look how they shine for you
eleven + yellow → requested by queenofdauntless
I just realized what pisses me off so much about this line, and the themes and plots it emerges from.
It completely ignores the autonomy of the Doctor’s companions. It is so condescending, so holier-than-thou. As if the Doctor is such an overwhelming force in their lives that it wipes out all their ability to do anything but go with him, anything but try to please him.
They don’t fucking shine for HIM. They shine because they’re remarkable people and remarkable people shine, and that’s why he liked them in the first place.
Before Moffat, the Doctor used to know that his friends’ lives and choices were their responsibility. And if they decided to do something that he didn’t agree with—and they did, because some of them were soldiers and some were warriors and one or two were even assassins—then that was on them. And he used to respect them enough to talk to them about it if he thought there was a problem—not carry around THEIR choices on HIS shoulders as if they were robots he’d programmed.
This kind of manufactured angst is not only arrogant and self-centered, but it’s an act of erasure. It rejects the idea that other people have agency. It treats them like children incapable of making their own decisions, and belittles them by denying that they are strong and aware enough to bear the responsibility of their own lives. And it’s bullying; it’s using someone’s admiration and guilt to manipulate and/or browbeat them into behaving the way you want them to.
And sometimes it’s the Doctor who does all this. But more often it’s the show. Occasionally Rory or Martha or someone will shout at him about it, but more often we get some villain screaming about how the Doctor’s companions worship the ground he walks on and look what he’s turned them into and the Doctor putting on his guilty face like it’s all true, and not a single damn person saying, “Screw you, I’m doing this because I believe it’s right or at least it’s the best I could do in a bad situation.”
Which makes it MORE nauseating for me, because then I feel like the show is framing it as if it’s true or good, like this is some admirable hero-angst to act like everybody else’s choices revolve around you. It makes the Doctor seem skeevy, AND it makes his companions seem skeevy when they consistently don’t say a word, because that’s just passing the buck and LETTING somebody else take responsibility for all the things you’d prefer not to admit about yourself.
Blah. No wonder I haven’t been able to bring myself to watch any of the latest season.