I am just blown away by your comment--I keep rereading it with a big grin on my face. I'm thrilled this exchange has worked out so well. We'll have to do it again sometime <3
You took what was a very vague, a little unlikely prompt and turned it into something gorgeous. You know? It turned out to be the perfect prompt. I genuinely was feeling like I was tapped out on material for this pairing and (barring the odd bit of crackfic or banter/fluff) was going to have to wait for new episodes. And something about that prompt just opened up all these areas that--yeah, I have spent a lot of time thinking about, but never thought to make into fic. This is why I love getting other perspectives, it really does open you up to more. So thanks for that.
I think you took what could have been a crack-ish concept and you made it seem plausible for her to be thinking about. From the minute she first James Bond-ed her way across the screen, I just felt like she was saying to herself 'if I'm going to do this, I'm going to do it ALL THE WAY.' I have to say I approve =D
And I love that you have her not do it, not because she's too proud to be seen that way, but because in the end, she's realistic about the dangers of wearing something that could trip her up. River doesn't seem too hung up on appearing ridiculous (hello, Cleopatra outfit), but she is deeply practical when it comes down to it.
And then the part you wrote about her leaving the message on the Byzantium! I've gotta say, in some ways that's the saddest section of this fic to me. The whole escape plan just seems like such a painstakingly crafted and deeply romantic gesture, and what kind of reaction does she get to it? It always hurts me to watch--I figure a lot of her snark there is quite defensive.
I think it's also what she sees about herself in it and how she uses it to keep control in her wild life, to make sense of her self. I very much agree. I wanted it to seem like a portion of her own mind, outside her body--another part of her. Not to mention the fact that the whole thing must be just a fantastic puzzle to work out all the time. I swear timey-wimey is intellectual crack, and Moffat knows it.
There are some sentences you used that were absolute brilliance about why she needed to go back, why the doctor couldn't understand. Thank you very much indeed. I'm very proud of that section. I've moved away from thinking River will kill the Doctor to thinking she's going to kill some other man, just because the opportunity for philosophical opposition is so much greater if she kills someone else. If she killed the Doctor . . . well, would he really care? But if there was some situation where a good man needed to die--it wasn't right, but it was necessary--I think River could do that. The Doctor is phenomenally bad at those kinds of decisions, the hard objective decisions, and tends to lock up when the idealistic option is denied him (ie: Waters of Mars, The Beast Below). I feel like it would be entirely in character for River to usurp that kind of decision from him, in order to spare him having to make it, and I think it would be entirely in character for the Doctor to take it very badly. On the other side of it, though, the Doctor has a terrific amount of practice at coping with a heavy conscience . . . does River? I suspect not.
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You took what was a very vague, a little unlikely prompt and turned it into something gorgeous.
You know? It turned out to be the perfect prompt. I genuinely was feeling like I was tapped out on material for this pairing and (barring the odd bit of crackfic or banter/fluff) was going to have to wait for new episodes. And something about that prompt just opened up all these areas that--yeah, I have spent a lot of time thinking about, but never thought to make into fic. This is why I love getting other perspectives, it really does open you up to more. So thanks for that.
I think you took what could have been a crack-ish concept and you made it seem plausible for her to be thinking about.
From the minute she first James Bond-ed her way across the screen, I just felt like she was saying to herself 'if I'm going to do this, I'm going to do it ALL THE WAY.' I have to say I approve =D
And I love that you have her not do it, not because she's too proud to be seen that way, but because in the end, she's realistic about the dangers of wearing something that could trip her up.
River doesn't seem too hung up on appearing ridiculous (hello, Cleopatra outfit), but she is deeply practical when it comes down to it.
And then the part you wrote about her leaving the message on the Byzantium!
I've gotta say, in some ways that's the saddest section of this fic to me. The whole escape plan just seems like such a painstakingly crafted and deeply romantic gesture, and what kind of reaction does she get to it? It always hurts me to watch--I figure a lot of her snark there is quite defensive.
I think it's also what she sees about herself in it and how she uses it to keep control in her wild life, to make sense of her self.
I very much agree. I wanted it to seem like a portion of her own mind, outside her body--another part of her. Not to mention the fact that the whole thing must be just a fantastic puzzle to work out all the time. I swear timey-wimey is intellectual crack, and Moffat knows it.
There are some sentences you used that were absolute brilliance about why she needed to go back, why the doctor couldn't understand.
Thank you very much indeed. I'm very proud of that section. I've moved away from thinking River will kill the Doctor to thinking she's going to kill some other man, just because the opportunity for philosophical opposition is so much greater if she kills someone else. If she killed the Doctor . . . well, would he really care? But if there was some situation where a good man needed to die--it wasn't right, but it was necessary--I think River could do that. The Doctor is phenomenally bad at those kinds of decisions, the hard objective decisions, and tends to lock up when the idealistic option is denied him (ie: Waters of Mars, The Beast Below). I feel like it would be entirely in character for River to usurp that kind of decision from him, in order to spare him having to make it, and I think it would be entirely in character for the Doctor to take it very badly. On the other side of it, though, the Doctor has a terrific amount of practice at coping with a heavy conscience . . . does River? I suspect not.