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Fandom Repost
Aug. 31st, 2011 02:43 amI posted this on Tumblr and I thought I'd repost it here. Tumblr has had quite a few um... negative Torchwood moments lately.
I don’t know if people know this — actually, you totally should, I don’t hide it, but I have favorite characters. I love Gwen and Ianto. Insane amounts. They are the 1 & 2 for me of this fandom. And I love Jack, because it’s impossible not to be fond of the other two and not have insane love for Jack as well. Jack was my favorite companion on Doctor Who and the reason I started watching, and still watch, Torchwood. However, the other two are just fun characters that, to me, are what make Torchwood unique from the mother show.
First… a quick word on what I like about them.
I think the most interesting thing Ianto did on the show, not the books or audio plays, was give Gwen the GPS for Flat Holm. That little betrayal, with no background or reason given for why he did it, gave his character more depth than anything else he did in the second half of Season 2. Also, I remain convinced that he cheated on Lisa, in some way, with Jack — which totally puts him and Gwen on the same playing field. Why do I think that? Because the actors think he did too. Heck, I think his interactions with Jack, including everything in Fragments, were worse than Gwen’s affair with Owen tenfolds. I still like him as a character. I like him because of those things. I like that he lied about his dad and manipulates people to achieve his goals as much as I like that he’s probably a bit obsessive compulsive, sarcastic and clean cut.
I like the fact that Gwen isn’t selfless all the time and has a hard time separating her emotions from situations — to me, that makes her more human than if she went around caring about puppies and Weevils. She is not Rose. She fucks up beautifully and gets so tangled in her own ideas and preconceptions that I feel for her. Why? Because I’m fairly certain that’s how a real person would act in her place. She isn’t perfect and her motivations, as much as she wants them to be for the good, sometimes aren’t. Real humans won’t always make the right decisions. Real people can be stubborn and narrow minded. Sometimes I think if Gwen was male people wouldn’t have problems with her more “negative” personality traits. They’d see her tendancy to jump into situations and make quick judgments as brave and signs of a good leader. Sometimes, I think there’s some real ingrained sexism going on in Gwen’s status. That’s probably a can of worms we don’t want to open right now though. I do think people forget that Gwen can be compassionate and sweet and generally just wants to do good things with her job. Adrift is the perfect and best episode to show Gwen’s personality. Her search for Jonah was probably, honestly, Gwen at her most selfless. She just wanted to help someone. It backfired horribly, which happens, and it happened because she didn’t see that there were greater consequences to her actions than just “doing good.”
So, why do I like Gwen and Ianto? Why, to me, do they symbolize what makes Torchwood different from Doctor Who? It’s because they’re flawed and complicated characters. I don’t get why people would want to gloss over the bad things that either of them have done — to me that just shows that they live in a more grown up world than Rose or Amy. Jack isn’t the Doctor. He’s messed up and screws up a lot. As a result, his companions (and I think the argument could definitely be made that Gwen and Ianto represented his companions more than Tosh or Owen did) are going to reflect that too. They’re both important. They’re both a bit Mary Sue. They’re both beautifully fucked up at times. And they’re brilliant.
Wow this is long. Sorry.
I don’t know if people know this — actually, you totally should, I don’t hide it, but I have favorite characters. I love Gwen and Ianto. Insane amounts. They are the 1 & 2 for me of this fandom. And I love Jack, because it’s impossible not to be fond of the other two and not have insane love for Jack as well. Jack was my favorite companion on Doctor Who and the reason I started watching, and still watch, Torchwood. However, the other two are just fun characters that, to me, are what make Torchwood unique from the mother show.
First… a quick word on what I like about them.
I think the most interesting thing Ianto did on the show, not the books or audio plays, was give Gwen the GPS for Flat Holm. That little betrayal, with no background or reason given for why he did it, gave his character more depth than anything else he did in the second half of Season 2. Also, I remain convinced that he cheated on Lisa, in some way, with Jack — which totally puts him and Gwen on the same playing field. Why do I think that? Because the actors think he did too. Heck, I think his interactions with Jack, including everything in Fragments, were worse than Gwen’s affair with Owen tenfolds. I still like him as a character. I like him because of those things. I like that he lied about his dad and manipulates people to achieve his goals as much as I like that he’s probably a bit obsessive compulsive, sarcastic and clean cut.
I like the fact that Gwen isn’t selfless all the time and has a hard time separating her emotions from situations — to me, that makes her more human than if she went around caring about puppies and Weevils. She is not Rose. She fucks up beautifully and gets so tangled in her own ideas and preconceptions that I feel for her. Why? Because I’m fairly certain that’s how a real person would act in her place. She isn’t perfect and her motivations, as much as she wants them to be for the good, sometimes aren’t. Real humans won’t always make the right decisions. Real people can be stubborn and narrow minded. Sometimes I think if Gwen was male people wouldn’t have problems with her more “negative” personality traits. They’d see her tendancy to jump into situations and make quick judgments as brave and signs of a good leader. Sometimes, I think there’s some real ingrained sexism going on in Gwen’s status. That’s probably a can of worms we don’t want to open right now though. I do think people forget that Gwen can be compassionate and sweet and generally just wants to do good things with her job. Adrift is the perfect and best episode to show Gwen’s personality. Her search for Jonah was probably, honestly, Gwen at her most selfless. She just wanted to help someone. It backfired horribly, which happens, and it happened because she didn’t see that there were greater consequences to her actions than just “doing good.”
So, why do I like Gwen and Ianto? Why, to me, do they symbolize what makes Torchwood different from Doctor Who? It’s because they’re flawed and complicated characters. I don’t get why people would want to gloss over the bad things that either of them have done — to me that just shows that they live in a more grown up world than Rose or Amy. Jack isn’t the Doctor. He’s messed up and screws up a lot. As a result, his companions (and I think the argument could definitely be made that Gwen and Ianto represented his companions more than Tosh or Owen did) are going to reflect that too. They’re both important. They’re both a bit Mary Sue. They’re both beautifully fucked up at times. And they’re brilliant.
Wow this is long. Sorry.
