I'm just along for the ride

El. He/They. Gay ace. Terfs don't interact. Multi fandom and vibin'. Aziraphale and Frodo Baggins Defense Squad

[waitformethistime]

Wanted to try something different this time by mixing up anime and manga elements. This has been good practice. <3

A summary of Chika’s character, how he’s perceived by others, and how he develops from that initial perception.

[jamie-goblin-child]

[waitformethistime]

"Aziraphale is an asshole"

"Aziraphale never deserved Crowley."

Is that true?

Or are we just angry that the complex being he actually is with his own thoughts and emotions and trauma doesn't match up with the wish fulfillment fanfiction we've been reading for the past 3 years where he's just an extension of Crowley?

[josephbrassey]

Some myths that need debunking because they're being pushed by bots and it’s making me angry:

1. "He's gonna declare martial law!" Okay, so what then? This isn't something you can enforce nationwide on a country of 350 million people with a military that has a combined force of less than 3 million people, including all support and logistics staff. That doesn't equal half the population of Los Angeles. Y'all need to fucking stop acting like we're approaching a mythical point where shit gets "serious." We're already there. People are already being disappeared.

Civilians are already being killed in the streets. We're there. And you know what? They're already getting near the limits of their ability to force compliance. ICE is dedicating a double digit percentage of their manpower to Minneapolis and they're not controlling shit. People are pushing back. Your default response when the administration says "We will force you to do this" shouldn't be "Oh no they're gonna make us do this!" It should be "Fuck you. Make me."

2. "Americans are doing nothing!" I did a post about this recently, but it bears revisiting: I don't know where the hell you're getting this, because everywhere that ICE or other arms of the federal enforcement apparatus go, they are being pushed back on, humiliated, driven out of neighborhoods, and shown the door. People are fighting back on a truly awe inspiring level. Stop assuming that "doing something" looks like an armed mass of civilians storming Washington and fighting the military in a pitched battle. This is movie bullshit. The world has not looked like that since the early 20th century. What you are seeing, right now, is what "doing something" looks like. Stop it stop it stop it. We ARE doing something, in vast numbers.

3. "He's gonna cancel elections!" This one has been pushed by bots for the last year, and big name people have been picking it up, and it frustrates the hell out of me so I'm going to hold your hand and tell you bluntly: He. Cannot. Do. This. There is no mechanism. Elections are controlled by the states, and they decide when they happen. There is no federal mechanism for control of elections. What's Trump gonna do? Post soldiers at every polling place in every swing state? Do you know how many polling places there are in every district? How much manpower this would require? He doesn't have the people to do it. He doesn't have the mechanical ability to do it. There are no tools to execute this plan. Is he gonna try to make elections unfair? You bet your ass, but our elections have never been fair. Voter suppression has always existed and will continue to exist until we fix it... but a blanket ban of elections or even some ability to make them not happen? Lol. He doesn't have the manpower or the means.

But what if he did? Let's game this out: Congress--or at least the House of Representatives--is not a perpetual body. At the end of 2026 the current congress ceases to exist, and the next one isn't convened until the following year. Mike Johnson will cease to be Speaker at the end of the year and wont be Speaker again in '27 unless his party wins a sufficient majority to elect him. Remember if there are no elections then republicans will not have their seats in 2027. There will be no congress, and without congress, Trump does not have a mechanism for governance. I dunno about you, but those Republican reps like having their jobs, their staff, their salaries, and all the perks that come with office. They do not get those if there is no Congress. That is not something they want.

But he said he was gonna! And? So fucking what? He says a lot of things. He issued an executive order at the start of his second term ordering all school districts in the country to immediately cease teaching "DEI" whatever the hell that means. Do you know what most districts that weren't actively kissing his ass said? "That's nice. Make me." And then he didn't, because the states control their own education systems, not Trump. His words don't have the force of law, and are limited by what he actually has levers of power to accomplish. We are **still having elections.** Several happened last week. The States decide this. Trump doesn't.

The Midterms are gonna happen. They're gonna matter and they're gonna have consequences. And you all need to stop acting like he has power over things he doesn't just because he says he does. That's propaganda and you're falling for it.

As with all things Authoritarian, when Trump says "I'm gonna force you to do this," your response should be as I articulated above:

"Fuck you. Make me."

I love you all. Be safe. Don't comply in advance. Don't give them power they don't have just because they say they do.

[progressivemillennial]

[waitformethistime]

It genuinely warms my heart that Chris feels safe enough to be friends with Darren in public again.

[waitformethistime]

Very optimistic about the casting for 14, but considering RTD's track record for black characters (hint: Not Great), it makes me a bit nervous knowing hes writing for our first Black Doctor.

Hopefully, hes learned from his previous mistakes and grown since then.

[waitformethistime]

Welp this aged fucking terribly. 😬

[leikeliscomet]

He's actually unhinged.

I don't give a single FUCK about hurting the feelings of white Rose Tyler fans. This girl has consistently been used to overshadow Black characters & her fans since 2007 have actively taken part in & enjoyed the antiblackness in her name bc it rewards them. She needs to stay gone.

[teh-nos]

and another thing!!!

"doesn't rtd understand this show is about change?"

no? no, he clearly doesn't and he never has. his ideal doctor who is rose tyler (lbr his mary-sue, because however much i am told not to use that term she clearly is one) and a doctor that looks like david tennant and everything else is Wrong and we must constantly be told that. 10 "mourning" rose that much is not in-character, actually, it is not an unavoidable issue, it's a deliberate writing choice to Not Let Go of rtd's one true companion. so martha jones gets fucked over (again, a choice was made to focus on her love for the doctor and how he could never ever want her), and rtd doesn't care and neither did the fandom because they too thought that rose being gone was a glitch to be fixed. because rtd fucking encouraged them to.

so rose is somehow in s3 even though she isn't, and then she's back in s4 where she is given a man who looks like david tennant. to look after. and 'heal'. (aside: no, the 9th doctor was healed by running into people and things that made him confront the past. rose was just a nice distraction for him between those brief therapy sessions. yet she's given the credit for them. because of course the one true companion must have done that!)

and then when he has to write out david tennant... *sigh* off we go to see rose fucking tyler again after spending the rest of our time being sad about not being david tennant anymore, and he goes out COMPLAINING that he can't face not being david tennant in the tardis with rose "russell t" tyler. and then you wonder why people stopped watching at that point? you wonder why they still complain about the eleventh doctor not being david tennant? they were told to!

and then rtd comes back. and so does david tennant. and... yes we can all see where this is going HOW DID YOU NOT? rtd has never been willing to move on and accept change. he hates having to change things in doctor who. this has been obvious since 2007. but fandom liked martha being fucked over in the name of rose-and-david-tenannt so they just ignored it.

[samwwise]

— what are we holding onto, sam?

[waitformethistime]

The fact that it's been almost 8 years since Glee ended and the Kl*ine stans are still just as insufferable and insecure as ever. Like why are y'all attacking Jenna and Kevin just because they don't really talk about them and didn't like one of their scenes? Like who cares? That's their opinion and that pair didn't involve them anyway. It doesn't mean they hate them.

And even if they did, they have that right. Kevin being gay doesn't mean he's required to like every single gay pair or character (especially when they're terribly written). Damn just don't listen to their podcast and go about your business. This isn't hard.

[waitformethistime]

The Church on Ruby Road review

Well that was fun, for the most part. Weird pacing issues and it's mostly used as set-up for the oncoming season. But also a fresh new jumping on point for those who are interested in starting the show.

So let's dive in.

To start, I think Ncuti is a very charismatic actor. But, and this is an RTD problem more than a him problem, he plays the Doctor like a superhero. I was fine with the rope gloves the first time around, but by the end of the episode with him dramatically pulling down a ship like he's in a comic book movie, I was ready to see the back of them.

Then we get Ruby, our other lead, who is...Fine. She's just like every other NuWho companion we've gotten. This isn't a knock on her, but there's only so many times you can do plucky modern girl who also happens to be uber special in some way without it becoming stale and unfortunately NuWho has done it too many times at this point. So I'm a bit jaded now I guess, but she hasn't sold me yet.

Interestingly enough though, she, and by extension, what looks to be this season's main plot, very much reminds me of Moffat's era. So if this is RTD's attempt at doing a Moffat plot, I'm interested to see how he pulls it off because his writing is quite a bit blunter than Moffat's is. Say what you will about Moffat, but I love a good mystery, and I'm very interested to know who dropped baby Ruby off (bootstrap paradox maybe?) I thought at first it would just end up being 15, but apparently RTD has something else in mind.

This whole episode kinda played like a Moffat plot, but with none of the build-up or emotional pay-off (Doctor going back to meet his companion as a child, crack in the ceiling, timey-wimey nonsense) except I barely know these characters so it was really hard for me to care. And with how reckless 15 was with baby Ruby, I'm left wondering what the point was. Why would he destroy a ship that she was still on?! Get her off first, you idiot! Not to mention with how far she fell, the impact of falling in his arms would've probably broken her neck. Newborn babies are very fragile. Not to mention, just leaving her outside in the snow. Damn, atleast open the door and put inside or something where her cries will echo. What if they hadn't heard her? I remember a similar scene from Meet the Robinsons. But that was a cartoon so I can let it slide more.

The direction of the warm tones turning cool once adult Ruby disappeared was really good and immediately clued me in that something was wrong. Though I thought the dialogue afterwards with Carla was very heavy-handed and unnatural. Why was it specifically taking care of baby Ruby that made Carla a better person? The fact that Ruby is white also has some unfortunate implications since Carla and Cherry are a black family, but that could just be me being cynical with how RTD has done his previous black characters a disservice..And why was she telling a whole stranger her whole life story with this dead look on her face? I would've been asking why tf he was in my house...

Then we get the Goblins. First of all, they're massively underutilized with a total of 5 minutes of screentime, and most of that is used on an overproduced pop song that made me think I was watching a Disney Channel movie. 15 getting in on it certainly didn't help that impression. I'm a big fan of musicals, but this just felt out of place. I could forgive 15 singing if it was obvious he was just BS-ing his way through an escape and it was acapella. But the excessive autotune just really took me out of it.

Also don't like that 15 just automatically knew what goblins were and how they worked. When did he encounter them? This isn't the first time Doctor Who has used fantasy creatures, but I like when the Doctor's scientific mind is a bit more skeptical. And again, the carelessness with the baby was annoying. A baby's about to be eaten and all 15 is focusing on is "ooh cool singing!" And then after that, him and Ruby leave Lulubelle alone again. Are you guys stupid?

I did like how we incorporated Timeless Child here. It's clear that despite the rehab, his heritage is still very much a sore spot for him, so it's nice that he was able to find that common ground with Ruby. She's not the first adopted child (Bill, anyone?), but she is the first to come after his own shocking news, so it's significant. And even though she's happily adopted, there's still this curiosity about where she comes from, and I appreciate that she isn't shamed for that.

Another thing I appreciated was the casual trans rep. The singer for Ruby's band is a transwoman and RTD opted for subtlety this time instead of whacking me over the head with a lecture about it. I appreciate that. Sometimes the best rep you can have is where they're just casually existing and not you checking off diversity points.

Cherry Sunday (and what a name) was a delight. All she wanted was a cuppa tea.

Who is Mrs. Flood? If this were Moffat, I would say she's meant to be older Ruby, but this isn't Moffat, so I feel like she could be anyone. She could also just be no one.

I get this was meant to be a jumping on point, but I am a little sad we missed out on all these firsts for Ncuti (picking out his outfit, getting his sonic, etc.) and that it all happened off-screen. And coming right after the specials it just feels a bit jarring to not get it. How long has he been an established Doctor? Why hasn't he decorated the TARDIS yet? (Seriously, it's so huge and empty. Get a couch or something. This is why Capaldi's console is >>>). The night rave scene just felt a bit pointless and didn't really add anything to the episode, same with the taxi scene. There were quite a few scenes that just felt like pointless filler honestly, while the plot was resolved in 5 minutes. It was kinda frustrating.

Overall, kind of mid, but a solid start for 15. I'm looking forward to seeing more of him atleast and seeing what RTD has in mind for the mystery of Ruby's origins.

[waitformethistime]

The Star Beast review

I remember RTD getting announced to return and the fandom acting like he "saved" the show. Now mind you, I didn't love Chibnall's era (and had my complaints about Moffat too) but to act as if RTD was the sacred cow was just irritating.

That being said, lets get into his second debut.

We start with Ten- sorry I mean Fourteen running into Donna. Now Donna was always a favorite of mine so I'm relieved to see shes in top form here. She immediately roasts Fourteen upon seeing him (with a wink and a nod to Tennant no longer being 35 years old) and that's very On Brand for her.

Then we get [sigh] Rose. No, not Billie Piper. Rose Noble. Donna's 15 year old daughter. For starters, her age makes no sense. How can she be 15 if Donna only lost her memory 15 years ago? Did she get hitched and pregnant the very next day? You could hand wave this by saying shes a stepdaughter, but no. RTD wants to make it clear she is Donna's daughter. Her trans daughter to be exact. So let's get into that.

I love that shes trans and that shes played by an actual trans actress. The representation has been long overdue. I love that Donna is such a good and accepting mum and that even Sylvia (a character I previously didnt care for) redeems herself by being a good grandma to Rose, even if she slips up sometimes. Shes trying, which is more than she ever did for Donna.

That being said, Rose is little more than a plot device. Her only real purpose is to introduce our alien, the Meep, and then save the Doctor and Donna with her magical transgenderism (I'll get to that in a second), which is a shame because Yasmin Finney is lovely.

Now let's get into the metacrisis. I always thought this plotline was stupid and the way its resolved is even stupider. Turns out Donna won't actually die if she remembers The Doctor (duh!) because she transferred some of her "Doctor-ness" to Rose...somehow. Now I couldn't tell if RTD was saying that Rose was trans because of the metacrisis energy or if the reason the metacrisis didnt affect her is because shes trans, but either way, it didnt make much sense. How is she able to "remember" things that happened before she was even born? It was convoluted and reminded me a lot of River Songs origins in a bad way. Convoluted is Moffats thing. I don't need it from RTD too.

But wait it gets better. We still have to figure out what to do with the metacrisis energy right? So how do they get rid of it? They simply just "let it go" with their womanly superiority (no really). We get this corny exchange about how 14 is "Male-presenting" and therefore doesn't know how to let things go because of it. Excuse me what? Did RTD watch any of 13's era at all? She was an emotional trainwreck. Callous, dishonest, passive-aggressive and quite vengeful too. And she was a woman. You wanna know who was the Doctor that had to let things go? Literally his last line is "I let you go"? The one who had to let go of his companion because he was hurting both of them? The one who learned to forgive, not just the Master, but also Davros, of all people? It was 12, the old white guy. Swing and a miss, RTD. That was a corniness I would expect from his first era, with Jesus!Ten. I expected some kind of growth since then. I also just felt like I was being lectured and I got quite enough of that from the last era, thank you very much.

This sounds negative so far, so let's look at the positives!

Tennant + Tate are incredible together as usual. I like that 14 is more emotionally honest than any of his previous predecessors (and 13 was getting there at the end so it's a natural progression imo). Love the alien designs. The Meep is so cute. I saw the twist of it being evil a mile away, but it's cute so I'll let it slide. The Wrarth are also cool. Just dudes in suits as Doctor Who aliens should be lol.

Didn't appreciate the Donna death fakeout because I knew RTD wouldnt actually go through with it and it felt cheap, but the acting in the scene was top-notch.

The new opening is cool and I love the new Tardis. You can tell that's where all the budget went lol. It's like a beautiful mix of 11, 12, and the Classics and it looks huge. You can tell Tennant was having a blast with it.

The Doctor actually took the initiative to not regenerate in the tardis this time and it still gets blown up. Poor tardis...

Some other thoughts:

since when can the Sonic create forcefields? I don't care for that. And 14's non-reaction was weird. Shouldn't he be surprised his tool got an upgrade? Also the fact that his clothes regenerated too with no explanation is dumb. Were they too afraid to put Tennant in Whittaker's clothes? It's not like she was wearing a handmaiden dress.

Also they kept asking "why this face?" Which is valid but my theory for why the regeneration went all wonky in the first place is because the Master fucked it up somehow when he tried to steal them in Power of the Doctor. I'd like for RTD to bring that up but I'm not holding my breath. That would require actually acknowledging other eras besides his own exist.

Overall, this was kind of a mid-tier RTD episode and very underwhelming for an anniversary special. Heres hoping it gets better in the next 2.

[classycookiexo]

[capricorn-born]

Oddly specific. Got a deposit for 6,837 today

[weaselle]

fuck it, i never ever do those “reblog for X, this one really works!” posts, but this one doesn’t have any of that BS, this is just straight up wishing us good things; and then the comment doesn’t even say any of that either. Zero claims on this post, all positive vibes

May you end this week feeling ever more certain of a future you’ll love

[lesbiancaptainkirk]

this episode is why people call it hatecrimes m.d

[jyslacefront]

#remember when queerbaiting was done with a passion for fhe craft

[pinespittinink]

got thoughtful about opinions on bad books so here’s an inverse: what’s a book you had to read for school that you actually enjoyed/have grown to like? mine is Lord of the Flies

[shatterstar]

we should get this post to a million notes so I can show my mom (teaches high school english) all the tags<3

[ghostietea]

I get from a logical angle why people might be put off by her but I think it's a shame that Akito Sohma doesn't get more appreciation because she is truly one of the characters of all time. She's the evil female reincarnation of God. She's so androgynous one of the anime adaptations guessed her gender wrong. She dresses like a theater tech. She sits like a gremlin. One time someone said something that upset her and she was bedridden for months. She wore a full coverage pure black outfit to the beach in summer and then complained about the heat. She has flower symbolism. She's campy and dramatic. She was assigned male at birth for political reasons. She simultaneously looks like a twink and a dyke. She has no friends until she's 20. She passive aggressively flirts with the protagonist the first time they talk. When she's not fucking up people's lives she just lounges around at home being depressed. She's a tragic villain almost certainly doomed to be a bad person by her upbringing and part of the tragedy is that it's still her fault. She doesn't know murder is wrong. She's pretty much a cult leader but that's one of the few things that isn't her fault. All of her schemes backfire on her in a poetically ironic way. She likes the in universe Pokemon equivalent. She looks like the evil twin of one of the main characters and this is never explained because the author forgot why she did it. She's a decent transfem allegory and a bungled transmasc one. She has world's worst internalized misogyny but is willing to change her whole life the minute another woman wants to have a legitimate positive relationship with her. She's the human manifestation of a cycle of abuse who then goes on to break it. She's extremely sexy. She is simultaneously very dangerous and intimidating and a pathetic failgirl. She's a perfect foil and parallel to the protagonist. She marries a man who had revenge sex with her evil mom. The author said that she ships her and the protagonist in a no homo way. She can be easily interpreted as autistic. She has catastrophic abandonment issues. She's hiding that she's a girl but wears her kimono improperly open in a way that makes it so she's constantly at risk of accidentally flashing someone. She has daddy issues and mommy issues. She was even homeschooled.