Believe in the Moff

Doctor Who Rewatch - 7x01: Asylum of the Daleks

character meme | amy pond        ↳ eight quotes | [5 / 8] asylum of the daleks

#claraweek  🍂 day 3: favorite echo      oswin oswald

impossible meme ◌ [5/7] scenes 

                                            Asylum of the Daleks

I find the differences between Clara and Oswin’s reactions to being a Dalek very interesting. They’re both terrified and insisting on their identity, but it’s the way they do it that differs. Oswin reaffirms her identity by repeating that she is human; her species is the most important thing that differentiates her from a Dalek. Clara on the other hand does so by repeating her name, showing that her sense of identity doesn’t extend beyond herself.

Now this could be explained by the fact that Oswin is actually turning into a Dalek whereas Clara is just trapped inside one, but I think there’s more to it than that. Oswin is an echo, and her identity is decided by her creator, by Clara. There’s no suggestion that Oswin knows this and I’m sure she herself thinks her identity is hers entirely (and now that’s an interesting question), but that doesn’t change that there’s more to who she is than just her name.

For Clara though, she’s begun to think of herself as more, as better than other humans. She’s Clara Oswald before she’s anything else, a reflection of her egocentricity, and also how much she’s changed in the last two series particularly in regards to how she indulges the more unpleasant sides of herself. She’s always been confident and self assured, but when she created the echoes she was still a human striving for more, not Clara Oswald who is nothing like the rest of all the little humans that are so tiny and silly and predictable 

It feeds into the idea of hybrids, both as the prophecy and as a thematic element to the series, because hybrids don’t belong to either of the things they are made from, not really. There will be similarities, but they are something new, something different, something more. Just like Clara Oswald.

She’s not a heroine anymore, and she’s not the Doctor. She doesn’t need to copy other people to achieve greatness. She can be honest in her self perception now, because Clara Oswald is the mythic figure, and she needs nothing more than to be herself. 

Do you know how you make someone into a Dalek?

Run, you clever boy, and remember.

I am Oswin Oswald. I fought the Daleks. And I am… human. Remember me.

"We have grown stronger in fear of you."

Moffat’s Women - Oswin Oswald

Oswin is a genius, so smart that the Daleks decided to convert her when the Alaska crashed at the Asylum. She proceeds to build her own little world in her mind, in which she is still shipwrecked among the Daleks, but carries on bravely, baking soufflés (with varying degrees of success) and sabotaging the planet’s systems. Oswin projects an air of self-confidence and flirtation, she’s always good for a quip and quick to make friends - but she still never loses sight of her own interests and goals.

Finding out the truth about what she had become is horrific. Nevertheless, the same girl who pursued her dreams to travel across the universe, who kept the Daleks out of her head for a year by nothing but strength of will even if it broke her, succeeds at holding on to her identity. Ultimately, Oswin values her humanity to the point where she sends the Doctor away and stays behind at the Asylum, fully knowing what would happen once she takes down the forcefield.