HAI TORCHWOOD FANDOM

[stuffphile]

I've been watching Torchwood since I first followed Jack there from Doctor Who, and I loved the first two series completely. It's only this past few months that I've begun to be interested in the online fandom. Like nearly everyone else, my favourite character is Ianto, followed by Jack (followed by Gwen). I am a Jack/Ianto shipper, but with

Comments

[badly_knitted]

Find myself in agreement with most of your comments, especially the one about the death joke - that jarred me from the start. Jack is immortal, everyone he loves dies, he's just been devastated by the deaths of two close friends and colleagues, there is NO WAY the charcter we knew from the first two series would joke about death, especially not the death of his lover

[fide_et_spe]

I agree with everything and also don't get the death joke, at all. It made no sense. Also with the concrete nakedness, I get why they don't make a big deal or labour it, but surely Ianto could have hugged Jack and given him a coat. I even had non fannish friends perplexed by the scene. If in real life someone was unexpectedly naked, and you were there, as was their partner, it would be said partner's role to provide the cover. It would even be more natural for Rhys to give him the coat, as in default of a partner, a same gender person would dash to the rescue

[stuffphile]

I think the couple conversations are a waste of screen time. Now the radio plays are canon, even if the books aren't. So leaving aside how loving and sweet J/I are in The Sin Eaters, The Dead Line establishes that Gwen and Rhys view Ianto and Jack as a couple, or as partners, and certainly establishes them as sleeping together a lot, and as very emotionally involved. Why then go backwards in CoE? It makes no sense, timewise it's like at KKBB, no further than that.

There's something weird about the assertions that the radio plays are canon, considering the characterizations aren't consistent with CoE, and The Dead Line is actually jossed by it. What was the point?

I have a theory that, unbeknownst to everyone, Adam overwrote Ianto's memory of Lisa the cyberwoman, and he now believes she died in a car accident. Might explain why Ianto has lost some of his grimness and seems more youthful and naive (as in The Sin Eaters, and CoE). Maybe?

[fide_et_spe]

OK I don't get how the Dead Line if jossed by CoE? It isn't at all, it's just that the couple conversations don't fit with it, but it isn't exactly jossed. Anyhow, they are canon, as much as the telly is. I know that some don't view the books or websites as canon, but the radio plays are episodes in themselves, and aired on the BBC, so there isn't really any doubt with that.

I think Ianto is much happier, lighter and more secure during all of S2, which is why the CoE relationship angst is a bit odd.

[stuffphile]

Ianto brings up the subject of his mortality with Jack in CoE Day Three, as if the first two day's events have just made it occur to him. To me, that contradicts The Dead Line. That Ianto never made that speech to comatose Jack, at least in my opinion.

[torchwoodheaven]

Wow. That was great. Finally someone put my thoughts into words and make them sound, well, rational.

I think that fanfiction has spoiled the relationship for most of us because we will never see on the screen what we read about.

I know what they want to do with the thing that happened to Ianto - I can't say it, I just can't - but they needed to build it up more Day 2 and 3. I think I heard some where Gareth say the 'couple' talk was Ianto trying to open Jack up to a conversation about where they stand. I wonder how a brand new viewer saw their relationship though? Did they get a feeling of closeness between the two? Did they buy into Jack loving Ianto so much that his loss put him over the edge?

>>>>>>The sudden change of show style, from focusing on the characters to focusing on the story, but it seems to have been something RTD almost had to do. Once it was cut by the BBC to only 5 episodes, could they have even told the same kind of Torchwood story that we were used to seeing in 13 parts? <<<<<<... )

[grizzabella1]

I so agree with everything you said! Especially about the "Death Joke". It was so OCC

[stuffphile]

I think they were still on the run from the government goons, at the time, or something. Well, anyway, I'm not sure Jack would be vulnerable like that in front of Gwen (and Rhys), so I can't argue with there being no hugging in that scene. I thought Jack might've said something like "Hey. Nice to see you're not dead", though.

I actually thought about Martha being in Lois's role as I was watching. I doubt that UNIT would ever have been in control, since the drama centres around Frobisher being given the burden of responsibility for dealing with the situation. I'd guessed that Martha would have been one of the UNIT uniforms in the background.

I find it fascinating to wonder if Jack would have ignored Martha as he did Lois, if it'd been Martha calling to him from the prison cell.