#docrose

And I don’t blame Jackie or Mickey for being upset! But when we look closely at the events of the episode Rose, it’s so obvious why she decided to run away.

But let’s start with where she’s at in life. Rose left her schooling and never finished A levels because of a man, Jimmy Stone, who’s implied to be an older man (there’s more conclusive information in other media, but I’m just using the material in Doctor Who itself), and is no longer with him. This makes sense, she was a teenager and got together and gave up her schooling for an older man who probably didn’t want to be with her long term, but that limits her options a lot.

She’s together with Mickey, who happens to also be a good bit older than her. As written in canon, Rose is 19 at the start of Doctor Who and Mickey is 24. When she was together with Jimmy Stone, Mickey was already done with secondary school and likely working. This doesn’t mean their relationship necessarily isn’t healthy, but it’s not a good place to start. Especially given her history of relationships with older men.

Then there’s Jackie. And don’t get me wrong, Jackie Tyler loves her daughter more than anything. But Jackie doesn’t exactly listen to Rose. She ignores and talks over her, and talks down to her quite a bit.

A good moment to look at to see Rose’s dissatisfaction with her life, there’s the scene of her and smooth Mickey (hereon referred to as Smickey) at dinner together. The conversation starts with her talking about options for her future. She could go back to school, find a new job somewhere, lots of options. At this point, she’s not thinking at all about her initial meeting with the Doctor! In fact, she’s kind of pointedly ignoring it as something weird as fuck and interested in just moving on with her life. She isn’t instantly in run away with this strange man mode, she’s trying to figure out her life from here on out. Then, Smickey brings him up. Rose’s response is: “Oh, sorry, were we talking about me for a minute?” Given the relationships she has around her and in her past, this says a lot. Rose isn’t listened to; Jackie loves her, but doesn’t seem like the type to listen to her a lot. Mickey likes dating her and she’s very close with him, but her reaction is to get defensive when he changes the subject. It implies she doesn’t get to talk about herself much, and that she doesn’t expect to be asked either.

So this is the environment the Doctor meets Rose in. Rose is 19, lost her stable job, doesn’t have someone who listens to her, and doesn’t have any equal relationship in her life. Her boyfriend is older, her mother is her mother, and she’s just lost one of her most grounding things.

Then Rose meets the Doctor. He saves her life, which definitely wins points, but afterwards when she pushes, he answers her. He resists her, sure, but when she really asks about what’s going on, he tells her. Straight up tells her the information and that her life is in danger and why she can’t go to anyone about it. And then — crucially — asks her if she’s okay. He not only tells her important information, he checks in about her feelings! He doesn’t perfectly continue this trend, but she’s being consulted about what’s going on.

He saves her life again from Smickey at dinner, and she runs off with him, and he’s trying to figure out what to do, and she contributes. She helps him figure out the transmitter issue. She saves his life in turn in the end by defeating the Nestene Consciousness, but when she points this out, the Doctor thanks her! He genuinely acknowledges her contribution as an equal even if he started smug about the whole thing.

So Rose, 19, feeling like she’s never listened to, meets an alien with a magic travel machine who listens to her and acknowledges her contributions. Not to mention he’s handsome.

the shoes are from the lingerie brand agent provocateur - here's a bts closeup from the old official site:

and the listing was for the opposite colourway - black with pink accents

the colours were the only difference - which means that rose's shoes would have also originally had this on the bottom:

the last chapter of Empire of the Wolf had me in my bag for many obvious reasons but can we please appreciate this unexpected FOOD