Ruby Speaks - Tumblr Posts

DW opinion time

spoilers for the latest episode below the cut

So scrolling through tumblr after I watched the episode (because I always am nosey and wanna know what other people thought), it looks basically like an echo chamber of the same two or three opinions (there are probably more but the algorithm shows you the most popular ones first). Those opinions were:

“You can’t like Ricky, Ricky’s racist”

”Ricky can’t be racist, he was so nice/hot”

“I love that Lindy is just a terrible person through and through, like no redemption”

Here’s where I’m gonna go full essay on this shit and address everything.

There was this one opinion I read (I’m sure it’s other places but this is the one I saw) that said that basically Ricky was the white version of the doctor to show that Lindy would have listened to the Doctor if he was white. And I disagree, I’ll get to that in a moment though.

I read another (I really couldn’t find the post I found this opinion in again, I tried, but I lost it to cyberspace) that said that Lindy was more willing to Ruby because she’s white; once more I disagree, I think she’s more willing to listen to Ruby because she just starts with better people skills. The Doctor basically starts with “Hi, you’re gonna die” whereas Ruby pretends to be taking a survey and is like “by the way I love your top”.

Then I read one that breaks down a very passive interaction between Ricky and the Doctor. This feels like an interpretation thing, I really didn’t see it this way. I even went back and watched the interaction again, to me this sorta smile-and-look-away combo was more of a bashful/humility thing because he does it after the Doctor says something along the lines of “a clever boy too” (something of that manner).

Now for my opinion:

Personally I didn’t see it as racism, I saw classism. I mean, yeah sure, all the people in FineTime are white, but colour isn’t the barrier here, the barrier is economic (which I suppose somewhere further back on the line does imply racism, yada yada.. tangent for another time and not really the main point here). Lindy even says that it’s just the rich kids that are here (not exactly what she said but that’s the basis).

I also think that people put too much into whether or not Ricky’s a good person, he’s really only there to help move the plot along. He doesn’t have any background except that he’s also rich, his last name is actually Coombe (and C comes before P), and he’s famous. That’s it, he’s not got a properly fleshed out character.

I don’t think that outside of fanfiction we’ll ever find out what kind of a person Ricky September is. So I guess we just have to decide for ourselves on that one.

Me, personally, I like Ricky, but that’s because I read him the way I wanted to. People I think have all read him based on their experiences which is why despite not really having proper character work for him, we’ve all made decisions about who he is to us. I’ve personally decided that, maybe he does hold some of the same prejudices as his peers, but I think he’s really open minded and wants to learn stuff. I think he’s chill, I mean man really said he puts down the bubble and reads, basically “yeah, I touch grass”. So yeah 👍.

I’d love to take any legitimate arguments/comments/questions about it. I love proper debate/conversation 😊

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