a quick rant about the masters in the s10 finale

this is a post ive wanted to make on here multiple times already but decided not to. however, since i want to make this post Again, ive decided to just finally make it.

this is mainly inspired by a youtube video (not actually related to what im talking about in this post, this is purely my own thoughts), since it made the final piece of why i dont like their dynamic/how its handled in the s10 finale click into place.

i havent done another rewatch of it before writing this post, so do be aware this is mainly based off memory and thus might have slight inaccuracies. this also might be formatted a little strange because i watched s10 BEFORE s3.

so, in the final episode of s10, the doctor falls, has two incarnations of the master meet -- simm mas and missy. its a really fun concept, but i dont like how their relationship with each other was handled. at all.

on my first watch, i was uncomfortable with the fact that the two masters were referred to as if they were siblings (ie, simm mas calling missy 'sis', i remember the doctor referring to them as twins) while also having them flirt with each other. i still am, and with the knowledge i have now it feels way worse.

because, in simm mas' appearances in s3 (-- i currently havent rewatched any s3 episodes, so what im about to say is based on first impressions and not proper thoughts), i didnt get much of the impression that any flirting, whether minor or major, or any romantic attraction he may have expressed was genuine. i felt like they were either for his own personal gain (ie, holding a wife, likely to make it more convincing that the harold saxon persona is real and overall use it to seem more trustworthy) or to attempt to rile up/upset others (his line to marthas sister tish, where he says "just stand there and look gorgeous", i feel was probably said in hopes itd make its way to martha and make her upset about the homicidal freak 'flirting' with her sister, and didnt genuinely indicate any thoughts he had about her)

when thinking about the doctor falls after that, i had the thought of his flirting with missy being a bit strange, but i assumed, "oh, well, he seemed egotistical and vain in s3, so maybe this is a situation where the only person he can find attractive or have any sort of genuine interest in is himself" and didnt think too much about that.

of course, you might be wondering, "well, if you think his flirting with others was done for his own gain or to upset others, why dont you think its the same with missy?" which is a fair question, and is about to come up right now

something to note is that simm mas and missy's flirting, when done where no one can see, wasnt rubbed into the doctors face later, which i imagine would have been done if it Was meant to be done to rile up someone (in this case, the only 'someone' i can imagine it being is the doctor). not only that, but, as a character, i dont think simm mas, if flirting with someone simply to rile another up, would continue flirting where the person theyre meant to rile up cant see, or would otherwise not be able to learn about it happening. and, again, since it wasnt rubbed in the doctors face, then i feel that absolutely wasnt the intention. and i dont think it would have been done to aggravate missy and make her uncomfortable because she obviously didnt care about it.

oh, and also, there was a possible boner joke made when simm mas and missy were in private, if i saw and interpretated the scene correctly -- missy held simm mas against a wall, he looked down then back up at missy, and said "is it wrong if i...?" and she said "yes", it only recently hit me what he probably would have been looking at. this, well, indicates that he meant to genuinely feel some sort of (sexual) attraction to her.

remember how they were referred to as siblings?

now, the video i was talking about was basically talking about how most of what moffat wrote was probably fueled by sex fantasies -- im, well, unfamiliar with his writing, as i havent watched the 11th doctors era, so it explained a lot of complaints i saw to me. while the video didnt touch on missy much (and not the doctor falls at all), the whole "everything he writes is a poorly concealed fetish" really... changes the perspective i view missy and simm mas' relationship with. my assumption of "oh, maybe the only person simm mas can be genuinely attracted to is himself" has been thrown away completely for the doctor falls.

it feels less like having two characters flirt and one express potential sexual attraction while also being referred to as if they were siblings wasnt simply a poorly thought out choice, but something made to be really, really disgusting. it also makes the "is it wrong if i...?" "yes" scene way worse, but also make more sense -- after all, it doesnt make a whole bunch of sense when you consider it to be just clonefucking -- if simm mas thought that clonefucking was fine then i doubt what we assume to be his next incarnation would disagree. but, if you take it in the sense of them meant to actually be similar to siblings? it makes more sense. and becomes way more gross.

so, these are my thoughts about the two masters relationship in the s10 finale, the doctor falls. do you agree or no? is there something you think i totally missed?

i never liked people taking this episode as "well, now we know the masters opinion on clonefucking!" and found it uncomfortable, but now with my new realisations i dont think ill ever want anyone who says that near me.