#ALSO. sutekh has a ruby in his head.

[momett]

ruby sunday should have been the daughter of one of the susans created by sutekh. this concept fills so many plot holes left in this season and makes the themes of family and identity much more coherent and stronger, in this essay i will

[mw-draws]

okay so we all agree that in 73 Yards, old Ruby says "I bring Sutekh's gift of death to all of humanity" and that's why everyone runs away from Ruby

[socialistexan]

Throwing out my "Who Is Ruby Sunday's Mother/Parent" guesses early enough before the episode:

Rose Tyler: Hear me out, the last time Rose came back (in end of series 4), it was because, and quote, "the walls of the universes are weakened." What happened when with the Not-Things and the salt in Wild Blue Yonder? The walls of the Universes weakened. Rose could have come in, dropped off her child (that is potentially half the meta-crisis Doctor's?) and that's Ruby. Also potential for a Rose Tyler and Rose Noble meeting which is the stuff of my dreams.

Susan: Why spend all that time building Susan back up if not for that? I know right now it's just a misdirect or a red herring, but I feel like there must be something to it, with all the mentions and references. Pyramids of Mars also had subtle references (more subtle than Susan's) through out.

River Song: Maybe the hints at Susan being the Doctor's granddaughter and the Doctor saying they don't have a daughter yet might be hinting at Ruby being the daughter of his wife (and potentially his daughter)

The Trickster: there's the potential of using Ruby as a power play by the Trickster against Sutekh and the rest of the pantheon. Also a character lesser known from RTD's era, referenced in the end of series 4 (Turn Left) and the only pantheon member both not seen in the episode and originating during RTD's original era.

Mrs Flood: There would have to be time travel shenanigans for this work, but this is Time Travel Shenanigans The Show, so soft maybe here. She's been built up and headed and that would be neat to have her watching over Ruby from afar, she's also not precluded from being any of the rest of the list.

Any older female companion: Really any female companion that's been on Earth and is young/old enough to have a baby in 2004 and isn't Rose. Ace has already made a reappearance in Power of the Doctor, so she might be out (but I love Ace so much that I wish it was her). Older classic companions like Sarah Jane, Jo, Liz, Mel, and Tegan are probably a touch too old, but not by much, and iirc there aren't any other classic female companions that stayed on Earth and could have potentially had a child in 2004 (Nyssa, Peri, and Leela all left the TARDIS on different worlds)

Some random person we've never met and Russel was just fucking with us: come on, it would be kinda funny.

[what-gs-watching]

“What good did love do, Doctor? When did it ever help?”

So I spent last week at my parent’s house finally pulling off the surprise birthday party I’d been planning for months for my mother and I was there for farrrrr too long and I ate waaaay too much and I only had six days from when I got home to get my head right and ready to start a new job after nine effing months of doing nothing. 

I’m starting on Monday and I’m super anxious about it, and everyone is posting about what’s going on with Doctor Who so obviously I decided to let Ruby and 15 turn my brain off for a bit, it’s the least they can do. Maybe that was a mistake, because woooooof y’all. I’m devastated that the season is already over. 

And as such, we def need to talk about both of these episodes at the same time. 

The Legend of Ruby Sunday / Empire of Death

Wherein, The Doctor and Ruby show up to UNIT to finally ask about the old woman they keep running into on their adventures, and immediately very purposefully fall into a trap. 

I have to say, as much as I love 15, baby boy has NOT been very observant this season. He’s caught up in having fun and showing his feelings and all of that is fantastic and beautiful but if this had been 10 or 11 they would have been mulling over this situation the entirety of the season and I probably wouldn’t feel so much like I just got whiplash. 

Like, the internet has been telling me to think about this random ass lady, instead of seeing the Doctor trying to puzzle her out in his downtime. And that’s the first time I’ve really thought to myself, ‘this is incredibly unlike the doctor.’ But we’re going to let it slide, because he’s otherwise charmed the pants off of me.

There was a lot I was definitely about in these episodes, in no particular order - 

OBVIOUSLY, the Rose / Ruby bonding. Absolutely adorable. They immediately gravitated to each other and I love that. It’s so sweet. And I’ll take ANY scrap of 14 I can get, but 15 asking ‘how’s your uncle?’ really made me greedy for more. Couldn’t my girl Rose given like, even the smallest cute little anecdote? Like ‘oh, he’s really into gardening right now…’ or something? Gimme like, even the littlest bit. I neeeed it. But fine. 

15’s outfits. I’ve loved all of the stuff they’ve put him in all season but HELLO that leather jacket and the cozy sweater he had on in the mish mash TARDIS? Gorgeous. Beautiful. I want to buy it right now.

Also, the mish mash TARDIS itself, and the little kiss 15 gives it at one point. Love all the random throwbacks inside that little thing even if I don’t know most of them because no, I never went back and watched the original seasons, so sue me. I’m pretty sure I spotted 11’s little scanner tv thing though, and I love that. I miss Matt Smith. 

And the Doctor lashing out and punching the wall and huffing and puffing and screaming and then Mel giving him a kick in the ass. I’m going to keep talking about how I love that 15 is actually okay with showing his feelings, but I do think he got too lost in them. We all been there, boo. But like, you heard that sick TARDIS sound (that’s going to haunt my dreams) and you were just like ‘oh I’ve heard that before’? BOY you are so distracted. 

Anyway, I’m vaguely aware there’s background on Sutekh that I should probably google if I want to fully understand the situation, but I’m not gonna do it. I accept that it’s the god of death and the doctor fought it once and banished it to the time vortex, but I have to say, I find the rest of the storyline a little bit weird. It hitched a ride on the TARDIS and traveled with the Doctor for basically untold amounts of time and no one ever noticed? And it’s appearance is NOT related to 14 casting that salt at the end of the universe, even though it was pretty clear that the rest of the random god appearances were? 

I guess I’m willing to accept all of that, but gang. Here’s the thing. After all of that time traveling around and watching the Doctor do what he does (and admittedly trying to sabotage him by planting harbingers? I guess? Wherever they went?) you’re still not going to kill him right off when you finally hatch your plot? You KNOW he gets out of things. You know he literally gets out of everything. You’ve watched him wiggle his way out of shit because his adversaries have given him an inch but you’re like ‘it’s fine, that won’t be me, because I REALLY need to know who this random human’s mother is?’ 

Nah. Nah nah nah. Like, maybe if you had really tried to kill him and he got out of it, I’d be like, ‘okay fine’ but that death cloud was half-assed and they beat it on like, a moped. 

If we’re going with real scary gods that have literally the power of basically everything, I’m gonna want their actions to make sense. 

I also have to admit that when the Doctor was monologuing about how the whole thing was his fault, when he said about all of the things he’s done “I thought it was fun”, I found myself thinking about how he really has been playing a game of his own devising and maybe he…shouldn’t. And it felt like maybe he thought that, too. Like, when is it gonna be enough for him? 

The point is, It’s super sweet that Ruby got to figure her shit out, they got me I cried at all of that, but the whole thing did feel a little disjointed to me. Which is fine, because now I’m sitting here like, ‘yo I need more’ but there isn’t more, not for forever, and clearly that’s how they get you. The arch wasn’t a cliff hanger really but also it kind of was and I’m unsatisfied. Maybe that’s the point. 

And I do now agree with Tumblr that the most interesting thing in all of this is how 14 and Donna reacted to the death cloud, and their reconstitution, and the realization that Rose was at UNIT during the entire thing - that’s going to occupy my brain for a really long time.

At the end of the day, eight episodes was not enough. But I’m SO  endeared to 15 and I love the direction the show is going, haters can hate all they want but Doctor Who was always weird and it was always for outcasts and it’s beautiful and stupid and silly and wonderful. Wonderful and perfectly imperfect. 

Friends, this season came at a time I really needed it. I'm thankful it helped me through my forced work hiatus, it's part of the tapestry that kept me going. And that's the good that love does. Doctor Who, I love you.

[bethanythebogwitch]

Doctor Who - the Empire of Death

This was honestly one the better season finales written by Davies, but that is a very low bar. None of the new series show runners have been anywhere near as good at writing long-running storylines as they think they are. Sutekh was kind of wasted as a villain. He got less to go on than in the original story, where he was obsessed with ending all life out of paranoia that eventually something might evolve that could surpass him. Here he's just a generic bad guy who wants to kill everything for no real given reason. His defeat was also pretty silly. You're telling me that the god who scared the piss out of the Toymaker couldn't get out of a rope? Yeah it's a science rope, but its still a rope. The Toymaker and the Maestro could casually alter reality but the guy who scares both of them is beaten by a hook. Also, Sutekh survives being dumped into the time vortex the first time and the big solution to him returning even more power is to dump him in the vortex again. Brilliant plan. The Toymaker and Maestro were beaten in a way consistent with their godly domain (losing a game and finding a specific sequence of music). It would have been a lot cooler if Sutekh's defeat followed that trend. Use some kind of symbolic defeat of death to undo his actions.

Calling back to 73 Yards without even attempting to explain what in the sam hell was going on in that episode is kind of annoying. You could have tied the blatant magic of that plot into the pantheon, but nope.

The reveal of Ruby's mom's identity was silly. I guess I can buy Suteks thinking she was pointing at him and his paranoia of thinking she somehow saw him resulting in him accidentally imbuing her with powers by believing she had powers. That's not really what the show went with, but I can pretend.

Ruby referring to her bio mom as her real mom was a big oof moment. A real slap in the face to her adoptive mom.

Davies is so obsessed with giving bizarre hints to future stories he's now doing it as a season-ending cliffhanger. "Ooh, who is the mysterious neighbor? You'll just have to keep watching to find out!". Moffat did that too during 11's run and he ended up having too much hanging plot threads with the Silence, church, Kovarian, Trenzalore, etc that he had to slam it together in one absolute mess of a finale. Please don't do that again. That being said, it really speaks to how awful of a head writer Chibnal was that Davies can still write circles around him.

Consistently through the new series the season-long story arcs have been my least favorite part of each season. I much prefer the standalone episodes. The classic show almost never did running plotlines. The only ones I can think of off the top of my head are the key to time and trial of a time lord arcs, the latter of which was so bad it almost killed the show. I would love a season of nothing but standalone episodes with maybe a two-parter or two.

If you want a (in my opinion) better take on the Doctor fighting gods, the Big Finish audio drama elder gods storyline is a better one, consisting of the dramas House of Blue Fire, Protect and Survive, Black and White, Gods and Monsters, Afterlife, and Signs and Wonders. There's some backstory involved, but I didn't listen to most of that and still followed the story just fine. A Big Finish story featuring Sutekh that I liked better than this episode is the two parter of Kill the Doctor!, and The Age of Sutekh, found on the Fourth Doctor Adventures season 7 volume 2 collection. And if you haven't seen Sutekh's debut in the Pyramids of Mars, drop everything and go watch it now.

This season only getting 8 episodes was criminal. Next season better be at least 12. Fucking Disney+. 15 is a fantastic Doctor and Ruby ended up growing on me a lot even after the Christmas episode put a bad taste in my mouth. I do think the show has pulled itself out of the hole the late Moffat and Chibnal eras dug for it. Not saying there's weren't good episodes in those eras, but I do think this season helped bring new Who back to its late-RTD/early Moffat high point.

[secret-diary-of-an-fa]

Doctor Who: Empire of Death Review (Sutekh is, and I Don't Say this Lightly, a BAD DOG)

Here we are: the conclusion to an eight episode run that’s given us such memorable villains as The Slugs That Didn’t Move While On Camera and Cos-Playing Murder-Owls. Look, I said ‘memorable’ not ‘compelling’. In fairness, it also gave us Jinkx Monsoon hamming it up as the deranged deity of music, Maestro, but the more I think about The Devil’s Chord, the more annoyed I become that it got permission to use the Beatles and then only gave 50% of them speakin’ lines, so I don’t want to dwell on it. This time, the Doctor is facing Sutekh, the god of death, who looks a lot more like a jackal in this episode than he did in The Legend of Ruby Sunday (where he looked suspiciously mouse-like from some angles). And, spoiler alert, he’s the best thing in it. Within a few minutes of the episode opening, he’s turned the entire population of Earth to dust, hijacked the TARDIS to serve as his temple and revealed that he’s been following in the Doctor’s wake for countless millennia in order to plant his sleeper agents on every planet the Time Lord has ever visited. As a result, the entire universe falls to his ‘Death Wave’ and reality dies a tragic (and surprisingly sandy) death. Great! That’s a Doctor Who villain worthy of the finale. But how’s the rest of it?

Well, it’s nice that the Doctor actually gets to do things in this episode: seeking out metal in a dead universe order to create an interface that will let him look backwards in time; hunting down Ruby’s mother because Sutekh can’t see her and she might, therefore, be the key to unravelling his dominion, and finally trapping the god of death in a death-trap of his own, “bringing death to death” and therefore reversing all his little shenanigans. For quite a lot of this season (the murder-owls episode and bits of Boom being the exception) his role has been providing exposition and then crying in a corner. For the entirety of the giant slugs one he was reduced to a floating VT in a holographic box, except at the end when he showed up in person to have a good scream and a weep over how stupid and self-defeating racism is. Not so much Doctor Who as Doctor Boohoo, amiright? Oh, fuck off. I’ll write better puns when you start paying me and not a minute sooner. I also liked the Doctor’s solution to the Sutekh problem itself: dragging him through the Time Vortex on a specialised bungee like a bad dog being dragged home from the park, using his death-energy to bring life until he straight-up fucking disintegrates. It’s just the right combination of silly and bad-ass and suits the general tone of Who very well.

I’m not a fan, however, of the stupid bloody speech he gives while doing it, in which he bangs on about how he represents life and killing Sutekh is a violation of his moral code that he has been driven to only by extremis. Piss off. The Doctor kills people with frankly sociopathic frequency. The first thing this incarnation did after parting ways with Fourteen was impale a giant goblin on the spike of a church (which is murder and desecration-of-a-religious-building at once). Peter Capaldi’s Twelve once shot a fellow Time Lord in the head and acted like regeneration was just man-flu, when we know very well it’s a kind of dying and rebirth. He also might have pushed a cyborg out of a balloon to fall to his death. Eleven used post-hypnotic suggestion to convince the entire human race to slaughter the Silence on sight, planted a missile homing beacon on some dude’s ship, blew up a planet-full of Cybermen and fed a completely different god of death potential memories until he imploded. Ten once tricked Mark Gatiss into falling off a tall building (though, in fairness, he wasn’t Mark Gatiss at the time: he was a big lizard-thing). Nine engineered the deaths of the Slitheen, the Jagrofess and the Last Human without a second thought. And that’s just the ones from the modern series that I can think of off the top of my head. Give me an hour on Google and I could come up with more (though it is weird, in retrospect, to realise just how trigger-happy Eleven was). I think it speaks to a bigger problem with Who at the moment: Americanisation. See, American morality is more Kantian; more dependent on rigid, inflexible rules (which is fucking weird for a nation that still practices the barbarism of the death penalty, by the way). Whereas British morality is typically more utilitarian; more predicated on what will do the most practical good in any given situation and therefore laced with innumerable grey areas. The Doctor suddenly being uncomfortable with killing feels like Disney’s influence at work: an attempt to sand down his more alien and hostile edges to make him palatable to an American audience (who originally got into the show because it was a slice of British culture that they couldn’t get from their own country’s entertainment industry. Look, let me put it this way: As a Brit, I don’t watch anime to see British values and ideals recapitulated, I watch it because I find it refreshing to encounter the heroic ideals of a different culture that doesn’t think the way my own culture does. Same thing).

I’m also not best pleased with the plot holes. Ruby meets her mum at the end and it’s revealed that she’s just… some rando. The explanation we get for why Sutekh couldn’t see her is that her identity and absence were of such critical importance to Ruby that they somehow twisted the universe and made her important. Which would be fine, except that only makes sense if Ruby is some sort of cosmic being with reality-bending powers. But if her mum is just some rando (and her dad’s a feckless adolescent, as it turns out), how can she be a cosmic being with reality-bending powers? Was it her time in the TARDIS? No, because the Doctor’s genuinely surprised by her (apparently unrelated ability) to make it fucking snow. If that was the sign of a deeper malaise, you’d think he’d have spent enough time travelling in the TARDIS to spot the signs.

Anyhoo, I’d like to take a moment to address Ncuti Gatwa’s acting. I’ve been saying all season that he’s a good actor and that the show needs to give him more to do with his talents than get all teary-eyed and spout expository dialogue (my phrasing has not, however, been that concise). Now I get to see him being the Doctor, really for the only time aside from Rogue (Boom doesn’t count: it was amazing, but our hero was stranded on a landmine from beginning to end, which limited the scope of things he could do quite a lot). The point is that, while I’m still convinced there’s a good actor in there somewhere, there’s also something missing that each episode director has failed to request and Gatwa has failed to provide spontaneously. I’m talking about something that’s going to sound stupid until you think about it: superfluous movement. Nine, Ten and Eleven (also Fourteen) were constantly in motion; constantly reacting to their environment and interacting with the set in interesting way, whether it was Christopher Eccleston picking up and toying with the random detritus of human culture or David Tenant constantly fiddling with technology, striding off purposefully at the drop of a hat (sometimes in the wrong direction) and just general projecting physicality, or even Matt Smith bouncing around the whole set and occasionally breaking bits off it, the Doctor’s always felt like a being with a lot of energy. Twelve was stiffer and more rigid in his movements, but that was a specific part of his characterisation: he was older, grumpier, more worn-down. Gatwa’s fifteen, however, is characterised as breezy and bombastic… but he never moves more than the script calls for. It’s hard to spot at first: you just have a vague sense that something isn’t right here, but once you’ve realised what it is that’s up, you can’t unsee it. He reacts and interacts only as literally demanded by the script. There’s no superfluous tics, no kinetic flourishes, no playfulness in how he responds to each environment… and it makes both him and the worlds he visits feel flatter and less alive. I don’t want to blame him too much for it: it might be that the show costs so much to make now that he’s been told to be careful and not risk breaking anything, but it is a problem and it reaches its apotheosis in The Empire of Death. Simply put, David Tenant could make a ball-game on a roof feel like a battle for the fate of the world, but even when Gatwa is dragging Sutekh through the Time Vortex and reality is being ripped open around them, his movements are so economical and rehearsed it’s impossible to forget you’re watching a telly show. You feel nothing. Or I didn’t anyway. Maybe you’re less sensitised to this sort of thing than I am. I do watch a lot of media and know a lot about how it gets made, which means I pick up on issues other people miss. So, er, mileage may vary.

Overall, I did quite enjoy Empire of Death. It’s solid enough cosmic fiction, but is also has that ‘first draft’ quality that turned me against The Star Beast. Everything in it is good enough, but no better. I wonder, maybe, if the root of the problem is RTD himself just taking on too large a portion of the writing duties. Running a show and writing scripts for a show are two very difficult, very demanding jobs, which is why the Showrunner usually farms out a lot of the script-writing to people who have the time and energy to do it well. This also leaves the Showrunner free to focus their own writing efforts on the episodes that really matter. For example, would Empire of Death have been better, if RTD hadn’t stretched himself thin personally scribing Dot and Bubble and The Devil’s Chord? Almost certainly.

Here’s hoping he learns how to delegate in time for Gatwa’s second season. And that they start using sets the actors are allowed to actually interact with.

PS. The new sonic screwdriver is rubbish. It looks like a TV remote fucked the Starship Enterprise. I hadn't mentioned that yet, so there ya go.

[biscuits-of-bagend]

DnDoc, The God of Rock 'n' Roll #2 - The Saviour of the Broken

Part 1

Previous stories: DnDoc, Coming Home DnDoc, Space Band DnDoc, A Man's a Man

---

The Doctor looked up and down the street to check nobody was watching, let out a short breath, then sang, "When I was, a young boy, my father, took me into the city…?"

   The person looked up and stared at the Doctor. Their mouth moved mechanically, their voice speaking more than singing. "To see a marching band." They kept staring for a while longer then, voice lowered, said, "How do you know that song? Nobody in the world knows that song."

   "But you do," said the Doctor.

   "Yeah but I don't know how," they said. "It just sort of… came into my head."

   "Just like the others over here?" asked Ruby, gesturing towards the array of lyrics lining the street.

   The person followed Ruby's gaze, then looked back at the Doctor and nodded. "Yeah, like those."

   The Doctor looked from Ruby to Rogue. They both also seemed concerned, either about the person's well-being or the situation or both.

   "Could we offer you a cup of tea?" said the Doctor.

   "Tea?" the person frowned.

   "Or coffee," said the Doctor. He smiled and added, "I hang around Brits too much."

   "No, tea is good," said the person. "Just, where? We're in the middle of the street."

   "Don't worry, we know a place," said the Doctor.

🎸🎸🎸

"C'mon, please, I promise Donna is miles and miles away. She hasn't even been born yet," the Doctor whispered to the TARDIS. But it still wouldn't produce any hot drinks. The Doctor groaned and said, "Yes, I realise Ruby hasn't been born yet either, but you are well aware that unlike Ruby, Donna is not in a time machine. Please? There's clearly a problem here and we need this person to feel comfortable enough to talk it out."

   There was a matching groaning sound from the TARDIS - horrifyingly Sutekh-like - but a moment later a cup of tea rose out of a disc on the console. The Doctor picked up the cup - bamboo plastic, with a sealed lid - and smiled at the TARDIS.

   "Thank you."

   The TARDIS made a rattling grumble sound.

   The Doctor held the cup by the rubber grip and took it up to the living quarters where he'd left Ruby, Rogue and the stranger. Other than potential vitamin D deficiency, the person didn't seem to be ill, so instead of taking them to the sickbay they'd first guided Rogue too, they'd sat down in the lounge area that adjoined Ruby and the Doctor's bedrooms. The Doctor placed the cup of tea on a coffee table in front of the stranger, who was sitting a little stiffly on one of the couches. Ruby was next to them, making conversation. Rogue was sitting on the opposite couch and seemed to be watching the situation unfold. Around them, round-things on the walls like from the console room provided warm yellow light.

   As the Doctor sat down next to him, Rogue whispered, "You probably don't remember because of how everything worked out when we met, but I am so not good with strangers."

   The Doctor chuckled quietly. "Oh, honey, I remember. You were kind of a dick even before you tried to kill me."

   Rogue's gaze dropped to his lap. "I am so sorry about that. The trying to kill you part."

   The Doctor quickly put his hand over Rogue's. "Not the being a dick part?"

   Rogue looked up at him and there was a flicker of a smile. "To be fair you were kind of annoying too, at the start."

   "It's okay," said the Doctor. "The dick part and the murder part. The rudeness was hot and the murder was unsuccessful."

   "A lot of the best murders are unsuccessful."

   "But not all?"

   "My boss has sent me after some spectacularly evil targets before."

   Ruby cleared her throat and said, "Hey, guys? This is fascinating, like, philosophically. But could it wait til later?"

   Rogue pursed his lips and there was a grin glinting in his eye. He drew a careful breath and said, "Sorry, Ruby."

   "Yes, apologies." The Doctor turned back towards the stranger. "Hi, friend. What's your name?"

   "Hi," said the stranger. "I'm Jordan."

   "And how about pronouns?"

   "Huh?"

   "As in like 'he' or 'she'? Or something else?" said the Doctor. To the Doctor's knowledge, those were the only pronouns in use in 1960s Houston, though it wouldn't have surprised him to learn others were used in particular circles. But with lyrics from the future, why not pronouns? And the person had quite long, curly black hair, and a very soft voice, so the Doctor hadn't felt confident in guessing between 'he' and 'she' anyway.

   "Um, 'he'," said Jordan.

   "So, how are you today, Jordan?" said the Doctor.

   "Well, I feel like shit," said Jordan, frowning at the question. "Like I do every day."

   "Oh, I'm sorry to hear that," said the Doctor. He waited a moment as Jordan took a big sip of tea. "Is there anything we could do to help you, at least for today?"

   "Tell me how you know that song," said Jordan. "The one you sang, about the marching band."

   Jordan was so brusque that he reminded the Doctor of Rogue when they'd first met. Maybe it was because they'd just been talking about that night, but the Doctor felt a sudden rush of warmth towards Rogue, which prompted him to give Rogue's hand a squeeze. Rogue seemed to have had a similar thought, because he just gave the Doctor a quick smile then nodded his head towards Jordan.

   "Right, yes. Sorry, Jordan," said the Doctor. He looked back at Jordan, and noticed that the muscles around his eyes had started to twitch. A short sob escaped him.

   "Sorry," said Jordan. He looked up at the ceiling. "Urgh, why? Why can't I go one conversation without crying?"

   "What's the matter?" said the Doctor, leaning forward to show him he had his full attention. Ruby moved closer to him on the couch and put an arm around his shoulders.

   "I… I… I had a girl once. And she was beautiful, and I loved her, and we were just like the two of you." He pointed to Rogue and the Doctor. "But then, of course, she died. And that's why I'm sad."

   "That's completely natural," said Ruby, rubbing his back. "Daily life can be too much for anyone when it feels like the world's ended."

   The Doctor felt Rogue's hand on his shoulder, but he didn't know what to do. Would taking Rogue's hand just make Jordan feel worse?

   "No, you don't understand," said Jordan. "She died ten years ago! And I was broken, obviously, but I found a way through it, with some help. But then it just stopped working. And I've been a complete mess ever since."

   "Grief can be so so weird," said the Doctor. He did take Rogue's hand now because as much as anything else, he could feel his own eyes getting hot. "Sometimes you think you're fine and then you open a gate and it's like a flood."

   Jordan watched him carefully. "Yeah, something like that. Do you… do you know about this?"

   The Doctor looked at Rogue, who'd also moved forward to the edge of the couch.

   "We both know about grief," said the Doctor.

   "No, but, the songs," said Jordan. "Is that how you got through it? The songs from the future? Did they come to you too?"

   The Doctor looked at Rogue again, but Rogue was stuck halfway between sadness and confusion.

   "Did what come to me?" said the Doctor.

   "The one that brought the songs," said Jordan. "The God of Rock 'n' Roll."

---

Part 3

@off-traveling-in-the-stars @casavanse @monster-donut @randomwholocker (let me know at any point if you no longer wish to be tagged in each post)

[rowanthestrange]

Shit shit shit, if we’re right about how the Doctor’s beliefs warp reality then oh god this would be part of it.

Remember the Memory-TARDIS? Quoting myself very gauche sorry:

The Fifteen/TARDIS kiss is cute, it is. But also there’s something about the fact he’s kissing and loving not the real TARDIS, but one created from his own mind, his mental image, his memories, not actually her. She’s still with Sutekh. This is the girlfriend from his head. Who he thinks she is. (And it is from his memories, indisputably, it’s the one thing we can guarantee the Doctor believed into existence no matter what he said, cus Ruby knows the jukebox in that “Memory”-TARDIS and not a single other object in it.) #especially when his own TARDIS has just been#cheater of the millennia#FOR a millennia#i dunno man#i regret to say i think it might be Themes

He manifested and loved on a version of his girlfriend constructed from his own mind. What if it IS a theme.

We said we think the Doctor might already believe Rogue’s the Master.

Maybe we get Rogue attempting a reveal like “I’m, I’m sorry but I’m-” *the Doctor cuts him off* “I know. But this is working, right?” And the Chuldur lets it go on because he thinks the Doctor is saying he knows he’s not really the Master, but the Doctor is thinking he is the Master and not really a bounty hunter.

The Doctor believes he really is the Master.

So like the warping of Ruby’s origin story, so too is this bird’s.

The Chuldur wasn’t originally the Master but through roleplaying him and the Doctor believing he was…now he is.

I’m going to hit you with a crazy idea. But I want you to think of all the dog references we had before Sutekh, just remember those for a second. The Bogeyman - “is that your pet dog?”, Mad Jack - “I just thought it was someone's dog, or something.” Remember my dog Fred and how stupid it was, hold it in your head. Hold the stupidity, hold that it crossed barriers of seriousness, hold that it mattered.

A phoenix is just a bird til it burns. I believe the birds will sing again. There will be birds.

-There will be birds - the Chuldur come back, which we can guess right, it makes sense, we know Rogue will be back, and we left him in another dimension with them.

-The birds will sing again - we know we must have a musical number involving Rogue, he is played by Jonathan Musical-Talent Groff.

If Rogue is actually Fanboy Chuldur Number Six cosplaying the Master, who is his “favourite character” on Doctor Who, (which we know the Bird!Duchess has watched - she knew the name and M.O. of the Doctor without being told)…he himself is a bird who will sing.

The episodes callback other episodes, so what if this one does too.

If a phoenix is only a bird til it burns…

…What if he is, unbeknownst to himself, actually the Master?

[scarletarosa]

Set

Egyptian god of chaos, mischief, storms, deserts, battle, danger, virility, and foreign lands  

Set (or Sutekh), though often called a “god of evil” was not always viewed that way and actually played quite a benevolent role despite his chaotic nature. He was one of the sons of Nuit and Geb and was thought to have several wives, including the goddesses Nephthys, Neith, Taweret, Anat, and Astarte (with the latter two being taken from Canaan). Set was usually depicted as a man with the head of an unidentified jackal-like animal with square ears. Although there are many theories of what the animal could possibly be, it is also likely that the animal is meant to be unknown, as Set’s domain includes aspects of the strange and terrifying.  

Associations: Some of Set’s associated animals include: the hippopotamus, crocodiles, scorpions, snapping turtles, wild pigs, and donkeys – all of which were considered dangerous. In his hands, he holds an ankh (symbol of life) and his scepter. He may also be portrayed as a man with red hair and wearing a red mantle. The colour red is significant due to it representing some of the many qualities of Set. In Ancient Egypt, red was the colour of life, strength, victory, hostility, and chaos. He was said to reside in the Great Bear constellation in the northern sky – an area which symbolized death and darkness. Despite his benevolence, he is a very complex god who can be terrifying, especially to those who anger him. He represents the chaotic sides of nature that brings change, including storms (as well as sandstorms), drought, battle, and the unknown. 

Epithets: Set was known to be a fierce protector, especially in battle where he was often invoked as a vanguard. Some of this god’s known epithets include: “Great of Strength”, “The Inebriated One”, “Lord of the Northern Sky”, “The Red Lord”, “He Before Whom the Sky Trembles”, “The Defender”, and “Lord of the Desert”.  

Set’s Roles: Among the roles of Set besides protecting his people in battle was an even greater role: the protection of Ra and all of humanity. As the Sun god Ra would sail his course across the sky on his golden ship, Set would accompany him and was the one to fight off Apep, the serpent of evil. Apep was shown as a spirit in the form of a giant red snake and was the embodiment of all corruption. According to myth, Apep would hypnotize Ra and all of his followers, except for Set, who was chaotic and powerful enough to combat him. In order to defend all of creation and ma’at (order), Set would vanquish Apep each day. Set was also known to be a friend of the dead, helping their souls to ascend the ladder to the heavens. He even held the role of preserving the oases in the desert, which were essential for life in Egypt. So not only would Set represent the chaotic forces of the desert, but he would also protect people and their oases from them; holding back the sandstorms and droughts from civilization. From this, we can see that Set was a powerful ally to all, including the gods.  

Myths: Despite Set being a protective god, political battles in Ancient Egypt caused him to eventually be portrayed differently. When a war broke out between Upper and Lower Egypt, the two patrons of the lands (Horus and Set) were depicted in a myth which represented the battle. This was the myth of Horus and Set both fighting for the throne. With Lower Egypt being the victor, Set was gradually cast away and held in contempt; many relics of his benevolence were eventually destroyed. Set also plays a role in the well-known myth of tricking and slaying his brother Osiris, in order to usurp his throne. However, Isis managed to resurrect Osiris and conceived a child with him, the god Horus. While in most versions of the myth, the story follows that Horus grows up to be a mighty warrior and defeats Set in battle, after which he banishes him to the desert. But in another version, the majority of the nine gods (the Ennead) decided that Horus was the rightful King due to being the son of Osiris. But Ra believed that Horus was too inexperienced to rule, and claimed that Set would make a more capable King. This trial went on for nearly one hundred years while the people of Egypt suffered under Set's chaotic reign.  

Isis was worried for the well-being of Egypt’s people, and so came up with a plan. She took on the guise of a young woman and sat down outside of Set's palace, where she wept terribly. Eventually Set passed by and stopped to ask her what was wrong. The disguised Isis told him of a cruel man, her husband’s own brother, who had murdered him and stolen away her family’s land and cattle, taken away her son’s inheritance, and that now the man sought to kill her son. Not knowing that the man described was himself, Set became deeply moved by the story and was furious. He swore to the young woman that he would seek out the cruel man who had done such things and would kill him, allowing her to regain her land. With this promise, Isis revealed herself to Set before the gods who were secretly listening, and so Set was cast away into the desert, allowing Horus to reign as King.  

In a separate myth describing a battle between Horus and Set, the two gods are wrestling naked in a swamp, where Set eventually appears to have a “mighty erection”. This causes Horus to fall face forward into the waters, causing Set to begin having intercourse with him, which they both greatly seem to enjoy. In another attempt to seduce Horus, Set invites him over to his place to eat and sleep together. The two gods get drunk on wine late that night and caress one another, then have sex once again. Horus manages to catch Set’s seed in his hands, which he keeps until he is able to throw it into the Nile. Unaware of this, the drunken Set falls asleep. Horus lets Isis know of what had happened and she is furious, she then has Horus hide his own seed within the lettuce that Set grows so that he will consume it. Due to this, Horus gains the upper-hand over Set.  

Personality: Set is a very ancient god who can be called upon for things such as granting strength, courage, protection, vengeance, victory, and confidence. In my experiences with Set, he is very outgoing, flamboyant, generous, protective, and fun-loving. He loves high-energy environments, pranks, and sex (especially sex). Though in times of battle, Set is a very powerful warrior and wields a mace made of meteorites. He is not cruel like how his later myths portrayed him, for in truth, Set is a very strong and loyal ally. Especially when fighting against Apep, the god of evil. Set is also one of the close allies to Lucifer, and fights alongside him to defend others and end corruptions. Though other than battling, Set usually can be found seducing women or just enjoying himself in general. He has a wonderful sense of humour and is a great amount of fun to be around. As he is a ruler of discord, he is able to calm such matters in your life as well and help you to confront them. In my experiences, Set appears as a young man with red hair and green eyes. He also states that the animal he is depicted as in Egypt is indeed an otherworldly creature, as that suits him best.

Every god has a Shadow aspect, which portrays all of their darker natures. For Set, this aspect is named Sutekh, and it is his chaotic destructive side. While Set is normally friendly with others, he as Sutekh is more intimidating and unpredictable. When angered, Set becomes as Sutekh, and is capable of creating great turmoil and madness in the lives of those who offend him.

| Offerings | 

Stout beer, whiskey, frothing wine, champagne, sweet red wine, spicy foods, red meats, lettuce wraps, burgers, tacos, lobsters, crabs, shrimp, arrowheads, maces (his favourite weapons), knives and daggers, red rust, spinach, courgetti, cucumbers, coyote pelts, red carnelian, rubies, dried scorpions, star anise, black peppercorns, black silk, bird eggs, red thorns, sour cherries, red grapefruits, red grapes, dark chocolate, sweets, and brightly-coloured sex toys. He also tends to loves shiny and obnoxious sorts of things.