Apparently unpopular opinion
Thirteen is kind of… sinister?
Like everyone’s talking about how positive and lovely and wholesome she is and yeah that’s true to a point.
But there’s times when it feels so painfully forced, like she’s trying desperately to stay that way, and other times where you can see the cracks
Like… until someone yells at her she’s willing to jeopardize an entire ship full of hospital patients just to get her TARDIS back.
She not only sends Tim Shaw away with his body completely fucked up by those bombs, but she barely bats an eyelid when she finds out he didn’t end up where she wanted him to and she’d doomed him to torment; essentially causing him to become more of an ass. She’s almost pleased to find out how fucked up she left him.
The moment Graham sounds like he’s going to kill Tim she loads up on explosives and runs off to confront him alone, as if she’s willing to do what she’s done before and do everything possible to make sure Graham doesn’t do it – even if that means killing Tim Shaw herself.
Even when she finds out she could have unknowingly blown up an entire planet, she only lets it affect her for a second before she’s back to happy-go-lucky Doctor.
It’s clear at this point that her wholesome happy demeanour is at least partially a mask. There’s only so far that’s gonna go. And as someone who knows how hard it is to keep up that kind of attitude for so long, and someone who knows the consequences of it?
I’m a little terrified to see what happens if she does snap.
“The moment Graham sounds like he’s going to kill Tim she loads up on explosives and runs off to confront him alone, as if she’s willing to do what she’s done before and do everything possible to make sure Graham doesn’t do it – even if that means killing Tim Shaw herself.”
Better story, better story, better story
@truestoriesaboutme this is why I think 13 is a devious trickster
That makes sense to me.
This kind of reminds me of the Tenth Doctor, though, where sometimes he would come off like a dick and it was because of good writing, but then sometimes he’d come off like a dick and it was because of bad writing. It’s all down to how it’s framed.
Like, I can’t tell if Thirteen is a little bit of a knight templar because they’re writing her as a complex, flawed character, or if they’re just trying to write her as a hero but without enough nuance or self-awareness to know how she’s coming off.
Thirteen makes a lot of dubious choices in the name of stringent moral rules like “Killing is always bad, no exceptions,” and “Guns are always bad, no exceptions.” But at no point are they framed like dubious choices. No one questions them and we don’t really see any negative consequences of them. And considering that, in most of Chibnall’s episodes, the nuance is usually pitched at the level of “pollution is BAD, mkay” it’s hard to feel like we’re supposed to view her actions as anything less than correct.
I would love it if we got to see the more sinister aspects of the character played up. But right now I’m not sure how much of what we’re seeing is intentional and how much is a consequence of tension between the complexity of the issues that the show is trying to tackle and the simplicity of the show’s morality.
Okay so I always come back to this one scene from ‘Rosa’:
When the Doctor smashes Krasko’s vortex manipulator,
And he starts to strangle her…
She’s smiling. The entire time.
She knows full well he can’t hurt her. Like he’s physically unable to. Yet she manipulated him and his emotions so she could show this off. She planned it down to a t.
You know what this reminds me of? VNA Seven. The really edgy and dark Doctor.
That’s what I find so interesting about Thirteen. I see a lot of darkness in her. It’s also what makes her so dangerous. People will see her as the happy-go-lucky Doctor, but she’s capable of some really messed up things.
That’s why I’m hoping for her to snap. It’d be really cool to see New Who give as that ‘Darker Doctor’ they promised with Twelve (who just ended up becoming that precious, punny dork). Like oh my god, please.
^^^ THIS.
I have been waiting for s11 to finish so i can binge it, and have been smiling on the sidelines, wondering when you all will realise that (from what i was noticing, at least) Thirteen is a dark Doctor hiding behing a happy-go-lucky mask.
Perhaps I pick up on this stuff more because MacQueen’s one of my favourite Masters, and he’s exactly the same: makes jokes, laughs a lot……..and will kill you in a heartsbeat. So I’m used to noticing this in characters.
Thirteen lowkey reminds me of book Eight, in that she’s sweet and happy but has phases of weirdness and almost careless cruelty, and how you feel like any second they could come unhinged and do something really horrible and dark and there would be no one around to tell them off properly
I have to admit , I never actually noticed any of this when watching the episodes, but reading through this post it’s clear as day. And it scares me a little.
Here’s how I see it ;
It’s a little bit like Tens first episode with Donna. The Christmas special with the huge red spider thing where he’s basically drowning it and Donnas on the sideline and shouts “Doctor ! You can stop now !” And then at the very end when after saying she wouldn’t go with him, she tells him not to travel alone “because sometimes I think you need someone to stop you”.
That’s exactly what I can see when reading this post. But with Thirteen it’s different somehow.
The way I see it with the backstory of what happened to Galifrey in the Time War (even though they’ve addressed that) and the loss of so many companions and not to mention this is three generations later on from this moment with Ten and Donna , I think the ‘happy-go-lucky’ pretence is more than a mask.
I think it goes so much deeper than just giving off this persona which is the polar opposite of the darkness within.
Because remember everything that Twelve went through in his confession dial. He spent four and a half billion years punching his way through solid diamond. Given that he had his memory of Clara wiped, I doubt he’d remember anything after losing Amy and Rory, but something like that has GOT to leave a scar, whether you remember it or not.
Thirteen may not even know that she has this split-personality thing going on. I have a feeling it’s going to take something huge , maybe something even bigger than almost destroying an entire planet , to make her see it the way it is. I think she may have to break harder than she’s ever broken before to be able to address the darkness she’s facing underneath the flowery decor that is her bubbliness and childlike behaviour.
I think it’s a disguise but I don’t think she knows it. I think it’s her subconscious protecting her because the past is now so vast that she can’t handle it anymore. I think that’s why the solitract didn’t turn into rose or river or anyone else. I think that’s why she hasn’t told the gang about her tragic backstory. I think that’s why she can come across a little insensitive on occasion.
Her mind has blocked it from her vision. She can’t see into it because it is so dark. So her behaving as childlike as she does , is her experiencing the universe as a child. A new time lord. Because what she knows of it is foggy. She knows she’s seen more and loved more and lost more , but she doesn’t quite know the extent of what she’s lost.
She’s not only hiding the darkness from those around her. She’s hiding it from herself.
Hello yes this is some GOOD SHIT
