2) As I said, Rory being asked twice (I think) to choose 'which wife he wants', once actually in those words, is hard for me to describe in any words other than 'ew'. I guess that's redeemed slightly at the end by the fact that it's older Amy who ultimately makes the decision. But as you say, that feels uncomfortably convenient in allowing the Doctor and Rory to sail off with younger Amy and leave her, as well as all the messy questions, behind. Though I think I do still prefer that to Rory actually getting to make that choice. It doesn't, however, undo the fact that the Doctor repeatedly tells Rory it's up to him to choose, WHICH IT BLATANTLY IS NOT.
3) I thought it was weird that the whole 'I was left for 2000 years' thing isn't mentioned at all. Admittedly I think the situation's slightly different - Rory chooses to stay, Amy always gets left against her will. (On a sidenote, it'll never happen, but I would love to have an episode in which Amy chooses to be left alone for noble saving-the-world reasons in much the same way, and be The Girl Who Waited by choice, and not sitting around waiting to be rescued. If she learned to be as badass as in this episode while waiting, that would be awesome.) And there's the whole thing that Rory, as far as I understand it, only properly remembers being a Roman when he deliberately tries to. But still. A one line reference or something at least would've been good; not mentioning it at all seems really weird.
4) I don't know if I'm alone in this; everyone else seemed to LOVE it and cry and stuff, but I had a lot of problems with younger Amy's speech to her older self about why she should save her past self. To be clear, I'm not saying that she shouldn't have mentioned Rory, of course she should. But I wish she'd mentioned, well, something else as well. Anything. Because otherwise we get the message that everything is a)about romantic love and I hate that. And I hate it even more when it's a woman's viewpoint on a man, because then all the feminist issues come up as well. I really don't want Amy's most important thought in her entire life to have been about her relationship with Rory.
There are other things she could have said to persaude her older self. She could have pointed out to her older self that she'd lost 36 years stuck in this one place when she could have been seeing the universe - considering her desperation to get out of Leadworth, I get the impression that being stuck in one place is one of the things Amy is most afraid of. Or she could have mentioned her family or friends, or really, a mention of anything else at all that she had in her life other than Rory would have gone a long way. I liked her speech about how she fell in love with him, and yeah, it was all very nice and emotional and romantic, but I found it a bit frustrating. (Also, someone told me that this episode was meant to be aired in the first half of the season, which if true would explain why no one mentions Melody, but like Rory's 2000 years guarding the Pandorica, it comes across as pretty bizarre that no one refers to her once.)
5) I do like that Amy, left alone, became so spectacularly awesome, but it's all made a pretty bitter satisfaction by everything else that happens. Still, based on this and the pirates one I think it is pretty clear that Amy needs to wield a sword at some point at least once per episode.
God, I am so sorry for showing up and ranting on your journal when I don't even know you. Apparently I had more thoughts on this episode than I realised. All I actually intended to say when I showed up was that I'm glad people are looking at the episode critically, I thought what you said was interesting and I pretty much agree. So thank you for posting this! And again, sorry for the ridiculous tl;dr, feel free to ignore it entirely.
2/2
3) I thought it was weird that the whole 'I was left for 2000 years' thing isn't mentioned at all. Admittedly I think the situation's slightly different - Rory chooses to stay, Amy always gets left against her will. (On a sidenote, it'll never happen, but I would love to have an episode in which Amy chooses to be left alone for noble saving-the-world reasons in much the same way, and be The Girl Who Waited by choice, and not sitting around waiting to be rescued. If she learned to be as badass as in this episode while waiting, that would be awesome.) And there's the whole thing that Rory, as far as I understand it, only properly remembers being a Roman when he deliberately tries to. But still. A one line reference or something at least would've been good; not mentioning it at all seems really weird.
4) I don't know if I'm alone in this; everyone else seemed to LOVE it and cry and stuff, but I had a lot of problems with younger Amy's speech to her older self about why she should save her past self. To be clear, I'm not saying that she shouldn't have mentioned Rory, of course she should. But I wish she'd mentioned, well, something else as well. Anything. Because otherwise we get the message that everything is a)about romantic love and I hate that. And I hate it even more when it's a woman's viewpoint on a man, because then all the feminist issues come up as well. I really don't want Amy's most important thought in her entire life to have been about her relationship with Rory.
There are other things she could have said to persaude her older self. She could have pointed out to her older self that she'd lost 36 years stuck in this one place when she could have been seeing the universe - considering her desperation to get out of Leadworth, I get the impression that being stuck in one place is one of the things Amy is most afraid of. Or she could have mentioned her family or friends, or really, a mention of anything else at all that she had in her life other than Rory would have gone a long way. I liked her speech about how she fell in love with him, and yeah, it was all very nice and emotional and romantic, but I found it a bit frustrating. (Also, someone told me that this episode was meant to be aired in the first half of the season, which if true would explain why no one mentions Melody, but like Rory's 2000 years guarding the Pandorica, it comes across as pretty bizarre that no one refers to her once.)
5) I do like that Amy, left alone, became so spectacularly awesome, but it's all made a pretty bitter satisfaction by everything else that happens. Still, based on this and the pirates one I think it is pretty clear that Amy needs to wield a sword at some point at least once per episode.
God, I am so sorry for showing up and ranting on your journal when I don't even know you. Apparently I had more thoughts on this episode than I realised. All I actually intended to say when I showed up was that I'm glad people are looking at the episode critically, I thought what you said was interesting and I pretty much agree. So thank you for posting this! And again, sorry for the ridiculous tl;dr, feel free to ignore it entirely.