#antimoffat

Every time Rose’s flaws come up, it’s oftentimes cited as a major reason she’s a bad (or even horrible) and unlikeable character:

1. She’s often rash with her decisions and doesn’t think them through (especially in the beginning of the series)

2. She can be quite jealous and mean (aka the Sara-Jane situation)[1]

3. She treats Mickey in a less than stellar way (instead of cleanly breaking up with him when it’s clear they can’t be what they need to each other anymore, she’s leaving him hanging in this limbo and then has the audacity to get upset when he’s trying to move on)[2]

I agree that these are indeed her main flaws and it doesn’t make her look good. But it’s not meant to and neither does that detract from her allure as a character. From what I’ve gathered, because of those obvious flaws it’s not understood why on earth people are still liking her. Why are we ”putting her on a pedestal“ when she’s ”mean“ and ”bitchy“ and rash?

I don’t think most Rose fans put her on a pedestal. The way I see it goes like this:

I see Rose in a lot of people in real life, including myself. Jealousy, pettiness, selfishness — those are all things any one of us have experienced. Being selfish and hurting people you’re close to, being mean to your friend that one time because you felt jealous, arguments escalating because being petty as hell felt so much better in that moment — all things most of us have experienced (especially in younger years), at least once because none of us are good and „unproblematic“ all the time.

So, yeah, Rose was jealous and mean and selfish at points (note how it’s only a few instances spaced out in like 2+ years of in-Universe time) But for all of her flaws, Rose is also so kind and compassionate; those are her core traits. She sees the people’s hurt and pain and reaches out with comfort and empathy. She asks everyone their names and makes sure they’re treated right.

She’s generally warm and charming, witty, intelligent and brave. Most of her flaws (just like in real life) are a result of unresolved issues and her immaturity due to her age (God, just think back on when you were 19 lmao). It makes her real, like somebody I could meet on the streets and befriend.

Which brings me to my next point: Rose grows so much as time passes, like she’s so much more mature and settled at the time she’s jumping dimensions. At this point she’s legit somebody who took on the responsibility of doing everything she can to save the multiverse because she knows she has the knowledge, skills and the fortitude to pull through. And yeah, she also did it to get back to the Doctor, ✨god forbid a woman in love trying to reunite with her beloved✨[3]

Also to underline my point: Amy, for example, can be brash, bossy and demanding (also she basically cheated on Rory just the night before her wedding…I’m remembering this correctly, right?), yet I still like her because that’s not all she is.[4] She’s also somebody with unwavering belief in her loved ones, brave and quick on her feet. Maybe I’m biased (I’d like to know your opinions on that) but sometimes it feels like Rose‘s flaws, things she grows past I might add, are dissected under a microscope, blending out the rest (which is like 95% of her personality).

Rose shows us the messy and oh so human side of all of us. She’s just a human girl with exceptional kindness but human failings trying to grapple with falling in love with an alien, finding out who she is and what she can do (more than she ever could’ve dreamed).

Her ”boring“ humanity becomes her most exceptional trait which charms and endears the Doctor (and many other characters. She’s really good with winning people over).

And that’s beautiful, really, because Rose shows us that every single of us ordinary people can do the most extraordinary thing, by just being our most authentic human selves.

Further notes:

[1] Sara-Jane was also quite mean, understandably so; she was hurt and betrayed, I’d be pissed too. She let that anger out on Rose at the beginning, and Rose reacted by lashing out. So far, so understandable. The thing is, this ”cat fight“ thing, further egged on by Mickey, is a result of misogyny permeating everything, yes, RTD‘s writing is not exempt from that. (He’s doing better than Moffat that’s for sure, but it’s still there). But I don’t get why people solely blame Rose when both gave as good as they got. All in all, Rose and Sara were getting along just great, in the end, so. Feel free to check out this post for a more nuanced perspective.

[2] Mickey didn’t exactly treat her right either, just saying. It doesn’t justify Rose‘s behaviour towards him but it’s not like Mickey is a blameless party in this relationship. Action’s and (bad) behavioural patterns do not exist in a vacuum, they’re rooted in previous actions that trigger certain responses. But this is a whole another can of worms best opened in a separate post. If you're interested about said can of worms, check out this post of mine: THE BLAME GAMES.

[3] It’s interesting how Rose is punished by some fans for fighting to get back to the Doctor, claiming her dimension hopping to return to the Doctor is allegedly underlining her inability to let go. So, basically being the „clingy gf/ex“. I beg to differ because

1. the main reason for her dimension jumps was the threat to the multiverse with the stars going out which is a Doctor-requiring threat tbh. Would it also result in reuniting with her love? Yep, so why not kill two birds with one stone?

2. Judging by the Doctor‘s reaction when they see each other, my bro had zero complaints. He saw Rose and was like rose,rose,omg its rose,my wife is baaack before running to her full tilt, completely missing the Dalek that shot him.

3. At the same time, River was actively about to destroy the whole universe because she couldn’t let go of the Doctor, so he was forced to go through with a marriage he clearly didn’t want. It don’t get clingier than that.

I would also like to add that there’s a beautiful parallel to this: I present you the Bad Wolf Bay scene where the Doctor explains he can’t come through the gap because both universes would collapse if he did.

Rose antis try to use Rose‘s line ”So?“ as a proof that she was oh so selfish by interpreting it as a so what; a callous question a lá who cares? I want you to come get me, universes be damned.

Again, I beg to differ. She wasn’t scoffing at the Doctor‘s explanation. Her choked ”So?“ was Rose simply seeking confirmation that she would never see the Doctor again, while clinging to the hope it wasn’t the case. It was her hoping he could provide another answer even if she knew he couldn’t. She had to ask, one last time, because hope dies last, as the saying goes.

[4] I blame Moffat‘s inability to write a single female character without a weird sexualising component. This goes beyond DW btw, he was the same in Sherlock, so yeah. Cracking a sexual joke once and again is fine, it’s fun even, but it does get old and annoying if it’s brought up a gazillion times. Also let’s not talk about his views of women, pregnant women in particular, and men too btw. Because wdym, men can’t be romantic or soft, or men avoid all types of attachment?? Dude doesn’t realise one of the reasons the Doctor was an outcast in Time Lord society is because he was a dreamer and a romantic… (romantic as in romanticising life but doesn’t necessarily exclude his want to belong somewhere or with someone) lol

Okay I’m done, now. Cheers!

There was at least some engagement on my last post about this so I decided I will in fact post a follow up. GitF was 100% a bad faith episode. Moffat wrote it because he is classist and misogynistic and hates Rose. Unfortunately, part of his purpose for the episode was to show that the Doctor will always prefer a “classy” aristocrat over Rose and he wanted to have her treated as nothing. So, all of us Rose fans have to come up with a headcanon that undermines the writer’s intentions.

I think the most common one is to believe the episode was the Doctor’s attempts to push Rose away because of her mortality and how that scares him.

That never worked for me because a major part of the Doctor’s character is his protectiveness. He would never push her away to the point of danger or abandonment. For me, I feel that fictional or not, the actions of the Doctor in that episode would be entirely unforgivable if they did happen. So my headcanon is that this episode was a nightmare Rose had.

If you are like me are also one of the fans for whom the pushing her away theory doesn’t work, read on for my explanation of why I don’t think GitF could be an actual event within canon. Moffat may be a BBC writer but it doesn’t give him a right to completely undermine the show, it doesn’t actually belong to anyone outside of financial concerns. If you’re content with believing he needed to push Rose away and that the episode did happen, you can ignore this.

Ha! Sorry to confuse you with my post. Well, there's a bunch of blind fans (and a show runner) out there who think the Doctor sending Rose away to protect her, and then her being trapped in a parallel world was the Doctor trying to get rid of Rose but she just keeps coming back to annoy him. According to this post, which is a nice list of why Moffat is absolute trash, comes this quote from him:

"You have to hand it to the Doctor for dumping a slightly needy girlfriend by palming her off on a copy of himself. He tried leaving her in a parallel universe, and that didn't work."

Soooooo, it’s been awhile since I watched Doctor Who. And it certainly has been ages since I made a review on it but I finally finished the Twelve and even though he is definitely NOT my Doctor, I really enjoyed the special with River. Honestly, I watched the Twelve just because Big Finish brought me back to fandom for awhile releasing a series of Tentoo/Tyler Clan adventures which is just PERFECTION. (No spoilers, though) And of course, I am excited for Thirteen, because of NO MOFFAT, finally. 

Since it’s been a long time since my Doctor Who I need to clarify my siding in former holywars of the fandom. I pretty much hate everything Moffat did after the departure of Amy and Rory. Don’t me get started on the Day of the Doctor and Clara, because I can rant about it for ages. I loved the Pond arc and Amy is my second fave companion behind Rose and Eleven is my third fave Doctor ( and yes, I did watch the Classic Series, all of it), so don’t attack me if you think I am prejudiced towards Moffat era. But yeah, I am an RTD fan, Ten is my Doctor, Rose is my companion, etc, etc.

So, to review now. I was asked a few times what I think of River considering that I am a big fan of Rose Tyler and I never answered specifically, cause I didn’t really care that much. Of course, my fandom friends were interested what do I think about the two biggest ships of Whoniverse (at least so far). Don’t get me wrong I like River, on the same level I like Ace or Charlie or Peri. She is definitely not in my TOP, but not at the low like Clara. Her relationship with the Doctor, however, was always disturbing and abusive to me. I always felt sorry for River, especially with Eleven. He was terrible to her, apart from when he was saying goodbye to her ghost or whatever that was. But I had to admit they were pretty great with Twelve. Finally, the Doctor showed what she was talking about with Ten, because I never imagined it would happen. Moffat was extremely lazy in his last seasons, but at least River received a goodbye she deserved. I am still not sure to what extent he loved her, but Twelve definitely showed that he did. I am sorry Eleven/River shippers, but with them, I never saw it. I was actually happy that he had a picture of River when she ‘died’ (according to his timeline) because it showed that he finally learned to care about her. I honestly feel that Twelve was the only regeneration who actually loved River. Eleven felt guilt, responsibility, etc, but love? I just don’t see it. But that’s just my opinion. 

Let me get this straight. I freaking LOVE Rose Tyler. I ship her hard as fuc* with the Doctor, especially with Nine, Ten and Tentoo, but some regenerations as well. We all know that the Doctor loved Rose, we never needed proof of that, etc, etc. But my point is that, in the end, I think the Doctor loved both of them. But that was two completely different relationships. And I hate when people try to prove who was better for the Doctor. I think they are both great women (even though my heart belongs to Rose), in their own ways, even though Moffat did try REALLY hard to ruin River, but thanks Alex, you were amazing. 

If to be poetic love with Rose was like spring. It gave him strength, he wanted to be better for her, he was gentle and loving and caring It was easy to be with her, despite Rose being human. With River, it was a fall. Sometimes it was stormy and cruel, sometimes warm and soothing. And it was pretty hard and complicated. But at the end of the day, the Doctor did go to extremes for both of them. The brightest examples in the series ( I won’t go into extended universe, I am sure there are many more examples but I never was interested enough in River, so I have just Rose’s side) were when Ten created a human regeneration for Rose (Tentoo) who could actually give her a fully dedicated life, the stars and her family, so instead of her sacrificing anything for him, for once the Doctor wasn’t selfish and sacrificed a lot for her. And of course when he burned up the sun for Rose. Which was stupid, a little selfish but romantic to hell. With River it’s of course when he deiced to spend their last night that lasted for 24 years. Basically what we learn from both River and Rose’s example, that the Doctor, if he really wants to, can settle down.  If to say about who he would ultimately choose ( if he had to and there was no other way and the universe would explode, etc. etc.), I, of course, would say Rose. Haha, yes, I admit, I am biased. But there is also quite a reason for that. And ironically, it was Moffat who gave us that. The Moment. Among EVERYONE who ever traveled with the Doctor chose Rose’s image. Not Susan, not his first wife whoever she was, not Clara (who was the closest to him at the moment of The Day of the Doctor) and not even River, the Moment chose Rose. So I guess it proves again, that you can love many people in your life (especially if you lived for thousands of years) but there always that special someone that you can never let go of completely. It doesn’t mean that you care less for those who around you, sure thing no, but this special someone always stays in the back of your mind.  So yeah, maybe it was a bit cheesy review, but I am glad that I finished it. I am also happy that Moffat is gone for good and that we finally have a female Doctor! I am looking forward to Jodie’s version of the Doctor very much but judging from the trailers my fave babes Ten/Tentoo have a serious competitor who can overtake the place of my Doctor. 

Chapters: 1/1 Fandom: Doctor Who (2005) Rating: General Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Tenth Doctor/Rose Tyler Characters: Tenth Doctor (Doctor Who), Rose Tyler Additional Tags: Episode: s02e03 School Reunion (Doctor Who), Episode: s02e04 The Girl in the Fireplace, Pre-Relationship, Hurt/Comfort, Cuddling & Snuggling, True Love, The Doctor Loves Rose Tyler, Canon Compliant, Rose Tyler Loves the Doctor, Tenth Doctor Era, Dreams and Nightmares Summary:

I have recently learned that Moffat didn’t just bastardize Ten and Rose. He insulted Madame de Pompadour. Based on historical descriptions of her she was a “physically cold woman.” There’s more details but ultimately, she likely would not have appreciated being portrayed as a sex symbol.

Anyway, this led me to start working on a version of my nightmare fix it fic where the Doctor takes Rose to see what the real Madame de Pompadour is like. I welcome any input on details people might like to read in this expanded version. Only thing I’m dead set on doing is having the villain be a time agent with a fetish for Madame de Pompadour. I also want to use the sexist details in the GitF script as dialogue for him.

Other than that, I’m open ideas for the expanded version of my fic! I’ll link the one shot version for reference. I’ll the one shot as the first chapter of the expanded story. I will leave the one shot up as is for people who wish to headcanon the nightmare aspect but not the story where they visit 18th Century France the next day.

vs me watching Moffat Doctor Who