resting-meme-face:

Everything we need to learn about Bill comes in that opening monologue. But not the part that distracts us, not the bit with her lying about, then admitting to going to his lectures, not to her rambling about cute girls and chips, but from THE VERY END, and I’m paraphrasing because Chakoteya doesn’t have the transcripts up yet, but, roughly:

whifferdills:

half a handle, i said. quicktake guesses:

• part of her awkwardness and stream of consciousness brain-vomit seems to be down to how she’s, like, genuinely surprised that anyone is listening to her
• like i’ve seen some posts saying she’s closeted, and i don’t want to take helpful headcanons away but i think it’s more that she could be wrapped in a rainbow flag kissing 10 girls and her foster mom would still be like ‘so when you getting married to a nice boy’
• she’s got that Spunky Spirit half of fandom seems to hate (do they just not like fun people i mean what do their friend circles look like) but she turns that off real fucking quick when the Dr is being a dick. eager to trust but quick to back off and protect herself.
• all the empathy in the world, maybe a partial clue as to how to express that
• the comparisons to Rose are inevitable but there’s a massive difference between a kid still living at home and working at a shop and being kind of happily ensconced in that bubble, and a 20-something young adult, living at home because they can’t afford not to, and working in the cafeteria of the school they can’t attend. she knows what she’s missing, even if she makes the best of it. like Rose’s narrative was ‘so there’s this whole other world out there btw’ and Bill’s is more ‘you know that other world you kept looking at from the outside well we’re going there now hop in’.
• “we’re all looking for someone who’s looking for us” or w/e the line was is one of those Moffat statements of purpose (see: the “just see me” scene in “Deep Breath”). her resignation at getting cash as a gift vs her ‘no that’s fine’ disappointment at the Dr not getting her anything. and her immediate jump to ‘ok guess you don’t like me’ when she first meets Heather. she’s super primed to assume no one gives a shit about her, fuck does she want someone to give a shit about her. hope for the best, expect the worst
• that bit where she’s snooping on 12 and Nardole is a facet of that (and bulletpoint 2), i think. like she’s curious and brave but very ready to bail
• and the “do you really think i’m that dumb”/“can i just have a week? a few days? a day? please? whatever fuck it” bit. like, of course she cannot have nice things, obviously. please no one notice how much she cares about that.
• she goes back, tho, and she goes back in more than a few scenes. that’s her companion superpower, where Clara would be cocky and Amy would be stubborn, Bill just like…runs out of fucks to give, and goes for broke
• her arc’s gonna be some self-confidence thing where she pulls back from the eternally fuckless Dr. the mento will become the manatee.
• “i don’t like my face, it keeps doing an expression when i’m trying to be enigmatic” i love
• i love her

Bill: I’ve always wanted to come to this university.

Doctor: To serve chips?

Bill: [face falls, 100% done] Are we done here?

That. That is all we need to know about Bill. Big dreams, low hopes, no fucks given.