What is the story behind your avatar?

[flora_snow00]

Most places I’ve been using this lovely Thasmin art that I commissioned earlier this year (artist link). I change up the background on it occasionally between trans and lesbian flags or space backgrounds from JWST images.

Before that I used this Tails art for a while (artist link). Sonic was my biggest special interest for a few years and Tails has always been my favorite character so I commissioned this art a few years ago of him playing the same acoustic bass that I own (I’m not any good I just play some really simple folk song stuff on it for fun, my main instrument is actually vibraphone)

I use my face on a few places still, and usually use wedding pictures for those now. I’ve also recently started using this picture of Mandip and Nicola on a few places including discord because I love them both and also because YazPeri is my fun little silly crack ship

[Daximili]

mine is Adric, as when I was 8 and started watching doctor who through classic who reruns, he was my favourite companion as a fellow socially inept, maths loving outcast (which, 8 years and an autism diagnosis later made a lot of sense lol). Anyway, here I am, nearly 30, and still emotionally attached to the little bugger

[DontBlink]

@MrColdStream

This is where it gets complicated:

@Nardole has an avatar of Andy Davidson.

@DontBlink has an avatar of Nardole.

Are they the same person?

Well, I haven’t watched Torchwood yet, so it’s unlikely.

Also, I have a few options for my new place-hokder avatar (until I make an image myself):

or

[MrColdStream]

I vote for the second one (it’s stylish and cool) or the last one (it’s Troughton! He needs more love!). The first one makes me sad!

[The1_Foxy]

I don’t know what the 3rd one is but I think you should use it

[DontBlink]

It was a random image I found and edited, still not entirely sure why, but I love it!

[Doctor_Roo]

'Tis I, peeking over the top of my favourite Doctor Who annual. It’s a recent replacement for my previous Bookface avatar, which was me peeking over the top of a Land of the Giants annual. I thought I’d better change it when I realised my hair had turned grey! I’m also using the same avatar on Mastodon and Bluesky, as I try to decide which of them will be my permanent replacement for Twitter.

[AlfieSigma]

@MrColdStream

some Chinese character I don’t know about

Hey I got some Chinese character you don’t know about as my new profile header!

[MrColdStream]

I don’t know which I love more: the picture or the caption

[Napp]

Mine’s the cover of the Season 18 Box Set, because I love everything about that time. 1980, New Romantics, cold winter and Doctor Who stories with titles like Full Circle, Sate of Decay and Logopolis.

It wasn’t all great back then though. There was a girl at school called Yvonne. She was absolutely stunning, the most gorgeous-looking human being in our class, which might as well have been the world. Anyway, she wasn’t interested in me. In a challenging twist of fate, she started ‘going out’ with my mate Mark. I had to watch them getting closer, as close as people get at the age of 13.

One day, I was in the school shop with Mark and we were buying sweets. Afterwards, I said to him, “I don’t fancy this Mars bar. It’s too sugary for me. Why not give it to Yvonne?”

The next day, I was going up the steps to school and Yvonne came along, and – bless her - she started to thank me for the chocolate I’d given her. We’d not spoken up to this point, and I was so intimidated and panicked by what I saw as her perfection, do you know what I did? I blanked her! I pretended I hadn’t seen her and carried on walking. Pretty rude of me, what? Of course, we never had any contact after that.

She’ll be married with grandchildren now. Sigh. Still - Season 18, eh?

[MrColdStream]

This was the sort of story I was looking for—personal, heartfelt, a bit tragic. Line the plot of a rom-com but with the happy ending chopped out. Thanks for sharing!

[Napp]

@MrColdStream

This was the sort of story I was looking for—personal, heartfelt, a bit tragic. Line the plot of a rom-com but with the happy ending chopped out. Thanks for sharing!

Thank you! All that time ago, and I’m not sure I’m recovered yet!

[ImpossibleGirl]

Same as my answer on that thread. I love Clara Oswald and came across this piece of fan art while searching for backgrounds for my iPhone. Chose the pic since I couldn’t think of anything else but it matches my username.

[deltaandthebannermen]

The story behind my avatar?

Peer pressure.

[ItsR0b0tNinja]

A couple of new amusing ones for Liz:

[SweetAIBelle]

[PalindromeRose]

You have no idea how many people look at my profile picture and go, “oh it’s so nice to meet another fan of The Owl House.”

I have never seen said show. This fine specimen is Stolas of the Ars Goetia from Helluva Boss, who I picked as my icon across my socials because I can relate;

• Incredibly emotional
• Sarcastic
• Eccentric
• Incredibly flamboyant.

And then the backdrop is because I identify as Non-Binary.

And that’s why I claimed the moniker “The Non Binary Owl” on places like Twitter.

---

@MrColdStream

Inspired by the recent discussion on the Free For All Chat thread, as well as the earlier thread about the story behind our usernames

Missed this discussion in the Free-For-All thread, so gonna include it here.

Palindrome comes from the John Dorney story of the same name, which remains my absolute favourite Eighth Doctor outing of all time.

Most people assume the Rose part of my name relates to the companion, but it actually has no relation and requires a story.

Long before I did written reviews I ran my own YouTube channel - getting to 500+ subscribers - where I would read my reviews like a script and upload them as a podcast-esque series. Someting I stopped after realising I hate the sound of my own voice. The name of said series was Whoviews.

When I was setting up the brand for my YouTube channel I wanted something memorable as my moniker, and I was massively into Girls Aloud at the time - trust me, this is relevant.

I was listening to the title track of Nicola Roberts’ solo album around 2016 and the lyrics just clicked with me for some reason.

English rose
This is how the story goes
Been asleep
Pricked my finger
Fell too deep
Woke to find
A dead prince charming by my side
So hey, there’s no need to say goodbye

I thought about calling myself TheEnglishRose and realised that sounded a bit too pretentious. So I supplemented English with a word that complimented my personality: cynical.

And thus TheCynicalRose was created.

Took a break from Doctor Who and most things relating to YouTube in August 2020.

So when I decided to start writing reviews again in April 2022, minus the YouTube segment, I wanted something to acknowledge my old days and remindme of where I started out. That’s why I kept the Rose part of my old moniker.

[MrColdStream]

Great to hear your story behind the avatar and the username!

I love these stories that combine Doctor Who with something completely different. It’s a fun way to make a username or an avatar suitable on multiple platforms.

[SweetAIBelle]

Honestly, a fair amount of people thinking you are a fan of the Owl House might be due to having both “Owl” and “Non-binary” in your name on places. Owl House has two different non-binary characters, one of which is a fairly big side character. (And Raine Whispers is great. Not to mention being a non-binary character voiced by a non-binary actor, with a different non-binary actor for their younger self…)

[ItsR0b0tNinja]

Well these are getting saved!