One thing that kind of annoys me about fans speculating about things that then turn out to not match the speculations is that it always leaves them disappointed and angry. Shouldn’t we be positively surprised when the reveal turns out to be something other than what we’ve been expecting for months? That means that the show has managed to subvert our expectations, and we haven’t ruined the twists for ourselves beforehand.
I mean, the Sutekh reveal in Legend was awesome, but it was hardly a big surprise because I’d been following the speculation online. I would have liked it even more if I had been properly surprised, and the big bad would have been the Fendahl, the Abzorbaloff, or something else.
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See I just don’t think the finale was at all the same kind of “vibes based” episode as 73 Yards. Like it was more mythical and less technical than some other episodes, but I feel like everything made sense and was explained and wasn’t just left super open and vague like 73 Yards.
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Some excellent points. I do agree.
This happens such a lot in fan communities these days and also actively works against us as it is often picked up by tabloids who report “FANS HATE NEW SERIES!” etc. when that isn’t remotely fair or reflective of many people (perchance even the majority).
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Nah, she’s just into the Peter Cushing Doctor Who movies, and recognises the TARDIS from there.
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Oooh, I actually managed to avoid the speculation and spoilers. I count myself lucky, then!
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me too 
except I also wailed very loudly much to the confusion and alarm of my new roommate who has not seen any of this series and in fact only ever a handful of 10 episodes and accidentally watched the finale with me and deal with me losing my mind a small amount at Mel and every TV Movie tidbit 
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This is absolutely true and one of fandom’s worst traits. The backlash against Wild Blue Yonder was insane simply because a chunk of fandom had convinced themeslves it was going to be an absolute festival of returning characters.
And all because of a redacted cast list that was actually just hiding the fact that the cast was basically just Tennant and Tate.
Some fans would enjoy the show a lot more if they accepted it for what it is not what they keep expecting it to be.
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Subverting expectations is fine, if that suberversion is narratively satisfying. But when a showrunner has planted ideas & images that push the audience in one way & then the result doesn’t play fair with the audience I think some fans are correct in being annoyed.
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Yeah let’s get going with the wild Mrs. Flood theories.
I say she is Rogue and The Meep’s Boss, but as we really didn’t have that Third Doctor connection I hereby proclaim that she is Boss from The Green Death that has watched too much Star Wars and gotten hooked on the idea of clones, and has downloaded their AI consciousness into a cloned Mrs. Flood body.
The finale of next season will then be a variation of the third Matrix movie with hundreds of Mrs. Flood clones coming for the Doctor.
Fact!
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Maybe I’m the anomaly as I didn’t speculate about anything, or see any discourse about theories etc, I just let what was presented speak for itself, and I was still disappointed in this series.
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But sometimes fans decide that only one possibility makes sense when there are always other possible inferences. As @realdoctor points out, Ruby’s mum being normal 100% fits with RTD’s narrative trope of ‘normal people doing extraordinary things’.
I don’t disagree that RTD fudged this one a little (see my earlier post) but it was still a possibility. Beyond the weird visuals chosen, what else suggested she was going to be ‘special’? The falling snow was definitely a blind alley/red herring but I think was more tied in with the ‘memories are time travel’ idea which bequeathed us the Memory TARDIS. Was there much else?
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See (and I know this isn’t going to be popular) I still disagree that the audience were pushed solely in one direction. A question was asked. The question was left open. Some of us believed a normal human outcome was the most likely, right through until the end. There’s a difference in being pushed and being posed a question. We were posed a question. I wasn’t certain I was right, but I never felt like the outcome we got re: Ruby’s origin was entirely contrary to the evidence we were given. I guess that’s why I feel somewhat more positive about the reveal.
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I think I just disagree with the idea that it didn’t play fair with the audience. It would be one thing if it set up all the specialness and then just went “lol nope none of that mattered at all,” but it did actually play a significant role in the finale because that specialness, even if coming from Ruby’s belief in it, was real and played a big part of defeating Sutekh. And thematically, in a season with gods and magic and folklore, the idea of an ordinary person being important because we believe them to be is really resonant.
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I am in agreement with you @flora_snow00 
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Yes the being normal fits with RTDs tropes. But I think for me when looking at what we’ve been presented with it doesn’t make narrative sense, a 15 year old girl dressed as a mysterious hooded figure pointing at a road sign? Magic snow? Ambulances from the future finding no next of kin?
WBY was all on fans, nothing had been shown to them to push them in one direction.
But it is what it is. Now we have another mystery to unravel in Mrs Flood. & of course RTD now saying that there is some mystery in Ruby’s family to come in the next season. Make your mind up RTD!
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Yes, more things were explained but I don’t think it was done in a satisfactory way where there was a narrative consistency. How I look at it there were too many inconsistencies and plot gaps that required a too great degree of suspension of disbelief. The focus was much more on the small emotional moments and relies on the audience getting a emotional response, like the woman with the spoon. The resolution was just a dog leash for this apparently invincible God of Death.
But it was an RTD finale in that way, and basically he has only made one of those that I actually enjoy 
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My own thought on the snow is that there were enough time travel shenanigans at the point when Ruby was dropped off at the church that the walls of space-time are weak there, and since Ruby’s closely associated with that moment, the snow is basically leakage from that particular point.
Still tied in with memory, as her memories are what’s drawing her close enough to that moment for it to leak.
(Hopefully that makes some sense?)
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I guess for me it was how it was portrayed all that hooded figure nonsense. & of course my general disinterest in this season as the weeks rolled by. Unfortunately I also thought Millie Gibson was pretty terrible as an actress. Never took to her at all.
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I’d forgotten that one. Fair point.
Having her mum not be a mystery box but deciding there is a mystery elsewhere isn’t really a problem, though, is it? It’s just a trope of misdirecting the audience - bit like a jump scare in a horror film…ah it was just a cat - aargh, no the real monster was behind the victim all along!
I absolutely agree with you about the ‘15 year old that chooses to wear a spooky hooded cloak’ like no 15 year old has ever chosen to do since the Middle Ages thing though!
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100% disagree there. I was thoroughly non-plussed by her casting when it was announced as I don’t watch soaps, but I thought she was excellent throughout the whole series.
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