#and how her isolation now from gallifrey has come from that act by the master specifically as revenge......

[dontwanderoff]

there really is something to be said about the doctor having that paralleling and level playing field with a villain of an ep and what that brings to their characterisation. i’m thinking how the doctor barely blinks at half the things she goes against now, excluding her approach with daleks (’i’m the one who beats the daleks’) and cybermen (’i will not lose anyone else to that’), and how her sense of identity is shaken w/ the timeless child plot. i’m thinking a villain in the vein of rosanna that can make the doctor confront where she’s ended up. i’m thinking how great that conversation is and how up until rosanna forgot isabella’s name, the doctor was mostly going along with it. like,,,,,, he had drawn a line, he had this place that he decided was indicative of what was acceptable. i’m thinking not a lot else very specifically currently, but there are certainly vibes in how this sorta story/use of a villain in a similar manner for thirteen has potential

[wren-rambles]

No messy. No fussy. Just Missy.

Here it is, the long awaited character analysis of Missy a.k.a. ‘the Master’. For reference I will be using information from sources outside the show! Such as ‘The Missy Chronicles’ and detailing’s of the audio stories.

I know this has been a long time coming, but it's here now!

First off, it is impossible to isolate Missy from the Master because they are the same with some physical differences as well as some minor personality differences. So, I must start off with the fact that In general the Master (as a whole) only ever does things that suits their needs and their purposes, or that simply will entertain them. Therefore, there are no differences between Missy and other Master’s OTHER than 1. she identifies as she, 2. she is calmer, more poise if you will.

In the very beginning of Missy’s incarnation, she awoke on a Mondasian Cyber-ship with no recollection of why/how she got there.

What’s in a name?

One of the first things the Master does after a regeneration is go the the Scoundrels (a gentlemen’s club for evil doers such as them-self). At this point Missy hasn’t picked a name for herself, so she is nameless). Upon going to and taking her usual seat, she is met with sexism and thrown out of the club. Of course this makes her angry, so she goes on a journey of revenge. On this journey she meets a woman called Saffron (a freed slave from Southern America during the 1700s); it is here in which Missy picks her name. In conversation with Saffron, Missy mentions she was called ‘Master’ and Saffron says “You’re all masters here [...] even the mistresses,” which piques Missy’s interest and gives rise to her calling herself ‘Missy’ (short for Mistress). Missy recruits Saffron and uses her to help aid her in her revenge à la Master style. She goes on to kill every member of the club. The members she didn’t kill she brought back in time and sold into slavery after releasing some slaves so that she could replace them. (So, yes she freed slaves but we aren’t sure what she actually did with them and there’s almost no way they would have been safe if simply released).

Missy commits the acts of revenge against those who have wronged her. Nothing that could be considered ‘good’ can be equated as good due to her malicious motivations behind them.

Dealings with Gallifrey

Missy’s TARDIS is broken! the Eye of Harmony (EoH) has been shut down, locked by Gallifrey, only to be turned on if she does their bidding. So, Missy is recruited by the General and accompanied by Yayani to sneak into the Kyme institute to stop them from using a creature that has been engineered with “time-and-space-travel capability” and with this type of creature it could cause problems throughout time and space. Disrupt the balance, paradoxes, etc. This creature was also born/created to be pregnant so it had the instinct to survive. After some manipulation of Yayani based on her past and hatred for Rassilon (she tried to kill him -> forced to work for him) she is coerced into killing the Doctor who created this creature. Then as expected Missy releases the creature (not for good reason, sorry) and replaces the Eye of Harmony in her TARDIS with it. She imprisons the creature to power her TARDIS, she is no longer reliant on Gallifrey, and to send a message she kills Yayani via Tissue Compression Eliminator and sending her body to Gallifrey and a message ‘Not your puppet’

The many complexities of Missy

Clara: Initially she manipulated her into calling the 11th Doctor and caused them to meet. Then she places an ad in the paper to keep them together after 11s regeneration into 12. She does this to create the Gallifreyan Hybrid of myth out of the both of them. Missy kills Danny Pink by running him over with a milk float.

Lucy Saxon: Missy tells her that she must shoot Harold Saxon, but keeps the information that Lucy will die to herself. She also requests that the matrix slices Harold had acquired be given to her now for her purposes. 

With these slices she creates the Nether sphere where the undying minds go. (3W) The reality altered the minds and removed emotions. Missy uses these to fill Cyber coverted bodies. She creates her army of cyber men and plans on converting all the soon to be dead humans into Cybermen. To prove a point she turns control over the army to the Doctor, she wanted him to take control and use the army to prove that their similarities. Much to her dismay he turns control over to Danny who orders the Cybermen to destroy themselves. Plan foiled, Missy fakes her death in order to escape.

Missy even tries to manipulate children into furthering her causes and schemes to gain power. (’Teddy Sparkles Must Die’) This doesn’t go to plan.

Bottom line is that Missy is very smart calculated and complicated. She manipulates things through time to suit her needs or future needs. There is a constant struggle for power. 

Moving on, Missy is put on trial for her crimes and sentenced to death. The Doctor was chosen to carry out the execution, but he faked her execution and decided to put her in a vault instead to guard her body. His goal was for her to realize her wrongdoings and become good. After a long time Missy ends up shedding a tear for all those she had killed/hurt, she also claims that she regrets her actions.

As a test the Doctor has Missy perform maintenance on the TARDIS while he is away. She waits for him. This is 12s cause to free her from the vault. He decides he can trust her. They each contemplate whether or not they can be friends again.

The thing is, the Master and even Missy are no strangers to playing the long game. It’s questionable whether or not her change is really genuine.

Then we come to Missy’s end. 

As a test, 12 sends Missy on a test mission to see if she really has changed. She is ill prepared and under her watch Bill is shot and carried off to floor 1056. Missy and 12 went to said floor together. 12 leaves Missy to gather information and she learns the ship is Mondasian. Missy ends up going along with ‘Razor’ (Simm!master) only to eventually claim she was playing him. She quickly admits that she is unsure of her allegiance. 

The Doctor tries to convince Simm!master to help him save the people because it is the right thing to do but he doesn’t then in private with Missy, she reveals that she wanted to stand with him and help him but couldn’t. The she leaves with Simm! As they were about to leave Missy stabs Simm! forcing his regeneration into her. Missy reveals to him that she planned on siding with the Doctor which angers him.

By now it’s apparent that she has changed. She leaves to help the Doctor, but it ends up killing her. Simm! shoots Missy. Thus Missy dies. She dies and the Doctor believes she always went back on her change, but really she was just too late.

Missy tries to change for the better. She ultimately wants to stand with the Doctor, finally they end up on par with each other. level ground, standing side by side finally. But she’s too late. 

The Master is just to disgusted with the idea of standing with the Doctor on his moral high ground. It’s about bringing him down, not climbing them-self up.

Sidenote: Missy through a complicated event become the Lumiat! Another incarnation who claims to be good as a result of the Doctor’s teaching/influence. She herself tries to be a good influence on Missy. This version foils may of Missy’s plans but ends up having to regenerate because Missy got bored of her. It is after this that we assume that Dhawan!Master comes about.

So, what does this all mean? Is Missy good? Well, no, she is still at the core the Master who is inherently bad. Is the Master capable of change? That really depends on which Master you are talking about. Missy, yes. Simm! no. Dhawan, I also believe no. A calmer more poise Master, yes.

The most tragic of all, is that Missy (and the Lumiat) is a moot point. The Master always goes back to being evil. Dhawan is proof of this, regardless of Missy’s learned lessons or changes they are always meant to go back, their need for power is too strong not to.

This is NOT an ultimate conclusion, this is based on the information we have been given thus far in the Master’s/Missy's history!