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Okay, this is an idea that originally came up as a throw-away remark in the comments to someone, and just sort of... built in my head, until I realised it sort of explained a huge amount about how I feel about the characters in Doctor Who, especially Rose.
And what it all comes down to is first impressions.
Rose was designed from the very start to be a viewpoint character - that's pretty obvious from Rose, when the story is almost all told from her POV, and for the next few episodes, which are all about her experiences as she discovers time and space. And she's the touchstone for most emotional moments throughout S1, and getting us through the regeneration.
Rose is our eyes for the show. We see what she sees, empathise with her emotions, feel her joys and hurts.
At least, we are supposed to.
As I said, the first few episodes are designed to set up Rose as a POV character, and as far as I can tell, and at that, at least, they were a great success. The response to having Rose as viewpoint is more varied - you get the rabid "I AM Rose" over-associating fangirls, who vow to never watch after Rose leaves, and write Sue!Rose shipperfics; you have the initial Rose fans, who have been struggling as of late with her because they have been seeing things through her eyes for so long, and are getting frustrated with her character developments (as in the character feels inconstant with the things that have been experienced/seen); and you have the people who would se things through her eyes, but whatever reasons can't, and thus tend to dislike her for being a jarring presence.
Now, this doesn't describe everyone, but it does account for an awful lot of people. And the groups, despite diverse opinions between and within themselves, have one constant - Rose being the viewpoint character (supposedly, at least), and thus central to viewing.
And here's where I differ from the majority, because I don't have Rose as a viepoint character, or even as a central character. Which sounds bizarre, what with equal status to the Doctor and all that, but it's true. And I think a lot of it comes from when I started watching the show.
See, unlike most people, I didn't start with episode 1.01, "Rose". The first ever episode I saw of New Who was, of all things, World War Three. Yes, that one with the Slitheen.
No, it isn't the best episode - or for that matter particularly high on the list of best episodes. No, it's not the episode that go tme hooked, that'd be the next week, with Dalek. But what it was - not alone, but in conjunction with the upcoming episodes, I will admit - was the very first episode of New Who that I saw, and thus an awful lot of my opinions about the characters was based on it.
In WW3 we see Mickey saving the day. All with huge amounts of assisstance from others, of course, but he is brave and heroic, he saves Jackie's life, he is responsible for the Slitheen's destruction, he turns down the Doctor's offer because he knows himself that well. In WW3 we see the Ninth Doctor as knowledgable, clever, alien, and also horribly manipulative, indecisive, and completely hung up on some blonde girl for absolutely no apparent reason.
And then, of course, we have Rose. Who in WW3 does what, exactly? Nothing. Well, nothing of huge value. She runs and hides and talks and answers questions, and has the Doctor obsessing over her and has people worried about her. But plot wise, she does nothing. She's just there. The only way she really seems to matter in this episode is how other people are effected by her.
I'll admit this is not the strongest episode for Rose's character. But I'll also admit that it's the first one I saw, and as the saying goes, first impressions count. And so my first impression of these characters were of Mickey as a reluctant and not too brave hero, Nine as a smart alien who obsessed over a human girl to the point of unhealthiness, Jackie as the amusing but caring mother, and Rose as just being there.
And so what was my first impression of Rose? Not as POV character like people had with the earlier episodes. I never had that chance to get into her head, and find out if I loved it or hated it or whatever. For other people who were looking on from Rose's viepoint, perhaps this episode showed her in a better light, but what I saw then? Was not a show-leading character. What I saw was a MacGuffin.
"A MacGuffin is a plot device that motivates the characters and advances the story, but has little other relevance to the story itself." Yes, Wikipedia is hardly the most reputable source. But it's description of a MacGuffin is exactly what Rose was to me in that first episode. Her importance to the story had nothing to do with who she was, but was entirely due to how she effected other characters. And the next few episodes only served to back this up.
I mean, Dalek? Rose gets Adam's attention, gives the Dalek the source of it's power, had Nine emo over her, and causes him to not fire and the Dalek to kill itself, before getting Adam invited on board. The Long Game? Um... is called the best, and is who Adam is compared to?
They didn't do a lot to change the Rose = MacGuffin in my head, and by the time Father's Day came along, where she did have an actual character part, it was too little, to late for me. Perhaps that's why that episode leaves me cold - I had no emotional investment in the Rose. She was in my head a MacGuffin, and by Hitchcock's definition of MacGuffin, even though the plot revolves around them, "The audience don't care" about the specifics of the object itself.
Quite simply, because I haven't that viewpoint character tie to Rose, because she started out for me as just a MacGuffin, I don't care about her.
I care about what happens around her, about how she effects the plot and all that, about how characters are effected by her actions, but her herself? I don't care. Which explains a lot of things about my views on her that I have had difficulty explaining to others.
For all that she has equal status in the credits, Rose has never been to me anywhere near as important as the Doctor. She was designed as viewpoint character, specifically on an emotional level, but I never got that, I never had that investment in her. The viewpoint, the emotional heart for me has been the Doctor. (Which is probably why I am less fond of Nine - his emotional states was always a sort of background emo, and so wasn't quite as Ten and his sheer exuberance and variety of emotion).
And because I have no emotional investment in Rose, I can treat her in ways that baffle some of my friends. I can ignore her when she is annoying, which has bewildered certain people who can't see how I can ignore a central character (but of course, to me she isn't central in herself but only as a device to move the plot forward). I had no problems at all with the shifting away from Rose, and towards the Doctor's POV during S2, inevitable because of Rose's departure, but has caused some problems for people invested in Rose's POV. Whereas for some of them this is new territory, and thus are less fond of the shows new angle, this is heading to what I always had going on.
And I am not sorry that she is leaving, because firstly I saw it coming way off, and secondly because I have never cared enough about her to be sorry she is going.
Of course, just as there are people like me who have no emotional investment in Rose, there are those who are over-invested in her. Those who have difficulty with the shifts in POV away from Rose, and towards the Doctor. Those who can't see how the show can possibly be good without Rose, and will quit watching then. Those certain people who believe they are Rose in that little subconcious self, and feel she is OOC if she does something they wouldn't do (or say they wouldn't do). Just as my lack of investment in Rose-as-character, and having the Doctor as POV character has meant I prefer S2 for it's Doctor focus, I can start to see why those who have invested in Rose perhaps a little too have such antipathy towards parts of it.
It can't be easy having the entire foundations on the show as you know it shift on you. It's Rose's emotions that they are keyed into, and for an episode such as Girl in the Fireplace, in which Rose's emotions are of no importance, are disregarded it must feel like a personal betrayal, almost. Or at the very least, it leaves them as cold as Father's Day left me.
The thing about POV characters is that we are supposed to empathise with them, to feel for them, so we don't just see through their eyes but feel what they feel. And to do this, a certain amount of emotional investment is required - without that, the character looses all their significance. And the introduction of the character is supposed to trigger that investment. And for Rose, I never had that.
Instead of Rose as emotional heart, I had Rose as Maguffin. Perhaps it's my fault for not watching the episodes in order, for having the wrong start. But it's interesting how different my perspective on a lot of things seems to be because of this first impression and it's results.
And I am wondering, what other people's first impressions of the characters were, who they have invested in, and how they will be effected by Rose's departure. And how the changes in show have affected them.
Wow. That's a lot of words, in which I say... not very much, really. However, I would like to hear from people on how different or similar their experiences have been compared to mine.
ETA: Read the comments. I've got some very diverse and interesting perspectives on Rose and just companions in general.
And what it all comes down to is first impressions.
Rose was designed from the very start to be a viewpoint character - that's pretty obvious from Rose, when the story is almost all told from her POV, and for the next few episodes, which are all about her experiences as she discovers time and space. And she's the touchstone for most emotional moments throughout S1, and getting us through the regeneration.
Rose is our eyes for the show. We see what she sees, empathise with her emotions, feel her joys and hurts.
At least, we are supposed to.
As I said, the first few episodes are designed to set up Rose as a POV character, and as far as I can tell, and at that, at least, they were a great success. The response to having Rose as viewpoint is more varied - you get the rabid "I AM Rose" over-associating fangirls, who vow to never watch after Rose leaves, and write Sue!Rose shipperfics; you have the initial Rose fans, who have been struggling as of late with her because they have been seeing things through her eyes for so long, and are getting frustrated with her character developments (as in the character feels inconstant with the things that have been experienced/seen); and you have the people who would se things through her eyes, but whatever reasons can't, and thus tend to dislike her for being a jarring presence.
Now, this doesn't describe everyone, but it does account for an awful lot of people. And the groups, despite diverse opinions between and within themselves, have one constant - Rose being the viewpoint character (supposedly, at least), and thus central to viewing.
And here's where I differ from the majority, because I don't have Rose as a viepoint character, or even as a central character. Which sounds bizarre, what with equal status to the Doctor and all that, but it's true. And I think a lot of it comes from when I started watching the show.
See, unlike most people, I didn't start with episode 1.01, "Rose". The first ever episode I saw of New Who was, of all things, World War Three. Yes, that one with the Slitheen.
No, it isn't the best episode - or for that matter particularly high on the list of best episodes. No, it's not the episode that go tme hooked, that'd be the next week, with Dalek. But what it was - not alone, but in conjunction with the upcoming episodes, I will admit - was the very first episode of New Who that I saw, and thus an awful lot of my opinions about the characters was based on it.
In WW3 we see Mickey saving the day. All with huge amounts of assisstance from others, of course, but he is brave and heroic, he saves Jackie's life, he is responsible for the Slitheen's destruction, he turns down the Doctor's offer because he knows himself that well. In WW3 we see the Ninth Doctor as knowledgable, clever, alien, and also horribly manipulative, indecisive, and completely hung up on some blonde girl for absolutely no apparent reason.
And then, of course, we have Rose. Who in WW3 does what, exactly? Nothing. Well, nothing of huge value. She runs and hides and talks and answers questions, and has the Doctor obsessing over her and has people worried about her. But plot wise, she does nothing. She's just there. The only way she really seems to matter in this episode is how other people are effected by her.
I'll admit this is not the strongest episode for Rose's character. But I'll also admit that it's the first one I saw, and as the saying goes, first impressions count. And so my first impression of these characters were of Mickey as a reluctant and not too brave hero, Nine as a smart alien who obsessed over a human girl to the point of unhealthiness, Jackie as the amusing but caring mother, and Rose as just being there.
And so what was my first impression of Rose? Not as POV character like people had with the earlier episodes. I never had that chance to get into her head, and find out if I loved it or hated it or whatever. For other people who were looking on from Rose's viepoint, perhaps this episode showed her in a better light, but what I saw then? Was not a show-leading character. What I saw was a MacGuffin.
"A MacGuffin is a plot device that motivates the characters and advances the story, but has little other relevance to the story itself." Yes, Wikipedia is hardly the most reputable source. But it's description of a MacGuffin is exactly what Rose was to me in that first episode. Her importance to the story had nothing to do with who she was, but was entirely due to how she effected other characters. And the next few episodes only served to back this up.
I mean, Dalek? Rose gets Adam's attention, gives the Dalek the source of it's power, had Nine emo over her, and causes him to not fire and the Dalek to kill itself, before getting Adam invited on board. The Long Game? Um... is called the best, and is who Adam is compared to?
They didn't do a lot to change the Rose = MacGuffin in my head, and by the time Father's Day came along, where she did have an actual character part, it was too little, to late for me. Perhaps that's why that episode leaves me cold - I had no emotional investment in the Rose. She was in my head a MacGuffin, and by Hitchcock's definition of MacGuffin, even though the plot revolves around them, "The audience don't care" about the specifics of the object itself.
Quite simply, because I haven't that viewpoint character tie to Rose, because she started out for me as just a MacGuffin, I don't care about her.
I care about what happens around her, about how she effects the plot and all that, about how characters are effected by her actions, but her herself? I don't care. Which explains a lot of things about my views on her that I have had difficulty explaining to others.
For all that she has equal status in the credits, Rose has never been to me anywhere near as important as the Doctor. She was designed as viewpoint character, specifically on an emotional level, but I never got that, I never had that investment in her. The viewpoint, the emotional heart for me has been the Doctor. (Which is probably why I am less fond of Nine - his emotional states was always a sort of background emo, and so wasn't quite as Ten and his sheer exuberance and variety of emotion).
And because I have no emotional investment in Rose, I can treat her in ways that baffle some of my friends. I can ignore her when she is annoying, which has bewildered certain people who can't see how I can ignore a central character (but of course, to me she isn't central in herself but only as a device to move the plot forward). I had no problems at all with the shifting away from Rose, and towards the Doctor's POV during S2, inevitable because of Rose's departure, but has caused some problems for people invested in Rose's POV. Whereas for some of them this is new territory, and thus are less fond of the shows new angle, this is heading to what I always had going on.
And I am not sorry that she is leaving, because firstly I saw it coming way off, and secondly because I have never cared enough about her to be sorry she is going.
Of course, just as there are people like me who have no emotional investment in Rose, there are those who are over-invested in her. Those who have difficulty with the shifts in POV away from Rose, and towards the Doctor. Those who can't see how the show can possibly be good without Rose, and will quit watching then. Those certain people who believe they are Rose in that little subconcious self, and feel she is OOC if she does something they wouldn't do (or say they wouldn't do). Just as my lack of investment in Rose-as-character, and having the Doctor as POV character has meant I prefer S2 for it's Doctor focus, I can start to see why those who have invested in Rose perhaps a little too have such antipathy towards parts of it.
It can't be easy having the entire foundations on the show as you know it shift on you. It's Rose's emotions that they are keyed into, and for an episode such as Girl in the Fireplace, in which Rose's emotions are of no importance, are disregarded it must feel like a personal betrayal, almost. Or at the very least, it leaves them as cold as Father's Day left me.
The thing about POV characters is that we are supposed to empathise with them, to feel for them, so we don't just see through their eyes but feel what they feel. And to do this, a certain amount of emotional investment is required - without that, the character looses all their significance. And the introduction of the character is supposed to trigger that investment. And for Rose, I never had that.
Instead of Rose as emotional heart, I had Rose as Maguffin. Perhaps it's my fault for not watching the episodes in order, for having the wrong start. But it's interesting how different my perspective on a lot of things seems to be because of this first impression and it's results.
And I am wondering, what other people's first impressions of the characters were, who they have invested in, and how they will be effected by Rose's departure. And how the changes in show have affected them.
Wow. That's a lot of words, in which I say... not very much, really. However, I would like to hear from people on how different or similar their experiences have been compared to mine.
ETA: Read the comments. I've got some very diverse and interesting perspectives on Rose and just companions in general.
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And while I sort of wanted to ship her with the Doctor, I didn't really care if they hooked up or not. It wasn't until much later that I got into old Who to see how it "used to be done." I have to admit that I wish we'd seen more of some of the Doctor's previous companion's lives more. But I also like that Rose is unique in a sense. She fixed the Doctor and I think that was important. Her usefulness is now over, really. And, you know, she's a companion. Even the longest lasting companions haven't lasted more than three or four seasons. You've got to expect them all to leave, eventually. And, the Doctor too. It's canonical that he regenerates. Of course, that was a bit of surprise to me (I knew he could regenerate, I didn't know he was going to so soon), but, hey, I got over it. XD
Anyway, I definitely think you have a different view, and that it's a good one. All the same, I'm glad I got in when I did. I'd rather really like Rose and slowly grow detached from her than to have never liked her in the first place.
But, I bet that's why you enjoy Ten more and I enjoy Nine more. I liked the way Nine reacted to Rose. I don't care as much about how Ten reacts to her. Nine needed her. Ten just acts like he needs her. It's weird.
Anyway. :)
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To me, of course, as a Who fan since age 7, Rose is a companion. One I like better than some, not as well as others, but ultimately, by definition, someone who will leave. I enjoy her while I have her, but her specific presence is by no means essential to the show.
She is also an audience-identification character by definition for the same reason, which isn't (as you point out implicitly, if not specifically) the same as a POV character, although the two can overlap to a point that can sometimes be confusing to the audience.
If there's a single biggest miscalculation RTD & Co. have made, it's in assuming that people know "the companion" is the audience ID character, as opposed to specifically Rose. Part of this is that, even now, Who is so endemic to British pop culture that they have some basis for thinking it's a reasonable assumtpion. But outside the UK, the new folks had absolutely no way of knowing that truism until "School Reunion." And even then, the message is that Sarah Jane is cool and special to the Doctor, and that companions leave...but not necessarily that she WAS the audience identification character for a generation of viewers.
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Like I always say, I am sadly in the group who went cold when Rusty sold Rose as the new black. She would never scream or twist her ankle, she would be clever and compassionate and productive, she would be better than anyone ever and she would be the Doctor's soulmate eternal lifebond love. Cue montage of selected "stupid companion" moments ending on Rose pwning everyone mightily as she swings on a chain.
Sometimes I feel like if we hadn't had the Adam debacle and they'd saved the shippery for S2 I could have liked her a lot more? But then I've liked her more in her last few eps where she was Useful and Clever so I don't think it's just the hard-sell. She never lived up to it for me because no one could. And the more Rusty said "she's the Doctor's equal" the more glaring it was when she blatantly wasn't. He took a fairly okay, fairly average character and treated her as though she was perfect and wonderful and everyone loved her.
I do think some of the h8rs will grow to like her more once she's gone, once we get an idea of how much has been changed by the prescence of Rose and how much is just Rusty's Vision Of Who. (There's them that resent the Earthbound adventuring and the entourage of the Tyler family, for instance.)
She's not a character-type I tend to go for, so I doubt I could ever have loved her. And (as with Sam and Charley in the spinoff-media stuff) I get a "WTF" moment when someone tries to sell that type as the Doctor's emotional core. It gives her an awful lot to live up to and I think pushing it so early didn't even give me a chance to get to know Rose on her own terms. I felt a bit more at ease with her after GitF'ace and the Sarah retcon, so it seems to be Quite Massive in my Rose!h8 that I just couldn't buy the emotional connection it seemed I was supposed to be seeing. She was... I could never believe she was as good as she was being presented as? And, again, who could be?
I had... basically the worst possible first impressions on Rose. She was sold to me by dissing characters I already cared about, set up with impossible standard, and then seemed to warp the entire 'verse around her right down to the main character being in love with her. So I was a lost cause after all that.
But I doubt I could ever have loved her anyway.
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POV characters are good, it's what gets you hooked, interested and the really good ones just take you, shake you hard and throw you right out at the other side of fandom. That's how all my obessions start at least.
That's why I got out onto the 'net after Farscape's Premiere, that's what hooked me to Doctor Who.
In the beginning, you need POV characters like her, because in a way you're new to as well, so seeing everything through a Sue makes it easier. So I see why they designed Rose the way she is and she doesn't really bother me in season 1. Maybe because her reactions are mostly mine, I don't know.
Strangely, my perception seems to shift after some time. I don't need to watch people beng like me on TV, I'm like me the entire week and I don't always like it.
I think 'Dalek' was the ultimate episode that made me a Whovian and not just a Rose fan. Maybe the last scene of 'End of the World' was the start, but 'Dalek' made me realize which one of the two protagonists this show is about. He was the one interesting, he was the one out there, living this life, while Rose's story was told in about a season and mainly just tagged along.
I like things complicated (my ships as well) and I seriously have something for older men (the last one I fell for was 5000 years old).
So because my main focus is the Doctor now (oh, the wonderful ANGST!), even more so after watching a bunch of Old School Who, I kind of grew aware that Rose wasn't really eternal. Or necessary. She'll leave, like everyone. It's just the way it is.
It can't be easy having the entire foundations on the show as you know it shift on you. It's Rose's emotions that they are keyed into, and for an episode such as Girl in the Fireplace, in which Rose's emotions are of no importance, are disregarded it must feel like a personal betrayal, almost.
Maybe that's why Father's Day did nothing for me and I liked Dalek and Girl in the Fireplace so much. Maybe that's why she's annoying all through season 2, because she just doesn't understand the Doctor's POV at all.
She thinks she'll be with him forever, blahblah. I liked her more when she was frightened and scared of the life he led.
Maybe it's me projecting again, maybe I can't see her as me anymore (because honestly, I would never be that oblivious). Maybe I got thrown out of RosePOV somewhere along the way. Maybe it was a conscious decision, I don't know. Maybe I was lucky.
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Though I get huge flashes of deja vu from certain clips of Tom Baker episodes, and I am starting to think I may have actually seen some of them in passing when I was 2 or 3 years old, perhaps.
Anyway, I knew the concepts behind the show, and had been interested, but wasn't a fan per se. So I had no spoilers about S1 whatsoever. I didn't even know the regeneration was coming (though I knew about the concept), so I was utterly shocked when Nine went up in flames and Ten appeared. Guess I was lucky he just clicked for me instantly, then.
But I also like that Rose is unique in a sense. She fixed the Doctor and I think that was important. Her usefulness is now over, really. And, you know, she's a companion.
She is unique in that sense, she did help the Doctor recover his joie de vivre as it were - well, her and the choice in PotW and the regeneration - and so she does have a bit of a second-hand companion vibe. Her real usefulness has passed with Ten, and so for all he cares for her, he doesn't need her. I can understand how that might be less compelling for some people, but I also always found that Nine and Rose had a slightly creepy and unhealthy codependance thing going on, so I think I prefer having a Doctor who isn't quite so... needy.
And as I think I mentioned in passing, one reason I prefer Ten is I can get into his headspace a bit better. Nine was always tricky for me to empathise with, to get into, and since I didn't have that investment in Rose, my preference for characters always came down to how I related to them, rather than how Rose did.
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If there's a single biggest miscalculation RTD & Co. have made, it's in assuming that people know "the companion" is the audience ID character, as opposed to specifically Rose.
Yes, that is a very good point. Some of it comes down to the extreme over-hyping of Rose as the Most Wonderful Special Companion EverTM. If you're using her as an identification figure, and then hearing all this stuff from the production team, of course you are going to buy into it - it validates your opinion of Rose at the least, and of you if you are one of those who over-identify to extreme levels. So when you start to hear that special isn't just a term reserved for Rose, it could take the wind out of your sales - in the same way that certain shippers in other fandoms seem to think that even the description of a character's flaws is bashing.
But the reactions seem a mixture of, like you said, the Production Team miscalculating the separation of Rose-as-companion with Rose-as-character. Which might explain why certain people seemed to have missed the entire point of stories like School Reunion.
An interesting quote I heard about School Reunion a while back was that it could be seen from two different emotional perspectives: Rose for the new fans, and the Doctor's for the old school fans. Interesting, huh?
Also, that icon never stops being cool. Even if it may need modification in the not-so-distant future.
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But seriously, I can understand why you hate her. I think the advantage of my perspective on things is that because I don't care about her in terms of herself, I haven't got the investment in me to hate her. I think my least favourite moments of her's were during the Cyber-eps, and her horrific treatment of Mickey, who I was invested in.
But I never had that much past companion experience, never saw any of the first series confidentials or publicity, and so I never got that "You must love her" vibe that has had such a bad effect on her for you. Though I can imagine I might have had a similar response - I know I've said it before, but I tend to be contrary about characters, the more they are hyped, the more skeptical I am about them, and a similar sort of thing seems to have gone on with you.
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I always get the feeling that if I'd started this show cold I'd have given up fairly soon because Rose just isn't the sort of character I tend to go for. I just wouldn't have cared about her either way, and I doubt I could have connected with the Doctor when she was the main thing he seemed concerned with.
I think my least favourite moments of her's were during the Cyber-eps, and her horrific treatment of Mickey, who I was invested in.
I noticed that bits of boyfandom seemed to go off her because the way she treated Mickey, so... identification?
Though I can imagine I might have had a similar response - I know I've said it before, but I tend to be contrary about characters, the more they are hyped, the more skeptical I am about them, and a similar sort of thing seems to have gone on with you.
I am quite curious about how they'll sell Replacement to us. *wonders*
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Thanks.
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But the thing about them, is that once you are involved in the story, once you have had the world explained and exposed to you, they sort of lose a lot of their purpose. And you can either move the character deeper into the world with you - hence BadWolf!Rose, TimeLady!Rose - or they become a bit dull. But that looses touch with the themes of the series, the yay humans stuff, and the extraordinary in the ordinary. Which is why Rose is leaving - there's nowhere else for her to go as a character, really.
Also, I agree totally with you on the Doctor as identification figure, and also with your opinions of episodes. I think these two facts are most likely connected. ;)
But Rose has sort of outlived her initial purpose. For all we were sold on her as the ultimate companion, and the OTP love and all, her main purpose was to bring the audience into the Doctor's world. And she's done that, and so we are moving on from her. And I think there was a definite shift in S2 away from Rose as POV character, and towards the Doctor. So I don't think it's so much you being lucky, as picking up on what was intended. I'm pretty certain the next companion will be introduced via the Doctor's POV, anyway.
Here's a really stupid analogy for you: getting into Doctor Who is like learning to swim. Rose is the hand-rail we have to guide us deeper into the pool. But sooner or later, you have to let go and swim on you own.
...Damn, that was an awful metaphor.
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From:
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We always knew she'd leave (unless the series got cancelled first!). I think that's pretty much it, really. And a lot of us (most? certainly among the women, I'd say) had already imprinted on someone else who was already gone. And there was a certain detached interest in the way her character was handled - Rose as a function rather than Rose as a 'person' and reading a lot of the anti-Rose stuff shows that a lot of it is about how they handled her and whether the the show and the tell matched up. On the love side there's appreciation of the new method of dealing with the role of the companion and so on. But overall we're far more attached to the Doctor -- note the strangeness that Rusty tends to think of himself in companion terms, because that's not the focus of most of the hardcore fans.
But the reactions seem a mixture of, like you said, the Production Team miscalculating the separation of Rose-as-companion with Rose-as-character. Which might explain why certain people seemed to have missed the entire point of stories like School Reunion.
On that count, that's something I think the show had, until that point, really really not been clear on. Adam and Jack and Mickey were never The Companion in quite the same way and that just confused everyone.
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By which I mean not emotionally detached, but detached from Rose-as-identification. Umm. I not phrase it well. People got wicked emo about it, but it was sort of... on the meta level?
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There is that - not all character types work for all people. I know for a fact that my housemate still hasn't finished S1 because she isn't interested in either Nine or Rose very much. Whereas due to Casanova she's a Tennant fan, and so has seen all his eps - except Fear Her, I believe, because she's been busy since I downloaded that one.
I noticed that bits of boyfandom seemed to go off her because the way she treated Mickey, so... identification?
I read once that is Rose reacts the way we wish we could, Mickey reacts the way we probably would. He's probably a more true to life character to Rose, and I certainly found him easier to identify with, so I can understand if that happened to a lot of other people too.
I am quite curious about how they'll sell Replacement to us. *wonders*
My grand sekrit behind the scenes goss is: "Interesting plans". So no idea, but I'm just as curious.
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...Damn, that was an awful metaphor
Mwhaha! Perfect metaphor. Although I see Rose more like a person being thrown right into the middle of the pool, seeing if she can swim or not. And now she's paddling towards the handrail *facepalms*
Let's try something different: Rose is like Crichton's Farscape One Module: It gets you into the Uncharted Territories but no matter how many alien devices you glue onto it once there, the big Leviathan with the comfortable quarters is just way better to live in.
Oh my, that awful, too *g*
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On that count, that's something I think the show had, until that point, really really not been clear on. Adam and Jack and Mickey were never The Companion in quite the same way and that just confused everyone.
I can understand that - no name in the credits, no long term stability as companions, no star factor. I can understand why they did that in S1, though it would have been nice to have equal companions for S2. Though since it is defintely looking like the series of why Rose can't be with the Doctor forever, I can see why we didn't have that this year, either. We can but hope for the upcoming seasons, yes?
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*nod* Mickey's that down-to-Earth character that Rose stopped being fairly early (and she kind of had to lose that, if there was going to be any sort of development there) and he's so... likable with it.
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But your analogy made me sporfle. And now I am trying to come up with another one. Let the battle of the bizarre metaphors begin!
Here's one: Rose is like the apple in a possum trap. She draws us into the cage, into the position we need to be in, but sooner or later she'll go rotten, and we'll still be in the cage.
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One thing what will be interesting is how Ten shifts with the new one. Four with Sarah was very weird and alien and detached because she was so human and normal, and then with Romana he's daftness personified as the entire PoV becomes Weird Alien and they can't make him do aloofness in the same way (btw, some folk find S17 unwatchable in terms of Four and Romana II being incredibly smug - there really is no other PoV and you're either with it or you're not. Think Ten'n'Rose but with a robot dog and no Mickey). Seven-with-Mel is a different person from Seven-with-Ace.
Which is not the topic here, is it? Um. Sorry.
I can understand that - no name in the credits, no long term stability as companions, no star factor. I can understand why they did that in S1, though it would have been nice to have equal companions for S2. Though since it is defintely looking like the series of why Rose can't be with the Doctor forever, I can see why we didn't have that this year, either. We can but hope for the upcoming seasons, yes?
I think Mickey's brief tenure may have been some attempt to reinforce the idea that Companions Leave? But yeah it has... become increasingly strange not to have other people being in the credits as we move away from the Rose PoV. I doubt the whole thing will be tied to the new girl as strongly, which is one reason I think regardless of canon!shipping there's always going to be a lot of arguing about Rose being the most special ever.
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She's the window dressing that lets us enter the shop... now that would make more sense if we were men.
I wonder how we'll be introduced to the New companion though. I find it quite odd that it'll take the fandom some time to get used to her (and we just know it'll be a 'she') while they all embraced Tennant almost immediately. It was and will be the other way around for me.
My only fear is that we won't see much of Jack once New Girl Companion is established
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Well, I've always said that the Ten-and-Rose smug thing is mostly because Rose was designed to be the perky cheery contrast to Nine's angsty emo Doctor, and with a lighter and less obvious angsty Doctor, the cheeriness can get a bit too much for some. So we shall see. He could do with a more weighty, serious type, I think.
But I am agreed about Mickey demonstrating that companions leave - particularly of their own accord. But the show is heading more towards Doctor as star, with companion as second lead, rather than equal lead. So we shall see with Replacement (of course, if they start off with two of them, this theory gets blown to pieces)
And the Rose as most special will always be around, if only because of the way she was presented now. Even if that gets backtracked hugely, they can't change what has been said about her. Combine that with the introducing the new series, and the rehabilitating the war-damaged Nine, and it's inevitable, sadly.
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