![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grassangelWatching the Master’s death from LotTL, as it’s on the official YouTube channel now, and I’m honestly proud that Moffat made the Doctor and the Master’s relationship text, rather than relying on uncomfortably extreme close ups to imply the literal closeness of their relationship.
Because, yeah, the Master dying in Ten’s arms was ICONIC and made me ship it, never mind what fandom told me afterwards about their previous history and intimacy with each other. Or that bit about being kept and taken care of, which still fascinates me and I’m still not over. (In fact I find that moment even more enthralling in the wake of the Vault arc and how it ended. Death doesn’t stop me wanting to see it being explored even MORE.)
But Missy slamming the Doctor against a wall and snogging him? Then, hours later, kissing her back in gratitude? And then they both state it’s complicated between them, but implying that it’s definitely a Thing, even if neither of them are ready to commit to defining what it is? That happened. Doctor/Master is a thing in the canon of the show now. It’s real in a way that makes a part of me slightly confused and have a hard time processing that it is canon because this doesn’t happen. My ships don’t become text like this.
Because it’s now possible for the Doctor to get all teary about their friend, about how they had 70 years together and how it wasn’t, will never be, long enough and it wouldn’t be new or contradictory. The nature of the relationship may be ambiguous, but it’s CANON.
And, perhaps importantly, it’s a current relationship. Not something that happened a long time ago that has been buried by enmity, but something they were both trying to build together. They were both using present tense when talking about them being friends. It’s not something that can be swept away by saying that it was in the past, or skimmed over due to lack of detail. Those kisses happened! The dinner date in the vault happened! Those clasped hands happened!
It’s canon.
Though points to Moffat for doing it in the most Moffat-y way possible. I poke fun at the acronym for not accepting the Sherlock s4 ending as basically a marriage anyway, but I got duped by basically all of 12’s era doing the same thing
Because, yeah, the Master dying in Ten’s arms was ICONIC and made me ship it, never mind what fandom told me afterwards about their previous history and intimacy with each other. Or that bit about being kept and taken care of, which still fascinates me and I’m still not over. (In fact I find that moment even more enthralling in the wake of the Vault arc and how it ended. Death doesn’t stop me wanting to see it being explored even MORE.)
But Missy slamming the Doctor against a wall and snogging him? Then, hours later, kissing her back in gratitude? And then they both state it’s complicated between them, but implying that it’s definitely a Thing, even if neither of them are ready to commit to defining what it is? That happened. Doctor/Master is a thing in the canon of the show now. It’s real in a way that makes a part of me slightly confused and have a hard time processing that it is canon because this doesn’t happen. My ships don’t become text like this.
Because it’s now possible for the Doctor to get all teary about their friend, about how they had 70 years together and how it wasn’t, will never be, long enough and it wouldn’t be new or contradictory. The nature of the relationship may be ambiguous, but it’s CANON.
And, perhaps importantly, it’s a current relationship. Not something that happened a long time ago that has been buried by enmity, but something they were both trying to build together. They were both using present tense when talking about them being friends. It’s not something that can be swept away by saying that it was in the past, or skimmed over due to lack of detail. Those kisses happened! The dinner date in the vault happened! Those clasped hands happened!
It’s canon.
Though points to Moffat for doing it in the most Moffat-y way possible. I poke fun at the acronym for not accepting the Sherlock s4 ending as basically a marriage anyway, but I got duped by basically all of 12’s era doing the same thing
