"Oh, hello?"

"You aren't alone. You don't know me yet, but you...you will. And I need you to know things will get better, okay? You have to know that. Hello, Master."

for @drummingncise

died and came back exactly the same but something was so so so wrong with me before and now I have an excuse to really lean into it

Quickfire hot take but, even though I totally grasp each of us having favorite regens of the doctor and the master, both individually and together, as symbols of their ever-evolving positions along their personal and relationship journey.... I will never ever understand fan (or canon...) portrayals that draw such a sharp line of favoritism from the characters themselves.

Missy said "they're all the Doctor to me" when recalling a memory to Clara, and to me that encapsulates the enduring nature of their intense bond. To me that is THE line. Regeneration is a form of death and rebirth, but certain core traits are immutable, particularly to two people who are narrative foils, who have known each other for centuries (or possibly millennia) and keep being thrown together by fate again and again and again.

Bottom line is, every Doctor is the same person, and so is every Master. Acting as though one of them only cares for select versions of the other is just so strange to me. They aren't us. To them, it's just like loving (or hating, or both) someone through the eras of their life. Their same life, broken down into stages od evolution and devolution. It's the same person.

I can point to the exact episode (a lol very polarizing episode in Series 10) where I think this "they're not the same person from face to face" trend got exponentially more pronounced, but anyone who knows me knows what that episode is. I truly believe it's a disservice to every version of every Doctor and Master involved.

And I really don't think that Spydoc, which came soon thereafter, is just the playing-out of the consequences of a MASSIVE miscommunication between soul mates. It IS that, but not JUST. I think all of the writing about Thoschei that followed the exacerbating episode was trying to force this inaccurate distortion, this illusion of separateness, which is part of what made the events in Power of the Doctor so painful to Thoschei fans. The Doctor walked away from the Master (literally and figuratively, ironically inviting his inevitable despair--and her own demise) partly out of understandable hurt and rage and caution, but also out of a cold, repulsed misunderstanding: "Missy was willing to change and you regressed, you're a different person than she was, and you have angered me to the point of indifference; I am able to turn off caring about you because you are unrecognizable from her, the version of you that I could control save."

Maybe Whittaker's response is intended by Chibnall: we're supposed to recognize that she's wrong but HAS to be in order to survive another betrayal by the Master, which is what makes it all so tragic.

But I think fan reception has taken the whole thing ( "each Doctor and each Master is an entirely discrete self-contained being") too far, and it bothers me, so much, I think, because it's a trope that enforces the idea that love is transactional and contingent (in such a way that also perhaps unwittingly targets the socially, culturally, and economically marginalized). If you're the "good, small, manageable version" of yourself, then you're easier to love, and it's worth the investment. Otherwise, "you gambled and you lost," and you deserve to die lying in the filth of your own poor decisions. I get why that's an appealing, vindicting plot device, from the POV of an audience member who has felt hurt or even abused IRL. I understand it, I've BEEN the Doctor many times. It just doesn't sit well with me. Maybe that's just me. I could be at peace with that, as a Whovian :P.

But, in-universe, it's based on a premise that's factually erroneous! Dhawan's Master IS Missy IS Delgado IS Simm IS Jacobi IS Ainley IS Roberts IS Beevers etc etc etc. Just as Whittaker's Doctor is a RESPONSE to Capaldi's, but ALSO still IS Capaldi's. And Tennant's. And Baker's (x2). And Eccleston's. And Gatwa's. And Pertwee's. Etc etc. Dhawan's Master was the Prime Minister of the UK and also made chairs that eat people and also cried remembering the names of people she killed. It's the SAME PERSON.

Lol, not quickfire at all. It's an old bone to pick, I know. I just can't stop finding the whole trope...very itchy.

(ok to reblog...dunno if anyone would, LOL, but feel free to reblog and to comment).

I'm gonna tag some ppl I know I've chatted about this with before to see if there are new insights. And feel completely free to disagree with me on any count. @natalunasans @mostincrediblechange @drummingncise @modernwizard @nickcagestrufflehog @rearranging-deck-chairs @koschei-no-more @likeacharacterinamusical

in case u missed it: i have been updating this as i work on stuff!! <3 got a lot more done today than i have in a good few weeks but i think im gonna stop trying to predict when they'll all be done. they will be queued at the same time once everything is done though!

draft count:

this blog 10/16 drafts done (i have so many asks from phee that i have to recontextualise now that we have pheeroryverse even though they were technically sent to ten. eyes emoji. i will rotate them and not add them to the count.)

ten 1/11 drafts done (gifsets tagged!)

eleven 0/4 drafts done (but there's a reason eleven is extremely low activity -- i wanna finish rewatching his era again)

gwendy 3/18 drafts done (adhd said "HEY WRITE THE ONES YOURE MOST EXCITED ABOUT" and rational thought answered back "you can write one (1) reply you're most excited about." pls ignore the two asks in my inbox i forgot existed. one is already done lmao.)

harry 2/5 (thinking about him today too so i might work on his remaining replies tonight. still contemplating a nap later)

peter 5/6 (gifsets are mostly posted. decided on how i wanted the tasm/insom fusion to work and posted the promo! i have the most muse for him today tho cause sparrow and i have been talking abt it all morning)

At some point, I just-- I stopped pulling my punches. I got rageful. I got bitter. I just don't want you to end up like me.

indie PETER PARKER of sony's THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 1 & 2 and insomniac's SPIDER-MAN SERIES. as loved by em.

rules verses starters @noahsresources @supersources

this is probably an unpopular opinion but I think interpreting the doctor as passively evil is an interesting character experiment. like, by human standards they’re pretty much an immortal, ancient, godlike entity. they travel all of time and space, saving or destroying entire civilizations on a whim. they travel with humans because they’re obsessed, almost addicted, to human mortality and naivety. sure, they claim to love their companions, but involvement in their lives almost always ends in misery, and then it’s onto the next. imagine the TARDIS filled with abandoned bedrooms, clothes on the floor, beds unmade, toothpaste in the sink. their things frozen in time, dust-covered and tomblike. and the doctor is drifting through space, surrounded by evidence of all the lives they’ve ruined. anyway, if anyone has evil doctor fic recommendations pls drop them below.

Two Time Travelers Stuck in the 60’s???

Level 1: Porn with plot

Level 2: Porn with social commentary

Level 3: Porn with troubling philosophical implications

Level 4: Porn with maddening revelations of humanity’s place in the cosmos

Level 5: Porn with math

draft count:

this blog 10/17 drafts done (i have so many asks from phee that i have to recontextualise now that we have pheeroryverse even though they were technically sent to ten. eyes emoji. i will rotate them and not add them to the count.)

ten 1/12 drafts done (gifsets posted)

eleven 0/4 drafts done (but there's a reason eleven is extremely low activity -- i wanna finish rewatching his era again)

gwendy 3/18 drafts done (gwen stacy you will always be famous. i love you. working on ur drafts after im done with the new harry one)

harry 6/6 (might take a nap now before d&d and get back to gwens afterwards)

peter 8/10 (said i was done and then immediately sent out more asks and added to my drafts lmaO. this number will probably go up again)

DOCTOR WHO: The End of Time // The Timeless Children

THE DOCTOR We had a pact, him and me. Every star in the universe, we were going to see them all.

My version of The Master and The Doctor in their Academy days 😊

A speedpaint video of this will be available at my Patreon on april 1st!

passed my driver's test 💪

cyanide's birthday bash

👻 | Dhawan!Master or Clara Oswald for @wincheskka credits (x, x)

No wonder the Doctor always outwits you.

He doesn't usually let frivolous things like booping someone distract him, but he’s genuinely having fun, laughing along with her as they repeatedly booped each other back and forth. "Booooooop!"

"NO, not you too!" she laughed while trying to get away from him, but it was no use! "Oh I'm getting payback for this!" she booped him back playfully "HA!"

@drummingncise

david tennant's acting choices in utopia haunt me