#just by like. the development of the relationship between ruby and the doctor

[genderqueerpond]

also I Do think we're getting season whatever-this-is backwards

[anthurak]

So I’ve been rewatching Red vs. Blue recently, and an interesting thought occurred to me.

It’s been well known pretty much since the beginning that a number of characters and story points in RWBY have drawn on elements from RvB. Ozpin draws a lot from the Director, we see very similar brutal deconstructions of ‘military hero’ tropes with Atlas, and of course Pyrrha’s similarities and notable contrasts to Carolina have been WELL documented and analyzed.

So with that in mind, given that Taiyang happens to be voiced by Burnie Burnes, I have to wonder if Tai is likewise at least in part meant to represent something of a reinterpretation of Church?

For one, there are already a number of parallels that we can see, both with the Church we know in the show itself, as well as the background of the original Leonard Church who would go on to becoming the Director of Project Freelancer:

A lost love-interest that left him consumed with grief, some very abrasive and assholish behavior that we see with Yang, and being a dysfunctional fuckup of a father.

In fact, if we consider ‘Allison’ and ‘Tex’ (aka, the Beta AI fragment) as separate characters (which frankly they ARE), then we can even find parallels to Tai’s relationships with Summer and Raven respectively:

We can see parallels to the original Leonard Church losing Allison and being consumed by grief in Tai losing Summer. And we can see parallels to the implied heavily abrasive and dysfunctional relationship between Tai and Raven in the dynamic Church has with Tex in the show, particularly in how Tex always seems to leave Church behind.

Not to mention we can see some VERY strong parallels in both Church and Tai being unreliable narrators. Church in the sense that he himself could not remember, while it’s becoming more clear that post-V9, Tai has been withholding a LOT of important information from Ruby and Yang, just like basically EVERY adult in RWBY does with their students/kids.

Now to clarify, I do think that Tai is probably meant to be more of a direct parallel/reinterpretation of the Church we see in the show itself, rather than the Doctor Leonard Church we see in the Freelancer flashbacks*. And specifically the Alpha iteration of Church from the first six seasons of the show, rather than the more character-developed Epsilon from later seasons.

Essentially, I feel like Taiyang could represent a reinterpretation of the original, ‘classic’ Church we see in the Blood Gulch Chronicles, with the additionally fully-fleshed out background of his human-self.

Tai could be in part meant to give us a look at just who Leonard L. Church really may have been as a person, without all the obfuscation of the A.I.s or the outlet to his grief provided by Project Freelancer, or the narrative ‘buffer’ of being in a wacky, irreverent comedy story:

A man broken and consumed by grief who uses abrasive sarcasm as a defense mechanism, but whose abrasiveness puts a wall up to the people he cares about, all of which and more has led to him being a complete dysfunctional fuckup of a father to the daughter(s) who relied on him.

--

*Which is actually quite fitting, given that the Director wasn’t actually voiced by Burnie.

[penultimate-step]

In Defense of Ruby Hoshino

Or: Yes, the Aqua/Ruby interactions from the last couple dozen chapters ARE necessary for characterization and thematic reasons, why do you ask?

The Oshi no Ko fandom has kind of frustrated me over the last few months. It feels like every chapter that comes out and any discussion of it now has people making over the top angry exclamations talking about how much they hate incest, calling it "bait" and irrelevant to the story. Now, while of course anybody is free to have their own preferences and things that bother them, I do think some of this is taken out of proportion, and perhaps blinding them to the actual narrative importance of Ruby's supposed feelings for Aqua. Which, I do think this is a critical, load bearing part of Ruby's character arc, and corresponding the themes of the story as a whole, so it bothers me when I see so many people dismissing it as "brocon fanservice" or shipping nonsense.

I think perhaps out of an instinctive disgust reaction, people have trouble engaging with it. The way people act seems to be that either this is a serious romance plot, and the series will end with them dating, or that it is merely for sexual titillation and shock value on the part of the author, with no greater meaning, but it's pretty clear that it is neither of those things - Aqua/Ruby is not a romance, they will not date, they do not have romantic feelings for each other. However, that doesn't mean that what's going on between them is pointless.

The issues that Ruby has, both in their relationship and just in general, hinge pretty explicitly on Ruby's assumptions about her own feelings in her past life. she cannot develop past those without first confronting them.

And this is not a new thing. The groundwork for how Ruby has been acting in the movie arc was laid down long before, and needs necessary followup. To simply not have her talk about potential feelings for Aqua, as some fans wish, would have meant leaving many threads hanging, and made for a worse story. Almost everything about how they've interacted was something that could have been predicted from chapter 77. In it, Ruby makes it clear that she believes her feelings for Gorou are romantic, and that she intends to try to initiate something in her new life. However, at the same time, the fact that it was never going to happen is also, I feel, fairly clear.

In the past, in the flashback scene, Sarina claimed she was in love with Gorou. He told her he would reciprocate when she turned 16. In my opinion, I do not think either of the feelings the characters expressed in this scene were meant to be believed by the audience at all. Sarina is 12 here, she might have a puppy crush on the doctor but I think true romantic interest was probably beyond her. Meanwhile, Gorou isn't actually a pedophile? His statement was made with both parties knowing that she would die long before then, a way to make his rejection hurt her less, and as a desperate attempt to motivate her to keep living as long as she could. Though it is clear that both are the most important people to one another, and that this is an expression of their real care, I very, very, much doubt there was any actual romance in this scene.

Does this not seem very relevant for a series with the theme of people not understanding love? Back then, Gorou was Sarina's one true bond. Her parents had abandoned her and she had no friends to visit her. This was the one example of real mutual care she had, of course she would call it "love." (I mean, I'd also call it love, but not a romantic love. Familial, if anything, but friends works too - the actual name on it is unclear, what matters is that they cared for each other, but not like that.) Now, in her new life as Ruby, she has many more people who love her and who she loves in return, but having died both painfully young before, she hasn't had the opportunity to really grapple with all the old feelings about the doctor. It's pretty obvious to me whenever we see Ruby thinking of Aqua now. Just look at this page from 126:

In Ruby's own mind, he's drawn in a completely different style, like a manga romance hero. Her feelings about Aqua are fantasies, dreams, and projections, not substantial or tied to reality.

Much has been made of how Aqua, despite being Ai's son, still puts her on the pedestal of an idol, and can not see her flaws and interiority, even as he tries to avenge her death. Part of this movie arc is having characters like Ruby, Kana, and Akane start to see Ai from new angles, and relate to the human part of her. But for Aqua and Ruby to truly develop past their issues, this isn't the only pedestal they need to tackle. Ruby's regard for the doctor is a direct mirror to Aqua's feelings towards Ai. Even with the object of her affections right in front of her, she can't she past her own assumptions.

And of course, while Ruby is slowly coming to understand Ai and still failing to understand Aqua, there's one more person in the room who Ruby needs to come to an understanding about: herself, both as Sarina and now. Her refusal to see Aqua's flaws is tied up in her own feelings about the past - to acknowledge him as imperfect would mean understanding that part of the reason Sarina loved Gorou was tied up in her own desperation to love and be loved. Furthermore, while she has many more ties in her life as Ruby, I don't think its a stretch to say part of her is still stuck in that past state, holding people at arm's length.

While she has friends now, the bonds she thinks of as strongest are the ones from back then - her idolization of Ai, her love for Gorou. When Aqua reveal's Ai's secrets, in 106, Ruby says that despite being siblings, raised together for 17 years now, she didn't think of Aqua as family on his own terms - she felt a bond solely because they were linked through Ai, and does not hesitate to cut him off. She doubles down on this in 122, calling them "strangers who happened to be born in the same place." Similarly, while Ruby has been shown to be friendly with coworkers like Kana and Mem, as well as classmates like Frill, on some level she is keeping them at a distance. Beyond the simple fact that she can't talk to them about her previous life, she's been keeping plenty of emotions held in for a long time - pretty much every Ruby appearance from the Miyazaki Return arc to today has shown her not wanting to acknowledge her own struggles. Her pain from her life as Sarina is easy to keep buried. When nobody else knows Sarina exists, all she has to do is not think about it, not talk about it, not say anything, and it's almost like it never happened. Not til her breakdowns in chapters like 115 and 121 does she speak it aloud, but always either with plausible deniability or when she thinks she's alone.

I don't think her bonds as Ruby are fake - part of what she says to aqua, I think, is a defensive cope - but much like how she says she is in love with Gorou now, that is what Ruby believes. To her, all the friendships and bonds she's made in her new life are transient and fleeting things. She can never feel secure that they are based in real feelings, that they won't simply drop her when she becomes inconvenient, as everyone in her past life did. This perception contributes to her own willingness to reject others. Putting her friends at a distance during her revenge arc, cutting ties with Aqua over the Ai reveal, these are all things she does because she has no faith in the foundations of these bonds, and without understanding them she is willing to throw them away for Sarina's old memories - for the sake of the one person she believes will never let her down.

The only way Ruby is going to solve the story of Oshi no Ko is through coming to an understanding. Of Ai, of Aqua, and of Sarina. Ai didn't understand love until the day she died, and both of her children have in some ways followed in her footsteps, but Ruby has the chance to be the one to break this, to understand what was holding her back before and fully embrace loving her family and friends.(platonically. geez.) Reckoning with her feelings for Gorou (and by extension, Aqua,) was always going to be a key step forward for her. These dominoes have been laid down for 60-70 chapters now, at least, and I am excited to see where it goes.

[group-dynamic]

Script Doctoring(?) Doctor Who Season 1

Here’s how I would fix the thematic and mystery box issues of this season of Doctor Who while keeping almost everything else the same.

This season would refocus on the thematic tension between Ruby with her desire to find her birth mother and the Doctor’s avoidance of finding Susan. By adding a few choice moments in the Tardis at the beginning and end of certain episodes where Ruby tries to convince the Doctor that finding Susan is important, you would add some really nice character development and even tension to Ruby and the Doctor’s relationship and get to more explicitly explore and discuss some of the big thematic ideas that this season ostensibly centered around like family and fear of abandonment /rejection.

I also think that having the god of death in this season doesn’t make much sense in terms of the themes, so I would probably swap out Sutekh for the Trickster as many others suggested. With the Trickster, you could have the narrative-manipulating, story-changing surrounding Ruby make a lot more sense in universe. This could then better match with the idea that Russell already had: that we imbue things with importance and can thus rewrite our own narratives. Imagine Ruby as central to the finale because her desire to rewrite the false narrative in a positive way could directly counter the negative attempts to rewrite the narrative by the Trickster. Thus, she’s still just an ordinary person as RTD intended, but she is learning to overcome her fear of rejection and abandonment by fixing the negative story that both her own mind and the Trickster have written about her life as she knows she is worthy of love, there’s nothing inherently wrong with her, etc. (A great opportunity to make Carla‘s inclusion narratively significant, too, as she actively contributes to this!)

This would also make the moment where the Doctor cautions Ruby against reconnecting with her birth mother a more meaningful emotional payoff, because Ruby isn’t afraid to try reconnecting with her mother and it goes so well despite the Doctor’s own fears. This could serve as a turning point for the Doctor as he realizes that getting over your fear of rejection can lead you to new avenues for happiness and connection.

Then, instead of having a sorrowful “the doctor is always alone” ending to the season, have the last line of this season be the music swelling triumphantly and the doctor declaring that, yes, he’s going to go find Susan. This would show the actual impact that Ruby had on him and allow his character to go through some growth rather than end up where they’ve always been. (Plus, what a fun teaser to leave the audience on haha.)

You could then spend the second season, (which was ordered at the same time as season 1) on the Doctor trying to track down any clues of where Susan is. So, the season-long arc would become the doctor looking for Susan, but getting sidetracked in the typical adventure of the week.

NOW you can justify Sutekh as the big bad for this second season. If the doctor is actively looking for Susan, it makes a lot more sense that Sutekh would use her to lure the Doctor in and more devastating when it’s revealed Susan Triad isn’t her. Thematically, this works because the Doctor claims to have never reconnected with Susan before because they were terrified that they would either hurt Susan or she would already be dead, so the big bad being death this time around would haunt him: The Doctor is too late and it’s all his fault.

In terms of the “I am life, and you are death” theme, this also makes a lot more sense within a context of actively trying to find Susan, because the doctor is so afraid that he brings death, but the fact that Susan exists at all (and perhaps he finds her or some evidence of her life) in addition to the amazing family he’s built across time and space rallying around him (like Ruby, Mel, Kate, and Rose which justifies a unit based episode AND the memory Tardis as the Doctor’s equivalent of Carla’s wall of photos of her foster kids) is proof that he isn’t a “harbinger of death.” That all of us defeat death when we choose love and support for ourselves and offer it to others. Self indulgently, I would love a conversation between the Doctor and Cherry about family and found family, too. Imagine how wonderfully thematic it would be if this ordinary woman gave the doctor what he needed physically and spiritually to save the day: grandmother to grandfather. Heck, maybe she is the one who gives him the spoon. A teaspoon in fact :).

So anyway, those are the big changes that I think you could make and leave literally everything else the same to get a better emotional payoff and prevent the audience from feeling a little robbed by the mystery boxes.

[omegas-reincarnation]

Best and worst doctor who companion endings (7 and new who edition):

Ace: ends up living on Galifrey until the time war, legally becomes a time lord. 10/10

Donna: got what she always wanted - to stay with her best friend forever. 10/10

Ryan: gets to become the Doctor, but specifically for earth. 10/10

Clara: gets immortality, her own tardis and an equally immortal companion to travel with. Having to make the Doctor forget her was tragic tho. 9/10

Bill: gets to die fighting side by side with the Doctor, which feels way more equal to me than when companions end up with the Doctor trying to save them, and I found incredibly moving - and is regenerated as a near-immortal who can travel the stars with her girlfriend forever. Got to the point where she was too burnt out to stay with the Doctor tho and that's always sad. 9/10

Mel: leaves on her own terms to go on travelling. 9/10 cos I think she would have stayed longer but she knew Ace was lost and needed to be able to develop that very close bond with the Doctor.

Amy: my girl got to live a long life with her husband (and daughter! Young River was in new york in the 60s!) but you cannot tell me she was ready to leave the Doctor. They were insane about each other, each other's fairytale hero. 8/10

Ruby: finding her birth mum was when she wanted to leave but it came too soon. She got her happy ending with her whole family, bio and adopted, but not with the person who made it all possible. 8/10

Rose: I always felt like she left because the Doctor did the whole 'it will never work out between us' thing rather than because she wanted to. She accepted that he wasn't able to commit to her and chose to go but I don't think that was her ideal, not after all the effort she put into getting back to him. 7/10

Martha: chose to leave and did get to keep doing world-saving stuff but she left because she was burnt out and like I said before, that always makes me sad as an ending. 5/10 because I don't feel like she got enough compensation for that. No immortal lesbian girlfriend :(

Yas: was ghosted by the Doctor. Got told "I need to do this next part alone" - implying regeneration - and then he just never came back, because it was easier than explaing their relationship was falling apart. Awful. Horrifying. 0/10.

[nin-deer]

Ch 143

i mean i think we all knew deep down the kiss was gonna happen based on the flow of the story but i think this chap reveals a lot about gorou and sarina

(uh warning this got a little out of hand so its pretty long lmao)

so.

i dont think anyone's completely in the wrong, but i definitely don't think they're in the right either. (not that i condone incest; its just that their motivations led them to this specific point. would the story have been fine without it? hell yeah. please i actually prefer it that way. but this is the direction the author decided to take it, so we have to take it as it is as a point of learning more about the character's motivations)

Let's first analyze sarina and gorou's relationship pre-reincarnation. I think I covered this in my last post where I rambled about onk, but gorou is doing a doctor thing where he "accepts" sarina's proposal just to make her happy. We learn in this new chapter that he basically catered to her every request, and that's what started that infatuation. we know from previous chapters that her bio family's shitty, so the only place she would get this love is from gorou. we also learn in this chapter that it's not actually a romantic love but a fanatic love, for lack of better terms. she sees him as her idol. does sarina even know what it feels to be romantically in love with someone? she spent her whole first life in a hospital, isolated from others her age. she spent her second life very curated and protected because of her mom and her future career; she couldn't really live a normal life. (we'll get back to this point later) all she knows about love is through her idols, so she's channeling it into (what she thinks is) romantic love for gorou.

gorou, on the other side of this, is an actual adult who had an actual life before all this, so he knows what a normal life is like. assuming sarina is one of his first patients, its obvious to see that he got attached, which is a very risky situation for scenarios like this. we see this attachment made her death worse, as he threw himself into following Ai to cope for her death. not gonna go too in depth about this here because, again, i made another post for this that i'll probably link at the end bc im referencing it more than i thought... continuing! he knows sarina doesnt have long left so he wants to do what he can for her, thus creating that "idol" persona sarina has for him.

we see in his regret in this new chap that he actually knows what he's doing and is aware of the consequences of his actions. ruby doesn't. she doesn't regret anything. as someone who reads a lot of isekai/reincarnation stories, its easy to joke that ruby and aqua are their old age + their new age, but that isn't necessarily true for ruby. sure, aqua is old and this could apply to him. but ruby? she didn't make it past 18 before she died. she's like,,, 13 times 2. double 13. she never fully developed in her first life, and she's developing in this current life. it's like a continue from where she left off. aqua actually was an adult, so he has all the knowledge and wisdom of an adult. why does this matter? shift your attention back to the concept of love for a bit. aqua knows what she's doing is bad and is trying to stop her, but the knowledge that she's sarina is making him automatically succumb to her wishes. a part of his brain, because of the trauma, still sees ruby as the sickly sarina he was caring for.

ruby is naïve. she doesnt know what love is. all the love she's ever been exposed to is whatever she saw online: idols. i dont even think she fully knows what the concept of family is. aqua is her brother? nope. aqua is the doctor she proposed to and now she has a chance to follow through like all the shows she's seen. she's closer than ever to him, so why give up the chance? even as ruby, she wasn't exposed to a lot of normalcy because of idol culture. she isn't able to learn about the difference between platonic love and fanatic love. we even see this with ai, who she sees more as an idol than her mom. the joy is in her idol being her mom, someone who's supposed to care for her. it's like shes living a fantasy made just for her. because aqua was so obsessed w revenge, he didn't have the chance to teach her anything, and it's not like he needed to learn bc he already knows. ruby doesn't.

aqua, as the one who understands these nuances, should have sat her down and explained things, but he didn't because of the trauma of sarina. ruby is ignorant and is treating things like a tv drama, now that her dreams as sarina can finally become true. aqua doesn't realize how serious ruby is about this because in his mind this is just a child playing house. ruby is like,,,, imagine you die and you wake up actually being sold to one direction. or whatever happens to you in your fav self-insert scenario/fanfic. idk a better analogy lmao but its like finally being able to play out your fantasies irl. she doesn't realize the real world impacts of her actions because, frankly, she doesn't care. she gets to live out her life as she wants. aqua was shocked after the first kiss with ruby because he realized then she was being serious, but he didn't speak out about it because, again, the trauma™. (we see him again uncomfy with the whole situation in the next page, but his lack of objection could be bc it's a scene in the documentary and he finds it more important to get revenge rn) ruby kissed him then because she purposefully created the mood like that so it would fit in the story she was writing in her mind.

so what does this mean? because of their shared pasts, aqua and ruby are put in this situation where ruby can do what she wants and aqua goes along with it. even if he knows its morally wrong, he can't bring himself to break ruby's immersion in all of this. BUT. big but. aqua shouldn't act like this. they're both capable of living out their lives as normal (barring the revenge and the whole idol stuff). he doesn't need to act like this anymore; ruby's not terminally ill. he's not a doctor. what he should have done was firmly deny her stuff he knows is wrong because then he can educate her about the reason why. as much as their personalities are inspired by their past lives, sarina and gorou are dead. they need to move on and live a aqua and ruby. (Harsh, I know, but because of this scenes like *gestures vaguely to the newest two chapters* happens. if aqua stood his ground and taught ruby about familial love and that what she's feeling is probably not romantic, i think this could have been avoided. but alas, we need it for the ~drama~)

-

sorry that went on way longer than i thought lmao. i think i covered everything i wanted to say but im too lazy to read back so fingers crossed

if you made it this far and are curious about the other post i mentioned in the beginning, its here. i just think its some context to my thought process but not necessary to understand this post

[roseposts-stuff]

i think i finally realised why i wasn't the biggest fan of "rogue", the episode, it's because i don't think it... fits? well, i personally am not a fan of romances in doctor who, i'm more of a best friend relationship fan, especially with the doctor, who is always pretty much aroace in my mind, but that's just a personal preference. but i also think the episode, as it has both ruby and 15 and is placed right before the finale, would've been a fantastic opportunity to strengthen the bond between ruby and the doctor and to develop their friendship more, which i think the series didn't do well, but instead it introduces a new character and then he's... gone. which, to me, makes it feel a bit pointless, when they could've either strengthened the bond between ruby and the doctor or introduced a new companion like jack was introduced in "the empty child". of course, i don't know if rogue will be back one day, but at this point, i don't like it in the context of the series. it's a good episode though, don't get me wrong, i had a really great time watching it and on it's own, it would be pretty high on my ranking of the series

[ferdieylisse]

STAR BEAST SPOILERS.

.

.

Hello. All my thoughts about the star beast. As bullet points. Might be long enough to be considered an essay.

. The scene where the Doctor takes the boxes from Donna, notices who she is and just puts them back again was brilliant. Ever the king of running away from a problem at first instinct.

. I expected more of a reaction to Roses name, but that was probably just my fangirl heart, and it WAS pretty funny that he touches down in London and is just assailed with her name twice. The poor guy. Shellshocked.

.The mother/daughter relationship between Rose and Donna is so touching, they sell it so well, so much better than I expected. Donna declaring she will always protect her daughter against those transphobic kids was incredibly sweet, and very believable coming from her.

.Catherine Tate was just as good an actor as she was back in season 4, and balances typical Donna brevity with some genuinely great acting in the more serious moments.

.Haven't even mentioned the MEEP! my baby. As my mum pointed out, it's still cute even when it's evil. Plushie when, BBC? I think if I was there I would simply HELP it destroy London, if it would let me have one little stroke of it's fur.

.That being said, the casualty number in that episode would still be VERY high. Think of all the cars that were swallowed up in the crack and then just sealed again- so many people would have died with no way to even recover their bodies! Good lord.

.I'm not 100 percent sold on the acting of David Tennant as 14 yet: its too much going between the personality of 10 and trying to be the other doctors as well. I have two more episodes to get used to it, though.

.I LOVE YOU SHAUN TEMPLE! He didn't get too much of a look-in but he was pretty funny when he did have lines.

.I have such a love/hate relationship with Sylvia Noble. It's really complicated. She reminds me a lot of my grandma. . I'm super critical of how she acted towards donna in season 4, and donna snidely calling her out in this episode when she's talking about motherhood re:rose is like, wah. But I do respect that Sylvia really does love donna, and I admire the lengths she goes to to protect her.

.I'm really conflicted on the new TARDIS interior. It's not as bad as I'd imagined it had the possibility to be, and it's SO much better than 13s. But it's hardly the homey vibes of 11 or even 12 (with the bookcases.) It looks like a really fun place I'd like to hang out in, fiddling with the RGB lighting and running up and down the ramps. But I'd like to see how they sell it as a place people are actually LIVING in. Assuming ruby Sunday is going to spend time living in there as the next companion.

.The doctors delight at seeing it though is, well, delightful. As someone on twitter said, he really did get the zoomies. Hey though, wouldn't it be cool (not that they have the set for it anymore though, I assume) if the TARDIS turned into the old season 4 TARDIS at some point? Even if it's just a small CGI mirage scene.

.Where is Osgood? Don't get me wrong, the new UNIT lady was pretty interesting. But please don't tell me they've written Osgood away. I still hold out hope to see her when they bring Kate in. Maybe they'll be hanging out together then.

.My dad didn't like this episode, and my mum suspects is was-her words- "he must have thought it was too woke." Possibly. Probably. His loss. Curious though, because he's a genuine fan of the chibnall era. But in hindsight it makes sense. He didn't like the sappy bits and prefers the adventure bits, and I guess the chibnall era had cool CGI and monsters but no character development worth a damn.

.Speaking of sappy bits, the moment where donna and the doctor communicate with each other from between a glass door where they've been separated from each other IS NOT LOST ON ME. you can't put a glass door in front of this doctor. Oh no. You'll give me flashbacks. Anyway, that moment was great. 14 holding Donna when she's dead is great. Rose bringing everyone back and saving the day was a LITTLE hard to follow, and I personally thought it was a weak point of the episode just because of how sudden it was, but whatever, it was still good.

. The pacing of the whole episode really was a bit fast but that's not really a valid complaint, I know that, because they could only fit so much into 50 odd minutes and they had to tell a whole story. I know most doctor who episodes tell whole stories in LESS minutes, but I should give this one some grace because we had to establish the characters and set up the bond between donna and the doctor and the character of Rose as well as have an antagonist storyline. The pacing of the next two episodes might be better.

.On the whole I REALLY like Rose Noble and I feel like there's a lot left unsaid about her that I'm hoping the next few episodes will address. We skipped over the metacrisis thing very fast, right? Her plushies are dead cute and I personally would buy one if I knew her but I can't help wondering if the market for odd little plushies like that is very high.

.TENTOO MENTION WHEN? come on. You can mention the metacrisis but nothing about tentoo I guess? Holding out hope for even a SMALL mention.

.Okay, finally, maybe, the scene at the end with Donna and the Doctor in the TARDIS is great. "It killed me, it really killed me" fresh off the regeneration and he's already so vulnerable and I really love that. And he knows it, too: "I really loved her- do I say things like that?" He's so happy to be reunited with her and that's really all I could ask for. The TARDIS made them a coffee machine because it knows they have soooo much drama to catch up on.

.was lying about the finally. If I was Sylvia Noble and my daughter was donna noble and she won the triple roll-over lottery and gave it to charity I would be VERY pissed. Donna confronting the doctor about it was SO her and it gets me that she made a point of how kind he was. Like. Yeah. He's soft. Yeah. Give her another lottery ticket my man please her fucking house is gone now too

. the wilf mentions break me, especially with the doctor being so earnest about how much he loved him, and I hope we get to see him.

. There's still two episodes they can play song for ten in I still believe

.AND I convinced my mother to rewatch season 4 with me. She was like "you've just rewatched it without me!" Mum. Do not doubt my uber autism. There is nothing I want to do more than watch it a third time in three months over in your company. Please.

......:3 catch me next week for the wild blue yonder review

[doctorscoobywho]

maybe my feelings will change after next week, but I find myself largely just disappointed. by the dialogue. by the reveals or lack thereof. by the development. it took me until this long to realize that what I've been struggling with this entire season is that RTD has put so many eggs in one basket all at the same time that the season has really lacked what I find is the best part of Doctor Who and that's the relationship between the Doctor and the companion.

that's not to say there isn't a relationship between the Doctor and Ruby. I believe they have a very strong one, but I feel like we never got to see it develop. I can see that the relationship is good, but I don't feel all that invested in it because I didn't see it get built. it just happened.

and I feel that way about a lot of things this season. there have been so many good small details throughout. individual episodes have been great and moments within those episodes have been great, but as a whole, it's falling a bit flat.

[typellblog]

its hard to describe my thoughts on the latest developments in Oshi no Ko because (spoilers)

i absolutely don't think they're going the incest route. there's barely any setup for romantic feelings between the twins. while sarina obviously had a childhood crush on the doctor i think ruby would still find it weird to be into aqua. and aqua clearly hasn't been romantically interested in her at any point, he just thinks of her as a kid that he wants to protect

HOWEVER

i don't object to it because i find their relationship icky. i have no problem with incest. it's barely even incest because they weren't related before reincarnation. there is an age gap, which im more iffy on (not in a 'this content shouldn't be allowed sense' but just in a 'i don't think a relationship between a 30 year old and a 12 year old is like, a good ship lol' sense) but also if you count the years of both of their lives ruby is 28 now so like . . . it's fine in that respect too? and if you want to insist it's incest cause thats their current bodies and the previous ones don't count then whoops they're both 16 actually so its not weird lol

the thing is, i would actually love to see ruby x aqua endgame because i love ruby and incest is cute and also making a bunch of people mad would be funny

but the story just hasn't set it up at all so i doubt even if aka went all in on it at this point it would feel remotely satisfying

especially since aqua's feelings for kana are kinda unresolved still (and on that note i personally think shipping aqua with any of the other girls is JUST as weird if not more just because the age gap is a lot more real in those cases lol)

but yeah im just tired of people treating this as some kind of insane development or the story being run into the ground when 1. ruby has mentioned she still has feelings for the doctor multiple times, what do you think she would do when she finally found him and 2. im 90% sure next chapter is going to involve aqua rejecting her lmao

[sign-seeker]

Really liked new Doctor Who. Ncuti Gatwa doing a great job, got himself a gay little run and funky attitude, loving his flirtatious little self (his whole vibe screams "I play horny bards in D&D but I do it so charmingly that no-one minds").

Ruby Sunday seems fun, but I think we need more time to get a read on her as a character: she spends a lot of this episode in a state of panic or disappeared from reality, so this hasn't been as demonstrative an intro as we've had for other companions. What we do know is that she has a severe whimsical streak and can make time to express delight and wonder in the middle of extreme stress, but like... We've got that covered in the Doctor, so it feels a touch redundant? I'll have to see how she develops as a character.

My only genuine problem is the editing: it had the massive problem that basically all modern TV shows have, where the voice recording was just quiet enough that it was being just a little drowned out by the backing music, making listening to it just a little bit frustrating, and that slow-mo shot near the end went on bizarrely long enough that I thought to myself, in the voice of Richard Ayoade, "some episodes were up to 50 percent slow motion by running time". I wouldn't mind going through the credits and comparing the sound and video editing credits between this and the previous specials, because it definitely feels like there's been a change there.

It DOES seem like Rusty has drawn water from an old well for his new companion though: Ruby seems on the surface very in the mold of Rose, being a working class bottle-blonde in a denim jacket with a four letter name beginning with R that means a shade of red, with a traumatic and meaningful event in her past which took place outside a church: although Rose was invited into the TARDIS, and Ruby invited herself along, so who knows how that companion/Doctor relationship is going to go. Then again, this is Rusty, who loves dysfunction: if the Doctor tries to slot Ruby into a Rose-shaped hole, that could lead to something explosively upsetting her.

[warningsine]

With only one episode left this season, it’s pretty clear that UnREAL won’t fix the mistakes that have been deeply embedded into the show. At this point, UnREAL embodies the kind of show Lifetime is known for — vapid, exploitative, hinged upon splashy twists with little follow-through or emotional honesty. In other words, UnREAL has become exactly what it hoped to skewer and subvert.

Where did it all go wrong? That’s the question we’ll all be asking once the dust settles next week. I have my own theories, partially drawn from details in a New Yorker profile of showrunner Sarah Gertrude Shapiro that dropped in June. That article positioned Shapiro as a feminist auteur, but this season has been a great case as to why television should shirk the auteur label.

UnREAL still has a lot going for it, perhaps even too much. Story lines are dropped before they gain any emotional resonance. Characters act wildly against type to fulfill the need for more drama and higher stakes, even when their behavior doesn’t make sense. This happens to pretty much every character in “Espionage.” After seemingly not giving a damn about race relations and how he would look to his black audience, Darius instructs Jay to get Chantal to drop out of the show. “Black women all around America will hate me if I cut Chantal for Tiffany,” he says. You’re really just realizing that now?

There’s an interesting story line in this idea: Darius could have been the kind of black celebrity who believes his fame and fortune buffer him from damning racial critiques. But UnREAL hasn’t made him a consistent character at all. What does Darius really want, besides support for his family and a sportscasting gig? Even that fades in and out of focus. Didn’t he just try to win back Ruby, only to forget about her and commit to Tiffany because of her father? That choice is weirdly dropped within the episode, too.

By the way, if you’re expecting to hear about Romeo, you’re out of luck. It’s almost like he doesn’t exist anymore, which makes the racial issues of this season all the more damning. Darius and Tiffany had sex in last week’s episode, but now he’s acting cold toward her. Why? This leads her to decide to get with Chet. Why? Not only does she have daddy issues, she apparently doesn’t love herself. Who in their right mind would want to be with Chet?

There’s a particularly gross moment in which Tiffany asks Chet, “You want a taste?” And then he goes down on her on the balcony, overlooking the date between Darius and Yael. UnREAL shows no sign of dropping the budding relationship between Chet and Tiffany, even though it doesn’t make any sense. It’s like the writers realized Chet wasn’t screwing anybody, and they hit Tiffany’s name on a dartboard. Quinn also feels oddly unlike herself, pivoting from giddy excitement about the prospect of life with Booth to an ugly fallout when she’s told by the doctor that she’s unable to have children. There’s something poignant about her screaming, “I wanted a choice!” after wrecking the control room and bloodying her hand. Nevertheless, this plot twist has zero development. Just when we start getting invested in Quinn’s relationship with Booth, it ends.

And then, there’s Everlasting. The final three contestants — Chantal, Yael, Tiffany — have been unable to make me really invested in their stories. I don’t feel like I know these women at all, especially compared to last season. The lives of those contestants felt truly interwoven with those of the crew, including Rachel.

Let’s talk about Rachel. What the hell is the show doing with her arc? Are we supposed to just forget that she nearly got Romeo killed? It certainly seems like the show forgot about his existence. Are we supposed to forgive her because we learned about her past tragedy? Last week, UnREAL dropped a bombshell about Rachel’s relationship with her mother: When she was 12 years old, Rachel was raped by one of her mother’s clients, leading to the fraught dynamic we see between them today. I’m not even going to touch UnREAL’s black-and-white framing of mental illness, or the use of medication as treatment. That deserves its own essay. “Espionage” just doesn’t reckon with what we’ve learned.

Except for Coleman’s white-knight routine, that is. Quinn has been proven right about his motivations, but they still don’t quite make sense. We first see him almost gleefully going through the footage of Rachel’s confession, which she made fresh out of the mental hospital while she was still drugged up. Rachel quickly figures out that Coleman isn’t being upfront with her, and tells him straight-up that she won’t betray Quinn, even though it might mean putting her own reputation and life on the line.

Unswayed, Coleman keeps trying to get Rachel to agree to take down Quinn and Everlasting, making grand pronouncements about the life they’ll lead together. It’s a typical white-knight routine; I’ve seen it happen to a lot of women. When you open up about your issues, some men will subconsciously interpret that openness as a needy cry for help. But Rachel actually wanted this, right? A man to swoop in and save her? She essentially said as much when Adam came back. (Remember that?) But on the other hand, Coleman is obviously attracted to Yael (out of nowhere!), and they continue colluding to take down the show.

After listening to all of two seconds of Yael’s recording — the one in which Jeremy confesses about the dirty, behind-the-scenes incidents of Everlasting — things take a turn. Yael makes a move on Coleman. Why? Apparently, she has an unexplained, one-sided rivalry with Rachel.

Coleman: You know I’m with Rachel, right? Yael: Sure, you are.

When they kiss, it casts everything between Coleman and Rachel in a different light. Does he really even care about her? Or is all just a means to an end? If that’s the case, it doesn’t really fit with what Coleman did before he learned the truth about Yael.

Madison oversees what happens between Coleman and Yael, using it to make a dig toward Rachel that sets off a chain of events. This pushes Rachel to get back into Quinn’s good graces. Haven’t we see this story line before? Rachel messes up, Quinn covers it up, and she has to fight to get back to producing the show. Rachel’s revenge is so juvenile, it borders on parody. After making sure that Yael is wearing a white dress, she poisons the food on her date with Darius, which leads her to soil herself before they finish dancing. Yael’s humiliation will be shown on televisions everywhere; it shows just how underhanded Rachel can be. But seriously? That’s your revenge? It’s the kind of thing a 14-year-old boy would dream of.

(Also, the whole “Hot Rachel” moniker is infuriatingly sexist. The show hasn’t critiqued it at all. And why is Yael so eager to get with men who Rachel has been with? Why is she so competitive with Rachel?)

Of course, the rivalry isn’t really over. After Coleman comforts Rachel and she seemingly agrees to take down Everlasting, he finds Yael and has sex with her. Sure. Fine. Whatever.

But not so fast! Rachel finds Quinn mid-breakdown, smashing up the control room to cope with the dissolution of her relationship with Booth and her inability to have kids. It’s an interesting role reversal: Hand bloody and makeup smeared, Quinn isn’t the one who has it together for once. And there are a few great, tender moments between Shiri Appleby and Constance Zimmer. I loved seeing Quinn’s exuberant pride when Rachel gets back at Yael. I loved hearing Quinn talk about how she cares for Rachel and misses her. And, yes, it’s great to see Quinn tell Rachel she loves her … but it would have been even better if it was developed properly. If UnREAL had focused on Rachel and Quinn all season, these moments would have landed with the force they need.

Sure, Rachel and Quinn are finally teaming up to take down Coleman. Yes, it will be fun to watch. But will it have much of an impact? I suspect it will be another fleeting thrill in a season full of them.

[moonlitlex]

actually. talking about rogue again. the chuldurs were really poorly used imo. they’re SUPPOSED to be cosplaying bridgerton but like…. are they??? i like rp and cosplay as much as the next nerd so i was actually excited for this concept.

but where’s the actual cosplay? where’s the larping/rping? where is the pretending? bridgerton is all drama and gossip and stuff, but the only one of them actually doing any of that is the one who was pretending to be lady emily. everyone else was jumping from character to character to character and just killing people. where’s the actual fun stuff that they came for?

the production team has been comparing each episode to a preexisting tv show or something (which imo is the worst way to pitch any art ever but that’s neither here nor there) and this was supposed to be the bridgerton episode. but like. this is like if nothing fucking happened in bridgerton. this is like if you clipped 5 minutes of a bridgerton episode and 3 of those minutes were dancing. like where is the actual drama and gossip? where is the scheming and plotting? where is the building of a romantic relationship? it’s not actually there. this is a doctor who episode with a romance between the doctor and rogue tacked on and no regency era balls and gossip and drama. the few minutes we do get are super tacked on.

it’s kind of like 73 yards in that regard. it really wants to be a romance/drama/gossip bridgerton type episode, but they haven’t actually committed to it. so what we DID end up getting is super half baked.

and it’s fun, sure, but is this an episode i really feel like rewatching? not really.

like. is it a period drama? no. not really

the chuldurs aren’t compelling antagonists. and any commentary on the doctor and their companions that could come from having antagonists that literally go to places with the goal of cosplaying as a local is completely missing. so nothing interesting comes of that either.

does ruby get any character development? no. she does some investigating and then uses the psychic earring things to fight off the chuldur pretending to be lady emily. she doesn’t even get to make a connection with a local based on shared experiences like companions often do, because there aren’t any locals who are important characters at all. lady emily COULD have been this local who befriends the doctor and/or companions character, but she’s not. she’s also a chuldur. ruby didn’t end up helping her at all, because she was just pretending.

does the doctor get any character development? no. we already know these things about him. he’s lost a lot of people. he gets attached to people easily. he gets to dance with a man which is great news for everyone who is really desperate to get “confirmation” that the doctor is into men too and hasn’t been paying attention to the show or any extended media, but that isn’t character development. and it certainly isn’t enough character development for a doctor in his first season going into the season finale. can you imagine if nine went into bad wolf/parting of the ways having had this little character development? he would be the most forgettable doctor, not universally loved.

and rogue. rogue is so clearly a more boring jack harkness that i don’t even know what else to say about him. it’s like rtd is upset he can’t use jack again because of barrowman and just invented a less interesting version of jack to shoehorn into the plot. like when rogue starts trusting the doctor? it isn’t actually established that he’s not a chuldur. just that he’s had these specific faces before, which a chuldur can literally also do??? this is like… ripped straight out of a story in which jack doesn’t realize it’s actually the doctor until he sees his previous faces, for whatever reason. someone mentioned rogue is manufactured in a lab to make fans like him and that’s exactly it. there’s literally nothing else going on. 

[jammydogersthiughts]

Church on Ruby Road (Late) review

Since it’s a ‘new era’ for doctor who right now with the start of Ncuti Gatwa’s first episode onwards,I decided to make reviews of each episode now.Also,Yes,this is late,I just thought of this now okay?

Anyways….

THE POSITIVE THINGS:

1:I already Love Ncuti’s Doctor,although,I really hope later in his run we do get to see the much darker side to this Doctor,but for now,I am very happy with this.

2:Ruby Sunday is a good character so far; She’s likeable,Funny and has great chemistry with Ncuti,speaking of which….

3:The Chemistry between Ncuti and Mille is incredible,I really can’t wait to see their relationship develop.

4:The ‘Rope wire’ bit was a pretty fun little bit it also got to show the Intelligent side of the Doctor,Which is always important for the Doctor to have moments where they use their brain to solve problems.

5:I like how Ruby figured out the doctor was a time-traveler instead of getting told it.

NEGATIVE THINGS:

1:I really didn’t like the song numbers,I am sorry!But I really didn’t.

2:The ending feels….Kinda Cheesy?I know it’s a Christmas special but can’t we let some people die.

3:The physic gloves just feel…..useless?It makes some sense on paper don’t get me wrong,but god was the execution not good….

4:The Goblins are just…..There?I don’t know,it feels like they could have done SO MUCH MORE with their concept….

OVERALL:

Eh,It was pretty good,I did enjoy it mostly to be fair.But,it’s kinda just a run-of-the mill Christmas special with the only difference being that theirs a new doctor and new companion to introduce in this one.

6/10

[lastthroes]

@aihoshiino (i wrote too much so i'll reblog instead, hope you don't mind!)

oh yeah i wrote that in a rush, so maybe i didn't make it as clear as i thought i was doing, but i do agree with you that caution is needed. some of it it's either different questions or making way too many assumptions (and i definitely avoided the fandom enough due to all the waifu/ship warring, that i don't really know who's trustable as a source). would be nice to hear what was actually said and not just the interpreter input, but i don't think it'll be possible. the hypothetical spinoff answer for example needs more context: it'd be very different if mengo answered with a simple "want to draw more aqua and ruby" (which would even include them just being happy kids around the time ai's still alive), and to explicitly refer to it as wanting to make a love story

... not that i think a spin-off is happening regardless, not after i've seen how vicious some of the ending's reception was from japanese fandom on twitter 😅

but yeah, i've already seen this being completely re-interpreted, i mentioned some of it in a different post. i also saw people claiming that this means if aqua lived they'd be together, completely disregarding the fact that aqua never talked or thought about ruby in a way that wasn't familiar/platonic, and that everything he might've told sarina was done in the context of her being a kid with terminal cancer: i always saw it just like people with dementia are entertained if they somehow believe that someone who passed is still alive and ask about them, and nothing else. because why make sarina upset by downright rejecting the marriage idea, or start avoiding her/not visit her anymore? why make her last moments miserable when she's already been abandoned by her family and let to die alone? it just doesn't suit what we know of goro, and even less with the level of guilt the death caused him

it's clear from these statements that the ship was not sailing because, as i said in the other post, if aqua/ruby really was the endgoal the manga would have been shaped by that choice. titles like usagi drop had to go for the timeskip route to actually pave the way for the ending (which also went for the 'not blood related' reveal). in onk? there are no raised flags in onk for an aqua/ruby ending to actually make sense and be congruent with what we saw. hell, "exploring the relationship" still doesn't mean to make it endgame (we already got this with akane's example after all), it may very well be about addressing ruby's feelings at all and have her properly turned down and with this rejection being what finally makes her move on to be "just ruby": i actually remember a point in the early manga before she learned aqua was goro reincarnated in where she was disgusted at the thought of incest. what changed between that moment, and learning aqua was goro all along, then talking to herself in front of the mirror that she was already 16 so she could marry her sensei? especially because she should know that's not possible. we have no answer to any of those questions, because there was never an actual intention of going there. that's what i got from this q&a, at least

(and i think a key point that lots of people refused to see is that at those times ruby was not seeing aqua: she was seeing goro. it's not a positive thing that she's overlaying the most idealized crush possible upon the brother she actually grew up with and knows: she was twelve when she had this crush, one she developed simply because goro was kind to her. she didn't actually know him as a person beyond the nice doctor persona, and she's lived longer as ruby than she did as sarina. there are really so many reasons why i couldn't see the ship sailing, this being one of those. i feel bad sometimes for bursting the bubbles, but the manga really didn't set anything up for this kind of thing)

i checked again and it seems there's no new reports yet in their page, but i trust rp2's tweeting the most here even if there's still a "she said he said" component: i can see mengo having said she wants to draw spicy twincest considering her previous works. some cover illustrations already looked non-canon, like it was just her own fantasies. i also can imagine aka not wanting to make the manga controversial and polemic (even less when after using a rl tragedy for akane's arc, it blew up on him as it did), which was the context for one of the answers about not doing the twincest, from what i gathered. my crosspost was really about that in the end: external influence was already obvious to me because of the way the story was wrapped up, with ruby literally looking at the reader and saying "wow this industry is so fun!1!!" and getting sold to us by the last chapters as some kind of... improved ai?, as if the start of the series didn't highlight the total opposite through ai's character, and not just because of the tragedy of her death: it's not only with the conflict of aqua vs goro and ruby vs sarina that i feel the series popularity became detrimental to it

it's fine not to commit to the twincest as an endgame (or to any romance, for that matter) but, after having opened that pandora box, backpedaling and not even addressing it because of a what-if polemic ended up negatively impacting the rest of the manga. though i already had many gripes with how the story was unfolding before it (among other reasons because it felt to me like aka could NOT write a story or relationships without turning it into an harem. ngl, going from the initial concept of ai being an idol hiding her kids, then the revenge for her death, i found the fact that everyone had to romantically orbit around aqua and the amount of chapters spent on it just to not even tie it in the end very tiresome), i think i'm not the only one who noticed the big drop in writing quality after ch143, and not just because the story shrugged the conflict of their past lives under the carpet and called it a day. really, it's so ridiculous that suddenly they can no longer interact together, yet the manga still ends wanting to make you please believe that ruby's the whole reason for aqua to have been reincarnated at all and "wdym, who is ai hoshino?". it's really one of the things that upset me most of the latter part, the fact that suddenly they weren't allowed to be siblings or former doctor and patient anymore

of course i could still be wrong in my hypothesis, this is the kind of thing that you can never truly know, and maybe reading the full thing makes me feel differently. but yeah, i posted it because it kinda settled it for me that the twincest scenes were just a bone thrown to mengo and nothing else. that there was never an actual intent of "canonizing" aquaruby, or even addressing ruby's feelings, outside of the shallow baiting that animanga fans (general here) keep falling for year after year. ch143 gets blatantly ignored after the most shameless excuse for a kiss (doubles exist! camera angles exist!), and the way aqua and ruby basically stop interacting altogether after that really reeked of something going on under the scenes to me, either editorial meddling or the author seeing it as a mistake and going too far. whether it's self-censorship or otherwise, in the end the result's the same. i've seen this happening so many times, not only with incest themes but also with queerness, including recent anime: the censorship requiem of the rose king suffered was both ridiculous and atrocious, going as far as ruining the manga's story, and we got confirmation from staff of the meddling that happened with yuri on ice back in its time. so basically, been there done that. the only manga with incest that comes to my mind published in recent years that actually committed is ani to imouto no shitai koto, which was also as interesting to read as watching paint dry - so interesting that i stopped reading somewhere after the first chapters. and the fact that most of it is porn just makes me think it got away with it because the change in demography makes the bill not apply

the spin-off question did make me curious, because it looks like mengo can't actually do anything without aka's approval. makes me wonder if that includes derivative work, because she's the official artist. a friend reminded me yesterday that one of the artists for the xillia 2 anthology was also doing incest doujinshi of it on the side, but bandai namco has always been lax enough about that kind of thing, at least with the tales ip (lax enough that it's been a bit frustrating to be turned down by japanese artists seeking commissions due to fear, because there's just no past incident that grants that reaction)

several people reporting from the q&a section that aka and mengo have been holding during an event in barcelona, spain. it's mostly random tweeting now, but like it was reported already yesterday, news site reports should proceed shortly

this basically re-confirms my suspicions that aka was the one freaking out about the possibilities of getting the manga affected by that one bill that was amended back in 2010, in particular after the kiss. after all, other manga that also dared to engage with themes of incest, like aki sora, already suffered the impact, and i remember siscon ani to brocon imouto coming up with a whole warning about how they did not condone the character's actions. even oreimo, which every normie and their mother cried about, ended its story after the bill was put into effect, and you can tell by how it settled for an ambiguous enough resolution

i can't say i shipped aquruby, if anything because as i said several times in the past, i knew it'd never happen (both because of the bill and because it didn't suit the story as it was being told) and i'm old enough to not be satisfied with shallow bait and breadcrumbs: i have talked before about how i dislike works of the kind of eromanga sensei, that want to scratch at the topic but also not really. i'm not really surprised about this: in the end, any manga that decides to tackle sibling incest in recent years needs to bullshit its way out of it with a non-blood related reveal, "only cousins", they are actually step siblings, they die (and this one actually includes one of mengo's oneshots),... i never expected onk to be any different. even less after it got so popular

that doesn't mean, though, that i don't still find disappointing that after ch143 suddenly aqua and ruby weren't really allowed to interact onscreen. not as twins, and not as former doctor and patient. i always figured aqua would turn ruby down or something, but i did expect them to resolve the entanglement, address where the relationship was supposed to stand. when you set aside the incest angle, it's easy to see how goro|aqua and sarina|ruby never got an actual end to their story together. it even gets cut short with my less favorite way of ending a conflict in a story: one of the character gets killed. but oh well. same old. not the first manga negatively affected by the bill and not the last

[nikoldragonne12]

Old post:

Despicable Minions (DM AU) - Amber Wilde-Fournier info

Alright, finally there's info about Amber Wilde-Fournier, my character from "Despicable Minions".

Amber Wilde-Fournier (formerly just "Wilde") was born on 13th July 1999 in Toronto as the only child of Thomas Wilde and Evelyn Sebastian, two university students.

Her parents decided that they would get married after the baby was born, unfortunately Evelyn died two weeks after Amber was born (on postpartum complications) - she was alone when it happened (Tom was at his summer job and Amber was at home with Ruby) and when Evelyn finally got to the doctors' care, it was too late. 

Tom, Amber's dad, was devastated from losing Eve, which negatively affected his willingness to start a new relationship - thankfully, his future husband was stubborn and persevered enough, so they ended up together eventually.

During Amber's childhood, only a few important events happened:

In 2004, first symptoms of Amber's asthma showed up - since this year, Amber suffers from asthma and after some years her insomnia developed as a result. Thankfully, medications, exercising and then also herbal teas helped to mitigate the illness(es), so Amber's current asthma and insomnia are much smaller problems than they used to be.

Between 2004 and 2006 Tom and Damien met and slowly started building up a relationship - Damien had to work really hard on convincing Tom it's a good idea to turn their friendship to something more; Amber played an important role in it, mainly because she quickly warmed up to Dami and through her kindness and childish view of the world she helped her dad to get over his fear and finally find his happiness.

Fact: Tom's aunt Ruby didn't have any problems with Tom's bisexuality and his new partner, mainly because she was hiding the fact she's a lesbian for a long time, always finding reasons why she stayed single. Nowadays, she and Damien remain a close, positive, similar to son-in-law/mother-in-law relationship.

Later in 2006 Tom got married to Damien Fournier - they kept their surnames but Amber is known as "Amber Wilde-Fournier" from now on.

Until 2012, nothing important happened - Damien and Tom ran a bakery, Ruby was helping them with raising Amber (especially with things like periods), etc.

In 2012 (the same year when "Despicable Me" events took place on my AU timeline) Amber met the female minion tribe for the first time.

One of the female minions broke into Wilde-Fournier's house and Amber, having problems with sleeping, woke up. 

Fact: The female minions were hiding for centuries and weren't very trusting towards humans - thankfully, this one minion was curious and daring, much more than her other friends, which helped her to cross the line and she was able to befriend Amber.

Despite Amber and Wendy, that one daring and curious female minion, were able to build up an unbreakable friendship, others around them weren't very positive - Damien, Ruby and Tom were confused about a new friend Amber had. On the other hand, the female minion tribe, especially Wendy's older sister Vicky, reacted with anger.

Eventually, both sides met and slowly fixed a relationship between humans and the female minions - then, minion girls moved to Wilde-Fournier's house, building a lair under the house, where they live till today.

Through years, Amber and her family lived a pretty nice life - the female minions learnt how to live in modern days and a lot of them found jobs among the whole of Toronto, Amber started attending university, etc.

In "Despicable Minions", Amber is in her senior year and will eventually finish it - since then, she will fully join her dads' business and work as their personal designer.

Personality:

Ambivert (more extroverted among her loved ones and more introverted among strangers or people she doesn't like), caring and kind-hearted (towards those she cares about), creative, playful, sensitive, brave, tomboy, vengeful, cunning, stubborn, sarcastic…

Some other facts:

Amber is ambidextrous;

Her blood type is O negative;

She's heteroromantic asexual;

Amber got her upper lobe piercings after she started attending university;

Dark eye bags under her eyes formed as a result of insomnia (they are lighter nowadays, though);

Amber's signature color is yellow - it's minions' main color, as well;

The minion girls view her as their younger sister and treat her this way, especially Wendy, Dove, Minnie and Vicky (the female minion alpha);

She designed her own bedroom (its current appearance), as well as her fathers' bakery, some minion bedrooms etc.;

Amber loves plushies - most of those she has in her bedroom were made by the minions;

She dislikes heeled shoes - she simply doesn't feel comfortable in them;

The reason behind her sleeveless turtlenecks is that she also doesn't like showing out her cleavage;

Amber speaks Canadian English, French, a little German and of course Minionese;

Despite she lives with minions for shorter time than Gru she knows Minionese much better - it's because the female minions are more willing to teach the others their language than the male minions;

Amber has a tendency to get revenge on people who dares to hurt her family in some way;

For example she used a screwdriver to scratch Dru's vehicle after he crashed Tom's car (and that car wasn't the cheapest) - Dru didn't see her;

She made a lot of long and big scratches on it, as well as she wrote "SUCKER" on it;

Tom confirms that Amber, when she's wearing a dress for formal occasions, reminds him of the first time he met Evelyn - it's also the only way how to remind him of his past girlfriend without making him cry;

Amber calls Damien his name, not because she doesn't love him but simply for practical reason and because she's used to it (she called him his name when he was dating Tom);

Still, when she talks about both of them she refers to them as "dads" or "daddies";

Also, when they're alone together, she has a tendency to slip and call Damien "dad";

And of course when she wants to show how much she cares about him, she calls him "dad" (she usually combines it with a kiss on Damien's cheek and something like "I love you");

Amber is very aware of her family's criminal past but doesn't comment it;

She is sensitive when somebody asks her about it, though;

See you later!