#it needs shaking and pulling at

[rowanthestrange]

Poppy was always Real theory:

So there’s someone here with a theory that Belinda ALWAYS had a child to go back to. We do primary investigation in this house, so while it sounds like there might be an associated video, I’m not watching it, barely read the post, because if this holds water we should be able to get to it from that concept alone.

Hypothesis: Belinda ALWAYS was supposed to have a child to go back to, and we STARTED in a wonky reality where she didn’t.

Starting with the obvious: If so, that would be poorly signposted. Agree. However would fit with my reasoning as to why the additional pickups were needed: that it was simply that because of the delays, which would end up with future filming being potentially two years later than planned, the actress for Poppy was now going to age out of the role, and they had to hastily wrap up her story instead of following the original plan. And in my opinion it’s notable that they chose to rush add an ending for her with Belinda, where the obvious answer is…she just disappeared. That’s fine. So therefore it was theme relevant enough to go and film a whole thing for it in light of being unable to have the extra episodes to resolve it otherwise. Poppy being with Belinda at the end mattered more to the Themes than just leaving her as a thing that vanished.

With that being said, I think it would make sense to analyse this through the lens of an intention of a two series plot, where the result of an entire second series plot/subplot would have to be crushed into whatever pickup shots you could do to fit in whatever ending space you had available. (Which is why if he did do this, that was obviously going to be stupid and risky — no matter how much he loves a risk — without a greenlight. Though of course I blame the BBC entirely for its decision to remove our funding and so leave us to the Disney wolves in the first place. Personally? If I had to, I think I’d take the risk of audience confusion (and potential allegations of racism) and found a similar enough looking kid to recast. Okay she’s had closeups but certainly it’ll be fuzzy for any casual viewer in a year or so, and anyone catching up later all in one go could probably make the logical leap. But I’m not in TV and I’d trust a more experienced person to their call.

My points are in a non-specific order, just labelling them for ease of discussion/rebuttal.

a) Mundy does end up looking after a child. However, that child is also not her own, which feels more fitting with ‘reality rewritten for Poppy rather than her always being the case. Both Mundy and Poppy have Same Face Syndrome (though Poppy going all the way to her name - also significant as it does mean remembrance.)

b) What would have made the reality wonky? The Doctor mentions there was already a Time Schism (Edit: Fracture) that he’d “closed”. We did note this as weird. We know something glitchy went on.

c) While we get no talk of children, in Robot Revolution, we do have the Weird Schrödinger’s Baby-Cat. 

d) Lux does have a key plot point of a woman whose child has gone missing. Who also in a fake reality shopped the Doctor to the police. Mirroring works.

e) The Well. We have a woman alleging she desperately needs to go home to get back to her child.

f) In the Story And The Engine we get a glimpse of Poppy herself. Perhaps the glitch could also be from the reality where Poppy existed.

g) Wish World and The Reality War give us Poppy there. And the Doctor is suddenly very convinced that Poppy is REAL. We don’t really understand what that meant beyond him wishing really hard.

h) Hypothetically then, the original Reality War final ~15 minutes, would have been them going back to what we think was reality, Belinda maybe thinking something’s missing, maybe we get some Poppy glitches noticed by her or Ruby. We are left with the characters uncertain but the audience more sure that actually we’re still in a rewritten reality: hence the teal etc, this reality is still wrong. But it’s ultimately for a future episode that we dig into the fact that reality wasn’t right even from the beginning.

Is this enough?

I think it’s possible. However, if true, I think you could have done better with the introduction. A sign she’s already feeling like she’s missing something in her life, maybe she interacts with a kid patient in the hospital, maybe she gets a bit babytalky with people and she catches herself and apologises etc.

There are also some counters which aren’t just handwaveable by saying they’re trying to make the reveal not too signposted (which is stupid to do btw). Like we see Belinda’s descendant. Now you could argue that maybe that’s a ‘for’ because it happened last series if you believe the shift came after that, but then we still have the scene of the Doctor genetically compare them in what should presumably be the Poppyless world. Would it be possible she just has a kid later, sure, but why would you include a thing that confirms she has a descendant in a story that’s about how her child disappeared? The natural way to write it would be that he goes to compare and then can’t find Mundy’s information anymore. Which would serve the double feature of ‘is she literally Mundy and has lost her memories’, but also by logical conclusion deletes ANOTHER child from the story.

And I stand by my reasoning paragraphs of why you might change the story because you literally have to due to actor age, but…assuming we all understand how this is supposed to more or less mirror the Doctor’s child in future… I think it would be just as valid to show us the option where she is written out of reality. An ending where Belinda does feel that something’s wrong and missing, but in the end just goes about her life as a doctor nurse. I don’t think she needs to have the opposite ‘good’ ending, it can be a straight mirror. Obviously I can’t truly know cus I haven’t seen his future plans, but I think I’d prioritise ultimate coherence over original intention, even if it leaves with the opposite end. Polar Opposite and Same endings both work meta-thematically.

(Though to note, he clearly does work with the darkness that this ending adds - you needn’t have Belinda’s last words be saying she feels like she’s missing something otherwise. So if this theory is the case, it wasn’t just taking an ending from series ‘3’ and just slotting it in. It knows what it looks like and is willing to work with it.)

I suppose the only difference that this might make would be saying that we’ve been operating in Reality2 all along rather than Reality1, but this change now puts us in Reality1. But…I just don’t think it’s that necessary? Especially if there’s going to be 4th wall breaks and all sorts. I can’t imagine that difference can be too stark story-wise if it hasn’t caused us major problems til now. Unless it /has/ and Ruby now doesn’t exist or something, but honestly, I feel like you could handwave that. Cus as it stands the audience interprets us as being in a new rewritten reality, not reality prime anyway, even if that was the intention, so you’re not getting what you want either way.

I understand the belief you could maybe wrap this up in some reshoots before she gets too old, but I think that was the devil talking. That was the peril of going for subtlety and believing you had time to delicately build up the layers, nope, needed to go in with more coverage from the start cus it turns out you only have a few hours to paint this room, not days. And you could have forseen that because you know the owner of the house is fickle and refused to pay you for your work before. Now the wall’s all patchy. Poorly executed.

I think at the moment, without some more meta behind it (that is an invitation by the way), that I come down as saying that is a Valid interpretation. However it isn’t enough to say that the main interpretation that Poppy is just created wholesale and slotted into a new reality with Belinda is Wrong. As the story currently stands, I think both reads are acceptable.

Schrödinger’s reality.

[leighsartworks216]

You know how lion cubs will pounce and "attack" their parents and the parents like overdramatically fall over and pretend to be got by them? Dragon Sylus doing that with you (modern day Sylus would do it too lol)

He's lounging around in his hoard, back to the door. It's the perfect time to sneak over aaaand POUNCE! Sylus dramatically topples over and lands with a soft oof against the gold or floor, positioned so you're on top of him

"I gotcha!" you shout triumphantly. And Sylus, who heard you the second you even woke up, just grins and nods, saying, "You got me, kitten."

Does it with the kids, too!!! He could be anywhere doing anything, and suddenly his little dragon(s) are ganging up on him, jumping onto his back and wings, or grabbing his legs. Sylus hitting the ground. Maybe he messes with them back, holding his breath and laying extra still. Just to hear their laughs quiet and feel their little hands shake him worriedly as they quietly go "Papa...?" Only to scare them by grabbing them up and hugging them tight and blowing raspberries against their neck, bringing back the laughter and delight

[fantastic-nonsense]

Taliesin Jaffe I am on my knees please write a book about the De Rolo family

[fairylando]

"people asking me to kiss lando.. people are very strange."

mind you nobody did😭 the voices were getting LOUDER I GUESS

[numberonetribble]

When your love for each other is so great and it becomes something bigger than either of you, oh that's family baby!

[littlespoonevan]

i think the thing for me and the thing that's actually bothering me the most in general is that i don't think any show in 911's category that i've ever watched (that is: network tv shows that run on a weekly basis for most of the year with no definitive or planned ending until cancellation) has gotten better after killing off a main character

[teddybeartoji]

how come cats and their owners always end up being alike how in the fuck does that work

[kaythefloppa]

I feel as though Wild Kratts is going to redeem one/more/all of its villains before Season 7 ends; I don't know, I feel it in my bones and I don't know how to feel about it.

[cherryxrobots]

Robot/AI Roleplay Server, anyone?

First off, let me say I haven't made it yet! But I've decided to do so because...why not, it sounds fun!

It's likely gonna be 18+ considering...you know damn well considering-ANYWAY!

As I'm in the process of making it, I wanted to ask anyone who might be interested what would they want to see in such a server? I'm pretty open for ideas! Dunno if there should be a specific setting, or just have it be an 'open world', hit me with your ideas!

-🍒

UPDATE: SERVER IS UP NOW, CHECK MY PIN ON MY PAGE! ❤

[ghoulspaw]

me: hey rui, have you ever considered the idea of a ✨️karaoke night✨️ at the bar?

rui: hahah cutie, i can barely touch things anymore, so i think i'd like to keep my sense of hearing intact 😂

me: 😭 u know what? valid

[madaqueue]

I AM BEING ATTACKED ON ALL FRONTS . MAN THE DOORS!!!!!!!

[sluckythewizard]

[PUT INTO PLACE, TIED DOWN AND ARRANGED, AND IS NEVER THE SAME, AGAIN.]<-listen to my favorite songs. VAMPIRES ARE WONDERFUL ARENT THEY. THE FLESH IS SO MUCH MORE DURABLE. SO MUCH STRETCHIER THAN HUMANS. THE STRESS DOESNT KILL A VAMPIRE THE SAME WAY IT DOES A HUMAN. YOU CAN TAKE THEM APART THREAD BY THREAD AND LEAVE THEM WIDE AWAKE WITHOUT WORRY OF THE BRAINMATTER SPOILING UNDER VINEGARY AGONY.

[seventh-district]

LET’S FUCKING GOOOOOO

[dwellsinthebog]

him

[atsushis-fangs]

Scotland: get in the halloween spirit and make a ghost!!

Ireland: that’s called murder and I heard somewhere that it’s illegal

@winterwrites23 I’ll have you know that I am NOT dead, SoT is STILL my all time favourite fic, and I MISSED making these. Happy Halloween! :D

[yasamlynn]

Despite all the ships I have with Brooklynn I really want her to end up single lol