Not really meta, but this is where my head is at.

[elisi]

OK, so I am no nearer to actually writing anything about the Christmas Special. Partly because others have done a fantastic job, and partly because... I don't really know. However, that doesn't mean I don't have thoughts. So, as I can't formulate anything, I shall share vids instead that reflect where my head is at.

First a couple of Oswin vids that I just love to distraction. The first one has amazing lyrics (Broken) & editing to match, and the second one is just too pretty for words:

Watch on YouTube

Then there's these two, because I don't think it's possible to think of any of the Claras in isolation. Much like River was also Mels and Melody, I believe that all the Claras are part of one, complete, Clara Oswin Oswald. Which might be why I'm so stuck. We're still missing 1/3 of the jigsaw... (ETA: The last vid by niyalune (here.)

Watch on YouTube

Comments

[elisi]

What wonderful videos; thanks for sharing them (as well as introducing me to the song Broken!) and giving an insight into your headspace.
Totally my pleasure - I've been meaning to do this for ages, but life just keeps tripping me up...

I have high hopes for her; she’s been an exciting and mysterious character already and we’ve seen little of her. I think the Doctor will have a challenge figuring out who she is and how she keeps popping up after dying.
Mmmm, this. At some point I *will* write down my thoughts, I promise. Because I have ~ideas about her.

I think the adventure they will go on will feel very different than that of Amy and Rory; darker and more like a fairy-tale aimed at someone older than little Amelia who had an imaginary friend turn real. Clara, I feel, has already grown up and knows who she is, so I think her story arc will develop her character with different means that what we saw with Amy.
*nods a lot* Eleven and Amy grew up together - they ran away from their responsibilities together, and then learned to accept them, and matured & married. So Clara being a grown-up already, and one who has died a couple of times, will fit very nicely with where Eleven is at right now. :)

[promethia_tenk]

So Clara being a grown-up already, and one who has died a couple of times, will fit very nicely with where Eleven is at right now. :)

. . .

I've got something to say about this. I don't know what it is yet.

ETA: I forget the exact wording but Clara's little rant in The Snowmen as she's entering the TARDIS, about 'oh, sweet little Clara--well, let me tell you something . . .' Something disproportionately and uncharacteristically bitter going on there. I mean 'I'm not so sweet!' is a common enough complaint for a young woman, but Clara seems to handle so much with so much aplomb and yet she was kinda loosing it there for a moment before she realized where she was standing.

[elisi]

I mean 'I'm not so sweet!' is a common enough complaint for a young woman, but Clara seems to handle so much with so much aplomb and yet she was kinda loosing it there for a moment before she realized where she was standing.
*ponders* I think it sort of maybe crosses over into 'Run you clever boy, and remember'... Like, what-ever-she-is stirred underneath the surface for a second. As you say, the words fit well enough, but there's definitely layers to them, layers she's probably not aware of.

Was that what you were getting at? Or am I just much too sleepy?

[promethia_tenk]

Was that what you were getting at? Or am I just much too sleepy?
I'm not sure if I was getting at something so much as throwing things out there to see what sticks. I wasn't necessarily thinking that "whatever-she-is-underneath" was necessarily asserting itself, though now that you say that, why not? But it's like Amy's "twelve years, four psychiatrists!" Something there got upset, some sort of trauma poked at.