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flowsoffireAll right, so like most of us DW fans around the world, I watched the Rings of Akhaten, with ALL THE SYMBOLISM—and in-between loving Clara and wondering about Clara and the grandfather theme and her mum’s role in the story (there’s something, there’s something, there’s something going on with herrrrrr…) I just couldn’t seem to stop thinking about River. Happens to me a lot in episodes she’s absolutely not supposed to appear in, except that here there were REASONS!
That little girl. Let’s go through the Merry/Melody parallels:
–the names! Okay, never mind that.
–two scared little girls running away. Obvious.
–two little girls apparently without a family to look out for them (no background on Merry’s side), chosen as babies (for Melody, actually before she was born) and brought up by a religious order with one sole purpose to their lives. They are special; they are alone, and yet surrounded by people preparing them to the roles they were chosen for. One is a weapon; the other, a vessel of knowledge and a sacrifice. And stuff wants to eat them, at least metaphorically: the "spaceman" that is in fact the astronaut symbolizing River being forced into killing, and the parasite feeding on life, and memories, and souls. It seems that both girls have their free will and individuality stolen from them and fed to the creature/thing that holds them.
–two brave little girls, however: Merry is scared of "getting it wrong", but willing to be a sacrifice. Melody is different, she called for help and tried to run—but I’m reminded of the line "It’s all right. It’s quite all right. I’m dying." Of course she knew she was going to regenerate—but from the feeling I get, both girls are used to having their lives ruled by something way bigger than themselves… If that makes sense.
–singing themes. More about this later.
–the knowledge and storytelling themes. As soon as Merry explained her role, all I could think about was the Library. Merry knows all the songs and the stories, River tells the Doctor’s future in her diary; they know the secrets—secret songs, secret names. Please note that this is an episode in which songs and knowledge and memories are concretely used to advance the plot and save the characters’ skins. Foreshadowing!
–symbolic elements: water vs. fire. Here it’s opposed, however—Merry’s flamboyant cloak vs. Melody’s astronaut suit or black and white photos, the darkness of the New York regeneration scene; rising from the water vs. being pulled into the fire. Regeneration light pouring out reminds of the light of the eaten memories, though. Not sure how this might be interpreted, but it’s lovely.
That’s it for the parallels. This might not be the first little girl with Melody sides—but seriously, knowledge and songs. KNOWLEDGE AND SONGS.
Those people are called the Sun Singers.
Big Bang memories:
RORY: But that's the sun.
DOCTOR: Is it? Well, here's the noise that sun is making right now.
(The Tardis noise.)
DOCTOR: That's my Tardis burning up. That's what's been keeping the Earth warm.
And guess what Song is trapped inside, sunshine?
So, we have two suns of destruction—one greedy pseudo-god, and one burning time machine whose explosion will cause cracks that swallow things so they’ll never have existed. What else have we got? We have good lines. First, "we don't stop running until we are out from under the shadow". Sorry, did you say shadow? *clutches heart* Library feels, again. And then there’s "Song’s over". Which is REPEATED. The chorister says it once. The Doctor says it TWICE, once before him, once after. "That’s it, then. Song’s over." The exact same sentence. And song, not the song. Each time, I had that great thrill racing through me. Because of course I had to think of River—and the end of her big arc (though it ended in s6, Trenzalore has yet to come). As the huge fangirl I am, the mere possibility that she could be "over" should have me appalled, but I want her to have an epic closure—not just keep hanging around till the writers/audience get tired of her, but go out with a bang! Heh. (Though a whimper is good too. Love a whimper.)
The song is over, because two little girls failed in their purpose: the "god" is awake, and the Doctor is left to feed it his memories, his "secrets that should never told". Likewise, Melody, now grown-up, refused to kill her love. Even before that, she took him back from the very brink of death—when she was shown she had a future, a future in which he loved her. A future in which she mattered as a person, not a weapon—like Merry matters as one unique little girl, not a sacrifice. Back to the point—neither song could put gods to sleep (or rather, a parasite and a good man…). In the end, the great secrets must be given.
What else could it mean, "Song’s over"? Well, it does remind strongly of Ten’s "Your song is ending". And the songs mean stories in there, too—think of the people singing songs of Donna Noble. And both times, we HEARD the songs, the music—the Ood song, and the Sun Singers. So. IS REGENERATION COMING? Be it Eleven’s end (well, that would be after the anniversary ep, at least) or River’s (in whichever way they might mean it, since she already died in the Library, blah blah)… I simply CAN’T wait for that finale…
Let’s finish on the word song itself … River Song, because Melody Pond—but where did the name Melody come from? Amy named her daughter after her daughter, timey-wimey loop—a circle with no beginning. Where did that come from? Pond is important (why is it a duck pond if there are no ducks, the name leads Clara to the Doctor, through Vastra’s one-word questions—truth, pure and singular), and it turned into River because she’s the only water in the forest. (Too bad Trenzalore is made of fields and that "I am the Doctor and I am afraid" line seems to come from another episode, I was getting feels. Oh, look, Clara’s mum is called Ravenwood.) Please let the other side of that name also have plot relevance. It’ll make me feel better—my first thought when I heard of a character called River Song was "most Mary-Sue name ever" =P
I have no coherent conclusion to this pile of errant thoughts, so I’ll pimp as an ending: the Rings of Akhaten post of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
elisi’s meta, which never fails to be the best thing ever (and she’s the one whose stuff made me way more symbolism-aware), promethia_tenk treating the New Age to a gorgeous Ponds and River vid with lovely bits of Clara—I’m not getting over the fact that this is actually her first, it’s so good—and this lovely Clara fic of honeynoir’s, which deserves way more comments than it has thus far.
Thanks for reading!
That little girl. Let’s go through the Merry/Melody parallels:
–the names! Okay, never mind that.
–two scared little girls running away. Obvious.
–two little girls apparently without a family to look out for them (no background on Merry’s side), chosen as babies (for Melody, actually before she was born) and brought up by a religious order with one sole purpose to their lives. They are special; they are alone, and yet surrounded by people preparing them to the roles they were chosen for. One is a weapon; the other, a vessel of knowledge and a sacrifice. And stuff wants to eat them, at least metaphorically: the "spaceman" that is in fact the astronaut symbolizing River being forced into killing, and the parasite feeding on life, and memories, and souls. It seems that both girls have their free will and individuality stolen from them and fed to the creature/thing that holds them.
–two brave little girls, however: Merry is scared of "getting it wrong", but willing to be a sacrifice. Melody is different, she called for help and tried to run—but I’m reminded of the line "It’s all right. It’s quite all right. I’m dying." Of course she knew she was going to regenerate—but from the feeling I get, both girls are used to having their lives ruled by something way bigger than themselves… If that makes sense.
–singing themes. More about this later.
–the knowledge and storytelling themes. As soon as Merry explained her role, all I could think about was the Library. Merry knows all the songs and the stories, River tells the Doctor’s future in her diary; they know the secrets—secret songs, secret names. Please note that this is an episode in which songs and knowledge and memories are concretely used to advance the plot and save the characters’ skins. Foreshadowing!
–symbolic elements: water vs. fire. Here it’s opposed, however—Merry’s flamboyant cloak vs. Melody’s astronaut suit or black and white photos, the darkness of the New York regeneration scene; rising from the water vs. being pulled into the fire. Regeneration light pouring out reminds of the light of the eaten memories, though. Not sure how this might be interpreted, but it’s lovely.
That’s it for the parallels. This might not be the first little girl with Melody sides—but seriously, knowledge and songs. KNOWLEDGE AND SONGS.
Those people are called the Sun Singers.
Big Bang memories:
RORY: But that's the sun.
DOCTOR: Is it? Well, here's the noise that sun is making right now.
(The Tardis noise.)
DOCTOR: That's my Tardis burning up. That's what's been keeping the Earth warm.
And guess what Song is trapped inside, sunshine?
So, we have two suns of destruction—one greedy pseudo-god, and one burning time machine whose explosion will cause cracks that swallow things so they’ll never have existed. What else have we got? We have good lines. First, "we don't stop running until we are out from under the shadow". Sorry, did you say shadow? *clutches heart* Library feels, again. And then there’s "Song’s over". Which is REPEATED. The chorister says it once. The Doctor says it TWICE, once before him, once after. "That’s it, then. Song’s over." The exact same sentence. And song, not the song. Each time, I had that great thrill racing through me. Because of course I had to think of River—and the end of her big arc (though it ended in s6, Trenzalore has yet to come). As the huge fangirl I am, the mere possibility that she could be "over" should have me appalled, but I want her to have an epic closure—not just keep hanging around till the writers/audience get tired of her, but go out with a bang! Heh. (Though a whimper is good too. Love a whimper.)
The song is over, because two little girls failed in their purpose: the "god" is awake, and the Doctor is left to feed it his memories, his "secrets that should never told". Likewise, Melody, now grown-up, refused to kill her love. Even before that, she took him back from the very brink of death—when she was shown she had a future, a future in which he loved her. A future in which she mattered as a person, not a weapon—like Merry matters as one unique little girl, not a sacrifice. Back to the point—neither song could put gods to sleep (or rather, a parasite and a good man…). In the end, the great secrets must be given.
What else could it mean, "Song’s over"? Well, it does remind strongly of Ten’s "Your song is ending". And the songs mean stories in there, too—think of the people singing songs of Donna Noble. And both times, we HEARD the songs, the music—the Ood song, and the Sun Singers. So. IS REGENERATION COMING? Be it Eleven’s end (well, that would be after the anniversary ep, at least) or River’s (in whichever way they might mean it, since she already died in the Library, blah blah)… I simply CAN’T wait for that finale…
Let’s finish on the word song itself … River Song, because Melody Pond—but where did the name Melody come from? Amy named her daughter after her daughter, timey-wimey loop—a circle with no beginning. Where did that come from? Pond is important (why is it a duck pond if there are no ducks, the name leads Clara to the Doctor, through Vastra’s one-word questions—truth, pure and singular), and it turned into River because she’s the only water in the forest. (Too bad Trenzalore is made of fields and that "I am the Doctor and I am afraid" line seems to come from another episode, I was getting feels. Oh, look, Clara’s mum is called Ravenwood.) Please let the other side of that name also have plot relevance. It’ll make me feel better—my first thought when I heard of a character called River Song was "most Mary-Sue name ever" =P
I have no coherent conclusion to this pile of errant thoughts, so I’ll pimp as an ending: the Rings of Akhaten post of
elisi’s meta, which never fails to be the best thing ever (and she’s the one whose stuff made me way more symbolism-aware), promethia_tenk treating the New Age to a gorgeous Ponds and River vid with lovely bits of Clara—I’m not getting over the fact that this is actually her first, it’s so good—and this lovely Clara fic of honeynoir’s, which deserves way more comments than it has thus far. Thanks for reading!
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no subject
Date: 2013-04-17 04:35 pm (UTC)*chuckling* Me, believing in Moffat? Nah, probably not :P I just... his eps under RTD were SO good. What went wrong? :S
"...and I couldn't see any glaring Moffat Trope" LOL Indeed. Plot didn't convince me either and I didn't like the monsters (they were from classic Who, apparently? Haven't seen them there yet), but yeah Ser Davos *wrong fandom* captain guy was in it so that made the ep for me :P
*hope LJ doesn't screw up my post for once*
no subject
Date: 2013-04-17 04:58 pm (UTC)Seriously? o.O
just... his eps under RTD were SO good. What went wrong? :S
He became free to do his own thing? In the good and the bad parts =P
I didn't like the monsters (they were from classic Who, apparently? Haven't seen them there yet)
I wonder what the classic!Who!lovers who had seen those before thought about it. I thought the treatment of the Ice Warrior could have been better, it didn't really catch my interest, we were supposed to feel for it but I wasn't that moved. That's too bad.
but yeah Ser Davos *wrong fandom* captain guy was in it so that made the ep for me :P
*thumbs up and laughter* Still enjoying GoT btw? ;)
no subject
Date: 2013-04-17 05:18 pm (UTC)Yeah it really looks like Moffat needs someone above him to control him, doesn't he? (that sort of sounds weird. And very, /very/ wrong :P)
I didn't care about the Ice Warrior At. All. And was it me or was his voice ridiculous?
GoT is SO GOOD. The first two eps of the season were slow-paced to set all the pieces in place. It was good, but not very exciting. Now they're moving and WOW. There was this one scene, a meeting of some of the powerful people of the series... They enter a room and take a seat. THAT'S IT. No dialogue. No other spaces. No other movements. Just six people, in various places in a room and in various positions of power, heading for a table and choosing/moving chairs, all the while glancing, eye-rolling, smirking, side-eying, glaring and literally scooting in front of one another. There's 1 minute and 40 seconds of it and it's more accurate and in character than Moffat can ever hope to achieve ;)
And my fav Dutch actress had another scene... just WOW. (She plays the main adviser of one the Kings; 'Ser Davos' was another until he lost the King's favor because of her.)
So it's all awesome and amazing and then there's ANOTHER scene with so much and completely gratuitous female nudity and argh at least Moffat can't do /that/ :P
no subject
Date: 2013-04-17 05:57 pm (UTC)*shakes head*
Yeah it really looks like Moffat needs someone above him to control him, doesn't he? (that sort of sounds weird. And very, /very/ wrong :P)
*shaking with laughter*
And was it me or was his voice ridiculous?
Didn't strike me.
Now they're moving and WOW. There was this one scene, a meeting of some of the powerful people of the series... They enter a room and take a seat. THAT'S IT. No dialogue. No other spaces. No other movements. Just six people, in various places in a room and in various positions of power, heading for a table and choosing/moving chairs, all the while glancing, eye-rolling, smirking, side-eying, glaring and literally scooting in front of one another. There's 1 minute and 40 seconds of it and it's more accurate and in character than Moffat can ever hope to achieve ;)
It does sound good! =) I'll watch GoT one day… Lol.
So it's all awesome and amazing and then there's ANOTHER scene with so much and completely gratuitous female nudity and argh at least Moffat can't do /that/ :P
Is that good or bad? XD
no subject
Date: 2013-04-17 06:13 pm (UTC)And /that/ is actually good ;) The nudity in GoT bothers me, if only because there are SO MANY full frontal shots of women but barely of men (and the one we got was gross :P)
The more I watch GoT, the more I can recommend it :)
no subject
Date: 2013-04-17 06:19 pm (UTC)I've got eight shows to choose from after I finish rewatching new!Who (I don't count old!Who, because that's the only one I'm positive I'll be focusing on first). I swear to you, I'll be drawing straws.
no subject
Date: 2013-04-17 06:20 pm (UTC)EIGHT?! :O GoT, OUAT... what else?
no subject
Date: 2013-04-17 06:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-17 06:27 pm (UTC)Gah, Buffy is on my list too, and has been for months :| I enjoyed most episodes of Sherlock quite a lot :)
no subject
Date: 2013-04-17 06:36 pm (UTC)I'll keep you updated on what I end up watching ;)
no subject
Date: 2013-04-17 07:21 pm (UTC)I use this one by default, and the other 12 I try to match with the stories I'm posting.
I'm counting on it! ;)
no subject
Date: 2013-04-18 08:23 pm (UTC)