Oh, My Pop Culture Religion: Christian Initiation and Geeky Coming of Age

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By the time this posts, I’ll have spent two full days at a workshop learning how to more effectively navigate people through the rather detailed stages of Christian Initiation in the Catholic Church. There are so many moving parts: say these things here, do these actions here, meet the bishop here, pour water and oil there… it’s enough to make a theologian’s head spin. Today’s Catholic Initiation can be pretty simple or pretty complicated. But it got me thinking about how much simpler initiation experiences seem in some of my favorite geeky stories. Often we’re treated to a single coming of age ceremony or experience that makes a character an adult or a full member of their community. But these ceremonies still serve an important role in our characters’ lives, and we can see parallels between them and the kinds of things religious people do to mark the stages of initiation into their community.

Of course, initiation ceremonies aren’t just limited to Christianity or even to religion. From Masonry to fraternities and sororities to clubs to professional organizations, rituals and oaths are how we mark that someone is “one of us”. Christianity is the religion with which I’m most familiar, so I’ll use it as a lens to view some examples of coming of age and initiatory experiences in geek culture. I’d certainly be interested to see a similar treatment from a different (particularly non-Western) religion’s perspective. So let’s dive in.

Some spoilers for Dune, Avatar: The Last Airbender, The Giver, and Doctor Who below.

Fanfiction Fridays: Possibilities, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bananas by rosa_acicularis

image via suuuz

“I didn’t come here because I thought you needed me,” he said, his voice low. “I knew you didn’t. I didn’t come because I missed you, though I did. I didn’t come because I love you, though I think I must, given the evidence.” His thumb traced the curve of her cheek. “I came back because I’m old and tired and selfish, Rose, and I wanted to see you again. Because I finally could, and I didn’t think of the consequences.”

Rose closed her eyes. There was a sour taste in her mouth, like metal and blood and heartbreak, and she almost didn’t have the breath to say what needed to be said. “I can’t go with you.” She turned her face away, and his hands fell to his sides. “I’m sorry. I can’t leave them again.”

There was a silence. “If you can’t come with me,” he said, “can I come with you?”

Her eyes snapped open. “What does that mean?”

“I don’t know,” he said, his expression wary. “What do you want it to mean?”

Rose Tyler has always been my favorite Doctor Who character. Most people think it’s one of the Doctors, probably Ten, but I’ve always loved Rose best. To quote the Doctor, “Everything she did was so… human.” She was adventurous and clever and passionate, but she was also reckless and juvenile and selfish. In other words, she was allowed to be a human character with human flaws. That’s something we, unfortunately, rarely get to see in a female character. And so I was really annoyed with the “Doomsday”/”Journey’s End” plotline that stranded her in an alternate universe, brought her back, and then sent her back permanently. It felt like a half-assed compromise between the part of the fanbase that wanted Rose gone and the part that wanted her to stay, and it didn’t particularly make much sense.

As for character development, I was thrilled that older Rose got to take a level in badass, capitalizing on all her positive traits—but less than thrilled that any character development with her negative traits was left to the wayside. Still so selfish. Willing, again, to give up her family at the drop of a hat to be with the Doctor. Eventually I came to realize that the Rose/Doctor relationship that I wanted to happen (as opposed to the one we were given) wasn’t possible within the constraints of the show. Rose would always have to fight her way back to the Doctor, where the plot was happening, and the Doctor would always need a rotating crew of young female companions for, I dunno, reasons.

Fortunately, when life gives you crap TV, write fanfic, right?

Allons-y!

The Day of the Doctor Review

Oh my Gallifrey.

I could not be more pleased with Doctor Who’s 50^th anniversary episode. It may not have been perfect, but it certainly was one of the most entertaining episodes of Doctor Who that we’ve seen in a very, very long time.

(Spoilers, Sweetie!)

In Brightest Day: the Tenth Doctor

This is another post I’ve been putting off for a while. The truth is the Tenth Doctor’s emotional baggage could fill a dump truck. He’s been through the ringer multiple times, and had to deal with a lot of memories that, by the end of his life cycle, would be just too much for a normal man.

But this isn’t a normal man. This is David Tennant.

Oh, My Pop Culture… Devil? Doctor Who’s Impossibly Confusing Planet

Don’t get me wrong, fellow Whovians; I love the “The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit” double episode. It’s got the shippy Ten/Rose stuff that I live and breathe; it’s got genuinely interesting sciencey-wiencey concepts, it’s got foreshadowing to die for, and it’s got an edge-of-your-seat, truly terrifying plot. I’d easily rank this among the scariest episodes of Doctor Who, maybe beaten only by “The Impossible Astronaut/Day of the Moon”.

What about theologically, though? This episode presents a lot of interesting and potentially confusing ideas that I’d like to parse through.

Celebrating the “brotp”: Ten Awesome Platonic Friendships

Pretty much everyone who has read fanfiction has an OTP—a One True Pairing that they ship harder than anything else. But what about the couples that are just awesome buds, and who you like together as friends but not romantically? Well the recently coined term ‘brotp’ is there for you. And since Valentine’s Day puts and unnecessary emphasis on being in a romantic relationship, I figured I’d take this post to give a shout-out to some of the awesomest platonic friendships out there.

Saddle Up for A Town Called Mercy

Time for the review of this week’s Doctor Who episode!

Sexualized Saturdays: Men and Women Can Never Be Friends—And Neither Can Anyone Else

What I’m saying is—and this is not a come-on in any way, shape or form—is that men and women can’t be friends because the sex part always gets in the way.

—Harry (When Harry Met Sally)

These iconic words from the romantic comedy When Harry Met Sally seem to be something that both the media and the fandom have taken to heart—and not just with heterosexual relationships.

It is a sad fact that in the media men and women are rarely just friends. There is usually some sort of attraction, sexual tension, or sexual relationship. This happens all the time: when two characters in a TV show meet for the first time, and one’s male and one’s female, it doesn’t take much to figure out that they will most likely end up in a relationship at some point in the show.

The Women of Doctor Who

This special was a little different from the previous one, because it was less ‘exploration of sciencey things’ as much it was ‘a bunch of actors (including the Fifth Doctor!) and stuff saying their opinions about women in Doctor Who’.

What did they all like about the women? Well, there are almost never screaming helpless women; the parts for women are often better than the parts for men; it’s “not sexist at all”; the women are always really smart and are never passive accessories to the male lead.

Hit the jump to see who they talked about and what the commentators thought about all of them!

Doctor Who Series Seven: A Top Ten Wish List

I am starting to get tired of waiting for Series 7 and the 50th Anniversary special! Who’s with me?

Some plot spoilers and set photos and whatnot have been creeping out over the past few months, and we know that there are a few certainties: the Ponds are leaving, new Companion played by Jenna-Louise Coleman (and possibly named Clara?) is joining Team TARDIS, and the Daleks and Weeping Angels will be making appearances (as might Madame Vastra, the awesome lesbian Silurian Victorian ninja).

That still leaves a lot of wiggle room, though, for my wish list. I mean, we don’t even have any idea what will happen in the 50th Anniversary special, which won’t be occuring until 2013. Let’s throw out some ideas and hope Steven Moffat reads this blog.

1. Possibly!Clara has been billed as a fast-talker and a match for the Doctor’s exuberance.  Pleasepleaseplease keep her in check, or make the Doctor a little bit more subdued. He already has puppy-like boundless energy and he really needs a more Donna-like check on his craziness than someone who will out-crazy him.
2. The Ponds’ leaving has already been drawn out unecessarily what with bringing them back after the Doctor already said goodbye once. Give their farewell some dignity, don’t make it unnecessarily tearjerking just for the sake of tearjerkingness, etc.
3. Make the scary villains scary again. The Weeping Angels have been a little over-exposed in my opinion, and their appearance in Eleven clashed with the canon given in Ten that they could be any statue. The Daleks are sort of a joke at this point.  Make them scary again. (Although with a first episode titled ‘Asylum of the Daleks’, I think I may get my wish.)
4. Exciting new locales, please! Let’s try dinosaurs (which I seem to recall might have been hinted at, or I just saw fanart of the Doctor riding a dinosaur and got confused…) or, y’know, anywhere in Asia or Africa since they’re basically never been seen (an Egypt episode! or mix up the constant WWI and WWII stories with an Asian world war setting! Literally anywhere on those forgotten-by-the-writers continents would be nice!)
5. I’ve heard speculation that the ‘Doctor’s true identity’ plotline ties back into a plot arc that had to be scrapped when Seven was taken off the air twenty years ago. It would be really awesome if we could have a more solid tie to Old Who than just the recurring villains.
6. Lady Bacula expressly desires a Cervantes episode where Eleven is the inspiration for Don Quixote. I want an Oscar Wilde episode if they can make it a proper episode and not a PSA gay-issues story.
7. Can’t believe I’m saying this, but… Fewer timey-wimey shenanigans? The whole kerfuffle with River about broke my brain, and I have a high tolerance for timey-wimey stuff—hell, I’ve seen the Star Trek reboot at least ten times.
8. I’m still not exactly sure how the hole in the universe thing/the big bang affected the actions of previous Doctors, or the spinoff-series universes (I’m three seasons behind in Torchwood) but I’d like to see some reunions for past companions. I’ve heard ideas tossed around regarding a multi-Doctor mashup a la Time Crash or Old Who’s The Five Doctors, but that could be tricky considering Eccleston’s definitely not gonna come back and as much as I love Rose, she needs to stay in Pete’s World—she got several last hurrahs and a Doctor of her own, and bringing her back randomly would be a great way to make the fans think DW‘s writers are truly out of ideas.  Mostly I want Jack Harkness back. I know he’s working full time at Torchwood now but he could benefit from a more light-hearted adventure. And fan theories about him being the Time Agent who arrested River Song abound.
9. I see no real reason to switch Doctors at this point, but the world could be a better place if the 50th Anniversary special gave us a regeneration into a POC or female Doctor.
10. If nothing else happens in the whole of the seventh season and the 50th Anniversary special, FIX DONNA NOBLE. SHE WAS YOUR BEST FRIEND, DOCTOR, AND YOU RAPED HER MIND ‘IN HER BEST INTERESTS’ AND LEFT HER A SAD, SELF-ESTEEMLESS SHELL OF HER FORMER SELF. YOU WILL ALWAYS BE A DICK FOR THAT UNLESS YOU FIX HER. DON’T WHINE ABOUT GUILT—DO SOMETHING.

What else would you like to see in the upcoming season? Only two more grueling months of Wholessness till we can be happy (or at least angry at Moffat) again.