(no subject)
You know…sometimes I get the feeling the series works better if you watch it from Jackie and Mickey’s POV rather than Rose’s. Overall, I mean. Because throughout both series, they change for the better and get a happy ending. Jackie’s husband comes back from the dead, almost, and saves her daughter- and then she gets a lovely house*, a complete family, and a new baby. Everything she’s ever wanted, just about. And Mickey gets to be a hero, and gains Jake and a gang of rebels, and his grandmother back and then Rose and Jackie too. Awesome for the both of them.
And then there’s Rose, and to be honest, I really don’t know what to make of her last scenes. About the ‘I’m never gonna leave you’ thing- yes, it was her decision, yes, she deserves to be able to make her own decisions- but Jackie would stay behind in Pete’s universe for her entire life and she’d never know if Rose was alive or dead or happy or what- her daughter would be as good as dead. She’d be unhappy for the rest of her life, and Rose could have prevented it- but she loves the Doctor and she wanted to stay with him, and she was right when she said everyone leaves home in the end. But…I don’t know. I really don’t know. And it would have been one seriously depressing tragedy if Rose had actually died.
Or, if she’d been able to carry on with the Doctor and eventually, say, he regenerated- but this time into someone she didn’t like. Or the Time Lords came back and he had to leave her for them, or something. Where we she go then? Nowhere, because she’d seperated herself from everybody. And she’d have had to leave the Doctor someday.
Everyone leaves home in the end.
So, the ending. I don’t know. What I really wanted was for her to realise that she had to grow up. Like Sarah Jane did, walking away. I wanted her to realise that the life she’s living is impossible, and that she can make a difference on Earth, or something- but she didn’t. There’s still hope that she’ll learn, on alt-earth, that she was lucky- but we’ll probably not see it. Unless she shows up again. Which I hope she does.
Sigh.
It depends which way you look at it?
Anyway. What do you think Jackie and Pete will call their new baby?
*I love the Tyler’s new house. I want to live there. Except not in the alt-verse (too many zeppelins).
July 9, 2006 @ 9:16 am
Nowhere, because she’d seperated herself from everybody. And she’d have had to leave the Doctor someday. Yeah, that’s why it burns. We knew she had to and while she doesn’t know she’s leaving in that episode, we’d expect her to notice something so obvious. And that… makes her seem stupid. The most important lesson and she never learned it. Her final scene is tears. It’s horrid. :( Anyway. What do you think Jackie and Pete will call their new baby? “The.” Cos Jackie thinks they should name it after the Doctor.
July 9, 2006 @ 1:43 pm
blustering in from who_daily: I dunno; I can definitely see your point in that Rose should learn her lesson re: the Doctor. But at the same time, I can kind of see that conversation with Jackie as the fact that her heart is warring with her reason, which isn’t necessarily weakness. I think that would’ve been so much more sad of an ending if she had to wait for her feelings to catch up to her reason. The most important lesson and she never learned it. Unless the lesson is, “stay: some things are worth getting your heart broken for” as Sarah Jane told her. And if she did learn her lesson, that she’d eventually have to leave? Does it mean she’d have left immediately? I think she would’ve held on as long as she could. I think she was. I mean, even if you know the band-aid has to come off, you can decide to pull it slowly and purposefully, or you can rip it off in one quick go. Is it a detriment to Rose as a character that she decided she wasn’t going to make a clean break? Nah. And given that, there were two stories the writers could have told; I’ve got no qualms with the one they decided upon. And, perhaps it’s just a failing of the TV format, that we don’t get to see Rose coping as much as we should. Actually I think they did a pretty good job at that last scene, showing us her sadness but also showing us that she’s still Rose. I really didn’t see utter despair in that scene; I saw someone who had to say goodbye to the love of her life and then pick up and keep going. It’s not something she can get over in a few months, but heck, even if she had started healing, even then, a last goodbye would be enough to make anybody cry. I’m actually glad that our last picture of Rose is not breaking down in tears alone on a beach; it’s running into the arms of her mum and holding on. To me that scene says, she’s got her family and she’ll make it. Jackie knows what it’s like to lose the love of her life, and something tells me she won’t let Rose make the same mistakes she did. So, sad but hopeful. Ah, okay, said my bit, don’t mind me :) Bad form, diatribing on others’ lj’s. Didn’t mean for that to be so long.
July 9, 2006 @ 11:17 am
Agreed with the Rose needed to “grow up” – it just didn’t seem to satisfy the story arc for me. I’d love to see the Doctor come back when she’s a little older and wiser and realises how lucky she is to have her family (and hot!Mickey, because yum. Really, really yum). Something which has only started to bug me now — when was this set? Some time after Dalek? If it’s before then has everything now changed for Van Statten, and if so why didn’t the “last” Dalek come back to life and destroy everything. Oh, the thinking, it burns.
July 9, 2006 @ 11:47 am
I can only conlude that everything that happened in Dalek has now somehow wiped itself from history… …which means that somewhere in the world there’s a kid called Adam who doesn’t have a metal thingy in his head and never met the Doctor? And somewhere else in the world there’s a billionaire alien-collector called Van Statten who doesn’t happen to own a Dalek? Ow. My brain hurts as well.
July 10, 2006 @ 1:03 pm
Eeek! Stop that. You know, if we stopped to think over all the plots after 30 years of this show, our brains would all break irreparably. Just MST3K it – “Just repeat to yourself, ‘it’s just a show, I should really just relax.'”
July 10, 2006 @ 4:04 pm
*wail* I-can’t-stop-it-has-taken-over-my-brain. :S (And a world without Nine all chained up and nekkid? Perhaps it’s just Ten’s ploy to be the sexiest.)
July 10, 2006 @ 4:14 pm
Yes. I *do* crush on Eccleston pretty hard, but still could’ve done without that shot. OTOH, Tennant is very cute but… saw the beach shots… and… and… He’smuchcuterwhendressedthereIsaidit.
July 9, 2006 @ 5:52 pm
I’m sort of getting stuck on the idea that I’m not so sure Rose has to grow up. I’m not a big believer in some normative path we all have to follow in life – one thing that bothered me during Jackie’s speech to Rose in AoG was the idea of “settling down” – as if that’s the only thing to do in life, go home and settle down. If Rose stayed with the Doctor, it would, as you rightly point out, only ever end in heartbreak, loss, or death. But sometimes those are the risks we take for a chance at the stars? It’s very Romantic with a capital R, these ideals that people don’t follow anymore, but I like the idea that we all have free choice and I respect the idea of Rose choosing the ‘wrong’ path. It’s just another alternative, a tragic one, but I respect it. I dunno, am rambling.
July 10, 2006 @ 4:51 am
I’m sort of getting stuck on the idea that I’m not so sure Rose has to grow up. I’m not a big believer in some normative path we all have to follow in life – one thing that bothered me during Jackie’s speech to Rose in AoG was the idea of “settling down” – as if that’s the only thing to do in life, go home and settle down. Yes, *thank you*. I’m getting all this ‘Rose was an idiot because she didn’t realize family was more important than the Doctor’ and ‘Rose was an idiot because didn’t leave the Doctor as soon as possible’. But the thing was, just because everyone was telling Rose that she should consider Jackie more important doesn’t mean *she* agreed. Some people live within a few miles of their parents all their lives; some people get on ships and planes and move to the far side of the world and never come back. Some people live quiet domestic lives; some people go off with their best beloved and climb dangerous mountains or work as doctors in the middle of deadly conflict. And *all of these choices are right*.
July 10, 2006 @ 7:15 am
I am beginning to suspect there are no real answers. Which is quite alright. XD