rynne | (no subject)

So I've been reading some post-JE D/R fics...

A theme I am commonly finding in Ten II/Rose fic is the distinction of sex, and the idea that Ten II is better for Rose because he would happily have sex with her while Ten I wouldn't have. That even if Rose traveled with a fully Time Lord Doctor for the rest of her life, that Doctor would have been absolutely fine not having sex with her, and therefore Rose is better off with Ten II.

This bothers me. I mean, I love Ten II/Rose and I'm sure they're going to have a fantastic life together. I also don't think the Doctor and Rose had sex prior to Doomsday, no matter how much I like reading it in fic or how that "You're not...?" sounded like the Doctor thought she might have been pregnant with his baby.

Part of my irritation with the idea that the Doctor would have been fine not physically loving Rose is probably due to that other idea to which some members of fandom so tightly cling, that Time Lords are above humans and they're just not compatible enough in the mental/emotional sphere for a real relationship.

I've always cried bullshit to that idea. Sometimes I think I'm the only person who remembers Susan/David Campbell, or Leela/Andred--not one, but two Time Lord/human (or at the least, Gallifreyan/human) pairings in canon. In Classic canon, even. And, unlike Looms, it's not even the dubious book canon--both Susan/David and Leela/Andred are undisputable TV canon. If we want to go to the controversial TV movie, then there's further proof with the Doctor's parents.

According to canon, Time Lords are perfectly capable of having committed relationships with humans. The question then becomes, would the Doctor, especially post-Time War, let himself be in such a relationship? A man damaged by war and the loss of almost everything he cared about, who no longer shares the burden of the universe with the rest of his people and now has it resting on his shoulders alone, and who feels that burden acutely--would he let himself have a relationship that goes beyond hugs and handholding? Of course there's a part of him that's a man, a person, with his own hopes and dreams and emotions, but there's also the part of him that is the Lonely God (however much I hate the title and the concept). The Doctor has a keen sense of responsibility, and at one point, that part of him that is the Lonely God might have presented him with a choice between Rose and the universe, and compelled him to pick the universe.

Maybe the Doctor was so afraid of what the future might bring that he wouldn't move his relationship with Rose forward. Maybe he just didn't feel the same biological urge for sex that humans do, and therefore resistance would not have been a true hardship for him. Maybe he could have spent Rose's whole life with her and not once had sex with her.

I just, frankly, don't believe it.

That fear of the future--of course he had it. I wouldn't be surprised if it never went away. But honestly, I really do think S2 was the story of him coming to terms with that, of him going from thinking "wither and die" to "how long are you going to stay with me?" and smiling at "forever". I seriously think he was really dealing with that fear.

I can buy him not feeling the same urges. Different species, longer lifespan, more time in which to reproduce--whatever. But we know from canon that Time Lords are capable of that kind of relationship with humans, so different urges does not necessarily mean a complete lack of them altogether. Then the question is would the Doctor personally be inclined to that kind of relationship--and you know what, I think he would.

JOAN:
What must I look like to you, Doctor? I must seem so very small.

THE DOCTOR:
No. We could start again. I'd like that, you and me. We could try, at least. Because everything that John Smith is and was, I'm capable of that, too.

I'm capable of that, too. And not only is he capable of it, but he wants it. He's asking for it. John Smith and Joan were already at the kissing stage, and judging by what the watch showed them when they touched it together, were fantasizing about marriage and children. On one hand, it definitely is another along the theme of "the one adventure he could never have", the adventure Ten II gets to have with Rose--but on the other hand, marriage and children imply sex. The Doctor is trying to offer Joan the kind of relationship she could have had with John Smith, which would mean the eventual inclusion of sex.

I have always had the firm belief that Ten I refrained from saying "I love you" to Rose in JE because he wanted her to pick Ten II, and I think he wanted her to pick Ten II not because he himself was incapable of giving her the kind of relationship that she could have with Ten II, but for other advantages Ten II had. Even if the Doctor had been dealing with the "wither and die" issue, and been willing to stay with her anyway, that doesn't mean he would have been happy to watch it happen to her, and this way he didn't have to. I think another big factor was her family--he's always known how important her family was to her, and respected that. By leaving her and Ten II in the parallel universe, he made sure that she didn't have to make a choice between him and her family.

Do I think that sex and hormones and so on are different for Ten II than for Ten I? No idea. I have no objection to the idea that Ten II doesn't have as much control over his hormones, that he ends up more immersed in passion, that sex is somewhat different. That's plausible. There are things he can offer her that Ten I can't, such as growing old together. Maybe greater immersion in the sensations and emotions of sex is one of those things, and maybe not--we don't really know what sex for Time Lords is like. I have no objections to the idea of sex being different for Time Lords and humans, but I also have no objection to sex not being so different after all.

I believe that if there had been no metacrisis, the Doctor would have kept her with him. I also believe that they would eventually have begun a sexual relationship, because I think the Doctor is just as capable of it as a Time Lord as he is as a part-human. I just see no evidence to believe that he's not.

And the idea that the Time Lord Doctor is not capable of offering Rose what the part-human Doctor can feels to me like a slight to both of them. Ten I becomes incapable of that kind of relationship, which is sad and horrible, but it also feels like Ten II doesn't have enough to recommend him on his own. He has to be more than Ten I in order to justify Rose choosing him over Ten I, as if he's not good enough should their capabilities be equal.

I don't think this is what people were thinking when they wrote their stories involving this theme. This is just the sense that I personally get from the idea, the aftertaste that it leaves me, and it's one I don't like.

Rose loves Ten I and Ten II, and they both love her, and I love all three of them. I just don't think Ten II needs the kind of advantage over Ten I that I see in those stories--he is, after all, the one who got the girl in the end. What other advantage does he really need?