#kovarian

[trucywright]

i finished listening to the third river song audio which features kovarian. some interesting details/info

river has at least 2 sets of siblings who were made from her embryonic dna. they share bio-energy signatures and are slightly telepathic with each other

the first set escaped after demon’s run. one became a religious cult leader and convinced the others that they should die and regenerate constantly.

the leader is lake, who regenerates into lily. river meets lily then finds lake who kills lily. river kills lake who then regenerates. the sheer despair river has about this is immense.

river had told lily that she was safe and river wouldn’t let anything hurt her ever again.

she also was the one to name lily.

river was looking for them because she was tired of being alone. she describes the doctor as a ghost who comes in and out of her life when he pleases.

she calls up the 5th doctor to travel with him and he doesn’t question it at all?? he legit just agrees and let’s her on board.

river is the reason the doctor says “timey wimey.”

the second set of river siblings includes brooke, who’s sent to be the 5th doctor’s companion and then kills him in a restaurant outside time and space.

she tried killing him before this too due to a potion that kills based on if someone hates you. this failed because river loved the doctor back to life.

one of river’s other sisters gets really into the idea of rewards point cards. at the end, river asks the 5th doctor to drop her sister off at a rewards card planet.

river can’t kill kovarian. kovarian programmed river and her siblings so if they try to harm her, they’ll always miss or mess up in some other way.

the implication is that kovarian raised river then put her in the spacesuit and sent her to the orphanage. she was never in the orphanage and outside the suit simultaneously before the doctor arrives.

river lists experiences that her parents missed from her childhood. kovarian says “i deserved them” and calls herself river’s mum.

river’s bedroom was called the nightmare room by kovarian. it’s filled with toys that are also weapons.

river says she knew how to use throwing stars before she could walk, and kovarian says her first words were “kill the doctor.”

kovarian casually uses electric shock to torture river’s sisters. the nightmare room is also now a punishment room if the sisters disobey her.

the sisters join up at the end and defeat kovarian. brooke is intending to indirectly torture kovarian with an electric room for the rest of her life, since none of them can directly attack her. kovarian pathetically begs river to save her but river walks away.

[expectiations]

Kovarian: I hate you with every inch of my body. River: That's not a lot of inches.

[notyoujamie]

Reality bleeding through.

[mndvx]

– You took my baby from me and hurt her. And now she's all grown up and she's fine. But I'll never see my baby again. – But you'll still save me, though... Because he would. And you'd never do anything to disappoint your precious Doctor... DOCTOR WHO — The Wedding of River Song (S06E13) directed by Jeremy Webb | written by Steven Moffat ››› Karen Gillan as Amy Pond ››› Frances Barber as Madame Kovarian ››› Arthur Darvill as Rory Williams

[corallapis]

rewatched space babies just now and the 'they're inside the tv show' theory is making a whole lot of sense. hitting all the beats of what feels like quintessential dw, but kind of oddly fitted together. the 'last of the time lords' lore dump, sonic-ing the phone to call mum, the tardis translation/the nanny filter, 'every story needs a hero,' the doctor saving the monster/'you save them all,' giving the tardis key, 'tell your mum not to slap me,' scanning the companion without her knowledge... and the snow/memory scene is a literal flashback, just with the characters remembering what the tv showed us.

[seaweedstarshine]

“They engineered a psychopath to kill you.” “Totally married her. I'd never have made it here alive without River Song.”

Sources: Let's Kill Hitler, Diary of River Song: My Dinner With Andrew, Closing Time, The Husbands of River Song, Diary of River Song: The Furies, Diary of River Song: Animal Instinct, The Ruby's Curse, Time of the Doctor

[riversongsource]

I'm River Song. Check your records again.

[acetheta]

constantly thinking about the way river looks at madam kovarian

[giddyaunt425]

Big Finish really had our boy Five get shot and die while in his UNDERWEAR. The Diary of River Song has been a WILD listen.

[theranilord]

Do you think the Kovarian Chapter realized that, by creating River, she became the only other person who could be flying the tardis while the doctor was in the Pandorica....

[paxbe]

steven moffat has a lot to answer for in his poor writing of women but his worst crime is what he did to river song

he took a very cool and interesting woman with an unexplored plotline that had limitless potential and turned her into another of his two-dimensional sexy-woman-who-could-shoot-you archetypes. her plotline also falls victim one of his repeated attempts to craft an exciting mystery with a plot twist which ended up being needlessly convoluted and somehow condescending almost, by neglecting to give river her own meaningful journey and centring her existence around creating puzzles for the doctor to solve

[trucywright]

mhm the temptation to write a river fic about her growing up and becoming river song using my retcon where let’s kill hitler isn’t a single day and mels breaking from kovarian takes a longer time.

[doctorfriend79]

A Good Man Goes To War

[doctor-who-binge]

It makes little sense that they let Amy ever see her daughter. It makes no sense to: let Amy name her daughter; let Amy breastfeed her, since Melody calls her "big milk thing"; or to take any pictures of the two together, as shown in Melody's orphan home room in the Day of the Moon 2 parter. It doesn't even make sense than Mels would know Amy & Rory are her parents unless the Kovarian Chapter wanted her to know for some odd reason? They could have made Amy give birth then taken her away immediately never letting Amy see her. (And probably killed Amy directly after) Maybe thats a bit too realistic, extra traumatic, and harsh for a PG-13 show though.

[hitchell-mope]

Two observations. A headcanon. And an unpopular opinion.

Observation 1. From 2005-2017. Each regeneration episode features some form of time loop. Bad Wolf sent its message through time and space to lead Rose to it. The time lords in the time war sent the drum beat to infect Yana as a child to break them out of the time lock. The Kovarian Chapter went back along Eleven’s time stream to make sure he never made it to Trenzalore but he still made it to Trenzalore because of River. And One and Twelve decided to finally regenerate after being reminded why they carry on thanks to each other.

Observation 2. As far as Donna’s probably concerned. Time lords are almost definitely like worms. Because she’s never seen a proper regeneration in person. She saw the metacrisis. And she saw the bigeneration. She’s never seen the full change on screen. So in a way. Donna was right. For all she’s aware of. Time lords are almost definitely like worms.

Headcanon. Fourteen is Rose’s Uncle John in public. Like when they go bowling or to Frankie and Benny’s for dinner. Fifteen is Rose’s cousin Jj. John Noble Junior. He took objection to being Fourteen’s son because he is clearly older. But he got outvoted.

Unpopular opinion. I actually love the Unit Tower. After all the shit Kate got put through with the serpent, the flux and the giggle she deserves to have a nice big fancy building to protect the world in when the Doctor’s not around. Kate’s, shall we say, overzealous hiring methods aside. Unit should have the resources and funding to do their job without the government and its bureaucracy interfering. And I hope the Doctor gets his paycheque. Plus. I also hope that Kate and Ibrahim are together. God knows she deserves a love life. Especially after all she’s been through.

[thingsasbarcodes]

Doctor Who 6x07 - A Good Man Goes to War