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agnoscoveteris-vestigiaflammae · 2 days

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Okay this might mean nothing but…get your red string ready cause this is my Doctor Who S14/S1 theory masterpost

*Disclaimer in case of inaccuracies, I started writing this before Dot and Bubble was released and then I got busy and more things happened and now it's release day for The Legend of Ruby Sunday (which won’t be available to watch in my country until this evening) and I didn’t want it to go to waste so I finished it lol okay thanks*

I’ve been thinking a lot about @waywardwes9 ’s theory regarding Ruby Sunday and other character names in this series of Doctor Who. So we’ve had Ruby SUNDAY, MUNDI (Monday) Flynn in episode three, and MARTI (Mardi/Martes/Tuesday/etc) Bridges in episode four, with dialogue bringing attention to the uniqueness/significance of each of their names. So when the casting list was released for episode five, ‘Dot and Bubble’, I couldn’t help but notice…Cooper Mercy, a slightly adjusted form of the words Mercury, or Mercredi (fr)/Miércoles (sp)/Mercoledì (it)/dydd Mercher (welsh)/etc. all of which means Wednesday!! So up until episode six, ‘Rogue’, this theory appeared to be holding up. It then became difficult to speculate further as we had little to no character backgrounds for these individuals and the cast lists for the remaining episodes are still incomplete but twice is a coincidence, four times is a pattern.

Now we know that in the ancient Greco-Roman tradition, the days of the week were named after the sun, moon and planets which were in turn named after certain gods:

Monday - Moon - Selene/Luna

Tuesday - Mars - Ares/Mars

Wednesday - Mercury - Hermes/Mercurius

Thursday - Jupiter - Zeus/Jove

Friday - Venus - Aphrodite/Venus

Saturday - Saturn - Cronus/Saturnus

Sunday - Sun - Helios/Sol

Because of her surname, Ruby Sunday would be aligned with the Roman God ‘Sol Invictus’, who was considered the most supreme or important god for several decades of the mid to late Roman empire. So I decided to do a little research into this deity and found out that his feast day and the main festival dedicated to him, ‘Dies Natalis Solis Invicti’, occurred every year on December 25th… The day on which at the stroke of midnight, baby Ruby was discovered in a snowy churchyard, after being abandoned by her mysterious mother. This could just be a coincidence but it’s interesting nonetheless as it adds to the themes and theories regarding the “Pantheon of Discord” which includes godlike figures such as The Toymaker and Maestro. Could this suggest that Ruby is secretly a member of the Pantheon of gods? Or maybe she was created to be a pawn, a messiah-like figure, in their masterplan? Or maybe she’s a part of an antithetical pantheon of ‘good’ gods?

So returning to the characters named after weekdays, we may have expected a character with some variation of Thursday/Jeudi/Giovedì/dydd Iau/etc. as their name to appear in Rogue but unfortunately, there appeared to be nothing at all that would correlate to this theory… until people began to notice that the ring which Rogue uses to propose to The Doctor is emblazoned with The Caduceus, the staff of Hermes… also known as Mercurius or Mercury.

It seems that our story has become stuck on Wednesday instead of continuing with the remaining weekdays, but why? Why could Wednesday or Mercury be significant? Well gang, guess what the god Mercury is known as…

THIS IS HOW THE TRICKSTER TRUTHERS CAN STILL WIN !! Additionally, Rogue’s name originates from the DnD archetype, ‘Rogue’, who is regarded as ‘the trickster’. Very Inch Arresting. but we’ll return to the Trickster as ‘The One Who Waits’ theories a little later on.

The theory regarding The Caduceus can also play into the theory about Rogue possibly being an incarnation of The Master, or signalling the return of The Master. The Caduceus symbol, which can represent travel, thievery and mischief (which aligns with characteristics of The Rogue, The Trickster and The Master) is commonly mistaken or used in place of The Rod of Asclepius, which is used by healthcare organisations as it represents healing, care and the duties of doctors (which obviously aligns with The Doctor).

These antithetical yet similar symbols could easily represent the Doctor and The Master and their shared past and turbulent relationship, or alternatively could represent the theme that things that appear too good to be true usually are, but who knows.

Now if you’ve made it this far, stay with me for this part because we’re about to get even more delulu, but I promise we’ll come back around into more plausible theory territory very soon.

So with all this attention being drawn to character names, I decided to do some further research into the names of the characters named after days of the week and found something interesting. In the case of Mundi Flynn, we can presume Mundi is intended to mean Monday but Flynn actually means…Red or ruddy/reddish, which would make her name Monday Red… or Red Monday… just like Ruby Sunday. This got me extremely excited…until…I couldn’t find any connections to the colour red within Marti’s surname ‘Bridges’. However… Marti is named after Mars, which is known as… The Red Planet! Which would still make her first name Red Tuesday, or even Ruby Tuesday just like the famous song by the Rolling Stones. Now That is a stretch but we persist nonetheless by going even deeper into delusional valley with Dot and Bubble’s character: Cooper Mercy, Cooper…an uncommon name that is very close to the word ‘Copper’.. another shade of red, making her Wednesday Red/Ruby Wednesday. Also worthy to note that the character Cooper had red hair, which was a purposeful choice as it is not the actor’s natural hair colour. Okay, last one… while there doesn’t appear to be any weekday names mentioned in Rogue, (as we seem to be stuck on Wednesday) I couldn’t help but notice that ‘Rogue’ is an anagram of Rouge… the french word for red. Listen, either this all actually connects or RTD has quite literally been sprinkling RED herrings throughout the narrative. So what could this mean? Personally, this kind of repetitive naming convention reminds me of a dream-like logic or storytelling convention centred around Ruby, which could play into everyone’s TV show/fairytale/dream theories (which are too expansive to get into and I don’t have much to add).

*I’ve heard that the Identity of Susan Twist has been revealed in today’s episode but thankfully I haven’t seen any spoilers yet so just ignore this if it’s completely off the wall lol*

However, this could also link to the idea of Susan Twist as a show director or writer, making cameos throughout her own work. In this light, she could be considered The Storyteller… TS… but if you physically twist the initials around…ST… Susan Twist.

Then, there is of course the theory that Susan Twist is a physical manifestation of the Tardis. Particularly because in The Legend of Ruby Sunday she has been listed as Susan Triad, S.Triad, an anagram of Tardis. Could it be that the tardis is broken down or malfunctioning and is creating these scenarios to keep itself, the Doctor and Ruby entertained? I guess I’ll find out tonight hehe.

Okay getting back to The Trickster theory. By now most people have probably seen other posts that show that Ruby’s musical theme is almost identical to The Trickster’s theme from SJA, that the Doctor invoking a superstition at the edge of the universe could have brought back the Trickster, that RTD could be using Ruby as a replacement for Sky from SJA, the baby that Sarah Jane discovered abandoned on her doorstep and adopted, who was originally supposed to be revealed as a child of the Trickster and a trap for Sarah Jane, and as well ofc that the hooded figure that drops baby Ruby off obviously resembles The Trickster.

But another thing I can’t stop thinking about is the theme of the fragility of memory and existence that has been popping up throughout this series, particularly in the first few episodes, and how this correlates to the powers of The Trickster. In Space Babies, we see how the doctor’s memories of the night of Ruby’s birth are manipulated in real time to show him something totally different. In 73 Yards, we see how the Doctor is zapped out of existence, and then brought back through a future-past paradox. In several episodes we see the blurring of reality, the past and fiction with events such as the snow from Ruby Road appearing in places where present day Ruby is. We see on two occasions how history is changed by the simplest of actions such as stepping on a butterfly or a fairy circle. And of course in 73 Yards we hear Kate’s cryptic “This timeline is suspended along your event” line. All of these elements appear to correspond with the Trickster’s powers of time and memory manipulation as demonstrated in SJA, to the point that I’m actually gonna be disappointed if all this build up doesn’t result in an appearance from everyone’s fav SJA villain lol.

Another thing to consider is The Doctor’s continuous references to the sea constantly getting closer to the land such as the “Everywhere is a beach eventually.” line from episode three and the “The war between the land and the sea” comment in episode four, the latter of which could of course just be a nod to the forthcoming dw spin-off series of the same name… or… could in fact be a reference to ‘the one who waits’. The last time the Trickster was defeated he was locked up in a box and thrown into the ocean, where he could be waiting patiently to return to the shore, to claim what he wants. Could this also be linked to Mrs FLOOD, whose water-related name may suggest that she is the one who waits for the oncoming flood. Who knows ! I’m just throwing things at the red string board and hoping something sticks.

Okay that’s all for my crazy wacky wild bananas bonkers theories today. Can’t wait to see how many of these are disproven in approximately one hour lmaoooo. If you made it this far, I commend ur patience <3

#doctor who #ruby sunday #the trickster #susan twist #the legend of ruby sunday #dw theory #doctor who theory #the one who waits

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