Why I like Clara Oswald
Whenever a franchise introduces a new character, particularly a new female character, there is always great hew and cry, and whispers and shouts of that most damning of epithets: Mary Sue. It is one of our less admirable traits, such automatic and usually sexist dismissal of the new and unfamiliar. You would think that in as long and varied a franchise as Doctor Who, we would be used to and tolerant of the natural ebb and flow of characters, but if anything we are among the worst offenders. With all that in mind, I think Clara is the closest Doctor Who has come to a genuine Mary Sue.
Before we unleash great hew and cry of another sort, let me define my terms a bit (and recall that the top of the page does say "Why I LIKE Clara"). I have written elsewhere: "Do not say 'Mary Sue' when what you mean is 'Clark Kent.'" Mary Sue is not a character with too few flaws or too many skills; a Superman is not prima facie Bad Writing (which a Mary Sue implicitly is). It's also worth noting that too few flaws is not a problem Clara has even a little bit. You also cannot in principle have a Mary Sue outside of fanfiction. Here is what I mean when I use the term: Mary Sue is a self-insert character who recenters the narrative on herself in defiance of established canon. She is a reality warper. A Mary Sue character is considered a hallmark of 'bad writing' because she violates the rules of the Great Game, adherence to an agreed-upon canon, by compelling those around her to act out of character on her behalf. She can be a very healthy sort of character to write, and an important step in a writer's development in fandom, but it's also understandable why other people wouldn't necessarily have an interest in reading such a story.
The fascinating thing to me about Clara is that this is almost exactly what she does in her time on Doctor Who. But - and here's the important bit - she does it all on purpose. Clara's defining trait is recentering the narrative on herself, in explicit defiance of the conventions to which we have become accustomed. The primary plot arc of Series 9 is the Doctor spinning himself ever more out of character on her behalf - and Clara calling him out on it, complete with explicit discussion of the Rules and the ways in which they are being broken. And of course, Clara is the ultimate self-insert character, but she is no one's self-insert but her own - literally inserting herself into the Doctor's timeline across all of time and space. I made the point in my Oswin post that Clara's echoes are crucially not Clara - but they might well be Clara's Mary Sues.
I hesitate to talk about 'canon' in Doctor Who, because there is a large percentage of the fandom that is allergic to that word, but let me rather say that there are established patterns within the televised continuity, and one of those established patterns is the necessity of shaking up or dramatically changing the established pattern every so often. This can last a single episode (remember when the TARDIS was pink?), a couple of seasons or a complete arc (remember when the Doctor was stuck on Earth? remember when the Doctor was married???), or be a permanent game changer (remember when the Doctor stopped being William Hartnell? Remember when the Doctor became the Hero of the show rather than its primary problem?). It's a vital part of keeping the show interesting and varied, and we always hate it. This is probably why Clara has been so divisive a character: she is another one of these shake-ups. She steps in and makes herself the main character, in open defiance of the fact that that has been the Doctor since about 1964. And why shouldn't she? Everyone has the right to be the hero of their own story, and she's a powerful enough personality to bring us all along with her. Clara is remarkable though in that the narrative does not punish her for this absolute insistence on her own agency or try to put her back in her place: Clara's place is the one she has carved out for herself.
Clara is selfish, bossy, commanding, a control freak, and a snappy dresser. Her strengths and her weaknesses, her flaws and her virtues, are the same things. She is entirely self-centered - that is to say, centered upon herself (and recall, even self sacrifice is ultimately about the self and making your own decisions about it). This centering drives her most admirable and least admirable moments. It's what makes Clara so good with children on an individual level but just a godawful teacher in a classroom setting. It's what allows her to take immediate control of a situation, which as often saves the day as gets her killed. Everything Clara does she does on her own terms, from being able to admit when she is frightened or uncomfortable with a situation rather than blustering through it at the beginning of her run to the genuine recklessness that characterizes the end of her run. She resists Zygon control from within (while unconscious in a pod, mind), turning it around and forcing the link to work for her. It's what makes her an excellent bluffer and a pathological liar - needing to be in absolute control of information and what counts as Truth. Harry Frankfurter wrote that the difference between lying and BS is that the Liar cares about truth (so as to avoid it) but the BSer doesn't: despite Rule 1 and such, the Doctor is across the series the consummate BSer, whereas Clara is an absolutely champion Liar - and as always uses that power by turns for good and for ill. And that's the thing: Clara makes mistakes, she often makes the situation worse and causes problems and mishandles things - but they are always Her mistakes and she owns them. Her life (and death) belong to her alone - "the future is promised to no one, but I insist upon my past."
Deconstructing the Doctor has been a particularly popular exercise and theme in the most recent incarnation of the show, and Clara does this in an entirely new way through complete role-reversal of the Doctor-Companion model. She is, in her own mind at least, and increasingly within the narrative, the main character - she even tells the Doctor that he's her hobby. At the end of series 7 she invades his timeline, at the end of series 8 she moves up to the very title sequence (and I have to say, Clara's Angry Eyebrows in the opening titles was my very favorite thing about "Death in Heaven"), and by the end of series 9 she's running off through time and space in a stolen and rickety TARDIS with a mildly kidnapped companion and the question on everybody's lips (not least the Doctor's) is "Clara Who?" She starts by making herself the central figure of the whoniverse and then just moves on (and ever more meta) from there. Series 8 is by and large about the Doctor trying to figure out who he is (and who he should be) and Clara shows him by becoming him. (It's not her fault that he's better at seeing the parts he doesn't like - we all have that problem when it comes down to it). This is most obvious in "Flatline," where the Doctor is almost literally one of Clara's accessories - and it's Clara that Rigsy calls in for help when next he runs into trouble. It's honestly just really a cool progression, and follows naturally from both her fundamental characterization and the Doctor's post-regenerative desire to go home and rethink his life, as it were. And unlike most deconstructing the Doctor arcs, it's not a fundamentally condemnatory one: Clara show us and him the good and the bad together, and reinforces why it's an important job for somebody to be doing, even if it sometimes comes with a price. It's not a wrong thing to be the Doctor, but the take home message of Series 9 is that the universe probably doesn't need two of him, and certainly not in the same TARDIS.
Clara is and incredibly strong and powerful character, and so she draws other people into her orbit, not always on purpose. In some ways she's a black hole: get too close and and the only outcome is certain destruction. She's also like a black hole in that she warps the very fabric of reality and makes the laws of physics stop working. While the Doctor is trying to find himself, he treats her as sort of an outboard conscience (which works out most but not all of the time) - but after a while he can't manage to stop, and spins ever more out of character until the only solution is a hard reboot. And importantly, everyone can tell - Clara herself calls him out on his self-destructive behavior. Clara calls him out on an awful lot of things and she's usually not wrong. Which is not to say she's always right - interestingly, Clara participates in a lot of debates in which neither side is wrong or straw-manned or dismissed. One of the most notable and foundational examples is her fight with Vastra in "Deep Breath" where they speak for both sides of the fandom, and have to move from a place where they dismiss the opponent as shallow or unreasonable or old-fashioned or whatever, and arrive at a place where the person sitting across the table is a person with reasonable and well-thought-out views and perspectives. It's wonderful to behold, and no wonder that Jenny breaks out into applause. Because Clara draws people in, and even when you disagree with her you have to take her seriously, and even when she's wrong she's relevant. And right or wrong, the whole universe turns around her.
I cannot tell if Clara is a subversion of the Mary Sue trope or its Apotheosis. What she certainly is not is sloppy or immature writing. Clara represents a fascinating character experiment and a look at the underlying narrative mechanics driving the show. She is a startling and often uncomfortable shake up of what we have become used to in terms of how Doctor Who works and what it is all about. She is a complex character with a vast interconnected arrays of flaws and virtues, and it's not always obvious which are which. And whether you ultimately like or dislike her, she cannot be easily dismissed. She stands up and demands her due, and woe betide any who will not take her seriously.
Before we unleash great hew and cry of another sort, let me define my terms a bit (and recall that the top of the page does say "Why I LIKE Clara"). I have written elsewhere: "Do not say 'Mary Sue' when what you mean is 'Clark Kent.'" Mary Sue is not a character with too few flaws or too many skills; a Superman is not prima facie Bad Writing (which a Mary Sue implicitly is). It's also worth noting that too few flaws is not a problem Clara has even a little bit. You also cannot in principle have a Mary Sue outside of fanfiction. Here is what I mean when I use the term: Mary Sue is a self-insert character who recenters the narrative on herself in defiance of established canon. She is a reality warper. A Mary Sue character is considered a hallmark of 'bad writing' because she violates the rules of the Great Game, adherence to an agreed-upon canon, by compelling those around her to act out of character on her behalf. She can be a very healthy sort of character to write, and an important step in a writer's development in fandom, but it's also understandable why other people wouldn't necessarily have an interest in reading such a story.
The fascinating thing to me about Clara is that this is almost exactly what she does in her time on Doctor Who. But - and here's the important bit - she does it all on purpose. Clara's defining trait is recentering the narrative on herself, in explicit defiance of the conventions to which we have become accustomed. The primary plot arc of Series 9 is the Doctor spinning himself ever more out of character on her behalf - and Clara calling him out on it, complete with explicit discussion of the Rules and the ways in which they are being broken. And of course, Clara is the ultimate self-insert character, but she is no one's self-insert but her own - literally inserting herself into the Doctor's timeline across all of time and space. I made the point in my Oswin post that Clara's echoes are crucially not Clara - but they might well be Clara's Mary Sues.
I hesitate to talk about 'canon' in Doctor Who, because there is a large percentage of the fandom that is allergic to that word, but let me rather say that there are established patterns within the televised continuity, and one of those established patterns is the necessity of shaking up or dramatically changing the established pattern every so often. This can last a single episode (remember when the TARDIS was pink?), a couple of seasons or a complete arc (remember when the Doctor was stuck on Earth? remember when the Doctor was married???), or be a permanent game changer (remember when the Doctor stopped being William Hartnell? Remember when the Doctor became the Hero of the show rather than its primary problem?). It's a vital part of keeping the show interesting and varied, and we always hate it. This is probably why Clara has been so divisive a character: she is another one of these shake-ups. She steps in and makes herself the main character, in open defiance of the fact that that has been the Doctor since about 1964. And why shouldn't she? Everyone has the right to be the hero of their own story, and she's a powerful enough personality to bring us all along with her. Clara is remarkable though in that the narrative does not punish her for this absolute insistence on her own agency or try to put her back in her place: Clara's place is the one she has carved out for herself.
Clara is selfish, bossy, commanding, a control freak, and a snappy dresser. Her strengths and her weaknesses, her flaws and her virtues, are the same things. She is entirely self-centered - that is to say, centered upon herself (and recall, even self sacrifice is ultimately about the self and making your own decisions about it). This centering drives her most admirable and least admirable moments. It's what makes Clara so good with children on an individual level but just a godawful teacher in a classroom setting. It's what allows her to take immediate control of a situation, which as often saves the day as gets her killed. Everything Clara does she does on her own terms, from being able to admit when she is frightened or uncomfortable with a situation rather than blustering through it at the beginning of her run to the genuine recklessness that characterizes the end of her run. She resists Zygon control from within (while unconscious in a pod, mind), turning it around and forcing the link to work for her. It's what makes her an excellent bluffer and a pathological liar - needing to be in absolute control of information and what counts as Truth. Harry Frankfurter wrote that the difference between lying and BS is that the Liar cares about truth (so as to avoid it) but the BSer doesn't: despite Rule 1 and such, the Doctor is across the series the consummate BSer, whereas Clara is an absolutely champion Liar - and as always uses that power by turns for good and for ill. And that's the thing: Clara makes mistakes, she often makes the situation worse and causes problems and mishandles things - but they are always Her mistakes and she owns them. Her life (and death) belong to her alone - "the future is promised to no one, but I insist upon my past."
Deconstructing the Doctor has been a particularly popular exercise and theme in the most recent incarnation of the show, and Clara does this in an entirely new way through complete role-reversal of the Doctor-Companion model. She is, in her own mind at least, and increasingly within the narrative, the main character - she even tells the Doctor that he's her hobby. At the end of series 7 she invades his timeline, at the end of series 8 she moves up to the very title sequence (and I have to say, Clara's Angry Eyebrows in the opening titles was my very favorite thing about "Death in Heaven"), and by the end of series 9 she's running off through time and space in a stolen and rickety TARDIS with a mildly kidnapped companion and the question on everybody's lips (not least the Doctor's) is "Clara Who?" She starts by making herself the central figure of the whoniverse and then just moves on (and ever more meta) from there. Series 8 is by and large about the Doctor trying to figure out who he is (and who he should be) and Clara shows him by becoming him. (It's not her fault that he's better at seeing the parts he doesn't like - we all have that problem when it comes down to it). This is most obvious in "Flatline," where the Doctor is almost literally one of Clara's accessories - and it's Clara that Rigsy calls in for help when next he runs into trouble. It's honestly just really a cool progression, and follows naturally from both her fundamental characterization and the Doctor's post-regenerative desire to go home and rethink his life, as it were. And unlike most deconstructing the Doctor arcs, it's not a fundamentally condemnatory one: Clara show us and him the good and the bad together, and reinforces why it's an important job for somebody to be doing, even if it sometimes comes with a price. It's not a wrong thing to be the Doctor, but the take home message of Series 9 is that the universe probably doesn't need two of him, and certainly not in the same TARDIS.
Clara is and incredibly strong and powerful character, and so she draws other people into her orbit, not always on purpose. In some ways she's a black hole: get too close and and the only outcome is certain destruction. She's also like a black hole in that she warps the very fabric of reality and makes the laws of physics stop working. While the Doctor is trying to find himself, he treats her as sort of an outboard conscience (which works out most but not all of the time) - but after a while he can't manage to stop, and spins ever more out of character until the only solution is a hard reboot. And importantly, everyone can tell - Clara herself calls him out on his self-destructive behavior. Clara calls him out on an awful lot of things and she's usually not wrong. Which is not to say she's always right - interestingly, Clara participates in a lot of debates in which neither side is wrong or straw-manned or dismissed. One of the most notable and foundational examples is her fight with Vastra in "Deep Breath" where they speak for both sides of the fandom, and have to move from a place where they dismiss the opponent as shallow or unreasonable or old-fashioned or whatever, and arrive at a place where the person sitting across the table is a person with reasonable and well-thought-out views and perspectives. It's wonderful to behold, and no wonder that Jenny breaks out into applause. Because Clara draws people in, and even when you disagree with her you have to take her seriously, and even when she's wrong she's relevant. And right or wrong, the whole universe turns around her.
I cannot tell if Clara is a subversion of the Mary Sue trope or its Apotheosis. What she certainly is not is sloppy or immature writing. Clara represents a fascinating character experiment and a look at the underlying narrative mechanics driving the show. She is a startling and often uncomfortable shake up of what we have become used to in terms of how Doctor Who works and what it is all about. She is a complex character with a vast interconnected arrays of flaws and virtues, and it's not always obvious which are which. And whether you ultimately like or dislike her, she cannot be easily dismissed. She stands up and demands her due, and woe betide any who will not take her seriously.