Ten Little Bullets in my Hand

He’s a well-constructed character, but not one I’m personally very invested in? IDK. I do appreciate what Moffat did with him and all the tropes he sidesteps or subverts—the companion’s mundane boyfriend gets left behind and there is fallout (see: Mickey), but it’s something they’re able to cope with and he does end up coming along as a full part of Team TARDIS; the aggressively normal outside-POV character is actually quite a complex person with hidden depths of badassery whose devotion to Amy leads him to do completely not-normal things, but he’s never quite comfortable with that role; even though the narrative sometimes pushes him and Amy into uncomfortably archaic roles, Rory himself is a good dude whose flavor of masculinity is refreshingly free of macho bullshit. (Crying Roman holding a baby: definitely cool.)

On the other hand, the fact that he manages to remain the safe, normal, domestic one even when he’s decked out as a centurion and blowing up the Cyberfleet means I’ve always been a bit ‘meh’ on him—he’s an interesting character and a boring person, at least where my feeeeels and attachment to characters are concerned. And I think that’s not an uncommon experience: Doctor Who is the kind of fiction people tune into for an escape into the extraordinary, and Rory is so stubbornly ordinary that he fails to capture my heart even though I do like him. It’s that rebellious little instinct towards romance and adventure over Good Life Choices that makes people secretly root for the Phantom even while freely admitting that Christine made the right choice in Raoul. (Except the Doctor is not an abusive stalker and Rory is a well-rounded character, but there’s a similar dynamic at play IMO.)

That said, I think the Ponds are most interesting when *not* read as a normal, ideal couple—people cheer for Rory at “Your girlfriend is not more important than the entire universe”/”She is to me!” and side-eye River for the same sentiment, but of course River got it from her parents. The Ponds’ devotion to each other is a healthy trait, but it’s driven to unhealthy, maladjusted levels, and IMO that’s what’s most interesting about them.

Likewise Rory’s criticisms of the Doctor in Vampires of Venice, which a lot of fans seem to take as incisive gospel truth, but are in fact quite motivated: “you have no idea how dangerous you make people to themselves” are the words of someone struggling with the realization that he values Amy’s safety more than Amy’s self-fulfillment, and that he’s going to have to compromise on that front in order to maintain their relationship and not be a total jerk. Which he does! Because Rory is a good person. But his values and his normalcy are not always ideal, nor are they supposed to be.