META!!! This is great. I may come back later, and have more to say.
I will say, that I've had bits of a meta essay in my head for a while about the Doctor as Trickster for um, years now. Tricksters are also often strongly associated with travel. Hermes/Mercury is the god of travelers in Greek and Roman mythology. Eshu is the god of travelers and crossroads in Yoruba religion. They are also often the messengers and go betweens, going back and forth between the mortals and the rest of the gods.
Unfortunately, Western storytellers have had an tendency to equate trickster characters with the Devil. I have theories as to why that is, but they aren't exactly flattering to mainstream Christian theology, in my mind. (Sorry.) The short version is tricksters transgress barriers and circumvent cultural norms. In a lot of religions, that's not exactly bad, because the gods aren't perfect. Tricksters allow breathing room for growth and change, in how a culture thinks about itself. When the dominant cultural narrative is that there's a perfect God who hands down morality, equating subversion with evil is easy to do.
This is also why I think trying to put monotheistic imagery in Doctor Who, or analyzing it on that basis, doesn't really *work*.
ETA: Jesus's parables in the Gospels and his behavior in the Temple, otoh, fit the Trickster archetype well. But then, he *was* subverting the dominant cultural narrative. I have crankiness with how the Gospels have come to be viewed through the lens of the writings of Paul, but that's another matter.
no subject
I will say, that I've had bits of a meta essay in my head for a while about the Doctor as Trickster for um, years now. Tricksters are also often strongly associated with travel. Hermes/Mercury is the god of travelers in Greek and Roman mythology. Eshu is the god of travelers and crossroads in Yoruba religion. They are also often the messengers and go betweens, going back and forth between the mortals and the rest of the gods.
Unfortunately, Western storytellers have had an tendency to equate trickster characters with the Devil. I have theories as to why that is, but they aren't exactly flattering to mainstream Christian theology, in my mind. (Sorry.) The short version is tricksters transgress barriers and circumvent cultural norms. In a lot of religions, that's not exactly bad, because the gods aren't perfect. Tricksters allow breathing room for growth and change, in how a culture thinks about itself. When the dominant cultural narrative is that there's a perfect God who hands down morality, equating subversion with evil is easy to do.
This is also why I think trying to put monotheistic imagery in Doctor Who, or analyzing it on that basis, doesn't really *work*.
ETA: Jesus's parables in the Gospels and his behavior in the Temple, otoh, fit the Trickster archetype well. But then, he *was* subverting the dominant cultural narrative. I have crankiness with how the Gospels have come to be viewed through the lens of the writings of Paul, but that's another matter.