Thing One: STOP GIVING ME METHOS PLOTBUNNIES, SOPHIA. You know what I'm going to be doing for the rest of the night? It's not packing! It's not Yuletide! It's not even sleeping! IT'S LOOKING UP THE HISTORY OF ENGLISH SLANG AND WRITING DRUNK METHOS. I HOPE YOU'RE HAPPY.
Thing Two: I spend a lot of time pondering why I love Doctor/Master (and, a lot of the time, the entire attendant ship type) so damn much. And ... hmm. It reminds me of some meta I read a while ago theorizing that incest is the new slash, which I was going to say I didn't know where to find, and then I realized that it's by dira and can be found here. The reason I bring this up is because one of her main points is that, back in the day, the mere fact of two men (or I suppose two women) being together was controversial and not assumed to be accepted in-universe, which made any slash pairing claustrophobic in a potentially appealing way, a sort of "you're the only one in the world who understands me" thing. Now, Dira's point is that slash is now accepted enough that incest is the new claustrophobic slash, but it actually made sense to me in an entirely different way -- I really do love pairings that do the "you're the only one in the world who understands me" thing, and Doctor/Master is like that to a crazy degree. I mean, it's even a bit true in old school Who, when they're two awkward renegades whom the other Time Lords don't like much, but damn, when they're the last two in the whole universe? That gets me where I live. And in a weird way, knowing that they understand each other is enough like a happy ending that I get the same sort of joy from it? Obviously that's just me, though! It might be something totally different for anyone else. :)
Thing Three: re: Xander being bi, apparently Joss Whedon wanted either Willow or Xander ... eurgh, I don't want to say "be gay" because I have massive issues with Willow constantly telling us that she's "Gay now!" but, y'know, he was planning to have one of them turn out to not be straight. So the first three seasons are actually full of hints for both of them. There's a lovely little arc in which the kids discover there's a werewolf in town, and Xander suspects that it's Larry, one of the bullying jocks in school. He asks him about it in really roundabout language, and Larry misinterprets it as Xander confessing to being gay and telling Larry it's okay too, which leads to Larry's coming out and being generally a nicer guy, and also leads to Xander flailing with massive confusion and being adorable. (Deep in my heart I'm really bitter that Xander didn't turn out to be canon bi also, but that's a whole other can of worms.)
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Thing Two: I spend a lot of time pondering why I love Doctor/Master (and, a lot of the time, the entire attendant ship type) so damn much. And ... hmm. It reminds me of some meta I read a while ago theorizing that incest is the new slash, which I was going to say I didn't know where to find, and then I realized that it's by
Thing Three: re: Xander being bi, apparently Joss Whedon wanted either Willow or Xander ... eurgh, I don't want to say "be gay" because I have massive issues with Willow constantly telling us that she's "Gay now!" but, y'know, he was planning to have one of them turn out to not be straight. So the first three seasons are actually full of hints for both of them. There's a lovely little arc in which the kids discover there's a werewolf in town, and Xander suspects that it's Larry, one of the bullying jocks in school. He asks him about it in really roundabout language, and Larry misinterprets it as Xander confessing to being gay and telling Larry it's okay too, which leads to Larry's coming out and being generally a nicer guy, and also leads to Xander flailing with massive confusion and being adorable. (Deep in my heart I'm really bitter that Xander didn't turn out to be canon bi also, but that's a whole other can of worms.)