Torchwood: Children of Earth, Day Four
No, this is not a useful reaction post, though I have lots of thoughts.
Basically. No. Hell no. And a side order of: I refuse to believe it's actually true until the very last moment of tomorrow, where they will fucking well rewind time. Or do some scifi bullshit and I will not care cause we will get Ianto back.
And yet: he was so incredibly awesome in this episode. Just pitch-perfect in his response to Jack's sacrificing children (and remember: he's particularly protective of children, particularly broken over their deaths, we have seen this) and brave, and kick ass. (So of course he had to die.)
His speech to Jack in Thames House broke my tiny little fangirl heart into a thousand jagged shards. They played it beautifully. And of course, he said: I love you. Which is like a goddamn death knell for a queer on TV.
So, yeah. It was a great episode, well-crafted and well-acted and great in terms of character and the (gah, I don't even want to say it) death-scene was just bloody lovely, but I'm still standing in my corner with my eyes shut saying: no, it's a fake out. It has to be. It must be. I'll only believe it tomorrow, because, guys, my rational brain is offline and fizzing and generally too full of love for Ianto Jones. I cannot deal. I cannot fucking deal.
(Apologies in advance if I'm rubbish at replying to your comments. And yeah, I AM USING MY BLOODY SHIPPER ICON IN DEFIANCE OF YOU, RTD.)
ETA: So, er. I caved and looked at some people's summaries of spoilers. And uh. Guys. Guys. It doesn't look good. Gah. GAH.
ETA2: Been trying to analyse why I'm just so UGH NO at Ianto's-- death. (I'm usually capable of dealing with narrative twists, and character death, and to appreciate this stuff, at least from a literary/critical perspective) But what is so difficult to take about this is that: they never got the time they deserved. They never had enough time. There's so much wasted potential-- for happiness. For love. For life. And yeah, the rational part of me is saying: that's the whole point, that's what RTD is saying about Torchwood opposed to Doctor Who. That Torchwood uses people up, they do not always live up to their potential, that sometimes doing the right thing comes at an enormous, almost unbearable personal cost. But what should we do: we should stand up to them. Yes, sir. But-- tonight, the rational isn't working for me. Sorry.
ETA3: Right, so, it's not like any of you will actually need this, but TVtropes does a very succint summation of what I mean when I say "another dead queer on TV", Bury Your Gays.
In conversation with Zau below, I talked about why this bothered me in particular relation to Torchwood, so, edited version (original text is still in the comments, of course, and Zau's thoughtful/interesting responses too):
Considering the way they played this out in the media, and marketing, and you know, in countless interviews with the gay and mainstream press, it's rather disappointing to see him play to the old tropes. The excuse of 'but we didn't know we were doing that!' doesn't work any more: RTD is familiar with the televisual stereotypes and tropes, he has certainly made no secret of how pleased/proud he is to have two of his leading males in a relationship and how 'groundbreaking' he considers it-- so then doing exactly what everyone else has done is just... Well, I don't know why I expected better.
As an addendum: it also irks me because his death was so sexualised. All of the little death-related comments are either brought on by or lead up to sexual innuendo/his sexual relationship with Jack. Understandable, as Jack can't die, and that reminds him of his own mortality. But-- his death is bound up with his feelings towards Jack. (Yes, it made narrative sense and everything.) But it was a big flashing sign saying 'here is the queer love interest.' followed by 'here is the dead queer love interest'.
He died as a lover not a soldier, and while that might please the fangirl-y parts of my brain, it grates on the critical analysis portions of it. For Ianto: sex and death are inextricable, and that is exactly the nature of the 'dead queer on tv' trope.