@sapphichymns I blame the fandom for this. Every single time the Doctor displays a bit of anger, it always gets “categorised” as the Doctor being Time Lord Victorious. Somehow, to quote a circlejerk reddit post, an intense and specific masculine anger became the most important part of the character.
Honesty, this is only kind of tertiarily related, but i have a complicated relationship with the fandom’s perception of the doctor’s anger these days, which is probably why this is annoying me now more than ever even though i never liked it, because i’ve always found 13′s displayed very traditionally female anger, and it appears to be absolutely Driving People Up A Wall.
Which fits in with what you said above.
I actually am kind of fond of 13′s bitten down anger because she’s not swallowing it down and hiding it because of any kind of female socialization, the kind where we learn we have to hold it in or we’re not taken seriously, she’s doing it because she’s trying Very hard to be 12′s last wish ideal of a good person? And that includes being happy and kind and happy and kind people don’t go around angrily yelling at people who aren’t very bad awful villains. So it makes sense plot wise that she’d act this way and Isn’t just ‘the doctor’s a girl now obviously she’d act like one!’ like they’ve not spent their last few thousands of years being perceived and treated like a man and gotten used to the emotional leg room that allows them.
I mean, it’s personal taste, but i like it.
But i Still, even this week i had this! Get comments on my posts with people saying they can’t wait for her to snap and actually be properly angry just like How The Doctor Is. Like that’s the base line of their character. Like she’s not been angry multiple times in her run so far just because she’s not displaying all that traditionally masculine anger and screaming the place down with aggrandized speeches.
She Does snap, she Has snapped. She’s been angry a lot of the time. But it doesn’t Count anymore if it’s not ten’s brand of super masculine toxic level anger and entitlement. Like, 13′s not-actually-yelling but arrogant angry speech in the cellar was a snap for her. Her shoving the master on his ass was a snap for her. And those are just the Big moments in a sea of smaller ones.
And 13′s just Not The Doctor to them and aside from a lot of things i could say to that pronouncement, i have to wonder exactly How much peoples perception of the doctor being defined by that super masculine anger, and always 2 steps away from being all time lord victorious again if they get even mildly annoyed, is playing into that perception of ‘she is not the doctor’. Because she really Isn’t like that because she’s displaying far more traditionally female anger than anything else. She Is angry, but it’s not Doctory enough for them because that is a code word for toxic masculinity in this case.
I just. Really hate the perception of time lord victorious. And i hate it more these days because of reactions to 13.