#character moment for clara in reacting to what he put her through and how that’s foundational to how she’s rebuilding herself in his image. | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

isagrimorie · 5 years ago

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So many men on twitter are saying how terrible it was Thirteen didn’t comfort Graham.

And while I like to joke how Thirteen was like Rosa Diaz with one leg out of the window Thirteen actually wasn’t doing that.

Because unlike Rosa at that moment, she wasn’t pulling away emotionally, Thirteen was listening intently to Graham. Her face is open and listening.

She’s even leaning forward, trying to understand what Graham was saying to her, if there was any request in his words.

But then he stops talking and looks at her expectantly.

She looks back at him expectantly, because she was waiting for him to continue with a request.

She even raises her eyebrows, as if to say: “Go on...”

He returns it with his own raised eyebrow, “No, it’s your turn.”

And then that’s when it clicks for Thirteen. Oh. Oh! Oh, crap. He wants me to say something and not do something. What do I do? What do I do???

Doctor... buffering...

And this is when Thirteen admits she doesn’t know what to say.

Graham looks doubly amused at the Doctor after this. He got his fears off his chest and she listened but at that time she had no words to contribute and brilliantly, Graham got that at that particular moment it’s all she could give.

It just seems like just wanted this off his chest.

Put me in that situation, it’s more than I could manage to be honest. I’d probably try to give commiserating sounds and scrabble to think for something to say with less grace.

Also, the tweets have the general air of-- The Doctor should be nurturing and emotionally mature because she’s a woman now, and she should have hugged Graham, to comfort him.

Despite how she looks like Thirteen is not a hugging person, and she’s able to get away not hugging because she’s able to look boisterous and open, and funny when a large part of that is protective coloring. She’s a friendly person and she will drag you to adventures and then it’s only after you realized the best affectionate thing she’s ever given you was a brief pat on your shoulders.

(TBH I think Graham himself might be weirded out if the Doctor was physically affectionate with him at that moment).

Also, and I can’t reiterate it enough and I’m glad Graham understands, better than the men of Twitter -- it is not the job of women to comfort and be emotionally wise, and as another guy mentioned on twitter: The Doctor’s been through a lot herself. She doesn’t have the emotional capacity at the moment to deal. She could barely handle her own issues, Thirteen doesn’t have the spoons at that juncture but she wasn’t brushing Graham off either.

It’s a Doctor MO when they can’t deal with an awkward thing they either don’t comment on it or ignore it and while Thirteen had no words she didn’t dismiss him. She didn’t check out during the whole talk.

Other regenerations would have. Admittedly to there are other regenerations that would fare better. Also, I have a feeling when Thirteen does find the words, she will say it to Graham.

But if you ask me Thirteen needed the cue cards Clara made for Twelve, because those cue cards helped Twelve. He got really better with emotions but before he got to that point Human emotions baffled Twelve.

As an example, Under the Lake episode when Twelve and Clara stumble into an underwater base and found what seemed like ghosts and instead of reacting the way people expected. Twelve was positively giddy.

Dude was confused when people got angry at him for celebrating Ghosts!

Doctor... buffering....

So, yeah... the Doctor not being the most emotionally mature person in the room is in character, just because the Doctor is a woman and looks like a nice girl doesn’t mean she instantly contains all the kindness and wisdom of the ages.

Twelve had to build up to who he becomes in series 10. He wasn’t instantly emotionally aware. It took a long time for him to get there, and it was a lot of effort, around almost a hundred years give or take (including the time with River).

I fully believe Thirteen will get there too.

Oh, also, Sophie Aldred also wrote something similar with Thirteen lamenting her inability to use words, any words to reach Ace, which means this really is a characteristic of Thirteen.

“Ace.” The Doctor looked suddenly hearbroken. “You know how much I can gabble on, Yaz. You know how good I am at talking. I once talked a Dalek to death. An actual Dalek! And Ace was with me then, right here in London, 60 odd years ago. Good God, all the talking I’ve done. But, you know, trying to talk to Ace... where were the words?” She shook her head, baffled. “I’m pretty good at uncovering things. I’ve discovered the rarest things in the strangest places, clear across the cosmos. But the right words to say to that woman? Nope. Never. She was sat beside me in the car and I still couldn’t find them.”

- At Childhood’s End, Sophie Aldred.

By the end of the book she got there eventually.

So, yeah, it’s not that Thirteen doesn’t care, it’s just that Thirteen couldn’t find the words, the right words to say but she will stay still and listen because Graham was talking to her and she will help anyway she can, if he asked her to. But words, her number one weapon, her gift of the gab failed her at that particular moment but I also trust that Thirteen will be able to find the words eventually, it’s just not at that moment.

Plus remember:

(it is really late so i have no idea how coherent this post is, apologies for the rambling).

#doctor who #thirteenth doctor #twelfth doctor #my edit #clara oswald #doctor who spoilers #dw 12x07 #long post #rambling

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wardenrainwall · 4 years ago

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Chapters: 2/? Fandom: Dragon Age: Inquisition Rating: Explicit Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Cullen Rutherford/Original Female Character(s) Characters: Original Female Character(s), Cullen Rutherford Additional Tags: Smut, Pining Summary:

A tryst that was meant to be inconsequential, a pleasurable escape for both parties ends up turning into far more than either bargained for.

Cullen stared down at the paper in front of him, a frown on his face as he read Ellana’s recount of the dragon she and her companions had taken on in the Hinterlands. Along with destroying a red lyrium deposit. He worried for her, but her companions were strong, as was she, which was what had attracted him to her from the start.

The moment he’d seen Ellana leap onto the back of a demon, arrow knocked, and save the lives of more than just a few soldiers that day on the battlefield, Cullen had been smitten. She was beautiful, yes, but it was also the way she’d so easily stepped into the role of leadership, how she navigated disputes with such grace that neither party felt slighted.

It only stung his pride a bit, or at least, that is what he told himself, that Ellana made it no secret of who she took to her bed, and that he was not one of them. Even in that, no one seemed to mind that they only held her attention for so long. A giggling young woman at the tavern who had sighed wistfully recounting the week she’d spent in the Inquisitor’s favor. The Iron Bull, whose lap Ellana would perch on every now and then before the two would disappear together.

And perhaps he was a fool for holding out hope that one day she might look at him and see how good they could be together.

The side door opened and he barely glanced up from his work. Clara hesitated in the doorway for a beat, which he thought strange. She never hesitated. Even the day she walked through a door he’d known he’d locked when he’d been so restless in his own skin. She’d simply glanced over, seen him sprawled in his chair, fisting his cock, and continued over to the ladder up to his quarters. “Are you expecting a hand with that?” she’d asked, then disappeared up into the loft.

But now she hesitated before she began to cross the room. Cullen kept his head down, though his attention was now fully focused on her. She was limping. Not terribly, but there was a definite unevenness in her gait.

“You’re limping,” he murmured.

“It’s nothing,” her tone held a sharp bite. Then she stopped at the base of the ladder, hands reaching up to grip the rungs she simply stood there. “Why can’t you sleep in a normal room like a normal person?” Her snapped out words had him blinking at her in surprise.

They spoke little to each other, though she came to him several times a week and had for just over the last two months. Often the only words murmured were her pleasantly wishing him good night before leaving. “What’s wrong?” he asked, getting to his feet. Clara shook her head, and as he closed in on her, she put one foot up on the bottom rung and winced.

Then he saw it, the faint bruise on her cheek, her lip swollen and split. A slow-simmering anger began to build. “Who hit you?” he demanded, reaching out to grasp her chin between thumb and forefinger, angling her head to allow him a better look in the low candlelight.

“No one hit- ow!” Clara slapped his hand away when his thumb grazed just below the cut. “I said it’s nothing,” she bit out, glaring at him.

“Then why does it look like someone punched you in the face, and how do you explain away the limping?”

Hands on her hips she let out a huff of air. “It’s fine. It’s none of your business.”

A part of Cullen felt amused seeing this spark of anger, seeing who this quiet woman actually was. But then he had the sinking feeling of dread. Did she have a husband? One who beat her when she came to him because she believed she had no other choice? “Clara, if someone hit you-”

She made a quiet sound of frustration and reached up, yanking the kerchief from her hair to then run her fingers through the short locks. “No one hit me,” she told him, shaking her head. “I fell. Because I’m a stupid, clumsy idiot.” Clara took a step and he saw the pain cross her face again.

“Why haven’t you seen a healer,” he demanded, crossing his arms over his chest because it was obvious that she hadn’t.

“I said it’s fine,” she sighed, waving her hand. “It’ll be fine in a day or two-” She reached down, absently rubbing a hand against her left hip. “It isn’t a big deal, I’ll just-” Clara cast a glance up the ladder.

“The bedding will keep,” he said because it was ridiculous how often she changed the sheets as her excuse for being there. He was certain the servants thought him an ass demanding they be changed nearly every other day when half the time he felt he’d barely even slept in his bed. “Tell me what happened, and why you refuse to see a healer.” Cullen nudged her toward the desk and she opened her mouth snapped it shut and took the limping steps to the side of the desk.

Her hand going to the grip the edge made him feel like the worst kind of bastard. Did she really think he planned to bend her over and fuck her when she was so obviously in pain? He continued to his chair, sat down, and then reached out, his fingers curling in the fabric of her skirt and tugged. “Over here,” he said and he saw the look of confusion as he pulled her closer, then gripping her waist he lifted her onto the edge of his desk in front of him.

“Oh, what are you- your papers-” her hands fluttered and she moved her legs as if to jump back down, but Cullen held her there, pulling his chair closer to block her escape.

“Do you have a problem with mages?” he asked curious. It wasn’t unusual, he still sometimes found himself hesitant to seek them out for injuries.

Her hands still fluttered slightly, as if unsure what to do with them. “What? Oh, no, that isn’t-” Clara shook her head, her hair swaying with the movement. “I don’t mind the mages.”

“Then why, if someone didn’t do this to you, haven’t you gone to a healer.”

Clara’s hands finally settled into her lap and she let out a quiet sigh. “It’s the magic,” she told him. “Have you ever had them heal something?” he inclined his head. “When I was six I fell out of a tree, broke my arm. My parents, they-” she sunk her teeth into her lower lip, seemed to hesitate. “There was an apostate in the next village, my parents took me and he set the bone and put his hands over my arm, to heal it, but, it made my skin crawl. It didn’t hurt, but, it was worse than the break.

My father’s a dwarf, they think that might be why I reacted that way,” she gave a shrug. “Allergic to magic,” she let out a quiet laugh. “That’s why I didn’t go to the healers, it’s fine, really.”

“May I?” Cullen asked, his fingers sliding down to dip under the hem of her skirt.

“Commander,” she breathed, shaking her head. “It’s fine, you don’t need to bother yourself-” His fingers grazed up her calf, felt the thick woolen stockings then up to her knee. Cullen realized as he glanced up at Clara, her cheeks pink, lips parted, that in the weeks of their arrangement, he’d never seen her naked. Her bare rump before he sank into her. But beyond that, they made quick work of getting each other off.

Maker’s breath, he hoped he was getting her off. He felt a wash of mortification at the thought. But she wouldn’t keep returning, if she didn’t enjoy it, unless- “You know that you do not have to come here, to me, like this,” he said suddenly, his hand resting against her knee beneath her skirts. “Clara, your job is not dependant on allowing me to-” he felt his cheeks burn hot.

A smile curved the corner of her mouth. “I know that, Commander,” she murmured. “It’s something to enjoy while it lasts.” One shoulder lifted in a shrug. “I’m no love-struck foolish girl, Commander. I’ve seen the way you look at her,” he flinched in surprise at her words, but she still gave him that little smile. “It’s alright. I know my place.”

Her words left an odd sensation in his chest and Cullen frowned as he lowered his head to his task of once more pushing her skirts up. “Maker’s breath, Clara,” he gasped out. A dark bruise ran from knee to hip on her left leg, and he thought it was a wonder she could even walk. “What in the void happened?”

“I fell,” she said, her cheeks a darker shade of red now. “I told you, I was stupid. Three of the other woman in the laundry room are out with some stomach thing and so I picked up some of the slack. Have you been to the laundry room?” she asked and he shook his head, before reaching for one of the drawers where he began to rummage around. “The stairs are very steep. I should have made two trips, but I didn’t. My shoe caught on my skirt, and-” she made the soft frustrated sound again. “And I fell. Slammed my leg against the stairs and I smacked my face on the basket as it spilled.”

Finding the little ceramic pot he’d been searching for he set it on the desk and looked up at her. “You’re lucky you didn’t break your neck from the sound of it.” She huffed, arms crossing over her middle. Removing the lid from the jar he glanced up at her, found her watching him. “It isn’t magic, just a salve that helps with minor bruises and aches. This one isn’t minor, but hopefully, it’ll help-” he hesitated. “If you don’t mind?”

“Alright,” Clara spoke softly and Cullen dipped his fingers into the jar and tried to be gentle as he spread it over the bruise and rubbed it in. Her skin was warm beneath his palm and he silently cursed his growing erection.

“Your mother isn’t a dwarf?” he asked, going back to their earlier conversation, anything to distract him.

“Human,” Clara told him, shifting slightly, he saw her reaching down, tugging the various papers that he’d set her on free, and stack them into a neat pile. “They are disgustingly in love, even after all these years,” her tone held amusement and joy.

“Are they safe?” Cullen asked, the salve long since absorbed into her skin, but he continued to stroke her thigh.

Clara nodded. “They are, a lot of the violence has bypassed their little village, but mom has kept them well-stocked in swords and armor.”

This had Cullen looking up in surprise. “Your mother has?”

“She’s a blacksmith.” Cullen’s brows shot up and Clara let out a quiet, delighted little laugh. “My father prefers gardening, but he does help out in the forge from time to time, but it’s my mother’s pride and joy.”

“She’d be an asset to the Inquisition,” he said.

Clara’s face fell, all traces of amusement vanishing with the shake of her head. “Absolutely not,” she said. “I was in Haven when we were attacked, I saw-” her eyes went liquid and Cullen regretted his words. He’d meant them in jest.

“Clara,” he said shaking his head. “I’m sorry, I understand, I didn’t truly mean it.” He got to his feet, dipped a fingertip into the jar once more, and with her jaw cupped in one hand, he applied it to the bruise on her cheek. She was quiet as he worked, and when he was satisfied, he continued to stand there, between her legs, fingertips gently tracing the curve of her cheek.

“Did you want-” her eyes darted to the side, to the spot where he most often rucked up her skirts.

Of course, he wanted her, wanted to bury himself in her wet heat and lose himself for those few moments. But he knew her leg still pained her, despite what she might claim otherwise. He wasn’t the most experienced in sex, a handful of fumbling experiences in Kinloch Hold, before, before everything. He didn’t think Clara was so inexperienced, so obviously he was doing something right. “Yes,” he said, but held her in place when she would have slid off the desk. “But stay where you are.” She did, watching him, her brows drawing together as he sunk down into his chair.

He dragged it closer, then reached out, hands on her hips, and tugged her to the edge of his desk, her legs on either side of him, her skirts still gathered at her knees. Cullen swallowed hard. There was an intimacy to what he was planning on doing, one that he’d thought to reserve for- his cheeks burned. Clara had taken his cock in her mouth, let him come on her tongue, the least he could do was replay the favor, right?

“Commander, what are you-” her breath hitched as he lowered his head to kiss the inside of her knee.

“I think you can call me Cullen, at this point,” he murmured, pushing her skirts up a bit higher, he pressed a kiss to the other knee.

“That would be,” a quiet gasp when he rubbed his stubbled jaw against her skin. “Improper.”

Cullen couldn’t help the quiet chuckle that escaped him as he slid one hand behind her knee, tugging it over and over his shoulder. “Improper?” he asked, licked up the inside of her thigh. The heady scent of her desire hit his nostrils and he nearly groaned. Why had he not considered doing this before?

#cullen x oc #cullen rutherford #original character #dragon age #fanfic #lemons #lemon

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sapphichymns · 4 years ago

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I’m going to put my rant in read more. I’m going to be such a Debbie Downer!

(Also I don’t want to put people in a bad mood just because I feel like being negative)

I think all 3 modern Who showrunners have their problems (and need someone to point out things that might be problematic; tell them when to add an extra line or two) but Moffat might be the one who annoys me the most.

He can do great stuff with other writers (RTD being the best example). I still would put Blink in series 2 and The Girl in the Fireplace in series 3 in order to fit a bit better but eh, its fine. ANYWAY, my problem with him is of how he keeps forgetting the emotional follow through.

Amy, of all the modern companions, has a huge stack of trauma which is never properly talked about. Her parents die but come back and are never mentioned again. She had therapy when she was younger due to raggedy man but that doesn’t go anywhere either. Becomes pregnant and unpregnant so many times in Amy’s choice which is such a brutal thing for her to go through but it is never discussed the consequences of such a thing. Her own pregnancy is hidden from her (by the Doctor too!) and when her baby is born, they get immediately kidnapped/turned into goo on her very arms and yet, the next time she sees her daughter, it’s actually her best friend BUT NOT REALLY BUT LET US NOT GIVE HER THE TIME TO PROCESS IT?! It is just, why give a character such emotional heavy traumas if you don’t want to talk about them?

River, for such a femme fatale, always goes with the Doctor’s words no matter what. I know people complain how the Fam never push back compared to previous companions (which I disagree because I feel the only who truly pushed back all the time was Donna but that is another matter) but River just never doubts any of it. Even Amy at one point casts doubt about the Doctor and River just says “we have to help him” which...yeah. She just seems like a plot point for the Doctor to unlock than an actual character. The fact she was brainwashed since birth is easily pushed to the side

Rory’s arc is dying enough times to become braver enough (the Dark Souls route) to the point it becomes a joke and we don’t even see his last death.

All these events happen but Moffat just forgets what he puts his characters through. I have problems with RTD and Chibs but it never feels they are going to forget their companions’ past events just because they aren’t directly linked to the Doctor. They still react and act accordingly to what happened to them.

And even this shows in terms of plots. They have all this build up but it never feels they properly pay off and the characters don’t really change due to the build up.

I know people keep comparing the Hybrid to the Timeless Child but the way they are constructed are the complete opposite of each other.

For example, the Hybrid is teased throughout series 9, as something the Doctor knows but won’t tell. People keep discussing it with the Doctor but he doesn’t seem affected by it. Then it is revealed the Hybrid might be his relationship with Clara but the show itself seems unsure about it. I would buy it more if their relationship was different from series 8 and Clara hadn’t come back from the dead!

This problem happens in Dracula too where Agatha keeps discussing with him of why he might be immortal (which he doesn’t really care about) and it gets solved in the last 10 minutes of the last episode in such a handy wavey way.

At least in the Timeless Child, the moment the Doctor discovers about Gallifrey being destroyed and the Master being stubborn about what the Timeless Child really is, she is just in a really bad mood throughout series 12. Plus the consequences of the Timeless Child are clearly still happening.

The other thing I just cannot buy from Moffat’s era is the fact Eleven’s becomes darker with time is on purpose. Sherlock, Eleven and Dracula are so similarity characterized with the “smartest man in the room” shtick where everything in the world revolves around them so him being a manipulative bastard doesn’t seem like a natural progression for him but as something that exists since the start, especially with the fact he never gets called out about it.

And the thing is: the show already had a Doctor becoming more manipulative over time and actually working. Seven, after meeting Ace, starts manipulating her, saying it is for her well being (sure). The build up feels more natural thanks to the fact Ace actually calling him on his bullshit. Of course, both have the problem of the Doctor’s god complex and always knowing every step but one of them is actually fun to watch.

Here’s the thing: I do think Moffat could learn. Heck, he did learn from all these mistakes and that is shown in series 10, especially with Bill and the first half but he always trips up in the same god damn place. I watched his Dracula because I legit had hopes he would change his game a bit but it is all the same but in a different coat of paint (in which case, it is blood and vampires instead of sci-fi).

Also no, Thirteen isn’t like Eleven. She is actually Time War!Eight if he existed (but he doesn’t because we can’t have nice things).

#Random Bullshit I Spew Out Of My Mouth #I'm not even going to tag this as DW #because it is indeed a rant #it is my blog so i can rant about this kind of thing

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p1nkwitch · 4 years ago

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If I may one last director's cut: And the Nightmare Collapses? 👁️

Ask as many as you want i dont mind.

Oh my monster au, what to say? I had this in the backburner for a few months now. Originally i was going to make a series of one shots from different characters perspectives.

So first it was going to be Jon waking up from the coma and realizing that everyone were monsters but him sort of like a walking dead scenario. I had the clear picture of him seeing Georgie in her hald deaf state being like, what the fuck happened???

Now the entire idea came to mind with how pissed off i was at everyone in season four acting like Jon was the worst for no discernable reason. Like, Melanie, Basira and Georgie, all treated him in different levels rather cruely. Georgie wasnt so mean, but she was playing blind eye to the whole thing being fucked.

So Jon is the only one who remains human because he tries so hard to keep his humanity despite everything. While everyone else becomes more monstruos, Basira and Melanie in particularly were much more affected, i had a clear vision of a slaughter Mel. But had to keep it brief since Georgie wouldnt want to dwell on her becoming a monster, since now she had no way to deny it. Daisy gets a pass because while on the coffin she regains her humanity by her regret of what she became, its why her changes are minimal in the text.

The other one shots were supposed to be from Elias and Peter perspective with the last being them reuniting.

Now my original idea had no reasoning as to why they were monsters all out sudden. Its not until i realized the potential of the entities just dropping in a world similar enough where they already existed and they end up overcharging, while still carrying the vestigies of the apocalipse that i went like-

Hoy fuck.

Ultimately i am happy with the one shot the way it came out, with Elias being able to see, he was capable of tying up those little threads i wanted to make and make the reference to having an anchor. Anchors tie you to humanity, people are fundamentaly capable of good if they wish too, kindness even in the face of despair, destroys the horrors of the world.

The world wont fix itself, but you adapt and grown and try to make it better.

Now as for the story itself? I just wanted to go buck wild with the scenery of reality fracturing itself and Elias just losing it while perceiving the horrors and understanding far more than possible.

I like eldritch horror i just dont use it enough, or horror shorts in general, maybe i should put up the small ones i made in tumblr they are like a paragraph long each.

For realsies, I really like the idea of monster Elias for several reasons and i wanted to go with it. I have another different take on this verse of how things pan out too, but i will see eventually if i want to write it. There is... also the horny aspec of Peter being, as the fic implies, a monster fucker, not really he just loves Elias whatever shape he comes even if its some weird owl spider thing. If i ever feel brave enough to go thought it in an extra will shall see.

Anyways Jonah goes through life replacing people while manipulating them and toying with their sanity like he did to the ogElias in his interview. Despite being beholding, as per the soup theory, at this point he also represents the stranger, web and spiral fairly well. I have a soft soft for him losing the ability to recognize himself after a while. Because as i pointed out? He kept sort of a more or less stable life, sure, but it must be jarring having to go from one face to another, to have to pretend to be someone else, at least enough that its not glaringly obvious that something is wrong.

So he loses it. The fears overcharge and it all stacks up on him, causing his transformation to be so strong, it ends up consuming him. Not only that but he is vain too, so to be changed into something so horryifing it breaks something else in him, it gives him the idea that no one could want him now, he cant make people do as he says like this, he doesnt know himself and now no one would want to know him anyways. The more he changes the more he loses his sense of self, its not only him, he was so many people it feels weird to be just him, it doesnt fit anymore, so through the story he starts to use they until its what he mainly uses at the end, because he grows and its happy with it by the very end.

His body changes when he doubts himself, the more time it passes the more he forgets. Now the main reason he didnt become a puddle of ink and die, was because as i mentioned he thought about being alone, and it made him think of Peter, that was his last connection, the last thread to a humanity he wasnt sure he still had. When he thinks that he loves him, even if a little, its enough to let him move.

That small lifeline is what actually saved him and what kept him more or less stable for longer that he would have otherwise. Same goes to Peter whos last action before becoming one with his siblings was pick up the phone, the same though went through him, its why even if he was already at the brink of being melded he kept himself alive for longer.

Then there was the idea of copies.

Because, eyes? just the eyes?? I know it works with supernatural energy but, the doubt, the idea or posibility that Jonah Magnus actually died the moment he transplanted his eyes the first time and that Beholding merely put the copied memories of Jonah that it reatained into the new body was such a good concept, i have a special love for it, to not be sure if you are you, but ultimately chosing to live your life despite knowing that you may not be the real one.

I like to point out at the end that he does, that he is the original and that he is not a copy but... its not really proof, Jonah wants to believe it is. Wether is true or not? Thats up to anyone.

Also his monster concept, i toyed with a few options, and ended up adding it somewhat in the final product, originally he was going to be sort of an owl monster sort of mixed with a cat, no not for the joke, i saw really nice fanart of owlcats and i was in love. But as it is i went with something similar to his body in the afterlife beach party.

Instead of tar it was the ink of the letters he wrote, the static remains because he doesnt know his face anymore and he wont again. The fur... i just wanted something nice for later when Peter made his appearence, less sticky more fluffy. 8 arms like a spider, more eyes because of beholding- you get it.

Speaking of Peter!!

Here is the deal, i know or at least believe that the curruption? Is the oposite of the lonely and viceversa. Wanting to be alone vs being consumed by what you love? Perfect.

So the Lukases become amalgamations of fog trapped in a hive mind that they cant escape from. Forced to be together and then to be alone once someone manages to impose themselves like Nathaniel did. Peter could have theorically left his siblings become him, after Elias saw them, but in this, the closenes they shared was enought that he could not do it. <3<3

I wanted to play with the fact that being stuck with so many people, mainly his sisters while slowly melding into one, made him switch from pronouns feeling comfortable in all of them. Lydia, Judith and Clara were all nice and accidentaly he wanted to feel that nice, so he switches more often to her. It too, because at one point he was litreally nothing since the rest were rather happy being one.

Reality check comes and they all realize that, oh shit we fucked him up. Hence the road trip, unfortunately the melding was inevitable, either they became one or someone took charge. Still it gives them time to bond too, which adds to the decision to let them stay with him despite everything. Peter plays into a similar idea, but from a different perspective, you lose yoursef but become a different person. Luka is all of them being at peace with being one, being happy and wanting the same thing, but still mantaining some way to be apart. If i was being sappy i would liken it to a fusion in Steven Universe.

It wasnt as such at first, but later once Peter is the main body they can do it with less fear of dissapearing. It is also true that his feelings bleed out onto them and likewise to him. Its hard being a single being while simultaniously be 5 people in one.

They do love Elias, except for Clara who is mostly just enjoying the company while judging everyones tastes. It is also true that if this hadnt happened they would never have tried it. But life works oddly. Plus they are happy.

The world cant be fixed, but life sort of goes on and people adjust as they can.

Final note? I really, reeeeally wanted to have JME corpses just drop and have everyone freak out. There was a brief idea of having them alive and react to what they did to the world, but i did not want to deal with that many explanations. So yeah, they are dead.

AGAIN SORRY FOR GOING OFF!!! I NEED TO BE STOPPED.

If you want to ask something in particular go ahead i have the ideas still fresh for this one in my head.

#ask #i go off too much #someone shut me uuuuup

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chucklestheechidona · 4 years ago

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Doctor Who: The Jodie Review

(Long post)

(Sorry)

Introduction

I decided, still being locked down, to watch some Doctor Who.

Hadn’t watched it in a while, told myself I’d always catch up when I had the time, and the universe decided to give me a lot of it.

I had stopped watching Matt quite some time ago, but caught up about 4 years ago to Capaldi’s first season. I had meant to carry on with it but slow-going times and I forgot and all the other jazz that fills in the space between not doing things.

But I thought I’d storm through them and get them over with. I had heard bad things going onwards, but hey, I’m one of those sad losers that LIKE Love and Monsters. It’s not great but I thought what it did well, it did great.

So, off I went to finally catch up on a show that formulated so much of my younger self, my love for time-travel, interesting sci-fi that ended up getting me into the genre, and a love for character interactions and lore.

I went through Capaldi, and his last two seasons, yeah, they had an odd episode here and there, Sleep No More is a disaster, but I carried on through. I’m a trooper, I got through Fear Her after all.

But I fell in love with the Doctor again. Heaven Sent is easily the best DW has offered so far, the character building with him and Clara and Bill and hell, Nardole, are superb. The stories were interesting, the Doctor was great and evolved, and the companions were the perfect fit for Capaldi.

And then, after a brilliant goodbye, he was gone.

“Be kind.“

And here we go, we’re with Jodie, she’s northern, she’s confused, and she’s in need of some pockets, falling through the sky, yeah, 200 degrees that’s why they call her missus fahrenheit-

Not Jodie, but Chibnall

I’m not going to drag this out too far, I ain’t gonna make you read this for ages just to see if I like it. If you don’t want to see me complain about two seasons, this is your point to head out.

I think these are the lowest series of Modern Doctor Who.

But like the title says, it’s not Jodie’s fault. She’s an amazing actress, and she plays the part well. Hell, so does Bradley, Tosin and Mandip. Each one of them is a good actor and when the scene calls for them, they pull it off well.

The issue here is the writing.

And I feel I should go through why I think that.

But first, I think I should point out the good.

The Good: On historical topics and representation

This is the most diverse Doctor Who has been in a while. It was pretty diverse before mind you, let’s not forget the Doctor seems a bit flexible, the companions have been a mix of sexualities, gender, age and race, and each one of them is loved by many. Hell, Jack Harkness was so popular he got his own tv show.

But Thirteenth has gone and made sure that there was more.

Characters just pointing out they’re gay and it’s just a matter of fact. It’s a statement, not an argument, not being out there or subvertive, it just is. People are more than fine with this.

I’m surprised Graham the bus driver is so accepting of everyone at the start, but it speaks testament to his character. He fell in love with Grace, he raised a son with a disability, he stands up for those that dare have a go at any of that. Graham didn’t have to grow to learn this in the Tardis, he was accepting from the get-go.

Well, there’s some conflict about Ryan blaming things on Dyspraxia in the first episode but it comes out of a place of fear of their lives. But any tensions between them are resolved quite well, to the point they can count on each other.

Either way, representation is important and Jodie’s season has it in spades.

As for historical topics, the Doctor tackles them quite well. Honestly, the episodes in the past are her strong suit. And as she’s a woman now, she has a new battle against her. History wasn’t always kind, and the gag of them addressing Graham each time is a genuinely good idea.

Also, Rosa had the opportunity to be butchered. It could have been written badly, it could have been handled with hardly any care, but it was the standout episode of the season. Each character gets some good lines, the gang has to face moral decisions and it’s a genuinely good look into a past that America would sometimes like to forget.

As an aside, I think Bill, even as one character, explored the sexuality thing more and the diversity she faced from it, I think thirteenth doesn’t do a bad job. I liked the astronauts as shown above quite a bit to be fair.

Graham

The standout star of the show.

This will be unfortunately brought up in my negatives for the show too, but this is the good side.

Graham’s lost his wife, he has to connect to her grandson, his cancer is a constant worry in his head and he comes with the Doctor in an attempt to escape/confront all three.

He is the one who evolves the most as a character in the first season, coming to terms with the death of Grace is something he battles with throughout, he still blames himself. For whatever reason, even in the Rosa Parks episode, he gets the most emotional writing. Ryan and Yaz do get good writing in the same episode mind you, (which is unfortunately one of the few times Yaz does) but it’s heartbreaking to see Graham realise what he has to do.

The Acting

I unfortunately have to put Ryan, Yaz and the Doctor here in one group category. and I hate to do that, but I feel it’d be a disservice not to mention them.

Their actors can act well. When the script calls for it, they do amazing work.

The scene where Jodie is angry and confused at the other Doctor, where Ryan is actually there to support his friend, when Yaz is comforting Ryan about America, where Jodie is fucking pissed at the Master, all good scenes.

But this is a perfect segway into -

The Bad: Asides the retcon

Holy shit where do I start.

I mean, we’ve got the good out of the way, so you know where I stand on the issues a bunch of people wrong accused the show of being. A female doctor is more than fine, the diverse cast is great, the topics of exploring the past is done good.

And I’m not going into the retcon just yet, I feel like going ITS BAD BECAUSE OF THIS ignores so much of the problems to be had

But let’s start with

The Doctor

This should have been her outfit just saying

I find the best way of describing most of this doctors run so far is...

Imagine, if you will, that you need to write a Doctor Who book. They’ve given you a plot to go with, but they haven’t told you which Doctor it’s for. But tight schedules and they still haven’t told you, so you write up a draft. A template. But you leave the Doctor’s text ambiguous. A template for a Doctor. With some work, you could make it the 12th, the 5th, the 1st, once you add mannerisms and how the doctor would react personally in a situation. So you write in this template Doctor and go to sleep. But you wake up and your assistant has only gone and submitted it.

The Doctor is kinder than any other iteration of her Doctor, but that’s it. I get why the natural progression from Capaldi, and Jodie sells a nice Doctor superbly, but ...

There’s nothing really there to distinguish her as her own Doctor. She’s nice, a bit confused, LOVES things and calls people fam.

But like, that’s it. Where the 9th had coldness, 10 had eccentric, 11 had old man and 12 was furious, Jodie has... nice. But a Doctor needs an edge.

She’s quiet about her home life and she doesn’t really talk much to her companions about it, but like, that’s understandable, she doesn’t really talk one on one to them or even much about their home lives.

She doesn’t get an arc until Spyfall, and even then it’s largely just turned into “She’s well moody”, and apparently well moody is just being kinda quiet. Jodie says it right when she shouts at them in one scene “You don’t know me!”

And she’s right, but then the companions trust her with everything and they’re part of a FAM and super close but they don’t really talk with each other. Jodie doesn’t have these quiet talks like the other Doctors would have with the companions, it’s just... not there.

And because it’s not there we’re supposed to believe they think of themselves as a tightly knit group but also very apart as characters. And the companions, to their credit, try and confront her on it, but the conflict is over so quick as to not be there at all.

Yaz and Ryan

This is the best scene of them in, and one of the rare times Yaz makes an impact on a story which isn’t just supporting the Doctor

What they did to these two actors is cruel.

Ryan at least gets to join in on Grahams arc, because it is Grahams arc, not Ryans, really. There’s a plot about his Dad that’s done quite well, so that’s why Ryan doesn’t suffer the same poor fate as Yaz does.

Yaz has absolutely no agency. She wants to be a successful Policewoman but it’s not really much addressed outside of the first episode and the dream episode (which admittedly, is a good episode and explores each character). She gets told by everyone she’s the heart of the team and super brave and like, she hasn’t got an arc, she pretty much blindly follows the Doctor, she has no reason to be there much other than her family’s a bit annoying.

Her actress plays the scenes well, and there’s some touching moments with her in Rosa and the dream episode about how she is the way she is, why she does the things she does. But 2 episodes out of 20 isn’t enough.

Ryan gets a couple of good episodes, a touching one especially comes with horrors of the future and not being there for his friends plaguing his mind, and he manages to get help for his depressed friend, which is touching.

But the two episodes? That’s kind of it.

Ryan gets a nice Dalek episode though.

Orphan 55

The worst episode in Doctor Who. Took any good faith from Spyfall and plonked S12 in bottom tier before we even got to the retcon.

If I talked about everything it did wrong here this would go on too long.

It was just the worst 45 minutes of DW

At least Sleep No More was just boring.

Character Arcs, What Are They

Graham’s arms give out in season 1 for carrying the team.

The Doctor against Tim Shaw is laughable, there’s no conflict past killing a couple of people, so Graham has to have that moral dilemma instead, Ryan manages to respect him and call him gramps, but that’s more Grahams arc than Ryans. Yaz has nothing, the Doctor learns nothing.

But series 2, the Doctor’s given an arc, which is something, considering that before this it was a throwaway line about Timeless Child from a piece of cloth.

Gallifrey is gone again, the insurance rates at this point are through the roof on this planet, she’s been told the Master did it for learning a terrible truth. But she of course doesn’t explore the ruins until she has to, but ah well, we can live with that, that’s fine in Doctor Who. I’m not even being sarcastic, the Doctor through all iterations isn’t very clever.

It gives her a bit of a mood that’s not really explored too much past that, but then we’re given Jo Martin as The Other Doctor

My opinions on throwing in Doctors from the past aside, (I love you John Hurt but damnit), Jo plays a competent Doctor, and her attitude clashes so well with Jodie that both actresses get to act well in good written scenes.

But then she’s just very confused until Gallifrey rolls around again.

We’ll ignore the retcon, again, but once she learns she gets super fucking pissed. And for good reason. Against the Master, against the Time Lords, against everyone, she’s shouting at everything, lost in her life.

But it’s sorted out very quickly by Jo intervention and then she’s much the same as ever.

Well, I say that, what I mean is “Willing to burn and kill all life on Gallifrey” with a button press. Yeah I know that the Time Lords are dead and the Master is about to kill everyone but you wouldn’t let a Spider be shot through mercy killing and you expect me to jump to “Would absolutely murder the Master and desecrate the bodies of the Time Lords”

It doesn’t matter anyway, for she has not the will to do so.

But she lets someone else do it

For fucks sa-

And at the end, what has she learned? That the thing she only knew half an hour ago shouldn’t affect her, so back to status quo

Wasted potential - Monsters

Imagine a super cool idea for a monster? Cool, add it into an episode.

And now get rid of it super quickly or butcher the premise.

REGENERATING CYBERMEN? Let’s have one shoot the other to show how bad it would be and then kill them immediately.

The Pting, capabale of disrupting a ships infrastructure an- Nah, just dick around with the lights.

A TIME TRAVELLING RACIST WHO KNOWS HOW TO FUCK UP THE TIMELINE

Let’s not even reference him 15 episodes later

Cyberman hybrid?

You get the idea.

The Master, or rather, the Missy Issue

The Master is putting on his best Simms Master homage, and like, I get it. It’s a good Master, and Sacha really puts his all into it.

I can only hope that this Master is before Yana. Missy’s exit was poetic, done well. Of course, just when she could feel ok joining the Doctor, the obstacle in her way was herself.

It’s not even the fact she died and why is he back now, it’s ... this Master has almost no nuance to him. He wants the Doctor to know the truth, which is at least some Master motives, but then its just wanton destruction for the sake of it. Like Simms but “what if we made him more crazy” The Master is more than this, can be more than this. It was nice seeing Jodie try and relate to him but this Master has thrown out three years of compelling evolution of the character. To throw it all out seems ... odd.

I can’t fault his performance though, he can be real damn quiet and sinister and really out there when he’s screaming at things.

The episodes themselves

Good cast, good side characters, good ideas, butchered in execution by not exploring the main cast, falling flat on the ideas and by the second season, losing the fun side characters.

Episodes I liked

Woman Who Fell To Earth

Rosa

Demons of the Punjab

WitchFinders

Takes You Away

Fugitive of the Judoon

Can you Hear me

Episodes I hated

Orphan 55

Arachnids

The Timeless Children

The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos (for cutting everything short)

Everything else was mostly unmemorable I fell asleep on Ascension of the Cybermen, had to rewind it.

The Retcon

You knew this was coming.

I put it last for I feel there’s a hundred and one issues here and it’d be cruel to just go for the obvious first. Maybe people would think I’d be against this one thing and that’s why I hate the rest. God no, I was so annoyed going into this episode, let alone for what it was about to deliver.

I don’t outright hate past Doctors. Hell, shove the brains of Morbius in there. It shits a bit on Hartnell and established lore a bit, but still.

“But the Brains of Morbius said-“

The eighth doctor said he was half-human, there are some bits of this canon we ignore.

But oh well, it’s not the main crux of the issue.

The Doctor, before this, was a Time Lord. He wasn’t much of a good one, by Time Lord standards at least. Ran from the schism, wasn’t as good as the Master in school, didn’t like the stuffy nature of his race, or their non-intervention policy. Ran off in a stolen ship with a knackered console and wanted to see the universe.

He flouted the rules. He stood up for people where Time Lords wouldn’t. Observe, don’t intervene. But the Doctor couldn’t, too curious, too inquisitive. He got a fondness for humans, god knows why.

But this Time Lord was against his own people, he was kinder than them, but alien to us. He wanted to learn, and left his planet to see if there was good in the universe. He was a rather shit Time Lord but helped where he could, making a difference in other people’s lives, trying to be the best he could be, learning.

This got him into trouble with the Time Lords of course, but, hey, it’s a funny old universe.

And we like that, as British folk. An underdog common person just trying to help out and be good.

What we’re not a fan of is saying the the Doctor isn’t just some Time Lord that likes helping out, but a chosen one who is the reason that Time Lords exist in the first place and is of another dimensional world and there were 50 of them and they knew kung fu in the super secret Time Lord service but they wiped her mind because it was super secret guys and she can live forever and is immortal and-

I was annoyed when the 50th made a slight mockery of the Time War. I get we don’t always have to stick so closely to canon, but holy shit the Timeless Child.

The fact it was exposition dumped on us and then wrapped up 10 minutes after with NEW ADVENTURES AT CHRISTMAS was just the icing on the cake.

If you wanted to pull this off, this should have been the Doctor’s struggle for the next season, coming to terms that her life is missing, that the Time Lords did this, that she didn’t even know what was right or not

But no, resolved. Felt not like adding to the lore but upending it on its head to say he could.

It’s why I don’t blame Jodie, who does an excellent job. Or the cast.

I blame Chibnall.

And it wouldn’t be as bad if the writing leading up to it helped serve the episode. But there was nothing there.

Conclusion

The writing is trash, the Doctor is underdeveloped, the cast outside of Graham aren’t explored, the setup for the finales are weak and uninspired, the retcons are going to cause major issues down the line and you’ve changed the very nature of the Doctor’s character and didn’t even have good writing behind it nor did much to explore it.

And I’m sorry it had to happen to such a good casting decision.

Here’s hoping you sign on to Big Finish and they give you some good storylines Jodie, you deserve it.

#Doctor Who #Thirteenth Doctor #chibnall #Jodie Whittaker #Graham #Ryan #Yaz #Peter Capaldi #Review #The Doctor

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2ofswords · 5 years ago

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Alexander Block ^^

Our dear Commander! This is going to be interesting, because I think he is pretty ambivalent in his role. Also I have to disclaim: I have not yet played the Changeling Route, so there probably is some information lacking. I will try my best though!

their biggest strength

All in all I wouldn’t say that we really see the General at his best here. Well… depending what kind of best we are talking about but the military at that point of the outbreak is pretty much useless unless for the ending itself and Block has no real way to handle the situation and it is really hard to pick a direct strength, because… well… he is not showing as many in a situation that really confines him. He looses control pretty quickly and almost becomes a bystander relying on other peoples judgement calls in both games. So I kind of cannot really judge him by his speciality (which would be how he handles the military but… you know… we don’t really see that) and also not by what his character strengths in general are, because he is just so out of his element that he has a very small time to react on his own and show strength. For example, I have no real idea about his skills as a tactician even if they could probably be real^ly good just by the merits of being a successful general. So direct skills like these kind of fall apart here) What I can do though is judge the way he holds himself up in the narrative and where he has the greatest and most positive impact. And I think his sense of justice is his biggest strength here and perhaps still stands strong disregarding the fact that my perception of his strength feels a bit limited. But while creating a mess at the last days of the game his flat out refusal to destroy everything is his biggest and most impactful choice in the game and the way he actually archives some form of agency, even if it puts him in a passive position for the rest of the game because he has no own reason to spare or don’t spare different things. This also kind of works in both games and also explains why Aglaya states fearing him specifically. Her words “hero of the people” elude to him being kind of popular but also having some sort of heroism. And even her naming him a “genius” kind of plays into what I am calling his sense of justice when she denies herself being a genius by calling herself a “machine”. While Aglaya acts according to her set parameters and goals even while actively fighting her fate, Blocks first move is actively denying set parameters and I think this is his biggest strength and what upsets the whole status quo in the first place. (It is also why he bonds with the Changeling who is all about finding a different miraculous outcome that straight up denies the dilemma.) And I would say this happens by him actively saying “No. This way isn’t right, and I will not act according to it.” Of course, he makes kind of bad judgement calls as well. The whole bone stake lot disaster happens by his orders after all and the way he handles the mutiny seems pretty messy. This is more about the concept of morality and less about judgement calls in specific situations. But his fame and the way he seems to be actively dangerous to the powers that be seems to come out of a strong sense of justice and the willingness and bravery to follow through with it, which is definitely something few people would archive.

their greatest weakness

I was thinking about writing his dependence on other peoples opinions here, but I am still not quite sure about that one. First there are instances in the first game where he does act pretty immediately and second we already discussed how this is kind of a good thing and while his “I don’t know, just tell me what to do” kind o frustrates me, we should know that authorities listening to medical experts may not really be the worst one can do… So I do not feel got to choose that one, even if I think he stays really passive while he stays but on the other hand I have no real idea, what he could and should do in the first place. As I said his own options are pretty limited. Maybe not burning people alive would be a good start… Hm… To me he feels absolutely clueless. He is even more out of it than Daniil who at least arrives before the disaster starts and gets a small town crash course. He just arrives in the midst of disaster, in Patho1 there is an elaborate murder scheme… thing planed behind his back that he just kind of shrugs away and he still orders the bull being burned because of the Bachelor’s words (and that guy in general talks a lot of bullshit that Block just kind of accepts. Which… as I said listening to experts is kind of good but mayyybe get like a second opinion? The changeling is standing right next to you, it’s fine you can talk to her! She knows better anyways, believe me…). He just doesn’t know what the hell is going on and I think this is his main problem and the actual reason he stays this passive and kind of just does what he is being told is logical at this very moment. Or you know… just gets locked up (maybe?) and then released again to just fuck of because he has no idea what the fuck he should be doing about this situation. He kind of tries to talk to the different healers and in Patho 2 he seems a bit more adamant about it but we have yet to see because the Haruspex has almost no interaction with him. And again I think most about it happens because he arrives at a time, where everything already escalated and the mess is so convoluted that I have no idea how he should even see through it. But in the situation this lack of knowledge kind of leads to him being used by kind of everyone to manipulate the outcome of the outbreak and him having no say in it aside from not wanting to murder everyone.

a headcanon about their childhood

I cannot imagine Block as a child for some reason. He just gets… smaller. It’s said that he is very young for his position and that leads me to believe that he is part of a military family… He seems like a person who doesn’t really know anything besides the front and his duties in the military and he seems to be a bit awkward about handling something that isn’t that… Or he might be the second or third child of a family where the parents were like “just go to the military can’t have our business” and he always kind of prepared for that. That would also make him being this sudden shooting star who climbed the ranks a bit more spectacular. Anyways no cute headcanons for Block. He just was always a military man, I am afraid… But I think it fits his angst of desperately wanting something good and human to happen in his life.

a headcanon about their future (if they have one)

Firstly out of all the people sent by the powers that be I think Block is the most likely to survive the whole disaster and escape relatively unscathed. Even with going against his initial orders he kind of washes his hands off of it pretty effectively and with a war going on he still seems needed enough (and I guess pretty easy to dispose) after the plague happened. How his future turns out depends on the question, if Clara will leave town with him or stay and I actually do simply not know about the outcome there. I think he will just stay at the front and be on his way again, if she stays in town but I do not think, he would be irresponsibly enough to carry a child to the front, even if she is a miraculous saint. So he will probably go back to the capital and strategize and hold up appearances there and basically do exactly what the powers that be feared in the first place. Also I want to imagine that at one point he meets up with some fellow generals that he really hates and Clara advises him with a really elaborate, clever and very childish prank that involves great things like tying shoelaces together. It’s a good evening.

a small detail/scene that leaves a great impact

Hm… I wish I had his appearance in Patho 1 more in mind but I was really stressed out while playing the last days and without using any guide I also missed quite a few side quests (for example I never visited all participants of the whole Block murder thing on day 9)… So there are a lot of details that escape me right now. The scene that for me leaves the greatest impact and was also my first impression was the very first cathedral scene at the beginning of Patho 2. I think that interaction is pretty neat. Of course refusing to spare the town is a pretty horrible thing to do and say and after seeing what the army did the impression of their leader cannot possibly be a very positive one but on the other hand it feels like he genuinely wanted to give you a shot at convincing him and he rather mourns not having the means to stop the plague which… you know, they do not have at this timelime and even while I agree with Artemy that there obviously wasn’t enough time in the first place… after the twelve days there aren’t that many people to save, time IS running out (there are around 15000 people in town (the 5000 in the Termitary make up a third of the population according to Young Vlad) and in Patho 2 after ten days there are over 13000 total deaths. So… not that many people left on day 12… I don’t know the numbers in Patho 1 though…), so not having a solution right now becomes a big problem in the general’s eyes. It is still a cruel decision and one I would definitely disagree with, but… with being responsible to your own troupes, letting your own people die when you see something as a lost course… It’s still a hard decision and he seems mournful about the outcome… So he stands for and does very problematic things but is introduced in his humanity and suffering over his own obligation. I think this early and pretty short conversation establishes him exceptionally well as well as some very important themes that will haunt us through the entire game.

their philosophy/worldview (or part of it) described in one neat little sentence

Luckily there is an entire theatre play dedicated to explaining his worldview and stance in this whole play. So how about “Protecting something means to attack the right thing at the right time.” Pretty much summarizes his entire dilemma in the game and shows a destructive stance and course of action, while also wondering about what really is the right course of action and showing his desire, to actually help and protect.

#Pathologic #Alexander Block

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randomfandomimagine · 5 years ago

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Not Enough (Eleventh Doctor Oneshot)

Character: Eleventh Doctor Fandom: Doctor Who Categories: Female Reader, Daughter Reader, Time Lady Reader Warnings: Sligth angst, especially at the end Word Count: 2,8k words Request by anon: Could u do an imagine with reader being the 11th doctors daughter so he's overprotective with her? Tysm :)) Hi, for the 11th doctor request maybe they're both going on an adventure and it's pretty dangerous so he's keeping her in his sight at all times and she's kind of annoyed but he still does it anyway, idk lol // Requested by undercover_Fangirl97 on Wattpad: Since I met the 11 Doctor my life gets better. I always travel with him and love it. As he travel with me and Clara it feels, like I am the third wheel. Notes: I was inspired to write this by the short book ‘The Sontaran Games’, but I still may have made some mistakes. So sorry if something in this imagine doesn’t fit in with the Doctor Who lore. Hope you enjoy it anyway! :)

Remember that requests for oneshots are currently closed!!

I smiled and put my hair behind my ear, flirtatiously looking at him through my eyelashes.

“Thanks for walking me home” I said, stopping before my doorstep.

“My pleasure” My date replied, smiling back in a timid pause. “I had a great time”

“Yeah, me too!” I felt awkward, wishing that I was better at these kind of things.

Normal everyday things were never my forte, but that was precisely what I was trying to achieve. I was done being an expert on strange things, on time travel and space. So I was making an effort to have a normal life.

Dating happened to be the first way I thought of doing so. But this being my fifth date, I wasn’t sure I was doing all that well. I never quite connected with anyone, and when I did, it went wrong anyway because I was so out of touch.

“Well…” He said with a shy chuckle, casually leaning closer to me.

“Yeah” I awkwardly replied, even if closing the distance a bit too.

He showed me a sweet smile before he closed his eyes and made to kiss me. I felt my hearts starting to race as I closed my eyes and prepared for the exchange.

A vaguely familiar sound made me gasp and I hurriedly took a step back on an instinct. My companion squeezed my arm, startled by my reaction.

“Everything okay?” He kindly asked me, even if my dazed brain took a few seconds to comprehend his words.

“Y-Yeah!” I told him, trying to forget about it. It was probably my imagination. “Sorry, I’m a bit nervous”

“That’s fine” Honestly, he was the sweetest. “I am too”

I chuckled, endeared by his lovely manners, and made a second attempt to kiss him. I could already feel his lips brushing against mine when a second interruption avoided the kiss.

“Oi, hang on a minute!” A male voice exclaimed. “What’s happening here?”

“I cannot believe it” I muttered under my breath, reluctantly stepping away from my date knowing that the moment was completely ruined.

“What…?” The aforementioned uttered in confusion. “Who… is he?”

I looked over my shoulder to a man rushing to arrive by our side. A man that I knew far too well. The so called ‘Doctor’.

“That’s…” I heaved a resigned sigh. “My father”

“Is he now?” The young man watched the Doctor as he ran to us like a mad man. “He looks… um… young?”

“You’d be surprised by his age” I sarcastically told him.

“Y/N!” My father gasped for air because of the dash once he finally stood by us.

“Is something wrong?” The other man watched in concern, probably thinking that there was some sort of family emergency.

“Not at all” I rolled my eyes, forcing a smile. “He was just leaving”

“Actually” The Doctor paused, firstly dedicating my date a glance and a polite head nod. “I need your help, dear”

“Do you now?” I was so frustrated that I couldn’t help myself, even in front of my lovely date. “I thought you had help already”

“I’m terribly sorry” My father ignored me, instead talking to my date. “I’m afraid Y/N needs to come with me”

When he took ahold of my arm and dragged me with him and away from my date, I reluctantly waved goodbye at him, knowing how pigheaded my father was.

“Perfect timing, dad” I bitterly said, tearing my arm away from hsi grasp. “Just when I found a lovely man who was willing to go out with me”

“Sorry, darling” He was still upbeat as usual as we walked through the streets. “I truly need your help”

“What is it?”

“I’m… a bit overwhelmed”

“You, overwhelmed? That’s a first”

“Oi” My father finally stopped, and I noticed the blue police box before us. “If you could drop the attitude and be helpful, that would be delightful”

“Why do you need me?” To show my reluctance, I crossed my arms over my chest. He smirked, already holding on to the door handle.

“Because I need another Time Lord” His smirk widened. “And I only know one”

“Time Lady” I begrudgingly corrected him, hating to use my title.

“Geronimo!” He exclaimed, excited as a child, opening the door.

“Who is with you, the redhead and her…?” I came in, noticing a figure inside the TARDIS. “Boyfriend…”

However, the couple I had known during our previous travels wasn’t there. I didn’t know how long it was since I refused to accompany my father anymore, but he was travelling with someone else now.

“Hello!” A friendly looking girl jumped from her seat and walked over to me, holding her hand out. “You must be Y/N, pleasure to meet you!”

“The one and only…” I shook her hand, even if eyeing my father with the corner of my eye.

“I’m Clara” The young woman introduced herself. “The Doctor has told me all about you”

“Has he?” I repressed the urge to say he didn’t know that much about me.

He glared at me, silently telling me to tone down the sarcasm and behave.

“Of course!” She cheerfully replied, not bothered by my aptitude.

“Well” I muttered, turning back to my father with my hands on my hips. “What’s the mission, Doctor?”

“You see, I wanted to take Clara here to this lovely little planet” He replied, focusing on the TARDIS controls. “There’s a itsy bitsy tiny problem, though”

“Which is…?” I tiredly replied, sticking my hip out now.

“There may be Sontaran on it, that’s why I need backup” When he looked at me, he noticed I was about to speak and interrupted me. “Don’t worry, though, might only be rumors, probably are”

I scowled and crossed my arms over my chest. I wondered if after all this time my father didn’t realize that, out of all the creatures we had encountered during our travels, the Sontaran were the ones I was most terrified of.

It seemed like my travelling companions weren’t as cautious as I was. The three of us exited the TARDIS, but my eyes carefully studied every centimeter around me.

“Ah” My father sighed in delight. “Beautiful, is it not?”

Clara grinned, excitedly walking around. She hung on to his arm, and I rolled my eyes. It made no sense. Why would he need me? He had her.

Certainly, my presence could be useful in the case that Sontaran were indeed there. Perhaps during one of their... disagreements with the Rutan. But if there was a slight chance that this was true, why not choose another planet, a safer one? There were many options. If he really wanted to impress her, I was not needed there. I might be his daughter, but that meant nothing. He was always more interested in the humans. Always the humans, even before this new face of his.

“See, Y/N?” He said with a big grin. It felt almost like he read my thoughts and was gloating over it. “It’s alright, nothing to worry ab-”

I hadn’t been paying attention to him, but when he interrupted himself so abruptly, I did. My eyes fell over him to see what happened. A gun had been pointed at his head before he could react. My father’s hand quickly moved to wrap around my wrist, softly shoving me behind him.

“Identify yourselves” The Sontaran said, firmly holding the gun.

“I’m The Doctor” He said calmly.

“Who are they?” The Sontaran asked, pointing to Clara and me.

“Them two? Oh, no one” His voice sounded far too carefree to be genuine. “Just humans, they’re of no interest to you”

The creature’s eyes, however, were focused on us. I felt my father tensing up in front of me.

“I’m the Time Lord, I’m the one you should worry about” His words gathered the Sontaran’s attention back.

“Gallifreyan” Came its deep voice. “What is your purpose on this planet?”

“Oh, well, you know” His hand, which had been around my wrist now rested outside of his pocket. “The usual, a bit of exploring here and there”

I noticed his hand tapped his pocket, and I immediately knew what was on his mind. I looked at Clara, who was oblivious to all this. Her brown eyes were focused on the menacing Sontaran instead.

I took a small step forward, positioning myself next to my father. The creature didn’t seem to notice the change, eyeing The Doctor as carefully as it was.

“How about you, are you alone?” My father continued speaking, surely to distract it. “We’ll leave you right to it then, of course. Don’t mind us, we’ll walk right back where we came from”

The Sontaran growled in disagreement. I took advantage of his focus on my father and slowly shoved my hand in the pocket of the Doctor’s jacket. My fingers soon found the sonic screwdriver.

“Sure!” Clara’s sudden voice made me jump, nearly dropping the sonic as I was about to grab it. “We wouldn’t want to bother”

Assuming she must have noticed my endeavor, I continued. Tightly holding on to the sonic screwdriver, I took my hand out of the pocket. Then, moving quickly, I shoved both my hands behind my back in what I hoped was a casual gesture.

“Come forth, humans” The Sontaran waved its gun so we would obey. “You first, Time Lord”

I mentally cursed my father for going to a random planet on a whim. Especially if he had reasons to believe it was currently occupied by Sontaran. I prayed that it was only one and prepared for the attack.

The three of us took one step after another, distancing ourselves further from the TARDIS. I wished the Sontaran faced its back to us, but it didn’t want to be vulnerable. Instead, he walked beside us, gun in hand.

I suddenly felt glad that I had accompanied them. Clara wouldn’t have known what to do in this situation, lacking the knowledge I possessed. And my father could trully use my help as he made himself the target.

‘Go for the neck’ I told myself as I had countless times before. Like when I woke from a nightmare involving these very creatures. Like when I went through various scenarious in my head to remind myself that I wasn’t completely defenseless.

And I certainly wasn’t. I clung on to the sonic screwdriver like it was a dagger. I knew where their weak spot was. I just had to be accurate on my aim.

In what seemed like a nonchalant gesture, the Doctor linked his arm with Clara’s. I knew it was the signal I needed. I took action.

My hearts were already racing, but I moved. Shoving all his weight against the big mass that was the Sontaran, my father momentarily threw it slightly off balance. The gun went off into the distance, away from us. Knowing he would look after Clara, I went for my target.

“Run!” I yelled as I stabbed the sonic screwdriver against the Sontaran’s neck.

Before I could determinte if the hit on the probic vent was well-aimed, I made for my own escape. Even if that one was taken care of, there might be others.

Running at top speed, we headed back to the safety of the spaceship.

The three of us rushed into the TARDIS, as my father slammed the door behind us. I on turn moved to the controls and quickly pressed buttons to bring us back. I pulled the required lever, causing the time machine to make its characteristic noise, while I turned to the Doctor.

“That was a close one, wasn’t it?” He grinned in spite of it all, making me roll my eyes at him.

“We made it, though!” Clara smiled back, though I ignored her when her kind brown eyes fell on me.

I averted my gaze, noticing myself shaking from head to toe. I still clutched the sonic screwdriver so tightly that my knuckles turned white and my fingers hutrt.

As the TARDIS slightly moved, its owner approached me and rested a hand on my arm. I tried to hide the fact that I was breathing heavily.

“Are you alright, Y/N?” His eyes briefly moved to the other girl, then returning to me when he confirmed that Clara was unharmed.

“Am I alright?” I shook him off me and sighed to calm myself. “You know nothing about me, do you, dad?”

I could feel the tension that arose in the tight space, and I could fell all eyes on me as well. However, I ignored Clara’s presence and defiantly held the Doctor’s glance.

“What’s the problem, Y/N?”

“What’s the problem?” I repeated in outrage. “Are you taking the piss?”

He glared at me with the disapproving glance of a father. I was honestly surprised he didn’t lecture me for my language.

“I’m going to get some fresh air” Clara awkwardly muttered as she left the TARDIS once we were back home.

“The problem is that nothing has changed!” I replied, not paying attention to the girl leaving. “How could it?”

“Honestly, I don’t understand…” My father seemed utterly oblivious.

“Why am I here? You’re doing fine on your own with all these human companions!”

“While I enjoy their company, I’m with them because you left!”

“I left because you didn’t want me here, dad!!”

“That’s not true! You didn’t enjoy travelling with me!”

“No, I wasn’t good enough for you! I wasn’t as brave or smart as you, I never was!” I lowered my loud voice until it was barely a whisper. “I just was not… enough”

“Why would you ever think that?” My dad frowned sadly, his voice dripping with regret.

“Because… why else would you push me away like that? Every time I tried to help, to do anything…” I was honestly surprised that he had allowed me to attack that Sontaran. Even if he didn’t really have much of a choice.

“I… I thought it was obvious, Y/N…” His hands fell on my arms, but this time I didn’t push him away since I was too busy trying not to cry. “Because I care about you!”

“What?” I let out a sarcastic chuckle, averting my gaze. “That doesn’t make any sense, genius…”

“I never thought you weren’t enough! I was scared that I might lose you” To ensure I was listening, he gently shook me.

“But you were always telling me off, stepping in and…” I frowned, shaking my head as I tried to wrap my head around it.

“I only ever wanted to protect you, darling… The thought of any harm coming to you broke my heart” My father let out a soft chuckle. “Well, hearts”

He grinned, quite possibly in a peace offering. The corners of my lips twitched, but I didn’t allow myself to smile.

“Then why take me with you?” I thought back to all those times we had travelled together when I was younger, where I had learned everything that I knew. Because he taught me. “Why not leave me on Earth, where I would be safe?”

“I couldn’t simply abandon you, dear” Although hesitantly, his hand held my own. “And to be honest, I couldn’t stay away from you”

I sniffed when tears gathered in my eyes. The look of utter love he dedicated me moved me to my core. His eyes were drenched in concern, protectiveness and fondness. And of the pride a father felt for a daughter.

“Dad...” I uttered, even if my voice sounded hoarse.

“I must confess, I did not go to that planet for Clara” He gave my hand a gentle squeeze. “I was just looking for an excuse to see you and bring you along”

I suddenly chuckled myself, earnign a confused look from him.

“That sounds like you” I rubbed my eye to wipe my tears. “Go on a little adventure, while you’re at it?”

“Well, yeah...” My father smiled saddly. “Perhaps that too”

I suddenly felt a pang of pain in my chest. But how was I to know what was on his complicated mind? How could I see on my own that he was always trying to protect me? That he missed me despite my bitterness?

“I’m sorry...” It didn’t fix all the years I refused to talk to him, but I supposed it was a start. “I didn’t know, I just...”

“I know” His arms wrapped around me, and I let him. “I’m sorry too”

We hugged each other, feeling like, for the first time in years, we understood one another. He had just been scared, but wasn’t good at saying it. And I was enough, I just didn’t realize. In fact, I had been more than enough for him all along.

Tag list: @ace-cream-in-a-cone / @of-stardust-and-dreams / @agent-prophecy / @snowfire71 / @fortheloveofbenyandtom / @wherearethedemons / @dragonprincesswitchtribute / @wherearethedemons / @timeladygallifrey // If you want to be added or taken off the tag list for these fandoms or characters, let me know!!

#imagine #oneshot #text imagine #doctor who #doctor who imagine #doctor who oneshot #dw #dw imagine #dw oneshot #eleventh doctor #eleventh doctor imagine #eleventh doctor oneshot #reader insert #requested

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hopevalley · 5 years ago

Note

Your last post was great food for thought. How would you have written Jack off the show? Personally I think they got the when wrong. Should have got them married end of s3, then written him off going to the Northern Territory and not coming back...

Thanks, Anon!

I’m a bit on the fence about Jack to begin with. On one hand, I agree with you completely: they should have been married before the end of S3, and then Jack’s decision to fight in S4 (after the death of his old pal Doug) would have been huge. They built up this “oooh, he could diiiieee~” narrative, after all. Seeing it come to its (arguably natural) conclusion would be acceptable.

On the other hand, there was something kind of nice about Jack dying when it wasn’t expected. If nothing else drove home that life as a Mountie was not this picturesque landscape of loveliness, that did. Oh, you mean he could die...while just training some men? Doing something in a position that multiple people said he should be honored to be considered for? Oh my!

It was still too contrived for my taste, though. It’s one thing to kill him off in a time of relative peace when he’s just minding his own business, but it’s something else to kill him off-screen and...after making him talk about how safe the job was (which it clearly wouldn’t be, as mentioned before in this series*). Talk about tonal shifts! AJ went to prison, and then there was this weird birthday thing that most of the viewers didn’t care about (where we pretended like Bill’s life wasn’t in mortal danger just days or weeks earlier), and right at the party gets into full swing this just haaaappens to be the moment a Mountie comes into town to tell Elizabeth that her husband died. And of course she’s standing conveniently Right There. Oh, and also, he definitely died a hero, not like a regular guy. How could she live with herself if he died like a regular guy? (/sarcasm, if you couldn’t tell.)

*I might actually be thinking of the When Calls the Heart movie where Edward talks about nearly dying during his own training.

A more convincing and arguably terrible (with positive connotations) way to write Jack’s death off-screen would be to place Bill outside or in the jailhouse when the Mountie comes riding in. He’s still recovering from literally almost dying (a pretty big deal, considering his age) and now he’s just found out Jack has died in some contrived bullshit manner...and it’s his duty to go with this guy and tell Elizabeth, because Bill isn’t the sort of character to shirk duty (neither career nor personal). Elizabeth is family now, after all.

It would at least do something to cement relationships and connections in this show before the actual funeral/grieving episode. Also, seeing Bill’s initial immediate reaction before he clams up and follows protocol he’s been taught from a young adult onward—that’d be delicious character stuff when he has his discussion with Abigail later.

Ideally, though, I’d probably do something more along the lines you’ve suggested (earlier marriage, more expected death). It’s just, by the time they’d decided to actually go through with killing Jack, I feel like it was too late to Take It Slow. If I were in that position, stuck in S5 and having to kill Jack off by the end (10 measly episodes, by the way), I’d do the following:

Jack gets reassigned entirely to train new recruits and there is some kind of set time frame for this. One year, two years: something like that.

Elizabeth and Jack have a rushed wedding that’s not visually impressive but sweet in other ways that have a big impact on the characters. Forgive my language here, but fuck the modern traditions the audience thinks they want (that weren’t even around during this time frame in many cases)! I’d have given them a truly romantic wedding in the church with recognizable faces in the pews and maybe a potluck picnic lunch afterward.

Logically this only happens if the characters worry that it isn’t something they can do later, right? It’s not that he worries he’ll die, but it’s the reality they live in that something could happen to him, and it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Also, Elizabeth won’t want to wait another year (if we say his placement is for at least that long), so it’s not hard to imagine her insisting on doing it immediately.

One final aside, I think this also gives Elizabeth the excuse to remain a schoolteacher in Hope Valley with the idea being that she can spend her summer with Jack (when she’s not teaching)—something she can’t do if they’re not married. At least, not without scandal.

Their ‘honeymoon’ is something they put on hold but probably a place they both wanted to go that’s not completely out of left field (get my joke?) and meaningful to both of them. (This is set-up for Elizabeth eventually going there alone for a letting-go type of scene when it would feel good/appropriate to see.)

They spend the week or two before he has to leave together, and during this time they discuss their future more seriously. Make it mostly the kinds of things that will feel bad when looked back upon after knowing of Jack’s death, but which still ring of some kind of ‘hope for the future’ at the time. S5 had a lot of bullshit in it, not all of which was bad, but the ‘dreams’ were too focused on tangible sorts of things and not the dreams of a couple madly in love who want to be together forever.

The house is kind of silly scope-wise. If they’re dreaming about it, a line from Elizabeth to Abigail (or Clara, or anyone) that Jack wants to do it but she knows it’s not feasible on his income would make it seem like sweet dreaming.

This would be a good time for them to discuss where they want to honeymoon when Jack gets some time off and they can manage it financially, too.

While Jack is gone, Elizabeth reads some of his letters to Abigail. Maybe there could be some cute/saucy bits where she says “I’ll skip the next few paragraphs” or whatever, but the idea here is that Jack has arrived to his destination, is doing well, and Elizabeth is not particularly worried about him.

IF POSSIBLE, scenes of Jack bonding with these green bean boys. Young, largely untrained, idealistic... Man, we know Bill did a lot of teaching and stuff like that at one point in his career, too, so this could be a nice segue into Jack starting down a similar path!

Also it cements his relationship with these men and shows not only that he DOES care about them, but WHY.

If this is NOT possible, at least allude to it in his letters. Mention specific names so that the audience feels a connection, however small.

Also if possible, show Jack’s death, or at least show him making the decision to risk his life for these young men he cares about.

If this isn’t possible: show a scene in the cafe where a patron is reading a newspaper with the date of Jack’s death on it (preferably not a character who had any issues with Jack personally), and Elizabeth is reading Jack’s latest letter to Abigail. It’s not quite as good but I think it would get the point across.

Because Hope Valley isn’t really modern enough for addresses, Bill gets the news first. He goes with the Mountie to speak to Elizabeth. This doesn’t give us tonal whiplash from hell, but maybe occurs during a quieter/less busy time.

Also, there is NO Abigail in this scene. She’ll get her time and I feel like her being a leech on Elizabeth’s character was a huge mistake. Let Elizabeth bond with other people!!!!

We could also really use the insight into Bill’s character and how he reacts “in the moment”—particularly compared to how he acts later. Him keeping his cool (for the most part) and then breaking down in the quiet of his own home/at his desk in the jail (or keeping it together until his conversation with Abigail) would do wonders for his character.

The funeral isn’t shown at length. No speeches. (I’m sorry, I don’t care for those and I don’t think Elizabeth would remember them anyway. They’d just be this massive blur.) She reflects on a hazy view of the casket from her own perspective, and maybe I’d add an iconic scene of the horse walking into the mist with the boots in the saddle facing the wrong way.

You know, the kind of scene that isn’t lovely or anything, but it still feels haunting. Especially if that horse is Definitely Sergeant.

Elizabeth revisiting the grave (as she did in the final episode) is quiet. No music. Just her in the silence walking over to the grave and kneeling in front of it because that’s what it’s like and I feel as if that sort of deeply personal scene would resonate with a lot of viewers.

I don’t deny that the original scene was lovely but that’s the issue: it shouldn’t be #aesthetic-based because that’s completely unrelatable. Most of us look mediocre at best when we visit a gravesite.

I also think there should be parallel Elizabeth-visiting-Jack’s-grave scenes in later seasons/episodes to show progress, and rather than going on the anniversary of his death maybe she goes on his birthday (and/or other special days) instead to celebrate his life. These scenes are always quiet and always gentle, and if there is music at all it’s just barely there.

I could also really go for her running into someone else there who is visiting a grave if there was time for it, just for a conversation.

I’m also REALLY uncertain about the gravesite they put him in in the actual show, just because I’m not sure Jack’s wife couldn’t pick where he was buried. I feel like for these characters, if Jack wanted to be buried anywhere, it would be near his father or in Hope Valley’s own cemetery (which isn’t shown after S1, but we know is there).

I’d go with Hope Valley for the #aesthetic if nothing else. Then Elizabeth can visit whenever she wants and we could watch her visits drop off over the course of a season or two.

Also then her running into someone else should be her running into Florence visiting Paul’s grave. She doesn’t get much in the way of sweet dialogue so this would be wonderful.

I chose Florence specifically because she doesn’t seem ready to move on and it’s been a long time, and maybe I’d even appreciate a comment along those lines by her: that she doesn’t feel the need to remarry/etc etc. Having Abigail (who did move on) and Florence then to give us both sides of the spectrum...feels good.

Then in later seasons/episodes, Elizabeth could run into people at the grave/around the cemetery who are there specifically to see Jack.

Bill leaving flowers/just standing there quietly.

Abigail coming to talk to him and keep him updated about all the really little things (but never the big things because those are for Elizabeth to tell). Maybe more of a stop-off after visiting the graves of Noah and Peter.

I don’t feel Nathan needs any sort of connection to Jack, but I think just the idea of Jack’s death would be enough to make someone like Nathan think twice. What kind of man was he? What did he die for? How well did he love this town? Will I ever fill the shoes he left? I could see him going and just thinking about those things.

It’s not a masterpiece and perhaps not even possible due to timing (the episode limit really messes with good plotline ideas), but I like the ideas in concept.

#long post #anonymously asked #answered mail

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lord-explosion-baku · 6 years ago

Text

Like Ghosts In Snow

While your guardian is keeping a huge secret you take on the nightlife and find yourself in a mad supernatural hellzone.

Vampire AU, Villain AU,

Warnings: EVERYONES NAMES ARE SAID BACKWARDS LIKE THE AMERICAN WAY AND I HATE MYSELF FOR IT TOO. LONG. Eventual yandere villainous bois, eventual noncon, eventual major character death

A/n: My ode to the 1987 cheesy vampire thriller, The Lost Boys. I made this to be based in the same fake California town as the movie which I feel like maybe that could be disrespectful, making these Japanese characters American but it was a lot easier writing for a fake town rather than Okinawa where I had originally tried to set this in. And I’m from California and I might be lazy, sticking to scenes that I know but what can you do? It starts off slow. I’m impatient so I’m sorry if you are too. Vampire boys will COME. LIES, DECEIPT, BETRAYEL, LOVE, AND DEATH WILL COME. Also, I don’t know how to pair this because pretty much everyone wants to bone has a thing for the reader?? The guilty pleasures are real in this fic. I mean, not in this chapter (that I’m still really excited for) but like....?!!!!? Also, Aizawa has poor parenting skills for a reason. Like, he’s not dumb. I could never make him dumb. ALSO I posted this on AO3 but I do not know how to work that site and I’m AFRAID of it. I talk too much. So here it is now. Huzzah.

Chapter 1: Margarita Night

You hummed along to the song that was playing on the stereo while Shouta Aizawa, your legal guardian, drove fast and precise up the coast highway in his red Jeep. Long black locks were flying wildly in the wind, like tendrils searching to grasp on to something. His tired eyes were hard and focused on the road but you smiled at him as he zoomed and weaved through different cars. He got a thrill from the speed.

You were moving, for the third time this year, which was saying something because it was only mid July. It was for Aizawa’s job. The two of you would travel across the country when something new, or rather, old, like relics from a different time would surface and he would start examining, dating, and researching what exactly the piece that was found was so they could be auctioned out or put in a secure location depending on how valuable the relic was. Or whatever. He didn’t go into details as to what exactly he did but when he did you never failed to zone out and start to daydream about something else. He didn’t mind. And you didn’t mind moving. You and Aizawa shared the spirit of adventure. He loved his work and you loved the rush of blood you got when you found yourself trying new things.

You scanned over one of the many articles for Santa Carla California, your new destination, that Aizawa has cut out for you to read up on. You’ve already read up the town history and now you had different clippings of local hang outs, the what to do and what not to do in Santa Carla. You took note of a pretty popular comic book store and the summer sports competitions but it was the night life that seemed to call to you on a specific page. There was a fair in town all summer long, love music, games, dancing, and other festivities. Aizawa didn’t let you out much when the sun was down but you both had agreed that that would change since you were now eighteen. You were excited to say the least.

Finally arriving to your destination, Aizawa drove through a dirt path to get to Tudor style house that sat about a hundred yards away from a cliff over looking the Pacific Ocean. The garden was hardly tended to, vines grew high over the fragmented stone wall that surrounded the house, the ground was covered in bursting star flowers, sagebrush, and ferns.

Aizawa parked the Jeep behind a dusted over yellow VW Bus. Stickers from covered the back of the bus. Some represented different cities across the country some that you’ve been to and some you have not, while most of them were stickers from different radio festivals you have heard about but never attended.

Grabbing your backpack from the backseat you hopped out of the seat and stretched your legs. You were sore from hours of sitting. You slung your pack over your shoulder and walked to the trunk where Aizawa was grabbing your and his suitcases that sat in front of Aizawa’s chest. You made a motion to grab the chest and Aizawa swatted your hand away.

“That’s gonna be too heavy for you,” he said. “I’ll get Mr. Yamada to help me with this. You go ahead and bring in the other luggage.”

You rolled your eyes. Aizawa didn’t ever want you looking into his chest but the fact that you couldn’t even touch it was a bit ridiculous. Still, you walked up the steps to the front door, backpack on, dragging both suitcases behind you, a petty attempt to show Aizawa you weren’t weak, you used your head to ring the doorbell.

Thunderous barking immediately answered the call of the doorbell. Frightened you dropped the luggage and took a step away from the door. You hadn’t known you’d be living with a dog. You were heard some yelling and and rustling on the other end of the door and the barking was muted.

The door opened revealing a very tall man with thick blonde hair in a bun. He wore a blue tank top that showed off his tan muscular arms and warm colored board shorts. His green eyes peaked over his reading glasses at you and smiled revealing dazzling white teeth.

“Wow,” was what he said. “F/N L/N. Aizawa told me about you. He told me his kid was brilliant, too smart for her own good, tough, and charming, but he never told me how much of a stunner you are!”

Your mouth fell open, unable to know how to respond to that. He grin grew wider as a blush dusted your cheeks. You hadn’t expected him to be so friendly.

Aizawa was to your side instantly.

“Shouta!” The man exclaimed clasping his hand to Aizawa’s a pulling him into an embrace. “It’s been far too long!”

“Y/N, this is Hizashi Yamada, or you may know him as Present Mic. He’s a radio host for the local Santa Clara station and a very old friend of mine.”

You gave him a slight smile. “A pleasure to meet you, Mr. Yamada,” you said offering him your hand.

He took your hand and turned it over kissing the back of it and looking up into your eyes he said, “Call me, Hizashi. And the pleasure is all mine, little one,” with a wink.

Aizawa cleared his throat and Hizashi let out a chuckle. “Let me help you with your bags,” he said picking up your suitcase from the ground and offered to take your backpack, letting his hand travel to the strap on your shoulder. Bashfully you shook your head, excusing his hand, and you made a mental note of the man’s lack of personal space. You were taught to be kind but not stupid. You didn’t think Aizawa would let you live with a man that could be dangerous though.

You followed Hizashi up the stairs and to your new room. The room was larger than what you were used to. The ceiling was tall though it slopes d downwards with the roof, a stream of lights hung around the room, and posters from old bands you didn’t know were plastered against the walls. A queen sized bed with a beautiful wooden headboard sat in the middle of the room. The bedspread was a royal purple with purple and black shiny pillows. It was a tad much but you didn’t mind having a lot of space for you to sleep.

“The sheets are Egyptian cotton,” Hizashi said placing your suitcase down by your closet doors. “It gets pretty hot up here and I’d want for you to be as comfortable as possible while you stay here. If you need, I could bring a fan up later. The window opens but just slightly. It’s been weathered down from the pacific breeze.”

“It’s nice,” you said walking around the room. “I’m not used to having this much space.”

Hizashi smiled gleefully at your approval. “Well, I’ll be down in the kitchen with Aizawa talking old man business type stuff and my,” he paused for a split second, “intern should be here shortly and I’d like for you to meet him. You’re about his age so I’m hoping the two of you will get along.” The way he said that made you doubt that you would in fact get along. “The bathroom is down the hall to the right. It takes a while for the shower is get warm. Old heater. But the pressure is nice!” You nodded at him and he excused himself.

Immediately you started to unpack your clothes into the spacious drawers of the dresser that sat across from your bed, trying to figure out what to wear. You had on sweat shorts and t-shirt, so you’d be comfortable driving for hours on end by you wanted to be at least slightly presentable for meeting someone, a boy, your age, even if you might not get along. You settled on a white tank top and a black skater skirt with black tights. It was too hot to really care for looking pretty anyways.

You trotted down the stairs and slipped into the kitchen. The kitchen was fairly modern styled with an island in the middle. Hizashi has his back turned to you while he sliced limes. He hadn’t heard you come in but someone else had.

“WOOF!” You heard causing you and Hizashi to jump. You turned to the noise and saw a giant red husky running your ear. Before you could react the husky jumped at you causing you to fall back onto the kitchen tiles. He husky had you down with his paws on his chest and he examined your face giving you many sniffs. You kept your hands to your side and avoided looking into its eyes so it wouldn’t see you as a threat.

“Eijirou!” Hizashi yelled across from the kitchen.

The husky took a moment to look away from you and at Hizashi and back at you, giving your face a long lick. When you didn’t push him away he continued to lick your face to your dismay.

“Awwww he likes you!” Hizashi said.

“I-“ you started but Eijirou kicked your mouth when you opened it causing you to finally push him away, “gah! I guess!”

Hizashi pulled the husky away by his collar allowing you to stand back up. “This is Eijirou! I found him a couple months ago! He’s my most bravest boy and he’s very protective of this house! I’m sorry I didn’t warn you about him but I am surprised that he didn’t growl at you! It took him awhile to get used to my intern!”

Eijirou woofed at you again but this time his tail was wagging. You went to let him behind his pointed ears and he leaned in to your touch.

You heard the front door open and Aizawa came in carrying his trunk with a spiky haired blonde boy. “To the left,” Aizawa said and they scooted there way with the chest towards the door towards what you assumed to be Aizawa’s bedroom. “Alright we can put it down here. I can take it from here,” he said.

Your eyes narrowed slightly. You couldn’t even touch the trunk but some boy you didn’t know could help Aizawa carry it? Whatever.

“Bakugou!” Hizashi called to the kid. “Come meet Aizawa’s daughter!”

Instinctively, you moved towards Hizashi and away from the door frame. You didn’t know why you were nervous but you were.

The boy, sporting a black tank top and black sweats made his way over towards the kitchen, wiping away the sweat from his forehead with his arm that was bandaged up. He stopped at the doorway leaning against it.

“Hello,” You said quietly giving a slight wave. He just scowled at you. Yikes.

“Y/N, this is Katsuki Bakugou! He’s been helping me with some projects for about two months now! He’s been a ton of help!”

“Hello,” You said Again, this time with a little more confidence.

He looked you up and down, almost as if he were sizing you up, as if you could be a threat to him. You crossed your arms, out of discomfort but also trying to make you look a little more tough. It was pointless. Bakugou turned his attention to Hizashi. “Did you get my text?” His voice was low and rough. It annoyed you that you thought it was a little attractive. You didn’t like this guy one bit.

Hizashi was surprised. “I- yes! Of course I did!”

“You didn’t respond,” Bakugou said walking passed you and Eijirou towards the fridge.

“I didn’t. It’s not important right now. I had to deal with something a little more important.”

“And that would be?” Bakugou asked into the refrigerator.

Hizashi dropped the lime slices into four classes filled with a frothy green liquid. “I made margaritas!” He beamed.

Bakugou came up from the fridge with a beer in hand. He used his keys to open the bottle. He stared at Hizashi as he took a sip from the bottle. Yikes.

Hizashi sighed. “Y/N, I already asked Shouta if this would be okay. You’ll have a margarita, won’t you?” He said, extending a beverage towards you.

How could you say no when you were a guest in his house and he had already made one? You couldn’t. You smiled sweetly at him and took the margarita in your hand sipping on it. You tried not to scrunch your face up at the strong taste. Hizashi returned your smile.

Aizawa trudged into the kitchen.

“Hey, were having it’s margarita night, grab a glass!” Hizashi commanded Aizawa. Aizawa gave him a dry look but still accepted his beverage. Eijirou began to growl at Aizawa when he got too close to Hizashi. Hizashi patted his head to calm him down.

Aizawa took a sip of Hizashi’s creation. “Christ, did you pour the entire bottle into this?!” He said putting the glass down. Bakugou offered him a beer which he gladly took.

“Wha- no!!” Hizashi said now slightly annoyed. “The kids in Santa Clara like ‘em strong these days!” He said throwing his hands up spilling some of his drink to the floor. Eijirou moves to lap up the liquid but recoiled after giving it a curious sniff. “Well Y/N likes my drink, don’t you?”

You were already halfway done with your drink. You had to hold you breath to drink it down. You didn’t want to be rude but you also wanted it to be over. Hizashi poured Aizawa’s drink into his now empty glass and poured what would have been Bakugou’s into yours. Okay so maybe sometimes you were too kind and that was stupid. And a little dizzy. You hiccuped a response.

You could almost make out a smirk on Bakugou’s face.

“We need to talk about the email from Fulukado.” Aizawa said to Hizashi.

“But it’s... margarita night,” Hizashi nearly pouted holding his glass in both hands like a child with a toy.

“Hizashi, this is important.” Aizawa glared at him and Hizashi shrugged defeated.

“All work and no play makes Shouta a dull boy,” Hizashi drains his drink and made his way out of the kitchen. “Bakugou, why don’t you take Y/N into town. Show her a good time. I’m sure she’s dying to explore.”

You were on the floor playing with Eijirou. You let him like your red face and you giggled at the goofy dog.

“I can’t take her anywhere! She’s drunk!” Bakugou called back.

“Am not!” You crossed your arms like a child. Eijirou woofed at Bakugou as if agreeing with you.

Hizashi came back, holding a key in his hand. “This is for the house. I keep it locked up at night. You can’t be too careful.” He studied you on the floor, wide eyed, running your hands through the dog’s soft fur. “Aizawa, are you okay with her going to town right now? I know Bakugou is responsible enough. He wouldn’t let anything to happen to her.”

Aizawa sighed and looked at you. You gave him a pleading look. He knew you craved independence. “Are you okay?” He asked.

“Absolutely!” You said standing up. “I could totally say my ABC’s backwards, walk in a straight line, whatever. The articles you gave me were interesting! I’m dying to see the fair!”

“The fair isn’t open on weekdays,” Bakugou said dryly.

“Well there’s a comic book store in town, right? I’d love to check it out.” You took the key from Hizashi. “I’m fine! I swear!”

Aizawa considered you. You put your finger to your nose and started walking heel to toe. “Z Y X W V U T-“

“Alright. Go. Have fun.” You were elated.

“Go ahead and take Eijirou too!” Hizashi chimed in as the dog started wagging his tail.

“Seriously?” Bakugou was not happy.

“Go have fun.” It wasn’t an invitation from Hizashi. It was a command.

Bakugou scoffed and made his way out the door, not waiting for you to understand that was your cue to follow.

“Be safe,” Aizawa said as you walked through the door, Eijirou on your heels.

You waved him off. “I always am.”

@yandere-inamorata

Chapter 2

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lightsandlostbells · 7 years ago

Text

Skam France S2.2 reaction

they managed to make one of my most disliked parts somewhat less bad

slow clap for Skam France?

some very heated opinions below, be aware!

Episode 2

For real, some very negative opinions are coming, and it’s not my intention to make anyone feel like garbage about something they like. If you’re a fan of Noorhelm/Marles, maybe don’t read.

Clip 1 - Manon and Emma in class

I like Emma a lot more this season. I didn’t feel like the actress quite carried the really vulnerable moments, but she’s exhibiting more personality with her take on S2 Party Eva.

They cut the scene with the two girls asking Noora if Jonas had a girlfriend and if he were dating Eva, so the vibe is kind of different. With that context it seems like Noora wants to gently nudge him Eva into moving on because she suspects Jonas is moving on. This has some of that but it also feels less urgent, because Manon doesn’t have quite the same reason to be concerned for Emma’s feelings in that moment.

I do like Emma’s bit about being kidnapped by that prostitution ring in Taken, that’s funny.

Clip 2 - Yann the Man

Charles’ text about seeing Manon even though she was trying to hide - WHY. Why would they add this shit? Do they not get how uncomfortable this makes girls feel? Manon goes to school with this guy so there is nothing she can do to completely avoid him. He is not only just checking her out, but he’s making sure she’s aware of it. Let’s be clear: she wanted to hide from him, and he made sure she knew that he noticed she was trying to hide, and he made sure she knew that it didn’t work.

Look, I know that many Noorhelm fans also hate William’s behavior at the beginning of S2 and only warmed up to him as the season progressed. For me it’s that this opening behavior is so bad, such a textbook example of male entitlement in action, that it’s hard for me to ever get past it. I just have very few fucks to give about men who prioritize their boner feels over women’s boundaries.

Lucas, Sarah, and Ingrid here are like when Ron Weasley and Lavender Brown started sucking face and Harry and Parvati Patil had that shared moment of “God, our friends are getting on our nerves.”

I super love French Ingrid. I love her being bored and annoyed by Lucas and Sarah, and then her flustered reaction to Yann was great.

So what I’m taking away from Daphne’s reaction is that Manon and Emma probably told the whole girl squad about what they saw on Lucas’ phone. Not cool.

AND NOW a breakdown of Yann’s power walk. This scene annoyed me, because they did not put in the work of setting it up. This is Skam France’s worst quality; it copies the events at surface level without understanding why they are there or how they got there in the first place. At least this is a smaller humorous moment and not something dramatically important, even though it is relevant in terms of Emma’s character this season.

Let’s go over how the two shows set up this scene. Skam plants the setup during last Friday’s scene at Noora’s. The girls get to talking about sex, it’s a frank conversation. Vilde wants to know if the others have ever experienced a guy going down on them, because she thinks (hopes) William may do it to her. Eva jokes that no Norwegian guys will go down on girls, telling us in an indirect way about this aspect of her relationship with Jonas. This part of the scene is so comedic and light-hearted that on first viewing, you might not assume that it’s not anything except banter, a fun conversation that Noora has no part in and serves as a contrast to her anxiety over William’s attempts to contact her and Vilde’s continued interest in William. At the start of the next episode, we have a clip with Noora at her locker and being approached by two unknown girls who clearly catch her off guard, too, and want to know whether Jonas has a girlfriend. This random encounter leads her to prod about Jonas from Eva and subtly push her in the direction of moving on, as she suspects that Jonas may no longer be single. Then we get The Clip. As Vilde makes conversation with Ingrid, Eva notices girls’ heads turning in one direction, whispering and giggling. She follows their gaze. They’re looking at Jonas. She wants to know why, and she gets the answer about Jonas going down on a third year. Vilde looks confused, then starts to ask Eva about what she said on Friday, but Noora shakes her head as we get Eva’s stunned reaction. Jonas comes up to them and we get an iconic quote.

Skam France sets it up like this: Sarah tells us that Yann is the big man of campus, we see him walking and girls reacting, we get the explanation about Yann going down on the third-year, Emma seems a bit upset, he goes up to the girl squad and drops his line.

We don’t get the setup of “French guys not going down on girls” so there’s no impact of Yann being THE man, THE one true cunnilingus hero (and I have no idea what’s the general attitude of French men toward going down on women but I mean, you could spin this as “teenage boys are all about their own pleasure and don’t eat out girls” no matter what country you’re in) (except lol it ain’t gonna work in Skam Italia, thanks Giovanni!) - like I can understand in-universe why the girls might be impressed but from an audience POV, we’re not given any means of comparison to understand just why this is such a big deal

We don’t get that earlier line from Emma in particular so there’s no impact of understanding how upset she might be about this - not just that Yann is hooking up with other girls, but that he’s doing something with them that he apparently never did with her

There’s no additional moment of realization, “oh, so THAT’S why those random girls suddenly wanted to know if Yann is single,” a Brick Joke to use a TVTropes phrase, because they cut that scene

Even within the scene itself, it’s not built up? Like in OG we see girls reacting to Jonas and Eva picking up on it before we land the punchline. This one just tells you off the bat that Yann did a Thing, look at him (this bothers me less than the omission of the other stuff but in combination with it, it’s another symptom)

Is any of this a crime? No. Could people still find the Yann scene funny? Sure. But if this were my show, and I had to cut some things that didn’t fit into the episodes? I would question whether this scene was as effective without the buildup. I would question whether it was necessary. If I had to get across Emma’s moment of hurt, that likely inspires her to start hooking up with dudes from social media, I would consider whether it could be written in another way.

TBH I know I’m sounding nitpicky, but honestly this is why I enjoy overanalyzing the remakes. I felt like I learned something about setup and punchlines from observing the two scenes, and I appreciate how deftly Julie managed to make an extended oral sex joke pack some emotional punch.

I did like the music break from when he was walking to the exposition, and that was an admittedly great line from Yann about being hungry.

Clip 3 - Daphne loves lesbians

Daphne was sitting apart from the other girls at the beginning of the scene seeming very disconnected, hmmm.

Also Emma is not using Tinder in this version, she’s using Instagram and seems a bit firm that she isn’t using Tinder, so I wonder what the significance of that was. Maybe because Tinder is an app used for dating, and she doesn’t want to seem like she’s trying too much to move on, whereas Instagram is a more generic app with other purposes and hey, if a guy happens to message you, why not just roll with it, right?

And Emma immediately says no fake plans, like she just immediately calls it, though Manon fakes them anyway.

Does anyone else think that Alex’s sexuality is being handled really strangely, and by strangely I mean not at all? Because from what I recall, in canon we really just that comment about her hooking up with the girl named Clara and wanting to see Daphne’s topless pics. Her bisexuality was confirmed by the actress, outside of the show. This scene would’ve been a perfect time to address Alex’s sexuality directly, especially because Daphne is the kind of clueless character who would say something boneheaded that would require some education. When Daphne asks Manon whether she’s a lesbian, why not have her mention something like, “It’s OK if you like girls, so does Alex,” or even make a misguided comment about how Alex and Manon could pair off? Or have Alex make some kind of joke related to the discussion? Like this is genuinely weird to me not to acknowledge it at all in this context, when Daphne is even saying that their laughter makes it an unsafe environment for Manon to come out, but there’s also a bi girl sitting right there, participating in the laughter? It feels like another example of them just not thinking through the script that much.

This is why I’m skeptical about how they’ll handle the bit with Daphne and Emma making out, as seen in the trailer. Because again, they have a girl in the group who actually is supposed to be bisexual and who has apparently hooked up with girls, and yet we don’t hear much about it except in passing, but if we get these two supposedly straight girls making out because they’re drunk … that’s not a great look? What I’m worried is that they’ll play it completely like the original show because they’re just following the script and not thinking about it, while ignoring that they’ve changed a character’s sexuality and it might be relevant.

They cut the bit with Jamilla and her crew, so maybe they won’t play a role this season. I guess if they ever get to season four, they’re really going to have to rewrite the story because the bus plot will not make sense. But it’s kind of a bummer, I hope they find another way to include those girls. I think Skam France could improve on the original in how much they used the hijab squad in the show.

Manon, what was your objective in coming on to Daphne like that? You just have to get in her personal space. MMMMkay girl.

OK I laughed my ass off at Daphne posting a “love is love” image immediately after this clip.

God, I really wish we had Daphne for season three.

Clip 4 - The date

It only took me two whole episodes to figure out who Mika reminds me of: Ben Whishaw. Which is super obvious now that I recognize it.

Mickael’s DRAMAAAAAA is up there with P-Chris’ iconic version. Manon’s imitation is also good.

Mickael is smart negotiating for a birthday gift even if it didn’t quite work. I like his style.

Manon doesn’t wipe off her lipstick (like Noora did) which maybe is supposed to signify that she’s attracted to Charles, or maybe that she’s less concerned with how she presents to him. She does seem to be more confident when she squares off with him verbally.

I know the part in the car with The Weeknd is Iconique but I thought this version was fine and worked about as well ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

This is one of my most hated parts of the original show, so let’s see how they did.

Disregarding the context of how he got her on this date, that’s a nice setup with the chairs on the rooftop (which I’m guessing he dragged up there himself).

Actually ... you know what, there’s a lot of uncomfortable stuff about this part that I didn’t even realize previously because it’s presented so cinematically. (Assume that when I refer to Charles here, I also mean William because it’s more or less the same writing.) One thing I’ve never really considered until now is that if Charles (or any guy) pressured me into this date, didn’t accept my rejection, said that saying no will just make him want me more ... I would be fucking afraid if I finally went with him on a date and he took me to an isolated area. Now I didn’t think about that at first because this is a very beautiful scene from an aesthetic point of view! There is some gorgeous cinematography in both this scene and the original version. And he gives her something to drink and it’s cute because he remembered she doesn’t drink alcohol, so he made cocoa, cocoa is a drink that brings to mind warm, cozy feelings! Awww!

But take this out of the pretty TV context: in real life, a guy who has made it clear he doesn’t take no for an answer and who takes me to a nice secluded area and gives me a drink he made himself? Would raise serious alarms. I would have this feeling of dread in my stomach. And I don’t think you can disregard this train of thought or call it unfair or over-the-top, because guess what, Noora (Manon too by the looks of it) is potentially drugged later in the season when someone gives her a drink (I don’t remember if they ever confirmed if she was drugged or if she just got very drunk and blacked out, but we’re definitely supposed to think it’s a possibility). We do have a sexual assault storyline later on, with this very same character. It is completely reasonable to consider these dynamics especially in light of the season’s larger themes and topics.

I am being 100% serious ... what reason does Manon have to think that Charles is not capable of date rape at this point? Think about it, consider it from her POV where she doesn’t know what’s going to happen later in this season, just analyze what she knows in this moment. So far he’s had sex with her friend and then ignored her and cruelly put her down, and he’s pursued her despite her rejecting him, he’s openly said that he doesn’t take her “no” seriously, he’s sent her messages that make clear he’s noticed she’s tried to hide from him and he doesn’t care, he’s cornered her into this date. Other than the fact that Charles is our designated male lead, why should Manon trust him? Why should we? The only reason is because we know we’re watching a TV show, we know that this is the scene where we start to build up to our characters getting together later. Charles is handsome, Charles will be The Love Interest, therefore Charles is going to be a good guy. If Charles was some gross, unattractive, obnoxious dude who would clearly not end up with our heroine, how would this scene feel?

The jab at Twilight is hilarious and accurate. They are Bella and Edward.

“Why did you get into my car?” You fucking know why, dude.

This shit about him not pressuring her to go out with her is wrong. Yes. He did. Him just saying he didn’t doesn’t make it true. If just saying stuff made it true I’m going to go around calling myself Julie Andem and telling people I’m working on Skam Season 5: The Adventures of Dr. Skrulle and Her Wife, The Danish Receptionist.

In original Skam Noora did tell Vilde that there was nothing going on with her and William before this point, I don’t think Manon did. So I guess Manon could have done that. But Charles has put her in a complicated place. Manon asked him to apologize to Daphne. He did so on the condition that Manon go on a date with him. At this point Manon can’t tell Daphne she’s going out with Charles without having to explain why, which means nullifying the apology in the first place. And Manon is trying to avoid him but he won’t let it happen, and he’s shown that he’s willing to use Daphne to get to her.

All right, here’s why I fucking hate this scene: this is a prime opportunity for William/Charles to show some humility and character growth about what happened with Vilde/Daphne, and he doesn’t. Not once during this conversation does he express regret for how he handled the Vilde/Daphne situation. Not once does he express remorse or consideration for her feelings. Instead he offers several excuses about why what he did was justified, which happen to be about benefiting himself. So basically his apology was hollow and only about getting this date with Noora/Manon. Yes, it is early in the season and his character should be able to grow in future episodes, but I don’t recall William ever changing his tune on this topic, specifically.

And tbh what's irritating is that this is framed like William/Charles has some reasonable points, and no, he doesn’t, literally every excuse he offers can be easily torn down. Noora/Manon can be judgmental, for sure, they can assess people incorrectly, but in this scene, they are completely right in their criticisms of what happened.

“Being nice to someone you want to get rid of doesn’t work ... I’ve been clear with her.” So did he ever try ... telling her outright ... you know, BEFORE they have sex, “hey, I’m not looking for a relationship.” Oh wait, the girl might not want to have sex with him then. Or even explaining it in direct but not malicious words afterwards? From what I remember, he basically just ghosted her until she confronted him and he tore her down. He doesn’t have to promise her anything, but he also owes her some basic respect. And he knew he was doing something cruel. Remember when he walked by Daphne and the girls in the schoolyard and he made a point of establishing eye contact, then looking away?

“I’m not responsible” for harming Daphne’s self-image - oh shut up. If I went up to a random person on the street and told them they were ugly, I probably wouldn’t break their spirits forever and ever. But I probably would play on any insecurities they had. I would possibly create new insecurities that weren’t there. And I would possibly make them feel like garbage. So yes, I have to take some responsibility for the fallout.

And lmao, what bothers me is that yeah, actually we do see how cruel comments can affect one’s self-image over and over throughout the show. We see it with Vilde and Daphne, how this made them feel like they weren’t pretty enough and influenced their disordered eating. We saw it with Noora, how her shitty previous boyfriend also messed up her self-image and caused her to get sick. We saw it with Isak, how casual homophobia and comments about gay people around him influenced how he saw himself and made it difficult to call himself gay. We saw it with Sana, how she was bullied at her old school for being Muslim, how Islamophobia affected her and shaped her, how desperate she was to prove herself because people were judging her on all sides. It’s fine if William/Charles is meant to be wrong. What bugs me is that the way this is presented, makes it seem like he’s supposed to be right.

“I’m not letting her think there are chances when there aren’t” - aren’t you texting Daphne and inviting her to things? He absolutely knows how Daphne is going to respond to this. If he was so desperate to use one of the girls as a go-between for him and Manon, he could easily get Emma’s number from his pal Alex. But no, he is going through Daphne deliberately, because he knows she’ll be an enthusiastic messenger. And he knows she’s going to get hopeful. He literally says that she’s into him again!

Characters can be flawed, characters don’t need to always say the right words. But William never had a turnaround where he acknowledged that his courtship of Noora or his treatment of Vilde was wrong, outside of that apology that he apparently didn’t mean, when these were things that he really, really needed to address in terms of his development. I fear that they’ll do the same with Charles since this remake is so close.

That being said, there are a few things in this scene that I preferred to the original:

One of the dumb things William says is that “if you see if from his side” Vilde is the one who pursued him, she approached him and wanted to sleep with him,. This is the stupidest shit I’ve ever heard. William is not obligated to sleep with every girl who comes on to him. He and Vilde had a consensual sexual encounter, Vilde did not trip and fall on his dick, and he was participating in her flirtations and contacting her. Take some responsibility for your role in this, dude. This bit of blame-deflecting is thankfully missing from this scene, sparing me that particular headache.

Charles’ actor has more emotional range than William’s and I felt like he maybe did feel a bit less assured in his position, whereas William felt pretty smug about it the whole way through.

Manon seems less stumped by Charles’ comments than Noora did. Not that Noora needed to have all the answers all the time, but it always saddened me that William’s BS excuses were what had her tongue-tied. Also her turning his sad anecdote into sarcasm about the homeless was good.

When Manon says she’ll walk home, Charles doesn’t push her and says it’s fine. That seems counter to chivalry, but it’s at least him respecting something she wanted, even if it might just be because he was busy with his fight drama.

The music throughout the clip was good, but the music at the end got too DRAMAAAAAAAAA for my liking.

General Comments:

I’m going to be honest, I think the actor playing Charles has more charisma than William, so on a superficial level I’m engaged more during the Manon/Charles scenes, and like I said above, I think it benefited his character in the date scene. But there are some ways I think this might make his character seem worse, for instance when telling Daphne she wasn’t good enough, it felt a lot more deliberately mean whereas William seemed so checked out of the whole thing that it was less like he wanted to twist the knife. So we’ll see how he fares at some later parts of the season.

Tangent but I love the girls texting about Jane the Virgin. Also that Manon references Pedro Almodóvar and Emma’s like “we don’t have the same reference pool,” that legit made me laugh.

This had a lot of negative remarks, lol. Probably this will be as negative as it gets, tbh. That one scene just makes me angry.

I’m not French so I apologize if I misinterpret, and feel free to correct me.

If you made it this far, thank you for reading!

#skamfr reactions

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bkwrm523 · 7 years ago

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The Real Treasure, ch 3

Title: The Real Treasure Rating: PG-13 for violence. Pairing: Eventual Dean Domino/Courier Word Count: 3994 Warnings: The usual violence warning. ALSO! There’s a lot of warnings for this chapter, but they take some explaining. See the author’s note for details. Tags: @mysupernaturalfics @thing-you-do-with-that-thing @cookingglitterfairy @kittenofdoomage @catsoftheapocalypse @medicatemedrmccoy @goodnightwife @star-trekkin-across-theuniverse @mrswhozeewhatsis @joseyfeli1 Summary: The team gets underway, and attempts to recruit another member. Author’s Note: Beta’d by no one. This fic is currently seeking a beta. Please apply if interested. Now, the warnings. There’s a character with an inappropriate name; I did not come up with the name, and it will be used sparingly. Still, be warned that it’s coming. Also, the same character has a very inaccurate version of Dissociative Identity Disorder. Once again, blame the game writers for that.

masterpost

Three sets of feet landed on the ground under Dean’s apartment, followed by a set of doggie feet. The courtyard they’d landed in was a bit smaller than the one on the other side of the building. There was one exit from this courtyard, by means of a locked gate on the opposite side. There was a small fountain against the wall of Dean’s building, just like the other small fountains littered throughout the villa. Clara made a beeline for the fountain, collecting all the Sierra Madre chips in it.

“Do you have to keep doing that?” Veronica asked, a little exasperated.

“If it makes you feel any better, I promise not to do it while we’re in the cloud.” Clara replied.

“Why do you keep collecting those things?” Veronica asked.

“I just have a gut feeling that they’ll come in handy.” Clara replied, grabbing the last of the coins from the fountain.

“Actually,” Dean chimed in. “Sinclair bought these vending machines, put them everywhere. With a few chips, you can buy any basic food supply you might need. Rumor has it, you can get weapons and medical supplies in there, but those were for the staff, so you need the right code to get them.”

“We’ll keep our eyes peeled.” Clara said as they moved towards the gate. “We might come across those codes. In the meantime, we brought plenty of travel rations that made it through. We’ll use those for now, and save our chips in case we can get stimpacks or something.”

Dean pulled a key out of his pocket and unlocked the gate. On the other side was a narrow street filled with the gas. The dense gas made it impossible to see more than a few feet down the street. The party paused just on the safe side of the gas. After learning about the gas, it wasn’t easy to make themselves run into it. Dean waited patiently for the women to gather themselves.

“Remember, I can’t shield you for long.” Dean reminded them. “We’ll have to move fast.”

“Let’s get back to the main area of the villa.” Clara addressed the group. “There’s not as many cloud pockets there, and we can decide then where we’re going next.

“One more thing. If we get attacked in there, don’t engage. Keep moving to the next patch of clean air. If they follow us, we can fight back from there.” Clara continued.

“Whatever you say, partner.” Dean acknowledged, his voice still tinged with sarcastic humor. Veronica gave a nod, and Roxie a soft yip of confirmation.

“If you wouldn’t mind, Dean.” Clara asked him, her voice soft and earnest. Dean Domino clearly already didn’t trust them as far as he could throw them, and Clara was eager to earn the trust of her new companions. She’d been leading groups of her friends around the wastes for awhile now, and she’d learned how necessary trust was. Besides, there was something about Dean. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it. “We’ll be right behind you.”

“I’d be delighted.” Dean replied, even giving a slight bow that startled a giggle out of Clara.

The group followed Dean into the cloud, and were enveloped.

Before, the group had briefly passed through edges of the cloud on the way to Dean. It had only been for a second or two, but that had been enough to set off coughing fits upon reaching safety. Besides, there was just something about it that filled them all with dread. Venturing into the middle of a patch of cloud, however, proved to be an entirely different experience.

Clara internally braced herself as she plunged in after Dean. She could feel the cloud around her, just like her brief plunges before. Only this time, she could actually feel Dean’s protection surrounding her. It was difficult to describe; similar to how Clara had felt when she’d put on her first set of real combat armor. Warm, safe, protected. Yes, the world was still a dangerous place, but suddenly she was slightly less vulnerable. Still, being in the cloud was unnerving.

Their first trip through the cloud was mercifully brief; the street had led to a tiny courtyard, and now they paused in a clean patch of air in a hallway about five paces long which led to an identical tiny courtyard filled with the cloud.

“Sure left a lot of traps around here,” Dean remarked idly as they paused for a moment. His voice, Clara was noticing, had an odd lyrical quality to it. Probably shouldn’t have surprised her, as he had been quite the famous singer, once. Something about his cadence, she thought. “Sometimes I forget where they all are.” Dean continued his thought.

Clara stopped dead and gave Dean a look, arching one brow. She couldn’t tell if he was serious or not. He gave her a knowing smirk, which didn’t shed light on it at all.

“That’s not the most comforting thing you’ve said, Dean.” Clara told him. The grin on his face widened.

“Shall we continue?” Was Dean’s only response. Clara shook her head, not quite able to suppress the smile on her face, and made an ‘after you’ gesture. Dean strode forward into the next patch of cloud, the rest of the group close on his heels. His protection, they assumed, must have a range. And no one was eager to test its range.

“This is our last bit of cloud before the door,” Dean murmured quietly as they moved forward.

The group rounded a corner, and the only warning was a low snarl before a walker fell into the group. Clara glanced up just in time, and it took her less than a second to see that the walker was going to fall on Veronica. Clara moved quickly, bumping Veronica with her hip and sending her careening into Dean. The walker dropped in front of Clara, and the courier had time to get two quick punches to its shoulder before it was on her, forcing her to grapple. A second walker appeared around a corner, making for Clara before anyone could react.

“Dean, get them out of here!” Clara yelled. Together they could easily defeat the two; however, Dean had warned them that his protection wouldn’t last for long. They didn’t reply, and Clara couldn’t turn to see if they obeyed.

But Clara felt it the instant she was out of range of Dean’s protection. Her next breath drew cloud into her lungs. Although she could hardly afford to, she started to cough almost instantly. It may have been a bit melodramatic, but with every passing breath, her lungs were laboring more. She started to cough harder as her lungs struggled in vain to repel what was afflicting them. Her grappling with the walker grew weaker, and the walker behind her (from the way his helmet was bumping her, Clara suspected it was trying to bite her through its rebreather) started trying to grab her arms. Clara’s eyes filled with tears until she could barely see.

Her first indication that something had changed, was the sound. The gunfire was unmistakable. There were a few shots, Clara wasn’t sure how many, and the walker behind her jerked with each one, until its weight against her disappeared and she heard its thunk as it fell to the ground. There was a moment of silence, footsteps. And then suddenly, she could feel Dean’s protection from the cloud envelop her, like a warm blanket on a cold day. Clara gave a ragged gasp, and then proceeded to have a coughing fit almost bending her double. The remaining walker gave a snarl of glee, before another flurry of shots rang out, and it fell to the ground.

Dean didn’t speak; he came up to her, pulled her up straight, and wrapped an arm around her waist, pinning her to his body. Clara didn’t speak either, just clung to him and kept coughing. Dean set off immediately, walking at a quick pace that would have been punishing and a bit cruel for Clara’s state, if it hadn’t been for his warning that he couldn’t protect them for very long.

They emerged from the cloud not long after; Clara could still barely see with her eyes tearing, but she could taste the cleaner air, feel the cloud’s absence. Dean slowed, and Clara heard Veronica call her name in relief. Dean leaned her against a wall, keeping his hands on her waist and shoulders, holding her steady as Clara continued to cough.

“We don’t have any stimpacks…” Veronica muttered; from the soft noises coming from her, Clara guessed she was rummaging through her pack. “I don’t think any of our medical supplies left will help… here, let me get her water canteen.”

“Not just yet.” Dean told Veronica, his voice gentle but firm. “Let her finish coughing before she tries to drink anything.”

“Too bad none of Cas’ moonshine made it through.” Veronica tried to joke, her voice a little strained. Roxie pressed against Clara’s side, whining softly and licking Clara’s pant leg. Clara dropped a hand to ruffle her dog’s fur, wanting to reassure her.

“Thanks,” Clara finally croaked once her lungs calmed down.

“My pleasure.” Dean replied smoothly. “Veronica, I believe she could use that canteen now.”

Veronica gently nudged Clara until she was leaning forward, Clara’s head practically resting on Dean’s shoulder, until Veronica could reach Clara’s pack. It didn’t take much rummaging; the Madre had taken so many of their possessions, the packs were nearly empty. Clara raised a hand to try and clear her eyes, but Dean beat her to it, brushing the tears of irritated allergies off her cheeks. Clara blinked hard a few times until her eyes cleared. Veronica pushed a canteen into Clara’s hands, the cap already unscrewed and off.

“Not too much,” Dean warned her. She was a little touched by how protective he already was, even though they had only just met. “Veronica warned me about our bomb collars being linked.” So that was why he was so protective. Clara felt a tiny surge of disappointment, and quickly suppressed it. She leaned back against the wall, taking a small sip of water and closing her eyes.

Veronica cleared her throat quietly, drawing the attention of her companions. “When you’re ready, we should get going.” Veronica suggested. Looking up for the first time since emerging from the cloud, Clara saw that Dean had brought them back to the entrance gate to of the residential area.

“You’re right.” Clara said, heaving herself off the wall. For a instant, Dean didn’t move, and their faces were uncomfortably close. Then Dean blinked and stepped back, releasing her and giving her space.

“Can we please go to the police station next?” Veronica asked. “Elijah said there’d be armor and weapons there. I feel naked.”

“We could certainly do with the extra supplies.” Dean chimed in. “Although I’ll thank you not to attempt to put me in any armor. I paid a small fortune for this suit; I’m keeping it.”

Clara giggled again, then had a small coughing fit. “Don’t make me laugh,” Clara groaned. “My lungs still hurt.”

“I will attempt to restrain myself, oh fearless leader.”

This time, Veronica joined the giggles, and Clara smacked Dean on the arm and gave him a half-hearted glare.

“Fine, we’ll go to the police station next.” Clara agreed.

“It’s quite a hangout for the Ghost People,” Dean chimed in. “You sure we need to stop there?” His voice was light, but Clara could hear the undercurrent of anxiety.

“Sorry, Dean.” Clara said as they walked along, following the locator on the map on Clara’s pipboy. “Elijah says that’s where someone we need to work with is hiding. And we could use the equipment.” Clara hesitantly placed a hand on Dean’s shoulder. “We’ll protect you, Dean.”

“So sure you can trust me, are you?” Dean asked, his teeth a bit gritted, as he stared at Clara. Those damned sunglasses obscured his eyes, but Clara could sense more fear than anger in his tone.

“I’d like to earn your trust.” Clara replied honestly. “Only way I know to start doing that is to trust you.”

Dean didn’t answer, but they resumed towards the police station after that. Dean made a crack at every fountain Clara stopped at on the way, teasing her about greed, but she ignored it.

Along the way, the found messages scratched into the wall. ‘Find me and we can talk,’ said one. Another was left right next to the police station read ‘God can be found even in the smallest of beasts.’

“Odd choice of messages.” Clara remarked. “Find who? And what’s this about God?”

“Some old tourist feeling religious near the end?” Dean suggested. “Some of your predecessors tried to leave helpful messages for others, but they always ended up turning their back on their partners at the wrong moment.” Clara heard the resigned depression in his tone. For 200 years he’d been stuck here. For 200 years, meeting greedy person after greedy person, and not one of them had stayed altruistic in the end. No wonder the poor man was a cynic.

They entered the police station, and as soon as they stepped forward, collars started beeping. The group quickly backed up to the wall next to the door, and surveyed the room.

There were four desks in the room, two of them half buried in rubble. On the left wall was a set of double doors flung open, showing what looked like a break room. The far wall had a single door, shut and locked. In the far right corner, there was a cell containing the supermutant Elijah mentioned. His back was to them, and he was sitting on the floor muttering to himself. They couldn’t see much of him, but what they could see of his thick, green-gray skin was covered in scars, excessive even for a supermutant. In front of the cell was a small table containing the radio. Probably the one that set off their collars. Clara pulled out her rifle and quickly destroyed it.

“Ronnie, could you go check out that room?” Clara indicated the break room. “Look for anything useful.”

“Got it,” Ronnie replied, making a beeline for the room.

“Hello?” Clara said hesitantly, taking slow steps towards the supermutant. “You in the cell, are you okay? We’re not going to hurt you.”

No reply. Getting closer, Clara could make out a few words of what he was muttering. Something about a Master; pleading for his master… to do what, Clara wasn’t sure. She turned to look at Dean, who just shrugged.

“Search the place?” Dean asked. “Maybe we’ll find something that makes him more talkative.”

“His cell’s locked,” Clara commented, frowning at it. “Nothing I can pick. We’ll have to try and find the key.”

“Done rummaging.” Veronica said, rejoining them. She nodded at the cell. “He say anything?”

“Nothing. Acts like he doesn’t even know we’re here.”

“What happened here,” Veronica muttered softly.

“Did you find a key to his cell in there?” Clara asked. Veronica shook her head in the negative. “Search this room; keep an eye out for the key. If we don’t find it, we’ll have to try that door.” Clara ordered, indicating the remaining door.

They spread out and did just that, finding a few pistols and riot armor at the desks. Clara and Veronica quickly put on the armor. Dean, true to his word, remained in his unarmored suit.

Through the door were bathrooms, (one of which containing a suitcase hidden from view, which turned out to be a secret cache hidden by Dean; another pistol, some healing supplies, and a lockpicking kit) some cells, and a few offices. The team gathered everything deemed useful and moved on. Last was a set of stairs leading down to a basement.

‘God helps those who helps themselves.’ The same handwriting as before had scratched into the wall next to the stairs. Clara stared at it for a moment, shrugged, and began down the stairs.

Knew you would come. A voice came from the basement speakers. It was a man’s voice, eerie and confident. It made Clara a little nervous. Down below the cage, that’s where I am. Maybe you saw the messages I carved into the walls?

“Who are you?” Clara called, walking slowly into the first room in the basement.

In time. The voice replied. A little further now. The one in the cage above is Dog. I had to lock him up; he keeps disobeying me.

The voice went quiet then. They proceeded into the next room, stopping to destroy another radio, and continued through the basement as they searched for the cell key.

Another large room, assorted lockers and file cabinets with Sierra Madre chips, and various items that Clara quickly pocketed. One door in the room led to a small storage closet, with more armor and weapons. The other led to another winding hallway.

The hallway led to a small, dead end room with a table on the far wall. The table had a radio, which Clara quickly shot with her new pistol, and a holotape hooked up to the speakers.

That tape; that’s me there, on the table. The voice spoke again. If you are who I think you are, then you came to fetch Dog, to use him. I can’t allow you to talk to him yet. Not until we talk.

“We’re talking now,” Clara offered warily.

Take the tape upstairs, play it for Dog with that pipboy on your arm. Then we can talk.

“How in the blazes does he know you have a pipboy?” Dean muttered, thoroughly spooked.

“How in the blazes can you protect us from the cloud?” Clara retorted. “It’s called FEV; the forced evolutionary virus. It’s capable of some pretty weird things.”

“Point taken.” Dean replied. Clara stepped forward, taking the tape carefully as though she expected it to bite her. It did no such thing, and they went back upstairs. They stood in front of the cage, with Dog still muttering inside to himself and ignoring them. Clara put the holotape into her pipboy, and played it.

Dog, get back in the cage! As the tape played, the same voice from the basement speakers growled from Clara’s pipboy. Dog’s behavior changed instantly. His posture stiffened, and he stood and faced them.

“You aren’t who I was expecting.” Dog spoke now with the voice from the basement. “I’m disappointed. Still, you clearly can take direction.”

“Who were you expecting?” Clara asked.

“Don’t play stupid.” Dog spat, exasperated. “I already have to mind one child. You must have figured it out by now.”

“Elijah.” Clara murmured.

“Is that his name?” Dog asked. “Obsessed with the Sierra Madre, stinks of greed. I had hoped to speak to him when I woke. Instead, I just get his hands. You’re the same kind of greed. Followed the radio here, hoped for a score?”

“Something like that.” Dean murmured, looking at Clara.

“Listen, assholes-“ Veronica began angrily.

“Ronnie.” Clara stopped her, speaking softly.

“They can’t talk about you like that!” Ronnie exclaimed.

“They don’t know me, Ronnie. Let it go.” Clara told her.

“What’s that name carved on your chest?” Clara asked curiously.

“Dog. That’s his name.” The supermutant answered.

“Ohhh…” Veronica breathed. “What was that called… I remember reading about it in prewar medical books. Dissociative Identity Disorder? This doesn’t sound like a usual case, though.”

“Once again, let me remind the room that he was infected with FEV. Nothing’s normal where that’s concerned.” Clara proclaimed. “What should we call you?” She asked the supermutant.

“His name is Dog.” The Supermutant replied. “Mine is God. Don’t get us mixed up.”

There was a moment of silence in the room, and Dean started coughing.

“Umm,” Clara began. “Sorry, but… we’re not calling you that.”

“It’s my name.” The Supermutant insisted, looking annoyed.

“Then pick a nickname.” Veronica muttered.

“Fido.” Dean blurted out, once he’d gotten his coughing fit under control.

“I can go with Fido.” Veronica agreed brightly.

“Yeah, that works for me. All in favor of calling him Fido?” Clara asked. Everyone in the room but the supermutant raised their hands.

“This is ridiculous.” Fido muttered to himself. “Fine, Fido. I’m working with children.”

“What are all those cuts on you? We have medical supplies, if you need them.” Clara asked, reaching for her pack.”

“Keep your supplies.” Fido growled at her. “They won’t help. Dog did this. He inflicts pain on himself to silence me. Tries to murder me out of him, but it only makes me angry. He is a beast, little more than instinct.”

“How did you get locked in there? Do you know where the key is?” Clara asked.

“Of course I know; I locked him in here.”

“What? Why?!” Veronica demanded.

“I could feel him… getting hungry again. If I let Dog roam, he gets into trouble. Easts things he shouldn’t, obeys people he shouldn’t. It’s safer for him in here. For both of us. I’d hoped that if I locked him in here,the one he obeys would come for him. Instead, I got you.”

“Elijah.” Clara murmured. “Dog obeys him?”

“The old man reminds Dog of another Master, long ago. So dog is the Old Man’s obedient servant. Whether I wish it or not.”

“Did you bring us here?” Clara asked.

“No.” Fido growled back. “Dog did. I remember little of it. If you’re wondering if I can bring you out of here, I cannot, even if I wanted to.”

“Where’s your collar?” Veronica asked him. “We all have these bomb collars. Why don’t you have one?”

“Oh, I do.” Fido replied, angry again. “Dog ate it.”

“... how did he manage that?” Dean asked after a moment of disbelieving silence.

“The collar breaks down into pieces. Dog ate them, one at a time, before I could stop him.”

“Umm.” Clara said, trying to change the subject. “If you locked yourself in there, you must know where the key is.”

“Of course.” Fido replied smoothly. “I have it around my neck, where Dog wouldn’t find it. We don’t share everything, and sometimes that comes in useful.”

“If you won’t come out, I’m pretty sure we could help your companion unlock a door,” Dean muttered.

“Yes, you probably could.” Fido replied. “And then Dog would probably kill and eat you all.”

“He won’t if he hears Elijah’s voice,” Veronica supplied. “And we have a holotape of his voice.”

‘Don’t you dare!” Fido lunged forward, pressing against the bars and rattling them. The group jumped a few steps back, startled and frightened by the sudden display of strength and anger. “If you do, I’ll find a way out of this cage, and I’ll kill you all.”

“Okay,” Clara began, speaking softly. “Calm down. If you feel that way about it, then I promise we won’t play it.”

“You don’t dare,” Fido sneered at her. “You think I’m afraid of your collar killing me? I don’t care. I’ll kill you all first.”

“I have the power to let Dog out of his cage.” Clara reminded him. “Let me prove our intentions; I won’t use it.”

“What do you want?” Fido demanded, narrowing his eyes.

“Trust has to be earned over time. All I’m asking, is you come with us willingly, and give me a chance to earn your trust.”

There was a long moment of silence, as Fido considered Clara’s words. “I am not sure you belong here,” Fido finally spoke. “No, I am certain you don’t. Very well; I won’t obey the Old Man, but I will follow you. For now.”

“Thank you.” Clara said with a soft smile as Fido unlocked his cage. “We still have one more member of our group to collect. Will you come with us?”

“I think I will.” Fido replied, eyeing the group. “This should prove… interesting.”

#fanfiction #writing #dean domino/courier #dean domino/female courier #Fallout new vegas fanfiction

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dreameater1988 · 7 years ago

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Season 10 - the verdict

If you’re just reading this to pick a fight because your taste differs from mine, then I suggest you don’t read further. However, if you’re up for a civilized discussion and exchanged of opinions, then go ahead :) I’m certainly not one to critize just for the sake of complaining, but I’d like to express my views on the latest season that has let me down.

Season 10 has sort of disappointed me. I truly loved S7-9 and I think S9 with all the emotion and the complex plots and twists and cliffhangers and character depth was the best of New Who, so I already suspected that S10 wouldn’t be quite as good, but it was still a disappointment.

Let me start with Bill’s character. Even though I hated the short clip they showed us a year before the season aired, I came to like Bill. However, I think the writers didn’t do her justice at all. Compared to all the other (especially Moffat) companions her character seemed very flat and not well thought out. This might be because every episode was basically written by a different writer and it felt as if they hadn’t actually sat down together and discussed the episodes. Bill even seemed a bit out of character on occasions. For example, she is sometimes described by Twelve as having a temper, which, to me, only really shows when she shoots the Doctor in The Lie Of The Land without a warning. However, that seemed to come completely out of nowhere to me. There was no reason, no build-up and I refused to believe that Bill would actually shoot her friend on a whim, only to stand by and gawk two minutes later when it turned out he had fooled her the entire time. Where was her temper when she realized it was nothing but a show? Also, do we ever really get a reason as to why she travels with the Doctor at all? Amy ran away with her imaginary friend on her wedding night because she didn’t want to grow up. Clara wanted to see the world and was offered the chance at something even greater. From all three Moffat companions Bill is the only one that seems like a rough draft, not a finished product. I liked Bill, but this is the reason I never really got attached to her. I know that many people complained about it in previous seasons and maybe that’s the reason Moffat did it, but we got so know so much about Amy’s and especially Clara’s life and I realized that I actually really loved that about the show. I liked it when it was Amy Who and Clara Who. I would have loved to know why Bill is serving chips and is not enrolled in the university when she’s such a clever woman and eager student. To me it really felt as if Bill’s character was unfinished and inconsistent and maybe it was supposed to have that effect on viewers, but if that’s it, then I didn’t like it that much.

Which brings me to the topic of plots. I thought that the majority of episodes had real potential. The ideas, the sci-fi, all of that was a really good idea - and it fell short. I think S10 can most easily compared to a puzzle and each writer was in charge of one piece, but they didn’t all fit together in the end. There was a gap here and some overlapping there and it just didn’t create a harmonious whole. I can’t even really pick a favourite episode because there’s something bothering me about every single one of them, but if I had to, I’d pick Oxygen. Why? Because it was the only episode that surprised me. The plot twist of having the Doctor go blind was amazing! And that’s about it. I’ve made a post about this before, but it still bothers me that the majority of episode was very predictable. For example, in Smile we get told the problem and the solution before the opening credits. We see the robots going crazy, we see that the city is made of them. For me, the fun part of watching an episode is to discover things along with the Doctor and companion and it’s even more fun when I have to think about it after the episode ends or rewatch it to fully understand what was going on. I just always thought Moffat was at his best when he used complicated plot twists that took a while to sink in (UTL/BTF) or left it completely open (Listen) and you can disagree on that because it’s a matter of taste. I also loved the plot arcs that spread over several seasons before finally being truly revealed (the crack, the silence). I don’t watch a lot of TV because I get bored very easily when the plot is too predictable and so far I had always thought that DW was one of those shows that could keep me on my toes, but S10 was too see-through for my taste. Especially Smile, Thin Ice, Knock Knock, Extremis and the finale. A week before The Doctor Falls aired I made a post (I don’t know if it was on here or just Instagram and Twitter) saying that I wanted Missy to kill the Master because she’s siding with the Doctor and when I watched exactly that happen on screen I opened my mouth and was about to say “And now the Master needs to kill Missy to close the circle” when that happened as well.

Another matter is the same issue I’ve had with Bill’s character and that is how most of the plots seemed more like drafts than finished productions and were rushed into completion. The best example for that is the Monk Trilogy. Awesome idea, truly awesome idea, but again it fell short. It could have been a wonderful, emotional three parter with loads of sci-fi, action and drama, but it just came out. . . dull. I had been looking forward to The Lie Of The Land a lot because I love a good dystopia setting, but the entire episode was just rushed through and they didn’t get the feeling and emotion across at all. It was just one weird scene after the other felt like I was fast-forwarding through the story.

One thing that I’ve always loved about DW was the emotions it could trigger in me. I’ve cried my eyes out over so many sad and moving scenes that I’ve lost count and that effect doesn’t vanish no matter how often I re-watch it. But the way S10 was rushed didn’t really give me any chance to actually get emotional over anything. I felt detached not just from Bill, but from the Doctor as well. The more the season went on the less I was actually looking forward to new episodes and I’m afraid that process started during THORS. S9 is my favourite and Steven Moffat’s masterpiece Heaven Sent/Hell Bent is just unbeatable in my opinion. Of course it could only go backwards from there, but I had expected a bit more than what we got. I have many things to say about THORS and none of them are good because to me that plotless episode felt like a slap in the face after the marvellous, rich S9 and I’ve never really recovered from that.

I watched S10 for Peter Capaldi and for Michelle Gomez mainly because those two were just as amazing as before, but there have been moments when I wished I could just switch off and walk away. In my opinion, Steven Moffat should have quit after Hell Bent because it makes me sad to think that Peter’s and Michelle’s talents were wasted on such a mediocre season.

Another thing that bothers me a great deal is Bill’s ending and how most people on the internet reacted to it. I was very surprised to see that people loved it. I didn’t. I really didn’t. It doesn’t matter that she became like Heather and travelled the universe in this form, what matters to me is what happened before. I have always found the Cybermen to be the eeriest of DW monsters simply because of the way they are made and to have a companion, a friend of the Doctor, suffer that fate is terrible. Bill’s body was chopped up and thrown away, her consciousness put in a metal body while she was waiting for the Doctor to come and save her. She suffered in her Cyberman form up to the point that she basically asked the Doctor to end her existence before she keeled over and died. That is a good story, but it is NOT a good ending for a young woman like Bill.

This post could be a lot longer because I have more to say about the season, but I think I’ll leave it here. This show has been my favourite since S7 and I will always treasure the seasons that we got up until 10. That is also why I’m definitely going to give the new Doctor a chance - whoever they are - but my excitement for the show has already died during THORS. I might love what comes after Peter, I might not, but I just don’t feel the same love for the show anymore than I’ve felt during S7-9.

#peter capaldi

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timeflies1007-blog · 6 years ago

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Doctor Who Reviews by a Female Doctor, Season 2, p. 4

Season 2 Overview: Commitment Issues

If I had to pick an episode that is typical of this season, I would probably go with “Tooth and Claw,” which gestures in the direction of a lot of interesting things but never really embraces any of them. We have a sort of attempt to show a dark side to the Doctor’s and Rose’s behavior that basically amounts to watching them be moderately rude. We have a seemingly awesome, unstereotypical Queen Victoria who reverts to every cliché of her era the second the plot demands it. We have an almost-campy werewolf delivering his lines like he was scared to look too ridiculous. We have a reference to the mark that the Bad Wolf experience has left on Rose without doing anything to show how that experience has affected her. In the end, we are left with an episode that features numerous moments of cuteness from the two leads, but anything pertaining to real character development or the seasonal plot arc is half-baked. Both of those things hold true for much of the season—the Doctor and Rose are delightful, but it’s difficult to find any sustained aspect of the story that works. Part of the problem is that the characters don’t have as much to react to as they did in the previous season; in Season 1, the Doctor was recovering from the Time War and Rose was getting her first glimpse of the big universe that existed outside her little corner of London. This season features a generally quite contented Doctor and a companion who both has gotten used to time travel and is psychologically well-adjusted to it, so there is no way for the season to have as transformative an impact on the characters.

There are plenty of moments that work, and if you look at this season of sort of a scrapbook of cute moments between the two main characters, you get a nice collection, ranging from Rose’s attempt to get the Queen to say “We are not amused” to Tennant’s joyful discovery of the phrase “Allons-y!” Almost every episode has at least a couple of moments of total charm, but, ideally, the show is capable of being more than “Watch David Tennant and Billie Piper Be Adorable in the Vicinity of Monsters.” Davies places these nice moments into the framework of a huge seasonal arc and tries to present the characters as developing and changing, so when those plot and character frameworks don’t work it distracts from everything else. The larger problem here is that the season reflects a gigantic amount of hesitation. The first season comes across as a confident vision of what Davies wanted the show to be, but he seems to be constantly second-guessing himself here. I can imagine it being sort of easier to take risks at the very start, when you’re making a first charge at bringing back a show, than it is later on when you have already been successful and your audience has a set of expectations. Davies appears to be thinking through several important questions this season, including how the reboot will approach the balance between Earth and other planets, to what extent it will present the Doctor as a sexual/romantic being, and how much it will address the flaws of the central characters, including those developed through their travels. These are questions worth addressing, but Davies doesn’t seem to have come up with any sort of plan for them going into the season, so they just unfold haphazardly and without any sense of direction or consistency.

First, we have the Torchwood arc, in which Queen Victoria establishes an institute to deal with alien threats, culminating in a story in which said institute has the stupidest imaginable response to a large-scale alien invasion. The Cybermen arc ties into this, but the approach to these characters was muddled in the Parallel World two-parter and they wind up not even being the real threat in the season finale. We know that the Daleks would win in a fight against Cybermen, so after seeming like the season’s major villains, the Cybermen basically just wander on and stand about looking vaguely menacing while the Daleks provide the primary danger to the Earth. It’s not the worst plot arc imaginable, but it just leaves me wondering what the point was. If we’re just going to have the Daleks be the Big Bad again, why spend so much time mentioning Torchwood or showing the rather dull Cyber invasion of the other world? I get that plot arcs depend on having enough pieces that fit together in order to make sense of the sequence of events, but the plot of this season is so dependent on such dull events that it doesn’t really seem worth it just to get another Dalek encounter at the end—as we do in three out of four of the Davies season finales.

Second, we have the almost-romance of Rose and the Doctor. I don’t have any objections in principle to showing a romantic side to the Doctor, even though this was relatively rare in the classic series, and some of the criticisms people make of this angle come across as “keep your girly romance plots out of my science fiction!” in a way that reads as pretty blatantly sexist. I also don’t have a problem with the characters not quite knowing what their feelings are—the human/Time Lord thing creates a complicated situation, so it’s understandable that they would feel some confusion and uncertainty. The writers, though, don’t seem to know what the characters are feeling either, and that leads not so much to a presentation of messy, complicated feelings as to a retreat from telling this story. (It’s sort of an unfair comparison, but I think it’s worth mentioning that this romance unfolded at approximately the same time as the Jim/Pam romance on the US Office, and, while the latter is a sitcom with a very different approach to plot and characters, it did everything right that this show does wrong in this regard. Both characters are uncertain of their feelings and unwilling to voice some of what they can understand, but the writers had a very clear sense of exactly what the emotional mess was, and they made sure that it translated to the audience.)

The biggest problem with this romance is that it is essentially written as a prelude to a tragic separation. While the black hole two-parter (a little island of wonderfulness that did everything right even in matters that went badly in every other episode) did a decent job of showing how the relationship affected them in the present, the rest of the attention that we get to this relationship comes in the form of foreshadowing how terrible it will be for them when they are taken away from each other. “School Reunion,” brilliant as it is, moves this storyline along by showing how devastating it will be for Rose once she is a former companion, and by allowing the Doctor to articulate how awful it is for him to lose people. “The Girl in the Fireplace” uses Reinette to highlight how star-crossed any romance with the Doctor is doomed to be. “Fear Her” and “Idiot’s Lantern” both played on the fears that they have of being taken away from each other, and showed how each of them would act in the absence of the other. It’s not an unusual thing for the show to spend a lot of time foreshadowing a companion’s exit—this happens with Donna, Amy, and Clara as well—but in those instances this foreshadowing is grounded much more thoroughly in the way that the characters are developing and making choices in the present moment. Here, everything is basically buildup to their final goodbye on Bad Wolf Bay, and while that moment is itself beautifully done, everything else about their romance gets swallowed up by the hints of their forthcoming loss.

As a result, I have very little sense of how either character is feeling, especially Rose. It’s not a problem to have feelings go unspoken, particularly in a monster-centric, sci-fi narrative, as the genre presents endless possibilities for storytelling through subtext and metaphor. There are plenty of moments in which this season attempts to convey the characters feelings in a wordless way, but nearly all of the subtext is directed toward two ideas: the attraction between Rose and the Doctor, and the inevitability of their parting. What we don’t get is any sense of how they are struggling to deal with the problems that their differences in species and lifespan present, which should have been the heart of this story. There are plenty of interesting questions at work here: has Rose decided to just forego any sort of physical intimacy with the Doctor? If so, is she doing so out of fear of rejection or has she embraced the sort of unusual romance that has been happening? Has the Doctor allowed himself to see this as a romantic relationship, or is he holding himself back from that? “The Satan Pit” gives us a little bit of insight into the Doctor’s understanding of love by emphasizing his faith in Rose as a sort of ideal to believe in—it’s a form of love, but somewhat different from most people’s understandings of the concept. Otherwise, I can’t really figure out what the answers might be, and I don’t think the writers know either. (The brief, vague conversation between Rose and Jackie about “settling down” sort of circles the issue but doesn’t do anything much with it.) The relationship starts with the apparent assumption on the writers’ part that the two can never really be together, and so there’s no effort to give any meaningful attention to what this relationship would look like in the long term if Rose hadn’t gotten trapped; I don’t really have any sense of what would have become of these two if the events of “Doomsday” hadn’t happened, so I don’t really know what we lost when they got torn apart. As a result, in spite of how cute they are together, the whole relationship just feels massively unsatisfying to me, as if they put up an “it’s complicated” status at the end of “School Reunion” and then ran out the clock until just before Billie Piper’s contract ended.

Third, we get Rose sort of changing as a result of her experiences, most notably in the sense that she has a new hairstyle. That might be a little bit unfair, as there are definitely moments in which she seems to have developed a bit, but this storyline is to me the apex of this season’s unwillingness to follow through on what it sets up. It’s entirely believable that Rose might lose a part of herself as a result of her travels with the Doctor—she starts the show a completely ordinary woman who works in a shop, and so traveling the universe and saving the world could quite reasonably alter her. Actually pursuing this arc would, however, involve actually writing Rose in a way that reflects such losses, and the writers seem so enamored of Piper’s ability to portray the ordinary, Everywoman type that they putting in bits that belie the supposed character arc. In “Idiot’s Lantern,” practically everything she says and does is based on memories of stuff her mother has said and, in the last scene, on her continuing sadness about losing her father. Both her early resentment of Sarah Jane and her eventual bond with her seem very natural and heartfelt, as do her initial resentment about Mickey entering the TARDIS and her grief at losing him. She’s able to connect with the Ood because she remembers what it’s like to feel directionless. She’s having a great time at the beginning of “Army of Ghosts,” and seems to have about as much knowledge about how the TARDIS works as she did at the start of season 1, given her strategy of pointing at various levers until she guesses the right one. Her words in “Doomsday” suggest that she has shifted from caring about the “better way to live” that she spoke about at the end of Season 1 in favor of wanting to stay close to the Doctor, which is certainly a human enough emotion. If there’s a crisis and the Doctor’s not there, she’s capable enough to come up with a solution. Otherwise, though, the final episodes of the season suggest that Rose is following the Doctor around because she has feelings for him and because she has a good time traveling, which is hardly a major shift. Her emotions are in good working order, she’s still having a terrific time just traveling around and enjoying the universe, and, really, one of the most interesting things about the character is that even with experiences that exceed the opportunities of basically everyone else on Earth, she remains defiantly in possession of just as much humanity, warmth, spontaneity, and wonder as she did in her very first episode. By itself, I quite like this as an approach to the character. Writing Rose as fiercely retaining her humanity while also writing an arc about how she has lost it, though, just doesn’t make sense. The conversation with Jackie in “Army of Ghosts” and the way in which Rose is portrayed in Season 4 both suggest that this season was a serious attempt to write Rose as moving away from her identity as an ordinary human, but it’s just so half-hearted here that it does a major disservice to the character.

The early episodes appear to take her out of the action and make her helpless to an unusual extent, as if they were trying to make her later triumphs seem like a bigger deal, but there isn’t really enough of a payoff here, so those early episodes that reduce her abilities just seem like a waste. Moreover, we never really get a satisfactory reaction to the events of last season. “The Parting of the Ways” portrays godlike powers entering into Rose’s body unexpectedly and in a sense possessing her, and in that state she destroys all of the Daleks, to the point where she believes that their entire species is dead until she witnesses their return in “Army of Ghosts.” Her memories seemed fuzzy at the end of Season 1, but she either remembered some of what happened or the Doctor told her, because she tells the Daleks about her destruction of them in “Doomsday.” (If it’s the latter, I can’t imagine the rationale behind having that conversation take place offscreen.) If we had gotten a more clearly changed Rose this season, it might have pointed to the effect that this experience had on her, but she really just seems to have moved on—the werewolf notes “something of the wolf” in her, but otherwise there is very little attention to whatever she remembers of her time as the Bad Wolf. I can mostly buy that Rose is capable of being uncorrupted by absolute power, but I find it harder to believe, given how clearly functional her emotions are throughout the season, that she would have no reaction to having essentially committed genocide, even if it was against the Daleks. A lot of Rose’s storyline this season centers on what she’s not saying, which has plenty of potential to work well so long as the show’s non-dialogue elements work to convey what she’s thinking and feeling. These elements are working so hard at saying “Rose’s relationship with the Doctor is doomed!!!” that nothing else gets the development that it needs, and so her whole arc this season just never gets off the ground.

Fourth, we get attention to the Doctor’s tendency to ignore some of the long-term consequences of his actions, which works a bit better than some of the other developments this season. One could make the argument that the Doctor could have staved off the tragic ending if he’d asked Harriet Jones about Torchwood and looked into what it was doing in “Christmas Invasion” instead of becoming furious and taking revenge against her for disappointing him. It’s an interesting approach to the Doctor, whose incessant wanderings mean that he never really sticks around for long enough to see the full impact of his world-saving actions. I do think the details could have been better, although there are some nice moments in “Fireplace” and “The Impossible Planet” when the Doctor’s confusion about human things like income come across very effectively. Still, the show seems to be struggling to figure out a particular angle to take toward this aspect of the Doctor. At times, this season takes the Doctor’s obliviousness to consequences up to about a 17 out of 10. He doesn’t just neglect to look into Torchwood in “Christmas Invasion,” he turns into a vindictive monster who actively sabotages the British government. In “Fireplace,” he isn’t just a bit uncertain about how to handle romantic situations, he is blatantly reckless toward the feelings of both Reinette and Rose. And yet, in the episodes when the major issues of the season are really taking shape, the narrative seems to go out of its way to remove him from being responsible for what happens. “Tooth and Claw” sort of pretends that the Doctor and Rose caused Torchwood to start, but in reality just positions Queen Victoria’s odd overreaction as the catalyst. “The Age of Steel” ends with the Doctor giving Mickey specific instructions on how to take down the rest of the Cybermen, which he somehow manages to not put into effect. “Army of Ghosts” features the Doctor steadily if somewhat snottily working to fix the mess that Torchwood has created. There are some fascinating moments of darkness from the Doctor, but the show gestures in the direction of pinning substantial responsibility for the season-ending tragedy on him and then keeps backtracking in favor of placing responsibility on the shoulders of other people being idiots. In general, Davies seems uncertain about how much darkness to put into this bright and exuberant Doctor, who starts the season by saying “No second chances” and has basically changed his mind by the end of his interactions with Lady Cassandra in the very next episode. Like much of this season, it’s a stellar idea, but it never really lives up to its potential.

The one thing that definitely does work is Rose’s family (defined broadly enough to include her ex-boyfriend). Mickey never stood out to me as a character until “School Reunion,” but the terrific material that he got in that episode and in the parallel universe two-parter easily made up for past dullness. Rose’s interactions with her almost-father are absolutely beautiful, and his role in the anti-Cybermen resistance gives Pete a lot of interest as a character even when he’s not interacting with his parallel universe wife and daughter. While I was frustrated with the Parallel Earth Jackie, she is otherwise a tremendous character this season—just as delightful as she was in Season 1, and emotionally grounded in the profound sense of loneliness that she feels when Rose and Mickey have gone. While the season finale is full of sadness, her happy ending is a huge ray of joy, and she stakes a claim for Best Companion’s Family Member that no one else in this show has ever come close to taking from her. Having to take on the identity of a parallel version of herself who has died has got to be an awkward undertaking, but I don’t doubt for a second that Jackie Tyler is up to the challenge.

Planets: One of the reasons why this season is a decline from the previous one is that Davies is usually great at writing about Earth, especially the contemporary UK, but he’s not as good at inventing new spaces. Again, the black hole two-parter is an exception—both the space station and the pit are gorgeously rendered settings that really add to the story. New Earth and Parallel Earth just seem like a weird compromise between planetary adventures and the Earthbound focus of the first season; we get other planets, but one is centered on a joke about how repetitive humans are and the other is designed to be similar to us, so we get a couple of Technological Things and a couple of Flying Things and that’s it. Actual Earth varies in quality this season; “Tooth and Claw” looks really beautiful, and “School Reunion” makes fantastic use of the school setting, but “Idiot’s Lantern” makes the fifties look dull, “Fear Her” looks terrible, and the finale episodes would have benefited from spending more time out in London and less time in the sterile-looking Torchwood facility. It’s good that the Tenth Doctor and Rose find it easy to enjoy almost anything, because time and space just aren’t that interesting this season.

Monsters, Aliens, Etc.: Well, I like the Ood. After centering the first season very successfully on the Daleks, this season brings the Cybermen to the forefront—it’s a reasonable move, given that it’s the second season of the show and the Cybermen are probably the second most famous monsters from the classic series, but they aren’t as inherently charismatic as the Daleks, and Davies never quite figures out how to make them work as antagonists. (He’s sort of the opposite of Moffat in this respect, in that Moffat, after a few false starts, managed to make the Cybermen work but often struggled with Daleks.) The Absorbaloff is probably the worst monster in the entire run of the show, and the Wire and the Isolus are not much better. The clockwork creatures in “The Girl in the Fireplace” are visually interesting, but they don’t really do much, so I wind up finding them pretty forgettable. Even in the black hole episodes, the Satan figure brings out really interesting stuff in the major characters, but is probably the least memorable part of the episode himself. The Sycorax and the Krillitane are all right, but the Ood are the only really memorable ones to me.

Female Characters: Rose continues to be an extraordinarily likeable presence, but the writers never really land on a story for her this season. There are a number of episodes in which she doesn’t get much to do—she feels underused in “Love and Monsters, “The Girl in the Fireplace,” and “Idiot’s Lantern,” and even “New Earth,” while it has a lot of Billie Piper, is more memorable for its depiction of Rose’s body being possessed by Lady Cassandra than it is for anything that Rose herself does. She’s a fun character this season, but she just seems like she has a lot fewer layers this season than she did in the previous one. (She also gets referred to as a child an absurd number of times.) Jackie remains awesome, even if the parallel universe version was treated as too much of a joke. Sarah Jane is sort of awkwardly put into the position of foreshadowing the tragic separation of Rose and the Doctor, but manages to come out of it looking amazing because she gets some really good material and Elisabeth Sladen is fabulous. The minor characters…have a few bright spots: Mrs. Moore is great, and I liked Lady Cassandra and Ida Scott. There are a LOT of missteps, though. Ursula was the most overtly horrifying example, but Chloe and her mother came pretty close for me in terms of suffering from a glib, borderline demeaning treatment of serious issues and Reinette basically exists as a feelings generator for the Doctor. Between Harriet Jones, who disappoints the Doctor by resorting to Torchwood in order to introduce the name to viewers, Queen Victoria, who inexplicably turns on the Doctor in order to give Torchwood a reason to start, and Yvonne, who is utterly useless in Torchwood’s eventual appearance, much of the season’s plot uses women completely failing in positions of power as a way to move the plot forward. There’s nothing inherently wrong with having a female leader be bad at her job—there are plenty of bumbling male authorities on television—but the repeated use of female characters screwing up the world so that we can learn about Torchwood got really tiring for me. It’s not universally bad, but it’s a big step down from Season 1 in terms of how it uses female characters. L

Overall, there are a lot of interesting ideas at work this season, and a pair of tremendously charismatic leads. I don’t think that this season tells a very good story about its two main characters, but it’s worth keeping in mind that the existence of Rose and the Doctor isn’t limited to what happens on screen. Through products like the Big Finish audios, this show has embraced the notion that there is more to the lives of these characters than what happens on television, and the fan community has certainly made plenty of contributions of its own. I had stopped reading fan fiction by the time I started watching this show, but I would be shocked if there weren’t thousands of efforts to write the pieces of the storyline that come across as underdeveloped in this season. It may seem like a backhanded compliment to suggest that someone else has probably told this story better than the show has, but the two lead characters are so vibrant and charming, and some of the ideas in place have so much potential, that even in the absence of follow-through on those ideas, this season provides plenty of material for fan imaginings. In terms of what does happen on screen, it’s useful as a guinea pig for future seasons—it’s sort of a test run for how the show can approach romance, and for how to look at the destructive impact that the Doctor can have on civilizations and on companions. I think the answer that we wind up with, though, is that the way to do these things is to avoid what the show is doing here. If Davies had pushed a bit harder at what a romance would really look like for the Doctor, or had explored the more troubling aspects of these characters a bit more thoroughly, this could have been a fascinating season, but in the end it just seems like a cute story that’s afraid of its own shadow. B/B-

Up Next: Season Three could have been one of the all-time great seasons of the show if the Doctor (and, sometimes, the writers) had done a better job of treating the new companion like a person and not like a poor substitute for Rose. Still, even with the frustrations that attend this Doctor-Companion pairing, there are some terrific adventures and some brilliant new monsters.

Episodes Ranked So Far:

1. The Satan Pit

2. The Doctor Dances

3. The Empty Child

4. Dalek

5. The Parting of Ways

6. School Reunion

7. The Impossible Planet

8. Doomsday

9. The End of the World

10. Father’s Day

11. Rose

12. The Unquiet Dead

13. Christmas Invasion

14. The Girl in the Fireplace

15. Aliens of London

16. Tooth and Claw

17. New Earth

18. The Age of Steel

19. Bad Wolf

20. Rise of the Cybermen

21. Boom Town

22. World War III

23. Army of Ghosts

24. Idiot’s Lantern

25. The Long Game

26. Love and Monsters

27. Fear Her

#doctor who #female doctor #season 2 #tenth doctor #rose tyler #david tennant #billie piper #russell t davies #reviews

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katefathers · 7 years ago

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Kate Watches: Doctor Who 9x02 & 9x03

In preparation for the Christmas Special, the Canadian Space Channel has been going through all their episodes of New Who, and I thought this was the perfect time to get caught up on Series 9 and 10.

Of course cable listed the wrong episodes, so I missed “The Magician’s Apprentice”. Figures.

Before I start, there are going to be a few guidelines to these reviews. As its a marathon, I’ll be looking closely at how two-part episodes work together, at each series as a whole (including story and character arcs), and at how both series work as major parts of the Twelfth Doctor’s story. As this is the age of binge-watching, overall cohesion is important in television storytelling and it’s something I definitely want to focus on.

First on the docket is “The Witch’s Familiar”. I might have missed the setup to this episode, but it’s not difficult to figure out what’s going on. The Doctor and Clara have been separated. The Master is causing trouble. Davros is dying. A little boy, possibly from the past, is somehow significant. The story’s primary focus is on character, particularly the Doctor’s character: his history with the Daleks, as well as any similarities that exist between him and Davros. The concept of the Doctor, on his second-to-last life, and Davros, who is in the final hours of his, having a final meeting is a brilliant concept. It could have been incredibly powerful, hearkening back to “Genesis of the Daleks” but with the added weight of everything that has come after: the destruction of Skaro by the Seventh Doctor. The Time War. The events of “Journey’s End”. Unfortunately, as with most Steven Moffat episodes, while the idea is there and the special effects are slick and the acting is superb, the story itself is not well executed. Any power this concept could have had is (pun totally intended) exterminated by bad writing. Characters talk and talk, but never say anything. Characters do things that look cool, but are lacking in logic and realism. There’s slapstick and lengthy speeches, but partway through I wondered what the story was. Did any of these characters have a story? The Master and Clara wander around and introduce the sewer system, but what other function did they serve? The Doctor bounces from room to room, and has conversations with Davros that are supposed to read as illuminating, but what was the story? What was the point? What impact did this actually have?

“The Witch’s Familiar” had a script editor, but this feels very much like a first draft. It needed more drafts and more focus; it needed the dialogue cut down by half. Take Davros’ revelation that he “allowed a defect” in to the Daleks so they wouldn’t destroy their creator. It should have been followed by silence, the focus only on the Doctor’s reaction. Television is a visual medium, and that was a perfect time to utilize it. Peter Capaldi is an amazing actor, and he should have been allowed to act--to show what his character is thinking and feeling. Instead Moffat has Davros narrating the Doctor’s reaction--telling the audience--which diminishes the weight of that moment. We aren’t allowed to sit with that revelation. We aren’t allowed to formulate our own feelings, because we’re too busy listening to the story tell us what those feelings should be. One of the big indicators of a first draft is that it’s not confident that the audience will understand the message it’s trying to send, so it over-explains. In editing, that confidence is restored. Those explanations are scooped out. The writer trusts both the audience and the strength of their own story. “The Witch’s Familiar” doesn’t have that trust, and as a result we have a very passive viewing experience. Moffat forgets that being an active participant is part of the joy of consuming a story. Audiences get a thrill out of drawing conclusions and finding hidden meanings; mysteries are popular for a reason. Stories that don’t ask anything of you--that spoon-feed--aren’t any fun to consume. They’re boring. And at the end of the day that’s what “The Witch’s Familiar” is: boring.

“The Witch’s Familiar” is a story that could have been more. It could have done more with its concept and it could have done more with its characters. The Master could have served a larger function than simply lazily attempting to kill Clara. Clara could have tried to figure out a way around the Dalek’s manipulation of her vocabulary, instead of waiting for the Doctor to save her. The episode’s focus was clearly on the Doctor, but Moffat squandered even that by focusing on questions no one wants the answer to (”Why did [the Doctor] leave Gallifrey?”) and the lazy retcon of the Time War and the Doctor’s relationship with his people (the Time Lords are “[the Doctor’s] own”? The same Time Lords he has always been so different from? The same Time Lords he has been in lifelong conflict with? The ones who forcibly regenerated him and put him on trial and tried to live forever no matter the cost? Those Time Lords?). It’s dull, and in some ways a retread of “Daleks in Manhattan/Evolution of the Daleks”, and while it’s clearly trying to be a Twelfth Doctor take on “Genesis of the Daleks” it doesn’t even come close. In someone else’s hands this could have been an incredible episode. In Moffat’s, I was happy when it was over.

Which then brought me to episode three: Toby Whithouse’s “Under the Lake”. This episode stands in stark contrast to the one that came before. While sharing many similarities with “The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit”, it’s still funny and fast-paced and fresh. There’s air in the script, which allows the actors to actually use their abilities, reacting to dialogue and communicating non-verbally. The cheeky grins the Doctor has the time to shoot Clara make him charming. Unhampered by speeches, Clara has the time to roam and appear curious. When dialogue does appear, it’s informative but snappy, and the personal interlude between the Doctor and Clara actually has weight and sweetness. The story itself has an intriguing mystery and genuine tension. When Lunn was almost killed by Pritchard’s ghost, I was holding my breath. I was genuinely worried. The cliffhanger also displays a classic use of time travel: as Clara has seen the Doctor’s ghost, we know he has to die, otherwise he would create a paradox. Is there a way around it? Are these characters really dead? If not, is what happened to them reversible? I’m actually curious about the answer!

“Under the Lake” also gives us what Doctor Who does best: a diverse vision of the future. Cass, a deaf woman, is the acting commander, and she is respected and listened to and the skills she has as a deaf person (lip reading) are valuable. Characters are important, and characters are clever, and the only one the Doctor shows any disrespect to is Pritchard who is representing an oil company, an industry we should have an aversion to. If I was to give one criticism, it’s that it was a little difficult to remember everyone’s names. As this is an establishing episode, it could have done more to make the identities of these characters clear.

Overall, “Under the Lake” is a strong start. It’s fun and engaging, and unlike it’s predecessor it’s asking something of its audience. It wants us to ask questions. It wants us to solve the mystery right alongside the characters. The episode ended with the Doctor and Clara separated, and I do hope that this leads to more action for Clara. After the previous episode, she deserves the opportunity to be a hero, to save herself and Lunn and Cass, and maybe everyone else. Given the treatment of the characters so far, I’m hopeful that it won’t disappoint.

#Kate watches #Doctor Who #Doctor Who Series 9 #criticism #analysis #review #spoilers

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doctorwhonews · 8 years ago

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Thin Ice

Latest Review: Doctor Who - Series 10, Episode 3: THIN ICE STARRING: Peter Capaldi, Pearl Mackie, Matt Lucas WITH: Nicholas Burns, Asiatu Koroma, Simon Ludders, Tomi May, Guillaume Rivaud, Ellie Shenker, Peter Singh, Badger Skelton, Austin Taylor, Kishaina Thiruselvan --- Written By: Sarah Dollard Directed By: Bill Anderson Produced By: Peter Bennett Executive Producers: Steven Moffatt, Brian Minchin First Shown on BBC 1 - 29th April 2017 NB - This review contains a plethora of spoilers (based on a Preview Edition of the Episode). The TARDIS has suddenly decided to take Bill and The Doctor off course. Both the precise location in England and the temporal zone are different to what was hoped for. Having been to the future of mankind, the ages-old academic and his youthful student find themselves instead in Regency London. It is a time of great development and industry, but also one where the slavery trade is in full swing. Many orphaned children struggle for survival on a daily basis. The Thames has been frozen over and this has led to a large-scale market being set up on the ice. However, warning signs have (barely visibly) been laid out, so as to remind people of the ice being less sturdy in certain regions. And this is with good reason. People have begun to disappear, and it would appear there is a connection to some un-natural green lights that can be seen through the frosty surface. Eventually the Doctor and Bill have to investigate in-depth, and some hard truths come to bear. For the first time, their relationship faces a test. But perhaps in facing a very human, very cold, monster in the form of Lord Sutcliffe, they can continue to function as a partnership of universe-weary wisdom, and fledgling careless brilliance. --- This story continues to see the 2017 sequence of Doctor Who in fine fettle, and assure viewers that soon-to-depart Peter Capaldi is now producing some of his best form (as opposed to phoning it in for a nice pay check and exposure via prime time scheduling). By now it is standard practice that the first two adventures proper for a companion of the Doctor, after the season opener, see a quick succession of the past and future. (The order tends to fluctuate, depending on the season in question). With these second and third episodes, at least there is a small change-up, utilising the secondary companion (as played by a confident Matt Lucas). The framing device of Nardole scolding the Doctor for going off world - which indeed is true for the events of Smile, if not technically this third adventure - is nicely done, and also includes a hint of what the Doctor and his part-robot-part-humanoid friend are guarding back in Bristol. Sarah Dollard came up with a wonderful debut story last series, and provided a most memorable official demise for Clara Oswald, with Face The Raven. This story is not quite up on the same level, and continuity-wise is not a game-changer. However, the many virtues of world building and characterisation are all present and correct, once again. Virtually all the on-screen players who end up as nutrition for the aquatic alien being are sketched out effectively - even if they have rather limited screen time to work with, due to the primary character development being devoted to our two regulars. This episode often makes no attempt to hide how it takes inspiration from previous stories in Doctor Who's lore. The Doctor advising Bill how to get to the wardrobe is a reminder of (the un-transmitted but frequently adapted) Shada. After the Doctor and Bill begin their explorations proper, the TARDIS pinpoints the size of the being under the ice, and also how much danger it poses, which is a faint echo of the ending moment of 1963's very first Who serial. More recent use of past convention is found in the use of the sonic screwdriver and psychic paper, with the former in particular driving the earlier parts of the story forward. Possibly even more so than prior episodes this year, the main heart of Thin Ice lies in the Doctor and Bill continuing to establish a working partnership together. Whilst the Twelfth Doctor noticeably ‘softened’ over the course of Series Nine, he still retained some darker edges, and these are particularly conspicuous at times. The cold manner in which he retrieves his sonic screwdriver from both the doomed Spider, and later one of Sutcliffe's thugs, leaves Bill repulsed and shocked. Noticeably she feels horror, irrespective of the actual personal qualities of the person who could not be saved from their fate. The Doctor also deciding to be far more mysterious (certainly when compared to his Ninth and Tenth incarnations) over how he has had to make difficult choices when saving people, and also when to kill, is a very nicely-played scene by Capaldi and Mackie. True, it could easily appear in any given episode at any opportune time, and is not necessarily dependent on the story surrounding it. But it still is fine work from the writing/production team, and of course the main praise should be reserved for our two lead actors. And in general, the Doctor is showing hints of his rather less personable qualities, which most of us have come to associate with his maiden season in 2014, rather than the somewhat breezier persona that crossed the airwaves on a weekly basis two autumns back. He is blunt to Peter Singh's 'Pie-Man' on their very first meaning, going so far as to undermine the legitimacy of the man's livelihood, back in a time of Earth history where ethics and truth did not have the same priority they do today. And whilst it is meant to be humorous for the audience (in a very knowing Roald Dahl fashion), his description of the lost children as being on the "menu", is indicative of his grim acceptance that the alien being simply is higher on the food chain than humans, regardless of whether it should belong in the Thames river in the first place. But there are plenty of lighter/warmer sides to our title hero too, with the mention of a magic wand being a reminder that whilst Doctor Who is officially a sci-fi show, in many respects it takes sustenance from traditional fairy tales and legends. The very first actor to play the role on TV, William Hartnell, once described the main character as a combination of a Wizard and Father Christmas, and his point still stands many years down the line. Also, the quiet little scene as the Doctor tells a 'bedtime' story to some of the orphans is beautifully played and directed. Suddenly the moral dilemmas are secondary, and all that matters is a wise man with grey curls, presenting a narrative with conviction and gusto. Come the end, as the remaining survivors find themselves fortunate to have a wonderful new property in which to live, there is a knowing look from the Doctor and Bill acknowledging that the deeds must be in the name of a male heir. Yet if the time-travelling genius could bend the law and change history to allow the charming Kitty to have the privilege of being the next in line, then he would. It is a moment that has huge impact on anyone with a semblance of heart and soul in them. Bill continues to put hardly a foot wrong, whether in terms of connecting with the audience or being acted authentically by the (comparatively inexperienced) Pearl Mackie. Along with other examples given here, there is a lovely moment where the Doctor's favourite student is overcome with wonder that she can walk on the Thames. Whilst the famous river is a great visual motif, it is also not associated with being crossed without the help of a vessel, and is heavily polluted. Later, when it is made clear what the villain's key motivation is in terms of the energy source he is obtaining, a very funny (if naughty) joke is made as Bill reacts point-blank. The full phrase would not pass the censors for a show like Doctor Who, even if movies shown even earlier on other TV channels get a free pass, but by being so coy in doing a quick edit, the effect is markedly pronounced. (And furthermore, another continuity echo is made, in terms of Rose teasing Cassandra, back in Series Two's opening story). The ending of the story is probably the most fully satisfying for the show in some time, with perhaps the last such occurrence being the conclusions of Heaven Sent and Hell Bent. Whilst perhaps simplistic, it is elegant and uses the decision to give just enough explanation via rapid editing, and travelling forward to the present day, with an archive newspaper article being knowingly referred by the Doctor. He often realises that sometimes an abridged account of the whole truth is for the best. That the ostensible monster of the story is not judged guilty of any wrongdoing, and is merely manipulated by Lord Sutcliffe, is welcome too. And show runner Moffat clearly has decided to steer away now from the overused 'everyone lives' trope. The good, the ambiguous, and the dastardly all firmly remain dead and buried. Thus, the Doctor's quiet admittance to Bill of the limits of his power to save people is not compromised in the final stanza. The episode also looks very impressive. The scenes underwater are built up to in a suitably suspenseful manner, before the efficient SFX work comes into play, accompanied by some of Murray Gold's best use of more subtle musical dressing. This ensures the core of the story is strong. Sometimes going into the murky depths of the aquatic can be a pace killer, but not here thanks to the decision by Bill Anderson to emphasise mood and uncertainty in the earlier sections of the story. Elsewhere on ground level many extras are used, along with ‘convincing’ animals in the background, and props galore. There is a sword swallower, some play fighters, and countless other novelties. Never for a moment does it not feel like the capital city of England developing at a fast knot, back in the time of the Regency era. So far, the show has done fine work in establishing who Bill is, by giving her plenty of character and plot-relevant material, this latest instalment very effectively addresses her attitudes to sci-fi itself, and more significantly to her identity as a woman with a mixed ethnic background. The character material on Bill being something of a sci-fi fan herself is mostly played as light-hearted self awareness, which is so indicative of Steven Moffat’s general style – both in Doctor Who and in his many other TV (and film) projects over time. Asking the Doctor to clarify if they are on a parallel world, and just why he calls his sonic screwdriver that name are amusingly played out in dialogue. However, the more worthy focus on attitudes of mankind concerning 'race' is made into a significant part of the story. Having the Doctor and Bill trying to integrate as best they can feels more important than in other episodes where the setting is simply pure fantasy/ sci-fi in nature. For the young lady from the 21st century England, there already is likely one too many a memory of being treated as inferior for the way she looks. To suddenly be back in her own country at a time when slavery was acceptable (be it of women, foreigners, those of 'other races', or even children) is a major jolt, and she immediately makes an effort to dress up so as to fit in, but clearly wishes this was not a requirement. And of course, eventually even that change of attire is not enough to stop a bigot from verbally abusing her. The man in question is Lord Sutcliffe, and this main villain for the episode is not a pleasant person in many respects. He seems utterly without empathy, and has a detachment about his overall operation, even if the end result would see him become richer (and thus more powerful) still. However the denigration of his ‘inferiors’ who do not share ('enough of') the same bloodline as him remains the most deplorable aspect. Whilst the Doctor and Bill manage to set time 'right', the story very quietly yet noticeably makes a point that the evil of slavery is something mankind must realise over time is wholly wrong. I have few real complaints with the basic narrative. It does in principle echo many episodes of yesteryear – something probably inevitable given how far the series has been in existence – but is never executed in anything less than an enthusiastic manner. Nonetheless, a general issue I have had with Series Ten again crops up here. We have at least one moment for the audience being ‘spoon-fed’, when the distinctive hat of Spider (the thieving little boy who could not be saved) is seen as rejected by the monster in the depths of the Thames, along with quick flashback of his thieving of the sonic device the Doctor so prizes. This reminded me of the repetition used concerning Heather meeting Bill on a night out, when the original image was already striking enough in how it was shot to resonate with the viewer. Perhaps though, exposition and clarification of the mystery does not quite verge on being so heavy-handed, as during the scenes in Smile where the TARDIS duo found out the whole truth behind the dilemma they were presented with. I mentioned Sutcliffe as serving the themes of the story well, but as an actual genre villain, he is rather middling overall. Whilst certainly played competently by Nicolas Burns, in that the audience is made to firmly dislike him, he also is very much out of his depth. The screen time afforded him is neither used efficiently enough to give us truly involving motivation and back story, nor abundant enough for him to be memorable in the viewers' minds after the episode has concluded. Sutcliffe's henchmen are never made into anything too chilling or threatening, but still have enough dialogue and commitment in the performances to convince viewers that they could have come from the criminal underworld, and are making the most of an employer with more money than most others. Dollard still does fine work with the villains, in terms of presenting the more corrupt and deplorable aspects of British society at the time, where gaps between the so-called upper and lower classes were wider than any cracks in the river's ice. However, the performances of the children are uniformly terrific, which is pleasing to see after Smile had a winning turn from Kaizer Akhtar. When the Doctor needs some exposition from the locals, it is the orphans who whole-heartedly give him the information he requires, and the story smoothly advances as a result. Furthermore this authenticity of portraying urchins who barely are able to keep themselves fed really helps the end of the episode. As the alien creature emerges from its 'prison' and is displayed in full, top-quality CGI glory, there is a great moment as Bill admires how it looks and is able to forgive it for being a killer. But the best part of the satisfying resolution is seeing the Doctor restore the barely surviving orphans to a place of safety – one far grander than any could have dreamed of. The wink in the eyes of both the Doctor and Bill as they turn the class expectations topsy-turvy, really helps this become a ‘punch-the-air’ moment. And it would not have been nearly so effective, if the children had not been as fully breathed to life in the performances by these youngsters. As good as our leads are here, and I expect even better work in the ‘bigger’ episodes to come, the main praise should be reserved for the quintet of Badger Skelton, Asiatu Koroma, Austin Taylor, Kishaina Thiruselvan, and Ellie Shenker. --- OVERALL ASSESSMENT: Series Ten's third individual story stands up well, as a very enjoyable outing in the early 19th Century. It is thoroughly watchable, whether the viewing takes place on a Saturday evening (as per tradition), or via a streaming device that does not have to be fixed down in a given time and place (like the TARDIS herself). And the icing on the cake? A snappy preview that sees the definitive Poirot actor – David Suchet – making a guest appearance, to potentially lend the hyperactive Time Lord some pearls of wisdom. http://reviews.doctorwhonews.net/2017/04/thin_ice.html?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=tumblr

#DOCTOR WHO #SERIES 10/36 #TELEVISION #TWELFTH DOCTOR

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