#thebirdscomeback

[galwithalibrarycard]

hey! a bit of a late ask but i would love to know your thoughts on the tennant/tate doctor who specials and am especially wondering if you have any hcs abt bea and ben watching them together?? i just know they would be losing their goddamn minds over the reunion (as was i)

Hi!!! No worries at all! I’m happy to talk about this of course! The first thing you need to know is that I haven’t watched the specials yet. I’ve been doing my first ever complete watch-through of New Who, started last year and I’m now three episodes into the back half of Series 7. I could technically skip to the 60th anniversary specials now, and I probably should, but I kind of want to watch everything in order and also I’m dragging my feet on the idea of having to pay for Disney Plus, so 🤷‍♀️ With the amount of spoilers I’ve seen on tumblr already, I really should just find a way to watch them ASAP. (The site I would’ve tried first is defunct now and I’m scared of viruses and getting in trouble, so I haven’t taken the time to find a new one.)

As far as Ben and Bea, yes they did lose their entire minds about this, of course! We know Ten and Donna are Ben’s favorite Doctor and companion so you KNOW he was so so SO excited for this. Bea also loves the show and of course was also very excited for the episodes. (I do love the whole thing where Bea has definitely been a Doctor Who fan exactly as long as Ben has, but refused to directly acknowledge it in NMTD because she knows it’s Ben’s favorite and she was determined to hate him. And also because Moffat. But both of those things are in the past and Bea is free to enjoy the show again lol) And she also enjoys the whole experience of the specials because of how absolutely adorable Ben is when he’s excited about anything, really. I can’t really say what they would think of the specials after watching, because I haven’t seen them and because I’m sure their Doctor Who opinions in general are way different than mine, bc they’ve been watching for much more of their lives than I have and are probably all caught up.

What I can say and will never get tired of saying, is that physical touch is a big part of how they show love (that and words of affirmation), so they absolutely still cuddle when they watch shows together. At this point I doubt they even notice they’re doing it, it’s just instinct to be curled up together and touching as much as possible. I can’t help but contrast it to Lolilo, that now they can have all the physical affection they need, and when they say “the flat” they mean the one they share together.

Although- they do need their arms sometimes to flail around and react to plot twists, so they aren’t cuddling the entire time. Just most of it 😆

I’m definitely going to post my reactions when I do watch the specials, now that I know you’re interested! I have a post in my drafts that’s a list of my opinions on the Ponds era now that I’ve finished that, so I’ll post that too. I want to do a full meta post about Ben and Doctor Who now that I’ve finished all of Ten’s seasons, also. And I know I wrote a headcanon post about Bea and Ben watching the Thirteenth Doctor’s first episode together, I’ll try to find and reblog that for you since it’s the closest thing I have right now.

Thank you for the ask, this was so fun! 😊💖

[cardboardsean]

on a serious note i WILL say the ben show is a great ep to,,show,,pedro's character. i also think it's a great moment of ben genuinely overstepping when the other person can't defend themself (the cool thing about ben and bea is that it's fine that they're that sharp to each other, but sometimes with other people ben just ends up being mean). and to then have pedro stepping in, reading claudio much better, caring about claudio and not what amuses him, and mediating between them, really shows don pedro the leader in a high school context

[violivs]

NMTDaily: All Round Great Guy

- Hoo boy, get ready to cringe, folks. This episode, man.

- “So, some people seem to be upset about something that apparently happened at Pedro’s costume party” This opening is interesting in that it could easily set us up to think we’re getting Bea’s side of the story on her argument with Ben. But actually, she’s here to defend Pedro and Hero.

- Right now, Bea and Pedro are a united front. He defended her to Ben last episode; here she is defending Pedro to her audience because, as we see in the video description, he asked her to.

- This is a parallel to the eventuality of Bea having to make videos defending Hero from a situation Pedro’s involved with later. She starts defending them both, but ends up defending Hero FROM Pedro (and Claudio).

- Bea is about to unintentionally make the first big crack in the foundation of the Bea-Pedro friendship in this episode, sadly.

- We find out that Pedro won the race for Student Leader. This does make his asking Bea to make and post this video for him feel a bit like a politician caught in a scandal, trying to cover his ass and avoid damaging his image.

- Pedro, like Ben, cares a lot about what people think of him. He also doesn’t feel like he really is the person he presents as to others. For Pedro, though, it’s about living up to the ideal leader figure people already see him as. For Ben, it’s about trying to impress people because he doesn’t have that ideal popular guy image- he’s kind of still the New Kid who has to prove himself.

- Are double peace signs a bisexual stereotype like finger guns? (Are finger guns even a bi thing or am I misremembering the memes?)

- “You know that he’s actually a really nice guy and he knows his shit.” Love dramatic irony that only becomes dramatic irony upon rewatch!

- Pedro going overboard with praise for Hero while trying to tell us how he DOES NOT have feelings for her is definitely funny. It also says something given how quickly he’s going to turn on a dime about her later. His regard for her here is just words.

- There’s a really good meta by @thebirdscomeback about how women like Hero can never win because if you’re so nice and kind and sweet you must be hiding something, and that is really going to become apparent in future episodes.

- “Everything you may have heard on the vlogs of Benedick was not the truth.” Pedro is acting like he wasn’t IN two of those videos. He didn’t make an effort to clarify things with Ben or ask him not to upload them. He could have.

- Also, Bea has no way of knowing Pedro was in those videos because she doesn’t watch Ben’s channel. So he’s omitting that information to keep her on his side.

- Pedro has taken the note from viewers in the comments on Ben’s videos that “people aren’t property.” But he hasn’t internalized that truth, because he will definitely go on to support the idea that Claudio’s claim to Hero’s body has been violated, when the eventuality happens.

- Meanwhile Ben, who casually uses objectifying language about Pedro stealing Hero from Claudio, will step up and believe and defend Hero. That’s it in a nutshell.

- Claudio and Hero are now officially together! Being sickly sweet together down at the park. And the audience that doesn’t know the plot of the play is happy for them, awww!

- Bea is even happy for them, because she likes that Hero is happy. That’s big for her, and very sweet.

- “Now they’re coupled, and I’m the only one left alone in this mean old world!” Beatrice is being sarcastic here, but Pedro isn’t picking up on that, because he doesn’t want to.

- He’s looking at Bea very fondly. I do feel bad for him, this is brutal.

- “I could be your Prince Charming.” You can actually see him consider and make the decision to take the plunge and say that.

- You can also literally SEE Pedro’s face fall, in real time, as he realizes Beatrice’s answer is to laugh at him. Caleb Wells is excellent at facial expressions in acting.

- Now, for Beatrice, this whole conversation has been a joke. She’s been kidding around about being lonely, he’s been kidding back about finding her someone. I think she genuinely believes at first that Pedro is making a joke. They’ve been so platonic for so long that of course the idea of Pedro being her prince romantically is a joke. So she laughs.

- Pedro chuckles a little, trying to play it off like it was a joke. But he hesitated way too long before laughing, so even without seeing his face, Bea knows she messed up.

- Bea is immediately very uncomfortable, making a ‘yikes’ face and babbling and waving her hands. She feels bad about laughing at Pedro. I also think that she laughs and smiles when she’s nervous, so she keeps doing that here even though she’s making it worse for Pedro by doing so.

- Basically, I maintain that Beatrice didn’t mean to hurt Pedro in this scene. If he had very seriously asked her on a date, she would still have been caught off guard, but would have calmly let him down easy. But because she thought they were joking around, she didn’t know until too late that she was in a delicate situation where not laughing in his face would be preferable.

- To her credit, her first words after this are to offer not to post this online. She doesn’t want to embarrass him further. It’s Pedro who insists she post it, probably in large part just to save face in this moment. (This is confirmed in the comment section, where Bea literally tells someone Pedro ‘wanted this posted to show how fine it is’. Cue the meme: they ask how you are and you say you’re fine but you’re not really fine…)

- “People will laugh about it” = “I’M laughing about it, you definitely didn’t hurt me at all by rejecting me, go ahead and show the world, I’m totally fine I promise”

- I do still read Pedro through the lens that his crush on Bea was real. I do think he was also starting to feel attraction to guys, and feel confused by it, and that makes asking out Bea a good way to distract himself from that. But he was into her, at the same time. He wasn’t deeply in love with her or anything, it wasn’t that serious, but yeah. Pouring your energy into a genuine straight crush to minimize your still-present queer attractions is a huge closeted bi experience. (In the play, how much Pedro is actually interested in Beatrice depends entirely on how the role is performed by the actor, so it’s up for interpretation there and here.)

- “I just can’t take you seriously” is the line where I’m like, okay, you didn’t have to tell him that, Bea. That was a little harsh, but in a way that’s very in character for her.

- Pedro tells us that he apologized to Claudio (even though he didn’t do anything to make Claudio think he was into Hero?) and that it’s all okay between them.

- Pedro and Bea both acknowledge that Claudio has a jealous streak. “But it’s all okay now” or is it???

- I have to wonder whether John is watching the videos at this point. The knowledge he’d get here of how well his plan worked in terms of upsetting Claudio is definitely a big push toward continuing to use Claudio’s jealous streak against him and Pedro. John knows he was right about Claudio’s weak spot now.

- Another thing that lives rent-free in my brain: Benedick is still watching Beatrice’s videos at this point. He would have seen this video. He would have been extremely confused about why it filled him with angst and annoyance to see Pedro ask Bea out. What I’m pitching to you here is Jealous Ben. Who definitely breathed a sigh of relief when Bea shot Pedro down- and was immediately like “wtf, am I happy about this? No. No. I have No Feelings About This At All, Actually.” *punches the air anyway*

- Interesting that after being falsely accused of pursuing his friend’s crush, Pedro then immediately actually does ask out his other friend’s crush. To be fair to Pedro, not even Ben knows for sure yet that Ben likes Bea, so Pedro isn’t knowingly asking out Ben’s crush. But it’s funny that it happened anyway.

- “Pedro’s a great guy, we’re just friends, and there’s no confusion anywhere.” - Bea, doing damage control

- Comment awards: Beatrice the character replying to a commenter that called this “the worst friend-zoning I’ve ever seen”, by going on a rant about how the friend zone doesn’t exist and is an anti-feminist concept. Perfectly in character and true.

- Comment round-up: people praising the excellent acting here; someone noticing that Beatrice is wearing the necklace Hero made her; a WILD amount of Pedro/Beatrice shippers who apparently existed, one of whom coined the ship name #pea; many people just hoping Pedro finds someone, including early Pedrazar shippers and people volunteering themselves as tribute.

- I am so glad this fandom never had any x-reader fics, on that note. No harm to people who like reader-inserts, but it would just feel weird, you know?

- It’s also really interesting to me that there WERE Pedro/Bea shippers, but their interest never coalesced into any significant amount of actual fanworks. Funny how some noncanon rarepairs flourish and others fade once the canon outcome becomes apparent. It’s probably because of their falling-out making fans reevaluate the viability of their relationship, and also just people finding other ships more compelling over time.

- Sad to see the first blow to Bea and Pedro’s friendship. It’s hard to get rejected, AND it’s hard to feel a friend pulling away because you couldn’t reciprocate their feelings for you. I feel bad for both of them.

💖🥭🦩

[galwithalibrarycard]

I was tagged by @sonseulsoleil @skinnyscottishbloke and @courfeyrec Thank you all! 😊

Last song you listened to: I think it was We Didn’t Start the Fire (original version), right after listening to the FOB cover to find out what everyone was talking about.

Currently Watching: ER (just started season 9). Also in another Bones rewatch, and on pause in my first complete watch through of Doctor Who (newWho only for now)

Currently reading: Dare Me by Megan Abbott, and just finished Sorcery of Thorns by Margaret Rogerson.

Current obsession: ER, tbh. Mark/Susan and Kerry/Jeanie all the way. And musical theater as a general topic. And all my old obsessions cycling underneath. (NMTD and Lolilo are always right there waiting, for one!)

I tag @drelizabethgreene @thebirdscomeback

@hullosweetpea @mortaljortlebortles @dufrau

@annieofhearts @wylans-stupid-face

@brekker-by-brekkerr

[cardboardsean]

why does this Sci-Fi Room tour spend time on beatrice reading from Frankenstein? (spoilers ahead)

first off, Frankenstein is a great choice for Bea's favourite book; written by an absolute icon of a young woman who established a new genre, slightly scary, slightly political, a pick that's not entirely cheesy or mainstream. It's fun that both Bea and Ben love scifi. It's also cool to see Bea lit up and engaged in talking about something she likes, which we get more often with Ben.

but why do we get an entire read out quote from Frankenstein at this point? Bea feels slightly alienated from her peers, sure, but she's hardly isolated or disliked. The character the quote she reads works for, is John Donaldson. Read it now with his arc in mind:

"he could not sum up the hours and months of misery which I endured wasting in impotent passions. For while I destroyed his hopes, I did not satisfy my own desires. They were for ever ardent and craving; still I desired love and fellowship, and I was still spurned. Was there no injustice in this? Am I to be thought the only criminal, when all humankind sinned against me?"

See, it's all right there! The 'he' in question (aka Frankenstein), is Pedro, while the 'I' (the creature) is John. @thebirdscomeback and I have written about queer affect in NMTD before, something that is at the very centre of Frankenstein. The creature rages against Frankenstein and other humans because even though he is a product of them, they refuse to accept him.

In the novel, this quote is said by the creature as he mourns over Frankenstein's dead body, and in NMTD it has clear parallells to CONFESSIONS, which is a kind of non-apology apology to Pedro's lost reputation (though perhaps mostly an explanation to Hero). In CONFESSION, John notes the following about Pedro; Pedro is perfect, is friends with everyone, has a passion for soccer, gets good marks, is always happy, and always 'makes the effort'. Then John explains that the failure he himself feels is not that of being unable to live up to their parents expectations, but being unable to live up to Pedro's. 'You didn't even try to understand me', he says, which is exactly what happens when Frankenstein sees the creature wake up for the first time. He's so horrified of his own creation he hates it right away.

Reading Frankenstein and the creature as a complicated sibling relationship instead of the creator/father route is in general incredibly fascinating! For Pedro specifically the thing is that he tries so hard to live up to being 'an all-round great guy', that he places those same pressures on everyone else, as seen in the other days video where he implies Balth is straight. For his brother in particular he tries to mold him after himself to protect him from the world.

Frankenstein also wants the creature to be normal, and in asking for a bride, the creature tries to adhere to this, but Frankenstein will not help him. And then the creature vows to destroy everything Frankenstein holds dear. As John says 'I thought I can disrupt that [your normal life]'.

Don John is often regarded as one of Shakespeare's flatter villains, he's seemingly just evil for kicks, sure he's jealous and hateful, but there's very little depth. John Donaldson is another game entirely, I think he's the main point where TCW have done something to surpass Shakespeare (sorry willy). He's cold and manipulating, but it's easy to see the ways he's hurting, and we do actually understand his motivations eventually. Ultimately he really does love his brother, that's the problem even! Like the creature he desires love and fellowship, but it is denied him, and that's what drives him. Even John running away echoes the end of Frankenstein, with the creature drifting away into the arctic on a raft.

THUS this extra video with Frankenstein heralds the narrative at the heart of the conflict in NMTD. Before we soonish return to the Claudio/Hero plot (and Hero's birthday in particular) it gives a forewarning of what themes are going on in the background of the story; alienation from your own kin. We haven't seen John or the watch for a long time at this point, so it's very interesting we get a bit of character study right before he returns, particularly since his plan is so incredibly convoluted. tldr; FORESHADOWING.

[cardboardsean]

for peter haiku tuesday this week we have two poems about how pedro is handling john's disappearance (spot the pedrazar!)

on your bedroom floor i can feel the ship sinking flooding the carpet --- @thebirdscomeback

it has been five weeks or years, counting every hour of letting you down --- me

[cardboardsean]

this week's peter haiku tuesday inspired mainly by the actual current events in NMTDaily for once

the mirror shatters it was always going to now they see clearly --- @thebirdscomeback

what a little bitch just learn to respect women i hate him so much --- also bug

the future with you a miracle I can't choose now my rot revealed ---me

[cardboardsean]

a fishing themed (late) peter haiku tuesday this week from me and @thebirdscomeback hook line and sinker you try to pull me up while i wait for the catch --bug

fish or fisherman confusing my metaphors just want to bite down --me

[cardboardsean]

peter haiku tuesday this week ignoring pedro's current crimes in favour of celebrating the one month (and a day) anniversary of seeing caleb wells play faustus

it will take a while to wash the blood off your hands the stain will remain

--- @thebirdscomeback

need a better pen to write a better self as part of your story

--- me

[cardboardsean]

this week's peter haiku tuesday (petuesday) from me and @thebirdscomeback in which we decided pedro is an aries

i wish we could live in confessions almost made you and me alone ---me

pedro: an aries god he's so annoying ugh gets a three in vibes ---bug, with supporting image:

[cardboardsean]

some peter needs therapy haikus from bug and i this week:

it runs much deeper i’m something worse than you see but don’t let me go

-- @thebirdscomeback

but it's not your fault it's almost certainly mine you did it at all

-- me

[cardboardsean]

second edition of petuesday (peter haiku tuesday) with @thebirdscomeback turning surprisingly sincere this week