#theres a lot of missed potential there

[kiwibirdlafayette]

ive mentioned that when mianite was happening i was deep in my lotr/hobbit hyperfixation. i failed to mention the vocaloid obsession as well

[transgenderdoctorwhomst-old]

So I've spent the past like, two weeks, trying to dissect with my partner what exactly is making 13's first season so... uninteresting and even just bad to us. And today I've finally figured it out!

Obviously just my opinions, disclaimer I've only watched up to the end of Spyfall, this is not intended as hate but rather criticism, and you are completely free to disagree or just ignore the whole post..

I'm going to put this under a cut in order to not take up the whole dash. Topics: The Doctor's autism, and the dynamics between 13 and her companions. So, let's start!

The failure to characterize 13 consistently with past incarnations, especially in regards to the Doctor's naturally rebellious nature and extremely visible autism.

As someone who's autistic, the very very consistent autistic traits in the Doctor are always extremely obvious. And for an incarnation written with that in mind, you'd think that it would be consistent, right?

But here's where something major about the Doctor is missing: so far, as of the end of Spyfall part 2, I have rarely seen 13 engage extensively with her special interests. The only examples I can think of are when she meets Rosa Parks, visits Kerblam!, and when she meets the Solitract.

The Doctor has a strong tendency to get so caught up in their special interests that they basically will not shut up about it when it comes up, often rambling without fully checking if someone is actually listening. I... feel like I rarely see 13 do it that much? Sure, she's happy to explain things when she's asked, and she clearly has special interests, the sheer prevalence it should have in how she engages with the world is just... not really there.

The lack of it makes it feel like her character is missing something major, and was hard to put together that it was this specifically that was bothering me. I can think of a million examples of each Doctor respectively engaging with their special interests near constantly, but it feels like it's hardly there for 13 in comparison.

As for her rebellious nature, 13 has so far been remarkably passive about capitalistic crimes. I'm sure we all remember her and Kerblam!. And the spiders in the hotel. You would expect the Doctor to challenge the systems that caused those respective problems, encourage the people in those systems to fix it, but she just sort of... doesn't.

She doesn't care the warehouse employees have to save up miniscule wages just to see their family once a year, that they're tracked and constantly under threat of losing what little income they have, that even though society has progressed so this can all be automated, the powers that be are not adapting with that to provide basic necessities to the public, and instead are telling everyone they're lucky if they get to be indentured to Kerblam!. The Doctor stops a man from committing terrorism (because all protesters of these systems are also serial killer terrorists, clearly), and then doesn't stop to deal with the root cause. She just tells him he's wrong, is satisfied the company will hire more humans (put more people in the meat grinder), and leaves.

The spiders episode is a whole thing, focusing more on the side effects of the actual problem, which is capitalist businessmen cutting corners for profit and ignoring regulations, and getting away with it. The message of the episode at the end comes out as "you shouldn't actively kill any living thing for any reason", citing trapping the spiders in a room to die as more humane. But I would strongly disagree.

The humane thing to do for those spiders, who were mutated, suffering, and having a negative impact on both the local spiders and humans, would have been to swiftly kill them. The Doctor cares more about not feeling bad about killing the spiders than the system that made this happen in the first place, or ending their suffering, which feels wildly out of character.

2. The companions don't feel like they have a lot going on, and lack the kind of strange connection past companions have.

So, Graham Ryan and Yaz are all kind of just boring. I see the dynamics and relationships they're supposed to have with each other, but none of it feels compelling. I don't feel any connection to them.

At first, I thought that it was because Chibnall introduced three companions in the first episode. It's definitely a contribution, since having to introduce four major characters compared to one or two isn't the easiest thing to do. But it's possible.

Torchwood introduces six characters to us at the start: five members of Torchwood 3, and Gwen. Every single character feels distinctive, they have clashing personalities that also bounce of each other. The introduction feels great, and you can immediately watch their characters develop and change over the course of the first season.

The Doctor and the Fam? I literally cannot tell you distinctive personality traits about each of them besides basic vibes. It took until Spyfall for them to start feeling distinct. I can't tell you major flaws, major anything. I can barely describe their respective relationships to the Doctor, besides "weird friend with the time machine we know nothing about."

The single thing portrayed as a flaw in the Doctor is that she doesn't like talking about herself unprompted. They don't know a lot about her, but in her defence, they barely ask.

Past companions in New Who always have some strange relationship with the Doctor. Rose is having a situationship with him after he blew up her workplace, and has complex feelings about how travelling with him affects her life at home. Martha is having this weird situation where he's using her to fill the gap left by Rose, while trying to keep his distance, and Martha is just trying to figure out how the fuck to get him to look at her as her own person. Donna decided she wanted more in life, and by god was she going to grab the Doctor and take it, assigning herself his new best friend.

Amy met the Doctor as a child, obsessed over him for 14 years, ran away with him before her wedding, and then dragged Rory along, and ended up with the weirdest family dynamics possible. Rory isn't sure how to feel about the Doctor, and the two of them for some reason take turns being the "mature" one. Clara is overly dedicated to him and deeply enjoys the power trip that comes along with having time travel.

I can't speak about Bill or Nardole, because I haven't actually met them, but I know there's some kind of dynamic going on there.

The point is, every individual has some kind of distinctive and very strange relationship with the Doctor, from the very start. Friends, but something else. Romantically interested in each other, but dancing around that boundary. The 13th Doctor has absolutely nothing strange or compelling with hers so far.

Like, I could think of at least some with what we have! 13 decides Graham is her grandson, because Ryan and Yaz have a grandparent figure, but Graham doesn't, and then extends that to Ryan with deciding to be a great-great-grandparent figure to him.

At least in her first season, she doesn't seem opposed at all to a relationship with Yaz. The Doctor is notoriously weird about relationships. If Yaz panicked and told her mom that she was dating the Doctor, the Doctor could just roll with it and now Apparently They're Dating ???. It could be so fun! But there just... isn't anything!

Maybe it gets better in her second season onwards, but these kinds of things should be established fairly quickly. Like, at least halfway through the first series. I genuinely hoped her first season would be better on a rewatch, because I watched it while it was airing, and dropped the show after because I was just so not into it. I shouldn't have to be doing this much work to make it interesting to me! I shouldn't be enjoying early Moffat Who more than this!

Anyways if you read all this, I am very happy to hear thoughts and counterpoints, just please don't send me hate anons :)

[strawglicks]

satellite investor redesigns when. new distinct personalities between each of them when. save me clash team im going insane

[orcelito]

Thinking again about my plans for Vash and Knives in ITNL

Which I can't really get into the specifics for How I'm going to do things w/o going into spoiler territory. But I Do have Vash & Knives tagged on the fic for a reason. I set up in the first chapter that Vash is determined to try to save Knives too.

Which. That choice, as well as the entire basis for all of this, depends so much on that final fight in trimax. The one that was literally a scene away from where ITNL Vash went back in time. His mentality just a hair's width away from that...

At the end of trimax, there was reconciliation, however brief and incomplete it was. In ITNL, my question to myself was How could I induce that again? Under different circumstances, How Else could we get there? And that is the long-game in ITNL.

[caimitos]

saw a post about projecting your ethnicity onto a character and started missing vespa ilkay. so so bad

[oops-ibrokereality]

Probably a controversial opinion but I really enjoyed season 19

[sieglinde-freud]

as the local charlotte lover what is your opinion on the potential of camilla/charlotte

i think they could be really interesting! i think something that disappoints me, though its really just because of how supports work, is the lack of elaboration that comes when charlotte marries into nohrian royalty if she were to marry xander or leo in the base game? like feel free to correct me if im wrong but neither support really goes into her thoughts on nohrian nobility despite the fact she would be marrying the highest rankinng men in the country aside from like. a few lines. not a diss at either ship (i actually rly love charlotte/leo. not my fav but its good) but i think thats something that could be touched on instead with a potential support with camilla especially because of the four royals i feel like camilla would see where charlottes coming from the most? what with the sexism thats absolutely present in nohr (charlotte would not be Like That if that wasnt a thing!!!) and given her past with her siblings and her mom i think camilla could be really sympathetic to charlotte’s goals? maybe not entirely approve if only because in a way it can be kind of self destructive, especially since camilla’s probably seen it up close with her own mom (with her being garon’s concubine and fighting for his attention and everything), i think she’d be able to address charlotte’s romanticization of nohrian nobility and get her to be more cautious when it comes to that?

like i think that would be a really fun interaction between them, and if it moved onto romance (charlotte = cute girl… camilla likes cute girls… come on) well. seeing camilla being incredibly protective over would be adorable. even if charlotte wouldnt really need to hide anymore as the wife of a princess. also if one murder axe lady is hot, TWO could only intensify that. i like ur thinking is what this all means

[thats-my-passion-right-there]

I finally saw the mean girls musical (the movie one) I have so many fucking thoughts oh my god

[downsteepy]

i think what gets me about a lot of recent (by recent i mean roughly ~2 years old) "twitter alternatives" is that theyre either ghost towns bc its a pain in the ass to move to a completely new site or theyre invite only so thats a different barrier. secret third thing is the twt alternative being marketed as a website for Artists and Artists only so you have non artists asking if its ok to join that site. i need 2012 deviantart back immediately

[arolesbianism]

Someone made a oni lore video :D

They got a shit ton of stuff wrong :(

[seri-tonin]

With the vampirism ability now being lifted, I'm honestly kinda disappointed that asagiri never really did anything with the infected characters other than akutagawa

[strawglicks]

i can feel myself drifting from the TTCC community .. like i still love the characters and their dynamics, but ive been thinking less about toontown as a whole and just some of the characters are lingering . this usually happens towards the end of my obsessions

plus i just dont feel in touch with the community LOL i just kinda stick to my own stuff and sometimes like the art and stories ppl make .. but im in this awkward spot right now where im MENTALLY not engaging as much. idk if this is anything

[note-boom]

One of the things that has been eating away at my brain is the idea of Buraiha SSK + Kyouka. And I just don't mean them as a second generation Buraiha (that too, but that's another post/tag ramble) but as a sort of...role-reserve/AU of that.

Part of it was inspired by this role-reverse AU that I re-discovered recently (and messed me up once again because guys. It's SO compelling to think about). But part of me has always liked to think about Kyouka, Atsushi, and Akutagawa as a trio rather than a duo.

Spoilers for the linked fanfic, but.

At first, I thought Oda!Kyouka and Dazai!Atsushi with Akutagawa being a sort of Ango who stays in the PM, as it went in the fanfic. And it IS compelling, especially when you see Beast and how well Atsushi fits into the PM. How Kyouka was a former assassin just like Odasaku but got roped into the PM because they didn't believe they could be better. A Kyouka who doesn't kill people, too, also...(I could honestly see her canon arc going like that)

But then my thoughts went to...okay, but what if. Atsushi as Odasaku (aka, dying) with Kyouka and Akutagawa as their own sort of...individual characters that roughly follow the same arc but not really. Because in canon, it's Atsushi that has both the strong bond with either, or its his strong bond with them both that's emphasized. Kyouka and Akutagawa do have a meaningful relationship but I do feel it gets sidelined (sort of like sometimes I wonder how Oda and Ango were canonically like, Dazai-less, though they give me a bit of a Dazai and Ango vibe as well given the whole former superior thing).

So what this is all to say is an Atsushi who adopts a bunch of children and doesn't kill after a meaningful encounter with literature but breaks that oath after the lives he valued are run over, a Kyouka who is lifeless after joining the PM and gets pulled into the light because of her dying friend's request, and an Akutagawa who was a spy for the government after it offered him and his sister protection but didn't want any of this to really happen (from mafia dog to government dog).

[skybristle]

god man what do i even DO with a gc kingdom rewrite

[kumomist]

i actually kinda like the ending... cause honestly in the end wei ying got burned way too much by the cultivation world and was through with it, and as much as lan zhan is on wei ying's side, he cant leave the sects unchecked, especially with the way they easily turned on wei ying, and then jin guangyao too without thinking of evidence and being suspicious of the scenario

essentially wei ying deserves to be free from the judgement and the societal expectations (not using a sword, crafty tricks, etc), while lan zhan is choosing to stay and keep them in check so that history doesnt happen again

[caninedragons]

You know who's underrated? Reed. Clay's brother who was their Bigwings.

Everytime I reread the first arc im surprised he has an actually defined characters unlike Clay's other siblings. He's only in like one chapter and a prolouge but Sutherland was able to make him a character with depth, which is just really impressive. Reed has a small arc where he gets over his insecurity of being his family's bigwings when it should of been Clay and it so sweet how his siblings comfort him.

In short Reed deserves more discussion and attention. ESPECIALLY explorations between him and Clay.