Rose, Rosefen and the Metaphorical Bitch-slap

[drakyndra]

Quick meta that I want to get off my back before diving into my Folio editing again.

Note: Though in a few bits this might sound slightly anti-Rose, it's more anti- fans of Sueish!Rose. She annoys me at times but I don't per se hate her - I just severely dislike the idealised version certain parts of fandom insist she truly is. It starts off a bit ranty, but then I get into the meta-type stuff.


If there is one thing I am really sick of amongst a lot of fandom, it's the fact that in certain parts of fandom, whenever Rose displays some of her less desirable personality traits, the jealousy or bitchiness or selfishness or whatever, the automatical response from a whole bunch of people will be "Oh, she's just 19, that's normal."

And on behalf of someone who was (until a week ago) 19 years old, I just have to say: No. Just no. If I had acted like Rose has on some occasions, like she was to Mickey or some of her more jealous moods, my friends would have bitch-slapped me into next week.

Hell, when I was fifteen, I did act rather like that (though less clinging to a boy, and more friend related), and you know what happened? I got hugely (metaphorically) bitch-slapped. Big mondo fight, and some of my friends didn't speak to me for weeks.

And so I moved on, grew up, grew out of it. Got over it. Because they aren't nice character traits, no matter how old you are. And so to those Rose apologists, could you please stop telling me it's mormal, it's natural, she's a 19 year old girl and is supposed to be like that - No, she isn't.

That said, I think what we are coming to this season, and in the build up for Rose's departure is that metaphorical bitchslap. She's being immature and petty, and you know what? She is starting to pay for it.

In fact, that's what we've been seeing - Rose's metaphorical bitch-slap. Starting with the mighty pwnage from Queen Victoria, and then from Sarah Jane showing her her place in the Doctor's life, Madame de Pompadour, Mickey and alt-Pete, and whatever else is going to go down.

It sounds terribly harsh, but life is like that - it's the hard lessons you remember. You don't learn from someone saying you should pay more attention from others, you learn when your best friend tells you that sorry, they have other people they'd rather spend time with. It's that metaphorical bitch-slap, that gets it through to you. Rose was told the Doctor was worth the monsters, here she is getting her metaphorical monsters. How she copes with it will shape the person she becomes.

(Yes, the Doctor is also paying for his actions, though on a less emotional, and more physical level. And a much grander scale - I am guessing that by the end of the season, he'll be saying sorry for a lot more than one person. Only a God sees and sorrows for every little sparrow that falls. How does a God cope when a hundred, a thousand fall?

And it all ties in with my theory about how this season is all about actions versus consequences. We are getting consequences, be they emotional, physical, from the micro to the macro. How it ends, though, is the big question. In every case.)

Rose is getting her lesson - you pay for the price for how you act. And hopefully, hopefully she will learn from this, she will grow and become a better and more well-balanced person. And just possibly, once she has leanrt this lesson, she might just choose to step out and do her own thing, whatever that may be.

So please, people, don't try and explain away these things. They are flaws, but they are still Rose. She's no saint, she's a person. At times a selfish, immature, jealous person - and at times someone who would fight to save the world, who has saved the world. Canon!Rose might annoy me, but nowhere near as much as Saintly!Perfect!Sue!Rose. Let her be flawed, and let her learn from it.

And for Christ's sake, stop using her to make other 19 year olds look bad. I'm sure there are some like her out there, but there are also an awful lot who aren't.

Comments

[svilleficrecs.livejournal.com]

What always blows my mind is the belief that flaws in a character are bad. Flaws are what MAKE a character. Flaws are what make them interesting, hello internal conflict. I want Rose to be a bit bitchy and selfish and irrational. I want her character to make sense, to work as a whole, but with these flaws jutting out and bumping against her external issues and.. yeah.

I never understood why unlikeable decisions or less than perfect motives made for unlikeable character. If a character does something that doesn't make sense given what we know of them...then I've got a problem. Or if they're constantly acting out of proportion to their stimulus (or with weak, pasted in, fake feeling stimulus) ... yeah. But Rose's character's growth (or lack there of) over this season has felt... real. And I think things like the Hubris in the beginning of impossible planet with the (omg I'm starting to hate the leads they're so smug)... I don't quite get why people are so nonplussed for this. It's hubris that's been their calling card all season, and they're so used to blithely, carelessly running into danger that they were rather selfconsciously meta about it.

Err... yeah. Anyway, yay bratty imperfect Rose.

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

Bratty Rose has been annoying me a bit, but once I put the meta hat on, and think about it - and distance myself from the fanbrattage Sueification of her, I find it makes a lot more sense. (Also, I was slightly biased for a bit because she was mean to Mickey, who I *heart*, but I am starting to recover from that now)

And it sort of makes sense for her character - after her dad died, for all Jackie's many boyfriends, she was the centre of her mother's world. And then she had poor little Mickey, clinging to her because he had no-one else. And then Nine, who was so incredibly needy, to an almost unhealthy amount. She's used to being wanted, to being the focus of it all. And suddenly... she's not. And that's got to burn. But she has to learn to cope with it - nobody's the centre of the universe forever.

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

Also, I was slightly biased for a bit because she was mean to Mickey, who I *heart*, but I am starting to recover from that now

Oh, me too - mostly because I identified so much with Mickey this year (and was rather pleased when, watching Rise with a friend on two separate occasions, they both said at one point "oh god, he's a male you.")

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

I like Mickey for the exact same reasons I like Ron in HP: he's the ordinary person surrounded by the extraordinary, and who has trouble coping with it to start with. But despite how others treat him, he becomes better - in the way we mentioned above - and entirely happy with himself. Accepting his limitations, but being aware of his strengths, and the role he plays.

I am not so much a Mickey. I'm, erm, a me. *is rather unsure what character to be compared to*

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

Yeah, he's the Ron/Xander of the show...

*is rather unsure what character to be compared to*

That's good, means you're not likely to Sue them in fic.

[melata-fic.livejournal.com]

Mickey and Ron... yeah, I can see that. I could probably see it more, if Ron and Hermione weren't together, but yes.

He's the tech support. (Had it been a long time for him in School Reunion? There's an idea that could do with being explored.)

Original character we've not met yet? *grin*

The only person who I know has a character, is my sister. She is like Lynda-with-a-Y.

[svilleficrecs.livejournal.com]

Also, you put together "girl hungry for male attention due to her lack father/father figure" and "man-hungry, mother who probably tried to be Rose's sister more than mother" as a role model... and "father dead and therefore idealized" and a boyfriend who worships her. . . . not equipped to handle being the center of the universe to someone who really comprehends the universe...and then throwing it in her face that she too will someday be a memory of his....

Yeah. I think she's doing pretty well, considering.

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

She is doing fairly well, in the circumstances. Doesn't stop her from being annoying at times, but at lot of people in RL are annoying at times too.