flowsoffire

Not that it can be summed up in two sentences, but I'd say, of course Amy and Rory love their daughter… in the baby girl they lost, and though they might try to come to terms with that daughter being River, in a way she's a walking reminder of that very loss. That's the main idea of this fic in hindsight, really—Rory's heartache over his baby girl, his little miracle that he got to hold so little, who was taken from them, and never to be returned because they'd ALREADY had the most they would ever get out of her childhood, in Mels—but without ever knowing it! Even the pregnancy was stolen from them—little Melody was a stranger from the start, and then she disappeared so fast, they never got a chance with her. And accepting River on the surface was one thing, but truly working on a real relationship with her, that would have been so hard. They probably couldn't take that. After Berlin, they didn't say look, let's settle down for a while and be the two of us—they'd just been through that huge trauma, it might have been healthy to try and deal with it together (in a very realistic POV, I know), but they went off with the Doctor again, like they could lose themselves in that life, make it so all of that hadn't happened. (And I'm rereading the end of the script of Let's Kill Hitler to find out how that goes exactly—my, here is a blatant case of the Doctor pushing people's lives the way he wants them to go, without even realizing it. "We have to let her make her own way now." —correct. They can't stick with Melody while knowing so much of what she turns out like, that makes sense. But— "Oh, she'll come looking for us." THAT is not telling the Ponds, oh, you have a choice, you can build a relationship with your daughter if you want to, no matter her age. On the other hand, Amy asks "Will we see her again?". Just asking that implies the possibility of a "no". It's like fate has already fucked them over so much as far as Melody is concerned, they don't consider it's up to them anymore. And as far as they're concerned… They just go on, and try to cling to what they have—each other, and their life with the Doctor. Who is all too happy with keeping his Ponds.)
I wanted more Ponds!family insight!time, too… Moffat just leaves the potential for HUGE stuff, and then like you said, there's no time to give it all the proper work =(
I volunteer for hugging River. *hugs*
LOL, it's okay, I kind of like cynic ;) And I love to see the dark/selfish/dangerous/alien/take-your-pick side of the Doctor explored. Everything you said was just so right. He just NEEDS his companions, and he becomes everything for them, but it's hardly ever healthy relationships… I'm reminded of the Martha quotes now… Get too close and people get burnt.
Oh, go ahead! I'd be delighted =) Um, I guess I /think/ about meta—I've seen a lot of fascinating theories/analysis posts and that's just beyond me, but I do like to dig into characters' minds a lot, and I always love to discuss DW, so… yeah, friend away ;)