there’s a post going around about how River giving up her future so the Doctor could live their past in the Library or something to that effect is the most beautiful thing, and like, I’m super not disagreeing with that to any extent
but you know what’s also amazing and important?
River’s not just sacrificing herself for the Doctor. River’s sacrificing herself for River Song. Because Melody Williams would’ve existed either way. Rory and Amy would’ve grown up and gotten married and had a daughter, and maybe they would’ve named her Melody or maybe they wouldn’t’ve, but they would’ve loved that little girl and raised her to be brave and smart and kind and patient, and she could’ve been a geography teacher and lived a long and full and lovely life. Melody Williams probably would’ve been happy. But River isn’t Melody Williams. Without the Doctor, River doesn’t exist. And yeah, that’s her life being about the Doctor in some ways, but it’s also important that she CHOOSES to be River.
She sees herself in the tesselecta in Berlin and makes the choice to become that person. She builds herself out of the rubble the Silence left behind, out of the perspective she gains from studying the Doctor and learning to see the good in him, not just the things he wasn’t able to do, out of the time she gets with her parents to truly know them like she wasn’t able to do as Mels. That choice is central to River’s character, and her agency. And so yeah, totally, she’s making sure that the Doctor survives to go through all of those adventures she filled her little blue book with
but she’s also making sure that she gets to make that choice, that she gets to be who she wants to be, she’s saving River Song, ok, like RIVER SONG HAS BEEN SAVED but not by the Library, not by the Doctor, but by herself AND THAT is also beautiful
