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ever_neutralAnd so it continues.
02 | the ship you love because it really neverwill was going to happen
/random boring spam
Surprise, I ship it. (Tho, not a surprise to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
xx_pinkstar, bless.) This may earn me some stink eye considering the way this fandom is about 1) Doctor/Rose and 2) doctor/companion pairings in general. I'm pretty sure 80% of criticisms leveled at the show concern the almost-constant UST between the (revolving-door) leads BUT I BEG TO DIFFER. I will literally ship the Doctor with practically everyone except River and Clara. Humans, aliens, the Tardis; I DON'T CARE. And you can expect to see all the canon doc/companion ships here before this meme is out; deal with it or like go eat a tree I don't care what you do with your life.
Ahem. So, Martha/Ten. Unpopular ship. Firstly because everyone's obsessed with Rose/Ten, and secondly because Ten is a bag of dicks who never appreciated Martha like she deserved, which I understand turns a lot of people off. Not me! I live for terrible awkward unrequited shit like that, MAKE OF IT WHAT YOU WILL. One huge source of appeal of Martha/Ten for me, ironically, is actually because I don't care to see the Doctor being portrayed as some smoldering romantic hero. I don't care for him being romanticized or glorified. I LIKE that even though the Doctor can be a hero and saver of galaxies blah blah blah, he is also the world's worst friend/boyfriend and also generally a vain self-absorbed douche. At the same time, I do find it very believable (and almost inevitable in certain cases) that so many would fall head-over-heels for that showy time lord shit because, well. But the thing about Martha and Ten's NOT!romance is that while there is a textual ongoing romantic/sexual tension (and unlike the Doctor and Rose's relatively straightforward epic love) the relationship itself isn't romanticized. That is, it isn't presented as romantic.
And really, why should it be. Why should any doctor/companion relationship be. The Doctor is a hundreds-years-old genocidal alien. I'm not particularly interested in seeing romance involving him, but I am (always) interested in seeing romantic tropes being subverted. And while I can appreciate how the story was problematic (re: the narrative either implicitly or explicitly pitting Martha against Rose and/or propping up Doctor/Rose), it's also clear IMO that we're meant to sympathize with Martha in her rejection, often even over the Doctor -- her relationship with him is framed almost completely from her POV and, like Amy, it overturns and to some degree deconstructs the idealised perspective of the Doctor-as-romantic-figure established by Rose/Ten. One of the things that works for me about the tragedy of Martha and Ten is that it's so mundane: it's not sprawling and epic; the Doctor isn't a tortured Romeo -- he is really just another guy who took you for granted.
[ASIDE: And contrary to how this basic piece of shit fandom would have it, Martha Jones is not wholly and solely "defined" by the Doctor. She is in fact consistently portrayed as an exceptionally capable, intelligent, proactive, and moral person whose one major weakness is being hung up on an emotionally unavailable guy. I balk at the idea that the latter "ruined" her character because no, being a Strong Female Character (TM) let alone a "strong woman" does not preclude being in love with a dude who's bad for you -- plus also fuck Strong Female Characters (TM). This complaint particularly irks me wrt Martha since inside the story she consistently displays agency, has life goals that are unrelated to men, forms and maintains relationships with other women, helps people for the sake of helping people and, oh yeah, SAVES THE ENTIRE WORLD ALMOST SINGLEHANDEDLY, not to mention the Doctor's useless ass on more than one occasion. And at the end of it all she makes the decision for herself to stop traveling with the Doctor, not just because she recognizes that she deserves better but also in order to pursue her true life goal: helping people in need. The moral of this paragraph is basically that Martha Jones is a goddess and peasants will bow or get out of my journal.]
Possibly the most (mundanely) tragic part, though, is the effect of bad timing. The thing is that Martha is exactly the Doctor's type of person: smart, curious, headstrong, big heart, gorgeous, adapts easily in bizarre situations, etc. and their best moments are when he properly acknowledges these things (especially in Smith & Jones). The Doctor does love and care for Martha a lot, considers her his best friend for a long time. But, ultimately, his heart's not fully in it; he left it back in that parallel universe. You could have had it all but instead were hung up on what was already lost. Which, really, is obnoxiously human.
So, yeah, in summary: Martha/Ten. Wrong!ship it because it was absolutely futile. COME AT ME.
02 | the ship you love because it really never
'Cause he never looked at her twice. I mean, he liked her, but that was
it. And she wasted years pining after him, years of her life, 'cause
while he was around, she never looked at anyone else. And I told her, I
always said to her, time and time again, I said, "get out"
So this is me, getting out.
it. And she wasted years pining after him, years of her life, 'cause
while he was around, she never looked at anyone else. And I told her, I
always said to her, time and time again, I said, "get out"
So this is me, getting out.
/random boring spam
Surprise, I ship it. (Tho, not a surprise to
xx_pinkstar, bless.) This may earn me some stink eye considering the way this fandom is about 1) Doctor/Rose and 2) doctor/companion pairings in general. I'm pretty sure 80% of criticisms leveled at the show concern the almost-constant UST between the (revolving-door) leads BUT I BEG TO DIFFER. I will literally ship the Doctor with practically everyone Ahem. So, Martha/Ten. Unpopular ship. Firstly because everyone's obsessed with Rose/Ten, and secondly because Ten is a bag of dicks who never appreciated Martha like she deserved, which I understand turns a lot of people off. Not me! I live for terrible awkward unrequited shit like that, MAKE OF IT WHAT YOU WILL. One huge source of appeal of Martha/Ten for me, ironically, is actually because I don't care to see the Doctor being portrayed as some smoldering romantic hero. I don't care for him being romanticized or glorified. I LIKE that even though the Doctor can be a hero and saver of galaxies blah blah blah, he is also the world's worst friend/boyfriend and also generally a vain self-absorbed douche. At the same time, I do find it very believable (and almost inevitable in certain cases) that so many would fall head-over-heels for that showy time lord shit because, well. But the thing about Martha and Ten's NOT!romance is that while there is a textual ongoing romantic/sexual tension (and unlike the Doctor and Rose's relatively straightforward epic love) the relationship itself isn't romanticized. That is, it isn't presented as romantic.
And really, why should it be. Why should any doctor/companion relationship be. The Doctor is a hundreds-years-old genocidal alien. I'm not particularly interested in seeing romance involving him, but I am (always) interested in seeing romantic tropes being subverted. And while I can appreciate how the story was problematic (re: the narrative either implicitly or explicitly pitting Martha against Rose and/or propping up Doctor/Rose), it's also clear IMO that we're meant to sympathize with Martha in her rejection, often even over the Doctor -- her relationship with him is framed almost completely from her POV and, like Amy, it overturns and to some degree deconstructs the idealised perspective of the Doctor-as-romantic-figure established by Rose/Ten. One of the things that works for me about the tragedy of Martha and Ten is that it's so mundane: it's not sprawling and epic; the Doctor isn't a tortured Romeo -- he is really just another guy who took you for granted.
[ASIDE: And contrary to how this basic piece of shit fandom would have it, Martha Jones is not wholly and solely "defined" by the Doctor. She is in fact consistently portrayed as an exceptionally capable, intelligent, proactive, and moral person whose one major weakness is being hung up on an emotionally unavailable guy. I balk at the idea that the latter "ruined" her character because no, being a Strong Female Character (TM) let alone a "strong woman" does not preclude being in love with a dude who's bad for you -- plus also fuck Strong Female Characters (TM). This complaint particularly irks me wrt Martha since inside the story she consistently displays agency, has life goals that are unrelated to men, forms and maintains relationships with other women, helps people for the sake of helping people and, oh yeah, SAVES THE ENTIRE WORLD ALMOST SINGLEHANDEDLY, not to mention the Doctor's useless ass on more than one occasion. And at the end of it all she makes the decision for herself to stop traveling with the Doctor, not just because she recognizes that she deserves better but also in order to pursue her true life goal: helping people in need. The moral of this paragraph is basically that Martha Jones is a goddess and peasants will bow or get out of my journal.]
Possibly the most (mundanely) tragic part, though, is the effect of bad timing. The thing is that Martha is exactly the Doctor's type of person: smart, curious, headstrong, big heart, gorgeous, adapts easily in bizarre situations, etc. and their best moments are when he properly acknowledges these things (especially in Smith & Jones). The Doctor does love and care for Martha a lot, considers her his best friend for a long time. But, ultimately, his heart's not fully in it; he left it back in that parallel universe. You could have had it all but instead were hung up on what was already lost. Which, really, is obnoxiously human.
So, yeah, in summary: Martha/Ten. Wrong!ship it because it was absolutely futile. COME AT ME.
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no subject
Date: 2013-01-13 09:01 pm (UTC)DAS CUZ TEN/MARTHA IS MAH SHIT ESSE. There are not enough stuck-in-1969-fanfics in the world tbh.
it's also clear IMO that we're meant to sympathize with Martha in her rejection, often even over the Doctor -- her relationship with him is framed almost completely from her POV
I actually think this was a rare case of writers doing it right and the fandom doing it wrong because fandom REFUSED to sympathise with Martha, all we got (until pretty much after she left and people realised how awesome she was) was ERMAGHAD DIS MARFA BITCH TRYNA STEAL THE DOCTOR FROM ROSE, HOW DARE SHE I HOPE SHE DIESSSS. And I should know because I was one of them and was a bitter peasant until halfway through the series and realised that Martha was a bamf/hbic/every badass acronym available to describe her.
[ASIDE: And contrary to how this basic piece of shit fandom would have it, Martha Jones is not wholly and solely "defined" by the Doctor. She is in fact consistently portrayed as an exceptionally capable, intelligent, proactive, and moral person whose one major weakness is being hung up on an emotionally unavailable guy. I balk at the idea that the latter "ruined" her character because no, being a Strong Female Character (TM) let alone a "strong woman" does not preclude being in love with a dude who's bad for you -- plus also fuck Strong Female Characters (TM). This complaint particularly irks me wrt Martha since inside the story she consistently displays agency, has life goals that are unrelated to men, forms and maintains relationships with other women, helps people for the sake of helping people and, oh yeah, SAVES THE ENTIRE WORLD ALMOST SINGLEHANDEDLY, not to mention the Doctor's useless ass on more than one occasion. And at the end of it all she makes the decision for herself to stop traveling with the Doctor, not just because she recognizes that she deserves better but also in order to pursue her true life goal: helping people in need. The moral of this paragraph is basically that Martha Jones is a goddess and peasants will bow or get out of my journal.]
RIGHT CLICKING AND SAVING THIS PARAGRAPH, TO MAH HEARTTTTT. GONNA JUST DIRECT PEOPLE TO THIS PARAGRAPH AND MAKE THEM SEE THE LIGHT.
Martha was my fav companion, walked the earth goddess, Martha/Ten!doomedness is the OTP of my heart etc etc congrats on this post, it's good and you should feel good.
P.S - how forever bitter am I that she broke up with hottest ever DW male Tom Milligan and basically got fucking race!paired with Mickey. Like. No. NO. NO NO NO NO NO. SIT DOWN,
no subject
Date: 2013-01-14 03:11 am (UTC)There are not enough stuck-in-1969-fanfics in the world tbh.
:O :O :O ARE THERE ANY AT ALL????
And I should know because I was one of them and was a bitter peasant until halfway through the series and realised that Martha was a bamf/hbic/every badass acronym available to describe her.
lol I SIMPLY DID NOT KNOW. Thank the Face of Boe you saw the light.
And yes, ITA about fandom Doing It Wrong but the show Doing It Right. Hence why Martha/Ten is only second to Amy/Eleven in perfectly realized anti-romantic Who narratives for me, tbqh.
GONNA JUST DIRECT PEOPLE TO THIS PARAGRAPH AND MAKE THEM SEE THE LIGHT.
:') :') :')
And TY TY, congrats on your impeccable taste also. /whomp whomp
P.S. OH TOM MILLIGAN / GARY FROM "MIRANDA". lol, I don't have a problem with Martha/Mickey, but there is an unfortunate stench of "pair the spares" indeed.
no subject
Date: 2013-01-14 10:32 pm (UTC)A Life More Ordinary
Break Us Apart, Bring Us Together
The Future as Predicted by Richard Nixon
Palindromatic
18, Goshawk Avenue
IN RETURN FOR ALL THE FABULOUS ELEVEN/AMY RECS. idek Martha/Ten Blink!Era is my favourite thing ever and some of these are so fabulously angsty. (There's also one called Five Times The Doctor And Martha Have Sex In 1969 that's recently been made private cryin riverz)
OH SHIT I TOTALLY FORGOT, LET ME JUST DIRECT YOU TO THE 1969 FICATHON BUT THOSE UP THERE ARE MY ESPECIAL FAVOURITES <3
PS - Let me rec you these Nine/Martha fics because they're the most fabulous things ever
Crossing Into Established Events
Bloody Nature
no subject
Date: 2013-01-15 05:12 am (UTC)WOMAN
TYx29899824982 for all of these recs, I can't wait to have my insides shredded with a cheese grater. \o/ /o\ \o/ /o\
I will report back with le feels.
no subject
Date: 2013-01-16 10:42 pm (UTC)TRAGICHAPPY READING!!no subject
Date: 2013-01-18 03:28 am (UTC)They are all fabulous/hilarious/horrible and Palindromatic was written by Elyssa who is one of my favourites in anything BUT OMG A LIFE MORE THAN ORDINARY PULLED DRAMATICALLY AT MY INTESTINES. SHE NEVER SAW HIS "GOOD MORNING". WAHHHHHHHHHHHHH. I also went and stalked
There's also one called Five Times The Doctor And Martha Have Sex In 1969 that's recently been made private
WHY
AND I'M CURRENTLY GOING THROUGH THAT ENTIRE FICATHON, GIVE ME TIME.
no subject
Date: 2013-01-20 12:48 am (UTC)US HAPPY 2GETHA IN OUR PAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIN.
I'm pleased you enjoyed them though dear, fingers crossed you find more gut-wrenching, heart-in-a-blender fics to enjoy at the ficathon <3