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timeagainreviews · 5 months

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Putting the Mid in Midnight: Wild Blue Yonder

If I were to mention the film “The Horror at Party Beach,” no one would blame you for having never heard of it. In the annals of horror history, it left minimal impact on the genre. Why then were audiences asked to sign a “fright waiver,” before being permitted to see the film? Because it was never about the audience dying of fright. It was a dare to the viewer, one almost as old as cinema itself. William Castle used to start his films with a warning to the more delicate members of the audience. Reports of people fainting during “The Exorcist,” or more recently “Terrifier 2,” create a buzz around those films. Can you survive the horror or will you wind up in the hospital? The only way to know for sure is to buy a ticket! This is why when Russell T Davies issued a warning that “Wild Blue Yonder,” was possibly too scary for the kiddies, I saw it for what it was.

While I don’t doubt there was some concern that certain children may be disturbed by the imagery and tone of last night’s episode, it feels more like Davies asking audiences to just go with it. Similarly, Davies also asked us to just go with the idea of David Tennant returning by first introducing us to Ncuti Gatwa. “This isn’t a forever thing or the show moving backwards. Just go it.” After seeing how tumultuous the fandom has been since *checks notes* 1963, it feels like Davies’ tactic to unite the fandom is to encourage them to just go with it. It also feels like Davies is riffing a little, trying new things. “Wild Blue Yonder,” is an engaging exploration of the new while also referencing some of the old. Yet despite all of its experimentation, much of it feels like familiar territory.

First and foremost, I would like to state that I admire the hell out of this episode. On the rad vs trad debate, this puts one giant foot down for rad. With that said and out of the way, we need to talk about that intro. When it comes to the race of Isaac Newton you might say the show should be educational and therefore accurate in its depiction of race. But pretty early on, Doctor Who abandoned all pretence of being educational. And more recent attempts at being educational have left us with Jodie Whittaker spouting off a Wikipedia summary about an asteroid. You could also argue that this is a different type of education. A lesson in what it feels like to see your own people played by someone white. Considering Doctor Who’s history of brownface, I’m gonna say y’all need to chill the fuck out. Just go with it.

My only issue with this scene is much like the issue I had with the Children in Need special. The humour just falls so flat for me. It was a big thud on arrival. From the Kaled anagram sequence to mavity, it just doesn’t work for me. Part of me wonders if this isn’t in part because David Tennant and Catherine Tate were never on set with Nathaniel Curtis. There was no chance of improving with improv. I mentioned last week that some of the representation stuff also felt clunky. It’s weird too because when the show isn’t actively trying to make me laugh or view trans people like myself as valid, it comes off as funny and validating. Sylvia’s tuna masala and or Donna’s love for Rose do such a better job at both, yet they’re the quieter moments of the show thus far. It’s ironic to me that the more powerful moments of the second Davies era have been understated.

It’s easy to write this overstatement off, however. Thinking back to the 50th anniversary special, Clara’s line of turning people into frogs fell flat for me at the time. Now I look back at is as kind of charming. And furthermore, these big events like Children in Need, Christmas, or anniversaries get away with a bit of excess. The humour is more broad because they expect more people to be watching. It’s a time of merriment. It’s also part of why I appreciate “Wild Blue Yonder,” so much. Davies was attempting a weirder “Midnight-esque” episode in the middle of a highly publicised media event. He knew it was a bit of an ask for some audience members. Once again, it feels like an invitation to the rest of the fandom to allow room for exploration. If Doctor Who and the fandom are currently fractured, do we really need to put it back together in the same shape? Does it even need being put back together? Why not just fill the cracks with some seeds and see what grows out of them?

Since “The Star Beast,” aired, I’ve seen some people complaining that the sonic screwdriver has become too OP. Apparently, making sonic barriers is less believable than joining two cut ends of barbed wire. While I do understand that the sonic screwdriver can be a crutch for bad writing, I also understand it to be incredibly cool. Like, I’m sorry, cool beats your need for locked doors any day. If you need absolute realism in what you watch, might I suggest the window? It’s a freaking magic wand, people. Let it be magical. Doctor Who isn’t hard sci-fi. If Doctor Who’s sci-fi were a cheese, it would be brie. It looks hard but it’s gooey at its centre. You can argue that the sonic screwdriver being capable of repairing the TARDIS is too OP, but it’s also the device which removes two major plot conveniences in this episode- the TARDIS and the sonic screwdriver.

The Doctor and Donna are doing this one without a safety net. They’ve both been pared back to who they are as people. I had a feeling going in that this episode was going to have a smaller cast. It feels like Davies taking a stab at a sort of “Heaven Sent,” narrative that dissects the Doctor and Donna. In other ways it feels like an homage to Davies' own pared-back classic “Midnight,” which has gained cult status as one of his best scripts. In the short stories of Robert Aickman, readers are often left unaware when exactly things get strange. His protagonists walk through their worlds unaware of exactly when things turned hostile until they’re in the thick of it. In the same manner, much of the opening scenes of “Wild Blue Yonder,” leave us waiting for the other shoe to drop, and when it does, you may not notice right away.

Coming directly off the tonal whiplash of the Isaac Newton scene to a scenario so dangerous that it set off the H.A.D.S. system, it’s nice that the episode eases into its weirdness. The TARDIS’ eerie recitation of the song “Wild Blue Yonder,” echoes through the air with a reminder from Wilf, via Donna, that the song is not a jolly anthem, but a declaration of war. So we sit in the mystery of this gigantic ship sitting at the edge of the universe with its shifting corridors and its slow robot, as we try to ignore the clanking sound just outside the ship. It feels a bit like Doctor Who doing a haunted house in space, but you’re not exactly sure why. It’s Amityville in Space, but good.

With no sonic or TARDIS at his disposal, the Doctor can’t just point his magic wand. Even worse, the Doctor doesn’t even have the benefit of the TARDIS’ translation circuit. Whatever language this civilization uses on their ship, it’s not one of the 57,000,000,205 languages the Doctor can speak. But one language the Doctor can speak is mathematics. The Doctor may not have his tools, but he still has his mind. Deciphering the base ten of this unknown species, the Doctor can begin piecing together what is going on in this ship. Perhaps if he can figure out why an airlock had been jettisoned in the past, it might give a clue to what is happening. If he can remove the threat from the ship, the TARDIS might return. Otherwise, he and Donna could be forever stranded on this ghost ship hovering over nothingness.

If this ship is haunted, we’re about to meet the ghosts who call this place home. The Not-Things arrive quietly. So quiet that the shot establishing two Doctors and two Donnas in separate rooms initially seemed like a bad edit. When did the two of them get split up? It’s hard to remember. But we’re pretty sure the Doctor who licked the goo on the circuit is the real deal. Tasting things to figure out what they are is a classic Tennant move. The Doctor pretending to have a bad reaction to the goo evoked the Fourth Doctor pretending to go mad with power over the Key to Time. I wonder now if that wasn’t the Doctor testing a theory in the back of his mind because Donna was feeling a bit off. The Doctor has shown in the past that he knows when his companion is compromised in some way. Last week we were given early warning signs that the Doctor was becoming increasingly wary of the Meep.

Having the characters note a fluctuation in the temperature or the line “My arms are too long,” felt right at home with things like “Don’t blink!” or “Hey, who turned out the lights?” Their visible breath as an omen of ill tidings sits comfortably next to having two shadows or marking your skin to remember the Silence. I love how Doctor Who can turn everyday things like statues, shop dummies, or seeing your breath into danger. Those are the moments for the children hiding behind the sofa. One of Doctor Who’s greatest strengths is its ability to use allegory to help children face real fears. These are the modern equivalent of Grimm’s Fairy Tales.

For a brief moment, I worried the Not-Things were going to spend the whole episode with Donkey Kong arms. While an effective and trippy visual, it would have started to look goofy after the initial shock had worn off. Watching “Return to Oz,” as an adult, I’m no longer scared of the Wheelers, but as a child they had me covering my eyes. Seeing the Doctor and Donna in these twisted forms was disturbing and creepy. I can see how this episode will stick with younger members of the audience for years. I also imagine it as future fetish fuel, but that’s unavoidable. In the words of Community’s Dean Pelton- “This better not awaken anything in me.”

Watching the Doctor and Donna drive away from these twisted angry giants reminded me of Leela and K9 fleeing guards in “The Sunmakers,” or even bits from “Terminator 2: Judgement Day.” I also got whiffs of “Sin-Eaters,” from the Titan comics line. While the sharp teeth and asymmetric contortions of the distorted Doctor and Donna do a lot to sell these monsters, it’s the performances of the actors that tip the scale. Other than the times we’re not supposed to know who is who, they feel like different characters. It started tricking my brain into thinking of the Not-Things as completely different actors.

An issue I have seen come up about the Not-Things is their special effects. If you were worried that the Disney+ money was going to make the show look too polished, worry not. While many of the shots in this episode were very good, and I love the continued use of practical effects, some of the effects of the Not-Things were a bit naff. But much like the Power Rangers effects from the acid ocean scene in “The Halloween Apocalypse,” I found it charming. The only one shot from any of these sequences that I would call bad is the shot of the Not-Thing Doctor with his head between his legs. It should have either been cut or reworked.

It’s hard to talk about the plot in this story. Mysteries are looming, but for the most part it’s a series of chases punctuated by “Invasion of the Body Snatchers,” paranoia. But that isn’t to say that the screen time is wasted. Davies uses this as an opportunity to explore the Doctor’s emotional state after the events of the Flux. Something which hadn’t seemed to affect the Doctor much since the end of “The Vanquishers.” It’s also interesting to know Davies hasn’t forgotten that half the universe was destroyed by the Flux, as Chibnall seemed to have forgotten immediately after. A friend even texted me today saying how Davies treated the Flux more seriously than Chibnall, and I don’t disagree. I felt like he did a better job explaining what actually happened during the Flux. Perhaps it was bad writing, or perhaps I had already given up hope on the era, but I had no idea that the Flux had anything to do with the Doctor. I’m not even joking. It wasn’t even apparent how much of the universe had been destroyed until last night. I learned more about the Flux from a couple of lines of dialogue than I did from six episodes of “The Flux.”

After the Doctor and Donna suss out who is who, they manage to put a little space between them and the Not-Things first by way of a line of salt and ultimately by a glass door. It was at this point in the episode that I made the strongest connections to “Midnight.” The doppelgangers watching Donna and the Doctor’s every move, reading every thought, to mimic them perfectly was a lot like the creature on the Midnight tour shuttle. In both stories the creatures even reach a point where they begin studying their prey. Noting every minor movement and tic. In both stories, formless creatures are looking to hitch a ride in someone else’s body to wreak untold havoc elsewhere. Because of these similarities, I see this story as a spiritual sequel to “Midnight.” A sort of loving homage to the Tenth Doctor and Donna era.

The Not-Things dwelled in the vast nothingness at the edge of our universe growing to despise our boiling noisy existence. Like the song “Wild Blue Yonder,” their response to our shouting into the void is a declaration of war. They seemingly hate us for our existence. When the mystery ship arrived, they saw it as a perfect vessel to bring destruction to the universe. The Captain of this ship must have figured this out as it was she who set their demise into motion. Realising that the Not-Things have a harder time mimicking or noticing things that move slowly, the Captain set the ship’s robot on a very slow course to set the ship on self-destruct. She then threw herself out of the airlock to prevent the Not-Things from fully taking her form.

The Doctor and Donna’s discovery of the horselike Captain’s body as the source of the clanging against the ship demands a bit of discussion. In yet another clunky attempt at trans inclusion, the Doctor and Donna try and work out the pronouns of the Captain. The Doctor affirms to Donna that the Captain was a she, but gives no basis as to how he arrived at this conclusion. I find this noteworthy simply because it actually plays into a transphobic meme that says when trans people die, archaeologists will misgender us by our bones. Because by what means did the Doctor know the Captain was a she? He couldn’t even read her language. What if she was the first trans masc horse Captain? Are we really not gonna stan a horse king because of how his bones look? Obviously, I’m taking the piss. But I do feel like this illustrates the responsibility one takes on when they aim toward validating representation. A simple line to clear up how the Doctor knows this would help because otherwise, he’s just guessing with no reasoning to back it up.

Another weird aspect of this episode was the aforementioned glass door. If I had a quid for every time a Doctor Who 60th anniversary special ended with characters being separated by a glass door in a spaceship, I’d have two quid. Which isn’t a lot, but it’s weird that it’s happened twice. Also weird is that this episode marks the second time since we met the Fourteenth Doctor that the TARDIS enters a location by slamming into a wall. The first time being the Children in Need special “Destination: Skaro.” I would say this feels significant, but the TARDIS does land smoothly next to Cyber Dog at the beginning of “The Star Beast.” Another crash landing which could also mean nothing would be the TARDIS slamming into the tree that drops an apple on Isaac Newton’s head. Speaking of meaning nothing, what even was the point of that scene? Was it all to set up the mavity joke and the Doctor’s queerness? Or did it have a greater meaning? If not, they really should have just cut it all together. Perhaps air it as a minisode the day before “Wild Blue Yonder.” As an episode opener, it sticks out like a sore thumb.

After the Doctor almost escapes with the wrong Donna, the TARDIS gets a chance to show off its new ramps by using them to eject Not-Thing Donna like a middle-aged bowling ball. Our little android friend, now sped-up to real-time pushes the destruct button and takes the ship and Not-Things with it, thus finishing the Horse Captain’s brave mission to save the universe. I was sad we never really got to know the little robot. Its design reminded me a bit of Marvin the Paranoid Android from “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” I was ready to love its personality and then mourn its sacrifice. It’s weird that in some ways, the fan theory that we would see twisted versions of the Doctor did come halfway true. Only in this version, there was no evil Matt Smith or Peter Capaldi. It’s been a bit interesting to see the fan theories come so close yet remain so far away.

Bookending the episode is another scene removed from the main storyline, only this is a book I actually want to read. Returning the TARDIS back to the Cyber Dog location where it was last seen, we get our first glimpse of Wilfred Mott since “The End of Time.” Sadly, it’s also the final time Bernard Cribbins will grace the screen of Doctor Who ever again. This brief cameo was all they were able to film before Cribbins passed away in 2022. I think it’s safe to assume that most of us got a bit teary-eyed seeing ol’ Wilf one last time. As the Fourteenth Doctor said “I loved that man.” I’ve never met a Whovian who didn’t love his character. Seeing Wilf waiting for the Doctor and Donna to return, still believing in the Doctor after all these years, is exactly how you want to remember him. An ever-loyal soldier who doesn’t leave his post. And so shall he never leave our hearts. It was bitter-sweet, but I’m so glad we got to say goodbye.

Ultimately, this episode kept me engaged throughout its entire runtime. But where it falls short of “Midnight,” is in its inability to create the same level of tension. Perhaps it has to do with the special effects revealing so much under bright lighting. There is less left to our imaginations this time around, and therefore the scares are more on the surface. This doesn’t automatically make them uninteresting, only less engaging. It reminded me at times of the special effects from the new “It,” film series. At times it was creepy and at other times it felt like something from a computer. I’m still deeply interested in the dread the Doctor felt after introducing superstition at the edge of the universe, where the rules of reality are less defined. That seems like a bigger plot point that furthers my belief that RTD plans to continue breaking Doctor Who wide open. If I were to compare the quality of “Wild Blue Yonder,” to previous Doctor Who stories, I would go with “The Idiot’s Lantern,” or maybe “Flatline.” Both of these are episodes I enjoy but they aren’t earth-shattering either. As I said in my “Eve of the 60th” article, I would settle for competent and competent was what we got. I'm still very excited for what's to come.

#Doctor Who #Wild Blue Yonder #Fourteenth Doctor #David Tennant #Donna Noble #Catherine Tate #Not-Things #TARDIS #Russell T Davies #Wilfred Mott #Bernard Cribbins #RIP Bernard Cribbins #60th anniversary #Doctor Who 60th Anniversary #Isaac Newton #Nathaniel Curtis #BBC #timeagainreviews

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ilwinsgarden · 3 months

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My thoughts on and impressions of the latest Doctor Who specials and Power of the Doctor

So I finally watched everything so I've thought I could write it down here in case someone would like to read it and... whatever. So let's get into it, shall we?

I watched the Power of the Doctor as the last one (actually just now finished watching it) and I'm really glad I did it but I'll write about it at the end as well (or should I make a separate post?), so first the so-called anniversary specials. First of all, I wasn't happy about that thing with David Tennant (i.e. regenerating into David Tennant). Not that I'd think something like "this couldn't happen" or something like that (honestly with everything that did happen in Doctor Who so far, there's basically nothing that couldn't happen. It's just things that some people would like more and some less), it's just... not fair? Also it feels more like a special episode for Red Nose and not a regular one(s). Anyway, I still watched it (partly because of the fact that the Doctor became Disney princess and I happen to have Disney+ so I could watch Doctor Who as easily as snap of the fingers.) and I enjoyed it more than I expected. No, no excitement, no hopping in joy, but still generally enjoyed watching. However there still were things that bugged me like: -despite the Doctor looking like Tenth Doctor, everyone suddenly magically knew that it's regeneration after Thirteen. How?? -Donna said she forgot again everything that she knew from that TimeLord part in her, but she (and Rose as well) knew that the Doctor was a woman before. How? (by the way this whole thing that the part of Time Lord that was in Donna (and then Rose) all the years was still in connection with the Doctor somehow so it "knew" what was happening to the Doctor... eh. Doesn't sound right to me either, sorry). -moving to second special and Donna's shouting when Tardis abandoned them on the spaceship. (this is something I already complained about in a short post before) She remembered travelling with the Doctor, so she knew what could go wrong (everything) and how often (basically everytime), yet she insisted she would like to go in the Tardis and do the short trip and when something went wrong she immediately went crazy, shouting and demanding she has to go back home. Seriously, Donna? %/ - I mentioned earlier that regenerating Thirteen back into Tenth Doctor (sorry, he's just the same, he's not Fourteenth to me. It would make somewhat sense if he looked the same (except age obviously) but acted differently.) felt unfair to me and even more when he didn't regenerate but divided himself (and the Tardis), like... eh, no, not fair. Which brings us to the special with Celestial Toymaker. I was looking forward to it and curious because Celestial Toymaker is one of my favourite classic who stories so I was curious how he'd be in NuWho. I liked him (though I didn't quite get why he had that sort of a German accent??) and rather enjoyed the episode. Except for that "regeneration" thing at the end of course as I already said. Anyway the biggest complaint I would have about the specials is that for me they didn't feel like anniversary specials. Moreover 70th anniversary. Not even one of them.

Now probably a few words to the Christmas special and first look at the new Doctor. He seems good (like... good for the Doctor. As the Doctor. Doctor-y.) and I think I'll enjoy watching his episodes. As for Ruby... I'm not sure. She somehow seems very similar to other previous Doctor Who companions like Rose (Tyler) or Clara. You know, like... yes, it's a different actor and looks more or less different but somehow doesn't differ that much. I didn't think of it when watching, but when thought of it now I think I figured out why I wasn't excited about her. It's not that I didn't like her, I just... don't care about her. But we'll see when we see her (them both) in more episodes I guess? Probably.

And now I finally got to Thirteenth's regeneration story - Power of the Doctor. I finally gained courage today to watch it (because I love Thirteen, I don't want to see her go, right?) and I'm really, really glad that I watched it after all the specials, because this - to me - felt much more like an anniversary special than all the Tenant specials together. I didn't like to see Thirteen go but otherwise, I LOVED it. Of course I knew there's gonna be Ace and Tegan but didn't know how much. And I didn't avoid spoilers so I caught there's gonna be more "old familiar faces" but didn't search for the details and also partly forgot about it. So seeing the previous old Doctors made me smile (and drop a tear), seeing Tegan and Ace in action was so brilliant, and that therapeutic session at the end? Top-notch. Can we have a spin-off out of this? However that anniversary feeling wasn't because of seeing all the old familiar faces, but how it was put in the story and how it all was done and just... it was great and wonderful and I really really loved it.

And that's probably all I wanted to say. If you read the whole thing, congratulations and you're welcome to leave a comment... no? OK, never mind. Good night! (it's 22.27 here)

#doctor who #doctor who specials #fourteenth doctor #fifteenth doctor #thirteenth doctor #power of the doctor #long post #doctor who christmas special #the star beast #church on ruby road #wild blue yonder #the giggle #text post

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galwithalibrarycard · 4 months

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My New Who watchthrough has now reached well into the second half of Series 7, and it’s time for some Opinions:

- I’m gay for Clara Oswald already. Also I crackship her with Amy Pond and I will be reading all the fanfic.

- I don’t care for River Song.

- Okay, no, hear me out, River’s an interesting character and I like Alex Kingston, but I can’t stand how her entire character bit is a constant smug-ass “I know something you don’t know”, and her whole arc felt kind of anticlimactic. Also, I don’t buy for a second that she and Eleven have an actual romantic relationship. I don’t see the spark. It’s all offscreen if it happens at all, so I don’t care. Bringing me to…

- Eleven/Amy/Rory OT3 is the superior ship of the Smith years. Platonic found family or romantic messy awkward polyamory, either way they’re very sweet together and I’d rather watch them than River any day. You can also have asexual Eleven in there, which I can really see why people headcanon. I want to call them “ot3: the power of three” but I feel like the threes sound redundant. Oh whatever, I’m calling it, that’s the ship tag I’m using.

- If it wasn’t for the weird Doctor/River romance, you could totally say that River’s Time Lord DNA makes Amy, Rory, and Eleven ALL her parents, and I’m annoyed that canon makes it more than a little weird to consider that headcanon concept, because it could be cute in another world.

- I like the Ponds a lot, but I have to say: Amy and Rory’s ending felt like such an arbitrary “we’re obligated to make the separation from the Doctor permanent, what monster can we use to do that?” ass-pull of a writing choice. In my head, Amy and Rory’s arc ends with them staying on Earth in 2012 at the end of The Power of Three and enjoying the mundane life they built together. Just say the Doctor sends them postcards and visits offscreen once in a while. The characters don’t have to be walled off from the Doctor forever just because the actors never want to come back to the show. I really like the idea of them choosing their own life outside the TARDIS, almost Martha-style. (Gotta love Martha!)

- It feels cheap to take Amy’s kid away and then not bother to give her an emotional arc dealing with that trauma. Same for Rory, for that matter. I bet someone could write or has written some extremely deep fanfic about that. I don’t know that I want to read it but I want it to exist, if that makes sense. And I would’ve liked to see more of it onscreen.

- The episode with the Gunslinger is OOC garbage, the Doctor would never use a gun, learn the show’s lore, Steve.

- So many little “what straight white man did this???” moments in Moffat era. It’s like going on a nice walk and then every once in a while you find yourself walking through a surprise cloud of gnats. (Not that Davies era was completely blameless either but damn.)

- Eleven’s “retirement” and hopeless disillusionment in The Snowmen feels like a flat, rushed, emotionless retread of the far superior arc of Ten going dark and mad with grief and his god complex across his last four specials. Ten did it better.

- Speaking of which, godDAMN the Tenth Doctor’s send off was good. I miss him forever and I need all his audio dramas and tie-in novels yesterday.

- While we’re on that, I have FEELINGS about Tenrose and Tentoorose and how they’re the same exact ship but also two completely different ships, but I’m still tagging them both as “otp: I believe in her” and no one can stop me. (They could have had a house with a mortgage AND still traveled in the TARDIS on weekends, I’m just saying.) (They are PEAK ROMANCE and I’m never recovering.)

- Lotta concrit here but that being said, I really do love Eleven, he’s a sweet adorable lil bean. I’m gonna miss him so much too. Can’t believe I only have a handful of his episodes left! There’s so much good stuff in here, truly. Vincent and the Doctor! The Power of Three! 🥹 I also really liked Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, even though the longer you look at it, the more Problems you see. Those are my standouts off the top of my head.

- We are now well into the era of New Who I’ve never seen any of and know basically nothing about, so no spoilers please!

- I’ve also never seen any of Classic Who, so be aware of that. There’s a lot I don’t know.

- (I already do kind of pre-ship Twelve and River in a totally superficial way, just because, to quote Bones, “they are the exact same level of hotness.” I just think they’d look good together, and sometimes I’m basic like that. I know she has an episode with him, that’s the only thing I know about that era, so we’ll see.)

I’m all-in on this fandom now, for real. And I still have so much to catch up on! So, is it too much of a line to say Allons-y? (I still like it a little better than Geronimo!) 🤗🪐👽

#my post #gal’s dw opinions #DW opinions tag #so I don’t have to put this in the real tags bc big new-to-me fandom is scary #i love this show ok #please no one get mad at me I’m literally just chilling and having thoughts #also I don’t looooove how much more of a kids show the Eleven era is trying to be #there’s a difference between a family show and a kids show and sometimes they lean too far to the kid show direction for my taste #and on that note it’s late and I’m going to bed goodnight!#i feel like this comes off as a really negative post but it is not meant that way #i still finish most episodes feeling overall happy

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variousqueerthings · 3 months

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Hi!

I’m currently watching Doctor Who (2005) for the first time. Just finished season 4.

And I just read your post from last October (?), where you state that you dislike the character River Song. And even though this might sound a bit mean, I was so happy to read that I’m not alone in my strange aversion against this character from the very moment she appeared in the Library episode. Similar to you I just don’t like the fact, that one of the companions is getting this kind of super special treatment, especially when it is interwoven with a romance and even marriage.

Now I’m a bit apprehensive to start with season 5, because I know River Song will be a huge part of the plot... Is it possible to skip her episodes or would I get problems to follow the overarching story line, when doing so?

Something else I noticed and wanted to ask about is the fact that River Song only appeared in the TV series up to and including season 9 (according to the tardis wiki). I know there are many other kinds of media she appears in after 2015. But I’m curious if they indeed dropped the character in the TV show in some way after a couple of seasons?

So far I enjoyed Doctor Who immensely. It is a fun watch, a great opportunity to get lost in strange worlds and, on a more personal level, a nice way to relax after a busy workday. So I just don’t want to ruin this experience for myself, because I have to follow a character/ or a character construct I really don’t like.

And please don’t worry about giving away future plot points. At this point it is better for my enjoyment of the story to know what will happen, at least in regards to River Song.

SoooOOOoooooeeew hello first of all hello hi! welcome to Doctor Who! (I say, if you've seen s1-4/specials you're firmly In It!)

I want to disclaim to begin with, I know a lot of people do like River Song, and would rec seeing her narrative to understand her whole... Deal. I'm personally not a fan of that narrative, but I'll give you a rundown of it below and if you decide you wanna give it a looksee, or a partial watch, there are suggestions for some episodes including her below as well

to allay your fears that she's overpowering/unavoidable, she's kind of shockingly not, considering what M*ffat seemed to want from her. you can pretty much excise her episodes from the plot and miss almost nothing (and I let you know what you do miss below)

the seasons she's in the most are s5+6. she's only in two episodes in s7 and one more in s9 (with none in s8), which ironically does make it feel even odder to me that she's presented the way she is in s4. I know in the audio dramas she does meet other Doctors but in main canon on the show she meets 10 once, 11 a few times, and 12 once. compared to characters like the Master, Jack, even Rose and Clara according to M*ffat's own canon (these are episodes you will see, so you'll know what I mean at that point) she just doesn't compute for me as this "Most Important" thing that M*ffat tries to pull, in which her "specialness" feels incredibly linked to amatornormative monogamy (and generally M*ffat's penchant for introducing women as mysteries first, and characters second). Also in s5+6 especially she's presented as this uncomfortably "femme fatale" type character with dialogue that makes me want to claw my face off

I do have a watchlist that's for when I next go into this era that does skip the River Song episodes (that being said, I actually quite like her last episode. I have a theory that Peter Capaldi is such a grounding presence that over-the-top narrative and terrible dialogue is made emotionally resonant to me)

SO, first things first, I'll give you a rundown of her arc, and then a watchlist of how I intend to enjoy s5-7 moving forwards that you can totally follow

River Song canon (in brief): River Song is the child of Amy Pond (fifth/sixth season companion) and her husband Rory (also companion in those two seasons). Because she is conceived in the Tardis, she has some regeneration energy innate to her (I wasn't a fan of that personally). Before she is born a space cult that's obsessed with the Doctor for truly overblown reasons that are never fully delved into, but can be summed up as "Gallifrey is un-destroyed and the Doctor has the ability to bring it back into the Universe by using a passcode that's his name, and so this cult has formed in order to stop the Doctor discovering this fact and uttering his name," kidnaps Amy, replaces her with a flesh double who has Amy's memories, erases her knowing she's pregnant and then have her wake up in her real body at the moment of giving birth (if this all feels violating af, yes it is and it's never addressed)

then the Doctor and Rory go to rescue her, but in the moment they succeed, they discover that the baby Amy is holding is also a flesh double and the evil cult took her daughter/River from her and... *sigh please know I am only saying this because it's how they describe it on the show* "raise her to be the perfect psychopath" whose only wish is to kill the Doctor (all this training or whatever happens offscreen), but then the Doctor almost dies while saving her life and she gives up her regenerations to save him and the obsession turns into love, and so in summary her following the Doctor around is still centred around being groomed to be obsessed with the ground the Doctor walks on (okay can you tell I really really don't like this)

there is no examination of River's trauma in all of this, and only one moment related to Amy being angry she couldn't raise her child. There's also this creepy overtone of "The Doctor can't see you ageing because then he'll get bored of you" considering she was raised to have her whole selfhood revolve around him throughout her entire childhood

the final thing about River Song is that she was held in a top-security prison for awhile because she did end up killing the Doctor due to being "programmed" to, but the Doctor knows ahead of time that this will happen and so manages to change things so he doesn't die

SO that is River Song's arc in s5+6. now let's completely avoid it -- it's surprisingly easy:

ep 1. The Eleventh Hour (introduction episode)

ep 2. The Beast Below

[then come episodes Time Of Angels + Flesh & Stone. a double episode in which Amy meets the Angels and also River Song. the important thing here is that the main "mystery" are cracks in space and time that erase you from having ever existed. the other important thing here is that at the end of the episode Amy is about to get married and kisses the Doctor/tries to sleep with him the night before her wedding, and the Doctor Very Much Does Not Want This, which leads into the next story-]

ep 5. The Vampires Of Venice

ep 6. Amy's Choice

[NOW WE ARRIVE AT THE FIRST SNAG -- if you want the rest of this season's mystery, you should simply watch the rest of the season. This will include River Song in the final two episodes being involved in that mystery, but if you'd rather jump to where I personally think things get interesting again, or gauge if you're up for it, here's the short rundown of salient points:

Rory is swallowed by the cracks in time and Amy forgets his existence (but the Doctor doesn't)

Rory is brought back as an auton/living plastic out of Amy's subconscious memory of him and accidentally shoots Amy due to programming while they're in Roman-era Britain

Amy is then put into a stasis chamber for 2000 years until she can be brought back out and revived using modern technology, and auton-Rory guards that stasis chamber for 2000 years

the cracks in time came from the Tardis exploding, which is making the universe implode, but they fix that

the Doctor closes the cracks in space/time and everything is reset, including Amy's parents returning from non-existence, and Amy and Rory get married -- to be clear, we never see Amy's parents again, nor are they mentioned in the future, so this catharsis is kind of irrelevant

There is a very famous episode in this called "Vincent and the Doctor." it's about Vincent van Gogh. the only thing you need to know going in is that during this point in the timeline Amy doesn't know that Rory used to exist, otherwise it's a solid standalone episode]

ep 3. The Curse Of The Black Spot (to note, I always think this episode makes more sense directly after Amy's Choice as a "they're not married yet, but they're solving their relationship issues now," because s5 never has them adequately deal with their relationship issues, but s6 is solid on that front, but that's just me)

ep 4. The Doctor's Wife

ep 9. Night Terrors (to note, this episode takes place right after they discover that River is their daughter who was stolen from them. notice how this just... never comes up)

ep 10. The Girl Who Waited

ep 11. The God Complex (to note, this is the perfect final episode for the Ponds, but I will rec two more that come next season)

Season six can genuinely just be watched as these five episodes and it's quite an enjoyable season. The only thing that hints properly at a connective tissue related to River Song is that Amy in the first two both is-and-isn't-pregnant (because Amy is a flesh-double in the first two episodes) according to the Tardis scanner, and she sometimes sees a mysterious woman with an eye-patch. this is her briefly slightly waking up while captured

neither of these are relevant to the episodes they appear in

QUICK NOTE: in the first episode of this season the Doctor discovers a strange woman who has been turned into a Dalek, called Oswin. He never sees the face of this woman, but we do, and it's someone who returns again in another lifetime, under the name of "Clara Oswald" -- I do not recommend this first episode, it is Very Very bad)

4. The Power Of Three (to note, this could form a good coda for the Pond narrative and it's a fun episode, but it's not necessary to end their story if you're happy with The God Complex finishing things)

[you can watch episode 5 "The Angels Take Manhatten" if you want (I mean, you can watch anything you want). it's the official canon departure of the Ponds. it's not great, but it's not the worst episode. River Song is there, but it's not so egregious in terms of writing. if you don't want to watch it: they go back in time, there are angels, they send Rory and Amy back in time and the Doctor can't follow them there because of squiggly wuiggly logic, and so they are left to "live to death" -- Amy writes the Doctor a goodbye note in which she says she and Rory have had a very happy life together]

we have now gone past the River Song narrative for the most part, although she turns up in a genuinely not bad cameo in the s7 finale that interacts a little bit with the library episode -- do note that at this point she and the Doctor are *sigh* married I guess. I have mixed feelings about the s7 finale episodes, but it's not because of her character, and I think the latter half of s7 is worth watching for you to form your own opinion of all of it

She appears again in the Christmas special of s9, which I quite enjoyed. I think also Alex Kingston has way better chemistry with Capaldi, and I sometimes think the show knew this too, because they literally at one point had her describing Eleven/Matt Smith as looking like a 14 yr old, which is... such an odd way to describe the seeming "love of your life" or whatever

so that's it for River Song. Hope this all made sense, let me know if you have any other questions

I have a separate list I'm developing like this for Clara's era, but she might be more your cup of tea, so I'll let you engage with her for yourself to gauge. Can always reach out if you're not quite vibing with her, or if you really really are, I'd love to know your thoughts!

#doctor who #dw #im watching nu!who #im watching eleven who #anon ❤

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sarah-dipitous · 10 months

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Hellsite Nostalgia Tour 2023 Day 190(?)

Slumber Party/The Snowmen

“Slumber Party”

Plot Description: The brothers call in IT expert Charlie to help them track fallen angels, and they all join forces with Dorothy to stop the Wicked Witch’s evil plans

Would I Survive the First Five Minutes??: No one died, and it was a flashback to like…the 40s maybe?

I have to ask, is this basically gonna be a bottle episode at the bunker??? I’m kinda hoping so

Crowley, babes, you have basically no leverage

I LOVE when Dean just decides he’s going to get into the nitty gritty of a machine

What is THAT?!?!

He’s so done with being around nerds (despite being one himself)

Charliiiiie “they’re in a top secret place I call Amazon” re: the spn books

Charlie, baby…you are so much better off if you don’t have a destiny or quest. In THIS show???

Gross. Did the witch from the 50s reincarnate or something??

Uh…what now?? Why’d they have to make the woman hunting the “wicked” witch named Dorothy?? And she bound her soul to the witch?

Wait. No. It’s THE Dorothy?? From THE OZ BOOKS?!?!

I cannot take this episode seriously…it’s THE Dorothy and THE Wicked Witch and a game of keep away from the witch so she can’t get back to Oz… come on

COME ON!!! She got the key??? And Charlie may have sacrificed herself for Dean? She Last-Agni-Kai-Zuko-ed for him.

They’re trying to girlbossify Dorothy and…..no……no I can’t do this

There a subplot about Sam not making this place his home and I swear to Chuck if either he or Dean say “there’s no place like home” at the end, I’m not watching any more (me when I lie, but I will be annoyed)

Scrubs did the Wizard of Oz homage episode so much better

Keep the shoes, Charlie

After everything, I can’t believe I’m still feeling bad about Crowley’s situation

Omg, Charlie gets to go to Oz. THAT is not a disappointment

Of course they said it…it wasn’t in the context I THOUGHT it would be, but they still said it…and since it wasn’t in the context I thought it would be, I GUESS I’ll continue watching

“The Snowmen”

Plot Description: Christmas Eve 1892, and the fall of snow is the stuff of fairy tales. When the fairy tale becomes a nightmare and a chilling menace threatens earth, an unorthodox young governess, Clara, calls on the Doctor for help

Oh! And I know we get Definitely-Not-Named-Vriska and Jenny back this episode!!(I think)

Child, why are you actually talking to that not yet fully made snowman??

Rude. Why does snow need to feed on people??

Doctor. What on earth are you wearing?? You have…atrocious taste in headwear

Ugh, stop doing this. Stop traveling alone. Everyone tells you not to, you’ve SEEN what it does to you but you NEVER LISTEN

VASTRA! (One of these days I’ll remember her name on my own)

“Winter is coming” shouldn’t produce such a “ah ha! I see what you did there” response in me anymore…it’s a basic phrase especially in a Christmas special

I really hope Clara grows on me this time. She’s around for a while, but she’s…a little too manic pixie dream girl and everything’s a little TOO mystical around her.

I knew I recognized the voice behind the Snowmen. I knew it was a famous old wizard. But I think Moffat missed the opportunity to give the snowmen big naturals

Why is Clara only allowed to speak in one word answers?? That is……..quite the odd requirement

Omg he’s wearing Amy’s glasses still 😭

I’m thankful they didn’t make Sherlock Holmes a real person in this. Though given this was 2012, this is just cruel…putting the Doctor in the getup (this was just 7 months after Reichenbach)

Omg. There’s too much cheesiness in these episodes today. I can abide by the Doctor not realizing he put on his bow tie but I can’t take Clara saying “it’s cooler” after, even if she’s literally talking about the temperature

They’re just too alike. They’re too….I really can’t explain it. No. It’s that they’re both so clever in the exact same way. There is no “I got the bronze in gymnastics” there’s no actively studying medicine, no deep knowledge of how office life works. All of which covers the Doctor’s blindspots

I don’t like the TARDIS’s interior renovation. The lighting is too cool. I liked the warm lighting it used to have. But a 1200 year old alien didn’t consult ME

Girl, that is the quickest you’ve ever given someone a TARDIS key wtf

It’s gotta be weirdly traumatic to watch your NEW companion be dragged off by a grayish humanoid creature in a dress when we just watched Amy get zapped by the Weeping Angels last time

It’s 2012, you can’t just have your villain yell “winter is coming” over and over

Clara repeatedly dying just doesn’t pack the same punch as when it was Rory

STOP BREAKING THE FOURTH WALL. THE INSURANCE WONT PAY NEXT TIME

#hellsite nostalgia tour 2023

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stelliyue-cafe · 2 years

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╰┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄╮

꒰🕰꒱ [ 𝐓𝐢𝐭𝐥𝐞 ] Until I Met You

꒰📦꒱ [ 𝐒𝐲𝐧𝐨𝐩𝐬𝐢𝐬 ] There’s a story behind every poem. It’s only when The Doctor shows you a star cluster, you finally find the right words to end yours. (That’s a shitty way of putting it ngl XD)

꒰☕️꒱ [ 𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐞𝐫/𝐏𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 ] 10th Doctor x Fem! Reader

꒰📔꒱ [ 𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐬 ] A little angst *shrug* // This hasn't been edited since I last posted it in 2020.

꒰🌟꒱ [ 𝐌𝐞𝐢’𝐬 𝐍𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐬 ] A repost from an olddd blog. Plus, I've been reminded that I love 10.

She’d been travelling with the Doctor since his ninth regeneration. Back then, he had big ears, blue eyes and always wore a leather jacket. Now, he wore a pinstripe suit and a long trench coat. Eyes that once resembled the ocean now give off a dark chocolate hue. Don’t be fooled- when the sun shone on it from a certain angle, they would reveal their hidden beauty.

(Y/N) sat on a chair in the TARDIS library, writing in her journal. She knew that travelling with the Doctor wasn’t a lifetime thing, despite the fact that she wanted it to be. So between adventures, she’d write down her experiences and how she felt.

Groaning in frustration, she looked over the poem she was writing. The words she needed to end said poem were just not coming to her thoughts. Reading it from the top, she began to reminisce about the moments that were tied to each stanza.

━━━━━━•✦.✧.☾.✧.✦•━━━━━

Love; I always thought of it like a fairytale I could never reach- Until I met you.

━━━━━━•✦.✧.☾.✧.✦•━━━━━

An ensemble of screams and moans of injured people echoed throughout the streets. Figures of metal were shooting lasers at those who wouldn’t comply with their demands of “being upgraded”.

(Y/N) had gotten herself caught in the middle of this invasion as she was walking home from work. “On Christmas Eve?! Where’s your holiday spirit?” She muttered as she ran away from the chaos.

“You will be upgraded.” The figures repeated.

As she ran, she witnessed a woman, ahead of her in the distance, get shot down by one of the laser beams. (Y/N) let out a gasp as she felt herself running faster. Her mind was also in deep thought, trying to figure out the logic of the invasion.

“Ouch…” She muttered as she rubbed her shoulder, “Sorry about that!” (Y/N) said, now looking at the person she bumped into. He was an old man wearing a black suit and had grey hair that curled and stuck out in random places. The man had a companion, ‘Probably his granddaughter…’ She thought.

The old man looked at her in shock, as if he knew her. (Y/N) met his gaze, now seeing that his eyes were a blueish-green, having that same feeling. It was as if she knew him at some point in her life. His companion gave a soft nudge to wake him from his trance. “No, it’s quite… alright.”

(Y/N) nodded before she turned around to see if she could make sense of the situation. “What did they mean by upgraded…?” She muttered.

“Clara… this is…” She heard the only man start.

“Doctor, those are Cybermen… right?” His companion whispered.

(Y/N) tried to hear what the girl said, but her voice was too soft for her to catch anything. Suddenly, another man bumped into her.

“Blimey, I’m just a magnet for collisions today…” She said, rubbing her other arm. The new stranger grabbed (Y/N)’s hand and started to run away from the old man and his companion.

They managed about five steps before (Y/N) quickly tugged on the stranger’s hand and looked at him confused, “Who are you?” It was at that moment she could get a look at him. This man had nice blue eyes and big ears- how charming.

The stranger looked at her, “I’m The Doctor.”

Instead of understanding, she looked even more confused, “I’m sorry, Doctor who…?”

“Doctor!” The old man called out. The “Doctor” looked at the old man and his companion.

“Doctor, this one is special. Don’t let this one go.” The Doctor gave a small nod, acknowledging the old man’s advice. The look on his face looked like he didn’t know why he trusted the old man, but he just knew he could.

(Y/N) waved her free hand in front of the stranger’s face, “Hello? Doctor?”

“Yes?” The stranger and the old man answered at the same time.

Before she could continue, a laser beam had missed them and ended up hitting a car.

“Ah, right.”

“You still never answered my question! Doctor who?”

The stranger chuckled, “Exactly. Now run!” He said before taking (Y/N)’s hand in his and running away from the scene.

━━━━━━•✦.✧.☾.✧.✦•━━━━━

Love; I didn’t know it could make someone so happy- Until I met you.

━━━━━━•✦.✧.☾.✧.✦•━━━━━

“What happened?” Rose asked, rubbing her head.

“Don’t you remember?” (Y/N) asked, instead of answering her question.

“It’s like there was this singing…”

“That’s right. I sang a song and the Daleks ran away,” The Doctor said, leaning against the console for support.

“I was at home. No, I wasn’t. I was in the TARDIS with (Y/N) and there was this light. I can’t remember anything else.” Rose said, still trying to remember what happened.

“Rose Tyler, (Y/N) (L/N), I was going to take you to so many places. Barcelona. Not the city Barcelona, the planet Barcelona. You’d love it. Fantastic place. They’ve got dogs with no noses. Imagine how many times a day you end up telling that joke, and it’s still funny.”

“Then, why can’t we go?” Rose asked.

“Maybe you will, maybe I will, but not like this,” The Doctor said, gesturing to himself.

“You’re not making sense,” Rose said as she stood up.

The Doctor looked at (Y/N) and nodded his head at Rose. (Y/N), although confused, walked over to Rose and held her arm. “I might never make sense again. Imagine me with no head. And don’t say that’s an improvement, but it’s a bit of a dodgy- this process. You never know what you’re going to end up with.” He doubled over in pain.

“Doctor!” Rose yelled, taking a step toward the Doctor.

“Rose, we can’t!” (Y/N) said, pulling Rose back.

“Stay away! Stay with each other!” The Doctor commanded.

“Doctor, tell us what’s going on!” (Y/N) pleaded.

“I absorbed all the energy of the Time Vortex and no one’s meant to do that. Every cell in my body is dying,” He explained.

“Can you do something about it?” Rose asked.

“Yeah, I’m doing it now. Time Lords have this little trick, it’s sort of a way of cheating death. Except it means I’m going to change, and I’m not going to see you or (Y/N) again. Well, not like this. Not with this daft old face.” The Doctor said, trying to lighten up the moment.

“And before I go...” He groaned.

“Don’t say that-“ (Y/N) said softly.

“Rose, (Y/N), before I go, I just want to tell you, you both were fantastic. Absolutely fantastic. And do you know what? So was I,” He smiled before a golden light burst out of his body.

Rose covered her eyes and (Y/N) squinted. A new Doctor stood in front of them, “Hello. Okay. Ooh, new teeth. That’s weird. So where was I? Oh, that’s right. Barcelona!” The Doctor smiled and ran over to (Y/N) and Rose, pulling them to the console. He suddenly grabbed (Y/N)’s face by the cheeks and kissed her.

(Y/N)’s eyes widened and the Doctor pulled away, “Right, still got it.” He turned to face the console and started to press buttons and pull levers. (Y/N) placed her fingers on her lips. Rose smiled and playfully nudged (Y/N).

━━━━━━•✦.✧.☾.✧.✦•━━━━━

Love; I didn’t know it could make one deeply care about someone- Until I met you

━━━━━━•✦.✧.☾.✧.✦•━━━━━

(Y/N) sat next to The Doctor, who had been changed into pajamas and put into bed.

Jackie walked in the room with a stethoscope in hand, “Here we go. Tina the cleaner’s got this lodger, a medical student, and she was fast asleep. So I just took it. Though I still say we should take him to the hospital.”

(Y/N) took it, “We can’t. They’d lock him up. They’d dissect him. One bottle of his blood could change the future of the human race. Now shush!” (Y/N) placed the ear tips in her ears and set the stethoscope’s diaphragm on The Doctor’s chest. She listened attentively, making sure she could hear his heartbeats. “Both working,” (Y/N) said as she leaned back in the chair.

“What do you mean, both?” Jackie asked.

“Well, he’s got two hearts.”

“Oh don’t be stupid.”

“He does!” (Y/N) retorted.

“Anything else he’s got two of?” Jackie asked.

Rose entered the room and put her hand on her mom’s shoulder, “Leave them alone, mum.” Jackie took a last look at The Doctor and (Y/N) before leaving the three of them alone.

(Y/N) watched as The Doctor exhaled some of the TARDIS’ golden energy. She smiled softly and pushed some of his hair from his eyes.

“Sorry to ask this so late in our travels. Every time I plan on asking, it slips my mind. So what is your relationship with The Doctor…? Are you his girlfriend?” Rose asked, walking over to (Y/N).

(Y/N) blushed, “G-Girlfriend? I’m flattered you think so, but it’d be nice…” She muttered the last part. “I’m actually like you- his companion. Someone he saved when there was funny alien business…” (Y/N) took The Doctor’s hand in hers, “He’s my best friend.”

“Rose!”

“I’ll be back,” Rose said, patting (Y/N)’s shoulder before leaving the room.

“Come on, Doctor… I’m your companion, but I can only do so much…” (Y/N) whispered.

━━━━━━•✦.✧.☾.✧.✦•━━━━━

Love; I didn’t know it could be unrequited- Until I met you

━━━━━━•✦.✧.☾.✧.✦•━━━━━

“Where are you two?” Rose asked.

“Inside the TARDIS,” (Y/N) said sadly.

“There’s one tiny gap in the universe left, just about to close, and it takes a lot of power to send this projection. We’re in orbit around a supernova. I’m burning up a sun just to say goodbye,” The Doctor said, his hearts aching.

“You look like ghosts,” Rose laughed softly.

“Hold on,” The Doctor pointed his sonic screwdriver at the console to solidify their image.

“Can I..?” Rose trailed off, taking a step towards them.

“We’re still just an image. You can’t touch us and vice versa.” (Y/N) informed.

“Can’t you come through properly?”

“The whole thing would fracture. The two universes would collapse,” The Doctor said, pain in his voice.

“Where are we? Where did the gap come out?” (Y/N) asked, trying to change the subject.

“We’re in Norway,” Rose said.

“Norway. Right.” The Doctor said, shoving his hands in his pockets.

“About fifty miles from Bergen. It’s called Dårlig Ulv Stranden.”

“Dalek?” The Doctor asked quickly.

“Dårlig. It’s Norwegian for bad. This translates to Bad Wolf Bay…” She paused. “How long have we got?”

(Y/N) looked at her wristwatch, “About two minutes.”

“I can’t think of what to say,” Rose cried.

“You've still got Mickey, then?” (Y/N) asked.

“There's five of us now. Mum, Dad, Mickey, and the baby.”

“You're not?” The Doctor asked, quickly glancing at her stomach.

“No. It's mum. She's three months gone. More Tylers on the way.”

“And what about you? Are you…?” He trailed off.

(Y/N)’s eyes shift between the two as if she were watching a tennis match. She was happy that The Doctor was able to see Rose, but it hurt her heart to know that his affections were never hers to cherish in the first place.

“Yeah, I'm back working in the shop.”

“Oh, good for you.” He smiled.

“Shut up. No, I'm not. There's still a Torchwood on this planet. It's open for business. I think I know a thing or two about aliens.”

“Rose Tyler, Defender of the Earth. You're dead, officially, back home. So many people died that day and you've gone missing. You're on a list of the dead. Here you are, living a life day after day. The one adventure I can never have.” The Doctor said.

“Am I ever going to see you again?”

“You can't.”

“What're you going to do?”

“Oh, I've got the TARDIS. Same old life, last of the Time Lords.”

“On your own. I, I love you.”

(Y/N) had tuned out their conversation, but gasped The Doctor wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer to him, “Not always alone, I’ve got (Y/N). And I suppose, if it's one last chance to say it, Rose Tyler-” The Doctor got cut off as the hologram vanished- time had run out. He pulled (Y/N) in a tight embrace. (Y/N) stood shocked for a moment before wrapping her arms around her lonely angel.

“Doctor, I-” She started. (Y/N) wanted to confess but decided against it. She loved the Doctor ever since he saved her that Christmas Eve. “Doctor, I’ll miss her too… Time will heal us all eventually.” She whispered as she felt his embrace tighten. ‘I’ll tell him another day…’

━━━━━━•✦.✧.☾.✧.✦•━━━━━

Love; Oh, how you loved her...

━━━━━━•✦.✧.☾.✧.✦•━━━━━

The Doctor and (Y/N) had run into the TARDIS, their backs pressed against the closed doors. They managed to escape another Dalek attack. Any sane person would leave with all these instances of almost dying, but it was the rush of adrenaline that made her stay. Even though saving the universe and those who inhabited it was stressful enough, it would be those moments before they ran away that made her continue to travel with the Doctor.

They were still holding each other’s hands, fingers intertwined. That became the norm between the two. When asked about the sudden change, the Doctor simply stated that intertwining their fingers would make it harder for him to let go and easier to keep her close. Though (Y/N) was slightly disappointed in his answer, she was just happy that the Doctor could move on and continue saving the universe.

After they calmed down they looked at each other and laughed. The Doctor had finally let go of (Y/N)’s hand and started walking toward the console. (Y/N) followed behind him, ready to start pushing buttons or pulling levers until-

“You were absolutely brilliant, Rose!” He said as he picked her up and spun her around.

She grinned before realising what he said, “Rose… You called me Rose.”

The Doctor set her down slowly, “No... No, no, no, no- (Y/N) I didn’t mean to-“ He said, running a hand through his hair.

“It’s okay Doctor... I miss her too.” Little did the Doctor know, (Y/N)’s heart was aching too. Not just because of the loss of her friend, but the feeling of unrequited love. (Y/N) and the Doctor had their moments, but she knew she could never fill the hole Rose left in his heart.

━━━━━━•✦.✧.☾.✧.✦•━━━━━

Love; I didn’t know it could make you feel… conflicted- Until I met you

━━━━━━•✦.✧.☾.✧.✦•━━━━━

“Not the whole town. Just save someone.” Donna pleaded.

The Doctor flipped a few switches and the TARDIS rematerialises. He walked over to the door and pulled it open. “Come with me,” He said, a hand stretched out to Caecilius and his family.

~*~*~

The Doctor, (Y/N), Donna, Caecilius, and his family exited the TARDIS watched as Pompeii was filled with volcanic ash. “It's never forgotten, Caecilius. Oh, time will pass, men'll move on, and stories will fade. But one day, Pompeii will be found again. In thousands of years. And everyone will remember you,” (Y/N) said, trying to give hope to Caecilius.

“What about you, Evelina? Can you see anything?” Donna asked.

“The visions have gone.”

“The explosion was so powerful it cracked open a rift in time, just for a second. That's what gave you the gift of prophecy. It echoed back into the Pyrovillian alternative. But not anymore. You're free.” said The Doctor.

“But tell me. Who are you, Doctor? With your words, and your temple containing such size within?” Metella asked.

“Oh, I was never here. Don't tell anyone.”

“The great god Vulcan must be enraged. It's so volcanic. It's like some sort of volcano. All those people.” Caecilius said, trying to cope with the loss of his home.

The Doctor, (Y/N), and Donna slipped back into the TARDIS. “Thank you,” Donna said.

“Yeah. You were right. Sometimes I need someone. Welcome aboard.” The Doctor replied, walking back to the console.

“Yeah.” Donna sighed in relief.

(Y/N) sat on the chair near the console, thinking about the events that happened. He was going to abandon Caecilius and his family. What would happen if Donna wasn’t there to stop him from leaving? ‘If worse comes to worst… would he abandon me too…? How can I love someone that could just leave without another thought?’

━━━━━━•✦.✧.☾.✧.✦•━━━━━

Love; I didn’t think that you’d have to see the one you love in pain- Until I met you.

━━━━━━•✦.✧.☾.✧.✦•━━━━━

“I'm the Doctor, and I declare this war is over.” He threw the globe onto the floor. It smashed into pieces, releasing gas and energy. Everyone watched it slowly rise and one by one they started to put down their weapons. Everyone except for Cobb.

“What's happening?” Jenny asked, walking up to (Y/N).

“The gases will escape and trigger the terraforming process,” (Y/N) said.

“What does that mean?”

“It means a new world.” The Doctor said, walking up behind them and setting his hands on their shoulders. (Y/N) glanced up at the Doctor, her heart swelling up with love and adoration once more. He looked at Jenny then at (Y/N), giving her a small smile.

As the two had their moment, Jenny’s gaze moved to Cobb, who had his gun pointed at (Y/N) or The Doctor- she couldn’t tell.

“No!” Jenny took the bullet Cobb intended for either of them and fell backward into (Y/N)’s arms. She lays her on the ground, Jenny still in her arms.

“Jenny? Jenny. Talk to me, Jenny.” (Y/N) cooed softly. The Doctor knelt next to them.

“Is she going to be alright?” Donna asked, looking at Martha. Martha shook her head.

“A new world. It's beautiful.” Jenny said.

“Jenny, be strong now. You need to hold on, do you hear me? We've got things to do, you, The Doctor, and me, hey? Hey? And Donna too. We can go anywhere. Everywhere. You choose.” said (Y/N).

“That sounds good…” Jenny smiled weakly.

“You're my daughter, and we've only just got started. You're going to be great. You're going to be more than great. You're going to be amazing. You hear me? Jenny?” The Doctor asked. (Y/N)’s body shook as Jenny died in her arms. She felt so guilty. The Doctor’s daughter died for her sake.

(Y/N) looked up at The Doctor, Donna, and Martha. A sudden realisation came to mind, “Two hearts. Two hearts. Doctor, she’s like you! If we wait. If we just wait-” She rambled. This possibility also gave The Doctor hope.

“There's no sign, (Y/N). There is no regeneration. She's like the Doctor, but maybe not enough.” Martha said, debunking (Y/N)’s theory.

“No. Too much. That's the truth of it. She was too much like me." The Doctor said, kissing Jenny's forehead. (Y/N) laid her down and stood next to Donna and Martha. The Doctor walked over to Cobb. Cline and another soldier held his arms and made him kneel.

The Doctor picked up the pistol and pointed it at Cobb's head for a long while. Silence and shock filled the Doctor's companions.

He put the safety back on the pistol, "I never would. Have you got that? I never would. When you start this new world, this world of Human and Hath, remember that. Make the foundation of this society a man who never would."

━━━━━━•✦.✧.☾.✧.✦•━━━━━

Love; ? ????'? ???? ?? ??? ????? ??? ????- ????? ? ??? ???.

━━━━━━•✦.✧.☾.✧.✦•━━━━━

The TARDIS came to a sudden stop, shaking the library. The pen slipped from her fingers, waking her from her daydream. "Damn it…" (Y/N) cursed under her breath, bending down to retrieve her pen from under the table.

"(Y/N)! Come here! I want to show you something!" The Doctor's voice echoed through the halls.

(Y/N) smiled, "Coming, Doctor!” Her head jerked up, hitting the table above her, “Ouch!” She rubbed her head whilst getting out from under the table. Before heading over to the control room, (Y/N) had closed her journal and set it back in its place on the bookshelf.

The Doctor looked over to (Y/N) as she came into view. “What’s up, Doc?” (Y/N) asked.

He made a face that caused (Y/N) to laugh, “I always wanted to say that.” She admitted. The Doctor rolled his eyes, “I have something to show you.” He said, gesturing to the door.

(Y/N) raised a brow, “Oh? And what in all of the universe do you have waiting for me outside those doors?” She asked, walking over to the doors.

He smiled and started to make his way over to her, “Well, open those doors and find out yourself.”

Her hand rested on the handle- hesitation. She remembered a quote from a book she read long ago, in her childhood days, “He who hesitates is lost.” So she didn’t wait any longer. She pulled open the TARDIS doors and gazed upon the star system in front of her. Beautiful shades of red, green, and yellow surrounded the system. (Y/N) sat on the edge as The Doctor crossed his arms and leaned against the door frame. “Alpha Centauri, I helped build that one- No wait… I read that from a book,”

Her eyes filled with wonder as her feet swung back and forth. The Doctor joined in, sitting next to her. His hand rested on hers, ever so gently. (Y/N)’s heart began to race. She looked down at her hand before looking up at The Doctor, her cheeks flushing slightly. “Alpha Centauri is a binary star system and a very special one at that.” The Doctor said, placing a small tap on her nose with his index finger.

She laughed softly, “And why is that, Doctor?” She said lightly nudging him.

“Well,” He started, whilst putting on his glasses. “The two stars in its orbit so closely together that, until your modern telescopes, humans thought they were one star. Two stars so close, orbiting each other, that their light appears as one from Earth.” He finished, looking at the star system. (Y/N) rested her head on his shoulder, “Now that’s amazing…”

The duo sat in silence, merely enjoying each other’s company even without holding a conversation. These were the moments that (Y/N) wished lasted forever. Unbeknownst to her, the Doctor felt the same way.

He cleared his throat, “Er- I read a book in the library, it was a strange book. It had stories of adventures, but also doodles and poetry.” (Y/N) woke from her dream-like state, “Uh… W-What kind of poetry?” She stuttered, lifting her head from his shoulder to look up at the Doctor.

"All types of poems. Ones focused on the author's anger, happiness, sorrow, and regret. Although, there was a poem I liked. It was about the author's love for someone. I liked it so much that I read it over and over until I had it memorized."

She gulped, "O-Oh really? What did it say?"

“Love; I chose to never make it something spending my life waiting for- Until I met you…"

'Oh gosh no… He found your journal, you complete idiot.' (Y/N) didn't need to hear him recite the rest. After all, she was the author.

"Love…" He trailed off, "And that's where the poem left off. It seemed unfinished and I'd really like to know how the poem ends." He said scratching the back of his head.

(Y/N) took a deep breath and exhaled, mentally preparing herself for what she was about to do. “I… know the rest of the poem…”

His eyes lit up with joy, “Really? Could you, perhaps, tell me?” A small moment of silence, “I mean, only if you want to! I don’t want to make you feel uncomfortable…”

(Y/N) cleared her throat, “Love… I didn’t know it was worth the wait- Until I met you.”

“That was a wonderful closing statement, but how did you know?” He asked as he took her hand in his, rubbing the back of her palm with his thumbs.

“I know because... I’m the author. I wrote all those poems…” She said, looking at the star system to avoid his gaze.

“Hey, wait...” He gently tilted her chin to make her face him, “That- That poem… It couldn’t possibly be me who makes you feel that way, right?”

(Y/N) nodded slowly. The Doctor grinned and placed a kiss on her forehead, “Thank goodness because what I’m about to do might kill that human heart of yours,” He teased.

She moved her head away, “Doctor, what are you-” The Doctor chuckled before taking her chin in between his index finger and thumb, “This.” He said before placing a kiss on her lips.

#cafe order #doctor who x reader #10th doctor x reader #🟦📦. doctor who #🟦📦. 10th doctor

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shkspr · 3 years

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hi. on your post where you may or may not have ended on 'moffat is either your angel or your devil' did you have maybe an elaboration on that somewhere that i could possibly hear about. i'm very much a capaldi era stan and i've never tried to defend the matt smith era even though it had delightful moments sometimes so i wonder where that puts me. i'd love to hear your perspective on moffat as a person with your political perspective. -nicole

hi ok sorry i took so long to respond to this but i dont think you know how LOADED this question is for me but i am so happy to elaborate on that for you. first a few grains of salt to flavor your understanding of the whole situation: a. im unfairly biased against moffat bc im a davies stan and a tennant stan; b. i still very much enjoy and appreciate moffat era who for many reasons; and c. i hate moffat on a personal level far more than i could ever hate his work.

the thing is that its all always gonna be a bit mixed up bc i have to say a bunch of seemingly contradictory things in a row. for instance, a few moffat episodes are some of my absolute favorites of the rtd era, AND the show went way downhill when moffat took over, AND the really good episodes he wrote during the rtd era contained the seeds of his destruction.

like i made that post about the empty child/the doctor dances and it holds true for blink and thats about it bc the girl in the fireplace and silence in the library/forest of the dead are good but not nearly on the same level, and despite the fact that i like them at least nominally, they are also great examples of everything i hate about moffat and how he approached dw as a whole.

basically. doctor who is about people. there are many things about moffats tenure as showrunner that i think are a step up from rtd era who! actual gay people, for one! but i think that can likely be attributed mostly to an evolving Society as opposed to something inherent to him and his work, seeing as rtd is literally gay, and the existence of queer characters in moffats work doesnt mean the existence of good queer characters (ill give him bill but thats it!)

i have a few Primary Grievances with moffat and how he ran dw. all of them are things that got better with capaldi, but didnt go away. they are as follows:

moffat projects his own god complex onto the doctor

rtd era who had a doctor with a god complex. you cant ever be the doctor and not have a god complex. the problem with moffats era specifically is that the god complex was constant and unrepentant and was seen as a fundamental personality trait of the doctor rather than a demon he has to fight. he has the Momence where you feel bad for him, the Momence where he shows his humility or whatever and youre reminded that he doesnt want to be the lonely god, but those are just. moments. in a story where the doctor thinks hes the main character. rtd era doctor was aware that he wasnt the main character. he had to be an authority sometimes and he had to be the loner and he had to be sad about it, but he ultimately understood that he was expendable in a narrative sense.

this is how you get lines like “were the thin fat gay married anglican marines, why would we need names as well?” from the same show that gave you the gut punch moment at the end of midnight when they realize that nobody asked the hostess for her name. and on the one hand, thats a small sticking point, but on the other hand, its just one small example of the simple disregard that moffat has for humanity.

incidentally, this is a huge part of why sherlock sucked so bad: moffats main characters are special bc theyre so much bigger and better than all the normal people, and thats his downfall as a showrunner. he thinks that his audience wants fucking sheldon cooper when what they want is people.

like, ok. think of how many fantastic rtd era eps are based in the scenario “what if the doctor wasnt there? what if he was just out of commission for a bit?” and how those eps are the heart of the show!! bc theyre about people being people!! the thing is that all of the rtd era companions would have died for the doctor but he understood and the story understood that it wasnt about him.

this is like. nine sending rose home to save her life and sacrifice his own vs clara literally metaphysically entwining her existence w the doctor. ten also sending rose with her family to save her life vs river being raised from infancy to be obsessed w the doctor and then falling in love w him. martha leaving bc she values herself enough to make that decision vs amy being treated like a piece of meat.

and this is simultaneously a great callback to when i said that moffats episodes during the rtd era sometimes had the same problems as his show running (bc girl in the fireplace reeks of this), and a great segue into the next grievance.

moffat hates women

he hates women so fucking much. g-d, does steven moffat ever hate women. holy shit, he hates women. especially normal human women who prioritize their normal human lives on an equal or higher level than the doctor. moffat hated rose bc she wasnt special by his standards. the empty child/the doctor dances is the nicest he ever treated her, and she really didnt do much in those eps beyond a fuck ton of flirting.

girl in the fireplace is another shining example of this. youve got rose (who once again has another man to keep her busy, bc moffat doesnt think shes good enough for the doctor) sidelined for no reason only to be saved by the doctor at the last second or whatever. and then youve got reinette, who is pretty and powerful and special!

its just. moffat thinks that the doctor is as shallow and selfish as he is. thats why he thinks the doctor would stay in one place with reinette and not with rose. bc moffat is shallow and sees himself in the doctor and doesnt think he should have to settle for someone boring and normal.

not to mention rose met the doctor as an adult and chose to stay with him whereas reinette is. hm. introduced to the doctor as a child and grows up obsessed with him.

does that sound familiar? it should! bc it is also true of amy and river. and all of them are treated as viable romantic pairings. bc the only women who deserve the doctor are the ones whose entire existence revolves around him. which includes clara as well.

genuinely i think that at least on some level, not even necessarily consciously, that bill was a lesbian in part bc capaldi was too old to appeal to mainstream shippers. like twelve/clara is still a thing but not as universally appealing as eleven/clara but i am just spitballing. but i think they weighed the pros and cons of appealing to the woke crowd over the het shippers and found that gay companion was more profitable. anyway the point is to segue into the next point, which is that moffat hates permanent consequences.

moffat hates permanent consequences

steven moffat does not know how to kill a character. honestly it feels like hes doing it on purpose after a certain point, like he knows he has this habit and hes trying to riff on it to meme his own shit, but it doesnt work. it isnt funny and it isnt harmless, its bad writing.

the end of the doctor dances is so poignant and so meaningful and so fucking good bc its just this once! everybody lives, just this once! and then he does p much the same thing in forest of the dead - this one i could forgive, bc i do think that preserving those peoples consciousnesses did something for the doctor as a character, it wasnt completely meaningless. but everything after that kinda was.

rory died so many times its like. get a hobby lol. amy died at least once iirc but it was all a dream or something. clara died and was erased from the doctors memory. river was in prison and also died. bill? died. all of them sugarcoated or undone or ignored by the narrative to the point of having effectively no impact on the story. the point of a major character death is that its supposed to have a point. and you could argue that a piece of art could be making a point with a pointless death, ie. to put perspective on it and remind you that bad shit just happens, but with moffat the underlying message is always “i can do whatever i want, nothing is permanent or has lasting impact ever.”

basically, with moffat, tragedy exists to be undone. and this was a really brilliant, really wonderful thing in the doctor dances specifically bc it was the doctor clearly having seen his fair share of tragedy that couldnt be helped, now looking on his One Win with pride and delight bc he doesnt get wins like this! and then moffat proceeded to give him the same win over and over and over and over. nobody is ever dead. nobody is ever unable to be saved. and if they are, really truly dead and/or gone, then thats okay bc moffat has decided that [insert mitigating factor here]*

*the mitigating factor is usually some sort of computerized database of souls.

i can hear the moffat stans falling over themselves to remind me that amy and rory definitely died, and they did - after a long and happy life together, they died of old age. i dont consider that a character death any more than any other character choosing to permanently leave the tardis.

and its not just character deaths either, its like, everything. the destruction of gallifrey? never mind lol! character development? scrapped! the same episode four times? lets give it a fifth try and hope nobody notices. bc he doesnt know how to not make the doctor either an omnipotent savior or a self-pitying failure.

it is in nature of doctor who, i believe, for the doctor to win most of the time. like, it wouldnt be a very good show if he didnt win most of the time. but it also wouldnt be a very good show if he won all of the time. my point is that moffats doctor wins too often, and when he doesnt win, it feels empty and hollow rather than genuinely humbling, and you know hes not gonna grow from it pretty much at all.

so like. again, i like all of doctor who i enjoy all of it very much. i just think that steven moffat is a bad show runner and a decent writer at times. and it is frustrating. and im not here to convince or convert anyone im just living my truth. thank you for listening.

#sorry if this is repetitive or makes no sense or if i got some details of the show wrong #i simply couldnt be bothered to put too much effort into this post #lest it become a research paper and take me several weeks to answer #anyway thats all my opinions #dw #ok to rb

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fratboykate · 2 years

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So I watched the latest Dr Who special and while I think it was a weak episode overall (monsters looked goofy, pacing was kind of uneven and resolution was weak) the one complaint I don't have is about the Thasmin content.

I'm not sure what some of the other viewers are smoking, but what we got with Thirteen and Yasmin was more explicit than 99% of any other Doctor/companion romance we've seen. Like???? Have these people seen any of the previous seasons of Dr Who before? Any time the doctor catches feelings for one of their companions or vice versa it's pretty much ENTIRELY subtext- some longing glances, a veiled conversation. Rose and 10 was probably the most explicit romance we've seen (River Song doesn't really count, she was only ever a quasi-companion) and even in that case, the love confession happened right at the end of Rose's run and 10 never technically said it back. And then when she returned she ended up shacking up with meta-crisis human 10, not the 'real' doctor.

So the fact that;

Thirteen and Yasmin actually sat down and had an honest to god conversation about their feelings.

Thirteen straight up admitted that she wants to date Yaz but can't because she knows it can't last.

Thirteen makes a wish on the stone she skips on the water that what she has with Yasmin could last forever. It's unheard of. The Doctor's whole thing is that they're basically immortal and no relationship or friendship can ever really last because all their friends and love interests will eventually die; either of old age or more likely because they end up getting killed on one of the Doctor's adventures. So I'm not really sure what these other viewers are expecting lmao.

Calling that queerbaiting is nothing short of lunacy. They went out of their way to make it EXPLICIT so that the critics and homophobes couldn't even doubt the queerness and it's the queer people themselves complaining. It's fucking wild to watch. I don't fucking understand what has happened to queer fandom in the last couple of years but it is unfathomable. Y'all will ride for fanon ships till the end of the world but here you have a now canon ship between a woman of color and The Doctor and are twisting yourselves into a knot to criticize it and dismiss it. For what? What is the reason???!!!

The best we got with Clara and Eleven was "I fancy him" and what was it that Twelve said? Some comment about how Eleven thought he was Clara's boyfriend?

We know Ten never really said "I love you" to Rose. They blue balled us with that one.

Like......Thasmin had an entire mature, in-depth conversation about their feelings. They admitted it. The Doctor not the companion - THE FUCKING DOCTOR - was the one who basically said "I want to be with you but you know we can't. This shit doesn't work." HOW ARE THEY FINDING A REASON TO COMPLAIN?! HOW IN THE FUCKING HEAVENS ARE THEY FINDING A REASON TO COMPLAIN?! Never in my life did I thought I would see a confession this explicit on DW. Much less A GAY CONFESSION. It's fucking absurd.

#thasmin #thirteen #yasmin #whouffle #whouffaldi #souffez #tenrose #ten #rose #dw meta #anonymous #answers

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shelobussy · 3 years

Note

I know you talk abou st*cky in the interracial ships stuff, but can we talk about st*ny? Iron husbands is literally right there, but I also always sees Rhodey as Tonys moral support only. And ik Tony is very shippable with most characters, but the fact his ship is Rhodey is one of the lowest ships in ao3 (ironstrange, winteriron and god forbid stark*r all had more fics in ao3).. It's pretty telling this side also has racism problems...

I'll go ahead and answer this here, but letting y'all know that I do have a marvel sideblog if you want to hit me up there (@themarvelarchives).

Hey, I'm going to ramble for a good minute.

So after I posted my very incoherent, controversial take on St*cky vs SamBucky, there were a ton of ppl who came onto anon saying that St*cky shippers were racist. I think I only answered a few, but y'all were pretty insistent on it. I personally have not observed that St*cky shippers are so I'm not calling anyone out on that side of the fandom for that.

I also did not call out anyone on this side of the fandom bc that's not what my meta was about. I think I mentioned maybe once or twice in the whole post that there was underlying racist in the fandom, but since you asked, we can talk about it here.

Covert Bigotry In Fandom Spaces.

To understand what's going on in the MCU, we have to first look at what I call "woke-queer" fandom.

So "Woke-Queer" Spaces is the phenomenon where certain fandom members like to call ppl out on their bigotry, while covertly harboring their own queerphobia/racism/etc. An example of this that we're all familiar with is TERFS and how they like to claim that they are progressive and woke, while also claiming that trans women are fake and trans men are sexist.

How this translates to fandom, however, is the hypocrisy that is cancellation and callout culture.

For example, Supernatural in particular is a fandom that likes to call out the writers on their homophobia and racism, and yet, somehow, the fandom is chalk full of homophobia and racism. If you want to read more about this, here is a truly excellent article from the perspective of a queer woman of color.

Moving on, I've also talked in a previous meta post, on the internalized acephobia that exploded in 2019 after Good Omens was released. Rather than reiterate everything I said in that post, I'll just leave it at this: the controversy in the Good Omens fandom can be summed up by the fact that queer audiences are claiming that Ineffable Husbands is the wrong kind of queer. The hypocrisy oozes off the screen, doesn't it?

A final way this viably translates to fandom, is in how the Doctor Who fandom evolved over time.

So Steven Moffat takes over as head writer and showrunner in 2010. It's a new series, a new Doctor, a new Tardis, and new branding. He steps up the action, changes the color grating, and raises the stakes. Women are sexier, the Doctor is smarter (and more of an asshole, but that's another meta post), and every companion comes with their own impossible mystery that makes them Special™.

Series 5-10 got tons of woke points for having lesbian characters, an episode where the Doctor is homoerotic with James Corden, and an underlying trans narrative with the Master's reincarnation. What a lot of people forget, however, is that his series was incredibly sexiest, incredibly lesbian/biphobic, and basically turned the Doctor into everyone's fantasy sex-object.

This, unfortunately, brought out the worst of the fandom. There was RTD Era vs Moffat Era wars exploding in certain corners, TenxRose shippers vs ElevenxRiver shippers.

What does this have to do with covert racism in fandom cultures though?

Hnnngng ok, so back in RTD era's we get Martha Jones, the Actual Best Companion On The Entire Show. Except for the fact, of course, that she is written to be in love with the doctor. She's a brilliant character--smart, sassy, flawed, funny, flirtatious--and her entire plotline is reduced down to a school-girl crush on a white man.

She doesn't do well with fans, they scrap her after one season.

We move on to Donna Noble (The Other Actual Best Companion On The Entire Show) and RTD's era ends with them scraping her too and regenerating David Tennant's Doctor.

It will be five more series (not seasons, SERIES) until Doctor Who will have another black companion--who gets extra points for being gay--only to fall victim to "bury your gays" at the end of the season (but not really bc no one stays dead on Doctor Who).

The fandom's reception of Martha Jones was historically bad. The comparisons to her predecessor, Rose Tyler, were rampant and everyone was finding a reason to hate her.

The fandom's reception to Bill Potts was also historically bad, as everyone was screaming that she was being written for more "woke points" and that they wanted Clara back.

Fandom has a historically bad reputation of being problematic and, I would argue, the majority of it has to do with these toxic undertones of bigotry that slip under the radar. "Woke-queer" spaces, as I call them, are these instances above where spaces that claim to be inclusive of gender/orientation/race are covertly bigoted.

Marvel and Cancelling

Now is an excellent time to talk about the MCU.

Anthony Mackie (Sam Wilson) has recently come under a lot of criticism from fandom members for shutting down shipper speculation.

"The idea of two guys being friends and loving each other in 2021 is a problem because of the exploitation of homosexuality. [...] something as pure and beautiful as homosexuality has been exploited by people who are trying to rationalize themselves."

I can't find the rest of the quote, but Mackie goes on further to say that it was important to him to portray "a sensitive, masculine figure" without insinuating that there was romance involved.

Woke culture lost it's shit. Everyone was suddenly claiming that Mackie was calling them exploitative for shipping a gay ship as a queer audience, which could not have been further from the case.

Mackie actually makes some very excellent points in that sensitivity is not gay/queer. Woke culture loves to rag on Toxic Masculinity, but the minute someone plays a character who is loving and sensitive with no queer narrative in mind, they are immediately canceled.

What Am I On About

Okay, let's actually address what your ask was about, Nonnie. You pointed out--rather truthfully--that it is unfair to call-out racism on one side of the fandom, while ignoring it on the other side.

Well, I've gone back through my St*cky vs. SamBucky analysis (which is incoherent at best, I apologize for that) and I see maybe once instance where I called out fandom members for being racist. Here's what I had to say about racism:

"[...] Iron Husbands is a rarepair, probably because it’s an interracial ship."

"[there is] nothing wrong with shipping two white men, but it does become a problem when you ignore/bash POC/interracial ships to the determinant of your own white ship."

And then there was the post you brought up where I addressed interracial ships in the fandom. That one is probably more relevant to this topic, to be honest, as I actually addressed fandom racism there. I assume that your reason for bringing up Stony is because it's a ship that is more relevant to my side of the fandom, HOWEVER, the reason I highlighted Stucky instead was because I was comparing the fact that they've both been around the same amount of time and are relationships that feature the protagonist and their best friend.

You brought up St*ny in the ask, however, so I'm going to talk about St*ny for a minute.

As someone who never has nor will ship St*ny, it never even occurred to me that some of the problem behind the Iron Husbands tag being so small is because everyone ships the white, boring ship. You brought up a very valid point, but because I was never in that part of the fandom, I can't really speak to any possible underlying racism there, besides what I've already said above.

I would be interested in hearing a St*ony shipper or ex-St*ony shippers thought on this, but sadly I don't know any. If you have any more thoughts regarding this, Nonnie, pls drop back into my inbox.

You do make some excellent points in this ask though, and I would like to talk about racism on my side of the fandom.

So back to Mackie and his Twitter cancellation. Notice that Disney made him address the rumors and not his co-star, Sebastian Stan. Anthony Mackie is put on blast and made to answer fan demands and receives backlash, while Sebastian Stan gets to fly under the rader. This is not, by the way, a criticism of Stan, but instead of the blatant racism Disney has been displaying over the past few years.

How this ties in with the rest of my post has to do with my "woke-queer" spaces bit. The outcry across the MCU fandom over Mackie was swift and unforgiving. He was cancelled on charges of homophobia and bigotry--all the while these same fans turn a blind eye to any queer interpretation of other interracial ships and discourse in their own fandom.

The racism that I'm speaking about, of course, is an almost passive racism. Of course if you don't ship a specific ship for reasons other than their race, it's perfectly fine. It's okay not to ship Iron Husbands or SamBucky or any other interracial fandom ships. However, the distinct lack of shippers in the fandom IS telling because there are people who would ship that exact ship if not for the fact that one of men is black.

I don't have much more to say about this except to thank you for bringing it up and for listening to my long rambling post.

(Feel free to bug me about Tony Stark, MCU ships, MCU Meta and anything you want to talk me about on this blog and @themarvelarchives.)

#this got long sorry #iron husbands #sambucky #james rhodes #tony stark #sam wilson #anthony mackie #doctor who #moffat critical #my meta #ash does meta #ash does fandom #marvel #mcu #fandom critical #fandom criticism #long post

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rearranging-deck-chairs · 2 years

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thinking about clara telling 12 he made courtney feel not special and 12 at the end of the lie of the land telling bill “because in amongst seven billion, theres someone like you” and bill looking like

and 11 telling rita in the god complex "offer a child a suitcase full of sweets and they’ll take it. offer someone all of time and space and they’ll take that too. which is why you shouldnt” in that fucking self-flagellating but also proud way they do and rita says “i dont know what youre talking about but whatever it is, i have a feeling you just did it again” because they did

they know they know they know what they do and clara didnt have to tell them theyve been doing this long enough they know. and they dont like it but theyre not gonna stop doing it either which must be Great for the self-worth feelings. they have a job to do and they cant stop doing it but they also cant do it alone but also anyone they take with them will most likely get hurt or die

this is nothing new but it’s just. im thinking about the way they do it. the way they absolutely know the effect they have on people. “you make people want to impress you. you make it so they dont want to let you down”

how casually 12 throws out that line, so genuine, i 100% believe it feels true when they say stuff like that, but also bill just had a Bad 6 months. he didnt have to say this. bill asked why he puts up with humans he could say something nice about humanity as a whole, but he doesnt, he singles her out, “i put up with the rest of them because sometimes theres someone like you”. it’s sweet and i dont think it’s a lie and i dont even think it’s a conscious manipulation but like

it’s just like, a really good way to keep people with you when you make them feel like theyre at the centre of the universe like that. the universe revolves around the doctor and when youre in the eye of the storm with them youre so special. you know more than regular people, you get to know all the secrets of the universe, you get to know about aliens, you get to play hero along with them!

ROSE: I can't tell her. I can't even begin. She's never going to forgive me. And I missed a year. Was it good? DOCTOR: Middling. ROSE: You're so useless. DOCTOR: Well, if it's this much trouble, are you going to stay here now? ROSE: I don't know. I can't do that to her again, though. DOCTOR: Well, she's not coming with us. ROSE: No chance. DOCTOR: I don't do families. [...] ROSE: My mum was right. That is one hell of an age gap. Every conversation with you just goes mental. There's no one else I can talk to. I've seen all that stuff up there, the size of it, and I can't say a word. Aliens and spaceships and things, and I'm the only person on planet Earth who knows they exist.

being the object of the doctor’s affection is i think probably a bit of a horrifying experience and not a position you really want to be in, but as long as youre still in that Comments About How Theyre Putting Up With All Of Humanity Because They Like You stage and havent yet reached the Tearing The Sky Apart For You stage, it probably feels really good (do i look susceptible to companion syndrome in this post hkfjghj)

and like i said it’s not that they dont actually love their companions. of course they do. it’s just that if youre terrified of being abandoned, making people feel special like this is a good way to make them not leave you

and i think 13 probably did her best not to do this again. she didnt invite them along to new adventures at the end of 11x1. she initiates goodbyes i think three times (”ive stayed too long, i should get back to finding my tardis”, “im almost gonna miss you”, “guess we’re done, nice having you aboard”) before the fam ask to come with her

and sure she plays the kicked puppy a bit in 11x4 but she waits for yaz to invite her, shes relatively passive, actually for the doctor shes incredibly passive. and she enjoys letting them into the tardis in 11x2, but she doesnt tease really secrets and wonders if they come travel with her. she doesnt really introduce them to the tardis, she doesnt say what the name means, she doesnt let them touch anything, nobody says “it’s bigger on the inside”, she doesnt invite them to all of time and space. she doesnt suggest it could be theirs to see. i dont think she ever does. just what the fam got to see accidentally was already enough to convince them.

i really need to rewatch so i might be wrong about this, but i dont think she ever makes them feel special the same way the doctor did with companions before. she makes them feel special like a tour guide maybe, with her little points and stars system, and calling them best friends, small mundane ways that dont show off her age or history or influence. i dont think she ever suggests theyre more important than other people. i think she emphasises her love for humans as a whole. i think thats the impression they get from her. i think thats what they would say if you asked them about her. “yeah she loves humanity. me? yeah she probably likes me, we’re friends”

she never puts them in a position where theyre the only one who can save the day/world/planet/universe. she always puts herself between them and the problem. she always goes ‘no im the doctor, thats my job’. she takes that responsibility so they dont have to. they take it! when they feel like theyre forced to! when the doctor’s gone in 12x2 or 12x10, they take that responsibility for sure. i think they want to, not just yaz but especially yaz. but they feel unprepared. the doctor hasnt prepared them for this bc she doesnt want them in that position bc in that position they die.

and clearly this has not been ideal. this has not led to an ideal doctor-companion dynamic, we’ve seen how this has hurt 13 as well as especially i think yaz and ryan deeply. but the strategy has been succesful. she lost her last two companions bc she didnt get between them and the problem. with bill literally, with clara metaphorically. (going back even further this might also be the case for amy and donna and rose. she let them into positions she should have been in taking decisions she should have taken)

and however badly things have gone for 13, the strategies of Get Between Them And The Problem, and Be The Doctor Dont Let Them Do It, have WORKED. she GOT THEM HOME. if yaz doesnt die, and im willing to bet money she doesnt, she got them all home safe and sound

14′s relationship with their companions will probably be a response to what went wrong in this round and it will have its own pitfalls that 15 then gets to fix but theyre trying, theyre learning. one step forward two steps back i guess. a fun little tango with death

#im curious to see how 14's relationship with their compainons will look #and how they introduce themself #and how the companion ends up travelling with them

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isagrimorie · 3 years

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[initial reactions] Doctor Who - Revolution of the Daleks

TLDR: I liked it! But I do have some nitpicks. But bottom line, I liked it! Especially the exit!

Apologies going in, if it’s rambling and incoherent.

First off, I’m going to get my criticisms out of the way:

- They really need to hire these two people:

a) Sensitivity readers

b) They need to have people of color in charge of casting. Andy Pryor has done a great job casting people but. Since they opened up casting more actors of color to be more diverse... most people in guest roles die. So it ends up being Not A Great Look.

It’s the kind of breezy: We’re hiring more actors of color without really considering the optics of it. Colorblind casting in this way shouldn’t be colorblind. More diversity behind the scenes is needed, especially in casting.

Colorblind casting isn’t representation. Execs have to consider how it looks that a black man is helping create ‘Security Drones’ for the government.

c) I get why Jack Robertson lived, and I’m actually okay with it because I know Chibbs is going somewhere and he’s interconnecting Specials to be their own kind of continuity, so next Special or series we will have Robertson appearing. But I can’t believe the Doctor believed Robertson. Unless she’s really learned from not interfering with politics, but man I wish there’s more vindication to that. I do have a sense of where this is going though, more on that later.

d) I wish they’d gone harder with the Dalek = Police thing.

e) I really kind of wish the Doctor escaped on her own.

And now for my thoughts and the happy!

RYAN! I LOVE RYAN. I LOVE RYAN BEING EMOTIONALLY MATURE AND PUSHING BACK ON THE DOCTOR. It felt... earned that they do and, Ryan’s always been the more hesitant of the three and the more grounded. I love that it’s Ryan that the Doctor confided in, I’ve always felt like Ryan was the one Thirteen connected to the most after Grace died. And I love his development, ever since Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos Ryan is the first to quote the Doctor back to herself from the guns rule and now here to ‘New can be scary’, reminding the Doctor of her own words.

But also, I love that Ryan felt more connected to Earth, with his friends. Yaz was always the one who looks to the horizon. I like that Ryan pushed back on the smokescreen the Doctor tried to put up. Ryan was tired of the smokescreen. He had 10 months to work on his feelings about it and realized... he liked being home.

I wish we saw more what they were doing at home, like what Chibnall wrote for the Ponds in Power of Three. I did see this was his arc he was building to.

I liked that Graham was torn but eventually his loyalties are with Ryan.

I honestly think the fam thought the Doctor was just gone for a week, her time.

Also: FINALLY A COMPANION EXIT WHERE THEY’RE THE ONES WHO WALK AWAY. And because it’s time.

NO MORE TRAPPED IN A PARALLEL UNIVERSE OR DYING OR BEING CONVERTED PLEASE. Anyway, that is why I was vindicated because I was getting pretty antsy at all the twitter posts almost gleeful at the thought of companion death.

Nope. No more please. No more world ending, universe ending, heartbreaking ends. I want a Jo Grant walk away, and that is what happened. (Er, I hope we don’t get a Tegan leaving from Yaz, though. Sad and disillusioned walk away).

Yaz. Oh, dear, Yaz, who seems to have tossed her career away running after the Doctor’s shining star. I loved her conversation with Jack, he was a nice contrast and sounding board. Also, Jack was much kinder to the Doctor because they didn’t miss each other, the Doctor (according to RTD’s retcon) deliberately left Jack on Satellite Five.

Yaz is willing to run and jump without looking because of the Doctor and I love that we got her feelings about this.

And, of course, the Doctor. The moment Ryan said she missed 10 months, I felt she knew the clock was ticking on her ‘fam’. She’s trying to be good to them and do right by them.

(The Doctor knows Ryan’s ready to leave, she knew it. She’s trying to be in denial about it. But she knows).

It’s a small detail but when she processed the ‘ten months’ bit, she quickly looked to Ryan. Because if it’s one of the subtext things around is that she wanted to be a better father to Ryan than his real dad. But she still skipped out on him unknowingly.

The way he just brushed it off, because the worst part is. Ryan is used to it.

It’s sad that the Doctor opening up to the fam was brought on after a decades’ long solitary, and probably a promise to be better. But, she calculated wrong, or the TARDIS deliberately chose to go to that time. Whatever the case, just when she’s opening up to them is when Ryan decided his time with the Doctor was at an end.

God, the moment when Thirteen said: “Mostly... angry.”

I felt this. hard.

I think it was @ssaalexblake who mentioned that Thirteen acknowledging she’s angry might help with all of Thirteen’s repressed anger issues. And I think these are baby steps towards that.

She’s actually been so angry for so long, but she kept pushing it down. Like I said, Thirteen, in a way, reminds me of Raylan Givens of Justified. People think he’s mild mannered, but as his ex-wife amicably opined, Raylan was the angriest man she knew.

And I feel this for this Doctor but at least, now she’s addressing it. The first step in fixing a problem, is identifying the problem.

This was made in 2019. Thirteen being in a repeating lockdown felt very 2020 to me. The things that made me go: Oof, was the Harry Potter thing, the Doctor’s always loved HP. Unfortunately it’s post-2020 hindsight where we go: whoof.

I love Thirteen still mouthing off and being obnoxious towards other Doctor Who baddies. The Weeping Angel thing is cool and so are the Silents. BUT ALSO THE DOCTOR CALLED THE P’TING TINY! AND SHE TRIED TO EAT THE PRISON BARS.

And then, of course, being more obnoxious with the Daleks. It’s pretty clear the difference in rawness of the Doctor’s feelings for the Daleks and the Cybermen. The Daleks’s an old ember. Her feelings for them are ice cold. A purity of feeling. The Daleks are evil and she has no compunction on killing them, the Cybermen? More personal and a raw nerve.

She’s willing to be cold towards the Daleks.

I really like that Yaz has more skin in the game, and she knows what she can lose now. And after her talking with Jack, after seeing his perspective on it, and from his words knows that sometimes the Doctor just disappears from people’s lives.

And I love the pushback:

Skewered.

But true because she is trying to stay still and be with the fam and not leave them. But the unfortunate truth is, the Doctor does run away, and the Doctor does leave people behind and a lot of the times, the Doctor doesn’t come back because they’re an emotional coward.

The thing about Thirteen is she’s probably the longest of the Doctors to not disappoint her companions. She’s always managed to stop bad guys and always been there for them. It’s an impressive track record for the Doctor. She’s built herself up in their eyes as someone they can rely on, and then she failed them by not getting back to them in time.

It’s not her fault, and none of them know how long it’s been for the Doctor, by the way she’s asked them I feel like they think she’s only been gone for a week.

Honestly, I’m impressed how the Doctor didn’t make it about her -- being in prison for longer than they thought. She’s looking at it from their point of view, because she already knows what big leaps in time would affect her friends.

TBH Revolution of the Daleks felt like shades of Last Christmas in that the Doctor regretted missing out time with her companion/s. In Last Christmas, the Doctor got his time back with Clara, in RotD, time passed.

Back to the Doctor and the Daleks tho.

This reminded of Twelve’s: “You are monsters. That is the role you seem determined to play. So it seems I must play mine. The Man that stops the Monsters.”

(Look, Chibnall’s Moffat references aren’t as sledgehammer, but he does reference a lot of Moffat’s things.).

Except with Thirteen, I’m actually more terrified. Jodie does this thing where her eyes goes black and she kind of disappears into herself, this is what happened here. This promise isn’t actually good IMO.

This is not a comforting face. This is a ‘I’m gonna kill a whole boatload of Daleks face and I’m not sorry, in fact I might enjoy doing that’ face.

(And, a brief aside to Robertson, I feel like the Specials have their own kind of special ‘movie’ continuity and more of his story will play out in the Specials, where hopefully he will get his comeuppance because, to me, I feel that’s where it’s going. This is more groundwork laying.

I don’t like it when the Doctor interferes with Human affairs, especially government -- because look what happened with Harriet Jones and how the Doctor broke the Golden Age. Also, I don’t want real world leaders to exist in the Whoverse because I want them to have a completely different track from us. So. Yeah, New Year’s Specials have their ongoing storyline. I’m actually not mad about it, and I enjoy Mr. Big’s performance. He’s a sleezeball. A sleezeball that knows more now. (He isn’t T rump but he isn’t better either). At least I find him enjoyable and not outright offensive. I’m okay seeing him again for the next Specials. I hope next time he does get his comeuppance.)

Now, the goodbyes:

The HUG.

We’ve been waiting for the Doctor to be more physically affectionate with the fam, and it took the Doctor being locked down for decades (maybe?), and Ryan and Graham leaving for her to hug them. And we’re all right, Thirteen gives great hugs.

The feeling Thirteen’s been running away from is here, sadness. It’s good that Yaz decided to stay other wise... she’s just going to run headlong into forgetting her problems, Doctor Style.

And again, learning and re-learning things: ‘It’s okay to be sad.’

Oh, Thirteen.

(Before Twelve, I don’t think I was this sympathetic to the Doctor -- no wait, I was with Nine. Ten and Eleven tested my patience but it’s with Twelve and Thirteen where I’m 100% invested in the Doctor.

I also love that they’re kind of soft touching the Timeless Child thing, and as someone on twitter mentioned, this feels like an examination of an adoption story. The Doctor is going to search for their identity, their home).

I honestly wish Jack stayed in the TARDIS with Thirteen and Yaz. Jack’s a great balance, especially pushing back at the Doctor and her tactics. Her NUCLEAR tactics. I am glad that the Doctor’s still a dick to Jack, not much of an asshole as they were when the Doctor was Ten but still a dick.

Also, one thing I really love about Barrowman is that when he’s in Doctor Who, he knows it’s not his show and he doesn’t showboat, and the man can showboat.

I’d rather Jack than random guy that I didn’t even know was gonna happen until very late.

Anyway, TLDR to all this: I enjoyed this very much! Still a lot to be parsed through in things that needs to be parsed through as I mentioned, but on the whole? I loved it.

#doctor who #doctor who spoilers #thirteenth doctor #yasmin khan #ryan sinclair #graham o'brien #jack harkness #revolution of the daleks #initial reactions #long post #rambling and incoherent

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moonlitceleste · 4 years

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I’m a warrior (now I’ve got thicker skin) Pt. 1

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5

I’ve toyed with this idea for a while, but I never posted it because I couldn’t think of the right song to go with it (that part comes in later). Thankfully, the idea came to me and I get to write it out!! It’ll probably be long, so I’ll split it into separate parts.

It’s three years since Hawkmoth started attacking Paris. By this time, the class has long turned on Marinette; however, she found solace in Adrien, Chloe, Kagami, and Luka. Together, they make up the permanent Miraculous Team.

They’ve finally defeated Hawkmoth. Gabriel Agreste, Nathalie Sancoeur, and Lila Rossi have been arrested. It’s made very public knowledge that Lila initiated contact with Hawkmoth out of pure spite and that her sole purpose was to target Marinette-Dupain Cheng and get her akumatized.

Lila is unable to lie her way out, because ever since Lila had gotten Marinette expelled, the latter had been keeping detailed notes on everything she had lied about and done. The only reason Lila hadn’t been exposed earlier was because Marinette was actively preventing it. She had deduced that Lila was working with Hawkmoth and knew she was a valuable connection.

Alya had also been posting Lila’s lies on her blog consistently, and there were quite a few blatant jabs towards Marinette in there.

Anyways, it’s been three weeks since that all went down. And people were still following Marinette around, from reporters to random citizens. The public was curious as to why Hawkmoth decided one girl was special enough as to be his target.

Tired of having to evade everyone, Marinette decides to give them what they want. She has an adequately large Twitter following since she was best friends with Adrien, Chloe, and had previously worked with big names such as Jagged Stone and Clara Nightingale.

She shoots a one-take video and explains everything, but not before a quick disclaimer.

“I didn’t know whether or not to, but I realized that telling this story could raise awareness, or maybe just help someone feel less alone. But before I start, please don’t send hate to anyone mentioned in this video. Whether or not they deserve it, and no matter what they did to me, no one deserves to be bullied.”

“I’ve never really told anyone the full story before, and as counter-intuitive as it may seem, telling it to a camera is a lot less scary than it is to an audience.”

Marinette doesn’t hold back. She starts from the very beginning, from when Lila came in. I don’t like the Marinette-creepily-follows-them-because-of-jealousy thing, so I HC that in Volpina she followed them because she got bad vibes from Lila and was worried for Adrien’s safety. She says she saw Ladybug calling her out and that’s how she knew she was a liar.

She continues telling the story about how when Lila came back, everyone believed her immediately. She repeated the lies that Lila said and tore into the ridiculousness of them--the tinnitus she got from saving Jagged Stone’s cat from an airplane runway, how her arthritis flared up after saving Max’s eye from getting gouged out by a napkin and seemingly switched wrists constantly. How her classmates glared at her for being the cause of Lila’s pain and how the teacher didn’t even check for a doctor’s note or blink when they moved her to the back of the classroom.

She talked briefly about Lila’s threat, and how an akuma went after her but she managed to calm down in time, and that Lila was akumatized immediately after.

And then she talked about the expulsion. In great detail. But not before a little backstory about how her principal was quick to ignore anything her childhood bully did because he was easily swayed by money and influence. How her teacher had always told her to be the bigger person. Set a good example. Show people what the Marinette’s of the world are like.

And despite her being the “example”--the perfect student and class president, he expelled her without a second thought or even proof if what Lila accused her of was true. Lila’s parents weren’t even at the meeting, but hers had to be.

She wasn’t un-expelled until Lila herself claimed that she had a “lying disease,” which she later figured out was because Adrien helped her out.

She mentions how ironic it is that “my classmates who I’ve known since childhood and my best friend all turned their back on me in an instant. The four friends who stuck with me were all very new, and I had a dislike for 3/4 of them at some point in time.”

After explaining the beginning in detail, she summarized the rest of what they did--it started with glares and small jabs, then escalated to tripping her in hallways. Most weren’t outright malicious, but the more bull-headed like Alya, Alix, and Kim did the worse stuff like “accidentally” pouring water on her. After all, she was bullying Lila even after Lila had been so nice to her!

And then the Hawkmoth part. Emotions and akumatizations.

“Even though I know I didn’t do anything wrong, it was hard for me to remember that since the whole world seemed to be conspiring against me. But my true friend were there for me, and if they weren’t I’d have long succumbed to Hawkmoth’s influence.

I didn’t actually think Lila would turn my friends against me; I trusted them. Every time I was almost akumatized, it was because of injustice. I just had to remember that in due time, justice would come for her too.

I think my greatest fear was that even once Hawkmoth was gone, Lila would be able to lie her way out of it and somehow, she would convince everyone that I was in the wrong again. But that didn’t happen, and I’m glad that I didn’t give in to my negative emotions.

Part of that is because after a while, I just became numb. I haven’t let myself feel anything after all these years--at this point, my automatic response is to click and delete my negative emotions. Sometimes it’s hard to remember that I don’t have to do that anymore. The reason I never talked about what happened was because I was scared once I started, I wouldn’t be able to stop, and I couldn’t risk getting akumatized.

My knee-jerk reaction right now is to say I’m fine, but I’m not. I don’t know when I will be. I still have thoughts of what I did to make everyone leave me so easily--why they were so quick to turn. But hopefully, letting all this out is a step towards healing. It’s made me stronger, but I’m ready to close this chapter of my life and move on”

She ends the video after a brief end note and a reminder to not send hate to her classmates (but it ends up happening anyways).

“Maybe this could have been all prevented if my classmates had at least tried to listen to me, or if my teacher or principal had done their job. Everything may have worked out in the end, and I’m very grateful for that, but maybe it could have been stopped earlier if anyone had stepped in to help. If you see someone struggling, don’t stay silent. My true friends stuck by me, and they gave me the hope that there really was light at the end of the tunnel. You can give someone hope too.”

(There’s more said in the video, but those are just snippets I have right now.)

Parisians are horrified at the full story, and it spreads like wildfire. People add English subtitles, and it spreads even more.

A girl being targeted by an emotional terrorist for three years, having to suppress her emotions while actively being targeted by said terrorist or else the world would end?! Yeah, people ate it up.

And then Adrien and Chloe tweeted something, and then Bruce Wayne got involved, and soon enough, Marinette became known as the Girl Who Saved Paris.

TAGLIST

@2confused-2doanything @abrx2002 @alenee13 @animegirlweeb @anonymously-odd @buginetye @catthhay @certifiedbidisaster @dreamykitty25 @ertyzeta @fishandnoodles *@how-to-function-properly @iamablinkmarvelarmy @ihavehomeworkbutistillhere @i-wanna-be-a-ninja @kris-pines04 @miracleofadisaster @momothefemur @nach0 @nathleigh *@our-preciousss @starpony999 @swiftie-miraculer13 @t1dwarrior-of-earth @thatonecroc @theg0ddesspersephone @thenillabean @thequeenofpotatoeunicornss @tired-butterfly @trippingovermyfeet @user00000003 @velvetterabby

#maribat #celestewrites #i'm a warrior #miraculous ladybug #miraculous salt #Marinette deserves better #daminette #damianette

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ramblings-of-a-mad-cat · 3 years

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I've never met ANYONE who actually likes the Chibnall era. Would you seriously say that it's objectively good?

Brace yourself for unpopular (albeit positive) opinions.

Objectively? I don't know, I tend to feel like media is very much subjective and down to opinion. But on the whole...yeah. I'm gonna say yeah. I think the Chibnall era thus far is every bit as good as the Moffat Era and Davies Era were. It actually blows my mind to see the fandom come together and almost universally agree that the show has gone downhill. It's part of the reason why I kind of stepped away from the Doctor Who fandom because there's something very demoralizing about re-watching clips from Season 12 and seeing literally every comment just talk about how the show is ruined. And if I re-watch old clips, very often I come across comments that talk about how the show "used to" be good, and should have ended with Twelve, etc. I know a little reluctance toward the new Doctor can be part of the transition process, but normally the fans are over it by now.

Things haven't really changed.

I've been re-watching Twelve's era, and found a new appreciation for him. But I re-watched Thirteen's era right beforehand, and you know what? It holds up. Season 11 is remarkably strong. I can't think of a single "bad" episode in that season. It focuses on the characters, and thus it doesn't have nearly as strong ambitions, compared to one of the Moffat seasons, which were clever but often convoluted. They couldn't always stick the landing. (Looking at you, Season 6) But every has it's good parts and it's bad. The same man who wrote The Wedding of River Song and betrayed the entire season's storyline in the process...also wrote The Doctor Falls, which is probably my favorite final episode of any season ever. The Chibnall Era is the same way. The Tsuranga Conundrum isn't really a bad episode, it's just kind of forgettable, apart from the Pting. But then it is immediately followed up by Demons of the Punjab, which is an exceptional story in every way. I want the Thijurians to return for Thirteen's regeneration, I'm saying it.

My point being that even if there are episodes you can't stand in the new era, is that really exclusive to Chibnall? All the way back in Season 1, they had The Long Game, which I remember disliking, but it was sandwiched between Dalek and Father's Day, which are in my opinion, the two best episodes of that season. A lot of people don't like Orphan 55, for example. But it's followed up by Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror. Does anyone really dislike that episode? You're valid if you do, but I think it's really good. Ask me about any episode in the Chibnall Era, and I'll find something to like about it. (Except maybe Arachnids in the UK...and that one's not even bad, just kind of weak.) Because like I said, there is good and bad in every season...and I do think that the fandom has overblown how "bad" the Chibnall Era is...though that may be in part because I think this era is generally good? Incredible companions, solid episodes, a great Doctor, and hey...this era actually made the Daleks scary again. That is impressive. Even most of the hated episodes, like Orphan 55 as I mentioned...I enjoy them.

I stand by that. I think this era is great. If anything, I don't like that they reduced how many episodes we get, because some of these stories, like The Witchfinders and It Takes You Away especially Fugitive of The Judoon, are just begging to be two-parters. Spyfall is the only real two-parter we've had, in my opinion (Ascension of the Cybermen and The Timeless Children feel like two separate stories to me) and the episode was much stronger for having the extra time. If I have one genuine criticism with the Chibnall Era as a whole, it is the stark contrast between Seasons 11 and 12. I love Season 11, I thought it was beautiful. I like it far more than most people. I also truly enjoyed Season 12. But they are worlds apart, with Season 11 feeling so standalone and Season 12 picking up with a big storyline that really hadn't been hinted at all in the previous outing. The tone is also different, with The Doctor and "the fam" having a distance between them that seems to have developed offscreen in between seasons. It was as though Chibnall wanted to give everyone a breather from big overarching plots after the Moffat Era, but then after one season he decided "break's over" because he wanted to tell his story. And that's okay! It is. But it's jarring. Anyway, let's talk about Chibnall's storyline. You know where this is going.

"That" episode.

I meant what I said before. There isn't a single episode that I actively hate as much as say, Listen. Now let's get very controversial, because I know what y'all are thinking. "Not even The Timeless Children?" And I'll just get this out of the way right now: I don't think The Timeless Children, or it's twist, ruins Doctor Who. I don't think it gets anywhere close. I mentioned before that I was demoralized reading the comments on a clip of Doctor Who...to no one's surprise, it was this episode. Now, I may just be biased...after all, I didn't even hate Hell Bent. But while I have my criticisms of Season 12, The Doctor's revised backstory accounts for exactly none of them. You want to know what really bothers me? That we had a seven season buildup to Gallifrey's rescue, a nine season buildup to it's return...only for the show to do nothing with it, and then just destroy it again a couple of seasons later. As someone who loved The Day of The Doctor, I'm mad about that. Among other reasons, destroying Gallifrey is the kind of card you can really only play once.

So no, I don't think The Timeless Children is perfect. The Doctor had a seven season character arc culminating in them learning the lesson that using The Moment would be wrong, and that it was never okay to do something like that. To hear her even consider using The Death Particle, that "Or, a solution" line in response to Ryan appropriately reacting in horror? Yeah, that upset me. I don't like that Gallifrey is gone again, and even if The Doctor wasn't the one to do it, she almost did, and she left someone else to do it in her stead. That bothers me more than The Timeless Child ever could. That being said...the Timeless Child doesn't bother me. Seriously, it blows my mind that people act like this twist ruins Doctor Who. It...really doesn't, guys.

It does not insult the legacy of William Hartnell. He is still The First Doctor. It's not like there isn't a precedent for secret incarnations from The Doctor's past. We didn't start calling Christopher Eccleston The Tenth Doctor after we found out about John Hurt. Nothing can change The First Doctor's status or take it away, nor do I think Chibnall is trying. He is doing what I've actually wanted Doctor Who to do for a while. Give us a story about The Doctor's childhood. (Listen doesn't count, I don't care, that was all kinds of bad.) Let me ask you, what does this really change? I've seen people complain about the revision of The Doctor's history...but there's a precedent for that too. We could play bingo with how many times Clara fundamentally altered or influenced the show's history. She is the reason he started traveling, the reason he chose his Tardis, and the reason he saved Gallifrey. Why doesn't that bother people, if this does?

I also understand it if people dislike this change because they feel as though it makes The Doctor a kind of chosen one, compared to them having just been an average person who wanted to make a difference. I get that. However, this is down to interpretation, and there are so many ways to interpret The Doctor. Some people love it when The Doctor goes dark, other people cannot stand it and view it as out of character. Some people love it when The Doctor is heroic and badass, when they save the day...others would prefer that they take the backseat, teaching the humans how to save the day themselves. "The man who makes people better." And which interpretation you get, where it falls on the spectrum...it will vary from writer to writer. Moffat loved to make everything about The Doctor, and Davies frequently compared him to an angel or a god. This is not the first time that the show has portrayed The Doctor as a godlike being. It's not even close to the first time. And honestly? I don't think this makes The Doctor special or supernatural. I think it makes them a victim, nothing more. A victim of child abuse.

People also disliked this episode for removing the mystery behind The Doctor...but I fail to see how it did that? There are so. Many. Questions. That this finale opens up. Where did The Doctor come from? How and why did they get to our universe? What exactly is The Division? What went down between them and The Doctor? Where is Tecteun? (No, she's not Rassilon...) As the Masters asks, "What did they do to you, Doctor? How many lives have you had?" Amid all of the comments that made me sad, I did see a great one about how the original creator of Doctor Who actually didn't like it when they introduced the Timelords, because she felt that it boxed the show in and removed the mystery behind The Doctor, and how "She would have loved this episode." I agree with that. (Still salty that they destroyed Gallifrey though...) You know, I am genuinely interested in this story and where it's going to go, especially with the sixtieth anniversary approaching. But it depresses me that they might scale it back now, after how much the fandom has risen up against it. Not that I'm saying the fans shouldn't be happy, but...it's clear that a story is trying to be told here, and I think it should have that chance.

To each their own, of course. But I will never understand why this era is so hated.

#Doctor Who #Dr. Who #The Doctor #The Thirteenth Doctor #Chris Chibnall #Chibnall Era #Doctor Who Season 12 #Doctor Who Season 11 #Long post #Boy did this get long #Ramblings #The Timeless Children #The Timeless Child

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sarah-dipitous · 10 months

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Hellsite Nostalgia Tour 2023 Day 192

Heaven Can’t Wait/The Bells of Saint John

“Heaven Can’t Wait”

Plot Description: Dean and Castiel investigate a series of spontaneous human combustions, while Crowley helps Sam and Kevin translate an ancient tablet

Would I Survive the First Five Minutes??: idk what that dude’s whole thing is, but…I don’t think I could stop him if he wanted to explode me

Cas studying and imitating human behavior is adorable. You are CORRECT, miss manager lady, he IS special!! 💖

GWORL. I know you got a crush but holy shit. Wait…no. She…might not? The kiss was confusing but I think she actually wants Cas to babysit for a date she’s going on

Why are the splattered remains Barbie pink??

GWORL (Dean), you didn’t just wanna bail on research. You wanted to see your boyfriend

Well, damn, if an angel came and exploded me any time I exaggeratedly said I wanna die?? Yikes.

I’m sorry. Dean. You don’t get to be like this about Cas’s situation when you kicked him out of the bunker…

I can’t believe Sam is actively manipulating Crowley….yeah.

Dean, you get NO SAY in what Castiel is going through unless you take him back to the bunker. He is doing his best with what little people skills he has. He is content right now

Yeah. He’s being called in to babysit

He has responsibilities, DEAN. Like cleaning the restroom

Can you spit out why it’s so bad BEFORE what would be a commercial break? No? Cool.

Omg…Dean telling Cas how to dress for this (not-a-)date

It’s gonna hurt to watch Cas get shut down……..at least Dean won’t be there to watch exactly…

Don’t worry, Cas, it WAS a confusing proposition. I get she was excited for her date, but she shouldn’t have kissed you.

It’s sick and twisted that Crowley wants to use Kevin’s blood to call Abaddon. He should not have to go through this…

Castiel is adorably bad with this baby. He’s TRYING but like………oh. No. He’s not bad with her, she really likes him. I…this is so cute. He can weirdly relate so much to being new to being a human.

No no nonononoooooo. The angel who’s been exploding people found Cas by the amount of emotional pain he’s in

Omg Abaddon is so hot

Literally could not care less if everything she does gets labeled wrong by the story. Don’t care that Crowley gets mad that she’s invalidating his contracts and that she’s screwing up hell. She can do whatever she wants

Bets on whether Metatron’s spell being permanent:

1) actually IS permanent, and

2) is a thing Dean tells Cas RIGHT NOW instead of keeping it a secret?

Do you have a crush on him NOW, miss manager lady???

Yeah. Kinda knew Dean wasn’t gonna be the MOST upfront

Hmmm…I’m betting this isn’t a “I want to FEEL human again” blood injection. It’s probably a “if I’m human again I can escape this bunker” one

“The Bells of Saint John”

Plot Description: The Doctor’s search for Clara Oswald brings him to modern day London

(There’s a lot to hate about the Big Bang Theory but I will never fault the show for pointing out that, though the Doctor has access to all of space and time, he sure does like modern day London (or sometimes Wales) a whole lot)

Oh yOuR sOuL’s BeEn UpLoAdEd To ThE iNtErNeT?? Kay…what else is new?? And why are you clicking on weird wifi networks? Did no one teach you anything?? And like…SO MANY people did that

This episode is making me so angry…just as someone who spent most of their day with our IT department trying to get them to take me seriously about my persistent internet issues. Yes, the internet SHOULD JUST BE THERE. I wish I knew why it isn’t but I am also not an IT specialist. (I could spend the next hour ranting about how I cried on the phone because I couldn’t get them to do anything beyond basic troubleshooting and then the second it was back for even a moment they were like ‘well, now I can’t escalate it because it’s back. If it happens again, call back’ even though that WAS a call back because I’d had the same issue the night before…..but I do need to actually watch this episode)

Ah, damn, Clara, you clicked the wrong WiFi……

Ugh…they’re doing it again. They’re too much alike. Not to rush Matt’s time but I need it to be Peter Capaldi now.

These people remind me too much of Naomi and her reign over heaven in spn

Bestie, RUN.

Maybe if the Doctor had gotten a tonsure, he’d think monks are cool

I do like the little flair the bottom of the Doctor’s jacket has now. It’s a twirly jacket

Ohhhhhh there really isn’t anything like a freshly opened package of jammy dodgers though

This is framed in a way that’s supposed to be cute and because it’s the Doctor, WE know she’s actually safe but if a strange man broke into my home after something happened to me, carried me to my bed, laid out snacks, took all my messages for me (including interacting with people close to me), and then told me NOW I was safe…I would not think I was safe. Also, the music is rather romcom-y and that’s weird because he’s several hundred years older than her

“I can’t tell the future, I just work there” is a really good line though

Ok no. This is creepy af. People should not be hackable

Is…the great intelligence behind this?? The bad guy from the last episode?

Oh these people are going to regret taking the Doctor’s likeness to get to Clara

I miss when the Doctor was a little less of an action hero. He shouldn’t be allowed to ride a motorcycle up the side of a building

I was RIGHT?? The Great Intelligence was behind it?? HOW LONG WAS HE KEEPING THAT WOMAN HOSTAGE?? HOW LONG HAD SHE BEEN HACKED?? She sounded like a little kid when she came to

#hellsite nostalgia tour 2023

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