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neadodsFor WD: meta discussion, not reaction
lj user="neadods"> with a href="http://neadods.livejournal.com/974575.html">Mickey, Rory, and the Message that DOES belong in Who"> (spoilers for Vampires in Venice and Amy's Choice)
Aside from the skeevy racial issues, the thing that always drove me crazy about how Mickey was portrayed in Who was that for all the Doctor's enthusiasm for the average human being, once he had ahold of one, he treated him like dirt.
Mickey, viewed objectively, is quite a catch. He's got a good, steady job and an equally good and steady love for his girlfriend. We will also find out over time that he is smart and brave enough to rise to world-saving actions, and that he has an amazing capacity for empathy and forgiveness considering that he became one of Jackie's true friends after she spent a year shouting him down as a murderer.
But in RTD's world, there was always something fundamentally wrong with anyone who didn't want to racket around time and space with an alien in a malfunctioning time machine. Over and over, we saw people who refused, or who tried to keep their friends and relatives from going out of worry for them, punished in one way or another. And so Mickey was introduced as a coward and nonentity, pretty much there for comic relief. Over time, it was even implied that his love for Rose wasn't the love of a man for an interesting woman, but that he had impressed on her like some sort of duckling.
And then Mickey finally sees the error of his ways and joins Team TARDIS.
When Donna got on the TARDIS, she went from shrill and self-centered to the most important woman in the universe.
What Mickey didn't even get the dignity of his own name. From Rose begging the Doctor not to take him, through the Doctor ever-so-NOT-cutely either misnaming or insulting him, to the two of them treating him as invisible while he stands 3 feet away... well, it's no wonder he was willing to live in another universe to be finally shut of them both.
And now we have Rory. Rory the nurse, a role subordinate to Doctors. Rory who dressed up as the Raggedy Doctor because Amy asked him to. Rory, who convinced Amy to marry him, but has never heard her actually say "I love you." Rory who not only had his fiancee run away on their wedding night, but had the guy who convinced her to run off show up at his stag party discussing how they'd kissed.
It's a nightmare retread of how Mickey was treated... except that this time, all of those tropes are being dismantled.
It was Rory who got the key break in Eleventh Hour and held to his theory even when his ward doctor was practically threatening him to drop it.
It was Rory who studied science so he could understand what was happening, becoming the first companion in the history of the show to instantly understand the basic principle behind the TARDIS dimensionality... and who did NOT back down when the Doctor complained of not getting the reaction he wanted.
It was Rory who has studied Amy long enough to know what makes her tick and how the Doctor is affecting her - and who has the stones to give the Doctor an earful about it in Venice. Not shouting in general anger, not whining a self pitying "You're taking her away from meeeeeee" -- none of that. Nothing that would let the Doctor blow him off as just being a worrier. No, Rory handled him in the same manner I bet he handles Amy when she goes too far - with logic as much as fury, forcing the Doctor to stop and actually assess how his actions affect other people.
And then there's Amy's Choice. Rory has taken a lot of grief for dreaming of a life of conventional normality and security, but is that really such a horrible dream? To have a good job, to have a nice home, to have a family? Is that honestly something that nobody else wants? It's been insinuated that it's a complete misunderstanding of Amy to ask her to be the little mother at home, but it was ultimately AMY defending that life, and letting the Doctor have it with both barrels after he'd insulted it once too often. Are we really even sure that was Rory's dream and not part of Amy's subconscious? I'm not.
And then there was that wonderful, horrible, gutting scene of Amy sitting by the pile of dust, quietly saying "Save him, or what's the use of you." I'm so glad that scene was understated, because that made the grief and shock far more real to me than screaming or crying. In that moment, Amy wasn't choosing between dreams and reality. She was blatantly choosing Rory over the Doctor, normality with Rory over all the Doctor's adventures.
In RTD's universe, I think she would have been punished for that, somehow. Those who left the Doctor always were, even Martha. Martha who always wanted to be a doctor and then gave it all up to fight aliens with Mickey. It's hard to look at that and not get a strong whiff of the Doctor's two rejects settling for each other and then recreating a TARDIS-style life for themselves, because that's not the life either one originally wanted nor the life either one left the TARDIS to have.
But we're in Moffat's universe now, and it was the right choice for Amy to make. Oh, she still has plenty of growing to do -- after that shattering realization that she had never told Rory she loved him, she... doesn't tell him she loves him.
But he knows. He knows because he doesn't want Amy as an accessory, because even in the dream world she was bossy and prone to manipulation. He knows exactly who she is, and he loves her for her flaws as much as her virtues (and if ever there was the dream catch of a guy, it's someone who loves you like THAT!) And he's willing to stay on the TARDIS to make her happy because he loves her.
But if the Doctor gives him crap, he's going to fight back like he has all along. Rory will never call himself the tin dog because Rory is never going to let the Doctor treat him like the tin dog. And the Doctor finally accepts that, too. He's not only not jealously trying to separate the two of them, he's offering them time alone to... *ahem* Let's just say "keep bonding."
It's years overdue but at long last, but at last the message is out: normal guy doesn't equal total loser in the Whoniverse.
x-posted to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
doctorwho
lj user="neadods"> with a href="http://neadods.livejournal.com/974575.html">Mickey, Rory, and the Message that DOES belong in Who"> (spoilers for Vampires in Venice and Amy's Choice)
Aside from the skeevy racial issues, the thing that always drove me crazy about how Mickey was portrayed in Who was that for all the Doctor's enthusiasm for the average human being, once he had ahold of one, he treated him like dirt.
Mickey, viewed objectively, is quite a catch. He's got a good, steady job and an equally good and steady love for his girlfriend. We will also find out over time that he is smart and brave enough to rise to world-saving actions, and that he has an amazing capacity for empathy and forgiveness considering that he became one of Jackie's true friends after she spent a year shouting him down as a murderer.
But in RTD's world, there was always something fundamentally wrong with anyone who didn't want to racket around time and space with an alien in a malfunctioning time machine. Over and over, we saw people who refused, or who tried to keep their friends and relatives from going out of worry for them, punished in one way or another. And so Mickey was introduced as a coward and nonentity, pretty much there for comic relief. Over time, it was even implied that his love for Rose wasn't the love of a man for an interesting woman, but that he had impressed on her like some sort of duckling.
And then Mickey finally sees the error of his ways and joins Team TARDIS.
When Donna got on the TARDIS, she went from shrill and self-centered to the most important woman in the universe.
What Mickey didn't even get the dignity of his own name. From Rose begging the Doctor not to take him, through the Doctor ever-so-NOT-cutely either misnaming or insulting him, to the two of them treating him as invisible while he stands 3 feet away... well, it's no wonder he was willing to live in another universe to be finally shut of them both.
And now we have Rory. Rory the nurse, a role subordinate to Doctors. Rory who dressed up as the Raggedy Doctor because Amy asked him to. Rory, who convinced Amy to marry him, but has never heard her actually say "I love you." Rory who not only had his fiancee run away on their wedding night, but had the guy who convinced her to run off show up at his stag party discussing how they'd kissed.
It's a nightmare retread of how Mickey was treated... except that this time, all of those tropes are being dismantled.
It was Rory who got the key break in Eleventh Hour and held to his theory even when his ward doctor was practically threatening him to drop it.
It was Rory who studied science so he could understand what was happening, becoming the first companion in the history of the show to instantly understand the basic principle behind the TARDIS dimensionality... and who did NOT back down when the Doctor complained of not getting the reaction he wanted.
It was Rory who has studied Amy long enough to know what makes her tick and how the Doctor is affecting her - and who has the stones to give the Doctor an earful about it in Venice. Not shouting in general anger, not whining a self pitying "You're taking her away from meeeeeee" -- none of that. Nothing that would let the Doctor blow him off as just being a worrier. No, Rory handled him in the same manner I bet he handles Amy when she goes too far - with logic as much as fury, forcing the Doctor to stop and actually assess how his actions affect other people.
And then there's Amy's Choice. Rory has taken a lot of grief for dreaming of a life of conventional normality and security, but is that really such a horrible dream? To have a good job, to have a nice home, to have a family? Is that honestly something that nobody else wants? It's been insinuated that it's a complete misunderstanding of Amy to ask her to be the little mother at home, but it was ultimately AMY defending that life, and letting the Doctor have it with both barrels after he'd insulted it once too often. Are we really even sure that was Rory's dream and not part of Amy's subconscious? I'm not.
And then there was that wonderful, horrible, gutting scene of Amy sitting by the pile of dust, quietly saying "Save him, or what's the use of you." I'm so glad that scene was understated, because that made the grief and shock far more real to me than screaming or crying. In that moment, Amy wasn't choosing between dreams and reality. She was blatantly choosing Rory over the Doctor, normality with Rory over all the Doctor's adventures.
In RTD's universe, I think she would have been punished for that, somehow. Those who left the Doctor always were, even Martha. Martha who always wanted to be a doctor and then gave it all up to fight aliens with Mickey. It's hard to look at that and not get a strong whiff of the Doctor's two rejects settling for each other and then recreating a TARDIS-style life for themselves, because that's not the life either one originally wanted nor the life either one left the TARDIS to have.
But we're in Moffat's universe now, and it was the right choice for Amy to make. Oh, she still has plenty of growing to do -- after that shattering realization that she had never told Rory she loved him, she... doesn't tell him she loves him.
But he knows. He knows because he doesn't want Amy as an accessory, because even in the dream world she was bossy and prone to manipulation. He knows exactly who she is, and he loves her for her flaws as much as her virtues (and if ever there was the dream catch of a guy, it's someone who loves you like THAT!) And he's willing to stay on the TARDIS to make her happy because he loves her.
But if the Doctor gives him crap, he's going to fight back like he has all along. Rory will never call himself the tin dog because Rory is never going to let the Doctor treat him like the tin dog. And the Doctor finally accepts that, too. He's not only not jealously trying to separate the two of them, he's offering them time alone to... *ahem* Let's just say "keep bonding."
It's years overdue but at long last, but at last the message is out: normal guy doesn't equal total loser in the Whoniverse.
x-posted to
doctorwho
