Sentire: Reaction Post
This is the place for any comments you'd like to make about the Sentire series as a whole. I really appreciate your feedback, and I welcome all comments, both positive and negative.
My initial notes, just bits and pieces in no particular order (and possibly completely unintelligble), are under the cut, and I will add to them as we go along.
1. When I ( Read more... )
My initial notes, just bits and pieces in no particular order (and possibly completely unintelligble), are under the cut, and I will add to them as we go along.
1. When I ( Read more... )
Comments 33
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Do you know that I've been obsessively refreshing better_with_3 for the past hour?
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All of which is to say that I understand if you felt some parts needed to be longer. :) I also felt that Parts 8 and 9 were too long to be one part, but unfortunately there was no good place where they could be split. I did it where I felt it was the least jarring, but it was sort of the least bad of a bunch of bad choices.
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The Doctor and Rose never say "I love you" to each other, and this was absolutely on purpose.
That works for me, and for exactly the reasons you outline - though, actually, I believe Ten has just as much difficulty saying the words, and we saw that. It makes perfect sense that they don't. You did actually have the Doctor acknowledge to himself that he loved both Jack and Rose, though, and I was glad to see the reference to Jack, though you're right that his feelings for Rose were unmistakeable.
The Part Six event:
I am incredibly uncomfortable with the idea that what happened to Rose was on par with rape or abuse, though I did want what happened to her to be powerful.
What made it feel like that to me was a combination of the build-up - it was obvious that he was setting out to do something and it felt as if it was in retaliation for the fact that she and Jack were so totally into lovemaking that she was barely aware of the Doctor's presence any more; ( ... )
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What made it feel like that to me was a combination of the build-up - it was obvious that he was setting out to do something and it felt as if it was in retaliation for the fact that she and Jack were so totally into lovemaking that she was barely aware of the Doctor's presence any more; the aftermath, when he just left (more on that later); and the reference to it not being intentional but he knew exactly what he'd done to her; and then, later, refusing to explain. You left us to draw the worst possible conclusions, of course, and that's why it felt like a violation, close to rape. Yes, I did feel strongly about it ;) That's why.I preface everything I say here with the disclaimer that the reactions you are having are completely valid given what you had to work with - as you mentioned in the next section, there's probably going to be some some disconnect between what's in my head and what's on the screen ( ... )
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And finally coming around to reply to this one: that is very difficult to do. Often, you can't address the issues readers have concerns about without revealing information you the characters aren't ready to reveal yet. So you, in effect, have to say 'trust me, all will be explained soon'. Been there, done that many a time.
I don't think anyone believed that the Doctor intended to hurt her; we just felt that he was too thoughtless, too much of a coward, too reluctant to explain, all of which left us with the impression that he wasn't doing enough to make up for what he did. Hurting her by accident: yeah, we can buy that. Running away and refusing to explain: that's where we start shouting at him ;)
Anyway, thank you again very much indeed for this opportunity to chat about the story! I've enjoyed it a lot.
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For most of us, if someone we love is hurt or in pain, even if we caused it, we stay around and try to offer comfort. Even if we can't offer physical comfort, we try to offer the comfort of our presence.
Here, I disagree with the premise, actually. If someone has hurt me, I tend not to want to see them for a while.
To me, it looked as if he was abandoning her. He hurt her badly, left her terrified and barely conscious, and then just walked out. He was the only one who could explain to her what happened - which she needed more than she needed physical comfort - and he just wasn't there. It felt callous, uncaring and - well, talk about a huge slap in the face.This, I get, and I understand that this was a crit of the character and not my characterization. :) To his credit, I don't think he ever would have left if Jack hadn't been there. But his instinct is to run from the damage he causes, and he knew Jack would take care of her, so he ran. I was surprised by how many people commented on it, but I imagine it was ( ... )
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First, I certainly didn't feel misled - or maybe just a fraction, since I was reading this from better_with_3. But you did make clear from the outset that it was primarily a Rose/Nine story. I knew that. My comments about Jack were never to say 'Give me OT3' or 'this isn't what I was expecting'; I was simply showing you my reactions to events :)
I think what really, really made this feel like a genuine threesome relationship, though, was that pivotal first lovemaking ( ... )
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I agree with you that Jack is probably a little more hurt and/or disappointed than he lets on, but I'm going to nitpick this: ... and I'd wonder how long he'd stick around as the ex-lover and gooseberry, particularly as we know he loves both of them. How long can you be in love yet accept being shut out of a deeper relationship, one you once had?... by saying that "love" and "in love" are different things. I agree that Jack feels the former, but I don't necessarily agree that he feels the latter. IMHO, anyway, he loves Nine and Rose but has sex with them in a 51st century, commonplace-activity, friends-with-benefits kind of way (which I still think can be as powerful as the Interlude ( ... )
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Ooh, and this is where I part company completely and absolutely with you! As I see it, Ianto is a convenient sex-partner. Jack likes him; loves him in the way he loves all the team; but isn't in love with him. And, yes, that may partly be my own prejudice (I've tried, but I don't like Ianto and I loathe Jack/Ianto), but it's also based on Ianto's comments to others about their relationship: the 'dabbling' and the comment to Owen that 'it's not what you think'.
Other than that, yes, Jack's better-equipped than most to deal with the fallout of being ejected from the bedroom, and of course they still love him and he loves them. Me, I tend to see him as in love with them as well, but again this is one of those interpretation/characterisation things. One is as reconcilable with canon as the other, even if Jack has given a lot of hints that his feelings for both the Doctor and Rose are very strong. Kissing them goodbye. Dying for them. Still loving the Doctor ( ... )
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