Emotional Attachment

The mark of something brilliant is when someone involved (either by watching, reading, or listening) in that something gains an emotional attachment to the something. The emotional attachment a person gains can show itself in a hundred different ways but, since we're talking about emotions, the most obvious form is through a show of emotions.
I don't cry often. I think that is because when I was younger I cried quite a lot and so now it takes something truly horrible to make me cry. However, I am prone to becoming hyper-involved in fantasy mainly because I prefer fantasy to the real world much of the time. Also I spent a lot of my youth living in what essentially comes down to a fantasy world. So, when I become involved in something brilliant and create an emotional attachment to that thing, if it provokes me, I will cry. However, this doesn't happen all that often. Most of the things I become emotionally attached to don't do things that make me cry, usually they just annoy me. Except in two cases.
House got split into basically two halves because of the writer's strike. This is why I can say I don't really like feel attached to any of the new interns, because I never really got the chance, or continuity, to get to "know" them. However, I spent a huge chunk of my down time at school either repeatedly watching NMTB or House and so I did gain a kind of emotional attachment to the characters that have been in the show since its inception, namely House and Wilson. Therefore, when the season finale came around, the brilliance of the writers and my emotional attachment to those two characters provoked me into sniffling, if not outright bawling, when the character of Amber/Cut Throat Bitch died. This is because I sympathized with the pain that both House and Wilson felt and also because the writers wrote the episode in such a way as to tug at the heart strings of anyone who cares about House and Wilson. So I cried, if only for a short while.
The character of Donna Noble was not originally written as someone very lovable. In "The Runaway Bride" she comes off as very...yelly. When it was announced that the character was coming back for season four of Doctor Who, no one was looking forward to watching her again. But, thanks in large part to the amazing acting abilities of Catherine Tate, the character became someone almost everyone loved. I spent most of this season falling madly in love with the character of Donna Noble and defending her existence on the show to my father. This constant defending, plus the brilliance of Catherine Tate, plus the excellent writers, plus my involvement in the Doctor Who LiveJournal community all equal a very strong emotional attachment to the character of Donna Noble and the show itself. [Editor's Note: If you have not seen "Journey's End" and wish to remain unspoiled, do not read] Last night was the season finale of Doctor Who. For the last 15 minutes or so, I cried my eyes out due to my emotional attachment to the character of Donna Noble. I cried and swatted at my computer screen with my blanket, yelling at the Doctor and telling him he was a horrible bastard. After the episode was over, I cried myself to sleep. In four weeks time, when I'm watching the finale again, I know I will cry just as much as I did last night.
Some people cried when the character of Sirius Black died in the Harry Potter series. Others cried when Dumbledore died. People cry at the end of movies like The Little Princess and Steel Magnolias. I didn't cry when Sirius died or when Dumbledore died. However, I did cry when the Donna Noble I had grown to love died. And I still hate Russell T. Davies for giving the Ten/Rose shippers what they wanted, but killing off a character so much more important to many of us. Also, the Christmas special looks really stupid.

An Addendum from Behind the Sofa written by Iain M. Hepburn (who puts into words my feelings after "Journey's End" better than I could have, along with all the reviewers at BTS):
And then there was Donna. Oh, Russell T Davies, why? Why did you do this to us? What was this, an exercise in point scoring? A reminder to us plebs that ultimately you’re in charge? Because that’s what it felt like. It felt like Russell saying a big up yours to the naysayers. Perhaps this was his punishment for all the criticism of Catherine at the start. ‘Oh, they think she can’t act then? They think Donna’s a horrible character? I’ll show them. I’ll write her into being one of the best companions the show’s ever had, and give Catherine every opportunity to showcase her skills as an actress, to the point where you really, really care about her. That you forget the criticism you had of Donna and of Catherine from The Runaway Bride.

‘Then BANG! Fuck you for falling for my manipulative writing. Fuck you for your emotional investment. Now you’ve learned your lesson. Never doubt me again.’

Because this was the most ignominious exit Donna could have. It wasn’t dark, it wasn’t heart-wrenching, it was brutally, cynically manipulative. Even just killing her, melting her brain under the sheer weight of Time Lord knowledge, would have been a more noble exit for Noble.

Russell’s self-proclaimed desire to never kill off a companion, even allowing for his ever-more-pompous attempts to work the DWM audience, has effectively forced him to do something worse. After managing to imbue Donna Noble with a sense of dignity lacking in The Runaway Bride, he denies her a dignified end. We're supposed to feel sorry for Donna's loss, and sorry for the Doctor's. But ultimately, his mindwipe solution just left me feeling hollow.