#dw this isn't spoiler

[epicfirestormer]

Guess who's playing Steamworld Heist 2 and isn't being normal about it

[sconesfortea]

Who is she?

Susan Twist in Wild Blue Yonder as Mrs Merridew The Church on Ruby Road as Woman at Concert Space Babies as Gina Scalzi The Devil's Chord as Tea Lady Boom as Ambulance 73 Yards as Hiker Dot And Bubble as Penny Pepper-Bean Rogue as The Portrait

[waveoftheocean]

day after tomorrow

(whee finally posting the finished version of this piece! i originally designed it for a cd charm where you can rotate wolfwood like the gif but then i figured there should be a still version too where you can pretend everything is happy and nothing hurts :))

[thenotoriousscuttlecliff]

[bottomoftheriverbed]

The doctor kissed a man so now we've got to spend half our time reminding both bigots and not bigots for some reason that the doctor did in fact kiss a man in 2005

[fatiguedcoffee]

ok ok but in all seriousness, one of the things I loved most about TIT is being part of a crowd of mainly queer folks who all laugh at the same things and share the same inside jokes (save for the few confused straight boyfriends and parent chaperones).

something so warm and welcoming about being in that space.

when Dan talks about this community we've created that made it feel safe for him to come out-- this is exactly what I felt too, there in that space. I'm from a very cis and straight little town so I rarely get opportunities to not only be allowed space as a queer person but exist in that space, wholly, unapologetically, and feel like I belong. sometimes I forget that it doesn't have to (and it shouldn't!) be like this. I can feel safe, welcomed and at home even, with some people. I deserve to be embraced fully not despite but for who I am.

I'll carry that feeling with me whenever I go outside and feel like I can't be myself or am made to feel like I have to be less than myself because I can't be queer. thank you Dan and Phil and Phannies.

[roxannepolice]

I'm becoming more and more convinced Ruby is going to end the season just fine. And I draw this belief purely from the fact that she's been Road Running her way through falling snowmen, being eaten as a baby, having her whole DNA butterflied, a nuclear war, clinical death, near nuclear war and biological death, interacting with Lindy Pepper-Bean, and matrixing her brain with martial arts off screen.

Just, if you kill her at the end it would feel like Spanish Inquisition getting the hang of people being unbothered by soft cushions.

[vegaseatsass]

You know, these past two episodes I was thinking to myself, Su Yin is almost perfect in every way, simply the ideal devoted, protective, loyal, dedicated sworn brother, call him Da-ge indeed!!!, but my one piece of constructive criticism is that he needs to learn how to give real hugs - he does a lot of manful shoulder clasping, but Xiaobao is a shivering chihuahua desperately in need of cuddles and body heat, you gotta HUG THAT BOY - but now I see that Su Yin's hugs are simply reserved for his horrible little gremlin of an imperial cousinwife.

[sometimesraven]

re: the ableism in Dot and Bubble

I understand it almost certainly wasn't Rusty's intention for the "can't walk without the arrows" thing to be ableist, but the implications are there and it was so, so hard to watch.

As I said while liveblogging, I've noted that reliance on tech like Google Maps has caused a regression in skills like navigation and a frustrating refusal to even try. I'm frequently faced with that fact as I live somewhere you have to use your eyes to see and most fast food delivery drivers just Cannot Find Us bc the GPS goes wild and they can't follow the directions I always give them so I inevitably have to go out to find them myself. Believe me, I know what he was going for with that part of the script.

However.

When you exaggerate that point to the tune of "she literally cannot walk" without the aid, and then instead of it being deeply disturbing to the two 'kind, helpful' characters (Doc n Ruby), they actively roll their eyes at her and it's played as an "omg how stupid is she" moment, you have to see how that looks.

Let's reframe it: someone you've met was raised in a cult. A very insular, very strict cult that they literally have never seen outside of. At this point in time you know nothing about them but you do know they're in a very insular, very closed-off society. One day they tell you they have no idea how to,,,,,, idk, wash themselves without assistance. If your first instinct is to laugh at them and roll your eyes like they're overexaggerating, you're an ableist.

I struggle to believe anyone like the Doctor wouldn't perhaps initially react with confusion/incredulity but then, after realising this person is 100% serious, go "oh my god that's horrible okay uh let me try to walk you through this and teach you how".

It's a horrible, cynical response that would maybe track if at this point the characters already knew she was an entitled pissbaby. But they don't and that's why it comes across so terribly.

Especially when there's no indication that this is a side-effect of her entitlement and she's literally insulting herself "I'm so stupid!" and genuinely upset and frustrated that she can't even walk in the face of actual death. And yes, she miraculously can walk again once she meets Ricky but it wasn't because she was ignoring the Doctor's advice because racism because he had not given her any. She had literally zero clue how to walk without assistance until Ricky guided her.

This isn't a refusal to learn a skill based on entitlement, this isn't a heavy-handed metaphor, you have given this girl a disability (even if it is psychosomatic, it is still a disability). And in a time where social media + youth entitlement is being blamed for an increase of ADHD, Autism, chronic illness and DID diagnosis-seekers (among other things, but those are the ones people are most aggressive against) that just does not look good At All.

Russel could easily have made it so that they just had no idea how to navigate without the bubble and refused to learn.

Maybe at first show it as genuine frustration on Lindy's part that she can't find anything without guidance but slowly show that no, she's perfectly capable, she just doesn't care to learn.

Hell, you could have everything play out the same way but have her genuinely get offered help to begin with by the Doctor and ignore it, only for Ricky to say the same thing to her later and she gets it immediately.

Idk, anything beyond literally disabling her. The show does a great job at humanising her before showing us that she was a monster all along, but I feel like Rusty himself forgot that he was still representing a Whole Entire Person (something that people on all ends of the political spectrum do All The Time: "person is bad therefore [___ism] is okay in this instance". Ableism especially)

[mariocki]

Lalla Ward makes a brief appearance as Lady Augusta, intended bride to an ill-fated aristocrat, in A Ghost Story for Christmas: The Ash Tree (BBC, 1975)

[upslapmeal]

Thirteen: keep the faith!!! ✨🌸🌈

Fifteen: I will have faith but I'm not going to be happy about it.

[aerithisms]

was quite scared of "doctor who critiques social media" as a premise but by making it about insular racist rich white influencers it avoided being trite and i liked it

[timetravelbypen]

Hell yeah, that's what I'm talking about, Rogue!!!

[npdclaraoswald]

I like how I've already seen people saying it's problematic to ship Ruby and Mundy because of their age gap as if the first words out of the Doctor's mouth upon meeting Mundy weren't that she should marry Ruby

[ayo-edebiri]

He's trying to resonate concrete

[the-rainbow-meme]

if I had a nickel for every time a cool handsome space guy that works for a bigger organisation (that the doctor definitely has unresolved issues with) appeared and instantly flirted with the doctor and then kissed them before sacrificing himself, I'd have two nickels which isn't a lot but it's weird that it happened twice