Amy (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
such_heights) wrote2012-09-20 04:23 pm
such_heights) wrote2012-09-20 04:23 pm
Entry tags:
The Woman Who Stopped Waiting
So here's my theory about episode 5. No spoilers beyond casting changes, and no speculation about plot, just character arcs.
So here's why I think that Amy and Rory are going to be fine, but that their final episode is going to leave me a sobbing wreck anyway.
The thing about the way companion exits work in the new series is that they have to give a reason for a companion not wanting to travel any more that is consistent with their characterisation. Rose and Donna both want to stay with the Doctor forever, so, there has to be some big dramatic force that finally splits them apart. In other circumstances, I'm not sure Martha would have felt quite ready to leave the TARDIS either - although it's her own free choice, it's driven by the sense that being with the Doctor has become too painful. They all travelled with the Doctor until they couldn't any more.
Amy and Rory are different. From the beginning of s6, when we see them at home before they receive their invitation to Utah, we have the sense that they do want to have some kind of home life too, and that the Doctor is happy to drop them off and pick them up again. This gets even more pronounced in s7, as they are all clearly trying to live in two worlds. The Ponds are skittish every time they feel like they might be spending too much time in the TARDIS - they want to maintain a home life, and not seem to age more quickly than their peers. And Amy's finding it hard to fully commit to one world when she knows that the other life she has could come calling for her at any moment.
It's ultimately unsustainable, and all three of them know it, and none of them want to admit to it. And so it's going to take something far less dramatic and final than parallel universes or the end of the world or a metacrisis to get Amy to decide that the time has come to say goodbye.
In her first episode, Amy was the girl who waited, a title that has subsequently been romanticised by the characters, the show, and the fandom. But that's unsustainable too - sooner or later, she has to grow into being the woman who stopped waiting, and she's nearly there now.
Amy is many, many other things too, of course, but we've seen the way that title can turn dark and awful in the back half of s6, and she and the Doctor have to both finally, completely let it go.
And Rory, well, he's the ground to Amy's air, and his home is wherever she is, but all he really wants is a simple life. He may be a Roman and a warrior and a time-traveller, but all he really wants to be is a nurse.
So I think the heartbreak is 705 is going to come not from something terrible happening to the Ponds, but from the fact that it's the final straw that makes them leave, and the Doctor has to accept that. I think that he thinks he's managed to trick fate this time - that by letting them have their own life, they won't be in so much danger and so he can keep them longer. With Amy and Rory (and River, but so far as we know she's not going anywhere), he's found himself a family again, and having to watch him lose that is going to be the most awful thing.
In short, I think that Amy and Rory are going to go looking for their happy ever after, which is as it should be. But it's going to break the Doctor's hearts, and that's the hard part.
So here's why I think that Amy and Rory are going to be fine, but that their final episode is going to leave me a sobbing wreck anyway.
The thing about the way companion exits work in the new series is that they have to give a reason for a companion not wanting to travel any more that is consistent with their characterisation. Rose and Donna both want to stay with the Doctor forever, so, there has to be some big dramatic force that finally splits them apart. In other circumstances, I'm not sure Martha would have felt quite ready to leave the TARDIS either - although it's her own free choice, it's driven by the sense that being with the Doctor has become too painful. They all travelled with the Doctor until they couldn't any more.
Amy and Rory are different. From the beginning of s6, when we see them at home before they receive their invitation to Utah, we have the sense that they do want to have some kind of home life too, and that the Doctor is happy to drop them off and pick them up again. This gets even more pronounced in s7, as they are all clearly trying to live in two worlds. The Ponds are skittish every time they feel like they might be spending too much time in the TARDIS - they want to maintain a home life, and not seem to age more quickly than their peers. And Amy's finding it hard to fully commit to one world when she knows that the other life she has could come calling for her at any moment.
It's ultimately unsustainable, and all three of them know it, and none of them want to admit to it. And so it's going to take something far less dramatic and final than parallel universes or the end of the world or a metacrisis to get Amy to decide that the time has come to say goodbye.
In her first episode, Amy was the girl who waited, a title that has subsequently been romanticised by the characters, the show, and the fandom. But that's unsustainable too - sooner or later, she has to grow into being the woman who stopped waiting, and she's nearly there now.
Amy is many, many other things too, of course, but we've seen the way that title can turn dark and awful in the back half of s6, and she and the Doctor have to both finally, completely let it go.
And Rory, well, he's the ground to Amy's air, and his home is wherever she is, but all he really wants is a simple life. He may be a Roman and a warrior and a time-traveller, but all he really wants to be is a nurse.
So I think the heartbreak is 705 is going to come not from something terrible happening to the Ponds, but from the fact that it's the final straw that makes them leave, and the Doctor has to accept that. I think that he thinks he's managed to trick fate this time - that by letting them have their own life, they won't be in so much danger and so he can keep them longer. With Amy and Rory (and River, but so far as we know she's not going anywhere), he's found himself a family again, and having to watch him lose that is going to be the most awful thing.
In short, I think that Amy and Rory are going to go looking for their happy ever after, which is as it should be. But it's going to break the Doctor's hearts, and that's the hard part.
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I fully expect to sob my eyes out even if Amy and Rory end it all together, alive, and in the happiest of circumstances. I think the saddest part for me isn't even them leaving the TARDIS or leaving the Doctor or any of that, but just leaving at all, you know? I was Amy's age when she came on the show, and I feel like watching her and Rory grow up has been a big part of coming into my own adulthood, and so it's really sad to think about them not being around anymore.
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Exactly. Even tougher when you consider that it'll have been only 5 episodes after the Christmas Special where you get the sense that he'd finally thought, "I..I have a family. *cry*"
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Maybe, although there are other moments he's probably just making a shot in the dark at how old he thinks he is. Then there's a theory bouncing around that he's already seen the Ponds departure, and we're basically just watching a reverse/out-of-order order of his adventures afterwards. :(
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I want the Ponds to give it up on their own, and to decide, "Hey. This was awesome, but it can't go on. We need something different." I thought, actually, that was what we had at the end of s6! I would have been fine with that! (Well, mostly fine. The Christmas special tag made it a whole lot better.)
But I just feel like it's going to be trauma and agony and despair all over again, and I desperately just want the Ponds to make their own happy ending. (And then I can write stories about them having adventures on Earth forever after.)
Also, I still think Amy is modeling for the perfume that she invented. Because I don't see why a girl who has memories of multiple timelines can't have learned enough in school to create a damn perfume - and why would anyone else in the world have created a perfume named Petrichor? (Seriously. It's not catchy enough for most marketing departments to latch onto.)
ETA: Also, I am making Mr. Havoc watch ep five so he can tell me everything that happens before I watch it. He finds it adorable. He doesn't always understand the fact that I really need to go in emotionally prepared for these things.
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I could be wrong, of course, in which case you'll find me sobbing in the foetal position from now until approximately forever, but based on his arcs to date, despairing endings just don't seem like Moffat's style. So far as I can tell, RTD liked to put his angst at the end of the season, whereas Moffat puts it in the middle and then makes it come right in the end. So I'm hopeful.
And yes, I completely agree that Amy must have invented Petrichor, though from the sounds of it she may have moved on from that industry now. But yes, she clearly has a bunch of creative input as well as being the face of the product/doing one off bits of modelling etc.
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I AM SORRY FOR THE CAPS BUT ALL MY FEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELINGS
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I like your theory as much as I can like anything regarding the departure of the Ponds. Poooooonds. Doctoooorrrr. Feeeeeeeeeels!
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