You are smart. Also the only downside to talking to you about all this stuff (not like there's REALLY a downside) is that when you post it, I can only say, yes I agree with this. So: yes, I agree with this. Like you, I find it surprisingly easy to just not think about. I think that's partly because of my lack of investment in the show writ large, partly because, like you say, it's not really presented as ~just what she always wanted~. And still, despite the, er, almost obsession with maternity that this show seems to have sometimes, there was no boy and the children were, like, fake, so it was still a strange little pseudo-family. So it wasn't A BOY AND SOME KIDS WAS ALL RIVER SONG EVER REALLY NEEDED, which *would* have made me ragey, no matter my investment level in the show. And partly, I think the maternity theme bugs me just a little bit less in a show for kids, especially where, as I said, at least it's not *always* bound up with a husband and two kids and a white picket fence. If River had been "saved" in, say, Donna's position in the library eps? *rages* I mean, yes, it bugs, but I can deal.
And, perhaps pettily, my least favorite thing about River's not-death is the way the show loves the Doctor in it--he is too important for her to let him die so she must sacrifice herself *for him*. Alex Kingston *sells that shit* so I'm mostly okay with it, especially with the way she gets to frame it as refusal to let *her life* be changed, but still. *little twinge of annoyance* And even that would have been better if she'd actually just died.
I think your distinctions between Donna and River are very apt. Especially that it was the end of Donna's story, which totally erased everything that came before. With River, she intends to die to *keep* the rest of her story the same, to keep all that came before. Yeah, the Doctor saves her without her consent in a rather creepy sort of way, but she's still *River* with all the experience and knowledge accumulated throughout her life that makes her who she is, even if she's (temporarily!) stuck in a computer.
YOU GRAFFITIED THE OLDEST CLIFF FACE IN THE UNIVERSE.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-07-16 12:57 am (UTC)And, perhaps pettily, my least favorite thing about River's not-death is the way the show loves the Doctor in it--he is too important for her to let him die so she must sacrifice herself *for him*. Alex Kingston *sells that shit* so I'm mostly okay with it, especially with the way she gets to frame it as refusal to let *her life* be changed, but still. *little twinge of annoyance* And even that would have been better if she'd actually just died.
I think your distinctions between Donna and River are very apt. Especially that it was the end of Donna's story, which totally erased everything that came before. With River, she intends to die to *keep* the rest of her story the same, to keep all that came before. Yeah, the Doctor saves her without her consent in a rather creepy sort of way, but she's still *River* with all the experience and knowledge accumulated throughout her life that makes her who she is, even if she's (temporarily!) stuck in a computer.
YOU GRAFFITIED THE OLDEST CLIFF FACE IN THE UNIVERSE.