Socks For Christmas...DW S4 Spoilers to the finale & beyond

[rabid1st]

Seriously, don't read this if you would prefer a pony...or suffer from any depressive illness or have people depending on you for hope and joy and life. It is all a matter of perspective again...you USA fans...and that's all I'm saying to you here...this is a different look at things.

I suppose it is a matter of what you believe in. And that is the problem I had with Joss Whedon's ultimate plan and the one I could have with RTD's. RTD could well be casting the Doctor as a God figure. And giving us his view of God...and what he feels is the purpose of "belief in God" in our lives.

He could be saying, THIS is what God is good for...in our ordinary lives. Elton Pope tells us that even if he touches you for a second...you pay a terrible price. Davros calls him "the Destroyer of Worlds"...and I think of Oppenheimer and his forged weapons...and I think about John Smith's Journal and how he describes what the Doctor does as "I set fire to them and they are up the chimney and away." That is what the Doctor does in ordinary people's lives...he forges them in fire. God as the spark, but not the purpose. And we see all his children filled with that spark as the flutter away on the wind at the almost end. It's not the end for them...for the companions...they have busy ordinary lives to get back to after all. And if they fail to get back to those lives...the Doctor forces the issue.

He did for Susan, exactly what he does for Rose. He says..."Just go forward in all your beliefs and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine." Here's a man for you to take my place...I've got to go help other people feel special now.

So...in the Unicorn and the Wasp...there is this terrible moment of foreshadowing. And I mentioned it when the show aired...this moment when Donna is sitting there with Agatha Christie and she's suddenly saying how much she loves the Doctor...how just being near him makes her think she's special. She wants to stay with him forever...but she can't. We know Donna is doomed at that moment, but she's more than doomed...she's duped...because the show will go on with another companion...so as she's talking...we know she's not special. Oh, but she will be remembered...just like all of us are remembered by our loved ones. That's what we get.

Many of us have groaned over the ceaseless and overblown devotion that the New Who companions have in the Doctor...they all fall desparately in love with him...and that's very distracting...and possibly to point. It is a religous fervor, taking them, distorting their view for a time. Just like Elton Pope's fandom in the Doctor kept him from enjoying his one room flat. I've said it's what allows ordinary people to trust him. And we can compare that to Martha, Jack, Mickey, Sarah Jane and even Rose...and we can take that view of the Old School people who I thought just didn't get it...and turn it around and see that they got it, but maybe weren't seeing the beauty that RTD saw in that idea. Bascially, that it wasn't being with the Doctor that made these people special...they were intrinsically special...because an ordinary person is the most important thing in the universe.

The reason I have trouble with this worldview...is that it isn't mine. Oh, I do think ordinary people are special. And I think it well could be true that Susan and David had a long happy life...that Rose learned to love a man who was almost but not quite the man she loved first...because THAT man couldn't tell her he loved her and maybe didn't love her at all but was just offering her a happy surge of being near him and was caught up in her parallel surge of god sparks. I mean, he was just as happy to just be with her and was given his small taste of Rose's divinity.

I think it could well be true that Donna Noble...like Agatha Christie...has a great mind and her adventures might bleed through in some form and make her feel better about her life now that the people in her life know that they really love her. And I think it is one of the uses of belief in God...to make ordinary people aware of their lives and be better people.

And yes...I am aware that hope for transformation...is often false hope and we should all just look at the simple things we have and appreciate them. And certainly ONE path to doing that is to accept that THIS is all there is. We can't look forward to a union with god but we could have a better job in Chiswick. And if God is an illusion and there is just nothing to him really but the spark he puts into people...then it doesn't matter if God is lonely. He should be lonely...he can't really be with people.

And I think the problem I have with all of this...lies within me. You all might have noticed that I believe in transformation. I have actually experienced it in my life, so I know transformation happens. And I have experienced tragedy and I know that happens too. And I have had lots and lots of plain old ordinary days that were worth treasuring.

But I think that fiction is the place to really show transformation to people...and how it comes about...which sorry to say...to JW (and possibly to RTD) isn't by magic. It isn't by the touch of God from beyond us...setting a spark to us...but from the spark inside connecting us all. And yes, I would have made the Lonely God one of us...because I think that's what a Lonely God needs. I think we all need to be a little closer to the divine...we should be lifted up...and the divine should step down.

I feel that atheist and fundamentalist views are much the same...in that they both make the divine something separate from us. So, of course, it makes sense that RTD would keep the Doctor separate from us, too. And try to turn things so that the people who almost touch the stars...come back to earth. And maybe it's not only that he doesn't SEE how to make the Doctor one of us...but that he truly believes the Doctor can't be one of us...because he's God.

I am not content with the idea that the Doctor goes on and on...through the cosmos...touching people...making them feel special...only to set them back down on the side of the road in Scotland and tell them to get a life. Because then he is still...the hand from above...ever the same, never changing. And we must put all of our trust in him knowing best...even though he is not one of us at all. How can he know, I wonder...how Donna, River, Susan, Elton's Girlfriend, Elton, 10.2, Rose, Jack and Sarah Jane should live...if he's never lived himself? Oh, well..he did live once...and he lost that and can never have it back...not now...because now he must act like the most lonely person in the universe. He must turn his back on what he needs...because the universe just can't get on without him...or the BBC can't.

There is a brief exchange on the beach...when Rose says that 10.2 isn't him and 10 says..."He needs you and in that he is very like me."

So, yeah...I would close the distance between the human and the spark of the divine...but that's just me. And I can see how RTD might think that it is better to have God offer you lies...let you believe you are special for a time and when you see that you are not able to walk with him...not quite THAT special...because he is always beyond you...you look around at what you have and accept it. This is what happened here...even to Rose who could capture the Time Vortex in her head and stride across dimensions and bring the spark of hope and life to others. The Doctor said once that if he believed in anything...he believed in her. And Old School people said that was an abstract belief...in all his companions. Of course, God believes in us, right?

We are all brilliant, right? In our own small way...oh, but not so wonderful that we can be him...or help him. At the almost end of JE...we almost see that he could maybe believe these people could heal him.

But no...he's still above us...still able to decide where we get off the merry-go-round...he still knows better...even Rose, who he needs, is still not able to touch him...because he's just not real.

Comments

[bubonicplague.livejournal.com]

Wordy wordy wordy wordy WORD. And this is the problem I have with Whedon, in that most of us hard-core fans, despite any shipping or character preferences - didn't want Buffy to have her prized "normal life". We wanted her to realize how extraordinary she was, and that being extraordinary, despite its consequences, is worth missing out on the white picket fence. But no, instead we got her foisting off her dubious powers (that were previously depicted in the season as some sort of rape) upon every tenth random girl. It's not only sorta sick, it's banal.

And then you contrast that with Rose's bit in PotW. It was a better life. She won me over forever with that, and I'd liked her before. She seemed the anti-Buffy, willingly embracing that which made her different, and fuck all the chips, and the chickens spinning insipidly in the rotisserie. Buffy would have embraced the damn chickens. She's a chicken-fucker.

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

The reason you think I am good for any fandom...and thanks so much for saying so...is that I generally have hope.

And hope is exactly what we don't have in Joss Whedon's world...and it looks like in RTD's world, too. I mean...yes, there is always hope...that people will be okay and then age and die. But there is no hope that they will ever be more than people. Or that the Lonely God will ever be less than Lonely.

Buffy is one girl in a long line of virgin sacrifices and in the end...she just thought that was okay...and sacrificed some more girls so she wasn't fighting alone. It's socks for Christmas. It is someone telling you...this is all you can ever be...don't try to be more than you are or you'll just end up heartbroken.

It is, I'm sorry to say...a true atheist viewpoint...I don't mean to be prejudiced toward any belief...but it is intrinsic in the belief that "this is all there is" to believe that "this is all there is." That what you have is what you have...and it can maybe be a little better...but it can't be transformed. And embracing that makes everyone into a realist...which is the antithesis, in my opinion, of creativity.

Rae

[bubonicplague.livejournal.com]

The reason that I don't care much for atheists (and don't get me wrong, here, I don't believe in God, much as I'd like to ...I suppose I should say "people who label themselves atheists to make a fucking cause out of 'enlightening' everyone") - is that atheism is its own religion. It's not as blatant as "Satanism", which began as a joke and is continued for the same reason. But yet it seems to strive to tear people down, to rip away any comforting faith they might hold residually and cap it off with a nice healthy dose of you-are-no-special-snowflake-ergo-all-people-suck. Don't try to be more than you are, indeed. Don't be creative, don't try to be better than anyone, don't think anything can be better, period. A dog and a yard and kids? Everyone can do that! Be happy with that!

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

:Pats You:

I shouldn't have said anything about what atheists believe...because I know some very nice people that have no belief in any diety. And they can't get me to see things there way and I can't get them to see things my way. But that's okay by both of us...I guess.

I suppose the real problem is that the hope lies within me and not within the fiction of RTD or JW...there fiction is limited by their views. I see what they are saying...but they don't really see what I'm saying...because they simply can't look up...or they look up and see nothing...and want to make me lie down with a cold rag on my head until my fever passes.

I just thought...when people were trotting out their little hopes at me...at how small the view was from little hope. And I really believe that having so little hope is what makes us small. That we are human because we believe we can't be god...that god is some illusion or father figure or something apart from us...and we are...as 9 put it..."Tiny and made of clay."

Atheists are okay with that...being made of clay. Fundamentalists believe GOD will come and if we obey him...he will take us from our clay. I believe...we might not have to always be clay.

Rae

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

I should have said...no belief in any belief.

And I do like that the Doctor's belief is proved false in this as well..if his belief is in Rose...then he figures that belief is false...and she doesn't really want HIM to have hope...but just wants a man like him to love.

Rae
who believes...we should help one another...even help our God...heal.

[bubonicplague.livejournal.com]

Ha, please never call me an atheist! I'm agnostic. I'm not presuming to know jack-all! I want to believe in God and I have a bit of a religion obsession as well,and I am definitely not going to tell anyone who believes in God that they are WRONG WRONG WRONG.

I think you've nailed the comparison between atheists and fundamentalists right on, there. I always just put it down to a degree of fervency that bordered on toxic - God's like a coke addiction to both sets. But no, it is, indeed, that separatism.

[sensiblecat.livejournal.com]

But if RTD truly believes this, why is he so contemptuous of ordinary life? Because he is. He writes people like Jackie and Donna at the end of JE in a sneering, anti-intellectual way, yet has the Doctor go on about how two ordinary people at a bus stop is the most beautiful thing in creation.

It could be a show that gloriously celebrates ordinary life - that's what the Doctor continually defends and fights to restore, and there was a lovely sequence in JE when it was celebrated, when they got back to Earth and the sun was shining again, etc.

Yet he's always encouraging ordinary people that there's more to life than beans on toast etc - Nine, particularly, did that so cruelly at times.It's not consistent. And besides, I want transcendence in a show. I'm not religious myself but I truly believe that if you're right about his agenda, that's not appropriate for a children's show. To rob children of hope is a wicked thing.

With the gear change at the end of JE, I've been comparing it to LOTR - another epic where the universe is saved but Frodo, the person who saves it, is never able to live a normal life again. It's emotionally exhausting but it doesn't leave you with the same feeling of emptiness as this did, maybe because Frodo does have another place to go - into the west, and we see his companions having some real closure, happiness and delight in the ordinary.

On Mount Doom, in the movie at least, there's the most beautiful celebration of ordinary life, when Sam reminds Frodo in his agony of the beauties of the Shire. "And back home, the strawberries will be ready...etc." That grounds the whole thing and makes the ordinary life worth the fighting for, and the sacrifice bearable to watch.

I have my issues with Tolkien, particularly his attitude to women, but he did have faith. Okay,he wrote for a command and control generation who got on with things, accepted authority and didn't question everything. But, having lived through two devastating world wars, they knew how to value peace and the ordinary.

The Doctor, by comparison, seems determined to destroy his companions' appreciation of their lives and then leave them shattered and broken.And his own attitude to ordinary things is dysfunctional, conflicted and dangerous.

I really wonder if all this will undo what His Dark Materials did and return me to the religious fold.

[sensiblecat.livejournal.com]

And if you're right, David Tennant should be absolutely ashamed of himself, because I truly believe his mother would weep to see what he's allowed himself to become a part of now.

[bubonicplague.livejournal.com]

Hee, I always saw Sam as LotR's hero, and never thought he just settled. He just basically refused to spend the rest of his life wishing he'd just gone and died. He still carried the burden, but learned to deal with it and integrate it into the "ordinary". I love that character far more as an adult than I did as a kid just for that reason.

I'm not sure if I think children can be robbed of hope here. Rusty's themes are...kinda all over the place by now, anyway, hence all the dissection and discussion. Still, despite Nine's PTSD, I distinctly got the impression that he knew that sending Rose back was selfish and wrong the second he did it.Ten...well, I definitely think he has no clue whatsoever and yeah, that might be a bit deep for kids at times, because they will take him at face value.

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

I think that's the problem...children understand a lot more than we think they do...as RTD has said. And he's right...but no child doesn't hope for a pony!

That's what crushes so many of us into the pathetic, shallow creatures we are...really...that person Donna was at the start...and that she is now. A person who never, ever looks up at the stars even when there is a huge spaceship hanging above her head. And yes, I can see in the Unicorn & the Wasp...the idea of the brilliant life bleeding through and her finding some belief in herself now that her mum has been admonished to tell her every so often that she's special.

But mostly I see kids seeing Donna, who they've come to love...being stripped of everything she ever wanted...being told she's not ever going to be special. I see all of the people who were thrilled to have Rose back and tuned in when they had left the show...because Rose was back...getting told that Rose isn't very special after all...she's just going to take her fake Doctor and love him...because she didn't REALLY love the Doctor anymore than Martha did.

I hear Russell saying how horrible it is to have a man exactly like you, better than you, get the life you so desperately want and need. He sees the tragedy in that...but unlike a 6 year old...he doesn't see the scarring horror of thinking you can be replaced so easily by a better kid...a kid that follows the rules and doesn't make a fuss about things.

Yes, changing out one companion for another, one Doctor for another has always been part of the heartbreak of this show...but RTD introduced the idea of how the Doctor feels about everything. He gave us a broken Doctor...battlescarred and lonely...that was never who the Doctor was before now. Even 9...wasn't really so broken and alone...he had that peppy attitude...and was just fun to be around. Sure, there was the underlying scary...like you wouldn't really want to cross him...but this...this shell of a person...this lonely God...needs Rose's help. He needs to be one of us...

And someone mentioned the hive mind...of the Ood...and how the humans are compared to that as they and the 2 Doctors tow the Earth home. And Sarah Jane also mentions that the humans are the Doctor's family. But the Doctor views himself as the wasp...dragging people down...not joined with them. This is what bothers me...so...so much about this Journey's End. Because I think that 10 needs Rose...he needs to live that ordinary life...maybe he could come back afterward...but he needs that...and he needs to merge with the humans.

There should be the hope of human time lords...the hope of the Doctor having a family again and opening himself to hurt...the hope of him having a future and a love...but now...there is none of that...or only that...only hope that this all works out somehow for the best. People are hanging their hats on hope all over the place...hope that Donna's special memories bleed through and she writes great fiction, hope that Rose and 10.2 have babies and a lovely life...and hope that the Doctor finds true love with River or gets his people back or takes some joy in the fact that he's done the right thing for everyone.

SIGH! And I say...if RTD truly believes this is all there is...then the best we can hope for is to do with Rose and 10.2 and Donna...exactly what we did with Sarah Jane...learn later of the wonderful life they led once the Doctor was gone...and follow the Doctor on into the stars...hoping he takes joy iin setting his sparks.

[sensiblecat.livejournal.com]

So, was Davros right?

"The man who abhors violence, never carrying a gun. But this is the truth, Doctor: you take ordinary people and you fashion THEM into weapons. Behold your Children of Time transformed into murderers. I made the Daleks, Doctor. You made this. "

Is RTD saying there's nothing much to choose between God and Lucifer, that you pays your money and you takes your choice?

And why didn't Rose defend the Doctor at that moment? Does she secretly think Davros is right?

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

Well...it would certainly appear that way. And if we look at it closely...we could even see RTD's contempt for fandom coming through in a different light. Because what is fandom, the internet and such, but a distraction from your ordinary life.

All of those kids on the playground pretending that they are the Doctor...won't grow up to BE the Doctor...it would be irresponsible to tell them that they could. No human Time Lords. No, you aren't made for that. But they could grow up to be doctors and save lives if they believe in themselves. And if you put down the romance novel and believe in your ordinary husband...maybe he's not so bad.

I do think that it could well be RTD's philosophical stand that we are fools to believe in anything but ourselves. That there is no difference between the Doctor and Davros...except that the Doctor is letting people go.

This is all in the text...and I can see how it would be intrinsic to RTD's philosophy of life as well...and maybe there is a simple beauty in him reducing this mythical starman to an empty shell at this moment. Don't put your faith in anything...he's saying...except yourself. And I can see how my life might have been better if...say...instead of writing Disheveled and sharing this love of something beyond me with all of you...I had focused on my "real life" and maybe gotten another job or something.

There is a deep irony in someone who tells stories for a living saying "It's just a story, people. Get a life." But that is what RTD is saying with this ending...he's saying...the idea of the Doctor transforming you is silly...open the windows...go outside. Rose can't transform the Doctor either...he believed in her at one time...but he no longer believes...and this will somehow be better for him in the long run...as he come to accept that this life alone in the box...is HIS ordinary life.

Rae

[sensiblecat.livejournal.com]

I can't believe that if anyone really believed in that he'd be perverse enough to have the story of Martha walking the world in LOTTL...because it worked! Surely the whole point of that story was that the Doctor was powerless alone? He can only succeed if people believe in him. And that is why is bothers me so much that Rose was silent as Davros broke him.

We create our own realities. And telling stories is part of that. It was probably the first human act beyond mere survival and in the wake of the most apocolyptic catastrophe when we are once more reduced to beasts, people would tell stories around the last few campfires (as they do in "Cloud Atlas"). If words have no power, it wouldn't matter who knew the Doctor's name. Words create realities and realities transform us by remaking our world.

I want to see a story where the Doctor is in the circle of mirrors, as frightened as Donna was, and in every one he sees a companion pointing right at him.

ROSE: "You told me I was special but when I changed you too much and you realised how much you needed me you shut me away with another version of yourself and broke my heart, all over again."

JACK: "You told me I was special but when things went wrong and made you uncomfortable you abandoned me in the cruellest possible way, yet my life is an example of what yours could be because, although I will live for ever, I love who I love and accept the pain of loss."

MICKEY: "You told me I was rubbish because you wanted my girl but when I proved I wasn't rubbish you still patronised me and I knew you'd never see what I could truly become."

MARTHA: "You told me I was special but not as special as Rose, whom you also abandoned, or even as special as the monster I went through hell to overcome, because you were willing to share your life with him, but not me."

SARAH JANE: "You told me I was special but you dumped me as soon as your people summoned you and pretended it was to keep me safe, after I'd risked my life over and over for you."

DONNA: "You told me I was special - in fact you made me special - but when I became your equal you mind-wiped me rather than take responsibility for helping me to use your powers wisely, because I would have held up a mirror to you."

And then they all join hands and say "But we are special - every one of us - because together we are wiser than you, Time Lord, and we can save you from yourself."

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

See? That's my PONY!

:grin:

My pony is that the Doctor wakes up and realizes that he needs to be saved more than anyone else. That his life isn't all rainbows and lollypops and fun, fun, fun adventure...he's been living through these other people for so very long that he is simply a shell of a person.

And that is what is so very wrong with this final image coming from the same mind that showed us how the Ood are not whole when they are cut off and how the Doctor had a family and life once upon a time...but believes he can't have it anymore...when it is right there staring him in the face. He could have a family and life with Rose...or he could have unity and understanding with Donna...or he could simply know that all of the humans are part of him and love him.

But he does not embrace any of that...any of those options...he closes the door on them all. No hope of human time lords...you're just not able to take it...no hope of children...Sarah Jane runs away to that...no hope of shelter in the arms of a woman who really, truly does seem to understand him...and you know...that could be the reason Rose is silent...because she knows nothing she says to him would change what is happening.

She could also be silent just as the Doctor is silent about Jack...because she's so much like the Doctor now that she knows not to interfer with things...if she had defended the Doctor...it is possible Davros would have used her against her beloved and truly broken him. If Davros KNEW that Rose was his last line of hope...he would crush her to crush the Doctor.

Just as if the Daleks had heard him tell Rose that Jack would wake up from his death...then the Daleks would have made sure Jack was powerless to return. It is all rather a convoluted game...and I had hoped that RTD and I had the same understanding of it...but...it is possible that we do not.

Rae

[princessblue791.livejournal.com]

This can't be it. If it is its too cruel for words. I believe the Doctor loved Rose TOO much. He loved her so much that he didn't want her to be with him. He hates himself so. He's emo-Doctor. The man who tries to kill himself,cries easy, and even grabs onto the Master because the pain is too much. He was cruel to Martha because she had so much going for her and wouldn't it be a shame to mess that up?He believes he messes her up anyway and doesnt look at the fact that she's brave and has even more going for her. If this is what the Doctor believes, that he messes up people,then no wonder he was upset about the Daleks being wiped out. He can relate to hollow creatures that carry out their mission even if it destroys them and the cause loses its meaning. What a sad character! No wonder Davors was able to crush him. I believe the Doctor would've stayed with Rose had he not done that. They were happy until then.Don't forget his attitude during stolen Earth.
If this is all Rusty was trying to prove then the whole thing was criminal.He presents hope only to rob his veiwers of it. To prove to them that hope is a fantasy.Like Santa and toothfairy, it was a lie our mothers told us. He robbed people of hope,(children even) during a time when we need it the most. Thats beyond cruel.

No, I believe the point of all of this will be presented in the specials. It ain't over yet.

[princessblue791.livejournal.com]

One more thing. If hope being a fantasy is Rusty's atheisim, then I'm a little annoyed. I hate it when other people shove their beliefs up my ass. Its what I'm always snapping at the bible bangers about.

[sensiblecat.livejournal.com]

I think it's important that we do continue to hope, until Christmas at least. This contradicts everything people like JG have been saying about the show being optimistic. To hope when all seems lost does strike me as a very Doctor thing to do, and that's why I love the character and the show.

That man, that impossible man! He just can't give in.

Above all, when I watched the Confidential I just couldn't believe that the actors were completely on board, and they're professional enough not to let their feelings bleed through. To have DT saying, "It's just desperately sad," BP so clearly in denial and (I felt) on the point of letting something slip, JG choked up and RTD himself admitting that the Doctor's gone through the most horrible thing he can imagine having to do - it just doesn't add up.

[princessblue791.livejournal.com]

Plus Rusty is known for making us shit bricks.

I say wait for the four-parter. The Christmas specials are usually pointless.
All I can say is, that there are fans still shipping the Master with the Doctor. If they can hope, so can we. Rae come on, hold on. Write that fic.

Remember, Rusty does have a boyfriend. He's been with him for 13 years. In order to have a relationship, you have to believe in each other. You also have to have...uh-oh...hope!

[sensiblecat.livejournal.com]

And don't stop writing, Rae. Your take on it is as good as anyone else's and your beautiful work gives people hope. That's very important.

[thisficklemob.livejournal.com]

I dunno. I don't really have a problem with either conception of the divine that you describe here. (As I've said before: I do not clog dance.)

I feel that atheist and fundamentalist views are much the same...in that they both make the divine something separate from us.

I never thought of it like that. I'd disagree, though; I don't think not seeing something (atheist) and seeing it but saying it must stay far above us (fundamentalist) are really the same. You may think I am blind not to see it, but here's the thing: if I saw it, felt it, believed it, I would be the sort to feel it in me. And it's because I don't that I don't. Y'know? I could see myself being a more spiritual person, but I could never see myself as a fundamentalist of any stripe.

Back to Who: there are two potential problems with Doctor-as-god as you describe.

1.) If he's not really a god, then he's wrong to act as he does. He's filled with hubris, and it will (and should) come back to bite him.

2.) If he IS really a god... or God... then why would we care to watch him?

Doctor Who being powerful, brilliant, alien, nearly-eternal, all these are compelling to watch. But if he's really Doctor God... that becomes far less compelling. Because why should we care for his feelings? How can we even pretend to relate to him?

Perhaps if he were a minor god in a more polytheistic mode... not omnipotent, but someone powerful who tests and rescues and bedevils humans...

I can still see that being compelling. BUT not in the way they've compelled people so far. It seems to me people are tuning in... unless they're watching the Rose Tyler or Martha Jones or Donna Noble or Maybe-Jack-Will-Show-Up shows... to see a bit of an adventurous romp... but also to see a powerful, brilliant, alien, nearly-eternal man. To see him struggle with guilt and loss, to see him rejoice in fun and affection.

I see the end of this season as compatible with that, whatever other problems I have with it. But if he really is a God-figure and they keep writing him that way, then it falls apart.

Also, I like socks. *g*

[thisficklemob.livejournal.com]

I never wanted her to have "a normal life" either. But at the same time, I felt like -- or hoped -- that "a normal life" was shorthand. Not for a picket fence, but for a break from the hardships of being the Chosen One. She'd had seven years of having to make horrible, heart-breaking choices, give up things she wanted and people she loved, and have the ultimate responsibility for the safety of the world. That's a heavy burden to carry from the age of fifteen.

In my head (I don't read the comics, and don't want to know about them), Buffy had some time off where she got to do whatever she wanted... and then chose to go back to Slaying. Of her own free will, which makes all the difference.

I totally agree about the sketchiness of the Slayerification spell, and have many problems with Buffy, but I hopehopehope she'd never be happy in a 100% mundane life.

[thisficklemob.livejournal.com]

The reason that I don't care much for atheists (and don't get me wrong, here, I don't believe in God, much as I'd like to ...I suppose I should say "people who label themselves atheists to make a fucking cause out of 'enlightening' everyone") - is that atheism is its own religion.

Ah! Yes, it can be... if it's strong atheism. Strong atheism is "there is no God". But the other kind of atheism, weak atheism, is just what you say, not believing in god(s). The proselytizing strong atheists give us all a bad name.

I'm a weak atheist; it occupies none of my time (until I start explaining it to people), and I have absolutely zero interest in converting or convincing anyone else.

P.S.

[thisficklemob.livejournal.com]

And it absolutely doesn't mean I don't believe in creativity or trying to be better.

P.P.S.

[thisficklemob.livejournal.com]

And even strong atheists don't have to be jerks about it. I'm pretty sure if I asked my dad, he'd say, "There is no god." But I don't know, because I haven't asked, and he'd never bother arguing with it. The only reason I think he's a strong atheist and not a weak atheist is because my stepmom finally told the Jehovah's Witnesses who kept coming to their house, "We have our own strongly held beliefs." This got them to leave them alone.

The problem is, the only atheists most people hear from are the ones going around tearing down all religion and making fun of people who believe. Most of us, strong or weak, just want to be left alone to be non-religious.

Rae, I'm writing a fic and dedicating it to you...

[princessblue791.livejournal.com]

I was sitting here, thinking of all the things that have been said. I thought of my job and all the terrible things I've seen. Today I had to edit raw footage from the US Consolate. We recieved it from Turkey. I saw horror, blood, and bodies. Things I'm always seeing that are so dark and sad. My job is to tell people just that; that things are dark and sad. I hate that about it.Yet I was editing it. However, now, just now, I started thinking of you before the finale. Someone who took a small point of light and made it so big. You taught me that sometimes you have to make your own hope. Sometimes there isn't going to be someone there to do it for you. Its funny where you learn things. Take your own advice. There's a change that things will be resolved in the four parter. If not, there is hope elsewhere.