Why is it

[thewaterbandit]

Why is it indeed, livejournal, that during a series of Doctor Who that has been packed with more emotion than any preceding one (lost babies! True Love Conquers All! Possible DEAAAAATH! Time Displacement! Etc!) as well as the summer I spent reading a Song of Ice and Fire (also known as Emotional Gutpunch: The Series) AND the end of AC:Brotherhood

Comments

[evilsherbear]

There's something heartbreaking about seeing sweet, kind little creatures just lose all hope. It hit home for me because I've been in that situation (not with magical items heh), but feeling like your friends have bailed on you and just giving up. It's one of the reasons I like the show so much: it captures those little bits of emotions and gets to the heart of them well.

I felt really bad for Spike. I wanted to give him some pepto bismal or something. And a hug.

[thewaterbandit]

True: it's very distressing to see characters that are normally all sweetness and light in despair like that. And, like you, I've had some pretty bleak moments in my own friendships, which didn't help. I guess I didn't expect so much emotional truism in a pony cartoon!

Augh, me too! Poor Spike. Not only are all of his friends acting really weird, Celestia was basically spamming him with friendship reports XD

[vocal_bard]

You're right, it was incredibly sad. I mean, the episode was fantastic (Q as Discord makes me grin) but it was kind of hard to watch.

And yeah, today's Dr. Who was the best so far this season, in my opinion. But it's nice to know that I'm not alone in hoping that we can get through this plotline and put River behind us. Or at least the angst that River brings with her. Yeesh

[thewaterbandit]

I never expected MLP to be hard to watch. John De Lancie was great as Discord, though! I hadn't seen him in Star Trek but his voice acting was magnificent.

I thought I was the only one who disliked River! I really loathe how this storyline about her killing the Doctor has a) re-centered her entire character and her reason for existing completely around him, ugh, and b) turned into a giant all consuming plot tumour. Part of what made today's episode so lovely was that it had a minimum of timey wimey histrionics.

[vocal_bard]

You're not alone! We're a small and quiet group in fandom, but we do exist. I understand why Moffat likes River so much: she offers new ways of exploring the Doctor's character, she shifts the focus (like you said) away from him and onto his companions, she's a dark mirror of Rose (because that's a good thing?). But I want there to be something BESIDES her in 11's life, and something besides 11 in hers. Their relationship is sick and sad, and yet it somehow keeps getting valorized. Not okay.

I would also just love her to be a little less smug when she's so obviously not in control. I don't know. Maybe the last episode will answer our problems. Moffat's pulled it off before.

My love for today's episode knows very few bounds. The dialogue was perfect, the Doctor was flaily and awkward and sad, and it was good clean fun with small moments of heartbreak, rather than the violins-and-tympany crescendos of pathos we've been getting all season. It has my official seal of approval

[flying_girl73]

I like River Song, but I agree that her character has been horribly horribly handled. Here we have a character who should be a strong an capable foil for the Doctor. A doer instead of the follower we get with almost every Companion. Instead, her only motivation for everything in her life has been the Doctor. Some if it isn't her fault (in-universe I mean) but I would like to see her do something for a reason other than him.

She has a lot of great individual moments and I think Alex Kingston is a very capable actress (she's going to be in the new series of Upstairs Downstairs), but even I'm going to be relieved when her storyline is finally wrapped up.