#docriver

[mothdogsart]

These two deserve a soft rest 💫

Redraw of an old piece from 2020:

mothdogsart

Can I interest y’all in some tender Doctor/River moments

[galahadwilder]

Do you ever wonder if the Doctor will sometimes introduce himself as “John Song” instead of Smith when he needs to use a name?

[earthlightsong]

HELLOOO i’m still thinking abt ten with rivers memories u get it. we r on the same level. literally he would’ve saved her if he could and he wasn’t able to and then he gets all of these memenories and ohhhmygod it was always supposed to happen that way of course it was but he met her again and again and fell in love knowing it was going to end that way. god. scream. she was such an anomaly to him ohhhhmyguodd. they make me crazy

LITERALLYYYYYYYYY i go crazy thinking about them all the time i'm just not very vocal about it cause it's all in my head <3

but ten with all of his memories thinking about river ......... and like. the helplessness in thinking about her death and he shouldve done more but if he did he couldn't spend all that time with her ... and he's like that wasn't even me! i didn't even live those times! it was just Some Guy, it shouldn't affect me this much but it still HURTS cause i DID love her but i DIDN'T. it's just something to think about

[ashildrs-archive]

BBC Dr. Who: if you thought the master coming back was big you won't believe what happens in tonight's episode

Me, putting on clown makeup: River????

[earthlightsong]

ok i saw a post earlier idk who rbed it or posted it but it was an article that said david tennant believes that the doctor never truly got over rose’s departure and how doctor who fans hope that he DID get over her because of river and their relationship (or something to that affect) and i did think it was funny just how the article worded it

but i can’t stop thinking about it because... that is, like canonically the true tragedy of the doc/river relationship, that the doctor was always in love with or enamored with someone else and river completely and whole-heartedly understood that and still chose to be with him and gave him her devotion anyway. she loved him so much that she willingly and voluntarily chose to be the doctor’s second choice her whole life

[ashildrs-archive]

Doctor who duo's -> 12 & Riversong

— "Happy ever after doesn't mean forever. It just means time. A little time..."

[ashildrs-archive]

i 100% agree but please please please expand on the twelveriver is good elevenriver is bad

This contains 11/river crit and mild moffat crit so if you know you’ll disagree and don’t have an open mind about reading please don’t read and if you do don’t comment because I’ve considered all the arguments that can be made to dispute me and it’s not worth my time to reply

Okay I got quiet a few asks for this so here we go, apologies for the delay and a warning that this is several paragraphs long and you can't do cuts on asks sadly:

What you have to understand is I like river! I do. She’s has aspects and moments that I adore. But I have many problems w how she is written especially how she is written in a relationship w eleven.

First off, river’s life revolves around the doctor’s. I’m aware of the many arguments for and against this, but fundementally the way I see, it’s true. When river is introduced she has so much potential it hurts. She’s mysterious, captivating and appears to have lived this wonderful life - parts of which involve the Doctor. Not to mention at this point age clearly knows more than he does. It really kills me how much wasted potential there was.

River was born from the doctor’s companions, convinced in the tardis and raised to kill the doctor. She grows up and the first time she meets to doctor she is there to kill him. It doesn’t exactly spell out healthy relationship. From there she is sent to become the spaceman to - very predictably - kill the Doctor. Expect she doesn’t this time, because she “broke her mental conditioning” and learnt she would love him. And gave up all her regenerations to save the Doctor. Possibly thousands of years of her life. Before she even knew him. Not to even mention she became an archeologist because she wanted to find the doctor. I hate it. I really hate it.

And then there’s the question of their wedding. River says she’s rather all the universe die than the Doctor die at her hand, which the doctor is understandably alarmed by. So he marries her. For what? Love? No, moffats great love story is them and yet their wedding is far from romantic. He marries her to calm her down. It’s no surprise she didn’t think he loved her.

Which brings me nicely along to my next point. Their relationship is ridiculously unhealthy and unbalanced. River quickly loses whatever autonomy she’s had by being put in jail for killing the doctor (which, I might point out, she didn’t even do). She loves him - despite my issues w her knowing she would fall for him and so she did etc - I truly believe river loved the doctor in the most genuine way anyone can.

And maybe he loved her back. Maybe. You scarcely see it. He pops in to see river when he’s in the mood and spend the rest if his life having his own adventures w his own friends. While she waits. Because she would always wait. We’re told the doctor comes when river calls but do we ever really see that? Truly? No. “ I promise you, he’s doing whatever the hell he wants and not giving a damn about me!” she says that. She believes that. The Doctor let her.

She does truly love him - and part of me thinks there’s an argument she sees herself as lesser than him. Or at least puts him on a pedastool. The man who saves the universe. “You don’t expect a sunset to admire you back!” her life belongs to his story and the Doctor is free to live his own. That’s so painfully, painfully unbalanced.

It hurts to love and not be loved in the sane way in return. To have someone ve the closet person in your life - the only real love in your life - and yet be just someone else they care about, far down the line of priorities to them. It’s cruel. It’s far too cruel and it’s no thing to base a relationship on.

And then there’s the fighting. They’re always arriving and as many times as you say it, is in not just “old married couple”. Then there’s the whole “can’t have two psychopaths in the tardis” bs. Can moffat PLEASE look up the definition of psychopath because he clearly doesn’t know. But I’m getting sidetracked. A could spout reasons river/11 is Hardly The Best Ship Out There all day, but I like to think I’ve made my point.

So, the husbands of riversong is the only 12/river content we ever got. And I loved it. This episode (funnily enough is the first I ever saw w River in it) genuinely is everything I ever hoped river would become. She’s interesting, she’s shown to have a life, and a very interesting and exciting one at that, outside the Doctor. She’s passionate abt her work and her personality really shines through.

But most importantly, the doctor realized. When she gives her speech (which is truly as beautiful as it is sad) the doctor realises what he did was wrong and that she ended knew he loved her. He suddenly see it all. He knows, and he tells her how it really feels and respects her for who she is and he looks at her and he’s so, so in love. There is so much in the episode I Love. And he isn’t messing her around with timelines or only half heatedly dubiously loving her or prioritizing so many other thing over her; their relationship is balenced and it is healthy and everything it always should have been. And I love it.

So I’ll always wish we had what riversong could have been and the potential of her story that we saw glimpses of. And maybe one day I’ll stop writing essays in the middle of the night about it. Today is not that day.

[ashildrs-archive]

So anyway I love him