#this episode was about th*smin

[thebraxiatelcollection]

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[metacrisisdoctor]

i know this sounds petty but i really feel like thasmins are just jealous of timepetals and honestly i'm can't blame them for it. i wish thasmin had been better written/more fleshed out too. but omg stay out of the tags or go do something more productive with that energy like write fanfic or something.

it's not petty imo, it's just true.

the thing is rose and her relationship with the doctor has absolutely nothing to do with that.

i actually am currently catching up on s11-13 and i am enjoying thirteen and her relationship with yaz thus far. i don't fully love the controversial writing choices chibnall made, but that's alright. i don't love everything about any era.

it's just really odd to me because the main difference between rose and the doctor and yaz and the doctor is that rtd intentionally wrote the doctor and rose as romantic since the first episode with nine. he had a specific vision for them and he followed it through. chibnall did not plan to make yaz and thirteen romantic. the fans enjoyed them and he decided to give them more romantic undertones because of that, so there is already a difference there. this doesn't mean th*smin is bad, but it's just different! the development is not all there because that wasn't the original plan, and tbh i think it's pretty awesome that he leaned into what queer fans wanted instead of pulling a no homo on them, but it doesn't change how they're different than tenrose because chib didn't have a specific plan in mind for them AND then the pandemic happened. it's just different!

and the fact that they bring rose and her relationship with ten in even though it has been FIFTEEN years since we saw them last boggles my mind and there is no reason to do so other than they feel jealous that a lot of the fandom still loves them and they're still really popular in some circles.

it's honestly really hard to be someone who has loved the doctor and rose for over a decade but still willing to enjoy the doctor's other relationships (personally twelveclara and i enjoy th*smin as well) because they love to attack rose, ten and their relationship so much. like i legit got anon hate falling me a misogynist on main because i was excited about david coming back even though i have been convinced "fourteen" is tentoo since then and i'm just also excited for ncuti's era because i've been a fan of his since sex education and david is obviously just a way to bring viewership back up for ncuti since, unfortunately, jodie's run lost like 80% of viewers.

the dw fandom is really toxic because they literally WANT to fight instead of being constructive. like yes if you tag anti shit in a character tag people are gonna get upset. because it's rude. not because you're not allowed to have an opinion.

[musical-chick-13]

What OTPs in your fandoms do you just not get? 🖤

Salty ask list.

Most of them, if we're honest.

I mean...okay, there are some that I don't get because they hit tropes I don't like. But if you like those tropes or dynamics or want this specific thing for one of the characters, I'd understand why you'd like that ship. (Like J*ime/Br*enne. Not for me, but I understand the theoretical appeal for people who are not me.)

But there are many where my feelings are, "Even if you like this trope/dynamic, I don't understand what any person could possibly get out of this." The answer to this question is for ships that fall under this category.

(NOTE: THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT I IN ANY WAY JUDGE OR HATE PEOPLE WHO DO LIKE THESE SHIPS. THEY ARE SIMPLY NOT FOR ME. I AM HAPPY FOR YOU IF YOU SEE SOMETHING I DON'T.)

Some of them are probably obvious. Raúl/Sofía from CtrlZ (which I've DEFINITELY already talked about at length), Ch*ck/Bl*ir (HE SOLD HER!! LITERALLY!!!! THERE IS NO COMING BACK FROM THAT!!!!!!!!!!!), R*ylo (if you wanted a "moral conflict from hero/villain tension, DarkShip" kind of thing, the movies didn't deliver on that because they tried to woobify him, but if you wanted fully woobified Kenneth, they didn't bother to make him likeable, so I genuinely personally don't understand how anyone could be in any way satisfied with anything that happened regarding this ship). I was never into T*n/R*se (but that's just because I didn't really care about either of these characters, and also look at what happened to the love of my life Martha as a result of it). I also am not into that era's dr/m.aster pairing for the same reason of "not really caring about the characters." j0ner*s I think had potential, but I felt like the entire development of their relationship was extremely rushed (he was her prisoner for most of it, and they were fighting for like all of season 7 and then suddenly he's like, "Oh you are EVERYTHING to me" and I was like, "dude, how." I was actually excited to see this one play out because of the differences in how they both viewed power and what J's more simple, present-oriented wants were, versus D's broader, more ambitious, future-oriented goals, as well as the fallout of their being related and how that would compare to the way everyone in-universe treated J/C, but then they just...didn't explore...any of that...at all.......)

But I think, honestly the biggest one is probably Th*smin. Like...aside from people just wanting 13 to date a woman, I cannot find any reason why someone would ship this at all. (I will henceforth refer to the "Th" part of the ship as "Th" and the other half as "Y.")

I'm going to put the rest of this under a cut because apparently I have more Things to Say™ about this than I initially thought I did. Also spoilers for the latest episode of the show in question. I won't tag them because if I do it will end up in the show tag, and some shipper will actually kill me for saying this, oh God, this is how I die isn't it, try to get Lea Salonga to sing at my funeral.

Again, this is ONLY MY OPINION, and I harbor no ill will toward anyone who likes this ship, nor do I think they're a bad person or something because that's really stupid.

Like...Oh, God, I'm going to get shot for saying this aren't I. I just don't think...their relationship is...built?? On anything???? I get Y's crush, because yeah, sometimes if you're a Super Cool Smart Wacky Alien Who Intimidates People and Shows People the Wonders of the Universe, someone is going to develop a crush on you. And I think the development of that was set up really well. But the alien in question?? She has NEVER indicated any type of romantic interest in anyone. And all of a sudden it's, "I wish we could be here forever" and "If I were to ever Settle Down™, it'd be with you" (which...girl...you did settle down...twice...once with your wife on Darillium and once watching over The Vault......like..... what..........???). She has never shared anything personal with Y and has never interacted in any way with her that was different to how she interacted with anyone else, up until this last episode. Most of Y's growth has been done apart from her supposed love interest. What is this relationship even based on???? Even people who do ship this in earnest, how could they possibly be happy with what they've gotten???????

I just...I think ultimately the thing that Bugs Me™ is that Y just doesn't...feel like a fully complete character sometimes to me. Everyone in the show keeps talking about how she's "One of the best people" and don't get me wrong, I do like her! But she's nice and competent and gets along with people, and lots of characters on this show are nice and competent and get along with people? I don't understand why she's so Special™. And that wouldn't usually be that much of a problem for me, but that Special™ness is cited as the reason why Th likes her. And then they expect me to believe that this alien lady, who has never been able to open up, discuss her emotions, or handle anything with any degree of maturity, who is practically allergic to emotional honesty, is all of a sudden willing to take the initiative, with pretty much no angst at all, to talk about her romantic relationship with a person she is full-time travelling with and thus would be extra interested in preserving the status quo with? (Presumably because, again. This character is The Most Special™. So things are Different™ in this case.)

And don't even get me started on how she clarified that statement of "one of the best people" with "even my wife." Like if you're just going to try to elevate the New Love Interest to be So Much More Important and Special and Better than the old one, I'd rather you not mention River at all. Yeah, yeah, that's probably not what Chris meant but it sure read that way on paper to me as an audience member.

I just cannot see this erratic, emotionally troubled alien who Struggles To Be Good, who is constantly going through an identity crisis, who is first and foremost a mess ever romantically bonding with someone who isn't also at least a little messy. And that's the thing. Y isn't messy. Not even a little bit. Even when they had an opportunity to introduce mess with the Mental Illness Implied Depression episode, they did nothing with it.

There's...there's not actually anything unlikable about Y at all. And so not only do these two characters seem incompatible to me, I find it very hard to be invested in Y sometimes. (See previous answer about how characters being ideal or hyper-capable will never be resonant or escapist to me.)

And I guess just (haha, getting personal, I'm so sorry I know that absolutely no one signed up for this)...why is it never people like me who get to Fall In Mutual Love With The Wacky Smart Charismatic Space Alien? Why do the people who get the Exciting Love Interests or who are seen as Desirable™ and Special™ always have to be the thin, pretty, "normal" ones under 35 who don't ever fuck up? Why do the messy characters or characters with emotional/personal issues of who have to take awhile to figure shit out never get to be happy or fall in love (if they even get written at all)? Even if a character with mental illness does get to have any of that, it's always in one context: the symptoms are crying prettily and it's not shown affecting their life in any significant way after the piece of media establishes that they have it. (Which uh, surprise surprise, is what happened here.) It's like, "Oh, mentally ill people can have Love and Happiness and Respect and Cool Story Things, but only if they come as close to resembling a neurotypical person as possible." You can't exhibit any of the ugly parts of mental illness (or really of just...being a human, really, it doesn't even have to be if you're mentally ill), because otherwise you're Not Worthy of [insert whatever happy ending trope here]. Everything women have to do to be Worthy of Love has to be Soft and Pretty and Personable and Universally Likable, and I've just seen that story too many times for it to interest me in any way anymore.

Like...Idk. There's nothing here of substance to me, and it also happens to hit basically every single trope that annoys me, so I'm just -_-

[musical-chick-13]

5 and 22, whatever fandom you like :)

5. Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you?

I wouldn't say "ruined" exactly. I can't think of anything I shipped that fandom made me start disliking, but there are pairings that I've just not been into that fandom has made me actively avoid if not hate due to being...Impolite. To put it delicately.

One is Th*smin (see previous answer-if it wasn't so wildly popular and taking over absolutely everything, and if I didn't see so many people saying certain things about various characters/dynamics/the nature of queer representation, I literally would just not care). Another is J*Lock (which...if you've ever heard anything about the Srlock fandom, I'm sure you understand----*flashback scene to 2017 when people were convinced that there was a secret episode with the "real" ending*). And j0ner*s from G/o/T, mainly because every other character in the show got much hate from the stans of the female half of that ship for not being the female half of that ship.

22. Popular character you hate?

K*lo R*n K*lo R*n K*lo R*n K*lo R*n K*lo R*n K*lo R*n K*lo R*n K*lo R*n K*lo R*n K*lo R*n K*lo R*n K*lo R*n K*lo R*n K*lo R*n

(I have literally never been so unconditionally annoyed with a fictional character in my entire life, I actually hate him so much.)

Salty ask list.