I was very uneasy about Ten at the start of S2 - I didn't like his messianic arrogance in NE, or his frivolity in T&C - I really felt he needed the restraining influence of Jack, since by then Rose was too far gone in love with him to care.
I think one of the honest things about DW is that it shows the negative aspects of a God-figure falling in love. The Doctor is one of the least objective characters ever. He handwaves terrible things when Rose does them and would happily kill anyone who hurt her. That's not necessarily a good thing. His mercy's very arbitrary - he'd pardon Davros, but not The Wire, because the Wire harmed Rose. That makes things very simple, but not in a good way.
There was a very disturbing little exchange at the start of JE when Rose admits she's used a dimensional cannon to get back to him. Not to save the world - to get back to him. In other words, she's gone ahead and done exactly what he wouldn't, for moral reasons, allow himself to do after "Doomsday." This is a man who won't even let Jack, a trained 51stC Time Agent, use a teleporter. But does he call Rose out? No, he grins and flirts with her. He's flattered.
I don't think Rose's union with 10.2 would necessarily be loveless, but it wouldn't be straightforward. The ghost of the original, unhappy Ten, the adjustment to a human life without the TARDIS - that's a lot of baggage for any relationship to carry. And the way that scene was acted didn't suggest that we were meant to regard it as a happy ending. Everyone was uneasy with it.
Personally, I'd have liked 10.2 to clock 10.1 for that speech about him being dark and needing Rose to fix him. Beam in yer eye, Doctor? It's classic dualism. He's pushing away his shadow side and it doesn't work.
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I think one of the honest things about DW is that it shows the negative aspects of a God-figure falling in love. The Doctor is one of the least objective characters ever. He handwaves terrible things when Rose does them and would happily kill anyone who hurt her. That's not necessarily a good thing. His mercy's very arbitrary - he'd pardon Davros, but not The Wire, because the Wire harmed Rose. That makes things very simple, but not in a good way.
There was a very disturbing little exchange at the start of JE when Rose admits she's used a dimensional cannon to get back to him. Not to save the world - to get back to him. In other words, she's gone ahead and done exactly what he wouldn't, for moral reasons, allow himself to do after "Doomsday." This is a man who won't even let Jack, a trained 51stC Time Agent, use a teleporter. But does he call Rose out? No, he grins and flirts with her. He's flattered.
I don't think Rose's union with 10.2 would necessarily be loveless, but it wouldn't be straightforward. The ghost of the original, unhappy Ten, the adjustment to a human life without the TARDIS - that's a lot of baggage for any relationship to carry. And the way that scene was acted didn't suggest that we were meant to regard it as a happy ending. Everyone was uneasy with it.
Personally, I'd have liked 10.2 to clock 10.1 for that speech about him being dark and needing Rose to fix him. Beam in yer eye, Doctor? It's classic dualism. He's pushing away his shadow side and it doesn't work.