A few thoughts on Rory Williams/Pond
There's something incredibly sexy about Rory as a Roman. And they cut his hair or something because it changed and I approve :)
It makes me think of this thing I read in 'how not to write a novel', where it goes on about if you have a male love interest, not to make him too homey or normal. (in the book's case they used having Santa as a love interest as an example). He can be as much like that as you like, but before the audience take him seriously as a love interest that the heroine ends up with (especially when there's a more unusual and exotic/exciting potential rival : ie the Doctor) they need to go through an re-masculation process that makes them more interesting and gives the heroine and the audience that 'eureka' moment where he becomes desirable and a serious and worthy love interest. And when i was watching the series I SO saw how this happened in the Roman-auton thing.
Rory was always lovely and adorable and dependanble, but when you contrast him with the Doctor he was always a little wet, because he never had much of a chance to shine. He's normal. Sure he did briefly in the dream world and also briefly in the Sulurian(?) plot, but one always got the impression he was taking on the Damsel in distress role and Amy was taking on the more traditionally masculine role of adventurer and protector and even more promiscuous, headstrong adventurer. (which I love, by the way. Yay for modern writing)
BUT gender stereotypes are always there in the backs of our mind. So, Rory had to take on some more patriarchal/traditional hero roles in order to be taken seriously and for us to actually root for Amy to be with him more. And for us to consider him worthy of Amy's strong character and affection.
SO. He became a roman soldier. A Soldier is immediately an incredibly masculine persona (plus his armor was just 'unf!' :D). he's been seperate from Amy for a bit and built up an identity and he's more capable. again having a weapon makes him more masculine. Not only that, but he tries to protect her. And he actually gets some good lines of him being emotionally strong as he deals with not being human. PLUS he stands up to the Doctor (his masculine rival/Alpha male) and gives him a good punch in defence of his love, which instantly makes him more manly and makes the audience pay attention to him as he's no longer the underdog. This allows him to be vulnerable (like when he kills Amy) but still strong. Finally, he waits for her and protects her for 2,000 years. While waiting for someone forever loyally and quietly is traditionally a feminine trait (yet again yay for the rebalance), the determined loyalty and the role of protector is very masculine.
So when Amy wakes up Rory is a fully fledged masculine hero that can finally compete with the Doctor, and the audience deem him worthy of Amy's love and devotion completely. They deserve one another.
I might be over-thinking this from doing too much gender history at uni, but i find it fascinating.
Opinions?
