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Did he have his name written down on something?

Or is that what the people who dug him up thousands of years later decided to name him?

And how TF does he even have a fanbase?

Ötzi is a 5300-ish year old mummy, found in the Ötztal Alps in Italy (hence his name). While the earliest form of writing was emerging from Sumer at the time, Ötzi likely came from a civilisation with no writing system.

Ötzi has a fanbase because frankly he's absolutely fascinating. For a long time he was the oldest tattooed person ever discovered (in 2018 older Egyptian mummies were discovered), with 61 tattoos, a series of lines and crosses, primarily on his joints. These tattoos were likely an early form of acupuncture since he had worn joints that likely caused him pain.

The amount we've been able to study and understand about Ötzi is incredible, and he has offered us an incredible view of the European Copper Age. He was 45. He was 5"3. He was around 50kgs. We know what his final meal was, how he dressed, where he came from and how he travelled to the Ötztal region (through pollen in his lungs). We know he was involved in copper smelting (high levels of copper and arsenic in his hair). He could still have 19 descendants alive today. We know he was sick three times in the last six months before he died. We know he had whipworms. We know he was lactose intolerant.

We know he was murdered. Not killed by a stranger, or robbed. He was murdered by someone, and it was probably personal, and he did not know it was coming. He bled out, from an arrow to the back, and nobody helped him.

His last meal was elaborate. He was not on the run, or in a hurry to get away. He was not chased up those mountains. Where was he going? Why was he being followed? His body was not looted. He was a wealthy man, for his time. He had good quality clothes, shoes that people have reconstructed and hiked up the mountain in (and found surprisingly comfortable, apparently).

Weapons, too. He was found with a copper axe, a knife, arrows and an unfinished bow, baskets and medicines. These were all valuable possessions. People were not so rich back then that they could easily discard items like this- so why were they left to rot on the mountain with him? Was the fact they'd been touched by Ötzi really so repugnant to whoever was on that mountain?

There are at least 4 other people's blood on his gear. On the knife. On the arrows. The arrow that they shot him with was left in his back but the shaft was removed.

We know so much about Ötzi. We know everything about his finals hours- except for everything about Ötzi. We do not know who he was, we do not know his name, and we do not know why he was killed. His murderers stand in the shadows and will never come out into the light.

It occurred to me that that may be why audiences are being so very harsh on Robby this season. Last season, he got empathy. This season, he gets scorn. (If not worse.) The thing is, we all experience other people's mental health struggles from the outside. We don't see their internal struggles, just their external actions.

Me at 17: “god I can’t wait to go home and read fanfic”

One: Hmph!

Two: That you would even have to ask! (Does nothing whatsoever to clear the matter up)

Three: Huh, I suppose I look like a man today. Do you think the Master noticed?

Four: The impertinence!

Five: *long infodump about the gender systems on various planets that never actually gets back to his*

Six: Really! Clearly I am a [loud noise as a train passes feet away regardless of the location you are currently in]

Seven: I’m a Time Lord.

Eight: No, my gender is very complex. It’s a Time Lord thing, you wouldn’t understand (the Time Lords have no clue on Gallifrey what he’s talking about)

War: *incoherent grumbles*

Nine: Man, if you must. Now run!

Ten: I don’t even know myself some days. *stares sadly into the middle distance for an uncomfortably long time*

Eleven: Would you know, no one has asked me that since I’ve regenerated! (Doesn’t answer the question)

Twelve: Wouldn’t you like to know 😠

Thirteen: There does seem to be some amount of confusion about that lately. (Does nothing whatsoever to clear the matter up)

Fourteen: *grins wildly and describes his exact gender in about twenty microlabels*

He was, it's just a shame we didn't get more of him. I mean - really - it should've been Eccleston, not Tenant, in the 50th anniversary special. His character was more directly relevant to the story and its themes, the themes would've been more keenly felt.

With that said: Paul McGann is the best Doctor that never got to shoot his shot. One mediocre film, a load of audio plays, and then one brief mini-special where they killed him off. Vast potential - especially because he's introduced in such a whimsical, almost childlike fashion with gentler, more serious undertones, who supposedly was the very same doctor that took the decision to wipe out the Daleks and the Time lords.

We've got this arc of a man full of love and joi de vivre, slowly becoming the kind of person that would later commit double genocide. Something that's instantly compelling and fascinating, which practically writes itself.

And we never got to see it.

All spoken with the biggest smile on his face, an expression filled with so much love.

And it’s sad to think that it was that very same face that had to watch it all burn. The same face that had to bear being rejected by those in need, leaving him unable to fulfill the promise he had made when he chose his name. The same face that had to kill who he was in order to abandon all that care and love and compassion within him for “the better”.