i’m been really thinking about casual trans characters specifically in the context of the audience not getting to see when they come out

anime where a character is suddenly a man after a timeskip

game series where the protag is genderfluid in the latest game

the key for me is in the casualness and like nobody in universe remarks upon it. like maybe one reference here or there but nothing jumping out at you saying hey hey this character is trans get it

My favourite twissy quote has never been uttered on screen. It's probably better that it wasn't. But I think everything you need to know about Missy and 12 is in these 7 words from the script of the Magician's Apprentice.

being too much like the doctor got missy killed and i will never stop thinking about that

because she didn’t kill saxon, she was going to let him bleed out. what’s more doctor than that, to take the moral highground by saying technically, it wasn’t my hand that did it, though i did set up the dominoes that fell. and then she. she has a speech. she has an honest to god doctor speech, aims it right at saxon, and then she turns her back on him. i can never stop thinking about that. she turned her back on him. but she’s not the doctor. and he shoots her. because she let him die slow enough to run, because she stayed for a speech and gave him time and reason to know he wanted to shoot her dead, and she turned her fucking back on the master.

it’s 2 parts ‘we aren’t that self-destructive’ (false) and 2 parts ‘if i was the doctor, he wouldn’t shoot me in the back, because i wouldn’t shoot the doctor in the back, i’d want to see his face when i did it’ (true) BUT SHE IS NOT THE DOCTOR. SHE IS NOT. AND IT GETS HER KILLED.

It gets Clara killed, Missy killed. And most importantly acting like the Doctor gets himself killed, and always does.

I actually like Moffat’s theme across his era here. Because a lot of people see it as him saying “acting like the Doctor will get you killed” but stop halfway, like he’s saying doing that is wrong. But really it’s “acting like the Doctor will get you killed; but you should still do it anyway.”

Which is what Twelve says himself.

Two ex best friends. They might shake hands

not to be a broken record stuck on thoschei and spydoc as a continuation of twissy but. something something missy dying when she tried and failed to stand with and be more like the doctor. something something ttc being about the master trying and failing to make the doctor more like him. something something the master now trying to define the doctor, to literally be the doctor… and still failing anyway. he fell the same way missy did; failing to be more like the doctor. but this time; this time? she fell with him

and i still can't believe that dhawan/12 isn't popular alongside missy/13.

I mean, I think 12 and dhawan!master have pretty similar issues, And if dhawan did his usual 'invade personal space, stare at lips, hello sexual tension' thing with 12 there's a chance 12 might Actually break the gap and properly make out with him, whereas 13 would literally just try and bite his face off.

Im in mate, lets make this a thing

different fic but this also fucks

not to be self aggrandising or anything but deathless and timeless?? nice

Yesss this is one of my favorite fics

“I can’t die more than I already have.”

non dw sources: mabel episode 15, and this post

I'm a simple woman. All I want from Doctor Who is the Master teaming up with the Rani to abduct the Curies, because they just very need radioactive whatsit, much on 1890s Earth, running around shimmered as them just because we were robbed of Sacha Dhawan regenerating in Missy's dress, culminating with the Doctor thwarting their scheme using a gallium parlor trick.

Pros: educational, the Master, the Rani, historical figures of the season is a STEM power couple, gallium everywhere.

Cons: none whatsoever.

“didnt realise you were this much of a hoarder”

do you think he fills his living space with so much stuff because missy had just this big empty room?

like i dont know to what extent collecting or saving things was a trait in previous masters (missy in her audios definitely doesnt come across as being precious with her things, shes always losing her tardis and finding new weapons she uses like only a couple of times, i feel like), but if it wasnt that blatant, you could probably interpret it as a reaction to missy. which i will. obviously. because im predictable.

look how warm his hut is! warm and small and stuffed with things. the vault is cold and big and mostly empty.

can you imagine the difference in acoustics in those spaces? all that furniture, all those boxes! all that paper! that absorbs a lot of sound. he even put rugs on the floor!

those shine through curtains have a similar feeling to that light coming through the fake windows in the vault, but again it’s orange vs blue light. and he has heavier curtains in the back that he keeps more drawn:

theres also the way the space is broken up, like this would actually be kind of a big room i think? not as big as the vault, but it’s not that small, it’s pretty long. but he’s broken it up with that curtain in front of his computers (to be dramatically revealed by graham) and that ladder and all those cabinets and drawers and things.

and most of this furniture isnt for actual use, the chairs have stuff on them, the tables have stuff on them, and none of it is like, easily removable stuff, it’s towers of things piled precariously. it’s stuff you leave alone. and sure he probably has like, a bunch more rooms that he actually spends his time in? seeing as it’s a tardis? but still. also look at more rugs in the back! he doesnt want to have any hard floors. they echo.

also some other contrasts: the master’s walls are blue-ish, while that thing the piano is on is orange-ish. and the master’s clothes are loose while missys are Not. though that changes a bit of course later when he’s actually wearing his master outfit. but still, he spends most of his time like this. i dont think we know exactly when he moved to australia do we? but “ive had a few years to rig it out, just in case” a few years.

“lived-in, run-down, chaotic, rammed and crammed with box files and paper, areas curtained off” thats basically the exact opposite of how you’d describe the vault.

are there any interviews or articles about the set design of o’s hut? i couldnt find anything from a quick google search but i’d be interested

Oh damn

the master being sexist is actually very hilarious bc the SECOND they regenerated into missy they were a feminist and the second they regenerated into a man again it was back to being a pig. this bitch really said ‘women’s rights but only for me I think?’ lmfao

1) I actually don’t see how Dhawan Master is sexist at all so help me out, legit question. Like that stuns me and I really genuinely want to know what I’m missing. He shows absolutely no differentiation in the way he treats Thirteen based on the fact that she’s now a woman. His hostility toward her is in no way contingent upon that; rather it’s the whole Timeless Child revelation.  If you mean the “kneel” scene, that was in order to secure himself a desperate sense of regained identity, not because she’s a woman…and he also knelt with her.  Is there something else or? 

2) I think Missy’s perception of herself and her gender identity is actually often problematic in both a Watsonian and Doylist context, largely bc Steven Moffat is a white cis upper middle class man and his implicit bias in these many categories of privilege definitely shows (as it does with rtd and chibnall at times, as well). 

2) Dis a funny observation except, honestly, I think it’s more like

Fully agree with @sclfmastery on Dhawan Master, and wanna rant a bit about Simm and Gomez incarnations.

RTD’s portrayal of the Master in Series 3 is the worst. Imagine taking a bisexual man who’s grown up in a genderless culture of a species which can change their sex and race every couple of years, and making him misogynistic, racist and homophobic just to show how evil he is, when, you know, all the rest of the things he did are quite enough without being plain illogical. And like yes, it could be logical if he was just saying and doing all these things to spite the Doctor, Martha and Jack, but he was grunting about being killed by a woman when he was literally alone. And that’s not even everything that’s bad with RTD’s portrayal of the Master, but it’s another story for another post.

Op, how is Gomez Mistress a feminist?.. Yes, exactly, she’s “women’s rights but for me only” because the Master doesn’t give a shit about anyone who isn’t them or the Doctor. Being a woman at the time and not wanting to get the treatment we get in no way makes her a feminist, just like you won’t call Dhawan Master anti-racist. To be honest, I can’t even see at all where are you going from.

Anyway, Moffat is the worst thing that ever happened to Doctor Who, and while I still genuinely love his era and his characters (and you know what, I’m fucking reclaiming them, that’s what), he’s a complete indescribable garbage of a man and it shows very much. With Mistress in particular: he regenerates into a woman and SUDDENLY she prefers skirts, a fucking corset, long hair and wears goddamn heels and a shit ton of makeup. While never doing any of that in any of their previous incarnations. And she fucking calls herself Missy. “Missy” is a fucking dismissive word. I’m not fucking calling her that. Ahem, please forgive me for the sudden increase in the amount of swearing… it’s just M*ffat. (And there’s not enough swear words in English.) And the writing itself is misogynistic too. And of course, it’s the female incarnation who gets this ““““redemption arc””””. I bet he wouldn’t do that to a male incarnation.

And the way Moffat wrote Simm is downright disgusting. He’s played the card “the Master is a misogynist when male” again. Oh, and that fucking scene. Yes, we know that the Master wants to fuck themself, could we please not do it like THAT, no one wants to see that, and I’m pretty sure it was not about the Master being attracted to themself but about men seeing women as sexual objects. Moffat sees us as such and cannot wrap his damn head around that it can be not like that, even if the man in question is a fucking alien, he did it with Ninth, Tenth (in those episodes that he was writing for them; at least not on screen with Nine but what he said behind the scenes was the worst thing he ever said) and Eleventh Doctors many times too, in most disgusting ways. I realized right now that it is because he considers it a fact. The sky is blue, Apple’s logo is a bitten apple, my name is Steven and women are sexual objects for men to use.

And to be honest, I don’t know if I would want a female Mistress with Chibnall either.

Well, I mean, of course I would, GIVE ME THE MISTRESS YOU FUCKERS, and I do think things would be better than with Gomez incarnation because Chibnall is not nearly (at least openly) as disgusting as Moffat, but. He is still a misogynist. Look at the Doctor. She is well-written, I LOVE how she is written, but look at her. Her hair, that maaay get messy for a while over the course of action but then always turns back to some fucking plastic. And you know what? Jodie wanted the Doctor to have short hair, but Chibnall “…wanted the hair [she] auditioned with.” Her eyebrows, including right fucking after regenerating and in prison (well, yes, if she regenerated with natural eyebrows and then would do them it would be much worse). Her shaved legs. Her ear piercings when none of the previous Doctors wore them. Her deep neckline. And then comes Martin Doctor with her absolutely perfect costume but with plucked eyebrows (again), earrings (again, and this time more traditionally feminine) and long hair (another-character again).

And believe me, I’m not getting angry at earrings and ear piercings just for the sake of it. I am a gnc woman. My mother tried to convince me several times to wear earrings so that I would “still look like a girl” (even though I have a very feminine body). I know what this is about, and I’m so tired.

But well, yes, I would want a female Mistress from Chibnall, because most likely she would be well written. But anyway, I love Sacha and I don’t want him to regenerate any time soon, I’m so glad we have him.

Well, you know what I want the most? A DW writer who is not a misogynist.

And a writer who is not a white man. We’ve definitely had enough of them.

Ugh this

the master & control

dhawan!master is a synthesis of simm and missy right? i dont know if it’s right to say simm embodied disinhibition (i dont like that thats the word, the word should be hibition but okay) but i do feel pretty confident saying missy is about restraint. and dhawan is both. both control and the lack of control.

it’s like he wants control really badly, but he doesnt quite have it. like, simm!master (okay, again, i might be wrong about this, i dont actually watch his episodes that much) is not in control. of himself, of his environment, exemplified by the drums right? i think hes mostly reacting? and i dont think hes really trying for control either. if he is water in a sea then hes just like ‘these waves are fine’ and he doesnt try to change them really. i think. hes mostly reaction.

and then you have missy who does seem to be grasping for control at every opportunity. the way she reacts to being referred to as anything even remotely “nice” has the same desperately strained vibe as the way 13 clings to her “happy” image. they lock themselves into an inflexible self-concept because what lies beyond that is Scary Things We Don’t Want To Think About. and then  theres the vault. missy does have control i think, mostly, unlike simm. she gives up autonomy in the vault, but not control.

and then dhawan strikes me like, he wants the control that missy had, but he cant quite get his hands on it. he can make really meticulous plans but hes also kinda subject to the whims of his emotions.

this scene in 12x2 i think illustrates it:

the juxtaposition of those two lines: “all our efforts will come together in a moment of beauty” and “a little chaos is a wonderful thing”

“in a moment of beauty” (look at his eyes, look at the time he takes to look at something thats just pretty, that little nod of satisfaction at the end)

that line demonstrates like, a real appreciation for complex mechanisms working like theyre supposed to? it’s probably not an accident that the doctor finds the silver lady statue next to the difference engine and we get this nice shot:

(ada lovelace also used her maths skills for gambling right? is she a master parallel? because byron is a doctor parallel. that might be interesting.)

anyway, that second line:

“a little chaos is a wonderful thing” (again with the eyes. he feels so deeply)

that line shows a comfort with disorder, with no set plan, with just reacting. hes like ‘i will build this intricate machine to hurt you with’ and then when it breaks he picks up the pieces and throws them at your head. it works either way. he appreciates how both methods work. hes flexible - in flux - in a way that neither simm nor missy were. it is growth and change, but it’s not a comfortable position to be in.

if simm was (mostly) all show, and missy half on purpose half accidentally broke through her own fourth wall, then dhawan is a master thats having a really hard time staying in character. he keeps breaking. he keeps looking at the audience, keeps acknowledging that this is all pretend. it’s like he doesnt believe his own show anymore and is just trying to get the feel back for the character hes supposed to be playing. hes constantly trying to gain control over his own overwhelming emotions.

i mean, look:

so many feelings

Oohhhhhhh damn

I am honestly just really glad Sacha Dhawan gets to play his own version of the Master, gets his own journey to go and his own story to tell, rather than be a gap filler on the way to Missy.

I'm sorry you feel like this "erases" her character development, but I personally don't think so at all. Nothing Missy did, achieved and tried gets in any way rendered less important by relapse and I think saying otherwise is a very harmful message to send.

She still did what she did. She fought to become a person her friend could love again, but got left for death while trying, and so did the Doctor.

But she still tried.

And now it's Sacha's turn to play a Master who's unable to recover from failing his own redemption and maybe finding his own path to cope with that - Or not. But that's his Master's story to tell now and he genuinely deserves that.

Yes!

okay so ways the master gets caught in bodyswap aus:

-simm!master: his rancid vibes are always immediately detected by whoever’s with the doctor

-missy: either bc she immediately flirts with the companions OR bc she twirls and doesn’t fall over

-dhawan!master: says please or thank you in a non sarcastic/ironic way and immediately gets taken out at the knees

graham: i knew it wasn’t the doc when u didn’t immediately dismiss and mock my concerns

@taardisblue

thirteen, standing triumphantly in front of the fam: ha you thought i like being touched this time round?? rookie mistake

the master: but you liked it when i choked you out in paris?

the fam:

thirteen: okay sharing time’s over time to go

good post but could you not mock neurodivergent people please

@transgirlromana ah shit no i wasnt referring to that scene at alll!! im autistic and got really angry at ppl who hated that scene bc its something that i also do and i was v happy that 13 did it! and she didn’t mock or dismiss his concerns then???? i was referencing the times where graham was like uhh can ppl stop implanting shit in me and 13 was like stop bringing the mood down graham

Aksjfhksdjfkdj love this

Yesss Xd

Me: Nobody is ever going to replace Missy as my favourite Master!

Sacha Dhawan: *shows up and plays The Master to absolute perfection*

Me: 

Mood XD