beccaelizabeth's dreamwidth journal

I don't think Ianto had a particularly traumatic childhood. Or much trauma in general, before Torchwood. Possibly losing a grandparent through old age or something of that magnitude. Then again, possibly not. Because he somehow kept hold of the idea things would all work out if he did everything right. And it never seemed to occur to him the going wrong would be from someone he loved, rather than to them. To me, that says he didn't have abusive parents, because then he'd know that love and danger happens in the same place. And he probably hadn't lost a lover to death before her, though that one could go either way. 'Not again' could be a before and after thought. But mostly, he just seemed so sweet about doing everything possible, he semed to think it was the shiny kind of fairytale, wake her up again later. So I don't think it had gone wrong before.

Mostly, though... Does the woobie need more trauma?
I really don't think so.


Yes, he hurts pretty, but he's close enough to crazy as it is.



Also, the only fic I've read that mentioned suicide and self harm in contexts I could believe had the phrase "filed under S for stupid".
Because I figure if Ianto was going to, he would have by now.

Owen we've got canon for. I don't read much Owen fic. Does it portray him as suicidal / self destructive? Because that would be plenty in character, except he hasn't managed the getting dead part yet, so there's obviously some tension the other way in there.

Ianto just keeps doing his job. Maybe there's stuff under the suit... hell, no maybe about it, he's got plenty going on under there. But he's been as wrecked as can be, and he's still here. So.

I was reading this about Gwen in Torchwood being unlikeable if she keeps shagging and lying next season. And it sort of mystifies me that someone could perceive that as a problem, because isn't it rather the point? We're not watching the good guys.

... right? It's not just me?

Torchwood lie, cover up, and mindwipe. They steal. They have tech that can save lives, help other people do their jobs, but they keep it to themselves. In Doctor Who they're clearly set up as the bad guys - they're enemies of the Doctor, and it's his universe. Team Torchwood are part of that. They're not the good guys at all.

So Gwen starts out as a regular cop, trying to help people, good intentions... and look where that goes, when she starts playing by Torchwood rules.

But it isn't just Torchwood that screws her up. She was lying to Rhys before that. Told him the murder wasn't anything to do with her. So she's got this nice cosy world at home, embodied in Rhys, and she's very attracted to it (and therefore him). But it's the kind of nice that happens because she can leave the job outside. Small Worlds, haven't transcribed it, but she was saying how it never followed her home before. She has this nice cosy island of happy and normal, and outside is where the bad things happen.

But it only works because Rhys is so entirely part of that cereal packet norm - if he starts understanding what's out in the dark that means bringing a bit of it home all the time.

Torchwood? New and sexy. Darker truths. Blood. People as meat. People as monsters. And Rhys can't understand that - must not, or it destroys his value for her as symbol of normal. But she's attracted to it, somehow. She wants Torchwood, wants what it can give her. Attracted to Owen, the bastard, the darkest of them.

So she shags both.

Okay.

Now... she's the audience?

She's the one that leads us in to this world?

Her existence is asking a question - why are *we* watching? Why are *we* attracted to this story? And which half, in the end, do we go home to - which half (or is it just half) is *real*?



Because there might not be aliens (maybe, probably) but there's problems out in the dark somewhere every day. Leave problems at work and go home to something else. Be glad there's cops and docs and social workers and go sit and watch TV for a while; all that's just fiction and we don't have to care.

And there obviously aren't secret government sponsored groups out there, watching our every move on CCTV, keeping things from us for our own good. So we don't have to worry about that part.

Right?



... or, you know, it's about a bunch of brave yet outnumbered heroic types trying to hold back the alien invaders. But somehow I have a lot more trouble putting that read onto this show ...


*shrugs*

Why do people keep calling Gwen the audience identification figure anyway?




We're an audience of SF viewers, we know the 'verse since we were little kids albeit from a different angle, and she's surprised by that whole genre. We usually know more than her (irony alert). She's not us.

Mostly people on my poll wanted to be Tosh anyways.