#i mean the concept alone. WIZARDS. with GUNS. it's so fucking cool

[nexus-nebulae]

1-2 punch gun in my wizard with a gun playthrough my fucking beloved

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Psycho Analysis: He-She

(WARNING! This analysis contains SPOILERS)

The public domain is filled to the brim with some of the best and most fascinating characters that you, dear reader, can use without issue in your very own stories! Nothing can stop you from slapping Dracula, the Martians from War of the Worlds, Gilgamesh, Cthulhu, and Sherlock Holmes into some big stupid crossover story! And if you plumb the depths of the public domain you’ll find even cooler and wackier characters who had their licenses expire ages ago. Why not put Six-Gun Gorilla or Stardust the Super Wizard into your works? You’ll get a lot more points for originality there.

But sometimes when you go deep into the depths of free-to-use characters, you find… Well, you find stuff like He-She.

In 1943’s Boy Comics #9, the world was given an answer to Two-Face that nobody had asked for, mainly because he’d only existed for about a year. But did Two-Face have the greatest fucking tagline ever?

I don’t think so! Still, the name alone might make you raise an eyebrow, and the mere concept sure does seem a bit… iffy in this day and age. I imagine there’s a reason I discovered this character through lists of old comic villains who are incredibly offensive (for some reason, Snowflame kept appearing on those lists too, even though there is nothing offensive about him except how much cooler he is than every other villain ever), although… is that really fair?

Motivation/Goals: All they want is money, money, money. Ain’t it funny? I mean, honestly, what do you expect from the villain in a Golden Age comic book? All the villains back then either wanted boatloads of cash or to destroy the city, with no in between. We wouldn’t get cool motives like “turn the population of New York into dinosaurs” or “Go on a gorilla rampage” until later. Most villains, however cool they appeared, were fueled by simple greed back in the day.

Final Fate: So, uh… They get executed for their crimes.

Like, what, they committed a murder and stole some money? Does that really warrant the death penalty? I’m thinking there was some other reason He-She got put to death...

Best Scene: Over the span of two pages, He-She uses their better half to seduce Crimebuster and then some random guy into doing their bidding. There’s just something genuinely hilarious about a villain using the exact same ploy twice in a row and having it be effective both times, especially since it’s one of the most transparent and silly ones ever used.

Best Quote:

Final Thoughts & Score: There is just so much to unpack here, and yet at the same time so little.

Let’s start with the obvious question: Is He-She offensive? Well, they refer to them as an “it” right off the bat, which isn’t particularly great, and we have our police character acknowledge there are people like them… in circus freak shows. Crimebuster is a little nicer in the end, saying they’ll pay for “his or her crimes,” but yeah, it’s not exactly tasteful by modern standards.

Of course, considering when this was made, it genuinely could have been a lot worse. Golden Age comics were rife with problematic characters, and by those standards He-She could have been some walking transphobic stereotype. But being trans wasn’t really the big topic it is today; I don’t really see He-She as being any sort of commentary on gender identity or trans people beyond having a name that is incredibly unfortunate with the benefit of hindsight because I really don’t think it was an issue mainstream enough to mock. I’m not going to pretend like this is tasteful or well done—it’s definitely not—but if they were genuinely trying to be transphobic it doesn’t really come off that way. He-She is just a generic criminal with a very weird gimmick that has aged a bit awkwardly.

And that’s really the long and short of it right there: He-She is, ultimately, a generic criminal. If not for their absolutely bizarre premise and design, I think they would be completely unremarkable. And even the gimmick falls a bit flat because it is truly poorly implemented into the story. He-She marries a landlady within the first page of the comic, but it’s only after their marriage during a big fight that their wife finds out that they’re He-She. Did she just never once see the other side of their face? Did they not kiss them at the wedding? Is the trench coat and hat really that great of a disguise? The entire plot would collapse if anyone bothered to look at He-She from the other side. Do they have some superhuman ability to make people never question why they always stand so you can only see their profile?

There are a few humorous moments like the aforementioned seduction trick, but the gimmick isn’t utilized well beyond that. What we’re stuck with is a historical curiosity that’s too bland to be offensive, too tasteless to garner a fanbase, and just a baffling creation in its own right. 4/10 seems about right. But that’s where you, dear reader, come in!

You see, as He-She is in the public domain, you can take them and put them in your own stories, free of charge! Give them complex motives and deeper characterization! Give them a more appealing design, or at least have their odd physical condition make a bit more sense! And most importantly, change their fucking name and write them with respect! Literally nothing is stopping you from rehabilitating this bizarre piece of comic history!

Except for the fact that, you know, He-She sucks. But that's why you gotta make them better.

[p-inkbrush]

I would like to request. Info about your wizard with a gun oc

HI YES I WILL MARRY YOU??

[cough] I mean. Hello beloved mutual I would love to tell you about my new wizard (with a gun).

Here is my concept piece for her, who I have yet to name but I'm thinking about it

I'll add some Wizard With a Gun lore under the cut, and the other art I've done of her (+bonus yuri)

(Heres the song I've been listening to on repeat thinking about her)

In WWAG you're a bounty hunter who was after the people trying to stop the end of the world, called the Riders. Their bounties were being paid by the 'wizard elite' who have control of the mainland. So, my bounty hunter chases them out into the Shatter, floating islands left over from the last time the world ended.

Unfortunately for her, they open the gate that's containing the Big Bad that will disintegrate whats left of the world, and die trying to stop it. This also causes her ship to crash, grounding her near where they died.

The woman who was leading the group against the Chaos was named Hilda. Her soul was untethered from the Tower by the Chaos Emissary, killing her (for real). So my bounty hunter becomes her replacement, counseled by a really old wizard we don't know jack or shit about called the Cryptomancer.

Thus she inherits the Tower, an abandoned godwizard structure, where the Wheel is. The Wheel when rolled back allows you to turn back time. So before, Hilda was in a timeloop, and she always confronted Hilda, trying to take her in for her bounty. Now, she's in the time loop and Hilda only remembers dying, none of the new loops.

Art of their first meeting (according to my wizard)

(Text reads: She's dead, wizard)

Then, she rolls back to before Hilda opened the gate, and she's alive again. (The Chaos destroyed the clock when it shattered Hildas soul so we have to find all it's gears and repair it). Hilda recognizes that she must be the new one on the job, but she also recognizes her as that fucking bounty hunter that's been harassing her???

(Text reads: You!? You're my replacement!?)

She cools off pretty quick though, and helps get her up to speed on the Tower and fighting Chaos.

Since my bounty hunter's soul is tethered in the Tower now (instead of Hilda's), when she dies or the world ends, she's teleported back to the tower safely. (I'm big fucked up about it.) Leaving the entire world behind, knowing that (even though you're going to turn back time and it'll be like it never happened) you let the whole world die? She left Hilda to die, alone, in the Chaos. Again. (The pain.)

(Text reads: "where's that serenity?" (Quoting Untitled by StillSunrise) | shit)

So after a few loops, she's got the understanding for what Hilda was going through. But for Hilda it's still their first time meeting since she died. She wants to talk to Hilda but... gods where do you even start? Especially when Hilda is still kind of acting like she hates her.

(Text reads: Hilda... | gunslinger.)

I like to think though that after. Gods know how many loops, my bounty hunter finds ways to get to know Hilda, and gets her up to speed on her every loop. She buys herself more time, fixing the clock piece by piece, so she can spend even a minute more with her before having to say goodbye again.

Bonus yuri: the last time they see each other before my bounty hunter goes to try the fight that got Hilda killed. Hilda knows what could happen to her. She knows that the only way to stop watching her die over and over is to go, and succeed where she failed.

(Text reads: don't go | I'm sorry)

Other fun facts about my wizard: she was born and raised on the mainland, but she wasn't from a wealthy family, so she turned to mercenary work when she was old enough. She's got a reputation for being like a dog on a scent, ruthlessly determined to bring in her marks.

Her crew may or may not have died in the shipwreck, I haven't decided if i want her to be Alone in the Tower, or if she'll have companions.

She wears the plague mask because she's really sensitive to the poison from The Fell (toxic bog to the south of the Shatter). The mask is part of her usual gear when she's going to be tracking marks off the mainland.

THANKS FOR ASKING I LOVE YOU FOREVER❣️

[sergeant-angels-trashcan]

a good man goes to war

so, in lieu of doing a big long multi-paragraph essay about what was good and bad about “A Good Man Goes To War” I’m just going to bullet point it.

I have....a Lot of thoughts about this episode

the good:

The Last Centurion “I have a message and a question”. The framing of all of this was spectacular. Also, who knows what with the rebooting of the universe, but I’d love it if the Last Centurion was still a legend. I think Amy implies that he still is, which...frankly doesn’t make sense, but Hey! Moffat. Nothing’s going to make sense so I’ll take the fun stuff.

Rory the Roman in general is pretty cool. I mean, I love Rory. Also, now I’m thinking that he’s the one who taught Amy to use swords, since she seems to know what she’s doing in the pirate episode? Unless she was just taking fencing on her own who knows. (i love the headcanon that Rory worshiped/still prays to Fortuna occasionally)

Madam Vastra and Jenny! they might not be as well written as they should be in later episodes, but this introduction to them is fab

“A Sontaran nurse?” God. THAT is great. to be on a field of battle but unable to participate? I can unreservedly say that’s brilliant. Strax is great, like even his bedside manner is good but also keeping in character with a Sontaran soldier?

The light in River’s eyes when she tells her pops it’s her birthday, before she knows it’s Demon’s Run. She’s just!!! A kid!! excited to see her parent!!! not that we know that, of course, but still. This is one of those episodes where Alex Kingston’s talent really shines through.

sidenote: this is one of the few (only?) River episodes I can think of that didn’t revolve around her romantic relationship with the Doctor, and frames her more with Rory and Amy, which is fantastic. You can tell she’s remembering all those times she cried for her mummy and daddy and all she had was Kovarian but now she gets her parents and it’s. Good but awful.

and then the way her face falls when Rory says “they’ve taken Amy and our baby” like!! That’s her mom and River knows what comes next, her fucking terrible childhood and she just maybe wants her dad now? 

“this is the day he finds out who I am” which is why River can’t be there til the end...I’m assuming this is because Moffat is finally observing the basic rules of not interacting with your own time stream (a rule which apparently doesn't apply to Amy?)

the prayer leaf is lovely

“don’t slump, it’s bad for your spine,” Says the Sontaran nurse, whilst holding a gun on you. bless

“good men have no rules. this is not the day to find out why i have so many.” this is a much more sinister version of the Tin Man in the Wizard of Oz, who says that since he hasn’t a heart he must take care to never harm anything or hurt anyone because he wouldn’t feel remorse. I do like this. The Doctor isn’t always Good. The Doctor sometimes has to try very hard to be good, and I’m all right with that

Rory and Amy crying at each other. Nurse Rory checking his daughter to make sure she’s okay

(”let the others die first” is funny, very Amy, and seems like a believable response to everything Amy’s been through)

Honestly....the caliber of acting in this episode is off the charts, particularly in the last ten minutes and specifically with Karen and Arthur. Amy and Rory’s devastation and then numbness is just heartbreaking. And the way they’re almost disgusted with the Doctor--he told them to trust him, and look what happened

The moment with Rory and Strax is just great. Honestly, this episode has a lot of good emotionally-vulnerable-but-not-letting-it-slow-him-down moments for Rory

this is one of the first times the Doctor says he’s so sorry, and you can tell--you can just tell that for Amy, sorry isn’t enough

the bad:

the slightly ambiguous opening where you’re like “ohhhhhh DAMN the baby is the Doctor’s” like. that’s unnecessary.

the headless monks--mostly just the forced volunteering of personnel to join a religious order. paired with the rampant loss of bodily autonomy in this collection of episodes, a gay man being forced into religious reconditioning and bodily harm is...not great. might not be as noticeable in a different context but in this episode? yeah. not good

“the Doctor’s darkest hour” ok so....Moffat just really ignores the Waters of Mars. I remember him downplaying Ten’s struggles in the 50th as well. Am I arguing that this is not a truly terrible moment for the Doctor? No. But he’s not threatening to become the literal worst version of himself by making himself a god, so. 

“this is the day he finds out who I am” also goes here because...did he know who she was when he took her ice skating earlier? I get so confused about when the Doctor knows things and how River knows if he knows and if they know that’s great, but I, as a viewer, would also like to know

the headless monks have robes and laser swords so...they’re sith. they’re literally just headless Sith Lords

this is, I think, the first time we’ve seen the Doctor this cruel to his enemies? We’ve seen hints of it, certainly, with Ten and Harriet Jones and Ten and the spider star lady, but this is, as i’ve said before, a different temperature. Where Ten’s anger was fire, Eleven’s is ice

Amy and Rory haven’t see each other in almost a year....let them hug

ok so...I remember when Martha was cloned, and the clone smelled bad? and the the Doctor smells Melody and Amy...you’d think something like that would. you know, mean something. 

ok, props to the show for reminding us that the Time Lords only became such after millions of years of exposure to the untempered schism, and Madam Vastra brings up good points about how that would affect humans during conception, but like...it’s still a bit eh. Melody being conceived next to the Time Vortex suddenly makes her a Time Lord, or at least mostly-Gallifreyan? Okay, then, so Rose, in swallowing the Time Vortex, is definitely capable of regeneration and Idris might have been if her body had survived. Thanks for the new canon, Moff!

I’d honestly buy Melody being a Time Baby if she’d developed in utero on the TARDIS. More exposure to the vortex. But the implication is basically that they waited for Amy to get pregnant and then immediately kidnapped her. Which also means they were scanning her, waiting for her to get pregnant. Gross.

the moment the Doctor looks at River, realizing who she is is wonderful, it’s heartwarming, but it’s also, for me, undermined by the fact that he’s not just...happy to meet his best friends child, but that she’s his sort-of-girlfriend?

the absolutely appalling:

Amy is a literal hostage of a group of people who literally just wanted her for her babymaking abilities 

repeated use of “guys” by a military commander addressing his troops

The Doctor not remembering Lorna. Bullshit. I suppose this could feed into a greater narrative about how unconcerned the Doctor is with Little People, idk, but it seems fairly out of tune for the Doctor as a whole

The Doctor’s reaction to finding out Melody is River is, to me, weird. Like, when you find out you’ve been dating/making out/??? with your best friend’s kid, wouldn’t that give you pause? For just a moment? 

“I know where to find your daughter, and on my life she will be safe.” Unless he’s talking about adult River in the Stormcage, this makes me incredibly angry. because the next thing we find out is that the Doctor didn’t find her, didn’t make sure she was safe because she was being brainwashed into a child assassin. Again, like with Ganger!Amy, if he knew but didn’t do anything, that’s not okay. that’s worse. 

River says he finds her and keeps her safe but....when? I mean, isn’t the ideal time for that before she tries to kill you and gets jailed for it???? 

he then just leaves his incredibly traumatized best friend all alone in the place she was held hostage, leaving her grown daughter to explain that she’s Amy’s baby....jerk move

also, he supposedly leaves to find River, doesn’t reach out to Amy and Rory, and still doesn’t find River. You can talk, if you want, about how he can’t change his past or River’s past or timelines or what-have-you, except that this is the Doctor and these are his friends, and the only reason Amy and Rory don’t get to raise her is so that she can wind up dating and marrying the Doctor and maybe it’s somehow less weird if he’s not in her life when she’s a child?

There’s really no reason for the Doctor to not be able to rescue River

Except, of course, the idea that what makes a female character “strong” is how much you can make them suffer and still live, I suppose

the surprisingly great:

when River is dressing down the Doctor about what he does, about how he instills fear in people and then those people banded together and kidnapped a child that they’d turn into a weapon just to defeat him, I had the unexpected reaction of DRAG HIM BABE.

because the Doctor only knowing what he knows, he’s right to be angry at this person who he asked for help and who did not give it

but River is also very much in the right since she was kidnapped, brainwashed, probably emotionally abused because people were afraid of him and wanted to kill him. She’s right because he promises her parent’s that she’ll be fine, and yet. And yet she still goes through all of that. She still misses out on being raised in a loving home, surrounded by people who care for her

so yeah

DRAG HIS ASS, RIVER

the music. not surprising, but still fantastic. River’s theme is beautiful and haunting and still my fave

[galacticnova3]

a mimic infestation as a concept is driving me wacky but only because its been paired with your sapience take about them. Calling numbers desperately on the phone. Get an answer after a few tries. “I need your best exterminator there is an incel outside my house and he wont leave” “This is a mimic infestation helpline” “but hes a really big one” “no don’t hang up”

I actually see mimics as being on a spectrum of sorts. The vast majority are pretty much just animals; there’s a positive correlation between intelligence and rarity. Lon and Iru are very much outliers when looking at general mimics.

Nonetheless that image is making me lose it. Poor soul starts dialing numbers again and is looking out the window and Iru is just floating in their yard. Winking or doing finger guns or some shit. Person inside is crying and holding one of those water spray bottles as if it might deter him at all. Has a search history that just makes no fucking sense without context as to what problem they were dealing with.

All things considered though it’d probably be better if it was Iru because as insufferable as he may be he’s still able to be reasoned with for the most part. If he’s taking the time to wait around he’s bored and most likely just wants Social Interaction. You could probably get away with just giving him your number(or someone else’s/a fake) and thus giving him a reason to not, y’know, do the whole predation thing. Just make sure you never cross paths again because he was already willing to murder someone he’d liked who he considers to have betrayed him before being turned into a mimic, and all he got out of that was personal satisfaction and a cool set of wings. If he is already pissed at you, feels justified in choosing violence as a result, would get food, and would satisfy his desire to always get the last laugh so to speak, you are quite literally dead meat if he catches you. On a related note, stay away from any doors or windows he could reach through.

That is of course nothing compared to being in the same situation but with Lon. If they’re waiting around and have noticed you they are planning something, and that will never end well for whoever they have their eye on. They’re experienced enough to not fall for promises of where to find other people and detached enough to have no interest in getting to know anyone. At best if you know where you can get things that they’d want to hoard, you could use that as leverage as long as those things keep coming. All you can really do beyond that is hope they don’t think of the fact that you could screw them over in revealing their whole deal to others if given time. Unfortunately that is a very real possibility and why most attempts by past targets to escape with their life have failed. Also don’t leave your house alone, don’t leave your house without a means to get fire fast(makeshift flamethrower, Wizard Spells™️, bomb, etc)… Honestly as long as they’re nearby just don’t leave your house. They’re big, so hiding where they can’t fit is your best bet.

The above ignores the ability to contact outside help but good fucking luck if whoever you enlist can’t utilize fire and is small enough for Lon to snap up like a meatball dropped in front of a large dog. Long range is pretty much a must when dealing with them because they can and will bite people and will utilize some shapeshifting if it means getting the advantage. Mind the “oars”.

[marrowskies]

that post i promise is here

and it’s long

imo you can see moffat's failings even in the episodes he's hailed for. like okay so one of the things is that in empty child everybody lives, but the everybody lives thing gets twisted as the show continued under him because... well... he's the doctor! everybody lives!

EVERYBODY.

LIVES.

EVERY. BODY.

THE time lords? his entire race dead to separate it from the original show in a definable story driven way that elaborates on an aspect that the doctor always had? terrible decisions he's had to make for the sake of good, even though he dislikes making horrible decisions that kill people????????????????????????? WHICH MAKES THE DECISION REALLY BAD???????????????????????????????????? AND DIFFICULT?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

fuck that shit the doctor is awesome! everybody lives!

"JUST THIS ONCE?"

HOW ABOUT JUST THIS EVERY SINGLE FUCKING TIME EVEN IN RETROSPECT BECAUSE FUCK YOU. I WANT THE DOCTOR TO BE AN INFALLIBLE MESSIANIC PIECE OF SHITTY WRITING but not in like an interesting but flawed way that RTD always tried to do even if he didn't always succeed but at least messianic bullshit was presented as a FUCKING FLAW and not just another DOCTOR IS AWESOME HIS FLAW IS JUST THAT HE IS TOO AWESOME ALL THE TIME

LIKE okay so I've seen that post going around that's like HAHA LOL NUWHO FANS DON'T KNOW THAT THE DOCTOR WAS ALWAYS MORALLY AMBIGUOUS BECAUSE IN THE FIRST EPISODE HE NEARLY KILLED THAT ONE GUY WITH A ROCK BECA-FUUUUUUCCCCKKKKKK OFFFF

that scene is so poorly indicative of what the doctor's character would become that it's been post-explained TWICE in TWO DIFFERENT FORMATS OF THE SHOW. YES the doctor can be morally ambiguous YES he has done horrible things and HE WILL GO ON TO DO HORRIBLE THINGS EVEN IN CLASSIC!WHO - but that is typically, for the rest of the show's existence, brought up as a THING HE'S GOTTA DEAL WITH, not some bullshit as "but he knows best" fuckery. the way that the Eight Doctors deals with it isn't half bad, actually, considering he basically confronts his younger self as a cocky "i know best" kind of idiot who hasn't had the 7 lifetimes to understand that it's not the right thing to do (especially when by now we understand that he's been living on an entire planet of "snarf snarf we're the best and lower lifeforms are primitive and pointless" assholes)

this argument also bothered me because OF COURSE nu!who fans would think this! there are lines all over the series indicating how awesomely badass the doctor is, how wonderful, how amazing, how just so fantastically remarkably brilliant and good he is to the point that MOFFAT RETROACTIVELY REWROTE THE FOUNDATION OF THE REBIRTH OF DOCTOR WHO ON THE SIMPLE INSISTENCE THAT THE DOCTOR WOULD NOT DO A BAD THING. of COURSE there are people confused about the mixed messages the show is giving them! is he an infallibly good awesome messiah? IS he MAYBE perhaps SOMETIMES BAD? oh, let me just HINT AT THAT A FEW TIMES but OVERALL NAH! HE GOOD! good is always a real, quantifiable thing that you are, and difficult decisions are... never difficult! because there's always a good one!

moffat's ALWAYS been like this! even in empty child i will argue! even in blink!

blink and empty child are often bandied about imo as "when moffat was good" and the video makes a point about how moffat is good in small doses, but empty child and blink are recycled so constantly that you realize that moffat's shit stank from the beginning much in the way that s4 sherlock reflects how sherlock has always been shit. empty child's premise worked because it was out of context with moffat's overall writing - how everyone ALWAYS lives, how women are ALWAYS WRITTEN through his perspective.

blink is so caught up in its obsession in being a cool thing for cool people that it shits on its own premise eventually. that becomes more clear when moffat brings it back constantly. but it's still pretty evident in that episode alone

"you can't look away from the angels because that's when they move"

"well we've figured it out! so we'll keep an eye on them now!!!!"

"well you can't because they can turn lights off for no reason!"

"what? why?"

"because FUCK YOU IS WHY also there would be no tension going into this final scene if i didn't make some bullshit up to make your solution pointless but anyway let me also ruin this two seasons from now by letting you see US MOVE"

blink's premise is fucked just mildly enough that we can ignore it and then because moffat has been squeezed of what creative juice he had left and then fucked it up some more, but more flashily! with budget! and guns!

god and his stupid fucking "crying is happy for sad people" just fuck entirely off moffat, yes? keep the preteen "i'm sad because i'm emotional and deep" shit to your 40 year old journal you keep up to date on how misunderstood and genius you are.

i haven't even gotten to the fact that sherlock isn't even sad or validated when moriarty dies. he isn't like well that fuckhead who was fucking with me is dead but at least crime is over. the video doesn't even go into a core aspect of sherlock holmes which is that he solves crimes because he wants crimes solved. that he maybe solves this stuff in particular because he cares about people and dislikes bad things because he’s a person, even if he does morally ambiguous things for the sake of a mystery. one of holmes’ enduring traits is supposed to be THAT HE GIVES A SHIT ABOUT PEOPLE. that he wants murder to have justice, that he wants a thief to be caught, and if he didn’t want those fucking things he wouldn’t solve crimes, he’d be fuckin mycroft. THAT’S BASICALLY LITERALLY THE WHOLE FUCKING POINT OF MYCROFT AS A CHARACTER, TO SHOW WHAT SHERLOCK WOULD BE IF HE WAS AN MISANTHROPIC PIECE OF INCONSIDERATE SHIT, holing himself up in an intellectual elite club full of uncaring shits who work in underground politics i mean i know that gets sort of elaborated on later on but CHRIST sherlock!sherlock would fit right fucking in at diogenes, except it wouldn’t be silent because he’d constantly need people to tell him how fucking smart he is all the fucking time

i'm so sick of this character on a fundamental level because moffat isn't the only one who does this - yes he's the one who has unfortunately laid waste to my current enjoyment of two of my favorite stories - and for those of you who counter often with "well you don't have to watch it" - you're right. I don't. and i've honestly never given Sherlock the time of day past its bullshit Orientalist episode, but as a fan of Holmes it is literally impossible to say that name without people pouncing in with how awesome Sherlock is. it's impossible to talk about Doctor Who without someone talking about the more recent season. DO YOU SEE? DO YOU SEE HOW UNAVOIDABLE.

Moffat as a writer has always capitalized on a particular archetype, the misanthropic genius. the misanthropy can be on a scale, but the genius part is paramount. the misanthropy adds a mystery to the character - because he doesn't LIKE people, his inner machinations lay undetect, but this can be done through various means. sometimes it's just done through being so sheer genius that they cannot be understood, like sherlock-archetypes almost always are, or they're so WACKY that they cannot be understood. whatever the case is, they're sometimes unlikeable, and are paired with people who don't UNDERSTAND them, but *understand* that they are so brilliant that they cannot be understood and therefore put up with whatever shit bullshittery they might be going through. (usually they're queerbaited because that character tends to be male)

here are some examples i can think off the top of my head: kingkiller chronicles, big bang theory, pure genius, dirk gently as written by douchebag mcfuckface Max Landis, frankenstein as written by douchebag mcfuckface Max Landis, most main male characters in stuff written by douchebag mcfuckface Max Landis, stargate atlantis (shared by mckay and shepard), basically every single adaptation of Holmes that didn't understand the fucking point (including house), arguably Elementary too tho that's actually dealt with in the show as a real tangible character flaw, Ender's Game, honestly as much as I love LeGuin - Wizard at Earthsea, and Catcher in the Rye to be honest, and... and... god what was that show about the guy who takes a FUCKING PILL TO BE SMART? (looked it up: Limitless), Will in Hannibal, APB WHATEVER THE FUCK THAT WAS?, HONESTLY JAKE FROM BROOKLYN 99 ALSO TOES THE LINE FOR ME especially in the early seasons but Jake is a NICE. BOY. AND christ the list goes ON and it NEVER ENDS WE ARE STILL WRITING THIS STUPID FUCKING CHARACTER.

this. shitty. character. a deep, philosophical, genius so beyond our normal human being's conception that they don't have to be nice to be liked. they just have to be smart. beyond smart. amazingly, stunningly, inconceivably smart. so smart that even their bad thing is a good thing. even their bad decisions turn out to be good ones, and their flaw is some manufactured bullshit like drugs! (House) or unfairly poor! (Kingkiller) or possibly autistic! (bbt). none of these aren't real, actual that real people have to deal with, of course, but they're USED in these cases to artificially insert a character "flaw." (and being an addict or poor or autistic isn't a fucking flaw! fucking stop it!!!!) the ultimate male wish-fulfillment character. don't require physical attractiveness or humor or charm or kindness or money. just smarts. then the women will love you!

this character has been around for so fucking long in media i feel like we've been tricked into thinking it's a good character. it's in so many well known classic things because shitheads like moffat and joss whedon and max landis and patrick rothfuss have been around forever, perpetuating their own bullshit since forever and i'm fucking sick of it. it's the writing equivalent of a white guy with acoustic guitar. a lazy, self-serving piece of writing that only serves to help the writer put his head up his own ass in an attempt to outwit himself with the most uninteresting archetype that exists. this is worse to me than the DREADED Mary Sue, because Mary Sues don't tend to be FUCKING ASSHOLES that people LOVE ANYWAY. They're just blank slates for people and that's FINE. everyone needs that at some point in their life! DO WE NEED MORE WHITE GUYS BEING AMAZING GENIUSES BUT WACKY ASSHOLES BUT SO GENIUS THAT EVERYONE LOVES THEM???? DO WE? DO WE NEED TO PERPETUATE THIS EXHAUSTING PERCEPTION THAT BEING RIGHT IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN BEING KIND????????

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