#adding all to read list

[thirdeyeblue]

“Nine would have treated Martha better than Ten did”

I need to talk about this argument that never seems to stop circulating.

Note: Not a venomous/anti post. There’s more than enough of that across fandom spaces as is, and this is supposed to be a place for ✨sweet, blissful escapism✨

When making this argument, people seem to envision a scenario in which Nine never met Rose.

While I can appreciate a good hypothetical, recognizing Rose's significance to the Doctor (Nine and Ten) is essential to understanding why things with Martha played out the way they did in the first place.

In the third series, the Doctor is grieving. This grief is deliberately threaded into nearly every script, whether spoken aloud or not (and these are just a few examples):

He's burning in Rose’s wake the entire time Martha travels with him, which is why it’s so frequently called upon: It’s 100% deliberate in framing his grief. He grieved as Nine too, of course— having been fresh on the heels of the Time War — but then he met Rose, which changed everything.

Back then, he was still a rude, traumatized pain in the ass, but we watch Rose soften more of those jagged edges with every episode as they grow closer; as he lets his guard down and forms a deep connection with her.

He falls in love (against his better judgment) and it's game over.

And yes: provided S1E1 had been titled 'Martha', one can realistically assume things might have unfolded similarly to how they did with Rose. However, it wouldn’t have been that way just because the Doctor was Nine and “Nine was different” — it would be because he wasn’t already in love with someone else. The same can't be said for the start of S3.

Think of it like this: if Rose AND Martha had been in that cellar — if Nine had taken both of them along with him in S1 — we’d eventually be looking at the most melodramatic love triangle ever, what with him living in close quarters with two brilliant, gorgeous, compassionate young women... But Doctor Who is plenty “soap opera” as is with just one woman in the TARDIS.

(I certainly wouldn’t object to reading that fic, though)

Now, regarding the unrequited elephant in the room…

His inability to be romantic with Martha isn’t because he thinks her lesser, nor is it for lack of compatibility. It isn't because Rose is any better than her. It certainly isn’t just because he’s Ten.

It’s really only for one reason, which can't be denied — and now I’m a broken record:

He is still in love with Rose.

(cut from a tenrosedaily gif)

Nine is Ten, and Ten is only such a mess in S3 because he’s just lost the love of his life. Martha merely got caught in the crosshairs of a volatile Time Lord in mourning, and yes — it sucks. Absolutely.

But it also feels dismissive to chalk Ten and Martha’s relationship up to little more than some sort of mindless dance of pining, jealousy, and toxicity.

Ten trusted Martha with his life over and over again — and hers, with him. He constantly praised her brilliance, happily carting her around time and space with no intention of letting her go. In the BBC’s extended universe of novels/comics/cartoons/etc, there’s so much depth to their relationship: love and trust and trauma and sacrifice. They had their own special bond as mates, their own complexities — so it’s a bummer that it's forever overshadowed by the other things.

I’m not denying that there was a lot of stuff that sucked/was for sure toxic about Ten's S3 behavior, but so many of the things I've seen him catching flak for can be directly attributed to being A Clueless Fucking Alien Idiot (not a trait that’s unique to Ten) — as well as his flat-out obliviousness to Martha’s feelings.

So yes, I agree: if Rose never existed, he would have treated Martha differently as Nine. He also would have treated her differently as Ten. Certainly.

But Rose did exist, and when discussing canon, it matters.

“He tells me that he absolutely, 100% loves Rose... He tells me how my daughter; my wonderful, beautiful, clever little girl saved him from himself before… And he says that’s all because of me! I made her into the Rose Tyler that saved him.”

-Jackie Tyler, Flight Into Hull!

Martha got the short end of the stick in S3. She came round at the wrong place and time, but that doesn't mean it was all bad. It doesn't mean the Doctor didn’t adore her. It certainly doesn't mean the time they spent together was wasted or worthless. They were brilliant!

Sure, he could be a twat, but let it be known that he was a twat with Rose as well, both as Nine and Ten. I’m sure Tentoo can be plenty infuriating, too. So while I'll defend Ten (and Tentoo) into the ground forever and ever and ever, I'll concede that he's fucked up.

The Doctor is a certified Pain In The Ass. It’s one of the things I love so much about this character — dynamics.

But never forget that Martha was goddamn tough as nails and overcame every bit of it. She moved on with her life, and the Doctor moved on with his. One can only pray that, when they inevitably drag her back onto the show (which feels inevitable if I'm honest), we see at once that she's been living her best life for all these years.

[houkagokappa]

I saw someone list their fave BL and since I've been wanting to do a chart like this for a long time, I figured today's the day for it

Happy 801

[yes-no-maybe-soo]

In other news I just made 130 wishes on the Sky's Embrace banner with the tickets I had saved up. Guess how many Sylus 4 stars I got? 0. Nada. Zilch. From 130 wishes. Meanwhile I got multiple 4 stars of the OG3. I wish I could say that this is a rare occurence for me but it really isn't. That's simply how low the odds are of pulling Sylus vs any of the OG3. I got a little luckier with Caleb, but all of the OG3 still came home a lot more than him as well. This is exactly one of the reasons why Sylus — and soon Caleb, I presume — mains are pleading with Paperfold to give us the rest of his base content or at least increase the droprate of his cards b/c frankly 130 pulls and not a single 4 star is bullshit.

I'm so pissed

[unlikelyapricot-art]

an old drawing of velvet that never saw the light of day :)

[xxplastic-cubexx]

BEGGING YOU TO SEE THIS FHSHDJAHDJAB😭😭😭

https://x.com/riceussy/status/1883878407848783975?s=46

KORN ?????

[telepath-kisser]

idea polycule dynamic: married couple and the wet cat of a human they like

[rinofwater]

So outside of the bond quest events and main story, the characters in Azuma get pretty shallow characterization, huh?

[gryptids]

What happened to synopses. Fucking synopses. Descriptions of what your book is about. "Kirkus Review say-" what's it about. "Tropes include-" what is the inciting incident. "Lovecraft meets-" WHO IS IN IT AND WHAT DO THEY DO

[fooltofancy]

people say things abt ktisis around me and i just smile and nod like yes, that IS the only plugin i use for posing! nothing that u say makes sense to me.

[swallowedabug]

9 books for 2025, tagged by @kshaar

LEENA KROHN | Tainaron

JULIA ARMFIELD | Our Wives Under the Sea

JEFF VANDERMEER | Hummingbird Salamander

NEKO CASE | The Harder I Fight the More I Love You: A Memoir

GREGORY MAGUIRE | Son of a Witch

KAMERON HURLEY | The Stars Are Legion

CARMEN MARIA MACHADO | Her Body and Other Parties

MARINA & SERGEY DYACHENKO | Vita Nostra

CHANA PORTER | The Seep

tagging @diasdelasombra, @strangesmallbard, @duckuwu and i think everyone else who i wanted to tag has already posted their 9 books

[stillgotscars]

guess whose cystic acne has returned 😔

[callmehere-iwillappear]

2024 Writing Roundup

tagged by @remedyturtles

Words Posted:

172,386 according to ao3. i don't think that's actually accurate because i think when you update an already existing fic in a new year all the previous words carry over (so like with cmh it's counting all 68k (?!?!?!?!?) even though most of that was Not written in 2024 lmao)

okay. update. after going through my docs and chapters to see when stuff was posted, assuming i did all my math right, the actual count is closer to: 77,657 words

Additional Words Written:

oh god. uh. lots probably

okay i went and dug through all my many many google docs. this is not an accurate count by any means because there's definitely stuff i missed but approximately: 73,575 words

Fandoms:

mostly rottmnt with a bit of isat at the end

Highest kudos + Highest Hit One-Shot:

but i can't live in a storm for both :thumbsup:

New Things I Tried:

uhhhhhhh. straight up don't remember anything new i tried last year </3

Fic I Spent The Most Time On:

iiiii don't know? probably bicls, cmh, or permafrost but. i don't keep track of how long i spend working on specific things </3

Fic I Spent The Least Time On:

again no idea </3 maybeeee the og version of bicls that was like. 3k words? which is really funny considering that the full version is on my list of 'maybe i spent the most time on it' lmaofjdskljfdlk

Favorite Thing I Wrote:

proooobably but i can't live in a storm. or one of the things i didn't post maybe. but out of the things i've posted i'd say almost definitely bicls

Favorite Thing(s) I Read:

oh god. this is such a hard question holy shit. hold on i'm just gonna go through everything i bookmarked last year and list some of my faves out :thumbsup:

firefight (ok listen Technically i bookmarked it in 2023 but also it was finished in 2024 so it still counts bc Duh) (+ side fic)

First Snow Days

Fly Our Kites in the Wind

Siblingquest 202X

take my brain or what remains

now the darkness comes alive

a bigger heart grew back

I'll let you hit me twice

remember me how i was

Goodnight til it be Tomorrow

it gets you in the end

lil_michelangelo posted an image

make this heart beat on and on

Alien Blues

stare directly at the sun (+ side fics)

hear you knocking

higher devotion

there are almost definitely more but this is already really long so ;afljdslkfjdkl

Writing Goals for 2025:

uhh. just. write anything honestly? ideally something i'm happy with. i'm trying not to put too much on myself because the spoons have been not on my side lately so. just Anything

New Works:

i have a few like. concepts? that i'm working on and/or thinking about doing something with. but also they're all isat sorry turtle gang </3 new hyperfixation hit real hard

Tagging:

anyone who wants to!

[thanatologie]

@nekrotisch - Cassandra wooing him with specialized gifts and dates centered around his and or her hobbies that end with a cozy night in to read...or more if Manfred has a babysitter

you say that like we both don't know neve or davrin's getting tagged in for that babysitting job whether they like it or not.

[jewishcissiekj]

ykw i think i WILL read the first 48 issues of Exiles (2001) before moving on the the next era of the x-men reading guide I'm following

[groinal-attachment]

ohhh okay. i see. i have no choice but to read vampire science on my phone online free because it genuinely costs one william dollars ?!!!!

[puppsworld]

I have a silly headcanon that Phaeon has a bad habit of sneaking up on people by accident (he's still getting used to having a physical form and doesn't make noise when he moves), so Swiss eventually gets him a little bell necklace so everyone can hear the little guy coming from a mile away. I also like to think Aether and Omega had the same problem with similar fixes. Aether has a little keychain bell and Omega has anklet ones.