And lo, they are both better off in the end (because too many bad things happened to good people already, the story wouldn’t be right if it ended in FTR). Clara's wishes are respected, she gets a second chance, gets to essentially become the Doctor. She still has to die, but *everyone* has to die, and such a postponement after the tragedy of FTR is a blessing really
The Doctor manages to remember his adventures with her and the lessons of his experiences (Because maybe he drank from Mnemosyne too, oh you and all your mythologies ;) After all, disregarding all the practical problems we’d get with the main character completely forgetting millennia of his life and the character development we’d lose, Moffat is merciful. There will be ‘death’, there will be ‘rebirth’. But memory is vital: things don’t die, they transform and carry it with them. But since now, beautifully, it is as always the *living* one who hurts too much because of it, it is preserved as a *story* and the burden is lightened. A balance is achieved between suffering and oblivion. Memory is good unless it destroys you. Then, let go. The story always survives, and you will have it back when you become one, because everything does in the end. For history is a pattern of timeless moments . “Ashes to ashes, stories to stories” should be the spiritual metawhovian motto. Because half of Who is Little Gidding and all shall be well). He just forgets her appearance, voice, etc, there is an absence where *Clara* is concerned, the ‘essential Her’ let's say, is missing. He *knows* that she’s alive, so everything he did was not in vain, but he accepts that he went too far and so they should stay separated for the greater good, and though clearly sad about it (because he obviously still cares about her: “Nothing's sad till it's over. Then everything is”, he wants to remember what she told him in the Cloisters, he states he was trying to find her), and his mind wipe, he is *able* to move on and become a more mature and better person.
Even after realizing that she was the waitress (come on, he’s not an idiot), and having now probably regained her image, it’s only that; and their paths should diverge and he knows it. Yes, he said he was looking for her, but probably just to see her again, to know who she was: he knows *why* they parted. And now *Clara* herself leaves him behind, so he understands he should let her go. Their time together is remembered, but now it's fragmented, blurred, there's a distance, it *is* now a story to him (but we all know the importance of those in WHO like you said). So their separation and her absence is not the horrible grief of losing his soul-mate that he felt when she died anymore. And he understands that he shouldn’t let that grief consume him and make him act selfishly anyway, even if it *was* that horrible and even if she *was* indeed dead. Sorrow becomes sadness, simple affection, wisdom and acceptance. He dons again the ‘doctory’ coat in honor of her, seems to take her final message to heart, is given a new sonic screwdriver by the TARDIS, and he sets off for new adventures like Clara does, moving on. The loss of “essential memory” and “presence” still leave their mark, even if not as devastating as the previous one of death and grief. But Clara’s importance is felt, and manifested through a very important, sad song "and the Doctor can focus on the beauty and the inspiration of that, if he so chooses."
Onwards for new, different stories. For both, because now both deserve it.
And this is how you end an amazing series; and a rambling analysis. Did that make any sense? It did for me. I feel better now. Divine meta equals poetic Personal Expression of Understanding and Sqeeing, sorry.
Re: Slowly Claps Because Normal Clapping Is Insufficient
The Doctor manages to remember his adventures with her and the lessons of his experiences (Because maybe he drank from Mnemosyne too, oh you and all your mythologies ;) After all, disregarding all the practical problems we’d get with the main character completely forgetting millennia of his life and the character development we’d lose, Moffat is merciful. There will be ‘death’, there will be ‘rebirth’. But memory is vital: things don’t die, they transform and carry it with them. But since now, beautifully, it is as always the *living* one who hurts too much because of it, it is preserved as a *story* and the burden is lightened. A balance is achieved between suffering and oblivion. Memory is good unless it destroys you. Then, let go. The story always survives, and you will have it back when you become one, because everything does in the end. For history is a pattern of timeless moments . “Ashes to ashes, stories to stories” should be the spiritual metawhovian motto. Because half of Who is Little Gidding and all shall be well).
He just forgets her appearance, voice, etc, there is an absence where *Clara* is concerned, the ‘essential Her’ let's say, is missing. He *knows* that she’s alive, so everything he did was not in vain, but he accepts that he went too far and so they should stay separated for the greater good, and though clearly sad about it (because he obviously still cares about her: “Nothing's sad till it's over. Then everything is”, he wants to remember what she told him in the Cloisters, he states he was trying to find her), and his mind wipe, he is *able* to move on and become a more mature and better person.
Even after realizing that she was the waitress (come on, he’s not an idiot), and having now probably regained her image, it’s only that; and their paths should diverge and he knows it. Yes, he said he was looking for her, but probably just to see her again, to know who she was: he knows *why* they parted. And now *Clara* herself leaves him behind, so he understands he should let her go. Their time together is remembered, but now it's fragmented, blurred, there's a distance, it *is* now a story to him (but we all know the importance of those in WHO like you said). So their separation and her absence is not the horrible grief of losing his soul-mate that he felt when she died anymore. And he understands that he shouldn’t let that grief consume him and make him act selfishly anyway, even if it *was* that horrible and even if she *was* indeed dead.
Sorrow becomes sadness, simple affection, wisdom and acceptance. He dons again the ‘doctory’ coat in honor of her, seems to take her final message to heart, is given a new sonic screwdriver by the TARDIS, and he sets off for new adventures like Clara does, moving on. The loss of “essential memory” and “presence” still leave their mark, even if not as devastating as the previous one of death and grief. But Clara’s importance is felt, and manifested through a very important, sad song "and the Doctor can focus on the beauty and the inspiration of that, if he so chooses."
Onwards for new, different stories. For both, because now both deserve it.
And this is how you end an amazing series; and a rambling analysis. Did that make any sense? It did for me. I feel better now. Divine meta equals poetic Personal Expression of Understanding and Sqeeing, sorry.