Doctor Who: Rose Tyler is My Hero (especially in S2)

[butterfly]

One of the reasons that I adore Rose Tyler so much is because she takes all the traditional stories and shakes them up.

She grabs the "hero's tale" and refuses to be a victim, a lady-in-waiting, or a femme fatale -- she refuses to simply be rescued and rescues right back with as much (or more) frequency. She makes the choice of danger over safety and chooses the adventure of the open road over the known security of hearth and home.

She takes over the fairy tale and uses it. She becomes power and time incarnate and it does not corrupt her (something that our resident Time Lord admits would happen to him if he dared wield that power). She's the Bad Wolf -- she eats little red-riding hood, the girl that she used to be, and creates herself into a woman, someone with both the power and the inclination to protect those she holds dear.

She laughs at danger while never failing to notice and care about the people who are put into danger. She inspires others into action and refuses to let herself or anyone she cares for be less than the best of what they are capable of.

She takes risks -- including one of the biggest risks of all: love. She can stand up against the most powerful creatures and the most intelligent and potentially dangerous people who have ever lived and make them back down. She never lets her lack of schooling, other people's opinions of her potential, or her hair color hold her back from taking the universe on by her terms.

She grows up, right before our eyes. Her relationship with Mickey starts out so young and filled with pettiness and childish insecurities and it grows as the two of them grow, becoming a friendship that is much healthier and stronger than their relationship had been. She challenges the Doctor from the moment that they meet, punctures his ego, and makes him work to impress someone else.

She's a light in the darkness. Not just for the Doctor but for any girl or woman who has ever been told that she's not good enough because she's working class or blonde or unschooled. Rose is a light for any girl who has been taught that she should bow under the will of her family regardless of her own wishes and dreams. She is an inspiration for any woman who has been told or shown that men are the only ones allowed to be the heroes of the story.

Rose Tyler is a Big Damn Hero and a truly epic character. She is my favorite fictional character in existence.

(this post has been brought to you by the 'Rose Tyler is too awesome for an lj-cut' meme)

Comments

[sensiblecat.livejournal.com]

She's a light in the darkness. Not just for the Doctor but for any girl or woman who has ever been told that she's not good enough because she's working class or blonde or unschooled.

Exactly - and how many working class, unschooled girls do you see hating on her? Not many, because they're more likely to be out folding jumpers in shops than sitting in front of computers at college stirring fanwank.

So it's important to remember - as Tennant himself said in a recent interview the aren't just making the show for the few thousand vocal fans, they are making it for the public. And the public love Rose.

This is a really beautiful meta. I don't think the swelling wave of Donna love should put Rose fans on the defensive, any more than respecting Mickey suggests that Rose will dump the Doctor for him. In some ways Donna is the Mickey of Ten's life - starts small but grows enormously and is utterly loyal to the Doctor and his values, even when they cost her dearly. And I like to think that in some ways Donna is also a bit like Rose would be after 20 years or so with the Doctor, wise, compassionate and confident enough to be his equal and his conscience. She was well on the way to that when they were parted and if she returns the potential will be fantastic.

[danamaree.livejournal.com]

Not many, because they're more likely to be out folding jumpers in shops than sitting in front of computers at college stirring fanwank.

I'm not sure if that assumption is totally correct. I left home when I was 17, I didn't go to university, I spent most of my childhood in a trailer park, had to work as soon as I left home to support myself, I had three jobs at the beginning, I cleaned toilets, worked shift work at a toy factory and a the check out girl in the supermarket. And yet, here I am, on the computer, being all fannish, and sometimes I can be wanky too ;)

And, since I came from that background, I find that I can be even more elitist then the best educated upper middle class, because I know what white trash girls are like, ignorant, cruel and likely to be knocked up by the time they are 17, aka more then half my cousins.

Therefore, I find it extremely hard to identify with the so called 'working class' girls in television. Because I worked so damn hard to get away from that culture. And since most of the people in that culture have severe cases of tall poppy syndrome, complete and utter distrust of anyone who tries to get out 'Oooh, you think you're so much better then us'. Elitism does go both ways.

Fortunately Rose isn't anything like the working class girls I grew up with. She's an ideal of what working class girls are supposed to be. All air brushed up without the ugliness of low class, ignorance and distrust of anyone who doesn't fit into their little world*.

But isn't everyone in television land just like that? *shrug*

(*says the uppity little working class girl who tries to prove to everyone she's more then that, Mum always says if you fake it long enough you'll become it, I'm starting to wonder if that's true)