#kjadsfl;jfslkd ALSO i'm ignoring a lot of moffat canon in this post and that is simply because i barely remember it. i remember rose though

[regenderate]

hi everybody i'm feeling soooo unhinged right now thinking about parallels between rose and yaz and like. i think i'm onto something. tl;dr is thasmin would be a different ship if the doctor had never met rose

we know rose and yaz are similar characters. they're definitely distinct individuals, but they're both 19 when they meet the doctor, bored with their lives, instantly mesmerized by this weird alien, etc etc etc. each of them has two seasons to travel with the doctor, establish themselves as characters, and become more and more capable within the doctor's world.

but then we have doomsday for rose and village of the angels for yaz. these episodes serve the same purpose, from a character perspective. in both of them, the companion (rose or yaz) is separated from the doctor with no clear way back. they then spend the next few years (their early 20's!!!) separated from and desperately searching for the doctor. the difference is just in the pacing-- we see more of rose in the moments immediately after, and then rose actually disappears from the show for a season, while yaz is back with the doctor an episode later. otherwise, the same thing happens to them.

but like. okay. here's the thing. we saw how devastating losing rose was for ten. AND ten lost rose in part because their hubris in tooth and claw led to torchwood being created. the one time he lets himself genuinely enjoy himself with someone else, he is punished horrifically for it. add that to the fact that he only traveled with rose for, like, two years, and the rapturous joy of that time was immediately shadowed by a deep grief, well.

surely this is part of why thirteen can't let herself get close to yaz.

and it's just really getting me that thasmin and doctorrose have so many parallels, and the doctor's relationship to yaz is different in part BECAUSE of her relationship to rose! like! last time she got close to a human in the same way as she's close to yaz, her hubris led to her losing her friend forever. in addition to all the people she's lost SINCE then (especially bill, who she lost like 24 hours before meeting yaz). so she can't open herself up.

and like... the doctor with rose couldn't say he loved her, but it was undeniable looking at him with her that they were in love. but thirteen with yaz is totally different. she's so repressed that she won't even get too close to yaz, physically speaking. but like! if the doctor had never met rose, thasmin would be totally different. so in addition to sabotaging his relationship with rose with his hubris, ten sabotaged literally every similar relationship he would have in the future.

and like... honestly i know i can get a little off the rails about rose but i have to assume this is on purpose. like, rose's character and relationship with the doctor influenced the rest of new who, and she's definitely the model for a companion like yaz. and i love the idea of chibnall taking that model and taking into account how a new relationship built on that model would be different. i hope the show acknowledges some of this when thirteen actually talks to yaz, and like... considering the things i didn't think they'd acknowledge that they did acknowledge... and considering jack mentioned rose (and then had a whole conversation with yaz about traveling with the doctor)... i don't know. i think they might talk about this.

tl;dr rose and yaz have similar arcs and i think that's why thirteen can't get close to yaz