#Oswald critical

[aslightaddity]

Just me? Cool-

[joscribbles]

some of the commissions i've been doing for Palestine! these are still open!

[carefulzombie]

having an interest in epic mickey and house of mouse and other mm centric stories is so goddamn embarrassing like what do you mean i actually enjoy mickey mouse as a character and can’t see him as just Mascot For Evil Corporation

[leikeliscomet]

“But We Love Martha Jones!” - The Doctor Who Fandom’s Selective Memory of Racism

Chapter 1 - Everybody Hates Martha

Contrary to now popular Whovian belief, no, the fandom didn’t like Martha at first. In fact, most Martha praise wouldn't come until years after her exit. The issue came from the “Rose shadow” of RTD1. Rose’s traumatic exit hit Ten like a truck and this echoed throughout The Runaway Bride. The episode beautifully covers the stages of grief; his denial as he forgets he can’t have another Christmas on the Powell Estate; his anger at the Racnoss; his bargaining as he reminisces good times with Rose; his depression knowing her can’t get her back and eventual acceptance - ending the episode with a solemn “her name was Rose”. On paper, this was the perfect closure Ten needed for Rose and a lovely way to say goodbye to her even in her absence. But her shadow still covered the rest of S3 and S4. And not in a good way.

From the jump Ten tells Martha she could never replace her but mind you, Martha never claimed she would, but the fandom acted like she did and was. Her presence is mentioned throughout S3: the “not that you’re replacing her” in Smith and Jones; the “Rose would know” in Shakespeare Code; Ten taking Martha to the New New York slums in Gridlock when Rose got “glitter and cocktails”; the ink drawing of Rose popping out of Ten’s subconscious through John Smith in Human Nature/Family of Blood to Jack and Ten’s convo about her in Utopia to even the Master in Last of the Time Lords, calling Martha useless for not absorbing the Time Vortex like a certain companion. Can you guess who she is? Martha to this day is the only companion to be treated as the rebound to a previous companion and this bled into the fandom. Despite Donna’s growth in Partners in Crime working so well because of her growth after The Runaway Bride, it was still a common sentiment to “wish we went straight from Rose to Donna”. The S4 writing didn’t help Martha’s case either. Ten tells Donna about the crush and other “complications” while conveniently leaving out the mixed signals he sent to her. Plus, he admits his mistakes to well… Donna, and not to Martha’s face despite sharing three whole episodes with her. Martha spent those episodes being a host to a Sontaran clone and being kidnapped by the Hath so the “I’m sorry for underestimating you and comparing you to my previous companion, Martha Jones” never came out of Ten’s mouth. The show’s insistence on Martha as the “failed Rose replacement” gave the fandom great excuses to attack her and welcome a mountain of bad faith criticism that haunts Martha Jones discussions to this day.

It doesn’t matter Martha saved the Doctor with CPR in her debut episode, used the Gamma Strike to defeat the pig men on the spot, saved John Smith, Joan and the rest of the village from the Family of Blood despite how racist they all were towards her, came up with the right word to banish the Carrionites on the spot, got the DNA sample needed from Lazarus and distracted him for Ten, got the 42 crew to dump the sun particles in the fuel, warned Ten about Yana’s watch and most importantly, stayed alive in one of humanity’s most hellish years to restore the Doctor and defeat the Master - she was incompetent.

It doesn’t matter Martha never attacked, belittled or actually insulted Rose but was rather tired of being put down for her instead, or the fact Rose within minutes of seeing Martha said “I was here first” and “Who is she?” with disgust - Martha was jealous and bitter.

It doesn’t matter Ten kissed her for a DNA sample despite her cheek, forehead and hand being available, knew about Martha’s crush and still acted oblivious post-Smith and Jones, hugged her then blamed her for said hug, lied to her about Gallifrey but told Rose the truth in her 2nd episode, called her a novice and literally screamed in her face in Utopia - Martha 100% to blame for the failed TenMartha friendship but not our unproblematic fave Ten.

It doesn’t matter Ten was willing to protect and travel with Donna in The Runaway Bride minutes after losing Rose and Eleven having no issue welcoming Clara after watching another version of her, Amy and Rory die in front of him - Martha had to be belittled by Ten because of grief. 

It doesn’t matter Rose and Donna, then Amy and Clara in the Moffat era would need supernatural intervention to gain their titles, or that Rose and Donna needed Ten’s help a few times in their series - Martha had no agency. 

It doesn’t matter Ten fell in love with Rose, Madame de Pompadour, Joan Redfern, Queen Elizabeth I, River Song, Astrid Peth AND Lady Christina, or RTD1’s insistence of (heterosexual) romance being the most human trait of humanity (which is a whole other conversation) - Martha’s romantic feelings were a flaw she needed to correct.

It doesn’t matter Rose, Amy and Clara would fall in love with the Doctor to the point of being willing to abandon their families for him, forcibly kissing him or trying to be him - Martha was the clingy one.  It doesn’t matter Professor Yana’s drumbeat began before he met the gang because it was Martha’s fault the Master came back too apparently. Remember little Tim Latimer stealing the fob because it was reaching out to him? The fans didn’t because Martha was blamed for losing the fob too! Martha’s not a flawless person but it can’t be denied Martha was critiqued for moments that were out of her control. From various nuanced plot points where she was a victim of circumstance to lacking hindsight she literally couldn't have had because she wasn’t in S1/S2, to being disliked for doing the exact same things her white female counterparts did, it’s highly unlikely the Martha Hate Train was born from constructive criticism.

<- Intro Chapter 2 ->

[khruschevshoe]

Just rewatched The Girl In the Fireplace for the first time in about nine years and Steven Moffat really read the Time Traveller's Wife one time and decided that every single woman companion he was going to write on the show (with the exception of Bill, and since she's a lesbian, she literally couldn't fall for the Doctor) was going to meet the Doctor as a child and then fall in love with him later on, didn't he? Reinette snogged him when she met him as an adult. Amy snogged him the day before she was getting married. River had, well, every single thing about her arc, birth to death. Even Clara, after being introduced as just friends, is revealed to have met the Doctor as a teenager and then is revealed to fancy him in the regeneration episode. Like, it's an absolutely bizarre and a little bit uncomfortable recurring plot point that these women met a man briefly as a child, imprinted on him, and fell in love/had a sexual interest in him/were obsessed with him as an adult, making large portions of their lives from childhood revolve around this man. Like...a bit of a yikes.

[darkmodepls]

Can we get some more Jason 'Angel' Fenton ?

Also do you have a ao3?

I mainly use my ao3 account to collect bookmarks and haven't posted anything in a while, sorry.

To make it up to you, here's some more backstory from Jason 'Angel' Fenton.

Due to Amity's tendency to drift around and how that motion is based on its citizens' subconscious, the city actually got relatively close to Gotham for a brief period of time.

It was long enough for Oswald Cobblepot to reconnect with his cousin and goddaughter, and for Waylon Jones to decide on moving closer to his half sister.

It was also just long enough for Angel to be recognized by LOA operatives and kidnapped.

***

Angel had no memory of who he was before waking up in a GIW lab, only briefly flashbacks to rain and wet earth and a statue of his namesake. His past remained a mystery throughout the Seige of Amity Park and the City Council's attempts to clean up the mess left behind. And while he would love to get some answers, the young mad had more important things to worry about.

Angel was a grad student halfway to a doctorate in English and a new husband with a toddler. Between all of that and his blackouts, he genuinely didn't have time to pursue his origins.

***

Angel's blackouts were an ongoing problem for him. Every so often, he would 'wake up' somewhere else with no memory of the past several hours. According to Jazz and their friends, he would still do things during these blackouts, but it would be clear that the lights were on, yet no one was home.

It was more annoying than anything.

This time however, he woke up on a plane surrounded by people speaking a foreign language.

A subtle glance out the window revealed they were over the ocean, so he decided playing dumb would be the best decision for now.

***

He would continue to play dumb for the next several weeks, feigning catatonia as he tried to find a form of communication that wasn't being closely monitored.

Most of the people, ninjas? In the base have elected to ignore Lady Talia's new pet including the apparent king of this weird cavernous base.

Talia herself seemed to grow gradually more concerned and frustrated with his lack of reaction. She constantly tried to get him to respond to her, calling him Jason and insisting that her son call him brother.

[layaboutace]

Danny pink was such a cool concept and i really liked his ending but like, did he and clara even get along? they argued more than they didn't, i feel like he could have been fleshed out a lot more. danny is at his best in what i think is a pretty bad episode, in the forest of the night, but here we see him as a teacher, responsible for his students and not even knowing about the doctor for some point in the beginning of this story, talking things through with clara and being a generally fun character to watch. on the other hand i think hes at his worst in a great episode, listen, where all he does is argue with then proceed to forgive clara for being insensitive, not to mention that he himself is rather annoying in this episode, the dialogue he and clara share over dinner feels off and not realistic, for how great this episode is that date scene really just holds it back in terms of characterization for both clara and danny, after that I'm not sure why they're even together

[nthflower]

Confessions time Hancock isn't even in my top five fave fallout ghouls list. In fact he is probably not even in my top five fo4 ghouls list. Still I like him a lot tho.

[purpleboytournament]

[riddle-man]

look gotham might not be the perfect show but can we just appreciate the way it has a canon gay plotline, in the TEXT of the show and played by lgbt+ actors.

i love shows like hannibal and good omens as much as the next queer, they're works of art, but i can't deny that im tired of the most celebrated queer shows being subtext, up to interpretation, implied.

[hirosboard]

Idk she’s very Imogen Temult to me for some reason. Maybe it’s the nose.

[whats-those]

Memes that are mostly nonsensical and unfunny to everyone but me and one other person:

[incorrectquotesconaisseur]

under the lake is to twelveclara what tooth and claw is to tenrose

[sometimesraven]

Truly boggles my goggles how multiple people on here were praising RTD for the finale explicitly to compare him positively to Moffat like bro is literally just what you think Moffat is (minus straight and minus being the actual devil) like deadass Clara is Ruby except done correctly.

FOR REAL. People hated Clara so much for being "too special" as if it wasn't literally her entire plotline that she's just a regular human woman and it was The Doctor making her out to be special just to use her mystery to distract himself from his own grief, but now the exact same plot is happening with Ruby except the writer has given her even less agency and more weird unexplained phenomena and then pointed at the audience and went "haha you suck for thinking this was special" and it's suddenly okay?

Just saying, if Moff wrote a foundling character he wouldn't make her meet this woman who Did Not Raise Her and then immediately start calling her her "real mum" because really Russell??? REALLY??? What a slap in the face to every adoptive or foster parent who put their entire lives and energy into raising a child only to be told they're still playing second fiddle to someone whose only role in raising that child was to pop them out and dump them on a doorstep 20 years ago

[shi0n]

my irl pointed out an aspect he dislikes about me the most and i suppose one should take the criticism seriously but i could not help but think about how he said oswalds exact lines from pandora hearts..

[quantumshade]

here's my hot take.

[image id: a meme from the joker movie. the first panel is a man saying "let me get this straight. you think series 8 of doctor who is good?". the second panel is the joker saying, "i do. and i'm tired of pretending it's not." end image id.]

as long as you skip three specific episodes and alter a couple storylines in your head it's actually really good.