Raggedy man, goodbye.

[such_heights]

kass asked me to talk about why I love the Ponds, and with the last Pond standing about to bow out of the show tonight, it seemed like a good time. (Yes, of course the Eleventh Doctor's a Pond.)

My love of Amy, Rory, River and Eleven is well documented all over my internet haunts. It is a love that has been pure and true and ever-growing for four years now. And I adore Clara, and I'm super excited for Twelve and s8 looks fab, but it's hard to imagine a time when Amy's not my favourite companion and when Eleven's not my Doctor.

In the end, the Ponds era was a story about all of my favourite things. It was a story about hope, about love, about remaking the world if you only believe hard enough. It was about choosing what to do with the hand that life gives you, about getting what you want even when it might look strange to other people. It was about learning to be kind, about deciding to be brave, about having faith in yourself. It was about growing up, and what that does and doesn't mean. It was about the triumph of intellect and romance over brute force and cynicism (youtube link).

It was about four people, each of them connected to each other in all kinds of ways - friends, lovers, family - whose combined power could bring the whole universe back to life.

They've been a joy and a comfort over the past few years' ups and downs, the way that all my favourite stories are. I miss Amy and Rory an awful lot. I'm afraid we might have seen the last of River. And saying goodbye to Eleven tonight is going to be pretty painful.

But I've made such good friends, done such cool things, and made things I'm really proud of thanks to this fandom, and so even though I'm about to go put the TV on and get ready to cry on Christmas (THANKS, SHOW, JEEZ), I wouldn't change a thing.

♥ Ponds ♥

Comments

[minim_calibre]

PONDS!

I think my Pond feelings can be summed up by the fact that your subject line made me tear up.

(And I have POND THOUGHTS, about how the events of the 50th wouldn't have been possible without the time spent with the Ponds, because yes, remaking the world, but if I think about PONDS for too long, I become a soppy mess of everything.)

[killabeez]

Just wanted to say, I love the Ponds, too. After a lifetime of watching Who stuff (from 5th Doctor to 11th), Eleven was the first Doctor I felt was "my" Doctor, and Ponds were the reason. :) I have watched DW since I was 14, but never really felt it until Ponds, and that's the truth. ♥

[tempestsarekind]

Hi! You don't know me (I wandered over here from LJ), but I just wanted to say that this is a lovely post! I love the Ponds so much, and as winning as Jenna Coleman and Clara are, I really still miss that depth of connection all four Ponds had with each other, all those layers of shifting relationships.

[nekare]

I pretty much just want to say YES, THIS to everything. :) PONDS. So amazing. ♥

I'm just about to watch the episode! I'm gonna miss Eleventy so very, very much.

[kass]

♥ Ponds ♥ SO MUCH YES OMG.

*sniffly happy flailing*

Downloading the Christmas ep now; caught between "I can't wait to see more Eleven" and "WOE it is the last of Eleven" -- !

But I will always adore them, so much.

[independence1776]

Yes. Just yes.

Thank you for writing this. It's perfect.

[ashpags]

Ponds Forever. <3

[pocky_slash]

I have basically had this open since you posted it, waiting for a time when I could be coherent enough about the subject to respond the way I wanted to without going blubbery. I feel the same way, and I think that's why I've had trouble connecting to Clara as much as I'd like to--Eleven was a Pond to me, and seeing him without them felt...sad.

But I've loved this era, which is why it hurts so much to hear people talking about how it's terrible. I really connected to the themes in this era. It felt hopeful in a way that had never been sustained in the way I wanted in the previous new!Who seasons (which isn't to say that's necessarily a BAD thing, just not what I was looking for in the story.) It felt like it was about love and adventure and faith and togetherness in the face of awful things. It felt new to me, and alive and excited and that spoke to me at times that I needed it.

Twelve is going to be hard for me, I think. Before Eleven, I thought of Nine as "my" Doctor and when I started, in S2 of New!Who, I went in knowing his time was limited. With Eleven, it was easy to think he could keep going forever, but at the same time, I'm glad he didn't go on for too long without the rest of the Ponds, because I feel like I can watch Twelve and Clara without being as sad as I was watching Eleven and Clara.

ANYWAY, thank you for posting this. It's been a balm on my soul since Christmas ♥ ♥ ♥

[such_heights]

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3