#yes I headcannon the Master being in a female incarnation when the Doctor left Gallifrey.

[daughterofheartshaven]

I kinda think about it like.

Death and Time chose their champions because they could see who they were going to be. In Flux, Time makes reference to events in the Doctor's future. I don't see why Death couldn't do the same. Death didn't make the Master into who he was, she just kinda looked at who he would become and said, "dibs".

And she then proceeded to not tell anyone about that because, like, why would she? And in that one audio story where she removes her influence and the Master isn't that bad of a guy, that's not actually what's going on, that's "how badly can I gasslight this one dude who thinks he's important enough to standoff against me?"

Because Death is an Eternal. And Eternals, as we see in their first onscreen appearance (tv story Enlightenment), are always deeply bored. Death's games with the Doctor are just her entertaining herself.

That's my take on it anyway. Because I think if we say the Master is evil because of Death or Rassilon or the cosmic energy forcing himself to be Like That, then he becomes a very boring character. But a Master who slowly lost their morals after realizing that her best friend left Gallifrey and didn't take her with him is a much more interesting character to me.

i'll be real with you i think the backstory of the master being marked out as death's champion and the doctor as time's champion is a fun but boring explanation of how the master and his ideology came into being but whatever it's fine