#i think i still like tennant's better tbh

[girlcavalcanti]

I refuse to believe that david tennant's richard and ben whishaw's richard are the same character. I refuse. like,, no

[weirdly-specific-but-ok]

Pt III good omens but i STILL SOMEHOW haven't watched it (and i'm increasingly passive aggressive)

i'm now basically held hostage adopted as mascot by this fandom. it's fine i'm fine *SIGNALS FOR HELP DESPERATELY*

Alright fuckers I swear this time I'm going to get some shit right. Without further ado, here's my third attempt at a good omens summary:

Everything everywhere is queer all at once

Angel Aziraphale and demon Crowley on earth likey each other

The car is a bentley and it is BLACK not silver and everyone is very upset about this. my bad yall it was reflecting light therefore i guessed more silver than black but I'm not Anish Kapoor take your black.

Then it is yellow, and aziraphale likes it. crowley preferred the black because he's a flamboyant emo.

God is a deadbeat absentee parent and you are all children of divorce.

There's a naked archangel and they cause problems for the husbands somehow. By being naked? By being an archangel? By being at their doorstep? Who knows not me

They were actually married for 6000 years, they just are the last to know about it.

Crowley is on fire. Like, he's slaying for sure, but also he is literally on fire, like Aziraphale's bookstore.

The actors like I said before are Michael Sheen and David Tennant but this is the place where I finally admit that I don't actually know who is whom. I'm going to assume Michael is Aziraphale because Michael sounds angel-y and David is Crowley because uh Michaelangelo made David and was gay for him.

Terry Pratchett is not fictional.

He co-wrote the book with @neil-gaiman, who IS fictional, because he does not have social media. Several of you have assured me that he is in fact a fandom inside joke. I like to think he would be proud of me.

They adopt a preteen and Crowley gives him bad advice.

At some point a baby was delivered to someone and was exchanged for the son of Satan. Idk if the baby is the preteen, or the son of satan is the preteen, or neither. This could be a fanfic, I have no way of differentiating the fanfic from canon on tumblr, except that the canon is weirder.

Crowley does not go down a chute. He goes down a telephone cord after making himself microscopic to pole dance on a pin with shroom-induced backgrounds.

During this his stage name is Disco Tony. Get it king go slay you're making better life choices than I am tbh.

Aziraphale is a biblically accurate angel, and you have all gone to extensive lengths to prove this to me. I understood nothing, but there you go.

It's all very queer, just like the fandom.

Crowley is a retired demon but he still sins by breaking the speed limit.

They eat at fancy restaurants and bicker but like in a sexual undercurrent way.

Crowley gives Aziraphale a private dance that is not a lap dance, it is an apology dance, but not in a kinky way, until it is.

Their haircuts keep changing and range from 'this is acceptable and gay' to 'i let a drunk chimpanzee take gardening shears and a blowtorch to my hair'

It's all ineffably queer my good fellows

Everyone keeps trying to convince me Neil Gaiman is the villain yeah no guys I know it's really you. Y'all be like 'SEASON TWO BROKE ME' and then you're making headcanons to make it sadder yeah I see you mmhm.

There is a final fifteen. It is sad. What is it? No one told me.

The demon turns goats into crows and the angel turns them back and then children are turned into newts (does the angel turn them back? who cares not yall) and the demon was the snake in the Eden garden and everyone's furry game seems to be on point.

There are a rather lot of children. I have not seen them. But I am assured they are there. They are, guys. I assume they were turned into the alcohol Aziraphale and Crowley drink or something.

There was an apocalypse plotline. It was averted. It is not important. You don't talk about plotlines in this fandom, no sir.

Crowley doesn't want to go to heaven. Aziraphale is sad.

The kiss is not nice, just like this fandom. It is queer, just like this fandom. It is sad and desperate and masochistic, just like this fandom.

Aziraphale doesn't want to stay back with Crowley. Crowley is sad.

Season 2 ends. Fandom is sad.

Everyone's sanity is hinging on the promise of a happy ending in season 3. Good luck guys.

Y'all better appreciate this. I can't even boast to my mother about this legacy of mine, hey mum your son has been held hostage kidnapped inducted into a cult adopted by a fandom he's not part of look he's winning at life.

[variousqueerthings]

fascinated that in toeing the line of "the doctor both is and is not asexual, and because the show is ostensibly sexier now there should be imagery of especially david tennant and various women (shockingly no men with ten) smooshing lips," it means that the doctor only ever instigates a kiss when it's got some scifi-type reason behind it, even starting with nine removing the time vortex from rose.

so only counting lip-to-lip contact for a second here*:

jack kisses the doctor (the parting of the ways)

nine removes the time vortex from rose (the parting of the ways)

cassandra kisses the doctor (new earth)

madame de pompadour kisses the doctor (the girl in the fireplace)

jackie kisses the doctor (army of ghosts)

the doctor leaves a DNA print on martha (smith and jones)

martha gives the doctor cpr (smith and jones)

john smith kisses joan (human nature)

astrid kisses the doctor (voyage of the damned)

the doctor kisses astrid goodbye as she dies (voyage of the damned -- only instigation on the doctor's part of any kiss)**

donna shocks the doctor out of being poisoned (unicorn and the wasp)

christina de souza kisses the doctor in planet of the dead and is overall very flirtatious at him in a way that almost feels like idk. an anti-romance plot. it's like everything that came before (and tbh... also amy and river song) in terms of "sexy" doctor-and-companion tension is lampshaded and made a bit silly. I don't know if this is just because the actress and dtennant have minus chemistry, but it's very funny that this is the final flirting + kiss and it's so very... "shrug, you're not going to be my companion, okay, goodbye"

*I think the only time the doctor even jokingly talks about kissing is in dalek's of manhatten, when martha and bby andrew garfield/frank have been captured and the doctor arrives. martha expresses her relief, and the doctor says something along the lines of: "well, you can kiss me later. you too frank, if you want." this is to diffuse a very scary/tense situation

**I tend to read the astrid final kiss as a kindness/comfort rather than romantic interest or sexual interest. because she is dying. and she kissed the doctor earlier, and is very scared

but wait! tentoo and rose were really going at it, you say! tentoo is part human/specifically human in a donna sense. tentoo is also super up for settling down and having a monogamous relationship, which isn't exactly the doctor's style in any regeneration. so yeah.. tentoo is another part of the tightrope, just like john smith. change the doctor into someone who is almost-but-not-quite the same, enough plausible deniability and voila, it's almost like the doctor is kissing someone, but crucially, the doctor still Is Not. in tentoo's case, the doctor is in fact watching it happen with a somewhat despondent look, before turning and leaving without waiting for rose to say goodbye. because, youknow. canonically the doctor cannot give rose what she wants (because he's not alloromantic/allosexual because he's an immortal alien) so it's better just to leave

lastly flirting: the doctor does flirt, but not often. the most flirtatious the doctor gets outside of above kissing line is when jack briefly joins nine and rose, and I'd call that the jack-contagion (affectionately, it's a good thing). ten, actually, flirts... less. comparably. (and hilariously is annoyed that jack flirts so much around him) a bit with rose in christmas invasion and new earth, but apart from the "sexy" wink, not very overtly. I mean, maybe I'm very ace, but I think they do banter rather than flirting. the one time the doctor interprets something as flirting that funnily enough isn't is when rose is talking to a cat. the doctor similarly gets flirted at (madame de pompadour, shakespeare code, martha several times, health and safety, silence of the library) but doesn't tend to enjoy it or often even notice it

[nortism]

doctor who liveblog pt 39

s7 ep13 nightmare in silver

- classic heads poking out the door one by one

- i’ve not seen classic who but that guy looks the amalgamation of all their doctors

- always the fucking cybermen

- hello warwick davis

- obviously they’re gonna wander off

- uh oh cyberman

- uh oh cyberbugs

- uh oh the cyberman got the little kid

- no blowing up this planet is good advice tbh

- uh oh half cybermen.

- uh oh he got cybered

- they really need a new companion handbook so clara can get how serious cybermen are

- oh that is quite a few cybermen

- oh no the most thing didn’t work

- porridge is the emperor?!

- i think i would have taken him on up on the marriage proposal

s7 ep14 the name of the doctor

- ayyy gallifrey

- oh the first doctor hello

- omg all the classic doctors

- impossible girl lets go

- MADAME VASTRA!!

- RIVER!! i’ve been wondering where she got to

- trenzalore sounds like an anti depressant

- JENNY?!!?!::)/£ NOOOOOO

- oh i don’t like these guys

- what do u mean an ex, u guys just got married??

- uh oh he’s crying, this is unsettling

- oh shit we’re going to the doctor’s grave

- the tardis always the most sensible person around

- oh giant tardis

- hello river

- RIVER’S GRAVE?!

- yay jenny

- oh this fucking guy again

- this is not good

- JENNY NOOOO

- strax omg

- omg clara no

- oh she said the line

- goodbye river

- ohhh the leaf

- this whole name business feels very much like a trans allegory

- hello john hurt as the doctor

mini episode - the night of the doctor

- i’ve been told there’s other mini episodes but this is the one that’s on iplayer

- not sure i got that but crazy stuff

the day of the doctor

- ooh the old intro

- she’s a teacher now??

- WITH BILLIE PIPER???

- also hello david tennant or whatever

- hello billie piper??

- is this meant to be rose?!

- wait she’s the conscience??

- ohhhhhh

- i forgot he married elizabeth i

- oh hello painted david tennant

- david what has happen to your hair?!?

- this is so silly

- uh oh zygons

- jack harkness mention!!

- NO CLARA!!

- yes then clara !!

- that’s a lot of dead children

- ofc the door was unlocked

- ALLLL THIRTEENNNNNN

- oh this is hype as hell

- ohhh the war doctor turning into nine

- i think i supposed to know who the curator is but i don’t

- that was a crazy crossover, i loved it. i just wish eccelston didn’t hate being the doctor bc i would have liked it if all three of them showed up

the time of the doctor

- oh yes fake dating subplot

- ohhh gallifrey

- oh great the silence

- the tardis should work by remote

- oh great the wall crack

- shitttt trenzalore

- oh he pulled a the parting of ways on clara

- how has he aged??

- oh he’s only got a finite number of lives, like a cat

- not again, poor clara

- oh he’s old old

- oh bonus regeneration power

- that’s not peter capaldi??

- oh he’s still cooking

- aww amelia

- AMY 😭😭

- oh the bow tie

- PETER CAPALDI!! i hope he treats clara better bc my girl has been through the wars

- tragic we didn’t get to see him looking awkward in the bow tie, that’s always my favourite part of each regeneration

[cloud-based-and-rainpilled]

Staged 2 thoughts!! (this will take a Year because I have a Lot of feelings)

tl; dr at the end

Hmmm I don’t see how it’s a love story yet

Staged 1 works well enough on its own but the second season is really essential as a companion piece upping the emotional ante (which is exactly how I feel about Good Omens 1 & 2 lol)

The opening scene mindfuck; The meta! We have reached levels of irony not previously seen possible

Who do I thank for the tacky Zoom interview show background? It deserves top billing

HE DOESN’T WANT THE GOLDFISH TO BE LONELY (metaphor) and then it FUCKING DIES

Celeb cameos in season 1 being all “hey! I like you!” in season 2 like “you are tearing them apart. I hate you. scum

Also the themeing of Michael Sheen and David Tennant being on their own “side” VS everyone else……….. Simon Mr. Writer Sir i see u and unfortunately i am in your walls

The writing feeling less theater-y works for the meta and I’m wondering whether they always had a second season in mind or if it’s just that well written

Was really hoping for a Colin Firth & Hugh Grant cameo ngl :/

The music didn’t annoy me as much this season since it was more of the horn oomp-pah-pah than the piano. Idk maybe my mind just changed

I didn’t know Whoopie Goldberg could be terrifying but here we are (also I forgot her name isn’t Whoopie)

“I think the wizard fucked your ass” ???

Setting up the awards and the baby was peak *pops P* comedy 🤌 Definitely needed since it gets Sad as it goes on

Welsh kink spotted!!! And so fucking blantant I was scandalized

“I’ll shove it up my ass where the rest of the excrement goes” Michael casually asking David to peg him. Nice

More bad magic. More pls and ty

Also moar Nina pls. T’was but a brief beautiful bluster in the wind

Tbh missed a lot of Michael & David’s back-and-forths VS season 1 but I get that’s… the point

Everyone agreeing David is whiney and annoying lmao get wreck’t

Also I forgot they don’t have air conditioning in Englandland ‘cause my man is sweating in every scene he’s in (unless that was intentional in which case… go on…)

The ladies!! That meta ending with the Bechdel test… I see you…

Still love Georgia and Simon’s sister (who I apparently don’t respect enough to google her name); I like Anna now too! She’s got this kinda quiet sarcastic edge I didn’t notice the first time. They all played off each other well in their 3 some (phrasing) scenes

Big amongus sus react that Anna has better chemistry with the two of them than with Michael of which there is literally zero chemistry. Compared to Georgia and David who are just electric with each other it’s honestly distracting

Actual torture watching them break down as other actors play them and drive their friendship apart, it’s fascinating to watch especially on top of it being themselves but, like, not we swear

“Am I your best friend” “No” Fuckin REJECTED !! looser!!!

Oh huh I can see how this is a love story, interesting

The David Tennant fanboy (he is a Real actor I just can’t think of his name) served juicy vomiting SFX realness

“So you’ve made love with him” BROTHER

It took me 87 years to realize warthog and mongoose were in reference to Timon and Pumbah lol <- I am not looking up how to spell this

The bannister being part of the bookshelf why did this make me laugh this hard

Ken Jeong actually reaching into the heart of everything and casually tearing into it Temple of Doom style and leaving everything to ruin lmao

I miss people getting too close to me (feral noises)

Ewan McGregor is cute and I am shallow 🥰

AU where Simon Pegg and Nick Frost did Staged and honestly it would still work aside from being dangerously heterosexual

Simon & Nick doing the Staged 1 back and forth but literally? mmmm that’s sum gud meta

Oh right I forgot the actual writer Simon’s in it too. He’s still good. I like his Zoom tantrum

Jim Parsons unconvincingly looking for his phone after he casually tells David that he and Michael are obviously in love and everyone sees it lmao

David Tennant has the unique ability to make this absolutely insane face reserved specifically for the emotion “oh shit I’m in love with Michael Sheen” which like

I could kill the Good Omens costume department rn I stg take off those fucking sunglasses I’m so mad

Ohhhhhhhh yeah this is a love story

The Frozen snowman being the big bad final boss of cunt, oof you gotta love a good villain

Michael’s monologue the only one not in the kitchen area just breaking down completely I mean *claps until my hands fall off* he put his whole pussy into it. The frustration? The despair? I mean it felt like an audition monologue (in a good way) he walked through the valley in the shadow and death and came back a broken man with a fuzzier beard

CATE BLANCHETT ZOOM SNIPE

Apparently people didn’t like Phoebe Waller Bridge in the new Indiana Jones movie which I haven’t seen but idk I thought she was pretty funny and hot here. *ding*

MOOMIN MUG SPOTTED

The use of travel as a metaphor for feeling stuck emotionally *clenches fist*

“I like silence” *screaming from the other room*

“It’s like gas filling a room” <- fascinating way to describe their dynamic, it’s specifically referring to aimless conversations that snowball and “fill up a room” but it could also refer to the palpable energy between them— like even through the abstraction of a computer screen there’s this magnetic force that’s just riveting, it’s hard to describe

“We haven’t talked about love” > Seen at 2:17 PM LMAO

Michael alone with the black frame lingering shot. Acting and editing and directing choices so simple and on point. everything hurts

Struggling to say goodbye on Zoom physically reaching out unable to leave the frame that whole scene was just. You can just feel the love through the screen, it’s so layered and intimate despite essentially being “No you hang up first”

Zoom wedding! He stayed!!

I wonder if that’s Michael Sheen’s actual best friend. That would be cute

Anna whispering and telling him “nah I know your bestie is literally an hour away but he can’t come over lol” like??? why? let them love each other I cannot handle this villain arc

“I have to bring that one otherwise my tits will explode” Wait wasn’t she drinking earlier though? #ShivRoyMoment

“I was standing outside your job for four hours because I love you” <- dog from Up moment

Yes he is legally a Hobbit

The car window as an abstraction like the Zoom boxes *continued feral noises*

The direction of David putting his hand on the window and Michael walking away only then revealing Anna and the baby far in the background? We’re in 3 dimensions and they are all painful!!

Okay yeah I get it it’s a love story but I thought this was a comedy haha right guys why does everything hurt

It ends on that meta moment between David and Georgia which I can only assume is to set up for the third season although I dunno if that was planned at the time as well. It’s ambiguous but not distracting if they didn’t make another one

tl; dr: Staged 2 is a unique and excellent addition to Staged 1. The added meta textual layer of the other celebrities breaking down their relationship based on Staged 1 allows for a lot of “hiding behind my hands so embarrassed” moments, but also by pitting them against each other, it reveals their actual love for each other through the bickering. Season 1 on its own is a nice vignette of its time but season 2 with it adds a tension and intimacy that really takes both over the top

Kinda dreading watching Staged 3 since it seems like people overwhelmingly like it less than the other two because of the loss of the Zoom format and constant arguing, but I’m already in this far deep so I’ll stick the landing

To wit— awwwwwww, they love each other!

[marley-manson]

okay the full review in a pros and cons list lol

pros:

uh my ship canon. i win, motherfuckers. fuckin 15 year old me was right this whole time, as always, but it's nice to see it acknowledged for once.

the confession scene also just kicked ass tbh

i gotta admire the cheekiness of the back and forth hesitant phrasing of their relationship, eg crowley referring to '...us' and aziraphale's 'i need you!' 'we can be together' etc until finally crowley just runs back to kiss him

and you know aziraphale was about to say 'i love you' before cutting himself off <3

touching his lips after too <3

the reasons for the break up felt reasonable to me and justified with the season's flashbacks to crowley questioning things and aziraphale's resistance

some pretty funny jokes, i laughed outloud a few times

michael sheen and david tennant do have excellent chemistry

never gonna say no to side lesbians even if they were incredibly bland

i think the way it was structured like a fanfic was a pro honestly lol. the plot sucked, i don't care about it, so it's nice that the story itself also doesn't care

amnesiac gabriel was endearing

crowley not kiling goats was cute

ty tennant was in it for about a minute and spent that minute hitting on aziraphale and it was fucking bonkers

no het

like i think job and his wife may have literally been the sole exception including like references to offscreen spouses lmao, i'm v impressed, and if this is penance for last season then i forgive.

i thought it was cute that gaiman incorporated the song he wanted for season 1 into this season as a plot point

beelzebub's new actor was so much better. and the flies were somehow kinda cute, i'll give the gabriel/beelzebub ship that.

good old fashioned lover boy. we all wanted it, they gave it to us, i appreciate it

here's my review: gay enough

cons:

mostly sucked as like, a narrative

tennant's fucking performance as crowley was so annoying, he or the director doubled down on what i hated last season and stripped him of all the endearing humanizing aspects of his performance and the result was like watching donald duck screaming for 6 episodes

the chemistry was still there but the actual pining kiiiiinda wasn't, actually lol. oh they referred to it in scripted moments, jokes, parallels, and straightforward statements, but they didn't... show it, particularly. until the confession nothing even approaches the tenderness and emotion of like any of their season 1 scenes, let alone the car scene or the bus stop scene or the ritz or the french revolution rescue or the blitz or eden etc etc. and david tennant did not say one word in that cute hopeful pining tone

to be honest after watching the whole show this is the most disappointing part. like the car scene??? could i not get a sequel to that? let crowley be tender!!!!

i think the reason we don't get scenes like that, other than perhaps uncomfortable restraint due to acknowledging the romance textually, is that they went from crowley practically begging aziraphale to cave and fuck him for centuries to crowley now angry repressed and needing a push to say anything, which also felt wrong to me, like iffy fanfic characterization

it was bad enough that i was nervous they were going to depict neither as actually aware of their feelings. thankfully they did not, and it still feels like crowley has been pining for a thousand years and they've both been aware but dancing around it, with the way the confession was phrased. that should be a pro, actually.

also yk all the obvious things. dumb jokes, a lot of bad acting (i feel like the director is at fault though tbf), not into the twee tone in general for the most part, a lot of scenes that were way too drawn out, utterly nonsensical narrative, characters doing things for no reason other than convenience constantly (why do the lesbians stay to help fight the demons? because their characters are more important and need more screen time), 0 stakes wrt heaven and hell because they're all so wholly ineffectual as antagonists and neither crowley nor aziraphale ever gave a shit about their threats, etc etc

oh lol nina sosanya being cast again as a brand new character, no relation to sister mary loquacious. it's not a big con since i like her and was happy to see her again, but it did feel lazy lol. at least give me the identical twin cousin explanation

was crowley living out of his car a joke bc they don't have the set from last season? did god not restore his flat like the bookshop? what's up with that? and how much time has passed since last season anyway? why didn't he get a new flat? why is he living in his car? what's going on?

nightingale references at the end felt tacked on and awkward to me tbh

ohhhhh raphael!crowley's very obviously hinted at and i hate that headcanon :/

crowley's kinda hilariously gary stuish honestly, making me really miss the book and even season 1 where he was like, yk, fucking incompetent sometimes. here he's lounging on couches without a care while being threatened by heaven and hell multiple times, pulling off perfect shots with no practice, waltzing into heaven without a second thought, bluffing demons easily and successfully, etc. and that's in addition to being right about everything and also being raphael like what happened to my dumbass low-level loser fave who fucked up the apocalypse by accident and lived in terror of phone calls from hell???

heaven and hell are "toxic" lol? that phrasing is so awkward, and like, i'd say minimizing but i guess tbf they didn't pose much of a threat in this season. but still c'mon, why you describing 2 murderous doomsday cults/cold warring governments as toxic like they're your annoying ex? especially after the running gag about nina's shitty girlfriend constantly therapy speaking at her condescendingly lol. how about 'hey remember how they worked together to try to kill us last season?'

oh gabriel/beelzebub of course lol, whatever happened to neil gaiman being unable to read fanfic or even people's headcanon posts for fear of accidentally plagiarizing ideas? bring back the separation between fandom and creator stat, fandom has way too much influence here and fandom fucking sucks

a little petty but honestly the kiss could've been good, yk? there's no reason it had to be bad, they could've just given into it for a bit for a hopeful romantic moment before aziraphale freaks and pulls away. like can i get 2 dudes to kiss with tongue at some point on my television here?

needs more queen

[orpheuslookingback]

(okay caveat here is idk if theres actually something planned for the christmas special that i dont know about that solves the problem im having with this but:)

aaaahhh okay i just finished the final doctor who 60th anniversary episode, and like I love the Tennant Doctor, I love Donna, and as much as part of me likes seeing them happy it just...it just did not work for me as a ending. Like it feels honestly like it's doing a huge disservice to the new Doctor? To be like "actually there's another one still around who is ostensibly still a full Time Lord, with a TARDIS and everything"? Like okay- I will buy the Toymaker and his weirdo reality warping abilities causing regeneration to act abnormally, fine. But what I honestly think would have been better and feel less like a convoluted mess and also be less of a disservice to the new version of the character would be if, after we get that moment of closure between 14 and 15 on top of the tower (which was very sweet and I did like), now that the Toymaker is gone his reality-altering powers also fade and the regeneration has to happen properly, and 14 fades away, having received some closure, to become part of 15 again.

But even if it had been more like the Metacrisis Doctor- 14 doesn't get to keep the TARDIS (the TARDIS duplication thing was probably my least favorite part of the whole sequence tbh), he definitively loses the ability to regenerate (idk if thats implied at all? but it definitely wasn't outright stated), something like that- he's still closer to being the proper "Doctor" than the Metacrisis one but it's still a more closed ending that wouldn't feel like it was somehow kind of undermining the idea that 15 is the new "real" Doctor.

I did still like the special on the whole and I do still look forward to the new episodes (and I thought Ncuti Gatwa left a really good first impression in terms of his performance and characterization! I really really look forward to seeing more of 15!!) but this one part just felt so off to me.

[ingravinoveritas]

Hey, it’s me again.. I took a little time off to elaborate all of this, I went through various stages of disappointment, sadness and anger, but now I’m feeling better (even though it left a bitter taste in my mouth).

I did read all of the comments and reblogs to your posts, they made me cry (in a good way!) and I started to feel less alone indeed, a heartfelt thanks goes to them, definitely ❤️ this is what a fandom should be, whether it is Good Omens’ fandom or Neil Gaiman’s fandom (well I hardly see myself becoming part of his fandom now, even though I like some of his works, i.e. The Sandman).

The fact that he’s a writer is the reason why I weighed his words so much, otherwise I would have thought “okay maybe it was a poor choice of words and didn’t mean that”.. He knows exactly what he did instead, he used his skill with words against someone who barely speaks his language. This was unfair and unnecessary on so many levels imo.

About my ask, in my mind this was a point of view that maybe could’ve been useful for him to consider. I asked that in his interest, I mean, at the end of the day it’s his series, not mine. He didn’t even try to understand, instead. The point he’s missing with Staged is that Staged is not any series, it’s a series where the main characters (the two couples, but there’s also Ty in the third season) are supposed to be the actors’ real personalities and relationships (“supposed to”: I know they’re still fictional), so seeing all of them together in a scene of any series (not only Good Omens) would feel like breaking the fourth wall to me. I know it’s not something that everybody would experience, but definitely some people would. The nepotism thing is kind of connected to this, but mostly I’m really concerned about David Tennant being accused of that (the first “joke” was already there at Basingstoke). I mean, if Georgia had accepted the role and Olive had passed the audition, there would have been four members of his family involved (I know Peter Davison is an accomplished actor, but he’s also part of the Tennants family portrait, especially talking about Doctor Who), they’re just two for now, but the fact that Neil said that in a hypothetical season three, he would like to offer Georgia and Anna a part… The risk was there again. Maybe he thought that it would please the fans who always idolise them no matter what; this part of fans is really loud, but that doesn’t mean that they’re the actual majority. Also, this doesn’t mean that I hate them either, I would never do something like this out of hate, I’m not so miserable.

In summary, I just wanted him to read and consider that, I wasn’t really interested in an answer, tbh. It’s not like I was expecting something like “yeah, this is nepotism on my part! Thanks for asking xx” (though… That would’ve been a funnier response). As I said previously, this might have been an impulsive decision, and even a naïve one.

(1/2)

Hello, Anon. I'm back from my work trip and finally not entirely exhausted, so now I can answer your Ask and all of the other Anons still waiting in my inbox.

I'm glad to hear from you again, and that you are feeling better. I very much relate to what you said about having a tendency to blame yourself for everything, because I do the exact same thing. But there is a difference between blame and responsibility, and while you are responsible for choosing to ask Neil that question, you are not to blame for how he chose to respond to it.

You mentioned not being sure what to do now, and thinking about sending him Crowley's line about asking questions (which is also something that I thought of when this whole thing happened). My personal suggestion would be not to message him at all, as there really isn't anything else that can be said and I think it would probably just give you more anxiety worrying about if/how he'd respond again.

The thing to keep in mind is that Neil is who he is. Being a writer does not automatically make someone better or smarter than anyone else--Ernest Hemingway was an abuser and a drunk; Hunter S. Thompson was, well..."LSD-soaked madman" is putting it generously; F. Scott Fitzgerald's relationship with Zelda made Kanye and Kim K. look Amish, and the list goes on--but what I think has happened with Neil is that there is such a hype around who fans perceive him to be...the "image" of Neil Gaiman as opposed to the actual human Neil Gaiman. What we have now had a glimpse of is the actual human, and that for as calm and cool as Neil always seems to come across, there are clearly things that can still ruffle his metaphorical feathers.

I don't know if you've visited Neil's blog again, by the way, but just a few days ago, he responded to this Ask which I and everyone else who read it would most definitely categorize as "creepy"...and yet he answered it and did not call that person out the way he did with you. What that tells me is that what happened with you was not because of anything you did, but because Neil read it the way he did. And there could be so many other factors at play as well--the fact that he is in the middle of a divorce, the effects of the Writers' Strike and what that will potentially mean for GO 2--that ultimately contributed to his mindset while answering.

The other thing I will say is that I've already seen part of your concerns come to life, as following the release of the GO 2 opening credits, some fans were insisting that the order of David and Michael's names in the sequence and David's name supposedly appearing first (as opposed to Michael's in the S1 credits) was a reference to Staged:

In actuality, both David and Michael's names appear at the same time (but Michael's is less visible due to being in the sky). Neil even seemed to confirm this when someone recently asked about it. Not only that, he did not mention anything about Staged at all, which in all likelihood means it was probably not a specific reference. But seeing fans rush to this conclusion seemingly validates what we've been saying all along, and when I saw it, I immediately felt annoyed. For me, Good Omens and Staged are two very different things, as well as entirely separate things, and I categorically do not like the feeling of looking at anything related to GO and thinking of Staged. Only my opinion, of course, but there it is.

Finally, regarding the nepotism situation, one thing I've also noticed is people saying that this is somehow brand new, or that no one cared before GO 2. As I've mentioned previously, I became a fan of Michael's and "got into" him before I did David, so I will fully admit to being less knowledgeable around the nepotism issues there (Ty in ATWI80D, Georgia getting a part in DW because of Peter, then producing YM&H). But I can say with absolute certainty that concerns of nepotism with Anna were being voiced years ago, as far back as the first season of Staged and then right through to her being in Last Train to Christmas in 2021. So this is not remotely anything new, nor related only to GO, but to every role AL has had (Staged, LTTC, and Sandman), all of which she has gotten because of Michael.

I would also encourage people to read this post from last year on @invisibleicewands' blog for some very insightful tea about nepotism. One commenter is a former actor and shared some extremely interesting information in the notes in particular, of which I'd like to share a few:

I'm very willing to bet that all of the above--especially the part about casting directors and casting practices--are things Neil already knows, and are at least part of what caused his disproportionate response to your question. Because if this is something well-known and common to the industry, you are very likely not at all the first person who has brought this up to him, as well as the fact that four members of the same family (David, Ty, Peter, Georgia) nearly ended up in the same season of one show (GO season 2).

Could Neil have had enough and just snapped? Sure. We all have our limits, our quota of what we can handle at any given time, in any given day. And he would have absolutely been well within his rights to ignore your question entirely. That he read it as being "not in good faith" tells me this is a subject that's come up before, and has led to him being on the defensive. Which, again...also understandable. But the fact that Neil--who is a writer, who has spent an untold amount of his life writing about all sorts of things in painstakingly detail-- couldn't parse a fan asking a genuine question or distinguish it from an attack is not okay, and neither was his choice to respond so condescendingly and set you up as a target for the larger fandom.

But you already know all this, Anon, so let me stop before I repeat myself too much. I am just glad that you decided to write to me again, and that you took such comfort from both my words and the folks who commented on my post. I am sorry that the whole thing has left such a bitter taste in your mouth (though understandably so), but with all the wonderful new things we've gotten in the last few days (opening credits, the new poster), that thankfully gives us happy things to focus on instead.

Sending you lots of love again and the hope that you will continue to feel better and not let this take away your excitement for GO 2 entirely. Thanks for writing in! x

[skinnyscottishbloke]

Trying to organize my ask notebook better since I've run out of space under general fandom asks and I would like to know what fandoms you are in so I can ask the correct people about the correct fandoms.

I think my main ones are Bagginshield/The Hobbit, Sherlock/Johnlock, Dragon Age Inquisition, {Pippin/Faramir Merry/Eowyn}/The Lord of the Rings and I dip my toes in a few that I currently can't remember but ones I don't engage in canon at all are Good Omens but only for Crowley/Azirapheal ship, Stranger Things but only for Steve/Eddie ship, The Witcher but only for Geralt/Jaskier things and Ladybug and Cat Noir but only for Adrinette .

Also do you like getting asks that are or include story ideas or snippets?

*Asks are sent for fun, no pressure to answer within a certain amount of time or at all.

Heyaaaa!

I’m pretty multifandom tbh - I like a lot of movies and shows and books. I guess my main ones at the moment would be Doctor Who, Buffy, Tolkienverse (Bagginshield is a top pairing for me there, definitely), Good Omens (our ineffables own my whole ass heart), ATLA, Heartstopper, RWRB, Sense8, Black Sails, Bones, Leverage, a little bit of HP (I read a lot of Drarry fic), B99, Johnlock (I was deep in the Sherlock fandom for a long time, it used to be my main one, then fandom drama and s04 killed that pretty hard BUT I still love fic), BBC Merlin, Marvel stuff (more og Avengers, Daredevil, etc not really newer stuff), Rupaul’s Drag Race (I’ve seen all the US seasons, all the Allstars seasons and a solid half of all the international seasons), Jane Austen productions, period dramas in general, anything David Tennant has done, uhhhhh yeah you get the point lol. Going by my A03 bookmarks my top fic pairings are Aziracrow, Merthur, Johnlock, Bagginshield, Drarry, Elliot/Parker/Hardison from Leverage, Matt/Foggy from Daredevil, Stucky, Zutara, Doctor/Rose, Nine/Jack/Rose, Narlie, and Firstprince. I don’t really play video games or computer games or watch anime or kdramas, so those fandoms are not really on my radar.

Thanks for the ask!

[besidesitstoowarm]

Davies era recap?

sorry i've been procrastinating on this one so bad. i spent three weeks in costa rica thinking about jurassic park. tbh i don't know what to say about the specials or the era overall that i haven't said already

nine feels so beautiful post-time war, traumatized and snappish but also light and warm and kind. he was once a father and grandfather and now he is neither but he is still a doctor!! s1 feels so much richer after having seen "day of the doctor" tbh i know how we got here! it was hard, agonizing, impossible choices. yet he's still here, and he chooses love every time. a coward. he would rather doom the entire universe as long as it kills him too; he cannot survive another genocide. he can't see it happen again. if he can't prevent it, he just wants to not see it. i love nine so much

and then ten. ten is more built from nine than ANY other regeneration i can think of. ten is rose, he's bad wolf, he's nine. he's the echo of donna, of tentoo. ten is someone struggling to find his place between "where he's already been, as remembered by rose" and "where he is destined to go, via donna" like he is so dragged along by fate. mf is a full on greek tragedy, he does NOT know what is going on

that's what makes the specials such a wreck (good/bad). when he was with rose, they were a painful but understandable match. with martha, kinda middle ground. with donna, it was fate. after them? after tentoo, after the most important woman in all creation? he's adrift. he clings to randos, he tries to be the hero so hard. and he fails. he trips and cries and sobs like a huge loser, over and over again. i do love him (and tennant is fully failed by 2/4 specials) but he's unraveling! little baby duck imprinted on their mommy who is gone. what's left, after that? martyr/savior complex and dubiously gay shit, i guess

tennant is a marvel, i have to say this. eccleston too, in different ways. davies has such a wonderfully human touch with these characters, iirc moffat draws a lot from fairy tales while davies pulled a lot from modern social commentary. jack is... something, but it was a different time. ten/master is sooooooo much. this era ended more than a decade ago

all in all, davies era is beautiful, it's decadent. it's complete nonsense bullshit a good chunk of time, but i don't think that's a negative; doctor who is like star wars to me, where i truly genuinely believe it's at its best when it's kind of bad. i mean, late 60s is MY era of who. base under siege nonsense galore. farting aliens. doctor who should be bad, in order to be good. i mean this, genuinely. attack of the clones is great. you get it

i feel more comfortable leaning into this ending knowing what comes later; knowing that davies comes back, knowing that ten becomes fourteen eventually and cleans up his shit, knowing that donna gets a better, more complete ending. it's honestly hard to say what i would think about this era without knowing about the 60th; i do think "journey's end" is a nonsense bullshit episode that is nonetheless very fun to watch, however cruel an ending it is for donna. very grateful we got a redux. moffat is writing for this new davies era too i'm so excited i want to throw up

anyway! excited to re-enter the moffat era but davies had so much sway over the new tone of the show, so much feels so dated but there's no denying the impact his episodes had at the time. there were cat people. it was thematically consistent. god i love it all so much. quel domage!

[spacelessbian]

Good Omens S2: review-ish

I saw Good Omens and I honestly don't know what to think. Spoilers ahead. These are my first thoughts and I'm writing it immediately after finishing episode 6, so I will ruminate some more but I wanted to get my thoughts out right now, as some sort of brainstorming.

I am bummed to say that I did not enjoy this new story as much as I enjoyed season 1. Now obviously there is a huuuge difference in watching an adaptation of a story you know well and already love and watching an entirely new thing. But still.

When it comes to the overal plot I did enjoy the Gabriel mystery, at least for about half of the season. It lost steam around the middle and the ending of it... I'm sorry, I do not buy Gabriel falling in love with anyone for one second. Maybe if it wasn't shown in one big info dump and there was time to explore his connection with Beelzebub, I would have enjoyed it better. But Gabriel was such a brilliant asshole in season 1. Amazing even. I loved to hate him and this turnaround did not work for me at all. The fact that I didn't connect with the new actress in the role of Beelzebub probably did not help (obviously I have nothing against the actress personally, she was not bad). So this storyline ended in a disappointment for me. I also cringed a bit ngl. (important to note: I have previously read fanfics for Gabriel/Beelzebub and liked them, so it is not just about this pairing in itself).

Aziraphale and Crowley on the other hand, I enjoyed very much. The whole season is basically a love story, an explicit one this time. Part of me thought - I will admit - that Neil Gaiman just wanted to stop the constant barrage of fans demanding explicit gay sex on screen, but okay, I'll allow it, it was sweet (until it wasn't, then it was heart-wrenching). Both David Tennant and Michael Sheen are in absolute top form and I loved every second of them doing stuff.

The little (and not so little) scenes (or mini episodes) were interesting and fun to watch, the Job story was especially really good. I did not expect to see Crowley as an angel, he was so sweet building nebulas. I could have done without the zombie Nazis... Maybe someone will explain to me why it was necessary to basically stop the story for it, I did not understand it while watching. I expected them to pop up later or something... But no, they are just zombie Nazis. I liked the processing sequence in Hell of that episode, though, it looked very cool and fun, especially the... firewarmer (???).

That brings me to Miranda Richardson. God, I've had a crush on her for about fifteen years now and Shax definitely did not stop that. I loved her so much! She looked fantastic, her dialogue was great and I liked her dynamic with Crowley. I don't understand why would she be offered a position of Duke of Hell, seeing she fucked up everything she was assigned to do, but I can excuse that detail. I hope we see a lot of her in season 3 (which we must get!).

My other gay crush, Archangel Michael, was in a lot of scenes and I'm not complaining. I think her position as possibly the only angel who thinks for themselves (at times) and who is just constantly surrounded by confident idiots while also being an idiot (but not as much) was just great. More of this please.

The other angels were okay. Muriel is a baby ray of sunshine cupcake darling cutie and if anything happens to her, I will kill anyone responsible and then myself. The other demons were not as important, but I must mention Dagon's robe (? coat? uniform?) which fucks verily.

Maggie and Nina did not make as much impact as I thought they would and I didn't care much about their romance tbh. I know, I know, it is supposed to mirror Aziraphale/Crowley but like... I don't see it. Sorry. The ball scene was weird as hell. I appreciated the seamstress joke, a very nice nod to Pratchett.

And I now see that I just started listing characters instead of talking about the whole thing but I suppose this is how my brain works. I can't wait to read and watch everyone else's opinions and reviews. Despite me not being very happy at the end of the show I enjoyed most of it and I truly hope we will get season 3 to tie the bow.

[halforcdad]

Totally agree with you about Lucy! Tbh it’s been here since s1 but this fandom (especially on Twitter) have a Kate bias and treat Lucy awfully when they get the chance. And they were simply waiting for the shoe to drop so they could finally say oh she’s SO wrong for this since none of them seem to treat her like her own person with her own feelings. ESP with that scene from s1 that you said they’re comparing this too. So many people hated her for that and thought kacy was dead in a ditch afterward. I really don’t get it. But it’s also obvious with the way they advocate for more things about Kate (like back story, relationship/scenes with Jane, etc) but hardly ever say oh I wanna know about Lucy (when arguably lucy is more of a main since she’s the one on NCIS) . We all know why this is too even if people don’t wanna say it. Kate is the white one and Lucy is brown they will always villainize her actions first even when Kate was the one in the wrong (in s1). Anyways this ep is definitely ending with better communication for them so I am not sweating it. Twitter overanalyzes in the worst way like they always do

I do get the sense that some people were waiting with bated breath for the chance to point at Lucy and call her a hypocrite like some sort of gotcha! moment the minute she slipped up and didn't tell Kate something. Which is weird because you're a fan of this ship shouldn't you be rooting for both of the characters? 💀

The Kate bias is a very real thing. I feel like when 1x11 happened I mostly saw people blaming bad writing and giving Kate a pass for being a dumbass and saying it was out of character for her (when we'd only seen her...briefly for 7 ep at most so what's ooc and what's not at that point). But when Lucy isn't perfect, she doesn't get the same excuses or defense, the mistakes are all on Lucy and not on 'bad writing'. There doesn't seem to be a lot of 'putting yourself in her shoes' type sympathy for a lot of what Lucy was dealing with in S1 (like if I had to see my ex who hurt me badly everyday at work I would be in a state lol).

And God I felt like I was in the trenches after 1x20, both on twitter and on here because the reactions were wild Gonna try to be brief because I feel like I've spent a lifetime talking about it (because it's the best episode of s1 lolol), but that entire episode was about Lucy and her trying to move on, but being unable to because Kate still had such a huge effect on her (bc she loved her!) and still all the fandom focus was on Kate and how sympathetic she was! I think even if Kate showed up with a clean bill of health, she still would've been babied immensely because Lucy made her cry (even though they were both crying). The treatment Lucy got after that was truly disheartening. Like there was no room for nuance. As a poc, seeing everyone baby the white woman (and getting to ready to fight for her because she cried) even though she's the one who fucked up is very, hm, realistic lol. Lucy deserves way better.

You bring up a good point. The fandom goes crazy over Kate and Noah, but Lucy's family doesn't get the same level of speculation and fanfare. And we only got like 2 mentions of Noah in S1 vs. all the tidbits Lucy's dropped about her family. And of course I want to see Kate interact more with Pearl Team and develop friendships, but like we don't even know anything substantial about Lucy and Jesse's relationship or with her and Tennant for that matter. Those should probably take priority. The shows called NCIS: Hawai`i not FBI: Hawai`i lol.

If there really was a season to sweat over Kacy's relationship, it wouldn't be the season where they've been actively showing them working on themselves and being better with each other. It's like we didn't get an entire Whistler/Kacy love fest episode in 2x03 or something. Some people are quick to think the worst and go, 'ugh miscommunication is such a kacy thing'. We probably haven't been watching the same show this season then because they're clearly taking steps to fix that in just the first 5 episodes.

[a-writhing-mass]

Heh - we finally get to see a New-Who's take on the Dalek's Kaled ancestors and their origin, other than just Davros, and it's just an amusing little comedy sketch. Barely a snippet.

I'll put the rest behind a cut to spare you all my rambling~

It was a fun little skit don't get me wrong, and it was great seeing Tennant act as the Doctor again, but I find it a shame that they couldn't have saved a genesis of the Daleks 'reveal' for a more serious story (Urgh they've almost had 20 years and they still haven't really covered it).

I'd probably like it more if they'd have actually had a story or two to go explore the Kaleds and what they were like before their war with the Thals got so bad rather than retcon that Daleks were named after the Kaled word for gods or to be like a god - something along those lines. I'll have to listen to I, Davros again. As funny and cute as it is, I personally won't accept this sketch as canon - and tbh I don't think we are meant to.

I wanna see them explore the contrast and tragedy of how a once peaceful race of philosophers, scientists, and teachers turned into what they are now. In a TV story.

I'd just love to see a more-classically written Dalek story. You know... when they felt a bit more like actual an actual people. Terrible as their culture was in the 60s. They work better in political or philosophical stories where they can be peak horrifying. But over time the majority of their TV stories have degraded and turned them into shallow cute-money-making-mascots. No wonder so many are tired of them.

Also, on another note if they don't bring Susan Foreman back for the 60th anniversary episodes, or soon, I'm gunna flip a table. ಠ_ಠ

Can Carole Ann Ford please get a chance to play her again, and in a way she'd prefer her character to be portrayed - even if it's just for a few minutes so we can see Susan regenerate!? She's even stated she wants to come back!

Imo, they really need to bring back the (more benevolent) Time Lords already... I'm a little tired of the Master being the only other Time Lord that's actively about in the TV show.

/end ramblings

[kitkatisweird7]

My relationship with fandom

The fascinating thing with fandom is that it's always been a bloody nuisance. I mean, Whovians have never been a reasonable bunch for example. Take their early incarnation, the DWAS. Levine and his bunch. Levine is still out there making an ass of himself daily.

Then in the 2010s it was, to my understanding AND occasional experience, people whinging that David Tennant wasn't permanently the Doctor. So it's not like the current state of Whovians is ENTIRELY unexpected given these people NEVER shut up. Then in 2018 it became the dreaded NMDs. Losers, of the highest order. I cannot stand them. Now, the most vocal dissenters in fandom are the fans of the era just passed. Now, don't get me wrong this is normal. I was that in 2014. I was also just a kid.

Star Wars fans are no better. Always have to have a mortal enemy those lot do. George Lucas and Binks, Kathleen Kennedy, Rian Johnson, Dave Filoni. Between the lot of them they have a severe problem with their inability to just not like a bloody movie without it being some kind of big drama.

Pokemon fans are a nuisance in every capacity, Zelda fans mostly consist of open world lovers who seem to think that this direction is in any way sustainable when in reality it's cool for a couple of games but needs binning soon realistically.

I don't even KNOW any Buffyverse fans besides like two people and tbh with the minefield that HE is I wouldn't WANT to know any fans of it. I'm quite satisfied with the idea that there's a grand total of three POVs on Buffy. Mine, Frazzle's and Guy's. I don't wanna get into actual debates on Buffy and Spike vs Buffy and Angel, or Tara vs Oz, or really anything like that. It's peace. I like that.

This is kinda why I like it here the way it is right now. I'm not debating with anyone. You can hardly even classify my actions as interacting with Tumblr's userbase. I came, I monologued, I kept things simple. Fandom is a waste of time. Especially when we give WAY too much respect to stan behaviour. Which is why I stayed away from this place for so long. Because this site is kinda where it started. The stuff in fandom I find tiring. This site initially compiled it.

I won't lie, if I lose Twitter and ergo lose my last connection to those fandoms beyond the odd YouTube video I won't be too broken up. I'm not too saddened by the prospect that I won't have to see someone calling Ahsoka a bad show because it's not just about new characters or saying RTD is a bad man because he followed Jodie Whittaker with David Tennant and not Jo Martin. I'll watch it happen if Twitter does stay up, but if it remains a frustrating to use mess then so be it.

This blog thing is funny. I'll be making a rather interesting use of it soon enough.

[afishlearningpoetry]

why are people willing to believe moffat is the worst person on earth? is he really that bad or is this just a huge telephone game and after each round the rumour worsens and no one cares about the truth anymore?

It’s difficult to describe unless you were deep into fandom on this website in 2012 and the way people turned on him so quickly. I mean first, he’s a man who’s said and written dumb things, he ran two of the some of most popular British shows on the planet at the same time and still gets to make whatever he wants (see dracula) so he’s doing fine.

But it was kind of a domino effect that started with doctor who. Series 5 was a big success, and the next one went overseas with a huge two part premiere set in america, capitalizing on the overseas effect that had been growing with David tennant’s era, so it naturally garnered a lot of new viewers. The issue comes with the River Song twist halfway through the season and the episode after the summer break, Let’s Kill Hitler, which admittedly is one of his weakest scripts, hampered by a rough production schedule. The previous show runner Davies also suffered a lot from the gruel of doctor who and it affected his scripts a lot too. So from what I remember the hitler episode in 2011 kind of hit on a couple nerves people had been dreading, 1. Making light of a serious historical event 2. The other twist of casting a black actress for a character retconned into Amy and Rory’s life only for her to turn into River less then ten minutes later, using race to obscure audience expectations 3. The script being messy - from the regeneration stuff, the robot replica solution which people felt was a cop out in the finale, and the “let’s find River Song” subplot being wrapped up in one episode which rushes everything, adding to the wound of 4. Amy being passive in a mystery pregnancy storyline, which resulted in 5. The biggest criticism of River being that her entire existence revolves around the doctor, and finally 6. Everything revolving around the doctor for no reason. I don’t entirely agree with these, especially the first and last one, but the second half of series 6 and first half of 7 is inconsistent. So after those two episodes people were writing a lot of posts explaining their issues with his take on the show, which would continue through series 7 (Asylum of the Daleks in particular and the finale also join his weakest scripts - 2012/2013 for doctor who was rough and seemed to be motivated again, by scheduling and production issues, he’s talked about it a lot, don’t forget the 50th anniversary was also happening at the time, which was good). The criticisms have merit, but they were overblown by other factors too.

On Sherlock the River Song issue kind of exploded again after ASIB with Irene aired in early 2012. The appearance of the story being Irene falling for a man after describing herself as gay upset people. We’ve been over this a lot. The atmosphere was very different on tumblr at the time… like it was hardcore 24/7 dedication. Everything that happened on our television screens was life or death. Ships getting together or characters getting fridged had mortal consequences. I think it’s easy to forget now but this place was often of miserable after series 2 lol. There was a lot of positive activity and creativity, but also lots of people complaining about everything. It was kind of a formative year for transformative work in fandom. Nearly every tv show I was watching at the time had a fandom that hated it and it’s writers in return, deeply and constantly. Supernatural, glee, teen wolf, so many things. So we’d write tag essays in our reblogs describing in explicit detail how we felt about story, characters, theme, characters arcs, and how we knew better (and tbh we were usually right), read and reblog people writing meta and callout posts like it was a job, and constantly trying to either break the fourth wall with our demands or catch the writers of the month in the act so we could add another bulletpoint to the list proving we were right. No one was ever calm. It was a battle of attrition. It wasn’t really about changing anything, though we hoped we could. Twitter’s a perfect place for that.

He also had the expectations of the old doctor who fans to keep up with on top of new viewers, even though the Davies era has most of the same problems. Running two super popular shows with mega fandoms magnified the exposure so much it was basically an ant against a magnifying glass in terms of numbers. So eventually he left twitter and kept show running, but a lot of people didn’t see series 8-10 of DW to see how the show changed, nevermind what’s going on with Sherlock lol. The scriptwriting process for the two is also so different there’s no comparing them but the callouts surrounding Sherlock are a different story. It started with doctor who coming to america, which no one should ever do.

[mj-spooks]

Okay this is apparently a thing so

Vox Machina, Episode 2: thoughts from someone who has never engaged with Critical Role beyond the bare minimum interaction w cosplaying friends and tumblr posts

- Sorry sorry I just. Cannot get over them having David “would blow away in a stiff breeze” Tennant voice this absolute unit of a General. That is. incredibly funny. to me. But also I... love him?

- “A storm’s blowing through tonight” with a knowing little grin DID I MANAGE TO, IN A SINGLE EPISODE, WITH VERY LITTLE SCREENTIME, DECIDE I LIKED A CHARACTER WHO IS SECRETLY A BAD GUY. AGAIN.

- In my defense! If I did! This time he’s voiced by David Tennant and I am. weak.

- I think you’re gonna need more soldiers there guys

- Yeah and through that whole thing, the general was MYSTERIOUSLY ABSENT. I’m right aren’t I. It’s okay show you can tell me now.

- And oh look he survived with barely a scratch even tho last we saw him he went into his tent and the whole camp was burned. I’m calling it I can’t help it guys I love betrayers and mutineers

- We appreciate the enthusiasm Scanlan but y’all are. A bit late.

- Okay okay okay so. If I’m right. Are Krieg and Sketchy Dude in it together, or is Sketchy Dude a red herring. They want to handle the issue very different ways, is this just to keep the council fighting about it while the dragon kills shit? But also Sketchy Dude seems almost TOO sketchy and this was a ttrpg and we all know how DM’s LOVE to make That One Sketchy NPC to throw the players off.

- I want Sketchy Dude to be not actually sketchy.

- Everybody loves the bear

- “I didn’t catch anybody’s name” MOOD GROG. MOOD.

- Did I mention that I also love flamboyant dramatic merchants?

- So did Vex send Pike with Vax just to make sure her brother didn’t get distracted with the merchant because if they flirted any harder their clothes would literally just melt off

- “foreplay’s over” Pike you’re no fun

- Scanlan no

- “Dick for brains” seems generous tbh

- Grog you are a braver man than I, for I would certainly not partake in any ale that Scanlan had thrown himself into

- Okay no Sketchy Dude (I know his name is Fince now but he’s still Sketchy Dude) is almost definitely a red herring they are playing this Spooky Ooky thing WAY too hard.

- SCANLAN YOU BETTER GET GROG A SANDWICH

- okay guys crisis averted Grog got a sandwich

- Grog wanting a sandwich made me want a sandwich and so now I’m eating Real Food. The Legend of Vox Machina therefore is self-care thank you for coming to my TEDtalk.

- the least surprising thing ever is Scanlan’s door-opening song clearly being a sex joke. But I posit the only reason it didn’t work is because that’s obviously the front door, dummy.

- Are all of his songs like this? I can’t decide if I want the answer to be yes or no. But I have a feeling the answer is probably “at least a vast majority” so I’m going to decide I want them to be so it’s funny and not annoying.

- okay THANK YOU VAX because I was LITERALLY over here like “aren’t you a rogue? don’t you pick locks?” bonus points for chekov’s toothpicks justifying the sandwich that Grog so rightly deserved.

- Ah yes, the extremely ostentatious painting hung in the foyer so everyone knows how big and important I am. Elegant.

- “Or maybe we all just go check the cellar” Look Vax not all of us can roll great all the time okay

- Scanlan’s insults would all be very slut-shame-y if he were not, in fact, the biggest slut of them all.

- CALLED IT

- Ah, predictable character preferences, you never let me down

- OSTENTATIOUS PAINTING IN THE FOYER HAS BEEN OVERSHADOWED BY SEXY NAKED LADY PAINTING OHMYGODS

- Percy why would you ever tell a guy like Grog “don’t touch anything” that is the quickest way to make him touch something

- Oh good, distracted by the one thing in the room he literally CAN’T touch and in fact it is of benefit for him to’ve been distracted by, WHICH HAPPENS TO BE THE SEXY NAKED LADY OF COURSE

- DRAGON LAIR DRAGON LAIR DRAGON LAIR

- Love how Scanlan is the very essence of Bard Stereotypes and Vax consistently is the opposite of Rogue Stereotypes. Sure, hand the random child a silver coin, be more level-headed and reliable than the rest of the party, barely react to the giant piles of dragon gold compared to the almost whole rest of your party.

- I mean he is still stealing shit but. He didn’t race down the hill and start swimming in it like the rest of them.

- Vex. I appreciate you figuring it out. But why did it take that long.

- “Did he just say we” YEAH PERC GLAD YOU CAUGHT THAT TOO BECAUSE I’M-

- MOTHER FUCKERS HE *IS* THE DRAGON? OKAY DIDN’T SEE THAT ONE COMING.

- They did not just cast David “disappears when he turns to the side” Tennant to play a Big Muscular Beefy General THEY CAST HIM AS A HUGE FUCKOFF DRAGON this is hilarious

- Brimscythe is a fucking bitchin’ dragon name

- “I’ve got a plan” “Another one?!” look technically the last plan did put you right where you need to be in order to fulfill your contract. so.

- lmaooo dragon too arrogant to realize IT WAS ALL A RUSE

- YEET THE ROGUE

- “I. WOULD LIKE. TO RAAAAAAAAAAAAGE!”

- “Is he dead” I mean his head is in two pieces down the middle but maybe smash it a bit more to be sure

- One of two things is about to happen, either they’re gonna race to get out and then go “SHIT WE DIDN’T TAKE ANY GOLD” or, exactly that same thing happens but one of the party members casually slips a coin purse somewhere the others can’t see it like Altivo at the end of The Road to El Dorado.

- Oh no did Vex just. Straight up have an armful of gold? Hilarious.

- Scanlan also had gold but DROPPED IT YOU IDIOT

- Honorary members of the council seems like a bit much

- NO GOLD ALSKDJFASDKLJFASDLKF

- I mean... you’ll have a house? That’s... not nothing, at least? And “protectors” implies future work which implies pay? I assume?

- “Several dignitaries” hm I feel. like. this. will introduce the Briarwoods.

- *spongebob timecard voiceover* Two. Seconds. Later.

- Y’all some stupid bandits. To any and all aspiring bandits out there, if you pull over some super rich looking fucks to rob and they can’t be arsed to seem a little worried, you should probably just. let them go.

- Dude was already built like a brick house like it’s not as though he’s. not. intimidating.

- Anyway I know nothing about WHY the Briarwoods are bad I just know they are and it has something to do with Percy and he would very much like them dead.