randomthunk: ephemeralhologram: eclarke: I am entitled to that. What Face the Raven could have been
randomthunk:ephemeralhologram:eclarke:I am entitled to that.What Face the Raven could have been@randomthunk‘s tags:#this reminds me that I have replies to write to replies to my FtR post#like see here#this is a good solid Clara#that Clara in 70% of FtR? never heard of her#doctor who#hell bent#clara oswaldExactly! One of the most dissonant statements in Clara’s whole time on DW is the one from FTR where she says in the end, when she knows she is going to die: “Maybe this is what I wanted. Maybe this is it. Maybe this is why I kept running. Maybe this is why I kept taking all those stupid risks. Kept pushing it.”How does Clara’s action in Hell Bent, where she insists on her past and on taking the “long way round” to Trap Street in her own Tardis reconcile with stupid, risk-taking, Clara with a death wish that FTR seemed to imply? And this has now become Clara’s legacy, where many people characterize her as a reckless companion with a death wish. Sadly, even Sarah Dollard in her initial script did not want this, and it looks like the fault of cuts, re-edits, and direction to make her look like someone stupidly crazy and suicidal, just driven by hubris. Dollard wanted to dwell on Clara’s character as someone who is so compassionate to save people that she can be reckless because of that. In fact, a scene was cut where she had a talk with Anahson about losing her mother.From her interview:Sarah: But I think my favorite scene that got cut actually got cut for time just before that draft. It was a scene between Clara and Anahson, just the two of them alone. Clara was asking Anahson about her mother and whether her mother had any enemies on the street.And here:Sarah: I think the crucial thing is that Clara wasn’t trying to be the Doctor. She has always been very much herself, which just so happens to be quite Doctory. …. Clara was reckless when we met her - she was always brave and bold, madly rushing into things, determined to be involved no matter what. Her adventures with the Doctor only made her more like that. No, Clara died because she forgot she was mortal. She and the Doctor had so many wins together that she forgot there could be losses. … I really hope no one comes away from ep10 thinking that Clara’s death was punishment for hubris. Clara’s confidence wasn’t excessive, it was brilliant. She was brilliant. The tragedy of Clara’s death isn’t that she overreached. After all, she saved Risgy, didn’t she? No, the tragedy of her death is that even the bravest and cleverest of humans are breakable, and the Doctor is not.I am so glad we got Hell Bent which unambiguously emphasized the wonderful relationship between the Doctor and Clara and how they were just like each other and showed Clara to have no regrets about her past. In fact, she even got a Tradis to continue being Clara Oswald.ps: A cool Jane Austen scene was cut too. Sarah: The original pre-credits scene was actually a scene in Jane Austen’s England, with Jane and Clara and the Doctor sitting around the table playing poker with a couple of other characters. The concept was that Clara, being very close with Jane and pranking each other and trolling the world together, taught Jane Austen to play poker like an absolute gun. They would take their least favorite people from history and bring them to Jane’s garden and play poker with them and rip them off by allowing them to believe Jane couldn’t play.Wow, this is one of those times where cut content dramatically changes and strengthens the episode. I don’t like to bring it up in debates about things (if it’s cut it’s cut for a reason, even if that reason is as lame as “for time”), but in the very least this answers some nagging I’ve had about this episode for years.I’ll just leave it here -- source link
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