Deus Semper Fidelis

A late at night reflection upon the Meta-Crisis Doctor

astudyinyellow:

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See I think this is interesting, but very different from my own views on the matter.

After all, what is it that makes a person who they are? That’s the real question. One of the most important factors of personality is, of course, memory. I’m not going to try and get overly philosophic or whatever, I have no experience in the areas of memory loss or anything like that. But here are a few observations:

Everyone always acts as if 10 and 10.5 are completely different people. As if 10.5 is a fake, a shadow, an ‘also-and’, a replacement. And this whole thing about “people he never met, things he never did, places he’s never been and a life he’s never lived” Is only reinforcing this. 10.5, if we want to call him that, does NOT have memories of things he never did - he has memories of things he did do - he, himself. I honestly believe that he really is JUST as much of the Doctor as 10 or 11 are.

When 10.5 woke up on the floor of the TARDIS, I imagine he was completely convinced that he was The Doctor - THE Doctor. Because he IS. Then he remembered what happened, he saw Donna, and he felt a few things - things about himself - that he wasn’t used to. He realized his connection with Donna, and his single heart. But before all of that, he is THE DOCTOR. He dosen’t just remember the Doctor’s life, he LIVED it. First hand. All of his adventures, from a child on through 9 regenerations, through the time war, all the time he spent with Rose, when he lost her, with the Master, with Martha, with Donna, all the way to his reunion with Rose. He LIVED that. HE did.

And while I’m add it, I’ll mention this: While there are human aspects to 10.5, he is NOT “half-human”. Because, as we know all too painfully well from Donna’s departure, there has never been a Time Lord - Human metacrisis: Because there can’t be. This almost kills Donna, but it does not bother 10.5. This is because he is far MORE Time Lord than he is human. His regenerative ability and his second heart are the only recorded differences - The only things used up by the other 10th Doctor during his partial regeneration. I don’t want to say exactly how human 10.5 is, but I can assure you it is far less than 50%.

10.5’s love for Rose was real and YES, he did have a choice in it. I don’t think 10.5 did ANYTHING just because his counterpart did. 10.5 loves Rose because he loves Rose. He always has, since they first met in that basement. Because yes, that was him. He didn’t “have” to love Rose any more than 10 or 9 did. He chose to.

(Source: lastlordoftime)

Fenrir: The Bad Wolf

For a myriad of reasons I have of late picked up a deepening interest in Norse mythology. (And no, it’s not all Thor and Loki from the Avenger’s fault, although they must bear some blame – mainly, it comes from reading C.S. Lewis’s Surprised by Joy). And so, though I know it is not the best way to find information, I spent a few hours yesterday morning reading page after page on Norse mythology on Wikipedia.

I greatly enjoyed this reading, but mostly because of other reading I’ve done. It seems I am discovering backwards what all of my favorite authors based their works on. Tolkein’s The Lord of the Rings and especially The Silmarillion have SO much obvious influence from Norse myths. I knew this before, but it was enjoyable to spot each element as I read.

But as I read, Lewis and Tolkien were not the only stories in my mind. And I noticed a similarity which I’ve actually never heard anyone else point out before. Maybe that just means that I’m wrong, I just thought I’d point it out: The link between Norse mythology and Doctor Who.

Like I said, I don’t know if all of this is really there, if Russell T. Davies even meant to put it there or not, of if I’m just making stuff up, but here goes nothing!

This all started when I was reading about Fenrir, who I find one of the most interesting characters in all of the Norse mythos. Fenrir is one of Loki’s terrible brood, and is a gigantic wolf who is destine to destroy the gods and the world. Whilst reading all of this, as you may have guessed, I could not help but think two important words: BAD WOLF.

Not only is the wolf name consistent, but both Fenrir and the Bad Wolf possess god-like power – super-god like, in fact, as each of them slay “gods” (Odin and the Dalek Emperor). Of course then I began to look for more similarities, and thought immediately of the god Tyr, who is the only one brave enough to approach Fenrir and loses his right HAND trying to subdue the wolf – now I know that the Doctor didn’t lose his right hand DURING the Bad Wolf event, but he DID “subdue” the wolf through sacrifice and DID lose his right hand!  I’m not sure that this whole wolf and losing-a-hand thing is coincidence.

The Doctor also calls the Bad Wolf “The last act of the Time War” – which is interesting, because Fenrir’s last act occurs during Ragnarok – the war in heaven and earth that threatens to end the world and all worlds. Although in myth Ragnarok indeed DOES in the world, where in the Time War this is stopped by the Doctor, I hope you see the similarity.

Oh, there is also the fact that Bad Wolf Bay is in NORWAY. I know that they just wanted to play with the whole “Darlig/Dalek” and “Stranden/Stranded” thing, but still… Norway.

In short: Either I’m crazy and looking at all of this with waaaay to much bias, OR this was intentional on the part of Russell T. Davies OR… The Bad Wolf really did spread her name through ALL of time and space – including Norse mythology in the name Fenrir.

Kel

P.S. Now before you go bashing all of this and calling me crazy, I’ll just say this: I KNOW that this is crazy. I know it’s a weak argument, and if you disagree, that’s fine by me, I’m not entirely held to this myself. But I thought perhaps someone would find it interesting. Thanks for reading! I’m going to go continue looking for more similarities.

I miss Donna Noble.

That is all.