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— what are we holding onto, sam?

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The fact that it's been almost 8 years since Glee ended and the Kl*ine stans are still just as insufferable and insecure as ever. Like why are y'all attacking Jenna and Kevin just because they don't really talk about them and didn't like one of their scenes? Like who cares? That's their opinion and that pair didn't involve them anyway. It doesn't mean they hate them.

And even if they did, they have that right. Kevin being gay doesn't mean he's required to like every single gay pair or character (especially when they're terribly written). Damn just don't listen to their podcast and go about your business. This isn't hard.

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The Church on Ruby Road review

Well that was fun, for the most part. Weird pacing issues and it's mostly used as set-up for the oncoming season. But also a fresh new jumping on point for those who are interested in starting the show.

So let's dive in.

To start, I think Ncuti is a very charismatic actor. But, and this is an RTD problem more than a him problem, he plays the Doctor like a superhero. I was fine with the rope gloves the first time around, but by the end of the episode with him dramatically pulling down a ship like he's in a comic book movie, I was ready to see the back of them.

Then we get Ruby, our other lead, who is...Fine. She's just like every other NuWho companion we've gotten. This isn't a knock on her, but there's only so many times you can do plucky modern girl who also happens to be uber special in some way without it becoming stale and unfortunately NuWho has done it too many times at this point. So I'm a bit jaded now I guess, but she hasn't sold me yet.

Interestingly enough though, she, and by extension, what looks to be this season's main plot, very much reminds me of Moffat's era. So if this is RTD's attempt at doing a Moffat plot, I'm interested to see how he pulls it off because his writing is quite a bit blunter than Moffat's is. Say what you will about Moffat, but I love a good mystery, and I'm very interested to know who dropped baby Ruby off (bootstrap paradox maybe?) I thought at first it would just end up being 15, but apparently RTD has something else in mind.

This whole episode kinda played like a Moffat plot, but with none of the build-up or emotional pay-off (Doctor going back to meet his companion as a child, crack in the ceiling, timey-wimey nonsense) except I barely know these characters so it was really hard for me to care. And with how reckless 15 was with baby Ruby, I'm left wondering what the point was. Why would he destroy a ship that she was still on?! Get her off first, you idiot! Not to mention with how far she fell, the impact of falling in his arms would've probably broken her neck. Newborn babies are very fragile. Not to mention, just leaving her outside in the snow. Damn, atleast open the door and put inside or something where her cries will echo. What if they hadn't heard her? I remember a similar scene from Meet the Robinsons. But that was a cartoon so I can let it slide more.

The direction of the warm tones turning cool once adult Ruby disappeared was really good and immediately clued me in that something was wrong. Though I thought the dialogue afterwards with Carla was very heavy-handed and unnatural. Why was it specifically taking care of baby Ruby that made Carla a better person? The fact that Ruby is white also has some unfortunate implications since Carla and Cherry are a black family, but that could just be me being cynical with how RTD has done his previous black characters a disservice..And why was she telling a whole stranger her whole life story with this dead look on her face? I would've been asking why tf he was in my house...

Then we get the Goblins. First of all, they're massively underutilized with a total of 5 minutes of screentime, and most of that is used on an overproduced pop song that made me think I was watching a Disney Channel movie. 15 getting in on it certainly didn't help that impression. I'm a big fan of musicals, but this just felt out of place. I could forgive 15 singing if it was obvious he was just BS-ing his way through an escape and it was acapella. But the excessive autotune just really took me out of it.

Also don't like that 15 just automatically knew what goblins were and how they worked. When did he encounter them? This isn't the first time Doctor Who has used fantasy creatures, but I like when the Doctor's scientific mind is a bit more skeptical. And again, the carelessness with the baby was annoying. A baby's about to be eaten and all 15 is focusing on is "ooh cool singing!" And then after that, him and Ruby leave Lulubelle alone again. Are you guys stupid?

I did like how we incorporated Timeless Child here. It's clear that despite the rehab, his heritage is still very much a sore spot for him, so it's nice that he was able to find that common ground with Ruby. She's not the first adopted child (Bill, anyone?), but she is the first to come after his own shocking news, so it's significant. And even though she's happily adopted, there's still this curiosity about where she comes from, and I appreciate that she isn't shamed for that.

Another thing I appreciated was the casual trans rep. The singer for Ruby's band is a transwoman and RTD opted for subtlety this time instead of whacking me over the head with a lecture about it. I appreciate that. Sometimes the best rep you can have is where they're just casually existing and not you checking off diversity points.

Cherry Sunday (and what a name) was a delight. All she wanted was a cuppa tea.

Who is Mrs. Flood? If this were Moffat, I would say she's meant to be older Ruby, but this isn't Moffat, so I feel like she could be anyone. She could also just be no one.

I get this was meant to be a jumping on point, but I am a little sad we missed out on all these firsts for Ncuti (picking out his outfit, getting his sonic, etc.) and that it all happened off-screen. And coming right after the specials it just feels a bit jarring to not get it. How long has he been an established Doctor? Why hasn't he decorated the TARDIS yet? (Seriously, it's so huge and empty. Get a couch or something. This is why Capaldi's console is >>>). The night rave scene just felt a bit pointless and didn't really add anything to the episode, same with the taxi scene. There were quite a few scenes that just felt like pointless filler honestly, while the plot was resolved in 5 minutes. It was kinda frustrating.

Overall, kind of mid, but a solid start for 15. I'm looking forward to seeing more of him atleast and seeing what RTD has in mind for the mystery of Ruby's origins.

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The Star Beast review

I remember RTD getting announced to return and the fandom acting like he "saved" the show. Now mind you, I didn't love Chibnall's era (and had my complaints about Moffat too) but to act as if RTD was the sacred cow was just irritating.

That being said, lets get into his second debut.

We start with Ten- sorry I mean Fourteen running into Donna. Now Donna was always a favorite of mine so I'm relieved to see shes in top form here. She immediately roasts Fourteen upon seeing him (with a wink and a nod to Tennant no longer being 35 years old) and that's very On Brand for her.

Then we get [sigh] Rose. No, not Billie Piper. Rose Noble. Donna's 15 year old daughter. For starters, her age makes no sense. How can she be 15 if Donna only lost her memory 15 years ago? Did she get hitched and pregnant the very next day? You could hand wave this by saying shes a stepdaughter, but no. RTD wants to make it clear she is Donna's daughter. Her trans daughter to be exact. So let's get into that.

I love that shes trans and that shes played by an actual trans actress. The representation has been long overdue. I love that Donna is such a good and accepting mum and that even Sylvia (a character I previously didnt care for) redeems herself by being a good grandma to Rose, even if she slips up sometimes. Shes trying, which is more than she ever did for Donna.

That being said, Rose is little more than a plot device. Her only real purpose is to introduce our alien, the Meep, and then save the Doctor and Donna with her magical transgenderism (I'll get to that in a second), which is a shame because Yasmin Finney is lovely.

Now let's get into the metacrisis. I always thought this plotline was stupid and the way its resolved is even stupider. Turns out Donna won't actually die if she remembers The Doctor (duh!) because she transferred some of her "Doctor-ness" to Rose...somehow. Now I couldn't tell if RTD was saying that Rose was trans because of the metacrisis energy or if the reason the metacrisis didnt affect her is because shes trans, but either way, it didnt make much sense. How is she able to "remember" things that happened before she was even born? It was convoluted and reminded me a lot of River Songs origins in a bad way. Convoluted is Moffats thing. I don't need it from RTD too.

But wait it gets better. We still have to figure out what to do with the metacrisis energy right? So how do they get rid of it? They simply just "let it go" with their womanly superiority (no really). We get this corny exchange about how 14 is "Male-presenting" and therefore doesn't know how to let things go because of it. Excuse me what? Did RTD watch any of 13's era at all? She was an emotional trainwreck. Callous, dishonest, passive-aggressive and quite vengeful too. And she was a woman. You wanna know who was the Doctor that had to let things go? Literally his last line is "I let you go"? The one who had to let go of his companion because he was hurting both of them? The one who learned to forgive, not just the Master, but also Davros, of all people? It was 12, the old white guy. Swing and a miss, RTD. That was a corniness I would expect from his first era, with Jesus!Ten. I expected some kind of growth since then. I also just felt like I was being lectured and I got quite enough of that from the last era, thank you very much.

This sounds negative so far, so let's look at the positives!

Tennant + Tate are incredible together as usual. I like that 14 is more emotionally honest than any of his previous predecessors (and 13 was getting there at the end so it's a natural progression imo). Love the alien designs. The Meep is so cute. I saw the twist of it being evil a mile away, but it's cute so I'll let it slide. The Wrarth are also cool. Just dudes in suits as Doctor Who aliens should be lol.

Didn't appreciate the Donna death fakeout because I knew RTD wouldnt actually go through with it and it felt cheap, but the acting in the scene was top-notch.

The new opening is cool and I love the new Tardis. You can tell that's where all the budget went lol. It's like a beautiful mix of 11, 12, and the Classics and it looks huge. You can tell Tennant was having a blast with it.

The Doctor actually took the initiative to not regenerate in the tardis this time and it still gets blown up. Poor tardis...

Some other thoughts:

since when can the Sonic create forcefields? I don't care for that. And 14's non-reaction was weird. Shouldn't he be surprised his tool got an upgrade? Also the fact that his clothes regenerated too with no explanation is dumb. Were they too afraid to put Tennant in Whittaker's clothes? It's not like she was wearing a handmaiden dress.

Also they kept asking "why this face?" Which is valid but my theory for why the regeneration went all wonky in the first place is because the Master fucked it up somehow when he tried to steal them in Power of the Doctor. I'd like for RTD to bring that up but I'm not holding my breath. That would require actually acknowledging other eras besides his own exist.

Overall, this was kind of a mid-tier RTD episode and very underwhelming for an anniversary special. Heres hoping it gets better in the next 2.

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this episode is why people call it hatecrimes m.d

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got thoughtful about opinions on bad books so here’s an inverse: what’s a book you had to read for school that you actually enjoyed/have grown to like? mine is Lord of the Flies

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I get from a logical angle why people might be put off by her but I think it's a shame that Akito Sohma doesn't get more appreciation because she is truly one of the characters of all time. She's the evil female reincarnation of God. She's so androgynous one of the anime adaptations guessed her gender wrong. She dresses like a theater tech. She sits like a gremlin. One time someone said something that upset her and she was bedridden for months. She wore a full coverage pure black outfit to the beach in summer and then complained about the heat. She has flower symbolism. She's campy and dramatic. She was assigned male at birth for political reasons. She simultaneously looks like a twink and a dyke. She has no friends until she's 20. She passive aggressively flirts with the protagonist the first time they talk. When she's not fucking up people's lives she just lounges around at home being depressed. She's a tragic villain almost certainly doomed to be a bad person by her upbringing and part of the tragedy is that it's still her fault. She doesn't know murder is wrong. She's pretty much a cult leader but that's one of the few things that isn't her fault. All of her schemes backfire on her in a poetically ironic way. She likes the in universe Pokemon equivalent. She looks like the evil twin of one of the main characters and this is never explained because the author forgot why she did it. She's a decent transfem allegory and a bungled transmasc one. She has world's worst internalized misogyny but is willing to change her whole life the minute another woman wants to have a legitimate positive relationship with her. She's the human manifestation of a cycle of abuse who then goes on to break it. She's extremely sexy. She is simultaneously very dangerous and intimidating and a pathetic failgirl. She's a perfect foil and parallel to the protagonist. She marries a man who had revenge sex with her evil mom. The author said that she ships her and the protagonist in a no homo way. She can be easily interpreted as autistic. She has catastrophic abandonment issues. She's hiding that she's a girl but wears her kimono improperly open in a way that makes it so she's constantly at risk of accidentally flashing someone. She has daddy issues and mommy issues. She was even homeschooled.

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He's never hosted a meeting, ever. Why the change of heart? He's unpredictable. He's discovered his civic obligations.

→ Good Omens - 2x05 The Ball

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Crowley believes the most romantic thing is love confessions in the rain. Aziraphale believes the most romantic thing is regency-style balls. Therefore their favourite movie to watch together is Pride and Prejudice (2005). In this essay I will

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DAVID TENNANT as CROWLEY in Season 2 of GOOD OMENS (2019-)

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#i live there

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Aziraphale's favorite color is yellow

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Crowley in 1941

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crowley + text posts bonus:

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Aziraphale admitting he deliberately plays up how much distress he's in because he knows Crowley likes to rescue him is something I'll think about until I die. Like that's Husband Behavior right there.