#Sometimes they're deliberately trying to get My attention‚ sometimes they're just being themselves...

[misc-obeyme]

a relationship between a michevious but cute mc with barbatos. their opposite attraction him being self-disciplined and careful while mc is reckless and a troublemaker. yet mc adores barbatos and melts when he gives them attention or compliments. loves being a brat and getting spoiled by him loves being around him is clingy sometimes likes being sub in nsfw moments!!!!

Oh wow, anon, you've basically just described my MC Ciaran lol.

Needless to say, I've thought about this dynamic a lot.

In Ciaran's case, Barbatos's calm personality helps to quiet their own racing mind, which is why they adore him. Being around him makes them feel some kinda way and they don't fully understand it themselves.

And personally I think Barbatos would love a little mischievous MC. He's nothing if not overly indulgent, especially when it comes to people he cares about. He acts all strict, but in the end you know he gives in to them every time.

I'm just imagining him making it a point to compliment MC because he likes to watch them blush. At the same time, he's protective, always watching them and making sure they don't get into too much trouble. Perhaps stepping in right before things get problematic for them. Constantly coming to their rescue.

Though I do think Barbatos will only tolerate brattiness to a certain extent. MC is taking a chance any time they push too hard lol. If they're good and nice, he'll spoil the hell out of them, though. Doesn't mind if they're being clingy. He likes when they stick to him because then he knows where they are and they're less likely to get into trouble.

a little bit of nsfw below the cut though nothing explicit

I have no doubt Barb would be an excellent dom. He's forever a switch in my mind, but as a dom I think he could be either really strict if that's what MC wants - like prepare yourself for punishments - or he could be super indulgent - especially if he is constantly losing his own self control because of MC. I really like when Barbatos kinda comes undone because of MC's antics. Like they're deliberately trying to rile him up. And it works. They push and push until he's lost control and then it's like he's gonna devour them lol.

ER but anyway, I think all of this perfectly possible. And troublemaker MC is totally something I love.

[sidhewrites]

Just an excerpt from tonight! Kaz and Lucy opening up to each other about themselves in a cute moment together

Project Info

She stands and looks at the old tree, skirts rustling in a nonexistent breeze. It's like she has her own weather sometimes, the wind wherever she is entirely detached from the wind where I am.

"Do you ever miss it?"

"Miss what?"

"I don't know. Life. Touching things? Eating. Changing your clothes. That kind of stuff."

She presses her lips together, gaze falling away. "I'm not sure. I've been dead longer than I was ever alive, and the world is so...big. There's so much to it now. And my memories of my life aren't always..." She pauses, trying to find the right words, but I think I understand this one.

"Yeah," I say, and rest my chin on my knees. "Like they're right there in front of you, and you know they're there, but you can't quite reach them anymore. You don't know where to look for them, right?"

"Exactly, yes."

"I get that sometimes. I mean -- I don't know if mine is the same as yours, but I have that sometimes."

"But you're alive."

"Eh." I shrug. "My brain's broken, but it's less broken now than I was when I was a teenager. Caffeine helps though." I lift my coffee in a toast.

"I don't follow."

"You want a brief history on psychiatric advancements of the 20th century?" It's a joke, but Lucy [looks at me like she'd like nothing more.] "Okay, sorry, that was an exaggeration. Basically, I have issues reliably paying attention and remembering things, among a whole slew of other stupid issues."

She nods, but I don't miss the hint of disappointment in her expression.

Before I realize what I'm saying, I blurt out, "I'll get a book from the library tomorrow. We can read it together, and I'll turn the pages for you. Deal?"

"Deal." Then, after a moment of deliberation, she says, "But why does coffee help?"

"Stimulants calm my brain down."

"Why?"

I shrug, and take a sip. "Because it's broken."

When I put my cup down, however, Lucy is looking at me, a crease furrowed between her brows.

"What?" I ask.

"Is it really?"

"Is what really?"

"Your brain. Is it really broken?"

"Oh. Nah." I laugh. "I'm just being dramatic. I'm fine now. Or, mostly anyway. Nothing too much coffee can't fix." Just to prove a point, I tilt my head back, and chug. I am the epitome of feminine grace.

Tag List

@adaughterofathena

@ambreeskyewriting

@carnelianflames

@feather-dancer

@halfbloodlycan

@nadunacreates

@serenanymph

@vigilantdesert

[sins-of-the-sea]

2, 11

send a number for me to talk about one of the following topics!

2.) drabbles

//I love drabbles! Sometimes drabbles are preferred over long winding novels, at least for me. I blame entirely my ADHD and my increasing inability to read walls of text, even if the story is genuinely interesting.

When it comes to my drabbles, I try to keep them brief and interesting. Sometimes it might involve art. Or I may restrict it entirely to dialogue so people can read them easier. It depends. I am flexible with the methods of storytelling, just as long as it grabs the viewers' attention to begin with.

As for reading other peoples' drabbles, well, it depends on who and what it's written. I am HORRIBLE with names, to the point I will confuse people with each other on a day to day basis if I can't stick a face to that name. As such--and I will say this upright--I may not read every single drabble on my dashboard or your blog. If I don't know that character, or I can't stick a face with a name, then I will have to play a ton of mental gymnastics just to follow what is going on.

But this is why drabbles are helpful--if that particular story is brief and focused, I can get to know your character in bits and pieces rather than in 2000 words in one go. I can't survive novels nowadays without some way to stick a face to a name. But I can't demand everyone to draw or get a faceclaim. Sometimes I may not need a face. I just need to be fed the story and information slowly and in bits at a time.

11.) magic anons

//I … used to love them. Nowadays, I'm so super selective of them, I may as well disallow them in general.

Magic!Anons are fun if it's brief, goofy, and harmless. However, they stop being fun when they introduce breaks in character dynamics. In the past with other blogs, I've had magic!anons create new problems that would eventually snowball to unpleasant results. Or they make my character act shut down altogether because they're placed in a situation they legitimately and genuinely can't handle themselves in.

Temporarily turning my muse into a cat? Fun and cute. Temporarily wiping out their memories and making them forget who they are and the people they love? Not cool at all.

In the case of the Seven, I am ESPECIALLY extremely particular on magic conditions added to them in addition to immortality and the gifts granted to them by the Master. Their humanity is already on the brink of total destruction because of the inherent demands of responsibility with their powers and immortality. They're already struggling to find the balance of healthy contact and total isolation from people they become fond of. And these difficulties with themselves as is are deliberately written as to firmly establish why finding the Devil's Eye is paramount to their narrative. So to add another magic power, or make them forget who they are, or turn their ship into gingerbread, or force someone to punch the Master…. all fine and dandy as long the consequences and horror of the scenarios are to be met, whether the sender intends them or not. Not so much when the objective is harmless fun. And sometimes these situations are, frankly, way too bleak for me to have any interest in exploring.

[fohatic]

okay i was just gonna ignore this lazy unsophisticated* oversimplified take but since my mutuals insist on putting it back on my feed let's talk about character development, personal growth, and the dangers in demonizing cluster B personality disorders.

two crucial disclaimers: 1) i love tony stark probably more than any other fictional character ever & 2) no shade to the op or anyone who reblogged this in good faith because they too love tony stark. this is a very common take and stems from a good place but it's still problematic so please allow me to explain why.

(at the risk of repeating myself please see the reblogged tags on this post ((omgggg you guys this post has sat around all day without me realizing that i linked the wrong rb! see: THIS post, actually 🙃)) for an earlier [briefer] take i offered on this subject)

so the term "narcissist" has become a loaded one in modern society, often bandied around to refer to people with pathological traits that others find distasteful. people react strongly to this term because it denotes objectionable morality, which many seek to distance themselves from and feel that they're 'better than.' donald trump, for instance, is largely recognized as a 'raging narcissist' (boooooo). if you really break down the meaning of the term, though— considering the minimum requirements to qualify as such— you'd probably realize that you know a lot of people that have these traits, and not all (or perhaps even any) of them are 'bad' people. they might be 'damaged' people— or people struggling to figure themselves out, who haven't adjusted well to an unfortunate upbringing— but they still have a lot of 'good' qualities that may or may not be apparent to anyone who doesn't know them well.

people are complicated. that's what makes them interesting. a person (like pre-afghanistan tony stark) can be vainglorious and prone to outlandish attention-seeking behavior and self-absorbed to the point that it negatively impacts their interpersonal relationships. they can be obsessive workaholics who tune out anything/anyone that doesn't factor into their narrow-minded pursuits. they can be totally oblivious to the fact that their own company is supplying terrorists with weapons, for instance, while they're off screwing around and partying and seemingly not giving a single fuck about anything outside of their self-interested bubble.

BUT, such individuals are typically compensating for deep-set insecurities and perceived inadequacies by acting out in this way. that's what narcissists really are. they're vulnerable, so they put up very deliberately constructed walls to try to protect themselves.

it's important to understand that there's more than one kind of narcissist, too: there's the 'overt' type, which i think tony is best categorized as— and then there's the 'covert' type, who tend to internalize their own self-importance rather than being showy about it, secretly obsessing over their own desperate need for attention. they can be very self-deprecating and use passive-aggressive strategies rather than in-your-face behavior to get attention or to try to feel better about themselves when they're feeling underappreciated. i mention this because in case anyone finds the overt style unrelatable, perhaps there are covert narcissistic traits that you can sympathize with. if you're unfamiliar with this type of narcissism, please look it up.

because my point is: narcissists in general aren't demonic entities walking amongst us good, decent folk, threatening us with their unmitigated malignancy (exceptions may exist, *cough*trump*). they're just people, like you and me. in fact, they probably are you and me! nobody's perfect, and for the most part, we're all still growing out of our less-than-stellar traits and behaviors carried over from the more difficult periods of out messy lives. because that's what people do as they develop; though without constructive feedback and meaningful self-reflection, sometimes this can take quite a long time (if it even happens at all). alternatively, sometimes all it takes is a major wake-up call for real, dramatic change to occur, i.e. getting kidnapped and held prisoner in a cave alongside someone with a uniquely eye-opening perspective, then watching said person die in front of you before you embark on a brand new destiny.

hot take: IM1 is a story about self-discovery, tracking the journey of a self-absorbed, psychically wounded, quasi-narcissist-turned-unlikely superhero who learns to get over himself and take a hard look at reality. and isn't that more interesting than a story that's simply about a misunderstood 'good guy' who finally starts to get recognized as the amazing person he was all along? yeah, that potential was always in there -- but it existed alongside some messier stuff that prevented it from shining as brightly as it was meant to, which makes it a deeply human story.

::end rant::

*adjectives edited bc i regret choosing them in haste; belatedly considering that there's a nicer way to put that

I’m a truly incredible covert operative when it comes to fandom like no-one irl knows the depths of my obsession HOWEVER. I am aware of the fact that if anyone called iron man a narcissist in front of me I’d have no choice but to kill them with hammers

[ouroborosblue]

about your bald faced hornet story- how did you unlearn that instinctive urge to freak out when they're on you? i work outside and run into hornets and wasps a lot but i can barely keep my cool if they land on my skin, and i don't think i could stay calm if they landed on my face 😣

I'm not sure I ever had it to begin with. My mom taught me and my younger sibs when we were wee kidlets that bugs are "alive things", and that they really just want to either eat food or feel safe in their homes. I remember her telling us that they don't want to sting or bite us, but sometimes they feel like they have to because we are so much bigger than they are. She said that if we leave them alone, they'll leave us alone. It sounds silly in that language now, 40 years later, but that doesn't change the fact that it still pretty much holds true, even if they are landing on you.

As an adult, I try to be respectful of everything, knowing it all has a place in this world, and (except for a bunch of humans) that respect is pretty much reciprocated. The "alive things are friends" concept kind of solidified into a big chunk of my worldview and continues to this day - my friends call me the secular reincarnation of St. Francis. (I'm an atheist.)

My suggestion is this: if they're flying near you or land on you to investigate and you're afraid you're going to lose it, close your eyes and don't move. Stick your hands in your pockets if you have to, but don't flail around even though your brain is screaming at you to do the opposite. When you close your eyes, you start paying attention to other senses than vision, and sometimes this perception shift can trip up the panic instinct just enough that you can regain/maintain control. Focus on your breathing. Ignore the wasps. If you can do this long enough and don't react to them, there's a pretty good chance they'll stand down and fly away. (As long as their nest hasn't been disturbed, obviously in that case calmly but quickly leaving the area is your best bet.)

All that being said, I have been stung by various bees/wasps/etc occasionally, almost always because I didn't know they were there and blundered into them like a clumsy oaf, thereby forcing them to defend themselves. It can be painful, but that pain is relatively brief and all of my tattoos and piercings hurt more and I deliberately sat still for those. So even if I do get stung, it's not the end of the world. (Obvs none of this applies to folks who are allergic or don't know if they're allergic to bee/wasp venom - if this is you please don't stick around to find out.)

[bigskydreaming]

Continuing on that observation because I forgot to add this part, as a gen z I'm glad you understand that we or young people don't invent new ways to be evil, but it's not completely true. You aren't seeing new forms of online abuse in every platform, I doubt second hand information is going into details as well. Also the fact that you are a white man, there are things being said and done to poc in various online communities that I don't expect you to be privy to. Harassing fans of color and poc media has become a lot more common and normalized which parts of the fandom at large will never see. I don't know if anon did all of the thinking before saying "gen z bad" but they're not completely wrong looking at the kind of mass bullying behavior literal kids are exhibiting. They are learning from or being encouraged by older people but that shouldn't take the focus away from them to blame only the older people.

And my ask regarding Barbara, you assumed I hadn't thought about if my disdain for the character could have come from ableism. I had tho, granted you couldn't have known that and it was surely a possibility, so I'm not saying I'm mad about it, I was at that time a little bit. But you could perhaps give your anons a little more credit sometimes. Sometimes people know what they're talking about, you don't need to explain other possibilities to them each time.

Once again, sorry if this came off as very rude I just needed to share that observation and among many other instances these two were really highlights and kept bothering me. My issue with Barbara goes in a different direction than anything to do with her appearance and I've personally faced online abuse from people younger than me in ways that technologically, even politically, wasn't possible or as easy a few years ago, so you can maybe see why...

Please keep in mind that whatever context you have for yourself or your ask when you come into my inbox on anon......I have none of that. You have an awareness of yourself relative to whatever you asked me. I literally only know an anon by the words they put into my inbox and nothing else.

Also please keep in mind that every anon I answer, I do so in the larger context of my own interactions with tumblr overall. I have a lot of precedent with things I say being taken out of context, misrepresented or even just me not conveying myself as well as I like.

So the combination of those two things is that a) I literally just don't KNOW what any anon does or doesn't know and b) If I'm going to answer an anon, I tend to want to answer as fully and clearly as possible.

I can understand it coming across as being talked down to, so I'll work on that, but I would ask people to remember the above and keep that in context too when weighing my responses.....am I actually being condescending in every case, or does it simply feel that way because I'm including stuff you already know in my response? And if its the latter, is THAT something I COULD know about you without knowing who you are or you as a person and not just a paragraph sent in anonymously?

I'd rather be safe than sorry, and so from my POV since there's no harm in somebody seeing someone cover information they already know as PART of their overall answer or response, like, there's no reason for me not to include whatever I think is relevant and just expect readers to decide for themselves what about my response, if anything, is helpful, and like....just ignore the rest, y'know?

Also, just for the record, I am ADHD and I save my medication for when I'm working or writing or have stuff I absolutely need to get done, which doesn't include my usual blogging. So I'm usually posting while not on my ADHD meds at all, hence the rambling tendencies and the length. Another aspect of ADHD that doesn't get talked about much ime is we tend to over-explain, part out of just excitement/interest in whatever it is that has our attention, and also in part because we're used to people not necessarily following the leaps our minds take when jumping around rather than proceeding in an orderly thought pattern.....so, part of why I break things down so incrementally is I literally just don't know where my way of looking at things diverges from the way neurotypical thinking views things, so I want to draw as detailed a map as possible in order to ensure the most people possible can follow my thought process, just in case.

(And again see, this is something you might already know, and hell, you could have ADHD yourself, I just literally have no way of knowing that so rather than just mention it and be like "oh and also I have ADHD and so that's something to keep in mind" I'd rather explain WHY I feel that's particularly relevant to your question, since I'm kinda like, why not answer as fully as I have the spoons for? People can stop reading at any time if I go on too long. Its fine).

As for the specific asks you're referencing - my response to the gen z anon was not meant to convey that the sort of things you're describing don't occur among gen z, so sorry for giving that impression. Its actually the opposite of my point, which was simply that I don't think its a generational thing, or that anything is gained by treating it as a generational thing. This kind of behavior exists in gen z, yes, but it also existed before gen z. Its not gen z SPECIFIC, or limited to just that generation. That's all.

And the other ask, the one you made about Barbara - to be honest, I don't have anyway of knowing for sure which one you meant, and there are a couple it could have been, but if its the one I THINK you're referencing, I believe you asked how to stop people from assuming you dislike Barbara for reasons rooted in ableism when its because of other things? If that's the one, then I mean, the thing is....I DID answer your question, in as much as anyone could. I addressed the perceptions other people might have of your stance there, but basically - there IS no way to ever ensure people take you at your word or any kind of guarantee you can present your POV in a way that won't be misrepresented or misunderstood. So ultimately, I just had no real useful advice for that?

And so I expanded into the only thing I think anyone CAN control, aka their own thoughts and words, and suggested that you just double check to be sure of your own possible biases that others might read into your words without you being aware you were putting them in there. That wasn't meant as an insult or to suggest you hadn't already examined yourself for possible ableism - it was simply saying it never hurts to check again, y'know? We don't always catch everything every time we do a self-review, and internal biases are inherently tricky to pick up on ourselves. And it just loops back into the fact that I really had no way to know what you had and hadn't already considered, you're essentially a blank cipher to me....and in my experience, a lot of people are a lot more ableist than they realize.

And this isn't an insult either! It applies to me and I'M physically disabled! I'm constantly to this day unpacking new realizations about how I still have more ableist views and opinions than even I realize, even after about five years of living with chronic pain, vertigo, nerve issues and associated problems stemming from only half a working mouth lol. I'm not trying to insult people by asking them to just do what I do every day and just like....make sure I'm not the problem when other people have a problem with me. Because sometimes, even after reflecting as fully and genuinely as I can, I think they're still wrong! I don't have to agree with their conclusions! But that doesn't mean that they're never right.

And for the record, I do think its still worth examining on your end, because I don't love that you said your issues with Barbara have nothing to do with her appearance, when we're talking about ableism specifically. It very well could be just a poor word choice on your part and not a reflection of your actual views, but it could also be a suggestion that you tend to think of physical disability as something that's limited to there being a visual sign of, and there's a lot of invisible symptoms and changes to the ways a disabled person interacts with society and society with them that don't alter a disabled person's appearance in anyway...and many of these things are the exact stuff a lot of unacknowledged ableism revolves around.

So I'd like to give you and other anons more credit and the benefit of the doubt and assume you know what you're talking about and don't need things broken down as much as I tend to break them down to - but keep in mind I don't OWE you that, and its a lot to ask someone to take you on faith when you've already made the conscious choice to present yourself to them anonymously, and deliberately limit how much a person even CAN know about you before answering, when you have an equal opportunity to present yourself by name, allowing someone the full context afforded by your blog, that they can use to familiarize themselves with you and what you likely do or don't know before answering. I don't think its entirely reasonable to anonymize YOURSELF and then expect people to still give you the benefit of the doubt.

Especially when not giving you the benefit of the doubt only really results in me over-explaining something you don't think you need explained in certain ways or in as much depth. Its not hurting anyone, and you're not going to be the only one reading this response and maybe that over-explanation ISN'T something other people know and it could still be of use to someone else, y'know?

But lastly, please keep in mind that you came to me, and I just answered in the way that made the most sense to me. If that didn't work for you or wasn't what you're looking for, that's fine, but like. You knew way more about me going into this interaction than I could possibly know about you, and assuming good faith of you and your interest in my response and giving you as much of a response as I did in the first place, let alone now, IS giving you the benefit of the doubt in the sense that I'm assuming you can find some way in which these responses are of use to you.

And if not, like....just don't send me more asks? LOL. I kinda feel like you just didn't expect the answer you got, and that's sitting weirdly with you. Which I get, to be honest, but I don't particularly think that's a me problem, because that has nothing to do with anything I can control.

I can only give the answer that occurs to me when I read and think about an ask. I can't guarantee it'll ever be the answer the asker actually WANTS.

[omegangrins]

Chibnall, Children, Choice and Consequence

Allow me to introduce a companion piece to A Treatise on the Doctor:

It's pretty simple:

Chibnall knows what he's doing and is playing a long game to show how the Doctor needs to take more responsibility.

Let me start off with my favorite examples. That's right, plural.

Every single villain 13 faces is never defeated, merely pushed away from causing them any immediate problems. Tim Shaw being the prime example.

1&10. Seriously, Tim Shaw. Her plan was to use his own bombs on him and then teleport him off the planet. Even without Ranskoor Av Kolos, the Doctor should have thought to check in on him. Especially after The Ghost Monument showed the Stenza were a greater threat than she knew. She still hasn't even checked up on WHAT THE HELL THE STENZA ARE! They sound worse than Daleks but naw, let's go rain-bathing in the upper tropics of Canstano instead.

2. Ghost Monument. We saw the END of an interuniversal race. What the fuck is the beginning that got them there? Who is Illyn and how and why did he orchestrate a super race?

3. Krasko. Sent back in time. Really, Doc? Not gonna take a look at the device and see where Ryan sent the prick so you can double check that he's not gonna cause anymore damage?

4. President Trump analog. Ooooo, you looked at him menacingly, Doc, that'll show him!! Not like he's gonna KEEP DOING ILLEGAL SHIT LIKE THIS.

5. The Pting. She literally shunted it off ship to be dealt with by someone else BUT DOESN'T GO BACK TO BE THAT SOMEONE ELSE ONCE SHE HAS HER TARDIS. That's like leaving a living nuke floating around after sweeping it under the rug while you fly off to Paris.

6. The Pakistani-Indian conflict still happens and millions still die. Not her fault but still....

7. Kerblam. Sure, Charlie's terrorism was solved but not the underlying problem that led to it. Humans still can't work because corporations like profits over people.

8. Similar to the Punjab, how you gonna solve sexism, classism and all the -isms?

9. WHY WAS THE SOLITRACT THERE IN THE FIRST PLACE??!! It's been around since before the universe. Why'd it decide to come back now? It's a whole universe trying to hug our universe to death. Maaaaaaybe we should check out why.

11. She's gets a pass on the Dalek. Fucking impossible to eradicate them.

12. The Master!!! Finally she checks up on something after the adventures... and it's horrible. With everything gone to shit in her absence. Seeing a pattern yet?

And Barton? And the Cassaven? They didn't disappear into smoke.

13. Multiple Earths being multiply fucked. Remember when I said the Doctor couldn't solve racism, classism, sexism, or any of the other -isms? Starting to look like she needs to TRY.

14. The Skithra FLY OFF after getting hit by a laser beam. That kind of thing tends to piss people off. Even if they're idiots using other's technology.

15. Jack. The Judoon. The Ruth Doctor. All things I'd start checking out if I had a time machine BUT

16. WE CAN'T cause the TARDIS emergency alert is going off and we need to hurry up and run and solve this problem before we run out of time in our TIME AND SPACE MACHINE. Leading to another problem the Doctor could help solve but won't. Plastic and over-consumption.

17. Oh yeah, let's trap two Eternals from another universe in the same place. There's NO WAY that could ever turn out bad.

18,19,20. And again. Cyberium. Pushed off Shelley onto herself and onto Ashad and onto The Master.

That's almost 20 "enemies" the Doctor still needs to deal with.

Oh, not to mention that they let UNIT go defunct because they didn't have the forethought to ask if they needed any money in their alien fighting budget. After asking for an office, a desk, and a job. Kinda funny that way, aren't they?

I hope by now you've gotten the idea that this is VERY deliberate. This is Chibnall laying down some very heavy pipe to smack the Doctor like a clothesline. There isn't a one of these situations that can't come around to bite her in the ass.

Barton, Roberts, Skithra. These are all very loose strands for a time traveller like the Doctor to get tripped up on. Chibnall's past episodes prove it. They're all about the Doctor learning how to take responsibility.

42: The Doctor almost gets Martha killed and almost gets himself killed trying to fix it.

The Hungry Earth: The Doctor (a thousand year old "adult") tells Elliot (a 10 year old kid) that "Sure it's totally fine to go get your headphones while we prepare for an approaching unknown alien force." And 11 rightfully gets his ass chewed for it by the child's mother when the kid goes missing because OF COURSE THAT'S WHAT HAPPENS, JACKASS!

Cold Blood: I could write an entire essay about the Doctor's guilt over the Silurian/Human conflicts they've witnessed, but I don't need to. Because every single Silurian centered episode written in the new era is from Chris Chibnall. And you can feel the sad knowledge of Classic Who spill through. He KNOWS how many times the Doctor has fucked up with the Silurians (about 8 times in television format. And it's rough everytime. Rough.) and he writes those episodes like an apology on behalf of the whole human race. And the Doctor. You know why people are put off by Warriors of the Deep? 5 releases a gas that melts the Silurians. And though it's cheesy, the idea and execution is still horrible.

Add to that if the Doctor hadn't stopped to check the crack, then Rory wouldn't have waited and been around to be shot then absorbed by the time crack.

Power of Three: An entire episode about how the Doctor has a problem slowing down and really taking account of the lives of their companions.

Dinosaurs on a Spaceship: The Doctor actually tries to be responsible and pick the right people for a job. For once. But gets angry when they realize it's too late and there's another bunch of Silurians they failed to save. Classic!

Like I said, if you can't see the pattern, you're not paying enough attention to your responsibilites.

Which leads me to the why.

When you fly around time and space for thousands of years, you develop a few duties of care along the way. In every situation, you're the oldest. Technically the only adult in terms of experience. You have a responsibility to act a little less rude and be a bit more aware than needing cue cards to tell you that you should be sad about things around you. And that's the purpose of 13. She's unlucky but learning. Like 12 telling himself something with his face he couldn't say out loud, 13's instincts are leading her to a new place for the Doctor: being a caring, responsible person. Not so much laughing hard or running fast, but being kind. It's the one thing they recognized as a problem in themselves when seeing 1. Being a Doctor is about being kinder than that. Just because you HAVE to saw someone's leg off, that doesn't mean you can't wait a little and comfort them before you do it.

You wanna know what gave me every faith in Chibnall showrunning Doctor Who? 13 staying for Grace's funeral.

Do you understand how unprecedented that is? This is the same person who never said Goodbye to Jo Grant as she got married and fucked off into the night. The same Doctor who said, "I don't do domestic.", did it with Rose a regeneration later, and then closed himself off to everyone but a married couple he felt guilty about who ended up birthing his wife. Have you any idea the number of funerals the Doctor should have the common decency to sit through? This many.

So for 13 to stay around for the death of a woman she has only just met and not only that, BUT call out Ryan's father for not doing the same, it shows tremendous character growth. It's taken millennia but they're still changing.

Something similar happens with Rosa and The Witchfinders. Realizing that there a lot of companions who have been in situations that are sometimes worse than aliens, but they still manage to make it through. So she needs to buck it up and persevere for everyone else.

That's where her anger comes from, and really it's one of my favorite traits on her. It reminds me of 7. Someone impossibly old and impossibly kind saying to hell with it and at least having some fun with the evils who drag us through the universe. And just like Cartmel planned for 7, 13's past will come to haunt her.

That's where children come in. Most of us are crying babies to the Doctor.

There's this thing you notice most in British shows about answering the question directly as asked. Someone says "Are you sure?", you answer "Sure". That's a direct acknowledgement that you heard the question, understood it, and processed it enough to respond in a manner directly correlating to the question asked. Yas and Graham got it and said "Sure" but Ryan missed it and said "Deffo". This is like Elliot with the headphones. The Doctor should have immediately been like, "Okay, Ryan, it's obvious that you're still dealing with the trauma of your grandmother's death and probably not processing things on a logical level. I said "Are you sure?" Not "Are you deffo?" Because we are most definitely not deffo, Ryan. Graham, you wanna help here?"

I'm being sarcastic for points sake but you understand the idea. The Doctor knows better and has a responsibility as such. She should've really sat down with Ryan and Graham and seen if there was a better way to process their grief.

Because I'm fairly certain that "Deffo" is gonna lead to Ryan's death and Graham's cancer resurging as time cancer (I don't know what time cancer is. I just know it's bad.)

And that is gonna piss Yas off. Which will give you all that character you think she's missing (she isn't. Her character is in her subtleties and silences.). That's WHY her character is a police officer (like how does no else see that the man who wrote Broadchurch wrote an inspector character companion?) Imagine you're Yaz and you see the Doctor flying around in a big, magic box that says POLICE. As a fellow officer, you're gonna expect some basic safety protocols.

Like do a background check on everyone flying in the TARDIS to know whether they're stable enough (mentally, physically, emotionally) for time and space travel. It's no picnic. These people are going to go through hell. A little vetting and planning like Time Heist or Dinosaurs on a Spaceship goes a long way.

Secondly, full fucking disclosure.

"Oh. I can't die because I change my body. Oh. I have arch enemies that will try to kill and torture us any chance they get. Oh. My home planet is full of the biggest assholes in the universe and I'm including my arch enemies."

Third, police like to do this thing called "check-ups" where they go back to the scene of the crime in order to see if there is any more information that can be gleaned which you might not notice when you are busy running around trying not to be killed... Like, the Doctor has the perfect machine to do this with, but nope. Adventure done, run to the next place!!

These are all things you'd expect any reasonable person to do and say when taking others flying off into time and space and "helping". Even if they are an idiot passing through and learning. Especially when you consider the Doctor is vastly older and more experienced than everyone they encounter. They SHOULD know better. And they've got the lifespan to slow down. It's not like they need to be in a hurry because they're going to die at any moment like humans. The Doctor could easily stay for tea and it would be less than a drop in their lifespan.

Now, as usually is the case when I make these theories, I have a parts 1,2,3,4 and 6. There's allways this 5th piece I miss but I manage to get at the end.

But the 6th piece is the Timeless Child. The Doctor isn't a Time Lord anymore. They're not beholden to those people and ideas anymore. Even moreso, those people basically raped her childhood for their own gain so it's not like you'd really listen to them and their "policy of non-intervention".

I'm sensing a coming Trial of a Time Lord season (even believing these two seasons are the opening statement and preliminary evidence of the trial itself) wherein the Doctor finally gets the turnaround 6 deserved. A Trial of the Time Lords, if you will.

"In all my travels through time and space I have battled against evil, against power-mad conspirators. I should have stayed here! The oldest civilization: decadent, degenerate and rotten to the core! Power mad conspirators? Daleks, Sontarans, Cybermen — they're still in the nursery compared to us! Ten million years of absolute power: that's what it takes to be really corrupt!"

This is what it's all coming down to. Chibnall's takedown of the Time Lords. And The Master is going to play the most crucial role of all.

They're going to be revealed as an Ux alongside the Doctor and show how the only constants they have in this universe are each other and it's about damn time they work together and tell these high collars to eat Schitt while they explore every star and planet they can find.

Come on, the episode is called The Timeless "Children". If it was just the Doctor it'd be called "The Timeless Child". The Master says as much with the misdirect line, "built on the lie of the Timeless Child." since we see two kids playing in that flashback.

"Since always. Since the Cloister Wars, since the night he stole the moon and the president's wife, since he was a little girl. One of those was a lie, can you guess which one?"

Now we know which one was a lie, we know the Master HAS known the Doctor since they were a little girl. THAT little girl...

But this is all just speculation. It's not like Chris Chibnall could have been thinking about this for the past 40 years and was given a blank slate to do whatever he wanted for five years on his favorite TV show. If y'all want to think he took those reigns and is choosing to make things worse...

Well then you don't know much about responsibility.

I'll let the man himself tell you about it.

"Very early in my career,” says Chibnall, “someone told me that you learn more from a failure than you do from a success. And then I lived out that phrase for a year in Los Angeles. I learned that I would not work that way again or be put in that situation again.” The essential lesson was: “You either have to be in total control of a show or working with people who share your vision and will work with you to achieve it. Also, never work with 13 executive producers.

“Camelot was the classic case of too many cooks. It wasn’t a harmonious set-up and I think that does manifest itself on screen.

“I had a fantastic cast but you have to be free to tell the story you want to tell in the way that you want to tell it. What ended up on screen was not what I wanted and so it is a blemish on my CV.”

Credit to @thirteenthdoc

“You immortals - so entitled, so spoiled. You never clear up after yourselves and you always leave stuff lying around.” - Thirteenth Doctor in Can You Hear Me?

[chocolatepot]

I didn't say that shonen doesn't have the tropes. A lot of different fiction has the same character typing that kick-started H/D (and a lot of H/D shippers have migrated to them at various times).

The entire thing is kind of moot in that nobody is still in HP fandom because they're too dumb and/or devoid of culture to enjoy anything else. I've never seen anyone who has literally never tried other fandoms that bring something similar to the table; HP fans read and watch other media and get involved in their fandoms. This is a stereotype that makes people feel better about themselves for not being That Kind Of Cringey Fan, Obviously I Have Taste.

If someone has been in love with HP fandom for fifteen years with only the most minimal and controversial of new canon content, it's because there is something they are getting from the fandom. To some extent, you should probably consider them fans of the fandom instead (although that phrase usually has a kind of derisive "you haven't seen the canon you just like the fic" vibe which I don't mean).

Sure, if someone is really determined to stop caring about HP fandom, they can probably make themselves switch into another one for a canon that is similar to HP (magical school, written for teens) and try to wrangle the same kind of fandom experience out of it. But if you're trying to entice someone who actively loves to read H/D fanfiction into completely abandoning that for something else, you should probably offer them a canon more like H/D fanfiction, which has a deep divide between the characters based on more than an academic rivalry as well as an actual romantic/sexual relationship between the rivals/enemies, sometimes with a historical vibe and sometimes a more cop-show one. (Similarly, if they're a Snape fan they want something with a hated antihero protagonist who goes after redemption and suffers; Sirius fans want someone rebelling against their evil family and/or being unjustly imprisoned and suffering; Ron/Hermione fans want something with a main opposites-attract ship ... James/Lily fans are just broken inside, tbh.)

Now, maybe the fandom of a suggested canon offers a lot of this, but then it's probably better to be up front with the information and to recommend specific works. (Though even then, asking people to put in a time investment to read/watch a whole series that doesn't have what they want in order to be set up for fanfiction that does is not a winning strategy either. Some of us don't have the attention span.)

Do people move from one fandom to another based on their having similar canons? Sure, all the time. But that's organic, they see their friends posting content about it that meets their fannish desires and they shift. They're not deliberately replacing one with another because they've been told to.

I loved Good Omens (book and tv show), because it's witty and funny and plays with religious concepts in a novel and entertaining way. I love the fandom because of Aziraphale/Crowley and I'm not interested in anything else about it fannishly. I also don't generally get interested in other canons about angels and demons, or that resemble the Newt and Anathema or Them portions of the book. But I ADORE Our Flag Means Death, which I followed people into organically and which is essentially an A/C pirate AU, complete with explicit romance. I would not generally recommend OFMD to people because I knew they liked GO, because it would be nonsensical (although now that I think about it, the style of humor is pretty similar, so maybe I should). But if I know someone is into A/C, then it's a perfect recommendation despite the lack of impending apocalypses, angels and demons, plucky children, etc.

Anon has fully missed my point and is making some odd choices for recommendations. People who mention HP's worldbuilding as a factor for their staying in the fandom aren't looking for poor worldbuilding in general, they specifically like the inconsistent worldbuilding of HP. I like how it can be seen as a neo-Victorian dystopia, allowing you to implement pretty much any kind of nasty laws and traditions to make characters suffer, for instance. If something else has shitty worldbuilding but not the Victorian-esque feel, or characters I want to abuse with it, I'm not interested and in fact am usually turned off.

(People love characters. I don't know if I've ever seen another fandom get bombarded with so many recommendations that ignore the fact that people love specific characters.)

I've been following Gunnerkrigg Court for so many years now, but it has nothing to do with HP or its fandom, and there's no reason why someone in HP fandom would get into it for the worldbuilding or the scifi/magical school setting. And at the pace it's been going for the last couple of years I think it's slightly cruel to recommend it to new readers, tbh.

Irt harry potter shipping fans apparently not being able to get into shounen because they like Harry/Draco and Remus/Sirius.... Babes I promise u, shounen has the tropes you like. Shounen is built upon two boys being Destined Rivals, fated to always be together, twin stars who's push and pull makes each other better. People joke that Sasuke and Naruto were very much in love (despite the epilogue) but that's literally what all shounen rivalries become. And if you really love the rich boy tsundere trope, you have both bakugou and todoroki to choose from. Or maybe you want some enemies to lovers where they're narrative foils and two sides of the same coin etc etc and one guy has long white-blonde hair? Shigadeku.

And on the meta side, if you really like how HP's world building has interesting bits but also stuff that doesn't make sense and is honestly shit? You can find so many fics about quirked society in BNHA. How the society works, discrimination, different magic systems (aka quirks) interacting with each other.... The list goes on. If you like analysis, you can find it in BNHA fandom.

However, if someone is looking for a series like HP not for fandom but because they like British magic schools: Gunnerkrigg Court is a free webcomic you can read online right now that does everything JKR tried to do, but better. Magic systems, secret societies, British boarding school mysteriousness, a subgroup of elves serving humans, political intrigue, comedic moments, and queer representation. Tom Siddel doesn't actually use the words "gay", "lesbian", etc, but (and I actually prefer this) there are multiple couples where both members are presenting as the same gender, as well as a character who goes from female to male and everyone is like "I'm so happy for him."

--

I think the idea was that Sirius/Remus isn't very similar to BNHA. I was laughing my ass off because I know so many H/D fans, and as you say, shounen is not exactly lacking in schoolboy rivals that people ship.

[fullmoonespeon]

Ok. So, as mentioned in a post somewhere above me, discipline and abuse walk a very fine line.

I was smacked every now and then as a kid myself by my mother, and my father threatened me with the belt a couple times when I was with him for the weekend. But that was only AFTER I didn't follow instructions the first fifteen times or I was being a smartass to them.

And, yes, I do have a little bit of a mental issue, but it didn't come from the physical punishments. It came from being constantly grounded in high school (by a step parent, mind you) and unable to go outside or do any kind of activity I found fun, either alone or with friends. It came from being dropped off at college almost a month and a half after graduating and suddenly I wasn't considered "grounded" anymore, because I didn't have any adults to tell me what I could or couldn't do.

And, yeah, most of my issue started after I fell and got a slight head injury that I never got treated for towards the end of my first college semester, but that's a story for another time.

My point is, beating kids IS bad. And I don't think it is appropriate to lay hands on a child that isn't at least of the age to be enrolled in Kindergarten. But once they're able to leave the house to be without their parents for however many hours school is now, they need to be able to at least behave. And if they constantly deliberately disobey and could potentially endanger themselves, then yes, tap their bottom or the back of their hand. Maybe they'll actually pay attention to what you have to say. I know I did.

And before OP or anyone else goes off and says "oh you shouldn't have/be around kids then" or "you'll have CPS called on you for abuse", just shut up.

I raised my stepmom's kid, ok? For three to four years, I taught him through patience and play. But after those years, when it came time to do things and he was trying to be bad or not listen, I'd tap the back of his hand. Not enough to sting or leave any kind of redness, mind you, but enough to get his attention. Yeah, sometimes I'd go a little harder with the tap, but that was only if he didn't stop what he was doing after the first few times.

And guess what?

He's started high school this year with no mental or behavioral issues, getting good grades, being socially active, and now he's volunteering at an animal shelter on the weekends.

Sometimes disciplining kids is necessary for their benefit. A couple taps or smacks here or there won't be a bad thing. It's only a problem if punishment is a constant occurrence.

Also, if a kid is going to jump off a swing, they will either learn how to properly land without injury, or not to do it at all. Don't be a freaking hovering parent for stuff like that when the child is old enough to swing by themselves. Unless they're doing something stupid like trying to do a flip. A sprained ankle would be bad enough, but don't let the child break their neck or collarbone.

I dunno, that comparison has so many lines to cross..

So many Pro-Spanking advocates talk about how they “Deserved” to be hit by their parents because they were “a bad kid.” And it makes me so sad.

You weren’t.

You weren’t a bad kid, and you didn’t deserve to be hit. Maybe you were a difficult kid, maybe you struggled with boundaries or rules or expectations. Maybe you had bad behavior much of the time. But you, yourself, were not and are not a BAD person for that, and you didn’t EARN violence. You didn’t have it coming. It shouldn’t have happened to you.