best_enemies | The Latest Little Discussion Time In Texas (No, I'm Not Texan. Watch Musical Theater, Y'all.) AMU10 (Reply)

"So [Poll #1210225][Poll #1210225]

* Behold our lovely new layout! All praises to

marah_sarie, who made it: I just slapped on her lovely work, via her 'so excurcuatingly thorough even an

x_los could follow it"-style instructions.

* You may have notices Yet More Stuff over in episodes: audios, books, comics, Shalka, Fatal Death: mad props to the Seekrit Helper who's named under f-lock over there. There's some awesome stuff for arting in the comics, and to be honest I don't think I've ever seen Shalka used in a vid. The bold innovator ti first to so could be you!

* HEY, ARE YOU WRITING THREE/DELGADO!MASTER FIC/MAKING RELATED ART? We're about half-way-ish through that challenge: not this upcoming Sunday, but THE 7th OF JULY (yeah, sorry it started so weirdly late), it ends. It'd be awesome if we could have the kind of turn out we did last time, which was pretty h-c0r of us all.

* A lot of you seem to be having trouble replying to the specific fic on the anon meme you'd like to comment on, rather than to the meme generally (which is of course a little confusing, b/c it's not always clear what your feedback is intended for). What you need to do is hit 'reply' specifically on the comment/fic you want to comment on, and NOT to the post as a whole at the top of the page: making sure you hit the RIGHT reply button is something to keep in mind so that you're comment doesn't go astray, a signifier without a signified, lost in a meaningless semantic void from which there is no hope of salvation. ...yeeeeah.

* Do consider writing an Anon Pr0n for our meme/tossing a prompt in the ring: while not as vast as the Other Anon Meme, I can fairly say we've enjoyed on the whole a consistently high quality of responses, which, while it has its shining jewels, the Big Meme can't necessarily say: in other words, our little Meme has done good service, and if you could toss some porn at it, that would be way cool. I at least would have something to read. :p

Discussion Questions:

1. Recall the 'universe as ruled by us' scheme the Master proposes in Frontier, with the inclusion of the line "you could rule benevolently" as a carrot for the Doctor to follow. What is the Master imagining that whole conquest is going to look like? Are they co-rulers, or is the Doctor his subordinate first lieutenant (or consort)?

Is he actually interested in re-imagining and rationalizing the management of the cosmos, with an option on doing it with a velvet glove draped over an iron fist for the Doctor's benefit? (...man, that sounds way too sexual. Moving on.) Does he imagine the Doctor being terribly actively involved in the Empire, or hanging back not getting his hands dirty, or actively persuing his own, persumably highly moral, agenda?

Does he think he can eventually get the Doctor to agree lower lifeforms aren't worth the time and effort of treating well, and thus get him to ditch his pretensions at holding the moral high ground via the attrition of exposure to the corrupting influence of that much power over a period?

Is this something he's thought a lot about (not necessarily re: this particular planet, but the idea of co-opting the Doctor in some kind of ruling scheme generally), or is it more of a spur of the moment 'you're here, I'm here, here's this super-weapon' decision? I tend to read him as having sub-textually wanted the Doctor to agree to some version of this (with varying degrees of personal autonomy/authority in the new order/election to be there of the Doctor) for the majority of the Delgado!Master Era, but just cause I see it doesn't make it so: how premeditated/consistent is this motivation?

2. Does Three toy with the idea of accepting the proposal (*snicker*) in either full or amended (i.e. 'We can't be Emperor's, that's totally lame, but we can do X instead) at all in Frontier, or is the hesitation he displays just him hearing the Master out? It'd be an interesting little facet of their relationship as well, if the Doctor was always willing to listen to and fairly consider the Master's argument, no matter how patently it contradicts his own worldview.

3. What's Three/Three's life like if the Master never ever shows up on Earth? Is he ungodly bored and so more capable of slipping up and making mistakes when confronted with actual!danger from invasions and other threats? Is he stir-crazier? More depressed by his exile? Does he grow crueler over the course of his exile because he doesn't have regular contact with the Master as a foil to judge himself against? Is he exactly the same or even better without the Master showing up to wreak havoc?

4. How and when does the Master find out Three's on Earth/exiled and stuck there? Does he hear about the trial, or chance upon some evidence of him being there (maybe a report from some thwarted alien force of the Doctor stopping their Earth-related plan) and decide to return later, more prepared? Does he regularly keep tabs on the Doctor? Given that he has a time machine, why doesn't he show up earlier--is he giving the Doctor time to stew on Earth a bit during the Liz Shaw period, or does he only just find out before the Autons affair and just decide to come right then?