meddlingmaez

mae | she/they | 27 | plant mom | la based profile pic & banner: "interacting galaxies" by Ann Harwell

[meddlingmaez]

heya!

i’m a white trans femm anarchist who attends The Hellsite to post about doctor who, poker face, crazy ex-girlfriend, twin peaks, dimension 20, jessica jones, lost, percy jackson, infinity train, the magnus archives, sort of, mike flanagan shows, hadestown, dave malloy musicals, star wars, etc.

Free Palestine

[sircarolyn]

if dr who stories never say the word savage ever again it will be too soon 💀

[meddlingmaez]

companion who’s a long distance truck driver around middle america with an aging ugly-ass lap dog they got in their divorce. they meet the doctor at a queer bar while she’s tracking down the master, the episode ends with the master on stage at a drag show holding the dog hostage. this rallies the crowd to attack the master, stabbing him with their hrt-needles, butterfly knives and crochet hooks. glowing with regen energy, the master stumbles off stage into his TARDIS disguised as a crystal vendor booth and dematerializes. later that evening as the trucker gears up to hit the road, the doctor offers a rendezvous at the end of their next delivery route and from there, to venture together out into a sparkling cosmos… bullshit dog in-tow.

[meddlingmaez]

Ok so from what I’m understanding going by the cover art of New Pathways and by the wording of both press releases... these new adventures with Chase Moyo and Alfie Steep will take place after Liv & Helen but before the Time War? Alrighty I can get behind that! hyyyyype 🥳

Welcome Chase Moyo & Alfie Steep to the companion timeline ✨⚔️📞💫 💙💙

[notgingersigmatheta]

The Daisiest Daisy Acrylic

[heaven-at-the-drive-in]

it would be nice if the doctor who fandom ever acknowledged the antisemitism in the text. Like it'd be nice if we critiqued it and got annoyed but i'd genuinely take "yeah that. was antisemitic"

the hornéd goblins who ritualistically eat babies at christmas and are costumed like an amdram fiddler production? antisemitic!

every time (yes there's multiple) they turned the nazis into mythologised Bad Guys and refused to engage with the actual facts of They murdered my family. instead choosing to use them as an aesthetic. also antisemitism!

i mean even just the conspicuous absence of Jews in the dweu. like i don't - there are no Jews in the future? like. do i have to explain?

and this isn't all of it but like. whatever. acknowledge the antisemitism in the text!!!

[cough-droplet]

[spaghetti-number1rated1997]

“MY HELICOPTER—“

[a-dandy-and-a-clown]

there she goes

[the-worms-in-your-bones]

Sometimes I will see a post float by talking about some thing commonly encountered in the wider doctor who fandom and I am so glad to be in my own little tumblr bubble with people with good opinions

[the-evil-skull]

With the lifting of the veil, all the other’s faces were present at once, glitching between possibilities. The child, the father, the widower. The mother, the maiden, and crone. The undefinable otherness that was known only by itself—and those also cast in their shadow. ​

The story branched off in different directions, but the destination was the same. It was time to live. The ancient child made their choice, stepped forward, and was gone. Leaving for the journey to Lungbarrow, by Loomlight.

[goldenzingy46]

the other as the cosmic gardener

​In the infinite expanse, he spotted the tiny form of the other caught amidst the cosmos. Occasionally, the miniscule shadow crouched down to place something upon a star, as if planting tiny seeds in a bed of soil. ​Chris was awestruck; the puzzlement settled over his face in a slack-jawed mask. Yet despite his amazement, Chris had to know what this strange cosmic gardener was playing at.

first sighting of the phrase: planting the seeds for the Houses of gallifrey to grow from

I have no home, no beginning, just lots and lots of lives, all tangled and knotted together. Some I have to trim, or hide, to keep up the pretence of neatness. I can hardly make heads nor tails of it either. But I have a little rose garden where I keep the paths I’ve cut away.

dialogue from the other, referring to all of its lives as a rose garden

“And I’m just another of your roses that needs trimming.”

said by the vampyre yssgaroth to the other, its friend, while telling the other that it has to kill him

He watched them embrace, giggle, drink, and waltz between the ancient flowers and newgrown vines.

old flowers and new vines at the other's wedding

we can plant seeds for further change.”

the other, in reference to trying to fix things

Regress it to a seed, and send it back home. Give it a chance to begin again, to be something new.

what the other is told to do to save its ship

The other shook his head. “I bequeath you my roses. They are plagued by scissor bugs. You may have to purge them too.” ​

the other, in its parting speech to rassilon

whilst he left the garden’s stage. ​

the other physically leaves rassilon in a garden

The scent of memories faded as the dying bloom hit the ground. Another gentle snip, and a second beheaded flower fell next to its compatriot on the red grass. Amongst the bushes, the other’s ghost held starlight shears to the stems of Time’s Roses. His hands were steady and true as he reaped and sowed the loose strands of his life. Sunslight broke over the garden’s centre. Time was passing, night rewove itself into a new day. The twin suns were living hearts, beating their soft halos of nurturing light through the floral arteries of the rose garden. The old ghost continued his duties, tending to the blooms, until the noise of a new figure entering the realm startled him from his work.

when all of time has fallen apart and the entire universe has been eaten by the House, the other is there to prune its memories as a rose garden

[daughterofheartshaven]

Some thoughts on the themes of Lungbarrow

So I've been doing my best to avoid Lungbarrow by Loomlight discussions since I want to go into the book as blind as possible. But I have seen some stuff, and that triggered some thoughts on Lungbarrow itself that might be interesting to get into. This kinda came out of me mulling over some exchanges I had with @stopmyhearts and @heimeldat .

I'm... gonna have some opinions that people here might disagree with strongly, so I'm putting that under a cut. I'd love to have a discussion, but also don't wanna put inflammatory opinions out there if people aren't in the mood for it.

I love Lungbarrow. Lungbarrow is a fantastic book. Lungbarrow truly deserves its status as a Doctor Who Book of All Time. I think Lungbarrow would be a better book without its connection, discussion, and revelation regarding the Other. I'll be up front - I don't like the idea of pre-Hartnell Doctors. Never have. So I can't pretend that isn't part of my opinion here. But I also do feel like I have an argument to present here that isn't just "the Other is bad."

What Lungbarrow, as a book, is about is one if its greatest strengths in my opinion. It's about the concept of family. The whole point of the book (to me) is contrasting the Doctor's biological family with his chosen one. Contrasting Innocet, Glospin, Satthralope, and Quences with Chris, Ace, Romana, and Leela.

This is what I consider the most important scene in the book:

'The Family bestowed on him the finest education it could afford. It was always hoped he would achieve the rank of Cardinal.' Her tone hardened. 'Shamefully, he chose only to be what he is - a Doctor of something or other I cannot even remember! Certainly nothing that could ever earn him a respectable living!' 'Have you tried these skullcaps?' simpered Owis, passing the plate of mushrooms again. Dorothée didn't like the smell of them, but Leela reached for one. The Doctor slapped her hand away from the plate and stood up. 'Living? What do any of you know about living? Most of you have hardly even stuck your noses off the Family estate.' The Cousins stopped eating and stared. 'I have dined at the tables of alien emperors and languished in their dungeons. I've seen whole galaxies born in the fires of the Aurora Temporalis. I've saved lives and taken them too. Which of you has even heard of the Frost Fairs of Ice-Askar the Winter Star? Or dreamt of the torches burning on the canals of Venice?' The ensuing stunned silence was broken as Satthralope dismissed the Drudges. 'Has he been away?' asked Owis. 'Did he bring back presents?' 'I could never stomach that,' said Rynde with a look of distaste. Innocet stared silently into her supper. 'Home,' said Jobiska. 'I want to stay at home.' Leela helped herself to more bread. 'Is it true?' said Satthralope. 'While your own Family were buried here in the misery you caused, you were away from Gallifrey, consorting and revelling with unworldly aliens?' 'Course he was,' said Chris. 'Who do you think we are?' The Cousins gave a unified gasp of revulsion. 'Obscene,' said the old woman. 'You threw me out,' said the Doctor. 'Where did you expect me to go?' 'Monstrous.' 'At least I can choose my friends, even when I can't stick my own Family.' Dorothée squeezed his arm. Then she stood up on her chair. 'Happy name day to you,' she sang out loud and looked to the other companions to follow. 'Happy name day to you,' joined in Chris. Leela, her mouth full, tried to follow the words and clapped the rhythm. 'Happy name day, dear…' (they glanced at each other) '…Doctor. Happy name day to you!' They clapped him loudly. 'Thank you,' the Doctor said. 'Now all I need is my TARDIS back. Innocet, will you help me?' 'I cannot trust you,' she said. 'Not any more.'

This scene means a lot to me personally, and I think its a powerful message. By malice, apathy, or chance, the Doctor was abandoned by his family. But he found a new family that cared for him and who loved him. And like while this is the scene that best exemplifies it, I do believe that the whole of Lungbarrow is about this concept. While the Doctor's relationship to his Cousins is not always quite as turbulent as shown in this scene, and his relationship to his companions has its own fair share of bumps over the course of Lungbarrow, his relationships with Leela, Ace, Roman and Chris are shown to have a quiet trust and respect. And this trust is nowhere to be seen in the Doctor's relationship with his Cousins.

I am curious if people would agree or disagree that biological family vs found family is what Lungbarrow is About in a thematic sense, but that is true for me. I could probably defend this a little better than I have here, but I have not reread Lungbarrow recently. Maybe I should reread it and write a proper essay about that.

But in any case, I don't feel like the Other really fits that narrative. Like, the concept has some far-reaching lore implications, but it's very disconnected from the themes of biological family vs found family. Most of the scenes in Lungbarrow are featuring someone who is of the Doctor's biological or found family, so even if they're not as directly about those relationships, they still inform us about those relationships. Leela still contrasts with Innocet, even if we're seeing those characters on their own. But the stuff with the Other is just... there? I guess it does provide a little bit of context for why the Doctor was disconnected with his family, and it does incite an argument with Glospin that is plot-relevant, but I don't think any of that helps the book work. Frankly, I would argue giving the Doctor a Reason to be disconnected from his family slightly undermines a story about rejecting biological family - if the point is contrasting friendships with one's family, implications that the Doctor's family wasn't really his family (and that one of his friends was really his biological mother) kind of get in the way of that theme. And it really does feel like the plot of Lungbarrow kinda grinds to a halt towards the end so we can get the lore revelations. And yes, these are big lore revelations! But they don't really serve the themes of the book nearly as well as the rest of it, because all they amount to is most of the book's cast sitting around watching a dream sequence.

And like, I do understand that Lungbarrow was planned from the start to be The Book With The Other. It's also entirely possible the theme I'm pulling here wasn't what Marc Platt intended. So like I'm not trying to say that The Other Shouldn't Have Been Here Actually. All I'm saying is that what Lungbarrow is About (to me at least) has nothing to do with the guy.

Which brings us to Lungbarrow by Loomlight.

Like, let's be up front. I have been sticking my hands over my ears and going LALALALALALALA when it comes to this book, because I Do Not Want To Be Spoiled on it. So I don't think the random things that slipped through the cracks are gonna give me an accurate interpretation of the story. But from what I've gathered, the Other plays a big role in Loomlight and Loomlight has some big lore stuff, and that being the thing that's getting through the cracks gives me pause.

(as a quick aside, when it first came out I got nervous about Loomlight's lore stuff messing with my own lore stuff. I'm over that concern - if it does mess with my lore stuff, I'll rebuild and I'll have fun doing it. Doesn't matter.)

Having the Other and having Lore do not preclude Loomlight from being a fantastic book - and, like I've heard enough to be decently confident it'll be that. It doesn't preclude it from being a good follow-up to Lungbarrow either, but it also in no way guarantees it. I will probably enjoy Lungbarrow by Loomlight, but if I am going to accept it as the Lungbarrow follow-up it is claiming to be, it needs to be about found family. Because that's what Lungbarrow was about, hearts and soul, to me.

[goldenzingy46]

i just thiiiiink. that the second destruction of gallifrey shouldn’t have been as devastating as the first. i think we should see pockets of time lords that survived and got worse about it. time lords that have sealed off their surviving areas, which should be heavily machine based, from the universe. time lords that decided democracy was the problem, that they were too transparent, that they needed to lie and hide more. time lords that decided that they were too merciful and that dissenters should be erased. time lords that got more xenophobic. time lords where the biological and the machine blurs further. time lords where what little privacy remained is gone. welcome to the techonofascist ultrasurveillance state of the future where immortality is guaranteed and invaders are immediately erased but their ghosts are turned into part of the protective programming.

[mintyimperiatrix]

In my head there’s still factions around. We know the CyberMasters must still be knocking about and there’s Rassilon + his loyalists at the end of the universe but I also like to think Romana and Leela led a group of survivors away. If you want to be real technical the Sisterhood of Karn are still about too. i crave a story where all these different factions each claim to be the true Time Lords and start fighting one another

[daughterofheartshaven]

I mean I am of the position that Gallifrey basically faked its destruction to get the universe as a whole, and also the Doctor and Master, off their collective backs, but the concept of factions is really really fucking good. I might lean into that.

Because yeah we've got the Cybermasters, and Rassilon's loyalists, and from (my interpretation of) Cwej Romana is still kicking around and doing her own thing (although my understanding is that Leela is dead by that point, as shown in the Companion Chronicles). And we also have The Resistance, and we know Narvin at least survived the War, and its likely he wasn't the only Time Lord there to do so, so that's another faction. Whatever's left of Faction Paradox could also be a faction, honestly, although Paradox Moon states that that isn't much.

[familyparadox]

Wait how do we know Narvin survived? I know he was around for the last days but do we know for certain he is still alive post war? (I like to think he is but do we have info?)

[daughterofheartshaven]

I mean all we know is that he made it to the last days but I think him surviving a few more days after centuries of hell seems like a reasonable assumption

[valeyardx]

Lungbarrow edit because there’s a lot of cool people on here who know what this is

[artronenergy]

the inherent dramedy of the 12th doctor getting bombarded with 6483 counts of abandonment based trauma the day he died and then verbally going "to my future self: live laugh love : )" in an attempt to make 13 emotionally stable

[artronenergy]

the 12th doctor after having his surrogate family ripped from him and being seemingly abandoned by his oldest friend: maybe if I give myself a pep talk about being hopeful and happy before I die I will internalize that and end up genuinely happy as a counterpoint to this trauma

the 13th doctor: if I do not present as happy my new surrogate family will abandon me and I will die .

[the-worms-in-your-bones]

I really like the idea of throwing extended universe companions into companion support group meetings because it really opens up the possibilities for wild things that can be brought up at the meetings

[daughterofheartshaven]

you can't tell me that Liv and Tania wouldn't be running those meetings by a certain point

[meddlingmaez]

yep yep, and after commiserating about their relationships with the doctor, Charley & Yaz would have monthly check-ins over coffee to spill new relationship tea and scold each other when they don’t heed red flags

[the-evil-skull]

Rating the Doctors by how dysphoric I think they are

Never forget that this is the Doctor who had to live on Gallifrey his whole life before he cast off his name and ran away and never looked back. He's dysphoric as fuck

At a point where he's secure enough in his identity that he can tell when he's being misgendered and tries to kill people with hammers about it

Not even getting into the trauma of being stripped of his own body and his mind tampered with, Three is the first Doctor to have to put up with being actively misgendered every day of his professional life. Dysphoric as fuck. He's no sort of chap, stop it!!!

He's never had a dysphoric thought in his (current) life. Vain, proud, obsessed with himself, always exactly how he wants to be, how he wants to be perceived, and he never gives a damn how people see him unless he can twist it to his advantage

Oh fivey. His wardrobe alone indicates a desire to dress up as a parody of English masculinity, cosplaying as a human man, desire for the security the patriarchy gives him even though he's not truly a man at heart, because his desire for masculinity is actually just a desire for control over his life. Repressing his anger until it calcifies and kills him. He wants to drown himself. I don't think the fifth doctor likes his body at all.

Back to being smug and insufferably proud of the space he takes up. Terrance Dicks lovingly described him as a figure of "strength, aggression, and anger" whose "personality was as powerful as his physical frame". Colin Baker was hardly enormous but the sixth Doctor is beautifully large and proud. Stop!!!!! Bodyshaming!!!! Him!!!!!

Being a tiny Scottish gnome of a man is perfectly suited to his needs and he's never been happier with looking like Sylvester McCoy.

Prisoner of his own body. Object of desire and oblivious manipulator. Theres an entire section in Vampire Science that talks about how he can't control how people perceive him and leads them on without realizing it. He thinks his eyes are full of madness and poetry but his face is too human. He's pretty but at what cost

He was traveling alone for some time but he didn't even know what he looked like until he spied his reflection in Rose's mirror?? Oh this guy hates his body so much

How can a nonbinary queer alien have both internalized homophobia and dysphoria? The tenth Doctor is clearly copying the fifth doctors approach of disguising himself as a lovable ordinary straight man; except he's succeeding this time. And it's eating him alive.

"So what do you do around here to stave off the self harm?" Oh You Know.

Hates being touched, covers himself up, uncomfortable when he's looked at too closely. He's dysphoric as hell and it probably has something to do with the fact that he's, you know, not technically supposed to be alive. Awesome!

Thirteen is like if the fifth Doctor wasn't even able to rely on patriarchal masculinity behind him. Thirteen wants to be the cool and trustworthy one so bad but when people look at him they see something small and frail and lacking authority and he fucking hates it. Nobody listens to him and he can't control how people perceive him.

Congratulations, the first New Who Doctor to NOT be dysphoric! The universes most fashionable fun-loving torturer! He has much worse issues.