Rory Williams: Kind Of A Selfish Git

Overly Devoted Archivist Uncategorized amy x rory, doctor who, rory williams 14 Comments

Nice guys finish last, but Rory, like most people, isn’t quite a nice guy.

First time we met Rory, who didn’t think he was basically the Second Mickey? It was so bloody obvious, there’s this guy who likes Amy but Amy likes the Doctor. And Rory will either have to do the Mickey thing and stand aside, or he’ll turn vengeful jilted lover, or the Doctor will burst into that wedding and yell ‘I object!’ as Amy falls into his arms. You just knew he wouldn’t prove himself worthy, and then…he did.

Ever noticed how they’re all pretty flawed people, our Doctor Who companions? Especially the modern ones. Rose is selfish, Martha is jealous, Donna is quick-tempered and Amy…where to start. Rory? He’s selfish, too, in his love for Amy. Not in a way that hurts her- he’d never intentionally hurt her- but he so often sees her as the Amy he wants rather than the Amy she is. For almost all of the series, he wants her so much he barely sees her. Just like Rose never saw the Doctor through her rose-tinted (ha) glasses…

Oh, and he’s insecure, and desperately afraid he’ll lose what he loves. More or that later. But hey, all the Who characters are awesome despite their flaws, and this is the story of how Rory became awesome.

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Rory downright worships Amy. She treats him like rubbish in The Eleventh Hour, not acknowledging him as her boyfriend, but he still loves her so much he proposes to her a year so later. Makes you wonder a bit what he sees in her- I think Amy’s a brilliant character, but she is a terrible, terrible girlfriend! She makes her interest in the Doctor pretty clear, right in front of Rory…

That would put most people off. As would the running off with another man. And the mockery and the baiting and the name-calling and the fact that she’s never said ‘I love you’ to the man she planned to marry. Yet despite all this, he risks his life to save her in Vampires Of Venice. His idea of her, at this point, may well be “damsel in distress who I’ve gotta save”. But she ends up saving him!

In Amy’s Choice his whole world and whole dreamworld is centered utterly around her- an Amy who will marry him and live with him. He wants to settle down with her- just like Rose always wanted the Doctor to settle with her and get a mortgage and that- even though it must be sinking in that she probably won’t want that for ages, if she ever does. Yet he still persists, tells her she has to grow up, he wants her to want what he wants.

In a way he has a point: only those people who walk out of the TARDIS freely (i.e. just Martha) seem to have a happy ending in the Whoniverse.

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At the end of Amy’s Choice, Amy has thoroughly chosen Rory, and he couldn’t be happier. I always thought there were problems with the end of Amy’s Choice, like that fact that the baby is never mentioned again. Rory’s last thought was for the baby, and neither of them seem to care about its loss. And while Rory is touched that Amy risked her life for him, he’s also sort of happy about it, which makes sense (after all, no-one’s actually dead or were ever in danger) but there probably should’ve been a ‘don’t ever do anything dangerous like that again’ in there.

Next episode the trio are travelling happily along. Rory’s oddly patronising towards Amy when he asks her to take off her engagement ring- she’s not that careless, and rings can be replaced! – but I put that down to bad writing (the ring’s got to go from the finger to the TARDIS somehow). Rory spends the rest of the episode being brilliant- it really comes across what a caring person he is when he tells Alaya they’ll look after her, even though she’s one of the people responsible for their awful situation. There’s also a lovely cut scene in The Brilliant Book with Rory bringing Alaya food, where he refuses to sink to her level…

And then there’s the dying for the Doctor, which is a thoroughly unselfish act, but we’re talking a different kind of selfishness here, the same blinkered sort Rose had. Remember when Rose and the Doctor had their talk on Bad Wolf Bay, and the Doctor says that if she touches him the universe will die, and she says ‘So?’ and she means it?

Hey, ever notice how Rory got Ten’s dying words? While he’s dying he says “I don’t want to go.” Which I’m sure is hugely significant- characterwise, not plotwise- maybe it hits home the point that Ten’s death was so human? Anyway. Rory dies for Eleven without a second thought, on instinct in fact, and any doubts about Amy’s feelings towards Rory are dispelled when we see her screaming, grieveing reaction to his death. In one of the Doctor Who Magazines, Arthur Darvill ponders whether his last word, “Sorry.” is arrogant or not…”Sorry for dying because I know you’re in love with me!” Eventually him and the interviewer comes to the conclusion that “Rory’s not worried about himself dying, he’s worried about it’s effect on Amy,” and also, “Rory’s got this thing about lives being at risk.” I don’t reckon his decision to be a nurse was all about the Doctor…

Rory dies for Eleven, but lives for Amy…we know this bit, it was awesome. No lovers in the Whoniverse do much waiting around- Ten won’t, Jack won’t, River we don’t know, Reinette was forced to- except for him. Talk about a slow path.

Probably safe to say that the killing of Amy is the worst moment of Rory’s life (even two thousand years later he hasn’t forgotten.) Then she’s dead and the Doctor’s there, saying “Your girlfriend’s not more important than the whole universe.” and Rory punches him in the face and yells, “She is to me!” And I think that’s what sets Rory apart from Rose, she never got as far as the to me.

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So Rory’s a bit selfish, or he is when it comes to the woman he loves, he loves her so much he sometimes can’t see the big picture, fitting her into boxes she doesn’t belong in. But he learns! I don’t think Rose ever quite did.

Probably Rory’s biggest flaw, though, is his insecurity. Amy calls him on it, but then he had a reason to be – she’s never even said that she loves him! But in the reboot-verse Amy clearly has said it, and well, at the wedding we get this-

Amy: Why am I crying?

Rory: Because you’re happy, probably. Happy Mrs Rory, happy happy happy?

Amy: No. I’m sad. I’m really really sad.

Rory: Great.

He doesn’t ask why Amy’s sad, just assumes it’s because of the wedding, because she’s married him, and withdraws into a gloomy sort of anger. But all isn’t lost, because Amy remembers the Doctor and Rory remembers everything. Which I hope is brought up in the next series, btw.

And watch them dancing at the wedding. Adorable!

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My favourite Amy/Rory moment is when they’re standing at the Pandorica, and Rory says “Are you okay?” and she says “Are you?”. He tells her he isn’t, and she snaps “Well, shut up then!” He doesn’t say anything, just hugs her. At this point, after everything he’s been through, he loves her now because of her flaws instead of in spite of them. I like to think that’s where Rory’s journey ends, in a way, him and her in the light of a magic box…