Woo... yay...
Aug. 9th, 2009 08:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tencrush
So, yeah... it's my birthday and I got pancakes in bed from the kiddoes and a Toyota sewing machine with Italian instructions, new instructions for which are allegedly in the post and I also got FOUR, yes FOUR Torchwood books. Almost Perfect, Pack Animals, Into the Silence and The House That Jack Built. I just finished Almost Perfect and it was really quite funny and it's pissed me off.
Why could they give us a (fucking female!) Ianto with a fucking personality and a flat and a fucking life in the books, but not on screen? Is this where I was supposed to be getting my jollies all this time? Fuck you, dudes. Not good enough. (Though I now understand where that "I am Ianto Jones and this is how I roll" thing comes from.) But seriously, this was MY Ianto, guys. He was fucking Jack but not interested in talking to him in any way or being in any way serious about him, he didn't think it was omgtruelove, and he took the first opportunity his female body allowed him to snog some other guy. Go, Ianto. My favourite bit was where Gwen actualy doubted that Jack and Ianto ever had sex, but surmised they just spent most of their time posing naked with their hands on their hips, pouting at each other. I could totally believe that. I'm worried that the more books I read, the more angry I'll get at how their relationship suddenly did a 180 in CoE and turned into some angsty gay soap opera about how much Ianto needed Jack to WUV him. I don't get it.
Man, it's been a month and I've still not moved on at all.
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Date: 2009-08-09 07:03 pm (UTC)Lori
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Date: 2009-08-09 07:19 pm (UTC)I didn't read 'Almost Perfect' because I was put off from the start by the premise. By the way, 'The House That Jack Built' will annoy you again, Ianto-character-wise. 'Pack Animals' is okay, but again not enough concern seems to be shown for Ianto's welfare, and I have heard that 'Into the Silence' is quite Ianto-light.
Sorry, I shouldn't be such a grouch on your birthday! Have a lovely time!
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Date: 2009-08-09 08:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-10 05:34 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-09 07:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-10 03:32 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-09 07:25 pm (UTC)Hope you have a fantastic birthday!
NIcole
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Date: 2009-08-09 07:29 pm (UTC)There are three more pre-CoE books out in the next couple of months, too. Maybe (hopefully?) there's even more to 'miss' about Ianto.[/depressing speculation]
~~~
I'm pretty sure that the character RTD was so happy to wipe away and the character that much of fandom adored had almost nothing in common. After all, RTD was only glancing at what was on screen (or at notes from a meeting about what was on screen), fandom has been stringing out theories and fantasies for so long (as have some of the other writers, apparently) - theories and fantasies that RTD obviously never paid attention to or cared about... It's really no wonder the reaction from him has been less than understanding. :-/
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Date: 2009-08-09 08:11 pm (UTC)For serious? Is there corroboration on this, or is it hypothesis?
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Date: 2009-08-09 08:41 pm (UTC)I'd bet real money RTD was not a bit worried about what might be getting theorized on-line. (The whole 'threat of plagiarism' if nothing else.)
(But, if RTD ever writes another book on his process - considering the this-series-(TW)-will-never-get-written bits and admissions of last minute script completions from his Writer's Story book - I expect it would be corroborated. :-/ )
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Date: 2009-08-09 07:34 pm (UTC)Hope you've had a lovely day.
Hey! Somebody mix this woman a cocktail. It's her freaking birthday ffs *clicks fingers*
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Date: 2009-08-09 07:46 pm (UTC)And yeah, I completely agree with that interpretation. It was just sodding lazy to give us "OMG EMO" Ianto in CoE because it was so obviously out of character, but I think we've established that all previous behaviour and, to be blunt, canon was going out of the window for CoE because it didn't fit the story they wanted to tell. The whole "couple" thing still makes me cringe. I mean why didn't they just paint a target on the poor boy's forehead and give him a sign saying "cannon fodder" because it was obvious right from the start that he was being lined up for the chop. They reduced him to a lovesick puppy defined only by Jack' attention and he was not given the opportunity in CoE to be a character in his own right. Bollocks, quite frankly!
I'm still hoping for retcon, just wipe the whole of that week out of my mind. Quite frankly, I reject their canon. I didn't like it so it didn't exist ;-)
And yes, a month on and I have not moved on either!
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Date: 2009-08-09 07:59 pm (UTC)Yeah, it's pretty sad when the damn tie-in books have better-thought-out characterization than the actual show. (Some of them, anyway.)
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Date: 2009-08-10 06:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-10 06:28 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-10 06:37 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-10 06:39 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-10 05:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-09 08:05 pm (UTC)I saw the latest Torchwood novels when we were
strandedlaid over in Heathrow. Husband wouldn't let me buy any, because we had to "make our flight" or some such nonsense. Hmph.no subject
Date: 2009-08-09 08:11 pm (UTC)I don't either. And in S1 and S2, there wasn't such a big deal made about which gender people fall in with for partnership, then all of a sudden, society judges in this series? Weird.
Ianto and Jack seemed to be having so much fun together, then it's OMG ANGST PARTY REMEMBER ME PLZ 4 EVA! Didn't Ianto have enough angst over Lisa and deserve a FUN relationship, anyway? Pfff.
Happy birthday to you, Tencrush. May your year be a lovely one. :)
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Date: 2009-08-09 08:29 pm (UTC)It sounds like I have to buy that book, based on Gwen's assumption alone.
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Date: 2009-08-09 08:38 pm (UTC)I take it all with a pinch of salt, and enjoy good writing, if it is good, and obey the cardinal rule "it's fiction - it's not real" - which helps.
I loved Almost Perfect - for Jack being such a whore for a pretty face and for bringing out so much of both Ianto and Gwen's characters. Cap'n Jack is incapacitated, and the other two manage just fine without him, in the end they have to rescue his sorry ass. lol.
Pack Animals is good, because Ianto gets to go on a mission, but isn't too woobie, if you know what i mean. Plus, J and I's date is an absolute failure. hah.
Into the Silence was and odd one, i didn't like it on first reading, and then on the second I warmed to it a bit more.
The House that Jack Built is really all about Jack, but it's my favourite out of the 3 recent ones. Scary and funny at the same time, and you know the author has watched the series and knows the characters. Ianto get's some great one-liners in it though.
The one you didn't get, Bay of the Dead, has a kick-ass!Ianto scene, where he gets to go blam blam blam.
I was lucky enough to attend a British Fantasy Society meeting where all 3 authors of the current batch were there. And i liked all 3 of them a lot - they were funny and honest, and there was the writer of Lost Souls there two - who had to explain to them what Janto and Gwack meant. There was a bit of chat about fanfic, and how it can be a good thing for a commissioned writer to read it, and how it can be a bad thing. I think the consensus was that although it was great that people were out there, stimulated and writing, it didn't help them when writing the commissioned novels.
The books allow for a lot more internal monologue and there is more scope for back history and context, which a 45 min TV episode doesn't allow for.
There are another 3 books due out in October, so hopefully we don't get run up to CoE "DOOM" and "ANGST" - all depends on what the authors were briefed to do.
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Date: 2009-08-09 09:20 pm (UTC)I had to read 'Toyota sewing machine' a couple of times, because I never expected to find Toyota beside two words like sewing machine.
Man, it's been a month and I've still not moved on at all.
I was reading some fanfiction yesterday and I completely forgot that Ianto had died in CoE. Then when I did remember, I found myself not caring to think about it or CoE. In other words my mind has completely rejected CoE as cannon.
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Date: 2009-08-10 12:28 am (UTC)I'm finding my brain working the same way! I forget and then I happen across a post-COE fic and I'm thinking, oh! that's right! I'd practically forgotten.
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Date: 2009-08-09 10:04 pm (UTC)Toyota Sewing Machine...hmm how many mpg does it get? Would it qualify for the cars for cash progam going on in the US right now?
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Date: 2009-08-10 12:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-10 12:58 am (UTC)Arrrgh, am tempted by the book from your desciptions, but don't want to put any $$$ in RTD et al.'s pockets. Wonder how I could find something second hand?
Hmm. Not over it either.
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Date: 2009-08-10 02:02 am (UTC)i hated almost perfect b/c everyone in it were all fucking morons (fucking=adjective, not verb... though verb, too, all things considered)
it's possible i hated it so much b/c i'd read everywhere how hilarious and awesome it was and i mostly just wanted to set it on fire and throw it out the window
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Date: 2009-08-10 05:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-10 05:47 am (UTC)i just think the execution failed miserably
but, to each... and all that
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Date: 2009-08-10 02:32 am (UTC)(Though if it had been filmed, they would have probably given use a Jack/She!Ianto sex scene and counted it as a real Jack/Ianto sex scene.)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
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Date: 2009-08-10 06:21 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-10 07:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-10 07:09 am (UTC)I think of TW series as a bunch of fanfics, I keep what I like and toss out the rest. :D
Into the silence
Date: 2009-08-15 05:11 pm (UTC)