Thirteen regenerating back into Ten would literally be the ultimate Bad Ending for her.
By which I mean on a narrative level would be amazing, and I would be completely fascinated by, and makes perfect sense.
Because we want and expect Thirteen to ultimately make the ‘right’ choice at the end here. Right for the universe, and her relationship with Yaz, and for herself etc. Because she’s the hero and that’s what a ‘good person’ is supposed to do in a story. But the thing is, anyone with eyes should know by now that just cus she’s the main character, she isn’t a ‘good person’.
We have been watching her bad/Division/Master moments only get more and more blatant, but have yet to have any comeuppance for that. Nor does she even seem to have any conscience about them, not even a little bit. She enjoys being the shark. We have one episode left and that hasn’t been addressed let alone fixed.
So what if she doesn’t make the right decision? Doesn’t break the cycle. Whatever the ‘right’ choices are, it’s Dr Yaz who makes them, she’s the real Doctor in that finale, and she tries to get 13 to make the correct decision etc. But it’s not enough, this doesn’t work, and Yaz technically saves the day and does everything she should, maybe even the Master does, but the Doctor does not.
Maybe it’s not wanting to rewrite the universe to save Tigmi because that means rewriting the universe where it’s her and Yaz. Her Division story is a mirror of River’s after all, and that ends with “Not one line”. 13 does her Time Lord Victorious speech of it being her at the mountainous unreachable summit above the others after saying “You want me to sacrifice you?” versus the safety of the universe.
So maybe rather than doing what’s best for everyone including literally herself, that is what leads to her regenerating. And of course she still loses what she’s grasping onto because Yaz is her own person and will choose what’s right over selfish love every time.
Because this is worse than her regenerating into a Master. This is regression. Completely antithetical to Doctor Who as a show and as a character.
And how obscenely meta. Everyone saying ‘this is going backwards,’ and yes, maybe that’s the point. It’s designed to make you feel the same emotions in the real world, Chibnall style.
She gets those memories back, and turns back into the person defined by his obscenely selfish version of love complete with mindwiping, and never ever learned, and didn’t want to go. He has just been permanently separated from the person that he loves all over again. The Master gone too. But now he knows how to shove an inconceivably large amount of information back into a brain. Lightbulb.
Thirteen - TenThree.
