I have seen the tumblr light

[laeria]

Q: what is tumblr for?

old, wrong A: keeping in touch with fandom trends; obtaining gifs; making yourself feel old even when you're not yet 23

new, correct A: stalking people who are bitching about the new Who episode.

Comments

[penny_lane_42]

Meh. It was an okay episode overall. I loooooved Oswin ("phase" thing aside), hated how it treated the Ponds marriage, mostly did other things while I watched. It's nice not being all het up about it though.

[laeria]

I was okay with the Pond marriage going through a crisis - I love it when characters have to deal with infertility, and I can see Amy being quite dramatic about it rather than being like "ergo, adoption", because she's quite young and had never had time to think this sort of thing through, plus she also has dollops of Doctor-related guilt and kind of funnels that into thing - well, and also their horrible ignoring of the whole Melody thing had to come out somehow. So, right, I was okay with that, even if I would have preferred a fight over ~~divorce~~. But! Then it got fixed in under ten minutes, and they still didn't talk anything through. And it was horrible. And magically cured infertility is one of my grandest squicks, so if that happens...

[penny_lane_42]

It was the flippancy with which it was treated that bothered me--I don't mind at all the idea of them having a fight and I agree with you about infertility being a really interesting topic for them to handle. If it had been done well I probably would have quite liked it (but they went waaaaay too far with the divorce thing omg so silly). This is not a topic for just one episode and like you said, getting it fixed in ten minutes without actually talking about anything made me want to bang my head against a wall.

And magically cured infertility is one of my grandest squicks, so if that happens...

That would be disgusting. I'd be furious.

[thornyrose42]

It is really one of those topics which you should treat with respect and not do by halves. So having one, admittedly well acted scene, isn't really enough. Also, I'm laying my bets now that this conflict isn't referenced again (or at least not as much as it should be) until the last episode in which there is a small space moppet for them to adopt.

[laeria]

I like space moppets! But, yeah, I agree - it's going to be ignored pretty consistently, I'm guessing. And nobody will ever mention River at all, except maybe Eleven in a "oh, her indoors would like this!" kind of way. :\

[thornyrose42]

Haven't seen spoilers, so I kind of assumed that Alex Kingston was going to be popping up at at least some point. If she isn't... well, I bloody well hope that they reference her!

I really don't understand why Moffat keeps putting his characters through the emotional wringer if he is never going to deal with the consequences.

[thornyrose42]

Pretty sure that should have been part of the job description for the post of showrunner...

[laeria]

You know, I actually like magical cures sometimes? I've been planning meta about it for ages, about how it can be an interesting kind of fantasy, and an interesting sci-fi trope, as long as it has consequences and isn't dealt with in an offhand sort of "of course every good deed gets a reward" way.

But! But magically cured infertility is just such an utter squick that I cannot even.

[thornyrose42]

That does sort of boil down to 'if it is well written' :-)

[laeria]

Sure, but, I mean, there's also people who feel you should never ever do magical cures, because they perpetuate negative stereotypes about disabled people, etc. Which is true! And yet, I'm one of those disabled people, and I'd love to read about nice well-executed magical cures sometimes... but there's so many pitfalls maybe it really is best not to write it at all.

(in the Demon's Lexicon trilogy, there was a character who turned down a magical cure when I feel they really should have accepted it... but that's very rare.)

[thornyrose42]

I've only read the first book of that series, never quite managed to get around to reading the other ones. Curious as to your reasons for feeling they should have accepted it though.

I don't think, I could be wrong though, that I've encountered many magical cure type set ups, apart from ones sourced in the fairy tale mythos. So, I can't say I've much thought about it, though for what you've said I agree that it is a very thorny issue.

As for the infertility cure... on a gut instinct thing I think I'd be more ok with that, on a sort of science is indistinguishable from magic thing, because scientifically we are improving in that respect but at the same time, from a Doyalist perspective it just feels like a cop out. (Much like the LOL divorce bit in this episode.)

[laeria]

Oooh, I really recommend the sequels! Well, the second book in the trilogy, Demon's Covenant, has a narrator I couldn't quite enjoy - I liked her, but her internal monologues left me utterly baffled and frequently annoyed - but the third book, Demon's Surrender, has the Best Narrator Ever, and also the Best Ship Ever, and lots of really emotionally affecting moments of awesome.

The scene that I disliked was when an otherwise really pragmatic and practical character turned down a no-strings-attached offer of a magical cure - for no good reason except "I just wouldn't be myself". Which, dude, yes you would, you'd be yourself except without the occasional intense pain and limited mobility. It felt OOC and kind of, um, soapboxy in a bad way. Though, half a pain later, another character turned down a magical cure too, that was entirely in-character and logical. So! It's a question of previous characterisation, I guess, and lots and lots of circumstances.

[penny_lane_42]

, as long as it has consequences and isn't dealt with in an offhand sort of "of course every good deed gets a reward" way.

Right, right, I agree. You should definitely write that meta at some point! I'd be very interested in it!