Martha Jones Meme: Favorite Ships, Keeping up with the Joneses
Full works. Mum, dad. Dad’s girlfriend. Brother, sister. No silence there. So much noise.
doctor who
Amy Pond has no characteristics > She doesn’t despair, panic, and/or have complete breakdowns when in terrible situations.
(Sarcasm mode off)
In comparison to – for example – Rose, who always tried to do something (rip open the TARDIS, jump across dimensions) Amy will give up and hand her agency over to someone else, usually the Doctor (but sometimes Rory) when faced with terror or tragedy. Remember when Rory tells Amy, “I know you’ll never give up on me”? He was wrong, because she did give up…she stopped doing the CPR, she started crying over his body.
Amy Pond isn’t strong in the face of terrible, terrible things. She isn’t strong in the face of death. She isn’t strong in the face of real fear. She definitely, definitely isn’t strong in the face of losing a loved one. Instead she cries, she pleads, she freezes, she goes catatonic, she gives up, she can’t do it. She’s nearly lost Rory a couple of times that way. And her deciding, in Angels Take Manhattan, to go back in time for Rory- this is, I think, the only time where she’s lost him and she’s worked through her fear and panic and decided what she’s going to do. I think Series Five Amy would have reacted very differently to the scenario presented in the graveyard- I think she would have done what the Doctor wanted, gone back to the TARDIS, and never been happy again for a very, very long time. Luckily, she found her agency when she needed it most.
Anyway, the point is, Amy isn’t a strong female character. Not in that way. Not at all. And I love her for it.
Amy Pond has no characteristics> She’s not interested in art, she hasn’t got a favourite artist whom she was delighted to meet, and she isn’t a talented artist herself. (And the Doctor never once had a whole scene where he realised Amy was Amy because she was surrounded by drawings and models.)
The face is not set from birth. It’s not like he was always going to be one day Peter Capaldi. We know that’s the case because in The War Games he has a choice of faces. So we know it’s not set, so where does he get those faces from?
Can we talk about this for a second? That’s Steven Moffat saying that a story from the 60s affects the present of the show, that we can know something by inferring it from an episode over forty years old. That’s a fan speaking.
Hmmmm, is he inferring what I think he’s inferring here?
What do you think he’s inferring from War Games?
Ooh, not from War Games, but I think (judging by some other things he’s said too) that Peter Capaldi’s other appearances on the show are gonna come into play for this regeneration…that’s where Twelve’s gonna get his face from.
The face is not set from birth. It’s not like he was always going to be one day Peter Capaldi. We know that’s the case because in The War Games he has a choice of faces. So we know it’s not set, so where does he get those faces from?
Can we talk about this for a second? That’s Steven Moffat saying that a story from the 60s affects the present of the show, that we can know something by inferring it from an episode over forty years old. That’s a fan speaking.
Hmmmm, is he inferring what I think he’s inferring here?
Here’s what makes them different: Amy is broken, angry, and scared of responsibility. Clara is responsible and often afraid, but typically adventurous and light-hearted. River is sensual, capable, independent, and self-sacrificing. Their lives do not all revolve around the Doctor. Amy’s life is a struggle between home and adventure, and that is SYMBOLIZED in Rory and the Doctor. Clara lives a perfectly normal, happy home life and jaunts off with the Doctor on Wednesdays. River has a whole life outside of the Doctor, with friends and a profession she loves. Her life kind of revolves around the Doctor, but she was programmed to kill him and then she married him, so it makes sense.
I can say that Rose, Martha, and Donna were all sassy, had low self esteem, and didn’t follow orders. How does that sound? You cannot boil complex characters down to their most basic traits and then say they’re all the same. Rose was very flirty. Donna was very fiery. All of their lives revolved around the Doctor. Rose in particular spent years doing nothing but searching for the Doctor.
This is not a Moffat problem. This isn’t a problem at all. This is an issue entirely made up by fans who want something to complain about.
Emphasis mine
I mean, can you imagine Amy looking after teenage children for a living? (You might have a bit more leeway after Series Six, but I’m still not sure it’d be something she’d ever want to do.) Or Clara being a model? We’ve seen both River and Clara stand over their mother’s grave but it was only Clara crying, River didn’t shed a single tear. Would Amy have ever declared she did something ‘disgracefully’? Would Clara ever call someone ‘stupid face’ as a term of endearment? And so on…
Amy Pond has no characteristics > She’s not a natural storyteller with an interest in writing, a skill which she later uses to bring joy to thousands of people