In the Lord of the Rings fandom there’s a persistent debate whether balrogs, or Durin’s Bane specifically, have wings. The text in Fellowship is ambiguous whether what it is describing are literal wings or something else wing-like.
In the Lord of the Rings fandom there’s a persistent debate whether balrogs, or Durin’s Bane specifically, have wings. The text in Fellowship is ambiguous whether what it is describing are literal wings or something else wing-like.
Doctor Who has a bunch of them!
One of the big recent ones was the Timeless Child plotline. For people unfamiliar with the show, the basic premise is that the main character, the Doctor, is an alien who’s species can regenerate themselves when they’re about to die which saves them but they become a physically different person. This was invented back in the 60s so they could change out the lead actor, William Hartnell, when he got too old to continue in the role and it’s become a core part of the show. We’re now on about the 15-16th Doctor, although that number is a bit contentious too for reasons I won’t go into here because that’s a whole other thing.
A few years back there was a plotline where it was revealed that the Doctor isn’t just a regular alien, they’re something called the Timeless Child that just appeared in our universe from somewhere unknown, and was the one that gave their whole species the ability to regenerate themselves. This was widely hated, as it not only changed the Doctor from a sort of wandering hobo into a Super Special Chosen One, but it also directly showed that William Hartnell wasn’t the first Doctor, there had been probably dozens of other ones before him that had just never been mentioned until now.
The internal debates that I’ve seen usually aren’t people debating whether this was a good idea or not, they’re mostly about the best way to retcon it away and never speak of it again lol.
I’m not a Dr Who fan but I’m from the little I’ve seen and gotten through the fandom is that The Doctor was always more of the Super Special Chosen One than hobo
Uggggh… I only watched the 13th doctor episodes a couple of years ago to catch up to David Tennant’s return and I totally forgot about all that… I don’t mind weird ‘missing’ incarnations like the war doctor and even the one at the lighthouse had she either fit in or was ambiguous as to what ‘number’ they are but yeah, the timeless child stuff was awful and weird and just made the doctor feel so hollow… Instead of being this flawed character trying to do good they suddenly are important in the universe because of their nature and not their deeds… It cheapens the doctor so much… Can we not just pretend that 13 never happened? I’m still yet to watch the 15th doctor series because of how awful the Chibnell era was…
I very much enjoyed the 5 hour video by Jay Exci on it because it really showed how poor it really was. I was never that keen on some of the Moffat era when he got too Moffat-y for his own good but I would have had that in a heartbeat.
It’s such a shame because I really like Jodie Whittaker as the Doctor, but yeah her whole era was so badly written. She’s doing Big Finish now though so hopefully she’ll get some good stuff to work with there.
The 15th Doctor era is… odd. No spoilers but RTD is back as lead writer but he makes some… decisions lol. Including putting one of the worst episodes the show has ever had right at the start of 15’s run. You’ll probably know it when it happens! But then inbetween the oddness there are some genuinely really good single episodes too IMO.