#MacHall

[radwolf76]

My Hero Forge 2.0 Creations — Game Mods From A Webcomic Edition

Moogles as a playable race in Morrowind might not have been lore friendly but they sure were fun.

[denimbex1986]

'It should come as no surprise that Russell T Davies, the man behind Queer As Folk, the one who first made Doctor Who tangibly gay, has returned to the franchise with what might be its queerest outing yet. But even we were surprised by quite how integral LGBTQ+ themes would be to the story this time around.

Much has been made of David Tennant and Catherine Tate's return, yet it's Yasmin Finney's brand-new character Rose who's at the heart of this Star Beast special.

Donna's daughter befriends The Meep first, and she's also the one who saves London when The Meep reveals itself to be evil. What's special about this is that it's Rose's trans identity specifically that proves key to her victory.

When we last saw her mother, Donna had absorbed some of the Doctor's energy, creating a 'metacrisis' that would have killed her if the Doctor had not erased her memories. But when she's reminded again of the Time Lord's existence in this latest episode, Donna survives intact, and that's because when she gave birth to Rose, she unknowingly split that energy between them, halving their potentially devastating impact.

As Donna's memories return, Rose's innate Timelord energy is then activated too, enabling her to stop Meep with newfound knowledge and abilities from her position on the ground.

Rose's non-binary identity stems from The Doctor's. (The show finally acknowledges them to be gender-fluid after they presented as both male and female over the course of the franchise). That means the source of Rose's power comes directly from her nature as a non-binary individual, positioning her as a hero because of her gender identity and not despite of it.

That's not to say Doctor Who shies away from the difficulties trans people face in real life. Earlier on in the same episode, bullies deadname Rose in the street and soon after, Donna's own mother, Sylvia, accidentally misgenders Rose as well, despite her good intentions.

Donna's response to all this? "I would burn down the world for you, darling," and honestly, that's how we feel after seeing some of the negative feedback these scenes have received online.

Despite scoring strong reviews from critics and the majority of fans, it seems not everyone is celebrating Doctor Who's much-lauded return.

On Rotten Tomatoes, trolls are review-bombing the episode, bringing the audience score down to 41%, which is a huge contrast from the critics rating of 89%. Of course, everyone is entitled to their own opinion and the episode won't be to everyone's tastes, but when comments suggest the show 'needs to stop pushing talk of pronouns onto kids', it's safe to say most of these opinions are grounded in hate and ignorance.

Imagine being shocked that a show about an alien who regularly changes their body and gender would dare acknowledge such concepts?

In the days following the special, a hashtag named #RIPDoctorWho continued this backlash on X/Twitter, to which Doctor Who casting director Andy Pryor said the following:

"Just stopped by to say that on @bbcdoctor who (or any of our work) we don't work hard to cast inclusively for publicity. We do it because we like stories. & stories should speak to all of us & include all of us. And if one person feels a little less alone, then."

With more queer cast members on the way, including Neil Patrick Harris as the villainous Toymaker and Ncuti Gatwa as the new face of The Doctor himself, the future of Doctor Who is looking queerer by the day.

But it's not just the future that's queer.

To those who baulk at more inclusivity in future seasons, we can't help but wonder: What show have you been watching this whole time? Because Doctor Who is super queer — and it always has been.

Yes, even before Jack Harkness slapped a guy's arse or Bill Potts fell for a puddle named Heather, the Classic era channeled queerness with how it defied the establishment and stood up for those who need it most. It's hard to exaggerate how much stories like this resonated with LGBTQ+ people at a time when positive representation was almost non-existent on screen.

It's no wonder then that a sizeable chunk of Doctor Who's fandom identifies as queer, even if the show wasn't able to address LGBTQ+ fans directly until (queer lifelong fan) Russell T Davies regenerated the franchise in 2005.

But now, all these years later, The Star Beast ushers in a new chapter for Doctor Who where the show can finally live up to the inclusive ethos it's always striven for.

That's not to diminish the positive steps other showrunners have taken in the interim. 2015's 'Sleep No More' featured Doctor Who's first trans actress, Bethany Black, and season twelve's 'Praxeus' successfully flipped the 'Bury Your Gays' trope, although the less said about how season 13 handled #Thasmin the better.

And it's not like everything is suddenly perfect now. Rose's metacrisis abilities could feed into sci-fi tropes around trans/non-binary identities being considered "alien", plus the inclusion of Rose's deadname has garnered a mixed response from the trans community online.

While some argue this has given trolls the opportunity to use that name venomously against her character, others point out that transphobia is a reality the show shouldn't shy away from.

The moment when Rose calls the Doctor out for assuming Meep's pronouns might feel a bit-on-the-nose for some too, although if this kind of talk immediately heralds the end of the franchise for you, you might want to cast your mind back a few decades to 1972's 'The Curse of Peladon' where the Doctor and Jo discussed Alpha Centauri's pronouns at length.

But still, seeing trans and non-binary identities celebrated to this degree is very much welcome regardless, especially in a family show with such a huge fanbase like Doctor Who. This is the kind of storytelling that saves lives, trolls be damned.

And now, with the impending arrival of more trans actors and characters in Yasmin Finney's wake — including Jinkx Monsoon, Mary Malone and Pete MacHale — Doctor Who's next season promises to be more inclusive than ever before.

If you have a problem with that, remember that your hero, the good Doctor, would never discriminate against trans people, or any other marginalised group for that matter either. So why would you?'

[buttercupspotify]

mera bachpan fr 😽

[desifemininewoman]

[haveyoureadthisseries-poll]

1. The Merchant of Death

2. The Lost City of Faar

3. The Never War

4. The Reality Bug

5. Black Water

6. The Rivers of Zadaa

7. The Quillan Games

8. The Pilgrims of Rayne

9. Raven Rise

10. Soldiers of Halla

[ravers8fantasy]

Im trying to do my piston Hondo headcanons whilst listening to my spotify shuffle but dhoom Machale dhoom just came on and now I cannot focus and my room is on fire rn

TURN THIS TF UP YEAAAAAHHH URAHAJJ🗣️‼️‼️🗣️💋❤️‍🔥❤️‍🔥👅🗯

[pendragonthegreat]

i've been thinking about livestreaming some pendragon stuff recently, like playing the old flash games, taking pendragon quizzes, looking through old fan stuff, maybe playing the sims with pendragon characters, and just talking about pendragon live... i have a lot of ideas and i think it sounds fun so who would be interested? let me know!

[birdy-bird-art]

I've been studying the style of the pendragon graphic novel these past few days and trying to learn it (for... reasons), and am pretty happy so far. Still got a lot of my own style in it but it's working. Huzzah!

[chaotictissuebox]

Pendragon would be very funny if all the travelers went to every territory. I made this and thought of @birdybirdnerd

[ammonitetheartist]

Various meow-meows

[arcadialedger]

Did anyone else read the Pendragon books when they were younger?

That series deserves new covers/ a re release and facelift.

[roseunspindle]

October TBR

Main book I'm focusing on right now, at 23%

on Number 4 in the bindup, Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz

🎶new darcy coates book new darcy coates book 🎶

An Owlcrate book, 7% along...

Someday I'll finish the behemoth XD I'm up to chapter 123

Same for this one at 13% 😭

8% on this one, has many good quotes about cat owneership thus far 😁

Thought this might make for a good spooky book

2% so far ^_^'

[denimbex1986]

'David Tennant proved himself the ultimate trans ally once again after rejoicing at the news that his trans-themed TARDIS badge led to thousands of pounds being raised for an LGBTQ+ charity.

The Doctor Who star has long been a vocal supporter of trans rights, from wearing iconic pro-trans t-shirts to standing up for the fight for LGBTQ+ rights.

In his latest show of solidarity, the 52-year-old actor was spotted wearing a TARDIS pin with the trans flag colours while appearing on The Last Leg and The One Show on 17 November. He was promoting his upcoming return as the Doctor for the trio of specials celebrating the Doctor Who 60th anniversary.

After eagle-eyed fans spotted the progressive badge, they flocked to social media to praise Tennant and to find out where they could also get hold of the Tardis pin.

Soon enough the creator of the badge, Dr Jamie Gallagher, announced on social media that all proceeds from the badge would be donated to LGBTQ+ homeless charity Albert Kennedy Trust (AKT), totalling at a whopping £18,000 (and counting).

During the Rolling Stone UK Awards on Thursday (23 November) Attitude magazine asked for Tennant’s reaction to the brilliant news, prompting the best response.

“That’s amazing,” he shared, before playing his down his involvement in helping to raise money.

“That’s really to do with the guy that makes it, he added.

“I can’t take any credit for that. It’s just something that I think is rather lovely and important and suits what Doctor Who is all about. So it feels that the fact that relevant charities are benefitting from it is something that I’m hugely pleased about but can’t take any of the credit for.”

His decision to wear a trans TARDIS badge comes after he caused a stir for donning a “Leave trans kids along you absolute freaks” top, which led to outrage and attacks from anti-trans activists such as Graham Linehan and Posie Parker.

While his wife, Georgia Tennant, made a loud and proud statement in support of trans rights in October after Prime Minister Rishi Sunak launched an attack on the community.

The star is certainly accurate when he says that supporting trans rights fits right into the ethos of Doctor Who. The new episodes – helmed by returning showrunner Russell T Davies – feature several trans actors including Yasmin Finney, Jinkx Monsoon, Mary Malone and Pete MacHale.

The 60th anniversary specials promise to put trans acceptance at the heart of the episodes, with Finney playing Donna’s (Catherine Tate) trans daughter Rose.

During a Q&A earlier this month, Davies eviscerated bigots looking to undermine the trans inclusivity in the upcoming season.

He admitted there are some people who are “full of absolute hate, and venom, and destruction and violence who would like to see that sort of thing wiped off the screen entirely.”

To those people, he said: “Shame on you and good luck to you in your lonely lives.”'

[worldssmallestghost]

Journal 37. The end. A last look at Pendragon.

It's finally come. I finished my re-read of the Pendragon Adventures. I apologize, this is going to be another essay. Thank you in advance to anyone who reads this, especially my regulars. Y'all the real ones, I'm glad this fandom isn't quite dead.

I'm probably going to come back, write theories and such over time as well. I'm going to do one more re-listen and then shelve the series for the next stage of my life that I think it's appropriate to come back.

I finished Soldiers of Halla last night. As an adult with a different mindset, I didn't hate the ending... But I still have issues with it, as a writer myself now. I'll get into that later.

The ending did, however, nearly bring me to tears. The series meant a lot to me as a teenager. The kind of teenager that ran to the "haunted" bathroom at school to get some time alone like Mark. Now that I've grown and gotten married and well, learned to write, Bobby's last moments in his re-written life hit different. Especially hearing about how he found his niche, wasn't super successful, but still made the tiny change he wanted to make in the world. That's the whole reason I want to become an author, so hearing that love of the craft portrayed by an author I looked up to made me feel a kind of sentimental kinship.

It did feel rushed, there's a lot of questions that if I ever met DJM, I'd ask about. Was the timeline reset? Was there an isolated bubble for the travelers? Was that the real Courtney and Mark that Bobby got to finish that life around? If not, what happened to the real ones?

I guess I'll have to come to peace with another aspect of that ending. Damn you, DJ.

If I'm gonna be honest, I feel almost... An emptiness after finishing the series again. I've been on and off listening to the audiobooks for the past three or so years. I started during the pandemic. In that time I've met, and married, the love of my life. I wanted to involve "Hobey ho" in my wedding vows despite nobody knowing what that meant. It didn't pan out for logistical reasons, but I will during our second ceremony down the line.

I have so many amazing memories I now associate with the series. Nothing will ever take that away. I'll never forget listening to The Reality Bug while meeting my now wife. Listening to Courtney and Dodger's adventures on First Earth while I actively planned my wife's immigration. Or delving into the secrets of Ibara again while trying my best to get through pre-wedding jitters.

I'm never going to let those memories go.

I'm not done with the fandom, I've got theories and a lot on my mind. I think I'm firmly stuck here now.

If I ever met DJ, after all the questions, I'd thank him. His little book series that hasn't gotten nearly enough attention it deserves meant something to me. It helped inspire me to become a writer myself. It gave me perspective on what it means to do the right thing in the face of adversity. Helped me realize that for every victory, there are some failures, and that's okay.

I'd also reprimand him for killing off Mark to... *checks notes* cancer. But that's a personal thing.

Looks like I've got another stage of my life to look forward to.

This isn't goodbye. Just another stage.

And so we go.

[haveyoureadthismgyabook]

Series info:

Book 1 of Pendragon

Book 2: The Lost City of Faar

Book 3: The Never War

Book 4: The Reality Bug

Book 5: Black Water

Book 6: The Rivers of Zadaa

Book 7: The Quillan Games

Book 8: The Pilgrims of Rayne

Book 9: Raven Rise

Book 10: The Soldiers of Halla

[dare-g]

Slugs (1988)