#ships I don’t like but wish I could

[thirdeyeblue]

“Nine would have treated Martha better than Ten did”

I need to talk about this argument that never seems to stop circulating.

Note: Not a venomous/anti post. There’s more than enough of that across fandom spaces as is, and this is supposed to be a place for ✨sweet, blissful escapism✨

When making this argument, people seem to envision a scenario in which Nine never met Rose.

While I can appreciate a good hypothetical, recognizing Rose's significance to the Doctor (Nine and Ten) is essential to understanding why things with Martha played out the way they did in the first place.

In the third series, the Doctor is grieving. This grief is deliberately threaded into nearly every script, whether spoken aloud or not (and these are just a few examples):

He's burning in Rose’s wake the entire time Martha travels with him, which is why it’s so frequently called upon: It’s 100% deliberate in framing his grief. He grieved as Nine too, of course— having been fresh on the heels of the Time War — but then he met Rose, which changed everything.

Back then, he was still a rude, traumatized pain in the ass, but we watch Rose soften more of those jagged edges with every episode as they grow closer; as he lets his guard down and forms a deep connection with her.

He falls in love (against his better judgment) and it's game over.

And yes: provided S1E1 had been titled 'Martha', one can realistically assume things might have unfolded similarly to how they did with Rose. However, it wouldn’t have been that way just because the Doctor was Nine and “Nine was different” — it would be because he wasn’t already in love with someone else. The same can't be said for the start of S3.

Think of it like this: if Rose AND Martha had been in that cellar — if Nine had taken both of them along with him in S1 — we’d eventually be looking at the most melodramatic love triangle ever, what with him living in close quarters with two brilliant, gorgeous, compassionate young women... But Doctor Who is plenty “soap opera” as is with just one woman in the TARDIS.

(I certainly wouldn’t object to reading that fic, though)

Now, regarding the unrequited elephant in the room…

His inability to be romantic with Martha isn’t because he thinks her lesser, nor is it for lack of compatibility. It isn't because Rose is any better than her. It certainly isn’t just because he’s Ten.

It’s really only for one reason, which can't be denied — and now I’m a broken record:

He is still in love with Rose.

(cut from a tenrosedaily gif)

Nine is Ten, and Ten is only such a mess in S3 because he’s just lost the love of his life. Martha merely got caught in the crosshairs of a volatile Time Lord in mourning, and yes — it sucks. Absolutely.

But it also feels dismissive to chalk Ten and Martha’s relationship up to little more than some sort of mindless dance of pining, jealousy, and toxicity.

Ten trusted Martha with his life over and over again — and hers, with him. He constantly praised her brilliance, happily carting her around time and space with no intention of letting her go. In the BBC’s extended universe of novels/comics/cartoons/etc, there’s so much depth to their relationship: love and trust and trauma and sacrifice. They had their own special bond as mates, their own complexities — so it’s a bummer that it's forever overshadowed by the other things.

I’m not denying that there was a lot of stuff that sucked/was for sure toxic about Ten's S3 behavior, but so many of the things I've seen him catching flak for can be directly attributed to being A Clueless Fucking Alien Idiot (not a trait that’s unique to Ten) — as well as his flat-out obliviousness to Martha’s feelings.

So yes, I agree: if Rose never existed, he would have treated Martha differently as Nine. He also would have treated her differently as Ten. Certainly.

But Rose did exist, and when discussing canon, it matters.

“He tells me that he absolutely, 100% loves Rose... He tells me how my daughter; my wonderful, beautiful, clever little girl saved him from himself before… And he says that’s all because of me! I made her into the Rose Tyler that saved him.”

-Jackie Tyler, Flight Into Hull!

Martha got the short end of the stick in S3. She came round at the wrong place and time, but that doesn't mean it was all bad. It doesn't mean the Doctor didn’t adore her. It certainly doesn't mean the time they spent together was wasted or worthless. They were brilliant!

Sure, he could be a twat, but let it be known that he was a twat with Rose as well, both as Nine and Ten. I’m sure Tentoo can be plenty infuriating, too. So while I'll defend Ten (and Tentoo) into the ground forever and ever and ever, I'll concede that he's fucked up.

The Doctor is a certified Pain In The Ass. It’s one of the things I love so much about this character — dynamics.

But never forget that Martha was goddamn tough as nails and overcame every bit of it. She moved on with her life, and the Doctor moved on with his. One can only pray that, when they inevitably drag her back onto the show (which feels inevitable if I'm honest), we see at once that she's been living her best life for all these years.

[flowersintheimpala69]

Born to write incest on tumblr forced to disapprove of wincest on TikTok

[andreil1003]

I wish people could tag stuff better:( Like damn I was just like 76% through a 120,000 word andreil fic and it was so good but then they threw in a past andrew/kevin storyline and I couldn’t finish it. I’m all for people liking what they like and i’m not mad that they wrote that or whatever bc it’s not my place but I just wish it had been tagged bc then I would have just skipped it.

[deus-ex-mona]

for the record, this is a ✨nagisa safe space✨

~~please dni if you dislike nagisa and/or nghy~~

[astraltravelerjayden]

What if

I like the idea of Prismo, and Scarab being latched onto each other, and rarely letting go when they get more comfortable

But what if when they have space apart like in this case they are in the same room

They are focusing on their own projects, or whatever they are doing and Prismo stops what he is doing randomly to give Scarab some quick affection

Cause I do this. I’ll be somewhat focused on something but I’ll stop for less than a minute to give my cat affection randomly, and poke her

So what if he did this. Like he kinda feels like procrastinating something, but needs to push through. So he gets randomly getting up, and walking to Scarab to like give a little kiss on the forehead, or cheek. Maybe a quick hug, and poke him a little

I just like to poke my cat sometimes. I boop her nose, poke her cheeks, poke her forehead. Earlier I poked her from her back to her head. She doesn’t get mad at me for this btw. She is very calm, loving, and lets me do a lot. I give her lots of pets

I just think it would be funny I guess if Prismo just randomly pokes Scarab a few times for no reason

[jemmo]

no you don’t understand. if i watch the last ep of we are, that means it’s the last time tan and fang will be on my screen, and i honestly don’t think i can continue living after that

[sweetanyways]

hot take but i feel like thomas and teresa’s relationship is actually pretty important and also fundamental to thomas’s character

[buddiebitch]

i would like to be normal about ships but unfortunately i have a visceral reaction every time i see a BT edit

[silkjade]

i wish i were more versed in topics of music and music theory because i’d love to be able to delve into the semantics as to Why a certain song fits into my selfship !

[hyperfocusthusly]

I just don’t understand how I’m supposed to explain that you’re supposed to care about other people

[umemiyan]

i wanna do something fun for people but idk what!!

[henrysglock]

maybe the real byIer was the henwiIl we found along the way, which was actually just brennry the whole time.

[theromanticrationalist]

Actually watching Big Bang Theory, and I am Shamy trash now. My neurodivergent king and queen! 😍

[agerefandom]

Oof slogging through fandoms that had most of their fics written in 2013 really makes me appreciate how good we have it now

[loderlied]

posting on here is like my sisyphean boulder i'm constantly rolling tbh

[earmo-imni]

Wtf did I like to get so much davekat on my for you tab…is all this really just from those goofy karkat jr/rose jr shitposts I was looking at the other day???? Or is it just homestuck in general???