Such a Beautiful Surrender

He saw planets burn, worlds disappear, he spent centuries believing he was responsible for the death of his people. There is a reason why he isn’t sure if he’s a good man.

And yet, here he is lamenting the death of one dinosaur. All the things he’s been trough didn’t make him lose his compassion.

Do you remember when in ‘The Day of the Doctor’ the War Doctor asks his future selves if they have counted how many children died that day on Gallifrey. 9 didn’t. 10 knows the number, 11 has already forgotten it and 12 shows it’s not the number which matters. It doesn’t take a civilisation to reduce him to tears. The death of a single dinosaur is enough to achive that.

He promised her to keep her save, to protect her and to get her home again. (The dinosaur is in a way a great metaphor for his companions I know, Moffat is not trying to hide it: 'I brought you along by accident, that’s mostly how I meet girls’). Bur he fails her (just like Rose, Donna, Amy) and it breaks his heart(s) all over again.

It’s his compassion which makes him a good man. Which makes him try and see the good side of people, of a giant, omnivorous dinosaur which tried to eat his precious blue box, of a broken Dalek, hoping that maybe this time it has learnt to appreciate the beauty of the universe just like him. He’s the one who keeps on hoping, in spite of the odds, the one who believes in miracles and never gives up.

That day, all those people in London see is how a dangerous dinosaur dies. However, unlike them the Doctor is able to see the personal tragedy behind it.