DAY ONE

[tencrush]

So I DO have a few thoughts on Children of Earth, Day One, and I DO have ten minutes to write them down, but probs not to comment. They're randomly here below the cut.

• I'm finding Ianto's extremely working class roots kind of hot. I feel like Jarvis Cocker. But yeah, Ianto's three-piece-suitedness suddenly aquires a whole new depth when you see where he's come from. Giving Ianto new levels of depth probably doesn't bode well, though.


• Ianto's dorky what-the-fuck-are-we, do-we-hug-when-you-die-? position in the Jack/Ianto relationship was really fucking cute.


• Having said this, I thought we'd established that Ianto was bisexual. Perhaps not out but certainly a guy who knows about himself that he's attracted to both sexes. I always quite loved this about Ianto, as I've said before, because I loved the fact that he was bisexual but not a televisual bisexual-who-sleeps-around stereotype. Now we find out that he seems to view himself as hetero, it's just that Jack's that awesome. I was spoiled for this episode, so I knew this was happening, but it still grated on me when it did. First of all because it annoys me that someone can't just be bisexual on the telly, like bi is such a bad thing to be. Secondly, obviously, because it feeds that tired slash trope of I'm-not-gay-I-just-love-your-cock that I really fucking hate. And last but not least, it is, once again, that Russell thing of using one character to tell me just how awesome another character is (oh, and the one doing the telling, that one'll probably die to prove it, yeah?) There just seems to me to be no narrative reason to make Ianto gay-only-for-Jack, other than to establish the awesome power of Jack's cock. I wish they'd just make Jack be more awesome instead of resorting to this. Gah.


• Gwen gets more awesome as time goes by. Her pregnant-is-that-good-yes-I-think-so face was for the win.


• Lois is SPUNKY and INQUISITIVE and KINDA CUTE and if we don't get to keep her I will be VERY VERY ANGRY. She's going to die, isn't she?


• Is the big bad, apart from the 456 which is alien, some sort of rogue team of evil civil servants? Is it significant that Ianto's sister calls him a civil servant? Is it an anti-UNIT? I know Russell likes this whole let's-keep-a-nice-broad-grey-area thing regarding who, exactly, in the government-Torchwood-UNIT-other axis are the good guys and who the bad guys, but I wish he'd make his mind up just a wee bit more. Especially when it comes to UNIT.


• That honeymoon thing just read to me as "LOLS, she ain't never coming back to the 'verse, we don't really like the girl." I've never really been fond of Agyeman, but I can imagine those who were were perhaps a bit miffed?


• I'm going to end my sentences with the phrase "and I've got tupperware" more often from now on.

Comments

[qthewetsprocket.livejournal.com]

Lois is SPUNKY and INQUISITIVE and KINDA CUTE and if we don't get to keep her I will be VERY VERY ANGRY. She's going to die, isn't she?

i sincerely hope so...she gets on my very last nerve. i wanted to keep not!owen much, much more.

[tencrush]

*pouts*
What's wrong with her?

[qthewetsprocket.livejournal.com]

she irritates me in exactly the same way that rose tyler and gwen cooper do: ie, 'oh look, she's doing something stupidly inadviseable and nosy and frankly a bit selfish (in this case, just to satisfy her own curiosity), but somehow or other we're supposed to see this as acceptable and even endearing because she's supposedly awesome in some way that's not at all apparent.'

you're absolutely allowed to like her, though. i suspect rusty will let you keep her, since he invariably seems to worship characters that make my fucking teeth hurt.

*puts a tasty tasty cookie on your pouty lower lip*

[urnssadomen.livejournal.com]

I got the same feeling, but then my objective side started telling me that I should giver her a bit more time to make up my mind. So I will give it another 2 eps (if she doesn't die during them). After all , Gwen was really good in this one, which beg the question why were she from the beginning? To me, it wasn't character growth; it was just bad writing, because she was very lovely in most of the books.

[crossoverman.livejournal.com]

Okay the het thing really annoys me - stupid Rusty and his turning Jack/Ianto into another relationship he's written that is just about worship. I wish Rusty had stayed away from Torchwood.

[tencrush]

Why does he have to make every relationship so squicky? Fuck him.

[ionlylurkhere.livejournal.com]

If they really hated Martha/Freema, they'd have killed her offscreen for added DRAMA. Having her be on honeymoon keeps their options open if they can get her back later.

And, yes, it's not looking good for Ianto, is it?

[tencrush]

Unsubtle foreshadowing says he's toast. And if all this shiz ISN'T foreshadowing, I have to conclude Russell's on crack.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

To me it looks a lot like a classic "boy meets boy, boy loses boy, boy gets boy" structure. :)

[tencrush]

Even the line about dying like a dog? Cause that one doesn't fit anywhere in that structure as far as I'm aware. :P

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

No, admittedly, that is rather alarming...

[tencrush]

:/

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

"An ugly dog! As opposed to, say, a sexually desirable poodle!"

... come to think of it, it would be a fun twist if Ianto's mayfly status (as both mortal and doomed Torchwoob) is what eventually makes Jack commit to him. They don't have long, better make the best of it.

(I wonder if Alice's mum is the bride in the photo from The Bride Is Packing Something Borrowed?)

[rexluscus.livejournal.com]

You want to know my cynical theory about the Ianto's-only-gay-for-Jack thing? RTD must know about the criticism leveled against portrayals of gay characters in TV/film - if they're sympathetic, they die, because God forbid the homos should ever be happy. If Ianto isn't REALLY gay (or even bi) then nobody can accuse RTD of sacrificing the queer character again when Ianto dies.

[tencrush]

Fuck, that sounds frighteningly plausible.

[louisema.livejournal.com]

TERRIFYINGLY PLAUSIBLE. I kinda wish you hadn't said that because it will now be true.

[santousha.livejournal.com]

what above said :(

*wibbles*

[noneinnyet.livejournal.com]

I feel like Lois has a better chance of surviving if Ianto dies. She knows her way around a computer system and brings hot beverages. Fuck.

[tencrush]

NOOOOO! Nobody brings hot beverages like Ianto.

[louisema.livejournal.com]

One of my first thoughts (other than "why is everyone, even the kids, fake-tanned?") was actually "Why is Gwen bringing in takeaway coffee? IANTO IS THE GOD OF COFFEE!" - she didn't even know they weren't in yet....

[noneinnyet.livejournal.com]

I know, I know. I didn't say she did it well. It was probably tea, anyways, and crappy tea at that. She'd never measure up.

[furius.livejournal.com]

I thought it just means Ianto's a one-person sort of guy, so "just Jack" After all, he went to quite extraordinary lengths for Lisa, who may, after all, may be his first and only before Jack? (And does he do anything else other than Torchwood after meeting Jack? It's posisble he probably just doesn't know if he likes other guys...)

If 456 turns out to be not alien, but human in origin...it will be very disappointing.

Lois annoys me for reasons mentioned above....*sighs*

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

I'm not well versed on cliched representations of bisexuals, other than the most obvious one, ie the bisexual who will sleep with anything, ie Jack. (I've been poking through Bisexual Characters In Film for some ideas.) But I wonder if Ianto's sexuality is not intended to be "really heterosexual", but undefined. This could be reflected in his uncertainty about what his and Jack's relationship exactly is.

"Only Jack" could mean "I am not attracted to men other than Jack" but it could alternatively, or additionally, mean "I'm in a monandrous relationship" - especially if he suspects his sister assumes he's promiscuous, or at least playing the field.

If RTD has a political intention here, it may be to subvert the insistence of both straights and gays on defining who is "really" bisexual - related to the "quaint little categories" thing, where sexual identity is a phase the culture's going through. Given his past record, though, I think it's more likely the whole thing serves a story purpose instead: Ianto is committed to Jack but isn't sure if the reverse is true, and the rest of the miniseries is going to answer that question. IMHO the most likely outcome is that they end up as a couple. "Bisexual Characters in Film" suggests this would be an unusual portrayal; the world, but not the screen, is full of bisexual people in committed monogamous relationships.

OTOH, it might just have been Jack's aftershave.

ETA: Well, of course TV Tropes has useful information! Should've headed there in the first instance.

[tencrush]

TV Tropes says in the article If it's you, it's okay, and I quote: "According to RTD, Torchwood's Ianto Jones isn't really gay. Jack is just special." I wish they'd provide me with a source for that one, because that's a cliché I really think Torchwood could do without.

[noneinnyet.livejournal.com]

I feel like Ianto only being gay for Jack's cock goes against what I remember Rusty saying in the Declassified in Greeks Bearing Gifts. If I remember correctly, he felt that the great thing about Torchwood was that their sexuality could be fluid and that he didn't need to be writing coming out stories because he did that 10 years ago, it's been done. Maybe that was just in my cloudy head where things make me happy and RTD doesn't latch onto an idea and go crazy.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Anyone can add those examples, and you'll sometimes see them dispute each other. That particular one may have been added in response to COE! Given that by now fandom has put a dictionary's worth of words into RTD's mouth, you're right to be cautious. I may be wrong, but I don't think RTD has ever defined Ianto's sexuality one way or another in an interview - largely because, if he had done so, fandom would've burnt to the ground. (An actual quote from RTD isn't necessary for Mt Fandoom to go off, but it certainly is sufficient. :)

[dani_the_girl]

I choose to read Ianto's "I'm Harkness-sexual" conversation as a wind up of his sister. Otherwise it is too annoying.

I am assuming Lois is an investigative journalist. At first I thought she'd die but we'd get Rupesh, but now that he's not coming we might get to keep her (fingers crossed).

Also, Jack's daughter was awesome!

[dani_the_girl]

Is it significant that Ianto's sister calls him a civil servant?

Yes, I think so. I assume that that part is kind of about "What's with this outside the govt, beyond the police stuff". The HO guys are presumably like evil TW and we are invited to compare and contrast.

[smirnoffmule.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I think we can legitimately speculate on whether Ianto is the most accurate reporter of his own internal state; perhaps that was just the explanation he felt was most painless to give to his sister at that point in time.

Plus, Ianto is a fixator by nature so when he's with someone, he is all about that someone. I'm sure at some point it was Lisa, just Lisa for him.

[quinn222.livejournal.com]

I loved the fact that he was bisexual but not a televisual bisexual-who-sleeps-around stereotype. Now we find out that he seems to view himself as hetero, it's just that Jack's that awesome.

I'm choosing to believe he's just as you say but he's not out even to himself yet so for now he's using the ''it's just this guy' excuse. He's clearly coming to terms with it himself at this point.

[forgiveninasong.livejournal.com]

I don't want Ianto to die. I really do not. And people are so *convinced* that he's going to die, that I think he might.

D:

Also, I love the whole Jack/Ianto in this series. It's brilliant.

[virginhuntress.livejournal.com]

1. Yeah, I was a bit miffed as well with the whole bisexual thing. Though, I did like the intensity in which he said "It's only him". Well delivered.

2. The fact that Ianto was from the ghetto is AWESOME. I'm trying desperately to imagine a little Ianto that cusses all the time and throws BRICKS at OTHER PEOPLE'S CARS.

(The bit where the car got stolen? FUCKING COMEDIC GOLD.)

3. I really felt that all the Jack/Ianto lines were rushed until the end. Like, they didn't have a lot of time for them to say their lines, so they BOTH just... sped through them. The tupperware thing, however, made me laugh so hard I had to stop and rewind to watch again, haha.

4. I hope that the adorable, spunky girl CALMS DOWN a bit, because right now, she's annoying me. Why? I'm not sure. I think it's because she looks just... TOO eager and TOO smart and TOO clever and TOO... everything. She feels a bit Mary Sue-ish but I feel she has potential too.

5. Jack had his bitch pants on in this episode. "Now who's in a couple?" made me wonder who put nails in his cereal this morning.

[tencrush]

Re 5. To be fair to Jack, Ianto's NAGGING him. He's doing that thing where you want to talk to somebody about something important, but you're too much of an uncommunicative spaz to broach the subject, so you quasi-casually bring the topic up every time the slightest opportunity presents itself, like when somebody says something or you see a vaguely similar situation on Eastenders or whatever, hoping the other person will get the gist that this is an important thing you want to talk about but don't want to say you want to talk about.

[radiant-pip.livejournal.com]

"Re 5. To be fair to Jack, Ianto's NAGGING him."

But it's cute when he does it. ;) And I kinda like exasperated Jack.

I liked Lois, too...so far. And LOVED the tupperware line. And Ianto's interpretation of the doctor's reaction to "you two". And the kiss. And the "but it's triple locked!" The hand-bumping with Clem was a little too cute/weird, but whatever. Gwen was using her super-powers.

[alba17.livejournal.com]

I liked Lois. She's cute. I'll keep her. Loved the Tupperware line. Loved that whole scene, really.

Hated the Ianto's gay for Jack thing, if that's what it was. Loved the scene overall, but not that. I hope it was Ianto just feeling his way through his feelings and not being sure what to say to his sister, or just trying to say, he's totally in love with Jack and couldn't possibly be interested in anyone else. I'm terribly fond of bisexual Ianto, even if he never acted on it before Jack. I don't want to have to completely jettison my personal fanon on that score.

I'm sure you're right about the Martha's on her honeymoon, can't bother her thing. Ridiculous.

[cionaudha.livejournal.com]

he's totally in love with Jack and couldn't possibly be interested in anyone else

That's how it struck me. "It's only Jack." Ianto's superpower is single-hearted devotion.


But the queer-for-Jack thing doesn't bother me. It may not be politically correct, or what people want for their story, but it's realistic. I've been there: I was there for years. But women in general? Nah.

[bandgeek01.livejournal.com]

You know what made me think about Ianto really dying? Is when they were bantering when they came back into the hub, and they were talking about how Jack dies all the time and Ianto would stay dead.


Nicole

[tencrush]

"You'd die like a dog. An ugly dog." Considering the people they've both lost over the past two seasons, it was a weirdly jaunty conversation for them to be having. Unless they were trying to establish, like with the both-go-their-separate-ways-and-try-to-experiment-on-their-OWN-FAMILY thing, that Jack and Ianto are each as sick and twisted as each other.

[radiant-pip.livejournal.com]

I don't know...it was a weird little "throwaway" moment, and I'm surprised no one's jumped on this before.

[ceindreadh.livejournal.com]

See i'm thinking that with the couple comments and the 'die like a dog' comments, that there's two ways this could be foreshadowing.
Either (1) Jack gets all couply and then Ianto dies or (2) Ianto dies and Jack wishes he could have been all properly couply with him and then it turns out Ianto was only fake!dead.

[noneinnyet.livejournal.com]

As much as option 2 is a little overly-sappy for my tastes, I want that so bad. In context, it would totally manipulate me emotionally and I could see that the foreshadowing could lead that direction. Anything that gets us not!dead Ianto is alright by me. Even voluntary Retcon to keep hope alive.