#the toymaker alluded to in the specials

[frog-on-leaf]

THAT WAS THE TOYMAKER’S GIGGLE COME ON NOW

[asoulwithadream]

Right!

This may be a Doctor Who spoiler, since it's a theory that could spoil a potential plot point, so read at your own risk. But if you like being delusional, keep reading.

I NEED EVERYONE ON THIS EARTH TO WATCH THIS VIDEO RIGHT NOW. AND FOLLOW @ jeopardyfriendly ON TIKTOK

For those who can't, I'll summarise the points here: Essentially what Hazel (the OP) is theorising is that ROSE TYLER IS COMING BACK.

We've all noticed a lot of RTD references and ideas being reused in the specials and the old series, right? What was the first ever reference in the Star Beast? "ROSE, ROOOOSE"

In the Giggle, the Toymaker used ROSE petals

Allegedly, the store at the beginning of the Christmas episode with that big inflatable snowman is Henrik's. And who worked at Henrik's? ROSE TYLER

Hazel pointed out that Ruby Sunday and Rose Tyler also share a few things in common: - 19 years old - Bleach blonde - Working class - Parent(s) she never knew - Four letter first name beginning with 'R' that means something usually red.

They also make a few other visual points about costumes that are similar and so what, as well as episodes that correlate with similar ideas from his old runs.

But it may just be RTD reusing ideas, right? It could be, or it could just be him making us think that, because why would he reuse the idea for Mickey's band for Ruby, right? No reason, right?

Now, here comes the exciting part. We do not know who Ruby's MOTHER is. We know that there is something special with Ruby, that doesn't make sense. We also have been hinted about the Doctor and Ruby's mother having some form of connection. The changing memory plot and the pointing definitely alludes to the mother being someone we know.

She's important. Now, let me ask you this, repeating what Hazel has so eloquently put:

Who in the Whoniverse had a baby girl. ROSE. FUCKING. TYLER. AND TENTOO.

The underlying theory is that: Rose Tyler is coming back, she's the secret mother of Ruby Sunday, and Ruby is the Doctor's pseudo-daughter.

There is a reason they're connecting so quickly, there's a reason they're so similar, there's a reason that in this Universe they unwillingly sought each other out.

I may be delusional for believing in this, I may just be raising my hopes up for no reason, but IMAGINE THE POSSIBILITIES.

(And it didn't help that Billie Piper accessorised herself with ROSES for the BAFTAs.)

**OBSERVATIONS BY ME: Parents, I've noticed that's a theme. With the space babies, and Ruby, and in Boom. Parents.... Parentage....

[jupiter049]

While I'm excited for 'Empire Of Death' I am somewhat nervious (like many) because Russel's doesn't always land with the second parts, specially with how he makes the enemies being defeated. Mostly having little to no build-up, acting as borderline deux-ex machinas.

And this one is going to be HARD to justify, because we are talking about someone stronger than The Toymaker and Maestro, has no glaring weakness, has possessed The Tardis, and judging from the trailers Sutekh will destroy earth early on (meaning they will have to excuse how the destruction is undone).

At the very least, if it has to be one, there's already enough wibbly wobbly technobabble this season that makes me hope that the way Sutekh is defeated is more aligned with 'Last Of The Time-Lords' (alluded in an early episode even if vaguely and also ties thematically to the series themes) and not 'Journey's End' (100% and completely pulled out of nowhere and ends up being the whole reason entire arcs are finished no matter if it makes sense or not).

[denimbex1986]

'Has it really been more than a year since we bid Jodie Whittaker farewell in a special episode laden with old-Who references that had to be liveblogged because we weren’t sure if we were going to get David Tennant or Ncuti Gatwa at the end of it?

It really has. But after a fourth-wall busting “new viewers start here” sequence, Russell T Davies, Tennant and Catherine Tate wasted no time in getting on with a whole new era of Who, now being made by Bad Wolf Studios and distributed by Disney globally, and with a visibly big hike in the budget.

We’ve been promised a big bold reimagining of the show for this second Davies era, and while this wasn’t quite that, it felt like a more-than-solid “holiday” special. Davies said at the launch he wanted it to be like a Pixar movie, with laughs as well as scares that the whole family could watch together. It successfully bolted a Sarah Jane Adventures-ish monster story involving kids on to an emotional reintroduction to Tennant and Tate.

Miriam Margolyes’s voice coupled with the Meep’s appearance was adorable, and the “Most High” of the Meeps remained a cutie even when they turned bloodthirsty. Another highlight was having Jacqueline King back as Sylvia Noble. During his initial turn as showrunner, Davies created memorable but somewhat abrasive mothers for the Doctor’s Earth companions, but King got a chance here to show a greater range and more sympathy for her daughter’s plight.

Yasmin Finney as Rose was a bright and kindly presence. The bores who thought the Whittaker era was too “woke” – whatever that means in the context of a science fantasy show that has always pushed stories with progressive values – will be choking on the scene where the Doctor is chastised by her for assuming the Meep’s pronouns.

Does the bigger budget show up on screen? You bet. The producers of Doctor Who in the 70s would have bitten your arm off to stage the kind of drone-shot street battle scene we saw here. The centrepiece, though, was the relationship between the Doctor and Donna, and it was genuinely lovely watching Tennant and Tate rebuild that spark.

Sum it up in one sentence? The Meep steals the show as the 14th Doctor crashes back into the life of Donna Noble and her entertaining family.

Life aboard the Tardis We didn’t get much inside the Tardis, but we did get a new Tardis inside, and wow, what a beauty. It is packed full of “the round things” and harks back to the classic era more than any Tardis interior since the 2005 revival. It was, apparently, Tennant’s own idea to do all the running round on the ramps, an idea that Davies said seemed less fun for the actor by the eighth take.

Fear factor The Star Beast was based on a comic book, and these were very much comic-book villains. There weren’t really any frightening moments, unless you truly feared that Donna might die – despite knowing that Tate is in the next two specials. And you definitely couldn’t fear the Wrarth Warriors after they opened their mouths to reveal plummy voices that would have happily featured in Doctor Who in 1963.

Mysteries and questions We still don’t know why that face for the 14th Doctor, we don’t know how Unit has reconfigured itself since being disbanded in Resolution and then time-manipulated during Flux, we don’t know where the Tardis is heading next and we don’t know who the boss is that the Meep alluded to. Well, OK, we probably do, as we know Neil Patrick Harris is in the third special as the Toymaker, and the three specials probably tie together.

Deeper into the vortex The Star Beast is based on a 1980 comic strip in Doctor Who magazine that originally featured the fourth Doctor, Beep the Meep and the Wrarth Warriors. It was written by Pat Mills who created 2000AD and John Wagner, the co-creator of Judge Dredd, and was beautifully drawn by Dave Gibbons, who is probably best known for his work with Alan Moore on Watchmen. It has long been considered a classic by the DW fanbase, and the plot of children discovering a crash-landed alien and hiding it pre-dates Steven Spielberg’s ET by a couple of years. But unlike Beep the Meep, ET didn’t want to drink anybody’s blood.

We heard about Wilf being in sheltered accommodation, and we know the late Bernard Cribbins filmed scenes last year, but he didn’t appear in this. Tennant said in April they weren’t able to film as much with Cribbins as had been intended. Hopefully we will get to see the wonderful old storyteller’s final appearance in the Whoniverse in the next couple of weeks – after all, Cribbins first stepped into the Tardis in the 1966 Daleks’ Invasion Earth 2150 AD movie, and it would be a lovely 60th anniversary treat and tribute to see him one last time.

If you are wondering why Tennant had a new sonic screwdriver since Power of the Doctor was broadcast, Doctor Who magazine has been publishing a 14th Doctor comic story – Liberation of the Daleks – which picked up directly from the regeneration scene and led in to last week’s Skaro-based Children in Need skit, and has seen Jodie Whittaker’s sonic screwdriver design come a cropper. Twice. All the people who hate the sonic being waved around so much in modern Who are probably not going to like the new features it had in this episode.

Next time At the time of writing there hadn’t been a standalone trailer for Wild Blue Yonder, and so, dear reader, you might already know more than the Guardian. Davies has said the episode is ��weird” and really stretched the design team to realise what was on the page. Tennant has said it is “unlike any Doctor Who episode ever”, and the latest issue of Doctor Who magazine redacted the guest cast. So who knows. See you next week – allons-y!'

[mlmdarkfiction]

OCtober Shipping; Day 14: Campfire

Ship: Izek Strazni x Nitewater

Note: DID Y’ALL REALLY THINK I’D DO OCTOBER AND NOT INCLUDE MY FAVORITE DND MODULE?? This actually isn’t a canon ship in any of my CoS games but...it should be tbh. Also this was so cute but then Izek’s Izekness ruined it by making it dark. 

Read on AO3: Read Below:

Izek stares across the roaring fire at the party he’s found himself a part of. He didn’t plan on caring about them, and in reality he doesn’t. He only cares about one of them. And the reason why alludes even him.

The whole point of traveling with the party was added protection in return for finding his sister. But the more he traveled with them, the more he found he no longer cared about finding her. It had been years, he reasoned with himself, of course he would stop wanting to find her eventually. She may not even still be alive, after all, the Barovian wilderness was brutal. Izek knew this first hand.

But at the end of the day he knows it’s not simply his getting over the disappearance of his sister that has changed his priorities. He knows this because his dreams, the one’s he had since he was a boy and his sister had disappeared, had changed.

He no longer dreams about his sister, but now he dreams about her .

Nite had shown him nothing but kindness from the beginning. That’s what had caught him off guard. The citizens of Vallaki,  the Baron, and even the other party members all kept cautious of him both due to his size and intimidating abilities thanks to his demonic arm, but not Nitewater.

Something drew him to her the first moment they’d met. As he led the group around the city of Vallaki he’d seen the way her eyes lingered by the toy shop, and despite himself, later that day when she and her friends were held up at the Blue Water Inn he’d gone back to the toy store, and bought her something from inside. Well...Bought was a strong word. He did as he always did, threatening the clockwork toymaker with burning down his store if he did not give Izek what he wanted.

But still, the way her eyes lit up when he’d given her the toy, a miniature gallows set with a weighted hanged man, made him feel as if he’d done the right thing.

“Me? Mine?” She’d asked, and when he’d confirmed she caught him off guard completely by wrapping her arms around him in a hug.

He didn’t return it at the time. He couldn’t. Izek was far too shocked. Truly, he could not remember the last time showed him true affection, even if this was only from gratitude.

Maybe that’s why he’d decided to join them in their journey, more than just wanting to see his sister. He knows what happens to travelers in the mist, Nite and her friends are in no way the first to find themselves in Barovia, and they won’t be the last.

This land will chew her up and spit her out, and if she survives, there’s no way she’ll be the same.

That’s why he puts his life on the line to save hers. Everytime.

Izek never imagined putting the life of someone else above his own. Even the Baron. He thought that if the towns people ever revolted against the Baron, if his men couldn’t quench such a thing, he would leave. Flee with his life into the night. He held no loyalty to men, nor monster.

And yet, he’d gone down in the last battle all to protect her. He’d put himself between the druid and a rabid direwolf, allowing the animal to go for his own throat instead of hers, and although he had managed to cleave the animal in twane with his battle axe, he was still bleeding too hard himself to remain conscious.

He’s not sure what it was that made him come to. Likely a mix of the salty tears hitting his face, or the panicked words a jumble of Common and Elvish, or the way Nite was absolutely shoving berries (From the spell Goodberry) into his mouth. Either way the shock of it all had caused him to panic and shoved her away from him. Sitting up despite the excruciating pain.  

It was the first time he had scene Nitewater cry, and it was for him. She had cried for him, a man considered by most to be more monster than man. He decided then that he hated to see her cry, especially if he were the cause of it, but he couldn’t, no wouldn’t stop protecting her.

That’s why when the party says they want to fight Strahd to find a way home, he puts his foot down. They can’t. It’s a deathwish. Many had tried, and died for such a stupid cause. He wouldn’t allow Nite to simply die like all the others because of some silly dream of returning home.

Their best bet, the parties best bet, was simply to settle down in Barovia living the rest of their lives here, the best they could.

They don’t listen to Izek. They think that they’re somehow special, somehow better than the countless other adventurers who’ve made their way here, and died here.

Izek drops it, hands gripped into tight fists, ignoring the urge to use his demon hand right then and there, burning them to a crisp for being willing to so foolishly throw the life of Nitewater away, and ultimately for nothing.

If they won’t protect her, he will, and he does.

That night Izek takes watch, waiting until the others fall into deep sleep and Nitewater begins to trance, and then he acts.

It’s easy, like unsuspecting sleeps to the slaughter. He murders them all in their beds, axe cutting throw their necks so quickly they don’t even know it happens.

There are no screams, no looks of betrayals from a group of people who had accepted Izek as one of their own, and even if there had been, Izek simply doesn’t care. The party were nothing more than a danger, getting in the way of his one true goal.

He was never one of them, not truly.

Izek wipes the blade of his weapon clean, sitting across the fire from the unaware trancing Nite. She’ll be upset when she wakes, he knows it, but she can’t be upset forever.

It was for her own safety after all. Once she is calm, if she calms, they’ll return to Vallaki, somewhere where Izek has status and power.

Somewhere Izek can keep her locked away and safe, and no one will be the wiser, or at the very least if they are aware, they will be too afraid of Izek to do anything about it.