Interesting thoughts about post-Doomsday fic

[drakyndra]

I haven't been reading as much fic as of late - namely, since Doomsday aired. Partially because of the inevitable badfic wave which is swamping fandom, but mostly because even some fic writers who I normally quite like are taking their fics in directions I am not entirely comfortable with.

And I was having a bit of difficulty in expressing why.

However, then I stumbled across Battle of Wills (which is a highly amusing parody of said fics, by the way, and I'll recommend it to anyone), and castrovalva9 managed to explain the summary of said parody exactly why these fics weren't working for me.


"I've read quite a few post-"Doomsday" stories by now. While the odd one here and there has been outstanding, the plots of many horrify me. You've probably seen (perhaps even written!) some of the stories I mean: the ones where Rose spends most of her time bemoaning her meaningless life, mopes around listening to sappy songs and thinking about how well they describe her pathetic existence, cuts herself or commits suicide, etc. These stories basically posit that a Doctor-less Rose is a shell who can never lead a fulfilling life, because she is not an entire person in her own right and needs the Doctor to make her whole. I think that concept is pretty insulting and shallow, and it makes it seem like the authors don't like the character of Rose for herself, that they only like her when she is an extension of the Doctor.

Which is a long way of explaining why I wrote this story. I haven't always liked Rose, but she deserves some credit and respect."

And this is exactly the same for me. Yeah, I am not a particular fan of Rose. But the way these fics have been treating her is horrific. Aside from the rather offensive implication that the ordinary life isn't good enough for Rose (Dude, evem the Doctor can express how precious that is), the fact that people seem so content to make Rose wallow in her grief, or to fix things seems to show a remarkable lack of respect for the character.

And the remark about Rose only being liked as an extension of the Doctor - a terrifying thought, really, from the so-called fans of Rose, but it would account for a disturbingly large amount of reactions and fics.


So, to everyone else, thought, opinion?

Comments

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

Did you see tessavance's suggestion below about since it was during Rose's opening monologue and montage thing, it might be a case of unreliable narrator? (Because if "nothing happened" is a fully accurate statement, I'll eat my hat)

Food for thought, anyway.