it feel like I’m listening to a real BBC and Hasbro collaboration!

In fact, the work of your team gave me a Idea for a episode I just couldn’t keep in my head. I know you most likely have plans for all the future audio plays, but I am a story teller through and through, so consider the last part of this letter like a pitch. Yet again, I’m not trying to be entitled and be like “Here’s my idea, Now make it!”, no I literally have no other living soul to share this idea with and its killing me.

Now if I had to title it, it would be a two part play called “Turn Timer” and “Pestering Past”. “Turn Timer” would start with the Tardis crew just bumbling around in time and space. Maybe heading from or to an adventure. Yet when the Tardis enters modern times, it gets thrown off course due to a temporal blackhole (Or something?) making the Tardis materialize in front of a mansion that should not exist, that stands right dead center in the Evergreen Forest (if I got it wrong don’t kill me). The master of the house would be a unicorn named Turn Timer, and would be letting any travelers stay.

Yet when the Doctor reluctantly stays in a room, they discover that some of the travelers have been seeing a hairless ape-like creature attacking residence, even Turn Timer who would have been attacked, saying that they just popped up a few months ago and he’s been trying to cover it up for business.

Soon, after the Doctor and Tick Tock (Sorry but I have to say this here, that name did NOT age well) go off without Derpy who does not quite trust Turn Timer because…. well I made the name reverse Time Turner for a reason. Yet both the Doctor and Tick Tock does not notice the clearly weird name, so that means duel plot! Yay!

Eventually the smart duo would figure out that these creatures are just human like Autons. Yet, since humans, or even humanoids, don’t exist in this universe, this is extremely odd (at least I think, I still know jack about My Little Pony). Also Imagine this would lead into some funny jokes about how the Doctor needs to explain what the hell a human is, and I just imagine Tick Tock confused Autons being exactly like humans and not just modeled by them.

Meanwhile, Derpy would be grilling Turn Timer (Also again, only a Doctor Who fan but I can just imagine the Donna theme here and it makes me smile) and I Imagine that 70% of this second plot would be jokes. Until before the Auton realization, where Turn Timer makes the mistake of saying Doctor instead of Time Turner (Which I assume he would sign in as) and would be forced to knock out Derpy. Now, after they figure out the Autons are Autons, and the jokes are done, I’m guessing that Turn Timer would project some sort of communication hologram or magic thingy to the Doctor so they can have an exchange that goes along like this.

TuTi “Hello Doctor! Sorry but i did not expect for your assistant to be able to see past my perception field.”

Doc “ What did you do to Derpy Turn Timer?”

TiTo “and what perception field?”

TuTi “ Oh don’t be daft, Doctor! I swear ever since you regenerated you have become so thick! you can’t even see what is so clearly obvious! You only know one person who would know the correct configuration for a humanoid Auton, and be smart enough to do it! ”

Doc, in his serious voice, “ Who are you?”

TuTi, Outraged “Don’t act like you don’t know! We are best friends! The bestest of friends that have ever existed. Long before you started taking your pets onto your Tardis. You know deep down, and you are running away from it! Like you ran away from your universe! Our Universe! I am tired of seeing your adventures in this world like you did not live in another.”

TiTo “Who are you then?”

Doc, still serious “Don’t humor him”

TuTi “ Oh Doctor….Can’t even ask your own questions anymore can you? How far you have fallen from what you once were. You once could snap your fingers and make army’s turn and run away. Now you can’t even keep your pets (Companions) on a tight enough leash anymore.”

Doc “ Wait, fingers? how did you-”

TuTi “Oh now you are getting it. Finally, we are getting back the Doctor that counts. My Doctor, The Oncoming Storm! The Great Exterminator! The Destroyer of Skaro! And lastly, The Timelord Victorious!”

Doc panicked and angered yelling (Probably) “Who are you?”

TuTi “ Finally…. Well… I am the master of the house.. the Master! Of the house.”

That is where “Turn Timer” would end and go into “Pestering Past”, which would pick up with the Master finishing his evil monolog and him and Derpy being in some sort of cave with the Masters Tardis being rigged as a paradox machine. Derpy would probably be in some sort of status field but still being able to interact with the Master.

I am sure they would discuss why the Master was so obsessed with getting the Doctor to recognize him. The fact that in the Doctor Who universe, The Master was so utterly empty without his “Best Friend” he could not stand to exist in a world without him, So he tracked the Doctor down, even through different universes just so he could have fun with his “Best Friend”.

Also probably telling Derpy more about the Doctor than he has. And most likely telling stories about when the Doctor was very angry, and why he is the last of the timelords. I thought this would be a very interesting thing to pop up later on, a Derpy is wondering if the Doctor is worth being around if they could do such a thing then turn around and say its horrid.

On the topside, I’m imagining the Doctor more scared and upset than seen in your audio plays. The fact that he came to a whole new universe, a place to make a new start and have less weight to carry, has been shattered by probably the only person that could have followed him. And to make it worse, it was someone who knows almost as much as the Doctor without his self control, and knowledge of his past life.

When the Doctor and the New Master meet face to face, I imagine it would be a battle of chaotic personalities on each side. Also, In my characterization of the Master, I think he would be sarcastically energetic to counteract the Doctors normal energetic craziness. Also, for the hell of it, let’s make the Master obsessed with pegasi instead of unicorns because narrative symbolism.

Lastly, we would learn that creatures that don’t belong in the world of My Little Pony (Cybermen and Terror are my best examples) where caused by the Masters Paradox machine. This gives a reason why they appeared and connects things in a neat little bow. Also gives a reason for Tick Tock to be mad too, due to the fact that the Master indirectly fueled the war he lost his family and time period for.

And that’s all I have. I don’t know how it would end except I think the Master would snatch Derpys Tardis key to use it to make something to keep tabs on the Tardis crew.

I’m sorry that half of this thank you and appreciation letter was more about my ideas than how I adore yours. Everyone on the PwPP crew to me is absolutely stellar! You all have made something truly amazing from a Doctor Who story telling standpoint. Lastly, please have fun making your audio plays or whatever you go on to do. It breaks my heart watching people create and have no fun in it.

With love and appreciation,

Raven.

We’re happy this show has brought you plenty of Doctor Who entertainment, even if you’re not an MLP fan. It’s always fun to learn about people who are generally a fan of one but not the other, who are still big fans of our series.

We aren’t really taking any ideas since we have a solid outline of what the rest of the episodes will be, and we can’t really reveal what characters might be appearing later. Your idea was a fun take on the Master though, perhaps consider writing a fanfic, as I’m sure people would enjoy it and we’ll be willing to post fanfics here.

#long post #submission

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veraynes-blog · 3 years

Text

Fic Writer Review

Tagged by the lovely @1-of-those-things. It’s been a while since I’ve been particularly active on here, so it’s nice to hear from people!

1. How many works do you have on Ao3?

Thirteen! There are some more on older sites I might eventually bring over.

2. What’s your total Ao3 word count?

396,428 (I only realised the other day it was this high!)

3. How many fandoms have you written for?

Seven, if we’re just counting AO3. Probably a few others if you take into account older works.

4. Top 5 fics by kudos?

Unspoken (526) - Doctor Who, Tenth Doctor/Simm!Master. The fic that took over my brain and brought me back to fandom for the first time in years!

Unbound (443) - Doctor Who, Tenth Doctor/Simm!Master. Part 2 of the Time Lords Victorious series.

The Secret’s in the Telling [2021 Edit] (388) - Harry Potter, Harry/Draco. This was one of the first big fics I wrote back in 2008, so I decided to give it a polish and update when I brought it over to Ao3.

False Start (189) - Doctor Who, Tenth Doctor/Simm!Master. This was a lot of fun, inspired by a tumblr conversation in which we were speculating what would happen if the Doctor and the Master woke up from a joint regeneration not remembering which one was which.

Novelty (169) - Life on Mars, Sam Tyler/Gene Hunt. Part 1 of my Godawful Small Affair series.

5. Do you respond to comments? Why/why not?

Yes, absolutely, I always try to. It genuinely means so much to me when people give feedback and responses to my work. Also, being chatty in comments and replies is how I met a lot of friends in fandom, I love when people are willing to hold a conversation with me about a plot point or character interpretation.

6. A fic you’ve written with the angstiest ending?

Honestly, I don’t tend to write angsty endings. Unbound came close to having something of an angsty ending (I won’t spoiler), but even that I ended up changing when I came to actually writing it.

7. Do you write crossovers?

I did when I was much younger, between some anime shows I used to be interested in. Now, not so much, as I find each fandom has its own distinct feel and style.

8. Ever received hate on a fic?

Uhhhh, a little. Not so much in the Ao3 comments, but when I wrote Inhale, I remember getting some very dubious/aggressive comments in the tumblr reblogs I wasn’t happy with. It does cover some controversial matters I suppose, but nothing beyond the realms of canon??

9. Do you write smut?

Yes, definitely. I generally like it to be contained within a wider story, but I may have indulged in the odd PWP on occasion...

10. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

Yes, I think there are a few copied versions of The Secret’s in the Telling floating about. It was a popular fic when it was first published, and I remember people would occasionally tell me in the comments they’d found it on such-and-such a site under different authors. I gave up trying to keep track.

11. Ever had a fic translated?

Yes, there are multiple translations of The Secret’s in the Telling into different languages!

12. Have you ever co-written a fic?

Myself and the wonderful @johnsimms wrote a jokey, informal fic together about the Tenth Doctor, Simm!Master and Donna called The Love Island AU that still makes me laugh honestly. That’s the only one, but I always liked the idea of collab.

13. All time fav ship?

Doctor/Master is right up there, and definitely the one I've produced the most content for. I’m also very fond of Hannibal/Will and wish I had the energy/ideas to produce work that really explored their characters.

14. WIP you want to finish but don’t think you ever will?

I actually have about 20k written of the third part of the Time Lord Victorious series, and I’m gutted that I can’t figure out how to finish it or find the right inspiration to go back. Maybe one day...

15. Writing strengths?

Dialogue is a big one for me, I think. One of my favourite things about writing fanfic is learning the verbal ticks of how characters speak and being able to mimic it in my own writing, I take a lot of satisfaction from that. I think I’m also pretty good at analysing characters and using that to explore their motivations and development in a story.

16. Writing weaknesses?

Plot??? I feel like I never have a strong plot, I just write extended character analysis and conversations.

17. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in a fic?

Honestly, I’ve never tried. It’s not something I’d attempt, I’ve got no talent for other languages.

18. First fandom you wrote for?

Beyblade, back when I was about 15 or so!

19. What’s your fav fic you’ve written so far?

My favourite almost always tends to be my most recent, because I can see how I’ve improved and it’s usually about my latest interest. So for the moment that’s Anything But Temptation - Dragon Age Inquisition, Cullen/Dorian.

That said, I also have a massive soft spot for Unspoken.

20. Tag!

Like I said, I haven’t been super active on here for a while so I’ve lost track of a lot of people, sorry. If anyone’s interested please consider this a tag!

@johnsimms @linz33y @lasersonicked @riathel @countessrivers

#verayne writes #verayne answers #tag game #fanfiction

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