DW 9.12 Hell Bent

[elisi]

Meta café time! Hi! And Happy Easter (again). :)

This (as many metas before it) goes down the mirror route. I'm cutting out a lot of stuff to focus on the main mirrors, so if you have any thoughts of your own, please share. I could have kept writing and had something 10 times longer, but I'm going back to work tomorrow and would like to feel like I've accomplished something... Plus, this is 4 months late.

(With many many thanks to promethia_tenk for being my hybrid-brain. *g*)




DAVROS: How far we have come to go home again
Doctor Who (like many other serialised shows, such as Buffy) usually build up a season slowly. The Big Bad might be glimpsed at the beginning, and cryptic clues are often laid out.

See ‘Bad Wolf’ from S1, the Saxon posters from S3, the crack in Amy’s Wall in S5 and so on. In S8 (which is pretty text book in this regard), episode 1 ended with Missy serving tea to the newly deceased Half-Face Man, leaving us all to guess who and what she was.

S9 is different.

It opens with a whole gallery of Big Bads, not only giving us Missy, but Daleks, Skaro and Davros too! But then… nothing. (Apparently.) There were villains aplenty, but the usual structure fell away…

Or rather, this time round what we got were metaphors: Missy, Davros, the Daleks and even Skaro - they were all mirrors for the real ‘Big Bads’ to come…

Let's start from the end, and I’ll show you what I mean.


Skaro & Gallifrey
MISSY: We're on a planet. And that is not a space station. That is a building. And the rest of the planet, the whole thing, is invisible.
(Clara dances around.)
CLARA: That's ridiculous.
MISSY: Well, yes, of course it is. I mean, how would you ever find your glasses? Or the little girl's room? And what if you kissed an ugly? Unless, when you're part of the atmosphere, you start syncing with the spectrum.
CLARA: Why would anybody hide a whole planet?
MISSY: That would rather depend on the planet, dear.
(The space station is revealed to be just one of many similar shaped buildings on a desert planet: Skaro)
MISSY: No.
The Magician's Apprentice

The lines in bold being the important ones… Skaro was just the forerunner, the mirror, the thing to clue us in to the fact that Gallifrey was back too, just hiding:

GENERAL: Gallifrey is currently positioned at the extreme end of the time continuum, for its own protection. We're at the end of the universe, give or take a star system.
Hell Bent

The planets bookend the season, and in many ways we travel from one to the other…






Daleks & Time Lords
And with their planets, the inhabitants also return. Of course the Daleks have been back for ages, but the parallels are spelled out very carefully:

DOCTOR: My people are alive. They didn't die. I brought them back. I found a way.
DAVROS: Is this true?
DOCTOR: Gallifrey is back in the sky. I don't know where, I may never know. But Gallifrey is back and it is safe from both of us.
DAVROS: Doctor, my most sincere congratulations.
DOCTOR: I'm sorry?
DAVROS: This is wonderful news. Beyond all hope. I congratulate you.
DOCTOR: Why are you saying that?
DAVROS: A man should have a race, a people, an allegiance. A man should belong, Doctor. Believe me, please. I am happy for you. So happy.
The Witch’s Familiar

And the Doctor goes from being surrounded by Daleks, to being surrounded by his own people. Finally. He has been through hell, but no one can argue that he does not deserve to find his home.





Of course it’s not the home coming he had once hoped for. He cares about the ordinary people, but he is furious with the leadership…

RASSILON: What is he doing? What does he want? Revenge?
OHILA: The Doctor does not blame Gallifrey for the horrors of the Time War.
RASSILON: I should hope not.
OHILA: He just blames you.
Hell Bent

Which brings me to this…


Davros & Rassilon
Rassilon is to the Time Lords as Davros is to the Daleks… (Yes, yes, Omega, I know, but he’s lost in another dimension.)

And the Doctor deposes both of them, literally taking their seat:





And notice how in both cases he’s watched Clara die, is grief stricken and furious, and wants her back… In S8 he rejected the power given to him by Missy, refusing her army and rather unhappy about Earth declaring him their emergency President… No such qualms here. He readily grasps the power available to him, as now he has a use for it.


MISSY & THE HYBRID
The red thread through S9 is Clara’s death. She dies, or her life is in imminent danger, or she dies ‘by proxy’ in every episode/two-parter… (Apart from Sleep No More? Which I plain forgot existed until this meta was about 90% done. Well, she goes in the pod thing…) Anyway the Doctor’s response is what's interesting. Let me show you what I mean. I have bolded the most relevant parts.

Opening two-parter:
DOCTOR: Because if Clara Oswald is really dead, then you'd better be very, very careful how you tell me.
MISSY: Listen to that. The Doctor without hope.
DOCTOR [OC]: Who's going to tell me? Who's going to go first?
[Sewers]
MISSY: Nobody is safe now.
DOCTOR [OC]: All the power Davros had is mine. Everything he had, I have. Who's going to tell me that Clara Oswald is really dead?
MISSY: He'll burn everything. Us too.

Lake/Flood two-parter:
DOCTOR: This isn't about saving me. I'm a dead man walking. I'm changing history to save Clara.
[...]
DOCTOR: Big day for you. Time travel, twice!
BENNETT: Whoa, really? When are we going to?
DOCTOR: Off the map. Out of the rule book. What if I don't die? What if I refuse? I'm going to go back to the base and I'm going to save Clara, because that's what I do. And I don't see anyone here who's going to stop me.

Ashildr/Lady Me two-parter:
DOCTOR: I don't mean the war. I'll lose any war you like. I'm sick of losing people. Look at you, with your eyes, and your never giving up, and your anger, and your kindness. One day, the memory of that will hurt so much that I won't be able to breathe, and I'll do what I always do. I'll get in my box and I'll run and I'll run, in case all the pain ever catches up. And every place I go, it will be there.
[...]
DOCTOR: I can do anything. There's nothing I can't do. Nothing. But I'm not supposed to. Ripples, tidal waves, rules. I'm not supposed to. […] And if anyone happens to be listening, and you've got any kind of a problem with that, to hell with you! [Clearly meaning the Time Lords]

Zygon two-parter:
OSGOOD: You've gone quiet because I mentioned Clara. You think she might be dead.
DOCTOR: Yes.
OSGOOD: Are you okay?
DOCTOR: I don't know. I'm still in the hope phase.
OSGOOD: How's that going?
DOCTOR: Hell. Please talk about something else.
[...]
CLARA: So, you must have thought I was dead for a while?
DOCTOR: Yeah.
CLARA: How was that?
DOCTOR: Longest month of my life.
CLARA: It could only have been five minutes.
DOCTOR: I'll be the judge of time.

Face the Raven:
DOCTOR: Yes, it is, you can [fix it], and you will, or this street will be over. I'll show you and all your funny little friends to the whole laughing world. I'll bring UNIT, I'll bring the Zygons. Give me a minute, I'll bring the Daleks and the Cybermen. You will save Clara, and you will do it now, or I will rain hell on you for the rest of time.
CLARA: Doctor, stop talking like that.
ASHILDR: You can't.
DOCTOR: I can do whatever the hell I like. You've read the stories. You know who I am. And in all of that time, did you ever hear anything about anyone who stopped me?
ASHILDR: I know the Doctor. The Doctor would never
DOCTOR: The Doctor is no longer here! You are stuck with me. And I will end you, and everything you love.
[...]
DOCTOR: I was lost a long time ago. She was saving you. I'll do my best, but I strongly advise you to keep out of my way. You'll find that it's a very small universe when I'm angry with you.

Finale two-parter:
DOCTOR: If you think because she is dead, I am weak, then you understand very little. If you were any part of killing her, and you're not afraid, then you understand nothing at all. So, for your own sake, understand this. I am the Doctor. I'm coming to find you, and I will never, ever stop.
[...]
DOCTOR: No, General, I don't know that. Everybody, stay exactly where you are! No moving about. On pain of death, no-one take a selfie!
GENERAL: These people are unarmed.
DOCTOR: So are you.
GENERAL: Doctor, I will not let you leave here. That's the sidearm of the President's personal security. There isn't a stun setting.
DOCTOR: I will not let Clara die.
[...]
OHILA: You have gone too far. You have broken every code you ever lived by.
DOCTOR: After all this time, after everything I've done, don't you think the universe owes me this?

Now that last line rings a bell… From The Snowmen:

VASTRA: So then, Doctor, saving the world again? Might I ask why? Are you making a bargain with the universe? You'll save the world to let her live?
DOCTOR: Yes. And don't you think, after all this time and everything I've ever done, that I am owed this one?
VASTRA: I don't think the universe makes bargains.

Clara has, since her beginning, been the thing he clings to. In The Snowmen she’s the one who drags him off his cloud where he’s been grieving after losing the Ponds, and there’s a sense that this one he’ll get to ‘keep’.

And if he loses her… He’ll echo his Ponds right down the line:

OLDER AMY: I am going to pull time apart for you.
The Girl Who Waited

DOCTOR: River, no one can help me. A fixed point has been altered. Time is disintegrating.
RIVER: I can't let you die.
DOCTOR: But I have to die.
[...]
RIVER: I'll suffer if I have to kill you.
DOCTOR: More than every living thing in the universe?
RIVER: Yes.
The Wedding of River Song

And goodness, doesn’t that mirror things beautifully - except with the Doctor as River:

CLARA: What if one last heartbeat is all I've got? What if Time isn't healing? What if the universe needs me to die?
DOCTOR: The universe is over! It doesn't have a say any more! We're standing on the last ember, the last fragment of everything that ever was. As of this moment, I'm answerable to no-one!

Both the Doctor and Clara need to die in order for time to reassert itself. Remember how I talked about the monsters of the opening episodes being mirrors of the real monsters at the end… These episodes it’s like they’re playing musical chairs. With Clara in the Doctor’s role, the one who went to meet death calmly, and the Doctor as River, plain refusing to follow the rules and allow the one he loves to die like they should.

But River in turn was channelling someone else… Someone whose presence I was thrilled to note in The Girl Who Died, and I’m beyond delighted that he actually turned out to be the end-game:





Hello there, Time Lord Victorious, the Winner of the Time War. Let me go back and pull out the relevant quotes from my collection above. Because what sets him apart is his unaccountability (yay Handlebars - I can do anything that I want!):

DOCTOR: I'm changing history to save Clara. And I don't see anyone here who's going to stop me.

DOCTOR: I can do anything. There's nothing I can't do. Nothing. And if anyone happens to be listening, and you've got any kind of a problem with that, to hell with you!

DOCTOR: You know who I am. And in all of that time, did you ever hear anything about anyone who stopped me?

DOCTOR: The universe is over! It doesn't have a say any more! As of this moment, I'm answerable to no-one!

And here is Waters of Mars:

ADELAIDE: Is there nothing you can't do?
DOCTOR: Not any more.

Now we call him ‘The Time Lord Victorious’ (or in this case ‘the Hybrid’ - I’ll get back to that), but really, which character wants their will done, not caring about anyone else?

If you said ‘Missy’, well done!

In the S8 finale Clara was desperate to save Danny, and the Doctor is equally desperate in S9. But where S8 had Missy to act out Clara’s wishes, S9 doesn’t need her - the Doctor takes over both her’s and Clara’s role.

(Like I said, the characters play musical chairs. Missy was there at the beginning of S9, but the finale doesn’t need her - the Doctor is acting her part.)

And the Doctor’s role of being the voice of reason is taken by - Ashildr. (Odin’s Valkyrie! She has come to collect Clara, the fallen warrior…)

This is where hybrids and mirrors sort of end up in a glitter ball.

Ashildr starts as a Clara mirror, and we see how reckless the Doctor can be when he wants to save someone he cares about. (Foreshadowing etc.)

But by her second episode Lady Me has become a Doctor-mirror, except one holding him to account. There is very much a sense (for me at least) of Moffat going through the RTD era and retelling the same stories. Lady Me is an immortal much like Jack, and - like him - abandoned, but Lady Me gets to say her piece, and gets to rebuke the Doctor for his flaws and his tendency to play god with people’s lives.

And at the end of everything, she tells him in no uncertain terms that he needs to stop, and that he’s wrong.

However he has moved on from Waters of Mars. Where Ten plain refused to listen to Adelaide Brook (until she killed herself), Twelve eventually acquiesces to Lady Me’s point…





Now the interesting thing is why does the Doctor go down this path. Yes, he’s very very attached to Clara, something which goes both ways:

DOCTOR: I can't change what's already happened. There are rules.
CLARA: So break them. And anyway, you owe me. You've made yourself essential to me. You've given me something else to, to be. And you can't do that and then die. It's not fair.
DOCTOR: Clara.
CLARA: No. Doctor, I don't care about your rules or your bloody survivor's guilt. If you love me in any way, you'll come back.
Before the Flood

But more than that, Missy helps educate Clara on how the Doctor functions:

CLARA: Because he's clever.
MISSY: Yes, but there's lots of clever dead people. I love killing clever clogs, they make the best faces.
CLARA: Because he always assumes he's going to win. He always knows there's a way to survive. He just has to go and find it.
The Witch’s Familiar

It’s a lesson Clara takes to heart and goes on to use to great effect:

CLARA: …you're missing something.
DOCTOR: What?
CLARA: How you're going to win. You always miss it, right up until the last minute.
The Girl Who Died

And this becomes so ingrained that the Doctor can hear her voice even when she isn’t there:

DOCTOR: Do I have to know everything?
BLACKBOARD (CLARA): How are you going to
DOCTOR: Clara, I can't always
BLACKBOARD (CLARA): Win??
Heaven Sent

Except this a double-edged sword. In the end, the Doctor’s desperate need to ‘win’, to find a way out, means an inability to let go and accept the inevitable.

And yes, his face plays into it…

DOCTOR [memory]: Who frowned me this face? Why this one? Why did I choose this face?
CLARA: Doctor, what's wrong with your face?
DOCTOR: I think I know why I chose it.
DOCTOR [memory]: It's like I'm trying to tell myself something.
DOCTOR: I think I know what I'm trying to say.
DOCTOR: I know where I got this face, and I know what it's for.
CLARA: Okay, what's it for?
DOCTOR: To remind me. To hold me to the mark. I'm the Doctor, and I save people.
The Girl Who Died

The episode shows flashbacks to the Doctor saving Caecilius, and this gets mirrored in the finale in as literal a fashion as is possible. First the arrival of the TARDIS, its light so white it blinds those watching:





And then the outstretched hand, offering salvation.





Of course, in Pompeii the Doctor was acting on the distraught Donna’s wishes (“Just save someone!”), whereas here he is - as stated above - working much like he was in The Waters of Mars, deliberately interfering in established events…

As Lady Me point out:

ASHILDR [on scanner]: How did you meet her?
CLARA: Missy!
DOCTOR: Missy.
ASHILDR: Missy. The Master. The lover of chaos, who wants you to love it, too. She's quite the matchmaker.
DOCTOR: Clara's my friend.
ASHILDR: I know. And you're willing to risk all of Time and Space because you miss her. One wonders what the pair of you will get up to next.

And Missy knew what she was doing:

DOCTOR: You put us together.
MISSY: I kept you together.
DOCTOR: Why?
MISSY: Cos she's perfect, innit? The control freak and the man who should never be controlled. You'd go to hell if she asked. And she would.

Hybrid is of course the watch-word we’re given off the bat, and we were wondering who it could be. It was assumed to be half-Time Lord, half-Dalek, although of humans are also something of a warrior race… It’s interesting to contemplate that both Clara & the Doctor end up inside Daleks in the opening episodes:





Again with the mirroring - the Dalek casings stand in for the later monstering, visible signs of what’s to come… Yes, there will be a Hybrid, but not the one they think:

CLARA: What happened to your coat? The velvety coat. I liked that one, it was it was very Doctor-y.
DOCTOR: I changed it.
CLARA: Why?
DOCTOR: Well, I can't be the Doctor all the time.

Writing this, I was reminded of a post I once wrote about the Tenth Doctor:

Meta: Why Ten is like Wesley.

The key sentence being this one:

His intentions are good but it hardly matters, because at the edge of his tolerance Ten would probably burn the world to reach them.

Mirrored in the season itself:

MISSY: He'll burn everything. Us too.

This is Twelve, in Hell Bent. (The episodes are beautifully named.) He’s not as broken as Ten, who always had that broken core, but apply enough pressure for long enough, and yes, Twelve can snap…

However, unlike Ten (who had to literally die), Twelve's fate was more symbolic and multi-layered. You can see it as a cosmic payback for Donna, but whichever way you read it, he tried to play god and it backfired. But the how is what's interesting.

"Run you clever boy, and remember me" - this was Clara's line, right from the beginning. I have talked before about how she tied into Gallifrey & the Time War from her first appearance in Asylum of the Daleks, her role to rewrite the story: Because of Clara Gallifrey is saved, and back.

But that also means that her part is done.

Clara: I was born to save the Doctor. But the Doctor is safe now. I’m the Impossible Girl, and my story is done.
The Name of the Doctor

It's not that her story is done, but her story with the Doctor. Moffat has been rebooting the show, slowly but surely, and Clara has been a major driving force in bringing it all full circle. Everything is as it was - Gallifrey has been found, and the Doctor is once more the renegade. But his ties to Clara still held him back, tethered him to the past and all the pain.

And so, in keeping with Greek mythology, he has to drink from the river Lethe, achieving forgetfulness. In the Aeneid, Virgil writes that it is only when the dead have had their memories erased by the Lethe that they may be reincarnated. Which means his fate was both punishment and cleansing.

So, we have basically achieved a complete re-boot by now. What that means for the future, however, I cannot say... Looking ahead to The Husbands of River Song (which I will not go into now), he certainly seems more able to accept loss.



I can come up with no grand ending, no big final point. It's not that kind of finale.

All I have is an old Time Lord, in a diner, telling a story... And as Clara learned on her very first adventure, the Doctor is composed of stories:





~~~
As for Clara, then the Magician's Apprentice was most definitely ready to strike out on her own; had grown up and become her teacher's equal… Flying off to see the universe in a TARDIS of her own, ultimately heading for Gallifrey, the Doctor passing her the Doctor-y torch as he 'dies' in a scene almost too fitting for words.

For her, of course, her memories were something she was willing to die for. Clara of the infinite stories, who has lived and died over and over again - her story was always her own, and should never be erased. And thus, her 'fate' was absolutely perfect. Anyone who’s read my Clara Meta: Schrödinger’s Companion essay will know what I’m talking about.

Clara was always all the things, her quantum-ness inbuilt.

The fact that she is now literally Schrodinger’s Companion, neither dead or alive, makes me so happy I don’t quite know how express it. She blew into this world on a leaf, and she is still blowing...

Watch on YouTube

ETA: There may, at some point in the future, be a looong Clara essay about EVERYTHING CLARA, but since I've just written 4 Clara essays for the 101 Clara's project, I need a bit of a break. (Although those essays were what re-booted my meta-brain and got me writing this, so it's all swings & roundabouts...) Also, since I'm editing - have another vid! Cause there are so many gorgeous things going on:

Watch on YouTube

Comments

[sea_thoughts]

You know who I am. And in all of that time, did you ever hear anything about anyone who stopped me?

Me: Yes, her name was Adelaide Brooke, and she killed herself because of what you did.

I love that Ashildr came back. And so different from what she was in Face The Raven, scared of the Doctor and vulnerable. Here she is Persephone, Mistress of the Underworld, no longer scared because she has learned the lesson that the Doctor refuses to learn. In the words of Sarah Jane, "Pain and loss, they define us as much as happiness or love. Whether it's a world, or a relationship... Everything has its time. And everything ends."

When she said "I know. And you're willing to risk all of Time and Space because you miss her. One wonders what the pair of you will get up to next" I almost got a hint of.... contempt? Or that she wasn't particularly impressed with him. It's as if she's saying "Everyone misses someone". In fact, it made me think of Rocket in Guardians of the Galaxy: "I don't care if it's mean. Everybody's got dead people! But that's no excuse for letting everyone else around get killed along the way!"

I definitely feel like this storyline was the ultimate reckoning with the Time Lord Victorious as far as Moffat's concerned. His immediate reaction on taking over was to fix Donna's story by writing Amy, a girl whose memory brings back the universe and the Doctor, where remembering is the most important thing she can do. But that still didn't fix the sheer horror of the Doctor overriding Donna's wishes and memory wiping her. So he had to go through it - not just in this episode but the previous one. Having his memory wiped over and over again to a certain point... and then losing the memory of the one person he doesn't want to lose. Except Moff doesn't put any penalties on him remembering Clara like his head splitting open or fainting because he's not that mean.

[elisi]

Me: Yes, her name was Adelaide Brooke, and she killed herself because of what you did.
It'd be interwsting to see what Ashildr would make of that story when she gets that far...

Here she is Persephone, Mistress of the Underworld, no longer scared because she has learned the lesson that the Doctor refuses to learn.
Exactly. A counterweight, someone to hold him to the mark...

I almost got a hint of.... contempt? Or that she wasn't particularly impressed with him.
*nods* She was taking complete charge and basically telling him off. Which is what he needs sometimes. (Too emotional, poor thing.)

"I don't care if it's mean. Everybody's got dead people! But that's no excuse for letting everyone else around get killed along the way!"
Hear! Hear!

I definitely feel like this storyline was the ultimate reckoning with the Time Lord Victorious as far as Moffat's concerned.
And properly worked through and dealt with, talked out, analysed. A good job.

His immediate reaction on taking over was to fix Donna's story by writing Amy, a girl whose memory brings back the universe and the Doctor, where remembering is the most important thing she can do.
Good point, yes.

So he had to go through it - not just in this episode but the previous one. Having his memory wiped over and over again to a certain point... and then losing the memory of the one person he doesn't want to lose.
And also to have the person he wants to mind wipe turn on him, challenge his instinctive 'I know best'.

Of course he (unlike Donna) accepts his fate, but then (as he says) he brought in on himself, whereas Donna was just a victim.

Except Moff doesn't put any penalties on him remembering Clara like his head splitting open or fainting because he's not that mean.
Also problematic from a show perspective. ;)

[sea_thoughts]

And also to have the person he wants to mind wipe turn on him, challenge his instinctive 'I know best'.

Yes, I loved Clara's passionate defence of her memories and her right to retain them. "Tomorrow belongs to no one but I have a right to my past!" The look she gave him when he came back after saying he'd wiped someone's memories before... she knew of Donna but I suspect she never really understood what happened until the Doctor spoke about that and then Clara, so clever, put the pieces together and was horrified.

Of course he (unlike Donna) accepts his fate, but then (as he says) he brought in on himself, whereas Donna was just a victim.

And forgetting Clara doesn't reset his personality or character, doesn't leave him reduced. As you say, that would be problematic from a show perspective. *lol*

[elisi]

The look she gave him when he came back after saying he'd wiped someone's memories before... she knew of Donna but I suspect she never really understood what happened until the Doctor spoke about that and then Clara, so clever, put the pieces together and was horrified.
Oh! And that reminds me of River, and her realisation of who Donna is as she is speaking to her. And that look... Yeah, Donna's fate is the worst. :(

And forgetting Clara doesn't reset his personality or character, doesn't leave him reduced.
This.

As you say, that would be problematic from a show perspective. *lol*
Amnesiac Doctor is fun, but...

[imyril.livejournal.com]

...and one last mirror, right from Clara's beginning: her first saving of the Doctor is to wipe the Daleks' memories of him. It all just folds in on itself again and again.

[elisi]

One day I will write THE Clara essay and pull all the pieces together (because yes, so much about memories...). And then I shall add that. :)

[ragnarok-08.livejournal.com]

The fact that she is now literally Schrodinger’s Companion, neither dead or alive, makes me so happy I don’t quite know how express it. She blew into this world on a leaf, and she is still blowing...


Whoa - I hadn't really considered that, and I love it too :)

[elisi]

It sort of makes it difficult to write about? Like... Yes, everything fits, and it's what I (we) said from the start.

It's a beautiful ending, but because it all folds back on itself makes the meta somewhat redundant. ;)

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

Beautiful, honey...

You are right. So, so many parallels...the rise of the Skaro being reborn (and when we first saw it with the First Doctor, it was long dead) and Gallifrey long dead struggling to re-emerge. Missy would not have been happy with the Doctor. As he very much became the mirror of his own 13th possibility. Something that would make even the Master try to stop him.

This is just...I have no words. So, so many parallels and lessons.

Though I still say (because of how hard he holds onto Clara) that he got that face for another reason as well...his Ponds. People he also couldn't let go of until he was made to.

*HUGS*

[elisi]

Beautiful, honey...
<3

You are right. So, so many parallels...the rise of the Skaro being reborn (and when we first saw it with the First Doctor, it was long dead) and Gallifrey long dead struggling to re-emerge.
I hadn't even thought of One... good catch!

Missy would not have been happy with the Doctor.
You don't think so? I think she was thrilled! After all, she brought him & Clara together - and they turned out to be the Hybrid, one of the most dangerous prophecies of all time. I think she was thrilled!

I can just see her popping up, asking what's happened since last, and who-ever eagerly telling her what's been happening. And she'll examine her nails and go 'Hmmm. I introduced them, you know...'

This is just...I have no words. So, so many parallels and lessons.
I know. It just goes on and on.

Though I still say (because of how hard he holds onto Clara) that he got that face for another reason as well...his Ponds. People he also couldn't let go of until he was made to.
*ponders* The face was for saving people, holding on too fiercely was something else. I think. I'll have to chew on it.

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

You have a point. She DID bring them together after all. And Missy was always enouraging him to join the Darkside (with herself, obviously, being the cookie) - but he outMastered the Master. He always knows when to stop. Missy is mad, but I'm not sure she was aiming....

Nevermind. Messing with Rassilon and Gallifrey? She'd be down with that. The Doctor would be the only one who could accomplish that and her hate of her home planet is worse than his (considering what they did to her).

So...you got me here, lol!!

[elisi]

Messing with Rassilon and Gallifrey? She'd be down with that.
I may feel a little ficlet coming on...

Slowly Claps Because Normal Clapping Is Insufficient

[(Anonymous)]

Beautiful work as always :) Season 9 was indeed glorious glory from the heavens, and WILL YOU RELEASE THE DAMN SOUNDTRACK ALREADY?!?

Also, yes! That video is so inconceivably awesome that “Okay, you/he/she are going “Handlebars”, what are you doing, look at your life, look at your choices, slow down, crazy” has long since become an official part of my vocabulary for such occasions.

I can offer needless, non-meta analysis, or mini-fic if you want! Sometimes things are just better expressed as fiction.


Anyway, yes. Twelve does indeed get all Victorious-y in this episode, but oh, look how masterfully and beautifully it’s done.
It’s not just that he is not Ten anymore and he is able to understand that he has gone too far and stops in time. It’s that his state of mind is understandable (after Heaven Sent), there really is no other way for him to take, he has been forced into it, he often has a point (Rassilon and the High Council *really* shouldn’t be in charge and dealing with them –bloodlessly no less while he’s fucking furious, respect- was awesome, “the means justify the ends” I would almost say), he is doing what he is doing to save a friend who died unjustly and because of a betrayal, and he suffers so much in order to achieve that, that it becomes something *worthy*, something else entirely: Yes, he breaks the rules, he needs to learn to move on, he needs to consider *her* wishes. But Clara can’t just die like that after everything he did!


And the universe yes, doesn’t and shouldn’t obey him. But it *does* in a way, as you beautifully mirrored it, “make bargains after all” (Once he *stops*. Like I have said, the Whoniverse is tremendously moral when it comes to these things.)


Clara dies. He wants her back, and well, he can’t, that would be wrong, he wants too much. But he is offered one chance in a billion to maybe, possibly do so, and he takes it. How couldn’t he? He’s the Doctor.
(And well, there really isn’t another option. He’d be miserable until the end of time. Without that slim, impossible hope, if he had given in like the General suggests, imagine how much more desperate and how much more pissed he’d (be allowed and forced to) be with the Time Lords. He *would* take revenge, we’d get the fucking Valleyard.)

One death. To reverse that *one*, he gives a trillion. He spends 4.5 billion years suffering in Hell. He is willing to risk breaking Time itself for someone he cares about too much. And that is…sublime. Both beautiful *and* terrible. Sorry, I don’t care how you analyse this, with what interpretation you are going with. I mean, why does 10 terrify us in WoM but River touches us?
Well, there are laws. But, my God, Luthien died of sorrow and gave up her immortality for Beren and inexorable Mandos was moved.


In short, no, the universe doesn’t owe him, especially since he ends up breaking his own rules in his desperation to achieve his goal. The universe punishes him but makes a (very tough) bargain. The universe takes pity.

He suffers unimaginable horrors, sinks to the lowest, repents, loses Clara, gets mind-wiped. And Clara will *still* die.

He buys her time (all of it). After all, at the most basic level, that’s what a *doctor* is only able and supposed to do, is it not?


And of course, their respective fates are tremendously important. Because, YES, even if you disregard the karma aspect, HE should be the one who has to make the sacrifice.
You want something that is not right, you go too far, you will be punished for it, and you accept it (good). You demanded a second chance for her, a miracle. She *deserves* a miracle, after all this. But *you* want it, *you* must pay the price.

THAT is how it works.

(tbc)

Re: Slowly Claps Because Normal Clapping Is Insufficient

[(Anonymous)]

And lo, they are both better off in the end (because too many bad things happened to good people already, the story wouldn’t be right if it ended in FTR). Clara's wishes are respected, she gets a second chance, gets to essentially become the Doctor. She still has to die, but *everyone* has to die, and such a postponement after the tragedy of FTR is a blessing really

The Doctor manages to remember his adventures with her and the lessons of his experiences (Because maybe he drank from Mnemosyne too, oh you and all your mythologies ;) After all, disregarding all the practical problems we’d get with the main character completely forgetting millennia of his life and the character development we’d lose, Moffat is merciful. There will be ‘death’, there will be ‘rebirth’. But memory is vital: things don’t die, they transform and carry it with them. But since now, beautifully, it is as always the *living* one who hurts too much because of it, it is preserved as a *story* and the burden is lightened. A balance is achieved between suffering and oblivion. Memory is good unless it destroys you. Then, let go. The story always survives, and you will have it back when you become one, because everything does in the end. For history is a pattern of timeless moments . “Ashes to ashes, stories to stories” should be the spiritual metawhovian motto. Because half of Who is Little Gidding and all shall be well).
He just forgets her appearance, voice, etc, there is an absence where *Clara* is concerned, the ‘essential Her’ let's say, is missing. He *knows* that she’s alive, so everything he did was not in vain, but he accepts that he went too far and so they should stay separated for the greater good, and though clearly sad about it (because he obviously still cares about her: “Nothing's sad till it's over. Then everything is”, he wants to remember what she told him in the Cloisters, he states he was trying to find her), and his mind wipe, he is *able* to move on and become a more mature and better person.

Even after realizing that she was the waitress (come on, he’s not an idiot), and having now probably regained her image, it’s only that; and their paths should diverge and he knows it. Yes, he said he was looking for her, but probably just to see her again, to know who she was: he knows *why* they parted. And now *Clara* herself leaves him behind, so he understands he should let her go. Their time together is remembered, but now it's fragmented, blurred, there's a distance, it *is* now a story to him (but we all know the importance of those in WHO like you said). So their separation and her absence is not the horrible grief of losing his soul-mate that he felt when she died anymore. And he understands that he shouldn’t let that grief consume him and make him act selfishly anyway, even if it *was* that horrible and even if she *was* indeed dead.
Sorrow becomes sadness, simple affection, wisdom and acceptance. He dons again the ‘doctory’ coat in honor of her, seems to take her final message to heart, is given a new sonic screwdriver by the TARDIS, and he sets off for new adventures like Clara does, moving on. The loss of “essential memory” and “presence” still leave their mark, even if not as devastating as the previous one of death and grief. But Clara’s importance is felt, and manifested through a very important, sad song "and the Doctor can focus on the beauty and the inspiration of that, if he so chooses."

Onwards for new, different stories. For both, because now both deserve it.

And this is how you end an amazing series; and a rambling analysis. Did that make any sense? It did for me. I feel better now. Divine meta equals poetic Personal Expression of Understanding and Sqeeing, sorry.

Re: Slowly Claps Because Normal Clapping Is Insufficient

[(Anonymous)]

PS. On a more humorous note, I have to mention that somebody commented that when the Doctor is in his “no jacket” phase in the beginning, he looks like Old! Han Solo, and it can’t be unseen.

Also, I don’t know if it was intentional, but when he is ordered to “lay down any weapons on [his] person”, 12 drops his spoon :)

That scene was badass in general anyway. Although, *if* I wanted to make fun of it, I’d say: “Look, his gloriously pissed off ‘I’ll Kubrick Stare At You Until You Melt Like the Freaking Nazis in Raiders of the Lost Ark’ demeanor here isn’t really about Clara and the Confession Dial and Rassilon being a dick and all that. This is literally how *I* react every time someone interrupts me while I’m trying to eat! I mean, really, that’s it! This is a rare luxury, piss off! ‘You bastards, give me a minute, I just got here!’”

Re: Slowly Claps Because Normal Clapping Is Insufficient

[elisi]

And this is how you end an amazing series; and a rambling analysis. Did that make any sense? It did for me. I feel better now. Divine meta equals poetic Personal Expression of Understanding and Sqeeing, sorry.
Oh, do not apologise! There is nothing better than to see something I've written get others carried away...

I'm not sure *I* can say much at this juncture, except nod along.

Although this sprang to mind (I sort of wanted to include it, except it wouldn't fit anywhere...)

Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes;
Nothing of him that doth fade,
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.

<3

Re: Slowly Claps Because Normal Clapping Is Insufficient

[elisi]

Beautiful work as always :)
Thank you. :)

Also, yes! That video is so inconceivably awesome that “Okay, you/he/she are going “Handlebars”, what are you doing, look at your life, look at your choices, slow down, crazy” has long since become an official part of my vocabulary for such occasions.
My favourite thing about Handlebars is that it was made before even the end of S4. The trajectory was clear, and after Waters of Mars aired, at least half my flist just wrote 'HANDLEBARS!!!' as their reaction.

Sometimes things are just better expressed as fiction.
Very true. I almost wish a bunny would hop along. ETA: Also feel free to share whatever!

Yes, he breaks the rules, he needs to learn to move on, he needs to consider *her* wishes. But Clara can’t just die like that after everything he did!
Yes, Clara is the thing that keeps him going... And yet, she chose her death - as in, she accepted it as a consequence of her actions. 'I have duty of care' the Doctor says, 'But I never asked for that!' she replies... Of course, he can't let go after what he's been through, but like Adelaide she needs to go.

Like I have said, the Whoniverse is tremendously moral when it comes to these things
But the rules have to be followed... (I have issues with part of EoT, but that's a different thing.)

Without that slim, impossible hope, if he had given in like the General suggests, imagine how much more desperate and how much more pissed he’d (be allowed and forced to) be with the Time Lords. He *would* take revenge, we’d get the fucking Valleyard
Oh totally.

Both beautiful *and* terrible. Sorry, I don’t care how you analyse this, with what interpretation you are going with. I mean, why does 10 terrify us in WoM but River touches us?
Because River (and 12) act out of love. Ten acts out of brokenness, which becomes arrogance.

Well, there are laws. But, my God, Luthien died of sorrow and gave up her immortality for Beren and inexorable Mandos was moved.
<3 <3 <3 Beren & Luthien omg!!!

And of course, their respective fates are tremendously important. Because, YES, even if you disregard the karma aspect, HE should be the one who has to make the sacrifice.
*nods*

Re: Slowly Claps Because Normal Clapping Is Insufficient

[(Anonymous)]

My favourite thing about Handlebars is that it was made before even the end of S4.
YESSSS. I KNOW. Praise that person with great praise.
The trajectory was clear, and after Waters of Mars aired, at least half my list just wrote 'HANDLEBARS!!!' as their reaction.
I’d love to have seen that, it must have been funny (and completely incomprehensible to a random, casual observer).


Sometimes things are just better expressed as fiction.
Very true. I almost wish a bunny would hop along. ETA: Also feel free to share whatever!
…Does the offer still stand? Because it’s been a week, sorry. If yes, fic or non-fic, and what length?


Yes, he breaks the rules, he needs to learn to move on, he needs to consider *her* wishes. But Clara can’t just die like that after everything he did!
Yes, Clara is the thing that keeps him going... And yet, she chose her death - as in, she accepted it as a consequence of her actions. 'I have duty of care' the Doctor says, 'But I never asked for that!' she replies... Of course, he can't let go after what he's been through, but like Adelaide she needs to go.
I also meant that as a meta-fictional observation, not just 12’s feelings; in that if one life can *somehow* be saved, bending the rules, here it *should*. Because, dear God, Heaven Sent. And that also, as you too had cleverly observed during the season, despite –nay, I would say even better, *because*- of all that ominous foreshadowing, it is *wrong* for Clara to just, simply die there. (Yes, she will still die, but you know what I mean). She was somehow destined for something greater as you had speculated and hoped, our personification of meta. She just had to personally get killed by Death first, and poor 12 had to go to Hell for the narrative to consider it earned, because Reverse Don Bluth Principle (And sadomasochism. A lot of it).

[enevarim]

I have nothing intelligent to add. This is a thing achieved, inalienable, worthy of reverence.

Or, as the back of my mind gladly crows, “YAY!!! THE META CAFÉ IS BACK!!!”

[elisi]

This is a thing achieved, inalienable, worthy of reverence.
It is? Well, that's easily made my day! Thank you. ♥

Or, as the back of my mind gladly crows, “YAY!!! THE META CAFÉ IS BACK!!!”
I LOVE writing those words. :) :) :)

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

Surpassing your usual brilliance, and I wish I had noticed as much as you did!

ETA: I'd argue Sleep No More definitely counts as a Clara-death within the narrative as presented to us by the sand, at least, as she is 'contaminated' by her experience in the pod and is in theory slowly being consumed, a rough parallel to her neither-and-both alive-and/or-dead status at the end of the season.

[elisi]

Surpassing your usual brilliance
And to think I was so dismissive of it myself! Well, most of it hang together, but I felt it was a bit one-track...

I wish I had noticed as much as you did!
Well, it did take me four months to get here! One I worked out how the mirrors worked it was just a question of writing it all down, but before then all I did was sort of look at it and go 'Yes, that was a very fitting ending'.

I'd argue Sleep No More definitely counts as a Clara-death within the narrative as presented to us by the sand, at least, as she is 'contaminated' by her experience in the pod and is in theory slowly being consumed, a rough parallel to her neither-and-both alive-and/or-dead status at the end of the season.
I think that episode was full of Silents, since I keep forgetting a) that it exists and b) what happened. But yes, good point. Thank you! :)

[ever-neutral.livejournal.com]

I (slightly belatedly) LOVE EVERYTHING THIS POST CHOOSES TO BE

Clara has, since her beginning, been the thing he clings to. In The Snowmen she’s the one who drags him off his cloud where he’s been grieving after losing the Ponds, and there’s a sense that this one he’ll get to ‘keep’.

L;JAS;JDFIOJDSKLVJDL;SLJV;DSJOWAH;IKVJDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now it occurs to me how much Eleven/Twelve's massive clinginess wrt Clara was a reaction to Pond trauma. Like, Eleven was always all I Will Let You Go @ Amy, largely to stop himself from getting hurt... but then he got hurt anyway. Then Clara happens and by that point the Doctor's vaguely figured out that emotional dishonesty is rubbish, so he goes for the total opposite M.O. (= I WILL NEVAHHHH LET YOU GO~!!!!). Dude has never learnt how to love in moderation.

But by her second episode Lady me has become a Doctor-mirror, except one holding him to account. There is very much a sense (for me at least) of Moffat going through the RTD era and retelling the same stories.

The tea Moffat spills all over RTD... it is boiling.

Meta: Why Ten is like Wesley.

lmao, Wesley doesn't deserve this (tho your argument remains true).

META-VIDS!!!! I inhaled sharply through the entirety of the first vid because it just showcased how rich and seamless this whole story has been. WE'VE BEEN BLESSED. And KatrinaDepp as ever remains the fandom MVP.

*wanders off to stalk 101 Claras*

[elisi]

I (slightly belatedly) LOVE EVERYTHING THIS POST CHOOSES TO BE
MIRRORSSSSSSSSSSSS! Only mirrors. (And belated love is always a delight!!!)

L;JAS;JDFIOJDSKLVJDL;SLJV;DSJOWAH;IKVJDS!​!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
:D :D :D

Now it occurs to me how much Eleven/Twelve's massive clinginess wrt Clara was a reaction to Pond trauma. Like, Eleven was always all I Will Let You Go @ Amy, largely to stop himself from getting hurt... but then he got hurt anyway. Then Clara happens and by that point the Doctor's vaguely figured out that emotional dishonesty is rubbish, so he goes for the total opposite M.O. (= I WILL NEVAHHHH LET YOU GO~!!!!). Dude has never learnt how to love in moderation.
You know, I'm not sure I ever really formulated it that clearly to myself. Thank you, that's excellent!

The tea Moffat spills all over RTD... it is boiling.
Maybe we should look on it as homage? Filtered through... Moffat magic.

lmao, Wesley doesn't deserve this (tho your argument remains true).
Did you read the original Wesley meta? (As in, going to my post and then following the link there...) It's one of my favourite things of all time.

META-VIDS!!!! I inhaled sharply through the entirety of the first vid because it just showcased how rich and seamless this whole story has been. WE'VE BEEN BLESSED.
IKR? It's so good and I love the change of pace/focus/music etc.

And KatrinaDepp as ever remains the fandom MVP.
Totally.

*wanders off to stalk 101 Claras*
Youse is gonna have to buy a book! If you want to see all the goodies.

[ever-neutral.livejournal.com]

Maybe we should look on it as homage? Filtered through... Moffat magic.
Heh, that's probably the way Moffat would put it too. ;D

Did you read the original Wesley meta? (As in, going to my post and then following the link there...) It's one of my favourite things of all time.
Oh yes, believe me, all the old Buffyverse metas of yore are permanently etched onto my SOUL.

Youse is gonna have to buy a book! If you want to see all the goodies.
I already have 13 tabs open!! Pray for me...