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Jul. 19th, 2009 02:01 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
commotiocordisEvidently people on the interwebz are seriously freaking about Torchwood.
Homophobia? Really? RTD's self-hatred? Umm, no. They killed a character. I'm pissed. Sure, I'm all about getting emotionally over involved with fictional characters. That's fandom in a nutshell, really. But I think people are reading way too far into it. With not one, but two openly gay folk at the helm of Torchwood in Russel T Davies and John Barrowman, I hardly think there was intent to turn the show back straight.
People have pointed out some good things that could be made to seem that way, but I think what it comes out to is just unfairness. Yeah, Rhys got brought back to life at the end of series one and lived through Children of Earth. He gets two chances and Ianto only gets one? (Admittedly, he was an innocent, Torchwoodly speaking, the time he got brought back, though not in CoE and that's hardly an assurance of safety, as seen with all the fuckupedness of part 5). Not fair. Shitty as all get out. I'm still waiting on good fix-it fic that I can just count as canon since I'm prolly not going to be watching more Torchwood that could contradict it (also mostly for the reasons in the following paragraph), like I do with the Xena Subtext Virtual Series (though IMO, since that was contributed to by a writer from the show, it's more than just in-Alexandria's-world canon). But do I think it was some kind of homophobic conspiracy? No. Just, IMO, shitty storytelling.
And not "shitty storytelling" because of the Ianto thing. Like I said before, the utter decimation of a character I like by his own doing is not something I enjoy. Character flaws? Sure. Characters making poor decisions? No problem. This? No. As the After Elton folk put it, "Unfortunately, IMHO the last episode pretty badly comes off the rails and certain characters either behave inexplicably or unbelievably." YES. Very disappointed.
Though sidenote. Whilst trying to update a fic bookmark, I came upon an LJ entry of![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
shaggydogstail wherein she says "What I really need now is post S3 fic about brand new all-girl Torchwood with Gwen, Martha, Johnson, Lois, Bridget, and Donna kicking arse, saving the world, and looking fucking gorgeous." Fuck. Yes. Like I said before, Johnson and Alice were pinging my femslashdar. Though I wasn't really crazy about Bridget. Tack in the somehow not dead Harriet Jones, Former Prime Minister (yes, you know who she is), as we never did really actually see her die, and just about everybody had miraculous saves from situations looking just as bad in that episode, and maybe introduce a released-from-the-Timecocklord-mind-control-induced-crazy Lucy Saxon in a midseason sweeps week plot twist and I'd be happy as a birthday girl given her very own TARDIS filled with all the above asskicking pretty (You've got 4 days to start growing me one fast, LOL).
That'd be the preferred fic to come out of CoE, I think, with the girls. There's too much of the story you've got to change/ignore to make Jack a character I want to have anything to do with. Just bringing back Ianto won't do it. Though for the fix-it Janto fic that everyone's eventually going to write, here's a thing I've been thinking of: is there any reason they couldn't have pulled up that old Subwave Network that Harriet Jones, Former Prime Minister (yes, you know who she is) hooked everybody up to to send a message strong enough to crack out of a time bubble, for crissakes? Sure, her house got destroyed, but she transferred the control to The Hub, no problem. So when The Hub got destroyed, since control seems to be so easily transferable, shouldn't it stand to reason that they could just pull it off the Torchwood networks with Ianto's sister's laptop instead of, you know, killing children in front of their mothers?
Also. This (CoE spoiler-free) interview with John Barrowman has given me a huge hankering for John/Gareth RPS. They flirt and kiss all the time? My poor heart cannot take this kind of stimulation, sirs!
Also also? Kaci and I hit the Half Blood Prince preview screening in kickass Spinner's End costume as Cissy and Bella, like I think I mentioned, but no pictures were taken by us, which is a sadness. Folk did, though--one lady taking the tickets who said she was going to have to send it to the studio (whut?! Pretty sure she means whichever one she worked for, but still), and another that was taking pictures mostly of the chess team playing, both professional types, so I'm hoping I can find one. My costume was better this year, though the hair and makeup were worse-- I couldn't find that temp black hairspray type dye for under $7 (OMFG.) so it was up but still red, and we were trying to get there really early to get good seats and I was planning to makeup when I got there, but the directions we got were to the wrong theatre and so I had to drive forever in one direction and then forever back in the other direction because the lady at the first theatre gave crap directions (though she did try, so thanks for that--it was a combination of her not knowing what direction to go on the highway and my not knowing the area at all to pick up on the "near such and such" she was trying to give me), so by the time we got there they were already seating and the theatre was pretty dark so I didn't get a chance. I thought the seats would be horrid, though, as we were in the lower level on one side, but we were the uppermost row of the lower level and the centermost two seats of the side, and I think the side view helped us not have to crane our necks so much.
Final "also", for serious? Got a copy of Portal finally, after hearing "the cake is a lie" around the webs and reading the Wikipedia article and finding the whole idea amusing. Took me forever to finagle the video settings to work on the laptop (I'm well above the minimum specs and the game recommended settings in the middle of its range based on my hardware, so it was rather confusing)--still not quite sure what I finally did that made it work, but it never actually didn't work so much as when you started the level, everything would look normal but the background would fade to a bright blue. You'd move and it'd be neon and flashy shapes and colors, but not really intelligible as a game map. Fixed now, though; I think part of it was that it didn't like being windowed (even though that's an actual in-game setting and not just something I rewrote stuff to make happen, like with Sims 3)
Homophobia? Really? RTD's self-hatred? Umm, no. They killed a character. I'm pissed. Sure, I'm all about getting emotionally over involved with fictional characters. That's fandom in a nutshell, really. But I think people are reading way too far into it. With not one, but two openly gay folk at the helm of Torchwood in Russel T Davies and John Barrowman, I hardly think there was intent to turn the show back straight.
People have pointed out some good things that could be made to seem that way, but I think what it comes out to is just unfairness. Yeah, Rhys got brought back to life at the end of series one and lived through Children of Earth. He gets two chances and Ianto only gets one? (Admittedly, he was an innocent, Torchwoodly speaking, the time he got brought back, though not in CoE and that's hardly an assurance of safety, as seen with all the fuckupedness of part 5). Not fair. Shitty as all get out. I'm still waiting on good fix-it fic that I can just count as canon since I'm prolly not going to be watching more Torchwood that could contradict it (also mostly for the reasons in the following paragraph), like I do with the Xena Subtext Virtual Series (though IMO, since that was contributed to by a writer from the show, it's more than just in-Alexandria's-world canon). But do I think it was some kind of homophobic conspiracy? No. Just, IMO, shitty storytelling.
And not "shitty storytelling" because of the Ianto thing. Like I said before, the utter decimation of a character I like by his own doing is not something I enjoy. Character flaws? Sure. Characters making poor decisions? No problem. This? No. As the After Elton folk put it, "Unfortunately, IMHO the last episode pretty badly comes off the rails and certain characters either behave inexplicably or unbelievably." YES. Very disappointed.
Though sidenote. Whilst trying to update a fic bookmark, I came upon an LJ entry of
shaggydogstail wherein she says "What I really need now is post S3 fic about brand new all-girl Torchwood with Gwen, Martha, Johnson, Lois, Bridget, and Donna kicking arse, saving the world, and looking fucking gorgeous." Fuck. Yes. Like I said before, Johnson and Alice were pinging my femslashdar. Though I wasn't really crazy about Bridget. Tack in the somehow not dead Harriet Jones, Former Prime Minister (yes, you know who she is), as we never did really actually see her die, and just about everybody had miraculous saves from situations looking just as bad in that episode, and maybe introduce a released-from-the-TimeThat'd be the preferred fic to come out of CoE, I think, with the girls. There's too much of the story you've got to change/ignore to make Jack a character I want to have anything to do with. Just bringing back Ianto won't do it. Though for the fix-it Janto fic that everyone's eventually going to write, here's a thing I've been thinking of: is there any reason they couldn't have pulled up that old Subwave Network that Harriet Jones, Former Prime Minister (yes, you know who she is) hooked everybody up to to send a message strong enough to crack out of a time bubble, for crissakes? Sure, her house got destroyed, but she transferred the control to The Hub, no problem. So when The Hub got destroyed, since control seems to be so easily transferable, shouldn't it stand to reason that they could just pull it off the Torchwood networks with Ianto's sister's laptop instead of, you know, killing children in front of their mothers?
Also. This (CoE spoiler-free) interview with John Barrowman has given me a huge hankering for John/Gareth RPS. They flirt and kiss all the time? My poor heart cannot take this kind of stimulation, sirs!
Also also? Kaci and I hit the Half Blood Prince preview screening in kickass Spinner's End costume as Cissy and Bella, like I think I mentioned, but no pictures were taken by us, which is a sadness. Folk did, though--one lady taking the tickets who said she was going to have to send it to the studio (whut?! Pretty sure she means whichever one she worked for, but still), and another that was taking pictures mostly of the chess team playing, both professional types, so I'm hoping I can find one. My costume was better this year, though the hair and makeup were worse-- I couldn't find that temp black hairspray type dye for under $7 (OMFG.) so it was up but still red, and we were trying to get there really early to get good seats and I was planning to makeup when I got there, but the directions we got were to the wrong theatre and so I had to drive forever in one direction and then forever back in the other direction because the lady at the first theatre gave crap directions (though she did try, so thanks for that--it was a combination of her not knowing what direction to go on the highway and my not knowing the area at all to pick up on the "near such and such" she was trying to give me), so by the time we got there they were already seating and the theatre was pretty dark so I didn't get a chance. I thought the seats would be horrid, though, as we were in the lower level on one side, but we were the uppermost row of the lower level and the centermost two seats of the side, and I think the side view helped us not have to crane our necks so much.
Final "also", for serious? Got a copy of Portal finally, after hearing "the cake is a lie" around the webs and reading the Wikipedia article and finding the whole idea amusing. Took me forever to finagle the video settings to work on the laptop (I'm well above the minimum specs and the game recommended settings in the middle of its range based on my hardware, so it was rather confusing)--still not quite sure what I finally did that made it work, but it never actually didn't work so much as when you started the level, everything would look normal but the background would fade to a bright blue. You'd move and it'd be neon and flashy shapes and colors, but not really intelligible as a game map. Fixed now, though; I think part of it was that it didn't like being windowed (even though that's an actual in-game setting and not just something I rewrote stuff to make happen, like with Sims 3)
