elisi | Meta: The Ponds (This is the way women and men have behaved since the beginning...)

Current Mood: contemplative

Entry tags:

Meta: The Ponds (This is the way women and men have behaved since the beginning...)

OK, I’m about to embark on something very, very foolish. I’m going to attempt to talk about the Ponds... and gender. Specifically how this works in relation to Amy and Rory’s story this season. So - a warning, or disclaimer: I will make a lot of generalisations. Anyone who thinks that speaking about men and women as men and women is sexist in and of itself should probably not read any further. Of course there are always exceptions, because no one is a stereotype, but Moffat is (as always?) writing about families, and is using a specific family with a specific story to talk about families in general. And that's what I'm going to explore here. (Subject line is a quote from the Buffy episode 'Restless', which is one long dream metaphor. It... seemed appropriate.)

Spoilers up to and including Night Terrors.

S5 was all about Amy growing up - and Rory was her steadfast rock, the still centre that she needed to ground her, and at the end of the season she was ready to marry him and take that final step into adulthood. And actually their wedding is very typical of what Moffat does - he wrote this big epic love story, spanning galaxies and millennia, and then brought it all back down to earth very gently with as traditional a wedding that you could ever want. The extraordinary inside the ordinary.

Now in S6 they have parenthood thrown at them, and their roles get reversed. Because Amy? Amy lands firmly on both feet. Rory... not so much. And the main reason Amy copes better? She a woman/the mother, which means that she from the start had an advantage. Before you begin shouting at me, please allow me to explain, tackling each of them in turn, going right back to the start of the season and walking through every part of the story. Because people are complicated, and Amy and Rory are struggling with different things.

To jump sideways, allow me to point something out re. parenthood. You can read a hundred books on child rearing (and very helpful they might be), and you can talk to a thousand parents, but nothing comes close to explaining what it feels like to hold your own child for the first time. And you never really know how you'll react or cope...

Amy
- First of all, Amy discovered that she was pregnant... and she didn’t tell Rory. She took time to think about what this might mean, worrying about what travelling with the Doctor might have possibly done to the pregnancy. When Rory, later, states that he’s a nurse, he’s good with pregnancy he completely misses the point. Amy wasn’t worried about the ordinary travails of pregnancy, she was concerned about ‘time heads’ (and with good reason). She, from the start, suspected that their baby might be different, and wanted to talk to an expert (the Doctor), about what this might mean. Of course they then thought it was a false alarm, but once Amy got thrown into motherhood of a human-plus-Timelord baby with close-to-zero warning, she had already considered this possibility, and thus had a headstart.

- Second, Amy had time to bond with Melody. She was on Demons Run for a month, and it’s unclear for how long she had Melody when there, but let’s assume it was for the full month since I’m sure Kovarian wanted her weapon as strong as possible and there’s no substitute for a mother’s care. Plus Melody called Amy ‘Big Milk Thing’. And even if it was just for a few days... Well as it happened I listened to a radio programme the other day about single mothers, and one of the women on the programme had been a teen mum back in the Sixties, which meant that she was sent to a special home for unwed mothers, and then had her baby taken away a few days after giving birth - and the pain was still there, all these years later. Because a mother’s love is immediate. It just is. (Trust me. And remember, I'm generalising.) There is your baby and then there are all the other babies in the world. What makes Melody special to Amy isn’t the Time-headed-ness or any of that. It’s that she’s Amy’s. No matter how unexpected, or painful, Amy will hold on to her baby. (To generalise a bit more, then how many more single mothers are there than fathers?)

- And so we see that Amy is the driving force behind getting the Doctor to find Melody. She is the one calling him up in the little heartbreaking prequel. She’s the one asking the Doctor about Melody when he turns up in the cornfield. Amy is a woman with a mission: I need my daughter back.

- Then we relocate to Berlin, and Mels reveals who she is. And we see that time and distance and looks make no difference to Amy. Melody is still hers, and that’s her fixed point. It’s not brainstuff, it’s not something she needs to qualify or quantify (much like, when Rory died in ‘Amy’s Choice’ she knew she didn’t want a world without him). But that doesn’t mean that adjusting isn’t difficult. She has known that Melody would grow up to be River, but there’s a vast gap between knowing something in the abstract, and experiencing it. To make an analogy, her feelings mirror most mothers when their children ‘suddenly’ grow up. One minute you have a baby, the next they’re off, all grown up (or thinking they are) - willfull, rebelling, and doing things their parents disapprove of. Of course this situation is vastly exaggerated in the circumstances, but when young!River declares herself to be a psychopath, it’s Amy who argues with her, who tells her no. (‘I know you, you’re mine, you’re not a killer.’) It’s a curveball, but one that Amy does her best to adjust to.

- But then young!River fatally poisons the Doctor, and suddenly Amy is thrown into a paralysing dilemma. Remember, Amy picked up a gun and shot at ‘the astronaut’, desperate to somehow stop the Doctor’s death. Except there was a small girl inside the suit. It’s unclear whether Amy has yet worked out the The Girl is Melody, but even so - what now? Her daughter has killed her best friend... What to do? Interestingly (and very fittingly) it’s at this point that the Tesalector turns into Amy, trapping the real Amy inside. She ‘becomes’ that weapon of vengeance that she once was. But (with some prompting from the Doctor, because it’s not an easy situation), Amy essentially spends the episode disarming that side of herself (wrestling control from the Justice Leage, forcing the robot to do her bidding, so it doesn’t just speak with her voice, but speaks her words, does what she wants, and effectively becomes her), finally shutting it down completely (nearly getting everyone - herself and Rory included - killed), until all it does is reflect what Amy (and the Doctor) see when they look at River. Yes on the surface we follow the process of the Doctor’s efforts to save River, but Amy’s are no less forceful, and it is the combined acceptance/love/forgiveness of both past (her mother) and future (Doctor) that sets River free. (We see this reflected in Night Terrors of course where it’s acceptance that makes George able to overcome the monsters - ‘I don’t care what you are, you are my son!’)

- Finally, in the hospital, it is Amy sitting by River’s side, gently scolding her for casually throwing her life away for the Doctor’s sake, although she is clearly also very proud. Any mother (or parent generally) whose child has done something incredibly brave - and at the same time incredibly dangerous and foolish - will be able to relate. (There is also the fact of having effectively parented Mels for many, many years, which plays into this very nicely of course.)

- So, when asking ‘why do we not have any other stories about mothers and daughters this series?’, it’s because the story of mother and daughter doesn’t need elaborating on. By the end of LKH Amy knows who she is, she knows who her daughter is, and she just goes from there:

AMY: So that's it? We leave her there?
DOCTOR: Sisters of the Infinite Schism, greatest hospital in the universe.
AMY: Yeah, but she's our daughter. Doctor, she's River and she's our daughter.

We don’t need any extra metaphors, because there are no conflicts. I’m not saying that the relationship isn’t complicated, because clearly it is (hello leaving River behind to find her own way and the whole mad timey-wimey nature of EVERYTHING), but both Amy and River accept the relationship and at the end are in perfect accordance. Everything might blow up in the future, but who they are to each other, how they relate, is sorted. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least to see something like this in future:

(There is also the fact that Amy has known River for quite a while. River basically mothered her throughout the Angel episodes, and they have a good rapport - ganging up on the Doctor f.ex. And because they get along very well, they only need a period of readjustment before being able to continue.)

Rory
For Rory, I’m going to indulge in a quote. The relevance of this will become apparent:

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bully. One has an ancestral idea that women must be treated like imbeciles in a crisis. Centuries of the ‘women-and-children-first’ idea, I suppose. Poor devils!”
“Who - the women?”
“Yes. No wonder they sometimes lose their heads. Pushed into corners, told nothing of what’s happening, and made to sit quiet and do nothing. Strong men would go dotty in the crics. I suppose that’s why we’ve always grabbed the privilege of ushing about and doing the heroic bits.”
Peter Wimsey and Sheila Fentiman in ‘The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club’, by Dorothy L. Sayers

- Well now. Of the two of them, Rory certainly seemed like the one who would most easily cope with parenthood. Just look at his dream in Amy’s Choice, with the nice job and house and baby on the way, and you know that he’s destined to be a brilliant dad. Actually, hang on to that dream, because I think it’s part of the key to everything. You know what I believe a lot of it hinges on? Control. And every step of the way, Rory has had control taken away.

- To begin at the beginning, Amy doesn’t tell him that she’s pregnant. Like I say above, I don’t think he actually grasps her worries - what gets to him is that she doesn’t confide in him. It sort of gets framed as if it’s to do with the Doctor coming between them, but that’s not it at all. Rory just feels shut out. (Funnily enough we see almost the same thing with Gwen, Rhys and Jack in Children of Earth. Except Rhys goes off on a rant. Oh those Williams-men...)

- Then, Rory discovers that his wife has actually been a Ganger for many many months and is about to give birth. Somewhere. He can’t be there for her, can’t do anything really. And just like when Amy was kidnapped by the Silents in Day of the Moon, he has to wait and follow the Doctor’s rescue plan. He is a father, yet he has not had any time to think about this, and now has nothing except an abstract knowledge of this fact. For a real life parallel, imagine complications during the birth and the mother-to-be being whisked off for an emergency Ceasarian... Or, in the past, when men weren’t allowed to be a part of the birth at all. How utterly superfluous they must have felt.

- The big rescue mission is a success (or so it seems), and Rory plays his part perfectly. Finally there is something for him to do. He can don the Centurion and he can fight and he can stare down a legion of cybermen without blinking, because he is doing something. He’s finally back in control. And then he rescues his daughter and brings her back to his wife, and for just a few, infinitely precious, moments, everything is right with the world. This is what he wants, this is what his dreams have been made of.

- By the way, I think that the silly argument about Melody’s surname is partly Rory’s (unconscious) attempt at somehow claiming her as his own. He’s been a father for a month, yet has never held his child until now. He wants her to be his, in the way she is already Amy’s, and the name is the most obvious thing.

- But then everything falls apart. Again. Oh he can fight to the death for his little family (that would be easy), but that is not to be. Kovarian was too clever and Melody is completely gone. Amy is in pieces. And there is nothing Rory can do. Then River turns up and makes it all about the Doctor (again) and is fifty times more mysterious than usual, and the Doctor runs way (again) and then... Then everything gets turned upside down when River reveals who she is.

- Cue half a year later, and Berlin. But whereas Amy immediately begins adjusting to what’s happening, I don’t think Rory ever does. The only scene with only him and River is when he follows her and sees her shot by the Nazis - and she in turns laughs off the bullets and knocks them all unconscious. If there is a better way of hitting him over the head with the knowledge that he a) Can’t protect her (nor does she need him to, in any way) and b) She is really, really not human, I can’t think what it could be. Where Amy is good at dealing with chaos and not caring one jot what she can do - she just needs to find her little girl, Rory, I think, is worried and intimidated and unsure. It’s not that he doesn’t care about Melody/Mels/River, of course he does, it’s that he doesn’t have a clue how to deal with her. He’s not worked out his role, or what he could possibly do for her - she was clearly difficult as Mels, but then she wasn’t his, she was just a friend. Now? How can he be a father to River? (I think Rory likes River, but she makes him nervous in the same way the Doctor does.)

- Basically Rory’s story (so far) is the disconnect/exclusion a new father often feels, since his other half is focussed on the baby - and the baby is (in large part) physically dependent on her - and he’s not sure what he can do or contribute. (This is a cliche. Which doesn’t stop it being true. Mind you, Darcy never had any kind of problem... However, it makes a good parallel for Rory.)

- All of which brings us to Night Terrors, and the other father/son stories this season. In the pirate episode, Captain Avery was afraid what his son would think of him, if Toby discovered what he really was. Ganger!Jimmy was worried that because he wasn’t ‘real’ he couldn’t be a proper father. And Alex... Alex is worried that there’s something wrong with George.

- Before we plunge into what this means, then on re-watch I noticed that Amy is very serious about finding the child that’s in trouble. It’s Rory who makes the badly-timed joke about ‘letting the monsters get him’ - and Amy doesn’t smile. Viewed in the context of AGMGTW/LKH, this makes sense, since Amy is clearly taking this personally (‘My little girl was stolen by monsters!’), whereas Rory doesn’t know how to deal with any of it, and so makes jokes. (Which just makes him human, really.)

- Now the thing about Night Terrors is that the mother is almost entirely absent. But this actually makes sense, because she just accepts her boy, but - like Amy - wants to get expert help. Alex, on the other hand, is clearly uncomfortable with the whole thing, and several times says ‘We can sort it out ourselves’. To bring up one of the oldest cliches in the book, it’s like a couple driving somewhere, and getting lost. The wife says ‘We’re lost, let’s ask someone for directions!’ The husband replies ‘No, I’ll work it out!’ Asking for help involves admitting that you’re lost. It’s that whole thing about control again, and being able to do something. Men tend to have this idea that they need to be able to fix it [or they’ve failed]. Anyway, going with our ‘lost whilst driving’, then the Doctor turning up at the flat is for Alex like his other half just rolling down the window and asking a passer by (expert) for help, and for a while he goes along with it, since well... The guy does seem to know the way. Except then things get rather out of hand (imagine the guide saying ‘Actually it’s VERY complicated getting where you’re going - here, jump into the back seat and let me drive!’) and Alex tries to wrestle control back (love that scene with the tea making. Love, love, love). Of course since this is the Doctor, getting control back is impossible...

- Going back to the dollshouse, we see more of Rory’s fears manifest. Amy gets turned into a doll - something not human - as he watches helplessly. Talk about painful and uncomfortable déja vu’s...

- Anyway, what the whole episode turns around is Alex’s complete acceptance of George. Not only is George ‘different’, he turns out to be an alien, and one with pretty scary powers. But then we get that lovely moment of George crying out, and Alex rushing to his side and giving his son the reassurance and acceptance he needs. And I think that Rory’s story will come to a similar point. That there will be a moment when all his doubt and worries and insecurities will be swept away and he’ll understand what River means to him.

- However, this is not the sort of lesson you can get from someone telling you what to do. The Doctor explained it to Alex, and Alex was confused - it took George’s cry for help to spur him into action. So no, I don’t think it was strange that Rory didn’t take the adventure to heart, or draw conclusions from it. It wasn’t his story, and until it is - until Rory gets a chance to be a father - it won’t have the sort of impact that’s needed.

- And the interesting thing is, that (thanks to timey-wimey-ness) River has already show Rory what she needs from him. Both in the tunnels in TIA while she’s unlocking the door, and later, in AGMGTW in Stormcage, when she’s been out celebrating her birthday. There is an easy intimacy to her interactions with him, which makes perfect sense when you know that he’s her father. ‘Daddy, let me tell you about today...’

So yeah, it'll all work out. It already has. Because no matter how complicated families can be, home is where they have to take you in...

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Interesting ideas. I think these could definitely help to make a lot more sense out of the bundle of confusion that is S6 so far. At the same time, it sort of disappoints me that it's all so cryptic that we have to work these things out ourselves. I'm all for making the audience engage, but I think they've left too many loose ends.

Women, on the whole, don’t care how something is done, as long as it gets done. Men tend to have this idea that they need to be able to fix it [or they’ve failed].

Hmm. I'm a woman, and I would say that I feel like I have to fix things myself or I feel like I've failed. I don't think control issues are at all exclusive to men. Isn't it the stereotypical complaint of the wife that the husband does chores incorrectly?

I'm all for making the audience engage, but I think they've left too many loose ends.
Well I'm not sure that we're supposed to sit back and go 'Clearly Rory is having difficulties adjusting to his new role as a father'. It's there under the surface if you want to look, but it's not necessary.

Isn't it the stereotypical complaint of the wife that the husband does chores incorrectly?
Heh. I knew writing this was a TERRIBLE idea. *g* What I'm talking about (and you're absolutely right about men doing chores 'wrong') is the sense that men take certain roles very personally. Like doing the DIY. Or knowing about cars. We had an old car of ours sitting at the bottom of the garden for... about 2 years because Darcy was certain he could fix it. I didn't care. It was a car. In our garden. I'd have happily given it away. But he really, really wanted to fix it - it was like a personal mission.

ANYWAY. I might just cut that bit out, because I'm sure EVERYONE will argue with me. /o\

Well I'm not sure that we're supposed to sit back and go 'Clearly Rory is having difficulties adjusting to his new role as a father'.

That's true. It's just that the characterization has been spotty, and these sorts of things help to fill it out.

Ah, I see what you mean now, and that is different from the generic sort of control issue of wanting to do everything yourself or else you've failed.

Out of curiosity, what became of the car in the garden in the end?

That's true. It's just that the characterization has been spotty, and these sorts of things help to fill it out.
My pleasure. :)

Ah, I see what you mean now, and that is different from the generic sort of control issue of wanting to do everything yourself or else you've failed.
It's a very tricky thing to define...

Out of curiosity, what became of the car in the garden in the end?
He sold it to a guy for £100 - he could probably have gotten more for it if he'd taken it apart and sold the parts, but he (FINALLY) acknowledged that it's be a lot of work, and that he'd rather be rid of it... (He totally made it personal - it's a much longer story than I'm making it out be, but he let it go!!!)

Bearing in mind, as

elisi says, that these are very broad generalities and don't apply to a lot of people, I think that that stereotypical complaint is about the end result, not about how they go about doing it. My mama won't let my daddy (or my sister and me when we were living at home) load the dishwasher because he puts the dishes in wrong. And it's not that he's putting them in a different way that's the trouble--it's that the way he puts them in fits a whole lot less in there and so the end result is that you have to do more loads, which wastes more water and takes more time and costs more money, etc. If the wife doesn't want the husband, say, cleaning the bathroom, it's not that the technique is wrong, it's that in the end it isn't as clean as she wants it to be. At least in my experience of observing my parents, grandparents, etc.

But to throw gender out the window, I do the same thing with my sister. I don't care how she goes about cleaning things, it just drives me craaaazy that they aren't actually clean when she's supposedly finished with them.

THIS.

No one ever cleans ~enough~ except for this amazing (and expensive!) maid service we used this one time.

I am in awe of your fantastic brain.

*blushes*

I wish i had proper words, but yes<3

I hoped it helped the 'Why no stories about wimmins/mothers & daughters?' thing you were grumbling about the other day. I put that in specifically for you! <3

(Also I have worked out how to make my Marilyn fic WORK and am going to try to actually finish. Well I only have part of chapter 1 so far, but I'll get there. It's going to be angsty crack - possibly with fluff/schmoop on top - so goodness knows how it'll read. Ah well. My fic, my rules. *g*)

I like your thoughts quite a lot (as always), and I think they make a lot of sense. They don't, however, address my main complaint at the moment, which is that neither Amy nor Rory really seem to care that they don't get to raise their daughter? They just seem to go with the whole thing way, way too easily. Do you have any thoughts on this? Because it's really, really bothering me. Do you think this is going to be addressed at some point? Because I think one of the weaknesses of Let's Kill Hitler was that it was too much about River and the Doctor, which normally would not be a problem for me. But I felt like I didn't really get to go there emotionally with Amy and Rory. And in this last episode, I don't feel like anything emotional was addressed at all. And I just don't get it. Because I refuse to believe that Amy (and Rory) would be like, "Oh, I don't get to raise my daughter? Oh, okay." And just move on. It's not a reaction that makes sense to me, so I kind of feel at sea right now.

Anyway, again, love your thoughts, and I think they make a lot of sense in exploring why the Ponds acted the way they did in AGMGTW. Yay for thinky thoughts!

They don't, however, address my main complaint at the moment, which is that neither Amy nor Rory really seem to care that they don't get to raise their daughter? They just seem to go with the whole thing way, way too easily. Do you have any thoughts on this?
You know, I think they actually feel quite helpless. They know enough about timey-wimey-ness to know that if they attempt to wrestle Melody/Mels/River out of her timeline all kinds of things will collapse - esp considering the way Mels became such an integral part of their lives. (And she was a part of their life.)

I'm sure they want to do something, but what? No really. What can they do? What can the Doctor do? (Did you see my previous post?)

I guess my problem is that I don't see that helplessness. I don't see them as having any reaction to it at all. I can understand perfectly that there's nothing that they can do, but I just expected to see them rage/mourn/actually show hopelessness in some way, you know? I just don't see that happening onscreen. It's kind of like the cognative dissonance some people feel when they watch "Older and Far Away" right after "Dead Things." Now, I'm one of the people who thinks that that makes perfect sense in the context of Buffy and Spike's relationship, but a lot of people feel like they missed something--that there is a moment that wasn't there where this really dark thing that happened should be emotionally addressed. That's where I am at the moment; I've been fine with everything up to now, but now I feel like there's an episode missing where the Ponds go through the stages of grief over knowing that they lost their daughter in this specific way even if they know she's okay. Emotionally, that's something I need so that I don't feel adrift.

...I guess I'll just have to seek out fill-in-the-blank fic!

Speaking of fill-in-the-blank fic, have you read this fic yet? I loooove it!

[eta] And no, I don't think I've read your last piece, I'm a little bit behind on your meta, I'll have to catch up!

Edited 2011-09-08 20:38 (UTC)

It's kind of like the cognative dissonance some people feel when they watch "Older and Far Away" right after "Dead Things." Now, I'm one of the people who thinks that that makes perfect sense in the context of Buffy and Spike's relationship, but a lot of people feel like they missed something--that there is a moment that wasn't there where this really dark thing that happened should be emotionally addressed. That's where I am at the moment
*nods* That's quite a good comparison, and to be honest one I almost used myself - that is, Buffy did these odd lurches too. Had Big Emotional Episode, and then just went sideways. I do believe that the next episode will be Amy & Rory centric, so hopefully stuff will be addressed there.

Speaking of fill-in-the-blank fic, have you read this fic yet? I loooove it!
I have not! Thank you!

[eta] And no, I don't think I've read your last piece, I'm a little bit behind on your meta, I'll have to catch up!
Well it's VERY SHORT and mostly consists of pictures...

I think I will set all of my complaints aside if it's addressed in the next episode! That's one of the differences with watching things as they air--you have to wait, and it creates such a different experience than watching it after the fact, which is how I do most of my television watching.

Also, I'm all for the shift in tone (I think about "Tabula Rasa" which is SO SILLY AND WONDERFUL and then the abrupt shift to that ending with the song and everything is SO ANGSTY AND WONDERFUL in a different way), and I think that that's one of the things that Doctor Who (and genre TV in general) can do so very well. I just need to make sure that emotional payoff isn't sacrificed, since that's why I watch. I can forgive dangling plot-lines, but dangling emotional arcs? No! So I'm hoping the next episode will deal with that so that I can fully invest again, because I just love this show so much!

Oooh! Pictures! *scurries off*

V. quickly (I'm on my way to bed...) - but I think that the way I'm seeing the season play out probably affects how I look at this. Because I'm presuming that somehow things will be fixed, that Amy and Rory will get their baby back and the Doctor won't die (but River will probably still go to prison) - much like I thought that S5 should end with Amy and Rory's wedding, which was a little hard to continue to believe in after he'd been killed and erased... So I'm very much in a 'wait and see' mode. We don't have all the pieces of the jigsaw yet.

ETA: I know this isn't what you have a problem with, I just wanted to try to explain why I'm kinda detached? (Which sounds weird since this story has EMBEDDED itself in my head...)

Edited 2011-09-08 22:04 (UTC)

I'd like to take the dark side approach to Amy and Rory. I love them dearly, but they are flawed, and I think we're seeing those flaws in actions. And maybe those flaws are only flaws borne of perspective, but whatever.

In Series 5, Amy avoids the commitment and responsibility of marriage by flying away with the Doctor. Soon enough, Rory joins her -- because for both of them, this huge rite of passage is daunting and takes a tremendous amount of trust. Their adventures together seals the bond they have, and helps forge them into the people they need to be to make the marriage work. It also shows them that following their bliss (adventures in time and space) is not mutually exclusive to The Ordinary World.

I see the same sort of dynamic with their becoming parents. But how do you balance traveling with the Doctor and raising a child? Better yet, how do you instantly step into parenthood? Once again, I see the Doctor taking them on the adventures they need in order to raise Melody in the way she needs to be raised. They might look like they're running away, and I think it's a natural reaction to becoming parents, but they are becoming the people they need to be for their daughter to be who she needs to be.

Their perspective is changed by being time-travelers. Traveling in time, seeing the future... it gives you a view of Fate. And they can either gnash their teeth and fight Fate to the bitter end... and lose... or they can embrace the Fate before them and let go of how they think and want their life with Melody to proceed.

In a sense, we're seeing their emotional journey played out through the monsters they're fighting. Look at Amy after she discovers that Mels is her daughter -- she's in shock. Emotionally shut down. And that's how we see the Tesselector, and how we see Amelia Voice Interface... and even how Amy becomes a Doll, it's like she's reverting to childhood. Amy's been traumatized, and she's reacting to trauma in a fairly common way -- through dissociation. Which I think is a much more uncomfortable journey to go on, emotionally speaking, but I think it's apt.

Very shiny. I like. And have apparently run out of words... But thank you, this rings very true. (It's all those metaphors again.)

I think those metaphors will take on real resonance for me if I get a few more literal reactions, you know? They aren't quite working now, but if we do get an episode where some sort of emotional upheaval is addressed more directly (whether that's rage or mourning or dissociation or whatever), I think it'll fit together better for me.

The first time I watched the episode, I was just stunned. I literally didn't know what to think. So I had to put myself into the story, which is what I always do with Myth, and this time I found myself in the place of Melody. Odd. Usually I'm in Amy's shoes.

From Melody's perspective, Amy -- her *mother* -- is a judgment death machine. Which totally captured how I usually view *my* mother. That's why I'm in Melody's shoes this time.

And I think it was the third or fourth time I watched the episode that I just totally broke down, and it's in that scene *after* Amy has disabled the Tesselector and turned it into a mirror, which she then turns to Melody to show her daughter who she is. And she does it in this very deliberate, rational way, but the emotion is being held in check. Which is also my mother, when she's not being judgmental.

The image of River shown in the Tesselector has a halo around it, which also really helped. But the real kicker is after the sacrifice, when River is in bed saying she had to try, and Amy/Mother says "I know," restrained and compassionate and understanding. To me, that was huge. I got my emotional payoff through River, not Amy.

Anyways, yeah, following Amy's journey right now is tough, emotionally speaking, because she's keeping it all inside. It's hard to let it go when it's all restrained. I could see how this comes to a slow, slow boil over the rest of the season, not paying off until the finale. Sorry!

The first time I watched the episode, I was just stunned. I literally didn't know what to think.
I think it's that it's so dense. I remember sitting there, completely overwhelmed at the sheer amount of stuff crammed in to every single frame. I knew it'd take me weeks to dig through the layers, and I wasn't wrong... (The meta had just EATEN my brain - I can't remember anything else prompting this much writing in such a short space of time.)

The image of River shown in the Tesselector has a halo around it, which also really helped.
Oh the halo... I'm glad someone else remarked on it!

Anyways, yeah, following Amy's journey right now is tough, emotionally speaking, because she's keeping it all inside. It's hard to let it go when it's all restrained. I could see how this comes to a slow, slow boil over the rest of the season, not paying off until the finale. Sorry!
I think you're spot-on with this. Amy is good at coping, and getting on with it. It was one of the things that endeared her to me from the start - the way she was obviously very damaged but just refused to give an inch.

This is fantastic.

>> I see the Doctor taking them on the adventures they need in order to raise Melody in the way she needs to be raised

I love this idea. Although maybe it's the TARDIS doing it [always taking them where they need to go.]

It would fit with the Doctor's apparent plan that he's not telling anyone, though.

=D *thumbs up* Love, especially, the new stuff with Amy and the Tessellecta.

All thanks to you m'dear! <3

I'd like to start a slow golf clap that then turns into riotous applause. Because that was freaking brilliant, dear. You have me thinking about these characters in new, interesting ways! And it kind of makes me want to write them.

*mumblemublescuffstoes*

Oh, again another great essay. ;)
The argument about Melody’s surname! Of course, it makes much more sense this way. *nods*
/That there will be a moment when all his doubt and worries and insecurities will be swept away and he’ll understand what River means to him./ Oh, boy, I really hope so. Poor flabbergasted Rory deserves it. ^^

Oh, again another great essay. ;)
Thank you. :)

The argument about Melody’s surname! Of course, it makes much more sense this way. *nods*
Doesn't it just? (I felt rather clever...)

/That there will be a moment when all his doubt and worries and insecurities will be swept away and he’ll understand what River means to him./ Oh, boy, I really hope so. Poor flabbergasted Rory deserves it. ^^
He does, bless him!

You are seriously breaking my brain with all this marvelous meta.

And now I wanna write Rory fic.

You are seriously breaking my brain with all this marvelous meta.
Imagine how MY brain feels... /o\

And yay! Rory fic!

That's a brilliant essay! Great job explaining things in a simple and clear manner. It was quite interesting.

Thank you. :)

OK, this is probably a bit unusual but I'm looking for a particular entry someone's written about how Amy is a link between Doctors 7,8,9,10 and 11, and how Moff's DW is about ~the fairytale~ of the Doctor. It wasn't you was it?

On a different note, I'm really enjoying your meta, even if it's from a lurker standpoint. Keep it up! :D

It wasn't you was it?
It wasn't no, nor have I read it. Sounds fascinating, mind you, and if you ever find it make sure to tell me!

On a different note, I'm really enjoying your meta, even if it's from a lurker standpoint. Keep it up! :D
Aw, thank you. :)

I've found what I was looking for:

"Internal evidence is contradictory, but despite George's birth year and stated age, it's possible that this episode was intended to be set in 2004, just before Doctor Who returned to television in the real world. It reminds me a little of 'The Eleventh Hour', potentially readable as an authorial statement about the essence of Doctor Who as they feel it. 'The Eleventh Hour' and indeed the whole 2010 series was something of a hymn to the fan experience of waiting for the Doctor's return between 1989 and 2005, and the growth of the legend between then and now; even those who thought they had grown up were won over when he returned and were happy to go travelling with him again. (The 1996 movie fits into this scheme as well...)"(Source. (http://parrot-knight.livejournal.com/795517.html))

A Troper on That Website also realises, "The Doctor visited little Amy Pond in 1996... the year the Doctor Who TV movie was released, when the Doctor appeared again. Think about it; little Amy was shaped (in a way) with that appearance, and so were (hopefully) the people who were kids when that movie came out. That was their first "meeting" with the Doctor, just like Amy. Not only that, Amy was seven at the time. She was born in 1989 (when Seven's last series was broadcast). Also, the main part of the episode takes place in 2008 (Ten's last full series broadcast), and the end takes place in 2010 (Eleven's first series broadcast). Amy's effectively a bridge between all of the Who incarnations." (Source. (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Fridge/DoctorWho) You'll probably never come out again but that page is an excellent read)

OW.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Meta: The Ponds (This is the way women and men have behaved since the beginning...)

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject