People Don't Talk Enough About How Fascinating Elevenclara Were. Like On The Surface They Seem Like A

People don't talk enough about how fascinating Elevenclara were. Like on the surface they seem like a very cutesy couple, they're sort of in the 'honeymoon phase'. But really the doctor sees clara like a puzzle to be solved, their relationship, as much as I love it, is actually a little fucked up.

Even one of the most popular "whouffle quotes" is a sign of this, "you are the only mystery worth solving". Clara thinks the doctor just asked her to come along because he liked her, and that's not entirely false, but its clear the main drive for him in series 7 is finding out who she is.

Meanwhile we also see the start of clara trying to prove herself to the doctor, putting herself in danger for him and taking charge when he is unable to. This obviously continues a lot in series 8-9, this is what I see people talk about as "doctorification".

But what's also interesting to me is that in series 7, the doctor seems to be Clara's only friend. The only other people we see her interact with outside of adventures is the kids she's nannying, and even they end up getting into trouble bc of the doctor. It creates an interesting dynamic where it seems like both their lives revolve around each other, and neither is trying to change that, in fact they're both driving it harder.