Wednesday, September 21, 2011

A Counter-Arguement For The Ponds Are Bad Parents Crowd

There's been a lot of chatter online arguing that Amy & Rory have been horrible parents for accepting the los of their child so quickly and continuing seemingly unphased on their romp through time and space. I'd like to take a moment to inject a lttle calm into this debate and consider context.

First Point: Amy Never Experienced Her Pregnancy. Amy may have been pregnant but she never experienced the pregnancy. Her mind was in a ganger evading well dressed invaders, fighting pirates and running for he life down hallways. She never became attached to the thought of being a mother. She never bonded with the child in her womb.

Second Point: She Only Ever Held Her Baby For Less Than 3 or 4 Hours
Flying right past the pregnancy Amy has the baby in the 52nd century. One has to assume 52nd Century medical science has advanced significantly from 21st Century obstetrics have made pregnancy a pretty quick and painless process. In no time Amy is holding a baby in her arms she didn't even know she was having. Except how long did Amy really spend with baby Melody? From Demon's Run the amount of time Amy spends with her child before her rescue seems neglible. Rory holds Melody for even less time. I've held coworkers babies at the office longer than Rory held baby Melody.

Third Point:It Wasn't Even Their REAL BABY!
Forgetting the fact that neither Pond had much time to bond with their baby, it wasn't even their baby! The baby they held at Demon's Run was a ganger baby. Did Amy ever hold her real baby in her arms or was the switch done immediately? We can be pretty certain that Rory never held his real child in his arms.

Final Point: Timey-Wimey
Considering the Ponds experience alternate realities and timelines 3 times before breakfast, is it possible the idea of a baby as a hypothetical might be easy for them to accept? Especially considering points 1-3? Technically Amy and Rory spent more time with AARP Amy, the girl who waited. AARP Amy had more an emotional impact on the Ponds because they actually, you know, spent actual time with her. Then there's the fact that they know what happpened to their child (River Pond) and they did spend their lives (unbeknownst to them) with young Melody. So given all these factors, is their calm acceptance of Melody's disapearance all that odd considering the context of their lives?

3 comments:

  1. I'd also argue that they may have spent a long time with River at the end of A Good Man Goes To War where she may have explained that they will
    only see true child again when fully an adult. So giving them time (which may have been a couple of years between AGMGTW and LKH) giving them time to come to terms with it and grieve their loss.

    And from a story point of view, do we really want to see years of Rory and Amy fighting grief and depression?

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  2. Excellent article, you are a good

    Although slightly disagree with the fact Amy was only with the baby for a few hours. It was said in AGMGTW that they've been on red alert for 3 weeks now. And it would be a strangle coincidence if the first time she had her baby was when the doctor saved her! But totally agree with the ganger baby being in place, not quite the same as forming a bond with a really baby!

    And at the end of AGMGTW Amy hold up a gun to River, threatening her because she wants her baby back. I agree with Mr Parfitt that River could have explained everything to them and hence they new that she would be safe.

    Also, in TWORS, Amy said to Madam K that she took her babies younger life from her, which is why she put her eye patch back on, and let the Silence kill her(??? potentially!!), it seems that she know that she will never see Melody again, otherwise it could cause Time to be re-written.............

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  3. Amy was heartbroken when they took what she thought was Melody away from her. And we already established that gangers don't look, sound, or feel any different from their human counterparts.

    Most parents in Amy's and Rory's situation don't have the comfort of knowing they just spoke to their adult daughter and she has turned out more or less OK.

    And a lot of this is just silly young people who've never had children themselves, being judgmental of a parent who's not as perfect as they think they'll be.

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