gen-the-witch

[gen-the-witch]

I will testify that even if I strongly dislike, utterly hate, and cannot stand a character, I will never go on someones post talking about liking that character and say so. Basic decency and all that

[gen-the-witch]

generative AI literally makes me feel like a boomer. people start talking about how it can be good to help you brainstorm ideas and i’m like oh you’re letting a computer do the hard work and thinking for you???

[gen-the-witch]

Adobe is going to spy on your projects. This is insane.

[gen-the-witch]

I do not like to consider behind the scenes stuff when talking about Art, but I do think that this episode fully sealed the deal on the 'Millie Gibson left the show unexpectedly for Some Sort of Reason so they had to cast someone else as a new companion on short notice and quickly rewrite completed episodes to compensate' theory.

That whole maternal bit with Belinda? Out of nowhere. Nothing to do with Belinda. Belinda got very little characterization overall, but none of it was that.

But let's say instead that the companion for this season remained Ruby. We get a little timeskip in between the two seasons, in which Ruby dates Conrad. Maybe the Robot Revolution initially featured him. Then we have a whole season in which none of the other stories (except a new version of Lucky Day) center around her, which makes a lot of sense because the previous season was all about her. She doesn't feel undercharacterized, because she had a whole-ass season of characterization already. Most of the season could have her in the place of Belinda with literally nothing changing, which, well.

And then we get to this finale. The Doctor and Ruby get magicked into a world where they have a magic baby, who looks just like a baby they met previously. Despite the fact that the baby and their life isn't real, Ruby can't possibly find it within herself to abandon - or forget - a child. It doesn't matter whether the child is really hers or not. It matters that someone needs to take care of her and that Ruby steps up to do it. That's a core Ruby character value! That's something that would follow up on a previously established theme!

So, the ending in which she raises the child isn't weird, it's the conclusion to Ruby's character arc. There's no extra character who needs to be shoved into a literal box. The UNIT reunion is a reunion of characters who actually know each other, unlike Belinda, who doesn't know any of those guys. Space Babies is retroactively vindicated.

I cannot believe this was not the intended model of the series. We know these two seasons were written and filmed concurrently. There's no reason for the result to be so awkward if there wasn't some bullshit afoot, given that there was ample opportunity to plan it properly. When Belinda was announced, RTD explicitly said that Varada Sethu was cast because they had already filmed 'Boom' and they knew she had good screen chemistry with Ncuti. She herself said that she was just offered the role out of the blue. This was a rush job. I really liked Varada Sethu as Belinda. She did a lot to disguise the patch here, and it's too bad that she couldn't do more. But we shouldn't think of these seasons as something that was designed to be this way. I'm pretty sure they weren't.

[gen-the-witch]

me staring at my tv at the end of the reality war

[gen-the-witch]

#AtoZOneWordFilm Challenge:

ARRIVAL (2016) Director: Denis Villeneuve

[gen-the-witch]

“why do you still use tumblr?”

listen— i have to keep track of my hyper fixations somehow

[gen-the-witch]

IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 2025

[gen-the-witch]

Talking to a friend about this helped me to clarify my main problem with the current era of Doctor Who.

Imagine if you made a whole Doctor Who season out of: The Impossible Planet/Satan Pit, Blink, Human Nature/Family of Blood, Midnight, and Turn Left, before heading into your finale.

Those are all great episodes. They're all regularly cited as highlights of David Tennant's run on Doctor Who. I can sing the praises of each at length and will do so on demand. You compare them to the other episodes that make up their respective seasons and they're clear standouts amongst the alien runarounds and celebrity historicals.

But you can't make a season out of them. Because if you do, you lose the characterization of Ten as the Doctor. These are all episodes that stand out because they're exceptions to the way that Doctor Who usually goes. They either put the Doctor in unusual situations where his 'being the smartest guy around' strategy doesn't work, or they hardly feature the Doctor at all and build their tension through his absence. And in each case, they work so well because they're subverting expectations the season has already built up. And though the past two seasons have featured some really great episodes, they are all banking on expectations the seasons themselves have not engendered.

Let me put it this way: if I put the list of Series 4 Doctor Who episodes in front of 1000 people and asked them to choose a favourite, I don't think anyone would pick the Sontaran two-parter from the middle of the season. It's as generic a Unit-Monster runaround as you're likely to find. But that was my first Doctor Who episode, and it hooked me immediately. I got it completely, and it's never let me go since. But if that first episode had been Midnight? I'm not sure. Midnight is a much better episode by every conceivable measure, but so much of its power comes from the fact that it puts the Doctor in a vulnerable situation that you are not used to seeing him in. It's cashing in the cheque that the 'normal episodes' have written. 73 Yards is also a great episode, but I don't think you could hook a new viewer by showing them 73 Yards.

And that's what 15 is lacking. Normal Episodes. In the crunch of the too-short 8-episode seasons, RTD has clearly prioritized the Weird Ones. And there have been some great Weird Ones! But without the Normal Ones, the Weird Ones lose their punch. Ncuti's never had the chance to do a proper Celebrity Historical (the Beatles don't count they were barely in it) or a Base Under Siege or any of the bread-and-butter sci-fi plots that make the experimental fantasy ones pop. And that leaves 15 as a Doctor undercharacterized, because we only ever see him outside of his natural narrative habitat. That's the tiny germ of truth in the (otherwise kind of silly) complaint about 15 crying in every episode - that every episode is one that pushes the Doctor way out of his usual role. And it's not like Ncuti can't pull it off - he clearly can - but I also need to see him in that usual role. And it just isn't happening.

[gen-the-witch]

I'm a fandom oldie and a strong proponent of "ship and let ship", and I defend everyone else's right to ship what they love... But I think that gives people the idea that I like, automatically love every single ship??? Or every single trope?

I don't though!

There are a lot of fandom tropes that are on my "absolutely fuck no" list. There are a lot of irk kinks that are also on my "nope absolutely not" list, too. Personally, this is healthy. I'm able to look at something and go "Yep, I hate it, but it's not harming anyone, so continue to do as you please."

[gen-the-witch]

lewis hamilton at the 2025 met gala

[gen-the-witch]

once these 15 million different stressful situations resolve themselves I’m gonna be so normal again. I can be normal and not exhausted

[gen-the-witch]

once these 15 million different stressful situations resolve themselves I’m gonna be so normal again. I can be normal and not exhausted

[gen-the-witch]

the author's barely disguised longing for a kinder world

[gen-the-witch]

With more and more Ao3 authors restricting their works to the archive (due to AI scraping), they're going to be losing guest interaction. And probably generally feeling down because. You know. AI is stealing their hard work.

So! Now is a great time to stop by your favorite authors/stories and drop them some comments! They really appreciate it!

[gen-the-witch]

→ THE WEST WING (1999-2006) 2.10 'Noël' (insp)

[gen-the-witch]

my dumb? founded. my flabbers? gasted. my gob??? smacked