I'd like to imagine the Doctor running into Donna later in life and still fearing she'll recognise him, before realising he's regenerated a bunch........ And then she recognises him because he's wearing the face of someone SHE helped save 💀
I think the part where lisa is like "you probably didn't even drive back when you were alive. you probably rode on one of those bicycles with the big stupid wheel in the front" and the creature looks at her and she's like "you did" is really funny
what i like especially about the pronouns in the goblin emperor is that this language doesn't just have the T-V distinction (aka informal vs. formal second-person pronouns, in this case 'thou' vs. 'you'), it also has informal and formal first-person pronouns. having BOTH of these distinctions in the same language lets you fine-tune your tone by mixing and matching. with only one axis of formality, when you use informal pronouns, are you being familiar in an intimate way, or in an insolent or dismissive way? when you use formal pronouns, are you being polite or standoffish? you can't tell just from the pronouns; there's ambiguity. but a language where you can use a formal first-person pronoun in the same sentence as an informal second-person pronoun allows you to distance yourself (via the formal first) while also being familiar (via the informal second), thereby achieving the conversational tenor known to linguists as Fuck Thee Specifically.
The neurodivergent experience is doing something completely normal and then someone walks in, laughs at you, and says "I'm not laughing at you!" while still actively laughing at you
reading xie lian’s POV is actually hilarious once you realise xie lian isn’t oblivious at all, he basically guesses most things immediately, he’s just taken the veteran autism tactic of “it’s too much effort to figure out when it’s appropriate to mention that i know something, so i’ll just pretend i don’t know until someone says it aloud”. sometimes it turns into a bit. the truth might be embarrassingly obvious, but social cues are hard, and xie lian has infinite time to wait for the other person to blink first.