Sunday, July 21, 2013

St George against the dragon

So, last year I LOVED the moment when a little girl asked Matt Smith about the Weeping Angels and he was all “Don’t worry, because I’m here to fight them off." Goodness knows how many times I’ve reblogged it, but it was gorgeous. And as I was watching some clips from this year’s Nerd HQ panel, and this little girl stands up, clinging to the speaker’s legs, and the speaker goes. “She wants to know why you quit."  ME TOO! 
Matt Smith is so good with kids, both in and out of character—just look up the story of the twelve-year old who sat outside his house—and that little girl was so adorable.  And just for a minute, I thought—what if those two girls were the same? 
Odds are against it, of course, but the difference between the two questions sparked an interest in my mind. And then I considered last night’s dream, which ended with the recognition of the Doctor’s death. 
But in so many ways, in so many ways, the Doctor is the knight in shining armor, the one who saves us from the monsters. One beautiful example of this shown in fanfic is in They Say by Lyricwritesprose , but the concept is clear in G.K. Chesterton as well:
The baby has known the dragon intimately ever since he had an imagination. What the fairy tale provides for him is a St. George to kill the dragon. 
And in my dream last night,  after it was all over—when the Cybermen had left an equal number of corpses, when my rage at his failure to appear had burned to bitter ashes—I though He was the only reason I’d even tried.  And I had done well; we just didn’t have any weapons. 
It was like the moment in The Tale of Despereaux when the hero demands the knight reveal his identity….
He slowly took the armor off his head and revealed….nothing, no one. The suit of armor was empty.
"No, oh no," said Despereaux.  "There is no knight in shining armor; it’s all make-believe, like happily ever after."
I know that’s not the case, but….my Doctor.

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