On Rose Tyler

This is really so hard, I love Rose Tyler. I do -- I love her quirks, her passion for danger, her adrenaline junkie self and her compassion, I love her faults too. There isn't anything about her I don't love.

She's the type of fictional character that I can feel breathless over not because I want to be her but because I want to read/see her story played over and over. And it's just hard sometimes when I see her character bashed so many times and harder still when I'm beginning to realize that a lot of the uneveness in Rose's characterization in S2 might have been deliberate.

I have finally come to terms with a new companion and even admit to myself that I might come to like Martha -- no, I'm certain that I will but it hurts, reading RTD's assessment about Martha and Doctor's relationship and it just struck me that what they did to Rose might have been deliberate.

It's also hard to wade in the Martha community knowing that Rose's character would be criticized and that's hard because I feel after Torchwood, Sarah Jane Adventures, that Rose is getting a short shrift. We've left with the image of her crying and while that worked with me the first (second, third, okay, tenth) viewing, I've also realized I'd have loved a scene after Rose cries on her mother's shoulders that she straightens her back and moves on, a clip of her fighting aliens and defending the Earth. I would love that assurance that she does go on and live a fantastic life. It's all I ask really, that my girl is doing well in her world.

I really don't have issues with other companions, I've started watching Four and I love Romana, I really do -- and I do subscribe with the popular opinion that Four and Romana were married, because they were! But since Rose is my first companion I'm not likely to let go of the love soon.

And, really, I'm not naive enough to think that Rose is Doctor's great love of his life, he's been alive for a millenia he's bound to pile on some exes and unlike Angel he was capable of loving before meting Rose. Quite frankly, I want Rose to move on hold what she had with the Doctor and yet capable of loving another person. I don't want her to be pining away because that's not my girl. She's adaptable and can bounce back from any situation given time. Heck, when they were stuck in the Impossible Planet she's the one who's gone native.

I miss Rose.

Doctor Who recs

Doctor Who recs -- mostly Rose-centric, gen and otherwise.

Fic recs

Worlds in conjunction by Marylane

The Doctor makes a slight miscalculation with consequences to Rose. Lovely, heartbreaking story. Rose standing on her own in an unfamiliar world and surviving, it goes AU and refracts again into the canon in such a marvellous, heartbreaking way. I wish Doctor Who did these sort of stories because it could happen.

Most of Marylane's stories, I've decided to put into my personal Rose canon because it happened this way.

"What’s so terrible about that word?"
"Say again?"
"Forever. What’s so bad about forever?"
"It promises the one thing that can’t be done."

Send-Off by Marylane

Post-Doomsday, the Doctor finally achieves the impossible. A quiet and proper send-off to Rose and her life with the Doctor:

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Quiet Life by Marylane

Impossible Planet AU, and yet so like Marylane's stories, still part of canon. Another 'what-if the Doctor never found the TARDIS story'. A wonderful, wonderful AU where Rose and the Doctor still live the same life they lived in the TARDIS.

It features Rose as a captain and I've always imagined Rose would be a good captain and this certainly proves it. It's so lovely a concept and the choice the Doctor has to make at the end is heartbreaking.

( excerpt )

Here There Be by cryptile

This can't be a recommendation without this story. It's a shame Rose gen stories aren't more popular because this -- I think this is the definitive post-Doomsday Rose story. It has dinosaurs, Puff the Magic Piper, personal mythologies, a believable romance and Rose -- brittle, beautiful Rose who's coping and moving on, who's trying, trying so hard to fill the shoes of the Doctor in a Doctor-less universe. She isn't perfect and all too human. And this struggling to get by  Torchwood, this Torchwood that has Mickey, Jake and Rose roadtripping through Cardiff and London is the Torchwood I wanted to watch.

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We Watched the Sun Go Down On Scotland (I Watched the Moon Come Up Over You) by minervacat

After Tooth & Claw, Rose and Ten spend a quiet time in Spain, a quiet, somber piece that's both hopeful and moody. It's Rose and Ten being introspective about the monsters and wonders they face.

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Ever so much more than twenty by nuit_belle

Summary: All children, except one, grow up.
Another great post-Doomsday Rose, grown-up, still cherishing her memories with the Doctor but living a great life. And, also the Doctor as Peter Pan? Really works.


Roundabout by casirafics

Absolute favorite Nine/Rose story -- through Parting of the Ways. About revolutions, change and NINE. Nine who was my first Doctor and even though I've grown to love Ten, will always be my Doctor.

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Seed Pearls by honorh

Summary: Rose's new universe is trying to fit her in. The process isn't easy, but once in a while, just once in a while, the universe gives something back for all it takes away.

Rose and Alt!Doctor -- John Smith is the most vibrant alt!Nine I've seen. And, of course, Bad Wolf enthusiast that I am, it has loads of Bad Wolf mentions and HonorH pulls it off without making me feel like we're drowning in Bad Wolf anvils.


Vid Rec:

All the Lonely People by laurashapiro

Summary: What is the cost of a better life?

Rose and the Doctor and all the cost it takes to being with the Doctor, Rose as Eleanor Rigby. I miss my girl.