#“no he is not. he is literally 5 years old”

[cressidagrey]

Didn't come up

Pairing: Oscar Piastri x Felicity Leong-Piastri (Original Character)

Summary:  5 times another driver/teammate of Oscar found out about Felicity or Bee. 

Warnings and Notes: Big thanks to @llirawolf , who listens to me ramble 😂

Logan Sergeant - 2016 - Formula 4 UAE 

Oscar Piastri had just finished reviewing telemetry with his engineer when Logan Sargeant flopped down beside him on a folding chair like he’d been personally wronged by the concept of humidity in Abu Dhabi.

“You guys always this sweaty in Melbourne?” Logan asked, swiping at his forehead with a water bottle and missing.

Oscar smirked. “Not unless you’re karting uphill in January.”

Logan leaned back, rocking the chair onto two legs. “You’re weirdly calm for someone who just overtook half the grid on turn three.”

Oscar shrugged. “Had to. The inside line was open.”

Logan whistled low. “You Aussies are built different.”

There was a beat of silence, filled with the clatter of wheel guns and distant shouting from a team manager on the other side of the paddock.

Then Logan nudged him. “You bringing anyone to the next round? Girlfriend? Family?”

Oscar blinked. “Uh, no, she’s in school.”

Logan perked up. “So you do have a girlfriend.”

Oscar nodded. “Her name’s Felicity.”

“Oh, fancy,” Logan said, smirking.

Oscar just shrugged again, but this time it’s a little more self-conscious. “She’s smarter than anyone I’ve ever met. Like… scary smart.”

Logan laughed. “Dude. You’re literally doing physics problems between sessions.”

“Yeah, and she’s the one who checks them.”

That got a double take.

“Wait, how old is she?”

“Fifteen. Same year as me.”

“And she checks your work?”

Oscar looked at him, deadpan. “She once rewrote my entire MATLAB script for a school project because the code was inefficient.”

“...I don’t even know what a MATLAB is.”

Oscar finally cracked a grin. “Exactly.”

Logan leant back on his palms, looking vaguely awed. “Damn. Is she into racing too?”

Oscar’s face softened. “She watches every livestream. Even the janky ones that lag and buffer every five seconds. Says she likes seeing how I figure things out under pressure.”

“Supportive and a genius?” Logan whistled. “You’re punching, man.”

“I know,” Oscar said without hesitation.

And that’s the thing — he said it without irony, without doubt, like it’s just fact. Like Felicity  was a fixture in his life the same way racing is. Like even here, on the other side of the world, in a sport designed to chew you up, she was still his anchor.

Logan watched him for a moment, then grinned. “Alright then, Piastri. Guess I gotta step up. You’re out here with a rocket science girlfriend and a podium finish.”

Oscar shrugged again, but there’s a glint of pride in his eyes. “She’s not into big shows. Just… likes when I try hard.”

Logan nodded slowly. “Sounds like she keeps you grounded.”

“She does,” Oscar said. “She’s the reason I remember to eat lunch most days.”

“Bro,” Logan said, mock serious. “Marry her.”

Oscar didn’t laugh.

He just sips his water, quiet for a beat.

Then: “I might.”

Logan blinks. “You’re fifteen.”

Oscar shrugs. “Still might.”

***

Max Fewtrell - 2018 - Formula Renault Eurocup

Max Fewtrell had exactly three things in his race day ritual:

Complain about the weather, regardless of what it was actually doing.

Eat like he hadn’t seen a carb since Wednesday.

Steal food off anyone who had a better lunch than he did.

So when something absolutely divine — chili, soy, sesame, and maybe the faintest whiff of wok hei — drifted across the Renault Eurocup paddock, Max paused mid-wrap-unfurl, frowned at the damp tortilla in his hands, and began scanning the area like a bloodhound on a mission.

He didn’t have to look far.

Under one of the team canopies, Oscar Piastri was seated like a picture of tranquility. Legs crossed, back straight, Tupperware open on his lap. And, insult to injury, the kid was using actual chopsticks, not a spork like the rest of the peasants.

Max narrowed his eyes. He knew that smell.

“…Is that char kway teow?” he asked, tone already accusatory.

Oscar didn’t look up. Just plucked another glistening noodle from the box like this was a tea ceremony and not a war crime.

“Yes,” he replied, bone dry.

Max was already halfway to him. “Where did you even get that? We’re in France. I’ve had nothing but beige food for a week. A week, Oscar.”

Oscar finally glanced up, entirely serene. “My girlfriend made it. Sent it with me.”

“Wait, you have a girlfriend?”

Oscar nodded. “Felicity. She’s in school back in Britain. Singaporean-Chinese. Makes the best food I’ve ever had.”

Max stood there in silence for a beat, the betrayal setting in.

Oscar, sensing it, took another elegant bite.

Max’s mouth opened. “Does she—”

“No,” Oscar cut in, flat as a carbon fiber board. “I’m not sharing.”

Max stared. “That’s not very sportsmanlike of you.”

Oscar didn’t even blink. “Neither was that last overtake into Turn 4, but here we are.”

Max scowled, reached into his sad lunch wrap, and hurled a bit of limp lettuce at him.

Oscar dodged it with the kind of slow ease that made it worse. “Also,” he added, “she packed chili crisp and garlic oil in the bottom layer. You’d cry.”

“I’m already crying,” Max muttered, slumping into the folding chair next to him. “Mate’s got a literal food goddess and refuses to share. Unbelievable.”

Oscar, not even looking up from his noodles: “Get your own Felicity.”

***

Frederik Vesti - 2020 - Formula 3 

Frederik blinked blearily across the team truck as Oscar Piastri walked in looking like the ghost of someone who used to sleep.

His hair was sticking up at odd angles, his hoodie was inside out, and there was a faint stain on his jeans that looked suspiciously like dried milk. He held a coffee cup like it was an IV drip.

“You okay, mate?” Frederik asked cautiously, watching as Oscar shuffled toward the breakfast table and missed the toaster by a good six inches.

Oscar made a sound that might have been “fine” or might have been “fire,” but either way it came out in a low rasp and was not convincing.

“You look like you haven’t slept in a week.”

“Six days,” Oscar muttered, blinking like he was trying to reboot.

Frederik laughed — and then froze.

Oscar didn’t laugh back. He just stood there, buttering toast in slow motion, like a man trying to remember what gravity was.

“…Wait. Are you actually serious?”

Oscar nodded faintly. “She sleeps during the day. But at night she just…screams. And if she’s not screaming, I keep checking to see if she’s breathing.”

“She?”

Oscar blinked again and finally looked at him. “Bee.”

Frederik stared.

Oscar seemed to realize something. “Oh. Right. You didn’t know.”

“Didn’t know what, exactly?” Frederik said very slowly, like he was trying to diffuse a bomb.

Oscar sipped his coffee. “That I’m married. Or that I have a baby now. Probably both.”

Frederik dropped his spoon. “YOU’RE WHAT?”

Oscar looked vaguely apologetic. “Yeah. Sorry. It wasn’t exactly a press release moment.”

Frederik gaped. “How do you have a wife? We’ve been teammates all year. You’ve literally never mentioned her.”

Oscar shrugged. “We’ve been married since I was 18. Felicity. She’s private. Doesn’t like attention.”

Frederik opened his mouth. Closed it again. “Okay. Wow. But… a baby? When? How?”

“She was born two weeks ago. Her name’s Bee. Emergency C-section. Heart surgery twenty-three minutes after birth.  NICU for a bit. My wife nearly died.  They’re home now. I’m… here.”

Frederik stared.

“You’re telling me that over break, you became a dad, your baby had surgery, your wife almost died, and you just—what? Came back to work like it was fine?”

Oscar ran a hand through his hair and yawned so hard it looked painful. “Felicity told me to. Said she wanted something to feel normal again.“

Frederik sat down heavily next to him. “And you’re just here. Like it’s nothing.”

Oscar stared blankly at the table. “It’s not nothing. But if I stop moving, I think I’ll fall apart.”

Frederik nodded slowly. Then slid the entire plate of toast in front of Oscar and said, “Alright. First of all, you’re eating. Second, I’m buying you a real coffee. And third—what the hell do you mean your baby had open heart surgery?”

Oscar’s voice was quiet, but steady. “She has a congenital defect. Total anomalous pulmonary venous return. They caught it late. If they’d waited ten more minutes, she wouldn’t have made it.”

Frederik swallowed. “Jesus.”

Oscar looked down at his hands. “She’s so small. But she’s alive.”

And for the first time that morning, Oscar smiled—just a little. Not smug, not tired. Just real.

Frederik exhaled hard, then clapped a hand on his teammate’s shoulder. “Okay. That’s a lot. But… Bee, huh?”

Oscar nodded. “Yeah.”

“…Short for anything?”

Oscar finally laughed. “Beatrice Nicole. I call her Bumblebee.”

 “And your wife? Is she okay? ”

“She’s… alive. Still recovering. Scared the shit out of me.” Oscar’s voice cracked a little, not enough to draw attention unless you were really listening. “Bee’s okay too. She’s so small. Looks like her, though. Stronger than both of us.”

The silence that followed wasn’t awkward — it was heavy, with the weight of things too big to say.

Finally, Frederik said quietly, “You could’ve told someone.”

Oscar just shook his head. “Didn’t want anyone to look at me different. Didn’t want it to be a thing. I just… wanted to drive. And go home to them.”

Frederik swallowed. “You’re completely mental.”

Oscar let out a soft, tired laugh. “Yeah.”

Another pause.

Frederik: “Do you… have pictures?”

Oscar blinked at him, surprised. Then, slowly, he reached for his phone. “Yeah. I do.”

He opened the gallery and held it out.

Frederik stared at the screen. A baby, impossibly small, swaddled in tubes and wires, and then later — the same baby, wide-eyed and soft-cheeked, curled up against a woman who looked tired but alive. Felicity.

Bee.

“Holy shit,” Frederik said softly. “She’s beautiful.”

Oscar smiled — faint but real. “Yeah. She is.”

Later that night, Frederik found an unopened tin of Danish butter cookies in his suitcase — his mum’s habit. He wrapped it in a tea towel, walked down the hotel hall, and left it outside Oscar’s door.

There was a note on top:

For Bee’s dad. You’re doing great. Also: eat something that isn’t caffeine and stress. – F.

He didn’t expect a reply.

But the next morning, Oscar showed up to the track with a new glint of determination — and crumbs on his race suit.

***

Robert Shwarztman - 2021 - Formula 2 

Robert was halfway through complaining about the catering — again — when Oscar, staring down at his phone with the vaguely amused look of someone reading a text that was either romantic or absurd, said casually:

“I’ve gotta head off soon. I’m having dinner with my wife.”

Silence.

Not dramatic silence. Not shocked silence. Just the stunned, mechanical silence of Robert’s brain hitting the brakes so hard it metaphorically flew through the windshield.

“…your what?” Robert said, voice slightly higher than normal.

Oscar glanced up, blinking innocently. “My wife. Felicity. She flew in this morning.”

Robert stared at him like he’d grown a second head. “You’re married.”

“Yeah.”

“Since when?”

Oscar just shrugged. “2019.”

Robert’s brain promptly short-circuited. “You’ve been married for two years and you’re telling me now? After how many plane rides? How many post-race meals? You didn’t think to mention, ‘Hey by the way, I have a wife?’”

Oscar shrugged, annoyingly calm. “Didn’t come up.”

“Didn’t come up,” Robert echoed, scandalized. “You once spent forty-five minutes explaining tire degradation to a hotel receptionist, but telling me you’re married ‘didn’t come up’?”

Oscar made a mild face. “She doesn’t like the attention. We keep it private.”

“And what? One day you’ll just casually mention a kid and expect me not to die on the spot?”

Oscar, very blandly: “I have a daughter too.”

Robert actually choked on his water. “YOU WHAT—”

Oscar patted him on the back like he wasn’t the cause of the sudden respiratory emergency. “Bee. She’s a few months old.”

Robert’s eye twitched. “You’re twenty. You have a wife. A baby. You’re leading the championship. What the hell, are you trying to speedrun adulthood?!”

Oscar shrugged again. “I like being married.”

Robert stood, flailing slightly. “I’m going to dinner alone with my phone and my disappointment. And you’re going to dinner with your secret wife. Which is apparently a normal Tuesday.”

Oscar smiled faintly. “You want to meet her tomorrow? She bakes.”

Robert froze.

“…What kind of bakes?”

Oscar’s smile deepened. “Everything.  Banana Bread. Muffins. Cookies. Sometimes Russian tea cakes, too. She made kuih lapis once.”

“…Okay,” Robert muttered, sitting down again like he wasn’t suddenly plotting to steal baked goods from this phantom wife. “But I’m still mad.”

Oscar nodded, texting again. “She says hi, by the way.”

Robert groaned.

***

Arthur Leclerc - 2021 - Prema Racing

Arthur was late.

Not by much — just ten minutes — but enough that René had already scolded him and a camera guy gave him the “we’ve been waiting” look as he jogged into the main corridor. He adjusted his team jacket, made a face at his reflection in the nearest window, and was mid-yawn when he nearly collided with someone in the hallway.

“Oh—sorry—"

Then he stopped.

Because Oscar Piastri — reigning Formula 3 champion, king of emotional neutrality, man who once did an entire sim race in silence — was standing in front of a wall of sponsor boards, holding a baby.

A real, actual baby.

A little girl with soft wispy curls, round cheeks, and a pale pink hoodie with a cartoon duck on the front. She had one hand gripping Oscar’s suit collar and the other stuffed into her mouth, wide eyes peeking curiously over his shoulder.

Arthur blinked. “Uhh… Oscar?”

Oscar looked up like this was entirely normal. “Hey.”

Arthur pointed at the baby. “Is that… Are you… Is that yours?”

The little girl turned her head toward the sound of Arthur’s voice, then immediately buried her face in Oscar’s neck like she’d seen enough. Oscar just patted her back gently and said, “Yeah. This is Bee.”

“Bee,” Arthur echoed, stunned. “You have a secret kid?”

Oscar blinked. “She’s not a secret. I just don’t usually bring her to work.”

“Right,” Arthur said faintly. “Of course. Naturally. And the mother?”

“My wife,” Oscar said casually. “Felicity. She’s finishing her finals this week. We couldn’t find a sitter. Bee’s very well-behaved, don’t worry.”

Arthur blinked so hard he lost a second of vision. “Your wife. You have a wife and a child. At twenty.”

Oscar glanced down at Bee, who had gone back to watching Arthur like he was a strange bird. She was perfectly quiet. Just blinking with wide dark eyes, cuddled into her father’s chest like she’d been born there.

Arthur lowered his voice. “She’s… really cute.”

Oscar’s whole face softened. “Yeah. She’s the best.”

Bee made a little hum and patted Oscar’s jaw with one tiny hand. Then Bee let out a soft, babbly coo, and Arthur’s heart actually melted.

Like. Melted.

He wasn’t even a baby person, but this one? This tiny, polite, shy creature who clung to Oscar like a koala and looked like she might cry if anyone but her dad so much as waved? She was precious. Immaculate. Possibly the best-behaved human he’d ever seen.

“Can I say hi?” Arthur asked, voice softening instinctively.

Oscar glanced at Bee. “Bee, you wanna say hi?”

Bee peeked at Arthur again from the safety of Oscar’s shoulder. Considered him. Then blinked, solemn, and shook her head no.

Arthur laughed. “Okay, that’s fair.”

“She’s just shy,” Oscar said. “She’s been great all day. Napped during media briefings. Didn’t touch anything. I think she thinks she’s undercover.”

“Mate,” Arthur said, stunned, “if I ever brought a baby into this building, she’d be on the pit wall with a wrench in her mouth in five minutes.”

Oscar just smiled faintly, brushing a hand over Bee’s curls. “She’s used to being around cars. I think the engine noises soothe her.”

Arthur had so many questions. So many.

But instead, he stayed a respectful distance away, and said, “Hi Bee. I’m Arthur. I drive too.”

Bee blinked at him. Then, very quietly, said, “Papa drives fast.”

Arthur’s jaw dropped. “She talks?”

Oscar nodded, utterly casual. “She’s started picking up words. Mostly about food and racing. Priorities.”

Arthur put a hand to his chest. “I’m gonna cry. Why is your kid so perfect?”

Oscar just bounced Bee gently in his arms and said, “Because she’s her mother’s daughter.”

Bee gave a soft coo, and when Oscar shifted her gently into a little carrier wrap on his chest, she snuggled in like this was her natural state of being: attached to Papa and silently judging anyone else in the room.

Arthur just shook his head and muttered, “I’m still not over this. You’re not allowed to be this good at racing and parenting. It’s unfair.”

Oscar looked down at his daughter, kissed the top of her head, and said simply, “She’s the only trophy that matters.”

And Arthur, who had come to media day ready to talk about tyre degradation, now had to pretend he wasn’t this close to tearing up in front of the marketing team.

***

[weatherman667]

For those that don't know, "you are so smart, you should be in the marines", is not a compliment. The marines have a reputation for charging head down into the worst of situations. They are literally proud of it.

And they race-swapped Lilo's sitcom archnemesis. Now, Lilo is what, 5? She's not old enough to have an and actual archnemesis. Everything Lilo does is problematic, but understandable. She's a 5 year old autistic kid. It's not much of a stretch to say that, thematically, the actual villains of the movie are about Lilo's fear and uncertainty about losing her family. Especially since the movie's tagline is about building family through adversity. What should hurt her family instead builds it even bigger.

Anyways, Myrtle, is:

A little bitch.

An obstacle that Lilo can actually deal with.

An obstacle she starts to overcome.

White

Race swapping her is mind bogglingly stupid, but on par with the rest of the movie.

My first thought about a Lilo and Stitch live action is that they would make Cobra Bubbles a villain, taking away his nuance, but giving him a cool villain song. Villain songs are often the best part of the movie.

But, what they did was even worse, they could not even IMAGINE Cobra Bubbles actually having benevolent intensions while still being an antagonist in the movie. Especially if the movie is about Lilo's fear of losing her family.

Gantu is also not evil, he's lawful neutral. He's a law enforcement / military officer and Stitch is - quite literally - a weapon of mass destruction. He's evil not because of his intentions, but because of his inattention. He is the banality of evil, as simply doing his duty serves evil ends. And in the series we see him turn into a villain, and get a redemption.

In case anyone was wondering about the Lilo and Stitch movie here’s the highlights from someone chronically online enough to have seen the movie through snippets lol

Nani does in fact give Lilo up to the government, ppl defend it by saying David’s mom is her foster mom now but Lilo is still in fact in the system and can easily be taken away from David’s mom if conditions are “unfit”… the exact same situation Nani was in before lol

Took away all of Nani’s support system that the original movie develops for her except for David/his mom

Had Nani treat Lilo like a burden for “realism”… anyway…

Lilo literally says “you’re so smart Nani, I think you should join the Marines”

Nani was deeply connected to her culture and family, that aspect of her just isn’t there at the end of the day (and part of that is because Sydney is not indigenous Hawaiian and it shows… in looks, actions, and line delivery) and the conclusion to her story being giving up her kid sister to the state and leaving her home for a “better” education and future is atrocious

They had her go to California to study marine biology. First of all, it was implied she was a pro surfer in the og movie no hint of marine biology. Not every persons dream is college and it doesn’t need to be part of everyone’s story… the choice of “putting yourself first” in order to get a better education is very #girlboss… Second of all, Hawaii has multiple universities with marine biology programs that would give far more money and benefits to a native Hawaiian than literally any Californian school let alone UCSD lmao

They changed their island from Kauai to Oahu… most obvious reason they did this was because that is the island their resort is on and overrun with tourists. However, with this location change and their wack ass narrative changes they also made going to California even more blatantly propaganda because that is where the University of Hawaii at Manoa is… ALSO, Oahu has major cities… you know how Sitch has to find new meaning for existence because he can’t do what he was programmed to do because he’s stuck on an island with no big cities… yeah…

On this note, pretty much removed all substantial tourism commentary

Jumba is the villain, he sounds like a whiny computer nerd and it’s miserable

Pleakley is lame, rip queen 🕊️

Lilo is pretty well adjusted and normal lol? No fights, no biting, no trying to curse her enemies etc… she’s literally a normal girl which… alright then???

There is no Gantu (rumor has it this is at its core because they don’t want to make law enforcement look bad)

CGI is literally so fucking bad like besides aesthetics the actors literally don’t point to where Stitch is and when they’re supposed to touch it they often miss lol

Editing is also terrible. Every scene lasts like 5 seconds and is jarring, so genuinely terrible I think shows like this are gonna further ruin kids attention spans lmfao

Nani misses Lilo’s actual performance instead of just being late to pick up Lilo from practice after getting into a fight…

Myrtle isn’t white #diversity win

No ugly duckling subplot

Bubbles is not the social worker and is working against the gang (again removing all of Nani’s support system, he literally shows up for every holiday with the fam in the og)

Changing the social worker role from an externally imposing black man with good intentions to a gentle woman has some undertones tbh considering this is the justification: “According to Camp, it was easy for audiences to believe that a towering man with a "Cobra" tattooed on his knuckles was a social worker in the animated movie​​​​​. However, that kind of exaggerated character design doesn't translate convincingly to live-action.”

The new social worker literally tells Nani that the right thing to do is to give up Lilo… very different from Bubbles doing his best to keep the sisters together. Keeping family together is a prime goal in social work btw…

[meltedbrains]

Mickey Smith and Martha Jones: RTD and race.

The two most notable black characters in the first RTD era of nuwho, but it's not a strong competition, the next runner up is probably 'unnamed american newswoman' (later called Trinity Wells).

It's easy to point at RTD's track record and decry his work as racist, but how bad was it?

Let's give RTD the benefit of the doubt: Mickey was written as a character before Noel Clarke was ever cast. RTD wanted to write the new companion with a home life that she would easily leave: Jackie is overbearing and Mickey is needy. In contrast to Rose's bravery and curiosity, Mickey gets kidnapped, literally cowers from the TARDIS, and whines, constantly.

Mickey is frequently the butt of the joke. The ninth Doctor intentionally gets his name wrong; in Father's Day Jackie says (of his 5 year old self) "God help his girlfriend, if he ever gets one"; in the chase scene in Boom Town he runs into the cleaning cart and gets his foot stuck in a bucket; in School Reunion he realises that he's the k9 equivalent, not another companion; and in The Girl in the Fireplace we have this lovely exchange:

Rose: "No, you can't keep the horse." Doctor: "Why not? I let you keep Mickey."

Mickey is not necessarily a poorly written character, he has a solid arc from whiny to confident; he gets over his jealousy of the Doctor and goes off on his own adventures. He was written as unlikeable (but not too unlikable) so that the audience would want Rose to be with the Doctor (both romantically and on a literal basis), it's also something he grows out of. His characterisation is not the issue. The fact that we learn very little about his life outside of Rose is. We don't know his job or meet his family (we do eventually meet the not-dead version of his nan). It's one thing for him to get stuck in a bucket when everyone else gets to be athletic but why do the other characters need to find any opportunity to insult him?

But on to Martha, she actually does not really have an arc (more on that later). In her first episode she is shown to be smart, headstrong and compassionate. She takes charge in an emergency and saves the day (with help from the Doctor). For some unknown reason the Doctor kisses her, and bafflingly she falls in love (I understand why narratively, but not from a writing room decision). She takes him to task about living in Rose's shadow, but for some reason this plot thread continues for more than three episodes. The Martha that saves the world from the Master is the same Martha that we were introduced to.

She is intentionally written as not Rose. Rose is an only child from a single parent family; Martha has two siblings and two living parents (although divorced). Rose left school at 17; Martha is in medical school. Rose lives on a council estate with her mum; Martha's family has their own house and she has moved out. Rose has a boyfriend; Martha is single.

At the time of writing/airing (2007) RTD was 44, he was, and still is, a cis, white, man. It's hardly surprising that his understanding of race or gender is lacking. He managed to push the envelope by having notable black characters, and maybe that's all we should have asked for, but he could have done better at the time.

The Doctor did not have to be so aggressively rude to Martha about not being Rose. He insisted that their first trip was just a favour after saving him on the moon and the second trip was just to even out past and future travel; Donna meanwhile got invited to travel the universe after just one adventure. RTD (and Moffat) did not have to compare Mickey to an animal on two separate occasions. Martha did not have to get stuck with a human Doctor in 1913 rural England (seriously, this story could happen in any time in any place with little change, I understand that it wants to make a point about WWI but it's not specific enough to matter). Her parents did not need to break up over a young, blonde woman. The Master did not need to enslave her entire family.

Why did the Doctor tell Martha to "walk around like you own the place" when she was worried about being mistaken for a slave? Why did Shakespeare fetishise her for the colour of her skin and 'revealing' clothing? Why did Martha not complain about her straightened hair getting wet in Gridlock and why did it have no effect? (although this would have also been pretty cringey, better to just do away with the rain altogether). Why did Rose know Donna but not Martha? And finally: Why did he marry off his two black characters despite their only scenes being part of an ensemble?

It's pretty obvious that there were no people of colour in the writing room, certainly not any black women. If there were more black (or generally poc) characters these flaws would not be so bad, or obvious. But there aren't and they are.

A lot of the complaints against Martha's writing can be chalked up to sexism, and they're right. So, does sexism better explain RTD's bad writing? All three of his companions mothers (Jackie, Francine and Sylvia) are essentially the same person: overbearing, loud, skeptical of the Doctor, and quick to anger and violence. The companions leave with the Doctor, in part, to get away from them (Martha literally walks away from her family's arguing, that she was made to mediate earlier in the episode). You'd be hard pressed to argue that he's not trying to make a point. But so often discrimination walks hand in hand with itself. For a long time Martha was the only companion of colour (I don't think Mickey counts). Other characters frequently pointed out her one sided love for the Doctor and despite realising that they were treating her unfairly she never got the same treatment as Rose or Donna. Although there is sexism in his writing it doesn't quite explain why Martha seemed worse off than the other companions. A lot of the plot points she goes through look different viewed with the lens of racial inequality. The writers keep making the point that racism is wrong, but they keep putting Martha in situations where she is discriminated against. Their addressing of it is rarely head-on; characters will say something racist (normally in a laughable, dated, sort of way), Martha will say it's racist and then the plot will continue. No harm, no foul.

RTD has since conceded that he should have written a better character arc for Martha than 'woman realises man is not over his ex, stops travelling with him and joins a paramilitary science group.' (At least they gave her a good personality to make up for it).

Maybe he will realise that there is an undercurrent of racism right next to the sexism in his writing. I wouldn't hold your breath.

Fast forward nearly 20 years to 2024 and RTD is back, this time with a black Doctor and (in 2025) a new poc companion. In direct contrast to Martha's concerns the Doctor now experiences racism and prefers Lagos to historical England; Ruby steps on a butterfly and completely changes history. Is this an apology? Does this make up for his treatment of Mickey Smith and particularly Martha Jones and Freema Agyeman? No.

Neither the 15th Doctor nor Belinda get a character arc for their tenure (and depending on your interpretation, we never really meet Belinda), and Belinda is completely overshadowed by the younger, blonde, woman that preceded her (with the worst sidelining I've ever seen for the series finale, you'd think she was filmed separately and added in in post). In his first era RTD had Daleks appear in every season: 1 solo episode, 1 two-parter and three two part season finales. Rose fought them three times, Martha twice and Donna once. In his re-re-boot RTD broke from his usual pattern but still relied on Classic Who villains; yet Gatwa is the only Doctor not to fight Daleks, Cybermen or The Master, the so-called 'big three' of villains. There was a notable absence of aliens and big set pieces, more contained episodes than before (1 bottle, 2 Doctor-lite) and no two-parters outside of the finales. With a standard runtime this wouldn't be noticeable, but as it is there is far less time for the characters to breathe. Ruby is the only one of the main three characters to feel truly fleshed out (no wonder, she got the Christmas special, both solo episodes, and the season finales, bringing her up to standard run of 12 episodes). Knowing you have a reduced run time why did you not focus on the characters you had? Character work is what you're meant to be good at.

There are two versions of the 10th Doctor running around - one in a parallel Earth with Rose (why is it her job to heal him?) and one on our Earth with Donna - and for whatever reason Billie Piper will be back on our screens. RTD is forcing us all to relive his 'glory days' with him and his poc characters are paying the price.

RTD's worst written characters are all poc, even those that get good characterisation or development are treated unfairly by other characters or the narrative. It's impossible to ignore that these actors and their characters are poc and it's impossible to ignore the differences between them and their white counterparts. The 10th doctor moved past Rose and started treating Donna better in one episode but couldn't afford the same respect to Martha after thirteen.

I think RTD did the best he could with what he had, it's just that what he had wasn't good enough. He didn't have the experience or the ability to write meaningfully about black characters and should have brought more writers into the room with him. But unintentional racism is still racism. Mickey and Martha were both second best to white romantic options; Rose left Mickey for the Doctor and the Doctor could never love Martha after Rose. Had there been more poc characters this would just be romantic tension; Mickey wasn't a great boyfriend and the Doctor simply wasn't interested in Martha. He shouldn't have compared Mickey to K9, the Doctor had previously travelled with multiple companions at once, including men, it's unnecessary and inaccurate. He shouldn't have kept writing Martha into scenarios where she would have to fight back against racism: 3 of her episodes are set in the future, 5 are in the past (two, two-parters) and 4 are modern day (including the finale). You couldn't imagine a 'post-racism' world were Dr Jones and Mr Smith were both teachers hiding from the family of blood as world war 4 loomed over the students?

So, has it gotten better? The writing room and the supporting cast are more diverse, and 15 got two(!) whole episodes that explored race and discrimination (with it being explicitly mentioned in others). The writing and production department seem aware that race is an important factor in a character's life and that they need to do better than before. Maybe the fault lies with Disney and their production schedule, the unknown future of the series and whether the actors would be available. Whatever the case, Belinda ended up with a flatter character than Martha and neither her nor the 15th Doctor got a character arc before leaving. That feels like a step forward in visual representation and two steps back in character writing. Belinda is largely... there.

It seems unlikely that Mickey or Martha will ever return, Noel Clarke is too controversial and Freema Agyeman seems to have a successful career of her own (although she has apparently returned to the UK). Despite UNIT playing a large role in the last two series, there has been no mention of either character and the 10th Doctor saving them in The End of Time may well be their last appearance. Belinda seems unwilling to travel with the Doctor while she has to take care of Poppy and 15 has just regenerated into Billie Piper (he could still return for special episodes). Who knows when we'll get the next poc character, maybe a companion, maybe the Doctor again.

And where does that leave us, the audience? Do we rejoice in more poc characters on screen and the handful of moments or episodes that make this known through dialogue or plot points? Or maybe we should ask that all the characters get thought out writing, including the poc. Satisfying can be the next step, let's just have an arc.

The envelope has already been pushed with their inclusion, let's keep pushing it. And replace RTD, his time is past.

[furiousflamingfeline]

1. I like Harry Pitt in the context of my autistic headcanons for him, and the fact that he is often the loser that tries to ask out Blossom first in every Blossick story. I decided to try writing the pairing as a non serious thing and then accidentally liked it. Harry in canon? Oh yeah it’s definitely problematic, Cootie Gras isn’t anywhere close to one of my favorite episodes, and the stuff that happens in it definitely isn’t good. But I’ll never understand the mental gymnastics people do to justify why Blossom’s attempted murderer eventually dating her is somehow better than a kid who tried to kiss her when he was 5. (Keeping in mind, too, that all of these things are happening to 5 year olds. I have an autistic 4 year old. Sometimes she licks my face… we’re working on that 😊 but it’s developmentally appropriate behavior to test and learn boundaries at that age!) Again, I don’t blame you for your headcanons, but it’s hypocritical to turn around and make excuses for the RRB for much worse. Just admit we all like the characters we like and stop attaching moral reasons to it… man I miss ship wars from back in the day when people just liked or disliked ships and that was that.

2. Oh yeah, he definitely rants often on the subreddit. He still doesn’t hate the RRB tho, just the fandom’s obsession with them and every other post in the subreddit being “what if there was a RRB spinoff????” or “sorry if I get downvoted but I ship RRBxPPG!” Like come off it. You absolutely can ship PPGxRRB, but let’s not act like PPGxRRB shippers are some sort of oppressed minority.

3. I wouldn’t call my initial post cherry-picking when the example I chose to post about is literally 80% of fandom content. Sorry I didn’t have much to contribute about the rest of your commentary, since “rapists and pedophiles are bad” isn’t a very discussion worthy topic. But since I apparently need to say it: pedos, rape and rapists are bad and the dark topics @boobeam-trap and I have written about are, in fact, fictional. Again, nothing being posted about on AO3 is harming anyone IRL. There are many subjects I do not want to read about and like you said, those tags can be filtered out! Easy solve! And if someone isn’t tagging their shit, report or call them out. But Archive of our own is an archive, so just because you don’t like something on there doesn’t mean it shouldn’t exist.

Anyway PPGxRRB wasn’t even the point of my initial comment. I’m just begging people to post ADULT AUs. I’m just so freaking tired of high school.

Every ppg fic on ao3:

Ppgxrrb highschool au that has very little emphasis on their powers and is probably heavily inspired by more than human (or at least the characterisation it popularised)

Mojo x blossom (she's still a child)

Brick x reader (hes still a child)

This Is Obviously A Fetish And Yet It Was Given The Teen Rating

The rowdyruff boys are rapists

Every ppg fic on fanfiction.net

What if blossom Died

[maegalkarven]

Good thing Levi and Gortash become immortals and live for a long ass time, bc with the way these two behave, I have a feeling it would take them at least a century to actually mature enough to have a normal in-depth conversation.

[raikirikiri]

i am just so enamored by kakashi's ninken pack. like he really just has 8 dogs that he dresses up. i think that little part tells us so much about kakashi's character. he's caring and he likes cute things. he's not just a battle hardened veteran shinobi, he has puppies too!!! and how did he meet them? are they inherited? is there like a choosing process? did sakumo put baby kakashi in front of three dogs and kakashi toddled over to pakkun? were the pack a pack before kakashi? there's just so many questions i have about the pack. kakashi's summons being 8 doggies is just sooooooooo HMMM he's perfect. his doggies are perfect. one of them even wears sunglasses. why? who's to say! maybe akino is blind, maybe he just wants to look cool!

also the fact that they wear konoha headbands? why? akamaru doesn't and he's a ninken. is it because they're a summons? but so is gamabunta and gamakichi and katsuyu but they don't wear headbands. is there a special rule about it? did kakashi just put them on his puppies? is he so far deep in konoha shinobi propoganda that even his puppies must be in uniform? or did he think it, like the henohenomoheji capes, looked cute. there's so many ways to think about it.

i love the ninken. kakashi and his 8 doggies. i wish we saw more of them

[leblogreblog]

You know how's there been that post about Bruce knowing that Shazam is actually a kid and treating him as such while confusing everyone around because why Batman is so soft for this 30-something dude for no reason?

I want to see the same with Jason as Red Hood with this One Goon (ekhm-Bill-ekhm) that for some reason Knows with everyone confused why he gets to call their boss kid and this one time he catched him drinking booze he swipped it out his hand and their boss Red Hood, the same that very publicly cut off heads of several mafia leaders heads, only potuted and said he's no fun???

[thou-babbling-brook]

Why was he more excited about that damn guillotine gun than anything else in that dlc LMFAO

[puppetmaster13u]

Prompt 201

So, Danny is definitely not running from a cop right now. 

He’s also not been de-aged to like, eight years old or something and is running from said cop after hitting him in the kneecaps after he got caught maybe stealing a tire. Jazz- currently like twelve- would be so disappointed if that was the case after all, ha… 

Oh Ancients both Jordan and Ellie (currently turned mini like he was) will laugh at him if he got caught and needed to be bailed out! He just needed a couple of tires to sell dangit! And no one would care if he stole a cop’s tires, this place’s police were all corrupt anyway if word on the street was to go by! 

Go away, he was just trying to get money for food dangit! 

[rookanisstuff]

Ooh it’s got a little kick to it 😦

[kawareo]

As a fan of both Invincible and Transformers, I need to say that Cybertronians would wipe the floor with the Viltrumite empire in like. A week.

Now don't get me wrong, a 1v1? Viltrumite could break apart a Cybertronian like a bug. But an actual, planet-sized war?

Viltrumites could not infiltrate an inorganic planet the way they can with Earth and similar. Cybertron is canonically not involved in other planets' alliances because theyve just been at war with eachother for millions of years and no organics want any part in that. So, the only strategy Viltrum would have, is to attack head on (and ngl that's been most of their strategies so far anyway. Punching.).

So they attack, they absolutely win the first battle easily, Autobots and Deceptions probably still refuse to work together to face a new threat in most universes (no way would Megs do that, he'd claim they can deal with that themselves). Optimus would offer a peace meeting but when Viltrumites would demand a surrender, that would get blown out of the water, too, and now it's all in.

All I'm going to say is that Cybertronians are way smarter than the smartest Viltrumite. Shockwave himself would whip out a plague that would target their specie specifically in like a week, dude does way worse on his average work day! Soundwave's most basic attack would knock a Viltrumite off of the sky (hell, even his cassettes would do that). At one point a Viltrumite would fly straight through someone's spark and that thing would explode so hard it'd wipe out anyone nearby.

All I'm saying is that the moment Cybertron is able to take a breath and make a plan, Viltrumites are done for. These bots have been fighting eachother for control of their planet for five million years, you really think they'd just surrender it over? To what, some guys that can punch really hard and are slightly tougher than your average organic?

So anyway my headcanon is that Cybertron exists in Invincible universe but literally noone wants to risk getting in contact with them. Viltrum included and they claim it's because they have nothing to gain from an inorganic specie.

[phier]

Finished Plague Tale: Innocence yesterday....

[stiffyck]

I love bad art so much. I love when people just scribble and do random brush strokes and I love seeing artists just not care if the end result looks pleasing or good. I love when people do art just because it's fun.

[hauntingmiser]

Why just imagine someone scolding maruki for doing the medical malpractice he done and getting really mad about it but instead of basically bitch slap him, they just straight up send maruki to a corner with a stool chair and he have to put on a hat that says dumb printed on it.

*maruki saddened and trying to do a puppy dog face to try and get his ass out of trouble*

Someone : DON'T YOU GIVE ME THOSE PUPPY DOG EYES YOUNG MAN!!!!

maruki : :(

[introspectivememories]

tiktok hunger games fans are like the fucking worst. half of them are so desperate to let people know that there's a Message to the book and that they understood the Morals and Themes and Messages of the book that cant look past book canon or have some fun and the other half is making ocs and slapping katniss and peeta's name on them while making the most outlandish conspiracy theories. you cant fucking do anything on there

[rapidhighway]

writing my little fanfic and coming to the horrifying realization that people will probably read Knuckles' voice with his new game voice or perhaps his movie VA instead of the only good one... the sa2.....