Posessed-by-a-unicorn - My Respective Thoughts (and Other Shit)

What I want from the 60th anniversary specials

i.e. Donna and the Doctor gossiping

*Trademark Donna Noble 'I care about you' Look* Donna: But, Doctor, tell me, who was with you through all of that? Trenzalore, Gallifrey burning, the Division, through all of that - were you alone? Doctor: What? No. No. I wasn't alone. I had my Ponds! And my Clara. And Bill and Nardole. And my fam! Donna: Excuse me. Your what? Doctor: My Ponds? Amy and Rory and… Donna: No, you dumbo, I meant that last bit. Doctor: My fam? That's Yaz and Ryan and Graham and Dan. Weeell, if we are counting the extended fam also, then - Donna: Your 'fam'? Your FAM?! Doctor:… yes? Why - why are you looking at me like that? Wh-what did I do? Donna:…..Let's just say, it's a good thing I'm back. Doctor: Yeah :) Donna: Yeah :)

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Donna: So among all those women you just mentioned: How many did you have a crush on? Doctor: I didn't - I - Bill is a lesbian! Donna: Oh, so Bill is a girl, too! Should have known. Who's the best kisser then? Doctor: And Amy is my mother-in-law! Donna: - Hang on. Your what?! Doctor: shoot. Donna: Doctor! Doctor. No?! No! Doctor! Doctor: That's - that's my name, yeah. Donna: Who. Did. You. Marry?! Doctor: Yaz might be a lesbian too, actually. Donna: Don't you dare derail from the question! Doctor: Although with Yaz, well… that didn't exactly work in my favour. Donna: Wait. What do you mean by that? Doctor: Moving on - how is Nerys doing? Donna: Do not tell me you - you - No! Doctor. Were you a woman? Did I actually miss a woman incarnation?! Doctor: I mean, I sorta, well, you sorta missed two, actually. Donna: You take me to meet them RIGHT NOW. Doctor: I literally cannot do that. Donna: Do I look like I care?

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Donna: Did you ever meet that gorgeous Professor from the Library again? Doctor:….I did. Donna: Did you ask her out? Doctor:…………I did. Donna: And? Doctor: What?….Oh, yeah, right. Of course I told her all about you. Donna: Good. Doctor: She always wanted to meet you. But, well, we both know… Donna: Yeah… Doctor: Yeah. Donna: So you and her….? Doctor: Got married. Yep. Donna: - Doctor: Donna? Are you okay? Donna: Doctor:…Donna? Donna: You are aware you are punching way above your weight there, right? Doctor: yeah <3

A version of BBC Merlin where Arthur is related to both sisters by way of their mother, like in most of the legends. Arthur gets an absolute KICK out of telling potential suitors that one of his sisters is a lesbian but he won’t tell them which one, so these poor fuckers are left shooting in the dark. They assume that maille-wearing, tourney-fighting, murder-happy Morgause is the lesbian, and pretty, dainty, decorous Morgana is straight, but then they get shot the FUCK down when they try it. Morgana pulls a dinner knife on one of said poor bastards when he touches her shoulder, and then she has to go hunt down her fucking dumbass of a brother and tell him slowly and clearly, “If you do not tell these motherfuckers that I am a lesbian and to not flirt with me, I will tell Morgause to finish what she started in the tourney ring and I will mount your stupid head above my fireplace for Gwen and I to throw stuff at.” Arthur still doesn’t tell them. And when they come crawling away from Morgause’s wrath after trying to put the moves on her, they’re like, “I thought you said only one of them was a lesbian?” and Arthur, the little bastard, just smiles and says, “I did. Morgause is ace.” And then Merlin smacks him upside the head.

Bbc Merlin made two big mistakes.

1) They told a story about a young sorcerer trying to survive in a land where magic is punishable by death. One of his end goals is to legalise magic again. The biggest opposing party in this objective is the tyrant king who started a genocide. This is a very black and white conflict, there is no both-siding this. On the one side you have a mass murderer, on the other side are people who are being killed for existing.

Now the series does establish that Merlin is the good guy and that magic isn't actually evil, but then they go ahead and constantly frame Uther as a guy who is really not that bad. Sure, he killed some people (hundreds or even thousands) - whoopsie. But come on, at least he's trying. And think about Arthur! The emotional comfort of one person is totally worth letting people die for.

At the same time they keep bringing in villain of the week type of characters and like 90% of those are evil magicians who are consumed by their thirst for power and/or revenge or monstrous beasts which are also creatures of magic. They rarely introduce "good" sorcerers or creatures.

To sum it up: They frame the victims of a genocide as evil, almost blaming them for their own plight while making excuses for the people murdering them. It would make sense to explore this part of Camelot's history if the conflict was more complex, but it really isn't that deep. They waste way too much time dragging out this black and white conflict as described above.

2) (Screen)time is being wasted on the wrong conflict, yes, but in my opinion also on the wrong characters.

Arthur's character development is inconsistent at best. He wildly swings back and forth between believing in some magic being good or at least neutral and then condemning all magic as the world's true evil. He learns time and time again to be less arrogant and self-centered and snaps at Merlin again in the very next episode. I enjoy Merlin & Arthur's banter as much as anyone, but if you're not even taking Arthur's character anywhere then why waste so much time there?

Merlin and Arthur as a duo also go through the same dance routine three times a season: Merlin discovers a plot against Arthur, but fears to simply be dismissed if he says anything. Eventually he does say something and, surprise, Arthur reacts dismissive. In the end Arthur learns that Merlin was right all along and he should trust him more. Three episode later Arthur doesn't remember he already learned this lesson, the cycle repeats.

Gaius is important to the story because Merlin needs a dialogue partner to talk about magic. But Gaius also holds Merlin back a lot and keeps him from growing. And so just like Arthur, Merlin doesn't really learn much from his experiences, his life barely changes of the course of 5 seasons. He's still living with Gaius and still relys on him instead of becoming more independent.

So we have four characters / dynamics (Uther, Arthur, Gaius and Merlin) which the show keeps focusing on even though they're not that complicated at all. On the other hand we have side characters that are supposedly important like Gwen and the knights and we know very little about them. It almost seems like they become less important the longer the series goes on, that's not how this works!

You can't say "This is the once and future queen, there are prophecies about her and she's the most important person in Arthur's life" and then she never really does anything! The knights too. Merlin and Gwaine are best friends (kind of), but do we ever see them casually hanging out? Nope. Percival is one of the most famous knights from the myths, yet we only know his name and that his family is dead. How did they die? Who even was his family? Does it mean he lost his parents, did he have a wife? We will never know. There are so many amazing characters they could've included more, but they never did.

So while I love the series in general, these two points really rub me the wrong way.

odin is like “when thor was born the sun shone bright upon his beautiful face. i found loki on the sidewalk outside a taco bell”

Playing dress up with my favourite genderfucks💕

Just some random outfits from miscellaneous decades. I heard that they presented femme in the 60s and I immediately thought “PUNK CROWLEY PUNK CROWLEY” But then I jest did more poses and outfits bcs why not

Btw I didn’t even notice, but they always seem to be on a particular side of the scene whenever they’re together. Huh.

«Perfectly on time, Potter»

And I quick colored the kiss🫶🏻

the miracle of being here

invitation, mary oliver// @arthoesunshine // when death comes, mary oliver//to be alive, gregory ott// the dead poets society(1989), quote: walden, henry david thoreau// joseph campbell// the aeneid, virgil// @babyangel-jpg // @rawjoy //sweet, charles bukowski// that it will never come again, emily dickinson// bjenny montero// ? // ? // moments, mary oliver// madness a bipolar life, marya hornbacher// wild geese, mary oliver// letters to a young poet, rainer maria rilke// on earth we're briefly gorgeous, ocean voung// @ashstfu // i thought on his desire for three days, linda gregg

my online child describing amphibians:

thinking about this picture from 1975 taken in san fran on this day period