Work Text:
Thinking about Ashildr/Me and how she ‘uses people like chess pieces’, to quote from this meta, and how the Doctor manipulated the General into giving him access to an Extraction Chamber. To gain access to the Doctor and bring him all the way to Trap St., to the room with the stasis pod and the teleporter, Ashildr uses Rigsy’s fear and faith. To gain access to the Extraction Chamber, the Doctor uses the General and Ohila’s fear and faith.
The Doctor and Ashildr are both intensely emotional but restrained in their expression. Both are sometimes driven by their anger, pain, and fear, into taking actions they later regret. Both of them are in an emotionally warped state by the beginning of the end. Ashildr has become cold and nearly desensitised after centuries of dealing with the physical and emotional trauma of immortality without any chance of escape. The Doctor, while mostly managing to keep the worst of himself in tight control with the help of his friends and a universe of diversions, loses all control after 4.5 billion years of incarceration and torture. Perhaps since it’s their emotions that are their weakest point, emotional manipulation of others from a position of near-absolute detachment seems to become their preferred tactic in times of unusual stress. (’Unusual’ might be an understatement here, but you get the idea.)
Yet, it also proves to be their strength in unexpected ways. The Doctor compels Bonnie to imagine a broken post-war society and his own experiences during the Time War, almost breaking down in tears in the process, which arouses her compassion. Ashildr, sitting in a reality bubble at the end of time, passionately defends herself and points out the beauty and sadness of Clara’s death until the Doctor pauses. Loss and grief help the Doctor bravely accept losing River, too, and gives him the wisdom to enjoy his remaining time with her to the fullest. And after billions of years of isolation and loss, Ashildr gets a chance of renewal - living her hitherto unfulfilled dream of travelling across time and space with a Doctor in a TARDIS.