#anti eleventh doctor

[expectiations]

text posts: Doctor + River version [2/?]

time to cleanse my mind, body, soul, spirit, life, etc. of the takes I've been seeing of my blorbos on a daily basis lately. and it's still wednesday.

[badwolfrose34]

My analysis of River Song (not River friendly)

This essay has been brewing in my mind for awhile. If you don’t want to see anti River content, please keep scrolling. I understand that since Doctor Who is a work of fiction, fans have the right to differing interpretations and to invoking literary license. However, I do want fans who are like me and icked out by River to feel validated. What follows is a pretty unreserved criticism of the character and her relationship with the Doctor.

First, I’m going to break down River from a psychological perspective. Note that I am not a licensed psychologist, but I did graduate with a degree in general psychology. I’m also going to explain some of the many instances that she proves herself to be an incredibly toxic person.

River Song was raised to be a psychopath. That’s an indisputable fact mentioned clearly in the show. Psychopathy is known in the psychology world as Anti Social Personality Disorder (ASPD). ASPD can be managed, but it has no cure. Could it be argued that River sees an off screen therapist? Sure. However, ask yourself if you can see River Song going to therapy?

Not only that, but River has no ordinary case of ASPD. She wasn’t just raised in an abusive or unsafe household, she was cut off from society during her critical formational years. Most cases of ASPD involve people who grew up in challenging households, but they did have interaction with society at large. I don’t know of any case studies surrounding people with ASPD who were cut off from society in their formational years, but doing some research on “feral children” will allow you to read examples of what happens to children raised away from society.

The case I know the most about is that of Oxana Malaya. You can google her for more. She was quite literally raised by dogs. And she required intense inpatient treatment to unlearn her dog like mannerisms. Even then, she always had a level of intellectual impairment.

Because River was specifically raised to have ASPD, she learned language abilities and was socialized on how to BEHAVE like a person capable of love and empathy and friendship, but she never was capable of these things. She was raised to put on an act to be able to get to the doctor and kill him. She was never capable of anything more.

Even if River saw an off screen therapist, she was never institutionalized, as would’ve been required for her to truly function as a healthy person in any possible way. She couldn’t have just shrugged off her programming. Why did she save the Doctor and give up her regenerations? It couldn’t have been guilt or remorse, but she could’ve developed co morbid Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD), which is a common disorder to co occur with ASPD. The narcissism would’ve created within her a need for supply. Supply meaning, a boost to the narcissists ego. Narcissists are not capable of genuine empathy and love, but they are capable of seeking supply in the form of impacting other people’s emotions. And what better source of supply for one’s ego than the last known member of one of the most powerful races known to the universe?

When River decided to undo her murder and save the Doctor, it starts off with a completely nonconsensual kiss. This is a pretty fitting start to a relationship that progresses into a forced marriage.

River then continues to force unwanted innuendos on the Doctor. Probably implying they were intimate just to make the Doctor feel obligated to be intimate with her eventually. This is despite Matt Smith confirming in an interview that his Doctor is asexual. He could be demi or grey sexual, I’ll admit that possibility, but River insists on forcing her hyper sexuality on him at any and all stages in his timeline knowing they wouldn’t be welcome. I should note that hyper sexuality can be a symptom of ASPD. It’s not cute or fun. If River was simply a sexually liberated character, she would not be forcing her innuendos on someone who does not want them. Especially not in the earlier parts of his timeline.

River flounces around feeling and acting entitled to the Doctor’s attention if and when she wants it. When she wants it, he’s expected to come running. Then she disappears when she wants to. Creating a masterfully manipulative cycle of hot and cold emotional abuse. When he loses Amy and Rory, she refuses to travel with him. Leaving him emotionally vulnerable and at her beck and call when and if she feels like using him.

Audio dramas are too numerous to declare as universal canon. I think most fans pick and choose which parts of the extended universe count as canon to them. But in the Dalek Universe series, River appears for one episode where she physically abuses the Doctor. She hits him so hard that he is crying out in pain. And then she gaslights him by telling him it was just a little tap. Now, it’s perfectly valid not to count this moment as canon. But it’s extremely consistent with River’s character and I am personally going to use it against her. Especially since I did see another post somewhere bring up the fact that she did the same thing to the fifth Doctor in another audio.

Finally, the worst part of River’s abuse is the forced marriage. The first time the Doctor meets her, she convinces him that he eventually marries her. But he clearly can’t stand her. He doesn’t want anything to do with her. But now he feels as though he’s obligated to marry her. At first he hopes it’s something that can be changed. Saying that time can be rewritten when Amy asks if he marries River. Right up until the forced wedding he tells River he doesn’t want to marry her. But because she convinced him he does marry her in the library, and because nothing else is convincing River to save the universe, he gives in and gives her what she wants. Assuming it’s the only way to keep the universe from falling apart.

Now, I do understand that anyone who loved the Doctor would not want to bring back a timeline where he died. But River was already willing to start considering it just because he agreed to marry her. Because she got what she wanted and because she got the satisfaction of seeing her manipulations succeed. The Doctor couldn’t even get close enough to her to tell her his plan at first, but she was willing to let him come close to her just because he married her. River valued marriage to the Doctor more than the Doctor’s life.

I know it’s commonly believed among River fans that he only kept his distance because he saw her die. But Remember he couldn’t stand her long before that. He never liked her until he thought he was supposed to. No doubt seeing her die cemented his desire to keep a distance from her. But the point is he did keep a distance from her. He never got close to her and he never wanted to. But River always refused to respect this. She saved him so he could belong to her. So he could be her property.

No doubt the Doctor did develop a level of care and responsibility for her. Because he was a person capable of empathy and remorse. And any target of this kind of emotional abuse will develop some sort of attachment. But he was never in love with her. River herself knew this, but she had to convince herself he never loved anyone. But he did. We know for a fact he was in love with Rose. We know he loved friends like Donna platonically. But he didn’t love River. Nor should he have.

Update: I thought I’d also share the official diagnostic criteria for Narcissistic Personality Disorder. I’m not qualified to diagnose real people since I only have a bachelor’s degree in psychology. But fictional characters, I will. It’s established canon River has Anti social personality disorder (the official term for psychopathy and sociopathy) so I won’t bother trying to prove my point there. But I do believe she is a narcissist as well.

In the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition, Text Revision (DSM-5-TR), [1] NPD is defined as comprising a pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), a constant need for admiration, and a lack of empathy, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by the presence of at least 5 of the following 9 criteria:

A grandiose sense of self-importance: River has this in spades.

A preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love: The Doctor is definitely her ideal love fantasy

A belief that he or she is special and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high-status people or institutions I would say this is another yes

A need for excessive admiration Definitely

A sense of entitlement 1000% she constantly feels entitled to the Doctor dropping everything for her.

Interpersonally exploitive behavior absolutely

A lack of empathy very much so

Envy of others or a belief that others are envious of him or her not sure about this one. I don’t recall any instances of this.

A demonstration of arrogant and haughty behaviors or attitudes any time she’s on screen this is a yes

I might make a separate post on narcissism specifically. And I might give more specific examples at that point. But fellow River loathers, this is pretty solid evidence that she’s a narcissist and a psychopath. Diagnostic criteria only stipulates that 5 of these traits be met. River definitely meets 8 of them. I should note that most psychologists and psychiatrists like to see that these traits apply to more than one aspect of a person’s life for a diagnostic. And with River it’s hard to establish that since her character almost completely revolves around the Doctor. BUT if just one person really wants solid evidence against her, let me know. I might be willing to put myself through an audio story or something that features her away from the Doctor.

If you are someone who doesn’t like applying real psychological concepts to fictional characters, I can respect that. However, it should be clear that by now that River’s patterns of abuse are obvious. Whether you wish for apply real life disorders to her not, her treatment of the Doctor and her abuse is still unacceptable. She is highly toxic towards him.

I would also like to add that it’s not just me who uses psychological concepts and applies them to fiction. There’s a whole book series where real psychologists apply psychology to fictional worlds, including Doctor Who. Cinema Therapy is a YouTube channel that does this. I was taught to think in this way by my high school English teacher as well.

[khruschevshoe]

There's something about how the costuming of Amy Pond (always in miniskirts/heeled boots even when the circumstances actively call against it, never getting to wear period wear except for once in Vampires of Venice for a one-scene disguise before immediately moving into a nightgown and once in a cutaway honeymoon monstage) is directly linked to the more sexist aspects of her storyline writing and that tie is most likely the interviews with Steven Moffatt where he admits to wanting to make Doctor Who "sexier." In this essay I will-

[ghost-bison]

Doctor Who - Opinions

-the ninth doctor was the best. no one will ever be as good as he was

-same for donna, best companion, no one will ever compare

-imo 9th > 10th > 12th > 14th > 11th > 13th (dunno about 15th yet, haven't seen enough of him)

-donna > rose > jack > martha > nardole > bill > river/clara > rory > graham >>>>>>>>>>>>>> amy (idk about yaz and ryan I honestly dont see any distinctive personality traits apart from the fact that ryan is always complaining and generally unpleasant)

-ninerose >>>>>>>> tenrose

-clara is a cool character, it's just her plots that made people dislike her

-i don't get the obsession people have over thoschei. or the master in general and his relationship with the doctor? apart from missy and twelve ofc

-i could never warm up to amy, nor do i get how people can like her. she was abusive, not a girlboss. didn't deserve rory

-i have mixed feelings about river. like obviously, slay my goddess, but also, she's everything that's wrong with moffat's writing of women? she's actually dependant and praises the doctor and never makes a decision for herself? never questions the doctor? that's not ok

-idc how good moffat's storylines get, i'll choose rtd any day. i'll refer you to this post as to why.

-chibnall's era feels flat. i don't hate 13, she's adorable, but I used to laugh and cry several times an episode during the first ten series. now it's like twice a series if we're lucky.

-i liked the campy effects way better than the disney-style expensive cgi they now use to try and balance out mediocre writing (I'm sorry but wtf was that Space babies episode and how did they manage to make it even more cringe than the series one Slitheen two-parters?)

[phyrexian-lesbian]

tired of rtd fans going “god forbid a character have a happy ending”. he did. when he was regenerating he had donna and mel beside him to see him off. he was content and he even said “it’s time.” and he was ready to go this time. that was a perfect and happy ending for him. and tbh the only thing i really expected from the giggle was the regen scene. i had no standards other than that.

the toymaker was brilliant and ncuti was brilliant. but thanks to rtds inability to get rid off DT, we got a colossal amount of fan service for a mediocre ending and having DT eclipse both Ncuti and Jodie because now the NMDs will say that 15 isn’t the real doctor. now i’m started to dislike david’s doctor because rtd is just beating this dead horse for 19 years.

11, 12, and 13 are now my favourite doctors. the incredible dw anniversaries were the Day of the Doctor for the 50th and the Power of the Doctor for the 60th.

[aletterinthenameofsanity]

don't ya just love it when you're really vibing to one of the most compelling character designs you've ever seen and your fun is completely ruined by the most 2010 sexist jokes/writing in the world?

[missbelindachandrabombs]

continuing yesterday’s discussion, the only card-carrying hypocrite in this house is, apparently, me. why do i resent how river (and to a lesser extent amy) are written to have their whole lives revolve around the doctor, but it’s completely fine by me when clara’s whole life does too? no idea. drawing from my own previous opinions i should hate the impossible girl arc. however, for some inexplicable reason, it fascinates me in a way the others didn’t. after all, consistency doesn’t really matter when discussing a show that doesn’t value it

but i do have an answer of sorts. the fact remains that clara’s s7b arc is not gender specific. she could have, in a hypothetical gender-neutral world, been the impossible boy, and nothing would have changed plotwise (the touches of sexist attitude towards her bear no relevance on the narrative). amy, on the other hand, with her schroedinger’s pregnancy, marriage dilemma (‘should i take my husband’s name?’) and ‘love triangle’, as well as river’s highly sexualised ‘wife’ role, are gender-specific and therefore misogynistic. yes, you could say that being the impossible girl makes clara a “manic pixie dream girl”, unrelatable to the average viewer and a Walking Plot Device, predestined by fate itself to meet the doctor, etc etc, but that doesn’t fall under sexism, and it’s not out of place in a series in which moving the story forward takes priority over anything else. nobody says this stuff about rose, despite her bad wolf impossible goddess of time arc being in fact quite similar! tl;dr obviously i haven’t gotten to later seasons yet, and my thoughts on her might change, but for now i stand by clara oswald. her arc coheres. her unreality makes her real

[ebenelephant]

oh it's so bad but all I remember from late 11/early 12 era is that I really disliked clara. don't know why, just did.

[expectiations]

ever since I made that sarcastic post a few days ago, i couldn't help but constantly think of how 11 would be going around proclaiming "WIFE! 🤩 I HAVE A WIFE!! 😋🥰 THIS IS MY WIFE!!! 😝🕺🏻✨" to anyone and everyone who would listen to the point that the entire universe literally knows that the best way to get the Doctor to come was to use said wife as bait (see: Lake Silencio, Harmony and Redemption, and Discordia incidents among others) with the Daleks themselves having their own gossip column solely dedicated to the Doctor and River Song.

[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.

[ghost-bison]

hot take maybe but i'd definitely have a crush on eleven if he'd been written by rtd

[cas-is-queer]

Everyone thinks the eleventh doctor is full of Whimsy and that twelve is not. Actually, twelve is fucking full of Whimsy, you just have your anti-Whimsy glasses on. See the Whimsy. Love it. Embrace it. He is the Whimsy Man.

[darklinaforever]

Since Moffat himself established within the series as Eleven that the Doctor was lying, I simply choose to believe that he is lying to Clara about why his Tenth incarnation sought to avoid regeneration.

Alright, now let’s talk about this:

Um, excuse me sir but that is incorrect. You, as Ten, didn’t have vanity issues.

You’re old here and you think you’re going to die for good and it’s been hundreds of years… blah blah blah. Is that any excuse for this blatant rewriting of history? No.

(Couldn’t you have just said “it was a whole thing”? Then we wouldn’t need this rant! But here we go.)

Remember Rose, Doctor? Remember the pink and yellow human who joined you after the Time War and brought light and joy back into your heart? Who made you laugh and smile again? Who made you say “if I believe in one thing, I believe in her”?

And remember when you regenerated from Nine to Ten in front of her?

You would have given her this if you could have. In a heartbeat. You spent practically that whole Christmas trying to get her to like the new you! And she did, she loved you as Ten. And you lost her. You were torn apart against your will. She was devastated. You mourned her.

Then you finally get her back, just a glimpse, and you are shot down before you can even hug her.

So you regenerated and you kept your face and you played it off as vanity.

Well done. It’s almost as if you have hundreds of years experience deflecting emotions with humor. But it was so much more than that!

After everything that had happened you couldn’t put her through that again! You couldn’t put yourself through it!

Regeneration is still like dying. “Everything in me dies. Some new man goes sauntering away”. It might have been easier for Ten to be someone else. To be somewhat removed from all the emotions he had wrapped up in this woman. But he couldn’t do that. Not if he could help it. Not even to save himself some sliver of pain if and when it ended again. To deprive Rose, and himself, of this reunion would have been cruel. This time he could give her what he couldn’t last time… her Doctor.

What I’m saying is, Doctor, as you look back on your lives maybe don’t forget the people who meant so much to you. And don’t cheapen the times you were able to give someone (including yourself) something they needed.

/rant

[aletterinthenameofsanity]

Eleven/Amy/Rory Writing Update

Me, sneaking acknowledgements of the fact that the Doctor seriously and completely loved Rose Tyler, that Eleven still grieves Rose and Donna's losses, an actual arc involving said grief, a little bit of Bad Wolf tinkering out of order, and an apology to Martha all the while building up a serious romantic relationship with Amy and Rory, allowing them both shenanigans and character-development, giving the Eleventh Doctor a chance to maybe even have a family of his own while still occasionally dropping in on old friends AND getting to heal? Actual continuity from Nine and Ten to Eleven AND cutting out a lot of the sexist under-and-over-currents from the River Song plot? More likely than you'd think.

(Also, I started this project at 12:10 a.m. yesterday and I already have 16k total. So I think we can say that I've officially fallen back into my middle school Doctor Who hyperfixation that consumed me for the first semester of eighth grade. It's amazing what rewatching old shows can do to your brain.)

[gallifreyanhotfive]

Random Doctor Who Facts You Might Not Know, Part 72: More Academy and Pre-Leaving Gallifrey Stuff Because Why Not

Sorry I'm in too my pain to come up with a better title right now lmaooo. Mostly about the Doctor because they occupy the mind.

As a small child, Theta Sigma had an imaginary friend named Binker. (Audio: The Abandoned)

Later, the Sixth Doctor claimed that while most people had imaginary friends, he had had an imaginary enemy in Mandrake the Lizard King, which was really a dead lizard pinned to old engine parts that he would battle with his deadly stick. This phrasing suggests that the Sixth Doctor does not acknowledge any imaginary friends his childhood self might have had. (Audio: The Widow's Assassin)

The Rani claimed that sentimentality was the reason the Doctor graduated with "just a Double Gamma." (Audio: The Rani Elite)

According to Sardon, the Doctor is no common criminal because by the latter years of his first incarnation was a distinguished member of the High Council and was widely regarded as a potential President. He was difficult and rebellious, however, and went too far when he quarreled with his colleagues over something obscure over principle. He then stole an old Type 40 TARDIS and fled. (Novel: World Game)

The Seventh Doctor claimed that he had always believed evil to be a genuine force. This had given his young self quite a name on Gallifrey as most of his contemporaries considered the ideas of "good" and "evil" to be archaic and out-dated. They thought his preoccupation with that morality was incomprehensible. (Novel: Strange England)

Before leaving Gallifrey, the Doctor had successfully campaigned for the ban of a special chemical. This chemical was a weapon sometimes called a disruptor agent that acts as a catalyst to convert vertebrate blood into acid. The formula for the chemical stuck in his brain well enough that the Second Doctor was able to later recreate it. (Short story: The Ages of Ambition)

The Doctor had made powerful enemies on Gallifrey on account of his controversial views on the non-interference policy. (Audio: The Beginning)

The Doctor was told stories about the Kin when he was a small boy on Gallifrey. The Time Lords imprisoned the Kin in a complex of small rooms out of temporal phase with the rest of the universe. So long as the Time Lords existed, the Kin would be in their prison. When the Kin got out, there was still a Time Lord left in the universe - the Eleventh Doctor. (Short story: Nothing O'Clock)

In his youth, the Doctor feared that Grandfather Paradox was hiding under his bed or underneath the table in the refectory or making noises he could hear outside at night. (Novel: The Gallifrey Chronicles)

As a young man, the Doctor read about an infection on Gallifrey that had happened over one thousand years before his birth. The Spore - which was actually the von Neumann seeding probe - killed several hundred thousand Time Lords before it was dealt with. The Time Lords engineered an inherited immunity into their genes, so they would never be vulnerable again. Everything organic seemed to be necrotic and decaying to a black gunk. (Please skip to next bullet point if you are squeamish about descriptions of bodies.) When the Eighth Doctor investigated an outbreak, he found a body wearing boots, jeans, and a checkered shirt. Inside the clothes was a mess of bones barely held together by a few pieces of remaining flesh. The skull had a few pieces of white hair, but the scalp and other pieces of soft organic matter were gone as black slime ran out of the cuffs. (Short story: Spore)

The Doctor used to sit by the sea a lot in their childhood, watching and listening to it. He used to think that that was where the dead went, that they were all out there in the sea, and that you could hear them whispering in the waves. (Novel: Matrix)

Three students at the Academy who often conducted rebellious and anti-hierarchical activities include: the Master, whose title was earned from his constant bullying of others, a good cosmic theoretician but but not very good in practice; the Doctor, who often carried out silly chemical experiments with a friend called Drax; and the Rani, who "was brilliant at everything, and chemistry in particular." (Short story: The Legacy of Gallifrey)

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[smoliboops]

JSE Egos x Doctor Who Au - Jameson Jackson as the Eleventh Doctor

finally finished coloring my sketches from April :D! Dont know if i'll go as hard coloring-wise for future sketches lol, but hoping to get around to drawing more ego/doctor combos soon ^-^

(Bonus slight alternative for series7B JJ and bonus info/ramble in the read more:)

JJ with all brown hair since while coloring I forgot that I wanted to still give him his blue hair but more grown out (to kinda show the passage of time for 11! JJ to imply that he retired for a bit like 11 did after TATM/before the Snowmen.) I like how both versions turned out although idk which I like more lol. also i used an online Sherman's Gallifreyan translator for the first pic; it's "Jameson Jackson" in gallifreyan!

also yes i have been thinking about this specifically since i accidentally used Doctor Who to spot that Schneep was studying time travel equations back in 2019 and I went insane xD

also also, shoutout to the discord server im in (ya'll know who you are) who've been seeing me work thru these on and off the last 2 months, genuinely appreciate ya'll <3 :)

and finally if you got here, i have ideas/episode scenes i want to do for either 12! or 15! Marvin, 10! Chase, 9! Schneep, and Master! Anti cos ive wanted to draw him as either Dhawan or one of the classic incarnations 👀 (someone also mentioned Valyard! Anti as well on the sketch post and while i havent gotten around to watching Trial of a Timelord/more classic DW i see your vision 👏). but im very slow at finishing art so pls let me know which ideas yall might want to see next if you like this niche crossover ^-^ ✨