in totally other "news"
It occurred to me, on a tour around the internet, that because I never properly posted about "Vampires of Venice," I never did a proper Rory love-post. This is not that post, but it's a start.
You all have probably already seen this comic:
The Rory Cycle
I think this is amusing, because I never quite had the first panel's reaction. Well, I thought Rory was a dork, but I like dorks. But I loved Rory from "Vampires" on. I remember commenting that in spite of the episode's race-fail issues, I liked one thing (the conversation between Eleven and Roseanna, which is the moment that I realized that Matt Smith could pull off ancient and alien without having to yell about it, and also that he has these blink-and-you'll-miss-them moments of...I don't know, sex appeal? Because "Think of the children" is weirdly flirty and hot, but then a second later he's back to bonkers and asexual). And that I loved one thing--and that was Rory, standing up to the Doctor so brilliantly and incisively: "You have no idea how dangerous you make people to themselves when you're around!" That was the real hearts-in-eyes moment, although he's brilliant throughout "Vampires": for his ridiculous stag night T-shirt with the heart and his and Amy's picture on it; for calling Amy "smashing"; for the fact that he researched the madman in the box and figured out that the box has another dimension jammed inside it; for leaping to the rescue with nothing but some insults and a broom, not because Amy's a damsel in distress--turns out that she really does the rescuing--but because he cares about her and wants to see her safe, even if it means he gets hurt; for his inability to be anything other than wholly, solidly Rory ("I'm a gondola...driver") in contrast to the Doctor (who has been eleven different people, and this latest incarnation doesn't seem to know who he is, quite), and Amy, who conveys so much with that just-so lift of her head when the psychic paper says she's a countess (?)--she's ready to play that part, because playing parts is what she does, it's how she makes a living. Rory isn't like that; he's the commonsensical one, the one who methodically documents strangeness with his camera-phone, the one who looks before he leaps. But--oh, Rory. What I love about the finale--or Rory's role in it, anyway--is not that it shows him in a different light, as some might claim. It doesn't show us another side of him or make him a new man (or at least, I don't think it does). I love what the finale tells us about Rory because it's so much of a piece with what we already know about him: that he's dependable, and protective, and caring, and patient, and kind. He's not just guarding the Pandorica; he's making sure Amy won't ever be alone. And that's so Rory. Plus, I just love him for needing so badly to prove that he's human. For me, that's the most heroic thing.
I don't think it's a coincidence that a doctor and a nurse have been among my favorite characters in new Who: Rory, like Martha, is a caretaker, and we see it in their small gestures as well as their big ones. One of the moments I love in the finale is when Rory takes off his security guard jacket and covers the Doctor with it--even though it would be possible to say that he isn't "really" dead because that future death (well, as far as Rory knows at that moment) might never happen, because the Doctor might find a way to prevent it. But he does it anyway--just as Martha, even in the middle of the adventure on the moon, takes a second to close Dr. Stoker's eyes. It's those little grounding moments, in the midst of the madness, that I love so much.
And in conclusion: RORY. ♥ ♥ ♥
You all have probably already seen this comic:
The Rory Cycle
I think this is amusing, because I never quite had the first panel's reaction. Well, I thought Rory was a dork, but I like dorks. But I loved Rory from "Vampires" on. I remember commenting that in spite of the episode's race-fail issues, I liked one thing (the conversation between Eleven and Roseanna, which is the moment that I realized that Matt Smith could pull off ancient and alien without having to yell about it, and also that he has these blink-and-you'll-miss-them moments of...I don't know, sex appeal? Because "Think of the children" is weirdly flirty and hot, but then a second later he's back to bonkers and asexual). And that I loved one thing--and that was Rory, standing up to the Doctor so brilliantly and incisively: "You have no idea how dangerous you make people to themselves when you're around!" That was the real hearts-in-eyes moment, although he's brilliant throughout "Vampires": for his ridiculous stag night T-shirt with the heart and his and Amy's picture on it; for calling Amy "smashing"; for the fact that he researched the madman in the box and figured out that the box has another dimension jammed inside it; for leaping to the rescue with nothing but some insults and a broom, not because Amy's a damsel in distress--turns out that she really does the rescuing--but because he cares about her and wants to see her safe, even if it means he gets hurt; for his inability to be anything other than wholly, solidly Rory ("I'm a gondola...driver") in contrast to the Doctor (who has been eleven different people, and this latest incarnation doesn't seem to know who he is, quite), and Amy, who conveys so much with that just-so lift of her head when the psychic paper says she's a countess (?)--she's ready to play that part, because playing parts is what she does, it's how she makes a living. Rory isn't like that; he's the commonsensical one, the one who methodically documents strangeness with his camera-phone, the one who looks before he leaps. But--oh, Rory. What I love about the finale--or Rory's role in it, anyway--is not that it shows him in a different light, as some might claim. It doesn't show us another side of him or make him a new man (or at least, I don't think it does). I love what the finale tells us about Rory because it's so much of a piece with what we already know about him: that he's dependable, and protective, and caring, and patient, and kind. He's not just guarding the Pandorica; he's making sure Amy won't ever be alone. And that's so Rory. Plus, I just love him for needing so badly to prove that he's human. For me, that's the most heroic thing.
I don't think it's a coincidence that a doctor and a nurse have been among my favorite characters in new Who: Rory, like Martha, is a caretaker, and we see it in their small gestures as well as their big ones. One of the moments I love in the finale is when Rory takes off his security guard jacket and covers the Doctor with it--even though it would be possible to say that he isn't "really" dead because that future death (well, as far as Rory knows at that moment) might never happen, because the Doctor might find a way to prevent it. But he does it anyway--just as Martha, even in the middle of the adventure on the moon, takes a second to close Dr. Stoker's eyes. It's those little grounding moments, in the midst of the madness, that I love so much.
And in conclusion: RORY. ♥ ♥ ♥