THE DEFINITIVE FANON GUIDE TO JACK AND IANTO, PART THE FIRST

[tencrush]

Now that we've all calmed down a bit, it's time for some science. I have put together a wee poll to find out what is going on in ALL YOUR PRETTY LITTLE HEADS. There have been many things we haven't been told about Jack and Ianto, most of us have filled in the blanks with out own personal fanon, and I'd like to know what, on the whole, that fanon comprises. On with the science...



[Poll #1171935]



If you have any other questions you think need adressing, let me know and we'll do another one before we start analysing numbers, yeah?

Comments

[jbs-teeth.livejournal.com]

K, this is way fun. My answers pretty much match up with the majority opinions, with one notable exception:

As a person who, on occasion (like when I'm very tired or stressed), can slip into being truly OCD about tidyness, I don't see that Ianto actually has any real signs of it. I think he makes a concerted effort to dress well, and he cleans up because it's his job, but he's not nearly as naturally into the clean, as we often describe him. There's also something in his posture that belies the characterization of him as perfectly anal. (Which is clearly in no way definitive, but just partly how I see him.)

Anyway, so I chose to think of his house as being a total mess (even though I think it would probably be somewhere in between).

OH, AND something else I've been thinking a lot about since Fragments was the fact that Jack describes Ianto as basically a "drifter" before he went to work for Torchwood I. I find that bit of information totally jarring to what I thought I knew about him. And I think it could mean that he's only got some barely furnished place that can be left at a moments notice OR he's found a place he can call home (awww) now that he's got purpose in life and therefor has a gorgeous little brick house with nice modern furniture (Asian influences), which he keeps clean and tidy because those things represent newfound security (strictly in the sense of belonging to a larger purpose).

I'm interested in the "wife" question, too. I think it's pretty interesting that the answers to the penultimate question are almost even, but then the large majority of people went with dabbling for the last response.

Personally, I like to think of them both being as masculine as reasonable. IMO, that's where the hotness comes from. (Unfortunately, I think I have a tendency to assign Ianto slightly feminine characteristics in writing only because there's a lot of blanks in his "voice," and I tend to fill in with my self; and, I'm a woman. I try not to, but it happens, and I kind of assume it does with other female writers.)

However, I DO think there is something going on that could be more like The President and the First Lady. If we ever do get a woman in the office over here, I'd like to think that the dynamic would be much the same, and therefor would not be explicitly gender based.

So, what I mean is, Jack is the husband in the sense of being the one who goes out and does the ugly fighting and makes the hard professional decisions, but Ianto is the one that provides him with the emotional strength and support that is necessary to do that. Historically, these are gender roles, but they in no way need to be, and I'm sure many of the people out there have marriages that function exactly like that, but where the female partner is the Action Figure and the husband is the Sidekick. (K, don't kill me: it's just meant to be slightly humorous and illustrative, not offensive.)

Jack, like any main protagonist figure -- let's use Buffy, Sydney (Alias) or Veronica Mars as examples to show it's not gender-based -- need strong emotional support to be successful and could not be as successful without it. (Analogously, Ianto would be filling the roles of Xander/Willow/Giles, Vaughn and Wallace, respectively.)

[kribban.livejournal.com]

I completely agree with your President/First Lady analogy.

Now I'll imagine Ianto as First Gentleman. *g*