mrv3000 | Couple of thoughts...

manticoran got me to thinking. So I've always had it in my mind that Rose and the TARDIS kinda...blended at the end of TPotW. I never thought that Rose was 100% taken over by the TARDIS, just this sort of TARDIS!Rose hybrid.

But she made me think about *why* I've thought that. I think I had it in my mind that the Time Vortex basically *was* the "heart of the TARDIS." Or something. But that's not really the case, is it? The Time Vortex is the energy the TARDIS uses, but the TARDIS is not actually the Vortex.

And I thought they blended because of that line, "I looked into the TARDIS, and the TARDIS looked into me." But that's not really the same thing as saying, "I blended with the TARDIS" or "The TARDIS took me over." It doesn't *negate* the possibility of the TARDIS and Rose blending, but all it really says is that they looked at each other. Like...in a fraction of a second they saw each other's minds, and saw the mutual need to protect the Doctor. So quite possibly, the TARDIS threw the Time Vortex into Rose, without ever actually being *in* Rose herself.

It would fit what the Doctor said about it in Utopia. He talks about how what Rose did with the Vortex was "so human." So at least in the Doctor's mind, it was Rose standing there holding and directing the power of the universe. I'm thinking of going with that notion now, until canon says otherwise.

Another thinky thought for the day - and this one I believe was started by

butterfly - I'm trying to figure out *when* it went from a crush on this hot/amazing guy, to "he's my everything." Martha herself kept saying that he never really looked at her, but it quickly ramped up to this everything place.

Maybe it really was about hero worship/idolizing a god? A god doesn't need to love or acknowledge a follower to inspire love and devotion. They never even really got close to that relationship kind of love, which is why through most of the series I was making frowny faces at the "love," since it really seemed to come from nowhere and wasn't based on anything. Maybe it *is* this different kind of love? And some of it got funneled into Martha wanting to express it romantically since that's the default way of expressing love to non-family-members?

I dunno.

But even with that different kind of love, I still am not exactly sure when or how this all happened. Was it gradual? Was it when she got permanent status? Was it when she got the key to the TARDIS?

Basically, I still have quite a bit of "hmmm" when it comes to this storyline.